What a Week!

Bad things come in three's, right!?!  Let's hope!  Here's how my week has been so far and if I could drink, I would get a babysitter for tomorrow night and totally enjoy myself...

On Tuesday, I experienced one of the scariest moments so far as being a mom.  My mom and two of my sisters with their families went to an indoor play gym with lots of inflatable jumpy castles and slides.  It was incredibly packed with all of the kids being out of school for Christmas break.  I didn't really feel comfortable about taking my boys in - I didn't want them to get hurt, but my mom said she would help me with them.  I figured Trevor would be the more difficult one to keep track of so I told her I would watch him and asked my mom to look after Ethan.  After a while, I look over at my mom and sister and see panic in their eyes.  I instantly knew that Ethan was missing.  My mind was racing - did he get hurt and we just can't see him laying somewhere; did someone take him; did he just run off to a different section.  This can't be happening!  My little boy is missing!!!

Thankfully, after what felt like eternity, but was probably just a minute or two, my mom found him with a lady who was trying to help him find his parents.  As soon as I saw him, I grabbed him and hugged him tightly.  Ethan must have been pretty upset also because he hugged me pretty tight right back!  I keep thinking back to this moment and thanking God for a happy ending (and how it's going to be a while for us to return to a place like this)!

The next day wasn't much better.  Trevor and Ethan were playing and chasing each other through our living room.  Ethan tripped and fell right into the bottom of a rocking chair.

At first, his injuries looked minor, but I think he may have broken his nose.  Although, you can't tell from the pictures, it's pretty bruised and swollen.

And then tonight, my oldest, Trevor who should have been in bed for at least 45 minutes comes downstairs with his face covered in brown stuff and tells us he needs to wash his hands.

We're currently in the potty training phase so my first thought was "oh no...!"  Thankfully, he had just gotten into my makeup (mainly mascara).  It was a mess to clean up, but my husband and I couldn't stop laughing!

Thankfully, this is the end of 2010 and not the beginning of 2011!  Soon I will have another...yup, never a dull moment in my world!  :)

Return of the Elf

 We thought Zingle, our "Elf on the Shelf" had left with Santa on Christmas Eve, however...

it appears he has returned, at least in spirit and has taken over my child!

As you can tell, Zingle made quite an impression on Trevor!  We hope he will return next year!

Cookies for Santa

My sister found a cute picture showing a toddler sitting on a table stealing a cookie off a plate for Santa.  I was going to try to somewhat copy the idea and use the photos for our Christmas card this year.  Well, I should have known - kids, cookies, and cooperation do not work together!

The boys had just taken a bath and were getting ready for bed right before I decided to do this so I only put a couple of cookies on the plate.  I didn't want them to get too messy or too hyper!  Let's just say the cookies didn't last long at all and there was no stopping the boys from grabbing the cookies so I could pose them for a photo shoot.

I decided to try a different angle (using a few more cookies) since the cookies under the tree didn't turn out.  Yea, well, this didn't turn out either...

But, the boys had fun and it did allow me to capture a few of these special moments...

(Note:  The Christmas decorations have quickly made their way to the top of our tree.  Neither Trevor nor Ethan touched them last year.  However, this year...let's just say we've had about 10 broken ornaments and the tree has been knocked down once...so far!)

Oh well, we'll try again next year!

PS - Santa, Mommy would like a new camera for Christmas!  ;)

The Magic of Santa!

We took the boys to see Santa Claus this past weekend!  It was a spur of the moment decision.  I haven't had a chance to buy them holiday outfits so poor Trevor got stuck wearing a hand-me-down sweater from his cousin who is now 11 and Ethan is wearing Trevor's outfit from last year!  Oh well, I'm so glad I took them! It was a magical moment.  This experience of watching them with Santa (and Ms. Claus) is something I never want to forget and I was so glad I brought my camera to capture the memories!

Trevor NEVER smiles for the camera when asked...however, this time we got a good one!

The boys were totally infatuated with Santa's bells!

Luckily, we were the only ones in line to see Santa so after the boys had their photo taken (the professional one didn't turn out very well), Ethan decided he didn't have enough Santa time...so, he walks over to him, checks him out a little...he sees the twinkle in Santa's eyes...

  

And climbs right into his lap and snuggles with him! 

We still didn't get a smile out of him, but it was so sweet to capture this moment!  I think Ms. Claus wanted to take Ethan home!



After this experience, I think I still believe!

I don't want my boys to grow up!

I'm sitting here looking at my boys and thinking about all of the things I'm going to miss about them as they get older.  Here's a start at my list because I know this doesn't cover it all...

1.  Footy Pajamas - They are so cute and so warm!  This year, these are the only pajamas Trevor wants to wear, but he'll be 4 next year so even if he wants to wear them, I'm not sure I'll be able to find them in his size.

2.  Teddy Bears - A few minutes ago, they were fighting over a few teddy bears.  They carry them around everywhere they go.  Before I had kids, I thought stuffed animals were a waste of space, but I can't believe how much my boys love them.

3.  Innocence - There was a commercial on TV for the new "Tangled" castle and Trevor screams out with excitement "I want that for Christmas!"  He also plays with Barbies and wants to put my makeup on.  He still carries around his pink bear (belonged to his sister) and can't go to bed without it.  Ethan likes to wear things that look like necklaces, purses, or bracelets.  Am I worried about any this?  Not at all!  They also love cars, trains, mud, bugs, and all of the boy stuff!

4.  Chores - Even though at times, it drives me crazy because it's a little too much help, they love to cook, vacuum, do laundry, dust, sweep, etc.  I'm absolutely positive they are going to grow out of this stage way too fast!

5.  Love - I'll probably miss this the most!  Trevor has been walking up to me, giving me hugs and I'll tell him "I love you!" and he'll reply "I love you too!"  Ethan gives endless kisses!

I love my boys so much and I am so thankful and lucky to be their momma!

The Perfect Gift

For the past few weeks, I've been staying up late searching online for the perfect Christmas gift (or should I save gifts) for my boys.  How much should I spend?  Will they play with it?  Will they like this better?  I find something I think they'll like and I'm almost ready to purchase it when I get a notification on Facebook from one of my "savings" blogs saying Amazon has such and such on sale and then I'm back to square one trying to figure out what to get.  Well, my husband and I were shopping last night and he found these cheap little Hot Wheels Trick Tracks for about $2.50 and bought two of them.  He's as bad as I am and couldn't wait until Christmas to give them to the boys so he let them play with it last night (or actually using the boys' excitement was probably just an excuse - I don't think Steve could wait)!  They were such a big hit and it was only $5.00!!!  The boys played with them non-stop until we made them go to bed and you should have seen the tears!  They did not want to stop!  To think, I could have saved so much time and money!  I think I'll have Steve do the rest of the shopping!  I'm apparently over thinking this!

PS - Check out Ethan's safe and creative way to get down from the stairs...

Our Baby Bellies

Eight months into my pregnancy and I think the boys are finally starting to get it.  Mommy has a baby in her belly!  Tonight we had a spontaneous (hence tired-looking mommy in her comfy clothes) photo shoot of our baby bellies.

Ethan's getting a sneak peak at his baby - I think he's pretty happy with what he sees!  (Poor little guy, if you believe in the old wive's tale, he must be having horrible heartburn with all of that hair!)  Too bad all of us mommies couldn't get a sneak peak like this!  Trevor looks like he's just relaxing in my favorite position - sitting on the couch with my hands on my belly!

Here Trevor and I are doing stand-up belly shots.  I wonder who has the bigger belly!?!?  :)  I should have him and Ethan walk around all day with babies in their bellies so they will understand why mommy has a hard time picking up their messes!

Fun's over, Ethan's done with having a baby belly.  Too bad it isn't this easy! 

Oops!

I took this photo of my 7 1/2 month old niece enjoying the sucker that I GAVE HER while telling my mom and sister about going to the doctor's office when Ethan was about 9 months and how I couldn't believe the nurse asked me if he could have a sucker.  He wasn't even a year old!  Can I say innocently...OOPS!  :)  

I guess that's what Aunt's are for!  :)

Perfection!

One of the mom's groups that I'm part of had an evening event so I got to go with just Trevor.  I was so excited about being able to spend time and do an activity with him and he was pretty excited about the event - painting a turkey plate!

I showed Trevor where we were going to sit and then we went to get him an apron.  While I was picking out the paint colors, he walked back over to our table and patiently waited for me.  He was ready to get started!  He was so well behaved!

I poured the paint and we painted his hand to make a cute handprint turkey.  He made the turkey and it was cute, but he didn't want to stop there.  I had to take a deep breath and a step backward.  He was so excited about painting, I had to let him do it!  Bye-bye cute turkey handprint...hello swirls, brushes, and smears of color!

 

I tried to salvage the turkey by recreating it with another handprint in bright blue paint, however, after the plate was glazed and fired it blended in with the other colors.  Trevor didn't seem to mind at all, in fact, he keeps referring to it as his "chicken" plate!  He was so excited and proud when I brought the finished plate home.  He couldn't wait to show Daddy!  (If you look closely at the picture below you can see the phantom turkey!)

 

We tried to get one last handprint on the back...

This saying is so true - "Motherhood is letting go of perfection and just going with the flow."  If Trevor thinks his "chicken" plate is perfect than it is!  We will proudly be displaying it at our Thanksgiving dinner this year!

When Mommy's Not Home

I was going through the pictures on my camera this morning and came across these.  So this is what goes on when Daddy is watching the kids...

Looks like Ethan wants in on the fun!

BUSTED!!!!  No wonder why they like daddy more!  :)

Wordy Wednesdays

It's almost 5:00 am in the morning and I can't sleep.  I have too much on my mind so I think I'm going to start doing a "Wordy Wednesday" section on here (not that anyone will read it, but maybe it will help to clear my thoughts and my sister thinks I need to blog more so Shanna, here you go...enjoy!).

1.  I have a great husband.  I think he purposely goes out of town periodically just so I will realize how much he helps out with the boys and takes care of me. 

2.  When I first entered the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, I thought I was pretty lucky because even though I was tired and have gained my usual too much weight, I actually felt pretty good and then BOOM... a couple of weeks into it, everything hurts, using the bathroom all night long again, can't sleep, pains in my legs...you get the picture. 

3.  My mom may drive me a little crazy, but I don't know what I would do without her.  She has been a huge help with the boys and keeping my house clean during this pregnancy. 

4.  I miss my baby girl (or at least my hopes and dreams of her since she wasn't with us very long) and being pregnant doesn't help.  It brings back so many memories...and fears that history will repeat itself.

5.  I'm really excited about buying Christmas presents for the boys, however, I'm having to hold back because I've given them everything I've bought them so far!  I've been able to justify it by thinking how much more they enjoy the presents when given one at a time, instead of all at once, but momma needs to stop before she goes broke!

Okay, now maybe I'll try going back to bed before as Trevor says "It's good morning time!".

Kids Say the Cutest Things

Trevor whose almost 3 years old said a couple of really cute things today...

1.  I gave him some orange pop in a cup with a straw.  I heard him messing around in the kitchen so I ask him from the other room if he spilled his drink and he replied to me "no, not yet!" 

2.  Steve (Daddy) has an infection in his eye so he's having to wear his glasses.  Trevor was playing with a flashlight shining it into Steve's eye and Steve asked him not to because his eye was hurt.  Trevor's who is used to mommy having magic creams for diaper rashes and ouchies, asked his daddy if he wanted mommy to put any cream on it to make it feel better.

I love this age! 

Happy Halloweek!

Happy Halloweek (and that's not a typo)!  My little ones are not even in school or even preschool and we had something to celebrate Halloween almost every day this past week.  Of course, mommy is to blame since I signed up for all of these events.  It was fun, but we are worn out!  The boys are exhausted; tonight they're in bed at 7:30! 

The busy week started off with me staying up past 1:00 am sewing hair onto Trevor's scarecrow costume.  I bought it like this.

 And finished with this. 

The costume was a little small on him and the hat only came halfway down the back of his head.  Since I bought it over the internet, I didn't have time to return it.  I think it turned out pretty cute, even if he does look a little like girl... He didn't seem to mind!

Our first event was a Halloween party at church.  It was a little carnival with a trick-or-treat parade.  At first, the boys were questioning "you want us to take candy from someone??," however they quickly got the hang of it!

Later during the week, we went to an "Enchanted Forest."  It was neat, but we had the boys in the stroller and there was a long line so they were a little restless.  I think they will enjoy it more next year when they can (maybe) run free!  There were the typical witches and pumpkins, but they also got to see a puppet show, a magician, real owls, and pose with a couple of pirates (you can tell by the picture below how excited they were about this...).

The next evening, we participated in our first "Trunk-or-Treat."  Not bad for our first, but after seeing the other cars, Steve and I are going to have to get more creative next year!

 On Friday, we went to a Halloween party with a mom's group.  The kids had a blast and I had to carry them out screaming!  They did NOT want to leave!  Thankfully, I had my mom to help me out. 

  

Friday night, we went to a Trick-or-Treat block party.  Trevor could have cared less about the block party, however, he said it was "fun since he got to hang out with Uncle Dan!" 



We took a break on Saturday so we could conserve our energy for the next day, the big night (and by now we didn't have any energy left anyway)!

On Halloween, I wanted to make something creative and ended up with these.   The boys didn't care much for the cupcakes, but loved the "ghosts."  I have several half eaten cupcakes as proof!  :)

And then we were off with the trick-or-treating...

Trevor decided about halfway through it, he wanted to pull the wagon.  We tried to help him, but Mr. Independent didn't need any help!  Okay, boy go for it!  He did!

We stopped by a church that had a bunch of fun activities going on.  Trevor and Ethan got to put pumpkin fires out with water guns, do a ring toss, spit pumpkin seeds and bob for apples.

Who knew this kid loved apples so much...well, at least until he saw the candy! 

We had to get a picture with all of the little ones.  I think Ethan may be getting jealous since he's not getting all of the attention any longer.  Trevor LOVES his cousin Leah and always has a smile on his face whenever he sees her!

About the last block of our trick-or-treating, Pappa Joe pulls out his golf cart and finishes out the night.  Why didn't we think of this at the beginning of the evening???  Next year for sure!

Once we got home, we let the boys enjoy our carved pumpkin one last time!  (Who knew Ethan loved suckers so much also!)

I think they had a pretty fun Halloween!