Blessed!

We are listening to a series at church on being blessed, so I will continue with that theme for our family. We are so super blessed! Not every mom is able to get their kiddos off the bus every day and spend a majority of her day with a new puppy. Not every person is able to work from home doing her DREAM job. Not everyone can spend all of spring break with her cute boys. We are blessed and grateful beyond words! 

Spring break was packed with fun things and I mean PACKED. We loved every minute of it! One night we had the boys' second cousin over for a sleepover. She is the sweetest, cutest little thing and the kids all had a blast together. We can't wait to do it again! 

Another day I took the boys and Elijah's bff to see Zootopia. It was such a cute movie and the kids all had a fun time. Look at these happy faces! I love it!

We gave Buddy tons of love and attention. He has been chewing on things less, but still a lot. He gets into moods throughout the day when he seems to NEED to chew and rebel. Today he started chewing toilet paper off of the rolls in the bathroom. Seriously. When I try to remove something from his mouth, he refuses to drop said object unless there is a treat staring him in the face. He is a lot of work, but he is so worth it. The boys adore him. We can tell that he is going to be a very good doggy. He went to his first puppy kindergarten class on Saturday and we learned so much about how to train him. We love our Bud who likes to chew on everything....including broccoli and kale! :)

My dad and stepmom were in town for a few days and we were so happy to spend time with them. We did some fun things while they were here, including BOWLING followed by McDonald's! They were able to spend some time in school with each boy and that was so special for everyone.

The boys have had a few great days in school this week. Elijah has received two GREAT reports from his teachers. Yay!

I am still trying to figure out a routine with work and puppy during the day. It is challenging! Productivity for Pip and Ebby is an an all-time low, but we will get there. Like I said, we are BLESSED!

Thanks for checking in!!

Tears and happiness

For the past two years we haven't known exactly how much Daylight Savings has impacted Elijah's sleep because everything else was totally chaotic. It was impossible to pinpoint the main pieces of the puzzle because we were basically existing in the middle of a tornado. Now that things are much calmer, we have been able to see that Daylight Savings wreaks havoc on our early bird. That one teeny tiny hour of change sends our oldest boy into a tailspin. We have seen wake-up times between 1:30 and 4:30 for the past few weeks. Today he slept until 4:46 and I practically did cartwheels around the house! We will find our way back to a better place slowly. 

Last Friday Dan and I went to the boys' school to watch Elijah and the rest of the third graders do a Veterans' Day performance. Honestly, it made me sad and I wish we could redo it. Right away I could see that Elijah was upset. His teacher told me that he was nervous, but I know my boy and I could see that something specific was bothering him. I noticed that every kid was holding a flag...except for him. I knew he was upset about this. I frantically looked around for an extra flag that I could grab and bring to him, but I couldn't see anything. Aside from interrupting the music teacher, I didn't know what else to do. I stood and watched my boy cry through the entire performance. :( He stood so still with his arms folded in front of him, occasionally reaching up to wipe tears from his face and not doing a single action or singing a single word. I have been beating myself up, thinking I should have done something! I don't know what, but I should have been able to make him happy! The good news is that when it was his class' turn to come down in front and do a dance, Elijah participated! He didn't just participate...he did GREAT! He did all the actions! That turned things around for him (and for me). 

On Saturday we were so lucky to be able to spend time with my cousin's cutie pie. The boys were BEYOND excited to have Veda over! She is such a sweet girl and they all play so well together. The three of them played "Inside Out" and created some Play-Doh animals and then we headed to see the new Peanuts movie. It was such a fun day!

And on Sunday, thanks to Hope Kids, we were able to watch a live Timberwolves game! KG is back! I worked at Timberwolves games years ago, so I felt right at home. It was fun to watch the boys take everything in.

My silly boys with their pants pulled up just a tad too high! :)

Yesterday after the Twolves game, our boys were TIRED. Sammy was being especially sassy in the car and started doing some uncharacteristic whining that lasted for way too long. I said, "Sammy, can we please stop the whining?" He whined back to me in the longest, most drawn out voice: "WHINING IS WORTH IT!" Dan, Elijah and I exploded in laughter.

The boys got Operation Christmas Child boxes at church on Sunday, so today after school we picked up some goodies to put inside the boxes. I LOVED watching them get so excited about blessing kids who are less fortunate. I let them pick out what to put in the boxes (with some direction) and they took such pride and were genuinely so excited about making other kids happy. Tomorrow they will write letters to the kids and we will drop off the boxes together so they can experience the entire process. I love that they are old enough to appreciate and understand the concept of giving!

We have noticed some definite self-awareness in Elijah lately that is good...and bad. He is starting to see how other kids see him and he doesn't like it. He tells us all the time, "Everyone thinks I'm dumb." It kills me. We do our best to assure him that he is so super smart. That he is SUCH a good boy and so loved and liked by so many people. Even though this hurts my heart, it is also good. It's good that he is starting to look outside himself a bit. This will be a process for him, but we are here to love him and help him through it.

Both boys got their report cards today! Sammy's report was excellent. He is doing so well in kindergarten. We are so proud of him. Elijah's report was great, too! We are proud of how far he has come in the past year (heck, the past almost nine years!) and we see every "little" success as a very huge thing. Instead of getting hung up on current challenges, we see the progress and it encourages us and makes us so happy. There is SO much progress being made these days and we see every bit of it. We see it all, Elijah!

Thanks for checking in! Hoping you all have a wonderful week!

Zoo and MOA!

These photos are a bit out of order, so please forgive me. I went along with Elijah's class on their MN Zoo field trip today. Whew! I'm happy to be sitting on my butt right now! I had a GREAT group of four awesome kids who listened well and stuck by my side. We had a fun day, but it was a wee bit long. I had one kid (Elijah) who tired very easily and another who acquired a blister on her heel pretty quickly. Hence, two hours of piggy-back rides. After lunch, I rented a stroller and pushed the two of them around while the other two did a great job of keeping up. It worked out great! AND I got my workout in for the day!

This pic was taken at the MOA on Saturday. We went to a family birthday party and were able to ride on a few rides with my cousin Trevor and his cutie, Veda. Here's E and Veda on the ferris wheel!

This is my Sammy! Here's what I get when I ask him to pose for a picture. :)

For the first time ever, Elijah went on the "fast cars" with someone besides Dan or me. He and Veda had so much fun together! The blurred heads say it all.

So cute!

Happy cousins!

Here is a pic of the boys as we waited in the cell phone lot to pick Dan up from the airport on Saturday evening. We couldn't wait to see him!

And here is our sad car tonight. This is cosmetic and poor Big Red will not be driven with duct tape. :) Hopefully within the next few days we'll have a new hood and be ready for our road trip!

It was such a nice day here in MN today despite the forecast, so I hope you local friends were able to enjoy it!

Sammy's 4th birthday party

We had Sammy's 4th birthday party today, despite a few hiccups. We had planned to have it at the dropzone as we usually do, but the weather was not ideal. We decided not to make our family drive that far for a rainy party. Then we found that many of the nearby park pavilions were booked. We found one that was not available...yet available. There was a sign on it saying it was booked, but nobody was there. So we held a paranoid fourth birthday party for our Sammy! Wooo, livin' on the edge!

Dan and Elijah ventured out to pick up Sammy's cake and balloons this morning. Sammy and I were preparing food and we missed Dan's call: "Uhhh, the hood just flew off the car, so it'll take us a bit longer to get home." Uhhm, WHAT?! The hood flew off the car? WHAT?! It took me five minutes to comprehend this. We have no idea how this happened. Whatever the cause, my sweet Big Red's hood laid in a ditch off the interstate for most of the day. After Sammy's party, Dan retrieved it. Classy, huh?! That's us...always full of unpredictability and strange/funny stories.

Sammy had a great party! He was given tons of love.

We have to work on his camera smile, though. :)

His bro has the camera smile down.

"Sammy, do a silly dance!"

This is my favorite photo from the day. These boys love each other!

Two months ago, Sammy requested a fire truck piñata for his birthday. Wish granted, sweet boy!

Sam and his cousin Miya had fun trying to shoot a Cow Gun into Dan's backside. :) "Do it, Sammy!" "Ok, I'm tryyyyying!"

I'm always so happy to capture photos of the boys and their cousins when we are all together. This one was the dud of the bunch, but somehow I love it!

Look at these adorable faces!

Sammy with his awesome Grandma and Grandpa!

The birthday boy with Mommy and Daddy!

Sammy has been so excited to tell everyone lately how "speedy" he is. He proved it to us all today!

With a non-functional car, Elijah's last week of school, Sam's birthday on Wednesday and preparing for a big road trip on Friday...I'm feeling super stressed. The only way I can get any sleep tonight is through prayer! We always get things done, and I have to keep that in mind. I asked Dan on our way home from Sammy's party tonight, "Is every family as crazy as ours?!" Without skipping a beat he said, "Absolutely not. But we have much more adventure than most!" I considered this for a minute and was suddenly satisfied. I remember going to that same lifeless place every day back when I worked at THAT place and being so depleted of life. Some days/weeks/months seem so insane for our family, but I prefer adventure over the alternative. We are a very blessed family!

Pray for my car and its hood, please! :) I hope you all have a great start to your week and thank you so much for peeking in.

Busy day!

We had another fun and busy day today. Thankfully Elijah saved pooping in his pants until 20 minutes before bed tonight. :) We were able to go to our niece Kayla's baseball game, which was super fun for the kids. Sammy and Elijah were all over the place! Wanting to see aunties and Grandma and cousins and the people and the playground. My head was spinning trying to keep track of two zooming little monkeys!

Sammy formed a sweet little bond with his oldest cousin on Dan's side of the family, James ("Bames"). When we left, he let out a sad little cry and said, "Baaa-aaaamess....see Bames 'gain?!" I love that our boys have cousins so close in age and that they are all such good pals.

After we got home from the baseball game I put Sammy down for a nap and Elijah and I had quiet time in the living room. He was watching Despicable Me and I was dozing a bit on the couch. All of a sudden I heard, "MOMMY! I have to poop in the toilet!" I sat straight up and said, "YAY! GO!" So he did. He was proud of himself. When Sammy woke up from his nap we immediately redeemed Elijah's #8 "prize," which was a dinner trip to Davanni's. The boys enjoyed it. Then we redeemed his "prize" that he received from Grammie and Gramps last week, a McDonald's cone!

I snapped this photo just as Sammy stole Elijah's last bite of cone. "OH NO!" :) And then 30 seconds later, Sammy thought it would be funny to run through McDonald's so I would chase after him. When I finally found him he was IN THE KITCHEN. Seriously. I had to run back behind the registers and into the kitchen. There were about 10 people, jaws to the floor, looking at me like, WHAT THE...?!?!

We got home from this excursion and had some "bucket-time" outside (it was a hot day!) and then....poop in pants. I did my absolute best not to let my frustration show, which is seriously one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. 

I had a dream last night that a doctor was handing me a note. As he handed it to me, he said, "Medically, everything is fine here, Megan. This is just a matter of Elijah's development and it goes along with the trend that everything he has ever done has taken considerable time." I grabbed the note from his hand and said to myself, "Duh." 

And so we continue to be patient and do our best. We will get there, I know we will!

Elijah has been quite the artist lately. He spends huge chunks of time at his easel in the garage, not speaking to anyone and concentrating on his masterpieces. When he is finished, he will give me detailed accounts of his "works." 

Dan has not been home since early Thursday morning! I am hoping this is not an indication of what the rest of the summer will be like. Not that the little boys and I don't have a great time together. We would just like to see Dan once in a while! While sitting at a stop light today, Sammy said, totally out of the blue, "Daddy be hoooommme!" and started crying. :(

I'm sure we will have all sorts of new adventures and news tomorrow (laughing crazily)! Whoever knows what is in store, right?! Have a good evening, everyone.