first trip to the DENTIST

Probably overdue for Lance, and maybe a little early for Chase (even though the dentist didn't think so) The boys made their first trip to the dentist. I was EXTREMELY proud of the boys, especially Lance. Despite the 25 minute tardiness of the dentist, they didn't cry and sat nice and still (well Chase was under Dad's death lock....) As the dentist leaned Lance's chair back and had him open wide, I could see his heart pumping and his grip was as tight as can be on the sides of the chair. But he listened and did everything he was told!

Lance also got his first SALON haircut! This is a big deal you know :-) LOL. Notice who he brought with him to keep him company! And he wore the cape with no problems, ahhh.... finally past that hurdle! How many more to go?

a little SNOW action!

We didn't get out in the snow too much in December because of the cold temps, but the temperature along with the snow this past week has been much better for some snow play! All Lance talks about is having a snowball fight and making a snowman.... which we have attempted, but the snow just hasn't been quite right for yet.

Yes, I know I take too many photos - and Lance knows it too - as they were getting their snow gear on they just looked so darn cute, so I tried to snap a picture and this is what I got from Lance....

Here he is in ACTION! I don't think there could be a more genuine "I'm having fun" smile!

 GOT ME! The camera went away and it was BATTLE TIME!

So, Chase was not too excited about all this snow gear nonsense, and not being able to walk, and he hated the mittens...... So those came off, but then when he actually started walking, he fell and then his hands touched the snow - and that was it for his first venture out into the snow!

"Mommy, this is SO much better!" Bare feet, in the warm house with normal toys.... and super cute in his partial snow gear I might add!

Lance is suddenly into Transformers - Dad found some of his old Transformer toys and we have discovered the ever so fun Rescue Bots on Netflix (Which I enjoy watching 10x more than Spiderman I must say!)

Little shovel helpers!

 Well, ok, Lance was using the shovel to add snow to his snow tower..... But Chase did clear some snow!

Dad and Chase chilling in the snow........

I'm usually behind the camera - but got Keegan to take one of me with Chase all bundled up during some weekend afternoon family snow play!

17 MONTH update

So, I realy didn't take lots of notes and prepare much for this update. New attempt and words each day, some I am still trying to interpret myself.

Some of our favorites for Chase right now at 17 months:

• When he sees Spiderman anything, or we say Spiderman, he flips his wrists over and makes the web shooting noise - pretty funny.
• Chase will drop anything he is doing when he hears the "I like to move it, move it" song and start dancing away - or doing squats to the beat.
• He can't get enough of peek a boo. It's a different kind of fun from when he was younger though. I'm talking belly laughing fun when we throw things over our heads or his and then make them suddenly re-appear.
• Bringing books to us and actually sitting for an entire book.
• Chase is IN LOVE with the iPad Elmo app - and now when he sees Elmo or we say Elmo he says "lalalalalala" with his little tongue sticking ALL the way out.
• I just love to listen to his babbling sentences of "non-sense" Well, non-sense to me but he knows just what he is talking about.

Some of our not so favorites right now:

• Refusing to eat most everything.... except fruit of course. He LOVES his fruit, and breakfast foods. Oh, and peanut butter.... (see below) With that being said, the kid does love some tuna salad and he discovered he likes guacamole and fish stix just this week too! Crazy..... I think he only tried the fish sticks because he really likes fish or "Shish" as Chase says - lol
• Climbing, climbing, climbing - not used to this from Lance. Lance was NOT a climber.He is a dare devil, and just grins when he conquers his goal. When I went to pick him up at the gym one of the care providers said she turned around, to do her normal scan of the room, and there Chase was up on the toy shelves, about to stand... Sigh...
• As of today, a few days beyond the 17 month mark - we now can say the word NO. Watch out!

I'll leave the update at that. Not too bad for not keeping notes I would say.

And now, some fun Peanut Butter pictures! I gave Lance an almost empty peanut butter jar around the same age, so we do have an overdue comparison of the two!

S is for: Swimming in Spaghetti

Yep, you read it right - and no I'm not crazy! Just a little cabin fever and something different to do indoors! And it was the letter S for the week, so why not?

Lance also got to have some fun, quality cousin time this week! Lance and Dylan are months apart in age, and only live minutes away from each other, but busy schedules don't give them as much time together. I'm sure that will change with the weather though! It was fun to see them enjoy each others company.

love IS:

these 3 (handsome three I might add!)

love IS: waking up to this every morning and after naps.....

Lance taking toys into Chase's crib, and listening to them talk and giggle! Can't get enough of it.

love IS: getting to take my little guys for a Valentine treat. (Never would I have gotten to do this if I were working)

love IS: Lance running in from watching Disney Junior, jumping up on the couch with me, giving me a great big hug and kiss and saying "I LOVE YOU MOMMY!" Then watching him run back into the other room to finish his show!

love IS: seeing the excitement on Chase's face when Grandma comes to visit us!

 and seeing Lance be as rambunctious as ever, but having so MUCH fun! Laughter = LOVE

love IS: not getting completely upset and flustered when I went to shake the RED colored pancake mix...... and the lid wasn't tight. RED pancake batter EVERYWHERE! Only because Lance comes up to me and says "It's ok Mommy, it was an accident. Sometimes that happens!" Then runs and climbs up onto the kitchen table to grab me napkins and politely tells Chase "Move away buddy, it's messy over there!" LOL Oh, I am laughing reading this.

love IS: getting to spend Valentine's Day dining in, in STYLE :-) (Again, thanks to not working, I got to spend some free time doing something I enjoy!) Then, my heart just smiled SO big when Lance saw it and said in his sweet toddler voice "Mommy, look at these pretty decorations. It's a party in here!"

 Our first time EVER using our new dining room set since we moved into the new house - CRAZY! And Chase sitting like a big boy up at the table!

I am so very thankful not only to have so many people in my life to give my love to, but to feel loved just as much! And thanks for this Holiday that reminds me each year to not take the love I have for granted. It is truly a gift.

Cheers to cupid!

 

VALENTINE photo shoot

Yes, I get a little carried away sometimes. My first fun experience using the backdrop and lights that Santa brought me this year! Fun stuff. Still trying to work on settings and photoshop editing. Although I am always expecting a little more or a little better, I'll take these for this year! My cute little Valentine's that will FOREVER have my heart!

The fun part for Lance, and for Mom too...... He loves his superheroes and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. We decided on giving Jake pencils with the second Valentine below to his friends.

Attempt ONE - 1 of a brother picture.... thank you Lance for cooperating, however Chase wanted NOTHING to do with it.

Lance gave me another few minutes, for a small Valentine's Day present bribe! If you all wonder how I get him to cooperate, I will admit - I BRIBE. Chase doesn't quite understand bribe YET, so I didn't get as many of him this round.....

This is what he thought toward the end, when I wanted just ONE more! I always ask him for just ONE more! What a little trooper.

 This was ALL Lance, posing for me.

 Goofy Lance. Couldn't get him to give me a smile with the heart around his face, but I love the way his eyes POP in this one!

 The sweet smile I know and wanted to capture - GOTCHA! Not as clear as I would like - was messing around with settings, but I'll take it.

Happy Valentine's Day to you ALL! May you all feel a little love....... 

The letter "R"

A new adventure began this week in our ever changing lives! We were presented with a part-time  pre-school opening at Lance's school/daycare. And since I have not yet found a job, it really makes NO SENSE what so ever for Lance to be attending a daycare/pre-school ALL day long every day. (although I have enjoyed my Chase time the past couple of months!) - Oh, and the savings from full to part time will be nice too :-)

I decided to step it up, soak in the fact that I am truly a "stay at home Mom" and work on more learning and activities to keep the boys busy.

Lance was thrilled about the calendar I bought for our very own "circle" and calendar time each day! Dad took him to Lowe's for a little pointer like his teachers have. He loves to play teacher and sing "days of the week" to Chase.

Letter of the week at school is "R" so I decided to expand and reinforce it at home.

Started with some "R" coloring and painting sheets....... Lance painted a "Rainbow Rhinoceros" He wanted to use ALL of the paint colors.

 Lance loved this "R" letter hunt with his dot paint markers. I just wrote out different letters all over the page, with multiple R's, then he chose one color to find and dot paint all of the R's he could find. And then chose another color for all other letters...... Might be doing this one each week! He is already asking about doing it again.

We also went hunting outside for ROCKS and then washed and painted our own rock friends! - This was Chase's very 1st time EVER painting. Of course Lance picked the color red for Chase... probably not the best color. He was doing great, you can see what he thought about it below...... and when I turned for 2 seconds to help Lance I glanced back to see a mouth that looked like there was BLOOD pouring out of it. ( No pic of that, I was too worried to quickly get the paint OUT of his mouth)  And that was the end of that experience for Chase! Mean Mommy!

 Lance being a nice big brother, showing Chase the rocks he is finding. "Look buddy, you just put the rocks in here...... then we will go inside and paint them"

I guess the rock cleaning SHOULD have been a sign of what was going to happen with the painting. He was so into cleaning his rock.......

And then ........ "What Mom, it's a toothbrush right? I'm suppose to brush my teeth with it, right?"

 

And then there were some new iPad learning apps I downloaded to teach the letter "R" (This was a BIG hit for both of them)

Although we read almost every day, this week we spent a little more time reading since it ties in with the letter R - YAY - excuses to read - Lance's favorite and Chase is slowly gaining his attention span for more reading (Chase sees blueberries on this page, one of his favorites, and he is pretending to eat them here in this pic - he's learning so much these days!) Starting to make me just a little sad that he isn't a baby anymore...

Just one last R to end the week on Saturday, although a little chilly and windy, R is for ROCKETS of course!

Thank you to best buddy Lawson, from Kansas, for this super COOL birthday gift!

It was a busy week for sure and we need to work on a more scheduled routine for all of us, but I am already excited to plan activities for next week - letter "S" and Valentine's - watch out! Pinterest has way too many fun ideas! Oh, and I should probably schedule time for laundry and cleaning too I suppose.......