Confessional

It's nearly one am. My post run high is coming to a rash and I have completed my nightly routine. Everyone is sleeping and there is a sweet baby girl lying next to me with her little arm outstretched and resting on mine. It's like she has to be touching me to sleep. This evening while I was making dinner I had Emilia on my back in the Beco. She kept rubbing my side with her tiny hand and the sweetness of the gesture nearly made me weep.

So my confession. I like to watch my boys sleep. And girl. I'm still working on retraining my brain to say children or kids instead of boys. After Owen has come out of his room approximately 94,562 times for various necessities, and after Julian has closed his latest book, turned off his book light and shoved them both haphazardly under his pillow, and when Gabe has perfectly arranged his assortment of puppies, had his nightly snack (string cheese) and filled his water bottle, I like to sneak into their room. I like to peer into the darkness and witness how they're sleeping. Gabe never has blankets. Never. Julian is a snuggler. He usually cons his way into Gabe's bed, Gabe into his bed, or crashes and hogs Owen's toddler bed. Owen is usually half on half off his bed. He might have blankets on him and he ALWAYS has at least 4 OBV tickety bu blankets at all times. I like to imagine what they're dreaming of. I like to push their hair back and kiss their foreheads softly, careful not to wake them.

All too soon they will be grown and gone from their bunk-beds. Serving missions if they choose, getting married, having children of their own. I want to remember the little things. I want to remember how Gabriel sleeps with his face pressed into the pillow and his mouth wide open. I want to know that Julian grinds his teeth when he is dreaming. I need to remember that Owen? He gets that drooling habit from his mama.

My confession is this. Even on my worst day, I am here. I am where I belong. This is MY family, forever. I love them. They make me crazy. I make them crazy. They make me laugh. They make me proud. They help to keep me here and now. Present. And they make me want to do better, try harder, BE better.

So tonight, Owen had one of my random vampire diaries books hidden between his mattress and the crib. Julian slept alone, snuggling his guinea pig stuffed animal, Patches. Gabe? No blanket. Duh. Asleep completely across his entire bed. Bed hog to the max.

Gabe's 1st Day of Pre-K

I've posted on facebook about how Gabe's having trouble lately. Very emotional. Sad when Barry leaves, fine when I do. Well today was the poor chap's first day of pre-k. The last year before kindergarten! SO crazy. He has been S.O. excited. Non stop talk of Miss Cindy, how Lily and London are in his class, how he gets to wear a backpack, and how Miss Cindy gets the biggest cubby, and he has a hooker for his backpack (yes hooker) you get the idea, I'm sure. Here he is before we left for school! Happy as can be!

He was excited even walking up to the school. He let me take pictures, which is hard for him.

Hanging up his backpack on his hooker

He was even all smiles as we walked into his classroom. Then when I picked up Owen to leave, who seriously wanted to stay at preschool, I saw it. The lip quiver. :/ Then he started getting emotional. And then Miss Cindy, who stands MAYBE 5'1" tried to pick up Gabe. For anyone that knows him, you know he's a SOLID kid. She had trouble. I hope she didn't pull something. He weighs 3 lbs less than Julian, and he's 2 years younger. He's also tall, less than 2" shorter than Julian. He's a BIG kid. Poor Miss Cindy, poor Gabriel, but seriously it was all I could do to not laugh at her trying to pick him up. I will report back with how his first day went, I haven't received any phone calls, so I'm guessing it is going ok.

Why hello there!

I'm in post birthday party coma. Gabe turned 3. I have eaten more cupcakes than should be legal, but dang. They're GOOD!

We had a little party at my house on Saturday for 10 of Gabe's closest friends. It was so fun, and not TOO crazy, just the right amount of crazy. I did get mobbed at the candy table though, it did resemble a circus!

I'm ashamed to admit I haven't had a date with my friend Mr. Treadmill in a WEEK! Too much party preparations! But I vow that I will reunite with my friend, and continue working out. I have noticed a definite difference in my energy level since stopping my workouts. So tonight, I will work out!

The party was so fun though. The decorations were perfectly circus-y. I'm so thankful to have Stacy Jacobsen as my BFF! She designed all the graphics!



{left to right-Owen & Daddy. Delicious Carrot Cake Cupcake with Cream Cheese Icing for Gabe's preschool class. Gabe's Birthday shirt. Sweet Heart Cupcakes, in circus colors. Finished Cupcakes, with toppers. Bean Bag Game with Tent graphics. (BEST GAME IDEA EVER! The kids LOVED it!) Lollipops with 3 graphic. Gabe's special cupcake. All of the cupcakes! Yum!}


{More cupcakes. Waterbottles. Waterbottles. Treatbag. My favorite of the graphics!}

Candy table!









The photo booth! SO much fun! All of the kids got into it (except for Owen, ha!)





Thank you so much to those that made this party possible! Thanks for spending my baby boy's 3rd birthday with us! It was sure fun! ;&hearts

Gabriel, the trickster

Gabe is always, always yelling, "Baaaaaaaaaar. Go?" He yells the first part sooooo loudly and draws it out for about 1 minute, before sweetly asking, "Go?" It's darling, and 99.9% of the time, I have to tell him, "Daddy's at school."

Today, Gabriel used the "Go?" for another purpose. He tricked me.

He was 'hiding' his binky (pacifier, binki, I have no idea how to spell binky) in between his body and his arm, his little arm pressing it down.
G-"Maaaaa. Ki, go???"
M-"Oh Gabe. I don't know, where did your binky go?"
G-pulling his binky out of his arm, "Der is."

He was really proud of himself for tricking me. What an insanely sweet little boy I have here.

He also went into the pantry and got two packages of fruit snacks, bounded out of the kitchen and handed one to Julian.
M-"Julian tell Gabe thank you, he is sharing."
J-"Thanks Gabe." (No enthusism what so ever.)
G-"'Come." (He doesn't say your welcome, he just says, 'come.)

I'm pretty sure that Gabe is much sweeter to Julian, than Julian to Gabe. Gabe has a temper, don't get me wrong, but he's so considerate, even at 21 months. He likes to sneak attack you with kisses or hugs. If you ask for one? No way Jose. He has to initiate it. He is a great dancer with great taste in music. He likes Jason Mraz (who is my new favorite ever), Muse, The Coraline Soundtrack, and loves some Britney. Yesterday at the store, Julian kept singing, "La, la, la, la-la-la-la-la." (From If You Seek Amy.)

My friend Tara posted a few months ago, about something the Army is doing for active duty spouses. They're giving the spouses up to $6000 for a mobile career. I definitely wanted to capitalize on this, and registered yesterday for some photography classes. It's been a loooong time since I was in school, so I'm nervous. I realize it won't be algebra, or English class, but I'm nervous. I'm not sure exactly when I start my classes, but I might need some models, especially as my kids are insanely uncooperative when the camera comes out. (Julian is at least, Gabe likes to pose, the poser.)

Oh, and Kerry, you asked where the pictures of the tree are. Well, right now? The tree has one ornament on it, plus the Gold star we HAD to buy at Hobby Lobby yesterday. Julian watched Barney's Chritmas Star like 3 times on Sunday. It HAD to be gold. OY! Where are the ornaments, you ask? Scattered around the floor surrounding the tree itself. I could take a picture of that, if you want.
Cute picture of Gabe...not so much of me, but he's my little lion-heart.

Family Home Morning?

Well, my boys are both sick-ish. Unexplained fevers? With Gabriel, that usually means that he's got an ear infection on the way. He has an appointment with the ENT on Tuesday.

Today, we decided since we weren't going to make it to church, we would do Family Home Morning. Julian was bummed about the lack of dessert at 9 am, but we had a good time. We talked about Heavenly Father, and who he is, and how much He loves us. We talked a little about Jesus, and our family. I was supposed to draw a picture, and after drawing Daddy, Mommy, Julian and Gabriel, Julian got seriously concerned and said, "Mommy you forgot LOLA!" Hehe! Someone is hoping for a little sister in the near future. Keep hoping buddy!

So, we then got out the Scrabble board game and Julian helped me make some words.


I'm going to print these out for the boys' room.




We went to the I-park, as Julian calls it. I was trying to take pictures for the goodmama photo contest. We were surprised to see a celebrity there...

Here is K-fed


Oooooh, just kidding that's Gabriel.







And Julian is obsessed with bones. He loves them. He loves to sit and read Netters Atlas of Anatomy. He loves them. This shirt, was perfect for him!



Also, Julian is so cute. He has a little hoarse voice today. On Spongebob, he is scared to lose his 'laughbox' and Julian today said, "Mommy, my scream box is broken!"

They were quiet...too quiet.

Yesterday, my boys got along, pretty well. Some days, they fight and fight and fight. All. day. long. Not yesterday. Yesterday they played well together, shared, and were geniunely nice to each other. It was a good day. Until, Julian or Gabriel, not entirely sure who did it, hurled a roll of toilet paper down the stairs. Julian exclaimed, "Mommy! It's a shooting star!" I really, really, really, didn't want to go upstairs to see exactly what they'd done.

You see, we buy our toilet paper and paper towels at Costco. Which means, since we just stocked up, we have a lot of paper towels and rolls of toilet paper. They are kept in our linen closet outside of the bathroom. Said closet is usually closed, and the boys hardly ever pay attention to it. Julian must have opened the closet, and had at it.

After the beautiful shooting star, I walked up the stairs, saw this, and walked downstairs to get my camera. I knew it would be 'good'.



Julian, heard me coming and threw some paper towels at me


And ran away


Angela, I'm sure this is killing your OCD! Sorry! I was pretty mad. I asked Julian why he did it, and he responded, "Because Mommy. It was sooooooooooooo fun." Seriously. I wasn't too mad after that. He (and Gabe) did help me clean it up. 2 garbage bags full of paper towels and toilet paper. I told Julian he hurt the Earth, and that really makes sense to him. So I don't think he'll be doing it again.

My parents and little sister, and nephew come in tomorrow! We're very excited. And I will be cleaning alllllllllllll day!

Barry is also being commissioned in the National Guard tomorrow! So there will be some fun posts to come!

Gabe is so sweet!

So yesterday Gabe woke up insanely early, at about 5:30 am. That is absolutely unacceptable! I got up with him and brought him downstairs. At about 9:30, after he'd tormented Julian to the brink of all out war!, he'd followed Julian upstairs. Julian retreated back downstairs, and Gabe. Gabe remained upstairs. After a few minutes, I went upstairs to check on him, and found this.



He'd climbed up on Julian's bed, found his bink, stole Julian's Sigg bottle, and leapster, and snuggled up and fell asleep.



He makes me swoon.

February is passing me by!

In some ways, I LOVE that February is a short month! In others, it's the pits! Here we are, February 3rd. That means there are only 24 days until Gabriel's birthday, and 25 days until his party! (PS There's going to be a party at the Maple Grove Clubhouse, if I ever get around to calling!) I'm sitting here watching Ellen, and knitting Gabriel's birthday longies. I sort of wonder if I stopped knitting if he would somehow stop growing? I highly doubt it, but it's a tempting thought. If I stopped knitting though, I know that I would be so mad when his birthday comes, with or without me knitting his pants, and I didn't have anything for him to wear.

The boys have been interesting the past few weeks. Sometimes they both skip naps. Sometimes they both nap. It's very rare that one naps while the other doesn't, it's usually a two for one type of deal.

Well I had hopes of a long blog post, but I hear my little cranky boy crying upstairs :)

Major Update!

So it's been a while since I've blogged. I didn't even get to blog about the trip home from Washington! OY!

I will say this. Gabe, walks! Seriously. Here is photographic evidence.






PS This is what it looks like when I do laundry....I don't remember putting that boy in the laundry?!