Mondays

I wrote this beautiful blog about the boys yesterday and this is what I get today. Not for the faint of heart.



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"The Boys"

Life is good. Summer has been great. I think this is the most adventurous summer we have had yet.
The boys have been changing a lot and I wanted to share some pics with everyone. We just passed Beau's due date, July 23rd and that is such a relief to me. He is walking, quite well I would add. He can say several words including- Mama, Dadda, Night Night, and I am pretty sure he can also say NO and up. He is delightful. Delightful is the perfect word. You know when he was first born we thought, how could we love anything as much as we love Baker, but it happens. We also thought how could he be as cute as Baker, but he is. We actually call him beautiful. It is just terrible how blind you might be as a parent. The boys are very different and yet all too similar.

Beau is honoree, just like Baker. He knows what he is not supposed to do and will do it anyways with a smile on his face. He too is opinionated. He learned very quickly how to throw a fit when he doesn't get his way. Its amazing how even the best of us are born sinners. Beau is a flirt. He doesn't know a stranger. He loves most people and certainly isn't afraid of invading their personal space. He has been such an easy baby and good sleeper, Thank you Lord!
Beau is tough and he is finally learning to defend himself. We thought this day would be much farther away but the time has come that he knows how to fight back. It seems now I am taking Beau off a crying Baker as much as I am taking Baker off a crying Beau. I can now say "get off your brother" and be talking to either of them.

We play this game at our house called "beat up". Baker will say "Beat up me daddy". The game has always consisted of Baker trying to beat up Brian and the two of them having some good male bonding. Well now Beau is in the game and he is viscous. I suspect that this whole time he has been on the side lines he has been taking notes! He will jump right in there and just go to attacking, except Beau likes to slap- HARD, which is not allowed in the rules of beat up, b/c it hurts. So Beau just walks in and slaps Brian in the face and then will jump on his belly like he is riding a horse. This kid is so proud of himself that finally he can get a piece of daddy. Within seconds though Beau has forgotten the game and is inevitably cuddling Brian. He is a major cuddler and he actually gives hugs. In the morning when I get him out of bed he will actually squeeze me. Its nice, to say the least.

So some of the pics I posted are of Beau playing beat up with Baker, which doesn't last long b/c like I said, Baker can get hurt. I hope you can see the intensity and joy on Beau's face. These boys are really starting playing together so well. My days have become a bit boring b/c I have less and less entertaining to do. They will wrestle together at least twice a day and Baker has been letting Beau "work" with him. On Tuesday I said, "Baker we have to go to the store" and he said, "No, I'm working, Beau working too!". You can't help but laugh at that stuff. So, their favorite working activities which are of highest importance to Baker are sitting under the desk and "screwing" things into it and then hiding in the closet. Now, this one makes me nervous, especially when they are quiet but somehow Baker has convinced Beau to just go sit with him in the closet. Baker gets pretty upset if for some reason Beau won't go into the closet. Baker is also very considerate of Beau. If Baker gets a junior mint or a marshmallow for going potty he will ALWAYS ALWAYS tell me- "Beau want one too". Anything I give Baker, Beau want one too. It surprises me but I am glad Baker cares for him. The other day when I went to go lay Beau down for his morning nap Baker said- "No, Beau stay wake!" They are buds! At this point in life the age gap (15 months) is totally paying off. I thought it wouldn't be til they were 4 and 5 but 1 and 2 is working out pretty well.

Beau is also completely fearless. He loves any kind of animal, will jump from any height, and thinks he is old enough for a bike with training wheels. The other day they were outside and when I joined them Beau was on Baker's bike (which is actually for a 3year old). He had climbed up on his own and was turning the handle bars like he was driving. You can see the pic. Again, he was very proud of himself.
Beau also likes to play peek-a-boo, but he hides for at least one minute. I am not exaggerating here. He will have the blanket over himself for SO LONG! I am like- Beau, please come out now. It's very cute though. You can see this in the pic too.

Anyways, it has just been a nice summer. I will say more about that later but I am just so happy and thankful that the boys are getting along and enjoying each other. It was a very unexpected but pleasant surprise. We are very thankful for the both of them. Now if we can just get them a SISTER!

The 4th in the North

Thanks for all the comments on Brian's deck. We received so many compliments it reminded me of how many people read this thing so I thought I better keep going.










This town LOVES the 4th of July. It is one of my fav holidays and I was excited to take in all the events Dickinson had to offer.
Starting on Friday night we went to something called a "street dance". I had never heard of this and so we went to see what it was. Definition: a reunion of locals in the middle of downtown with a surprisingly decent band who are all drinking. So, not so much fun for us but we got to see what it was at least. Very interesting.


Then on Saturday we went THE parade. I personally also love parades. I went to them or was in parades all throughout growing up. This parade lasted 1hr! With no marching bands. It was really cool. They threw so much candy and each class (1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010) all had floats (unpomped) that they sat on. Very entertaining. The boys loved it. We had ridden our bikes to Joel and Fawn's and then walked to the mile long parade. Also, the govenor was there. Are you serious? I have never seen Brad Henry in Weatherford. I guess it is a lot easier in a small town, and when you are running for the Senate. Then we had a nice lunch at Fawn's. She is very Southern Living meets Martha Stewart.

Then... we went to this art in the park exhibit. Basically an arts and crafts show on the universities campus. It was beautiful as you can see in the pics. They also had a family fun day, but the boys had to nap at some point!

As you can tell Brian's brother Aaron has been with us on and off through the summer. I think he actually enjoyed his 4th of July with us. He is single ladies, although I don't know if any single ladies read this that are at least close to his age. Anyways the boys have loved having him here.








The reason we built the deck so quickly was b/c we had a 4th of July party. If you know us at all you know we love to have parties, whatever the occasion- birthday, engagement, holiday, holiday we don't even celebrate- whatever. Plus, this was the most logical step to avoid risking another terrible holiday away from family.

So, we had 2 families over, (who were also far far away from home) Fawn and Joel, that is Brian's boss and Fawn is one of my bf's here. They have a son Graves who is 10 months. Fawn is actually from Bixby. Then we had Kristina and Robert over. They just moved from Houston, he works for Marathon, and I met her at the Redbox. It is easy to tell when someone is not from ND and I could tell she WAS NOT so I talked to her. We have hit if off really well and several of us migratory folks have started playdates in the park. Kristina has a son John David that is 2.

So, we had ribs, baked beans, potato salad, dip, watermelon, deviled eggs, homemade ice cream and cookie cake. It was delish! Again, I do like to take pics of my food creations. It doesn't look that great despite the time Aaron and I worked on it but it does have 13 stripes and 50 stars and there were no left overs.
After dinner we had some fireworks that we played with in the backyard, safely! Notice Gma, the pick of Baker fully supervised with the sparkler-lol. I bought the fireworks, all $28 worth and apparently my childhood memories have imporved as I have gotten older b/c I was SO excited about the chicken and snake fireworks. I had been talking these things up for days. Now, I don't know if my dad bought different ones for us but Brian was a bit disappointed. They weren't very cool, but Baker loved them. It was pretty funny, I was surprised that neither of my children were scared of the fireworks at all. What a relief!

The city of Dickinson put on a great fireworks show at 10pm where we were bundled in coats and hoodies b/c it was chilly. We went to Kristina's to watch the show b/c we lived too far away.







Someday I will learn how to post pictures in order and align them with the words I write about them, but for now-
Thanks for reading and enjoy your freedom

Brian- DIH

So, when we purchased our lovely home there was a large dog kennel in the backyard which of course- we have zero use for. The previous owners also left their dog house which sat on broken up concrete surrounded by a fence. It was seriously disgusting. Yuck. So, Brian had the idea to build a deck over it and that is exactly what he did. It took him about 1/2 a Saturday and it went off without a hitch. I am very proud of him and very very impressed. We now love our deck and sit on it almost everyday! Baker and I helped out too... well I guess Beau provided some laughter. Anyways, it was a lot of fun and it was pretty easy. We can't stain it for a couple of months until the wood adjusted or something like that, but the pics should show you a good story. Thanks Brian!