Inchbug Giveaway

For all the moms of babies and toddlers our there, this is an amazing giveaway!! Chelsea at Grow is giving away a 4 pack of Inchbug Orbit Labels. I've tried to win these multiple times and it has never happened. I'm still holding on to that dream :)

For those who don't know what they are, they are labels made of stretchy material that you can customize to label a variety of containers. They go around cups, bottles, snack cups, thermoses, etc. They are dishwasher safe and you don't have to worry about them peeling off and leaving sticky residue. These things are genius!! 


So if you want a chance to win, head over to Chelsea's blog and see all the ways you can enter. But don't enter too many times so that I'll have a chance :)

Speechless

(photo credit)

As a mother of all boys, I knew there would be things "boy related" that I would not understand. Like their natural instinct to think its funny to poot, burp, throw bugs on girls, etc. Its crazy how they are just born knowing those things. But what I was not prepared for was a little boy bathroom.

As the title of this post claims, I am speechless when it comes to how disgusting it gets. First off, they never flush. So what little pee does make it into the toilet just sits there until I happen to come in and flush it. But HOW IN THE WORLD does it end up on the floor, the cabinet, inside the bathtub, down the side of the toilet.....I could go on. It blows my mind. I typically clean the bathrooms once a week. But I have to clean their bathroom MULTIPLE times a week in order to prevent a horrible stench from creeping down the hallway.

I don't understand it. I've tried to explain to them over and over and over to take their time. Make sure it all goes into the toilet. Not to play around while going. And to flush. I guess it still has not sunk in. I guess its good that they like to help me clean because I give them rags and make them scrub all around that potty and they seem to think its fun. In a couple of years I'll have three...THREE..little guys in there spraying everything floor to ceiling.

Oh, and have I mentioned that their bathroom also serves as the guest bath??? What better way to practice hospitality and treating your guests as family than by having them bathe in your children's urine as they use the restroom ;)

**I should probably note that I am probably exaggerating on how bad this is. It just FEELS that way to me since I am constantly on my hands and knees scrubbing with Clorox Cleanup.**

Lake Trip - Memorial Weekend

We love that our family has a place at the lake. Its a 3 hour drive for us, so we don't get to go as often as we'd like. But when we do get the chance to go, its always a blast. Lots of fun on the water, some relaxation, and always lots of food. This Memorial Day Weekend we loaded up the car (it seriously looked like we were moving) and made the trip on Friday after work. Of course it took us longer than expected, we had to stop too many times, and each stop lasted way longer than it should have. I guess with 3 kids I should be used to this, but I always seem to forget. But we eventually made it and had 3 full days of fun in the sun. 

Headed out on the boat the first day.

Brooks DESPISED his life jacket!!

Had to take his mind off of it. 

First attempt at fishing...

No luck that time...so we moved on to this....

Brody and Matt tubing...Brody LOVED this.

So it was my turn to try it out with him. I was surprised at how much fun this tube actually was.
Not pictured...My sis Shelley and I rode together, and our little brother was driving the boat. Apparently he had lots of built up aggression towards us that he took out on us on this ride. I thought I was going to die multiple times.

I don't have any photos of day 2. After church, we headed down to the sandbar/beach area. We had packed a lunch and had a beach picnic. We spent the day playing in the water and out on the fast boat and tubes. By the end of the day, we were all pretty exhausted but it was loads of fun!!

On the boat ride back to the house.

Sleeping while sitting up

Carson didn't sleep, of course, so he got to drive.

On Monday we headed out for one more attempt at fishing so we could have a fish fry for lunch before we headed back home. 

2 of my cute boys

Waiting patiently....

And it paid off! They caught one at the same time!

Still examining his fish

Catching one more. The boys caught quite a few fish and were loving it. Looks like we have some pro fishermen on our hands. 

Not a great pic from my phone, but they also loved riding the golf cart around everywhere. 

Hopefully we'll get to head back to the lake again this summer!!

happy father's day!!

Just a quick post to say Happy Father's Day to Matt, our dads, and all the wonderful men in our lives who are fathers.

Matty, You are an amazing father to our 3 boys. They look forward all day to the moment you walk in the door at night. Thank you for leading them according to the Word and raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I pray that they turn out just like you when they are grown men. They wanted to share some words with you below.....

(I had to guess what Brooksie wanted to say)

To our dad's...thanks for being examples to Matt and our boys. Your grandsons love you dearly and talk about you all the time. We are so blessed to have amazing father's who love and support us, encourage us, and who strive to look like Jesus. 

We hope all the dads (and soon to be dads) out there have a great Father's Day!! 

phone photos

Since I haven't posted in 2 months, and I have so much I SHOULD post but don't have time, I thought I'd at least do a phone photo post. We finally have phones that take decent pictures and videos, so we seem to have a lot more photos of the kids lately. These are over the last few weeks....

 Still won't pull those knees under him to crawl...

 Mommy and Brooksy playing with instagram

 Brody and Carson playing in the water toys

Practicing with his water cup

 One of MANY attempts to get a photo of the 3 of them..and this is the best we got.

New haircuts..and boy did they need them.

 Brody, Carson and Cole enjoying the water at our Mother's Day lunch.

 How we found Brody while he was he supposed to be in timeout.

You must were a cowboy hat while eating cowboy stew.

This big guy decided this week that pacifiers AND bottles weren't all that bad. Oh how happy this makes Mommy!!

New hats for the summer. 

Brody, of course, chose the Aggie hat like Daddy. And Carson had to be different.

 Do we have a future skater boy on our hands?

 An evening at the park. Great exercise for Brody!

 Carson playing peek-a-boo with Brooks.

What do you think?

I meant to include this with Brooks' six month update and forgot? People always comment on how Brooks looks nothing like the other 2 boys. And for the most part, its true..he has blue eyes, fair skin, and light hair. The other two look a lot more similar, although, as their mother, I don't see it the way everyone else does. I guess their baby pictures look somewhat close. So I thought we'd do a "lineup" to help decide who Brooks looks like. These are all photos from about the same age for each boy..between six and seven months. 

 Brody 

 Carson

Brooks

My opinion? None of my kids look alike haha. 

Brooksy Boy: 6 Months

**I started this post last week when Brooks actually turned six months old. However, life gets in the way and I'm just now able to finish it.**

By your third child, you look up and time has flown. There are less photos, videos, blog posts, etc because you think you have all the time in the world to get photos of the current stage. And then, that stage is over and you missed the chance to capture it on film/digitally because you were too busy potty training, washing mounds of dishes, doing piles and piles of laundry, and changing diapers. No? Just me? I didn't think so :)

The little big guy is already half a year old. And as the previous paragraph alluded to, there are not many photos in this post. Partly because I don't have the luxury of standing over him with a camera all day, but MAINLY because Brooksy Boy or one of his brothers have been sick for 6+ weeks. Snot, coughing, fever, ear infection after ear infection..you name it..we had it. Even Matt had an ear infection. Soo..we laid low around the house in our pj's A LOT! Besides getting out for church (when they were well enough to go in the preschool) we have been pretty homebound and not "prettied up" for photos. 

I thought since Spring Break is here, we'd be over it all. Yesterday, Brooks was officially 6 months old. And he spent the evening in urgent care. He'd been fussy for a few days and not sleeping well at all. By yesterday, he freaked out if I laid him down and refused to eat. I was concerned, but kept thinking it was just stubbornness because he wasn't running fever. By 6pm he was screaming uncontrollably, even with me loving on him, and running fever. Matt was gone to Spring Break Bible Camp with the big boys so I found the only open Express Care because I knew we couldn't make it through the night like this. Of course, both of his ears were extremely infected. So, here we are, beginning of spring, and still not well. But its got to be coming soon....

*Update: He's feeling much better! We are still taking the antibiotics but doesn't seem to be in pain anymore!*

But, besides being sick right now, the sweet boy is so much fun. He's big...bigger than either of the other boys were at this age. At his 6 month checkup, he weighed 18 lbs 10 oz and was 26 1/2 inches long. So that's 75th percentile in weight and 50th in height. He is wearing 6-9 month clothes so he's not ginormous. We've decided its the cheeks that make him appear so big...but honestly, I guess he really is kinda big. I don't want to be that mom who is in denial and when I walk away my friends say "Does she really not know her child is a chunk?"

Food

Brooks still LOVES to nurse. In fact, so much that he refuses to take a bottle. I've tried breastmilk and formula in a bottle and he won't take it. We've tried just about every bottle out there, as well as different nipple flows, and nothing works. So it makes it very hard to leave him for too long. No overnight trips for me. 

He started baby food about 3 weeks ago. Its been an interesting journey, to say the least. The first few cereal feedings..he hated it. Once I added in vegetables he did better, but not great. Some days he eats it up and others he's completely uninterested. One day I decided to just try to give him some little bites of banana and cooked carrots..not pureed or mashed...and he loved them. Then the next day he didn't love it so much. So we're still working on this area. 

Sleep

I honestly don't have a grasp on his sleeping right now. For the past week he hasn't slept well at all. And in the weeks before that, he was sick off and on, so the sleep schedule was up and down. When he was well, he'd sleep pretty much through the night, or wake just once, as well as take great naps during the day. But when he's sick, he wakes up a lot due to congestion, coughing, and pain in his ears. So hopefully when he's well we can get him back on a good schedule...and maybe I'll get more sleep.

Milestones
-Rolling in all directions
-When on his back, he pushes off with his feet and scoots backwards
-He is a supported sitter. He can sit for quite a while on his own but eventually his big head gets the best of him and he topples over, usually backwards. But he's very close to sitting independently.

Personality
Everyone talks about how laid back Brooks is. In the preschool, he's one of the babies that you can put with some toys and he's content almost the entire service. At home, he's pretty much the same way. But, he does love to have others to play with. He is thrilled when his big brothers get on the floor with him and try to make him laugh. He also LOVES his friends in preschool. I love getting to work in his room. There are quite a few babies all born within a couple of months of each other. I arrange them on the floor in a circle where they can see each other and they have a ball. They smile, pull at each others hands, face, etc and seem to really know that they are the same age. How cool will it be if they get to grow up with each other! I should take a pic tonight so I can show them when they are older :) Hopefully their parents won't get any wild ideas to move away.

He's such a talker..he squeals to get your attention and then gives you a big smile when you look at him. His favorite time to talk is when we are trying to watch tv. We tell him to keep it down but he doesn't obey very well :)

 First Aggie Baseball game. He was decked out in his Aggie Onzie, Beanie, and Carson's Aggie Windsuit jacket. 

We loved Blue Bell park! We hope to make many more games this season. How thoughtful of them to put a playground in the park..and the parents can watch the entire game while the kids are playing just a few feet away! 

Besides being ready to get a full nights' sleep, I can't imagine life without this guy. And to think that I wasn't sure about adding a third child there for a while. The next 6 months will fly by..and he's going to change so much. Crawling and walking will be here before we know it. I hope to slow down and enjoy these special times with all my boys while I have the chance!