Lately

Oh hey!  I have no photos to edit, no cleaning to do, and no laundry to do.  Well, I have some of those things to do, but I'm opting not to today!  It's the first day in 3 days Noah has decided to nap for me!  Thank Heavens he will still nap.  I shall keep him in his crib and napping for as long as possible!

So after running in place for 30 minutes while I watch a ridiculous Housewives show to get Connor's FitBit number up high before he gets home from school, I can now sit and dump some phone photos on my computer to blog!  I can't recall just when these were taken and the last few weeks have basically disintegrated into thin air, but I know they happened!

Here's Noah in his old man jammies playing with the cat.  I swear he should be sitting with a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper in these jammies.  Haha!

Oh, and don't be fooled.  Noah swats, yells, and tortures the cat frequently.  We are currently under a "Talk to Seuss, but don't touch" rule.  The cat does absolutely nothing in reaction to the torture, thank goodness, but I'm starting to feel really bad for the cat when Noah comes after him!  Noah will be mean to the cat, then immediately discipline himself by saying, "Nice to Seuss."  It's pretty comical.

This cold weather and rain over the past few weeks have made playing outside pretty rough.  Time tends to crawl by when Connor's at school & we're stuck in the house.  Praise God for good weather!

I'm pretty sure this was the day I wanted to pull my hair out.  Noah was torturing Seuss and every time I had to converse with someone, he started talking non-stop.  Connor played football with me outside then moped when he didn't win, then griped at just about everything with this glorious attitude.  Oh, and pretty sure the neighbors decided to send over their three kids to play outside with us, and volunteered me to supervise them.  Matt was working late & I was maxed out.  Then when supper was ready, Noah asked to sit by Connor instead of his highchair.  I plopped him up on the barstool and thats when my day started to get a little brighter.  The boys sat close, Connor helped Noah poke his chicken onto his fork, and they carried on conversation like they were both grown men dining at a restaurant.  These Goobs totally redeemed themselves by being all cute together.

 On this day, I'm pretty sure I yelled at Noah.  And then the cat.

I recall folding towels in the laundry room when I heard Noah running down the hallway.  A few minutes later, there was a huge crash in the dining room.  I ran out to see what happened and found my glass frame and ceramic owl candle in a million pieces on the floor.  Noah and Seuss just stood there completely guilty.  I'm assuming Noah chased the cat, the cat leaped to find safer ground, planted himself on my buffet cabinet, and knocked some of my favorite HomeGoods finds onto my tile floor.  I was NOT thrilled with either of them and seriously considered renting them out to someone that needing an adorable toddler and sweet kitten fix!!  It was moments later that I heard a deliver at my front door.  Seuss' cat tower had arrived and it was like God delivered it right to me at that moment!  I got Noah down for his nap, assembled the ridiculously huge cat tower faster than anything I've ever put together, and relaxed on my bed while the cat played in his own area & Noah was asleep!  The day got better from there!

You have no idea how much time in the last 2 years I have spent finding missing alphabet letters and putting 26 stinking letters back onto millions of puzzles in my house.  But then there are moments when you score a $1 alphabet puzzle while you're out running errands and your toddler is content for the rest of the day.  Well worth it!

I feel like every day we take Connor to school and run to Publix or Target for something.  Every errand is planned around how I can strategically entertain this Booger along the way.  He's pretty good about entertaining himself on the playground now, as long as he can see me watching him.  How'd he get this big all of a sudden?!

With our nights getting into the 40s-50s lately, we decided to dust off the firepit and make some smores.  Well, marshmallow sandwiches for my non-chocolate eater.  Matt & I have to hide the Hershey chocolate bars in our pockets, so the Noah Monster doesn't devour them.

Monday morning was a no-school day and it was so refreshing.  Connor climbed into bed with me around 6:30am and fell back asleep.  Noah woke shortly after, so I snuck out to keep Noah quiet, so Connor could continue sleeping.  Noah poked into my room when I wasn't looking, lifted up the comforter, and said, "Dah-Dah is seeping. Shhhh."  I grabbed him and brought him back out in the living room.  A few minutes later, Connor stick his head out of my room, and asked Noah, "Wanna snuggle?!"  Noah exclaimed with his famous, excited, "YESSS!" and ran into my room, closing the door behind him.  I came in about 5 minutes later to see the boys watching ABC videos on Noah's Ipad.  When I asked them what they were doing, Noah exclaimed, "Snugg--eeng!"

I took the last week off from session to get acquainted with my new camera before doing my first wedding next week, so thought the cat would be a good practice subject.

I have to admit, this cat loves me most.  I love him most when he's sleeping. :)

Our mornings...

So once we get Connor to school, our mornings lately look a little like this...

I get laundry going, constantly clean, tidy up toys, and try to keep up with this kid.

His current faves are going "Uh-staiws" (upstairs) to play with his giant floor alphabet letters, tracing his letters on the Ipad, or pestering the poor cat.

(I don't get a tongue-stick-out from him very often.  I was trying to get him smile for a picture, but my normal tricks for other kids don't work with this child.  If I do a silly fake sneeze, he doesn't flinch & utters a "Bless-woo."  If I stick out my tongue and make a funny noise, he just mimics me.  Hence the tongue sticking out...)

When I laugh at his antics, that's how I get the smurfy little booger to smile back.

This boy LOVES his letters, like I love cake :).

Then there's this child.  He's already found his routine here.  If you show any signs of waking in the morning, Seuss steps all over you in bed.  He'll just follow you around and meow until you fill his food bowl.  Then his day consists of naps, then playtime (where you better entertain him with a toy or two, or he may want to entertain himself by jumping onto counters/tables/etc), then repeat.  I bought a dorky cat toy like looks a lot like a mouse on the end of a fishing pole that you carry around, so Seuss can try to catch it.  The kids love to do it!  Well, Connor loves to do it.  Noah, on the other hand, likes to just tease the cat and hide it from him.  Poor cat.

Matt's fishing with my Dad for the weekend, so I'm letting Connor camp out in my room at night.  He's thrilled to sleep with me, so Seuss will lay with him in there.  I have tried to get Seuss to sleep with Connor each night, but Seuss just follows me out when I tuck Connor in.  Oh how I'd happily let the cat sleep with him instead of me!  I bit the bullet and bought a stylish version of a cat tree for my bedroom in hopes Seuss will enjoy his own little space (and stay more out of mine)! :)

So let me tell you about our cat...

I just want to start by saying I have never been a fan of cats.  Every one I have a memory of was unpredictable.  You could pet it one second & it would swat/nip you the next second!  I've always adored dogs & their instant love.  You never have to work to get a dog to love you.

With that said, my husband loves cats.  He apparently had 'the best cat' his entire childhood until he went away to college.  His cat was his best buddy & would do anything with him.  He was super friendly, laid back, and was very 'dog like.'  He loves dogs too (it was a pre-requisite when we started dating), but he liked the flexibility you have with a cat versus a dog.

I kept putting it off when he'd ask for a cat.  At first, I said I'd be open to getting one eventually.  Then I said we could get a cat after we had a baby.  Then Noah came, and the cat topic came up again.  I put it off since I didn't like the idea of cat fur on the floor where our baby was crawling.  Then Noah began walking & I kind of ran out of excuses at this point.  It was always a hot topic when Matt & I would discuss getting a cat.  Then for Christmas, I decided to give Matt the gift of a cat!  He was pretty surprised I was willing.  While the fun idea of surprising him and the kids with a kitten on Christmas day sounded more fun, I didn't want to just rush & get just any cat.  Apparently, you can't just find a breed you like & get one.  They all have personalities and I didn't want the skiddish/snotty type cats & wanted one that I wouldn't have to worry about with the kids.  So the search was underway...

We searched online, visited oodles of shelters, researched breeders, learned about different breeds, etc etc etc etc.  Matt still kind of wanted another Siamese cat, while I just kept hearing the song from "Lady & the Tramp" in my head (...We are Siamese if you pleee-ase...).  My want list was growing as our search continued.  I wanted a good breed with kids, a kitten young enough that it doesn't have any weird quirks, but old enough so it'd be litter box trained.  I wanted short hair.  I wanted a non-ugly cat.  I didn't want one that hid under the bed all day or tried to bolt out the door every time it opened.  For a cat that is supposed to be low maintenance, it was turning into some very high maintenance!

We ended up finding a breeder in Ocala that had 5 male Siamese kittens that were 3 months old.  When we didn't find anything locally, we decided Matt would go to Ocala and try to pick one out.  He drove the 3 1/2 hours, spent a crazy amount of time at the breeder's house trying to see which kitten would fit all of our requirements and finally got home around midnight with our new kitten.

This is Seuss.

(Name was my choice.  I told Matt he got the cat, so I got to do all the naming/accessorizing/etc.  I wanted a fun name for the kids, yet not a dainty cat name like "Jingles" or "Precious."  I thought "Cat in the Hat", then went with Seuss).

Seuss was super skiddish and scared.  He hid in our bathroom, and came out a little if Matt and I sat with him by ourselves.  If he even heard Noah in the other room, he'd bolt.  He hissed a few times and wasn't warming up to us, so we made the executive decision that Seuss needed to go back to his home with his litter mates.  Matt was super thrilled about driving him all the way back!  

The morning Matt was to head back to Ocala, we found a listing online for a female flame point Siamese in St Pete area that sounded great.  The cat was said to be GREAT with kids and super friendly.  The cat came from a breeder & the family loved the cat, but their son developed cat allergies and they now needed to find a new home for this cat.  Since Matt was going to be in Ocala, we arranged for him to stop and see this cat on his drive back.  I started thinking & really wanted Noah to meet the cat to see how it did around him before we drove it all the way back home.  So we timed it right & I met Matt in St Pete with Noah.  I talked to the cat owner & she sounded pretty normal.  We learned otherwise once we got there.

She gave us her apartment address in Treasure Island, but learned her apartment was really a run down motel efficiency.  She was probably my age and was super filthy.  He finger nails and feet were black with dirt.  Her shirt was holey.  The 'apartment' wreaked of smoke.  Without trying to be judgmental, I was just being careful.  While we opted to not go inside their 'home,' we did our best to interact with the kitten while holding it outside.  She was super chill and had a great temperament.  Matt and I knew we were rescuing this kitten from this place and went ahead and got her.  We vowed to bathe the cat immediately since it was probably filthy and smelled like an ash tray.

We got home and let her explore.  She seemed thrilled to be in a clean, bigger home to roam. 

We decided to name her "Dory."

Everything was going great.  She was great with the kids.  Smelled better after a bath.

The next morning, I had a photo session in Naples.  Matt's Mom came over while I was gone and I got a text from Matt saying they had made a discovery!  It turns out...Dory has testicles! Ahhh!

Our "Dory" turned into our "Seuss Deuce."  We got a good laugh out of it!

We knew the previous owners definitely were sketchy, but didn't know just how sketchy.  We didn't think the verify the cat's gender!  I went ahead and called the cat's vet to get her shot records.  The vet's office was very nice, but had zero record of this cat.  Fun discovery #2.

I already had a vet appointment for the cat the next day, so it wasn't a huge deal.  I knew he'd be due for his shots.  At the vet, I was nervous to discover anything else about this cat.  Fun discovery #3 and #4-- he has fleas and tapeworms (cat got it from eating a flea).  I was so grossed out!  The vet was amazing and helped me put flea medicine on the cat right away.  Seuss got the needed meds there & all was going to be okay!  When we got home, I put Noah down for a nap & flipped my house upside down!  I vacuumed, washed bedding, washed clothes, brushed the cat for a good 10 minutes, and sanitized everything.  I luckily had a cleaning company coming the next day, so I knew they'd clean everything again to make sure all was good & flea-free! Eww! Eww! Eww!

 I couldn't help, but just laugh at it all.  This 'simple' cat idea has been interesting!

BUT now, all is good.  Seuss is healthy!  He's so well behaved, minus having to teach him to stay off the kitchen counter, and he's either sleeping or playing.  I've had to do nothing to get him to use litter box and he can be left to roam the house while we're gone.  He's even been very chill when Noah pokes and tries to squish him.  Haha!

So yes, we have a cat.  Who knew there would ever be the day I'd have a cat in my house?!

Where did Christmas go?!

So it may have taken me a few weeks, but here are some Christmas photos!  Once again, Christmas came and went like a blur.  

The fun began a few days before Christmas with Poppy!  Noah learned the concept of opening gifts very quickly & we found him saying, "More presents?!"  While Connor was thrilled with anything sports themed this year, Noah would say, "Oh! Wow!" with any gift he opened.

Then, when the boys woke on Christmas Eve it was a countdown until we got to go to Nana & Papa's house!  They had no idea what was in store for them when we got there!  My mom said Connor's reaction to learning the bounce house in their yard was their's to keep!

Connor loves his Nana like no one else!

The boys got a kick out of the outside lights :).

Adios to Jingles!!  This was, by far, Jingles' most creative year & while the boys will miss him, I'm not sad to see him go! :)

Matt & I didn't get much sleep that night, but Connor came in nice & early & excited!  Of all of his big gifts, his favorite gift was his NFL football cards.

Connor was so excited to have Noah wake up and show him all of his goodies.  Noah's favorite gift was his travel Elmo ABCs, which must come with us every-single-time we leave the house!

Once gifts we opened, we got ourselves dressed and headed on over to Nana & Papa's for more fun!

Connor flew through his gifts and Noah opened his ever-so-turtle-like, but once the presents were done...we squeezed in some more bounce house fun as much as we could.

Noah was more interested in his Elmo ABCs.  Santa did really good with that gift!

Don't mind my mom's face (assuming one of the boys had stinky britches)!  It think this was my only chance to get all the boys in the same picture in the bounce house together.  I thought Connor would be too big for the bounce house, but he may have loved it the most!  It was SO great to have all the boys contained at one time!

Connor was having so much fun & always seems his happiest when his with his Nana, so it was pretty tough/emotional to have to load him up to go with his Dad.  I had a harder time with it than I thought when I saw he didn't want to go.  Since he was going to be gone the longest he's ever been (8 days), I tried to stay super busy to keep any depressed feelings at bay.

I scheduled a few sessions and spent the week running around town with Matt shopping for Matt's Christmas gift (the kitten he's been asking for since we met).  That's a whole 'nother post for a whole 'nother day!

More to come...

Causeway!

What kid wouldn't want their Christmas break to feel like Summer break?!

We embraced the warm temps this Christmas season and headed to the causeway!  It was the easiest beach trip with children I've ever experienced!!

Noah traced letters in the sand and Connor tried to make a sand castle with the shelly, gooky sand we had to work with.  It was so peaceful & we had the whole area to ourselves!

I figured the chilly water would keep the boys out, but they didn't seem to mind it!

We ended our outing with Connor giving Noah lessons in launching shells.

I may have made Connor pose for a second, because I couldn't resist a sweet brother photo.

The morning was pretty perfect!

Life's a blur...

It's 3 days until Christmas and this month really just feels like a blur.  Before I blink and see that 2015 is gone, I thought I should catch up on daily happenings on the blog.  Here goes nothing!

The past month has been pretty easy entertainment.  Noah is thrilled with all Christmas decor and doesn't stop talking, so we grab his flashlight and head out almost every evening to walk around the neighborhood, so we can hear him exclaim, "Lights! Eeendeer! Seeenta! Star! No-man! Or-ma-ments!"

Our neighborhood may be dull starting next week when all the decor begins to come down.

I'm always itching to find fun holiday traditions to carry out with the kids each year.  We ventured into Naples into an older community that is known for almost every house decorating like crazy!  We drove down to Naples not knowing what to really expect, and boy, was I excited to see the kids' reactions! My 7 year old, who used to be thrilled with a trip to the grocery store at age 4, is pretty tough to excite at this age.  He could not stop talking about how incredible it was!!  He just kept going on and on about how he couldn't believe all the lights!  I was mentally telling myself how this drive will become our yearly tradition from here on out.  My favorite house was the homemade Grinch decor with the movie audio playing over speakers as you drove by

This past week we ventured out to mini golf and ice cream with our favorite Nana!  It wasn't the more relaxing mini golf outing as Connor was in fast forward to hurry to get to the next hole for some reason and clutsy Noah was busy climbing each hump and bump and danced all too closely to the various wide open bodies of water along the way!  

Noah was pretty funny trying to mimic the other playing with his caveman-like plastic club and ball.  Not sure just how accurate our golf card was with Noah coming behind each player to pick up their ball and place it into the hole.  Whoops!

A day in the life with this tiny Goon is never dull.  Connor and I must talk every day about how Noah has got to be the craziest baby in the world.  On this day, he chose to trot around in my shoes for a good 10 minutes and chuckle.

About a month ago, I was going through serious Connor withdrawal.  He was gone for 5 days at his Dad's for Thanksgiving break and it felt horrible to be apart from him.  I got to thinking of how I'd love to just have some good one on one time with him.  I planned a weekend trip to Orlando to go to the Magic Kingdom the day Connor got out of school for winter break.

I have to say, tackling Disney with only one child is WAY less exhausting!  Connor and I counted and we went on 8 rides before lunch time!  It was a freeeeeezing 40-something degrees and we merely died, but it was so great!

I had the underlying mom pressure to get all our fast passes set just right, so we could go on as many rides as possible without having to wait in line.  We had a few hiccups in our day when we got to certain rides & they were temporarily shut down (I screamed inside, but kept the upbeat, positive attitude flowing).

We had hopes of lasting until nighttime to see the great fireworks and parades after dark, but by 3pm, we were good and wiped out!  C had fun exploring Tom Sawyer's Island (rather boring, but fun to explore freely with no boundaries). We decided to catch a parade at 3:30 pm then make our way back to the car.  We found a good spot for the parade just in time for it to start and this woman was kind of a 'space hog' in front of us, so our views were pretty limited.  I found myself hoisting my large child on my back so he could see.  I had already sacrificed my back for a few picky back rides earlier in the day to give Connor the rest he needed from all the walking, so my body was screaming at me at this point.  About half way through the parade, I caught a view of an area about 6 feet over from us that we could squeeze into and see better.  I courteously asked the people if they wouldn't mind if Connor and I sat next to them.  The woman turned to me, obviously not knowing much of English, and firmly said, "No, we stand!"  I tried to kindly explain I wasn't asking her to sit, but was just asking if we could sit, and she just seemed confused... so we sat anyway! Ha!!

Since I'm not a big believer in 'selfies,' we took a few of our 'real face feeling' photos. 

Side note: My big boy may be getting too big to want pictures with Disney characters, but he still waved happily to each character that went by during the parade.

When C requested an Icee on our way out of Disney, I tried to make it happen.  We were herded like cattle among a million other people just after the parade and couldn't find a darn Icee place to save our lives.  When I did find one, it was lemonade flavor and I knew that wouldn't cut it!  I asked every other little shop and finally decided on strawberry ice cream instead.  Phew! Connor napped in the car while I fought I-4 traffic on the way back to Katie's house.  I didn't realize how tiring it is to drive when on vacation!  Sheesh!  Pretty sure I was asleep on the couch by 8:30 pm while Katie and C watched "Home Alone." 

When we got home the next day, we missed this little Monster.

Side note: Noah has been on utensil strike for a good year.  He refused to eat almost any food on a utensil, except ice cream.  It was a huge break though when I got him eating applesauce AND with a spoon.

And then this morning...

Noah decided he wanted to trace my ABC letters on the road while we played outside.  He wrote the whole alphabet at his own will.  

So to keep track-- This month Noah learned to spell and read 12 words, can sing his alphabet song with just letter sounds (Ex. Ah, Beh, Cuh, Duh, Eh. Fuh. etc) and is enjoying trying to write his alphabet.  

This child is a pistol, but one smart little nugget.

 That is all for now.  Maybe I'll get some pictures of Christmas (ha!)

Family photos 2015

While I've been busy getting pictures of everyone else's families, I managed to get some of my own family!  My sweet friend, Brittney, took the pictures on my camera & I just edited them.  My boys really couldn't be any cuter!!