Knights and Dragons

This year for Halloween the boys were dressed up as (they didn't really have a choice) a knight (James) and a dragon (Logan).  Luckily James was really excited about being a knight.  I think its because he would get to use his sword in his costume.  Which he rarely carried around.  I also found some black snow boots* that we called his knight boots...he was pretty pumped about those puppies.
*I got them at a consignment sale a few weeks ago for $6.  They looked brand new.  I saw them at Childrens Place (kids clothing store) for $25.  I was feeling pretty good about my purchase.  

Logan got to be a Dragon*, because he HAD to match his brother somehow.
*Again, another purchase success.  Logan's costume was from Ebay.  Only $5.   

The boys got to wear their costumes a lot this year.  We had lots of fun parties and got WAY too much candy.  Does anyone want the candy.  There is a huge part of me that wants to get rid of it and then that little part of me that wants to KEEP IT ALL... FOR MYSELF.  Ackkkkk.  Candy - why why why do you temp me so?

Our neighborhood has a fun little Halloween get together.  We invited some of our friends to join us.  It was so fun.  We had 6 kiddos with us.  All 2 and under.  Yes we are crazy.  (Is it bad that 3 out of the 4 strollers were mine...and that isn't even all of them??)

Here are some fun ones....

Our Little Dragon

Logan in my sad attempt of a Dragons Lair

Sword AND Shield (little Logan photo bomb)

Best Shot of my two little ones together

How most of the shots of my two little ones together turned out.

My favorite of James....it's his KNIGHT POSE

Side view of Logan....hey Logan lay off the candy.

James and one of his best buddies (missing our other friend)

One of the partial group.  Can you tell who was sick of pictures?  Also NO one is looking at the camera...Oh well.

Happenings

Disclaimer - I took these pictures on my phone - some are out of focus, bad lighting, funny - the pictures ALWAYS look better on my small phone screen.  Hope you enjoy anyway. 

 

Tummy Time out

We found that this position wasn't really effective as a time out position.  Way too much fun.  

 Playing in the water at the McWane Science Center - pretty cool place, they even have sharks and sting rays you can pet.

More fun at the McWane.  

 

 Brotherly Love - HA

 Smiles

 Big Eyes - kind of looks like he was about to start crying....probably because James hit him.  Oh man.

 Proof that Rocky still exists.

 James cool glasses.

 James with his cool glasses and COOL watch - yes, it is a watch and yes it was wanted by all the kids in nursery.  Who cares if you can't tell time - not a two year old.

 Logan and his new hat.

 James and his new hat. 

Time out...again.  Even Knights get time out. 

2 months

You had your two month shots today (Sept. 9) and like your brother you have been sleeping most of the day.  I had to wake you up to eat so I didn't get too engorged.  Shots are hard.  You had one oral and three shots.  You cried for just a short time and were fine once I could hold you.

You were 11.5 lbs and 23.5 inches (i think...better double check that number) basically the 60% according to your Dr. 

You are talking so much and smiling like crazy, I love it.  You can hold your head up pretty well.  Still wobbly at times.

You sleep about 7 - 8 hours a night.

You blow bubbles a lot.  In fact I feel like lately there are always bubbles on your lips.

When you wake up and I pick you up you have the cutest baby stretch that I just love.  Arms over your head and back flexed so your bum sticks out...oh and your lips are pursed.  So so so cute.  

You nap pretty well but best in the mornings.

The evening is your cranky time.

I started giving you your binky at night to help you calm down.  I didn't want to but I caved.  It seems like it is easier than letting you cry it out for a while.  I'm not sure what to do.

I have been laying you in your bed with your brother as I read him stories at bedtime.  You seem to really enjoy it and usually fall asleep.

You LOVE the tub.  I hope you are more comfortable in the water than your brother and I.

You still want to be held...like all the time.

You eat pretty regularly every two to three hours during the day.  

You do fine in the car while it is moving...but if we stop you are NOT happy.

You seem to tolerate your brother pretty well.  He LOVES to get in your face...and hit your face.  :(

Alabama +/-

Now that we have been here in Bama for a few months I thought I would document what I like and what I don't like.

Lets start with a few positives:
-We have two garage days and one recycling.
- It is super green and so beautiful.
- People are so friendly and want to make sure that I am attending a good church.
- We have a two car garage so Rocky's car is really getting some needed TLC.
- Little lizards that eat the bugs
- James LOVES our house.  When we are out and about he always asks to go home to his "Alabama House."
- Meeting new people.
- Beautiful parks
- 4 hours from the ocean
- Huge BUNS OF STEEL hill for me to walk right by our house.

Negatives:
- Two big leaks all ready - a couple small ones.  (apparently we bring out the leaks in homes if anyone is looking to discover any)
-THE BUGS!!!!  Gross!  Stay out of my house and out of my yard.
-The humidity combined with my hair.  I've only attempted to do my hair a few times.  Those days my hair actually looked worse.  It's better if I don't give it any attention...and it's still bad at that.  PLEASE I need some big time humidity hair help.
- We are further away from everything.  I can't walk to the store - in fact there are no sidewalks in our area.  Such a bummer.  The grocery store is at least 10 minutes, church is 20 minutes, Temple is 30+ minutes.  Coming from Hilliard where we lived SO close to everything this is hard.
- Leaving our good friends in Ohio.
- Expensive airline tickets to home.
-Tons of home repairs and tons of updates we want to do.

Logan - 1 month

This post was written on Logan's personal blog...so it's written to him.


I can't believe you are all ready one month old.  Like always time is flying.

You are such a sweet baby.  It is safe to say that you are well loved.  James is always concerned about you.  He always wants to touch you.  He is constantly telling you how cute you are.  He loves to touch your face and tell me how cute you are.  He gets very concerned if he hears you cry.  He is also very anxious to play with you.  He loves to hold you...which doesn't happen too often.  He gets a little rough.  But he is learning.

My guess is you are almost 11 lbs.  Your Dr. doesn't see you until 2 months.

You love to be held.
You are a good eater, but get so comfy that you tend to fall asleep a lot while you eat...even if you have just slept for a long time.
You are getting big so fast - slow down.
You have hair like an old balding man.  Lots on the side, hardly any on top.
The longest you have slept is 8 hours.  But you usually go about 4 hours at night.  So if we time it right you are only up once.
During the day you eat about every 2 hours.  It is kinda killer for me.  I wouldn't mind a solid 3 hours.  But you are like a clock...always ready at 2 hours.
You really like to lay on your changing pad.  You are usually pretty calm when we change your diaper.
You love the tub.
You are usually a little fussy at night.  Its like you NEED to cry a little to relax.
You are super gassy - I feel bad.  It seems pretty painful.

You like to poop when your dad is holding you.  Dad has been pooped on 3 times I haven't been pooped on at all and I am with you the majority of the time.  You also like to wait until he gets home to poop.

James meeting you for the first time.

You and Nana at the hospital

James trying on your hat...it's a little small

Right be before we left the hospital

Nana taking James for a walk

Can't believe how small you are compared to my hands

You and dad

Nana and James 

You and Grammy - she was the first poop whisperer - but it only lasted like a day...

You and "brudda" as James like to say

You and Grammy - copying each other

This is right before Grammy left...notice her luggage sneaking into the photo.

One of Lifes Mysteries

How is it possible for a baby to poop...just once and have it be in the front and the back of the diaper but not in the middle? Furthermore, how is it possible that poop can shoot straight up the back of the baby without getting any in the diaper?   I just don't know that I will ever understand how that happens.

While we are the subject of Poop and well...Logan....here are a few other mysteries.

For three weeks of his life he only pooped for Rocky.  Either when Rocky was home or holding him.... and Rocky is rarely home so this made this little poop thing really weird.  Logan would go for a day or two with nothing.  Rocky would get home, hold him and within 5 minutes we would have poop.  We now affectionately call Rocky the Poop Whisperer.  

** Logan has since pooped on me a few times .... and the strange thing was I was sooooo excited.  **

Logan still doesn't poop every day.  If he does poop it is usually just once.  My guess is his body is just learning how to use that system.  Although today his system must have really kicked in and enjoyed itself because we are on poop #5.

Now that you are all clued in on Logan's poop we will call it a night.   

Accomplishing something BIG

Yesterday I conquered a fear.  I made it to church with these two....ON MY OWN....ON TIME!

We won't discuss the handful of bread that someone took during the sacrament or that the majority of my time at church was spent in the mothers lounge feeding someone.  We will just celebrate that we made it and we made it on time.   

I decided to be a fun creative mom and made this super awesome (I think super awesome) track for James cars.  He thought that the package of paper towels was more fun to play with.  

This little man is like a clock.  He eats every two hours during the day.  NO exceptions.  

Here James is calling for me because he is stuck.  He rather refuses to try to climb onto the playground without help.  After some tears - from James he learned how to do it on his own.

James fancy cheerio - pasta work.  If anyone is interested in one of these beauties be sure to let us know.  They are bound to go quick. 

UPDATES!

Please forgive me readers....hello?? Any readers left?  Well readers or not here are our family updates.

The past month - uh - 2 months have been a whirl .  So many things I wanted to document and so little time...and then little desire...and then little time again.

May 31st- Bought a house in Alabama.  One of these days I'll find a picture to post.

June 6th - Cedar Point with the fam.

my favorite photo of my dad at Cedar Point.  James is driving.  

After riding the Dragster

June 7th - Lets start with Rocky's graduation - which really should be a post of it's own.  Maybe one of these days.  Rocky GRADUATED!!!  He is a real Dr. now.  Well a resident Dr. which isn't that real, but is real.  Does that REALLY make any sense?  It is weird for me.  To me he is Rocky and my kids dad.  I ask him Dr. questions (usually things he has only studied once like 3 years ago) and he says he doesn't know or has to look it up...and I say "well what was all that school for?"  I guess if I had question about  being knocked out he would probably have some better answers for me.

Yikes!  I can tell that I usually only converse with a 2 year old and 3 week old.  Even in my blog I'm getting diarrhea of the hands.

Back to Rocky's graduation.  We were so lucky to have so much family here to celebrate.  Rocky's parents and sister, my parents and almost all of my sisters, my grandparents and my aunt.  We had a great cheering section for him.

June 9th - Next we moved!  During the graduation craziness we packed up the house and moved to Alabama.  Again we totally lucked out with help.  Not only were all our visitors able to help us pack up and clean our house.  We were also able to talk my family into to making the drive to Alabama with us.

 June 9th - James gets his new bike.  We told him when we moved to Alabama he could get one.  Oh boy was he so excited.  Now he just likes to fix his bike... not ride it.

June 11th - Rocky starts training for work.

June 15th - Put Hilliard house on the market.

June 24th - Happy Birthday Rocky, Happy first day of work.  

yes, that is my leg, I was too lazy to get my big prego bum off the couch to take a real photo.

June 27th - Hilliard house goes into Contract.  WOOHOO.  

July 10th - Day before schedule induction.  Day that we have to have all our papers signed for the sale of the house with a Notary.

July 10th - In the hospital with contractions.  Signing papers in the hospital with a notary with contractions.

July 10th - Day that baby Logan decided to come on his own.  Welcome to the world little one.

July 16th - Close on Hilliard house....no longer own two houses.  What a relief.

August 5 - Surviving enough to finally update blog.

Cha cha cha Changes...

The count down for baby #2 is into the hours.  We hope to see this little guy sometime on Wednesday. 

I'm nervous about 2 things -
1- My recovery
2- James recovery

I'm probably most concerned about James.  I know what it feels like.  Dad knows what it feels like.  Sometimes its tough being the oldest. 

In honor of being the oldest and changes I would like to revisit the following video.