mornings

Some days are better than others. It’s true and something that I am slowly beginning to accept; along with grumpy comes joy and laughter and the opposite is true of course. This morning regardless of the tears, tired yawns, not-quite awake cuddles and the protests against breakfast my sweet boys giggled at each other for no apparent reason. These are the moments of the day that I try to remember as I say my prayers and crash for the night and I hope they do too.

Here’s the silly, the serious, the pouty and the giggles. Happy Wednesday to you.

mornings

morning grumpiness

milk

sweet boy

morning cheese

brother giggles

morning grumpiness

eyelashes

silly face

those eyes

silliness

monkey see monkey do

laughing at Jay

tongues out!

laughing with Charlie

finishing up

always watching each other

backyard fort, phase 1

There has never been any doubt in my mind that our boys are lucky. They want for nothing, are constantly showered with love and attention and most importantly they have an awesome Daddy! The later most applies to this post specifically but the others were worth mentioning too ;)

Why is Daddy so particularly awesome these days you ask? Because after not much convincing from Mommy he agreed and almost immediately started working on their very own fort!! Let me back up a bit.. It’s no secret that our boys LOVE the outdoors. If they are sad/grumpy/bored, we walk outside and all is well with the world again. Because of their love of the outdoors we spend a whole lot of time out there. Frequently, we head out front to our courtyard (such a great area to have with little kids) to play in the water table. Jay and Charlie usually take time to “wash and rinse cars” and basically drench themselves in water while we play. However, most recently Jay has taken to digging and moving dirt with his dump truck and cars. He digs in the flower bed out front, which doesn’t bother me (I don’t have a green thumb or the time/desire to do much with it so it’s not like he’s digging up my flowers) so it wasn’t a problem until we potty trained. Prior to potty training we/I would just take off his dirt covered diaper, hose him off and then head inside. After potty training we now have this…

our problem

See the problem? And yes it is a cute tushie and yes he will probably kill me later for posting this photo but I am okay with that ;) There is a whole lot more scrubbing that needs to take place these days after playing in addition to it just being kind of gross.

So in an effort to refocus this post and brag on my ultra-talented and fantastic husband we decided that Jay needed a “clean” place to dig and hence the fort idea was born. Jamie had help from Josh and George last Sunday with the planning, initial purchasing of materials and building of the sandbox and frame and this Saturday with the help of Josh and Uncle Mark, the cover for the sandbox was built and installed. It (the fort) isn’t finished yet but I am too excited about it not to share. There is a mix of iphone photos and DSLR camera photos below to show the progress and I promise to post again when it’s finished. Get ready to be jealous because it’s cool and you know that you want one :)

purchasing of supplies
purchasing supplies

purchasing of supplies

sand, sand and more sand

 

Bupper’s Big Guck helped haul home the supplies.truck loading

a very full truck

 

The fort project kickoff happened to take place on the coldest day of the year so far, hence the hats and jackets.getting started

Daddy's Boy

riding with Pepere

 

Using Pepere’s awesome nail gungetting started on the frame

framing the sandbox

Charlie wanted to help with the digging. Also, he says “cheese” frequently when he sees a camera now, hence the face.
tiny helper

 

Trimming some low-hanging branches.nighttime tree trimming

nighttime workers

finished for the night

The day after, showing the boys the initial construction that finished after they were asleep.
initial unveiling

 

One week later, adding more sand (1400lbs total)adding more sand

supervising

building of the cover
second

cover helpers

Daddy's Boy

finally getting to play!!
finally it's done!!

sand!!

playing!

digging

a few from the phone
playing

playing

When we decided it was time to go in for the night. To say that they like it would be quite the understatement.
when we needed to head in for the night

I thought having someplace to sit near the sandbox would be especially nice and after looking around for a few ideas I stumbled upon these plans. Jamie and the guys took these plans and kind of ran with it and let’s be honest, ours is so much cooler than the original!  Here’s a video of how the lid works so you can get a better idea of how it works…

park time with daddy

In the fall I was swamped with client photos- I had the almost every weekend and sometimes both days of the weekend booked.  It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I did hate that it took away from some of our weekend family time.  Either way it happened and I was busy which made it nice that the boys could join me on a location scouting trip.  We made a night out of it- had a picnic in the park, ran around and ended up playing at the playground until the sun went down.  Both Jay and Charlie have really started to love going to the park and up until this point Charlie had really only been on the swings; however, since Daddy was there he helped with the slide a few times and Charlie LOVED it.

picnic-ing in the park

picnic

riding the slide

more slide fun

such a big boy

slide races

slide races

slide races

race you to the top!

slide races

sliding with Jay

friday phone dump

I haven’t had a phone dump in quite some time so here you go.  A little bit of random, a little bit silly and a whole lot of everyday love.

Charlie showing some love for his book
That's my baby- a book loving Charlie!

donuts!

happy kitchen helpers
two boys baking

Jay has been really interested in writing his name lately- these are a few of his attempts. I am so proud of him!
Jay writing is his name

morning snuggles with Daddy

kisses for the baby in the mirror
giving the baby kisses

two boys in the bath

happiness for the table

frequent view
two boys on the path

sweet boy hanging out with Mommy

I love these curls
curls!!

somebody was getting sleepy

family shot before heading out for a date
family shot before a date

silly business
being silly

sweet smiles

stories with Daddy before work
stories with Daddy before work

well hello little one :)
hello little one

silly Charlie faces
silly Charlie faces

so proud that he can use a straw
Charlie can use a straw

sweet brothers sharing a special treat
sweet brothers with a special treat

wrong little boy “using” the potty
wrong brother on the potty

happy kitchen helper
happy kitchen helper

helping to take Daddy’s lunch to the car
helping Daddy take his lunch to the car

garden helper

picking out plants at the nursery
at Lukas getting plants

our new orange tree!
our orange tree!

yum!

fixing stuff

strawberries!
strawberry picking

always more projects on the go
projects in the works

sweet boy

family portrait drawn by Jay
family portrait by Jay

“cheese” face
cheese face

duplo

swinging
swinging at the park

more swinging
more swinging

park time

a certain kiddo needs a bath!
ready for a bath!

blankie is never far from reach
blankie is never far from reach

cool dude!
cool dude!

family portraits

We had some family portraits done and man was it hard to get everyone to cooperate! We did manage to get one nice one with everyone smiling though :)

a group shot

me and my adorable hubby

just the boys

I know, I am a dork… but I am just tickled with how well (at least in my opinion) these little peg people came out. I bought some plain peg people awhile back from this etsy seller and didn’t end up doing anything with the for quite some time. I finally started painting them shortly after the New Year and I have done a little here and a little there until finishing them up today. It was a such a fun project and I already can’t wait to meet sweet baby #3 and work on their peg person! Jay is thrilled that they are finally done, he has been dying to play with them.

15 months

Charlie was 15 months old last weekend and is growing and changing before our eyes these days so for posterity’s sake here’s a little update on our sweet little guy.

Things of note-
*When you put Charlie to bed these days, for either naps or at bed time, he flips over, waits to be tucked into his blankets and then flashes you the biggest grin around. Every time I see it it makes me melt and a stay just a little bit longer than I normally would rubbing his back and telling him to have sweet dreams. I hope to never forget the sweet smile on his face or the way his hair flips around his ears a bit as he smiles at me.
*He has all kinds of tricks that he can do (when he wants to that is). He is waving (without being asked), blowing kisses, giving real kisses (they are wet and sloppy but SO cute), snuggling (he will put his head on your shoulder when you ask for a snuggle although Mommy is usually the only one he does this for, which I certainly don’t mind), Ta-Da (where he puts his hands in the air touchdown style).  He knows all the following animal sounds: horse, dog, kitty, lion and monkey  and says Daddy, Mommy (when he wants to) his form of Jay and Hi.
*Sign language. We weren’t as persistent with Charlie as we were with Jay but he has perfected “please” and is working on “more” and “finished”. He will say please without being prompted and also when asked “what do you say?”. Sometimes his answer is a pretty slow please although other times he rubs his little belly so determinedly, it just depends on how badly he wants what we have.
*Eating is hit or miss these days but mostly because he is cutting teeth. He currently has his top 4 center teeth, the bottom two and now 3 of his molars. It’s completely out of any normal order but it is what it is. As for foods he likes… he loves Baby Bel cheeses, ice cream, yogurt, bananas, pureed carrots and most beans (spicy ones too). He does drink from a sippy-cup now and loves milk and water with ice but isn’t too big on juices aside from pear juice.

*He has a temper.  If he doesn’t get what he wants, when he wants it look out! That temper will come out something fierce.  This is particularly hard these days when we are trying to share with our big brother and take turns.

Likes-
*His Blanket. This is nothing new of course but little one LOVES his blanket. If he’s sleepy- he wants it, if he’s happy- he wants it, if not feeling well- he wants it. Honestly, if I can’t find him I usually can head to his room and find him digging it out of his crib.
*Shape Sorters- one of his favorite toys to play with right now is the shape sorter. His favorite shapes are the circle and star but he can do most of them on his own. He will do one or two shapes over and over and over again without stopping.
*Books. We have been spending more specific time with Charlie reading lately (I am ashamed to say that it wasn’t focused on as early with Charlie as it was with Jay) and much to our joy he is really starting to love books and we have noticed a significant difference in his attention span. He won’t sit through just anything we read and he certainly won’t sit through something as long as Jay would at this age but he loves books and that’s all that matters. His current favorites include, but aren’t limited to, any of our “That’s Not My…” Books (Monster, Baby, Dragon), Baby’s 123, Baby Animals (one that talks about endangered animals around the world), The Foot Book and many books by Sandra Boynton.
*Being outside. Again this is nothing new but he still loves to be outside. Either walking around the backyard, playing in the water table, walking along the path out back, playing at the park- he doesn’t discriminate, if it’s outside he’s a fan.
*Water. Whether it be in the water table, hose or bath tub this little guy loves water. Most nights I can hear the squeals and excitement during bath time from across the house.

*Daddy.  He is a Daddy’s boy.  He prefers Jamie over me and is thrilled whenever he gets home. On the days Jamie works from home we have to put up the baby gates so Charlie will leave him alone and let him work.  If a door gets opened or a gate gets removed he makes a bee-line straight for Jamie.

*Brushes, Phones (old cell phones) and brooms.  He is pretty much obsessed with these objects lately.  He loves to walk around the house holding any of the above mentioned objects and that temper I mentioned earlier you can see it if you try to take said object away from him
Dislikes-
*Being hungry- Again, this is nothing new however, it can make getting supper ready nightly a tad bit difficult.
*Teething- this is pretty much a no brainer but kiddo doesn’t take to teething too well. Poor guy has been cutting his molars for the last few weeks and they can’t come through soon enough!

*Having to wait on anything.  Patience isn’t really his strong suit so when he wants something he wants it pretty immediately.  We are working on this and fingers crossed it will get better with time.

These aren’t “official” monthly photos (no blocks were used); however, I adore them and they really show my sweet lively Charlie so well!

Charlie 15 months

Charlie- 15 months

the curls I can’t seem to part with just yet
the curls I can't seem to part with just yet

Charlie 15 months

silly boy

silly boy

Charlie- 15 months

Charlie- 15 months

Mr Distractible

Daddy his favorite guy

Daddy and Charlie- 15 months

more of the curls

and a few of Jay too since he was out riding his bike on the path with us
Jay and his bike

Jay on his bike

Jay on his bike

my most current view on the path these days