Busy Holiday Bees

We have been a busy bunch of bees this holiday season! We went for our visit with Santa and Brody decided he does NOT like the jolly fat man - at all! So then the photographer suggested I hold Brody and sit on his lap, then it was suggested that the whole family pose for the picture. It has been quite a while since I have been lucky enough to see Santa :)

Brody is trying to get some "big" teeth in. He is also developing his personality and seems to be quite the sensitive type. He gets his feelings hurt easily when Corey or I tell him no. It is hard to do so with him looking so precious.

Logan had his Christmas program Thursday. He was excited because he was able to wear pjs and slippers to school. It was quite the show! I know I am a little biased, but he was the most precious kid in the program. We have been having all kinds of Christmas fun...the trains at Northpark Mall, the Gaylord Hotel decor, the Flower Mound Christmas parade, and our church group Christmas party. Corey has our house decorated with white lights and the Trent trademark star on our roof. Logan LOVES them! My aunt Betty and cousin Nicole sent us the Miller family Christmas cookies, which we have been enjoying too much :)

Logan at his program, waving to his adoring fans

Emily and I FINISHED the marathon! Hallelujah! Good God! That race was a really tough one. The wind was whipping around White Rock Lake and whipping us down to say the least. We had tons of support all over the place - from Corey's parents watching Brody overnight, to Mom, Dad, Allyson, Archie, Corey and Logan cheering us on in 5 spots around the race. All of your support was truly a blessing, we couldn't have done it without you. I am really thankful for my hubs who has had Daddy duty for the last 4 months on Saturdays during my long runs. He has been so patient and helpful during my training. I will say it was much harder than I remembered during my last one. Emily at one point said "you didn't tell me how much this was going to suck!"

Em and I running with her roommate, Carrie from college

Allyson is "handling up" on the wedding madness. She has the reception and church booked, she has also ordered "save the date" cards to send out. We were able to go out and do some bridesmaid dress shopping the other night with the boys. I wish I had gotten a picture of Logan trying on a short sassy number. (He really did too!) Brody was crawling all over the shop - even on the stage and under the dresses. Quite a different experience than my previous shopping endeavors! Here is the link to see the dress she picked out. You will have to wait to see the colors of the dress! http://www.dessy.com/dresses/bridesmaid/D416/

Corey and I were lucky enough to go to the Cowboys last game in Texas Stadium. For those of you who don't know, we are moving into a new fabulous stadium next year. Corey's friend even let us go down on the field to see the players warming up. Corey was so excited, although we were a smidge cold. I am so glad we don't live in Green Bay or New England - because you would NEVER catch me at a football game!

Merry Early Christmas! We hope you remember the reason for the season at your house and enjoy your holidays!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving out at the ranch. We brought Corey's parents' RV down to the ranch as well for a "trial run" for New Years when the entire Miller family will be in town. It makes me laugh when Corey drives the big rig. Logan and Brody liked it too. We slept in there every night for a full adventure experience. Logan was in heaven because it was the best of both worlds...the ranch and the RV in one place...

Well, we are getting all geared up for Jesus' birthday. Logan, Brody, and I decorated the tree, hung the stockings, and set up our nativity scenes (with the exception of Jesus - he will arrive on Christmas day!) on Monday afternoon. Brody has done exceptionally well with the tree and ornaments thus far...Logan has actually been the challenge with turning the lights on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off....ugh! We also adopted a family from our church to buy gifts for. Logan helped me pick out the gifts and we are going to bring them to church with us this weekend.

The Christmas tree and stockings were created by Mom, Em, and I. I am so glad they are done, although I am thrilled with the outcome :) There were days that my house was like a sweat shop! Thanks to Mom and Em for your help.

Brody has been sick over the past couple of days. (Please say a prayer I don't get what he has before the marathon!) He has been having a couple of rough days and is obviously not feeling well. He has been super clingy and fussy. (Although I won't complain about him being clingy, because that just means he is snuggly with his mom!) He makes the funniest face which Corey and I have been trying to get a picture of for weeks. Below is the best one we were able to get:

Logan got all "outstanding" marks from his teacher in his class. He is doing great and can even count to 50 all by himself. He and Corey are reading "The Dangerous Book for Boys" and Logan is especially liking studying the planets. It really is precious watching them both on the couch together. I am "not allowed" to read the book since it is just for boys :)

The marathon is in about one week. I am so excited to get started! There should be about 17,000 of my closest friends running it with us too. (ugh!) This race should be interesting because I will be in "Mom-mode" the day after the race. The last time I ran a marathon, I had no kids and was able to recover for 2 days following in bed and at my desk at work. This year I think I am going to be at a place called Boomerangs the next day for a birthday party - definitely a different recovery! Corey is going to be at the race with Logan, along with Mom, Dad, Allyson, and Archie. Thanks in advance for your support!

Yep, it has been a while!

Well, it has been a very eventful couple of weeks since my last post. We had 2 birthdays in our house - Corey and Brody! Corey turned the big 3-1, and Brody was the big 1. No, I can't believe either of my boys are that big :) Both of them had a great day and Brody really likes cake already - he gets that from his mom I'm sure. Logan and I decorated a cake for their birthdays and Logan thought he should have a piece that was literally 1/4 of the cake. Totally out of control!

Brody is truly crawling these days - actually on all 4's. He uses the army crawl (see below) to get somewhere in a hurry, and does the true crawl when he feels as though he can take his time to get somewhere. He and Logan are getting a crash course on sharing. Brody has been "visiting" Logan more often all over the house. He had his 1 year check and all went well, until the shots, of course! Brody is now sitting forwards in the car next to Logan. It is so weird to have both of them looking at me when I turn around.

Logan is really trying to rock out potty training. Corey and I are still living in potty training heck, but hoping to get out of here soon. Logan is all geared up for Thanksgiving. His class had a Thanksgiving feast and dressed up like pilgrims and Native Americans. He had a great time opening up Brody and Corey's birthday gifts.

I need to give a "thank you" to Corey and my mom for helping with the boys during my marathon madness. There are 20 short days until our race. (Thank heavens!) We have truly been planning our entire weekends around "the long run" and I truly couldn't have even thought about doing this feat without the support of my fam. December 14th is D-Day...feel free to come out, pray, or just send us positive thoughts. WE (My sister Emily, my neighbor, and Emily's roommate from college) CAN DO THIS!

Weekend blues...

Well, my title shouldn't be weekend blues, it should be weekday blues. I am bummed that my sweet hubs is headed back to work tomorrow. We have had a fun weekend - although pretty low key. Here are a few highlights from this weekend:

1) Allyson and Archie survived the Breast Cancer 3 day walk! Woo hoo! Congrats to them as well as their friends Jennifer and Chris who also walked with them. That's right folks, they "handled up" on 60 short miles over the course of 3 days throughout the Dallas area. We were able to go and cheer them on at a couple of spots. The boys love any opportunity to see their Aunties!

2) Brody is not only pulling himself up, but is has also started scooting with his feet just a bit. He has already proved to be much more of a "brute" than his brother. (Maybe it is because his brother is bullying up on him???) Anyways, Brody is truly head butting and biting already. I really don't remember Logan doing that at all. That is one step I kind of wish we would just skip! I swear he almost gave me a bloody nose the other day. Brody also went down the slide for the first time today

3) Today we were at the park and Corey decided to HARD kick the soccer ball into a gutter. So he strides down there to get it and truly might have broken his big toe. He said he would have dropped down to the ground, but since there was another dad at the park Corey played it cool until we were behind the portable buildings. FUN-NY! My hubs was officially feeling 31 at that moment!

On Tuesday is Corey's birthday and we will be celebrating in style! He will be the big 3-1! Auntie Em has offered to babysit for the boys so that we can have a date night. Thank you Em!

October is over!

Well, Emily and I completed the half marathon in Dallas. Don't worry, there was no need for an ambulance for us. It was a beautiful day with lots of spectators! A big thank you to Allyson, Archie, Jennifer, Chris, Kelly, Logan, and Brody for coming out and cheering like crazy! It was so helpful to have cheerleaders there! We really appreciate it. Emily and I finished around 2 hours, 10 minutes - which is right around where we wanted to be. There are 6 short weeks until we do the full marathon. Feel free to pray for us now :)

Brody is pulling himself up more often lately - and he thinks he is hot stuff! I took a pic of him pulling himself up on the dishwasher. He can't really look around and pose while standing, just too much going on!

Allyson and Archie have set a date for next year. The official date is the 19th of September. Woo hoo! Let the planning madness begin!

Halloween was tons of fun on Friday. We had a pizza party on our cul-de-sac prior to trick or treating. Our friends, Amanda, Cody, and Luke came over to party with us that night as well. Logan took a nap earlier in the day, so he was able to stay up until 9pm that night. I think everyone had a blast - including Corey and I!

The Biggest Boy Brody

Brody has been so big over the past 24 hours! He has had a really big day...

First, yesterday afternoon he got up on all 4's in a true crawl position. As I mentioned previously, he has been doing an army crawl quite well over the past few weeks. So maybe he will really crawl before he walks???

Second, last night he pulled himself up on our armoire all by himself. Now, this I am NOT excited about. We have gotten into the habit of putting all things not "Brody friendly" up on the table or couch. Now I really need to get serious about babyproofing :) I will try to get a picture of him standing next time. I was too worried about him doing a faceplant into the edge of our loveseat!

Finally, tonight I found Brody in Logan's room sitting up. He had gone from his belly into a sitting position all by himself. I have been waiting for him to do these things for quite a while and he did them all!

We had Open House tonight at Logan's school. We met his teachers, looked at projects, and made a craft. Following the classroom visit, we were fortunate enough to have sweet treats at a reception :) I will be sure to take lots of pics at our Halloween activities this week!

Let the festivities begin!

We have good news from our house! Auntie Al and Archie are FINALLY engaged! Woo Hoo! They actually got engaged a week and a half ago, but Al wanted to surprise Aunt Betty and Uncle Ken with her ring. They are faithful readers of the "Two Trent Boys" blog, and I didn't want to ruin the surprise! They are meeting with Father Michael this week in hopes of setting a late September date! As Logan said, "congratulations on your married!"

We have lots of Halloween activities going on this month. Tons of parties and costume wearing opportunities. The first shin dig was Friday with our MYC group. Logan and Brody are both dressing as dinos. Below is a picture from the party:

We had a great day over at Grammy and Pa's on Sunday. All of the boys were there and we got some good pics. (Much better than most! Trying to get all of the boys in one spot smiling at one time, often seems to be a challenge for us!) Our boys had a blast and enjoyed a delicious dinner with the fam!

We enjoyed a middle school football game this evening. It was some good Fall fun! We walked down to the middle school and stayed for a couple of quarters. Logan felt like such a big boy and Corey even enjoyed some of the game.

Fall is here!

We had an exciting weekend with lots of adventures. On Friday we went out to the pumpkin patch with our playgroup and had a fab time. Mimi was nice enough to join us since my car was in the shop and we had no transportation. We took some really precious pics of the boys and it was a beautiful day filled with bounce houses, hayrides, hay mazes, and of course pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.

Saturday we went to our Flower Mound Fire Station Open House. Logan got to go in and check out the fire trucks, and ambulances. They even had free hot dogs and sprites. What more could you ask for in an adventure??? The entire fam went and enjoyed a lovely day out.

Little bear is still having breathing issues. He is on a new med before each meal and we have stopped the breathing treatments. (Thank heavens!) He woke up with his first cold earlier this week, so he has been a bit fussy. He is mopping my house with his army crawl and is really starting to get sassy with his older brother. (And me!)

Howdy Folks!

We had an eventful weekend at the Trent household. On Friday Corey took off work to go to Brody's eye appointment with me. (Corey has really been so awesome, he has attended all of these appointments with me - gold star for the hubs!) We went to Brody's opthamology appointment at 7:45, it was somewhat traumatic for Brody, but we are hoping that his goopy eyes are gone! Logan was lucky enough to miss the appointment and get to stay at Grammy and Pa's house overnight. After the appointment, we took a family trip to the State Fair. (For those of you who haven't been that is where the subject of this post is from...Big Tex, picture above, always says, "Howdy Folks" to incoming visitors.) After eating our way through the state fair, including a fried s'more, we were all SPENT! We spent 4 and 1/2 hours there, with no melt downs to speak of from either boy...awesome!

On Sautrday, the boys and I went to the Nasher Sculpture Center with Auntie Em and had a wonderful time! The weather was fabulous and we only spent $1.50 for the entire day at the museum. (The $1.50 was for parking too!) Auntie Em was super sweet and watched the boys that night so that Corey and I could go and have a date night.

Today we are off to Logan's 4 year old appointment!

We survived!

Well, we survived the birthday madness! Logan is officially 4 - just ask him, he is super excited to tell you all about it. In fact, he is already getting excited about 5, 6, and 7. We had our last party yesterday with our playgroup and had a great time at the duck pond park. We also celebrated on his birthday at his school and here at home too. He had a great birthday and got tons of big boy toys to play with. I am getting really good at putting the transformers together...over and over again! I downloaded the pics from the party last weekend to shutterfly, you can check them out at the link below.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BZtWbJy1bMi6

Logan also had a playdate with his BFF (best friend forever) in his class Nicholas. Now, Logan really loves this kiddo. On the first day, his teacher thought they knew each other before because they were such an instant connection! Truly, we are always talking about Nicholas - where he is, what he is doing, what he is going to wear to school so we can match and be twinks, the list goes on and on. Funny boys!

If I thought Brody was serious about crawling before, he is really serious now. He is doing an army crawl currently and is actually getting from room to room by doing so. I am really excited about him hurdling over this next "developmental stage" in life, however I am dreading both boys being in 2 different rooms making 2 different messes - yikes.

We are having a great weekend at the house. We went to the park as a family and brought a picnic lunch with us. We played a HOT game of tag on the playground and made the trek home before quiet time. We have lunch at Joe T's tomorrow and Pa's birthday as well. I am currently on my way to a stealthy game of hide and seek with Logan :) I think I will hide in the hall closet - don't tell! What a great weekend!

Diagnosis?

Well, we might have found our "problem" with Brody. Today we went in for an Upper GI with a very hungry boy. Brody was super good through the entire ordeal. They had him drink this chalky drink and watched as his digestive tract worked it's magic. Or really, unmagic I guess you could say. Brody's pulmonologist thinks that based on the test this morning, he thinks he has silent aspiration. Or in our terms, he is spitting up and inhaling it. Yick. So we are going to try Prevacid in hopes that his reflux will simmer down. Thanks again to Stacy, Corey, and Mom for your help this morning. Funny, I thought reflux should get worse the older you get - poor Bear, his has already started giving him heck at 10 months!

We went down for a trip to the ranch this weekend and had a great time. The weather was beautiful and we spent the majority of the weekend outside. Corey is fully getting into hunting. He even has his own gun now and is enjoying going out to shoot whatever he can. (Hopefully dinner!) He had an encounter with a wild boar and that thing even ran after him. You will have to ask him about it in person, because I can't do the story justice on the blog.

We had the fam birthday party last night. Of course, it was a raging success. All of our family was in attendance. Thank you to all of you who took time out of your weekend to join us. The party went on until the wee hours of the night - well actually until 7:30 or so, but close to wee hours. Logan is so blessed to have such awesome people in his life that care so much about him. Thank you again!

Gearing up

Yep, that's right, we are gearing up for the big 4 next week. Logan will be 4 years old on Tuesday. We of course started celebrating in August, much like I do. We are having a party for him on Sunday with a fish cake. Logan was asked a number of times what he wanted on his cake and he wanted fish. Not Spiderman, Diego, or Speed Racer - just fishies. Okay, sounds great, we can make that happen. Corey's mom is bringing a delicious cake from one of her friends...you should see what she can do! Anyways, we are also bringing cupcakes to school on Tuesday and celebrating with his playgroup the following week.

Brody turned the big 1-0 months old on Tuesday. He is still immobile, but continues to threaten with rolling and scooting about. His tests came back earlier this week and our doc put us on a nebulizer treatment. (Beat down, but hopefully it is helping??) On Monday we are going in for an Upper GI and another blood draw. Say a prayer for both of these procedures and cooperation from Brody. He will be hungry and grumpy! I also must give serious "props" to our family. They have been so helpful with all of the appointments, treatments, referrals, and help with Logan. Thank you all! Corey and I don't know what we would do without you!

The weather has been fabulous this week, thanks to Ike. The weather and bringing my aunt Betty and Uncle Ken into town was about the only good things that came out of that storm. Logan wore pants for the first time this Fall and asked if it was going to snow that day. Wishful thinking I guess :) We are headed out to the ranch this weekend to enjoy the weather and hopefully enjoy some dove for dinner...no pressure Ken, Corey, and Daddy!

Doctor's morning

So today we went to visit a pediatric pulmonologist with Brody. His breathing has just been "funky" for a couple of months now and it just isn't seeming to get better. He breathes heavy and hard quite often. We tried a breathing treatment at one point and that didn't seem to impact things much, so now we are diving into trying to find out what is really going on. So after our first meeting with the doc, he wanted us to have a chest x-ray and a sweat test done today. I just had to put a picture on here of what Brody looked like when he did the x-ray. (This is not Brody!) I also must mention that he had just woke up from a little cat nap on my shoulder. So being put into this thing was not on the top of his list of things he wanted to do. I mean this thing looks like some sort of a torture chamber or something. It truly is laughable - you have to laugh or otherwise you would probably cry for the little guy. (Brody wasn't crying, just thinking who in the freak thought up this thing???)

This is another day that I thank my lucky stars that we have healthy boys who aren't in the hospital having tests and surgeries done on a regular basis. Good God!

Big week

So it has been a pretty big week overall. Week 2 of school, Daddy took Wednesday off, and Brody had his 9 month appointment today. Shoot, it isn't even Friday yet!

So Corey and I took the boys on an adventure to our local skating rink. I think all parties involved had a great time. The skating rink is in a VERY sketchy part of town. Seriously, this place has been there for probably 30 years, and I think the floors are original - yick. Anyways, they had "stroller skate" which I had heard about from another of my mom friends. Corey was quite apprehensive, especially after walking in being the only ones there to skate. Yep, we had the place all to ourselves. We skated in which ever direction we wanted, had the stroller on the rink with Brody's hair flapping in the wind. Logan did great too and didn't fall too much along the way. I must also give skating props to my hubs, he was even skating backwards. Quite a roll back to his "formative years" as my dad would say :)

Today was Brody's 9 month appointment at our pediatrician. I LOVE my pediatrician. She is a family friend, came to our wedding and is just a great doc as well. Brody has had this ongoing breathing issue since he was 4-5 months old. We at one point did breathing treatments thinking it was a respiratory infection, but it really hasn't gotten a ton better. Anyways, we are now going to see a pulmonologist next week. The really crummy part was that he had blood taken to get lab tests done. For all of you who have had shots done on your little one, you have NOTHING on me. Little bear just SCREAMED. The nurse was trying so hard to get a vein and she is really good at doing so, but his arms just wouldn't cooperate. I mean, imagine your arm getting pricked, then having someone digging around in there trying to find a vein - then switching arms and doing it all over again. Poor thing! Then he had to get a finger prick, then he had a shot as well. Needless to say, in all of his 9 months he has definitely had better days.

When already???

Okay, so I have issues at the YMCA. Actually my boys have issues. Brody hates the Y - he literally screams while he is there...to the point when they come and get me upstairs to rescue him. So typically Brody is the one who I am rescuing. Today I took Logan up there with me while I ran upstairs. The sitter came upstairs and said that Logan had "an accident." Silly me, I was actually concerned he had split his lip open or something. Not quite! Seriously, we have been potty training for 1 year and 3 months. Ugh! I know kids don't go to college still needing pullups, but we are well on our way!

I also must brag on my "mr. fix it" hubs. I swore that our vaccuum wasn't working right. Corey took the whole thing apart and found a 12 inch "clog" of scary stuff in there. Now it is really working great - I vaccuumed the whole house today.

Corey is also in for a super surprise tomorrow. He is taking the day off tomorrow to hang out with the boys and I - just because. (Gold star for him!) Anyways, we are going on an adventure to the skating rink. They have "stroller skating" from 9-11am. I will happily update after our eventful morning tomorrow...

Additionally, my friends Nichole and Joy told me about the blog I added to my blog list...Bring the Rain. This blog is the sweetest and saddest thing, truly. I wouldn't suggest reading it unless you have a little while to dedicate to it - with some kleenex. Anyways, this truly again reminds me how truly blessed we are with our boys, our family, and our friends. Good God! (As Logan would say after his prayer before dinner.)

Mom -1 to Logan -1

Well, the score is kind of tied up. Logan wore his St. Ann's shirt reluctantly on Thursday, but at least he didn't wear the jersey twice in one week. (He would have preferred to do so!) Logan had a good week at school although he is definitely "adjusting" to the new schedule and happenings. Bless his heart, he has a new class, new structure, new friends, new sleep schedule, etc. BMOC (Big Man on Campus) has had a big week!

We have had a super fun weekend thus far. We went to the St. Ann carnival last night and Logan got to ride on his first roller coaster. He was so brave he even put his hands up. Yes, I think now would be a great time to include a picture of the event, but I will get to that shortly. He and Corey also rode on the teacups and went down the "fun slide." Today, the boys and I went to the museum and the Nasher sculpture garden with Mimi. For all of you who live in the Big D, the first Saturdays are free and so fun! I would highly suggest it. We had a ball!

I have also started marathon training. Emily, a couple of our neighborhood friends and myself started training 3 weeks ago. Today we did 5 miles and I can definitely tell it has been 5-6 years and 2 kids since my last one. Please keep us in your prayers - we will need them!

Okay, so I had a bit of a mishap with the camera. Although some of you might think this is very funny I am trying dilligently to laugh at myself. In hurrying out the door and trying to get both of the boys in the car and into their car seats I dropped the camera which fell underneath the car. Logan was having a hard time listening so I got distracted and I literally RAN OVER THE CAMERA. Now, I have really been camera challenged anyways. We lost one in the RV we rented a couple of years ago and this one was a replacement. SO, until we get a new one the blog will be a bit picture deficient :(

Logan-1 to Mom-0

Okay, so today was the first day of school. Super exciting around the Trent household. I had the cutest polo picked out that I had recently purchased at Gymboree with some denim shorts. Of course Logan didn't like that this morning because he had to dress to impress all of the other "big kids" in his class. Yes, Logan wore the Cowboys jersey handed down from his cousin Dylan. This thing is a MAJOR staple in our wardrobe. He is consistently asking when it will get out of the wash, why is it dirty, etc. So when all of these other precious kiddos were wearing their matching dresses and outfits, we wore the Cowboys jersey. Thank goodness we had the jersey...I don't know what we would have worn if we didn't :)

Now, don't get me wrong, of course Logan looked precious anyways - and it truly wasn't worth the fight this morning, I promise you. He is "expressing his style" in his wardrobe daily. I guess I should be thankful that his socks with dinosaurs on them were dirty and couldn't be worn WITH the jersey, right?

Anyways, the day went great. Corey, Brody, and I dropped off Logan and of course he took off without hesitation. He received 4 stickers throughout the day and his teacher said he had a great day...of course. Brody had a quiet day without his brother and didn't like driving around town without him in tow.

We got to go and visit Auntie Em's new house which is located all the way in the Big D. Logan had a great time playing in her sand box and hanging around her new house. (Really he was doing laps around the new house, but who is keeping track, right?) We had a lovely dinner outside on her patio in the gusts of hurricane gustav. Thanks for having us Em!

Blogging...me?

Yeah, well, I figure it is time to hop into 2008 and start blogging. Everyone else is doing it, so I should too, right?

Tomorrow is Logan's first day of preschool. So in reality, he will be going to school for the next 15 years and there is no turning back. Weird, I have a kiddo who is "in school" now. No more flittering down to the ranch on whim for a week at a time or zipping off to "adventures" with Logan 7 days a week. I will update the blog with pics of Logan with his new backpack and lunchbox tomorrow. He even has a cool pencil case as well from his Grammy :) Talk about studious already!

We had a great weekend. Corey was super sporty and took the boys to Going Bonkers today. Both boys took a nap afterwards and Corey wanted to as well! We also had Logan's birthday party with his friends this weekend. It was the place to be on Saturday afternoon. All of his neighborhood friends came and they all had a blast.

All right, well, I am getting my "game face" on to keep this thing updated. I have included a couple of pics of the boys to get things started. Hope you enjoy all of our adventures!!!