Beware of Quiet Children

One should always beware of quiet children. Especially after they have finished watching a new television show and have retreated to the basement where they would normally produce a great deal of noise. 

This is what Jason found after just such a moment of quiet. I introduce, The Power Rangers and their "Japanese Symbols of Power"

 Note the smiley face on his chest and protective armor plating his arms and legs. 

 And you can't forget the very cryptic armless man on his back. 

Even the artist himself has some skillfully drawn symbols on his chest. 

Thank you, Power Rangers, for inspiring such creativity in my boys. Creativity that, though "washable" markers were used, still remains visible....

Brotherly Love

Kyle may have been apprehensive at first but now he ADORES his baby sister.

Our Littlest Pumpkin

Megan got all dressed up to visit the pumpkin patch.

Everybody keeps making comments about what child looks like who and which sibbling Megan is most likely to look like. Well, here's a flashback to the past. You be the judge!

Zach- 2008

 Kyle-2010

Megan-2012

BIG things happening around here

Well, I guess things started out BIG

 But we finished off with something very small.... and very cute if I do say so myself!

p.s. I did not photoshop those lips, she really did look like she was wearing lipstick. 

The nurses knew we were coming so they made sure we would be able to locate our room. "Straight down the hall, you can't miss it."

 They also decorated inside. It was a party!

We really couldn't have asked for a more perfect delivery. Especially since we'd been planning a C-section for some time. Megan had been sitting breech from the start and was showing no interest in turning. We even tried to do External Cephalic Version to get her into position but had no luck. (honestly- it was worse than labor) Finally, Tuesday morning (the 11th), she changed her mind. I started having really regular contractions and Jason was nervous that I would go into labor with her feet first so he dragged us all into the hospital at 3:30am. He had a little hunch she may have turned but we didn't want to get our hopes up and if she hadn't turned then we wanted to play things safe. We were thrilled to find that she was finally head down and ready to go. 

On Megan's actual birthday everything was moving along, but slowly. Jason's mom was home with the boys and planned to take them to a neighbor's house just before Megan was born so that she could be there with us. Around noon a nurse checked my progress and said I was only at a 5 so we had plenty of time. Jason called his mom to give her an update and then went to walk the halls a bit and take some things to our car. Just after he walked out the door I sensed something had changed. About five minutes after the nurse had checked me, my doctor walked in. He said he didn't think he needed to check again so soon but I told him he probably should. He checked, and announced that I was complete and ready to push. 

OH NO! Jason was MIA, and I suddenly realized I didn't even have my Mother in Law's phone number to give her the heads up. I texted Jason, which he laughed about. Why not call? I don't know. I was in labor for Pete's sake! He was moseying along, clueless, when the nurses in the hall started telling him he'd better hurry.   He hadn't noticed I'd sent him a text until he was just about back. When he finally got to the room he hurried and called his mom. I tried my best to hold off pushing until she arrived. As soon she got there things went really fast. We'd been joking earlier about people sneezing their baby out. Well, a couple of pushes in I decided to clear my throat and Ta-Da! She was here. 

 She ended up being quite a bit smaller than we expected. Well... Jason had a hunch she was smaller than the ultrasounds indicated. As it turns out, she is tall, has a good sized head (just like her brothers) but her little legs are just as tiny as can be. Even though she was 20 in long and her head was 14 inches around, she only weighed 7 lb 6 oz.

The boys were pretty excited to meet their new sister. They sported "Biggest Brother" and "Big Brother" shirts and came bearing gifts. (Please excuse my crazy bed head)

 Kyle was a bit apprehensive at first as we tried to help him hold her hand.

 Truthfully, I don't think he was very impressed at all. Don't worry, he's since warmed up to her.

 Zach was bursting at the seems waiting for his turn to hold her.

We are all home and re-adjusting to life but enjoying every second with our new little princess. 

We've been really enjoying our family bike rides. Even Kyle has been getting in on the pedaling action.

Kyle fell asleep on the way home from church, with his sunglasses on.... upside down.

With the beautiful summer weather, the boys have started up a new hobby. A few years back some friends of ours gave us a remote control snow mobile that they weren't using any more. It has become one of their favorite activities with dad, hanging out on the tailgate of his truck and watching the "bicycle" zoom around the yard.

We had so much fun at Zach's School family picnic. 

The boys' favorite part was the giant blow up slide. Kyle was pretty nervous about his first trip down the slide. 

 Zach just couldn't get enough.

Without any prompting from Mom, Zach decided to wait for his brother at the top so that he could give him some moral support. He took his hand, counted to three...

 And away they went!

Big Truck Day

Big Truck Day at Zach's school was quite the event. We started with enjoying a bike ride around the playground. Zach played chauffeur while Kyle grinned in the back seat. I think they went around the playground about a million times.  

 One of the favorite "big trucks" was a stretch hummer limousine. Zach's entire class fit comfortably inside. Pretty Fancy!

 After making the rounds through most of the trucks we took a break for some ice cream.

 Though I really regretted the fact that I only had 3 wipes left in my clean up arsenal. Oh Boy!

 We finished off with a visit to "Optimus Prime",

 Checked out some HUGE wheels

 And some pretend driving.

 We were pretty worn out by the end of the day but both boys had a great time.

Kyle decided to play a little game he calls "Echo Location" (Thank you Cat in the Hat). This game involved yelling "ECHO!" into the tailpipe of Jason's truck. The very dirty tailpipe.

Sweet Sleeping Boys

Nibble Nibble

Kyle has the most unique method of eating some of his favorite foods. He always tends to start in the middle. 

Grandma's Haircuts

Just like making mini pancakes, I'm really not very good at cutting the boys' hair. Luckily, Grandma is. 

 Watch Out! He'll shoot you if you get too close.

Just

Grandma's Pancakes

One of the boys' favorite breakfast foods is pancakes and luckily Grandma was more than happy to oblige. 

We had pancakes with cousins,

 And Kyle showed off his skills with a fork.

 And we giggled at Grandma's silly mini pancakes.

 Mmmmm.... they sure taste good!

(Apparently, Zach wasn't super thrilled with having his picture taken at this moment. He really did enjoy his mini pancakes though)

Truth is, try as I might. I just can't seem to make mini pancakes like grandma does. I guess I just need some to get some more practice. Pancakes anyone?

Rocket Launch

One of the highlights of our trip to Idaho was Zach's first rocket launch. Uncle Tyson helped him paint it and put it together. Then, after we got back from our trip to Island Park we headed across the street to a large field to set it off into "space"

 Zach got to put the rocket onto it's launchpad AND he got to hit the ignition switch.

 And off it went into the sky. Kyle was sure he saw where it went and all of the cousins bolted to see if they could catch it on it's way down. I was sure it was gone forever. Zach was sure it had struck the moon.

 By some miracle, Uncle Trent managed to locate the tiny green rocket (among a bunch of green shrubs no less) and he retrieved it for Zach. Zach excitedly retold the story numerous times.

"Mom! We shot the rocket clear into space! It TOOK off. And it went to space mom! And then it came back down and we FOUND it! We FOUND it mom! After it came back from space!"

I think we're going to have to put rocket launching on our list of things to go again as soon as we have the opportunity. Thanks Uncle Tyson!