February Fun!

Even though February is the shortest month of the year, we have been having a lot of fun!  First, here are some of the boys' Valentine Day celebrations.... Zander celebrated his 100th day of school on Valentine's Day so he combined counting fun with this day of love.  I think he has his first little Valentine too..... check out the post it note he wrote all by himself for Mia!

One of my friends sent me this picture of Maddox on Valentine's Day.... as you can tell, he is all smiles! :)

 Zander is taking swim lessons every Tuesday and Thursday in February.  At first he was nervous but he has come so far!  He is jumping in at the deep end and swimming to the ladder all by himself.  He is also using a kick board or noodle to paddle/kick the length of the pool and back! He will put his head under and come up for breaths every few kicks or strokes!  We are hopeful that these lessons will give him the courage to try swimming more confidently over the summer.

It has been cold and rainy the entire month of February!  We have managed to go outside a few afternoons when the weather cooperates!  We love playing at our neighborhood playground or riding bikes!

Zack and I fit in our monthly date night!  It was very glamorous!  We ended it with a trip to Big Lots to buy new pillows for our beds!  This is real life! :)

 But first, I had this delicious margarita with dinner! ;)

Grammy came over throughout the month of February and added sweet notes for each of us.... showing us how much we are loved..... the first door is Maddox's, then Zander's and finally the parents! :) The boys and the adults loved this sweet surprise!

Linds and I ran 10 miles on a treadmill last weekend..... remember I said its been really wet!  So we opted for a sunnier mid-week run before Zander's swim lessons on Thursday!  We had our best time to date with an overall pace of 8:44 for the 8 miler we fit in!  I made it to swim lessons with 5 minutes to spare as well!  Thanks to Grammy for watching the boys and feeding them dinner.... I felt like super mom to fit it all in! Saturday morning I will get to sleep in too! Win Win!

 We've had spirit week all week at school.  We rocked pajamas, neon, dressed to impress, team jerseys and crazy hair!  The boys liked the crazy hair the best! I personally like the Mohawk and might have to do this look more often for the boys!

 Maybe not all fun in February, Maddox took a tumble at church last Sunday.  He busted his lip and gave himself some carpet burn on his nose.  He has been a trooper and it is healing nicely!  You can see a cute photo bomber in the back of the photo!;)

To My Little Valentines,

I cannot believe you both are five and three years old!! Where has the time gone?!  I will have to admit that our life is a little crazy right now.  We are so busy doing fun things, challenging things and just life things.  You boys continue to be full of energy and full of smiles.  You both love to talk the whole way to school and on the way home.  You will constantly call "mama" "mama" from the backseat and I help you take turns sharing what is on your mind.  You are starting to play so well together.  I will look over while I'm cooking dinner and you are shooting the basketballs into our indoor basketball goal.  You will race cars down the track.  You will run laps around our downstairs after one of you says "ready, set, go".  I pray that the friendship you are developing now will last the rest of your lives.  It is so sweet to watch the encouragement you give each other and how quickly you bounce back to loving each other after a disagreement.  In all honesty, you still "get on each other's nerves" and have to be separated at times for a moment to cool down.  The moments before bed when we read books together (sometimes having Zander read to Maddox his take home readers) are some of my favorites!  You love cuddle time before bed.  You will tell me about your days and, of course, we say our prayers and sing songs.  Maddox's favorite songs are "Wheels on the Bus", the ABC song and "Jesus Loves the Little Children".  Zander's favorite songs now are "I Love You, Lord" (mommy's favorite) or songs that Zander makes up on his own.  Zander is reading books, counting past 100 and noticing patterns in numbers.  He is really starting to understand the concept of time (when he is waiting for something to arrive from Amazon or a certain holiday on the calendar- patiently waiting day by day or waiting for a certain time limit to lapse as a timer has been set-usually to finish his dinner).  Maddox is doing a great job with knowing his colors and starting to recognize letters and numbers.  He loves holding books when we are reading, pointing to words and turning pages.  He has a counting book (called "Night Light") where he will count each of the objects and then point to the corresponding number (1-10)..... it is so cute!  He still has the sweetest speech impediment that makes me smile and sometimes makes it hard for me to understand what he saying!  Today he was saying "Valentine's Day" and I thought for sure he was telling me something about his "balance bike"!  He gets really excited when we are finally speaking the same language! ;) Both boys give the best hugs and love with everything they have.  They are so tenderhearted that there are often tears when something or someone upsets them.  They are so resilient and handle our busy schedule so well.  They quickly get in the car as we head to our next destination!  They love the science center, the beach, the mountains, the park, riding bikes, and really anything that involves the outdoors!  I can't wait to see what fun activities we will get to enjoy together as you continue to get older and add to your individual interests.  You two boys are some of the best parts of my day.  The moments where we can just be together and not worry about any to-do list or expectation.  Thank you for loving me with your whole hearts and for allowing me to love on you as your mommy!  I love you so much!  Happy Valentine's Day to my favorite little boys!! :) 

Student of the Month

We had a lot of fun last weekend spending time with friends and family.  Zack and I got to entertain most of the kids with a game of Guess Who? and Candyland at Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Boomer's house!  We went over to Grammy and Grandpa's to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday so I got extra cuddles from my boys and my favorite niece!

Last Monday, I went to donate blood through the American Red Cross.  I took my oldest sidekick with me.  The weeks are so busy (especially now that Zander is taking swim lessons two nights a week) so we had to start working on homework while I was giving blood.... multitasking at its finest! ;)

Our big boy has been working really hard at school.  I am starting to see glimpses of some maturity as he heads toward the age of SIX!  He got recognized this past week for Bowtie Behavior, and he was in the newspaper as the Student of the Month to represent kindergarten at our school!  I just love his responses.....he wants to be a meteorologist when he grows up because he likes to look at the weather.  He loves the mountains and the beach but prefers it hot!  He also would give $100 to the school if he won the lottery and loves his Spiderman book he got for Christmas.  He has been working so hard to follow the rules at school and try to do what mommy asks him to do after school while I am still getting my job responsibilities completed.  I am so proud of him!

On Thursday night, Maddox and I went to my school's multicultural night while Zack and Zander headed to swim lessons.  Having to chase around a busy three year old was a challenge.  This is the only picture I could snap from the event!

This past weekend, we welcomed back the winter temperatures (all of last week was fairly mild).  Zack took the boys to the park on Saturday while I ran with my sister.  On Sunday I wanted to join in the fun so we gathered up all the boys and headed outdoors to hike and play.  The boys' rosy cheeks were evidence of a good time exploring nature! I love my four boys (the oldest one is not pictured) so much!

Random Post with Pictures :)

Just wanted to capture what we have been up to these last couple weeks.... busy as always but having a lot of fun too!  Here is a picture of Mia and Zander at our McTeacher night a couple weeks ago.  These two love taking selfies!  Side note:  Zander has started to mention "emoji faces".... have no idea where he heard that from but it is crazy how fast kids pick up on the technology lingo!  

We love Facetiming our nephew!  He thinks his cousins are crazy!  The boys like to entertain him while we are catching up.... this time it was by jumping on the bed!  And yes the "no more monkeys jumping on the bed" is definitely an applicable song for my two high energy boys!

Linds and I have consistently been getting up early on Saturdays to get a long run in so we are ready for our next half marathon!  It was quite chilly last weekend but we knocked out 10 miles in an overall pace of 9:05..... I'll take it! ;)

Grannie came to visit us last Saturday.  We mainly stayed inside due to the frigid temperatures but the boys (and Grannie) wanted to check out the gibbons before we left.  These gibbons did not disappoint!  They were swinging and jumping all over the place!

Zack was in Orlando this past week for his national sales meeting.  I had the boys solo for four days (a special thanks to my parents for helping me survive in daddy's absence!)!  I was outnumbered and oftentimes overwhelmed..... but look at those smiles!  I love these boys so much!!

When the boys are not going 110 mph around the house or from one location to another, they calm down pretty easily by bedtime.  I always love the time of day after dinner and baths when we can read a book, pray, sing songs and cuddle before falling asleep.  After the boys are asleep, I work on the laundry and getting things ready for the next day.  So the mornings aren't so crazy, I will sneak into their rooms to put away their clean clothes.  I just had to document how cute they are when they sleep. :)

Zander was nominated as his class' student of the month!  He got to eat a yummy pizza lunch and will be in the newspaper next week!!  He has worked so hard to have self- control, keep his hands to himself and listen to his teachers.  I can definitely see a maturity in him as he is getting a little older and more settled into the routines of school.

A few more random pictures.... Zander still loves taking selfies, we all love a dessert treat at least once a week (thank you Dairy Queen and your delicious blizzards), Zander loves reading his Spiderman book after I put him to bed (he will turn out his bedside light when he is finished) and the boys are starting to get the hang of homework time.... this is still quite hard to manage at this point with a three year old!   One day at a time....

Zander had book character day yesterday.... he wanted to be Cat Boy!  Thank goodness we had a book to match! ;)  I absolutely love our assistant principal!  She is a dear friend and loves kids so much!!  She took a picture with Z since I was at an off campus meeting!

Maddox will be moving up to the Monkey's class on Monday.  Since he is getting older, it is time to move him up to the older group!  He will miss his Giraffe friends.... here is a picture of his Giraffe buddies on his last day with them. Fortunately, a couple friends are moving up too!  Praying for a smooth transition!  He has been doing such great things and has so many smiley face days at school..... praying the trend continues! ;)

I was feeling sentimental this week.... Zack and I had our first date 14 years ago this week!  I decided to look back even further (18 years in fact!) to some of our pictures together when we were friends in high school.... its crazy how time flies and how the future has a way of working itself out when neither of us would have anticipated where we are now when we were seniors in high school..... enjoy these "throwback" photos. ;)