what, this isn't part of your bedtime routine?

Jonas spent the last few minutes prancing and dancing on the bed all while completely naked, to the chosen tune of "Cold Hard Bitch." Classic.

While he was doing that, Jude was climbing on the bed and scooting off, climbing on the bed and scooting off, climbing on the bed and. . . you get the idea.

Solana was cuddled up next to me and told me, "I'm going to marry the handsomest man in the world." I asked her if he was going to be nice too and she said, "He'll be perfect, mom. Like Daddy. Daddy's perfect, but sometimes he calls me 'lazybones.' My husband will be nice, but he might sometimes call my son or daughter 'lazybones.'"

Just another reminder to always strive to be a good example for our children. They are always watching and learning, creating a picture of what a marriage is, the roles each partner plays. Not that people can't break that mold, but these early examples are powerful and deep-reaching.

today

Today was a long day: sick feverish girl, whiny boy (at least for only half the day), and a no-napping wonder. Plus a husband who is out of town for the weekend at a conference. Oh, and trying to get ready for a garage sale tomorrow.

So instead of some enlightening topic today (you know, like I usually have. . .), you get some pictures. They're from Jude's birthday, taken at the beach where we spent the majority of the day.


::birthday boy::


::freaking adorable, isn't he?::


::father and daughter::

clean up

Me: Jonas, come help me put all the Mouse Trap pieces away.

Jonas: I'm going to stand here and make sure you get them all.

Sound familiar Tara?

the milestones, they are a flying

Flying by, that is. It feels like Jude does one thing, only to learn something new the next day. It's insane the amount of growth children do in these early years, simply amazing.

So Jude took his very first steps when he was 11 months old. Since then, he has grown steadily more confident on his feet and is at the point right now where he's about 50/50 walking/crawling.

He's also waving hello and goodbye with that adorable backwards wave babies do. I love that he waves to anyone that says goodbye to him (usually) and at random cars that drive by us. He had one lady in our neighborhood (whom we do not know) in stitches over this the other day. Aside: Did I really just use the phrase "in stitches?" Ugh.

Yesterday Jude figured out how to click his tongue and make a cool new sound. He's been doing that a lot the last couple days.

And today he started holding up his hand and saying, "Duh, duh." Which apparently means, "High 5 man!" I started giving Jonas high 5's the last few days and Jude must have been feeling left out. It's freaking adorable.

Video of Jude's new sound and his high 5's. Couldn't quite get him to wave though as he decided he wanted to try to grab the camera. Again.

happy first birthday jude koa!

::birthday ring::

My dear sweet Jude,

Today (okay, okay, last week) you're one! This year has flown by, as I knew it would. I've told you more than once to slow down, to stop for just awhile, and stop growing quite so fast. Alas, you continue on your path, getting older and bigger, reaching those bittersweet milestones.



::the favorite present, by Jude and the other 2 alike::

This last year has seen you pushed into this world (after a few too many hours working on said task) and promptly letting us know you were going to be a pretty chill baby. Not that you don't have your moments, but overall I thank you for your relaxed temperament. You did have to one-up your older brother by weighing 1 ounce more than he did at birth though.

You learned to roll over, sit up, then crawl, and finally to take your first tentative steps. Before we know it, you'll be chasing your brother and sister all over the place.


::his first bite of cake ever~ wish I could say it had tasted better::

So, my dear growing boy, congratulations on your first trip around the sun. I wish you many, many, many, many more and hope they are filled with as much love, happiness, and pure joy as you have given me this first year. I love you so very much and feel so blessed that you chose me to be your mother.

Love,
Mommy



::blowing out his birthday cake candle, encouraged by Solana::

halloween

::hermione and scooby doo::


While I work on Jude's birthday post and the slideshow from his birth, I'm going to post some pictures Henry took on Halloween. The kids had a lot of fun. Solana went as Hermione (she's read the first 2 books in the Harry Potter series and begging for more), Jonas was Scooby Doo (his other current obsession besides firefighters), and Jude was a kangaroo.

I raided the dress-up box for some mouse ears and Henry went as the oldest costume in the book: a ghost. He was the only one out there dressed as one and got tons of compliments; he says there will probably be tons of them out in the neighborhood next year.


::wiggle ghost::


::strategically placed pumpkin::


::spooky cat::


::koa kangaroo::


::pretend there's a ghost in the background too because i forgot to get a picture of henry in his costume::

Happy Halloween!

back again

I'm finally back here. I took a hiatus and didn't realize it had been a month-long one, yikes! Things have been really busy here, plus I've had a lot swirling around in my head, all of which resulted in no desire to write here.

I toyed with skipping this post since I still need to blog about so many things that happened in my absence, but decided to get this out here for now since the others may take some time.

A summary of what we've been dealing with in the last month:

-We all got sick and it lasted about 3 weeks for it to run through all of us, perhaps swine flu, but we don't really know for sure.

-Jude turned 1 (holy crap, he's 1!). I will definitely be blogging about that and his tol/dol ASAP.

-Jude is walking, but still mostly crawling as his mode of transportation.

-Our kitchen is still not done. At all. Mix-up with the flooring we ordered/they sent and now we're waiting on the final pieces of flooring.

Anyway, November is National Blog Posting Month, which I participated in the before and I figure I might as well give it a go again. So now is the perfect time to catch up on everything and get back in the swing of posting here. I will do my best to post every day this month, but I make no promises with 3 kids and the unpredictableness that is my life these days.