Because I like pictures...

...and I think you do, too, this post has lots of pictures. Not as many as I would really like to post, but I understand that nobody likes to look at pictures of my kids as much as I do. There is no particular order to these. There were all taken within the last month so are pretty much what they look like now.

Braden and Grandma (Kevin's mom) carved his pumpkin, and I carved Noah's pumpkin. He helped by telling me if he liked my design.

I don't have any pictures of me and all the boys, so you're going to have to settle for this. The weather here has been BEAUTIFUL. Nice enough that you don't need a jacket during the day.

This is what the boys looked like one day after playing outside. There's mud all down their backs, too.



Yes. Jack really does have curly hair.

A little while after this picture was taken, Braden grabbed a piece of a game out of Jack's hand and made him fall and hit his head on the TV stand. Jack gets up crying and I thought he was coming to me for comforting, but no. He walked right past me (still crying) over to Braden and hits him! While I technically think this is funny, I also see how it doesn't bode well for our kids' futures.



I was going to post a couple of videos that I liked, but for some reason, they won't upload. The first was a video of Braden "breakdancing" that's hilarious. The second was a video of Braden and Noah doing somersaults off our couch. Oh well.

Braden is in preschool now and loves it. His teacher was Kevin's preschool teacher and she is the BEST. Everyday Braden asks if it's a school day and if he's sent home with homework, he can't wait to do it. He seems to be learning a lot, too.

Noah is so funny. If you ask him a question, and sometimes if you ask someone else, he'll answer, "Ee-yup." He's so excited about everything, and his eyes get all twinkly, and it's just so cute to watch him. I wish everybody could see him in real life, because he's so much cuter in person than in his pictures, and I think it's because of his personality.

Jack is still big, but now he's not very chubby. He's in the 92nd percentile for height and 50th for weight (which is still big in our family), so he's getting into things that are high enough that most kids his age (almost 13 months!) can't. For example, we have lever door handles on our inside doors. He can open them. He also likes to pull food down that's been left on the table. He's made a lot of messes doing that. Today, he discovered that if he spins in circles long enough, he'll get dizzy. Apparently he thinks that's fun, because he did it over and over again. Silly boy! Jack does the cutest thing. If he's around when Braden or Noah wakes up, he'll run over to them saying, "Hi! Hi! Hi!" in a cute sing-song voice. He'll also run into the big boys bedroom if he wakes up first in the morning and climb up on their bed saying the same thing.

Kevin was recently given an award at work. It was a statewide thing with lots of people involved, and they had a 3 day conference ending with an awards ceremony in Reno. Part of the "deal" was a free three night stay at the Peppermill for us. It was nice to have a mini vacation from the boys, but it was hard to leave them for so long. The only bad thing? I lost my brand new phone and someone stole it before I found out it was lost.

I'm the Primary music leader at church and we had our Sacrament meeting program a couple of weeks ago. I just want to say how impressed I am with all the Primary kids! They did their parts, sat reverently, and sang all the songs so well! Way to go Primary!

Also, just a little bragging. I won second place in the ward chili cook off for the second year in a row. Pretty cool if you consider that it's not a traditional chili.

More pictures

Wow! Two posts in one day! This post is just because I couldn't get all the pictures I wanted on the last post. I just think my kids are sooo gorgeous that I have to show them off. :) But, I guess I should do a bit of an update.

Braden's crazy, as usual. I've just realized that Braden's kinda the life of the house. He's so full of energy and just wants to have fun with anybody and everybody. When he's gone for long, instead of feeling like I get to have a rest, I feel like the life has been sucked out of the room. It's too quiet and too calm. Never thought that was something I'd ever say. We're putting Braden ion some kind of sport this year. We wanted to put him in T-ball, but we found out when they were the day after they closed. Oh well. He doesn't need the tee anymore anyways. So we'll do soccer. He doesn't care. It's a sport!

Noah's doing better and better with his speech. I'm so pleased with him. He's come a huge distance from where he was. Now, Noah's at his age level with his vocabulary, but he's still very hard to understand and is doing a few two word phrases and sentences. He still sees a speech therapist every other week. The big boys love when she comes because she brings the coolest toys. Noah's turning into such a copy cat, trying to do everything Braden does. I just love that kid!

Jack is still not crawling! He gets around pretty well by scooting or doing this funny thing where he lays on his stomach, then sits up, then lays back down over and over. It's kinda funny. He's pulling to a stand, but doesn't understand that he has to keep holding on. Hopefully his balance will improve pretty quickly. He's gone about two or three seconds a few times before falling (I catch him). I didn't think he would walk as early as Braden and Noah, but he's so motivated he just might. At least he'll be pretty close.

Kevin's still working away. Seriously, he's always working! Because he's so good at his job, his boss keeps putting him in specialized training, which he always does awesome at, so he gets put in for more training. I think eventually they'll run out of stuff to train him in, but then what will they do?

My handsome boys.

The picture's small enough that it's hard to see, but Noah's face (and the rest of him) is covered in dirt, courtesy of Braden. This is what happens when you have dirt for a backyard.

This is a video of Braden doing what he called something like "Super Braden Rocket" something or other. Just to show you what I deal with on a day to day basis. Oh, and he does cartwheels.

Campfire!

About a week or so ago, we decided to roast some marshmallows in our backyard. The kids had a blast! (This was during a very short warm spell, we're now back to it being cold.) Noah ended up being absolutely filthy, covered in dirt and marshmallow, Braden just wanted to play with the fire, and Jack kept getting bit by mosquitos, but hey, if it makes them happy, right? Next time, we'll do s'mores.

Isn't he adorable?

Random kid pictures.

Noah's throwing dirt on Braden. Don't worry, he'll get back at him.

My boys

Isn't this a great picture? It could only be better if Noah were making a better face, but since he's laughing I'll let it slide. ;)

Braden's almost 4 1/2 now. He's getting to be so grown up. We thought about putting him in preschool this last fall, but decided to wait another year. He's an awesome big brother and a good helper, but sometimes he forgets that he's not the boss. He's also my drama king. You can tell exactly how he feels by the way he acts and the faces he makes. No stoicism here.







Noah will be 2 in less than a month. I can't believe he's already that old and not a baby anymore! He's a good little brother to Braden - they have tons of fun chasing each other all over the place - and is so sweet to Jack. He loves giving Jack kisses and will even share his special blankie with him (but only him). He's starting to talk more, adding a few new ones here and there and improving the enunciation of words he uses regularly. Noah's also a grandma's boy. As long as any grandma's around he doesn't need anybody else.

Jack's just about 5 months old now. He's my big boy. He was 18.5 lbs and 26.75 ins at his 4 month check up. That's in the 90 to 95 percentile! I'm not exactly sure where he got the big genes from. He's such a sweetie and has been the easiest baby yet. He got his first two teeth in the last week, is starting to sit up on his own, and has discovered the joys of squealing and screeching. Hopefully he'll find a new, less annoying sound to make pretty soon.

Kevin's doing pretty good. He works a ton, but he loves his job, so he's happy. He's also very good at his job, and is getting to do lots of training that people as new as he is don't generally get to do. Kevin's a work out fiend, it helps keep him fairly relaxed what with the high stress job and all. And what about me? I'm doin' fine. since getting my license in December, I haven't really felt that newfound sense of freedom everybody told me I would. But then again, you don't really have all that much freedom when you're the mother of three little ones. I was recently called to be the Primary chorister. I'm still getting the hang of it, but the kids are great. In my free time I like to bake and make candy. Luckily I don't have much free time, or I'd be gaining a ton of weight. I don't like to load the kids up with sweets, and Kevin's too full of protein shakes to eat much junk, so who eats most of it? I do.

This is my latest creation. Vanilla sparkling wine pound cake. (I subbed milk for wine.) I got the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. It's soo good without the glaze and with macerated strawberries. Yum.

Well, that's about all for now!

Just catching up

So, We've been pretty busy lately. I've been meaning to do a new post for ages, but just haven't had the time! I finally have some now, but it's not going to be the greatest post, and the pictures aren't in order 'cause it's a nice day out and I want to go out with my boys. Can you really blame me?

Braden and Noah Christmas morning. Jack was sleeping, so we didn't get any Christmas morning pictures of him.

Braden in front of our tree. We have vaulted ceilings, so we got a super expensive, thus REALLY nice, artificial 9 footer. It will last forever and whenever we move we're just going to have to have high ceilings there, too.

Andrew (on the left) and Bryan. They're my twin 17 month old half-brothers. My dad, Tami, and the kids all came to visit for a few days after Christmas. It was pretty nice!

Baby Jack. He's three months old now (!) and weighs about 17 pounds. He's a big kid and a total sweetheart. He's been much easier than Braden and Noah so far because he sleeps so well! He's even happy when he's sick, although he doesn't look very happy in this picture. I've just been slacking at picture taking lately.

Noah sitting on Braden's bed. He's nowhere near ready to move out of his crib, but he sure likes to play on Braden's bed.

Sophia and Braden. Sophia is my 5 year old half sister. She's like a girl version of Braden, their personalities are so similar!

I said we've been busy lately. What that really means is that besides Christmas and Dad's visit, that we've been sick. Braden got sick just before New Year's. Then Noah got sick. Poor kid always gets sick worse than Braden. It was so bad I took him to the doctor's because I was afraid he had strep. The doctor was also concerned and did a test. Nope! Just a really bad sore throat from a regular old cold. Thank goodness it was not strep! He's finally just about back to normal. Jack picked up the bug, but he only ever just gets stuffed up and does a little bit of coughing and sneezing, not bad at all. Then I got sick Sunday. I'm not sure what it was, but it was horrible! I spent Sunday night writhing in agony and my muscles did a weird tightening thing and my stomach was bothering me, then Monday rolls around and I'm feeling decent, and today I feel totally fine. Strange. Kevin, the lucky dog, has not gotten sick and shows no signs of becoming sick. So we're finally all healthy and that makes me happy.