The Great Buzzigi

If you can all remember back to Halloween, when we could not get Joey to wear his costume at all--suddenly, now, he loves to wear costumes and even makes up his own combination of things from the costume bin. Here he is wearing the Luigi costume and the Buzz Lightyear wings, so we called him the Great Buzzigi.


We are currently working on potty training with him--my very least favorite parenting task!!! After one week, he pretty much always does his pee-pee in the potty (or at least in a pull-up during nap). He is even staying dry at night and he woke up the middle of the night last night to go potty. (Which is better than his older brothers often do.) However, he has yet to poop in the potty once. We even have a Thomas toy that he really wants sitting up high in the kitchen and we talk about it all the time and tell him as soon as he poops in the potty he can get it down. Still won't. Oh well, I know it will happen sometime--just hope it is soon!!!

Eleven Months Old and Walking!

Janalynn turned eleven months old a couple of weeks ago and she is walking! She has been standing herself up in the middle of the floor for the past month or so, but she didn't really start taking many steps until a couple of weeks ago. I finally got a picture of her standing up in the middle of the floor.


A couple of days after she turned eleven months old, she was starting to take some steps, so I got my little Flip video out to film her and she stopped (of course). Then I set it down and she picked it up and started walking all around. Since she was holding the video camera, I couldn't film her walking. It was very frustrating! I did get a couple of cute pictures of her that day before church in the cute tennis dress that Ashley sent her.

A couple of days later, I finally got a video of her walking. (Her back is turned because if she saw me she would start crawling and try to grab the camera.)

As of today, she is really walking a lot and she is climbing the stairs and climbing up on the futon in the playroom. Here is the evidence.

She is really excited to be keeping up with her brothers and I'm sure she will keep learning more skills so she can. We can't believe she will be one in a couple of weeks! (By the way, her hair is all crazy in these videos because it is right before bedtime and I just took out her little Cindy Lou Who pigtail on the top of her head.)

Most Improved Player

Jake is playing soccer again this season. Last season it was almost like pulling teeth to get him to try hard at practices or the games. However, this season, something clicked and he is definitely the most improved player. Here are a few good moves from his last game. (I couldn't get Blogger to upload one of the videos--that is why there are two formats.)

Spring Break Fun

Grandma was here for a short visit at the very beginning of Spring Break. She was on her way home from Florida and figured she might as well stop in Texas on her way back. The first night and day she was here were mostly spent getting ready for and having Joey's birthday party, and then recovering, but then we did a few fun things. Saturday night, Grandma and I went shopping for some fabric (sans kids, so that was enjoyable). Sunday afternoon after church and dinner, we went on a family bike ride/walk in the nice weather. Monday morning we ran a few errands, then had some Mighty Fine for lunch and the kids were able to play at the playground. Then we made a quick trip to IKEA before rushing home to get Joey a nap and Grandma a little bit of sewing time before we had to take her to the airport. For some reason, I didn't get any pictures of this, but it was still fun.

Wednesday evening, Jim took Jake and J.D. to the Carnival in the parking lot of the baseball stadium near our house. We have seen this carnival come to town a couple times a year ever since we have lived here and the boys always beg to go and we never take them. When we saw it with Grandma, she looked up the times to see if she could take them while she was here. Unfortunately, it didn't open until her flight was leaving, so she couldn't take them, but we promised them that Jim would take them. They had tons of fun riding the rides and eating carnival food. (We made the decision that Janalynn and Joey would not enjoy it and neither would the rest of us if we took them.) Since I wasn't there, I had to ask J.D. what was going on in these pictures, so the commentary is from him (and some from what Jim told me).

Here are the boys riding a helicopter ride.


There were a few big slides that the boys enjoyed going down.


This maze was made out of clear plexiglass and Jake got lost a few times and the carnival worker had to help him get out.


The boys loved riding in these little cars. Jake picked this one because yellow is his favorite color.

Here is one of the many little roller coasters they rode.


They spent a fun four hours having great dad-son time and came home tired. Jake fell asleep on the couch when they had only been home for about 10 minutes.

The next day our nanny, Marlina, braved the bad traffic downtown and took the boys to the Children's Museum. Again, since I wasn't there, J.D. had to tell me what the pictures mean. Here he was building with things on a pegboard.


Joey was having fun playing with gears and turning them.


Give my boys trucks and sand and they will be entertained for hours.


Here the boys were sorting construction pieces and wearing hardhats. (J.D. actually gave me a much more detailed explanation, but I'm too tired to type it all.)


Joey enjoyed building with blocks.


Finally, the thing the boys enjoyed the most was playing with the train table--something they could easily just do at home. Oh well!


Friday afternoon, we played outside with our neighbors for a while. These three boys had a great time on the trampoline.

Joey and Grace were loving the sand and rocks.

I ended Spring Break with a fun girls' night on Friday and Jim had a guys' night the next night. We worked on some projects inside on Saturday since it poured rain and was really cold. We were glad to have a whole week to adjust to Daylight Savings Time, and still weren't really ready for school to start again, but we made it!

Joey Turns 3!

Grandma arrived for a visit the day after Joey's birthday, so we planned his party for the next day so she would be here to help (and help celebrate). He had a Thomas themed party just like Jake so we were able to reuse ideas (and do a few new things). Here is the cake. I think this one turned out a little better than Jake's.


Instead of goodie bags, we gave out water bottles with train stickers. (Thanks to Chatty Walls for the vinyl stickers.) The bottles had a few small toys and some candy inside.


Since we had to work around Jake's soccer game, the party started at 11:30 a.m. When the kids arrived we let them play outside for a while in the nice weather, then we served a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, fruit, and veggies. We made some trains out of tootsie rolls and lifesavers again. (I didn't get any good pictures of that.) Here are Joey and his friends eating lunch.

After the kids made their trains and played a little more, we sang Happy Birthday and let Joey blow out his candles, then served cake and ice cream.


Finally, Joey opened his presents. He got some Thomas Legos, a Knapford Station Thomas set, a Thomas flashlight, a Diego game, a storage bin for his room, a vinyl train track and train for his bedroom wall, and some coloring books and activity books.

He had a great time and after the party, we all took a nap (except Jake and J.D.).