Trevor is 8 Months!

Wow-ee!  How our little angel is growing!  He turned 8 months this week, so I thought I'd post some pics for all to adore!  Some of his recent milestones are: eating a variety of baby foods (he eats a TON, and we wonder how he can stay so small!), sitting up, rolling everywhere (even out of his doorway and into the hall!), and army-crawling backwards.  Trevor loves interacting with people, especially with his big "Bubbas".   He also loves blowing raspberries ALL the time, especially when he's hungry (it's really funny)!  Trevor absolutely loves being outside; he gets so excited and kicks his legs wildly and starts breathing heavy even when I open his window to look at the trees with him!  With Spencer and Mikey in school, and since the weather has been gorgeous, I've taken Trevor running in the jogging stroller a lot lately.   It is a special time for me to be with by baby and surrounded by the nature I love, and I like to think that he enjoys it too (since he never cries :-). 

Here's some pics, not the Jaron's 'sisters-and-mom's-professional-quality-photos', but they do the job!  This first one is kind of silly, but it shows off his HUGE blue eyes.

I love this little guy!

This is Trevor's reaction when Spencer entered the room! (he's laughing)

Spencer loves to play with Trevor and make him laugh.  He's such a fun big brother!

Spencer thought it would be so cute to give Trevor a "halo" and take a picture.  I love the face Trev pulled for this one!

Happy Birthday to US!

Such a fun time of year, when Jaron and I get to celebrate our birthdays together!! (Sept 6, 7).   He had the whole weekend off, including Memorial Day, so we really lived it up!  On Saturday, Jaron took Spencer and Mikey to the Iowa Hawkeye football game, and Trevor and I did some serious shopping at a nearby outlet mall (talk about DREAM birthday for me--lots of stores...very few kids!)  I have to insert here that Spencer, Mikey and Trevor are SO lucky to have such a wonderful Daddy.  For a variety of reasons, but last Saturday illustrated just one.  Jaron had been on call Friday night, got basically no sleep, and then spent the whole day Saturday with his boys at the football game and playing afterward.  Despite working a lot, Jaron has so much fun with his children and really makes it a priority to make meaningful memories with them.  I love him for it!

  

On Sunday we had a nice peaceful Sabbath, some not-so-peaceful Blockus-playing, and a delicious ice-cream cake.

On Monday, since Jaron had the day off, we decided to explore a rock climbing site here in Iowa, about an hour from our house.  Who would've thunk that there'd be climbing in Iowa??  But there was, and it was actually good climbing, and the boys and I had lots of fun!  We went with our friends who have 3 boys too, so there were always enough adult hands to help belay or hold a baby or play with bigger boys.  Everyone got a couple chances to climb (except the babies), and Spencer was thrilled to make it to the top of this wall!  We were all so proud (Jaron especially!).  

Here's Jaron belay-ing Spencer at the start of the climb:

This is the entire wall that Spencer climbed.  Of course it's a lot bigger when you're on it!

Classic Mikey expression, after finishing his turn climbing / Tarzan swinging:

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!  You are truly an amazing man--kind, unselfish, sensitive to others, fun, witty, crazy, intelligent, sweet, honest, and oh-so-handsome! (Doesn't he look great for 30??!!)

Happy Birthday Mikey!

Our sweet Mikey has turned 4!!  We just adore little Mikey; he has such a sweet, yet spunky and silly personality.  He has been a great blessing to our family, making us laugh when we get too serious, giving cuddles and kisses without reservation, and using his super-hero skills to ward off any imaginary threat to the home-front.  I love this picture of Mikey because it captures his essence: happy, playful, rough-and-tumble, sweet little guy.

Mikey was really lucky that his cousins (Morgan and Rachael), their dog (Chief) and parents (Chris and Dee), AND Nana and Opa all got to come out for his birthday celebration.  It was a short visit, but we squeezed as much fun out of the time as we knew how.  (Thanks so much for making the trek out here guys!)  Here's some of the fun we had...opening presents...

...Eating Spiderman cupcakes and ice cream...

...Taking a ride on the "Little Hawkeye Express", and other "fair" rides at a nearby park...

...Getting spoiled by daddy, whose present to Mikey was a homemade tree-swing.  Of course, Daddy had to 'jumar' (rock climbing term--look it up!) up to the tree branch to hang the swing, and that was an adventure in and of itself.  Lots of fun for the kids (and for the people driving by--'What in the world are they doing?!!')...

(Spence 'jumared' all by himself up to the tree branch too!)

...And for the grand finale of fun-ness, the kids discovered another use for Jaron's half-pipe!  Take a look:

(It might be too small to see, but Mikey discovered that being in his "birthday suit" really gave him the advantage!)  Who needs a waterpark when all you have to do is build a skate ramp?!

Fun in Texas

At the beginning of August, we took a road trip down to Texas.  We had SOOOOOO (x 100!) much fun with the Sullivan's!  We spent a few days at the beach in Port Aransas, got to visit our best friends from med school, swung by the Haley's in San Antonio, and spent some time in Stephenville at Mammy and Pappy's house.  There was way more fun than I can convey in one measly post, but here's some highlights:

Pappy, Em, Mammy, Jaron, Trev, Mikey and Spence at the beach.

Jaron taking Mikey out to catch some big waves!

Of course, there was time for dummy-ropin' too!

All the cousins at Jaimie and Aaron's in San Antonio.

Getting spoiled by the Allred's in their pool.

Pappy took us out to lunch at the hottest new restaurant in Stephenville: McDonald's.  The kids got to eat inside a giant football!  Thanks Pappy!

Helping feed the horses.

Thank you so much Sullivan's, Haley's and Allred's for a wonderful vacation!  This is what we thought of it:

Bye-Bye Summer!

WOW.  Who knew summer could fly by so fast?? It's already back-to-school time in Iowa, and I'll miss having my boys around.  Spencer and Mikey are both going to school this year, Spence in 1st grade, Mikey in 5-day Preschool.  Jaron and I are blessed with extraordinary boys--loving, thoughtful, and lots of fun to play with!  I loved having my boys around all summer, and having lots of adventures with them.  Here's a sampling of some of the fun we had (and more yet to come!): 

Spence and Mikey love to invent and create, so here's a sample of some of the home-projects they did.  From top left, clockwise: plastic cup-with-string-telephone; "school" workbooks (they earned money for completing each one--BIG motivator!); "snakes" made from painted cylindrical wood pieces, string and beads; a "jet pack", made from an oatmeal container, paper towel tube, and string; in the middle is the remnant of Mikey's "binoculars", made from T.P. rolls.  Not pictured (just made today), is a rocket ship, constructed out of a box (it even has seats! Spencer's idea).  I love how innovative the boys are; they constantly challenge me to "think outside the box".

One of my FAVORITE things to do with the boys this summer was running on the beautiful trails around Iowa City.  It was gorgeous and green, and fairly mild all summer, so we got out a lot.  Spence and Mikey would ride bikes while I tried to keep up, pushing Trevor in the jogger.  Every time we'd go I'd think, "I've GOT to get a picture of this scenery!"  This is the one time I actually remembered (this trail runs along the Iowa River):

There's a few lakes really close to our home, and we made it out a few times.  Beautiful landscape, but notice Spencer's blue lips?  Our Iowa mild summer is to blame for that.

Spence and Mikey took swim lessons.  Spencer learned a lot--backstroke, diving, treading water, and swimming in the deep end, and Mikey had fun bopping about in the kiddie pool.

Fort-making is a staple at our house.

One of 3 public pools in our community--this one's a mile from the house, so sometimes the big boys would ride bikes here (me huffing to keep up).

And quicker'n you can say Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle, our school year has begun!  Here's our big boys posing with their packs on the first day.

Milestone

We've been having a BLAST this summer, the boys and I.  Unfortunately, after a trip to visit my family around Memorial Day, I haven't been able to find our camera, but we just got a new one, so I'll start taking pics to catch up on the fun we've been having.  

I was so broken-hearted to not have a camera to capture a very special moment for Spencer: his first piano recital!  I've been teaching him for about a year, and throughout the school year he would practice most mornings before school for 15 min.  Most times he'd complain and I'd have to pull out some serious incentives, but it's worth it for me to have a well-rounded son!  Our library hosts many fun summer activities for school-age children, one of which was a Talent Show.  Spencer said he wanted to play the piano, so we prepared two songs, which involved lots of practice (more than the usual 15 min).  I'm so proud of Spencer for being brave enough to play, and for being so diligent with his practicing (because he really doesn't love it, or even like it on most days)!  

He was spectacular at the Talent Show; he was calm even though there were 80 people in the room (I counted), and he played flawlessly.  I wanted to run up to him and smother him with kisses and hugs, but I held back.  Fast forward a couple weeks to today.  Spencer spontaneously, without any bribe or coersion, sat down and played the piano for a full 20 minutes!!  And it's not even one of our practice days! This is a serious milestone for him, to play for sheer pleasure; to get so absorbed in the playing that he loses track of time.  It reminds me how much I love music, and how I love to get lost in it.  It was a special moment for me.

Oldie but Goodie

Since our camera has been lost for a couple months *sigh*, I was looking through old pics to see if I could post one and trick everyone into thinking it was new!  I came across this SWEET moment captured with my creative older boys.  This was taken around the new year, just before Trevor was born.  This is what happens at our house when you take a nap and assume your mature young adults will play appropriately and NOT get into trouble... I came downstairs to find two "SPI's" (translation: SPY's) dawned with camo-skin gear, "bee-noculars" (painted on) for special night vision, and wielding special spy sword/gun contraptions (paper towel tubes). I can't believe I didn't post this sooner!