Perspective

Yesterday was a tough day around here. Ty is adjusting to sleeping in his crib for naps as opposed to the car seat which he is too big for and we are moving him to Gabe's old car seat and moving Gabe into a new one. Ty did not like sleeping in his crib for naps, does great at night but for some reason nap time was horrible yesterday. Gabe did not sleep either, Cranky Boys + No Naps= Crabby Mommy. I realized today it is all a matter of perspective, what you choose to do with what God gives you that day. Yesterday I choose to make it a bad day and feel all down and woe is me, my kids didn't take naps, they were crabby, they were crying a lot, etc. I was reminded of that today as I read a friends blog and visited the link that was given.http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/ God has blessed me with two healthy, beautiful boys and yet I was all down because they didn't nap and we didn't have the best day. Wow really puts things into perspective. I leave you with pictures of my beautiful blessings, sometimes I just need a reminder of how much of a blessing they are!

Success!

Gabe finally pooped in the toilet! Yes we get excited about pooping in toilets around here, it is amazing once you become a parent what you get excited about. I had promised him that if he would poop in the toilet we would go to Chuck E Cheese so Sunday we made our promised trip(no I am not above bribery) He had so much fun playing the games and riding the rides. He even ate quite a bit of pizza which I was surprised. He also liked to watch the big puppets up front and Bob and Larry were even on the TV for awhile. He is not super skilled at the games yet but still managed to get over 100 tickets and picked out two ugly little lizards from the toy counter. This weekend we were able to get a few things done on the house as well, namely Carl started on the fireplace wall! It is in the beginning stages of being framed so hopefully it will be completed before too long. We are still enjoying watching all the plants come up in our yard, new ones seem to spring up each day(well at least when it was warm, it is really cold today) Our Magnolia Tree in the front yard is in almost full bloom, we have a big one in the backyard as well but it is still shut up tight, I don't think it wants to come out with all this cold weather. Gabe had a great weekend, he got to take his tractor out to the backyard and play quite a bit this weekend. We bought Ty a cute little outfit for his dedication this past weekend that has a cute little hat with it so we thought we would try and get a few pictures of him wearing it(I doubt he keeps it on with the outfit on dedication day) He looks like our little Scotsman with his red hair and bright blue eyes and plaid hat. Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Forward Crawl

Well army crawl anyway. Ty discovered he could indeed go forward this morning and was army crawling up a storm. Following in the footsteps of his big brother who pretty much army crawled until he could walk, Ty may figure out the standard method of crawling soon. On a sad note Red and Green (Gabe's goldfish) were found floating this morning. Gabe was kind of sad but is already talking about getting new fishies so I think he is getting over it. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Well it's not Monday but it is a rainy day and the mood around here kind of matches the weather today. Gabe is especially bummed it is raining since Grandma and Grandpa brought over his ride on tractor from their house last night and now he can't go out and ride it. Ty woke up in sort of a funk this morning, it seemed he didn't get any sleep or something because he fell asleep in his high chair while eating(or trying to eat) breakfast, I didn't have the camera close by so I didn't get a picture but it was funny. He is now down for a nap, hopefully he will wake on the right side of the crib. Since the weather is dreary outside I am posting some pictures from a few days ago when it was beautiful weather, in hopes the sunshine will return soon!

Raise the Roof

it is finished! It was actually finished last Monday but I just now got out to take pictures of it. It looks great and we are so thankful it is done. We are slowly continuing to work on the house and get things done. The kitchen cabinets are now assembled and in the process of being set, we have gone to Lowe's picked out a counter top and they are supposed to be calling in the next few days to set up a time to measure. Carl thinks he knows what he needs to get started on the fireplace wall so hopefully that will begin sometime this week(yes Carl that is a very big hint:) Carl got the ceiling fan installed in our room and it is now done and we actually have some pictures hanging on the walls! We have been pleasantly surprised by our yard, when we started looking at the house this past fall it looked so over run and not pretty at all but as the weather gets warmer we have so many plants coming up, daffodils, crocus, hyacinth, magnolias, tulips and many as of yet unidentified plants. I have posted some pictures of our yard and all our flowers, we also have roses, which we really have no clue how to take care of them so if any one has any tips for us, it would be much appreciated. We have 2 magnolia trees as well, one in the front and one in the back, I have posted a picture of it today it is just starting to bloom I will post another one when it is all out. I also posted pictures of Gabe enjoying the weather today with his new bat and ball that Great Grandma and Grandpa gave him, he actually uses the bat as a golf club but he still has fun. He also loved when I brought our outdoors love seat into the yard today, he was "relalxin" for awhile.






Ty is still not crawling however he can move quite well and manages to get himself into rather funny places, like under our dining room table. The problem is he can't get himself out. We hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Final Installment-Gabe's Song of the Day

Yes that's right today is the final installment of Gabe's song of the day. Today he has chosen to dedicate his song to his Great Uncle Bone, whose birthday is today. Gabe loves Uncle Bone and all of his tractors! Each night when we pray before bed we usually ask Gabe who we should pray for that night and almost always the first person Gabe says is Uncle Bone(don't feel too left out Dave, he also asks to pray for the goats at your house:) So have a great birthday and don't work too hard. We love you!

Gabe's Song of the Day Part 4

Today Gabe presents.....
The VeggieTales Theme Song(well a broken, 2 year old version of the song)
He misses quite a few of the verses and doesn't have all the words down but he loves this song and sings it many times a day. When he falls down at the end he is being Larry the Cucumber when he falls with his tuba after the song is done. If you have not seen VeggieTales it is one of Gabe's top recommendations.
I won't write the words today as Gabe misses quite a few of them but he doesn't care:)

Gabe's Song of the Day Part 3

We have finally had beautiful weather! Yesterday we got our flower beds all raked out and the boys were able to get some much needed outside time. We kept our nephew for awhile last night as his mom and dad were busy with convention here in town and I just had to post pictures of Ty and Clark in their matching PJ's. Gabe actually has a pair too but they are MIA. Clark was extremely tired in these pictures but would laugh when Carl made goofy noises at him. Also I had to post some pictures of my breakfast buddies this morning. It was bath day so they were eating with no clothes. I gave Ty a biter biscuit to tide him over while I was getting Gabe's breakfast ready, wow I forgot how messy those are. Last but not least, Gabe's song of the day. Today's selection is Zacchaeus. I don't think he really knows the words very well but he tries.
Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he
he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see
and as the savior passed that way he looked up in the tree
and he said Zacchaeus you come down
For I'm going to your house today
for I'm going to your house today.

d

Gabe's Song of the Day Part 2

Here it is Gabe's song of the day-
Today's Selection for your listening pleasure...
Twinkle, Twinkle (here are the words for those who live under a rock and don't know them)
(sorry it is kind of soft, for some reason he sings this song very quietly)
twinkle, twinkle little star
how I wonder what you are
up above the world so high
like a diamond in the sky
twinkle twinkle little star
how I wonder what you are

Ty's Favorite Word and Gabe's Song of the Day

8 months old today, Wow I say it every month and every month it keeps coming faster and faster but Ty is getting so big! I can't believe he is 8 months old today. He is still not crawling but trying so hard, he can get up on all 4's and rock back and forth but can't figure out the forward motion yet. He can do a full push up too, he gets up on his toes and pushes himself up, I need to try and get a picture of it. I took a video of him saying his favorite(and only) word this morning, and while doing that Gabe decided to give a concert. I think he sang almost every song he knows for the camera this morning so for the next few days we will have posted the Gabe song of the day, don't worry I will let you know what it is as he is not the clearest singer in the world. He is doing wonderfully with the POTTY training, the poopy thing seems to be a hard concept to grasp. We have had several of those accidents but very, very few potty accidents, for all his hard work he got to pick out two goldfish at Walmart Friday night, he loves them and has named them Red and Green(I have no idea where that came from) he also has a snail, Carl suggested Gary like on Spongebob but so far it just gets called "the snail" Gabe loves his fish and is faithful to feed them every morning, the first day he fed them he was lovingly telling them "Come on fishy's you need to eat more food" Here he is with his very full sticker chart for going potty, we need to start a new one! House progress is coming along, we were able to go to IKEA on Saturday and get the rest of the things needed to complete the kitchen and other odds and ends throughout the house, my mom and dad kept the boys which was great as it was much easier to shop without them, plus we would have had to have left them in Minnesota as the car was packed to the gills with the backseats folded down on the way home. Hopefully I will have fully completed roof and kitchen pictures to post soon. With no further adieu I present Ty's favorite word and Gabe's song of the day. Today's selection is
The B-I-B-L-E (translation)
The B-i-b-l-e, yes that's the book for me
I stand alone on the word of God
The B-i-b-l-e
BIBLE

a roof, a haircut,a dr. appt. and a couple of brothers

Just like the title this post and pictures are rather random today. We have a new roof! Well part of a new roof, the back side of the house is almost done, the garage is done and hopefully weather permitting we will have a complete new roof by the end of this weekend. I couldn't believe what a mess it was around here when they tore off the old roof, it didn't help there were two layers of shingles that had to come off, one of which was old cedar shakes that would just splinter into many tiny pieces. They did do a great job cleaning up.


















Gabe has a much needed haircut today, it is getting so long I'm pretty sure we could put some cute little pigtails in it but I don't think he or his daddy would like that too much. This is a picture of Gabe before his haircut, I will update when we get back and post an after picture. UPDATE: Here is the after, much shorter, he looks like such a big boy!


Ty is going to the Doctor today as he has had a fever off and on for the past week or so and is very stuffy but without a runny nose, it is making him gag and sometimes throw up and last night he woke up at 1:00 screaming and it took him a long time to calm down even after I came in and held him, hopefully something simple and hopefully there is something they can do for him. UPDATE: Guess what nothing is wrong, just a stuffy nose, ugh I hate it when that happens, I am just sure there is something wrong and then nope nothing, so back to square one who knows why he is acting so crabby and not eating and not sleeping very well, not that I want something to be wrong with him but at least it would explain things. The picture to the left is him this afternoon, he loves playing on the new rug in the living room.

Gabe is embarking on the world of potty training for the 2nd time now. We tried once before and it just wasn't working, he would cry and not want to use the potty and he always wanted to put a diaper back on, he would even hold it until nap time when I put a diaper on him to go and then when the underwear went back on he would hold again until bedtime, this time we are using a sticker chart incentive and he loves it, he has done a great job so far, no crying or not wanting to go and he loves putting stickers on his chart. We have promised a fishy for his room if he continues to do well with it until Friday. The boys have been enjoying the new house and things are continuing to progress, we still need to get the fireplace wall done and a few things in the kitchen, however most boxes and tubs are unpacked. I will update with haircut and dr. news this afternoon.

Step 3(as promised)

Okay so we are officially moved into our house, it still needs some work here and there but can all be done while we are living here. We moved in last Sunday and thanks so much to everyone who came and helped, we had 10 guys and it only took slightly over 20 minutes to unload the big trailer, pretty amazing, we feel so blessed to have so much love and support. We are still in the unpacking process which is going slowly but surely. We now have our upstairs vanity installed in the bathroom so that room is unpacked and done, Ty's room is done minus a few things to hang on the wall, Gabe's room is also done minus a few wall hangings, our room...well let's just say it is a work in progress as is the living room and kitchen although it looks much better then it did before, just a few trim details and we still need to figure out 2 cabinets to replace where we have rearranged in there. With spring finally arriving we have discovered our back yard is full of growth, the crocus are bloomed in a few spots and all kinds of green is poking through the dead brush, add raking and cutting back the yard to the to do list for the weekend. The boys are both adjusting very well to the move, Gabe loves his new brown striped room and it is very nice to have a room for Ty, no more sleeping in the dining room in the pack and play for him. He has started to babble now and says DA DA DA DA a lot, much to my dismay, I chalk it up to da da being easier to say then ma ma. Anyway things are going well and hopefully our house will look much more organized soon. Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather today.


Ty in his blue and brown room
Gabe in his brown striped room


Gabe helping Grandpa install the downstairs sink
The kitchen

I know, I know

I haven't updated on the move yet, coming soon I promise, I just haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet, I will try to do it soon. On a funny note we finally got a thank you card ready for Carl's boss for taking us to Burlington back in February(yes we are slow) and Gabe colored it and wanted to put stickers on it, he is really into stickers these days as we are slowly but surely working on potty training and when he goes in the potty he gets a sticker to put on his chart, anyway he was picking out stickers and after he had several on he looked at me and said "Duane go potty lots" What a kid! Pictures coming soon, I promise.