It's Been a While...We Have Been Busy!

Ok, so it's been a while since I found the time to update the blog!! Shame on me for those of you who love the pics and tales from our crazy little world!! I just sat here, during the boys naptime and uploaded a TON of pictures from the past few weeks. But, I just realized that I uploaded them backwards, so, if you want to catch up on our lives in chronological order, scroll to the bottom of the post and work toward the top!! Either way you read it, we have been busy. We have done a lot of traveling, partying, growing, and changing!!

ETHAN
_________________________ My sweet baby Ethan! He is so precious. Poor child has had a rough tummy though. In the past 3 weeks, we have tried every, and I mean EVERY bottle that has ever been made, to try and help with the tummy issues. We switched formula, yet again!! We are now on soy formula, it seems to help the tummy some, and my goodness does it smell AWFUL!!! His diapers smell like a kitty litter box!! Very nasty! He finally settled on the Playtex Ventair bottles. Since the whole BPA thing is going on with bottles, we were able to take all the old bottles we used for Wesleigh back to Babies R Us and have them exchanged FOR FREE. We were able to get a very extensive collection of the bottles Ethan likes without paying a penney!!! It was very exciting!! We also found him a high chair like Wesleigh's that was on clearance. The high chair that we have is just so wonderful, we weren't ready to transition Wesleigh to a booster, because he needs the structure of a high chair, so we were thrilled when we found another one on sale!! Ethan's tummy is still a struggle, he must be the hardest kid in the world to burp!! It is very frustrating at times, and sometimes it seems that nothing works!! He handed out his first social smile to mommy on Thursday! It was so wonderful!! It melted my heart!! He has given a few more out since then, but you really, really, have to work for them!!! He gets stronger and stronger every day! He is more alert and curious everyday as well. AND, the best news of all is, that so far, he is showing NO signs of having the nystagmus (eye problem) that Wesleigh has!!! HIP HIP HORRAY!!!!!

Ethan had been sleeping in the pack and play bassinet in our room since coming home from the hospital. Now that we somewhat have his tummy issues under control, I moved him to his big boy bed on Monday night!! I cried!! We still have the swing in our room, where he usually ends up after his middle of the night feed because his tummy doesn't relax enough to go back to bed!! So, we now have 2 baby monitors on my side of the bed. Wesleigh is channel A and Ethan is Channel B!! This is was at Nana's house!
OH this is a hoot!! This is in his swing, in our bedroom. It was one morning after I already got up with Wesleigh. I was in the kitchen making a waffle for Wesleigh (his new favorite breakfast) and I heard Ethan just start screaming bloody murder. So, I went to see what the issue was, and this is what I found!! Being the naturally mean mommy that I am, I took a picture before I saved him from the eye eating hat!!!

He is 5 weeks in this picture. We were just chillin' one morning.

SUNDAY NIGHT WITH THE MCCLEERY FAMILY

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On Sunday night we had dinner with Katie, Joey and their beautiful girls in George West. This picture was taken after the kids got out of the bath!! Abby is the oldest, then Emma, then Sara-Kate! They have a new cousin on the way and who knows, before too long, they will probably have a new sister on the way!! Could be a brother, but I'm not holding my breath!!! They make beautiful girls, they will probably just stick with what they know!!

Sara-Kate is being silly in this picture and Wesleigh is actually just chillin' for once!!

Cute kids!Ok...so when Wesleigh says enough is enough, he means enough is enough!!!

PARTY AT NANA'S

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On Saturday we had a big family party at my mom's house. There was a lot of extended family that we don't see very often there. It was great to see them again and to introduce them to my two sweet boys. The party was for my mom's cousin Jim, who turned 65 (I think) and for my mom who will be 53 tomorrow!! It was lots of fun. It was one of those crazy Texas days where you were in shorts sweating during the day, and bundled up in coats at night!! The kids played HARD all day long! Wesleigh stayed up until 11:30 that night. He played hard the whole time. It is Wednesday, and I am just now getting him recovered from his hard partying!!!

This is Dakota. She is my brother Brad's youngest daughter. Those HUGE eyes and precious curls are only the tip of the iceberg. She is a precious child who steals your heart a million times a day!!This is sweet Laynie. She is my cousin Ashleigh's little girl. She is 8 days older than Wesleigh and spoiled rotten!! Laynie will be a big sister in September!!

MATCHING BOYS

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Before Ethan was born, my mom bought the boys some matching outfits. I love them! I would never make them match every day, but every now and then, I think it is totally adorable!! This was on Sunday. I dressed the boys in their matching duds that morning, then about 6 hours later their daddy realized they were matching!! Men! I swear...they are so attentive to the details!! Turns out they were matching him too!! That part wasn't planned, but I took advantage anyway!!

My 3 boys in orange!

Wesleigh passing out a slobbery kiss! At least it wasn't a lick!! He has started licking Ethan's head instead of kissing him sometimes. It is really gross and all boy!! If you find a little matted part of hair on Ethan's head, you know you found the site of a Wesleigh licking!!! YUM!

More kisses! Ethan is so tolerate! He rarely gets mad at Wesleigh, and I know it won't be long before he thinks Wesleigh is the funniest thing on earth!!

I just can't get enough of the two of them interacting! It is so wonderful. Look at the way Ethan is looking at him!

Hmmm....Wesleigh wasn't being very cooperative!! Imagine that!

This was cute and fun while it lasted, but when it was over, meaning that Wesleigh had had enough, he used his feet to try and roll Ethan off the chair an onto the floor!!! He was very very quick about it!!! Lucky for Ethan, Mommy and Daddy were there to save the day!!

I'd like to believe that some day catching great pics of the two of them will get easier, but I am no fool! I realize that as soon as Ethan starts moving that they will only become more challenging!!

WESLEIGH

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Well, on Saturday night Wesleigh got his first busted lip! It was a good one too!! I'm still not exactly sure what happened, but it was about 10:30 pm... a mere 2 1/2 hours past his normal bed time and he tripped and fell. I don't know what he hit, but he busted his lip up pretty good. It took me a good 10 minutes to get it to stop bleeding. He stopped crying almost instantly, but it wouldn't stop bleeding. I have had a lot of people lately tell me how tough he is!! It makes me proud. I will NOT raise a sissy!!! I love that he is tough and bounces back from the bumps and bruises of life as a little boy!! I do not baby him over little things, but I am certainly there to kiss the hurt away from the big knocks in life!!!

Wesleigh is learning new things everyday. He loves to sing songs, read books, and play outside. His favorite songs are Jesus Loves Me, The Wheels on the Bus, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider!! He has recently learned how to show you where his eyes and nose are. We are still working on other body parts...one at a time. We are also working on learning animal sounds. Right now we are working on what the COW says. I do a LOT of mooing!! :-) He still loves to read, and it is one of my favorite times of day when I rock and read to him before he goes to bed. He knows that he can't get down, so he cuddles and cuddles with me! Sometimes we cuddle for 20-30 minutes while we read and sing songs before bed. It is such a precious time of the day. Being the busy, crazy boy that he is, it isn't very often throughout the day that he will just cuddle up and sit with you, but it is a guarantee at night! I LOVE IT!!

Wesleigh has discovered the massive drawer full of tupperware lids in the kitchen! I purposefully left it not childproofed so he could play with them. That boy can scatter those lids from one end of the house to the other!! He also likes to play in the trash and throws things away! I recently had to move the trash can to the pantry, after I discovered 2 of his leap frog refridgerator magnets in the trash!!

We just switched allergy medications to see if we can't fix some of the sickness we have been having. He has been on Zyrtec for a while, but yesterday we just switched to a prescription, Singulair. Hopefully it will work! The only thing that I already don't like about it, is that it is granules in a little packet. You have to sprinkle it over some kind of food!! Such a gamble with Wesleigh, because you never know if he is going to take the next bite of something. We used ice cream last night, I haven't decided what will work tonight!

He is playing with the phone (a forbidden fruit in our house) so that I could try and get a picture of is banged up lip the next day!!

Wesleigh being silly while hanging with his daddy!

LONGING!!! Is there any place greater than OUTSIDE when you are a little boy?? I really don't think so. He LOVES it outside. He likes to wander through the grass, pick up rocks, sticks, just go exploring. He loves to swing and slide. He was introduced to fire ants this weekend. Thank goodness somehow he only got away with one bite, Mommy and Daddy ended up with more that that while trying to rescue him from the ants! He loves to play with the dogs and follow his cousin Dakota around. He isn't crazy about wearing the hats mommy makes him wear to try and protect his head though. He also had fun dragging the water hose around the yard and pulling the carpet grass runners. He also had fun hi-jacking EVERYONE's drinks and putting leaves in the cups!

Crazy kid!

WEEKEND IN SAN ANGELO
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2 weekends ago we were in San Angelo for a long weekend. Jim's parent's had a birthday party for him and we spent a lot of quality time visiting with his grandmother. She has ALS and it is in very advanced stages. We got some great pictures of her and the boys, but I am not going to post them. I am not sure that she would want them out there in her advanced state. I am thrilled to have great pictures for the boys though. I am glad that she has met them both and we will be grateful for anytime she gets to spend with them.

Jim's party was a great little family get together. His dad made a slide show DVD with lots of pictures from the past and the present!! It was fun to see it. Wesleigh had a great time exploring with G-Pa! He had adventures to the creek on the four wheeler. Collisions with mesquite bushes! They spent time playing on the fort in the back yard and rolling down the hill. We had a great weekend in San Angelo and left with plenty of bumps, scrapes, and bruises to prove it!!! That's how you know a tough little boy had fun!!! Gran spent lots of quality time cuddling and caring for Ethan! She was a huge help while getting in lots of quality time. Gran and G-Pa even let me and Jim go out for a date on Sunday night. We went to dinner and a movie. Came home to Wesleigh in bed, and Ethan ready for bed!! It was nice!! THANKS A MILLION!!

This is at Jim's grandparent's house. Wesleigh had this shreaded paper all over the place. He had a blast and it kept him out of the many many other things that little boys can discover in the homes of old people who have long forgotten about childproofing!! G-Pa was in on the fun too!!

Oh my...what fun!

"What Mom"?

DADDY'S 30th BIRTHDAY
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March 8th was Jim's 30th birthday! We celebrated with Guy and Jaedyn all weekend. On Sunday we had a big lunch out with friends from church, then of course we had the famous chocolate cake. I gave Jim a bunch of much needed new clothes. T-shirts and shorts. Each of the kids gave him a different kind of chocolate!! He had a great day, but I think he still can't believe that he is 30!!

This was after a bike ride!

Won't be long and Ethan will be in on all the big adventures as well!! Gotta love how Maggie managed to make it in the pictures!!

So, overall, we have been super busy, which would explain why it has been so long since I posted anything. We have no plans to travel anywhere until Jim's sister's wedding the 3rd weekend of April. My parents are coming here for Easter weekend, because we have a lot of projects that we need help with!!! I am looking forward to life calming down a bit, at least for the next few weeks anyway!! It won't be long and summer will be here, then we will be off on great adventures with the families. We have wonderful vacations planned with both our families!! Can't wait!!