It's a "hit"!!

Playtime in the basement is a hit, literally! Yes, lots of activities and decibel levels going on down there that are not permissible upstairs:


Heck, I even got in a few swings to relieve any tension I may have been carrying from our trip to the pediatric dentist with both boys this morning ;) Actually, they did reasonably well with their cleanings and check-ups but I am still very glad it is only a bi-annual event!

Happy Birthday, Jack, my little chapped-lipped boy! His lips are so chapped it is terrible. Thankfully, Santa brought him some "mega" chap stick (bubble gum flavored)...and yes I have caught his sinking his little teeth into it when he thought I wasn't looking :)

His party was at Chuck E. Cheese last night and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. I think he is going to be in shock when he doesn't get a slew of presents next week though.

BLINK. BLINK. BLINK.

And just like that "Baby Jack" turns three! I really can't believe it has already been three years since we were blessed to have Jack in our family. He is so full of personality and affection. No matter how old he gets...

one:


two:



or even three:


He'll always be my baby boy! We love you so much, Jack, and couldn't have asked for a better son and brother.

Before and After

After taking down all of the Christmas decor yesterday, we thought today would be an excellent day to keep the energy going and clean up the basement.

Since moving into our house in May 2008, the basement has served as a catch-all for anything and everything that didn't have a place in the house. So, it got pretty bad pretty quick. And since Santa so generously got Warren a brand new big boy bike for Christmas, we wanted him to have a place to practice riding it during the winter. Oh, and I decided that the boys both need a wide open area for gross motor activity (i.e. burning some major calories when it is too cold to go outside).

We approached this daunting task with what has become my staple approach for organizing: a pile for Salvation Army, a pile for garbage, a pile for e-bay, etc. We ended up with more garbage than anything else (no surprise) and it was mostly an exercise in consolidation and rearranging everything to create the space for the Star Wars play tent and for bike riding.

View from the bottom of the stairs before and then after:





View from what will someday be a finished bedroom before and then after:




I am totally exhausted but it was well worth it and makes me feel much more optimistic about surviving this winter with my two very active little boys!

The Bromance Continues

Caught this one this morning. They have such an incredible bond as brothers. Especially Warren is always very concerned about his little brother -- it is precious.

Christmas Eve 2008

The Christmas Eve Tradition of opening one solitary gift (preselected by mom, of course, for optimal play time and enjoyment):

Jack's Turn:

I am afraid of the mess tomorrow considering this was just from two gifts being shredded open in warp speed:

7 months from now...

...I will again get to share a hospital bed with my little loves. I can't wait to see what it will look like with three piled on me!

[Warren meeting Jack for the 1st time]

...I will again get to breathe in deeply that newborn smell and brush my lips against sweet soft skin.

[Jack hours after birth]

It seems like such a long time to wait and yet I am glad that I get these next 7 months to have the baby all to myself and relish in some of the daydreams of what this next and last time with a newborn will be like.

I can't get enough!

Bell Peppers that is! I am buying them fresh, frozen, jarred...you name it.

And am eating them cut up in chunks dipped in Ranch, sauted over quinnoa with soy sauce, straight out of the jar in the wee hours of the night. What does this mean? With both of my previous pregnancies the only noticeable "craving" I experienced was a desire for sugar (read: me sitting in bed surrounded by a fruit roll up and ding dong wrappers).

Mommy Mish Mash

~Jack is going through what I hope is a short lived tantrum phase. Maybe he realizes his days of blaming the terrible two's are numbered so he is sneaking in some last minute melt-downs while he still can. Whatever the case, momma don't play that game! He is promptly put in his bedroom at the onset of any tantrum and remains there kicking, screaming, crying, yelling "mom-eeee!" until he gets all the evil out. Then he quietly opens his door and saunters over to wherever I am hunkered down rocking myself with my knees pulled to my chest (kidding) and tells me "mommy, I am done with my tantrum. Can you wipe my tears now?"

The light at the end of the tunnel is that the duration of the fits is getting shorter, oh and his third birthday is in less than two weeks so I'm sure they'll end after that.

~Suddenly the amount of food consumed by the boys has become appreciable and very noticeable. It seems like overnight we went from feeding two little mice undetectable portions from our plates to feeding two bottomless pits with insatiable appetites for boxes of cereal, jugs of orange juice, and pounds of king crab legs.

I can't imagine what this will be like once they are teenagers. I am going to have to get one of those creepy deep freezers that live in the garage and are stocked full of frozen pizzas, burritos, chicken wings and mugs for soda.

~The days when Warren doesn't have preschool can turn into an insane asylum with me playing the part of the demented director on a dime. That is unless I carefully outline activities to keep everyone busy and on task. Any task...making cookies, picking out books from the library...anything that occupies their little hands so that they don't wander off and smack their brother or write on a wall, or squeeze a tube of carmex on the carpet.

Two Great Mysteries

Already today before 7:30 am I have watched two events unfold that do not make sense to me.

First off, how is it that when I dash up stairs to break up a Category 3 (Category 1 and 2 shall remain undisclosed until applicable) fight between Warren and Jack, the child that I thought was at least most recently the victim turns on ME when I am disciplining the perpetrator!?! Suddenly they ARE on the same team and all that ruckus over that toy just evaporated into thin air...uh-huh...duly noted "supposed-victim"...don't be thinking super-hero mom is going to come to your rescue again any time soon ;) Or maybe I could use this to my advantage somehow, yes I am not above playing off of their innate brotherly loyalty in the face of punishment doling authority...not at all. Muwahahaha...

*Ahem* Secondly, how is it P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E. that my little baby, the same baby that I just had, like I swear a couple weeks ago, is standing before me with gel in his hair heading off to catch a school bus to go on a field trip? How can he possibly go into a public place without his mommy or at least a close relative? Tell me...this must be a mirage...except that I have pictures to prove it:

Me and My Boys

I love my boys.

Last night Jack told me that I am "the best mom of his whole life and he just loves me." Ahhh...so that is the reward of a stay at home mom? Thanks, Jack. That was better than all the accolades I have ever received from my previous work.

The BIG reveal

Maybe you don't know this about me yet, but I am extremely decisive, sometimes to a fault...so you shouldn't be surprised to find out that I already have this new baby's name picked out, just like I have had Warren and Jack named since I was a little girl playing cabbage patch dolls.

Warren is named after my great grandfather, Warren Garrison, and Jack is named after my grandfather, Jack Garrison. I love the idea of family names, especially when it just so happens that I love the names Warren and Jack independently of the family connection.

Here are my criteria for a good name:
1. Not trendy. I do not like the trendy names that will eventually be dated and very connected to a decade or whatever.
2. No alternative spellings. I don't want my kids to have the burden of constantly having to spell their name or say "Hi, I'm Megyn with a 'y'."
3. No nicknames or shortening of their given name. If I like the shortened version of a traditional name, I would rather just name them the shortened version.
4. I like old-fashioned, solid, timeless names that while being classic are not too popular, like Warren.

So, having said all that, this baby will be called:

Nolan Lucas

~OR~

Lila Paige

These aren't directly family names except that my great grandmother was Nola, so it could be construed that Nolan is the masculine version of that, sure I'll go with that! As for Lila, it is a very old name that I just think is so pretty and simple.

I can't wait to find out what we are having. In fact, I have often said that I wish that at the moment of conception, my left pinkie finger would turn either pink or blue to let me know. I despise not knowing because for some reason it isn't until I know whether the baby is a he or she that I can truly feel connected and start the bonding process.

I don't know what it is, but I just don't like the whole "it" or "the baby" phase of the pregnancy. Hmmm, maybe it is just that as an Engineer I love data, if there is data to be had then I want it! I will go with that rather than owning up to my severe impatience ;)

Boys and their Toys

We went to one of those giant sporting goods warehouse/mecca type places where I mindlessly follow my husband around until he is contented with his exposure to camouflage and safety orange. This time I was actually following around three little men who were all equally enamored with all the toys and things with triggers.

My expression here sums up my sentiment to Jack's having been on this ATV for nearly 30 minutes pretending to drive it:




Warren found this shooting game and was so proud of himself each time he hit one of the targets and kept requesting three more minutes to play, about a hundred times.




I NEED a daughter ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!

Warren was such a big helper decorating the house and the tree. What a big boy he is becoming!



You know that local radio station that plays nothing but Christmas music starting in what seems like July? You know, the one that normally drives me to distraction and that I usually can't switch off fast enough? Yeah, well it is blaring on all the speakers in our house and I am loving it!

Making a Splash!

We took the boys to an awesome indoor water park and had a blast. There was a pretty good-sized water slide and surprisingly my little dare devil, Jack, was the one requesting multiple rides. He loved it despite acting totally freaked out when we got to the bottom each time.


Ah yes, and I had the distinct pleasure of getting into a bathing suit in the first trimester, when I am just bloated and puffy looking. I had to swallow my pride and buy a bigger suit in order to even go. I never went swimming during my previous pregnancies so it was a first and hopefully not a last.

Big Brother Jack

As you can see, my current baby is somewhat reluctant these days to be coddled and babied (it is iced tea I am drinking!):



That's because he would much rather be doing this:



So, unless I sprout 4 wheels I am basically not gaining any status in his book. I did, however, manage to spark his interest and the interest of Warren when I recently had the joy of revealing to them that they are going to be welcoming a new sibling next Summer.

And suddenly I am getting more kisses and snuggles than usual(even if they are aimed at my tummy region) from my little boys.

Jack will soon enough get the title of "big brother," and I am sure he will be just as great as Warren.

I have always wanted three babies and have always wanted to have them all before turning 30, so yes this is definitely our last baby regardless of the gender. Of course if I had a choice I would opt for a little girl, BUT I am truly just so excited to have another child that I will be thrilled with another boy. If that is to be I will just find the humor in my life and revel in my solitary queen status, scout's (I mean queen's) honor!!

I haven't gone to the doctor yet, probably won't until after Christmas. I feel like an old pro at this, so it is nice to be laid back this last time around. And since it is my last pregnancy I want to be sure to savor each milestone and phase rather than rush through it all. So far I have mostly felt tired and nauseous for short periods of time throughout the day, but nothing too terrible or worthy of complaining about...nope, that will come later ;)

Ready or not, here I come!

Where could he be?

Is he under this pillow? No...

Is he in the pantry? No...

There he is! That goofy laugh is coming from the exact same hiding place he used the last seven rounds of hide-and-seek, I should have known, silly mommy...

By the numbers...

The mama and the papa:


63 - the months I have been married
18 - the months I have been pregnant
60 - the number of nails I am soley responsible for keeping trimmed
3 - the number of mortgages we are responsible for paying every month
10 - the average number of kisses I get each day from the 3 most charming men I know
0 - the number of things I would change about my little life right now!

Christmas 2008 sneak peek

Here is a snippet of what our living room looked like shortly after we finished combat shopping on Black Friday:


I am so excited for this Christmas because I just know that Warren and Jack are going to be thrilled with what Santa is bringing them and I can't wait to see their reactions. It will be priceless for sure.

And here is our newly decorated house with the old fashioned large multicolored bulbs and plenty of icicle lights too:


Now I just have to impatiently wait for 25 days...

Characters of note

Warren put the light sabers down for a little while and took up a new persona for Thanksgiving dinner -- Batman! It goes without saying that Jack was Robin, whether he liked it or not :) And it also goes without saying that no one had taken the tag off of the top of his mask yet when I was taking pictures of him!

He's in the band

Hurry, hurry Reagan, you'll be later for the big game!


And don't forget your trumpet! Now go make us proud...

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

Two little turkies playing on the stairs with cars and trucks of course. They are thankful for their mommy and daddy and all their toys, very age appropriate!

Of course, as their parents we are thankful that we have been blessed with two such amazing little men to raise and for the health of everyone in our family.


My little 'Dubbs', the one that started it all by surprising us 5 years ago ;)

God Bless!

Giving credit where credit is due

A man's place is...in the kitchen? Okay, I am no feminist but I do love the fact that just about every night after dinner Bryan loads up the dishes and then in the morning (he wakes up earlier than the rest of the family) he unloads them.



So, thanks, honey. I really appreciate it! Oh! And thanks for taking back this crappy camera that I had bought since it makes blurry, overexposed pictures for some reason. I like the Kodak one MUCH better :)

Our latest conquest

For Jack it was the Carousel ride at the mom's group meetup and for me it was, well actually making it to the meetup finally after joining a month ago. Lots of nice mommies and playmates for Jack and the long nap he took when we got home didn't hurt either.

My little monkey waiting for his turn on the ride:


And finally riding the horse of his choice:


I am still figuring out my new camera but the good news is that all the pics I took did not have red eye!

Of Mice and Men

A mini-mouse:


To go with my brand new mini laptop (it is 8'' wide!), also called a netbook:



I call it cool. Bryan got it for me since I don't have a computer of my very own now that I am not working outside of the home.

From whence I blog:


AND, I got a new camera too! We have an older digital camera that is so slow and I swear has red-eye on every picture, making my angelic children look like satan's personal assistants. Okay, so I will NOT be writing the ebay ad to sell the old camera, that will be Bryan's job...ya know, since he is the bonafide salesman and all.

This is the camera I got:


Before you judge it as one of those junky toy cameras (don't judge a book by it's polka dots!!), it is 10 megapixels and I mostly got it because I wanted one that doesn't have the lense that comes out since I plan on toting it around in my purse and I am worried that those kind will get broken if the on button gets pushed inside my purse. Almost all the cameras have the lenses that come out so really this cutesy one was a strong contender right out of the gate and the fact that it has pink polka dots and matches my new laptop was only a slight motivation, honest ;)