Just in time for Christmas.... here's Thanksgiving!!

Our plan was to go home and celebrate with my Dad and Step-mom. Don and my dad were planning on doing some hunting. We were going to spend about 4 days with them. I was excited to have time to visit everyone and relax. When we go home it's often for a night, sometimes two. It's sort of a whirlwind. Not to mention a 3 hour drive usually turns into about 4 1/2 to 5 hours. Well EARLY Thanksgiving morning, like around 3 am Weston woke to nurse and shortly after Brody woke up crying. He was feverish. We knew at that point we weren't going home. So when I was done nursing and Don was taking care of Brody I started to look online to find grocery stores that were open. Rainbow Foods had a few select locations that were open. So at 4am Don and I were making a list of food that we wanted to include in our dinner. I was digging up recipes. I think about 5 or so we went back to sleep. In the morning Don went to the store while I made breakfast. We were disappointed not to have the time with my Dad but also some what relieved not to have to do the running around. It ended up being a really fun Thanksgiving. We did a lot of cooking together, watched the parade and just hung out. Here are the pictures to tell the story of our day! :) You can see my poor sick boy!



























Everyone was very excited when Weston woke up and we all went to greet him. :)

Did I mention that when Don went to the store they were sold out of Turkey, thawed turkey that is. So we ended up eating Thanksgiving Chicken. YUM.

sick kids get baths in our house. something about a warm bath when you are sick feels good.

pumpkin ice cream pie! YUM!!

The next series of pictures tells a story. Can you tell what Brody is doing here?

he is looking all innocent but he wasn't. :)

I caught him in action and so did Don. :)

I wish I could write by each picture but anyway I love the last pie picture! I think it's hilarious!! Do you think they enjoyed their dessert. :) Well that's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving with our family :)

I can't help myself...

It seems like everyday Brody is saying something funny. Talking more and more... and well I have to write it somewhere...

***Brody was watching Polar Express. At the end of the movie Santa comes up and Brody gets VERY excited and yells..

" Look Mommy NOAH... NOAH."

Which he also did when we entered Wal-Mart one day and saw Santa Claus. :)

***Driving to MOPS last week.

Brody: Mimmas Lights Momma, Mimmas lights

Me: Christmas lights?

Brody: YEAH!!

Me: Aren't they beautiful

Brody: (very matter a fact) NO.... their NOT!

***If I ask Brody a question if the answer is No, he very clearly states No. However, if you ask him a question and the answer is yes... well you will most likely get the answer

" YES N NO..." Say it fast like its one word and you got it. :)

***I have been getting out a little bit more with both the kids. It's an adjustment. A week or two weeks ago we took our first outing to the gym. It was Weston's first time in the daycare. Anyway you would I hadn't yet worked his car seat but I have. However, this particular day the passenger seat was back far away that when I was trying to get Weston's car seat out it was not coming. So I opened the front passenger side door moved the seat up and then proceeded to get the car seat out. When I did this was the affirmation I recieved....

"YEAHH!! Good Job, YOU DID IT!!"

Thanks Brody for being so encouraging. :)

***Last weekend we went to the Live Nativity which we hope will remain a Christmas family tradition. I LOVE going. The last two years we let Brody crawl up into the front seat and sit on my lap as we drive through. I read the story and point out the animals. THis year there was a live donkey.

Me: Look Brody, a donkey

Brody: sticks head out the window and YELLS " HI COW!!"

I guess we need to work on our animals. :)

Brody Boy!

Ever heard of GO FISH! Brody and I love them. They are a Christian singing group and they have some really fun kids music. This particular set of pictures was us jamming out to the song HIT THE DRUM! A few others that I like are the "Ten Commandment Boogie." "Jammies" (probably my favorite) "Snazzy", and the "mom song". I don't even really think that covers it. Check it out, I don't think you'll be disappointed and your kids will love it. :)


There has been a lot of focus on the baby lately so I had to write about Brody. I don't think I could possibly remember everything I have wanted to write about. Brody and I have a lot of fun during the day. He is talking a lot!! He loves to play hide-n-seek. He hides in the same spot, under the kitchen table. I think he may be starting to branch out. He loves it when mommy hides and pops out and him and yells boo. One of my favorite stories lately was of Brody and I playing Hide N Seek. He couldn't find me and he was wandering around the house yelling "MOM".... "MOOOOMMMM" "WHERE ARE YOU MOM??" "MOM YELL BOOOO..." Hehehee.. so cute

Right now he says to me A LOT "I need help wit dis" (I need help with this)

One day a nurse stopped by the house and as she was walking through the door he says to her "Hi person."

Brody and I don't leave the house much these days. Poor kiddo. I am trying to have fun with him. We love to dance around. We race sometimes, bowl, and build obstacle courses. AND yes we do this in the house. :)

One day we were going somewhere and as we were walking outside Brody gets so excited and yells " Outside, Outside..... YEAH!!" Poor kid...

Our house is pretty sad this time of year. We haven't put up a Christmas tree in a number of years for a number of excuses. This year I have been a little depressed because I am in the house so much more then usual. After BEGGING Don for some sort of decoration we finally bought this little decorative Christmas tree. REALLY LITTLE. It's cute though. Tonight after Brody went to bed we put up our Christmas tree. Brody hadn't quite fallen asleep yet. Don ended up needing to change his diaper so we got him up and he got to see the tree with the one wrapped present. :) Oh that sounds so sad. Anyway, Brody's eyes lit up! It was so neat. It didn't matter the size of the tree, or that there was only one present. There is something that adds a little sparkle when there are decorations surrounding Christmas. I think I had forgotten that. So when he saw the tree he got so excited and started saying over and over "mismas tree, mismas tree..." this is how he says Christmas and I love it.

I know that I wrote after Weston was born we were having a somewhat difficult time with Brody. Sure we still have our challenges but overall things are going really well. I love the way Brody LOVES his baby brother. He calls him Desden (Weston)... hehehe...

He is very proud of his baby. We have had to have a discussion that mommy is the only one that can nurse the baby, Brody has asked a couple of times if he can nurse the baby. :) He will come up to the baby and say "mum mere baby" Which is come here baby!! So sweet. Recently I called a friend and shared in the excitement that Weston has started to really respond to Brody. It's amazing to see them interact and my heart felt like it my burst. Brody was sitting on the floor talking to Weston, making silly noises and Weston was smiling and laughing. :) OH MY GOODNESS.... I had no idea it would be THIS GOOD!!

I have just a couple more stories and I don't know if writing them will do them justice but I am going to try.

The other day Brodes was sitting eating lunch. He is in love with cottage cheese. After his second helping he asked for more. I was just like MY WORD. I looked at him and said...

" You are going to turn into a cheese curd."

Brody:: Laughs somewhat like a woodpecker and says "Cheese curd..." long pause " I NOT cheese curd... I BODIE."

Brody: (talking to himself) "I cheese curd..." followed up with woodpecker laughter...

I have been trying to teach Brody to politely say no. Often if I ask him if he wants something and he doesn't he YELLS NO!! I tell him it's ok to say No but I want him to say "No Thank you".

I was changing Weston's diaper the other day and Brody was finished with breakfast and is yelling " ALL DONE MOMMY, ALL DONE."

To which I respond "Brody, you need to wait I am taking care of Weston right now."

Brody: YELLS "NO"

and again I respond "Brody you need to wait."

Brody yells "NO"

and finally I ignore him. :)

Brody follows my silence with " No Thank you Mommy."

Well at least it's sinking in.

If you read this long post that's amazing. I had to write down what little bit I remember lately. Brody says something new almost everyday and is at this age where he is changing so fast. I love listening to him talk and it surprises me that he is laughing at jokes, (understanding humor) and having simple conversations. If I don't write it down I am afraid I will forget it. :) I love you darling boy. :)

2 months

Ok so these were taken at two months but I got a little

behind in the blogging. Weston is getting so big. He smiles

and coos all the time. :) I LOVE IT!! NOV 21st. he rolled

from his tummy to his back and two days later he rolled

over from his back to his tummy. I couldn't believe it. Just

over two months and starts rolling around. Crazy.

Tonight I was tickling him and he laughed!!!!!! Did I mention

I LOVE IT! Oh what else. Weston is very happy but when he

gets mad boy does he get mad. :) This comes out when he is

tired more then anything but sometimes when he is hungry

and I am not responding to him quickly enough. :) I can't

believe that in a couple of weeks he will be 3 months old.

The time has gone by so fast.

Want to be a winner!!

My friend Sarah over at Sassyfrazz has a great giveaway going on right now through Partylite. Make sure you check it out here. Who doesn't like to win fun things to display in your home. Sarah has a lot of other great giveaways too, make sure you check them out. Her button is in my sidebar. Sarah is also a stay at home mom of four and home schools. It's fun to read her blog, hear about her life and her kids. Love you lady. ;)

Halloween

Ok so the first two pictures are of Weston when we actually got him comfortable. I know he looks crabby but this was just before he fell asleep.
You will notice in the last couple of pictures the head of the catepillar doesn't quite fit Weston, we had to stuff socks behind his head so that it would fit right and

we put a blanket in the bottom of it to

fill it out. :)

I had more pictures of Brody up but somehow I accidently deleted them. So I may put some more up but that's it for now. :)

The state of my mind...

This is a story that could fall under many categories... I am sure many of you have heard of not me mondays, or "you know you're a mom when...", or what I refer to as mommy moments...

Don and I went to visit my dad and my step-mom not to long ago. As we were heading home I called my step-mom to let her know that we were on our way. As I was talking to her I started to frantically look around!!

Me: "oh no" as I am looking in my purse, my wallet, diaper bag...

Diane: "what's wrong?"

Me: **light bulb goes on... **

Me: " Ohhh nothing... I just thought I forgot my cell phone at home and then I realized I was

talking to you on it.

Living Life

For months I feel as though all I have talked about is Brody, pregnancy, and Weston. That is a huge focus of my life right now. :) So I hope you haven't gotten too bored with me. The last 6 weeks has been a blur. A lot of it due to the fact that I have been half of sleep.. hahaha.. However we are doing really good. Not necessarily getting anymore sleep, I think we are adjusting to life with little sleep. Don is back in school and I think he is doing pretty well but does have a hard time finding time to do homework. I started back to photography when Weston was about 3 weeks. It feels good. I have done two family portrait sessions and have two more this month. I have to figure out how and when to get my editing done. :) It's interesting to figure out how to manage my time now. That has certainly changed. In the last 3-4 weeks a friend of mine lost her mother, I lost my grandmother, a classmate from my High School passed away. All of that was pretty intense. Loosing my grandma felt odd. I hadn't seen her in a few years. She had dementia and the last time I remembered her even knowing me was about 5-6 years ago. I felt like I lost her a long time ago. There was a part of me that was happy for her. I don't want that to sound morbid but she literally lost her mind. I would imagine that dementia is a very scary disease for the person who has it and very lonely. I imagine her now with Jesus, a whole and peaceful mind, and with her husband.

My girlfriend who lost her mother has been married for about 5 years now. They don't have kids, and have yet to buy a house. I am sharing this information with you just to paint a picture. She is in her late twenties. She came to visit me a few weeks ago. It was heartbreaking as I listened to her pour her heart out and share the extent of her pain. It wasn't until the last couple of months before her mom passed that she felt as though she was starting to get to know her mother. She grieves over everything that she is going to experience that her mom will never get to be apart of. My heart breaks for her. It's made me think so much of my own family relationships. I have had a bittersweet relationship with my own mother. I think everyone has struggles in relationships. We can either choose to work through them, forgive and move on or hold onto or pain and loose out on time with them because we are angry. It's easier said then done. My mom and I when she was here talked a lot about how we can move away from holding onto our past and move forward. I prayed with her for the first time that I can remember. I hope that her and I can move towards reconciliation and start enjoying one another more.

I am really enjoying being a mom of two. My boys are darling. I am just trying to find balance in my day. Last week I struggled a lot with how to manage my day. By the end of the week I was feeling a bit more peaceful about it all. I spent a lot of time praying about it. It's amazing how quickly your day runs away with you. There are many things that are important to me that I want to accomplish in a day. So I started thinking about what my priorities were. I decided that the most important thing is spending time with God which I have started to do in the mornings while I am nursing. :) It works great for me right now. The next thing is making sure that I spend time playing with my boys. Focused time. :) Another important thing that I feel I need to do for myself is exercise and shower. I really want to do this everyday. I am not certain if this is to high of an expectation. I am not certain how to do this well with two kids. It looks a little crazy around here. Brody runs between my legs, or runs circles around me, when I am doing push ups he crawls under me, when I do sit ups he tries to sit on top of me and Weston well he almost always starts crying at some point during a 20 minute workout. It's amazing how hard it is to get in just 20 minutes. If anyone has any tips I would love to hear them. My other desires are to maintain my house. Which means pick up toys, keep the dishes washed, and even vacuum if I can. One of my other goals and desires is to have a peaceful home when Don gets home. This just means that more days then not we are a happy and content family when he walks in the door. :)

Hmmmm... so as of right now I don't know what else to share. That has been my life, and my heart for the last few weeks. I hope you all are doing well. I know I have been absent from blogs but hope to catch up soon. :)

6 weeks

He loves to smile

He gets angry when he can't fall asleep. :)

He loves to be held A LOT

He likes his head rubbed

He likes being held on his tummy or up against your chest.

He likes to have his back rubbed

He enjoys his baths

One month

I can't believe it's been a month. That doesn't seem possible. A lot has happened with my mom being here, my sister, a surprise visit from a friend! :) Overall we are doing good but are still pretty exhausted. Weston is doing great. He is definately getting bigger. He is very sweet. He likes to be held though, ALL THE TIME! :) I took some pictures today of him and then both boys together. Here is a preview.

MY BOYS

Weston Robert (Two weeks old)

Broderic Scott (2 weeks old)