Look Alike

Grandma Gilbert sent me an e-mail saying how much the boys look alike, so it got me thinking...I found a few of Hayden's old baby pictures and tried to find the same pose or expression on each kids face to see if I could compare them. Man, I can't believe how much they look alike. Ethan is a month older in these pictures. I am guessing that Ethan being older makes him look like Hayden because he is about the same weight. Hayden and Ethan both have the chunky cheeks and same hair line. In case you are wondering who is who I posted answers at the bottom...

1. Hayden
2. Ethan
3. Ethan

4. Hayden

5.Hayden

6.Ethan

I had fun trying to figure out who was who....the only way I can tell a difference is their outfits!

We are gonna go bowling for the forth...that will be fun! We haven't been as a family so it will be neat to go try.

8 Weeks

I am so sad that today my baby boy is eight weeks old. How fast these weeks have flown by. There has been a lot of adjustment to get used to the eight weeks but, oh so worth it. I can't imagine our family without him. He fits perfectly and reminds me of Hayden. He is so cute and lovable. My favorite thing to do with him is the middle of the night feedings, on most nights! I love the fact that is just me and him and it a quiet time that we share. I feel like Hayden does get time stolen from him. I am trying to find time just spent with him or including him in the everyday things. I think tomorrow, I will attempt to take him and Ethan to the movies. Ethan has his two month check up on Monday. I am wondering how much he weighs. I am guessing around 11 pounds but who knows. Ethan is getting chunky, he has fat checks and neck rolls. It is kinda funny because when he spits up and it drips down his neck you have to lay him down to clean out his neck. He  is such a good baby and only cries if he is hungry or has to burp. He is a really good eater he eats about 30-34 ounces a day. David asked when will he sleep through the night and I tell him he basically does. He gets his last bottle around 8 or 9 and then gets up again around 3. I like that schedule because I get to get a little sleep but my body still gets up every three hours. Ethan is staying awake more and loves to look around. He will smile and coo. He can hold his head up pretty good and starts to suck his fist when he is hungry. I think it is cute when he starts to cry and he sticks out his bottom lip. He loves Hayden is constantly looks or tries to find him. He is a good sleeper, most of the time you can put him in his crib awake and will fall asleep on his own. I have pictures but that will come tomorrow or the next day because my computer is acting a little funny...ugh!

Sweetness

I have to say overall being home with the boys has been fun and I enjoy it. (Don't get me wrong...I still love my class full of Autistic boys)! It is funny how things change when you have two. I am so used to being able to go and do whenever me and Hayden want to. Now things are a lot different I plan things out around feedings and nap times. It takes us a lot longer to get out the door then before. I am hoping the process is easier come August because it is going to stink if it takes 2 hours to get everyone ready so that I can get to work. Hayden has adjusted well. He loves his baby brother and does so much for him. He likes to hold him and give him a bottle. Ethan has been awake a lot more so Hayden likes to get out toys and play with him. The other day Hayden was holding Ethan and he said mom get this big, fat, gigantic baby off of me! So now when we are talking about Ethan to Hayden we say Hayden get this big fat gigantic baby a toy or he wants his big brother! Hayden is still very rough with Ethan. Hayden likes to make Ethan smile so he will try to tickle him or touches his chin and says gouchy gouchy goo... I am finding out that three boys around here are LOUD. Let me just say, I say don't get him all riled up at least 5 times a day to David. David and Hayden play rough which leads it to be loud around the house. I can't imagine what it will sound like when Ethan joins in! I love watching Hayden and David's relationship change. We are all doing great but I think David is ready for us to go back to school so he can sleep. I can agree with him it is hard to sleep with two kids in the house.I love the sweetness that each summer brings us...it tends to brings us closer as a family and makes for happy mama because I get to see Hayden and now Ethan differently!

Hampton Hoopla

A few weekends ago we went with David's family to a "family reunion" Hayden had a blast and was talking about it for awhile. On Friday, the men played golf and left the wives with the kids. I have to say on Friday I was stress...and not enjoying it. I am a very scheduled person and like the kids to have a routine. I don't do well with screaming and crying kids. All of the cousins went swimming and played in the sprinkler that was loud and crazy! Before that we took the kids on a long bike ride and it was hot and I was just in a bad mood! After swimming and getting Hayden dressed I waited for David to finish his game of golf and then we went to get something to eat. At dinner the kids were kids....During all of this, David's Cousin Dalvin had his kids who were so well behaved! I was in awe how well the shared and got along. They seemed to watch how wild all of the cousins were and didn't know what to say or do. I spent most of the time telling Hayden to share and be nice. That night I felt like David was gone forever and Hayden was throwing a fit because he was over tired and Ethan couldn't decided if he was hungry or tired. So I was ready to go home. Well Saturday was a different story. Oh how much fun I had! Emily and I cooked breakfast for our family, which was a different experience. The hotel had a huge water slide that Hayden had a blast going down. David joined him and it was pretty hilarious watching him. A few times David and Jason fell down the slide and it was funny seeing growing men struggle to get up the slide. After that, we enjoyed lunch and just chilled in air condition. Micah brought his Kinect Dance Video thing, you watch a person dance and copy their movies and try to score the  highest points. Hayden is actually really good at it...he beat me! He enjoyed playing that and hanging out  with all of the family. He brought a football and had a blast throwing it to Ava and playing with Micah. We  had to convince Hayden to take nap because it was going to be a long night. We were going to take pictures and then have a family dinner. Hayden was behaving a lot better and it wasn't stressful at all UNTIL...dinner. Ethan was being a trooper and fell asleep while we were eating. So we decided that we would lay him down in between our chairs so he could sleep. The kids were running around and we didn't want them to step on him, so we blocked off an area for him. David was leaning back in his chair and when he went to put his chair down Ethan moved his hand under David's chair. Ethan didn't start crying so we didn't think anything of it. David just happened to look down and see him sitting on his hand. At that point Ethan's face was all red and his hand all blueish. David picked him up and got the attention of his aunt who works in the hospital and said we needed to go to the ER. So we left and went straight there. Ethan got a few x-rays and it turned out nothing was broken. He has a bruise and it was swollen for a couples of days. Ethan didn't cry very much. Once we got to the truck he stopped and didn't cry anymore that night. So other then Ethan's first ER visit it turned out to a great get away and something we will definitely do again. I am pretty sure Ethan will enjoy it better the second time around! Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Thanks Mimi and Pop for organizing it all and allowing us to have family time with family we don't see much of. 

Stressing

I know it has been a while since my last post. It is all due to STRESS! A few weeks ago we got an offer on our house so we have been on pins and needles with everything. The house passed inspection and also met the amount needed to be appraised. While all that was being done we were looking at houses. For the past two weeks, we have looked at houses almost every day. We have looked at about 60-70 houses and that doesn't include the ones that we asked our Realtor to view without us.  HAR (the listing website in the Houston area) is on my favorites and I am constantly checking to look for new homes. The house that we are currently living in closes July 31st, so we have been trying to find a place to buy. It has been so stressful on everyone. I feel bad for Hayden because we haven't done many family stuff or even spent quality time with him because we are constantly busy with  the house stuff. Last week we put in four offers on different houses. The first one someone put in a better offer one, the second one we backed out of because of foundation issues (Thanks Uncle Doug!), and on the third and fourth one, when we went to make an offer on them they were already under contract. So we figured that it just wasn't time to buy a house that the timing was not right. At this point, we were waiting for the appraisal, so we figured it was a sign that the house wasn't going to appraise. Well we were wrong the house appraised so now we had to kick it in high gear to find something so we could have a place to live! So yesterday, we were on a massive home search. Our Realtor spend all morning narrowing down our choices to three. We weren't really in love with the three choices but they were okay. So as she was working on the paper work to make an offer she got a call about our first house. We were next on the list, so now we are officially under contract on a house. It is a house that we love! What sold us on this house was the school district well I should say the school it is a K-12 campus which there aren't many in the nation with a lot of high tech stuff. It cost the district a pretty penny to build the campus and I have a feeling it will be a good fit for Hayden, the yard (how big it is...it doesn't have much landscaping but that is an easy fix), and there is a park one block away! We also love that is is a newer home built in 2009 and bigger then what we are living in. Here are a few pictures from it.

Blink

Wow...this is the post I hate to make because it reminds me of the time that is gone. The other day I was listening to the radio and this   Kenny Chesney song came on and this is exactly how I feel. I can't believe on Monday Ethan will be six weeks old! The time has flew and it is so sad because he is changing and growing so fast. He is sleeping between 5 and 6 hours at a time during the night. He likes to have a pacifier when he is sleeping. He hates when you try to give him the pacifier instead of a bottle. He eats 4 ounces every 3 hours. He likes to sit in his bouncer. He keeps his head on the right side and looks towards the right, I am thinking he does this because his head is kinda heavy and hasn't mastered picking it up yet. He loves  to watch Hayden run around. He hates hearing the dog bark and gets scared. When Ethan was 4 weeks old I weighed him and he was 9.2. He finally got out of newborn things and I get to pull out the cute outfits. Hayden has adapted really well. Tonight we were so busy and Ethan was crying and Hayden said mom finish cooking dinner and I'll take care of Ethan. When we are in the car driving and Ethan starts moving or spits up Hayden freaks out he says mom help give me....Hayden loves being home he spends a lot of time outside playing on the deck. Summer is flying by and before I know it August will come and then it will be time for school. I can't believe my boys are growing and changing so fast.

Enough for Two?

When I was pregnant with Ethan I often wondered if I could love another baby as much as I love Hayden. Hayden is my first born and he taught me how big your heart can grow. Before having kids David was my love and it is a different kind of love you have for a spouse then you have for kids. I struggled a lot and kept telling myself it would be easy to have a bond with Ethan and I could love him the same amount as Hayden. When I talked to people about this all that they told me was it is a different kind of love. What does that exactly mean, isn't love, love, no matter what? Well a few weeks went by after Ethan was born and I started to understand what that meant. I love Ethan for different reason than I love Hayden. I love Ethan because he is that cute baby stage, where he goes along with everything and doesn't have any cares. I love him because he is such a good baby...he rarely cries and when he does it is an easy fix. I love him because he has given me the chance to raise and teach him, I love him because he is part of me. Each and every day I look at him and say wow we created this little guy. I love Hayden because we can play and read. I love Hayden because he starts laughing for no reason and then I join him, I love Hayden because he is so independent, I love Hayden because he is a great big brother, I love Hayden because he has a kind heart (the other day we were siting in the car talking and he gave me a kiss and I said I love you and he said I will always love you)! These boys are the apple of my eye and I would do anything for them. We are blessed to have two great boys that have changed us in so many ways!