Our Little Bunnies

Bunny Number 1:


A Little Flower:


Bashful Bunny Number 2:

Happy Bunny #3:

Preparing for Easter...

We spent the day getting ready for the big holiday. Dyeing lots of eggs, finding our bunny ears, and (better late than never I guess) decorating for Easter. The kids LOVED doing the eggs, big hit with them. Now if we can only get Nick to actually eat one.... It was a beautiful sunny morning, but turned cold and windy in the afternoon. By 10pm it was blowing snow and that continued all night. So much for the summery Easter outfits! I swear it always snows on Easter day. Whether it falls in March or April, it's always cold.

William is 11 Months!!

Yet another month flew by in the blink of an eye, and now our baby is 11 months old. We can already see the toddler that he will officially be in four short weeks. He has been perfecting the art of the temper tantrum the last week or so, and I think he has it down now. Arches and throws himself to the floor, arms and legs pumping, bright red face, and screaming in fury! And today he told me "NO" when I interrupted his favorite game of "fishing" in the toilet. Sigh... I am not looking forward to toddlerhood. If only they could stay little and sweet forever!
On a brighter note, William does love to read. He brings me books when we are in his room playing. The favorites are Eric Carle's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see" and the classic "Pat the Bunny". He knows all of the Pat activities now, and can point to the animals in the bear book when we ask him where they are.
He is still teeny tiny, despite having a voracious appetite. Especially for pizza, macaroni and cheese (any pasta dish actually), avocados, and donuts. You would think those things would bulk him up, but no such luck. If he hits 16 pounds by his birthday I will be surprised. Yet another child rear facing until sometime into his second year...
He has three teeth now and one more on the bottom due to pop through soon. The top two front teeth look like they are on their way in shortly.
William loves to walk, but hasn't attempted it on his own yet. He pushes his toys and scooter across the floor with ease. Kitchen chairs work well for ambulating too. He is actively trying to figure out how to climb the sides of his crib. So I imagine it is only time until he figures out how to escape from there.
William is definitely everyone's "baby"! He has a ready laugh and loves to be tickled. He adores his older siblings, at least until they get too wild and crazy. He has a nice predictable routine when teething isn't making him miserable. He loves to eat and is pretty laid back most of the time. William is quite the flirt when we are out and about, especially with the ladies! And he is definitely a Mama's Boy, I have to be in sight at all times or there are major tears. We are so enjoying William as a part of our family!

Look What I Learned How To Do!!

William has been intently watching Nick and Ellie with their straw cups for about a month now. He knew there was something in them, but couldn't figure out how to access it. You can see the look of surprise in his face today when at last, the tasty beverage came out! I think he is enjoying his first sampling of lemonade!

William's Moustache

One of the big kids, and they aren't admitting to it, gave William a cream cheese bagel. Which he proudly crawled into the family room with to devour. So I emerged from the laundry room to this delightful sight. A baby with a moustache, cream cheese caked carpeting, one drooling dog, and two very guilty looking children.

Easter Photos 2008

Photos went pretty well this year I think. William was less than thrilled to share the stage with his siblings, but was all smiles when it was his turn! I haven't decided if these are the Easter outfits yet, I think it will depend on the weather. Paul does a lot of eye rolling when I put the boys in matching outfits, apparently it's not "cool". (I personally think he is lucky that William was a boy. It would have been much more expensive to match two little girls!)

William vs. Mashed potatoes. The potatoes won. (I most definitely lost. And the booby prize was scrubbing down the high chair, the baby, and the clothing.)

Wacky Weather!

Saturday was 75 and sunny, we were all outside in shorts and t-shirts enjoying the weather. Sunday morning we woke up to about 5 inches of snow and blizzard-like blowing snow. Huh?! The kids had as much fun throwing snowballs and eating icicles as they did riding bikes in the sun. The only bonus was that the ground was still warm and the snow didn't stick to the pavement.

Nick the Karate Kid

Karate "chopping " in class


The Kindergarten Karate Kids: Callan, Avery , Nick, and Mason

Nick at his graduation ceremony. He loved receiving both the medal and certificate!
Nick took a karate course through his school and loved it! It was a five week session after school and his was thrilled that several of his friends were there too. We are not going to continue at this time though. WAY too expensive (try $198.oo per month for a five year old?!) and I don't think five year olds have the necessary attention span for martial arts. The kindergarteners were spacing out half of the time and busy karate kicking each other the other half. Whereas the older kids (3rd grade and up) were doing great. I think we'll give him a couple of years to mature and try again.

Rocky Mountain Wildlife

Sunday was warm and sunny (Yeah!). In an attempt to amuse our children, we decided to head out and find the reputed herd of buffalo in a park off of I-70. After an hour in the car with three kids crying, screaming, and/or fighting we finally located the park. Unfortunately, we neglected to take into account the unpaved roads and the fact that all of the snow was melting. The result? Lots and lots of mud. (Mud, kids, and a clean car are not a great combination.) And for all of our trouble we saw one, lone buffalo. So here he is! I am sure they are much more impressive in size if you are actually closer. But the herd is fenced off with signs posted warning how ill-tempered and unpredictable buffalo can be and advising sightseers to stay at least 3 feet from the fence. So I think this distant view will do nicely.

Miss America 2025

Little Miss "Fashion Girl" as she calls herself, all dressed up this morning and ready for her close-up.

Bathtime Fun!

Climbing out of the tub...

Hi Mom! I'm not doing anything....


William just can't figure out where all of the water goes. It mystifies him every time.

All gone!

William at 10 Months

Wow, time flies! This was a fast month, probably because I spent it chasing after the little guy! He has one tooth through the gums and three more right behind it. He loves any big people food that we give him and he is really good with the sippy cup. He is a really good little baby, but has quite a temper if thwarted. William's goal in life is to defeat any and all childproofing products and get his little hands on all of the big kid's toys. He has started talking a little, right at 9 months just like his big brother! He says cheese (sounds like "chz"), points and says this and that (sounds like "dis" or "dat"), we have also heard DaDa and Hi. He plays pat-a-cake, So Big, and peek-a-boo and loves to sit nicely and look at books. He is lots of fun, but boy is it exhausting chasing after a baby/toddler again!

(yes, that is a piece of fluff on his nose. I didn't see it there until after the pictures were loaded. Sorry!)

Pizza and New Teeth

We tried giving William pizza for lunch today, do you think he liked it?! Tooth number one is getting bigger every day and there are three right behind it. No wonder he has been cranky the last week.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love,

Nick, Ellie, and William
xoxo

Uh Oh! He's starting early...

Turn my back for a few moments to let the dog out, and this is what I find...



Lunch was not five minutes prior to this...


"Hi Mom! Don't mind me!"
"Is the box edible too?"

I have another monkey to add to the mix! This week, William just discovered the pleasures of being naughty. He pushes the kitchen chairs across the floor and slams them into the wall/glass sliding door/dog. He has discovered the pantry (obviously) and helps himself to snacks. The fireplace is a HUGE attraction and he is actively trying to figure out how to get through the child proofing. Drawers, cupboards, closets are fun to get into and throw everything out. He would love to play with or eat any cleaning product he could get his hands on. And his favorite activity would be a tie between playing in the toilet or slamming doors. This is challenging as we have two potty trained kids in the house I can't lock the toilets or all of the doors. Grrrr.

Lookout Mountain

It was a beautiful day here in Denver, 58 and sunny. We decided to get out of the house and explore some parts of the Denver area that we haven't seen before. We ended up near Golden and discovered why it is called "Lookout Mountain"...




This is the view of Golden from above: (yep, that's the Coors plant dwarfing the rest of the town)


And here is the city of Denver:
Nick brought his cowboy hat for the trip.

Lookout Mountain is also home to the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave. The museum was really interesting, the big kids got a huge kick out of all of the cowboy/cowgirl relics from the days of Buffalo Bill's traveling show. William however decided to scream through the entire museum so I didn't see much of it.



Eleanor as the "mean cowgirl". Look out Annie Oakley!


Nick and Ellie dressed up for riding and roping in the kids section of the museum. (Elle is in back hidden by the rope)

William taking a break from a full pitched scream.

Buffalo Bill's grave on the top of Lookout Mountain. We are loving the snow/bright sunshine/warm air combo! Just awesome!

The Little Rascal

Getting his hands on one of his big sister's precious babies...




And then giving it a big, wet, sloppy baby kiss on the lips.


Checking out the dog's ears. Must not be terribly interesting as he moved on quickly. Payton doesn't even awaken from her nap. By the third exploring baby she knows the drill.



Far more exciting are his big brother's Spiderman toys. Try though we might William still manages to get into Nick's toys. I think it's so funny that he seems to know the difference between the "girl" toys and the "boy" toys even at 9 months. He makes a bee line for the boy things, and anything that has buttons (ie. TV remotes, telephones, car key remote, DVD player, etc.) Must be a Y chromosome thing!

The First Tooth!

Sorry about the messy face and baby drool BUT, we had to show off William's first tooth! The corner actually poked through on Monday, but I couldn't get a good photo of it until today. He is still cranky and lots of bumps on the gums so I suspect several more are shortly to follow...