Fall 2012

Summer came and went in a flash - now we're well into our fun fall activities!  Noah and Evan started their fall soccer league on Sunday, August 26th and have played 6 games since then.  They're really enjoying this season!  Their cousin Michael was playing too, but he unfortunately broke his arm the weekend after their first game, so he was out for the rest of the season.  We miss him out on the field, but we're so happy his arm is healed now!

On Saturday, September 1st, we threw a big surprise 60th birthday party for my dad.  It was so much fun!  We are so happy that so many friends and family came to celebrate such an awesome man in our lives.  He is amazing!!!

On Tuesday, September 4th, Noah and Evan started preschool!  They loved it as soon as they started.  They go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00-11:30am.  Their teacher's name is Ms. Miki, and they seem to like her a lot.  She is a very nice person.

On Friday, September 14th, we took Noah and Evan to the circus for the first time.  They enjoyed it, although Noah did tell me, "Mom, I think I'm a little bit bored" towards the beginning of it.  Joshua got to spend the evening with Michael and Mia at Uncle John and Aunt Theresa's house.  He LOVES playing with his cousins, so we knew he would have a great time doing that.

September 15th was our 5th wedding anniversary, so Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike spent the night with the boys and we stayed the night at the Raphael hotel (where we stayed the night we got married).  We had a lot of fun eating and shopping on the plaza that night.  The boys loved spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa and have even asked me when they can do it again several times since then.
On September 21st, we went to our annual Royals Game.  They won, and we even got to stay for the great fireworks show at the end.  We also got to see Uncle John and MJ!

We've also been to some birthday parties and had dinner at friends' houses this fall.  Noah, Evan, and Joshua love playing with their friends.  On one Saturday, the boys' Grandma Cathy took us to Powell Gardens, where they had a lot of forts that the boys played in...their favorite was the pirate ship!
This past Tuesday, October 9th, Noah and Evan got to go on their first field trip!  We took the big yellow school bus to Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm and had a ton of fun with their classmates.  They got to go on a hayride, listen to stories about pumpkins, climb through a blow-up caterpillar, go through a sorghum maze, eat lunch, and pick their own pumpkin at the end of the day.  They both say the pumpkin picking was their favorite part.

On development notes, Noah and Evan are still doing great.  We'll get to go to Parents Night at their school this coming Monday night, so Brian and I will get to see what they do on a daily basis there.  They are still learning letters and both still like to color.  They love doing puzzles and love using their imaginations and playing together.  Sometimes they say things that we're amazed by.  They both still sleep really well, though we have been having some issues with them not going to sleep at a decent time after we put them to bed.  We're working on a solution :)
I can describe Joshua's development in one word this time - VOCABULARY!  His vocabulary is exploding and he can say so many things now.  He is already using some three-word sentences, which is awesome.  He says, "I don't know" when he really doesn't know the answer to your question, and can say "I love you" as well.  He can say a lot of animals names, along with their sounds.  He says "Noah" all of the time, and we're still working on "Evan."  Other than that, there are dozens of other words he uses daily.  He is still sleeping very well in his crib through the night, which was a huge milestone for us as a family.  We're all sleeping much better :)

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.

Summer 2012

We have been busy this summer!  Since our last post, a lot has gone on in the Quirk household.  Joshua got his first haircut on June 5th.  He did not enjoy it, but he looked so cute afterwards!  Noah and Evan were there to "help out" by telling him everything would be okay.
We've taken a few trips this summer already.  On June 16th, we went to the farm to visit Brian's family for a Fathers' Day celebration.  We spent the day there playing, riding the gator, eating, and the boys even got to go swimming in the creek.  Joshua loved it!  Noah and Evan were hesitant at first, but then ended up enjoying it.

Noah, Brian and Evan playing in the creek at the farm

Joshua playing in the creek

The whole gang getting ready for a gator ride!

The next day was Fathers' Day.  We went to church in the morning, took Brian to Bob Evan's for breakfast (big spenders), and then had my family over that afternoon for hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats.  It was a great weekend!

Fathers Day

The following weekend, June 23rd, we took the boys to St. Louis for our cousins Michelle and Scott's college graduation party.  We got there too early for the party, so we went to the Science Center - all of the boys had fun!

Noah and Evan at the St. Louis Science Center

Joshua and Daddy at the St. Louis Science Center

Looking down onto the highway at the St. Louis Science Center

The party was great and it was so much fun to spend time with extended family!  We stayed at an Embassy Suites that night, which our boys always like because they get to "explore" the hotel. 

On Sunday, June 30th, we drove to Branson, MO for an awesome family vacation!  We went with the boys' Grandma and Grandpa Sonderman, Uncle John, Aunt Theresa, Michael, Mia, Uncle Mark, Aunt Sarah, and baby Dominic.  We were initially going to go to Colorado Springs, CO, but some bad wildfires kept us away.  We were very bummed about not being able to go to Colorado, but the Branson trip was an absolute blast!  On Monday, most of us went to Silver Dollar City.  The boys loved to ride their first real park rides and play in "Geyser Gulch," which is an awesome play area for children with lots of water, air cannons that shoot foam balls, and more.

Geyser Gulch!

Noah at Geyser Gulch

Evan at Geyser Gulch

Noah and Michael at Geyser Gulch

We swam that night at our townhouse's pool.  On Tuesday, the men played golf at our resort.  That afternoon, we all went and checked out the outlet mall, which was great.  That night, Brian and John took Noah, Evan, and Michael mini-golfing (Joshua and Mia were having a "fussy" night and ended up at home with me and Theresa).

Noah playing mini-golf

Wednesday was the 4th of July.  A lot of us went to The Track for go-karts, kids rides, and mini-golf.  It was SUPER hot, so we didn't last long out there!  Brian and I went back to the outlet mall that afternoon while Noah, Evan, and Joshua took naps at the townhouse with Grandma and Grandpa. We swam that night and got to see an awesome fireworks display from our pool.  Thursday morning we all went and got an "old time photo" taken.  It turned out fantastic!  We got some ice cream afterwards.  That afternoon, Brian and I left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and went to The Landing to shop.  It was a lot of fun.  That night we all went out to a local Italian restaurant for dinner, Florentina's.  It was really good (with the exception of Sarah finding brush wires in her steak - needless to say, she got a free meal). Friday morning we all said goodbye and headed home.  It was a great week!

Mia!

Joshua, Noah and Evan in a Batcave at the outlet mall in Branson

Michael, Noah, Evan and Mia modeling their new superhero shirts

Joshua with his new Spiderman shirt (complete with Noah/Evan's spiderman tennis shoes)

Grandma and Grandpa with all 6 grandkids

Mom and Joshua in Branson

Evan and Daddy chillin' in the townhouse in Branson

Sweet baby Dominic hanging out in the townhouse in Branson

Noah in his Daddy's new t-shirt

...and Evan acting silly on the last night of our vacation!

Noah and Evan started swim lessons the week of June 18th.  They do NOT like them.  They like to swim, but don't like to be told what to do by someone other than me or Brian.  Their swim teacher is great, and she has a lot of patience. Hopefully they learn to like the lessons and get over it quickly.  We will probably only have them do a few more weeks of them.  They start fall soccer again on August 26th, and will start preschool on September 4th.  They claim to be excited about both of those - we'll see :)  On a development note, Noah and Evan are both doing well.  Their vocabulary is getting better, and they seem to be eating better.  They still have fights and throw fits, but what 3-year-old doesn't? They love to play in our backyard with or without our neighbor Abby, who comes over at least a few times a week to play.  We try to play outside when it's not so hot.

Joshua is doing great as well.  He loves to swim in the pool!  He loves it so much and is a complete daredevil.  I told Noah and Evan's swim teacher that she'll probably have Joshua next summer since he's loves the water so much.  He is eating like crazy (most of the time he eats more than his big brothers), and his vocabulary is getting better each and every day.  He loves to play with his toys, read books, play outside, and follow his big brothers around.  He likes to roughhouse with them, and also gets in trouble for pulling their hair a lot (even though he's not doing it to be mean)! 

We still have plans for pretty much each weekend left this summer, so we'll have much more to blog about soon.  Have a great summer!