Max's Vocabulary and Lulu's New Favorite

As Max is taking his coat off in the car and I remind him that it is winter and cold outside.  "Mom, I am not UNDERESTIMATING the cold outside.  It is however, warm in the car."

He makes me laugh.

Lucy's new favorite phrase: "LUCY DO IT!"  Said anytime I try to do anything for her, including but not limited to:  putting on clothes, changing her diaper, getting shoes on, eating, getting in and buckling car seat... she is seriously giving me gray hairs everyday.

Random Memories

Max - age 6 - "Mom, Lucy hates spiders.  She is totally repulsed by them."  Really, "repulsed"?  Where does he learn these words?

Max - age 6 - "Mom the new boy at school totally paid attention to his work.  He just worked so hard.  I was shocked.  So shocked I almost fainted."

Lucy - age 22 months - "siber" - spider (I love the baby words and I don't want to forget them)

Max to Lucy - "Soon you will be a big girl and sleep in my bed with me."  I think he might be a little confused on how this all will work out.

Max - age 5 almost 6 - "Mom, I don't want any presents for my birthday.  I just want to celebrate with all my family."

Lucy Loves - Her bubby, her mink(pacifier), her boo bankey (her green blanket), Kung Fu Panda, the Muppets, all things kitty and puppy, Elmo, Dance time, and her daddy.

Max Loves - Legos, Godzilla, drawing (i'm a pretty good artist mom), snow, his friend Hayden, and his daddy.

Just a snapshot of our world right now!

Through the Years...

Max attended St. Mark's Preschool and PDO from the time he was 2.5 till he finished preschool a few weeks ago.  I'll always be so thankful for the patience and love shown to my amazing, but sometimes difficult, little boy.  Here are the pictures of him through the past few years, he has GROWN so much.  It makes me sad and happy all at the same time!

First Day of PDO (2.5 years old)

First day of 3/4 year old Preschool

First Day of 4/5 year old Preschool

Last Day of Preschool!

Summer Days

We are still a week away from the "official" start of summer.  But I have to say, we've already jumped into all the best summer activities, including sprinklers and popsicles.  We also started the time honored tradition of summer sports: t-ball.  I'm not really sure that Max understands that t-ball doesn't involved tackling, but he sure was cute in his little "incredi-bowl" sponsored team shirt!

Lucy hanging out, drinking water, and watching Bub play some ball.

Max heading for third (where Lane was the base coach)

Grassy, sprinkler baby.

Popsicle Tongue

School's Out

What's Going on with the Kids?
Lucy had her first birthday and then a couple of weekends after her baptism.  She is such a doll baby and even cute when she throws a fit(which I am sure will totally change).  Her favorite things right now are her daddy, puppy dogs, and anything with a straw.

Max will finish preschool this week.  I can't believe my little boy will soon be in kindergarten.  The time flies by way to quick and lately I am often hit with the desire to press pause.  He is getting to big and so smart.  His favorite things right now are gremlins(no, he hasn't seen the movie but that doesn't keep him from being borderline obsessive), going to play with friends, and drawing the most amazing art!


What's Going on with the Parents?
I am entering my last semester of graduate school.  Yes, as of the end of July I should have a diploma in hand.  And not doing anything with it, but it is the effort that counts.  I am working hard at being active at the gym and setting a healthy example for my kids.  This is an ongoing effort that sometimes feels impossible, but it is totally possible.  Right now I have mini-goal of losing 53 pounds.  So far I've lost zero, I'll keep you updated on my progress.

We have started regularly attending church and reaffirming that foundation of faith in our lives has been incredibly needed.  Lane has a new obsession of creating star wars "worlds" for Max to play with.  I'll have to post some photos, because they are honestly amazing.  Max gets a huge kick out of them and Lane finds the sculpting and the painting relaxing.

What's Next?
It is summer!  Hopefully lots of swimming and great adventures as we enjoy this summer.  Plus t-ball and karate will keep Max active, in fact, his first t-ball game is tonight.  Go Bears! I plan to actually blog more.  We will see if plans come to fruition.  They might just, I've missed this blog.

-Laura-

Its that time of year....

For me to start blogging again....

Here is a picture of my kiddos, well sort of a picture of my kiddos.  Really just a picture I love!

I promise to do some major updating tomorrow.  

She makes us so happy!

My Girl "talking" and My Boy "Dancing"

Goose Bag

We spent a lot of time in the car the last 10 days. We logged over 2000 miles and over 40 hours on the road with our 4 year old and 12 week old.

It went really really REALLY well. I'm not saying I'm ready to do it again tomorrow but I would definitely be open to more road trips in our future.

One thing about being in the car for so long, other drivers start to really annoy you. As we passed through Memphis or Mobile or Jackson, I'm really not sure which, I became particularly annoyed and shouted one of our favorite family insults: "douche bag".

I hear a little voice in the background ask daddy, "what's a goose bag?"

Lane explained it was a bad driver who didn't follow the rules.

Today while driving to the grocery store I said something about a driver who turned out in front of me being a bad driver.

To which a certain boy hollered out, "Goose bag!!!!"

I admit I laughed and I don't have any plans to try and correct this any time soon because really, it is seriously funny!

Beach Time

Beautiful Girl

In the words of our doctor, "Who knew Wild Thing would make such a pretty girl!"

Goose looks just a little like her brother and is absolutely beautiful!

Here is our Wild Thing at 2 months:

And here is our pretty little Goose at 8 weeks:

8 weeks old

11.12 pounds

22 inches

Totally adorable!

Grocery Mayhem

I braved the grocery store for the first time with two kids.

The result... Goose was fine if I took her out of the car seat and carried her. Wild Thing was perfectly content to help me push the cart and to pick out groceries. He saw several things that were his "favorite-ist thing in the whole world, we need to get those"! I also at one point realized he had somehow gotten into the store with his pirate sword, which he was pointing menacingly at every innocent bystander we passed.

Needless to say, between a mama who just said "fine, whatever" to every request for his "favorite-ist thing" and a sneaky four year old who grabbed a few things without asking, we ended up with several extra purchases.

The damage:

I'm hoping to reduce the number of extra items by one each trip but that might be too lofty of a goal. We'll see....

Sibling Love

Can't you just read her mind?!?

"Eww.... get away from me brother!"

Also heard in our house lately:

"She is looking at me! I don't want her looking at me!"

Yes, really.... it has already started.

Over the Hills...

and through the woods to Grandma's house we go!

Our little family, sans dad, spent the last 10 days at the grandparents. It was a wonderful break from reality but I'm so glad to be back in our house. Wild Thing believes that all bets are off when visiting his most loved relatives. He is sort of right. At one point, his Ebe (grandpa) brought him a popsicle in time out. Or tried to bring it... he was intercepted by Bop (grandma) and reminded that Time Out isn't the place for popsicles.

Wild Thing was very upset when it was time to leave. He would live with the grandparents if they would take him, they are much more fun than mama :)

Goose seems pretty content no matter where we are. Except the car seat. She HATES the car seat. It is really the only thing I can say without a doubt she hates. Makes for an interesting road trip... will be even more interesting when we spend 14 hours in the car traveling to the beach this summer. Sometimes I think we are crazy for even entertaining the idea of a 2 day road trip...

Here are some photos from our time

Life as We Know It

This is our life. Or at least life as seen through the eyes of the mama.

This blog will follow our life. Those mis-adventures that seem to always crop up when parenting two children. It will also follow my life. The life of the mama trying to manage those mis-adventures and everything in between.

This blog isn't private so I won't be using real names or locations... All those identifying factors that you really don't want out there for all of the world to view.

My son, my firstborn... the absolute joy of my life: he is our Wild Thing. The Wild Thing whirled into our life and blew everything up. We didn't know it, but it was the best thing to ever happen to us. He is dramatic, imaginative, unpredictable and he is more than we could have every dreamed up. He is our very personal, lovable Wild Thing.

The Goose is a recent addition. She is practically perfect in every way. Except for the crankiness... and the reflux which results in constant spit up. And the constipation. But, really, she is ridiculously cute (the pictures prove it). The Goose is the piece to our puzzle that completes our family.

Then there is the Man. The Man is the love of my life. He has been my husband for 11 years and he still makes me smile every single day. The Man makes life fun, even when it isn't fun at all!

And of course, there is me: the Mama. I'm just making my way through life as a stay at home mom, wife, and child of God. Trying to do the best I can to raise these kiddos and love this Man. So, welcome to our family, hope you enjoy watching us navigate the mis-adventure of life!