Life Lately

Aiden & Anders give us a run for our money most of the time but then these quiet evening snuggles make us (mostly) forget the trials of the day. 

They both wanted momma snuggles this morning. 

Then this guy conked out for a rare morning nap. 

When we go to Target, the boys are alway on the lookout for anything Mickey, Lightning, or Dusty. 

Trying on summer clothes in anticipation of our trip next month! 

We had a fun weekend at Katz and Ty's! 

We went for a drive the other day and found this cute little bridge..to nowhere. It's over a dam & some locks so mostly its for service. I think it's a little more park-like in the summertime. 

And last one. Last week we had a warm day. Like 50 degrees or warmer, so we took advantage and went for a walk. We loved it! 

Momfessional Moments

I'm doing a link-up with Andrea today. We are sharing our "Momfessionals" aka Mom Confessionals - things we do as moms to get through the day.

Aiden can be challenging to get to sleep. He wants Dave or me to lay down with him until he falls asleep. Well, after hanging out with him for the last twelve+ hours, I really want some non-kid time. Dave usually lays down with him & gets him to sleep. If Aiden asks for mom, I'll go in there for five or ten minutes, then say I have to go and check on Anders. I don't go back in there. Every once in awhile it'll work and he'll actually go to sleep.

Aiden still isn't potty-trained. He goes great on his potty but whenever we try to go diaper-free, he has accidents. He just doesn't tell me when he has to go. So I get lazy and put a diaper on him.

Our laundry room is right off of the kitchen and that's where I sneak food. It has a door so I can slip in there, close the door, and eat some chocolate or chips. With the light off. I haven't been caught yet! (Fingers crossed)

If I need to get out, we'll pack up and go to Target. First stop is Starbucks, then the onespot section up at the front. I let the boys pick out a $1 toy to play with as we are walking around the store. Sometimes we "lose" that toy before we get to the checkout and it doesn't come home with us.

The only meat Aiden likes is chicken and hot dogs, so everything I make is "chicken" or "hot dogs." Sometimes we'll say "ham hotdogs" or "sausage hot dogs."

I breastfed Aiden for 15 months. Going into it, I committed to doing it until he got teeth. Once we got the swing of things (it took a good 8 weeks to actually feel comfortable doing it), it was fine. As he got older, I was just too lazy to switch him over to a bottle. I knew what my bottle-feeding friends went through and that sounded like way too much work! So I breastfed way longer than I ever planned to.

I guess we do what we have to do to make it through the day with our kids!

Quick Christmas Recap

What a fun fun fun Christmas vacation at home! We loved it!

Here's a few pictures... 

Santa came to one of the parties! Never knew he can play guitar. 

We had friends over. 

We hosted a Christmas Party. 

Crazy times when you have boys! Anders was so proud of himself. 

We went visiting. 

Hung out at home. 

I found out what happens when you text your family at 10:30pm about homemade ice cream... They come and you stay up all night playing games! Seriously perfect. 

(Jim, Lynne, and their kids surprised us on Christmas night. They didn't tell anyone they were coming and sent a video from the local airport, asking for a ride! So fun having them stay over!) 

These two worked really hard perfecting this little cabin. :)

Aaaaaand we went to a NewYears Party, got in the sauna, and jumped into THE LAKE! I had no intentions of walking over that snow and taking a dip in the ice. Peer pressure. 

Happy New Year! Stay tuned for more fun this month. 

Look alike?

I never thought our two boys looked much alike. In fact, when Anders was born I was very surprised because he looked nothing like Aiden. So many people say Aiden looks like Dave and Anders looks like me. I agree. I see Dave in Aiden so much. He's looking more and more like Dave as he gets older, especially when I see photos of Dave when he was young. 

It's surprising because most people say they have a hard time recognizing themselves in their kids, but I totally see myself in Anders. It might be his coloring, eyes, and cheeks, but that's enough. 

I snapped some photos of the boys today while we were at a public pool/park. They had a blast there and I'm thinking we'll have to go back if we have the chance. It's been in the 90s lately so I haven't wanted to go outside, but who cares if you're in the pool! 

This evening as I was going through the photos, I saw one that looked super familiar to me. I looked back about 18 months and found a photo that looked just like the one I had taken this evening. 

Check it out for yourself :) 

Chicago Trip

At the beginning of June, Anders and I went on a trip to Chicago with these girls. They spent many days helping me move into the new house. We moved, cleaned, organized, set stuff up, etc for hours and hours.... Then we went to Chicago for a few nights :) 

First stop was Six Flags. 

Anders had so much fun discovering all the new places. 

We walked around Chicago, checking it out. Our hotel was close to the River, so we crossed it many times and took lots of pictures :) 

Of cooooooourse we got Chicago-style stuffed pizza from Giordano's. YUM!! 

And we found ourselves in the Bean. 

And did a little photo shoot to get some fun pictures. This is probably my favorite photo from the whole day. 

 

Like I said, we walked around a lot. We crossed the bridges a lot. :)

We went up to Navy Pier and got on the Ferris Wheel. 

Even Anders loved the sights! 

Then we had a teenager take this picture with a big storm coming in the background. I think the background looks fake. All five of us! 

More walking around, checking out sights during the night this time. 

The girls brought dresses so we could do a photo shoot. Unfortunately we ran out of time during the day, so we did some night time pictures. I just used my iPhone so the photos aren't the best. I still like them. 

Anders loved it! 

So did I. It was a fun few days getting quality time with Anders and these girls. They're about to go to high school and get busy with school, jobs, and everything that comes with being in high school. 

The One With Lots of Photos

We have had a lot of fun over the last week!! 

Here's a few highlights...

One evening we got food from a local food truck and ate near this cool fountain. What a fun day with my three best guys! 

Another night we went to a local festival and tried some yummy food. 

Good food as evidenced by his messy face :) 

Another evening we went for a nice walk around our local area. 

His smile is so charming! 

He wanted to take a break from walking. :) 

We have been working on potty training with Aiden. On this day I told him if he went on the potty, we'd go for a walk to the store and he could pick out a treat. He gets so excited when he goes on the potty and this day he was so excited, too, to pick out his favorite treat. 

Uncle Tyler came to town! How cool is that! We picked him up from his hotel and went for some delicious local barbecue. It was a nice evening to eat on the patio. 

An actual photo of the four of us! :) 

Two tired boys. I rarely get pics with these two so we tried this day and this was the best we could get. 

Uncle Tyler is so cool! 

I needed a break. Or a redo of that morning. So here's the boys taking a break... (Let's just say within the first hour of getting up I had already used all of the cleaning supplies/tools we have.) 

Some days he's just not ready to wake up. 

We got to hang out with Uncle Tyler again! Aiden and Tyler had to check out the cool magazines at Barnes & Noble :) 

My little sweetie pie loves Cheerios! 

"Smile for Momma!" 

Getting way too big, way too fast! He'll be one next month. Wait. How did that happen?!?!!!