Fall 2011

We've already had a lot of fall fun since our last post in September, so I thought we'd do a new one.

Noah, Evan, and Josh are all doing fantastic!  We were having some biting issues with Noah (which I think I mentioned in my last post), so we had to try something different.  We did a reward sticker chart, where both Noah and Evan would receive a sticker for each amount of time that they did not bite their brother.  For example, if they didn't bite the other by breakfast time, they'd get a sticker.  Then lunch time, after nap, and dinner time as well.  If they had all of their stickers throughout the day, they got a special snack in the evening.  They enjoyed putting the stickers on the chart and liked to talk to people about it.  We always made a big deal about it, and I think that helped.  Since we started it, Noah has only bitten Evan once. They only had to do it for two weeks.  Let's hope we don't have to do it again.  Our Parents as Teachers parent educator came over last night and did an assessment of Noah and Evan.  She tested them in the 33-36 month old range (they are only almost 32 months old), and they tested very highly.  She was very impressed.  The only thing they need to work on is using scissors.  They had never tried them before last night, and did very well for their first time.  Their vocabulary is very good, and so are their pencil/writing/drawing skills.  On another note, they haven't been fighting quite as much anymore either.  They LOVE Joshua, and he loves them.   He loves to watch them play and jump.  They are very sweet with him and love to give him kisses and tell him that they love him.

Joshua is still doing fantastic.  He is such a happy baby and is always smiling!  He loves to jump and play in his exersaucer.  He also loves to chill out on the floor, and is working on sitting up by himself.  He is doing very well with it.  We are guessing he is about 16.5 to 17 lbs right now.  He will have his 6 month appointment on November 8th (he turns 6 months old on November 2), so we'll find out for sure how big he is then.  He is still nursing and is currently eating rice cereal every day.  We will start giving him homemade baby food as soon as we move into our new house.  Our parent educator said he is right on target with his developments as well.  He is definitely an amazing addition to our family!

We went to the Royals game on September 20th, and had a ton of fun.  Noah, Evan, and Josh lasted about 4 innings in the seats, and then we walked around to the outfield experience, where Noah and Evan played on the playground and in the water.  They had a blast!

On September 23rd, we went to the zoo's sunset safari.  We love going to that because they stay open later than they normally do.  The next day, Brian went to Lawrence with his brother Sean to go to the KU All-Star basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse.  On Sunday, September 25th, we celebrated our friend Sam's birthday.  Noah and Evan enjoyed playing with Michael, and their friends Emerson (3 years old) and Cooper (1 year old).
On September 30th, Brian and I finally got to go out to dinner for our 4th wedding anniversary (which was on September 15th).  We went to Garozzo's, and it was delicious!  We've been together for 11.5 years now, and I know I couldn't be happier!
On October 1st, me, my mom, and Sarah all hosted a baby sprinkle for Theresa.  It was super fun!

On October 2nd, we bought hotdogs from who we call "The Hotdog Man" at Lowe's and drove across the street to the park and had a picnic.  It was such a beautiful day, and we all enjoyed eating outside and playing on the playground.
On October 8th, we drove to Hermitage, MO to Brian's grandparents' house for the annual hayride.  It was a lot of fun, and the boys enjoyed feeding the fish in Great Grandpa's pond, riding around in the Gator, playing with toy trucks in the driveway, and riding on the hayride (although they fell asleep almost as soon as we got on there).  Evan did take a little tumble down some stairs and hurt his nose, but ended up being more scared than hurt.  He of course needed a bandaid on his nose.  We had a delicious dinner and drove home that night around 9pm.

The next day, we went to the zoo again and Noah and Evan got to meet Clifford the big red dog.  Noah gave him a high five and a hug, but Evan did not want to touch him.

On October 10th, we were off for Columbus Day.  We went out to breakfast with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Mike, and Michael Jude at IHOP.  We also decided to take the boys to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time.  They loved it.  I remember it being a lot more fun when I was little though.

On October 15th, Brian and I went to a fondue restaurant in Warrensburg with some friends, which was delicious!
On October 16th, we went to Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm.  Noah and Evan enjoyed the petting zoo, a train ride, getting balloon swords from a very entertaining balloon man, riding bikes, jumping in a bouncy house, swinging, and more!  It is a very fun place.  We plan on picking pumpkins closer to Halloween.

On Tuesday, October 18th, we were graced by the presence of a new beautiful niece, Amelia Rose Sonderman.  She was born to John and Theresa, and her big brother Michael.  Brian and I have the amazing honor of being her Godparents.  We are very excited and already love her so much!  

Also, Mark and Sarah announced that they are expecting their first child in the Springtime.  We are so thrilled for them and can't wait to find out the gender some time this winter!  

Needless to say, our family is growing and it is such an amazing thing to see and experience.
We will be moving into our new home on November 4th. We are so excited! Pictures to come later.
 

To see more pictures and several videos, click on the link below (if it is not a link to click on, highlight it and put it into your browser):

https://picasaweb.google.com/lauraquirk29/Fall2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNi7s6OQ2Miz-AE&feat=directlink

End of Summer 2011

Link to photo album; click.

End of Summer - 2011

Noah, Evan, Josh, Brian, and I have all been super busy lately!  We've all been having so much fun getting used to having Josh in our family.  Noah and Evan love him very much.  They will help us out when we ask them to (like getting diapers, wipes, etc, for us), but they don't try to help when we don't ask for it...which is probably a good thing. 

Since our last post, we've had tons of family fun!  On July 23rd, we went to Smithville again for Brian's cousin Katy's birthday party.  The boys are always the life of those parties!  The love to play with the old Hot Wheels that Brian's Uncle Mark keeps in his basement.  On July 31st, we took them to the Midwest Kids' Fest, but that turned out to be a dud.  The only thing worth the money we spent was the bounce house, but Noah and Evan were much too afraid to climb it and go down the huge slide.  There were too many kids jumping around on it, so we think they were just scared. 

During the weekend of August 4th-6th, we moved out of our first house and into a temporary apartment about 10 minutes away.  We got used to the small living space fairly quickly, and are looking forward to our new house (more on that later).  That same weekend, Evan got a fever and what we think we determined as a type of summer flu.  Noah, Josh and I went to our friend Ben's birthday party.  Brian and Evan stayed home.  The next day, we thought Evan was better, so we went swimming at the apartment pool.  However, then Noah got a fever that night.  They both had the flu for about 3 days and Brian got it after they were both over it.  Thankfully, Joshua and I did not get it. 

On August 20th, our realty company held a customer appreciation luau at Longview lake.  They had awesome food, pony rides, a bounce house, door prizes, and much more.  We had so much fun!  That evening, we went to some friends' house for another bbq.  Noah and Evan had a lot of fun playing with another little boy's trains and playground balls.  Here are some pictures of Noah and Evan on the pony at the luau.

We've been to the zoo two more times since our last post.  Josh likes to ride in the back of the double stroller and snooze.  On August 27th, we went with their Uncle John, Aunt Theresa, cousin Michael, Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Mark.  We had so much fun, but it was super hot!  Noah and Evan even got to meet Thor (the super hero). 





 

That night, we went to the same friends' house again that we went to the week before.  Noah and Evan are still talking about it and refer to it as "the blue house." 

We took Josh to his 4th wedding on September 2nd. Noah and Evan stayed at home and their Grandma Cathy watched them.  It was an outdoor wedding and very hot, but Josh handled it like a champ!  The ride home, however, was not so great.  Josh does NOT like the car, and on long rides, he cries most of the time.

On Saturday, September 3rd, we got to celebrate the boys' Grandpa Mike's birthday with an awesome dinner at Grandpa and Grandma's house.  Grandma Mary cooked an amazing Mexican feast.  It was a lot of fun!

On Sunday, September 4th, we went to church in the morning, a family picnic in the afternoon, and a bbq in the evening.  It was a busy but very fun day!  Noah, Evan, and Josh did pretty well considering how exhausted they were.  Here are a few pictures from that day: 

 

Noah and Evan are doing fantastic lately.  They sleep very well almost every night now.  They love to sing songs.  Their favorites are still Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Humpty Dumpty.  The song they love to listen to right now is "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts because it is in the movie CARS.  They call it "the Mack song."  Josh usually likes when they sing.  They like to count and sing their ABC's.  They love riding their tricycles in our driveway at the apartment, although they still don't know how to peddle.  They push themselves by walking along the ground.  On a behavior note, they are still definitely in their terrible twos.  They bicker over the littlest things, and we've started to have biting issues again.  I'm hoping their 3's are better!  They are still not ready to potty train yet, so that's the next big thing we are waiting on.

Josh is also doing fantastic!  He has been "talking" so much since our last post.  He loves to coo and talk to all of us.  He gets very excited and gasps when he is having fun.  We took him to do his 3 month pictures on August 17th (he was 3.5 months old), and he did amazing!  We got some awesome pictures of him.  On September 2nd, he turned 4 months old and he also had his 4 month checkup that day.  He was 15lbs, 5oz (75-80th percentile), and was 25 inches long (70th percentile).

Our house is coming along very well.  We are supposed to move in on November 4th.  The outside is not completely finished, but it looks pretty good.  The inside was being painted and we're guessing the floors might be next.  The kitchen cabinets are in and are being stained.  We took a trip over there last week to check out the backyard.  The boys are going to have a lot of fun in it.  We're just so anxious to move in!  We're definitely ready to be out of this apartment.

Click the picture on the very top post above this blog entry to see a new album of pictures.

Summer - July 2011

We've been pretty busy since the last blog on June 7th.  Joshua is now 11.5 weeks old and is getting so big!

Here is Josh's one month old picture and his two month old picture.

Joshua was baptized on Father's Day, June 19th, 2011 at the 8:30 am mass at St. Regis.  We were lucky to have Father Tom Holder baptize Josh, because he has been reassigned to another parish and is now no longer our pastor.  We were very sad to learn he was leaving.  He married Brian and me, and baptized all three of our children.  After mass, we had a brunch at our house for Josh.  So many family and friends were there; it was a lot of fun!  Josh fell asleep right in the middle of it...he was beat!  He got a lot of neat gifts, including crosses for his room, clothes, books, and much more.  Below is a picture of us with Josh's Godparents, Mark and Sarah, and Father Tom.

That night, we celebrated Father's Day at my mom and dad's house.  We celebrated Brian, my dad, John, and Mark.  It was great.

We took a trip to the zoo on June 12th and another on June 24th.  We have now been to the zoo three times with Josh, and each time has gotten a little bit easier.  Noah and Evan enjoy all of the animals.

We went to our cousin Charlie's first birthday party on June 25th, where Noah, Evan, and MJ got to play in a really fun swimming pool/sprinkler.  They loved it! 

Josh had his two month checkup on Friday, July1st.  He weighed 12lbs, 10 oz, and was 24 inches long.  His weight is in the 85th percentile, and his height is in the 90th percentile.  He is bigger at 8 weeks than Noah and Evan were at 11 weeks!  He is still eating so well and sleeps well too.  He still wakes up at least once at night to nurse, but I don't mind it at all.  As soon as he wakes up and I stand over his bed to get him, he smiles so big! 

He LOVES to smile at us!

 

He loves his Bumbo seat!

 He also loves to coo and talk to us, mainly to Brian and his Grandpa Mike.  They can always get him to talk and "laugh" (he hasn't really laughed yet, but we can tell when he wants to).  He still loves watching his big brothers play around him too.  Although, sometimes they get a little too loud and upset him a little.  Josh had another doctors appointment July 18th to check out his eye that has had a clogged tear-duct since he was born.  His eye is fine; we just have to massage the tear duct as much as we can to get it to unclog.  The best part of that appointment was when the doctor told me that Josh is clearly an "overachiever" because he is already smiling at people other than his parents and can bring his hands together to hold them (things that they don't look for until a baby is 4 months old).  Noah and Evan must be teaching him right!

Noah and Evan have gotten to play with their swimming pool several times out in our backyard this year.  One time, Michael Jude came over and played with them.  They all had a blast! 

On the 4th of July, we all just hung out together at our house all day.  Noah and Evan swam, we had a picnic dinner on our patio, and then we watched fireworks in our front yard.  After all of the boys went to bed, Brian and I sat on our back deck and watched a skyline full of fireworks for about an hour and a half.  It was beautiful!

Noah and Evan are both doing great.  They got to switch from cribs to a "big boy bed" with Woody and Buzz sheets, pillow cases and comforter on July 8.  They love it.  They are doing really well sleeping in it, although Evan still likes to come in to our bed once in a while.  Evan likes to snuggle with Noah in their bed too, which kind of gets on Noah's nerves sometimes.  We love to go in to check on them before we go to bed to see what kind of positions they are in.  It's almost always hilarious!

Unfortunately, my maternity leave is up and I returned to work on Monday, July 11th.  Josh is already right at home with Noah, Evan, and MJ with Grandma Mary!  We're so blessed to have her watch our children, and I know she loves watching her grandkids.

Well, our current house was only on the market for one month before it sold!  We are still in negotiations with the inspection on our house (the buyer is being a little ridiculous, and that's not just us talking, but our agent too), but hopefully everything will work out with this buyer.  Our new house is still in the early stages of building, and is currently being framed.  It is so neat to drive by and watch the progress!  The photo below was taken today, July 20th.

Since it won't be ready until early November, we are being forced to move to a temporary location for three months.  We found a very nice apartment complex that does short-term leases where we will have a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with an attached two-car garage.  We will store most of our boxes and things in one of the two garage spaces.  It kind of stinks that we are having to move twice, but we definitely wanted our current house to sell!  I think we'll enjoy the apartment complex for the three months we will be there.  They have a beautiful swimming pool and a movie room/theater that I think the boys will just love!

I hope to keep everyone updated throughout the moving process!

For more pictures, you can look at the following link (copy and paste it into your browser):

https://picasaweb.google.com/lauraquirk29/JoshuaSBaptismAndSummer2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNrq75vnq-28Cw&feat=directlink

Enjoy!
Brian, Laura, Noah, Evan, and Joshua