Easter in August

Okay, this is getting a little ridiculous.

We had a wonderful, no frills Easter. Just us, at home. Jacob is a such a great age to celebrate the holidays. He gets super excited about every holiday and can really participate in all the fun traditions. Every year at Christmas my parents would have us do a "hunt" for our last present. They would hide little notes around the house that led us to the final present of the day (usually the most wanted present). I knew I would carry on that tradition with my family because it was so much fun. Since we didn't make it to any Easter egg hunts this year, I decided to do a little hunt for their Easter baskets on Easter morning. I hid eggs all over the house, inside and out, with a note and a piece of candy inside. Jacob had so much fun searching for his basket!




I hid eggs in the house and both front and back yards. The funny part was that while he was finding eggs in the back yard there were no baskets at the door. When he went to find eggs in the front yard I slipped the baskets from their hiding places and put them at the back door. When he found the baskets he couldn't believe the Easter Bunny was sooooo tricky :)




We had a wonderful time eating candy, dying Easter eggs and enjoying a great Easter ham together as a family. I hope I can continue to create wonderful memories for my kids and keep them believing in that tricky Easter Bunny for many years to come!



I love his expression here. I wonder what he is thinking?

Charlie Turns One!!

It's hard to believe that it has been over a year since my little man was born. It's even harder to believe that I don't have a baby anymore. I miss that baby but I love this little boy who toddles all over my house just the same.

We just had a family celebration at the house. I almost enjoy this more. No stress, no distractions and I have my little guy all to myself. We had dinner, cake and then opened his one present. I tend to go overboard and stress myself out when there is gift giving involved. I over analyze everything and just want to make sure what I get will be used and appreciated. So this time (since we have a gazillion toys in this house) I just got one present for Charlie.


Charlie getting ready to "blow" out his candle. Me holding Charlie's hand down to prevent him from grabbing the bright, flickering light thingy.




He liked the cake...

He REALLY liked the cake.


Opening his present with Jacob.


Charlie says, "Hey! That's my present, brother!"



More interested in the wrapping paper, of course.


Daddy and Charlie.

My Name is Caroline...

...and I am horrible at keeping my blog current.

I promise that over the next week (or so) that I will bring this darn blog up to date. Even my cat Isabel is upset with my lack of attention to this matter

She clearly has an ax to grind.

Time sure flies...

It has been so long since I last posted. My posts may be a bit sporadic, but better sporadic than not at all. So much has happened since my last post, but I'll just stick to the highlights.

My parents came to visit at the end of January for about a week. It's so nice to have help with the kids and see Jacob and Charlie bond with their grandparents. I hate being to far away and hope that we can move closer sometime soon. They will be back for Jacob's fourth birthday in June and I will be counting the days!

Our laptop went kaput and we were without a computer for about two weeks. A contributing factor to my long hiatus from blogging. We still had out phones but after two weeks of doing all things computer-y on your phone it gets pretty annoying. We ended up getting a Dell desktop with a HUGE monitor. We never really used the mobile capability of the laptop and figured we needed a nice desktop, home office/family computer. If we end up missing the laptop we'll just get a small netbook to use on the go.

Charlie finally got another tooth! He took forever to get his first two bottom teeth. Especially since Jacob had eight teeth by now. The funny thing is that his third tooth to come in is one of the upper side teeth. I think that he will be getting all four upper teeth close to the same time but the two side ones will definitely be making the first appearance. He will look silly for a while, but it will make for some great photo opportunities. He has been crawling all over the place and getting into EVERYTHING. He has his go to no no spots that he hits up when he wants some attention. These include, but are not limited to, the cat food, fireplace, night lights, toilet paper and the actual cats themselves. I remember this time with Jacob. Our first instinct is to remove all of these temptations, but then we remember how important it is to set boundaries very young so the little guy can learn that there are limits. So far he has learned that crawling to all of these things makes us run and pick him up. Maybe he thinks he is training us. Silly baby :) His first birthday will be here in less than 2 months...better start planning.



Jacob is still enjoying his preschool and making lots of new friends. He loves school and that makes me so happy. One of my goals as a parent is to make sure my child loves learning and understands the value of education. So far, so good. He is definitely testing us every chance he gets. I think the 3's are much more challenging for us than the 2's. He is becoming much more independent, learning things from other kids at school (both good and bad) and he is able to express himself much better verbally. His improved verbal skills allow him to tell us about his day, tell us jokes and some hilarious made up stories. Unfortunately, he has also learned to talk back to us. This is a daily battle but also a daily opportunity for us to teach him respect and personal responsibility. There are times when he struggles but there are also many times he surprises me and makes me very, very proud.

I love being able to stay at home with my kids. It can be trying at times but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I may miss a tantrum or twenty if I worked, but I would also miss the beautiful, fleeting moments that make me so proud and lucky to be a mom.

Let it snow...but only a little.

I have to admit, I have a love/hate relationship with snow. I love snow days and all the fun we have as a family. I hate how cold it is and if we are stuck in the house for more than a couple of days I get stir crazy. So TN is perfect. We get one or two snows a winter and they never last very long.

We were anticipating a fairly decent snow storm Sunday night and we did ended up getting about 5 inches. We got to play in the snow all morning and enjoyed hot cocoa and a warm cuddle on the couch after. I had a dentist appointment on Monday that was canceled so that was just an extra bonus. That appointment has yet to be rescheduled...ugh.


Jacob was all about building a snowman last year but this year he wanted to have a snowball fight. He's been really into the movie "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" lately and they have a snowball fight with ice cream so I guess he thought it was only fitting. He was also really into eating the snow this year. Don't worry, I filled him in on the "yellow snow" tip :)


We even let Charlie come outside for a second but he couldn't have been less interested in the snow. Maybe next year.

Good so far!

The first week of 2011 has been great. I don't plan on making any resolutions but I do plan on trying to get back into shape. I worked out pretty regular before I got pregnant with Charlie. Jacob and I would go on hour long walks almost everyday and I would do cardio and strength training on top of that. I wasn't at my pre-Jacob weight, but I was pretty close. When I was pregnant with Charlie, I stopped working out at about 6 months and haven't done so since. My walks went by the wayside and I've really gotten out of shape. So I find myself at that point where I know I need to get back into an exercise routine but I keep putting it off. Maybe by writing it in this blog I will force myself to jump back on that horse and stop being so lazy. I could stand to lose about 20 lbs but would be happy to just get back into shape and fit (comfortably) in my size 8 jeans again. Stay tuned...

While my motivation lacks, Charlie sure knows how to start the year off right. He officially became a crawler on New Years Day. I couldn't be prouder of my little man. Here is a video of this momentous occasion.




Jacob started preschool two days a week last fall. He was going for 3 hours on Tuesday and then for 5 1/2 hours on Thursday. I wasn't sure about the long day since he still takes naps in the afternoon. He did so well that we decided to extend Tuesday into a long day as well this semester. He couldn't be happier. He still takes naps on his off days and usually falls asleep on the drive home from school, but this schedule seems to be working well for him.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this year and creating many more new memories with my family. I just know that 2011 is going to be great!

A day late but not a dollar short.

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I have so many great memories from from my childhood and a lot of those memories are from the holidays. The decorations, the food, the family and of course the giving and receiving of presents. I hope to create the same lasting memories for my children.

My husband's job requires him to work odd hours and holidays. He was supposed to be home on Christmas morning but found out he did indeed have to work. Both he and I grew up celebrating Christmas on Christmas morning. We threw around the idea of doing everything on Christmas Eve or after he got home from work on Christmas but it just didn't feel right. So we agreed...we'll just do Christmas a day late. We'll have Christmas Eve on Christmas and then Christmas on the 26th. Our oldest son is still too young to know the difference so we wanted to keep with tradition.

So on the evening of the 25th we made cookies for Santa and opened the traditional one present each. We then read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and tucked the boys in tight for the night.

We woke up on Christmas morning, Santa had come and we still had our "Christmas morning" as a family. We were able to celebrate Christmas in our own time and in our own way. It may have been harder for us to have to wait an extra day than it was for the kids. I must say though, it was well worth the wait.


I'm sure one day, when the kids are older and wiser, we will have to open presents without Dad. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But as for this year, I'm glad we could pull it off. As for New Years...I don't think I've been awake at 12 am on New Years Day since Jacob was born. At this point in my life I can't imagine a better way to ring in the New Year than cuddled up next to my husband in a peaceful slumber....ahhhhhh :)