Twins

Which one is Southern, and which one is Dustin? They look so much alike!

Mommy loves Daddy

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I decided to post some pictures of Southern's mommy and daddy from way before he was born. This is the 11th Valentine's Day Dustin and I will spend together.

Fishing in 2002

My high school graduation, 2003

The first of four proms together, spring 2000

Twin Day at school, fall 2000

More photos

As requested, here are a few more photos of Southern's beautiful Granny Denise.

Granny Denise

Dustin and I have recently discussed what his mom would have liked Southern to call her. My mom has had a hard time picking out a name. With 7/8th of our grandparents still alive, the usual names are already taken. We have a Grandma, two Grannys, and a DeDe. So I was trying to think of something different we could call his mom. We eventually went back to Granny though. We call Denise's mom Granny Ehlers, and her mom's mom was called Granny too. When Dustin and Carly were born, they just started calling her Great Granny. I think this is what we'll do with Granny Ehlers too. We decided it's what Denise would have liked. So she will now be Granny Denise, and Granny Ehlers will be Great Granny.

As it sometimes happens, we don't know the why, but God needed another angel in heaven one steamy day in July of 1991. Dustin and Carly lost their mom. I never even had the chance to meet her, but she's left a hole so big in my life I can't even begin to imagine how Dustin and Carly feel. But from old home movies, stories, and my own imagination, I feel as though I know her.

And strangely enough, I believe I actually met her once. I had a very vivid dream the night before I married Dustin, and she was in it. We were just hanging out. Dustin was there, my mom, her, Granny Ehlers, Carly. We were sitting around in an empty auditorium somewhere. Carly had something going on that day that we were there to watch. So we were just waiting. And talking. I remember she asked me about my dress and my flowers. It was as if she had been around the whole time. She knew most of the details of our wedding planning already. It was just small talk. We watched Carly do her thing on stage, and when it was over, there were hugs all around. After I hugged her, she pulled back, smiled at me, and said see you soon. I woke up feeling as though it all actually happened. I think it was her way of letting us know she's watching over us. And the night before I was to wed her son, she welcomed me into the family.

I want Southern to grow up knowing her too. So I've already begun talking about her to him. He knows that he has a grandmother in heaven watching down over him. And her name is Granny Denise.

A Day at the Museum

Since it has been raining most of the past two weeks, we couldn't do our usual weekly trip to the park. We decided to take our boys to the local children's museum instead. There was so much for them to do there. I've posted a ton of pictures, but these represent only about half of what we did. There's just too many photos to post! Also, we didn't do any of the outdoor activities due to the weather. We definately need to look into getting a membership there.

Southern at the hardware store. Looks like he was interested in buying a brick and a wheel barrow!

Here's Aidan at the bank. So cute considering his mom and I met while we were both tellers at Wells Fargo.

Southern enjoyed shopping at the grocery store. We had to leave this area not long after taking this pic though. Southern decided he would rather crawl than push the buggy, and those kids get crazy pushing buggys around there! After it calmed down, we took our boys back to the grocery store where they both decided that pushing buggys is fun, but that it's more fun to push them around the entire museum. It was hard to get a picture of that because they were so fast!!

Southern and Aidan enjoying the camping section of the museum.

Looking at the fish and tiny alligators.

You can definitely tell this is Dustin's son. Fishing with more than one rod and reel. His daddy has been known to set up as many as 7 rod and reels at a time. It's never a dull moment with those two...

Another Dustin Jr moment.

We got to calculate Southern's BMI. You entered in height, age, and gender then stood on the scale. It was 18 and at normal healthy range. It shows he has little fat. Yay! The columns from left to right are Blood, Bone, Muscle, Fat, and Organs. I didn't want to step on the scale... too scarey. But my friend did hers, and it wasn't pretty. We couldn't do Aidan's because he wouldn't stand still long enough for it to weigh him.

Puzzle time.

Playing with all the soft, squishy shapes in the tot corner.

Aidan and Southern putting siding on a house. So cute! The house also had wallpaper (seen through the window) to put up inside as well as plumbing to assemble.

Southern enjoying the view in the ER.

Playing with trains above and inside the space shuttle below.

Needless to say, the boys loved it! We stayed for four hours, and they were both tired and cranky by then, but they still didn't want to leave. We had to drag them out of the museum, through the pouring rain (up until then it was only sprinkling - just our luck), and strap them into their carseats where both boys promptly fell asleep on the ride home. It was a great day.

10 Months Old

A quick update on what this 10-month-old is up to:

Southern can stand on his own for a little while. He will be holding onto something (his walker, the coffee table, the sofa, etc) and will let go to balance on his own without even realizing it. After 5-10 seconds, he will then grab back onto whatever he let go of and calmly go about his business as if it never happened.

He is still "talking" like crazy. No words yet, though he has said dada and mama, he doesn't realize that he's saying them. He's just making noises.

Southern is eating a lot more "grown-up" food now. Some of his favorites include, whole wheat spiral pasta covered in pesto, braided honey wheat twists (they resemble pretzel sticks but are thicker), meatballs in tomato sauce, honey 7-grain bread, diced cantaloupe, bean and cheese burritos, my homemade stew, and crackers.

He's wearing size 18-month clothes with some of his pajamas in that size already getting too snug.

Southern hasn't really gotten into cartoons yet. He does love Baby Einstein DVDs though, especially the one he has on animals around the world. And his favorite show, much to his daddy's chagrin, is Yo Gabba Gabba.

The Monday Blahs

Today is Monday. For us, that means...

The weekend is over.
No more visits from extended family for at least 5 days.
No more lazy mornings with relaxed breakfasts.
No more of the boys watching fishing on TV in their pajamas.
It's back to work for Daddy.
Another five 10+ hour days with him away from home.
Papers for graduate school need to be written.
Papers from high school need to be graded.
And, it's trash day.

Not very exciting. In fact, coupled with this weather, Southern and I have got the Monday blahs.

You might have the Monday blahs too. Need a laugh? I know I do.

If the little chuckle monster in this video doesn't make you grin, you've got more than just a case of the Monday blahs. You should call you doctor. ASAP.