Popsicles Take two

I got the new popsicle molds yesterday and had to try a new popsicle right away! 

Put 4 plums (skin off) 1 cup raspberries, and 1/2 cup apple juice in a blender

Puree until it is blended together.

Put tops on and freeze for 3-6 hours.

Enjoy!! Alex liked these ones! They were a little heavy on the raspberry taste, so I will probably use a little less next time! :)

Katie: motherhood

Today was one of those days.

One of those days where one minute you are ohhing and ahhing over 

how sweet and silly your toddler is being with the newborn. 

Then you are feeling the fit of rage because YES that two year old did say NO to you right in your face AGAIN. 

Then back to a state of disbelief because that same child said please and thank you without being asked. 

One of those days where your child refuses to nap, 

your infant sounds terrible with a cold, 

and you are still in your pajamas at 3 in the afternoon,

 AND you have made coffee twice, poured a cup twice, and not tasted it until it was cold... twice.

One of those days that, at the end,

you just have to sigh and be thankful because

HIS mercies are new every morning.

It was one of those days.

Normally things are much easier, especially in the summer. Will is the one who stays home with the boys during the day, and since I teach I have the summers off, so we are home together. It is an arrangement I like. The tag teaming makes things a whole lot easier! 

But there have been several days that Will has been gone with sports, and those seem to be the days that Alex likes to show out the most (he knows back up is far away!). Its sometimes these days where I feel totally incompetent as a parent, even though we have many great parts of the day and I always survive... and so to my kids. But I think Alex and Liam show me how weak I really am, and that I can't always rely on myself but I need Jesus to walk me through these days because I can't do everything on my own.

Don't get me wrong. My students have a knack for reminding me of my inadequacies as well. And actually thinking that come fall, I will have to spend a day with 16 kids at school and then have to go through these kind of days with my kids at home too... I am already praying for supernatural strength! ;) But my boys really make my inadequacies personal!

For some reason I thought it would be a little different with my kiddos. But its not. And while sometimes I want to cope by hiding by the freezer all day sneaking spoonfuls of ice cream, I remember two things:

1. My mom raised 5 kids, maintained her sanity, and still encourages me through these moments.

2. HIS mercies are new every morning.  Thank you Jesus! 

He has called Will and I to the amazing profession of parenthood, and He will not leave us or forsake us if we continually call on Him. There have been several key moments in our journey as parents that have given me a better understanding of what God has done for us. How difficult and painful parenting can sometimes be. Yet, because of his steadfast love for us, he has endured all that we put him through. And not just with two kids but the whole world. And because he has, he can give me what I need.

Grace has a whole new meaning. {so does justice, but mostly grace! ;)}

And so as I head to bed, I choose to keep the precious moments with my two rascals in my head

(and not think about how much sleep Liam will let me have tonight or all the rascally things Alex did today)

 also a favorite quote from my favorite Anne comes to my mind:

(total side note: I often wonder if I will ever be able to read that wonderful series to a daughter... 

I don't think Will is going to be thrilled if I read it to my boys! haha!)

isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?

I love knowing that after having "one of those days" 

tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes yet, 

 but instead it is already full of grace and mercy. 

{for me and my children}

thank you Jesus, for getting us through yet another day.

Alex: Popsicles Take 1

This is take one because Alex didn't really love this batch... so we will try again later. They were still yummy (to me!) and a very easy process! Here is Alex to show you the steps.

1. Get some popsicle molds (these are from walmart)

Insist on eating the blue one first.

2. Mix up the ingredients.

This was 2 cups greek yogurt, 1 Tbsp honey, 4 strawberries cut up, and a handful of blueberries.

3. Take popsicle molds all over house. Protect the blue one, even while reading a book. 

(My yogurt had accidentally frozen in our fridge...it has issues. So we were waiting for it to melt a bit)

4. Put the mixture in molds, and put the tops on.

(and keep insisting that you are going to eat the blue one!)

5. All ready to go in the freezer! It took a good 3-4 hours to freeze.

6. Taste Test: (You should have seen his face after every bite! It wasn't quite sweet enough for him! :) )

7. Discover the little straw thing at the side to help slurp up the bottom part.

8. Only want to eat the popsicle that way...

FAIL.

I learned two things from this first attempt. 

1. Juice popsicles will probably be more what he would love to eat. (with an occasional chocolate one!)

2. These popsicle molds still make a mess! My sister bought these ones and loves them so now I have a set in the mail too! :)

More popsicle fun to come!

Liam: One Month Old

It is hard to believe it has already been a month since this little man joined our family!

 Here are a couple of things we have enjoyed this month!

Liam is a great sleeper! We decided to move him to his crib in the second or third week. He was making so much noise that it would wake us up in our room, but Alex (once he falls asleep) sleeps through everything. 

Turns out Liam decided to start sleeping LONG stretches in his crib! YAY! 

(Long is a 3 hour and 4-6 hour stretch at night, It can only get better right?!)

Liam loves his bath! I think the boy is feels more free to move the less clothes he has on! He wiggles all over the place in his bath and when he is only in a diaper. 

He has also survived his brother being a little overly helpful in the bath!

Alex loves his brother! It makes me so happy to see the two of them together!

 Liam is learning he has to share his toys 

(and hopefully Alex will learn that soon too!)

I think they will be good friends! Liam is very sweet to let his brother love on his so much. 

I didn't think Alex would enjoy giving his brother kisses so much!

So thankful to have such sweet boys!

We always took Alex's month pictures on this blanket, but Liam has his stuffed dinosaur too!

He loves stretching!

Here is a comparison of the brothers. Both at a month old...

Everyone says they look alike, but I am really not too sure! 

 Both chubsters, that is for sure!

Alex: the Library

I love the library and want my kiddos to love going to the library and choosing out new books! As much as I love buying books, checking them out of the library suits our budget a little better! Since summer has started, we go to the library on average twice a week, thanks to the numerous events at the library 

(that, as our storytime librarian points out, they pay for and we don't!)

Thankfully too, Alex has developed a love of reading that did not exist last summer, when, we would go to storytime occasionally, but I practically had to wrestle him to the ground to sit and listen to a story. 

Or it may have been that we had to sing:

Knock, Knock, who's at the door?

It's {insert name},{insert name}

Hello {insert name}...

for all 35 million kids (may be a slight exaggeration) there. Which took half of storytime, and if I was bored of it, I think my child was too!

But to my relief they have not done that at any of the storytimes this year! We have been to the family storytime and toddler storytime. I think we will continue the toddler storytime during the summer and then try to do the family storytime during the school year because it is on the weekend.

And now he enjoys the stories and songs a lot more...

 along with plastering his body with the little pictures they tape to the window! haha!

We always spend some time playing afterwards with puzzles or the huge stuffed animals.

This week was special because he earned his reading medal! I loved summer reading challenges growing up! Alex loves getting his medal! I had showed him his medal from last year, so he spent all morning pacing around with it, asking to go to storytime to get his medal!

Finally it was time! So he held on tight to his card

(which, they only have to read 25 times! it is pretty easy to get that much in no time at all!)

Then comes the impossible task of trying to get a picture of him with his newly earned medal!

He ran to the door yelling "storytime, storytime!" and plopped right down on the floor...

I wish he would sit this nicely the whole time! He usually ends up on my lap,

 (with me holding on to him because he sees other kids running around and wants to do the same!)

We went back the next day for a puppet show. Normally they might do one at the end, but they did about 3 or 4 puppet shows.

He yelled "puppet show" all around the house before we left, but was ready to go after the second show! haha! 

Storytime at our house tends to be a little bit more active 

(Alex  is a mover!) 

and with books that are completely geared towards his interests. 

(you won't find any digger or train books at the library...I am pretty sure we have them all!)

But we go to the library so he gets used to sitting, listening, etc. 

and of course it is nice to get out of house and have some fun mommy & Alex time! 

Alex: What can you do with a box?

Last week was pretty rainy. I was thinking how nice it would be to have a big box for Alex to play with, and then later that day a gigantic box with our Amazon subscribe and save items came!

PERFECT!

First, Alex checked out the box.

Then, he ate lunch in it.

We added a ramp for his cars.

And played hide and seek.

Later, It was a workshop for cars.

The next morning, we built a mini golf course, 

 And then a tunnel for cars!

I think it is safe to say we have had some fun with the box! 

We have also been coloring all over it and now it is folded up for future use!

Also at the library, we found this book

It was a perfect read to go along with all of our fun!

{and as a teacher I now have some fabulous ideas to use it in my room,
 and there is one called Not A Stick!}

I have some more ideas for the box when we need some stay-inside fun! 

Katie: Summer Schedules

One thing I love about summer is that I have no schedule. The mornings are relaxing and we can all hang out in our pajamas as long as we want, or we can get up and go some where as soon as we want to as well! Yet, at the same time, I crave some kind of schedule too and go crazy without it because all of a sudden time as passed and I feel like its been wasted. I knew that with adding a newborn to the mix, we would need to be more flexible, so I didn't want our lives to be too scheduled. To find the perfect balance...

That came in the form of our summer bucket lists!

Really, it was just a way for me to have fun with a bunch of fonts.
I love playing with fun fonts! :)

I made a summer fun list for Alex (and Liam as much as he can participate! :) ), and then one for me! I am a big believer in "ME time" even if it is just 30 minutes at the end of a day, or working on a craft for 15 minutes during nap time. Of course, some of the things on my list are fun for Alex too, but they are things I really want to do! Our lists have some things that we will do multiple times, so we won't always cross everything, but somethings will be more of a special activity! I just want to make sure we don't get stuck in the summer rut. I also made a rainy day (or it's kind of too hot to play outside) list because being inside is not something Alex loves at all!
Here are our lists! :) Most are either pretty cheap or free activities!

The library is providing some of our entertainment this summer thanks to storytime, the puppet shows, and pigskin poets!

I can already cross make laundry soap off of my list! :)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have too many rainy/too hot days! (haha!)

Alex: Language Explosion

It took Alex a little while to catch on to the whole talking thing. He was more of a doer and a mover. But now that he has started really catching on, he doesn't stop talking. Between the constant "what's this?" and then repeating everything we say, our house is rarely quiet now.

Having a brother helps too. We are trying to move passed the never ending "hey baby" (thank goodness he is talking to his brother and not a girl!)  or "hold baby" and get him to tell his brother what he is doing, which will only help him build his language too. Except for the fact that I just walked into their bedroom to find Alex talking to Liam in the crib saying, over and over again... " 'Iam, wake up." Alex hasn't yet mastered the beginning sound of Liam's name!

Along with his language explosion has come a love of books, which makes his teacher mom quite happy, and thanks to multiple visits to the library, we always have books on hand based on his interests. Which means we read car/train/transportation/baseball/sports books non stop. Thankfully I have been able to avoid bug books thus far, but I am sure that time will come. Once he had definite interests, it was easier to choose books for him and he actually enjoys reading them (not tearing them apart!).

He loved numbers first, but thanks to an alphabet on his wall, letters followed soon after. He recognizes almost all of his letters, there are a couple that confuse him still, but it is so cute to see him rattle letters off on a licence plate or a bag of carrots!

Some of my favorite conversations in the last week are...

Conversation 1:
Alex: Moon, Mommy, Moon
Me: Is the moon a circle or small?
Alex: It's white moon.
(my choice of adjectives were not acceptable!)

Conversation 2:
Alex: (Pointing at freezer) Mosicle (not to be confused with Mo-cycle, the vehicle)
 Me: You mean popsicle. Alex say POP--sicle.
Alex: Pop-mo-sicle

Also hearing him say the rhyme 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, or singing take me out to the ball game, is the cutest ever, especially when his voice gets higher and higher as he goes on!

This last constant phrase of his is definitely a favorite. Alex has been saying please and thank you for a while, and more recently been saying it consistently by himself. So one day when he didn't want something, I told him to say "No thank you." At first he used it appropriately...

Me: Alex would you like more corn

Alex: No thank you.

Then he got smart.

Will: Please pick up your toys.

Alex: No thank you

Me: Can you get Liam's paci off the floor?

Alex: No thank you...

Sometimes all you can do is laugh...even if you are not supposed too! ;)

Alex and Liam: Conspiring!

All these cute pictures of Alex and Liam cuddled together...

   

I am now convinced that they are actually conspiring who's turn it will be to wake up early

(early meaning Alex around 6 and Liam at 5!)

because. without fail. ONE of the boys decides to wake up early while the other will sleep in until 7 or 8. 

So Will and I take turns waking up...earlier than we would like.

But it does mean quality time with that one little man, even though we are a bit blurry eyed, and still half asleep.

Really. These boys are so cheering for their successful mission: 

Keep mommy and daddy as TIRED as possible!

Alex and Liam

Liam entered our lives right on time. He was a sweet boy and came on his due date. I think he knew I couldn't handle pregnancy much more. I spent the first half of the day laboring at home, and he came 4 hours after we got to the hospital. Meeting him at 4:06 was a precious moment.

The next best moment was seeing Alex meet him for the first time too.

The other day I was reading the Journal I started for Alex {I was TERRIBLE at keeping up with Alex's baby book...I haven't even bought one for Liam, BUT I have kept up with a journal for Alex, of my thoughts, letters, prayers. which. I am sure he will be so thrilled to read when he gets older ;) }. Anyways, Alex's journal. When he was still a month old, I had written about his sweet, tender heart, and how I could not wait to see how loving he was with his siblings. He is a rascal, but there is a soft spot in him for little babies and other kids.

He did not disappoint. Alex looked at Liam, and knew he belonged with us. He right away wanted to hold Liam. He was full of kisses. Alex was so much more interested in the baby than I ever would have imagined!

 I love this expression.... it says MY brother!

Of course, like a true toddler, when he got his present from Liam, he quickly diverted his attention to his new toy! :) 

Coming home it has been just as sweet. Alex loves to "hold baby", give him his paci, and put diapers in the diaper genie for me. We put a step stool next to the changing table so that Alex can talk to Liam, although we are trying to have him make more conversation than just "hey baby" (which he repeats over and over again!!) We are also working on Alex remembering to say "all done" or "no more" before he starts moving when he is holding Liam. And, thanks to mommy and daddy both being home over the summer, Alex still gets plenty of cuddles and outside time.

I can't wait to see what adventures are in store for us!