the last night at home.

Posted on June 1, 2012 by mommyinthemidwest

May 24, 2012.

That’s the last night our boys slept at their beds in their first home.

Coincidentally, I had scheduled our family pictures for the same night long before I knew it would be our last night there as a family of four. It was serendipitous timing for the photo shoot. I have bragged on our photographer before, but she never ceases to amaze me. Every time she leaves, I’m thinking she didn’t get anything good, but somehow, she always does. We wanted to make sure some of the pictures had our house in the background.

The main reason for the photo shoot was to capture my baby boys, ages 1 and 2.

Photos courtesy of Simply Angie Photography

I can’t help it, I just think these two are the cutest peanuts in the pack. After Angie left, we decided to take one last walk to the Dairy Queen down the road. We can get to it from behind without ever leaving our neighborhood. We took in all of the sights and sounds and smells. Fresh cut grass. Kids laughing and playing. Cars driving by and people waving. Neighbors saying hello and nodding at one another as they pass on the street. It really is a wonderful neighborhood.

In an unexpected twist, Theo chose the stroller over the wagon for our last family walk.

Ordering our treats.

The air conditioned store was a nice break.

This is what we get now when we tell him to smile for the camera.

I WANT ICE CREAM.

Monumental day, monumental first: His very own ice cream cone.

And boy did he make that thing disappear, down to the last bite of cone.

Now that’s a good big brother!

Theo decided he wanted to walk/run home – the whole .8 mi home!

He knows the way.

It was getting dark so we went inside and turned on a little Lightning McQueen to end our day with some normalcy. We tried explaining what is happening to Theo but I don’t know how much he understands. He just keeps saying “I wanna go to mommy’s house.” When we tell him we can’t, he says “my stuff’s all gone!” We took him there after we had moved everything out. He thought it was fun hearing his own echo and driving his Little Tikes car as fast as he could through the empty rooms.

xo,

~C~

Easter

Posted on April 10, 2012 by mommyinthemidwest

These three are some of my favorite pictures from Easter and some of my favorite pictures of Dexter, ever. He’s just growing up and changing so much lately. Lots of people have mentioned how he’s grown recently. I ordered his birthday party invitations over the weekend and I wish I had waited to include these pictures from Sunday. Speaking of his birthday invitations…I can’t believe I just ordered them. How is my teensy weensy almost ONE already? He’s not walking. Yet. But it feels like he’s getting close.

Then there’s my little Justin Bieber, oh I mean THEO. The boy has some crazy hair, but we like it long and think it looks cute. R’s hair was just like that when he was little. The stuff is water repellent. In the bathtub, we pour a bucket of water on his head and it just rolls off like he’s got Rain-X in his hair. Nuts.

Theo was the perfect age for hunting eggs in our backyard. You know, hunting eggs that were left in plain sight. Next year, when Dex can really participate, it will be even more fun. But the little guy knew just what to do and his face lit up and his feet moved faster every time he spotted a plastic egg. Too cute for words.

As soon as we told him he had found them all, he quickly dumped his basket out and began opening the eggs to see what treasures were waiting inside. A few pieces of candy, dimes, and some band-aids (hey, we all like different things) made him one happy boy.

There may have been some Easter bunnies hiding in the trees.

We were supposed to travel south to visit my family for Easter but we had too much left to do before we get our house on the market so we regretfully made a last minute change in plans. As disappointing as it was, our quiet, easy holiday weekend turned out pretty nice. It’s not very often that we celebrate a holiday, just the 4 of us. It was fun.

Hope you had an easy, simple, wonderful Easter too.

xo,

~C~

an adorable hat and a juicy apple

Posted on April 8, 2012 by mommyinthemidwest

R’s talented mama knitted up this little hat after I mentioned that I’d seen a cute crocheted one at a local toy store. Isn’t it so sweet?

The model is pretty cute too, if I do say so myself.

There’s just something magical about dandelions.

Have you seen all the teeth this dude is sporting lately?

Theo insists on eating everything “big” these days. I start to cut his toast in half and he says “no mommy, I wanna BIG one.” I go to slice his apple into slivers and he says “no mommy, I wanna BIG one.”

Okay, little boy. I get it. You’re getting pretty big.