End of Summer 2012

The rest of our summer has flown by and we've been having a ton of fun!  We're getting ready to start our fall activities, so I thought I'd do a blog post to end the summer. 
Since our last post, we've been doing a lot of typical summer things.  Noah and Evan did several more swim lessons and actually learned to like them!  They finished their lessons last Wednesday and said goodbye to Ms. Melanie (their swim teacher) for the summer.  They are already saying they miss her and miss having swim lessons.  They each did amazing.  They learned to float by themselves, go completely under the water by themselves, and even swim a little bit by themselves.  They certainly came a long way since the beginning of the summer, and we are very proud of them. 

Noah, Ms. Melanie, and Evan

We've spent several evenings with different friends, and Noah, Evan, and Joshua love to entertain.  They also love hanging out in our backyard either by ourselves or with our next door neighbor Abby.
On Saturday, August 4th, Brian had a golf tournament.  While he was away, I took Noah and Evan to meet Iron Man at the zoo.  I surprised them with Iron Man because they just thought we were taking a regular trip to the zoo.  They loved him!  We stood in line to meet Spiderman for a while, but they decided just seeing him was enough and we didn't need to wait in line any longer for a picture.  Iron Man was a lot cooler anyway! 

Meeting Iron Man!

On August 5th, our nephew Dominic was baptized.  It was a great day!

After his baptism...sleeping :)

On August 12th, Brian and I ran the Race for the Cure.  We've done it several times now, and I just love being a part of something so incredible.

Last weekend, we went to a festival/picnic that our realty team does each year at Longview Lake.  We got to eat awesome food, and we all won great prizes.  Noah, Evan, and Joshua all rode ponies, walked through a petting zoo, and jumped in a "bouncy castle."  We got to spend a little bit of time with some of our neighbors, so that was also fun. 

On developmental notes, Noah and Evan are doing great learning their numbers and letters.  They are using scissors pretty easily now, and love to color.  Noah is quickly becoming our "artist" and colors on his own a lot.  I think he's going to take after his artist Daddy (who is currently transforming Noah and Evan's "Buzz and Woody" room to a Superhero room - it's going to be great).  I think they are both still around 32 lbs, although we haven't weighed them very recently.  They start preschool on Tuesday, September 4th and will go Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00-11:30am.  They are getting very excited!  They also start their fall soccer league this coming Sunday, August 26th.  They are the Silver Sharks.

Noah and Evan's new superhero room...thanks Daddy!

Joshua is also doing great developmentally.  He is becoming quite a chatter box and repeats almost everything we say. His current phrase is, "Oh man!"  Although he can say several words, he loves to say "Hulk," "ball," and "hat."  He loves to play with his big brothers, and even gets rough with them sometimes.  He's quickly learning the ropes.  Also, he is now sleeping in his crib through the night!  This was a big milestone for us because he had been sleeping in our bed with us since we moved into our new house last November. He was still nursing through the night, so I knew it was going to be a very difficult habit to break.  We really decided to sleep train him mid-July, and by now, he is doing great!  He usually wakes up once or twice in the middle of the night, but we're usually able to get him to go back to sleep in his crib.  Last Wednesday (August 22) was the first night he slept all night in his crib without making a sound...I was very proud :)  He hasn't nursed in almost two weeks, so that has definitely been an adjustment for him and me.  I was very sad to give up nursing, but it had to be done.