May Days

I don't know what happened to the month of May. It went by way too fast. I intended to do another post shortly after I did the last one and it has taken me a few weeks to find the time. We've been busy! Josh loves being a big brother. He really likes to hold his brother and make him laugh.

I had a lot of help getting the garden planted. A little too much help in fact. We may have some interesting things pop up in the middle of the yard in the grass since Josh kept spilling the seeds.

Connor and Sydney gave us their moral support while we planted. Connor wasn't quite sure what to think of the grass and didn't much appreciate it when Sydney licked him. It is really nice that it is finally warm enough to take Connor outside!

I can't believe our baby is already 8 months old. He's still pretty little for his age, but he's such a good baby!

The little mischief maker in action with a chair stuck on his bum. He is all over the house. One day I went downstairs for a few minutes and started to panic when I came back and couldn't find him after checking a few different rooms. He was in his bedroom half way in his closet. He gets into EVERYTHING!!!

Who needs to play with the tupperware and measuring cups inside the cupboard when you can chew on the door instead! His favorite thing to chew on seems to be his big brother's flip flops. We've found that unless we're wearing them, all shoes have to be inside closets at all times!

A wiped out little kid after a day of causing trouble! A few weeks ago we finally got him eating baby food and cereal!!! I gave up trying to feed him cereal and baby food when he got sick. I gave him a week to get feeling better and then one day I was trying to feed him some peas. He kept grabbing at the spoon and I got tired of it, so I got another spoon so that he could hold one. Then he started eating baby food and cereal as if he'd been doing it for quite a while. It was like a light bulb suddenly turned on in his little head and after two months of fighting him, he finally decided that he was in fact ready to start eating baby food. Maybe holding the spoon made him feel he was in control and it was his idea, I'm not sure, but I'm very relieved that he's finally eating! It seemed like his appetite immediately doubled, like he finally figured out what it was like to feel full!

The little guy was supposed to be taking a nap, but instead was having a great time playing thanks to his big brother sneaking into his room and slipping him toys between the bars of his crib. Already the two of them are starting to gang up on me!

He seems to like sleeping upside down or sideways in his crib, because he doesn't seem to stay where I put him for very long!

Our independent four year old likes to do everything himself, so most mornings he picks out his own clothes. Sometimes he does just fine and remembers what bottoms go with what tops, but other days he has to change before we can leave the house. Lately he's really been into this orange fly fishing vest. When cousin Jordan comes to play they love wearing these wigs I got at a Jazz game we went to.

The Viking hat over the blue wig really accentuates the clashing green top and bottoms. The fly fishing vest and Winnie the Pooh back pack make the whole outfit complete!

Josh loves his new tent and sleeping bag. He's spent a few nights sleeping inside the tent in his room accompanied of course by Tigger and Eeyore sleeping in their corresponding tent and sleeping bag.

Josh stopped taking naps a while ago, but once in a while if he stops long enough to hold still, this is what happens!

Mother's Day Project

Who would have thought I'd be this excited to look in my backyard and see a bunch of dirt! Ever since we bought our house three years ago, I have wanted to plant a garden. With Gary's deployment, crazy work and school schedule, and me being pregnant last summer we've never been able to clear the spot for the garden. Finally, this weekend we were able to get it ready for planting and it was a great Mother's Day present.

We still need to put in the dividers we got from my next door neighbor, and we'll have to put up the chicken wire to keep the dog out, and we still need to actually plant something, but we've made a lot of progress and I am very excited about it!

I wish I would have taken a picture of the area before we ever did anything to it, though I do have it on video. The previous owners put down gravel, then had some larger red rocks on top of the gravel, and then put some boulders to make a border on top of that. This picture was taken after the boulders and red rock were hauled away while Gary was deployed. The picture below is all the red rock we hauled away. The previous owners went to a lot of work to haul in all that rock because it sure was a lot of work to get rid of it all. This was taken a year ago when the lilacs were torn out and the wood fence was taken down so we could get the vinyl fence put in.

For our garden project, Gary rented a sod cutter to cut out the grass so we could remove it.

Then we brought in one truck load of top soil. Josh got out his little shovel to help Gary unload it and Sydney was content to lay down on the dirt in the back of the truck and watch.

As we moved the sod, Josh collected worms and presented them to me. Just what I'd always wanted!

Grandpa Glen convinced Josh to plant the worms in the garden.

This is the area the previous owners used for a garden. It was pretty small and between the fences and shed, really didn't get much sun light so we filled it in with the sod. There was a spot on the other side of the shed that was just dirt and also a spot over by the new garden that we filled in with the grass we cut out.

This is Gary tilling after we unloaded two truck loads of top soil and one truck load of compost. It has been a lot of work to transform our back yard over the past few years and I very much appreciate all who have helped! Thank you, thank you, thank you Gary, Dad, Melissa, and Manookin family. We could not have gotten the garden in and made all the improvements to our yard without everyone's hard work and willingness to let us borrow trucks and tools to do it. I feel so blessed to have such a great family and neighbors who are always so willing to help out and I am so grateful.

Also on Saturday I got a new kitchen table! It really feels like Christmas at my house! We ordered the table two months ago from RC Willey and they finally delivered it. There's a story behind it that I won't get into right now, but basically I will NEVER buy anything from RC Willey again. I'm very excited to have a new kitchen table. It was a great Mother's Day weekend!

Birthday Boy

Josh's birthday was Tuesday. I can't believe he is already 4!

His birthday happened to be on a day we normally do preschool, so we had a little party for him at preschool.

In case you are wondering, the cake is supposed to be a triceratops dinosaur. Josh and I were looking at cakes on familyfun.com and this is the one he chose. The rice krispy and candy part were supposed to be done with fondant, but since I've never made fondant or worked with it before, I used rice krispies instead. I seriously lack cake decorating skills and could really use some lessons, but thankfully Josh isn't old enough to really care!

Josh and his dad testing out his new toy.

Grammy sent Josh a sleeping bag/tent set that he can carry around as a back pack. He loved it and is now ready for a sleep over!

The sleeping bag set came with a mini sleeping bag and tent that is just the right size for his Tigger and Eeyore.

Josh seems to like being a big brother. We put Connor in his walker so he can be with us while we're eating and Josh always insists on having Connor sit next to him. Connor has learned to scoot the walker backwards a little bit, and it really irritates Josh because he wants Connor to stay right next to him. He gets really frustrated when Connor scoots backwards.

Josh did not want Connor to go into the kitchen, so he dragged over a chair and tipped it over to trap Connor in the front room. It is really challenging to keep my floors clean at all times so Connor doesn't get into things that he shouldn't. Connor is guaranteed to find anything and everything that is left on the floor. Josh gets really irritated when Connor won't leave his toys alone.

Josh is such a good big brother that he wanted to make sure Connor had some toys to play with. He was nice enough to give Connor ALL the toys that we keep in a little basket in the front room. I walked into the room and all I could see was his little eyes peeking over the top of all the toys.

We are making absolutely no progress at all on getting Connor to eat baby food or cereal. It is a rather messy process. He cries every time I try to get him to eat, then he puts his fingers in his mouth to calm himself down. At first I didn't let him put the fingers in his mouth because of the mess it would make, but then decided that if he sucked on his fingers at least he'd swallow his food. Instead he just gets even more upset than he already was because putting his fingers in his mouth does not make the food go away. Then he smears his dirty fingers all over the place.

Connor likes Josh's sleeping bag too!

Happy Easter!

We had a really nice Easter weekend! On Easter morning Josh got to see what the Easter bunny left him and find a few eggs that were hidden around the front room. Later on in the day he got to go on an Easter Egg hunt the Grammy Easter bunny sent. He was quite excited.

Josh was quite thrilled with his new Thomas the train he's wanted for several weeks. He's been playing with it non stop since he got it. Connor was content to play with Josh's tractor. I think he gets that from Grandpa Glen! Over the past month he mastered the art of rolling all over the place. He starts at one end of the room and continues to roll until he gets to the other end of the room. He's figured out how to move around to get anything he wants to get into. The past few days we've noticed he is starting to scootch and not just roll!

Josh had so much fun coloring Easter eggs. I thought it was pretty funny when he couldn't wash all the dye off his fingers since he hates having them dirty so much!

Our little preschool Easter bunnies. Preschool normally consists of Josh and his cousins Jordan and Carley and we take turns teaching. They have really enjoyed their little preschool. I've started babysitting two kids twice a week, so they got to join in the fun.

Gary made a cute Easter bunny too!

Over the weekend, Josh had fun cruising around with a friend.

Meanwhile, Connor was inside being tortured. He does not want to eat cereal whether I mix it with water, formula, or my milk. He does not want to take a bottle whether it is formula or my milk. He was not interested in baby food either. I even tried feeding him some of my milk in a spoon to see what would happen and he didn't appreciate that either. He wants my milk straight from me and nothing else. I'm not sure how I'm going to convince him to eat something other than his fingers. At his six month check up he weighed in at a whopping 13.3 pounds and was 25.2 inches long. He's a light weight for his age, so I'm hoping to convince him sometime soon that he likes to eat something other than me!

Gary got the brakes on the car fixed this weekend and he had lots of help!

I finally got the walker out of the basement and Connor loves it, though you can't tell from the picture. Josh likes to push him around in it. He looks so grown up sitting up in it.

We woke up to snow outside Easter morning and it has been snowing off and on ever since. Josh and Sydney both love playing in the snow, but we're ready for warmer weather so Connor can play outside too!