Project 52 | EIGHTEEN

You become more aware all the time and I absolutely love it!

At 8 months you:
-love the bath
-clap
-raise your hands when we say Hallelujah
-say Mama (a lot)
-adore your brother
-pull yourself up and walk along chairs
-crawl really fast
-HATE to have your diaper changed
-have 8 teeth with 4 more coming in (at the same time)

Love you Greyson--to the moon and back!

Project 52 | SEVENTEEN

  

Cash came home the other day singing a song. A song we didn't teach him. A song we don't listen to. A song I don't want him to know. I ignored it, hoping the event was an anomaly. But then, it happened again. And I began to get a bit concerned. I'll be honest, my first reaction was to try and control the source where he was hearing this music--I wanted to protect the innocence of my child and not have ideas put into his head. Then, I realized that there will always be people around him who don't believe the same we do, they don't have the same convictions we do and that's okay--Mat and I are the biggest influences in their lives and its something we don't take lightly. We told God when He gave us these two that we would do our best to raise them Biblically. Not by what we thought was right or wrong but what the Bible says. We aren't crazy people. We don't keep them cloistered and make sure they only go out on Sundays. :)

We love these boys. We don't take being their parents lightly. We mess up plenty, but until the day we die we will fight for their souls.

Project 52 | SIXTEEN

You guys make me laugh. I love to see you share and think its one of the most important things you can learn as a child. I refuse to have children that won't share with others. Anyhow, that's a bit off topic. This night was one of the first summer nights and it was so good to see you outside, playing dinosaur with you and learning to be the best dinosaur driver. Everything we play is related to dinosaurs. Even the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is currently Cash and the Three T-Rexes. You should know that your dad and I are working hard so that I can be home with you guys more often. Then we can play with nothing on the agenda...except to play.

Project 52 | FIFTEEN

I want you to know that I more than just love your dad. I respect him. I appreciate him for working hard for all of us. He does what needs to be done and not very often does he complain...unless its laundry. Your dad hates to do laundry. Here's what you know--Dadda goes to work. Here's what you don't know--Dadda gets up for work at 2:30a, comes home by 10am and is back to work again at 11:30 until 8:00pm. Then he does it all over again. With your pictures in his bag so that he constantly reminds himself he pushes himself and gives his bosses good work. That's something to be proud of. When you're older we'll tell you of all the lessons we learned, sometimes late and sometimes just in time.

I know without a doubt he'd give up his life for you in a second. I adore this dad of yours. You are so blessed to be his sons.

Project 52 | FOURTEEN

1. Being stwong! 2. A most perfect in between moment 3. Roaring like a dinosaur...after I promised you a popsicle.

Greyson--No bribery here, but it took forever to get a smile out of him because he was too busy wanting everything else except to sit still for one second.

I love you two. More than I could ever imagine that I could love anybody. That's all I have to say this week.

Project 52 | THIRTEEN

I tried my very best to put it off. I didn't want it to happen before he turned a year old, but he started to look really homeless and was requiring more gel and hairspray than I put in my own hair. First haircuts make me cry. They mean babies are getting bigger and require more little boy styles and treatments. Greyson's first haircut happened at home the weekend of Easter. My mom cut it while I held him and we saved the first cuts of baby hair. He handled it great! Hopefully its a sign of things to come, because having two little boys screaming at Great Clips might melt this momma down.

Speaking of two little boys my ever-insistent-no-we-are-not-having-any-more-kids husband just asked me what I'd think of having another. Boys-just-about-lost-his-mind! ;)

Project 52 | TWELVE

{This week I had every intention of staying on top of this Project. Good thing I'm only doing 52 and not 365 because then I REALLY would have felt like a failure. :)}

I have my camera out pretty often but usually always have my phone which is where this photo came from. It's been in my mind to get into a lot more photos with my boys. Really, I'm my biggest critic for moments. I go through the usual thought process that I'm not in the shape I'd prefer to be in, my post-partum hair growth is growing in a way that I look like a lion complete with mane and my face only looks pleasing at certain angles. It was no different when I took a photo with Gray and Cash this week. You can see what I wrote about this photo here.

One of the things I always tell clients is that there will never be a better time to get into photos with their kids. If you wait until you look perfect it'll never happen and your kids really don't care. No kid looks back at the photos with their parents and say, "Gosh my parents are so fat, they shouldn't have taken pictures with me!" I know that sounds laughable, but its the honest truth. Get in pictures with your kiddos! Frame them, let them be preserved, treasured and create portraits that will be around for generations!

Okay, I'm off my soapbox. :) I love this picture. I'm going to be updating my photos with my kiddos this weekend. Because I deserve to be in photos--I don't want to be the mom who was never in photos. I want  my grandkids, my great grandkids  and my great, great grandkids to know that they had a beautiful grandmother. ;)

Project 52 | ELEVEN

We went to the skating rink for the first time in YEARS. Mat and I have never been to the rink together in the years that we've been married. I was really excited to take Cash and was super glad that it wasn't too crowded. I had prepped him earlier a la YouTube with toddlers skating, so he was happy to go too. However, I think Mat may have been way happier than any of us, reliving his childhood days when he used to skate EVERYWHERE, breaking his arm in the process.

We had just gotten there, put his skates on and were {sloooowwwly} headed out to the rink when the DJ came on in a very loud, monotone voice and scared Cash enough that he refused to be on the floor anymore. Granted, this child is easily scared. So, we waited for the DJ and took another chance. The bottom left picture was right after (yes we bribed him back out with candy). After that, he was pretty much done and kept asking if we were all done.

We'll go again soon, I think he may channel his dad a little in the skating department, he actually took to them really well.

My apologies to Mat... ;)

Happy Week 11! :)

Project 52 | TEN

I know that this is WAY over the boys' heads at this point but it really has been a huge lesson for my husband and I this last week. How undeserving we are of grace at times, but thankfully there are people around us who love us enough to extend grace and a God who loves us enough to give us grace everyday. Showing my kiddos the same grace and teaching them that OTHERS deserve grace when God gives us so much grace is the least I can do for them.

xo

Project 52 | NINE

 I don't dig the outdoors. Or not very often. It's hard for me to stand there with nothing to do, but I know I would be doing the boys a huge disservice if I never took them out just to be out. I really don't want couch potatoes, boys who know who the latest characters are on TV or boys who don't know how to dribble a ball or play catch. So I've got to drag myself out more often. Because, really, there is nothing more important than investing time in just BEING with them.

Project 52 | EIGHT

Oh potty training. Gotta say...I didn't love it. And at the end of the day, Cash didn't quite understand it. So we'll be revisiting this training again in a few more months. He understood that he had GONE potty, but not that he needed to GO potty. We celebrated every single potty. Except once 4:00 had come around. I was done. Done, done and done. You know those days when you sit in an office (or in the most boring class on your schedule) and every ten minutes feels like an hour? Yep...that was me after 4. I handed the reigns over to Mat and happily ran slipped away to start dinner. I'll be glad when it all clicks. Then I'll do a happy dance and make a dinner that consists of more than just...take out. Haha, I think I pretty much told Mat I wasn't cooking and that if we wanted to eat that he'd better make a run to the El Michoacano for carnitas.

I made cookies to celebrate Cash's successes of the day then regretted that decision when 11:00pm rolled around and the kid was STILL roaring like a dinosaur. Cash, sugar and sleep are so not BFFs.

Project 52 | SEVEN

We love Dinosaur Train around here. Seriously, we sing the songs whether Cash is around or not. There's a lot of stomping around our house and Cash is getting really good at the word "hypothesis." I love his imagination. Thomas the Train, Dinosaur Train, Dragon Train....monsters and trains. It's a boy's life.

*sidenote--the kid has a whole tub and decided to get into the Grey's bath with him. I love how much they love each other.

Project 52 | SIX

*sidenote--these are just some outtakes from week 7 because I love them and I can. ;)

Busy, busy week. I knew I was allergic to cats but went to an allergist to see if I could get a handle on the whole matter. Turns out I'm REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY allergic to cats. Which is fine--I'm not huge on cats anyhow. But my dear neighbor likes to feed the stray cats. Dear Neighbor. You're killin' me. Quite literally. Aaaaand we just found their little box--in my front yard. Ew, ew, ew. So, yes, been a little busy dying over here. But not to worry--I'm back to life. Thanks to the steroids the doc put me on. Haha, he said, "Not the Barry Bonds steroids." Darn, maybe then I could lift up my little chunks without getting winded. ;)

xo--here's to another week!

Project 52 | FIVE

I love watching the boys play by themselves. My sister was like that--she would sit and talk to herself for hours on end. I preferred to play with other people rather than alone. I'm still like that--or was, until I had kids. Now I relish quiet-all-by-myself-have-nothing-to-do-time. Yeah, that still hasn't happened. Still, I want each of them to learn that sometimes its okay to be alone and that learning to be okay by yourself rather than be entertained sometimes is a necessary part of life. It seems like a silly thing but I'm so glad I don't have children that constantly need someone else to have fun.

Project 52 | FOUR

 I'm a week late on this post--we had a crazy 3 day church service weekend and then I was sick the following day and then the rest of the week happened. :) But I still managed to pull out my camera to capture this little guy and his first shower "all by himself." Haha, it was accidental. He pooped in the tub and there was no way I was going to fill up another bath once I cleaned it all out. So into the shower he went with lots of cheering of how big a boy he was for showering all by himself.

So, yes I'll cheer you on. Make big deals out of seemingly small things and hopefully make you feel like a million bucks--even if it happened after an accident. ;)

I love you bugga-boos!

Project 52 | THREE

From the time we were little my mom always emphasized, "She's your only sister!" I can remember being invited to play at my next door neighbor friend's house and she said, "I'm only inviting you, not your sister." When I went to ask my mom she said, "What about Denice?" I mumbled, "She only invited me, not Denice." Knowing it was in a mean spirit that this invitation had been made my mom told me I wasn't allowed to go and that I'd have to tell my friend. After coming back in the house, my mom again emphasized, "She's your only sister and friends who are mean to your sister aren't very good friends."

Today, my sisters are two of my very best friends. We love like sisters, laugh like sisters and {hardly} fight like sisters. I don't expect Cash and Grey to always get along, but I do expect them to love each other, respect each other and remember that they only have one brother (for now). ;) I hope to instill in them the love for each other that my mom instilled in us.

Right now, each morning Cash wakes up and want to be with "Gwayson." He likes to make him laugh, cuddle him and show off for his little brother. Right now Grey adores his big brother Cash. He follows his every move, laughs at his antics and is the only one who can get away with touching his brother's face.

I just know they're going to be good friends.

Project 52 | TWO

BE LITTLE

Let them be little

Cause they're only that way for a while

Give them hope, give them praise

Give them love everyday

Let them cry, let me them giggle

Let them sleep in the middle

Let them be little

I love the words to this song. Cash is a walking tornado. Quite literally. He reminds me of Linus from Peanuts...minus the dirt flying around him. Haaa! Okay, half the dirt. My kid actually loves bath time. There are things that he likes to do a certain way and is very particular about. I find myself constantly asking the question if I stopped him from doing something a certain way is it me just hating to be inconvenienced for him being little or is this a habit I should kill now. I want him to experience being little. I want to have stories of his nuances that drove me nuts when he's twenty years old and taking care of himself. I want the home videos that show what our house REALLY looks like when the curtains are closed because I'd be embarrassed if anyone ever saw the inside our living room when we're trying to get out of the house. He won't always be little. He won't always want to play by the window, he won't always be into Thomas the Twain and Di'osaur Twain. I love his little bedtime prayers. I love how he pronounces everyone's names. Grandpa Al=Gwampa Owwwwl. 

I love him little. 

Project 52 | ONE

I had decided before the new year started that I wanted to do a sort of personal project for my family and kiddos. There's a blog that I peek in on time to time and I noticed she did a project and used this theme for her 2012. I loved the idea. It was so personal. Spoke to me about the little things I'd love to tell my children at this age but know they wouldn't understand. At the end of the year I plan on putting it into an album form and keeping it as an heirloom. It was also to help me develop a consistent habit of blogging. I love to write but don't often find the time to sit down at a computer and type out my thoughts.

Watching how each of my boys develop has been so fun. Both of them are early teethers (Grey is popping out his second tooth already and he's only 4 months), Cash wasn't bothered with teething, Grey is very much a spitty, slobbery, raspberry blower kind of teether. Cash was more interested in sitting up, got frustrated when he couldn't and loved to watch everything around him. Grey is so chill. Loves his hands, loves his feet, could care less that his brother is a walking tornado while he lays on the ground. 

I'm really looking forward to this year. Happy 2013!