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! 

Brody's 4th Birthday!!

This post is somewhat overdue..but we didn't get to have his birthday party until this past weekend so..it worked out.

Brody Boy turned 4 on January 19th. He has been waiting to be 4 for a long time. For months he's been saying "When I turn four, I'll be able to do _______." (insert anything that "big" boys can do.) Now that he's old enough to understand birthdays, he was really excited to turn four years old.

Four years old..I can hardly believe it. I mean, he's a year and a half away from starting kindergarten. As fast as time flies around here, that will be in NO TIME at all. I can still remember many moments from the day he was born. It doesn't seem that long ago. Yet our lives look 180 degrees different than they did four years ago.

Brody boy, you are so special. You are so smart..smarter than we'd like you to be sometimes. You still have an infectious laugh and a funny personality. You love making us laugh and sometimes know how to use that to try to avoid punishment. You are an amazing big brother. Although you fight a lot with Carson, you would do anything to protect him from others and make sure he's taken care of. Baby Brooks thinks you are one of his parents most of the time. You love to cuddle, kiss, bring him a blanket, tickle, and even help clean him at times. Your "baby talk" to him is quite hilarious...and Baby Brooks thinks so too. You are still quite stubborn at times. When you get your mind set on something, it takes a lot to get you back on track sometimes, yet other times you are quick to do as you're told. We all have areas we need to work on :) You are beginning to understand more about God and his Son, Jesus. You can memorize scripture better than most adults. Now we are just trying to teach you how to apply that to your life. I think this might be our biggest struggle as parents...not only teaching you the word, but teaching you how to apply it and understand it in your heart. So thank you for being patient with us. We love you Brody Boy!

Brody's birthday party was this past Saturday. Brody has many friends now so this year we decided he was old enough for us to have a big boy friend party. He's been saying since July that he wanted a Mario Kart party. I honestly didn't think he'd stick to that, but he proved me wrong. He talked about this party constantly, and as each month passed, he got even more excited and specific about it. I asked him if he wanted a Super Mario Brothers party in general, or if he really wanted a Mario Kart racing party. He was very particular and requested it to be Mario Kart Racing. So..I scoured Pinterest and of course my favorite party ideas blog and put together a simple, but cute party for him.

Does the backdrop make you dizzy?

This AMAZING cake was made by Leigh-Leigh aka Leigh Ann. He (and mommy) LOVED it! Thanks Leigh-Leigh for all your hard work! 

The track was made out of crushed Oreos. Mario and Luigi were from Target. The star, rocket, and turtle are from a Mario Kart Kinects Race Track. The finish line sign was from the race track as well, and attached to straws.

More shots of the cake just because I loved it so much!

The plasticware caddies were cardboard boxes covered in black wrapping paper. I found the stars online and just printed them off.

This was the least successful project. In theory these were very cute..however, I don't think they turned out very great. But, the kids loved them so I guess that's all that matters.

For the table centerpiece, I printed off these question mark squares and attached them to a square box I had. 

Coming out of the box were balloons with images of the different
prizes you can get in Mario Kart when you run over a " ? box ".

A few of the boys really getting into it.

Brody and his good buddy, Scott. I wish I could have captured the moment that Brody saw Scott come in. It was priceless. Thank you Scott for loving our boy so much!

The birthday boy and his cake

Looks like its getting pretty intense!

Leigh-Leigh and Uncle Brent gave Brody a Mario costume for Christmas. So to finish it off, they added the Luigi for his birthday. Unfortunately, he didn't stay in it long enough for me to snag a photo, but Carson had no problem modeling it for us. Such a cutie. I can't wait to get a shot of both of them in the costumes. Carson actually makes a better Mario..have you seen the belly on that kid?

Thank you everyone who came to celebrate. Brody said it was the best party ever! Brode-Man...we are so glad you loved it. Love you bubba!!

mr. blue eyes

Like most nights, Brooks was being his adorable bubbly self tonight. So after bath time, I took some time to snap a few photos of him. And then, I remembered that I downloaded Picasa and decided it was the perfect opportunity to test it out. I'll give my full opinion of it at the bottom of the post..but first, the important stuff, Brooksy Boy!

Little froggy right out of the tub. 

 He loves this giraffe. He plays with it as he's falling asleep. 

 Oh that face. Gets me every time. 

I'm on my belly....oh, I rolled to my side...I made it to my back....and I'm so proud!

While I was playing around with Brooks, Brody asked if he could take some pictures of us. So, they aren't the best..but I think he did a fairly good job for a four year old!

So Picasa...I only downloaded it so that I could make quick collages. So my opinion may not be very helpful. As far as the collages go..wow. Literally a minute, maybe, from start to finish. Select the pics you want..select the collage style and presto. Its done. You can add borders, frames, etc if you want and then export them to a folder on your hard drive. So for collages...BRAVO. As far as photo editing goes, to me its far too basic. I guess for quick touch ups and making photos black and white, sepia, etc it does the job. I use photoshop as well as Adobe Lightroom for more detailed editing, so I guess it wouldn't be fair for me to compare. It also makes slideshows to music and other things that I haven't played around with yet...I'll get back to you on some other features. If anyone uses this and has any suggestions of cool things it does, let me know! I've heard great things and am just now trying it out.