Party Hats

With all the birthday festivities we decided to get a family picture with our party hats on.

It's not the greatest family picture but at least we took one.

Uncle Brian's Birthday

We celebrated Uncle Brian's birthday with dinner at Red Robin. After dinner we went to their house to have cake and ice cream.

Singing Happy Birthday (Red Robin Style)

The Birthday boy

Colt was getting a little restless and wanted to keep walking around the restaurant.

Brody & Abi
Aunt Angie & Andrew

Grammy & Fafa
Ed & Uncle Brian
Uncle Brian, Abi & Brody

Ollie & Henry

This is Ollie's friend Henry. Ok, so maybe they are friends because their moms force it upon them, but we do hope they get to play together over the years. Henry's older brother, Colin is one of Brody's friends so we get to see them pretty often.

Henry is two weeks younger than Ollie.

They were over for a playdate and I noticed that Henry had an outfit on that was very similar to one of Ollie's. So I changed his clothes and put him in this outfit. Henry has a little dog and Ollie has a monkey. (I wish I would have thought to get a picture of their backside because they have a monkey (or dog) on the back.

Henry is looking the other way.

But we were able to turn his head so we could get a picture of both of them.

Ollie is not so happy here.

And not very happy here either.

What a couple of cuties!

Driving me Crazy

Our stereo wasn't working. It would play DVDs but no sound would come out so Brad went to work trying to fix it. It probably wasn't the best idea to work on this while the boys were awake but since he had already started Brad was determined to find the solution. Of course while he was working on it he had his helpers hanging all over him and looking at every button and cord right along with him. I was on the couch feeding Ollie so I couldn't distract Brody & Colt.



I could tell Brad's patience was running a little thin. I would have stopped but Brad continued. He thought he had figured out the problem and Colt & Brody seemed to have solved the problem too since they were looking at everything Brad was checking out.



Brad finally looked at me and said "This is driving me crazy!" (he said this in a pretty common voice)



Brody piped up.. "It's Ok dad! We're just helping."

Fixing John Deere

Whenever something breaks I just tell the boys "Don't worry daddy will fix it when he gets home." Fortunately this satisfies them and I don't have to take on the task of actually fixing it. The other day our John Deere Gator broke down and Brad was happy to work on it when he got home.

Of course whenever he works on something he has his two little helpers ready and waiting.

Brody with his flashlight (and his helmet).



Colt is either helping out or trying to climb into the back of the gator.



In this video Brody is explaining what has happened. I love how he says there is something wrong with the mechanics.

Colt's jeep ride

Colt is quite the independent little guy although he is also very much a mommy's boy (i'm not complaining because I will be sad when the day comes and he thinks I'm embarrassing to be around). Since he can happily play by himself or play with Brody it can be easy to forget that he needs some special one one one time with us.

We decided that we would try to be a little more intentional about creating this time. Brad decided to take Colt to Home Depot. Brody & Brad have gone there a lot together but it has never just been Colt & Daddy. Colt loved riding in the jeep and did pretty well at Home Depot. But the report is that it wasn't too long before he started saying "mommy, mommy." (although he probably did want me, "mommy" is one of the few words that he can say clearly so he could have been saying it for another reason)

Getting ready to go to Home Depot.

Swinging

Here is another picture and a few videos of the boys swinging. Yes, Brody is wearing his helmet...again.

Thankfully Brad put the swings really low to the ground so the boys can get off and on by themselves. And if they do fall off it won't hurt that bad.

Fafa's Birthday

We also had the chance to celebrate Aunt Angie's birthday and Fafa's birthday.

Colt in his high chair. He is ready for cake.



Fafa, Abi and Brody



Two videos of the kids singing Happy Birthday.

Mother's Day 2010

I had a very busy, productive and fun Mother's Day. It started out with sleeping in until 5:00 (when Ollie woke up) but after I fed him I handed him to Brad so he could burp him, change him and put him back to bed. Then I slept in some more until 8:00 when Ollie woke up again. The other boys were waking up so I got up too.

Brad made some yummy pancakes with raspberry jam. After breakfast we went to church and enjoyed a lovely service.


When we got back we started to work on two projects. We wanted to get the playground put up and plant the vegetable garden. Brad did a fantastic job making sure these things were accomplished.

Brad trying to figure out where everything goes. (This playground was given to us by my mentor mom from my MOPS group)

Brody & Colt testing out the swings.

Brody & Brad planting the vegetable garden. (This is the 2nd year of our garden. It's still in testing phase to see if I can actually grow something. Last year we planted carrots and lettuce but didn't plant them until August. We still managed to grow some stuff. We are off to a better start this year).

A short video of Brody describing what he is doing.

Mother's Day Gifts

This year I received some very cute mother's day gifts. It makes me excited for future years.

A card Brody made at church. (You can see some of the letters in his name)

We had two babysitters over a few nights before Mother's Day and they helped the boys make these cards.

The green card is from Colt and the red one is from Brody.

Brody also came home from Sunday School with this cute little plant.

Aunt Jenny

One of the main reasons my sister came to visit was so that she could meet Ollie. (We really wish we lived right next door to each other but it does make these trips that much more special)

Jenny is anxious and excited to have another baby (she already has 2 adorable boys). As you can imagine she couldn't stop holding him and staring at him.

They look so cute together but I'm keeping him as my own and she will have to work on getting her own baby.

Pirate Ship Park

My sister Jenny came to visit with her family--Uncle John and George and Wesley. We were trying to decide what to do and my dad thought it would be fun to check out the new park at the Des Moines Field House. (Anything new in Des Moines is always exciting) We were anxious to see how great this new park was. It was a playground that looked like a pirate ship.

It was a nice new playground and there was hardly anyone else there on a beautiful sunny day. But the excitement of the new park quickly wore off and the boys were much more fascinated by the cement skate park nearby.

We had a fun time and were so glad we were able to enjoy the sun.

Gunner trying out one of the toys.

Yes, that's me trying to hang on to the "zipline".

Jenny's turn. (she had a little style with her pointed toes --must be from all that work on drill team)

Stopping for a drink break.

Papa Bob tried to get the boys into the Pirate Ship mode. (it lasted a few minutes)

Come with me...

One of Colt's latest things is to grab my hand and take me somewhere to play with him or to help him do something. (He does a good job communicating with us even though he isn't saying many words yet)

I'm not sure if Gunner taught him this trick but they like to hold hands and walk around the house.

Wrestling

What happens when you get five boys together? They wrestle.

Brody is on top of Colt in this picture. (Notice the two lazy moms in the background just watching)

Gunner sitting on Colt. (This is a pretty common occurrence and usually Colt doesn't mind at first)

More wrestling with the littlest guy (Colt) on the bottom of the pile.

Yes, that's Brody looking like he is about to hit Gunner. (Not sure if he actually did)

Yep! That looks like Colt is about to bite Gunner's backside. (If he did Gunner didn't feel it)

I think I'm doing a pretty good job teaching my boys to fend for themselves. :)