Crisp Autumn Eve 3 Column from TCBOTB

Thursday, January 15, 2009

MacKay and Oscar's 1 Year Photos

We just got the CD of the boys' 1 year photo shoot with Mandy Birdwell. For those that weren't aware (previous post) we had the boys' 1 year pictures taken in early November after a few rescheduling bouts due to their colds and weather. Unfortunately it wasn't a huge success..... Oscar cooperated and we got some nice shots of him, but poor MacKay got freaked out within about 5 minutes of arriving and couldn't be calmed down from that point on. Mandy attempted to move her backdrop (roll of heavy white paper) and it made this thunderous noise when she did that and it freaked MacKay out something fierce and he wouldn't stop screaming and crying. Even when I would calm him down, I couldn't bring him ANYWHERE near that backdrop without him throwing a huge fit again. So not a lot of pictures to choose from..... and literally only about 7 of MacKay total (tho about 3-4 of them are him crying). Luckilly Mandy had caught a few shots prior to that (one actually of him smiling)... so not all was lost. But I was so disappointed that this huge milestone (1 year) was such a failure..... maybe when the weather gets better we'll get them out and get some more professional shots of them together and some family shots. Chris wasn't able to be at this photo shoot due to it being during the work week, so no pictures of him (and I only got one picture of the boys and me together).... or maybe we'll wait til Hoglund Baby #3 arrives and have some nice pictures of MacKay and Oscar with their new sister/brother. :)
Anyway, picked through the lot of them and put out some of my favorites. Hope you enjoy.
I found the one of Oscar humorous cuz he is making the number "1" with his fingers - so not intentional, but very appropriate....

Just a few good ones...



And a few smiles and silly ones....

Had to include a couple with Susie's hats (SusieKnits.blogspot.com) - Oscar only since MacKay was in tears at this point. Note: The paper boy hat went with an outfit we got from my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Denny MacKay.


And lastly - the picture of me and the boys (black and white only).

Hopefully next time we try this we will have better luck..... see you back here again soon I hope.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Short Update... but lots of new teeth ! ! !

Not much going on with us lately other than enjoying the fact that the boys are completely over their "bugs" that they had a couple weeks ago. Infact these boys have been on fire lately... buzzing around the house at lightening speed, jabbering up a storm, busy playing with everything.... and generally just being little sponges and learning and doing new things almost daily. It's hard to keep up... but I've bought some notebooks to log some of the things they do daily. Hopefully it will be something they will enjoy perusing through when they are much older. Either way, I enjoy jotting those things down to look back on later.
Let's start with MacKay. Our little ball of energy and spunk.... MacKay has been a talking and signing fool lately. He's been signing milk for a while now, but now he has grasped "more". At first I thought he just was associating the word "more" (when I would say it) with the correct sign... but then one day when I said we were "all Done" he signed "more" without any prompt. He's also started waiving and trying to say "Hi" - it sounds more like "EE YIE" but it is so close. He'll wave and say that when I do it to him, and when you put him in front of a mirror he likes to wave at himself. He's such an aper lately... just copies and mimicks EVERYTHING we do. Just last night on the changing stand I poke him in his side and said "Tickle Tickle" and he said it right back to me..... maybe not exactly "Tickle Tickle" but it was SO close and went back and forth between "Tig-Ko Tig-Ko" or "Pik-Ko Pit-i-Ko". And the other day he heard the word "Baby" on the TV and started saying "Baby" quite clearly. He amazes me daily - they both do. I should also note that MacKay is LOUD. He is just like Daddy and has what I call "tourettes" outbursts where he will just yell for no reason but to just be loud. Like father like son - they are two peas in a pod. MacKay also sprouted another tooth - one of his bottom lateral incisors (2nd ones from the middle). And from what we can feel, his molars should be budding any day now. So far teething hasn't been much of anything for either of these two.... little troopers. And MacKay is making good use of any new teeth he gets.... that kid has got an appetite. He eats everything we throw at him..... almost too well. He gets us very nervous cuz he just CRAMS so much in his mouth. We can only put a little food at a time on his tray cuz he will just keep cramming it in there like we're going to take it away from him. Everyone I talk to says I really need to watch him cuz kids who do that are so prone to choking - GREAT - something else for me to be paranoid about now. MacKay is also blazing around the house at amazing speed, and we've noticed he is pretty bow-legged - sorta cute though. Overall he is a very happy and giggly little boy - loves to laugh and get us to laugh at him.
Oscar is still our little love bug - gives GREAT hugs and just latches on. Oscar isn't so big on the signing, but he is on the talking and making sure you know just what he wants by whining until he gets what he wants (which is usually milk). He's constantly walking around babbling, especially first thing in the morning when he wakes up and plays around in his crib talking to himself. His voice is so soft (compared to MacKay's) and sweet sounding - though he can get going on a rampage as well and give us heck. He loves saying "Bub Bye" and "Baby"... but mostly it is a lot of jibberish coming out though he is definitely trying to communicate something to us. Oscar also loves to share and bring stuff to us. If he's ever playing with something we don't want him to have it is VERY easy to get him to hand it over with a "Can I see that?". He loves to give things to MacKay as well.... don't get me wrong, we still have an all out brawl for a toy here or there though. Lately Oscar has been very interested and obsessed with his belly. He is constantly lifting up his shirt and poking at his belly button, tugging on his diaper that is sticking out of his pants..... or just rubbing his belly like he has 6 pack abs or something. :) And he's constantly lifting his shirt up and showing others his belly as well. Something less desirable that he's started doing is spitting.... he loves to brew up saliva and then spit it out of his mouth. We keep trying to get him to stop but I think that just eggs him on more. Sucks cuz we just stopped using bibs in the last month or so cuz they weren't drooling as much anymore. His shirt is constantly soaked. As far as teeth, Oscar has gotten all of his first molars (4) in now. He too showed no signs of teething and is a little trooper... and it looks like he has a couple of bottom front teeth that aren't far behind. Oscar isn't taking advantage of his teeth quite like MacKay is. He is much more picky with what he will eat.... won't eat grilled chicken (yet likes chicken nuggets), won't eat eggs, jello, apples (will chew them up til all taste is gone them spit out the remains) etc. We keep trying with him though.
Some overall MacKay and Oscar news that is somewhat entertaining..... periodically we put the TV on the music stations, and lately on the "Dance" station and then just sit back and watch the boys "dance" and bop around. Oscar still likes to sway back and forth and MacKay is more prone to bouncing/bopping.... but recently I showed MacKay how to spin, and from the time he learned that he wouldn't stop and just kept spinning and spinning and runnign around in circles. Oscar learned that one a while back as well - so fun to see that they like music. On a more disgusting note, ..... it seems they both like Dog Food. unnnghh. Last week Oscar got into Angus's food dish while I was getting their breakfast ready (for some reason Angus hadn't eaten yet). I had obviously forgotten to blockade it off before I set them free for the day... about a minute later I heard this crunching sound to look back and see Oscar with a foamy brown residue all over his mouth. It was a stuggle but I eventually pried what was left of the kibble out of his mouth..... ICK. Then a couple days later, again Angus hadn't eaten his food in the morning.... BUT I DID blockade it off. I was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast when I finally heard Angus eating his food... looked over to say "Good Dog Angus" and that is when I noticed BOTH boys were in his kennel reaching through the slats at his food dish... and this time there was MacKay with that foamy brown residue all over his mouth. to my amazement though, MacKay had THREE kibbles in his mouth. THREE. I don't know where he had the room for those, but he crammed them in there. And he was NONE too happy with me for stealing away his new found treat. Oscar was also eating the dog food again, but he only had the one kibble again. Needless to say, Angus's food dish has been moved to a location where it is both a) baracaded off from where the boys can get to it and b) not reachable through the slats of his kennel. unnnghhh. GROSS!
The boys also love playing together too. I constantly find them playing peek-a-boo games with each other (behind various pieces of furniture), tug of war (usually with a blanket), and chasing each other around. They love when Chris or I chase them around saying "I'm gonna get you" and will run around at top speed squealing and giggling the entire time. Overall they are really good at self entertainment and entertaining each other.... something I hope doesn't change for a while cuz I am hoping they can keep doing this when Baby#3 comes so I can take care of the little one and let them do their thing. Probably won't work THAT smoothly, but I'm definitely thinking that twins first was the way to go - at least for that reason.
All around news...we had a realtor stop by late last week to assess the house to give us a fair market value estimate. Once we figure out what we can get for this place we'll start looking through what is out there to buy. Building is still an option depending on timing..... but first things first, let's get this house sold. Will be sad to leave this place with all we have done to it. We finally got it to the point where we like it and wanted to stay here another 3-5 years to get our money's worth out of it.... but we need more room and more specifically more ROOMS. So if any of you know someone wanting to move up to the Brainerd Lakes area and wants a quaint little 3 bedroom house that has had MAJOR renovations with the bonus of lakeshore access to the Gull Lake Chain of Lakes.... send them our way. :)
I'm sure there is a lot more for me to share but nothing else is jumping out at me, so I'll end it here and start in with the pictures..... Enjoy
Caught Oscar in the act of admiring his belly and playing with his diaper here. Look at that round little belly of his.... so adorable

Two recent pictures of the boys. The first was taken by Chris. MacKay was still recovering from his bout with the "bug" and was tired. Apparently he just laid down on the ground and relaxed for a while, that is until Oscar came over and laid down and cuddled up to him. Sweet picture though. The second is of the boys with their new toy box. They LOVE this thing and won't stop playing with it long enough for us to fill it up. Hopefuly once we get all their toys into them (we got two) our house won't look like a Daycare hit by a tornado anymore.

Per request from my brother, I donned the boys in their "rocker" Tshirts that their Uncle Dennis got them for Xmas this year. They are size 2T but fit them pretty well actually. They will get some good wear out of these....


Lastly a couple of pictures of the boys with one of their favorite new toys - actually anything that makes noise is a good toy for them. They love their Laugh and Learn Piano that they got from Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean. They are constantly bouncing nad bopping along to the songs that are played on that.

Sorry, not many pictures this time.... will have more later as I should be getting the boys' 1 year pictures soon and will post some of the better ones (which won't be many considering there are only 6 pictures of MacKay total). :( So check back soon. Take care

Friday, January 2, 2009

2008 in Review

I saw another blogger do this so I thought I would give it a try. Sort of nice now that we are starting out 2009 to look back to 2008 and see how much has changed, especially with the boys. They just grew up WAY too fast and I am so thankful for all the wonderful pictures we captured to look back on (tho I think my husband and many others think there are way too many - I go a little overboard) :) Anyway - I hope you enjoy as I loved looking through all the pictures and had the darndest time picking which ones made the cut....

JANUARY
First smiles and Tye-Dyed shirts from my good friend Susie Commers.



FEBRUARY
Classic boppy shots and cute wooly coats from my friends Link and Chelte



MARCH
Naked MacKay and Oscar on boppy pillows, and a couple of my favorite pictures of the two of them, back when their faces were still so chubby




APRIL
First solid food feeding, and one of the cutest outfits they ever wore - love the hats.



MAY
A couple goofy smiley faces (the Adidas outfits from my good friend Nikki), and some classic pictures of them sitting together....something I haven't been able to do for a long time now




JUNE
Fun outside, and cuddling up on a chair together




JULY
Lounging in a hammock, and sour faces from their first pickle. Lastly, the classic July 4th picture



AUGUST
Fun in their tree swing, and MacKay and Oscar's favorite buddy (besides each other), Angus



SEPTEMBER
Classic wrestling pictures, and the boys playing at Grandpa Gary's house in their outfits from Grandma Chris



OCTOBER
Their birthday month - Oct 30th. Getting better at walking (Oscar on his own, and MacKay with his push toy). 1st birthday cupcake chaos pictures. And lastly, two pictures of love of the boys cuz they so accurately dipict their personalities.




NOVEMBER
Autumn fun in the leaves, my best attempt at "professional looking photos" after the boys' 1 year session bombed, and the boys sitting in Santa's gigantic chair (sans Santa cuz that is just our luck) :)



DECEMBER
MacKay walking & Oscar in his first real "tub" bath. Our first encounter with (a 16 year old) Santa... and the boys' first romp in the snow.



THE END (finally.... I know) :)