Birthday Prep

Whew! I'm behind! Okay, here we go...

Jude turned three! He's official Birthday is January 2nd, but because of George's work schedule and trying to coordinate with extended family, we didn't end up celebrating until a couple weeks later.

What kind of party did Jude want? A Phineas and Ferb party! I have to admit I LOVE Phineas and Ferb (and will occasionally watch it by myself) so I was thrilled when he wanted his party to be based on the show.

First, we made a piñata.

Jude wanted to help, of course.

He did a pretty good job.

Lance wanted to help, too.

Looks good, guys!

We decided the piñata needed to be one of Doofenschmirtz's -inators that the kids could destroy.

Jude had a great time painting it. What a helper!

The night before the party, Aunt Amy came down to help with all the prep.

I don't know what I would have done without her! She finished the piñata and helped with the cake, staying up with me until the wee hours of the morning. (Oh, and Lance decided it was a good time to paint his wooden snakes he got as a craft.)

The morning of Jude's party dawned early. We were expecting almost 20 kids and about that many adults, so there was a lot to do to prepare for the crowd.

See you at the party!

Cole

Sweet baby Cole. It's funny--with your first baby you impatiently wait for him to reach his milestones and it seems like he will be a baby forever, but with the next you turn around and he's already grown, leaving the baby stage behind all too quickly. I feel like this year has flown by and I haven't had enough time to enjoy it fully.

So it's been with Cole. When did he grow up? I think I've enjoyed his baby stage the best, perhaps because I'm a more experienced mamma, and I'm sad that it's slipping away so quickly. 

So, before I forget, here are a few things I want to remember about this precious little boy:

He's walking! I'm count January 19th as his first official day as a walker since that's the day the lights seemed to turn on and he realize he could actually walk, but he's been taking steps and standing for over a month now. Once he figured it out, there was no going back and he now walks everywhere.

He "talks" nonstop in a sweet little voice and will hold conversations with anyone willing to talk to him. My favorite is when he looks at you and "asks questions" in a high-pitched voice. Melts my heart. He can say a few real words, too: "da da", "ma ma", "da" (for dog), and "dis" (for this).

He knows what a car, snake, and bee says and will make the noise when we ask him. He'll do a panting noise for a dog, too.

He blows kisses and has recently started blowing daddy kisses when he leaves for work without any encouragement. It's so cute!

He smiles and waves at everyone he sees. He reminds me of Jude when he was this age: so friendly and outgoing. Wherever we go, Cole has people smiling and waving back. I've been surprised many times when I turn around and see the gruff-looking man in line behind us at the store making funny faces at the boys and grinning ear to ear when Cole cracks up. His happy smile is contagious and brings more joy to our home than we know what to do with.

Cole is a good eater. Nice, since Lance has been picky for years and Jude's starting to have some strong opinions about his food as well. His favorite thing to eat right now is applesauce in those little squeezy packets (the ones you can suck on and you don't need a spoon) and any kind of cracker, but he'll eat most things we give him.

He LOVES his brothers and wants nothing more than to be with them and do what they are doing. He loves to sit on the couch next to Lance and Jude while they watch a show or play on the tablet. He thinks he's so big! When they are running around the house chasing each other, there's Cole toddling behind laughing hysterically because he thinks he's playing with them. I love it!

He is a joker! He knows when he's being funny and likes to milk it for all it's worth. I love that he cracks himself up.

Cole is very low-key. He's usually content to play on the floor and explore. If he's with other people, he doesn't require much attention to be happy. I love that he's so easy--a perfect 3rd baby!

He's cuddly. Just yesterday he woke up from his nap and snuggled with me on the couch for more than an hour while Jude used his quiet time to watch a show. He loves to sit in my lap and be close. When I pick him up, he'll put his head on my shoulder and his little arms around my neck. Nothing makes my heart sing like these precious moments.

He has 6 teeth: 4 on top, 2 on the bottom. He's had them since he was about 6 months old. We're still waiting on the rest of the set to arrive.

He loves wheels. Anything with a wheel is a hit for him. We were at the park a few days ago with some friends and he walked around for more than an hour just carrying two trucks. This boy is obsessed with cars.

We love our Cole! Seriously, we're all in love with this little boy. He brings laughter and happiness into our home with his sweet personality. I can't wait to see what this year will bring and how he'll grow and learn. Just not too fast, okay Cole?

Jude

Jude. How can I describe this amazing little boy and do him justice?

He turned 3 in the beginning of January, although for the longest time he thought he was six. For as hard as he tries to keep up with the big kids, he might as well be six. He is not one to be left behind!

He thinks he's all grown up and doesn't want help with just about anything, but if he falls down he needs his mommy to kiss it better.

He's almost 100% potty trained! However, he will hold it until the last possible second before he goes at home, but if we're at the store the first place he wants to visit is the bathroom.

He is cRaZy! I wish I had a tenth of his energy and enthusiasm. He is constantly moving around, jumping, running, and climbing.

He loves to laugh! He is always smiling and laughing his sweet, mischievous cackle. I can't tell you how many times I've been upset or in a bad mood only to find myself smiling when I hear Jude laugh. I love it.

Jude is extremely friendly. To a fault. He will crawl onto anyone's lap and act like he's known them his whole life. He loves to say Hi to people at the store and try to talk to everyone he meets.

He is completely addicted to technology. Addicted. As in, he'll wake up in the middle of the night and ask to play on George's phone or our little tablet we have. While part of me is impressed he knows how to navigate and access the games/programs/videos he wants, it mostly concerns me a and George and I have talked about ways to significantly limit gadget face-time and accessibility.

He has a large vocabulary and is very articulate. He talks a lot and asks tons of questions. It's so fun that we can have full conversations with Jude and we both understand each other. He is growing up so fast!

Right now he loves Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, but mostly Angry Birds. He could watch videos of the game for hours if we let him and loves to try and beat the game levels.

Jude loves his brothers. Although he and Lance have a hard time getting along much of the time, Jude idolizes him and wants to do everything he does. Jude loves Cole and is usually sweet, but for some reason he's recently started to push him down and pick on him (maybe because Cole is now big enough to play with Jude's toys). Hopefully this phase won't last long and he'll go back to just cuddling him and telling me how cute Cole is!

Jude is amazing. He has the cheeriest little personality and it radiates from him. He loves his family, he loves his friends, and he's a pleasure to be around. He's still the stickiest child I've ever met and is even still a little drooly, but that has gotten much better. He makes my life brighter and happier and brings a spirit of fun to our home. We love our Jude!

I tried to ask Jude the same questions I asked Lance, but many of them went over his head. Here are the few he did answer:

(What a stinker!)

What is your favorite color? Green
What is your favorite food? Noodles
Favorite animal? Giraffe
What is your favorite TV show? Phineas and Ferb
What kind of music do you like? Gangnam Style!
What are you really good at? Tablet (he's talking about playing games on this little tablet we have)
Who are your best friends? Lance! And Bo Bo.
What do you want to do when you grow up? Be a kid!
What would you do with a Million dollars? Pay with it.
What do you like to do with dad? Tickle him!
What do you like to do with mom? Tickle her!
Tell me something that is really funny. Tooting
What is your favorite thing to wear? A shirt
What makes you cry? Lance makes me sad.
What does love mean? I don't know.

What are you afraid of? Snakes, but they never bited me, they just looked at me.
What is your favorite book and why do you like it? Pigeon books. They're funny!

What is your favorite toy? My sword from my Birthday.
What is your favorite thing to do at the park? Play with my friends.

What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? Play with them.
What do you love most about Lance? He plays Angry Birds.
What do you love most about Cole? I like to love on him. He's a good Coley.
What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? Swimming!
What is the grossest thing you can think of? Eggs.

Lance

Lance. Oh Lance. Can I just say how much I love this boy? He is crazy, high energy, and 100% boy. Not a day goes by that he doesn't have me pulling out my hair in frustration and laughing out loud at his antics. He's smart as a tack and sneaky as all get-out. As his mother, here is what I want to remember about him at seven and a half:

He loves his family. Yes, he even loves Jude but he has a hard time remembering most of the time. (He's told me multiple times that if someone kills me, he will avenge my death. Thanks, Lance.)

He loves to go mountain biking with his dad and enjoys hiking and camping. Good thing his dad is in the Young Mens so he gets the opportunity a lot.

He's in first grade and while he doesn't love it like he did Kindergarten, he's excelled in math and reading. He's already met his end-of-year goals in both and now gets his own specially tailored assignments in class to keep him busy and learning. We love his teacher.

He loves loves loves science and learning new things about the world around him. Most of the books he brings home from the library are about animals and at home when he watches TV it's usually either Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel. One of his favorite shows is Mythbusters.

He likes to help me cook.

He's a very picky eater! He asks me almost every night why I always make things he hates. He also has an obsession for Frank's Hot Buffalo Sauce and will douse his meal most nights with enough to cover the entire surface of the food he's eating. 

He loves stuffed animals and has a very soft spot for animals in general. His bed is covered in the stuffed animals he's collected, most of them dogs, whales, and angry birds.

He likes to give hugs and still asks me to lay next to him every night when he goes to bed. Even on my busy nights, I usually try to lay next to him for at least a few minutes. I know the day will come all too soon when he won't want or need me as much and I know I'm going to miss these special sweet moments.

He is very, very emotional. He goes 0 to 60 in about 1.3 seconds and sometimes I can't tell what's tipped him off. It can be a little difficult to handle with patience (something I'm working on), but we're both getting better at communicating our feelings and ideas without falling to pieces.

He's good at playing video games. His favorite at the moment is Star Craft which he plays with his dad.

Since Lance is 7, I figured he was old enough to tell me a little bit about himself, too, so I printed off a questionnaire and asked him about a million questions. Here are his answers (most in his exact words):

What is your favorite color? Hmmm... Red, blue, white, and orange

What is your favorite food? Chinese food

Favorite animal? Horse, dog, cat, and birds

What is your favorite TV show? Discovery Channel and Animal Planet

What kind of music do you like? Rock n' Roll

What are you really good at? Swimming

What are you not so good at? Lying

Who are your best friends? Killian, Kendall, Austin, and Tyler

What is your favorite thing to do at school? Nothing... recess?

What is the best thing about having a brother? Jude doesn't turn off the TV while I'm watching it and Cole takes naps.

How are you different from brothers? They have asian in them and I don't.

What does Jude do that makes you mad?  He puts stuff where I don't want it.

What does Cole do that makes you mad?  He turns off the TV.

What do you want to do when you grow up? That's one hard choice for me to make. A scientist.

What would you do with a Million dollars? Probably buy Blizzard so I would be their commander, then I could tell them what to do. And guess what--they'd make super awesome Star Craft stuff.

What is the best thing about your mom? She's nice, really nice actually and sometimes she'll buy stuff for me.

What is the best thing about your dad? Well, he's nice because he lets me play rated T video games and lets me play stuff of rated M games, but not the campaign.

What is the best thing about DaddyG? He's really funny and whenever I say "tickle me before I escape," he chases me and tickles me when he finds me.

What do you like to do with dad? Play multi-player Star Craft

What do you like to do with mom? Play with her.

What do you like to do with DaddyG? Get tickled by him!

Tell me something that is really funny. "Guess what." "What?" "Chicken butt!"

"Guess why." "Why?" "Chicken thigh!"

What is your favorite thing to wear?  athletic shirts, long sleeves, and wool socks

What makes you cry? Well, let's just say "scrape".

What does love mean? It means more than 12 times past friend, actually more than 100 times past friend.

What does it mean to be a good friend? It means to be nice to your friend.

What are you afraid of? I'm freaked out when I hear something outside and I don't know what it is.

What do you like best about being a boy? Well, pretty much it's because, well, you can get pretty nuts and go on a rampage. That means you're breaking a lot of stuff.

Describe girls (opposite gender): freaky and never understandable

What is your favorite book and why do you like it? Hmmm. Hard one. This is Not My Hat because it's funny.

What is your favorite thing to do after school? Watch TV

What is your favorite toy? Computer. No, stuffed animals.

What do you like to sleep with? My red blanket

What is your favorite thing to do at the park? Play hide and seek tag with my friends.

What is the best thing about being your age? Pretty much, I'm really tall.

What is your favorite memory? My 4th Birthday--I got some really huge things!

Why do you like being a kid? You don't really have to do anything.

One word to describe you would be friendly. 

What advice would you give your parents? Buy me and Jude 2 things a month!

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? A fish that could swim in chlorine because it can breathe air and water, that way I could be in the air and swim with people.

What do you like to do for fun? Play with Hershel (his best friends' dog).

Tell about a funny time in your life. When my dad threw a banana peel on my little cousin Alexey's head. 

What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? Play at the park at their school.

What do you love most about your Jude? Nothing.

What do you love most about Cole? He's not as annoying as Jude. 

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? I'll be 17 1/2. Probably still be in High School.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? Swim 

What would be the ideal allowance? Tell me how you would use it. $5 a week. I would probably save up until I had $100, and then I would probably buy stuff, like I'd order stuff on the internet.

Name two things we should do as a family on the weekend. Go to the indoor pool. Relax.

What is the grossest thing you can think of? Someone eating doo doo and pee pee.

What does Mom do for a living and where does she work? She's a mom. She works no where, well, at home.

What does your dad do for a living and where does he work? He's kind of a banker, I don't know. He works at a bank.

What does DaddyG do for a living and where does he work? He's a doctor. He works at the hospital.

How much time does it take to make dinner? Ramen takes 5 or 10 minutes. More than 5 minutes if you're not making Ramen.

It's a New Year! Time for a family update:

Happy New Year!

Okay, so I know it's not the New Year anymore, but I figured late is still better than never for some family updates.

My good friend Jamie took our family pictures in December and I love them! The photos in this post and the following ones about each boy are her work. She is one talented lady!

Downtown Mall, Charlottesville

Our favorite family picture of the set.

We couldn't get all three boys to look at the camera at the same time, but I thought these two pictures were cute anyway:

Ha! Love it!

Okay, time for some updates:

Heather:

I started weight training again! George and I began training last spring for our Tough Mudder we ran in September and we have kept up our weight training program. I love it! Just because I'm proud of myself and I want to remember that I once was actually in shape, here are my numbers for a few of my lifts:

Squats: 175 lbs for reps (that's the weight of the bar on my shoulders)
Dead lifts: 185 lbs for reps (I'm not sure what my max is)
Bent-over Rows: 105 lbs for reps

I'm hoping to squat at least 200 lbs in the next few months and get my dead lifts much higher. I love what it has done for my body and am excited to start my 30's this year in the best shape of my life.

I'm a stay-at-home mom and am loving it. I get to be a teacher, an accountant, a chef, a waitress, a janitor, a nurse, a police officer, a chauffeur, a coach, a therapist and a technician. I get to see my family at their best and their worst, share happy times and sad, give them hugs and time-outs, shower them with praise and hand out reality checks. It can be "curled-up-in-a-ball-crying" hard but also brings more happiness than I thought possible. It is incredibly intimidating but completely wonderful. I wouldn't trade a single second of it for the world.

Young Womens keeps me busy! Basically, I get to teach sunday school to girls from age 14-18 each week and help plan mid-week activities. I've been doing it since last April and I loved it, although I feel like I'm in high school all over again--always worried if people will think I'm cool enough. 

I'm addicted to Pinterest. If ever it seems like I had a good idea, you can be pretty sure I got the idea from something I pinned.

Okay, okay. I know I'm pretty boring. I can't think of any other updates about me, so we'll move on to...

George!

George is now in the second half of his Intern Year of his Emergency Medicine Residency. Intern Year is supposed to be the hardest, so we're he's happy that he's closer to putting this year behind him. It's been busy and at his busiest he works 80-100 hours a week. If all the doctors at the hospital get as little sleep as George does during these rotations, it scares me.

George and his best friend Aric started weightlifting in the spring of 2012 and George discovered a real love for the sport. Here are a few of his numbers:

Squats: 285 lbs for reps
Dead lifts: 350 lbs--crazy!

I can't remember his other weights, but he's passionate about it and is diligent about making time to exercise. It is definitely a lifestyle we both enjoy.

 George is a great cook. As in, we often have better food at home than we get at nice restaurants. I'm constantly amazing at what he can whip up in 20 minutes when I think we have "nothing to eat". I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I will sometimes delay starting dinner until George gets home, just to see if he has any better ideas than the ones I came up with. He usually does. We make a great team: he does the cooking, I wash the dishes and clean up the mess. We're both happy!

Okay, I guess we're both boring. I even asked George what updates he wanted to include and he couldn't think of any.

Major highlights from this past year:

We welcomed our third baby boy into our family in February.

 

George graduated from Medical School at UVa and began working as a Doctor.

 

George and I ran our first (but not last!) Tough Mudder in September.

Now on to the people that really matter: the boys!

A Birthday visit from the Glass family

Jude turned 3 January 2nd! We had a party later in the month (post to follow), but the Glass family traveled down to Charlottesville the weekend of Jan 6th to celebrate with Jude in style.

First, they treated us to lunch at Mellow Mushroom, a very eclectic pizza restaurant on the Corner, right across from the hospital.

Walking from the parking lot. Cole kept pointing at things and saying "eh? Dis? Dis?" in his cute little voice.

Okay, this is a bad picture of just about everyone, but you get the idea. It was delicious  Mellow Mushroom never disappoints.

After lunch, we took the kids to Pen Park to play for a bit.

Cole discovered the slides and from that point on, we couldn't keep him on the ground.

Lance liked showing him new ways to go down, although Cole was more interested in trying to climb up the slides than go down. Good thing Pop Pop was there to give him a boost!

The boys had a great time!

I'm so glad Mom and Dad came down with Allen and Der. It's always great to see them.

Lance made a new friend while we were there:

He and this girl ran around the woods collecting sticks to build a fort.

They found a hollowed-out area that was the perfect fort. With a home-made roof, you couldn't ask for anything better!

After the park and a nap for Cole, we all had dinner at Bonefish Grill, Jude's choice. Of course Jude was so worn out by the day he fell asleep waiting for his food and slept for most of dinner. Poor guy!


Thanks, Mom and Dad, for making the trip down here to spend time with us, treat us to some great food, and to make Jude feel special for his Birthday. We sure love you!

And before you go, here are some pictures of the boys doing "Just Dance" one night after George came home from work:

They were having a ball!

New Years

New Years Eve was pretty low-key for us, which was perfect. George was working that night in Charlottesville and the boys and I were still up in Northern Virginia. 

We spent most of the afternoon playing with Callie and Bryce at their house. They got a trampoline for Christmas that my boys LOVED! We had a great time!

That evening, we drove over to George's parents' house to have dinner with the family. Mom made a great meal of spare ribs and tacos. 

And of course, after dinner, we played Nate's game Cards Against Humanity. I won. I'm still not sure if I'm proud of my win or ashamed. Mostly proud.

Around 10 p.m., I loaded up the very tired boys and we drove back to my mom's house to finish our celebration. The boys crashed once their heads hit the pillow, so it was just the adults that rang in the New Year.

We welcomed it with style: we watched Father of the Bride II and when the clocks rolled around to 12:00, we wished each other Happy New Year and then finished the movie. Boy, we are party animals!