Lots of Joey

Okay, I'm always playing catch up. At least I try. I can't believe how big Joey is getting! He's getting cuter and cuter every day, but at the same time, it makes me a little sad that he's already not my little tiny newborn any more! :( Anyway, he was 4 months on October 3. He was about 17 lbs which is almost spot on with his brothers at that age. But at least by round three I know enough to just go ahead and put him in the 9 month clothes instead of trying to get additional use out of the 6 month clothes he was only in for like 2 weeks. (Yep, he's in 9 to 12 month clothes.)

Anyway, so here he is over the past month.

Sept. 24, 2010

Sept. 28, 2010


Oct. 3, 2010 (Exactly 4 months)

Oct. 4, 2010
Oct. 15
I just love his smile. It makes my day every day.


Oct. 17, 2010 I know, those big eyes, right? So cute.

Oct. 21, 2010


So that's Joe right now. We are having so much fun with him. The boys just absolutely love him. And Mikey can make him laugh like no one else can. He's just a happy and cute kid. I can't even imagine us without him now :)

Viewer Discretion is Advised (basically, this is gross)

It was Friday. I had just dropped Mikey off at school. I pulled in, Lance put Luke in bed and Joey in his room. I was coming up the stairs bring in some other stuff and Lance had just come back out to continue sawing some wood. Right then the saw slipped. Luckily it was just a hand saw. It slammed right into his left hand. He jumped back and immediately said, "I need stitches." We went to the kitchen where he rinsed it for awhile, eventually laid on the floor to prevent fainting, and I got the kids back up and into the car. We were off to Insta-care. An hour and a half, and 9 stitches later, he's good as new! Okay, well in 10 days he'll be as good as new.

Bleh. I don't know why, but I hate the look of stitches! It just looks wrong. But it looks better than the gaping holes down to his bone. And yes, morbidly today we were lamenting that I hadn't thought enough to take a picture of the wound before we rushed to the doctor. Stupid me. All focused on getting my husband to stop bleeding profusely.

On the one hand (no pun intended), Lance was mad because this was the ONE time he didn't have his gloves on while working. On the other hand, of course it could have been so much worse. At least it wasn't an electric saw and at least he didn't hit any sort of ligaments or anything to do permanent damage. Phew.

The Witches of Gardner Village

Gardner Village is a cute little girlie place here with lots of girlie and crafty shops. And at Halloween they make it all cute and Halloween-ie and full of funny witches. So we went with my mom and sister. The kids liked the witches and Halloween stuff, but mostly it was all about getting to be with their cousins. The weather was perfect and the kids happy. Basically a perfect combo to provide many great photo ops. :)

They are seriously never happier than when with their cousins. Here we have Mikey, Ben, Luke and Anna.

Just the boys

So cute

Okay, so it wasn't as special for Joey as he slept through most of it. But he's still cute.

We had to get a picture with at least one witch!

So excited

This was actually at the beginning and they were ready!

And this is what was going on while making them pose. It happens with just about every group picture, but we always love it.

Oh Brothers...

I don't know how many times I've done posts entitled something along the lines of "Brothers" or "Brotherly Love" or something like that, but what can I say, I have three boys and they sure love each other and I have endless supplies of cute "brother" pictures. So there really won't be an end to these. Anyway...

This picture was actually quite a feat to attain as Mikey and Luke are both smiling. For most of this time it was either Mikey smiling and holding Joey while Luke cried or Luke smiling while holding Joey and Mikey crying. It's a common fight: who gets to hold Joey.

Yes, at this point Luke has his head down crying. But cute picture of Mikey, right?

In spite of all the constant fighting, they are actually crazy about each other. In fact, whenever Mikey is at school or just in another room, Luke immediately starts in, "Where's my Mike? I miss my Mike! Where's my Mike!" It's so cute. And yes, he just randomly started calling him "Mike."

I had put Joey on the floor while I moved laundry along and starting hearing this full on laughing coming from him. I look out and there is Mikey just smiling at him. That in turn caused Joey to just laugh and laugh. This a common occurrence. It's like Joey just came out loving Mikey.

There is nothing the kids love more than being able to match PJs. (Never can get these pictures to flip right.)

See? So excited about matching. (Plus, they are just so cute when they do. Come on, how long am I going to be able to get them to dress alike? My days are numbered!)

On very, very special occasions (aka, when we're desperate to get the kids into the bath quickly and they are resisting) we allow them to bathe in our bath. Nothing makes bubbles like a jetted tub :) Needless to say, they love it.

The Year of the Superhero

Okay, to be fair, it probably won't be the only "Year of the Superhero." But it is definitely all Superhero around here for Halloween. Of course there will be pictures later, but Mikey is Superman and Luke is Spiderman. In case you haven't seen before, Lance does some pretty good pumpkin work. Under Mikey's instruction, Lance did Iron Man for Mikey and did Wolverine for his own. Not bad, eh?

From the Mouth of Luke - The New Saga

And so it begins... Now Mikey, who would probably suffer some kind of horrific allergic reaction if exposed to more than five seconds of silence, has probably already said more words in his life than Luke will during the rest of his, but Luke still drops a gem every now and then.

We were driving in the car the other day, and Luke asked for his headphones (for the car's dvd player) as soon as we pulled out of the garage. Kristy reached around, pulling them from the pocket that he can't quite reach, and handed them to him. However, she was in the middle of saying something to me, and didn't hear his cute little thank you. After he tried a few times, I finally responded, telling him he was welcome. I got this reply:

"I was talking to Mom, Dad."

Well, there goes my cute, innocent little two-year-old.

Full Circle

Yesterday morning Lance and I were still in bed and trying to savor the last few moments of sleep. We had actually been in and out a few times to get Mikey and Luke settled with breakfast and watching shows, but we were back in bed and they were both mostly just watching a show.

Luke suddenly came in and asked if he could have the banana that was up on the kitchen counter. We said yes. Luke then said, "Daddy reach it....?" "Mama reach it...?" Still tucked away in our heated-by-mattress-pad bed, Lance said "Luke, go ask Mikey to reach it" as Mikey was in the family room just watching a show.

So Luke walked out. A few moments passed. Then suddenly we heard Mikey: "Fine, Luke! I'll get it for you if you'll Just. Stop. Whining!"

I have no idea where he's ever heard that before...