Crazy Boys!

A favorite pastime of both boys...

A bit blurry because they never stop moving and I couldn't manage to get the settings on the camera right to capture it properly. Oh well. It gives me a bit of stress when Dane is doing it too. They usually play so nicely together when climbing around the couch and cushions. Gavin tries to look out for Dane since he knows that Dane isn't as agile. Dane does pretty well maneuvering and knowing his limits but he gets so excited doing it with Gavin that you have to be on the lookout for him to be sure he always has a cushion to land on. Dane also loves to sneak behind the TV and thinks it is the best game to be chased out.

I imagine there are many, many years ahead of me with the boys making me nervous with their craziness!

Donuts!

Gavin has been insisting on us trying out my new donut pan that I got for Christmas from my parents. So this morning when Dane went down for a nap, I asked Gavin if he wanted to help try out a recipe I had come across for chocolate glazed donuts. He was immediately on board and super excited.

The recipe was simple enough. Gavin helped measure out a few ingredients, stir, then I had to figure out how much each space should get, and bake. The smelled awesome. The looked interesting (especially since the first batch had too much batter in the mold - lesson learned). They tasted great, even though they really just tasted like a glazed cupcake in donut form. Gavin didn't mind and was happy to taste test as many as he could get his hands on.

While they didn't really have a donut texture (I was expecting them to be more like the  heavier cake-ish donuts but they were really light and fluffy like a cupcake), they were delicious and a lot of fun to make. We look forward to making more when I find another recipe that looks good to try that everyone will enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Well, another year has gone by and as I think about all the changes it has brought us, I am both excited and sad because while we have had a lot of fun and I have enjoyed being home another year with Gavin and Dane, it just goes by too quickly. It seems like it is over before I really get a chance to enjoy anything and as they get older, we get busier, and the time passes more quickly.

I tend to avoid New Years Resolutions because generally I think they are silly and rarely kept. However, this year there are a few items I know I need to work on to be a better person and mother. They have become more and more apparently and now that we are home, recovering from Christmas and travelling, it is time. I need to work on myself to be healthier (and to pass that on to Scott, Gavin, and Dane), more patient, take a little more down time for myself and with Scott, make a serious push to catch up with all of the blog posts I have waiting to be finished, and have far less TV on in our life. Some are certainly easier than others but they are all important for myself and my family to be happier, healthier, and for us to better enjoy our time together. Happy New Year!

(Random Pictures with silly faces because I have yet to be able to get a good one of the boys since New Years day... figures!)

Blast from the Past...

The not so distant past.

As I am going through and picking out pictures to upload to other posts I have created in the past few months and not been able to finish, I am coming across lots of pictures that I can't help but stop and share. We don't have lots of pictures of Gavin and Dane together for lots of reasons but I love when I come across ones that I forgot were taken.

This is from almost a year ago (February 15, 2013) and I can't believe how different they both look. Gavin looks so much more grown up now and Dane (though not a surprise) looks like a toddler.

I wish they would just slow down a bit so I could feel like I was really able to enjoy and absorb them but it all goes by faster as they get older and busier. I guess it is a good thing we have so many pictures so I can go back and look through to remind myself of how they looked (and oh how cute they are!), what we did, and all the fun we had.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

(Details of our awesome Christmas to follow!)

Dane's Newest Obsession...

I am glad that Gavin and Dane have never minded the vacuum. I have heard some have children that are afraid or don't like the noise but we don't have that problem. I am certainly glad because it is out pretty much every day at some point and sometimes more than once. Shop vacs are awesome!

Dane is now obsessed with the vacuum and as soon as it comes out he is coming at it trying to take control. Gavin used to like to help (he will do it now if I ask but will rarely ask if he can help otherwise) and Dane used to be satisfied with just holding a piece or two of the hose extensions. Not anymore. He now demands full control of the vacuum and prefers for it to be on. He does seem to try to vacuum the floor but that quickly turns into trying to get someone or something, including his own fingers. He loves it and always has a huge smile on his face.

I am so glad to have my little helpers!

So Behind...

I am, yet again, majorly behind with updates around here! I keep thinking I will get to it and do it from my phone but that doesn't really work for lots of posts or long posts plus I can't upload photos from the camera via my phone, only those that were taken with the camera on my phone. The laptop I had from work had become a bit unreliable and I was unmotivated to spend any time trouble shooting it because it was going to take a fair bit on time. Not to mention the hardware that had stopped work (or working reliably). I could have used Scott's computer from time to time but I rarely had a chance to get in there for anything more than a few minutes to hand necessities when Scott wasn't home and wanting/needing his computer. So anyway, I am now set up with a new laptop (I had to turn mine in when I resigned at the end of my leave of absence, a post about that day will be up at some point in time for sure!) and so Scott insisted that we get something for me to be able to do everything I need to around here. At first I was resistant because I knew I could get by without having one but I am glad he insisted because I am really excited to have a good reliable machine to handle bills, surfing the web, blogging, pictures, and everything else that we may need it for. I am determined to get back on top of sharing tidbits about our life. I am really looking forward to being caught up so I can share more of all the fun things that we do and all the cute pictures we take.

So a couple of recent cute pictures of the boys playing in the snow just for fun!