16 Months Old

Samuel, You are sixteen months old!

You are the sweetest, funniest toddler around, and we are so thankful that you are part of our family.

You love baths and always ask for bubbles in the bathtub. You have a ton of bath toys but are usually content with a cup that you can fill up and dump out.

As a second child you definitely get more sweet treats than your brother did at your age. Anything you see him eating, you have to have some and usually insist on feeding yourself. It's a messy stage for sure.

You love doing anything outside especially if it involves water. Playing in the sprinkler and going to the swimming pool are definitely your favorite summer activities. You are fearless in the water, and it doesn't bother you at all when your head goes underwater.

You are becoming so much more verbal and saying new words all the time. I don't think I can remember all the new words you are saying this month, but a few of your favorites are water, hat, boat, cat, giraffe (raf), truck, and Caillou (your brother's current favorite tv show). Water is your favorite word right now, and it has a variety of meanings. Any liquid that comes in a cup is water. Fire hoses in books are water, the swimming pool is called water as well as rain and the faucet.

Your favorite thing right now are books. We read them all day long. You are especially fond of Sandra Boyton books like, "Moo, Baa, La La La" and "Snuggle Puppy." You also love "Peek a Who" and "Where's Sophie." You point to the pictures of anything you recognize and tell us what you see, and the instant we finish one book you hop down and run off to get another one. We read five or six at a time three or four times a day.

You and your brother are playing so well together these days. One night we took you to our neighborhood playground, and you and Nathan just chased each other around and tackled one another in the grass the whole time we were there. I commented to your Daddy how thankful I am that you all have each other to play with and always have a companion (And your daddy and I enjoyed the chance to sit and visit and watch you boys play instead of being the ones to entertain you).

Your favorite animals are dogs, ducks, and giraffes. We went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and watched the giraffes be fed. You had a great time watching them.

You are still consistently taking two naps per day, and although I thought we were close to dropping your morning nap, I'm not sure you're ready yet. You can get by without a nap in the morning as long as we move your afternoon nap up an hour or so, but if we are home during naptimes, you still take two a day.

You enjoy going to Storytime at the library, and it's sweet that you always have to stay close to your brother. You never let him out of your sight and want to sit right next to him. Your favorite part are the bubbles. You are still obsessed with bubbles. You certainly think they are the best things in the world.

I still haven't weaned you from your nighttime bottle, and I think with Baby Sister's arrival next month, I'll hold off until we're past that transition. You often ask for a bottle (ba ba) in the mornings too, and usually if you ask for one, I'll give one to you. The rest of the day you drink milk/water/juice out of a sippy cup. Your favorite foods right now are grapes and macaroni and cheese (and fruit snacks of course).

You wear 18 month clothes, a size 4 diaper, and are transitioning to a size 6 shoe.

You also really like to dress yourself. Any clothes you see lying around, you try and put on regardless who they belong to. And if Nathan is playing dress up, you have to be involved too. You especially like to wear his fire boots, and his Bob the Builder hat.

We sure love you Sweet Boy! Month sixteen has certainly been a fun one!

Celebrating Elisabeth

Last Thursday, my mom, Courtney, and Erica hosted a fun little Sprinkle to celebrate our Elisabeth Kae. My mom had such a fun time planning and decorating for a girly shower. Everything was darling and so fun.

I don't think Elisabeth will ever be short of tutus :).

Since this is our third baby, I didn't want or expect anything huge, and really just wanted a special intimate evening with some close friends and family celebrating our precious girl. My mom had the idea of having a dinner, and I thought it was a great idea. Barry smoked his famous chicken, and my mom, Courtney and Erica prepared some delicious side dishes. It was a great meal and time of fellowship with precious friends and family.

These ladies certainly know how to throw a party

I'm so thankful for my friendship with these dear ladies and am looking forward to watching the friendship among our daughters. I love that Elisabeth already has two built in best friends in Sarah and Krista.

Erica gave the sweetest devotion after supper and we had a prayer time for Elisabeth.

After the devotion we grabbed some fruit and cake and opened gifts.

It was a little surreal and so fun seeing all the pink gift bags and wrapping paper! There was always a part of me after having two boys that wondered if we'd get to have pink in our home. I'm so glad we get to!

Everyone was generous to spoil our family with the best gifts for our girl. She got so many darling dresses, outfits, hair bows, bibs, toys, and blankets.

And we got all the essentials we always need with a new baby. Matt was most excited about the  diapers I brought home :).

On Friday, I removed all the tags and washed and folded all her sweet clothes and accessories. I don't think I've ever been more excited about doing a load of laundry!

We are so excited and humbled to be given this child to love and raise, and it was so fun to celebrate her and look forward to her arrival!

Big Brothers

I've been wanting to find a special gift for Elisabeth that the boys can give her in the hospital when they meet her for the first time. Nathan still remembers the giraffe he gave Samuel in the hospital. I've never taken the boys to Build A Bear, and I thought it would be fun for them to build a bear for their baby sister, so we all headed to the mall on Saturday for some fun Big Brother time.

I had some influence in what they chose for Elisabeth. If Nathan would have had complete control, she would have gotten a pink and purple tie dye octopus wearing a Spiderman costume. Thankfully, he was happy to pick a sweet white bear for his sister.

He had fun pushing the pedal to stuff the bear.

Both boys got to put a heart inside before it was sewn up.

Nathan wanted to name Elisabeth's bear Puppy Puppy and picked out a darling ballerina dress for her. He says her favorite colors are pink and purple and he was determined (after I gently steered him away from the Spiderman costume) to find a pink and purple dress for her to wear.

Nathan is the best big brother to Samuel and he is already head over heels in love with his baby sister, and I know our sweet Samuel will be a great big brother too. Elisabeth is a blessed little girl to have such wonderful built in friends and protectors in her big brothers.

No trip to the mall is complete without a trip to the play area!

 

It was a great day for these Big Brothers!

Fourth of July

We had a fun long weekend celebrating the Fourth of July! My parents offered to watch the boys on Thursday night so Matt and I got a date night and a chance to sleep late on Friday morning. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants, ran a couple of errands, played a board game, and watched Netflix (with ice cream of course). It was a great date night.

We also had a chance to get some things done around the house on Friday morning without interruption from the boys. It was a mix of productivity and relaxation. We headed over to my parents' house around noon on Friday to eat and spend the holiday with them.

We walked into this in the dining room. I think Nathan had fun Thursday night!

We ate lunch and visited. The boys had hot dogs, and the adults had steaks, a delicious lunch as usual.

The boys went down for naps shortly after lunch, and we played Ticket to Ride with my parents during their nap. After Nathan woke up, we played Candy Land. We are training him early to like board games :).

We relaxed, visited, and played with the boys the rest of the afternoon, and ate dessert. I even caught up on a couple of TV shows my mom saved for me since we cancelled our Satellite TV.

We attempted a family photo before Matt and I left for the evening.

Matt and I headed to the Nadig's for the evening. I asked Nathan if he wanted to come with us, or stay at Grammy's house, and he was quick to respond saying he wanted to stay with Grammy and Papa Joe, so they got to spend two nights at Grammy's house, and Nathan even managed to stay awake and watch some fireworks.

We love the tradition of spending the Fourth at the Nadig's. They live on a big hill and have an awesome view of the fireworks all across the Broken Arrow area. We grilled out, ate, visited, and watched the fireworks until after 11:00. It is always such a fun night, and we look forward to our kids getting older and them all running around shooting off fireworks in the backyard.

I took this picture of the view before it got dark of some of the guys sitting outside saving seats for their wives, while the ladies were all inside visiting.

We made the guys move seats when we got outside so the girls could all sit together and visit. It was such a fun night of fellowship with some of our dearest friends.

Our House- Upstairs

We have been in our new house for over five months now, and everyday it feels more and more like home to us. I thought I'd give a little tour of our upstairs. I've been waiting because we still have a few projects we're planning, but since our move, I've realized that there will ALWAYS be projects on our list, and I don't think we will ever feel like everything is completely finished. Matt and I are learning to be okay with that.

I love our upstairs. It is exactly what I was hoping to find when we were looking for a house. It's all about the kids and provides a great space for them that will grow along with them. So many houses that we looked at only had one big room upstairs (and sometimes a bathroom). I thought especially with young kids, that we probably just wouldn't use that space because it would be easier to just play downstairs, but since the kids' rooms are all upstairs, we are up there all the time playing, and there's plenty of room for firetrucks and train tracks. I also think the space is useful. It's open without any wasted space like hallways or such. It's perfect for our three kids.

As soon as you come upstairs there is a big open room which we use for a play room right now, and off of it are three bedrooms and a bathroom.

It's nice having a place for bigger toys that there wasn't room for in our old house like the train table and the kitchen. Both get played with daily.

This summer, I've worked on a few projects in the playroom, and these frames are one of my favorite projects I've done.

We are waiting for our sweet Elisabeth to get here, so we can put a picture of her in the empty frame. Nathan keeps trying to convince me to frame her ultrasound picture :)

Nathan's new room complete with his big boy bed that he'll sleep in again eventually.

Matt is still wanting to paint something on his walls, a train maybe, but it's low on the project priority list right now.

Samuel's room:

Before we sold our house, I warned Matt that I refused to move unless he promised to repaint the tree that he had painted in Samuel's nursery. He did such a great job on it.

The kids' bathroom:

It's nice that this is totally their space (we have a guest bathroom downstairs), so they don't have to share with anyone.

Elisabeth's nursery is upstairs too, but I'll share those pictures in another post when we finish her room.