The Brothers Family

Julian's favorite place to sit lately is in the windowsill. He climbs up like a monkey and sits there waiting to see birds or dogs or bunnies.  Daddy snuggles before bed. Helping his dad grind coffee beans before work one morning. The way the light was pouring in the kitchen window made it feel like a dream.  Julian has started sleeping on his big boy bed on occasion. He slept there all night last night and came trotting in our room this morning at 6:45am. Love my boy. He loves sidewalk chalk. He really likes to color on his arms and legs more than he does on the concrete. But we're an artistic family and colorful body parts are allowed here. :)  He loves it when we put out a "picnic" blanket on the living room floor. Funny what a blanket on the floor can do for making a room feel new and exciting to a 2 year old.  Loving this summer weather. 

Julian sat in my lap snuggling with his hand resting gently on top of mine today. He pats me and says "mama" in a way that shows ownership - telling me I am his. And in that moment, I know, all is perfect in our world. He has this way of bringing me contentment that I have never know before. A contentment that is like oxygen to my soul. I am so deeply, profoundly content with my sweet son. A love that is so deep and wide it is almost painful. Ending my day with the happiest heart.  (a favorite poem he reminded me of today) [i carry your heart with me] BY  E. E. CUMMINGS i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)                                      ...

This little boy has a birthday coming up this weekend. My little guy is going to be 2 years old! He is vivacious and sweet and determined and adventurous. I love having a son and I am really enjoying watching him learn and grow and talk. He is such a gift to me. I'll post his 2 year old photos later this week. (part of his birthday party invitation that I made.)

Happiness is a mailbox full of valentines for Julian (and one for Dustin and me!). It was so fun to open the mailbox today and see so many valentines from our family members. Thanks so much to you all for sending something fun. It really beats opening the mailbox to tax forms. ;) Feeling the love! XO, Meg

When I went in to get Julian out of bed this morning, this is what I was greeted with: the greatest display of bed head there has ever been. I promise you, I did not do anything to enhance the state of his hair, I truly found him this way. The separation in the middle is notably similar in width as the slats in his crib. I have absolutely no idea how he slept that allowed for such a show this morning. And at bedtime tonight, it was still sticking up exactly like this. I left it like this all day because it made me smile.

We have had an unusually warm autumn so we were all thrilled this week to see some snow. Dustin worked from home and we stayed in while the snow blew sideways like a blizzard and piled up on our front porch. When the snow stopped falling, Julian and I went out front to shovel. He spent the whole time trying to decide if he liked it or not. My mom bought him really nice snow boots and I found his winter coat on clearance last summer. The mittens are supposed to be in his stocking, but we decided to borrow them for a day to keep his tiny fingers warm. He still refuses to wear a hat on his little head. I'm glad we have some good winter gear for him because this little boy does not like to be cooped up inside for too long. We'll be out in the snow a lot this winter. XO, Meg

We had professional photos taken for the first time since our wedding. We've never done professional ones since Julian joined our family, so I thought we should jump at the chance to have ours taken by our friend  Amanda . There are so very many photos that I want to share here from that shoot, but some of them are on our Christmas card and I don't want to spoil that. So for now these are all I will share. Maybe more next month after I mail them out. Amanda did a wonderful job at making it look like I did not have a toddler who I had to bribe with chocolate (you bet I did!) to get a good shot. She was excellent and it was such a privilege to work with her. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. Enjoy this peek and look for our Christmas card with more of her great work. XO, Meg

Julian helping daddy take a laptop apart this morning. They are two peas in a pod.  I love my guys!  XO, Meg

Summer is flying by for us. I can't believe that I missed blogging for the entire month of July! And that it's already August 8th. Days are going by so quickly lately. Julian is looking and acting more like a toddler and less like a baby every day. He's running, climbing, and generally on the move all day long. He knows some baby sign language and signs: more, all done, change my diaper, eat, drink, milk, hat, help, dog, sorry, please, bath, and occasionally the word sleepy. He's started saying more words lately too. He says mama (it comes out like "mom-mom" most of the time), dada, up, hot, fish. He has learned to climb up on the couch by himself, and goes both up and down stairs (with guidance of course). He is very much an outdoor boy and will find any chance he can to get outside and if there is dirt or mud to be found, it's in his mouth. We go to the park almost every day and have fun playing in the water on the back porch (like above). We fill our...

We enjoyed the spring-like weather on Friday night and ate dinner out on the porch. We hadn't been out there - with the exception of grilling - in months really. Julian really wanted to get down and explore, so we set him down and off he went. He discovered the pots and tools we use for our container garden, crawled under the patio furniture, and giggled at the feel of the screen door. By the time we went inside, his feet were black, his hands were black, and his pants were absolutely covered in dirt. He was completely blissed out and we enjoyed watching him explore a new part of our world. This was followed by a nice dunk in the bath tub! We are doing our best to be out and enjoying the nice weather and it felt like such a treat to eat dinner outside all as a family. XO, Meg

YEP. We're going there! May 15-29 to be exact. And it is all I can do to try to contain my overuse of exclamation marks in my excitement about it. We have always talked about going - we've dreamed of it since we were only dating. The part that pushes the trip right over the edge from being great to excellent is that we'll be going with our really good friends, Shane and Briana. Four adults and our sweet wee one will be flying Aer Lingus all together! Julian will be bouncing from lap to lap and will get to tour the country with us. It still seems a little bit surreal. But the tickets are purchased. Plans are being made. And we are going! The best part: we'll be there to celebrate my 30th Birthday and Dustin's 27th Birthday! (We fly out the day after my bday actually). I never would have dreamed that we could make it happen but to get to be going with our friends is truly a dream. The opportunity presented itself and we took the leap and said yes. Ireland here we com...

On Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch at Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield (we're members). It was a gorgeous day and we had a fun time picking pumpkins. We then went to a carving party with some friends. Photos from that night to come perhaps.

My family makes famous chocolate chip cookies (I'm not sure who considers them famous, but we've always called them our famous family recipe cookies). We grew up on the exact same recipe my whole life. So here's fair warning to my beloved family: this is not that recipe. I know, you might think I'm a trader. But hear me out. These are in a whole different category - no oats, no nuts. Just chocolate chip cookies at their purest. And trust me, they are amazing (thus my reason for sharing the recipe with you here). I found the original recipe here and made a slight adjustment, but believe me, they are simple to make and amazingly delicious to eat - cakey and moist and soft, mmm. My change from the original recipe below in parenthesis. I believe the magic happens in the melted and cooled butter. It's not creamed in the beginning, just combined. I was hesitant to do so, but it totally worked and makes for a very delicious outcome. On the original cookie post, she mentio...

(Julian with his cousins: Elliot, Lucy, Amelia, Julian with my mom, Naomi, Jonathan) We've been spending lots of time with family. My whole entire (mom's side) of the family is in town (except a few cousins) - many from the east coast who've never even met Dustin - and we've been soaking in as much time with them as possible. My grandma turned 70 on Saturday (my mom also shares her birthday!) so everyone flew in to be with her for her birthday. Julian has been soaking in his time with his cousins and loving it. It's been so great to all be together for the first time in I don't even know HOW long. After everyone leaves next week we'll be ready for some quiet time and getting back to our own routine!

For those interested in hearing more details about Julian's entry into this world, this post is for you. It is full of the details of Julian's birth and the day he joined our family. Julian Reese Brothers June 23, 2011 at 6:36pm 7lbs 14oz 20.5inches long He's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. On Wednesday, June 22, I was busying myself and trying to distract myself from the fact that I was nearly a week past my due date and extremely uncomfortable. I spent the day cleaning, vacuuming couch cushions, pacing the house, and tidying. Dustin came home early from work, so we decided to take a nap late in the afternoon. We woke up around 6pm and within half an hour, I realized that my water was breaking/leaking. I was having mild contractions but I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks, so while I knew labor was coming, they were completely manageable. We decided to go for a walk to try to get them really going, but we realized that there was meconium i...

Julian got to go to the park today. As you can see, he loved it. :) XO, Meg