Race Number 2

On Friday before we headed off to Maryland we made it to the last race of the year for the running club. The boys were very excited and Carter decided he could run it himself (at first he wanted Justin to run with him). Right at the start of the race is started raining. Once the horn sounded we headed over to the finish line to watch them finish. We noticed that Tyler seemed to be in the back as we were walking over and we knew there was a kid pile up right at the beginning but we weren't sure if he was involved in it or just stopped and waited until all the kids got out of his way. When he came to the finish line though we saw he was most definitely involved in the pile up. His face was all cut up with blood running down his face. As soon as he crossed the finish line he started crying, but was fine after he got a drink. We found out he had tripped over a kid who fell and then over kids fell on top of him. However he quickly got up and finished with no problems. He finished only 5 seconds slower than he did the first race coming in 9th out of 30 kids. We were very proud. Carter did awesome as well. He ran the whole thing by himself and he fell once but got up and finished it with no problems (it was a very little fall). He finished 21st and came in at 5 minutes 41 seconds - much faster than his first race.  We are so proud of our boys for doing their best even when they fell down.

28 week Appointment

Last Thursday before we left for Maryland I had my 28 week appointment. All the boys had to come with me, but they all behaved very well. Tyler was very interested in listening to the heartbeat. Everything looks great still and they have no concerns. They also said I don't need to worry about my hernia at all unless it starts hurting or anything. She is measuring right on and they had no concerns about my weight gain (I have lost track with how much I have gained at this point, but its more than Nolan). I now start going every 2 weeks - this pregnancy is going by fast!

9 month Appointment

Nolan had his 9 month doctor appointment today and as usual is doing just great.  He got one shot which he did just fine with as well. The doctor said not to worry that he isn't drinking as much formula, and to actually give him his solids first the his bottle. We can also continue weaning him off his prevacid and hopefully in a couple weeks he will be totally off of it. Around 11 months we can also start weaning him off of his formula onto his whole milk, which we are excited about as we only need one baby on formula at a time. He is still a little behind on communication, but not as far as behind as he was at 6 months so for now we will still monitor it. She is worried that its a hearing issue, but since he is making some sounds we won't do another hearing test at this point. She would like him to be saying mama or dada by 12 months, even if it isn't directed at us necessarily. The only other issue was he went down in percentiles for both weight and height. The nurse actually measured him twice because she thought she got it wrong the first time. The doctor thinks its because he is crawling and more active than most babies his age and that's the reason for the decrease. As long as he doesn't go down in percentile more at a year we won't worry about it. We went down this road with Tyler as well, so we are not to concerned about it. Tyler never went down in percentile in height however so that is a new thing for us. He still weighs more than Tyler did at this point, but less than Carter. He is shorter than both boys were.  His measurements are: weight - 18 pounds, 9 ounces, 22nd percentile; height - 27 1/2 inches, 25th percentile; and head circumference 44.6 cm, 40th percentile. Glad he is happy and healthy!!

Clean Teeth

Both big boys had their dentist appointments today. I was a little concerned for both of them as Tyler got knocked in the mouth with a bat the other week and Carter complains about his teeth hurting when he eats sometimes. However there was no reason for my concern Once again both of their teeth look great with no cavities. She did give Carter some sensitive toothpaste to see if that helps him or not. Of course the boys favorite part was getting their new toothbrushes and pinwheels and stickers. Glad for healthy strong teeth!!!

1st Race

On Friday night Tyler and Carter were in their first running race. Tyler has been asking to be in one for a while and I found a kid running club that did races so we signed them up. It was a half mile trail race at Bear Creek Park. The boys had a ton of fun (for the most part) and we found out that a few friends from Tyler's class and from Carter's class were running in it too! We got there a little early to register them and they got their numbers pinned on. The boys ran around some and then we walked the course so they knew were to go. I got as little worried at that point because its a true half mile and towards the end of us walking it Tyler was saying he was tired. However once we were done walking it we found his friends and they were so excited to go wait at the starting line. They sounded the horn and the boys were off. Justin and I walked over to the finish line and waited for our boys to appear. Tyler got 7th out of 35 preschool boys with a time of 4:35. He did great and didn't even seem tired when he finished, but was excited to get his lemonade and snacks and his ribbon. We then waited for Carter, which seem to take awhile. I started getting nervous when he finally came in sight, holding a lady's hand. Once he saw us he let go of her hand and finished strong. He finished 30 out of 35 with a time of 6:58. But then he told us what happened - he fell and hurt his hand. He was totally fine, but I guess a little tired because he cried a bout it for the next half hour, refusing to let us clean it or anything. Once he finally got a band-aid on it he was fine again and says he wants to run again next week. We are hoping to make it, but we do leave for Maryland very early Saturday morning so we will have to see. Either way we are very proud of how they did during their first race. Tyler for doing his best and running the whole time, and Carter for getting up and finishing. Even if we can't do next week I am sure we will try to find more this summer to get them involved in.

Carter's Last Day

Carter also had his last day of school. Since his class will all be doing another year of preschool next year (none of the kids are old enough for kindergarten) it wasn't as big of a deal for  his class as it was for Tyler's. Justin left Tyler's potluck lunch a little early to head down to Carter's class. They were having an ice cream social and celebrating any summer birthdays. Carter also received a picture frame with his picture in it and a fun, wooden pinwheel. He said bye to his teachers and friends and then we all went out to a celebration lunch at Olive Garden. We have been very pleased with his year as well and he is very excited for school to start again in the fall when he gets to go even more (although his first choice would be to go to kindergarten with Tyler).

Graduation Video

Here is some video from Tyler's graduation ceremony!

My Graduate

Tyler graduated from Preschool today. Justin took the day off so that we could both see his ceremony.  He got to wear a little hat and they walked in to Pomp and Circumstance playing. It was very cute and I must say it made me tear up a little. The class then sang us songs about all the stuff they learned throughout the year. Including their days of the week and month of the year songs, a song about the fruits of the spirit, and the books of the Bible. They also recited all nine of their memory verses they learned throughout the year. The aid in his classroom, Mrs Powers, gave each child a Bible on it with their names engraved in it. Mrs. Goodman then said a few words where I once again teared up and then all the kids got their diplomas along with a devotional book. We then had a potluck lunch and Tyler said bye to all his friends. It was a great year and we couldn't be happier with his teacher and his class this year. We are so proud of how much he has blossomed this year and can't believe that he is now a kindergartner!

9 Months!

Nolan you are 9 months - in just three months you will already be a year old, crazy! You are a full fledged crawler now, getting everywhere on your hands and knees. You pull yourself up to anything and everything and have started cruising around in the last week. One your favorite things to do is climb the stairs.  You don't have any words yet, but you babble all day long and you still love to click you tongue. You now have 2 teeth with numbers 3 and 4 coming in any day. Teething is quite the process for you, it seems that you have a runny nose and are cranky for about two weeks before the teeth actually pop through. You still love to eat, especially solids. You won't eat baby food peas, but real peas you gobble up. You favorite veggie is sweet potato and you love all fruits, especially bananas. You love to eat bread and anything else that we are eating that you get bites of. You also seem to enjoy yogurt and cheese a lot. You only eat 4-6 ounces of of formula at a time, but I think its because you would rather have regular food. We have started the processing of weaning you off your reflux medicine and you haven't seemed to notice. You are still a relatively happy easy baby, although with teething you woke up a few times at night and want to be cuddled a little more than normal, not that I mind. You still go to sleep great and while you sometimes get to have 6 short naps throughout the day thanks to driving your brothers all over the place you don't seem to mind. We love you so much and can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend started off very nice. I had a baby shower to go to in Denver on Saturday afternoon, so we took the opportunity to go up a little early together as a family and do some shopping. We went to Park Meadows for the whole purpose of getting the boys new crocs for the summer. We also ate some lunch, found some cute clothes for Olivia, and found out the mall also has a lego store! Not much better than that for Tyler. He loved looking at all the legos, and even more exciting they had the Star Wars Death Star model built for everyone to look at. He was disappointed we didn't get to buy any legos, but got over it so we could throw pennies in the fountains. Before dropping me off at the shower we had a ice cream treat. While I was at the shower the boys got to go to a new playground in Larkspur, which they said was the best park ever. It is filled with tons structures to climb on, and not much is better than that.

On Sunday we had planned on doing some yard work and then taking a family hike as it was a gorgeous day. However on Saturday night I caught a stomach bug so most of Sunday I stayed in bed while Justin handled the boys. I was given cards and they had gotten me cinnamon rolls, but they enjoyed those on their own. By Sunday night I was feeling better, the boys had a fun day of playing outside the entire day, and Justin worked on the sprinklers and took care of the boys all day including going grocery shopping. So even though I was sick, I still had quite the nice Mother's Day - thank you boys!!!!

Boys Singing

Here are the videos of the boys singing during their mom's programs - enjoy!

Field Trips

I am way behind on the blog, but Tyler's class has been busy with field trips. A few weeks ago they went to the Fountain Creek Nature Center. Since it was on my last day of MOPs of the year, Justin took the day off to take Tyler. Tyler's friend Bryce from his class also got to ride to and from the field trip with Justin and Tyler which was very exciting for the two boys. Justin tells me they had a lot of fun. They got to walk around the pond, watch a puppet show, and learn about the different animals they could find around the city. Tyler also correctly answered why beavers slap their tails in the water (to inform other beavers of danger). It was also nice for Justin to get to watch Tyler interact with his friends.

On Monday, Tyler's class went to the fire station. Tyler walked with Bryce and his dad and as usual loved the fire station. He got to sit in three different trucks, see their work out room, watch a fireman go down a pole, and get a sticker which he wore for three days straight. Needless to say he loves going on field trips and is already asking if he will get to go on some next year in Kindergarten.

Moms and Muffins

Last week I got to have Moms and Muffins in the morning with Tyler's preschool class and then have a Mother's day Tea that afternoon with Carter's class. Both were very cute and fun. For Tyler's we got to eat some muffins, watch the class perform a song, hear a story and receive our gifts. The story Mrs Goodman read was Guess How Much I Love You, which is  book that I have read the boys many times. When the last line was read "I love you to the moon and back" Tyler tells everyone "that's how much my mom loves me".  He then gave me a photo holder that he painted for me.



For Carter's they provided us a light lunch to eat with our kids. The class first performed a couple of songs and then read a story, then it was time to eat. Carter was very excited to eat his chocolate sandwich (nutella). He gave me a little jewelry box he painted with a heart shaped pin he also painted and decorated inside of it.  It was very sweet and I loved spending my morning with my boys!