Five years!

 Dean's breathing a sigh of relief as we leave the ceremony.  Or I guess you could interpret it as "what have I gotten myself into?!"

 I loved our cake!

When I first saw my bouquet, it wasn't what I expected and I was disappointed.  It was probably the only bridezilla-type moment I had that day (at least from my perspective.....my mom might remember differently).  But as the day went on I loved it more and more.  Now I regret not having it preserved!

The first few years seemed to go by slowly.  Now I can't believe we've suddenly been married for five years.  Today is Dean's day off so we're heading up to the zoo (with the kids, of course).  Then we're picking up our anniversary cake from The Cake Lady bakery....something I look forward to all year!

Mister Fix-it (times two)

A couple of our favorite toys have long been without working batteries.  Drew loves climbing on Grant's rocking horse, but he didn't even realize that a long, long time ago it actually made noise.  Another one of the boys' favorites is their electronic drum set.  It's one of those toys that comes out every month or so, but only stays out for a few days before it drives Dean and me crazy, and we hide it back under the china cabinet until one of them discovers it again.  It plays all kinds of techno music and they LOVE dancing to it!

When toys run out of batteries at our house, it takes months to replace them.  It's just not on the top of my priority list, and half the time I have no idea where to even find a screwdriver (Grant gets into them so we end up putting them in random, unreachable places.  Then we can't find them when we need them!). 

But the other night, I was resolved to finally change batteries in these toys.  Of course the boys both had to help.  Grant is obsessed with Dean's tools....and don't even try handing him one of those fake plastic ones!  So he and Drew took turns helping Dean unscrew the battery packs.  They were so intense.....so funny to watch boys with tools (and Grant is also obsessed with batteries, so this was the cat's meow for him!).  

 
 Grant's saying "No!  It's my turn!" in the background.  It drives him crazy that Drew has to have a turn every once in a while.

Success!!  Now Drew doesn't have to make his own "eeee!" noises while he's riding on the horsie (although he still does anyway). 

THREE little rascals!

A few of you already know this.....and I'm WAY late in posting it now. I'm pregnant! We wanted three kids, but we weren't planning on getting pregnant quite as early as we did. So right now I'm 14 weeks along, which is unbelievable to me.....it feels like I just found out a few weeks ago. Pretty much as soon as I found out (early Feb), I started telling almost everyone I saw. People would casually ask how things are going, and I'd just blurt it out. But a couple of weeks ago I realized that most people who don't see me regularly still don't know!

I'm due October 18, so this will be our third fall baby (Sept, Oct and Nov!). Our original "plan" was to maybe have our third child about a year from now.....so we'd have a spring baby to mix things up a little (and to have a little bit more separation between these two). Drew will be turning 25 months shortly after the baby is born (he and Grant are 22 months apart).

I felt okay during the first trimester.....almost always tired and nauseous at times. Maybe a little worse than with the boys, but not too much. I actually didn't have as many strong food aversions as I did with the boys (those two pregnancies were almost exactly the same), and I have actually been ravenous most of the time! Pregnancy has always cleared my skin, but this time it seems to be making me have more breakouts.

People ask if I'm hoping for a girl this time and tell me they're hoping for a girl for me (which is slightly offensive, because it insinuates that a boy would be a disappointment, or that a family isn't complete unless it has a girl in it. But that's a whole other story....). Of course I would love a girl, and I had even ordered a book on how to get pregnant with one sex or another. We just hadn't really gotten around to trying yet. And about a week after I found out I was pregnant, I read through the book in detail and realized we pretty much did everything you're supposed to do for a boy! And now, I think I'm fine with that.....I watch my boys and think to myself, "how could I not want another one of these?" (Of course there are some days when I think, "what in the world was I thinking, wanting three kids?!") You hear about so many people going through anguishing health issues with their babies and kids, and it makes you realize that the sex really is secondary.

I saw a blog once (can't find it now, of course!) where every week of her pregnancy, the girl wrote about a few random things about her mental state, nursery progress, etc. They were different each week, and I thought it was so interesting. So ideally I will do something like that. Although here recently, it's been hard getting motivated to blog at all.....so we'll see!

finally, some Easter pictures.....

Some Easter pictures, a week late.....

The boys had an egg hunt in our living room on Sunday morning. They had a blast! Drew understood the concept quite well, something Grant didn't understand at that age (but Grant didn't have a big brother to learn from). The morning went downhill, though, when the boys started fighting about candy (I knew this would happen.....next year I swear I'm boycotting candy for Easter!). And as we were getting ready for church, I was drying my hair in the downstairs bathroom and I heard a series of loud thuds. I just knew someone was falling down the stairs. Sure enough, Drew was laying at the bottom of the stairs when I ran out. And our stairs go straight down with no turns.....so falling down the stairs (especially from the top) is something that's always terrified me. Grant had apparently pushed him at the top of the stairs, without realizing what would happen. Thankfully and amazingly, Drew was fine. So needless to say, we had a fun morning!

After church, we took some pictures outside our house (you can see behind Drew all of the construction associated with our new brick fence at the end of our cul-de-sac...it is QUITE the mess, but it's been a super fun place for the boys to play).




Family picture, with some goofiness thrown in there (the boys were, in general, NOT cooperative during picture time!).



Our attempts at taking a picture of the boys together (click on them to see a bigger version...I think the last two are especially cute!):

Success!

I can't believe it happened, but I actually got a picture of both boys smiling for the camera at the same time. Grant was sitting on this overturned laundry basket in our bedroom, and Drew sat next to him. I said, "hold on guys, stay there....I'm gonna go get the camera." So I grabbed it from the study and came back in. Amazingly, they were still sitting there when I got back. I said, "say cheese!" and miraculously, they BOTH did!

The boys got haircuts this past weekend. They both desperately needed them (especially Drew). I'd been putting it off for so long because I wasn't thrilled about spending $17 (plus tip) to get their hair cut at Cool Cuts or one of those places. I had a haircut appointment this weekend and my haircut lady also cut the boys' hair. Grant did great, as always....he was just excited about getting a sucker at the end. And Drew did fine as long as he sat on my lap.....he happily ate his sucker and did great. And he looks super cute!!! I think he looks months older now. I'll post some more pictures later where his haircut is more obvious (although it's probably obvious enough from this picture.....you can actually see his ears!).

18 things at 18 months

First....a few pictures I just love. Last week after Drew woke from his nap (Grant was obviously still sleeping when I took these, otherwise he would definitely have been a part of this!), I decided to finish off the last of a pint of Blue Bell (hey, that's what stay-at-home moms do, right?). I gave Drew a couple of bites, then he walked off. A second later he came back with a spoon for himself! It must have been on the floor somewhere, because he doesn't know where I keep these little spoons. Anyway, when there was just a tiny bit left I gave him the container. He had such fun with his little treat!



Drew turned 18 months old a couple of weeks ago. Here are some things I'd like to remember about my little guy at this age:

1. He can finally run, instead of his straight-legged fast walk that he's perfected over the past 6 months.
2. He likes giving kisses (tonight he gave them to me over and over again), but he doesn't always do it on demand.
3. When he's hurt, he will immediately come to ask for a kiss. He scraped his knee pretty badly a few days ago, and he asks for a kiss every time he notices it. Today he even bent over and kissed it himself about five times in a row.
4. Mischievous should be his middle name. He drives me batty because he's constantly climbing things, opening drawers and reaching into them, getting into my purse if I forget to hang it up, etc. Sometimes I can't even keep up with up; I take one thing away just as he's reaching for something else!
5. Bedtime (and naptime) routine: we read 3-4 stories, then I rock to him and sing him a few songs. When he's really tired he'll fall asleep, but usually he's just very drowsy when I lay him down. Sometimes he cries and throws his blanky out, but I think he's getting better with this (for now).
6. Favorite books: There's a Wocket in my Pocket, Go, Dog. Go!, Are you my Mother?, Mr. Brown can moo....can you?, The Foot Book, The Fire Engine Book, lots of Karen Katz' lift the flap books, Zoo Train, Goodnight Moon. If it's not one of these, he usually will push it away and not even let me open it.
7. When we leave Grant's room at naptime, he blows kisses to Grant.
8. He is a horrible shopper! He tries to climb out of the shopping cart, then screams when he ends up getting stuck sideways, etc.
9. He will repeat lots of words we say (although not nearly perfectly), but he doesn't say many on his own yet. Some he can say: up, down, juice, bye-bye, ball, kitty, doggie ("aah aah"), more, hi.....also some others that I just can't think of right now....
10. He likes listening to music in the car (Elizabeth Mitchell's Little Liza Jane is the boys' favorite song) and will clap his hands and dance.
11. We have a little bench swing on our swingset (two little benches facing each other), and he LOVES that thing. He could sit on it for hours and gets quite mad when we tell him we're finished.
12. He'll put on Grant's pirate hat, grab a sword and make an "aaah!" sound as he walks around hitting anyone around. A lot of times I have to take it away from him (amidst much jumping, screaming and tears) when he ignores our instructions to hit gently with it.
13. When Grant sings "ring around the rosie," he yells "down!" and falls down at the end. Every time!
14. He loves watching Little Einsteins with Grant...he pats and does all the hand motions proudly.
15. If Grant is in silly mode and runs around yelling (this especially happens after baths), Drew will do the exact same thing.....stomping his feet just like Grant and even making the same types of sounds.
16. He can point to most of his body parts when you ask him where they are.
17. He likes to bathe himself.....when Dean's washing him, he'll lift up his leg and pretend like he's helping. He also likes to wash his belly.
18. He is obsessed with sinks...any time Grant's washing his hands, Drew wants to do it too. Then he doesn't want to stop!

Strawberry pictures

Riding in our wagon out to the fields (the wagon was a hit...all the kids wanted to pull each other around in it):

Twist, and pull!
Squish!
Look at all of those yummy red berries!
Drew was proud of all of his strawberries too, even though most of them were either squished or mostly green!

"No, Drew! You can't eat them until we pay for them!" (although he had eaten his fair share already)


Drew was so focused that I could hardly get him to look at the camera. Here's the closest I got to a smile!
We ate lunch with some friends after the strawberry picking and took pictures on this beautiful old tree:

Grant with some of his friends:If you live anywhere near Houston, Froberg's farm in Alvin is definitely worth a day trip at this time of year. They have homemade jams, fruit pies and other things in their market, and you can have a barbecue lunch out there too. I want to go back soon and take Dean with us!