Firsts

   Last week I had my first day back at school. My students did great! I only had one little boy cry, and it only lasted about 3 minutes before he was up playing with friends and exploring his classroom. It is going to be a great year. I seem to have very supportive parents and I hope that they continue to be supportive throughout the year.
   Benjamin had his first day at real "school". He is Going to Brighten Academy. He seemed to have a good first day of school. I didn't cry, except when I though about him eating his lunch they provide for him at his little lunch table...for some reason that image made me sad. He is growing up!!! He is only going one day a week, for a half day, right now. We want him to go two days, but they are full. Hopefully something opens up so that he can go two days a week. So far I am very happy with the program and I hope that Benjamin will enjoy his time there.
   Sullivan had his first bowl of rice cereal. We are giving him one bowl in the morning when he first wakes up. Does he like it...well he eats the whole bowl, but he makes funny faces...so I am not sure! I would think if he really didn't like it he wouldn't eat it. Sully is such a joy and is so stinkin' cute. I love just watching him! He also now will scoot himself from one corner of the blanket to another. It takes him a long time, but he definitely scoots!
    And the last first will be happening Thursday....my first "real" surgery...Oh joy...I am having my gall bladder removed, then I am having my FIRST hamburger (in 3 weeks)...lol! A little nervous about surgery, but overall I am just glad to have this situation taken care of!

                                     (Ben got in my make up)

                        (sully's first bite)

              (1st day)

                                                 

(He didn't want his pic taken...Good luck Miss Breezy)

  

ha..

Already I have fallen behind on my blogging....it has been much harder trying to blog everyday than I thought it would be! We have of course been busy over here, when are we not busy with a two year old and a 4 month old....but we have been trying to squeeze a lot of activities into our last week of summer before I go back to work. Last weekend I took the boys to the coast with the in-laws. Benjamin was testing me the WHOLE trip, luckily Sully was an angel...but we had a great time overall! Benjamin has started hitting....I honestly do not think he does it to hurt people, but he does it when he gets excited or when he just takes rough housing too far. (I know I sound like every parent...) We have been working with him and we go through several time outs a day because of it. Any other suggestions or did your 2 year old go through this??? After that weekend we spent the week hanging with daddy and going to the park, running errands and playing in the pool!
Sully is now 4 months old. Really, my newborn is not a newborn....I really can't believe it. Before we know it we will be feeding him solid food, he will be crawling...then he will turn 1!!!!!!!!!! That is just not cool...time needs to stop! But for now he is....
-Playing with his toys
-Sitting in his bumbo
-Interacting with Benjamin
-Screaming/talking
-Belly laughing
-Turning onto his side, but not rolling over
-While on his tummy he can scoot himself
-Eating every 3 hours
-Just started waking up 2 times during the night to eat again...not okay!!!
-Wearing 9 month clothing
-Weighs 18.2 lbs.
-Is 25 1/4 in. in length
-And of course becoming more handsome every day!
OH I ALMOST FORGOT!!!! Derek and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on August 8th! We went out to dinner the Thursday before...Lauren and Alex babysat the kiddos and did a great job. Derek and I went to Tahoe Joes and then to a movies. We had a wonderful time reconnecting. Oh, and Derek got me the MOST BEAUTIFUL flowers I have ever seen...seriosuly! On slightly less positive news...I have to have my Gall Bladder removed....which stinks, but I am glad I will never have another attack from Gallstones....those things hurt crazy bad. I would rather give birth 1,000 times over again...and I have given birth to a 9 pounder...ha. I will have it removed on September 1st...which isn't ideal timing since I am a teacher and school will only have been in session for 1 1/2 weeks...but it is necessary!
P.S. SHOUT OUT TO MY FAVORITE ENGAGED COUPLE, LAUREN AND ALEX, WHO WILL BE MOVING INTO THEIR FIRST HOUSE THIS WEEKEND!!! SO PROUD OF YOU GUYS AND SO SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!

             7 Years!

Wednesday

  This week has gone by quickly! On Monday we went to the beach for the day. SO much fun! Benjamin was scared of the beach at first...it took him about 20 minutes to stop freaking out at the waves ,which we were not even close to, but once we put up the tent and started playing in the sand he started to warm up. Sully was such a happy camper out on the beach. He didn't fuss once all day. That baby LOVES to be outside. Actually, both of my boys would much rather be outside then inside. Ben begs us to play outside, we almost always let him, if weather permits! Benjamin enjoyed building sand castles, looking for rocks, looking for seashells, snacking on junk food (who doesn't eat Pringles while at the beach?!?!) and playing with his dry erase board. Sully enjoyed sleeping and looking at the waves while sitting in his bumbo! Benjamin never made it down to the water, but he did get close! We are going back to the beach for the weekend with Derek's family and I am hoping that he is a little more adventurous...and I think he will be since his cousins will be with him! On the way home Benjamin was a tired boy and slept for maybe 30 minutes and he woke up in pain because I think his foot fell asleep...so I pretty much spent the whole ride home holding his hand from the front seat and singing him songs, which was actually really cute and fun! I live for days like that and I am lucky that I have days like that a lot! My boys are so precious and I just love them so much!!! How Derek and I ended up with such wonderful and ADORABLE children is a mystery to me!!!

Mary Monday...even though it is still Sunday :)

  There I go, almost another whole week without blogging...my bad! This past week has been interesting...to say the least. Nothing has really happened, but I am just exhausted. Sully has been extra moody lately. It's not that he is grumpy all the time, he just wants to be held ALL THE TIME. Which of course at times is nice, but when we also have a two year old it is impossible for us to hold Sully all the time. He is drooling a lot, so maybe he is getting his teeth, but maybe not...who really knows. It has just been extra exhausting the last few days! I would love to say that it is amazing and we are loving every second of every day...but that isn't realistic. Parenting is hard and is not always fun! It has also been hard for Derek and I to adjust to having two kiddos lately. We are just so tired and so focused on our kids that we are finding that we MUST schedule time for just us.
 Speaking of time for just us...we will be celebrating our 7 year anniversary one week from today, which I think I have already mentioned, but I just cannot believe that we have been married for 7 years already!!!
 This past week Benjamin and Sully have really started to interact which each other. Benjamin will go up to Sully and tickle him and make silly faces and noises at him, and Sully will just laugh and laugh! It is seriously one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. Other times when Benjamin gets in Sully's face he looks at me with this deer in the head lights. "mommy, help"  Poor guy! Benjamin better watch out though, it won't be long until Sully outweighs Benjamin! I pray every night that Benjamin and Sullivan grow up to be great friends and truly love each other. I want them to stand up for each other and get each other's backs! That is one of the reasons we wanted them to be so close in age, so that they can truly relate to each other. I can't wait for them to be on the same sports teams (or band) together and to see them grow as brothers! I will leave you with this...I walked in after doing dishes...poor Sully!!!

Timeless Tuesday

I feel as though this past week has been pretty uneventful.....but this is why I have this topic for Tuesdays. I feel that at times life goes by too quickly, and that it is important to stop and smell the roses.

  The moment that stuck out the most to me this last week was when Derek and I took our boys to the park at met up with Kortney (our sister-in-law) and her two children Bubba and KeKe (no, those are not their real names but that is what we call them). We played at the park then went to McDonalds and played and had lunch there. Yes it was hot, but the kids had so much fun playing together. I love times like that! So fun!!! Benjamin and KeKe, who is almost 3, are so funny together. I think they are all going to be great friends as they grow up together, which I am very thankful for! Sully was of course as precious as precious gets! Auntie Kort got to hold him for a while at the park and I know he LOVED that! Sully's presonality is developing more and more everyday and it is so fun to watch him change into a real little person with a real personality!


P.S. I hope that Ashley picks Ben on the bachelorette! He is soooo nice. JP seems to be the jealous type...he is cute, just not as nice as Ben. Plus Ben has a super cool name :)

Mary Monday

 We had a pretty uneventful weekend over here. Derek worked all weekend and doesn't have a day off until Wednesday...which means I am playing the role of a temporary single mommy...ha. On Saturday I took the boys to my folks house, Ben and I watched the movie Panyo (SP?) It was a super cute movie, and Ben loved it. Then I had every intention to put the boys down for a nap and go lay out by the pool, but instead I fell asleep with the boys and we all took a long nap! It was nice to catch up on some sleep. Once we woke up we went to Derek's parent's for dinner and swimming with cousins, fun! Sunday the boys and I went to church. We go to church most Sundays by ourselves, which is not ideal and I wish Derek would go more, but he is either getting off of work at 7 am on Sunday morning...or has work Sunday night and has tried to stay up late Saturday so he needs to sleep.Church is important to us, and we want to raise our kids going to church, so right now it is my responsibility to get us there...and most Sundays we do get there...I know Derek would like to be there with us, but he has a job where he needs to be 100% alert...and if that means getting sleep on Sunday mornings then so be it. Church has been great lately, I finally feel as though I am really connecting to the people there which is a good feeling. So get this, there has been something like 6 or 7 babies born in the past 5 months or so. That is a lot for our church considering there are only about 200 people...so fun! After church I went to Panera and then went to visit the boy's great grandma. I guess we did a lot, but I was by myself with the boys for the most part, so not my favorite.
  Today Ben and I met Danielle and Max at the movies. We took the boys to see Winnie the Pooh, it was adorable. It was only about an hour long so it was the perfect movie to take two busy two year olds to....wow that sentence has a lot of to/twos...ha.
  Being a mom of two boys is hard sometimes, I feel tired all of the time, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. My boys, including Derek, are my life, and every day I pray that I become a better wife and a better mommy. Most days I go to bed thinking, "I should have done this differently....I should have done that differently". In fact, not most days...everyday! It is hard, but I am working on it!

Family Friday

 Today was a BUSY day! It started with Benjamin waking up in a not so great mood...boo! We needed to be out the door by 9:40am to go to our last church summer play group that starts at 10:00. With Ben in a bad mood I contemplated several times about NOT going to play group, but I went, and believe it or not we left on time!!! We stayed at playgroup for about an hour, then Ben and I dropped off Sully with his Nina and Papa. Then Benjamin and I went home and picked up Derek and went to the Home Decorating Show at the Fair Grounds. We were at the home show for a couple hours then we left picked up Sully, came home and took naps. After nap time Sully and I went to dinner with Lauren at Olive Garden!!! Yummy! Derek got Ben ready and his Nina and Papa picked him up and took him to a concert in the park. I got home, Derek was at work and shortly after Ben came home, I put the boys to bed and now I find myself watching Say Yes to the Dress in bed while cruising the Internet! Long day, but a fun day.
  On a side note, not really having to do with my family...just something I would like to rant about...ha... It really bothers me when people act like their life is perfect...as if they never have marriage problems...money problems....kid problems....friends problems....work problems, etc.... I mean seriously I am so sick of people constantly posting about their AMAZINGLY PERFECT husband, AMAZING huge house, PERFECT kids that never throw tantrums, HUGE shopping sprees... I just feel as though there is something so fake about portraying your life to be so perfect. Yes, it is wonderful to be thankful for what you have and to recognize the good in life...but at the same time I feel as though there is a fine line between acknowledging the good and  gloating about your life/trying to out do others. There truly in no such thing as the "perfect" anything. I feel like when people say that have it all going on, it makes others feel bad about themselves, and that is just not okay in my book. I feel like this is why a lot of marriages fail, nobody is honest about life...and that things at times are hard, and that things are not always perfect. You have these ideas in your head of how your life should look...how does this idea get in your head...movies, books, other people....so when your life doesn't stack up to the movies, books or other people's lives (or the life they portray) you think you have failed or you feel like your are not as good. I have never liked when people try to make other people feel less of themselves or bad about their situations in life....okay I am done. :)