graham's nursery inspiration board.

Can I get real with you for just a moment? We have grand plans for the nursery. Peaceful. Serene. Calm. Lots of contrasting for our sweet Graham. But honestly? This is currently what we're dealing with:

Can someone pretty please come clean this mess out? We rearranged the boys' room about a month ago and STILL haven't moved all of their toys back in. They're currently sitting in those orange bins. There is good reason for this: We want to reorganize how we store their toys and are thinking we need a small toy box for their room, while moving a vast majority of their toys to our family room since that's where we spend most of our time. Speaking of time, we just haven't taken the time to make this happen. If we want to even think about getting the nursery done, this is one of those things that needs to happen first.

A lot of the mess in the room is still where we redid the boys' bathroom. And now I'm realizing I never shared that project either. (Notes to self: Write up a post on the bathroom while we clean the mess that is the nursery.)

Anyway, so it's a mess. But, BUT, we do have plans. Big ones. And they're going to look a little something like this:

A rundown of what we're planning:
1. Crib: We thought giving the third baby something new of his own would be nice
2. Ceiling light: We have a fan in there, but I hate it with a passion. This would streamline that look.
3. Wall/ceiling color: White walls, people. With a light blue ceiling for interest.
4. Rocker: We still love this rocker that we got for Sawyer's nursery, so we'll be using it here too.
5. Dresser/changing table: Lots of storage space. Because babies have ALL THE THINGS.
6. Basket: For small toy storage. Or something like that.
7. Fabrics: The blue for curtains. I think. The other two are fabrics I ordered for crib sheets!
8. Lovey: Where we will order at least two, if not three of these.
9. Ugly Doll: Because Cayden & Sawyer have one. And Graham will need one too. Duh.

There are other plans like a driftwood mobile above the crib. And I'd love to ad crown molding to the room (surprise, Jeremy!). And obviously a lot of painting still needs to be done. But we'll get there, right? Hold me.

two little monkeys.

Since we're are very close to having three little monkeys, our queen-sized bed was starting to feel a little, um, tight. We decided that taking some of our tax return and investing in a king-sized bed would be a brilliant idea. And since every store in the world likes to have Presidents Day sales on mattresses, we took full advantage that weekend and purchased one. We got a little ahead of ourselves by not purchasing a frame yet, but no worries, that's taken care of now and will come sometime within the next month. Hopefully.

In the meantime, our mattress was delivered this past Saturday. And since we're college-bumming it, it currently resides on the floor. And also since we hadn't purchased any sheets yet, and the longing look in the boys' eyes was too much, we said go for it! We let them jump their little hearts out on Saturday morning. And that would be when Jeremy captured this fun little video.

Oh, and p.s., we also bought a new camera that we've had our eyes on for a while. Yay for HD video and a full frame sensor. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun with that new toy. You might be getting a lot more blog entries since we can't seem to keep our hands off it. Maybe. Don't hold me to it, ok?

8/52

a photo of our kiddos once a week for a year

Cayden: He starts soccer practice again this week. We got in a little refresher practice last night.
Sawyer: He loves getting himself dressed. Even if his shoes are on the wrong feet.

build a bear.

This was our second trip to Build-A-Bear, and we've loved the experience both times. The boys' Granna and Poppa love to gift them with gift cards to the store, and we love getting to take the boys and watch them pick out their very own animals, and sometimes clothes. This last time, we noticed that a birthday party was starting. Having no idea how those work, we just squeezed our way past them, urged the boys to pick out their animals quickly and hopped in line super fast.

We ended up with "Spider Bear" the um, spider bear and "Egg" the dinosaur. Creative kids, I tell ya.

(Also, their trip to the mall ended on a fun note getting to check out the Lego Store. And I'll admit, I got a little dreamy-eyed over some of the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings sets. Dork for-ev-ah.)

on choosing your child's name.

Picking a name for your child has to be one of the most exciting, yet anxiety-ridden choices parents get to make for their children. Will the name be dumb when they get older? Can it easily be made fun of? What does it mean to you?

For Cayden, I think I read the name somewhere and really liked it. I believe it was spelled Caden the first time I saw it. We added the "y" because we're dorks and we really liked how the descender of the "y" looked. His middle name is Samuel; chosen after my paternal grandfather who holds a very dear and special place in my heart.

For Sawyer, well, if any of you are LOST fans out there, you can take a wild guess as to where that one came from. It's also a pretty cool name. He does get called "nugget" about the same amount as he gets called by his proper name and has recently taken to telling me, "I not nugget! I Sawyer!" So we'll see how much longer that nickname lasts for him. Sawyer's middle name is Wray; chosen after my great uncle who officiated our marriage and who sometimes feels quite grandfatherly to me as well.

With baby boy number three, we knew the middle name would be a family name as that just seems to be the way we're rolling. The first name took us a little while to settle on as there were several options that we really liked. And to add extra pressure to ourselves, we decided that the name had to be six letters long – just like Cayden and Sawyer's. So, without further ado, our third son's name will be:

Yep, Graham. Sigh. Isn't it such a lovely name? So perfect for a little boy, but also so perfect for a grown man. We dug back into the family tree just a bit to get his middle name. It will be Isaac, named after Jeremy's great-great-great-grandfather Izik. We wanted to use the more traditional spelling though. And Isaac also just happens to mean laughter/to laugh. And after our miscarriage last year, we thought that was oh-so-appropriate and joyful to our hearts.

So we'll have Cayden, Sawyer and Graham. All similar, but different. And we can't wait to meet our sweet Graham. But in like 11 weeks, please and thank you.

7/52

a photo of our kiddos once a week for a year

Cayden & Sawyer: Building their Valentine legos with daddy.

I remember loving legos as a child. My sister and I would play with them for hours. Our favorite thing to build? Sheep. I don't even know. But we would build as many sheep as we could and then build houses for them and just play. Seems like legos are sold in sets these days, and I have to admit, I really love sitting down and building the sets out with the boys. For a hot moment, I was disappointed that you can't buy individual pieces any more, but after we visited the Lego Store this weekend, I realized I was very wrong about that. The Lego Store is like a dreamworld—every set you can imagine AND all the single pieces you could ever want. Jeremy and I are really looking forward to building up the boys' collection.

happy valentine's day!

The way to our boys' hearts currently is through chocolate and legos. Seriously. These two are so into legos right now, and they have always had a love for chocolate. Favorite part of these photos? Sawyer's face in the second shot, "Wook, mommy! A dinosaur! ROAR!" And also? Christmas jammies in February for-ev-ah!

Happy Valentine's day friends!

sometimes you just need a donut.

Or rather, maybe some days this mama wakes up and is craving a donut. Same difference, right? On Sunday morning, Sawyer woke up with a pretty terrible cough and a slight fever. We decided the nursery at church was not the place for him to be that morning and there was no way our loquacious two year old would be quiet during service. Jeremy went on to church, and the boys and I went on an adventure.

Our adventure turned out to be a surprise trip to Dunkin and a trip to Target for some medicine for the little one. If you haven't been to Dunkin recently, I urge you to go and try the brownie batter donut. It is pure deliciousness! And it's shaped in a heart! (There was also a cookie batter donut, but I wasn't quite sure that would hit the spot, but I'm sure it's equally as good.)

The boys were very surprised and happy that they got to pick out their very own donut. (Of which Sawyer picked exactly what Cayden was having. No longer a surprise. Little dude loves his big brother like woah.) Cayden proceeded to eat his donut, half of another one and then part of my brownie batter one. I think we'll start saving for food now for when they're high schoolers. Sheesh.

And now I'd like another brownie batter donut please.

6/52

a photo of our kiddos once a week for a year

Cayden: Always looking for a different path to follow.
Sawyer: Always following after big brother.

Jeremy took the boys to World of Wheels this past weekend. Instead of enjoying it like he thought they would, they were bored and wanted something to actually do rather than just looking at everything. Jeremy said that when they left and started walking across the courtyard, that was when the boys started having a good time. Brick paths to follow. Concrete paths to follow. Planter ledges to balance on. These boys, they definitely like the adventures.

5/52

a photo of our kiddos once a week for a year

Cayden & Sawyer: Finally getting to enjoy some real snow for the first time in their short lives.

It's been a crazy week. Totally wanted to upload these photos earlier this week, but kept forgetting the camera. And then when I remembered? The camera battery was dead. So dead it wouldn't even turn on. Finally, success! Our snow day(s) was pure torture at the beginning. It took us almost four hours to drive the usual 15 minute drive home. Thankfully, Jeremy and I were together and the boys were at my mom's. So everyone was safe. My sister had to spend the night at her office, my brother-in-law had to abandon his car on the side of the road and my dad spent 16 hours on the interstate to get home when it usually only takes him one. To say that it was a weird, weird day, would be a complete understatement. But once we got home and were able to enjoy the white stuff with our boys? It was awesome.