Lindsey Grace: 9 months old!

Lindsey is 9 months now and is so much fun! She has hit so many milestones in the last couple of months, and is so much easier now that she can play and move! She started sitting up and playing with her toys, LOVES swinging in the swing at the park, and began crawling last month. She has 5 teeth (working on #6), loves to eat baby food and finger food (cheerios, mum mum rice sticks, yogurt melts, veggie crunchies), and still enjoys nursing- no bottle for this picky little one!

Lindsey LOVES her big brothers. They make her laugh all day long. I think her favorite thing is to crawl around after them and sit down and play with her toys right next to them while they play. She also loves to watch Baby Einstein, which the boys call "baby movie" and don't mind watching with her too. She loves to take a bath, and Jackson always asks to jump in with her (I don't think he's ever said no to a bath, and they both have that in common!)

Her first word was DADA, and her second word was MAMA! We are working on LALALULU, but I have a feeling it'll be awhile! We should help her say BABA for brother :) She loves her Daddy, and enjoys when he cuddles her and tosses her in the air!

We are so lucky to have such a sweet and special little girl in our family. It's so interesting to see how different she is than the boys. She's always been a little opinionated about certain things (like most women are!), and already enjoys accessories like jewelry, hair bows, and shoes!

Tyler Kent

Tyler has had some pretty special moments lately. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He is about to graduate from Kindergarten, and I cannot believe how fast this school year has flown by. He has grown so much in the past few months, has almost all "thumbs up" days at school, is starting to read, and is making tons of friends from school, soccer and church. Here are some of his special milestones:

March 5, 2013:

Tyler turned 6 years old! He had a fun family party with cousins and a big volcano cake! He was Top Banana in his classroom that week, which meant he was student of the week and got to take something special to share each day. On his birthday, he took his model volcano that he made from plaster, and painted and showed the class how the volcano erupted. I got to go and watch as he demonstrated it for the class, and explained that baking soda and vinegar create lava! It was fun to hear him and all his friends' "ooohs and aaaahs"! He still has a major passion for the most ferocious animals and dinosaurs, volcanoes, insects, making his own "weapons" from sticks and string, and creating lots of projects, and drawings. 

At 6 years old, Tyler is 48 inches tall and 48 pounds- he is taller and lighter than average, one of the tallest kids in his class!

April 1, 2013:

It's no April Fools joke, here's the proof...

Tyler lost his first toof :)

The tooth fairy brought him a gold dollar!

Tyler played his first season of AYSO soccer and really enjoyed it! He loves running and kicking so we thought this would be perfect for him. It was a slow start as far as understanding the rules, and where to stand, to pay attention and stay on the field, but he showed some major improvement and even scored a goal on his second to the last game!! His team name was Mexico, and after the first practice he told me, "our game is at Mexico, Mom. Do you know how to get there?" I assured him that yes, I did know where Mexico was and would make sure to get him to his games! :)

 

Tyler is extremely bright, asking all kinds of questions like, what's the fastest way to get to Japan, by boat or airplane?, What number comes after a thousand (He guessed a gazillion), How far away is Heaven,  and why does my stick smell like stick? He is just so curious about everything and LOVES to learn. When we go to the library, he picks only educational books about animals, and discovery movies. He is going to have a hay day when he has to do his first report on an animal in school.

Not only is Tyler very smart, but he is also very "spirited". This is a word I've used to describe him since he was 7 months old and crawling around like a monster, then an extremely opinionated toddler, and still now as a high energy kid. But I know he will use this trait to be very successful one day! He definitely gives me a run for my money most days, but I am so blessed to be his mom.

Tyler is such a great big brother- he helps Jackson with anything and everything and loves to hold the baby and help feed her, change her and play with her. He is so loving and kind, and always reminds us to say our night time prayers as a family.

Jackson Jeffery

Jackson is just the happiest boy in the world. He can be a "man of few words" like his dad, and reminds me of Jeff all the time! And when he does decide to tell us something, it is either very profound, or very funny! He is always cracking us up, and saying the most random things, like one day when he said, "When you get old your knees hurt, huh mom. That's what Mrs. Lott said." or one day when I can only assume that his foot fell asleep, he said, "my feets is buggin' me." So I asked him why and he said, "my bones is ticklin' me."

Jackson LOVES to do puzzles, and is so good at them. He also loves to play with playdoh, Batman and Robin guys, color pictures, and build trios. One day he brought me the coolest Robot he made from Trio pieces. I asked him if he made it like the picture said. He told me, "yup, I did it like the paper. The paper said, you can do it cuz your mom is... asleep. And because you are ...a ....cutie." He is so funny when he tells stories, he pauses in between words to think of the best way to explain something. He is so thoughtful.

Jackson is such a good brother! He has told me before that he is so lucky because he is a big brother and a little brother, and that he has one brother and one sister. He is so good with Lulu, so kind and soft to her, even when she is in his way or playing with his toys.

At 4 years old, Jackson is 38 pounds, and 40 inches tall. His doctor told me he is a little shorter than average and a little heavier than average. Information I already knew, especially in comparing him to Tyler who is the opposite- taller and lighter than average. It's so fun to see how similar the boys are and yet how different they are too.

Jackson is really enjoying preschool and has been learning how to write the letters in his name! He can spell and read his name and knows how to write it. He can identify most letters and the sound they make. He loves going to preschool and has made a lot of friends in his class.

We are so lucky to have Jackson in our family. He is so special, loving, kind, tender, funny, quiet, calm and silly. I love my little boy!!

Jackson's Batman Party

This is going to be picture overload, but Katie took pictures during the party and got tons of great ones!

We were so excited that bestie Olivia could come to his party! She moved a few months before and were visiting family for the holidays. See those big smiles??

Yes, I made another Super Hero cake, that must be one of my hidden talents. I LOVE having boys :)

Cool batman pinata!

Smiling Lily and Our good friends, the Stone family :)

Tyler's batface and decorated candy bag

Carter, Jackson, Isaac

Katie and Sam!!

Even "cousin" Kyler got to come!

This super hero matching game is one of Jackson's very favorite activities. He is VERY good at memory game! And can identify EVERY super hero!

Some of our awesome friends!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Blow out the candles

And feel special :) I love this picture and how happy he looks!

A surprise gift from Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe! Grandpa Tom brought it out with the bell dinging and everyone ooohed and aaawed, then asked if he wanted to ride it. Jackson said "NO" It was so funny!! Then he got brave and rode it (he later told me he was scared of the bell!) And he LOVES to ride it up and down the street and all the way to the park. He is very good at riding it, very cautious and careful and enjoys a slow stroll :)

We LOVE our Jackson and he is such a special part of our family! HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY!

Arizona White Tanks Hike

Before we left our Arizona family, we decided to take some time to hike the White Tank Mountains. Jeff and I did this together when he first brought me to AZ to visit his family, and we enjoyed it so much that we wanted to make some new memories with our children!

Christmas in AZ and Jackson's B-day!

After Christmas we drove up to Peoria to visit the Clarks! Jackson is so lucky to have 2 birthday parties each year, because he gets one in Arizona and one in California! 

Grandma Judy scooping ice cream for cake and root beer floats!

We LOVE playing games together- so much fun. Kaylynn wrapped up books that her boys didn't want anymore. The little ones enjoyed opening them and trading them or keeping them. Tyler lucked out with spider, snake and dinosaur books! :)

We had a couple special announcements this year- Kendi, Shanna, and Kara are all expecting babies! It will be so wonderful to add more cousins to our family. Everyone gets along so well when we are together, it's really fun!

Kasey and Jeff with Lindsey

Happy 4th Birthday Jackson! I made this cake from a dinosaur pan that Judy had! We flipped it upside down and it worked great for Spiderman's face! Jackson is all about the Super Heroes this year. He picked strawberry cake with white frosting!

These two are literally best friends (most of the time!) I can't imagine one without the other, they enjoy doing the same things and playing together everyday. Jackson misses Tyler when he is at school and in the 50 minutes after I take Jack to preschool before Tyler's school starts, if we do something special like go to breakfast or shopping, Tyler says, "Too bad Jackson couldn't come". They really love each other!

Christmas Day

After we opened Santa gifts at our house, we headed over to Grandma Shauna and Grandpa Tom's for family presents!

Baby's First Christmas: Lindsey enjoyed "opening" presents! Her favorite thing is plastic, with her second favorite paper. So she had a blast with that! :)

 

Tommy and Melonie and the kiddos were here this year, so that was super fun.

After presents at my parents, we went to Lanie and Papa's for our nice Christmas dinner and presents there. I never seem to take pictures over there, but we always have a blast!

Christmastime is here

I've always wanted to enjoy the holidays while snuggling a newborn. This year, I got that! Not only was Lindsey fun to cuddle, but she was extra fun to dress up, too!

This was my favorite Christmas outfit she wore. I should've gotten a full body shot because her little leggings had silver sparkles and a couple tutu ruffles on top. A-dor-able!!

Jackson had a preschool program that we went to and he sang Christmas songs and Happy Birthday to Jesus!

 I tried to fit in as much Christmas fun as possible, so we even made Gingerbread houses. I feel about gingerbread houses the same way I feel about carving pumpkins... a lot of work, a lot of mess, for something that turns out really ugly unless I do it all! Well, I resisted the urge to decorate their houses and they turned out... well, ugly. But hey, I think they had fun making them and since I let them eat them after, they didn't stick around too long!

 

Another funny Christmas memory was my attempt to visit Santa at the mall. I thought I was so strategic to run over right after Tyler's last day of school and assumed that since it was a minimum day, we'd beat the crowd. Well, we beat the crowd, and we also missed Santa! We saw him jingling his bells as he took his lunch (fed his reindeer).

But I had my children dressed up in matching outfits, had my camera in tow and had an hour to kill. So, I set up my kids in a decorated corner of the mall and actually got a good photo. Jackson's face looks exactly the same in all 20 shots. Pretty :)

Tommy and Melonie got to come and visit for about a week and a half! It was absolutely wonderful to party it up with them and the cousins had an absolute blast! I had to snap a shot of the birthday twins! Tammy and Tommy :)

Here's the magic of Christmas morning! Santa laid out a beautiful blanket with our gifts and stockings, and Ringo even got a stocking full of treats and toys.

The kids are at such fun ages this year, and we enjoyed some really funny moments during the anticipation of Christmas. One day the boys were super distracted while getting ready for school so I used the famous, "Santa isn't gonna bring you any presents if you don't hurry and obey!" I overheard Tyler say to Jackson, "hurry! Let's be good. We don't want Santa to bring us COAL! It's rocks but too small to paint and they get your hands all dirty when you touch them!"

One night while I was tucking Jackson in, he asked me a series of questions:

"Mommy, is heaven way up up in the sky?"

"Yes."

"Does Santa live in the North Pole?"

"Yes." :)

"Is Santa comin' to town?"

"Why yes, honey he is."

I love 3 year olds!