Thursday, May 24, 2012

A Month's Worth...

I've been putting off blogging the past month because I didn't think we had enough going on worth posting about, but now I have so many random pictures from the past month that I don't even know how these all go together but I'm going to try. So although it's random, here's what we've been up to lately...
We've had lots of days at the park and have been enjoying the nice weather. This was Blake's first time on the swing and he loves it!

My cuties riding in their play car together in the backyard. I loved how Jacob was so sweet to keep his arm around Blake so he wouldn't fall and they both were giggling like crazy when I'd push the car around and give them a ride. Plus, it gave me quite a good workout!

I also got us a new little swimming pool for the boys to play with in the backyard. They love it, and I love it. So fun! We pull this out 2-3 times a week now.

And when it's not the pool, I let the kids play in the sprinkler. Ah, sometimes I wish I could be a kid again :)
And this picture is really blurry but we scored free tickets to a Rockies game so we took the boys- it was Blake's first game, and even had an extra ticket for Luke to bring a friend. The game itself was kind of boring, but we had good seats and it was still good to get out.
In the first weekend of May Luke's parents came back in town for the weekend. I like this first picture of Jacob with his Grandpa- Jacob loves having him visit so much!
And it was nice for us to have them come for a couple days because then Luke and I were finally able to take advantage of them babysitting the boys so Luke and I could go to the temple. So that was good, and the boys had a great time with them.
Also earlier in the month, Luke's car was hit in the parking lot of his work. Luke wasn't in his car, someone just backed into him, and left without a note. Never did find out who it was but the entire front bumper fell off. Still don't understand how someone could leave a car like this!Here is the before picture, but once insurance covered to get it fixed we were excited to see our car looks better than it has in years.

While Luke was working on the car one evening, Jacob came out to help and he was just so cute poking screwdrivers and wrenches into the car. When he saw some kids playing across the street he shouted to them, "My name is Jacob and I'm helping my dad! I'm fixing the car!" He makes me laugh.
Quick side note on Jacob lately:
Jacob is in the stage where he wants to do everything himself- getting dressed(even if he doesn't always match, haha), sometimes changing his own diaper when he wakes up in the morning, brushing his teeth, getting food and drinks out of the fridge for himself, wants to lead the way when we go for walks, wants to help me cook, and he loves to help his dad with whatever he's doing.

Jacob and Blake are as crazy together as ever. They both like to tease each other a lot. Blake loves to teasingly hit, bite and scratch Jacob's face but Jacob usually doesn't mind, he just laughs! Then Jacob will sit or lay on Blake, and if he's hurting him I intervene, but somehow Blake thinks this is funny too. So I guess they're just being boys? I can't decide if I should allow the roughhousing or not, but I love to hear them laugh and play together.
Don't worry, they really do love each other, Jacob is still very sweet with Blake and obviously still adores him. Jacob is always so proud of Blake and tells him "good job" when he climbs all the stairs or says "dada" or "mama", or anything else that Jacob finds impressive. Jacob has also gotten a little better about sharing his toys with Blake and likes to feed him snacks too, and just laughs at cute things he does all day.


Jacob loves to play outside, go on walks, and play with friends. He is doing awesome at learning his letters, and while he was good before, he definitely knows all his letters now. (Thank you LeapFrog Netflix movies!) He also is a great counter and loves to tell me numbers he sees on signs even when we drive in the car. It's fun to see that he likes to learn and it's great to see him proud of himself too.

He often likes to pick flowers for everyone in the family and has been very open lately about giving us all hugs and telling us "I love you" :)
This sweet boy usually takes an hour and a half nap still, but on the occasions when he decides he doesn't need one, he often falls asleep by 6 pm on the couch, haha. And since it doesn't get dark until so late in the summer we let Jacob stay up a little later, but he's usually down by 9 and wakes up every morning just before 7 and sees Luke off before work.
One day we went to our friend's graduation party and there was a neighbor at the park riding this car and Jacob jumps right in! He tried driving it too but he kept spinning out, so this random boy was very nice to give Jacob a ride around the park!
We've also had a lot of rainy spring weather here lately too. I looked back in the car one day and found Jacob with his umbrella open like this, and he simply told me "It's raining mom!" At the moment I don't think it even was raining but he still insisted on carrying around the umbrella.

And then there was Mother's Day. Luke got me a new webcam so that I can Skype with my family since my old camera broke. I had to basically spell out exactly what Luke could get me because he worries about getting something I won't like. Jacob helped him pick it out though and he was very excited to give it to me when I woke up. He kept telling me Happy Birthday and saying "Mommy's having a party today" and I had to keep explaining that it wasn't my birthday, just Mother's Day and all I wanted was for him to be good and tell me he loved me. It was sweet though, and I needed that, especially since after our nice breakfast we packed up and took Luke to the airport where he went on to Texas for the week for work. I was a little bummed he had to leave on Mother's Day, so I cut myself a rose from the garden and pretended it was from Luke so I would have something to look at while he was gone all week :)
I actually did fine though with Luke gone. I felt a little more tired than usual, but my days were basically the same. When Luke finally got home from his trip on Saturday, we headed across the street to the Thorntonfest, and it was actually our first time going since we've lived here. Since the weather was chilly/rainy again there wasn't a big turnout but that made it better for us since there was no lines for the kids stuff.
All Jacob wanted was to ride the train so we did that first, but once it got going he was actually not very happy! Every time he rode past us he'd call out to us and had this miserable pout, we were pretty surprised he didn't like it after all! Next time we'll put Blake with him and then I'm sure he'd be fine.
Jacob also went down the big blow-up slide three times and we were proud of him for being brave enough to do that on his own. He would've spent the whole time here but we got tired of waiting- kind of annoying how they only let one kid on the entire thing at a time. Anyway, overall it was a fun little family outing.

Blake turned 11 months this past Sunday. We're counting down until our little baby turns one! Blake is moving around a lot now. He can climb up all the flights of stairs, he crawls really fast especially when he's excited, and is always pulling himself up on things and getting in trouble. Especially in his booster seat he is always standing up or trying to turn around so he can check out the TV or see what's going on behind him. He is so wiggly he makes me nervous, and I obviously need to be better about always buckling him now!
He seems to be in that stage where it's fun to be naughty. Always gets a good laugh when I tell him no and looks to get a reaction when he knows he shouldn't do something. Like throwing food on the floor- yes Blake, that's hilarious. Sometimes Blake really can drive us crazy. Here's a picture of him throwing a fit. When he gets real sad (and tired) he flops on the floor and cries face down. Haha, it's pretty pathetic. He can be a bit whiny and clingy at times and has a harder time when I leave him with sitters now. I knew this stage would have to happen at some point, but hopefully it doesn't last long.
Being outside usually makes Blake happy though and he enjoys going for rides in the stroller. Good thing I have a double stroller so Woody can get a ride too- that was Jacob's idea since he wanted to walk by himself that time.
And like I said, he enjoys swings so far too. And I thought it was so cute how Blake was just chilling in the swing like this! It actually reminds me of me- I used to often sit with one leg propped up too. So even though sometimes he drives me nuts, when he's happy he has the cutest smile and can make everyone around him smile too.
We also decided it was time to cut his hair- it wasn't overly long but enough that I didn't know what to do with it all and too many people still thought he was a girl. I wanted to hold out until his birthday, but one month early isn't too bad, it was time. And after watching Jacob suffer through his haircut, Blake actually did great and didn't cry once!

And look how handsome he is now! He doesn't look like a baby at all anymore- well, at least to me. Here are the two of them after their haircuts. Love my sweet, handsome boys!
These boys get a lot of smiles and compliments from people when we go out. They are just too cute together. This was Blake's first time riding in the car cart with Jacob at the grocery store, he's usually up front with me, but Blake loves being with his brother.
Phew, ok that's enough for now. I'll try not to wait another month to post again!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Planes with Friends

Jacob has a new friend Levi and it's been so fun to have these boys play together. Us moms take turns watching each other's kids and so Jacob and Levi have had lots of fun playing together, especially since they're interested in all the same things. And Blake and Conner are only 6 months apart so it's a win for all of us and we've had fun all hanging out together!
Recently we decided to go to the Broomfield airport so that the boys could watch the small planes take off and land up close. The weather was a little chilly and rainy but they had a really good time watching all the planes and running around with the whole place to themselves.











And while this was a great little place for the kids to watch and run around, the only bad part was there was no security or locks here. You'd think the gates directly in front of the planes would be locked, but Jacob pulled the gate open right here and started to run towards the planes before I grabbed his sweater and caught him. I nearly had a heart attack and was starting to picture myself chasing him down a runway while holding Blake. Luckily that did not happen. Speaking of Blake, he's becoming a momma's boy and didn't really want to be put down on this little trip, poor guy.




What cute boys! I'm excited to take them back on a sunny warm day!