Joshua's First Birthday!

Joshua turned 1 on Wednesday, May 2, 2012!  He, Noah, and Evan went to Grandma Mary's house for the first half of the day.  We picked them up and took them to Chipotle for lunch, which Joshua loves.  He likes their beans and rice, so that's one of our favorite places to eat out.  After lunch, we went to the hospital to see Dominic, their new cousin who was born to Mark and Sarah on May 1st.  Dominic is perfect and we are already in love with him!  That afternoon, Joshua got his present from us - a green and black "motorcycle" for him to ride on (the new swing set was also part of his birthday present).  That evening, we made dinner at home and then went to get Joshua his first cupcake at Smallcakes.  He didn't eat it as much as he smashed it between his fingers and threw it on the floor :) I'd say his first birthday was a fun one!

Joshua on his birthday with his new motorcycle from Daddy, Mommy, Noah and Evan

Joshua's first cupcake!

Yummy!

Noah with his newest cousin, Dominic Edward!

Evan and his newest cousin Dominic

Mom (Laura) with Baby Dominic.  He's so sweet!

Brian and Dominic

Joshua's birthday party was held at our house on Saturday, May 5th from 5-7pm (after Noah, Evan, and Michael's soccer game).  So many people came to celebrate, and it was a ton of fun.  Joshua loved it!  The kids got to play outside in our backyard in the sprinkler and with Joshua's new beach ball that squirts water (that he got from his godparents, Uncle Mark and Aunt Sarah, and baby Dominic), they played on the swing set, played with the water table, and just ran around.  We had sandwiches, pasta, fruit, and veggies for dinner, followed by cake and cupcakes for dessert.  Joshua loved opening his presents!  He was very involved in it, which was great.  He got tons of new clothes and toys, including a bubble blower lawn mower, toy tractors, a toy bat cave, a magna doodle, shape sorter, and a dinosaur walker.  He was very spoiled :)

Joshua playing outside during his party

Water table!  Uncle John had just dumped some water on Noah's head :)

Opening presents!

His new hat - which is also his favorite word right now!

Bubble Guppies!

More cake...yum!

The following weekend, we took the boys to the Downtown Lee's Summit Farmer's Market, where they all got balloon animals, and Noah and Evan were even able to plant their own flowers that are still blooming.  The next day was Mothers' Day.  Noah, Evan, Joshua, and Brian all bought me a new mixer for the kitchen.  I haven't used it yet, but can't wait to!  We went to church at 8:30 that morning, came home and had a brunch for their Grandma Cathy, and then went to Uncle John and Aunt Theresa's house for pizza at 4pm.  It was an awesome day!

Mothers Day

Joshua had his first birthday photos taken Friday, May 18th, but the photographer hasn't emailed them to me yet.  I'm hoping she does it soon, because I can't wait to see them and mail some out.  On Saturday, May 19th, we went to Mt. Calvary cemetery to decorate the boys Great Grandma and Great Poppy's graves.  After that, we headed to Overland Park, KS to check out the Bat mobile, which is currently touring across the country.  We all loved it!  Noah and Evan were a hit too; people were commenting on how cute they were.

Noah, Brian, and Evan checking out the Bat mobile

Perfect!

Mom and Joshua checking it out

That afternoon, they had soccer, and then we went to John and Theresa's friends Adam and Jen's new house that John actually helped Adam build!  It was awesome to see the work they did.  It's a great house!

Sunday, May 20th, we had a neighborhood picnic by our pool.  The boys all got to play with their friends, and we got to talk to a lot of ours.  It was a great day!

Our neighbor Abby giving Noah a lift 

...giving Evan a lift

Joshua and our new neighbor Paige

Joshua playing catch with Abby

On developmental notes, all three boys went to the doctor on May 7th.  Noah and Evan are doing great!  Evan weighs 30.5 lbs, and Noah weighs 30 lbs.  They're 39 (Noah) and 39.5 (Evan) inches tall.  The doctor quizzed them on their colors, and was happy that she couldn't stump them...I told her that they've known their colors for about a year and a half.  They're still learning to recognize their letters and numbers, and can both now say their "k" sounds pretty well.  Overall, their vocabulary is great.  They never cease to amaze us with the things they come up with.  Just a couple of days ago, Evan said to Brian, "Noah is always up to something!"  It was pretty funny.
Joshua now weighs 20lbs, 12oz, and is 29.5 inches tall (20th percentile for weight and 80th for height).  He is officially WALKING!!!  He took his first steps on April 20th.  He just now started to walk more than crawl.  He loves to play outside with the rest of us.  He is also talking more.  He can say Dad, Mom, Noah, Evan, hat, ball, nice, night, and has repeated a few random words.  Needless to say, we are having a ton of fun raising these awesome boys :)

Spring 2012 - Easter and more!

Noah, Evan, and Joshua had a very fun Easter weekend!  That Friday evening, Noah and Evan dyed Easter eggs at our kitchen table and loved it!  They had much more fun with it this year than last year.  Brian and Sean started to put together a new swing set that we bought for all of the boys' birthdays (Joshua included).  After working on it for about 4 hours until dark, the main part was built, so the boys got to check it out for a bit.

Evan mixing his colors for Easter eggs

Noah dying Easter eggs

On Saturday morning, we drove to their Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's farm in Hermitage, MO.  While we were there, the boys got to play with the toys that they have in their back bedroom, ride the Gator, throw rocks into the creek, feed catfish in the pond, and also go on a mini hayride.  We also had a very yummy Easter dinner that afternoon.  We decided to drive home that night because it is much easier to sleep in our own beds here at home.  Brian and Evan were also suffering from some major allergy symptoms, so being at home was best for that night.

Daddy and Noah riding the gator at the farm

Mom, Evan, and Noah riding the gator

Evan ready to throw a rock in the creek at the farm

Noah, Evan, and their friend Alex throwing rocks into the creek

 Brian was so terrible the next morning, so we didn't make it to Easter mass.  That afternoon, Noah, Evan, Joshua and I all went to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike's house for Easter dinner.  Brian was too sick to join us.  We had a very good Easter dinner and all of the kids got to do an Easter egg hunt - complete with real eggs and plastic eggs with stickers, chocolate kisses, and even some with money from Aunt Ruthie!  They all had a blast. Joshua even picked up one egg and put it in his basket.

Noah's Easter egg hunt loot at Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike's

Joshua putting his egg into his basket after finding it himself

Evan during the Easter egg hunt

Noah, Evan, Joshua, and Michael checking out their eggs!

The new swing set was finished the next day, so Noah, Evan, and Joshua have been playing on it every single day (weather permitting)!  They love it!  We even bought Joshua a baby swing that he likes to use.

Noah getting ready to slide on his new slide

Evan enjoying his "fort"

Joshua loves to slide!

Miss Mia enjoying the baby swing

Evan, Noah, and Michael hanging out

Joshua waiting for someone to come down the slide

We took the boys to their Uncle Mark and Aunt Sarah's house last week to check out baby Dominic's baby nursery, and their new hardwood floors.  It was a lot of fun...now we're just anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby Dominic!

The weekend after Easter was laid back.  We played outside as much as we could, but we also had some bad weather that kept us from being out there too much. I did take Noah and Evan out to Orange Leaf to get frozen yogurt on Saturday night.  We love to go there!  Noah always gets "yellow" ice cream (pineapple), and Evan likes to make his colorful...he goes with pink (strawberry), purple (blueberry or raspberry), and yellow.

Our next big event is Joshua's first birthday party!  I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  It's been amazing!

Here is Joshua's 11 month-old photo.  I'll have a new blog soon after his birthday.

Noah and Evan's 3rd birthday! and more...

Noah and Evan turned 3 years old on Thursday, March 1!  We gave them their presents that afternoon (we got them spiderman roller skates and several new superhero figurines) and took them to their favorite restaurant...Pizza Planet (Pizza Shoppe) for dinner. They even got free dessert.  Their birthday party was Saturday, March 3rd.  They were spoiled by their family and friends with new clothes, superhero swords, hulk hands, masks, books, riding helmets for their roller skates, and much more!  The party theme was Superheroes - Brian even created awesome decorations for the walls.  It was a great day. 

Noah with his new roller skates and pads

Evan blowing out his birthday candles on their birthday

Evan and Noah in front of their birthday cake

Iron Man and Wolverine!

Brian and I got to go to two games of the Big 12 Tournament this year, thanks to my awesome dad who let us take some of his tickets.  We got to see KU win, so it was a fun day. 

We held a baby shower for Sarah on St. Patrick's Day here at our house.  It was a lot of fun and we can't wait to meet baby Dominic! 

We had a birthday party for the boys' Uncle Mark and Great Aunt Ruthie over at Grandma and Grandpa Sonderman's house a couple of Sundays ago.  Everyone had a lot of fun, and the food was fantastic. 

We are very busy here at our house, and still very much love living here!  We've been organizing the garage, donating toys and clothes, and are getting ready to get a fence and swingset in our backyard (the swing set is being delivered tomorrow!). 

Noah and Evan are doing great!  They started playing soccer this past weekend.  Noah loved it!  Evan wasn't sure about it, so he didn't do much playing.  We're hoping he comes around and wants to play next time.  Their cousin Michael is on their team; they are the Green Gators!  We also recently signed them up for preschool for this coming fall.  They will be going to a school that is under a mile away from our house, and will go two days a week in the mornings.  It will be a great experience for them!  Their current obsession is still superheroes.  They love to watch "The Super Hero Squad Show."  They usually tell us that they are someone other than themselves, and we are not allowed to call them by their real name.  Noah is usually Wolverine, and Evan is usually Captain America, Thor, Spiderman, or Iron Man.  I'm usually Pepper Potts (from Iron Man) or Storm (from the X-Men).  Evan will say, "Mom?  Oh, silly me, I meant Pepper."  Brian and Joshua are usually the "bad guys."  Noah and Evan love doing puzzles and love to color at the island in our kitchen.  They are still learning letters and like to point them out to us when we're out and about.  Their favorite thing to do when they go to bed is talk to Brian about superheroes or about their Great Grandpa's farm. 

Evan golfing at Dick's Sporting Goods

Noah golfing

Our first trip to the zoo of 2012!

Noah on the KU horse on the Carousel at the zoo

Evan on the Carousel at the zoo

Soccer boys!!!

Practicing before their first game

Joshua is growing up SO fast!  He turned 11 months old this past Monday!  I can't believe how fast the time has flown by.  I think he probably weighs about 20lbs now.  He has four teeth and his fifth and sixth ones have just started to pop through.  He talks A LOT.  His favorite things to say are, "mama," "dad," "nigh-night," "nuck" (no idea what this means) and "no-no-no."  He loves to climb stairs and can cruise along furniture very well.  He has stood on his own for several seconds a handful of times.  He loves to give me and Brian kisses (open-mouthed, but it's still very sweet) and hugs, and likes to wake Brian up in the mornings.  He also likes to make his big brothers laugh in the car.  They like to play with him as well.  Joshua loves to play catch while sitting on the floor, so we all do that with him very often.  He loves going to the park and playing just like Noah and Evan.  His favorite thing is the swing.

Riding along at the Bass Pro Shop

Morning hair :)

On the tram at the zoo

Joshua's first ride on a carousel

Proudly supporting his Jayhawks!

Joshua and Grandpa Mike waiting to watch the older guys play soccer

This past weekend, Noah and Evan participated in an Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood.  It was great because we met most of the families who have kids in our neighborhood, and there are a ton!  It's so awesome to be in a neighborhood with so many kids.  Noah and Evan already made new friends and we ended up playing in their backyard for over an hour on Sunday night!  Noah and Evan are good friends with our next door neighbor Abby as well.  They also had another egg hunt this past Sunday at our church.

Neighborhood Easter egg hunt - Noah is in the middle sitting in the front row

Evan, Noah, and our next door neighbor Abby at the Easter egg hunt

Happy Easter everyone!  We'll be sure to post an update after Easter.

January- February 2012

The rest of January was a fun month!  We've been doing a lot of running around with the boys on the weekends, which we all enjoy.  On January 15th, we went to our next door neighbors' house for a play date.  They have a little 4 year old girl named Abby, who Noah and Evan play very well with.  They also have a little boy on the way. 
We took the boys to Red Robin a while back, and they seemed to enjoy it.  They LOVED the orange balloons that they got when we left. They played with them for days, until Noah's eventually popped because it was so small.  He was sad to throw it in the trash.  We followed dinner that night with our (just about monthly) trip to Costco, which they always enjoy. 
Brian and I got to go out on a date night a few weeks ago.  We went to Rudy's for Mexican food (yum!) and then to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt.  We've taken Noah and Evan several times, and they love to share Brian's strawberry or raspberry frozen yogurt.  Luckily for me, they claim they don't like the chocolate one. 
We also went out to Figlio's Italian Restaurant for our annual family brunch with Grandma, Grandpa, John, Theresa, Michael, Mia, Mark, and Sarah on Jan. 29th.  It was delicious!
We have big news about Noah and Evan...they're POTTY TRAINED!  We started training Noah on Saturday, January 14th.  He did pretty well with only a few accidents for the first four days.  By the fifth day, he was going all day without having any accidents.  The next Saturday, January 21st, Evan got to start.  He was kind of upset about starting, but once he got the hang of it, he was great.  They are both doing fantastic with it!  They love being "big boys" now, just like their cousin Michael Jude.  They love to pick out their big boy underwear each day.  Other than the potty training, there isn't much new with Noah and Evan.  They still love playing with their toys and love reading books.  They love to watch their "Super Friends" DVD and "The Super Hero Squad Show" right now.  They're enjoying learning to identify the letters of the alphabet.  They're sleeping pretty well without their side rails on their bed.  They occasionally cry for us at night, and sometimes we give in and let them come into our bed. 

Evan in his "workin' clothes"

Noah having a blast outside

Noah using Daddy's new headphones

Evan using Daddy's new headphones

Noah posing for me on our stairs

Josh and Evan in the fort Daddy made

Joshua is doing great!  He got his third tooth about a week and a half ago.  He is still drinking a couple of bottles each day at Grandma's house, as well as something else for lunch.  It's usually some kind of pureed food or cut up veggies with rice or noodles (which he LOVES), along with crackers or puffs.  He nurses in the evenings, and also gets to sit in his high chair and eat dinner with the rest of us.  His favorite thing to eat is definitely black beans!  He loves them.  He was in the process of sleep training, but it was going terribly.  We were doing a combination of the cry-it-out and no-cry sleep solution methods (I know, that doesn't make any sense, right?).  We let him cry for short periods of time each night in his crib, each time letting him cry a little bit longer.  After a certain amount of time, we'll pick him up and I'll nurse him to sleep and let him sleep in our bed.  Our hope is that if we keep doing this, he'll learn that he needs to sleep in his crib. During the day, he's still a very happy baby - he's still always smiling! He started CRAWLING on January 31st!  He loves to crawl around and discover new things all of the time.  He had a play date with his friend Kylie at her house on Feb. 1st, and then she and her parents came to our house for a taco dinner on the 18th. Noah and Evan also loved playing with "baby Kylie"!

Joshua eating his favorite - rice and beans!

Playing in our backyard

Playing with Kylie

Joshua turned 9 months old on February 2

Joshua and Mia - great buddies already!

Our Parents as Teachers educator came over on February 6.  All three boys are doing exceptionally well.  She evaluated Josh as a 10 month old, and he scored in the 12 month old range.  He is only a little over 9.5 months old now.
We had a taco dinner at my parents' house for mine and Sarah's birthdays on Feb 12th. It was delicious and so fun!   We got a great photo of Grandma and Grandpa with all of their grandkids.

Last Thursday night, we went to Applebee's with their Grandma Cathy and Uncle Sean.   We also went to our new neighbors' house this past weekend for dinner.  The boys had a lot of fun running/crawling around!  This past Wednesday, we went to Rudy's Mexican restaurant to celebrate Grandma Cathy's birthday.
We are busy preparing for Noah and Evan's 3rd birthday next week!!!  I can't believe how fast they've grown.  They've requested a super hero themed party.  Brian has painted some pretty awesome decorations for the walls.  I'll be sure to post a blog soon after their party.