Monday, June 28, 2010

April 2010

So, wow, April seems like so long ago!! It is amazing how quickly my kids have grown in a few months!!

Ayden and Gavin are still as cute as ever, but more trouble than ever as well. This may not be things in just April, but let me tell you about what they have been up to lately.

I went in the back room to lay Easton down, I was gone for about 5 minutes and when I came back they had pulled our 32" TV half way out of the entertainment center and when I saw, I gasped, whiched scared them and they let go, I watched the tv rattle, but not fall thankfully!

My boys have been back in the same room again taking naps, and again, they recently decided they no longer needed naps. So, they take naps sometimes, which then leads to them peeking outside there room and slamming the door over and over again while I am trying to rock Easton to sleep, who then wakes up and does not fully go back to sleep which leads to short naps. So, some of things I have found they do in there room while not taking naps and slamming doors are: Ayden has found out if he pulls the drawers out he can climb up his dresser and play with the CD player which he then got ahold of a CD and snapped it in half. And well, for now that is all I can think of.

They love to scare and tease Ava and Easton, but they also love to play with them, hold their hands and dance and give them kisses. If Easton is on the floor, they love to sit by him and play with him and his toys, although Easton then decides he is done being on the floor.

They love playing in the water. We got them the water cannons that you put in the water and just pull up on the back and it sucks up all the water. Ayden would love to get everyone wet, and sometimes is fine with people getting him. Jordan went inside for a minute, came out and found that Ayden had turned the hose on, sprayed Ava completly wet and started filling up their little pool.

Gavin has started actually watching cartoons, which is either a good thing or bad. He loves Tom and Jerry, Backyardigans, and Ice Age. Ayden still hates to just sit and will line all his cars on the edge of the window seal and push his cars across it.

Jordan and I got bikes with trailers on them and a seat for Easton in the front of my bike, although he sits best in my sling, which doesn't sound safe, but he is in snug and tight. The kids have been liking that, and Ava has been loving having her own trailer to get away from her teasing brothers!

Although, they have been busy making trouble, they are such sweet little boys, with big hearts. They love being read to, they love being held and sitting on laps. Popcicles are still one of their favorite treats, their first favorite I am sure, will always be chips. Gavin loves to color and to show you how great he did. Ayden loves to play with cars and does a great lawn mower noise. They are two typical 2 year olds and we love them so much!

Even though they terrorize him, they love their little brother! They get so excited when they get to hold them, especially because it doesn't happen that often.


Ava has been little miss attitude. She is our princess and I am sure she has figured it out. She knows that with just a wimper we look at her brothers and say "What did you do..?". She eats like a typical 17 month old would, at least I think....like crap. She is very picky and for the most part will eat yogurt sometimes or maybe even a pancake, but doesn't eat much for breakfast, and for any other meal it is noodles, taquitos (her personal favorite), hot dogs, I found she will eat these little mini tacos from costco. She is killing me with the eating! She is still in love with the wiggles and will just bust into singing and dancing even when they are not on the TV. She has started taking an interest in books and makes sure if we are reading to the boys that she can sit on our lap as well. She will just sit down on the floor and flip through the books and point and gabber as if she is telling us what is on the page. She is a stink pot and runs for the street every time she gets out front because she knows she is not supposed to and thinks it is funny. She is learning to say "no" by shaking her head. Her favorite song is head, shoulders, knees and toes and she is starting to get the actions down pretty well. She also loves patty cake and the wheels on the bus. The words she can say are up, mama, mmmm (milk), bibibi (binki). She is growing every day and we love her very much as well.

Easton is our sweet little baby who smiles all the time at everyone. He loves to cuddle and be held. He laughs all the time at his brothers and sister, but as soon as he hears the loud lawn mower noise the boys make or thinks they are coming after him he squirms to get held. He still will only nurse when he is asleep and refuses to take a bottle. However, he loves food. He eats just about the same as ava with his food chopped a little smaller. We loves this little man and we are excited as he gets older to watch him interact with his siblings because it is already fun as we are watching the 3 older ones.

What went on this month...

Man, Easter seemed so long ago! This year we tried eggs. We colored them and thought they would enjoy putting the stickers on...

But they found that smashing them was much more fun...


Easter morning checking out their Easter baskets.

Ava gets up later than them so she got her basket when she woke up
She had a good time playing with the easter basket, it was cute to watch her play.
The chocolate Easter Bunnies...




And an Easter Egg hunt...

We had the kids line up and wait until we "hid" them, and they were off


Ava was shortly behind...


But I am sure she would have been a little closer had she not been doing her regular stick collecting at the time. The first few months of spring, finding every stick and picking them up was what she did best!













I think this is a great picture of Jordan and Travis with their babies.

We tried to fly kites again witht he boys this year, maybe next year will be better.

Jordans mom was so kind to come down and help us out. I was struggling with my kids and feeling overwhelmed and she so kindly came up for a week. My kids loved it!


We had a fun time at the zoo. We have not even come close to going as much this year as we did last year. Last year I could go with the kids without Jordan, but this year I am learning that I can not do everything on my own and the zoo is one of those.


watching the polar bears


Ava, stick collecting as usual






And finally, we got a great visit from Jordan's grandparents. We sent the 3 older ones to their Aunt and Uncles house while we went out to a great restaurant and the next day watched their cousins while his brother and wife went out with his Grandparents. It was great to see them and have that time to visit with them!



Sunday, June 27, 2010

June 2010 Family Pictures

We have finally decided it was time to get an updated family picture. Actually, I bought these cute matching outfits for the kids and couldn't resist. The day we got our pictures taken, happened to be the day that our air conditioner went out and it was like the hottest most humid day ever. So, these pictures will be added to our memorable imperfect picture collage for a couple of reasons. A) Jordan is sun burned from golfing the day before, B) my hair is flat and I seriously had 10 min including my shower to get ready, C) along with my flat hair, I hate my bangs!, and D) are kids forgot how to smile.


Ayden (age: 2 yrs 9 mo.)
Gavin (age: 2yrs 9 mo.)

Ava (age: 17 mo.)
Easton (age: 8mo.)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Memorial Weekend


This Memorial Weekend we really did have a lot of fun "Family Time" together.
We started off by going to the Toledo Zoo, it really is a fun one. The thing for me that makes it most exciting is it is by a Friendly's restaurant where we can go afterward and get some food and some yummy ice cream! It was a fun and very hot day. Being how mobile Ava is, and being the age that she is with no interest in listening when we tell her to follow us, the backpack seem to work the best for her at the zoo, or on any outing like this that we go on and there is going to be a lot of walking. She is a machine and I am sure would walk all day unless she got thirsty, which she is often, or ready for a nap. She has never fallen alseep in the car, but on the way home she did on this day.

We also had a lot of fun outdoors withe the weather being so nice!
Seriously how cute is he?!? We love this little boy!
Jordan set up our canopy so we had some shade and a nice place to sit down and eat.


Ava has not been a big eater these days, but was loving the corn!


I made some good use of my sling as always!


We got a bigger pool for the kids to play in and for us to be able to sit in with them and the kids really love it. We also got a little splash pool for Easton and Ava, it has been great, but has already popped and been replaced, because of my boys running through it. I don't think it should pop so easily, it's a little frustrting. But very cute and my kids enjoy it.



Ava running with excitement to the camera, she thinks she gets to have it...


Easton is a little ham and smiles for every picture...


So I have like 10 pictures of this same shot, but being his Mom, they all look different, with a slightly different expression on his face and I would love to show each of them. I am aware that to anyone else they would just look the same so instead of boring you with them, I will just show my 2 favorite.
We also got out our fire pit and roasted some marshmellows, which is one of my favorite things to do. This day Jordan was saying he felt like he was on a roll. He BBQ'd some grea chicken and got the fire going for the marshmellows pretty wuick, what a good man I have!



Jordan doing some reading for school with the boys doing some pretty important reading themselves.


And finally time to get clean!