Will is THREE!!!

Will man is three years old!  He is silly, and funny, and sweet, and heart melting.  I love that kiddo!  

For his third birthday he requested a ruff ruff cake.  That kid loves all things dog related.  We had a little get together at my parent's house with the family.  He enjoyed a cookout, cake, presents, and playing with his cousins.  I think he enjoyed his day.

Will's ruff ruff cake.  I had to make it travel friendly, so this year I went simple.  Just a puppy diggin a hole in the cake.  He requested a funfetti cake.  The puppy is made of tootsie rolls and the dirt is oreos.  He saw the puppy before I put it together and squealed, "it's a ruff ruff!!!"  I love that he got so excited about it.

Blowing out the candles!

 Happy Birthday, Will!

 I think he enjoyed his cake and ice cream!

He was THRILLED by his new lawn mower from MaMa and PapPap

I love the amount of excitement I can get out of a simple gift of bubbles!

Must hold all the balls at once!

 His own alphabet book!!!!

 Finding himself on every page right away.

Playing in the creek with the cousins

 He wanted out, it was too cold!  Landon was actually helping him across.

 Enjoying nature.  

 Play time!

Swamp monster!

 Enjoying more nature while the kids played further down stream.  They were having an algae battle, but I tuned it out while enjoying the view.

 Post algae battle

They finished the day with popsicles. Perfect end to a perfect day!

Happy Birthday, Will!  You are still my sensitive little guy to this day.  The terrible three's have found us on most days, but my sweet guy is still in there.  You share with everyone and love snuggles.  Don't ever lose your caring heart, little boy!  

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Happy Easter!  The boys were into it this year.  I had conversations with Landon about why we celebrate Easter and he really seemed to get it.  He told me about Christ's crucifixion and resurrection and what that meant.  It was wonderful to have a meaningful conversation with him since usually I'm graced with strange theories and fart jokes.  

The boys spent the night with my parents Friday night and got to dye eggs with their cousins and have an egg hunt too.  They had a great time playing, but I was happy to have them back.  Friday night I was home completely alone.  No kids, no husband.  It was very strange and I'm surprised I was able to get to sleep.  But I went shopping unencumbered, that was nice!  I kept finding myself tip toeing around the house like the boys were there sleeping.  I just am not used to making noise after 7pm!  

Sunday I was able to watch the first session of General Conference while the boys all napped!  Then we had our egg hunt here and they got their Easter baskets.  Landon did a great job helping Will and not taking all the eggs.  He's really growing up and getting better with those things (when he wants to).  They loved their baskets.  They both got kid sized shovels and garden gloves.  They both love to dig in the garden before we get it all planted and now they really can get into it.   I think they broke all the sand shovels last year digging with them in the dirt.  They got a few other fun little things.  They wanted to play with all of them right away, but we had to immediately leave for Granny and Grandpa's house to celebrate with John's extended family.  The boys always enjoy the holidays there too because there are more cousins to play with.  They did another egg hunt there and Will did great as always.  He had eagle eyes when it comes to Easter egg hunting.  Last year he beat Landon in the egg business. This year they knew how many eggs were out there and so we knew how many they could each find.  Two of their older cousins helped them out too, which was very nice of them.  Gabriel was his very happy self and made everyone feel good by letting them all hold him. Every now and again he would cry because he needed a mommy snuggle or was hungry, but he would go back to happy and off to be loved by his great grandparents and great aunts.  No one could get over his happy go lucky nature.  We had a fun day and were all ready for bed that night!

Isn't he so handsome?

Just chillin' with his basket

This is the face I got when I told him to smile with his eyes open....not what I was going for.

Then I got this.

Trying to get a non squinchy face out of him is so hard!  

You may notice there are no individual pictures of Landon here. Well, he decided to have a huge fit about his clothing while trying to get everyone dressed and ready to go.  During these pictures he was still crying and red faced with his hair in full afro mode.  After he calmed down and had his hair done I didn't have time to get individual shots.

Egg hunt time!

This is the best one I got of them.  Seriously...the best one....you just can't always get good pictures of kids together.  I have to remind myself of that.

Basket time.  Even Gabriel got one.  He dug out the one toy he really wanted and ignored the rest of the basket.  He really loved the soccer ball rattle.

Gabriel and his Great Grandpa.  Grandpa really loves holding babies.  Getting babies away from him is nearly impossible.

Gabriel: 7 Months

7 months?  Time needs to slow down!  Once again I nearly missed getting these done.  It's 5 days before he is 8months, but I made it!  That huge smile is pretty much what you see all day every day from this little man. I have been really blessed to have such a happy third baby. With having to care for two other kids he sometimes has to wait for attention, but he doesn't mind.  He is fine playing on his own on the floor or in his exersaucer and smiling at us as we pass by.  If he gets tired of being ignored he will let you know it, but he's back to happy as long as he gets some attention.  I think it comes with the territory of being the third child.  More laid back and go with the flow.  This month he started eating what we refer to as his cookies.  They are really called rice rusks, but who wants to call them that?  That sounds gross!  A rusk, what is that?  Sounds like husk to me and that is not appetizing.  If he even sees the package of cookies he screams and starts to happy dance for them.  He is also enjoying eating puffies.  He hasn't quite figured out the whole picking them up and getting them into his mouth thing, but he's working on it.  He ends up getting a fist full and sucks on his fist attempting to get them out to no avail.  We are waiting on him to start crawling or something, but he has ZERO desire to do that!  He is very happy to just lay on the floor rolling about and standing in his exersaucer watching the world go by.  Sitting up isn't even on the list of strong desires.  He will sit on his own for a moment or two and then throw himself back, on purpose, so he can lay down and play.  He's such a slacker! You'd think he'd be trying to catch up with his brothers.  Maybe he knows he's safer not getting up with them.  None of my boys have been in a hurry to do anything, so he's par for the course in this family!  He continues to be a little charmer and has the ability to make anyone and everyone melt into a puddle around him.

His first cookie experience. He smiled the whole time he ate them.

My tall boy!

I can't get enough of his smiles!

Adorableness

I have had a print of a painting of a little boy and his dad walking. The little boy has his Superman cape on and is holding hands with daddy. I am not sure who it is by exactly, but I've had it for years. The boys have had it in their room for a while, but recently Will has loved it. He is convinced it is a picture of him and John. He grabs it and tells me who it is. "Me, daddy!" It's so cute I can't stand it. I've had to tell Landon to stop talking as he tries to break the illusion for him. Today he wore his Superman shirt, with attached cape, and carried the picture around part of the evening. I'm pretty sure every time he shows it to daddy, so excited to tell him about them being in it, he melts his daddy's heart. I think we will have to capture this moment in real life and frame it. 

You can see how he thinks that's him! A blonde little superhero, it's perfect! I love my sweet little innocent boy. 

Gabriel: 6mon take two

My friend is a photographer and she was kind enough to shoot some pictures of Gabriel during a play date at her house last week.  They turned out so sweet. I am very grateful to her for doing these for us.  He was a good boy and really hung in there while we had fun taking pictures.

 You can catch a glimpse of his teeth in this one. 

Check out Mindy Chase Photography. 

Gabriel: Month 6

My baby is half a year old! How did this happen? (and you aren't over looking month 5.  I pulled a slacker mom and forgot to take the pictures)  He's such a big guy and I love his personality.  He loves to squeal and yell and carry on along with his brothers.  I guess when you have noisy big brothers to keep up with you have to make sure your voice is heard too.  He is still obsessed with Landon.  Landon doesn't even have to be doing anything and Gabriel is smiling at him.  Landon is equally as obsessed with him.  At least it's a mutual infatuation, right?  Will is less enthused by his baby brother.  He will play with him sometimes and will help me with him, but he is not okay with sharing space with him.  We are still dealing with the constant puke fountain that is Gabriel.  The hope was that solids were going to change things, but since he started them two months ago there has been no change.  He even spits up that.  But the Dr said they aren't worried about his reflux.  We are just waiting for his muscles to strengthen up.  So we get to keep doing wash every night to keep up with the blankies and bibs.  It's a good thing he's so cute!  His new favorite thing is to play with his feet.  He rarely keeps his socks on and if he does they are wet because he has drooly hands when he grabs them.  I love it when babies grab their feet,so I am loving this stage! He is also big into talking. Lots of momomom's and babababa's.  And he has just learned to effectively blow raspberries with his tongue out.  He was blowing them, but mostly with his lips.  The addition of the tongue is extra cute and extra spitty.  On top of that he has found out that the sensation is even better when food is in your mouth.  Meal time has turned into a very messy adventure for both of us.  Bath time has also taken a messy turn for Mommy.  Gabriel loves to splash...very hard.  Mommy ends up soaked by the time bath is over.  He also kicks so hard he pushes the baby tub backwards in the tub until he's out of my reach.  This boy knows how to keep us smiling and keep us in the snuggle and kisses business.

Now enjoy a million pictures of him.  I took a ton and I loved pretty much every single one.  For once he was a ham for the camera instead of staring at it blankly.

 I love this one.  He was getting ready to talk to me.  It's the best face.

He is happy nearly all the time, and for that I am grateful!  His smiles and boisterous laughter are contagious.  Seriously, he's the best baby.  

Brotherly love

Landon wanted pictures of he and Gabriel together since they have matching shirts.  These two love each other so much.  I love love love my boys.  And it's crazy how big Gabriel looks in these!