4 Years and 4 Months!

WOW, I cannot believe how fast my babies are growing up.

We celebrated Evan's 4th birthday with a fun Super WHY! party. I made some fun games, the kids had to find 'super letters' hidden in the yard and put them in the 'super computer' to spell out a 'super message', then we played bag toss where the kids had to get there bags into 'Storybook village'. And I even found the time this year to make his birthday cake again.

This year, Evan has done so many fun things and is getting so smart and creative. He attended preschool, played t-ball, spent lots of time with his grandma's, is learning to swim with a life vest on, getting really good at riding his bike, and growing taller and taller and taller!!

Emily just turned 4 months old. She is also growing a lot. She has started making all kinds of fun noises. She is super strong and can stand up on her own if we lean her up against the couch. She was 'walking' today in the yard with me holding her hands. She is still working on sitting up on her own, and is great at belly time. She is melting everyones hearts everywhere we go with her beautiful smile.

I absolutely love my babies and am really enjoying watching them grow and change and learn.

K'Nex

We had this great opportunity to try out some K'Nex products for free. Evan already has some K'Nex and loves to play with them. They allow him to be completely creative and are super easy to use. Evan received three of the Sesame Street K'Nex toys, the Kick it Elmo, Swim Time Ernie, and Cookie Monster's Basketball. Here are some of the pros and cons that we found with the toys.

PROS:

*Very easy for Evan to figure out (age appropriate). The first one he had to look at the instructions and needed some minor assistance to build it, the second one he built completely on his own with the instructions and by the third on he was able to build it and didn't even take the instructions out of the package.

*Fun and creative, they are meant to build one character, but you can switch it up and create all kinds of funny things (as you can see from the picture).

*Improves hand-eye coordination

*Encourages imaginative play

*Encourages thinking and problem solving skills

CONS:

*They were more like LEGO's than the K'Nex toys we are used to. Not many of the pieces connected like K'Nex, but more like LEGO's.

*It is almost impossible to get all the pieces back in the original container, so you have to find a new storage container for them.

3 Months

Emily is now 3 months old and doing wonderful! She is super strong and is a very good baby. She is sleeping 7-8 hours at night. She loves to smile and make all kinds of cool noises. She can grab toys and put them in her mouth, her favorite is one that has the crinkly stuff in it. We are looking forward to a fun July with the 4th and Evan's 4th birthday, and another annual street garage sale. I think I am crazy for doing it again, but hopefully this year will be more successful than last year!

Happy Father's Day!

I wish my wonderful husband a very happy Father's Day! He is the most amazing husband, and I'm not just saying that. He not only cleans and helps out around the house and with the kids, but he let me go to Columbus on Saturday for the entire day and he watched Evan AND Emily all day!!!! What other husband would allow their wife to leave for an entire day when they were still nursing??? He is so amazing with Evan and Emily, they both love him very much and are so lucky to have such a loving father. We had a great Father's Day on Sunday, we went to the Captain's baseball game. It was super hot, but we found some shaded seats and it made it all worth it when they won with a walk-off home run in the 9th! We also got a ball from the game. There was a foul ball and the third baseman tossed it to Evan. Then Noel and Evan got to run the bases after the game! What a great way to spend fathers day.

I love you, Noel!

T-Ball

Well we have officially started the crazy life of children's sports. Evan started T-ball last week and is having a blast. He is the typical 3 year old-putting his glove on his head instead of on his hand and running around the bases when he is on defense! It was a hoot watching him 'play' baseball!! Hopefully he will get more focused and continue to have fun. We have an awesome coach who is really great (and patient) with the kids. He is actually the husband of one of Evan's babysitters from when I was working. Go Bears!!!!

2 Months

Emily is 2 months old now. She is doing lots of smiling and 'talking'. She is sleeping and eating well and will visit the doctor next week to get her official stats. We have not been doing a whole lot so that's why there have not been any posts. Just trying to keep our lives in order and adjust to having two little ones.

One month

Well believe it or not, Emily has been here a month. She is officially 9lbs. 8oz. which puts her in the 50th percentile and 21.5 inches long (60th percentile). It has been a pretty good month, she is sleeping well and eating pretty good, except the spit-up that comes with every feeding. Evan is loving her and takes EVERY opportunity to kiss her and pat her on the head. He is a great big brother and helps out a lot. She is attempting to make some new noises and smiles a lot (even if it's only gas). Time is flying by with her, but we are enjoying every minute.