Lucy and Brodey

Brodey was playing with my phone at the park and caught this little video of Lucy. He was making her laugh. Not the best video.. but I just love hearing her baby laugh.. and Brodey being such a good big brother. :) (He's already asked for 15 more baby Lucys.. he loves her.) :)

she walks

About a week short of 15 months, Lucy Rae got up and walked! (This might seem late to most people.. but in this house it's practically a miracle!) She is our earliest walker. I feel happy and sad about this at the same time... she's growing so fast!! But it sure does make playing outside and going to the pool a lot easier!! Way to go Sushi girl!!

Traveling.. it's not so bad :)

Ear muffs recommended

Normally when we eat out with the kids we stick to Mexican or Chick-fil-a for 3 reasons: fast, loud and cheap. Every now and then we take them somewhere new (to them) just for the "fun" of it. Last Saturday night we took them to Macaroni Grill (I was strongly pushing Chili's, but Jeff was set on taking 4 kids into the dimly-lit, white table-clothed, opposite of kid-friendly option). :)

Anyhow. Lucy is the sweetest, cutest, friendliest little thing you could imagine.. BUT she shrieks like a teradactyl. ALL. THE. TIME. And she makes a mean little face when she does it.. which is kind of hilarious since she's not mad... normally she'll just shriek a few times and then go back to whatever she was doing.

Our fun family outing started going down hill as soon as we sat down. We ordered, shoveled down some food and paid and all the while tried to quiet the "shrieking sushi" (that's what we lovingly call her), break up the World War III fight Lyla and Brock were having over who had the orange crayon and keep an eye on sneaky Brodey at the end of the table who got the waitress to refill his Sprite THREE times (he only gets soda when we eat out) when we were too busy with the other three to stop him. Sneaky. Sneaky.

Our night out ended with Jeff standing up and issuing a public apology to the entire restaurant for our very poor and disruptive behavior. I'm pretty sure no one was sad to see us leave. ;)

Even though it sounds like we had a down right horrible night.. WE had a GREAT time! I'm thankful for a husband who can laugh through the crazy right along with me. We walked out of there laughing and all the kids smiling and that's all that matters. (not to say we'll be going back.. cause we WON'T be!) :)

I caught this little video of Lucy Rae at dinner tonight... for everyone that I've already told the Macaroni Grill story to that didn't believe sweet little sushi could cause such a ruckus. Imagine yourself sitting in a restaurant and listening to this....

Dinner Time fun

Poor Brocky.. he just couldn't believe he was being forced to eat corn and chicken. It's okay.. he only made that face for a little while, then was back to his normal crazy self!

And a little video of Sushi saying her newest word! :)

Sweet Girl

There's not anything especially exciting about this video.. just Lyla being sweet Lyla. She's so shy not many people get to hear her voice!

Little Mama

Lyla loves babies. (Especially Lucy... when we hear her waking up over the monitor Lyla gets the best expression on her face and runs to get her.) She loves playing with her baby doll too... getting ready to play outside, with her baby, her purse and her cell phone. ha!

This video is kinda long and uneventful.. I just thought it was sweet. She didn't even realize I was watching her until near the end! Sweet sweet beans.

fun fun fun

Playing Outside

Daddy thinks this is just WAYYY to much skin showing.. but I think she's cute.

Brock was telling me he wanted to go to the beach (several people we know are at the beach this week for Spring break) and I said we can't.. we have to wait for the baby to come out. So he starts telling me to hurry up and push it out already. He got so mad he stormed back in the house... so happy I caught it on video!

Walking Baby!

Lyla and I went to a friends 1st birthday party at gymboree on Saturday and when we came home she decided that, yes, she can walk. She took her first steps on November 5th, at exactly 14 months old and has taken a few steps here and there since then. (no more than 8-10 in a row) But on this Saturday (January 9th, 2010... 16 months old) she was all about it and has rarely crawled since! Way to go Lyla!! We are so proud of you!! (well.. I am.. Daddy wanted you to crawl forever... when I called to tell him you were taking steps back in November he wanted me to push you down.)

Here she is in action...

Marshmallow Toasting

Last night we burned some yard trash quick before the rain started again today. The kids love burning things so we got some marshmallows for them to toast. Here's a quick video of Brock explaining why he put his chair so far away from the fire.

Lyla had her first ever marshmallow... just as messy as expected.

She loved it... this is her begging for another one...

Lyla

She swings... (yes, I know, too big... but she still likes it!!)

She plays with her brothers....
And she eats! The boys gave her these apples and she chewed on them for a LONG time. So easily entertained. I took a short video of her. I love how she "talks".

She has her daddy wrapped around her finger. When he holds her she'll push her forehead into his lips over and over for him to kiss her. And then she wraps her arms around his neck with her head on his shoulder. I am telling you, she will get whatever she wants from him. Sweet little girl. I don't know what will happen if he ever has to discipline her!

Brock

Brock = hilarious. Sometimes I feel bad for Brodey because Brock probably should be punished more often for pestering, but he's not because we find him just so funny. For example, Brodey can't stand useless noise, like tapping or clicking. Brock knows this so every day (every day) when we pick Brodey up from school as soon as Brodey gets in the car Brock will tap on Lyla's car seat to irritate Brodey. EVERY. DAY. I try to make him stop... what to do about that??? Anyhow.. Jeff and I are both the younger sibling.. and we both liked to pester, so sometimes we can't help but to laugh at him. Before we break up a fight between these two we are almost always certain it was Brock who started it. Thankfully Brodey tends to be a patient kid and can handle his little stinker brother... and they are still best buddies!

We sat outside for a little while the other night and I got some cute pictures of them playing. We call this Brock's pop-eye face. And yes, we are now in a "no shirt" phase. Fine with me... less laundry than the 6 shirts a day phase.

Jeff... working.The boys made up a game... I didn't really understand it... something about chasing a pretend dog and a hot dog stand. This is Brodey carrying hot dogs from the neighbors mailbox back to his moving truck. (????)

Then they played in Jeff's truck. I looked up from playing with Lyla and caught this shot of Brock. He has a cone on his head BECAUSE he is Brock.

More fun things about Brock: he calls Lyla "Yo-Yo" and me "Mum-O", always Mum-O. He hardly eats anything. Ever. If it weren't for peanut butter I don't know how he would survive. He got a flu shot last week and growled at the nurse. Guess that's better than crying! He has a very active imagination... we love to listen to him talk to himself or to his toys, very entertaining. If ever there is a lull in a conversation he will spout out: "I like the circus. And the beach. AND the fireworks." He's said that at several random times and it's always funny. He knows all his colors and letters but has absolutely no interest in coloring or learning to write. I can't even get him to hold a crayon the right way. He's a fun kid. We love him.

Brodey

I haven't written a post about Brodey in awhile... and he's growing up so fast! He's almost 5! He is liking school... he works very hard on his school work. Almost everyday he comes home and wants to color and practice writing things. We are impressed with how well he colors and think he has really nice handwriting for an almost 5 year old. Not that we have anything to compare it to... but it looks nice to us!
He has a great memory and learns things really fast. I showed him one time how to write his friend Logan's name and weeks later he sat down and wrote it out again with out any reminders! He can also spell Brock's name.
He is doing really well with "math readiness" at school too. He has come home with several "great job" stickers on his work and his teacher tells me he really works hard and concentrates well at school. Such a little student!
He is great big brother. Brock sometimes drives him a little crazy, but he handles him well. ha!

Last T-ball practice

The boys had their last TBall practice of the season last night. Cooper and Brodey did great and seemed to have fun. Here they are playing catch before their coaches arrived.

During practice Lyla showed us her newest skill... pulling up to standing ALL BY HERSELF. She is also officially doing a "real" crawl... no more army crawl.
And Brock. Well... watch the video... (he dressed himself in the random 80's attire)

Runnin thru the sprinkler

10 months

Wow! 10 months! Lyla started doing an official "army crawl" a few days after she turned 9 months. Every now and then she'll get up on all fours and do a real crawl, but she's still mostly on her tummy.... and VERY fast! The boys love love love that she can get around with them. She can also pull up on things but usually just to her knees. If I help her up to her feet she can stand like that for a while. I'm still assuming she will be a late walker since the boys were, so it's no surprise to me that she isn't very sturdy on her feet. She has two words that she says a lot (Mama and Yay... how cute is that????) and just in the past week started saying "dada". She continues to be a very quiet and gentle baby (with the exception of meal time... when food is involved she is very loud and excited!) We love our sweet Lyla beans!

Lyla clapping

Last week Lyla starting clapping. What a big girl! (she's not crying in the video... still has a clogged tear duct so it always looks like she's been crying.)

Family Vacation (Relocation)

I have a friend that also has 3 small kids that refers to family vacations as relocations. I agree. Vacations aren't much for relaxing anymore.... more so just packing up everything you own, traveling a long way, and then do daily tasks somewhere else. You go into it knowing a lot of work is involved. But we still had a VERY FUN time! (and maybe some not so fun times.)















Friday night before we were to leave for the beach Brock came down with a high fever. After doctor's hours, of course. He was feeling so bad we debated not going at all, but after some Tylenol and a breathing treatment he seemed to be feeling much better. (He slept in our bed so I could listen to his breathing... after a scare last year, this is how we do things when Brock gets sick). As anyone who has ever given a 2 year old an Abuterol breathing treatment knows, he was VERY chatty for the rest of the night and kept us up all night laughing at the crazy things he was talking about. Anyhow... even though the fever was not gone in the morning and we were all very tired, he seemed to be okay for travel. I diagnosed him with "Roseola" (yes... google diagnosis... I stand by it). We packed up and hit the road.



















One mile down the road (seriously... one mile) Brodey asked for the first time "Are we there yet??" and followed with "this is taking a long time". Repeat that 4,589 times and that's how the rest of the trip went. (Lyla was a rock star... when she wasn't sleeping she looked happily out the window and babbled a bunch of gibberish.) We got to Gulf Shores around 5 ish, ordered a pizza and played in the pool... everyone was happy.















The next day was Mother's day! Spent the whole day on the beach.. it was fantastic. Lyla was awesome... playing and taking naps in her little pool under the umbrella, Brock played with a bucket of water next to me (so easily entertained!) and Brodey swam in the ocean with Jeff. We went out to eat that night at a fun family place. There is a huge sand pile in the middle for kids to play in while you wait... genius. Anyhow.. after we ate I was standing up talking to a woman at a table near us (who's daughter's name was Lyla!) when Brodey walked over and threw up on my feet. Then turned and threw up in Jeff's direction. Then looked at us and said, "I feel better... can we go back to the beach now?". Happy Mother's Day to me! As a friend pointed out, he must have been getting me back for leaving him at school last week. He's always been a random puker, so we knew he was fine.. but definitely got out of there as fast as possible!















Other fun things that happened... Brodey made a friend on the first day, a 4 year old girl named Taylor, and they played together all week. At the end of the week Jeff asked Brodey what his favorite part of vacation was and he said, "playing with Taylor". Jeff: "you mean playing with daddy, right?". Brodey: "no, playing with Taylor." So we are officially no longer the funnest people in his life... we thought we had longer!




One morning we went out for breakfast and Brodey insisted he sit next to Lyla. Jeff gave her a coffee creamer to play with and she stuck it in her mouth like a passy. A few seconds later she popped the creamer and it burst all over Brodey's face... I got a cute picture and even Lyla thought it was hilarious.



Lyla was a huge hit at the beach. Several people commented on how laid back she was and how well she behaved on the beach. She was so content when she was awake and took really long (2+ hour) naps right there next to me. I read a whole magazine one afternoon! It was amazing! The boys were both crawling the first time they went to the beach... not so much fun. Lots of sand. Lyla is not crawling yet so was very happy to just sit and look around. She's my kind of vacation-er, lots of sleeping, lots of eating, and lots of taking in pretty scenery!


The trip back went pretty well... everyone was so sleepy! Brock was all healed up, but Brodey and I both lost our voices and Lyla started running a fever the next day. I guess there is no avoiding it when you have so many kids. We had a great time and are so thankful for the opportunity to take a vacation.... and for the amazing weather! Low 80's and sunny everyday!

Just talkin

Almost 4 minutes. I just wanted some video of Brock's cute little voice. I wish he could be 2 years old forever.