Saturday, July 30, 2011

Friday, July 29, 2011

QOTD

B: "You see this bump right here? (points to a bruise on his leg) That's because I ate an orange seed!"

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Independence

Now that Archer is 2, he's decided that he needs to be MORE independent. He says "self! self!" many times in a day...here he is insisting on peeling his own orange. It took him FOREVER, but he succeeded!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Goodbye 1

We've moved out of baby-dom into toddler-hood! 

Archer, at 2:
* Still a complete Mommy's boy!
* Loves his brothers, but gets a little vengeful when they won't play with him (the way HE wants to play!)
* Loves the water (not that we've had much warm weather...but he loves the kiddie pool in our backyard & the Silverwood water park).
* Is starting to put some simple sentences together, but he's not really a big talker.
* Can throw a mean temper tantrum.  Kicking, screaming, throwing himself on the floor...you get the picture. 
* Doesn't like to sleep.  He has more important things to do!
* Loves to talk on the phone, and doesn't ever want to give up the phone once he starts talking!
* One of his favorite pastimes is watching the airplanes.  We live pretty close to a small airport so he loves to watch the sky for the planes and then announce to the world "AIRPLANE!  AIRPLANE!"
* Is a complete cuddle-bug.  He loves to give/get hugs & kisses.  He will just come up to you and throw his arms around you to give you a big hug completely out of the blue (well, only if he knows you.  He isn't a fan of strangers!).
* Dirt, worms, bugs, rocks.  Enough said.
* Does NOT like TV and movies.  Won't watch them at all.  We did get him to sit through a little bit of Cars 2 in the theater, but that was a huge accomplishment and it hasn't been repeated.
* Loves swinging, bike rides, and walks.
* Does NOT like riding in the car.  We finally flipped him around forward facing a week or so ago...it hasn't helped much but it is easier to get him in & buckled!  When he was rear-facing, he would wedge himself in and hold himself up & out of his seat with his feet so we couldn't buckle him.  It was TERRIBLE.
* His favorite book is "Goodnight Moon."
* His favorite toy is probably his "My Pal Scout" puppy...or legos.  Or anything that a brother might currently be playing with!

________________________________________________________________

The day Archer was born was pretty eventful, to say the least.  I had been in pretty easy labor most of the day, but when John got home from work things picked up a bit and I remember telling him that I should have gone to the hospital and gotten an epidural.  This prompted John to call the midwife for her to come over ASAP.  I hadn't been in hard labor for long so I didn't think it was a big rush, but he thought things were moving quickly.  Turns out, I was almost fully dilated, but things weren't feeling quite right to me, and we almost transferred to the hospital.  I was in and out of the tub and just uncomfortable...not "in labor" uncomfortable, because that's a given, but uncomfortable in a different way that I can't describe.  I was a little concerned that something was wrong.  I decided to stay out of the tub (I had wanted a water birth like I had with Preston) because I just couldn't get comfortable...then my water broke and I finally started feeling the urge to push (this was about an hour after I was fully dilated). 

Long story short, Archer had quite the time making his appearance into the world!  He was born with his arms behind his back so his shoulders were nice and broad, resulting in shoulder dystocia.  My midwife moved quickly and removed him from me (ugh - won't go into the details about this!!!) and he was perfectly fine.  We were so fortunate that she was able to get him out quickly and he didn't have any broken bones (or worse).  I unfortunately came out of it with a broken tailbone which still gives me issues 2 years later, but I consider that a small price to pay for a healthy baby.  He weighed 9 lbs 4 oz and was 23" long.  I know that's big for a newborn, but it still amazes me how "little" they start out compared to his 30ish lbs now!  Thank goodness I don't triple my weight in 2 years! :)

Just born, cuddling with a very exhausted Mommy!
Herbal bath...about 1 hour old.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Almost

Almost 2.  I can't believe it.  My baby is growing up!  We had a little early birthday party at Grandma & Grandpa's this evening, so Archer got to learn the birthday ropes.  He loved it all: cake (obviously!), the singing, the candles, learning to blow them out, and of course, presents! 

I have mixed feelings about my last baby turning 2.  On one hand, I'd love to get a full night of sleep (yes, he still has only slept through the night a handful of times!) and have it be a little easier to take the boys somewhere by myself, but on the other hand...this is my last time to experience THIS.
I can't get over how grown-up he looks in this picture!
Daddy teaching him how to blow out the candles
Trying out his cupcake
How do you get into this thing?!

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Sunday, July 17, 2011

No blogging = Summer is here!

I know.  I haven't really done much blogging lately.  I'm pathetic.  But I've been enjoying the beautiful weather while we have it!  We only have nice weather for a few months out of the year, but when it's nice, it's N-I-C-E!  Today it was in the 90's and sunny and I LOVE it.  Our cherry tomatoes are finally starting to turn orange so it won't be too long until we are enjoying something other than GREENS from our garden.

So in lieu of me actually having to do a real post, here is what we have been up to in pictures...
Hooping
Bug catching
Relaxing (rare, unfortunately)
Using the toilet (only eventful for the almost-2-year-old who wants to go all.the.time but is seriously unreliable).
Picking cherries from our little tree!
We got about twice this many cherries, plus had a bunch that we lost to the birds.  Not bad for such a little tree!
This weekend the boys went to a Princess birthday party and I came downstairs this morning to B wearing his crown while eating pancakes.
Otherwise, we've been bike riding (we rode downtown yesterday...probably about 14 miles round-trip, and then rode to church this morning).  I've been attempting to workout on a regular basis and I think I'm starting to see some results but I won't get too overly-confident just yet.  Our garden is starting to look decent, but I'm so afraid that by the time it catches up, the cold weather will be starting again.  We've also been spending time with John's family while his brother and sister-in-law are up visiting from Brazil.  The boys have been loving spending time with their Uncle Allen & Aunt Karla (and their baby cousin who is still in utero!).  I also ruined practically my entire wardrobe by washing a dishtowel that I used to clean up a big coconut oil spill with a bunch of my clothes.  Disaster!

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Friday, July 15, 2011

QOTD

B: Grandpa is Bob!
Me: Grandpa isn't Bob.
B: Yes he is. He has a bob head! (bald)

Monday, July 11, 2011

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Fishin' in PJ's

Arch & B checking out a worm (which was actually some sort of odd grub looking thing, but whatever.)
B couldn't resist holding it
My view of the campsite...John playing guitar while the older 2 snacked & threw things in the fire.  Arch was supposed to be napping (unsuccessful).
Really, he's just so stinkin' cute.
Bike ride through the campground. 
Digging for worms
Campfire corn: YUM.
B waiting his turn to fish, in his PJ's.
And Preston fishing in PJ's.  No luck with the fish though, only a couple of bites.
Archer, on my back, watching his brother's fish & trying to grab the camera.

One of our favorite things about N. Idaho is the close proximity of camping.  This little campground is only about 40 min from our house (and that includes going slowly on mountainous dirt roads), but it is seriously in the middle of nowhere.  This was our first time at this campground, but the boys said it was their favorite camping spot.  I am partial to our previous "favorite spot" personally, but it was definitely nice and SO quiet.

Our first day there we went fishing as soon as we set up camp and started a fire (the mosquitoes were TERRIBLE but we hardly got any bites!).  The boys weren't really having any luck with the fish, so Preston, Archer, & I went to scout out a new fishing spot while B & John kept fishing a little longer.  About 2 minutes later I hear John YELLING and doing these frantic arm motions at me so we turned back.  I realized what he was yelling at me and turned around to see a mama moose and her baby walk up the hill right in front of us.  John & B saw them cross the river and went running to warn us to get out of the way!  I was glad that we had been moving pretty slowly & making a lot of noise otherwise they would've been literally right on us.  Yikes.  Scary, but pretty amazing to see them so close (and they didn't seem bothered by us in the least thankfully).

Otherwise our camping trip was pretty uneventful and definitely fun.  We came home in time to catch moto-X at the fairgrounds and the boys completely crashed out when we got home.  That is definitely a rarity at our house!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The 4th

Sparklers with Archie
B...sparklers & snap-it's were favorites of all 3 boys!

We started off in the backyard with sparklers, snap-it's, and smoke bombs.  The boys LOVED the smoke bombs (yuck).  Here they were waving the smoke away.
Out front for the "big guns."
LOUD!