Spring!

            So...it looks like I will just be posting once a month until school is out (I am a teacher).....which is not ideal but I am doing the best I can here! I am doing a link up with Kelly, so I will do a little background before my usual update... Summer break will start at the end of May for me! Yay! More time with my little boys and my hubby. Being a working mom is tough to say the least. At times I feel stretched so thin that I am going to break...but most of the time I manage. I truly love my job and feel as though I was put on this earth to be a teacher, it is definitely my calling in life. I am always nervous to say that because I feel like stay at home moms judge me about that statement, or I feel like there is something wrong with me because I choose to work....But it works for our family. And, let's face it teaching is the best job for a mom. Summers off, holidays off and I work in an industry that is very family oriented and when I need to take a day here or there because they boys are sick...it is encouraged. We also are lucky because my husband is a police officer and works 9pm-7am (and while it is a stress on me, and him, that his life is in danger every time he leaves for work,and no one seems to understand that except police officers and their wives, but that is a whole other post on its own) it is amazing for our family. My husband's days off are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays...and I am in a job share so I only work Monday-Thursday, which means that our boys only go to daycare for 2 days.
     Now, onto what we have been up to lately, I am the Matron (sounds so old) of Honor for My DEAR friend Lauren. It has been such fun planning showers and her bachelorette party. For her bachelorette party we went wine tasting in Paso Robles. It was a blast!!!!
I cannot believe that the wedding is next Friday, a week from today!!! It is going to be such a beautiful day!

                                                                     All of the ladies!
                                                                      

                                                                     Wine Tasting

                                At one of the wineries they let you hit golf balls into the vineyard!


   My little boys have been so much fun lately, well always really, but especially lately. They have been playing so much together. I am so glad that my two boys are so close in age, 3 in June and 1. They are already such great friends and I know that they will be best friends in the years to come. My boys have SO much fun together that I am almost convinced that I only want boys! Especially since they are so close in age! There is nothing like a bond between brothers! I see it with my husband and his brothers and I already see it with my boys.

                              Another day at the zoo, a zoo membership was the best money ever spent!

                                                                     Happy Sully!

                                            Friday Fun Day! Aqua sand and ocean animals.

                                                                  Painting flower pots.

                                               A first: Sully fell asleep while in his highchair.

                                                        Planting flowers in our flowerpots.

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wow...

Life has been CRAZY! I started a new job...a job share for the combo classes at my school. I love my job but it has taken a lot of getting used to, that is for sure. I only work 4 days a week, but those days I am gone from 7:00-4:30...long days (which I realize most people deal with all the time, but for me it is new). I am also the Maid Of Honor in Lauren's wedding!!! It has been SO fun planning showers and bachelorette parties and I have loved going with her to he dress fittings!! We also just had Sully's first birthday party, I can't believe my little boy is 1. Crazy! Do I have baby fever...some days yes, some days no. We will have one more baby, but not right at this moment. I am loving watching Benjamin and Sullivan play together, it is the sweetest thing ever. Of course, they already fight at times....but that is to be expected...LOL. Life is busy, but we were able to take a week long vacation to the beach. We went to 2 Giants games, the aquarium, the boardwalk and of course we went down tot he beach several times to play in the sand!!!

2011

January: Playdates with friends and preparing for Sully
February: Last vacation as a family of three...Sea World and the San Diego Zoo
March: Last month as a family of 3
April: Sullivan...need I say more?
May: 1st mothers day as a mother of two!!
June: Our Benjamin turned 2!!!!!
July: Sully and I visited NC and daddy and Ben went to the beach house
August: Derek and I celebrated out 7 year wedding anniversary!
September: Hot air balloons
October: Trick or Treating
November: Thanksgiving fun, we decorated turkey cookies with Maxxy
December: Christmas time!!!!!

It was incredibly hard to choose just 12 pictures...I could have chosen 12 per month, but that would have been boring for you I'm sure!!! We have been incredibly blessed this past year and we are so looking forward to the new year...I know amazing things are coming our way, including my new job that I start TUESDAY!

October update..late I know

Hello friends! Even though it is mid November (YIKES) I want to do an october update on our little life together! Things have been crazy and time is moving WAY too fast. Our little Sully bug is already 7 months old (November 1st) and I can hardly believe it. He is so precious and so handsome! And Benjamin is...well...2 1/2, that pretty much explains his moods lately....He is so sweet one day, and the next he is acting crazy! He keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing! He is so full of personality!
What Sully is up to....
- Will rock back and forth on all fours (not ready for him to crawl!)
- Is eating carrots, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, apple sauce, pears, banans, rice cakes...and little bites here and there of whatever we are eating. ( I make all of his babyfood, just like I did with Ben...SO EASY!)
- He likes to have screaming competitions with Ben
-  He loves his big brother...even though at times Ben has a hard time remembering to be gentle.
- Can sit up for LONG periods of time
- He likes playing with toys by himself
- He likes to stand up and play with his bead maze
- Sully loves to cuddle and nuzzle his cute little face into my chest...although recently he nuzzles and then BITES.
- He has two adorable bottom teeth and the two top teeth will be here in the next couple of weeks!
Sully is such a sweet baby and we are loving watching his little presonality come out! He has added so much to our family and I cannot wait to watch the realtionship with him and his big brother to grow!
What Ben is up to...
- He goes to school on Mondays...he likes it and is learning a lot. He is already learning site words!
- He LOVES mac n' cheese. Whenever we go out to eat he always orders it, yes we make him order his food! It's so cute too.
- Ben would spend all day everyday outside if he could.
- He loves the park and plays so well with other kids at the park
- Still loves oatmeal with peanutbutter
- Ben loves buliding castles with his blocks
- Ben loves to read books with mommy and daddy
- He loves his baby brother and thinks all babies are "Sully". He is sharing his toys and tries to help when he can.
- His favorite thing to say is "stop it, please"
- Ben loves to help make dinner
- He likes to pretend to be Prince Charming....I pretend I am asleep and he comes over and gives me a kiss to wake up and says "I'm Prince Charming"

We did the rounds for Halloween...started at my parent's house, his friend Max's house then Derek's parent's. We took Ben tirck or treating. This was his first year going and he was a pro! He went up to all the doors by himself, rang the door bells, said trick or treat, thank you and Happpy Halloween! Cound not have been any cuter! Benjamin was a elephant, which I  made....it took forever, and Sully was going to be a peanut, which I also made, but no one could tell he was a peanut, so last muite we put him in Ben's robot costume from last year. My boys were just so cute I could hardly take it! We are looking forward to Thanksgiving...this will be the first Thanksgiving Derek has had off so we are really looking forward to that! I feel kind of bad for Thanksgiving because I feel like it is an overlooked holiday...so sad. But we are totally going to enjoy November and take time to be thankful for all we have!

Big boy!

We tood a trip to the Lemoore air show

First time on a pony

Making Pumpkin Cookies

Hey, I am busy!

I know....I have been very BAD about posting lately...but we are busy over here! We have had a lot going on the past weeks, and Ijust haven't had the time, and when I did, I didn't want to blog. So here I am, finally playing catch up.
    For starters... My dad, who is EXTREMELY HEALTHY/FIT, had a MAJOR heart attack about 4 weeks ago. It was extremely scary, the doctors are telling us he is LUCKY to be alive. It was very serious and they didn't think he would make it through his surgery. Let me start from the beginning...I got a call from my mom, that I almost hit ignore on (sorry mom but it is the truth) but for some reason I picked up. My mom said something along the lines of "this is not a good call" she informed me that Dad had a heart attack and was at Kaiser but they were transporting him to a different hospital. So I met her at the other hospital...we waited...and waited...and waited, finally a surgeon came out to tell us that they were going to have to do surgery immediately. They tried to put two stints in but those were not helping at all. He had 4 blocked arteries, two at 100% and 2 at 80%...very serious. The surgeon made it clear that it was very serious and very urgent. He went into surgery moments later. After a few hours the surgeon came to tell us the surgery was over and that we could see him. That was hard. He looked  lifeless and so UNLIKE my dad. The next few days were hard. He had a nurse that worked on him 24 hours a day and visiting him was rough. He was in a lot of pain, and it was scary, but eventually he was able to move out of CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit), then days after that he was allowed to go home. He is doing much better and will recover 100%! So thankful to have my daddy!!!! Please keep him in your prayers though!!!
And to other news (not really sure what an appropriate transition would be)....
    School has been going great for me. I love my students this year, like I do every year, and I cannot wait to see how much they progress over the months. I have a few challenges this year, but I love challenges and I am excited to overcome them. It is so wonderful waking up in the morning and wanting to go to work. I do not dread going to work, and that is a true blessing! I did have my gall bladder removed, the surgery went well and I was back on my feet the very next day...thanks to some good meds!!! I am glad to have that problem taken care of...however I am not happy with the hospital bill I am about to receive...we have good insurance, but it will still be pricey, not fun! The weekend after my surgery I decided to go to the fabric store to get started on Benjamin's Halloween costume. He is going to be an Elephant...which turns out to be the hardest costume EVER to make!!! It has been a lengthy process, but overall I am enjoying sewing it. I am not finished and probably will not be for a couple of weeks...but it WILL be done before Halloween...I think ;)
   Ben has been going to preschool for a few weeks now. He only goes once a week but is having a lot of fun. He does cry when I leave him, but they tell me that only lasts a few moments. He will not eat the lunch they give him, but this is no surprise...sometimes he doesn't eat...I have just gotten used to that. He has been assessed and his teacher was impressed that he knew his letters and shapes and is doing very well on his counting!! GO BENJAMIN!!! He has been testing us lately, but he is such a happy little guy. So sweet too, he loves to give us hugs and kisses! He is also really into singing...his favorites are Jesus loves me, Take me out to the ball game and Twinkle, twinkle little star. So cute! He also loves his baby brother!!!!
  Sullivan is growing like a weed! He is now eating solid food two times a day. He has breakfast (bananas and oatmeal) and dinner (carrots and applesauce). He is liking solid foods, and we will introduce green beans next. He has also decided that he doesn't want to nurse anymore! He take a bottle just fine, but nursing he is OVER! I make him nurse still at least 3-4 times a day, but we give him a bottle after. My guess is that I am not producing enough milk so he is still hungry...poor guy just loves his food! So we are doing what is best for us! I am trying to pump, but he also takes formula just fine. I cannot believe he will be 6 months old in just a few days! He is so sweet and a totally daddy's, I mean it! His face lights up whenever he sees Derek!
October is so close! I am soooo excited....It is the start of holiday season...Halloween...Thanksgiving...Christmas...New Years...such a fabulous part of the year. I am super excited to get all of my Halloween decorations out, I am also going to make a new wreath this weekend! Well....I have rambled enough...hopefully I will blog again soon...but if life happens and I am busy then so be it (that just means life is exciting)!!!
P.S. Sully now how one bottom tooth...FINALLY, it has been on the verge for about a month now...and his other bottom one should poke through any day now!

Benny and Maxxy watching the hot air balloons take off!

So cool!

Look at those eyes!!!!

Daddy showed up after working for 10 hours! What a good Daddy!

Seriously....does it get more precious???

So pretty!