they grew again

It's been a while since I've updated about the boys. It feels like they're completely different kids all of a sudden.

Andrew is still loving his home learning time. We're almost done working our way through the alphabet! I decided to try out some sight words to see if he'd be at all interested and he was totally into it! I did the first 5 words on the list and he learned them after one time going through them. And he still remembers them today - it's mind blowing to me! I also had him write letters from memory and he knew them all except 2. We've been working on the sounds of the letters along the way too. He can do many letter sounds if he really thinks about it, but it seems like that is a good thing to focus on next. He also really likes math and I'm looking into adding geography and the calendar just because he wants to learn more. This is way more than I planned to do with him but he eats it up! The bonus for me is it's helping me deal with kindergarten being right around the corner because it seems like he's going to love it!

Mason is going through the growth spurt that happens around 2 1/2 and is quickly turning into a big kid. He has enough words to say anything he needs to. He has a favorite show (Dinosaur Train ... one show Andrew has never really cared for) and a favorite book (Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? ... a book that Andrew never really cared for) and a favorite color (Blue). The other day Mason gave me a hug and said "I love you too much, mama". I sort of love him. : ) He also told on Andrew for the first time - which made Matt laugh out loud and then he told me to mark it down as a first! Ha. He has also shown an interest in learning letters and loves to point out the letter M. And he's also back on track with potty training. If he could work through his fear of normal sized toilets, we'd be done with pull-ups! His little toilet seat has been bothering him lately because it's so small. I assume he'll get tired of that eventually...

Another new thing... Andrew is reading his first chapter book! He likes it (I love it)! I hope we can keep it up. And Mason has all of a sudden fallen in love with books. As I mentioned above, he loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? He asks for it before nap and bedtime and sometimes randomly in the middle of the day, too. He tries to read along with me and loves to talk about the pictures and the colors.

I really do try to enjoy every day with my boys and soak in the precious time I have with them while they're young and willing to snuggle and tell me they love me. : ) But for some reason, lately it's been rubbed in my face how fast the time goes. A stranger, while watching me try to corral my boys through Fred Meyer, smiled and told me to make sure I enjoy this time (I love it when older people do that - love it!). Someone at the wedding introduced me to their 'grown up son' and told me they turn 18. And a blog I follow just quoted my favorite part of a sweet little poem: "The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow, but children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep". I get it! It's good advice. But enjoying it doesn't seem to be slowing it down any, so you can take your good advice and shove it! : )

happy leap day!

introducing Mr & Mrs Cram!

The day of the wedding was so much fun! We basically spent the afternoon being pampered. One of Stephanie's friends did our hair and her sister-in-law did our makeup. Sweet.

Diet Pepsi was one of the only things our bride-to-be demanded! : )

Andrew, charming the flower girls by showing them a bug he trapped. : ) Luckily they were just old enough to think he was a cute little boy. They were so adorable together.

A very quick overview of the ceremony is below. (I'll be linking to her photographer's blog post when they get it updated. My guess is they got some better shots than we did......).

Andrew did an awesome job as ring bearer. I was pretty stressed out because during rehearsal he had so much nervous energy that he decided it'd be funny to punch himself in the face. And they decided to trust him with the actual rings?!! Geez. Right before the wedding I gave him a pretty serious talk about being responsible and how it will boring, but Stephanie picked him because she knew he could do it. He took it very serious after that. He walked down the isle super slowly and stood fairly still during the ceremony. On the way out he raised the pillow up like Stephanie did with her flowers. : ) I was told he also stopped for a couple cameras to pose! I got a lot of comments during the reception about how adorable he was. I was a pretty proud mama at that point. He rocked it!

Here I am, just being important. : )

The ceremony was beautiful, the formal portion of the reception was very sweet and the barn looked awesome! There were a lot of personal touches that made their wedding very sweet. One of my favorite parts was her cousin singing "we are family" to kick off the dancing. The reception was a blast! And most important - Stephanie was gorgeous!! I didn't take any pictures, but luckily I ended up with a few great shots thanks to people stealing my camera!

Congratulations Stephanie and Tim! Thank you for inviting me to be part of your day. I have had so much fun! We're going to have to have a reunion of some kind because I'm going to miss hanging out with all your friends! : )

rehearsal

A few of Stephanie's bridesmaids were able to take Friday off to hang out and take care of some last-minute stuff.

It was a little hard on Mason not being a part of the wedding. When we got Andrew's suit, he asked for his. When Andrew tried it on, he wanted to wear one too (luckily we had one in his size from when Andrew was in my friend Brooke's wedding) and after I took a picture with Andrew, Mason moved in for his picture. : )

After rehearsal we had dinner at a nice little Italian place. They had a fun band playing that our boys loved! They were dancin' machines. One of the guitar players even came out to the dance floor and let Andrew play his guitar during one song (which made his day!).

I did a horrible job of taking pictures. This is the only picture that really turned out okay at dinner and also happens to be about the only picture I took of the two of them together at all.

After dinner, Matt headed home with the boys and I headed to a hotel!

We had a great time celebrating with Stephanie. And hopefully we did our job and didn't give her a chance to stress out about her big day!!

bachelorette party {the SLR version}

One of Stephanie's bridesmaids brought her SLR out for the night. She offered to take pictures during the game for me since I couldn't ask the questions and take pictures. She probably has no idea how much stress that took off me. : ) Anyway, these are her pictures. Thanks Karin!!

I made cake pops and chocolate mustaches for a little game. I had intended for it to be an ice breaker, but it turns out alcohol takes care of that so it was just a game we played because I made cake pops and chocolate mustaches...

Madison Avenue, our burlesque dance instructor, was the cutest thing ever! And she totally saved the day! The gal who was scheduled to come to the party ended up getting strep throat Friday afternoon. I was just glad to have anyone fill in and was very excited that she ended up being tons of fun!

She ended by having us get in groups and do a dance showing what we learned. This was my group. : )

I love this picture! I think it looks like it belongs in a magazine.

So. much. fun!

one week to go

Picture with the bachelorette. Check.

Picture with the bridal party (minus one). Check.

Picture of Stephanie working her new burlesque moves. Check.

Picture of the rest of the night. Fail.

One of Stephanie's friends was taking pictures all night with her SLR. I'm hoping to steal some picts from her. If I can get them, I will be doing another post because there is a lot of the night that I missed that can actually be blogged. : )

This just makes me laugh...

new rooms

My dad sent these wall decals for the boys today. Andrew was very, very excited and had very specific ideas on where to put them based on real scenarios from the game. : )

I heart you

I love today.

I love these little photo shoots... so cute, every time.

And our fun heart shaped breakfast. : )

and my fresh bouquet of tulips,

and heart shaped smores.

We delivered a couple smores to dad.

And ended the day with a candle lit dinner. : )

I seem to love all holidays, but Valentine's Day is for some reason, one of my favorites.

grandpa's heart

So sweet.

tricky

I walked into the bathroom and found Andrew with a cup full of water on his head. He's so tricky!

This is after Mason tried it. : )