COMING UP!....

hey people,

I just wanted to give you a heads up that coming soon, I will be reinstating features, reviews, and best of all...giveaways!

 I have some super talented friends, it truly blows me away that I'm surrounded by so many creative minds. I want to share their work with you, so we'll be partnering to do just that here in the coming weeks. Check back here often because I haven't even determined the dates yet, so it could happen suddenly tomorrow, or possibly next week. 

Head on over to my the Features + Giveaways page here to get a sneak peek at the upcoming features and you'll for sure be back once you get a glimpse at the amazing offerings these gals will have up for grabs!

Happy Weekend!

and now to compare...

I love comparing my boys, mostly in looks. I try not to compare them to each other developmentally, but I can't help but look back at photos of Kai when he was Desmond's age.

Here are some comparison photos of them on their 2nd birthdays, wearing the same shirt thanks to daddy :)

<<< Malakai + Desmond >>>

People are always saying they look like twins, or those who knew Kai at a younger age are marveling at how Desmond looks like he did. While I think they have similarities, I mostly see their differences. I can definitely see more of Ben in Malakai and more of me in Desmond. While my husband's genes are strong and also pretty prevalent in Desmond, Des has my nose and dimples and strongly resembles the men on my side of the family when they were boys. Kai just has my chin dimple, much cuter on him than me!

Watching these boys grow is such a joy!

Dear Desmond, on your 2nd birthday.

{traditional birthday breakfast at Original Pancake House}

Dear precious Desmond,

You have grown from my baby into my little boy very quickly over the last 2 years! You've worked hard to keep up with your big brother and are always found by his side, usually mimicking his every move and word. You've picked up on a lot language over the past year and I'm still in awe over the full blown conversations we've been having over the last few months. I love that you can easily tell me how you are feeling and even why. Your verbal skills have surely come in handy in holding your own when your brother gets a bit bossy. 

You've always been our little climber, before you were walking you were climbing. Just the other day I caught you climbing your chair to reach something on the table, you waved me off and said "no problem, no problem." Sadly you're starting to tune me out when you're intent on doing something that you know you shouldn't. I see the same fierce independence Malakai had at this age coming through in you as well. 

I love watching you learn and grow. You love numbers and shapes and devour books by the dozens. We have to go to the library once a week to keep up with your appetite for reading both with someone or thumbing through picture books on your own. 

Your favorite things are animals, especially those that say "ROAR", like lions, tigers, bears and dinosaurs. You love to say chomp like a crocodile as well. You are obsessed with trucks, trains, planes and pretty much anything that goes "vroom". Your party theme was modeled after this, "things that go". You remember the different sounds that fire trucks, dump trucks, trains and other automobiles make and you've memorized a few of your favorite books. 

Running and hopping come easy to you. I'm sure you'll be pedaling a bike with ease by next spring. You are a phenomenal eater, trying almost anything and going back to try several times even when you've decided "I don't wike it!"I'm so thankful you haven't started to mimick your older brother in this regard. You have always grown fast and are now growing into Kai's clothes almost immediately after he grows out of them. 

Sleep has been a struggle for the past 10 months or so. You did well as a baby, but since last December you haven't been able to go to bed for anyone but daddy at night. The last few months have been rough even with daddy by your side. Thankfully you nap pretty consistently, although that tide is changing as well. I'm praying hard you hold on to your afternoon nap for at least another year, I know you need that rest because you get VERY cranky at dinner time without it. 

Your favorite places to go are Grandma's, Mima's and church. Whenever we get in the car you say, "go to church!" and half the time, that's exactly where we are headed. You've learned the look of our neighborhood and shout "we're home!" when we turn onto our street. 

Sweet Des, you are very social and love to play with bigger kids. You shout hello to the neighbor boys whenever the front door opens and run to greet your daddy each afternoon when he arrives home from work. You transition to new environments quickly, even when you shed a few tears of protest they dry quickly and you have a great time making friends wherever you go. 

My good natured boy, I love you dearly and am so proud to be your mama. Let's continue on this adventure and keep on growing together. Happy Birthday Desmond!

Yours, mama.

_______ ___ _______ ___ _______ ___ _______

On Desmond's 2nd birthday we woke him up and whisked away, just the 4 of us, for an early breakfast at Original Pancake House. This is a tradition we started on Malakai's 2nd birthday. It's easily one of my favorites. 

Desmond was very excited for pancakes and especially blowing out his candle. He blew it out as soon as the plate was set in front of him. We clearly needed a do-over, so the waitress came back to re-light the candle so we could sing to him and I could capture the obligatory photo. That scrunchy face didn't disappoint. Oh how I love a good 2 year old facial expression

{waiting is more bearable with a bendy-straw}

Both boys were on their best behavior and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as usual. Taking kids out to breakfast is much more preferable than dinner!

Just before we headed out we got a quick family "selfie" and by some miracle Ben captured all of us smiling (albeit Kai's is quite goofy, but it's still a smile). 

Ben headed off to work and I took the boys to play indoors at the mall (it was freezing cold and windy that morning so the park was not a great option). They had a great time and walked hand in hand so sweetly. 

{Des LOVES trains!}

Before lunch we headed to the downtown library, which is much bigger than the little branch on our side of town. Malakai was looking forward to the elevators and Desmond enjoyed running around the aisles. I grabbed a ton of books to keep them happy later that afternoon. 

We headed home for lunch, Des took a nice little nap and once Ben got home we had dinner, cupcakes and gave Desmond one of his presents. Then off to bed! It was a whirlwind of a day but Desmond had a great 2nd birthday and we still have his party to look forward to!

blog changes...I need your help!

It has been a long time since I've posted regularly, really ever since Desmond was born. Two little kids is a pretty time consuming adjustment. Then they go through so many different stages both as individuals and in their relationship as siblings that it's a wonder I can keep up at all! Sometimes I can't!

I've been brainstorming some changes for a few months, but even those are mostly just stirring around in my head. I'm hoping to carve out some time to implement some soon, and to get posting here more often. I've already got a great new handmade shop feature in the works, that I'm VERY excited about and a few others that I hope to come up after that.

I'm not changing the blog name, but I'm definitely going to update the look around here as soon as I can decide on what I like best and what most fits with how I want to use this space now and in the future.

The biggest change I'm considering is my url. I've never loved the .us web address but I don't know if I'd mess too many people up and lose some readers if I change it. A .com is easier to pass along to people without explaining, .us never became mainstream as we had thought it might. I'm considering the following replacements, breakingnewgroundblog.com or simply bngblog.com but I'm also taking suggestions and let me know if you prefer either of those two. I know the first is sort of long, but once you get it into your browser or reader once, you shouldn't have to worry about typing all that out again, so maybe length isn't a problem? Let's take a "vote", because I truly want your opinions!

Thanks for your input!

every 4-6 weeks

That's about how often I've been posting lately. I'm okay with that, life is for living. The internet has become sort of over rated for me. I guess I've become a bit disenchanted with social networking or how it can be abused. I've been pulling back some, putting my phone away a lot and just being present with my family and friends, especially my kids.

We are approaching week 7 of homeschool preschool. We've already had quite a few ups and downs, the biggest of which is a cold that knocked me out for nearly the entire last week. I can't really call in sick, but I can certainly simplify or take a rest day with my boys. That is exactly what we did. 

Last week Malakai had an unexplained case of hives. It was nerve-wracking to say the least. I tried to figure out what was causing it (still don't know) and how to get rid of it (my awesome sister ran to the store and got some benadryl). It was certainly a comedy of errors, at one point I got the boys out of a late morning bath,  Malakai's hives were worse, Desmond peed on me and then ran away to pee in his brother's room, and all I could do was laugh to keep from crying or screaming. What a weird day that way. There seem to be a lot of those with little ones in the house, it's surely an adventure. 

After the benadryl Kai totally passed out. I've never seen him so sleepy, Desmond wasn't a fan. He wanted his playmate back. Although he did enjoy trying to wake him up...

Late last month we started going to church on Wednesday nights for their "Kid Life" program which is life groups for children ages 3-5th grade. They also have the nursery open for babies, so we take the kids to their classes and then sit in the lobby and enjoy some uninterrupted conversation. It's been wonderful, and the boys love it. Between Bible studies and regular services we are at the church at least  3 times a week and they always ask for more. I couldn't be happier about that. 

In less than a week my baby turns two. I have mixed feelings about this, mostly disbelief really. Sometimes I still feel like I just got married 6 months ago, other days I feel like I've been doing this forever. I love our little life, the highs and lows and everything in between. We count ourselves blessed through trials and triumphs and I couldn't have asked for a better husband to be raising our children along side me. 

I never did get around to posting photos of Kai's "Rockin' 4th" party last July, I'll see about getting them from my mom to put them up here. 

Desmond's birthday party will have a transportation or "things that go" theme, as he is pretty obsessed with cars, trains, airplanes, and especially trucks. It has been so fun to watch him grow from my baby to my little boy this past year. I'll be sure to write more about him closer to his birthday next week. 

So that's just a few highlights (and low-lights) of things that we've been up to and had happen over the last month and what we have coming up soon.