Last Week

We had a super busy week! First, on Tuesday we had Mark and Peyton's 2 year and 1 year well visits. Mark had to get his finger pricked to check his iron and Peyton received 4 shots...CJ was very upset that his "babies" were having to get shots and he promptly told me that he wanted to "take his babies home now" before they were to get shots. He was very loving when his brothers got their shots and after the prick. We made it through! Mark had some bad eczema on his feet of all places but we got a Rx and his feet are doing MUCH better!

Here are the stats of our healthy big boys.

Mark:

31 pounds

34 1/2 inches

Peyton:

26 pounds

32 1/2 inches

Tuesday and Wednesday night we had CJ's last T-ball games for the season. He has been such a little hustler all season. He runs super fast to get the balls and hits the ball with all his might! We have his end of season party this next Tuesday. Here is our T-ball player.

Thursday, CJ and I had our teeth cleaned and we are happy to report that we don't have any cavities and very little plaque...I guess we're doing our best keeping our sweet teeth cleaned!

Friday we had a playdate with some friends. You would think by the picture below that this was Halloween but really, the boys all loved CJ's array costumes in his closet so at one point they all came down dressed up!

Friday night CJ spent the night with Grammy and Pop. They found a bird's nest and CJ counted 5 eggs...they look so pretty. Grammy said the momma bird was chirping at them the whole time! This is CJ and Pop playing the bag toss game...CJ was aiming for the win!

Re"w"axing on the bed!

Saturday night we had a movie night and CJ shared his pallet with Mark!

Biggest Brother

We were cleaning the other day and CJ kept telling me that he was hungry and that his brothers were hungry too. I told him to go downstairs and get a snack. I didn't tell him to get snacks for everyone but I walked back downstairs and he had gotten two baggies out for he and Mark and filled them with yogurt raisins and animal crackers and he had grabbed the baby rice snacks for Peyton. This was pretty impressive! He not only was sweet to think of everyone, but he put together a pretty good little treat. They enjoyed their snacks at their table upstairs!

Shoo-Shoo

This is from a few days ago...
Marky came to me saying "Shoo-Shoo". See pics below...no, that's not playdough but he sure was playing with it like it was-until it started to smell!

Marky is 2, Peyton is 1...

...we celebrated with some fun in the sun!

This one needs a trim too....

This is definitely a stage I am going through...I just don't want to cut all this pretty hair. I'm sure it will pass but for now, I'll be trimming only the necessary areas like around the ears.

Yay Marky!

Marky just might be potty-training himself. He's been taking his diaper off regularly and wanting to go to the potty. This morning I went up to his room-since he's sleeping in his big-boy bed I wanted to check on him to see if he was really still asleep. I opened up the room and saw a naked boy laying on his sheets just sound asleep. I saw his diaper and shorts on the floor. I closed the door to let him sleep more but then I decided that he had probably been peeing all night and was probably soaked. I was right. He never once woke up. Then after I got him up, bathed and dressed he took his diaper off again and climbed up on the big potty. For the first time today he peed in the potty (he's been just sitting on the potty but could never actually go)! Once he started going of course I said "Oh yay Marky!" but it was too loud and he froze up and didn't finish until I settled down! This afternoon for naps I decided to put underwear over his diaper and that worked for keeping it on, we'll see how tonight goes! Here are a few pics of him with his big-boy undies on:)

Peyter Tot is 1!

Peyton was born a year ago today! Its been a very quick year. As we've gotten to know our baby boy Peyton, we've about decided that he just might be the ringleader in several scuffles that the boys have daily! He's not shy at all and when he wants something, he'll do whatever it takes to get it! He has an infectious smile!

Here are some other sweet things about our Peyton:
He giggles constantly at his brothers and almost snorts most of the time.
He is walking all over the house. He has such long legs and is still a little wobbly!
He just started sleeping in the crib last night (Mark just moved into his own big-boy bed!).
He loves kisses and loves face to face contact. If we get just a little close to his face, he leans in the rest of the way to be as close as possible.
I think he's a real mamma's boy...he will let me snuggle with him when he gets upset but he has to be wrapped up in a cozy blanket.
He still loves his bottle-I warm milk up like they do for cats, silly I know (we stopped with the formula a week ago but he loves warm milk)!
He has 8 teeth and loves to eat...sweets of course like the rest of us.
His hair really does need a trim but I just don't want to do a full trim yet!
So far, he's daddy's little mini-me!
He loves to be outside playing with his brothers and already climbs all the way up the slide!

We started our day with chocolate chip pancakes and a pitiful little hat I made last night :(

This little face is hard to not constantly kiss on!

We're going to...

GREAT WOLF LODGE...well, actually we "went" to Great Wolf Lodge but that's the jingle that we've been hearing on the radio and wondering what the lodge was all about. Thursday we found out! The boys had a great time...we had a few fiascoes but nothing you wouldn't expect with a 4 year old, an almost 2 year old and an almost 1 year old.

Here are a few things that created the fiascoes:

1. Mark has never slept in a bed by himself or with us-or anything other than his crib.

2. Naps are super important...even on vacation!

3. Sound machines should never be forgotten.

4. Mommy does not need to be in the bathtub with shampoo in her hair at the time of a fire alarm.

5. We should spend every waking moment outside of the room...or else, everyone suffers!

6. We should have packed child-proofing devices for the doors!

One thing we did do right...we brought along a stash of the yummiest snacks that we usually don't buy all at once (Oreo's, gummy worms, M&M's, Little Debbies smores and brownies, Twix, peanut butter cookies). Yay for the snacks, they saved us from many more fiascoes!

We really did enjoy our family outing!

C.J. thoroughly enjoyed himself but as we were getting ready to leave he said, "Oh sweet home"...and let me tell you, we were all thinking the same thing (thankfully we only had a 30 minute drive home)!! At these ages, one night away is plenty of fun!

As we pulled up to the lodge, the excitement was bubbling! Mark was just in awe!

Cabin-themed kid sleeping area!

Walking into the water park! Dinner which we all enjoyed! ...and the SWEET SHOP. Everything from donuts at 7pm to ice cream, candy and HUGE cookiesMarky driving the ice cream truck!We didn't even tell CJ to do the bear claw, can you tell he loved this place!

Before breakfast this morning. I was too hungry to get everyone completely dressed so we were all mismatched but we were FULL by the time we left the Loose Moose Buffet.

My Mother's Day!

What a wonderful Mother's Day!

A few of my favorite things!

My favorite envelope I have ever received! Clark asked CJ to write an "M" and then write and "o" and then another "m". This is what CJ wrote and I love it...abstract thinking! The boys new climber, an early birthday present from Grammy and Pop...they all love it!

First Dr Visit

Clark and I attended our first doctor visit for the new baby yesterday. Because Dr. Turner moved to Tyler, we are seeing Dr. Richard Kaye at Plano Presby who Dr. Turner recommended. We really like him! We spent about 2 hours at the office doing all the preliminary work-visiting with the dr. to get a picture of my history, sonogram, bloodwork etc. The baby looked great, we could see the head and body and heartbeat of course. The room where they do the sonograms has a flat screen TV on the wall. They had a comfy chair in there that Clark got to sit in and watch the sonogram on the TV. It was a nice change of pace. Baby had a good strong heartbeat. They went ahead and calculated me at 8 weeks with a due date of December 14th. I'll be doing Internet Christmas shopping this year for sure! Dr. Kaye is in private practice so my chances of having him deliver our baby are high. This is what I was used to with Dr. Turner and I like knowing that most likely he's on call unless he's out of town.

After the sonogram, Clark and I went into another room where Dr. Kaye was going to do some more tests...but when we got into the office by ourselves, we both looked up at the same time and the picture below is what we saw. 4 butterflies hanging by wire from the ceiling. We just laughed in awe! Sometimes (most of the time) its hard to fathom how blessed we are :)

In my next blog I will put our new family pictures up...I haven't done that since we got them taken a month ago but have been meaning to!