Bubba turns TWO!

Well, my last post was Madi's birthday. In April. So, keeping with that theme I will start there. Time to get back in the swing of blogging now that summer is wrapping up. So much to blog about. A lot has happened in 4 months.

In his final hour of his first year. Sleeping so soundly. I watched him for a while in between my tears of sadness and complete and total love for him. He is such a love and I can't believe he is already 2.

Rockin' out with his new Birthday Guitar.

At Breakfast with our big boy. We were silly, and loud and played all morning. Love his snuggles.

We were at the cabin and didn't have a 'normal' sized birthday candle for his sweet roll. So, we celebrated in style...with a HUGE candle. He loved it and I was so happy to have caught this moment. We weren't home for his birthday but we tried to make it as fun as special as we could. 

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy.  Thanks for being such a fun boy. Your giggles and smiles are contagious and you just make me melt. We love you more than you know!

DUDE, i am three!

if you ask madi how old she is that's what she will tell ya. DUDE I AM THREE! this is upon waking. she was excited about her birthday from the second she woke.

we had breakfast at grammy & papa's. in true fashion, grammy was awesome and gave madi her favorite crackers with candles. such a fun grammy.

after breakfast, shopping and naps we went on a surprise train ride...to get pizza! 2 of madi's favorite things. trains and pizza :)

she is such a ham lately...i love it.

my sweet boys.

we finished off the evening with ice cream with cousins. mint and chip ice cream, or green ice cream as madi calls it. again, her favorite. what a lucky girl!

these little lovers are my happy. they are my everything. having days like today make life magical. it truly was a day for the books. perfect.

happy 3rd birthday to my favorite girl. madi, you amaze me everyday. i am more than proud to be your mommy and i love you more than you will ever know. thanks for bringing so much joy into our lives. you have no idea how many people you have touched with your tender heart. you really are a ray of sunshine. we luva, luva you!

phone pics

run baby...RUN!

he is SUCH a love. geesh.

she is such a sass...and he is such a photo bomber. loser.

my new phone rocks. yes. rocks!

i hardly ever even use my camera anymore...poor lonely camera. it is just so convenient...i always have my phone with me. i love that i have taken more pictures in the past week than in the past 2 months. love, love. plus, the quality is almost as good as my camera, bonus.

daddy's turn.

2nd night in the big girl bed. tonight was daddy's turn to lay with her. talk about the day. i won't mention that we haven't taken down her crib yet. i won't mention that we haven't taken it down mostly because i am too sad to, not due to lack of time. i also won't mention that daddy fell asleep about 45 minutes before little miss. oops. although i am sad about the whole no crib thing...there are 2 bonuses. 1. madi is sleeping. it's been a rough month for sleep around here for this kid. 2. you get to snuggle her! and watch her sleep! and hear her snore! and watch her perfect face in the middle of the night as you spy and check on her 47 times before you go to bed. love.

baby baker's baby party!

today we got to party for 'baby baker.' we are all pretty excited about his arrival...ok. a little more than excited. the shower turned out great. yummy food. surrounded by loved ones. we even were lucky enough to have some out of town relatives here for a visit...just added to the sweetness of it all! i didn't take many pics between trying to 'run the show' and be mom i hardly pulled out my camera. thankfully chris' dad snapped away. i can't wait to see some of his pics. until then, here are a few i took. steven got all crafty on me and made diaper/sock cupcakes. they were so cute. i love his craftiness and willingness to help out. we displayed all of the bedding that my mom made, including the quilt, pillows, pillowcases and decorative wall hangings. plus a banner i made out of leftover fabric. we had a 'wishes' for baby card for each guest or family to fill out. some of them turned out pretty cute. and the pictures of little erica and little chris...priceless! i had madi, logan and chris' nephew, brendan, help color onesie cutouts for a banner. personally, cutest decoration there. takes a lot..A LOT for an 18 month old and 2 nearly 3 year olds to help make a banner. they were awesome helpers. we ate. and ate more. then ate some sweets. a true horman party is not without cupcakes and cookies. no sir. yum. the kids played. and our cousin, emily, won the can't say 'baby' game. yay em! turns out she frequents jamba juice almost daily...lucky girl won herself a gift card :) all in all...a success. i can't express without getting all choked up how happy i am for erica and chris. how thankful i am to get to be an aunt to their little one. i was giving a 2 second talk at the shower...you know, thanks for coming...food is ready...and i got all teary. huge knot in my throat. held back the tears. i am just so proud of them. can't wait to meet you little baby baker!! we love you!!

an important conversation for a nearly 3 year old.

madi had a one sided conversation with chris tonight. on a calculator. 'hi, uncle chris. what you doing?' pause...you know, listening to his reply. 'you have a present for me? thank you.' i love you. see you soon. bye.'

shoes.

poor boy. he has one pair of boy shoes. he always wears his blue converse out in public. always. but, when we are home...alone, he usually wears madi's old, really girly shoes. sorry, dude. i can't bring myself to spend money on more shoes that you don't really need or you will wear for 4 months. so, pink flowers it is. i promise that when you go to school you will have shoes that your friends won't make fun of. thanks for being such a sport!

baby boy.

i rocked my 'not such a baby, baby boy' to sleep tonight. not because he needs to be rocked to sleep but, because i couldn't put him down. i sat in his chair listening to his music...and rocked. he was asleep in no time (big day today.) but, i continued to sit with him for a good 30 minutes. he smelled so good. my sweet boy. gosh, i love him. it reminded me of this picture. i remember this day. he was 3 days old. been home from the hospital for 1 day. madi was napping and i sat with him...taking in his perfect new baby smell. which just might be the best smell ever. ever.

beach!

a san diego afternoon in march. perfect.

shadow dancing.

a race car pit...dug by mom. yea. i won the cool mom award today. really.

silly lover boy!

sand angels.

the tub is FULL of sand. love.

l.o.v.e.

they fight with eachother. yell at eachother. steal from eachother. taunt eachother. push eachother. scream at eachother. i am so happy they have eachother.

because they really do love eachother.

elephants and ducks and giraffes, OH MY!

i am not the most spontanious girl. our days our usually very planned out ...based around our serious napping children. today, however, we (I) needed to get out. so, out we went.

she is always looking for the grandma elephant :)

these 2 kids could seriously feed the ducks for an hour. $1 worth of duck food goes a long way when you feed them one tiny piece at a time.

all tuckered out. i think the ice cream did him in.

annual passes to the wild animal park are highly recommended and more

than worth the money. (i am not sure i can ever call it 'safari park.' just like

the carlsbad street fair will always be called that.

and fidels will always be fidels...sorry, norte.)

love fun family days.

disc golfin'.

we recently headed up to long beach for some disc golfin' fun. steven is having withdrawls i think. so, when we have time, we make the drive north. bonus. i get to eat at cafe rio on our way home. hello. so worth the drive. always. we had such a fun afternoon. enjoying the sun and nature. was amazing. (blogger won't let me center my text. totally bugging me.) wow...did she ever spread the dandilion population around the park! pictures that capture sweet walking moments may be my fave.

he is such a little man. loved every second of the afternoon. dirt, throwing stuff...and not getting into trouble, running, snacking, more dirt and some good old fashioned exploring. a boys dream!

my boyfriend. love him.

this girl dances. all day. i love the way she sways, leaps, twirls...she is so fun. quite the natural, too. she is such a little lady...who is growing up much faster than i desire. love my sweet girl.

my beauty.

new food.

(this is clearly a professional picture, not mine. but, my soup looks just like this. yay for soupy goodness.) pasta e fagioli soup: http://www.thecountrycook.net/2011/11/pasta-e-fagioli-slow-cooker.html delicious. cooks in the crock pot...my favorite kitchen tool. i made a double batch, minus the noodles. when we are ready to feast i add more broth when i add the noodles. i am not a fan of soggy noodles. or soggy bananas...soggy. it's just not pleasant. (this is my picture, taken with my not so fancy phone camera...mmm, yum.) homemade snickers: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/01/homemade-snickers-bars/ i will not be making these again. because they were better than snickers. they were amazing and i ate 3/4 of the pan by myself over 4 days. needless to say, i swear i gained 4 pounds in those 4 days. worth it? almost. really. if you do make these, which you really should, give them away and just save yourself a few. you will thank me.

my sweet boy.

boyfriend. sweet boy. lover boy. he is my favorite little boy. he, sadly, is not so little anymore. insert tear. ok. insert sob. 18 months. A YEAR AND A HALF. it's a milestone. one that to me makes him no longer a 'baby.' it is killing me. seriously. sadness aside, i am so in love with this boy. he has completely stolen my heart. sensitive. loving. hilarious. i am such a lucky girl to be his mommy. my favorites: watching him eat. he enjoys food like no one i know. i can watch him eat all day. oh wait...i DO...cause the boy eats ALLL DAAAY. his hugs and kisses. oh melt my heart. he is precious. the way he dances. love. his teeth and his big open mouth smile...really, the cutest. his admiration and total love for his big sister. yes. he hits her. bugs her. steals from her. taunts her...oh geesh. but, since day one, she is the greatest thing in the world to him. he is completely in love with madi and wants to be just like her. we love this. it really is love in it's truest form. thank you, my sweet boy, for doubling the size of my heart. you amaze me every day and i am so proud to be your mommy.

happy birthday, GRAMMY!

we love grammy. we all love her. can you tell? she is amazing. in every way.

happy, HAPPY birthday!

thanks, grammy, for all that you do for us!

why papa is the best.

because he comes over on his way home from workout on a tuesday morning and stays for an hour and a half.

because he plays dance party & 'make me fly.'

because he plays princess with madi...princess hair included.

because he rocks and snuggles my baby boy.

because he gets all cozy with both kidlets. i have never seen logan sit on the couch for so long.

thanks, papa. you are the best! we are so lucky.

my name's madi. i'm 2 and a half.

our song is 'you are my sunshine.' we sing it every night before bed, per her request. she knows it's our song. tonight, she sang it to us several times before bed. duh, of course i recorded it. this is like the 5th verse. when i put her down for bed, she sang along with me. hello love. she really is my sushine, in every single way.

my dude.

yes. his hat says dude. he also has a shirt that says dude. it's my word. but, he really is a dude. i can't get enough of him right now. such a love, my dude.

you know how i know he loves me? he and i were having a madi naptime picnic. while he chowed on some fishy crackers i asked if i could have one. he nodded his head a big ol' YES and proceeded to lean over my face and nicely spit out his abc soggy gross fishy cracker into my mouth. it was like the tom hanks caviar scene from BIG...only into my mouth.

now, if that's not love, i am not sure what is!

The IPAD.

what is it about electronics and boys? it's like instant male bonding.

bathtime buds.

lucky little guys to be all lined up so nice and neat. this only happens when daddy cleans up after bathtime. so...it's happened once and i laughed when i saw it. usually, they all just snuggle in a pile of melting bubbles in the bottom of the tub, until tomorrow night when they get to play again.

blurry header

your eyes work just fine.

i have this new header that i LOVE. but, i need to fix.

so, until i fix it i apologize for the blurriness.

this girl.

this girl is really having a rough couple of weeks. it breaks my heart to see her struggling.

even in the hardest of moments, this is how i see her.

my sunshine.

i love you madi babe. it will get better, i promise.