Nothing Says "Family" Like A Good Old Fashioned Game of Football

The first picture you see when you walk into our house is our last family portrait.  I love it.  It's black and white, framed in a wide black frame and looks awesome.  However, it only has Bo it it.  The last time we had professional family photos taken was before Sam was born.  That's pathetic.   

 

So we asked Wes' house photographer (and brilliant landscape photographer Ryan Black www.ryanblax.com) if he'd meet us out at Grandma & Grandpa's on Saturday to take some candid shots of us.  We know it is nearly impossible to get the boys to all look at the camera and smile at the same time so we decided to have fun and capture the boys in their true element.   

 

Here are a few of my favorites.

 

*Note - I tried to coordinate our clothes and even bought everyone new shirts that coordinated but 15 mintures before heading out the door Max refused to wear his, Wes did not like his, I didn't really like Sam's and mine didn't fit so everyone is wearing whatever they wanted.  And I love how it all turned out.  We look like us.   

Happy Birthday Max!

For his birthday we had Grandma & Grandpa over for dinner and cake.  Per tradition I let Max pick out everything for the party and his choices cracked me up.  For dinner he wanted chicken noodle soup, crackers, grapes and cake.  He picked out a Harley Davidson cake, ginormous candles, army cammo tablecloth and Dora plates.  It was quite the eclectic mix and he was ecstatic. 

 

 He opned his presents like a tornado on crack.  It was hilarious.

He got a Tonka helicopter from us, an airplane that turns into a dinosaur from Opa & Nana, and a big truck & Lorax the movie from Grandma & Grandpa.  He even got a Harley shirt from our friend Chris who was in town visiting from California

Leaves Leaves Leaves

Adjusting Well

Today's car conversation after school:

Sam:  Bo, do you know Jake?
Bo:    No, who's Jake?
Sam:  He's my friend at preschool and he's AWESOME!!

Sam's First Day of Preschool

Sometimes the best laid plans are merely wishful thinking . . . until even better plans can be made.

All Summer I was planning for both Sam & Max to start preschool in September.  I had everything ready.  Max was pretty much potty trained, they had new back packs, I had reserved each of them spots at Bright Beginnings (where Bo went) and had been daydreaming of all the things I could do or get done while I was kidless.  It would only be 3 hours 3 days a week but the possibilities were endless.  I would go to the gym, grocery shop, organize the closets, catch up on blogging, go through the last 5 years of papers and bills in our filing cabinet, take up swimming again, meal plan, sit in quiet, meet with a personal trainer, clean the house, read a book, (wait, no, just kidding, how did that get in there?!), repaint our bathroom, make a quilt out of the boys' baby clothes, recover our kitchen chairs, did I say go to the gym, and oh yes, very important, go to the bathroom without interruption. 

It was going to be GLORious!

And then I took them to visit the school last week and all of that changed.  I could feel my freedom being sucked out of me as I watched the boys play.  Don't get me wrong, they did fabulous.  They played for about an hour and had a blast.  But it was BECAUSE they played so well together that I realized Sam really needed to go to preschool alone.  He spent much of the hour helping Max and taking care of Max rather than exploring and mingling with the other students.  He's the middle child and has never done anything alone.  So as much as I would love love love some "me" time, and love love love doing all the things I had planned,  it was obvious that Sam needed HIS "me" time more. 

However, Sam did not think he needed any "me" time and threw fits the following week, screaming that he did not want to go to school alone.  He wanted to go with Max and if Max wasn't going, either was he.

So fast forward to the morning of the first day of school and the fits continued.  TOO.MUCH.SCREAMING.FOR,TOO,LITTLE.CAFFEINE!  How on Earth was I going to get this kid in the car and to school without one of us killing the other? 

Light bulb! 

"Sam, we at least have to take your school supplies to school because your teacher needs them."  It's amazing I could even think with all that noise but it worked.  He calmed down, got dressed and we left.  Phew!  Thank goodness he has a big heart and wanted to help out.  But Lord knows this would only buy me some time.  We would eventually get to school.

Which we did but only AFTER I tried to fix my low tire at the house and instead made it flatter while trying to inflate it because the air compressor did work and I could not figure the damn thing out and in all my geniusness, kept trying which in turn just kept making the damn thing even flatter.  What the hell?!  Flipping the switch on and off and on and off did not work.  Tire was still getting flatter.  My face getting redder.  I just wanted to get Sam to school.  Why won't this work?  What the f*@! am I doing wrong?!  And why . . . is this thing not plugged in?! . . .

With the tire now fixed we started to take Bo to school when I realized that I was on 'E' and forgot my purse at home.  You can't be serious!  Can the morning go anymore wrong?  So we dropped Bo off at school, went all the way back home, grabbed my purse, raided the shed for a few gallons of gas to chug into the tank and headed out again to drop the school supplies off at preschool.  (wink wink)

But I digress.  School.  We did eventually get to school. 

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!  NOOOOOO!  I DON'T WANT TO GO!  (insert kicking, punching, flailing, clawing and making a ginormous scene here).  It was bad.  Really bad.  But thank goodness for Mrs. Dupont who has been a preschool teacher for many many years.  She just picked up Sam, punching and all, said, "Goodbye Mom.  He'll be fine," and walked into the other room. 

My heart sank but I knew she was right.  And she was.  When I called 20 minutes later to check in, he was already chatting her ear off about his new GI Joe lunch box.  "Look at my new lunch box.  I like my new lunch box.  Daddy likes it too.  It's GI Joe.  Bo does not like it.  Do you like it?" 

My heart raised back into place and Max I went shopping.  Everything was going to be ok.

 Obviously we did not get any pictues BEFORE school but I did manage to take a couple when I picked him up. He had a great day. 

Target Practice

Moose season opened Septmeber 1st so Wes is getting all geared up to hunt and this year we decided Bo & Sam were old enough to start learning the ways.  Wes surprised them with a kid bow and arrow last night at Grandma & Grandpa's and they had their first lesson.  Unfortunately the string was still really hard for them to pull back but with Wes' help they did a good job.  They both got really frustrated but all in all I think they had a good time.  They are both very hard on themselves, especially Bo, and want to do everything perfect the first time so there were many tantrums about not hitting the target.  They did, however, kill many worms.  We kept reminding them that everything takes practice and quitting gets you nowhere.  Hopefully the next time around will go even better. 

 

 

Max (at almost 3)

I couldn't find Max today and finally found him sitting in his room watching his itouch and drinking out of the syrup bottle.

Today at the park he kicked a girl with spina biffada in the face twice.

His favorite words are "shut-up" and "stupid".

I told him to tell Sam sorry the other day and he said, "Sorry poopy pants"

He always says, "I can't walk"

When I asked him what kind of cake he wants for his birthday he said, "a stupid cake"

He still uses a binky and prefers to have a couple at a time.

He likes to lay in bed and yell, "MAMAAAAAA"

He's potty trained for pee during the day but still tends to poop in his pants most of the time.  I now know for certain that cloth diapers and I would not have gotten along.  I have thrown away at least 3 pairs of poopy underwear and pants because they were too gross to deal with.  Although in my defense, one of the pairs I tried to bring home from the park but half way home the stench started to burn my nose so bad I had to do dump it at the nearest gas station. 

He still thinks his middle name is "Amillion"

He has freaky upper body strength and can climb anything.

He runs everywhere and is uber fast.

He loves knives and all kitchen utensils (spatulas, tongs, large wooden spoons) and I often find them hidden around the house.  One night Wes & I climbed into bed and found a stash of 2 kid knives and 3 binkies under our covers. 

He does not nap during the day and usually is in bed between 7:30 & 8:00pm and up in the morning around 7:00am. 

He will either talk your head off or chop it off.

He has feet of steal and goes everywhere barefoot.

He loves baths but hates to have his face, nose, ears & hair washed. 

He says most words that end in an "r" with an "n" instead.  Caan=Car.  Fyaan=Fire.  But all other words with "r's" he says fine. 

Loves to cuddle and sit on my lap.

He puts his pointer finger up to his chin and looks up when he's thinking.

Likes to build legos like his brothers.

Loves apple juice, cashews, bacon, popcorn, chicken nuggets with ranch, chicken noodle soup, sugar snap peas, green beans, grapes, watermellon, gummies, link sausage, BBQ chips & corn on the cob.

Likes to say, "I show you something!"

Snot So Hard Anymore

This may seem insignificant to some, but to me it's huge.  Bo finally figured out how to blow his nose.