(I caught Paul up, reading until 10 pm one night)
Justin, Renee, Paul, Ben, & Amanda
Books, Books, Books
I love that, in addition to our mess of Legos strewn across the house, I've been finding books everywhere. All 3 of our kids are thoroughly enjoying books; each on a different level.
Amanda- 4 Months (video)
Our sweet little girl.
Not the most exciting video, but a good one for those of you who haven't been able to see her in person yet :)
Low Expectations
The night before school pictures, Justin and I asked Paul to show us how he planned on smiling for his picture. He had us a bit nervous when he (seemingly) thought that this was a nice look....
With the expectation set so low, we were happily surprised when his picture turned out like this-- forced smile, bags under his eyes, and all :)
With the expectation set so low, we were happily surprised when his picture turned out like this-- forced smile, bags under his eyes, and all :)
3 Months
"Panda"- 3 months old
Three months is said to be the magical time where the hardest parts of the newborn phase begin to fade and more & more happy moments fill your days (and nights). It is also said that, at this time, things begin to feel manageable and you begin to regain your life. While I haven't experienced this part yet, my days are being filled with lots of happy moments with my beautiful, sweet three-month-old.
She also has become good friends with the baby in the mirror. She loves to smile at the baby in the mirror. When the baby in the mirror smiles back, she squeals with delight and "talks" to the baby for a bit. Her brothers giggle in the background-- they think it's quite funny that she doesn't seem to understand that the baby in the mirror is her own reflection ;)
I'm loving how talkative she is. Especially with Justin & I. She locks eyes with us, smiles, and then talks away. It's fun to watch her eyes sparkle, and her eyebrows and mouth change shape as she's thinking about what to say (below).
When she's upset, her brothers race to her and sing silly songs and get right in her face. While the extreme closeness makes me a bit claustrophobic to watch, she cheers right up. She LOVES her brothers and they LOVE her.
Catching Up in Pictures- June
I realize that blogging is just not going to become a high enough priority for it to happen, so I'm simply going to post (what I hope to be) a lot of pictures with quick captions to sum up the last couple of months starting with June.
~June~
June brought lots of summertime fun with cousins.
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| Fun with Rocky & aunt Julie- making Kool-Aid play dough & outdoor sprinkler fun! |
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| Water Party with Geyser cousins & aunt Cassie! |
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| Camping at the old HP cabins (Hermit Park) |
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| Celebrating Father's Day & playing with cousin Asher, uncle Austin & aunt Keely (who moved here from Washington in June!). We're so glad that we have so many cousins close by to play with! |
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| Visiting the Denver Aquarium with Grandma Kate & uncle Brent while I rested. |
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| I kept busy growing a baby and attempting to complete the baby's room before she arrived (it's still a work in progress). |
Beautiful (destructive) Snow
{I just found this post saved as a draft}
How could snow this clean, crisp and beautiful create such a mess and so much work?
We had an early snow storm with thick, heavy snow. Only our Ash tree and Plum tree had lost their leaves prior to the snow, so most of the remaining trees suffered many lost limbs when this heavy snow landed on them.
How could snow this clean, crisp and beautiful create such a mess and so much work?
We had an early snow storm with thick, heavy snow. Only our Ash tree and Plum tree had lost their leaves prior to the snow, so most of the remaining trees suffered many lost limbs when this heavy snow landed on them.
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| (apple tree- unharmed) |
(Ash tree- only one limb lost)
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| (such thick snow on small, twig like limbs) |
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| (prior to the snow storm, this section of our back yard was flat and clear of any leaves) |
This picture (above) simply looks like a large pile of leaves, but it is really a large pile of limbs. Some limbs so thick, long, and heavy that when falling, broke sections of a heavy-duty metal ladder off and bent the neighbor's chimney. All night during the snow storm we heard the ominous "snap", "snap", "crash" as limbs fell and landed. We were in awe when we woke up to a yard full of limbs.
Justin and I are disappointed that the pictures don't even come close to showing the massive amount of limbs that fell from our trees. The lack of my photography skills is partially to blame, but even a skilled photographer would have a hard time capturing what it felt like wading (and tripping) through the piles of limbs in our yard.
People driving by on our street would pause and stop to gaze at our yard.
Looking at the massive piles made us wary of all of the work ahead of us.
Luckily, we have some of the nicest neighbors living across the street from us. Five adults worked on gathering and breaking/cutting limbs from 9am today until after 5 pm. Even the power of the chainsaw could not dig us out of this mess. We did clear up a lot of the mess, but we still have at least another full day's work ahead of us.... plus the time it will take us to haul all of the debris away.
Here's to firewood!
Denver Aquarium
With only 2 weeks left of my pregnancy and hundred degree weather, I was feeling pretty tired and low on energy. My Mom could tell I needed a break and offered to have my boys over at her place for a couple hours. Things got even better when I received a text from her saying that my brother Brent and her were taking the boys to Denver for the day.
Time to myself and the relief that my boys were going to be entertained and engaged for the day! No arguments from me ;)
They ended up going to the Denver Aquarium and seemed to have a great time.
Showing off some awesome poses ;)
"In" the water with the fish.
Some more awesome poses ;)
Faces painted.
Squirting water on themselves....perhaps their favorite part of the aquarium.
Father's Day Fishing
Ben catching his first fish!
And yes.... we do let our kids dress themselves :) Such stylish boys :)
Baby Belly
My ever growing baby belly seems plenty big to me, but I still have 4 weeks until my due date...which is plenty of time for my belly to grow even larger! I'm getting a little impatient to meet the little girl who keeps me company with her acrobatic moves all night.
I'm already in love with her and haven't even (really) laid eyes on her yet.
The waiting game begins...
Natural Grace
Just when Ben's forehead had almost finished healing from a fall (above), he received a fortune cookie with a fortune mentioning his "natural grace".
Minutes after eating the cookie, he fell down a set of metal "cheese grater" style stairs. His face, ears, and neck were covered in blood and it was difficult to determine how bad his injuries were. After calming him down enough to be able to clean him up, we were able to see that his face was "grated" from the top of his head down to his cute nose, and even inside his mouth. Along with that, a large bump on his forehead appeared.
He was so stunned and scared, that he had us worried. The sparkle in his eye disappeared and he even declined going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for birthday cake and ice cream...which made us start to wonder if he had a concussion. Ben has never been known to pass up a treat! Luckily, he perked up within the hour and we knew he was fine.
The next morning, Ben's "natural grace" helped him fall down into our crawl space... and the day following that, he fell off a couch in my parents' basement, landing on his face.