Brooke

My little Brooke gets a post all to herself. It might not seem fair, but the truth is she is in that growing baby stage and is constantly changing. Every day is a new adventure for her, and thus a new adventure for our family as well. I delight in her sweet smell, her chubby cheeks and her cheeky grins. She fills our home with her happiness and I'm thrilled that she is ours.

She has reached some new milestones and is trying to reach even more each day. If you stand Brooke up by the couch, chair, etc. . . she will hold on and stand up by herself. She has strong little legs and she enjoys this standing position for a while. The boys just love to stand her up then yell for me to get the camera. They are so excited for her accomplishments! It's almost as much fun watching the boys enjoy her growth, as it is to watch her grow.

Brooke has been a pretty laid back baby. She turned 10-months-old yesterday and is just now getting anxious to crawl. She doesn't quite have it down yet, but she's getting close. She's at that funny - and frustrating! - stage where she crawls backwards. She can't quite get that forward mo-jo down, but she's working on it. And of course, the boys are there on the sidelines cheering her on!

I just re-read my posts and checked out all the pictures again. I admit it: I can't wipe the smile from my face! I just can't help myself. Those cute little cheeks, eyes, hands, feet, . . . well you get the picture. That little doll-baby just makes me melt!

Boys

It's been a while since I've been able to just sit and blog about life. I've enjoyed my afternoon thinking about my boys, my husband and the blessings God has given me. I thought I'd give some updates on the boys and their accomplishments lately.

Logan is on the verge of his fourth birthday. I can tell he's had a growth spurt lately, because his clothes are too small! It's time to dig into the attic for that bucket that is labeled "4T" and see what we can find for him to wear. He is such a funny little character, my Logan. He loves to sing and yes, he loves to dance. (*blushing*) It's more like wiggling around, but music is dear to Logan's heart. He may be my musician someday.

Recently we moved Trevor into his own room and put Cole and Logan together in a room. They've seemed to enjoy the transition. Logan is actually taking up residence on the top bunk. What a big boy he is!

Cole Boy and I are almost done with our homeschooling year of kindergarten. It has gone much better than I anticipated and Cole is reading so well. I am very proud of him. (And I should just insert a plug here for the A Beka curriculum. It is top notch!) He is more than ready to head next door to "Dad's school" next year.

He is still in love with his little sister. Even though I explained that brothers can not marry their sisters, he still doesn't understand why God has that rule! :) Hopefully he always cares for Brooke that much. He's a sweetheart and a goofball all rolled into one.

My Trevor is growing so fast. He is not a little boy anymore! He's starting some third grade work at school as he finishes up his second grade year. He really is a big help to me. I try to say often to him, "I love having such a big boy!" It makes him smile and I think he loves being the big, macho man around the house.

The other day we were driving in the truck. Trevor was in the front with Dad & Mom. Well, as I was sitting there a nasty spider (is there a pleasant spider????) was crawling on the door near me. I shreaked like a girl and my husband kept telling me to kill it. My dear Trevor reached over with a tissue and squished it promptly and got it out of my way. He was truly my hero that day!

Cole

I can always tell when Cole's been messing with my camera!

Happy Birthday, David!

For 25 days out of the year, my husband likes to tease me about my advanced age. You see, for those few short days - less than a month, really - I am older than him. He likes to rub it in and takes every opportunity to do so. Each year I warn him that, "If I'm going down, I'm going to take you with me, Buddy!" And true to my word, I do! Ha! David just celebrated his birthday Saturday. So now the numbers are even again and I can breathe easy for about 340 days.

A lot of the times I get David a gift I can't wrap well, like a suit. So we'll play "hot and cold" until he finds his gift. This year the boys wrapped their gifts and hid them too. So David was on the lookout here, trying to find his first gift.

He must be getting close. You can tell by all those little munchkins gathered 'round.
At last! He found his first present!

He got a shirt from Cole.

After seeing Cole and Dad, Logan wanted in on the photo-op as well.

"Wait a minute!" said Trevor.

David got ties from Brooke and Momma.

After another round of hot and cold, David found his final gift in his truck: new Dodge floor mats.

David's biggest birthday wish was to ride a motorcycle. I asked a man in our church if we could come over and use his bike for a while. Here's David getting some instructions on the motorcycle.

He's getting geared up and ready to go.

He was so happy!

And there he goes. . . .

Finally came MY favorite part of anybody's birthday - the cake!

Climbing the Walls

A couple of Sundays ago my boys got the idea to climb the walls. Yes. . . literally! Sometimes I do wonder if there isn't some monkey in those kids of mine (must be from the paternal side! Hee-hee!) because my Cole especially can climb just about anything.

Poor Trevor. . . he's only part monkey! He can't get as high as Cole can.

Not wanting to be out-done by his little monkeys, David had to join in the fun. (I think this picture proves my "paternal theory," don't you?!?!)

Sprucing Up

Spring has been springing up around here lately. Since my mom's visit we haven't had very nice weather. I'm thankful God gave us such wonderful temperatures while she was here. Even with the chilly temperatures and rainy days, you can still see evidences of spring all around.

Here is my flowering pear tree.

I don't know what this one's called, but it filled out rather nicely.
My very own tulips ~ I clipped them for a vase.

We put a lilac bush in the front, to replace the big ugly bushes. I'm loving it already!

Here we were, putting in some dirt and plants. We have good helpers.

Trevor, Logan and the dirt:

What a stinkin' cutie-pie, that Logan boy is!

You can see that we added some lattice to the side of the porch. Here David and Trevor are planting an azalea bush for me.

Trevor was a big help that day.

We were supposed to lay out some mulch this afternoon, but it is pouring down rain again today. On a dry day we'll lay out the free mulch that we got, then I'll post pictures of our finished project. It looks 100% better than it did before and I am loving all these pretty bushes.