Spooktacular Halloween!

Carving pumpkins on Friday

On the riverboat at Crossroads Village - Halloween

Connor relaxing on the boat

My monkey and firefighter checking out the paddles on the boat

Me and my handsome boys

Are we having fun yet? With Grandma and Grandpa @ Crossroads Village

Just as we arrived at the village (love that monkey belly!)

Entering the spooky village

Connor at Nana's house on the 30th - getting ready for Linda & Denny's party

Cousin Nathen giving Connor a kiss:)

Austin, ready to party at Linda and Denny's

Connor on Friday at his classroom party, playing with the baby dolls

Halloween parade at school

Austin during his classroom party on Friday

Pictures Galore!

In our backyard this morning. Connor was kicking and throwing balls all over the place!

Taking a spin in his firetruck:)

Found a big walking stick in the yard

More big sticks!

Showing off Mommy's reindeer slippers

Checking out the bunnies at the end of summer party at school (sorry forgot to rotate the photo)

Austin was so excited to see Tow Mater on the back of the ice cream truck at the school party

Making goofy faces at Mommy

Not to be outdone by his brother, Austin had some silly faces too!

Austin making HUGE bubble at our Day Out with Thomas at Crossroads Village

Austin LOVED running through the maze, he did it several times.

Riding on Thomas:)

On the platform waiting for Thomas to arrive and making Grandma run!

Checking out Thomas as he pulls into the station

It's Been A While.....

Having fun in the sandbox

My bubby is 1!!!

Fire Chief Austin to the rescue

Connor's first professional haircut, he was not happy!

Sleepy Heads

Striking a pose in his speedo

Wish this pic was not blurry...it was so funny, Austin was mowing the lawn in his undies and saw some teenage girls walking by and stopped to wave at them, I'm sure they loved it:)

It's been a long time since my last post...lot's going on and I don't have much time to type out a long post right now but I wanted to get some new pics up for everyone to see. Connor turned 1 on the 17th! Both boys are doing much better in Montessori and Daycare, I'm at a training all week with children's illustrator Wendy Halperin and Allen leaves for Japan on July 5th for a whole month again:(

Enjoy the pics, hope everyone is having a great summer!

We're Here!!!

Our new Home

Austin and Connor dancing and eating lunch in our new home on moving day!

Connor on Mother's Day at Grandma's, crying because I walked out of sight for a minute:)

Austin taking the moving truck for a spin

Sunday we brought the last boxes from our old house to our new house in West Bloomfield! Things have been a little hectic trying to unpack what we can but not to much because we're getting some cheap home depot carpet installed next week...wanted our hardwood floors right away but we definitely don't have the money for that. And since we were denied the short sale on our old house we found some renters who will be moving in this weekend so Allen is busy cleaning the carpets over there and fixing nail holes in the walls and cleaning. I'm sure he'll be spending the night there on Friday. Thank goodness we found someone to rent so we don't have another month with two mortgages, I just hope they are respectful renters.

I've been out looking at daycares this week for the boys since I will be starting on the 25th of this month, holy crap are they expensive! We've decided to send them to Tutor Time which is a mile from our house and 2 miles from my work. They are NAEYC accredited and the have a new Montessori Preschool room with a certified Montessori teacher which I was excited to learn about and we decided to enroll Austin in that program and Connor will be in the transitional infant/toddler room. I took them there today to visit and they both seemed to like it. I'll be taking them in 2 or 3 more times next week before I start work so they can really get used to their classrooms before they start. I'm interested to see how Austin will respond to the Montessori room because it's really a different approach than traditional preschool programs. Montessori is really about Child-Centered environments that are beautiful and orderly, providing real tools that work, keeping materials and equipment accessible to children, and allowing children to take responsibility with large blocks of open-ended time. Montessori teachers are trained to "teach little and observe much." Meaning when children are engaged in serious work and learning, the teacher does not pull them away to begin a new activity unless it is absolutely necessary. The teachers focus there day and lesson planning around the needs of the children and how they observe their behavior to be for that day. I hope it's a program that Austin will really enjoy.

We're looking forward to Connor's first birthday next month! Hard to believe that little chubba lubby is almost a year old:) We are loving our new house and neighborhood. We've got a lot of work to do on the house but once it's done it's going to be so beautiful, I'm really excited about it:)

Where Oh Where is Daddy?

Austin and Connor love to wrestle:)

Playing trucks together

Daddy's home!!!! Allen got home yesterday afternoon and oh my gosh the boys were so excited to see him...so was I:) Alas, he's gone again. Allen is at the new house trying to get it ready for us to move into and he's spending the night and possibly the next 2 nights there and I've been trying to pack when I get a chance, which I should probably be doing as we speak but I need a moment.

Austin is so excited because Daddy brought him home some more Japanese model trains and he is in love with them! He thinks he's such a big boy to be getting such special trains. Austin's been practicing dialing 911 lately on his play phone and we're in the process of making him his own little phone book with our phone number and the numbers of some family to practice. He is taking it very seriously and always reminds me that I can only dial 911 on the real phone if it's really an emergency:) Austin has also been doing great with putting jigsaw puzzles together. We got him a set of 4 - 12 piece vehicle puzzles and he does them all on his own and then a couple days ago he completed his 24 piece giant fire truck puzzle all by himself! He is so smart:)

Connor is in love with any kind of vehicle, mostly his big brother's vehicles! I have the best video of him standing at the coffee table and pushing a transporter truck while making some really cute truck noises! It's priceless! He's been getting more daring standing unsupported and trying to take steps on his own. He loves being outside with his big brother and playing in the tunnel and sandbox. I can't believe he's going to be 1 soon! Oh, these cheeky monkey's grow up so fast:)

Gone Baby Gone

The boys on Easter Sunday

Austin hanging out in his playhouse

Going for a drive:)

Checking out the Easter Bunny during an egg hunt @ local church

Well Allen's gone again:( He left on Tuesday for almost 3 weeks in Japan and the weather has been so cold and rainy the past few days that I've just been in a foul mood and trying not to let the boys notice.

The boys are being boys:) It's so funny to see them start rough housing with each other and playing together. Austin has been using the word "fantastic" a lot lately to describe anything and everything and last night he made dinner for Mommy and Connor. He cut up some fruit salad with his own plastic knife and cutting board and put all the ingredients on our mini pizza's. He was so proud of himself and it was a delicious dinner!

Since about 3 weeks ago Connor has refused to eat jar food. The only thing he will let Mommy and Daddy feed him is yogurt and his bottles. Other than that he wants all the big boy food and wants to get it himself:) On Easter Sunday he stood up unsupported in the backyard at Moesie's for 30 secs! It was awesome.

Birthdays & Outdoor Fun

Since my last post we've celebrated my 31st Birthday and Austin's 3rd birthday, enrolled our big boy in Preschool for the fall, watched Connor start trying to walk and eat handfuls of dirt in the sandbox and Austin become a very responsible little man doing chores and earning Daddy Dollars.

Oh, I can't believe Austin will be starting school this fall, I know it's only 2 day a week preschool but still...who said he could grow so fast?! We started a new responsibility chart with Austin and he's been doing really well with it and even reminds us when he has earned his smiley faces and Daddy Dollars. His Daddy Dollars are pretty cute, I went to this website that you can print any currency and put your face where the "rulers" face was. So I put Allen's face on the front of a Dollar bill, made lots of copies and laminated them. When Austin earns 3 or more smiley faces on his responsibility chart or we see him making good choices he earns Daddy Dollars and he can use them at the Mommy Mart to get things like extra stories at bedtime or stay up 30 minutes past bedtime, family bike rids and campouts in the backyard. I read about the idea for the Daddy Dollars in a magazine a while ago and thought it was a great idea. And Austin thinks the Daddy Dollars are really funny. They are great too because it helps him with counting and saving. Austin had a great firefighter birthday and had so much fun celebrating with all his friends and family. It's still hard to believe he's 3 years old already.

Connor is a man on a mission:) He has been pulling himself up on furniture for a while now and holding on as he walks around but now he thinks when he gets to the end of whatever he is holding onto, he can just let go and continue walking, it has not worked out so well! So he's figured out he still needs to stick to sinking back down to the floor and crawling for now:) And just like his Mommy he seems to like eating the sand out of the sandbox, I turned around a couple days ago to catch him putting a gigantic fistful of sand in his mouth. To his credit he didn't whine or cry, instead he just threw up and went on playing!

Well, looks like Allen is leaving for Japan again right after Easter. He's only supposed to be there 2 1/2 weeks this time but we'll see, that have a habit of prolonging trips.

We've all been enjoying the past few days of sunny weather and can't wait for it to warm up a bit. Hope everyone else is having a wonderful spring so far!

We May Not Have It All Together But Together We Have It All!

Austin(2 days before Daddy got home) wearing his Japanese outfit Daddy got him last time he was in Japan

So excited!!! Minutes after Daddy got in the car at the airport:)

Connor and Daddy have a moment together

Austin and Daddy lovin' each other

The title of this post is one of my favorite sayings, we have it on a plaque hanging in our home. It is so true and we do feel happier, better, and have it all when we are all together. And now we can finally say Daddy is home!!!! We were so excited when we picked him up at the airport on Thursday. Austin was kissing and hugging Daddy non-stop and for the first 2 days he kept following Daddy around saying "I Love You Daddy," it was so cute. I was afraid when Connor saw Daddy for the first time after 5 weeks, he'd be a little stand-offish, but I was happily surprised when he started talking to and touching Daddy as soon as he got in the car:)

Not to much new to report, we've just been hanging out together and enjoying each other's company since Daddy's been home. He got to take Friday and Monday off work which is really nice. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

AHHHHHH! Not Another Week!!!!

Yes, that's right, Allen is not coming home tomorrow as planned. The day before he was to leave he is told to stay another week and in case you haven't been counting (I certainly have), that makes 5 whole weeks that Allen has been in Japan!

As hard as it was for me to come to grips with the fact that I had to wait another week to take regular showers, go to the bathroom by myself, enjoy a meal at the actual meal time, get the house properly cleaned and just take a much needed nap......it was ten times harder to watch Austin crumble. Oh, it just made my heart ache! The poor little guy was so excited that Daddy was finally going to be home tomorrow. He had painted a welcome home banner, made cookies and made sure Mommy had the ingredients to make one of Daddy's favorite meals for dinner that night. I'm getting emotional now just thinking about how his face looked when he heard Daddy wouldn't be home yet.

But we'll make it through, maybe not with flying colors, but will make it:) And we really want to thank all our family and friends who have made these past weeks much more bearable. Grandma and Grandpa came out to visit and go to the depot with us one afternoon, my friend Lisa spent a evening with us and stayed through bath and bedtime to watch a movie with me and I so appreciated the company. And Nana, bless her, came on a day unbeknownest to both of us that I would have to do a lot of unexpected running around and she was gracious enough to babysit on a day she was supposed to be relaxing and visiting with us! Our neighbors who snow blowed our sidewalk and watched the boys when I had to run to the grocery store so I didn't have to take them out in the cold. And an especially big thank you to my little sister Sarah who spent many nights at our home helping me take care of the boys when they were sick and sassy and sad because they missed their Daddy. THANK YOU!!!!!

I feel for Daddy because he has missed some big milestones while he's been gone. Connor started crawling and now he can pull himself up to standing on the furniture. He's been eating finger food on his own and using a sippy cup. He's such a little chubba lubby:) He loves being naked, well both my boys do, we usually have naked time during the day, just for them of course! Austin can count up to 20 and pretty much has his ABC song down pat. Austin does his calendar every morning after breakfast and signs his name (with my help) on his dry erase board on the refrigerator each day. He has been a master builder lately, building extensive cities out of his duplo's all on his own. It's quite impressive.

Well, I'm going have glass of tea and try to relax before one of the boys wakes up:)