I'm sure you've noticed to serious lack of blogging the past couple of weeks... or maybe you haven't noticed and taken it as a peaceful reprieve.  Either way, I've been slacking.  Mostly in part to the fact that I lost my camera right around my birthday.  Convenient you say?  Suspicious?  Yes and yes.  But I cross my heart that I didn't "lose" my camera.  It's seriously lost.  I usually take it everywhere with me and it must have lost the will to live with us anymore.  It has been upsetting in that I haven't been able to take pictures of my kids in more than 3+ weeks!  That's the longest they've gone without a camera flash in their face for their whole lives!  Thankfully, my darling wonderful amazing provides-eventually husband bought me a new kick arse camera for my birthday!  You know I've been complaining about POS camera anyway..  Matt spent many, many hours researching for the perfect one.  I like to think of it as his need to find something as perfect as me...  but in reality its mostly due to his insane borderline OCD engineering mindset. Love those engineers.

So let's recap what's been going on these past couple of weeks: a whole lotta nothing.  With all the traveling we'll be doing in the month of December and all the family visits, holiday parties... I made a conscious decision to keep things really easy going.  It's a big deal if we even get out of the house to the park.  This came at a good time because Jack is in what they call in lab school speak a "disequilibrium" phase.  Nothing is right, everything is a fight, and defiance is a new found joy in his life.  It's exhausting for this tired mama.  Eamon is having some sleep issues lately (which always seem to get worse when we have company *bang head*) so I'm tired from not sleeping and, moreover, getting up at 5am with a 14 month old who wants to party is beyond imaginable. I have wishful fantasies of throwing Eamon in the stroller, lacing up my new running shoes and hitting the pavement with the rest of the motivated world..  but really I just put on Dora and snooze on the couch for an hour or two.  I saw you shaking your head at me.

But it's not all doom and gloom.  Jack is a full fledged preschooler now. His vocabulary is to the max and he's learning a lot about the world. You tell him something and you can almost see his brain working to comprehend.  Some of my favorite sayings from him now are:

"I need something to make me happy.  Hmm, I know!  Ice cream!"
"Don't look at me, Mommy. You stay over there and I stay here (doing whatever naughty thing he's not supposed to be doing)."
"I need some snuggles."
"I miss you, Mommy/Daddy."
"You don't have to do that."  And "that" being whatever it is you're doing that he doesn't like
"I NEED cheese. I NEED milk. I NEED to play.  I NEED to go to the store."
My personal favorite "Eamon, no. That's not safe!"

He has also grown like a weed.  It seemed like overnight he grew a couple inches.  He now wears 4T clothing and size 11 shoe!  So not only does he sound like a four year old, he looks like one, too.  And yet he's not even 3. 

Eamon is chugging along with his developments. He says a handful of words now: "wa-wa" for water, "mama," "dada," his own version of Jack which sounds a lot like "that," "toe" for throw, "dah" for dog, "thaa" for cat, "birr" for bird, "more," and "mil" for milk.  He also does a LOT of screaming. He does this high pitched scream to get your attention, when he's happy and having fun, when he's fighting with Jack, when he sees something exciting on the street - like a dog or a cat, pretty much for everything.

He is growing so much.  He was 25 lbs at his 12 month appointment and he's put on weight since then so he's gotta be around 27lbs now.  He's one heavy mutha.  He wears anywhere from a size 18-24 month to 2T depending on the cut.  His arms and legs are short but his stomach, butt and thighs are so chunky!  He has tiny feet as well.  He still wears a size 5 but they better have some stretch to them cause it's like stuffing a sausage into it's casing.  His hair has these adorable curls at the bottom so I think he got my hair.  People mistake him for a girl everywhere we go.  To which I say, "What?? You haven't seen a boy wearing a necklace with beautiful flowing blond curly locks??"  Sheesh.  People and their gender assignments.

Thanksgiving was enjoyable. My aunt was in town for the week and my dad and brother came up for most of the week, too.  Since I had so many people here I was able to precook a lot of our dishes.  This led me to be mostly kitchen free for Thanksgiving.  I had terrible anxiety that I was going to be cooking up a storm all day and, of course, Eamon would be clingy and crying to the point where I couldn't get anything done.  Many thanks to Paula, Dad and Steven for entertaining the boys throughout the week so I could get everything done!  I tried to start a new family tradition of watching the Macy's Day Parade, but everyone revolted.  They claim that traditions aren't started by someone just declaring they're tradition.  I disagree.  I will work harder next year.

It was a difficult holiday for me this year in that my brother Chris spent Thanksgiving with his future in-laws.  I understand that families grow, things change.  Mostly it's just difficult for me to learn to let things go that aren't in my control.  Matt said I'm gonna have a helluva time when the boys start growing their own families.  I agree.

Wowee this has turned into a novel.  Sorry I don't have any new pictures to share, but I shall!  Amazon just informed me that my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Blue) has been shipped!  I've heard from a few people that it takes great pictures.  I'm so excited!!!


Until then........  I bid you fare thee well.

We went with a big group of my friends to Green Meadows Farm in Kissimmee.  All the kids had a great time.  The weather was perfect and the company was good.  The farm was very well done, clean, tons of stuff for the kids to see/touch/play.  I can't wait to go back next year! 

















Putting on chap stick.  I was hoping this would make him stop throwing a fit for his passy.  It didn't work.











































Jack's favorite part: Riding the huge tractor hay ride.  (pay no attention to Krystal's freakishly long arm)

I just turned my air conditioner back on.  It's 81 degrees in my house.  It is also November 3rd.  I love Florida.


While we may not get the cold, leaves changing, change of wardrobe, snow, and the rest of the blahbitty blab blah that most of the country gets we still love to pretend it's the holiday season... and in our flip flops no less!  And Christmas means... Christmas cards!!  Since I use Shutterfly for all of my photobook gifts I thought I would give their photo cards a try, too.  What's the sense in sending a Christmas card if it doesn't have any photos on it is what I want to know.  Turns out they have some ADORABLE designs.  Here are a few of my favorites:


I like this one because it's mostly the picture with some bright colors.  I like bright colors.



This one is super cute because it has just that little touch of Christmas without smacking you over the head with cheer.



I like this one for the three different photo boxes.  I could put one picture of each of the boys on the outside and one of the family in the middle. 



You know, even though I LOVE making photobooks I really think I'd love to try a photo calendar as well.  My friend has one and every time I'm over her house I find myself flipping through the months and just fawning over last year's pictures.  It helps keep in perspective how fast our little people are growing. 

Here's the link for the photobook I made for Mimi and Poppy last year.  Notice how May-May is now Mimi.  I wonder if that will change again?  Photobooks are great because you can make one master book and then add/delete photos to personalize it for each recipient.  I made 6 different photobooks last year!   I think there's going to be a demand for even more this year...  better get started now.

Getting sick of pumpkin patch pictures yet?

We took a field trip at school to visit the pumpkin patch.  I was happy to be able to get some alone shots of my big man.  He and the other kids had fun running up and down the hill over and over and over.  There were just some really cute pictures in this batch and I wanted to post them.  For all my fans.

E did really well, too.  Occasionally when the jets were really loud he would saunter back over to our blanket.