Picnic Time

My kids love to eat at their picnic table in the backyard. They ask almost every meal. I love it too because it keeps the mess outside instead of inside. Since Roger wasn't going to be home for dinner last night I figured it was the perfect opportunity.

Rowan declared the pbj sandwhich, string cheese and apple slices to be the "best dinner ever." He's obviously easy to please.

Juice boxes are a treat at our house too and it was requested that I take a picture of each of them drinking theirs.

Sorry about the food in his mouth but in the interest of fairness, I needed one more picture of him to post too. :)

We've been getting more and more comments lately about how our little Cruzy looks like his daddy which I tend to agree with. They have the same pointy chin, the same teeth and a lot of the same expressions. The cross bite smile is also a Baum trait that Roger had as a child as well. We're just starting to notice Cruz doing this when he smiles his big cheesy smile. 

When I went to check on Rowan last night I noticed that he had moved his pillow to the foot of his bed and was sleeping "backwards." It made me smile because I used to do that as a kid. :) Have a good day!

Disney!!!

We're on the 3 day countdown until our little Florida vacation. They boys are so excited. We made a countdown chain which we hung on the pantry door so that Rowan could answer his own question, "how many more days??"  Rowan is so excited to meet Donald and Goofy.  He is also excited to ride all the rides including a roller coaster (Big Thunder Mountain).  Cruz just wants to meet Mickey mouse and see his house.  We are excited to spend some quality time with Grampy and Grammy on our trip and also swim in the cool looking pool at our resort.  The only thing that would make this better is it Nate, Amanda and Jade could be there.  Next time....

I'll leave you with a picture from the last time Rowan was at Disney at 15 months old.

Pool

We made our first visit to the pool today. Roger and I were so impressed with Rowan. He was so comfortable in the water, jumped in about 1000 times and practiced all of the things he learned in his swimming lessons. I would have felt comfortable sitting on the side of the pool and watching him. He also tried jumping off the low dive. After he did it the first time he wanted to do it over and over again. He really wants to try the high dive eventually. We'll see. :)

Cruz was way more comfortable in the water than I figured he would be. That little boy is such a surprise. I can't figure him out. :) He wanted to jump in time after time. He also loved floating on his back and is getting close to doing it unassisted (for a few seconds). I haven't bought a maternity swimsuit yet which is why I'm in the video sporting a tank top over a bikini, lol. Swimsuit shopping is on our to-do list for tomorrow though seeing as we leave for Florida in four days!

We had burgers on the grill and watermelon for dinner then made a stop at Dairy Queen for some ice cream. It was a wonderful day.

Soccer Saturday

Rowan is doing so well at soccer this season. Its amazing what a few months of growth and maturity will do. He has much better ball control and has definitely gotten faster. He's slowly but surely becoming more aggressive. Rowan gets the ball numerous times during the games now and even scores. He told me today that he loves being 3.5 WAY better than just being 3, haha.

Today is hot. It was almost 90 degrees at his 10:00 am game so lots of water, some shade and a snack was required at half time.

Not wanting to be left out, Cruz is never far from the action. He spends most of the games kicking a soccer ball around with his daddy.

Sweet, silly boys.

Baby #3 is still cooking away. The boys love listening to his/her heartbeat in the evenings. Rowan can find the heartbeat himself using the doppler and is very good at distinguishing between my heartbeat and the faster sound of the baby's. 

We find out if our little one is a boy or a girl sometime in May. Sweet Rowan has his heart set on a baby sister. He refers to the baby as "she" and he has decided that he wants to name her Princess. We've been talking about the fact that the baby could be (probably is) a brother and he said, "No, I already have a brother, please can it be a sister, Mama?" It breaks my heart a little bit but I am confident that if this baby is a boy, God will work in his little heart and he will be just as excited to add a HIM to our family. Cruz has about as much interest in the baby as he does in potty training.... so, none. :) I'll keep you all posted.

Summer is Here......

Well, maybe not summer but we are in the midst of some summer like temperatures and today we took full advantage of them!

The water at our big splash pads aren't turned on yet but the Outlet Mall has a small splash area that was perfect for today. Rowan, of course, loves the water and jumped right in.

Cruz was terrified when we got there, which I figured he would be. He's scared of oddest things (like sprinkles and wind in the trees, lol). After about 15 minutes though he slowly ventured towards the outer edge of the water and slowly made his way in. By the end he was running around with the big kids. I was so proud of him.

My wet little boys. These two are the best of friends these days. I'm so proud of Rowan for taking such good care of Cruz and I'm so proud of Cruz for accepting/seeking out his big bro's assistance when he needs it.

Happy Weekend! :)

Cruz's New Room

Cruz has been sleeping in his new room for about 2 weeks now and he made the transition like a champ. The basics of this room are the same as when Rowan was in it but we added a few special changes for sweet Cruz. I'm also still searching for a few touches but I didn't want to delay posting any longer. :)

View from the doorway. LOVE the metal buckets I found in the dollar spot at Target to hold extra board books.

Cruz's reading chair and extra stuffed monkey... in case we lose the original. 

Some bigger toys. This corner needs a few more storage containers. I'm looking for a tall one like the ones in Rowan's room to store his larger vehicles.

We moved his letters over from the nursery. The brown worked perfectly... no need to repaint them.

Its too hard to make the bed with the guardrail on! Cruz has the sports bedding that Rowan previously used. This bed has several height settings we put it on the lowest one and are using a thin mattress so that he can easily get in and out. He probably doesn't even need the guardrail. The bed transition went a million times better than I thought. The first night was rough because he was scared about a new place but after that, he's been sleeping with no issues.

I love his baseball lamp.

Cruz's collection of balls. We had to take the ones that belonged to Rowan and move them to HIS room.

Besides the storage, I would also like to get something else for his dresser but I haven't come across the perfect item yet. :) Here's a video of his room but the tour is given by me.... sorry. :)

Little Miss Jade

Its kind of fun getting some pink on the blog. :) I had the most wonderful visit with Amanda, Nate, Jade and my parents this weekend. I was in Illinois for less than 48 hours but it was totally worth it.

Jade is seriously the sweetest baby. In the 8ish hours that I was with her on Saturday I'm pretty sure I heard her cry once. Just one cry. Then she was over it. She's such a little angel.

My sister pretty much let me hold Jade the whole time I was there. She also let me give her a bottle and change her diaper. I was so excited.

Jade is definitely a combination of her parents but her nose and expression in this one is all her dad. 

Being an aunt is so much fun. I was amazed at how much I love her. I know that sounds odd but the love I have for her is definitely the closest thing to the love I have for my boys. It was so neat to hold my little sister's daughter. I'm so happy she has a little girl because even if I don't, I have my sweet niece and that's definitely just about as good as the real thing. :)

Happy Wednesday!

Spring soccer time is here! Now that we know that Rowan loves playing soccer we bought him his own pair of cleats this season. He was so incredibly excited. He also scored his very first (real) goal on Saturday. All the kids on his team are about his size and very evenly matched skill wise. Rowan loves it.

2 days until I head to Illinois to meet little Jade Marie! I can't wait to see her and especially to see my sister. Its been a rough couple of days for them. 

I also have a new second cousin (or something like that) as of yesterday! My cousin Kelly and her hubby Paul added the second new baby to our family in two days. So fun. :) We can't wait to meet baby Colton too.

Happy Wednesday.

Rowan's New Room

In preparation for Baby #3 we've been playing Musical Rooms at our house. Everyone is moving around. Rowan moved into what used to be the playroom meaning that we no longer have a specific space in our house dedicated to toys. I kind of love it though. Each boy has their toys in their room and its really helped us to be deliberate about what we keep/buy.

First, Rowan will take you on a video tour, then there are some still photos. :)

Behind his door is the perfect space for hooks for his backpack and jacket.

LOVE these bookshelves. I found this idea on Pinterest. The shelves are $4 Ikea spice racks spray painted red. 

The Pottery Barn Kids Fisherman's Lamp was the big splurge of his room.

I adore his bed from Ikea! His bedding should be able to grow with him too.

We reused this artwork hanger from the playroom and it serves as a kind of bulletin board for Rowan's room. Soccer pictures, a picture of him and Cruz, favorite artwork, etc.

The majority of his toys are stored here. Some others are in the closet. We've been working on adding on to sets like legos, cars, trains and the Imaginext line instead of getting a bunch of random toys.


We did something a little different and hung Rowan's letters over the closet. I love how this turned out too.

Loving his new room! :)

As you saw in the video all of his clothes storage is in the closet giving him more floor space to play. Stay tuned for a tour of big bro Cruz's room later in the week. He's been sleeping there for a week and doing fabulously. :) Oh, and incase you're interested my sweet little niece is here!! 

He's Not Dead Anymore!

We've been talking about the Resurrection for a while at our house. After we finish telling the story of Jesus' death we'll ask the kids, and what's the BEST part? Rowan will yell out, "He's not dead anymore!!!!" Right Rowan, or you could just say that Jesus is Risen. Rowan prefers to say it his own way. :)

We started the day off with Resurrection Rolls for breakfast. If you've never tried them, you should. :)

The marshmallow represents Jesus

The cinnamon represents the spices that the women WANTED to put on his body. :)

The crescent roll represents the tomb. Rowan was able to fold the marshmallow (Jesus) up in the crescent (tomb) all by himself!

Then they go into the oven for 3 days.... or 10-12 minutes. 

When they come out, open them up and you'll find the "tomb" is empty. Why? BECAUSE HE'S NOT DEAD ANYMORE!!!! ;-) 

After breakfast the boys got to open their Easter baskets. We talked about how Jesus gave us the gift of eternal life because he loves us and Mommy and Daddy wanted to show love too by giving a few small gifts as we remember the greatest gift of all.

We went to church at 11 this year, much later than we ever have before but we really enjoyed it. Some playing at the parks, steaks and family time rounded out our day. What a blessed Easter.

Now, if my little niece would just be born already the day would absolutely perfect. Seriously though, she's going to be born any minute.... :)

Birthday Wrap Up and Misc.

We have had a crazy couple of days. I've felt like I haven't had a chance to breathe let alone sit down. We finished up Cruz's birthday with a couple more gifts and birthday donuts for breakfast with Daddy on Friday before he left for work.

Cruz loved seeing Great Grandpa and Linda's faces on the back of their card.

If this was Rowan you'd know that the giant smile was due to the cash tucked in the card but Mr. Cruz LOVED the music playing Mickey Mouse card the best of all.

Cruz is into things that fly and was so excited by this Harold Helicopter toy from Uncle Randy! 

Thanks to everyone for showering our little buddy with love on his second birthday. I only included photos of him opening gifts where the senders did not get to watch him personally. All of his grandparents DID give him gifts, they just got to watch him in one way or another. ;-)

Wanna guess where we are? The doctor? Some sort of torture chamber? The Children's Museum? Yep, went to the Children's Museum with some friends yesterday. Not sure why the boys look like they are about to do something extremely unpleasant. Dressing them in matching shirts is so helpful when we go somewhere like that. I don't have to try to remember what each boy is wearing as I'm watching them play in a group of kids. They are very easy to spot. 

We had a great rest of Holy Week but I was awful at taking pictures. The boys made tissue paper crosses, worked on their Bible Verse and used stickers to create an Easter scene. Rowan also went to church on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  Rog and I each took him one night and the other one stayed and put Cruz to bed.  I found this really neat worksheet to help non readers focus and listen during church. This website has a bunch of different sheets for different times of year. Rowan loved listening for his key words and coloring the shape next to them when he heard the word. He also practiced his letter writing by  tracing each word. Excuse his messy coloring, he did this in the dark last night. :)

Happy *almost* Easter!!

Cruzy is 2

Thank you Great Aunt Jill and Great Uncle Jim! Cruz is looking forward to shopping at Toys R Us and he plans on sharing his Dairy Queen gift card with the family. :)

Cruz and his loot.

Cruz opening a book about going potty like a big kid!!!

Cruz's favorite gift were some Matchbox airplanes.

Daddy had to travel to Tucson today for work so we are saving a special birthday dessert for another day. Cruz was more than happy with his birthday pizza. He loved having Rowan and me sing to him and his eyes were glued to his brother for most of the song.

Happy 2, sweet boy!