E-I-E-I - OOOOOO

We headed up to my parent's property while we were visiting them at Spring Break. The property is one of my favorite places that I have ever been. When you are there, everything seems right in the world. You can easily forget all your worries and what is going on everywhere else and just enjoy the moment. The air is so pure and so quiet. Everything is so green and alive. What a peaceful place. It was a perfect day to go. The weather was cool and sunny. Brendan loved riding in the trail wagon for the first time and James loved keeping busy with tools he found, especially the level. We checked out the tank, we looked at the new calf, we rode the property line. My dad and Daniel put up the Martin House. It has inspired us to get some kind of neat birdhouse. My mom helped me take care of Brendan who would have rather been running around all 80 acres! Brendan kept humming Old McDonald and would loudy sing the part E-I-E-I-O! When he forgot the O James would add it on for him. Like always, it was great! Feel very blessed that someday my children will inherit a portion of that land that has been in our family for a long time.

Guilty Blog Deserter

Wow. I have majorly deserted my blog. So I am back and my goal is to update, even very brief updates, once a week. I know. I know. I have said this before. But I will really update it once a week. Or more! Can it be done? YES IT CAN! That way I will not have to have mega-long blog posts. I also decided to give my blog a little face lift that was long overdue. So here goes....

What is new with the Duffy Boys since the last post?

First I will begin with James, our big man on campus. Let me start by saying that the threes, well they are pretty interesting and make me tired! You can now have full on normal conversations with James. He has a lot of opinions (hmmm, wonder where he got that from!) and he is ever so happy to share them all with you. We call him the "Little Professor" because he he so serious when he talks to you and uses a lot of hand gestures. I think in a past life he may have been Italian. I love all my Italian friends! This is a big compliment! He looks at you with those huge brown eyes and you just want to eat him up he is so sweet when he is explaining things to you. He has been really interested in specific things since he was 17 months old (the first was flags of all things), and we have moved through various interests. His current ones are bugs and dinosaurs, and of course the fascination with trains remains. Man oh man, what this kid can tell you about bugs, dinos and trains. Thanks to his science teacher momma he knows about insects having six legs and where the thorax is. He knows which bugs eat what. He is always telling me that bugs are our friends. As far as dinos go, he can name so many and what they eat and what kind of teeth they have. On trains he points out the type of car, but calls the last car a "big-in-the-boose". Not sure why, but I love it and don't have the heart to correct him anymore. James has lots of "favorite things in the whole world" that he likes to tell us about, but he hates and I mean HATES going to bed. We bought his big boy bedding and will be transitioning him from a toddler bed to the bottom bunk of a bunk bed soon. Check out his new bedding here. We also sold his old bedding so his room is kind of bare at the moment. He hasn't seemed to notice...typical boy! :-) He loves school and tells me about his adventures every night. Seems like his favorite things there are playing outside, playing with play dough and doing centers. His teachers are always planning something special and he has learned so much! He also likes music day which is every Tuesday when someone comes in and does "Wiggles and Tunes". Yesterday was a big day for James. He had his first t-ball practice. He LOVED it. We've got to pick up some equipment for that and he is pretty psyched about all of it. Of course, with the threes comes the testing, testing, testing. He is a pro! Teaching your kids to be respectful and kind is a tough job. Sometimes he flat wears me out. My favorite things about James are his serious faces that he gets when he is talking about something that is important to him and the way his little face crinkles up when he throws his head back and this beautiful and infectious laughter comes out if his mouth. How he gets so mad at me when I make him do right, but then comes running to me to kiss a boo boo or snuggle with me. The pulling away battle has begun and is in full swing. But what a privilege to be the mommy of sons. To grow good men - that is my goal. No matter how exhausted I become!!! I CANNOT imagine life without this busy little boy in it!

Now on to the B. Oh the B! I can't tell you how wonderful Brendan is and how happy I am that he is part of our family. He brings so much to our family and was just the missing puzzle piece. We are constantly tickled at how different he and James are, but how they are the perfect match for brothers. They are best friends and worst enemies, one second doubled over in laughter and the next screaming at the top of their lungs. For the most part, they balance each other out and I am SO glad they have each other. Brendan is the ying to James' yang. James is the whipped cream, and Brendan is the cherry on top. Brendan is, simply, the MOST joyful little person I have ever met. I have never met someone who is in such a chronically good mood. You can learn a lot from someone so happy all the time. It is contagious! He is all soft corners and kisses. And he is still a momma's boy and I love every single second of it! I am so enjoying watching him grow. I am very excited that he has started loving books and can often be found sitting in a pile of board books looking through all of them. We read every night before bed and he will pick out the books and toddle over to me and climb up on my lap. It melts my heart. He is also talking so much now. I am really impressed. (James talked pretty late...first words on time but really talking took quite some time.) I am convinced it is because he hears so much language. When I talked to James as a baby he of course didn't talk back. But Brendan is being exposed to so much more language - two way language. Yesterday he talked in a couple of short sentence. His first sentences were: "Oh no! Where is Daddy? Where Daddy go?" Brendan's favorite things are airplanes, dogs, swinging and taking a bath. He can spot a plane from so far away and he will do baby sign language to show you. He adores our dog Cheesecake and will tell me that doggies say "Woof Woof". Whenever he can he tries to dart out the back door to swing. This kid would seriously be content to swing for hours. So grateful for our nice swing set we put in last year. James has even started pushing B on the swing. It is pretty darn cute! And bath time. Well it is pretty messy because we have to have about 100 toys in there, or at least it seems like that many and Brendan just has to dump water over the side of the tub. But he adores bath time so we try to let them have a lot of extra time to play in there. I would say it is easily one of the favorite parts of their day. Brendan never cries or is grouchy about getting his hair washed (unlike someone else who shall remain nameless!). Brendan is still good about sleeping and he loves to cuddle up in his bed. He is still cuddly in general but starting to exert his independence more. I knew this day was coming, but oh how I wish we could put it on hold for just a little longer. Each time I look at B he seems a little taller, a littler leaner. Where did my baby go? If only they could stay tiny forever. If only. Brendan also loves his school. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful place for our children to learn and explore. What they are getting to do each day and the genuine caring I see from the teachers makes my heart so happy. Brendan loves his teacher Ms. Tammy so much. She says "Oh Boy" a lot and so now B says it too and I just love it. Each day I am learning something new about Brendan and it is the best surprise each day to hear him say a new word or making me laugh over something new.

This has been the latest and greatest on my two sweet little ones! Much more to come! No pictures this time, but stay tuned!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that....

This is going to be an extremely random blog entry. But hey! That's ok! My hand/wrist is just a tiny bit sore and I can type again! YAY! So, time to catch up on everything! Going to try and pull this off bullet style!

*Got a Nook! - Daniel got me a nook for Christmas and oh my goodness is it awesome! I have read so, so much since getting it. I'm into my 4th novel and I have also downloaded some other books I am reading as well. With the two munchkins I get so busy I forgot how much I love to read. Don't have a nook? Get one! It is INCREDIBLE!

*Auburn Tigers become National Champions! - War Damn Eagle! So proud of our school!

* Brendan turned 18 months old! - I know, I know! I cannot believe it either. I cannot get over it. My little B is growing so fast. He is just such a sweetheart with the best smile. He makes me so happy and is so darn cuddly. Lately, I have seen his independent side coming out and he lets me know when he is mad now, that is for sure. I also never updated on this 15 month well baby visit. He ended up going in at 16 months because Daniel got a new shift (see below) and he was 23 lbs and 33 inches. Tall boy!

* Daniel got a new shift! - Bye bye Saturdays. I don't think I can express how truly awesome this is! The only thing more awesome is how I have been getting to sleep in every Saturday since then. :-)






* The Duffy family finally got a decent TV! - Yes, after many years we finally upgraded. For anyone who had seen our old TV, you know how exciting this is! Our old TV was so small and well, old. Loving this Vizio! Loved paying cash for it!

* Lauren re-discovered her love of coupons! - Back to playing the Grocery Game and saving lots of money thanks to Southern Savers and Money Saving Mom! Getting some good-natured ribbing from friends, but that is ok. I love COUPONS! Someone get me a shirt printed up ok!?

* James has a new passion - DINOSAURS! - Man, oh man does this kid love him some dinos! Knows so many of the names and can identify them. So of course, I had to introduce him to "Land Before Time". It's as good now as it was back then! He is going to be very excited when his new dino bedding comes in the mail from PBKids soon! :-)

* North Texas had SNOW, SNOW and MORE SNOW! - 4 days off from school = pure bliss! So needed this time with my boys. We read books, sang songs, played with play dough, did arts and crafts (including sock puppets thanks to Jessica!), baked, watched movies and had the BEST time! The last day was warm enough for J to play outside. Can't wait for B to be big enough to play in the snow next year. :-)

Ok, well I think that covers it all right now! Thanks for reading!

oh so long since a post

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I did however, fall on my arm. Thanks to all kinds of legal stuff I probably can't disclose how this all went down, but I am sure that I am allowed to say OUCH!!! Haven't been able to blog in a long time....but sooner or later I'll get back to this when I have use of both hands to type. I have lots of updates: Brendan's last well baby visit, James' latest hilarious statements, my New Year's resolutions, my profound love of my nook, and my newest addition - coupons! But for now I leave you with his cute picture and a promise to blog more real soon!

By the way, this picture is the boy's fall school picture (James age 2, Brendan 15 months....now they are 3 and almost 18 months...EEECK! Slow down time!)

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

Christmas is as magical as when you are a kid when you become a parent to a child old enough to understand what you are celebrating. James loved the whole thing and I can't wait for Brendan to get excited too!

We went down to Houston and celebrated with my parents. Their house was decorated so beautifully. There were poinsettias and pine cones and a Christmas village set up. My mom had set up multiple nativity scenes. There were two big Christmas trees and one tiny little tree just for James and Brendan. It was decorated with photo ornaments of the boys and special kiddie ornaments. There was even a little nativity scene just for them. Leave it to my mom to come up with something that sweet. All of our stockings hung on the mantle. The kitchen was stocked with spiced pecans, homemade date loaf and orange slice cookies. It was pure Christmas. What a wonderful memory!

We left out cookies that we had baked for Santa and the boys were THRILLED with the train table and other goodies Santa left on Christmas morning. James and Brendan both got excited opening gifts, although James was really more into it of course. I cannot wait for next year! It will be great!

The day after Christmas we had friends and family over. It was such a special opportunity to get us all together in one place. One of the best parts was seeing James and Brendan with their second cousins who are all near their age. What a rambunctious group of boys we have!!!

We all had such a wonderful time together as a family that we decided to spend every Christmas at my parents' house. It was so special. I know the boys will have fantastic Christmas memories as they grow up!