Update in Instagram

Oh how I love Instagram! It makes my pictures look so "hip". ;)

So because I haven't updated in a month - here is a fun update post via Instagram pictures.

Gabe has been enjoying being the only big kid at home with mom. He spends his day playing with his busy bags or following me around the house. ;)


Abby has started to eat crackers - yay!


She also has learned to crawl..


And look! Proof she DOES have hair..


The boys have been enjoying her too in all her girliness. I found her in her room with a tiara on that the boys had put on her the other day...


Also, if you can't tell - Abby is a big of a camera hog. She poses for pictures. I don't pose her. However that could be because she's been seeing a camera lens in her face since birth! haha
(Abby and Nana)


Alex got a haircut! woah! Who is that kid?! Doesn't he look handsome and all grown up? :)


Then came Halloween...

The boys were (left to right) a "hipster", a cabbage patch doll, a rock star, Steve from Minecraft, a dark angel thing, and a fireman









Abby in her church Halloween party (indoor) outfit:


And in her outdoor trick-or-treating outfit:



We got our family pictures taken this weekend! So we should have those up here on the blog soon :)

Until next time....

Girls are GROSS

So my boys often fling hateful comebacks at each other when they are angry. I don't like it, but it seems to be a sibling/brotherly thing to do.
Usually I hear things like "I wish you weren't my brother anymore!"

Or, the worst, "I wish you were dead"...yeah they get into trouble a lot for that one.

BUT the newest one I heard last night took me by surprise. I love it. I may in fact encourage this

is type of comeback more often.

My 5 yr old I guess thought the usual comebacks he throws at his brothers just wasn't going to cut it this time. 

Owen stole his candy,and he was MAD. 

 

So he yelled out a comeback he thought was the WORST possible thing ever, even worse then death apparently.

He screamed, "I HOPE A GIRL KISSES YOU!" followed by "I HOPE YOU GET MARRIED TO A GIRL!!!!"

Wow. Sad that he thinks that is the worst possible thing to wish on a person, but pretty funny too.
It shows how he's in the "girls are gross" stage.

By the way, Owen's reply was, "GOOD! I HOPE SO TOO!".

Boys...so weird.

School Year 2012-2013 Is Upon Us!

We are still trying to get a routine going. We are still battling with cranky boys who want to sleep in and not do homework after school.
However I have faith we'll get back to our school time routine within no time!

This year is Billy Jr's first year of school. Kindergarten!! He did the testing well, meeting the teacher, and was so excited. He has three friends he knows already in his class.
However then it came time to actually GO to class, alone, without mom. I'm sure kindergarten teachers are used to that kind of thing. His teacher told me that some children come to her "straight from the womb"...i.e. no other experiences with outside life away from mom or home. Billy Jr wasn't quite that bad, but he is my first child who hasn't gone to day care. I did a mom's co-op preschool last year for him, and he did well with that. However that was in people's homes...not a big scary building with tons of people and kids around.
The teacher was a pro though, and just quickly grabbed his hand before he could even turn around and run away!  I heard later he was crying by the door :( However a few minutes later he was okay. I'm anxious to hear how his day went. I try not to think too much about him crying for me. :( Breaks a momma's heart!

Then it was time to drop Gabe off at preschool. He was SO excited. He's been talking about this day for months. Finally it was HIS TURN!!! He jumped out of the car with no prompting and just sat down with his backpack behind the line to wait for the rest of the kids. Mr. Social he is! I KNOW he'll have a great day!

I'm hoping for a great year. Lots of fun. No trouble. :)

Now..my annual back to school photos. Not such good luck but they really show the boys' personality. I'll post them all - flaws and everything. :)


The Funny Face pose

The Evil Scowl pose

The This Is Boring pose

 

 

My new blog cover...The Lets Not Look At Mom pose

Love Abby's Face in this one!! Too bad the dog snuck in.

And Finally, the best one of the batch...even the dog posed! (Too bad OWEN had to wipe his nose!!!)

Summer winding down to a close

 

And we couldn't be happier! Summer was fun, crazy, busy, and we are all happy to be getting back to a schedule.

This school year I will have an 8th grader, 5th grader, 3rd grader, and a kindergartner!!! Its unbelievable! Gabe will even go to  preschool two days a week. I won't know what to do with myself. ;)

 

This summer we didn't go on any big trips but we had a lot of fun still. We went camping, we visited grandparents, there were boy scout camps and hikes, lots of friend playing time, a few fun little day trips, and lots of outside play time! The hubby and I also celebrated our 11th anniversary (and he turned another year older earlier this month..but I won't disclose how old! haha). Sadly we never found Alex's bike, BUT a very generous Papa replaced it with the same type (just different color as the white ones are no longer in stock)....
Alex on his NEW bike...kept safe NOT in the garage:


With soccer season has started again - with three boys playing this year its going to be quite interesting (and busy!)

I can't wait to update in a few days the boys' first day of school photos. They've all grown so much!

Here's a few pictures to catch you up from this summer:

Abby - 7 months old! Still not sitting up alone, but she balances for a few seconds at a time. ;)



LOTS of crazy thunder and lightening storms this summer. We watched a few get really close, and one even struck so close that it woke up almost the entire household. It sounded like a bomb going off! I didn't get a picture of that one (I was sleeping) but someone else did (Wenatchee World):

Then we had my sister's baby shower for little Amelia. Abby can't wait for her new cousin!
However, my sister was on Dr's orders to not travel too far from home. So thank goodness we're in the technological era because we Skyped her in and she got to partciapte still.

 

 

Then Grandma sent the boys a special treat and we got all their school supplies! They were happy to go through all the new and shiny packages. We're almost ready for school!

The Heat Is On

Oh boy is it ever hot!  I guess that is what we get for complaining about the cold late start summer....

This week has been horrendous so far. It is one for the record books for sure!
I call this week the "perfect storm" - Billy has had to work until well past bedtime all week, Alex is gone at Scout camp all week, and the heat is atrocious!

Day 1 - Monday: One if the boys decided to try out our 911 service. We got two police officers to pay us a visit.
Day 2 - Tuesday: We found out that Alex's brand new bike was stolen. :( I had to file a police report.
 
Then later that evening the little two boys got into some craft paint that had been put up high. Paint all over my room and bed. :(
 


Day 3 - Wednesday: One of the boys threw a fit and tossed a broom at the big living room window. Thankfully only the inside pane was broken. We can replace it later then.

Tomorrow is day 4 - I am very afraid!

So I think the key is to keep these little stinkers busy. I am going to fill up their schedule with library craft/fun days and maybe even some Vacation Bible Schools...

In other news, I ran 7.5 miles last weekend! I was on vacation, but my brother-in-law and Alex ran it with me.

Abigail is as cute as ever. She has started rolling over more regularly and I keep finding her on her tummy after nap times.
Doesn't she look proud of herself!


Until next time, and hopefully here's to a boring rest of the week!!

Happy Fourth of July!

We hope your Fourth was as fun as ours!

The Boys and I spent our Fourth cleaning up the yard and rock beds. I think at one time they were meant to be flower beds - but the only thing they are growing now is weeds and toys.  My plan is to build raised garden beds. Yay! I am a brown thumb at heart (everything I plant dies) so we'll see how that goes.

Then in the evening we did fireworks, Daddy was trying to get out of it this year, however we were woken up with two very excited little boys this morning asking if it was time to go see the fireworks yet. We bought some of our own this year, which the boys had a BLAST with (literally!) and then drove down to a better view of the big fireworks. Finally we finished the night off with ice cream treats on the way home. Yum!


The boys getting ready to do our firecrackers...

Watching the neighbors firecrackers...

Sparkler fun!

Boys and their explosives!

This is Abby's first Fourth of July! She wasn't scared of the lights and noise one little bit. She was just amazed at it all! I took pictures, but in those pictures she was very hard to see and crappy picture quality. :(

Happy 6 months!

Baby Abigail is now six months old!!
That means she can start eating solid food....Yikes! I have experimented with some rice cereal with her already, and she does pretty well. I can't wait to see what she thinks about pear and carrots and peas though!

Abigail is still a tiny thing, however. She is finally grown out of 0-3 month clothes for the most part. She is still in some 3 month sized clothes and 3-6 month clothes. I've noticed the sizes vary widely on brand to brand. I put a 3-6 month onesie on her yesterday that I could barely snap! However, she still has 0-3 month outfits that fit as well.
This is a stark difference from my boys who were basically born wearing 0-3 and 3-6 month clothes and were grown out of them by 3 months old! My boys would have been in 6-9 month clothes by now, snugly. ;)

Abigail is also a bit behind on the milestones - however if you go by her due date, she should only be 4.5 months old. She has rolled both ways, but not on a regular basis. She's not even attempting to crawl yet and I have a feeling it will be months before she crawls. She likes to make sounds and baby talk, but not the typical 6 month old baby talk - more like 3-4 month old baby sounds still. She is also pretty wobbly still with her neck/back control. Although she is able to sit pretty well  now if I'm supporting her, and in her Bumbo seat.

At her 6 month well-baby check-up today she weighed in at a whopping 13 lbs and 8 oz, 23 1/4" long! Wohoo! She's actually ON the growth curve now - 8% for weight.

Everything else looks good. Yay!