William - age 2

William is my wild card.

He loves to dash out into the street when my backs turned.

His favorite phrase is "come on come on" trying to get anyone he can to follow him.

We took him to the zoo for his birthday and his favorite thing to do was play in the dirt.

He's always got some sort of bat in his hands to whack at things.

Bat and waffle iron.  It was a good day.

 

He adores Donald Duck.

Will cracking up watching Donald Duck

If you ask Will what his name is he will say 2 and hold up 2 fingers.  If you tell him his name is William and have him say William - he calls himself Wilma.  It makes me chuckle every time.

If you then asked Will 2 seconds later what he name was, he would tell you 2 yet again.

He refused to wear a Halloween costume.

He's really good at sharing. Except when it comes to milk shakes.

He drinks the paint water when Im not looking.  Even if he has clean water right next to him.

He kisses Noelles head twenty times a day and says "cute cute"

He loves turning off lights at night and plunging the house into darkness.

He loves cars, trains and trucks.  Typical boy.

He loves donuts.  He calls them doh dohs and asks for them everytime we drive by the gas station and 7 Eleven.

He almost never has pants on.

He sings Happy Birthday to himself all day long. And then blows out an imaginary candle.

He likes to add "e" to the end of most words.  Go to sleep-e.  basketball hoop-e

Will counts 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10.  Who needs 4, 5, 6, and 7 anyways?

He hates wearing collared shirts and long sleeve shirts.  He doesn't know the word off yet so he follows me around crying saying "on on" and trying to get me to take off his shirt.

He still lays down on the ground outside and try's to drink the water.  We cant let him go outside on mornings when the sprinklers have gone off.

His favorite time of day is when Zack comes home.  He still runs out to meet him.

He marches to the beat of his own drum.

He loves trash day.

Supervising.

He loves diapers.  He will cheerfully find me during the day with either his or his sisters dirty diaper like hes found gold.  Im starting to wonder if it's because they have disney characters on them.  Darn you Huggies. 

He loves In n out.  He asks for a cheese hamburger.  If you ask him if he wants a cheeseburger he will tell you no and cry if you tell him that's what you got him.

If you tell him something is hot he will sniff it instead of blowing on it to cool it off.  

Honestly I am thankful each and every day that I have William in my life.  He is brimming to the top with energy and pure love of life.  He can sniff out trouble like no one else Ive ever met and jumps right in once he finds it.  I honestly feel like I would have missed out as a mom if I didnt have the chance to handle all his chaos day in and day out.  He is a blessing.  More accurately - hes a very very messy blessing. 

 

Lake Gregory

This year we decided to not just let our anniversary pass without much attention but that we would take the family on a short trip.  We headed out to Lake Gregory for the weekend.  As kids we spent many summer days and winter nights up at Lake Gregory.  Its a special place in my memory.  The only place where my mom ever allowed us to buy sugar cereal.  Like I said - a special place :).

I was so happy to see how much my family loved it too.  Here are some of the highlights.

Going down the water slide over and over again.

My favorite fellows

Playing in the sand

Jack and Mom out on the lake.  I even let him steer us under the huge COLD fountains!  What a mom!

8 months pregnant!  Cooling off in the water with my big kid!

Jack and Zack had a blast climbing up and jumping off of the buoy in the middle of the lake

Buddies.  The life vest barely fit over my belly.

I took a long walk around most of the lake to try to get this stinker to fall asleep.  It was special because I remember taking long walks as a kid around this lake.  I even saw a bottle cap and remembered all of the sudden the year that Dani and I decided to start a bottle cap collection.  So many memories in this place. 

Swim lessons

Will has been in mommy and me swim lessons since he was 6 months old.  Recently he started going twice a week, once with me and once with Zack so we could try to get him ready for independent classes before the baby came. It backfired a bit because he loved his one on one time with Zack so much that he refused to go to his swim teacher, one of the necessary requirements before they graduate you to an independent class.  Finally last week his teacher essentially just gave up and told Zack that he has the skills, he just has to decide that he's willing to listen to the teacher.

This week I took Will to his first swim class without us in the water, totally prepared for him to spend the whole class in tears and to hide if necessary.  He walked right out to the pool, happily listened to his new teacher, and did everything she asked him to while keeping a smile on his face.

I think we named him correctly.  That kid has a very strong Will of his own!

I was so proud of him, and overwhelmed at that moment with how blessed I am to have my children. There I was, holding My newborn daughter while my big kid swam in the pool and I couldn't help but be transported back 2 years when I sat in that very spot holding my newborn baby while my first big boy swam in the pool.

Days pass so slowly and years pass so quickly.  I am so grateful for this chance to be a mom and watch these amazing kids grow up little by little and through leaps and bounds.

No (3/13)

One of Will's favorite words is No.  The problem is he doesn't know the word yes.  So he will answer no to any question he is asked.  I am now learning that the more adamant he is in his "No" the more likely he is to actually mean yes.   It makes finding out if he's hungry a super fun experience.

Hey Will, do you want some food?

No.

Are you sure you don't want this food?

NO!

It's fun at our house!

Jack

Jack is still my vomiter.  The kid vomits at the drop of a hat.  One weird thing to note, every time he eats a hot dog he throws up.  Hot dogs have been completely eliminated from his diet.

Throwing up sick on his 7th birthday.  Sad.

Our Thursday family movie nights have been a partial success in showing Jack that he's not terrified of every single movie ever made, and that he's brave enough to make it through some that he never thought he would be.  Ie, The Sound of Music.  Yep.  That's my Jack.

Jack forgets his shoes EVERYWHERE.   It is next to impossible to keep this kid in shoes.  I can't count the number of times we have ended up somewhere, the mall, the doctors office, the grocery store just to discover that he has no shoes.

Jack loves waking up early and sneaking downstairs to make cookies for us on his own in the morning.  He's not the best at following recipes (he's learning) so we have had to eat some massive flops.  The other thing hes not the best at?  Keeping the kitchen clean while he bakes.  We have had to institute a no making cookies on the weekdays before school rule in our house because the mess was just too much to handle on a weekday morning.

Jack loves to read.  He will just disappear into a book and resurface hours later once he's done

Jack just started piano lessons and loves them.  I dont have to force him to practice (yet) and the hardest thing is whatever I go ask him to do, he stops and plays a few pieces on the piano first.  I am trying very hard not to grump at him for this because I love that he loves it so.

Jack's favorite tv show is Wipe Out.  He loves watching other people fall.  Like father like son.  This summer when we went up to Lake Gregory they had a floating bouy that Jack was in heaven pretending he was on Wipe Out playing on.

Jack is an awesome swimmer and is on the swim team.  He knows all of his strokes.  So proud of all of his hard work!



Nearly two years after Will's birth and Jack still begs to be the first one in to get Will out of his crib every morning.  Love him for how great of a big brother he is.

Jack adores Will.  ADORES him.  So many hard days are saved when I walk in and see Jack and Will snuggling, or Jack reading to Will, or tickling him to try to get him to laugh.  They are my two biggest successes so far.

He hates mint.  Dessert, candy, toothpaste.  Hates it all.

Jack told Will as soon as he learns his ABCs he would buy him a twinkie with his own money.  What a guy.

Jack can go from 14 to 3 in a matter of seconds.

Jack claims that he often catches himself speaking in an English accent and how embarrassing it is.  I have yet to hear it for myself but when I ask him to demonstrate his accent it's pretty comical!

Right now Jack's two favorite foods are Tortillas with cheese and quesadillas.  Less you make a crucial error and believe them to be the same thing -  A tortilla with cheese is served rolled and not warm and a quesadilla is served flat in slices with a side of guacamole.  As you can see his diet is very varied.

Jack can't seem to eat without getting his food all over his mouth and cheeks.  He seems oblivious to this and comes home from school hours after lunch with whatever he had for lunch still on his face.