Color me happy

Oh brilliant child of mine. 

Suddenly I see

Since the day Jaxton was born I've heard SO MUCH of "he looks just like you" and so on and so forth. I never really saw it. Maybe it's because I'm a girl and he's a boy so it's hard for me to see my features on a boy.
But last night when I was organizing some things I came across a baby picture of myself and then I had that
ohhhhhhhh.... He looks like me moment.
Don't ya think??

Valentines Day (Part 2)

On actual Valentines Day (Tuesday) Patrick had taken off from work as well, so we decided we'd put our new zoo membership (my Valentines day gift!) to good use.

Coldest day ever.
Seriously it hasn't rained since the beginning of December and then suddenly starts raining on our way to the zoo?!? Crazy! But we were all bundled warm & still had a great day. 

Love Preston's little accidental thumbs up in this picture.
And Jaxton's super blue eyes?! Where did those come from!?!? 

Despite the cold weather it was a good day to go to the zoo. Very few people & only a few field trip groups.
Best part of the day was at the Orangutan exhibit when one of the smaller Orangutan's was totally playing with Preston. He was right up against the glass & kept staring at Preston and then was rolling round & doing silly things with him.
Probably thought Preston was his long lost brother.
See some of it HERE.

 Then there was the camel ride.
He loved it! 

For dinner we decided to get Olive Garden to go since we had a gift card from Christmas (thanks to my favorite mother in law!) And so while Patrick went to get it I got the table ready. 

Besides my zoo membership Patrick got me flowers/a teddy bear & candy (not pictured due to being in my belly).
I couldn't find any candlesticks so I had to make due with a jar of buttons.
And then we finished out the day by watching Star Wars Episode II.
(my gift to patrick was the Star Wars collection on blu ray & my extreme love for him is shown in the fact I'm actually committed to watching all 6 movies with him).

And now Valentines day is over.
Back to normal life & everyday routines & questions of WHY does Jaxton's hair stick up in back and lay flat in front?!?!?!? 

Valentines Day (Part I)

Patrick and I do not have a good history of Valentines Days.
In the 5 years we've celebrated it together we've had one good one, and that was last year. Although I can't remember what we did....
But the years before that Valentines Day has been a day of sickness, recovering from a D&C and recovering from the Preston C-Section.

This year was AWESOME though.
While we take turns planning how to celebrate our Anniversary Patrick takes on all the Valentines Day plans.
And he done GOOOOOOOOD.

For about 2 weeks he's been telling me "if you want me to tell you what your surprise is for Valentines day just let me know", but I wanted to be surprised so I never let him tell me. Till Friday night. Then he told me.

He had planned for us to have an entire kid free day.

(PLEASE don't get me wrong, I love my kids a crazy amount. But sometimes you just need a break from each other.)

He had arranged for his sister Carly (or ka-ca as Preston calls her) to come over to the house at 8 am on Monday morning and watch the kids until around 7 that night.
11 kid free hours. 

Excellent excellent gift.

The day went a little like this:

Wake up, feed Jaxton, go back to sleep while Patrick got Preston up & ready.
Get dressed/ready without having to make sure Preston wasn't brushing the mirror with his toothbrush.
Go out to breakfast with Patrick to Wildflower Bread Co.
Eat Pancakes. I haven't had pancakes in MONTHS so when the guy taking our order commented on how excited I was about pancakes he wasn't wrong.
Go to Best Buy & browse. Browsing doesn't happen with 2 little boys in tow.
Go to Barnes & Noble & browse.
Go to Ross & browse.
Go see Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. Great movie.
Go to Texas Roadhouse & actually eat my meal while it's still hot not having to make sure little mouths are fed first.
Come home & watch a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Great show. Legendary.
Doze on the couch without getting my eyes poked at.
Shower for as long as I wanted without having to listen to make sure everyone was ok.

And then the kids came home.
We missed them. There wasn't once during the day when we thought "i wish we could do this everyday" or "what if our life was like this?". The truth is we REALLY missed them. I thought about them constantly & couldn't wait to see them again.
But it was a great day.
Much needed.

OH. And this happened. . .

Seriously Jack, I'll never let go. 

Who Run the World? GIRLS!

Tis the season for the 10k's!

Once again Krissa and I decided that we were going to do London's Run and Ethan's Run.
Or maybe Krissa decided & I decided I would be a good friend and tag along. After all you do get a t-shirt.

Saturday Jan. 28th was London's Run. 

Just like last year it was cold.

And just like last year there was cotton all over the dirt path that looked like dead bunnies.

And just like last year we finished in about 1hr 28 min.

But unlike last year I didn't trip before the race even started!

And unlike last year we listened/sang/danced along to music as we ran which helped A LOT.

And unlike last year we didn't have to take a bathroom break 1/2 mile into the race!

We took a picture before the race & I didn't realize that my number was upside down....

But then I fixed it. 

Saturday Feb. 11 was Ethan's Run.

Just like last year it was through the HILLS of Las Sendas.
And just like last year we finished in 1 hr 24 min.
And just like last year we thought about just leaving early & going to breakfast. But we didn't!

Unlike last year we adopted a "Pirate Code" of "leave no man behind, live together die alone."
Unlike last year this year there was aerodynamic shark fins popping up from our visors.
And unlike last year there were no shouts of "Here comes back fat!" Instead this year it was "OH Justin Bieber! Save me!"  

 

And no matter how crazy Krissa thinks I am for saying they were both fun, they were both really really fun. I'm ready for another! I feel like I was in better shape for the runs this year then I was last year which is strange since I had a baby 3 months ago. But I've really been working hard on my running endurance & can now go for 3 miles before I have to stop. Kind of a big deal for me.

Oh & many many thanks to Patrick for watching Mr. Spaghetti face & Double Dimples while we did the two runs and for watching them while I go to the gym to watch Vampire Diaries run a few nights a week.

P.S Carly we're SO doing that 5k in April.
Now that it's on the blog on the internet it has to happen. 

Sitting, waiting, wishing.

I have been waiting for a moment like this since we found out that we were having another little boy.

Today Preston was playing cars.
But today Preston decided he wanted Jaxton to play too.
So he brought out 2 red cars and came to lay by Jax. 

He rolled them around Jaxton, who was watching & loving it. 

And then when Jaxton spit up Preston took some time to gently wipe it up before getting back to playing. 

And then once Jaxton went down for a nap Preston went back to playing by himself. 

I think Preston's been waiting for a moment like this too.
And it's only just the beginning of brothers playing together. 

I bet Jaxton could sell out Madison Square Garden too...

So yesterday I watched Justin Beiber: Never Say Never (the movie). My reasons for doing so were twofold.

1. When Dr. Mikel was performing my C-Section for Jaxton he was talking to his assistant telling her that the night before he had sat down and watched Never Say Never. Now, when your laying half paralized getting sewn up layer by layer you tend to focus on things to keep your mind off of whats going on behind the blue curtain. And so I listened to him say how the movie was great, and how he was blown away by all the hard work that J. Beiber did to get where he is and how he's impressed by him. And I thought to myself, hmm. "maybe I should check this movie out sometime when I'm not getting cut open." 

And the second reason I watched it 

2. Maybe I kind of love Justin Beiber. 

Now before you make fun of me you know know I've been doing a lot of this lately and I could take you down. 

ANYWAYS. . . 

At the end of the credits it was showing all these pictures of Baby Beiber and I saw this picture: 

That picture brought me joy. WHY? Because of this:

Jaxton has had this cowlick in the front of his hair since birth and I've been worried that his entire life he was going to be stuck styling his hair like this: 

But you see, now there is hope! Justin Beiber has the same type of cowlick in the front of his head and his hair turned out ok! How ok? There are currently 13,300,000 websites that pull up when you google "Justin Beibers hair". 

13,300,000 is a lot. 

Blue Steel

There's room for everyone on Mama's lap.
Even Jaxton's serious scowl.