Boy oh BOYS! We have been busy! Every month I say that I am going to try and blog as the month goes so that it is easier to keep up but it just doesn't happen. We have celebrated more birthdays: Gran, Gidian and Keegan turned 5, and Oma! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family in your lives!
First I'll start with these two cuties...your cousins Addyson and Easton turned 4 and 1 in the last couple months and I was lucky enough to get to take their birthday pictures...here are a few of my favorite ones!
Things that have not changed- you still do not sleep at night...and this is so much fun. Not at all! We would love for this to change ASAP! Daddy takes a lot of the night duty since I have most of the day duty but it's still not fun for any one! We just don't understand what's keeping you from being good sleepers. We are stumped and frustrated. As far as biggest changes in our household... Leo and Liam, you have started eating solids AND you are officially sitting up! You both have ROCKED both of these things! We were a little worried about the eating for the first few feedings but you quickly got the hang of it! For your first meal you had brown rice cereal mixed with breast milk and then shortly after we added veggies. Momma has been making your food this time around.
The evidence of this food making process is in this picture below. I have since gotten the hang of it and am not nearly as messy! I have made you boys sweet potatoes, peas, avocados, squash, and applesauce. You have liked everything BUT the applesauce...which is the opposite of what I thought would happen. You LOVE LOVE LOVE the avocado. You are NOT your momma's boys...definitely your daddy's...or if it was possible, you may have some of your Aunt Gaby's blood in you! Typically I mix the veggies in with the brown rice, oatmeal or barley cereal and breast milk and you eat it that way. We started with just an evening feeding but have moved up to lunch and dinner. Leo, you are a more VOCAL eater, but Liam, you actually do a better job at the eating part ;)
At the beginning of the month you were still sitting up with help (notice my feet propped up behind you as you play the piano) but as the month went on you did better and better! Now you both are pros!
Cooler weather meant we had to start bundling you up to go outside (this has been a pain!) but it's worth the outside time that we all love!
At the beginning of the month, Aunt Crystal made a visit to AR so we went down to Ft. Smith and saw her at Nana and Pawpaw's. It was so good to see her...wish Uncle Ian was there too!
In the middle of the month we celebrated Gidian and Keegan's 5th birthday...I cannot even believe they are 5! It seems like I was just holding them when they were born. But they are and we went to PARTY! Eli you had fun at the jump house and brothers you came later and ended up being quite the entertainment for everyone! We had fun celebrating 2 special boys' lives!
Eli, you had fun making your hair crazy with this air thing!
Eli, you loved the party- you have really started to enjoy bounce arounds this last year so this was right up your alley. Leo and Liam, you were the entertainment once all the kids were tired of jumping...they were fighting over who got to hold you (especially Lauren and Grace)!
After G&K's birthday we headed to Charleston for Gran's birthday dinner...we tried to get a "all grandkids and gran" picture but momma and Uncle Josh ended up having to help a little!
Another exciting thing was your first (and third) Halloween. Eli, it was especially fun with you this year because you finally could really understand the concept and get into trick-or-treating and have been really consumed with ghosts lately (and monsters and witches and wolves...)! Eli you were our football player and brothers were your footballs. Momma saw this idea on Pinterest and it didn't take much convincing you to be a football player (you like all things sports)!
Eli, this is what I've been getting lately when I ask to take your picture! So, when you complain YEARS down the road about all of these pictures of brothers, it's because you wouldn't cooperate!
The Saturday before Halloween we went to the Fayetteville library to hear Brian Kinder's new Spooky songs CD. All 3 boys loved the music...but Eli wasn't a fan of the new spooky songs. I asked you about 10 times if you wanted the Spooky Songs CD and you said NO every time. But you loved all your favorites that he sang and had fun with Megan!
This is at your school, Eli. Instead of doing a Halloween party in each class, you got to dress up for the whole school day and at the beginning, we all got to come and watch you and your classmates have a Goblin Parade! It was so cute....brothers wanted to dress the part too!
You were so sweet in your class line and did such a good job of staying in the line and not wanting to come to momma and daddy like some kids. We are amazed at how grown-up you act some times!
On Halloween we went to the library story time where the read stories about monsters and Halloween and we trick-or-treated there too! It was fun!
This was trick-or-treating downtown in Rogers...
We met the Dooly's down there (Josh, Kate, John and Marianne)
By the time we got home you all did not want to cooperate for a picture opp with the jack-o-lanter...didn't momma do a good job with it? Eli, you "helped"...you were so excited to do it. You picked out the face from a group of examples and then started to help me and then about 5 seconds into it you were distracted and didn't come back until I was finished! Oh well! Maybe next year it will be a family experience!
The football player and Princess Unicorn (your best friend Megan, next door)
Our trick-or-treating crew!
This was my view of the trick-or-treating!
The football player was TIRED!
So these next pictures are ones I could NOT resist. This is another Pinterest idea (you can probably thank this website for every annoying picture/craft/trip I make you boys do growing up) but look how adorably you both are! I only wish I could've crammed Eli into that pumpkin too! Or figured out a way to put you in there together! haha!
And of course your 7 month shots...just like with Eli, these are getting harder and harder to do because a.) you are more aware of each other, b.) more aware of the sign and c.) more mobile and these all equal less cooperative!
The rest of these are just random pictures from the month taken on my phone...so glad I have a better phone this time around because I can snap pictures of EVERYTHING!
Liam, we have got you sleeping like this a few times...
Liam, you are wearing Megan's hat (pink) because it had gotten cold and we hadn't gotten you hats yet!
This one makes me laugh because you ate like this for the whole bottle- your legs straight up in the air- dead still!
Painting pumpkins!...somehow turned into painting Ms. Allison's rocks too!
We had a small tornado in Rogers and luckily the only damage we had was that we lost three trees. Nothing hit our house or the neighbors (praise God)! But we had fun with the debris...Eli you got a limb guitar and stump drum out of the deal and we had a morning's worth of entertainment with the city came and dealt with the debris! Leo and Liam, you watched from the doorway after your nap!
My view at church one Sunday!
Eli, you were able to do the most amazing thing with Oma, Pop, Gidian and Keegan...you got to see the Fresh Beat Band LIVE! You loved it!!!! And you still tell us about it and do rock concerts for us!
Sadly, another first this month was Liam, you had your first ear infection. You had one in both ears and had a pretty high fever with it! I felt so bad because we thought it was just teething and let it go on too long before we took you to the doctor. This picture was one of the nights you were just hurting too bad to sleep! It broke my heart to see you so sad!
Leo, you love to stand with help... it's one of your favorites!
Daddy officiated a wedding (that momma had done the pre-marital counseling for) so we both had a date night out while Gran and Grandad kept you boys!
And this quote sums up motherhood...so remember this boys!
This month really has been a whirlwind of things. Time always seems like a constant battle between going too fast and dragging. But when I sit down like this and see how much you've changed and the things you have mastered in one month, I realize how quickly life goes! Eli, we are experiencing the battle of wills with you and there are days when I wonder where my sweet boy has gone but you always give me moments of "that's him!". You are getting so big, so smart, so adventurous, so kind, so loving (especially towards your brothers) but at the same time so defiant, strong-willed and temperamental! I think we are doing an effective job of handling it in stride and dealing with it so they do not become permanent issues but you are really testing our endurance! I know that this is just you growing up and into your own so I hope that we are allowing and helping you to be what God has intended. Every day I day dream about what you will do/become...the world is at your fingertips! You ARE a rockstar! You absolutely CAN do anything and everything and that amazes me. I hope you never loose your spirit. The other day we went to Walgreens and you wanted to wear your top hat and you said that you hoped no one would laugh at you (this didn't stop you from wearing it) but it still broke my heart a little that you are aware of others and what they think! I hope you can always do it any way even though you think you know what people might say or think- just BE YOU! Because you are incredible! Leo and Liam, it's so neat to see how you continue to set yourselves apart from one another- you look totally different- but you also have totally different personalities and cannot wait to see how these unfold in the coming months. I hope that you learn from your big brother that it's cool to be different and it's even cooler to just be you. I love all three of you a bushel and a peck (as Great-Nana always says) and million times more than that!
Love, Momma
