Trains Magazine

Every month or so Chase gets a special package in the mail from Grandpa in Kansas....a Trains magazine. Chase loves opening his package and looking at all the pictures. His favorite magazine so far was the one where the showed the train that The Polar Express was modeled after.  Here's Chase after getting a magazine a couple months ago.

At Chase's parent/teacher conference a little while ago she mentioned that he hands are a little weak. She suggested doing cutting and other activities that would help strengthen his hands. So one day when  the littles were sleeping we made a collage from one of the train magazine. He only cut out about 4 pictures and taped them to the paper and it took about 45 minutes - it was a lesson in patience for me for sure! 

I knew he would only stay interested in the activity since we were cutting out pictures of his favorite thing. Hopefully we can do this several more times this summer to improve his cutting skills. Big thanks grandpa for the magazines!

Spring

We've had some days of warmer weather and we love being outside! We met friends at the park one day and picked up a little Ceasars Hot N Ready Pizza. Pizza and Park - perfect combination!

He's starting to hold his own bottle - finally!

The boys do not know how to play outside without getting filthy and needing a bath!

  

Even Gavin

 

He's starting to be a little trouble maker.

Strawberries

We went strawberry picking this morning with Chase's school. The whole family got to come because Brad is night flying. 

Playing around the farm before our turn on the wagon ride to the fields.

Jacob loved picking them and was very thorough. He even picked off all the little leaves at the top.

 Chase filled his little bucket in about 2 seconds.

So he helped Jacob fill his!

 The boys with their buddies and strawberries.

Afterwards they got to eat strawberry ice cream - yum!

Hopefully we can go back again this year to pick some more strawberries.  Its been colder longer this year so there were a lot of green ones.

My boys!

It was a rare afternoon. All boys had taken good naps/rests so were in good moods. Dinner was already in the oven and daddy was coming home soon. We were all in Jacobs room playing so I decided to take a few pictures.

 Gavin is starting to pull himself up on stuff but isn't cruising yet. 

This is one of my better parenting decisions...giving Jacob crib time in the morning and not getting him up right away after nap. Sometimes in the morning he will play in there with books for almost an hour. Gives me a chance to take my shower. Some days he wants nothing to do with it but most days he does pretty well.

 I thought this was cute - them all looking at each other. For short periods of time Chase and Jacob can play really well together upstairs with the trains. Then there are some days were they look at each other and Jacob will start screaming and Chase will start telling on him. Ah the joys of boys (or any young kids I'm sure).

 Jacob is starting to talk and put more words together. We can hear airplanes and trains at our house and it is a big deal right now. We all have to stop and listen and say "aplee" (airplane) or "choo-choo." Jacob also tried to imitate the ABC song which is so cute.

Well we are off to soccer soon - Chase has been dreading all week running through the tunnel and putting on his uniform - ha! 

Marbles

We just had a wonderful visit with our friends, the Kauflins. Brad even took a day off work and we all headed up to Raleigh to Marbles Kids Museum. All the kids had so much fun. Here are a few pictures from our day...

I wanted to make sure to get some pictures of Gavin. I feel like in these situations he just sits in the stroller and gets forgotten. There were actually several areas for him to play in.

I have a feeling I will be taking lots of pictures of these 2. I know I've said it before but the age gap is closing so quickly!

Chase found the train table and was happy for quite a while.

Uh-oh, Korey got hurt.

Here comes Jacob to the rescue!

Kyleigh would be a great nurse, just like her mommy!

Jacob and daddy building blocks. I was over with Gavin when I notice Jacob walking around. I look over and Brad is still playing blocks and didn't realize that Jacob left. It was probably just a minute or two but I thought it was pretty funny.

Chase in the pirate ship.

Playing Hockey

 Jacob and Knox playing basketball.

 I am so glad we made the drive up to go to the museum. I wish it was just a little closer and we would go all the time! Thanks Kauflins for making the drive to come see us! Hopefully we can visit them in Kentucky before too long.

Gavin's Haircut & 9 Month Stats

Brad has wanted to cut Gavin's hair for a while. I wanted to wait till closer to a year. Well I finally gave in...he keeps getting food in his hair and that was starting to annoy me. So Brad cut it before bath tonight. 

Here's my attempt at a before picture. I knew they weren't the best but I was also playing referee to the 2 boys in the tub so I could only do so much. 

 Not too thrilled with the process.

Such a big boy!

All his hair :( I didn't save any so I figured I would take a pic.

I tried to get some shots a while ago of Gavin at 9 months but when I went to upload them, they were gone. Not sure what happened and I didn't do any more. At his nine month appt he weighed 22 lbs 11 oz (81%), weighed 30 1/4 inches (95%) and head circumference was 46cm (71%). He is crawling all over the place now. He can pull to his knees easily and has gotten to his feet a couple times. He still gets up once to eat at night (but he goes right back to bed).  He eats solids pretty well. He loves carbs - puffs, rice crackers,etc. Both big brothers can get a little annoyed when he touches their stuff. Jacob has learned to say "mine" very well.