Happy 2nd Birthday, Maverick!

We have an exciting day of events planned to celebrate Maverick's 2nd birthday!

More to come :)

Grace's 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated our neighbor & friend's 2nd birthday over the weekend. She officially turns 2 the day after Maverick. When Jill asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted, she promptly answered "purple", so a "purple party" it was!

Jill is the most crafty, creative person I know! The kids had a blast eating all kinds of purple foods, playing with purple playdough, even painting bread with edible purple "paint" and then toasting it.

I didn't have a purple outfit for Macallan, but he did wear purple socks!

The kids even put purple glitter tatoos on their tummies!

Maverick seemed to have a different theme idea in mind.

Loads of fun was had by all :)

Maverick's party is next weekend!

Any Given Wednesday!

Let me tell you...being a mom to 3 takes quite the organizational effort! Each night I unload the contents of our mini-van onto the kitchen table and re-organize things for the next day. Here are the unloaded contents on Wednesday night:



10 Key Items
1. Diaper Bag - given for any mom
2. My work-out bag for the gym
3. Bible Study Bag - we have Community Bible Study on Wed mornings
4. Mitchell's Preschool Bag - preschool MWF afternoons
5. Drycleaning that we picked up
6. Snack for Mitchell's school
7. Toy for Mitchell's school for show and share
8. 3 Coats, 3 Hats because we've been stopping at an outdoor park to play each day to get some SUNSHINE while we can!
9. Bag of dog bones that my dad brought me when we met up at the gym (THANKS, DAD!)
10. Bag of random goodies that my neighbor brought me to Bible Study (birthday party invitations, etc)


My van is literally homebase for the days activities. If you glanced inside you'd think I hadn't cleared it out for weeks due to the amount of things inside, but oh no, it's only the things we need for one day.

My favorite part about the above pictures is Maverick's little hand on the table in the foreground and Tex sprawled out on the floor in the background.

And here are a few pictures of my little helper. Wherever I am, he is only 2 steps behind :)

We will miss you, Granny!

As we closed the year 2011, we said goodbye to a special woman in our lives, Jacob's maternal grandma -- fondly referred to as Granny. Granny passed away on New Year's Eve. She was such a great woman! Jacob has MANY fond memories of times spent with Granny. She loved to recount many of the stories of Jacob's childhood. She absolutely loved her grandchildren!

Here are a few pictures of Jacob with Granny & Papa growing up.

Our boys were her only great-grandchildren, so she spoiled them with gifts and love. Due to the distance, we only saw her a few times a year, but she enjoyed hearing stories of the boys' antics from Jacob's mom, Katy and Jacob in his routine phone calls.



At our wedding in 2005

Summer 2010

My last picture of Papa and Granny.  Papa died a few months later on Halloween.

I like to picture the two of them reunited in Heaven celebrating New Year's Eve together :)

Kelli's Baby Showers

Have I blogged about how excited I am that my sister is having a baby? My first biological niece or nephew! She is due in early March and we celebrated Baby Gorgus with two baby showers over the weekend in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, Jacob couldn't ride with us from KC to Minn., so I journeyed solo with all three boys and Pilot loaded in the mini-van. (Thanks to my Dad for watching Tex). The boys did WONDERFUL! My good friend, Amanda, who lives in Ames agreed to let us invade her house mid-way through the trip to let the boys burn off some steam at her house!

Here is a picture of me with my sis and our Mom.

My mom is a saint with my boys. She has all of the patience in the world! Although she is pictured with Macallan below, Mitchell and Grandma are really big buds! Maverick is still a big momma's boy, although my mom swears that he is a Grandma's boy when I'm not around :)

I got a big kick out of the framed pictures at the shower that Kelli's in-laws threw for her.

Kelli at 31 weeks

Mark at 31 weeks :)

How cute is she?

We attended a "family" shower at Mark's parents house on Saturday and then hosted a "friends" shower at my Mom's on Sunday.  This is Kel and her rubber ducky shower cake (made by a friend of Kel's)

There were lots of willing hands to hold Macallan during the showers. He sure looks pretty comfortable!

There were lots of girls to "shower" Kel with gifts!

Although Jacob was unable to ride with us, he did fly in and join us for the the weekend. He actually stayed for the whole next week to work on a client in downtown St. Paul. My mom and step-dad gave us a really special treat...a night away from the big boys! They watched Mitchell and Macallan overnight while Macallan, Jacob and I went to dinner and stayed the night in a hotel (on EY's dime since Jacob reported for work the next morning...even better!) Macallan was a gem for dinner (as usual). He slept like a log and was a happy camper the next morning. It was a really nice treat! Thanks, Mom & David!

  I can NOT wait to meet Kel's baby!  I love all of the roles that I play in my life -- wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter -- and I mean no disrespect for my husband, sisters, mom or dad -- but I LOVE being a mom the most.  It is almost as challenging as it is rewarding!  I KNOW my sister is going to love being a mom as much as I do, and I can't wait to see her start the adventure! 

Macallan is 2 months old!!!

It's hard to believe that Macallan is already 2 months old!!!  Time goes so quickly, and the little guy is growing up so fast!  He is such an agreeable little baby!  His brothers absolutely love him...and so do his parents!

We went to the pediatrician today for his well-baby check-up and he's doing just great!

Stats: Weight 12 pounds, 12 ounces (75th percentile)

Height: 24 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

I thought for sure he would outweigh Maverick at the same age, but he didn't - Maverick was 13 lbs,6 oz.  Our chubby baby Mitchell weighed 15 lbs, 8oz at this age! 

Macallan currently has the bluest eyes of any of the boys.  I say "currently" because both Mitchell and Maverick started with dark blue eyes, but they have both slowly turned to hazel (Jacob's color).  Mine are grayish-blue, so time will tell with Macallan!

As you can see, his is a smiley little man.  He certainly likes his bath time much more than he did at the beginning!

Maverick is obsessed with his little brother.  He wants to hold him, kiss him, etc.  He is still a little too rough with him much of the time though :(  Most of the time, Macallan is pretty tolerant of Maverick, but I can tell he tenses up a little when Maverick comes near.  I am very interested to watch their friendship develop.

Below Maverick is sitting in Macallan's baby swing, manually swinging him with his feet.

This picture of my bed is very typical most mornings....three males and me (not pictured are the two male dogs on each side of the bed).  Where do I sleep, you ask?  Where ever I can fit!  Mitchell is the only one who rarely comes to our bed in the night.  He sleeps contently in the boys' new bunk bed.

While Maverick is a little rough with his baby brother, Mitchell gentle and loving as can be.  He calls Macallan either "Macallan boy" or "good boy"...I'm afraid to ask what that makes Maverick!  I constantly comment on how good of a big brother Mitchell is - maybe a little too much because he recently did something nice for Maverick and when I didn't comment, Mitchell said "Mom, I thought you would say that you were proud of me for doing that?"  Already fishing for compliments!

Just have a look at the chubby little man.  He is filling out nicely...

...and you've gotta love his gummy smile!!!!!!

Last but not least, his 2 month chair picture.  His big brothers were a big fan of the Batman outfit that we received as a baby gift.  It suits Macallan :)

We are enjoying every moment with our happy baby!  Most everyone says that he looks just like Maverick to them...everyone except for Jacob and I...we think he looks more like Mitchell at this age (minus a few pounds)!