Thursday, March 11, 2010

Mommy's First Walk

For the first time EVER, I took the boys out by myself! It was such a beautiful day, we took a walk to Grandma Sauer's house down the street. I was exhausted, but so glad we were able to enjoy the day!

At Grandma's house, the boys enjoyed playing with the grass and all of the tiniest plants they found on the sidewalk. Jonathan, true to form, was very inquisitive and curious. Ben preferred to stay close by mommy or walk around when you let him.

Benjamin is one determined little walker! He stands for seconds at a time and loves to walk when you hold his hands. I'm hoping he doesn't get the whole walking thing for quite a while, though, since I'm still learning to manage two CRAWLERS!

Grandma Sauer with Benjamin and Jonathan

How Jonathan ended the afternoon, asleep on the couch. Mommy was feeling pretty exhausted after all of that work, too! So Andy, when can we get a single family house? Those stairs are a killer! ;)

Meeting Evan

On Wednesday, 3/10, Jack, Ben and I went with Nana to visit my nephew for the first time! Well, Nana had seen him a lot, but it was OUR first visit! We had soo much fun!

The David Mandich family

Matthew was so excited to see his cousins!

"Ben, are you gonna play with me all day?" What a cutie he is. He'll be a year old on Saturday, 3/13, and has been walking for almost two months!

Ben drinks from a sippy cup, folding his legs as if he was doing it all his life.

Ben and Jack drink from their sippy cups in a position I can't imagine would make that task too easy.

No more bottles for Matthew!

Nana holds Evan, 10 days old and SUPER long! He was born almost 23" long!

What a beautiful baby.

Grandchild #4, and still as excited as if he were her first.

Nana with her boys: Benjamin, Jonathan, Evan Matthew

Aunt Mindy gets to hold baby Evan! I tried to remember when my babies were that little, but it seems so long ago!

Nana and Matthew along with his favorite toy lately, a spatula. Can find that in a toy store!

Me and my boys (Jack and Ben) as well as Ellie and her boys (Evan and Matthew,) all born within one calendar year. Wow. That's a lotta babies!

Ellie with her two littlest boys

She's such a good mommy.

And beautiful, too!

And so gentle.




Matthew has been a really good big brother!

"Well, he's not very playful right now, is he?"

"Can we keep 'im, mom?"

Friday, March 5, 2010

10 Months Old

Jonathan and Benjamin, 10 months old

Lord of the Rings

My boys love playing with their Fisher Price ring stackers (thank God, we have one for each of them!) It's been difficult to catch them doing it, though, since they absolutle LOVE my camera! Here's a little video of Ben from this afternoon. He doesn't get all of the rings on in the correct order, but that's not too shabby for a little boy who just turned 10 months old today!

Benjamin, the Lord of the Rings

Jack can do it too, but that little man attacks me whenever he sees my camera, so if I wanted to catch HIM doing it, I'd have to hide my camera somewhere ahead of time :)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A Day with Matthew

The boys and I drove with Andy to work today so I could join my mom at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers.) Afterward, we played at my mom's house. We had soo much fun! Matthew, my nephew, was still there, waiting for his mommy to come home with his new baby brother, so we all got to play! It is really much fun watching the three of these boys together - I can't even imAGine what it's going to be like when there are FOUR of them crawling, running and wrestling around!

Okay. Seriously. How cute are these caps? My mom bought them for the boys to match their daddy! Ben shows off his two chompers (and the third one just poked its head out today!)

There is no denying it. Ben is Andy's son.

It is so cute how much Jack loves the Chief. He'd pull on his pantleg and raise his arms whenever he was close, even (gasp) preferring him to mommy! Wow. Good taste, Jack. I always liked that man, too.

Jack uses the bar stool as a support to stand up.

Matthew settles for grandpa's hand as Jack has his arm otherwise occupied.

"Chief," I heard Matthew say, "I can't believe you're two-timing me for this little pipsqueak."

I find that to feed to busy little boys, you have to be pretty resourceful (and flexible... literally!)

Matthew is walking... and running... and getting into everything! He's really curious. It really is fun to watch him explore.

Matthew would make ma bee-line for me whenever he saw me with my camera. I wasn't expecting him to go head-to-head with me like he was gonna give me a kiss!

Jack listening to some tunes on his iPod. Just kidding. He's trying to pull off the cap that mommy keeps putting on. But it looks like he has earphones on, doesn't it?

Benjamin, you are just so adorable.

Ben plays peek-a-boo

Matthew saw Nana with the boys. "Uh," he sighed. "You too, Nana?" :)

Matthew ran up to my dad to give him a HUGE hug! I guess that sealed any confusion about him being the First Grandson :)

Boy of many faces


Matthew will be a year old in less than two weeks! March 13th!

My best attempt at getting a picture of both boys with their velour track suits as well as their caps. Jack's in grey and Ben's in blue, crunching some numbers on his calculator.

Ben

Jack

Great-Grandpa Sid, 93 years old, with three of his great-grandsons. We're still waiting for him to meet baby Evan, who's just two days old!

Matthew inspects Ben's mouth. "Hmm, you've got some o' those teef, too, huh?"

Nana and three of her boys: Jonathan, Benjamin and Matthew

I was sweating, trying to get this picture! Nana was ambitious in hoping we'd get a photo of the boys with their caps on... but this one's not too bad. I just hope no one was videotaping me making a fool of myself to get them all to laugh and look in the same direction. :)

We are blessed with family!