My week so far

 While Joel has been pulling up and creeping along furniture this week,

Colin has learned how to do a few tricks himself. 

the big 3-0

I have now entered into the 30s. Somehow it doesn't seem so old since Brent has been there a while :)  Although I went and got my hair cut the other day (still getting used to it - i think I'll like it better in a few weeks) but the woman kept asking me if i wanted to get my hair highlighted to cover the grey hair coming in.  haha oh sad... :)  But it was a great day.  The boys were up a lot in the night so I didnt get all the sleep I wanted/needed but at 6am after the kids were playing in bed with us for a while Brent took them in the other room so I could sleep.  Aparently Colin went and woke up Ant Ant and this is what she told me " Your son woke me up saying time to get up - the sun's aready awake! When I told him to go wake up mommy - oh we can't wake up mommy... she sleeps in on her birthday :)"  Good boy! And poor Ant Ant since it was her birthday too. Brent had decorated the house while we were sleeping and Colin was excited that even the bathrooms were ready for a party.  After church we went down to the beach since our church is about 10 minutes from there.  Colin played on the playground and ran around and Joel kept trying to eat sand.  Then we got lunch and ate it on the beach.  A beautiful warm day. Brent even made his first cake for us. In West Virginia I would make my own.  Then my parents and grandma came over later in the afternoon and brought dinner and another cake.  The boys really enjoyed having two cakes to eat and blow out candles.  Ant Ant left monday afternoon to get back to work but it was a fun birthday and a great weekend.

Saturday

This morning I got to sleep in until 8:00 (never mind how many times I was up in the middle of the night... but Brent took the boys when they got up so I could get some extra sleep.  Amazing how that felt like sleeping in)  But then I took Colin to meet Kelly, RJ and lucy for a horse parade.  We never found the horse parade and after walking a ways we were told it was even further so we walked to Starbucks, got a donut and then went to a park right outside the Naval base.  Colin loved this park.  He would've stayed all day.  And I'm pretty sure we will be back there a lot this spring since its a short walk from Kelly's house. It was a great morning and I enjoyed spending it with Colin. Brent had fun playing with Joel for the morning.  Its our goal to do these one on one times with the boys once a month. Thanks Kelly for a fun adventure!  Colin entertained me on the way home with songs about my birthday.  In one song he serenaded me with a song about how "you have no pee pee cause you are a girl"  haha and then after that it was about octopuses and then mommy is turning 16...la la la.  Which is better since he told me yesterday I was 100. 

Then this afternoon Ant Ant came to celebrate our birthday tomorrow.  Although Colin doesnt like the fact that she shares a birthday with mommy. He wants her to share his birthday.  So Ant Ant may get two birthdays this year.  The weather was warm and we played outside all afternoon and then went on a run/bike ride to what we call the "super dooper playground" in our neighborhood.  Ant Ant made a fort for Colin after dinner and he told her "Ant Ant you're my friend" when he saw it. And he got to stay up all night with Ant Ant (8:30) and is excited to do it again tomorrow night.  haha! 

Car fun

  

  

Today Joel got to ride in the car this afternoon. His little feet couldn't touch the ground but he liked being pushed and he could even stand up in it and make it move (which surprised him every time)  He is now pulling himself up and standing a lot more.   In fact the other day he had pulled himself to standing and was trying to reach the tv.  The weather today was wonderful. The boys love it.  I can't wait until spring.  

 

 And for fun below are some pictures of Colin in the same car.  Joel is 7 months and Colin was 10 months. Brent and I look so young here.  Three and a half years of sleepless nights really takes a toll on you I guess! ha or I'm just feeling old because I'm turning 30 on Sunday. And doesn't our grass look great at our old house. Take a look at the top picture and you can clearly see the distinction between our grass and our neighbors.  Hopefully this year we'll do something about that.  

 And some more pictures from this week...

 Joel is such a happy baby

 Colin and Joel were watching a video on the computer together.  I love how Colin his holding Joel's hand.

Parenting is hard work

I love being a mom and able to stay home with my boys every day.  I love my boys more than words can express.  But sometimes my days are hard.  Not just the daily demands of feeding, dressing, and playing with the boys.  The constant lack of sleep isn't as hard at some point these kids have to sleep.  (as a side note - joel only woke up once last night, Colin 4 times! The night before Colin slept all night - Joel was up every hour...I am ready for them to start sleeping better)  But the hardest part for me right now is the discipline. And since I'm with the kids all day its mainly me who is doing all the discipline. Learning right from wrong and also that there are consequences.  That part is hard and something we all have to learn. In fact I feel like I'm still learning it at times.   Discipline is an act of love and I know some parents don't do it or take the easy way out.  And its easy to see why - it would be easy to give in or ignore some things but it is a choice to discipline and we are sticking to it.  And Colin is such a good kid who rarely disobeys. He also doesn't melt down very often and we are actually learning to tell him to take a deep breath which when he does he will then calmly tell us what was bothering him. It has helped so much. But there are some days like today where everything seems to spiral and he tests and pushes.  Just to see where the boundaries lie I think and also to see if mommy really means what she says. And sometimes I feel like I'm doing a great job and other days I feel like a failure.  But at one point this afternoon I said "mommy isn't too happy with you right now"  and he stopped and ran into my arms sobbing, gave me a big hug and said "I'm always happy with you mommy!"  Thanks kid. you've just made my job much harder :) Since I still had to follow through with the discipline.  But even during the hard days I couldnt imagine any other place I would rather be. 

 

But it was a great day overall. Here are some pictures I got of the boys this morning. Joel crawled around on the grass and loved it. Colin made a big mud puddle in the garden and then proceeded to make a 'mud angel.'  guess if you can't have snow you do the next best thing.  I made him strip his clothes before he was allowed to come into the house.

 

doesn't he look just like Brent in this picture?

Joel enjoyed the climber a lot today. He thought he was such a big boy and kepy squealing the whole time. He kept trying to go down the slide face first - he's a dare devil. We have to keep our eyes on this one too. He is also learning "no" since he thinks its fun to crawl over to outlets and try to stick his hand in them (dont worry they are covered) Colin even let Joel ride on his caterpillar truck and steer it.  I can't wait for warmer weather when we can spend all day every day outside.  I think the boys are ready too!

3rd annual GMU basketball game

Last night we was our 3rd annual gmu/odu basketball game. Its a lot of fun and Brent looks forward to it every year.  Ant Ant and Mike (or as we call him Witty) drove down to meet us there and we met our friends Sarah, Toby and Lisa there. (We've been trying to get Mike to come every year - hopefully the loss wont keep him from coming next year!)  Witty even ran into a friend of his from freshmen year.  Unfortunately George Mason can't seem to give us a win and this year it was even more embarrassing but there's always next year.  We get to sit in the GMU alum box (i guess it was considered a box) and use the VIP entrance and eat all the hotdogs/hamburgers/cookies we wanted.  The best part is that we can roam around which with kids is great while watching the game. Colin was really into the game this year and Joel just liked to slobber on Sarah's water bottle. Thanks sarah!  Colin finally got to cheer for his green team. Brent was a proud father :)  We had fun and hope next year they can give Brent a win! It was funny though at the end ODU had some cheer about us being the losers and since sarah, ant ant and I are all hokie alums think maybe we should introduce that cheer to jim weaver at tech! haha!  Good friends, good food, and lots of fun - just needed a win.  Maybe the 4th year is the charm...

 

 

Tunnel Fun

The other day when I was dropping off some bags at the goodwill I found this fold up tunnel for $2. The tunnel has been a blast.  Its been a pirate ship, part of an obstacle course, and many other things.  Joel will even randomly crawl into the tunnel squealing the whole time.  The only problem is that when we do the obstacle course, Brent and I get stuck in it which hurts our times.  Colin beats us every time which results in him telling us its our turn over and over while he times us. its been a lot of fun for the whole family.

It snowed again wednesday.  For a few hours. Joel just loves to watch it come down.

7 months

 

7 months.  Seems like a lifetime ago he was born but then it just seems like I was pregnant yesterday.  He thinks he's 3 like his brother and should get to play and eat the same things as his brother.  Joel is even more active I think than Colin was and is always moving.  He's such a sweet boy and my favorite thing right now is the kisses he gives. He loves to give kisses.  He'll give you kisses usually when you ask him to give kisses. He is also the best snuggler.  I'm so glad both my boys love to snuggle.  He loves his big brother and Colin gets the best laughs out of our little guy.  Colin loves him too and sang Joel a song this morning when he woke up "I love my baby Joel" was the theme of the song. He also loves to stand and will 'walk' when we hold his hands up. Our only complaint is that he still wakes up A LOT during the night. We have one more tooth to poke through then hopefully he'll go back to sleeping well. We love you Joel!

more snow

Yesterday we got more snow.  We probably got about an inch but because it rained before we didn't get more.  Its still so pretty coming down. Joel stayed by the window most of the afternoon watching the snow fall.

And what we got yesterday was more than we saw all year last winter.  I'm so jealous of everyone who got 30 inches - we'd love some of that here.  (well I would. Brent doesn't since he wouldn't be able to work for weeks here if that happened) We still managed to have some fun this morning in the snow. My parents came over for lunch and Colin and my dad had fun sword fighting for a little bit. Joel was excited to see the snow since he wanted to just eat it. But this time I put rubber bands around his wrists so he gloves would stay on and he couldnt shake them off. That made eating the snow pretty hard for him and made him a little frustrated until I gave him a handful of clean snow.  Colin and Brent have been pirates all weekend. Brent is his pirate friend. Joel is his pirate baby. And that is a lake in our backyard. Its frozen in the mornings so we can skate on it :) But once the sun comes out it becomes a slushy mess.  I'm loving all the snow but I'm also very ready for warmer weather so I can go outside everyday with the boys.

 

 

bored

 

These boys dont look too excited about Jamie getting her dress altered today but I was excited to see Jamie and her wedding dress. Jamie is going to make a beautiful bride!   - sorry that's all the pictures you can see until the wedding :)

Addition

At breakfast Colin said "mommy, you know 3 astronaut stories and 2 astronaut stories makes FIVE astronaut stories."   And then later he told me that 2 dinosaurs and 2 dinosaurs makes 4 dinosaurs.  We may have another math major in our family :)  Which means I should brush up on my calculus and geometry since its been 6 years...

 

And get a look at some of Joel's pearly whites.  He has 3 bottom teeth and is working on getting his two top front teeth with another top tooth coming in too.  Wow!  We are hoping once these finish popping through he wont be getting up as many times in the middle of the night.  we could all use some sleep.  Colin got 1 tooth at 6 months - Joel has 6.