Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The Babies are HERE!!

After many, many, many prayers, two unbelievably precious boys joined the Whitaker family yesterday!

My big brother is a Dad!


Nicole was the cutest, non-complaining pregnant woman I've ever known!  For being so tiny and carrying two big boys, you would have never known if she was uncomfortable!  She is such a trooper!

She carried these precious squishy bundles of love!
Introducing Bennett James and Brooks Ryan!


Sweet Bennett
"Baby A"
6 lbs 13 oz!
Lots of hair and squishy cheeks.

'Big' Brooks
"Baby B"
7 lbs 3 oz!
Lighter hair and squishy nose.

Both boys are just perfect.  The love for them is overwhelming!


The proud Dad!

The amazing Mom!

As of yesterday, Craig & Nicole have one beautiful family of 4!



My sister snapped this sweet picture today and I can't get enough of it.
I was asking Matt how much he loved Noah when he was born...then try & take that feeling and multiply it by 2.  I honestly think my heart would explode!


The boys are quickly taking over our family!  I love it! :)

Zoomers!

Talk about a fun birthday party!  Last Saturday, we went to our neighbor's son's birthday party at Zoomers.  Their son, Michael, turned 8, so while Connor was the same size as all the other party guests...he was still 3 years younger.  He tried to hang with the bigger kids the best he could.  First stop was the go carts!  I died a little inside when I sent him all by himself to drive this thing. (I'm still in denial with my baby being so big).

He drove it like a champ!  Didn't crash into anything!
(I was having flashbacks to when I crashed my go cart at Mike Greenwell's when I was younger & split the back of my head open...oh fond memories).

Seriously--how cute is this kid?!


Next stop was the bumper boats.  I thought they looked fun & asked Connor if he wanted me or Matt to go on it with him.  He chose me (who wouldn't pick me?!).  Matt was surprised I was so willing to go on them.  While Matt stood on dry land with Noah, he watched as Connor and I learned that each bumper boat was equipped with a strong water gun!  Half way through the 'fun', C was crying to get off this ride as we were both soaked!  I did my best to wipe away from mascara streaming down my face to say in my chipper Mom voice that, "Don't cry, bud!  This is FUN!"

Matt got a good laugh.

We then got to ride some great rides!  I rode the roller coaster with C first, then Matt rode it with him.  The boys then ventured on over to this ride that we chose to call the 'elevator.'  Matt said Connor was so cute on the ride.  He'd exclaim how fun it was to go up, but then how his tummy hurt every time they dropped down.  From the ground, all Noah & I saw were giggles!

Noah got a kick out of watching his brother on the roller coaster with Dad.
Sidenote: I think it's about time we retired this hat.  I pulled it out of the diaper bag to put on Noah's head while we were outside & realized it barely covers his big ol' forehead anymore.

Stop growing child.  Please.

Matt wanted to take C on the big boy track (or did he just want any excuse to drive a go cart?!).  Either way, both boys enjoyed their speedy ride!


All four of us enjoyed the party!!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Easter 2014

In the past week, we had many-a Easter festivities!

Connor started with dying eggs with Nana at Nana & Papa's house.

We then dyed eggs at our house.  We mixed it up a bit & used a 'cool' Angry Birds decorating kit.
Connor had more fun playing pretend with the finished eggs than he did decorating them!  Cheap entertainment at it's finest!

On Wednesday, Noah & I hung with C at school during his school Easter day.  
(Pictured is C with his buddy, Caden, who happens to live down the street from our house).

On Friday, I couldn't wait to dress my boys in coordinating outfits to get some Easter pictures!

This little bunny didn't even notice his big ears! :)

This big bunny didn't want to wear his ears for very long, so we opted to go without. 


Noah gets his ears from his Dad ;)

We went to our holiday photo hotspot (Bass Pro) to see the Easter Bunny.  Little did we know, we'd have to wait in the longest line ever!  An hour and a half wait later, we got this cute shot of the boys & the Bunny!  Only a Mother would truly understand the stress of trying to keep children content/occupied in line, fending off any tears/grumpies in order to capture one memorable Easter Bunny photo!  We did it! Phew!

Mommy writes the Easter Bunny a letter every year to ask him to come a day early (since Connor isn't home on Easter day) & thank goodness-- the Easter Bunny happily obeys our request!

(Slight Mom fail: I didn't manage to get a picture of the boys with their Easter baskets).

We did capture Peewee in action on his egg hunt though!  He always gets a kick out of the Bunny's footprint each year!

The Easter Bunny scored big points with hidden R2-D2 eggs!



After our fun at home, we headed to Nana & Papa's for more Easter fun!  I tried to redeem myself with my Easter Basket photo fail & remembered some pictures of the boys with their goodies from Nana!



We loaded up & headed just down the street to a quiet spot near the Sanibel Causeway.  A beach trip with kids is a ton of work, so it was SO nice to have the cars just feet from where we were stationed on the beach.  Noah enjoyed his first Easter and first beach trip!

Super Nana!

The 'big boys' had big plans for fishing with their new inflatable boat.  The guys headed really really far out, so I made sure to send C with toys, snacks, and drinks before they ventured out. Nana & I enjoyed some laughs thinking of the men so far out being forced to play pretend or just listen to the endless chatter of happy little Peewee in his boat!  

While the guys were out fishing, Nana & I enjoyed time with our tiny beach bum.  He enjoyed his feet in the sand/water, as well as a nice little nap on Mama.

When I pointed out the C that we were right next to a little area that resembled an Ewok Village (from Star Wars), the wheels began to turn in his noggin'.  We all got good laughs as Peewee had all of us playing roles of Star Wars characters frolicking around the Village.  C is never short of an elaborate imagination!

As the clouds started to roll in, we paused our Star Wars pretend play, and started to load up.
Our perfect little slice of the beach was Heavenly...even with all the 5 year old chatter & forced pretend play.  We weren't short of laughs that afternoon!


We ended our day with a quiet dinner with Craig, Nicole, and Grandma C as well.  It was a picture perfect Easter! :)

Sidenote: T minus 7 days until the twins are here!!!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Well hello there blog...

So I'm a little back logged on my photos.

We've been busy--I've been on my game with photo taking--My blog goes on the back burner. 

 I finally found a night where both boys are asleep, I'm still able to stay awake & function, and I can catch up on my blog!  Here we go...

Noah's first play date!  
My sweet friend way back from middle school (Brynn) had her sweet little girl, Cora, just a month before I had Noah.  She introduced me to her friend, Bethany, who also has an adorable little girl that's 4 months old.  I was pretty impressed that we got all babies together around nap schedules & not one of them fussed the entire time!  The cute-squishy-babies all around was more than I could handle!


Mr. Snuggly enjoyed himself (and snoozed beautifully when we got back home!)

While my littlest guy was with me, my biggest boy was with Matt for a special 'boys only' trip to Lowes for a kid workshop!  My precious little handyman was dressed for the part!


After some hammering, stickers, and sweat, Connor came home with a cool recycling truck toy!  (Connor just learned about recycling at school a few weeks before, so it was perfect!)

My big boy also had a MAJOR milestone recently!  Our first attempt at removing Peewee's training wheels didn't excite him too much, so I proposed that 'Mommy help' and we do it at the end of our street, so he could safely crash into the grassy hill if needed.  Worked beautifully (score for Mommy!).  Peewee was up, without me holding on, and balancing like a pro down the street. NO wipe outs on the road.  HUGE HUGE progress for adios training wheels: day 2!

I can't promise the next set of photos are in chronological order, but I can promise the cuteness is overwhelming.

One squeaky clean gummy smile.

Play time outside!  I haul Noah's jumper all the way out front just so I can have free hands to practice soccer with Connor.  Our soccer playtime usually runs short due to Connor's frequent breaks to go over & hug his brother (to the point that Noah fusses from the smothering big brother squeezes).  Poor Peewee loves his brother so much.


I rounded up some of Matt's 49ers gear, plopped Noah down, and attempted some pictures to make my hubby smile.  Mission accomplished.



Noah's been doing better sitting up on his own, so pictures take on a whole new level of fun with him sitting upright.  I busted out some of Connor's hand me downs from his 6 month photos and tried to recreate them with Noah.  Overalls fit well.  The hat shows that Connor's head was apparently larger than Noah's at this age!


Oh, the open mouth smiles!

Oh, the baby bird fuzzy hair!!

Flashback photo to big bro 5 years ago!

We're onto finger foods with my little eater!  He doesn't inhale food quite like his big bro did, but he's learning to love food!

Day (and night) Noah is working to perfect his moving skills!  So far, he's scooting in reverse only.  We're days away from some serious trouble!