Soaking Up SUMMER!

It feels like fall outside today and I'll admit that Ben, Josh, and I bought some fall candles and soap this weekend, but we are still trying to make the most of our last few weeks of summer!  Andy had "immersion week" where he had to stay at school for the whole week (starting on my birthday), so needless to say we are really excited to have him back!  Ben woke up asking for Andy every morning and he would ask for daddy every night before bed.  He wanted to "drive in our mini van to go get him."

I had Ben and Josh's back to school night last week, and it got me in the "back to school" mode.  I've always loved back to school shopping!  Ben was actually really in to shopping when it came to buying things for him.  "Do these fit me, momma?"  "Is this my size?"  "I like these shoes momma, should I try them on?"

He was supposed to be picking out a book for Maddie, but he got a little distracted.

Joshy was such a good little shopping buddy too!  Well, as long as he had his golf ball in hand.

Yesterday, we celebrated Maddie's 3rd birthday!  Ben has been in birthday party heaven lately, and I can't wait for his party in a few weeks!

Speaking of birthdays, I also had an awesome birthday this year!  We decided to check out a new mini bowling place for my birthday and it was a blast.  Ben sort of took over the whole thing, but no one seemed to mind.  

Feeling so blessed to have had another wonderful year with my sweet family!  

Andy and I were even able to sneak out for a birthday dinner and drinks.  I love this guy!  We are such creatures of habit.  We went to dinner at the same place we went like 4 nights earlier and then went to our favorite little wine bar.  I'm obsessed with the parmesan truffle popcorn.  The evening was perfection!

On my actual birthday, we went to visit my grandma.  Ben wasn't on his greatest behavior for the occasion, but I think (great) grandma enjoyed the company!  She sure loves my boys and they definitely love her too!

We also did a little swimming last weekend and it was heavenly as well.  

This summer has been great and I'm not trying to chase it away, but I am really excited for fall.  I think Ben is too.  Andy suggested that Ben wear a long-sleeved shirt this morning because it was on the cooler side, and Ben said, "is it fall now? Are the leaves changing colors?  Is it going to snow?  Can I wear my boots and mittens and snow pants and hat and…what else should I wear?"  I look forward to fall every year, but I know I will miss eating outdoors, going to the farmer's market, regular zoo trips, and not having to wear all of the above mentioned winter accessories.  

The back to "school" countdown is ON!  Both of the boys are going 2 days a week this year.  I hope that Ben loves his new teachers as much as he loved his old teachers.  I hope that Joshy does well too.  He's been in such a good routine lately; I hope that continues!  He is such a happy, mellow baby, so I'm guessing that he will just go with the flow.  And let's hope that Ben doesn't regress in his potty training skills when he goes back to school!  We do enough laundry as it is! ;)

8 Months (8/18/2015)

I feel like I just wrote Josh's 7 month post yesterday!  I love watching this guy dominate his milestones, but he is growing far too quickly.  As they say, babies don't keep!

GENERAL: Josh, you are just over 14 pounds and are 25.75inches.  As usual, I've been worrying about if you're eating enough, but you keep on growing.  I asked Nana to take you to the pediatrician for a weight check, and they were pleased with how you're growing, so I'm going to try not to stress too much.  You're still a mellow, happy guy, though you're not really a fan of driving in the car.  I'm hoping that you start liking it more, because I'm in a minivan road trip state of mind lately...

SLEEP:  You gave me a FABULOUS birthday gift of sleeping through the night last night!  We were out kind of late celebrating, so you didn't actually go down to sleep until about 9:00 (you were sleeping in your car seat before this though) and you didn't wake up until 7:15ish!!  We have yet to have 2 consecutive nights of great sleep, but I can dream!  You are typically going down around 7:30ish, and then waking up to eat at around 12:00-1:00 and then again at 5:00ish, and wake up for the morning at about 7:00.  You've been going down for your morning naps so nicely.  The afternoon nap has been pretty good too.  I think your naps are usually around an hour, but sometimes up to 2+ hours.  We can put you in your bed awake, you will wiggle your way in to a corner of the crib, and then fall right to sleep.  

EATING:  You love food!  I'm still not sure if you have enough milk during the day, but you like solids!  It is so fun to feed you because you will eat just about anything.  I'm still nursing in the morning and before bed, and then I pump when I'm at work and you get bottles.  We're still going strong!  We haven't used a drop of formula yet and I'm pretty proud of this.  As far as food goes, you go through these cheese puff things so quickly.  One day, you at almost an entire canister.  We're still doing the baby cereal and baby oatmeal, which you seem to like.  You have been eating baby yogurt and other baby foods lately.   I'm not sure what your favorite food is just yet!  You also pound your little fists on to your high chair when you want more!

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION:  You're into screaming LOUDLY these days!  We were at a restaurant over the weekend and a lady commented that she couldn't believe such a big noise came from such a little guy.  I think it's when you want a little more attention or when you want to be louder than everything else in a room.  You love listening to music/singing and will calm instantly if Ben starts to sing you "Twinkle, Twinkle."  You love hearing Ben's voice and if you're nursing, you will stop what your doing and turn your little head around the room, looking for your big bro.  We are working on teaching you some signs.  You've been clapping for awhile now, pretty much on command, but you're also starting to do "so big."  

FINE/GROSS MOTOR:  You have the cutest little bear crawl/ spider monkey crawl going on and it is so fun to watch!  You're FAST and you're always on the go.  It was quite hard to get these pictures this month because you did not want to stay still!  You are putting everything in your mouth which is scary because Ben has lots of little, chokeable things.  We have to keep 2 eyes on you at all time.  I think it's time to baby proof the house again.  You seem to have a way of finding the cords you shouldn't play with, the mirror in your room, and the glasses on our new drink cart.   

Josh was more interested in Ben than he was in making his 8 month video.   I love watching my boys together!  

Road Trips!

I've decided I really need to step up my blogging game!  I really love doing it, so I need to make more time.  My goal is once a week.  This is so doable.  As I mentioned in my last blog, we bit the bullet and bought a minivan last Friday.  Although I still cannot believe I now drive a minivan, I absolutely love it!  I (we) have been going back and forth between a minivan and an Acura MDX for months now, but I finally decided that functionality wins and the minivan works best for our life right now.  I was dreading the process of actually buying a new vehicle, but Andy and Josh made it much more enjoyable.  (Ben was with Papa John, thankfully!  We were there for about 3 hours!)   Andy did an awesome job finagling the price!

Josh was so good the whole time! We were there until about 9:00, and it wasn't until about the last 10 minutes that he started to squawk.  Mostly we heard giggles like these:

In the few short days that we have had it, we have all fallen in love.  We ended up going with a brand new 2015 Toyota Sienna, the Limited edition, and it is so fancy!  It is probably more than we need, but once we drove it, it was hard to go back to the ones with less bells and whistles.  I'm still not sure that I like that it has a TV in it, but it was nice for the road trips we took this past weekend.  The van has a ton of safety features, it has plenty of room to change a diaper or nurse a baby, and even Andy "I'm never ever driving a mini van" really, really, really likes it.  I was afraid I would have buyer's remorse the next morning but I totally didn't.  After all, I have to transport precious cargo!

We set off on our first minivan adventure the very next morning.  We headed to Green Bay to go to Bay Beach.  Ben loved it last year, and it did not disappoint this year either!  There is no entrance fee and the tickets cost $0.25 a piece.  We literally spent $5 the whole time we were there.  Ben was loving all the rides!  He looks so grown up compared to last year.  Too big, too fast!

I got lots of Joshy snuggles that day.  Love this baby boy so much!!!

The only ride Josh and I went on was the train.  We didn't mind though.  :)

Another highlight was our picnic lunch in the van.  

Look at these cool dudes peeking out of the sunroof!

On Sunday, we headed to Madison for Andy's back to school picnic.  It was fun to meet some of Andy's classmates that I have heard so much about, and it was also nice to talk to some of the newbies.  I got to warn the wives about how tough it is for us moms! ;)

Tonight, I was able to get out of work a little early, so we headed to the Wisconsin State Fair!  Look at how little Ben was at the fair 2 years ago!!  Sadly, I did not do a great job taking pictures tonight.  It's a little more challenging when you have 2 boys that want to be held plus you're pushing a double stroller. ;)

These little piggies totally reminded me of "Charlotte's Web" and suddenly the barn smell didn't bother me quiet as much anymore.  ;)

Gosh, I love spending time with my 3 boys.  I want to remember all of these fun times we spend together.  I have 1000's of photos, but is is nice to have a few pictures in a blog post help bring back the memories.  I am one blessed momma.