Growing Up

I have to admit that I love my little boy's scruffy hair.  Yes it makes them looks semi-homeless, but for some reason I am a sucker for the "messy do" on these two little gent's.  And EVERY time their hair gets like this I fight Jesse tooth and nail on cutting their hair.  This may be due to the fact that the first time Daddy buzzed Robby he looked like a cancer patient.  So now every time he talks about pulling out the hair clippers I have flash backs to that haircut. For Robby it is inevitable that every 3-4 months those darn hair clippers get pulled out of the closet, he takes him outside, wraps him in a good old fashioned garbage bag and goes to town. But for Eli this was a new thing.  Up until now, I was the only one who had touched Eli's hair.  I have LOVED his mass of curls at the back of his head.  Yes, he looked like a little punk skater with longish hair. Yes, I know that it was possible to put multiple ponytail in his hair.  Yes, I know he had more hair than many girls his age.  But to me it was all about holding onto the precious baby years.  I knew that the moment I gave in and let Jesse cut his hair that this would all change.  He would no longer look like my little baby.  That was why we compromised that I could have Eli's hair to myself until June, and then Jesse could buzz the babies hair.  When I agreed to this it felt like an eternity away.  But the day was inevitable and before I knew it, it was here. I gave Jesse puppy eyes, I begged and pleaded, but there was no changing his mind.  And even though I did shed a few tears, I have to admit that he does look like one handsome toddler now.  {although I secretly CANNOT wait until his hair grows as wild, crazy, out of control just like before....}

so silly

This year I have been extremely busy and somehow along the way neglected to keep up on all the photos in my phone and on the camera.  Then when my camera began to malfunction, I gave up entirely.  Luckily my sweet husband was able to fix my camera and I have now been pulling all my pictures off the camera and phone, gradually beginning to organize them on my computer.  There are so many fun, cute, silly pictures that I forgot I had taken.  There are also an assortment of pictures from different places I have taken the kids this Spring.  All in all it has made blogging the last little while overwhelming to say the least.  I have always considered blogging as my journal/scrapbook/baby books and it gnaws on me that I have not stayed up to date with it. 

The other day I was talking with my friend at work and she suggested starting fresh and continuing forward rather than getting bogged down by how behind I have been.  So although I will attempt to post some of the past occurrences, for the most part I am going to just move on and attempt to keep up to date on the current events going on around our house. 

Until I can get to those, however, I have a couple fun photos I found that truly capture life around our house :)

The first picture is of my little Maddie with a balloon stuffed under her dress at the in-laws house.  She was hilarious walking around announcing that she had a baby in her belly.  The balloon kept falling/popping out with any little movement she made and then she would laugh like crazy and say "oops the baby came out"

The second picture makes me smile because it was taken back in January when Robby was refusing to grow up.  He would steal a pacifier from Eli every time I turned around and climb into the high chair, exersaucer, bouncer, and any other baby object he could find {such as the baby tub}. Then he would announce with a big grin on his face "I a baby".  What a few months can change.  Although he is still obsessed with sleeping with a pacifier, he now proudly reminds us daily "I a big boy" whenever we try to baby him in any way whatsoever.

The third picture is the most recent and was taken on one of my work nights by Daddy.  He tends to allow mischief and playing to occur at bedtime, including hours of playtime in Maddie's room.  One night he went upstairs to check on the kids and he found them both dead asleep on Miss Maddie's bed.  It is the sweetest picture, but it still doesn't mean I allow this in any way, shape, or form. :)

Family

I just have one thought today....

I am so thankful for my family. 

I am thankful for the fact that my parents taught me about the Gospel, read books to me, allowed me to flourish and participate in my own activities when I was a child, ingrained in us the importance of education; parents that stuck with me and loved me through my snotty teenage years and now continue to support me and teach me about being a better parent, wife, and sister.

I am thankful to have a beautiful and energetic sister. I am so thankful for the cute cousins that she has provided for my kids...they sure love their Kater-Bug and Baby Zacky :)

I am so thankful for my "little" brother. He is such a smarty pants and works so hard at school.  He is such a great role model with working hard and persevering through school & I hope to be able to instill some of this in each of my children.  Robby reminds me so much of Ben with his personality.  Both of them have an engineering mind set and love to figure out how things work.  They both can be show-offs as well :)

As I grow older and my little family has expanded, I have become more and more thankful for my family.  I am grateful that I am able to share my life with them eternally.  I am grateful for the love they show me unconditionally.  And I am grateful for their love and kindness the offer to my kids.

{And I love how we can be goofy together!}

I am also thankful for my family: my kids and my husband.  My kids are truly the highlight of my day.  As much as they drive me crazy at times, they make everything I go through bearable.  On my long, never ending stretches of nights that I go through on a weekly basis, I look forward to the precious moments when I can spend a few moments with each of my children.  Such as :doing Maddie's hair, picking out outfits for each of the kids, snuggling with my Eli as I pull him straight out of bed, cooking breakfast, having Robby and Maddie run and meet me at the door with hugs & kisses, dropping Miss M off at preschool, and then of course kissing my Hubby at the doorway as he leaves for work.

 

Sure love them!