8.30.2012

7 months

A certain little girl turned 7 months on Sunday!!  So of course, we had to take the car seat picture to see how big she has grown.
The month between six to seven months, Eva has learned a lot.  She was scooting all over the place and the day after she turned six months, she started crawling.  She has really mastered it now and is pretty quick to get where she wants to go.  She has also started pulling herself up on EVERYTHING!  If I sit down on the floor, she will immediately crawl over and put her hands on my legs to prop herself into a standing position.  She isn't too keen yet on moving her feet, so maybe she'll wait a little bit to be walking, but she spends a good portion of her day holding onto something and standing.

My sister gave her the cutest little tutu and it was sized six months, so we decided to try it on.  She is so cute!

And what does any little girl in a tutu with older brothers do?
This truck was mine when I was a little girl...so it's about 30 years old!
She finds a truck to play with, of course!  Levi isn't too happy with Eva when she tries to play with his toys, so she has to wait until he's napping to get to play with the things she really wants to.

This month Eva caught a yucky cold.  Poor little thing had such a hard time sleeping one night.  She fell asleep from about 8-9:30pm, then was up until about 11:30.  Went back to bed and was up again around 2:00.  Then she stayed awake until about 4:30 am, when she finally crashed until about 7:30 am.  It was a long night and neither Brad nor I got much sleep.  Luckily, she's on the tail end of it now and is back to sleeping about 11 hours at night!  I love that part of Eva :) 
This is the face she makes with her runny nose...I think it's pretty cute.
Still smiling though :)
Eva normally takes two naps a day, but they vary in length from 1-2 hours.  She goes to bed around 8:00 at night and wakes up at about 7:30 am.  She is still in size one diapers, but I am considering moving her up a size.  She hasn't leaked out of them, but they tend to get squishy quickly, so maybe next time I get diapers, we'll go ahead and move her up to size two.  She is such a cute little girl and loves her brothers.  She loves to talk to herself and squeal!
She also loves the dishwasher...hopefully she'll enjoy helping me unload it when she gets bigger.  Love you Eva girl!

8.28.2012

Kindergarten!!

Jacob had his first day of kindergarten almost two weeks ago!  We started the morning off right with a pancake breakfast.
 
Then it was outside to shoot some pictures of Jacob before he started school. 
5 and so ready to start school!
This is one of Jacob's favorite poses :)
Make some silly faces!
Getting kissed in the driveway :)
I was able to take Jacob to school and drop him off.  Brad was kind enough to move his surgery start time (he does surgery on Wednesdays and that's the day school started) back so I could have a little time with Jacob and not feel quite so rushed in the morning!  So, Jacob and I drove to school and then I walked him to his classroom.  He told me he was a little nervous and I admitted I was too.  He asked me why?  And I told him I was a little nervous because we hadn't done something like this before. 

He walked right into his classroom, put up his backpack, found his desk and sat down to start coloring.  Luckily, he wanted another kiss before I left :) 
Backpack cubby spot - they let us decorate the back of the cubby with pictures from home!
Coloring a picture.
 Jacob had a great first day of school.  He told me his favorite part was...wait for it...yep! recess :)  He was able to find some of his friends from preschool to play with on the playground.  He is really enjoying school so far and is doing great!  I'm so glad he likes his teacher, has friends, and seems to be learning and enjoying going to school.  I am excited to see how much he learns this year and how much he will grow.  Love you Jake!

8.26.2012

High point

Sometime this summer, Brad got the fabulous idea that he was going to take the boys to the highest point in each of the states before he (Brad) dies.  He decided to start this year by taking them to the highest point in Missouri.  So, one Friday, he took off work, got my Dad to go with him, and took the boys off to Mount Taum Sauk in Missouri.  Near the highest point in Missouri is a place called Elephant Rocks, so they visited it first.

Boys hanging out on the rocks.
Jacob's so strong, he can hold the heavy boulder all by himself!
Isn't he cute?!

My stud...this would make a great place for senior pictures some day ;)
We're the king of the rock!

Straddling the rocks...Jacob was too scared to :)   

Brad said Elephant Rocks was really neat and the boys had a fun time climbing all over the rocks.  They also went swimming in some natural water pools called Johnson's Shut Inns.  Unfortunately, Brad didn't have the camera with him for that, but they are some natural pools of water...some of them about 8 feet deep.  They had lots of fun swimming in them.  

They stayed the night in a hotel (which was probably a highlight of the trip for the boys!) and then the next morning they went and climbed to the highest point in Missouri.

The hikers, getting ready to go!
 
Up the tall, steep rocks!
Relaxing, enjoying the view :)
A neat tree on the hike.
Somehow everyone seems to have lost their shirt on the hike!

Plaque proving they made it to the top.
 The highest point in Missouri isn't very high, but the hike was actually pretty strenuous and the boys had to be carried (Levi at least) a good portion of the way.  Brad said it was a lot of fun and he's now looking forward to his next "high point" which will probably be in Arkansas sometime in the next year.
So much fun, they were worn right out!

8.10.2012

6 months

This little cutie turned 6 months old on July 26th!  Here are a few things that have happened to Eva in the past month:
 
She was finally able to wear her first pony tail!  Isn't she a doll!  I love her smile, she looks just about excited and happy about this accomplishment as I was!

She started trying to get up on her toes to kind of crawl.  She looks pretty happy about it.  
I have a comparison picture of Jacob in a similar pose when he was about 8 months...

Eva looks much happier than Jacob in the "plank" pose.
The day after Eva turned 6 months, she took off crawling around the house.  She is everywhere now!  Levi is constantly tell her not to chew on his toys (even if she's nowhere near them)!  She gets a few more bonks on the head now that she is mobile and people aren't always aware of where she is.  The baby gate has gone up in our house and that has caused inconveniences for the boys when they are trying to get upstairs or go downstairs.

Nine days after Eva turned 6 months, I walked into her room to get her up from her nap and this is what I saw:
 

 This little girl is trying to grow up so quickly!  She can even pull herself up on the recliner in her bedroom.  If we aren't careful in our house, she'll be walking soon!  She's really only big in the things she can do though.  I took her for her 6 month check up and she was 26 inches long (50th %) and weighed 12 lb. 15 oz. (less than 5th %)!  She is still wearing size 1 diapers - hey, they're cheaper and she still doesn't pee out of them at night!  She sleeps about 10-12 hours at night (she does occasionally wake up after about 8 hours) and she normally takes 2 2-hour naps a day.  She's such a cutie and we love her!

Another thing that happened July 26th -


Happy birthday Brad!!!  We had a fabulous date on Friday night (the day after his birthday).  We went to a steak place with my cousin and his wife.  Afterwards, we went golfing - a first for both Brad and I.  We played at a par-3 golf course and we had a BLAST!  It was so much fun - way more fun than I thought golfing would be.  I think it's neat that Eva was born on Brad's half birthday - something they have in common :) 

8.08.2012

Big Milestone

In the middle of July, Jacob hit a HUGE milestone!


 Yep, on July 10th, Jacob finally hit the 40 pound mark!  Now we can be in a regular booster seat legally :)  It only took him 5 years, 8 months, and 13 days to do it!  He was so excited, can you tell?