Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Toddler Tantrums

Here is a GREAT article on dealing with toddler tantrums.  It's written by the author of a blog I follow religiously, Val Plowman.  About 99.99% of the things she writes about is right on.  I've asked her for help several times and she gives the greatest advice.  Anyway, the boys are completely into the terrible 2's now and throw trantrums and I've found this article to be so helpful.

http://www.babywisemom.com/2011/05/toddler-tantrums.html

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Mother's Day

Eric got me the coolest gift for Mother's Day.  It was a necklace that Pioneer Woman showed off that I fell in love with.  The necklace has three pearl eggs for each of the children.  I love it so much and think it's fitting as I like to call the boys my "little birds."

We spent the day just hanging out at home.  It was such a blessing to have my whole family home on Mother's Day.  I love my family :)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Easter 2011

 Easter was so much fun this year as the boys were old enough to do an egg hunt.  Eric was on-call on Easter Sunday, so we had the egg hunt and dinner on Saturday.

On Good Friday, Marcy and Aunt Sue came over and painted eggs with the boys.  The boys had fun dropping the eggs in the dye.

Marcy and Carter painting eggs

Me and Brandt


Me and little man Carter

Seeing their baskets for the first time

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Elina got one, too!

The boys had a blast opening their baskets and eating all the chocolate...before breakfast!!

My little girl!
After the boys' nap, we tried to take a family picture before going out on the egg hunt.


Here it is...the perfect family picture! :)

It took awhile for the boys to get the hang of the hunt, but once they did, there was no stopping them!


We had to stop and eat the egg contents :)

And here we are again, eating the candy!
On Sunday, we went to church with Eric's parents.  The service was held at Trinity's chapel.  It was so fun to go back and see my alma mater.  I took this picture while we were waiting for the parking lot to clear out.  Although Elina had a slight break down that required me to step out, it went great!

Trying to get a picture in our Easter outfits.

still trying...

this was about as good as it got!

Holidays are getting so special to celebrate as the children get older.  Hopefully, Eric will be able to go to church with us next year!

Monday, May 16, 2011

7 Quick Takes

Yikes, it's been forever since I've posted anything!  The main reason is because all of our computers have had problems.  Eric likes to have one when he's on call (and he's on call A LOT), so he takes the functioning computer with him.

Here's a recap of what's been going on in our lives:

  1. Eric and I went to Augusta, GA on Thursday, April 28th to find a rental home.  We landed in Charlotte, NC around noon and drove down to Augusta and started looking at homes.  It was a hectic day!! We found one we really liked and on Friday we went and submitted an application and signed the lease.  On Saturday, we drove past "our" house and took some pics before driving back to Charlotte to visit with Eric's sister, Laura, and her family.  Right before we left Laura's to go to the airport, I got a call from the property manager that the homeowner no longer wanted to rent out her house!!! Eric and I were beyond livid.  I asked the property manager how that could be since she had to have signed a contract with the management company and apparently she hadn't signed it yet!  Talk about bad business!
          The next week we got a call from someone who was renting out his house.  We'd driven past it and really like the neighborhood.  We submitted an application and were so excited because it was owned by the director of the neuroradiology fellowship at MCG and the rent was sooooo cheap.  Then we received an email that the doctor's daughter was moving back to Augusta and was going to live in the house.  We were so upset!  It felt like Augusta really didn't want us to move there.

          Last week a home came on the MLS that sparked our interest.  The picture on realtor.com was really blurry, but it seemed to be in a good neighborhood and it had four bedrooms.  Without seeing it, we signed a letter of intent to rent it.  We'd met the listing realtor while we were in Augusta and really liked him. He told us he thought we'd really like the home and after we signed a letter of intent, he went and took this picture for us!


Isn't it so cute?  We hope we like it!

     2.    Eric finally got done with OBGYN. He was working at a hospital in the city and had 12-14 hour shifts.  The hours combined with an hour and a half long commute made for one crabby and extremely tired fellow.  So glad that month is over!

    3.    The short sale on our home was accepted by the bank.  Although we are grateful, my credit was severely affected. As my sister put it, I can't finance a pot to pee in!  I was so upset until Cara found the silver lining...Eric's credit was not affected!  If one of us had take such a huge hit, it was better that it was me.  Ugh...I was always so proud of my good credit.

   4.     We are in the midst of trying to find movers.  This is a pain because most of our stuff is in storage and if I have to take the quote people to the storage unit just to open the door and let them look in, I'm going to be so crabby!

   5.  Elina is growing up faster than I would like :).  She's rolling over both ways (belly to back and back to belly) and has the best laugh!

   6.  We had to put our cat, Chica, down last Friday.  She has had an autoimmune disease and she was doing well, but took a turn last week.  She completely stopped eating and on Friday, it was evident she was not going to make it through the night.  Eric and I ended up taking her to an emergency clinic.  It was so sad.  We got her after we went on our honeymoon and named her Chica because we'd gone to Mexico.  She was such a good cat and we miss her dearly.

    7.  The weather was warm enough last week that the boys got to wear shorts (it has since cooled down again...boo!).  One day, I took a shower and put on a pair of shorts.  When Carter saw what I was wearing, he kept staring at my legs.  It was so funny!!  My poor boys have been in the Arctic for too long!!

Well, that's about it!  We're just busy getting ready for the big move to the South!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Pop in the Sky

This morning, the boys and I were outside playing with some bubbles.  Eric's mom started video taping and all of a sudden we heard Eric's dad fly overhead. He was coming home from turkey hunting and was making a pass by the house on his way to land.  What perfect timing!  I'm so glad we were able to get the boys on video seeing their pop in the sky! They get so excited!

Funny Things the Boys Say

I've been trying to capture the way the boys say things on video.  Some of them are so funny and I want to always remember them. 

In this video, Carter is saying the name of the movie he's watching.  It's the movie Up, but he calls it "Balloons."


In this video, Carter is saying what I'm holding.  It's a toy helicopter :)


One night, Eric's dad noticed a squirrel eating the bird food outside.  He stuck his head out the door and yelled, "Get out of here!"  Well, Brandt picked up this phrase and enjoys saying it!  It's pretty funny!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

How I manage 3 under 2

I've been asked how I'm able to take care of three children under two years old.  I'm able to do it because I'm a stickler for schedules!  If I didn't have a set time when things get done, I'd go crazy.  Plus, I'm a firm believer that my children have done so well because they have been on a schedule from birth. 

Anyway, here is our schedule that everyone was on when Elina was first born.  It has since changed because she eats every four hours, instead of every three. She has also dropped the last feeding of the night.

I wanted to post this so I can go back and remember how jam packed our days were :)

6:30-Elina's first feeding
7:00-Boys wake up (I've been getting them up closer to 7:30 because it takes me forever to feed Elina!). I get the boys up, change them, and feed them. Then they play while I clean up.
8:00- Elina goes down for a nap. If she needs a bath, I do it before this nap.
8-9:30-if I can get something done, then I do. Otherwise I spend this time with the boys
9:30-the boys have room time (I gate them in their room for play time) while I feed Elina
10:00-??I take the world's quickest shower while the boys are in their room playing. I've been sticking Elina in her swing or letting her do tummy time. Then if the boys are doing well in their room, I'll stick a load of laundry in or clean something. Otherwise, I play with the boys in their room for a bit.
11/11:30-Put Elina down for a nap and bring the boys upstairs and start making lunch. We eat it and then pick up the toys.
12:30- put the boys down for a nap and then feed Elina
2-put Elina down for a nap (this is when I take a nap if I can)
3:30-feed Elina
4-get the boys up and then start on dinner.
5-Elina goes down for a nap
5:30/6-eat dinner and get boys ready for bed
6:30-feed Elina
7-boys go to bed.
8-Elina goes for last nap
9:30-feed Elina and then I go to bed :)