My sweet baby turned 15 months old on Monday!  And he is quite the little man nowadays.  When you ask him how old he is he sticks up one chubby little finger and grins from ear to ear because he knows he's going to be praised for his answer!  Just this morning, as I was leaving him at my grandmother's so that I could finish getting us ready to fly out tomorrow I blew him a kiss and for the first time, he blew one back!  I melted.  He still isn't a full blown walker but he has upped his record from 3 steps to 7!  He now has 10 teeth and 2 more breaking through.  His molars are almost fully in.  His favorite game is when he looks at Josh and says "mama" and Josh tickles him and says "no dada".  Or he says "dada" to me or sometimes "bubba".  I think "bubba" is his only new word since 14 months.  Landen loves to make car noises as he rolls them around on the floor.  He loves to sit beside us and watch TV but wants to hold your hand while he does...it's the sweetest thing!  Baby food is pretty much a thing of the past.  He loves table food and will only eat the baby food fruit once in a while.  He is wearing a size 6 diaper now!  And we are buying a shoe size 4 and a half to 5 wide and 2t-3t clothes.  I kid you not, I put a 3t outfit on him last week when it was really warm and it fit!  We go to the pediatrician for his 15 month check-up the Monday after we get back from California and I will give you height and weight stats then.  All in all, Landen is a ham.....but we love him so!

Oh and I forgot to add that he LOVES McDonald's sweet tea!!!  I know, I know, it isn't a good thing because it has a TON of sugar in it but he would drink the entire thing if I would let him!  When I put the cup in the cup holder he starts fussing and by the time we get home he is screaming for it.  Once I get him inside and put the straw in it he gulps it down like it's the best thing he has EVER had......

Ethan brought home his report card this week and once again he is doing wonderful in school!  He loves to read and now reads book all by himself.  He had baseball practice on Tuesday and as soon as he got up to bat it started pouring down rain...but he wasn't disappointed at all because his buddy, Roddick, got to sit in our truck until his dad got there and that was "awesome"!  Ethan has been telling everyone about what all he's going to do while he is in San Diego, so I am praying that it lives up to his expectations.  I've never been to Sea World but Josh said that he loved it as a kid and he is thrilled to take the boys there.  Ethan is quite the little entertainer....Tuesday after practice he went into Pizza Hut to pick up his Book It personal pan and when he came back out I could see the workers and customers all cracking up! 

Landen the Little Laundry Lad & the Tooth Fairy Visit Again!

This is my "Little Laundry Lad"....he LOVES to help me do laundry.  His favorite part is pulling the laundry out of the dryer and handing it to me to fold.  When he comes across a sock (no matter who it beloelongs to) he sits down and tries to put it on his foot.  It is the cutest thing!  I enjoy it so much that I don't dread doing laundry quite as much as I used to....now that's saying' something!!!

As you can see, Ethan has lost another tooth (his second in two weeks!). I think I am driving him nuts telling him to smile for me all of the time but he is just so cute with those missing teeth.  This one his dad pulled Sunday morning before church.  He forgot to put it under his pillow Sunday night because he fell asleep on the couch but Monday night he made sure it was there for the tooth fairy to come pick up.  He was pleasantly suprised on Tuesday morning to find ten dollars and a two little workbooks.  One was Dinosaur Mazes and the other (his favorite) was about the United States of America.  It had Abraham Lincoln on the front along with the liberty bell and he is very interested in the history of America right now.  Trying to save them for the plan ride to San Diego next week has been no easy feat so far!  We put them out of sight so maybe he will forget about them until then.  Ethan, you are getting to be SUCH a big boy and we love watching you grow and change....now smile for me, haha!

Baseball, Tooth Fairies, and Playtime

Ethan has began baseball practice.  He is playing Peewee this year and is on the Angels.  He really loves to play and enjoys the camaraderie with the other boys but we now practice an hour and a half which is a big jump from tee-ball and his attention span is just very minimal by the time practice is half over (keep in mind practice is always on a weekday after he's already been in school all day).  Anyway, we are enjoying the fresh air and the smell of Spring approaching. 

On Monday, Ethan had an appointment to get his teeth cleaned and the dentist ended up pulling his tooth that has been VERY loose for the last two weeks!  Ethan couldn't wait to get home and get ready for bed so that he could put his tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy.  He was very pleased to find his ten dollars and a Thomas the Train pez dispenser and he already has another one loose and is wigging it daily in hopes of receiving another visit from the tooth fairy (who he is convinced is a boy, lol).  I love to see his little snaggle toothed grin....he looks so different!

Isn't he cute with that tooth missing?  Btw, he desperately needed a haircut in this pic.....that is where we went as soon as we left the dentist!

Landen is cutting his molars and Orajel has been our BEST friend here lately!  They really hurt him at night for some reason.  He is still as happy as ever during the day though and plays up a storm.....

Barney, Loose Tooth, & 14 Months!!!

We ended February pretty quietly but I thought I'd share a few things with you all.  On Saturday February 19th we along with Josh's grandmother took the boys to see the Barney live show in Nashville.  It was really cute and Landen loved it but Ethan was a little bored.  I was afraid that Ethan was a little too old for it (even though he still enjoys the songs) but I was trying to find something that both boys would enjoy.





I must not watch enough Barney because I didn't know who the orange one was.  His name is Riff.

On Tuesday February 22nd, I attended Ethan's parent teacher conference (Josh was in Alabama for work).  Ethan is such a wonderful boy and his teachers said he is a "joy to have in class".  They gave me a progress report and he is doing very well on most everything.  He can identify beginning and ending sounds, sound out words, write simple phrases, identify all color words and all basic sight words, read his AR books independently, identify all numbers, count by 5's-10's-and from 1 to 100, and his work habits and attitude are  good.  The only things that we need to work on are counting by 2's and his "self help skills".  I admitted to his teacher that his "self help skills" being poor is totally my fault.  I do things for him that he can do for himself.  I  realized this even before the conference and have been working on it diligently.  He is my firstborn and I tend to "baby" him.  I never want to hinder my children in any way!  Therefore, we are working hard on building Ethan's "self help skills". 

On a more exciting note, Ethan has a loose tooth!  He has been waiting to lose a tooth for a while now and I don't think it will be much longer.  Ethan is absolutely thrilled and is wiggling the tooth constantly!  He told Josh last night at dinner that he should eat either corn on the cob or "hot dog on the cob" to make his tooth come out.  Josh asked him what a "hot dog on the cob" was and he explained that it has the hard bread around a hot dog and then the whole thing is on a stick, LoL!  Josh told him that was called a corndog and Ethan just didn't get why we were laughing.  He has seen corn on the cob come on a stick at some resteraunts......maybe that's where this "hot dog on the cob" idea came from!?!?


I have a few recent pictures to share with you....

Ethan yelled for me to come take a pic because he had gotten Landen onto the dinosaur with him!

This is how I found them this morning. I just thought it was the sweetest thing! You know, God's plan is always the best plan.  At the beginning of my pregnancy with Landen I was kind of hoping for a girl but immediately fell in love with the idea of two boys after my ultrasound. Their entire lives these two will always be BROTHERS!!

Landen is 14 months old!

Landen has been practicing going from sitting to standing on his own.  He holds his arms out for balance and he smiles a big proud smile! 

Even when he falls he just gets right back up.  He is still practicing taking steps but three is the most that he has gotten at once without falling.  He is such a big boy!

Yesterday (February 28th) Landen turned 14 months old!  Is it just me or do the months keep going by faster and faster? 

Landen is now drinking milk from a sippy cup.  He has been drinking juice and water from them for a while but refused to drink milk out of a sippy until a week or so ago.  Since this new advancement, he is only taking one sometimes two bottles a day (at nap time and bedtime).  Sometimes he goes down for nap time without one but sometimes he will not.  He is now only taking one nap most days (but it's a good 2-3 hour one most of the time).  Landen is eating any type of table food that we will give him but still eats baby food veges and fruit at lunch. 

We had to go see the pediatrician last Wednesday, February 23rd because he had been struggling with a cold along with cutting his stomach and eye teeth for about two weeks when I noticed him tugging at his ears.  Turned out he had a double ear infection (only his second ear infection so not bad, Ethan had literally had 15 by this point). So, we are still taking the antibiotic for that and we go back next week to be sure the ear infections are gone. 

Landen weighs 30 pounds but I am not sure about his length because they don't measure that at "sick visits".  I can tell you that 18 month sleepers are now too short.  He can still wear a few 18 months clothes.  The 18-24 months clothes fit him better and he is wearing some just 24 months.  He is still in a size 5 diaper and his size 4 shoes are slowly becoming to small a pair at a time.  I am hoping not to have to buy the next size until we are ready for Spring/Summer shoes.  But at this rate......I don't know if we will make it until then.

Landen's vocabulary now consists of  "mama", "dada", "bubba", "ba-ba", "dog", and lots of gibberish.  Of course he is waving, nodding, crawling, standing, giving five, and dancing.  He really tells stories now and waits for you to respond.  He is very good at communicating what he wants.  He waves toward whatever he wants as if he is saying "come here".  He also grunts and mumbles at it.  Landen's favorite TV shows are Sesame Street, Jack's Big Music Show (he dances the entire time), and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.   He plays the most with his cars, blocks, and anything that makes music/noise.  He has eight teeth and four more on the way through. 

Landen loves to help me with laundry and loading/unloading the dishwasher.  He is amazed by our dog and chases him all over the house.  He enjoys playing with anything that doesn't belong to him and leaves a path of destruction in whatever room he is playing in.  The great thing is though, once he sees me picking up he comes over to help. I think he has decided that putting things back where he has pulled them out from is almost as much fun as pulling them out :)

Oh Landen, my sweet monkey boy.  You have every single one of us wrapped around your chubby little fingers.  And the thing is, you are starting to realize it and use it to your full advantage!  We thank God for you and could not imagine this life without your infectious smile. 

Vday & PJ's

The calendar on the wall is part of Ethan's gift.  He wanted one just like they have at school!

I know that I am late about posting the boys Vday pictures. I got so excited about in the last post about Landen taking his first steps that I skipped right over the boys Valentine's Day celebrations. Since Josh and I were going out of town last Saturday to celebrate Vday alone we gave the boys their gifts that morning as sort of a consolation for us leaving them. I know that's probably bad but Ethan has a really hard time with us leaving him overnight so.....as parents, you do what you need to do. Ethan was so unhappy about us leaving him that he wouldn't pose with his gifts but I took a pic of them anyway. Landen on the other hand was overjoyed with his presents!

My little monkey loved his vday gifts!

He was absolutely thrilled!!

When I told him to stand up and let me take his picture this is what he did!

On Monday (which was actually Valentine's Day) I, along with a couple of other homeroom moms, put together Ethan's class Valentine's party.  We decorated...

Had fun food such as heart shaped sandwiches, chips, cake pops, heart shaped cookies, and juice boxes...

We also played games such as Valentine Memory Match and Pin the Heart on the Bee and did a craft where we made heart shaped magnetic picture frames.  The kids loved it all and my little man was extremely happy to have me there with him during his party...

On the way home from school that day he told me I was "the best mom ever".  It made me tear up because you know, that is the VERY best compliment I could EVER receive.  Being the best momma I can be to both of my boys is my first priority in this life next to serving the Lord.

I don't know why every picture that I have taken of Landen lately has been in his pj's.....maybe it's because we play together a lot in the mornings before our day gets busy and I usually take pictures of him during playtime. Anyway, I took this picture this morning of him standing like a big boy.....

Yes, that is a smile behind the pacifier but they are few and far between these days. With his stomach and eye teeth coming in he has been a force to be reckoned with.  Oh well, "This too shall pass" and I will have my smiling, laid back, happy boy back before we know it!  Until then, I may have to pass him off to Josh in the evening and lock myself in a room for a little alone time to keep myself sane, LoL!

Step By Step!

We ended a week full of snow days last week with the Lonestar Rodeo on Friday night.  The boys loved it and both watched very intently.  Besides a half mile walk in the ice/snow holding a 30 pound child and slipping several times but not falling and a few high school boys who were fighting and upset Ethan we had a GREAT time!  They boys loved the calf roping and bull riding.  Ethan thought the clown who rode in a go cart was hilarious.  We will definitely be going back next year. 

On Saturday the boys spent the day with Josh's grandmother and the night with my mom while Josh and I took an overnight trip to Nashville for Vday.  It was way overdue!  To start out our fun we watched "Just Go With It" with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and it made me laugh out loud (that rarely happens in the movie theater).  Next, we went to the Lebanon Outlet Mall and bought some summer clothes for the boys to start out the season with.  After going to the hotel and changing we headed to dinner at Stony River where we had great wine and a steak that would melt in your mouth! 

Sunday morning, we met my mom and the boys at church and then the whole family headed to BG for dinner at Cheddar's to celebrate my brother's girlfriend and my grandfather's birthday.  After dinner we came back to our house for cake and gifts.  While the whole gang was here Landen decided to take his first steps!!!  He took three and loved all of the applause and attention that he was rewarded with.  It is so bittersweet for me that he took steps.  Of course, I was overjoyed and teary eyed but there's this little part of me that isn't ready to give up holding my sweet boy in my arms so often.  In spite of that, I have been trying to get him to practice walking since Sunday and he has had zero interest.  But this afternoon he took off again and I captured a picture or two to share with you. 

To update you on Ethan.....he has been doing accelerated reader at school.  That is where they read a book and then take a test over it.  He has taken 10 tests and made a perfect score on 9 of them (he only missed 1 question on the other one)!  He is an excellent reader and loves to read.  This morning he read an entire pamphlet at the doctor's office with me only helping him with 2 words!!!!  We are also excited that we are signing him up for Pee Wee baseball this Saturday.  Bring on Spring!

13 Months and Standing!!!

13 months old

Well, my sweet baby (he is really a toddler but I like "baby" better) boy is 13 months old today!  As I type this he is cruising around the living room playing with his toys and jabbering purposefully.  Landen is doing and saying so many things!  His vocabulary now consists of "bye-bye", "mama/dada", "buh-buh" (for brother), "this", and we are working on "dog".  He is now nodding yes (for months he would only shake his head no), giving fives, of course he is still cruising, pat-a-caking, and dancing constantly, he loves to climb steps (that is a constant battle between he and I), and just this week he stood on his own for almost a full minute TWICE!!!  Ethan and I were SO excited.....it brought tears to my eyes.  Landen just stood there and smiled the proudest smile ever!  Daddy hasn't gotten to see him do this yet but we are hoping he will this weekend.  He understands very well what "no" means now and he loves to point that little chubby finger right back at you.  I find it endearing but his daddy.....not so much, LoL.  He is still eating almost anything we put in front of him.  He doesn't like the baby food meats very well (not that I blame him....they smell awful).  But he loves all other baby foods and any table food......veges, fruit (bananas are his favorite), and even junk food (which we try to keep to a minimum).  He is drinking well out of sippy cups with straws now (that is the only kind he will drink out of and it's odd because Ethan couldn't drink out of a straw until he was two).  We have completely done away with formula.  It was quite the transition because at first he threw up whole milk often, but his stomach seems to have accepted it now.  Landen is constantly into EVERYTHING.....he is a little busy body and keeps us on our toes.  Now that we have moved the dog's bowls to where he can't get them, his favorite things to do include pulling every magazine out of the magazine rack or every DVD off the shelves, hiding the remotes, rolling the trash bag roll completely out and the toilet tissue when he can get his hands on it, pulling every sock out of his dad's drawer and throwing them all across the room, turning the water on in the whirlpool tub, dragging out every plastic bowl we own, and anything to annoy his brother.  He is a pistol but we wouldn't trade him for the world! 

Speaking of his brother, he cried this morning when Ethan got out of the truck for school...I mean bawled and screamed at the top of his lungs!  Guess he has gotten used to Ethan staying at home with all of the snow days he's had lately.  Oh, and his latest stunt happened a couple of days ago when I was cooking dinner, he ventured into the bathroom and decided to try to make his way into the bathtub by diving headfirst!  Ethan screamed "Mom!" in that tone that tells me something is very wrong.  So, I threw down the chicken I was washing and made a mad dash in the direction of the scream.  Somehow, just as I reached Landen's feet wiggling in the air (he was stuck at the half way point, he couldn't get in the bathtub or his feet back on the floor)  my feet got tangled in my sweatpants and down I went!  I grabbed Landen and helped him back to safety and then I tried to get up.....that's when I realized I had really hurt my foot.  I haven't gone to the doctor and it seems to be some better but I am limping and my big toe is blue and very swollen.  Anyway, thankfully Landen wasn't hurt and I don't think he will be attempting any more bathtub dives anytime soon....the whole ordeal scared him pretty bad!

My mom actually told me yesterday that I should write a book about the adventures of raising children.  I told her no one would read it because it's the same stuff that every mom lives daily, LoL.   Like yesterday, I put Landen in the bath only to have him decide to do "#2" in the water!  So, I then had to let the water out, remove him and his bath seat, clean the tub, and do the entire bath routine all over again.  A few hours after that disaster, Ethan "spewed" all over the couch, area rug, the entire path from living room to bathroom, and all over himself.  Thankfully, Mom was here for a visit so she helped me bathe Ethan and clean up all of the mess.  I am also thankful that Landen was asleep. Otherwise, I would have had to contain him to keep him out of the mess. 

Anyway, back to our big boy!  He is still wearing 18-24 month clothes, but is slowly growing out of the 18 months and starting to venture into some 2T's.  He loves to help me do laundry and unload the dishwasher.  He is such a joy and his sweet smile and bright eyes light up all of our lives!  Happy 13 month birthday my sweet.......toddler......nah, I think we'll stick with baby for now, maybe even forever :)