Sean quote of the day

Me: "Sean, stop RIGHT now, or you will get a time-in."
Sean: "NO! Me got POWER!" followed by the frowniest frowny face ever.

Visit to the fish hatchery

Today was a beautiful day, and Mark had no school. We decided to go to the fish hatchery with some friends. 

Watching the tortoises

As some of you may know, we have tortoises. Both boys love watching them, and Sean decided that his polar bear and his sheep wanted to watch them too. I love how enthusiastic Sean gets!

Mark's Lady Bug

Mark found a lady bug outside in our yard on Saturday. At first he thought it was dead, but as soon as his hands warmed it, it started to walk around. He asked me to take a picture of him with it. He was so gentle and careful with those big, somewhat grubby boy hands!

Mark looking down at the ladybug in his hands

Fly away, little bug!

Just for fun

Mark doesn't let me take his picture as often as he used to, and he is also in school 5 days a week from 9am- 3:35pm... however, I do VERY MUCH like his smile, and was so happy to capture it a few days ago.

Big boy Mark before leaving for school

 Mark is doing really well. He has a bunch of testing this week for the EXCEL program in our district, and we will hear how things went in a few weeks. Right now Mark is requesting 2 breakfasts, MORE lunch in school, and a sandwich after dinner - something tells me he is gearing up for a major growth spurt!

I love building dinosaurs out of DUPLOs with Sean

Sean is growing in leaps and bounds, too. His vocabulary really has blossomed, and he makes us laugh so often with the things he says.

We are working hard right now on teaching him the importance of listening. I have noooo idea where he gets his stubbornness from...

Vader-guy goes potty

...no words necessary!

Happy 2013!

Life has been so busy since Christmas that I haven't had time to take any pictures of the boys!

Big smile!

We are doing well, and are enjoying our new year! I'll stalk the kids with the camera in the next few days.

Merry Christmas 2012!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We had a wonderful day together. To help the boys remember that the main focus of Christmas isn't gifts, they 'just' got 4 presents each: "Something you want, something you need, something to wear (a costume), something to read." They had fun unpacking their gifts, and then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon happily puttering and playing dress-up.

Getting a picture of both boys smiling is just about impossible

Not sure if this one is any better. 

Sean NOT sitting still

Larry with the boys
(Sean was unhappy that Ben took away the Darth Vader mask he was wearing)

Big-boy Mark

"something to wear"

"something to wear"

Our boys probably spend about 60% of the time
wearing costumes when we are at home and awake.

The padded "muscles" of Sean's costume make me giggle.

Of COURSE the boys made guns out of the new Duplos.

Ben and Larry 

Grandpa Bradley reading to Sean/Ninja

For dinner we had a turkey that was stuffed with ham and covered in bacon.
It was delicious!

Ben took this nice picture of me with the boys. 

What a wonderful Christmas. I was exhausted from all the cooking, but that was ok, because Ben let me sleep in until 10am the next day!

Rainy day fun

Sean proudly hiding in the 'hide hole' he asked me to help him build

Sean really LOVES to paint, and he has really good fine motor control for his age

Sean very purposefully paints swirls and lines

A few blobs of paint, a brush, and unlimited paper supply will keep him very busy!

Mark got to make a recycled-materials bug for school.
Good thing I save odd-shaped plastic packaging...

(while concentrating, he sticks his tongue out like his Dad)

All done!

The boys' rainy-day blanket fort

Mark and Sean quotes

Me: "Sean, it's time to nap."
Sean: "No, Mama, me no want sweep."
Me: "Sean, when Mama says it's time to sleep, it is time to sleep."
Sean: "You have bad att'tude, Mama."


Mark: "Momma, what is a straight jacket?"
Me: "It's kind of like a shirt with really long sleeves that get tied around you so you don't hurt yourself."
Mark: "Have you ever had to wear one?"
Me: "Uhm, it's for crazy people, Mark."
Mark: "So, have you ever had to wear one?"

Some new pics of the boys

I've been so busy there hasn't been much time to take pictures of the boys lately... but I did take a few!