Tattoos, Potty Training and Road Rash

Colt loves tattoos, he also loves showing off his muscles.

See what I mean???

Notice the band-aid across his forehead...

...and the scrapes on his nose and cheeks.

Road : 1

Colt : 0

Well all it took was for Colt to start pooping in the potty and falling on his face and he gets his very own post!! The tattoos were Dave's idea, he had to stay home with the kids on Thursday this past week and he told Colt everytime he goes pee in the potty he gets a new tattoo. His body is now covered with tattoos. That same day he happened to be playing frisbee with Dave in the road by our house and he went running for the frisbee, tripped and fell flat on his face. Dave said he didn't even put his hands out to catch him so his face took all the fall. He was tough though, when I got home from work and asked him what happened he said to me "the road punched my lights out." It's a running joke between Colt and Dave that they are going to punch each other's lights out (yeah blame that parenting style on Dave), so I just about died laughing and so did Dave when Colt told me that the "road punched his lights out." The kid never fails to make me laugh day after day. He sure makes me happy! What would make me even happier is if he would just potty train himself, he has been wearing big boy underwear for the last 2 weeks and doing well. I am not posting anything else about potty training until he has been doing it accident free for at least 2 weeks otherwise I am afraid I will jinx myself.

The best way to start a Monday......

 .....new pictures of my boys!

 

  

 

Dave and I feel so blessed that we have these little "men" in our lives. Even with all the challenges that come along with it they are a true joy to both of us and I can't imagine life without them.

Early Birthday Celebration

Dave's family came over today and gave me a little early birthday celebration. It was so nice of them to drive over and Kenzie, Andy, Camryn and Randee all came too. They brought stuff for dinner: my request was sub sandwiches and fruit. It was delicious and fun to have all of them there. It means so much to be that they all came and wanted to be there to celebrate my birthday.

This is the yummiest chocolate sheetcake with nuts that Dave's mom made me. I requested that too and it was beyond amazing.

Everyone singing "Happy Birthday"

Colt as always wanted to help me blow out the candles. His birthday is going to be so much fun this year. Mike and Julie brought me a present (gift cards to Starbucks and the Bicycle Barn to get my new pair of bike shoes, as well as a cute pair of earrings. They spoil me!!) and Colt wanted to help me open it right away. I love Dave's family and we always have so much fun together! Thanks for coming!

3 day weekend recap.

We have had a fabulous three day weekend. I really think that if every weekend was a three day weekend I would be a happier person.:) That extra day seems to be just what I need to get caught up on sleep, have enough time to get everything cleaned and laundry done as well as getting to spend extra time with my family. Here is a little recap of the weekend.

Friday

 

Silly picture I know but this was my breakfast Friday morning. I woke up early, worked out on our "new" spinning bike for an hour and then had coffee and a yummy breakfast before anyone else in the house woke up. It was a nice morning to myself even if it was early. Breakfast was baked oatmeal with fruit and coffee.....yum!!

 Dave's parents came over from Kennewick that evening and informed us that we needed to go out to dinner so they could have some alone time with the boys. Dave and I didn't object and went to Applebee's for dinner. It was nice to get out of the house and have dinner together, we talked alot about our future, plans for next year with me working (I will save that post for when we make a final decision), and future children. We are still on the fence, I want at least one more and Dave says he is happy with our 2 boys. We rented a movie but by the time we got home, Dave's parents left and we got the boys in bed we were pretty tired. Plus the opening ceremonies for the Olympics was on so we got caught up in that and never watched the movie.

Saturday:

Saturday was gorgeous outside, I think it was somewhere around 50 degrees but the sun was shining and it felt like spring. Dave had left to have breakfast with some friends and so I put the boys in the stroller and we went on a run. We stopped at the park at the end of the run and I let Colt play for awhile and even Jax went down the really small slide. Colt can do all of it by himself now and he seems so big to me. Dave and Colt were at the store the other day and Colt pointed to this guy and said "Dad, is that guys hair broken?" Dave looked over at the guy and he was bald. I love the mind of a 2-year old!

 

  

  

 After we got home from our run we had some breakfast and then Dave got home and said lets go on a bike ride. Dave had got me a road bike for my birthday later this month and we decided to go and get some lunch and then ride a couple miles. Dave hooked the bike trailer up to his bike and we put both kids in and away we went. We road for a couple miles and then stopped at Subway for lunch. After lunch we decided to go on a little longer ride, both the kids ended up falling asleep so we just kept going. It is so much different than a mountain bike, you can go much faster and see so much more. We were out in the country by our house and it was beautiful, the kids were awesome and we ended up riding 30 miles. My neck and bottom were pretty sore that night and Dave's legs were dead from pulling the kids the entire way. We hit some pretty steep hills that even I thought were tough going up, I can't even imagine how hard they were pulling the kids too! We relaxed the rest of the day and watched more Olympics that night but both of us were asleep by 9.

Sunday:

Dave made us all breakfast for Valentine's day, we had pancakes and eggs. Colt and I went to church and Dave and Jax stayed home (Jax still has a pretty green, snotty nose so I didn't want to put him in the nursery and infect everyone else). Colt loves Sunday school now, he just walks right in like its no big deal and has a blast. Dave and I were planning on going on another bike ride and my parents were going to come over and watch the kids but it rained all day so we ended up not going. My parents wanted Colt to stay the night so we dropped him off at Papa and Di Di's around 5 and then spent the evening with just Jax. It was fun but quiet and we were both asleep around 10 (we are getting old and boring!). We did not do anything special for Valentine's Day. Dave has never liked the holiday, he thinks that we should always show our significant other how much we care about them and pretty much from the moment we started dating he informed me of this, at first I was kind of disappointed when year after year I got nothing for Valentine's Day but after being with him for 10 years it no longer bothers me and the plus side is I don't have to worry about what to get him every year (he is hard to buy for and Christmas and his birthday is tough enough!). The nice thing for me is that my birthday is 9 days after Valentine's Day so I always feel like February is a pretty good month for me anyway!  As the kids get older I will do fun stuff with them but its not a holiday that really means anything to 

Dave and I.  

Monday

After sleeping for 8 hours straight for the first time in probably a year I felt like a new person this morning. With Colt at my parents he did not come get me in the middle of the night like he usually does and Jax slept all night until 6:00 this morning. After feeding Jax the three of us drank coffee and stayed in bed until 7:30 watching the Today show and playing. It was nice because that is something we rarely get to do anymore and it was fun to give Jax some extra attention since Colt was getting lots of attention from his grandma and grandpa. Dave left for work and I put Jax in the stroller for a run.

  

Before the run. 

I have no make-up on and my hair has not been washed since Saturday but I have very few pictures with my boys so I am putting my pride aside and posting this:).

  

I love this picture. Even though Jax is not looking at the camera I love that I am hugging him and he is smiling at me!

  

 

After the run and a quick shower we drove out to my parents to pick up Colt. We stayed over there for a couple hours and then came home. I have been working with Colt on potty training all weekend long. This is by far the worst part of parenting but I am trying really hard to be patient and not push too hard. He is doing well for the most part, he has had a few small pee accidents but when he does forget and start to pee he immediately stops and  tells me and we go and finish in the bathroom. Up until now he has had a fear of pooping but he finally did it in the toilet a couple times this weekend. We'll see how the week goes, its hard to keep this up when I am not home with him during the day. This afternoon Colt decided not to nap, after having quiet time in his room for an hour he came out and said he was done "sleeping" I didn't argue, it was already 2:30 and I wanted him to sleep well tonight so I put Jax in the sling and we went outside to ride bikes and enjoy the nice weather.

 

  

  

I love these boys!! 

We have had so much fun this weekend, I am going to miss them when I go back to work tomorrow. I have already started the countdown for spring break. It can't come fast enough!

Too funny not to remember!

Dave sent me this email this morning at work. I laughed the entire way through it. He has no idea I am posting it but I wanted to have it as something to look back on and laugh about.

8:17            All dressed and running a little late for work. Still have to feed dogs

8:20            Go outside to let dogs out

8:20:30         Lakota steps in poop in the dog kennel as she is jumping around and   excited that I am letting her out

8:20:37 Lakota jumps on me leaving to paw poop prints on my khaki pants

8:20:38         Try unsuccessfully to kick Lakota and almost fall down on the wet grass

8:20:57 Slam door in dogs face and go upstairs to change pants

8:23            Change pants

8:25            Realize shirt doesn’t go as good with these pants and need to my change shirt

8:26            Look outside to see if weather is nice enough to go short sleeve today

8:26.01         See Lakota and Sam leaving the cul-de-sac and realize the gate to the back yard was left open from taking out garbage the day before.

8:31            Get Sam in the back yard, but Lakota will not listen

8:37            Lakota finally responds to my yelling and comes back

8:37:01 Think to myself “how could this get any worse”

8:37:03 Hear a crash in the garage

8:37:05 See Sam come running out of the garage, out of the door I forgot to shut when trying to catch the dogs

8:37:13 Walk into garage and realize Sam has spilled an entire garbage can of food on the floor

8:37:28 Try to kick Sam and tweak my back

8:38            Try to find something to clean up food

8:40            Decide it would be better to feed dogs and get them locked up and then finish cleaning up

8:42            Feed dogs and close kennel

8:42:14 Byson runs under the fence and is chasing sheep next door

8:43            Neighbor comes outside to see Byson chasing her sheep and yells at Byson with me

8:44            Byson comes back

8:47            Feed Byson and am going to leave for work

8:47:03 Realize I cant find my keys

8:55            Remembered I wore a jacket to go archery shooting, and found keys in jacket pocket

8:56            Go into garage and remember that the food still isn’t cleaned up

8:56:13      Cant find dust pan to clean up food because it is one of Colt's  favorite toys

9:01            Leave without cleaning up food.

9:07            Come up with an idea while driving for a new business.  The business would own the dogs and you could lease them during the year to go hunting.

9:09            Wonder if I could sell Sam, and if we could talk Gary and Diane to putting Bailey down and giving them Byson

9:16            Get to work and write you about my morning.

9:29            finished letter, wasted too much time

Super Bowl Sunday

TOUCHDOWN!!!

 

  

 

After church this morning we are headed to Kennewick to watch the Super Bowl with Dave's family. Dave refers to the Super Bowl as his "Christmas" and looks forward to the get together with his family every year. We have chili and cinnamon rolls for lunch and hang out until the game starts, then at half-time we have fun snack foods. Its a tradition with Dave and even though I tried to convince him to stay home this year so we could relax and catch up on sleep I eventually gave in because I wouldn't want to be the one to break his tradition! Of course a big part of the reason I agreed is because my WONDERFUL husband  spent all day Friday (in addition to taking care of the boys) doing laundry, vacuuming, dusting, mopping and cleaning the house. That meant I could pretty much spend yesterday relaxing and just playing with the boys so hopefully I will feel more rested and not so exhausted! We are big Colts fans (or rather Peyton Manning fans) and Jax will be sporting his Manning jersey to bring them good luck!

Random happenings of the week.

This past week was......well, interesting. Random, odd things kept coming up making it feel like one of the longest weeks ever. It wasn't necessarily all bad, just kind of weird. 

On Monday Dave saw a spinning bike (without a seat) in front of a house with a sign that said "free" on it. He pulled over and went to the front door to inquire about the seat, apparently they had put it out that morning and someone had come by and stolen the seat but left the bike (can a "free" seat really be stolen?). My husband, Mr. Fix-it, was undeterred by this and brought it home anyway. He has spent the last hour working on fixing it up and right now Colt and him are at Home Depot buying some paint to paint it. He is going to make a seat for it next weekend and then it should be ready to use. I am pretty excited about this, we have been trying to come up with ways to cut our budget for next year and one of our ideas was giving up our gym membership. I had originally said "absolutely not" especially because I  use it  used to use it everyday in the winter. However, after realizing how hard it is to get to the gym with the kids, my job and just daily happenings I am more than happy to give it up if the equipment is being brought to me (and of course with the stipulation that giving it up means I can stay home with the kiddos next year). Once the nice weather hits I will spend most my time running and riding my BIKE (more on that in a minute)outside.

Tuesday is the night we normally have our couples bible study but because its been moved to Wednesday for the next couple months it made the week seem out of balance in someway. Last week in growth group we decided to "fast" from something in hopes that when we started thinking about doing that it would turn our attention to God and quiet time. I gave up the computer (except for working purposes) so I was absent from blogging and facebook for the entire week. It took me forever to catch up on all my blogging friends (I didn't even try to catch up on facebook). I have to say I did miss it but I did do a much better job at reading my bible this past week! 

Thursday morning Colt woke up with 2 swollen pink eyes (yep pink eye!!), Dave agreed (reluctantly) to stay home with the boys since I have no sick days left at work. He took Colt to the doctor that afternoon to get him some medicine and they weighed and measured him. Turns out he has grown 4 INCHES in the past 7 months! I could not believe it when Dave told me that, he is 40 inches long and 34 pounds, This does explain why his pants have become mysteriously short over the last months (I kept thinking I was shrinking his clothes). Since we didn't get his antibiotics for his eye in him until late Thursday, Dave had to stay home with the boys on Friday as well. Lucky for me he decided to be Mr. Mom and clean, vacuum, mop and do all the laundry for me. It has been so nice this weekend not to have to clean all day and just enjoy the boys.  I have been very tired and overwhelmed these last couple weeks and so for him to do that for me really made today much more enjoyable.

In other exciting news, I got a new road bike on Friday. Dave had ordered it through his work for my birthday and it came early. We are planning on doing a triathlon together in July (Chelan-man) its a half mile swim, 26 mile bike ride and 10K run. I feel great about the running part and once I get riding my bike I will feel good about that too, the swim is what makes me so nervous. I do not enjoy swimming and I have never been that great of a swimmer but Dave has promised to help me with the swimming part so hopefully I don't drown while I am out there:). Track starts in 3 weeks, it is coming up so fast. In some ways I just want it to get here because it means I am that much closer to summer and spending time with the boys all day.

We have spent the day relaxing and just enjoying being together. I did get out for a run this afternoon and took Jax with me. When I started out I was dreading it and told myself I would run 3 miles and be done, however once I got going it started to feel good to be out and since I had nothing going on and didn't need to get home in a hurry I turned it into a 5.5 miler. Love those kind of runs! Alright, Colt is back from Home Depot and Jax is sitting next to me starting to stink, I think I better go change him and I have a feeling it might be one of those changing in which he needs a bath too!

Boys, Boys, Boys

 

  

  

 

These two sweet boys of mine are really starting to interact more lately. Colt is all about making Jax laugh and Jax is more than happy to oblige. It is fun to watch them start a relationship with each other, one of my biggest prayers is that they grow up to become the best of friends. I know it does not always work out that way among siblings, I have witnessed first hand siblings that don't get along and it is so sad to me. These two boys will grow up together, they share the same mommy and daddy, they will be raised with the same values but in the end they will be allowed to make their own decisions and I pray that there relationship with each other, no matter how different they may be, will be one of love and friendship.