Sunday, February 28, 2010

Mommy's boys

We were in the car yesterday, when Adam suddenly shouted, "Who loves Mommy?" All the boys enthusiastically responded, "I DO!" Then Jacob added, "I love mommy the most in the world." Gavin (who likes to argue with everything Jacob says) countered, "NO. I love mommy da most in da whirl."

Then Adam said, "Who loves Daddy?!" Gavin yelled out, "Jacob does!" So Jacob said, "Yes, but I love mommy more." (He says this a lot so I'm trying to convince him that he doesn't have to pick one of us... he can love us both the same. :)

When Adam asked who loves Jacob, we both yelled out together, "I DO!" After thinking a few seconds, Gavin shouted out, "I do!"

Of course, then came Gavin's turn. Adam and I both yelled again, "I DO!" Jacob said he did too and added, "Gavin is smart." I was cracking up because Gavin (purely wanting to disagree with Jacob) said, "NO! I NOT SMART!"

Finally, it was Casey's turn. In unison, without any pause whatsoever, everyone in our family shouted, "I DO!!!" Apparently, he isn't old enough to make his brothers upset yet. :)

I have always heard that when girls are little, they are daddy's girls and when boys are little, they are mommy's boys. This is definitely the case at our house. Every time I ask who wants to go with mommy, they all want to. Whenever we sit at a restaurant, they argue over who gets to sit by my side. When I leave for any reason, Casey is in tears and the older boys try to convince me to stay (or to take them too).

Don't get me wrong, Adam is an amazing dad. The perfect dad for little boys even. He wrestles with them, takes them on bike rides, flies his model airplane, chases them around the house, and fills them with hugs and kisses. They truly have no reason to pick me over him. I think they are just mommy's boys at this point in their lives... so I will soak in every minute while I still can. :)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Oh how I love these boys...

Casey ~ 18 months

Gavin ~ almost four


Jacob ~ six



Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Las Vegas

Adam and I have rarely gone away on vacation without our boys. Needless to say, it usually feels like we need a vacation from our vacation when we get back. :) So our trip to Las Vegas by ourselves was almost too easy...

I especially noticed it at the airport. Usually we have so many suitcases, car seats, and strollers that we can hardly juggle it all, let alone take everything through security. I kept thinking of everything I would usually pack for them... how we would pick out restaurants based on what they would eat... how many snacks and movies I needed in order to entertain them on the airplane... and all of this on top of the fact that we usually fly standby. So here we were with one backpack, our hands empty, confirmed tickets, and pure peacefulness. It was almost eerie, but I was very grateful for ease of it all.

How funny it is that this was the plane we took to Las Vegas?!

I loved that we were able to go with my sister and her husband. They are so much fun to hang out with and can naturally turn any conversation into a fit of laughter. The first night we saw Criss Angel perform. Since we bought our tickets minutes before the show, we were able to get second row seats for half price! After that, we found an Irish bar with a table right next to the band. (David is Irish so he was in heaven. :) It wasn't long before the place was packed and people were surrounding us, singing and clapping to the beat. It was so much fun to just sit back and soak it all in.




The next morning, we found a Starbucks right next to a place that made every kind of crepe you could dream up. Since my sister and I have a tradition of making these at home, it was fun to find a place that served them for breakfast. :)

We spent the day walking around and exploring the hotels.



That evening, Adam and I went up to the 64th floor of our hotel and saw the most amazing view I have ever seen in my life. At first we just thought it was a window view, but then we found the door that lead outside. The entire strip was right before our eyes... with nothing between us except a railing at my shoulders. I can't even describe how breathtaking it was.



We ended the night with a hypnotist show that was so funny we almost came back the next night to see it again. I was cracking up just watching how hard Adam was cracking up. :)

The next day was Valentine's Day. My sister and I started it off with a hot stone massage and chatting it up in their sauna and hot tub. We had made an early dinner with our hubbies at P.F. Chang's (my favorite restaurant of all time). Then we headed to the Wynn to see Garth Brooks.


Garth Brooks took all of my expectations and blew them out of the theater. He was that amazing. He started off by describing his childhood and the songs that inspired him and his family along the way. The best and most unexpected part was that he would sing them. It was so entertaining to hear him belt out songs like Mrs. Robinson, I heard it through the Grapevine, American Pie, and the Piano Man. No, pictures weren't allowed... but when everyone else started getting out their camera, I couldn't help but get mine out too. :)



He was getting standing ovations before he even got to his own songs. To our surprised, he even introduced his wife Trisha Yearwood to the stage and they sang together. Then he performed some of my favorites like Unanswered Prayers, The River, The Dance, and Two of a Kind. I had goosebumps almost through the entire concert... it was so surreal. (Leave it to me to use my water bottle as a microphone when I was singing along.) My favorite moment of the night though was when he took off his guitar in the middle of Shameless and sang it a cappella. It literally takes my breath away just thinking about it.

So all in all, it was an amazing weekend that I will never forget. I'm so glad Adam, my sister, and her husband were there to share it all with. I kind of got used to the relaxing, carefree schedule of it all. So my system was a little shocked to come home to the everyday chaos that occurs with three little boys. I definitely missed them, but it was really good to have that time with my husband for a few days. I think it's so important to just get away from it all and be together every now and then. :)

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Casey's dedication

We have been waiting to get Casey dedicated for about eighteen months. Oh wait, he is eighteen months. :) We have signed up for three dedications now, only to cancel at the last minute because Adam was called on a flight. Sigh... the life of a pilot's wife. ;)

When we heard that they were having dedications on a day Adam would be here, we jumped on it. It was bittersweet because my mom was out of town and I knew she really wanted to be there. Yet, I also knew that if I waited for the next dedication, my hubby most likely would have been on a trip again.

I was blown away by how many family members and friends came to see little Casey. It meant the world to me and was part of what made it a really special day. Adam and I want nothing more than to raise our sweet boy to love God so it felt amazing to be on stage praying for him.

Casey's first little bible. Flipping through it kept him entertained the entire time we were on stage.
Me and my sis-taWhat a happy, happy day!
Now, back to playing with my toys...

Friday, February 05, 2010

Some drawings and sayings

Jacob has been drawing some really fun pictures lately. He likes to make giant ones, (probably because the girl from Monsters and Aliens is giant :) so he will take three pieces of paper and tape them all together. Since they are too big to display on our refrigerator, he came up with the solution of taping them to our walls... which I'm totally okay with. :)

Most of his pictures have been from the movie Monsters and Aliens. Sometimes he adds our tiny family at the bottom so you can see just how big the characters are.

This one is Max and Ruby, one of his favorite shows. He had his daddy pause the television so he could see just what they looked like for his drawing. :) He crossed out Max, because apparently Max is a bad bunny.


There are also some things Jacob has been saying that I thought were pretty cute.

*The other day, he looked curiously at Casey toddling around and asked, "Can babies think?"

*I've realized that after spending so much time with his mommy at home, he is starting to talk like me. ;) We were working on a puzzle together when Jacob asked, "Mommy, do you love Mrs. Dent?" I replied that I really liked Mrs. Dent, but I didn't love her. Then he asked if I loved his grammy. I said that his grammy is my mommy so yes, I love her a lot. Then he smiled and said, "Oh mommy, that's the sweetest!"

*The other day Gavin was in time-out. He has heard me have the "time-out" conversation so many times that he decided to take it on for me. :) It went like this. "Gavin tell me why you are in time-out. Pause. You don't know? Pause. It's because you hit. Pause. Are you going to do that again? No? Good. Pause. No getting out yet."

*We were making chocolate chip cookies when Jacob plugged his nose. When I asked why he was plugging his nose, Jacob said it was because he didn't want to smell the butter. :)

*Before we went to the Great Wolf Lodge for Jacob's birthday, he kept inviting all of his friends from school. I told him that we were just going as a family to the Wolf Lodge because it costs a lot of money. Next thing I know, he is asking his friends... "Do you have a lot of money? Okay, do you want to come to the Wolf Lodge with me?!"