Grandma & Grandpa are here to HELP!!!

Last week my parents arrived to help out with the kiddos & we were all glad to see them after a crazy adjustment week with the new baby! Josh is loving all the one on one attention he gets playing with his toys with grandma and Kyle has taken right to her with cuddles and books. I am not sure how I am going to handle the needs of all three by myself once they leave!? But the good news is that my mom found a job here and they have some offers on a few different houses, so hopefully we will soon be neighbors :)!

Thanks Amanda!

My friend Amanda from high school set up a photo studio in her garage and asked if she could take pictures of Jacob for her portfolio, so I took him over and she did an awsome job... here are the pictures that she has sent me so far:

I heart faces- Feet week

This weeks contest on Iheartfaces.com is all about feet. This pictures is taken of my 2nd baby when he was only 3 days old. This was the day we took him home from the hospital and the bandage on his little heal is from the PKU test. They have to endure so much poking and prodding during the first few days of life, but despite the pain and bandages, he still had so much expression in his little feet! I love how you can see all the baby creases and wrinkles that go away so quickly as baby weight is put on. You can see all the entries for this week's contest at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Welcome Baby Jacob!

Well, he finally made his appearance! He was born on July 11, 2009 (his due date) at 8:17PM and weighed 8lbs 2oz. We got to the hospital around 7:00PM and he came very soon after, totally natural birth with no meds (not by choice, but because we had no time!). Next time I seriously want to be induced with plenty of time to get an epidural! He came out perfect, though and in the end I only had to stay in the hospital for 25hours. He is a very calm and sweet addition to our family and has been a hit among Kyle & Josh! What a blessing from God! We have already taken hundreds of pics of him, so I had a hard time picking my favorites, but here is a fun series:

The Scary Frog!

The other day when we came back from a late evening of errand running, Mike and Josh went to turn the sprinklers in the front yard on and out jumped 2 frogs... Josh was terrified and asked a million questions about them that evening such as, "are frogs dirty?" and "why are they in our front yard?". We just answered the questions trying not to scare him about them, but the frogs were obviously on his mind a lot during the next few days especially in the evening when it would start to get dark. Yesterday, Mike and Josh were running around the back yard grass at dusk and all of a sudden Josh tripped and out jumped a dark object from right under him! It was a frog... Poor Joshie was spooked beyond belief and all he wanted to do was wash his hands and go inside. We convinced him that the frog was not going to do him any harm and would eat the bugs that might eat our garden, so he finally came and sat with us on the back patio. We saw our dog chasing something in the rocks, so Mike and Josh went on a hunt to find the frog... we were able to get a picture, which helped Josh really see what it looked like (since really all he had seen was a dark mass jumping around scaring him). He tells us he wants to catch the frog and hold it next time he sees it!

Joshua's "Quiet Time"

Joshua typically only 'naps' a couple times a week, but the rest of the days he is stuck in his room having 'quiet time'... Although, sometimes he fights it, he seems to enjoy the solitude it brings. I always hear him talking and playing, but I don't dare go in or else I will interupt his play and he will want to get out... So I just wait til his 1.5-2 hour rest time is over to see what kind of toll it has taken on the toys in his room. I love to watch his imagination take over and combine all his toys into his active play. Below is an example of what is created during quiet time, you will have to notice that he put all the animals asleep in the barn and found a place to hang woody (the cowboy) and all of his accesories.

Nay Nay!

This week Kyle has expressed a bigger interest in knowing what objects are and how they work. He will point to something for us to tell him what it is and brings us toys to push a button or make them make sounds. He attempts to repeat several items: fan "faaa", tractor "taaa", car "rooom, rooom", daddy "daa" and his absolute favorite, blankie "nay nay". He will search the house endlessly if you tell him to find his blanket and is one happy baby once he finds it!

Baby Update

Today I am 39.5 weeks prego (3 more days until my due date) and I had my weekly check-up... I am 3 cm dilated and the midwife said the baby is very low (if you know anything about the station scale, I was a -1, 1 point away from a 0, which means the baby is engaged into the pelvis and usually in labor...), so while no one really knows how quickly things will progress, it will probably be sooner than later! She said if I come in next Tues (meaning that I have not had the baby yet) she will induce me if I would like. So with that said we should have a baby within the week! I have been nesting like mad- scrubbing tile grout, sweeping the garage, organizing the same closet 3 or 4 times, cleaning the celling fans & blinds, cleaning and organizing the kitchen cabinets, baking lots of cookies and then giving them away because I eat too many, vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms almost daily... shopping for everything that I think I will need in the next 6 months, finishing Kyle's first year scrapbook, getting rid of junk, and the list goes on! But, yesterday I noticed that my list was complete, I had actually gotten everything done that I wanted before baby was born and now it is just the day to day maintainence! I think I am finally ready to have this baby... I took a self portrait of my belly this morning after a few of you had asked, so hopefully this will be the last belly shot!

Interactive Play

This week we went to a couple of play dates and I sat back to watch all the boys play. Boy, do they know how to play hard! I don't know when the transition exactly happened, but it seems like just yesterday Joshua and all of his peers were just playing side by side with no real interaction between them unless they had a toy that they wanted for themselves. I watched how elaborate their imaginations can get when they have free reigns over their environment.

The first play date consisted of four 3-year old boys mixed in with a few toddlers and 2 girls that mostly played on their own upstairs. The 4 boys had a plastic Buzzlightyear costume, 2 long sleeved polyester policeman costumes & a plastic firefighter costume to rotate among them. There were plenty of toy guns, a few toy rescue vehicles and a whole backyard equipped with a wooden playground structure, grass field & sandbox. The weather was very warm and muggy (for ABQ) that morning but that didn't stop them from layering on the costumes and running around- us mommies were sweating just watching them play! I wish I had my camera or better yet, a camcorder with me to capture the intensity and energy of their play. They were all on a mission to capture the bad guys and even figured out how to assign each other duties to work together to achieve their mission... well, in the end I think they captured the imaginary 'bad guys' & the were ready for lunch and lots of cold water! They were even pretty good at trading (thus sharing) their costumes with each other (a big milestone to watch a group of 3 year olds share without a fight!).

The 2nd play date consisted of Josh & Kyle, plus 2 other 3-year old friends and their baby siblings (6 boys total!). The three 3-year olds were mostly playing outside while the mommies were inside with the babies. We checked up on the older boys every few minutes to make sure they were alright... We heard a few squeals of glee, so we all peaked out to see what they were doing. They had collaborated together to move a kiddie pool to the grass, turn the garden hose on and start to fill it up. All of a sudden the clothes were flying and by the time we were able to get outside, there were 3 boys running around the yard buck naked spraying each other with the hose! Their laughter was contagious, so us moms just looked at each other and laughed too!

First Fruits & First Flowers

We have had lots of cloudy afternoons, some rain and a couple of treatments of miracle grow in the past few weeks and all of a sudden, our 4 tomato plants have formed a tomato jungle taking over our garden! I think they are literally growing by the minute, I wish I had taken a picture of it about 2 weeks ago to show you the difference! The fruits from their laboring growth are abundant and green in color, so if you live close by you will probably get a bag of tomatoes in a couple of weeks! We also have squash, zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, lettuce, basil, either broccoli or cabbage & sugar snap peas hidden in this jungle of a garden bed! You will also have to notice our newly planted grape vines against the back wall, we won't get any fruit from them this year, but they are growing fast! We picked our first huge zucchini & yellow squash today, we didn't even realize they were there hiding under the leaves! Joshua was excited about them saying over and over that he could have the green one and Mommy, Daddy & Kyle could have the yellow one... when it came down to cooking a pasta with them mixed in, he picked out the veggies and just ate the pasta! I bet he will like zucchini bread better. We also had our first cosmo bloom in my small flower bed, I also planted poppies early spring and am really enjoying this 'happy' flower!