In April, April 10th to be exact, my little brother Graham married Tina! We love Tina and were so excited to celebrate with them.  It was a whirlwind weekend packed with visiting with family and friends from near and far, eating wonderful food, lots of pre-wedding events and of course the wedding!

Jackson and Seth were honored to be in the wedding. Jackson was the ring bearer and Seth was a groomsmen. Owen was there to charm the ladies!  I think there were times when Tina wondered why she chose Graham when Owen was just so darn sweet! I think she made a better choice in Graham. Owen has some growing up to do

The boys both were in on all of the fun! They were up late every night and held it together until the wedding ceremony when Jackson walked sweetly down the aisle and then proceeded to shriek and disrupt the whole room. Not my proudest mother moment. But he recovered from his meltdown and regained energy with a big Texas Barbecue meal. He was fresh as a buttercup when Graham and Tina danced their first dance. He hit the floor when the dj said it was open for all.

Here are some pictures from the weekend! There are lots and they are a bit out of order but they will give you a taste of the fun!

this was Owen’s first time to fly! And in true Owen fashion he enjoyed every minute, mostly by napping! I don’t expect that on the flight to Bern!

The rehearsal dinner was at Joe T. Garcia’s. Jackson enjoyed his first virgin margarita!

just a little evidence of Owen’s influence on the ladies!

Tina got a yucky kiss! Jackson was too tired to notice her reaction!

Congrats, Graham and Tina!  We had such a fun weekend at your wedding and we look forward to years and years of memories! Tina, welcome to the family. We love you!

Wow, 2 months later I am finally sitting down to catch up a bit!!

Spring is here and we are loving it. The Farmer’s markets are back and the flowers (and allergies unfortunately) are in bloom. For Mother’s Day the boys got me The Southern Living Farmer’s Market Cookbook. Everything in it looks delicious! I can’t wait to get to the market on Wed! I love the book, especially because it goes season by season so you can make what it actually available..asparagus and strawberries are the current produce that seem to be everywhere. I already have my eye on a few recipes to try.

For the past 2 months we have been busier than ever with playdates, going to the park, swimming lessons (to be highlighted in the next post with some fun pictures) and enjoying lots of long walks. We have had some hot days and some chilly days.The changing of seasons is so refreshing. I am amazed I survived in Bogota with the constant climate. That must be why I moved our furniture so much.

Seth is still polishing off his German. He is really enjoying it and studying hard. He was just given an extension along with his classmates to be able to stay until the first week of July.  We were originally going in June, that got bumped up until May 10th and now it is officially July 7th. I really prefer to refer to it as “tentatively official” because with each year in the Foreign service we are increasingly more aware of the unpredictability of our lives! It remains Seth’s dream job, hence the continuation of the chaos!

A few weeks ago we planted our first mini-garden. Ruthie, my niece, came over to help Jackson and I work. Amazingly enough things are sprouting! I’ll post in a separate post about the garden so you can see how it’s grown! This was day 1! The watering pails were too slow for toddler standards so the first garden watering was more like a flood! They decided to turn the watering cans over and dump!

I just started the Couch to  5k running program. One week down. It looks so easy, peasy on paper but after having 2 babies and spending every waking moment caring for those babies I am finding it to be really challenging. I am appreciating the time to get some fresh air and think a little more clearly without my 2 loyal sidekicks!  In addition to taking on running again I have been on a cooking high. Not that everything turns out good kind of high just that I am really enjoying it and hunting through blogs and my recent magazines for anything that might be fun and delicious. Pioneer Woman is one of my new best friends! And Stephanie, my sister-in-law, just lent me her Artisan Bread in 5 mins a day cookbook so that will be my next baking adventure. I will let you know how I do! Notice that none of my recent endeavors include German.   It is one of those constant stressors but one that I am having a hard time focusing on with the boys.

this was a chicken I made using as recipe from The Pioneer Woman blog…I took it to a friend a few weeks ago! Don’t ask why I took a picture I just thought it looked pretty yummy.

Stay tuned for posts on Swimming lessons, Easter and all of those other important things that have passed me by!

So I tend to be a worst case scenario-type person. In all honesty, I think it’s my way of being prepared and working through my emotions ahead of time rather than me being down right pessimism.  Anyhow, as we approached the arrival of Owen I ran into a million well-meaning people that warned me about life with 2 kids. So, in my mind I began to prepare myself for the worst case scenario. Even with horrible reflux, behavioral outbursts from Jackson and many sleepless nights it has been really quite good so far.

Here are some of my recent random mommy thoughts….

Someone is going to be crying at some point throughout the day…may be Owen, may be Jackson, and if it isn’t one of them it might just be me! I had to let go of making everyone happy every moment. With 2 there are bound to be times when someone is waiting for attention. And that’s okay!

It is a blessing that God gave us 2 boys first because he must have anticipated that I would not be good at doing girls hair. He gave me a 2 yr grace period with Jackson and then boom…wild, wavy hair to manage. Owen’s hair has been receding and is now growing back…I better get ready!

With 2 kids we have double the possibility of someone waking up at any point in the night.  that translates to a lot less sleep..It applies in the same way to double sickness, etc.

Owen is starting to smile….having a second has reminded me of those wonderful milestones we enjoyed with Jackson. This time around I feel like I can anticipate and savor it more!

It is so apparent to me that God made Owen for us! He fits right in to our family and it feels a little like he has always been around. Yesterday Jackson went up with me to get him out of his bed and Jackson said “come downstairs Owen, and be part of our family”. We love having him around!

I cannot imagine being a single mom. In that same thought I am so thankful for Seth, a daddy who is a great daddy! These days he is smothered constantly by Jackson who thinks he hung the moon. Jackson is currently referring to Seth as “my own daddy”….so this morning it was “mommy, I want my own daddy to hold me”. We have had to start setting our timer throughout the evening when Seth is home so that Jackson will leave him alone for 10 mins here and there so Seth can at least check email or news.

There is plenty of love to go around. I know lots of people worry that when you have more kids it will be hard to love them as much as your first child. We love our boys and Jackson knows that we love Owen just as much as him…probably a healthy place for him to start understanding that he isn’t the first and favorite ( I think he still has confusion in this area)! It’s fun to hear Jackson talk to Owen about how much he loves him.

Teaching one little boy about God, the world, life, love and other mysteries feels daunting…adding another child doesn’t lessen the weight of that task. As Jackson asks about his world around him and seeks to learn I am humbled that God thought we could handle this….the great thing is he doesn’t want us to do it without his help. Last week on my birthday Seth and I saw a beautiful, full rainbow on our way to dinner. We took a picture because we knew Jackson would have loved to see it. After seeing the picture he rushed to get his bible to read the story of Noah.

A lifestyle that would include grandparents close by would be highly beneficial. I would love for the boys to get to have more time to learn from their grandparents and have quality times with them in ways they can’t with our constant moving.

I saw a 6 month old the other day, bouncing around on his moms lap trying with all of his might to get free and take off…..that leads me to our next worst case scenario in the Kolb house….moving again, this time with a 6 months old and an almost 3 yr old!!!! The house hunt has begun and the calendar is narrowing in on our takeoff dates.  For today I am going to enjoy the fact that life with 2 is better than expected!!

We are still smitten with our new little guy. He has been having a hard time with a cold first, diaper rash and then now reflux but we are getting through the long nights and enjoying his sweet personality. Jackson is enjoying being a big brother but wants full privilege to wake Owen up to “play”, use monster claws to tickle him and sing at the top of his lungs right next to him whenever he wants, among other things. So we are faced with new parenting challenges by the day.

Owen returned to the doctor on Thursday because of the reflux. We got to have him weighed again just to make sure he was continuing to gain weight despite not feeling great. Yep, he’s gaining weight alright. In fact, he has gained over an ounce a day for quite some time now. On Thursday he was 9 lbs 14 oz. The week before on Friday he was 9 lbs 4 oz. He is long enough that even as a “big baby” he looks like a strong bean still.

Here are a few pictures of Owen!

cuddly outfit from his Nama

Dr Jackson is ALWAYS on call. With every cry Jackson hollers “you okay, Owen?”

Tired but happy sums up the Kolb house these days. Seth and I had to laugh last week when we both commented on how calm life has been over the past few months. That tells you how much has gone on in the past 4 yrs of our lives when moving to temporary housing with a 2 yr old at 6 months pregnant, having a baby the weekend of the DC blizzard and starting life with a newborn, sleepless nights, and a very precocious 2 yr old  seems calm.  It is a controlled chaos I guess. And for us it is a time to savor as we are already needing to begin preparations for yet another move.