Lawrence

First off, Jordan had a trike-a-thon last week.  He was really cute.  Can you see his intense look of concentration?  We have deprived him so far of a bike, so he was trying so hard to figure it out.  He did a good job of sticking with it and doing it.

We absolutely love living in Lawrence.  We are very excited to move to Utah in a few months to live by our families, but we have loved our time here. 

Here is the view out of one of our windows the other day. Isn't it gorgeous?:

We just discovered this wonderful place basically across the street.  In fact, you can see it behind the houses in the picture above.  I love it there - big grassy areas, ponds, walking paths... it is wonderful.

The boys love throwing things in water:

Colette was enjoying the time out.  She loves wind and laughs whenever she feels it:

Isn't it pretty?!:

Evan found a patch of dandelions and was frantically trying to blow them all:

I love the sky here - the cloud formations always look so dramatic and pretty:

Resting:

Anyway, I just thought I would share some pictures of Lawrence and one of our new favorite places to go.

My crazy kids

Here we are again!  Still alive, still slacking on the blogging. 

Let's start off with a video of Colette.  This is from a few weeks ago, but cute.  She started shaking her head and thought it was fun so she kept doing it over and over.  And do you like the sympathy coughs at the end?  She's cute.  And yes, that is the normal noise level in our house with the boys!

Colette is THE biggest mama's girl ever.  She only wants me by the end of the evening and a lot during the day.  It is sweet, though, because it is nice that she appreciates all the work I do for her:

We went to Omaha a couple weekends ago and stayed in a hotel.  Here is Colette on the bed.  I posted this because it shows Colette with a hand towel.  She is obsessed with hand towels and wants one to sleep.  If she is upset I can give her one and she will calm down.  I keep making cute little blankets, but she just wants a hand towel:

While we were in Omaha, we took the kids to the zoo.  We swapped baby sitting with another couple so we could go to the temple.  We had six kids with us and it was really a blast.  The kids loved it so much.  Here are the older kids:

Jordan and Evan insist on falling asleep in the same bed now.  So they often end up looking like this.  They stay up so late playing and still wake up around 6:30 or 7:00.  I have to figure out what to do about this!

And here is my cutie:

And her new pose in the high chair:

The kids are doing so well.  Jordan is currently spelling words for me while I do this.  He loves figuring out how to read and spell and I am seriously amazed by him.  It is interesting how they all come with their own strengths and interests.

The other day the kids were in the bath together and Colette tipped over.  Jordan caught her and Mike praised him heavily for doing a good job helping her.  You could tell that Evan's mind was going and he said, "Maybe she will fall again..." thinking he could help her.  Mike said hopefully not, so he started thinking again.  Finally he said, "I can count to 20!" (this is significant because we have never heard him be able to do this.)  So Mike said to do it, and he did really quickly.  It was so cute and funny because you could tell he just saved it for a time when he wanted to use it for attention.  He is so sweet and rarely seeks attention, so I love that he did that!

Colette still isn't crawling or pulling up.  I can tell that she is frustrated a lot because she wants to get to things that she can't.  But she rolls around a lot to get place to place.  Hopefully soon she will crawl so she can keep up with her brothers.

We are getting closer to moving again and I can't believe how fast time has gone.  We absolutely love it here in Lawrence, and will be sad to leave.  But we are so excited to move to Utah and be by our families.  I need to start thinking about packing I guess!

All About Colette

Well, here we are again.  I decided that the extreme cuteness of Colette must be shared.  She is getting so big - she is 9 1/2 months now! 

One of her favorite toys is blocks, and she particularly loves the little lego guys (perfect for chewing!):

She is eating finger foods now and is rejecting baby food because she just wants to feed herself.  She LOVES Cheerios and would eat them all day if we kept giving them to her:

We got to have my mom here for two weeks and Colette loved cuddling with her.  One night my mom was holding her and Colette, my little grabber, grabbed onto her nose and just held on for a while:

We had a couple gorgeous days last week so we went to the park (and as I type this it is snowing outside!) and I put Colette in the swing for the first time.  She really liked it:

She adores her brothers:

And this is how she is the absolute happiest, playing blocks with Jordan and Evan:

Mike was throwing her up in the air yesterday and I took some pictures.  She enjoys stuff like this:

Colette is really sweet.  She still doesn't crawl and gets mad when we try to get her to.  But she is rolling around to get to things, so at least she is a bit mobile.  She will be so happy when she can follow her brothers around. 

One of the cutest things about her right now is that she LOVES towels.  I tried to make her and give her different kinds of blankets, but she just loves snuggling with hand towels.  So, she sleeps with one and holds it up to her face.  When she is awake she likes to hold on and just rub it between her fingers. 

More updates will come along later.  We are able to blog much easier now, so I will do it much more!

Remember us?

Well, here we are again!  I had quite the streak of no motivation to blog, but I am back! 

Here is a video of Colette talking.  She started talking awhile ago and it is a lot of fun.  I can't explain my high-pitched voice in this video.  But, she is pretty cute:

Let's see, here are the kids in the tent they got for Christmas:

Colette is getting so big!  She still won't crawl though.  She just loves to sit up and play with her brothers:

We got a lot of snow in January.  The boys were so excited to get out and play in it when we got the first big storm:

Jumping right in:

Oh, and Evan turned 3!  I have been thinking he is three for a long time, so it was good to make it official.  He acts so big, talks so well, and is always with Jordan that sometimes I wonder if they really might be twins!  Here Jordan helped him blow out his candle:

Happy Birthday!:

I tried to get a picture of them all together and this was my favorite:

This is what are house looks like all the time now.  At some point Evan started playing games really well with Jordan, so they usually spread two or three games out somewhere and play:

There are so many stories to tell, so here are some of my favorites.

Jordan is such a little stinker.  The other night I was making dinner and Colette was crying so I asked Jordan to play with her.  He came over to me and said, "I help you a lot.  I think  I will let Evan have a turn."  It was hilarious!

Evan is so sweet with Colette.  I usually put a pillow behind Colette when she sits up in case she falls back.  Every time I set her down and don't put one there, Evan runs and gets one and puts it behind her back. 

Mike taught the boys to flip a coin when they have different ideas about what to do.  And it is brilliant because whatever the coin says they happily accept.  Well, the other day I set Colette up in front of a drawer of toys and Evan was so concerned.  He kept asking me to pick her up.  I told him that she would be okay.  Well, he kept hovering over her with his hands out to catch her.  Finally he said, "I know!  We can flip a coin!"  He really wanted me to pick her up.

Jordan is starting to read.  He is actually doing a really good job and I am so excited to be able to teach him new things.  He is also adding.  He just came up to  me while I was typing this and said, "13 plus 7 is 20!"  It is really fun to watch him grow and learn!

Mike is working  on job applications.  It is a really exciting and stressful time.  I can't believe we are here!

That's all for now.  I will be diligent again!

A most wonderful time

The week of Christmas was pretty great.  It was hard to be away from family, but the kids were so excited and made it fun. 

The three of them are playing really well together.  In fact, Colette is only really happy when she is part of the action.  She needs to get moving so she can be up and running with them!  Here they are together:

We got a few minutes of snow on Christmas Eve and Jordan wanted to go try to catch some snowflakes on his tongue:

Christmas morning was so fun!  The boys walked into our room holding hands at 6:30.  Jordan smiled so big and asked if Santa came.  They were so patient while we got up and ready and then we headed to the living room to have fun.  Santa left their presents on the couch with their stockings:

My mom got on the webcam with us and got to watch the boys open their presents.  It was nice to get to have her participating with us.  Jordan was so excited when he opened his dinosaur that he wanted.  He gasped and said, "that's just what I wanted!":

I confess that we went ahead and started opening presents without Colette.  She woke up about 45 minutes later, but we were going slow so it was good.  She was pretty happy with the orange in her stocking:

She liked her toys too:

But really, she had just as much fun playing with wrapping paper:

So, this may be silly to you, but I was so excited to make the living room a mess.  In fact, I trained the boys before hand that they were going to sit on the couch, open a present and throw the wrapping paper on the floor and play with their present.  We opened all the toys as they were unwrapped so the boys could play as they went.  Anyway, this picture makes me happy because this is just how I wanted it to go:

Oh, here is sweet Colette ready for church the day after Christmas:

The boys got this drill set for Christmas and absolutely love it.  I love it too because it keeps them occupied!:

There is our Christmas wrap-up.  I will post stories later this week!

Two Jordan stories

Jordan said two great things this week, and I can't decide which time I was more proud (this is Mike posting, for context):

1) I was asking Jordan what he wanted for Christmas and he said he wants a toy dinosaur that walks.  He thought for a second then he added "but if I don't get a dinosaur, I won't cry.  I won't throw a fit."  It was really sweet.  He's a good kid.

2) I came home from work last night and Jordan looked at my shirt (I had a purple button-up on).  He said "Dad, what color is your shirt?"  I answered and he immediately said "but purple is for girls!"  Of course I taught him that, so it must have been confusing for him to see me break my own rule...

photo shoot

We had a photo shoot before church today with our three little adorable kids.  And it went about as expected.  But they were having fun:

And I just think Colette is so pretty in this one: 

Today as we were getting ready, Mike pulled out his Rudolf/Abominable Snowman tie and asked playfully if he could wear it.  I said no and he said please and I said no again, joking around.  Jordan was standing there and said finally, "Mama, that isn't very nice.  You aren't letting Daddy have what he likes."  It was so stinkin' cute.  And of course Mike wore the tie.

Jordan keeps asking us lately how old we are going to be when he is certain ages.  One he asked put me at 127 and he said, "Wow.  You aren't going to be able to come in the house because you will be so big."

Colette is just all about being up.  She hates laying down and won't even bother trying to roll or crawl.  As soon as we lay her down she is straining to sit up.  She just really wants to be able to run with her brothers.

Jordan is done with preschool until January and the naive part of me is really excited to have him home everyday with me.  It is hard to let him go sometimes.