Sunday Night Randomness

I love Sundays. It's a day to slow down. (In theory, it is. Being in the ministry, you don't REALLY slow down on Sunday mornings, you kind of rev up...but you can slow down a bit after the worship service/church time is done!) I actually got to READ a book this afternoon, in the quietness of our own living room, because both boys were napping.

At. The. Same. Time.

This may not seem like a huge deal, but it rarely happens around our house so I savor each incidence.

In other news, Nolan finally has two teeth on top. They have been a work in progress for a loooong time. And he's also pulling himself up to stand. Everywhere you look, there he is, standing up. I'm praying that he doesn't just take off walking anytime too soon. He's fast enough on all fours! Garrett is having fun being "in charge" of Nolan for the brief moments I leave the room. He likes to say "No Moey" a lot. Russ is close to being done with his third year of seminary--woohoo! Only one more to go!! And me, I'm just hanging on by the seat of my pants here. :) These boys (all THREE of them!) keep me on my toes on a daily basis. Here are some recent pictures of all my boys. Aren't they cute? (Especially the one in the penguin pj pants...you'll see.)

The cheese faces.

Discussing how cool their mommy is, I'm sure.

Garrett just realized that he left his Angry Birds game running on my phone.

Peek-a-boo!

Little man is so proud of himself here. He's learned how to clap but it's hard to get a still shot of that.

Are they related or what?!?

Then Lucy had to join the party.

Here's a parting shot for you. I kept moving the camera on the ground because Nolan likes to chase anything shiny. This time, though, he caught it and somehow turned it on. This is the picture he "took".

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Lately, Garrett has been obsessed with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's his go-to song for making Nolan stop crying. He sings it fast. He sings it slow. He sings it LOUD. He sings it really quietly. I love the way he doesn't quite get the words right in the middle. Someday I'll hear him sing it the right away and be sad that he's not so little anymore. That's why I captured it on film so I can watch when he's 13 and sassy and remember my sweet little boy who likes to sing to his mommy. The version below is with his stellar dance moves. What can I say? He learned from his Daddy. ;)

8 Months!

Nolan is 8 months old as of Saturday! He's crawling army-style allllll over. And he's gotten really fast too. He can stand for several minutes wherever you put him but he doesn't pull up on anything but our hands yet. He's working really hard to cut his top two teeth. I'm hoping they appear very very very soon. Like tomorrow morning would be great. :) Despite having some kind of rug-burn on his chin and the insane teething process, Nolan is a happy boy who brings us joy each day. Garrett shows him all kinds of tricks and sings him songs often because he loves his baby brother. What a blessing our boys are!

PS: We've put out a BOLO for Airborne Bear...he's missing and we're not sure how long he's been gone or where he could have "run off" to. Hopefully he's back by next month or we'll list him as AWOL. Sad.

Easter 2012

Working hard to get the colors just right for this year's batch of Easter Eggs.

The end result. At least a couple of them. The ones he didn't drop.

Garrett finds his hidden Easter basket...

,,,and Nolan finds his.

Putting some of the eggs in his basket.

Then we moved outside to where the real hunt began!

He's a mover and a shaker...

...and a dog food eater too! Here are the latest and greatest pics and videos of the littlest Wells man.

Chasing Thomas

Yummo!

The answer is: a rocket or a boat or drums

The question was: what can my three year-old turn a car-seat box into? :) I know Garrett loves all things space right now, so that's why I cut the door into the box and told him it was a rocket. But I had no idea it could be pushed over and made into a boat. Or that it has multiple invisible drums hidden in its walls. I'm loving this guy's imagination these days.

I'm glad they can already play together a little bit. Sweet.

Astronaut Brothers

And now it's a boat. Soon to be turned into a drum set.

Our little drummer boy

Good-bye Aunt Chris...

We lost a special person last week, Russ's aunt, Christine Macmurphy. She had a lot of love for us and for our boys, never forgetting a holiday or a birthday. She relished her role as an aunt and great-aunt. We didn't get to see her often but we enjoyed the times we had together. We love you and we'll miss you, Aunt Chris.

 This is Garrett meeting his Great-Aunt Chris for the first time back in 2009. The boys always left "branded" by her lipstick somewhere on their faces. :)

A boy and his dog...

Nolan LOVES Lucy. He watches her. He tries to follow her. He recently tried to eat her food. And as you'll see in these pictures, he loves her bed too. Watch out, Luce...he's only gonna get faster!

(Don't worry, that is NOT a dog toy that he's chewing. It's a Toy Story character of Garrett's.)

I literally had to pry the shoe out of his fingers because he did not want to give it up. Everything is chew-toy to him these days!

Circus Time!

The Shriners Circus came to our neck of the woods last week and I decided to take the boys to their first circus. I had no idea just how long it would last! Thank you, Hillary, for going with us and carrying the cranky-pants known as Garrett when he was "not tired" as we left the arena. :) It was a fun time with tigers, stunt dogs, elephants, acrobats and crazy people who could spin on long scarves from waaaaaaaay too high up for me. And the ringmaster himself did a stunt on this spinning wheel that made me cringe and hold my breath a little bit. I'd go again (especially since we had buy one, get one free coupons!) and maybe next year we'll last through the whole thing. Since we were having so much fun watching, I only took a few pictures, but here they are!

Anxiously awaiting the start of the circus...

One of their most-advertised features was Bo the Broadway Elephant. He was quite impressive!

This is how Garrett watched 75% of the show.

And this is how he watched the last 25%. Nolan had already conked out on my lap but Garrett was determined to be up there too. I love my boys....