Outside Time

Now that Nolan is walking better with his shoes on, I let him play outside with his brothers more. He LOVES this and wishes I would let him out all day long. The boys have been pretty good playing with Nolan as well. They other day they put him in their dump truck and drove him around the yard. He didn't even mind when they dumped him out. Fun times!

Snow!

A couple weeks ago we had our first snow of the year. While Tyler was at school, Carter and Nolan went a played. This was Nola's first time in the snow, and while he was excited he was outside, he wasn't so sure of this cold stuff. We only stayed out a for a few minutes. Then he just started out the window watching his brother continue to play out all day.

Pumpkins

Way behind once again....Because it was so cold at the pumpkin patch, Oma and I went back to the car while daddy, Opa, and the big boys picked out the pumpkins. Which meant I didn't get any pictures. So I took some of Olivia and Nolan with the pumpkins on our porch. Here they are.

Halloween

We had a very busy Halloween, with lots of wearing of the costumes. Carter had his Halloween party at school the Thursday before. Tyler happened to be off of school that day, so he got to join in as well. I also had Nolan and Livi in their costumes too. They boys had a blast decorating cookies and Carter enjoyed trick or treating around the church. On Saturday we had a friends birthday party which was Halloween themed. The kids even got to tick or treat around the house - very fun.  Then on Halloween day, Tyler had his Halloween party and got to wear his costume to school. They did a parade around the school as well, but I missed getting to see that. Carter, Nolan, Livi and I then joined him in the afternoon for his class party (in costume). I guess they snag a couple songs, but I missed it. They had fun eating lots of food though and Carter always just joins in like its his class. Tyler loves showing off Nolan and Livi to his friends.  Halloween night we actually took them trick or treating around our neighborhood. I must say Nolan was just adorable toddling around. The boys did well saying trick or treat an remembering to day thank you. After about 10 houses we came home and let the boys hand out the candy. They were more excited about this part. They sat on our porch yelling to anyone who passed by "we have candy!!!". Glad to see they were just excited to give out candy than to eat all theirs. Also glad that all the Halloween candy is now gone.

Conferences

The past couple weeks both of the boys had their school conferences and they are both doing great! I had Carter's first and his teacher just loves him. She is very impressed with his fine motor skills and that he knows all his letters and most of his sounds already. She says he is happy to play with everybody in the class and lives life like it his to live. I thought that was a pretty good assessment of him. There a few things to work on, like skipping and some of his numbers, but I think he will do great this year and be ready for Kindergarten next year. Couldn't be prouder of him!
I had Tyler's on Thursday. He is also doing great. His teacher says he plays with the kids and does talk in class, but he always wants to make sure he knows what he should be doing before doing it. He is excelling at reading and writing being in the top reading group right now.  He had all P+, P's and a couple PP (partially proficient). However the PP's were because they hadn't gotten to some skills yet. When he is home he amazes us with how well he can read and sound out words and how much he loves to write. I am one proud mom of my big boys!!!

Oma, Opa, and the Pumpkin Patch

The weekend before Carter's birthday my parents came to town. Opa hadn't met Olivia yet so they came in to meet her and see everyone else. We saw them Friday night and went and had Old C's for dinner. They spent Saturday with Todd and Jessie's kids and then came back over to our house on Sunday. Unfortunately Olivia and Tyler both got sick on Saturday (Nolan had already been sick a couple days earlier). So Oma and Opa didn't come over til the afternoon so we could see how everyone was feeling. Everyone seemed to be ok so we headed to the Pumpkin Patch.

We went to a different one this year that had hay rides, a slide, a train ride, a swing, lots of animals, and pumpkin of course. It would have been a lot of fun but it was VERY windy. We kind of rushed thought everything and my mom, Nolan, Olivia, and I even headed back to the car early while the boys finished up with the pony rides and picking out the pumpkins. The kids still had a good time though so I guess that's all that matters. We went and got dinner that night where Tyler got sick again. I loved that ,y parents came out and that my dad got to see Olivia, but I just wish we weren't all sick all weekend (I then got sick a couple days later as well).

Celebration

We had Carter's Birthday party at ArtSports this year. He invited his whole class, but because of a long weekend a few of them couldn't make it. All the kids still seemed to have a great time however. Carter loves jumping and doing flips and then loved his Star Wars cake.  For his actual birthday we had ravioli for dinner and he got to open his presents from us. The first thing he did was tell Tyler he could share his gifts. I sure do love his heart!

Carter's 5 Year Video Montage

Here is the video for Carter turning 5. 

5 Years Old

On the 19th, Carter James, you turned 5 years old. You are most definitely a big boy now. You still have one of the sweetest, most emphatic hearts that I know and I can't imagine our family without your little smile in it.
You love to do art, and boy are you good at it. Painting, coloring, cutting, or just doing worksheets, you love it all. You actually ask to do homework everyday because it usually means doing something with a pen in your hand. I hope this creativity will continue through out the years.  You (usually) love going to school and you love to share with us all that you are learning everyday. You love to sing, and although you never want to go, you love being in choir on Wednesday nights.
You love to jump on the trampoline and be outside. You may not always be running around, but if you are outside, even just sitting and watching or talking to the neighbor boys you are a happy kid.  You also love to watch "shows" which at times we had to put limits on for you. However if we give you the option to go out you will happily accept.
You still have such a big heart and would rather give things up yourself than see someone else sad. You are always the first to share your toys and special treats and always willing to do something less desirable (liking cleaning the playroom) if someone else doesn't want to do it. You also try to talk your way out of anything. You have an argument for anything we may ask you to do and you love to exaggerate. One of your favorite phrases right now is "this will take for ages".
You still love to play with Tyler, but since he is in school all day you are starting to have such a great relationship with Nolan, and he loves it so much. You play with Nolan and try to include him all day long. You also love your baby sister who you call "my baby girl" and "my princess".  However once Tyler is home you want to know all about his day and show him everything from yours.
You love to cuddle and always run up to daddy when he comes home from work and to me when I pick you up from schools. This is one of my favorite parts of everyday. I love you Carter James and can't wait to see you grow this year. Happy Birthday Carter Bear!

Aspens

Last weekend we took our annual drive to go and see the aspens changing. I was the perfect day weather wise and the trees were beautiful. The boys had a blast running around in the woods and having a picnic lunch by a stream. Enjoy the pictures!

Nolan Updates

Just a post to share a few of Nolan's favorite things right now

• He loves to read and brings me books a few times a day. He always brings me Go Dogs Go, its his absolute favorite.
• If he isn't reading in the play room he is throwing his blocks. Hopefully soon he will learn to put them back in the bag. He does find it quite humorous to have the blocks placed on his head as well.
• Nolan's favorite game right now is playing peek a boo and he just found out how fun it is to hide behind doors to play.
• He still loves to climb - he can get onto any couch or table we have. He has also learned to push our kitchen chair over to the counter, climb onto the counters, open up the cabinets and get some food out.
• He loves to climb into the dishwasher as well. To stop this we have been locking the dishwasher, that worked until he learned that when the dishwasher is locked to you can turn the dial to make it start which makes fun sounds.
• Just recently he has learned to throw trash away for us. But he doesn't quite have the concept of keeping the trash in the can once he throws it in there.
• Nolan has had a lovey in his crib since about 4 months old. Just recently he has decided he can't sleep without one and he loves to carry them all over the house.
• Nolan loves to play in the bathrooms  - his favorite thing to do in there? That would be give his lovey a bath in the toilet.

So those are some of Nolan's favorite things - he is just adorable doing all of them, but they make me exhausted!

Two Month Check-up

Olivia went in for her two month check-up on Wednesday. The doctor says she is doing great and has no concerns.  She can't believe how well she is sleeping already or how she already stands up when you hold her hands. She thinks Olivia will be walking at 9 months - I am hoping she is wrong. She is doing great on the weight gain as well so no concerns again about her spitting up. She did have to get shots and did not like them at all (neither did Carter who left the room with another nurse while she was getting them done). They bothered her the most out of all my kids. However by the time we got to the car she had settled down and was fine the rest of the night.  Glad to hear she is doing so well! Her stats are - weight 10 lbs 13 ounces - 55th percentile, height - 2 inches - 75th percentile. Now that they do electronic records they don't write down the measurements for me and it wasn't on the print out they gave me so I don't remember her head circumference, I believe she is in the 50th percentile for that though.

Two Months

On Tuesday little Livi turned two months old. She is smiling everyday at us and just yesterday I heard her first laugh and it was the cutest thing ever. She is a great sleeper and is already on a pretty good nap schedule. After she wakes up she is awake for about an hour or so and then takes about an hour and a half nap. She does this throughout the day.  At night she will be awake for one longer stretch for about 2-3 hours. Then she goes to bed around 9ish, gets a dream feed at 11 and sleeps until 5 usually and then goes back to sleep til I have to get her up to take Tyler to school. A couple times she has gone 8 hours!! She is a great eater, 3-4 ounces every 3 hours, and while she still spits up some she still isn't bothered by it.  She is also becoming a better burper which helps with the spitting up.  She loves her swing and loves being held and talked to. She is constantly watching her brothers, who in turn love her to pieces - even Nolan is coming around. She is holding her head up more and more everyday and can almost sit up if she is getting help. She loves to kick her arms and legs, but has yet to try to hit any toys or anything. She is also starting to coo and talk, and her favorite time to do this is when she is eating. We love her so much and while we can't wait to see what she will do next we are enjoying this stage she is in now. Love you Livi!!!

Two-Wheeler

Last weekend we took Tyler out to try to ride his bike without training wheels. We weren't sure how it was going to go as sometimes he takes things with no problems and other times he says he wants to try something and then changes his mind. I am happy to say he did very well. We started off in the grass and after a few times when Justin let go Tyler kept riding! Then we went up to the sidewalk area of the park. He did very well at one point and rode a long way by himself. However he forgot how brake and ran right into some bleachers (see the video).  He did get back and try some more, but he wanted to mostly work on braking at that point. We are still working on braking and he has yet to get on and start by himself for he did very well for his first time. I just wish we had a better area at home for him to practice more. Hopefully we can get up to the park again this weekend and have him practice some more.

Nolan's Evaluation

Last week we had an evaluation for Nolan's speech. He still doesn't put any sounds together to make words and reminds us a lot of Tyler at this age when he started getting speech therapy. Nolan played and acted pretty normal during his evaluation which I was happy to see. They all thought he was super cute and sweet and I have to agree. In the end they decided that why yes he does have a delay in both speech and social (I think for speech they said he was at about a 9 months old). they want to hold off on giving him services.  He is still young and because he has been working on walking - which he now does 95% of the time-  he wasn't working on talking.  If we still have concerns in 6 months they will reevaluate. Part of me is fine with this, and part of me knows that if he does qualifies in 6 months I will be upset that they didn't start services earlier. For the most part  Nolan is very easy, but there are times where he will just scream because he  can't communicate to us what he wants. He continues to just scream and cry until we can finally figure out what he wants. This is the part that reminds us of Tyler. He is much more social and a people person that Tyler ever was though, so we aren't as concerned because of that. Hopefully he will start having some words soon!

Celebration

For Tyler's birthday this year  we thought we would let him have a real party. He wanted to do a bowling party at Mr Biggs, where he went for another boys party last year. When I asked him who we wanted to invite, he still hadn't been in Kindergarten that long, so he named a bunch of boys from his preschool class last year. He did invite one boy from his Kindergarten class,but I never heard back from his mom (Kindergarten is a completely different when it comes to knowing the kids and their parents).  On the day of his birthday he brought cookies for his class, and then we had a family movie night where we watched Evan Almighty.

The next day was the party day.  We had 7 boys there all together and I think they had a blast. After one game of bowling (which seemed to go slow) we had some cake, opened presents, and then bowled some more. There was a lot of running around, a lot of laughter and being silly, and all in all a great time.

6 Years Old

First, I need to apologize that this is a week late Tyler. Things have been busy around here. I can not believe that you are 6 years old. I know I say that every year, but its true! You, once again, have grown up so much this year.

You finished your last year of preschool and started Kindergarten and you dad and I couldn't be prouder of how well you are doing in school all day long. You had more confidence than I ever thought you would when you just walked into your classroom with no problems at all. I have gotten back a progress report with how you are doing, and while I was happy to see that you are right where you should be, or not ahead in all the academic areas, I was most excited to see that you are doing great with behavior and social as well.

You still love all things sports and you have gotten so much more athletic in the last year. Two years ago we had you in PT for your tight muslces in your legs that made it hard for you to run correctly. This year you ran two .5 mile races and did it super fast. You have quite the arm when it comes to both throwing a baseball and football and you can knock the ball off the tee out of the park (or at least our backyard). You have learned how to skip and even ride your bike without training wheels.  Not to mention your wrestling tournament where you wrestled your heart out, never gave up, and got second place.

While you are starting to make new friends, you still love to come home everyday, have your snack, and then hang out with Carter. You boys have your disagreements, but for the most part you love to play together. Whether its Star Wars, jumping on the trampoline, or playing with cars, you almost always welcome your little brother to join you. You are starting to realize too I think, how much he looks up to you and are becoming more and more sensitive to him and helping him rather than tattling on him.

While Carter may still be your best friend, you are one of the greatest helpers in the world when it comes to Olivia and Nolan. You and Olivia had an instant bond it seemed. You are so happy to finally have the baby sister you have always wanted. You love to call her your "princess" and are always giving her kisses and hugs. She seems to calm down whenever you get near as well. You also love to help out with Nolan. Helping him to walk,talk,and play with him, he loves it when you are near.

Tyler you have become quite the silly boy this last year, always trying to make people laugh. You still have the most helpful attitude I know and loving heart. You have the best manners - the office ladies at school even commented to me on how great they are. You still love to make up stories and play on your own if needed to. You are learning to read and you are always eager to do your homework and go to school. Most of all though you are just a great boy and your dad and I couldn't be more proud to be your parents. We love you Tyler bug - happy birthday!!