We're home!

We made it back from a great trip to Colorado. Unfortunately I forgot my camera! Who forgets there camera for Christmas? Me! We had a great time visiting with all of the cousins. Athen enjoyed spending a lot of time with Corbin and of course followed him everywhere he went. They played so well together however they did get wild at times, but they are boys. Ashlyn, Emmy and Avery were as sweet as ever! It's so different being around little girls. They are just so precious and calm :). We also got to spend time with the little, handsome Caiman! He is too cute for words and poses anytime a camera is around, again where was my camera? We had a great time on our roadtip home. The boys were really good and we enjoyed the 11 hour drive in our new car :) We bought a Chevrolet Traverse and we love it! Once I take some pictures I will post them. The boys have enjoyed being home and playing with all of their new toys. Here is a picture of Athen sleeping with his new pillowpet and McQueen pillow. This is where I can find Maximo at any given point during the day. He is such a climber and I have to watch him like a hawk! Maximo is always making us laugh. He just learned to shake his head yes but he almost always falls over. Here are two videos of him just being Moski!


Matt leaves for Alabama Friday for 5 weeks and I am so sad. I know the boys will miss him and I will certainly miss him and all his help.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year!

My little studmuffins

Unfortunately, we recently broke our camera... So I had to find our old camera so we could continue taking pictures of my handsome little guys. Here are a few of my favorites from the last couple of weeks.

The guys riding in the Big Window...


The boys in their hats...

The boys in their Christmas Tie T-Shirts...

We are heading to Colorado next week to spend Christmas with the Karas family! We are so excited to see all of the cousins and just to spend time with all of the family. Hope you have a great Christmas!

Boys will be boys...

Maximo and Athen are starting to wrestle...It's so much fun watching them crack up and play together until...it goes to far. Maximo loves for Athen to be rough with him but the minute he gets a little too rough he cries and cries.. Here is a video of the boys "wrestling."

Hop on over!

We took another hop this weekend to Ohio, and as always it was fabulous. Taking military hops are by far the best way to travel. However, you have to be flexible and that is something I have a bit of trouble with... Athen loves flying on the C-17 and I love that he can run around the whole time we are in the air. He runs like crazy on the trip there and sleeps like crazy on the trips home.



That child gets tuckered out whenever we visit Nana and Pappy. He doesn't really have a bedtime while we are there and naps are not necessarily a prioirty either. However, he did get one nap while we were there. Athen insisted on wearing a hat whenever Pappy wore a hat. He rarely wears them here so I'm hoping this is a trend for him...



While we were there I also got to watch Breigh cheer! She did soooo good and I was so proud of her. Her squad got second place in the competition I got to watch and 1st place in the competition the next day.



Another fun thing I was able to do while I was there was go my watch my Uncle Drew perform comedy. He was hilarious as always! We were all crying laughing at some points.



We had a great visit but are really sad we couldn't be there for Thanksgiving. We will miss all of you. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and Happy Shopping!!!

Backpack, Backpack

So Maximo walked around for atleast an hour with this on his back... He loved it. It was so darn cutie!




I realized why I haven't been updating the blog...and I need to pry myself away from my sewing machine and I just can't... I've been making so many Christmas presents and it's been so much fun... I'll have to do a post on all my projects!

On another note I started playing soccer in an adult league... Its full field 11v11 coed and by coed they mean 3 girls in the whole league. However, this is the first time I've worn a jersey with Karas! And I love it....

Just a little update!

It's been so long since I've posted and so much has happened! Maximo is officially weaned! It's such a bittersweet time, but I'm happy that he's not so dependent on me now. Maximo also cut his first molar and I'm pretty sure the entire block was aware. Poor little guy was a mess and cried almost all day... I felt so bad for him. Athen even said to me, "What is so wrong with him?" He also is starting to run and it's so cute. He trips a lot but he's definitely cruising. Athen and him play all kinds of games together now! They are constantly chasing each other everywhere and yelling all the time. It's impossible for me to talk on the phone when they are awake. Athen is seriously a sponge and repeats anything and everything that comes out of our mouth. Although I'm not 100% sure he heard these from us but some of my least favorite quotes that he repeats are: What the heck is that? Psycho! I don't like you. I don't want you. Dermit. I hate that! And the list could go on and on. It really makes me think twice before I say everything...
Once I download some pictures I will post another update!

And I have a 3 year old boy!

We had such a fun weekend celebrating the boys' birthdays! We had a joint Halloween birthday party for them and it was fabulous. The boys dressed up as a pirate (Athen) and a parrot (Maximo). I dressed up as a pirate like Athen and Matt didn't dress up! It was so fun to see all of their friends dressed up! And it was too cute because they were all a bit embarassed at first. It was fun to watch them walk through the front door and kinda hide behind their parents. We saw all kinds of costumes: dinosaurs, alphabet soup, Spiderman, Hulk Hogan, cats, and even some firefighters. Here are some pictures of the boys in their costumes and some of the goodies.

The cupcakes!

Popcorn Balls






My Pirate!

My little parrot with Nana and me!



Maximo eating his cake!


Singing Happy Birthday!



The boys were spoiled rotten with both Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Pappy visiting. They got more gifts than we have room for :). They both loved having them around and are going through grandparent withdrawal. Athen woke up Monday morning and said to me, "Where are my friends?" And I asked, "Which ones!" And he said, "Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Pappy." I thought that was so very sweet! For a few nights Pappy and Nana slept in Athen's room and he definitely didn't wait for the 7 to start bothering them... He even said to Nana that 6 is very impatient. Needless to say Nana and Pappy didn't get much sleep, but I think they enjoyed every minute of it.
We had great weather and we were able to spend a lot of time outside both at the party and all the other days everyone was visiting. Maximo loves being outside and most days stands at the door and whines to go outside. They spent a lot of time swinging and playing hide and seek.








With Pappy here Matt was able to get a lot of work done on his truck! And even let Grandma take it for a spin.



We had a great time with all of our visitors and miss them so much. We can't wait to see everyone at Christmas!

Food Shot

So yesterday Athen got his annual flu shot. He heard Matt and me talking about it and he started calling it, "food shot." I had to take Maximo to the doctor so Matt was the one who actually took him to get the shot. He told him exactly what was going to happen and Athen told him that he was tough and was not going to cry. So the nurse came in with the shot and Athen sat quietly and once she put the shot in his leg, he screamed and cried for a few seconds and then said, "I'm tough no more crying." He then gave him a sucker and a McQueen and Mater treat. Here is a video of him telling me the story...

My singing Birthday Boy

Athen got a singing birthday card in the mail from Nana! Here is a little video of him singing with the card :). Enjoy!

Birthday Boy!

My sweet little Maximo turned one today! It's such a bittersweet day. I love that he's getting bigger and older, but I miss my sweet little cuddlebug. He's on the move and doesn't have much time for cuddling :) Although, this week he did backup and sit down in my lap for me to read him a book. So sweet! We celebrated Maximo's birthday by going to our favorite mexican restaurant. Maximo loves the rice and refried beans, and on this trip we let him eat the chips too!

And of course he loved them.

Outside of the restaurant!

After dinner we got Maximo his first ice cream cone. He wasn't to sure about it and cautiously took bites. Eventually we just let him eat the cone and he loved that!


On the way home, Maximo was super grumpy and Athen was so sweet and started playing peekaboo with Maximo. Such a sweetheart!

When we got home we put together their birthday present. We got them a table and chair set and here is a picture of them sitting in the chairs! I think Maximo likes it...

I love my little Maximo and feel so blessed to be his Mama! Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Cars cars!

Athen has hundreds and hundreds of Cars. His love of cars never ceases to amaze me. He sleeps with atleast 2 cars every night, he brings them to the bath with him, he even eats with a few. When Matt gets a new truck part magazine in the mail he will sit for a good 20 minutes and go through each page talking all about it. Here is a short video of him "reading" the magazine!

There are two categories of cars in our house: cars from the movie Cars (called Cars cars) and regular cars. He has names for every car in our house. Mostly it's the model of the car or the name of the car from the movie. Here he is so proud of his car show of Cars cars :).

Daaaadyyyy!

Every evening, Matt calls on his way home from work...Athen hears the phone ring and he usually says, "That's probably Daddy!" Then he runs to the window, pulls up the blinds and Maximo is about 10 steps behind and they wait in the window until they see Daddy's black car...And Athen runs to the garage yelling, "Daaaadddyyy" It's really the highlight of my afternoon!

Adventures in Nursing!

So with Maximo's first birthday quickly approaching, I'm down to the last few weeks of nursing. He only nurses right when he wakes up and right before he goes to bed! Nursing him has been such a different experience than I had with Athen. Athen had problems eating real food and stopping nursing... Maximo on the other hand has had no problem eating real food and absolutely loves to eat! Weaning Maximo is so bitter sweet. I love the bond you have while nursing, but I love the independence you have once you are done. I know I will miss Maximo touching my face, smiling at me, and playing with my hair while nursing, it's just so sweet. It's really the only time now he sits still and cuddles. Sometimes I think he is completely ready to stop nursing and I'm the one holding on, but he quickly shows me this isn't the case.
So in our recent visit to Colorado the last night we were in town Maximo woke up at 5am and the only way I could get him back to sleep was to nurse him...So in MY mind this replaced his usual 6:30 or 7:00am nursing. So when he woke up that morning I got ready and couldn't figure out why he was so cranky. We rushed out the door and packed in the car. After about 5 minutes in the car I had lost my patience because Maximo would not stop fussing. I turned around to try and console him and he started doing his cue for when he wants to nurse. We call it his "nursy face." Where or how he came up with this and how I know what it means is a mystery to me, but he closes his eyes and makes a smacking noise with his mouth. He continues doing this everytime I try to console him. I tried giving him his cup with milk. He threw it down. I tried feeding him all the food I had and he continued to throw everything down. He even threw his paci down. He had one thing on his mind and that was the nursing! We were running late and couldn't stop so this continued most of the two hour drive. I'm sure it didn't help that I was sitting in the back with him and he could see me yet I couldn't hold him, get him out of his carseat or nurse him. By the time we made it to the Springs, he had worn himself out from crying and was almost asleep.
I know I'm going to miss his "nursy face," but man that was a long two hours!!!

Colorado Visit

We had such a great time visiting with our family in Colorado! We took another hop, this time on a C-17 and it was first class compared to the KC-135. Athen had a lot of fun with all of his friends on the flight. I think half of the people on the flight were 5 and under! Once we were in the air the kids were allowed to run around, so they had a ton of fun checking out everything on the plane. One of the pilots is a friend of ours and let Athen sit on his lap while he was flying, so cool! When we landed they lowered the back part of the plane, Athen called it the tailgate, while we taxied. It was so neat looking out of the back of the plane and seeing the mountains!



Once we landed in Colorado we got to spend time with the cousins. Both Athen and Maximo had so much fun playing with Ashlyn and Emmy! They also got to go to this really cool indoor playplace that had huge trampolines. They had a blast!



One of the highlights of the trip was getting to drive a 1931 Model A Ford pickup truck. Both Matt and I took it for a cruise around the block. It was so neat and by far the oldest car I have ever driven. It even had the original engine in it. Athen loved that it had whitewall tires, he's still talking about it. Although he is still a loyal "Chevrolet guy."




We sure do miss Grandma and Grandpa! Athen and Maximo loved spending so much time with them and getting all of the cool puzzles and cars. They were so tired by the time we got on the plane, here are the little guys tuckered out!

We can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to visit us Oklahoma in a few weeks!

OH-IO

We had such a fabulous time in Ohio! It was so wonderful to visit with family and Matt and I were also able to have a much needed date. The trip went by so quickly! We flew in on Friday on a KC-135 and boy was that thing hot. The boys weren't too happy about the heat, but you really can't beat a free flight. It is also really loud so you have to wear protection in/on your ears. Athen loved wearing his headphones and would talk really, really loud and sometimes scream when he had them on. It was pretty funny. Here are a couple of pictures of us on the plane.




We were so very busy while we were there, but we did get to spend a lot of time hanging out with my parents and Aunt Brooker and her family. Here are some sweet pictures!





Matt and the boys watched some of the Air Force game in their Air Force gear. The boys wouldn't quite cooperate for a picture though.


Matt took Athen fishing and he caught his first fish! He had such a good time. I wish Maximo and I could have went fishing with them, but we went to visit my 97 year old great-grandma. She is so awesome and sharp as can be. It was so good visiting with her. Matt and Athen had the camera so I wasn't able to take a picture with Grandma Phil! But here is a picture of the first fish.

We already miss our Ohio family, but are looking forward to their visit to Oklahoma for the boys' birthday party in late October!