Gus Turns 3!

Since we were going to be at my parents' house around Gus's birthday, we celebrated Gus's birthday at their house the day before his birthday. My mom found the cutest decorations and had a wonderful cake made. Some more of my family had planned to come celebrate besides my sister and her family and my grandparents, but several of us were sick and we didn't want to pass it to anyone else. We were sad not to see them though!

Gus loved his cake! He has learned to show how old he is with his fingers!

We drove home on Gus's birthday, and he was a tired boy. We stopped and let him pick a balloon on the way home, and then we made and decorated some cupcakes (I had to get funfetti since that's what I always had on my birthdays). We sang happy birthday again and let him blow out the candles :)

(I love that all three kids are in this picture!)

Gus- I can't believe that you are 3! You make me smile every day! You wake us up every morning saying either, "I need a gummy bear" or "I need some juice." You keep me busy all day long. You are such a sweet boy. You have a tender heart. But you are all boy! I enjoy our conversations. I'm constantly amazed at how smart you are and how well you speak. You learn new words all the time! You love to sing. You love to dance to your cowboy songs. You still want daddy to run around the house with you. You enjoy being outside, although it's been too cold lately. You and Maddie play together a lot, and it's only going to get more fun as she gets older. You LOVE your brother Jack. You always want to see him and enjoy holding him. Today you asked me if I would put him down so he could walk. You always say, "Jack's growing!" or "Jack is going to get bigger." You can't wait for him to play with you too. 

I love you so much my precious boy,

Mommy

Gus is 2 1/2

Gus,
You are 2 1/2 years old today! In some ways it seems like you were just my little baby, and in other ways it feels like you have been with me forever (in a good way!)

 

You are such a sweet boy. You have a sweet personality. You are tender if you see something wrong or if someone is hurt. You will still hug me and and cuddle with me and your daddy which we love. You are sweet to your sister (most of the time....) and love to play with her and say "Hey sweet girl" or "Hey pretty girl."

 

You enjoy playing with your friends. You are starting to get a little more rough, but you are a boy!

You have a very strong personality and can be very persistent. You will ask for something you want for a VERY long time, over and over and over again. You sometimes wear us out!

When you wake up in the morning, you come in our room and get in bed with us. Within a minute or two you say, "I need some juice." As soon as you hear Maddie waking up, you say, " I go check on Maddie." You crawl into her crib which sometimes she likes but sometimes she doesn't.

For breakfast you like oatmeal, cheerios, waffles, or whatever we are eating. You love to go out on a walk in your wagon with your Daddy in the morning.

While I get ready you usually watch some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which you LOVE! You also enjoy watching Curious George and Clifford the Big Red Dog. We usually watch Pioneer Woman on Saturdays and you call it the "horse" show. You like to watch football too :)

You are a good eater. We try to just let you eat whatever we are eating most of the time. You will try almost anything. You like "quesabillas" and "chililas" a lot! You drink a lot of juice and milk.

You enjoy playing in your room with your cars and animals.

You LOVE to listen to cds and sing different songs. We have several Cedarmont kids cds that you like a lot. You also like Wee Sing Bible Songs and my old Chipmunks Christmas cd! :)

You like to visit Daddy at the "sa-macy." When we go through the drive-thru now, you ask for a sucker.

There have been a lot of changes for you over the last few months. You started sleeping in a toddler bed. You still sometimes fight to take naps and go to bed at night. You also started potty training 3 weeks ago. You are making progress!

Gus, you make me smile. You make me laugh! I love you more than words can say. It is so fun getting to know you and watching you learn to communicate more and more. You repeat things I say, so I have to be careful! I want to set a good example for you :) You now tell me "I want to help" in the kitchen when I'm cooking, and I can't wait until you can do even more. You will put things away for me around the house which is very helpful.

Two mornings this week after I got ready for the day, you said, " Mommy you look so nice!" It made my day!!!

Love to you always- my sweet baby boy-
Mommy

The Kids Keep Growing!

It seems like Maddie is making it to so many milestones lately, she's growing way too fast! I'm trying to keep up with all of them through this blog so I need to share some recent ones!

Just so I remember, Maddie rolled over from back to belly around the first of April. She had her first cereal too around that time, which she liked. 

On April 21, Maddie sat up completely straight on her own! She is quite the pro at it now. 

Last night I let her try some applesauce. She was very much a fan! She is learning so quickly how to swallow. Last week we let her have a mum-mum which she liked too. 

Today, I let her sit in a highchair at McDonald's. How is she already big enough to do that??!? I don't even know. But she enjoyed being able to see everyone. She really thought she needed a french fry, but we will wait a while on that. :)

Gus is growing too. He had his first happy meal last week. He loves drinking the milk with a straw, but tends to do a lot of spilling :)

 Something else that warms my heart more than anything is that Gus and Maddie are starting to play together!!!!

 This morning I took the kids for a walk in the stroller- to Sonic :) Yes, I live close enough it was a nice little walk.

 There is just nothing more exciting and fun than watching your children learn and grow

Cooking

What have I been cooking lately? Not much interesting because we have been dieting around our house. It isn't our favorite food, but the scale is showing progress. Pinterest sure is less fun when you can't cook all that yummy food!!

Someone around our house has been cooking though, especially this morning! 

 Gus is starting to pretend, and I LOVE it!!! I was never very good at pretending when I was little, but I always hoped Gus would be. A few days ago he was playing outside under one of our trees. He was talking to himself, and then looked up and said, "Hi Tree." It made me so happy. I want him to use his imagination all that he can!

 And this morning, he made me pizza, hot dogs, cookies, and lots of water. I don't know where he gets ideas to make these foods because we eat healthy stuff ALL the time! ;) (JOKE!) I have been trying much harder, and Gus has been eating a lot healthy along with us.

 

He also made some phone calls this morning, to MiMi, Doodle (her dog), Big Daddy, and PawPaw.

 Gus's vocabulary continues to explode. We talk all day long. This is a very fun stage.

The sleeping beauty :)

 

A perfect day in the life of a mom- playing with her babies

Our Days

Things are a little crazy around here, it's just life with two kids under two! It's busy, it's exhausting, but it's good. Gus is just growing up right in front of our eyes. He is talking more and more, it is so much fun. I love having conversations with him.

 In this video Gus shares a few of his animal sounds which he loves to do.

In this video at the very end Gus says "tortilla." It's so funny! He says "cheerios" very similarly.

Around here... We eat a lot of "meal meal" (oatmeal). 

 

Gus plays with the baby stuff. 

 

And Maddie is learning to enjoy toys. 

 

And I get excited when she falls asleep without me holding her so I can get a few things done! 

 

 And here's my baby girl in the first dress she has ever worn- such a cutie:

 

Life is good. We have our hard moments. But it's worth it :)

Catching up

I have wanted to blog so many times, but I can't see to find a few minutes to get it done. I would rather sit and hold Maddie :) But, I don't want to forget things, so here are some iphone pictures I wanted to share of a few things that have been going on!

This is the morning I went to the hospital to have Maddie- I was so excited :)

Maddie meeting my parents- Big Daddy and MiMi:

Gus has some new houseshoes- they jingle too :)

My family on Thanksgiving- couldn't be more perfect!

MiMi brought a gingerbread house to make with Gus. We all had fun putting it together, and the candy sure tasted good

She often wins the battle and ends up sleeping in bed with us...

Maddie's first trip to our favorite Mexican food restaurant:

Gus is a good big brother keeping an eye on Maddie

Maddie's first trip to the mall!

Maddie's first bath- she actually liked it for a little while although you wouldn't know from this picture!

My grandparents came to visit. Maddie is quite bright-eyed to meet PawPaw.

Another trip to eat Mexican food, and I try to keep Gus entertained

My sister and her new little boy and my MawMaw

These first few weeks have been really good. Maddie isn't sleeping great, but she is doing better than Gus did. We have been so blessed. Josh had lots of time off from work and my mom was able to come stay with us too. Several friends have already brought us dinner, and we have dinners coming next week too!! It makes things so much easier for me not having to worry about cooking. I can spend more time cuddling my little girl, because I know she won't be little long. I'll try to get more on here soon. Life is good :)