First Day of Preschool

Carson started school this morning at 7:45AM! Yikes! We are hardly out of bed before 8 let alone dressed, fed and out the door. I realized this morning why I stay at home. And the number 1 reason seems to be that I can't function properly before 8am. This school stuff may be enough to get me to start drinking coffee.

Carson was ecstatic. He was so excited to go to his new school at church and play on the big playground there. So somehow we got ourselves out the door and made it to school by 7:45am. He was a little shy but as soon as he saw the train table he realized this school thing wasn't going to be too bad.

Declan was a little worried that we were leaving Carson. We ran some errands and then came home to play for awhile before going to pick him up. As we walked into the school Carson was waiting for us in the entryway. He ran over to me and said, "I'm so happy your here mommy."

According to my little baby he had a busy day at school. Praying, eating donuts, singing The Wheels on the Bus, playing outside, potty break, meeting his teachers and all his new friends and playing with all the toys! Sounds like fun to me, can I go?

Let's hit the pool

We only have a few days left before the pool closes for the summer. I'm trying to not to think about that fact because we've really enjoyed our summer at the pool. It's been a good way to pass the afternoon off when daddy is working late. It's been so cool lately that it was actually chilly at the pool yesterday. That should not be the case in the middle of August. Despite everyone's foul moods yesterday the boys had a good time.

Poor timing on my part resulted in us getting there about 2 minutes before rest period. Just enough time to get a little wet and cold.

Then I had to try and keep them out of the pool for the next ten minutes. An exercise that isn't always easy.

Carson passed the time by playing on the ropes but then he got lectured by the pool manager for it. Oops.

Nothing says brotherly love like spitting in each others faces.

Check out all those little freckles and the wet eye lashes! Too cute.

It took quite awhile for Carson to go to bed last night which included a nice poop accident. It was a great way to end my day. So I enjoyed a big bowl of ice cream and told myself tomorrow was a new day...we could start fresh. Only problem with that.......school started on Monday around here and this morning at 6:15 AM we were so nicely woken up by the high school marching band having practice. 6:15 AM!! Are you kidding me? If they have practice every morning someone is going to get a complaint. We are at least a mile away from them. I feel sorry for all those houses across the street! Good Lord.

Staying Home

I love my job. I love being home with the boys every day. I know I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to be with them during such an important time in their life. We've made sacrifices, we've cut out any wants and we've made a conscious decision to do this no matter what. I know I am lucky, I know this.

Most days the boys are great. We have truly been blessed with two boys who are very well behaved. Most days they get along beautifully and I get lots of compliments on how well they get along, care for each other, etc. Most days I feel like the luckiest mom in the world.

Most days.

Today.......not one of them! Today is the day I've considered two things 1.) Applying for a full time job or 2.) Sell the boys....to the highest bidder. I wonder which would happen faster?

There has been more whining, crying and complaining in the last 6 hours since they got up then in the last 6 weeks.

Don't touch me, That's mine, No brother, my turn, mooommmmmyy, nnnnoooo, leave me alone, mmmmooommmmmyy brother is taking it, mommmmyyyyy, crying, loud screaming, more crying, get off of me, brothers touching me, mommmyyyyyy and on and on and on. You get the picture. How I made it to naptime without losing it is beyond me.

A few weeks ago we had a similiar day. I decided that we all needed to take a breath, say a little prayer and hopefully start over with a little (or maybe alot) less whining. So I made up a little prayer for Carson to say to help him slow down a little. Now its his favorite thing to say and usually request it be said before bed every night. So, I think it's my turn to say the prayer....

Dear God,
Please grant me patience and self control.
Amen

The fall of the marshmallow.

Carson was so excited to eat marshmallows this weekend. He couldn't wait for daddy to start the fire so we could "woast sum mawrhsamallos on da fira." So once we got the fire going and got the marshmallow cooking he was beyond thrilled. By the way, Trevor and I totally disagree on how this should be done. He's too much a of a perfectionist and prefers it to be perfectly golden brown. I, on the other hand, prefer to start the thing on fire and let it char itself. Yummy! But I digress. So Trevor started the roasting and as it started to turn golden brown Carson said in the most pathetic and sad little voice...

"Oh no da mawrshamallos is wuined."

Bees, Bikes and Chicken

Declan has started to show alot of interests in Carson's "big boy" bikes lately. He's far from reaching the pedals but he gets his little legs on the ground and tries to get going. He's pretty good on the big wheel but prefers to be pushed on the trike. It's weird to see him getting so old. It feels like I just brought him home from the hospital.

A few weeks ago we noticed a large number of bees going in and out of a crack in our foundation. It seemed like a weird spot for these little creatures to live. So we went and got some stuff to spray in there but it didn't work well. It killed a few but there was still alot of them there. Then on Friday Trevor got stung by one of them. Bees 1 Trevor 0. So last night they ventured out to get some Raid, why that wasn't purchased the first time I'm not sure. But it did the trick.
Bees 1 Trevor (at least) 25.

I grabbed a bag of our chicken nuggets at the store last week. I was surprised today when I opened them up and they were in the shape of numbers. Well isn't that cute? Back to School chicken nuggets (that's what the bag said!). Lucky for me the boys' will probably refuse to eat any chicken nugget not in the shape of a 1, 2 or 3 from now on. Because these are WAY more fun.

Camping

We went camping this weekend with the boys. We were barely gone 24 hours. Our car was more packed for this 24 hours then it was for week long trip to Montana. And we used pretty much everything we brought. We were talking about going out to the Black Hills next summer for a few days to camp. At this rate I'll need to rent a U-haul to get us there.

The boys were big helpers and very excited to get the tent up.

Goofing around in the tent.

Last time we went camping Carson was younger then Declan now!! Look at that little boy and all his hair!

Hey, everyone's looking at the camera.

Hiking up the stairs.

The boys were hiking champs. We hiked for almost 2 hours and they made it the whole way with minimal carrying.

Me and my boys taking a break from our big hike.

At the end of our hike we stopped and listen to a lady talk about snakes. She even let the boys pet it.

Both boys skipped their nap on Saturday. They were exhausted and are still trying to catch themselves up.

Daddy's little helpers.

It's a fire!

Time to relax.

Desperately digging for the marshmallows.

Declan just wanted the chocolate.

But then figure out the real thing was pretty good stuff.

And Carson loved them too.

But eventually just went for the straight chocolate.

Declan soon realized that it was pretty fun to squish the marshmallow between his fingers. Doesn't that look yummy??

We all kind of felt this way when we ate one too many smores.

Declan was thrilled to find little rocks on road. Its his new favorite thing to play with.

The campground showed A Bug's Life at night. Carson was thrilled.

Declan could have cared less. He just wanted to annoy his brother and eat the popcorn.

The boys slept pretty well in the tent too. And as you can see.....we still have the plug.

Time to put the tent away. Carson would prefer to sleep in it every night.

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy....

I was trying to make a video this morning to illustrate just how much Delcan talks. It's non-stop...all day long. Did I mention it's non-stop? No matter where we are or what we're doing he talks all the time. And in the morning its always Mommy this, Mommy that, Mommy, Mommy Mommy!! You try and count just how many times he says it. It seems to be more frequent in the morning. Must be trying to make up for the 12 hours he was asleep!