The dangerous book for boys

I have not read that book yet (or read it to the boys), but I think I should. Especially since I'm 99% sure that number 3 is also a male. I think we'll start our own edition.

1. Attach a rope to a swingset (this provided a good hour of fun)...

Sorry about the orientation. Fixing that is beyond my technical capabilities tonight. :)

Christmas fun

We had a great Christmas weekend around here. Pete, Caroline and Aaron's aunt Suzanne all came down to help us celebrate. It was great having the company. It made the weekend so festive. Thanks guys!!

Christmas Eve beach trip...
Christmas eve luminaries with our house in the background...Christmas Day:

Never knew you could get so excited by Toy Story soap...
One happy boy...Feeding ducks (some of the weirdest ducks I've even seen)...
Christmas dinner spread (those are my new plates :) )...
Attempt at a family pic (the boys were being impossible, but they looked so cute)...Belly shot (36 wks!!)...We had such a nice weekend, but everyone was exhausted today. The weather was pretty miserable too. It actually snowed here today, and here I thought I wasn't going to get to see snow this year. It didn't stick, but we did see some flurries throughout the afternoon. To get out of the house, we took the boys to see Yogi Bear this afternoon. It was a good outing, but that is definitely a kids movie.

We have absolutely no plans the rest of the week save my weekly OB appt. I'm really looking to taking it easy. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!!!

Xmas party

Aaron and I went to his practice's Christmas party last night. It was really a good time. It was held at the Toucan Cafe. The food was amazing. Aaron had a portabella pasta dish and I had a black and blue Ribeye. Yum Yum.

All dressed up...
It was a grown up affair, so the boys stayed home with our favorite babysitter, Jeannie. She's really great with the boys. She said they did great, but about 35 minutes after she put them down, she went to check on them and both boys were in the middle of the room with their books spread out all around them. She threatened being put on Santa's naughty list and then they went right to sleep. ;)

Speaking of the naughty list, Waylon has been on an absolute tear lately. The terrible 2's are definitely in full affect. The other day I thought he was doing pretty good when he only got 2 time outs for the day. He has been the time out king, pinching and hitting a lot. Poor Byron. Yesterday I overheard Byron telling Waylon that he should be good because he doesn't want to get on Santa's naughty list. He even said, "You want to get presents don't you?" It was really cute.

Holiday program

Byron had his holiday program at the preschool today. It was chaos, but very cute. He dressed up as a shephard (seen here with best bud, Haku)...The first part of the program the entire preschool was up front in a huge manger scene. I had the hardest time getting any pics of B boy. He was either behind someone or turned around the entire time. I got tons of pictures of the backs of peoples heads. Here Byron is facing backwards and to the right of the little boy in the brown.
After that each class did their own song or rhyme. Here Byron is with his class. His shephards robe was starting to fall off at this point.
Goofing with his friend Sean afterwards...
Cuteness...
Here's a horrible video of Byron's class doing their thing ( I think I focused on the back of the audience instead of Byron :( )...

In case you missed it the rhyme was...

Way up high on the Christmas tree
Two little candy canes winked at me
I shook that tree as hard as I could
Down came the candy canes, mmm mmm good!

On another note, Paula Dean was at the program. I think her grandson must go to the same preschool. I tried not to stare too hard. My first Paula Dean sighting. :)

New arrivial!

The table I mean, not the baby. Still 6 weeks to go with the baby.

We got our new dining room table today!! I'm so excited. It's an older table, but the chairs are new. Ta daa...Here's some close ups. The chairs (which are really comfy even without cushioning. That was one of my requirements, no upholstery. They're stained to match the mahogany in the inlay)...
The top (plus some of my belly, it's always in the way lately. The inlay is mahogany with a black stripe around each side)...
The legs...
It also has 2 huge leaves. It's a little over 100 in long with both of them in. That's much bigger than our dining room. The boys and I headed to Home Goods (one of my fav new stores) this afternoon to get some place mats and napkins for Christmas dinner. Can't wait!

Weekend projects

We had a nice relaxing weekend with nothing to do. We did head over to the Duttenhaver's for dinner on Friday, but that was our sole obligation this weekend. It was either too cold or rainy to do much outside, so we tinkered around the house.

Byron got a new haircut with his dad. He's cuddling on the couch with Piper (who's head you can barely see here)..
I FINALLY hung up some pictures...
Laya graduated from her obedience classes (no, she's still not that obedient)...
I worked on putting together the nursery a bit and found a bunch of stuff we need to get before #3 arrives (not much survives after use by 2 baby boys)...
The new bedding (I LOVE the colors)...This week is pretty busy. There's a lot we need to take care of before Christmas. We did find a costume for Byron's Christmas program and a dress for me for Aaron's Christmas party today so I'm feeling pretty productive. Byron's dressing up as a shepherd (wearing a white fluffy robe which I get to use after he's done). I'm dressing up as a huge pregnant lady (wearing a black dress that I should still be able to use after baby #3 arrives. That is once I'm able to go anywhere which requires a little black dress again, probably in 2012).

Tree

The tree is up...
We put it up last week when the Duttenhaver's visited one night. I've just been too sick to blog about it lately. Right now it is the only thing in our dining room. That should change in two weeks. We're planning on getting our new dining table the week before Christmas.

The boys have already broken several (many!) of the ornaments and been given multiple time outs for playing with the lights/ornaments. The love the tree, to death (literally). I don't think the tree will make it past this Christmas.

Milestones

Waylon hit a big milestone this weekend. He stopped sleeping in his crib! He's actually only done this twice so far. We went out Saturday afternoon and picked up a twin bed and some very cool Toy Story sheets and blankies for him. Waylon was asking for Buzz even before we hit the store. That kid doesn't have a huge vocabulary yet, but he sure knows what we're talking about.

Aaron disassembled the crib and moved it over to the nursery and then set up his new bed. The boys room now looks like this..Ready for bed...
The first night went pretty well. Much better than I expected, actually. He got up once right after we put him down and then cried out a couple times between 8 and 1, but settled down on his own. At 1 he really woke up and went over to Byron's bed. Byron told me he wanted to get in bed with him but he said no. I went in at that point and put him back to bed. Way kept saying "no nap" but settled down pretty quickly. That was it, until 5:20 this morning. He's been getting up really early since we got back from Thanksgiving. I'm hoping that will change soon. I do not function well before 6 am.

The nap today went really well. We'll see what tonight brings. Wish us luck!

So Proud

...of my hubby. Click here.


or...
http://www.wtoc.com/global/category.asp?c=153752&clipId=5347312&topVideoCatNo=15094&autoStart=true

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a great time in Southern Illinois (or So Ill) last week. It was really nice to see Aaron's family and hang out with some friends again.

The trip down was great. We had a 2 hr layover in Dallas, but I LOVE that airport. They have a kids area in each terminal. The boys had a great time playing around. We are going to try and fly through there from now on.
Waylon giving some poor little girl the hand...We got there before anyone else, so we had a few days of calm. We went to 2 movies and enjoyed the nice weather. Aaron and I were all prepared to freeze our tushies off, but it was actually really nice the first half of the week. The boys got to play in Poppa Pete's yard a bunch. Aaron and I went to see Due Date on our own (Date night!!) but it wasn't good, at all really. However, we took the boys to see MasterMind...
It was great, both for the adults and the kids. Waylon actually sat transfixed through the whole thing and was dancing to I'm Bad by MJ on the way out (one of the cutest things ever to happen in So Ill).

Thanksgiving itself was great. It was Aaron's immediate family plus Pete's girlfriend, Alisha, and his Aunt Suzanne. The dinner was wonderful and for some reason both the boys had the best manners ever during the entire dinner. That has NEVER happened before. Aaron and I still are wondering how to repeat it. Usually dinner is just a series of "don't (insert some bad action here), and eat your dinner".

Byron supervising the preparations....
The table all loaded down...That is the extent of the pictures I took. I came down with a bad cold the day after. The trip home wasn't anything to write about either. I think it's best if we all just forget that. The boys were great, but we were an hr and 1/2 later getting in than planned and we had a 3 hr layover already scheduled in there. It was a LONG day. But, we're all home now. It felt great to get back to Savannah and our puppies.

Bees Knees

Had our first fieldtrip with Byron's class this morning. We went to the Savannah Bee Company. One of Byron's classmates is the son of either the founder or the owner of the company, not sure what exactly. It was great. I forgot my camera, like a big dummy, but got a couple pics with the phone. They got to see the packaging plant and taste some honey straight out of a beehive. Byron was very impressed by the smoke they use to stun the bees.

The class learning about bees, Byron's over on the right in the gray sweatshirt...
Checking out the hives, Byron's in the shorts...Waylon wore this hat for about 1 minute...We are leaving tomorrow to spend the week in southern Illinois. We are all excited about seeing everyone, although the weather has been so so so great here we will miss that. It's been in the 70's and dry for the past 2 weeks. It's great. It cools off enough at night that it definitely feels like fall, but we can still wear shorts if we want to. Honestly though, I think everyone down here thinks we're crazy for still wearing shorts. :)

The leaves have mostly fallen off our Crepe Myrtle's in the backyard and the leaves have turned. It's much more muted than fall time was in Chicago. I always loved how the boulevard turned each fall in Chicago.

Puny looking Crepe Myrtles...
Trees off our side yard...

Daddy's little helper

We have been all about the painting around here lately. Aaron painted our fence this weekend. He was able to do most of it with a sprayer, but ran out of paint for the last little bit. So, Byron got to get in on the fun. He still has paint in his hair. :)

I've also been working on some painting. I'm repainting our small hallway between the garage and the kitchen and the 1/2 bath right off it. They were red and blue respectively. I'm almost done...but the blue is a bugger to cover. After this, I'm done with the painting for at least a year.

Belly update- 29 weeks

Had another OB appointment today. Everything is going along great. The baby is just getting bigger, as is my waistline...
I am now officially in my last trimester, so it was time for the gestational diabetes test and my Rhogam shot. Byron had the day off of school so he got to go along too. The boys were great.

The weeks are flying by now. I'm trying to get some last things done around the house before Thanksgiving. We're heading to Murphysboro for a week next Saturday. This week, I've painted the hallway and am in the process of repainting our 1/2 bath. Pics to come soon.

The boys are doing really well. Here are some after dinner antics (shark hair-do's courtesy of dad)...

Low Country Boil

We had our first cul-de-sac party/Low Country Boil this weekend. Saturday evening the neighbor's boiled the boil and we all brought along something to eat. I brought some mac and cheese. I looked up online what is usually consumed at a Boil, having never been to one before. :) It was great. The Boil consisted of shrimp, craw-fish, sausage, corn and potatoes.

We had a great time. We really do have great neighbors. They are all so nice and everyone seems to get along really well. It was a chilly night, we could see our breath, but that didn't stop anyone from hanging out. We were just bundled up a little more. We're going through a "cold" snap right now. The high was only in the 50's this weekend, but looking to get back into the 70s this week. He he.

The kids hung out with the neighborhood kids all weekend. I'm really loving this neiborhood. Living on a cul-de-sac is so nice too. It's great not worrying about traffic as much. I didn't get a pic of the party last night, it was so dark they probably wouldn't have turned out anyway. Here's a shot of the kids playing this morning though. They spent all day outside....

At our house...

Halloween never dies...

Cooler times

It has definitely cooled down in Savannah. The boys have gone from wearing shorts and t-shirts to long pants and long sleeve shirts this week. This weekend it's supposed to be even cooler. I just need to find Byron's old 2T pants now for Waylon. I know they're around here somewhere.

Dad reading at bedtime. I just love Waylon's penguin pjs...
Here's a couple updates on the boys...

Byron...
1. Loves school. Was disappointed when it was the weekend and couldn't go to school to see his friends.
2. Had a pee-pee war at school with his friends Colin and Haku. I don't know why they let them go to the bathroom at the same time. That's just asking for trouble if you ask me. I told him it probably wasn't a good idea and would be too messy, but he told me they just did it in the toilet. :)
3. Loves Haku. All we hear about when talking about school is playing with Haku.
4. Got a time out yesterday for not listening along with Wynn and Haku.
5. Is a wild man. Can climb anything now and loves to jump from breath stopping heights.

Waylon...
1. Says Pease (Please) Momma about 4,000 times a day but is so cute when he says it that I usually give in.
2. Is generally talking a ton now, although all of it is not so understandable.
3. Has his first non-Byron related friend, Sean. We meet up with them about once a week for a playdate. His mom, Teri, is awesome. Playdate for me too. :)
4. Doesn't really like his Kindermusic class all that much. He sits on my lap the entire time.
5. Follows Byron anywhere (including up to the aforementioned breath stopping heights) and has to do the exact same thing as his brother.

Drummer boy

Bad picture quality, but still...

Drummer boy

Bad picture quality, but still...

Trick or Treat

We had a great Halloween weekend. The Moore family (Wilson, Cara, Davis and Layla) came to visit and we all had a great time. Davis is the same age as Byron, Layla just a little older than Waylon and Wilson and Cara are expecting another boy this December. I had another pregnant lady to hang out with all weekend. :)

Forsyth park Saturday morning (Waylon climbed up by himself!), Davis is in the blue...
We actually went trick or treating with the boys twice. Saturday we went down to Skidaway Island to hit a couple houses and checked out a very elaborate Halloween Walk one of the residents puts together every other year. It was too scary for the boys though. It was more of a wagon-drive by.

Trick or treating team...
Sunday, we hung out in our neighborhood. Aaron took the boys around a couple houses and I stayed home and manned the treat giving until they returned. After that, Byron loved giving out candy to the trick or treaters. He kept wanting to run across the culdesac to give out the candy.

Waylon in a post-candy/post-bath snuggle with dad...
Good times all around. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all the leftover candy. I bought WAY too much.