Oops! It's almost December!

It's been a wild month here!!

Aaron and I went to Atlanta in November for the National Youth Workers Convention. It was AWESOME!! We had so much fun, and didn't often feel like we were "working." If you're looking for new music, we really liked Fee, Matt Maher, Leeland, and Shane & Shane.

The boys are doing great. Ben did get that first haircut, and now really looks like a little boy. Not my baby anymore. He's learning to communicate more as well. He doesn't have the language ability that Drew had at this age, so he gets frustrated pretty easily. He has learned though to drag us across the house and bring us right to what he's asking for. Once you get there, then you can tell that the word he was saying over and over and over was really "pancake" or "cracker" even though it sounded nothing like it. He's trying really hard though and gets a new word every day.

Drew is continuing to wow us. He can tell you the first letter of words, tell you what other letters he hears, and will argue over letters that sound alike. He's trying to figure out the spelling thing too. He can also write a few letters. I thought he was learning it in school until I looked at his school calendar and realized they hadn't even gotten to some of the letters he can write yet! He has also had to learn the fine art of saying goodbye to friends. We recently had friends move away, and that included his best friend. He was very sad about this, though I don't think the reality has hit him yet.

What can I say?

The boys keep me busy!! I have no time to blog it seems.

Drew is in his 2nd month of preschool and just loves it, loves it, loves it. School is just the highlight of his week. It does make things hectic for me sometimes, but it's worth it.

And...Drew ate some french fries!!!! Those of you who know just how deeply we have struggled in the food department with him will appreciate that. He suggested it, and asked for them several times. It's a huge deal here.

Ben is...well, he's Ben. He's growing much too fast, is quite the talker. He is learning the finer art of tackling football-style. It's no wonder other kids his age are afraid of him. He takes Drew out with little effort sometimes! I'll have to get the video posted from this morning. He's bordering a first real haircut too. I agreed to get his sides and bangs trimmed, then we'll see from there. His curls are too precious to cut right now. It's ok that he's 16 months and still hasn't had a real haircut right???

Working cars and healing...

The truck is fixed!! Woohoo!!!! Aaron worked hard and got it done. Yay! My wipers are fixed too, and that horrible rattle in the rear sliding door? Gone! Sure makes driving nicer when there isn't something shaking behind your head.

Drew is doing much better. The cut gets smaller each day as it heals, and the glue has started to peel away a bit. He just loves showing off his battle wound to anyone who will listen to him though!!

Ahh...the joys of boys...

We had a super-duper fun morning!!

8am, kids are playing with daddy. I walk downstairs, ready to get them dressed. Put their clothes on, no problems. Drew goes running to get Aaron, slips, falls... (do you see where this is going???)...He meets the coffee table in a most intimate way with his eyebrow.

And 2 hours later we're in the ER because the gash through his eyebrow STILL hasn't stopped bleeding but has stopped enough for me to see that it's deep. And 1/2" long. He got dermabond because the dr felt it would be far more traumatic for him to get the stitches. Umm...it's almost a hard call. He was hysterical the whole time because it was scary to him.

Mom fixed it up right though. When we were discharged, I took him to Friendly's. All is now right with the world. LOL

The pitfalls of cars & motorcycles; another praise too

Gotta love how things work out. It was raining this morning as Aaron got ready for work, so I told him "No worries, take the van. I'm not going anywhere today anyhow." Well, except for one little problem we have with the van. The wipers quit working!!! Praise God, it stopped raining right as Aaron walked out the door, so he should make it to work without too much trouble.

Why not take the truck? Well, the brake lines are still busted. One kinda needs break lines. He's making it a priority now to fix that while he's off shift this week.

Aaron came home with the news last night that they have hired his replacement engineer! He has to train her, but then he'll move to first shift. So, hopefully within a month or so, we'll have a truly "normal" schedule. Bittersweet though, I really enjoy having him home 3-4 days each week. The boys do too. But they'll definitely grow to love having more consistent time with dad every day instead of a few stolen moments on the days he works.

The lazy blogger with a huge update...

So, it's been a month. Man, I'm slow! In my defense, I was certain I had posted somewhere in the middle of August after the last update.

At the end of August, Jen's mom & dad came down for a visit. It was a nice, relaxing weekend! A few days after they left, the Alicea's came to town. The kids had an awesome time playing together. Ben still looks for all the kids when he wakes up in the morning.

The big news is that Drew has started preschool! Here's my proud schoolboy:



He absolutely loves school. He runs right into his classroom, has no problems at all with our leaving him there. I think he'd stay there an entire day if I let him. Ben is so sad when we drop Drew off though. His best friend is not there with him, and it crushes his little heart. He'll like it more though as he realizes he gets some mommy time all by himself after nap.

Ben had his 15 month checkup this week. He's doing great, weighing 25 pounds and measuring 31.5". No complaints or concerns from this visit!

This week also starts our busy season. The new Bible studies have started at church (Jen is involved in 2, Aaron in 1), plus we have our homegroup Bible study. Pair that with exercise class at church twice a week, preschool, and Jen doing childcare during the morning women's Bible study, and we're a busy group!! Aaron's job may soon change, giving him the opportunity to go to 1st shift finally! We'll miss having him home those 3-4 days a week we get now, but it will be great to have him here on a more consistent basis.

Fitness is coming!!

Today we anxiously await the arrival of our elliptical!! Now that we're pretty sure 2 kids is it, I'm really going to focus on losing this baby weight. It's an awesome machine, will post pics when it arrives.

Our goal: 30lbs combined lost by December 31st.