Party Time

This is Jake's first party with friends, and I thought for my sanity, and to not overwhelm Jake, we'd keep it pretty small. We only had two friends over, and it was perfect. They started with Hulk Smash -- building towers and taking turns knocking them down with the Hulk hands -- obviously a big hit with boys.

Then they had to make their way through Spiderman's webs -- also a big hit that they insisted on doing over and over again until the yarn had pretty much fallen off the chairs. 

      

Decorating cupcakes with lots of funny noises and giggles. Boys.

Presents! One of the boys was so excited for Jake to open his, that he started unwrapping them for him. It was funny -- and luckily, Jake thanked him for helping instead of getting upset! He's been wearing this Iron Patriot mask around the house pretending to be the villain on Big Hero 6. Should I be concerned he prefers acting as the villain instead of Bay Max -- the super cool flying robot? Oh well... 

And what boy doesn't love racing cars down a slanted table top leaf? A pretty simple party, but the three boys had a lot of fun together!

April 14, 2015

Lucas 9 Months

 Lucas at 9 Months old.

 He graduated from the sink to the big bath. The other kids like him in there at first, and then tire of his constant splashing, and ask for him to be taken out. He LOVES taking baths with them. When I walk in with him, asking if he wants to take a bath, he starts bouncing and squawking in my arms. 

He also loves trying to sneak my phone, and watching himself in the camera.

 Still a pretty happy, easy-going dude. Loves to be outside. He tries to grab all the remotes and phones, and throws a little fit when they're taken away. He loves to pull everyone's hair; mainly Jake's, because Jake laughs and squeals when Luke grabs him, which makes Luke laugh and squeal. It's pretty funny! I'm just waiting for the moment when Jake decides it's not funny anymore - then we'll have to break that habit... We love this little guy's laughs, squawks, and smiles -- can't believe how fast he's growing! He even does a little fake laugh that cracks us all up -- he's a goofball. (Currently, at about 9 1/2 months) The other kids are constantly looking out for him -- "he's climbing a chair!" "He's going in the pantry!" "He's going to the stairs!" He's definitely on the move, and pretty fast now. He's not so great on his feet yet, but can pull himself to standing and take a few steps along furniture before falling. He loves going for walks in his stroller, throwing his toys and pacifier for the kids to retrieve, and absolutely loves Emma and Jake. He likes to follow them around, and grab all their things. He loves to bounce, be held, and snuggled in his blanket.

April 2015

A Great Man

(Great) Grandpa Egbert passed away -- and his contagious smile and twinkle in his eye will be missed by so many. He was truly a great and inspiring man, who almost made it to 95. I'm still amazed at all the things he was doing on his own! It was a good funeral (as good as those can be anyway), with some tears and some laughs. It was good to see everybody -- the enormous family that he and Grandma Egbert have created.

All the Merl Egbert siblings were able to come -- so we grabbed some quick pictures afterward.

 April 11, 2015

Happy Birthday Jake!

Happy 4th Birthday Jake!!!

1. Favorite Color: Um...pink! I mean Blue! (Still under a bit of Emma influence)

2. Favorite Toy: Trucks (pretending to be lawn mowers, weed wackers, and leaf blowers).
3. Favorite Book: The Jesus Book (New Testament book for kids) and The Princess book (music buttons).
4. Favorite Movie: Big Hero 6 (has been wanting to watch it at least once a day since his birthday...)
5. Favorite thing to eat for dinner: Pizza
6. Favorite outfit: Black Spider-man shirt
7. Favorite game: Avengers (Disney Infinity)
8. Favorite treat: Tootsie Rolls! Cookies! Candy! Vanilla ice cream! (any treat, and asking about them all the time...)
9. Favorite animal: My puppy upstairs in my bed.
10. Favorite song: Sugar (Maroon 5 -- He LOVES when this song comes on the radio, and is constantly singing it wherever we go! It's SO funny!)
11. What would you buy if you had $1000: The Olaf snowman at Walmart (Talks when you push his nose -- Jake and Emma enjoyed playing with it on our last trip, and their mean mom wouldn't buy it for them).
12. Best Friend: Austin Heikkila
13. Who's your favorite super hero: Hulk
14. Favorite thing to do outside: Blow bubbles
15. Favorite drink: Apple Juice
16. Favorite holiday: Birthdays
17. Where do you want to go for dinner on your birthday: Costco hot dog
18. What do you want to be when you grow up: I want to cook some dinner
19. What's your favorite cereal: Fruit Loops. I mean cookies.
20. Favorite thing to watch on TV: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
21. What are you really good at: To play with a toy that's really really small.

Jake's always fun to open presents with because he gets so happy with whatever it is. He's been asking about his birthday and cake since Emma's birthday, and he was so happy it was finally his turn to go pick out his cake.

Jake's such a fun kid! He's crazy, rambunctious, and always has to be moving. I have to remind him about 10 times to sit down during meals, because he is always jumping out of his chair when he wants to say something --too much energy in him. He loves playing with Emma and Lucas. He's always running around making loud noises with his various vehicles and Avengers. He loves to play at the park and usually anything outdoors. He's definitely got an easily provoked temper, but is quick to turn around and want hugs. He's got a contagious laugh, that I love to hear when he and Emma are in a back room playing one of their silly games. I love listening to the way he talks --all the little mispronunciations -- "blownies" (brownies) "grils" (girls) "four" (Thor) "sprinkAlers" (sprinklers) "strawbaberries", etc, and he is CONSTANTLY talking. And he's a LOUD talker -- I don't think there's a volume switch for this one -- unless he's being shy around new people. He's a very cautious kid, and has to know all the details of everything, and is always asking the same questions (reworded) over and over again to make sure he understands right. He'll eat all the fruit available, and only little bits of dinner if bribed with fruit or treats. He's starting to really enjoy playdates with some friends that he's made here. He gets obsessed with various things for a month or so at a time -- currently these are school buses, fire hydrants, and lawn mowers. Love this little man and all the fun and laughter he brings to our family!

This is a video from March of him singing his favorite song "Sugar". He knows the words much better now, and is always singing it. He's so excited when it comes on in the van.

April 5, 2015

Easter Weekend

On Thursday, we had Brad's work Easter hunt (lots of kids -- not so many eggs) but the kids had fun, and Jake had a golden ticket in one of his eggs! They gave him a Scensty Buddy (Stuffed duck with a pocket to put a smell packet in). The kids didn't like the smell at all, and wouldn't play with the duck until I took it out :). Brad was talking to one of the coworkers the next day, and had said Emma was disappointed she didn't get a golden ticket, and the guy grabbed a monkey out of his office and Brad brought it home for Emma. Spoiled kids.

This year, Jake's birthday and Easter fell on the same day. I was planning to celebrate them on separate days, but as the flu the kids had the previous weekend attacked me on Saturday, they had to be combined. At least I can separate them on the blog :).  So Easter weekend started with us decorating eggs on Friday. 

  

Saturday we had their first soccer games -- both at 9 am -- so we had to miss all the Easter hunts. Who schedules kids' first soccer games on the Saturday before Easter? So lame. Jake freaked out at his game because he wasn't getting his "turn" to kick the ball (and added with him not doing well with changes and new people) it was a bit of a train wreck, and he cried quite a bit... I had to miss Emma's game, but Brad said she did awesome always chasing the ball. This is her first year with goalies, and on her turn, she blocked about 8 shots in a row he said. She was also knocked down pretty hard, and got right back up to play. He insisted that she needed an immediate reward to encourage her playing so hard, and she picked ice-cream. That's right. Ice-cream cones at 10:30 am... We won't be doing that again... She's got this dad wrapped around her finger.

The kids woke up on Easter to find a surplus of candy-filled eggs all around the house. They were pretty excited and ran around the house crazy trying to find them all.

    

And here's one example of the difference in personalities in my children. Emma opens them as quickly as possible and throws all the candy in a pile. Jake carefully opens each one and organizes them into their correct piles... 

Later that day, we had an egg hunt outside with the real eggs. They were squealing and jumping with excitement to go find them all... check out Emma's face as I pretend to shut the door before they come out :). Love having kids on holidays (other days, too), but holidays are the best!

April 5, 2015

And he's off!

Lucas hadn't been showing much interest in moving around -- I guess he just needed the right motivation. The big kids were getting over the flu, so we were playing a lot of board games. It was too much for Lucas to lay idle while so many little pieces were surrounding him. He finally started scooting, and then last week, full on crawling (at about 8 1/2 months). He is into everything. I always forget how much a new crawler changes things in the house. He's pretty thrilled with his ability -- the rest of us, not so much :). The kids are realizing he's not a great playmate right now -- as he is constantly grabbing and drooling on their toys, or me making them do everything on a higher level so Lucas won't choke on their smaller items.  I no longer have my freedom of setting him down while I run in the other room for a second. The second I do, he's attempting to climb the stairs, pull himself up on the fireplace ledge, grabbing wires, and pulling the floor vents up... And thus begins our new adventure of trying to keep Lucas alive  :). 

March 27, 2015

Utah

My annual pass to Thanksgiving Point was going to expire at the end of March, so we decided to head down to Utah for one last Museum Hurrah for our spring break. The kids (especially Jake) have really missed our weekly trips there, so we thought they would enjoy it. We pulled Emma out of School early on Thursday, so that we could spend Friday at the museums while the Utah kids were still in school. We got to Utah Thursday night, and spend it swimming in the hotel. Friday, to our disappointment, we arrived at our favorite Curiosity Museum to find two school field trips there. Boo. So we decided to hit the others and hopefully find that one less busy after lunch.

So first we went to the Dinosaur Museum.

The kids, who have seen the exhibits many times, quickly passed through everything until their favorite spots. We spent quite a bit of time at the water/sand erosion table. 

 Sharks!!! One of my favorite pictures :). 

Another favorite is uncovering the dino bones in the sand pits. Emma actually tries to uncover them, Jake just gets scoops of sand to fill in his favorite whole in the wall....

Then off to the farm. We ran around feeding all the animals and going for a horse-pulled wagon ride. (I love how Lucas kept smiling in all the family shoots -- such a fun happy baby. He was amazingly awesome on this trip. Such a trooper.)

And of course, we had to do the pony rides. 

Then we made our way back to the Curiosity Museum. The kids climbed all around the structures and ropes, and played in the grocery play area while Lucas rolled around with the lily pads in the pond. 

The kids played on the discovery park for a while and enjoyed the teeter-totters and spinning disks.

  

And how could I not enjoy myself with this type of company?

One of the kids' favorite areas is the vet clinic. They put the animals on the black square to do x-rays, then Emma's checking blood pressure, and Jake's giving shots.

Building houses, and then watching the effects different earthquake intensities have on them. They spent a lot of time in the water works area also.

   

And a TON of time in the wind tunnel.

After we had our museum fill, we went back to the hotel for more swimming. On Saturday we went to IKEA to let the kids play in the kid zone while we grabbed a few things. Then off to Twin for a quick visit at Bill and Judy's. Lucas was fine being held by Bill, until they all sat down -- then he was done. We grabbed some dinner from my favorite Twin restaurant, Tomatoes, let the kids play with their IKEA trains, and they played dominoes with Grandpa Bill.

 March 2015