Easter 2011

egg hunting - all had coins or fresh fruit in them. 

the boys are all young enough that finding a strawberry or blueberry in an egg was just fine with them.

 riley chose to sleep instead of hunting eggs at grammy and grampy's house.

 the great-grandchildren. 

natalie was born january 1.  the first girl in a streak of boys.

please note that riley, eli and cohen all weigh just about the same.   

brittney will be the next to add to the family. 

my guess is, that come july, brittney and zach will be seeing pink!

and here we are.

note: brody's green boots were not worn to church, although he would have preferred them to boat shoes!  also note that kurt wouldn't wear a bow tie. 

dinner conversation

As we were eating some fresh corn on the cob this evening, Brody and I had this convo.

Brody: Riley have teeth?
Me: No, not yet.
Brody:  Do I have teeth? 
Me: Yes you have teeth, silly.  Do you want to count them?
Brody: 1, 2, 5.  Go grocery shopping for Riley's teeth?
Me: If only it were that easy...

Well, Sara T is the only one that took a guess on Riley's weight, so she does win the grand prize and it does involve IKEA!  However, I think I'll just drop the boy's off at her house and pick them up when I get back from IKEA.  Sara, I'll have my people call your people to arrange all this!

His official nine month weight was 26 pounds even. 



Easter Preperations.

brody's new talent.

so sunday afternoon, kurt could hear riley waking up.  before he could get upstairs to get him, he heard a boom and then little feet padding down the hall.  the next thing he knew there was a little voice saying 'riley awake!' in the monitor which was followed by all kinds of happy squeals.  same thing happened yesterday and this morning.  when you ask him how he gets out, he lifts his leg and says, 'like this!'  i do believe kurt will be converting his crib to a toddler bed tonight. 

today

riley is NINE months old today.

he had his well baby visit yesterday.

can you guess what he weighed?

Tree Planting 101

 Brody and Kurt planted 25 trees on Sunday.  Someday they will make a great wind break...someday. 

 Being outside most of the day was the perfect distraction from all of Brody's 'people' going home!

Brody's pre-bath in the kitchen sink before he could venture further into the house.

He was one dirty boy after all that digging!

In other breaking news, Riley has a double ear infection.  Doesn't seem to be bothering him, outside of a little fever Friday night.  He weighed in at 25 pounds 8 ounces.  So, he has just been maintaining his figure the last couple months and not really gaining weight. 

Ta-Ta for now.

Weekend Guests

My dear friend from college, Tracy, came to visit with her kids for the weekend.  Her hubby was gone and Kurt is working some long hours right now so having someone to assist in the entertainment department is always appreciated.  Allison brought her kids in and then offered to make dinner, which was AWESOME! 

 Noah V.

 Maggie and Riley

Drew, Brody and Gabrielle

Gabrielle was an excellent role model to everyone, but especially to Brody and Drew.  She loaded them up in the wagon and pulled them around, gave them fun ideas on differnt things to play and never once complained that she had to play with little boys that were half her age.  She and her mom even convinced Brody to eat mashed potatoes at dinner - quite the accomplishment!!  Noah is one lucky little guy to have her as a BIG sister. 

Drew and Brody became the best of buds.  We never once had to break up a fight over a toy or listen to a toddler meltdown!   They are a dangerous duo to put in the bathtub together.  I think the floor and myself ended up just as wet as the two of them. 

Maggie and Riley just squealed at each other.  Maggie did try to teach Riley how to crawl, but Riley didn't show much interest.  That's a lot of baby boy blubber to get up and moving! 

Brody asked several times today where 'his people' were, so  I think you are all invited back again - soon!

Riley

Riley's Room

Mr. Riley slept in his OWN room last night!  It's pretty stark in there, but that doesn't effect sleeping because we never heard him once last night!

Brody played a large part in getting this room finished too.  Every night, we would gather his tools, which included a tape measure that measured everything exactly two inches long (don't believe me, ask him the next time you see him how long something is), an old cordless drill without a battery pack, and a box of play wooden tools.  The other key accessory was his froggie boots.  Yesterday he helped move Riley's 'stuff' to his room, making endless trips carrying an item at a time and strategically placing them around the room.  We left most everything right where he placed it too...at least for now.

So how about a WOOP -- WOOP for our remodeling team!

the final day...

these people were the smart ones...they flew!

Brody took some pictures with my phone.  Grampy's is especially charming!

our last rendevous to the beach...

 I don't think Eli liked his sip of Coke. 

my father's fashion statement. 

he also will occassionaly rock some black socks with those sandals. 

he looks quite proud!

  here's that pool grampy!!

 brody wasn't thrilled to leave the beach...i really wasn't either. 

mr. mischievious...five seconds later he sat down in the water. 

so much for those clean/dry clothes.

let's see, we left around lunch time saturday.  both boys fell asleep before we even left the beach.  so for about two hours we had peace and quiet.  by the time we reached the edge of florida, i was ready for kurt to drop us off at the airport in atlanta so the boy's and i could catch a flight home.  luckily, they both settled down for the night by atlanta and we drove on to chattanooga, tn.  after a few short hours of rest for kurt and i, we were back on the road.  sunday's drive was by far better than saturday's...the boy's and i slept a lot. 

brody was never so happy to be home.  he insisted on going to see dave storm.  so across the yard he went to see dave.  he seemed to walk around in circles the next day reaquainting himself with our house again.

riley and eli both ended up at the doctor the next day and eli was puny all week.  riley had croup and was good to go the next day. 

so, sickness were those two boys' souvenir from vacation.

kurt and i both felt like we needed a couple days more of vacation to rest up from our vacation! 

so that ends our trip recaps.  thanks to my sisters for letting me borrow some pictures.  thanks to my parents for inviting us along.  thanks to great-uncle frosty and ginger for putting up with our noisy group. 

lesson learned though:  don't be cheap, just buy the darn plane tickets!

hope you enjoyed.



kurt's weekend into this week

this weekend, kurt stripped and re-finished the floors in riley's room. 

and i must say, he did a mighty fine job.

tonight, he is almost finished putting the second coat of paint on the walls. 

that will leave him with:

• baseboards and window casings to install
• outlets and face plates to install
• a light or fan to install
• a closet to jazz up with organizational shelves/clothing rods

now if spring in the farming world can hold off just a few more days, the room might just get finished!

my weekend...

during nap time and after little boy bedtimes, i kept my sewing machine humming. 

 a small sampling of what i made this weekend!!

this little guy woke up a wee bit early from his nap so he just bounced and bounced on the rocking horse while i finished.  he almost had to sit there permanently, as his legs were not wanting to squeeze there way back out!

kurt's weekend was quite successful as well...riley's floors are refinished!!

March 10th and 11th

 March 10 and 11, 2011

Days seven & eight of vacation

The 10th was a yucky Florida day...rainy in the morning and windy in the afternoon.  It also happened to be the day Grandma and Grandpa Yakey were arriving at the airport.  Riley and I rode along to the airport with Grampy while everyone else went shopping or hung out back at our home away from home. 

This firetruck was our excitement for the day...so, Uncle Frosty got stuck on Day One in the elevator.  After he was rescued, the elevator folks worked on it and thought it was fixed so my dad was brave and rode it a couple times, making sure he had his cell phone just in case.  After a long day of traveling, my grandparents were ready to get unpacked and take a small rest before dinner so dad rode along in the elevator and Brody hopped in too.  Not long after they hopped in, it stalled again.  My nervous habit kicked in about this time, but Brody was thankfully cool as a cucumber almost the whole time.  He eventually told Grandma to get his MeMe (grammy) because she could fix it!  Thankfully fifteen or so minutes was the extent of their adventure. Grandma was re-energized after she crawled out of the elevator and ready to go again!  I guess maybe she needs something that exciting everyday to give her an afternoon energy boost?

The next day, Grandpa Yakey marked something else off his list...he rode a SEGWAY!

EIGHTY-EIGHT years old and still going strong!

Grampy John zipped around on one too with Michelle and Justin.

I'm usually a chicken, but if my Grandpa could ride one, I figured I should try it too.  I started to get scared when I was zipping along and couldn't remember how to slow it down.  Thankfully I finally remembered to just lean back and the crazy thing slowed down. Kurt thought he could hop on one without a lesson and nearly took out Michelle in the process.  The lesson was definitely important!!

Unfortunately, Eli started getting sick just in time for us to leave the next day.  Poor kid was rather miserable and it only got worse.

As we all settled in for the night, we said good-bye to the Ellis's, who were leaving at 6:00 a.m. to catch their flight home.  Sadly vacation was drawing to a close AND we soon had to load up in the pirate ship to start our trek North. 

March 8th and 9th

March 8-9, 2011
Days Five and Six of vacation
First two days at the beach or if you are Brody, you call it the sandpile!
The weather was near perfect for heading to the beach or pool. The pool was perfect because we had it all to ourselves and because it had a large circle that was the perfect depth for Brody, Cohen and Eli to play in. The pool was so perfect, I think my parents should just copy it for their yard!!  Whatcha think Grampy?? ;)

Other exciting events these two days:
Uncle Frosty got stuck in our private elevator.
Brody wanted to go home, more specifically, he wanted to go home and eat lunch at the elevator.  We called Uncle Dave and that seemed to appease him for that moment in time. 
We played lots of blocks and hide-n-seek.
If I could have taken the kitchen in our condo, I would have...the appliances were amazing!  The sleeper sofa Kurt and I slept on the first night was anything but amazing.