Our family 2011

For Father's Day, we gave Ty a picture frame with each of our handprints on the mat. (See below) We had to hand-draw a family picture because we didn't have one of the 5 of us where Tatum was able to look at the camera. My friend, Kara Dennis, came to our rescue and took some pictures of us before church one day. Thanks, Kara!! 

This one perfectly captures our family at this stage. Tatum is doing exactly what we want by looking at the camera (have I said before how GREAT of a baby she is?), Colt is wanting to play "ready, set, wee!" -a game we frequently play while walking holding hands in the parking lot, and Levi has something very important to say (he is such a smart boy, even at the age of 2). 

I asked Kara to take some pictures of just me and the kids. As someone who is usually behind the camera, I don't get documented as often in pictures, but want the kids to remember what I looked like in my younger years as opposed to the lady with the grey hair that I am quickly becoming. 

Gotta get some of Daddy too! Tatum is a BIG fan of her Daddy. 

Here is Tatum playing with the finished product. She is such a huge Daddy fan, that she is sitting here pointing to Dada and saying his name :)

I'm so glad we have some nice pictures to remember this fun time in our lives!

July 4th parade and some randomness

Our neighborhood has an annual Forth of July Parade. Neighbors decorate their cars or bikes and go through the neighborhood. The start is 2 houses down the street from our house, so we made the trek to watch this year. 

The boys were excited to see the firetruck leading the parade!

Colt really liked watching the cars and having candy thrown at him. He said that next year he wants us to decorate OUR car so we can participate. We shall see...

In a bit of randomness, this sleepy boy continually uses his shirt as a napkin. Can you tell?!? This has prompted me to make 6 month goals for the boys. #1 on Levi's list? "Learn to use a napkin." Since I have the benefit of hindsight while writing this particular post, I must say that Levi is doing much better with this 4 months later. And, actually sitting down and thinking about goals for our kids has also been extremely beneficial. I sometimes feel overwhelmed when looking at all of the WORK that needs to be done to raise these boys into real, God-fearing/loving/serving men. But, making short-term goals that are focused on how they can better learn, love and grow really gives me a manageable grasp on this thing called parenting. In a future post, maybe I'll share their goals and their progress towards them. 

My mom bought these blocks for the boys. I must say that these blocks are an absolute necessity to any family with kids. My kiddos play with these things NON-STOP! They make all different creations  (today's creation is a train in case you can't tell. Colt is the engineer). I love these Melissa and Doug blocks so much that I just bought a whole other set so they can make even bigger creations. Ty thinks I'm crazy because these blocks also take up quite a bit of space, but the boys are great at stacking them back up when they are finished playing, so we'll just have to continue to enforce that rule now that we'll have 2x the mess! 

Colt's family party

We also had a family party for Colt on his actual birthday because we LOVE celebrations!

Colt loves trains and has started to express an interest in legos, so we got him a Lego train set! He loves this set and still (in November) plays with it regularly. It IS a hassle to put together, but fortunately, on this particular weekend, we went to see Nana in Marble Falls for the 4th of July weekend, so SHE had the pleasure of assembling it! (Thanks, Nana!)

You can somewhat see the burn mark on Colt's chin in this picture. The day before this, we were making cookies. He got excited that they had come out of the oven and ran up to grab one off of the hot cookie sheet, but burned his chin on the edge of the cookie sheet. Gotta learn the hard way sometimes. Ouch! (Nov update: There is still a small scar there that keeps going away slowly but surely. Hopefully your young body will fully erase this one!)

We had recently gotten the boy's hair cut in these pictures. They look so different now (again, in November... I know, I'm a blog slacker, but at least I'm trying to make up for it now!). Their hair is really long now. I actually just trimmed Colt's hair the other day because he kept complaining about it getting in his eyes. He was hesitant to let me cut it (partly because he likes to go to the kiddie cut place because they have a big train table there that he likes), but I think it looks great now. Plus, we are planning a trip to Germany in the spring, so we put the cash we saved in our "Germany jar." Yes, all of our impulsive spending money is going in here... no more late-night Sushi (they deliver to our house!), late-night pizza, Starbucks, etc. Hmm... this could be a good thing... maybe we'll even lose some weight with no more late night eating :) Anyway, back to the celebration....

Both of the boys have really been into the Toy Story movies lately. We have saved Toy Story 2 on our tv and they ask to watch it constantly. We got Colt a Woody doll and Grandma got him a Buzz Lightyear doll, so now he and Levi can play with them together. In November retrospect... Levi is the one who loves playing with these toys. Should've known... Colt has never really been a doll kinda kid. 

The cupcakes were Colt's favorite part of the evening. Mine too as the cupcakes were from my favorite cupcake bakery in town... Delish. Yummy!

Yay for Colt turning 4! 

Colt's 4th b-day party

My baby turned 4 in July! It's cliche, I know... but time has really flown by. We are loving being Colt's parents. He is a good kid - he's quiet until he gets to know you, then he's just a silly little boy who likes to get attention. He's generally obedient to others but can be quite crafty around the house, so keeps us on our toes. Lately, Colt has taken a real interest in Tatum (he's been climbing into her crib to play with her). 

Last year, Colt went to a birthday party at Kiddie Acres that he hasn't stopped talking about ever since. I finally wised up to the idea of having a party at a place that does all the work for me. I even ordered Colt's cake this year (from Sugar Tooth Bakery - vegan for Chez!) instead of stressing out about making the perfect creation for Colt. 

Levi and Owen rode this ride together. 

Close up of Levi - he loves wearing sunglasses. Pretty much wears them all the time, yes indoors as well. 

The boys in the boat. 

Friends in the airplane

The train was a big hit! 

We never tire of train rides :)

The men and the boys enjoyed some putt-putt

Kendal shared some big news with us at the party... baby #3 on its way!! Yay!

Someone's happy he'll be a big brother!

Trying to stay cool - it was hot out there!

Eliza was just chillin'

Malachi and Colt - friends forever :) I never got a picture of Colt with all of his friends, and we never got a family picture either. Gotta get better about that!

Happy Birthday, Colt. We love you so much and are blessed to be your parents. We pray that God will continue to work in you to grow you into a young man who loves Him with all your heart and seeks to honor Him with your thoughts and actions. You are a joy to all who know you and a good friend to your brother and sister. We can't wait to walk with you in your next year of life. 

Love, Mom