Dirt

Man, this kid is running me ragged!

Yesterday Carson came running trying to tell me something that was clearly urgent. I heard something about "Emmett" and "yucky." How did I not hear the pot hit the floor?!

The plants on the floor in the front window are blocked off after he figured out he could climb under the swing and tipped one over and dug in (although somehow he managed a second helping under his Dad's watch once too). And usually I have these plants blocked with the chairs, but you never know when Avery or Carson may move them!

Obviously, Emmett thought he had achieved something magnificent. He doesn't usually laugh or smile when he can see the camera, so he must have been impressed with himself! His expression here really reminds me of Travis. I had to look at the few kid pics of him I have scanned in. The closest parallel I could find was one of Travis when he was 2 and their big grins make the same face shape. So, I don't know what it is exactly, but I guess they're related. :)

Emmett's foray into gardening was only the big bang at the end of a string of trouble. Here are only a few mild examples from the day - the few I caught on camera (c'mon, I can't always run to the rescue, sometimes I just have to sit back and take a picture).

Here he gets too mad about hitting his head repeatedly
to figure out he can crawl out as easily as he crawled in...

What's the fastest way to the puzzle piece he wants to chew up?
Of course this didn't end well. He couldn't just roll off on his side,
he had to keep climbing over and face plant.

Again, flirting with disaster. Is he going to tip forward into
the back of the Jeep? No, this one ended harmlessly.

But seriously, it's one thing after another with this kid!
Obviously the plant was his peak performance... on this day...

Carson's 2 Year Checkup

Thanks to Avery for capturing this very sweet picture of Carson with his camera!

Carson had his 2 year check up today.
He shrunk on the curve a little for height (smack between 50 and 75% now), and has slimmed down (50%), but he still has a big head (90%)!

He's such a polar opposite to Avery about the doctor. Avery has always been excited to go, no matter what. Carson has always been nervous and upset since he was capable of it. All in all, he did well, but he did have to have one shot.

Carson is my little sweetheart. He's such a happy boy. He loves to repeat everything, and it's so funny hearing how he's incorporated Mommy-isms and Avery-isms into so much of his speech. (Nothing bad...yet?)

Avery says, "Oh, MAN!" when something doesn't work for him.
Carson says, "Oh, MON!" with the exact inflection for the same reasons.

When you call Carson to come to you, he often says, "Coming!" but that's tantamount to "Never" but in a happy voice.

He has the greatest, sort of sassy, "OOOOOOkay" or "Okaaaaay" or even "OOOOOOOkAAAAAAy" ever. It's so hard not to giggle when he says them with these big pronounced vowels and big "O" lips.

When Emmett wakes up, Carson is very concerned and always lets me know "Emmett's crying (or screaming)." Then he always wants to go talk to Emmett to make him happy until Mommy comes.

He still takes an afternoon nap, and he's GREAT at it. He's happy to go! Sometimes he lets me know ahead of time that he's tired, or he'll easily acknowledge he is when I ask. Sometimes he even says, "Yea! Naptime!"

Bedtime is a different story. He's a little monkey in and out and in and out of his crib constantly.

Carson is also my sensitive guy. When he gets in trouble it's definitely a different approach than it's been with Avery. It will be interesting to see how that continues as they grow.

Carson, you're just so adorable and sweet, we love you so much! Happy 2nd Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday Carson!

On Saturday Carson turned 2 years old!

We had a casual little get together that a few of our dental school friends could come to.

Mickey Mouse isn't necessarily Carson's favorite, but we just did Lightning McQueen for Avery in December. So we went with a good little-guy theme that he does enjoy now, but may be too old for in the future.

The cake in the middle is just for Carson and the cupcakes for the kids.
I had an extra undecorated cake for the adults.

The Mini-Mickey's:

How do you like my cool new shades?

Avery could not help himself; strangely, Carson never got mad at him.

Emmett, on the other hand, got a big "Noooo Emmett" when he got close:

New monster truck love

Dig in!

Once he figured out there was candy around the edge,
he ate half of that before returning to the cake:

As good as MoTab, huh?

Happy Birthday Carson!

O Positive

Almost Universal, as Travis calls himself.

Travis brought home another one of these T-shirts yesterday. I think this is his fifth? I'm not sure there's a rhyme or reason to when they hand them out, but he's certainly been going long enough to grow a collection. He's been going like clock work since we moved here.
They have a building across the street from the dental school. In the first years, it wasn't inconvenient because he could study. Now, when "the vampires" (Travis' terminology) call every 8 weeks to remind him they "really need his kind of blood right now" (that would be always), he goes in. Actually, I think he even puts it in his calendar when he's due! Once when he was in they even rushed his donation immediately to a hospital to use right then!
Not once have I ever donated blood (actually, I pretty sure I'm O positive too), and here Travis says yesterday he noticed his paper there said he's over 2 gallons now! Interesting imagery when I think of the gallon jugs in my fridge. Hmm, that makes a humorous leap in my head to Twilight...

The Great Growing Turtle

Back in January, Avery got this little turtle as part of a gift bag at a birthday he went to. It's supposed to grow in water for up to a week. Well, I finally gave up some of my meager counter space to a giant bowl for the thing to grow in. We let it go longer than a week and, as you can see, it got a lot bigger!







Once you take it out of the water it's supposed to shrink back down. I was going to wait to see how long it took to shrink before posting, but here it is 6 weeks later and it's still not as small as when it started! It did, however, lose it's front limbs almost immediately. Poor turtle. Apparently Avery's still hanging on to the amputations. Here's he is, with his lost limbs, back in the bowl for old time's sake.

Must've Been A Good Book

The other night we found Carson asleep like this...

Hot Hot Heat

Okay, so I don't really have a title for this post, so I just put the name of the band currently on the playlist.

Last Saturday Avery got a fever. It was getting better Sunday and by Monday it was gone. But then it was Carson's turn. Oh, and Avery wasn't in the clear - he started complaining of a headache - and you could tell it was bad - he was miserable. In fact, it was so bad I think that was the culprit behind him getting up in the night and puking a few times! Avery's headache and Carson's fever lasted through Tuesday.
Monday was a nice day out - but Tuesday (St. Patrick's Day) it got above 70 out! I was super excited to take the kids to the park, but then the fevers and headaches hit. Ugh.
Despite that, both days we did have a little time outside in the evenings when Daddy worked on the walls for our trailer. I completely neglected to do anything for St. Patrick's Day too. My boys don't even know it existed. That's okay, we'll introduce them next year...

Monday. Thank goodness for an Advil high, Avery could play for a while.
Also, note Mr. I-Have-To-Stand-All-The-Time-Now.

Emmett loves all the attention from his brothers:

So sweet.

I did not pose this - they like making trains for me!

Time to come down from the high.
Carson passes out in his high chair and Avery on the couch.

I've given Avery my old terrible camera.
He's enjoying the privledge and worries about caring for it properly.
More on his pictures later I'm sure.
He's standing in the trailer that Travis is working on.

I just really like Carson's face here.

Again, the comedown. Monday night they both plopped on the couch with their blankets and Travis had me get the camera just because the looked so wretched. Obviously Avery hid.

Emmett tooting his own horn about not being sick.
He really did make some funny noises with this.

Tuesday. Outside again.

Taking a break.

And, just for fun, remember to take pictures of the
small things in life that you normally overlook...

I'm glad my boys are feeling better now. I just wish Carson would get over being so cranky...

Boards put to shame

Back on the 7th Travis took his final boards for dental school.
Last night we found out Travis rocked them!
Way to go babe!

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Today is St. Patrick's Day. But that doesn't mean anything. Growing up, for obvious reasons, the much bigger meaning to the day was my sister's birthday! Although, with her gorgeous natural red hair and freckles, she looks like St. Patty's Day is a fitting birthday, huh!
Since I don't have a current picture of her, here's her senior picture.

Happy 24th
Birthday
Morgan!

My Winnings

Yipee!
The digital picture frame
I won came today!

This is from a picture contest I
entered and won (read here and here).

Thanks again to Jamie at
Jamie Hammond Photography
for hosting the contest!

Emmett's 6 Months!

Another shot from the Dells, a favorite of Emmett from the day after he turned 6 mo.

Emmett turned 6 months during our time in the Dells and I had to reschedule his appointment for after. So he had his checkup Friday and (not that I didn't already know this) he's a big healthy boy.

height: 28-28.25" = 90-95%
weight: 19lb 10oz = 75-90%
head: 46.2cm = 95%

On the curve he lost a little height, gained a little weight (time to buy a new car seat!), and his head has indeed gotten even more difficult to get shirts over!

The doctor asked if he was turning over yet. I chuckled and said, "and crawling, and sitting himself up and now he's trying to pull himself up. He gets up on his knees and you can just see him working to get his feet under him."
Well, we were a day shy of that. The very next day he got on his feet and he hasn't stopped since! He's just so anxious to join in the fun with his brothers!
Avery and Carson started walking during 10 months, but the Dr. warned Emmett may start sooner and cautioned about the difficulties with that. I know! My boys did fine with when they started, but I've seen kids start walking at 9 months, and even one who took first steps at the end of 8 months! It's just so precarious. The early walkers take SO much longer to get stable. It's just happier for everyone if they wait a little longer. I'm really crossing my fingers Emmett stays happy with crawling (after all, they get good and fast at it - it's way quicker to get around than slowing up to try and walk!) and holds out to at least when his brothers started.

I think we're in for big trouble with this guy...

This is from this morning:

Birthday Date Surprise

After much "What do you want for your birthday?"
I finally said, "I wish one time you would just plan something out and surprise me."
So, he did!
The day after we got back from the Dells, Travis had a date planned for us, complete with his first time organizing babysitting (thanks, Jess!). Nice work, honey!

So, can you guess where he took me?

Here's a giveaway:

This was our first time ice skating together!

Travis being silly:

And the silly birthday girl:

And for my birthday he got me the Wii Fit (which I had to tease him about - seriously, that could totally be taken the wrong way!)

and then this fun little thing...

I've had the online version for a while, but I guess the hard copy has additional goodies. It'll be fun to explore the new stuff.

Thanks for a fun night Travis! I love you!

The Wisconsin Dells

Last Saturday Travis took his final boards, so how nice to follow that up with a week off for Spring break... and a trip to Wisconsin Dells! That's is a town here known as the Waterpark Capital of the World. There are lots of indoor and outdoor resorts to choose from. It was actually our first time there! And last, since we're moving in 2 months. So from Mon-Wed we shared a great condo at the Kalahari with 3 other families. We had so much fun with our friends, staying up late, playing games (the name game was particularly entertaining!) and watching movies.

We waited to tell Avery we were going until the night before so we wouldn't have to hear about it incessantly. Big mistake. He couldn't go to bed. He kept coming out and saying "But I'm just so excited! I can't go to sleep! My head won't stop thinking!" He was up until about 11:30pm!

Of course, Monday was my birthday, so my friends surprised me with
a crown and cake. I was even robed with a luxurious Kalahari bathrobe.
I know, super hot.

Avery had been talking about helping me blow out my
candles for days, so this was very gratifying for him!

On to the water...

Emmett loved it! In the beginning he clung to me pretty tightly,
but other than that he was never upset, and he took to the
water like a champ. These pineapple swings were great,
he was so content to sit in them and just watch everything!

Carson, however, took a LOT of warming up. He was pretty freaked out.
He wouldn't even sit in the 6" of water. (c'mon, Carson, it's like a giant bath!)
He eventually discovered this tiny elephant slide was fun:

The next visit to the park he had a great turnaround.
He started venturing away from me, and next thing I knew
he was sliding down feet first on his face, and then even face first!

The next day we relocated to this area which had some bigger little kid slides.
We were so glad he'd gotten over his fear and was really enjoying himself!

After all that, he finally let Daddy take him on
the "boat" for a float down the "Lazy River"

Avery was a completely different story. He was a maniac, and so daring!
He wanted to do everything from the get go! He loved the big slides for the kids:

And he LOVED the big slides. Obviously we couldn't send him down any
big slides that were solo rides, but all the ones that could have more
than one person were great. Even the water coaster, which was
very splashy with way too cold water and lots of dark, was a big hit:

These two had such a great time running
around together and going on the big slides:

All these tubes were in the water, but Hailey and Avery
decided they should be stacked. They put together quite a pile.
I love how Hailey posed by placing her hand on Avery's shoulder.

Some of our last water fun included Travis, John, Mike and Jessica
trying out the boogie boarding. I tried uploading my video to a few sources,
but even tho I downsized beforehand, all of them chopped the quality horribly,
so you can't see Travis' face. So, I just stuck with blogger's stinky upload.
Here's 2 clips of Travis boogie boarding:

And very last, Travis and John attempted to surf.
Here's a couple of the pictures I took of Travis:

And here's video of Travis' attempt:

This shot doesn't really fit in the storyline anywhere, but it's cute.
Emmett cuddling up to Sienna:

Our last day we had to be checked out by 11am, so instead of more waterpark, we checked out the indoor theme park before heading home.

Avery and Sienna strike a pose:

"Driving" How wonderful that he's too young to demand coins for it yet:

Travis played on the two story rope course:

Carson did not like the go karts. Part of it could be that he
was super cranky after all the strapped in waiting for his turn...

Of course, Avery loved it!

I know, blurry shot, but we really enjoyed the drive:

And because the guy at the go karts only charged us for one kart instead of two,
Avery and I enjoyed the ferris wheel before calling it quits.

This isn't exactly a beautiful family portrait,
but it's super rare to have a shot with all 5 of us.
We had such a great time!