Three Guys on the Couch

Just a few random pics of my guys bonding on the couch. I never get tired of watching how they interact. I pray they will always be as close as they are right now.

O loves his daily snuggle with Jonah. At some point pretty much every day, he will stop what he is doing and ask to hold Jones. O whispers sweet baby words to him and Jonah coos right back. One of O's favorite things to do while holding Jonah is to imitate his many baby faces.

If Nosy is anywhere near Jonah, you can guarantee he is touching one of Jonah's body parts. Whether it's squeazing his tiny foot, holding his baby hand, stroking his fuzzy head or patting him on the bottom, Noah can't keep his hands off his baby. Noah shows his affection through physical touch and this baby is loved A LOT! We do have to focus on loving gently...

When did his baby feet grow so huge???????

Shy grin from a silly Boy

LOVE them!

Spelling

Owen, this is your first ever spelling pre-test, recorded forever. Look at how great you did! You had never written most of these words before. I am so proud of you, Son! And I love how excited you got every time you got a word exactly right. You are a joy to teach.

First Day of School

Here are my big boys, so excited to start pre-K and first grade. They could hardly wait!

I feel so overwhelmingly blessed to have them home with me for another year. Not only am I really excited about our curriculum and what all we are learning, but also I simply love being around my kids. It's going to be a great year of deepening our love for the Lord, working on good character, building deeper sibling relationships and practicing respecting each other.

This is what our school desk (AKA kitchen table) looks like. Jonesy cooed happily away while we worked on making passports for our people of the world class.

Our passports were very fancy, complete with glitter glue. O drew some pretty cool stamps inside of his of places he would like to visit one day.

Nosy's passport took days to dry! Check out that pile of glitter glue!

Owen with his first reader.

These are my books for the year. Pretty intimidating! I can't believe we are going to cover all that material in only one year! It is taking me about two hours each evening to prepare for the next day. These books include the schedule and lesson plans I am to follow. Any fun games or crafts (the kids' favorite part of the day) I come up with in addition to the material provided. Hopefully, as I get more familiar with the curriculum, I will be able to prepare in less time.

Our first day went great and was loads of fun! I had one-on-one time to teach Nosy; we read aloud while I nursed Jones; we crafted and played a spelling game and even had a great volleyball match for PE class. The only down-side: we were at it for six hours! We enjoyed it all, but it took forever. Hopefully we will get faster as time goes by!

Play Ball

The most anticipated softball game of the season:

the two teams from church played against each other. The Boys could hardly wait! There was much cheering, whooping and hollering and good natured teasing going on. We all had a blast!

Looking way too grown up!

Nosy rarely leaves the fence during the games. He analyzes every play.

Surprise! Papa showed up to root for Joel and Jeremy. Owen ran up to Papa and said, "This game is even more extra-special by-cuz you are here." So sweet.


We were up WAY too late considering we were starting school the next day, but we all had so much fun. I think the kids will remember this night for a long, long time.

Back to School Celebration Day

I LOVE back to school time! Just the smell of brand new crayons gets my juices flowing. I guess my excitement is contagious because both Boys are raring to go as well. I had not planned on starting school until after Labor Day, but O and Nosy have been begging to get going ever since our huge box o' books arrived in the mail. How can I resist? We moved the first day up to this Monday which means the weekend is for celebrating!

How do we celebrate going back to school? With some great food, of course. We ate delicious burgers and dogs at Mooya, and then moseyed over to the nearby frozen yogurt joint. They even have a sugar free version that is just right for Nosy.

Now for a little outdoor fun.

In case you don't remember, Jeremy is a sucker for man-sized mazes. This one was more boy-sized, but it was fun all the same.

All aboard!

Next we needed to cool off a little. These fountain parks are all the rage these days. The Boys love to splash and play in them. The fountains are set to music, and at night, this one lights up!

It brings me such deep-down, soul-satisfying, pure JOY to watch my kids have so much fun. The ear-to-ear grins they sport, the giggles and belly laughs that they let loose, the twinkles in their eyes. I can't help but grin and giggle myself watching them. At one point, Jeremy looked over at me nursing Jones. "Is this what being a mom is like? Is this what you do on a play date?" "Pretty much," I told him. "That's cool. It's much more fun than I thought it would be." He basically summed my life up: It is so much more fun, more fulfilling, more filled with joy than I ever could have imagined. I am so blessed.

Peaceful naps after a great day.

Thirsty Much??

Every time I turned around, this Guy was sipping from the fountains. Incredibly gross if you ask me! He is always thinking of others though, and especially his baby brother. One time he came over to us with a mouthful of cool water. "For Gones," he proudly told me after I had made him spit it out. "Gonah might be thirsty too! I can give him one of my drinks."

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Handsome guy in the tub.

Conversing

I just love it that each of the Big Boys pauses often in their play to chit chat with Jones. And every time they get a smile or a tiny coo, they come running to tell me every detail with such excitement. Just today Nosy said, "Mommymommymommy, Jonesy made five noises just like 'aa-oooh.' FIVE times, Mommy! He talked to me!" Sweet O keeps track of exactly how many grins he coaxes from Jonah each day. I worried that they would eventually get tired of a tiny Brother that doesn't do much, but they seem to love him more all the time.

Precious smiles for Owie

Chatting with Nosy

Sweet Jones, 11 weeks old

UGH!!

It feels like I am generations behind on my blog, drowning in pictures and darling stories and baby updates. But my computer crashed and I fear it will never be the same. Praise the Lord all my pictures were backed up, but I can't access them as of now. And my crazy-frustrating computer has not been saving the pictures I have loaded (like the millions of vacay pics I took). So here's the plan: I will start at present day and hopefully catch up one year. I will post when I have back-blogged for those of you not using Google Reader.

Mall Rats

That is what we become when our outdoor-fun playdate of splashing gets cancelled due to faulty fountains.

As you can see, it's a tough life!

:-)

Happy Monday!

It's a blueberry pancake kind of day!

2 Months: Turn on the Charm!

11 pounds, 8 ounces (50%)

24 1/2 inches (90%)

 

Jonah, the past two months have just flown by. You are already growing and changing so much. I am trying so very hard to store all these precious moments away in my heart forever. The days are going by way too fast, and soon you will be big.

I love tucking you in my bed for your morning nap. I imagine it smells like me and you get such peaceful rest there.

Look who else just can't get enough of you, Tiny Boy. These Guys are head over heals for you. They can't wait for you to grow big enough to wrestle with them. In the meantime, they love to sing to you, chit chat with you, tell you stories, hold you on their laps, and pat your sweet baby head.

You are still super laid back and easy-going. You sleep well and eat great. You rarely get upset, even when you are hungry. Car rides are not your fave, but we can deal with that.

You are trying so hard to communicate with us. Your tiny mouth gets to working (You make such funny faces!) and your arms flap and your legs pump. So far, no smiles or coos though. I know they are right around the corner and I can't wait! I absolutely love your newborness, but I can't wait to get to know you more.

You woke up on the very morning of your two month birthday and gave me this! An enormous grin. And coos and smiles and squeals. We chatted for about 15 minutes before you got sleepy. It is as if your switch turned on and all of a sudden you can smile and vocalize. How charming you are, Tweedle Dee. I love every single ounce of you!

1 Month: No Free Will

Here you are at one month old, Little Man. How is it that 4 whole weeks have already flown by?? You still seem so brand new, and yet I can not imagine life without you in it. Daddy said the other day, "How could we ever live without Jones?" and I completely agree. I am still in awe that you are actually mine.

I ran by the pedi's office today to make sure you are growing just right. You weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces, Big Boy.

You haven't yet grown into your Halpin feet though! They still look like skis.

Oh, just look at your perfect, precious body...so long and lean. You are laid back and content and peaceful and rarely cry. You have short periods of quiet, awake time between long periods of good, solid sleep. When you are wide-eyed and gazing around, I try to drop everything to spend some sweet time chatting with you. You just look and blink and look and blink with your gorgeous, big blue eyes, taking it all in.

You are so attached to that silly, ugly, enormous green mimi! Funny Boy!

I actually look forward to getting up with you in the middle of the night, the only time when it is just us two. While you nurse, you keep your eyes closed and get down to business, but afterwards, you wake up for just a few precious minutes. I whisper sweet nothings to you and praise God again and again that He saw fit to bless us with you, Jonah. You are such an indescribable gift. We sing and rock and then I snuggle you back into your bassinet for a few more hours of sleep.

So what's with the no free will? Your Brothers, who are crazy about you, have spent the past month making all your major life decisions for you. Your favorite color is red. Your favorite song? "Go Tell it on the Mountain." Sport: football, of course! Your favorite food is milk, since your options are limited. Favorite toy is the brightly colored octopussy from Aunt Katy. It's a good thing you are laid back, Little Fella', and tend to go with the flow!

Love,love you.