Date Night!

We've been realizing a lot lately that our boys LOVE to play with each other, but that at the same time they both really NEED time alone with mom and dad for all the attention to be on just them!

Last night Military Man and I took BooderBean to see his very first movie in the theatre and have a Date Night with mom and dad! He is a huge Cars fan so it was perfect for his first movie to be Cars 2!

He has been so excited for weeks, asking every day when the Cars movie was coming out! Finally it did and he was in hog heaven, I'm not sure if he was more excited to actually see the movie or to find out he would get to eat popcorn, drink a sprite, and eat all the candy he wanted!!

He wasn't a huge fan at all of the 3D glasses...he ended up only wearing them for the first 20 minutes then they were off!

We had so much fun, I love these special moments with our big boy! Can't wait till BrotherBean is old enough to appreciate Date Nights!

Disclaimer--this photo is horrible, i know!!! But it was the only pic i could get of all all three!

Pete and Repeat

Seriously "Pete and Repeat" live in my house.

Everything that big brother does, little brother has to do. It's the cutest thing! Little brother admires his big brother SO MUCH and wants to do everythign he does! If big brother is headbanging and dancing in the car-little brother starts in, when big brother makes a silly face to get a reaction out of mom and dad at the dinner table-little brother does the same, when big brother gets all the farm animals out of the toy box and makes a farm on mom and dads bed-little brother needs to be right there...and when big brother wanted to paint mommy a picture-

little brother decided he needed to experience his first painting session!

And when big brother decided it would be cool to eat your yogurt with your finger instead of a spoon-little brother did the same!

(i don't know why he wouldn't smile here, it was his idea for me to take a photo :))

Simple, Pure, Fun

Happy Fathers Day-yesterday!  



I will do a tribute to our dads post tomorrow, but for today i want to post about the simple pleasures in life that we have been experiencing the last few weeks.  All the summer fun memories of my childhood are flooding back as i sit back and watch my two cutie kiddos enjoying life in the summer sun!

First popsicle of the summer! First one ever for BrotherBean!

BrotherBean thinks the blue one looks better!

 

trying to get little brother to pose in the garden

 

Monkeying around with Dad



Sprinkler wars!

 

Relaxing in the sun

juuuuuuuust goin' for a stroll mom

Water Balloon fight!

As you can see, these two are best of buds!

chunka chunka chunka!

Little BrotherBean is seriously a chunky monkey! From the day he was born we've all called him chunky monkey! Just 18 short months ago he was born to us weighing in at 9lbs 15oz and today he weighs in at 28lbs!
I'm finding that he isnt' able to wear all of my favorite hand-me-downs from big brother because he just doesn't fit. None of the cute shoes fit, the 18 month summer clothes look so tight over his little round budda belly, and those thunder thighs :) Oh man oh man he is a snugly chunky little boy! I don't know how many times my sister says to me "I just want to eat him up!"
it's fun to have a rolly polly of a baby :)

a sickly soul

This is my 4 1/2 year old baby boy...sick sick sick last week with strep throat!! poor kiddo looks so sad and sick in this photo-he had a temp of 103 when we walked in to the doctor that morning. 

Good news is after about 24 hours of being on antibiotics, resting in mom and dads big comfy bed, eating lots of cartoon character soup and yogurt (he wouldnt' touch Popsicles or ice cream because he said the "coldness hurts my throat"), he was then back to his normal self!

On a lucky note...BrotherBean didn't catch it!

where have i been...

I stole this title from a friends blog that i recently stumbled upon, she is literally THE most amazing writer and blogger, and i am secretly stalking her now and am addicted to her writings.  I have been feeling beyond guilty just about every single day lately when i pause to think "holy crap i haven't updated my blog in MONTHS!".  it's not that i don't think of a million things a day and say "oh that would be great to blog about", it's just that i simply don't take the time to do it! and the guilt you ask? well i wanted this blog to be my scrapbook and window for my children, a look into our past, and a look into their mothers thoughts.  i have failed them and myself, and therefore i feel guilt.
SO--no more--no more will i sit here and think i don't have time to blog because it will take hours to play catch up from the months of neglect, now i will post randomly, small, wonderful posts of my babies and our life!

...where have i been...

I've been office working, house hunting, cleaning, grieving over death, grieving in general, career path seeking, mommying, wifeing, living, loving, wedding going, Cancun traveling, graduating attending, birthday partying, Easter egg dyeing, conference planning, promenade attending, friend counseling, fishing, baby napping.

Now, how about a few photos to throw in the mix!! they are random--but then that makes it fun :)

BEST GUACAMOLE EVER..i was a little addicted!

my favorite person in the whole world and I in Cancun

my oldest and bestest friend in the whole world and I in Cancun

BooderBean snuggled up in our bed Easter morning with his Easter bunny findings!

my little BrotherBean..he did not take this bunny mask off the entire day!

so there...i feel better, we are a bit more caught up :) if i could now take the time to get the hundreds of photos off my phone and post i would be doing great!

Too Cute To Sleep Momma!

This morning I am remembering back to a post from long ago, when BooderBean was a little guy...because last night with BrotherBean was a night like no other, a night I hope I never experience with him again for a long long time! The post I am refering to is this one.  As I was thinking about posting about the NO SLEEP night for BrotherBean and momma last night I was remembering back to posting about the NO SLEEP for us all with BooderBean only 2 short years ago. 

Last night was jsut one of those wierd nights with your baby where you have no clue what is going on with them but they go from schedule to no schedule overnight!  For the past 6 months BrotherBean has  been the kid that goes literally from 90 miles and hour chasing BooderBean around the house to zero and ready for bed in 2 seconds.  He jsut needed his snuggles, pacifier, blanket, and he would sleep from  7:30-7:30 no problem.  UNTIL last night!!!

****Disclaimer--this is the point where I quit the post for the day probalby from lack of sleep??****

I was going to delete this post but then decided not to, I want to have these posts to look back on years from now and remember the hard, good, fun, sleepless times :) 

so anyway, like I was saying...that nigth was horrible but both poor BrotherBean and myself.  Neither of us slept long at all.  He was ALL over the place, he would be ok rocking for a few minutes and be completly out-then I would stand up to lay him in his crib and he would wake up whaling and just cry the saddest tears for me to pick him up. we did this for hours. then I decided ok-this is it-we are doing the "cry-it-out" method. THAT was a bad choice becuase all he ended up doing was crying himself sick...literally! So he and I slept in the rocking chair, then moved to the recliner, then the spare bedroom bed, then back to the rocking chair.  He jsut flat out couldn't get himself comfy enough to relax enough to fall asleep for longer than 2 hours at a time, it was frustrating and sad for him.  I wasn't upset or frustrated as it may sound, I was just so sad and frustrated FOR HIM because you could see he was SO uncomfortable and yet could not go to sleep. 

Lucky for him he has a momma who does very well on no sleep :)

Finally at 5 a.m. I brought him in to MilitaryMan (whom had been SOUND asleep and SNORING the entire night along with BooderBean, how on earth they slept through it all I have no idea), laid him in the bed and jumped in the shower.  He slept soundly till 7am when he had to get up.

But the little man is jsut so stinkin' cute, and he is just full of smiles and life just makes him so happy, that he woke right up after maybe 4 hours of solid sleep just as happy as can be!

He went to school and took a 3 hour nap that morning :) Wish i could say i did the same thing!

SO...last night (night after the night from Hell!) Military Man and i decided if nothign else it has got to be his teeth so we started the infant tylonel and doses of teething tablets (more or less in hopes that it would relax him to sleep and not because somethign was actually wrong with him).  Guess it was his 1 year molars still giving him fits becasue SUCCESS happened and last night he slept without making a peep from 7:45pm-7am!

Now that the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night (anyone read that book??) is finally over i can smile...because we are back to "normal" at our house and this cute little hilarous boy is happy again!

(photo taken while camping over spring break--post on this to follow)



"There's no place like home, There's no place like home"

I'm stealing those words right out of Dorothy's mouth!

There really IS, no place like home!

I fly out of SUNNY Phoenix tomorrow bright and early, and will gladly jump on that plane and

head my way back to OKLAHOOOOOOOMA!

And more importantly back to these fine fabulous little men!

(YES, i know this photo is from December, but they just looked too stinkin' cute and they were posing for me so well that I just had to post this photo!)

"it's a good miss"

"it's a miss, but it's a good miss" is what my mom always told me when i would be sad if she would leave or if i said I told her I would miss her. I have said it to BooderBean many times over the years and have heard my mom say it to him when he has been with her and missed mommy and daddy.  I love this quote because it is so true.

Tomorrow i will be leaving my man and boys at home while I am in Phoenix for the week with work.  while I love the fact that i get to travel a bit with work, i am DREADING it like nobody's business this time, i just dont' want to leave my boys!! BUT i know that while i am missing those three like crazy, it will be a good miss!

These two will keep each other cozy and comfy and get lots of snuggles from each other while I am away...

They will get some big play time in...

They will read books...

And they will have movie nights with snacks and friends...



Sleeping Princes

wow...i have gotten TOO far behind on my postings, and truth is...i think about a new post daily and when i snap photos i think "oh this will make a great post", yet, time gets away and i never post them!

SO i just thought my boys looked way too cute sleeping last night and i need to snap a photo and update my bloggity blog a bit!

Oh and we also had BrotherBeans birthday party this past weekend so I'll post photos from that this week as well!!

Here are my two little sleeping princes!

Hospital trip #1...for 2011 that is

Missing our two cuties pretty bad this week!
Military Man has spent the last 5 days in the hospital for what we thought was a gall bladder attack.  Turns out the doctors aren't really sure what is going on with him just yet.  All we know is he has been through just about every test they have and has turned into a human pin cushion and we still don't have any definite answers, they are treating him pretty hard now with rounds of steroids in hopes that it fixes the problems so we will see. 
It's been really hard on BooderBean, just being away from us and the back and forth stuff.  BrotherBean--well he's pretty much like "whatever, as long as i have my paci and blanket then I'm good to go!".  My folks, and sister and brother in law have been literally, well, LIFESAVERS in all of this this past year.  If it wasn't for them i don't know what we would have done.  They have made it where i know my boys are well taken care of, on their schedules, and loved and happy, and I am able to be where i am most needed--in the hospital with MilitaryMan.  "Thank you" will never be enough for all they have done!

Mom brought the boys up for a visit today and that was so good! It was the first time they have seen daddy since he went in to the hospital on Tuesday.  It was so fun seeing them.
We did a little mini photo session here in the hospital room just so i could document the memory. 

I'll update just as soon as we get out of this hospital and back to real life! I can speak from waaaaaay too much experience that hospital life, is no life at all! Although, I have made quite a few new friends over all our stays here....nurses get to be your best friends!

Captian Destructo to the rescue!!

Well, i don't know if "to the rescue" is the right thing to say...but BrotherBean has most definitely now been dubbed "Captain Destructo"! The crazy little monkey is definitely our daredevil at home.  As a toddler, BooderBean was always so cautious and gentle and polite in his actions-yet all boy at the same time. As a toddler BrotehrBean comes in a room in a hilarity of a way, the silly kid chases his brother around the house crawling and toddling after him with this hilarious grin on his face laughing out loud the whole way-going 90 to nothing in minutes. He's not a mess, he's not a handful, he's just plain hilarious!  He's the kid who will go towards something in the house he knows he's not supposed to- all the way he's watching you with this smile and devilish grin that says "look at me mom and dad, lookie at what I'm going to do", he just loves to get a reaction out of you.

Well this weekend he got quite the reaction!  While having a stay-at-home-in-our-pj's-all-day kind of day yesterday we were busy cleaning out the toy boxes and playing with every single toy in the house all at once and BrotherBean decided to climb onto his new favorite "toy" aka-BooderBeans bed!  he loves to climb on it (because it's pretty much at his level and is the only thing he can climb onto by himself) and jump and crawl all over it like he's just done something magnificent.  Well this time it got the best of him and the side rail and his head collided in the perfect spot-smack dab in the middle of the eyes!  OUCH--it left quite the big, blue, goose egg!

He cried and wailed for about 15 minutes, then he was on the go again!!

this boy cracks us up and keeps us going 24/7. we sure love him but MAN he tires us out :)

Later this weekend we gave BrotherBean his first cup of cows milk! Here's a funny picture of him at dinner, showing off his big boy dinnerware! He looks like the good Catholic boy who's been to Ash Wednesday Mass...nope, that's a giant bruise! :)

Cruise with me baby....

Our little man is starting to cruise on his own! He's been walking around furniture like crazy for the past few months but on the day after Christmas, December 26, 2010 he finally took steps on his own! He's taking about 5 or 6 steps at a time now and then plopping on down and clapping and smiling! He's so proud of his new trick, however he does realize he can still get around much faster if he'll just crawl!

We spent Christmas WEEK in Ponca City and has a wonderful wonderful time! I have a million photos to go through before i  can even begin to post about it but here is just a quick review of the fun over the last week and a half:

• Sleeping in until 8a.m.
• Donut Day with Aunt Cinda
• Driving around till 2a.m. trying to soothe a teething baby
• Hitting the casinos
• Lots and lots of date nights
• Krout 50th Wedding Anniversary Party
• Family Bowling day
• Girls day
• Dirty Santa
• Game night

The only photo I'll post for now is this of BrotherBean crusin' on up to Santa. 

He started jabbering away with ol' St. Nick like they were buddies. 

The ones i love....

MELT my heart!
We recently had BrotherBeans 1 year photos and a few family photos taken by the very talented, trusted, loved, and great friend GreyGillFish. Below are some of my favorites from the session, although it was VERY hard to pick my favorites because so many of them are amazing!

This last one is by far my favorite! and truly brings out the BrotherBean personality!

Enjoy the new photos of my loves, and MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

Much love,
The Krout Sprouts

cutie pie comparisson

Last night was a pizza kind of night!

We call it "guys night" around our house...which simply means to BooderBean that he gets to sit on the couch with daddy and TV trays and watch a cartoon while they eat.

As BrotherBean and i were sitting at the table eating i realized HEY-this is his first time to have pizza! And then i remembered i had snapped a photo of BooderBeans first pizza experience so i snapped one of Brother as well.  When i went to find the photo from the past i realized that the photos were taken when both boys were exactly the same age--like down to only a few days apart!

BooderBean--1 year and 12 days old (October 2007)

BrotherBean--1 year and 8 days old (December 2010)

It amazes me to look back at the photos and compare my two cuties!