And time goes by....

I can tell you without a doubt that when I started this whole blogging thing I had every intention of keeping up with posting better than I have. However, there are two issues. One is just plain old time, it seems as if the only time I have to sit down uninterrupted to type out a clear concise thought is at work. And the second thing is I have this grand notion of making the blog more appealing. Such as adding pictures.. etc. My problem is that I am just not that computer savvy. But, I have finally come to the realization that if I do not write my down my life experiences with the boys I am sure to forget them and they will be lost forever. Having said all that...I am going to do my best to be more diligent about posting.

This post may get lengthy so feel free to zone out if I start rambling. I don't really even know where to start.

As I previously mentioned we are expecting a new addition to our family in October and are thrilled to be having a girl. It has been comical this time around having Jack and Sam to share in this experience. When I was pregnant with Sam, Jack was just a baby himself without a clue of how his life would change. Jack however is very aware that he is having a baby sister and is full of questions and comments.

He is very anxious to be able to feed his sister and had requested that "they" do not put milk in my boobs.
He wanted to know what the baby was wearing in my belly and was truly concerned that she is cold being in there with no clothes on. He apparantly thinks she is swimming around in milk inside of me.
We have also been telling them that she will be here at Halloween time...in order to give them something to gage the time. Jack is very concerned that she will need a costume and has made several suggestions, but overall just happy that he himself will get some candy.

Sam on the other hand is a little less aware of how his life will change. He forgets from day to day and has to ask me "are we having a girl baby or a boy baby?"

As far as the name goes, we have pretty much decided on Lucy. Jack was really pulling for Cinderella, but likes the name Lucy as well.

One of the more exciting things we attempted this summer was to enroll Jack in T-ball or as they call it in Hardin County Wiener Ball. Yes, you read it right folks. So, the first few practices were very cold and windy and really put a bad taste in his mouth. So when it comes time for the real games, he is just not interested. And when I say not interested, I mean we had to leave the ballpark on a couple of occasions because he just refused to play. There were a few games that he stuck it out, I believe just for the snacks. Turns out he really likes to bat, but that is about it. As far as playing the field, he's just not that into it. Sam on the other hand is ready to play now, and can't wait until next year. He especially likes to frequent the ball field and has eaten his share of hotdogs, no matter what time of day the game is. He will tell you upon arrival that he "needs" a hotdog.

I can't believe that in about a month both of the boys will be in school. Jack will begin his second year of pre-school and Sam is going for the first time.

One of the major things we accomplished this summer was potty training. I really only had to tell Sam that if he wanted to go to school he had to use the potty. He was so much easier to train than Jack. However, we do not go anywhere without him using the bathroom. Usually it's not just to pee...and that boy has already learned the fine art of taking a long time to do his business. I suspect when he gets older he will be able to get lots of reading done while on the toilet. One of the funnier stories that happened was at my dad's company picnic. Of course Sam had to go, and the nearest bathroom in sight just happened to be a port-a-potty. I just could not bring myself to take him so good old Papaw took him. And then 10 minutes go by and then 15...I was beginning to wonder if he had fallen in. Finally, they emerged and Sam was crying...it seems as if he was looking down very interested in what was going on and the water splashed up into his eye. Feel free to take a moment to try not to get sick. However, we were able to just wash his eye out with water and he was all better.

Speaking of Sam, I do have to mention that he is the oldest 2 year old you will ever meet. I have to remind myself from time to time when I get fustrated or angry with him that he is only 2. He is so much more independent than Jack was at that age. He can fully dress himself from underwear to shoes, brush his only teeth, and do many more things I am truly amazed at. One of the things with Sam as his independence is the need to have certain things a particular way. For the most part, he is pretty easy going.

I think I have rambled on long enough...will write more as things come up.

Jack turns 4

It still baffles me that I have a four year old child. The time has flown by. As most mothers, I can remember most of the day he was born and the events leading up to it. I say most because you must take into consideration the good drugs I was given over the 2 day period leading up to his birth. I make it a point each year to tell Jack the story of his birth, however this is the first year that he sort of got it. He tells the story like this..."I was having a party in your belly and I didn't want to come out so the doctor cut your belly open and got me out." Well I guess that does pretty much sum it up.

So each year his birthday is always either the week before or after Spring Break. So in the past couple of years many people that we have invited have always been unable to come due to being out of town. So this year I just decided to invite mainly family and a close friend to meet us at a new hot spot in town called Incredible Dave's. There was so much to do for the kids like inflatables, Euro Bungee, bumper cars and bowling. Jack decided he wanted to make his cake this year so Friday night we made his chocolate cake with sprinkles to take to the "party". So we gathered round the table to do cake and presents and the server happened to walk by and assumed it was the birthday of the little girl sitting at our table. He made that assumption because Jack received a present in a Dora the Explorer bag. We quickly explained that it was in fact Jack's birthday who just happens to be a huge Dora Fan.

It was during the bowling that Jack started to meltdown and we knew our time was limited. But wait, I can't forget to mention my favorite thing to do; cash in the tickets that you win from the games for some cheap toy or candy. As always, both of the boys pick out something for way more tickets than we have. So we finally decided on 2 purple whistles and 2 fun dips. However at that point Jack was in complete meltdown stage as I believe was Sam as well. So when trying to leave, the gentleman at the door was trying to verify that the stamp on our hands matched the stamp on the kids. And of course Jack was not cooperating at all and would not let the guy see his stamp. At which point I offered to leave them there for his rightful owner to pick him up. No such luck the guy said he remembered us and let us be on our merry way.

On Sunday his actual birthday, we went to the zoo which was off the hook busy. He had a good time and his personal highlight I believe was getting cotton candy.

I did forget to mention that Joel and I definitely get the worst parents of the year award. Jack had been saying that for his birthday all that he wanted was a purple magic wand and a trumpet. Well knowing how kids change their minds we waited until the last minute to begin frantically searching for both. Gram and Papa came to the rescue with the magic wand, but still no trumpet. We ended up ordering it online and it is due to arrive in the mail by Friday. I'm sure I will feel the guilt over this for years. All in all Jack had a great birthday and is already planning for next year...if I could only figure out a way to keep him little forever. He is really cute and says the funniest things at 3 I can only imagine what I'm in for this year.

Family update

I am so ashamed that it has been a month since I have posted. Things have been very busy for our family, so I'll give the highlights.

First, I am very excited to announce that we are expecting a new addition. The new baby will arrive sometime the end of October, so I will be fat and miserable this summer. This is it for me, so I need for everyone to "think pink". Jack and Sam both say they want a sister, I can't imagine why... they have only been hearing me say I wanted a girl since forever. When I told Jack that he in fact might get another brother he proceeded to tell me that he already has one of those. I'm sure whatever it happens to be he will pick on and beat up equally be it a sister or a brother. I myself have not felt really well this time, having a lot of nausea and fatigue, which could explain why I have not posted in a while.

The other major family news is that both of the boys as well as myself were baptized this past Saturday at the Easter Vigil at our church. It was an amazing experience to share with my children and family. I was a little worried with how the boys would do, the ceremony did not even begin until 8:00 and lasted until after 10:00. But with enough bribing and candy they really were well behaved. Jack enjoyed baptized so much he asked if he could do it again. I'm sure if we would have remained in the baptismal just a few minutes longer Jack would have been doing cannon balls. After getting dressed, we came back in the church and received our baptismal candles to take to the front for the rest of the cermony. Jack was such a big boy carrying his candle all by himself. Sam was so worried about Jack that you could hear him loudly telling Jack to be careful not to hurt himself. The ladies of the church hosted a really nice reception afterwards complete with cake and sweets. Apparantly, Jack was sampling some candy on the cake table and decided he did not care for them and proceeded to put them back in the dish. You got to love kids.

Jack and Sam both had a great Easter and received an obscene amount of candy. They had Easter egg hunts at both grandparents and got a total of four Easter baskets. They were hyped up on sugar all day..but the way I look at it, that's what the holidays are all about.

I will definately try to be more on top of posting, believe me it is not for a lack of material.

Boy will be boys?

Let's just say if you were to run into Sam today you would not say he was the cutest kid you had ever seen. As a matter of fact, you might immediately pass judgment on the person who let him out of the house looking the way he does. Let me explain.

Last weekend we decided to treat the kids to our first (and perhaps last) trip to the infamous Chuck E Cheese's. The boys were both so excited and could hardly contain themselves that morning as if they even knew what was to come. By the way they were acting one would think they had been there numerous times. How did they know of this Chuck E Cheese?...are all kids just born knowing? So, off we go packed up and ready for yet another day of family fun. The kids had been bugging me for a piece of gum all morning, so I broke down and gave each of them a piece when we got in the car. No big deal, both of them have chewed gum before and they each knew the rules...keep it in your mouth...no swallowing etc. Just about when we are getting on the highway headed toward Louisville, I look to the backseat and see Sam's gum imbedded in the front part of his hair. After I assess the situation and determine that the gum is not coming out on its own, we decide to pull into a hotel and ask them for scissors. The truth be told, I made Joel go in. And being the good husand he is, he gladly obliged. I can only imagine the look on the face of the person working in the hotel when Joel told them why we needed to borrow the scissors. I'm sure if they had children they understood. Joel not being trained as a hairstylist just cut the gum out with absolutly no regard to how the hair might look afterward. That would be reason number 1 as to why he looks so bad today.

And then there is reason 2. Even though they are boys, I try to dress them in cute clothes when they go out in public. So for today, I had picked out some adorable khacki firefighter overalls for Sam with a matching shirt to go underneath. I can't do anything at this point about the hair, so I have to work with what I got. Up until this point, both of the boys will usually wear what I pick out with no objection. That was not the case this morning. I am talking full out tantrum to the point he took the overalls off and refused to put them back on. Fine, I tell Joel just put some jeans on him. Joel did not pick out the jeans that I would have picked out, as a matter of fact they were a bit tight and also a bit short. But he had clothes on and we were running late so off we went.

Let me say I thought one of the "perks" of having boys was not having fights over hair and clothing. I have obviously proven that theory wrong.

The making of the Valentine's

So last weekend in my quest to be "supermom", I had the bright idea that as a family project we would make homemade valentines. Many of you will likely ask "why?" Which looking back in retrospect is the same question I now ask myself. Sure, we could have spent $2.99 on Dora valentines, but then we would have robbed ourselves of the opportunity to make memories, and boy was it memorable.

After spending a half hour in Michael's saying "don't touch, come here, the next time you do that" well you get the picture...we left on our mission with $17 worth of supplies. Did I mention that the Dora valentines were $2.99?

So in my mind I had envisioned this organized scene of the family sitting around the kitchen table making our valentines and making some great memories. That lasted less than five minutes. The first thing that Sam did was open the entire bag of 150 foam hearts and of course threw them everywhere. Joel was actually cutting out the valentines, and was deeply engrossed doing a mighty fine job. Jack was proceeding to eat the glitter glue as well as smear it on the kitchen table. After trying to regain control I began to see I was getting nowhere. They needed a break. So off we sent them to their rooms to "rest", while Joel and I finished the valentines. And I do have to say they turned out marvelous...with very little help from the kids.

I believe I was more excited than Jack for him to take the homemade valentines to school and also eager to see what kind of other original valentines he was going to receive...I was shocked to see there was not one homemade card but instead all your normal store bought valentines. The kids could have cared less about the time and thought that went into our homemade treasures, butwere most impressed instead with the candy that accompanied each one.

"Mom I've got tape in my nose"

"Mom I've got tape in my nose", Sam states nonchalantly from the backseat of the car. Honestly with as many crazy things that the boys have done it has to be something major to get a reaction. I did turn around and atleast look at his nose. It appeared a little red , so when we stopped to get gas I had Joel take a look (just a side-note that was my first mistake having Joel look for anything is a gurantee that it won't be found). "Nope, don't see anything"...and so we thought that was the end of that. A few minutes go by and Sam exclaims that he got it out of his nose...so we truly thought that was the end of that.

Fast forward to the next day as we are all sitting of the couch hanging out and Sam sneezes very forcefully. Well out came the wad of tape..and it was actually a pretty decent size piece of tape. He had not complained or uttered a comment except for the orginal statement of "Mom I've got tape in my nose."

He had gotten the tape off of mask that the boys had made at the Mardi Gras celebration we went to at church. They had a great time running around and pretending to be monsters. Needless to say, the next time and I am sure there will be a next time that I hear one of the boys say they have something in their nose..I suppose I will have to check it out for myself.

That story reminds me of the time our toilet became mysteriously stopped up. Joel had tried everything he knew to do and was unable to fix it. This went on for about a week and finally we broke down and called a plumber. I had remembered a few days before finding Jack who at the time was 2 standing inside the toilet but did not realize he had shoved a bottle of liquid amoxocillin up into the toilet. Unfortunately, that again was not the last time Jack and now Sam had tried to put items in the toilet.

My first entry

So enough is enough! I have no more excuses. The time has come. I have definitely done my children a disservice by not documenting all of the crazy things they have done. And boy have they done some crazy things! So why not start a blog ? Surely noone else but family will be remotley interested in our lives..but atleast I will have documented some of our most crazy times so that we can look back someday and laugh.


Here is a little background to catch everyone up...

Jack is 3 soon to be 4 and is very full of life. Right now his imagination is running wild, so he might be playing hide and seek or pretending to cook a gourmet meal. He is enrolled in a 2 day a week pre-school program at St. James and just absolutely loves it. He loves making arts and crafts...and he never forgets to make two of whatever..one for for his side-kick Sam.

Sam is Jack's 2 year old brother and he is really starting to embrace the terrible two's. Up until recently he was so sweet and gentle and a great listener...and then he turned into the maniac he is now. He attends a Mother's Day Out program where he gets lots of attention and snacks of course. One thing about Sam, he loves to eat...he is always good for a snack and is always waiting of his next meal.

And I'm the mom of these two crazy guys and I love it more than anything. I do work part-time, so they get some one on one time with their dad on the days when I work. Our life is hectic, crazy and very loud...but I wouldn’t have it any other way.