summer is slowing down

so has it really been since may since i updated this...i guess we have been busy! the summer was lots of fun and we did an endless list of activities and road trips. but the boys are officially in school now, 4 hours a day/5 days a week. this is their 3rd day and they seem tired but happy. we love the school and the program they are in. along with the usual curriculum of a 4 and 2 year old, they will be taking sign language, spanish and wiggles & tunes(music).its quiet around here in the morning.jack and i play for a bit but then he takes a 1 1/2-2 hour nap. so needless to say i have accomplished more in the last three days then i have all summer!
jack is now about 19ish pounds and pretty tall for a little man. he is coming up on 8 months already. he loves to eat.he would rather have people food but he can barely handle baby food. he has a very easy gag reflex-lets just say the food comes up easily. so we are trying to take it slow with the food for him to get use to it.he is sleeping thru the night which i thought would never happen.bedtime 8, wake time 8 (sometimes 7:30). he has millions of teeth....not really but about 7 and 2 or 3 more have broken the gums. he is crawling--well speed pulling thru the house. he does all he can to keep up with us!he pulls so fast and pushes off with his toes-its quite amazing.he has a strong personality, he is stubborn and strong willed, he is funny and happy.he loves his brothers more than anything and is attached to his mommy-sometimes a little too much.but im enjoying it while i can.i know it will go fast.
eli and cope have both started school.cope is potty trained!yay!finally....well it really didnt take that long but i thought the day would never come.eli is successfully riding his big boy bike.we had to get him a new one because he got to tall for the old one that cope is now trying to ride. eli zooms all over the place, i cant believe he is almost 5! cope loves to ride his big wheel.doesnt peddle much but boy he can fly down a hill and come to a complete stop before wrecking into something.watching him makes me want to be a kid again.those two are the best of buds these days!they go on all their little adventures together and off to no where land.
jeff is coaching elis soccer team on saturdays which eli thinks is THE coolest thing ever! he is finishing his degree, he will be done next month and will have his BS in environmental management.he will continue into the masters program and complete that as well, hopefully in the next year and a half.he is pursuing his dream job of being a park ranger, so he will be volunteering on the weekend at a local park.he is super stoked. it will be interesting to see where this leads to.....

as for me....well i couldnt be happier! i love it every day what we are doing.i am so proud of the boys and how the are growing into such wonderful boys! i am a little shocked that now i am 30, cope will be 3 in a month and eli is pushing 5 oh yeah and after christmas jack will be 1 ! where did the time go? other than that....life couldnt be any sweeter.....well if the pile of trash in the front yard was gone from where we put new floors and counter top in and the floors where actually completely finished and everything was repainted-life would be a little sweeter, but im not complaining!oh and if the grass was cut and weeded.....

Mission: Fatten Baby Jack

So we took jack to the doctor for his 4 month check up....ugh of course we think he is getting soooo big and so tall....well not according to the charts. he has fallen into the low tenth percentile for weight, when he was born he was int he 80 th....so he is slightly falling of the charts. he weighed in at 12lbs 14oz.....apparently not good enough. so we are on a mission....we have to prove that baby jack can get fat and put on weight or at 6 months they will begin testing him for issues related to poor weight gain....well thats not going to happen, if i have anything to do with it. we are now all on a schedule that revolves around jack....jack eats baby cereal 3 times a day and LOOOOVES it. he just cant get enough, he should have no issues with baby food. as well as little mix of nursing and bottles containing 24 calorie breastmilk(thats just super duper fatty breastmilk with a kick)well its going well, he is a trooper we are constantly stuffing that baby and he always looks so full and happy....hopefully it will pay off!

so on top of that we have made our 4th trip to the ER with our children. Cope fell on monday, he tripped on a truck that was near the wall and hit his head on the window. He busted it right open between the eyes....there was blood everywhere! i never seen such a thing, and he was crying...he didnt know why all the "paint" was coming out of his body! jeff took him to the ER, he never cried, never complained, got the 3 stitches....some stickers and they were on their way home. we go on monday to have them removed, hopefully that goes well...
(while we are there, i will get the nurse to throw...i mean place jack on the scale to see what progress we have made in 2 weeks, so think heavy thoughts for us)

and lastly we went strawberry picking with Eli's class, it was so much fun. i took jack and cope, i was a chaperon for the class....it was a really good time! got to ride a tractor, feed goats, picked berries!


this video does not even capture half of the laughing...but if you listen you can hear jack laughing at the boys, they are jumping on their beds, he thought it was hilarious and he will laugh so hard, i have never heard a baby laugh that hard before, i love it. so we tried to video it, but he is distracted by the camera-of course!this is a video of our growler. he growls at people all the time. he mainly does it to try and get attention, when he wants you to look at him. but people will walk by us at places and he will growl at them. and its funny because the turn and look....the baby just growl at me? oh yes he did, he growled and squealed at you and it worked because he got your attention! HA and as some of you may recall.....we have already had one growling baby (coplin) but jack is putting him to shame, he really gets into it! so this video is alright, its hard because he stopes doing stuff around the camera.

Roly Poly Jack Jack and Some other Fun!!!

jack holding his head up high!!!! and jack standing in the saucer!




every night when the big boys go to bed it is a must that jack lay in the bed with them! so we put them all in eli's bed one night and let them share the love!





we had a fantastic easter! we had lots of family over, we colored eggs, we had an easter egg hunt and a good lunch.....all the works!




the weather has warmed up and summer is well on its way! we have been spending alot of time outside on the deck with our water table and our sand table! the boys love to go out in their PJs inthe morning and get all dirty and have lots of fun! Jack loves the outside too! what baby doesnt!! (Yes he is still wearing mittens! he always scratches up his face, yes i cut his nails but they are still sharp and i am trying to get their pictures made....without scrathes if i can)





So about two weeks ago (that would make Jack or JD or J-Bob 3 1/2 months old) he started rolling over from back to tummy! he goes left he goes right, he is always rolling somewhere! where did the time go? already rolling? didnt i just spend two days in the hospital, meeting him for the first time, all wrinkled and red and now he is rolling over? so its the start of everything.... he has such a little personality, loves all the attention. he rolls around to follow people walking through the room and to see his brothers playing. he loves for us to hold him standing up....so what has come next, he sits in the excercise saucer....standing up! i just cant believe it! he has found his feet, which is always an amazing discovery for a baby. so now with the rolling has come the mini push up, holding his head up so high and pushing off the ground.....and what else. you will not believe this- he is getting up on his knees....yes little butt in the air and a tiny little scoot...he cant be trusted anywhere....only on the floor.when i say little scoot, its very small-but still he is trying so hard to be mobile already and i am not ready for that! here is a vidoe of the second time he rolled over, yes its a terrible video, its dark and the camera ends upside down...oooopsie.

i have recently started baking a decorating cakes for fun and special events...this is a practice cake i made for the boys.
some cupcakes i made for my friend who turned 30, they were a big hit and delicious!
this is a cake that my friend lauren and i made for her little girls second birthday party, it was the cake pan her mom had used when she was little!
this is a 30 inch tall martini glass cake i made for my friends 30th birthday, we helped her husband plan a surprise party for her, which was a success...we martinis where the theme, lots of olives and of course the huge cake!




jack-3 months old now!!! sitting in his bumbo seat, checking out the world! he can handle it for a few minutes at a time, then it gets a little too intense for his neck muscles, but he can watch the his brothers from a new angle!
his other new thing is sitting in his high chair, not really to eat, but get him up of the ground and watch me cook. he also joins us at the table when he is eating, its nice to have him join us and not sit down so low! he thinks its fun to watch me cook and do the dishes-exciting i know!
little party animal! we have been to lots of birthday parties in the last month!

so we are up to our usual stuff, eli has a month and half until summer starts and no more school! we have lots of fun stuff planned and i look forward not having to ruh to school all the time! eli and cope are both in swim class twice a week now and the love it. cope is still a bit of a lazy swimmer, he just wants to play. eli is in an older class and learning more basic swim skills-actually how to swim and not just float. he is doing well with his ear plugs. he is learning that its ok to be different and special, especially if he doesnt want more ear infections or more tubes put in! it was hard for him at first, but he is getting use to them! we are finally back at church on Wednesday nights, now that jack is a little more settled in....the boys love to go and spend time at church. playing with their friends and doing art projects, its amazing to hear how they are growing spiritually and the questions we get asked sometimes are real stumblers! other than that we are just doing day to day stuff! everybody is happy and healthy and just trying to keep up!

Jack loves to talk!

so this is a little clip of jack at his finest, of course, i didnt have enough light on...but you can hear him talking. he is such a happy baby. he loves attention and smiles, giggles and coos all the time. he is staying awaks for longer now between naps, not sleeping much more at night......think we got another eli on our hands, not one for sleep.
everybody else is doing their usual. cope is swimming, well pretending to swim. he is the laziest swimmer now. he just takes a free ride from the instructor and smiles. not much kicking or arm action going on. but he has fun.
we have our first case of pink eye in the house! YUCK!!! we are all keeping our distance from eil, we dont even want him breathing on us. its funny how the thought of pink eye will make your eyes water and itch. heres hoping we keep it contained and there are no major outbreaks inthe house!
jeff is doing great in school, we are happy to know he will have his BS in the fall and continue on to get his masters the following year in environmental management, he really enjoys it. we have also found out that he is going into remission with his RA (rhuematoid arthritis). for those who are unaware, jeff became very ill when we moved back to SC. he was having terrible night sweats, constant fevers and so swollen in all his joints, he couldnt straighten or fully bend any of his joints. he was in constant pain and very unhappy and uncomfortable. but as of today he is cutting back on his self injected medicine and we have high hopes when he returns for a check up, his bloodwork will have great results! YAY

video crazy!!

so my sister jennifer had mention making some videos for my blog and honestly i had never really thought to do it. so i go to make a few of the kids last night and they went wild!! we must have made about 30 videos between them all. so i have tried to pick the best ones out for your viewing enjoyment...they are short clips, but there are three different ones, but i do have three kids so its only fair they each get to shine! i asked them to do their best tricks, what they would want people to see them doing on the computer and this is what i got: (now i know you need really good lighting to get a good video and you cant hold the camera side ways :-))

well i got the wrong one of jack posted, but its is still cute! i dont have time to correct the issue, i will deal with it later :)

Saturday Fun!!!

its was saturday and we needed something to do, besides play cars and trucks and trains....and kitties and house and all those things we do ALL the time....lets ge tout of the house! so we took our first mini road trip with all three monsters :-D. we drove to columbia, we went to the zoo! of course it was fun, it always is-gotta love the zoo pass! jack wore his super cute hat, courtesy of aunt jenny and william-with the alligators in spirit of the zoo! we all had super fun and it was great to get out of the house! ( but two kids talking is a lot to listen to for an hour and a half, it used to be hard to listen to eli, now its eli and cope, somethimes in synch sometimes not, sometimes just talking right over each other, sometimes a conversation...at some points one was crying while one was singing...then they would would switch....but of course once jack started to cry....they were both happy and loud and couldnt stop laughing and waking him up....i can only imagine what it will be like with three kids talking)