First Family Game Night

I have dreamed of the day when we could have Family Game Night with our kids. Just the idea of the whole family playing games together, warms my heart. ;) Yesterday was a first for us. Jeremy came home from work with our favorite pizza in his hands. So we gobbled down our pizza, had a quick clean up and then settled on the floor of the living room for a round of Candy Land. Pax was VERY into playing and got excited about every little thing. It was a fun time for all of us.
Next up was bowling. Jeremy's mom got Holden this fun, little bowling set a LONG time ago. But for whatever reason, we recently pulled it out of his closet to play with it. Now the boys LOVE bowling at home!
Last night was the perfect ending to our week and beginning of our weekend. Family Game Night might just need to become our Friday night tradition.

Thank You Jesus.

Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus.
For our food. For our food.
Thank you for mommy. Thank you for daddy.
We love you! We love you!
That picture was NOT staged. It is from a couple of weeks ago. I was about to back out of my driveway, when I looked over my right shoulder only to see sweet Pax saying his little prayer. I snatched up my phone and fortunately, caught this incredibly sweet moment in a photo. He learned this little prayer at his school and I love it when he spontaneously decides to share it with us.

two and a half.

Today the baby of this house is now a big two and a halfer. Hard to believe. But he's actually grown up alot in the past few months. I've always said he behaved more like a baby than Holden did at the same ages. But recently, he's really been acting his age. In a good way! Not in the "terrible two" sort of way. He's talking up a storm and carrying on all sorts of conversations. He's finally desiring independence, which is good for us to see. If I had 1 single word to describe my little Pax, it would be sweet! He is such a sweetie! He's compassionate, considerate, tender-hearted, affectionate and a major snuggler. He lets me kiss and squeeze on him all day long. He often pets my head and tells me he likes my hair. Daily he wants to sit in my lap for book after book of story time. Words hurt him and bring him to tears and big brother knows just the words to say to push his buttons. Like "you're dangerous", which doesn't make sense and shouldn't make someone cry. But Holden knows it works and uses those words at times. Usually Pax cries. And sometimes with tears in his eyes, he roars like a dinosaur at his big brother. Seriously, like a dinosaur. It cracks me up when I sit back to let them work out their "issues". But he loves to roar like a dinosaur. He does it at least once a day.
He remains the late sleeper of the house. He's in bed at 7:30pm and I often have to wake him at 8:00am if we are going anywhere that morning. He wakes cuddly, smiling and asking about everyone's whereabouts.

He still hasn't had much interest in potty training. I thought he might jump into it more quickly because of Holden, but so far that hasn't happened.

He is the best eater EVER. He's a dream child at meal times. Whatever you give him he happily devours. And if there is something sweet, like cake, he says "no tanks" and normally ask for an orange or some kind of fruit instead. Yesterday we attended a birthday party and he didn't want cake or icecream. He just ate the fruit instead. Wow! He does eat some sweets, but for the most part, he doesn't prefer them. He loves to eat salads, most veggies (raw or cooked), fish, chicken, beef, peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt, waffles, anything! He's not a big fan of pasta, rice and carb-like dishes. And he would still prefer meals more plain (grilled chicken, green beans and a roll), rather than everything combined into a casserole. Of course, this is polar opposite of Holden, my pickier eater. Some of Pax's very favorite foods are: watermelon, apples, oranges, fresh veggies with hummus, waffles with maple syrup and my homemade granola, which he calls "gro-gro-grola". As many of you parents know, meal time with young kiddos can be a beating. Well, not true for Pax. I hope it sticks and he always loves the healthy stuff like he does right now.
I love to listen to this boy talk. Toddler talk can just be really cute and I don't really tire of the funny things that come out of their mouths. A few things Pax says often are "weeeeeell...", when he thinks he needs to explain himself. When I ask "why?", he often starts his reply with "uh-cuz". And he still calls his big brother "Honen", which is one of my faves. Occassionally, he sits on the potty for practice. During those times he tells us he needs "pry-vi-seat". :) I kind of think since he's sitting on a seat, then it completely makes perfect sense in his head.

Pax is still our sporty boy. He loves all kind of balls and enjoys playing catch. He especially likes playing baseball and golf with whatever type of bat or golf club he can get his hands on. By no means, does it have to be the real deal. I've watched him use his fork at the dinner table and pretend it's a baseball bat as he's knocking one out of the park.

This little boy is so full of life. He makes me laugh each and every day. And I'm so grateful to be his mommy.

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend our family took a little roadtrip. On Friday morning we traveled to Broken Bow, OK where we met our wonderful friends for some weekend fun. We rented a beautiful 4 bedroom cabin, brought 2 coolers full of food and spent the entire weekend enjoying some GREAT company. We love their company! A cabin in the woods has never been my type of vacation. But now with children, my go-go-go type of vacay just doesnt fit us very well. So vacations have definitely been adjusted in the last few years since adding these little boys to our life. But honestly, what made this vacation so enjoyable was the time with my family and time with our dear friends. Here was our home for almost 3 full days, named Garden of Eden.
Jeremy and I's bedroom:
And the boys bedroom, which was right next door. Surprisingly, they slept pretty well in the same room. But not yet in the same bed. Pax is constantly refusing to sleep in the same bed as Holden. He still prefers his crib. So my big ole little boy slept in the pack-n-play all weekend. Which he calls his "pack-n-place". I should make a (long) list of the funny things he mis-says.The kids really enjoyed spending lots of time outside. We went on a little nature hike.
And they loved throwing stones into the river.That same evening, after the boys grilled steaks for dinner (and hot dogs for the kids), we roasted marshmallows at the firepit.
For the sole purpose of 'smores. :)
The kiddos ended their first night with warm baths and a bible story. And they crashed out pretty quickly.
The adults continued the fun with a soak in the outdoor hot tub and then some games once we were back inside.

On Saturday we had more outdoor fun, though it was pretty cold. It's funny how kids never care about the chilliness-factor. They just love to play outside!
And these nuts played golf in the cold weather. They were even given a significant discount on the game. I assume because the guy thought they were fools for playing in the cold. But they never miss an opportunity to play their favorite sport.
And just a few more pictures of our weekend fun.
A certain little, yet very tall, boy got into my contact case on Sunday morning while I was still sleeping. So I got to wear my glasses home on this beautiful, sunny day. Just one of the perks of sharing a bathroom with an independent 3 year old. :) On Sunday I was not ready to leave. The weekend had flown by and I could have easily spent 3 more days here with my family and these sweet friends. But all good things must come to an end. We'll just start looking forward to the next one.

a day late . . .

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your day was filled to the brim with love!
And sweet kisses!And if you were lucky. . .
a heart-shaped breakfast. ;)

Mine was all of the above.

Finally!

At 3 years + 9 months, we FINALLY cleared a huge hurdle with Holden. He has finally been going #2 in the potty. I won't even go into (on the blog) on how he's been trained for #1 since before he turned 3, but we hadn't yet accomplished the other. I'll just leave you with the fact that he's finally gotten it. And I will proudly share he is now completely independent in the bathroom. With the help of Miralax, cutting a hole in the diaper once and lots of prayer, it happened. Seriously, it had gotten SO frustrating to us that we asked a few close friends to pray for our child to poop. They prayed for it during our small group and I couldn't help but snicker throughout the rest of the prayer. And to be honest, I think that was our key ingredient. We found ourselves desperate and began begging God to help Holden out in this area. Go ahead and laugh all you want but we were stumped. So as a final reward for filling up his sticker chart (he had to earn 16 stickers!), he and I had a date last night. And it was so fun! It made me wonder why we don't do individual dates with the boys more often. We really need to start. Holden and I headed for the mall to our promised destination: Build-A-Bear. He picked out a cute little dog and got to work on his creation. He named it Bumble Bee, which he came up with all on his own. We bought Bumble Bee some undies since it went with the theme and reason for our celebration. And then Holden found some Cars jammies and slippers for it to wear. He just so happens to have some of those matching slippers, which he thought was cool. It's so fun once your child has these fun opinions. I loved watching his mind work as he made these decisions. I've been wanting to take the boys to Build-A-Bear but I was holding off for a few reasons. The first being cost and it needed to be a special event. We don't really do that stuff for no reason at all. And another reason, I think it's such a cute and special experience, so I just wanted them to understand the process and hopefully remember the experience. Since Holden is almost 4, he really got it and had fun with it. Here are a few pictures from our date.Listening intently to instructions on what to do with the heart that would go inside his dog.
Bathing and brushing his little dog.
Next he was treated to some pink and blue icecream.
He loves his new friend, Bumble Bee! And even though he's pushing 4, I'm still super proud of him.

The boys first try at bowling!

This morning we claimed a family day. I spent too much time in the house this past week and last night I was begging to get out of here. Together. So Jeremy decided it was time to take the boys bowling. And they had so much fun! It was a little pricey for 1 hour of fun, so I'll need to keep my eyes peeled for Groupons in the future. Because we definitely need to go back and try it out again. It was such a fun morning of bowling and a Chick-Fil-A lunch with my family. It was much needed family time for all of us.
I love the tiny bowling shoes. :)
The ramp and bumpers were really helpful for the boys. And I may have taken advantage of those bumpers a few times also. :)
And some hiney shots with the granny bowl. :)