2010 Challenge

Me and a few other girls from our lifegroup have decided to get together and read the Bible in 90 days! It is, among other wishes for 2010, my biggest desire. I don't do resolutions any more because I never stick to them. I have always wanted to read the bible all the way through. I just never knew how to tackle it. So I am super excited about this challenge and I am WAY happy that I have friends to spur me on. Iron sharpens iron right? :)

Other goals for this year would be becoming healthier (which is always a goal) and spending more time with all three of my boys. I want to be a better mom this year. Not that I'm a bad mom now. I just want to do a better job of motivating myself to get out of the house during the week. There is so much to do in this area. I want to go to Moody Gardens, Children's Museum, the zoo, and the beach. Landon really enjoyed that last year before I got too big and it got too hot. I am ready for spring to get here so we can go to the park and have picnics. I suppose I will have two little road warriors this year. 

2010 is going to be the year of the FAMILY! Jeremy and I will also get to celebrate the marriage of my cousin and his new wife in May... did I mention this celebration takes place in Mazatlan, Mexico? AND the whole FAMILY is going. I can't wait!! It will be a great little vacation for us as well minus our beautiful babies. Thankfully we have FAMILY to watch them for us. See, I told you it was the year of the FAMILY :) I am so thankful for ours! 

What's your challenge for 2010? I would love to encourage anyone who reads this blog to jump on the Bible bandwagon. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a life changing experience. 

Almost New Years

Christmas has come and gone and so the hustle and bustle as well. Thank goodness. I do not enjoy trying to pick out the perfect gift, long lines, returning things, or picking up the mountain of new toys at the end of the day. But we did have a ton of fun and the boys made a haul as usual. We are looking forward to a very good 2010. 2009 did not disappoint! With the addition of a new baby moose to the family, it couldn't have gotten much better. Here are some Christmas pics. Enjoy!

The Real Christmas Story

Justa Bloggin': The Christmas Story

This is a friend of ours from high school. His post says it all. This is why I love Christmas.

Nothing too interesting going on around here. Just trying to ready ourselves for Christmas. We've been trying to teach Landon that Christmas is really about Jesus' birthday so we've incorporated making Him a birthday cake this year along with cookies for Santa.  We are also using Santa to our advantage when bad behavior seems to rear it's ugly head. And boy has it been. We have seen Santa about 17 times in various locations out and about and Landon seems to think that Santa is his new BFF. I have threatened to call the North Pole more times than I can count! :) Enjoy some updated pics~

Note to self: Do not try to wrap presents while in the company of children. You will NOT get anything accomplished :)

But you might find a really sweet present!

This is as good as it gets for our snow pictures this year. Not much of it stuck to the ground, but Landon insisted on playing soccer in it anyway :) You can tell we don't get much cold weather by the terribly unmatched winter attire!

He loves his Bumbo.

Cheesy man decorating the tree! It looks much better than last year when only the top half got decorated. I imagine it will look like that next year too :)

Daddy helping Bug put on the ornaments!

SHHHH!

Love that smile.

You talkin' to me?

Daddy told him you wear stockings on your feet. Goofball :)

Their shirt says "What Santa doesn't bring Grandma will!" Isn't that the truth.

The only way we can get him to eat well is to threaten to eat his food before he does. Hmmm.. teaching him to be greedy wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but he's eating his veggies :)

My house is quiet. VERY seldom does that happen around here any more. Very seldom does Landon nap and even more seldom than that do they both nap at the same time. There are a million things I would love to do right now, but my blog has been neglected so it takes the top prize.

Things are well in the Hall house. Thanksgiving was great. We had a delicious feast and spent time with our amazing family. We can't wait to do it again for Christmas. Landon has a very keen awareness of what Christmas is about. Mostly presents, but we keep reminding him that it is also Jesus' birthday. We took the boys to see Santa yesterday afternoon and if you have seen last year's picture of Landon with Santa you know we were hoping for a better outcome this year. He watched him very closely as we got closer to the front of the line and then made a beeline for him with open arms when it was his turn. He hopped right up in his lap and told him exactly what he wanted. " A scooter, a geetar (not sure where he got that pronunciation), and a Barney DVD!" I hope Santa reminded him to be a good boy. Christmas Eve should be lots of fun for Jeremy and I this year.

Moose continues to wear his imaginary halo each day along with his smiles and coos and little giggles and squeals. He has become slightly more fussy but I am convinced he is teething. Whether or not those teeth will actually come through any time soon is yet to be known. He is starting to see and reach for his feet, and will roll from his tummy to his side, but that's about as far as he's interested in going. He is most definitely my laid back little man. I just busted out the 12 month clothes today since those are all of Landon's winter clothes. Amazing! He just looks like he's 8-9 months to us. We love every chubby little inch of him :)

I promise to keep up with my posting a little better... as long as my children will cooperate!

Updates :)

I have severely neglected the blog. So much going on, so little time to myself and my hobbies :) Halloween has come and gone and I must say...I had THE cutest superhero boys ever. Bug ran around as a super cute Spiderman and his baby brother made an adorable Superman. We had a great time with his cousins and family at my Nana's house. 

We went to the zoo this past Friday with Izzy and Abby. Somehow (with Nicci's help of course), I survived my first big outing with both boys. And boy was it an adventurous one. After moving both car seats into Nicci's van and loading up strollers, diaper bags, carrier and sack lunches we headed out. Not five steps from the van and lo and behold... Keaton, resting snuggly in his Jeep carrier, puked ALL over me and him. FUN... so we headed to the zoo entrance :) As we were winding through the monkeys Landon states calmly that he has to potty. I think he had to go pretty badly but he didn't want to leave the monkeys. By the time we found the restrooms and I took him out of the stroller he was full blown bawling his eyes out! He had a death grip on his private parts and was near to crawling to the restroom. So we start to trot and  notice that it's field trip Friday... aka a VERY long line of kids and strollers outside the bathroom. We made a U-turn and headed back to the table, I stripped him down and threw a pull-up on him and told him to teetee in that. He did, so forcefully that it leaked out all over his pants and down his leg into his socks! Now he's really upset!! So I stripped him down (again) and changed his clothes while the other kids stared at him and I can only imagine what their mother's were thinking of me stripping my child down in the middle of the zoo. Thank God for little boys :)

After that the rest of the trip was very uneventful and we had a blast. Great weather, great friends and big smiles!

Keaton is growing like a weed. He is also a fabulous baby. He has gifted us with 12 hour nights of solid sleep on his part. For that we are VERY thankful. He wakes every morning with a big toothless grin and I cannot get enough of it. I love being their mommy!

almost forgot!

Needless to say with the addition of Keaton, things have been a little busy. We have finally settled into a routine and Landon has adjusted greatly to his new little brother. Keaton has been a huge blessing to our family. 

So here's what I almost forgot about. It's been a year since Landon had his eye removed. October 16th was the big day. That whole situation is what prompted this entire blog thing. Those days haunt me sometimes. The surgeries, the holding him down, the endless doctor's visits with probing eye exams. Yea, sometimes they all come flooding back for no reason at all and I have to remind myself to breathe. Then I stop and look at where we are NOW. I am reminded that God has brought us through that storm and I have a perfect little boy. Maybe I didn't really forget about it. Maybe it was just somewhat repressed. Either way I am greatful for the lessons learned and the strength we've obtained. 

After the initial injury and surgery. April 08'

Have you ever seen a cuter kid in glasses?? :)

We made endless trips to his office and most of the time he had bad news for us, but he was always honest and he loved my baby! Thank you Dr. Holz!

Immediately after surgery.  Soon to follow.... the horrible post-op experience!

My one-eyed baby pirate! 2 weeks post op.

Who has a fake eye???

There is nothing my Bug can't do. That part has amazed me. Part of my saving grace has been that he was so little when this whole mess happened. He will never remember what it was like to have 2 eyes. As far as he's concerned he does :) One day I'll sit down and tell him the whole story and show him all of these pictures and more. And I'll be able to give him my testimony about the whole ordeal. Maybe one day he'll get to share his testimony to other people about the awesome things God does. Until then, I assume he'll keep trucking along as fast as his little legs will carry him. 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with ALL your heart."

Jeremiah 29:11-13

100 miles an hour...

That's currently the rate at which Landon travels. He is my never ending busy body child! I often forget that he's only 2 1/2. I can sit down and have a conversation with him as if he were 4. He forgets NOTHING! He can tell me where he left his last toy, where he hid his underwear, and he knows every single word to Toy Story. And thanks to Aunt KK he is working on Toy Story 2. My favorite is listening to him sing. He loves his Veggie Tales CD. His favorite songs currently are "Father Namaham (Abraham)" and "Keus" (Zacchaeus). He is also fond of "Noah built the boat." I sing these songs in my head each night and I want to pull my hair out, yet I love listening to him.

HMMM...

I wonder who this is...

Could it be...Landon's favorite person?? He climbed up onto the chair found the camera, turned it on, somehow figured out how to put it in the correct setting, and went to town shooting his favorite person! Seriously, he can work a camera??

His attempt at dressing himself. Pants, shorts, underwear in that order!

Don't even ask... I'm just glad he's practicing his safety skills, even if that is the only item he is currently wearing :)

2 months old!

My baby moose is getting so big so fast, well let's be honest he's always been big. So I should say he's growing way too fast! He celebrated his 2 month birthday with our first foursome family dinner outing. He choose Saltgrass :) He was a perfectly behaved gentleman, resting snuggly in mommy's arms the entire meal! 

2 month stats:  13 lbs. 3 oz. and 23 1/4 inches. I believe that puts him above the 90th percentile for both measurements. No surprise there. I don't dare say he is a "better" baby than his brother was, but he is certainly "easier!" He goes to sleep at 10 gets up at 3 and goes back to bed until around 7:30. We have hit the 2 month smiles and coos which is my VERY favorite part of infancy! And as his features continue to change, I am convinced he looks more like me than Landon "the Jeremy clone!" They are truly two completely different kids with the best of both of us in each of them. What more could a mommy and daddy ask for? 

ATTENTION mommies of girls...

Okay ladies with girls... My friend just started making adorable bows and flip flops for little girls. I added her blog to my blog list so check it out. She and her sister have got to be THE most creative people ever!! I want to buy them and I don't even have girls. Great prices too :)

Name Change

I thought it was only fair that I change the name of the blog. Bug has had his run of it alone for the past year or so. Since he is no longer an only child, we are learning to share and that includes claim to the blog. How can you talk about Landon and all of his glory when most of it now includes Keaton as well. 

So enjoy the new episodes of "The Bug & Moose Show"

They call him.. Flash and other labor day fun!

We have been steady busy in the Hall house lately. These two boys are keeping us hopping. We are tired, sleep deprived and longing for some quiet time to ourselves. HA! I suppose we'll wait another 18 years for that :)

We headed to Moody Gardens with the Oberts for Labor Day. We had a great time and spent some awesome family time together. We enjoyed a hot ride on the paddle boat before calling it a day.

He usually gets yogurt or pudding for dessert if he eats a good dinner. 90% of the time he wants yogurt. As he was enjoying his dessert last night and Jeremy and I were cleaning the kitchen and talking amongst ourselves we noticed in the background that Landon kept saying something about lotion. When we finally stopped being self absorbed in our conversation we noticed what he was saying... "I got lotion on me." Smells like lotion, looks kind of like lotion, feels like lotion, must be.... Gogurt! Thank goodness he was headed to the bathtub. 

My mom cut his hair yesterday and then we gave him a bath so he wouldn't itch. When we got home Jeremy grilled chicken for dinner which immediately gave Landon an excuse to hit the back yard full force. Clothes simply seem to melt off of him when he's outside. For example, when I went to pick him up from MDO yesterday his teacher says, "Guess what your son did today." That is simply something no mother ever wants to hear. "We took him to the potty  before recess and he didn't have to go, but when we got outside we turned around and he had whipped his pants down and peed on the playground." God gave me boys for a reason. I now know it was no accident. Most mothers would have been mortified, I know. I simply found it hilarious, if I'm being honest. If he has to go in the car and we're out and about we pull over in an empty parking lot and pee on the tire. It's quick and easy and we don't have to worry about finding a potty. You have to make potty time fun and peeing on the tire is a great way to get him to go FAST! But I digress. As he was running around getting all sweaty yesterday, post bath, I went out to get him to come inside to eat and he took off running. It wasn't funny at first but then I noticed all he had on were his spider man socks and I started to laugh. That's all it took. He laughed and ran and ran and ran and despite how athletic I USED to be, I couldn't catch him, which made us laugh even harder. Then he took his underwear and threw them over the neighbor's fence (the neighbors we don't know.) Thankfully they got caught on the edge and I was able to rescue them. So after much running and laughing he finally came in for dinner... and another bath! His little hiney is so cute.

This is cropped for obvious reasons!

We have been working on Landon's bible verse for the week. Now that he's moved up a class at church he gets to do bible stories and pictures and an actual curriculum. He loves his veggie tales CD which has taken over the radio in my car. Something I miss dearly and will regain once I start back to work. We were talking to Landon about Jesus the other day, which we try to do frequently. We asked him where does Jesus live and he said in my tummy. We corrected him and said "no Jesus lives in your heart." "Where my heart is?" When I pointed to his heart he asked with a serious and confused look on his face... "Jesus live in my boooobs?" I DIED laughing. Before Keaton came along he had no idea what or where boooobs were. We said "Your heart is behind your boobs." Oh okay. He got that. I guess it's all about location! I love being a mom!!

4 weeks old!

This post is a week over due. Forgive my tardiness. Mr. Keaton, aka "Moose," is doing well. He is nursing like a champ. A little more than I would prefer actually. I feel like a cow with a baby calf constantly attached to me. Jeremy tried to get Landon to call me Elsie a couple of weeks ago. I put an immediate stop to that :) 

Keaton was 11 lbs. 6 oz. at his one month check up and he was 22 inches. Apparently he shrunk an inch at his one week check up so he has now gained that inch back. :) He is an absolute sweet baby and I could sit and snuggle with him all day. But he has an older brother so that doesn't happen!

Enjoy the cute pics!

One year later...

Landon's first week of MDO went well. It was quite a fiasco to get him there on time. We definitely have to work on our time management skills around here now that Keaton has joined the family. Just as I got Landon loaded in the car and ready to go, Keaton had a huge blow out in his diaper. Not once, but twice. Both requiring outfit changes! I have to learn to leave myself some extra time for unexpected issues :). Bug walked right in like the old pro he is and sat down and started playing with toys. I felt for all of the moms who's children were screaming and clinging to their pant legs. I smiled, gave my baby a kiss and headed out the door thinking we were exactly where they are just a year ago. It was bittersweet.

Keaton had his first trip to church yesterday. I wouldn't exactly say he behaved himself. He slept through the worship and woke up to eat and listen to Pastor Steven's message :) Of course that included loud burping and 10 minutes of cute baby hiccups along with unnecessarily loud binky sucking. I sat in the back and disturbed the sound people, did some walking around when he got bored, and tried to get as much of the message as I could. A touch up on the website would not be a bad idea! We head back to our lifegroup on Wed. and we are excited to spend some time with Keaton's extended (church) family.

Adjustment period is still in full swing I would say. Landon is doing better, although his sassy mouth has been getting him into trouble lately. "You drivin' me nuts!" is what he exclaimed to me when I told him to lay down for the 50th time the other day for his nap. Now I can't possibly imagine where he picked up that phrase :) It's good for him to be back in school to be around other kids and to have some structure and a place to run off all of that energy! And it's great for me to get a nap!

What a difference a year makes! He starts pre school next year and I can hardly believe it.

One year later. He looks like an old pro! (a four year old pro)

Me... go to sleep?? Now that's funny!!

I know it's 2 am Mom, but lets talk. Tell me about your day!