Merry Christmas 2013

Christmas was awesome for the Tormoehlens this year.  We celebrated the whole week!

It was pretty crazy to get ready this year, as Thanksgiving was late in the year and Kyle went to training in Florida for a week, so we scrambled to do the shopping and decorating.  It took a lunch visit to Toys R' Us with big lines, but the boys loved it all.

We went shopping for a new car the weekend before and it landed pretty unsuccessful, so we opened a few gifts early to put us back in the mood.  Then we went to Pam and Dave's on Sunday, and my friend Maggie's on Christmas Eve with the kids.  They loved looking at the lights in our neighborhood and talking about Santa.

The boys got lots of cool gifts:

- New Trains (The Chuggington Collection)

- Money for new big boy beds

- A new Golf Set

- A Record Player for Max

- A Science Kit for Zachary

- A Rocket Tent from Pam

Sounds Cheesy, but the best present is two healthy boys.  They are wild and crazy, but they are great kids

Merry Christmas Zachary and Max.  You deserve the whole world and are loved more than you know,

Mom

New Tent in Zachary's Room

Aftermath

Max LOVED the musical orniments

Sweet, Sweet Max

Max!

It's taken Mommy forever to update your stats, but we've been so busy!  Mommy and Daddy work so hard at work and our weekend seem to be just as wild!  We just CRAVE time with you and your brother and soak up as much time as we have in the just two short days on the weekends. 

- You LOVE your school and your teacher.  Daddy traditionally does the drop-offs every morning, but in the few that I've done, you'll lunge for your teacher.  You're the biggest guy in your class and they're working on transitioning you to the toddler room very soon

- You talk so much!  Favorite words, "Ball, Ba-Ba (Bottle), Ni-Ni (Night-night), bye-bye, flower, dog, moon, flower, cracker, "Choo-Choo"."

- You like playing trains with your bother

- You like sitting forward in your new car seat.  You must be like mom and get a little queasy in the back seat

- You're SO CLOSE to walking.  You showed high interest around 9 months and I thought you'd be an early walker, but lost interest along the way, so you're back in action!

- We celebrated your FIRST birthday with all of your friends and family at the Children's Museum.  It was a joint celebration with Zachary and you loved it.  You weren't really into your cake, but enjoyed the attention and presents.  Your favorite present was a ride-on airplane (photos below).  You race your brother on it around the house

- You like wearing necklaces (featured below)

- You love eating.  You eat everything and get upset when you can't eat big boy food like popcorn, grapes, and smoothies

- You had your FIRST Halloween and enjoyed running around the neighborhood with your brother.  You dressed up in the same monkey suit as your two cousins and your brother, but we had to squeeze you in- TIGHT!

You are a HUGE joy to our family, Max.  You are a love of our lives and we can't imagine our family without you.  You are a kind, happy, smart, and loving child and it's a joy to be your mom.  Thank you for being such a beautiful blessing in my life.

Weekend Update

This weekend was pretty wild!

Zachary had his last swimming lesson of  the Fall session.  He's been doing great and seems to really enjoy being in the water.  We even arrived early on Saturday and watched some men play basketball- he loved it!

After swimming, we attended Ethan Power's 1st Birthday and Kyle and Zachary went to a baby shower that afternoon.

On Sunday, Zachary and I went to Austin's third birthday party at Monkey Business.  (Zachary kept calling it the "Monkey niss-niss")  Zachary was so excited to jump in the bouncy houses and ate quite a bit of pizza.

Zachary was nice enough to bring back some party favors for his brother (Max was napping over the party) and it was fun to watch them play together.

Great weekend!  The Boys are having their birthday blow-out this Saturday!!  Where has the time gone??!!

After Party With Your Pants Off!

Happy Halloween!

Last year, Zachary wasn't into the Holiday.  I'm guessing now that his costumes were always too itchy for his Eczema, but we ended up wearing a skull sweatshirt and he enjoyed ringing people's doorbells.  Zachary also shows little signs for liking sweets, so I ended up eating most of his loot. Fail.

Kyle and I have been talking a lot about Halloween this year to get him excited.  We carved pumpkins last weekend and Zachary enjoyed putting 'flashlights' in them. (I bought flameless candles- go me)

The big change was the costumes.  We tried a few times to get him into a Halloween store, but most had the scariest costumes and decorations up front and we couldn't even get him in the store.  We tried again on Saturday and came out (very quickly) with a Lightning McQueen costume.  I still couldn't get him in it hours after we bought it, but eventually he gave in and seemed to like wearing the muscles.

Here are a few of pictures of his photo shoot.  Hope we get it back on him this weekend!

Poop.

Gross.

Kyle and I probably talk about poop 10 times a day since we're in the heat of Potty Training Zachary.

"Zachary, did you poop your pants?"
"Kyle, what did the poop look like?"
"Zachary, pooping in the potty is REALLY fun!!"
"Kyle!  Grab a bag- it s BIG one"
"Zachary, don't poop on Lightening McQueen!"
"Which one of you buys pooped your pants?"
"Were we able to save the underwear, or was it too poopy?"

When I was pregnant with Max, many people mentioned how hard it would be to have two in diapers at the same time.

Trust me.  Two in diapers is WAY easier than one in diapers and one pooping in his pants.

Here's to hoping we get a poop in the toilet rather than on Lightening McQueen underwear soon.

PS- We're Blessed

It's been awhile, we've been nothing short of busy, but we're reminded we're blessed.

September was quite wild for us.  Labor Day weekend kicked off with me coming down with the worst cold I've had in YEARS.  We're talking about no voice, no sleep, boogers, coughing, and a constant fever. It lasted about two weeks, then I was put on antibiotics and the cold left a few days later.  As a full-time working mother, there's nothing worse than having three whole days off with your family, only to spend them in bed and coughing all over them.  Happy Back to (Flu) School!

I also had another birthday in September and it happened during Colorado's Flood.  Over a week, Colorado received enough rain to flood many homes in Northern Colorado.  We received national news coverage and the damage to many homes was pretty sad.  Fortunately, all of our friends and family were ok. Unfortunately, Kristy and I weren't able to make our fancy dinner reservations with the rain and traffic, however, she bought me a drink at Shannahan's that evening.  Additionally, I got to have lunch with super-BFF Cara that day, so in the end, it all worked out and I had a great day.  Certainly felt the love.

Kyle and I have also been hard at work.  Juggling kids and careers is one of the hardest things on the planet, but we're making it work.  Our mornings are spent negotiating potty times, superhero underwear, and pants with Zachary while Max tries to walk and inevitably falls on the one toy we didn't pick up while negotiating with Zachary on the potty.  Kyle then rushes the kids to school, I scramble to get myself ready, and we all plow though our day.  At the end of the day, I rush back to school, negotiate with Zachary for the potty again, and head home to put food in them, drop them in a bath, and slap jammies on while Kyle cleans and makes lunches for the next day.  By 9pm, Kyle is snoring and we're up two times in the night for Max's teething.  Tired is an understatement.

With all of this life happening, I'm often reminded how lucky we are.  I catch moments (below) and it blows my mind.

The kids are responding well to school.  Max is growing and thriving and Zachary has NEVER looked better. Our kids are nothing short of amazing.  Zachary has us laughing so many times and has proved just how determined and strong he is.  He is interested in trying new experiences and has fought back his allergies and asthma like a champ. Mas is showing us his strong will and determination to walk, communicate, and do everything his brother does.  After a tough night of teething, we wakes up for hugs and smiles and somehow makes me forget how little sleep he gave me.

We're busy, but we're blessed.  Thanks for putting up with us for the lack of returned phone calls, energy to do anything with crowds, a drive, or simple planning, or anything after 5pm.  Kyle and I will be back soon, but for now, we're surviving and living on the simple moments that keep us going.

Zachary has been enjoying art at school.

Zachary found my "Seller's Bible" and gave a quick read on our drive home from school

Max CRAVES yogurt pretzels, just like his mom

Max's First Haircut

We had family photos taken on Labor Day, so I took the boys to get haircuts at the fancy kid place.  They got to eat suckers, watch cartoons, and sit in little cars.

I wasn't sure how Max would handle the whole thing, but he was a trooper.  He ate three suckers and laughed at his brother the whole time.

I really love my boys.