New Blog!

Please head on over to Tattles and Tells, the official site to read the blog. I will no longer be using this one. This one is nice though! If you're subscribed via e-mail, you will have to re-sign up over there, but there is a link for that! It's still a work in progress, and nothing is really complete minus the blog transfer.

Happy New Year!

Trike-a-thon

Ian meet and beat his trike-a-thon goal!! Thank you for those who participated! (You can still donate until next week).

Ian putting his helmet on.

Ian having a fantastic time riding!

Love the look on his face here!

Ian's school has met their goal as well. So, we're pretty pumped up. Eventually, Ian got off of his bike and began running and dodging other children on their bikes. I had to caution him against that.

On another note, this weekend, Stephen and I will be digging up nearly our entire yard getting it ready for next spring and other awesome plans that we have. We are also throwing away scraps and tables and things from the backyard that are atrocious. We got our dumpster in:

Photo courtesy of my mom.

If you're bored this weekend, you should stop by and help!

Thanks again for everybody that helped! (Mainly, all of the grandparents and God parents!!)

Ian's Trike-a-thon

I'm a terrible mom and forgot to ask people all week long, but Ian is participating in a Trike-a-thon tomorrow at his school to raise money for St. Jude's. He is super about it. At school, they have learned all about bike safety and will be putting it to use tomorrow.

Ian's goal is to raise $100.00 total. And because I just remembered about this, we have raised $0. Anything would be appreciated, even $1.

Ian has his own personal donation site: Ian's Trike-a-thon.

Thanks in advance for your donation! I'll try and post pictures tomorrow of him riding.

Have a great night!

Wow!

It's been nearly a year since I've last posted. And, instead of chatting the entire time, I'm going to share with you the most excited girl in the world:

 Mila and Stephen went on a daddy daughter date and Mila was super pumped up. She picked out her outfit and everything. She was doing all kinds of twirls and saying "princess" the entire time. So cute, so excited. I'm sure she'll continue to love these pictures in the future.

Babies

Haven't shared a picture of the babies in a while, they're almost the same size now. Here they are with Julian when we were returning from the Farmer's Market.

Ian's super over-the-top personality is coming out more and more everyday. He is so funny! And Ms Mila is talking more and more. She is very feisty too and is standing up for herself to Ian, love it!!

Gluten Free Update

Incase you forgot, we are now on a gluten free diet for Ian. He is incredibly hyper (ADHD diagnosed by me) and I've done a lot of research on gluten free diets, we decided it couldn't hurt to try it out.

I don't know exactly how long it has been, but it's been a while. And, so far, very successful. Very. At first, I wasn't sure. But, then, he has accidently had gluten a few times, oops, and the change is humongous. It isn't very hard, not yet anyways. I find, we just eat cleaner meals. I actually lost weight at first because it was so different, awesome consequence. Ian didn't though, don't worry. He enjoys healthy foods, so it hasn't been a difficult transition, plus there are a ton of gluten free alternatives out there if he just has to have something.

Example of his daily foods? For breakfast, usually Chex (gluten free) cereal with milk and some juice, water, or a piece of fruit. Then, he snacks ALL DAY LONG. This is always mixed, carrots, fruits, pirate booty (yes, that's a real thing), or cheese and gluten free crackers. Oh, another favorite is corn tortillas with hummus. For lunch, he might have a boiled egg or a rice cake with peanut butter and jelly... it really just depends on what he's in the mood for. One difficult part is Ian doesn't really like meat. He'll eat deli meat, so we'll try to incorporate that some, but he probably gets most of his protein from peanut butter, eggs, and milk. Which seems to be working fine for him.

We got some Kerby Lane gluten free pancake mix and I made waffles with it the other weekend (Apple Cinnamon) and I'm never going back to regular waffles. These things were amazing. So Delicious!!

Funny enough, Stephen and I have found, that Ian will usually choose the gluten free choice. We think that he must notice it makes him feel different. Or maybe, he just likes those foods better! Who knows, but we are going to keep it going! It is more expensive, but there are coupons online and we've reverted back to making a meal plan. I like the meal plan, we don't follow it to the T, but it's nice to have quick gluten free options already written out for me to choose  from.

Mila supporting Ian's old shirt!

Ian at the doctor's office.

Okay, got to run now, busy, busy day! Peace!

Trains

The kids love when Franny comes in for a visit. Her and Ian built a ginormous, long train out of some blocks the yesterday, it took lots of focus.

If I'm being completely honest, I'm surprised it was so long... it was very wobbly on the round blocks. But, they had a blast, that's all that matters. It's so wonderful to have help like this every once in a while! Like, earlier in the week when Jackie helped me clean out Ian's room and get rid of a bunch of clothes!

For those of you who don't have facebook, we took the kids to take bluebonnet pictures earlier this week, I'm in love!!

I know what you're thinking, adorable. Ha! It was really quick, but lots of fun! We're still here, and still doing fine. All that I can say, is thank goodness I have a chiropractor grandma, awesome parents, awesome friends, and great kids. My arm feels like it's almost back to normal now. I feel for my mom know who's had these tense shoulder problems before, it literally immobilizes you! She wasn't messing around. :)

Run Ian, Run!

Over the weekend, Ian ran his first race!

Everyone lining up.

Reading after his run.

He had so much fun! He ran with his papaw. Afterwards, he tole me that he needed to run it 3 more times. Oh, Ian. You're adorable.

Day 2 of Gluten Free diet for Ian has worked out well. And, we've already begun to notice a difference, I think. It's really too soon to speak... so I'll update more on that at the end of spring break.

Tired

A couple of days ago I wrote a post entitled "tired" but it was from my kindle fire and I got frustrated with how slow typing was, so that post is no more. But, I have news, I'm still tired. Ha! The kids have been on a new level of crazy lately. Maybe it's the season? Every single day, Ian has gotten into his fish tank. Yes, it has a child safety latch on it, yes, he can undo it. We're looking around for one that's harder to open. Anyways, he puts things in the tank and does other crazy things. Like, gets a cup and gets scoops of water then throws it all over his room. The messy and dirtiness of my house is starting to make me feel like a crazy person (anxious mostly).  I really can't keep up. A scenario, if you will. I went to do the dishes a couple of days ago, I come back 15 minutes later to find Ian, I find this:

That used to be a train table.

I was really upset about it. I walked into his room, saw this, and cried. I know, that seems a little ridiculous. But, this was about day 10 in a row of seeing crazy scenes like this, there were toys in the fish tank, and I just couldn't handle it. The situation showed me that Ian actually is really empathetic. He wanted to make me happy, so he made me come back into his room, which looked like this:

He tried to fix it.

Other than that, the kids are actually really good. Mila is saying "Uh Oh!" all the time now. Ian runs in his first race really soon, hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures.

Mila trying to wake up her brother.

Well, Mila is awake now, so I got to go. Tomorrow is Stephen's birthday though, pretty excited!

Intervention

I think it's about time to have a Crayon-Eating Intervention with Mila.



P.S. I have all of my images on my phone synced with my albums on Google. Blogger finally allows me to access those pictures via the internet.... WOO HOO!

Responsibility Chart, Double Ear Infection, and Walks with Ian's BFF

To Soon To Tell..

But I think we're on the mend! These past two months have been full of sickness. One after the next, passing things around. And this morning, both kiddos finally seemed to wake up in a good mood!

Mila eating a bagel for breakfast, Ian in Cars 'jamas'

Besides Mila's crying all the time now (she's kind of turning into a drama queen, I have no idea where she gets that from) we've been good so far today. I'm catching up on laundry and cleaning, pretty much everything household-y since it all fell to the way side during 2 months of sickness. But, Daddy Bendig has been pretty busy around here too.

Our new blue door!

Our door was unfinished since we moved in and the peep hole was so high that only a giant could see through it. Stephen was kind enough to lower it (I can see through it now!) and paint it blue! Next, we need to paint the inside of the door and either take off the storm door or fix it. It was an extremely lazy install job. And, this past weekend, Stephen made some headway on the front yard.

The process of the front garden/future patio.

We're still in the drawing plans here. But Stephen has killed everything here. We're going to had a little patio of sorts right next to the house and we're going to add some drought-resistant plants. We are going to choose our materials sometime over the next two weeks and start digging and leveling this week. Stephen has been such a good sport about it too!

So, yes, we've been a little busy. I even got to have a girl's night! Franny came in from out of town and we all went out. First to a karaoke bar, then to a bar where this hilarious band was playing. Amy was there too, but she took the picture...

Jackie, me, and Franny... slightly incriminating.

We had a really good time. Stephen got a guys night out the following night. It was a really good break that I really needed. Staying inside with sick and cranky kids has had me on edge lately.

And I don't think I ever shared, but here's the birthday outfit that I made for Mila.

Not too bad for my first sewing project of the clothes variety. And lastly, but not least, one of the adorable dresses that my grandma made for Mila.

I promise I love Ian too, but he never lets me take any pictures of him! I'm trying my best! Maybe since he's done being sick *hopefully* he'll let me snap some shots.

Oh, I'm researching sleep machines for Miss Mila. Does anyone know of any that are loud? And I just want white noise, she seems to do best with that. She has a little travel one that is sketchy at best and turns off before she falls asleep, if it even wants to turn on, and my kindle isn't loud enough for me to just download a sound.

Mila is 1

Mila's party was so much fun! I had a lot of help too though.

More to come.

Merry Christmas!

We had a really fun Christmas. After Santa came, we had a lot of my mom's family over and my inlaws. I think it was a success! I didn't take many pictures at all (hosting and having kids). But I got a few the next day. And this picture just may be my favorite. Ian playing with his gift from Namaw and Papaw...

I remember Christmas, it was so awesome when I was younger. And, I still enjoyed it this year. It was nice to stay up late with Stephen, watch a Christmas movie, wrap, wait in anticipation of our kids the next morning. I must say, Stephen and I were up before the kids, they  kind of slept in. My parent's watched them until pretty late, so it doesn't surprise me.

P.S. Mila likes the train table too...

Where are the kids at?

Yesterday I wrote out this huge, long post on my phone and I didn't save it. And when I hit publish, it didn't work. Sigh, let's see if I can remember everything.

There we are at the doctor's office. Ian is wearing his hand-me-up doctor's shirt for the occasion, he has a really big personality and opinion lately. Not pictured are his house shoes, both Thomas and Cars, that he just had to wear to the doctor. And yup, ear infection. He's on antibiotics until the day after Christmas. And, I should probably mention, boy has gained 3 pounds since last month. That, and he keeps complaining about the bones hurting in his legs. I'm thinking we may see a growth spurt soon, that would be exciting, because I don't think he's really had one!

Mila is pretty mobile now and loves playing with Ian. She tries to do everything that he does. That's them at a local bounce house. They have different sections for those who are really young, so I like it a lot. But, Ian won't stay over there. He is all over the place, it gives me a few minor heart attacks, but seems to run him ragged. Fair exchange? Probably not, but beggars can't be choosers.

 Mila is sitting in this picture, but I swear that she is a full time walker now. She'll crawl if she has to get somewhere really quick, but that's about it. She's also picked up a few adorable things. She's still waving "hi" and "bye" but I love hearing her say it too. It's hilarious! Recently, she started picking up any object that could possibly be a phone and holding it up to her ear and saying "hello." Does that mean that I'm on the phone a lot? She's just picking things up left and right and I'm a little more sad about it this time around. I feel like she's no longer a baby anymore. And all she wants to do is play with her big brother, or just his toys. If he is playing with his trains and leaves the room, she hightails it over there and plays as hard as she can until he gets back. It's really entertaining to watch. I've noticed that if he shoves her, she goes in for a bite.... at least she can hold her own.

A while ago, Ian had 2 bruises on his ear and we couldn't figure it out for the life of us. We asked him what it was from and he said "Mila!" Which, made since, because that was the same distance as her vampire teeth. Ian needs to be nice to his little sister, she is one tough cookie.

There's Ian, the heart melter. Lately, he asks me things like "do you want my heart mom?" And then he'll proceed to pretend to take his heart out of his chest and give it to me. Then, he'll ask for mine. It's the cutest thing in the world. He does it if I step on a toy and hurt myself too. And if he gets hurt, he asks me for his heart back and for my heart too. Lol. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff, but it is so stinking cute!

He is really coming into his own as a big brother too. More times than not, he knows that he has to trade a toy for his toy back and that she longer wants the dumb toys. He'll play chase with there where they crawl around the house and they both belly laugh. He even wakes up in the morning and immediately asks for Mila now too.

These two can be pretty stressful, but they always do something that makes up for it... like being crazy amounts of cute!