more?

It's way too cute. Big O has become a little motor mouth. The main word we can make out is "Mo" or more and he is even signing it (thanks Kid Kare). Of course, it is reference to food - so glad this little guy is starting to eat more. Fruit is all that he asks for "mo" of which makes for nasty deposits in the diaper bank but at least it's good for him.

too much time

This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands...
(I know there are a zillion things piled up around for me to do but this is what I succumb to).











I would have to say my sweet hubby makes most of these fantasies into realities for me except the last one. But there is always room for improvement, right?

Trials of Parenthood

I haven't been able to sleep very well for the past several nights (which is not like me), so when O started fussing last night at 1:30am I pretended to be so sound asleep so my hard of hearing husband would eventually hear the monitor (which is on my side of the bed) and go take care of the poor little guy - such a bad mom and a bad wife!!!
Well - here is the payback...
I hear this voice through the monitor, "Honey - he puked all over his crib."
Great! So up I go to take off all of the sour smelling, oh so nasty bedding (love the snap on ultimate crib sheet) while dad changes the kiddo and tries to wash the muck out of his hair.
Just as I take the sheets to the washer Luke comes out to share that he peed the bed! Love it!
Well - lets strip another bed and wash all the ick together!
Well by 2:40am the whole house is back to sleep.
Bummer though - I had to re-wash the whole load in the morning - yeah - forgot to put the soap in the machine in the middle of the night!!!
Anyway - so I went into work before O woke up (6am) so I could line up a few things and not have to been in at my normal time (7am). Then came home to shower and let him sleep in a little longer while dad took Luke to school. He woke up just as I got out of the shower. Had a nice bubble bath - but still couldn't get all of the stench out of his lovely locks. He ate a great breakfast - kept asking for more which made me a bit nervous. He then was off to play around the house and was in a terrific mood.
So - I continued to get ready to go into work. O even went to get his shoes and his hat - he wanted to head out of the house too. Well - I get to day care and they want him to be symptom free for 24 hours - I never remember these rules because my kiddos hardly ever get sick. I could take him to Dinosore (sick child care - free for hospital employees) but since I had the day at work pretty much covered I decided I should hang out with the little guy. Such the trials of a working mom - so tough when the little guys are sick - I just have to take the time away to sit and hold them until they feel better.
He seems to feel fine - taking a nice nap now so mom gets to blog. We will see how the day goes - so far so great!

Does summer get anymore fun than this?

Watermelon on Nana & Papa's front porch
















Junk food while camping with friends























Cooling off in a crystal clear lake while surrounded by the greatest scenery ever























God is too good!

Tyler Jonas

My nephew made it into the world this morning at 8:49am central time - weighing 7lbs 11oz and 19 1/2 inches long (just like his cousin O).
All is well - my sis a little groggy from the drugs for her C-section but she is quite happy to meet her little guy!!!
My mom flew down Tuesday so she is there to enjoy all of the excitement along with the inlaws - they now live in Houston too!
So glad to see our family growing and quite handsomely:)

nephew

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of my nephew.
He will enter the world on Thursday, July 19th.
Stay tuned for more info...

adult activity

Don't get excited...we just stained our deck.
It makes me feel so old that these are my duties in life now.
We still need to finish the fence but maybe next weekend.
We did well tonight b/c we did it after the boys were in bed. 1- they went to bed early as we had been out late the night before at some friends for dinner and 2- the sun is up so late here that we have plenty of daylight to get it done.
I am sure you will all be on the edge of your seats to find out what fun I have in store for tomorrow...
just heading up to my parents to return their pressure washer while Joe works on building an entertainment center for my uncle. My dad is to deliver it when he drives to down to meet his new grandson - which is coming up REALLY quick!!!

nite out

had a nice evening out with some girlfriends from work.
yummy dinner and drinks at bigfork inn
then a play at bigfork summer playhouse - we saw Sugar - very funny and well done
not something i get to do too often but so enjoyable especially after a long work week. didn't get home until 1130pm - i don't even know how to drive at night anymore...

another one under our belt

that's right - did another Bilau family 5K today. hated that we had to wake up so early and wake luke up (are we nuts???) but the morning was beautiful! i am certain that EVERY muscle in my lower body will hurt tomorrow but we did it and had a great time. luke actually won a metal!!!
came home and washed the burb. now owen is napping and luke is following his dad around outside so i get to blog.
looking forward to an afternoon of possibly running a few errands as a family and then grilling out tonight. a wonderful family saturday!!! i am a happy camper:)
tomorrow may be a different tune...working church nursery at 830am and then daddy has to run off to FINALLY finish up his cabinet job!

cell phones

This is kind of a late night post for me but I thought it was worth it. I mean people need to know why we have cell phones in Montana.
This is the message that was left on my cell phone tonight..."Forrest? This is June from the Food Bank. Listen, I just got a call that there was an elk hit on the road near Essex and a moose in Coram. Now, we need someone to go shot it, or both of them I guess. So, if you are anywhere near any of those areas would you call and let me know if you can help us out? It's 11:40

how the day goes...

Intentions.
My day off rarely goes as I intend for it to but it always seems to be the same.
My mom was coming by today to drop off their two dogs while she and my dad take a little trip without them.
I had invisioned her watching the boys for a few moments while I took a shower at a decent time of day. I foolishly even thought maybe I could go run an errand and grab a peaceful lunch on my own. No such luck. She was in and out of here by 9am. Oh well, such is life.
I can't seem to be happy or satisfied with anything these days - perhaps I am losing my mind?!?! I would rather be home with my boys than be working but when I am home with them I'd like to be getting a few things done solo during the day. Working mom's can't win. There ends up being no time for yourself.
Praying that I can keep my intentions good and for the good of others and not myself. I need to nuture my heart to be content with the selfless role God has for me to fill.
On with the battle! I will be sure to post if anything "out of the ordinary" does get to occur on my day off with the boys:)

Yipee!!!

So we did Shrek but I wasn't impressed! Luke stayed awake the whole time - we were home and in bed by 12:15am! Owen remained buckled in his car seat and fell asleep just as the movie began at 10pm. We have done our drive-in outing for the summer.
I am thrilled to announce that I have another life to peek on while online. My buddy Kim has created a blog! So excited to have her publishing in the blog world too! Her boys are starting to look like carbon copies of each other - hopefully not with the temper tantrums too!
I will try post more as I will be checking up on Kim too:)
Welcome, Kimmy!!!

To Shrek or not to Shrek?

I love that we have a drive in movie theater. It doesn't feel like summer unless we make it there once during the season. The problem...the gates don't even open until 9:45pm because the sun doesn't go down until 10pm. My kiddos are usually on there way to bed by 7pm - not sure if it will even work.

Of course, it is a double feature - no way we EVER make it. Spiderman 3 isn't that appealing to me anyway since we haven't seen any of them.

The cost is $10/vehicle. You can bring all your own snacks/meal, etc. The kiddos can be dress up in their pjs too:)

When we tried to go to Cars last year but apparently everyone gets there at least an hour before the gate opens to line up. There were no spots left by the time we arrived. Try to explain that to a 2 year old:(

We will arrive early and may go tomorrow night rather than fight with the Friday or Saturday crowd.

We will also try to drive around before hand to get Big O to retire in his car seat. It was no problem when he was only months old last year. We shall see:)

Will be back with update and movie review!!!

update

So much to update...my baby is now 13 months old. That's right, I didn't even blog about his 1st birthday!!! Life is too hectic but I know that someone out there values this blog so I will work hard to keep things updated.




Then we made a trip to Houston to visit my sister and brother-in-law. The boys really enjoyed playing out in the warm weather and enjoying the water at parks and the beach.




Now we have just returned from a week in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We met Joe's parents along with his brother and sister-in-law and their two kiddos. The only members of the family that were left out were all the dogs - no pets at the rental house.

Lainey is only 3 months old and she was such a trooper - as were mom and dad to travel with such a little one. Casey just turned 3 years old and Luke had tons of fun with him - both fighting and playing. With two younger siblings these two will learn to share their toys soon!!!



We had a great time meeting up with family and look forward to doing it again. No other summer travels for us really. I plan to make a trip down south again when my nephew is born - solo trip - love it!!! We will hopefully do lots of camping around here too!
Will be better at updating my post...promise!

Classic

Well we did it! For daddy's "break" from his big woodworking projects we all did a 5K on Sunday. Well, Luke did walk quite a bit of it. Just doesn't seem to want to stay in the wonderful double bike trailer/stroller we practically stole at Costco - such a deal for this thing. Anyway - he was in and out quite a bit. But he did enjoy holding hands and running with his basketball and Kid Kare buddy Aiden.










He did finally fall and scrape his knee which meant he yelled and rode in the stroller for the final mile. Mixed emotions about which was better Luke in the stroller or out.
When out - he ran or whined like a maniac.
When in - the stroller increased in resistance by 2/3 - poor daddy.
When out - the pace slowed:)
When in - meant that mommy had to run:(

enjoying pretzels with Aiden after the race...








Big O was such a trooper - never cried in that stroller. He loved having his big brother in there with him. He never napped though - really almost the whole day! I worked the nursery at church so Owen was busy watching all the big kids - no sleep. Brief nap on the way home to eat cram in lunch before the "race". No nap during the "race" and then too crabby and hungry to sleep after the "race". Very early to bed though:)











Now in the thick of a LONG work week - working everyday this week to cover vacation for an employee - ugh! It's hump day though:)

More to come...

party

well the good news is my house is clean. bad news is i'm exhausted from cleaning and from being social.
i helped a friend of our's and hosted a party for her business at my home. the stuff isn't amazing and a little pricey. i guess i am too much of a bargain shopper. the baskets would be useful though. nice to have a few folks over - mostly gals from work and only one of my new neighbors even though i'd invited lots of my new bunco friends. i swore i wouldn't have any activities at my home until we painted - everything is such a blah color. but since it's almost been a year since we moved and still no paint i had to give in. the food was easy - had leftover fruit cut up and fruit dip - i had brought it to Bunco on Tuesday of this week. also had amish friendship bread (thanks - brenda) made into a nice bundt cake. the party was at 1030 so no real food was required:)
joe took the boys for a few hours (nice to have my house so quite). he ended up having to take o back to urgent care - he still has his rash on his boy parts. turns out we were on track with it being a yeast infection so continuing with the anti-fungal cream - hate that i have to say that about an 11 month old precious little boy. he also has another ear infection (the original instigator of this rash business) - they gave us samples of antibiotics for the next ten days. kudos to dad for handling 2 little guys at urgent care for 2 hours on a busy saturday - then tackling walmart to fill what we thought was a prescription for o's antifungal cream but turns out it was just the over the counter equate stuff i had purchased on thursday - thanks for the tip j!
anyway we are all on the mend. joe and i ordered pizza last night and watched flicka - nice movie but i just am not crazy about horses but good story.
now daddy is off finishing the install of his current cabinet job and should be home by noon for a costco outing - what fun. i can't wait for the 4 of us to go do something together - it's been a lot of split parenting lately - i hate that tag team feeling. divide and conquer doesn't work for too long with me - i prefer the group approach to parenting. weather permitting daddy has softball practice this afternoon - maybe we will all attend???

gift

my baby will be one in a few weeks!!!!
what to get him??? he has so much already but i can't not get him anything.
i'm thinking of this
how to celebrate?
we have yet to have to give our oldest a birthday party so i don't plan on changing that tradition. probably just have nana and papa over for cake???
looking forward to church tomorrow, an Easter egg hunt at nana and papa's and a yummy meal - may get to 70 degreees!!! Was in the 60's today - got some gardening done. cut back some things that probably should have been done in the fall and a few weeds. now for some new mulch. tulips and daffodils are making there way through:)
sorry for the few and far between blogs but those that do read this most likely are updated plenty in the lives of the bilau's:)

getting older

well i have loved celebrating my birthday for 5 days now!
i am such a blessed girl!
wednesday got flowers at work from janet - they really brightened my day. that night we got take-out ribs from a yummy place called The Back Room. i think i didn't even finish all of my ribs so i could mow down the fry bread and french fries with ranch dressing:)
i had the day off thursday (my actual birthday) daddy took the boys to daycare while i got ready at my leisure and had an hour massage at 10am. joe had given me a gift certificate for one at valentines day. she also does 2 hour massages - maybe i can get that one next year. met my mom to go to lunch and do some shopping (if you can call it that in our neck of the woods). just used some coupons from the paper for this fancy place. spent the rest of the night cleaning up the house and preparing for dinner for 6 adults, 2 boys and one infant for the next night.
did have to head back to the real world friday - work. left by about 1:15 though. a classmate of mine from PT school was in town from dallas while her husband interviewed for a job. i showed her around our medical center and then returned her to her swanky lodgings in Whitefish. that allowed me to grab a Quickee (yummy sandwich) and then check on some shoes for big O and myself at the Toggery - mine were 40% off - can't beat that.
my godson (hunter) came to town from Helena - with his parents to check in with his ENT would recently moved to Kalispell from Great Falls for a check up on his ear tubes. My classmate from PT school and her husband, Will joined us for dinner that night too. We stayed up to midnight:)
Saturday we had a nice breakfast with Scott, Tana & Hunter then they headed to Missoula for a night at the Wingate for hunter to try out the water slides without his ear plugs. owen woke up with eye boogers once again so i spent another 2 hours in medical care - 1 1/2 waiting at urgent care and another 1/2 hour at wal-mart to get more eye drops ($66 worth this time). then we headed to my parents for dinner and to stay the night.
sunday am meant a hurried breakfast so we could be out the door and make it to church for joe to do the 930 reading and i helped out in the nursery - owen's 1st time!
the afternoon was spent getting our house back in order and trying to make the laundry pile somewhat smaller. by 5pm the babysitter was here and our friends mike and vicki had arrived so we could head to dinner in order to celebrate my birthday (once again) as well as mike's (which was actually today).
now settling in for the sunday night blues to begin. the boys are in bed and joe and i are relaxing on the couch taking in cold case and without a trace.
on with life....

baby week

What an exciting week for my extended family.

On tuesday, march 6th - Alaine Marie (aka Lainey) was born to my brother in law and sister in law in Omaha. She joins Casey Michael who will be 3 years old in May.




On wednesday, my sister and her husband found out that a boy will join the family in July!


Waht fun!!!

Haircut

Well its time for a spring cut! I am going to go short...any preferences?
Choice 1
Choice 2
Choice 3
Choice 4
Choice 5
Choice 6
Choice 7
I have an appt for tomorrow afternoon - I am so excited to leave work a little early!!! I enjoy my long locks and being able to pull it back but I want a break for a bit. I will grow it back out this summer most likely.
I welcome any input!