messy stuff

6/8 - I felt like I should take a picture today when after cleaning for 4 hours, my house still looked like this!! :( So sad... but I guess that means our house is full of energetic boys and fun, right!? (that's going to be my excuse, anyway!) 6/9 - I grew up in a really small church. One of the things that I valued there was that as a child, there were adults who knew me and cared about what I was up to- they were grandparents of sorts. Being at a big church now, that's one of the things that I've really hoped for our kids. Al & Jane are good friends, and boy does Jane love our boys!! :) (and they love her back!!!) We are so thankful for their family. Boaz looks forward to saying hi to them each Sunday. And Jane has come to the rescue and come over to babysit the boys a couple of times when I had something going on. Here's a sweet picture of her and Cainan. The last time she was over, she brought along her daughter, Leah! Leah had just turned 20 the day before, so we thought we'd help her celebrate by making some cupcakes. Boaz helped me do all the sprinkles. It was a HUGE mess- I wish I had taken pictures! He had a blast helping and really had fun surprising her with her birthday cakes. (although I don't think he kept it much of a surprise!)

This video was taken 5 days after we celebrated with Leah... I thought it was funny that he was still talking about her birthday! :)

6/9- After his nap, Boaz came out with his hair sticking up wildly. I told him his hair looked messy and he immediately ran to the bathroom to try to fix it. I thought these next pictures were funny... a montage of trying to get himself looking good. :)

You can't see it real well, but this is one of his first 'shiners.' He pulled Ozzie's leash out of a drawer and the metal part nailed him under the eye. He had a little bit of a black eye for a few days.

6/6 - The boys and I headed out to My Waterloo Days to hear our friend, Alli Rogers, in concert. It was a beautiful afternoon. So beautiful that Luke HAD to golf. So I trekked out with the boys for a great afternoon. I attempted to get Boaz to go down for an early nap, but he refused and messed around in his room for 2 hours. So- no nap for Boaz... made me a bit nervous about how the afternoon would go, but he did great! Here's a rare picture of mom with the boys!! (I'm always the one behind the camera!!) Boaz enjoying his afternoon snack.

Sophie the giraffe is one of Cainan's favorite toys.
Luke's Aunt Linda & Uncle Dave are pretty special people in our lives. Linda is a cherished friend and mentor to me. Dave was my boss/mentor at the church for 8 years. And of course we love them b/c they're family!! Linda & Dave helped me out by hanging out with Cainan for awhile while I took Boaz to get a smoothie!!Sharing a cool treat with my little man... The guy at the smoothie booth gave us TWO strawberries on top- Boaz was pretty excited about that!Cainan tried his first puffs today... it was funny to watch him try so hard to grasp them with his fingers.

A second puffs video... getting a little better at picking them up!

Boaz is quite the little singer. Here is his rendition of "Ho-Ho-Ho Hosannah, Ha-Ha-Hallelujah, He-He-He He saved me, I've got the joy of the Lord."

And here's the mouth full of food rendition....

geese, chips, & locked doors

6/3 - Boy do I have a lot of catching up to do! We'll start with the geese! They were in our backyard one morning, so Boaz and I went running out with bread to see if we could feed them. Boaz seriously ran at them with his bread... he threw the whole slice at them over and over as he was running. They didn't like it all that much and ran away. The next day, we snuck up on them a little better down at the lake and for the first time ever, they ate our bread! Boaz was pretty excited.

I love Aldi. I love shopping there and saving a bunch of money on our groceries. And I love discovering new food items the we like. This salsa is a new staple in our house. Boaz really enjoys it also... Artichoke & Garlic salsa... yummy!! We enjoy the other varieties, too, and have about 3 cartons of it in our fridge at all times this summer!
Smiley Cainan wishing he could have salsa with us... 6/4 - Boaz locked us out of our bedroom today. It took me about all day to realize it. I made him get his tools and try to fix it. He worked on it for a long time... so did daddy! After taking apart another door handle to inspect it, and a little bit of internet research, we finally got the door open. Whew! A video of Boaz working on the door...

6/3 - Cainan has started talking a lot more these days. Here he is doing a little talking... and here I am making dumb embarassing noises trying to get him to talk!! :)

6/5- Cainan's favorite thing to do these days is roll around the room to get toys. I'll spread toys all around and he'll spend an hour trying to get them all. Here's a peek at his new found fun...

a wedding and a mess

5/29 - One of Luke's managers got married in Cedar Rapids today. We knew the wedding would be pretty short, so we packed up the boys and took them with us. The day ended up being quite comedic. Those of you with young kids understand how it takes all day to prepare to do something- packing bags, snacks, extra clothes, etc.

We attempted to get Boaz to take an early nap and put him down at 12:30pm. He fought it and fought it- and didn't fall asleep until 1:50... we had to wake him up to leave at 2:00! So, needless to say, he was running on very little sleep and was a bit cranky and on edge.

I put him straight into the car from naps. About halfway to the wedding, I was getting out the wedding attire so we'd be ready to change him and I realized we forgot his shoes!! We didn't have much extra time to spare... luckily there was a Walmart just down the street that I ran into while Luke changed Boaz in the car. We ended up with these shoes- which were so huge on him! He'll wear these for the next 3 years I think. The wedding was pretty casual, so we probably could have gotten by without shoes. But, we made it to the destination just in time for the wedding to start!

Luke & Cainan waiting for the wedding to begin. We brought a new dinosaur for Boaz to play with during the ceremony. It was a triceratops and I should have examined it a bit closer.... as the bridesmaids were walking down the aisle, Boaz discovered a button that made it growl! We had to set it on the table and wait patiently to play with it later. That didn't go over too well! All week we practiced how we behave at a wedding... I'd pretend we were at the wedding and Boaz would sit really still and quiet. Then I'd tell him the wedding was over and we'd clap and cheer! He did a great job being quiet... not so much still, but he was pretty quiet!

We'd planned to stay for the reception afterward (in the same place as the wedding), but we waited around for an hour and the dinner still hadn't started. Cainan was tired and cranky, Boaz was tired and cranky, and mom & dad were getting tired of trying to get them to act properly! So, we left, drove through Culvers for dinner, and headed home... happy the boys made it as long as they did! I really wanted to get a family picture of all of us that night, but it didn't happen before the meltdowns started. So- here's a picture of Boaz's wedding attire. All my three boys looked really sharp!

And here they are after they all changed out of the wedding clothes. What a good looking crew!  I think this is one of my new favorite pictures!They were sitting in the chair together and Boaz asked Daddy about his dress socks... and told him they looked silly! :) Glad Boaz has a bit of fashion sense already.

6/2 - A few days after the wedding, Boaz was still talking about what happened. Here's a video of him telling me that he got married! He was pretending this necklace was his ring. I laugh at all the things he comes up with during the course of a day.

5/29 - Boaz comes into our room in the morning to wake me up. This morning, he walked to the side of the bed and told me "I make a big mess." I asked him if he'd wet his diaper or something and he replied "It's in mine room. I just make a big mess alllll over the place." I knew it couldn't be good. I walked in to find diaper cream spread all over his carpet. Apparently he'd squirted it on the floor, realized that it was probably naughty, and had taken a pajama shirt and tried to rub it out... which only rubbed it in the carpet more!

I did some research and found a three-step method for trying to get the oily goop off the floor- using some good 'ol elbow grease, baking soda, a toothbrush, and dishsoap. It took a long time, but his carpet looks pretty decent again. We had a long talk about not making messes in your room, and a long talk about how it's naughty to squirt out the diaper cream... but I couldn't punish him too much when it was my fault the cream was left on his floor!! Here's a short video of Cainan rolling... just thought it was cute and figured I'd tack it on here. Thanks for reading this long post!

various things

6/2 - A few days ago, our friend Jane gave Boaz a bunch of homemade musical instruments. I think her girls made them for a project awhile back and she thought Boaz would like them. Well... she was right!! He now has drums, shakers, a tambourine, gloves with bells on them, etc. We've had lots and lots of concerts in our living room. Here's a picture of him on his scooter stage giving me another concert. (made even better by the superman pj's he insists on wearing all the time!) 5/25 - Cainan really enjoys chomping on fruit pieces I put in this net. He loves to join us for lunch at the table now that he can sit in his booster chair.

5/27 - We live close to a lake and woke up to find 12 geese in our backyard. We've tried to feed them bread several times, but they fly off when Boaz squeals with excitement. The other day we tip-toed down at the lake and I was able to get them to eat our bread finally! Unfortunately, we only brought one piece down with us and they wanted more. The swam in the lake, following us begging for more. (glad they didn't really chase us down for it!) We spend a lot of time at the lake looking for ducks, fish, and these geese. 5/22 - a video of Cainan excited to be waking up...

5/29 - A couple videos of Cainan's sweet laugh!

Pool Time!

5/24 - It's summer and that means POOL TIME!! Grandma & Grandpa Bartlett have a pool at their house... which is conveniently 6 minutes down the road from our house! This was one of the first outings with the boys this summer. Cainan's first time in a pool! He loved the water. (It doesn't hurt that the water in their pool is super warm... I think it was 88 degrees this day!) Here are a few pictures of the boys floating and splashing!

dinosaurs

5/24 - Boaz has been really into dinosaurs the last couple weeks. I'm not sure how the kick started. Maybe it's because I remember a couple of dinosaur songs from kindergarten (Stegosaurus & Pterodactyl) and sing them to Boaz sometimes. We got online and found some pictures of those two dinosaurs and have been learning a bit about them. Then during our neighborhood garage sales, Boaz used his two quarters to buy a stegosaurus that growls and a pterodactyl. He was pretty excited about them.

The next week our neighbor, Dave, was cleaning out some of his boys' stuff and wondered if Boaz would be interested in a bunch of dinosaurs. Are you kidding?? He brought over this giant tub of them!! I hid them and we've been getting out one at a time. Today was the Tyrannosaurus Rex. I thought it'd be fun to get the dinosaur out and then 'research' online with Boaz to find out more about it. He wasn't so much into the research part, but was very excited about his new TRex! He's slept with him every night.

Cainan is all smiles lately. He went through a few days of a fever, being cranky, and not sleeping well recently, but he seems better now and greets me with a giant grin and a big giggle when I go in to get him up.
Boaz & Cainan continue to become good buddies. Today Boaz did a lot of talking to Cainan, showing him toys, and trying to play with him a bit. Cainan loves it.... but I'm not sure how fond he is of Boaz's wrestling and hugs. Here's a giant tower Luke made out of legos... it stood on its own for quite awhile before a 2 year old knocked it down!The other night, Boaz spent quite awhile talking to his TRex. I know this is a lot of video to watch, but if you want a laugh be sure to check it out. Luke and I were laughing at how he talked to the TRex like it was real. And the conversations he came up with were pretty funny.