Happy 3rd Birthday Brody Boy!!

Like I say in all the milestone posts, I cannot believe Brody is already 3!! I can remember almost every detail of the day of his birth. For those who were around that day, you know it was quite memorable. Nothing we do in this family seems to come easy. And birthing children is no exception. From having contractions at 29 weeks..to 6 weeks of bedrest...to going into labor again at 35 weeks and being in labor for what seems like days to finally meeting our sweet boy at 6:44pm on January 19, 2008.

1st Birthday Party

2nd Birthday Party

Brody Boy, our 3 years with you have been nothing but an adventure filled blessing. Your personality lights up our home on a daily basis. Your sense of humor keeps us laughing and your new found "sweetness" melts our hearts. You haven't always been a hugger and snuggler, but in the last little while you've come around and we are embracing it. We know you'll grow up and think you're too "cool" to hug and kiss mom and dad so we're taking all we can get right now!

 Even though you fight all the time, you truly love your little brother

 This pic is here just so Daddy can show everyone what he taught you :)

You have been through more in the last year and a half than we ever thought our little boy would have to go through. And you've been so brave and so determined through it all. You still don't quite comprehend what is going on with you, that your legs aren't quite as strong as your friends, but it doesn't stop you from trying. You try to run, jump and climb to keep up with them. I love hearing you say that your braces make you strong and help you run and jump. Or when you say "The doctor has to check out my legs." You are so used to the routine and take it in stride. As far as you're concerned, you think its just another part of normal life that everyone goes through. Thank you sweet boy for your attitude through all of this! Its just another way God is going to get all the glory through your situation.

Getting your first set of braces in Jan 2010 (you actually were happy here)

Your favorite things these days are all things boy. Trains, cars, playing ball with daddy, tractors, dinosaurs. You ask to play with your train tracks and race track almost daily. And I know that your daddy is extremely proud of the fact that you can hit a ball that is pitched to you..and hit it HARD! Maybe you can skip t-ball! You also really enjoy movies, and although I really appreciate that on busy days or when I'm not feeling well, we do have to limit your movie watching haha!

Criss Cross Crash, your Christmas gift from Mommy and Daddy. You play with this for hours.

And I have to say, my absolute favorite thing about you at this age, is that you tell me that "Jesus saved me." You want to read your bible at almost every nap time and can tell me about all the pictures you see. It was so neat this Christmas to see your knowledge of Christ's birth blossom as you excitedly told us about Baby Jesus, the manger and Mary and Joseph.  I can't wait for you to be old enough to truly understand Christ's love for us and to accept Him as your Savior.

Making a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve.

Brody Boy, We love you so much and have truly enjoyed all the good and trying times with you over the last 3 years. We are so excited to see how you change and grow over the next year!

18 Months

*This post is a couple of days early...but I won't have time to post in the next few days. And yes, I know how to have it post at a later date, but I'm just ready to post it!

I can't believe Carson Monster is already 18 months old. It seems like he should be younger, yet he seems so much older to me. Maybe its because he runs everywhere instead of walking, is talking more and more and more everyday, and can keep up with Brody as if they were the same age.

These days he is really keeping us on our toes. He can climb, run, dig, hide, and reach almost anything. He gets into things that we never thought he would attempt. There have been a few mornings where I go to get him and he has one leg on top of the crib trying to climb out. So he may be in a toddler bed sooner than I expected (or hoped).

His favorite things are balls, cars, dogs, bears, and as always, food. He also really loves to cook. For Christmas the boys got a bbq pit with pretend food. Leigh Ann gave them little bbq aprons and he wears his around the house in his diaper. Really really cute! We'll find him in the room flipping a burger patty or using tongs to grill some corn on the cob.

They got a lot of new toys and games for Christmas so the last few weeks they have been busy exploring and learning how everything works. Its been nice because they are perfectly content playing with all of their new things while I get things done around here. Carson just jumps right in with Brody and like I said earlier, just seems so old.

 Learning to golf. 

Carson Jace, You are such a blessing to us. You make us laugh with your cute little voice and your hilarious faces. I love that you know what makes us laugh and continue to do it to get a reaction out of us. I love watching you love your big brother and when you try to hug and kiss him. Although he doesn't always respond in the most loving way, you continue to try. Sometimes you are challenging because of your strong will and determination. And other times you are so sweet and loving. I love how uniquely different you and your brother are but then can both find the same thing funny and laugh hysterically together. We love you Booger!

We were at my grandparents for Christmas and right as we were about to open gifts, Carson just tackled Brody for no reason and started trying to wrestle. Everyone in the room was crying from laughing so hard. 

The week before Christmas, Carson was on breathing treatments. He was such a trooper and got to where he could administer it to himself pretty much!

Learning to "hiss." 

Brotherly Love

Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday to Me

Remember when I posted about this Silhouette giveaway? Well, I didn't win.

However, my super, wonderful, amazing husband bought me one for Christmas and my birthday (which is Sunday). We got it on Cyber Monday so it was cheaper plus came with some cool free stuff!

Well, if you read my previous post you know we haven't slowed down. So I hadn't even taken it out of the box..until today. And oh my heavens am I going to have a blast with this thing!! I was reading the tutorials online and was almost overwhelmed at all it can do! I CANNOT wait to get started on Brody' birthday party so I can put it to good use. And crafts for the kids. And homemade cards. And home decor. And oh my goodness so much more. So, if anyone wants to plan a fun Silhouette playdate, let me know!

Thank you Matty for such an amazing gift! Even though I picked it out myself, I love it as much as if it were a surprise!!

Hello 2011

Well, I thought I should do the first official post of 2011. Its only 6 days into the new year and I already feel like its been a month, at least. We have barely slowed down since the holidays. I plan to post our Christmas pictures soon..but they aren't even off my camera yet...so don't hold your breath. But its on the "list."

Its the time of year for goals, plans, improvement, changes, etc. I'm not gonna lie, I've already had lots of things run across my mind that I would like to change this year. The way I grocery shop, couponing, menu planning, budget, kids activities, etc. However, this year, its not gonna start right away. It will be a slow process to get me back in the groove. And I'm ok with that.

Right now, January is just SLAM PACKED for us. We don't have time to sit and write out all the things that we've talked about adjusting this year and how we're going to accomplish them.
-This weekend: COTTON BOWL! (Matt's Christmas present from my parents)
-Next week: Finish Up some re-editing (long story)
-Next weekend: First wedding of 2011
-The next week: Preparing cute decor and details for Brody's bday party
-The following weekend: Brody's birthday party
-The NEXT week: edit wedding pictures
-The NEXT week (first week of Feb): Start potty training (again)

So as you can see, things started off quickly for us this year. On top of all that, we put our house back up on the market this past Monday. And we've made a commitment to keep it cleaner throughout the week so its not as stressful on me when realtors call for a showing.

So hopefully in February we can start on our "adjustments" we'd like to make for the year. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying the New Year!!

Four Eyes

For a couple of months, I noticed that things were starting to look fuzzy and I was getting headaches. Surely I didn't need glasses. I got some glasses in high school just for long distances but never really wore them. I didn't notice a difference. So its been about 9 years since I've had my eyes checked.

2 weeks ago I decided it was time. I wasn't blind or anything, but things were definitely a little fuzzy. Sure enough, the doc said I needed glasses and have astigmatism in both eyes. The frustrating thing was when he said this "You will probably want to wear them all the time. But your prescription isn't strong enough to need contacts." What the heck? I have to wear these things on my face all the time but can't have contacts. Kinda frustrating. Soo...off I went to find some cute, stylish glasses so I would feel "cool and trendy" wearing them all the time.

And this is the result. What you can't see is that they are plum with turquoise all on the inside :)

I gotta say, I still don't wear them ALL the time. Partly, because Carson pulls them off my face. And partly because I'm just still not used to this. I don't know if I'm ready to be a full on glasses wearer. So I've been kinda wearing them as needed. They are more for distance anyways so I can make it without them if I'm reading, etc. But for the most part, they should PROBABLY be on my face. So if you haven't seen me in a while, meet the new me :)

The Coffee Monster

Friday nights have been unofficially our "Family Date Nights" for the past few months. We try to just spend the evening with the four of us either staying home playing games with the kids or going out to eat and doing something fun. Brody's all time favorite date night activity is going to the fountain on restaurant row to get ice cream and look at the fish.

Last night we decided we would go as a family to finish getting a couple of remaining Christmas gifts for family. We had dinner and then Matt suggested we run through Sweet Eugene's because he was craving a Snickers Latte. I was not going to argue with that.

We pull up in the drive thru and a girl with out of control curly hair comes to the window. Her hair was..how do I say this nicely...umm..just nasty. And everywhere. She had this beanie/toboggan/whatever on that had ears and like a wolf or something on it. That combined with the hair was quite a site. I kept these thoughts to myself, but as she walked away from the window, Brody said "SCARY!!" Matt and I busted out laughing because we were thinking the same thing. She came back to bring us our debit card, and when she left this time, Brody said "Monster!" He was on a roll. She gave us our coffee and as we left he said "Bye Coffee Monster."

Oh the honesty of a child. So people that work at coffee shops and choose to look like you haven't bathed  recently, this is what little children think of you!

Tis the Season {Part 2}

*This is a long post with lots of pictures. Just warning you.

We kicked off the season on Monday, November 29 by decorating the house. We invited 2 sweet girls from our Hope Group over to have dinner and help us. Unfortunately, Aselle was swamped with school so Beth came alone. We baked cookies that afternoon and she got to see my non baking skills. It was quite funny. And all I was doing was using a box mix and cookie cutters. Nothing too difficult here people.

We cooked dinner together, played with the kids and when Matt got home he unloaded the boxes from the attic. With Mariah Carey Christmas (duh!) playing on the ihome and White Christmas (my all time fave Christmas movie) in the dvd player, the house slowly transformed. It was fun watching the tree slowly go up and how excited the boys were. They were such helpers to Daddy and Carson even danced around the room he was so excited. We ended up getting a later start than planned so we only got to the lights that night. By the end of the night, we had stockings hung, winter dishes on the shelves and the others packed away, and the tree up with lights strung.  Oh, and the star on the tree bc that was Brody's special job before he went to bed.

Beth helping the boys hang their stockings.

 Carson getting ready to start his happy dance.

Carson mid happy dance. I wish you could see his face!

 The boys giving daddy a high five for putting up the tree.

 Trying to help.

Beth helping me unpack my winter dishes. I get so excited when these come out. And bc they are winter and not just Christmas dishes, I can use them through January :) 

One of my favorite parts of White Christmas. *Matt said to note that he did not watch this movie and had no part this shot being on the blog.

Carson enjoying the Nativity Scene. 

Brody was so proud of himself for putting the star on the top. He had been waiting all evening for this moment.

I finished decorating the tree the next day during naptime. I tried doing it with the boys but it just didn't work. Brody hung a couple but decided he would rather do other things. Carson just decided it was way more fun to take them all off and watch them crash down to the floor. We've already had a couple of casualties. 

 I think we need to rearrange our stocking colors.   

I got a lot of my ideas for this year's decorations and new traditions from Kirby's post last year. I decided to try to make the Christmas Family Photo Frames. Basically you deco podge frames with either wrapping paper or Christmas scrapbook paper and put family Christmas photos in them from each year. I couldn't find a picture of just Matt and I from our first Christmas. And our second I was big and pregnant and probably never took pictures. We did take one that was on our Christmas card from that year but I can't find it. So I decided to start with the first year we had kids. So I only created 2 this year. Each year I will make a new frame and add the previous year's Christmas photo. I am excited about this fun new element of our holiday decor! I will say though that this was not as easy as I thought it would be. I think I'm just not as good at this stuff as I thought I was or hope to be. But overall, I'm super happy with how they turned out. Beth was a great cheerleader and motivated me to keep going bc I was ready to throw them in the trash! 

Apparently the Apels have more influence on our holiday that I ever knew! A few years ago, they gave us this elf so we could start our own "move the elf game." I don't know what's it actually called but that's what we call it. You set the elf out at Christmas and its never mentioned. When you see it, you just move it to a new spot when no one is looking. It has to be in plain sight and in the living room. I forgot I had put it out on Carson's stocking and noticed this morning that it was in the fruit bowl on the bar. So I moved it here. And when Matt notices, it moves again. So if you come over, join in on the fun! 

Some activities we have planned for December:

Expedition Express to go look at Christmas Lights (again, copied from the Apels. Sorry, they just have really good ideas and children that are a year ahead of ours so they are a great resource! I can't wait to make some golden tickets!)

Watching Christmas Movies

Making Graham Cracker Houses (not a fan of gingerbread)

Making a Christmas Card Prayer Box..so send us a Christmas card so we can pray for you all through next year!

Baking gifts for our neighbors

Birthday Cake for Jesus (Brody talks about this one all the time and asks when we can make it!)

And a few other surprises that I don't want to spoil! 

We are very excited to start celebrating this Christmas season with our children. We love seeing how excited they get by seeing the tree, the stockings and talking about Jesus' birthday. Come celebrate with us all month long! We have lots of fun things planned and you are welcome to join us!