Saturday, April 22, 2017

Backyard

Our backyard, although not private and not very big, is one of our favorite places to be, especially with some of the great weather we have been having.  Rai especially loves to be outside and playing, Tracen loves it too, but usually needs some extra encouragement to get out there. 

Look at these two scheming against me and telling jokes about my "booty".








Tracen asked if he could take some pictures on my camera, and I was laughing so hard at the pictures he took, a whole collection of Rai holding up big rocks. 



These brothers all love each other so much. 



Easter

Easter this year felt so special.  Perhaps it was the personal study I was putting into The Holy Week, or the calendar of events that we studied as a family from The Small Seed, but it just felt like we spent more time dwelling on the real meaning of Easter.  Tracen kept telling us that Jesus is way more important than chocolate, and he really feels it.  He also tells us that "love" is the most powerful word, and that we need to love everyone like God and Jesus.  

That being said, we did enjoy a visit from the Easter Bunny.  


The Easter Bunny gave the boys lots of change for their piggy banks instead of lots of candy.  And even then, Rai ate all his treats so quick!  Then he cried and cried and begged to eat Tracen's and Mylo's. 

I was shocked when Tracen ate a few things and then asked if he could save the rest for another day.  I guess he is growing up. 


Little Mylo slept through the egg hunt, but was excited to try to eat his chocolate bunny, play with empty plastic eggs and chew on his new book. 

And while Luke was at a church meeting for all of Sunday morning, and I attempted to get a picture of the boys all dressed nice.  A lot harder than one would think. But I love these imperfect pictures, because they are real life. 

Mylo spit up just prior to this picture






We opted out of a big Easter dinner with friends, and just had a quiet special dinner as a family and then a walk to the park.  It was just what we needed and was the perfect way to help us feel the special spirit that can accompany easter.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Mylo - 9 months

Mylo is already 9 months old, and I can't believe how quickly it feels like it went by.  I guess it went by quickly in the feeling of "the days are long but the years are short".  His little personality is coming out more and more and I love it. he weighs just over 16 lbs and is in the 4th percentile for weight, but his head is large and in the 80 something percentile and he is about average for height. 

His new trick is putting his hands in the air when we say "how big is Mylo".  But he actually just knows that it is a party trick and we get excited about it, so when we went for his check-up he was putting one hand up in the air for everyone he made eye contact with. 




I love the way he just folds in half sometimes. 



more of his trick. 


This boy LOVEs his older brothers.  Last night we were all playing catch before bed and he just couldn't have been happier to be watching us all play and to have Tracen let him old the ball every couple of tosses.   his brothers sure love him, and recently Rai has taken it upon himself to feed Mylo whatever he is eating, I am having to keep a close eye on him and food.

Mylo loves to eat.  It is a wonder that he is such a light weight because he just loves to eat whatever we are eating.  The other night I gave Rai a cookie in front of him and he just started crying when he didn't get one too.  He loves blueberries, bananas, raspberries, potato, French fries, avocado... seriously everything right now.

Mylo still doesn't like to be put down.  He still cries quite a bit and still doesn't sleep that well at night.  We are learning to do a lot of things while holding him, let him cry a little bit while we get things done and just paying lots and lots of attention to him.  

he is just starting to army crawl, although most of the time he is crying and trying to get back into my arms when he does it, but the past couple of days he has done some exploring on his own.  

One of my favorite things is how happy and excited Mylo gets each day when Luke gets home from work.  I need to try to get a video of it.  He sure loves his Dad too. 

He is a friendly little guy (as long as he is being held) and loves to give smiles and flirts with just about everyone.  

He has taught me so much more about love, patience and how to function on little sleep and I wouldn't trade anything for these past 9 months with him.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Rai's Golden Birthday!

 We have been talking about Rai's birthday for months now.  All he wanted was a Blaze and the Monster Machine's cake that was blue and he was going to share it with everyone.  That is exactly what he got and what he did.  We had his friends and their families come over to eat his favorite Chick-fil-A and then have cake and ice cream.  Rai played so hard while everyone was here and went to bed happy.  
Rai is such a special part of our family.  He gives us glimpses into heaven all the time, smiles with his eyes, loves to play play play and imagine all the time.  He loves to eat fruit, be captain America ninja turtle, and do whatever it is Tracen is doing.  He is a little mischievous and constantly is innocently creating messes.  He is stubborn and loving and I couldn't love him more.  

Still trying to get the hang of holding up 3 fingers. 










The best gift that Rai got for his birthday was a HUGE dumping of snow last night.  So today he longingly looked out the window wanting to go play in it.  And he spent a good hour outside this morning and would probably have lasted longer if we didn't have to go get Tracen from school.


Spring Break part II


The second half of Spring Break was spent with Grammy and Papa visiting.  We wanted to show them as many of our favorite places as we could.  We went to Roxborough when they got here and went for a nice walk through the park.  Tracen got to go to Top Golf again with Grammy and Papa and Luke.  Luke and I got to get a date in.  We watched conference altogether and the boys did surprisingly well for the most part during conference watching and playing quietly.  We got a visit in to the park, ate lots of great food and started celebrating Rai's birthday before they left on Sunday night. 






















We hope that they will come back and visit again soon, and that the weather will let us show them even MORE of what we love here.