My Brother, My Best Friend

I knew that I always wanted more than one child. I was an only child and longed for a sibling. I would always watch my friends with their brother's and sister's and that incredible bond! They always had a playmate, someone to stay up late and talk with, someone to always stick up for them or to stick up for, I was jealous!

My mom and dad are divorced and neither one of them ever had another child. I still wish I would have had a brother or sister. Tim also does not have a sibling, but he on the other hand never wanted one and is glad he does not have one. He liked being on only child. SO as you can see our children have no aunts or uncles, how sad right? Well they have great aunts and uncles, and for that I am grateful, but I can't help be a little sad.

When I was in the hospital having my second son, I was a mess to say the least! It was my first time away from Timothy for a period of time. I couldn't help but feel awful for leaving him to have another child. He was only 17 months old and I felt as though I was cheating him out of his childhood, that he was going to hate me. Then one of my sweet nurses told me a little piece of advice that I have never forgotten: "Your son will never know what life was like before his brother, he will know nothing other than having a brother. You are giving him one of the best gifts"!

This thought has never left my mind. I am so happy that my children will be able to experience having a sibling. I hope that they are best friends, that they will always be there for each other, and that they share that incredible bond! They are very lucky! Who am I kidding, they are already best friends!

Here they are playing so nicely together, although it only lasted long for me to take a picture it was sweet!



This was the other day at Bob's Drive-In in Arnold! They shared an ice cream cone. I had to take pictures of this, what kid shares ice cream?!


"Here Mason have another bite"!


"Wait, your not suppose to eat it all"! PRICELESS!

Such A Girl!

Taylor is really starting to "talk" now! She craves attention, and always flashes a smile when you look at here! I love all the little baby sounds she makes. It is kind of reassuring when she bats those lashes and flashes a big gummy grin at me, that I am doing something right! OK so she does that to everyone right now, but I still just cannot get enough of it! Now I am waiting to hear that first laugh. Baby laughs are my favorite! He is my attempt to catch her smiling and cooing! Enjoy!


Sorry it's a little dark.

First Zoo Trip of the Year!

I know it's already May and Monday was the first time we had been to the zoo this year. It is one of my favorite places to take the kids, but just could not get there any sooner. It was a VERY WARM May day, in the 90s! I was prepared though with lots of water and plenty of breaks. One of my good friends Laura and her daughter Ella joined us. There were plenty of animals to see!

Hippos




Butterfly's


A bear



Ella was nice enough to share some of her passes for the carousel. They have a season pass because that's how they roll!! The kids loved it. Well Mason doesn't look too thrilled, but he had fun once it started moving.




The gorilla's and apes are my favorite to see! That day they were in a extra playful mode, most day's when we go they just sit there. They were running all over doing flips. Two of them were even playing peekaboo under a blanket...the kids got a kick out of them.

Then Timothy had a special moment with one of them. The gorilla had his back against the glass and Timothy was standing right behind him talking and waving to him. He finally tuned around and started making faces at him! Timothy had his little hand against the glass and the gorilla reached up and gave him a high five, he was ecstatic! Everyone was snapping pictures of them interacting, but of course I was like 2 seconds too late (stupid camera)! See Tim this is why I need one of those DSLR cameras!






Even though it was so darn hot out everyone had a good time! Taylor slept most of the time, of course!


This picture of Mason about sums up the day!

Saturday

Another busy day was ahead. We had planned to get together with my dad and Judee in the morning just to visit. The boys LOVE Pa Pa and Judee and they just adore the kids! I am so glad they are such a huge part of our lives. We decided to meet them at the park since it was another beautiful day out, but it was starting to get rather hot out! And wouldn't you know it, I forgot the sunscreen.



The boys played on the playground.



Mason did some swinging,




while Timothy played some baseball with daddy.


Taylor gave us some smiles!



Then there was some more swinging with Pa Pa pushing of course!

Then we decided to walk down by the river, which sounded like a great idea, but ended up being a not so great idea! I had a small panic attack/meltdown when the boys started getting dirty. I know they are BOYS, and boys are suppose to be dirty, and we were at the river! In my defense we had a graduation party to go to and I didn't want them to arrive dirty! I was not made to handle boys and their dirtiness! The boys skipped rocks, Mason almost rolled into the river...which gave me another slight heart attack, and I got some nice pictures. I guess it wasn't so bad after all. I will work on letting them get dirty more often!






As I mentioned, we then had to attend Tim's cousin, Jennifer's, graduation party. I can't believe she is already graduating, Tim and I got together when I was a freshman in highschool. It made me feel really old! We had a great time! Food, fun, and family! CONGRATS Jennifer on your graduation, we are so proud of you!

Busy Busy Busy

Whew the past few day have been busy, or at least busy for me! Wednesday we went to Grant's Farm with some friends and ladies from our playgroup. I have been trying to take the kids since last year, and finally a day worked out! It was a gorgeous day out and the kids had a blast! I even got some exercise, we walked 25 minutes to get there, walked around to look at the animals, and then walked 25 minutes back to the car. By the time we made it home, we all needed a nap.












On Thursday we stayed home and relaxed, I tried to get some cleaning done but didn't get very far. I wanted to be lazy!!

Friday Tim was off work and it was his birthday! We didn't get to do anything too exciting or without the kiddos, but had a nice day.

We all went out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, did I ever mention how much the boys can eat! WOW for being only 3 and 1 they sure can eat!

Then we stopped by 2 different bike shops to pick up parts for Tim's dirtbike and my four wheeler. They didn't have all the parts so we had to order some.

Went by Best Buy so Tim could get an ethernet card for his computer since the lightning from the previous week fried it! Yep, you heard that right...the lightning struck right behind our house, SCARY! I hate storms, but that is a whole other post.

Finally we made it to the grocery store, which we have been neglecting for 3 weeks. To say we needed food in the house is an understatement! We decided to go to Wal-Mart this time since we needed a few other non food items. BAD IDEA!!! We left spending way more than we intended to. Isn't that how it always goes?!

We spent the rest of the evening outside. The kids rode bikes and chased each other around, Tim worked on the bike. I watched both events.

Not an exciting day, but a fairly relaxed nice day!

Happy Birthday Tim!