Progress

 Marcus crossed the 5 month mark during hurricane Sandy.  While we were hunkered down at home waiting for the power to go off, Marcus started rolling from his back to his belly.  He has also been showing increased tolerance for sitting up.  Definitely not independent yet, and still mostly folded in half....but making progress.  While he may be making strides in his gross motor development, he is not with feeding.  I have been trying to get him to take a bottle so that I can go out without kids Friday night...so far he is less then impressed.

Party Hats

Did you know that if you get
enough party hats, you can create
a stegosaurus???  Apparently all
it takes is a little imagination
and really good elastic straps!
I love that I can't take any
credit for these creative ideas.

Fire Guys

Last week we took our first 'fieldtrip' to the fire station. We got a personal tour of all the trucks and one of the men put on all the equipment for the boys in the hopes that they would not be as scared if we ever needed them in our house.  The boys were super excited to go but they were very hesitant once we were there.  Zach kept asking if the alarm was going to go off and so he was unable to pay attention.  At the end of the tour, the 'fireguys' brought out some dress up firemen jackets and hats....then the boys decided it was a fun place after all.  

My Boys

4 months and.... normal!

Marcus is now 4 months old.  

He is able to roll from prone to supine, laugh and he smiles all of the time!   According to his recent doctor's visit, he is average for height, weight AND head circumference.  He's our first normal one. :)

Football

These are some recent pictures of my boys playing football in our yard.  Zach and Eli wear their football jerseys every Sunday afternoon, so don't be fooled that all these pictures happened on the same day.  Some are from two weekends ago with the Caslers and others are from last weekend when Uncle Dan and Aunt Jennifer came to visit.  There always seems to be a lot of huddling.

 

I like this picture because it becomes clear who is really having the fun.

This eye wound wasn't from football but a spill off his bike.
A classic Eli, because I didn't even know it had happened.

"No, I'll be 6!"

Throughout this past summer, whenever we mentioned that Eli was turning 3 in September, he would jump in and correct us that he was turning 6.  He has stuck with it most fiercely until just recently when he allowed that he would turn 3 then 5 THEN 6.

Well, last week he did, in fact, turn 3 (or 5 or 6 depending on who you ask).  I was even able to plan and execute a mostly-cool cake!!  (I think I finally struck a nice balance and hit a skill level that was 'just right'-which means I used props to make my cake look good.)   Steve was on call to pick up a back-up-cake if mine failed.  Amazingly it wasn't needed and Eli loved his train cake!

He had a fun birthday and enjoyed opening many train items, plus an excavator, small piano, tambourine and books.
Happy (shhhh) 3rd Birthday, Eli!

Let's take a moment and be amazed at my skills! :)

ish

I read a new book to the boys tonight, and I immediately wanted to share it with the one other person who would 'get' it (especially the bit at the end).... my grandfather.  And that made me miss him so much.  Here I am, one year since his death, and I am brought to tears because I will never be able to share these beautiful discoveries with him again.

Instead, I will force them on you.

ish 
by Peter H. Reynolds

Ramon loved to draw.
Anytime.
Anything.
Anywhere.

One day, Ramon was drawing a vase of flowers.  His brother, Leon, leaned over his shoulder.
Leon burst out laughing.  "WHAT is THAT?" he asked.
Ramon could not even answer.  He just crumpled up the drawing and threw it across the room.
Leon's laughter haunted Ramon.  He kept trying to make his drawings look "right" but they never did.
After many months and many crumpled sheets of paper, Ramon put his pencil down.

"I'm done."

Marisol, his sister, was watching him.  "What do YOU want?" he snapped.
"I was watching you draw," she said.
Ramon sneered. "I'm NOT drawing! Go away!"
Marisol ran away, but not before picking up a crumpled sheet of paper.
"Hey! Come back here with that!"  Ramon raced after Marisol, up the hall and into her room.

He was about to yell but fell silent when he saw his sister's walls.....He stared at the crumpled gallery.

"This is one of my favorites," Marisol said, pointing.
"That was SUPPOSED to be a vase of flowers," Ramon said, "but it doesn't look like one."
"Well, it looks vase-ISH!" she exclaimed.

"Vase-ISH?"
Ramon looked closer. Then he studied all the drawings on Marisol's walls and began to see them in a whole new way.  "They do look.... ish," he said.

Ramon felt light and energized.  Thinking ish-ly allowed his ideas to flow freely.  He began to draw what he felt- loose lines.  Quickly springing out.  Without worry.

Ramon once again drew and drew the world around him.  Making an ish drawing felt wonderful.  He filled his journals...tree-ish, house-ish, boat-ish, afternoon-ish, fish-ish, sun-ish.  Ramon realized he could draw ish feelings too.  peace-ish  silly-ish  excited-ish.  His ish art inspired ish writing.  He wasn't sure if he was writing poems, but he knew they were poem-ish.

One spring morning, Ramon had a wonderful feeling.  It was a feeling that even ish words and ish drawings could not capture.  He decided NOT to capture it.

Instead, he simply savored it....

                                                     And Ramon lived ishfully ever after.

It's Frank!

Look who came to 'visit' yesterday!

We had front row seats for the whole afternoon.

Food Allergies

Tonight, Zach came in from eating dinner on the porch and said,

"Mom!  We have a problem.  ..........   I think I am allergic to squash."

When I grow up

Recently, Zach announced that he wants to be a police officer when he grows up.

Not to be outdone, Eli quickly chimed in with, "When I grow up, I want to be a firetruck!"

It begins

This week was our first week of homeschool!  Overall it went really well, but my favorite part of the week was today when Zach read for the first time!!!  His first sentences were, "The rat sat on a mat"; "The fat cat is on the hat"; and "A cat is at bat".



After the first sentence that he read, he looked up at me with amazement and we both nearly burst a seam.  It was so wonderful to share that moment with him!!

Spring, Summer CRAZINESS

Looking back at the past 7 months, it is hard to believe how many huge life changes and events have taken place.  At each point I wasn't sure how it was all going to happen but somehow (really, we know it was the Lord's mercy) we have gotten through each step to arrive where we are today.


To recap the events...
*We sold our home
*Packed our house (7 months pregnant)
*Moved into two storage units
*Moved into my parent's home
*Steve coached little league
*We had a baby
*Steve went to Mississippi (twice)
*He prepared and spoke 16 times
*In addition to his regular job, he took over, temporarily, as the director at his office and due to another staff resignation, was doing parts of 3 full time jobs.


Then...
* We bought another home
* Moved out of storage and my parent's home
* Unpacked into our new home!

I'm exhausted just thinking about it all again.  We are so grateful for the wonderful home the Lord provided for us and glad to anticipate just regular-normal craziness this fall.

Biking on our new driveway.

Tails

I love imagination!!  (We have gobs of it around here.) 

 

This was last night's idea.  The tails are on the cute backsides of two ferocious meat eating dinosaurs.

 

Last Name....Burrito

The other day in nursery, the workers were talking to Eli about his new baby brother.  They asked him what his baby's name was.

Eli answered, "Marcus Alexander."

They then asked, "What is the rest of his name?"

He answered, "Burrito!"

You can see his inspiration for the new last name with these recent pictures;