Blakey-boy

Blake is such a good little guy. He has been such a joy to have in our family. He has red hair and it's starting to curl a lot in the back. I can't bring myself to cut it, because I think it's so cute curly. He's starting to have a true mullet! His dad is proud! Blake hardly ever complains about anything. (Except for when I put him in his car seat lately.) He just lets the older boys do whatever to him. He just watches them intently. He is also starting to stand a lot and I'm hoping he will be walking soon. He has had a constant cold it seems like for the last 2 months. The doctor says he just keeps catching every virus that's coming around.

"Stop, in the name of love, before you break my heart, think it o-ooover!"

Brody is constantly entertaining Blake. Even today, when I was tending Chase, who scraped his tummy while climbing a tree, Brody was helping Blake. Blake had been whimpering and Brody stepped right in and pretty soon Blake was laughing like Brody was the funniest thing ever! Brody's a good boy like that.

Chase is 3!!!!

Chase turned 3 today! It hardly seems that long ago that he came into this world. I remember it well enough though. We barely made it to the hospital! I remember screaming at Chris to drive faster and faster because I knew we didn't have much time. We made it to the hospital and Chase made his debut four minutes later!

What a character Chase is. He has an infectious smile and laugh. He is full of personality too. I love having him in our family. He and Brody are best friends and they play well together. I always tell others that it's easier to have more than one child because they entertain each other. Chase is a delight to us...most of the time.

It sure is fun to have birthdays. Today we had breakfast for dinner as Chase requested. Then we had grandma Jeanne, Papa, and grandma Sheryl over for cake and ice cream. It was fun and I think Chase felt really special. He also got phone calls from family and cousins. He was really excited to have someone calling for HIM!

Presenting the "spiderman red cake" at Chase's request. I had fun decorating it the night before. Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting! Yummy!

Here is a video of Brody and Chase entertaining Grandma Sheryl and Daddy today.

"I'm so glad we found this!"

Chris said let's go to a hotel. How could I say no to a getaway? Yipee!!! So, I packed our things for two nights and when Chris got home at 4:00 on Thursday night, away we went to Seattle. We stayed two nights in a hotel across from Lake Union and we had such a fun time! We went swimming, ate too much, and spent time with family. It was a great mini trip for us as a family before we had to say goodbye to dad for a whole week. Chris had to fly off Saturday morning to Deleware for work for 6 days!

When we first arrived at the hotel, the kids ran to this cool fountain.

We went swimming A LOT. It was Chase's first time swimming "all by myself",well...with the water wings of course. It was a step up for him. While I could possibly take all 3 kids by myself, I'm not sure I'd attempt it yet.

There is a great little trolly-train that we jumped on right in front of our hotel that took us right into downtown Seattle.

We had a gift certificate from Chris' brother and sis-in-law to Cheesecake Factory. YUMMY! We had a great time. We even got some delicious cheesecake to go! (This was our best family shot; our waiter had some serious shakes going on...hmmm?)

We met up with uncle Matt, Aunt Bri, Olivia, Uncle Zack, Aunt Carrie, and Dylan at Bucca di Beppo. A restaurant we have been hearing great things about for years. We finally made it, and boy was it Goooooooooood!!

We had such a good time that we decided we need to come again and again. It's fun to get away from the normal routine and not have to drive too far to do it!

Puddle Fun

For Christmas, we gave the boys some kid friendly remote control cars called morphibians. They float so they can go on land or water. It was a downpour this afternoon, so we took the morphibians out again for a drive. They are really fun for the kids, and apparently dads too.

Brody and Chase together with their morphibians.

Two handsome redheads watching the action.

Here is a video. Sorry, the quality is bad, and very bright. I'm still figuring this camera out. It's not complicated I'm sure, it's just that I'm technologically challenged. It's embarrassing to admit, when one of my brothers graduated in electrical engineering and another in graphic design. I didn't get that gene I guess.

Are you opening a preschool?

As I was standing in line to buy our craft supplies at Michaels, a lady behind me said, wow, it looks like you are opening up a preschool or something. Well, I'm not, but in an effort to cut out shows completely, I stocked up on a bunch of craft supplies. My kids, particularly Brody, have behavior issues after watching shows. Whether it's t.v. or computer, it's the same. He just has a hard time controlling his emotions after watching some kind of show. He's rude, and ornry, and cries at the slightest frustration. It's like he's a completely different kid from the regular Brody. So, I cut out shows and have tried to replace the time with crafts. This day we worked on B. Here are Brody and Chase with their bumble bees out of a "B".

Valentines Weekend

I promised the boys we could make valentine cookies for their friends in the neighborhood. Here we are with Lucas Petersen decorating the cookies that the boys actually made all by themselves. They rolled and cut out hearts. Most of the icing went into their mouths instead of on the cookie. Oh well! It was chaotic and fun! I think I ate about half of the cookies and the neighbors got a few of what was left!

After cookie decorating, they needed to do some male bonding stuff like throwing mud against the fence with spatulas and cooking utensils. Kristi and I didn't even care how dirty they were getting. As long as they were outside. The noise level of 5 boys kinda gets to us. (Kristi has Lucas and Henry. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of all 5 of them together)

After the Petersens left, Chase and Brody were pretending this hanger was a boomerang and posed for a second to let me take a picture of them. They are getting the hang of posing I think. They like me to take their picture and then they run up to me and say so enthusiastically, "Let me see me!"

Picnics, Parties, and SUN!!

It was actually sunny out today, so the boys spread out every blanket we have to make a comfortable picnic to eat lunch outside. Grilled cheese, blueberries, and carrots were on the menu. Grilled cheese is usually the request around this house for the past few months.

We have a neighbor friend named Jayden who Brody and Chase love to play with. It was his birthday this afternoon at Charlie Safari. It's a childrens play center with air inflated jumping houses, a complex jungle gym, slides, and video games. The boys were in heaven. We were there for over three hours! We came home and ate dinner and then the boys went to bed and crashed!

Chase is leading the pack!