Leaves

Are you ready for a million pictures of my kids in leaves? You are? Good, because that's exactly what you're about to get.

So October 18th we took a walk with a couple good friends of mine around the apartments where we live to enjoy the beautiful leaves that were changing. Lance had just gotten home from school, so it was a perfect way to entertain all the boys.

Brothers!

Cole was so pleased when I finally got him out of the stroller and let him crawl around in the leaves.

My three sons:

I think it's funny that they're all holding leaves...

Sarah took my picture with the boys.

I had just gotten back from the gym, so this was the best we could do.

Lance wanted some glamor shots taken of him, too:

And yes, he picked those poses himself.

I love these pictures of Cole. I love that you can see his rosy little cheeks and his sweet disposition.

He really is the happiest baby I know.

Love this tree!

Dance, guys!

Gangnam Style!

Cole couldn't get enough of the leaves. I think this series of pictures is amazing. He just gets more and more excited.

He can't contain his excitement. Love it!

But yeah, leaves aren't as much fun to eat...

I love this picture of Jude.

Whew! Did you make it? You made it. Awesome.

Puppies, Kittens and Hair

Lance has been sad lately. We all have been. Our bestest best friends from next door moved out this month and into a house about 5 miles away. Not very far in the broad scheme of things and we get to see them often, but it's just not the same. The Elmers were an open door 24/7 for all of us, the kids always running between apartments and playing together. We have been so so so.o.o. sad they are no longer 10 feet away whenever we need a friend to talk to, someone to laugh with or trade kids with when we need to run an errand. It's not the same at the park without Melissa and her kiddos, or Aric knocking to talk to George about their misadventures in the hospital. Like I said, we still see them often and we're happy they have found a perfect house for them, but we're still adjusting.

To try and cheer up the boys and take their mind off their missing friends, I took them to the SPCA one afternoon after school to pet some of the animals there. The boys are in love with cats and dogs and beg to have one of their own. Unfortunately, we can't have one while we live in family housing, so we'll have to wait a few years.

They had the sweetest beagle mix puppies. It's probably a very good thing we're not allowed dogs because one of them may very well have made it home with us that day.

The kids were in heaven.

Lance's favorite, though, were the cats. They had several kittens in cages in the hallway (his favorite were the black ones), but I didn't think they wanted us to get them out if we weren't going to adopt, so we made do in the cat suit.

The boys did a great job being gentle, although their enthusiasm was palpable. It'll be fun when we can get a pet of our own. Until then, I guess our fish will have to do.

After the SPCA, the boys got their hair cut. This was only Jude's second time ever, and his first time at a barber. He was pretty excited.

As you can see, it was old hat for Lance. Pro.

Jude did a great job sitting as still as an almost-3-year-old can and walked away with a cute trim.

Lance did a great job! I don't know what I was thinking, but I don't have an after picture. Oh well. They looked good. :)

A couple weekends ago, we spent a couple days up in Ashburn. It was nice because Lance actually got to see the family. He's usually at his dad's house when we're up, so this was a nice change.

Allen with all 5 cousins watching a magic show. Love it!

My mom got the boys Hawaiian outfits from her trip to Hawaii. Jude saw his, wanted to try it on and then refused to take it off. He kept telling me how "handsome" he looked.

What a goof!

Speaking of goof, look at this kid!

He is crazy! Oh Jude.

Cole--8 months old

Cole turned 8 months old on October 8th. Here are a few things about him at this age:

He weighs about 21 lbs and wears size 12 month clothes but has been sporting 18 month clothes lately.

He is always, always happy. Okay, maybe not always, but it is rare for him to be grumpy. He's always smiling and laughing, especially at his older brothers. My favorite is when he's nursing and he looks up at me and starts giggling when we make eye contact. Love it!

He still has trouble sleeping through the night, but usually only gets up once and will go back to sleep with a pat on the back and a "good night".

He has two teeth on the bottom that have come in all the way (they came in when he was 4 months old) and is now getting his four front teeth on the top.

He's starting to wave at people when we say "Hi."

He can crawl everywhere and is pulling himself up to standing. We may have an early walker on our hands! Jude didn't walk until he was about 12 months old, but Lance took off around 9 1/2 months. 

Cole just discovered how fun it is to unroll the toilet paper. If I can't find him, he's probably in the bathroom batting at the roll of paper, watching it all pile up on the floor.

He always wants to be a part of whatever is going on. He's very observant (so much so that he can't eat if anything else is going on) and will follow you around the house. If he's left by himself, he'll get sad and cry until he either finds you or is found by you. He's my little buddy and my constant shadow.

He loves wheels. Anything with wheels is attractive to him and he'll sit there for several minutes spinning the wheels on the skateboard, cars, even Lance's roller blades.

He eats just about anything he can chew, so most soft things. His favorites are pretzels, chocolate chip waffles (a favorite of Lance and Jude as well), and apple sauce. He doesn't care for baby food, so we will usually blend up whatever we're having and feed him that. He drinks out of a sippy cup and does fair if I give him sips out of my open class, but he still won't take a bottle. Stinker.

Cole likes animals, especially dogs. He laughs when he sees them and gets excited if we're reading a book and we come across a picture of a dog and I make the dog noises.

He is such a stinker. I walked in on him and Jude this morning to find this mess all over the family room floor. They had taken a new bag of fishies and dumped them out (Jude's been in this phase where he dumps out everything). Cole was sitting in the middle of the mess--in fishie heaven--just eating as many as he pleased.

Cole tries very hard to talk to you. If you say "Ma ma" or "banana", he'll make the "ba-na-a-ba-ma" babble and then look very pleased with himself. It's so cute. He has a soft voice when he's trying to talk but can get very loud when he's screaming happily with his brothers who are all too happy to encourage him. The only time our house is quiet is at night when all boys are asleep. I often wonder what our neighbors must think of us and the ruckus that is our daily life.

I really cannot get enough of this precious little boy. He is truly a joy to have in our family. He gets compliments wherever he goes and smiles at everyone he meets. I just want to squeeze him every time I see him. He brings so much happiness to our home. I can't image our life without our baby Cole!

Baby Shower for Sarah!

Sarah, one of my all-time favorite people, and her husband Calvin are expecting their baby girl to arrive any day now. I am so excited for them! They are going to be wonderful parents.

I knew I couldn't let her get away without a little celebration, so Jaclyn, Kaycie and I got together and threw her a baby shower a couple weeks ago. I don't think it could have turned out better!

Don't you love those little feet? Thanks, Melissa, for donating those precious tags to add to the favors.

Centerpieces for the tables. Her nursery colors are lavender and green, so we stuck with the lavender theme.

Kaycie made this gorgeous cake! And yes, it tasted as wonderful as it looks.

The mother-to-be lusting after the cake...

So many friends came to celebrate with us. I think we had about 15 ladies there at one point. 

We had a yummy brunch and then played a game. We had a gift for Sarah wrapped up in about 10 different layers. Each layer had a label on it that said either "Prize" or had a competition for the person who unwrapped the layer and someone of their choosing. Once you had your turn, you passed the gift onto another person who unwrapped the next layer and had to do what it said. It turned out to be a blast!

Kaycie and Jac headed up the game.

Blindfolded diapering. Love it!

Lucy raced her mom to see who could drink the sippy all gone. Mom won, but Lucy got to pick the prize.

Guess the flavor of baby food. Kaycie was nice and had nice flavors like pears or mango.

Even two of Sarah's college roommates were able to make it to the shower! They drove all the way from DC.

Watching.

Find the hidden baby!

I win!

Jenna and I got to race to see who could put on our shoes the fastest with preggo bellies. Jenna was already 8 months pregnant, so only I had to wear the balloon.

Jenna beat me by a mile! I'm out of practice...

Another of the competitions was to see which of the two could most closely guess Sarah's belly circumference.

Very close!

Not close at all.

Finally the last layer came off and Sarah got to open her gift.

It was a Willow figurine of a mom holding a newborn baby. My mom gave me one when I had Lance and I have LOVED it.

Then it was on to the gifts! Everyone got to play BINGO while she opened to try and win more prizes.

Sarah and Kaycie with the cake.

I know this is a ton of pictures, but I love Sarah's face as she opens her gifts:

This outfit was actual hand-made by Allison.

Isn't that dress precious?

We're missing several ladies that came but had to leave before the end. It was a great group of girls!

I had the best time at this shower. Sarah is an amazing person and a great friend. It is no wonder so many people love her and are so excited to meet her little one when she finally makes her debut . Hurry up and come, baby, so we can all love on you!