We are in!

We have officially moved into our new home and absolutely LOVE it! The kiddos are adjusting really well... it's like they know this is their home. We are still not 100 % unpacked and settled, but we will eventually get there!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Almost there!

The time has almost arrived! We are set to close on our new house this coming Friday!!! We absolutely can't wait! As soon as we get settled in, I will be able to start blogging again... we have a lot of catching up to do.



PS... I can't believe our babies are turning TWO on Wednesday! These past two years have flown by!

I can't wait until we get to catch up... SOON!

updates...

Well, we have put an offer on a house and it was accepted! If all goes according to plan, we will be closing on the new home Dec. 11! We are very excited and are looking forward to it!

Things have been pretty much normal around here for us. Len continues to put in long hours at work (poor guy!) and therefore I continue to put in long hours with the kids at home. Being in this apartment is really getting to the kids. Gavin now is having an extremely hard time sleeping. He was always the easy one to get to sleep, but boy... how things have changed! All of a sudden one night when putting him down, he just started screaming. Ever since then, it takes at least an hour and a half to get him to sleep (both for bed time and nap time), and he is now waking up multiple times during the night as well. Ugh. We are all exhausted.

Like I said... we are VERY excited about moving, and I'm hoping that will solve all of these sleeping issues.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

There is always a reason...

So, just in case you are wondering why you haven't heard anything from our wonderful family... I promise that there is a good reason. We have sold our house and moved! Since the move, we have not had Internet. We are waiting until we are in our new house to reconnect to the wonderful world wide web.

We sold our house on Sept. 22. Man, what a whirl wind that was. Our plans were to build a home that would be ready in Dec/Jan. So, after selling our home we have moved into a very tiny, very cramped apartment until our next move in Dec. Plans have changed, and now will be buying a pre existing home and hopefully closing sometime in Dec (we are in the lease now until then.... ugh). Life is VERY challenging in the apartment, and we find ourselves grumpy pretty much most of the time... so we are really looking forward to Dec. Unfortunately, I won't be posting a lot between now and then, but will do my best to keep everyone up to date on those precious kiddos!

They have gone under cover

The kids are cracking me up with their sun glasses! We went out for dinner tonight, and they just had to wear their glasses while we were eating. It was so funny, it's like they have gone under cover or something and are trying to hide their identities. I mean look at this...



HA HA HA! They can do their best to go under cover, but I can always spot these two cuties anywhere!

Such a happy boy!

Bayou Wildlife Park

We headed out to the Bayou Wildlife Park last weekend and had a great time. The kids LOVED seeing all of the animals up close and personal! We will have to go back soon... once it gets a little cooler!While we were driving into the park, all the animals that were near the road would come up to the cars for food. It was so funny that these animals are so acclimated to people that they are not even afraid of the cars. We literally had to "off road" to get around this guy... he would not move out of the middle of the road!
Here he is again... at my window asking for food! He was NOT planning on moving for anything!

Our safari boy

And our safari girl... HA HA! She really wasn't grumpy... she was just really hot



This picture looks so funny, but I promise that this ostrich was not about to eat this child... just the child's bucket of food!





The zebras were really neat. Our tour guide said that we were able to get closer to these zebras than people who go on an African safari!

Do you think Gavin is checking out the camel or the little girl??? We are going to have to have a talk with him...

No matter how much fun you are having with all the wildlife, sometimes a boy just has to stop and take a break to pick some boogies! UGH!!! We are also going to have to have a talk about that...

"Here Mr. Goat, eat from my bucket... not that bucket!"

She's got a thing with glasses!

Madaleine has had this thing lately with her glasses. She is such a diva!

She even knows how to accessorize...

Notice the bling bling on her wrist (Daddy's watch)....

and notice the fashionable hat. Gotta love it!

She even has a thing with her Mr. Potato Head glasses!

This baby doll was my Aunt's when she was a little girl. Madaleine figured she'd spruce the doll up a bit and give her some glasses... HA! She's so funny.

The pics of the hair and bed

Here is a picture of Gavin before his hair cut...
As you can tell, he was in desperate need of a hair cut. This picture must have been right when he woke up or something because man... that's some crazy hair!

And here is the handsome boy after his first hair cut!! Much better, but he's a cutie no matter what!!!

And the toddler bed.... ohhhhhhhhh. I hate the toddler bed. There have been some really rough nights. Life was sooo easy before the toddler bed. I would just lay each of the babies down in their crib, close the door, and they would put themselves to sleep.

Since putting Madaleine in her toddler bed, she is having a hard time going to sleep and she cries as soon as we even say the word "night night". It is getting better though. I would say now that she will only cry about half the time, and the other half is the crying for an hour. Nap times are rough as well. It now takes her about an hour before she will fall asleep. For the most time though she doesn't cry with naps, she just walks around her room until she falls asleep on the floor... yes, the floor. There has not been one nap yet where she actually has slept in her bed.

Overall, she is surviving the transition... she just still needs a little more time.

Here she is one morning before I woke her up. Actually in her bed!

And here she is during nap time. Poor baby. Darn... I wish she didn't learn how to climb out of that crib!

A hair cut and a toddler bed

Well, it's official. Our children are growing up WAY too fast.

After debating for a while about it, I finally decided it was time for Gavin to get his first hair cut. And guess who gave it to him??? Me! It was getting pretty long on top, and fury (lol) in the back. I was really scared to cut it and was about to take him to this kids place down the street that cuts hair, but then one of my friends gave me enough encouragement to do it myself (thanks Angie!). I did it right when he woke up from his nap, so he was still a little tired and didn't move around on me to much. I must say, it turned out really good. Now he looks like such a little man... so precious.

And Madaleine...

oh Madaleine.

I put her down this afternoon for her nap just like I always do. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not even two minutes later I hear her crying and I'm thinking it sounds a little louder than normal. As I'm walking to her room, I realize that her cry is a little louder because she is standing at her door! When I open her bedroom door, there she is... out of her crib. I thought we would just skip the climbing out of the crib phase, but I guess I was wrong! I calmed her down and put her back in her crib, but instead of closing the door all the way, I kept it open a little so I could peak. And sure enough, she climbed right out of the crib like it was no biggie. I got a video of it... I'm still amazed. So needless to say, I called Daddy at work and told him we had some work to do tonight when he got home! We got busy taking everything out of her room and converting her bed into a toddler bed. I can't believe I just said that... toddler bed! We will see how it goes tonight. So far we have had a few crying spells and have had to put her back in bed a few times, but I think she is finally asleep now.

I can't believe they are getting so big so fast! Before we all know it, I will be writing about the joys of potty training! Oh my. Check back soon, I will post some pics of Gavin's hair and Maddie in her big girl bed soon!

Beach trip #2!

We headed out to the beach a few weekends ago, and this time I came prepared with swimsuits and all. The kids had a great time!

Trying to figure out the sand

Figuring out he likes the sand!

I don't know what's worse, the fact that he is sooo dirty or the fact that he is sooo dirty and in my bag!

They were both getting a little too brave with the water and just running out into it, deeper and deeper... they have no fear what so ever!

Lunch with Daddy

We went to surprise Daddy at work the other day and go have lunch with him! It was nice to see him, especially since he has been working so hard (and late) lately! Gavin was cracking us up. He noticed that when we were walking around and I was meeting new people, that I would shake their hands. Well, Gavin caught on very quickly and before we knew it, he was walking around and holding out his hand to EVERYONE to shake. It was hilarious. He is going to be my little business man!

Chick-Fil-A... we love you!

HA! This is so us!

July 4 pics

I know it's a little late, but better late than never right? Since I am having a hard time believing how fast our babies are growing, I was doing a little reminiscing and looking back at some older pictures of the babies. Here they are last year for the fourth...

They grow up WAY WAY to fast! Here are a few from this year... enjoy!

Playing peek-a-boo

They look like a little old married couple... ha!

What a cutie!

And another darn cute cutie!

I don't know what's up with Gavin's crooked smile in all these pictures, but I love it!

I know it's not a politically correct flag cake, but I gave it my best shot people!

This was the first year we took them to go see fireworks. Here is Gavin right when we got there... he was taking it all in. It didn't take long for both babies to start running around like crazy all over the place, so needless to say we didn't get that many pictures there.
Len and I eventually got tired of chasing them around everywhere, so we stuck them back in the stroller and bought them these glow necklaces. They probably kept them entertained for about 2.5 minutes... then it was back to running around...whew!

The fireworks didn't start until 9:30... well past their bedtime, so it was starting to get a little rough. Once they started though, it was complete and utter amazement! Madaleine kept saying "boom" and pointing to the sky. We look forward to next year!