John Lost His First Tooth!!!

So in all the posting done the past few days, I forgot to post the John lost his FIRST TOOTH!!! This took place Wednesday before dinner. I checked it earlier in the day and it was soooo loose. I convinced Brian to try one last time to get it out and with a little effort, he was able to pull the tooth out. As an fyi, it's been loose for about 6 months now and had been refusing to come out. That night John put the tooth under his pillow and was surprised to find the Tooth Fairy had taken his tooth and left him three dollars!! I'm still getting used to the gap but he's so proud to have lost a tooth.

From May 2011 Blog Photos

Pack Graduation Camp Out

This past weekend was our cub scout pack graduation camp out. It was at Stephen F Austin State Park which is about 20 miles from our house which turned out to be a HUGE blessing. Brian took the boys up after school on Friday to set up camp. After getting the tent up, John took a tumble and cut up his knee pretty bad. Thankfully there was an EMT at the next site over who cleaned up the cut and got it all bandaged. Later that night, James wasn't feeling well which wasn't a huge surprise since he had been playing with another little boy who had been throwing up. The upset tummy in conjunction with a line of bad storms heading their way and super high temperatures lead Brian to make the executive decision to come home for the night. Everyone slept well in their own beds and nice cool air conditioning. The next morning the boys all got up, dressed for the day and headed back to the camp site. They participated in the morning flag ceremony and service project with everyone. Unfortunately, Brian took a tumble and hurt his shoulder pretty bad. He loaded the boys back in the truck and drove home. Once he got home, I dropped John, Jude and Jonah off with my parents and then took James back out to the park. He had a blast during the water gun fight with all the other kids. They got absolutely soaked which must have felt nice in the 90F heat. After that, he got cleaned up and we finished taking down the tent and loaded everything in the van. The kids played for a while before dinner got underway. The boys didn't eat too much as it was so hot but the parents all dug right in. After we got dinner cleaned up it was time for graduation. We all gathered around the picnic table at one camp site which served as our bridge for the boys to walk over. Our cub master explained the Indian legend of how the cub scout was born and then each den took turns walking over the bridge. First up was the Tigers. All the boys were so excited to become wolves. After they walked over the bridge, the cub master put face paint on them with the four colors of cub scouts. Once all the dens had graduated, we sang our traditional MILK song as well as said the cub scout promise. After that, we closed out for the night. We all headed back to our camp sites to chat and let the boys burn off some energy. James and I got in the van and headed home around 9:30. We got home and he told Brian all about graduation and what he had done the rest of the day. We ended up staying up until 11:30 or so listening to James and finally getting some food in him. Even with all the injuries, it was a great weekend!! Brian and I can't wait to get started with James on his wolf achievements.

From May 2011 Blog Photos

Jude's Second Birthday

We can't believe our little JuJu Bean is now two years old. While he seems like he's been two for quite some time now, he actually celebrated his second birthday yesterday. Jude is such a wonderful little boy. He smiles and laughs so much and is a constant source of entertainment for us. I say it seems like he's been two for a long time because he's been doing things that our older two didn't do until they were much older. Jude moves chairs into the kitchen to be able to reach things on the counter. He's also figuring out how to climb the shelves in the pantry to reach foods he wants. Jude is following in James' footsteps and quickly giving up milk. He'll drink at most one glass a day and much prefers to drink iced tea. I've stopped actually counting how many words he says because he talks quite a lot although we don't understand much of it. The words he does say very clearly are foods - cheese, cookie, chip, tea, etc. Jude loves catsup and would love to put it on everything. If it's on the table, he wants it on his plate.

Jude's favorite toys are his Little People Farm and Noah's Ark. The boy LOVES animals!!! He likes to match up the toy animal to pictures in his books. He loves zebras, giraffes, hippos, lions, tigers, cows, ducks, horses, chickens, pigs, and sheep. He also really likes cars and trucks, much more than the older boys. He loves to push them along and go vroom! Alas, Jude still uses a pacifier. We've found it really difficult to break him of the habit since Jonah uses one as well. I've been throwing out the worn out pacifiers and haven't been replacing them so they should all be gone soon. Jude takes one long nap each day. It had been from 11-2 since that's what fit best with John's school schedule. I'm not sure what it will shift to once summer begins and we no longer have to take John to and from school.

Jude had his 2 year check up yesterday with Dr. Clarke and he's still a big boy. We weighs 30 lbs which is 74th percentile and is 35.5" tall which is 80th percentile. The only downer of the visit was that Jude was diagnosed with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Thankfully it's a virus and he's not contagious and the rash will go away on it's own in about a week. I'm also thankful that he doesn't have the sores inside his mouth and the worst of them are on his feet. Oh yeah, and he didn't have to get any shots!

John Graduates from Preschool

This past Thursday John graduated from preschool. He and his classmates had been working on their end of year program for several weeks and it did not disappoint. My parents were able to take the day off of work to come and share in the celebrations. The kids walked in to Who Let the Dogs Out and then started their demonstration of all they have learned in Motor Skills this year. They did somersaults, jumped on a trampoline, did hop-scotch, tossed a basketball into a hoop, hula hooped, and used the scooters. After that, they did the Mexican hat dance before taking their seats on stage. Their teachers then had them play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the hand bells. After that it was time for their songs. The kids were so cute up on stage singing their hearts out. Even though my Flip said it was out of battery, I managed to record everything. Once the songs were over, it was time to pass out the certificates. John was so proud of himself when he walked across the stage. He is a member of the first Top Dog graduates (they formed a new class this year called the Top Dogs). Once all the kids had walked the stage, it was back to the classroom for cake and lemonade. John also received his memory book and spring art portfolio before leaving for summer vacation. John has been flipping through his memory book ever since he got it, reliving special times he spent with his class throughout the year. He's also loved showing us all of his artwork and projects. I really enjoy hearing him describe what he drew or what he had made. John made many wonderful friends this year that I know he'll miss. I know he will especially miss his teachers - Ms. Mary, Ms. Andi and Ms. Elva. As much as I love Child's Play, I will not miss driving to and from school twice a day, four days a week. I am going to enjoy taking a year off before Jude starts in the Fall of 2012. Pictures and video to come soon!

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend always seems to be a busy one for us. Last year we had the older boys' birthday party. This year we went to take family pictures with my parents and sister on Saturday morning. We hadn't taken any pictures with them since John was 6 months old so they were long overdue. I've had that particular photographer a number of times and he always manages to get a number of good shots even with all the fussing, crying for pacifiers, not following directions, etc. I'll have to see if my parents got a CD of the pictures so I can post a couple up here. The boys have changed so much since we took family pictures 6 months ago. Jonah was itty bitty back then and had to be held by James or John and now he's sitting on his own next to his brothers.

Later Saturday afternoon we visited Aunt Sarah at her new apartment in Katy. She accepted a job with Academy and will be living just a few miles from us. We're hoping to see a lot more of Aunt Sarah, Poppa Mike and Mimi in the coming years. Her apartment is super cute and will serve as a nice starter home for her as she starts her new career. Brian, James and John ate a late lunch with them while I cleaned up the house for Supper Club later that night.

Supper Club ended up being more of a dessert club this month. The theme was pies and I fixed chicken pot pie for the main course. While everyone said it was tasty, I think I prefer the frozen kind. I say that it ended up being a dessert club this month because I forgot which course I had assigned the couple that wasn't going to be able to make it. I thought it was dessert so I picked up key lime pie and some apple tarts at the store. Well as it turns out, they were assigned appetizers so we also had peach cobbler and apple pie. Everyone had their fill of dessert as we played several rounds of Wits and Wagers. If you've never played this game, I highly recommend it. We've always had a great time playing it with our friends. The BEST part of the game is that you don't have to know the answer to the questions. Each player makes a guess and then you each bid on which answer you think is closest to correct without going over (ala the Price is Right). Once the answer is read, the player guessed correctly and those who bid on the correct answer win poker chips. Again, loads of fun and highly recommended by the Hadleys!!!

Mother's Day was a lot of fun and busy at the same time. Brian and the older boys made me breakfast in bed - biscuits, eggs, and hot tea. It was super delicious!! After that, I got ready for the day and we were off for a quick visit to the land. Neither Sarah or Mike had ever seen it so we decided to take them up for a quick look around. On our way back to town, we stopped to get the boys some lunch and then drove home to my parents house to have lunch with my wonderful mother and pick up the little boys. She had our new family photos all framed and ready to go up on the walls. I can't wait to see them hung the next time we visit them!!

Jonah at 8 months

I'm a few days late because things have been super busy at our house with the school year winding down. Jonah is growing and changing so much these days. While much of his eating and sleeping habits remain the same, he's definitely moving into a new stage of babyhood. He's really wanting to stand a lot in our laps these days and this morning, I let him stand up at his little play table. He enjoyed the lights and music for quite a while before he lost his balance and fell over. He's also really trying to pull up when I hold my hands out to him. It won't be long before he masters that skill and start cruising along the furniture. Jonah is also starting to babble a lot and I can tell he's trying to communicate his wants and needs in ways other than crying. The other big accomplishment in the last month is that he's definitely mastered rolling from back to front. Unfortunately, he doesn't like being on his tummy and seems to have forgotten how to roll back the other way. I guess the upside is that he'll eventually figure out how to get up onto his knees and hopefully start crawling. These last four months of his first year are going to be a whirlwind of activity for our last little one. I can't wait for all of the coming "firsts".

Happy Easter!!

Our Easter weekend was egg-stremely busy this year. We took advantage of the long weekend to go back up to the land to do some more clearing. We hadn't been since February and even though it hasn't rained even a bit, the weeds were waist high!! Thankfully our wonderful neighbor brought his tractor and brush hog and mowed quite a bit of the weeds for us Friday morning. Brian and I did some more clearing back behind the trailer and started rebuilding the burn pile from our last trip. We cleaned up and then headed into College Station for a while. We visited our favorite jeweler - David Gardner's - to get Brian's Aggie Ring re-sized, ate lunch with my sister, had dessert at Fro Yo Yo - a frozen yogurt shop - and then hit the mall for some new A&M shirts. We spent the rest of the afternoon fishing at Gibbon's Creek Reservoir. It was crazy windy and we didn't catch anything which was disappointing but there's always next time.

Saturday was another busy day of work clearing a section of brush to the right of the driveway between the front corner and the "garden". It took Brian and I until early in the afternoon to get it all cleared out and we created three very large burn piles with all the trees and vines we removed. MaMaw and Poppa Steve came up for the day and brought a charcoal grill with them so we had burgers and hot dogs for lunch on Saturday. They also showed us how to set up the awning so we enjoyed nice breaks in the shade with a nice cool breeze. Later that afternoon, I took the boys into town to see the new movie Rio while Brian relaxed at the trailer. We picked up dinner on the way back and enjoyed a nice quite dinner and a movie before bed.

Sunday morning we got up early, packed up the trailer and headed home for a fun filled Easter Sunday. We got to my parents house and the boys dug into their Easter baskets. There was lots of toys and candy. My mom found these awesome tote bags and matching towels for the boys. It will definitely be nice to have them carry their own swim stuff this summer. After everything was opened, the boys all enjoyed an egg hunt in both the back and front yards. Once Jonah woke up from his nap, we headed to the County Line for some super yummy BBQ lunch. We relaxed for a while and then headed home for Sunday dinner and another egg hunt at Kristen's house. The boys came home with even more candy but hey, it's Easter! I definitely know why we had the Monday after Easter off growing up. The teachers did not want to deal with all the kids after a day full of candy.

Pictures to come soon. I forgot my camera at my parents house and haven't had time to go get it yet.