Moving Along...

It's been another busy, fun month. Tyler and I became Godparents for baby Trae Rogers! Leo and Max have been busy discovering new ways to drive Tyler and I crazy.  Ace is growing fast and getting really close to crawling.  We are having a very blessed Advent and are very excited about Christmas.  After the Newtown Tragedy, Tyler and I are especially grateful for our 3 amazing children.  This Advent is a time to focus on the important things in life, God and family.

Love his big eyes!

The boys started sleeping together.   It was starting to get a little crowded, so we bought Max a big boy bed.   He loves it!  They have both been sleeping really well.  Max does wake up a few times, but at least I can easily lay down with him and he goes back to sleep. 

Christmas...

list...

for...

Santa!

This was Leo's treat for doing his blood work one last time.  The results came back normal, so he is all better!

Ace on our frisbee golf with the Roger family.  I couldn't get a good picture of the rest of the boys because they would not hold still.  We had a lot of fun running around.  Leo did have a melt down when we left because he didn't want to go home.  We "set him straight" and he promised not to do it again, so far he has not.  :)   Oh, Bryan beat Tyler this time but Tyler beat him the time before. 

This big boy crawls backwards and can go from the crawling postion to sitting all by himself.  I am not ready for him to start crawling but I think it will be very soon.

Starting Advent off by making Christmas cookies. 

Leo did a really good job rolling out the dough, Max kept licking the dough.

The aftermax....haha. 

Cookie!!!

Pottery Barn Choo Choo Train Stockings...Love them! 

"I'm Stuck" 

Leo and Max having a race at the park. December has been so warm that we have been able to hang out at the park a few times.  Blendon Woods is a great park for toddlers.

Time For School!

Popcorn, alphabet magnets, and a metal broiler pan for a fun alphabet lesson. 

It also made a great snack! 

Leo's doing a matching game for school.  

Busy, busy, busy.

So, it seems that I don't have a chance to do much of anything these days.  The boys are all naping at different times, Ace started eating solid food,  we switched over to cloth diapers, Leo and Max have colds, getting Leo to do school with Max awake is almost impossible, and no one seems to be sleeping at night. Blah.  Luckily the past two days have been a little better.  I think we are on our way back to normal.  Well, as normal as three under three can be!

Making baby food!

The start of my cloth diaper collection. :) I love it! 

During this busy month I did manage to do a fundraiser for the Women's Care Center.  This is some of the items we collected for their store.  :) 

Leo on his trip out with mom.  He really needed to get out of the house!

Leo's Update and Halloween...

Well, it has been awhile since my last post.  Leo is almost fully recovered from Mono but will still need one more blood test to make sure his blood cells are back to normal.  Over the past few weeks while he was unable to be around other young kids we have just been hanging out around the house and trying to get everyone back on a schedule.  So far, so good!

Recovery time...Leo loved his bed on the floor.  A little play, a little sleep. 

School and crafts kept us busy.  This is Leo's monster...scary!

My three little monsters!

Max, Becca, and Leo.

Leo at the first house of the night.

Make kept saying "spooky" the entire time.  

A walk to the scariest house of all...Uncle Jeffs!!!

We did venture out for Trick or Treat at the Aunt's and Uncle's houses.  It worked out really well because we just walked form Moms, to Lori's, to Tim's, and Amy's houses.  Leo and Max thought it was plenty and they loved walking through the "spooky" forest.  Then it was pizza at Grandmas house.  Doesn't get any better than that!

Leos Hospital Visit

Holding his new toy car from Grandma. 

This is right after they put in the IV/took his blood.  He screamed the entire time, but as soon as they were finished he calmed down and relaxed. 

Trying to calm his high fever.  Lion was there every step of the way.  :) 

Going home!

Leo spent a day at Children's Hospital after a virus just wouldn't go away.  We took him to see Dr. Dan when we noticed he had a fever.  Dr. Dan said it was a virus and would probably go away in a day or two.  Two days later Leo was even worse.  Dr. Dan had us do blood work and the results should that there was a more serious problem then a little virus.  We had to admit Leo to Children's while they tested for different things and waited for the specialist to see him.  They thought it might have been Kawasaki Disease, which was a pretty scary diagnosis.  After taking even more blood, an IV, and a sinus swab test they were able to say it was NOT Kawasaki Disease.  We went home to wait for the rest of the test to come back.  It ended up that Leo had a very sever case of Mono.  He had a high fever,  blisters on his lips and throat, and was very tired for about 10 days.  Not to mention all of the
blood test!  He was a very brave little guy.  We are just very thankful that he is okay and will be fully recovered in a few more weeks.  God is good!

Ace Is Growing Fast

My handsome little man!

Ace the Alligator just turned 3 months.

Ace loves hanging out with his brothers.  He likes being able to watch them play and you can tell that he can't wait until he can join in. 

Max Turned Into A Chatter Box

Max went from saying just a few words here or there to being a little parrot.  He repeats everything and everything he says sounds so cute!  My favorite word that he says right now is "butt".  When he says it, he sounds adorable.  He is even starting to put two words together and he says "I want that" also.  We have been working on his colors and he is doing really well.  He can say all of them and identifies them  correctly almost every time.  He seems to struggle with identifying the color green for some reason.

Max is also learning his alphabet.  He knows the letters M, P, A, X, and O.  He his getting better with B, H, and E also.

Max likes to do Leo's home school program, PreK Scholars, with us.  I think its a pretty good program so far and I am so excited to use if for all of the boys. :)

I am sure I will post more about Leo and his school work later with a few pictures of his activity papers.

All in all, I am pretty proud of my little learners!

Trains!!!

This is a video of our trip to the train museum, Entertrainment.  It was amazing and we really need to go back again soon!

The Fair

The boys and I joined Grandma and The Great Darke County Fair this year.  They all did so well and we had a great time.  After we spent the afternoon there I took Ace and Max home with me and Leo stayed the night at Grandmas.  Leo got to go back the next day to ride some of the rides.  Grandma took lots of pictures, so I am sure I will post some later.  Here are the few pictures I managed to take.  It is getting pretty hard to do with three!

Leo is Awesome

Today I was asking Leo questions.  I asked him if he was handsom, pretty, and beautiful.  He said no to each new question.  Finally I said, "Well, what are you then", he replied "I am awesome".  :)  Yes, yes you are Leo.

Another Baby!

Today when we got in the car for swim class Leo said..

"Mom I hope you have another baby in your belly."

I told him it would be awhile before that would happend so he told me...

"Okay, but we will have two more babies.  Boy's like Ace, but we will have to call them something else. And we will have to get a bigger car!"

First Real Swim Class

Leo just finished his first season of swim class at the Y.  He made two friends, Micha and Noah.  They are twin boys and their family goes to St. Matthews!  Small world.

He had a great time, but did get in trouble a few times for goofing off with the twins.  He still has a long way to go to be able to swim without help, but he will be swimming again in the fall season.


At the end of the season the kids get "report cards" in the attitude section Leo got a "yes" for everything, but I love that the teacher hand wrote "Very Confident!" too.  Yep, that is Leo.

I was a bad mom and did not take any pictures during class...maybe next season...      

More Summer Fun...

Max hanging out by the pool at Uncle Tim's house. 

Max and Callie watching the ducks and chickens. 

Leo jumping in at Uncle Tim's pool. We have so much fun hanging out there with the Fathbruckners!

Max building a tower.  He is working on saying his colors and can now say green and blue.  He is really close to being able to identify all of his colors.  Leo loves to help quiz him!

Best part about making something...taking it apart. 

I think Max is ready for a bigger bed, he loves sneaking into Leo's bed for naps. 

Ace the Alligator at 1 month!  

Tyler let Max turn his crib into a toddler bed.  He loves it.  Although, he has been pretty ornery about going to sleep now!  I am not sure how long this will last.

This is Max at 4 months old falling asleep on the play
mat.  He used to do this all the time.   

This is Max this summer...when he gets really tired he likes to find the play mat and lay down.  he doesn't go to sleep but just rest for awhile.  I think its so cute.  He is still my baby.  :) 

Here is some of our outdoor finger painting.  It very messy process with both Max and Leo, but they both love it and it helps Max learn his colors.  Here is Leo's picture of ocean animals.  The green thing is a shark...sadly I tried to help him with that one.  

Max's summer art work. 

Trying to beat the 90 degree summer heat.  

The big boys giving Ace some love.  They both can't wait for Ace to be able to play with them.  Leo also likes to lay down with Ace and read him books.  Mas has tried to pick Ace up a few times which was a little scary, but most of the time he just points to him and says "Ace!".  

The cool kids.  Max is doing his Bryan Rogers impression...pretty good. 

Ace hanging out with me at the pool. 

The boys love swimming at the Y.  We have been going to the outdoor baby pool and Tyler has been lucky enough to be the one to get into the water with them while I watch Ace.  

Leo did this puzzle all by himself.  It is a really hard one, so we were impressed! 

Hanging out with Baby Trae. 

We had a fun night with the Chilicki boys.  Leo and Jack built this train track while Max and Christopher helped.