It's been a crazy few weeks

It has been a crazy few weeks for our family. Our friends, Daniel and Amber, were in town for the 4th of July weekend. They have a little boy who is 16 months old and we all had a great time. We took the 3 boys to Jump Mania Saturday morning and wore them out. The 3 boys got along great and wore each other out.


Aaron had a great time playing in the toddler play area. There was a fire truck slide that he had a blast going up and down.


Luke had a great time playing with the baby/toddler toys while Levi ran around and jumped in all the bounce houses.

Levi really enjoyed the bounce area for the toddlers and loved hugging the dog. They had so much fun. It was a great weekend with friends.

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Zach and Amber arrived very late Sunday night to look for a house. They were here for 3 days and Levi LOVED playing with little Finn. He was such a good friend to Finn. He would sit on the couch and hold Finn for 15-20 min straight. If Finn started crying Levi would grab his pacifier and give it to him. It was very cute.

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Following Zach and Amber's visit we had 2 days to rest and get ready for more company. On Friday, I drove to Kansas City to pick up my dad and Leslie from the airport. They were coming to meet Luke for the first time and to spend time with our family. They were lucky enough to be able to come the same weekend as Levi and Luke's birthday party. We had so much fun. We spent Saturday baking and decorating the boys' birthday cakes and shopping for the party. Then Saturday afternoon the party was on. We had a bounce house and had so much with the boys. We were all exhausted after the party and came home and napped.

Papa, Me, Levi, and Luke in the bounce house at their party. It was a lot of fun!

Luke is not sure what to do with the cake. He was so careful even when we tried to get him to smash it.

Levi enjoyed his Chocolate Handy Manny cake. He ate way way too much.

On Sunday, we relaxed in the morning and then headed to Branson to go to Silver Dollar City. We had a lot of fun taking the boys on the rides and touring the different shops. We had funnel cake and frozen lemonade. Both of which were wonderful. We came home and had delightful Tri-Tip tacos made by my dad.
Papa, Leslie, and Levi on the train ride. We all had fun on the train ride.


Papa and Levi were pretending to nap in Levi's race car bed. Papa and Leslie bought Levi new Handy Manny sheets and pillowcase for his birthday. He loves them.


Levi, Luke, and Me on the frog ride. I was happy that they allowed Luke on the small rides as long as I was with him. It made it much more fun for him.

Monday was a very relaxing day. Luke had his 1 year appointment in the morning. It went great and the doctor was very impressed with how he is growing and learning new things. After the dr. appt we went to Bass Pro shops and the boys had a great time looking at all the fish. We came home for the boys to nap and then dad made Fried Chicken. Yum Yum! I ate way too much.

Tuesday was a sad and tiring day. I had to take Dad and Leslie back to the airport. After driving about 8 hours (to KC and back) I had to go to class. I was very sad to say good bye because I do not know when the next visit will be. I will say that I will not allow it to be over a year and a half like last time!

All in all we have had a great few weeks. I have been so busy I have been unable to blog. Now that company is gone and life is returning to normal I will be able to blog much more.

Adventures for our week!

This is a very exciting week for our family. Tomorrow Levi will be 2!!! I can't believe that he is already 2 and such a big boy. I miss him being a baby. I plan to make him a special breakfast and have a fun day with him.
On Thursday, Ryan and I will celebrate our 4 year anniversary. By celebrate I really mean drive 11 hours to Michigan for Jess and DJ's wedding. I am excited to get out of Springfield for a few days and have some family time. Maybe Anna will stay with the boys in the hotel so Ryan and I can go out to dinner and celebrate.
DJ and Jess will be married on Saturday and I am so happy that we are able to be apart of their special day. Ryan will be a groomsman and Levi is going to be the little ring bearer. It is going to be a beautiful wedding and I will post pictures of our weekend in Michigan.

Cranky Luke and Swimming

Fussy? Cranky? Attached to Mommy?

Luke has been all these for the last week. I did not understand what was going on. He was not running a fever, he was fed, dry, and had napped. He would not stay in the nursery on Sunday. They had to come and get me because he would not calm down. I discovered Tuesday (I think) that he had two teeth coming in. No wonder the poor little guy has been fussy. His teeth have been hurting him. Then I discovered last night that he actually has 4 teeth coming in at ONCE! Poor little just can't get a break. Hopefully, after these teeth come in he will have a little relief before more come in.

As for the not staying in the nursery on Sunday. I think that may have to do with him being a Mommy's boy. He stays home with me all day and doesn't like to be away from me. Levi was used to being away from me at this age because I worked full-time. Having the opportunity to stay home with the boys is an AMAZING opportunity that I am so thankful for. I am hoping the play groups will get Luke used to being around more people and he will be a little more social.

Thursday Night Swimming!

Ryan and I took the boys swimming at a friends pool. We had a lot of fun. When summer started Levi was deathly afraid of the pool. I have no clue why but he was. We have gone swimming quite a bit since then and he is no longer afraid and has lots of fun. He is jumping to us from the side of the pool and he plays on the steps (with us right by him of course). Luke loves to sit in his little floaty and splash. He is so content when we are in the water. He is a little fish. I am thinking about signing of for a mommy and me swim class if I can find one on Tuesdays that has childcare for one of the boys each week.

That is all for now! Hope you all have a fabulous Friday!

Play Group Thursday

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day. Tomorrow I will be meeting up with other springfield moms for a play group. I am excited about this new adventure because I really do not like meeting new people, but I really want Levi and Luke to make new friends and I would love to make new mommy friends. So I am going to jump into this adventure whole heartedly and make the best of it. This is a play group that I am starting and putting all my effort into. My goal for this group is grow and for us to become a great group of friends who can rely on each other for support, advice, and of course girls nights out.

Before I had kids I would see "mommy groups" at the park and I always laughed and said I would never be apart of a group like that. I would hear them talking about their kids newest illness, their fear of SIDS, starting new foods, breastfeeding, and who knows what else. I never understood why they needed to get together and discuss these issues.

Now as a SAHM with two little boys I see the need to get together with other moms and discuss frustrations or get advice from moms who have had experience in an issue that I am heading into. For example, it will soon be time to potty train Levi and I have NO CLUE where to start and I am hoping that another experienced mom can give me advice so I can make it a successful experience.

I will post sometime tomorrow about my thoughts and ideas from the play group tomorrow. Pictures will also be added!

Silver Dollar City

Luke and Levi were playing in the playground at silver dollar city and having a great time. They were riding in the lady bug together.

Luke was just hanging out in the lady bug. He's cool like that.

I took Levi for a ride in the Elephant. He was not too sure about it at first but once we got flying he had a great time.

We had a great family day at SDC on Sunday. It was the first time we have taken the boys and we have not been in almost 2 years. Thanks to my dad we have season passes so we will be able to go as often as we like. It was wicked hot but still loads of fun. We took the boys to see a Veggie Tales show and I am pretty sure they were the only kids in the building who had never seen veggie tales before. Luke was very entertained by the singing and dancing and Levi enjoyed laughing at the dancing veggies.

I love nothing more than great family days and our sunday at SDC was just that!

Friday Evening at the park!

Luke was going up the slide and Levi went down...

Levi is going down the slide

My little walker is getting too big!

I am going to try this again...

I started blogging many many months ago and gave up after only a few posts. I kept telling myself I did not have enough time to blog everyday, that no one would read it, and that it wasn't important. After following blogs that other moms write I decided that I am going to get back on track and blog about my life as a mom and the life of my family. I feel like this blog will be fun to look back on in a few years when the boys are getting older. I'm sure there will be many funny stories and pictures from my boys.

Saturdays are always fun days at our house. I always try to do one really fun activity with the boys since it is one of the few days that we are not stuck at home while I babysit. Today I was so excited that it was hot at 9 am. I got the boys in their swim diapers and swim shorts, packed towels, and juice (water) and we headed to a local park that has a kiddie pool (free). We got there to find out the pool did not open until 1. Ryan had to be at work until 2 so that was not going to work out for us.

I was bummed!

We decided to head home get the family dressed and head to the farmers market. We found yummy oatmeal raisin cookies made by the Amish and Levi got the opportunity to pet a little bunny. He was all smiles and kept saying "bunny". It was very cute. We then decided to take "Auntie" Ashley her birthday party invitation and "Uncle" Tyler was there with Sawyer. Levi thought Sawyer was funny but did not want to get too close. Luke was not fond of Sawyer either. We were able to see some of our good friends though!

It was a great morning!

Now it is time for me to change diapers and get the boys loaded into the truck and head to Anna's dance recital. This will be her last recital forever :(.

Stay tuned for more blogs. Some will be updates on our days, some will be questions that I ponder, and some will just be random thoughts.