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.