Before: Bonus room

Today offically begins phase 2 in our whole house remodel.  Before we get into that, reminder of what was "completed" in Phase 1.  The main living areas (livingroom, dinning room and kitchen), the bedrooms and master bath.  All major parts of phase 1 are complete, but there are still many mini projects to complete (breakfast nook, closet doors, trim paint....and many other small items). 

Phase 2 is the bonus room remodel.  Although, once again, we are taking things down to the studs, this whole project "should" wrap up in about 3-4 weeks.  Demo, framing, electrical and drywall should take about 2 weeks.  Then the floor install should take less than a week.  That will leave us to do all the paint and trim work.

One last look at the before!

Moved In....round 1

We have offically, and finally moved in.  Everyone is in their appropriate room (without doors), we have a functioning and almost complete kitchen, some boxes have been fully unpacked and life is starting to feel normal for the first time in a long time.

Walls and floors

It's been just over a month since the last video.   The drywall and floors were the longest part of this project.  Which I knew would be the case, as there was a lot of work and they are both multi step processes, but it felt so drawn out.  We were so close and now everything was taking so long!  The floors were done last weekend and we were cleared to move furniture yesterday, but without the painting done its not worth it yet.  So, I wait.  Sigh.  Wait should be my middle name at this point.

One week from today the kitchen install will begin!  Once that gets going I'll give another update, hopefully with a semi working kitchen!!

6 weeks

We have lived here a total of 6 weeks at this point and we are 4 weeks into the actual work.  Since I posted last, a lot of work has been done, but it's not the kind that looks like progress is being made.  All the plumbing is done, we ended up rewiring almost the entire house and installed a new electrical panel, we got all new duct work for our hvac system, the windows are installed, the old windows have been patched, all of the old drywall and installation has been completely removed and HUGE shout out to Tim on that!!  He has single handedly done about 90% of our demo.  We are on our 3rd dumpster and the first 2 alone weighed 13 tons!!  Yes, 13 TONS or 26,000 lbs and that doesn't even count this 3rd dumpster.

We are hopefully about 3 weeks away from being able to move in, that means electricity, air conditioning, separate bedrooms...um, er, privacy....starting to unpack and no more construction mess!  There will still be a ton of work, but I couldn't be more excited.  To say this has been a test of my inner strength is BEYOND an understatement.  All things considered, things are going pretty well.  I  feel totally fine and like I'm awesome until suddenly I am not.  About once every 2 weeks it gets to me and I feel like I'm going to die from this mess.  I can't even recall the entire situation, but the water and electricity were turned off for the day, Lulu pooped on the floor and the boys were fighting and I thought I was going to lose it.  I took a  pillow behind the boxes and SCREAMED.  You guys, my throat hurt for 2 days, but on the up side I didn't kill anyone.

Note: when I watched the video I realized  I used the word "I" instead of "We" on a few things.  This is definitely a WE situation.  Tim works hard all day to pay for this and then comes home and slaves away on the house.  I am blessed beyond measure to have this guy.  Whenever he is struggling with the back breaking labor, I remind him, if only he was little bit stronger, then the work wouldn't be so hard.  I know, he's blessed to have me too.

Finally Progress

We are just finishing up our 3rd week of glamping and so far so good.  It is equal parts better and worse than I expected.

All 5 of us in one room is working out better than I expected. I forgot to show our room in the video, but I'll make sure to next time.  It is set up the same as when we moved in, but a bit more organized.  

The boys basically play outside morning, noon and night.  They love it and are filthy within 5 minutes of leaving the house.  Lulu is the challenge during this time.  It's hard enough for the boys to stay away from construction dangers.  Lulu is a bit of a wanderer and is now able to open doors.  I cant even begin to count the number of times she has let herself out and I find her playing with debris by the dumpster!

Last week the Framer and his crew were working.  I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, as we only go into the house to use the bathroom. Well, as soon as you have to start walking through a crew of men to go to the bathroom, you realize the inconvience of how often children use the bathroom, the lack of any sort of privacy and the nasty nature of sharing a bathroom with construction workers.  It was a long 6 days.  Thankfully, they were super quick and it was only 6 days, not the 2 weeks originally quoted.

The electrician started today and should be done sometime next week.  When he got here this morning I had to do a full house walk through finalizing where every switch, light and outlet will be placed.  A lot of it is silly, but then you wonder, when it's all done will I have wanted that outlet 6 inches to the left or to the right?  Or, I have to decide now the EXACT placement of bathroom sconces without the vanity, mirrors or even walls in place. #firstworldproblems

The boys start school in 3 weeks.  3 weeks!?!?  I still haven't found all of their clothes.  I've found all boxes labeled 'boys clothes' but definitely haven't found all of their clothes. That is the bummer to having a moving company pack.  The few boxes I did pack, well I can tell you exactly where all of the extra towels, blankets, throw pillows and no longer needed baby stuff is.  Needless to say, after almost 7 months of wearing the same suitcase of clothes, I think im going to have to break down and buy them clothes.  Darn 😁

That's it for now, hopefully in 2 weeks I should have more completed progress!

3 month update

Well, this is no where near what I expected to share on a 3 month update.  We've hit a few monumental snags and we are just trying to roll with the punches.  We were originally hopping to wait until the house was complete or very close to it before moving in,  but here we are.  A fraudulent architect and no permits have put us at a stand still.  We have hired a new architect and structural engineer, but we are obviously extremely behind.  I thought moving my family across the country and trying to find a house was hard, then I thought living in temporary housing was hard....well the joke was on me.  I now understand that stuff was just hard-ish.  Living in the house you are renovating with no end in sight, THAT is hard.  Many of you who know me, know I thrive on structure and organization.  Cleanliness is a virtue- is my way of life.  This life is everything, except for those things.  There is a refining of my soul going on here and it is a messy process.  Literally and figuratively.

Praise God from who all blessings flow.  Some day, I will have an update with progress!

1 month update

We closed a little over a month ago now.  Tim has done a ton of back breaking demo while we patiently {hahahahaha} wait for our permits.

This is a 2 part walk thru of the demo progress:

This next video, I need some opinions.  I know you all have them.  Please share!  This little part of the kitchen won't be completed until after we've moved in.  That's give us time to live in the space before decisions are made, but it might change what we do with the laundry room, so I'm trying to make a plan now.  Take a  look and let me know!

Day 1 & Day 2

My parents took the kids so we could deal with the movers.  This gave us a little bit of time after the movers left and some time the next morning.  It is amazing the work that we completed in those few hours without 3 little kids.

We removed all of the carpet, carpet pads and weird crumbly, distentigraded carpet pads.  Shout out to Tim on this one.  He removed the carpets from the bedrooms that were still wet with dog urine!  N-A-S-T-Y.  We bleached the sub floors in efforts to get rid of the smell.  Although, upon returning today, we found out it's going to need more than bleach to get rid of the smell.  Insert, my complete panic that the smell won't go away.  We are going to live in a smelly house.  We are going to die from dog urine inhalation....and probably absestos.  Oh, and lead paint.  Anyway.....I removed the wallpaper from the living room.  Tim removed 90% of the tile floor in the dinning room while I white washed the fireplace.

Then we went home, burned our clothes and bathed in bleach.

Here are the videos of the parts we finished.

I didn't get video of the fireplace, so here's the before-ish (I had painted a few stones) and the after.

I don't dislike how it turned out, but I don't like it just yet.  It's definitely better, but still lacking.  I think once the walls are painted, we add a dark wood mantel and wood floors it will look better.  I suggested getting a sprayer and painting it completely white, Tim suggested drywalling over it.  I guess it's still up for debate.

I'm happy with the progress we made in 2 days, but now we just sit by and wait.  The renovations can't start until our permits are cleared.  That could be another 4-6 weeks! We are desperately praying for a miracle that it won't truly take that long.  We can continue with demo, but we won't have a dumpster until the contractors start.  We don't want our first impression to the neighborhood be a pile of junk in driveway for a month.  But, really most importantly, some of the walls being removed are weight bearing and you can't tear those down until you are ready to replace the support.  So we wait.  And then probably wait a little more.  In the mean time, we are finalizing the fun stuff like floors, kitchen remodel and all sorts of hardware/finishes.

The time frame on renovations feel hopeless.  Originally, we wanted to move in by the end of May.  Now, our goal is sometime before July.  My no joke-"I'm going to kill somebody" date is before TJ starts kindergarten.  So basically, we have no idea.  But, mark my word, my baby's first day of school picture will be on my new front step.

The new house tour

After countless houses and 6 offers, we finally found the house for us.  6th times the charm, I guess.  It has a huge yard ,the views from the from windows are beautiful and it has tons of potential.  "Tons of potential" should read as old and super smelly, but we can make it perfect for us!  Enjoy this little tour and be thankful it's not a scratch and sniff :)

PSA: Parenting Advice via social media

Next time you are on social media and see a mother post about her kids, I want you to stop and think before you comment.  I've been witnessing a whole lot of parenting advice lately, and it's not even my experiences that have got my undies in a bunch today .  Nor am I talking about some crazy celebrity getting trolled or some major news story.  I'm talking about other regular Moms I know who are posting sweet, funny, crazy anecdotes about their parenting experiences. Sometimes it's not a funny moment, maybe a sweet glimpse or a "first" she wanted to share. I usually imagine the Mother doing a lot of laugh-crying or literal they-grow-so-fast-crying while taking the pictures.  It's a moment that only sarcasm and laugh-crying are the things holding you together.  I assume, the Mother, like myself, wants to remember this in her modern day version of creative memories, aka Facebook and would like someone to laugh with her or gush about how sweet her babies are.  Whatever it is, please stop for a moment and ask yourself these questions before commenting:

1. Is the Mother asking a question, or making a statement?
Did the Mother ask for advice?  Did the post end with a "?"  If not, don't give advice.  Your option are laugh with her, lament with her, praise her, compliment her children or keep scrolling.

Personal example.  The day we brought TJ home from the hospital, we were so excited that we took pictures of him all around his room (in his crib, me rocking him, on his changing table, in the bath).  I posted a picture of him screaming in his crib, amongst other pictures of his arrival home, and joked about not getting to sleep.  I had multiple people recommend sleep books, sent links to swaddle blankets and even message me about how they got their child to sleep.  Really!?  First of all, he was 5 days old, he doesn't need a sleep book, he needs to be held.  Second of all, I wasn't actually trying to put him to sleep.  Thirdly, thank you for ruining my excitement.  Keep scrolling.

2. Does the Mother have a brain?
If she is alive, the answer is yes.  That means you are to give her the benefit of the doubt that she has basic levels of common sense and:
A. Would not want any harm to come to her children.  She knows safety laws and has probably researched many was to keep her child safe in all sorts of circumstances.
B.  She loves her children and is doing her best.
C.  You are only getting a 1 second shot at the situation.  She probably didn't go into to details about all of the safety precautions, rules or circumstances surrounding how this crazy event came about. Nor does she have to explain why one child has a huge ice cream cone and the other child has a small one.  Whatever her reason, I'm sure its the right one.
D. You are also human.   No one is perfect.

3.  How often do you have actual contact with this Mother?
Chances are, if you have a personal relationship with this Mother, her post wouldn't surprise.  You already know a lot of the inner workings of her family and you would understand the tone to her post. Commenting or maybe even cautiously giving advice would seem appropriate because you've probably already discussed it with her.  I am not against productive criticism, but criticism is usually only productive when it comes from someone who truly knows you and can do it in a loving way.  If you are a distant relative, acquaintance or other back in the day friend,  assume A-D.

4.  Is your question/comment leading or otherwise nosy?
#4 should really address both sides, the writer and the reader.  Writer: If you are about to post something, you are putting it out there on social media, don't be cryptic or leave people hanging. If you aren't willing to give the details, I wouldn't recommend posting. This can also be true for the Mother who continually lament posts about the same problem.  At some point people are going to think it's a cry for help, you are leaving the advice door WIDE open.  Reader:  I would assume part C question 2.  and proceed with an option from question 1, laugh, praise, lament, compliment or keep scrolling.


Listen, we've all done it.  I guarantee I have, probably more times than I even realize.  Let's be honest, the other Mothers are the worst.  So, let's all choose to use our common sense and assume others are too.

My children are not an inconvienence

So here's my rant......I went to the grocery store with all 3 loves this morning.  That means I am wearing the baby and the boys are being pushed in the ever coveted car cart.  My small caravan seems to draw attention.  It's only 3 children people.  The boys were unusually well behaved.  They sat nicely in the cart and pretended they were driving.  Lulu slept the entire time and everything was right in the world.  {Well, enter other shoppers stage left}  So we are cruising along and I've  received a number of kind smiles with the pause and head nod.  These are my favorite, it's usually another mother.  It's her way of acknowledging another Mama in the thick of it.  Then a husband and wife duo pass and the wife "whispers" to her husband, "Double Trouble"  this was not a cute acknowledgement.  It was a hushed remark noting the inconvenience of my children.  I kept pushing my caravan and come to a woman with her baby, who stops and says "You sure have YOUR hands full" again, this wasn't a complement is was an exasperated remark that my children are an inconvenience.  Usually, I just politely smile when people comment on my "Hands being full" but there was something to her tone that annoyed me.  I kept walking and just said, "full of my greatest gifts".    I am  typically equally annoyed {apparently, I need to have a good look at myself, because I am often annoyed} at the overly sentimental people who would say something like that.  "Your greatest gift", "It goes so quick" or "Enjoy every moment" {I know people!  I know!  I really  truly know.  I love them little. I would pause them at these ages forever if I could} This was not another Mama saying, "Carry on Soldier, carry on."  it was negative and I wanted her to know that my children are cherished.  Why do I feel like people act like kids are an inconvenience? {Don't even get me started on the idea of bringing treat bags on airplanes because you have to breath the same air as my children.  How is that a thing?  Get over yourself.}  Better yet, why do I also feel that way myself at times?  They are not an afterthought or an inconvenience, they are a prized possession I am lucky to have received......at least this is what the small voice has been reminding me the last few months.

Gosh people, this parenting gig is HARD.  I babysat, worked as a nanny, worked in a daycare and taught for 6 yrs.  I have the most expansive experience of anyone I know, but it is still harder than I could have imagined. I have witnessed good parenting.  I feel like I am even the recipient of good parenting.  It is a constant dance of boundaries, limits, love, consequences, letting go, and grace.   I feel like my days/weeks are spent balancing my blinding rage and seeing through tearful tenderness.  Having a 3rd baby has pushed me to my limit.  It has challenged me in ways I didn't want to be challenged.  It has forced me to look to myself as the source of my frustration.  The problem is not the small people who need me, it is me and my battle trying to maintain my "self".

I am a creative person.  I enjoy expressing creativity in pretty much everything I do, decorating, throwing parties, exercising, cooking, writing, reading, organizing, crafting, sewing and pretty much anything else.  Raising children and running a home make it hard to find time to invest in things creatively.  There isn't enough time in the day for me to take care of everything and sit down to a project.  A large part of this is also due to my constant need for a controlled environment.  I thrive in a clean, organized home.  My need for cleanliness and organization run deep into my soul.  Children naturally do a great job of creating the opposite of cleanliness and organization.  Amy's idea of order + Children = frustration.  I have enough sense to allow my children to be children and enjoy them in the moment, but there is also a constant underlying boil of frustration from the chaos.

With each additional child, my ability to maintain order and have creative outlets has gotten harder and harder.  With 2, it was hard, but still manageable.  But, with a 3rd, not going to happen.  These last 3 months have been hard.  Creative outlets?  What the heck are those, I just want to get some of the laundry done and poop in private.  My sweet Lulu has been suffering from reflux.  She was unhappy and cried ALL. THE. TIME. {I say WAS because we seem to have finally found her some relief.  Praise be to God!} And the icing on the cake was and is Tim's traveling schedule, it has hit it into high gear the last few months.  If you want to find your breaking point, have your husband travel for 9 days and leave you alone with a 2 yr old, 3 yr old and 5 week old.   It is impossible to get anything done when a baby is screaming.  It is equally impossible to get anything done while holding or even wearing a baby.  When I would run errands the boys walk slow, ask questions and touch things.  All completed by the constant crying of Lulu in the background.  I have places to be and things to do.  Get it together kids, Mama doesn't have time for this.  I just wanted to get some things done without them constantly interrupting.  Everything was hard and felt inconvenient {unbuckling three children to walk 2 ft to drop off the dry cleaning will send me into a tantrum}.  Well, I'm pretty sure Lulu and I were crying together one night and I cried out to God.  I think I said something like, "This is hard.  Really, really hard.  I just want to feel normal and myself again.  I am overwhelmed.  Help me!"  My interpretation of "normal" is code for, help Lulu to stop crying so I can get things done and the boys to be better listeners and become robots so I don't have to keep parenting them.  Then I will be able to be "Amy" again, Okay?  I want to clean my house, get back to the gym, and I've got a few sewing projects I'd like to get to.  Thanks, that'd be great.    God met me in my brokenness, but it wasn't with a silent baby and robots.  It's with the a renewed idea of dying to self, putting others before me and what my expectation for "normal" is.  "Amy" is not lost, but she needs to get over her"self" and get her priorities straight.  I have an amazing "creative outlet" at my disposal, my children.    They are not an inconvenience to what I am trying to get done or my attempts to maintain "Amy" or my house.  They are my greatest challenge, greatest treasure and my greatest achievement.  Some days, my only note worthy task may be calming a screaming baby.  That is it.

This is hard and this "hard" is my season.   I don't say that in a "woe is me" kind of way.  I say that encouraged.  At some point, I will live in an organized house, cook a wonderful meal for a dinner party, sew an adorable baby present, regularly make it to the gym, poop alone and be generally awesome.  Until then, I will just be generally awesome right where I'm at.

Gilbert 1 Years Old! A year in Reflection...

12 Months

Height: 29"

Weight: 20 lbs 10 oz

Gil's Highlights:
Smiling
Playing with TJ
Throwing food on the floor
Blowing kisses
Snuggling
Sleeping through the night
Words: Mama, Dah-de, up, uh-oh

This little one is so proud of the big boy he is!  So happy to Celebrate 1!

When I see this sweet face and this little body goes limp on my shoulder, I wonder why I worried about the arrival of this little love.  By the time I wrote about preparing for 2 babies so close in age I felt somewhat prepared and equipped for the task.  However, the first 2-3 months were a roller coaster. It seemed as if every time I felt I had a handle on it, I would be met with multiple days of disaster.

I finally found my groove and then it felt like time was slipping away.  With TJ, I had all the time in the world to take every moment in.  With Gil, a successful day sometimes just meant survival. For a while I felt like I missed things because I had been surviving instead of thriving.  So naturally, all my true crazy came out and I was trying to relish EVERYTHING.  I tearfully watched my baby grow. (Because this is GIL'S birthday post, I won't even get into my feelings on TJ growing up during all of this)

We all know a Mom who wishes each day away...they will be happy when/if: the baby sleeps through the night, they don't have to make dinner, their toddler is potty trained, they can run errands without buckling/unbuckling little ones a thousand times......I've been there.  I've wished the moments and days away.  But in that, I missed all the joy of what was happening.

Then there is the Mom who tries to hold on to every moment......everything they do on social media is #slowdown #growingtoofast...I'm kidding, but seriously, we all know how fast they grow.  This is the Mom who tries to hold on......with every step they are over emotional or try to hold a little too tight to their children.  Not allowing their children to truely meet their full potential.  I've been there.  I wanted to hold on tight and hope time would slow.  Once again, in wishing for what wasn't, I was missing what was.

 I had swung from one extreme to another (I'm sure post pregnancy hormones, sleep deprivation and husband gone on business travel had nothing to do with it ;)   I needed balance.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,

 "therefore I will hope in him."  

Lamentations 3:22-24

I am so thankful for a Savior who has met me at each swing of my crazy pendulum and helped to restore balance.  With my hope found in Him I have experienced joy right where I am.  I am joyful in days that our greatest achievement is survival.  All family members and body parts are accounted for.  Sometimes in different times zones or countries, but accounted for nonetheless.  I find joy in days that I thrive.  Days when the house is spotless, the errands are complete, I fully engaged my children and my dinner should have been showcased on FoodNetwork.

Either way, "the Lord is my portion"

So, Gilbert Michael Gramp.  You are such a little dream.  You are so happy and sweet, no matter how tired or hungry.  You are friendly and love to greet people and you always make sure they notice you.  The word "No" does not faze you, no matter how stern it is said (oh boy).  You have become a blankie lover and quite the little snuggler.  TJ loves to play with you and often requests I make you stay by him. You are  the perfect addition to our family.  I can't imagine our family without our Gilby-do

9, 10. 11

9 Months

Height: 27"

Weight: 19 lbs 3oz

Gil's Highlights:
6 teeth (almost 8!)
smiling
eating
bothering TJ
smiling
almost/kind of crawling
Still only waking up once a night :)


*This little guy loves to eat!  He refused all types of baby food, including cereal!  But when it comes to table food he can't get enough

10 Months

Height:
Weight:

Gil's Highlights:

8 teeth

Full crawler

Smiling

Bothering TJ

Sometimes sleeping through the night :)

Like my haircut?

11 Months

Height:

Weight:

Of course, I forget to take the last picture before he turns1! This is the only  picture I have closest to the right date.

Gil's Highlights:
Smiling
Climbing up the stairs
Blowing kisses
CONSISTENTLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!

Come On In!

I'm linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals for her series of "Come On In!"  This is my first time joining in.  I usually just stalk all the other participants homes like the true creeper I am :)

We moved to our house about a year and a half ago.  We haven't really done much of anything yet.  We have painted a 3 rooms, but that is it.  After moving from our 800 sq ft condo in Hawaii to a much larger home in Maryland, we have spent time/energy/money just trying to furnish this place.  Now that we have all of our major furniture the decorating will begin.  As I type these words Big Love and his bank account tremble in fear :)

Toady's feature is Kitchen & Dining Rooms

Kitchen: The overall view

This is the view from the family room.  One of my favorite things about our kitchen is that leads into the family room and deck.  The two main places you will find my babies playing at any given time depending on the season.

View into the family room

Overall, I love my kitchen.  I've always loved white kitchens.  The previous owners had recently replaced the appliances...thanks for the white kitchen with new stainless steel appliances and a new BLACK dishwasher!?  Oh how I hate this dishwasher.  I have looked into replacing the front panel, it isn't offered for this model.  I can't seem to convince Big Love it should be replaced based on color not function....ahh, I girl can try :)

In my dream kitchen I would have an island big enough for seating

Little Corners:

This is TJ's art corner/snack table.  However, after a recent wall/floor/carpet/brother art exhibition, the art supplies have been removed until further notice or complete attention from Mama ;)




Love our little wood high chair!



The fridge is always filled with my loves




Ok, so I pride myself on my honesty.  Honesty says, that although my kitchen does typically look like this, this counter does not.  It is usually filled with mail and all of life's randoms.  It can get really embarrassing over here.  I happen to have just had a dinner party so it was already clean!




Love my little window.  I spend a lot of time staring off into our back yard while I do the dishes.

Dining Room

View from the living room.  I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do in the room.  I don't mind the wall color, but the window treatments aren't my style.  I like the light fixture, but I can't figure out why they didn't center it?




All I have to say is THE TABLE, oh how I love the table.  What I love about this table is that it is a beast, solid wood.  It weighs a ton and is hand made from refurbished barn wood that was over 100 yrs old.  In the current configuration I have one of the company boards (extensions) on.  I normally have it set for 6, but with chairs at the ends.  If both boards are on it can comfortably fit 10 and if we use benches we can fit 12-14.  This is my forever table.




I love all the knots and gouges.  Beautiful, beautiful one of a kind character.



Well, that does it.  Thanks for stopping in and visiting our kitchen and dining room!

8 months

Gilbert Michael

Height: Starting to wear 12 month clothes

Weight: 18lb 6oz (about 2 weeks ago)

Gil's Highlights:

Smiling

Clapping his hands

Pulling TJ's hair

Talking

Showing off his 5 teeth

Smiling

Starting to sleep at night :) 

*Finally we are back to up only once a night!!

Seriously, this little guy is such a dream!  He is the sweetest thing ever. Ever.  Obviously every mama thinks their baby is the sweetest.  I did too when I had TJ.  Then I had Gil, and I found out what it was to actually have the sweetest baby, not just think I had the sweetest baby.  I am so in love.

TJ

Height: Finally fitting 2T pants

Weight: no idea

TJ is 2.  Very, very 2.  I love it.  Every single minute.  From stinky to sweet in the blink of an eye.  My biggest challenge is trying to keep a straight face when giving serious 'I'm the one in charge' talks.  When I ask for a picture he says, "no pit-ers mama"  But, when I try to take a 'pit-er' without him this is what I get :)

*note the sweet little skinned knees peeking out of his FAVORITE "daddy shorts" aka basketball shorts.  Big Love goes to the gym every night before he comes home from work, so I think TJ thinks this is all Daddy wears :)  In true little boy fashion, he wants to be just like Daddy.  This kid wants to wear 'daddy shorts' everyday.  I had to go out and buy plain t-shirts to wear with them.  He was looking real silly with his polo shirts and basketball shorts.  Gosh I despise these shorts.  I may have willingly lost the battle of these ugly shorts and my personal rule against wearing tacky play clothes, but we have yet to own or even desire any sort of character clothing.  I will stand my ground on character attire.....until  it makes him just as happy as 'daddy shorts' ;)

Mother's Day

Morning kisses
Peonies
Donuts
Church
Centennial Lake
"no pit-ers mama"
Family walk
Sleeping baby
Park
Daddys and big boys play
Chipotle
Naps
Family walk
Vanilla ice cream with chocolate jimmies
Thai food
Messy, sweaty babies
Baths
Sleep

It was spent together on a beautiful day.  Big Love is recovering from surgery and felt horrible, but he still did all the things that would make me happy.  Flowers {peony bushes to be exact}, quality time and food.....he knows the way to my heart.

"no pit-ers"

"NOOOOOO, no pit-ers mama"

sweet sweaty baby

Gramp Randoms

Here are the randoms of our Gramp family this week:

1.  I love TJ's version of words these days.  Nothing makes me happier than asking him to repeat these words.  I act like I'm not sure what he said and I repeat the word.  He's always real serious and adds a head nod while he says it again :). Here are some of my personal favorites:
touch = truck
hell-topper = helicopter
farsher = parmesan
dammer = Grandma/Grandpa
*dammer is probably my favorite.  My parents where just visiting and he can say both of their names clearly, but chose 'dammer' as their interchangeable name

2.  I re-found these recently.  I haven't ordered them yet, but I imagine that they may be a motherhood life changer :)

3.  I just got this cute scarf and I love it.  I never find scarves I actually like, so I was so excited to wear it.  Problem is, it is impossible to wear a scarf as an accessory with babies.  The scarf ends up being eaten, choking me or just falling off.....then I end up looking like a hot mess which sort of defeats the purpose of wearing it.  I may be giving up on it for the foreseeable future.  I'm bummed but relieved at the same time.  Wearing these things kind of ,make me feel like I'm trying too hard anyway.

4.  Tim has been traveling for work quite a bit more in the last few months.  I think out of force of habit, I continue to make dinner every night....until last night.  Why was a making a full dinner for 1 1/2 people?  TJ would be just as happy if I handed him a cheese stick.  So last night we ate the following: garlic toast, blueberry muffin, peas and chips and guacamole.  It was delicious!  I think there may be a permanent change to our meal plans when Tim is traveling :)

5.  Diaper rash.  Horrible, horrible diaper rash.  This is new to me.  TJ has had an occasional red bum, but nothing like this.  Poor Gil.  After 2 weeks, every trick in the book, prescription strength butt paste {butt paste is in fact the name of the prescription} and airing out on towels {that are now forever changed} all day long, I think it is finally clearing up!

After a week of rain and being alone with the boys, we are so excited for Daddy to come home and play in the sunshine!  Hope you all have a great weekend too!

7 months

Gilbert 

Height: 9 month clothes just fit in length 

Weight:  Chub, chub, chubby

(agian, my very scientific measurements)

Gil's Highlights:

Completely independent sitter

3 teeth (all on the bottom, the top 2 are coming any day)

Wants desperately to crawl, but makes almost no progress

Smiles at everyone
Reaches up his little arms to get picked up (my heart melts every time)

Loves to watch/play with TJ

Still gets up 2-3 times a night :(

I am so in love with this crazy haired happy boy.  My 5 month post on Gil was filled with my laments about him growing too fast.  Well, in the last week we put away the swing, bouncy chair and bath chair....and I'm proud to say I did so without crying and shaking my fists to the heavens.  These transitions/milestones felt natural and joyous.  I guess I'm growing too :)

6 months and 2 years in Hawaii

Tim had a work trip scheduled for Hawaii and suggested that I go along.  This sounds wonderful in theory, but that is one long flight for an almost 2 yr old, a 5month old and their 2 tired parents.  After much debate I finally agreed.  We decided to extend the trip to make it more of a vacation and worth the travel.  So off to paradise we went!

The fights:  I had a ton of anxiety over the flights.  Last year when we took TJ to Hawaii, he proceeded to cry, fuss and scream the entire 9 hour flight from Atlanta to Honolulu.  We vowed never to fly with children again.  We went back and forth on different routing options to determine optimal 2 yr old compliance. We settled on flying out of Philly to Salt Lake {4:30 min flight} and Salt  Lake to Honolulu {6:30 min flight}. The Philly thing wasn't ideal {it's 1:40 min drive}, but it was either that or DC which can be even worse with traffic AND most importantly, Kim{Tim's sister} decided to join us on our adventure and this ment she could fly out with us.   We left our house at 3:30am for our 7:15am flight.  We were banking that the boys would sleep the entire drive.  TJ didn't close his eyes once.  I was anticipating the horror about to ensue.  However, the flights turned out wonderful.  Both boys did awesome on the first flight and TJ even took a decent nap.  The second flight was a bit harder for TJ.  We were super blessed and sat next to multiple "grandparents" who thought our boys were the cutest things ever and loved to help entertain them.  There was also another little girl a few rows up that TJ befriended and they spent 1-2 hours chasing a ball up and down the aisle. This sounds a bit silly, but it was honestly a faith building day of travel.  I wanted no part in flying with these two babies.  I prayed fervently in the days before, I prayed on the way to the airport, at the terminal, when I sat down and continually throughout the flights.  I had my parents praying throughout the flights and openly asked others to pray for us.  It was one of the things I felt embarrassed to complain over....my life is so hard, I have to go to Hawaii with my family in the middle of winter for almost 3 weeks and my babies might have a hard time on the flight...wha, wha.  Despite the trivial nature of my circumstance, God was reminding me he still cared.

We got to our hotel around dinner time and surprisingly both of the boys were doing great.  We felt a little too confident after our flight and decided that going out for a walk to get dinner was a good idea.  Let's just say it ended in our first ever full blown tantrum {over not getting to push an elevator button that he had refused to push in the first place}.  I'm talking bloody murder, vocal cord damaging, ear drum rupturing, kicking, arching and flailing kind of tantrum.  Yikes, my oh my the stares we got.  Tim sort of just swallowed his dinner and mine was  packed up before I got a single bite.  Lesson learned.

I could write a book trying to remember all of the details, so instead here are the highlights

My very own little Dole Whip

1.  TJ loves to chase the pigeons.  Pigeons can run faster than he can so they pretty much ignore him.  After chasing pigeons for well over an hour during a walk, one of the pigeons decided to fly away.  TJ thought that was the funniest thing, he was belly laughing at it.  Up until that point I don't think he realized they could fly because they all just scurried away.  Once he realized they could fly, he became more of a pigeon abuser than chaser.  We had to finally put the kibosh on it when it turned into gleeful attempts to kick the pigeons.  He spent most of the trip pointing out and running after all kinds of birds.

2.  Gil is (has become) such and easy baby!  He was happy no matter what we did.  He was happy sitting in the stroller, swimming, watching TJ play, sitting in the shade at the park and pretty much napped whenever and wherever I needed him to.  Everyone loved baby Gil.  This sweet baby will smile at anyone, there is no discrimination when giving out smilies.....except for the 2-3 times he had his first brush with stranger danger and decided a screaming cry would be more appropriate.

2.  TJ is basically part fish.  He loved the ocean, in a scary no fear kind of way.  We decided to walk on the beach the first day, but didn't have any intention of swimming.  TJ made a straight beeline for the ocean fully clothed.  He ran full force right into a decent wave that threw him under.  Thankfully Tim was close behind and got him right away.  He was startled at first, but went right back for more.  He wanted to be in the water (ocean or pool) at all times.  The last few days I was running really low on swim diapers so I ended up having to dry them out and reuse them.  Yes, we were that desperate.

The pool floaty that he wouldn't part with, but refused to actually wear it into the pool

3.  Aunt Kim was a blessing.  Having an extra pair of hands the first week was priceless.  Even after Kim left TJ would ask for "An Nim" every time we would come back to our room.

"An Nim" playing with the babies

5. We were able to eat at all of our favorite local joints.  I may have eaten at Teddy's Bigger Burger no less than 3 times :)  I can still taste that beautiful bacon cheeseburger.....

6. This has been such a hard winter, a person literally forgets what it feels like to walk outside and feel the sun.  Every morning we got up and went for a walk in the sun.  Our hotel was right next to a beachfront path,  I took that path everyday to a little play ground.  I would sit with Gil under the shade of the beautiful trees and TJ would run around like a freed animal.

7. Ko'Olina, Ko'Olina, Ko'Olina.  We were able to spend a few nights on this part of the island....it's truly my happy place.  Ko'Olina is where Tim and I got married so it was also fun to have a few moments to reminisce about when our fairy tale began :)

This was an accidental picture, but I love the (sort of) shadow of me and the boys

These two little honeys celebrated their monthly "birthday" while we were in Hawaii.  Gil turned 6 months and TJ turned 2!

Gilbert Michael

Height: 26 3/8 inches

Weight: 17lbs 6oz

Nice little view of his 2 new teeth

Gil's highlights:

He has 2 teeth

Loves to smile

Loves to smile

Loves to smile

Sits up, but still needs a safety pillow

Loves to watch and laugh at TJ

Great napper

Still waking up 2-3 times a night

TJ

Height: 34 inches

Weight: 27lbs 8oz

TJ's Highlights:

Talking about: "touch" trucks

Making Gil laugh

Vacuuming

Running

Finding rocks and sticks

We had such a great time enjoying the warm weather and time as a family.  Hopefully spring is right around the corner because the cold just doesn't seem natural  when I think about these pictures!

It seems impossible to get a good picture sometimes

impossible :)

This boy and his sticks