Kindergarten Picture

This picture cracks me up. I've literally giggled out loud about 18 times today looking at this picture. I love how determined he is to have a good smile, and you can tell that he's totally thrilled to be there, but with a whole bunch of cheese melted on top. I LOVE it!

Everett

Everett is 17 months old now! Know what that means? only ONE month until nursery! Woohoo!

Seriously though, I just looked through my last few posts and realized I haven't talked about E for awhile so I just wanted to do a quick update on him. 

Everett is still the happiest, most adorable, easy going kid ever. He loves to laugh, and loves to make people laugh. He doesn't scream as much as he used to (thank goodness) but now, when he's tired, he gets aggressive. He'll randomly hit you in the face, or on the back. It isn't fun but really, if that's the only negative thing I have to mention, I'll take it! 

Everett's vocabulary is growing every day. He mostly still just says "Ball" about 5,139 times a day, but he also can say thank you, you're welcome, cheese, shoes, dog, Mama (which means Mom and Dad both), no, and yeah. Even though is vocab list isn't very long, he is extremely good at communicating. I'm not quite sure how, but he does it, and it's amazing. 

Everett is fearless. He jumps off of high, dangerous things, and if we aren't there to catch him, he falls, assesses the amount of pain, and if it was worth the amount of fun, he does it again! He loves being outside, being barefoot (like his Mama) and running around with his brothers. He eats as much food as his brothers, and is always finding something to laugh about. He loves to cuddle and snuggle, and will come give us random hugs in the middle of the day. It's adorable.

He has such a commanding presence. You can't help but stop everything that you're doing when he walks into the room with this gigantic smile on his face. He is definitely teaching me how to be a more attentive Mom.

One of the most precious things about Everett right now is how easy it is to put him down for naps and bedtime. All I have to do is mention naps or bedtime and he comes over to let me pick him up. I carry him up the stairs, and as soon as I stand by his crib, he lays down in my arms and lets me rock him and sing to him. I usually sing "You are my Sunshine". He sings along with me (in gibberish) and smiles at me, while staring into my eyes with his piercing blue ones, the entire time. Then I lay him in his crib, hand him Reid (his stuffed monkey) cover him with his blanket and walk out. He usually lays there, with a smile on his face, and as I leave says "Geh Gyu" (Thank You) then rolls over and goes to sleep. Seriously it's precious. It's too perfect to be true. But it is true. And I love it and cherish it and soak it in every single time, because I know how fortunate I am. I love love love those moments with him where his love of life consumes his little body and the entire world around him. He has way too much love and joy to keep it bottled into his being and it just emanates out and you can't help but be a better person because of it.

I hope and pray that I don't forget these little moments. It is through him that I am learning to *love* life.

Point and Shoot

We have a little pocket sized point and shoot camera. I don't usually use it since I have my big nice camera now (which I still love!) but I do let the boys use it sometimes. Usually I just delete all of the pictures off it because it's full of pictures of the ceiling, tonsils, nostrils, toes, and furniture. Occasionally however, there is a gem. I just purged the camera and came across some pictures that the boys took, as well as pictures I took that I had forgotten about. Enjoy!

Add caption

Blurry, but I like it anyway! Photo by Brayden

Not the greatest picture ever but this is a picture of the boys with Auntie Evie at her house on the farm in Innisfail. That was such an amazing trip!!

Cousin George on the farm. We can't wait to get back up there to see family again. It was so great to finally meet them!

Photo by Asher

I am so bummed I didn't put this picture in with all of our vacation posts. But, better late than never, right? We went to the discovery wildlife park in Innisfail and there was a bear tour we went on. This is the place that the bears used in Hollywood live. We got to see the trainer interact with them, then ask questions. We had the incredible opportunity to have our picture taken with this bear. You can see the teeny wire behind me, and that was the only thing between this bear and us. The trainer was just out of the frame and had him do this "Angry Bear" trick once we were all posed and ready. It was such an incredible experience!

Asher is 4!

Asher turned 4 today! It was a pretty low-key birthday, but I think he had fun! Dad made him German Pancakes for breakfast, then he got to open his gift... a Captain America costume! He was in heaven. He put it on right away, and it didn't come off until dinner when I made him :)  After breakfast, while B was at kindergarten, Asher, Everett and I headed to Costco. We picked up snacks and drinks for our day trip to the zoo, and pizza for Asher's birthday dinner. We also picked up some ice cream sandwiches, which Asher requested instead of cake. (I originally was going to make them from scratch, but this week was hectic with Ryan and Heidi's son in the NICU. Post to come later.) 

After Brayden got home from school and we had eaten lunch, Dad and Baron joined us on our outing to the zoo. We walked around and enjoyed all of the animals. Asher, in his Captain America suit, enjoyed all of the extra attention he got, and loved climbing absolutely every possible thing.

Dad spoiled us with Elephant Ears, and I think the boys' favorite thing was climbing all over the lions :)

After we got home, we had pizza for dinner (Asher's choice) and his ice cream sandwiches. He went to bed happy, which in my opinion is a great success!

Asher, you are the most independent child I have ever encountered. You like to do everything all by yourself. If you can't do it by yourself, you throw a huge tantrum instead of just asking for help. If we attempt to help, you throw another huge tantrum until you finally figure it out on your own. I'm hoping with a new age comes a little more self control and understanding. I love that you like to figure things out on your own, and would love it even more if the tantrums would cease :) I know that this too shall pass! 

You still have the most adorable and incredible laugh in the entire world. If I could make your laugh my ringtone, I'd never ever change it. It is my absolute favorite sound ever. Your smile and dark brown eyes are definitely a great complement. 

You are very smart. Brayden comes home from school and teaches us new Spanish words daily, and you pick them up and remember them as well as Brayden does. You are very familiar with the alphabet, and love dissecting words to figure out what letters are in them.

Your absolute favorite thing on this planet is riding your bike. You cannot get enough of it. You are extremely good at it, and it's fun to see you be so confident on this teeny little bike.

You love it when we read to you. You love the stories, and the cuddle time. When we do read to you, you always snuggle up close and get completely into the story, regardless of how long it is.

You love your little brother, and lately, you've been praying for two baby sisters. I'm not sure how I feel about that one :) 

Asher, we absolutely adore having you as a part of our family. You bring smiles to our faces and joy to our hearts every single day. Your adventurous spirit brings so much intrigue into our lives, and it's fun to see the world through your eyes. Thank you for being a part of this family, and for sharing your incredible spirit with us. 

We LOVE you!

Love, Mom and Dad

Fun Run

Friday was Aloha Huber Park's Annual Fun Run Fundraiser. The Kindergartener's had the track for 20 minutes, and the parents/families were invited to come watch and encourage their children while they ran. It started at 10:30 am, but seeing as Oregon is experiencing an exceptionally warm and dry  awesome summer, it was already fairly warm.

The track isn't a regular track, it's more a path around the field covered in bark chips, but it is about the same size as a track. Brayden ran EIGHT laps in those 20 minutes! That's equal to 2 miles, or 2 10-minute miles! He absolutely blew my mind. I ran the last 2 laps with him. I thought I'd get up on the track with him and kind of just do a leisurely jog. Wrong. I actually had a pretty good clip going to keep up with him! Brayden ran the first 7 laps without stopping, then towards the end of the 7th lap he said "I'm really thirsty." So we stopped at the water table, he took a big drink, and off he was again to finish lap 8. The last lap he had to stop a lot more. Practically everyone else was walking, so he had to keep slowing down to go around people. I think he was grateful for the excuse to not be running. He was pretty tired. He probably walked half of the last lap and ran the rest of it. I could not believe that he did that well! I was so proud of him, and am ecstatic to have a little running buddy. And you better believe I'm taking him out with me!

No Training Wheels!

I know I posted a video of Asher riding his bike, but I wanted to write about it also. Asher has been riding a balance bike for a couple of summers. He got to be pretty good at it, and would ride his bike all day every day if we'd let him.

A few weeks ago, his balance bike seat broke off the post. This crushed him, so Sean took Brayden's small blue bike and removed the training wheels. He decided it was as good a time as any to teach Asher how to ride a legitimate 2-wheeler. Sean gave him a little pep talk, and started Asher going but held on to the back of the seat. Asher yelled back "Let go, Dad!" so Sean did, and off he went! He was pedaling and biking like a pro. 

I am amazed at how adept Asher is at new things, when they are physical. He has insane balance, judgement on how high he can jump, etc. I'm also amazed at his ability to just brush off if and keep going if he does get hurt. He hasn't ever taken a huge crash, but he has run into the curb a couple times which isn't fun. His favorite thing to do, now that he's been riding 24/7 for a month, is to go as fast as he can off the tallest section of curb. He loves that he can "jump" his bike.

Asher rides his bike every day on our walk to Kindergarten. He rides it even just for 3 minutes until we all get outside to load into the car. He rides it along side me while I go for a run. We load it up in the car and bring it with us when we go anywhere (park, Grandma's, soccer) so that he can ride wherever we are. I have never known a child (especially a 3 year old) to have such a fierce passion for something. It is a great outlet for him, and it is something that he is so confident about. It is hard for him to be so close in age to Brayden and I think he feels that he is always in his shadow. This is something that Asher can do (Brayden does not like biking at all, and won't even ride his bigger red bike with training wheels on it. He'd rather run.) all by himself and better than his older brother. I think it's good for him to have that one special thing that is just his. 

I hope this is a passion that he keeps. He is never happier than when he is on that bicycle!

Brayden Reading

Sean was reading to the boys tonight and Brayden wanted to read a book. He picked "Just Lost" by Mercer Meyer.

He read the entire thing all by himself except for the last 2 pages. He read words like: arrive, security guard, office, phone, anything, and everything. Sean hardly had to give him any prompts or guidance.

I cannot believe how much Brayden's reading has improved in just the last month. It is incredible! I think the biggest difference is his confidence. He could have read these books before but always just said "I can't. It's too big." But now he doesn't hesitate to sit down and trudge the hard words. I am so proud of him!