Christian talks!

Although Christian is now 17 months old, he is stills lacking in his vocabulary. He sure understands words and commands. He has been saying mama, papa, and football for about a month or two. He most recently will say shoes, cheese, fruit snacks and no. He definitely knows what he wants and that is where our trouble of communication is beginning. Here is a short video of one of many attempts to film Christian saying football. He was saying it over and over this day in the tub and I finally got some footage.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

In September, Grandpa Dave celebrated his birthday. Noah was bound and determined that he make a cake for Grandpa's birthday. We frosted it and he decorated it. Then we took it to Grandma June and Grandpa Marvin's house while we visited, we ate cake.

Christian and the Yogurt

Christian has mastered feeding himself with a fork and a spoon, although when he gets tired he resorts to his hands. Here is his first time feeding himself yogurt. It was everywhere, but it was fun. We've also determined that with many tries and attempts, both eating and drawing, Christian will be our lefty. I know many people on my side of the family will be excited to Christian shares this trait.

The garden

Here is the first batch of zucchini and summer squash from our garden. We were able to get 5 batches of zucchini bread out of that one zucchini.

Vacation in Wisconsin

Here are some pictures from our Day family vacation in Wisconsin. We spent every day down at the beach. Click on the pictures to view larger. It will take you to our web album. Once there, click on the word slideshow at the right to see it.

Welcome to our new addition!

We recently took in one of our sitter's dogs to live in our home. Indie is a six year old, chocolate labrador. She recently had a litter of puppies (she was accidentally bred to the sitter's great dane) but was spayed during her c-section of 13 puppies. She is so calm, friendly and follows us everywhere. The boys are so excited to have her and Maggie now.

Happy Birthday Noah!

Noah turned 3 years old this past week. He wouldn't let us sing Happy Birthday until there was cake and candles. Knowing that Noah is not a big cake eater and knowing we would have cake for his party a few days later, I tried to find the one thing he might eat-and that was doughnuts. We told Noah we were have doughnut cakes and he asked if we were going to church to find them (we have them every week). I told him I bought our own, we put in a candle and sang "Happy Birthday." He did have some trouble blowing out the candles, but finally did it.

Christian and the cake

Here is Christian as he enjoyed Noah's cake.

Noah's Potty Cake

When our friends, Nathan, Michelle, Ashley and Jacob came to visit, we had a "potty" cake for Noah. He worked so hard during the week before to use the potty and potty trained fortunately very easy. For each time he went on the potty, he earned a sticker and he chose for those stickers to be the number of candles on his cake. At that time we had 24 candles on the cake. In the previous video you saw how much Christian enjoyed the cake.

The Boys and the Frog

Here are some other pictures of the boys with the frog.

Noah and the Gloves

The other day Noah found my winter gloves. Next thing we knew he was on the kitchen floor, talking to himself with the gloves on his feet and he was trying to tie them together. We don't often know what is going on in his head, but he is very creative.

Christian and his Cake

I'm trying to get the slideshow working to view Christian enjoying his first birthday cake, but here are two good ones.

Christian and the Cupcake

Christian truly enjoyed his Birthday cupcake. After singing Happy Birthday, Thomas helped Christian by holding up the cupcake, but after that Christian had no problems.

Happy Mother's Day

Here you can see Noah with his Mother's Day sentiment...

Happy 1st Birthday Christian!

Today is Christian's first birthday. We had a not so busy day. We went to church, went for pictures-we got some family, a few of Christian (he was not to sure about sitting, so we had to bribe with goldfish crackers) and then some of Christian eating a cupcake (which he had no problem eating). We came home to nap, had a snack, played, sang to him, ate another cupcake, took a bath, opened a present and then went to bed. No more baby in this house.

Giddy Up Thomas

Thomas played yesterday with Savanna (8 yrs) and Abby (5 yrs), our two neighbor girls. First they played in the "creek" (the only place on the yard that holds water). Abby fell in and Thomas had mud from head to toe, but he was wearing his mud boots. Later on we look over to see Thomas up riding on one of their horses! He is working on talking our neighbor into riding lessons.

Gardening

Here the boys are helping Nate prepare the garden boxes for planting. We are using these to grow some of our own vegetables. Earlier we went to the plant nursery for seedlings and seeds. Christian is helping me out (finally leaving his shoes on) with filling planters with dirt for our geraniums on our deck.

Christian is walking!

Here is a video clip of Christian chasing Thomas in our kitchen. There was more to it, but I can only put so much on the video clip.

Christian

Here is a recent photo of Christian, who as of last week, walks everywhere and is exploring everything. Here he was carrying the plunger around. You can also see his haircut. After many times being told he was a beautiful girl, it was time for the haircut. Now that I know I can put video on I'll take some of Christian soon walking.

The Buffalo Farm

Upon our visit to the Buffalo farm, we saw skulls, pelts, a mounted head like above where Christian is exploring the horn. We also saw the newly born buffalo calf above in the picture. The mom was being very protective and was right by the electric fence which was turned off, but in reading the info that was given to us, they will charge or jump through so we thought it was best to step back some. I did not take a picture though of the mama buffalo trying to give birth in front of everyone.

Thomas and the Calf

On our stop to the dairy farm, Thomas enjoyed looking at the week old calves that were out to see. He reached in to pet one and it licked him. It took him by surprise.

Noah Singing Twinkle, Twinkle

Hope you enjoy this video clip of Noah singing one of his favorite songs. I just found out I had this ability all the time to post videos. This will be great.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Over my Spring Break, Nate and I took a trip to Gatlinburg with Christian. We spent some time relaxing and going to the Smoky Mountain National Park. One day we drove to a little town in the mountains and another day we did a mile hike (uphill toting Christian on one side) to see a waterfall. In the end it was worth it and Christian was so tired from the hike up that he fell asleep on the way down.

Tired Little Lamb

Christian was a tired little lamb after spending the day at Grandma and Grandpa's. Here is how we found him, asleep on Grandpa, when we returned to pick him up.

Thomas Had a Little Lamb

Here is Thomas holding the bottle lamb at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He was so big climbing the gates and going into all the different pens with the sheep.

The Bottle Lamb

Thomas and Noah were all up for going out to the barn to bottle feed one of the lambs. Noah normally will not get very close to the barn let alone go inside. On this day he was a little braver and earlier on went inside while Mama carried him. Then he had no problem walking out with Grandpa and feeding the lamb. Noah then walked into the lamb pen with Mama and even got into the bigger pen with Thomas. He quickly asked to get out once he saw the sheep running towards him. But before leaving Noah petted the bottle lamb.

Big Brother

Thomas just loves Christian and Christian just loves Thomas! Thomas is always loving on him and here he wanted to help feed Christian his bottle.

Mama's Little Helpers

This broom vac was the best gift we ever got. The boys love it and they love to help use it. And yes Noah is really wearing a pumpkin shirt in February.

IU controversy

Our sitter and her family are big time Indiana University fans, especially basketball. When Purdue played IU recently it was during the release of their coach. Nate has been teasing them that they have a cheater team. The night of the game, Nate had to pick up the boys. Teresa, our sitter, had written on the boys diapers as a surprise for Nate.

So Big!

It must be because he is the third child and wants to keep up with his big brothers.

Christian is moving so fast, he gets into everything and even tries to climb our stairs. He is so close to walking, enjoys his food, but no real words yet. Here Christian enjoyed watching Elmo up close and personal. He also enjoys helping me with clothes in the dryer.

Nice Hair!

Upon returning home, Nate removed Noah's hat to reveal this!

Say Cheese!

Christian is growing day by day. He now knows when the camera is out and puts on his best smile. Christian has been feeding himself finger food for the last two weeks and can now pack away a half of a grilled cheese sandwich. He can bend down to pick something up while standing and holding on to something, he can get himself into a sitting position now from other positions, he feeds Maggie, splashes the water out of her water bowl and can crawl about 90 mph when he has his mind set on something.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! We ended our visit to Chicago on New Years Eve and New Years Morning at our friends, Nathan, Michelle and Ashley's house. The children had some noise makers, party hats, snacks and karaoke for their new years celebration. We counted down and they celebrated their New Year's at 8 pm. Fun was had by all.

Merry Christmas!

The boys had plenty of fun after a few days (and extended weekends) of Christmas. Thomas enjoyed all his new toys that would be for the older boys. Noah thought every present was his and couldn't wait to open them and Christian just loved eating the paper.