Just when you think it's not worth it...

I'd been having one of those weeks.

You fellow moms know what I'm talking about... The weeks when nothing you do as a mom seems to be right. You're back dealing with that same discipline issue you thought had been conquered last month! You wonder if you really are impacting your children. Or maybe the world would be better off you just went back to that career you left behind. You question if you are really making a difference. Wondering if you are raising children that will impact their world for the better.

As I usually do when I begin internalizing my life, I cleaned my kitchen. If you walk into my house and the kitchen is spotless, it's not a good sign...

Caleb was napping. Daniel was playing at his train table. I'm sure I'd just yelled at him and he was staying away! I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Set it to run. Scrubbed the guards under my stove burners. Used my fingernails to scrape the gunk off the back of Caleb's highchair (don't ask what it was or how it got there!). Wiped off counters. Disinfected the trashcan. Swept and mopped the floor. Just as I was finishing, Daniel walked into the kitchen.

His eyes got wide and in a tone full of pure, innocent, glee said, "Oh, Mommy! Thank you for making the kitchen all clean!"

I burst into tears. Thank you God for sending my three-year-old boy to encourage my heart so. It is worth it and God is allowing me to impact these precious lives!

It Finally Happened...

Caleb clobbered Daniel.

I realize it's not an event to celebrate, but I knew it was coming and it was so shocking when it finally happened. Daniel is... let's say... less than gentle with Caleb. That's fine. He's a boy. They're brothers. It's bound to happen. We intervene when it gets malicious. But we have continually warned Daniel that one day Caleb is going to fight back -- so beware!

I happened upon a squabble over some sort of transportation vehicle -- a truck, train, bull dozer -- all of which are a source of competition in our home these days. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Daniel take the vehicle from Caleb. At this point, Caleb usually screams and looks to me for intervention. However, on this day he decided to take matters into his own hands. He gave Daniel a 21 pounder, mighty shove! And seemed quite pleased with himself.

Then of course Daniel shoved back. Caleb started to scream. Discipline for both insued. I had a whole other set of issues on hand. But deep down I thought, "Good for you, Caleb!"

What was that prayer about them being brothers who would lay their lives down for the other...

And actually I have seen an example of that already. An older kid (3 yrs?) shoved Caleb while we were playing at the McDonalds playplace. Daniel ran right over and shoved the older kid and gave him a tongue lashing for touching his little brother. Not that Daniel's actions were morally right (and I did deal with them), but it was sweet to see him stand up on Caleb's behalf.

Roomies!!

With about six weeks before Wilson Boy #3 arrives we decided it was time to get Daniel and Caleb used to sharing a room. But before we could do that, there was a little bit of work to be done. I used this same decor when we put Daniel in a "big boy room" before Caleb was born. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of putting the wall border within reach of two year olds. Within two weeks Daniel had peeled most it off. And in my laziness I let it stay that way for a year!

Before Caleb went into Daniel's room, I stripped all the old wall border off and painted the darker, bottom green color to a higher level on the wall. Then put up new border.

For several days leading up to the big move Patrick would ask Daniel what he thought about Caleb sleeping with him. His response, "No, YOU sleep with Caleb. Mommy sleep with ME." He is still negotitating - I'll trade you one Caleb for one Mommy...

We added some new wall hangings to match the decor.

I also made plaques with the boys' names and a corresponding Bible verse that were hung over their beds -- the verses are kind of a prayer of what we hope for each of the boys.

Daniel's plaque reads, "...people must fear and reverance the God of Daniel. He rescues and he saves; he perfoms signs and wonders in heaven and on the earth." Dan. 6:6&27

Caleb's plaque reads, "...my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly..." Num. 14:24

They are doing great as roomies! I thought I'd be hearing talking and fits of giggles at 5am, but so far that hasn't happened. I do hear a lot more jabber in the morning when they wake up. Daniel tells me that they are playing "fall down" in their beds. Our hope and prayer is that all our boys grow up to love each other as brothers who would lay down their lives for the other.

Finally Caught Up ~ January & Febuary

Following are some random pictures from January and Febuary. Actually, I'm not sure there are any pictures from Febuary...

One of January's biggest highlights was Caleb's first steps (I realize this isn't a pictue of Caleb walking, but it's a cute picture of him and Daddy). Daniel took his first steps about a week before his first birthday. So when Caleb still wasn't walking at fourteen and a half months, we didn't think it would ever happen. However, there is one thing we have learned about Caleb. Caleb doesn't do something unless Caleb wants to do that something. We figured he could walk. He just didn't want to. And then one night as Patrick and I were sitting on the couch we saw Caleb let go of the couch on one side of the room and walk completely across to the couch on the opposite side. We had never seen him take a step and his first time was 8-9 steps in a row! Little Stinker!! Of course, we all clapped and cheared and Daniel kept urging his little brother to take some more steps. Despite basking in the glory of his accomplishment, we did not see Caleb take another step for a week! Now, two months later, he doesn't walk anywhere. He runs!

Another highlight of January and Febuary was taking our annual ski trip. This year we were joined by Howard, Dan, Ralph, Dan and Angel Farran and the Burch Family. And our friends Monica and Jimmy from Colorado Springs joined us for a day. Of course, I didn't ski, but we were staying in a huge, beautiful cabin and I didn't feel like I had to "keep house" so I enjoyed just sitting around reading and doing Sudoku without feeling guilty that I didn't have a load of laundry going.

The huge, beautiful cabin we stayed in. We found it using Vacation Rentals By Owner (http://www.vrbo.com/). By waiting until the "last minute" we were able to negotiate a great rate.

Daniel's new best friend, Evan. They were inseparable and invented many new games with the pool and fuzeball tables. And another game, which involved dropping various objects from the third floor into the stairwell.

Still Catching Up ~ December

Just continuing to catch up on the past few months. Following are some highlights from our December.

Sometime mid-December we went to the christmas tree lot and picked out our tree. Caleb and Patrick are standing in front of the tree that we ultimately chose after debating back and forth about getting a Fraizer Fur or Colorado Pine - Patrick wanted the traditional Fraizer Fur while I wanted the tall, gangly Colorado Pine. We compromised and got some type of pine tree from Pacific Northwest. And it was the fullest, prettiest tree I have seen. And then we got it home... First we couldn't fit it into our christmas tree stand so Patrick literally, this is not an exaggeration, spent TWO HOURS hacking at the trunk to get it into the stand. Our wonderful neighbor, Steve, helped carry it into the house and get it standing. That's when we realized our perfect tree had the most crooked trunk we have ever seen. I think it bent at almost a 45 degree angle. No matter what we did we could not get the tree to stand up straight. So we positioned it to lean toward the corner (just in case it fell over!) and stared at it for two days. Do we take it back to the lot? Do we keep it? We decided to keep it and figured this will just be a year we look back on an laugh about our crooked, 7 foot tall, $90 christmas tree! Thankfully, it never fell over, but we had to put it by the curb on the first trash day after christmas. Turned out that despite Patrick's hard efforts to get the trunk to fit in the stand, the trunk wasn't in far enough to get water and the tree had become a major fire hazard.

My apologies for not having a picture of the tree standing crooked in our living room.

Daniel playing on the bear at the mall the day we took him and Caleb to see Santa Claus. I don't have a picture of that either because it was quite a traumatic experience for both boys. Patrick commented that a couple kids waiting in line seemed a little too old to be visiting Santa. After our experience with both boys screaming and wriggling their way off Santa's lap (and seeing several other parents deal with the same situation) we came to the conclusion that you take your children when they are 9 or 10 because that's when they stop being afraid of Santa.

I can't help, but notice Daniel is the only one with his finger in his nose. Probably the "Tallman" in him. All these children are standing in line to swing at the pinata at our friend's Posada - a latino Holiday tradition.

We had a lot of fun snowfall in December!

And Christmas arrived with Grandmama and Grandaddy Wilson and a fresh fall of snow! So far we are 2-0 of White Christmases in Colorado!

Seeing both sets of grandparents within a month! These boys are spoiled.

Opening stockings on Christmas morning. Daniel loved he and Caleb's matching PJs. I was so happy to see something in my stocking this year. It was empty last year. :-(

Is wrong for the mommy and wife to fill her own stocking?

The boys are playing with a Fisher Price Little People nativity set. I love this set because it means I don't have to let them play with the one my grandmother made and was passed to me by my mom.

Caleb's favorite gift -- a $2 toy flip phone.

Daniel's big gift from Mommy and Daddy - a not $2 train table for all his Thomas toys.

But the real hit of the day was Uncle Howard's racecar track. It was also a self-entertaining toy and that made Mommy happy!!

Daniel enjoying the Christmas snowfall. I think this picture was taken the day after Christmas because both boys started running fevers and got a severe case of the pitifuls by mid-morning on Christmas day. We had to cancel having Christmas dinner with some friends, but had a relaxing day at home. I came down with strep throat that night. Patrick got a sinus infection a few days later and that is how our 2007 ended! We were in bed by 10pm on New Year's Eve. Quite sad...

Getting Caught Up ~ November

I have come to a conclusion regarding this blogging stuff... I really stink at it! I guess I think every post has to be some eloquently funny story from our lives, when really, Mama and Grandmama just want to see pictures of their grandbabies. So, for right now I'm just catching up. Enjoy these snapshots from our November!!

Mama and Papa flew in from Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with us. We went for a VERY cold walk on the trail behind our house.

Two very tired boys... No doubt Papa was tired from the chemo treatment he had received a week earlier. Daniel was tired from the excitement of having grandparents in the house. I thought it was so sweet that all on his own, Daniel climbed up next to my dad and fell asleep.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My parents were here and we were so thankful that Daddy was responding well to his chemo treatments. We had twelve people over for Thanksgiving dinner - the Frank family, Katharine, Howard and my parents. I have to admit that I cooked a pretty fabulous meal. It may have had something to do with the three pounds of butter I bought four days before Thanksgiving, of which only one stick remained when we sat down to dinner. Yep, almost three pounds of butter on that table somewhere!

We have discovered a wonderful indoor playground near our house called Monkey Bizness. Daniel got to enjoy some time with Papa on the two story slide. I have to say that one of Daniel's most defiant moments (so far) came at the top of that slide! On a previous trip I had told him to go down two more times and then we were going to leave. He went down once more, climbed to the top -- and promptly refused to come down again. He didn't think Mommy would actually climb to the top herself!

But that is exactly what Mommy did and pushed Daniel over the edge. Then it was a prompt trip to the restroom... And people think we have perfect kids... We do love Monkey Bizness though! They are open late one night a week and Patrick really likes taking Daniel there. It is a lifesaver when it's too cold or snowy to be outside.

Daniel benefiting from one of Mommy's pregnancy cravings -- mmmm, Krispie Kream!

Caleb asking if he could come outside and play in the snow too.

Tennessee Volunteers vs LSU Tigers

As you can see from the following pictures and video, we have raised our boys well... enough said.

Daniel needed almost no prompting for the following random act of violence.