8 months old

we took a picture with all 3 boys on our bed when we came home from the hospital so here we are 8 months later. ezekiel is trying to sit up. malachi is showing me his transformer bandaid on his toe. abram looks like he is about to bite ezekiel. these boys are crazy! this morning abram walked into the kitchen with blue marker all over his face. he looked at us and said, "kai did it." he was right, his brother was pretending to put lipstick on him. i know this is only the beginning because i have another incident to post involving aquaphor...oh my!

ezekiel is moving all around - doesn't quite have a crawl down but he gets up on his hands and knees, moves forward, falls, and starts over. therefore he gets where he wants to go and reaches what he wants to reach. he has started following our lead to dance by moving his head all around. he waves hello and bye. he is generally a happy baby who is quick to smile. he love eating real food!

foundation poured

this has been months in the making. we poured the foundation this past weekend for the addition. wow - its been almost a year since we ripped off the back of the house and had a dirt pit in the backyard. now i can walk out the back door again! so thankful for friends who helped us make this foundation a reality, who framed in the foundation and helped us pass inspection. it took 3 cement trucks to pour it and the boys had a ton of fun watching all the action. we love paramount ready mix!! now the boys love running around on the concrete and playing tag. i love that i no longer worry about children falling in the holes in our backyard... next step is the framing. ever heard of an amish barn raising? well be prepared to be invited to a verwys house raising!

big boys in the bath

whenever one of my boys started sitting in the tub i always felt like they were getting so old. that move from baby bath to big baby in the tub. ezekiel is now a big boy in the tub with his brothers. he loves to splash and be with his brothers. he also is starting to get around. he is up on his hands and knees and kind of scooting. he sits up and gets on his tummy and pushes himself up again. not full on crawling but he gets what he wants. therefore my latte i left on the floor (don't ask why it was on the floor) was spilled all over him and the carpet this morning.

this is a side note - while i am typing this i am drinking coffee. abram loves to drink my coffee! i am admitting i give my 2 year old sips. well he asks for a lot, not a little. this gives away the obvious, my coffee has a lot of creamer. maybe i need to cut back on the creamer....

cute boys

happy baby

don't be alarmed if you see my sons with goggles and we aren't going swimming - its their thing lately. malachi almost walked into preschool last week with his on.

poop

just because this is kind of a classic poop story. as a mom i have gotten used to poop and usually i am ok with this part of being a parent, you just deal. well the same day as our great hike i experienced my limit.
we were watching our friends kids for a little bit so we have 5 kids 4 and under at our house. first ezekiel has a full poopy diaper, now that he eats food its gross. butt wiped, all clean. i return to the backyard and pick up josiah to put him into the swing, and touch the bottom of his shoe, oh! dog poop on the shoe and now on my fingers. so bring him inside and take the shoe off and scrub the shoe to get all the #%?!/ out of the little cracks. realize i still smell poop and can't figure out where it is coming from. oh josiah has a poopy diaper and it has leaked through, yes poop can leak. find some new shorts, new diaper. clean butt #2. still smells. oh, my shirt got leaked on; change my shirt. go back outside and ely tells me malachi had an accident. what - this kid has been potty trained for how long?! i'll spare the details but he isn't wet and there in the lawn is big pile of poop. yup. at this point i yell for ryan who takes this kid to the bath. i tell the kids were going inside because abram has just informed me he has poop in his diaper too. one more butt to clean. i look at ely and just ask because we have a trend going here - and she tells me no she doesn't have to poop. four poopy butts, one poopy shoe, one poopy hand and shirt. as angie walked up to get her kids i excused myself to go scoop the poo and it wasn't my dogs. this all happened within an hour time span - never again. sorry i took no pictures, thought i would spare you.

presidents day hike

i survived ryan's trip to chicago the week before president's day and we were all thankful that he had monday off so we could hang out. it was a beautiful day and we decided to go on a hike with all 3 boys. our first family of 5 hike. we ventured down to south orange county and attempted to get to our first hike which was off the beaten path a little - well about .5 miles into the 5 mile dirt road to get to the hike we turned around. the big monster truck ahead of us that splashed through the "puddle" in the road, sending a 5 foot spray into the air, was our final clue that our minivan was not built for off roading. hmmm. so we turned around and went to a park/campground down the paved road a couple miles. we then chose the very family friendly hike which didn't require being cautious for mountain lions. it ended up being a great hike with the boys down to a stream where we all had a blast playing in the water.

ezekiel's first solid foods

ezekiel loves eating solid foods. he started with rice cereal and hasn't looked back. so long are the "sweet" smelling diapers.... he loves eating all the foods i have pureed for him: squash, sweet potato, avocado, banana, peas. if we take a little break in the middle of the meal he protests quite loudly. he also has discovered the verwys open mouth excited look with his little hands waving on the side. all three boys have done this when they started eating food, just like their dad when he was a baby.