blow-out baby.

Titus has been our blow-out baby since about the end of May.  We can count on a daily blow-out from him :)  The good part about this is that it is very consistent - always in the morning usually between 9-11am (poor nursery workers since we go to 9:15 church!haha).  Often the blow-out is so big that he must be cleaned up from head to toe.  Sometimes it's just easier to do this....

oh little blow-out baby, we love you! :)

sitting up strong!

by the end of May Titus was sitting up as strong as a can be at 5 1/2 months old!  He was content sitting with a bucket of toys for 10-15 minutes! Once he got tired he would tip himself over and lay down.  

What a big boy!!

geocaching

Mark learned about geocaching a few years ago in a Leisure Services class he was in.  He was excited about it and took us out to find some geocaches - we all thought it was fun, but our GPS wasn't exactly as accurate as it could have been.  Things got busy and we kind of forgot to go geocaching...until this spring when our friends Chad and Erica (who Mark introduced geocaching too) got us back into it and luckily Mark's smart phone is much more accurate!  We spent lots of days in May and early June geocaching as a family (before the big move of the store and fair season began).  We set a goal to find 500 geocaches by the end of this summer, but as things have gotten super busy in our lives, I think we've changed the goal to reach 500 finds at some point :)  (as of the middle of July we are at around 160)  The boys love geocaching and ask to go often.  Both big boys have found a few geocaches all on their own and before anyone else!  We did hide our very first geocache earlier this summer and have had fun with that too!  If you don't know what geocaching is and need a fun, free, outdoor activity and have a GPS or a smart phone, I'd encourage you to give it a shot!   Here are some pictures from one day out geocaching!

he did it!

We had loaned the neighbors this little bike that we had lying around in the garage - it was never used at our house because it was without training wheels - the neighbors were done with it and brought it back the end of May.  I think Isaiah ans Levi had forgotten about it and were super impressed when Joe rode it to our house.  Isaiah got on it as soon as Joe got off and away he went!  I was shocked!  Last summer we took his training wheels off his bike and he was able to ride around on the grass, but then he wanted the training wheels right back on.  He did such a great job on this bike - if you didn't know any better you would have thought he'd been riding without training wheels for months!  I was so proud of him!

and he was so excited and proud of himself!

For the days and weeks following his afternoon, Isaiah wanted to do nothing more than ride his bike!  Take rides to the park, go to the bike trail and spend hours in the driveway just riding his bike.

Levi is much less interested in riding his bike, but has plenty of fun hanging out with Isaiah on the Jeep or some of our other outside toys.  I love it that we have a big driveway for so much outside play time!

laser tag with Carson

Our boys love to play laser tag at their daddy's store.  They typically end up at the store at least a couple times a week - we often have meetings there (marketing, accounting, employee and such), our work schedules are just so that "the switch" has to take place there or we have other work to do there and they get to come along...so anyway, our friend Carson wanted to come play laser tag with us so we had to be sure to fit it in the end of May before he left for several weeks.  His sisters came along and the kids all had a great time!

I think our boys love it that their daddy is the laser tag guy! :)

sweet mornings.

 Over the past several years we've developed a regular morning routine.  I'm so thankful that either Mark or I have been home with the boys in the mornings since the day Levi was born and we haven't had to rush to get ourselves and the kids ready to go to work or a sitter....Usually Levi will wake up first and come in and say, "I want you to come out" to me at about 7am.  I (or sometimes Mark) will drag myself out of bed and turn on a TV show to give us just another 20 minutes to wake up for the day.  Within a few minutes things usually look like this...

 

I love the family snuggle time, even if it does mean we are plopped down in front of the TV.  

I have a feeling this routine may be changing soon when we have kindergarten to get ready for!  AHHH! :)

Adventureland 2012

We spent another Memorial Day weekend at Adventureland this year!  We all love it there and also love the military discount they offer for Memorial Day weekend!  We drove down Sunday and spent the day with some good friends in Newton for the night.  The trip down was a bit crazy, but Levi drew his first real picture of our family :)  The kids had lots of fun playing with Anna, Benjamin and Emily.  Getting the kids to sleep ended up being much harder than I was hoping, but it all worked out and I think we learned better for next year! 

We arrived at Adventureland before the gates opened (a requirement of Mark's) and took our annual family photo right by the gate.  We met Bernie the mascot right inside the door and the fun of the rides began right away!  First stop - the Frog Hopper!

Our friends LeAnna and Caiden met us down there too so we had quite the crew - 7 kids 5 and under :)    I wish I would have gotten a picture of all of them together, oops!  It was a beautiful day, sunny and nice and warm!  The boys loved going on so many rides and like years past, they got to ride them over and over again.  We did stop for lunch and to watch Bixby and Friends - Isaiah was excited to get another autographed poster from Bixby (which now hangs on his closet door)!

We also took an afternoon break to watch the circus - I don't think we've ever taken the time to watch this show at Adventureland, but it was really good and a nice break.  Then it was time for some of the water rides - I think we had the most fun on these rides this year!  We went down the big slide several times in a row with a different parent taking turns sitting out with Titus.  We also did  the log ride over and over again.  This one was my favorite - and probably the kids' too.  Isaiah, Levi and I went on it together first - Isaiah in front all by himself and Levi with me in the back - the look on Isaiah's face was priceless after we went over the huge hill.  Eventually Levi got to be alone in the front and loved it too.  What fun!!

Shannon, Dan and their kids went home for an afternoon nap, but we caught back up with them in the afternoon for some more fun!   And our day at Adventureland would not be complete without a stop at the train station for whatever (within reason) piece of candy each of us could pick and then a train ride.

I love, love, love fun family days like this!  The boys have been asking when we get to go back ever since.  We all cannot wait until next Memorial Day to go again!!

first day of summer fun!!

We started the summer off with a bang this year!  We spent the morning at "the jumpy place" (as we call it - it's really KT's Indoor Inflatable Park) followed by some laser tag at "daddy's store" and ending with a playdate with Erica, Rhea and Marek.  (and maybe a bit of rain play first -- I cannot remember if the picture of the kids playing in the rain is from that morning or the night before and the camera date/time isn't quite right).  It was a fun way to spend the day!  Even Titus got in on the jumping action - he seemed to like it just fine and Levi loved showing his brother some fun! 

Gotta love the carefree days of summer! 

last day of preschool part 2

Our entire family got to attend Isaiah's last day of preschool.  Isaiah was excited to give the gift that we made for his teachers - a little crayon holder filled with 100 Grand and Payday candy bars with a note attached saying "100 Grand and an extra payday isn't enough to thank you for all you did."  Yep, Pinterest, I'm not that creative! haha.  They started the day with their regular carpet time doing the calendar, weather and good morning song one last time.  Siblings were invited to sit with and Levi was so excited.  He looked so cute sitting with his big brother!  

 After carpet time, we went down to the sanctuary where the preschoolers put on a show for us. They all looked so cute when they were singing "my God is so great so strong and so mighty there is nothing my God cannot do." over and over :)   And then they played a little video with pictures of the kids throughout the year.  So sweet.

Then each preschooler was called up one by one to get a certificate from their teachers.  

After the ceremony it was time for cookies and chaos!  The kids were going crazy and the parents just stood back to watch.  You could tell they were all such good friends and loving each other.  

I'm so proud of my big boy!  Congratulations Isaiah!

the last day of school part 1

On May 24 it was Isaiah's last day of preschool ever.  It's hard to believe that 2 years of preschool have come and gone, but somehow they have.   Look at how much Isaiah has grown and changed!  (sorry for the terrible quality in the August 2010 picture, but I'm sad to say that about 2 weeks of our pictures were just about lost in a laptop crash -other than those that were posted on my blog).

Isaiah and Caiden were both pretty excited about the last day.  It's been fun to see them grow together and become the best of buds.

 I couldn't be more proud of my little preschooler.

 and I'm proud of this guy too!

 And we can't forget the 3rd partner in crime....Levi...he couldn't be more excited about the fact that he will be in preschool in just a few months!