instagram love

here are some recent instagrams that i'm lovin' on at the moment

                                    rockin' out toby keith style:) cowboy hat & elmo microphone.

                      l loves his ribs!! this is the only thing he will literarly eat down to the bone!

                        love these three snuggled in their fort...daddy is the king of fort-making!

               silly boy... he still loves his owl hat from auntie jenny & i'm hoping it fits all winter:)

                        e looking up at the kite we flew... he insisted on wearing brothers socks;)

more of september

looking back at pictures i am noticing that i have NON for august. this is shocking... i was so very good in july & totally slacked in august! big ol' oooppps on that one:) hmmm i think i know the culprate - a new iPhone perhaps;)
september doesn't seem to be that much better but at least i snagged a few.

                      the boys love to "walk" on this fence leading to one of our favorite playgrounds:)

                                                            new kicks for school:)

                                                                     painting with q-tips

                                                       we made a fall tree with leaves:)

                       

daddy turns 31

Luke turned 31 this past september... i will always tell him that he's not allowed to complain about his age since i hit that number two whole years before him;) i'll still be saying it when he turns 90 and i'm 92;)

the boys & i made him some funfetti cupcakes - from scratch i might add:) super yummy & the frosting was delish as well!! here's the recipe . soooo good!! make some for someone you love:)

xoxo melys

ooppss

it has been brought to my attention - thank you el:):) that i have pretty much fallen off the face of the *blog* earth!
yikes!! it's been since july... ok i always say i'm going to try to be better - but honestly i'm not sure;)
needless to say we have been BUSY!! i guess since i missed so much i'll have to do a little catch-up here on the good ol' blog. lets start with back to school!!! it's so hard for me to believe that l is in his second (& last) year of preschool! he is ready for kindergarten, or so he says;) i keep telling him to enjoy now & not wish it away... i think he is:)

                                          silly boy

                                                 silly boys
                                                 

                                       love *love* love when they hold hands. melts my heart!

                                      his first lego creation on day one of school... castle towers.

north conway

this was the second year we went to north conway and we LOVE it so much up there!! there is so much to see and do! amazing restaurants! super cute little town! it's got it all:) we were thinking of going to see thomas the train again but decided to go to story land instead. so glad we did! the boys had a blast!!

l's favorite ride - bamboo shoots, e milking a cow, the boys with humpty, e & mama on the train & the boys in the pumpkin;)

they also had this awesome ball fun zone... so. much. fun. you put foam balls in all sorts of contraptions that suck them up & spit them out somewhere else:) we easily spent a half hour to an hour here alone & the boys would have been happy there all day!

  we also made a little trek up mt. washington. holy scary!!! i think that might be a one time trip for these marlands;) definitely well worth it but both luke & i were a wee bit scurred;)

this is definitely a spot we will go back to every time we make our way up there. we found this river/falls last year & a bit further up there are rock water slides & rope swings & a big rowdy group of people having a blast. when the boys get older we'll definitely venture up there. but for now this spot is perfect for us & the little dudes:)

all in all a great trip. my all time favorite part (as it is every vacation) is getting to spend time with our little family:) we're pretty darn lucky to have such great boys!! 

xoxo

july so far

holy moly! what a whirl wind of a summer!! i can't believe it's about halfway through summer already! we have been busy!! unfortunately i have not been busy taking pictures. i was doing so well for a little while & then fell back into my old picture taking slump. so here's the overview;)

                              strawberry picking with the little dudes & making freezer jam! yum!!

made {cheater} homemade doughnuts! yum yum!!

                                       more baseball & park time with e while l was on the field.

eating our fresh picked yummy strawberries:)

                                            random... {super healthy} smoothies for breakfast

 
                                              a little gum accident:) peanut butter to the rescue!

                             scavenger hunt:) with the makings for some s'mores as the final destination!

making peanut butter cup s'smores:) i may never eat a regular old s'more again!!

                                      sponge balls {very fun for getting wet} and painted rocks;)

so i've been keeping these little guys busy & as entertained as possible;) we really are enjoying our summer and making the most of the beautiful weather we have been having! loving it:) and like i said i've been bad at pictures so there's tons more that i just didn't document! hope everyone is having a rockin' summer as well!! 

xoxo

May the force be with you...

and also with you. I so know that that is not how it goes, but that is the only proper ending of that sentence to me!! little L had a Star Wars party for his 4th *gasp* Birthday party. I was the bad mama who tried (REALLY hard) to steer him in a different direction:) truck party? no. john deer? no. and so on...

And so it was... Star Wars. I made it as non-star warsy as possible. None of the scary stuff. And it was definitely NOT a lego Star Wars party. Seems to be the trend lately & we know how I am with trends. I'd rather be an original;)

I actually ended up having a lot of fun with this party, making it our own and not overly Star Wars. Pinterest helped A LOT!  As you can see our colors (I sound like it's a wedding) were lime green, turquoise and black. My two favorite things, both of which I didn't take pictures of *duh*, were the forks that had a sign "may the fork be with you" and the green, turquoise and black balloons I hung upside down from the ceiling. L kept showing everyone his Birthday balloons:) All in all a great day and the Birthday boy was over the moon... which is really all that matters when it comes down to it!

and then he was four

My little dude is four, 4, FOUR!! I can still practically feel his little baby body sleeping in my arms on our futon in Port Angeles. My first born, stubborn, silly, handsome, independent little man who we love more and more every single day. Who I butt heads with, at one time or another, every single day;) I can't even begin to imagine our lives without you and am so thankful that I don't have to!

The Birthday boy woke up to Star Wars wrapped pressies waiting for him downstairs:) Followed by banana chocolate chip pancakes. Then the day went on pretty much as it normally would, gym for mama, lunch, naps, while I baked and made some pizza dough for a special make your own pizza party/dinner with some special friends! The dude had a great time & there was a cake to decorate at the end of the day!! I'm pretty sure that will definitely be a new tradition for the marlands! so. much. fun. letting the little ones put whatever they wanted on that cake, wherever they wanted! It turned out pretty yummy to boot!

playing catchup

so the last few posts were all from May... I think:) Now we are all caught up... so next up june.

Obviously May was supah busy!  AND I left you all hanging, sorry about that! I'm still doing better than I was a year ago... right?!?

We had dr. appointments - Landon may or may not need glasses... the jury is still out on that one. He has the makings of a lazy eye, it's just not full on lazy yet. There's some fancy shmancy name but I won't bore you with those details. We bought some super cute frames, filled the script from dr. #1 and we were NOT happy. They didn't seem to be what they needed to be. Granted neither of us have a degree in ophthalmology, but we made an appointment for a second opinion just to be sure this is the road we should be taking.

We had a wedding, well not us but some really special, fantastic, wonderful peeps:) It was seriously one of the best weddings we've been to, there have been many great ones but this one is definitely somewhere around the top;) So low key, so down to earth, so crafty, so much attention to detail, so them:) good time had by all, that's for sure!

We started t-ball!!! This is just crazy... can't believe my little man is old enough to play an organized sport. I'm SO not ready to be a soccer, baseball (or any kind of sport) mom. Although I do say, BRING ON THE MINIVAN!! I could rock it... totally!!

We had family time, Luke is back on his day working schedule!! WOOOHOOO!! This means we have him most nights and weekends, unless he gets called back to work for some catastrophe. Sometimes I wish he didn't have such an important job... I mean those boaters can just save themselves can't they!?!?! Jeesh!

So now we are on to summer!! Landon's last day, of his first year, of school is today! I really can't even comprehend the fact that I have a full on preschooler on my hands! Where oh where does the time go?
Now it's time to break out the summer list & get going! I am hoping for a nice sunny, warm, gorgeous summer!
I will take lots of pictures & try to keep on this little ol' blog of ours:) xoxo

a visit from grammy & grampy

Luke's parents watched the boys overnight for us back in May, so we could go to a very special wedding and stay the night since it was about 20 minutes from our house. When we got home we hung outside for the morning since it was absolutely gorgeous out. Luke took out the water table and the boys had some fun in the sun:)

arts and crafts

I've been wanting to dye macaroni for necklaces, forever! It looked so easy but I just never got around to it. I finally made some time and did it... SO easy and SO fun for the boys!!

We also made our own gak. Landon picked some out at the store as a reward for sleeping in his own bed for a full week - not consecutively;) I knew I had seen a recipe so we returned the store gak and made our own. Part of the fun was the actual making of the gak. He definitely enjoyed playing with it too! Yes it did dye his hands (and mine) blue but it came right off:)

lets play ball...

Landon's first day of T-ball. He picked number 6, the last number to be handed out since he didn't raise his hand for any of the others - even though he really wanted number 3. He's the youngest kid on his team, we kinda-sorta-mighta had to fib a bit on his age... he was only off by a month. I'm wondering if we should have waited, you can totally tell he's the youngest amongst the older 4 and 5 year olds. He seems to be getting more comfortable as the season goes on... we'll see:) All I know is he is super cute in that little uniform and he wants to practice ALL the time, which is a great start!

a warm welcome

The boys & I had a rough day... a REALLY rough day. Luke came home... I took a mama break and this is what I came home to:) I love my boys. I love that they have a great daddy. I love that Luke knows just what to do to make me smile. I am one lucky mama!!