C and D

C and D

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Dear Paul...


And you know this. I know you know this :) But I also know that I give you grief and poke fun on here so I want to make sure I also say how truly blessed I am that you chose me to be your wife. And the mother of your boys :) And your best friend.

And the last one really means so much to me. Not the most, because all that our relationship encompasses means the world to me, but it certainly means so much that you are far and away my best friend on this earth. I wrote a little bit earlier about how I think things are finally settling down and in here in Myrtle Beach and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that a HUGE part of that is that you have been here, at home, no traveling, for an entire month. You left once to go recruiting for a weekend but we went with you so you couldn't get away. HA! But honestly, having you here every morning and every night just makes Decky and I's days SO much better. I love that we sit around the table for breakfast, I love that you change his diaper in the morning (I reaaaaaally love this one), I love that we watch Elmo together bright and early, I love that you come home in time to ask what's for dinner. I love that if we're at the park and you're on your way home you stop by and surprise us - always a great surprise when Daddy catches Decky at the end of the slide and not mommy! I love that sometimes you and Decky take showers together and while that probably sounds weird, he is still young enough for it to be really ridiculously cute. I love it all. 

Mainly though, I love that we moved across the country, knowing not one person down here which forced us to spend a LOT of time together and I loved every second :) When you move like that I think it can easily be make or break. You either love spending time with your spouse or you don't. You love the fact that you stay in pretty much every night and cuddle, watch tv, talk, read together, whatever, or you spend your time wishing you could be back with all of your friends from Colorado. You are my best friend, so spending every day, every night, every weekend, every EVERTHING with you is a pleasure. A true pleasure. I don't ever wish I was somewhere else.

You are my home. It doesn't matter where we are. So long as I have you, I have everything. Thank you love, for being my very best friend and getting me thru this sometimes very rough transition. We're making it :)

Gingerbread house..............

is a baaaaaad idea with a 22 month old. Really bad idea.

We bought this at michaels for very cheap (probably problem number 1) but I thought it would be a really fun project for my craft loving son. Not so much :) first of all Paul got frustrated after about 2 minutes so he left decky and I by myself - which was just awesome. Siiiike. All he wanted to do was eat the candy and everytime I would try to hide it or move it Declan would lunge across the table, tearing down the house I was trying very hard to hold together with only two hands. You need at least 8 to do that.

So we finally got a very ugly not creative gingerbread house together:





And then this happened:




And then I went to run an errand quick and left Paul to feed decky lunch and got this text about 20 mins in:
"good news is pizza is for lunch. Bad news is decky really liked your gingerbread house" - apparently he pushed his stool over to the counter and began eating the candy off and the whole thing fell on the floor.

So it lasted a solid 48 minutes. Maybe next time...... Not!!!! :)

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The men in my life.....

So here you have my son - rocking some Kardashian-esque knee high boots.



And dancing



He is really really really cute though :)
And my husband who is very pinteresting. You know. Pinterest is his new favorite hobby so here he is sanding down an old antiquey window he bought at an antique store - the plan is to paint and crackle then put pics in. And that is alllllll Paul! Not me for a minute.




I live with such MEN! :)


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Friday, December 16, 2011

"You have a good life........."

Paul said to me yesterday morning before he left for work. He was asking what Declan and I were off to do that day and I told him we were meeting Emily and Carl at the beach for the morning and then we were gonna grab lunch with them. Thus prompting him to say, "boy, you have a really good life don't you" :) And he's right. I do. WE do.

I think I'm finallllllly warming up to living in South Carolina. I miss Colorado and all that it entails but first and foremost, the fact that we are so close to our families pretty much trumps the rest. I'll always miss CO and I think I will ALWAYS think of that as an almost perfect place to live, but seeing as we can pack up a car and be to my parents in 3.5 hrs or the Hogan/Henson clan in 7 has been truly wonderful. I've said it a million times but I love that Decky and his little bro will actually grow up around our families. Not just the once or twice a year visit. It means everything to Paul and I that he knows his grandparents, his aunt and uncles, his cousins etc etc etc.

So anyhow, back to SC and the MB :) It also helps that we have met some great people along the way and are really starting to form relationships. Paul has some awesome people at work that he likes at the office and OUTSIDE of the office and Declan and I have met some wonderful, super sweet moms/grandmas/nannies with very cool kids. It was very hard when we first got here and really, up until probably a month or two ago. We were pretty isolated and as much as I would try to take Decky to the park or the library or other mommy/child activities, I just didn't have the balls to really ask anyone out on the "playdate" - its HARD! Or at least for me it was........do you ask for their number? Do you just give them your number? What if they don't want to hang out with you? Who do you really trust to be around your kid? Its a fairly awkward dynamic and you have to be so so so proactive in making friends at this age and stage of life and this is really the first time I'm experiencing it. And I'm not very good at it....unfortunately. Not nearly as extroverted as I might have originally considered myself.....

So, with all that said, its not like college where you have a big group of friends that all hang out all the time, our "groups" are kind of all over the board. We have a couple friends from work, a couple from the library, a couple randos and they don't necessarily all mix and mingle. But that's ok. It gives us something to do most days of the week :) One day we'll meet up with Levi and his crew, the next we'll meet up with Em and Carl, the next we'll go to a big group playdate etc etc etc. Its been really nice and I love EVERYONE we have started to bond with. And so does Decky. He especially loves the moms and grandmas :) I don't know what the says or means about him but its really cute and he goes around saying "Millie" and "Nonna" all day long asking for Emily and Norma.

The other part to making the turn here I think has been the tourist reduction :) Summer here was CRAZY. INSANE. NOT VERY FUN. :) At least I didn't think so...the beaches were ridiculously crowded, the roads were jammed, restaurants out of control etc etc etc, you get the jist. Now that's its kind of back to normal, the weather has cooled, this place is really nice. Its a smaller town. People are great and very down to earth. Lots to do, all the time. There's always a festival or park to go to and obviously you have the beach 15 minutes away which never disappoints. Being near the water just makes me happy. Someone once told me that "salt water heals everything" and I believe that. Skinned up knees or aching hearts - its always helped me.

So yes, we do have a good life. I'm learning more and more that life is a million bazillion percent how you respond to what happens to you, not necessarily what actually happens. You can either make or break your situation and we're trying to make it. Hopefully we are on our way..........

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas pjs!!!




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My boys:




Fun in the shower. Daddy continues to teach Declan all the good tricks :)

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Merry Everything :)




Found two things today: this fun new app where u can make little greeting cards with your pictures annddddddddd - a Santa that Declan will actually say hi to! It's a Christmas miracle!

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29.5 weeks





Yikes!!!!!



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Sunday, December 11, 2011

More faces of decky doo doo doo

He does this weird thing where he squeezes his cheeks and makes an odd noise. I have no clue......



Old man face



Spitting at me. So gentlemanly



Touchdown!!


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Ripley's Aquarium!

One of the good things about Myrtle Beach is all of the cool touristy attractions they have around. What's even better is going to them in December when all of the tourists are GONE! HA! So Friday a couple of Declan's buddies all met up at the aquarium to take in the sights and had a blast. Follow that up with a Chick-fil-A date and playground session and you have one/four very happy kids. We had a great morning with Levi, Lily, Sawyer, Norma and Jeri! We've been very lucky to find some awesome kids for Decky and really sweet ladies that watch those kids for moi :) They might be grandma's but hey I'll take it...........I love them both and they really have been huge blessings for this new stay-at-home mommy.

Touching the stingrays:



Typical 


Why getting a group shot is so hard I will never know........

Decky loves him some Lily!

Photo courtesy of Lily Grace - and her finger. 

Good big sister feeding Decky some of her ice cream. And I guess making sure his head doesn't fall off.....

Hogan/Henson Fam!

This post is gonna be a combo as I had a few in the drafts that I haven't finished because my posting has been so sparce recently so here we go:

Nancy, the twins, Nana and Pop came up for a few days a couple weeks ago and we had a great time as usual. Nancy and the boys stayed with Decky and I (Paul was out of town) so Nana and Pop got a little bit of a vacation, although Nana took Decky for a day for me so that Nancy and I could do some shopping. The twins are muuuuuch better shoppers than Declan so they were great companions. Declan would have been a disaster.

In any case, for some reason I have tons of pics of Declan and Matty from this visit so here ya go:
Declan likes to get on his level. Its so cute........

Watching Elmo. Clearly they both hate it ;)

AH! gonna be such a good big brother Decky Doo!!! Trying to feed Matty his bottle...


Unwelcomed splash thanks to Declan Brady

And gotta give TJ some love:

Then last weekend we went down to Atlanta because Paul was going to recruit at the Final Four tournament so we decided to tag along. THEN my alma mater, Wake Forest, won their Elite 8 game which advanced them to the Final Four so it was even better!!!!! There was a massive alumni push to get a big crew together for the game and people flew in from all over the country so not only was it another great weekend with the Hogans/Hensons, it was also an alumni weekend :) Friday night I got to go to the game and then Saturday afternoon Declan and I went to the alumni "soccer game" and cheered on the "players" :) It was hilarious! And so fun. 

We also had another great weekend with Nana, Pop and co :) Carol takes care of the twins while Nancy works so Friday Declan, the boys, Nana and I took lunch down to Nancy at her school and had a good ole time. Nan has this massive screen in her room that hooks up to the computer so she pulled up the "Elmo slide" (think electric slide with decky's beloved elmo) and Declan danced to that for a good long while. We now have to watch it 8 times a day at home. Thanks Aunt Nancy ;) LOVE YA! hahahaa. 

Saturday morning we took Declan up to the local firehouse where they were having "breakfast with Santa" so Decky got to look at Santa from a very far away place as he is a super scaredy cat, and climb in fire trucks. Good combo! Saturday night we took all the boys to the Christmas parade in their downtown and it was really fun and festive. Sunday we had a cool little photo sesh and then headed on our way back to the MB! All in all, a wonderful weekend :) We are really looking forward to heading back there for Christmas and spending some more time with the fam. Love you guys!!!!

Some pics from the weekend:













What's in a name?

Well, this post is not to announce the name of little little buddy, so mom, Carol and Nancy, sorry to bust your bubbles ;) But in church this morning the sermon was on Jesus and all of His different names...................God, Lord, Savior, etc etc etc....and what they mean. The pastor started out by saying how people used to name their children based on meaning and nowadays its more about popularity or how it sounds with your other children's names or you like the way it sounds or whatever. But meaning has been lost somewhere along the way - and this totally hit a cord with me. I'm not judging anyone - I really don't care what other people name their children or why - but I do care about what I name my child and why. And yes I'm cheesy, and yes the meaning MEANS everything to me. I very rarely do anything haphazardly and while I do overanalyze ummmmmmmmmm pretty much everything in my life (apology #439 to my dear husband who deals with that daily), I have agonized over what to name our children. Declan has a pretty badass name in my opinion and it has a ridiculous amount of meaning behind it. There's many different layers - its Irish, paying homage to my husband and his heritage. St Declan is a saint in the Catholic church of Ireland, again, paying homage to Paul and his family. It means "full of goodness", which he is and I know he will remain. His initials are "DB" which started as a massive joke between Paul and Bill but turned into much more. "DB" was my father's grandfather, David Bradley, who they called "DB". Brady, his middle name, has meaning as well. Decky was conceived (ooops too much info?!?) in Boston where the quarterback is Tom Brady. My proud Irish husband is a humongous Notre Dame fan - Brady Quinn was the quarterback there......and when he graduated he got drafted by the Denver Broncos, the year Decky was born. I might be missing something but those are the big ones.........so we didn't just like the name Declan Brady. It has a ton behind it....and I love that and I couldn't be more proud of him, even though most people are like "huh....Deeee-clan?!?!" :) It happens. Apparently there are a couple shows on tv now with the main character, Declan, so his name is now becoming a little more popular.
  So with all the meaning behind Declan Brady, I've put a lot of pressure on myself and Paul to come up with a name of equal meaning for the little little buddy. We are sticking with the Irish theme, absolutely. I love it, I'm so proud to be married to such a proud man of his heritage and I love celebrating that. But that means that we have to find another Irish name that has a very cool meaning (or at least cool to us) and can be spelled by this child. Some Irish names are a liiiiiittle tricky :) We've had a heckuva time coming up with something but we have 2 right now that we both really like. Well...I like one more and Paul likes the other. Go figure ;) We will see what happens come late Feb, early March.......either way though, I really have enjoyed the process of name searching. I'm not Irish so its opened up a whole new world to me, one that I have really come to embrace. I know some people think I'm crazy and "why can't you just pick a name that you like just because you like it" but I don't know. I have to have meaning. I just do...........its who I am to the core. A cheesy cheesy cheesy son of a gun. But my goal is to pass along this passion, if you will, to the boys and they will understand why they are named what they are and live up to its meaning :) No pressure, boys.
 

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Little little buddy........

Just a quick post to tell you how much daddy and I love you. I'm sitting here reading a book with my shirt pulled up and every few minutes I see, out of the corner of me eye, your crazy man legs kicking the crap out of me :) and it is so so awesome. Last night daddy and I watched you for five minutes straight. You are crazy dude. Crazier than your big brother was. You are seriously a wild man but I cannot express the joy it brings me watching you (my stomach) jump and contort itself. Just a few minutes ago you did a nice roundhouse kick and I literally watched your foot go from one side of my belly to the other. There is not much cooler than that sweet boy. I absolutely cannot wait to hold you in my arms.......you are so close right now. So close, but so far. Keep cooking but know that we love you so and can't wait to meet you.......and hopefully you will be a little more calm on the outside than you are on the inside :) but if you aren't...............well I'm well versed in that dept thanks to your big bro, Declan. Love you both. So much.


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Sunday, December 4, 2011

My boy

Loves a good park :) and there is one on the other side of our neighborhood so usually if we are coming back from the store or a play date or something and have time before lunch we stop there and he plays for a bit. They have a "neigh" that he looooves:



He is actually neighing right there whilst riding :)

And the swings are always the biggest hit:









As always - I love him so.

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Drop it down low...


YouTube Video

We are at nana and pops house and they have this dancing Santa (that what do ya know, Paul gave to his mom about 10 yrs ago) and a non-dancing elf that Declan is determined to figure out :) so he makes him dance. And it's really. really. really cute.

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Instagram life once more

I have lots and lots of catching up to do but here are a few of my faves over the last week:

Passed out on the way back from Charlotte. Busy few days :) you think he is comfy???



Loves his new hat. Too bad we live unmmmmmm at the beach now!!!!!! Oopsy







My mullet baby



27 weeks big



Watching the "elf on the shelf" DVD from nana!



Clapping for daddy while he puts up Christmas lights



Little copycat



My dad sent this puppy to the hospital the day Declan was born and he fell in love with it all over again today. Took him everywhere. And kissed him every 3 seconds



Sour lemon!



My blue eyed beauty. And his puppy



Helping daddy peel apples for their tgiving apple pie!



..............more to come later :)

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