{recap}

so, since the drama that was the snake-we have had the pleasure of having a tarantula near our apartment (minding it's own business, but there and creepy-nonetheless), THEN justin went for a run the other day (an exact week from my snake(s) encounter...) and ran {pun intended} into TWO snakes-one for sure was a rattlesnake-who just so happened to be reared up and ready to get him....and the other was all curled up-was probably a rattlesnake, too, but not 100%. unlike myself, justin went ahead and took the time to actually take a picture of the snakes with his phone (which doesn't have a good camera on it). i will spare you guys the joys of seeing the pictures of them-i think i almost gave my sister and probably others a heart attack when i stuck that picture of the bull snake on the end of my blog the other day. so, if you are dying to see it-i put them on facebook. if you don't have facebook, then just imagine 2 gross snakes in the dirt. wala!

b/c of all of THAT, i still have the heebie jeebies about hanging out outside. we walk to and from the car and that's about it! don't worry, we don't just sit at home all day-i'm lucky to have a great friend here {annika} who just so happens to have 2 kids {jayden-3 1/2 and layla-almost 2}. we like to hang out and do crafty things (i miss you aimie!) and our kiddos get social interaction and a change in scenery. ceci enjoys the company as well-layla and jayden LOVE her-it's the sweetest thing, they are always looking out for her, giving her kisses, making sure she has toys, and if she gets upset about something-jayden tells me "i got her" so this 3 1/2 little boy is going to take care of her....it's too funny and too cute!

ian's favorite book is about airplanes. he waits all day for justin to get home and as soon as he does, ian says "daddy read airmane book! change! "(b/c he knows justin will change clothes before he sits down to read the book with him) and no, reading the book with me  just won't suffice apparently. he'll say-"cool airmane" and he loves to find airplanes that his poppy flies :)}

{ian hoards toys....   :/}

well the other day (last wednesday-to be exact) justin was holding ian and set him down. apparently ian didn't have his complete balance and fell over (which happens often & not usually a big deal). but this time-ian flipped out and was crying an "i'm in pain" cry. he finally calmed down and he got down but couldn't walk-he just limped and cried out immediately. it was about 7:00pm when this happened and we waited about 20-30 minutes to see if the pain would pass or if we needed to take him to the emergency room. panic set in, and we headed to the er. (in my mind-i was thinking....well if it IS something and i wake up in the morning and (justin's at work) ian needs to go to the dr, then get xrays-i can't take cecilia in the xray room with us, so we need to go tonight....) so while we're waiting, he gets brave and will kind of take steps, but then just stop and say "mommy/daddy hode you" and fuss a little. but by this time, he wasn't really crying about it. so then we toyed with leaving and just taking him to the doctor. long story short(ish)....we stayed and he got xrayed on both feet. it was about 10pm at this time (a good 2 hours past his bedtime)-keeping him still during the xrays wasn't the easiest task, but the technician said that they were good enough. the er doctor said there were no broken bones (whew!)....it was probably a strain/sprain of some sort, to alternate tylenol/motrin, and if it wasn't better in 24 hours to call his pediatrician. he did amazing considering it was so late-thank goodness for choo-choos and snacks!!!

well ian woke up the next morning with a sad limp. he complained some, but it got a little better as the day went on. then he took a nap and it was sad all over again. his pediatrician recommended waiting a week to see if it got any better. well here it is, a week later, and it hasn't really gotten completely better. we went to the mall today so the kids (the kids being ian, cecilia, jayden & layla) could play in the play area ...and ian started limping waaay more than he has been the past couple days. before today, he had stopped complaining about it, but still limped....and his usual swift run-was now very sad. today justin noticed that his big toe was bruised. tomorrow we're going back to the doctor to see what he thinks...say a little prayer that everything is okay!

cecilia is not liking teething at all. (to be honest, neither do i!)....we were spoiled b/c ian's front teeth never even bothered him-or he didn't show it at least! all she wants is for me to be in the room with her and to hold her. she gets MAD when i'm not there. she also get really mad when she can't have a toy she wants. she's going to be trouble-if you ask me! i knew her being such an easy and laid-back baby was going to backfire at some point! {challenge accepted!} she is into everything and is so happy (usually-teething time being the exception) just sitting and looking at every toy we own. and eating it is normally in that as well... it's been a sad week -in the sense that-cecilia has figured out and mastered taking off her headbands. whaa.

speaking of sad-i am officially an arizona resident. i finally went and changed my license from texas. sad face. (technically i was supposed to do it within 10 days of moving here....so just off by about 8 months or so....) soon my car will be an arizona resident as well. sigh. i realize i'm ridiculous about a lot of things, but this does actually make me sad. but that's okay b/c MY MOM, DAD & SISTER ARE GOING TO BE HERE IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS!!!!!! that pretty much makes everything better! the closer it gets, the more i actually let myself realize how much i really do miss seeing them. TWO MONTHS! it's been 2 months since i've seen my parents and they've gotten to see the kids. a LOT happens in two months. i know i'm super fortunate to get to see family as often as we do, but that doesn't mean i don't wish that we were closer. i get sad that they have to miss out on so many sweet and special moments (which, of course, is why i take as many pictures and videos as i do!!!!) but the truth is, that i miss them, too (not just the babies!)  i'm lucky that my parents are some of my best friends. lucky lucky lucky me!!!!

anyways, enough of all that. i'm thinking we are all recapped for now. more to come later!

{movie time}

so i told my mom i was posting a new blog + videos tonight. however, after much procrastination, i will just be doing the videos for now. blog to come....

wam bam thank you ma'am!

xoxo

{kisses & counting!}

ian and daddy have a secret "handshake" that they have been doing for a couple months now-it's so cute! here is a video of justin and ian reading an airplane book (AND IAN COUNTING!!!!) then their "handshake"-or i don't know what to call it...... "handshake" consists of a high five {ian calls it 'hacha'}, knuckles {nucnuc}, kiss, rubbing noses, headbutt. i love this. they do it all the time and it's pretty much the best thing ever!

now on to ian COUNTING! we've been working with him for awhile. i've said before that this age is SO fun b/c he is learning so much! such the sponge! it's not mastered by any means, but hey-it's a start! (usually it's us saying "1,2,3" then he'll chime in "4, 5, 6, 4" hehe.) have i ever mentioned that i love him!?! b/c i DO!!!!

now onto little miss chunkalicious. last night when ian was giving his kisses before bed-he leaned in to give cecilia her kiss and {normally she moves her head and ian ends up kissing her forehead} she opened her mouth and leaned in! so then she did the same for justin. then for me (at this point we knew it wasn't a fluke!), so then justin, then me, justin, me, me, justin, me, ian, ian, justin (you get the picture). justin and i were in disbelief that our little baby is starting to REALLY figure things out. sigh. {in case you were wondering-she gave more kisses again today!} ....on the note of ceci getting smarter and bigger (she weighed 24 lbs today!)-we're starting to do some baby signs with her-working mainly on "more" and "all done"....i think she is starting to 'get' it. she mainly thinks it's funny when i do it, but when i say "more" and do the sign-she'll clap her hands (but more gently than normal!) why, oh, why must they grow so fast?!?!?!

oh, and YAY! we have halloween costumes! (yes i realize it's still august, but i found the CUTEST little owl costumes that i fell in love with and they were on back order-so had to take action now!)...{also, they will be matching-surprised? i didn't think so. justin says this is the last year we can do it. :( it's possible ian is getting too big to wear the type of costume we got, but it's going to be a-freakin-dorable!!!}....special shout out to nana and grampy for hooking up our little "hoots" ;) xoxo

{trauma for this momma}

so today i had my very first anxiety attack (x3). here was my afternoon:

cecilia and i went to the pool to swim for a little bit (ian has this new thing where he has no interest in going to the pool so he stayed home with daddy). when we got back, justin was headed to the army base (fort huachuca) to play basketball, and i promised ian we could go for a walk in the wagon.....so we went on a wagon ride! (nothing really new there, although we hadn't been going on a ton of walks lately b/c the bugs are ridiculously annoying!) we took off for a walk around our apartment complex, and i had the heeby-jeebies {if you will} b/c i know that tarantula season is upon us and a friend of mine who lives at the complex said that they had seen a few already....SO i decided i'd rather not walk on the sidewalk between buildings in case a yucky over-sized spider surprised us. we took off on the sidewalk on the "main" road. we cruised for awhile, then i decided we should head home. as i crossed the gate in the parking lot, i saw a snake crossing over the curb-into the rocks {because there's not much grass here in arizona} (about 6 feet in front of me) and headed towards the sidewalk that leads to our apartment. under normal conditions-i would have my keys and would have just taken off in the car and waited for justin to get home and save the day. unfortunately, i didn't think we would be gone long so i left my keys at home {way to go, self!}. i called justin about a millionty times-knowing that he was playing basketball and couldn't answer-i had to try my luck anyway. our apartment office is closed on sunday, but they give an emergency maintenance phone number. guess what? the phone number didn't work. {super.} so, here i am-pulling my babies in the wagon and freaking out b/c i have no idea what to do!

{side note: i have encountered plenty of snakes in my day, but honestly-i have either been in a vehicle of some sort-golf cart, ranger, 4 wheeler-to keep me "safe" or with my dad or brothers (down at our creek where they have their guns handy)}

okay, so i can't get ahold of justin or the apartment office. what to do? what to do? in my mind, i'm imagining this snake (that looks like a rattlesnake) camping out at my front door just waiting for me and the kids {and then i have no quick gettaway b/c of the wagon and rocks}....to take a nice juicy bite out of my babies. so i called my dad (daddy's girl, perhaps?!) so he and mom could calm me down and give me some sort of insight on what to do......he suggested calling either the police department to see if someone patrolling could come out and at least check it out for my own sanity. SVPD said they would send someone out (i did not care that i sounded like an idiot and was over-reacting and i made sure i told him that!) in the mean-time, i refused to walk around the small sidewalks in case the snake's buddy was out there to surprise me. or his tarantula friend. that left me walking in circles in front of the apartment office and the drive-way. (which is near my apartment)....i kept my eye on our building, but never saw anything. i was incredibly jumpy and when a big beetle bee insect thing flew near me and i jumped so high -i almost lost it. i called my parents to let them know they cops were supposed to come help-at that point...{anxiety attack #1.} i calmed down and kept circling and waiting for the police. nothing.

by this point-i guess justin had a break in his game- and called to see what was up. i let him know and he headed home right away....it would take about 10-15 minutes for him to get there (and about 15 minutes had already passed since i called the SVPD). in the mean-time, we circled-i walked around our "roundabout" in the parking lot, up the sidewalk by the office, then around again. i called my parents so they could keep me distracted, then i SAW ANOTHER SNAKE. ugh!!!!!!! about 4 feet in front of me.....odds are, it was the same one, but now it was by the apartment office. again-in my mind, i was thinking that these snakes were ganging up to get my delicious babies.  i freaked OUT completely. {anxiety attack #2}...i then went up to the main road and just waited while i talked to my parents. [i must add-my kids are INCREDIBLE!...this entire time, the only fuss they made was from ceci from this last freak out when i jerked the wagon away from the snake]...although, at this time-i made a point to make sure it didn't have a rattle. no rattle. one good piece of information.

i was standing by the road and talking to my parents when the police dude drove up (almost 40 minutes later). he looked irritated. i didn't care. i told him where i saw (from a distance at the road) i had seen the snake slither [i'm shivering as i type that.... in case you were wondering] last. he investigated and found him. he informed me that it was a bull snake and wasn't venomous. at the same time, justin pulled up. the cop guy caught the snake and put it in his little cage. then justin and the copper went near our apt building and didn't see anything (the cop didn't really ease my worries that there were 2 snakes b/c he basically just peaked over the gate to see if he could see it. at this point-i needed a FULL investigation with all cops present and every snake in the history of ever captured.) unforunately i'd have to settle for a safe path to our apartment and one snake out of the way.

justin didn't realize how traumatic this experience was for me and started to make a joke (which is normally what we do and how i handle things, however....) {insert anxiety attack #3}

moral of this story: i'm a pansy when there is ANY chance that my children could be in danger. i absolutely lost my cool, and i pride myself in having it "together" almost all the time. it took me quite sometime to calm down this evening. i have a feeling our walks will be minimal in the near future unless justin is around. (and i wouldn't be opposed to him taking his baton or gun along with him!) i dislike drama, but i was overly dramatic today and i could not control it! :/ ah well, what's done is done!

tonight i pray that i will get sleep and that this will not affect me for long! i will also be praying for all my beautiful school teacher friends that start tomorrow, along with another super special person to us who is starting a new adventure in their life AND that i'm super proud of!

anyways, happy monday everybody!!!!! xoxo

{back on track}

the answer is, yes-we do know how blessed we are! justin and i are so thankful to have such gorgeous (i'm the mom, i can say that!), happy, smart, and well behaved babies {i'm not ready to not call ian my baby yet!...don't know if/when i will be ;)}

{and for your viewing pleasure.....}

.....anyone who has ever had a toddler (or even been around them) knows that there are often times that they are telling you something and you have NO idea what they are saying. i pride myself in being ian's "translator" and 99.2% of the time-i know what he's talking about. in this video, however-i don't :( there is nothing worse than not knowing! (don't worry, in this instance, he was over it and didn't really care that i had no idea what he was saying....)

{a long week comes to an end}

so justin's schedule has become a little more consistent-unfortunately that doesn't mean his days off. this past week he had to work 7 days straight and now our friday is everyone else's monday (meaning he has tuesday and wednesday off!)         ....here's a recap of the past few days.... ian has started to get a little stir crazy so we have been going on a lot of walks. aaaaaand the bugs are ridiculous right now and cecilia HATES them. (normally she loves being outside, but b/c of the bugs-no more.) sooooooo ian is restless and demanding while we are inside. solution, we go outside. problem, this infuriates ceci. we walk-bugs fly-she screams. we go back inside-ian screams. good times!!! when all else fails-we dump out EVERY SINGLE TOY these kids own and everyone is happy!!!!!!!!

ian has his favorite movies that he has gone through....{all the baby einsteins, action sing along dvds, madagascar, jungle book, cars, baby genius, and now he is hooked on bees} but we consistently still love the baby einsteins....(btw ceci loves each of these movies just as much as ian)                            [disclaimer-justin and i swore that we would not let our kids watch much tv, however, sometimes we need our sanity AND he's just so dang cute when he asks to "waaa beeez"]                    so today i resorted to baby einstein to actually get some MUCH needed organizing of our room underway. yay!

so not only was our "friday" much needed, i was successful in getting our room organized, new pictures hung (awoohoo), and THEN got to end the night with these sweet angels in the bath tub. i love them oh so much-they make every moment (even the stressful ones!) worth living and loving :)

{an eventful week}

let's see....what to report-

well, cecilia is crawling like crazy now and she pulls up on everything. i know you aren't supposed to compare your kids b/c it's really just not fair. however, {as i compare my children} it's hard to believe that at this age, ian was already considered a "walker." i don't see ceci doing that just yet! she's not too interested in standing/balancing alone. she'll do it, but not for long. [we need aunt rachel here to bribe her!] she's also really started to 'mimmick' more and more. she does this grunt thing that is hilarious! she is definitely a very strong willed litte girl! and a typical girl at that (as her daddy says) she wants what she wants when she wants it. and then she'll let you know if she's not happy! i just love that sweet baby girl :)

ian has had a rough week-started to get a fever a few days ago. maybe it's his 2 year molars starting to come in? a bug? i'm not sure-time will tell! all things considered-he really is a sweet boy. he's gotten much better at not telling us "no" for everything-BUT he's recently started requiring more and more attention. he'll say "mommy, seet down" and direct me (or justin) to just sit and watch him play. he doesn't always want cecilia around now that she's mobile and VERY interested in his toys. (tune into the video at the end of this post) she's a tough cookie, though! he's also started to fight sleep-which he hasn't really done MONTHS! it's awful-he'll cry and say "daddy hode you" as we walk away after putting him to bed. poor boy. maybe it's due to him not feeling well. i'll go with that. the other night he ended up in bed with us (which ceci usually does, but he never does). so he thought it was party time even though he didn't feel good. as soon as he started to actually fall asleep again-ceci started to wake up {side note: i'm pathetic and still have her in our room-in the pack&play...it's just soooo much easier with nursing} so, of course it wakes ian up. fortunately we have a king size bed.....SO i set up a "border" of pillows on the edge of the bed. i had ceci on one arm-who went right back to sleep as soon as she laid down (spoiled, much?!?), and a wide awake ian (who wanted mommy to hode (hold) him and not ceci).....the end of the story? well-ian stayed awake for awhile, tossing and turning and kicking daddy. until (drum roll please) he was turned all the way around and pretty much fell asleep immediately. i loved it. (DEFINITELY don't want that to go down all the time, but it was absolutely fantastic)

we were lucky to have peter and marisa come visit for a couple days! ian and cecilia LOVE when na and poppy are here! as most of you guys know-we lived with them for the first 8 months of ian's life, so even though he was really small-ian has a very special bond with justin's parents! it's very sweet.... they are his pets and he can do no wrong. (ha, so they claim!) ceci loves new attention and having them here as well! {pictured above-ian wearing an outfit of justin's that marisa made!}

 

on top of all that excitement-i had a crazy toothache that resulted in a new cap and filling. good times! i think we are all starting to feel a little better (did i mention that justin was sick last week?! b/c he was...) and hopefully getting back on a schedule of some sort.....the weather here is just incredible-we had thunderstorms all day. it's safe to say that this is the only time that i will say that i am okay to not be in texas right now! although the summer here isn't even close to being as hot as texas-i'm so ready for fall and all the exciting things coming our way! {and in case you are wondering what those things may be......our 4 year anniversary, labor day weekend (-my mom, dad, & sister are coming-yay!), my birthday, ian's 2nd birthday, halloween, thanksgiving, cecilia's 1st birthday, christmas, and somewhere in the middle of all that wonderfulness-i'll have to have my kidney surgery-womp, womp, womp....so NOT looking forward to that! [and more info to come on that at a later time!]}

(i have yet to figure out how to make the background music stop when you play a video-sorry for that!)

{trial video run}

our dinner this evening consisted of cecilia clicking her tongue and ian eating "pask (then stuck his tongue out while saying 'lalalalala') etti"...as you can see, i was unsuccessful in getting him to actually say it.....prior to this moment, we all put our hands together to say grace before our meal. well, to our surprise, ceci actually had her hands together as well. fluke? perhaps....(she usually puts her hands together and starts to clap anytime someone else does) BUT she kept them together the ENTIRE time while we prayed. then after we all said "Amen"-she clapped. we thought it was pretty awesome!

(side note: ian loves parmesan cheese on his "noonals" [noodles]-just like his daddy- and has to have his hands wiped ALL the time while eating)

{let's give this a try!}

[disclaimer: being the mom, i am very biased and think my children are smartest, sweetest, preciousest (it's a word), and most amazing beings God has ever created!]

so, i'm new at the "blogging" thing, but these kids are changing so much that i have to do something to share all of their new "tricks." in advance, i apologize for my run on sentences, use of parenthesis, and randomness of my thoughts.....

{ian}-well ian is almost 22 months (2 months until his 2nd birthday {gasp!}...). he talks CONSTANTLY! it is so much fun! as most kids do, he picks up on things that we don't even try to teach him! he has mastered saying "thank you" and "please" ["plah" as ian says it]. he says "sorry" ["shasha"]. it's the sweetest thing-but i think he gets confused on who should be apologizing. the other day i had to stop quickly for a red light in the car, and he says "shasha momma"-where, of course, i should be apologizing to him! he has the sweetest demeanor about him. his little voice is so precious and i could listen to him all day long. he is, however, hitting his "terrible twos" and "NO" is a very familiar word in the lockwood home. aunt kaysey got to come visit this past weekend (yay!) and for about 30 minutes or so he was not happy to be in the car....so we asked him question after question (after question) and every answer was "no". it was pretty entertaining if you ask me! (but when we ask him if he wants to say no, he'll say "uh uh"....clever little booger). being the boy that he is, he LOVES his trains (and is starting to know the names of the Thomas trains-but otherwise identifies them by their colors), airplanes, helicopters, choo choo tracks, animals, cars, balls, big trucks, bubbles, and much more! i think that he's brilliant....he knows most of his shapes, colors, animals (and sounds they make), he knows "l,m,n,o,p" and tries to sing some songs. he has mastered jumping (and landing) on two feet and actually jumped from a curb to the ground today (and as a former gymnastic teacher of the little people-this is a HUGE deal!!!!)....the list goes on and on of things that he is learning daily....

{cecilia}- ceci just turned 8 months! and started crawling the same day! she'll use one knee and one foot while she gets going. and she's pulling up on everything! maybe now that she's mobile, she'll shed some of her 23 lbs 4 ozs (according to our scale at home)! she's a typical girl and will eat like crazy one day, then the next day-have nothing to do with what she had the day before....doesn't know what she wants! she claps like crazy, she squeals and squeaks so much! she loves the simon & garfunkel song "cecilia" (go figure)....it's like ian was with "barbara ann".....she can be super mad but we'll sing the song and life is good again! she's definitely in a "mommy" stage (which i can't lie and say i dislike!), but ian doesn't always love all of the attention required by his baby sister these days. he does so well though! cecilia just loves her brother! she laughs at him all the time. she loves his toys (dolls? what are those?!), his juice, and pulling his hair (poor boy...) BUT ceci's best bud is molly (our cat), she kicks and squeals in delight whenever molly is near her. molly is brave also-she just hangs out by her, knowing that ceci is most likely going to take a chunk out of her hair. speaking of hair-ceci's is finally starting to grow in more and more...odds are that she'll have curls, so hopefully i'm not being over eager,-but i think i see the texture of curly hair! yay!

every day these babies are changing so much! i know how blessed i am to have two sweet and perfect angels in my life-and I'M their mom! i get to see each and every moment. i'm so blessed to have a husband who wants me to be at home with them and who is such an amazing father to them. he comes home from work and goes straight into daddy mode. it's so wonderful to see the man you love be the father you always hoped your kids would have! (okay enough of that cheesiness-i had to say it though!)....i love my job. i miss my family and friends in texas, but i know that God has us here for a reason. we're so blessed that technology is as advanced as it is! we can skype, email, call, text, use facebook, and now (it's new for me!).....blogging!!!!! also, i have a really horrible memory sometimes, which is why i usually take a gajillionty pictures in hopes of remembering every moment....so i'm now hoping this will help record all the memories-and keep anyone who is interested in the "know" of what is going on with us!