Night Time Routine...

I like being on a schudule, and having the kids on one makes my life easier and honestly helps me keep my sanity. I have always set a "bed time" with Christian but for some reason I was a little more slacked with Colin. My thought process was Christian was in school and needed to get plenty of sleep and with Colin if he stayed up an hour later it would be OK, since he would take a good nap the next day. I know, wrong thinking, Since the past year of our lives have not been somewhat normal, I have let A LOT of things go that I normally would not. The main thing was letting Colin not only stay up late with me, but sleep with me. Horrible I know! To be honest 99% of the time it was just easier. Most of the time he would fall sleep in my bed and I would then take him to his room to sleep the rest of the night, however there would be those times I would just leave him because I was too tired to get up and walk to the other side of the house to put him down. I know, not mother of the year.

Since I was tackling the whole paci thing I thought I ought to just bit the bullet, and if I was going to loose about 2 weeks or so of sleep with out the paci I should just add making him sleep in his bed at the same time. Well we got rid of the paci, (post to come!) and sleeping in the bed was a little harder. I started a couple of weeks ago on a Monday and made a nightly routine. Starting at 7:00 the boys would shower, and get into their pjs. Followed by a small snack, brush teeth and then by 8:00-8:15 start heading towards bed. It was a good thing to have them in bed at 8:30. Christian was already used to this so that helped with Colin. We always tucked Christian in first. Getting in bed, covering up, many hugs an kisses and our nightly little chit-chat! Then it was Colin's turn. The first week was horrible! I usually spent at least 30-45 minutes laying on the floor next to him or on the floor next to his bed holding his hand until he would finally fall asleep. I knew no matter how hard it was I was sticking to it! The second week went a little better. I would tuck him in and lay there for about 10 minutes. I would leave and tell him I would check back in a couple of minutes. Which I did. I wanted him to know I wasn't just going to leave. There were only a few nights were he would creep out of his bed and literally sneak up on me.

Every night got a little easier, and I am proud of myself to sticking with it even when it was tough. This is a every night thing, even if it's the weekends. I know how important it is that they get a full night sleep, plus it gives me a couple of hours to catch up on things around the house I need to, email, laundry, kitchen, etc..and on occasion go to bed early my self!

Our nights are going great, and the boys were getting used to our "new" routine. However this past weekend Michael was home, I was so proud of our nights, and I knew he would be super excited that Colin was sleeping in his bed. Friday night around 7 we started our routine and by 8:30 both boys were in their bed. Christian was out with in 10-15 minutes and Colin wasn't having it at all. Daddy was home, and he was trying so had not to fall asleep. We had just a small set back and he didn't get to sleep until about 9:30. Saturday night both boys fell asleep on the floor while watching the Georgia game, and when I looked at the clock it was 8 o'clock. Funny how getting in to a routine their little bodies have adapted to it.

Summer=HOT!!

We live in the south, and with that comes very HOT summers. However we have been hitting mid to upper 90's for about 2-3 weeks now! We are still a week away from the first official day of summer, so it's gonna be a long, and steamy summer! Luckily my parents have a great pool in there neighborhood and we take any advantage to heading over there and letting the kids swim. A couple of Saturdays ago my sister and I planned on meeting up there and spending the day swimming. We pack lunches and snacks and headed out around 10ish.

Christian has become a great swimmer and no longer requires his life jacket. He's like a little fish.

Colin, I have figured out is going to be a handful around water this year. He sees Christian swimming and will try and do the same thing. He has NO fear, and would plant his face under the water in a second! There were a couple of times he would jump in and I wasn't always ready. The water didn't even bother him.

Jadon I bet by the end of summer will be swimming too!

Adelyn LOVES the water!

Chuck E. Cheese

A couple of weeks ago me and two of my best friends decided to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese on night. School had just finished, so we thought it would be a great treat. Me and the boys met Sandra and Adrian and Cindy and Hannah up there one night after work. The kids had a blast!! Thanks to Hannah they scored some major tickets and ended up with almost 1000 by the end of the night. In return they were able to pick out some awesome (sarcastically) prizes! I honesty think every prize up there came from the dollar store. Oh well, it's all about having fun, right?

Christian pick a bug toy and was throwing it up in the air and it got stuck to one of the ceiling tiles. He came up crying, and I thought he had gotten hurt but was just so upset he lost his prize. One of the workers came to his rescue and gave him a new one!

Here is Chuck E. Cheese himself. Colin wasn't too sure about him and made sure he kept some distance between them.

Playing games

Say CHEESE!

Wack-A-Mole

They have a photo booth, and Christian insisted on having our picture taken. Not too bad.

They boys can't wait to go back!

Christian's Mother's Day Letter

I love when the boys make things for me, and each year for Mother’s day is no different. Christian is in school and they always do something cute and creative for me. I love to see how he sees things, and his take on me. This year his teacher typed up a letter and he had to fill in the blanks to best describe me. I find it hilarious how he sees me, and what he remembers. He can remember something I did one or two times but can never remember something I do every day or tell him every day.

I am 10 feet tall, and weighs 90.5 pounds (Ha!) I have brown and black hair and blue eyes. I like to eat spaghetti and Chicken (something) Everyday I go to work and after dinner I sit on the couch. (I find this so funny) My favorite show is E! News. My favorite thing to do is play his DS. He loves me because I am the greatest mom in the world!

Sometimes I wish I was taller, and of course skinner, or even better sit on the couch after dinner everyday. I do watch E! News, and I have on occasion played his DS! Who can blame him, he has some fun games, plus he looses it often!

I love the picture he drew, me under a rainbow!

I love these types of things he makes, and will cherish them forever.

I love him so much!

Jump...Jump...

With spring finally here and all this beautiful weather I like to take as many opportunities as possible to have the boys outside playing. Some of my best memories growing up were being outside playing with the neighborhood kids. Riding bikes, playing flash light tag or whatever being outside was the best! We have a pretty small back yard and we do our best to use our imaginations. We also live about 6-7 minutes from a fantastic park, but with gas prices getting high and the fact that I drive a big car it’s nice to stay home. So a few weeks ago when a friend from work said she was selling a jump house, I jumped on it! It’s a smaller one used for home purposes but it was perfect for the boys. Plus it’s portable enough that I could throw it in the back of the car and take it to my parents for all the kids to enjoy it. I defiantly got our money’s worth out of it, and I’m sure it will get a lot of use this summer!

 

 

 

 

Mini-Easter Photo Shoot!

On Easter Sunday after church before heading over to my parents house we had a mini-photo shoot with the boys. I took a few in the back yard, but most off the road we live. It was supposed to be a new subdivision but has now become just overgrown. They put an old wood fence around the property and I thought it would be a great background. I was right and LOVE how they turned out!

This is Colin's usual face, always looks like he is doing something he knows he shouldn't.

Christian is at a stage where he's not really into getting his picture taken. I pretty much have to bribe him. I can't imagine why....I only take about a 100 pictures a month!

I love capturing these little moments of the two of them! They are growing up so fast and I want to capture every age!

Take me out to the ball game!!

I am very fortunate to work for a company who is very involved in the community, and with that we get a lot of perks. A couple of years ago the Gwinnett Braves moved from Richmond Virginia to Gwinnett County. It has been great having a successful minor league team in our county, and even better having the stadium only about 20 minutes from where we live. However, we have never been to a game. The whole deal with building the stadium was done by the company I work for, and in return they own a box there. We have the opportunity to use any tickets to the games, and also have awesome seating. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take the boys. It ended up turning into a awesome experience and more fun than I thought. I asked for 3 tickets, and somehow by the time we left work on Friday I ended up with 7, and it turned into a get-together rather than a game. Two of my best friends tagged alonged and we took up 18 out of the 20 tickets available.

I brought my brother in law Kenny, and his two sons (my nephews) Jadon and Jordan. Jordan brought along a friend, Keaton. Cindy and Hannah took two seats, and Sandra and her gang, (literally) took the remainder of the tickets. It wasn’t until I got the tickets when I realized who we were playing, the Durham Bulls, ironic I know. I was torn on who to cheer for…Just Kidding! I’m a thru and thru Atlanta fan!

We had amazing seats, even though I don’t think I watched too much of the game from the seats. I sat on the couch and watched it on TV, while chasing the little ones around! We took Christian’s tom-a-hawk and by the middle of the game it went from being a part of the cheering on the team to a full out weapon. I will say I think I have found the only way to watch a game while at the stadium itself. In a box!

Chopper is a beaver, and the braves mascot. He did an awesome job! He interacted with the crowd the whole time!!

During the 4th inning he came up to the suite level and we were able to meet him. The boys all got his autograph and had their picture taking with him. Colin was a little hesitant, but pretty much never took his eyes off of him.

I will say I enjoyed attending this game a whole lot better than an Atlanta Braves game. It went by a lot quicker, and since it’s a smaller facility didn’t feel so overwhelming. During each inning they interacted with the crowd by playing games. While the team was playing they would go into the crowd and find different people to participate in different games on the field. That night happened to be Cowboy night, you could dress up as a cowboy or cowgirl to the game. We didn’t dress up but we did enjoy the cowboy show! A couple of times during the game they let about 3-4 goats out onto the field and they were being chased by dogs. Not just any dogs, dogs with REAL little monkeys on their backs! The monkeys were in little seats strapped to the dogs backs. They had cowboys hats, shirts and little chaps on! It was so cute! They just chased around the goats and seemed to be having fun!

After a few bags of cotton candy, hot dogs, pizza and a lot of running around the boys were out 5 minutes after leaving! They even missed our late night snack from Krispy Kreme! You can’t drive past at 11 o’clock at night and see the “Hot and Fresh” sign on and not stop! That dozen didn’t even stand a chance.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone is having a great day! We spent the weekend getting ready for today. Both boys are having parties today, so we needed to get there class valentines in order. Christian picked Sponge bob fun-dips, and Colin of course had to have Toy Story 3! We sat at the table and filled out all our cards, and Christian decorated his Valentines Box for his cards at school.

This morning we woke up to special surprises at the table! I found these cute mailboxes at Target and wrote there name on them with paint. I think we are going to keep them out all the time, and occasionally put little surprises in them. The boys will love it!





The both got a new movie, candy, a new red shirt and a card! Christian got a new Fireman Sam movie, and Colin a new Train movie.



For breakfast we had heart pancakes, with whipped cream and heart sprinkles!!



Since Daddy couldn't be here, we wanted to make sure we sent some love to him! I made these signs and took the boys pictures then we emailed it too him! He LOVED it!

Snow Day....1...2...3..4..and 5!

Since living in the south we don't see a lot of snow. We maybe get about an inch or two once a winter, and sometimes none at all. I know a lot of people up north laugh at us when snow is anywhere predicted in Georgia. Everyone runs and cleans the grocery store out to prepair to be snowed in for about 2 weeks. Actually it's kind of funny! We had heard about getting a couple of inches of snow last weekend, and sure enough the Saturday before the grocery stores where packed full of people and the shelves were cleaned out. We were at the store kind of late, and Christian started asking why all the food was gone. I preceded to say, "people freak out when they hear snow and come clean out the store!" I hadn't been to the store in two weeks, so snow or no snow we needed food. I honestly didn't think that the snow was going to come, and even if it did we would not get anywhere near what was predicted.

The snow was supposed to start Sunday night and fall through out until Monday morning. By 9 o'clock and not a single snow flake, I put the kids in bed and started gathering things for Monday morning. Christian said "it's going to snow mommy, I'm not going to school tomorrow." I replied by saying "it hasn't started yet, and I don't think so. Go to bed you have school." I finished up what I needed to and headed to bed about 10...and still....NO SNOW. I remember laughing about how the weather guys got it all wrong this time.

Well, about 2ish Monday morning the wind was blowing hard and it woke me up. I laid there a little while thinking I bet it hasn't even snowed. I got up out of bed and looked and the window and about fell down. Not only did it snow....but it was a lot!! I made sure the alarm was still set for 6, so I could check for school closings. Sure enough...school was canceled. When the schools are canceled the day care is also closed, so I knew I would be calling out to stay with the kids. I called out weather line and work and we were closed! Work has never not opened because of weather....this was a first.

The boys were up about 7:30 and Christian ran in waking me up by yelling "I told you so!!" Ha, famous last words! Now that the sun was out I was able to see how much snow we got and we got about 6-7 inches!! CRAZY!!

We had a blast playing in the snow, until it started raining, and freezing rain at that. It was coming down frozen and it kind of hurt. After a while there was a sheet of ice starting to form over all the snow. By dinner time we had 6-7 inches of snow and another 1/2 inch of ice on top of that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I don't remember a time where the whole city shut down. No one went to work, no one was driving. Everyone was stuck in there houses. The week was by far one of the craziest weeks I can ever remember. School was canceled the whole week. My work was closed until Thursday. No USPS, No UPS, No FEDEX...nothing. We couldn't even attempt to get out of our drive way until Wednesday night. Even when we did we spent the next 2 days at my parents because the roads were horrible. It definitely was a week to remember.

3 snowmen were made, we made our very own snow cream. Watch lots of movies, ate tons of food, (good thing we went grocery shopping!) and I was even able to read a book! I learned that we don't own a shovel, but a heavy duty rack, a broom and a lot of upper body can break through the ice. Especially if you are determined to get out of your drive way. Thursday I went into work and my dad stayed with the boys. My parents back yard has a hill in the backyard, and since there was ice on top of the snow they was a lot of sliding. You don't even need a sled, just your body in the position of a penguin. It was so funny to watch the boys having a blast!

 

 

 

 

It was a nice relaxing week, but I am sure glad to get back to normal!!