This is My Forties

Tristan got new winter clothes and he looks super super cute. I just wanted to cuddle him all day in his little khakis with his fluffy sweatshirt. He was KILLIN' me with cuteness!! They were chasing each other down the hallway earlier when I snapped the pics. I want a nice camera so bad. This picture would have been so much better if it were in focus! I love my Kodak, but I want mooooooore. Anyway... Noah dug his black bear puppet from Gma N. out of the toy box today and was SO excited about putting on a show for Tristan. So, I went to work building him the same puppet show theater we used to construct when I was a kid out of the big waffle blocks. We even wrote the title of our show on the dry erase board (for which Noah is also responsible). Noah has quite a few puppets now, but it will never be enough in my opinion. I recall all the puppet shows and plays from my childhood days quite fondly. I'll never think we have enough costumes, props, or puppets. Noah was th...

I uploaded 3 new videos today. I would describe them as being utterly fantastic at illustrating the art of being a boy. These were taken about 10 minutes ago, along with the latest video upload (so it might not be visible yet). It's unfortunate that the one pic came out blurry, but it also helps represent the chaos! The other one you can really see Tristan's chipped front tooth. It's a mystery how he got it. I think it was when he fell and cracked his lip on the shelf in the hallway while Daddy was on FTX. He nearly bit through his lip so it would make sense.

We don't know. Unfortunately, the sonogram machines in the rooms are not as big and sophisticated as the ones down in radiology so we have to wait until January to find out. I did get to see the baby's heartbeat and her little fist was up in the air, she was twitching a lot. She's so much bigger than she was a month ago. Her chest has widened out and she has distinguishable elbows and finger joints now. Her head is bigger, and you can really see where her eyes and nose are. She was laying on her head and looked quite cozy in there. Her heart rate was 156 today. It was nice to see the baby because I STILL don't feel pregnant sometimes. I'm 4 months along already!!! On my way to the doctors today and all day yesterday I was imagining them telling me there wasn't a heartbeat anymore... not fun. I just haven't gained any weight, I'm still in my normal clothes. This pregnancy is nothing like my last 2. I was starving ALL THE TIME with Tristan an...

We started our morning with Josh's graduation from BNCOC at 10am. The boys were pretty well-behaved. I brought crackers to try and keep Tristan quiet and it mostly worked. The ceremony only lasted 30 minutes. Go Army! We came home just in time for lunch and nap time. While I was getting the food ready Tristan made his way upstairs alone. I followed about 2 minutes later and I discovered he learned a new skill today! Tristan can now pull the caps off of markers... JOY! He had only bitten the tip off of one marker thankfully. He was covered in green drool and bursting with pride. I grab him up since he's obviously starving ;) I get downstairs and I discover Noah has somehow managed to explode an igloo ice pack. I had this ice pack stored in a cupboard, in a bag, in another bag... which is much too enticing for little hands, I guess. I don't know if he jumped on it or what, but it was EV-E-RY-WHERE!!! The innards are the consistency of wall paper paste and they h...

I get more excited about the release of kids movies than the kids do. I have a good reason... it's a different movie to get sick of!! Today WALL-E came out on DVD and we went right out to get it, budget be damned! Yesterday the boys were playing with the WALL-E robot that grandpa B. got Noah for his birthday. It sounds exactly like him, very cool. That's 2 great movie releases this month, including Kung Fu Panda. I love little kid movies. They are just pure and silly with cute little lessons and funny characters. The best part is watching the kids watch the movie, though. The digital short on WALL-E called Presto was cracking me up!! Kevin, you'd be giggling like a little girl for hours I swear... or maybe your head would a-splode ;) hehe I am pretty sure WALL-E played 3 times today. So anyway... I took a few photos yesterday, trying to get back into snapping. It's definitely fun to do, but I wish we had a yard here so I could have more outside shots. I cou...

I try to catalog the books I really enjoy so that I can go back through the blog and pick out certain authors to try again for our next trip to the library. Thus far Noah's been picking out all of his books and we're quite impressed with his taste ;) Tristan has been getting baby einstein videos to watch in the van. I love not having to buy them! We went to the library again today, picked out 3 more books and returned the other 3 we had gotten last Monday. Two of the last ones were too long for Noah, but one of them was SO cute I think I might buy it. It was just a really clever rhyming book about a family's search for the source of a HUGE snore. It was cute :) I am a sucker for goofy names and creative language, especially when it rhymes. One of the ones we got today is worth mentioning as well. More great language and rhyming, a lot of fun onomatopoeia (blurp, splish, slorp kind of stuff). The illustrations are really big and bold in this one, like you...

Tris turned 14 months old on the 13th. I realized it on the actual day, but I just didn't have anything to post. I haven't been taking pictures at all lately. I am not too sure why, but I have the urge again so expect to be bombarded with cuteness once more! He carries this blanket all over the house with him, but it's bigger than he is so he falls a lot. He tries to hold it up really high to avoid tripping, but it just doesn't work. We are treated to a daily display of veiled baby giggles, followed by some pretty impressive floor diving. He just refuses to give it up, though! He will go to his crib and fish it through the slats on the sides until he gets it all out. If it gets stuck he stays by the crib, one hand on his blanket and sucks his fingers. He will try to grab toys without letting go of it... I need to take a video. Tris received his first buzz cut from Mommy the other day. Noah got his first buzz at 13 months, but his hair was so much thicker and ...

Both previous pregnancies I had some pretty interesting, mostly comical dreams. This time around I have been having some pretty vivid nightmares. Last night was awful. First I fell asleep at 8, woke up at 10 for the beginning of Top Chef NY... I am not an early sleeper so this is bizarre for me. Then I read for a little bit and tried to go back to sleep at midnight, but Noah woke up because HE had a nightmare. He was hiding under a table from a giant robot monster, poor kid. He knew it was a dream and didn't have any trouble falling back asleep. I tossed and turned for awhile, watched a few mildly entertaining sitcoms, and finally felt like I could fall asleep. Then the neighbors decided to train their 2yr old to go to sleep in her own crib at 1:30am. She was screaming off and on until 2:15 or so. She finally gave in and I think it was good they are trying to get her to sleep in her own bed, but at 2am?! Come on people :/ So sleep finally came, but it was not refreshing ...

Josh came home early so this is gonna be short. New videos are uploaded that I took at the park today. They're on the sidebar! ***** some whatever reason the video of Tristan Walking isn't showing up so you'll have to actually go to my YouTube to see it. *****

Noah got more new books today. He wasn't nearly as excited this time, but he is happy to have some new reading material for bedtime and during Tristan's naps. Here's this weeks reading list (can you pick out the theme? haha) This one is about a troop of mice that put on a reenactment of the Thanksgiving story for their animal friends. It rhymes and almost seems to sing. It's a fun read. This is the story of a school fieldtrip to the turkey farm. The kids fall in love with their new turkey friends and can't bear the thought of them being dinner so they smuggle them out. It's all told the same rhythm as "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It's cute!!! This one is much longer and a little older so I wouldn't recommend it for the itty bitty's. Mrs. Moose tells her beloved husband she wants a real turkey this Thanksgiving. He goes to find one and runs into all his woodland friends on the way there. Poor turkey is captured and lea...

Well it took 2 hours of waiting, but I finally got to cast my votes :) We walked into the community center and there were 2 tiny lines right down the middle of the gym. Yay, it's not a long wait!! Wrong... a woman asked me if I was there to vote and I responded "yes ma'am" and I was instructed to go to the door and take a left down the hallway. There were trash cans with arrows along the way to a room with a TV (on CNN). There sat about 12 rows of chairs spanning about 20 across, all full of waiting voters. I decided now would be a good time to ditch the stroller and our coats and retrieve the snacks from the car. Great idea, Mommy! The snacks were a hit and worked for the first 45 minutes to keep the children relatively content. Noah and Tristan played peek-a-boo and bonked foreheads (I think this is the boy version of hugging) as we played musical chairs through the crowded room for the rest of the time. There were men and women in uniform, old people, youn...

Didn't get much sleep last night again. This morning I have a migraine, an upset stomach, and a massive neck ache. I need to get this voting over with so I can relax a tiny bit. My polling place opens at 8:30. We're heading out with a few snacks soon. Wish us luck and NO LINE!! :D In awesome news my cousin Sandy had her baby!! A little girl named Penelope :) Congratulations, Sandy and Dan!!

With Josh gone I've been browsing through blogs and I keep finding cool people I don't know that live nowhere near me. So here's the question... how do you make friends if you don't have a job and you move a lot? It took me a few years to finally make friends in San Antonio and then we moved. I suppose it's only bothering me because I'm lonely right now and annoyed with being cooped up at home. Even when I have time, what is there to do? I am not huge on hanging out by myself. Mommy groups have this bad habit of being totally one-sided. All you talk about is babies or laundry detergent, cleaning, husbands. It's never about YOU, books you've read, your hobbies, your own life and beliefs. They keep it very superficial. I hate superficial... maybe that's why I find it so hard to make friends hahaha. I did meet Karrie through a Mommy group, and she was a very rare find indeed. I'll be fine once I get another heaping dose of family time fo...

Here are the Halloween pictures. Yoda is our neighbor Caleb. Isn't he SO CUTE?! :D Noah is the skeleton, of course. I tried to get a better shot of Tristan as superman, but he wasn't cooperating... and then when he was I was too wrapped up in the moment to get my camera out :) He walked up to the houses with a huge smile and ran all over peoples' porches. Noah said trick or treat and threw his arms out every time and remembered to say thank you. We had a fun time! It was great having Josh there with us for yet another holiday he'd never been able to attend. I also had these pictures of a park we went to back on the 20th. It's called Magnolia Springs and it's really nice. We think it'd be a great place to go camping. The only downside is that it's a 45 minute drive :/ There is a natural spring there that you can see bubbling up from the bottom of the lake. The water is beyond crystal clear so you can see every tiny critter and plant hanging o...

Josh was supposed to leave for a field training exercise tomorrow morning, but they decided he had to leave NOW! When I say NOW I literally mean it. He had to fight with them to get 45 minutes to finish packing, grab some snacks, say bye to us, and actually eat something. What kind of morons can't plan far enough in advance to give people more than 5 minutes notice before they leave for a week. They do these FTX's allllllll the time!! You think by now they'd have some sort of system worked out. I can't wait until Josh gets out of the Army. Seriously... it's going to be so nice to not have to watch him be abused by idiots all the time. AND we'll actually make enough money to live, instead of simply survive. I am proud of his service (and mine). I just cannot stand being "defenders of freedom" who have none of their own. It's been long enough and we're ready to go back to the real world and enjoy those freedoms again. How nice it will...

The early voting out here in Georgia hasn't been going so hot thus far. Lines have been hours upon hours long. I am going to try and get in and vote tomorrow because Josh might be able to stay with the kids. Tuesday, however, they decided it would be a great time to go out in the field for a week-long FTX! My neighbors will also be leaving so no one is left to watch the kids. I'm not about to bring them with me and wait in a 6 hour line in the sun. I will if I have to, but I am really hoping I won't! I'm hopeful that after the election my stress level will go down (if my guy gets elected). I can't even sleep at night right now. Not good, not good at all. Nevermind... I just saw early voting stopped on Halloween so I guess I'm bringing kids with me to the polls. Maybe if we get there early enough we won't have to wait too long. If I would have known no one was going to be here to watch the kids I would have voted a long time ago. I have no excuse....