Your 5!

Dear Boston,

You are finally five! You have been talking about turning five since the day after you turned four! I really can't believe you are five years old. Daddy and I were talking to you the other day telling you all about the day you were born and I told you how you will always be so special to me because you are the person that made me a Mommy first. You loved that bit of information and I could tell you felt so proud. 

 Daddy and I are so proud of you. You are such a great boy! You love to color these days and can spend hours doing it. It is so fun to see the little people you draw, but my favorite is when you draw designs that cover every square inch of the page. You have also loved to do color by number pictures and they are all over our house. 

 You are such a collector. Everywhere we go you are starting some sort of collection which leaves our house full of trinkets. Whether it be bottle cap lids, golf balls, marbles, rocks, or sticks there is always something with you. Every time we leave the house you have to bring something with us. It makes me crazy because you don't even play with it in the car or wherever we go. You just drop it on the floor of the car, but you HAVE to bring something. 

 You still have the BEST laugh ever! I will do anything to hear it. You love to make people laugh and your favorite way to do it is by telling knock knock jokes. They usually go something like this.... "knock knock", "who's there?", "juice", "juice who?",  "juice will you drink me". I usually laugh at how not funny and random they are, but I love them! Speaking of laughing you have been throwing out the craziest fake laugh. I wish I could say it's cute, but if I'm being honest it can be pretty annoying. Whenever you start doing it I try to do something to get the real one out, because it is SO much better!

 You are still my little snacker. You used to just want to snack all the time and never eat, now you eat pretty darn good, but still always want a snack. You would pick a bowl of fruit for your snack any day over most things unless it were candy. You definitely have my sweet tooth. A random food that you LOVE is Feta cheese. You pair it with almost anything and love it. Sometimes you ask for just a bowl of Feta for a snack. You are most definitely a lunch time eater and sometimes I am shocked at how much you want to eat. 

 You are still my tall skinny boy. You are an exact mold of your Daddy. You were getting frustrated with your underwear, because they would twist so much around your skinny legs. I bought you a pair of boxer briefs to see if you liked them better on your legs. I wanted to cry because it made you look so much older, but boy were you in heaven! I don't think you have ever felt so cool. Boxer briefs became a very common conversation when you were around and I caught you asking some of the older boys at church if they wore boxer briefs and you were very happy to report that they did!

 I can't not mention your negotiating skills. They are incredible and work so well! I am sure some day they will work in your favor...wait what am I saying they work really well in your favor right now! I guess what I was thinking is that someday you will use them for something that will benefit you well in a work environment. I'm not kidding though you can talk your way in or out of almost anything. There are so many times I will walk away thinking "how did he just get me to commit to that!"

 You are such a great friend. You have really come out of your shell this past year and it has been so fun to watch. You aren't afraid to make new friends at the park or school and I think we have preschool to thank for that. You still get a little nervous when there are a lot of kids especially if you don't know very many, but for the most part you are a pretty social little guy! You love to play with your friends and ask to do it every day. 

 Speaking of preschool you absolutely LOVE it! You are learning so much and are a pretty smart little boy! I swear you could be reading a lot more than you are if you would let Daddy and I help you, but the second we try to "teach" you anything your brain runs away. I think once you actually start reading books and see that you can do it you will really take off and love it! You always talk about how you can't wait to read to Carter. At school you of course love recess time and always talk about what you did and who you played with. It is so fun to hear you be so excited about school. I hope you always enjoy it and love to learn. 

 If you could I think you would permanently live outside. There is no where else you would rather be. You are constantly asking to go to the park, go on scooter rides,  take a walk to the jungle, cruise around the neighborhood, or go on a collection hunt. It makes me so happy that you love it so much and I can't wait until the weather clears up so we can spend more time out there. Winter is not a good time for you. Your asthma is always out of control and going outside only makes it worse. You do a pretty good job doing your breathing treatments so thankfully it isn't to hard to manage. 

You are by far the BEST brother to Carter! You have so much patience with him and these days he takes a lot. He always trying to break, sit on, or mess whatever you are doing. You are so proud of him and whenever you are around friends you LOVE to show him off. It makes mommy so happy. It also makes your friends and other little kids less nervous or curious about his trach and feeding tube. You always tell them how cool it is and it switches their thoughts of thinking its weird or scary to thinking it's pretty darn cool. You love it when he does the same things as you and you are by far his biggest cheerleader. Whenever he does something new you make sure to let the world know it and celebrate big time. 

I love you so much Boston! You make me crazy and calm all at the same time. You keep things funny around our house and bring such a special spirit into our home. You have become my best little buddy and I can't think about my world without you. "I love you to China ortess and back" like you always say. I am not sure where or what ortess is, but you say it all the time like it's really far away and that you really love me a lot so I will take it. Thanks for being you, because I sure do love you!

Love, Mommy

No Training Wheels

About six months ago we tried the whole no traing wheels thing and it left . with a little boy who ran into our neighbors car and wouldn't look anywhere, but down. So we put the wheels back on and have talked a lot about how we needed to take them off, but just never did it. 

 The other night he randomly said he wanted them off. I told him to ask Grandma D because I had to run real quick to get something. I drove back up to the house not even ten minutes later and he was riding like a pro. My Mom said he just took off! I was So shocked and couldnt stop screaming it was so fun!

Ever since we have been spending lots of time outside on lots of bike rides. He was SO ready! He never falls and takes turns like a champ and has the breaks down. He said his scooter is what made him learn to balance. The weatehr has been beautiful the last two days and has me more than ready for spring. We need to get out of our house!!!

Specail Day

Boston got to have his special Birthday day at school. His not so great at remembering Mom remembered the night before. I lucked out though because he just wanted donuts for his treat and he didn't mind my super lame-funningout of ink poster. It did look much better after he took he crayons and sticker to it. 

 Yummy donuts and his awesome Birthday crown that he made. 

 He loved telling his class all about his favorite things poster. 

He was so excited that Daddy, Mommy, and Carter got to be there. But I think he was more excited to show off his new hat for show and tell. 

Birthday Date with Uncle Ky

Boston was lucky enough to have a Birthday date with Uncle Kyle. 

 We were under strict instructions to let them be by themselves and that we couldn't meet up for lunch until they called. Uncle Kyle way out did himself as usual. Boston wanted them to have matching hats and then they hit up the Lego store. He feels pretty darn cool in his new hat and has been wearing it ever since. 

 As you can see Boston wasn't much help on putting together his new Lego set. He sure has enjoyed to finished product though. 

Carter was feeling left out so Uncle Ky let him borrow his older hat. 

Date Night

 I love me a good date night. Although we dream about and talk about all the time how nice it would be to take a week off together and vacation for now a night out every once in a while will do. I sure do love this boy he is so good to me. 

Butter Anyone?

you just never know what this kid is actually going to want to eat. 

Our working Boy

The other day we went to meet Trav at work for lunch. The boys always love to see Dad during the days. While we were there Boston was being his normal cute chatty self with some of the nurses and they kept saying you should stay and finish the day with your Dad. Boston of course LOVED that idea and Trav said why not.

As you can tell Boston was beyond excited to stay with Dad. I was pretty excited myself! I had big plans to put Carter down for a nap and enjoy the afternoon to myself. After Carter's ten minute nap in the car there was no chance he was going back to sleep so we enjoyed the afternoon together. 

 Boston was in office supply heaven! He takes after his Mom and gets so excited for all the cool pens and papers. 

They both had such a great time. Trav was actually able to get some stuff done and said he has such a great time with Bobo there. I think this is going to need to happen again. They both talked about it for days. 

I'm afraid

Something switched in Carter. He went from this mellow, super low key, patient boy to a little terror. I swear it happened over night. He has been coloring on everything, breaking things in stores and at home, and will not leave his brother alone! He is always scratching him or pulling is ears. I feel bad for Boston. It's a good thing he is so patient. Speaking of patience I think there is zero left in Carter. He goes from happy to screaming in one second. I think he is mostly frustrated that he can't communicate what he wants which makes me sad. I was not prepared for this stage I really thought he would skip it. The hard part of it all is that we actually are enjoying the sneaky trouble stuff. It is so normal and if you saw how proud he was you would like it too. I know I probably wont be saying the same thing in a couple weeks, but for now its fun. 

 This picture doesn't even do justice. There was marker all over the wall. 

 The other day he found his nose holes and couldn't stop sticking his finger up there. Boston and I were dying!

All he has to do is flash this face after he does something naughty and he's off the hook. Lucky boy has a softy for a Mom. 

And this has nothing to do with this post, but I had to post it. Is this not so nasty?!?! Boston thinks it is the funniest thing ever! 

Top Golf

Boston LOVES doing anything with Trav, but if you add his cousins to the mix it's pure Heaven. They had been trying to get together to take the older boys to top golf and when it finally happened Boston was SO excited!

 Cute boys having such a great time with each other and their Dad's.

Boston spent so much time drawing these "top golf pictures" for days before they were actually able to go. I love the golfer in the corner with the ball moving all the way to the center target. 

new years day half marathon

 since this is as crazy as our new years eve got wedont have much to document. i can't remember if trav and i even made it till midnight. if we did i'm sure we gave each other a kiss and probably passed out two minutes later.

 on new years day i ran a half marathon with my friend shayla. i said after the last one that i would never do it again. the thing with these races is that they are fun, but the training is not. this time around i didn't do much training besides the long runs on saturdays. shayla and i would meet at the park early in the morning and freeze our butts off while we ran. i am so glad we started running together otherwise i would have never got my runs in. besides it is good for me to run with people its easier on my head games. 

 it was SO cold the morning of the run. i thought my hands were going to fall of the first couple miles not to mention my legs. 

 i think the race over all was harder this time on my body because it was so cold my body could never really get warmed up. towards the end it almost was worse when we would take a walking break because then we would feel how bad our legs were. 

 trav and boston were good sports and came out to watch us finish. boston always loves to run across the finish lines with me. when we got in the car to go home he told me he was "so so proud" of me. probably the cutest thing ever. i finished in 2hours 20 minutes i think. all i wanted was to beat my last time and i did it by 9 minutes. i was so much more sore this time around. the next day i walked like a 90 year old women. 

people keep telling me that i caught the "running bug" and i am here to tell you that i most definitely Haven. i do not enjoy running, but with what we have going on it is something that i can do. i miss going to my classes at the gym. i seriously dream about the day that i can take carter to the gym with me. the races are fun and always feel good to finish. 

here's to 2013. my only health goal this year is to make healthier choices. i don't do good when i set crazy rules like no ice cream ;)

Goodbye 2012

2012 was a good year, but definitely one we are ready to move on from. At times I feel like we lived at the hospital or therapy, but then at times I feel like we lived at the pool so it had to be pretty good. We had family pics taken back in October and as usual Nikki did amazing and I LOVE them! The boys were not good sports especially little man. I was sweating up a storm by the time we finished. I sure do love this family of mine and I am so blessed to be able to call them mine. Life is great with them a part of it. 

Here are some highlights of the year for us....

 Trav getting a new job in the industry that he is passionate about.

 Our two week summer vacation to Santa Rosa and Seattle. Definitely a favorite for us all. 

 Completing my first half marathon. 

 Carter checked off 11 surgeries! Way too many and hopefully he wont ever have to repeat a year like last year again. 

 Swimming and Summer equaled being outside, healthy, more freedom, and spending time together. 

 Carter finally becoming mobile. 

 Going on a weekend getaway with this handsome guy. Wish we could do it more. 

 Watching these guys develop such a fun relationship.

 Boston loving every second of preschool.

 Spending time with our family. We are lucky to have grandparents that we get to see so often. 

2012 we felt like we were supposed to learn patience. I wish we could say that we have, but unfortunately Trav and I and the boys for that matter aren't very patient people. We have been so blessed and have seen the hand of our Savior so evident in our life. We have been on the receiving end of so many miracles and so many prayers. We are forever grateful for all that we have and all that we are learning. 

Here's to 2013. I have a feeling it's going to be a good year. (fingers crossed)