OHIO!

This weekend, we went and visited the davis family in ohio. It was a quick trip - we went up saturday morning and came home monday afternoon but it was so worth it. We packed in a lot of fun in a short time period. Macey loves her cousin Brady and they had so much fun together with the little squabbles here and there.

Running, running, running - endless amounts of energy!

My Drama Queen - she insisted on wearing Brady's sunglasses!

Hamming it up!

Jake was all smiles on the swing!

Macey loved the ducks until they started waddling after her - then she hightailed it out of there!

Going face first down the slides

They are so cute together!

Jake flying high!

The cousins - so hard to get them all looking!

Independence!

I have always been a firm believer in teaching my children some sort of independence from early on. My parents taught it to my siblings and I, and I thought we are stronger for it. So my big starting point was allowing my children to feed themselves. I started with Macey when she started eating table food and any of my friends know what a disaster that could be. She was usually covered in all sorts of messes and required a bath and change of clothes after meals. Well, we have started again.

Jake has been feeding himself for awhile now, but just recently figured out how to rub it in his hair. Good times!

We do a lot of laundry in our house and a lot of wipe downs or baths, but to this day, I rarely ever have to feed Macey and I think that Jake is headed down that same path. Yay for independence!

Ahoy, Matey!

We have been looking for something fun to put in our backyard - something for the kids to play on so we don't always have to make the trip to the park - especially when there are 50 kids at the park. Yesterday, Jon looked on craigslist and found this fun play gym. It has a rope climber, fake rock climber, slide, and a telescope. So what is Macey's favorite?

You got it! The telescope! She looks through it and says "see the stars, see the dog, see daddy"

she says "ahoy macey"

she makes me laugh

such a fun thing to do on a cold day

did i say - jon got it for $70 vs $300 for a new one

this is as far as she will go on the slide

and the telescope again - "i see you" - even though it is covered in algee and you can't see through it at all. i love the little make believe brains of 2 year olds. soaking up the fun of everyday with this sweet child. she reminds me to see things through the eyes of a child.

since it was so cold out and it started raining, we decided to go in for some chocolate milk and some fun mommy/macey time - i forgot to mention that jake was napping :)

Rough Couple of Weeks!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted but we have had a rough couple of weeks. I know that is not a super good excuse but I am a mother of 2 children - one an up and coming independent toddler and one a teething, crawls faster then I can move 10.5 month old. And Jonathan has been working a lot. We went for a stretch of 12 days without having a day off together. I know, I know - people do it all the time but it makes a huge difference when it is from 6 am - 8 pm everyday. It is exhausting. So we are back to our normal schedules with mothers day out, bible study, and playdates with friends.

A couple of days ago, I walked into this - Macey had taken her diaper off and was standing there with nothing on from the waist down.

I thought maybe she was ready for the big girl potty. I was wrong. Still no interest in it whatsoever.

And this little man has finally gotten some teeth. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago but there are 2 bottom ones - FINALLY!

oh yeah - and this is his new little grin. He thinks he is so funny :)

My sweet boy. Hard to believe he is already almost 1. Time sure does fly.

We are all good. Just tired and the kids have had runny noses for what feels like forever. I think it bothers me more then them.

We have enjoyed some warmer weather and spent some time at the park and taking walks this week. It has been such a cold, miserable winter that we are hoping that spring is here to stay.