Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Thursday was Daddy's birthday. Here are some pictures of his birthday dessert of choice: strawberry shortcake!

 Too bad we couldn't fit the other 30 candles on his strawberry shortcake...

 Daddy gets help blowing out the candle.

 31, but still needs help remembering his table manners...

 Aaron is really looking forward to solid foods.

Getting ready for a big bite.

Can you tell we love dessert around here?

Time is flying

People say that time goes faster and faster with each kid. We believe it--Aaron turned 5 months yesterday! He is a busy boy, rolling/tumbling all over the place (which means more floor cleaning for us), laughing a lot (especially at his brothers), and finally starting to settle into a somewhat regular routine (although now that we've acknowledged it, it will probably stop). Here are some pictures from his fifth month:

 Aaron has constant entertainment in his big brothers.

 Loving the exersaucer.

 Getting to spend some time outside.

 Finally getting some sunny weather means breaking out the baseball cap!

 Never without drool these days.

 Humoring Mom with the obligatory husky photo.

 Can't resist the feet!

 Physical fitness is important. Aaron does his push-ups daily.

Tired, but still smiling.

Still cute. :)

Lil' Sounders!

Daniel joined a local group of church families for "Lil' Sounders" - his first soccer practice!  Needless to say he had a blast, and Dad took lots of pictures.

Open spaces!

"Ball, you have no idea how hard I'm about to kick you."

Time stretch!

What warmup is complete without super jumps - Daniel's patented exercise."

Time to start the drills.

Auto-assigned lucky number 13.

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"You and me are going to be good friends, goal."

LASER!

Speed dribbles.

Daniel, soccer player.

Coach Steve laying down the rules.

Critical skill #4 - trapping with arms out wide like a bird.

It's soccer practice, but hey, everything is better with parachute games!

In their natural habitat

Bean Play

When Daniel was Matthew's age we would let him play with a bag of dried beans, a pot and a spoon to keep him occupied while we were busy with something else. The beans have come back out, and we have some new variations on bean play.

 Stirring beans got old fast. The bowl becomes a helmet.

 Daniel's bean tower. Fun, but dangerous. I would not want to be the one to clean that up if it was knocked over.

Scooping up and dumping out beans with trucks.

 Some beans were turned into bean bags for...

tossing!

Happy Easter!

 We had a pretty eventful Easter this year, including a trip to urgent care with Matthew who has been having trouble staying healthy, a wonderful impromptu visit from cousin Olivia, the celebration of our cousin and goddaughter Meagan's entry into the Church, and of course, treats! Here are some highlights from the weekend.

 Dyeing Easter eggs with cousin Olivia.

 

"Whoa! A blue egg!"

Easter Vigil Mass

So proud of Meagan!

It was a very late, rough night for everyone, but Easter baskets in the morning makes it all better.

Finding eggs all over the house. (Which almost didn't happen because the Easter bunny didn't realize until 1 am that the eggs we reuse every year were left at another family's house last year...)

Making tasty Resurrection Rolls for breakfast. Yum!

Happy Easter everyone!

Homemade Hats

My knitting skills are not very advanced, but after learning how to follow a simple hat pattern I bought a couple skeins of yarn to make semi-matching hats for the boys. Of course, I finished the hats just as it's starting to get warm here...

Showing you their toothy smiles.

 Taking a break from photos to give Aaron a kiss. :)

 Matthew's hat was first. His is pretty basic.

Aaron's hat came next. Also basic, but I had to learn how to make some ears.

 Daniel's took the longest. Mostly because I made one that was much too big and had to start over.

Love these boys!