Happy New Year!

My hope for the New Year is that this wild life I lead with my family will slow down (just a little)...Though I am sure that as my boys get older, life is actually going to keep flying by.

I pray for a better 2010 then 2009 has been...and in reality that will not take much.

I look forward to watching my boys continue to grow and change right before my eyes. I am proud to be their Mommy.

And I am truely grateful for a husband that works extremely hard everyday so that I can be home with my boys. I wish him luck in the coming year with school, and know that he will continue to get the good grades that he works so hard for.

I am done being sappy now...I was having one of those moments.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Wesley is three years old today! It has been so much fun watching grow and change over the past three years...and I know that I have a lot more to look forward too. Wesley is a just an all round great kid - I couldn't have picked a better one if I tried. Since I blog about him a lot you know what he is up too, so here are some pictures taken over the last 3 years.The day after he was born

This one is at around 2 monts old

This has always been one of my favorites (Noel, and me too swear Grandma made him do it). Wesley is about 7 months old in this picture.

Getting ready to play in the snow - January following his first birthday.

Early Spring following his second birthday...riding his gift from Grandma and Grandpa

Taken this year but it is a favorite of mine

Wesley loves to pretend he is "cooking"


Happy Birthday to my sweet boy (I still call him my baby but really he is not a baby anymore)

Cookie Caution

***WARNING***

For those that would find anatomically correct gingerbread people offensive, please do not read/look at the pictures on this post. For the rest of you...these are funny.

The one above, I made for my sister...My mother did ask me to decorate some for her. And the one below, I took home for myself. By the way, my mother is not proud of me or my Aunt or my sister in law - she asked my dad to talk to us, probably wanted us to stop.

Three Days of Christmas

For our family the Christmas celebrating started on December 23rd and continued right on until yesterday the 25th. It has been a crazy yet fun three days - but now I am tired and the boys are tired. Here is a recap of the last three days...and yes there are pictures.

December 23rd - let the celebrating begin with the annual Weyerman Family gathering at Aunt Brittney's house. But for a moment let's back up and tell a little story about a trip to Target that ended with Wesley in a shopping cart that rolled off the curb with him in it...luckily all is well and the injuries were way less then what I expected. Ok, back to the fun. After a fabulous dinner, we were treated to some fun Christmas music...courtesy of our talented family members. We then exchanged gifts - I am so proud of Wesley, though he desperately wanted to rip right into his presents he, not so patiently, waited until it was our family's turn to open.

Stetson, several pics of the family, and Wesley (getting extremely sticky I might add)

December 24th - Yes, I did make another trip to the grocery store but it was an uneventful trip and we were home in no time. The boys and I had a relaxing day at home while Daddy worked, the boys took much needed naps in preparation for cookie decorating (best Christmas tradition ever!). Before heading to Grandma and Grandpa Alton's, we started a new tradition in our home and made pizza (though I have to say, next year we may purchase pizza...same cost by the time I purchase all the toppings and such) which we ate while watching Elf. Then we headed to decorate cookies followed by the playing of the Candy Bar Game, even Wesley enjoyed the game this year and will probably be heavy competition next year. Then we came home and put on our new jammies, followed by the reading of the Christmas story. Boys to bed, more baking...by this point my back hurts so bad I can hardly stand up to finish the baking, oh well, it was well worth it and finish wrapping gifts. Then bed...Yay!

December 25th - Christmas morning and Wesley woke early, not because of wanting to open gifts but because of a too full diaper. He would not go back to bed but did watch TV until Max woke up two hours later - Mommy cat napped until then. It was great fun watching the boys open their Christmas presents and it was also fun to open my own presents. This year I made cheese danish for breakfast (newly started tradition of homemade pastry of some kind). The boys had a bath with bubble bath brought by Santa, then it was nap time so that we could try to ward off the crabbies at Grandma and Grandpa Alton's. The boys had fun opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma put together a wonderful dinner, of which I ate too much. The girls then decided to escape to a movie and left the boys behind with the kiddos. At home later the boys had an early bedtime and Mommy collapsed.

All in all it was a fun few days...and you would think that I would now get to relax and enjoy the end of the year...but you would be wrong. Wesley turns THREE this week and I am having family over to celebrate on Sunday (tomorrow) - and Max decided to dump half a bottle of bubble bath (thanks Santa!) on my carpet...Let the clean up begin!

The 2009 Year in Review

Well family, friends, and random blog readers....the year is coming to a close and that means that it is time to write my newsletter for the year. But this year, I have decided to be cheap and instead of printing and mailing a letter, I am recording my newsletter in blog form. And yes, I am still mailing a Christmas card but many of you will not receive it until after Christmas has past, let me just say I did try this year to get it out in time but a certain almost 3 year old decided not to cooperate at family picture time and the card making was delayed. Greg decided to add some comments of his own...they are in italics.

2009 was a year of changes for our family, well mainly Greg. But even with all that has happened it has been a pretty good year...

Greg has decided it is time to finish his degree and has started taking classes through the University of Phoenix. This is an online school that allows him to take one class at a time in 5 week rotations. He is doing great and loving the challenge - he will graduate in 2011. In order to do this Greg also had to make a job change. He left Schwan's in April and started working for MyBullFrog.com, and then realized he was not happy there and found a job with Tom Scott Toyota. Greg is a natural salesman and I think he has found somewhere to work where he is happy. When he is not working or going to school, Greg loves to spend time with his boys and really loves when he can have free time (no boys) with his lovely wife. I (Greg) will agree that this (written by Cynthia) is true. I do love my job a lot and have found something that I truely enjoy. Alas, I could make more money but I do love what I do and who I work with. It really has been like being in a tornado careerwise for me this year, but I know that I am being blessed. With great challenges come great rewards!

Cynthia has officially spent her first year as a stay at home Mommy and even though this presents its own challenges, it was a great decision. And if the two boys don't keep her busy enough - she has added taking care of two little girls each day. All of the kids get along great, and it has been a lot of fun. Cynthia loves updating her blog (especially with updates on her two boys...and occasionally the cats), and finding projects around the house. Sometimes I (Greg) come home to her sitting in a pile of blocks with all 4 kids laughing her head off and gigling uncontrollably. Yes, I do believe she had lost it! Those are the days that make me laugh and I do what I can to help her try to regain some of her sanity...

Wesley continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It is nice to talk to him and actually know what he is saying - we even get complete sentences! He loves his Cars shoes, and trains - sharing the trains (or most toys) with little brother is hard but he is learning. Wesley loves to pretend and has an awesome imagination. And I can not believe that he will be THREE at the end of the year. Time really has gone by too fast, I miss the baby that he was (and I still catch glimpses) but I look forward to the wonderful person that he is becoming. Next year he will be a Sunbeam at church - they have been taking them to Sharing Time...he looks so little in the primary room. The coming year will bring the challenge of potty training. This will be an interesting task for my stubborn little man. Wesley is every bit his father's son, doing what I do and imitating me at every turn, I truely have enjoyed this year watching him grow up. I just wish he would stay that little boy always.

Maxwell...or Max Max is a little spitfire. He has so much energy and natural curiosity. Max really never slows down, read runs, right up until you lay him down for naps or bedtime. I have loved watching his little personality develop over the past year (can't believe his is ONE). And to top it off he is getting quite the little vocabulary - he knows what he wants (food) and he will get it. Max is attached to his dish towels, which he calls snuggles - a dish towel may seem weird to most but for those that know how bad his reflux was a dish towel was the only way to go. With Max, I look forward to watching the changes that I know will be coming this next year and I just hope that I can keep up with him. Max Max as we call him is the joy in our eyes. He is so persistent in his telling us what he wants that if we do not pay attention we may pay for it by the shrillness of his shrieking. Most parents know what I am talking about. But I love his giggles and smiles and it more than makes up for his crazy behavior.

And because it is my newsletter I am going to add a segment about my cats. For those that got last years newsletter you know we got a kitten named Flower and this summer I went grocery shopping and besides groceries came back with a cat we named Mushu. Both animals have been great additions to our family - Flower helped Wesley understand the meaning of gentle just before his baby brother arrived and Mushu has given Flower a friend and Max something smaller then him to torture (yes, truely he does!). It is a good thing both cats are so good natured. The boys love them and hopefully take over feeding them in the near future.

Well that sums up our year - We hope that it has been a good year for all that read this and we look forward to a great 2010. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Love ~ Greg, Cynthia, Wesley, and Maxwell

Part Deux

Max woke up from his nap and started playing with my bowls, and where did it go...yep his head. Do you think they are related?

Today

Today while showering, I left Wesley to watch a disney show (Max was napping). When I came out, this is what I found - He is so silly....and I should add that he is still wearing the bowl as a hat.

The Phone Call

The conversation went something like this....Hello? I Good...
We have Christmas tree, it so big. Yep, Awesome.

Ok, Bye...

There was more but I was distracted taking pictures and some did not make sense to me, which makes it harder to remember...I love it when he does this but then I realize that maybe I am on my cell phone around him a little too much. Especially when he puts it to his ear and says "Yo" like I do to my sister sometimes.

A Thought

It seems we have come a long way in our home. We have reached a new level of friendship between out cats - Mushu and Flower. If you will remember from earlier posts, these two did not get along in the beginning. Mushu hid behind the washer before getting braver and doing what I can only call taunting Flower, walking into rooms where she was and passing in front of her. And Flower would hide under the couch and glare, hiss, and growl at Mushu mainly but she was also mad at me and Greg.
And then comes the picture below of the two cats snuggling on the couch. Flower just flopped herself on Mushu and went to sleep. You can also often find the two grooming each other or sleeping peaceably on my bed (and might I add that at times, I walk into the room and feel like I am interrupting something private...and they look at me with startled/guilty looks).

Fashion Statement

I think the picture speaks for itself...poor kid doesn't even get a say in what he wears.

Big Helper

I remember that it was not that long ago that Wesley would happily put his sippy cup/bottle in the sink...most days this no longer happens, the sippy cup falls to the floor or may end up on the end table in the living room but rare is the day that it goes in the sink. So, imagine my suprise when the other day I heard a thunk in the sink. I found that Max had decided to put his new sippy cup in the sink. I am still trying to figure out where he learned this, since as I said before it is super hard these days to get Wesley to do this. As you can see from the picture, Max is not quite tall enough for this task...most of the time he misses and the cup ends up on the floor but he does try and seems very proud of himself when he makes it in. I should add that he does not limit himself to his own sippy cup, if he finds Wesley's cup on the floor he will try to get that one in as well.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

These are a few of Wesley's favorite things...

We will start with planes - We live near a small airport here in Nampa and you can hear and see small planes on a regular basis. Wesley loves to point to them in the sky or as they are landing at the airport. He is also fond of telling you that he can hear them. I am sure that both of his Grandfathers have played a role in is love of aviation but I have yet to find a way to put the blame on them.

Automobiles - Now this one is definitely his fathers fault. Greg love all things cars and he has passed this love to his child. Wesley loves to point out buses, trucks (both big rigs and pickups), and really all cars while we are driving. He also is obsessed with the movie Cars - I can't even tell you how many times he has watched this movie....over and over and over again. It has only been in recent weeks that we have been able to get him to branch out and watch other movies.

Trains...last but not least, because these are the favorite - This one I can most definitely put all of the blame on Grandpa Alton. The train brain washing began before Wesley could even talk (and it has already started with Max)...in fact one of Wesley's first words was Choo-Choo. He loves to play with Grandpa's model railroad and it is hard to get him to leave Grandpa's house without a few minutes at the controls. We also live near a railroad station, so you can frequently hear trains at our house, we also get stopped by passing trains on a regular basis and unless I am in a hurry this is something I look forward to because of how happy it makes him. As you can see from the pictures below, Wesley loves his trains and he owns several that he loves to play with at home. The only problem at this point is the inability to share said trains with his brother - but we are working on it and it is getting better.