20 Months!!

On Monday, Jackson and Cullen turned 20 months! They are growing and changing at lightning speed lately! Here's what they're up to these days:

*Becoming more and more independent every day. They especially love to be outside, free to explore wherever they please.

*They're always on the go and never sit still for even a second. They like to use me as a human jungle gym... and occasionally a punching bag.

*They absolutely insist on using spoons to "feed themselves" lately. I put that in quotations because they're not exactly feeding themselves with the spoon, they hardly ever get any food in their mouths with it. More like using their spoon to stir the food around their trays and fling it to the floor while feeding themselves with their other hand. And I'm not exaggerating when I say they insist on having a spoon at each meal. Today at dinner, I put Jack in his chair and his plate in front of him. But he immediately burst into the most pitiful, uncontrollable sobs and I had to ask him 3 times to calm down and try to show me what he wanted or what was wrong. Through his very dramatic tears and moans he pointed to Brandon's fork and the very instant I said "Oh, you want your spoon?" the tears magically stopped and he went on to thoroughly enjoy his dinner.

*Both boys are ultra mischievous lately. Just this week, I've caught them taking apart a gift bag I had made for a friend, emptying every last drawer in their dresser, yanking their curtains completely off the window and breaking a curtain rod while doing it, stealing my makeup, opening up multiple decks of playing cards and scattering them all over the apartment, taking our DVD's out of their cases, eating toothpaste straight out of the tube, drawing on the couches with pens, and swirling Brandon's electric razor around in the toilet (laughing hysterically while they did it of course). How do they think of these things?!?

*Unfortunately, still not speaking. They did learn one new word in the past 2 months: please (thanks to my Mom and sisters!) But they're still not nearly where they should be. So, today I called to set an appointment with the early intervention program. I will take the boys in next week for an assessment and then we'll go from there. At first, I was totally opposed to them getting "speech therapy" because I didn't want to be an over-protective/over-concerned Mom. I wasn't worried at all that they weren't speaking (I'm confident it's not because of any physical or mental disability) and I figured they'd get it in their own time. I still believe that, but I think it's starting to have negative consequences on them and that learning to speak would greatly help them in our daily life. Lately they have been becoming extremely frustrated and whining/screeching a lot. Remember how I mentioned the screeching a couple months back? Well it's been getting steadily worse and it's driving me crazy. Any time they want/don't want something, dislike something, are hurt, are tired, are hungry, or pretty much anything besides perfectly content, they start whining and screaming. I think that if they had another form of communication this would lessen their frustration and allow them to get what they want or tell me what's going on without screaming. I've also heard from a few other moms at our church who put their kids in speech therapy and they were singing its praises. So we've decided to give it a try. Hopefully it will help them soon!

*Although they're not communicating verbally, they are getting much better at conveying what they want and obeying (sometimes). Using their sign language or just simply pointing and yelling they can tell me when they're hungry, thirsty, tired, want to go outside, want to read a book, etc. And they're showing us that they understand so many more words than we were giving them credit for. When we read books with them, they can point out certain pictures on the page if we ask them. They know some animals, lots of everyday objects, people and nearly all of their body parts. This has made reading a lot more fun recently! And they beam with pride after they've correctly shown us where the all of objects are :-)

*They're sleeping 11-12 hours a night with 1 or 2 naps in between. We've been gradually trying to drop their second nap since they've been resisting it, but on their extra-grumpy days I make them take one anyways. Even if they just stay in their cribs and have quiet play time, that's fine with me, I just need a few minutes of peace to tidy up and make dinner.

*Still obsessed with fire engines and airplanes. I'm not joking when I say that not an engine or plane goes by during the day that they don't notice and rush to the window to see. And considering that we live a few miles from the airport and directly across the street from a fire station, they always have plenty to keep them busy.

*Baths are getting a little easier again. As long as I put them in when the tub's empty and run the water while they're in there, they're happy to play in the tub. There's always lots of screaming and tears when it's time to actually wash up but they do enjoy their playtime in the bath.

What Have We Been Up To Lately?

*Well, mainly we've been hiding out indoors, avoiding the last of the heat and humidity. I've been doing lots of cleaning and organizing. And thankfully, fall is almost here so we can start venturing outside once again.

*Brandon and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on the 17th. He brought me home roses on our actual anniversary and that weekend we went out for a lovely dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in DC. When he made our reservation, he mentioned it was our anniversary and we were treated like royalty! The best table, free champagne, free desserts with "Happy Anniversary" written across the plate in chocolate sauce, and probably the best service I have ever had on the east coast! After dinner, we went for a romantic walk around the tidal basin, where we got engaged 3 1/2 years ago. It was a wonderful evening! Hard to believe it's already been 3 years though!

*Brandon started school a few days after we got back. Bummer... I so enjoyed having him around. His schedule this semester isn't too bad though, he only has 2 night classes and the rest are in the afternoons. But he already has lots of assignments and reading to do as well as applying for internships for next spring and summer. Lately, I've been referring to his Mac as his "mistress" because it steals all my time with my husband. I just keep reminding myself that there's only 20 months left until he graduates!

*After nearly a month-long break from couponing, I've been getting back into my money-saving groove. I actually really missed my coupons and my little game with myself to see how low I can get our weekly grocery budget.

*We recently made a big, exciting purchase- a juicer!! We've been wanting one for a long time and have been waiting until we had the money and found a good sale. We got an even better deal because we used a few of my free Amazon giftcards (from Swagbucks) for a Jack Lalanne juicer! And we love it! The first batch we made, we didn't use a recipe, we just threw in random fruits and veggies that we had lying around. It wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't great. The last couple juices have been so yummy though! And it's a great way to sneak in raw vegetable servings! Talking about it is making me thirsty!

*We've been looking for a new place to rent. We love our neighborhood now and don't really want to go through another move, but we would really, really love a yard for the boys. We looked at the most perfect little house on Saturday. The inside was nothing special but it was affordable and had a big, beautiful backyard. Love at first sight for me! But there were three other applications turned in besides ours so I think our chances of getting it are pretty low and I'm not getting my hopes up. Too bad... we haven't found anything else with all our criteria and in our budget yet so we'll just keep looking. I'm sure we'll find something eventually, we're not in a hurry so we'll just wait for the perfect place.

*Renee and I went outlet shopping this weekend and I found a fantastic new pair of jeans from the J. Crew outlet that were only $40!! And I like them as much/more than any of my Nordstrom jeans that cost 4 x that much. I can't wait to wear them, yet another reason to be looking forward to fall!

*And, last but not least, we took the boys to the fair for the first time! It was crazy hot of course but we still had lots of fun. No rides for us, just food and free activities :-)

Cullen loving being this close to a fire engine

They literally walked up and down the engine, stopping every couple inches or so and yelling "Dat!" Each and every time we would have to share their excitement and say "Cool! A fire engine!"

After we dragged them away from the fire engines, we went to see the animals. This was my favorite part (aside from the funnel cake of course). The boys loved seeing the animals, they especially thought the pig was funny because he was snorting.

Laughing at one of the animals

Clamoring for a better view

Their other favorite part of the fair was a John Deere display that had over a dozen real tractors for the kids to climb on as well as a fenced area with miniature toys for the little kids. The boys spent most of their time at the fair playing in here, they literally tried out every single toy.

And here they are on a real tractor, aren't they just the cutest little farmers!? I'm always telling Brandon I want to live on a farm!

Too cute to not post:



Too funny to not post:

Stanley 2010

We've been back for nearly 2 weeks but Blogger hasn't been letting me upload pictures until now. So here are some new ones from Idaho finally! We loved being there! Gary and Sari have a picture-perfect log cabin, an inflatable swimming pool, ATV's, snowmobiles, guns, fishing poles and are surrounded by wide open spaces! I'm beginning to suspect they're trying to create a little boy's paradise so we'll ship Jackson and Cullen there for the summers :-) The boys will probably be begging us to soon!

Roadtrip!

They enjoyed reading to themselves in the car

Cullen in Redfish Lake, yes still wearing his shoes

Redfish Lake

Watermelon is definitely in their top 3 favorite foods of all time

Family Bonfire! Brandon and Scott built a fire pit one of the first nights we were there and we enjoyed a few evenings out by the fire roasting smores and watching the sun set over the mountains.

Brandon and I went to Sun Valley one day and we found this incredible little hut built out of twigs all twisted together. As far as we could tell there was nothing else holding it together but the twigs!

Jack and Uncle Scott

Cullen in the creek

Daddy took Jack for a short ride on the ATV

And I took Cullen

Cullen wrestling with Uncle Scott

Just lounging on the porch

Brandon, Gary and I all went out shooting one afternoon.

A bunch of cows were roaming the field near where we were shooting. I wanted to see them up close.

A mother and her calf

I made Brandon take a picture of me with my targets. You can't see in the picture, but one I hit with a shotgun so it was quite nearly obliterated and the other I hit 4 times out of 13 shots from 130 feet away. I was pretty proud of my marksmanship skills! Haha

Family photo by the beautiful Salmon River

Looking for fishies with Grandpa

Kissing... I know, I know So. Darn. Cute!

Jackson

Cullen trying the ice cream

Oh man, that's really cold!

He went on to eat most of his cone though and then fed the rest to Daddy.

We went on an ATV ride with Scott and Ashlee one day, the view from the top was gorgeous!

Then we rode to this little lake nestled way back in the hills. We stopped for a picture and were promptly eaten alive my mosquitos. Good memories.

Brandon's college friend and groomsman Chris lives in Boise with his wife Heidi and they drove up to visit us over the weekend. We took them hiking to Goat Lake the first day they arrived. Every time I do that hike, I forget how hard it is and I only remember when I'm 9,000 feet up a mountain, lightheaded from the lack of oxygen and about to slide off a rockface covered in gravel to my death. I'm exaggerating a little but it is definitely the hardest hike I've ever done, but SO worth it once you get to Goat Lake at the top! We packed a picnic lunch and rested for a long time before heading back down.

Brandon and I taking a break to enjoy the view during one of the toughest parts.

Up we go!

Goat Lake. It's a crystal clear glacier lake way up in the Sawtooth Mountains.

Brandon and Chris jumped in to the glacier waters and wanted a photo to commemorate it.

Posing with my hubby by the stream that flows out of Goat Lake.

The next day we rode ATV's with Chris and Heidi. This tree had fallen in the path so Brandon used the winch and pulled it out of the way. That's my mountain man!

And now our wonderful extended summer vacation is over and we're settling back into life in steamy DC. I'm already looking forward to our next visit out west!