Well, once again it's been while since I updated. Possibly because SO much has been going on around here, Easter being the first one. So I'll start there. First of all, we spent the evening of Good Friday cooking out with our good friends, Amy and David Henry and their two kids, Bryce (Owen's age) and Kate (Will's age). Amy was a great hostess and the kids dyed Easter eggs (without coloring themselves, I was impressed!) and decorated cupcakes. Here is a collage of pictures that Amy let me "borrow" from her blog...click on it if you want to see it larger.

On Saturday, we headed to Mamaw and Papa Wallace's house to hunt easter eggs. Will had a soccer game first, so we were by no means dressed up. That's the good thing about egg hunts in the country. :-) Now, the scoop about my boys hunting eggs. Owen LOVED hunting eggs. He had a blast looking for them, running for them and then loading and unloading his basket. As you can tell from the pics, Will had one objective in mind. C.A.N.D.Y. He gathered as many eggs as he thought needed for a good candy return and then we found him sprawled out in the middle of the driveway eating candy as fast as he could. He knew, of course, that I would start rationing candy so he was trying to eat as much as he could before we found him. From that point on, as you can see from the picture of him egg hunting with his cheeks bulging, he was chomping on candy.

Owen with PopPop (my dad).

Now, before you ask where my beautiful Easter Sunday pictures of the kids are, let me go ahead and hang my head in shame and say "there aren't any." Yes, I know this is a terrible thing to admit...but does it help that I have cute pics of the kids in their easter outfits from a few weeks ago? Either way, our Easter morning was in classic Owen style. He fell on the way into church and scraped his knees til they were both bleeding. We got him patched up at church and sent him in to Sunday School. Then, on the way out of Sunday school he fell and busted his lip. So any Easter pics would have been blood filled with a swollen lip, anyway. :-) I love having rough and tumble boys. :-)

Next on our list of events was that Wes and I took off last Tuesday for New Orleans to see Greenfield and Tiffany get married. Greenfield is one of Wes' closest friends from childhood through college and their closest childhood buddies (nicknamed the "Four Horsemen" for all of their years of stirring up trouble together) were all gathered together for a great week in New Orleans. It was great having everyone together. The boys stayed with Wes' parents and had a great time. Hopefully Bill and Barbara have had a chance to catch up on all the rest they didn't get while chasing the boys. It was a great week all around and MUCH needed break. Now, that being said, coming home was...well, a rude awakening. We'd gotten used to the quiet of our B&B and wandering around town during the days and having lots of fun with our friends at night. Stayed up late, slept in...basically did whatever we wanted. Then we came home. I promise you...it seemed the whining was louder, the boys fighting more frequent, the early morning knocks on our door from Will seemed earlier. Whew. As much as I missed the boys...there sure is a part of me that misses our balcony in New Orleans.

After we got back, Will had his first little Cubbies presentation in church Sunday night. They said a verse and sang the Cubbies theme song. It was really cute. Not calm, but cute nonetheless. Here is Will saying his verse.

And this is what we got over the back of the pew...
I should also mention that on Thursday, April 16th (while we were in New Orleans)...my little man Owen turned TWO!! We are having a little party for him at a local park on Saturday...I'll post pics afterward.

I could go on with stories, but this post is definitely long enough. Thanks for hanging with me if you made it this far!

Nothing new...just normal chaos

Well, I'm definitely overdue for an update...but there isn't any major new happenings. Just the normal chaos of the McCleese house. I will share a few "day in the life..." stories, just for those interested.

First of all, last week we had one of those nights that I'm sure those of you with older or grown kids remember still to this day. You know those nights when you are sure "the inmates have taken over the prison?" Only the "inmates" are under 4 feet tall and 5 yrs of age. I think it'll be enough of a summary to say for 45 minutes, our two children had at least 10 temper tantrums, got three spankings between them, screamed in a murderous rage, and while Owen was flailing in a fit he managed to headbutt me in my mouth and bust my lip (imagine explaining that to the public at large..."yes, my almost 2 yr old busted my lip."). In 45 minutes. The true humor of it was that after those 45 minutes, Wes and I were completely strung out with red faces and eyes bulging out of our heads...and the kids were...fine. Chasing each other around the house laughing. Leaping from the couch onto pillows below. Just fine.

Next note of the day...Will is all of a sudden growing UP. Well, not all of a sudden, but it's grabbing at my heart more these days. He's looking more like a big boy instead of a little boy, and he is developing the funniest sense of humor and mannerisms. He's one sharp cookie...and his imagination is something else. Oh, and the questions the kid asks. "Why did God make wasps, skunks, trees green?" "Why can't we see the air?" "What does heaven look like and do you have to be really old to go there?" I mean, I thought a few questions might hold out until he was at least in the first grade, but he's on a mission to knock them all out as quickly as possible. The true "kicker" of the week was "how does my body move the way it moves? My elbow bends the other way than my knee. How do they do that?" (did I mention he notices everything too?) Now, bringing that stuff to a 4 yr old level is interesting enough...so I started with the "b/c God made our bodies super awesome and able to to really cool things like that." But for the son of Wes McCleese...that's not thorough enough...so Will answered for me (get this!)..." I think God put strings in our bodies to hold the bones and muscles together." WHAT? I guess he was listening during all of the leg breaks and orthopedic doctor visits. So I explained ligaments and tendons as best I could...and defaulted the rest to our "doctor friend" who will get hammered with questions soon.

Last story of the day. "Mr. I Do It" (Owen) insisted on carrying his school bag in today (it's big and has his lunch, clothes, diapers, etc in it...the kid is strong)...and would not under any circumstances let me help him. He went down the outside stairs, into preschool with his big bag bumping against the ground and his legs...with the proudest grin on his face. He hugged Will's teacher, tackled the director and was headed up the stairs to his room before I could even get Will out to the playground. He walked right into his class, took his bear out of the bag and tried to hang it on the hook (which is easily a foot over his head). He finally admitted defeat, handed the bag to his teacher, took his jacket off and handed it to her, then said "come on, bear" and dove into the toys. Um, excuse me, but he didn't ask MY permission to act so grown up all of a sudden. Here are a few pics...