So Much Fun!

Eli, Luke and Zach with Great-Grandma Jean

Eli, Luke and Zach cracking up!

It's football season! Zach, Eli and Luke

The Amigos have been having some fun lately! We have been so busy - still I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in a while! I'll be better once everything settles down (I know - that will be in about 25 years, right?) I have tried to make up for it by putting in lots of pictures!

We had an awesome visit from my sister, Nadine, her daughter Katie, and my Gram, Jean. They stayed for a whole week and it was just so cool to get to share the boys with them. This is something that has been a little tough since the boys have been here - being so far from so many special people. But we always have lots of visitors, which is fun! John's Mom and Step dad also came to visit. We're so lucky!

Nadine swimming with Zach and Eli

Katie with Luke and Zach before bath time

They boys were just laughing!

Our friend Staci also came to visit - we know her Mom will love this shot!

The boys also had their first political experience. They went to the Primary election for Arizona on August 22. I didn't influence them at all - they are free-minded little citizens! But since they didn't earn the vote yet, I just voted for all of us!

John and I finally got the front room baby proofed, now that the boys are motoring around like crazy! We have that room in such good shape, the boys only almost kill themselves about once a day. No, they're getting very steady on their feet, but we have at least one bonked head a day usually - thank goodness for helmets!

The boys are helping Daddy baby proof

Eli is quality-checking Daddy's work

Luke wakes up smiling every time- I wish!

Eli and Zach just hangin' at the cribs

(If you look closely, you can see Eli's first act of vandalism -

he started to pull the border down from the wall!)

I have about 100 stories to share so I will be blogging more soon! Have a great day!

What are "Things that are already gone?"

The Jeopardy answer to the following list of things that I was just thinking about. As I watch the three amigos crawling around (they're all crawling like crazy - so cute!) I started to think about the things they're already done with.

The real reason this came up is because Sunday the boys had their first real graduation! They graduated from the Infants room at church to the Crawlers room. (I used to count graduating to a new size diapers, but that doesn't take much skill). So because they can all motor around - and possibly hurt other not-so-mobile babies - they move up to the Crawler room. They're going to be the little fishes in the bigger pond!

So here are a few things that they are forever done with (hopefully!):

1. Binkies - these were gone way earlier than I thought they would be. Probably around 4-5 months, the boys started losing interest one by one, pretty closely together though. There was a brief period of intense thumb sucking, but that seems to be slowing down as well. Tough little cookies!

Luke, Eli and Zach - four weeks old

2. Swaddling - This too was done around month 4, but we were sad to see it go. Swaddling was so comforting for the babies, and John was really good at it so that was his thing. We had to stop because the boys - first Zach - were busting out on their own at night. We could have got bigger blankets but then thought - where do you stop? Do you buy quilts to swaddle your 7 year old? So we let it go. Weren't they cute though?

Luke, Eli and Zach - 1 week old

3. Late night feedings - Done for months now - probably at 6 months the boys were sleeping through most of the night - we might have been doing 5:30 am feedings then. Now the boys sleep from 7:30 pm to 7 am with relatively few issues. I say relatively, because with three of them, it can seem like a lot. Probably 2-3 nights a week we have issues in the evening, but rarely late at night. It's not bad though - one-on-one cuddle time!

Luke, Zach and Eli holding their own bottles

4. Me saying "Help! They don't do anything" - I'm sure I drove a few people over the edge with my incessant worry about the kids when they were first born. Looking back, I realize how crazy that was, and I've been trying to make up for it by being fairly normal on the worry scale. Especially now when I can see them moving around and doing all kinds of cool things, I can sit back a little and say, "See? They're each so awesome in entirely different ways! Where did all that worry get me?" I need to have faith in God that although the way this life leads may not always be smooth, He will get us over any terrain. We're so blessed!



Eli and Luke romping around


Zach and Eli in their "Thing" shirts

So, I have to get my emotions under control because the boys are only 9 months old, and if I can't handle their first graduation with poise, how will we all survive the next 25 years?! I'm proud to say I didn't even sniffle at church when the lady said they were graduating - until she gave me the little card to put in their baby books. That almost brought on the flood! Hope you enjoy the new (and old) pictures!

9 months - wow!

We love to "Stand up tall"! Eli, Zach and Luke

I have been thinking of things to put in the blog now for a couple of weeks, but I never seem to get around to it! So here it is, might not be great but there's so much going on that I really want to share. I really appreciate this blog, because it gives me a place to tell you all what's happening with the boys, in a much different way than just chatting on the phone - which I do quite a bit of. It's also special to think that when someone on the other side of the country sees a cute picture of the boys and smiles, they get to see a little bit of the special world that is going on around here!

The boys just turned 9 months old on Friday, and they're so much different than they were! They are so much more independent from me and different from each other, it's just really cute to watch. Here's what's going on with each guy...

Luke

Luke is such a special little baby. He is as he has been since he was born, quietly observant. He's a sweet happy boy, but not exuberantly. He started crawling this weekend! It was such a cute process to watch him figure it out - what an amazing blessing that John and I were both there and watched him first begin to be mobile! Even when he's crawling, he has a patience about him as he goes from toy to toy. He should be done with his helmet in a couple of weeks. Then I hope he'll quickly learn (not too painfully) that it feels different to ram into something when you're not wearing your gear! He's done so well, and his head looks great!

Luke just starting to crawl

Eli

Well, Eli is a little crazy child! He's so fiery! He's not crawling yet, but he's climbing! He lunges at something (me, lots of times) and then just climbs and squirms up whatever it is he's climbing. He pulls himself up on almost anything. He's having trouble conquering the couch - no hand-holds. Other than that, he has 6 big teeth - four across the top and two on bottom. He looks like he has a headful of choppers, but not quite! Teething fun is nowhere near over, I'm afraid.

He just got his helmet a little over a week ago. He has always liked to sleep on his back and the result was a big flat back of the head. The helmet will help his skull to grow out, and he'll probably have to wear it about 5 months. I totally underestimated him though! What a lesson! I thought he would have a really hard time adjusting, because it takes him some time to get used to new things. Not so with the helmet! He has had no problems at all with it - you never can tell!

One of our favorite toys! The wipe box!

Zach

Zach is a little lover baby. He loves hugs and gives big, wet, open-mouthed kisses that would make Scarlet O'Hara blush! At first I thought he was trying to bite my face, since he approached without any malice, the way he approaches everything that he wants to chew on. But one time he got close and didn't bite - it was so sweet! He's a chubby little dude and when you tickle him he rolls up into a little ball of baby. He's very content, so I have to be careful not to let him just while the day away, although that's not always a bad idea! He's making some crawling motions, but not a lot yet. Again, he's pretty much content where he is, playing with whatever he has. He also just stares at people - people at Wal-Mart just love that. (I'll have to write a whole blog later about our Wal-Mart experiences). He has two upper teeth two lower teeth. I think there's a distinct space between his top teeth, which is super-cute! Hopefully I'll be able to get some smiley-teeth pictures - very elusive!

Zach and Mama

I could write forever, but time is short and I want to give a shout out to my big man, John. I spend a lot of time talking about the little ones, but today is a special day for us - our eighth anniversary! It's amazing how fast those years have gone by, but it's still so exciting to see what each new year will bring. This one obviously has been a year of change, but like most other things we've gone through as a couple, we have become stronger through the first 9 months of our boys' lives. I'm blessed over and over again, but especially with John.

Here are some action photos - more to come soon!

Zach and Eli learning to play ball with Dad

Zach had been trying to eat Luke's foot - so laid-back!

Luke and Eli checkin' out each others' head gear!