3rd Birthday!

Macalan celebrated his 3rd birthday on Monday! I can't believe my baby is 3 already! I spent my day thinking back to what I was doing on that day 3 years earlier. It really does seem like only yesterday that we welcomed him into our family. We are so truly blessed with both our boys.

We celebrated his big day on Saturday with both sides of the family. Kyle's family came on Friday night and my family came on Saturday. It was so nice to have everyone there. Mac loves it when everyone is around! He can't get enough of his Uncle Dave, Uncle Tony, and Grandpa Gene.

This year's theme was dinosaurs! I had the best of intentions to make his cake out of a Wilton cake mold. Things were going so well on Thursday night. I got the cake made with no problems, as well as the icing. However, on Friday night when I started to decorate it things started to fall apart. I was getting really stressed out because it wasn't looking right and I told myself I wouldn't let a cake ruin my weekend (I tend to stress out over dumb things like this, but I always want everything to be perfect). I decided to save myself the trouble of decorating and perhaps the clean-up, since the cake may have ended up thrown against the wall, and I called Hy-Vee. Thank goodness they had the time to make the cake and have it ready by early afternoon on Saturday.

Saturday morning was spent doing last minute decorating and getting the food ready. A BIG thanks to our families for offering to bring some of the food! It saved so much time not having to worry about all of that.

Once everyone arrived it was PARTY time! Macalan loved all of his presents. I've never seen a kid get so excited about new jammies! Sutton had a great time playing with a gift receipt. :) When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, of course Macalan cried! I don't know what it is about that kid and the birthday song! The cake and ice cream afterwards made up for it.

After cake and ice cream Macalan enjoyed a nice long walk with grandpa. I love seeing the two of them together. They are so sweet. He never did have a nap which explains why he fell asleep on a chair when we were out to eat that night! He managed to sleep just long enough to regain some energy for the campfire he requested we have on his birthday. He made a s'more with daddy and then it was time to get into those new jammies and head off to bed so the Easter Bunny could come.

On his actual birthday on Monday we enjoyed a tiny Backyardigans cake (courtesy of Hy-Vee), a few more presents, and the tradition of reading A Birthday Cake is No Ordinary Cake.

It was a wonderful weekend spent celebrating with family. I couldn't have asked for more fun or a better 3 year old to call my own!

Playroom Complete!

After several days of cleaning and organizing the playroom is officially open for play and the boys are sharing a bedroom! Each day has gotten easier and easier with putting the boys to bed. We decided to put Sutton to bed first and then take Macalan up after he was sleeping. That has helped a lot.

Now if Macalan would just stay asleep all night or at least stay in his bed when he wakes up then things would be even better.
Every night this week he has gotten up in the middle of the night and come to bed with us. Last night I thought I heard his little footsteps walking toward our bedroom, but then he never came in. I assumed I was hearing Walter re-positioning on the floor next to our bed. However, I kept hearing a noise outside our door so I got up to check and discovered Mac laying in the fetal position on the floor in front of our bedroom door. He never really gave a clear reason as to why he didn't just come in. What a silly guy! :)

I tried to capture some pictures of them enjoying their new playroom, but trying to get a decent picture of Sutton is like trying to get Macalan to use the potty! Sutton just can't sit still long enough for a good one. I'm not looking forward to taking their 18 month and 3 year pictures when the weather gets nicer. I will have to pull out all the stops in order to get some good shots. I also had a hard time getting a good picture of the playroom. I had to stand in the closet to get as much of the room as I could. This is a seriously tiny room in our house and sadly, this room is only housing about 1/2 the toys we have for them.

Spring Break

This week I am off work for spring break! I have gotten quite a bit accomplished so far. Lots of rooms have been thoroughly cleaned, closets and drawers have been cleaned out, and I decided to attempt to have the boys start sharing a room. Not sure if that was such a good idea!

We started by setting up the pack-n-play in Macalan's room last night just to see how it would go instead of taking apart the crib and realizing the switch wasn't going to work. Well it took a good 30 minutes for them both to settle down and fall asleep. I think they were both weirded out by the whole thing. For Sutton, he was sleeping in a new place and different bed. For Macalan, he just isn't used to having anyone in his room so the whole thing was strange for both. After a few tears they eventually surrendered to sleep. We didn't hear a peep out of them until 4 this morning when Macalan crawled into our bed. Thankfully it didn't wake Sutton!

The reason for the move is simple...we are running out of space! We only have 2 bedrooms on the main floor and then 2 upstairs. Sutton's current room will make a great play room for them as long as they can handle sharing. I have heard wonderful things about siblings sharing a room. My sister and I did it up until I was in kindergarten or maybe first grade. I can only remember a few times here and there when I got into her Barbies and she wanted to rip my head off. :) Other than the minor disagreements, we had many late night conversations about silly kid stuff and those are some of the fondest memories I have of childhood.

I'm sure the boys will do great. As with anything new, we just need to give them time to figure it out and become comfortable.

I am hoping to get the play room all set up this week along with more cleaning and organizing. Macalan and I had fun painting this morning. Sutton likes to color for about 2 minutes before he attempts to eat the crayons. It is so nice to have time to do fun things with my kids, as well as get things done around the house that I never seem to have time for!

Banana Eye

I meant to post this a long time ago, but forgot about having these pictures. Several weeks ago I was in the kitchen after getting the boys going on eating their dinner. I kept hearing them laughing hysterically at each other and I thought to myself, "How sweet. They love each other so much. How cute it is to hear them laughing together." I should have known something was up! When I walked out into the dining room I discovered why they were having such fun together. It wasn't just the innocent, sweet laughter of childhood. Macalan had decided it would be a good idea to smear his banana, as well as applesauce all over his face, including in his hair. Sutton thought it was just hilarious. When I asked him why he did that he said, "Look mom! I'm Banana Eye!" Whatever that means, I don't know, but needless to say he got a bath that night. Oh the joy of having two silly boys!

I probably sent the message of condoning this behavior by taking a picture, but I just couldn't help it. It was pretty funny.

Lazy mom, crazy kids

I feel as if I was able to find time to blog more often when I had a million things going on! I am finding it hard to adjust to not being super busy all the time. Lately I have just been very lazy. Although, I'm great at making "To Do" lists and then not finishing them! :)

My lack of blogging could be due to the fact that my kids are going crazy! Whoever said that 3 was harder than 2 was absolutely right, unfortunately! Macalan has an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other and right now it seems as if the angel is about to get pinned! I feel like I'm living in the movie Groundhog Day. Everyday is the same thing. We wake the boys up, Macalan is in a good mood for a good 10 minutes and then he freaks out because his finger hurts or his diaper is too tight, or we looked at him wrong! From there it's pretty much downhill until we can get him strapped in to his car seat. Fortunately for our daycare lady, he is a perfect little angel all day until we come to get him. Most days I feel like I'm going to have to hog tie him to get him in his coat. The car ride home consists of him complaining about an unGodly number of things, including the sun being in his eyes. He keeps telling me to turn it off! :) When we get home it's just on again/off again until bedtime with several brotherly fights sprinkled in between.

Meanwhile Sutton is being a very good boy. I wish I could rewind to that simple age of being a pre-toddler. Things were so easy with Macalan at this age. I know I should cherish each stage because it goes by fast, but seriously my patience is fried! I said a long prayer (half joking/half serious) on my way to work today that social service wouldn't need to be called to my house in the near future!

In all seriousness I know how lucky I am. I have two great kids that are healthy. I know things can always be worse so I do feel blessed that I am even able to have these daily issues with my kids. It's all a part of parenthood. It helps that I have friends and co-workers who are experiencing the same problems right now. I know I'm not alone!

I am looking forward to two more weeks of work and then a whole week off to play and have fun and hopefully mend some of the problems we are having with our little men. However, time outs and a newly introduce job chart have helped somewhat.

Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.
James Thurber

Lost and Found

This past weekend we managed to lose Sutton's nuk somewhere in the house. When bedtime rolled around Sunday night I frantically dumped out toy bins, looked under all the furniture, and anywhere else I could think of as Sutton sat screaming in his crib and, of course, head-butting it because he was so mad. I was planning on taking his nuk away pretty soon anyway, but I didn't like the fact that it was lost and he was going cold turkey. My search turned up nothing even after I interrogated Macalan thinking maybe he took it and hid it somewhere. Sutton actually calmed down after rocking him a little and he ended up going to bed really well without it. You may be wondering why I don't have more than one nuk around the house, but I don't have a good answer for that. We had one or two others at one time, but something mysteriously happened to those as well and I just never got around to buying more.

He hasn't had it since and everything has been going really well. The only annoying thing about him not having it is that now I'm his "security blanket." Whenever he is sad or tired he only wants me and it always seems to be at the those times when I'm getting meals ready or trying to clean up from a meal. Oh well. It does make me feel good to know he needs his mama. Oddly enough Macalan ended up finding the nuk under the coffee table (the only place I guess I didn't look) the other morning before we left for daycare. I quickly grabbed it and hid it in Sutton's drawer so he wouldn't see it. I am kind of weird and like to save their nuks in their keepsake boxes.

On a completely different subject, Kyle and I tried curling the other night and had so much fun! We saw in our church bulletin that the married couples group was going to be having a social event at the curling club in Mankato. We thought we'd give it a try and it was an excuse to get a babysitter and get out of the house. I was really surprised at how well we both did. I was especially surprised at my first time abilities. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not an athlete. I attempt to run, but other than being involved in dance while growing up, I have never really been interested in sports. I'm for sure not olympic material, but hey at least I scored us some points while playing! :) I think we are going to look in to joining a league next year so that we can get out once a week and do something together.

Other than starting the P90X diet and exercise program this week life has quieted down a little for me. I have my gallery walk on Monday night where I present my display board and final paper in a pretty relaxed, fun atmosphere. Some of the head honchos from Concordia will be there, but we also get to invite our families. After that I am DONE until graduation in May!

Well this concludes one of my more boring/long blog posts.

2 Years Later

I am happy and also very proud to say that I completed my master's program tonight! I felt the need to document this occasion on our blog because so much has happened to our family in the last two years. I have had to endure the rigor of reading multiple chapters every week and writing reflections, typing multiple papers, and completing projects. However, my family has given up a lot in order for me to be able to accomplish my goal of earning my master's degree.

It all began when Macalan was just 11 months old. Kyle began the weekly routine of picking him up from daycare and having a "guys" night while I attended my classes. It was only two weeks into my program that I discovered I was pregnant with Sutton. I remember crying tears of joy and fear when I found this out because I couldn't imagine having two kids under the age of 2, working full time, and going to school. I even called my advisor and asked if I should drop out. She simply said, "people get married, get divorced, and have babies while in these cohort programs." After hearing that I decided I would tough it out.

Nine months later my Sutton Button was born! I was able to take one class off so I could just be home with my boys and adjust to a life with two kids. Eight weeks later I jumped back in and took classes through the summer to make up for the one I took off. Kyle also had to adjust to being home one night a week with both boys, as well as taking care of them on his own while I was frantically trying to get something completed for class.

Through all of this though I feel like my kids have been the ones to sacrifice the most. Their needs at times had to be put on the back burner so that I could finish a project or paper. Many times Macalan has said to me "Mommy put your 'puter away." This was always so hard to hear and made me feel so guilty. Sutton has never known anything different. I have been juggling a lot since the day he was born and I wish I could give him back more of my time.

However, now I am so happy to be able to say that all of the sacrifice and lack of time is done! I am looking forward to having more time with my kids and less to worry about. I'm having a hard time believing that I am actually finished. Having all these things to do had just become a way of life over the last two years so it will be a little strange being able to just come home each night and play with the boys. My weekends will no longer include homework!

I will end this blog post with a big THANK YOU to my family. There is no way I could have done this without their support. I am such a lucky wife and mom to have such a supportive and loving family!

I am including a picture of my favorite little guys who make me so happy everyday and who have given up a lot over the past 2 years.