Spring Break in Virginia...

Friday we headed to Virginia for Spring Break.  We actually drove to Columbus and then flew from there to save money.  It worked out real well.  Flying with a 2 year old is a bit of a challenge.  He does not like to sit still for that long and doesn't have the attention span to watch a show for an hour.  Now that he loves Elmo we were able to keep him entertained with a video for at least a little while.

Friday night we went to a favorite of my families for dinner...Paradiso.  They have a kids room so all the bigger kids can eat in there and they even take the kids orders and watch them for us.  After dinner we went to Holly's house for birthday cake and presents.  Logan was thrilled to get to celebrate his birthday again.  After the presents opening the Dads took the kids home and us girls made food for my sister inlaw's, Fanchon's, baby shower the next day.

Saturday we had a great shower for Fanchon.  I think that after all the wedding and baby showers we have thrown, we have become pros.  This was our best one yet.  Since we only throw a shower for the first baby (after that we just do tea with my sisters and Mom to celebrate), we are now officially done throwing showers!  I said we should do shots to celebrate!

Saturday evening we went to Grandma and Roberts to see Dennis' family and once again we Logan got to celebrate his birthday.  The boys were introduced to Dennis' family's tradition of Egg Fights, the boys had a lot of fun and I'm sure they will want to keep that tradition up each year.  And, hopefully Evan won't cry next year when he doesn't win (a bad habit of his).

Sunday we met up with our best friends from Richmond, Mandy and Stephen.  We met at a park in Great Falls and the kids were thrilled to see each other again.  It was fun to catch up with them, since we haven't seen each other since last summer.

Sunday evening my family came over to my Mom's for dinner (we had a ton of leftovers from the shower) and we played our favorite board game while the kids had a movie night.  The boys were introduced to Star Wars and are now hooked!  I continued to play another round of the board game, while Dennis went to visit with his friend Jeremy.    The kids had a blast playing with their cousins.  It always makes me a little sad that they don't get to hang out together more often.

Happy 2nd Birthday Logan!!!

 Yikes, can't believe I have no babies under 2 in the house anymore!  Logan at 2 is so much fun.  He is talking a ton, I can no longer give a number of how many words he says.  He tries to repeat a lot of what we say.  My favorite is that he calls me "Ma".  He sometimes says "Ma Ma".  He is so cute when he says "Read Ma" (pronounced weed Ma).  Or "Milk Ma" (pronounced mak Ma).  He calls his big brothers "Lo" (Colin) and "E" for Evan.

He is very demanding and strong willed, but also very loving and social.  I think he is the most outgoing of the three at this age.  He loves to wave "bye bye" to people and give hugs.  He is active and tries to keep up with his big brothers.  They can't go outside without him wanting to go too.

Logan continues to LOVE shoes.  All shoes.  He can be found wearing snow boots with shorts or anyone in the houses shoes. He also now LOVES Elmo.  Every time he sees Elmo, he calls out "Elmo" very loud.  When we were driving in the car once there just happened to be an Elmo in a nearby car and he spotted it and called Elmo!

He is an ok eater, though can be picky with some things.  He loves to dip anything in ketchup or ranch or any other dip.  He will also eat ketchup with his fork all on its own.  If he won't eat something all we have to do is ask if he wants to dip it and that usually works.

Logan had his well checkup today.  He is 34 3/4in (50%) for height and 30.2 lbs (75%) for weight.  I felt real bad having a doctors appointment on his birthday so I was happy to hear he didn't need any shots.

Since we don't have family here in Indy, we didn't do a party.  I picked up some yummy cupcakes for us to have after dinner and he enjoyed us singing to him.  He was thrilled to open the Elmo guitar we got for him and he started dancing to the music.

It Starts With A "B" And Is Growing Every Day!

The basement is moving along.  Painting has been done, except for the boys playroom mural.  Carpet goes in tomorrow.  We would be done this week if it weren't for the bar counter tops.  They couldn't put them in this week, so that will have to wait until next week, when he get back from VA.  We spent the weekend furniture shopping for our family room, since we will be moving our current sofas to the basement.

The boys and I made brownies this weekend.  I don't know if letting them eat the batter out of the bowl makes me a good Mom or a bad Mom, but it does make for happy kids and some days that is all that matters.

Today we asked Evan what he did at school and he said, "A girl tooted really loud, the teachers laughed!"  Dennis asked him if the kids laughed too and he said, "Just me."  That boy is something else.

We heard from his T-ball coach over the weekend and were surprised to realize his coaches are both Dads in our neighborhood, who Dennis has hung out with a few times.  This was a complete coincidence, but I'm happy to know Evan will meet more kids his age in the neighborhood and we will get to know some of these neighbors better.

Now that I have joined this century and bought an iPhone, Dennis and I have been playing "words with friends".  The other day Colin was looking over my shoulder as I was playing and when I put a word in he said, "Well, that wasn't very clever."

Well, Dennis had planned on telling everyone in VA that he had big news.  It starts with a "B" and it's growing everyday.....any guesses????  This picture is a hint...

Yep, Dennis grew a beard!  We thought it would be hilarious to do this joke, but Dennis decided against the beard and shaved it off today.  So, I had to record it for memories sake anyway.

Carnival, Bike Rides and Kite Flying

70-80 degree weather in March.  In Indiana.  We are loving it.  We spent Saturday morning at Colin's school Carnival.  Each classroom had a game for the kids to do and then there was pizza and sweets in the cafeteria and a bunch of raffle items.  After a couple hours of fun, I volunteered a shift in Colin's classroom, while Dennis took the kids home for rest.

Later, Dennis pulled out his bike that he hasn't ridden in 15 years and went on a bike ride with Colin and Evan.  While they were out, he got a call that we had won a raffle item (a basket full of books), so he rode over to pick that up and then came back to continue a longer bike ride with Colin.  I'm thinking I need to put a bike on my wish list.  It is very bike friendly around here and everyone seems to have a bike.

Saturday evening a neighbor invited us over to a St. Patrick's Day dinner at their house.  Seven families were there with a bunch of kids so we had a ton of fun.   The men watched basketball, the women talked and the kids played outside the entire time.

Sunday we ran some errands, had lunch out and then enjoyed a great day outside.  Colin and I went on a long walk while the younger ones were napping.  Now that he is getting older we have some great conversation.  I enjoy hearing what he chooses to talk about and his thoughts on things.

Then, Dennis helped the boys to fly kites with some neighbors.  Usually, we only fly kite's once a year, during our annual beach trip to NC.  However, it is pretty windy here and we have such a large open space behind our house, that I think we should be able to do it more often now.

Colin and his buddies...

It was just a great weekend overall and this weather can put anyone in a good mood.

Tonight, it is back to work.  We are picking paint colors, so the painter can get started later this week.  The basement is coming along great so far!  Drywall is up and walls are primed.  Trim has started to go up and bar cabinets are being built.  All the guys in the neighborhood are waiting for it to be done so Dennis can host a poker game as he promised!

Great Weather!!!

 It has been gorgeous here in Indiana and we are spending every day outside.

Travel Anxiety

We have been busy making our plans to go to Northern VA for Colin's Spring Break.  It has been a busy last few days between stress at Dennis' work, me trying to plan my sister in law's shower, and having to make a bunch of decisions for the basement.  Put all that on top of the day to day activity of 3 little boys and you can imagine its been a little stressful around here.

As if all that weren't enough, we are dealing with the stress of trying to make so many different people happy during our quick trip to Northern VA.  We started planning out of trip early so that we can see everyone we want to see  and those who want to see us.  But, 4 days to try to see two large families and a bunch a friends is not easy.  I told Dennis that we are going to have to limit friends to those we didn't see at Christmas, because there is just too many people to see.  We also have to have time for me to host a baby shower Saturday, which means prepping the food the night before, getting the games ready, etc...  The shower being the main reason we are coming to town.

It is frustrating for me because nobody else in either of our families is really in our situation, where we have a family (3 little boys at that), and live far away.  Every time we come to town we have to take off work (which is part of the reason I can't work full or part time, I wouldn't get that much time off in health care), we have to spend a lot of money, and we have to deal with going to a bunch of different places with 3 little boys in tow.  Boys who aren't sleeping in their own beds, so they go to bed late and wake up early and sometimes don't get a nap.  It is frustrating for me that most people don't realize how hard it is for us to be in VA for every holiday and never get to have our kids be rested and waking up in their own house for the holidays.  Our holidays are never relaxing, it always involves travel.  I am willing to go out of our way to get back to VA, because I want my kids to have relationships with their cousins and other extended family members, but it isn't easy and it makes it even harder when not everyone gets what we go through.

Dennis didn't even want to go back for Spring Break.  For him he can look in black and white, "it is inconvenient so therefore I don't want to go" or "if someone doesn't act like they want to see us, then screw them why should we go out of our way".  The plan was for me to go by myself, but I didn't think that was fair to the kids to not see some family until Thanksgiving or maybe even Christmas.  And I don't think I could handle 3 kids in the car by myself for 10 1/2 hours or on a plane.  I don't want to raise my kids where they only see family once a year or less.  But, sometimes I  wish I had Dennis' attitude of if someone can't understand then too bad for them, maybe we will catch them next time.  I try too hard to accommodate everyone and make everyone happy and it causes me a lot of anxiety when someone gets their feelings hurt or thinks we aren't being flexible enough or gets mad at us for some other silly reason.  It is hard to be the only ones who are ever inconvenienced or having to go out of our way for others.  Others who don't even seem to appreciate our efforts and aren't willing to bend a little themselves.

Many of the people here that live far from family have similar attitudes as Dennis, they chose to just stay in Indiana and if someone wants to see them they can come visit.  I am smart enough to know that if we did that, we would spend every holiday and vacation alone and nobody would visit.  After all, who would want to be away from home for the holidays?  It is expensive to travel and if you have a little kids it is also pretty inconvenient to get a whole family to Indiana from VA.  Believe me, we get it.  I get that it was our choice to move away and therefor it falls on us to make the flight or drive, but I wish others would realize what we go through and be more understanding and appreciative of us visiting.  Otherwise, it puts a huge damper on what should be a fun trip.

I could go on and on, but with two kids turning my house upside down as I write and the basement people causing a bunch of dust, I better go clean up or I will just have to add to all the things on my list that need to be done and that are causing me anxiety these days.  Dennis jokes with me all the time that he is going to out live me, and I have no doubt that he is right.  I am no good at handling all this stress and he is able to shrug it all off.  Right now, I'm really wishing I was more like my husband.

And that's all I've got for today.  As Evan told his swim class and lifeguard today..."Peace Out Colorado Swimmers"!  Next time I promise a happier blog post...

Jazz Hands!

It has been a stressful week (or really month) for Dennis at work.  Being a child of a former government employee, I don't think I will ever get used to corporate America and the lack of job security.  Hopefully, things will start looking up around here.

Friday, Evan came home from school and said "Mommy I made you something special, it is a card and it doesn't say Mom.Is.Fat., it says "Mommy loves Evan"".   Thanks Evan, I appreciate that.

Colin was told last Friday right before getting on the bus that his 1st grade teacher was resigning immediately for "personal reasons", that was a sudden shock to all of us and really unexpected.  So, he has had a sub all week while they try and find a good replacement.  Luckily, they found one and she starts on Monday.

Friday night Dennis lost his next round of the dodgeball tournament in a " heartbreaker" as he calls it. The boys enjoyed another movie night and then when they went to bed I watched a movie myself. I'm going to actually miss these Friday nights by myself now that dodgeball is over.

Saturday, was pretty much how I like to spend my perfect day in Indiana.  First we took the kids to the children's museum to see the new Lego exhibit.   I think that was probably my favorite exhibit we have seen!  Then that evening we went out for burgers at Bub's, which is so yummy!

Saturday started off with me walking upstairs to find Colin had changed Logan into his clothes for the day and even had changed is diaper, all without being asked!  I was blown away!  He can be such a thoughtful and nurturing old brother!

Sunday was beautiful so after Sunday school and a couple errands and naps, we took a nice family walk to the playground.  Much to Dennis' embarrassment Evan spent the whole time doing and talking about jazz hands!  Like " I love jazz hands, can you do jazz hands".  Despite the jazz hands, we had a great time.

Quick note on Logan...he is talking more and more which is so cute.  His favorite thing these days is Elmo.  He loves playing with his little Elmo stuffed toy and watching Sesame Street.  My other boys weren't into it as much as he is.  But, every time he sees Elmo he says "Elmo, Elmo!".  I can't believe my baby is turning 2 in just a few weeks, makes me sad!