The Standlee Crew

As of lately...

2012-01-26T13:36:00.003-06:00

Not a lot going on these days - actually, not true - very busy lately...working down that list of nesting chores before May 3 (may seem early but we have a BIG list!!).

I have been busy preparing for Joshua's birthday party! I'll do a separate post about his birthday & his party.

In other news, the boys have been just playing together a lot - we've taken some Houston Saturday trips to get new shoes (both boys have grown 1/2 size since August & we have to get Landon Stride Rites since he has very wide feet) and we've been working on some house things.

This will be my first baby born outside of the winter, so I'm trying to prepare for 0-3 month clothes that aren't sweaters, long-sleeves and flannel pants in an effort to keep a newborn warm! I've also been cleaning out the playroom - simplifying it and making it easier to clean up for the boys and trying to keep it from driving me crazy with the amount of stuff. I don't like to throw good things away - I don't like wastefulness but I also don't like clutter so I'm resolving to the fact, that we are needing to give some good things away - even if they are still good!

Here's a cute picture of the boys playing one morning in Landon's bed!

Day Hike at Brazos Bend

2012-01-13T21:08:00.009-06:00

Last weekend we took the boys out to Brazos Bend State Park (about 30 minutes away). It's known for the large amounts of alligators. We were looking forward to just having a place for the boys to run around and get fresh air. Ever since we went to Colorado, we have discovered that playing in the backyard or at a park is fun and they love it but they REALLY love just flat out nature.

They had a baby alligator inside the station to pet. Landon was so excited and pet it immediately. Joshy was holding my legs at the time I took this picture. He had no interest. And then, all of a sudden he just marched over there, touched the alligator and ran back. The lady in the picture laughed and said "How about your brother?" and Landon giggled and Joshy (loving attention) did it AGAIN. But he was so fast, I didn't snap a picture. He smiled at the whole thing and we looked around some more.

The boys had a great time and there were DEFINITELY alligators to spot - at least 50-60 alligators!

Do you see the alligators over on the bank? Zoom in.

Landon carried his bug box all over the park and got a caterpillar in there (that we later let go). He found leaves & sticks to put in that box the whole morning!

Joshy was busy checking out the alligators, too.

Check out that big guy on the right - he was moving up the bank and HUGE - it's hard to give an idea of how big he was!

After hiking around the lake, we ate a picnic lunch and then let the boys just run around for a while!

Then we went on one last walk around a smaller lake.

Little turtles sunning...

Gorgeous day!

Baby in the Belly? That's silly.

2012-01-09T18:59:00.003-06:00

Landon is starting to talk more about his little baby brother.

This weekend he said "when am I going to have my baby brother?"
And I said "Come sit on my lap" so Mark & I talked with him a little bit and said "you will soon, but not until after Easter".

Landon then said "where is he now?" and I said "He's in Mommy's belly" and Landon laughed saying "nooo! That's silly!" And we all laughed and said "he really is". He said he wanted to see, but we had to explain that you can't see him, he's in there though.

This morning, he looked at me and said "is the baby still in your belly today, mommy?"

And as he went into the preschool hallway, he announced to multiple people "I'm having a baby brother, but not until after Easter".

He often says that Joshy is his best buddy and I told him he's going to have another best buddy - It's fun to see his excitement!

Christmas in One Post

2011-12-31T13:23:00.006-06:00

It's hard to get everything recorded for a busy, busy few weeks! I just finished making a small 8x8 Christmas album, which I do every year, so most of my effort was put into that!

But here's some highlights of our awesome Christmas! :)

{Christmas PJs}

{Carriage Inn Christmas Lunch - with great-grandparents}

{Making Christmas cookies for Santa}

{Christmas sweaters}

{Christmas Eve at the Standlees - Landon opening gifts - Batman PJs & slippers!}

{Joshy opening a truck}

{Joshy trying on Daddy's knit cap he got}

{Christmas morning at our house - Joshy pointing to a Cars Tshirt he got from Mommy & Daddy}

{Christmas morning at our house - Landon & the Mouseketeers DVD}

{Christmas Day boys before church - Landon is holding his favorite gift from Santa - Batmobile. It hasnt left his sight in a good week. Joshy is holding a car, as well. What brother does, he will do.}

{Grammy & Papa came for church & lunch on Christmas Day}

{Our family - Christmas Day}

{The Williams house on the day after Christmas - all the cousins with their superhero capes}

---------

There's SO many more pictures that are great from opening gifts from Santa, with relatives, with cousins, playing, etc...if you know our shutterfly site, go there for more details:

http://thestandleecrew.shutterfly.com/ (if you don't know the password, ask me & I'll send it to you!) You can comment on that site, as well.

Preschool Christmas Program!

2011-12-18T15:36:00.005-06:00

The morning of the boys' Christmas program, poor Joshy woke up sick. But Landon was super excited so he was dressed & ready to go!

My handsome boy!

{Landon - far right, doing all the motions}

All the little angels

Our special angel! :)

Daddy was planning on coming to the program, like usual, but he stayed home with Joshy and asked Landon to sing him the songs that night (he was happy to do so!). But Grammy, Gee & Mommy all came to the program!

Landon, one of his teachers "Ms Penny" and some of the other kids waiting for everyone to wash hands before eating their party food!

After the food, the kids played "pin the nose on Rudolph" but I was leading the game, so no pictures! They also had a book exchange with all the kids as their present. Here's Landon pretty mesmorized by his Spiderman book with Grammy looking on!

I had to add this picture of all the kids practicing earlier in the week. Joshy is in this one (front & center!). His class were stars and he was a cute star at his practice! Landon is in the very middle, also in a gingerbread man shirt! :)

And here's my guys just matching earlier in the week with a gingerbread shirt Grandma Standlee got them (a bit big but still cute)...

Number 3 is a BOY!!!

2011-12-13T14:03:00.004-06:00

We couldn't be more thrilled that we are having a 3rd little boy!!!

We went to see the ultrasound on Friday, December 9th! Pretty immediately, our little man was apparent and I teared up as I thought how incredibly blessed we are!! I honestly have a very, very soft spot for little boys. I always have - in the years I helped in Sunday school and preschools where my Mom worked and when I was a preschool teacher myself and now as a Children's Director and a Mom. I love all children but I truly have a soft spot for little boys.

We just can't wait for the fun! The last *almost* 2 years have been awesome with our 2 little boys becoming such best friends...and it'll be so fun to have another to add to the mix. I can barely wait! I think about what he'll look like, his little personality and of course what name we will call him. We are still deciding but we just feel like God has given us all we could ask for!

I'll have to post the ultrasound pics later, I haven't scanned them in yet!

Landon's Safari Party

2011-12-04T16:19:00.009-06:00

We had Landon's 4th Safari Party this weekend! Can't believe my big boy is 4!!!

We had his birthday party at a local park for his SAFARI!
With the pregnancy, I was too exhausted to clean my house & yard!
But we had a great time, the weather was wonderful - just windy!!

Here's the main table with the cake, banner, buckets with zebra napkins & the take-home party gifts!

I've decided that I don't like buying a bunch of junk for treat bags that kids either chunk or candy that they don't need. So, last year my mother-in-law made little train pillows and we had train whistles...this year I got some little canvas bags with animals and put binoculars in them for all the kids. It's the same amount of money you'd spend on the junk, but the kids will play with it!

The zebra cake topped with many of our animals from home and cupcakes with toppers I got on the computer!

Some extra candies & goodies to snack on!

I made this sign with chalkboard paper - super easy to use - I'm gonna do this again!

{Cousins! Addie & Joshy}

When the party began, we just let them play on the park equipment - how do you let a bunch of boys (and a few girls) come to a park and not let them just play?

Zebra Pinata time! Landon taking the first shot!

Joshy wanted a turn!

After pinata time, it was time to sing to the birthday boy! Here's our sweet 4 year old!

YUM!

A bunch of the kiddos eating cake!

And after cake, I handed out the binoculars for the kids to go exploring at the park before they went home!

Some of the boys playing with the binoculars!

The kids running with their binoculars!

It was a great party! Afterwards, the kids chased & fed the ducks at the park's pond then all left as they wanted to. My family came over afterwards for some lunch & the cousins played before they crashed to take naps! We couldn't have asked for a better time for our birthday boy!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Landon!!

2011-11-29T07:33:00.007-06:00

Our firstborn son, Landon Henry, is 4 today! Well, he is 4 years old at 10:27 am. He made quite the entrance into the world this day 4 years ago - Mark & I were remembering yesterday all of it. Eating at Bryan's BBQ on the night of Nov 28, I had been having contractions off & on all day on that Wednesday so I just ate a baked potato and then we headed home. I woke up around 1 am and woke Mark up and we headed to the hospital.

When we got there around 2 or 3 am (after showering, getting dressed - I wasn't having heavy contractions but they were close enough to go), I was already at 5 cm. Things went relatively fast all morning. My parents were there for a while and around 9 or so, things started to get a little panicky. Landon didn't do well with the pitocin - heartbeat was dropping, so they took me off of it...but at some point I developed a fever and his heartbeat continued to be inconsistent. I'll never forget listening to that monitor and the inconsistency and the fear Mark & I felt. At this point, Iwas at 10 cm but with his inconsistency and obvious fetal distress, it was recommended we get him out quickly so off to the emergency room we went! I was very fearful of having a c-section and it was a strange experience and scary. I'm sure every birth story is, for the most part!

But when he came, he was beautiful.

He was a big boy! 9 lbs, 6 oz, 21 inches long.

After holding him, they had to take him to the NICU because of my fever. So for 18 hours, I couldn't hold him or be near him. :( Mark went down there often and took pictures.
I had a sweet angel of a nurse overnight that night and she woke me up around 3 am and whispered, "do you want to hold your baby" and just like any mother would, I said "YES". It took a good 2-3 hours to actually get me out of bed (extreme pain) and get ready & in the wheelchair to head down to the NICU. But holding him again was all worth it. He had to stay in the NICU for 48 hours and regularly, I asked to go see him so Mark & the nurses would get me all ready to go again to head down there and see him.

We had several visitors come see our perfect baby - they were unable to see him until the 3rd day but it was wonderful of them to come! Finally we took him home on December 2nd and we began our lives with our little boy.

{Landon at 1 year old}

{Landon at his 1st birthday}

{Landon at 2 yrs old}

{Landon on his 2nd birthday - he was sick the day of his party so we just gave him one of cupcakes since we had to cancel his party :/ }

{Landon at 3 yrs old}

{Landon at his 3rd birthday party - a Thomas the Train party}

{Landon - 4 yrs old}

What a handsome boy!

We are so proud of who this little guy has become! He is incredibly tender-hearted, kind, thoughtful and very affectionate! He is so smart, he surprises us. He is cautious, careful & has a great sense of humor. He loves his brother, is protective and helpful and the two of them are the bestest of friends- they fight like best friends and they play like best friends. Landon, we love you!!!

Cousins!

2011-11-27T07:10:00.002-06:00

We have been so blessed that my brothers & I have all had children around the same time!
The kids LOVE being together!!

{Thanksgiving 2011}
{Ellie (5), Addie(5), Olivia (3), Joshua (22 mths), Ben (6), Samuel (2 1/2), Landon (4)}

The fun thing is, they all play together fairly well. This year Landon & Ben played more together than they used to...they now love to play superheros & legos together and had so much fun! Samuel has wanted to play with Joshy from the day he was born (always hugging him - only 9 mths apart)...and this holiday, they'd play side-by-side with cars. It's fun to watch them all grow together!!

Our Family 5

2011-11-16T19:23:00.003-06:00

Big Bro & Middle Bro are excited to tell you that...

they will have a new sibling this May 2012!

Baby Standlee #3 is due May 10th!
We are very excited and can't wait for our new bundle of joy (& energy, no doubt).

And no, we aren't hoping for a girl. A girl would be a blessing but so would 3 little boys! How fun would both combinations be?!

The world is a safer place!

2011-11-04T13:40:00.002-05:00

The world is a safer place with these 2 adorable superheros!

Joshy in his parade at preschool - he was such a champ - loved it! No problem wearing a mask for this little guy - most kids his age would hate it - he loved it and posed for pics constantly. Ha! He has such a fun personality!

Landon - a "mean batman" - but not a mean bone in this boy's body!
What a sweetie!

Landon started asking to be Batman for Halloween LAST year (unaware of what superheros really are even - he just saw someone else with a costume and liked it). So then I decided his brother would be Robin!

They were pretty cute and they LOVE to dress up in these and play all day in their costumes!! Landon will say "let's go Robin" and Joshy will run after him to play in their "bat kitchen" or "batman room" or whatever else Landon makes up! Fun little brothers!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-27T14:04:00.009-05:00

LOVE our local Pumpkin Patch. We go every year. It's amazing to see how the boys have grown. We didn't get a family pic this year and the boys were so distracted, I had a hard time getting them to look - easier to get Joshy than Landon! That's not normal!! But they were still cute!
-------------------------------
Check out these old memories:
Okay my blogger hyperlinks won't work. Having so many issues with blogger these days so here: http://mlstandlee.blogspot.com/2010/10/pumpkin-patch-2010.html
There's some flashbacks to when it was just Landon, as well...

Landon Henry

Joshua Allen

Mommy & her boys

Daddy & his boys

Riding in the wagon!

Brazoria County Fair

2011-10-27T13:55:00.003-05:00

We've been busy the last few weekends! Once the weather cooled down a bit it's been fairly nice (although we're anxiously waiting for the next cool-down this weekend).

We took the boys to the county fair. We didn't do rides - they are still small - plenty of years for that and it's expensive! But they loved the petting zoo & the tractors you could sit on and ride. Landon rode the carousel and we had some yummy funnel cake!

{Some chicks hatching as we were there}

{Riding the tractors - a big hit}

{Roping the cattle}

Joshy wasn't in much of a picture mood but Landon has been lately...

We had a good time!

Community Helpers

2011-10-17T14:20:00.003-05:00

October has been the month of Community Helpers at the Preschool. Landon has loved learning about a different one each day at school. Joshua liked seeing the firetruck, policecar & boat (Coast Guard) but his whole class had a hard time with posing for pics so I don't have any from his teachers...(understandable!)

{The Dentist} (how to brush)

{The Vet}

{Sitting in the police car - Landon is the 3rd child}

{Charlie Chipper from the city - Recycle}

Landon was sick all last week so he missed the firetruck & missed this day, too but the director told me I could take him out there (I had just dropped Joshy off) and just keep him in my lap since he just had a low-grade fever - he was pretty thrilled to see Charlie.

{Driving the Boat}

This was the favorite for Landon (well this & the police car!)...the Coast Guard brought their boat and man did he love that and the chance to sit in the boat!!

Here's his whole class...of course they are 3 & 4 yr olds so they are distracted! Pretty cool though!

Angels

2011-09-30T06:49:00.002-05:00

At 5 am this morning, we were awoken by Landon's screams. I ran in there and knelt by his bed and asked what was wrong. He had tears running down his face and said "I don't want angels in here".

It took a good 10 minutes or so just to get him to stop shaking and calm down. I looked around the room to make sure I didn't see any angels and came back and told him that if we feel scared, we can say a little prayer. So we did - just asking God to help us not feel scared and to go back to sleep.

I'm not sure what he saw or dreamed or what. But I found it incredibly interesting and couldn't go back to sleep.

The really interesting thing is that every night I say specific prayers for my boys and one being to ask God to surround my boys' beds with angels to protect them all night. I'm gonna have to start asking that the angels be a tad more discreet not to scare my boy.

Pajama Party

2011-09-22T10:29:00.002-05:00

I love stay home days that we don't go anywhere. Landon is a major homebody so he loves to stay home and stay in his pjs. He's my child that I have to force to get dressed every morning.

This morning he asked me to come to his Pajama Party in Joshy's room. I said sure and sat down. All his animals came to join in (one at a time) - Mr Giraffe, Doggy, Mickey, Buzz Lightyear, etc. We read books and eventually I convinced him that at every pajama party there is a time to go to sleep. But first we had to have a snack! (his idea) So he & Josh brought me pretend food to eat. It was fun being doted on!

Then the lights went off and I got to go to bed! "If you need something, Mommy...I'm right here." (I love when you hear your own words used with you). I asked for a pillow, a blanket and some socks (it was quite cold in his room). I actually got to lay there for 20 minutes without getting up. Totally out of the ordinary for when they are awake!!
(Of course Josh sees us laying on the floor and thinks we are a playgym!)

It's been a nice 'stay home' day. Now I'm being asked to go on a flashlight hunt. So off I go!

1st Day of {Pre}School

2011-09-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

My little boys started Preschool back this last week! Landon is in the 3s class this year and Joshua is in the Tots class. They have done great - I sign them up for 5 days (because of my large discount with the church) but only take them 3 days. I do the 5 day for flexibility with my schedule. The boys go from 9-12 and love it. They were both pretty exhausted when they got home this week and both took 2 hour naps most days.

The Night before, backpacks are packed & ready!

The boys before heading to school!

Joshua - 19 months. So stinkin' cute with that huge backpack. He was excited - he loves going places and he is quite social. He only cried when I first dropped him off but I went back to check on him 5 minutes later and he was already dancing around to the music.

{Joshua's class}

{Yes I'm the crazy Mom that takes pics of the bulletin board with my child's name on it!}

My little cutie pie!! - this is his first structured environment other than our daily home routine. It's good for him to learn structure and to follow someone else's instruction other than mine (or not follow & be redirected) :)

Ready to go, Mom!

Landon - my handsome 3 1/2 yr old!

Landon's class - his chair

Landon's class

SO excited for his first day! This is the first time for Landon that he went in with no tears! His teachers are wonderful and everyday when they come in, there's a chalkboard giving us instructions of what we are to do - take them to help them identify their name on their chair, put their backpack up, start coloring - on Fridays they get to do playdough.

My sweetie pies walking into school.
{LOVE}
---
SO glad for a great first week. It's a blessing to have a place they feel secure and safe and I get to be right down the hall - so that means lots of peaking in on them, watching them out my window as they walk to the playground with their class and picking them up & taking them home for lunch & naps and playing all afternoon at home! :)

Wrestle Mania

2011-08-26T10:52:00.009-05:00

We spend about 50% of our time each day wrestling, breaking up wrestling on inappropriate surfaces (the couch & recliner) or pulling wrestling away from cabinets or tiled floor areas.
These boys LOVE to wrestle and they have since Josh was less than a year old! I already moved all my 2010 pics over to my external harddrive or I would post one of those.

{Wrestling on Landon's bed}

{Living Room Wrestling - that tv cabinet makes me nervous because of the corners}

{First thing they did when we got to our hotel on our vacation}

{Wrestling when they wake up in the morning}

{Daddy is usually in on the action in the evenings}

As you can see, this is a big pastime for my boys!

Summer is coming to an end!

2011-08-22T12:27:00.003-05:00

Whew. Summer is over. Well, it's not for the boys yet - we have 2 weeks before preschool starts back up and they are both ready! This is Joshua's first year - in the Tots class (18 mth). And Landon will be in the 3s class this year. I'm so excited for their new year & they are, too!! My summer is over officially since yesterday was Promotion Sunday. As Children's director, that's a big, big day! And it marks the end of my busiest season of the year. Whew. It was a great summer, perhaps the best one yet in my 5 years in this job. But I'm tired!!
We had Back to School blessings in both services that I was in charge of, Children's Church and during Sunday school I had an Open House for parents kicking off a new ministry program to tell them about, relays & sno cone truck for grades K-5 and activities & ice cream for Preschool. Whew!

Around the house lately, we've had fun playing with sorters. J does the same thing L used to do at this age, just play with the pom-poms, moving them from cup to cup. Hey, that's good - gets him used to playing with it and works on coordination. Landon loves to sort and obviously this is easy now at his age (3 yrs, 9 mths) but he still likes to play with things that feel different and that's fun.

We did some "car" painting - one of our favorite things to do which turned into finger painting - fun!

Joshy loves to car paint & finger paint...he just wasn't crazy about the taste of the paint that he put his mouth as I went to the sink to go wash a car and came back to find him. LOL!! Good thing it's non-toxic!

We do have some cool dudes in our house...

And stacking is another fun activity we've done a lot of lately.

It's been a fun summer but we're ready for the Fall!

Joshua is 18 months!!

2011-07-29T14:04:00.004-05:00

*Update*
Joshua had his 18 mth checkup and he is in the 90th percentile for height: 33 1/2 inches and 50th percentile for weight: 25 lbs. He had to get 3 shots :( Poor baby...but overall looked great! He has been a little fussy & irritable after the shots but that's to be expected! What a big boy!

My little Joshua Allen is 18 months old!

How in the world did that happen? On my 30th birthday, I found out we were expecting this little guy...and that wasn't that long ago...and I still feel like he was born into our family recently! And then again, it's hard to think of life before Joshy! He's such a blessing and has SO much personality!

At 18 months, he LOVES cars, trucks, buses, firetrucks & taxi cabs (which everytime you say 'taxi', he laughs).
He LOVES Mickey Mouse - big time. He dances everytime it comes on and becomes entranced. He also points anything out that has Mickey or the other characters on it.
Joshua is a picky little eater and always has been - we did things the exact same way with him as we did with Landon - starting with rice cereal then veggies, etc. He hates veggies. He LOVES fruit - any kind. If he is in the middle of a tantrum, a crying fit or anything else, the sure fire way to make him happy is to offer grapes, mandarin oranges, bananas, pears, peaches...you get the idea!
{before church last week}

Joshua started walking at 14 months and you would never know it! He is incredibly fast and can run around corners and climb onto trikes and push with his feet on the ground. He's very physically coordinated.

He has no need to talk much right now, at least he doesn't seem to feel that way. Typical for second children, he just lets brother do his talking. We work with him a lot on it - naming things constantly and trying to get him to. He just smiles and goes to get whatever we are talking about. He's incredibly smart and knows WAY more than we probably realize.

I feel pretty sure that he will talk whenever he 'darn well pleases'. He has quite a bit of attitude and I just get the feeling it is a part of his extreme stubborn streak.

Joshua is very affectionate - Mark & I say that his love language will be physical affection (all kids need tons, but his is very pronounced). He loves to go outside and will go to the door with his shoes every morning. He LOVES his big brother and wants to do anything & everything he does. Lately there has been a bit of jealousy over whatever Landon has. All to be expected!

Joshy is sweet, gives kisses to us, loves to high-five us, wrestle & tickle with Daddy & Landon and loves to be sung to & rocked at night.

We just love our boys and any time to celebrate their little lives, we jump at the opportunity!

Some fun in the sun

2011-07-29T13:46:00.005-05:00

Nothing like a good popsicle on a stinkin' HOT day!

There goes that stinker trying to climb up the water slide...quickly after this pic was snapped, he fell down - no tears, just got right back up and tried again. I am trying to discourage this but he is a kid that has to find out the hard way.

A day in the Life of a Busy Mommy

2011-07-21T22:11:00.018-05:00

I've seen a few friends write 'a day in the life of a mom' kind of posts and I did one back when Landon was about 6 months old here. And I did another one when Josh was about 7 months old and Landon was 2 1/2. It's kind of fun to do this once a year because the schedule changes so much - I've enjoyed reading back on how our lives were! So here is the one from Joshy being 7 months. (Blogger won't let me hyperlink right now for some reason so here: http://mlstandlee.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-in-life.html)

------------

6:00 am - Joshy wakes up. How I wish he would play in his crib like his brother did but that's not my Joshua and that's okay. He's a fireball and when he wakes up - he's ready to go immediately. Mark & I trade off mornings - Mark leaves for work around 6:45 am so we trade off who gets Joshy up...it takes Mark a whole 10 minutes to get ready to go so when I sleep in, I get 30 more minutes. Don't knock it. 30 minutes is great. When Josh wakes up, he likes to drink some milk from a sippy cup - he likes it warm still - yeah I know I need to wean him from warm milk but if it makes him happy, I'm okay with it. Then he plays in the living room and we keep him from running down the hallway and hitting Landon's door.

6:30 - 7:00 am - Landon screams "MOMMY!!!" from his bed. We've trained him not to get up unless he asks and he doesn't -Mr Rule-Follower (for the most part) likes his boundaries.

Landon comes into the living room and sits in "daddy's chair" (the recliner) and watches Max & Ruby (6:30) and Mickey Mouse (7:00). Josh LOVES Mickey Mouse and dances around the living room to Mickey. Then they share some yogurt and I fix them cinnamon "pops" waffles. We call them "pops" at our house because when Landon was about Josh's age, he kept asking for a pop and one day he was screaming it and I felt awful that I had no clue what he wanted until I realized he wanted a waffle...in the moments he was feeling impatient waiting for it in the toaster, I would always say "wait for the pop...let's listen for the pop" and he started calling them pops. So, that's what we say - we forget that's weird for the rest of the population!

About once or twice a week, I make eggs and bacon or blueberry muffins for the boys.

The boys typically play & watch Mickey & Jake and the Neverland Pirates (Joshy only watches Mickey) off and on while playing.

8:00 am - TV is off. We all take Jasmine outside to go to the bathroom. This hasn't always been the case but since a jackrabbit has made his home by our back fence, our beagle-mix can't stay in the fence no matter what we do so it is now a family effort. But since it's so stinkin' hot, I just let the boys play out there for about 30 minutes anyway. Or we go for a walk at this point in the stroller - it's too hot to wait any longer in the morning! In the fall/spring/winter, we go for walks around 9:30...

8:30 am - Come inside, play in the playroom. Sometimes we have a "picnic" or play cars...

Many times, I do the dishes or switch out the laundry. And sometimes I have helpers...

9:00 am - Snacktime. We all do a 'picnic' snack time. We sit together and the boys share a bowl of whole wheat goldfish and water. Picnic started when I was pregnant and exhausted and Landon loved it so much we still do it.

{Caught Joshy with his eyes closing & Landon was particularly goofy with his shorts on his head

- he wears just his underwear & tshirt a lot at home}

9:15 am - Play! Most of the time, we head to Landon's room at this point and the boys love to climb on Landon's bed to play or in his closet. I fold clothes, straighten or sort hand-me-downs for both boys. (It's a constant process - nephew Ben - 6 yrs - for Landon, L's old clothes for nephew Samuel - 2 yrs, Samuel's clothes for Joshy, Joshy's old clothes back in a bin for storage)

{Wild child likes to climb ALL over the bed}

10:00 am - Go back to playroom or Mommy's room. About 2 times a week I have to vacuum (L cleans up for me, J helps vacuum). Or I fold clothes, straighten, pick up stuff, play on the computer a bit while they play (there's just something really fun about Mommy & Daddy's room) Sometimes we pull out the paints at the kitchen table - Joshy in his high chair (with either just a little water on his tray with a brush for him to play with) and Landon at the table with paint, shaving cream or small paper pieces to glue - working on those motor skills!

10:30 am - Start calling Mark and asking when he's coming home for lunch - oh Lord please let him come home for lunch. :) Fussiness and arguing tend to get pretty bad at this point in the morning...so we read books, get out the crayons (this keeps Josh busy for a good 20 minutes - he loves to take the crayons out of the box, throw them back in and dump it out again).

11:00 am - Start fixing lunch - cheese/crackers, PBJ for Landon or Croissant Sandwiches for the boys. Banana, Grapes or Mandarin oranges are a favorite at lunchtime.

11:15 am - Daddy gets home to join us for lunch. yay! We all eat lunch...Landon says 'what did you do at work today daddy?" and then we go to the living room. Joshy brings plastic food to us to pretend to eat, Landon runs in circles (pre-nap energy) and Daddy & Mommy enjoy a few moments of adult conversation in between the "Landon slow down. Don't push your brother"..."Josh get down from the chair - no stand up! Josh no-no!".

11:45 am - Daddy leaves to go back to work. "I want you to stay" and more begging comes from Landon.

12:00 noon - Wind down time. Read books, play quietly.

12:15 pm - Josh is starting to lose it - we had to break the morning nap around 11 months (yes that early) because he would sleep 2 hours and then 30 minutes in the afternoon, get exhausted around 5 pm and horribly cranky then if he fell asleep, he would wake up at 4 am ready to go...and the cycle would continue. SOOO...no morning nap = 2/2.5 hr nap, 11 hrs overnight.

I warm up some milk in his sippy cup (yes I know I need to break it yeah yeah)...then I take him to his room, put him in his crib, rub his back, sing a song and head back to the living room. Meanwhile, Landon has been told to go tee-tee in the potty, pick 2 books and wait for me.

12:30 pm - Joshy is in his crib. I read 2 books to Landon and then take him to his bed - he loves to hear "all the things he do today" and tell him a fictional story - he picks what it is about and I make it up (usually an animal of some sort is his choice).

Many times I have to go back in Joshy's room once or twice to just comfort him a little - I try not to pick him up but lay him down and sing another song and rub his back.

2:45/1:00 pm - All is quiet. AHHHHH :) Mommy works on the computer - my part-time job. OR if I'm caught up, I play on facebook, blog or scrapbook. I rarely do chores. J is my light-sleeper and I try to keep it quiet for him. I've also learned that I LOVE the quiet so I don't turn on the tv. About half of the time, Landon doesn't go to sleep but we have fought the battle over the past year and won!! I'm determined he will 'rest' and give me some quiet time. There's been some rough days but I've stuck to my guns (even having to do things that will wake Josh up - I didn't do that much until he was 1 yr old and I hated it but it was good because eventually it has paid off). He must stay in his bed for 1 hour. He can do puzzles, look at books but he has to stay in his bed. Everytime he yells out for me, I add 5 minutes. He doesn't know what that means except that it's more time in bed - it's worked. But I threaten his little life when he almost wakes up his brother or when he does. Because it makes for a BAD afternoon!

1:45/2:00 pm - Landon is up if he didn't get a nap or if he did - he generally sleeps for 1 - 1.5 hours when he does sleep. He comes into the living room, sits in the recliner and gets a snack and watches Max & Ruby.

2:30/3:00 pm - Joshua is up. He likes to be held a bit (okay, okay I like it too :)) Then they both want a snack. Usually eat some fruit or crackers. And we watch a Mickey Mouse for Josh.

{Random cowboy}

3:00 pm - Most of the year we go outside, play in the pool/sprinkler, play in the yard, etc. But in July-August, it's too hot. So, we go to the playroom and play trains, cars, animals/farm, etc. I'll fold laundry on the couch while they play or play with them. Or this is my errand-running time. Josh loves to run errands - he grabs his shoes and runs to the door. Landon is my home-body - I have to drag him out that door. But once they get out the door, they like being out.

4:00 pm - Crankiness ensues and that late afternoon "i think i'm going to lose it" starts...I call or text Mark to find out when he's coming home! He jokes "depends. how are the boys doing?" but let's me know when his last meeting is for the day. At this point, we do whatever it takes to stay sane...play in Mommy's room some more (Landon loves the bed, Joshy does too but wants to just jump head-first right off of it so I have to keep them both off). Or we play hide & seek. Landon LOVES this now since he gets the concept - Josh gives everyone away - he follows whoever is hiding and then goes to the other one after you say "ready or not here I come" and runs and points to who is hiding. It's hilarous. Thankfully Landon doesn't get annoyed yet.

4:30 pm - I start on dinner. I usually have to put Josh in the highchair while I'm cooking unless I put on a Mickey Mouse. Landon plays just fine during my preparation and sometimes they both sit on the floor with a bowl and spoon and maybe a bit of rice or flour in the bowl (for L). When J is in the highchair, he snacks on crackers, fruit or the beginning of whatever I'm making. Or he plays with his cars.

5:00/5:30 pm - Mark gets home (this varies - sometimes it's 6:00 or even later - depending on whether there's plant issues - he is a chemical engineer at a chemical plant for Dow Chemical Company). We all eat dinner together at the table. Landon eats what we are eating for the most part and Josh eats some of it supplemented with other stuff, too.

6:00 pm - Outside. We always do this during the heat of the summer because the boys need to get outside but it's too hot earlier in the afternoon. They run around the yard, swing, play with the trucks, sandbox.

6:45 pm - Inside. We bathe the boys together at 6:45 because if Landon doesn't get a nap, he has to go to bed at 7 pm...Josh goes to bed at 7 every night unless we are out or something. After bath, Mark gets Josh ready for bed, I get Landon ready. We take them to the living room and read books & their bible story. We say prayers with Landon and we put them to bed. Mark sings to Josh and I say stories to Landon then we switch. If Josh isn't crying, I leave him alone...if he is, I go sing to him. Mark plays "the shadow game" with Landon since he has gotten scared of shadows more.

7:00/7:30 pm - Bedtime. If Landon got a good nap, he's not ready for bed but we make him lay down and look at books - he will call out to us and we have to play that game for a while.

7:15/7:45 pm - Yay! Adult conversation, tv, snacktime. Ah...

A day in the life! It's a wonderful life! :)

Summer Church Adventures

2011-07-20T07:22:00.006-05:00

I serve as the Children's Director at our church. I'm part-time and when Landon was born, they let me work partly from home so I work in the office about 2-3 mornings a week while my boys are at preschool & in the summer I hire a babysitter for 2 mornings.

Anyway, this summer we had Clubhouse Mondays in June for ages 3 yrs-5th grade. Preschoolers had inside art, outside art & music. Elementary kids had art taught by a professional so they got to learn things like charcoal, pastel paints, photography, etc. It was an awesome month and we all really enjoyed it!

Joshy loved going to the nursery on Monday mornings with his favorite people- Ms Clydene & Ms Allyson. He LOVES them. Landon had a great time at the daycamps. The only problem was he fell apart the 2nd week when he saw me so I had to avoid him the rest of the Mondays. Oh well - most of us that help that have younger children have to avoid that classroom! You just never know how they'll react.

Here's Landon painting & making his birdhouse.

This was another week when he made a visor & then they played with flashlights & learned about how God lights our path to see in the darkness.

And here he is making his stepping stone. {God Guides Our Steps}

Daddy put it in the yard next to the cucumbers when he brought it home!

So glad that my boys can be a part of my work & the ministry we do. It's great having them right there and learning!

-----------------------------

In July, we had Vacation Bible School - we have ours in the evening and it's great because we have a ton of dads & working moms that can help, too. It's a late week for my kids but it only happens once a year. It's the biggest few weeks all year for me - I'm in charge of the whole thing and it's a big, big thing. But it's the funnest thing all year so I love it.

We had our schedule down! Other than the first day when I was at the church all day & Grammy & Papa came to hang with the boys all day...Every other day, I stayed home all day with the boys and spent time with them before the evening. They came with me to the church after nap each day and hung out in the nursery until Bible School started. Landon went to his class and Mark came after work, helped out for a while & then took Joshy home at 6:30 so he could be in bed by 7ish. Landon & I got home around 8:30 (in turn, Landon slept until 7:30 every morning & took 2 hour naps!).

This was the first year Landon got to participate. He L.O.V.E.D. it! Warmed my heart. The child knows every single song on the VBS CD that we play constantly in the car. He even sings it to his brother "God is wild about you, Joshy!". The words were beautiful and meaningful and he loved the music. He really came alive with the songs. Here he is below in his class - the first pic he is singing. The 2nd he is making crafts - his buddy DC was a teen in his class (the bonus of being in charge, I can put my kids anywhere I want with the teachers/teens I want - lol!).

And here's my little guy singing "He knows my name, He knows my every thought".

It was a great week and on Sunday, the kids sang 3 songs at church - Landon got to sing 4 because the preschoolers did a special song. Tears were flowing everywhere - it was precious.

I'm proud of my boy! I can't wait until Joshy is old enough to do this kind of thing, too! But I love the age he's at and I'm glad to be home all week with them this week! :)

Vacation to Colorado!

2011-07-18T09:26:00.022-05:00

I'm way behind on blogging so I'll try to do this a little at a time!
A few weeks ago, we took a family trip to Colorado! It was so much fun. We left on early Saturday morning for a family reunion in Kerrville (also tons of fun!!) - see pics.

{going Paddle Boating}

{The Standlee men!}

We had a great time at the reunion! It was a very family-friendly place with lots to do and the kids had a blast!

----

We left on Sunday for Estes Park! It was a LONG drive - we drove all day Sunday - stopping for the boys to run around about every 3-4 hours (trying to time this with mealtime for picnics along the way - they LOVED all the picnics!). We drove all night Sunday night and got to Denver around 4 am! We pulled over and slept in a parking lot (long story lol) and then ate a big breakfast in Denver and drove the 1 1/2 hrs to Rocky Mtn National Park near Estes Park. We had a fabulous 5 days there!

It was filled with LOTS of walks around lakes, throwing rocks in lakes, spotting animals, beautiful views, fun games, relaxing at our house that we rented, and even my parents came for 2 days of the trip! We had a lot of fun and the boys loved being in nature. We left on Saturday morning and drove to Amarillo, spent the night and drove home on Sunday. Here's some highlights... (if you know my shutterfly site, you'll see way more pics - all great on there).

Every day we would go into the park, have a picnic lunch & go back to the house for naps. After nap, we'd either hang out at the house & cook dinner then go back out to the park or we'd go out before dinner.

{this Elk jumped RIGHT in front of our car as we screeched to a stop & he just looked at us like 'close call'}

{That boy's foot is hanging off the edge by the water after I told him not to put his foot in there...yes that child tests every boundary}

{but he's awfully sweet & cute!}

{Lots of Snow!}

{Papa, Grammy & the boys!}

Picture Post

2011-06-05T17:43:00.006-05:00

Here's just pictures from the last 3 weeks of summer!

Memorial Day Family Fun!

2011-06-03T12:49:00.004-05:00

We had an AWESOME Memorial Day after we came back from our getaway Fri/Sat.
Church on Sunday, relaxed Sunday afternoon & played at home. Then on Monday, we got up and headed to Surfside (20 minutes away but we usually go to Quintana or Bryan Beach...we went to Surfside so we could go to Galveston afterwards- about an hour away)

The seaweed was awful BUT the good thing about kids is they know no different and it's all sand, water & fun for them and it's a reminder to us that it doesn't really matter.

{The boys playing in the sand}

{Our boys - super cuties!}

The tide was really high - pretty dangerous to go out and swim so we just kept to the shallow water.

When we got to Galveston, we went to the Rainforest Cafe - Landon LOVES animals so we knew this would be a hit!

We had a great time! The monkeys, elephants, birds - Landon loved when they sang & yelled in the jungle. He was super pumped about it all!

After Galveston, we headed home. Sunday afternoon, Landon & I ran to Walmart and got some more sand for our sandbox and picked up a bigger pool since they have outgrown the other...so here's our $30 Walmart pool! A big hit!

Joshy is convinced he is as big as Landon and he kept climbing up the slippery steps to go on the slide so we had to take over and help him. He loved it!

{Bubbles in the yard}

And more updates from our little gardener: a cucumber & bell pepper ready to take off the vine! In other gardening news, Mark canned the first bag of cucumbers and made 12 jars of sweet pickles and they are YUMMY! We are going to have stuffed bell peppers this weekend with all the peppers we have. And we have 2 more bags of cucumbers ready to be canned soon.

A fabulous family weekend with 3 handsome boys!

Anniversary/Birthday Getaway!!

2011-06-03T12:28:00.006-05:00

For our 7th anniversary and my birthday, my parents (Grammy & Papa) graciously offered to keep the boys for us Friday evening - Saturday evening. It had been a year since we had been away from the boys overnight and it was just so nice not to be the ones "on call"!

We went up to Houston and stayed at the Hotel ZaZa and it was very swanky & nice and a fun getaway! We went to eat at Americas (Latin American food) for dinner and we were able to watch the sunrise over Houston from our balcony (not the best quality of pics since they were taken on my phone but oh well)

{My Love}

Saturday morning view from the balcony - nice!! It was awesome to wake up, go back to sleep and not have any cries or needs to be met! We went and got breakfast at LePeep and then did lots of shopping - I had some giftcards for my birthday and Mother's Day to use!

Then we had lunch at Chipotle before heading back to Lake Jackson and seeing our little guys.

OH and of course Landon insisted that we have cupcakes for my birthday (and a party & games, but we stopped at the cupcakes)...he sang a solo of "Happy Birthday" to me while Joshy clapped and cheered and then we all had a yummy cupcake!

WONDERFUL weekend!!

What's been going on with us

2011-05-26T20:12:00.004-05:00

I've tried about 5 times to upload pics from the last day of preschool/splash day to the site but for some reason, it messes up everytime. Making me kind of annoyed at blogger!

Anyway - the last few weeks - here's the recap:

- Last week of Preschool: I was in charge of teacher appreciation gifts and then, of course, there's the attending the Splash Day (the fun part!). They took the nursery kiddos out to play before everyone else came out so Joshy got to go play in the water, too. SO stinkin' cute - both of them. Loved watching them with the other kids. So fun to see a different side of their personalities with their friends.

- Getting geared up for the summer - busy time of year for me but also fun. This summer I'm doing Clubhouse Mondays at our church (Art/Music camp for Preschool/Elem kids) and it starts in 10 days, VBS is about 7 weeks away, my bible study that I teach is a week away...busy!
- My sister-in-law, Sarah, got married last Saturday! Beautiful bride marrying a wonderful guy! We are thrilled to have James in our family and the wedding was great! My boys wore green/white seersucker outfits - Landon was in a seersucker tie/shorts and Joshua was in a seersucker jumper. They were so cute! I don't have pictures because I was in the wedding so I was busy! We had a great time at the rehearsal/dinner and an even better time at the wedding/reception. They did a great job making it so friendly and calm and relaxing for close friends & family. The reception was really neat because everyone could just talk to each other and have a good time and we felt relaxed. The kids were even delivered chicken nuggets & french fries on a plate with ketchup in a little saucer. SO thoughtful and very very popular with the boys!
- My close friend & roommate from college, Sara, was down at the beach with family and got to come over and spend a morning with us! Our 4 boys got along great! Landon & Evan had a great time playing and it was so fun to catch up and enjoy their little laughs together.
- Summer started officially this week! We were home all week and played a lot of trains, castle, built bridges, played outside, cleaned, vacuumed (me alongside my little helpers - it's quite the sight to watch us all vacuum together), read a lot of books, colored, painted, played play-dough...we had a good time! My babysitter for the summer started this week (tues/thur mornings). Didn't have one tear from either boy - they love her and ask a lot for her already! Makes mommy happy!!
- Our anniversary was Sunday (7 years!) - we celebrated by staying in our pjs all day and playing with the boys.
- Tomorrow is my birthday (I am feeling older now that I see wirey gray hairs appearing) and my parents are coming down to keep the boys from dinner until dinner on Saturday! 1st time in a year we have been away from the boys overnight. We're so excited to get some time away! We're going to Houston, staying at a fancy hotel and shopping & eating! Yay!!

So, we've been busy!

Did the Cucumbers grow??

2011-05-11T20:26:00.001-05:00

That's what Landon says when he wakes up in the morning. He goes out and checks them with Mommy and then if Daddy is home at lunch, he goes again and every night, he & Daddy check the cucumbers, bell peppers & tomato plants. The cucumbers are great because about every other day, there's another to pick. We are storing them in the fridge so we can pickle them and can them. Yum!

Here's my little planter:

He LOVES this.

Joshua's 1st haircut

2011-05-11T18:04:00.001-05:00

My 15 month old has beautiful blonde hair. It has waves and TONS of little ringlets in the back. LOVE it. But the time had come...it was looking more scraggly and I was having to wet it down to get it out of his face and it was looking a bit greasy by the afternoon.

So, I decided it was time to cut it.

Here's Joshy beforehand. He was completely unaware of the torture that was to come.

A bit dramatic? Yes, yes he is. He flipped out everytime I touched his head. It actually got funny. I tried snacks (see the goldfish in his mouth?). I tried water on his tray (he loves water), I tried cars, and of course I had big brother right there trying to entertain, as well. Nothing helped. Just screaming, hitting, flailing his arms, bawling, wailing...you get the picture? Yeah, it was that bad. Good thing I could kind of laugh about it.

But after I was all done, he still looked adorable. How can he not? He's just a little cutie pie. :)

And if you can't tell in the pictures, there's TONS of waves in the back and side still. That shows me there's a chance the curls will come back!! :)

My big boy...I feel mixed about that!

Mother's Day

2011-05-10T16:13:00.008-05:00

GREAT Mother's Day!
Saturday night Mark & I got Papaw & Gee to come over and keep the boys so we could go out. So, we drove up to Sugarland (about an hour away) and ate at PF Changs, shopped a bit and came home. It was so nice to spend some time together.

BUT, Mother's Day. This is what it is all about. Right here. My boys. Being sweet and loving on each other. They are just so wonderful.

The boys (Mark) got me some beautiful tulips on Sunday. LOVE them. They are still beautiful after a few days, too. I love flowers but I'm all about the grocery store flowers. (Notice my pretty pink rose in the vase?)

My sweet Landon brought me a rose from Sunday school. I took a picture of him at home after he had changed!

The nursery made these cards for the Mommies (Joshy's hand print)

Landon's preschool class made teapots that opened and had a little cup with a teabag. We also had a Mother's Day Tea on Friday and it was so fun to go and have tea & cookies with my Landon-bug. He's always so proud when I get to come to his class and I just love sitting there with him.

{My little joys before church}

On Sunday, I wanted a low-key day with little cooking but no going out to eat - too much stress with the kids....never know how they will do (which is why Mark took me out the night before).

So, I put some taco seasoning & chicken in the crockpot before church & we went to church and came home to a great smell and I shredded the chicken real quick, stuck them on tortillas and wa-la, we had yummy chicken tacos with no major cooking required. Then we all enjoyed a great nap (thank you boys for sleeping great!!). My mom & dad went to see my oldest brother & his family for Mother's Day weekend so we invited Mark's parents over for dinner. Mark grilled hamburgers and we had sweet potato fries. YUM! He did a great job!

And my mother-in-law helped do all the dishes & clean the kitchen so after they left, no cleaning up!

It was a wonderful Mother's Day! How could it not be? I feel pretty blessed to have these little boys!! (then again last year's kind of stunk so I guess that's not true, ha!)

Easter Out-takes & Flashbacks

2011-04-27T14:44:00.008-05:00

{My sweet, sweet Easter boys}
I wanted Joshy to wear the outfit Landon wore when he was 16 months at Easter (2009)...it was an adorable seersucker jon-jon with a sailboat. I found it locally back at that time. Anyway, I like my boys to match for dress-up events (how long can I really do that anyway?!)...so I was so excited to find blue/white seersucker shorts from Old Navy with a white belt & a white shirt with some design to it for Landon to wear. Woohoo!

They looked so cute, I just couldn't get enough of it!

But...
Just so you know...
they don't always sit still for pictures.

Here are some of the out-takes. Landon decided to try out some different feels to his lips (about5-8 pics worth), Joshua tried to jump down, chewed on the chair and well, you get the point.

Then...I love some good flashbacks. Here is last year - 2010. Adorable.

And...you need to click on this to make it really big. Compare Landon in the same outfit with Joshua. Brothers? I think so!

An excuse for water games & cupcakes

2011-04-26T14:42:00.007-05:00

Since Easter came the last week in April, we South Texans really just used it as an excuse to bust out the sprinklers and sugar!

{Hanging out & grilling with our friends, The Walkers}

{Mmmm!}

{Kids love bubbles}

{Aunt Sarah & Joshy blowing bubbles}

{Sprinkler fun at Papaw & Gee's house}

{Give this boy a bucket of water & he's happy}

{Cousins & Brothers playing in the water - this went on for almost an hour}

Egg Hunting Fools

2011-04-26T14:26:00.006-05:00

{Easter boys}

{Grammy & Papa's house}

{Cousins}

{Papaw & Gee's house}

{Church Egg Hunt}

{Papaw & Grandma-Great's Retirement Home Egg Hunt}

{The boys with their 'goods'}

{Lovin' on their great-grandparents}

Easter Part-ay!

2011-04-21T06:41:00.013-05:00

At Landon's preschool, on the last day before Easter, they have an Easter bonnet parade, party & egg hunt. With the parade, the kids all make a hat to wear. So, I pulled out Landon's cowboy hat & a baseball cap and asked which one he wanted to decorate. Um no. He wanted his mailman hat. I kept trying to insist one of the others because that one would be so difficult & hard to keep on his head but that's what he wanted. And at the end of the day, its HIS parade and hat so I obliged. He picked the eggs he wanted to decorate so we got started.

I let him tape on the paper, too. I wanted him to be a part of it. So, here he is! Very proud.

The parade was cute! I love all the hats and there were some really cute ones. Landon had both hands on his the whole time to keep it on, he was so happy to wear it. Hilarous. They even got the nursery kids to walk in the parade (there's Joshy below). On the 2nd time around, J was about to his limit with the amount of people so I grabbed him and held him to watch the rest :)

{Obligatory picture before we left the house}

The ladies that have the nursery class LOVE Joshy and he loves them, too - the mornings we go to the church, if I saw their names, he walks to the backdoor & hits the door. They decided that it didn't matter if they were little, they were going to have an egg hunt! So, they put out about 10 eggs and there's just 3 or 4 of the kids so Josh & James) were the only 'hunters' and they really just loved sitting and shaking the eggs.

{Joshy shaking the eggs! Pretty cute}

{Landon's class with their hats!}

{Landon & his buddy Brady}

{Landon at the egg hunt}

After the egg hunt, we headed inside for the party. It's always fun to chat with the other parents and Landon gets so excited when I am there, it's like a combo of his worlds and he is excited to share it with me. He just loves all his friends and it's fun to see him interact with them, especially in another setting other than our home.

This was the first of many egg hunts so you'll see a theme... I love holidays, it's fun to do special stuff with the boys!

Palm Sunday Boys

2011-04-17T22:29:00.010-05:00

I love Holy Week. The journey to the cross with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Egg Hunts & Easter Sunday all feel very significant and thought-provoking for me. But it's even better with children. Landon has been learning in Sunday school about Palm Sunday and we've been reading the Easter story in his Bible and some Easter books lately, too. So, he understands it to a point (in the 3 year old appropriateness of the whole thing).
Last week, we had "Children's Sunday" and here's Landon and some of his Preschool Sunday school class about to go into the Sanctuary to sing. SO sweet. Landon was super excited.

The last few Sundays, he has been really excited about the Sunday school lesson. One day I picked him up and he had made a megaphone and he said "Hi, my name is Landon. I want to tell you about Jesus" (into the megaphone). All the kids said it as they were picked up. Yay kids! Then last week he said "Hosanna, Hosanna!" since he made his own palm branch.
This week, he got to walk down the aisle waving the palms. I'm in charge of the whole thing so I had to get him to walk with a friend of mine and her kids so that he wasn't too connected to me walking with him. He did great! He was very proud and said "Hosanna, Hosanna!" I'll post more pictures of him waving his palm down the aisle once I get the pics from my friend. Proud of my sweet boys!

Toddling Cutie

2011-04-14T20:13:00.004-05:00

Well, Joshy is officially a toddler. He started walking about 9 days ago. Landon walked at 11 1/2 months but Josh took his time - waiting until 14 months. I didn't rush it, he was super fast at crawling - not much motivation to get anywhere walking. And he has been standing up & scooting for a while now.

One day he took about 2 steps and I praised him for it and he sat down immediately. We soon figured out he didn't want to be watched to walk - so we'd notice but not say anything - he was more likely to do it when he didn't think we were looking! Within a week, he took 6-8 steps.

Now, 9 days later, he is full-out walking most of the time. He's quite fast for under 2 weeks! He's really pretty steady in the house, he's still getting better in the grass but is trying it a lot.

I just love this toddle stage - so stinkin' cute how his hands are out for balance and he just toddles around the house. I LOVE it. I can't believe our baby is a toddler now!!

This afternoon, I put his shoes on and he immediately stood up and toddled to the utility room door, pushed it open and toddled to the back door, turning to see if we were close behind him. He's so social, he loves to go places!

Is it already hot enough?

2011-04-14T13:34:00.011-05:00

...for the last few afternoons around 3 pm, it has definitely been hot enough for the sprinkler! And my boys LOVE it. And so does Mommy - I don't have to keep my eye on them constantly like I do with the little pool. But we'll bust that out again soon. Typical Landon - his clothes are soaked but his hair remains dry, somehow. As soon as he's done, he says "Okay Mommy I ready to change my shirt & shorts" - let's not stay wet any longer than we have to...I'm willing to for the fun, but that's my limit. Typical Joshua - let's make sure we get in as close to the action as possible. I need every single wrinkle in my body covered in leaves, mud & water! Here's a picture of him before I stripped him down and washed him with a hose! --- Fun times! We've done this the last 2 afternoons and it's been a great way to beat the heat.

April Menu

2011-04-13T20:00:00.002-05:00

I forgot to post my Menu for March but once again, you can read back here for more of what I came to...but the bottom line is - I started planning menus 2 weeks in advance starting around March 2010 (when my boys were 2 yrs old & 2 months old and my husband was working 14 hours a day for 6-7 days a week. Yikes that was a rough few months).

Now, my husband is wonderful about going to the grocery store once a month and I go the other big trip. To catch you up, I do go the weeks in between for quick stops for fresh fruit (my boys eat fruit like its going out of style), bread & milk (which they down about 2 gallons a week).

My menu consists of easy meals that I can prep with a child hanging on my leg, a husband coming in from work exhausted and myself working part-time (2 mornings in the office a week) & having occasional evening meetings (maybe 2 times a month). But, we all eat what's on the table. I do some supplemental stuff for Joshy (14 mths) but Landon (3 1/2) eats all that we eat and Joshy eats most of it. I don't have time for fancy stuff but I do try to do a new recipe once or twice every 2 weeks to spice things up a bit. With every meal, we have fresh fruit & some kind of veggie... (and we shop the sales rack for the high-priced meat like steaks - getting whatever is cheap & that's why we eat it early on in the week since the expiration date is getting closer - saves a good $3-$5 each time)
Here's all of April:

Sunday, April 3 – Grilled Steaks, Mashed Potatoes

Monday, April 4 – *dinner popped up with my inlaws

Tuesday, April 5– Croissant Sandwiches, Broccoli & Cheese Rice *Mtg night

Wednesday, April 6 – French Toast & Eggs

Thursday, April 7 – Crockpot Tacos - Yum! A favorite of the week!

Friday, April 8– Friday Night Take Out

Saturday, April 9 – Pecan Crusted Fish, Au Gratin Potatoes & Spinach

Sunday, April 10 – Grilled Hot Dogs, Sweet Potato Fries, Baked Beans *Mtg night

Monday, April 11 – Meatballs & Gravy, Potatoes, Corn

Tuesday, April 12– Arby’s Homemade Sandwiches & Chips

Wednesday, April 13 – Grilled Pork Chops, Rice & Green Beans

Thursday, April 14 – Thursday Night Take Out

Friday, April 15– Stuffed Bell Peppers & Sweet Potatoes

Saturday, April 16 – Fish Sticks, Mac & Cheese (kid night!)

Sunday, April 17 – Beef Stroganoff, Green peas, Croissants

The 2 weeks coming up...

Monday, April 18 – Ham, Egg & Cheese Croissants (Thanks, Jenni! I make very similar "breakfast sandwiches" with canadian bacon, cheese & eggs on biscuits, but I'm going to try the same with croissants for a change)

Tuesday, April 19– Taco Salad for us, Grilled Cheese & Fruit for the boys

Wednesday, April 20 – Sundried Tomato CrockPot Risotto, biscuits, Turnip Greens

Thursday, April 21 – Cheeseburger Tacos, Chips & Salsa

Friday, April 22– Grilling out with some friends

Saturday, April 23 –Easter with the Standlees

Sunday, April 24 – Easter with the Williams’

Monday, April 25 – Homemade Pizzas

Tuesday, April 26– Pancakes, Eggs, Bacon

Wednesday, April 27 – Chicken Quesadilla Rolls, Charro Beans, Nachos

Thursday, April 28 – Grilled Catfish, Corn on the Cobb, Texas Toast

Friday, April 29– Friday Night Take Out

Saturday, April 30 – Mark’s Cheesy Spaghetti, Mindy’s Garlic Toast, Green beans

*I'm always up for new recipes so post yours or let me know if you want any of mine - I find most of mine online or in recipe books or family recipes!

Crazy Hair

2011-04-02T13:28:00.005-05:00

My boys have always had a lot of hair and their hair is crazy.

Landon at birth - head full of reddish-brown hair

Joshua at birth - head full of dark, dark brown hair

Joshua now - head full of blonde hair with awesome ringlet curls at the back. SOO cute. Even Landon plays with his ringlets. Mark thinks he's starting to have a mullet with the long hair in the back and the front is so straight but I can't seem to make myself cut those curls. So cute.

Landon has crazy bedhead. Landon has his Daddy's hair. It sticks up in the exact same spots and it's all over the place. Most days I don't comb it because I figure his whole life he'll have to tame his hair and while he's a kid, he looks cute with it sticking up (not this bad usually but still).

I love my boys' crazy hair.

Mark's domain & Landon's favorite pastime

2011-03-25T14:05:00.007-05:00

Mark loves to garden and he is quite good at it! He grew up as a little boy being taught everything by his Dad (also an incredible gardener) and his Grandpa (another great one!). He has great ideas and he likes to bounce them off me and then we together like to go look at plants at nurseries. Over the last year, he's torn out all the shrubs & bushes that were against the back of the house by the master bedroom window and made the bed twice the size it was. It's been a huge project and one that he has wanted to do for 2 years. It's going to be beautiful - he has picked some of my favorite flowers for me to enjoy and some vegetables he wants to grow and some shrubs he wants to try for the first time. Landon LOVES to garden with Daddy. He will ask all day when he can go water the plants and I tell him to wait until Daddy comes home. As soon as we eat dinner, out they go. He helps dig the holes, he helps fix the bucket of "plant food", he does all of it with Daddy. What's fun is if we live in this house for a long time, he'll be able to look back and all the plants that he helped start. We love to eat fresh vegetables and Mark has been doing a veggie garden since we married. He does the veggies based on the right season and I love it! So for the spring/summer: bell peppers, tomatoes & cucumbers (which he will pickle half of them to be canned & eaten all year as dill pickles - yum!). And here's his new helper learning his way around the garden too!

Spring Break (road trip!)

2011-03-20T14:36:00.008-05:00

We took a Road Trip on Friday of Spring Break. We had several things we wanted to do so we just made a day of it! First, we drove over to Richmond, TX to an awesome nursery there to buy some new plants for our backyard (Enchanted Gardens, about 1/1 1/2 hrs away). We got a lot of great things and have already started planting them (I'll save that for another post!). But the fun part for the boys was that they had a little area in the back with roosters, 2 goats & 2 doves in a cage. Landon LOVED that - in fact, all day he said that was his favorite part. So I spent the majority of time entertaining them with that while Mark picked the stuff we were going to buy - going back & forth occasionally to give opinion when he wanted it.

Then we drove over to Independence, TX to the Rose Emporium (another hour or so away). Mark had a rose he specifically wanted for our new flowerbed in the back but they had sold out of it just days before so we found a different one we liked. Once again, this was a field day for the boys. Beautiful place, lots to see and great area to run around! These pics were all taken there.

They had a gazebo that Landon said was his castle that he played in. He found some rocks that he played with the whole time we were there and Josh was all over the place!

Example of Josh leaning over into the plants before we stopped him from going head first!

These two giggle all the time.

Then we drove toward College Station (30 minutes away). We looked and looked for bluebonnets but there weren't many out - we started to think that we might not get those bluebonnet pictures afterall. But then we saw a small patch and pulled over! Josh woke up when we stopped so he was pretty sleepy. Landon was thrilled since we had been talking it up.He couldn't understand why there weren't any REDbonnets or YELLOWbonnets!

Sweet, sweet boys

Then we drove into town & first stop was Layne's Chicken - YUM! It was funny to be a former student. I remember being a student and seeing 'old people' with kids trying to juggle everything and wondering what that would be like.

Here's Mark & the boys in front of the Wesley Foundation. This is the place Mark & I met in the Fall of 1999. Almost 12 years ago! Wow! Special, special place for us - not only because we met there and met some of our best friends there but because of the awesome time in our lives, the experiences we had and the spiritual growth we had there!

We walked around campus with our little aggies!

And, by the end of the day - they were e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d.

We got in the car and went ahead and headed home instead of staying longer so they could get a good nap - they slept for 1 1/2 hrs - they woke up right as we were entering Houston so we decided to eat at Freebirds and finish off the Aggie experience (by far not a first for either boy, but fun).

What a great day!!

Spring Break (part uno)

2011-03-17T21:08:00.010-05:00

Well we started Spring Break off with a bang - Joshy got sick on Friday night - we were walking out the door to go eat at Pirate's Alley at the beach (a hamburger place overlooking the water - great views) and he literally threw up all over me as we left so we stayed in and got take-out from our favorite mexican restaurant - El Toro. Joshy turned out fine - I tracked down what happened and he had tried a new snack at the church that morning and I'm about 95% that's what it was. So...we took it easy on Saturday just in case but he was fine. By Sunday night we were ready to try again so we went to eat at Pirate's Alley with some friends of ours and that was more fun anyway! The boys loved being at the beach and after dinner, the dads took the big boys down to the water one more time! Monday I had the day at home with the boys - my parents (Grammy & Papa) came down for the afternoon. Joshy was playing a game with Papa in this pic but you can't really tell. He would push on his arm and Papa would sit up while he scooted behind him and then Papa would "smoosh" him - he loved it. Everything was fine & dandy until that night around 9 pm, Landon woke up throwing up and basically threw up off & on until about 4 am. I ended up sleeping in his room on the floor but never could sleep. So after the 4 am vomit (the last one), Mark was kind enough to offer to take the floor and let me go sleep in bed for 2 hours and he slept fine on the floor. So, Tuesday we played it safe and kept Landon resting and at home all day. The 24 hour point passed and he was fine and back to normal.

Mark took off the last part of the week so, Wednesday we headed up to the Houston Zoo with our family pass (that we use constantly).

{Landon waving at the tiger - his favorite}

{The tiger was up & roaming!}

{The lions were resting up on the rocks}

{This cutie was having a great time watching the animals from the stroller}

{My sweethearts!}

This was totally not planned - J was screaming to get out so we let him and he stood up against and it just cried 'picture opportunity'! I love that J is watching L & that you can see the leopard in the background {Mark & his boys on the carousel}

{Mommy & Joshy - his first time! He LOVED it}

{Cheese}

{Hey there cutie pie}

Today we (Mark & I) started the paint project for our Master Bedroom (remember that we bought a house that was built in the early 70s so we are slowly updating/remodeling - we pick 1-2 big projects a year). Then we took the boys to the park for a picnic lunch & to play.

Fun day!

Up tomorrow? Going on a road trip to see bluebonnets, buy some plants/flowers for our garden and visit our favorite campus - Aggieland!

He's really so sweet

2011-03-13T20:18:00.005-05:00

Landon isn't perfect and he is a normal little boy that gets into things, pushes boundaries, throws fits and wants his way. But that being said, he really is a sweet, thoughtful child.

Today was a little bit of a long day with him - anyone with kids knows that some days they just wake up with a little bit of an attitude. Maybe it was daylight savings? Maybe he just knows it is Spring Break and the week is different, who knows! But he was just putting his foot over the line all day. He would ask for something for breakfast, but then eat one bite and not want anymore. In our house, that means, no more food until lunch. We don't want to encourage wastefulness, pickiness or demands. (I do give him a choice many times for a meal 'a waffle or eggs - your choice' - but if he chooses one, eats a bite and changes his mind - um no.)

Anyway, we did this at breakfast, lunch & dinner. Wasteful. Not only that, but he was just not following directions much of the day.

He's a good boy - just testing the waters today.

Anyway...all that is to say - tonight we were saying prayers and Joshy was already in bed. And we said "Amen" and Landon said "Wait I not done yet"...so we said "okay, what else do you want to say to God" and he said "Help me to (L)yisten better. Help me to ...good choices. And eat my dinner. Amen".

So...with tears in my eyes (Sappy Mom, I know), I smiled and Mark smiled and after we put him to bed, we said "HALLELUJAH He IS listening to us!!"

Funnies

2011-03-10T13:23:00.007-06:00

{Landon Being Silly}
-------------------
Landon has said some hilarous stuff lately and I don't want to forget them!

So here we go...

- On the way home from preschool one day, he said "Mommy it not raining out. I want to play outside" and I said "You're right, after nap we will go outside. You know what? We can even get the pool out" and he said "Ohh that's a good idea Mommy" and I said "But you know what? You gotta take a good nap if we are going to get in the pool" and then he said "Yeah Mommy. I take good nap and I not whine or cry or wake Joshy up either".

- I was cooking dinner and heard him singing "Jesus Loves Me" in the playroom. Warms my heart. But the funny part was, he then was carrying on a conversation between Buzz & Woody and said "What are you doing Buzz" and then he has Buzz talking (a different voice of course) "I just singing 'jesus loves me', what you doing?". I guess Buzz was the one singing, not Landon. Lol!
I love that boy.

Mealtime

2011-03-06T19:50:00.003-06:00

Meals are interesting in our house. We have a good "system" and yet I think mealtime exhausts me more than bedtime or any other time of day does. Am I the only mom that feels this way??

Joshy is now completely on table food & whole milk. We are loving it! He made the transition remarkably well and fast. I think he just prefers to eat what everyone else is eating - or what he perceives we are eating! He still wants his milk warmed up but hey, that's fine for now!

But the dinnertime system is tough but it works. We eat at 5/5:30 at our house - any later and everyone is in major breakdown mode. So, I get started around 4:30 or so, depending on when Mark will be home that day (he goes to work at 6:15/6:30 so he gets home between 5 & 5:30). We eat as an entire family so I try to time things to do that. Landon will play while I cook and sometimes likes to sit in the kitchen floor "helping" by stirring something in a bowl. Joshy has to sit in the highchair and start his dinner or he is literally hanging on my legs. So, he'll eat cut-up cheese, crackers, cut-up banana, cut-up apples or cheerios while I cook. Then when we all sit down to eat, he eats some of what we eat - vegetables, some of the meat (depending on what it is) and some bread or fruit of ours. Then he has his milk afterwards.

I am thrilled because in the last 2 weeks, he has finally started signing "more" but it doesn't look like the typical "sign" as Landon learned to do. He claps instead. But it doesn't matter - he is getting his point across. When I ask him if he's hungry, he'll either shake his head 'no' or he'll put his hand up to his mouth. SOOO much easier than guessing!! I LOVE these first stages of communication - ah. So nice!

You've got a friend in me

2011-02-19T14:44:00.004-06:00

Landon has been breaking out into that song lately and it's soo stinkin' cute how he sings it!

But speaking of friends...

We had some really fun playdates this week. One was with Landon & his buddy Gary. He l.o.v.e.s. Gary. We met up with them at the park and the 2 of them ran all over the place having a great time. Landon cried all the way home, he missed Gary so much afterwards. That night, in his prayers, we were thanking God for our friends & family and he said "And Gary (pronounced "Gawee") and the park". So sweet. BUT my camera phone battery was out and my friend Alexis' phone took these weirdo psychdelic pic of them on the dinosaur - so funny how it came out. So no pics this time BUT here's a pic from their last playdate:

Then we had a playdate with my friend Kristin & her 1 yr old, Luke. Luke & Joshy are one week apart. So both boys got a friend over...of course, with Gary - Joshy follows them around and loves it. And with Luke, Landon calls him "Baby Yuke" and brings him everything and thinks he is there for him. So, it's a win-win.

Here are the 2 boys being cute & all.

All 3 boys. For about 30 minutes, my friend Kristin had to run to her church real quick and I kept them all and found out what it would be like to have a 3 yr old & twin 1 yr olds. It was really no problem and it all went fine but I definitely realized how hard that would be since they are all mobile! The hardest thing was that Joshy became extremely possessive of me and very jealous of Luke. Funny because we hung out with them just 3 weeks ago and he didn't do that.

We had a great week though and love love this weather!

The sun, some dirt & a little imagination

2011-02-19T14:18:00.008-06:00

We've been loving this weather lately. Every afternoon after nap we have headed outside. On Friday, I took my camera out too and got some shots of the boys playing. What boy doesn't like a good dump truck? -- Joshy's new favorite thing: dumping things {side note: I LOVED when Landon went through this stage, his favorite thing to do was run around to his room and start pulling clean diapers out of the diaper basket and throwing them around the room...then moved on to the clean clothes in the baskets - so cute} Joshy - dumping chalk.

Here we go...

All done. Next: he put them back in and started it again. I love the cause & effect. Of course, as SOON as I pick something up, he dumps it. But still cute. --

These next 2 shots seem to capture their personalities well.

{Joshua - throwing sand and making a huge mess and loving every minute of it} {Landon - studying the sand & what each tool does} ---

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T07:11:00.002-06:00

From my little sweeties...

And to my number 1 sweetheart!

Valentine's Day of Years Before...

2011-02-13T12:52:00.016-06:00

I love Valentine's Day - I love all holidays. I know all the arguments against it - "We should show love all year round" - my answer: of course we should! we should celebrate jesus dying for us on the cross every day too and we do but we have a special day - easter - to remind us. Same as Valentine's - we should all year but Valentines Day reminds us to show people we love them and that they are valuable to us - not through money, but through other ways. I like to do this through doing fun valentine stuff with my kids and spending quality time with my love.

So...here's some past pictures - I love to compare each year and how they grow!

Landon's First Valentine's Day 2008

Landon - Valentine's Day 2009

Landon - Valentine's Day 2010

Landon & Joshua - Valentine's Day 2010 (2 yrs old & 2 1/2 weeks old)

Landon - Valentine's Day 2011

Joshua - Valentine's Day 2011 (compare this pic to Landon 2009. They look similar)

Little boys & cars

2011-02-11T13:57:00.003-06:00

There's just something about little boys and cars...

and trains...and buses...and airplanes and dump trucks...and tractors
...

and anything that goes 'Vroom, vroom'. Mark says every man has his own sound for a car & a gun.

Lately, they have both been playing with the cars & trucks in the entry way and it's been really cute watching them play.

February Menu Part I

2011-01-30T21:27:00.006-06:00

As I stated in a previous blog, after child #2, I had to do some more organization in our family life so...I am doing my dinner menus ahead of time - so doing major grocery shopping just twice a month in preparation for 2 week menus. I didn't note last time but I do have to do a once a week quick trip to the grocery store for fresh veggies, fresh fruits & milk (we have to get 2 gallons of milk per week for my boys). But a quick 10 minute trip to the store is way easier with my little guys than a 45 min-1 hr trip with them every week!

*Note* - I try only 1-2 new recipes per 2 week menu planning. These may not look complicated- they aren't. We eat dinner between 5-5:30 pm. (Mark works from 6:30 am - 4:30 pm so he gets home around 5/5:30 on a normal day) My boys can't last any longer than that and we eat dinner as a family at the table so...I get started around 4 or 4:30 but have 2 children at my heels so I don't have a lot of time for cutting stuff up and several steps. Landon eats almost all the meals that I list - sometimes we make something separate for him - but usually what you see is what we all eat. Joshua is starting to do the same, but only a bit at a time in a very small, diced manner.

Sometimes in the evening, I like to search the internet for good, easy mommy friendly recipe blogs & links. I have several that I have bookmarked and get a ton from. I'm happy to share them if you'd like to see them.

Almost all meals are served with fruit & veggies - I don't always put it because I don't decide ahead of time - bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe, apples, oranges, spinach, green beans, corn, lima beans, etc.

If you'd like recipes for any of these, feel free to send me a message or comment.

Here we go...

Tuesday, February 1 – Leftovers (from Joshy's 1st bday party & weekend)
Wednesday, February 2 – Croissant Sandwiches, Broccoli & Cheese Rice, Grapes
Thursday, February 3 – Cheesy Spaghetti (Mark’s pick for his bday), Garlic Toast, Salad
Friday, February 4 – Mark’s Birthday Family Dinner with the Standlees
Saturday, February 5 – Houston all day (my birthday present to Mark - my parents keeping the boys for the day!)
Sunday, February 6 – Pecan Crusted Fish, Au Gratin Potatoes, Spinach
Monday, February 7 – Taco Salad (M&M), Rice & Chicken dinner (L & J)
Tuesday, February 8 – Easy Cheesy Chicken over Egg Noodles, Spinach, Croissants*(here's my new recipe I found online)
Wednesday, February 9 – Grilled Hamburgers, Baked Beans, Sweet Potato Fries
Thursday, February 10 – French Toast & Eggs
Friday, February 11 – Friday Night Take Out
Saturday, February 12 – Grilled Steak, Corn Casserole
Sunday, February 13 – Valentine’s Dinner - Date Night - woohoo! :)

Some Landon attention...

2011-01-30T21:14:00.001-06:00

Well the blog has been about Joshy for a while now since it was his birthday month. Time to give Big Brother some attention.

This age 3 thing is hilarous. He says some of the funniest things. Of course, he has some pretty good tantrums and we have some major battles of will. But all & all, he is just a sweet boy.

Here are some comments/things he is saying:

Well, number one - what is he NOT saying? He shares everything.

- After preschool, he makes sure to tell me everyone that was in timeout & why (including himself, if he had a rough day).

- 'Joshy not like his big coat, Mommy' (since his brother screams when he has to wear a coat) - he's so observant

- "Come on Daddy. Time to get more dirt!" (he LOVES to help Daddy in the yard and is really good at helping!)

- one of our favorites "ummm let's see here" (with a finger on his chin) when we ask him a question. Or 'Hmm...no, I don't want do that'.

- "Bye ___ (fill in the blank with anything really silly like trees, tee-tee, doggies, grass, clouds, etc. See you later!!!" (followed by extreme laughter at how funny he is)

- "Talk to me about my day" (he asks this every night for me to tell him about his whole day and go through it with him. He loves that)

- Oh when I have run out of something that he wants to eat like bananas...I'll say 'sorry, Mommy needs to go to the store' and after school as we walk to the car, he'll say 'Did you get bananas, Mommy?' and if I did, I'll say "yes, I did you can have one when we get home' and he'll say "good job Mommy. You did it.". That makes me laugh just reading it. It's like "thanks son for the vote of confidence" lol.

- "You yook Beautiful, Mommy". Enough said. Sweet, sweet child of mine.

- When making play food in his kitchen and I'm eating all sorts of yummy treats, he'll say 'Is that tasty Mommy?" (where does he come up with 'tasty'? I never say that! So funny)

------

And he is so naturally sensitive & intuitive. Mark & I love this quality and him and noticed it pretty early on in his life. Mark & I are both sensitive & intuitive so it's neat to see it in our son...and we are also trying to foster it - grow it to be a real gift but also make sure it doesn't become a self-centered thing. It's a tough balance. BUT, this is an example of how sensitive he is - every single time we get upset with him, he'll ask "Mommy, you happy?" because he is very worried that we aren't happy with him. If he's REALLY pushed all the buttons, I'll say "No Landon I'm not happy right now because I asked you to stop doing that and you did it anyway and you weren't listening." and he'll say "sorry Mommy." and pause..."you happy now?"

We love our sweet & hilarous child. He has such a great personality - stinkin' hilarous to anyone around him a lot (he doesn't really show it except with us and his cousins, grandparents & close friends) and so gentle & sweet.

Joshua's Birthday Party

2011-01-29T19:13:00.021-06:00

Well, we made it to One!
They always say the first birthday is a celebration that the parents made it one year!
That's the truth!
(We had some adventures the day before his birthday!! A scare of the flu - he was tested, didn't have it - thank goodness - and way more back & forth - but we were able to have his party still and a good time was had)
----------
Here's the birthday boy! We had a 'dinosaur' themed party. Mainly family at our party this time around.

Joshua the 1 year old and Joshy & his big bro

Here was his cake -super cute!

And I saw some ideas online for candy in dishes and little tags for his birthday so I made some on my computer. The adults enjoyed snacking on the candies.

I made some dinosaur crayons using a dinosaur mold I found online for some of the take-home party gifts, along with a small book I found for each kid (we just had a few kids for his 1st bday!)

Here's my nephew Ben playing with Landon & Joshy

Joshy & his buddy, Luke! This is the best pic we could get of the quick boys!! They are one week apart! This is our good friends Kristin & Mark's little guy!

Nieces - Ellie & Olivia!

Daddy love

Birthday boy & his cake! At first, he wasn't so sure about it (which is totally unlike him but he wasn't feeling 100% that day because he was sick the day before & not fully back to normal). We put some icing in his mouth and then he picked away at it.

He LOVED the texture of the cake on his fingers - just rubbing them together.

Joshy got some great gifts - a baseball bat/ball he can swing at himself, a rocking horse, a bag full of colorful balls to play in, a bathtub boat that so far he LOVES pushing the button on and rocking to the music - so stinkin' cute - we have to get it on video...and he got a phone pull-toy, an adorable little bench for outside...

And then Mommy & Daddy got him a little car. Which we thought he would grow into it but he already likes it quite a bit! He took a ride in it (with us pushing) and he smiled so big - since the birthday, he has been taking turns riding in it a lot (big brother takes turns too but they each get to go around the kitchen-living room-playroom circle once before the other gets a turn - hey, they are siblings - we share all the toys!)

Oh and he got one other gift - a set of keys from his big brother, Landon. The cutest thing about that was that Landon handed him the sack and said "here Joshy, this is from me!!!" and he lights up everytime Joshy plays with his keys. Pretty sweet.

--------

Here's what Joshua is doing at One Year

- He's 23 lbs, (I'll update later his height since he gets measured tomorrow at his appt - he got weighed at the dr on Friday).

- He is crawling so fast it's hard to keep up - I have "lost" him a few times in the house "umm where did he go...no seriously, I turned around and where did he go".

- He pulls up on everything - many, many things that aren't at all steady - doesn't seem to bug him

- He will walk to you if you hold his hands

- He sleeps from 7 pm - 5/6 am (depending on the morning) - and no, if I put him to bed later, he doesn't sleep later so why do that?

- He takes 1 to 2 naps - if he wakes up at 5 am, he takes a 1 hr nap in the morning and a 1 1/2 to 2 hr in the afternoon or he takes 1 long nap in the early afternoon

- He is on Vitamin D milk now and loves it - we are working on him drinking solely from a sippy cup but he'll do about half of the sippy right now and then we have to pour into the bottle for him to finish it up

- He loves smashed bananas, mashed potatoes, crackers, blueberry sauce, applesauce, cheese, cereal, green beans - pretty much anything we cook for dinner - we let him have pieces of since we all eat the same dinner

- He says a few "words" - mama, dada, yay-yay (Landon-he looks right at him or yells it excitedly when they play) and we think he tried to say 'got it' tonight when we were playing with the leftover balloons (Landon kept yelling 'got it' so Joshy started yelling 'ga it' (without the 't') )

- He is pretty fearless for the most part...and yet, he does have a tad bit of being overwhelmed easily in big groups - normal one year old stuff.

- He is very tempermental - always has been but it's really pretty funny. He gets really worked up about little stuff (taking away something he wanted to play with, moving him over, picking him up if he isn't ready to move, etc) - he will scream and kick his little legs. But then he gets over stuff fast too so that's good. We find it hilarous and yet try to take it seriously. :)

We love how different he & Landon are and yet they are so close. It's really a lot of fun around here! We can't imagine our family without our little Joshy!!

Building to one...

2011-01-25T06:53:00.010-06:00

As I build up to my second son being one - soon to be a toddler, I have been thinking a lot about his entry into this world. I wrote about it in the post below.

But the second day at the hospital was a beautiful, beautiful day. My wonderful inlaws were keeping Landon and they brought him up. We had decided we wanted just the 4 of us at first alone...we had prepped Landon but you never know how a 2 year old (or any age person really) will react to Mommy in bed with an IV and hospital gown and a new baby. He walked in with a toy dinosaur that Grandma had given him and he had this huge smile on his face.

He pointed to Joshua (he was in the little hospital bed). He leaned over to see him so Mark picked up J. Landon (all smiles) pointed to his eyes, his nose, his mouth and then just leaned over and kissed him.

So perfect. So sweet. We asked if he wanted to hold him and he did (that began the ~~daily~~ hourly requests).

Instant love. Just complete adoration. Beautiful.

The hospital made a wonderful sibling came (free if you request one to be delivered). So we asked and we had cake after Landon met Joshy. Joshua also had a gift for his big brother - a new boat for his bathtub! He still plays with that boat and if you ask him who got it for him, he says "joshy did!"

That was a tough day - I wasn't prepared for the emotion I was going to feel when Landon had to go home without me. We were in the hospital for 4 days and it was the longest I'd ever been away from him. He screamed and cried and they had to drag him out of the room and I just bawled. It was tough. He did great at home with my inlaws for 2 days and then stayed with my parents for 2 days - it was a good change to just keep him busy.

{Proud Daddy}

Joshua was wonderful at the hospital and we enjoyed having him near us. We had a lot of visitors and enjoyed seeing all of our family, our Associate Pastor Bill came back again to see us, our friends Kristin & Mark came, some friends of my parents, a Pastor at the church I used to work at in Houston came by and a few others. We also had several phonecalls from friends and it all meant a lot to us!

Joshy-Pumpkin turns 1!

2011-01-22T07:06:00.019-06:00

I c.a.n.n.o.t. believe that my little Joshua is about to be 1 years old! (January 29) Have we really already finished the first year of life? Have we really already exited the baby stage and entering the toddler stage again? Geez...somehow my mind still sees him about 6 months old.

People always tell you that time goes so fast with children at home. I have learned that the days are sometimes long but the weeks & months are incredibly fast. T.o.o. fast.

So here's some reminiscing over the last year of our 2nd son's life! I'll probably spend the whole week reminiscing so get ready! :)

Joshua Allen is a precious gift to us! We found out that we were expecting Joshy on Mindy's 30th birthday! What a perfect gift! Joshy gave us a glimpse into his little personality all the way through the pregnancy - we feared he lost him when the nurse spent 10 solid minutes trying to find his heartbeat, asking Mindy if she'd felt him/her yet (this was at 14 weeks). When we reluctantly asked if everything was okay and if she could feel and hear the baby, she says "oh yes yes! I'm just chasing this baby around your tummy. If I made my guess, this was another little boy for you!". LOL she was right and we're still chasing him!

Here's his birth story:

After Landon's birth story, our doctor recommended to have another c-section (we could do a natural birth and she gave us that choice but with the complications that came about for me & Landon during birth, we wanted to go with the safe choice for both of us - we had enough excitement the first time). I say "safe" as in the delivery. {Many people have said to me 'oh that's nice to have a c-section for birth...sooo much easier'. These people did not have the same experience as me. It was quite painful and the recovery was really really hard. just a side note.}

It was so different this time "planning" his birthday. The night before, it felt so surreal. We had a dinner time meal with Landon and gave him a bath and put him to bed. I gave him an extra big hug knowing that it was the last night with just one baby! Mark's mom came over and spent the night at our house since we had to get up so early to leave. We were so thankful.

I barely slept that night - it was hard to go to sleep knowing that I was about to give birth and bring another person into the world! You know, nothing huge! I was having some contractions over night but nothing major. We set the alarm for 3:30 am since we had to report at the hospital at 5 am. We got to the hospital a tad early and sat in a waiting room for 15 minutes - that was weird too. Then we started to get checked in. Well that's when my contractions started to actually hurt somewhat. So the nurse gave me the normal meds and I immediately threw up. This surprised her and us. She hooked me up to the machine and saw that my contractions were strong and I was starting labor. That Joshua likes to be in control!

The nurse started to panic (turns out that she hadn't done this side of the birth process yet - the preparations for c-sections - before). She got me hooked up the IV and then all was good. My doctor called to see how I was and when she found out I was in labor, they went ahead and wheeled me to the delivery room to get prepped. There's a lot of prep in getting ready for a c-section but I won't go into all that in this! :)

At 7:51 am, Joshua Allen Standlee came into the world! He cried and cried and cried and they took him to be weighed (other side of the room) and all that stuff - Mark was over there with him. The doctor was stitching me up. I asked her if he was okay and she said he was wonderful and perfect. I love my doctor. They brought him to me to hold him and he was just perfect! Dark brown hair, blue eyes, tanned skin (a little jaundiced). He was 7 lbs, 9 oz and 21" long! He had some fluid in his lungs so they took him to the ICU just to make sure for 4-6 hours. I was in the recovery room and Mark was in there with me half of the time and checking on Joshua the other time. This time around, the birth was so much better. The first time was rough rough rough - ugh. But with not going into full-on labor this time and having my own doctor do the surgery, it went a lot more smoothly. It was still birth but it was better.

This time was so different in so many ways. Joshua was able to be in our room all day long and be with us - we didn't have that with Landon (since he was in the NICU almost the whole hospital visit).

We were blessed to have so much family there throughout the day when Joshua entered the world - Mindy's parents, Mindy's 2 brothers & sister-in-laws, his cousins, our Associate Pastor (Bill) and Mark's sister and her (now) fiance. The second day, Mark's parents came up and brought Landon. That was a beautiful day and I'll write about it in the next entry!

Curls

2011-01-19T21:57:00.002-06:00

I love love love these little ringlets. I would never ever ever cut them if I didn't have to but he'd have a mullet if I kept them forever. (but the time hasn't come yet - that's when Daddy has had enough :) )

Weekly Menus

2011-01-18T13:30:00.004-06:00

Since Joshua was born, I realized I had to be a LOT more organized in my home in order to "make it". One thing I started doing around the time he was 4 or 5 months old was make a menu...we do it for 2 weeks at a time. A couple of reasons for this:
1 - we are more likely to not talk ourselves into going out or getting take-out because there's tons of choices if we feel like something else one night
2 - going grocery shopping just twice a month is more do-able. Many times my sweet husband goes after the boys go to bed at night or we all go together on a Sunday afternoon. Or I go with both boys (whew!).
------
I'm going to try and share my menu from time to time - I love new recipes and I do try a new one every 1-2 weeks to vary it up a bit. So feel free to share yours and I can try some new ones! If you want a recipe for any of these, let me know! :)
--------------------
Sunday, January 16 – Tacos, Refried Beans
Monday, January 17 – Pioneer Woman Meatloaf, Scalloped Potatoes, Croissants
Tuesday, January 18– Homemade Chickfila Sandwiches, Mac & Cheese, Green Beans
Wednesday, January 19– Spaghetti, Garlic Toast, Salad
Thursday, January 20– Leftovers
Friday, January 21 – Friday Night Take Out
Saturday, January22 – Grilled BBQ Chicken, Potato Salad, Baked Beans
Sunday, January 23 – Pot Roast with Veggies (Carrots, potatoes)
Monday, January 24– Black Bean Tostados
Tuesday, January 25– Leftovers
Wednesday, January 26 – Eggs in a Hole
Thursday, January 27 – Meatballs & Gravy, Potatoes, Spinach
Friday, January 28 – Friday Night Take Out
Saturday, January 29 – Joshy’s Birthday – family in town
Sunday, January 30 – Grilled Hot Dogs, Chips

A different kind of painting

2011-01-13T15:47:00.002-06:00

It's been really cold down here - we are on the coast - 15 minutes from the beach...so we aren't getting a snow storm like a lot of people but it's still been too cold to go outside & play.

So...we've come up with some other things to do for fun!

Painting with water for Joshy. I just put a little water on his tray and a paint brush and he really kept busy for a long time!

Landon got to play with the shaving cream on wax paper. Mr Clean didn't know about this at first and then I put some on my face and he giggled...then I put his hands in it myself and he got interested.

Then he liked it a lot.

But after we'd played for a good 30 minutes or so, he said "Mommy I messy. Lets go wash my hands". So we did. He's a cute little mess though!

My little adventurer

2011-01-05T12:51:00.008-06:00

Joshua is my adventurer child. He's a handful - a charming, cute, silly, adorable, sweet, affectionate handful...but a handful, nonetheless.

He is 11 months old now and is edging up on that first birthday. I can't believe that!

He crawls sooo fast that it's hard to keep up with him. The boys' bathroom is all the way down the hall from the living room (past both boys' bedrooms & the guest room) and when I take L to the bathroom, I usually take J in there (in the sink area on the carpet) to play so that I can keep my eye on him...however, lately, I sit him down (there's a basket of toys in there now to help with this) and he immediately crawls out the door, down the hallway and slams the hallway door. He knows he isn't supposed to do that. Yes, at 11 months he understands. He doesn't get why but he knows that we say 'no no' to that constantly. Because sometimes before he does it, he puts his hand on it and turns around to look at me, sticks that little tongue out and does it fast!

He loves to splash in the tub - a common occurence for most children at this age except that we all end up SOAKED because no toy or no anything is of any interest to him to make him stop the ENTIRE bath time. I literally hold my breath to get his body & hair quickly so that I can be done fast and move on to Landon - who is saying "Joshy stop!" Haha. Funny times.

Josh loves to go in the kitchen (get in the dog bowls, eat leftover food off the floor - if I haven't gotten to sweep yet - I have since changed the order of those things, plays with the leaves from outside that gather there and tries to climb up on the chairs)...he really likes to look out the window & play under the table. What's the deal with playing under tables at this age?? (Here's Landon doing the same thing at the same age!? And then the both of them together)

Joshua has been working REALLY hard to learn how to play with cars & trains like his brother. You think I'm kidding. Every morning before Landon gets up, as SOON as I feed him, I put him down and he high-tails it around the kitchen into the playroom and stands up against the train table to start playing. This is him actually putting the train on the track and moving it back & forth. I'm amazed at his coordination!

Then again - both of my boys figured out how to move cars EARLY on. Joshy pushes cars across the floor like he is 18 mths old! Landon started pushing cars around - even pushed blocks like they were cars before he turned 1 too!

And here is the Adventurer on his new riding car - no hands!!

And there's that little tongue!

What a cute little boy to have in our family - I love how different they are and yet how sweet they both are. They are both rough & tumble boys but they are wired so differently. Just beautiful to watch them grow!

Christmas Day

2011-01-04T07:39:00.008-06:00

Whew - okay I will finish!

Christmas Morning - Santa & his elves were good to us!

Here are the boys' stockings & 'goods'....Mickey Mouse figurines, Edward the Train, a plane, racecar, a few stuffed animals, a book, large little people castle (not pictured) & of course some fun bandaids in Landon's stocking! A walk/ride car (he likes to ride it more than walk behind it), truck with legos, sorting block, stacking cups, a couple of stuffed animals & a book for Joshua's stocking - oh and some fun Mickey Mouse bibs for the coming year since J is pretty darn messy!

Their main gift was the swing set which was put up a week or so before Christmas. It's been a big hit - both boys love it - every single day we go out and swing and Landon has come up with all sorts of games to play on there. We got one of the smallest from Walmart.com but have been so happy with it!!

Back to Christmas morning...

Here's what Santa brought Mom & Dad...a nice sweater, necklace & cd & some other things for Mommy and a wrench set, digital compass & some other stuff for Daddy.

Our tree on Christmas morning (no, the sun wasn't up yet!)

Both boys got some small stocking stuffer toys that they loved!

Mommy got some new sunglasses from Landon (I lost mine and he kept telling me I needed some new ones so he got some for me - so thoughtful!). Daddy helped pick Joshy's gift this year and he got some new tennis shoes (very nice considering my old ones caused me to put a bandaid on my foot every time I went to run because they were falling a part). My favorite part of this gift was the note on the gift "To Mommy from Joshy - I keep you on your toes". LOL!

Daddy is a funny one.

Since we were getting the swingset, we knew we needed to cut back on some of the other gifts so we got creative...sort of. Mindy went to a pre-garage sale of some friends that had a whole bunch of Little People stuff that was almost new - pirate ship, castle & airplane with no missing parts - all for $26. Score! And a good friend of mine was done with her little play table (in the pic above) and she gave it to me for free so I cleaned it up and we gave it to Joshy!

Daddy cooked us breakfast, Mommy got us packed for the day and after having a wonderful morning at home playing with toys, and enjoying time together as a family of 4...we headed off to Grammy & Papa's (Mindy's parents house in Houston - an hour away)

Landon & Addie had so much fun painting! Here's Landon playing Santa. He LOVED his Thomas helicopter pad. Joshy loved his cars!

But more than anything else, we enjoyed being with family and seeing everyone this Christmas!

Christmas Eve

2011-01-01T09:54:00.008-06:00

Christmas Eve started with much enthusiasm & anticipation!

Landon helped me make cookies & decorate them for Santa. We tried a few and thought that Santa would enjoy them!

We spend Christmas Eve with Mark's family...he grew up having Christmas Eve as the big day and Santa is nice enough to put us at the front end of his night & come visit us while we go to church! Here are the boys at Grandma & Papaw's house in front of the tree - as you can see, it was hard to focus with so much glitter, glamour & excitement!

We spent the whole day over at Papaw & Grandma's house. The boys played with toys, we all went to the park - Landon & Papaw fed the ducks and Grandma, Landon & Joshy got to swing on the swings...and have fun!

We all went to church together at our church at 5:00. Landon sat with us (mainly because he wanted to be with Papaw). He did great! He got a little antsy at the end but then loved helping with the candle for Silent Night.
After church, we headed back to Papaw & Grandma's and met up with all Mark's grandparents, his sister Sarah & her fiance James. Landon helped pass out presents and the opening gifts started!

After opening many many many presents (Santa & the grandparents are so good to us!), here is Landon playing with his drum.

Landon got a set of hats - policeman, astronaut, fireman, taxi driver, etc... here he is as a policeman and {soon to be 'Uncle'} James as an astronaut!

It was a later night than normal for the boys and they both did great! Joshua sat with Grandma and opened gifts. He enjoyed it all. He was pretty exhausted & overwhelmed by the end and we headed home.

The boys got so many wonderful things - Joshy got some string-along pull toys from Melissa & Doug, books, clothes, wooden cars, a small race car driver, an alligator push-toy (large one!) from Melissa & Doug and some other great toddler toys! Landon got hats, clothes,animal figurines, books, a race car, Thomas the Train trains - Henry, Bertie the Bus & Sir Topham's car and more!

When we got home, we took baths and put the boys in their Santa pjs and put the cookies & milk out for Santa! And we headed to bed!!

Party all day long!

2010-12-29T20:07:00.009-06:00

We had Christmas parties galore during December! Trying to narrow down the pictures was next to impossible so I just picked 1 or 2 per event. Of course, there was Mark's work Christmas party - no pics there but it was a great, fun time at Mark's boss' house...and there was my staff Christmas party which was also nice, but no pics there!

Christmas party at Carriage Inn Retirement Center - here are the boys beforehand! It was so fun - music, delicious food and the whole place was decorated so wonderfully - Landon LOVED looking at all of the decorations and there was even a surprise visit from Santa AND Mrs Claus! My oh my!

Mark's grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary!! What an incredible blessing they are to us! Here's a pic of the whole family - their 2 daughters on either side of them with their surrounding families - they have 3 great-grandchildren. We had a huge party and had a great time!

We went to Dallas for a weekend for my extended family Christmas party! It was a lot of fun, as well. The hotel night was pretty rough but the family visit was well worth it!

Landon singing at Church - he's in the front clapping his hands with the red/blue longsleeve polo! So cute! We were so proud of him - he sang his little heart out!

Babies 1st Christmas at our church! Here's Joshua beforehand!

Landon before his Preschool Christmas program (this is his 'cheese' pose). Joshy was even brought in for the program -with a sweet star on his shirt. So cute! (I took this with my zoom lens so he wouldn't see me - that's the brightness in his eyes)

Landon's party after the program. My mother stayed for the party! Here's Landon & his class coming down the aisle.

Decorating the Christmas Tree - part 1 of who knows how many!

2010-12-29T16:22:00.004-06:00

*Note to self - wait until the end of Christmas season to post Christmas and there are TONS of things to update...not sure if I will get everything up but you can at least go look at all the pics on our shutterfly site: http://thestandleecrew.shutterfly.com/

We decorated the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We had Landon's party coming up the following weekend so we wanted to have the decorations all up!

Landon - LOVING the Christmas season and Joshua's 1st Christmas!

We didn't have a star on our tree this year - we had an old angel that kept falling off so we just didn't put it up the last year or so...Landon kept telling us we needed a star...so I took him with me to Hobby Lobby to get some new lights after we saw that a few of the older ones were out...and I let him pick a star. Daddy helped him put it up on top!

And here are my little guys in front of the finished tree!

Here are a few pics around the house of our Christmas decorations!

The main shelf in our living room & some side shelves

The fireplace!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-12T14:16:00.002-06:00

Landon's Thomas the Train party!

2010-12-08T18:17:00.012-06:00

For Landon's birthday party, we had a Thomas the Train party. He LOVED it!

I made an invitation on Photoshop of a train ticket and had a fun time preparing for the party! I put up pictures of Landon from each birthday in the house and we had most of the party outside since it was a beautiful day in the 70s!

When the kids arrived, they colored Thomas the train coloring sheets and then we had 3 stations for them to participate in - Percy's Bean Bag Toss, Gordon's Train Depot and Thomas Tattoo Shop. They all got to paint train tracks, throw bean bags and get Thomas tattoos.

They also just played in our yard - we have a big hill so they loved running up & down. Then we had lunch - hot dogs & nuggets and then had birthday cake. I found a picture of a cake online that I really liked and found someone to do it for a good price and loved how it turned out!! It was delicious, too!

We had about 15 kids at the party ranging from 10 months old to 10. Landon's buddies that are 7 & 10 down the street came and helped at the stations - doing tattoos & bean bag toss. They were so great to help & Landon loved having them there! All week he asked if it was time for his party! The day of his party, he was so excited - he just smiled and smiled all day. He couldnt' wait for all his friends & cousins & grandparents to come to his house!

Then we took everyone inside for opening presents - that's always chaotic but it was fun. Landon got lots of wonderful things - Thomas the Train books, Elmo books, Thomas bath toys, a Thomas shirt, Buzz & Woody figurines & pajamas, Thomas floor puzzle, Thomas matching game, a doctor's kit, dinosaur puzzle and a monster truck! He loved everything!

The gift bags were so cute, too! My mother-in-law made pocket pillows out of train fabric and I stuffed those with Thomas stickers, a train whistle, playdough and a Thomas train ticket cookie that my mom bought. It was a lot of fun!!

After the party, our family stuck around a little bit and we let the cousins play. Then the boys crashed hard! When they woke up, we went outside to play and gave Landon our gift - a new bike with training wheels. He was very excited! He has his serious face on in the picture - ready to roll!

I'll never forget the look on his little face with his Thomas hat turned a little sideways from putting it on himself and smiling so big! I love our big boy!!

The Boys Meet Santa

2010-12-02T21:39:00.003-06:00

Adorable, aren't they?!

Landon has been asking to see Santa for weeks. We kept telling him "after your birthday, you can see Santa". Well, when he woke up on his birthday, we said "it's your birthday!" and he said "I see Santa today!" So wow, he took that literally. The night of his birthday, we went to dinner with Papaw & Grandma and walked over to meet Santa in the mall. Landon immediately got shy and looked like a deer in headlights the whole time. So we asked if he wanted to sit on his lap - no. Do you want to if Joshy sits with you? Yes. So there they are. It took a while to get Landon to look at the camera and to smile...meanwhile, you can't tell from the picture but Josh was jumping and leaping up and down. The little elves had to come secure him on Santa's lap a couple of times. That boy doesn't sit still. He was laughing and smiling and having a good ole time. They got a pic of him looking at Santa and Santa looking at him but since the pictures are ridiculously expensive, we picked one. And Papaw & Grandma were sweet enough to buy it for us!

My baby is THREE!

2010-11-29T19:43:00.000-06:00

Our sweet Landon turned 3 years old! I cannot believe it’s been 3 years since he came into our lives and 3 years since we became parents!! He is such an incredible blessing. I remember when he was born, thanking God because he was all I ever wanted. (And now I have 2 little perfect blessings)

To recap on his life briefly, just 3 years ago – November 29, 2007 – Mommy & Daddy headed to the hospital early in the morning. Mommy had been having contractions all day and thought that it was the day. Daddy went to sleep for a few hours to get ready in case it was really that night. Mommy couldn’t sleep and they started getting closer together and more painful so off we went! Labor went relatively quickly and by 10 am, he was ready – or so we thought! By 10:27 am, Landon Henry Standlee was born via emergency c-section after his heartbeat kept dropping and Mommy developed a fever. After getting to hold him briefly and look at the perfection God had made and given over to us, they whisked him away for 48 hours to the NICU (because of Mommy’s fever). Daddy was the only one who could see him. So Daddy went back & forth between recovery, crazy Mommy, sweet Landon boy and anxious family to share the news. He jumped into the father role quickly & perfectly!

At 11 months old, Landon decided to walk 8 steps for the first time! He was pretty surprised at himself so he waited another 3 weeks before trying it again! By his first birthday, he was well on his way into toddler-ville!

Landon turned 2 years old and on the day of his birthday party, he woke up sick with fever over 100. L Poor guy! We couldn’t ignore his fever and his lack of energy so we cancelled his party. But we couldn’t keep him from having one cupcake! He did get to celebrate his birthday multiple times with both sides of the family, church friends & school friends!

2010 was a big year for Landon! In January, he became a big brother! From the minute that he saw Joshua, he fell in love with his little brother. I never dreamed they would be so close so early in their lives. It’s just amazing and awesome! Landon is a great brother – he really loves Joshy. He started bringing him toys from the day one and even now when he is crying or sick, Landon is very concerned. Every night we have to let him kiss & hug his brother or he has a big breakdown before bed. He loves to hug & kiss him and he loves to make him laugh – and he’s good at it! He’s a wonderful brother!!

Now Landon is 3 years old. He is beautiful and wonderful. Here are some things about our 3 year old:

He is very smart! He loves to learn – he knows almost all of his letters (only lacking in the rhyming ones – C, V, B). He points out shapes everywhere – “that mirror is a oval” (more like ‘miwaw’ – r’s are hard!). He knows all the basic shapes plus pentagon, oval, star, etc. He will also spell out words he sees written - like "Look Mommy! K-R-O-G-E-R" and I'll say "yep, KROGER says 'Kroger'".
He loves to read books - he has memorized a lot of them and will say them periodically to Joshy - 2 favorites that he recites are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "Dinosaur Roar".
He loves to sing! He will sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Deep and Wide" all the time. SOO sweet!
He is very sensitive. He takes things to heart – when he gets in trouble, he can’t stand that we are upset with him. He says ‘sowwee Mommy’ or ‘sowwee Daddy’ over and over and says ‘hold me!’ to ensure that he is okay. He is quite sweet!
He is very affectionate. He asks for hugs & kisses a lot and loves to sit in our laps to read books and just snuggle (we hope he never outgrows this!!!).
He is about 85% potty trained. He is underwear all the time now (other than night-time) except at school (3 hrs, 3 days a week)…only because he is still only going with Mommy & Daddy so we want him to be solidified in that before we put him in underwear there. He is great at car-rides (no accidents in the car yet after about 10 trips to Houston & back!!)
He loves most foods although he likes to be picky at times just because of the stage he is in
He loves Mickey Mouse, Thomas the Train, Lightning McQueen and animals of all kind
He loves cars, trains, planes, boats, Mickey, animals
He loves to be outside – riding his trike, running, throwing the football, hitting the teeball, helping Daddy, collecting sticks or pecans, running with Jasmine, playing with Joshy in the sandbox or in the pool.
He has faith ‘like a child’. He often asks in the car ‘I wanna listen to the music with Jesus & God’ (VBS CD) and in his prayers, he is very serious about them and when he had a rough day he’ll say “and help me to be a sweet boy tomorrow”!! So funny.
He’s hilarious – always doing silly stuff and saying “Landon is silly!”

We could go on & on about how precious & wonderful Landon is. He’s a true gift from God and we couldn’t ask for more! We love him so much and are so proud of who he is!

Flowers to Diggers

2010-11-28T17:54:00.008-06:00

We bought an older home in May of 2009. It's in the very back of an older neighboorhood with a huge yard and we love it. It was built in 1972 and we bought it from the original owners. They were moving to the Dallas area to retire near grandchildren. We loved the floorplan and got a GREAT deal on it! We were thrilled that it was in our first choice neighborhood and we have several friends that live over here, too. All in all, it was perfect. HOWEVER, when we bought it, the house was still living in 1972. The half bath had gold bamboo mirrors and the living room was still dark-wood paneled, complete with the original ~~yellow~~ white curtains. The master bedroom has the 80s remodel flowered curtains & had matching arm chairs & bedroom comforter, too!

Anyway, we do about 1-2 projects a year - that's how we did the old house so here we are again! We did the boys' bathroom over the last 2 months. We did it all under $350! The key was - we didn't hire anyone, we didn't redo the cabinets or the countertop. We took off the 38 year old wallpaper that the builders glued straight to the drywall, which took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. We did easy fixes - textured the walls, painted, changed the knobs/pulls, the two-tone hardware, the shower curtain & rugs and took down the 70s mirror and put up a new one. We hung a shelf and put up a few toys & books. Done deal.

We love it. The boys love it (well, Landon does - Joshy doesn't know yet but he will!!) :) If you've ever read "Digger Man" - it was my inspiration and it's SUCH a cute book. If you have boys, GET THE BOOK. So cute - it's about 2 brothers & diggers! :)

Thanks A Lot Day

2010-11-27T17:33:00.007-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving! We are blessed to live close to both families so we were able to see them all. On Wednesday, we went up to Stafford where my parents live. Both of my brothers and their families were able to be there so we had a great time! My mother treated the girls (me & my 2 sister-in-laws) to pedicures & manicures while the boys watched the kiddos (we went during naptime!). We got back and did a small birthday party for Landon since my oldest brother & his family won't be able to make it to L's party next week. So, I made cupcakes for all of us and he opened his gift from 3 of his cousins - a Mickey Mouse playhouse. He LOVED it, to say the least. He's been playing with it constantly.

BUT, before I go on - here are my 2 turkeys on the Thanksgiving Feast Day at Preschool.

Landon's mini-party at Grammy & Papa's house

A new tradition has formed - 2 years in a row, the kids helping Grammy make angel biscuits. My child loved watched and standing there but once it was time to rub his hands in the flour and start rolling the biscuits, he said "That dirty! That messy". Of course. Landon hates a mess. It was cute to watch, Addie was into it for a while, Samuel just wanted to put his hands in the flour bowl and soon, Ellie was the last one left - serious about making those biscuits and so cute!

Oh the cute, cute kiddos watching Mickey before bathtime!

The greatest thing about these guys is that they are all 5 & under. Here's the crew from left to right: Ben (5 yrs - Guy & Abby's), Samuel (20 mth, Tommy & Bethany's), Addie (4 yrs, T&B), Olivia (2 1/2 -in blue in front - G&A), Ellie (4 yrs - in pink in back - G&A), Landon (3 yrs, Ours), Joshua (10 mth, Ours)

On Thursday, we were back in Lake Jackson to have lunch with Mark's family. I didn't get as many pictures with everyone, I wish I had - I just didn't get a chance.

But here are the 2 cuties outside - where they are always happy. Landon rolled in the leaves - every little boy has to play in the leaves in the Fall! And Joshy giggled with Grandma. He loved the mashed potatoes and talking with Aunt Sarah and his great-grandparents.

We had a wonderful holiday!! Hope you all did, too! Stay tuned - we have a busy week coming up:

Decorating the house for the holidays, cleaning the house for Landon's party next week, Landon's birthday (Monday), 3 yr Dr Appt, Preschool Bday party, Cleaning the house again, getting the cake, setting up the games, putting the decorations out...it'll be fun but busy! :)

Festival of Lights

2010-11-21T06:37:00.005-06:00

One of my favorite things about Lake Jackson is the Festival of Lights! It's such a fun event for families and encourages the small town atmosphere. So, we took the boys on Saturday morning for the festival. The great thing is almost everything is free. The train rides, the pony rides, the petting zoo - all free! We also get to run into a lot of friends from church, preschool - just fun to see so many people out & about!

This is the first year Landon rode the pony. Last year, he was sick that day. So he was pretty excited about riding the "yittle horsey". He was very serious about it all but loved it!

Joshy loved petting the animals, too! And our little animal lover, Landon, loved all the animals. They had a lot! Goats, chickens, ducks, cow, baby pig, llama, sheep...I may have forgotten one!

And of course once Landon saw the train, he wanted to go!

The big hit! The carousel! This was his first time on one and he LOVED it. We ran into some friends of Mark's from work who gave us their leftover tickets so we let him ride it 3 times. He rode the blue horse, the elephant & the zebra. He begged to go again but it was already 1:00 and Joshy was barely hanging on so we headed home for a good nap before the parade later.

After both boys took a 2 hour nap, we ate dinner and headed over to downtown for the parade. There are tons of Christmas trees all over town lit up all through the season and the parade is a lot of fun. It was a late night for the boys who are usually in bed by 7:30. But special events are worth it. They did great! The only thing negative was that the band stopped right in front of us and did a big cadence and the loudness of the drums kind of got Landon stirred up. He held onto Daddy pretty tight after that. He was so excited about all the firetrucks. His buddies Drew & DC were riding a firetruck with their boyscout troup and they waved & said hi. He loved that! Even Santa came in for a special trip for the parade!

It was a lot of fun!

The whole deal

2010-11-17T14:50:00.005-06:00

As I mentioned before, we got our family pics done by our good friend, Joshua Johnson.

Here are a few. The others are in our family picture site - feel free to go check it out! (if you don't know the shutterfly link, just ask me!) :)

My sweet, sweet boys

Daddy & Landon (look-alikes)

Landon - 3 years old - November 29!

Mommy & Joshua (look-alikes)

Joshua - 9 months old

Our family of 4

Little boys!

Go to our Shutterfly album for more!!

Hands full of perfection

2010-11-11T05:55:00.002-06:00

Our little family of 4...

We had our family pics taken, Landon's 3 yr old pics (he turns 3 at the end of this month), Joshua's 9 month pics taken - all at the same time! Our good friend, Joshua Johnson, took them. Here was our sneak peak. Can't wait to see the others!!

Halloween Week!

2010-11-03T08:14:00.006-05:00

Whew, a lot to post so I'm doing most of it in pictures - that's what people want to see anyway, right?! We had a week full of Halloween. Here's my 2 favorite little guys: Landon the brave firefighter & Joshua the little monkey!

The week started with a fun birthday party for our friend Declan - he turned 5! They had a costume party so here are the kids! Lots of fun!

Then we had a Halloween party & parade at Landon's school. So here are the highlights - his whole class dressed up & a picture from the party. There are TONS of pictures so be sure to check out our shutterfly site for more pics - really cute ones, too! :)

Then there's Halloween night, of course! We trick-or-treated over to Carriage Inn first (where Mark's grandparents live).

Landon knocking on his great-grandparents' door & getting lots of goodies from grandma-great!

Grandma-Great & Joshy and both boys & their great-grandparents!

Special!!

Then we trick-or-treated around our neighborhood which many people drive over to the "rich" neighborhoods and MAN they are missing out. Our neighbors dumped tons of good candy into our bucket. Awesome! I mean, for Landon, of course ;)

Our firefighter was pretty tired by the end of the night - Daddy had to carry him the last couple of houses.

Joshy was a great sport - he was on my hip most of the night and didn't make a peep...he loved it all! Of course, being his first Halloween - he took it all in. By next year - watch out! We'll have an almost 4 year old and a 22 mth old on our tails! :)

Halloween Art Projects

2010-10-21T20:04:00.004-05:00

I love doing art projects at home with Landon. And I look forward to doing them with both boys!
Here's a few projects we have done lately that I found on my favorite website - Children's Learning Activities.

Scary Spider - I told Landon to draw a circle and he drew LOTS of circles. So I outlined the outer one and he colored circles inside. I cut out the legs but let him help glue - I told him where to put them and he helped push them down to stay. I said "What else does the spider need" and Landon said "EYES!" So I said, 'you're right! he needs eyes...let's see...white eyes" and he said "no, blue eyes". So...blue eyes for the spider. It's his picture afterall.

Painting a Pumpkin

Easy but cute. He just painted the whole plate - I told him to paint it and did say "do you see a white spot" and he would point to it. So I'd say "okay, paint the white spot orange" and he would. I went back and did the lines with brown & he helped me glue on the leaves.

Apple Tree

Put brown paint on his hand and let him put it on the paper. Then put green paint on his fingers to do dots and then red paint on his finger to do the apples. Super cute.

Thumb-print Spider

He put his thumb on there with my help and then I just let him paint - I told him to paint legs but let him do it how he wanted to.

The Fair

2010-10-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

We took the boys to the Fair this last Sunday afternoon. We only did the Petting Zoo since they are too young for the carnival. But Landon had a BLAST. In fact, when we left, we were about 10 feet from the car and he just stopped dead in his tracks and got the saddest face once he realized we were leaving. Then he said "My Sad". Poor guy. He loved the goats, rabbits, piggies, roosters, ducks, baby chicks, cows...pretty much all of them!

Joshua was so funny! He was in the stroller and a rooster crowed RIGHT by him. Mark was next to him at the time and thought he'd get scared but he said that Joshy just smiled really big and started waving his hands. Haha! He loved it!

Landon was SO funny "roping the calves". He was so serious about it! So stinkin' cute!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

2010-10-15T21:33:00.009-05:00

We took the boys down to the local Pumpkin Patch this afternoon. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the weather!

Our family

Landon begged to ride in the wagon & they were so cute in there. (My new favorite picture of Joshua )

Landon had a hard time looking at the camera - he had so much to look at! He LOVED the baby pumpkins. He picked one for himself & one for Joshy to take home.

I love babies in pumpkin patches...so cute!

It's fun to think back on Landon's first pumpkin patch & then last year when it was Landon & my little Joshy pumpkin in my belly:

For more pictures of this year's Pumpkin Patch & the past years, click here.

Just some pictures...

2010-10-14T19:30:00.006-05:00

It was a gorgeous day outside so I took my camera out in the backyard to get some pics of the boys. Landon wasn't too into smiling AT the camera but he was smiling & having fun. Joshy was just being as cute as ever.

Joshua's Baptism

2010-10-10T13:57:00.005-05:00

We had a great morning! Our little guys did great! Joshua was wonderful when he was held by our Pastor and even gave a huge cheesy grin for the congregation when held up for everyone to see! Sweet boy! Landon insisted on being held, also. So, Mark & I both had our hands full with our little boys.

The worship service was just so meaningful for us. The music was wonderful, our church family & friends and our family. After the service, we took pictures and went home for a party! We had fajitas for everyone and cake & ice-cream. The kids played and the adults were entertained by them and enjoyed conversation. Joshy was our little guest of honor and refused to take a nap until everyone was gone!

Our sweet Joshua Allen

Our family of 4!

The Williams Family (with Papa, Grammy, Aunt Bethany, Addie & Samuel)

The Standlee Family (The Schriebers - Mark's grandparents, Papaw & Grandma, Aunt Sarah)

Great-Grandma & Papaw-Great with Joshua

Our sweet cake to celebrate!

Our little angel!

Thomas the Train

2010-10-03T06:14:00.012-05:00

Last week, we went to Austin for the "Day Out with Thomas". They do this all around the US and they use old steam engines and make one look like Thomas. You can ride the train, which was fun, but they have TONS of other free stuff for kids to do. It was so fun!

We went to Austin and got to see our good friend from college (Mindy's old roomie), Sara, and her son, Evan. Landon got to meet Evan back when Evan was about 7 mths old but we hadn't gotten to see him since! It was fun to see them again and have lunch together. It's so fun to grow with old friends - so many college memories together before we were dating our husbands, while we dated our husbands, weddings, marriages, children. Now, I have Landon & Joshua and she has Evan and another little one on the way! So fun!

Then we went to stay with my aunt Laura in Austin. We had a great time - we went to the park in her neighborhood which is such a great park - this is also our "evacuation" location for hurricanes and it's wonderful! We played with her a while and ate dinner and put the kids to bed (they did great!) and my aunt & uncle even offered for us to go out for some yogurt by ourselves. Woohoo!

Then we got up the next morning & off to Thomas the Train we went!!

The boys were both so cute. Joshy loves being outside & Landon loved all the trains - he just kept looking and looking, didn't want to smile at the camera - who could blame him?

They had coloring books set up for them, motorized trains (look at that smile!)

Thomas the Train tattoos

Train tracks set up everywhere to play with

He got to meet Sir Topham Hatt (shyly)

ALL this was free! Woohoo!

Then we took a train ride on Thomas (well, on Clarabel & Annie - that's what I told Landon when he wanted to get ON Thomas).

---

All and all, it was a wonderful short getaway and we had a blast. We'll definitely do this again!! :)

Happy 8 months, Joshua!

2010-09-29T13:35:00.003-05:00

Our sweet Joshua is 8 months old today!
What a little joy he is!

He just cuter, snugglier, funnier and bigger each day! He's growing so fast and I can't believe we are already at 8 months!

Joshua is so spunky. He is scooting around quite a bit. He is really wanting to get moving, I think it'll happen soon. We had to change his schedule around this month but we found one that is working better for everyone. He sleeps from 7:30 pm until 6 am. He takes 3 naps - 2 - 45 min naps in the morning and 1 - 1 1/2 hr nap in the afternoon. He eats 5 times a day. He LOVES cereal but really doesn't like any vegetable other than Sweet Potatoes. We make him eat them anyway but it just takes a long time! He likes bananas, apples & blueberries but not much for the others.

He still just loves to watch his brother, he'll bust into laughter watching Landon run around. He loves to play with ropes, strings, books, blocks. He chews like he's a mouse - we have tons of books with no corner on them now since he'll get a hold of them and gnaw them down until we catch him! Rascal! He loves to be outside. And he LOVES going on stroller rides with brother & Mommy.

All in all, he has a great disposition - he's very happy and sweet. He loves hugs & kisses and likes to give them back, too! He's just so sweet, our family is so much more complete with him a part of it!