Lately

Lately we've been really into Pokemon.
I mean REALLY into it.
Preston has almost all of them memorized and will tell/ask me a hundred times a day "mommy did you know that Blastoise is the evolved form of Warturtle?"
No. No I didn't.
Ok. I did. 

Sometimes I get all Poke-fied to make him laugh. 

Lately Lucas has been really lovin on the ladies.
Ok not really.
I babysit Kimber twice a week and on those days Lucas SCREAMS if she gets near me or him or takes something of his even if he isn't playing with it. Good thing he's our last.
But he does love her for like the first 5 minutes she's here.  

I finally, after 3 months, updated our gallery wall and added our latest family pictures. It was so strange to change out the pictures and see how much everyone has changed. Especially Lucas. 

Lately it's been great weather out and we've really been enjoying our outside time. This particular afternoon Preston owed me an extra chore (for not listening) and so his chore was to keep Jaxton happy and out of my hair for 20 minutes. He wanted to keep reading books and Jaxton wanted to play outside so this was the compromise they made. 

Lately things in the house have been dying. First the fridge then the dishwasher. After a month, actually OVER a month of hand washing dishes I finally broke down and we got a new dishwasher. It matches our fridge perfect and is lovely. My hands are so grateful for the break. I anticipate the water heater will be next, so lets see if I'm right! I'd kind of be ok with being wrong. 

Lately the grass has been just growing like crazy! Jumanji style! Lucky we have a lot of lawn mowers in the house. 

Lately Lucas has been a TERROR when it comes to getting into things/making a mess. On this particular day he was in the fire pit we had set up for Scouts and once his hands were covered in soot/ash he came in and made a trail across the doors. And then smiled for the picture I took of the mess. 

Lately we just get off the bus and head straight outside for some swinging.

And even eat lunch outside.
It's sure easier to clean up the mess when it's outside!

Lately this one has been talking about how he got a birthday card with his picture on it and dollars from aunt Carla and uncle Chuck!
He now asks everyday if he got anything in the mail.

And lastly yesterday was Valentines Day. Patrick and I have a history of terrible Valentines Days. Sickness, surgeries, recovering from babies, brain surgeries and so on, so we don't ever make big plans or have high expectations for V-Day.
Yesterday we had a baptism, a birthday party and then we had a nice dinner together. In a Valentines Day miracle no one spilled their chocolate milk in their fancy cup, nothing got broken and the table cloth was still white when we were done! 

But because it was Valentines Day we found ourselves doing the usual. This year it was Lucas who had to go into Urgent Care because he was coughing/wheezing and having trouble catching his breath. He has a bacterial respiratory infection. Hopefully in 3-5 days he will be as good as new. And hopefully Jaxton who is showing signs of being next to get it will get over it fast!  

And lastly, lately we're still into Frozen. While we were walking around Walgreens waiting for his prescription to be done he was singing along to this Olaf, who was also singing and dancing until after a few laps around the store when I think we wore his battery out. Then Lucas tried to bite his nose off. And he doesn't even like carrots!!
I think Olaf was happy to see us go. 

And that's our lately. 

Everything is different, yet the same.

Patrick starts his new job today. 

For the past 7 years he's worked at GoDaddy and with very little complaint supported our family. But he ran out of room to grow within the company which sounds strange since it's a rather large company, but he's tried sales, he's tried support, he's tried management, and he hasn't found anything that is a good fit with him. So that coupled with a few other things (schedule, atmosphere, location and such) he started looking for a different job. He was offered a position a few weeks ago at a company called Carvin Software. It's a small company that provides software/tech support for staffing companies. Patrick LOVES tech stuff, so that's a pro. It's closer to home, like 7 min away, that's a pro. It's Mon-Fri normal business hours with holidays off (remember when he had to work Christmas eve and Christmas day at godaddy?! UGH.) BIG pro. And it's a company that is really growing where Patrick would have room to grow too.
But it's change! And change is always a con for me. Unfortunately it is a bit of a pay decrease, for now at least, but we can live with it. I hope he'll be happy there. I'll let you know in a few weeks how it's going! 

So that's our something different.

Everything else is the same.

The boys are still adorable. 

We still like to play all day.
(can you spot whats wrong in this picture??)

We still make huge messes DAILY.
In fact these two things happened within an hour of each other. 

Ah life with boys!