June Break- Finally

Each year since I started this blog in September I have taken what I like to call a 'September Break', focusing more on my family, the beginning of another school year and spending time outdoors and less time blogging.  I think I'm already doing a pretty good job at the latter lately, but it's been a while since I took a conscious, purposeful break.  Last September, because Ezzy was born and because I was sure there'd be lots to blog about I didn't take my annual break.  Then in October and November I was still on maternity leave so I knew I'd have time to blog.  Then came Ezzy's 1st Christmas and I couldn't miss documenting that, although I sucked at blogging in December after going back to work.  After the beginning of the year, I think I just forgot I had said I was going to take one soon and just kept on blogging when I had the time and then I would remember....so, ladies and gents, this is it, I'm taking a June break this year.  More time for me to finish up my school year and get ready for a fun filled summer with my two boys.  I'll still do Ezra's 9 month post, any pre scheduled birthday posts and my Project 52 so you'll still get a general idea what's going on with me, I just won't sit down and write out any formal posts again until July.  There you have it folks, see you in 31 days!  Hope you'll join me back in July!

The Last Few Weeks

I have really enjoyed doing my Project 52 pictures every week.  It's definitely made me take more pictures of our every day life and appreciate the little moments.  I also think it'll be fun at the end of the year to go back and see how the kids grew week by week.  It also helps me to keep up with blogging once a week, even if it's just to show pictures.  So, let me think what we've been up to lately.
Luke's sister and her family visited last week.  Sloane is exactly one week younger than Ezra and it was great to get them together. They live in Austin and obviously we don't have many opportunities.  It was nice of them to bite the bullet and travel up here w/ a new baby.  Our plan is to go out there this summer, but right now just wasn't feasible w/ my not being able to take off any more work before June.  We got some really cute shots of Ezra and Sloane checking each other out.  Gage had a blast playing with Uncle Mark and Aunt Annie as well.

 

Also, I posted about 2.5 weeks ago that we started solids with Ezra.  Well, he hates it, people.  He really does.  I've never met an almost 6 month old baby that doesn't want to eat.  It kinda stresses me out.  I mean he just screams when we try to feed him and spits everything back at us.  It almost appears he doesn't know how to eat.  However, this kid puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, and I mean everything.  Tonight he wouldn't even attempt to eat b/c he was too busy eating his bib.  He could sit for an hour probably and just chew on one toy.  I mean, I guess this is normal.  I dunno, Gage never did it.  Do other people have puppies for babies?  It's just kinda weird to me.  He literally will chew on my face and anything that comes within inches of his mouth.

Ezra has his 1st cold, which always sucks.  Noone wants to see their baby sick.  I was pretty sick for the last 2 weeks and he felt really crummy on Monday.  Seems to be a little better today but was pretty hard to entertain on our day off.  Good thing the Gov't was closed too, I might have been crazy trying to entertain him all day alone.

We have a jam packed March so I have a feeling the rest of the month will go by fast!  Hopefully I'll have time to post here and there.  I was supposed to take my 'September Break' sometime this Spring, but hasn't happened yet.  April, maybe? 

Project 52: Week 9

While this is delayed, we did have a fun, but busy week.  Luke's sister and her family were in town so that was a special treat.  Here is what the last week of February looked like for us.

The Life

Toys!

Butterfly Pal

Sloane Allena

The 3 Cousins: Sloane (5 months), Gage (3) and Ezra (5 months)

Naptime

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are readers of this blog.  I hope you all had a safe and happy day and ate more than you should.  We're home this year, just the 4 of us and while we miss our family, we are happy just the same to spend it alone with our new family of 4.  We are thankful for our new addition, as well as our big boy.  Speaking of, we are actually thankful today we didn't make any plans for the day since Gage spent the night last night puking up everything in his little belly, poor guy.  Kids are so resilient though and although tired and feverish, he was happy as a clam today!  Hope you all are healthier than us and enjoyed your day!

A thankful weekend

I realize I haven't been keeping up my thankful posts, but we've been in a better place this weekend- OBX.  So today, I have lots to be thankful for.

Today I am thankful for my parents' beach house and their letting us visit it often, so that my boys can grow up with the same traditions that I did as a kid.

Day 8- I am thankful for sleeping children who let us get to my parents' house with only one stop, making traveling with a toddler and infant not so bad after all.

Day 9- I am thankful for our electricity and that we didn't lose it due to Hurricane Sandy.  We were without for about 3 hours tonight and we just about lost our minds.

Day 10- I am thankful for the sunshine and beautiful weather.  Mid 60's in the middle of November at the beach, are you kidding?!?

Day 11- I am thankful for all the men and women who are veterans of the military as well as active duty who risk their lives every day for our country.

Day 12-  I am thankful I have 2 weeks left of maternity leave to spend with my sweet baby.  The time goes too fast.

Day 7

Today I am thankful for my loving husband who is not only a wonderful Dad to our two sons, but who left work early yesterday so that I could stand in the hour long line (in the cold) to vote and not have to take Ezra with me.  It was really important that we voted and not much was going to stop us. Thankfully it paid off...Luke is also staying home with Ezra for 4 weeks after I go back to work to delay daycare as much as possible.  He did the same with Gage and we are thankful that his job allows that. 

30 Days of Thanks...

Two years ago, I did a series that I would mention something I was thankful for each day in November.  Now, while I got somewhat behind on certain days, I think I did hit the 30 mark.  I had planned to do it again this year and had since forgotten, with my 2 kids and all. But since it's only the 2nd of the month, I figured I could still start now.  We have a lot to be thankful for this year, as I'm sure you all do as well.  If you'd like to join me in giving Thanks for something every day of November, let me know in a comment....I'd love to read your posts.

November 1:  This Holiday season I am definitely thankful for my perfect little family, which includes my new favorite little man, Ezra.  I am thankful for his health and happiness and probably will be more so when he starts to sleep more;).

Today I am also thankful that when I go to Toys R Us to buy a birthday present for one of Gage's friends, that I can also pick up diapers and wipes to send to victims of Hurricane Sandy.  We thank God we weren't affected like those in the North and we are thankful to be able to help out.

Bye Bye Sandy

Well, we made it through Sandy in one piece after all.  We were very worried last night about our power going off, but luckily it managed not to.  I have seen some hurricanes in my lifetime, but this has got to be one of the BIGGEST and worse that I can remember.  My thoughts and prayers really go out to those in Jersey and NY that seem to have gotten hit the hardest. 

Things have been a bit crazy around here not having school/work for the last 2 days.  Poor Gage hasn't gone to school in a week.  I kept him home Friday and he hasn't been back since.  This weekend was pretty chill after our last few busy weekends.  Gage had soccer Sat. morning and then took a 3 hour nap.  We played outside a bit on Sunday and another LONG nap followed that.  We took a trip to the toy store Sun. night because we knew we probably wouldn't get out of the house for a few days.  Gage enjoyed picking out some gifts for his birthday that he is sooo excited is in 2 weeks!  Yesterday we spent the entire day indoors of course and it was quite the chore to entertain Gage.  We broke our TV limit by watching quite a few movies and cartoons. We also managed to dig out some toys from the bottom of Gage's toy box he hadn't seen in quite a while.  Today was a little better.  Luke took Gage to the mall this morning to burn off some energy since the weather still was not nice enough to play outside.  But tomorrow is Halloween and it's back to work and school they go!  Gage's school will have trick or treating tomorrow afternoon before the real deal tomorrow night.  It is going to be colder than usual here so we'll see how Gage does.  And unfortunately, although Ezra has a costume, we'll be staying in tomorrow night to hand out candy while Gage goes trick or treating with Daddy.

Here are just a few pictures we took in the last few days while hanging out at home. 

Ezra is finally digging his swing

The 1 month shot

The ever amusing crying-because-you've-taken-my-picture-48-times shot

Next to Teddy- now I need to go back and compare, b/c Luke and I are convinced he's grown a ton!



Oh, how could I forget!  We also carved pumpkins this weekend.  We did it last year as well, but it was way cooler this year for Gage to dig in and get all messy!  Luke carved two pumpkins for Gage- Spiderman and Daredevil, which we think both came out pretty nice.  I am not skilled enough so I opted to make the ever Pinterest popular milk jug ghosts.  Gage liked them though and they are super easy and cheap, so they're definitely a hit in my book and hopefully will look pretty cute tomorrow night on our porch.

Ewww....guts!



It's Spidey, do you see him?



This one is easier to distinguish- Daredevil

And these were just for fun and because we were stuck inside for so long and because I STILL have not gotten a cute shot of both my boys together.

I love a yawning baby

This one's kinda cute because it looks like Ezra's laughing, too.

Look at this kid's fat belly and look how curly his hair is when its wet

Gage got a cake pop while we were at Target, apparently this is how you eat one.

Story behind the above spider.  I took Gage to Target to allow him to pick out one Halloween decoration for our house.  He fell in love with this spider and just kept saying, I love her, I want to take her home with me.  She is my best friend, etc. etc.  He named her Sally.....which coincidentally he named his pumpkin last week, too.

This one might be the winner for the birth announcement

Now, people, do you still think they look alike?

Pumpkin Pickin' and What Else We've Been Up To

Last Friday we took Gage out of school to visit one of our favorite places, Ticonderoga Farms. We discovered Ticonderoga one Easter when they had a Spring festival and then visited this year for their Fall Festival. There is so much to do aside from pumpkin pickin'- slides down hills, playground equipment, a hayride, a bounce pillow, etc. We thought Friday would be a nice day to go and not have to worry about excessive crowds with Ezra. There was hardly anyone there so Gage got to play as he pleased, I found somewhere quiet to feed Ezra and we got to pretty much have the place to ourselves. We didn't get too many pictures this time around, but did take a few of the boys in their Halloween garb, since Gage would finally sit with Ezra (yay!).

Kind of a bad  picture of E, but at least his outfit is cute!

1st time Gage was really interested

Love this one.

Birth announcement worthy? 

Me and my boys

Not bad for a self portrait

ha...I LOVE this one

Gage's favorite slide

Apparently Mommy going down the slide is the funny thing in the world to Gage.  You gotta click on this one to see his face!

Daddy didn't tell me that Ezra was barely in the picture.

My sweet pumpkin

Saturday morning we skipped soccer to go to one of Gage's classmates' bounce house birthday party.  It definitely was a hit and a valid replacement, being that Gage could really care less about soccer anyway.  I went with Gage to bounce while Luke stayed home with Ezra.  Whew....2 and 3 year olds wear me out!  I didn't really get any pictures since I was bouncing with Gage the whole time.  I was tired, I can't imagine how tired the kids were, but we definitely had a great time.....which is why Gage will have a bounce house birthday as well in just a few weeks.

I also got to have lunch with a good friend  who was in town this week and kept Gage home yet again yesterday so we could play with her boys.  (Sorry, no pictures)  It's a shame to pay so much for daycare and to have to pay even if he's not there, but every once in a while, we have to do something special, right? Good to see you, Bonnie!