Merry Go Round on Speed

This describes my life as of yet-but I'm not complaining.  I enjoy the crazy. I like the loud and nutty! I don't love that I can't always remember what day it is, but I like most of the craziness of a busy life.  And that is exactly what we have had lately. I went back to work May 1st-that's 2.5 weeks ago-but it feels like it was just yesterday.  We have had busy weeks, packed weekends, and this weekend will be no different.  All fun stuff!

Here's a recap of our last few weeks:

I came back right in the middle of projects being due for a few of my classes.  One 5th grade class had to create and execute a fitness goal for one week.  This was all done prior to my return, but I had to grade a few of the late projects.  This is what this student answered in response to how their goal was related to fitness and how they would change their goal:

Kids are cute:)

After my first few days back, we went to a Day out with Thomas.  There was a separate post about that:)  

After Thomas we had a family fun filled weekend.  We went to my cousin's first communion party that afternoon-Ashley was born the day after we were married so it's been SUPER fun to see her grow up-she's almost like a niece to us:)

 My cousin's wife and their two daughters spent the night with us that night because they were in town to go to another family member/friend's daughter's baptism.  Riley is just 6 weeks younger than Tucker and Charlotte is about 3.5 months younger than Brayden so the kids have a blast together-and I always LOVE hanging with Sue!

I went in to take a shower and come out the Sue doing this:

 Addie stopped over to play too and the kids had fun jumping off the lawnmower ramp

Tucker always makes us laugh-this is what happened when I asked him to put his crocs by the front door: right next to it!

he's been having a bit of an obsession with his "ankees hat"

Spring has FINALLY come-our favorite tree bloomed!

a little brother swing time!

 Tucker has rekindled his winter obsession with all things forts, pillow piles, fort diving, etc. 

He's mastered the "seat drop" off the couch lately.

 last friday night we went to Panchero's for burritos and then Wells Hollow Farm for petting zoo fun and ice cream!

 his first ice cream cone-he got bored of it quickly so max had to finish it:)

 Saturday night William (and Matt & Sarah) came to play.  He is on the move now and was having fun with Tucker's toys:)

 back to the pillow fun-he was off-roading! He just had to watch out for William wanting to play too:)

he built this one by himself...

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 All spiffed up for church!

 the brothers are SO cute!

 We had a nice mother's day-church (an hour of kid-free time!) and long naps coupled with my relaxing on the deck, and then dinner with our family at my parents house.  Tucker showed us this new dance move on the way there-not sure where it came from, but it was funny.

 Nana LOVES to play and cuddle with Brayden:)

dudes on cleanup duty...Chris is mysteriously missing though...

 apparently Jim was on Tucker duty at that time too!  Giving him his first "ride" on a bike-no he didn't really take him anywhere.

 Photobomb from Lauren!

When we got home that night, Tucker did not want to come inside. So I told him he could stay outside by himself and sleep on the grass. I walked in to put my bags down and came back out to this: 

figures that he decides to listen to me when it doesn't matter or when I'm being sarcastic!

He found his "extra" lovie that I had hid in his closet...oops!

 more forts...it's a multiple times per day kind of thing

 he did this one all by himself too! he was very proud!

 a sweet moment on our walk yesterday

 we went to play at the TECEC park today! What a difference a year makes at this age. He was SO much taller and I didn't have to worry about him at all on this playground.  Certainly makes it easier when I have Brayden too!

 This is day 4 of 5 of Max being away so we were watching Curious George, the movie after dinner tonight.

These days are definitely packed, but we are loving every minute of them!

Melt my heart!

This morning while I was feeding Brayden, tucker came over and said "baby down" and pointed to a spot on the couch next to me. Thinking that he just wanted a quick hug I obliged. Then he asked for the pillow to go in front of Brayden (how we make sure he doesn't flop forwards when he is sitting up on the couch). I was waiting for my hug when tucker climbed up on the couch and sat next to Brayden and wanted to play with him. I will treasure this time when they love each other so sweetly because who knows how long it will last!!

A Day Out With Thomas

We bought the tickets for this Thomas the Tank Engine event months ago before I ever knew I was going back to work, and it could not have come at a more perfect time.  I went back to work last Wednesday so it was awesome to have this family event centered around Tucker, since I kinda ditched him!

He had a blast! I think it was a weird thing for him that Thomas was actually there, because Thomas is usually just on the TV or a small toy, but he worked through it! They had a lot of fun activities for the kids including some carnival rides, tattoos, train tables, meeting Sir Topham Hatt (he was a little freaky looking), a magician and his bunny rabbit that Tucker got to pet, singers, a fire truck that Tucker got to sit in, and a ton of other entertainment.  We also went on a train ride (it was at the Essex Steam Train) and Thomas actually pushed/pulled the train.  Tucker loved looking out the window and getting his "junior conductor" certificate at the end of the ride. 

It was a beautiful day and the kids did awesome (especially Brayden who barely had a morning nap and spent most of the day in his carseat!).  As an added bonus, they both fell asleep on the way home-Tucker even had my phone and a book in his hand and totally conked.  

We had a very busy weekend with lots of fun people, but this was clearly the highlight for Tucker! Only a very slight win over having a sleepover with his cousin Riley-that's another post:)

His reaction when he figure out where we were

It was hard to get Tucker's excitement captured, but you can kind of see his smile off to the side of the picture-he was pumped!

The Deisels

Some of the "steamies"

 Getting his first tattoo-he doesn't want to take it off!

trip through the fun house

he would not let go of the pole to get off-he really likes carousels

the front engine

our ride on Thomas

I LOVE their matching faces here-totally not on purpose!

making new friends at the train tables

 Tucker was holding on pretty tight...he wasn't a fan of the freaky Sir Topham Hatt

He loves his brother

All dressed up to try out the firetruck

 Ole!

Thomas was pulling in to the station while Tucker was in the firetruck

getting a little too comfortable up in the driver's seat

he was walking with a purpose

this guy...

6 months old!

This post is about a week overdue! I went back to work on Wednesday=VERY minimal free time these days!  I am thankful the boys usually take good naps and that they overlap for awhile in the afternoon so I can have a bit of time to catch up on life today!

Those were the fastest 6 months of my life! They were tiring, life changing, but mostly filled with joy, smiles and lots of giggles!

Brayden continues to be a very easy going and happy baby. He loves his laugh and play dog, his toy moose, his exersaucer, being outside (he even started to like the swings a lot), playing with Tucker, cuddling with Tucker, pretty much anything with Tucker. One of my favorite times has recently become when Tucker wakes up from his nap-Brayden and I go up to get him and B lays next to T on his bed and they cuddle.  Tucker thinks it's hysterical when Brayden grabs at his face.  Very cute.

He has started to eat cereal and some fruits and veggies. He eats 2T oatmeal and 1/2 tub fruit for breakfast and dinner and at dinner he eats a veggie too.  So far he's had pears, apples, peas and carrots.  Shockingly he LOVED the peas-almost more than the carrots! He spits up a lot more than Tucker which makes me not want to give him dark colored foods-more laundry to do!

He has dropped to 2 naps and sometimes he takes a catnap in the late afternoon/dinner time. He's been nursing/gettng a bottle 5-6 times a day as well.  His usual routine is: 7 wake and nurse, 9-10:30/11 nurse/bottle. 1230/1 nurse/bottle and down for 2nd nap-2:30/3. Nurse/Bottle 3ish, (sometimes) catnap5/530 for 30 min, 6-nurse/bottle and dinner, 730/8 nurse and bed.

He has also started rolling more frequently from his belly to his back.  We finally broke his swaddle habit for naps awhile back but we are still a little lazy about always not swaddling him at night-he wakes up when he's not swaddled.

We can't wait to see what this month holds!

We love you!