crabcake.

the boys & i have spent 4 days now within the confines of our boogie infested home. it's getting a little wacky in here. we're all talking with croaky voices, i'm a little confused on what day it is & i'm almost certain that i've worn the same pants for 3 of the days. crabcakes for everyone!

crabcake. from leyna on Vimeo.

oliver & august january 2013.

oliver matthew - - ---

age - three years & 3 months.

nickname - olly bagolly

favorites - watching frankenweenie & coraline (apparently he's a big tim burton fan), playing the ipod, eating gummy snacks & gumballs

newest word/phrase - "answer my question!"

milestones - first successful somersault

doctors visits - none, managed to get through january w/out any, some children's mucinex, but no doctor visits

special trips/visitors - spent time hanging out with aunt britter over at grandma & grandpa's while she recovered from some surgery for 2 weeks

new toy/movie - frankenweenie (this is a strange one!), star wars angry birds & endless abc's on the ipod

august michael - - ---

age - 11 months.

nickname - gussy goo goo

favorites - cheerios, yogurt bites, running naked when getting his diaper changed, playing "sparkle paint" on the ipod & watching the fish swim in the tank

newest word/phrase - i'm pretty sure he said "crabcake" today (i'm trying to post a video, but blogger video loader takes forever!), "lindsay" & "baba"

milestones - pulling himself up to standing position & assisted walking with walking toys, 3 teeth (2 bottom & finally one up top), last month of formula & making "fishy faces"

doctors visits - yes, yesterday. he was starting to come down with the sniffles, then the coughing, then a fever...long story short after visiting the doctor, we found that he was showing first signs of bronchitis with an irritated throat, crackly lungs & ear infection starting. so, we are back on an antibiotic, benedryl & neb treatments daily.

special trips/visitors - same as olly, getting to spend some extra time with aunt brittany while she was in town for a couple of weeks.

new toy - recycling some of oliver's 1st toys, especially ones that involve standing & walking & he always has my phone =)

you are my wild.

click the link - - ---

new project begins

someone in iowa loves me.

...i've got more coming soon. promise.

i just got the holiday cards out.

happy new year twenty thirteen!

since we survived the mayan apocalypse, i can't blame that on my absence from blogger land. i've just been horrible...horrible! this past year has brought upon many new things & a serious lack of time that my head is spinning. most days, my head is just spinning. two kids really ups the ante when you work full time, have a toddler, a fast-growing infant & a constant house in disarray. so, this is my personal peace offering {to myself} for beating myself up so much for my lack of documenting the first 10 months of gus's life, keeping up on the family happenings & other milestones, celebrations, etc...plus the computer just happened to be sitting, untouched, on the kitchen table & no one else was around. i just started typing. i usually spend nights, whilst trying to fall asleep, thinking up wonderful blog posts with clever antics & fun stories...but all to fade by the next day, undocumented. 

so...my peace offering & deal with myself & to you, dedicated followers of my blog, is to repost updated answers to a series of questions i've compiled that pertain to both gus & oliver. in addition, i will also, at least once a month, post a compilation of photos from the happenings the past 30 days or so. i'll be playing a little catch up in the beginning b/c i have photos from probably 6 months ago that haven't made it up...not to mention some weddings, showers, halloween, a third birthday & the holidays. my goal is to post at the end of each month to recap, but since i found some spare minutes, here goes for january 2013...

oliver matthew - - ---

age - three years & 2 months.

nickname - olly man

favorites - playing the ipod, watching the incredibles, shooting dart guns, 

newest word/phrase - "i hate you mom" {yeeeeeaaaahhhh...we're starting this year off great, huh?!}; tapatio {as in the hot sauce}; and not to forget "i love you mom"

milestones - spontaneously counting to 8 & identifying the correct letter alphabet magnets on the fridge

doctors visits - not that i recall...this category will most likely have more of a story to tell in gus's section. oliver probably ate 3 different kinds of bugs & licked a handrail & he's ok. he's sniffled a bit, but other than that, healthy as an oompa loompa who ate 18 pixie stix...just kidding he still eats a lot of fruits & whole grains =)

special trips/visitors - santa visited twice this year. and {insert bad mom award here} this was honestly, the first year he'd been introduced to a santa figure. he kind of looked at "him" with a suspicious look, took the present & went on to shoot darts. 

new toy - including birthday, this kid has received some very nice gifts lately! specialized toddler bike w/ training wheels, cowboy boots {his favey}, a-frame pup tent made by daddy, dart guns, new movies, a personal dvd player, scooter, books, leap frog & vtech games, etc etc & did i mention dart guns ;)

august michael - - ---

age - 10 months.

nickname - gus the bus.

favorites - mum mums, eating his brothers nerf darts, army-crawling, puppies

newest word/phrase - mama, dada & wahboo wahboo {this is kind of my favorite b/c i have no idea what it means}

milestones - army-crawling, which has led to crawling, which has led to pulling himself up on his knees or just about his feet, eating all of his vegetables & fruits, strengthening immune system, hair growth on the top of his head

doctors visits - oh boy, here we go...we did start the end of december with just your typical well-baby check...which then spiraled into 1 visit b/c he had this weird, not-healing sore on his finger...which led to 2 visits for colds. he was waking up in the morning with his eye cemented shut w/ serious eye mucous, so we suspected pink eye...but turns out we just had some bad cold symptoms going on. ps...have you ever had to give a 10-month old eye drops? i think a 10-month olds strongest muscles are their eyelids - seriously the hardest. thing. ever. on a positive note, he's coming around & his breathing has sounded great throughout all of his episodes. oh my little bubble boy.

special trips/visitors - as mentioned in oliver's section, santa visited twice this year. gus had a much different reaction to the jolly man...hated him. not a fan of him. "get me off of this guys lap right now mama" hated him. santa did give him a toy camera that he loves to eat, so as long as he keeps his distance he's legit. 

new toy - toy camera, a-frame pup tent made by daddy, an all-terrain wheel radio flyer red wagon, a cute 18-month patagonia onesie/pant suit that could fit his brother who is 27 months older than him {i'm a little bitter about this one b/c if you can't tell, i picked it out & want him to wear it}, melissa & doug puzzles, boogie wipes, new pacis, leap frog puppy & play-along-singing-wiggling dog toy for lack of a better name. it's cute, he loves it. 

- - ---next will come photos...& one of my new years resolutions to get out my holiday cards just in time for february =)

kids having kids.

a couple of weekends ago, friends & sisters, marcell & megan were home visiting. we were able to get all of the kiddos, old & young, together for a get-together. oliver was thrilled to find two new buddies to play around with. even though he called them "bom" & "tennis" aka vaughn & tevis =) there's nothing better than getting your offspring together & enjoying some vino & laughs as they play & run around...brings back the good ole days ;)

tennis ahyee & bom

i mean...look at that lil adorable awesomeness =)

and...introducing...the newest littlest member of the hanson-doxtad crew...

kate mikel doxtad. 

we love her so much! 

congratulations to cousins donna & luke! 

she's a doll!

a sad soul reminiscing the lakes.

having dealt in the past with losing friends/family, it's not a new emotion for me, but it's just putting things into perspective. this evening i learned about the passing of a friend i met while living in okoboji. he was my age. so at thirty years of age, i guess it's time for us to start doing this, putting our 'futures' into perspective. upon learning such sad news, i've just been so scatter brained, so excuse me for the rambling, but i felt the need to put some sort of tribute to my thoughts down. i was thinking wills. i have been running over a million "what-ifs" in my head. i've been thinking about my own sons. i've been thinking about family. i can already feel a very sleepless night ahead of me!

i briefly chatted with a mutual friend tonight & she really enlightened me when she said that she was at peace knowing that his last moments were spent in the very place where so many memories were made & good times were had. and then i got to reminiscing about all of the long-lost faces i spent so much time with throughout those summers. i considered these faces my "family". and it was refreshing to think back on all of the unforgettable moments that i had up there with a very special group of people...& i thank every one of them for that, including andrew. and although, his family/friends will more than likely not even know this blog post exists, i am so so very sorry for the loss of such an unforgettable charming young guy & and i'm sending them peace through this heartache. love to them.

the first hurdle of cold/flu season...

it was inevitable... friday, oliver was sneezing & had a runny nose...by saturday, my fears were unleashed & gus was sneezing snot balls out of his nose. which, of course, launched me into super psycho neb treatment mode. by sunday, i was in denial that my throat was scratchy & that someone had jammed an upholstery needle into my ear. i slammed some nyquil & thus began my 48 hours of a nyquil coma {i don't fully come back to making much sense of anything until tuesday}. monday, i stayed home, as i was unable to physically move, get out of bed for that matter, or breath. by monday afternoon, mike had left work & had brought both kids back home from daycare. we plugged away with cold medicine, vicks & 84 billion kleenexes...enough snot to sink a battleship i tell ya! i came around tuesday afternoon & immediately launched into crazy germ-fest abolisher mama! in retrospect, it wasn't that bad. =) i think i feared gus getting sick for the first time in 4 months the most. i feared having to go through another week after week of treatments & not knowing how to make him feel better. but, his breathing has been just fine. he was able to move the snot out of his little body this time, so i was relieved of knowing that his tiny immune system has matured.

and while it's still not fun to have to mend small little people back to good health, i think we all handled it well. we're emerging back into the world tomorrow, with drippy noses, but nothing on a scale to take us down any longer. whew! so, now i'm praying to the cold/flu season gods...we don't want anymore. and the best thing, is that mike didn't really come down with anything, a little sniffly, but a major man-cold alert was never put into effect. our cupboards are stocked if we need it, but i'm hoping to stay on top of the season's misery. moving on.

photo bomb of oliver & august.

and...it's only taken about seven months...but i finally captured both boys...together =)

as you can see...this was how my usual attempts played out...

ashley + aaron.

this weekend, we travelled down to ames, iowa to take part in our friends' wedding. michael was a groomsman for aaron & oliver was the "ring" bearer. pause for quotations gesture "ring" bearer. there were no rings that would be in oliver's possession ;) we were thrilled that the two of them wanted to have oliver a part of their big day, however, it kind of made me a little a lot nervous. currently, he's not the most compliant. and the lack of a nap lurking in the background was a little unsettling. but...we kept it positive & had a lot of snacks, some pirate stickers, apple juices & the iPod packed! and when i saw my little baby man in his tuxedo for the first time...pulled my little heartstrings *sigh*. the weekend went perfect...& we brought my parents down w/ us for babysitting reinforcements so we could take full advantage of the night/weekend out.

we had the most fun of times. seeing & catching up with old friends. great food. a crisp fall wedding day. a glass of wine {or six} & celebrating the marriage of our dear amazing friends. i'm a bit of an overachiever & i am going to get my photos posted already. i know, i know...look at me go. enjoy. we did.