Abby's 9 month update

Yes, it has been awhile since I've posted and I have so much to post about....but I don't want to get too far behind on Abby turning 9 months, otherwise her one year birthday will be here before I post again at the rate I'm going!

Abby is such a little peanut! She is weighing in at 15 lb 3 oz which is the 1%. So, she is just barely on the charts! Her height is 27 inches, so she's in the 32% there. I've started her more on table foods and so she is basically rejecting baby food, because she loves to eat what we are eating. I'm thankful for that, but boy does she get messy. Kurt thinks she is our messiest eater yet. I basically give her a bath every night! She has just started to crawl and that has added a new dimension to our life! The boys haven't figured out yet that she can get to just about anything, so nothing is safe! This has caused some problems when they've built a wonderful train track and Abby tears it apart! Abby's a talker. Her favorite thing to babble is "da, da" which is typical of all of our kids. Kurt is sure enjoying that! She's sleeping through the night (for the most part), so I'm thankful for that too! She still absolutely loves her brothers. They can get her giggling like no other. However, they also cause her much frustration when I find them climbing on her and wrestling with her. Yes, we're still working on the fact that yes, she can crawl and she's mobile, but you don't wrestle with your sister!

Here are some pictures to enjoy.

This is how much Abby enjoys eating!

Abby in her new Iowa Hawkeye's outfit from Aunt Jill and family. Too bad it hasn't given us much luck! But at least she looks cute on gameday!

This is where I found Abby the other day.

Abby and Mommy.

Here are some recent 9 month pictures of Abby.

Nathan's 2 year Stats

Better late than never, right? So, since we're not quite at a month after Nathan's 2nd birthday, here are his stats.

He weighed in at 26 lbs and 8 oz. This is the 32%. His height is 35 1/4 inches which is 74%. He's actually really leaned out. I'm thinking it is all of the bike riding he's doing! So, based upon how tall and lean he is, it is not IF he'll pass Silas in height, it is more like.....WHEN and how quickly! I looked back at Silas's 2 year stats and he was 33 1/2 inches, so we'll see if this holds true and how quickly Nathan passes Silas up!

Other than that, I wanted to post a few pictures of what we did to surprise Nathan for his birthday. I had heard about a celebration in the Denver area for A Day out with Thomas the Train. Nathan and Silas both really enjoy playing with trains, so we decided to surprise them. We left on a Saturday around nap time, so Nathan and Abby slept in the car and Silas just hung out, but we told them we had to drive quite a ways to do some errands. So, we got to the festival and had to park and then take a bus. That would have been fun enough for them (gotta love this age!) and they still didn't know what we were doing. Then, we pulled up to the festival and there was a full size train carrying people and it truly looked like Thomas. I wish I had it on camera both Silas and Nathan saying, "Thomas!" They were truly amazed. So we had a very special day looking at trains and then getting to ride on Thomas as a family. Here are some pictures from that day.

Silas and Nathan playing on the different trains.



Daddy, Silas and Nathan ringing the bell on this train.

Sitting as a family getting ready to take a ride on Thomas.




Our family in front of Thomas.


This is what Thomas looked like, so you can see why Silas and Nathan were so amazed. It truly looks like Thomas with the eyes moving and a conductor on board. It was really neat for the kids.

Nathan's Birthday

So I'm a little bit behind, but that's ok. We had a wonderful time celebrating Nathan's bday. He is starting to realize how special birthdays are (thanks to having an older brother), so it was neat to see him excited. We started the morning off with donuts and then opening gifts. The rest of the day was spent playing with those gifts. He got a bike (as you can see from a previous post). I can hardly believe how quickly he took to riding a bike. It is amazing! Now, Silas and Nathan chase each other on their bikes. Sometimes I have to turn around so that I don't look, but it's so fun to see them riding together. Nathan also got a surplus of legos.....yeah! He loves to build and so does Silas, so it is great to see their imagination soar as they build things and interact. Yes, we have seen quite a few flying legos recently!

Then, the special day ended with some very special friends over to have a bbq and enjoy some cake. Silas and Nathan's best friends are Timothy and Aleks, so we invited their families over along with our friend Damon. It was so nice to fellowship with friends and celebrate Nathan's 2 bday; what a blessing he is to us!

Yeah....legos!
Lego heaven!

Silas and Nathan chasing one another around on their bikes.


Nathan getting ready to blow out his bday candles.

Camping

We have hit a milestone in our marriage.....we no longer are tent camping!!!!!!!!! Yeah! We did our last tent camping experience as a family and on the way home I told Kurt I will never do that again until our kids are MUCH older! This was sad in a way, because we love to camp and we've been doing it every summer since we got married, but I just knew I couldn't do it again. So, we've looked into campers quite a few times, but we never had the resources, or when we did, the door closed and we knew the timing was not right. So, this time around we started looking again and this experience has really shown us how it truly pays off to be patient and put much wisdom and prayer into big purchases.

Here is a brief description of some details that helped us in this decision. As we started to look, a gentleman from our church told us his daughter was wanting to sell their camper. He said it was in perfect condition and we should look at it. After some contemplation because of the price and it had way more things than what we thought we needed, we decided to go ahead and look at it. Sure enough, mint condition and although it had more than what we thought we needed, we started to realize if our family grows these features might come in handy and it can actually be something we grow into. The price was more than what we wanted to pay, but we soon realized that what they were listing it at was well below what it was worth and they just asked that we just pay it off for them. Hmmm...that helped us to realize how much we were getting. So, then we thought about it and prayed about it and soon realized there were two things that would not allow us to get the camper. Because it was a larger camper than what we anticipated, it was too heavy for our mini van to tow. Well, a friend of ours has allowed us to use their suburban to tow it. (that is a whole story in and of itself, but what a blessing). Ok, so now where to store it? Another friend of ours said, hey you can store it at our house for free. Hmmmm...ok, so now we felt much better about it all. So, we went with this family to the bank with our certified check and we are the proud owners of a new camper!!!!!!!!! Yeah....here are some pictures of our first camping trip. More pictures to come because we're going again this weekend! (thank goodness for the amazing heater it has!)


Here's our new pop up camper


Here is Kurt making us breakfast on our stove and even our oven. This has a fridge and double sink and even a toilet if we need it. It also has tons of storage and even room for Haven to sleep with us.
The boys eating breakfast at our table which turns into a full size bed.

Here's the boys on their bed (we had to baby proof it so that they wouldn't fall out.) We have two king sized beds, lots of room for all of us.
Daddy and Silas and Nathan fishing at the lake.
Playing in the swimming pool at the campground.
We are so excited about our new adventures and all the places we will get to camp and make memories as a family!

Nathan's Big Day!

Well, today we officially have entered the stage with two toddlers - WOW! I can't believe how fast they grow up. Here's Nathan on his second birthday - who says the age restrictions apply?

Siblings

Let's just say we don't get asked too often if our children are at all related!

Here are our 3 little blessings! We thank God often for them!

Abby

Time is truly flying by, so I'd better get an update on Abby. She just had her 6 month appointment, so I wanted to post her stats. She is weighing in at 14 lb 8 oz which is the 8%. Yes, she truly is a little peanut! Her height is 26 inches and that is the 38%.

Overall, she is doing great and is such an easy baby! She's very content just sitting or laying around as long as she gets to see her brothers. She is already very interested in what they are doing! She LOVES her voice and babbles a lot. I think this is a lot different than the boys, or maybe because her talking is at a higher level, but she sure lets you know she is talking! She's also very into her tongue and is constantly making noises with her tongue. Unfortunately it is usually when I'm trying to feed her, so I get all of the food on me and then the boys think that is hilarious and the next thing you know, everyone is laughing at the table! She's rolling around like crazy, but not quite sitting up by herself yet. I don't think it will be too long. The cutest thing is her little baby giggles. I can hardly believe how much Silas and Nathan can get her giggling. It is quite a sight! Anyways, here are some pictures of our little Abigail!



Yes, Nathan is laying on her and she thought that was pretty neat. This was all under adult supervision, I must add!
Who can resist? She was trying to get the hat off and playing peek a boo in the meantime!


Yup, that is about what feeding time looks like. Yummy!

Fun Times

Wow, is anyone else surprised that it is already August? Time flies when you are having fun. As challenging as this stage of life is with such young children, there are also blessings. I don't hear, "I'm bored" because I don't think they know what that word means....and it's the little things that entertain them the most. I got out a few buckets and filled them with water and gave them measuring cups and balls and rocks and an hour later they were still having a ball. Here are some pictures to show how fun such a simple thing can be.

Yes, they even decided to hop in and sit in them for awhile. Why not?



We also participated in our library's summer reading program. We attended the end of the summer party and got to see the helicopter, police cars and lots of other things. Nathan is really into airplanes and helicopters these days. So, shortly after we saw the helicopter at the party, it had to leave to go on a call, so it flew off. Here is what Nathan says at least 10 times a day to us (mind you this was already 2 weeks ago!).

Nathan: "Hecopter go bye-bye"
Us: "Where did it go?"
Nathan: "Eat wunch"
Us: "What does it eat?"
Nathan: "Jelly" (that means peanut butter and jelly sandwich"

Pretty creative, but we have this conversation constantly. You can just see his mind processing the whole thing over and over. He's at such a cute and fun stage!

Here's Silas in the helicopter and riding on the motorcycle.

Here's Nathan in the helicopter and motorcycle.

Both boys in the backseat of the police car.....scary, hope I never have to experience that!




Aww...trying to teach them to hoolahoop! Fun times.

Other than that, Abby is doing great. I just started her on solid foods and she's not really interested yet. The boys get a kick out of how messy she gets. I'll have to post pictures soon of that. This has made some excitement at our breakfast and supper table hearing them giggling and laughing at her, which in turn makes her giggle and so everyone ends up laughing. Who knew it could be so much fun? More picture of Abby and our recent camping trip soon!

Hot Days of Summer

What do you do with two active boys and an infant when it is hot out (not humid though...thank God!) and you don't have air conditioning?

Here is a glimpse of some of the things we have done this summer.

First, find a local bowling alley that does have AC. We did a lunch and bowl special at a nearby bowling alley and had a blast. This was the first time the boys had bowled, so it was neat to see them get excited over knocking over pins (yes we did have the bumpers up!). Silas caught on very quickly and was able to pick up his ball and bowl all by himself by the end. He actually won our 2nd game. I guess that doesn't say much about Kurt and my ability to bowl! Nathan, well, he lasted one game and then he was pretty much done. Oh well, he still had fun!

Daddy helping Nathan bowl.
Silas bowling all by himself.

Daddy's so talented he even bowled holding onto Nathan!



Next.....here is some outdoor fun, as always. We had just gotten done eating popsicles and Nathan was an absolute mess, so I undressed him down to a diaper. Well, Silas didn't want to be left out, so he decided to take off his clothes too. Here are some pictures of them playing in their diaper and underwear!






Last, thank goodness for free and wonderful spray parks in our town! I took the kids here and we had such a wonderful time.





Here is the whole park. There's also a playground right beside it that we played in. Not a bad view of the mountains either!