Project 365 - Day 26, 27 & 28 + a little Gracie love

Have you all caught on to the fact that I'm basically doing this every few days now? Every day blogging is quite a commitment! But, I'm loving taking daily photos of the boys. I did miss the 26th, but took a photo of both of them that I'm using to make up for that day. Even if the camera doesn't come out a day or two here or there, I'm thoroughly enjoying making an effort to capture the day-to-day around here and know I'll cherish each of these photos.

Day 26:


Max and Ben - Maxton was interrupting our 5 month photo shoot with Ben and Ben clearly enjoyed the interruption. I love how much these two are interacting these days. It makes my heart happy.


Instagram - I've been slacking with the Instagram photos, too. But, here is our new bedding! We also painted the bedroom a beautiful blue. I love how it's all coming together. We're really settling in to our new place and it's feeling more and more like home.

Day 27:


Bennett - Doing what he does best. Tummy time and drooling.


Maxton - Swinging at the park. I'm pretty  happy with this shot and it took a LOT of work to get it ;)


Instagram - Just a little Ben. He was a REALLY bad sleeper the previous night and so I texted Ritchie this photo to try and have them make-up. Ritchie quickly forgave Ben and all was right in the world. How can you stay mad at such a cute face?

Day 28:


Maxton - Eating a donut. Homemade donut. YUM.


Bennett - Boys in Osh Kosh = LOVE.


Instagram - A bit o' food porn coming atchya! This is the kind of food porn you'll be seeing regularly around these parts as my diet starts TOMORROW. (No, seriously. I know I said that last week, but it SERIOUSLY starts tomorrow).

Stay tuned for day 29, which is TODAY! How is it almost February?!

Oh... I almost forgot...


Our poor pup, Gracie never gets included in these things. Here she is - snuggling up with Grandma. Maybe I'll try to take one photo a month of her or something. We'll see.

Project 365 - Day 24 & 25

Hello, hello! Here are my photos for days 24 and 25:

Day 24:

Bennett - Hanging out with daddy.

Max - Adventures in potty training. He likes to take a peek at what's happening in there while he's doing it. *sigh*

Instagram - Swingin' - he always asks me to "do a big one, push!" haha! Love him.

Day 25:

Max - Snacking on the couch. It's clearly something he takes very seriously.

Ben - Self portrait of us snuggling with him in the Ergo.

Instagram - Ritchie put our new bookshelf together tonight! This was very exciting for me as I've been wanting this bookshelf for a LONG time.

Photo Challenge - Feet

I'm linking up with Chelsey at Paper Mama for a photo challenge this week!

The challenge was feet! Super convenient because I JUST took a picture of Max's sweet feet that I happen to love!



Feel free to join the party if you have any pictures (or want to take any) of your babe's feet!

Project 365 - Day 21, 22 & 23

Confession: I took no pictures on Saturday. Whoops. I painted our bedroom. Then we had dinner with friends. We got home late and rushed to get the boys to sleep so pictures took a back burner that day. I made up for it by taking 2 rounds of photos today though. Even if I skip a day there WILL be 365 pictures of the boys.

So... how shall I do this? I guess I'll just show you 2 pictures for today and skip the 21st day.

Day 21:

Instagram - We were running late to dinner AND both boys were melting down. So, I took pictures of myself looking concerned rather than do anything productive. FTW. 

Day 22:


Maxton - Out to breakfast. Don't be fooled. He wasn't behaving himself one little bit ;)


Bennett - We put the toy on his car seat finally. Can you tell he likes it?


Instagram - Ben catches a glimpse of the exciting Niners Game.

Day 23:


Max - Playing outside earlier.


Max - Stealing my In-N-Out shake. I tried to tell him it was broccoli. He believed me but was wiling to try it anyway. After taking a sip he exclaimed, "It's a chocolate shake!" I guess I was busted.


Bennett - Basking in the sunlight on our bed this afternoon.


Bennett - Drooling in the sunlight on our bed this afternoon. :)


Instagram - Morning rainbow on my way back from dropping Max off at preschool.

2 Years and 3 Months

I need to write all of these things about Max before I forget them. Everyday is something new with this one and so much is changing so quickly that I want it burned in my brain how he is right now. The problem is that I'm not sleeping and the days are a blur and I know it will all be forgotten if I don't get it out. Please excuse the random stream of consciousness style while I just get it documented.



Max is still cautious. Oh, so careful. He doesn't like to branch out far from us and has to warm to people slowly, especially other children. Once you're in, he's a dedicated fan for life, but the process can be lengthy.

His favorite color right now is purple. Everything purple he gets really excited about. Purple balls, purple airplanes, purple items in books, purple, purple, purple. I think it's pretty darling that he has an obvious favorite color right now.

The eating situation with Max is horrendous. He's always hanging out in the pantry and asking for food, but doesn't want anything that's offered unless it's ice cream or cake or chocolate covered anything. He'll eat fruit and certain crackers but chicken or veggies is absolutely out of the question. We're working on it.



His thing right now is to put the cars DVD on the floor and run in circles near it. This usually takes place in the living room, but if I go to the kitchen to prep a meal he brings the DVD and places it in front of the fridge and runs in the kitchen. I don't know why that DVD has to be there while he runs in circles, but we're guessing that he's pretending to be lightening McQueen since we hear the occasional "Ka-Chow!" from him.

Cars is his FAVORITE.



Stories are another favorite activity for him but only if he reads them himself. He loves to memorize the books and "sit on my lap mommy" (this means him sitting on our laps) and read them to us.

Still obsessed with airplanes and helicopters. He also loves getting "coffee donuts" for breakfast (Starbucks) and the drive thru one we go to is near the airport so it's dually exciting for him.

He's also loving the cleaning supplies like vacuums and brooms. He get's SO excited about the adult sized ones, but has toy ones that he likes to clean with also.



He's a complete parrot and repeats everything we say. We've let a few "crap"s and other naughty words fly and he's said them. Whoops!

He also says "okay" all the time. Example:

Me: Max, would you like a snack?
Max: OKAY!

Max: Wanna show me something, okay?

Max: Give it to me the milk, okay?

Ahh... two year old sentences might be my favorite.

He also says "I'm so excited" like this:

Max: So excited the blue vacuum!! (while my friend Kim gave him the big blue vacuum to push around)



He still is the sweetest kid I think I've ever met. He's sensitive and smart and loving. He's great for snuggles. As far as two year olds go, I think we have it pretty easy with this one. I cannot wait to watch him grow more.

Ritchieisms Volume 4

Me: When the boys want to do something, I want to make sure never to tell them they can't. 

Ritchie: I'm going to need that put into context. 

Me: Like, if Max wasn't very good at Math but wanted to major in it in college we wouldn't say "math isn't really your strength.. maybe you should consider something different"

Ritchie: Oh, no - I would never say that. 

Me: Okay, good. I just want to encourage them and remain positive. 

Ritchie: I would tell him that Math was a dumb major. Is that allowed? 

This is what happens when Ritchie gets ahold of the camera. 

Ritchie: You should start a thing on your blog.... "show your butt, Friday."

So, ladies.. what do you think? Show your butt, anyone?

Project 365 - Day 20

I'm not loving today's photos, but that's probably because I put next to no effort in today. Whoops!! It was a busy day that was over before I knew it so at 5 minutes till bedtime I took a few snapshots just so I wouldn't skip a day.


Max - being silly while changing to his PJs.


Ben - Being silly while changing into his PJs.


Instagram - Bennett rolling away while I'm trying to dress him earlier. He's getting more and more challenging to dress!

4 Months Old

Well... this is all just going way too fast for me.



Ben at 4 months old. What can I even say about that?



He is FINALLY laughing out loud. But he makes you really work for it.

He was 17 pounds and 10 ounces and 26 1/4 inches long, which just happens to be EXACTLY what his big brother was at 4 months. Silly boys wanting to be the same...



He's working on sitting up, but still falling over regularly. He's drooling like crazy. He's rolling from front to back and back to front.



He is NOT sleeping through the night. I have become a human pacifier. He wants to cuddle and nurse all night long and I know I'm SUPPOSED to say how that's okay because this time will pass and I want to just enjoy every milk cow moment, but honestly? Mama just wants some mother effing sleep. That's all. Just SLEEP kid. I smell Ferber coming.


He smells it, too. He thinks it stinks. Me, too kid - but it's good for us.


Oh, yah and we stinking LOVE him to pieces! We can tell he's got some spunk with his zero to 60 ways and we love that about him. We can't wait to see more and more of that personality come out. His smile still just KILLS me dead with its sincerity and we think he's just the sweetest little guy. Max tells him he's funny all the time, like they have a secret language going on that only they understand. Apparently, he's quite the hoot and Max is going to be very entertained by him.

Love you, Mr. B bear!! Thanks so much for being in our family.

Insta Friday 1/20

From left to right; top to bottom:

1. We're finally getting organized around here and putting commitments on a calendar!
2. Me with those boys of mine on the flight!
3. A sleeping baby boy.
4. Cheesecake! Nuff' said.
5. Little miss Kira's baby legs.
6. Coveting new baby clothes for my guys.
7. Ben strikes back.
8. A delicious dinner out!
9. Max happy with peanut butter on a spoon. His request.
10. SNOW!!
11. SOPHIE!
12. HUSBAND! (haha - Okay, I know it's getting old)
13. Tea and tummy time.
14. My new watch. Happy birthday to me.
15. BURGERS (I had to do that - those burgers deserve to be shouted about)
16. Ahh, Ben.

Linking up with Jeannette over at Life Rearranged!

Project 365 - Day 18 & 19

I did take pictures yesterday, but I took a little break from blogging last night for a little QT with Ritchie.

Day 18:


Ben - We enjoyed some outside time practicing his sitting (er...leaning?) skills. That little bugger is almost 5 months, I can't believe it.


Max - Inside. At night. Yuckin' it up all over the place here, but he's still cute so it's okay.


Instagram - My favorite mug ever (I believe it's already made an appearance here?) and little B enjoying some "tee time" as Max calls it.

Day 19:


Max - Sitting outside. I love his shoes :)


Ben - Enjoying his bouncer outside for a bit. Look at those lips!!


Instagram - Pining away at cute little boy clothes. Who said dressing boys isn't as fun as dressing girls? I would have to disagree...