Happy Half with Gramps and Yaya

Because I can not drive yet, we celebrated Nose's happy half birthday at our house this year.

We started off by mixing up some cupcakes. Nosy got to pick any cake mix he wanted off the Walmart shelf. After much deliberation, he chose Funfetti cake with (you guessed it) Funfetti icing. That Boy loves him some sprinkles!

So big! I think he could totally make the cupcakes himself from start to finish!

Showing off his culinary skills to Yaya.

Whoo-hoo! A new high-flying football! Yaya knows the way to this Boy's heart, for sure!

Half Birthday squeezes from Gramps.

Happy Halfs are such a fun tradition to observe with Gramps and Yaya. We can't celebrate my wonderful Sons enough!

Noah Cole: 3 1/2

Stats:

40 inches

40 pounds

One word pretty much sums you up these days, Nosy:
PASSIONATE.

Whether it be about sports, Mario Cart Wii, chicken nuggets, wearing your beloved "coccer corts" (soccer shorts), your little brother or standing your ground in a battle against Mommy, you are all in all the time. There is no doing it half way!

This is the precious face I see 99% of the time. What a happy, loving Guy we have been blessed with! You are witty, encouraging, funny, cheerful, smart, and thoughtful. You love to learn new things and use such great manners. I have never been hugged and kissed as thoroughly as I am by you. You are a cuddle bug and love to squeeze the tar out of the people you love the most. Oh how I store up those precious hugs and kisses!

You are such a silly Boy, making up songs and knock knock jokes all day long. You love to make us laugh. Speaking of laughter, yours is infectious! Hearing your funny giggle makes me smile from the inside out.


You are such a great helper around the house and are always willing to assist me when asked. What really makes me happy is that you are starting to recognize ways you can help on your own without being asked. You are growing up and thinking of other people.

Very rarely do you throw a fit, but when you do, it is a doozy. The first thing you do is strip completely naked (Thankfully fits have not happened in a public place lately!) while screaming at ear-piercing levels. I place you in your room to stay until you can stop crying. Usually you scream and cry and rage for about 20 minutes, after which you come bouncing out of your room smiling from ear to ear. "Corry (sorry), Mommy! I feel all better now!" you cheerfully say and rush over to hug my neck. You are such a toot, Nose! How can I help but melt?

You adore this tiny guy! Your love for him is such a precious thing. I will devote a whole post to it soon, but let it be said now that watching you love your baby bro brings me such immense joy.

My passionate Son, I can't wait to watch how God uses your enthusiasm and your sold out attitude to further His kingdom. I have faith that He will use your life to accomplish great things. I pray that the Lord will use me to shape your strong will and your huge heart into a man that follows and serves Christ with passion. May I be a faithful steward of what has been entrusted to me.

You bring me immeasurable joy, Kiddo. God has blessed me beyond measure with you. I could not love you more! Happy Half Birthday, Nosy.

Celebrating Gramps

Next stop:

The Cody House for more sunny fun.

There was a lot of snuggling Jonesy...

...discussions about water sports...

...races...

...and loving on Gramps.

What memories of my childhood this picture stirs up! Dad used to feed Caroline and me watermelon just like this when we were little. We'd hover around him in his chair and he'd scoop out big red circles of the very juiciest parts just for us. How special it is that my Boys will now treasure this memory with Grampsy too.

We had a great time celebrating another godly man in our lives. How very blessed we are to have Gramps influencing our Boys as they grow up.

Celebrating Papa

We celebrated Father's Day with two great pool parties. The first was at the Big Halpin's house with Joel and Erica and fam. There is never a dull moment when we get all six little boys plus the two that never seem to grow up (I so love that about my husband!) together. Have I mentioned lately how much I love BOYS?!

There is always quite a bit of wrestling going on.

Ride 'em, O!

Clayton conquered the shark.

Beautiful Erica and Ollie P

Nosy got lots of rides with Gigi

The Biggest Guys

(the two tinies were sweetly napping inside)

Water races

What fun we had and how blessed we are to have godly men in the leadership positions in our family. Our Boys have such great role models in Papa and Jeremy and Joel.

Father's Day 2010

My cup runneth over...

How is it that I am so blessed to be surrounded by my four very favorite people?

Mimi Love

Mimi's snuggles are extra special!

T-ball

Look who gets to go cheer the Little Sox on to victory! Owen and Noah's tiniest fan at 10 days old.

Gifts for Jonesy

Before we ever met Jonesy, we were getting ready for him. Each Big Brother carefully selected a welcoming gift for the baby, a gift that they were convinced Jonah would absolutely love. How my heart over-flowed with joy as I watched the Boys think and think about what Jonah would really like. They each chose gifts that were so representative of themselves and of their excitement to meet him.

Here they are presenting their super special presents to Jonesy.

While in Carter's one day, we found an exact miniature replica of Nosy's very favorite "coccer cirt" ever. I knew there were teeny tiny soccer shorts in the hand-me-down bin at home. Thus was born Noah's gift to Jonah. A perfect soccer outfit for a perfect new brother. Can you see Noah's extreme excitement at presenting his gift to Jonesy? Noah's most prized possessions are his "coccer cirts" and he wanted the baby to be able to have beloved soccer clothes too. Plus, he couldn't wait for them to be able to dress the same.

Owen and I had a date to Buy Buy Baby to pick out the perfect gift. At first it was really fun, wandering up and down all the aisles, discussing gift ideas, trying out all the toys. After about an hour of indecisiveness though, I was struggling to exercise patience. I had to keep reminding myself that Owen's pickiness was due to the fact that he wanted to pick out the exact perfect thing that Jonah would love. It really was sweet how thorough O was. In the end, Owen did find the exact perfect gift, and O's reasoning behind it and his joy in giving the gift made the endless hunting more than worth it!

A Leap Frog drum! This is why Owen picked this special gift: "I love to play the drums! And I love to play band with the whole family. Now Jonah can learn drumming from me and be in our band too. He has a drum just his size to play with me."

Oh, my precious, precious Boys. The gifts they chose say so much about their hearts.

Dunking Our Stinkaroo

Yay! Tiny Jonah was finally able to have a real bath. O and Nosy were especially excited to be Mommy's helpers. They were quite confused as to why I wrapped Jonah up in a blanket to put him in the tub. I explained to them how it made Jonah feel so safe to be wrapped up tightly in the water, just like he was in my tummy. It brings me such joy to give this tiny guy the full spa treatment, lotion massage and all.

Jonah loved his bath. He grew completely quiet and still in the water and looked around with such bright eyes.

Those toes get a zillion kisses a day. Yum!

After bath, it was snuggle time with Big Brothers.

I still can not believe how incredibly richly the Lord has blessed me. I have the most amazing boys. I can't believe they are mine. I am so undeserving...

Getting Jonah's hair just right. There has been great debate between Owen and Noah about whether Jonah's hair will be straight or curly. I think Owie was trying to force some curls here.

I am so thankful Jonah loves bath time, especially since this Mommy loves a fresh, sweet-smelling baby. It relaxes me watching him relax and enjoy his baths.

Dubbed

The little Guy has been nick-named. You didn't think he'd escape did you? Not a chance in our family! We view nick-names as terms of endearment and use them freely. Jonah is referred to as "Jonesy" about 90% of the time by those who love him best. Hey, it could be worse!

Nosy's Super Special Show Day

Noah was a little less enthusiastic about swimming lessons. He cried pretty much every day when he was dropped off, but after the lesson, he would go on and on about how much he learned, how much he loved HawHaw and how he could. not. wait for his next lesson. Silly Boy!

On Show Day, he had to give us a little taste of his waterworks before he could perform at his best. HawHaw was never-endingly patient with his initial crankiness.

Starting to feel a little bit better...

Totally over his sadness and swimming on his very own. Way to go, Nosy! He was so proud to show us his tricks. Jeremy and I were amazed at his progress.

I'm afraid Noah inherited Daddy's sink-y genes. He was not fond of the back float.

Noah's favorite part of the lesson. He sweet face just beamed after he successfully went off the diving board.

Noah we are so proud of how brave you are and how much you learned this year, especially how to be away from Mommy and Daddy for a little while.

O's Super Special Show Day

I thought I had it all planned out so well. The Boys were signed up to take swimming lessons very early in the summer, not only so that they would be terrific swimmers all summer long, but also to squeeze them in before Jonah's arrival. Little did I know that Baby Brother would decide to come 2 1/2 weeks before we planned. Many thanks to Jeremy and Gigi who drove the Boys to lessons every day while I was in the hospital or home with a brand new baby.

None of us could miss Super Special Swimming Show Day though! The Amazing Swimmer: Owen

He learned so much this year!

It was so special to have Gigi and Jonah (nine days old) there to watch!

Warming up with Megan (our music minister's amazing wife). O and Nosy loved seeing familiar faces at their lessons every day!

Ready for take off!

This Guy can back float for ever! His record this summer so far is 130 seconds.

Check out that form!

Owie and HawHaw, the best, most patient teacher I have ever encountered.

Owen, we are so proud of our hard-working little swimmer!

Slippin' and Slidin'

Leave it to wonderful DeAnn to think of absolutely everything. Tucked inside her sweet gift to Jonah was something special just for two terrific Big Brothers: a gift card to Walmart. The perfect gift in so many ways. Not only did the Boys have a blast roaming every single aisle of Walmart searching for the prefect item to purchase, but Mommy got some much needed down time while they were gone with Daddy.

What did they come home with, grinning from ear to ear and squealing with excitement?

2 waterguns

2 foam swords

1 super duper slip and slide

Such "man purchases"!

We busted out the slip and slide right away.