Six Months

It’s that time of year again already.
Houston has two seasons. The humid season and the not humid season.
The humidity has arrived.

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Cold drinks are instantly sweaty.
For the next six months, the air conditioner will run.
I will be in a constant state of stickiness.
Every other day baths will no longer be an option for the boys.
The daily battle with zits has returned.
I will not have another good hair day until the fall. It’s ponytail season.

I am amazed at how quickly I forgot what the humidity feels like. It’s not all bad….there are fun things to go along with the humid season. Summertime also means swimming, grilling, thunderstorms, and going on walks after dinner.

Three cheers for summer!

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Once in a blue moon

I get a picture like this of the boys. I love this picture and these boys so very much!

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A good friend of mine mailed me this article written by a mom of only boys. It spoke right to my heart, and I wanted to pass it on to all my other friends who have been blessed with stinky, messy, wouldn’t-trade-them-for-the-world, boys!

Home Sweet Home

Florida vacation is officially over. We left at 2:00 p.m on Saturday and arrived home at midnight. The kids did really great again. Connor watched a full length Thomas movie on repeat, and Logan slept the last 3 or 4 hours. When Thomas and the Magic Railroad finished the first time, Connor exclaimed “mommy, that was a movie AND it even had a story!” and he explained the plot to me. It was like the first time he realized that there is more to movies than just songs or learning or something. Connor also spent a lot of time underneath a tent he constructed around his booster seat. I should have taken a picture of it, but my camera was out of reach. I am glad that my creative Connor can find ways to entertain himself on a 10 hour car ride.

There’s not much to report since being home. It’s just been busy trying to catch up on life in general. Connor went back to school today, and Logan went to the doctor for his two year check up. Logan is smaller at 2 years old than Connor was at 1 year old! He is 36.5 inches (which is actually tall-95th%-but Connor was 39 inches at 2) and he weighs just under 30 pounds (Connor weighed 38 pounds.) Logan is speech delayed, which I knew. Up until a few months ago he only had a handful of words. Now he has lots of words, but almost all of them are so mispronounced that only Derek, Connor, and I understand them. By 2 years, 50% of speech should be understandable by a stranger. Um, I don’t think I understand 50% of what he says! Anyway, Our doctor is going to refer us to ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) for possible speech and language therapy. It’s one of those things that’s better to deal with now rather than later. And when they are 3 they get referred to the public schools, but if he hasn’t been seen by ECI then the schools take forever to see him-a year or even more. I’m not worried about him catching up, but I do feel just a tiny bit bad….like maybe I didn’t read to him enough or interact with him enough. It seems like there was a full year when Logan was just under the radar because we were having so many issues with Connor. Dealing with C took all my energy, and Logan was shortchanged. All mom’s have insecurities, and this is definitely one of mine.

I have another 45 minutes until I have to go pick up Connor, and Logan is sleeping, so I am going to take advantage of this free time! One more funny Connor story. Connor was watching one of his favorite movies, My Fantastic Field Trip to The Planets the other day. The movie starts with our star, Jake, missing the bus to go on the field trip to the planetarium. That night, he whines (and I mean whines…Jake drives me nuts!) to his mom about his disappointment. “aw, don’t worry Jake. We can go tomorrow.” “But mom, not to the planetarium. Today was the last day.”

C-“hey dad. Do you know where the planetarium is?
D-“No. Where?”
C” It’s that planet that’s really far away. The Planet Arium. It’s super far away.”

Okay, did you guys click on the link to the video that I posted? Do me a favor. Click on it. When you get to the home page, click on Music Clips. Then click on the Juipter and Saturn one and listen to the whole clip. About halfway through you will hear something that makes me believe with my whole heart that I could someday be a musical star. Now I want you to imagine listening to the entire 30 minute video on repeat during a 4 hour car ride. That’s 8 times. That is what got to endure on one of our trips up to Dallas. Thanks mom and Nick for giving that gem of a movie to Connor!

Beach Day

I think Destin really is one of the prettiest beaches I’ve been too. The white sands, the blue water, and the perfect weather made today’s beach trip so fun. The boys had an absolute blast splashing in the waves and doing all sort of construction in the sand. This is our last full day of vacation. Tomorrow we are loading up and driving home. This week has gone way too fast! Derek and I both agree that Niceville is a great place to vacation with the kids, and we definitely want to come back. And if anyone is looking for a fun, sort of off the map vacation place, check out Niceville! It’s only 15 minutes from Destin. Do I sound like a Niceville travel agent? Because I sure feel like one.

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This was my favorite picture of the day, and it was a complete accident. I unknowingly moved my command dial to shutter priority and it was set for a shutter speed of 60, which is why the kids are blurry. I never would have set my camera to that setting on purpose, but I love the effect. Accidental cool pictures are some of my favorites.

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Two years already?!

My baby is two today. As any parent knows, the time goes so fast. I can hardly believe how fast these two years have gone! He brings such joy to our family. He is fun, crazy, spunky, lovable, cute, and just a boy through and through.

Today, on this the second anniversary of one of the best days of my life, my boy managed to fall and skin his knee, jumped into the pool when Derek wasn’t looking, and scared himself silly in that moment when he was sinking before Derek grabbed him. He asked for candy and apple juice at least thirty times. He chewed up and spit out a chicken nugget, cashews, grapes, a tomato, and a piece of shrimp. That’s his newest food thing and I can’t wait til the phase passes. He decides in mid-bite that he wants something different in his mouth. He told me his knock-knock joke repeatedly at rest time:
“na-na.”
Who’s there?
“apple jew….na na?”
who’s there?
“apple jewwww…” and so on and so forth.

He took a three hour nap this afternoon, played baseball with Derek and Connor, had 2 timeouts for hitting, and gave me so many hugs and kisses. He talked incessantly about his boo-boos on his knee and the loud train that made him cry. That conversation always goes like this:
“boo boo…knee. boo boo….knee…ding ding ding…choo choo…woud….choo choo…woud.”

He repeats those phrases until everyone acknowledges his boo boos and that once we heard a loud train. He caused quite a stir when he tripped and hit his head on a chair before dinner. He cried during his bath because of his boo boos. He whispered and giggled with Connor until settling down for the night sucking on his paci and sniffing his blanket. All in all, a pretty typical day for my two year old. Happy Birthday, my sweet boy!

March 22, 2005
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March 25, 2006
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March 22, 2007
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I made a dump cake for Logan’s birthday, but because of a girls shopping trip, it didn’t finish baking before Logan was in bed. So we decided to honor Grandma with it instead. She turned 85 on March 9th! Happy Birthday, Grandma!

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We have internet!

What a nice surprise! This entire condo is surprising. It’s way bigger and nicer than I imagined! Derek and I were joking last night that it’s bigger than any of the places we lived in California. It’s only 1 bedroom, but the living area, entry way, kitchenette, and bathroom are all huge. And it’s right on the golf course and it’s all pretty and Niceville-ish outside. Gorgeous. And, it’s supposed to be perfect weather all week! We are going to have so much fun.

The much anticipated car ride went really well. Way better than I had envisioned. We were on the road at 5:05 a.m. We had two quick stops (quick is a relative term…there really isn’t anything quick about stopping with kids.) We stopped for about an hour and a half at the Battleship Park in Alabama. We arrived here yesterday at around 4:30. Actual drive time was about 9 and a half hours. Not too bad at all! The kids watched movies, slept a little, colored, etc. There were only a few moments of tension, but that is to be expected.

I won’t bore you with any more of these details. I’ll just share some pics of our adventures so far.

The USS Alabama
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Really huge bomber plane. Derek says its a B-52D.
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Chasing seabirds never gets old!
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Feeding the birds at Battleship Park
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Happy Connor
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Jumparoo
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Three Happy Boys
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Logan is a fearless jumper
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C is so cute when he cooperates for pictures!
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That was an obnoxious amount of pictures. But can a blog post ever have too many pics?

Patrick, pretend to be surprised when yours arrives in the mail

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That was my second attempt. Want to see the first?

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No, that was not on purpose. And, to make this story even better, I didn’t even realize that I had messed up. I showed Derek the masterpiece with the paper was still covering up the letters, and he immediately says “Meg, those letters are backwards!” And I said, “no, they aren’t. When I take the paper off, the will be right.” To which he replied, “because they are going to magically turn themselves around?” Doh. And yet another concrete example of how my brain fails to process spatial relations. But at least they are straight. I even busted out the level to achieve maximum straightness. See? I can use tools!

D and I spent the whole day preparing for the big trip to Florida! I am really excited about going, and I’ve been praying all week (ok, since the moment we decided to go) that the car ride would be as smooth as possible. We haven’t done a long car ride since Connor was a year old, and we’ve never done one with Logan. I’m a little nervous about it. But the car is fully stocked with snacks and toys and movies. Kids these days really have it good as far as riding in the car goes.

So that’s it. Over and out. See y’all next week!

Happy UnBirthday

Logan’s birthday is next week (the 22nd), but since we will be in Florida, we had a little playgroup birthday party for him yesterday. It was just normal playgroup with cupcakes and a few pressies, so it was really fun. Except when Logan fell into a grassy swamp. and the only extra clothes on hand were a pair of pants belonging to Kayla and a shirt that was too small. He was looking good for his birthday celebration in his flare jeans and belly shirt. One of his presents was a pair of Thomas pj’s, so that’s what he ended up wearing once we opened presents.

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Operation Room Share is going really good. Last night Derek and I even did some organizing and rearranging. We moved Logan’s clothes and toys into Connor’s room and got them all organized. We moved the guest bed out of the office and into Logan’s old room, which is now the guest room-and the room for a few big toys that won’t fit in the boys’ bedroom. In the office, I set up another table that I think is going to be the boys’ art table. I could use the office for a scrap room now, but I really like the way I have my stuff set up in the dining room, so for now I’m not changing that. It really feels like we have lots of choices and more space now that they are in the same room! I love it!

Happy Saturday!

Rainy Season

Our first year in Houston, I was shocked at how much it rained. I loved it. Loved the thunderstorms, the smell in the air just before it rains, and taking the boys outside to splash in puddles. We are having our first big set of storms this year. These are BIG ones. I love it. Maybe not so much when a thunderstorm rolls in right as Logan is falling asleep. Thunder never wakes the kids at night, but during the day it’s a whole different story. Logan freaked out at naptime, and for some reason he was comforted to lay on the bottom bunk in Connor’s room rather than his crib. I’m not sure if it was because I could lay next to him or if he just felt safer in big brother’s room. But that’s where he ended up taking his afternoon nap. So bedtime rolls around, and guess where the booger bear wanted to sleep? The bottom bunk. That’s totally fine with us. The idea has always been for the boys to share a room eventually so we can have the third room for a new baby….

Did I have you going there for a second? Nope, no babies in my belly. Although Connor talks regularly about wanting a baby sister named Sassy Connor Logan. And he prays for his sister. And he informed Derek tonight that Jesus answered his prayer and told him that his baby sister is going to be in my belly when he’s five. I guess this is my big blog confession that I want to have another baby. 🙂

Anyway, I digress. Logan and the bottom bunk. Derek and I laid the ground rules, got them tucked in, had to go back and remind of the rules a few times…it’s now almost 9:00 and Connor is asleep and has been for awhile. Logan…well, he’s still back there fidgeting. We’re going to try this for a few days and see how they transition. This would actually be pretty great timing with our Florida trip scheduled next week. The boys are going to be sharing a room there, and it might be better if they are at least a little used to it.

After a day full of thunderstorms, the sun finally peeked out for just a few minutes. Time for some puddle fun!

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Cookie Time and Stuff

Nestle Tollhouse Cookies. Or Neslaaaay Tohlhooose as Phoebe from Friends would say. They are a classic, right? I needed a refresher course on the recipe tonight, so I turned to my most favorite recipe site, All Recipes. One of my favorite things about All Recipes are the reviews that people can write. I find them really helpful, and I almost almost choose my recipe based on reviews and stars. While waiting for my butter and sugar to reach the appropriate creaminess, I scanned the reviews. This cracked me up.

“These cookies just didn’t turn out like I wanted. I was out of brown sugar so I just used powdered sugar and added maple syrup to it. I didn’t have any butter on hand so I substituted lard mixed with butter flavored sprinkles. All I had on hand was bread flour and for the chocolate chips I chopped up a bar of unsweetened baking chocolate. Also my oven wasn’t working so I fried the cookies on the stove. Other than that I followed the recipe faithfully. I can’t figure out where I went wrong.”

Obviously that is a joke. But I am always amazed at how many people give a recipe a bad review when they have seriously changed like 5 of the ingredients of steps. They will say things like ” I thought this chili was so bland! It’s not spicy at all. I was out of Tabasco and chili powder, but I just used ketchup instead. Don’t make this chili-it’s bland!” Are they serious?

I think that there are two types of people. Those who cook using a recipe and those who just look at ingredients on hand and work some kitchen magic. I would love to be in the second group like my friend Beth. She seriously makes the best chicken enchiladas. But she doesn’t really have a recipe, she just waves her magic kitchen wand and poof. Yummy chicken enchiladas. She is like that with everything. I would love to be one of those kinds of cooks. I’m not really a bad cook (at least I don’t think so…) but I like and need my recipes. This is one of those things on my list of things to accomplish.

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I got a fun email this afternoon. Two of my scrapbook pages are going to be published in an idea book! I really didn’t think any of my pages would get picked up, but I was two for two for this book. I am sure it will be months before it comes out, but it’s still exciting. I’ve had a few other cool scrapping things happen in the past few months. A mini-album I made (the one that won a grand prize in a contest a few months ago) is going to be published in the Mini Albums II idea book, and I had the opportunity to design a set of alphabet stamps (joyful jots) for Upsy Daisy Designs. So there’s some fun scrappy news.

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Daylight savings time. It really wreaks havoc with my early-to-bed kiddos. Once they get used to going to bed in broad daylight, it’s not too bad. But that transition time…it’s not pretty. And daylight savings time plus spring break plus some huge thunderstorms limiting our outside time…let’s just say I count down the minutes until Derek gets home. Don’t get me wrong… I love playing with the kiddos. But there are only so many art projects, train games, books, and Dora’s we can watch in one day.

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No post is complete without at least one picture. I spy with my little eye a little Connor monkey.

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