A 3 year old and a 1 year old

Hello old friends, its been awhile :) In the past 8 months or so a lot has changed!

Clay turned 3 in June. he has just been a wonderful little guys and brings us so much joy. He is a sweet and caring boy who still likes to snuggle. He is still obsessed with Buzz and Woody and loves to jump from couch to couch pretending he can fly or you can find him running aournd the house wearing his super cape yelling "super Clay to the rescue". Clay has also developed quite the sense of humor and has us laughing all the time. Knock knock jokes are his favorite but he doesn't know many so we get a lot of unrelated this put together "knock knock...who's there.. buzz lightyear... buzz lightyear who?... buzz lightyear with ketchup" Clay started preschool this fall and is having a great time. We haven't had a single tear at drop off and in fact he usually just runs right to his teacher without looking back. He is one of the youngest in the class (as he always will be with a June birthday) but he's a really smart and social cookie so he'll be fine.



Cullen just turned 1 this past week!!!! I thought it went by fast with Clay but this was unreal. Talk about a happy little guy. He is smiling nearly all the time and it melts my heart all day long. He ADORES his big brother and wants to be doing whatever clay is doing all the time (sometimes that is not clays favorite thing) Cullen started crawling at the beginning June then walking by the end of August and is working on cutting his 9th and 10th teeth as we speak. He is so happy (with the help of a little orajel right now) on the move and loves to be chased around the house. Mickey Mouse is just about his favorite thing right now and so we had a Mickey Mouse party this past weekend to celebrate the 1st year of our speical boy's life.




We are so blessed to be Mommy and Daddy to these amazing little boys and love every minute of it. We just can't wait to see what they are going to do next :)

Hope you and your families are well and have a great night!

V Day and B Day

We celebrated Valentines day with our friends the Helgerson's while they were in town for a visit. Uncle Brad and his girlfriend Dana were able to join us for a home cooked steak dinner with kids included at the dinner table for a family valentine's. On Valentines day we woke up and had heart shaped pancakes before heading up to Elkhart to say goodbye to a fabulous lady, Grandma Heaton. She loved her family more than anything and it seems right that we all got to honor her life on the day of love. She will be missed greatly.

When we got back home tuesday, there was a box of flowers waiting on the door step for me from my 3 boys. I Love astramarias (sp?) and the bouquet is so bright and beautiful even now a week later.

Poor Brian with 2 "holidays" in a row gets to deal with my birthday just 5 days after valentines day. My mom and dad came into town to help celebrate my 29th birthday. Brian brought home my favorite kind of cupcakes (RED VELVET). and we just enjoyed a weekend at home with family. i really like low key birthdays and it was just perfect ( minus the bad service at dinner )

The only thing I wanted for my birthday was the 1/2 wall taken out in the basement - wish granted and demo complete thanks to dad and brian. I was spoiled rotten with many other things as well and even got to go shopping on saturday with my mom and NO KIDS. armed with a 30% off coupon for Kohls and a credit card, Of course I would be the one to find stuff for everyone but myself. If you know what I am talking about when I say "Bazinga" you would appreciate what i found for Brian :)

The boys, although they are completely different, are ridiculously similar as well. We have been thinking all along that Cullen was going to be bigger than Clay in no time at all. At his 4 month check up last week we found out that Cullen is 24.5" long (exact same as Clay when he was 4 months) Cullen is 14 lbs 9 oz. (Clay was 14 lbs 3 oz. ) and their 4 months pictures they totally look alike as well. Pretty sure Cullen's hair is growing in dark though. I don't think there will be any question they are brothers even with different colored hair.




Spring is coming soon and we have gotten a little taste of it these last couple days and got outside to play a little... now I just want more of it!

Ready for Spring?

We have been having a wonderful winter (and I actually like the snow) but I think it is time for spring to roll around. We are ready to head outside and play and run and get dirty. The boys have been doing great.
Cullen is almost 4 months old and I swear he is in a different size clothing every other week. I forgot how fast they grow when they are this little. He FINALLY is enjoying tummy time (not a fan before) since he can hold himself up on his elbows now and loves being able to look around. He already has figured out that he can roll onto his back from that position too. I don't know if it is just a 2nd child thing but he is so relaxed and calm most of the time. Just goes with the flow and rarely has any crying fits. He has been drooling a ton and chomping on his hands so we think there may be some teeth attempting to make their way already. Clay was really early with his teeth as well so we are hoping that they won't cause him too much pain. Cullen is still King of the Powernap. I wish he would just take a nice long stretch at some point during the day so i could actually get something done around here.

Clay is being a great big brother and is always looking out for baby brother. his favorite line right now it "its ok Culky, its me, Clay Brian Heaton" he is a silly guy. We had an appointment with a Gastro specialist from Riley Children's hospital on Monday to check further into Clay's constipation problems. The good news is the specialist doesn't think there is any reason to see him further and got us on a medication regime that should have Clay all better in about 6 months and totally off any meds. Our poor baby has been having issues for over a year and ahalf and has been on a prescription that long as well. things are going better and we are so happy that pooping will no longer be scary and painful for out little man.

Cullen is "calling" for me so I am off... hope you are all well!

Cullen is 3 months old Already!?!?

Our little bundle of joy, Cullen, is 3 months old today! It is so hard to believe that it was that long ago that he was born yet we feel like he has been a part of our lives for so much longer. He is such a good baby. He loves laying on his playmat and playing with all the dangling toys. He is a big fan of Clay running around a being silly. He smiles ALL THE TIME. It is so heart melting when you just look at him and he smiles back with that huge gummy grin. We think he is going to be a big boy too, pretty soon he'll catch Clay in weight! Well that won't be for awhile but he is growing really fast. He is almost too big for his 0-3 clothes so I think I will be pulling out the 3-6 stuff soon. Much different than teeny tiny Clay. Cullen does great in the car, falls asleep almost everytime we are in it for more than 10 minutes (both the boys follow after their mother in that regard :) Cullen has slept through the night 2 times but is only up 1 time between 2 and 4am most nights. Napping is something we are still working on... King of the power nap is what I like to call him as he takes several 15 - 20 minute naps during the day but doesn't like to string them together very often. Cullen has start grabbing and holding on to things like rattles and his toys on the play mat. He "tries" to sit up all the time if he is in a reclines position. The kid has amazing strength and one of these days I'm pretty sure he is going to lean forward too far and end up on he face, hopefully it will be a soft surface when it happens.

more updates coming when i have a chance to get a break from the boys. Until then, we hope you are well!

HA HA HA

Cullen laughed for the first time today! Baby laughs are the best and Clay thought it was hilarious since he was the one making Cullen laugh. We were even able to get him to laugh while we had Brian on the phone so he could hear it right as it was happening. We haven't captured it on video yet but I'll work on that one so you can all see our little cutie. Obviously I have a lot of updated to do, when I get a second (hopefully with 2 boys asleep at the same time....) I will try to get that done.

For now, we have a great christmas and new years and hope you did too!

Adventures of the Stay at home Mom of 2 boys...Day 1

So really this would be day 2 because Clay was at home with us last Wednesdsay because there was no school... but this is the first day or the first full week of being home. I dare not mention school with Clay around for awhile as he is pretty attached to his friends. Lots of playdates will need to be planned which is great because then I get to see all of my friends too!

Day 1 has been great....

we woke up and stayed in our jammies for an hour or so while we relaxed and had some breakfast (I am a little sick right now so super daddy took care of the boys first thing this morning- he's AWESOME!)

Clay and I made a craft - you know i love crafts! (see pictures below)

Played with Cullen on the floor... little man is getting so big already! active and opinionated, just how I like em! Love this early stage but really can't wait for him to be more interactive with big brother, i think they are going to be great friends!

got dressed for the day and headed out to run a few errands (shopping carts need to be much bigger to fit a baby in a car seat and a toddler in the seat of the cart - there is NO room for the things you are actually buying)

Thinking Clay would fall asleep in the car and I could get a nap in, we drove the long way home only for clay to stay awake the whole time and want to watch a movie when he got home. We watched 1/2 of robots then headed to bed where my little darling is now asleep. My littlest darling is asleep in his crib as well which means this momma is headed to her own bed for a few minutes of shut eye.

Have a great rest of your day!

1 Month and Still Going Strong

Cullen turned 1 month old yesterday!!! We cannot believe that it has been a month already and at the same time feel like he's been a part of our life for so much longer than that. He is such a sweet little boy and is much more alert these days (when he's awake). He is focusing on objects a lot more and making all the cute baby faces including a smile with dimples to go with it! not sure where the dimples came from in the gene pool but they sure are cute. He is sleeping pretty well and giving us a 5 hour stretch most nights which is awesome! Clay is loving being big brother and is very proud and protective when he gets dropped off at school. He pushes Cullen's stoller up to the doors each day and tells his friends in the classroom that they can look but stay down off the stroller. Very sweet that he is already the little protector.

Pictures as Promised

In NO PARTICULAR ORDER...

First picture together


Trick or Treating fun with our friends the Beiers


Curious George and Hundley


George and the Man in the Yellow Hat (george's daddy according to Clay)


Playing in the leaves - Fall is so much fun!


Meeting Baby Brother for the first time - it was a total success!


Baby Cullen just a few minutes old - so sweet



In a slightly goofy mood waiting to get delivery started


Silly Clay - this about sums up Clay currently, he's pretty funny at 2 1/2


2 weeks old and just so handsome

The first weeks of our New Life

Sorry i haven't posted before now for those of you that have been waiting to see pictures and news about our new little guy Cullen Ian and his big brother Clay!

Ok the stats first...
Cullen was born on Oct. 12th, 2010 at 10:25pm
Weighing in a whopping 6 lbs 10 oz. (one ounce larger than Clay was when he was born :) )
19 1/4 inches long

that morning I dropped clay off at school, pampered myself with a manicure and then I started having some sharp pains late morning of the 12th that were making me rather nervous (did NOT feel like contractions) so i gave the Dr. a call and went into the office to get checked out and make sure that everything was ok in there. Everything was good on the fetal heart rate monitor so they decided to check and see how far along I was and we were almost 1/2 way to where we needed to be. Dr. Bolin made the call to go ahead and get things moving so I headed home to get out bags for the hospital and called brian to let him know it was baby time! A few days earlier than we had planned but we were pretty ready to go. Grandparents and siblings were called, plans for Clay arranged, and then we headed to the hospital around 2:00pm, got all hooked up to everything by around 3:30 and away we went!

The mom's decided to come up to the hospital to say hi and visit for a minute once they were in town around 10:00pm and clay was in bed with grandpa at home to listen for him. about 10 minutes into our visit I had a check by one of the nurses and it was time to have Cullen. Perfect timing for the grandma's to just stay at the hospital until Cullen was born. Dr. Bolin was called into the hospital (we warned the nurses that last time we had to stop pushing because Dr. Bolin wasn't there yet so they decided to wait until she got there to start any pushing). 2 contractions later Cullen was born just as perfect as could be and looking ALOT like big brother Clay. Cullen definately has darker skin and hair (from the swinter side of the genes we think) but has alot of the same cute little features as his brother including those DARK blue eyes right now.

The first 2 1/2 weeks have been awesome! Clay loves being a big brother and likes to snuggle up with his baby brother "culky". He shares his toys with him and gives kisses all the time as well as trying to put the paci in baby brother's mouth all the time. Yesterday he even sang songs to Cullen in the car to try to get him to stop crying, sweetest thing ever!

Everyone is doing well, a little sleep deprived but that is to be expected. Other than that just loving our life as a family of 4 and trying to enjoy every minute of it!

Hope you're well and pictures are on their way soon!

The Time is Getting Near!!!

Two weeks from today we are due to have this little boy! I can't believe that it is coming so fast! I still feel great and only today had to ask Brian to help me tie my shoes for school... pretty sure I am going to wear flip flops the rest of the week :) Still in minor denial that we are as close as we are since I feel this good, I should be at least slightly miserable by now but have been blessed and a comfortable and smooth pregnancy once again. I am working through this week then am done for the rest of the year and possibly more than that.
When I saw the OB last week she said that we are moving in the right direction and my mild contractions have been working their magic. We have another appt. this wednesday and will find out if we are getting any closer and get a game plan in place.
Possible you won't hear from us until the next "HE'S HERE" post so stay tuned...