These boys make me smile.

Best picture ever!!

The other morning when Jack woke up and did his ritual....Fridge, pantry, fridge, pantry.  It ended with a complete meltdown because Kevin told him he could not have any sour cream.  I said give him a spoon and let him have some. So he did, and Jackson dipped his spoon in and howled in utter disgust. His tongue was hanging out and I was wiping it off as fast as I could with a paper towel because he was acting like he was dying.  I feel like my entire days are filled with episodes such as this. Today Jackson finally used the toilet to go #2,and when I turned my head Brecken was dipping his hand in. I have caught Jack on several occasions giving Brecken his boogers, and we all know what Brecken does with them.  And if ANYTHING, such as a leaf, is left on the floor Brecken has already digested it before you knew it was there. And Jackson is a such a stinker he tells me every day when I get him up from his nap..."Chips mama chips", and when I repeat "You want chips Jackson?" He proceeds with Otay....and hops out of bed and starts the decent downstairs. Who wouldn't give this kid what he wants. He is so cute.  Jackson after 2 years and 8 months is telling us that he loves us. Kevin and I have waited so long to hear this. We love you too Jackson. Now I hope its a lifetime before I hear the words I hate you mommy.

A few weekends ago we decided to go back to Kevin's parents house. This was the first "long" road trip that Brecken has been on.  It was an exhausting trip there since I was jumping back and forth from the back seat soothing not one but two children. However, it is always a nice surprise when we arrive because Kevin's parents are always so excited when we come that they stay up and wait for us even when we do stroll in at 3AM.  Of course Jackson was so wild, running around in circles and showing off that it was very difficult to put him to bed at almost 4. We had a great short visit, and it included Kevin and I going antiquing (just the two of us) AND having a night to go out with some friends, which we have not done since our anniversary in July. It was like I was let out of prison. We had SO MUCH FUN! We started the night at a wine bar, which was AMAZING, and ended it dancing, which I don't remember. But while we were having the time of our lives, Jackson was  making memorable moments with his pop pop. I misspoke or mistyped a few posts back saying he calls him pa pa..its actually pop pop. Jackson LOVES pop pop. They have a new game, which we play now at home called knock knock pop pop. As you can imagine we go to the front door, knock, and well that's it. Jack followed Kevin's dad everywhere, and if he left Jackson was screaming for him to come back. It's very sweet to see such love between the two of them.

This last weekend we went to a birthday party for my friend Shana's little boy Carter. I can't believe he is 3 already. Well since Kevin is mildly allergic to animals, espeically horses, and it was at a farm,  I told him I would take the boys and let him have a few hours to himself at home. Much to my dismay it was rainy and COLD.  But Jackson did not seem to care, and the second we pulled in it was horse this and horse that and he chased the ducks and the turkeys and the peacocks. I felt like I had NO control over him, and I wore flats. Flats to a farm in the knee deep mud holding Brecken the entire time. Anyway, Jackson has learned a thing or two from school, and one of them is he has to sit everytime you give him something to eat or drink. Well unlucky for me, on this muddy day when I hand him his juice he says "I sit mommy, I sit!" and proceeds to sit in a HUGE puddle of mud. But the best part about this is that we went on a hayride immediately after and a sweet girl next to me said she didnt mind if Jackson sat on her lap. Of course I did not pass that offer up.  But my classy self  accidently was telling my girlfriend next to me what he had just done and did not even realize what I was saying until my girlfriend started busting out laughing. So sorry sweet girl who offered to hold Jackson.

Who needs girls when you can give your boys a ponytail!!

I love this little hat of his.

He is so happy with Pop Pop

Knock Knock Pop Pop! (Video)

Aunt B check out these boots!!

Brecken's Cheerios.

Jackson makes Brecken laugh ALL DAY LONG (Video)

Me and DA girls at yet another dinner which ended in A LOT of dancing!!! Pitbull anyone?

Who wore these most adorable batman pajama's better...You be the judge because I think its a tie!

Brecken Jan 2012

Jackson Dec 2009

Looking forward to 2012

Can he get any cuter??

Again..Can he get any cuter?

Have you ever run in the rain? I have not in a very long time. When I lived in WA this is what I did daily. You do everything in the rain. Wash your car, go to the park....really anything you would do on a sunny day because there is rarely any sun at all. A few days ago I ran in the rain. It was overcast, and even though I felt like it should be cold it was not.  I squinted from the rain hitting my face, my hair was slicked back and my entire shirt was wet, but I felt refreshed and happy. Happy because people looked at me like I was crazy and knowing that I'm definitely in the minority of people who would do this in the south. I even got a shout out of "Don't you know its raining outside!!" I want exercise to be a big part of my life again. Since I got pregnant with Brecken it has been a very rare occasion that I would make myself go for runs and exercise. I want this to be a priority, and I want it to pave the way for Brecken and Jackson too. Although, I did feel a bit sheepish last week when I took both the boys, bundled of course, on a run in 32 degree weather with a wind chill of 17 degrees. BURR!!!! It hit me when Jackson started crying and telling me "I cold mommy, I cold", and two different people I saw made comments such as "I can not believe you are out here." But you know Brecken was knocked out cold so the weather did not phase him but  I will never do that again.  I  made a promise to Jack and then took him to McDonald's to because he loves his "pop and chicken nuggets" which I'm embarrassed to say he asks for constantly along with lollipops, popcorn and chips.

I am hoping that this year I will keep running races, my first being a 10k at the end of March with my girlfriends! I am also hoping we will have only a few trips to McDonald's and making better choices for all of us.  This year I am hoping that one good decision leads to another.

Our first fire. Jack was very upset because he wanted a COLD hot dog. But don't worry...Its kosher.

Shorts...Hummm...

Blowing kisses!

So I have a few pictures that I love and want to share but never made it on the blog in the month of December. My plan is to get a hardback book made of my blog every year and this will be the last post I will have to wrap up 2011. Thank you for reading!

Priceless looks on those boy's faces!!

<3 Brecken's face here too.

So beautiful.

His hair cracks me up! He woke up like this and NO I did not style or put hair gel in.

This is what happens when your 2 year old becomes independent and pours his own cereal. Lucky for me his cereal of choice is bran flakes.

Someone likes to use the highchair these days!

Painting our Christmas trees with Aunt Leah!

Lanny and Brecki =Besties

Fabulous art

Do you see anything wrong about this picture that was sent home with Jackson from school...

Early Morning cuddles in Mom and Dads bed!

Best invention ever for a baby seat in a tub.

Look at this picture of my Nephew Kordell and beautiful nieces Maygan and Korri! Love that Kordell has no shirt on and wearing a chain. Ha!

Blahuary

Jackson and Brecken are now being sweet and playing with one another, but they are also pulling hair, taking toys away, throwing toys at each other and wrestling if you can believe it. Brecken is ALL OVER THE PLACE. He pulls himself up then falls to his bum and crawls to then next place that looks fun to pull up on and then repeat.  He pulled himself up on a wood weaved basket the other day only to have slipped and sliced his finger. It bled, and bled and bled for 45 minutes straight! Jackson has never even bled that much. I was mortified. He cried so much because I was putting so much pressure on his little finger, and every time I would take it off it would start bleeding again. I almost thought he might of needed stitches, but I guess that is me being a crazy mother thinking things are worse than they are.  He is so busy but never seems tired enough to sleep for more then 5 minutes. So no, he is not sleeping through the night yet. He is starting to crawl up the stairs and well fall down the stairs. That has happened twice but luckily it was only one or two stairs, and no hospital visits were necessary.

Jackson being silly! He loves to wear socks as mittens.

Poor Brecken after his finger injury. We had to keep a sock on it.

I had a day a couple of weeks ago that I really will never forget. Let me share it with you...

Brecken was up all night long or 6 times to be exact because lately I have been keeping track.  First thing after breakfast Jackson of course had some more bathroom drama. I'm becoming a pro at cleaning poop out of pants.  Then as I'm in the kitchen, doing something important of course, I glance to see where Brecken was.  When I didn't see him, I walked over to the living room/dining room, and the front door is wide open. There is Jack, Brecken and Ziki all out on the front porch. I was mortified, mad, scared...all emotions that you can feel at that moment I felt.  So Jackson took it upon himself to open the door for all of them, and I'm such a dumb dumb for not putting one of those door protector locks on there. We had a play date at my friend Shanna's house at 10:30AM so when we finally got it together to leave the house we were about 30 minutes late. And after 10 minutes of getting to her house Jackson pooped so massive that it was down his legs.  I swear to this day I have never seen so much poop before.  I couldn't even wipe him with wipes. He had to take a bath there. I remeber thinking that this can not be happening right now, but it did. It sure did happen. THEN he was a beast the entire time we were there. I had to take him away 3 different times during the play date for timeouts for hitting, pulling hair and just being naughty.  Brecken of course pulled a childrens standing tool set on himself and made my heart completely crumple because it looked bad. Even though I knew it was plastic and he could not have been hurt that badly, it was right on his neck as if it were choking him. I finaly left with my screaming child (Jack) wearing no shirt because he had pooped it, and since I took the time to run over there we had to run back home with no shirt on and him screaming. We looked classy.  I get home and fed Jackson lunch, and then he took the liberty of getting himself a yogurt smoothie and dumps it out on the living room floor. I thought I might lose it. But at this point it is almost 2pm. I finally get Brecken to bed.  Then I finally get Jackson to bed, and as I'm leaving Jack's room he says...Song mommy Song.. Kiss mom. Hug Mom. Then he wanted to shake hands, and then he said I love you. Everything I said or felt from above just got erased from my memory. This is the beauty of children and unconditional love.

Sweet moment. Hugs and open mouth kiss while skyping with G-ma and Pop Pop.

We are finally on the mend from ear infections, sleepless nights and a trip to Urgent Care (which is never so urgent) that included x-rays for poor baby Brecken.  At last Brecken is fine...our $300 bill reveals that he did not in fact swallow anything foreign. But he sure did look cute in that little hospital gown.

But not is all chaos here. We did have a super fun night on NYE with the Koehler's. We had a sleepover, and Jackson and Molly cheers all night and now Jackson constently repeats 3-2-1 HAPPY NEW YEAR along with asking to go "nite nite at Molly's house."  Of course we had "kid"night at 8PM, and then the real deal at midnight.  We left their house with new memories and having a dance off with Just Dance 3 to Robin Sparkles "Let's go to the Mall".  Kevin and I love How I Met Your Mother!!  We had yet another winery date with the Robbins and the newlyweds Lindsay and AJ and it ended in a late night at Bar O'Hare, which I have not laughed that much in a long time. Lastly we had an early Valentine's Day brunch last weekend, which included sharing wedding pictures between three families. It was so sweet and fun.  Jackson gets so excited about "parties" and asks to spend the night at his friend's house and when the song "Red Solo Cup" comes on he screams "PARTY!!". I love him.

3-2-1 Happy New Year! Cheers!!

She is so cute!

Me and Jacks!

Leah making famous lemon water at our Valentine's Day Brunch. Love this pitcher and picture!

Gorgeous Molly. I like that we have contained Roo in the jumper. It did not last long.

OMGosh. I can't stand it how much I love these girls! She was most content eating converstation hearts. I believe that is what Jackson had for brunch as well.

Love!

An O'Hare Christmas

  

I know I have said this before but I love reliving my childhood through my own children.  I love starting traditions and remembering the old ones. My mom's house is complete chaos Christmas morning. My sister and her family come over, and one person hands out presents. In about 10 minutes everyone is happy and hyper with large stacks of unopened or opened gifts in front of them. It makes me smile thinking of how happy this must have made my mom feel every year having so many children in her home every year. After the mad chaos of unwrapping all the gifts we would have homemade cinnamon rolls, sausage and orange juice then a BIG dinner again that night with everyone usually with ham or turkey. Kevin's house is completely different than what mine was. Less chaotic and the present opening is usually done in the late afternoon and it is usually very peaceful. I'm sure when Kevin was a child it was a little bit more like the chaos in my own house, but as adults this is what its like. I love that everyone has a different way they like to do things, and that is why for me I want to take a little bit of my family and a little bit of Kevin's family and make our very own.

The days leading up till Christmas were almost unbearable for me. I kept asking Kevin if the kids could open up one present, and his answer the same every time....no, no, no. He is such a scrooge. We spent Christmas Eve getting ready for dinner and for Christmas Day so we wouldn't have to do anything but play with the kids. After Jack woke up from his nap we opened 2 presents from Mom and Dad. Brecken got a Little Tykes mailbox and Jackson 6 cars from the Cars 2 movie and the DVD. We watched the movie, fed Santa's reindeer, and set out milk and cookies. It wasn't exactly as magical as I dreamed up in my head, but I'm sure the subsequent years will have a little bit more excitement. After the kids were asleep and dreaming of sugar plums I'm sure, Kevin and I ate the most amazing meal I have ever had. Prime rib, balsamic and bacon glazed asparagus, potatoes Au gratin and trifle for dessert. It was all from scratch and the best part about it was it took less then 30 minutes to prepare and make. Okay the trifle took a little bit longer, and poor Kevin sat over a stove for about 45 minutes stirring the custard that morning!!  We opened a bottle of wine that we purchased in Italy a few years ago.  It was the FIRST time I had ever tasted wine that we bought from there because as some may remember I was 7 months pregnant when we went. We had a pleasant night being "Sansa" (as Jack calls him) and remembering what it was like for me as a child on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning was sweet. Jack woke up around 7:30AM and the first things out of his mouth were Santa eat cookies and milk? Buddy bye byes?  (Buddy is our elf and he went back to the North Pole until next Christmas). We went downstairs and when he saw the 60 inch bear sitting in front of the Christmas tree he immediately got down and sat on him but then got right back up because he wanted his snack and milk. But once we got him opening presents we were finished in about 1 1/2 hours. It was not overwhelming as I thought it was going to be for Jackson, however Brecken was INTO everything. I'm afraid we have another paper eater on our hands. My favorite memory of the morning was Kevin singing into Jackson's stand up microphone Blue Christmas by Elvis and Jackson laying on the bear with his hands under his chin watching Kevin lovingly. Kevin and I were laughing so hard we were crying and before I could get the camera Jack got up and started running in circles and falling. But Kevin and I both will remember that look forever. I'm so happy to have made such great memories such as that one. He was so in love and in awe with Kevin singing. It was the best CHRISTMAS ever.

We ended our beautiful day with our friends Michelle and Brian who were sweet enough to have us over for a feast (I had two helpings of EVERYTHING) and the best cocktail that has ever laid on my lips. Cherry mojitos!!! Yum yum!

All in all we had such an amazing day but I will say there is something to be said about your extended family. We so missed our families. It would have been really nice to share our day with the ones we love the most but we made the best of what we had in front of us as we always do.



Jackson singing lollipop lollipop on his new microphone.
(if you get this via email you will not be able to view the videos unless you go directly to the blog!)





Boxing day came, and I went shopping for some more Christmas decorations (like I need more)... It was SO MUCH FUN and I found amazing deals. I'm so excited to decorate for next Christmas. When I finally returned home I put all the new stuff in boxes and well one thing lead to another and my whole house was packed up. Kevin was annoyed that I put everything away so quickly. Jackson cried when he saw that the tree was gone, and he just kept pointed to where it had been and crying "back mama, back".  I guess I know what NOT to do next year. So now my house is naked and I am feeling refreshed as we enjoy the last few days of 2011. What a year it has been and I can't wait to reach my goals for the next year. As always I know that this year will be better than the year before.

Jackson playing with Brecken's new toy and singing his ABC's!!



                Brecken needs corrective lenses so we decided to try out couple different styles.....