Some firsts.

First time with play-dough. He took a bite of it just 2 minutes in. :)

First time out. He didn't get it. And pulling out my camera sure didn't help.
First time coloring.
Some firsts that were not captured with the camera . . .
-His first Thanksgiving feast! Last year he only had a bottle. This year he enjoyed: turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, traditional mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, bread and green beans. He thought it was delightful. And he EASILY out-ate his older brother.
-Mr. Pax took a fall on a toy Saturday and gave himself a bloody mouth. I immediately worried about his teeth. But we quickly realized that his teeth were fine and that his gums had somehow gotten cut. It continued to bleed throughout the day when he would eat. Poor guy. He's clumsy and falls ALOT right now.
I have a 15-month post coming soon. We go to the doctor tomorrow and so I'm waiting for that visit. This age is so much fun!

Organization is heavenly.

I used to be super organized. Rooms were neat and clean. Everything had a spot. I'm not sure if it was motherhood that changed me or if it happened before then. But now I'm just average. Bummer for my family because organization was really a good quality for the home. Now I really have to work at it. And I must because I don't like chaos, which is who I married. He's gotten better over the years, as I have gotten worse.

Anyways, when we moved into our house we had this wonderful new space upstairs outside of the bedrooms. Obviously, because of the stage of our lives, we made it a toy/playroom. It has been a wonderful place, just highly disorganized. Typically toys were all over the floor and the boys were probably completely overstimulated sitting and playing in the mess. I'm quite embarrassed by the amount of toys we have. But I will blame it on everyone else, because we RARELY buy toys for them! :)

Back to my point . . . I had been looking for toy storage but I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted. Just something to get it all off of the floor, but where the boys can get to it. I wasn't thrilled at the idea of a toy box. I scoured CraigsList for months and finally found 2 tall matching bookshelves for $40 total. They were in great condition and were 5 miles from our house. So Jeremy loaded them up and brought them home about 2 months ago. Since that time they have just been sitting in the garage waiting for a fresh new coat of creamy white paint. They came to us in a blondish stain. Well, my dear husband finished painting them this weekend and they are perfect! Now, walking through the playroom makes my heart go pitter patter. And all of the toys fit on the shelves! And there is hardly anything left on the floor! And the room looks so much more spacious now! I could go on and on. And now a picture of organization . . .
Speechless aren't you? :) Ignore the blue curtains, they came with the house. I don't think they're staying. And ignore the khaki walls. I don't love khaki. I think a soft yellow is in their future. Jeremy worked his little tail off this past weekend and this was just one of the projects. Did I mention that he carried these up the stairs all by himself yesterday? And they are HEAVY! Yep, he's pretty incredible.
I seriously can't get enough of these shelves. $40. I think we got a steal.

Diversifying the Decor (2010)

I blogged about this in 2008 here. And now in 2010, we have come a long way. I now always have my eyes peeled for books, toys and even Christmas decorations that look like my children. Sometimes it can be more of a challenge, but I'm just making a purpose to seek it out. So the Christmas decorations we have collected in 2 short years . . .

Our black Santa that I bought in January 2009. Thank you Hobby Lobby.

Our sweet little caroler boy that I bought in December of 2008. Thank you Cracker Barrell. This might just be my favorite of them all!

Our black angel that I bought last year after Christmas. Thank you Target. There is not much I can thank you for because your return policy SUCKS. Most would probably agree with me there. But thank you for carrying not just white angels, but black ones also.

Our little brown sweet pea that we bought last December for Paxton's first ornament. We are getting each child an ornament each year. Thank you Hallmark.

And last but not least, my black Friday deal of the day. I am 30 years old and finally have a full nativity set. I know, I should be ashamed. But I was looking for something specific, which I never found. I imagine Jesus and his crew were dark-skinned. But they don't seem to make nativities that resemble this. Believe me, I've checked the stores, the internet and every place in between. In fact, while in San Antonio this month I found a dark-skinned nativity and they were all wearing panchos and sombreros. I was up for buying it since they were brown. Jeremy wasn't feeling it, so we didn't make the purchase. :) And last year, when I had no luck in this area, I bought the Veggie Tales nativity. I told Jeremy, if they're all going to be white, they might as well be green vegetables. Just a little humor for you. Anyways, we ended up with this one on black Friday. They're black. It's closer to the picture that I have in my head, rather than the blonde haired, blued eyed Jesus' we normally see. So, thank you to Kohls!

All of this may seem silly to others and I really don't expect everyone to understand it all. But it's important to us, for our kids to see these things that look more like them. So how's that in just 2 short years?!

Christmas festivities have begun!

Yesterday we decorated the inside of our house for Christmas! This is, by far, one of my favorite days of the year. It always has been. My parents always made a big "to do" of it. It was always a family night and my mom would make delicious appetizers, cheese dip and cookies instead of a traditional dinner. And so I've noticed that those same traditions are being carried into my family. And I love it! So yesterday, once the boys were down for naps, Jeremy set up the tree and we prepared for our little decorating helpers to join us. Once Holden woke up, he helped us hang ornaments and later only broke 1 glass ball. :) Pax woke up soon after Holden and hung his little ornament that we bought him last year. Then we had our fill of taco soup, chips, tamale bites and these decicious chocolate cookies! Here are a few pictures from our fun family night. I hope that these nights will become a special memory for my children and they will grow to love them as much as I did, and still do.

Holden playing with a snow globe.

Hanging his first ornament. He seemed to put all his ornaments on the same branch. Yes, I did have to rearrange when he wasn't looking. I'm sure many of you moms out there would have left them alone. Props to you all. I just couldn't do it. Sue me. I want it to look PRETTY!

Holden showing off our black Santa. I have another post coming on how we are diversifying our decor. It gets a little more diverse every year and we are loving it!

Pax hanging his special ornament that we bought him last year on his first Christmas.

The boys in front of the finished tree. Someone is always in motion when I'm trying to get a picture. Obviously, this time it was Pax.

And you'll notice our Advent calendar in the middle here. I bought it on sale after Christmas last year. I had wanted one since Holden's first Christmas when he was 6 months old. Which would have been a ridiculous idea at his age. But I have been racking my brain for the last 3 weeks trying to come up with 24 creative things as we count down the month of December. I am going to attempt to blog each idea as we do them. I still only have 20 ideas, so feel free to leave a comment if you have a suggestion. Some are fun traditions we always do. And some will take us back to the true meaning of Christmas. Too say I'm excited about the Advent calendar and doing some special things with my boys, is a huge understatement. It should be some fun memory making for this family.

And one last picture of the boys in their matching Christmas jammies. Occassionally, a little matchy-matchy is fun fun fun!

Similac coupons.

I have some Similac coupons that expire December/January. I just found them in a drawer this weekend. I want someone to be able to use them. Anyone out there need them? First person to leave me a comment can have them. I can mail them to you this week. If you are the first comment, you can email your address to me {melodie1980 at gmail dot com}. If not, I guess they will go in the trash. But what a shame!

Thankfuls

Jeremy*home*celebrations*shelter*Mother's Day Out*freedom*salvation*family*friendship*grace*running*2 little boys named Holden and Pax*traditions*Girls Night Out*Riesling*seasons*sisters*Northwood*adoption*music and lyrics*health* morning coffee*internet*Jesus*date nights*trials*drive-thru Starbucks*Ti-Vo*laughter*vacations*honesty*memories*photographs*craftiness*hot water*mom and dad*books*K and M*sunshine*email

Some pretty major ones and some that are not so major. I really have too much to be thankful for. Most of us can say that if we are honest with ourselves. Happy Thanksgiving!

And here are 3 thankfuls that top my chart.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7

friendly visit.

This weekend we had a nice, friendly visit from the Behymer family. The mommy's did LOTS of chatting. The daddy's played tennis and watched alot of football. And these little best friends that have been in seperate states since around 18months old (so, for the past year), played and played and played some more. Amazingly, they picked right up where they left off the last time. It's amazing to me that they remember one another. Holden talks about Lyndon regularly, even with no prompting from me. It was a fun fun weekend in this household. Good company is always pure delight to me! Here are the little friends and the few pictures I took of our fun times.

besties.

These boys are besties. Even though they steal toys from each others hands daily and aggravate one another at times; they sure do alot of laughing, chasing, happy squealing, hugging, kissing, tickling and other fun things together. They are in love. And here just a few pictures from our morning to show you:
Pax sharing his raisins with Holden. For some reason, Pax thinks its hilarious to feed his older brother. And Holden finds it pretty stinkin' funny too.
Here Holden is helping to get Pax dressed for the day. Notice he is attempting to put pants on over the footie pajamas. Aren't these 2 such a helping hand to one another? What would I do without their assistance! :)

Cheers to 8 Years!

This past weekend, Jeremy and I had a nice, little getaway to celebrate our 8th anniversary. Our anniversary actually will fall 1 week from tomorrow so we celebrated a little early. On Thursday, my parents came to our house and once Jeremy was off of work and the truck was loaded, we headed off to San Antonio. We arrived late, checked into our hotel and fell fast asleep. Well, Jeremy fell fast asleep and for some reason I was an insomniac that night. Even at 2am, I kept thinking to myself, oh well. I can't fall asleep but at least I can sleep in as late as I want tomorrow. Wrong! I was awake by 7am. Weird. But I did sleep well the other 2 nights. The weekend was relaxing and alot of fun. It was a combination of things that interest us both individually and other things that we both enjoy together. And of course, lots of dinners out (fabulous Tex-Mex!) and just some great, quality time together. The weather was nice and mild. Gotta love south Texas in every season, except summer. The weekend was pretty much perfect. We had some great conversations including things like: goals for the coming year, our plans for future adoptions, Santa Clause :) and then many things in between. We are looking forward to what's ahead for us. And I think during our time away we even created some new dreams for ourselves. We returned home last night rested, relaxed and ready to see our boys. And here some highlights from our 3 days in San Antonio. First stop, The Natural Bridge Caverns.
See how excited I am to be going? Well, I'm faking it. This little adventure was Jeremy's pick. And since Jeremy took about 40 pictures, I will show you a few.

After an afternoon of history and science, we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and headed to downtown for dinner, here:
And because we are so "thrifty" (some might call us cheap), we didn't really eat dinner at the Tower of Americas. We headed to the lounge during happy hour and enjoyed $5 drinks and appetizers. I thought it would be a fun place to eat and enjoy a nice view of the city. But we didn't want to pay $40-60/plate, so we went the happy hour route and it was perfect. Afterwards, we walked down by the Riverwalk, which is a magical little place at night. The live music, the twinkling lights, the crowds, the restuarants, the river boats. I love it! Which is why we spent the entire next day there. So Saturday, after sleeping in, we headed back downtown. First we went to visit the Alamo. How do you go to San Antonio and NOT visit the Alamo?! Jeremy brushing up on his Texas history facts.
We ate a huge lunch at Mi Tierra's, which was my favorite restaurant of the weekend. We did a little shopping from the vendors on the streets. I bought a cute little yellow and black plaid military hat, that I think I left in the hotel room. Somehow, I didn't get home with it. Bummer. We rested our feet by watching a movie. And then in the early evening we headed back outdoors to the Riverwalk. And as soon as darkness set in, we headed for the Riverboat tours. Jeremy wanted to ride the river boats once it was dark. I'm pretty sure that was so he could put the moves on me. ;)
And this was our tour guide, Jake. Quite possibly one of the funniest guys ever. See for yourself at the blonde lady cracking up at his jokes.We had dinner at Casa Rio, which was recommended by my parents, my sister and Jake, the tour guide. We pretty much cleaned our plates. As a random sidenote: did you know I spent some years living in San Antonio? From the ages of 1-3. As you would imagine, I don't remember anything about it.
After a fun day in downtown San Antonio, we called it a night. Sunday we started making our way back home. But we first stopped and spent several hours at the San Marcos Outlets. Well, it was us and half of the country of Mexico. Apparently, today is Mexico's Independence Day. So many people from Mexico were vacationing right along with us. I'm not sure what a typical Sunday at those outlet malls look like, but the lines were out the whazoo. There were a few times that I told Jeremy that it wasn't worth the wait. But since he is a hardcore shopper (not exactly), we waited out the lines. And lucky for us we did because we got some matching Puma's (even though they are far from matching)! Buy 1, get 1 60% off!
Cute. What better way to end our anniversary celebration than with matching (or not so matching) Puma's. :)

Are they brothers?

Why, yes they are!I get asked this question weekly. Occasionally people say it correctly: are they biological brothers? It's the one re-occuring question in our lives surrounding our adoptions. Other than, where are they from? And yes, most people always seemed surprised to hear Oklahoma. I don't quite understand the fascination of whether or not our boys are biologically related. The question doesn't offend me. I think it's people just wanting to understand adoption a little better or maybe just figure out how our family came to be. I'm not exactly sure. But we heard this question twice yesterday and once or twice today. I've lost count. My typical response has normally been "Yes, but there is no biological connection." Because I know that's what they are trying to get at, even if they don't ask the question as perfectly as I would hope. :) But beginning today, my new answer is "yes". Because let's face it, they ARE brothers. We've adopted them both and that makes them brothers. Pair that with the fact that Holden is now 2 1/2 and understands SO MUCH of our conversation. So I don't think a simple yes or no question needs anything more than a yes or no answer from me anymore. Even if the other person might not call my answer "accurate" if they new all of the details. So I'm done politely pleasing others by satisfying their curiosity with the answer that I know they're looking for. Instead I'm giving the answer that's in my heart. Yep, they're brothers. The end.
And since we are on the topic of adoption, today is ORPHAN SUNDAY! If you think God is calling you to adoption or foster care, he probably is. You'll love it. Just do it. :)

an apple a day . . .

On Monday, Holden and I had a fun apple-themed morning! I think that I have decided I am going to steal some ideas from another, much more creative momma. And so, hopefully we will periodically have a fun themed day. And before we know it, Pax will be joining in on the fun. But for now, most mornings he takes a late morning nap and that is when our activities begin. Holden loves our one-on-one time. Especially when I have special things planned for him to do. And just so you don't feel sorry for Pax, he normally gets that one-on-one time with me in the late afternoon, while Holden is still snoozin'. He still hasn't let go of his 3-4 hour afternoon naps. And you won't hear me complaining about that. So here is the fun we had from our APPLE DAY!

We began by making applesauce in the crockpot with these beauties.

I peeled and chopped the apples. As I worked with the knife, Holden colored a picture of an apple.

I let Holden add about 1 cup of water, 1/2cup of sugar and some apple pie spice. He loved helping me with the "cooking".

We left the crockpot on low and periodically stirred the mixture.

Once the apples were going, we worked on another little craft. I had cut up some green squares. He told me he wanted to make a green apple rather than a red one. His favorite color is green right now. So Holden's job was to glue the squares inside the apple. I have tons of gluesticks, but Holden's favorite is the real deal glue. The messy stuff. So that's what we use for our crafts involving glue. It's so easy to clean up. It's cheap. And he just loves it. So we made a glue-y mess and he had a ball working on his apple.

Next, he made a painting using an apple as a stamp. I didn't get creative and cut out a shape with the apple. Basically, I just let him have fun using the apple to paint. Again, he chose green. :)

Eventually it turned into finger painting which is always fun! Amazingly, he wore the same clothes all day and I never noticed a drop of paint on him. He stayed super clean. I'm still not sure how we managed that.

Pax woke up during all of the fun and was completely content to sit in his chair and watch.

After painting, we cleaned up Holden and ate some lunch. Then I let Holden mash the cooked apples until it became a chunky sauce.

I dished up the boys a small bowl of applesauce. Pax wasn't having it, so instead he ate some plain apple. After Holden's little bowl had cooled off, he enjoyed the fruits of his labor. And I do have to admit, it was delicious!

What a fun morning this was for us! It benefits me well when I put a little planning into our day. Things go better with the boys and our home is happier place. And the little effort it takes on my end makes Holden such a joy. It's like he knows I've planned all of these special activities for him. There will be many more days like these in our future.