Today is a good day!

See, I really do have good days!

Here is an update on each member of our little family, smallest to largest! ;)

Owen:
Our little booger is nine months old. Yes, NINE. It makes my heart ache to think of my littlest baby growing up so fast. I am so blessed to be able to be home with him all of the time. He looks more and more like his big brother everyday. He hasn't walked all by himself yet, but he sure did try. He was walking along the couch the other day and was watching Jack and some daycare kids play and I think he forgot that he didn't know how to walk because he just sort of threw himself into a walk and landed flat on his face. Poor baby. He does, however, use a walker to get around and can almost turn it to where he wants to go! (A walker that he pushes, not that he sits in - he won't sit in that kind of walker anymore, he's way to independent!) He is eating all kinds of foods, but would love to just have crackers all day! He loves apples, strawberries, celery, bananas and squash. He says momma, dada and something that sounds like more. He is sleeping in his own crib (mostly) but still wakes up three or four times a night. He just can't get enough snuggles in with mommy. Though I hate losing the sleep, I love the cuddling.

Jack:
Oh my dearest Jack-a-roo! He's two. And a handful. He is so smart and sweet, but he is two. Anyone that's got a two year old or ever had a child that's been two can understand. He LOVES Thomas the train and Elmo (but, he calls Elmo 'Alf Alf' - I have no idea where he got that). We live close enough to a train track that two or three times a day he can hear a train and he stops everything and just holds as still as he can until the noise is gone and then he'll yell 'BYE BYE CHOO CHOO TRAIN!'. He does the same thing with airplanes. He is still a blanket baby and refuses to have an owie or sleepy time without it. He loves 'brush tooth brush' and 'BAFS' (brushing his teeth and baths), especially in mommy's bathroom. He is such a good big brother and helps Owen with getting toys, wiping his nose and getting him a diaper. He also LOVES helping me cook. He has started talking in complete sentences - 'Mom, I want more juice', 'I fall down', 'I want more cookies' - It's so nice to be able to understand what he needs and help him!

Me:
I'm hanging in there. This staying-at-home-no-adult-interaction thing is a HUGE adjustment still after almost a year. But, I love it. I wouldn't ever want to give it up. I also love having other children around for my kiddos to play with and so the daycare thing isn't terrible (I just have one bad apple that seems to spoil things sometimes). I'm back to the pant size I was before kids, though not happy with where everything is...just is (and yes, I'm saying this as I'm baking chocolate chip cookies). We eat healthy, I run around with kids all day, I am comfortable with my skin and I have a husband who loves me. I will eat cookies until my heart is content! :)

Clayton:
Ooh my dear husband. Well, I know you are all dying to know (I say that like I have a huge following...HA) but his face is almost all better! Within the past two days I've noticed a huge improvement and yesterday he smiled at me. It gave me butterflies and stopped me mid sentence when I was talking to him. I almost cried. It's been so hard not being able to nurse him back to health (I mean, what could I have done? Face massages?) and having it be such an obvious thing, I'm just glad for it to be gone. He loves his job and is such a great daddy to our boys.


Other than all of that there really isn't anything new to report. We haven't taken very many pictures, and I could try to come up with a good reason as to why but there really isn't one. I'm committing to being better about that. I used to be so good with weekly updates of Jack and then life just has a way of sneaking up on you and laundry has to be folded and dinner has to be made!

We went to McCall for the Winter Carnival!

Clay and I look so mad, but we had a really great time, I swear. This is Zoe pulling Jack!

Trying to keep warm in the car!

Jack before...

Jack after! :)

<3

Monday.

I have a terrible case of the Mondays. The kind that involves tears, mental breakdowns, cleaning of random nooks and craneys of the house and an intense need to be left alone for longer than 20 minutes. 

Needless to say, it's nap time - I thought I'd update the blog with some beautiful update on how wonderful our lives are, share some pictures and forget about having to make dinner, change 12 more poopy diapers today and clean the living room for the millionth time - but Owen woke up and is DYING from not being held. So, enjoy the photos and captions. Maybe some day I'll update with something meaningful and not have to mention how terrible of a day I'm having. I swear, I do have good days. 

It snowed! It started around 7am and didn't stop until 2pm. Then, it turned to rain. As soon as Clay got home Jack was thrown outside to play in it for the first time this year. He LOVED it!

Owen is such a snuggler. I love nap time with him.

And Clayton. My poor husband. He has Bell's Palsy (a usually temporary paralysis of one side of your face). He forgot an eye patch (he can't close his eye all of the way so at night he has to wear one) so he fashioned one out of gauze. He, despite the suckiness of this stupid thing, loves being a pirate. 

So cute! I didn't teach him how to rock, he just did it!

Jack is such a good big brother.

Owen will be walking sooner than I'm okay with. He loves to scale the walls, chairs, etc - anything he can hold on to or lean on. 

This is how cool kids ride in the car. 

Clay got me flowers because he's a good husband. I cut up the lemon, I'm in love with how it looks!

Our new wall art. All for under $20!

Very bad day.

Today was an awful, good for nothing, waste of time, crying, screaming, kicking and shoving kind of a day. I shouldn't have even gotten out of bed. I also shouldn't have picked up the house for the 1,923 time just to have the same damn book shelf torn apart. But, I did. I got out of bed. I cleaned the house, I made dinner and I attempted to be a good mommy. Just like every day. Some days are good, some a great and some a just down right terrible.

I didn't get to vacuum, sweep, mop, or wipe anything down. Though, I did get to pick up the same toys and put them away several times, make lunch for a very cranky bunch of children, unload the dishwasher and try to make two teething babies happy.

I did get to spend the day with my kiddos (though, cranky, stinky and sassy).

Trying to spin a terrible day into a good one when you are still bent about the day, listening to Clayton threaten Jack with timeout for the millionth time just makes one more bitter about the day.

I also attempted to craft during nap time only to get more frustrated with the damn thing.

Just a bad day.

Now, I'm going to sew something - I have no idea what and try to forget that today happened.

Tomorrow will be better.

It has to be.

New Year!

Well, it's January 16th and I'm just now getting serious about thinking about New Year Resolutions (like how I can't even commit to thinking about getting serious about them?!). I'm really liking the idea of family resolutions and resolutions for both Clay and I as a couple. Really, these are just life goals - but for some reason folks don't like calling them goals so resolutions it is.

For me - I'd like to spend more time focusing on me. Simple things really - making sure I put makeup on instead of worry about weather Jack's shoes are organized, paint my toes instead of fussing with the laundry, etc. I'm also going to start sewing more. I'm in love with creating things! I made both Jack and Owen dinosaur hats, and though FAR from perfect they are still VERY adorable.

For Clay and I - a romantic get away. Or just a get away. Hell, we could go stay at a motel 6 in Boise and I'd be ELATED. I don't remember the last time I got to wake up in his arms. Oh the things having two children will do to you! We also need to be better about how we spend our date time - We usually rush through dinner and then go to the grocery store. Anyone with more than one child knows that going to the grocery store with children and having to actually get things that are breakable (chips, eggs, etc) or that are food (I mean really, Jack tries to eat EVERYTHING I put in the cart) is a nightmare so Clay and I usually go to the store on our dates. Not very romantic.

As a family - We need to get out of the house more. With staying home I feel like I'm missing SO much of the outside world. Buildings are completed and I didn't even know they cleared that corn field 6 months ago for that new store. I really should put that as one of my goals...Get out of the house more.

Jack at the aquarium, I'd love to go back!

I'm sure Clay's goal would be to lose weight, but he looks so handsome and I love him with a little meat on his bones. He can get so thin!


In other news, there really isn't much else to report. EXCEPT...

Owen is crawling. All over the place. He follows me everywhere and gets so frustrated when I'm busy going from room to room and he has to crawl after me just to have me change directions. Poor baby. He will be walking soon though, he's already scaling back and forth on the couch and pulling himself up against anything - chairs, walls, his crib, anything really. And will stand with only one hand balancing himself. It's crazy. I'm not ready for my baby to be a toddler. I must stop thinking about it or I will cry!!

And now for some pictures!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

This time of year is so busy, for everyone really, and then I went and added a husband and two children to the mix. It's funny, I yearn for this time of year (well, December, I'm fully aware it's January and I'm just now blogging about Christmas) all year long and when it gets here I become a worrying, panicking, bossing, plan making mess.

All of Clayton's siblings were together for Christmas, so it was insane to try to plan anything but, like always, it came together and we got to spend some really great time with everyone. I love being apart of the family and always enjoy a good chaotic Lowder holiday!

Jack isn't quite old enough to get Christmas, but he did love opening presents. He got a kitchen, shopping cart and mega blocks from Santa (100pc. of mega blocks - THANKS Santa, those are hidden in the garage now!) Owen got a educational singing dog that Jack loves more than Owen. Babies are so difficult to shop for - especially a second child who already has all of his big brothers toys!

My wonderful husband got me a sewing machine that I am looking forward to spending some quality time using! I've gotten it out during nap time a couple of times and made both boys some p.j. pants (though nothing like the wonderful pants Alyson has made and passed down) and mittens for Jack (though not very functional he likes playing with them). I'm looking forward to finding the time to make curtains for Owen's room, our room and the living room as well as learning how to make shirts for the boys. I'm lucky enough to have Clay's mom to teach me.

We spent New Year's Eve at home, playing Phase 10 with Clay's wonderful mom and then New Year's Day we went to my mom's for dinner. Clay and I have been off this past week and have enjoyed some good quality family time. We went to the Idaho Aquarium and Jack loved it. He ran back and forth and told the fishes what to do, where to go and tried to poke them through the glass. There was one shark in the pool where you could touch them that kept swimming the outside of the pool and would jump up on the side, kinda trying to get out and Jack thought it was so funny.

Now, after a week straight of children I think Clay has vowed never to have any more. Jack is going through a very defiant phase and refuses to do anything that he is asked or told to do. I was going to potty train him this week but he's been so naughty that I think he'd just use it against me, he'd probably figure it out and pee all over the couch or something. So, we'll wait until the summer I think and see if he's ready then.

Owen is getting so big. I think I say that every time I update. He's seriously growing up so fast. I can't believe that he is going to be one year old in May. I can't believe that time has gone by so fast. I remember time going by fast with Jack but not this fast. It's crazy what two kids will do to you. I swear Clay has gray hair! Owen started crawling this week, but hasn't mastered the art - I think he forgets that he can crawl so when I put him down he fusses and starts crawling and then remembers and gets happy. It's really funny to watch. I didn't think he was going to crawl, he doesn't really have any reason to. I spoil him and Jack will bring him toys. He really wants to walk but he doesn't quite have the balance yet. I'm sure it'll only be a few months. After MONTHS of Clayton pressuring me to move Owen into his crib I've finally done it. Last night was Owen's first night and he did really well. He slept for 6 hours, woke up to eat - slept in bed with me for three hours, woke up to eat again and then slept in bed for another 3 hours. Today he napped there all day.

Speaking of bed, I should get both kiddos off to bed. Poor Clayton is out there with Jack covered in yogurt and Owen screaming. Best. Husband. Ever.

Hope all is well. <3

Quick update!

These little boys melt my heart. Jack is such a good brother!

He's got so many more teeth! I think we are at a total of 8 now. 

We went to the Idaho Botanical Gardens Winter Garden A'Glow. It was okay, the lights were beautiful but Owen was cold and Jack used up all of his patience waiting in the line to get in.

Jack and I decorated cookies. Or, I should say, we decorated a cookie - one for each of us. I made the cookies while he napped and then the frosting shortly after he woke up. I'm fairly certain he ate half of the frosting I made. Sneaky toddler.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Sigler's! Yes, the got him a super awesome tricyle and badass helmet. And no, his feet cannot reach.

Oh Christmas p.j.s How I love thee! However, getting a two year old to 'sit in front of the tree and say cheese!' at 9:30pm Christmas Eve results in the above and below. 

They match!

And then there is Owen. He should really be a model. He just will smile and ham it up when a camera is in front of his face. Unless he's being attacked by Jack, in which case getting either of them to look happy is impossible.

Oh! and the before and after Christmas shots. 

This was taken as we were rushing out the door to breakfast with Clay's family. Yep, I got to come home to this! 

I'll write more later, I must go help Clay with the screaming children. 

Are you okay?

Last night Jack was a chatter box, which describes his last few days, and I wanted to capture it on the video camera - Until I remembered that it was full and needed to be uploaded onto the computer. So, I got my wonderful husband to complete said task and we then spent the whole night watching old videos of Jack. I cried, a lot. Jack LOVED watching himself on the TV and kept saying 'OWEN?!' and we had to remind him it was Jack. We will have to take a video of him watching the videos of himself, he just smiles and laughs.

Anyway.

We got the video camera just after Jack was born, he was probably two or so months old. But! We were really bad about using it and instead would use the video funtion on our phones. Well, the dog ate my phone and I washed Clay's phone (whoops!) so we thought we lost all of the video of Jack walking. GONE. FOREVER. Until we uploaded the 122 videos of him last night (okay, a few were Owen, but still - 122!? REALLY?!)

There it was. My naked, well diapered but mostly naked, Jack taking some of his first steps. I cried, a lot. I was so happy to have found that small little 4 minute video of a time in our lives that was so exciting and thought to be gone forever. Jack just kept turning to me and asking 'Are you otaaaay?' and helping me wipe my tears.

Where did my little baby go. I kept turning to Clay, tears streaming down my face, saying 'I don't remember him being this little!' It's just another reminder that kids grow up too fast and life just flies by, no matter how hard to try to slow it down.