camera phone photo dump, sping 2016

Before I dump a bunch of random pictures on you, I thought I would update on the past week's experiences since my last post. First, I received a bunch of supportive comments and love from family and friends over my last post. I wasn't looking for this when I wrote about my woes of weight gain and a practitioner who should know better than to tell a pregnant girl to slow it down, I was literally writing to ease my frustration. But I've since developed an "I-don't-give-a-damn" attitude regarding her comments and my ever-growing belly. And I may or may not have gained 10 pounds...we shall see next week at my next appointment. But over the last week I have learned to love my temporary extra curves and basketball-shaped stomach, and have actually felt better about myself than I have since I learned I was pregnant. Funny! Second, I had a doppler study done on the back of my leg due to a very sore and very ugly cluster of varicose veins that the same practitioner was concerned about, and it was just fine. So other than having a very ugly and sore leg, no health issues. Third, and to me the most important: I PASSED MY 1-HOUR GLUCOSE TEST!!!!!  This is in all-caps because I am screaming it. And I am screaming this because my other two experiences were failures which resulted in fear of developing gestational diabetes and having to then go on and take a 3-hour glucose tolerance test. The 1-hour is miserable enough, but the 3-hour has an even higher concentrated sugar drink with 4 blood draws AND you have to fast!!!! If you have been in my shoes with the 3-hour test you are nodding your head in agreement. It sucks. I celebrated passing the 1-hour test by baking cookies. :)

OK, so now some random pictures!

Finley fights a nap nearly every day. And sometimes I don't have any fight in me, so I let him stay up with me and Keagan. But without fail, every time he doesn't have a nap, he falls asleep in some random location. Like in his chair in our bedroom or at the counter during supper...

Wacky Day at KidsFirst Preschool in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. 

Anytime my children cross a childhood milestone I am blown away... And as little minds are meant to grow and learn, and learning to read and write is just part of growing up, I am in constant amazement of both of my kids as they conquer these typical kid rights of passage, especially with little help on our part. Keagan LOVES to read. You can almost see the neurons synapsing in his brain as the connections are being made. He reads a couple books aloud every day at naptime, and congratulates himself when he finishes. It's pretty cute. And this momma is impressed!

Along the same line as reading, Keagan loves to write. He used to drain us with asking us to spell words for him, but here recently he has been writing his own notes without asking for help at all. Here is one he brought me while I was getting ready for work one day. In case you are struggling with kid-spelling, it says: "I love you mommy so much." (does it get much better?! This is taped on my mirror now.)

Here's another that he wrote to our new babysitter, Ms. Mallory. It says: "I am so happy you are here Ms. Mallory."  He gave that to her the first week she started for us. If that isn't welcoming, I don't know what is!!! She loved it, I asked to snap a picture before she took it with her. :)

Switching gears to our annual Tater Day festival that pretty much kicks off Spring in our county...the boys LOVED the carnival food, especially the funnel cakes. And the corn dogs. And the cotton candy. 

I can't say enough good things about our preschool, they do so much for the kids and engage them in so many fun things. The boys each had "Character Day" where they dressed as a character from a book. Keagan chose to be Sam-I-Am from Green Eggs and Ham on his character day. It is, afterall, one of the first books he read all by himself and he LOVES it. 

Finn's favorite book of all time is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We have read the small board book to the boys since they were babies, but Finley received the pop-up version from Great Grandma Gail a while back and for a while it was literally the only book he would allow us to read him! When I crafted his Character Day costume he squealed and wanted to wear it immediately! He was so happy!!!

Both boys are very much into games. They found a Disney Planes version of UNO in their closet one day and insisted I teach them how to play. So we played open-faced UNO and they loved it! In this picture I was clearly losing!!

My sweet husband knows that one of my favorite candy bars is a 100 Grand. I really don't eat them often, unless I am at his parents house and they always have the fun-size ones so I pretty much clean them out. Well, they clearanced this box at his work so he brought me home a surprise! (are you now wondering why I am surprised about my pregnancy weight gain!? haha...I have eaten them in moderation.. promise.)

A Double Rainbow over our house!!!! The boys and I had just come in to get supper ready, and Josh was outside grilling, when it suddenly started raining. The boys thought it was nuts that it was raining AND sunny! Then Keagan (in another of his moments that blow me away) said "Hey Mom! When it rains and it is sunny, the perfect amount of rain and the perfect amount of sun and the perfect angle creates a RAINBOW!!!" and just as he completed that mind-blowing statement for a 5 year old, Josh busted in and said there was a rainbow outside! Keagan said this was the first "real" rainbow he has ever seen. We then had a discussion about prisms and he reiterated the colors of the rainbow (correctly!) to me. Those wheels, they are a-turning in that little brain!

My smart boy chose to be a teacher for Occupation Day at preschool. We had a hard time coming up with teacher-y items for the "Occupation in a Bag" but he looked like a little professional. The kids even had to do a mini presentation on their chosen occupation. Here he is doing his (I swiped this from the facebook page). He makes me so proud. (In related news, his brother was mad-mad-mad that his class didn't do Occupation Day...he wanted to be a Pilot like Uncle Wesley, and even put on his baseball helmet and pretended he was a fighter pilot!) 

Dream Big and Aim High, little ones!! It is so fun to watch these boys blossom into handsome and smart young men. Now, we just gotta stop the fighting and tattling and screaming and meanness and all will be good!! Ah, little boys...  :)