August is almost over. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just realized I haven't posted a blog in three weeks!!! I had a major to-do list to try and get stuff done while Gavin was gone for the month. He will be back in less than two days and I'm feeling overwhelmed. There are still a million things I want to get done, but I guess they will have to go on the back burner for awhile.
We have had so much fun over the past few weeks, once Matt started healing up some more! The three of us (Papa, Lochlan & myself) have been able to go on some nice, long hikes, out to eat (A LOT!!! Gavin is not good at restaurants, so we don't go out to eat with him), had a yard sale with our neighbors, swimming in lots of creeks and a couple of community pools, apple & berry picking at a local farm, spent time with friends and the EcoFestival at Rock Ledge Ranch (we can't stress enough how much we love that place). Lochlan & I have been yard sale-ing consistently every single Friday and Saturday morning since Gavin left. We have scored some awesome toys, a bike for Papa, lots of fun things for the house, and even a John Deer Gator tractor for the boys (best score EVER at $5!!! It is $360 at the store! Lucky us!!!) Lochlan & I have also had some fun little dance parties, which makes Papa giggle at us. Lochlan absolutely loves music and is the best little boogier around.
Also, I decided to take on this huge project of remodeling Matt's "Man Town" aka "Man Cave", which is turning out to be much more of a project than I would have ever guessed. The room is enormous and was covered in floor to ceiling totally-80's wood paneling. It has been extremely tedious and I'm not even close to painting yet. Ugh! It's going to be awesome when it's done though, and we're stoked on the color we both finally agree on. I get almost daily emails from Pottery Barn and I'm always checking out the colors on the walls in the background. I've shown Matt a bunch of them, and meanwhile I've been emailing Pottery Barn to find out what colors they are. Benjamin Moore makes a line of colors for Pottery Barn, and I was able to buy the samples at a local paint store. I painted a few rounds of the samples on a wall for Matt & I to decide on, and we finally narrowed it down to the one! It's called "Templeton Grey" and we are going to get it in the Benjamin Moore Natura paint, which is ZERO VOC's. The painting is still days and days away, though, so for now, we're busy sanding, scraping, sheetrock jointing/compounding, etc. Not so fun. At all. HA!
Matt's mom/my mother-in-law, Ann, is coming on Wednesday to visit for two weeks. We are wicked excited to have her here and can't wait to show her our new home, town and friends! I already know we're not going to want her to leave, as she loves the kids so much and it's going to be awhile before we see her again after this. She's leaving in October to go on a two year mission to South America through the LDS church. I'm not thinking about her leaving yet, though, as we're just going to enjoy her to the max while she's here!
Today I realized that we have taken only about forty photos over the past two weeks. What a bummer! I will post most of them for you all to check out.

Papa couldn't really talk for a couple of weeks, but he still was able to play a little here and there:





NH REPRESENT (We LOVE Badger products in our house! The sunscreen is even safe enough for Lochlan to eat. HAHA!):


Lochlan cannot get enough of his WAH-WAH (water). He has about five different cups he drinks from and is constantly on the hunt for more wah-wah!


Our neighbor at the end of our road, Jabez. I can't believe she modeled for this photo, as she's a wicked tom boy, always skateboarding and riding her bike and not very girly-girl. She came over everyday for a few weeks. Now that school started again last week, we haven't seen her.




This was pretty much all Papa ate for a couple of weeks; popsicles and orange cream-sicles. I think he lost more than ten pounds eating nothing but sugar for a couple of weeks. So unfair!!! ;)


Tractor ride with our friends through the farm:




Photo op in between picking raspberries & blackberries:


Our buddy, Knighten, worked hard picking the perfect Gala apple!


Lochlan loved watching this tractor cruise through the fields:


Blake & Knighten trying to figure out how to ditch these mamas:


Molly, my favorite southern belle, and her awesome farm hat:


I was trying to get the most perfect shot of this apple, and thinking of Mrs. Wright the whole time:


Messiest eater ever. He looks like a cheetah!




Trying to wash the grub off in his water table:



Our furry sons, staying far away from Lochlan & the water:


Random hike after going out to lunch last weekend (Blodgett Peak):




The two boys I love the most:


Someone discovered his nostrils a couple of months ago and finds it hard to keep his fingers out of them now:


Our friends, Dave, little Ryder and Jenna at the EcoFestival. Can you believe Jenna turned 39 today? She looks like she's 21 forever!!! Lucky lady!



Papa & his wee man:




Lochlan and Ryder. BFF's.


Ryder trying to kiss Lochlan. Wicked cute. Lochlan just wanted in the push buggy.


Rollin' like a homey:

Tough Week

Matt had his tonsils taken out this past Thursday and it has been a tough recovery for him. They say it's an overnight recovery for children, but for adults, is 10-14 days for recovery from this surgery. I asked Matt this morning if he thinks he'll be able to make it to work at all this coming week and he said, "No way!". More like he nodded and gurgled this, but I'm getting used to the funny noises he's been making since the surgery. We've been laying low and have barely been on any hikes this week, but I have been taking Lochlan yard sale-ing with me the past couple of days and we've scored some great things (including a Peg Perego John Deere Gator tractor and a sweet train table; both for the boys)! Gavin is gone to his grand parents house in Ohio for a few weeks, so I've been able to get done a lot of things that I've been putting off until I had the free time with him gone. I've finally put up some framed art and photos around the house, so we're starting to look like we actually live here!
Here are some random photos from the past 10 days...

Chugga Chugga, Chugga Chugga...Poop, Poop!

Gavin came to live with us full time on July 4th, 2009 (over a year ago now). We started potty training him almost immediately, as his mom said she didn't want to start until he was much older. We figured it was up to us to get it done sooner than later, as we knew it would be easier to do it when he was 2 versus 4 (gross)! So we started with conventional potty training, in the meantime, doing Elimination Communication with Lochlan starting when he was 3 months old. We had no success with Gavin in 12 months, no matter what we tried. Lochlan started "cue-ing" us to poop on the potty starting at 8 months old. We figured that if Lochlan was pooping on the potty, we could convince Gavin he definitely would want to poop on it, too. No such luck!!!!!!!
About 6 weeks ago, we started keeping a diaper off Gavin full time, and told him he had free roam of the grass and trees in the back yard to pee on. He thought this was the best thing in the world, and ever since then, we've been able to get him to understand the whole peeing aspect. On July 26th, officially one year and twenty two days after we started potty training him, Gavin finally went #2 on the potty! Yay!!!! I'm including some photos in this blog of the momentous occasion, as it was such a big day in our house! He's gone a few more times as well, but this day was a huge milestone for us. It makes me even happier now to know that we started EC with Lochlan so much earlier, as it will be much easier than this whole conventional potty training stuff. It has been tough!!!
Gavin is gone to his grand parent's house in Ohio for a few weeks, but I'm sure he's impressing them with his sweet potty skills now! :)

It's your party; You can cry if you want to!

Happy 1st Birthday to our little man, Lochlan Cloud Fletcher (on July 17th). It has been three weeks already since his birthday, and I'm just now getting a chance to post photos from his big day. In the mail from long distance family and friends, he received great birthday cards, money, a book, a Red Sox Pez dispenser and some fun outdoor toys (which were not made in China; thank you very much Nonnie & Beba)! For his local friends, I informed them that he is just turning 1 and doesn't need anything, but if they felt like they wanted to 'get him something', they could donate money to a local non-profit ranch in Lochlan's name. The ranch lost their funding from the city this year due to the decline in the economy. We love that place and would hate to see them have to shut their (barn) doors.
For Lochlan's birthday, we had some friends join us on a fun (also wicked hot) hike and picnic at Garden of the Gods. I made a zucchini cake that didn't have any milk in it, as Lochlan is showing a slight allergy to cow's milk lactose. It was the most perfect first birthday (despite the heat), and here are some photos from the day!