31/366

Brothers playing and laughing together. It doesn't get much better! Unless you're passed out in Daddy's arms, that might be close!

30/366

January 30th, 2008 at 12:36pm we welcomed into the world our 2nd beautiful baby boy. 8 pounds 10.5 ounces 21 1/2 inches long. My heart was bursting with joy then just as it is now. I'm not sure how the past 4 years flew by so quickly and only hope that the next 4 slow down a little. I love this guy so much. 

Falmouth, Massachusetts 

Air Station Cape Cod

Ocala, Florida

Daddy at Officer Candidate School, Mommy and boys at G & Grumpa's

Milton, Florida

Primary flight training

Corpus Christi, Texas

Advanced flight training

Mobile, Alabama

Aviation Training Center Mobile-Operations Division

Logan has yet to celebrate his birthday in the same place twice. Thankfully next year we should be in this same living room...and the next few all the way until he turns 7! 

We had a wonderful day today. We picked up Lightning McQueen cupcakes on the way to school, he was thrilled that they were all iced in red and blue (yay, Mommy got it right!). After we got home from school we snuggled up and put in Cars 2. Just before it was over Landon got home from school and Daddy walked in from work at the same time. We then opened his gifts. We weren't sure how he would take to the LeapPad, but hoped it would go well since the majority of his gifts from us and others  centered around it. Well it was a hit! He played with it for quite a while tonight and loves it! At his request we had chicken spaghetti for dinner (that's Logan speak for chicken parmesan). It was followed up with an ice cream cake. He's really not a cake fan at all but loves ice cream so this was perfect for him! He's now tucked into bed and sleeping sweetly, my little bruiser is growing up!

27-29/366

Uh, hi. *peeks sheepishly around the corner*

Sorry to have left you for so long. I know...I missed TWO whole days!!! It isn't that I didn't take a photo on those days, because I took several. I just never uploaded them here for some reason.  So I'm here tonight to catch up.

27/366

Keighan is a beast. He's not fat or anything, just tall! 

(yes, he has some cute baby chubby cheeks going on, but no rolls on his thighs or anything close!)

Like literally off the growth chart tall

(he apparently did not get the memo that he's supposed to 

be a peanut or it would make Mommy sad)

We only had about an inch left for him to grow before reaching the max 

height limit on his infant car seat. 

So it was time for an upgrade to a big boy convertible seat!

Friday we hit up a deal at BabiesRUs and got him a new seat,

a Britax Boulevard 70 CS. 

He was pretty happy about it, even before we took it out of the box.

He'll be riding backwards in this bad boy for about another 2 years

(or until he hits 40lbs), then will get to go forward like his big bros. 

28/366

Pratt and I having a stare down.

He knows better than to be on the counter! 

Usually you can just walk towards him or even give him a look and he goes running.

Yesterday I was gone all day and I think he was a little upset with me.

So I stood on the other side of the counter and I guess he felt secure...

until I raised my hand and he saw the mini Nerf gun!

I'm pretty sure he forgave me as he's in my lap this very instant.

29/366

Landon loves his Snap Circuits.

Yes, that's his PJs.

No, I won't tell you what time of day this was taken.

Let's just pretend it was first thing in the morning, ok?

Funny to think that 4 years ago tonight I wasn't concerned about the next day for myself,

but for him. So worried his world would be turned upside down with the addition of a baby. Worried how he'd do at daycare while we were at the hospital, etc. 

He refuses to admit it, but that little baby is now his very best friend.

I knew he loved him from the start though. 

The first night we were home my mom was also in town, Landon was sleeping with her.

He woke up when Logan was crying once and said, "Baby is still here!"

He was excited that little guy was still in his house and hadn't left.

Now he has another little brother to follow him around, 

I'm just thankful he's such an amazing boy and great example (ehh...most of the time) to his brothers!

26/366

As babies none of my children have been the kid you see slumped over asleep in a high chair or exersaucer or anything of that type. Only in bed and sometimes in their car seat. 

Logan could really still stand to benefit from a daily nap. Thing is, he will not sleep without Landon home. That's just not going to happen because of school. So we've bumped bedtime up which has helped. Then there are days where Logan just can't hold on. Today he was watching Team UmiZoomi. I looked over and saw this. Made me want to snuggle up with him and snooze too (Keighan was upstairs sleeping). 

25/366

Hi, it's me again. The clothes junkie. Let me specify...the children's clothes junkie. My closet is pitiful looking.

Yesterday my Gymbuck order from Gymboree came in. I had the boys try on some things to see if the sizes were right or not. Thankfully they're pretty used to the gig and didn't complain. 

Keighan loved his hats

(also got a dinosaur one for that line)

Logan just wanted to take action shots,

also insisted on bringing his chair into K's room.

Landon just wanted to stand still so he could hurry up and be done...

he wanted to do his homework.

No joke.

That was because he wanted to play Skylanders and knows homework comes first!

Oh, he is also down one tooth from this pic! Lost another last night. 

So that's just a quick peek at our fashion show from yesterday! 

24/366

Keighan absolutely LOVES bath time. Just water in general gets him in a great mood. Turn on the tub and immediately he starts smiling and giggling and moving his arms and legs like crazy. Even after he's done and his big brothers are in, he's trying to climb in with them! So much different from when he was first born and every diaper change and bath was a nightmare full of screaming...thank goodness that ended after a few weeks! Can't wait to get my littlest fish in the pool this summer!

Happy boy after his bath!

This guy continues to make my heart melt.

23/366

Shameless mommy brag ahead

Landon got his mid-quarter progress report today. Every single graded assignment he's gotten a 100 on! Even handwriting, which is huge for him! Tomorrow he has his award ceremony from last quarter to attend also (honor roll and he met the reading goals). So proud of our Doodle!!!

(blogging from the iPhone app tonight. Too tired to get the laptop out!)

22/366

I like food...I'll always be a fat girl at heart.
and NO. nothing against the large people. I've lost 158 pounds if that tells you anything
...that wasn't a typo either. one hundred and fifty-eight pounds

I {typically} enjoy cooking. I don't typically enjoy the husband's cooking (sorry dear), so if we're eating at home then about 99.9% of the time it's me doing the cooking {awesomely enough it's 99.9% of the time that he does the dishes though!}.

I've had a few blah days. Can't snap out of the funk kind of days. Scrub the bathroom with bleach as therapy kind of days (hey, it did need it at least). Then with the hubs working duty nights so much it's just caused a kink in our typical everyday kind of flow around here.

On a usual day we go back and forth about dinner.
-What do you want for dinner?
-I don't know I decided last night.
-No you didn't.
-Well you decide.
-I don't want to.
-I don't want to either.
-Ok, at least give me what type of meat to cook.
etc, etc, etc....you get the drift

He took L1 to a birthday party and we were texting. I started in asking what he wanted. Amazingly he had some suggestions. However, we didn't have all of the ingredients for any of the suggestions. Still in my funk I decided fine, we'll just eat left overs. I don't want to cook and sure as heck wasn't going to eat the 7,264 spices he's put in whatever he made.

Then I decided that I needed to cook. We needed a good meal. Something to sit down at the table and eat. Plus I'd been wanting cookies...but we didn't have enough butter. Since I was being lazy in the getting dressed department today, I asked the hubs to run to the store for a few things we'd need for dinner.

Today's post is in honor of my sis*, she has a food blog--The Fab Foodist--where instead of posting a photo a day of whatever she's doing a photo a day of food she's made.

Dinner is served.

Twice baked cheesy potatoes

NY Strip steak

Green beans 

I've always been a steak and potatoes type of gal.

It was delicious if I do say so myself.

I think testimony to that is also the fact the boys ate everything on their plate,

even the green beans,

without uttering a grumble or word of complaint.

{Ok, fine. Maybe Logan protested slightly about eating all 

8 green beans on his plate. But he did it eventually)

Remember those cookies I wanted?

Well, I didn't exactly make them.

Yesterday I had picked up a bag of Valentine's Day M&Ms.

Today I stumbled upon a blondie recipe on Pinterest using them.

So this is what I made instead.

The boys enjoyed a bar and a glass of milk before bed.

~Warm fuzzy feeling of the day brought to you by Logan, 

                       "Mommy, I'm so glad we have Keighan. He's my best friend!"

Now if only I could get L1 and L2 to realize that about each other too! When I was grilling the steaks they were running around outside, insisting they saw some ghosts, and I had to laugh and say something to them about being best friends and not even realizing it. Some day I'm sure they will! 

*If you're scratching your head, no I don't have a sister in the sense of sharing a mother and/or father. Nor of the sorority variety. She's been one of my best friends since 11th grade when I started working at the airport and she worked there as well. For close to 10 years now she's been living in Alaska and it's been since New Years Eve 2004 that we've even seen each other. But we've always referred to each other as sis/thissy/etc. The type of friendship where you don't have to see each other or even talk constantly to pick up right where you left off. 

21/366

Today's weather started out pretty crummy then thankfully turned nice. It's warmed up quite a bit and the big boys were getting restless. K went down for a nap and I was chatting with a friend. I sent the boys out in the backyard to play and opened up the blinds so I could keep an eye on them. Then I'd go out periodically just to make sure everything was ok. They were playing on the swing set, climbing the ladder on the tree, making a pile of sticks, etc. Just happy to be back outside!

My boys love playing outside and I love the energy they burn doing it!

20/366

I'm guessing if you read this you are most likely on my Facebook. Which then means you've seen today's picture if you've been around FB at all today.

We have been looking into getting a puppy. Specifically, a Goldendoodle (golden retriever with a poodle). Today the hubs and I along with K went over to the breeder to check them out. Long story short, we've ultimately decided to wait a while before adding a fur ball to our family. Maybe in a few months, maybe in a year...we'll just have to see.

K's spot blistered up while we were there. One of the pups was going after that hand a lot so I'm not sure if it got scratched or if it was a reaction. There's no hurry in getting one so we're going to give it some more time to see what else evolves with the mastocytosis. By then L1 and L2 will be able to help out more too.

One of these days I'll pick the big camera back up. But for today here is another out of focus iPhone pic.

Keighan meeting 2 of the 3 pups we got to play with. 

If we were going to get one anytime soon it most likely 

would have been the one on the left,

she was great!

19/366

Being this isn't my first picture about clothes, you should know it's kinda my thing. A hobby in a way.

I've been working on listing the outgrown spring and summer clothes on various clothing message boards I'm on. Tomorrow another shipment of stuff I've sold is leaving. Adios!

Here are 21 packages that are scheduled for pickup tomorrow. Most are staying within the US but there are a few to Canada and even Australia.

18/366

Keighan LOVE the cats.

He's fussy? Find a cat and get him close, he stops. Now that he's gotten the crawling down pat there is no stoping him pursuing them.

When we first brought him home they weren't so sure about that tiny baby. One of them even hissed at him a few times. As he gets bigger they seem to be more at ease with him.

Pratt always loves it when I'm sitting on the couch (or as we learned this past weekend he loves it when my Dad does too). He will come up and lay halfway down on me. Doesn't matter if I have the laptop out and am typing, he plops down over my right arm.

Tonight I had put the big boys to bed (another duty night for Dan). Keighan and I sat on the couch. He drank a bottle while we watched some American Idol. Then Pratt jumped up on the couch. I thought he'd see K and would shy away. Instead he came and plopped down as usual even with K hanging out in my arms too. So instead of Keighan falling asleep like he was about to, he got all excited and just started grabbing onto Pratt.

So today you get a rare, and awful, pic that contains myself. It isn't yet 10pm here and as soon as this is done and kitchen semi cleaned up I'm heading to bed. The bags under my eyes will appreciate that.


For the record, this is Pratt right now as I type this (thanks Photo Booth). I guess my fluff is pretty comfy to him!.

17/366

Today's photo was not taken today.

It was taken on July 17th, 2011. 6 months ago to the day. The day Keighan turned 2 months old....today he turned 8 months old.

Before today's events, I already had today's picture planned in my head. Him in the plain white onesie with his 8 months sticker on it. Just like I {try} to take every month (problem is I missed out on 6 months because we were out of town, then with Christmas chaos I forgot about month 7 too...)

Amazing how fast can change though. How things don't go as planned.

Shortly after noon, I got a call from my mom. I saw "Mom" pop up on my caller ID. I figured she was calling me about an email I had sent her earlier. I answered. She said, "hey." As soon as she said that...the tone of her voice sent me back to 5th grade. When we were vacationing in Michigan and my Aunt Kay called with the news that my Aunt Janet had passed, I answered that call and as soon as she asked to talk to my mom I knew. My mom's voice sounded just like Kay's did 17 years ago. She told me that if Aunt Jennifer hadn't passed yet she would be very soon and they were on the way to Tampa.  6 minutes after I hung up with my mom is the time they recorded her passing.

Like I said before, amazing how fast things can change. From this morning Aunt Jen hearing news her PET scan showed no signs of cancer anywhere...to her passing suddenly.

Aunt Jen was an absolutely amazing woman. Through the years she has touched SO many people. I always knew that about her, but the outpouring of love and response to her Caring Bridge page proved it even more. I'm lucky to be one of those she touched and to be able to say we share the same blood. We got to visit when we were in Florida 2 months ago, I am so thankful for those moments together.

This pic is of Keighan and Aunt Jen. Shortly after this visit in July was when she was diagnosed. I will never forget her radiant smile and beaming personality (or her ability to give my dad a hard time). She will be missed greatly.

Love you Aunt Jen. 

16/366

I think being a mom of all the same gender of children is incredibly fascinating. Each one of them is so different...and yet so similar. I can't say #1 is like that because they are a boy/girl and #2 is like this because they are the opposite. It's neat to see how they each are turning into their own person, their own unique personality, and how each one has similar yet different physical characteristics.

Keighan will be 8 months tomorrow (*sigh*). He has Logan's coloring and Landon's personality and his height came from a giant apparently. He's more on the quiet side than either of them were, not that he can get a word in with them around anyways! He is always intently watching them as if he's trying to figure them out and figure out how he can do it too.

He started crawling recently and everyday is making improvements on that skill by leaps and bounds. He also began pulling up on things all by himself this week.

Tonight I had changed his diaper and before I could get the new one fastened he had flipped over and was crawling away. I had to pull him back about 3 times to get the new diaper on then let him go to see what he was so anxious to get. A few feet away was a golf ball. Honestly I have no clue where it came from. He grabbed it, looked at it for a moment, then with it in his hand continued on his way until he reached the tabletop Foosball table (which stays on the floor instead of a table). He always loves to play with the Foosball table, usually sliding the score counter back and forth. This time he played with that for a minute then dropped the golf ball in. He'd pick it back up then drop it back in and bat it around and sometimes twirl the men around too. It's as if he's already figuring out how to do all these things. I love this age where you can practically see their minds working as each gear turns and something clicks into place. Before long his moment of solitary fun was interrupted as both of his big brothers came bounding over and began playing while he played with the scoring part again.

15/366

Yesterday (the 15th...so the post for today that I'm just writing now), was a very long and difficult day. We decided to go out for dinner to a Mexican place. Cheap and fast (and always good!). We left the house and were home within an hour so the kids were in bed on time even though we didn't leave until after 6. 

14/366

Landon's birthday is December 29th. Logan's birthday is January 30th. Just 1 month and 1 day apart immediately following Christmas, oy! Last year and this year instead of throwing 2 different birthday parties we decided to combine them do on together. Today was that day for it to happen!

I put some pics up on Facebook. Maybe eventually I'll blog about it on the normal family blog. For now I'm beat. Not even 9pm and I'm contemplating going to hug my pillow and call it a night!

This pic was taken while everyone was singing Happy Birthday to the boys! 23 kids + parents at the party today

13/366

Friday the 13th.

Bad things are supposed to happen.

The result of an unopened bottle of wine being moved on top of the fridge and then a door being open and said bottle of wine comes crashing down.

I could care less about the loss of wine. I don't drink it to begin with. My house is going to reek forever now though. Hope it didn't stain the wall where it splashed.

12/366

Usually when a commercial for a toy comes on, I cringe. Knowing that most likely next I'll be hearing how much they want it. Even if it's a dancing Barbie doll, it doesn't matter....they want it. Have to have it. But Mommy!!! Those types of conversations then take place.

Today Logan and I were watching a show and the Alphie commercial came on. *phew* A toy they already have so I didn't have to deal with it. The commercial was so great he decided that he needed to go get Alphie and play with him!

And yes, those are footed pajamas on my almost 4 year old! He got jealous of Keighan having them so I got him some too (and some are the same print as K's so he wants to match). Landon even decided he wanted some but the largest size Carter's makes is a 7 and his feet are too big for them! 

11/366

I get together with a group of women once a month (well, when schedules permit) to play Bunco. It's great to get out of the house, have some adult conversation, and just enjoy the evening. Thankfully the hubs is awesome about taking on the kids while I go. Tonight we had quite the turn out which meant loads of food...dips, King Cake, cheesecake, all sorts of goodies! Our hostess also always does a drink of the month. This gave me the opportunity to snap a quick pic with my cell to use today, because otherwise there probably wouldn't be a pic for today!

Good news is I got the last Bunco of the night so didn't lose any money and even walked out a little ahead!

10/366

Warning: multiple pictures today.

Maybe I should just make this a blog a day instead of a photo a day type of thing. I feel like some days I write too much. Or I have too many photos. Oh well, so be it! Too bad he also took a few spills and managed to get rug burn on one side of his face from it!

Keighan is really starting to get around in the crawling department. I think this weekend, if not sooner, we'll need to put up the baby gates! At least at the top of the stairs. He's a determined little (ok, giant) fellow and is trying to catch up to his brothers. I have a feeling he's going to be an early walker...mainly because he does more of a bear crawl!

Landon's reading skills have really taken off this last month or so. I just love to hear him read. Many nights he wants to read a book instead of us reading it to him. Today he got a new library book from school. Keighan was in the Jumperoo when Landon got home. I was busy in the kitchen and next thing I knew Landon was reading his library book to Keighan! Landon would put his arm around Keighan then when he needed to turn the page would take it down to quickly turn it and would tell K what he was doing, it was just so sweet!

I can't close this out without adding some of Logan too. He was my buddy today while Landon was at school and Keighan took a nice nap. When K was crawling around Logan was right there too. He kept wanting in the pics. Then he wanted me to take a pic of his favorite Skylander, Trigger Happy Skylanders is a video game we got for Christmas...it has characters you put on the portal and play as. The 2nd pic you'll see if just typical Logan, gosh I love that kid!

9/366

Last month shortly before Christmas we got a post card saying that Dan's Aunt Amy and her husband were sending us a gift of HoneyBell oranges. I had kept the card but in the hustle and bustle of the holidays it slipped my mind. So yesterday when they were delivered it was unexpected!

The boys got to try one out after dinner. They are so incredibly juicy! It's no wonder that the box included 2 adult sized bibs! Later I ate one and just ate it over the sink because of the juice dripping down.

Thanks so much Amy and Scott, these are great and we're enjoying them!

8/366

One of Dan's Christmas gifts was a tabletop Foosball set. He opened it up and put it together today. The boys had a blast playing it. Of course Keighan couldn't let the big boys have all the fun and he wanted in on the action too!

7/366

Today is another day with the hubs on duty so I'm holding down the fort. I let the bigs know mid-morning that they WOULD be taking a rest today and I didn't want to hear any protesting, it was going to happen. Some days Mommy needs a little break too, I'm not afraid to admit it!

I have this thing about pictures of my boys asleep. I love them. I love to see them asleep. There is just something so tender and innocent about it. 

I let the bigs play for a little while after they had lunch, I figured if I postponed rest time then maybe there would be less protest. I took them upstairs and got them tucked into bed.

By that time, K was getting really hyper. In his world that means he's tired. I held him, he held his hand to my face and made it go in circles. He has a new found obsession for things that go in circles and his mobile. I wasn't sure if he was really ready to go down for a nap, after all he hadn't been up that long and had taken a super nap in the morning, but figured we'd give it a shot. Worse that could happen is he'd fuss and not go to sleep.

I took K upstairs, got him into his crib with his paci and blanket, turned on the mobile and sound machine and turned to walk out. He lightly protested but by the time I was at the top of the stairs he was quiet...which is usually a sign of success in the making.

I quietly snuck in to check on L1 and L2 in their room. L1 was on the edge about to sleep into sleep, L2 was on the floor playing with some of his Legos. Got L2 back in bed and left again (him actually sleeping required me going in there again and threatening to take Kisser away).

I came back down and turned on the video monitor. I saw the little booger was sitting up and playing! I thought for sure I had 5 minutes max before he started fussing and I'd be trekking up the stairs to get him. I kept watching. He kept playing. The mobile turned off, he kept sitting there. After a few more minutes he scooted over to the mobile and turned it on, looked around and grabbed his blanket, then just laid down and curled up and went to sleep! Seriously...7 months old and doing this?!

Ahh...peace and quiet for mommy. I was able to take a shower without interruptions! It was very short lived though, but I'll take what I can today!

Landon snuggled up with his corner and bear

(Corner=his blanket)

Logan snuggled in {awkwardly} with his B and Kisser

(B=his blanket, Kisser=the red and white giraffe)

Keighan snuggled up with his paci and blanket and seahorse too.

Yeah, all you perfect moms, check out how awful I am.

He has a blanket and bumpers and a toy/stuffed animal thing in his crib *GASP*

Lately Keighan has been ridiculously happy when he wakes up.

I usually see him playing and talking on the monitor so head up to get him before the crying starts.

As soon as he hears the door open he immediately looks that way and just starts grinning.

He's such a happy little guy!

6/366

There are some days I think my boys would live outside if we let them. However, they do love their electronics too...in moderation of course!

After Logan got home from school today Keighan was acting pretty crabby, so while I was upstairs getting him ready for a nap Logan asked if he could play on my big phone (aka iPad). So I let him. I came down to find him sprawled out on the floor playing the Team UmiZoomi game.

Tonight while cooking dinner I had a lull so came into the living room. This is what I found...Dan helping Landon do something in a DS game, Keighan smiling as soon as the camera came out (atta boy!), Logan alternating between watching the DS and something that was on TV. It's out of focus though, ugh! Still cute and a reflection of how we are though! (That is a uniform shirt Landon is wearing, on Fridays they are allowed to wear a "spirit" shirt you can buy through PTA instead of the typical white or red polo shirt)

Dan had duty yesterday (leaves around 3 and gets back the next day a little after 4). The boys are always so excited to see him again. Keighan has started throwing a fit just when he tries to change out of his uniform. Unfortunately he's only home tonight and it's back to duty tomorrow (weekend duty which is 7am-7am). Now I should go figure out what we are going to do tomorrow to keep the boys from destroying each other and the house!

5/366

If you've had the pleasure of peeking into my children's closets....then you know I'm a little obsessive over their clothing. They hang in rainbow order and/or by brand line. I hang them to dry and iron pretty much everything except socks, underwear, and PJs. Although I have been known to hang some socks and PJs too. I enjoy shopping for their clothes, putting together outfits, having them match or coordinate, etc. It's something I've done since...well, I guess since we were expecting Landon! People hear I buy a lot of Janie & Jack or Gymboree and they gasp and just talk about how expensive it is. It takes all I have not to roll my eyes and want to shake them. 1-You never buy full price 2-There is always a sale 3-There is almost always a coupon 4-You take proper care of them and resell them (often for what you pay or even more!)

Yesterday Gymboree started their biannual Red Balloon Sale. Certain lines are all marked $6.99 and under. The one that is going on now is last year's spring/summer items...perfect for this upcoming spring and summer! I wasn't able to make it in yesterday, but since the hubs had duty today I went kid free and sat on the floor sorting through the bins and boxes and racks of goodies. There is so much left behind, I'm going to try to go back and make a huge haul for my other clothing obsessed friends who are in search of certain items.

Today's picture is my haul from today

22 items.

Original retail value 

$445.55 

Today I paid...

$103 

(and change + tax)

with that I earned 2 Gymbucks ($50 off a $100 purchase)

I did not use a coupon this time, which would have brought the purchase total to $82, however if I would have used a coupon I would have only gotten 1 GB ($25/50). So as long as I end up using the GBs then it's really the same in the end anyways. I ended up getting about 77% off. Several of the things I got (like the milkman line) were not at RBS prices either, but my gentle giant has grown a bit too fast and needed a few more long sleeve items in 12-18 to get us through the rest of the winter! I dare you to go to whatever store you shop at and claim is so much cheaper and find as cute and good as quality of things for an average of $4.68/piece that you can also resell!

P.S. Tomorrow I promise to use my real camera and not my phone for pics...it's just so easy and convenient to reach for my phone! 

Oh, and yes...that is 3 pairs of the same pair of pants. I wasn't sure which size would fit K best so just got a span to try out! I'll take the other 2 back or offer them for sale on the boards.