It has been so long since I have written my brain is just spilling over with stuff to tell you. So much so that I am sure I will leave something out.

So I will start with Charles. He is awesome. In December he completed his first full semester in grad school. During that semester we had an infant, he had knee surgery, he was working full time, and going to school full time. We figured if our family could make it through that we could make it through anything. Not only did he make it through, he made it with a 3.7 GPA! I can’t imagine how he would do if we didn’t have to deal with so much on the side. The  spring semester started this week and he has jumped right in. He has already started reading and writing and it is only the first week.

He is also finished with physical therapy for his knee. The therapist was very impressed with his progress and his knee is very strong. He just has to keep doing knee exercises for the next few months before he can start doing sports and such. He is looking forward to joining a basketball league and I really want to start taking dance lessons with him.

Sweet Pea has hit the two and a half mark. The sentences he puts together always amaze me. He understands the concept of before and after, up and down, behind and forward, and under and over. He can count to 14. He also recognizes the numbers 2 and 5. If you ask him how old he is he will say 5, not 2. If you ask him his name he will say Mickey Mouse.

He loves our keys. He can pick out the key to our apartment, stick the key in the door, and unlock it. He can also pick out the keys to our cars. He loves to build with blocks and legos. His favorites are to build garages for his cars and barns for his animals. Oatmeal is still one of his favorite foods, although peanut butter runs a close second.

We started potty training this past Wednesday and he is doing amazing! He is accident free during the day and about half the time at night. I’m sure part of the reason for this is his love of chocolate kisses and marshmallows. He gets one of each whenever he goes. We also have this really awesome Lightning McQueen potty seat and….well that says it all. And we have been constantly watching this Elmo video (which I think Charles and I find more entertaining than Sweet Pea):

Little Peanut has hit the five month mark and she is so much fun! She is rolling over and sitting up. She grabs for toys when you hold them out to her. She babbles and talks. She makes the “d” sound and Charles is convinced she is saying “dada”.She is starting to recognize us. When we get home she gets really excited to see us. It’s awesome!

So far she has tried peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She loved all of them, but we have only done carrots once because they made her little tummy upset.

She is now sleeping back in our room. She was doing well sharing a room with Sweet Pea, but he was not. He has become quite the master manipulator at bed time. He figured out that he could start crying and we would whisk him out of the room so he wouldn’t wake Peanut. So basically he just started crying for no reason so he wouldn’t have to go to bed. No good.

So we are now back to our original sleeping arrangement. For the most part I am ok with that, but every now and then I feel a little claustrophobic. With someone in every room and Charles studying in the living room at night there is nowhere for me to go.

As for me, I am just grateful to be home with my kids. It is hard, but I can’t imagine anybody else raising them.

I have also realized in the past couple months that I have let myself get lost in my kids. So my goal this year is to become my own person again. Not really sure how to go about that, but I am going to figure it out.

Well that is us in a nutshell!

On Sunday we are leaving to go to Disney World for Christmas! We are so excited and really looking forward to the trip. Last week I was browsing stores on etsy and found these cute hats!!! I thought they would be the perfect way to keep the kids warm while at Disney!!! Josie, the store owner and maker of the hats, was amazing! She made them in one day so the kids could have them for our trip. Sweet Pea already  loves his and has been wearing it since we got it in the mail today.

She is having a buy 2 get 1 free special so we got this one for free!

Life has been crazy busy.Charles is in his last few days of class and has finals next week. He also has a job contract that is due next week. Needless to say I have been here with the kids and going crazy and not having time to get on the computer. I was trying to figure out something quick to post so here it is. I realized I had over 200 pictures stored on my blackberry. So I loaded them all onto the computer yesterday. These are pictures of things I thought were cute, but didn’t have my camera. Isn’t it nice to have phones that take such great pictures?!

In this picture, Peanut was rubbing her eyes. But she was so tired that she fell asleep with her hand still on her face!

On our drive home from Thanksgiving we stopped for lunch. Sweet Pea wanted to hold Peanut during our little break:

I went shopping with a friend and Sweet Pea and her son wanted to ride together in the grocery cart:

Daddy and Sweet Pea watching TV:

More blackberry pictures to  come!

On a side note, here is something I never thought I would say: “No Sweet Pea, you can not brush your teeth one more time!!”

Today we went to the mall to take a family picture in front of a Christmas tree for our Christmas card. First, this was a really silly idea because it took about twenty minutes to find a parking spot. Second, taking pictures with kids is…a challenge. One of them is always crying, needing a snack, and neither of them look at the camera at the same time. There is only one out of the 100 pictures that we took where we are all looking at the camera. And here it is:

Now lets take a closer look:

Kids make life exciting…what can I say?

This morning Sweet Pea and I attempted to make blueberry muffins. He did a good job mixing them all together, but the oven did not do a good job cooking them. We did eat a few when they were done, but something just didn’t taste right. Ah well.

Also my good friend Aimee was shopping at a thrift store today and she found this awesome Lightning McQueen jacket. She knows how much Sweet Pea loves the movie Cars so she got it for him. When we were putting it on he insisted on wearing it so he could see Lightning McQueen. He does not mind at all the hood in the front. He actually used it to play peek-a-boo. Kids…they are awesome!

1. The only reason Sweet Pea and Peanut sharing a room works so well is because Sweet Pea sleeps right through Peanut waking up to eat. Well, two nights ago when Peanut woke up for her three a.m. feeding Sweet Pea joined her in her middle of the night song. It was actually really funny because he jumped out of bed like it was morning time.  I was trying to nurse her and get Sweet Pea to get back in bed. It was hard for him to understand that she just woke up to eat, not to play. Thank goodness Charles heard the commotion and came in to lay down with Sweet Pea. After Peanut was done nursing Sweet Pea was almost back to sleep and we were able to both go back to bed. Funny…and long night.

2. The last week or so Peanut has really started to move around more. I will lay her down in her crib and then come in to find her at a completely different angle. We are also starting to have to move things out of her reach because if she is sitting in your lap at the table she will grab for them. She is also starting to be semi-interested in toys. Which Sweet Pea thinks is really funny. We have started giving her this basketball rattle to play with and whenever Sweet Pea finds it on the floor he gets upset because he things she should ALWAYS want it. I am so excited about this stage, I love it when they become more mobile!

Today we took the kids to the mall to let Sweet Pea play at the play place. There is a Starbucks at the mall and my sweet husband decided to get us drinks with some of his birthday money.

The guy taking our order asked for a name so we said “Charles”. He casually mentioned that his first name was also Charles, but he went by his middle name. This led to a discussion about how he was named after his dad. He went on to tell us that he was glad he went by his middle name because he doesn’t like his father. The whole conversation made me really sad.

I think about when Sweet Pea and Peanut are older and move out and I hope and pray that they are never to the point where they will openly tell strangers that they hate us. It has caused me to really think about how thankful I am I have a good relationship with my parents and how I can have a good relationship with my kids. Lots to think about….

When shopping for eggs, everyone knows you are supposed to look in the carton to make sure that none are broken or missing. Well apparently not everyone. I let Charles do the shopping the other day and when I went to scramble some eggs later that night there were two missing and two broken. Oh I love my husband.

In my last Wordless Wednesday post I posted pictures of Sweet Pea playing with my friend’s iPod. He is so amazing! He just turned two a few months ago and can already unlock the iPod, find the application he is looking for, and turn it on and play it. I am still amazed. It’s a good thing I don’t actually own an iPod or we would be in trouble. My friend’s iPod had this really cool Wheels on the Bus application. It would sing the song, but you have to use your fingers to make the bus go. Sweet Pea loved it! And I like that playing it is becoming a special treat when she comes over, not an everyday thing. If you look at the pictures you will notice that Sweet Pea had to show his little sister. I love how much he loves her.

On another note, Peanut slept six hours straight last night! I couldn’t believe it. Sweet Pea didn’t sleep that long until almost a year old and she is only 3 weeks. Really I am still in shock. Hopefully she will do it again tonight…and if not at least I got one good night of sleep.

Here is Peanut getting a puppy kiss from Sweet Pea:

As Spring has made her appearance, so many of my friends have planted fabulous gardens filled with veggies, herbs, and beautiful flowers! And I must admit, I am a little jealous. I am jealous of their backyards where their kids can play and they can work on growing things for their family to eat. I know, I know. It’s a terrible attitude, and most of the time I am fine. But when it hits, it hits hard. You know?

Anyways. So instead of moping around I decided I was going to turn my apartment balcony into a little garden that we can enjoy. For my birthday a few weeks ago I got these wonderful plants and I bought a topsy turvy tomato planter! This may actually be better than a huge garden seeing as it is the first actual vegetable I am trying to grow. If I can keep it alive and actually make a tomato grow off of it, then I might be ready for a real garden.

The flowers on the balcony have been fantastic. Sweet Pea loves to help me fill the watering can and water “his” flowers. And I know…one day I will have my backyard and be able to plant a fabulous garden.