Turkey, Turkey, Gobble, Gobble

Jonah was very proud of this Thanksgiving project he made at school.

It is quite adorable.

He has been repeating it over, and over, and over, and over again.

(A great way to practice patience)

So...we recorded him saying it.

Here he is...

Seeing Double

One of the comments I hear most frequently from others is how much our boys look alike.

Jonah and Elijah have also been mistaken for twins ALL the time since they look alot alike and are only 20 months apart.

However, recently I have found myself doing a double take throughout the day.

I will walk into the room and see Isaac doing something or wearing a certain outfit and have a flashback to Elijah wearing the same thing or doing the same thing.

It is quite eerie, and amazing at the same time.

See for yourself...

There are some distinct differences, but still impressive how much they look alike.

Two super cute giraffes.

I am curious to see how much they look alike when they are teenagers.

Eeek! I don't like thinking about them all being teenagers.

Thankfulness

There are so many things I am thankful for.

I have been truly blessed with 7  1/2 years of marriage to my best friend.

He puts up with me every day! 

He is an amazing father and hubby!

I have also been blessed with 3 adorable little boys!

They are so precious and help me keep things in perspective.

They keep me on my toes, keep our house filled with life and laughter, my laundry baskets full, my arms filled with hugs, and my cheeks with kisses!

I am thankful for more "firsts" as Isaac celebrated his first Thanksgiving and loved it!

Jonah fell asleep right before his first Thanksgiving and Elijah was only a few months old so he slept through it too. Isaac savored the delicious meal and even enjoyed a few tastes of the treats we had!

I am thankful for family.

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful families.

It has been so amazing to have everyone close from my family.

After spending the years in Iowa far apart, we sure appreciate being close.

Unfortunately Richard's family is far apart, but hopefully we will be able to set up a time to meet soon!

Overall I am feeling full of thankfulness this Holiday!

The Lord has blessed me immensely.

I pray the same for you.

The First Snow

We had our first snow yesterday...

5 inches or so

It was beautiful...if you were inside.  

Not so much if you were out trying to drive in it or just being outside.

I was quickly reminded of why I loved Iowa. 

The winters weren't as extreme as they are here.

The boys were ecstatic, since in their little minds snow = sledding and playing.

In my mind snow = cold, shoveling, and the reality that winter is really here.

Isaac hasn't gotten to play in it yet, but he does sure love looking at it outside.

He hates his snow suit, hat and mittens...but I have a feeling he will like playing in the snow.

Until the novelty wears off, I will continue to enjoy his shrieks of joy every time he looks out the window and notices the ground covered in white. 

8 months old

How is it that my sweet little baby is already...

8 months old?!?!?

Ahhhhhhh!

Now I am not an emotional and sentimental person.

I know I have shared this before, I love babies, especially my own.

I wish they could stay babies for lots longer. And I mean it!

I am not going to lie. When people warned me about time flying by before Jonah was born, I laughed inside and figured it couldn't be that fast could it?

They were right. I was wrong. And, in fact, time only gets faster when you have more children. 

I feel like I just wrote this post about this same little man turning 7 months old!

I blinked my eyes and here is my little man.  Pretty soon he will be headed to Kindergarten, packing for college, getting married, or just be turning 9 months old!

For now I will continue cherishing the continuing moments of sweetness you bless us with each day.

Here are a few of my favorite things you do at 8 months old:

• You now have 3 teeth! Your 2 front teeth and one on the top...unfortunately those gums are quite swollen and I think we can add more to the list next month!

• You have mastered crawling, are constantly pulling yourself up to stand, and will slowly sit back down again.  I have caught you cruising in your crib and at Grandma's house! 

•  You also have pulled yourself up to stand and let go a few times! After you let go, and before you either fall or sit down, you smile and laugh nervously. It is adorable.

• Your first word was "ma-ma" (great choice) and "da-da" followed shortly. 

• We have been working on sign language and I think you have figured out "more" but just haven't been able to sign it to us. 

• You have learned how to make many more fun sounds like clicking your tongue and making your voice "growly"

• You are VERY BUSY!  We all love watching you play and you love being entertained by your big brothers while they are playing. 

• You are having a hard time sleeping at night because you are either sitting or standing when you wake yourself up.  You also will scoot to the edge of your crib and sit with your legs through the bars and then bang on the bars and scream loudly when you are especially unhappy with being in there.

• In the morning or after nap, you usually lay your head down and snuggle or almost give us a hug when we pick you up. I love this and get teared up thinking about it ending some day.

• You still aren't real fond of food and have gone back to wanting to just nurse 99.9% of the day. There are a few things you seem to like, and lots you dislike.  Mostly it seems as though you don't like any baby food (like your big brother Jonah).  You do like applesauce, yogurt, cheese, graham crackers, fruit puffs, teething biscuits, bananas, apples, pears, mac & cheese and pancakes. 

• You are very sneaky and keep me on my toes during the day.  If anyone forgets to close the bathroom door you are there in a flash getting into lots of germ filled things! You also seem to enjoy playing with many toys you shouldn't vs all the age appropriate toys we have for you.

• You have begun to dislike hate your carseat, or at least getting strapped into it. Fun for me. 

• You do love to get your picture taken. You smile and I just have to be fast enough to get it before you speedily crawl over to the camera and try to attack it!

• One of my other most favorite things is that you will crawl over and pull up on my leg while pulling on my pants when you just want to be picked up or need some loving. 

• One of your favorite games is when your brothers chase you around the house on their hands and knees and you giggle until you are almost sick. 

• You also have begun to really enjoy music.  Either "singing" along or dancing ( moving your head back and forth and bouncing up and down) while we sing. 

Isaac, 

You continue to fill our home with laughter.  You are a constant reminder for me to not take these days for granted or moments I have with 3 little ones.  We are all so thankful for you and enjoy the changes that are happening daily as you discover more and more about your world.

Thank you for the joy you have brought us the past 8 months.  I am praying for many more months together and looking forward to seeing what Jesus has in store for you little man. 


Love Your Momma

The first lost tooth

Jonah came to me a few weeks ago and showed me a "bump" in his mouth...

...That turned out to be a tooth coming in!

He had just been into see the dentist a few weeks prior and I had a dentist appointment a few days later so I asked about it and our dentist recommended we have it pulled if the baby tooth wasn't very loose.

I told Jonah that we would have to pull it if we couldn't wiggle it out ourselves...

He gave a valiant effort, wiggling it all the time, and actually he made quite a bit of progress before we went it to have it pulled. 

I had to have quite a few teeth pulled as a child due to a small jaw, so I was able to ease a bit of his anxiety with my own personal experience.

I told him he would get to breathe in a special medicine that would make him feel relaxed and that the dentist would numb it up a bit, but it would probably hurt a little and then be over.

He was pretty excited to lose his first tooth so that helped the anxiety.

Here he is right before the big event!

He was so brave for the whole "procedure" and it went very well. 

I was probably more nervous that he was!

The dentist was patient, and said unfortunately he will probably have to come back and have more teeth pulled down the road as he has inherited my "teeth troubles"

It almost looks as though the tooth next to the one he had pulled would also be in the way, but the dentist was ok waiting.  That tooth wasn't loose at all so it would be much more difficult to remove.  He didn't want to make this a negative experience since we would probably be back again for more teeth pulled later.

Here is the proud tooth-missing-5-year-old!

We celebrated by going out to dinner at the place of his choice: Italian Moon.

I think he has been hanging out with Grandpa too much (that's his favorite place too).

Jonah was so proud and showed his tooth to anyone who would look: the neighbors, a sweet old lady in the parking lot at the grocery store, and even the manager of the restaurant.

Somehow he ended up getting $4 from these people!

I was worried this would affect the $0.25 the tooth fairy was planning on bringing.

Her budget is a little lower and 3 little mouths full of teeth = $$

The best part was this morning when he found the quarter from the tooth fairy and was so excited!

He had me write a note to the tooth fairy asking if he could please keep his tooth.

I did and regretted the decision when he announced this morning that he had packed his tooth in his backpack to show his teacher and class.

Hopefully that doesn't cause any problems!

Jonah was pretty sure no one else had lost a tooth yet, and he brought a book his Grandma Teresa had given him "Moose's Loose Tooth" to share for story time.

(The substitute teacher told me she thought there probably wasn't a single person at the school who hadn't seen his tooth!)

Jonah, 

        I am so proud of how brave you were!  I love that the excitement of this milestone was enough to distract you from too much anxiety and pain during the whole process! I am also in denial that you are old enough to loose teeth!  It seems like just yesterday your dad and I were shrieking with joy over your 1st tooth coming in!  It is going to take me awhile to get used to that tooth-missing grin.

      Don't forget! It isn't a race to grow up! Take it slow.

Love, Mom

Up and down, up and down

As if crawling everywhere wasn't enough, Isaac has progressively been pulling himself up to stand! 

I have had numerous conversations with him about how crawling is plenty of fun and standing isn't all it's cracked up to be. 

I guess he doesn't believe me.

Yesterday he started the day by pulling himself up slowly and slowly sitting back down.

By lunch he was popping up to standing quickly and had gained confidence to just drop right down.

Even though it means one step closer to his first step...

I still find it adorable and wanted to share it with all of you. 

Here is a short video...he had a little stage fright and wouldn't demonstrate the up and down motion, but it's still quite cute!

Isaac I am proud of you, but don't forget what I told you about walking.

It really isn't any fun!