What I'm Loving...

Love beautiful weather and LOVE enjoying it with all three of my guys.

Love watching the personalities further emerge in the little ones every day.  They have so many similarities which helps bond them as brothers and best friends and the best of playmates, but they're also very different.  Brady could paint for hours, Blake likes to paint one picture and then go on to the next activity.  Brady loves getting his hands dirty and digging in the dirt.  Blake prefers to keep his hands dirt free.  Evidence of Brady's love of dirt below.

Love the weekends.  Love all three of the guys in my life so incredibly much.  And to end, one reason my heart is so full of LOVE, Blake's wish on the first star in the sky the last few nights, "To be with my family always." 

Hockey Past, Present and Future

This morning was a big day in our house because Blake strapped on his hockey skates and had his very first skating lesson.  Kind of sad because Brad had a release at work and couldn't be there... the day Brad has been dreaming about for our son since we found out we were having a boy!  Oh well, always next week.  Blake was pretty excited, but as he always is with anything new a little unsure.  He fell.  A lot.  There may even have been a few tears.  But he was rewarded handsomely with donuts afterwards and he's already talking about getting back out on the ice next week.  That's my boy!!  I think he may be a future hockey star yet. 

 This is Blake's unsure face. 

 And then I headed off to my hockey past for a Dallas Stars Ice Girl alumni reunion at the Stars game.  Fun to reminisce about the old days, see some of my girlfriends and have some adult time away.   

Remodeling

June will mark nine years we have lived in our house.  Sounds crazy, because have I really been an adult that long?!  Geez.  Anyways, when we first bought our house, we figured we'd be here five years and then move on.  But life always has other plans, and for various reasons, nine years later, here we are.  We didn't really want to throw money in on home improvement projects since we weren't going to be here long enough to justify.  I finally grew tired of that excuse, because we're obviously not moving any time in the immediate future (I think), so I decided to earmark some extra funds that came our way to start making our house a home that I love living in.  I was pretty shocked when Brad said okay without even batting an eye.  I don't think he realized I'd move so quickly!  Right now the focus is on the kitchen.  This week we had counter tops and backsplash put in.  Next step is I will be painting our cabinets white.  There are a ton of projects big and small on the list to be done, all of which Brad and I will be tackling ourselves.  I'm excited.  So, while we still have a lot left to do, here is a quick peek at PHASE 1 of the kitchen face lift.

BEFORE PIC:
 
AFTER:

Spring Forward

"Spring Forward" and "Fall Back" always comes with me cursing the heavens, "WHY!? WHY!?"  Don't people know that little ones' schedules are sacred and when you mess with them, no good can come of that??!  And while thankfully this round of day light savings has not caused any negative effects (knock on wood!!!), it has brought to light one really great benefit.  The whole staying lighter longer thing.  In the winter, it is pitch black by the time Brad gets home from work and Brad is left playing hockey in the hallway with the boys to try and get out any last remnants of energy before bath and bed.  However, I experienced the beauty in day light savings last night.  The four of us finished dinner together and it was still light out.  Our whole little family, including our often forgotten about dog, got to partake in a walk around the neighborhood.  Some of us scooted, some of us walked, but all of us were enjoying quality time together enjoying the beeeeautiful weather.  Precious time as a family.  Precious time that we'll get to have every night (barring weather conditions and hockey game conflicts) until the next dreaded day light savings.  

Scooting

My Uncle came in town a few weeks ago and packed with him his Razor scooter for Blake.  Yes, my hip New Yorker uncle can be seen scooting around the big city.  He upgraded to a new scooter and wanted to give his old trusty companion a new home.  But of course he didn't want Brady to be left out so when he got in town, bought Brady a Cars scooter.  My parents completed the gift with helmets for the boys.  Seriously, the boys were CRAZY excited.  Brady even insisted on sleeping with his helmet in his bed for the first week he had it because he was so obsessed.  And he wanted to put on the helmet as soon as he woke up. It was pretty darn cute.  The boys were a little wobbly at first.  And I didn't know if the gift would really take off with the boys, but pretty soon they had the hang of it and are both really good.  Especially my little peanut Brady.  I mean, he flies on that thing! He needs no assistance and can make it around the block completely on his own, often times with me yelling, "Wait for me!!" It kind of makes me cry when I watch him on it, totally being a big boy, with no shred of baby in sight.  But it also makes me full of pride.  Looking at my baby boy, becoming such a big, grown up boy.  Brady may be small, but he sure doesn't ever let that stop him from doing what he wants and that is a life lesson I hope he will always carry with him.  

Be Still My Heart

Blake collected these flowers off the Bradford Pear in the back the other day, brought them inside and handed them to me saying, "These are for you momma, because I love you sooo much!"  
Can I please bottle that moment up to keep forever and ever?

Zoo Day

I had seen on the weather earlier in the week that Thursday was supposed to be the most beautiful day ever and I was having one of those weeks where I NEEDED to find something to get us out of the house.  We hadn't been to the Zoo since Brady's birthday and knew it was the perfect activity for the great weather day.  We even scooped up Grandma last minute which made the day even more special.  The boys got to feed the giraffes again, we heard one of the lions roar over and over again while perched on top of a rock (one of the coolest things EVER by the way) and got to see one of the gorilla trainers open up one of the doors in the exhibit and feed a gorilla up close and personal (he also drank Gatorade and knew sign language...so neat!).  I didn't bring the stroller since I had to help Grandma in the wheelchair, which allowed the boys to run wild.  They were so well behaved and had SO much fun and wore themselves out in a major way.  It was one of the best days I've had in a long time.  I know Grandma (Ga-Ga to Brady) feels the same way.  Special memories. 

This picture reminds me of an old school picture.  Its not a great one of the boys but for some reason I love this picture.

 Aboard the monorail. 

Love the rest of these pictures of the boys.  So much.