We've all been so grateful for the warm (ish) weather we've had so far this spring.  It's so nice to get outside with the boys and play.  Grant has been out with his basketball and his Little Tikes Hoop just about everyday since it's been warm.

Here's a great picture of the boys ... they were outside first thing on a chilly morning playing basketball. 



And a great picture of Drew falling asleep in his lunch one day... also check out the video of him doing the sleepy head bob...







MY BIRTHDAY
Although I'm really not acknowledging my birthday anymore, everyone else still seems to be...
Mom and dad came down for the afternoon of my birthday and hung out with me and the boys and took us all out for dinner.  Here's a cute pic of Drew and Grandma reading together

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And then we celebrated my birthday and Walt's brother Casey's birthday at the Valiant's over the weekend.
Here's my boys hangin' out on the couch.  Notice Drew trying to change the channel on the TV and Grant in his basketball clothes but still with his nice socks from his nicer clothes.  Good lookin' fellas in my life, eh?




another cute pic of Drew...

Drew is talking up a storm these days.  He'll be two in just a couple weeks and I just can't believe it.  He's grown up so much in the past few months.  And although he is still the more challenging of the two (just because he requires a lot more attention and activity than Grant ever did), he is insanely cute and sooo sweet!  Some of our favorite things he says these days are as follows:

mommy cuggles   =     (mommy cuddles, I want to cuddle with mommy)
BOP IT!   =    (stop it!) 
Gant   =    (Grant)
weep   =   (sleep)
daddy guck   =   (Daddy's truck)
AHH  Wooo?  =    (Where are you?)
deet  =    (eat... this is his favorite word)
my boo   =    (my ball)
my boogas   =   (my boogers... he says as he points to his nose)

and there's much, much more... to hear them all, you'll have to come visit us!


And the Grant man... he is such a 40 year old trapped in a 4 year old's body.  He's crazy smart, reading and doing simple math.  He craves knowledge constantly... and when he isn't busy figuring something out he's bugging us about something.  He's so shy around most people but at home he talks NON-STOP.   His latest spark of cuteness involved a grocery list that he wrote himself! 

See pictures below... I'm going to keep this forever ... it is too precious!






And I'll end with a cute picture of the boys.  They played outside most of the afternoon yesterday and needed a break to have a popsicle... here they are standing in the garage enjoying their snack.

It's officially my favorite time of year.  BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT time!!!  Is anything more exciting?  AND Purdue won the Big Ten Tournament yesterday.  It's even more fun when you have a dog in the fight, ya know!  Thursday starts the opening round of the NCAA tourney and the past two weekends we've watched our town's High School team compete in the state tourney.  Fun stuff!!!  Grant is becoming a little crazy about it too.  He's even gone so far as to be very choosy about what clothes he wears most days.  Usually he only wants to wear basketball clothes like shorts and cut off T's or his favorite nylon sweat pants that he says look like warm up pants.  It's so cute and I can appreciate a good choice in cool athletic clothes. 
Anyway, many people I know (namely my uncle) have exclaimed their displeasure in the way the HS state tourney is handled these days... with the four class system.  They say it has taken a lot of the excitement out of tourney time.  And I understand that it has... it certainly has at my old high school from what I understand.  However, NOT in this neck of the woods.  The excitement around here is INSANE and I LOVE IT!!!!!  The quality bball programs in this part of the state are plentiful and our town's team is no exception.  We've enjoyed five years now of high quality teams with high profile players not to mention a couple of State Championships thrown in for good measure.  We've had five kids go on to play Div I ball since we moved here just 8 yrs ago with a definite sixth one on his way.  The sectional and regional sites down here are amazing...  full of rivalries just like the old days. 

To prove how exciting it is and to show you how our little corner of the state is still very much alive with hoosier hysteria... check out this video from Saturday morning's regional semi-finals at the hatchet house (yes it's our high school's gym... one of the largest HS gyms in the country so we hear).  MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR SOUND UP!!!





A couple pictures of the boys at the game... Grant doesn't look very happy in his picture... he was irritated that I had the camera in his face while he was trying to watch the teams warm up before the game.

Well, it's March and today was a good spring day.  The boys and I spent a good part of the afternoon outside messing around.  Drew had a blast kicking around the soccer ball and Grant "mowed" the yard with his Gator.  After awhile we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood... which isn't really a walk for Grant and Drew and it's a "jog" for me.  The boys ride in the gator as I tag along behind trying to keep pace with their lightning speed.  I decided after this "walk" today that I should really work out more!!!

Nothing much else to report.  Here's some cute pics of the boys looking handsome before church last Sunday:








And here's my "willing to try anything if you explain it to me to where it makes sense..." guy doing YOGA poses on the Wii Fit
TOO FUNNY!!!

I happen to think my little guys are the cutest ones in this entire world.  I understand that I might be MAYBE a little on the biased side but... well, see for yourselves.  Grant and I got a bright idea on Friday to go out and play in the "snow" (which was actually melting and turning into slush) since it had gotten so warm outside.  So, he quickly put on his hat, a sweatshirt, and his snow boots while still in his Panda pj's.  He apparently thought he looked like a super tough guy as he posed for the camera - I couldn't resist - he's never without some type of comical expression.  So, here's my bruiser:






and because big brother was getting mom's attention, Drew wanted to try and be "tough guy"



but as you can see, the only look he pulled off is "sweet guy"....  he couldn't stop smiling....

So, after the boys quit posing for the camera ... Drew took a nap and Grant and I ventured outside.  We decided to shovel the walk both with the shovel and also with Grant's big tough John Deere loader.  In this first picture you'll see that we might have been breaking some child labor laws....





and then it was time for break to eat some snow and hang out with Shadow... the snow, grant informed me, was not yellow...

Ok.  Since, once again, I write a regrettable post about how I never update this website anymore ... I've decided it's time for a change.  I'm just going to do the blog style from here on out... with the OCCASIONAL  special addition on a separate page. 

So, let's do a quick recap.  We've been very busy, we're still very busy, and we plan to be very busy for quite some time!!!

OK fine!!!!!

It's been a very cold January here in the "luxurious" southwest region of Indiana.  But we capped it quite nicely with a trip to Las Vegas with some friends for a few days (Heather, Jerod, Noel, Alex, Jill, Walt, and me).  We had a great time and just happened to avoid the winter blast that hit southern Indiana while we were gone.  Unfortunately, Walt had to cut the trip short due to a very important meeting at work that came up AFTER we had made travel arrangements.  However, once he flew home and drove throght the ice and snow covered highways in the middle of the night, he was told the meeting was canceled.  I felt really bad for him but continued to enjoy myself with our firends in Vegas nonetheless!!

Here's a few pics of our trip:

This is the group at Iron Chef Mario Batali's Italian restaurant in the Venetian Hotel.



A great shot of the strip at dusk.



Me and my bff Heather at the Donny and Marie show.  (that's right, we like Donny Osmond)





And in other news....  there's a foot of snow in our yard so, Grant has been enjoying playing in it on his sled and also plowing the sidewalk with his loader.  Drew... not so much.  He loves his snow boots... but he'd rather wear them in the house with his pajamas...

D-Mack looking cute:







Drew is now 13 months old and filling out quite nicely (rounding out at a hefty 24 lbs).  He is quite a joy to be around (most of the time) and has the most contagious giggle.  He loves to play with Grant and lately they've been enjoying taking baths together.  They get each other laughing and splashing... including splashing me.  It's great though - saves me time doing their baths together and they have a blast.  In fact, if Drew hears the bath water he darts off to the bathroom.  One night I decided to give Grant a bath and NOT Drew and he became terribly upset with me.  The kid can't see, but he can hear the bath water running a mile away.  Grant is also learning to share toys with Drew although it's still a struggle at times. 

More on Drew's development:  He's not officially walking yet and doesn't show any real desire although he gets where he needs / wants to go with no problem and usually in record speed.  So, calculating the effort to need ratio - he's probably figured it's just not worth it.  He walks around the furniture really well - in fact, if he has anything to hold onto he does great and he has crawling down to a science!

He's eating all table food now and also enjoys throwing it on the floor when he's full.  He knows a few signs including 'up', 'more', 'please', and 'all done'.  He can also say a couple things like 'ma ma' (my favorite), 'bye' and 'hi' which he pronounces 'buh' and 'huh' while holding his arm stiffly in the air and waving his hand.  In fact, whenever he enters or exits a room or is attempting to engage someone in conversation he will use the 'huh' or 'buh' greeting.

Of all of Drew's cute tendencies, our house favorite is his excessive swaying.  He sways to anything all the time.  When he wakes in the morning and I go to get him out of bed, he'll be standing up hanging on to the railing of his crib swaying back and forth.  There's no music on, no rhythm in the air - just whatever is going on his head.  It's hilarious and incredibly cute in my seriously biased opinion.
'

Drew sporting his new glasses - as if he could get any cuter...



After a follow up visit to the ophthalmologist, it was decided that Drew needs glasses right away to try and help correct his nystagmus (the oscillation his eyes do) and strabismus (right eye crosses).  The doctor is hoping this helps so that surgery isn't a necessary step for correction.  I hope so too!!!  I discussed this in depth in one of the first entries on here so I won't re-hash everything but basically I have the same stuff Drew has - I must have gotten it from him!  Wait... ok - I guess he got it from me.  Sorry, sweetie!  Anyway, I have had two surgeries on mine - one at 18mnths and another at 16yrs (in the middle of basketball season might I just add... lost my starting spot... OH, this isn't about me, is it?).  So, because I've been through it I just wasn't all that worried about Drew possibly going through it.  And, honestly, I'm still not.  But I have to admit, when the dr. said we'd try glasses first I was so relieved.  I thought about someone messing with his adorable little face and I got a little worked up.  Whatever the result, I'll be ok with it.  We're really happy that it isn't any worse.  And on another positive note, his vision does seem to improve when he has the glasses on.  His daycare provider marveled over what a different kid he is with them on.  No more stranger anxiety (apparently he can actually see them now) and he just seems much more content and receptive to things .. and calmer which is a REALLY good thing for my patience!!!!  He has, even since growing out of the collick stuff, periods of time every day where he's just fussy for absolutely no reason.  Since wearing his glasses more, that has seemed to drastically improve.  So, we can only take that to mean he is a little more comfortable with his environment.  From what they've been able to measure so far, his vision isn't quite as bad as mine but he is far sighted like I am.  And I can tell you that most people think I'm totally blind and ... I am with only one eye opened... but with both I can see pretty much anything... it's just the details and depth that are real fuzzy.  So, I can actually really understand his apprehension with people around whom he's not 100% comfortable.  It's probably as if he's seeing them for the first time every time.  I have this problem STILL even with my contacts or glasses on... if someone waves to me from a distance - like across a crowded room or from their car at an intersection - I often times have no idea who it is or don't even notice.  This, I'm sure, causes people to think I'm unfriendly.  Well... maybe I am anyway.  But a lot of it is because I'm very uncomfortable with distance vision and very uncomfortable with eye contact unless it's someone I know really well.

ANYWAY... sorry for the rambling...

This entry is a month late but we celebrated an awesome birthday for Drew complete with all the family, messy cake, and lots of gifts.  Here's some great shots of Drew on the big day:





He also had a blast opening gifts - with lots of help from big brother Grant and daddy (see Grant's hand in the picture below).