Rowan: 4.5

I haven't been so good at snapping photos lately! I'm going to be better. :) Rowan turned 4.5 on Sunday. I can't believe that he's halfway to 5. 

Its so much fun to watch Rowan learn these days. He has recently started writing Rowan Baum on his papers at school instead of just Rowan. He can easily read and spell most three letter words, especially those with the cvc pattern. We are starting to work on other consonant blends at home since they aren't really covering that in pre-school. Rowan writes sentences using inventive spelling. He can count to 199 and continues to amaze us with his ability to add and subtract in his little head.

Rowan can buckle and unbuckle his own car seat and one of his new favorite skills is zipping! Its a huge blessing to me that Rowan can completely dress himself and put on his own coat in the morning. Rowan can hit a baseball, catch a ball, hop on one foot, wrestle and run really fast.

Rowan continues to be a fun combination of sweet, silly and serious. He still loves playing games and playing with trains or cars. Rowan says that his favorite thing to play at school is "chase the girls" at recess. 

I'm so glad that we still have a full six months to go before he turns five. I'm just not quite ready for that. :)

Cora: 4 months

Cora Grace: 4 months

-you are so smiley and chatty all the time. you are starting to make more sounds like "blah" and "ba"

-you love to hit at your toys and you'll hold one in your hand if we put it there

-you are a great eater

-you are happy almost all the time

-you still wake up once at night to eat. anytime from 2:30-5.

-you are so content to just hang out and suck on your fingers.

-you love your brothers and are always looking around for them

-you are finishing up your first antibiotic for an ear infection

-your beautiful smile brightens up our days

For such a tiny person, Cora has brought so much joy, softness and pink to our family. :)

Week 3

I know this was supposed to go up on Saturday but we were busy with company and now we're sick. Blah.

Our three on week three. Sometimes Rog and I look at the three of them and think 'how did we get here?' Time has flown by so fast that it seems unreal that we have three children.

Three is hard. I'm not going to lie. Three is less quality time for each and definitely less sleep. Three is less alone time and less money. Its more crying, more sickness, more tantrums and more mess. It is also more hugs, more love and more joy. I love each one of my kids so much and I wouldn't trade them for everything. I truly am thankful to God for blessing us with them. I'm just being honest though. Three is hard a lot of the time... at least for me.

A Year Ago...

...we found out this little beauty was on the way! 

sweetest girl in the world.

Week Two

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Cousins: December 2012

Rowan (4), Jade (8.5 months), Cora (3 months), Cruz (2.5)

Rowan & Cruz were supposed to be wearing their matching jammies and Cora has some that match with Jade but for one reason or another, only Jade was in her designated pj's. Oh well! :)

Cora Laughing

I've been posting up a storm lately! :) Yesterday when we were taking the down the Christmas tree, Roger was duct taping the boxes shut and as he pulled the tape off the roll we heard a little giggle. Apparently, Miss Cora thought that was hilarious. Just add that to the list of uses for duct tape. :)

Here I Go Again....

Remember the "Brothers" photo project I did in 2011? Well, I've decided to tackle a similar project with my THREE darlings in 2013. With three kids four and under, who knows what I'll get but I'm going to try to get a shot of them all together each week for a year. Here's the first shot of 2013:

A Little Cora

Thank You!!

One of my favorite Christmas celebrations when we head to Illinois is the one that includes my dad's extended family. I was always close to my cousins growing up and now that they have kids close in age to mine it is SO much fun to get together. Unfortunately almost their whole family was hit with various sicknesses and they couldn't join us for Christmas. Here are the boys and Cora with their Christmas gifts from Aunty Jill and Uncle Jim. 

Enjoying his reading pillow and Spiderman search book. 

Cruz loves his new pillow and brings it with him to various spots around the house. I've caught Cruz and Rowan snuggled up in his bed with Rowan helping Cruz do his Cars search book. :)

Pretty girl in her pretty outfit.


The boys have enjoyed getting out their puzzles and doing all three of them.

Thank you so much for the gifts, Kirkwoods! We missed you tons. :)

New Scooters!

The boys received Toys R Us gift cards from Grandpa and Deona and Great Uncle Gary and Great Aunt Karol. They pooled those gift cards together and were both able to get a scooter. They were so so so excited... especially Rowan who has been eyeing a Razor scooter for a while. Cruz just wanted to be like his bro. Thankfully it was warm enough to get outside and try them out today.

Cruz's little three wheeled scooter makes me smile. Rowan, of course, got the big kid, two wheeled variety.

Here's a video of Miss Cora doing tummy time. It isn't very action packed. I was hoping she'd roll over but she didn't. I am so excited about her progress on her tummy though. She was a bit of a tummy time dud at her 2 month check up. She wouldn't even lift her head while on her tummy. Her pediatrician said to be diligent and work on it and I can see our work paying off. As the third child, she tended to spend a lot more time in her car seat or on her back as we shuttled her brothers around town. :)

Happy New Year!

We enjoyed a fun family day on the last day of 2012.... except for this picture apparently. Rowan was as happy about taking it as he looks. 

We are all especially thankful for this sunny little 2012 blessing.

Happy New Year and God's blessings in 2013.

Love,

Rowan

Cruz

Cora