From Mama -Valentines Day

Ok, ok, so I'm only making this post because I did some crafty things for Valentines Day this year, and I just love the way they turned out.  (Also, my mother in law really wants me to send pictures to my sister in law, and I am not going to send them to her via my phone, I'm sure she'll think I'm crazy ha ha... Lindsay, this is for you).

It's really no big deal, I just made an "I Love You Because" board for Sam, sometimes I feel like I don't tell him enough, and I felt like this would be a good reminder.

I bought a 4X6 picture frame from the dollar store and a used a piece of scrapbook paper to cover the frame.  Then I bought chalkboard paint and painted the glass... (I just liked the chalk idea more than dry erase right on the glass, plus who won't find more uses for chalkboard paint, especially with two one and a half year olds?).  SO simple, but turned out really cute.

I didn't want to waste the remaining paper so I set out to Pinterest to find another cute idea... there I found this cute "52 Reasons I Love You" book made from a deck of cards (which I just happened to have laying around).  So used the excess paper to make a front and back cover.  I wrote out reasons I love my husband one night while we were laying in bed waiting for the boys to fall asleep... it was much easier with him sitting right next to me, completely clueless as to what I was doing.  Listing reasons was actually a lot easier than I expected it to be... it was actually harder to narrow it down to 52 once I got going.  Then I typed them all on the computer and went through and made them all different fonts, just because I thought it'd be a little more fun.  I took the cards to work to use the fancy 3 hole punch that I could change the length on (it would have taken WAY too long to do them by hand, and nothing would have lined up).  I just think it turned out so cute.

The last thing I made for him was a card on treat.com.  I just thought this one was so clever and cute, and encompassed our whole time together.

My mom thinks I'm cute... I told her that people on Pinterest are cute and thrifty, and I'm just a copy cat.  I do love the way my copy catting turned out though.

Also, I've wanted to make the boys blankets since I was pregnant, just simple tie two pieces of fleece together blankets, nothing fancy.  I was so set on finding Mariners fleece though, that I never actually did it (the only design I could find online wasn't cute).  So I finally found some cute fabric and set out to make them some blankets from their mama.  They are SO soft, so cute, and they fleece is kinda heavy, which makes me sleep better and I have noticed makes them sleep better as well.  I only got one finished by actual Valentines Day, so I haven't given them to them yet, but I'm working on the other one and they will have them soon.  I also made them kinda big so they can use them for a very very long time.  I still have blankets I was given as a kid and I love them!

Here are pictures from our week of love...

It's all about love, right... I can't make a Valentines post without including pictures of the loves of my life, they are just so darn cute.

Pay close attention to the positions they are in... ha ha ha 

 They are just too cute when they sleep... this is when I get all my stuff done.

Chalkboard...

The left is lyrics to songs... it's a thing we've always done.  

Sorry... I just thought they turned out so pretty.  I made the frosting as well, colored and raspberry flavored with Jell-O

 I am really in love with these blankets.  They are the same, so I am considering putting a little initial in the bottom corner for each of them... we'll see.

 This is what the boys got on Valentines Day, since their blankets were not finished... boats (for the bath), play keys (they will play with them better now than they ever would have before), maraccas (which they LOVE) and of course a box of chocolates.

 This is what Sam's stash looked like... 

 My littlest Valentines making a mess of breakfast and watching Mickey Mouse.

15 Months

Okay, okay, late again.  Sorry, not like there is anyone waiting on the edge of their seats for our updates... mostly apologizing to ourselves when we try to get all of this down in a place for the boys when they get older, ugh.

Shortly after we returned from our Christmas trip we brought the boys in for their 15 month check up.  Everything looked great.  Here are their stats:

Nolan 25.13 pounds 53rd percentile and 30.31 inches, still 25th percentile
Mackay 24.34 pounds 47th percentile and 30.31 inches, still 25th percentile

That night we got home and both boys were sick.  AWESOME!  Thanks shots!  Mom followed about a day later (this is the first time she has been sick with the boys, AND the first time daddy wasn't there to help when she was not feeling great).  They were sick for about a week and a half.  Sick babies really are miserable.  No one got any sleep.  They were mostly still pretty happy, but it's so hard and we felt so bad for them.

They are learning lots of new words.  Mackay is the big talker.  Nolan doesn't care so much... during his last visit with his Occupational Therapist, we discussed how careful he was when he learned to walk and how he didn't have confidence to do it until he was able to walk around things and get over obstacles.  He mentioned that that would probably carry into talking, that he will say a word once or twice and then not again until he has the sounds mastered... this is definitely the case.  We are also learning animal sounds.  They LOVE animals.  We have a farm movie (thanks Lindsay Richards) and it's their favorite.  It just shows the animals, says what they are called, what their babies are called, what they eat, what they say, and a few of them what colors they are.  Then they say good bye to which ever animal they are talking about and Mackay loves to wave bye bye to the animals ha ha.

Nolan is such a climber.  He gets himself stuck quite frequently, but doesn't let it slow him down.
Mackay is a big dancer.  He just can't help himself when he hears music that he enjoys, it's hilarious.
Nolan loves to speak jiberish and make faces and is always trying to cheer his brother up when he is sad or hurt.  He also gives more kisses, probably because he used to like to bite your lip, now he's learned that it hurts and is more gentle.
Mackay tries really hard to communicate.  If you don't understand what he's trying to tell you, he will tell you over and over again.  He does not give up easily.  He is very determined to figure things out and loves toys that test his brain.
Nolan is so playful.  He loves walking behind mommy or daddy (daddy especially) and playing peek a boo around his shoulder.
Mackay would read all day if he could.  They both love reading, but Mackay will find a book in the middle of the day, hand it to you, back himself into your lap, and read it over and over and over.

Their favorite books include:  The Little Blue Truck, Mr. Brown Can Moo, any little book with Mickey and gang, and we have one book that is only pictures of puppies.... but they will pretty well read anything.

They love to put a shirt or pair of pants around the back of their necks to walk around, and LOVE wearing their hooded towels like capes, but only during the day.  They can't get them off fast enough after bath time.
They have the greatest little curls on the backs of their heads... they have such cute hair.  We haven't cut it yet.  Nolan's is getting close, but we're just not ready.

We've known it ever since they were in mama's tummy, they may have the same DNA but they are most definitely their own little people and it only becomes more evident the older they get.

Catching Up...

Alright... we have a lot of catching up to do.  Sorry.  We'll start with December, Christmas, and 15 months.

Oh these crazy boys... they LOVED the snow (Nolan didn't so much the first time we took them to play in it, but was a big fan the next couple times).  Every time we walked outside they had to touch it.  Mackay calls it "hhno".  Their favorite thing was watching Lady jump around in the snow because it was too high for her to really walk in as well.  They love that dog.

We tried to do a lot of fun things with them, but they are still a little too little to care about much.  We went to a tree lot and got a real Christmas Tree (mama refuses to have a fake one).  They had Santa and some reindeer there.  We took another picture with Santa, but the boys still didn't love him.  They did however like the reindeer and loved walking through the trees.  We went to the Festival of Trees and Temple Square to see the lights then to City Creek to hang out just a little longer.  The lights were fun, but they were a little cold and didn't have as much fun as we were hoping they would.  Uncle Ben and Aunt Carrie had a cute park by their house with little lights set up, they boys LOVED those.  They could walk by and touch those.  We also took them to Zoo Lights with our friends, that was a lot of fun.  They enjoyed that more than any of the others... we also took them on their first carousel ride which they loved until about three quarters of the way through and we had to hold them the rest of the time.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home then headed to Moab to hang out with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Kassi, Uncle Greg, Colton, and Uncle Ty.  We don't get to see them nearly enough and had a lot of fun.  This year the boys got some new Mickey Mouse jammies and slippers (which they LOVE and ask to have them put on every day) on Christmas Eve and the next morning Santa had brought them some minion dolls, Marniers sweatsuits, and Mariners shirts, new shoes, little wooden blocks with Mickey and the gang on them, little books, a couple music players (to which they dance all the time),some big plastic Mickey Mouse blocks with switches and buttons on them, and a few movies: Cars, How to Train Your Dragon, and Despicable Me,

They have also discovered how to climb (especially Nolan), boxes (especially Mackay), they love giving you their toys, they LOVE to read and dance (especially Mackay although Nolan started both of these), throwing... balls, toys in the hall, anything really, playing with each other, and kisses (which we love).  They are at such a fun age right now.