Growing up

My boys are growing up...today Joel took 2 steps and Colin wanted to buy soap to wash his arm pits.  For Joel I hope its a one time thing and he forgets all about this walking business for a few more months.  We did try to see if he would do it again but he didn't have any balance or forgot how to do it.  (And really its Brent who is claiming the first steps. He was in our bedroom with Joel so since I didn't see it I'm not sure it should count! ha!) And for Colin lets hope this grooming continues.  Maybe he'll miss the smelly boy phase :)** Too late. I guess its inevitable. I saw Joel take a step this morning.

Joel also likes to point his finger and say "diss" to everything. its really cute


And a conversation with Colin:
Colin: Me told Ma-ma-maa that a boys job is to listen
Me:  Thats a great job to have. Whats a girls job?
Colin: To tell the boys what to do or how much time they have to do something.
Haha I think maybe I've been giving him the 5 minute warning a little too much lately :)

Proof

This is what our yard looked like when we first moved in. 

About a month ago we decided to do something about it and went to work.

This little cutie supervised - when he wasn't trying to eat dirt.

Colin was a big help.  It was more work than we thought but got most of it done in a day. Then we seeded it and waited for the grass to grow.  And while we were waiting I kept hearing from our neighbors how hard it was to grow grass under these trees (most people have these old trees - except one family and we've been told never to cut down our tree by everyone else or we'll be blacklisted! haha!) But apparently 4 previous owners couldn't grow grass under this tree. Hence the ugly red mulch.  So I was a little worried about all our hard work but figured if it didn't grow we'd try again in the fall and then just let Colin dig in the dirt all summer.

This is what it looked like today.  It might all die soon but we have proof that we can grow grass.  We still have to fill in that circle around the tree with dirt and add some plants there but we're still trying to figure out what would grow best there.  Its fun and still a work in progress but makes us smile every time we drive up.  Colin is also proud of his grass and says we were good worker guys.

Gardening

The garden is in.

This summer we're making the boys work for their food!  Ha.  They love it. I have to be careful to watch Joel around the plants since he wants to do everything Colin is doing. So far we have snow peas, about 8 sunflowers, tons of tomatoes and cucumbers and a squash.  We want to plant some more but this is what's in the way now:

Its also a big construction site with all of Colin's trucks.  It is slowly getting phased out as we plant new plants but it has kept the boys busy these past few weeks.  Last week the boys and I uncovered a huge ant colony and watched hundreds of ants move all over the garden. Colin is a huge animal activist already (in face he is convinced the animals at the zoo will go back to the wild after the vets make them better) So i couldn't kill the ants but we did move about 30 ant eggs to the yard to be conveniently stepped on by me without Colin looking.  Joel tried to touch the ants and possibly eat them.  I'll spare you the pictures this time :)

 Lets hope its a great summer for the garden. I can't wait for the cukes and tomatoes to come in.

wedding

Brent was asked to be the best man in his friend Toby's wedding.  Yesterday was the big day.  It was held on the beach at Fort Monroe but was super windy and cold but at least the predicted rain didn't come.  Today its warm and in the 80s go figure. But it was a beautiful wedding.

It was fun for me to get to meet a lot of Toby's family.  Brent and Toby have been friends for over 16 years.  The best part for me was to meet Brents friends Andrew and Nicole.  Andrew's parents are amazing and I got to know them really well our first year of marriage when we were living in Northern Va.  They not only supported us financially with Crusade but they found us a place to live and we got involved in their church. They were such an encouragment and we were sad when they retired and moved up to Conn to be with Andrew and Nicole.  But last night I finally got to meet their son and daughter in law after hearing about them for so many years. 

I didn't get to see Brent much during the wedding or this weekend but it was still fun to go and be without the kids for a little bit.  My parents came over to watch the boys and put them to bed. Thanks Mom and Dad.  And Joel slept better than he has in a week. He even pooped last night!  Poor kid has been so constipated lately.   (Brent just leaned over and said that he thinks orange looks good on him - meaning the tie. My response - what have I been telling you all these years. Orange looks good on everyone :)  I think some orange Hokie clothes should be on Brents Christmas list!) 

A beautiful wedding.  A fun couple.  And now Brent can relax and not stress about the toast he had to give :)  (he did a great job of course)

Apple

Joel helped me eat an apple the other day that was almost as big as his head.

My friend Noah

This week we got to hang out with some great friends who moved away a year ago but are moving back.  I had actually been praying that they would move back since the day they left. All week Colin keeps telling me things like "mommy you know my friend Noah likes dandilions."  and just random facts about Noah. And i'm not even sure if Noah does actually like dandilions.   He is very excited because Noah is moving back here in a month.  WOO HOO!!!! I can't even begin to say how excited we are all for the whole family to move back here.  Colin and Noah are the same age and Joel and Nathan are a few months apart.   And they have Adah who is in the middle but she can hold her own with all these boys.  I just love Laura, their mom, and can't wait to have them back.  The only bad thing is that somehow when I told Colin that Noah was moving closer and he could see him all the time, he got it in his head that our neighbors are moving so Noah can move his house next to us.  Every day he keeps telling me that our neighbors are still here and keeps wondering when they are going to leave. Maybe once he sees Noah's new house he'll forget about wanting him next door :)

9 months

9 months.  Actually by now its 9.5 months.  How fast it goes. I wish 9 months of pregnancy can go as fast since that seems to go by SO SLOWLY.  But how can my baby be 9 months already?  I would like to slow it down a little bit.  We just got back from the doctor and his head grew a little - not a lot but enough to get out of the worry for the doctor. My sweet, laid back, go with the flow baby scratched and pinched the nurse when she was taking his measurements.  Then he smiled and made up with her afterwards - until she gave him his shots.  He is 29 inches (75%) and 18lbs (10%)  I am curious to see how he grows since Colin is so tall and skinny but at Joels age he was 75% for weight too.  Both boys are built like their dad.  But look at those legs.  Not one roll on them!  He is such a sweet boy, when he's not beating up the nurses.  Lately whenever I am sitting on the floor he will crawl over to my lap and come snuggle. He also loves to cover my face in slobbery kisses every morning and after nap time. I love it.

Full Bloom

Our Azaleas were just starting to come out last week.

They are now in full bloom.  And with a house full of boys I  LOVE all the pink in my front yard and side yard right now.

 

Another Saturday... Another Soccer Game

It is Saturday so for us that means another soccer game.  Colin is really getting into it and gets so excited for the weekend.  Not only is daddy home but he gets to play soccer.  And today was extra fun because RJ and Lucy came to watch Colin.  He told me later he wants RJ to come watch every game!

They are still learning to play as a team. haha this picture makes me laugh. We were out played today as the other team had bigger and faster players.  But the kids didn't seem to mind at all.  Colin just asked if he won at the end and since they don't keep score the green team always wins! 

RJ kept the babies entertained and well fed.  He's such a good big brother.RJ also gave Colin some fun soccer sports drinks.  Food speaks to my sons heart (haha just like his father)

Colin and Aiden goofed off when they weren't playing.  (the boy he's talking to) This age group plays 3 on 3 and then every 4 minutes get rotated out.  This week when they weren't playing the kids took turns holding the sign with an arrow showing them which way to go :)

RJ came over to help too.  It was also very windy at this point.

The sprinklers came on this week again.

Joel was very excited to have Lucy there too. 

Thanks Kelly for bringing the kids out early (we had the first game this week) We're really glad you could come. 

Friday

Today my mom came over to watch Joel while the rest of us had dentist appointments.  Colin has been very adamant all week about not letting the dentist near him and wanted to stay home with ma-ma-maa but he came and then when he was about to give the dentist a strong "get away from me" look he quietly asked "do you have any green toothpaste?" And he did! After that he let the dentist do anything he wanted in his mouth.  Even the yucky fluoride part. I'm so glad. I was afraid it would be years before we got Colin's teeth cleaned.

When Brent came home we walked down to the "yucky pond" as Colin says and fed the ducks.  Brent and Colin found some baby turtles to play with.

Then to celebrate Colin going to the dentist AND a $1500 refund I got from the doctors (still not sure how that happened but always nice to be refunded money than have to pay it. It'll just go towards next year's medical bills) we went to Jason's Deli for dinner and walked around the mall so I could get new running shoes.

 Joel loved finishing my icecream cone

And for some reason in the middle of the mall was a man with bugs. Colin loves bugs so we went to look.  And Colin got to hold a hissing cockroach. These pictures still gives me the shivers.  And these cockroach pictures are a little blurry since I wasn't getting any closer to those things.  And its true - they do hiss.

The Spider and the Fly

The spider builds his web

When he is done he waits

Poor little fly gets stuck in the web

 Cute little fly

The fly thinks he has a friend coming to rescue him

Then he starts to figure it out...

A little too late

Happy Spider - Sad little fly

I wish i could say I made up this story but this is what happened according to Colin.

Soccer Game

Today we went to Colin's 2nd soccer game. After the last game we weren't sure if he'd play but he was SO excited and couldn't wait. Colin scored 4 goals and assisted in a lot more. It was really cute to watch and his team is starting to get how to play as a team and at least both teams this time knew which goal to go towards :)  Colin would do this little dance after he scored that was so cute.  He would also make a great goalie because he dove for the ball at the end to block the other team from getting a goal.  I think the cutest thing they do at the end is have all the parents line up and make a tunnel for the kids to run through.  The kids LOVE it and went through it maybe 3 times today grinning the whole time.

Then we went to our friends 1st birthday part this afternoon. Colin ran around at the playground and got to climb the mountain and roll down (mt. trashmore... still a weird concept for me to think he was playing on trash...) But the weather was perfect and a great way to spend the afternoon.  Joel loves Samantha (the birthday girl) and had a fun time eating cake and playing too. After watching the birthday girl eat cake Joel kept reaching for the icing on my plate too.  He's going to be ready in a few months for his birthday