Back from Camp

Holly and I just got back from camping with the boys.  We went out to pick up Carter from his week at Grandma and Grandpa's house and met them at Hamlin Beach State Park.  It was a success!

Parker and Carter slept in a tent with me while Anderson and Holly stayed in the RV with Grandma and Grandpa.  Everybody got to do something special.  Stay tuned for pictures from each!

Popsicle Prince

Our little man Anderson has an addiction.  While his brothers enjoy a Popsicle once, maybe two times a day, Anderson is always clamoring at our freezer for the whole bag.  He seriously eats like five or six a day and would gladly have more if we let him.  It gets a little warm in the house sometimes since we don't have air conditioning, so we indulge in his habit.

Anderson, our Popsicle Prince, always doing his best
to match his Popsicle with both his eyes and his diaper!

He's surprisingly neat with them too.  He sucks it for a bit, breaks it in half, places one in a bowl, chomps on the first, then helps himself to the second, then scampers off to put the wooden sticks in the sink.  Of course all those Popsicles go straight to his matching diaper which keep us busy in other ways, but that's another story.

Date Night with Parker

Holly and I let Parker join us for our date night.  He's cute; he calls it getting "take-out" and "staying up." Holly and I had been thinking about getting Chinese, but Parker wanted McDonald's.  So McDonald's it was!  Parker got a Happy Meal and a chocolate milkshake.

We ended up watching a concert special on CBS called Tim McGraw's Super Star Summer Night.  I thought it was funny because when I got home with the food I asked Holly what we were watching she said, "I think it's called Somebody's Backyard Concert."  How she got that title out of "Super Star Summer Night" I'll never know.

Holly and I aren't big country fans, so we spent much of the concert making fun of people on the screen.  It's legit because they can't hear us.  That, and of course, they are rich so we don't feel bad.  Parker just enjoyed the music and being able to stay up late with McDonald's for dinner. Parker also got York Peppermint Patties for a treat before bed.  They are his favorite candy!

Thanks for being the guest of honor for our date night, Parker!  We love you!

Working Mom

We are expecting our forth child in October.  This, of course, means that Holly is growing bigger and bigger each day.  Even though she is taking care of a little baby inside of her, she is still her typical industrious self.  I wanted to show one of her projects she undertook a couple of months ago...

The top is what our yard looked like early in the summer.  Then one random day Holly and her boys plunged into work mode and turned it into the below picture in one afternoon!  When I came home from work and saw the lawn, my face looked a little like Anderson's did below...

Great job, Mom!

Blast from the Past

Someone tagged a photo of my gal Holly yesterday on facebook.  It was a terrific photo because it really took me back.  It's of Holly when she was an RA at college where I first met her in October of 2005.

What I like about seeing a picture of Holly circa 2005 is that I recall when I very first saw her (working at the college library) that I thought she was cute and I wanted to ask her out.  Meaning, I've liked Holly since ground zero, since the get-go.  And who knew that taking a gamble and asking her out cold turkey one Tuesday would being me this...

 and this...

and this!

Sometimes, it is definitely worth it to say carpe diem and just go for the girl.  That's what I did!

Gone Fishing!

Parker had his week at grandma's last week and went fishing with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Jon.  It was a success!

Carter is out at grandma's house for this week.  Like a champ, it looks like he was able to wrestle one to shore just like his older brother.  Way to go Carter!  We miss you and will see you soon!

Back to the Blog

I'm back!  I have been away visiting Utah for my little sister's wedding.  While I was gone Parker had a week a Grandma's.  This week Carter is having his week at Grandma's.  The wedding was wonderful and Holly had a good time here with Carter and Anderson.  A few days before all of these trips started Holly had to run some errands and ended up taking Parker out to Panera Bread.

He loved his mac and cheese and told mom it was just like a date!  I will be posting pictures of the wedding and adventures with Grandmas as the pictures come in!

Hang Time

Parker and Carter talked me into taking them the park before bedtime.  Carter rode in the wagon and Parker rode his bike. At first they played in the splash park, but they soon got caught up in feats of endurance. They each wanted to see how long they could hang on the playground bar.

Carter did 119 seconds.  Then the lad got fire in his eyes and decided to try and top it, and he got to 132! (In full disclosure, I started counting fast because I could see his little arms were going to give out notwithstanding his look of determination.)

Parker was tired from swimming all day today and didn't surpass his brother.  However, his longest record is 124 seconds which he reached earlier this week.

Great hanging boys!

Anderson Summer Catch-Up

Anderson is always up to something.  Here are some photos to demonstrate.  Keep in mind, John Updike wrote in one of his books, "All families look good through windows."  That can be carried over into the 21st century by stating "All families (and kids!) look good on blogs."  I say this because while Anderson looks cute in these pictures, he is a HANDFUL, and behind every smiling photo is an impish little boy running around getting into everything while giving his mother and father headaches!

Here Anderson is happy to show off his artistic skills on Grandma's sidewalk.  (He didn't write out his own name, but he does recognize his name when he hears it after doing anything he shouldn't be doing!)

When camping at Jellystone, the big kids made over-sized bubbles.  Anderson watched from his highchair.  Holly was clever enough with the camera to get this "astronaut" picture of Anderson.

 While Anderson can be a handful, he is the best at posing for pictures.  Whenever you ask him to smile for the camera he does so without hesitation.  Here Holly caught him posing by the swing set at the campground.

If Anderson wasn't in his highchair at the campground, he was in his stroller.  (This was because if he was loose you had to chase him around the whole campground because he is so mobile and curious.)  Here, we catch Anderson having some downtime with a s'more just before bedtime.  As usual, he kicks up his feet and enjoys keeping it real.

Anderson striking a pose by the big bouncing pillow at the campground with dad in the background.  Don't let that smile fool you...he wanted nothing to do with the bouncing pillow.  He was terrified of it.  Anderson is actually terrified of a lot of things.  If you try to put him on your shoulders, he will howl and try to claw your eyeballs out while choking you he is so frightened of falling.  If you try to take him swimming, he doesn't even try to cling to you but screams and tries to climb off of you and swim for shore himself (which he obviously can't do).  And if you try to take him on the bouncy pillow, he howls and gingerly makes his way back down.  But if you take the camera out and say "smile" all is forgotten and he is a happy little boy again!

So that's a summer update for Anderson!

As for recently, we just got back from a friends birthday party where Parker and Carter went swimming and Anderson prowled around the pool trying to throw objects into it.  And last night Holly and I enjoyed a date night where she thrashed me in Phase 10 before we ordered Cheeseburger Subs to watch with Netflix.  A great summer so far.

Phase 10, the game Holly always beats me at.  (But I can thrash her in chess, a real game.)

Carter Summer Catch-Up

Here are some catch-up summer picks of our middle son Carter...

Anderson loves the book The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss.  Carter often takes the time to read it to his little brother whenever mom and dad get tired of reading it.  (Because Carter hears it in the background so much, it is rather easy for him to do this!  Carter is really good at memorizing things he hears.  He is always reciting song lyrics and lines from TV shows back to us.  He even recently has started to annoy Holly a little by repeating back questions....he asks "Mom, can I have a Popsicle."  "Yes Parker," says mom.  "Okay, mom, so you mean that I can have a Popsicle, right?"  Haha he is so cute.

While camping with our friends at Jellystone, the kids obviously got glow-rings for their bedtime.  Parker and Carter took the chance to turn them into fashion accessories.  (Anderson, by the way, bit into his and had it taken away.  Fortunately, no radioactive glow got all over him because of it!)  Also notice Parker advertising his favorite pizza place (and Dad's too!) as well as Carter's long sleeved pajamas.  Carter doesn't seem to mind the summer heat and is always running around in flannel pants and shirt even when his brothers are down to their diaper or underwear trying to keep cool.  The other day Carter hid inside a fort he made for an half hour dressed in his usual and came out soaked in sweat.  We told him he had no choice but to take those clothes off and dress in something cooler.  He resisted but finally did.  The guy liked to stay toasty!

On the Jellystone wagon ride, Yogi Bear always does a "tie trick" where the kids close their eyes, Yogi rolls up his tie, the kids open them, and then are surprised to see the tie gone.  Carter, always the observant one, is never one to be fooled by this cheap trick and is seen here calling Yogi out on his deceitfulness...

And finally, while playing at Grandma and Grandpa Miller's, it's okay on rare occasions to keep playing outside even if it is raining.  Parker and Carter capitalized on that liberty, recently.  Here they are all wet.  Notice, of course, they are standing in a puddle.  Carter loves puddles and is always trying to turn our backyard into a big one when he plays with the sprinkler.  But that is a post for another day.

Tomorrow will be a catch-up summer day for our little buddy Anderson!

Parker Summer Catch-Up

I realized Holly and I haven't posted anything yet since the marathon I ran back in May.  This is a tragedy since we have done a decent amount of things as a family since then.  It is also a tragedy because it is summer vacation so we certainly have enough time to both do things AND post about them on the blog.  So here is a brief photo tour of some of the past events.

Parker rode Uncle Jon's ATV at Grandma's house shortly
after school let out.  (Uncle Jon rode with him while it was moving.)

Parker climbed to the top of this all by himself at the ice cream store.

A view from the top!

Holly made these cupcakes in mason jar for my little sister Laura's bridal shower.

Yum!  They were awesome, exotic flavors.

The boys of course got to hang out with their Aunt Laura
before and after the bridal shower.

Okay.  So a small amount of catch-up done.  Tomorrow I will try to post some pictures of Carter's activities during the last month and a half.  Peace!