Milton Bradley Ain't Got Nothing on Us

*Mom, I know the title is not proper English but this post doesn't really call for that.*


Wyatt has always had a great imagination. Remember the endless games of "You be, I be?"

Well, that little imagination has come up with a new game that he affectionately calls...


(are you ready for this?)


Stink the Barn (aka Stink the Bawn)


So how do you play?


First, you need the Uno game that is designed for 3 year olds.


Then you get a 4 year old that has the mentality of a 7th grade boy.





Then you go through and pick out all the skunks.





Player 1 takes a skunk, places his back end towards the opening in the barn, and "sprays" all the other animals.





Sound effects are highly encouraged.


Act like it really smells bad and then collapse in a fit of giggles.





Players take turns trying to "out spray" each other. Repeat as often as you can stand it. Enjoy!

Chasey Wasey is Seven Months

Sweet baby Chase! Today you are 7 months old. I don't like it one bit. That means you are closer to a year than a newborn. Time is going too fast this time for sure. But I am loving every minute with you - you make it easy to with those big smiles that just melt my heart. Here is what you are up to these days.





You weigh about 17 1/2 pounds and are close to 27 inches in length. We think you are so chunky but you were only in the 40th percentile at your 6 month check up so I guess babies are big these days.


You are wearing size 12 month clothing. Yes - size 12 month. The 9 month things still fit OK but the 12 month outfits fit you so much better.


You wear a size 3 diaper.


You eat 7 ounces every 3 - 4 hours.


You also eat Stage 2 foods for breakfast and dinner. Still having to hide some of the veggies in the sweeter foods.


I did start you on Yo Baby Yogurt for breakfast as well - just to spice things up. :) You would get more of it in your mouth if you would keep your fingers out of there. Just sayin'.





Even though you don't have teeth yet, we introduced you to the Sweet Potato Puffs this week. I wanted to let you start practicing picking up the puffs and getting them to your mouth. You did a great job trying to get them in there but lost most of them on the way or they got stuck to your little wet hands. But Morgan and Wyatt were there to help you get some in your mouth as well.





I have also introduced the sippy cup. I just put water in it for now and have removed the stopper so you can get used to it. I try to give you a few sips while you are eating.


You are still sleeping great. You go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and those two fingers on your right hand immediately go in the mouth. You will sleep as late as 8:30 on days I don't have to get you up to take Wy and Morgan to school.


You still prefer your fingers and keep those in your mouth most of the time but I have started carrying what I call an "emergency paci" in case we are somewhere and you are melting down. You seem to like it ok but instead of sucking on it you just chew on the hard part.





You are still giving out those smiles to just about anyone you meet. You are happy to go to others and are even doing well in church nursery. Of course you are cutest baby in there. :)


You are still GI Joe crawling around. No actual crawling on all fours yet. You still love to get up on all fours and rock back and forth. You have got the legs part down but haven't figured out how to get your arms to go so you just end up going down on your belly. But you are definitely practicing every day.


I love you sweet boy. The good Lord has blessed us with another happy baby. My dad can't believe I was fortunate enough to get 2 happy babies and thinks it would be "fun" to have another and see if he/she is rotten. Yeah, that isn't going to happen. I am going to count my many blessings and quit while I am ahead!



West - Si - Ede

I Got Skills Mama

Chase is working on a new skill that I wanted to share with you.

Dr. C told me yesterday at his 6 month check up that it was an 8 month old skill so yes, just as I thought, he is ADVANCED. :)

Of course I don't know why I am so thrilled as my life as I know it will be tenfold times harder. We are SO not baby proofed at our house. Wy's toys especially are within reach and have lots of little pieces. I guess we will have to remedy that sooner than later.

I think he will be crawling within another week or two - what do you think?

BTW, this is my favorite "baby skill" out of all of them.

It's Official - I'm a Soccer Mom

A cool soccer mom that is - no mom jeans here.

So we survived the first week of school for Morgan and Wyatt along with the early morning departures, homework, selecting glasses, the school car line, a soccer clinic, and Wy's first soccer practice with his team.


On Wednesday J took Wy to his very first soccer clinic practice which is open to all the kids playing in the league that wanted to attend. It is designed for first timers or those who want to improve their skills. J said there were about 100 kids there and it was pretty chaotic.





Meanwhile, Morgan and I were picking out some frames for her new glasses she is going to be wearing. She went for the thicker frames look instead of the thin metal frames. They are a dark brown frame and then they are blue on the inner part of the frame. Very studious looking don't you think?





Wyatt had his first official team practice on Thursday. There are just 6 to a team and the games will be 3 on 3 and no goalies.


And look who is on his team!





I am so excited that YouYou is going to play and be on Wy's team. She is the only girl but hung right in there with those boys and did a great job.


And the coaches are great too. That tall guy in the front is the head coach and is also my brother Aaron. And do you see who the assistant coach is? Wy is going to love this season for sure.





He has his own cheering section.





And loves to be outside and play even in this ridiculous heat.





YouYou showing her dribbling skills.





Another action shot.





Red faced, thirsty, sweaty and extremely happy to be playing.

Week of Firsts

Like so many others this time of year, we have so much going on this week.

First, for all 2 of you who read this blog who I don't talk to regularly, our niece Morgan has joined our family for at least the first half of her school year. She has been with us for a couple of weeks now and she has just blended right in with us and both of my boys ADORE her.

Morgan's first day of 6th grade (aka middle school) was Monday. Our sweet babysitter friend Ashley came to my house at 6:30 a.m. to stay with the boys so I didn't have to get them up and out the door that early. Here is Morgan on her first day.





Today was Wyatt's first day of 4 year old Kindergarten. He will be going Tuesday - Thursday so all of us were "up and at 'em" this morning.


Flashing the sign for "4 year old" Kindergarten.





My happy campers before we departed for H-town.





Wy did 2 things differently today than he did a year ago on his first day of Mother's Morning Out.

1) He had an opinion about his clothing and did not like what I had picked out. But he wore it anyway - score 1 for me.

2) He did NOT want to give me a hug goodbye in front of his little friends. He won that one - score 1 for him.


Wy also starts soccer practices this week - 3 practices to be exact. More on that along with pics later this week...stay tuned. :)

Splash Kingdom

The last 2 weeks of Wy's summer camp was called "Let's Sing." A note came home saying the children would be learning songs and putting on a musical at the end of the week. I was skeptical, to say the least, that these little children, ages 3 - 6, would be able to learn 9 songs in that short amount of time.


Friday night was the musical and then they had an open house in which they had displayed all the art work the kids had made during the "Let's Make Art" camp. They all had matching shirts for the musical.





Jeremy and I didn't really expect Wy to do more than just stand there. I had kept asking him about how the singing was going and he never would sing any of it for me. I told him at one point that he would be the only child who didn't know how to sing a song. And he told me, straight faced, "Well I can sing Dave Matthews." Umm, yeah - let's keep that fact to ourselves son.





So, much to our surprise, Wy totally participated and sang along with the songs they learned. The 5 and 6 year olds sang all the songs while the 3 and 4 year olds only sang 4 songs. It was a good plan since it is hard for little ones to stand still and focus for that long. When they weren't singing, they came off the stage and sat in little chairs while the big kids sang.


It began with the kids running up the middle aisle and up on the stage. I managed to snap this one of Wy as he went by.




Check out those arm motions!




One of his masterpieces...




Us visiting his classroom that he will be in when he starts 4 year old Kindergarten next week!