Random Cuteness

Having an iPhone has been kind of life changing. It's actually allowed me to be more in the "now" with my family. I know that may seem kind of crazy to think having a phone allows me to be more present when it comes to my family but I know there are some girls that completely understand where I am coming from on this.

It's also allowed for me to capture the boys more candidly. No big camera in their face just a quick snap of the phone and we're done. Sometimes they don't even realize they are being watched or recorded. And this post is all about those moments, the moments that I want to make sure we have documented so we can look back at them in a few years with giant smiles on our faces.

& although they say a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes the things they come up with and say are even more priceless. Sometimes we just sit back in amazement and wonder how they come up with these things and I know it's only going to get better as their imaginations continue to grow.

& lately I have tried being better about writing down some of the funnier things Kaden says, so I'll tie those in here too.

Kaden: "mom, my pee-pee is tired."

Kaden to Daddy while he is dissing my driving: "My mom is NOT a bad driver. She's really, really good. That driver's bad." & to this day Justin still feels that I have brainwashed him on that one. 

Kaden: "Guys, don't talk together." --we're working on not interrupting. 

Kaden: "Mom, we don't say what the heck, do we?"& "we don't say idiot, either."  

Kaden: "be careful, have fun, & don't fall out of the airplane, Mom."

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day this year was perfect. Or at least what I remember about it, two and a half months later, was perfect.

By looking back through pictures I know my wonderful husband started my morning off with an iced tea.

Trust me, the little things mean soooo much more & makes me love him that much more too. 

I also got to unwrap two of the cutest little Mother's Day gifts that the boys made at Ms. Brenda's. Not only does she LOVE my boys as her own--which is more than I could ask for but she also manages to make us moms (& dads) feel special too. By far my most favorite piece the boys have come home with. 

The day continued with a trip to see Nanny & then Justin grilled hamburgers, made homemade chips, and my favorite salad--cucumber, tomato & mozzarella for the South clan. After lunch the boys took an extra long nap & I got enjoy sitting on our new patio furniture watching some thinkless tv…

See. Perfect. Just like I remembered. I am not sure if a Mother's Day will ever top my first Mother's Day with Kaden or my first Mother's Day as a mom of two--the day we brought Logan home from the hospital but each Mother's Day since then just keeps getting better. 

What did I do to deserve a LOVE like this? Whatever it was, I am beyond grateful and will be counting my lucky stars each and every night for the rest of my life. 

Where is LOGAN?!?!

Can you find him? Look hard--he's in there. What, Still don't see him?! Wait, let me help...

There he is! Just had to remove a few of his friends so you can see his smiling face...but he wouldn't let me keep them for long, he just loves them all soooo much. So much so, that he must sleep with everything that you see here, every single night.

I am dead serious, I pulled each of these items out of his crib. That's two books, three blankets, 10 stuffed animals, one truck, one woody from toy story, & one flashlight. & if you can believe it, we are still missing his two favorites, his lovies.

I don't know how the kid does it when it comes to finding a place to sleep but he does. & trust me, I have been worried about him having too much in his bed but the moment that I take one of these toys out of his crib and put them away, he knows it. He will NOT go to sleep without it and finally when he does, he ends up waking up in the middle of the night asking for it.

From what I have been told, he takes after his father. I guess Justin had a number of his favorite toys that slept with him each and every night too. Finally, his mom donated the majority of them and let him keep just one, which is still at Grammy's house. I know the day will come when we need to have him give up his bedtime friends but I think we can let him have them for a little while longer. We have started talking about transitioning him to a big boy bed (which I am in the midst of painting) & when that day comes, having a few friends might be a little helpful when it comes to his night time routine.

Good Night Logan.

Good Night Stuffy.

Good Night Sea World.

Good Night friends.

4th of July--Mini Photo Shoot & Outtakes

Happy Belated Birthday America!

We started 4th of July off with a little mini photo shoot. I had the boys dress in their annual Old Navy shirts that Grammy buys them & rolled up a pair of jeans going for the "Tom Sawyer" look. We headed to the land right behind the house and there we sat up shop. They boys weren't all that into the photo shoot & it took a little bit of bribing but we got what we needed. & most importantly, the boys took care of the flag, its not to touch the ground & since they aren't that tall, we had to make sure there was something else keeping the flag off the ground--enter the wagon.

Even looking back at these pictures just brings the biggest smile to my face. I look at how big our boys have gotten & I can't hardly believe it. They have their own very unique personalities & they each shine in their own way. But what I love most is the JOY that comes across in their smiles. The innocence that each of their smiles show. An innocence that I so badly want to protect from this crazy world that we live in. A crazy world but a free one. A freedom that came at a huge price & a freedom that brave men & women lost their lives fighting for & a freedom that even more brave men & women continue to fight for. And although we come together as a Nation on July 4th to celebrate our country's birthday, a day doesn't go by that we don't remember & thank those who have made this all possible. God Bless you all.

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I thought it would be fun to include a few outtakes of our shoot just to show that not every picture is an instant framer. With that being said though, every picture tells a story & a lot of the time, the outtakes are just as important to me!

A tad late...

Life has been somewhat crazy these last few months and the posts have been pretty non-existant but that is about to change. I may not always want to sit down and blog but I am going to do it. Why? Because I miss being able to go back and read what happened in our lives--case in point, yesterday I went back and re-read the entry about my niece's BIRTHday. She will be turning ONE tomorrow & being able to go back and kind of relive that day was pretty darn special, so special, I cried.

I cried because I couldn't believe that she is one, where did this last year go? & I cried because I have let a lot of things as of late go by without being documented. Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, the ending of our vacation, god sons' birthdays, new babies being welcomed into the world. I was there, the kids were there but not having it down to look back at again, well thats just wrong so over the next week or so that will change. I will be playing some MAJOR catch up. There will be a lot of iPhone pictures on the blogs, all of which have been seen already. There will be some blogs without pictures. But it all get documented & at least I will feel better about preserving a few more memories…

For this post I am going to take us all the way back to May 4th, Logan's birthday party. I noticed that I had documented the party & his actual birthday but a few of my favorite pictures didn't even make the post because I was saving them for a special post…which as you know didn't come either!

For Logan's birthday party we had a dinosaur theme & Rex the dinosaur was the guest of honor, next to the birthday boy of course. Logan loved dinosaurs, at the time, but just like most things, he has moved on to something bigger and better now---his new Mickey ball Grammie got him. But since at the time he was a big dinosaur lover we got him the ROARING Rex which when you squeeze his belly he roars & bites down on your finger. He got the biggest kick out of this…

and so did we. I really don't know of a better sound in this world than his belly laugh. Pair that with his sweet, sweet facial expression and pure joy & you have one very SMITTEN mother. He certainly makes disciplining him hard these days. (That's a whole other post.)

The other big hit of the birthday party were all the balloons & thankfully I was able to go a little crazy when it came to the balloon supply now that the helium shortage is over! Once most guest left we finally let him have his balloons & for a minute there, I thought they were going to pick him up off the ground…

With life as busy as it has been this party seems like it was ages ago when in fact, it was just two short months ago. Crazy how things can just come & go so quickly…