24 hours

Sometimes 24 hours is all the time you need to change your life. My sweet husband took me along one of his CPE (continuing professional education) trips to Asheville, NC where we stayed for a mere 24 hours at The Grove Park Inn . It was the best, albeit shortest, vacation of my life. Being a stay at home mom, as many of my friends are, you find that you relish any time that you get to spend without the company of your children. Not because you don't love your children, but because you sometimes forget what it's like to just be a grown-up. Tony and I left Sunday after church for our little getaway. We got to drive listening to our own music, talk about grown up issues, enjoy the beautiful scenic drive, and hold hands for as long as we wanted (without turning around and picking up sippy cups, handing somebody a toy, wiping snot off noses, etc.) We stopped by the Biltmore Estate and visited the winery for a wine tasting. We had dinner without any "trips to the bathroom" and without wearing any of our food or yelling at Raegan to sit down. We strolled around exploring the resort without a care in the world. Not only did we get to have an entire afternoon/evening to ourselves, but I also got to be pampered the next day at the resort Spa. I spent a full 6 hours just floating in the mineral pool, soaking in the hot tub, sitting in the steam room, lounging outside in the sun, and I got a pedicure to boot. I don't think I have ever enjoyed just being by myself so much. This trip definitely renewed me! Not only do I feel closer to my husband, but I got to spend some much needed time with my Lord and Savior. I don't always get quite time to just sit and pray. I got to do that yesterday and it was like a revival of my soul. I feel like a new woman and it only took 24 hours. Thank you Tony for taking me with you. You may never know how much I needed this for us and for me. I love you! And thank you mom for being the willing one to care for my snotty nose children.

My little princess

My little Raegan has become quite the little princess these days. She has a fascination with Cinderella, and today we came across a dress that we had forgotten about. When Drew was born, our friends Ward and Libby Perry came to visit and brought gifts for both Drew and Raegan. Raegan's gift was a princess dress-up outfit. We had put it away because it said it was size 3-4 years. Well, as you can see it's still a little big, but that didn't stop her from wearing it around the house for almost an hour. She even resorted to building a tower of blocks in her "pretty princess dress like Miss Chrisa's" as she calls it. In this first one, she put her veil on all by herself. After some minor hair, sleeve, and neckline adjustments, she was just gorgeous!
Her tower is almost complete...
I'm sure that you can tell by that sneaky expression that it was time for the "destruction" phase of her tower project. It's our favorite thing about building towers :)

Drew's First Tooth!!!

Drew actually got his first tooth last Saturday and is working on the second one, but I hadn't been able to get a picture of it until today. Every time I tried to look in his mouth, he started to gag, so I just had to make him laugh. Here it is... I know you can barely see it, but it's there! And here were some of our other attempts that were just to cute not to share. He was laughing so hard :)
Such a character. I just love those baby giggles.

Our week

After a fun filled week of poop, tumbles and both kids cutting teeth at the same time, we ended it with me feeling a little under the weather. I've been having trouble with headaches again, and on Friday had migraine like symptoms to go along with it. Migraines and grouchy kids just don't mix. So Tony came home early on Friday to give me some relief. After sleeping the afternoon away, I felt MUCH better...Thanks Tony!! Anyway, here are some of the highlights of our weekend. First, after Drew figured out how to stand in his crib and after his little tumble, we decided it was past time to lower his crib. Here is Drew sitting just waiting for the "work" to begin. How cute is this face! I love this one. Drew is just like Raegan and sticks his tongue out ALL the time. I just happened to capture this one... he looks like he is doing it on purpose :)
He was such a good helper. Here he is inspecting Daddy's tools. He is chewing on a toy screwdriver... just to feel like he is working too :)
After it was lowered one notch, Raegan had to give it a try to. She is such a little monkey.
Here are my two babies just hanging out in Drew's crib.
Here is a little clip of Raegan and Drew bouncing in his bed. You will notice a little bad behavior at the end of the clip... All I can say is Raegan is SOOOO TWO!

Here is Daddy taking the kiddos on a little ride while I sat and relaxed. It was funny watching the kids "chat" with each other.

Such cuties~
Here is my little 'Punky Brewster'. What you can't see are the pink toenails and fingernails to match :)
It was a little cool in the morning, so I kept Drew in his jammies... he looks like he was about ready to nod off in this one.
Raegan just swinging away. Despite all the challenges of this week, it still amazes me just how much I love these two little monkeys. :)

I'm in!

I'm officially In the so-called 'Society of Motherhood'. Yes, these last two days I finished my "hazing"... Here is a little recap of my last 36 hours

DAY 1:
Let me set the stage a little for this one. Raegan has shown a lot of interest in the potty for several months now, and will do most of her business in the potty. After talking with a few other seasoned mothers, I began what I thought was actual "potty training". We have our sticker charts on the wall, we stopped using diapers, and she has been running around the house with no pants on for about 3 days. Just when I thought we were making some progress, I have this conversation with Raegan...

R: Mama, come see, come see (with much excitement)

M: Come see what, Raegan?

R: I went poo-poo, come see! (again with much excitement)

M: You went poo-poo all by yourself?! What a big girl, did you flush to?

R: No mama, I went poo-poo in Drew's room.

M: LONG PAUSE... You did what?! (Surely I misunderstood)

R: I pooped in Drew's floor, come see

M: ANOTHER LONG PAUSE... Why don't you show me what you did.

She takes me by the hand to Drew's room and sure enough, she had pooped in the floor. The sad thing was that she thought she had done something great and was ready to get her sticker for her poo-poo chart. I tried not to scold her, but firmly reinforced that we DO NOT POOP IN THE FLOOR, we poo-poo in the potty!! Needless to say, I think that we will put a hold on potty training just a little longer :)

Day 2
After an enjoyable morning of story time with Mrs. Mosolgo at the library, we head off to lunch at Bellicinos with our cousins Amie and Connor. I had told Raegan she could have a small icecream before we left, so off we went to pick out our color. As Raegan is standing in front of the cooler trying to decide if she wants pink or blue ice cream, I sit Drew next to me at a nearby table to dig out my money. Within 2 seconds, Drew "dives" for my keys in my pocket... misses... and goes head first off the table onto the concrete floor. I'm not sure who cried harder, but after about 10 minutes of screaming and a quick trip to Dr. Shrader, he seems to be fine. I on the other hand am still a little shaken by the whole event. As my friend Sonya told me, "Welcome to the world of raising boys!"

The sad thing in all this is I'm well aware that this is just the tip of the iceburg in my ordeals in parenting. Julie, I don't know how you do it with THREE boys!

Ben turned 4!!

I just thought I'd give this smilebox thing a try and show some of Ben's birthday pictures. Hope you enjoy.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sweet little sleeper

I don't have anything inspirational to write, nor do I have any fun stories to share... but I do have pictures of my sweet baby boy sleeping with his little butt up in the air. In my opinion, that's WAY better! :) He usually has his arms wrapped around his frog lovie or his blanket, but he was out cold when I laid him down in this one. I just thought it was funny. Enjoy!

Bath tub fun

Who can resist a freshly bathed, sweet smelling baby/toddler. It is so much fun now watching my two kiddos play together in the tub. Of course, we have to watch them like a hawk as Raegan likes to "rinse" Drew (or pour water in his face), and Drew likes to try and grab anything and usually takes a dip face first. Here is an actual real smile from our little "Raegy Stelle Roop" (That's what her she calls herself these days) just before her bath the other night. It's so rare to catch a real smile where she isn't going "cheeeeeeese" for the camera. (and yes she is on the potty) I usually just get these faces really close to the camera with her promptly saying " I want to see"
I just liked these sweet pictures of our little man.

And of course, Big sister Raegan is always willing to lend a helping hand. She is "washing" Drew's hair here.Drew is very concerned with this water faucet.They usually do play well together.
Check out that wild hair.
This is what we all usually look like at the end of the day :)
It makes me a little sad knowing that I don't really have a little baby anymore. Drew is officially pulling up on things now. He's not very good yet, but here is the proof with him pulling up on the tub. He's really trying to crawl to, so I'm pretty sure my world is just starting to get a little more interesting :)

ALMOST...
Made it to my knees...
TaDa, I did it!

Eight Months

Drew is 8 months and such a big boy! Here he is showing off his new duds for fall. We had some really cool weather last week so it was the perfect time to try them out. (By they way, they are 12 months outfits and they just fit. Looks like we will have to bump up to 18 months for winter :) Notice, he is even wearing shoes. What a cutie pie.
I love the fact that Raegan is 2 and that we can do "projects" together now. Here we are making strawberry cupcakes. It was such a big mess, but I just let her fill them up anyway. She had so much fun.
Here she is licking the spoon... in my opinion the very BEST part of making cupcakes.

Here is some of Raegan's artwork being displayed on the fridge. She is getting better at coloring, and LOVES to use a glue stick! She is so much fun to hang out with. It looks a little abstract, but maybe we have the next Picasso?!
Is it Christmas time already?? No, it's just Drew in his Christmas Jammies. No... we aren't celebrating Christmas in August, but we did purchase these jammies on clearance last year. Little did we know that our boy would be pretty big and the 12 months jammies just barely fit him now. We might be wearing jammies in the wrong season, but at least we will get our money's worth :)