Earth festival

We went to the nearby town of Atlanta for their Earth Festival. We had never been before and thought it would be a fun, if not interesting trip. Well, the festival, to us, seemed like a pretty big garage sale with food vendors. Andy compared it to a "scaled down version of the Decatur Celebration" (some readers will understand). And, the town of Atlanta needs a little bit of a paint job on most of the houses that we saw-just a smidge run down. There were tons of people there and the food was great because it was like the food you would get at the fair without having to pay the admission fee.

The boys got these "balloon yo-yos". Yes, we actually paid money for little balloons tied to rubber bands with a little water inside the balloon to make it bounce up and down better.

Liam is 5 mos old

Here's our "little" man @ 5 months old! He's so stinkin cute and not a day goes by that we don't say "Liam is such an easy baby!" Let me just sing his praises for a moment: Liam is a great sleeper, his schedule is a morning and afternoon nap and sometimes a late afternoon nap. We just lay him down when he acts tired and he will roll to his side, suck his thumb and go to sleep. No need to rock or swaddle him! He is rarely fussy and loves to watch his brothers, who, by the way, love talking to Liam and getting him to laugh. Like I said in a previous post, Liam is already getting into that pre-crawling position and would rather spend time on his belly than on his back. His hair is still red , but on the back and the sides (where the hair fell out) it is coming back in very light-maybe a blond? Maybe not. The other boys all have a stripe of lighter hair underneath their red hair. We will see. He's a big boy and I'm going to try to sneak a weight in @ Ewan's doctor's visit today. Liam is still being toted around in his infant car seat, his feet do stick out the bottom and his shoulders are almost too wide for the seat, but I cannot upgrade him to a convertabile seat until the little man learns how to sit up, probably around 6 mos old. What a cutie! We just love him!

so strong!

can you believe this! Here is picture from a few weeks ago. At 4 1/2 mos old, Liam can already get himself into a hands and knees position and rock back and forth. That's a readiness for crawling and I'm sure he'll start moving soon. He can already scoot himself backwards from his starting position. He's the first of the boys to do this the youngest (if that makes any sense). Andy says it's because we actually do the tummy time with him. Can I help it if Liam is the first of the boys to really enjoy being on their bellies as babies?

the 100 club

Cale made it into the "100 club"! You know, it's that exclusive club for preschoolers who can count to 100! :-) He was the first one in his class to do it, which is pretty impressive since it was only his 6th day of preschool for the year. He was so proud and got a certificate from Mrs. Andrea, his teacher, whom he just loves. The only way I can get Cale to do his preschool homework is to tell him that Mrs. Andrea wants him to do it. What a nice start to the year, and we're so happy that Cale is so excited about learning!

a soldier for the Lord

Here is Cale dressed up in foil to look like a soldier. The boys are learning about the armor of God in Wednesday night Bible class and Cale got picked to dress up in "armor". He was so proud that he wore it home to show Andy. Marcus was a little jealous, he wanted foil armor too! Maybe I've found an easy Halloween costume? They also are learning the Bible verse that goes with the armor. I was surprised with how fast the boys learned it. They were the only kids that had it totally memorized in one week!

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." Eph 6:11

guess who discovered their toes!

A new discovery has been made-Liam found his feet! According to the pedicatrician, "that's a 6 month skill!" (she was very excited). Since baby feet are cute, here are some photos!

something new to entertain himself with :-)

preschool started!

Preschool started last Wednesday for Cale and Ewan. They were so excited to go and see their friends and get back to their school routine. Cale goes 3 time a week from 845-1145 and Ewan goes Monday and Wednesday from 915-1130. We have to bust a serious move on preschool mornings, because as soon as Marcus gets on the bus (at 812), we have to hustle to load up the car in order to get to preschool close to on time. (they go to our church preschool which is about 35 mins from our house) It's crazy, but I'm glad they go there and we have work schedules that accommodate the drive time. The obligatory first day pics are below :-)

updated family photo

(It about killed the boys to sit still long enough to get this photo taken. And, of course, we can't all be looking @ the camera at the same time! =life with boys/small children :-) )

a Larry Boy birthday!

Here are a few photos from Ewan's birthday. He had a blast and really enjoyed his presents. Of course his favs were the Larry Mobile and his new Larry Boy shirt. We had cake, opened gifts and played a few games: limbo, egg spoon race, and freeze tag. The games were requested by Marcus and Cale, Ewan just walked around with his presents. The Larry Boy cake was decorated free-hand by Grammy Pammy-thank you! I think it turned out great. Larry Boy will take you to more photos, which are kind of out of order but still fun to look at! :-)

From Sept2009

promotion Sunday

This Sunday was the start of a new Sunday school quarter @ church. Marcus was the only one of the boys that actually went to a new class with a new teacher. Here are the boys' responses from promotion Sunday:
Marcus: "Sweet!"
Cale: "I think I'm going to love this" (he said this like 3-4 times during class-he is the only kid in his class now that the others got promoted and he gets his teacher, Mrs Peggi, all to himself)Ewan: no response, I don't think he cared
Liam: just happy to be held by someone, and this Sunday it was Grammy Pammy

Happy 3rd Birthday to Ewan!

Ewan is 3 years old today! He is a sweet, little boy and we are very thankful for him. He loves his brothers and has a smile that lets him get away with just about anything. He's grown so much in the past year. His vocabulary has increased and it's very cool to hear him talk in complete sentences (probably because I still see him as a baby). As the third, he has definitely picked up on things by watching his two older brothers, and he is a quick learner. We're in the process of potty training and are having mostly success with wearing underwear during the day. Ewan is my good vegitable eater and will eat all my salad right off my plate if I let him. He is the least afraid of getting dirty and will commando crawl in the sandbox, snow, and grass. Luckily, he also loves bathtime, especially in Mommy and Daddy's bathtub! He's cuddly and sometimes it seems like he's all limbs as he hugs you. I like to call him "Mogli" sometimes (from the Jungle Book), but his most common nickname is "Ew-bear", and everyone calls him that-us, our friends, people @ church. I'm posting one picture from his birthday which had a Larry Boy theme. I'll post some more pictures tomorrow :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!