Hello!

Hello out there! It's been a long time! I keep meaning to post, but I guess life gets in the way. We've had a fun, busy summer. I can't believe it's already winding down. The older boys go back to school in less than 4wks! Thomas will be in 2nd grade and Griffin will be in kindergarten! Summer has been so fun so I'm not quiet ready for it to end.

Here are some recent pics of the boys. Max is 15months now. He just started really walking within the last week. He had been taking 2-3steps for couple of weeks, but has really started walking around the room this week. It's so cute. I love how the stumble around at first ;) He also recently quit breastfeeding. I was going to wean him slowly over the next couple of months, but last week while we were away for a quick getaway to Holiday World, he just quit all together. It's definitely bittersweet. While I'm excited to have my body back after almost 4 years of pregnancy and/or breastfeeding, I'm really sad b/c he's my last baby. And he's growing up too fast :( But it is really fun to watch him interact more with his big brothers and watch his personality develop more.

Griffin will be 6 in a few weeks. He's REALLY excited about it, it's practically all he talks about. He is much more comfortable in the water this year. Last year he would barely get in and usually just sat on steps and now he gets all the way in. He still won't go under, but it's a BIG improvement.
Thomas is also doing great swimming! He does all kinds of flips and jumps in - he's also much more comfortable than last year. He finished up baseball in mid June. His team made it to the final 4 in the tourney. He had lots of fun! He also finally learned how to ride his bike at the beginning of the summer. He never really liked riding much last year so he didn't learn earlier. He went to cub scout camp in June too. At the end of the week he camped all night with Mike.

Lucas turned 3 in June. He is still a total goofball. He cracks us up all the time. He's totally obsessed with the Wiggles, although luckily lately he's also into Toy Story. He quit napping this summer :( We are working on potty training. It's so frustrating. Last winter, he practically potty trained himself and was potty trained for about 2months, and now not so much. No idea what happened, but I'm planning on forcing the issue more once the big boys are back in school.

Max is 8 months!

I'm a little late on this, but the pictures were actually taken when he turned 8mo. He's getting so big! He's rolling all over the place. He keeps getting stuck under the Christmas tree. He's found his voice recently too. He babbles all the time. It's so cute!

Thomas is 7!!

Thomas' 7th birthday was yesterday! It was a really fun day. I volunteered in his class in the morning then stayed to have lunch with him. It's really fun to watch him interact with his friends and see what he does everyday at school. We had most of Mike's family over for pizza and cake. He had a great time playing with his cousins. We got him a DS and he was really surprised! His party is this Saturday. He's so excited and keeps asking how much longer.

7 seems so old to me. He's not a little boy anymore. It really seems like he was just a baby. Time flies so fast! It seems like I just had him but yet he's 7 and the oldest of 4!

Max is 7mo!

Wow, I haven't posted in a month. I just can't seem to find the time. I do have lots of updates so I'll try to get to them soon, but this post is about Max being 7 months old! He had his 6mo appt on Oct 1 and he was 20lbs 10oz and 27 1/2 inches. He got several shots which he wasn't happy about but he usually calms down pretty fast. He is sitting up better, but not for too long at a time. He's rolling a lot more. He has 2 teeth now and I think more are on their way.

He started solids. So far he has had oatmeal, avocado, banana, and sweet potatoes. I'm attempting to make a lot of it this time. I also tried with Lucas and it didn't go so well so we'll see.

Max is 6mo!

I can't believe Max is half way to his 1st birthday! He hit a couple of milestones a few days ago (9/21). He finally rolled over! He rolled onto his stomach then about a minute later rolled back onto his back. He seemed kind of shocked that he could do it. Later that day I noticed his bottom right tooth had broken through. He's also able to sit up briefly on his own. He seems like he wants to sit up and watch what is going on. Whenever he is on the floor he lifts his head like he's trying to sit up. It's so fun watching him figure all of this out. I do hope he takes his time on getting mobile though ;) His 6mo appt is next week so I'll update then.

Griffin's 1st Day!

Griffin started pre-K last week. Finally! Thomas has already been in school for a month. He goes Tues-Friday in the mornings. Luckily he has several friends from his class last year in his class again. Several went on to kindergarten though so he's a little confused about that. He just missed the cutoff by a few days, but I think it will be good for him to be older. Taking him to school is sort of a pain though. His school is pretty close to our house but they are doing construction on the main road to get there so it takes twice as long now. And this year his class is upstairs so I get to drag Max and Lucas upstairs to sign him in. I've over it already and it's only been 1wk! But he likes his class and is having fun! It is nice having time with just the 2 little boys while he's in school. It's easier to run errands and to have time to focus on just them. Griffin and I get alone time in the afternoons while Max and Lucas are sleeping. His new favorite thing is watching the Food Network. Sometimes we make real things and sometimes he pretends to cook. It's so cute to watch him b/c he's so serious about it. I'll update on the other boys soon.

State Fair

We went to the State Fair recently. The boys loved it and we had great weather. Luckily we waited until the last weekend - the first couple of weeks were HOT, but it cooled down a lot which made it much more enjoyable. We thought about riding the fair train down, but decided not to spend the extra money. I kind of regret it now b/c I know Lucas would have loved it b/c he's really into trains now. But he's also into tractors so there was plenty of that. He loved climbing in all of them (some of the big ones cost more than 2x as much as our house!) Here are some pics from the day.

Max is 5 months!

Max is 5 months now! He's such a sweetie! He loves to be held and cuddle. He's so much fun now. He is past his fussy stage and is starting to play with things. He loves watching his older brothers. They always make him laugh and smile. Lucas still calls him "big guy". He isn't rolling over yet, so it looks like he'll be following his brothers' laziness. I'm in no hurry for crawling or walking so that's fine! No teeth yet either - all of the others had a couple by now.

First Grade!

Thomas started 1st grade on Wednesday. He was kind of hesitant to go at first, but he seems to really like it so far. It's really strange having him gone all day. This summer went too fast! I can't believe I have a 1st grader! Wasn't he just a baby?!?!

Max's baptism

We had Max's baptism last Sunday. It went well overall. All of the boys did really well through mass (which is unusual!) but of course that didn't last through the ceremony. Max was crying off and on and the grandparents didn't do the best job of keeping the other's in line. His Godparents are Aunt Margie and Uncle Barry (Mike's sister and bil). Afterwards we had everyone over for lunch and cake. We also celebrated Griffin's birthday since everyone didn't come to his party on his birthday.