Nathan's Pike!

Ian took the boys out tonight to fish and I get a text message of this picture. Nathan is SO happy. He FINALLY caught the biggest fish:)

Here comes TROUBLE!

Baby O is on the move! Scarey!! It seems each day he is going a little further. He is really starting to love balls and balloons. He spent about 10 minutes this morning laughing SO hard as Owen kept hitting him in the belly with a balloon. You could hear him throughout the entire house. Pretty soon we were all laughing:)


Don't mind all the mess of toys in the background. I took a nap instead of cleaning up this afternoon:) oops!


Jacob took the picture below of me and Owen before Church this morning. I got new glasses yesterday FINALLY after three years and am glad to have a new look! Hopefully I don't look too much like a goober:)

12 years!

Tomorrow, June 1st marks TWELVE YEARS that Ian and I have been together. Who would have thought 12 years ago that we would be where we are today happily married, with our wonderful children, not without trials but conquering those together one by one. I love Ian so much and am so thankful we have had these three years to be together day in and day out. So here are just a few of the reasons why I love Ian so much! (in no specific order)

**He loves me no matter what.

**He makes me laugh even when I am mad at him and that is the last thing I want to do:)

**He supports me in the things he knows I want to accomplish.

**He is a wonderful father who loves his boys more than anything and would do anything for them including getting up after just a few hours of sleep some nights when I have to work and making sure they are cared for and to the places they need to be.

**He is a hard worker who tries hard to make sure he is doing what he should both at work and at church.

**He can COOK!!! and cooks for me often

**He is great at fixing things and being creative and building things.

** He is who he is and is comfortable with it. (I wish I was better at that!)

** He never lets a day go by without telling me how much he loves me and how much I mean to him.

**He is my best friend.

**Life is NEVER a dull moment:)(what you can't see in the picture is that he has his leg wrapped around me. Typical Ian!)

I love you Ian!

Just a day at home

The other day the boys were playing around and I decided to take a few pictures. It is funny how these three pictures capture each boy. Owen is happy and rolly polly, Nathan is just appeasing mom wanting to take his picture and then you have Jacob, a total nut. Pretty much sums them up! I had to add one of Nathan playing with Owen. I love watching the boys play together and love eachother!





Last but not least a video of Jacob and Owen. Typical around here!:) We will call this "Bombing Baby!"

Jacob's Kindergarten Year-End Musical Presentation

Last week we got to enjoy a cute little presentation from all the AM Kindergarteners at Jacob's school. It is amazing what technology can do these days as they had a live feed off of the school website so that family from afar could also tune in. My sister Christina and newphew Corban got to sit and watch from Utah. I think that is pretty neat!

The presentation was their reciting a poem for each month that they have learned throughout the year and then singing songs that went along with that month. They even sang halloween and Christmas songs.

The little girl directly in front of Jacob is Sophie. She is his newest love interest:)

Here are some pictures and videos from that day:





This is the Halloween Song that Jacob LOVES


Okay so yes I am hormonal. If you notice each time he says "i love you" he points to me. It was enough to make me tear up. I love him!


His School Song!





These are of Ian and Owen waiting for the show to start:) Owen loves music so he was a pretty happy guy thankfully!

Jacob Funny

I have more to blog but not the time at the moment but wanted to get this on here before I totally forgot. I picked up Jacob at school today and we had our "normal" "how was your day" conversation. It went as follows:

Me: Did you have a good day?

Jake: Oh ya

Me: Did you have gym?

Jake: yep

Me: did you run again? (they have been running outside every week now that it is warmer)

Jake: yep outside

Me: How did you do?

Jake: I did great but I am NOT going to do great next year when I have to run outside everyday. I am gonna sweat to my bridges (britches)

Me: (cracking up) you mean britches?

Jake: ya britches

Me: Do you know what britches are?

Jake: YES UNDERWEAR (now he is laughing) Do you think it is funny mom that I know what britches are?

Me: Jacob you are funny period

The things he comes up with I swear............

Happy Memorial Day!

I never really thought about Memorial Day or Labor Day other than the fact that it made for a 3-4 day weekend and a break. That is until I became a Navy girlfriend and then a wife. In the past 10 years as each holiday has passed I have taken more and more time to reflect upon the true meaning of these holidays and really appreciate the days for what they stand for.

Yesterday in church Ian stood and gave a talk and spoke about the true meaning of Memorial Day and how important it is to remember its meaning and not forget those who have served our country and are now serving. He shared some amazing stories of soldiers who are serving and the things they are doing for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan that go way above and beyond their normal duties. It is inspiring to hear some of the things that have been done for the villages and children there. In preparation for his talk he went to the bookstore and got a book called "Faith in the Service" which tells of inspirational stories of LDS Service Members. The stories are really incredible. One quote that I absolutely loved was:

"Freedom is not free, and securing it is not a spectator sport. You are either paying for freedom with support, sacrifice, and service, or you are free because someone else has paid the price for you." ~ Chaplain Mark Allison

I am so proud of my husband and proud to be a Navy family. While it has definite challenges in the lifestyle it also has great rewards.

This weekend we spent time as a family up in Wisconsin and with our neighbors, the kids playing and a lot of laughter. We ended the weekend today at a pic nic with friends from church. Owen enjoyed the swings and people watching....Jacob and Nathan enjoyed a 3 hour water gun fight (in 60 degree weather. ...:) and Ian enjoyed a great game of baseball while I got to chat with friends. Here are a few pictures and then added for you enjoyment some videos from this past week. One is of Jacob finally making it across the monkey bars. Talk about one proud kiddo!!

**Jacob and Nathan were off running everywhere so I did not get any pictures of them today at the park...next time:)**







So these two pictures were too funny not to post. We got home from church and were heading up to change clothes and had laundry to bring upstairs so Ian improvised and brought both baby and laundry in one load....:)

PROUD JACOB!!!


OWEN VIDEOS:)

Six months already?

The title says it all. Mr. O turned six months old yesterday. How could half a year already have passed? He is growing and changing daily and is so much fun. As we walked through Kohls today he was in his stroller and quite happily started screaming his head off. It caught me off guard because it was definitely more shrill than I have ever heard him. I laughed so he laughed and did it again even louder. Let the fun begin!

In the past week he has decided he loves food. And I mean LOVES it. I was wondering if he ever would! You would never know he refused it for six weeks with his rolls but he did. He is SO close to sitting up. I can't wait for him to be able to on his own. I think he will be a much much happier little guy when he can sit and play because he gets so frustrated laying down. Another new favorite is the swing. He loves to sit in there and go slowly back and forth and watch the other kids run around the playground. I have yet to get a picture of that except on my camera phone so eventually I will post one.

He is definitely the light of our house right now. I don't think his two big brothers could love him any more. I thank them every day for the help they give me each day. They really have turned into great little daddies in their own right.

So, here are some pictures from the past few days! Enjoy!




The boys taking over my bed after baths last night. I love seeing them all cuddling up and playing.


Trying to sit and play with help of the boppy pillow....close so close....


I gave him a frozen waffle and he went to town!

Bathtime! Still a favorite for sure.

Saying goodbye to preschool for the year.....

Today Ian, Owen and I joined Nathan for his final day of preschool. The kids all sang a few of their cute songs and then Miss Kathy and Miss Marlene put together a dvd of pictures taken throughout the year and put it to music. It was so sweet and they gave each of us a copy so it will be a treasure to look through in the future. One of the three songs they set the pictures to was "Let Them Be Little" and it took everything for me not to cry. Of course Ian laughing at me and poking fun also helped the tears stay away (Gotta love him).


This song was I think my favorite because Nathan was SOOOO into it.

Another awesome surprise was a book of pictures taken of each child. Throughout the year Miss Kathy would put together books such as "Halloween" or "Thanksgiving" and had them in the room for the kids to look at. Then for the final end of the year books they separated each child's pictures from each book and made one big book for them. On the front is a class picture with the message:

"Here is a picture that you can treasure. Teaching you has been a pleasure! The year now ends, and we must part, Always know you are in our hearts! Miss Kathy and Miss Marlene 2009 (okay so when she read that I about cried too:)

There are some adorable pictures of Nathan. Some other fun things are some stats pages. There is an "All About Me" page and when they were kid for a day they were asked these questions and these were Nathan's Answers:
My favorite book: About Fireman
My favorite thing to eat: Trix Yogurt
My Favorite thing to do at preschool: play with handcuffs
If I could go anywhere I would go to: Kinley's house
My favorite color: Blue
When I grow up I want to be: a race car driver

All very typical Nathan answers;)

Another fun page is the Look How I have Grown!

In September I was 39 3/4 "
In May I was 41 3/4 "
Nathan grew 2" this year!

I wish I could show you all this book because it truly is really cute and special.

The kids were each presented with their certificates and then enjoyed a fun "party" of mostly healthy treats. Then it was time to say goodbye. I was not sure how Nathan would take to that but he was fairly oblivious. I think it will set in next week when Jacob is still going to school and he is not. He really loved his teachers and they loved him. Miss Marlene told me today that she is not supposed to have favorites....but...she could not help it Nathan is hers. It was very sweet:) As big a handful as he can be for me, he is loved by everyone else and we are so proud of him.


One of the last pieces of art work Nathan did on Tuesday. I love his picture of Aiko and Keira and had to share.

Nathan's Certificate

Owen "partying it up" :)



In the song they were singing they were spiders and this was Nathan's being a spider climbing up Miss Kathy I guess?? He is such a nut!

Sitting by Jazzy (Jasmine) one of his favorite girls.

I took this last one of Nate before we left the house this morning. He just looked so big to me....

The Three Stooges

And just a couple of cute ones of Owen from today. He is going to be six months on Monday!

Happy Mother's Day!

So it is fitting that my 100th post on my family blog be about Mother's Day:) Today is my 6th Mother's Day and with each little boy to enter my life it gets sweeter. It is such fun to see the sheer joy on their face as they give me their little poems, hand prints or as the case was this year fake cute little flowers from Nathan and a candle holder decorated by Jacob. I look forward to future years of homemade adorable heartfelt little gifts.

After church today my only request was that we go somewhere outside and take a walk and just be together as a family. So we went back to the Forest Preserve that I took the boys to earlier this week. We had a good time walking some in a different direction but eventually ended up back to the spot where the kids had fun on the rocks. It was sunny but quite windy and it felt so good to have it hit your face. Even Owen enjoyed it. It totally messed up with his naps and he is quite the little bear now but it was worth it.

Here are some pictures of our fun. It was so much better having Ian there (and Keira!)


We have quite the little photographers on our hands. Nathan took the above picture of Keira (ignore the finger mark:) and Jacob took the picture of me and Owen.

Randomness

Just a few other random shots from the past couple of days...mostly Owen:) We got him a new Jeep stroller this weekend and he really seems to like it so far. So here are a few of him showing off his wheels and other randomness....


I walked into the room and Owen had his foot in his mouth ripping his sock off. Of course by the time I got the camera it was off all the way. He is quite obsessed with his feet these days and it just made me laugh:)

After last weeks crying for three days I was happy to just have him be peaceful! Look how much his hair is growing in and how brown it is:) Ian jokes around saying he "missed" this third time around with the dark eyes and hair. I am excited to have one baby that looks more like me:)