Daddy.....Is That Your Airplane?

My parent's best friends came to see us this past Sunday and they flew into Jones Airport in their plane.  Aiden is always asking questions about airplanes when Scott has to fly somewhere for business and I thought it would be so neat to let him look at one up close.  So off to the airport we went.  As we were walking through a hanger full of airplanes and helicopters, I hear Aiden ask Scott "daddy, is that your airplane?"  Scott said, "no buddy, that's not daddy's." Then he points to another plane, "daddy, is THAT your airplane?"  and on and on it went through about 12 different airplanes.  Poor daddy doesn't have an airplane. 

The kids had a great time looking at their plane and when they were done, the nice Air National Guard troops who were about to take off in their helicopter even let Aiden walk through and look at it.  He had quite a day!

much love,

Gina

The Couple Who Prays Together, Stays Together

Well, it has happened.  And way sooner than I had imagined it would.  My sweet little boy is in love.....puppy love, of course, but it's love as far as he knows.  I have heard him talk about Avery since the first day of school this year and I started noticing that they were together a lot while they were there.  So, her mom and I decided to arrange a few play dates and let me tell you, they are quite the pair!

We had them over for dinner the other night, and I let Aiden and Avery sit at their own table together.  It was by the window and the adults were wondering if we should light a few candles and turn on some music.  Ha!  Then I hear my son say "Avery, take my hand and let's say prayers."  I look over and see this:

As a Christian and as a mother, I can't tell you how proud this moment made me.  I love that he loves God and his church and that he thinks to say prayers on his own.  This was his prayer: "Dear God, thank you so much for mommy and daddy and Avery.  Thank you for this food and all of our blessings.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen."  What a boy!

I had a thought this morning about how sad he will probably be next year when he goes to Pre-K (PRE-K!?!?!?!)  and doesn't have all his sweet friends from this year in his class.  But if there is one thing I know about this kid, he is extremely outgoing and I'm sure he will be just fine. 

I am so behind on blogging, I have a list of things I want to write about.  Now that school is back in, I may be writing two posts a day just to get caught up!  But for now, I'm off to drink coffee and plan a jungle themed 1st Birthday party for sweet Miller.

much love,

Gina

Who Has Time For This?

I have to say, I am in love with the idea of having a blog.  But if I am being totally honest, since baby #2 has arrived, I spend most of my days running from one thing to the next and when I do have a brief amount of time to myself, I just want to collapse in my chair, rest, and enjoy the all too brief silence.  Maybe it's because I am a terrible night owl and Miller isn't as fond of sleeping until 8:30-9:00a.m. like Aiden was or maybe it's because I'm still drinking decaf coffee.  Why am I doing that again?!?!  Oh yea.......I'm still nursing:)  I do drink a pop on most afternoons and I'm afraid terrified that if I have coffee and pop that it will keep my sweet baby awake.  So, most days I am dog tired by 2:00 and am counting the minutes until bedtime. 

I have to confess that most days I feel like I am in a race to bed time with 35 things to do before it gets here and I'm only able to give 1/2 of my effort to most of my tasks.  What is it about having baby #2 that has thrown my life into such craziness?  Miller is just as sweet as can be and he really is no trouble at all.  Most of the time (like right now as I am typing), he is perfectly content to play by himself and not make much of a mess.  This in itself has thrown me for a loop since I could never leave Aiden alone for more than 3 seconds before he had crawled over to the nearest object and made a complete mess, tried to swim in the toilet or put something in his mouth that shouldn't be there.  Aiden has always been very curious and I know that is a trait that will serve him well in his life, but boy is it exhausting while he is young!  A few days ago, I left Miller playing in the hall with a bucket of toys.  I had something to do on the computer, so I let him play while I was working.  Every 2-3 minutes, I would run back to the hall to check on him, only to find him happily sitting in the same spot each time, still playing with the toys.  This happens all the time!  It is amazing to me to see the personality differences in my boys already at such a young age. 

So, I guess the moral to my story is that I have so much to say, but when I think of something to blog about, it's usually a time when I can't stop and type it out.  I am going to try to be better.  Only one more month until my baby boy turns one and we will be done with nursing.  So maybe when I have more caffeine in my system, I will have more energy to blog!

I'll finish up with a few things:  today, Miller said mama to me several times as plain as day.  He also said "night night" when I asked him if he wanted to go night night.  He is talking so much!  He also says "dada," "wawa (water)," "bye-bye," "uh oh" and "no no".  That last one is HUGE for me since Aiden still has trouble understanding what no means:)  Love those sweet boys!  Finally, we took Aiden to the Shriner's Circus again this year.  It has become our February family tradition.  Last year, he wanted to ride an elephants SO bad, but by the time we got in line it was way too long.  So, we promised him that he could ride the elephant this year.  We ran to get in line so fast that I dumped our popcorn all over the floor, but we were close to the front of the line!  I got to ride with him and let's just say it was an experience I'll never forget!

Watching the circus with his new light sabre:

Tonight, we are going to our first sports meeting.  Aiden will be playing soccer in the spring and daddy will be coaching.  We are all so excited.  I'm sure there will be many hilarious blog posts and pictures to come out of it.  Can't wait!

much love,

Gina

My Valentine Cuties

Having three boys in my house makes Valentine's Day a little extra special for me.  Our holiday started with a pre-Valentine's Day trip to the grocery store.  As you can see, Aiden never misses a chance to be Mr. Cool like his daddy:)

What made this ordinary trip to the grocery store special for me was what happened while I was picking out produce.  We hadn't mentioned anything about Valentine's Day to Aiden before making the trip because it was still a few days away.  While I'm trying to pick out some bananas, I overhear Aiden say "daddy, let's go over there so I can give mommy some of those flowers."  As my heart is melting, I decide to pretend I don't hear what's going on and just see what happens.  Scott takes him over to the flowers, he picks out the ones he likes, walks them over to me, hands me the flowers and says, "Happy Valentine's Day Mama, I love you."  Oh my precious.  I have gotten quite a few flowers in my time, but these are by far the most special.

Later, we did our usual Valentine's Day tradition of baking daddy some sugar cookies and then decorating them ourselves. 

And finally, February 14th.  This mama felt so loved this year with three sweet boys to be my Valentines.  Life doesn't get much better:)

Finally, we have some brotherly cuddle time.  Sweet baby Miller.  How I love you and all your affection.  It melts my heart that both of my boys are so loving and affectionate, but to see them be that way with each other is nothing short of a gift from God.  How can one mother be so blessed?  I don't know, but I'm taking it!

much love,

Gina

Forts, Toilet Paper and Smores

It's funny how many "wise" things you say before you have children.  Like, "I will NEVER use the TV as a babysitter" or "I can't believe she is just letting that kid throw a fit in the middle of the store; I'd put a stop to that immediately".  Oh, how you eat your words.  We have just spent the last two weeks snowed in at home and daddy has been off of work for most of it with us because his Ford Taurus work car wasn't exactly equipped to handle the ruts we had in the roads.  I have let my child watch more TV than he probably should have and there have been quite a few tantrums, both the kids and the parents:)  How do you pass the time when you're trapped snowed in a house with two young boys and a husband who feels like he is in prison if he can't get outside each day?  Well, it's not easy.  We almost pulled our hair out on quite a few occasions, but we made it through and we are officially back to normal.  Thank the good Lord!  Here are a few pictures of what we did to keep those boys happy:

  Miller helped Daddy work from home:

We built them a huge fort in the living room:

This would be another example of me eating my words.  "I would NEVER let me baby out of my sight...especially after they are mobile!"  Yea......so I turned my back and when i looked back, my speedy crawler was nowhere to be found.  I finally found him like this:

We also spent a little time watching the ice cycles growing on our back porch:

We built a snowman:

I got out one day and bought them matching pyjamas at Carters.  Yes, I know I swore I would never dress them alike, but look how cute they look!  Can you blame me?!?!

Miller has discovered that he LOVES to feed himself.  He had just finished some carrots and wanted to show mama all his teeth!

Finally, we baked smores in the fireplace.  Aiden thought this was the coolest treat he has ever had!

Delicious!



We also lost Scott's grandma, Leona Rainer, last Saturday but I will post more about that next time.  She was quite a lady and we will miss her greatly.  There were times that I thought it was never going to end, but we made the most of it and tried to have as much fun as we could.  I have to say, I am extremely giddy about the temperatures for this week!  This snow can't get out of here fast enough, but it was fun while it lasted.

much love,

Gina

Snowmageddon

The best way I know how to describe what being trapped in the house does to my husband is to say that it makes him act like a caged animal.  I really thought he was going to break the doors down or something if I didn't let him get out and go to Target yesterday.  So, against my better judgement we went up the street and I stayed in the car with the kids while he went inside and looked around.  It turned out to be a good deal because he found Aiden a thermal underwear set for $4.  I love a good bargain!

I'm not really sure how much snow we actually got, but we have a drift in our back yard that is up to our hips! 

Cabin fever had set in for us all and Aiden was EXTREMELY excited to go outside and play in the snow........

.....until he stepped out in it and started sinking.  He said "Daddy!  Hurry!  I need some help!"

We tried letting him sled down the drift, but it wasn't wet enough to slide on and he didn't get too far.  Maybe in a few days when it starts melting some.

Even Scott had a hard time walking in it!

So he decided to show Aiden how to run and dive into the snow.

I was just there to observe:)

They tried to have a snowball fight, but Aiden was having such a hard time walking in the snow that every time he would get a snowball made, he would fall down and drop it.  Ha!

So, daddy decided to jump back in the snow with him.  Fun times!

Even though we all have a bit of cabin fever, we have really been enjoying having all this family time together.  Scott has been building us a fire every morning and Aiden and I love to lay by it and rest while Miller is napping.  It has been really fun but I will be over the top excited ready for school to start back up! 

much love,

Gina

Miller Evan Ousley at 9 Months

My sweet baby boy,

You put a smile in my heart and bring me joy in so may ways.  I never knew love could be so deep until I had you and your brother.  I always thought raising children would be about me teaching them how to live, and it is, but you and Aiden have taught me so much too.  About life, love, patience, joy, happiness, and who I want to be in this world.  Just walking into your room brings a smile to my face because the whole room smells like you.  One day, that baby smell you have will be gone, so I am trying to breathe it in as much as I can.  Daddy and I have started calling you Bulldog because you look like one when you are crawling around the house, grunting with every move and your chubby little cheeks wiggling.  It is so precious!  I don't know what I ever did without you.  You have brought so much joy to our home and I thank God for each day he gives me to be your mother.  No matter where you are, or what you do, I will always love you.

Mommy

My amazingly talented sister-in-law, Carissa took Miller's pictures again and she did a fabulous job as always!  She had an especially tough job this time because Miller was cutting FIVE teeth at one time and he was VERY fussy.  I have two of the happiest kids on Earth, but if it's picture day, you can bet they're going to be crabby.  I hate Murphy's Law:(  Even so, she get some amazing pictures.  Here are just a few of them:

Here are some facts about you at 9 Months:

*You are 30 3/4" tall.

*You are 22 pounds 3 ounces

*You say dada and wawa (water) and have said mama once:)

*You have EIGHT teeth!

*You know sign language for "more".

*You are crawling like crazy.

*You pull up on everything and I think you may have even

taken a few steps along the side of the bath tub

when I wasn't looking the other day.

*Your eyes are blue on the outside with hazel/gold next to

your pupil.  They are beautiful! 

*Your hair is medium to dark brown.

*You are so in love with your brother.  You think anything

he does is so funny and try to make sounds like he does.

*You really want to eat big people food!  You were begging for

ground beef when I was cooking it the other day.

*You don't really seem too attached to your pacifier.  You only take it

 during the day if your are fussy, but I put you to sleep with it

and you always take it out and throw it out of your crib.

I'll have to post about "Snowmageddon" tomorrow.  We plan on getting Aiden out to play in it as much as we can.  We are all itching to get out of this house!

much love,

Gina