Friday Flashback

I love looking back through old pictures and now you can too! In honor of John's upcoming birthday, I thought I would do the last two years at about this time.

This was taken just about a year ago, when we were in Mexico for a wedding. (may 4, 2008)


This was taken about a year before that, on May 5, 2007 the day John was born.

Seth's Best Man Speech...

You can't see anything, but the sound is there.

10 on Tuesday

I saw this on another site, and knew it would be perfect for me. 10 random things that I am feeling today. Sold!
1. I am thankful to be back home, but totally think Kansas gets a bad rap. I could live there without much of a problem.
2. John Michael (which he told me he prefers to be called) loves his new sand pit as he calls it. I love that I can see him play from the kitchen.

3. Colin is rocking his exersauser. He can play with the different toys and spin the seat around. (The picture isn't in the exersauser, but the playmat, which he also rocks).

4. I love weddings and cry at them, even when I don't know the people. On Saturday I really had to hold back tears as Seth (uncle pp) and Christin got married. I am so happy for them!

5. You wouldn't know it but Manhattan, Kansas has a great zoo! We spent Thursday there as a family of 4. We went back to see the monkey baby twice!

6. Not only do I cry at weddings, I hold my breath and tense up when I women give birth on tv, I've tried to stop and I can't.
7.I think my front porch needs a make over. And I think I'm going to work on that this weekend.
8. We are having a family only birthday party for John Michael this year. I am confident in my decision, and yet kind of feel like a bad mom for not throwing a big bash.
9. I got a new house cleaner. She cute, she does a great job, and she's TT (Courtney). She better not just stop coming, since I know where she lives.
10. I think Col's sick. Bummer.

The Sandbox, an epic story

We finally finished putting the sandbox together. Awful weather, and some unclear instructions made it tough. Still one of the pieces is badly worped from all the rain we've gotten, so the top up/ down feature, doesn't work, but we're hopeful that it will work soon. John was a wonderful helper, but we are thankful he went down (fairly easily:) do we could find all of "his" piece and finally finish! Here is our story in pictures:

A warming!

With my new computer, I needed to switch my pictures from the old laptop to Seth's computer to the new laptop. I have thousands of pictures and it was quite the job to get them all switched. The other day I realized I hadn't gotten a huge chuck from Seth's computer. FInally on Friday I went and checked, not there. We lost fourteen months of pictures from December 2007 until March 2009. Luckily we had some on this blog and I upload them to Walgreens to print so there were some there that we were able to get off.
We weren't able to get everything back, but enough that there won't be a huge gap. We don't have anything except what was on the blog from Jan and Feb of this year, so if you have any please email them to me!
SO a warning, today, tonight, soon, burn a disk of all of your pictures and put it somewhere safe.

This is one picture I was upset about loosing. It is from March of 2008.

Bed Gate 2009

I am SO tired. So is Seth, if I'm not making sense I apologize. Big boy beds suck, bad. At night Seth has been doing a wonderful job putting him down 30-50 times. I don't have that kind of time when I'm home alone with both them. So I took a pointer from MiMi and just sat in his room today. 3 minutes. I'm sorry Seth, I broke! My friends have warned me how bad this is. I'll deal with that later, after a nap!

Seth and Kelly, where are they now...

Seth thought pulling all nighters was for college students, he now knows trim salesmen also burn the midnight oil. He has been working really hard lately and for that we all thank him.
Though you may all think I have ditched the 101 things in 1001 days, you're mistaken. In actuality I have been plugging along, but I'm having issues with blogger formatting it correctly. In fact I just finished my "no drive thru food for 30 days" I gave it up for lent, and didn't slip until day 32. To be fair I had planned to give up all drive thru's but when I had two sick kids in the car and it was raining, I went to get med's at the drive through. I think God understood.
Oh and on an unrelated note, the sand box is here!!!

Colin, a novel

Yesterday Colin had his 4 month cardio appointment. Every thing went REALLY well. It doesn't look like we'll need surgery in the next little bit and we are now on every two month appointments. Colin is less excited to sit through all of the procedures, but we got through them!
Today was Colin's 4 month well baby (we're off because of shots). Weight-19 pounds 4.5 ounces, Height- 27.5 inches, and head 17 inches. Everything looks great we've been cleared for solids (we're waiting a bit longer), and he seems to be ahead motor skills wise, (so maybe it's all muscle?)
He did have to have 3 shots which did not make him happy at all! He couldn't believe I would let someone do that to him. Either could I Col, either could I!
I was reading today while putting John back in his bed 39 times that at four months they can sleep 10-11 hours at night. I'm not posting this because Colin can, but in hopes that he too reads our blog and now will. (Fingers Crossed) He went 7 hours once. That's it.
I would really like to push pause on this kid, because he is growing just too fast. And yet J I could fast forward....

Big John Update

Here is an update on John.Michael.Haley, as he would say. After a few nights trying to keep him in his crib, after he mastered climbing out, we bought him a big boy bed. To you it may be a mattress on the floor, but to J it is a whole new level of big boy hood. We are still working on him getting to stay in there to fall asleep, but it seems to be getting better at night, naps not so much...
Please notice the beautiful sheets with train John picked out. If you ever need character sheets, go to Walmart, no one else seems to have them. Seriously three stores!
John turns 2 May fifth, and he'll have his two year old check up then, but a weight this morning came in at 26.5 pounds!

Hoppy Easter!

Well we survived a day full of candy and fun! This morning we found eggs and baskets at our house. Which was fun even without the sandbox!
At 10 we went to the Country Club for brunch with Grandma and Grandpa Horsey and Uncle Grant. Ooooh the food was so good!! Then G, G, and G came over and brought more fun for the boys! A new barn for J and clothes for Col.
Dinner was spend with my family where again the food was wonderful! And of course more baskets and candy! The boys were spoiled (and Seth and I didn't do too bad either!) to the point of exaustion, well Col was...
John has learned how to climb out of his crib, well. Last night it took until 10:15, nap today took putting him back in his crib 28 times (seriously), and tonight Seth broke and took down the crib. He thinks that J will get hurt climbing out (maybe it was the bloody nose that made him think that way?) Now now we are taking turns putting him back in his room, which he thinks is a game. It's been almost an hour. Pray that this doesn't take too many nights. But then it may be time to get Colin in his bed.... Or not! Hoppy Easter to all!
(Check out J's new 'do and don't mind the watery eyes on me, allergies are in full bloom here, and because I'm nursing I can't take much!)

I am SO dissapointed!

For those of you that know me well, or really at all, you know that I am a planner. Not a does Friday work for you kind of gal, but more a Friday at noon at my place. I plan everything and ever iota of everything. Having children has helped A LOT, but I still plan with high hopes. So this leads me to my Easter surprise for the boys. I have been planning it since (blush) last May.
At the time John was still eating sand instead of playing with it, so I decided that the next Easter I would get the joint present of a sandbox for both children (not knowing Colin was a Colin). I've planned where it is going to go, instead of the usual basket Seth and I bought pails and shovels with an additional assortment of sand toys. How we were going to present it, with plastic eggs out the back door, and how we would spend the day in the yard building castle after castle.
I researched and picked the perfect box (one with a top that lowers to keep the animals out, and raises to keep the sun off the kids), I looked locally only to find it on Costco.com for $50 cheaper than anywhere else. Three weeks ago I bought it, not wanting to have it around for too long before the big day.
*Finally* it said it shipped on the 7th. But then said there was an error when I tracked it. Today I called. They ran out! They are hoping to ship it at the end of the month. I did get $20 off, but it can't make up for the ruined Easter surprise. This is why you should fly by the seat of your pants. Or plan MORE in advance!:)

1 year ago today...

I found out my Colin would be joining our family. It was a busy day with Mr. Falcon that night, but in between all of my errands I stopped at the grocery and bought a test. I came home and Seth told me I was making things up, so John and I went into the bathroom and I took and passed the test. At first I thought of hiding it from Seth, since he wasn't indulging me, but instead I walked upstairs to his office where I must have had my crazy excited face on because he knew right away. I gave him the test anyway. We were so excited, I think we jumped up and down. At Mr. Falcon that night I didn't pay any attention to what was going on, I kind of had tunnel vision.
Who could have known that the perfect little baby growing inside of me, was Colin. He was and still is just what we needed. The next 32 weeks, weren't always pretty nor did they always bring out the best in me, but they were worth every second!
Colin learned to roll over today, unfortunately it was while he was on a couch. Opps, won't be doing that anymore! Otherwise the boys and I enjoyed the 70* weather playing a a couple parks and in the back yard. It was a wonderful day that I couldn't have even imagined 364 days ago.

I know, I know...

I know, John needs a hair cut! Looking at the pictures on the blog, made me realize what I already knew, John has more hair than most men, let alone 23 month old. I've been putting it off until as close to the wedding as possible so I wouldn't have to do it twice. I really should have been clued in when ONE hair dresser asked me about it. Now there's been two. I'm doing it Friday. Actually I'm having someone do it, we all remember how Colin's turned out a few weeks ago.

Brotherly Love

Big Brother John holding Colin without the boppy and sharing Milk and Gummys after a nap!

4 Months Old Tomorrow!

I can't believe how time is flying!! So what's Col been up to?
~He is rolling from his belly to his back and has almost mastered the back to belly.
~He has pretty much scheduled him self, waking between 730-830 and going down two hours after that. Then he naps when John does in the afternoon, and usually takes another nap around dinner time. Bed for the night is between 830-900.
~He is getting too big for the infant carrier, and I really need to install his new carseat. While we have few more pounds (like 4), it is too much to carry him and the carrier which weighs about 20# by itself.
~He can hang out in the exersauser for about 10 minutes!
~He recognizes me in a room and just lights up! (I LOVE this one!)
~He loves to cuddle and falls asleep as soon as he's in my bed (I know, I know)...
~He takes a bath with his brother in the big tub. It is SO much easier to just get them both done at the same time, and he no longer fits in the baby tub!
All in all Colin is a JOY to have around, he is a dream baby (and you all thought John was bait and switch, Colin's easier!) I have my heels in the mud for time to go slower and make sure I kiss up his babyness every day!