BOOM! Baby critical table with cheese crackers and a water bottle.

Preston really loved the idea and wanted his dinner served at his little table. He was sick enough that he didn't even move. Luckily, he's feeling better today.

Preston can climb into his high chair by himself, of course. 

Grandma told me to grab the camera because it cracked her up that he had kicked up his feet and grabbed his drink. Side note: Preston is crazy for hats these days. In this picture he's actually wearing a build-a-bear shirt as a hat.

I wish I could get all three to hold still for one second. 

Literally all it would take with this fancy new camera!

Loving on the pillow pets.

(Even a hat with his pajamas!)

Another example of how Preston and Dillon are a great match.

We fed the boys Braum's burgers.

Preston ate all the burger - left the bun.

Dillon ate all the bun - left the burger.

We should've swapped trays. : )

Ashlyn is 5, she loves to tell anyone who is willing to listen. 

We've found this age to be more challenging than we expected.

Four felt like a breeze, but 5 has been a repeat of the "trying threes". : )

Ashlyn is learning how to do new things on her own. This can be amazingly helpful, as I'm so busy with the boys. But this extra independence is also intoxicating for her, she has a hard time believing she's not "grown up". I feel like everyday I'm trying to gently (sometimes not so much) convince her that she still has to come under my authority.

She doubts that she needs my guidance and questions everything. 

Examples:

I told her 2+1=3. She said she was sure that wasn't true.

I told her that we spell her name A S H LY N. She said it sounds like it should be A S H L I N. And will spell it that way when she feels like it.

Cousin Brody has been stopping by (with Aunt Ashley) every Monday and the kids have all had so much fun getting to hold him and love on him. Ashlyn sings to him - it's very sweet.

We had Ashlyn tested for food allergies because she was constantly sick after eating. As you can see her skin didn't react. It turned out that she was having a reaction to a medicine she was taking for a bladder issue. We would really appreciate your prayers for her complete healing. We're exhausted financially and emotionally with the medical profession, we're trusting her healing to the Great Physician!

Getting green toes for St. Patrick's Day. Grammy Pam stayed a few days and we had a spa night after the boys went to bed. : )

I feel bad that I never get homeschool stuff posted. Ashlyn is doing great and has made amazing progress this year. I decided last summer that this year we were going to take it easy. It's good to have low expectations when your day is largely consumed by taking care of babies!

We focused this year on character building and learning to love learning. ;) 

I'll have to figure out the scanner and post some of her best work. 

An update about our boys. Here are a few recent pics to start things off:

Dillon is usually very laid back, but the bath brings out his crazy side! : )

Just looks like he wants to fight and it cracked me up.

This is "Preston puppy". If your parents won't get you a dog, become the dog.

Alright, look here....no one does life faster or more exciting than my son!

He gets to the top of the slide and he's not stopping, not thinking, not repositioning.....he's DIVING head first, eating dirt and loving it!

Matching sweaters. So cute. But I just didn't get good pics.

That brings us to today. My boys are 15 mos and 18 mos...... impossible, I know!

First, I have to apologize to future Dillon & Preston (really their wives) I forgot to blog and record your height/weight last visit and those little sticker things are gone, gone forever. This left me feeling extra urgency to get this blog done before my brains leaked again.

Preston, you are 33 1/2" tall (almost 3 ft, WHAT!?) which is the 80 percentile and 26 lbs. 5ozs. the 65 percentile. Super healthy. Dr. Bumpus gave us this perfect handout describing the power struggle we might experience with you at this point in your development. It made me smile. You're a handful. I'm tired.

Example: Wednesday morning was not only Bible study, but additionally "brunch day." So to add to the normal chaos, I was putting together a fruit bowl. I was standing at the kitchen counter cutting grapes when something distracted me, I stepped away for a second and from out of nowhere you were there pulling down the bowl of grapes (thankfully not the entire fruit salad) and you dumped them all over the floor. I was sweeping that up when Ashlyn emerged from her room. I got out the Cheerios and was barking orders at her to get a bowl and spoon. She couldn't find a bowl and I stepped away from the table to verify this unlikely claim. You grabbed the Cheerio box and dumped it all over the floor too. In your defense, you seemed as surprised as anyone at what was happening. You're curious, not naughty. All the same, it's very lucky you're charming and handsome.

I snapped this pic today at the appt. Thought you might want to remember what your doc was like. The look on Dad's face said, "Put the camera down, crazy, the kids are winning this fight!"

Dillon, you are 31 3/4" tall also the 80th percentile. And we weren't terribly surprised to learn that you actually weigh more than Preston at 26 lbs. 11ozs. (80th percentile). It's so cute that your pale white skin is stretched around such a big belly! You're a little squishy and you make it work. You are still so easy. I forgot to blog about it, but we had you in the emergency room last month because you couldn't breathe. Grandma was so tense with worry that she couldn't move her neck for days, that's a true story! Through it all you hardly complained and you were back to yourself in a couple days. We do see signs that you're noticing you're just as big as Preston. Today you took the toy he was playing with and ran around laughing while he chased you screaming. I smiled at that too.

We caught the two of you playing peek-a-boo last night. You would both shriek with laughter when you caught sight of the other. You're really the best of friends. We couldn't have planned a more perfect adoption story. 

I spend much of my day on the floor playing, reading and cuddling with all three of my kids. I was struck the other day by how much I love each of them. The same, but different. A reality parents have been overwhelmed by since Adam & Eve. God created these 3 totally different little people and somehow I love each of them so completely - not inspite of the difference but because of their specific uniqueness. How is this possible? I give credit to my God who first loved me, Who is Love and is the reason I am able to love.

My heart is full.

My parents got the boys this great tire swing horse for Christmas. And before they left my dad hung it on our "perfect for a tire swing" tree branch! The kids love the look of it, but are now getting to enjoy it since the weather has been great.

Curt pulls it WAY back by the tail......

then releases and WOO HOO!!

Super high! The backyard slopes down.

She's just breaking it in brothers - don't worry!