Waiting for baby

I This baby has officially made us wait longer than any other baby here...we're at 9 days late today. In the meantime, we've had lots of things going on to keep us busy, like birthday parties, soccer games, and visits with friends. Here's a few other things we've been up to while waiting for this newest little one to join us.

Cookie baking! All throughout Lent I've been craving peanut butter cookies. Last week we made the dream a reality.

Checking out the fountains and other yard ornaments at Fred Meyer. Aaron loves to visit the "waterfalls" and recently became acquainted with this stone cat statue.

Running errands, trying to finish all the "to do before baby" jobs done. Of course, the longer it takes baby to come, the more jobs get added to the list.

Napping. This kid gave up his regular nap  a few weeks ago, but he's needed some extra rest lately so we've been taking little naps together.

Celebrating daddy's birthday! If baby had come yesterday he/she would've shared a birthday with both daddy and Auntie Karen. Looks like this little one wants their own birthday, though.

Going to the park. The little boys and I went to North Acres park this morning to play and walk the trails.

And, it turns out the extra napping is due to a sinus infection. Poor kid. We've got the medicine now and hopefully he'll perk up in time to meet his new baby brother or sister.

Life in cell phone pictures

It's been awhile....not that we've been busy or anything. I'm trying to catch up with some post-dated stories, but here's a little peek at what we've been up to according to the random pictures on our phones.

 We started out 2015 with a ferry ride to Bainbridge to celebrate Auntie Laura's birthday.

 Even though this winter has been pretty warm for us, ferries in January are still pretty cold!

 Our little Seahawk fans had a great time cheering this season. They were pretty upset about the end of the Super Bowl, but they're all still proud of the team.

 Daniel's cub scout troop took a trip to see a Blanchet High School women's varsity basketball game. They loved watching the game and were particularly interested in the cheerleaders. ("Who are these people? What are they doing?")

 Matthew had a great time.

 Aaron got pretty into the game.

 Valentines day was spent with our lovely friends, Brynn and Casey.

The next night, we lined up one of the boys' favorite babysitters so that the four of us could go out to eat together. Hiep is a rockstar. 

We've had a bit of a graffiti problem in our back yard. Luckily, it's not too hard to figure out who the culprit is.

Apparently Daniel can still fit in the crib. And it's so sweet to see him spending quality book time with his littlest brother.

The boys are big into jokes right now. This was shoved into the kitchen, and when I opened it...

 Ha! Joke's on me, it's filled with the most disgusting things they can think of. [Clean] socks, diapers, and underwear. Bwahahahaha!

 Baby keeps growing and growing. We have just three weeks left till the due date (though each baby has come later and later, so I'm expecting to still be pregnant in four weeks).

 Aaron's hair one day looked like we had put it in curlers the night before. A perfect barrel-type curl.

 Daniel's drawer for his lego creations and other special items has attracted the younger brothers lately. Too bad they can't read.

 Aaron likes to make trips to the mail box. He likes to run because "running gives me good exercise."

 Daniel's school took a trip up to Burlington to volunteer at a food bank. Chris took Daniel and Matthew, and they had a great time learning about the food bank, sorting food, and then distributing food to patrons of the food bank.

 Meanwhile, Aaron stayed at home with me and we had "potty training camp." He did a great job...it's really about time.

 Matthew has been loving on his god-sister Mercy. She doesn't seem to mind. :)

 Aaron's been really good at the photo-bomb.

 These guys have been taking some park-outings with daddy so that I can have a break.

 I had a terrible cold a little while ago that included a lost voice for a couple of days. While I was still in the throes of the cold, we had a weekday off school for teacher meetings, and Chris was out of town for work. These sweet boys decided to take care of me and made me breakfast in bed all by themselves. They were so proud of themselves (and I was proud, too--there were no messes and nothing broke in the process). I can't believe how grown up they are!

There are plenty of shenanigans going on here. We are never bored.

Splash Park

Yesterday we met up at a splash park with cousins Jacob and Karoly to play in the water. It turns out we picked a perfect day to do it--the cooler weather we'd been having let up and we had a beautiful sunny afternoon there to play. It took the boys quite a bit of time to warm up to the idea of getting sprayed randomly from all directions, but when it was time to leave we had to use cookies to bribe the boys into getting back into the car. We will definitely be going back!

 After crying for 20 minutes on the way to the park, Aaron fell asleep minutes before parking the car. 

 Matthew was more interested in the playground at first.

 Daniel tries out the climbing wall.

 Matthew and Jacob try to collect water from under the big ball.

 Karoly, looking awfully cute. 

 Climbing the sea serpent.

 The shirt has come off...we're ready for some serious play.

 Finally getting into the water.

 Matthew climbs a whale.

 Not so afraid of getting wet anymore.

What a fun day!

PS. This post only took 45 minutes to write, being interrupted about 35 times. I think I will go back to writing late at night after everyone is sleeping.

Early morning park trip

Things here have been c.r.a.z.y. The end of the school year is Daddy's busiest time at work--lots of big events that take a ton of planning. So, the morning after a big event that ended one of the longest, most tiring weeks, Mommy and the boys decided to give Daddy a gift...a quiet house. We took off to the park at 8:30 on a Saturday morning and stayed for a couple hours so that Daddy could keep sleeping. Daddy was so tired he didn't even realize we had gone until he got up and we told him we had been out at the park...

 After countless times trying, Matthew finally decides he likes the big red swings.

 Daniel joins in the fun.

 Aaron wishes he could ride, too.

 Last man swinging.

 Over to the water to check out the ducks.

Love those ducks!

 Aaron couldn't see much, but we're sure he would've enjoyed the ducks, too.

 No trip to the lake is compete without checking out the boats and surfboards.

 On the move again.

 Resting up for the walk home.