Our Valentine's Day

Matt & I joke about how Valentine's Days just aren't as they were pre-children.

Our day was spent at Saturday basketball (Matt stayed home with Noah since game overlapped Noah's nap time).  I took Connor & his buddy, Michael, to see the new SpongeBob movie in the late afternoon, while Matt took Noah to the pet store & the park. We then finished off our night with a quick family dinner at a pizza restaurant, ran through Publix for a few grocery items, then a late night of shooting hoops with the neighbors.  It wasn't really candy hearts and mushy love stuff, but it was a fun, busy day with our boys.

The highlight of the day: My adorable 6 year old made his first basket in his game!  I cheered, fought back happy tears, and was SO happy to seem him SO happy!  We talked about how great it was the whole day.  C would just randomly say, "Can you believe I made that basket?!" or "I made the basket & it was a swish!"  We will forever remember Connor's first basket was on Valentine's Day!

It was team picture day, but we had a few kids come in after the team got their picture.  We had one player in tears for missing it, so I swooped in to get another team shot once they were all there.

The kids all griped for having to get team pictures, so I had them show me how they really felt with their expressions.  Connor's animated 6 year old team.

C & his best bud.

 

We were all riding high on the joy from Connor's basket!  Some of Connor's biggest fans (besides me), were with me!  Nana & Papa always seem to be there for C's big days!  We love them so!

Silly smiles & giggles with the cool b-baller

I squeezed in a picture with my boys on Valentine's Day before we headed out for our movie.  About 2 seconds after this was taken, Noah wanted nothing to do with being held & drove for the grass.  Connor wasn't looking in the picture, but hey, it's the best we got.

After a loooooong week of being with the kids (and watching random neighbor children) while Matt was in California for work, it was nice to have a happy day with all my boys!

Neighborhood stroll

I put my name out in the neighborhood to see if anyone would like me to take their family pictures at an affordable cost.  I received a great response! :) I have two photo sessions set & a handful more pending so far.  Yippee!

We went on a walk through the neighborhood to scope out good areas for pictures, while we waited for Connor to get home.

Noah all of a sudden looked so big on our walk.

Noah is known for only walking a very short distance before insisting he be held for the rest of the walk.  Funny how different Connor was at this age.  Connor was the kid that kept going & going & going, never showing signs of tiring!

My boys are the cutest :).  

Off to get Connor from school soon! Happy Monday!

Brothers :)

My boys are growing so quickly before my eyes & they're becoming best little buddies.

C was gone this weekend & when he got home Sunday, they were thrilled to be together again.

While Connor always prefers showers alone instead of a bath and while Noah doesn't just give out slimey kisses for free, you could tell this night was different.

They missed eachother so.

To have my sweet boy home.  To see the two of them so happy together.  My heart was so full.

1st B-ball game!

 It's been 3 years since Connor has played basketball.  The last time he played, he was this teeny...

And now, he's so big!

I snapped a quick shot of my big boy before his game started.  His awkward cheese smile & all.

All his dribbling practice & shooting on his new hoop from Santa has really paid off.  He did great!

The boys took turns sitting on the bench to make sure each kid on the team got equal play time.  I love that my sweet boy still isn't too big to wave proudly to me on the sidelines.  He still seeks me out in the crowd & I love it every time.

He looks so giant here.  Jeesh....

A few of Connor's on lookers (Nana & Papa were among his biggest fans as well).

Connor has made huge progress from his soccer season anxieties.  He's able to communicate his feelings better now, telling me he was nervous about his first game since he didn't know what to expect (instead of getting quiet/having a tearful meltdown from the anxiety).  I pray he continues to communicate how he feels as he gets older.  So proud of my big boy!  Here's to another great game #2 this week!

BABIES!

After being closed in the house while Noah wasn't feeling well last week, he is back in good health, the germs are gone & we needed to get out!!

We haven't visited with the cutest twins in the world in a while, so decided to make a morning visit to see them!  Well, we have 3 mobile babies now.  Brooks & Bennett are the squishiest & I can't get enough!  Pretty sure they are wearing the same size as Noah now!  7 months age difference doesn't really show much anymore.  Once these guys are up walking, these 3 boys are going to be into everything together!!

Bennett has one sweet flirty grin.  His eyes just shine.

Brooks gives his fat-man grin so easily.  I could just squeeze their rolly-pollies.

From being around for a short while, I realize Noah & Bennett are the tiny destroyers.  Brooks was focused on standing alone on his tree trunk legs.  How did they all get so big already?!

The little 'doge.'

When it was time for Brooks & Bennett to snooze, Noah caught a ride in the swing before we hit the road for his nap.

So glad we visited the babes today.  Our family has some ridiculously handsome boys!

Ohhhh sickness...

Noah's been sick since LAST Monday evening.  

Two red eyes, runny nose, and HORRIBLE crabbiness.

Connor was only sick once as a baby at 13 months, only because he was put on antibiotics for a possible ear infection prior to his cyst removal surgery.  He did not have an ear infection & we ended up with Connor having a terrible case of diarrhea from the antibiotics.  That was as close as Connor came to really being 'sick.'

Noah, on the other hand, has been diagnosed with Second Child Syndrome.  He gets sick from any germs that enter our house courtesy of big brother going to school now.  He has been sick more times than I can count.  Sick. babies. stink.

So on day 7, he is slowly acting more like himself.  Aside from the boogers and drool, he's all better.

Wooooooo freakin Hooooo!

Now, let's pray no one else in our house gets it.

Happy Monday!

No school!

With another day off of school today, Connor and I agreed it be a great day to venture to our favorite spot on Sanibel.  It was a chilly 60 degrees this morning, so we knew going in the water was not in the cards, but tree climbing and hide & seeking was WAY more fun on the beach.  I was thankful for a morning out of the house & was even more grateful that we managed to leave the sand at the beach when we got in the car to come home.  A trip to the beach alone with two kids isn't easy, but we simplified things (no beach toys/water play/rolling around in the sand) which worked out great!

C & I worked together to keep Noah awake on the drive back, so we could fully enjoy his nap while at home.  Score!

My cute little climber

We did a lot of hide & seek with Connor's pretend Avenger friends (I believe Spidey & Iron Man met us at the beach).  The tourists walking the beach & taking photos were getting a kick out of us looking for our hiding super hero friends.

 The best spot on Sanibel.

When we ran out of hide & seek spots, we opted to explore some trails & take a snack break.

Noah hung near me for most of the beach trip, as the chilly breeze was not his favorite.  Once we busted out the Cheetos and a walkway out of the wind, he was happy to frolic around on his own.

We missed Matt there this morning, but still had fun just the three of us.  Now, here's to hoping Noah takes a 4 hour nap! :)

Keeping up with the Monster

My daily mission while C's at school...

1. Strategically plan around nap time

2. Find cheap entertainment

3. Teach him something

4. Bonus: accomplish something on my to-do list

When C's home, the boys are usually thrilled to see each other.  Noah continues to wave at Connor for the first 5 minutes of seeing him home from school.

The Noah Monster has become the Snack Monster.  He whines at the pantry door frequently, grabs a bag of goldfish, and brings it to me to open.  What's funny is he doesn't each much at each sitting, but has a liking to picking out what he wants in the pantry.

I apparently wasn't moving fast enough for him to get a snack ready, so he decided to hoist himself up to get closer to his food.

After playing 1,000,000 goldfish cracker pickup before school this week, I've learned to put chip clips on each bag in Noah's reach.  

We had one morning where I decided to load Noah on the back of my bike, ride up to the playground, poop him out, then head home for nap.  Well, my plan didn't play out as I had hoped.  It was more like... Noah fought and screamed as I loaded him on bike. I distracted him & got him happily up to the playground.  We were up at playground too early & the slides were still covered in dew/rain, so Noah was a soggy mess afterwards.  Noah fought & screamed as I loaded him on bike again to head home, but I pushed through it & we made it back without too much whining.  Noah was still roaring to go, so I embraced the soggy, wet clothes & we pulled out the water table.  Noah was thrilled to splash, so the morning ended in success!

His stinker face.

This week, Noah went from taking 2 naps to taking 1 nap.  Ughhh.  It has made our mornings longer, nap has interfered with when I have to pick Connor up from school, and I have very little 'free' time to get my to-do's done.  Noah's new sleep schedule though has landed a pretty set bedtime from 7:30pm- 7:30am, which is great!!  We're embracing it all & trying to find our new norm.

To wear the Monster out this AM, we dropped C off at school, and headed to a nearby park.  This kid was in heaven.

Noah wasn't a fan of getting in the swing this time (anything that looks to be confining him sets him in tantrum mode recently *swing, car seat, bike trailer, etc).  I let him just push the swing at first.  When he thought that was awesome, I tried to load him in the swing again.  Worked like a charm.  He quickly remembered how much he loved the swing.  Oh, the giggles that came from his little face!  I had a great view of all of his new teeth.

Connor starts basketball next week.  Stay tuned for pictures of my big boy in action!

Hello 2015!

Today was our last day of Connor's winter break.  Before we get back to routine tomorrow (which strangely I'm looking forward to), I wanted to have one last 'hoorah' today!  We tossed around a few ideas, but ended up with a trip to an indoor bounce house place to start our day.  It's not incredibly easy coming up with inexpensive ideas of places that can entertain a 6 year old as well as a 1 year old (and let's be honest...entertain a 36 year old too).  I think we did good with the bounce house idea!

Noah was coasting through his morning nap when we needed to go, so he was having fun...as long as he was held.  

Sidenote:  There should be friendly reminders to women who have birthed children to completely empty their bladders before bouncing.  Just saying.

Since I crawled into the majority of the bounce houses with Noah, I elected Matt to do the giant slide with Noah.  It was comical watching Matt try to squeeze up the midget staircase with Noah in tow.

We invited Connor's buddy, Michael, along, so C would have someone to hang with while we kept the Noah Monster content.  There were lots of giggles and red cheeks from these boys after two hours of bouncing.

After about 45 minutes of being there, Noah got a little 'tired drunk' as I like to call it.  It's kind of like Noah gets a second wind, complete with lots of spinning in circles, and laughing at himself after he's dizzy.  This boy is a hoot!

To end the day, I piled my bike high with tennis rackets, balls, and my fancy camera, and we all road up to our community tennis courts.  We're all terrible at tennis, but have a great time trying to hit the ball.  And you can't beat a fenced in area to let your 1 year old aimlessly roam.

Totally a coincidence, but don't they all look so cute & sporty?!

After we grew tired of chasing tennis balls and snatching beetles from Noah's mouth, we rolled on over to the playground.

C wanted to show me his 'tricks.'

(Tricks include climbing ridiculously high & making it across the monkey bars.)

I will never grow tired of showing my excitement as he wants to wow me with his neat tricks.  It helps to remind me that he's still little, despite the fact he looks so big.

Any slide thrills this kid.  He isn't into climbing as much as Connor was as a little guy, but slides...slides he likes.

You have no idea the wrangling to takes to get all THREE boys to cooperate for the camera.

I try.

Noah's first water fountain experience.  Pretty positive water ended up everywhere, except his mouth.

Back to school tomorrow!

2nd semester of Kindergarten, here we go!

So long 2014!

As I began a new picture folder on my computer for 2015, I ran across a few photos that didn't make it to the blog from the past week or so.  Before I start a new "Happy New Year!" post, here's the rest of 2014 :).

My big big boy walked Bobo all the way around Nana & Papa's neighborhood while we were over for the Whitaker family Christmas gathering this year.  

With how much my boys adore dogs, I am surprised I haven't talked myself into getting a dog of our own.  I am ever so grateful that we have family with dogs, so they can grow up around them.  Bobo will forever be Connor's favorite though.

As this little guy is inching farther from "he just turned one" and closer to "he's almost one and a half," he is a good mix of determined little booger and hilarious goober.

Since I'm always behind my new fancy camera, I have to remind myself to have others take pictures of me & the boys sometimes.  As I know with my Connor, you pretty much blink and your baby is a grown child!

With some strategic planning around Noah's 2-3 hour morning nap schedule, we packed up the fam & headed to the zoo for the afternoon.  It was a warm, warm day, we had lots of walking, supplying snacks, and trading off holding Noah (who decided he didn't want to be in his stroller after being there for about 5 minutes), but we all had a good time!

The giraffe feeding was the highlight to the day!  C was so big and did it all by himself.  Noah learned to say "giraffe" over and over and over every time he saw one.  It was great! :)

Sidenote: Noah can say quite a bit these days (which is a far stretch from my sweet C who didn't declare any major words until he was 3).  With a mix of hearing Connor talk non stop and the great blend of chatty Sears genes that Matt carries, it's no surprise Noah is talking so quickly!  Words he's said to date: Daddy, Mama (very few times when he's extra whiney and needs me), giraffe, gorilla, all done, ball, balloon, bubbles, oh wow, dog, cat, snack

 

Connor was more into seeing each animal then moving on quickly.  Noah kind of just went where ever we went.  He did give us a run for our money on a slow boat ride to go around a few islands to see the monkeys.  On the strict, "No food allowed" ride, we snuck snacks to Noah to try to keep the melt down at bay as we putted slower than a turtle around the water.  When we fed him the last snack out of my diaper bag, I said a silent prayer hoping we'd make it off the boat before Noah realized it!  Prayer answered!  Phew!

We ended the zoo trip at their playground area.  Both boys thoroughly enjoyed it!

And that is all!
Peace out 2014!