This is in essence, my journal, so I thought it would be interesting to know in the future what my days were like with two little boys. This is what a day is like:

6:30 or 7 am - Liam wakes up first and calls/yelps from his bed until Daniel gets up for work and gets him. Daniel usually feeds him a graham cracker and gets him a sippy cup of juice or milk and gates him in his room to play. Noah usually wakes up around the same time as Liam, sometimes a little later. Daniel takes care of Noah too in the mornings. He has him go potty and change into "awake underwear" (tighty whities) and gets him his Gummi Vites, 2 vitamin C's and a sippy cup of milk and sets Noah up in front of PBS for cartoons, then Daniel takes a shower.

8 am - Daniel leaves for work, kisses me goodbye and I beg him to call in sick ... yes, I do this pretty much every morning. Liam is gated in his room and Noah is watching cartoons. I pass back out as I hear Daniel close the front door and lock it.

somewhere between 8:45 and 9:30 am - I roll out of bed. I am NOT a morning person. If I weren't LDS, I'm pretty sure I'd be one of those people that was addicted to their morning coffee to help them wake up. I don't have coffee, so I just sulk around for an hour while I take care of the boys, because by now, they are HUNGRY.

9:30 am - I feed the boys. Liam has almost the same thing every morning: fruit and toast, that might sound like a light meal, but for Liam, nothing is a light meal. He sometimes eats several pieces of fruit and pieces of toast with some water. Noah loves oatmeal, blech. I am NOT an oatmeal person either, but I make it for Noah. Noah is pretty reasonable and eats cereal, oatmeal, toast and fruit or if I'm in a good mood, pancakes. I love pancakes.

10 am - Liam goes down for his morning nap and I try and shower, get dressed and check email if I can get Noah interested in playing downstairs or something. Cartoons are turned off, so Noah usually needs stimulation and if he doesn't seem contented to play by himself, we go outside. I like to water the plants in the morning. My mom used to do this because in California it is cooler in the mornings and evenings so it's the best time to do outside work during the summer. But here in Michigan, it seems to be almost the same temperature at 10 am as it is at 1 pm ... nevertheless, I like to water, or mow the lawn or "check out my plants" as Noah says. He'll say, "Mommy, I know! Let's go check out your plants and pick out all the BAD plants!" Bad plants are weeds.

12 pm - If I am not dressed and out of the shower by this point in the day, I have to give up and realize it's never gonna happen. This is when we run errands. We pretty much have to run errands everyday, for me and for Noah. Liam is very content with just sticking close to home, eating more food, taking naps and walking around getting into stuff. But Noah and I have to get out! Today we went and checked out downtown Milford and went to a park there.

1 pm - Lunchtime

2 or 3 pm - afternoon naptime for Liam. Noah is a big boy now and doesn't feel the need to take naps anymore, but about twice a week, he still needs one. Today Noah fell asleep on the way home in the car, so we came inside and I set him up for a nap on the couch with his red blanket (his fav) and his whale (his favorite stuffed animal that he uses as a pillow), as I tucked him in he said, "Thank You" and was out like a light .... so precious. Noah doesn't have lots of little precious moments, so when it happens, it's a big deal. I smiled to myself and almost got teary.

During Naptime I sew, do projects or usually do stuff on the computer: blog entries, look up things I'm interested in, check my sisters' blogs, update my site, download pictures, ya know, whatever. It's nice and I try and leave the windows open so that it is truly relaxing time for me. I only get time when both boys are asleep about once or twice a week, so this is important "Me Time".

4:30 or 5 pm - everyone is awake and dinner preparations are in full swing .. if Daniel is coming home. Daniel has school twice a week, so he doesn't come home until 9:30 pm on those nights. When Daniel has school, I usually have dinner a little later, or I have dinner out and about while fitting in another trip. Tonight Daniel doesn't come home :( so I think I'll make a trip to Randazzos and get fruit and veggies in the house (it's the beginning of the month) and maybe do IKEA, depending on when the boys wake up.

9:30 pm - Daniel comes home and I REJOICE!!!! I need time with him just looking at me and TALKING to me and kissing me everytime I see him at the end of the day. We usually don't make it to bed until around 10:30 or 11 pm, and that's what my days are like right now.

Ready for church ... looking very daper indeed in the suit Aunt Steena sent us - thanks!



Ready to play ... Liam has found a new fun place to play - under the side table, behind the baskets. It's his new hiding place.

My favorite has to be the bottom left ...

Hi folks, Daniel here. I know, you're not used to hearing from me, but I just wanted to follow up on the rainy post from yesterday. As someone who naturally focuses on the bright side during a challenging time, I thought it was noteworthy to see the weather forecast today... just one day later.





Amazing right? Westland is warmer, sunnier, AND less humid (at least right at this moment). And that, my blogoshpere friends, is the rest of the story.

I cannot say enough bad things about the weather here in Michigan. I know I shouldn't blog before I've eaten breakfast, but this is rediculous and it needs to be said. There has not been ONE SOLID WEEK without rain. I feel like I am living in a perpetual winter. Granted, I think Michigan has come close to a week of sun, maybe 4 or 5 days in a row of sun, but a full week? Totally unrealistic around here.

I had this vision in my mind this past winter. When it was snowing for 8 months, I sat around my house, tried not to kill myself and closed my eyes to imagine ... summertime.

I pictured: lemonade, beach trips, camping trips, fresh fruit, BBQ-ing Jeff's amazing ribs, shorts and sundresses, fun, cool flip flops, new Jessica Simpson yellow pumps ... OK, I'm getting off course here, but one of my favorite imaginings was waking up and seeing sun pouring through my blinds and across the floor and walls in my bedroom. The sun illuminating the walls so they glowed with warmth and happiness. I would wipe my eyes, reach over and open the blinds to find blinding light and blue skies and maybe a few puffy white clouds dot the heavens. "It will be glorious", I thought, "even Michigan has summer ... I can't wait!"

So ... now it's here and UGH. I woke up this morning to heavy skies filled with hot, grey clouds. I got up and didn't even bother to open my blinds, instead I had to turn on my lamp to see through the darkness. I stumbled around the house, changing poopy diapers and making breakfast and began feeling sticky. That humid, horrible stickiness that engulfs the midwest and east coast each hideous summer.

As soon as I could get to my computer, I checked the weather to see if perhaps, just maybe it would clear up today and I could get outside with the boys and go to a park somewhere without being worried about mud puddles and water at the base of the slides .... no such luck. Here's the forecast:


I guess I can at least look forward to the weekend. I should've stopped here, right? Tried to think positively about the weekend and pushed on through the hot, muggy, cloudy, rainy day, right?? But no .... I HAD to check the weather in Concord, California ... and well ...


aaaaaaahhhh. There is a REASON people pay 3 and 4 times as much to live in California .... because it's WORTH IT!!!!!

OK, enough bashing Michigan. I got it out of my system and now I will start my thinking positive mantra and eat. Maybe part of this entry was under the influence of low blood sugar, but as I peer out my office window and everything looks grey and still and wet I can't help but think this is just NOT summer .... oh well.

We've been looking forward to camping in northern Michigan all summer!! And it was gorgeous! I'll let the pictures tell the stories and maybe tomorrow I can write out some of the highlights ...


On the walk to the beach from our campsite.


Almost there, just through those trees ...


There you have it - Lake Michigan!


Playing in the lake. This was the first day we got there, Thursday night around 5 pm. The water was actually pleasantly warm and crystal clear ... the rest of the trip the lake was so cold I got an instant headache just standing up to my ankles in it, but for one sweet evening, it was great!


Liam was an animal in the water! He would crawl straight into the lake and lapping waves until he was up to his elbows and gulping moutfuls of lake Michigan, he's so crazy and rugged :)


Noah was ..... well, Noah.






Cute picture, huh? K, now imagine with me, if you will, trying to clean all the sand that is lodged in every crevice of their bodies ... wait for it ... without showers or running water.




We've got a runaway


Dinnertime!


This was, hands down, Noah's favorite part of camping - roasting marshmallows and making fires with Daddy, ofcourse.


The view looking up from our campsite


MY favorite part of camping - Reeses peanut butter cup smores....mmmmmmmmm


So hot


You wanted a close up didn't you? me too.


dirty hands


Day Two - we went on the scenic drive. Behind us is Glen Lake.


Me and Liam at the dunes


Do I look tired? That's because I slept a total of 6 hours over the span of 3 days ... yeah.


This is one of my favs because of Noah's face in it, precious.








This one's for Liz ... sideview of Liam's cheeks!


This was on the scenic drive too - it is Lake Michigan.






Good times!

Noah's Prayer tonight before dinner:

"Dear Heavenly Father, please bless the food and grateful for it.

And grateful for that everyone can come over if they are nice and good.

Grateful for the leaves that are brightly green.

Grateful for giraffes that are on the earth.

And grateful for that you can ride on giraffes, but I just never did ride on giraffes, but I want to ride on giraffes.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen".