Can he get any cuter?

As the summer comes to an end...

We took some pics of the boys outside today because they looked so cute dressed up for church.  I couldn't help it!  Of course, it's very hard to get both boys to do exactly what you want them to do, so some pics aren't so great.  But they are still the most adorable boys in the world!!

Click below to see larger pictures from this album.

August 2008

"Don't be proud, Mommy"

Adam has had a VERY productive week potty-training!  It's almost like this was definitely the week he wanted to start because I can't believe how well he's doing.  He was just ready!  We literally ran out of his diapers on Monday, so I told him he didn't have a choice about wearing underwear.  He immediately put it on, and about 5 minutes after I asked him to tee-tee in the potty, he peed in his pants.  I thought, "oh, brother" but I stuck with it.  I decided to whip out the pull-ups, in case of accidents.  This way, I wouldn't be doing laundry twice a day.  And not to mention, Adam only has 3 pairs of underwear right now.

Almost every pull-up he has worn this week has stayed DRY!  They have little characters on the front that disappear if he pees in it, so we make a big deal out of making sure he still has his "frogs" on the Diego pants and his "trophies" on the Cars pants.  He's so proud of them.

Of course, all week, I've been cheering him on and giving him 5's after he's used the potty.  I guess I've been over-doing it, because he said yesterday, "don't be proud of me, Mommy."  Ok, I won't be proud anymore (except in my heart).  :)

Now, we haven't had a poop in the potty yet, but he's trying.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Like Father, Like Son........again

I think I've used this title before, maybe long ago, but there are definitely several instances in Adam's day, week, month, life that prove he is Ben's son.  Today is no exception.  And being that it's political season, we're probably going to see more of these stories.

Today, I had the TV on the news this morning, catching up on the latest Olympics news.  The commercials came on, as usual, and a political ad came on for John McCain.  At that time, Adam informed me, "That's the new John McCain, Mommy!"  I wasn't paying any attention to the TV as I was trying not to burn Adam's waffles in the toaster oven, so my initial response was, "What did you say?"  I had NO idea that Adam even knew who John McCain was!

This afternoon during snack time, another McCain commercial came on (yes, I'm guilty, the TV was on a lot today), and Adam informed me again that it was the "new" John McCain.

I'm really not sure who the "old" John McCain is to Adam, but he's all about the "new" one!  I'll let you know if he picks up on Obama's commercials, too.  Shouldn't 2 year olds be unbiased in the world of politics at this age?

Hand, foot, mouth, what???

Oh yes, like I said in the previous post, August has been nothing like a relaxing time at home. Not even a week after I got home from Montana, Tyler started running a fever. The next day, he was so out of sorts that I took him to the doctor. Turns out, he had hand, foot, and mouth disease. (No, Daddy, it's not hoof and mouth disease, silly). It's nothing serious, but Tyler was just not himself. He had really bad blisters on the back of his throat which made it very hard to eat and swallow. Blisters slowly showed up on his hands, as well, which looked painful. He is now getting better, 7 days after the first symptoms. Kids are contagious for 7-10 days, though, so we have not gotten out of the house much. But we're very thankful he's feeling better now!

Then, on Thursday, Adam began running a fever. The doctor had told me not to worry about Adam catching HFM, because he had probably already been exposed to it, and you only react to it once. Well, I now believe he does have the virus. He's complained about a sore throat a little bit, and he continues to run a fever off and on. Today, I was looking at the thumb that he sucks, and sure enough, there are blisters on it. I do believe, however, that Adam is fighting the virus better since he's older. He's definitely not as miserable as Tyler was. So, looks like we'll be spending a lot of this week inside going nowhere, too! ugh!

It's August......whew!

Where has this summer gone? We have travelled so much that we're very excited it's now August. That means we will be home ALL month! Don't get my wrong, we've loved all of the trips and the time spent with family on each one. And don't get me wrong that this month has been wonderful.......I'll get to that later.

I had the wonderful opportunity to take a 10 day vacation to Seattle, WA and Bozeman, MT with my mother-in-law the end of July. We had an awesome time visiting with Ben's sister and her husband, as well as their 20 month old. It was so great to see all three of them and not to mention the beautiful area where they live in Washington. Sue, Stacy, and I took an overnight trip to Victoria, Canada, as well, for some girl time with no kids. Sue and I then left for Montana for a family wedding that was gorgeous! What another beautiful area of our country......awesome! It was so much fun to attend the wedding, too.

While in Montana, Sue and I decided to take a quick day-trip to drive through Yellowstone. See, we were only 1 1/2 hours from the north entrance, so we planned to get up early, borrow a car from family, and drive through Yellowstone, stopping to see Old Faithful and other various peaks of interest in the park. Then, we would leave Yellowstone through the West entrance and drive back to Bozeman. Well, we got to the small town of Gardiner, MT, where the north entrance to the park is located. As we were driving through town, the car started acting like it wasn't getting enough gas to the engine. After spending an hour or two at the service station, it was determined that the car would have to be towed back to Bozeman! Sue and I had about 30 minutes while the technician loaded the car on the tow truck, so we walked over to the park entrance to take a few pictures so I could say I had been to Yellowstone. :) We got back to the Toyota dealership in Bozeman, and they determined that diesel gas was the culprit!! (Sue, I won't tell anyone that you filled up the tank in Livingston.........oops!!).


I sure missed my boys like CRAZY while I was away, but they had an awesome time with Nana and then Daddy. I would call them everyday to talk, and Adam was just too busy to talk to Mommy. Several days went by when he was would say, "No, I don't want to talk to Mommy!" It broke my heart to hear that, but I'm so thankful that he wasn't actually missing me too much. And while Tyler was with Nana in the mountains for a week, she taught him to say "Nana." He says it all the time now, along with da-da and ma-ma every once in a while.