The Bastian Family

Joey alone in his crib....

2012-02-26T23:21:00.002-07:00

There are times (very few, I assure you ;) when Joey is left in his crib for a bit longer than he wants. He does what he can to pass the time, which basically consists of throwing everything out of the crib and sometimes trying to climb out. But on this particular morning, it appears he was going for some kind of fashion statement.

I seriously couldn't even begin to figure out how he did this. His shirt was all sorts of twisted and flipped over and all that. But it was pretty awesome. :)

Three weeks to go....

2012-02-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

Well there it is in all its glory. That belly of mine with only weeks to go. Good thing because it's feeling like I really can't get much bigger.

So here's to early babies! Yes, I'll probably get to that last week, like always, but one can dream, right? :) Actually, it's the constant, super painful, labor-like, crampy contractions that I experience all the live long day that makes me wish a little harder for an early baby. I feel like I've already been in labor for weeks! But such is my uterus. It just likes to contract. Well you can be sure I'll let you know when she arrives!

Batter up!

2012-02-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

One of the boys' favorite activities is evening baseball. It is a frequent activity with dad before bed. Joey is more pretending to be a part of the action as he's a little bit little, but he sure tries. Lance is the pitcher and the older two take turns being the catcher and the batter.

(On a side note, one of Mikey's favorite things, is to match at least one of his brothers when getting into PJs. When we put Joey into Luke's old Christmas Monkey PJs, Mikey dug out his Christmas Monkey PJs...from 2010...which should now be in Luke's drawer. Thus we have a Mikey in basically painted on PJs. They were SO tight! It was awesome.)

The large basement was one of the biggest reason I wanted this house. Definitely no regrets!

Joey's bath

2012-01-16T21:14:00.002-07:00

Apparently we don't bathe Joey enough so he's taking matters into his own hands. This has now happened a handful of times. He's getting better at opening doors and his climbing is quickly improving. It's getting hard to stop him! And this still makes me laugh every time! But then I have to clean up a child dressed in sopping, wet clothes.

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

Just pretend I posted this a few weeks ago....

I didn't take that many pictures of all the Christmas festivities this year :( So sad. So many parties where the camera was forgotten. But I do have a few.

Christmas Eve:

Trying to get everyone to pose...you know how it goes.

It is with reluctance that I post this picture below. So pregnant and chubby in my face...but my love for those other cute little faces overcomes my embarrassment.

Joey grinning innocently at the scene of the crime. You see, every other year, we have a poorly decorated tree because every other year we've had an 18-month-old at Christmas time. Slowly we end up moving all the decorations from the bottom few feet of the tree to the top. At 18 months, Mikey and Luke definitely pulled at all the ornaments until we moved them. But they stopped there. Joey took it to a whole new level. He pulled at all the ornaments until we moved them...but then after that, he did not stop. You can see all the lights clumped together behind him because he was constantly pulling the lights down off the tree entirely and pulled the ribbon this way and that trying to get that off, too. Maybe it's sibling rivalry already? He's trying to outdo them...? Regardless, it was our saddest tree ever. But it's so hard to get mad at that cute little smile :)

My homemade ornament wreath :)

Christmas Morning:

Ready and waiting with the stockings

We finally got Joey to sit still enough to get a picture, too.

Joey didn't really get what was going on, but he sure ran around and had fun.

The New Year:

Some of our best friends came and stayed with us on New Year's Eve which was so much fun!

Our two little (usually) trouble-makers where actually very well behaved the entire time--though not the greatest at posing for pictures. They were both facing me--we considered that a success.

The older kids, however, were almost too good at posing. What do you think? Prom...? Wedding dinner...? Such a cute couple ;)

18 Months for Joey!

2011-12-19T00:04:00.000-07:00

I seriously can't believe that my baby Joe is 18 months old. Not only does 18 months sound old, but suddenly he is starting to LOOK so old to me! But then again, he is still my little baby!! I suppose I need to get used to it, though, because once the currently cooking bun makes her debut, I know now, from much experience that Joey is going to suddenly look HUGE and will no longer be the baby. So I'm savoring every moment of his baby-ness. I just can't get enough of his cute little face. I mean, can you blame me? Look at that face!

He is doing some pretty stinking cute things right now. First of all, there is this hat thing. He LOVES hats. He loves putting them on himself, or having assistance. Either way, he will walk all around taking a hat on and off. But what is great is how he absolutely insists on the hat being LOW. If the bill is in the front, he pulls it all the way down so that he can barely see. He gets mad if you try to pull it up. And as you can see in these pictures, even with the back in front, it has to be encroaching upon his vision. But he could see enough to know I was holding a camera and boy does he love the camera.

He is adding words every day and it is so fun and cute. But one he is quite a pro at is "cheese." In all of these pictures, you might have noticed his "cheesy" smiles. That is because he is, in fact, saying "cheese" in all of these. It doesn't take much to get him say cheese to the camera. The video below is proof.

His first real word (besides "no") was apple. He first said apple after we decorated the Christmas tree. He went over to the red ornaments and started saying "apple." He also says, "thank you," "night, night," "stuck," and "car."

Some of my other favorite things about Joey right now:

Joey doesn't eat crayons, he chews them. Mikey ate a few crayons, most kids do, but he got over it. Luke actually never really tried them. Joey has eaten very few crayons. But CHEW them? Oh it's countless. It's like he thinks they are his own personal supply of gum. When he gets a hold of one, he will walk around chopping down on it. When I find him with it, there will be a little stub left and when I put my hand in front of his mouth, he just spits it all out as a crumbly, saliva-filled mass of crayon. He really NEVER swallows them. And if I don't discover him, he will find me when he's done, and start spitting them out in front of me until I assist in the clean up.
He does NOT like me doing dishes. If he sees the dishwasher open, he runs over and slams it shut. I seriously cannot do dishes with him in the room. In fact, even if the dishwasher is closed, if I am standing at the sink, he comes and pushes me away.
He is absolutely obsessed with shoes. He will put on any shoe he finds. If he has shoes on and comes across more shoes, he will do all he can to get the second pair on over the first (which actually works sometimes if he has on his own small shoes and comes across Mikey's shoes or any of ours.) He actually also really feels strongly about me having my shoes on. When he finds my shoes, he will come and find me and try to put them on my feet. Then he'll yell until I comply and help him accomplish the task. The cutest, though, is when he finds shoes he wants on and can't get them on, he brings them to me, hands them to me and then plops down on the floor and sticks his feet straight out in front of me. It's so cute.
And my all time favorite thing is how he insists on your attention when he's on your lap and trying to talk to you. If I am holding him and he is trying "to talk" (in his Joey babble) and I am not looking at him, he will put both hands on my cheeks and turn my head to look directly at him and hold it there until he is satisfied. And the other day, he did that just to give me lots of kisses. Oh, it is so cute.

Love, love, LOVE him!!!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-18T23:07:00.001-07:00

Here is our beautiful, Christmas-ie house :) I LOVE Christmas lights and, luckily, Lance LOVES putting them up ;) Okay, maybe he doesn't LOVE it. But at least he loves the results (and me :) enough to do it. But this year it was a particularly sacrificing act of love.

He got the first line of blue lights up on a warm day just before Thanksgiving. (The roof line has a line of blue light and then a light of white icicle lights.) Then two days after Thanksgiving, as he went out to finish with the icicle lights, the whole cat-stuck-in-the-drain-and-Lance-sacrificing-his-fingers-to-save-it thing happened. (See most recent bloody post) After enduring those torturous first days after that event, we weren't sure if he was going to be able to finish. But two weeks later, he got out there and (carefully) did it, broken fingers and all! Thanks, baby, for making our house so beautiful! :) (I should note that the pictures really don't do it justice, but that's to be expected when trying to take pictures of lights.)

Seeing Santa

2011-12-16T23:05:00.001-07:00

The time has come for the annual visit to Santa. This was Joey's first visit and he did great. He may not look thrilled in the pictures, but he was at least intrigued by the big, jolly man and not at all scared so we count it as a success. And Luke and Mikey were very prepared with their lists.

Luke: A bow and arrow

Mikey: A remote control helicopter, a remote control car, and "the biggest toy gun my mom will allow." (This might have stemmed from our conversation we had when he was talking about the MASSIVE gun he was going to ask for. I told him Santa wouldn't bring him a gun bigger than what the mom in the house would allow.... Well, you should have heard how big of a gun he wanted!! I had to do something!)

NO GOOD DEED - THE AFTERMATH

2011-12-04T10:41:00.001-07:00

Well, for those medical types among you, thought you might want to get a behind-the-scenes look at what actually happened to Lance's fingers. Enjoy.

And now for the grand finale - where you can really see the damage.

Yup. There are supposed to be two bones there - not eight, or however many there are. Stupid cat!

No good deed goes unpunished

2011-11-29T20:27:00.001-07:00

Viewer discretion is advised! ('cause this is totally gross)

Gutter storm grate + cat = scared, trapped, crying kitty

Scared, trapped, crying kitty + two little boys playing close by = dad to the rescue

Dad to the rescue + scared, trapped, crying kitty = happy, free kitty

Gutter storm grate + dad's hand =

I know, doesn't it seem like yesterday that we were looking at other pictures of Lance's mangled hand?

Well, it wasn't yesterday, but it was almost exactly a year ago. I'm going to start confining him to the house while sitting on his hands this time of year.

Poor Lance. Last Saturday we were in the throws of getting Christmas out. The tree was up and boxes of Christmas decorations were strewn about. That afternoon, Lance went outside to finish with the outdoor Christmas lights. As it was a nice warm day, the two older boys went out to ~~play~~ help. A little while later, Mikey comes running in and bids me come look what they found. Sure enough, down under the drain in the gutter there was a cat.

So the mission began. I went back inside to be with Joey, but Mikey would periodically run in to ask for something else. They tried a little bell, which nearly worked, but the cat just couldn't get all the way out. Lance managed to lift the drain cover (you know, those huge, heavy, iron things) and hinge it up against the gutter.

Of course, then the cat started running further into the hole and under the street. So after sticking his head in the drain and going to the other side of the street and almost getting the cat, he finally sent Mikey into the house for a can of tuna. That did the trick. Kitty came out. Yay!

When Lance went to lower the grate, it was much heavier than he anticipated. The one hand pulled it down and because of the shock of the weight, he put his other hand down to brace himself. And down came the grate. With his left hand in the wrong place.... Poor Lance.

Mikey came running inside saying "dad pinched his fingers." I stepped out to see Lance jumping around the front porch and blood everywhere. Our wonderful neighbor down the street was at our house in like 30 seconds and we were out the door.

Lance was in excruciating pain for probably a solid two hours before we were at the hospital and they were able to numb it all up (half hour to the hospital, then lots of waiting). Diagnosis: Both fingers broken right on the tips. Biggest concern: the nails growing back. The doctor actually took off one nail, stitched it up underneath, then sowed the nail BACK on. Didn't expect that. (Apparently the hope is it will work as a template for the new nail to grow in.) And the other fingernail, he just lifted up like the hood of a car, stitched up, and put it back down. All that blood was actually just pouring out from under his nails. Thankfully he had gloves on so there weren't actually any lacerations.

He's doing pretty well now. The first half of Sunday was pretty rough as it seemed like all the swelling in the tightly wrapped bandages was preventing the medication from reaching his fingers. But the pain management seems to be going better now.

We're very grateful that his still has all his fingers and Lance is at least grateful to get out of diaper and dish duty for awhile. ;)

And here are a few more just to add to your pleasant dreams:

Importance of toenail polish

2011-11-19T23:00:00.001-07:00

Last Monday night, we were having Family Home Evening. Lance was in the middle of the lesson with Mikey at his shoulder, trying to focus on the lesson. Luke was on my lap, playing and not even trying to pay attention (despite my efforts). All of a sudden he yelled at me, "Oh no, Mom! You're turning into a boy!" I said, "ummmm, what?" He said, "Look!" and pointed to my toenails--specifically the smaller ones where the toenail polish was all but completely gone. I admitted to him that I did need to take care of that.

So there you have it, ladies. Keep those toenails polished or else you just might turn into a boy.

Pets

2011-11-15T23:10:00.000-07:00

Now and then we take the kids to the pet store as kind of a quick and easy zoo-like visit. We did this recently. Before getting out of the car, we gave the whole, "we are only doing this if you promise not to ask for pets." (I know, silly to think that speech would actually make any difference.)

Before I continue, I should explain one thing. I love dogs. I'm not against having dogs and will one day consider it. BUT, my rule is that only when our last child is potty trained can we talk. (There are various reason for this, some are for the benefit of the child, some the benefit of the dog...and some for the benefit of MOI!)

Anywho, back to my story. So of course, we enter the store and the kids start in on asking for pets. Luke was asking for all sorts of pets. And of course, the mother-load of all pets is the dog. And of course, the humane society was camped out with a few cute little things there up for adoption (which we were trying to save from Joey and his attempts at ripping their ears off--one of the afore-referenced reasons for waiting on the dog).

So Luke started pouting even more and begging for a dog. I started trying to explain to the boys that we just can't have a dog right now, because we don't have the room with the little kids in our house and with the baby coming, blah, blah, blah.... Then Luke looked up at me with the biggest puppy-dog eyes I've ever seen and said, "Pleeease, mom, can't we get a dog?" It was the hardest "no" I've ever given! But I did it, I said no. Then he put his head down and mumbled, with his grumpiest, poutiest fact, "I don't WANT a baby. I want a dog!"

Ohhhh geez! One day I hope he'll change his mind about that! (But I accept that it may be awhile.)

Nintendo and Their Flying Rodents

2011-11-13T22:45:00.001-07:00

So, Lance was out running errands, and he ended up at BestBuy with all three boys (there is an extremely high probability that the world would end if I were to ever set foot in a store with all three boys in tow, but because I love him, I insist that Lance do any and all shopping thus triple laden). Anyhoo, apparently Nintendo had a little booth to which a new 3DS was quite literally chained, but which could also be played by passers-by. As if that weren't enough, for the smaller guinea pigs, they also had a gimmicky set of ears and a tail. As each of the boys took his turn playing the thing, none could be talked out of doing so as a raccoon (I guess that's what that is). Too cute. P.S. This was written by Kristy, NOT Lance.

School pictures

2011-11-08T22:01:00.002-07:00

We recently got the school pictures back for both of our sweet older boys. I love the pictures, but why do they have to make them look so grown up!!

Mikey, Kindergarten

Luke, Preschool

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-06T21:15:00.009-07:00

Of course the boys have all been counting down to Halloween for a LONG time. So it was a good thing we had numerous opportunities to get all dolled up. We went with the whole Star Wars theme this year. Dad: Anakin, Mom: Queen Amidala, Mikey: Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke: Luke (hee hee) Skywalker, and Joey: Our little Yoda.

I know, a lot of these pictures are of Joey doing different things. I just couldn't get over him. He was the cutest thing ever in his little costume. Most of my pictures couldn't quite capture how cute he was, but some come close. And he was surprising good at a keeping his costume on.

First up
Mimi and Bampa's Halloween Party:

Anakin and Yoda: (See! Look how cute!)

The whole Star Wars clan:

The Jedi Knights:
Yoda finally got a hold of a light saber:
The dip I provided (it was actually ridiculously tasty):
Now onto event number two

Ward Halloween Party:

You should have seen Joey running around the gym in that robe. So cute.

The Young Men and Young Women were in charge of the activities. Lance is one of the leaders and came up with a Plink-O game. So they made him made him make the board. It turned out great and everyone loved it! (And someone has already borrowed it for a party they were having.) That's my talented husband, folks. :)

Here's Mikey taking his turn:
Joey wouldn't leave Lance's side through the whole game, whether it was the game or dad (or both), who knows.
Luke taking his turn:
And finally
Trick-or-Treating:

What a good-looking group :)

Did I mention how cute he was in his costume? So cute :)
Everyone else took pictures on our front steps, so I figured we should, too.

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin time

2011-11-06T20:29:00.006-07:00

Lance was up to his old tricks again this year. You know, I carve one pumpkin, he carves four. And he really did an amazing job this year. While passing out candy I got many, many comments on the amazing-ness of Lance's creations. There were even a few families who stopped and made their kids pose on our front steps in front of them. :)

First here is mine. I used a template and all that "shading" of that background was purely accidental. Lance tries to teach me how to do it right, but I just kind of hack through to get it done.

For the boys Lance asks them what they want, goes and looks at pictures online and lets them pick. Risky, if you ask me, but he does it and does a fabulous job. This next one here is Mikey's:

Here is Luke's (Lance was a little relieved he chose a simple pattern):

And here is Joey's (pretty sure Luke and Mikey conspired on the decision):

And finally, for the finale. This was Lance's masterpiece. I think a few guys offered to buy it :)

So proud :)

First time for everything...

2011-11-03T22:05:00.005-06:00

I have purchased many an item such as the one pictured below for I have given many a baby gift to those having girls.

But this is the first item of the pink variety that I have ever purchased...for myself.

Because this baby is NOT a boy! We are thrilled, but trying to prepare for our balls, trucks, and superhero world to be turned upside down!

(Okay, I must admit that due to my previously-mentioned bleeding/abruption problem I have had a handful of ultrasounds between 14 and 17 weeks. At each ultrasound the doctor said he would guess it was girl. But always it was followed by a, "but the tech will look again during your big ultrasound to confirm because it's still early." So we've had a few weeks to prepare for this possible verdict. It took us a minute to shift gears, but we are thrilled and it seems like exactly what we need.)

Baby Joey

2011-10-23T23:36:00.004-06:00

Our baby Joey isn't quite so baby any more. He's getting to be quite the little man. He's a walking, climbing champ. In fact, he's such a great little climber that he won't stay off of Mikey's loft/bunk bed and finally fell off the thing. It was a pretty good fall, but I think he was mostly just scared. He was all smiles 15 minutes later.

Mikey loves his brother :)

One of his newest fascinations is with forks. He loves forks. He will eat almost anything he can stab with a fork. How was this discovered? Whenever he ended up in his highchair with a toy in his hands he would attempt to stab his food. Case in point:

After receiving some Motrin for aching teeth, I let him hold on to to the syringe. I filled his tray with bits of french toast or something, but after a minute we all noticed that Joey was stabbing his food with the syringe and putting into his mouth. So cute. :)

We usually provide him with a fork now. But the syringe actually seemed to work pretty well.

There is nothing he will eat more of than noodles and marinara sauce. He can eat more than both his brothers combined. The only problem is the clean up required after.

Oh how I love my Joe. I just can't get enough of him.

First Days

2011-10-16T23:01:00.004-06:00

I know, these are a little late as the first day of school was like a month and a half ago, but what can I say. It's been busy.

Here is my little Luke, who is getting way too big, eating breakfast on his first day of school. He had been waiting for this day for at least a year--ever since he started realizing where Mikey was going three times week.

So excited!

And so handsome :)

Here he is just before jumping out of the car. (And there is Mikey still in his PJ's because kindergarteners don't get to actually start the first week of school due to testing. He was NOT happy having the tables turned on who got to go to school and who didn't.)

And finally it was Mikey's turn. He was so excited.

And what's more, the whole neighborhood of kids walk together to school and he LOVES it. (I'm just wondering how long that will last. I have many, many memories of walking to and from school and not one of being super excited about it. )

Tiny Heartbeats

2011-09-27T22:09:00.004-06:00

As you probably know, this is my fourth pregnancy. I've gone through three full pregnancies. Do you know what you do at every single appointment? You listen to the heartbeat. That tiny, super-fast baby heartbeat. In fact, in a lot of those middle appointments, all you do is hear the heartbeat. I figure I've been to around 40 prenatal appointments. Yes, that tiny heartbeat is always good to hear, but I admit it has become a little less exciting than it was that first time. In fact, a week ago Tuesday, I went to my monthly appointment and later commented on the hour I spent entertaining Joey in the waiting room and in the exam room for 15 seconds of heartbeat listening.

Well I now take back my lackadaisical attitude toward the heartbeat ritual.

Last Sunday at around 3:45 in the afternoon I started to bleed. I started to bleed A LOT! A lot, a lot, a lot. More than any pregnant lady should unless she has just given birth. Well, and then I guess she's not really pregnant anymore so still more than any pregnant lady ever should. I was...I don't know how to describe what I was feeling. I was panicked, and devastated, and shocked, and scared, and panicked (did I say that already?), and I don't know, everything else you might imagine.

And most of all, I was pretty sure of what had just happened.

Well, obviously we up and ran to the hospital. Once in the ER, we sat around and waited (while the most inept medical team drifted in and out not listening to me for hours. No seriously, I think it was the third nurse I'd seen, who stated she would be "my" nurse, asked me if this was different from my regular menstrual bleeding...uh...yeah...mostly because I'm 14 weeks pregnant. "OH! Okay" was her reply. Seriously. Don't go to the ER on Sunday evening. ) Anyway, for close to two hours, I laid there and continued to bleed...A LOT. A lot, a lot, a lot.

Finally, as we neared the two hour mark, they finally wheeled me into the ultrasound room. Though I had been dying for them to do this for almost two hours, as the time finally came, I was terrified to confirm what I was all but certain of.

Well the nice ultrasound lady finally got started. She put the little magic wand thingy on my belly and for the first few seconds I just saw some circle-y things and was trying to figure out what I was looking at. And then, all of a sudden that sweet, tiny, baby heartbeat came blasting through the speakers!

Of course it was all I had hoped for, but didn't dare to wish for. I still, almost a week later, am amazed that that tiny heartbeat was still there and going strong after all I had just been though. It still seems impossible that this little baby is still in there and kicking.

Well, after about a half an hour of looking at everything from every angle you could possibly imagine, the tech said she couldn't see anything wrong. A half an hour later we got the same report from the doctor and from the radiologist.

I thought that was good and bad. Obviously I was thrilled that nothing seemed to be wrong with the baby! Though, still wondering why all that had happened. They said go home and rest and see your doctor as soon as you can.

So the next day, I went to my OB. With another ultrasound, now almost a day later, he was able to see more blood building up around the placenta and it looked like it was coming from a little tear where the placenta is coming away from the wall. Right now it's just little--only like 10%. It could be fine the whole rest of the pregnancy, or it could keep bleeding, and/or it could get worse. I'm on pelvic rest for now and will see my doctor again next week. The hardest part is that my poor baby Joey is so sad and wondering why I won't pick him up anymore :( It is breaking my heart. But of course it is worth it for the baby. (And I still cuddle him all that I can on my lap!)

So for now I'm good. And most of all, I am so grateful for tiny, baby heartbeats.

10 More...

2011-09-18T22:05:00.002-06:00

I suppose the time has come to put this out there.

Coming in March we will be bring home 10 more little fingers and 10 more little toes. :)

Congratulations!!

2011-09-18T21:27:00.002-06:00

And the Bar has been passed!!! Wa hoo! Way to go Lance! :)

By Luke

2011-09-11T22:24:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to share a little bit of Luke's art work. He was rather proud in spite of the trouble he was in.

Yes, that's our dining room. He colored in EVERY. SINGLE. SQUARE. (It's also possible that this happened like a month ago and only half of the squares are clean--it takes more elbow grease than I have most days :)

The Wisdom of a Five-Year-Old

2011-08-28T21:17:00.002-06:00

I currently have a five-year-old, and he is very, very wise. Much wiser than I was, I’m sure. But his wisdom is not the wisdom to which I am referring.

27 years ago I was five years old. I started kindergarten with my best friend Ashley. I still remember my first day and for many, many years have chuckled at the first conversation Ashley and I had inside those doors.

We sat just inside those doors in the entry way/mud room and proceeded to say things such as, “Can you believe how old we are?!” “I can’t believe we’re in kindergarten.” “We are so old!”

For so many years, I have thought about how silly and funny we were. I have been wrong. Tomorrow my baby is starting kindergarten. All these years, the grown-up me has been wrong. I'm realizing that those five-year-old little girls actually knew a thing or two. They were right. Five is so old and so grown-up. I can’t believe my baby is so grown-up and starting kindergarten. (He has started to tell me, "mom, I don't want you to cry!" Tough cookies, kid. It's happening 'cause that's how I roll.)

Good luck, Mikey! We are so excited for you!

Thoughtless Semi-Nude Teenage Boys

2011-08-21T22:56:00.003-06:00

So, Mikey had been begging to go on a hike, and things had been kind of crazy and non-stop lately. Though darkness was going to be an issue if both Mikey and Luke made it all the way to the lake we were shooting for, we decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it. As it turns out, both boys were absolute troopers. Mikey expressed concern about having to come back down all the way we'd come up, because it was probably a good 45 minutes up the mountain, there was really a shocking absence of whining and complaining the whole way both ways (Luke did 90% of the way back down on my shoulders, so I guess I shouldn't have expected too much complaining there).

Well, we made it, and both boys spent every precious moment at the water's edge trying to hit the too-tame ducks that foolishly wandered in our direction. It was a lot of fun, and I'm very proud of my boys (except for the throwing rocks at ducks part, but we'll cover that later).

Getting back to the headline, on the way up the mountain, there was a young man who passed us as he ran up the trail for a tough workout. He was sporting gym shorts and an Ipod, and a shirt was conspicuously absent. This conversation ensued:

Mikey: Dad, that guy didn't have a shirt on.
Me: Yup, he sure didn't.
Mikey: Why didn't he have a shirt on?
Me: I dunno. He was probably hot and it's cooler without a shirt on.
Mikey: It's pretty un-polite when people don't wear shirts, isn't it?
Me: I suppose it is.

Alone time without children...

2011-08-21T20:26:00.002-06:00

Mikey just informed us that since he will be starting school and out of the house we will have much more time to discuss all the surprises we have for him.

Center of the World

2011-08-16T23:22:00.006-06:00

Our little Joey is the center of the world in our house. The older boys are sad when he's asleep and excited when he wakes up and spend most of their time trying to get him to laugh, which usually really isn't too hard. He does have a pretty awesome laugh.

He is now quite the little walker. He took his first steps way back in the middle of July, but then seemed to decide that crawling was the preferred method of travel. But now all of sudden in the last week or two he has just taken off running. Well, not actually running, but still walking everywhere.

But before he could even walk, he was obsessed with climbing. It's frightening at times. Mikey has a very high bunk bed and Joey climbs right to top if I'm not there to intervene. All my boys climb. They're boys. But none quite like Joey.

One of his secretly cute, but outwardly embarrassing habits is his slapping. Yes, slapping. When holding him, you must be on guard at all times. He is all smiles and laughing and suddenly SLAP! He smiles through the whole thing and if it didn't hurt it would be funny. We stifle laughs to try and teach him, but he still thinks it's all part of a game. It gets embarrassing when the younger neighborhood girls come up to him in church falling all over him. He lures them in with his big cute smile and then WHACK!

The kid is actually a pretty good eater. Clearly he loves spaghetti. But he also loves crayons. I mean, Mikey tried crayons now and then, but Joey seems to REALLY enjoy them. He gets down right upset when you try to take one away from him while he's eating it. I'm always torn with just allowing the Crayola snack as it does seem to just pass on through, if you know what I mean. Or to take it away and deal with the screaming child. Depends on my mood.

Just can't get enough of that kid

Parker = Trouble

2011-08-16T23:12:00.004-06:00

I admit it. When my kids are in serious trouble, I use their middle names. Luke, being 3, is perhaps in the most "naughty" stage of all the boys so he hears it a lot more than the others. "Luke PARKER!" is often heard in our house.

Well, Luke definitely knows he's in trouble when hears it, but apparently he doesn't know its origins. The other day as Luke was getting mad at Mikey for something, he suddenly yelled, "Mikey PARKER!" (Of course then a new argument ensued when Mikey started yelling, "No, I'm Michael Brennan! YOU are Luke Parker!") He still doesn't get it. We now also hear, "Joey Parker!" come out of his mouth now and then when he's mad at Joey.

Pioneer Day Parade!

2011-08-16T23:01:00.003-06:00

Our Neighborhood does a little parade for Pioneer Day and the kids love it. They decorate their bikes the day before and feel like little stars riding through the neighborhood (well, Joey was pushed, but you get it). Here we are three weeks later and they still won't let me take off the now ripped and torn and falling-off streamers. So here are the pics.

Joey

Luke

Mikey

4th of July

2011-07-10T22:05:00.004-06:00

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Watch out! Fireworks!!!!

Okay, Luke actually wasn't all that afraid of the fireworks, but he did turn and run to me a time or two. He was actually always laughing, but I managed to capture this shot above...it's my favorite 4th of July shot. :)

So excited for festivities to begin!

Perhaps even more excited!

The wind made it a little difficult to light 'em up, but the boys got it done.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Summer Time

2011-07-10T21:16:00.006-06:00

We're half way through the summer and having lots of summertime fun.

This was a little pool that Luke got for his birthday. It looked all sparkly and clean like this for about 10 minutes...then we turned our backs and Luke started throwing all the rocks and dirt he could get a hold of down in the water. Well, whatever makes him happy--it's his pool ;)

Mikey had a relatively good soccer season this Spring (that's relative to last Fall...the Fall was sad. Very sad.) He scored his fair share of goals and actually followed the ball around the field and even dribbling it now and then. :)

There is nothing the boys love more than camping. Luckily there is a spot in our yard that is still waiting for the finishing touches (i.e. mulch and swing set) so right now we have a great camping site, fire pit included. We couldn't even count the number of times Mikey said, "this is the best night of my life!!"

This is what summer is doing to Luke. At least a few times per week, Luke falls asleep in a random location that is not his bed, at a random time that is not night.

Mikey's first Graduation

2011-07-09T22:42:00.007-06:00

This was a few months ago, but better late than never....

My handsome boy all grown up and graduating from preschool.

Seems like only yesterday....

His first day of preschool. He's so little and cute!

And now he's so big. After seeing Lance with his graduation garb for Law School, he was very excited to get to wear "the hat."

The kids put on a little show with some very fun songs before "the ceremony."

Joe wasn't quite as entertained...more like really tired.

But we sure loved it as Mikey is never one to shy away from hamming it up.

He did not disappoint.

Congratulations, Mikey!

Stuffing the Cake

2011-06-22T21:52:00.004-06:00

I said I'd try again later with this video...so here it is. It was seriously so funny. He's like a missionary trying to hide the food he doesn't want to eat at some crazy lady's house (not that I ever did that or anything....) Funny kid. ;)

Happy Birthday, Baby Joey!!

2011-06-16T22:11:00.008-06:00

My baby is 1!!! I can't say it enough, and I know every mom in the world says it, but man, does time fly. Joey is our happy, happy little baby--though actually not that little. At his one-year-old check up he was over 25lbs. None of the boys have caught Mikey, who weighed in at a whopping 28 lbs at one year, but he did beat Luke by just a little as Luke was just a little over 24 lbs. Joey is a champ at going up stairs and will stand for a few moments in the middle of the room, but no walking yet. He waves a little and sure yells, "mama" like a pro. He absolutely loves his brothers. Well, he might enjoy Mikey a little more than Luke at this point, simply because Luke hasn't quite mastered the art of "being soft" and gets a little rough with him. He can't get enough of mom or dad being down on the floor and playing with him. He loves climbing up on top of us and attempts to eat our faces, scratch and occasionally slap. He sure thinks it's all funny. It's sometimes a little painful, but he's so cute it makes it all worth it. We love our little man!!

We've called Joey our little monkey, so monkey cake it was! Heather actually had a form pan that I borrowed which made it turn out all that much cuter. :) I know, he didn't really appreciate it, but the rest of the little kids did and it sure makes for cute pictures.

One day-of-vacation's work. So worth it for my babies :)

My babies

Opening presents. Or I should say, watching his cousins open his presents. (Luckily he didn't seem to mind.)

And the best part of a one-year-old's birthday party.... As you can see, we gave Joey just the monkey head. He was the fastest of all my boys to just dive in. We didn't have to push his hands in at all! (We did with both the others).

But eating was not what he had in mind. After a little squishing, he started grabbing handfuls and just STUFFING them UNDER the tray! He just stuffed and stuffed and stuffed! I have an awesome video. It wasn't loading right, but I'll try to post it again later.

We did have to help him get a bite to his mouth. He tasted it a little, but was more entertained by his first choice. See that mostly empty tray...?

There it is! (Yes, I know what it looks like...but I assure you it is just cake :)

Then came the worst part of a one-year-old's birthday party...the clean up.

Happy Birthday, Joey!!! We love you!!!!

Happy 3 years, Luke!!!

2011-06-14T23:01:00.020-06:00

I can't believe my baby Luke is three! Seems like only yesterday....

Days old

One year

Between one and two...

Two years

Between two and three...

I love this kid so much it hurts! He is the happiest little kid around and such a little mama's boy... and I love it! If I didn't have a business and house to run, I'd do nothing, but play with him all day long because he is so happy when I do. Love him.

We were in St. George for a little family reunion for Luke's birthday, and Joey's birthday is a few days after Luke's so we did a little joint party. But this post is about Luke so I'll get to Joey's later.

The cake. Luke LOVED it. He is still talking about his "black cake" and how his birthday is coming up again. (I probably could have just plopped a Batman figurine in the middle of square, black frosted cake, and he'd have been just as happy... but let's pretend that's not true) This was my third superhero cake (but second Batman) and I've resigned myself to the fact that there will be many more. I was originally planning something way more complicated, but seeing as I had two cakes to do while on vacation, I decided simplicity was the way to go. And actually, it probably looks better being simple than if I did something complicated.

Presents...

And back to the cake.

Forever my little sweetheart

(No seriously, when I ask him who my sweetheart is he says, "Lukey!") Happy Birthday, Luke!!! Love you more than ever!!

Hawaii!

2011-05-17T22:23:00.017-06:00

Over a year ago (while fat and pregnant, and with a husband wading through law school) I declared to my hubby, "we are going to Hawaii next spring after you graduate!" I knew I would be done nursing Joey and would (absolutely, positively...hopefully) not be pregnant and Lance would be graduating! So what a perfect time to get away! And it was :) Thanks to my wonderful (and after this, wonderfully tired) parents for staying with my kids and making this all possible.

Though we had some clouds and a bit of rain here and there...hey, it's Hawaii--there was tons of fabulous, fabulous sun (especially seeing as it continued to rain and snow in Utah).
We stayed in two hotels: first in the middle of Waikiki, and then more towards the West coast in Ko'olina for the last few days. It was gorgeous, of course, as seen above.

This was our first day lying about at the beach. Notice, all nice and pasty white-ness :)

Lance was in love with these trees.... Boys.

This was Lance's first trip to Hawaii ever, and my first since I was 16 so we did all the good, old touristy stuff. Hey. We're tourists :) So here is Pearl Harbor. It was very, very cool.

Hanauma Bay

Wondering around the middle of Waikiki at night. It was SO nice!

This was after our fabulous (but vomit inducing) dive trip. Whew. Never felt better to be on solid ground. (Read more about it in the previous post).

The beautiful Temple

We were staying in this room from August 28th to May 3rd. And so it happened we were in this room for two of the biggest history-book-writing moments the world has seen in, like, FOREVER!! ;) Lance is enthralled.... Anyone know...?

Now Lance is celebrating! Yay for killing Osama Bin Ladin!!!!!

(Or is that cheering for Will and Kate, the Royal Wedding... hee hee ;)

Just a cool, random ship? Cool? Yes. Random? No. That's right folks. That is the honest to goodness Black Pearl. It was being stored right there by our hotel! So cool.

And this was our last full day there. Okay, so you were supposed to be able to see this great difference in our pasty white-ness to our fabulous tan-ness compared to that first picture...but you can't really tell. We really did get a lot of color, but you'll just have to take my word for it. :)

Diving in Hawaii

2011-05-15T23:29:00.008-06:00

Much to my mother's chagrin, we went diving in Hawaii (she just doesn't like "the danger" of it all :) With the scarcity of trips of this nature for us, and the near constant nursing or pregnancies of mine for the past 6 years, we have to take these opportunities when they come.

We saw some very cool things on this trip and the great thing was that our guide had a camera to capture it all. So in case you are interested, here is a (large) sample of the pictures taken...

That's right folks. We descended and the very first thing we saw was a shark. Actually, maybe two. We couldn't tell if these two were the same one as the one below had a hook in his mouth which we didn't notice the first time around...?

White-tip reef shark. In case your wondering. We have a really cool video of him, but it's like 10 minutes. And well, he's just swimming around so you can probably just google shark videos if you really want to see that.

Cute little puffer fish...

We saw a few eels that looked ready to pounce (though, that's kind of just how they look. I think he was really just chillin'.)

That's me

Me again

And there's Lance

View from the top of the wreck we were diving (which was an overturned WWII landing craft used for an amphibious assalt--Lance just googled it for me because I couldn't remember.)

On the second dive we saw at least 4 or 5 turtles. It was pretty cool.

That's both of us with the friendly neighborhood turtle

That's Lance

That's Lance in the yellow. I'm not sure about the others.

That's me

How cute, huh? Little sleepy sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor.

And a few other statues were scattered around

There were many, many more, but you're probably already bored so we'll leave it at this.

Lance loved the diving. He loves all diving. Even if it's dark and freezing. Me, not so much. I'm a bit more of a fair-weathered friend of diving. I like my conditions to be ideal (I just really don't like being cold or sick. Is that so weird?)

So this actual diving was pretty good. It wasn't too cold, which is important. Unfortunately I got SO SICK! I swear my stomach gets weaker and weaker as I get on in my years. The last time we went I got a little sick. So this time we went out of our way to buy anti-nausea medication...and I forgot to take it. So after the first dive, I climbed back into the boat...less than 5 minutes later I was hurling over the boat. First time I've ever thrown up on a boat! And that's saying a lot considering I was practically raised on a boat.

After getting to our next dive spot, I was still feeling it so they pushed me in immediately, backwards over the edge just to get me into the water because it usually helps. It helped some, but I was feeling it through most of the second dive. At the end of that dive, when I surfaced I immediately started hurling again! It was horrible. So that was kind of a crappy ending to the diving. (Lance is just holding his breath, so afraid I'm going to swear off diving forever... ;)

Happy Easter!!

2011-05-15T21:59:00.008-06:00

(I know, I know. I'm like weeks late. Get over it.)

We had a fabulous Easter in spite of the so-so weather. Okay, the downright crappy weather. It's been the winter that never ends around here. But I'm pretty sure it can't last forever...right? Anyway...where was I?

Oh yes. So the boys started off with a Saturday morning Easter egg hunt. But not just any Easter egg hunt. Like, the BIGGEST Easter egg hunt on the planet. Of all the treasures this awesome neighborhood held for us, who would have guessed this?!

This wonderful lady above, from our ward, is the ring leader on this and here she is getting things started. (See the megaphone? That's how big.)

Luke is just getting started. That bucket of his is not even half full...it was overflowing when this was all over.

Mikey on the hunt

Just a few of those bonus prizes. Quite possibly one the hardest decisions of Mikey's little life.

Replenishing after the big morning

And what is Easter without some egg dyeing. Joey, of course, wanted to be a part of everything

The final product

And finally Easter dinner at Mimi and Bampa's. When kids have empty buckets, what else are they going to do...? (I didn't really take many pictures. So bad of me.)

*sigh*

Yes, I'm smiling, but it's in spite of myself. That shirt is part of a set of outfits purchased for all three boys for pictures recently taken, but more importantly for family pictures hopefully in the near future. Oh the damage one little piece of chocolate can do when a child finds said chocolate in a quiet corner by himself.... (Luckily, it did all come out.)

Happy Easter!!

Luckiest Mom Ever

2011-05-12T00:16:00.000-06:00

That's me! The luckiest mom ever. I can't believe I have three perfect, beautiful babies that are mine. All mine! Mother's Day was fabulous. I basically slept and read. Just what I wanted. :)

(And the reason there are more pictures of me with Joey and only one with the other two is that I can grab my little Joe and he doesn't go anywhere--the other two only take pictures on their watch...so we take what we can get. But it's cute when we get it!)

And though I may be the luckiest, I am far from the best. My mom has that title. Thanks, mom for being the best mother ever. I owe it all to you. Happy Mother's Day.

He did it!!

2011-04-30T03:52:00.007-06:00

Yay for Lance!!! After three long and grueling years, last Friday Lance graduated from BYU Law School! We are so proud :)

The proud wife

The proud father-in-law. Unfortunately, the timing was bad and Lance's parents were not able to make the trip, but it was great to have both of my parents there to join in the celebration.

Yes, we made him pose so that we could get his hood and all

I was so proud of myself. From clear across the Marriott center, I spotted Lance immediately on the floor during the commencement exercises. This looks like it would be easy, but the camera captured this better than it actually looked from so far away. I know my hubby when I see him ;)

The two days of graduation were fun for the boys as they got to hang out with their cousins Abigail and William who live so close to BYU, but it was also exhausting. This was what we found after the long drive home one night. (And this was probably how Abigail and William's mom felt each night after they left.)

Be sure to notice the "Y" in the background (because that's what we were going for.)

Lance with all his law-school-suffering peeps. They all made it! Congratulations!

Now just a few months of bar prep, the bar, and then his judicial clerkship starting August 1st.... And that's why I'm blogging from Hawaii :)

Career in Advertising...?

2011-04-30T03:38:00.004-06:00

Do you think Dairy Queen would pay us for these?

Cute baby Joe

2011-04-24T01:26:00.005-06:00

Oh my sweet baby Joe!!! I can't get enough of him. He is just so frickin' cute. I love him. He's about 10 1/12 months now. He is EVERYwhere. He tries to climb the stairs whenever given the chance (which isn't often because we just don't want to go there yet.) He opens every cupboard we have (spilled an entire container of oatmeal a few days ago--that was great), and just reaches and grabs everything he can. He stands and cruises along a little, but no walking. And he has some way awesome snagglely (snaggelly? snagley?) teeth. Oh he's so cute. Did I mention I love him!!!

Lance hates these leggings things and makes fun of me every time I put them on him, but come on, look how cute!! I love them. And look how cute he is.

He does this little head-tilt, shy-face thing all the time and it's my favorite.

And he LOVES dad. He gets so excited when dad shows up.

That's all. Just wanted to share some cute ones.

5 years already

2011-04-22T21:54:00.007-06:00

Just look how big that kid is!!! When did that happen!

Mikey turned 5 last week and I can't believe it. It was a great celebration.

Mom and dad with birthday boy

It was really kind of sad to watch him ride his old little 12" wheeled bike with his knees up in his armpits, so it was time for a new bike.

Mimi gives the best gifts :)

Birthday breakfast

And then there was the birthday party!

(these aren't in any particular order)

We had all Mikey's favorite cousins and some friends at the Classic Fun Center. And I must say, it really was a FUN center. The kids had a blast with all the big bouncy houses, jungle gyms, arcade games, and scooter track.

And FINALLY...the cake. I just couldn't help myself. As I stay up until 4am I think, "why can't I just do something simple." But I can't. This was my first attempt at fondant. Eh. Not my favorite, but it sure can be cute.

Get it? Superman lifting the building?

Happy Birthday, Mikey!!! We Love you!!!

Never!!!!!

2011-04-17T23:56:00.004-06:00

That is what Luke says. Whenever his answer is "No" he yells, "Never!" as though it's some persevering battle cry. Sometimes it sounds a little naughty as he says no to a lot of things, but it still makes me laugh every time. I don't know where he got it.

Beans

2011-03-27T22:46:00.002-06:00

I love it when my babies start eating beans because they make the biggest mess. Okay, so it's really a giant pain because they are the WORST to clean...but it's still just so cute. So, so messy and so, so cute.

Seriously, look how cute.

Seriously.

Catching Leprechauns

2011-03-21T00:29:00.008-06:00

Mikey gets pretty excited about St. Patrick's Day because last year they made a big, fun deal about it at school. Lance was the enabler this year because the night before he and Mikey set up many traps all over the house like the one below to catch leprechauns.

If you look closely you can see the coin (probably an old Chuck E. Cheese token or something) underneath because everyone knows leprechauns love gold coins. Unfortunately, all the leprechauns were too fast and were able to get the coins and set off the traps without getting trapped. Bummer. One even left G.I. Joe-sized, milky footprints to and from one of the sprung traps. Go figure.

But leave it to Mikey--he was not to be deterred by a little thing such as St. Patrick's Day being over. The next day Mikey brought us to his room to show us this:

It's small and a little hard to tell, but it's a little trap with a coin you can just see underneath and it's right smack in the middle of his room. Mikey continues to talk day after day about how he still wants to catch a leprechaun and so he keeps his trap there. But day after day, the trap is growing....

He explains the layout when asked about it and how it will be even harder for the leprechaun to get out because of his many barriers....

Here is the current state. It just keeps growing. Can you see WAY down there the tiny little trap we started with? I'm not sure how long this will go on. Perhaps when he runs out of things in his room? That or when he finally catches his leprechaun.

If you work really hard...

2011-03-20T23:36:00.002-06:00

I was out with Mikey running an errand. It was just Mikey and me so we actually had a chance to talk.

We were talking about school. Mostly because he is obsessed with starting Kindergarten and talks about it constantly. We started talking about moving on to first grade and second and so on and so forth. I was feeling so proud of Mikey because he was completely jumping on everything I said and pointing out that if you don't learn enough you won't be prepared to move on. This conversation was a good 10 minutes, and like I said, I was feeling so good about the conversation and all he picked up on. He was sounding so mature and smart. And so when I said that if he worked hard he could be whatever he wanted and the harder he worked the more choices he had, I had high hopes for his response...

Mikey: I'm going to work so hard and you know what I'm going to be?!
Me (with great anticipation): What?!
Mikey: Superman!
Me: Of course.

I really don't know why I expected anything different.

Lately...

2011-03-13T21:35:00.006-06:00

Here are few things I never got the chance to put up...

Joey's latest trick: pulling himself up on everything. Standing is so much better than sitting. Even if you can't go anywhere yet.

Ready to sled

It wasn't Luke's first hair cut or anything, but he just looked so cute. I had to take a picture.

Mikey was throwing a fit and grumpy as all get out. So we sent him to his room for a little time out and cooling off period. A few minutes later we found him like this. He did not move from this position for hours. (Explains the grumpiness!)

Yep, I turned 32. Feels great :)

Is Bampa teaching Luke how to play or is Luke teaching Bampa...? That is the question.

Valentine's Day cookie decorating!

A frown is better than a thousand words

2011-03-07T11:56:00.004-07:00

So I (Lance) was out of town this weekend, and at one point while I was talking to Kristy on the phone, she related the following story that had happened since I'd been gone (apparently, she didn't think it was funny enough, or has just gotten lazy, and I have to put it on here myself - so forgive the hearsay). Kristy is in the kitchen or something, and Mikey is sitting at the table or in the adjacent family room. Mikey, as he tends to do, chooses to express his displeasure with something by putting on a powty (sp?) face and just sitting there, waiting for someone to notice and ask about the source of his disgruntlement. Kristy took the bait, as she tends to do (I probably would have said something like, "Mikey, if you have something to say, I think you can find a better way to go about it than what you're doing," but Kristy's a softy).

Kristy: Mikey, what's the matter? WAIT, did you wet your pants (what a conclusion jumper)?
Mikey: (wait for it) No, I just miss Daddy!

That's what I'm talking about! By the way, the Utah State Bar is accepting nominations for father of the year. I can provide the address if anyone needs it.

Where'd we go wrong?

2011-03-03T21:52:00.002-07:00

Lance just left on an airplane for a short trip. Mikey was VERY sad, both because dad is gone and because he wants to fly on an airplane. Apparently he likes getting the little snacks and drinks, and watching the movie (so different from home, right?) So I said we could "play airplane" a little later. Then this conversation took place:

Mikey: Mama you can be the servant.
Mama: (slight chuckle) Is that really so different from real life?
Mikey: Well, it's just that grown ups are servants and you're a grown up.

I think we missed a lesson somewhere...

Overheard

2011-02-24T22:51:00.002-07:00

From the backseat, while Luke was watching Nemo, we suddenly heard:
"Oh dang it. Poor Nemo."

We don't know what part it was, but it might be our favorite thing to ever come out of his mouth. If only we could have had it recorded because, of course, it's a million times cuter when you can hear his cute little voice. I pretty much wish I were constantly recording that kid. He never stops.

8 Months for Joey

2011-02-21T00:40:00.009-07:00

Joey was 8 months old on February 3rd. 8 months!! It feels like just yesterday when he was my tiny newborn. Well he definitely isn't tiny any more! He's roughly 22 lbs and all over the place. The last week of January was a big week for Joe as he started to crawl AND got his first tooth all within a few days. (He is also our earliest "teether" by over a month. Luke was 9 months and Mikey was close to one year!)

Our little Joe is the cuddliest little thing and we can't get enough. He absolutely thrives on being held. Now that he can crawl, he is constantly nudging our legs and trying to climb up. Your reward for indulging him? The cutest grin you've ever seen and nuzzling his little head into your shoulder. And this is, by no means, reserved only for mom and dad. Any smiling stranger will do. He's quite the charmer.

He is definitely the most popular kid in the house. It's kind of amazing he gets any sleep at all. The very first thing Mikey and Luke want to do in the morning is say hi to Joey--even if he's asleep. They both pick him up (despite the threats from M&D every time it occurs) and they constantly fight over who gets to play with him. Yes, we don't understand either why they can't both play with him at the same time. They just can't. They want his undivided attention when playing.

So here are millions of pictures. Just in case one or two isn't enough for you.

Just building up that upper body strength in preparation for crawling.

Hi!

I know, right? Look at that smile :)

It was a trip to the grocery store with just me and Joe and he got SO close to making it to the car before falling asleep. SO close. I was checking out. This was my only solution. Lots of "awww" and "how cute" from all passing by, though.

Already developing a taste for calamari :)

Overheard

2011-01-26T22:47:00.002-07:00

One important fact for my story: it snowed a lot yesterday.

This morning I was lying in bed trying to get a few more winks before facing my day. Lance was up and getting dressed for work. I suddenly heard Mikey come running into the room.

Mikey: (In the most excited voice you can imagine) Dad! Dad! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?!!!!!!!
Lance: Uh.... I don't know, Mikey. What are you thinking?
Mikey: We should go sledding!!!!

If only. Darn job.

Christmas!

2011-01-03T00:13:00.007-07:00

And finally Christmas. This was Christmas Eve and we were trying to get some good pictures of all three in their Christmas PJs. That's easier said than done even on regular night, but Christmas Eve...well, take a look.

These first ones are probably the best ones

But these were the previous attempts:

Maybe my favorite. Check out Luke.

Ahhh. Mama and her boys.

Then Santa came. And stayed until 3 am. Yep. That table there to the left and another toy bench to the right that isn't visible were the main culprits. Plus he saved all his wrapping.... Poor Santa.

We mostly just took videos on Christmas morning. I'll try to post those later, but I might not.

Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas Eve Breakfast Party

2011-01-02T23:35:00.006-07:00

That's what we do. Family Christmas Eve Breakfast and it's awesome. So here are the highlights.

Luke and Anna. Best friends and best trouble makers. Can't you just see the mischief in those angelic faces? Trouble I tell ya. Trouble. But man are they cute!

The newest member of the family, Eliza Heather. Oh so cute! I love babies. So much! :)

Speaking of babies, I have a pretty darn cute one.

Luke kept switching up Joey's hat. He was very particular at any given moment.

Okay, can someone tell me when Luke got so grown up?! He looks so old in these pictures! What the heck? (That's what he always says, by the way. "What the heck?" So funny.)

So old.

And so cute!

The Nativity Scene:

Beautiful Kate made a wonderful Mary while Joey was quite content as the baby Jesus for like a half an hour!

Mikey, a King

Olivia, Ben and Luke as various animals

Abigail, Caroline and Amanda as some beautiful angels

And this was why the kids all cooperated in the nativity--to get to this :)

Joe at 6 months and 7 months

2011-01-02T22:28:00.008-07:00

First I need to catch up on Joey. On December 3rd, Joey was 6 months. On his 6 month mark he started sitting up all by himself. He still tipped over lots, but he could actually stay upright for a bit. He went to the doctor that day and was healthy as a horse weighing in at 19.36 lbs and 28.5 inches long--82nd and 97th percentiles, respectively.

He continues to be the center of the household (okay, along with Mikey and Luke. It's a three-way tie.) Mikey and Luke never stop trying to make Joe laugh. And Joe DOES laugh. It's so darn cute.

Joey started in on solids this month. He was always anxious to get the food in his mouth, but of course immediately spit it out and all over everything the second it hit his lips.

Joey, at this age, is by far my best sleeper! And I've never really done any training with him. He just sleeps. He goes down awake and will often just talk himself to sleep. He particularly loves the heater. After getting out of the bath, he was crying and cold. I laid him down in front the heater and he immediately stopped crying. Then fell sleep. He stayed like this for at least an hour and had quite an awesome carpet imprint on his face.

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby? So cute.

Now after a few weeks of eating, he seems to be getting a bit more of the food actually down his throat. Of course, the mess is still just as bad.

Oh yeah. And he's just so cute!!!! Look at that face!

I can't get enough of it.

Now Joe will be 7 months tomorrow. He sits up like a champ and rarely tips over. If he does tip over, he just flips over onto his tummy and doesn't miss a beat. He has started to try to push up on his knees and between rolling and pushing, he sure can travel in a room. And everything, everything, EVERYthing goes straight to his mouth. Oh we love that kid.

Occupations according to Luke

2011-01-01T22:38:00.002-07:00

Two stories.

First, a few days ago, Lance was joining me on a trip to the gym with all the kids during his break from school. He was getting all his running garb on which includes a bandanna tied over his head. Just as he finished tying it on, Luke walked by. He immediately stopped and yelled, "Hey, daddy! You're not a pirate!" So true, Luke, so true.

Then the next day it was just me and the kids at the gym. We were on our way home and it was quite the blizzard-y day. We all bundled up and with heads down started to run to the car. Half way there, we passed a group of some older grown-ups. One had a cowboy-ish hat on. I hardly noticed them, but Luke stopped in his tracks as they approached and yelled at the hat-wearing gentleman, "Hey, are you a cowboy?!" I don't know if the gentleman thought it was all that funny, but his friends sure did.

Red Ranch?

2010-12-21T00:44:00.002-07:00

That's right folks. In our house, we have red ranch. We also have white ranch. Oh, and some of you might possibly call red ranch ketchup. (And according to Luke, you'd be wrong. It's red ranch.)

Mikey's New Spelling Skills

2010-12-07T21:32:00.003-07:00

I have to take a quick break from studying for finals to throw this on here. Mikey has been very interested in spelling lately. He's starting to figure out his letters, and almost every time he says a word, he likes to tell us what letter it starts with. He's getting pretty good at it, so I was surprised the other day when he asked if I knew what letter "tree" starts with. I said, "yes, do you?" He said, "Yes. It starts with "J."" That threw me, so I proceeded to dig a little deeper. "What sound does tree start with?" I asked. He then enunciated, very clearly, the sound he thought was at the beginning of tree. When he says the word quickly and in a sentence, you don't really notice. In this little exercise, though, what I was hearing was a very clear "ch ... ch ... chree." We haven't gotten to putting two letters together to make a single sound, and "j" was the closest he could come to matching the sound to a letter he knew. Mikey's a "chreat" to have around.

Smile!

2010-11-14T22:02:00.004-07:00

Joey is a super happy baby and a great smiler...when the camera's not there. As soon as we pull out the camera it completely distracts him and he gets all serious! So I was super excited to capture his cute little smile. I can't even choose which one is best. So you get them all even in their nearly identical-ness.

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-07T21:37:00.013-07:00

And here we are. Finally our Halloween post. Like I said before, this is the year of the Superhero...you shall see that I was not lying. Of course, between family parties, school parties, church parties...and so on and so forth, the Halloween costumes get to be worn over and over. This helped Mikey make it all the way until Halloween for the trick or treating.

First up was the Halloween party at Mimi and Bampa's. As you can see, Spider-Man and Superman are ready to go. My favorite was asking them to pose each time. They didn't really have much variety in what they could think of for superhero poses, but they tried, plus the look on their faces was priceless.

And another pose.

I couldn't get enough of Luke's little face in his mask. To grandmother's house we go!

Hey. Even Spider-Man gets tired.

The excitement of Halloween was just too much to make it through the long car ride. (And if you know Luke, you know how amazing this is--he NEVER falls asleep in the car.)

Okay, not so uncommon for Mikey to fall asleep, but this was pretty deep. I thought he was going to fall out of his seat belt!

And the party begins!

And there you have it. Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman all in the same room. You can probably imagine the excitement.

So Mimi asked all the kids to do a trick and then they could get a treat. She warned us moms before hand and wanted to make sure the kids would be willing...silly Mimi. We couldn't get the kids to STOP doing tricks! Jumping, cart wheels, spinning, running fast....

Did I mention I couldn't get enough of Luke in that costume? I couldn't. He was the cutest.

And let's not forget Joey. I know, you're thinking, "that kind of looks familiar." Let me show you. Remember this? And how about this?

Actually, I was kind of disappointed because Joey wasn't in the greatest mood so we didn't get any super smiley ones. I just might dress him back up on a day he's in the mood just to get more pictures. But he's still my cute tiger.

And I made a cake. This didn't photograph all that well, but I thought it was actually one of the cutest things I've ever made! I loved it.

Okay, so these are more of the same, but this was the ward party. Still cute.

And finally time for trick or treating. They actually had a bit more bulk this night as it was raining on and off all day and it was COLD! So they had PJs on underneath.

And me and skeleton Joe stayed in by the fire answering the door.

Happy Halloween!!!

Luke

2010-11-03T22:24:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I was trying to get Luke to lay down for his nap. I asked him to go get in bed and I'd bring him his bottle. Instead he stood and waited for his bottle, but once it was in hand he piled his bear and blanket up in his arms and started down the long hall to his room.

I was following him so that I could tuck him in and get him all settled. As he walked he kept slowing for a second and glancing over his shoulder at me. After doing that a few times he looked back one more time and exasperated said, "Stop following me!"

Lots of Joey

2010-10-25T00:14:00.006-06:00

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)

2010-10-24T23:48:00.003-06:00

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

2010-10-24T23:13:00.004-06:00

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...

2010-10-24T22:45:00.006-06:00

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

2010-10-24T22:26:00.003-06:00

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

2010-10-24T22:03:00.004-06:00

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

2010-10-24T21:42:00.003-06:00

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...

Mikey's Recent Gun Fetish

2010-10-09T18:38:00.002-06:00

So, Mikey has been playing with legos a lot lately, but he pretty much uses them exclusively to make guns. Upon walking in and having him demonstrate his most recent huge and ridiculously intricate creation, the following conversation ensued:

Lance: What's with this gun fetish? Why do you keep making all these guns?
Mikey: I love guns.
Lance: Mama doesn't love guns (anyone who knows Kristy knows how much of an understatement this is).
Mikey: That's because Mom's a girl. You have to be a boy to love guns.

For all those female gun enthusiasts out there, he didn't get such primaevil and sexist ideas from me. Cute kid, though.

Awesome Shoes

2010-10-08T23:47:00.002-06:00

Mikey just got a new pair of "awesome" shoes. He was so excited to wear them to school for the first time and told me how he was going to show his teacher and friends. So after he returned home we were talking. I asked him if he showed his teacher. He paused...then:

Mikey: "Oh no. I forgot."
Me: "That's okay, you can show her next time. Did you show Zach?"
Mikey (with a bit of attitude): "Uh. Yeah!"
Me: "Did he like them?"
He stopped and just looked at me for a second. Then...
Mikey (with even more attitude): "Mom. Why would Zach NOT like AWESOME shoes?"

I really couldn't think of a good reason.
I don't know where he gets this stuff.

Pictures we missed

2010-09-24T01:41:00.006-06:00

Here are a few random pictures that I love, but that I never got around to blogging about individually. I'm too tired. So here they all are.

Lance was laying down under this blanket so the boys jumped in. He was trying to get them all to pretend to be asleep so I could take a picture. It was not easy. But that's okay, because this first picture is one of my FAVORITES! I have cute boys. What can I say.

Still not cooperating.

This is as close as we got. Luke is actually rather convincing!

I can't get over how grown up Luke is looking! :( He's my baby!

So lucky, I am.

Summertime Popsicles

That would be peanut butter all over his face. Sandwiches are great because they keep hands all nice and clean and away from the sticky insides...just so long as one doesn't pull it apart.

Luke is still trying to be the baby :)

My Angels

Funny Guys

Lessons on Jealousy

2010-09-13T11:00:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Snow White was on. Mikey has never seen it before (not too many princess movies in this house of boys.) So Mikey was kind of watching it on and off. At one point he suddenly turned to ask me a question.

Mikey: What does the mean lady want to do to Snow White?
Me: She wants to kill her.
Mikey: Why?
Me: Because Snow White is prettier and she wants to be the prettiest.

He stopped and thought for a minute. Finally he said,

Mikey: Well that's dumb. Just because someone dies it won't make her any prettier.

No duh! (Yes, I just said, "no duh.") Such a simple concept! Why is it so hard for mankind to understand that?

So proud of that little logical brain of his :)

I took this picture...

2010-09-12T23:07:00.003-06:00

...because I thought I would think it was funny later. I still don't think it's funny. You see, that isn't flour. That is powdered sugar. Do you know how I feel about powdered sugar? I hate it. Yep, I hate it. Products made with it? Fine. But powdered sugar in it's unaltered state? I hate. Why? Well, have you ever noticed that when you use flour it's almost impossible to stop it from getting on unintended things? It's so fine and light that it floats everywhere. That actually doesn't really bother me. Powdered sugar, on the other hand, does the same thing...BUT IT'S STICKY! I know, I'm a little unstable about this, but I just really don't like sticky. (Some other time I'll have to tell you about my 15-year syrup hiatus all because of sticky.)

Back to powdered sugar--it gets everywhere and it's SO annoying to clean up. It especially gets everywhere when your 2-year-old dumps it everywhere. I was actually only like 4 feet away from him, sitting on the floor arranging my pantry, but I had the door open and it blocked him from my view. Ugh. This was the worst. I think I still have some powdered sugar down between the planks of my beautiful hardwood floors. But doesn't every child need a picture of themselves sitting in the middle of something they have dumped all over? Alright Luke, you've had your shot--no more of this, okay?

Still love that kid, though

3 Months of Joe

2010-09-12T22:37:00.006-06:00

It's been a while since I've put up pictures of Joey. He just turned 3 months a week ago. I can't even explain how crazy I am over him. When I'm stressed about work and other things, I stop and sit down with him and cuddle with him and it calms me down. Seriously. So here's like a million pictures of him. I'm too tried to go through and tell you all about each one and there probably isn't much to say about each one anyway. Let's just say, "Look how cute!" above every one and call it good :) Love my Joe!

I will say that the one below is one of my favs! He just looks like such a little munchkin! I love it!

Why these last three are turned sideways, I don't know. If anyone knows how to stop blogger from doing this, please share. Until then, tilt your head.

Important things are kept in the wallet

2010-09-11T22:45:00.005-06:00

Lance's wallet was old. It was falling apart. So for his birthday I got him a new wallet! After cleaning out the old one Mikey immediately asked if he could have it. Lance gave it to him and Mikey carried it around all day. He knows that you put important things in there. Finally later in the day he set it down on the counter and I realized that there was something in it. I saw this:

I was thinking, "what IS that?!"

So I opened it a little more...

Voila! His favorite car!

Sleeping Hard

2010-09-10T00:21:00.004-06:00

Luke plays hard. (He's kind of a little spaz, actually.) So Luke sleeps hard. I love watching him sleep. I'm always somewhere between laughing my head off and shedding tears about how cute and little he is.

I can't get these pictures to rotate right, but tilt you head and look. They will for sure make you laugh. Yes, he's hanging off the bed, suspended by the sheet.

Luke was taking a nap. He woke up in a great mood and jumped around his bed a bit while laughing at dad. Dad was on the phone so didn't pick him up right away. Suddenly he turned around and saw this. Luke was asleep.

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

2010-09-10T00:04:00.002-06:00

Mikey just started soccer. He did a little soccer workshop type thing last year as a 3-year-old, but there were no real games. This year he's doing real soccer. So we just went to his first game. And as the mother of three boys (with the potential of more to come) all that went through my mind was, "this is the first day of the rest of my life." I can only imagine how many games of varying sports I will be attending in my lifetime. I officially became a soccer mom. But that's okay, I love it! Mikey sure was good at running up and down the field :) But now he's been going to practices, so we think there will be some improvement in the coming weeks.

One thing's for sure, Mikey LOVES his uniform. It was all we could do to keep him from wearing it all day for the first week.

Washington Trip

2010-09-09T23:01:00.016-06:00

Whew, I am behind in blogging! So I'm going to try and get caught up here over the next day or two. Here it goes.

For our last official week of summer (well last week for Lance and actually the first week of fall for Mikey as he started school that week--but we missed it. I'm a little concerned about all that he missed during that first week of preschool, but we're working to catch him up ;) we went to Washington to visit Lance's family. Here are some highlights.

We drove there. It's a long drive for three little kids (and a long drive for a mom with three little kids in the car). So we stayed over in a hotel half way through. I just couldn't resist the pictures here because I was taken back to so many nights on vacations having to share a bed with a sibling. Here is Mikey and Luke's first night of many, I'm sure, sharing a bed. And yes, you'll notice the barricade of pillows there that was required to stop the interactions preventing sleep.

And I just love a sleeping Luke

Lance was wise enough to bring a little something to get them to run around during those bathroom breaks

Here is Lance doing what he loves most--barefootin' it up with his brother

Kids in the sand

Kids in the water

Luke was very brave and went tubing on dad's lap--and loved it!

And Mikey, who is sometimes a little more timid with things, particularly things with water, surprisingly went tubing all by himself!

The last day was picture day

All the grandkids (Luke was grumpy through this whole process--you may notice the lack of smiles)

My cute boys!

Luke and Lizzie

The whole gang

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa

Backyard Camping!

2010-08-15T23:24:00.002-06:00

If you remember last summer, Lance took Mikey camping in our backyard. Well I think it's now become a kind of tradition. This time Luke got to join in. After they were all settled in to sleep, I sneaked outside and scared them with the camera. :) Hee hee.

As you can see, it was difficult to get everyone to cooperate for the camera...

If only they weren't all so afraid of the camera...
I mean seriously, it's just a camera....
Seriously.

The Fish Formerly Known as Planter...

2010-08-15T23:09:00.002-06:00

...Is now known as Superman.

Mikey lovingly (randomly?) named his fish "Planter" six months ago (yeah, I don't know where "Planter" came from, but that's another story....) But finally the superhero obsession has taken over. Every time I mention Planter I hear, "You mean Superman?" "Yes. I mean Superman."

Jail Time

2010-08-13T00:24:00.002-06:00

For this story, I must start with some background.

Lance tells Mikey stories every night before he goes to bed. Lately he has gotten more and more obsessed with superheros so Lance has been telling him Batman stories. The stories all include a bad guy--the usual ones, The Joker, Cat Woman, Two Face.... And at the end of the story they all end up in jail.

Now for our story. So Lance works at the Attorney General's office. Once a year they are given the opportunity to tour the Utah State Prison and they are allowed a "plus one." :) How nice, huh? (Actually we were pretty excited and it was really interesting.) Anyway, the day we were going Lance was driving in the car with Mikey and had told him where we were going and why mimi was coming to babysit. Suddenly Mikey said, "is The Joker there?" Lance was confused for a minute and didn't know what he was talking about. But when Mikey said it again, he finally realized what he meant. Of course! Batman had been sending all these bad guys to jail and we were going to see the jail! Mimi helped Mikey call us after we had gone and he asked me if I had seen Two Face. It was awesome.

The Continued Importance of Being 4

2010-08-05T23:57:00.002-06:00

A few days ago we were back at the gym and going into the child center. Mikey had to use the bathroom so I went in with him and waited to make sure everyone was all set. After doing what he needed to do he was out washing his hands at the sink. Another little boy came in the bathroom and stood there for a minute watching Mikey. Mikey was looking back at him and suddenly the following conversation took place:

Other little boy: "Hey. Are you 4?"
Mikey: "Yeah. Are you 4?"
Other little boy: "Yeah."
Mikey: "Hey cool! We can play together."
Other little boy: "Yeah! Let's go!"

Catching up with Mikey

2010-08-01T22:39:00.005-06:00

Mikey is doing great. He's a great big brother. He plays with Luke all the time, teaches and helps him with all sorts of things. And no matter what kind of warnings he gets from us about waking up Joey he just can't NOT kiss Joey every 5 minutes. Aside from occasionally waking Joey up, he is very helpful and always doing things like keeping Joey happy by making faces at him for a few minutes, keeping his binky in his mouth and those kind of things. But here are a few of my favorite things about Mikey lately:

The importance of being 4:
I have recently discovered that being 4 is VERY important. When Mikey turned 3, he enjoyed his party and presents and things, but he didn't talk too much about being 3. That is not the case with being 4. The magnitude of this new milestone became more apparent to me this week.

Early in the week we went to the gym so the kids could play at the child center. When we first walked in I noticed Mikey noticing and smiling at another little girl who was waiting around the entrance. I think he knew her a little from the child center. Well I checked in and we finally approached this little girl. As we walked past Mikey was finally close enough to her to greet her. As we walked by he stepped a little closer to her, stopped, smiled and put his hand out in front of her with 4 fingers up and just held it there. No words, he just held out his hand with a big grin on his face. He waited and after a second she did the same thing back--just holding up 4 fingers, kind of like this 4-year-old salute or something. They both just smiled at each other and kind of mumbled, "yeah?" "4?" "yeah." And he walked away smiling. I was dying. It was like their own special "handshake" for the "4-year-old club." It was awesome.

THEN a few days later we were back. This time Mikey was standing next to me as I handed my card to the man at the check in desk. The man looked at Mikey and said, "hey buddy! what's up?!" Mikey can get a little shy at times with strangers and this was one of those moments. He gave a shy smile and put his head down a little and leaned into me. Then after a second he finally looked up at the guy, smiled a little bigger, and then just stuck his hand out...again with 4 fingers up. No words. Just a smile and 4 fingers. If there's one thing you need to know about Mikey it's that he's 4.

Celebrities in the Neighborhood:
Mikey was the first to learn that there are celebrities who live in our neighborhood. We can see their house from our back porch, in fact. Can you see? In the picture below?

So a few days after we moved in, I was lying down and Mikey came inside all excited and whispered to me, "Mom! There is something I have to show you! You have to come see! We can see the Three Little Pigs' house from our porch!" I was a little out of it and didn't know what he was talking about. Anyway, so he pulls me outside and tries to point out the house. I had no idea what he was talking about and was wondering why he thought the Three Little Pigs lived in this big house. But finally I realized he was talking about THIS house.
He continued to talk about the Three Little Pigs for days and wanting to go knock on their door and see them. Luckily he finally let it go, but I still think about the Three Little Pigs when I go out on our porch. The things kids think of.

Big Brother:
Like I said, Mikey is a great big brother. Last Sunday Luke was taking a nap, Joey was asleep in the swing and Mikey was just playing by himself while Lance and I both took naps. (I know, amazing that we were both taking a Sunday nap.) At some point I started to hear Joey fuss. Mikey came in and was talking to me about it, but I was so out of it I don't remember much. When I got up a little later I faintly remembered Mikey saying something about the binky and then found him like this:
He had sat there and helped Joey calm down and get his binky and apparently laid down at some point of taking care of him and fell asleep. I woke to three kids sleeping peacefully. What would I do without Mikey. :)

Catching up with Luke

2010-07-30T23:53:00.004-06:00

Oh my little Luke. He's growing up so much and it makes me sad! I want him to stay this little forever! Though maybe he could still grow out of his hitting and tantrum phase. He is the happiest and cutest thing going, but all of the recent changes in our lives have not gone unnoticed in his behavior. He has gotten noticeably more clingy and needing of my attention. Though this makes things much more difficult when trying to adequately take care of a newborn, I secretly love it ;) He wants me to hold him and cuddle with him all the time and I really love it.

But yes, he is going through quite a little hitting and throwing stage. I don't know if this is just his age or the move and new brother thing or a combo of everything, but it is a little difficult to deal with at times. Usually it is Mikey or the walls that suffer from this, but he has successfully landed a blow to Joey two or three times :( We're working it. Hopefully we can get over this soon. But aside from this he is doing great! He loves to color and draw, but we're working on the difference between paper and all other surfaces in the house. And he can also now count to 7. We love Luke!!!

I mean come on, look at that smile!

I just loved this picture all zonked out in his short shorts :)

And finally, only tonight Luke slept in a big boy bed for the first time!! He did great! He got right in and went to sleep! But we'll see if it holds up and how he does in the morning. I also don't know about naps. We might keep using the crib for naps for a bit just to keep him in there :)
Also, in case you're wondering that is Luke's Sonny Bear. We don't know where he got it, but one day he just started calling his bear "Sonny Bear." (Or maybe it's "Sunny Bear?" He didn't tell me what spelling to use.) We seriously have no idea where it came from.

(Okay, I also have a bunch of Mikey stuff to post, but it's super late so I'll get to it tomorrow.)

Catching up with Joey

2010-07-30T23:07:00.005-06:00

Time to post all the pictures I haven't gotten around to posting for the past month! Our little Joey is just as cute as ever and is getting so big so fast (as they always seem to do.) He is now almost two months old and has grown out of his newborn clothes :(

He is doing great, but poor thing is definitely the third child (Lance and I both sympathize as fellow thirds :) He usually has to cry a little longer than either of the other kids ever had to, sometimes gets his feedings cut short or at least must take a little unexpected break in the middle of eating, has to share my lap with a brother while trying to nurse and has been hit on the head or face more than once as a result of a little two-year-old's "I just had to move and I just got a new little brother who takes all my mom's attention" tantrum. (More on Luke later.) Regardless of the attention stealing he does, his brothers are almost always crazy about him and love him a little TOO much, if you know what I mean. He has started to smile quite often and his brothers get even more excited when they can get a smile out of him. Nights still aren't great as he usually won't give me more than 3 or 4 hours at a time, but we're still getting by.

Now for some pictures you've missed:

Joey was blessed on July 11th...the day after we moved. I know, it was crazy. But you do what you gotta do, right! It was a great blessing with great people there and that is what is important (even if they had to sit amongst boxes after)

How sweet is this picture of Mikey and Joey! We were sad that we never got a picture with Luke after, but he fell asleep on the way home from church so he missed the whole party!

Just a whole bunch of cute Joey faces:

And like I said, more and more smiley!

This is for the grandparents. It's just the little wiggles and grunts of a 6-week-old, but moms and grandparents can't get enough of this stuff :)

Happy Pioneer Day!

2010-07-30T22:39:00.003-06:00

The 24th was a (mostly) fun day for all! (I had a little work crisis that I found out about at 5:30 am and that I worked on until about 11:30 and it never really worked out all that great, so that made me a little extra tired and stressed that day, but enough of that!)

The boys all started the day with a little neighborhood parade led by a fire truck and a breakfast. I was sad to miss out on it, but they all had fun! Anyone who wanted to participate in the parade was welcome in whatever form desired. Mikey rode his bike and Luke rode dad. :) They came right by our house so I at least got to see them.

Then in the evening we went up Millcreek Canyon with various family members for dinner. Here is Luke with his cousin Abigail. The kids were covered in marshmallows and dirt by the end and were happier than ever!

We tried to take some family pictures, but getting the kids to hold still long enough to take the pictures were more difficult than usual.

Luke was using this lacrosse stick for everything he could think of including a butterfly net, a baseball bat, and as seen below, a horse.

Happy Father's Day (a little late!)

2010-07-26T00:40:00.001-06:00

I meant to post this a month ago when we first got this, but then we were moving and I forgot! This was the picture the nursery sent home on Father's day for Lance. Could that be any cuter!?

Two wheeler

2010-07-26T00:37:00.003-06:00

So Mikey has been begging us to take the training wheels off of his bike. Lance has taken them off and worked with him a little. I think he's still a little ways off from being able to ride the bike without training wheels, but still he needed to be properly protected. So Lance took him to the store to buy a helmet. As luck would have it, they had Spiderman gear--I think he's now more excited about his gear than actually riding the bike. :)