December

This month has not disappointed us in the snow department.  There has been lots and lots of snow!  If you remember from years past(I won't be offended if you don't), I love snow in December.  By mid-January I am completely cursing it and wondering why the heck we live here.  Luckily I'm still in the blissful stage and I love looking out our picture windows in our little kitchen breakfast nook and seeing white everything.  Our boys have also loved the snow.  Especially Patrick.  During the summer, he won't play outside if it's too hot but put him outside in freezing temperatures and he is as content as can be with his little mittens and hat.

On days that the boys aren't outside, we do a lot of art projects.  And when I say "we," I mean "they."                                       
I've seen this view a lot this winter.  He is soo ready for kindergarten next year.  I hope he loves it as much as I think he'll love it.

I actually got around to doing a few neighbor gifts this year and Patrick came as my little helper.  I wish I had a 1/10th of his enthusiasm to run around and talk to everybody.  After the 2nd house, Patrick ran excitedly to my window and yelled, "this is awesome!"

Our conversation in the car as we were driving to another house:
Patrick: "Aww...I just miss Grandma and Karolyn and daddy and Aiden"
Me: "Do you want to go home or do you want to help me deliver the last couple?"
Patrick: "I want to keep helping!  This is fun!" (I keep thinking, how is it fun to run in 1 degree weather from house to house?)
Me: "Bud, you just really love people, huh?  You just really love talking to everybody."
Patrick: "Yeah.  sighs.  I just really do.  Can we invite____ over?"
His desire to be constantly surrounded by people and be involved in every aspect of everyone's life is both endearing and a constant struggle to me.  But mostly I'm just grateful he's different than me.

Of course, we had to go see Santa.  Seriously, greatest Santa I've ever seen.  Real, white, soft beard.  Kind face, happy laugh.  He sang christmas songs to my boys, told part of the Christmas story and had me sit down right next to him to put Aiden at ease.  The boys loved him and were so excited(after their first apprehension)to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

Someone was talking to Aiden about Santa a couple days later and Aiden was like, "yeah, I know him.  I know Santa."

And, of course, I couldn't write about December without including Christmas.  Christmas Eve started at the Blackburn home with some food, lots of hanging out and running around(for the kids) and a nativity.  We left early because Jon had projects to finish, I had family at my mom's house and we wanted to get the kids down at a decent hour but the night ended with new jammies from grandma.

Patrick was not in the mood to give an actual smile but Aiden was more than happy to just sit and smile for me.
And, of course, we had to set out cookies for Santa.  Patrick thought he would also appreciate a picture.  Really, I think he was trying to get on Santa's good side to get more presents.

And then it was off to bed while we finished wrapping and ate some cookies.

Side note: our boys have been waking up around 6:30 every morning(definitely not my favorite thing), but on Christmas morning we had to go wake them up because they decided to sleep in a little.  Happens every time.

Looking at what Santa brought them.  

After presents, we went over to grandma's house for breakfast and more presents and then we went to the Grammy and Grandpa Blackburn's house for more of everything.  The boys were on a high all day.  And I didn't even care that they ate more than their weight in sugar that day.

And then we went back to Grandma's house for some more food, games and Christmas movies.  The boys got new sleeping bags and by that time, they were more than ready to cuddle up in them and watch the Tabernacle Choir Sesame Street Christmas special.

They got Christmas pajamas from Jon and I as well so I had to end the night with one last picture...Patrick was really done with pictures by this point.

Lots of food, lots of crazy, lots of everything so I call this Christmas just about perfect.  Now if I could only get Patrick to stop asking if we can have Christmas everyday so he can get more presents...

I want to remember...

I want to remember all of the funny things Aiden says.  And now that I'm writing them out, I can't think of the majority of the things he says that are so funny.  Twice in the last week I've had people comment on how funny he is and that I should be writing it down.  I couldn't agree more.

Aiden to a girl holding a little baby: "Hey dirl!  You have a baby!"
Girl: "Yep"
Aiden: "I want a baby.  Mom, I wanna buy one."

Aiden hearing a baby at church: "Oh!  A baby!  I wanna buy one."

Aiden looking at a picture of a puppy: "I wanna buy dat puppy!" (He's picked up on the fact that if we want something, we have to buy it first)

Babies have been on the boy's minds and weekly Patrick talks about it(his friend's mom is pregnant...not me)

Patrick: "Moooommm, why does it take so long to grow a baby!  I just want one now!"
Patrick: "Mom, can you just go to the doctor so he can put a baby in your tummy?!"

I'm not pregnant but the boys have been pretty adamant that I need to be.  One day they both decided to carry around monkey babies because they want a baby so badly.

They treat a lot of their stuffed animals like babies(just not always to the point of wrapping them up)

The other day after going potty...
Aiden: sighs and says "I just wuv myself."

Aiden: "Mmm!  That's yummy in my tum, tum, tummy!"

Patrick: "Mom!  I don't ever want to get married.  I just want to stay here with you so I can watch my favorite cartoons in the morning!"

Another moment that made me smile
Patrick:"Mom, if I get married, I want to marry you mommy.  I just love you."

I was helping Patrick get dressed on day for pre-school and I picked out a nicer button up shirt that he doesn't normally pick.  He slapped his hand over his forehead and said,
"Eh, mom you're killing me!"
Me: "Why am I killing you?"
Patrick: "Because I just look too good in that shirt.  Everyone's gonna want me!"

The other day while Aiden was taking a bath...
Aiden: "Mommy, sometimes you a good mommy.  But sometimes you a bad mommy.  Right now you a good mommy!"
Obviously I am not perfect in my parenting skills and he's picked up on my bad days

Things that are just cute to hear in Aiden's little chipmunk voice:
"I wuv you, too!"
"I pwomise, mommy, I pwomise." or "I pwomise, mommy.  I pwomise I won't get out of bed."
"Wade a minute, wade a minute!" or "Oh! Wait guys!  Wade a minute!"

Patrick got home from pre-school today and our conversation went like this:
Me: "Patrick, I just love you.  I missed you while you were at pre-school."
Patrick: sighs, "I knoooow, mom"
My kids like to sigh a lot, sometimes when they're content and sometimes when they're annoyed

When the boys are playing together, I love hearing conversations like this:
Aiden: "I wuv you, Tatrick."
Patrick: "I love you, too."
Aiden: "You my best fwend, Tatrick."
Patrick: "You're my friend, too, Aiden!  And mommy and daddy and....(everyone else he decides to add to the sentence)

Whenever Patrick goes to pre-school I always walk him in.  The other day Patrick told me he could go in by himself.  I must have looked sad(which I was because he was acting so grown up) because he looked at me for a minute and said, "I want you to come in, mommy.  I like it when you come in with me."  He's definitely my child that's sensitive to other people's emotions.

And lastly, Patrick bore his testimony for the first time in sacrament meeting.
Me: "Patrick, do you want to bear your testimony up there?"
Patrick:"No, thanks."
Continues coloring and 2 minutes later
Patrick: "Ok, I'm done mom.  Let's go!"
Me: "Really?  You want to go up there and bare your testimony?
Patrick:"Yeah.  Let's go!"
Me:" Do you want your dad to help?"(I didn't think he would actually go up or I might not have asked the question :))
Patrick: "No, you help mom.  Let's go!"
So we did but once we got up there he was a little shy and got the words, "testimony, family, gospel, Jesus, and Amen" out.  But man, I was so stinkin' proud of him that day.  He's definitely teaching me something everyday, for sure.  As we were walking down the stairs from the podium he turned to me and said, "You silly little turkey!"  Whenever he's embarrassed, he kind of resorts to that phrase...not sure where he got it but it was funny.

November Happenings

A lot happened in November so I'm just going to dump it all at once.  First off: we decorated for Christmas!  Before Thanksgiving!  I know some people have hard set rules about not decorating until after Thanksgiving but it was snowing outside, Patrick was begging to put up our tree, I had minimal amount of Thanksgiving up anyway...it was pretty easy for me to cave.  And once I caved, I went all in and got everything out.  We had one of our Thanksgiving feasts at our house this year and, yes, everyone commented that it wasn't Christmas yet. :)  Anyway, the kids were adorably excited about the whole process and something about breaking out Christmas decorations and singing your heart out to "Joy to The World" does wonders for the soul.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I got minimal pictures of our celebrations.

Technically this was from a Halloween party a couple weeks before but we were all there and I have no other pictures so I'm just pretending this is us at Thanksgiving.

Wrestling time with Grandpa is the best, our house all ready for the holidays, and the little cuties at the kid's table

It worked out better for Jon's family to do Thanksgiving the day before so we had that celebration and the next day we did another celebration at my mom's house.  I have no pictures from that day but it consisted of my mom, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa and our little family.  My grandpa had been in an assisted facility for the last 2 months and even though his health was declining, they said it would be ok to take him for the day.  It was hard transporting him and by the end of it all he was exhausted but it was perfect.  My grandpa ended up passing away 2 days later and we all knew that spending time with family, outside of the nursing home, eating his favorite food and watching his favorite Christmas movie couldn't have been a better day spent with him.  We didn't know it would be almost his last day but we're really grateful that we felt strongly to bring him home for the holiday.

That next weekend we had the funeral for my grandpa(which now that I think of it, it was in December but I'm putting it here anyway).

Not gonna lie.  Funerals are tough.  Whether I was grieving for my grandpa or my dad all over again(or some of both), death just hurts.  2 days after this funeral we received news that my mom's aunt passed away.  Everyone in these pictures have felt the sting of death...some loved ones were taken too early and some probably not, but it still just hurts.  However, we have not had all of our family members together, in one place, for probably 20 years and on the flip side, it was a really great day of re-connection.  Man, I have some great family and I forgot how much these people mean to me.  Just looking at these pictures simultaneously makes me tear up a little but also smile and feel extremely grateful.  Oh, the nostalgia for the "good old days" when everyone lived closer and this family was extremely tight knit and we saw cousins on a very regular basis.  

This man was a big presence.  He was kind of one of those people you thought would be around forever.  He just always seemed strong and large.  He got himself into trouble a lot with things he'd say but really, his heart was gold.  He loved pretty, darn deeply.  And my boys loved him.  And I saw moments in the end, where he was vulnerable and despite mistakes made in the past, he really wanted to be loved deeply as well.  A couple weeks ago, I had a really strong impression that I needed to take my violin and play him hymns(one of his favorite things was listening to grandchildren, whether it be singing, piano, violin, etc).  At the time I felt kind of awkward because I'm usually one to push those promptings away, but I think we both needed that night.  Apparently he'd been having a really rough, lonely day and he genuinely acted grateful that I showed up that night and I needed a test of faith in following promptings.  And I got to see my grandpa in a different light.  I didn't know his time was so limited but now I'm eternally grateful for promptings we receive from the spirit.  

And to end with, on a completely different note:

  More pictures of this stinker in the tub.  We've had a lot of baths during these colder months to break up the day, usually when Patrick is at pre-school.  I would say he just loves water but he's pretty specific to the fact that it has to be warm water...none of that cold lake crap.  I completely agree. :)

October

Hi.  It's been awhile.
 I say it's time I catch up on this blog because I still have Halloween pictures that need to be documented and it's almost Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving, with Jon's family, is being held at our new house this year so I figure next week I'll be having mental breakdowns and wondering why I volunteered to feed so many, so this week I need to catch up on everything.  Seriously, why would I volunteer?  I've never even made a turkey.  Oh yeah...it's because I create these beautiful tables in my head with amazing food and everyone happily sitting around said table but then I realize my head creates better dinner parties than what I ever actually come up with.  Anyway, it'll be great-even if the turkey turns out dry or something like that.

So...back to Halloween. :)  We started off the season with a lovely visit to the local pumpkin patch.

 Shooting pumpkins at random cars in a field=endless entertainment

And then we continued our festivities with a family halloween party

 Patrick has found his inner artist.  Painting/drawing/coloring has been a daily occurence.  Sometimes for hours, so this pumpkin painting party was right up his alley.

Little trick-or-treaters ready to go get their candy and play with cousins

 A little visit to see great-grandpa.

In other random news, I've come to realize that baking is sort of therapeutic to me.  I get quite anxious being at home every day(has any part of motherhood been natural to me?) so in my anxious moments, baking/cooking gives me something to do...and my family something to eat.  I rarely take pictures of what we eat but I found these two on my phone.  I must have been proud because they looked good to eat...

 Triple layer lemon cake for my mom's birthday

In the middle of typing this post, I realized Aiden was not sleeping during naptime, like I thought, and instead he was vomiting and pooping(newly potty-trained) everywhere.  I don't think he's that sick but his stomach tends to puke if he's motion sick, tired, anxious, etc.  Mess is cleaned up but now he's feeling better enough to terrorize his brother.  In this moment, I hear two little boys screaming(mainly Aiden screaming and Patrick crying) and I'm closing my door pretending not to hear. Aiden has taken on the terror role these past couple weeks and Patrick has turned into my tender-hearted one. And I'm posting pictures like the ones below to remind me that I do, in fact, love these little boys.

Anyone ready for summer to come back?  I think I could use a park day about now.  Or a trip to the caribbean.  I'd take that.

A little bit of everything

Man, this little blog of mine gets harder and harder to update.  So I'm just going to jump right in with a lot of pictures.

I want to remember Aiden like this.  My adorable little helper who's been obsessed with his backpack.  That backpack contains every toy he doesn't want Patrick to steal/play with.

 And Patrick, my runner.  One day, I took him on a walk with one of his buddies and they both had bikes.  Patrick's bike was smaller and so he was having a hard time keeping up with his friend.  After a few minutes he ditched his bike and just took off running...passing his friend on the bike.

We've been getting a lot of boxes of fruit(for canning) and with those boxes came a lot of lady bugs.  Aiden has loved them.

Speaking of canning, I've been going all home-maker crazy.  Not my normal style.  And we don't actually have a garden yet but we live in the country and everyone within 5-10 miles of us has a huge garden...which means we have been getting their leftovers.  I took a picture of this shepard's pie in the making because those are garden green beans, made in a homemade/grown tomato sauce with potatoes grown just down the street and hamburger butchered practically next door(I try not to think about it).  I mean, pretty soon I'm going to be calling myself amish.  As I'm typing this, I just got done taking off a batch of dried apples for snacks and now I have homemade fruit leather in a dehydrator.  Like I said, not normally my thing but my desire for good, healthy food mixed with a kitchen that I love to cook in and neighbors with extra fruits and vegetables=a whole new side of me.  Not sure how I feel about it but I think it's good.:)  Anyway, that was a long tangent about a picture of food.

Also, good, quality time with a best friend from almost toddler-hood is always a good thing.  I love my kids but a day out is always nice.  A couple weeks ago, we went and did the whole massage thing(not a couple massage-although, maybe next time Lyndz ;)) and I would say that is completely my style.  Man, I've been totally missing out for all of you people who do the manicure, pedicure, massage thing once in a while.  A couple weeks later we went to the Playmill theatre and saw Mary Poppins.  Growing up, I remember going to musicals and plays all the time because I have siblings who were actively involved in the theatre.  But that's been quite a few years since I've been to a full, adult production and wow, I've missed it.  It was just fun.  

And since I'm being completely random today, Patrick started pre-school again!  Aiden had a little hard time knowing his brother was leaving without him so they kept hugging over and over again.  I have quite a few hugging pictures from that day because I thought it was so sweet.  

 So excited to go.

 And because I wanted a picture with my sweet boys.  For awhile there, I felt a little(a lot) bipolar in motherhood with my emotions but lately we're finding a really great place.  And that feels so nice.  I know a lot of it has to do with establishing ourselves in a solid place, developing solid schedules and routines and the fact that the boys are just getting a little bit older...mixed with us trying and trying and trying so hard over and over again to understand our kids. It's oh so nice and the question of when we'll have babies again has started coming up and right now, I'm really not sure. I will never ever say that I had my first child and I've loved motherhood ever since because motherhood, mixed with other trials(some major) in between have dropped me farther than I thought I could manage.  But, oh, I love my boys more than I even can comprehend and I'm so grateful for their patience with me.  I couldn't have asked for better little men, and a husband, who have been so patient with me.  I just really love them all.

And back to the pre-school topic, Patrick left and I thought with all the hugging going on, that Aiden would have a hard time being without his best friend but it took him all of 1 minute to realize that the toy room was his and no one was going to take his toys.  So, yeah, he's doing just fine during pre-school hours. :)

And lastly, we took a lovely, much needed, family trip together.  So, if there haven't been enough pictures yet...there will be a lot more.

Patrick is one of those little people in the background, playing his heart out in the water, and Aiden was more content to just sit and watch.

 We met up with Uncle Derek for one of the days and took the boys to the Loveland Living Center Aquarium.  They were pretty much obsessed with looking for the penguins the whole time but they thought the little interactive 3D movie was pretty cool.

 And they thought this bridge in the South America section was one of the greatest things ever.

 The beloved penguins

 And they soon realized that there were a lot of cool things at the aquarium.

 Can't forget IKEA.  New homeowner's paradise.  We made sure to plan something for everyone. ;)  Although, if Aiden were potty trained, we could have dropped the boys off at their play center for kids while the parents shop...genius.

 And we fit in Hogle Zoo because it just sounded fun.  And it was.

 These dinosaurs...Patrick couldn't decide if they were his favorite part of the zoo or if he was terrified of them.  He was ok with taking a picture by them as long as we said the dinosaur was one of the plant eater ones.  The t-rex was at the entrance and it took a few times of the dinosaurs growling for him to get more and more scared.

 These pictures are sort of backwards by days but we went to the mall during the first night we got there, just to let the boys run around a bit.  So we took selfies and pictures of the boys by water.

Oh, that was such a great trip.  Other than our daily outings, we spent more time in the hotel pools than I ever have before.  The boys, and us, could not get enough.  Also, we stayed in Marriott hotel that has a living room, a separate bedroom, and a kitchen and I don't think I can go back to the old way of hotels.  It was so, so, so nice to put the kids down in the couch bed and then go in our separate bedroom to sleep.  Our boys are violent sleepers and sleeping with them is next to impossible.  So really, this vacation was practically picture perfect.  

And I know I said lastly, but I found these pictures on my phone.

 Look familiar?  We went to the splash park a few weeks ago and Patrick jumped right in and Aiden sat on the sidelines watching.  It's a common theme for us.

 And these two are the best of buds.  Patrick is so sweet to want to help with everything so when daddy goes out to pump the gas, he wants to go out as well.  He's a keeper.