Weekend at the Cabin

We were invited up, along with a group of our friends, to a friends’ family’s cabin this past weekend. We ended up deciding to just visit them for a day instead of going up for the whole weekend. It was a blast to hang out & relax with friends and get all of our kiddos together! There were a total of 5 kids, including our two, ranging from 9 months to 2 years. The kids all did really great together. I’m really looking forward to all of the fun times we’ll have together as a group as all of our kids grow up. 

Here are some shots of our fun last Saturday:

Colton - all smiles!

Daddy & Wyatt

Wyatt sitting in a lawn chair

The whole gang

...just the boys...

Me & the boys (I'm rarely in pictures since I'm always the one taking them)
(Look very closely...Colton & JJ are in an intense stare-down over the dump truck)

Our friends' little ones (JJ is our godson)

Tooth Wars – Colton: 4 vs. Wyatt: 0

2 more teeth!! Colton’s front top two teeth broke through yesterday, so now he is up to a total of 4 teeth! We knew this was going to happen soon since his gums have been really white and the two teeth have been “budding” up for over a week now. He has been kind of crabby this week, even waking up during naps crying, but a little teething gel seemed to help that out. He definitely was a lot less crabby last night once they finally broke through. He’s been doing this tooth-thing two-at-a-time, which is fine by me!

Wyatt is still toothless. He has exactly one week from today left to pop a couple through before his 1st birthday but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. His front bottom teeth seemed to be “budding” up during this past week but we have not seen much progress the last few days.

Messy Mashed Potatoes

A couple pictures from dinner one night last week:

Colton couldn't get enough!

Messy face!

Wyatt was a little less enthused about them but loves dinner time no matter what!

A look back: June 27th, 2010 – 34 weeks 3 days

I thought a quick flashback to this day last year would be a fun trip down memory lane. I remember I was really starting to get uncomfortable and the weather was hot! I was 34 weeks & 3 days along. Little did I know that I had just a little over a week left before I got to meet my two little miracles.

34 weeks 3 days

Father's Day

Daddy & Colton

Daddy & Wyatt

Wyatt & Colton in the Jeep grandpa bought for his house

Colton's driving!

Wyatt's running the CB.

11 month photo session

Here are the promised pictures from the boys' 11 month photo session this past Saturday....it's getting harder and harder to get a good picture of the two of them together - such wiggle worms!

Some funny out-takes:

Bored with their photo-happy mommy!

Fish-lips!

Destroying the months old sign.

Playing around afterwards:

Fish-lips king!

Close-up with Colton

Playin'

50 Weeks Old

Two weeks & counting……..until my babies’ 1st Birthday! Party planning is now in full swing. I have invitations ordered and starting to figure out the menu – we’re keeping it simple & easy.

The past two weeks have seemed so busy. We enjoyed a family weekend camping, a cousin/friend’s 30th birthday party, celebrated our first Father’s Day and added another crawler to our household.

The boys have still been sleeping pretty well lately. The boys are sleeping around 10-11 hours each night. They fall asleep somewhere between 6:45-7:15 PM and don’t wake up for their last bottle around 8:45 PM. They are sleeping in their cribs for the night around 9:15-9:30 PM. Colton sleeps until around 5:15-5:45 AM and Wyatt sleeps until around 6-6:20 AM. The past two nights they have both slept awesome all night long, without needing nuks until after 4 AM – awesome job boys!

No change on the food-front for the boys. They each have their picky days or meals where they don’t eat much but otherwise they are fairly good eaters. Wyatt is a “stuffer” – he’ll keep putting food in his mouth as fast as he can. Sometimes you have to stop him and sometimes he paces himself. Colton finishes each bite before taking another one. If they are having a combination of “finger” foods and something that I’m spoon-feeding them, Colton will continue to chew the food in his mouth until he’s done, even if you offer him another bite.

Wyatt
Wyatt is kicking it down a notch when crawling on all fours. He was crawling on all fours but dropping down to his belly when he wanted to go really fast. Over the weekend he has started to figure out how to be really fast on his hands & knees. It’s so funny to see him speed around.

Colton
Even though Colton’s been crawling for less than a week, he is getting really efficient at it. He was favoring the carpet and not really wanting to continue onto tile or laminate flooring but is getting a little more comfortable taking that leap as well too now. This morning Wyatt came downstairs with me to throw in some laundry and Colton followed us from the living room to the kitchen – he’s getting braver by the day!

Two Crawlers & Happy Father’s Day!

We are now officially a household of two crawlers – Colton started crawling on Saturday! Whoo-hoo Colton! It was a big weekend for Colton.

The weekend started off with the boys spending the day with my sister over at my parents’ house on Friday so we could get our carpets cleaned (they really needed it!). When we went to pick them up, my cousin and her little guy were over visiting so we enjoyed spending some time with them. Friday night, since the carpet in the living room wasn’t yet dry, we did the boys’ bedtime routine in their room…needless to say, it didn’t go so well. After a little “crying it out” time Cory went to peek in on them and found Colton….STANDING UP in his crib! (So, we’ve now dropped his mattress down all the way too.) Both boys fell asleep pretty quickly after that.

Saturday morning we were moving things back into the living room when out of the blue Colton just started crawling around. It surprised me so much but I quickly grabbed the video camera and got him moving around a little bit (before the memory card filled up – the boys and I made a trip down to Best Buy to get a backup memory card Saturday afternoon because there is no way we want to miss a thing with these guys!).

The boys spent Saturday night overnight at my parents’ house while Cory & I went to his cousin’s (& our good friend) 30th birthday party. It was fun to have supper out and catch up with friends. We called it a night around 11 PM and enjoyed a baby-free night of sleep and slept in past 6 AM! Sleeping in felt amazing! We missed them dearly but they did awesome at grandpa & grandma’s and even enjoyed a “fun” spaghetti supper & had baths.

Happy 1st Father’s Day to my amazing husband – Cory! He is the BEST dad to Wyatt & Colton – so involved, helpful & loving. He does more than his share of work around our house – which includes helping with the boys and doing a majority of the cleaning (except the bathroom, which he won’t touch!) while I entertain the boys. I don’t know how I would have made it through this year without him.

Happy Father’s Day to all dads & dads-to-be!

I also have updated photos from the boys 11 month pictures and Father’s Day to get posted but our hunting/exercise/computer room is still disassembled from the carpet cleaning on Friday, so I’m hoping we can get everything put back together tonight.

Camping Weekend Pictures



Colton playing in grandpa & grandma's camper

Wyatt standing by the table in grandpa & grandma's camper

Ridin' in style

Supervising daddy assembling the flip flop grill

Wyatt

Colton's first time swinging

Wyatt's first time swinging

Swingin' together

Broccoli & Cheddar Cheese Nuggets

Now that the boys are finally eating all “adult” foods, I find it a struggle to figure out what to make them for supper to provide a variety of healthy foods. Even though we eat fairly healthy at our house, I am really passionate about being aware of what is going into my kids’ bodies. I am hoping to buy organic when I can but I know that will not always be possible or work financially. I am really excited to start going to the farmer’s market this summer to buy fresh, local produce.
Last night I tried a new recipe for veggies for the boys and it was a HUGE hit (with both the boys & mommy/daddy!)! This recipe is really easy, does not take much time & effort and turned out delicious. We will definitely be making these again.

Here’s the recipe that I found on another mom’s blog (I believe it’s from www.wholesomebabyfood.com). I modified the recipe a little bit because I only had a 12 oz. package of broccoli (I had the steam bag broccoli which made steaming it quick & easy!) so I reduced the amount of bread crumbs, cheese & eggs that I put in. I used plain bread crumbs and added in Italian seasoning & garlic powder for my seasonings. I also just used my Pampered Chef cookie scooper to make the “nuggets” by scooping them on the baking sheet and then “patting” the tops down to form more of a “nugget”. It also only took about 15-20 minutes for mine to bake.

Broccoli & Cheddar Cheese Nuggets

Ingredients:
1 16-oz package frozen broccoli, cooked, drained, and chopped
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs (you could try using baby cereal if you want, we know it works well with "baby meatballs")
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese (please use real cheese and not a "processed cheese food" product. Try tomato & basil cheddar.)
3 large eggs or 5 egg yolks - Most pediatricians say it's ok to use whole egg in a baked good when baby is over 8-9 months old without allergies. We would recommend that you substitute 5 egg yolks for the whole eggs if serving this to those under 1 yr. Ask YOUR pediatrician.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375
1. Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.
2. Combine all remaining ingredients and mix well.
*Add seasonings if you like - garlic powder, pepper, extra basil & oregano for example. Add a fruit or veggie puree to substitute for the eggs if desired.
3. Shape mixture into nuggets or fun shapes such as squares or squigglies etc..and place on baking tray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, turn nuggets over after 15 minutes. Serve warm. Be sure to crumble these if your baby needs.

Bye, Bye Infant Car Seats!

This posting is actually 3 weeks overdue.
With the boys ever increasing in size (they just won’t stop growing!) it was getting harder & harder to carry them around in their infant car seats. We started leaving the infant seats in the vehicle when running errands and the boys’ feet were really bumping up against the backseat. Even though they did not yet outgrow the weight & height maximums of their infant seats we decided that it was probably time to move them into the next step: convertible car seats. The boys still have to be rear facing while riding in these but they are much larger than the infant seats and give them a little more room. They are also easier to get the boys in & out of, since they remain in the car.

I did my research and decided on the Britax Boulevard 70 CS model (thank you to my good friend – who is due at the beginning of July with her first little girl – who let me borrow her Baby Bargains book!!). They will be in these seats for quite a while now so we decided it was worth the investment. My parents wanted to help purchase the boys these car seats for their 1st birthday gifts (as they did with my nephew) so they gave us a good portion of the money towards them. I found them the cheapest on www.amazon.com and was able to get free 2-day shipping! They arrived quickly and on the following Saturday (May 21st) – Cory and I opened up the boxes and installed them in my vehicle. They are bigger than their infant car seats but still fit well in my vehicle. I absolutely love the color & pattern I chose (Silver Birch). One of my favorite things about them is the lower LATCH connectors that Britax put around the lower LATCH locks – it makes it 100 times easier than their infant car seats to latch & unlatch when moving them between vehicles.

The boys had their first ride in them on that Saturday afternoon when we made our weekly trip to Wal-Mart. They are working really for us so far and we have not had any issues.

Just one more sign that my “babies” are growing up!

Camping Weekend

We took our second camping trip of the summer this past weekend. Both Cory & I were able to take Friday off and make it a 3 day weekend. Even though the weather was rainy & cold both Friday & Saturday, we had a good time and really enjoyed getting away. We were not able to get the boys out in the boat, like we had hoped, but I’m sure there will be plenty of more opportunities this summer for that.

The boys got to play on a playground for the first time ever at the campground. They both totally LOVED the swings. They fit perfectly in the toddler swings the playground had. We also took them down a couple of the slides, which they didn’t seem to mind either. Before I know it they are going to be running around, playing on the playground themselves.

Pictures to come!

A couple of fun updates on the boys:

Wyatt is pulling himself up on EVERYTHING now. He pulls up & stands in his crib (we lowered the mattress to its lowest setting this weekend), he pulls up & stands in the pack ‘n play and now he’s pulling up & standing by our couch. This weekend when we were camping he loved playing underneath my parent’s kitchen table in their camper. He’d pull himself up on the benches or the two poles that hold the table up. He even was standing up by one of the benches, then twisted his body and held onto the two poles underneath and then took two baby steps to adjust himself in front of the other bench. (On a funny side-note, he also enjoyed licking the table poles like they were candy – I doubt they tasted that good though – goofy boy!) We’ve been practicing walking more & more every day.

Colton is getting so much better going from lying down to sitting up. A lot of the time he will sit with both of his legs bent to the right and then put his arms down and rock back & forth on all fours. He also pulled himself from lying down to his knees on the activity table just this morning; he’s been doing this more & more lately. He loved sitting on the vinyl flooring in my parents & our camper this weekend. He spins himself in circles on the “slippery” floor and thinks it’s so fun! If he’s on his belly, he also pushes himself backwards pretty well but gets frustrated when he starts moving further away from his target. We’ve been practicing walking more & more every day.

Birthday party planning is in full swing now. We’re keeping it pretty low key but I still have a few things that I want to do for this special birthday: order invitations, decide on a small menu, get decorations and most importantly – pick out a couple gifts for the birthday boys! A friend of mine has volunteered to make their smash cakes (her cakes are beyond amazing, so I’m really excited to see what she comes up with for them!) so I will just have to order a cake or cupcakes for the rest of the group to enjoy. If you know me at all you know I’m a planner and an organizer and love doing this kind of stuff – so even though I’m in denial that my babies will be turning 1 year old, I’m LOVING getting everything ready for the celebration.

9 Month Professional Pictures

We had the boys’ 9 month professional pictures taken a little over a week after their 9 month birthday. Each session is getting more & more fun! This time, the boys were able to sit up on their own, which gave us more options for poses. They turned out amazing, like always, and it was so hard to narrow them down.

Here are my favorites:

Wyatt

Colton

My Two Cuties!

Colton

Wyatt

48 Weeks Old / 11 Months Old

One month & counting……..until my babies’ 1st Birthday! I’ve started getting into party-planning mode this week. Cory & I are planning on having a low-key party with just our immediate family & a few friends. The first thing on my list is to get invitations decided on & ordered – that is my goal to have completed by the middle of next week.

We had Cory’s cousin’s wedding this past Saturday and the boys did great. We went to everything, including the ceremony. They were so well behaved during church and fell asleep in the car on our way home. We went to the reception and even stayed a little bit into the dance. The boys really had a good time and it was nice to get out & visit with everyone. We spent the day on Sunday doing a bunch of running around (& even went to lunch at Fazoli’s) and the boys did great that day too.

The boys have been sleeping pretty well lately – with even one night where no one woke up at all! The boys are sleeping around 10-11 hours each night. They fall asleep somewhere between 6:45-7:15 PM and don’t wake up for their last bottle around 8:45 PM. They are sleeping in their cribs for the night around 9:15-9:30 PM. Colton sleeps until around 5:15-5:45 AM and Wyatt sleeps until around 6-6:20 AM. They each take turns waking up once a night but a quick nuk replacement and just a little fussing are all we have to deal with (which is a huge improvement!). Wyatt usually sleeps like a rock and doesn’t even fuss for a nuk.

The boys have been eating all real, adult food with just their lunch-time fruit addition being baby food purees. They love feeding themselves. I need to start to come up with more ideas for dinner for them and plan ahead. I really want them to eat well and that won’t happen if I keep waiting until 15 minutes before dinner to decide what they are eating that day.

Wyatt
Wyatt is getting into everything lately – he’s such a speedy crawler. He loves getting into Bailey’s water dish so we are working on learning that her dish is not for splashing around in. His other favorite thing to do is to go into a room and close the door behind him. He usually does this in the bathroom, so I am able to open the door and “slide” him out of the way to open it again.

Colton
This whole week I have been finding Colton sitting up in bed when I go in to get him in the morning. (Both of the boys’ mattresses have been lowered but I’m thinking we’re going to have to lower them even further now that both boys have been trying to pull up on things.) He wakes up early around 5-5:15 AM but will stay in his bed and entertain himself (either by playing with his blanket & seahorse, watching the projections from the sound machine on the ceiling or just kicking his legs against the bed rails) until around 6 AM.

Colton & Daddy’s trip to great grandpa & grandma’s

With the long Memorial Day weekend, Tuesday night held a long to-do list for our family…so, we divided & conquered!

Colton & Cory headed out to Cory’s grandparent’s house to return a trailer & generator we borrowed from them for our Memorial Day camping weekend. Colton hung out with great-grandma for a while when Cory was unloading everything into the shed. Colton had a little bit of sad time just before Cory was finished, but I’m sure he just missed Daddy. They visited with great grandpa & grandma for a little while before heading home for dinner.

They had a fun trip, just the two of them.

Wyatt & Mommy’s trip to Wal-Mart

With the long Memorial Day weekend, Tuesday night held a long to-do list for our family…so, we divided & conquered!

Wyatt & I headed over to Wal-Mart to do the weekly grocery shopping. The boys are big enough to sit up in a cart now but when we go together as a family, we always bring the stroller along so the boys really don’t experience riding in the cart much. Wyatt sat so good and loved being up high & getting to look around at everything. The store was busy but I guess that’s to be expected after a holiday weekend.

Wyatt was so smiley and “hammed up” for anyone who looked his way.

We had a fun trip, just the two of us.

(It’s kind of funny to see the difference in the attention you get with only toting around one baby vs. two babies. People are friendly and still stop & say “Hello!” but nothing like when we’re out with both boys.)

Baseball Hats – FAIL!

I might have to find some hats that have the chin strap on them to keep the boys to keep hats on their heads this summer – although I’m sure that won’t deter them much at all! I hope they get used to having them on their heads and will eventually just leave them alone – their little bald heads need some type of protection from the sun this summer!

Here’s how it went this weekend:

Mommy puts hats on Wyatt & Colton.

Wyatt & Colton ditch the hats as soon as mommy looks away!

Memorial Day Weekend

The boys experienced their first camping trip this past weekend. I was a little nervous (mostly about how well they would sleep) but the boys did excellent and we all had a nice, relaxing weekend. Adding two little boys & all their stuff in the camper packing job really makes it a whole lot bigger of a job. I packed little by little all week but there are certain things that just have to wait until the day of, so I spent a couple hours Friday afternoon getting everything ready to go.

We went camping on some friend-of-the-family’s land about 30 minutes from our house. My parents were also camping with us all weekend. My sister & nephews came to visit Saturday-Monday morning – so it was a fun weekend with family & friends.

Friday night brought a little rain so the boys were not able to enjoy the campfire at all before bedtime. Sleeping arrangements had Colton on the fold-down table and Wyatt in the Pack ‘n Play (which was pushed up next to the table as a “gate” for Colton). I’m sure this arrangement will have to change over the summer as Colton becomes more mobile but it worked great for us this weekend.

Saturday and Sunday were both pretty nice (with just a few scattered showers) and the boys were able to spend some time outside on our new outdoor blanket (which I LOVE!) playing. It was a good change of scenery for them from the normal living room/playroom scene. The only trouble was trying to keep them from taking their hats off. Sometimes they acted like they didn’t even notice it was on and then other times they’d rip it off as soon as you put it on – we need to protect those little heads from the sun boys! They also got their first ride on a 4-wheeler with Daddy on Saturday, which they both seemed to enjoy. Wyatt had a big smile on the whole time. Colton didn’t show as much excitement but wasn’t scared of it either. (They also both got another ride with Grandpa or Grandma on Sunday too.) We all were able to enjoy the campfire right before the boys’ bedtime, both Saturday & Sunday night.

They napped well and slept well all weekend – great job boys! We have at least 3 more camping trips this summer already planned so with one successful weekend behind us, I am really looking forward to the rest now!

Some fun pictures from our weekend:

Wyatt

Colton

Colton relaxin' in the lawn chair

Wyatt hangin' out in the lawn chair

Playing in the Pack 'n Play

1st 4-wheeler ride

Enjoy the campfire