blue skies today. warm sunshine. sunblocked cheeks. and barefoot toes. happy Wednesday!

sometimes

naps don't go as planned. sometimes, melt downs happen (with a certain toddler) sometimes, mornings come too early (after baby is up more often than normal in the night). sometimes, mamas get tired and frustrated, and overwhelmed with doubt. sometimes, days don't go as planned and dinners come out all wrong. sometimes, days are long and hard. sometimes i try too hard, and sometimes i feel like i don't try hard enough. sometimes i feel judged and all out of sorts. and then...

there are times where everything is right. and good. and a run went well, and a dinner made good. and a happy toddler boy. and a well rested everyone and a good, long, well spent day. there are a lot of good times. good moments. moments i'll treasure forever.

and i'll take it all. everything wrapped up, in a messy package. because it is the hard days that make me appreciate the good days. the frustration make me appreciate the ease. the bad sleep makes me Cherish the great sleep. every moment i hold on to. cause these are the days...sweet days with my little ones who are growing so quickly, too quickly, before my eyes.

i'm holding on. to these moments, moments with my family. and being here everyday with these two precious boys of mine. and watching them together...

because. i love them. and they sure do make me happy.

 and each day with them makes me appreciate life all the more. just the simple little things in life.

little things. like flowers blooming in our yard. and a baby that kisses the fresh breath of wind, and a toddler that digs his toes in the dirt and touches a flower. and a husband that makes everything right with the simple hold of his hand in mine.

simple. joyful. little things in life.

all this talk of oceans is making me really want to go back to Hawaii. Slip my toes in the soft, warm, sand, and hunker down for a lil while. pure bliss....

educational endeavers try again

i am happy to say that learning time went way better today. mama only took out the soft stuff, and no teeth, or anything else was injured in the process this time around. thank goodness.

these are kind of out of order, but i thought i would take a picture of caleb's favorite thing. flannel board time. we read polar bear polar bear what do you hear? cause polar bears do live in the ocean. and caleb's favorite animal was the flamingo. he loves flamingos.

this is out of order, but we did some shapes and colors too.

triangle is caleb's favorite shape. and the color yellow. as of now, everything is yellow or green :)

then caleb drew a picture of a flamingo. quite the artist if i don't say so myself! haha.

and then we played with some more soft stuff. mama was happy, so was caleb.

happy to report, no tears were shed today.

and lastly, last night i was in the room with lucas nursing him while daddy helped caleb get on his pjs. this is what i found...sometimes it's better not to ask what daddy was thinking :)

i'll have to get some pictures of lucas now...i like to keep it even :) but it was nap time for lucas this morning while caleb and i did some learning, so they'll come soon!

now, i won't be doing this everyday :) but it is nice to have a little focus while lucas naps in the morning. and i'm having fun with it. once the weather warms up a bit more we'll be spending most our time barefoot in the backyard ;) but for now, i'm enjoying this special little bit of time with caleb ;)

bumps in the road

The pictures and video (below) are from yesterday. Before Monday morning went wrong.

brothers at play

bread baking party in the kitchen

caleb loves helping daddy in the kitchen

okay friends, i hope you don't mind, but i'm going to vent a little.
first off, i was so excited about my educational endeavors that i lost a little bit of sleep over it. i just couldn't wait to pull out my ocean themed sensory tub! i just couldn't wait to read some fun ocean books and sing some great ocean songs. Monday morning i was practically jumping out of bed with excitement (well...not really, still rolled out all sleepy eyed and groggily went in the shower) but anyway. here's what i learned, sometimes our best intentions can and do go all wrong!. haha. i should be laughing, but i'm not yet. i'm still trying to get over it.
we read a couple special ocean books (caleb was interested, somewhat) here and there. as much as a two year can be....
and he got all excited about that ocean sensory tub..but, things went wrong. even with the best supervision, and (gladly lucas was sleeping!) i somehow ended up with a broken tub and a bruised tooth. yes, i'm glad my tooth didn't fall out, cause i thought it might. and i hope it doesn't turn brown (i once had a grey tooth as a little girl, and it was a baby tooth so it fell out, i don't have anymore baby teeth....have you seen that blue shield commerical? the one where the man says...soo i lost my front tooth the other day? okay, well it is hilarious. and i felt like that man this morning.) i don't want to go into the gory details, but basically, a little two year old of mine (before mom even had time to blink) threw that pretty blue crystal rock in my direction; and it ended up smacking my tooth. real. hard. our little lesson ended in tears (on my end) a lot of you.hurt. mommy. ow. that makes me soooo sad! insert (real tears here). mama is going to go get some space before she blows up! and she'll be back in a minute. we do not throw things at mommy! i think i'll still stick to our 'ocean' themed age appropriate toys from now on....my little two year old is not quite ready yet (even with close supervision) the damage has been done (and more damage than just my poor little tooth). i'll stick to books, songs, and coloring pages, and gonna save those pretty stones for a way later date....or at least until my ego and tooth recover. i'm left feeling a little disappointed. and i'm thinking maybe my expectations were a little too high. maybe i was trying to do things more my way. and i should make sure i remember who i'm working with here, just a two year old! books, songs, water, and toys that can't hurt mommy are what we'll be doing for awhile now....

i also was disappointed with last night's dinner (that i may or may not have slaved over) and not sure i feel up to slaving some more tonight.

now hubby on the other hand, made delicious homemade bread. and delicious homemade oatmeal cookies. all before naptime (in a half hour) easy peasy. yesterday. he makes baking and cooking look so easy. he even created his own pasta dinner concoction on saturday night. i keep telling him he should open up his own restaurant. so it is a good thing one of us can cook (and obviously, i'm not talking about me here!).

i'm going to go bury myself in a big hole haha. i kid. but seriously. what a way to start a monday huh?!

oh yes, and here is that video i was talking about. depending on how things go, i may be the next one on it...
 http://youtu.be/Ke0Q5v0URTw

    big brother likes to watch little brother "hello lucas gregory giles" he says. lucas responds with a coo and a smile.

       good morning happy baby boy.

naps for all this afternoon <3

Hello Monday.

      
"A brother shares childhood memories and grown-up dreams." -author unknown

even though church can be a little stressful with two little ones, i still do love that peaceful feeling that washes over me as i listen and sing in the house of God with my little family.

i'm just going to share a funny church story...today a sweet lady at church asked if caleb and lucas were twins.! haha. i just had to laugh. a two and a half year old toddler boy and a 6 month old baby boy. twins?! haha. now, when my mom used to dress my sisters and I up all alike people always commented on us asking if we were twins or triplets, we loved that, but...i think we actually did look like twins or triplets. i don't think caleb and lucas are at that age (where they could pass for twins!) yet...but anyway, still funny!

Oceans!

sensory tub, books, stickers, songs, and much, much, more!

        in case you're wondering, all this from the dollar store (or what i already had in the house)

            i didn't break the bank and they had a ton of stuff!

can't wait for monday! sharpened pencils, new books, crisp white paper and everything fresh. oh yes, i am so that girl that has always and will always love school! and although we're not really starting school around here, we're just doing some more 'themed' stuff, based on caleb's and (soon) lucas' interest, i can't help but feel as though it is going to be the first day of school. i've spent time gathering up things for our ocean unit. fun songs, (which dave so lovingly listened to as i sang some of them to him today, lucas laughed and smiled, dave kinda rolled his eyes and i'm sure wished he had ear plugs!). some (easy peasy) art projects, coloring paper of different ocean animals, and a sensory tub, and water tub. i'm so excited!! i think this will be fun. Caleb's been really into the ocean lately. We've been to the beach almost every weekend this month and have been talking a lot about it. I've  got some great books from my mom's classroom and some wonderful songs that i just can't wait to sing with the boys this week :) I'm giddy.
It was rainy today, which meant, lots of snuggles on our bed, lots of family time (which I so did miss all last week) and lots of time to plan. Not just some fun ocean stuff, but two weeks worth of (who else but Rachel Ray) recipes for our dinner menu. Spring is here! And with that comes fresh starts. And brighter days.
loving this rainy weekend :)
the most comfy sweater, the perfect bite of french toast on an early sunday morning, a good book on a rainy day, that feeling of peace that washes over you, just being, giggles from baby boys, happy smiles and big daddy hugs, settling in close to the one you love, the perfect fit of his hand in yours. curled up and covered warm, knowing you are right where you are meant to be. i'm happy to be home. so, so, happy. home with the ones I love.