Wow...its been over a year

Where does the time go? Sorry its been so long since I blogged here.  SO much has happened.  My boys have grown...so have I..lol. 

First things first....We have moved to Norfolk, NE.  Mark got a new location, more say in his job, and lots more responsiblity.  All things he has been wanting.  We decided to rent for awhile til we find where we want to be.  This is just a stepping stone to help us get back to the KC area.  We are so proud of Mark and how well he is doing with this company.  They treat him really well and are keeping him happy. 

The boys are getting so big and learning so much every day.  Here are some tid bits

Caleb is 3 now and almost...yes almost potty trained.  He is a stubborn little boy that does not want to quit playing to go #2.  The peeing thing he has down perfect.  Yesterday we were checking out our new neighborhood...and sure enough..he said he had to pee...and before i could object...there he was peeing on someones bush. lol.  Takes after his daddy i guess.  He is learning a lot about shapes and numbers.  Don't ask him to count cause he will count but not in order...if you hear him counting, he is usually counting his toys...trucks..tractors..crackers...everything correctly when he thinks we aren't paying attention.  He keeps us laughing and is a little jokester.  We had an older gentleman come work on our dishwasher today...when the guy would go outside to his van to get a tool he would go "mom, where did the old man go"...so we are going to have to teach him very soon about "there is a time and a place when we say and do stuff".

Grayson...he is 1 and rotten.  He is into everything.  We can't have our trashcan on the floor...always up on the counter (gross...i know), but if we don't we have a huge mess all over him and everything.  He started walking around 10-11 months...so he has kept us on our toes early on.  He has a whole mouthful of teeth and watch out, he bites.  That is how he gets Caleb to give him toys, or just to pester him.  He is getting more and more in his vocabualary everyday.  It amazes me how much they take in.  I can't believe how big he is...thinking it may be time for another...lol. 

Me....not much new with me.  I am eager to find a good fit here in Norfolk.  Hoping to get more involved in a church and groups here.  We will see how it goes.  I will hopefully stay up on this blog and let you know. 

Thanksgiving is next week...so a few things I am thankful for are:  Mark, my boys, our families, a place we can call home, food, nap times, no wind, warm socks, Christmas music, a front porch with a swing, friends who are there for me, chats with cousins, play dates for my boys and me, a healthy family, and fall weather. 

Here are some random pics...hope u enjoy! Thanks for listening to me ramble...once again.

Amelia

 Last picture at our home in Iuka, KS

 

 

Giving love to his buddy Avery

Our new Home in NE

Biggest pumpkin he could find

My little baker with Mema Coffin

 The best neighbors in the world.  Nobody has brought us cookies here in NE yet...Marsha did as soon as we moved to Iuka...we are very blessed.

First family pic at the new house

 

 

more pics in  my next post

My boys and the things they explore

Still can't figure out how to get one blog post done a week.  One of these days I will get it down.  We have been super busy as always.  We went back home for a long, long weekend.  I was able to do some fun things with my best friend Christy.  Bridesmaid dress shopping, eating lots of food, and then she got to love on Grayson for a whole day. 

I threw a baby shower for my cousin Jessica.  The shower was a success.  The oven ended up being too small for one of our pans...craziness.  I sometimes don't have the best luck with ovens.  Here are a few pics of Jessica's girls with my angels, and with some other cousins that were at the shower.  Caleb had a blast, and Grayson was loved on like crazy.

On Sunday my mom, dad, myself, and Caleb all went to Worlds of Fun.  We all had a blast.  It was a very long day.  Our big boy Caleb did awesome though.  Here are a few pics of him on some of the kiddie rides in Camp Snoopy.

 

Caleb is keeping things interesting in our household.  He thinks its really funny to pour/shake things out on our living room floor (where there is carpet).  The other night he took Grayson's rice cereal flakes and poured half of the box out on the floor...Boy was I steaming.  Then yesterday he did the same thing to the baby powder.  My living room still smells of a fresh powdered baby.  Guess he is exploring with containers and substances.  Oh man. 

Grayson is 6 months old today.  He is really starting to explore with objects.  Always reaching for stuff, and everything goes into his little mouth.  Drool is a constant thing around here.  Maybe he is teething (lol, wonder if he will wait as long as his brother), because he has decided to wake up every hour during the night.  I feel like I have a 2 week old baby.  He is starting to really love his jumper.  Caleb likes to bounce him around in it too.  We have to watch Caleb b/c he climbs in there and gets stuck. lol.  Grayson is almost sitting by himself.  He sat by himself for nearly 3 mins the other day.  I was so proud.  We just started him on baby food last night.  He ate a whole container of sweet potatoes.  He sure loves food like the rest of us foodies.  Here are a few pics of him eating "real" food:

BEFORE

AFTER

Mark is adorable and acts so silly when he feeds the kids.  He is going to hate me, but I have to put these on here b/c he is such a great dad, and who doesn't do these funny faces when they feed their little ones. 

AND

So those are fun pics, aren't they?   Well I better go, my boys are starting to want some attention.  Plus its one of my favorite days of the week.  I get to watch Vampire Diaries with my friend Sarah, and we get to eat a lot of yummy foods.  Can you tell my family (me included) LOVE food.  A little too much, that's for sure.  Hope you all enjoyed our cute little family stories and pictures. 

So much to tell.  We have been keeping super busy.  We went to Josh and Emily's last weekend and boy did we have fun.  The boys love spending time with them...well we do too!  Here are a few random pics from the weekend-kept forgetting to take pics.

This is how Caleb runs around most of the time-due to him potty training and him loving being naked.

I'm surprised he doesn't have his boots on...lol.

Driving around one morning-Aunt Em trying to make Caleb smile-he was so tired-fell asleep about 5 mins later.

It was a great weekend!  So glad Josh and Em allowed us to come, along with our house-we travel with sooo much stuff.

So I have a few funny stories and a few cute pics.

First off, Mark has been super busy with harvest, so its been the boys and me mostly.  So I am that wife that calls her husband when he is working hard and bugs him when the kids do something cute, funny, or mean (to mom that is).

Story # 1:    So, we have this red shed that we have lots of totes that we keep all our holiday and other misc stuff in.  Grayson was asleep in his crib, and Caleb was outside playing, so I thought "hey, lets go get the fall decorations out while the kids are being good/sleeping".  Caleb is really into closing doors these days, so I should have been more careful.  As I was in the red shed, Caleb thought he would be sneaky and slammed the doors shut.  I thought it was kinda cute at first, b/c he was out there laughing...and so then I go to push it open ,and it doesn't open.  I push again...and again.  I start to panic.  I thought to myself; what if Grayson wakes up (luckily i did have my cell phone and monitor on me), or Caleb starts to panic.  Heck no, none of that happened.  I freaked out a bit.  I called a friend and she wasn't home.  So I called Mark, and he ended up telling me to just break the door open.  Luckily it was old, and I have big muscles. I busted through, and Caleb thought that was pretty dang funny.  So we need a new latch...Mark thought this whole ordeal was funny.  All his coworkers too.  It was kinda scary, but now its funny. You all should have been there. 

Story # 2:     I was giving Grayson a bath and Caleb thought he would go ahead and get in there with him.  He was standing behind his head just watching.  I just got done rinsing Grayson off...I turn to grab the towel, look back and Caleb was peeing on Grayson laughing and saying "Uh Oh"...he loves saying that by the way.  Yeah, luckily not much got on Grayson, but I think we may have to wait awhile before they bathe together again.  Lol.  That Caleb is a little ham, but we sure do love him...not too sure if Grayson will be as rotten-only time will tell. 

Here are some random pics of my boys:

Caleb riding the doghouse like its a horse.

Grayson chilln in his swing

Caleb looking innocent here-hmmm....



Boots and Smiles

Noticing a theme in some of my recent blogs?  BOOTS!  Caleb still can't get enough of them.  Here are some fun pics of Caleb and his boots.

Caleb enjoying the hot afternoon in his boots...he eventually gets into the mud-will post some of those pics on fb.

All my boys plus Callie Jo



This is how Mark found Caleb this morning before he went to work...two boots that don't quite match..lol.  Love him!

Mowing the living room with his boots...lol.

Okay enough of those boot pics.  Caleb has recently started potty training and is doing really good.  A lot of work for me, but he is ready and loves cheering after going.   He is saying more and more words all the time. His most recent is "jawsh" for his uncle josh.  Uncle Josh was pretty excited when Caleb called and said his name right away. 

Now for Grayson....he is rolling from belly to back offically.  Really close from going back to belly. So much fun to see him grow and learn.  The jumper is one of his new favorites things.  Or I should say mine...b/c he is happy for quite awhile in it, and gives my arms a break...only sometimes though..lol.

Here are some pics of Grayson.  He is getting a little chunky...but who doesn't love a chunky boy?



Love that smile!

Getting long

Can you say "Proud Dad"?

Well today is my birthday and Mark made me a wonderful dinner on Sunday.  Also a yummy cake.  Here are a couple of pics!

Well all in all the fam is doing great...everyone is growing...even us, so we are pondering the idea of going to the new gym to work on our muscles...lol. Have a great day!





A 4 month old and a boot-wearing toddler

We have been busy.  This boys like to keep me on my toes. Here are a few things that have been going on at our house.

  Caleb has a shoe/boot fetish.  Loves wearing them through the house, outside...everywhere. 

 Naked Caleb with boots on is an everyday occurance..lol.

 These currently are his favorite:

on the wrong feet...but hey he knows how to put them on himself.  Big boy!

This is how he likes to wear his boots most of the time:

I hate to say it, but I hide his shoes and boots a lot of the time.  If I didn't he would be outside constantly.

So this past weekend my parents came down to watch the boys so we can go camping.  Yes, a date camping trip!  So exciting.  My allergeries were giving me some trouble but we had a lot of fun.  Lots of fishing, and just relaxing.  Much needed trip, but we were ready to get back to our boys.

My parents got Caleb some coloring books, markers and crayons.  He loves them!

The boys had a lot of fun with grandma and grandpa.  Unfortunatly I did not get any pics of them with grandpa.  Here is one with grandma though:

Saturday Grayson turned 4 months old!! Can you believe my boy is that big already?!?!

Had a doctors appointment and he says he is perfect.  He is around 15 1/2 lbs! Growing and Growing. 

We got the go ahead to start him on cereal.  So here are a few before and after pics:

So cute!

Grayson is also trying to roll over...in no big hurry, kinda like his brother in that way. lol. 

These boys just amaze me every day....make me exhausted too. 

The Simple Things in Life

There are so many simple things in life that I just love.  I have recently started making cookie dough and not wanting to bake the actual cookie.  So I have taken the egg out so I don't worry about getting sick...lol.  Sad, but its sooo good!

Caleb and his undewear...lol.....We keep debating on potty training with Caleb.  Last night we put him in just some little underwear with sports stuff all over them, he sure thought he was cute strutting around.  He was though.  Not quite getting the potty training, but we will keep introducing it to him.  Here is a pic of my cute underwearing boy:

One with all my boys!

Naps! Caleb, Grayson and I all had long naps...Grayson is actually still napping.  I love naps, just don't get them enough.  Kids don't know how lucky they are. 

Spaghetti......we are having that for supper tonight, and I can't wait.  We have spaghetti quite a bit, so you wouldn't think I would want it.  Wrong, it sounds delish...lol

One last thing that I love that is simple....being swept away by Mark.  He asked my parents to come down next weekend to watch the kids so we can go camping.  Can't wait....to see my folks and to go spend some time with Marky! Can't wait!

Amazing how I am still so crazy about that boy after 9 years.  He drives me crazy somedays, but I still love em. 

Have a wonderful weekend!



Rough few days

So its been an interesting week.  This past weekend, Mark got a little bug-fever, dizziness, blah feeling....I wasn't very nice at first b/c I thought he was just being a baby.  So he is better now, but Caleb starting getting a fever on Wednesday morning.  He wasn't being himself, and was just lounging all day long.  Poor thing.  That night around 6:30 I was working on supper, and Mark was trying to keep both boys happy-not very successful.  We haven't had much rain this year, and so I was suprised when it started storming.  It was lightening and raining really hard.  We lost power.  Our little town of Iuka doesn't lose electricity a lot, but oh we did.  We found out that it may be 2 days...ugh.  So both kids starting screaming even more.  Mark was able to finally calm Grayson down, and Caleb was crying b/c he wanted daadaa not mama.  So finally we got them both down for late naps.  Oh man.  After Caleb finally woke up, he was wound up.  HE LOVES RAIN! He wanted to go outside so bad, but we told him it was lightening too bad.  Poor kid just didn't understand.  Anways...I am just rambling now.  Here are a few pics of Caleb looking outside during the storm.  Too cute!

Another one

Well we ended up getting our electricity back on the next day around noon!  Thanks goodness. 
This morning Grayson woke up with a temperture like Caleb had, but he seemed so much crankier, and just didn't feel good.  Thought it was gas, but I couldn't get anything.  So we are about to head to the dr to see what is going on with him, besides the temp.  Hopefully its nothing.  Sorry, I've been rambling.  But, hey thats what blogs are for, right? haha.



Here is a couple pics of Gray man.  I sure love these kiddos!

He is just getting so big! Almost 4 months old!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Also  a special shout-out to my brother Josh-he is officially old today...lol.  Happy Birthday!