Kids!

Man, we haven't posted for a while! Things are going well, we're basically moved into our new apartment, except for the odds and ends that will probably stay unorganized for a good amount of time...The boys are doing well. Josh is so funny, today I was singing him a song, and it wasn't the one he asked for, so after I finished he said, "Silly mommy. This is how it goes:_____" And he proceeded to sing the right song. He also is kind of a shy dude (but he's getting a lot better), so when people come over (for example, Wes) he'll say, "I scared of Wes." and I'll explain to him that he's not scared, probably just shy. So then he'll say, "Yes, I shy of Wes. I shy." It is so cute. And for our Mr. Carter, he is just one jolly little guy, always calm and smiling....except when he's at church or plugged up (sorry Carter, but it's true). Then you had better cover your ears because, I tell you what, this kid can scream! I think he's getting the reputation of being the screamer at church, so I doubt anyone would believe how happy he is, but at least I get to teach YW and have Ryan being the one to walk the halls with him.
Let's see, what else? Hmm, I dyed my hair a dark brown. Well, actually my friend Rachel did the dying, but I really like it. Maybe it's because it was purple for a couple of days before it got to the dark brown, and because I don't have 2 inches of roots showing anymore, but I'm pretty sure I just like it.
Anyway, we got the boys' 2 yr old and 2 months old pictures taken, and of course I like them. Kind of funny, though, Josh was being "shy"- no, he was scared this time, and was crying and causing all sorts of a fuss. The nice photographer was great and eventually got him to smile, but you can kind of tell he's still a bit hesitant with it all. And poor Carter was woken up from his nap, so every time she'd try to pose him, his head would start drooping. We kept yelling and poking him and clapping and looking like idiots, but he could not perk up. It was hilarious. We'd get the perfect pose, but by the time the photographer would get out of the way, Carter was face down. I loved it. I guess it just makes it real to life, right? But here are a couple of them.

What a week!

I got tired of moving pictures around, so sorry about the array of out-of-order pictures.

Carter in his blessing outfit.

He's getting to be so big!

Josh blowing out Dad's birthday candles.

Josh smiling with his new baseball mitt. Yeah, that's a basketball. We couldn't find his baseball...

Man, it has a been a busy week! Full of good things to make us busy, but busy still the same. We've been celebrating continually since May 21st, our anniversary. That day was lame-o, since Ryan had to go to school, but that's okay, we'll get 'em next year. On the 31st, we celebrated Ry's birthday. We had a barbeque for him and some friends (who had birthdays too) that Saturday, and then had cake and a special dinner that Sunday with his family and the elders. (His family flew in last Sunday night to be here this Sunday for Carter's blessing...) Then on Wednesday, Ry's little brother Matt turned 13, and the next day Josh turned 2. For Matt's birthday, we made brownies and played a game of Settlers--thrilling, huh? Sorry Matt. :) Hopefully you'll get a big birthday bash at home...For Josh's birthday, we opened presents in the morning, said goodbye to the fam (they went to the city and Ry went to school), and headed out to the park. Luckily Josh is easy to please. He loved the baseball mitt and ball we got him, so he was happy. Yesterday, I picked up my dad and brother Jeff at the airport, and we all went into Manhattan to celebrate Jeff's graduation from high school. Man, I get tired just writing this down!
Today we blessed Carter, the main event that everyone came out for. He was so cute. We had bought his blessing outfit a while back, and I was afraid it would be too big for him, but it was quite snug. :) He was quiet through the whole blessing, he had just eaten so he was content, and at the end when Ryan held him up, he was just wide-eyed and bushy tailed. (Isn't that the saying?) When we got home after all of church, we had roast beef and mashed potatoes, with corn, salad, crescent rolls, and blueberries. Then we had Josh blow out the candles on his birthday cake, which he had been waiting to do for a few days.

In the midst of all of this, we found a new apartment and will now finish the moving process we tried to start last month. Phew! I remember my parent's somewhat laughing at me when I told them I was SO busy in college. They told me, "Just wait!" I figured they didn't know what they were talking about, but I've started to change my mind....

Josh as a baby. I think he and Carter look a lot alike, don't you?

Josh at one year.

Josh being his thoughtful self at the mature age of two.

Hiatus

I recently took a little trip in the blogging world and noticed that our blog has fallen quite low on your lists, so here I am to bump it back up.

Life has been hectic for us all as of late. I had finals through May that kept me busy. I'm happy to report that it appears that I passed all of my classes for 2nd year. It also seems that I may have bumped up my GPA this year. I guess it would've been pretty hard to lower what I had before without failing classes, so that's not saying too much...

As previously mentioned by Katie, we have been in the process of moving. It has been very frustrating, as there is not much out there that fulfills our requirements for an apartment. I am to the point where I can't even look at our current upstairs neighbors without wanting to punch them in the face. My patience is spent. Luckily we found something yesterday that Katie can hardly believe existed in NY. Here are some pictures, what do you think?

Here's the closet in what will be the boys room:


The master bedroom:


Our closets:


The kitchen:


Bathroom:


Front room:


The pictures don't really show the size, but the rooms all have like 15 foot ceilings, so it seems huge. I'm really surprised that the owner would put so much effort into it. It's nuts! We also have a huge attic to store stuff, and our own washer/dryer in the basement.

The real reason that I'm blogging about this, in addition to try and get all you to come visit us, is to try and advertise for our landlord. There are 2 apartments below it, that are almost the same (minus the 15 ft ceilings and attic). A 3 bedroom and a smaller 2 bedroom. It's right by Clove Lake, and the express bus should take me less than 30 minutes to get to school. We want to fill the building with our friends, so that we don't have to share the backyard & garden with strangers. Also, it would be nice to have babysitters for Josh & Carter who live right by us. And who knows, maybe I'll get some commission... I wish.

Even more exciting than our new apartment is that my Mom, Dad & siblings (Ashley & Matt) are here visiting. Josh just loves having Matt & my dad here to play baseball with him hours on end. Carter is also enjoying more females around to dote on him. Carter would much rather hang out with the girls at this point, while Josh wants to play sports and play with his buddies.

However, we're having a hard time with our silverware. We're not used to using all the clean silverware this quickly. As you can see, this morning I had to use a spoon that barely fit in my mouth, while Ashley used on that barely held anything on it:


Speaking of eating, here's someone who's done a little too much of it:

But even with the 2 hour feedings, we're so happy to have Carter. He is such a happy baby (when he's not constipated or hungry). He is so easy going, and is always smiling now. He only wakes up 1 time during the night now. This according to Katie. Obviously I don't have the equipment to help him during the night, so I get to sleep.

Well, this blog should cover me for another month or so.