beach day

my favorite kind of day.

 

some moments in time.

I woke up with one goal today...to capture some video footage of the boys; just being boys. Breakfast, playing outside and inside. I didn't capture the intense game of the big boys rolling around everywhere, cracking themselves up, and working up a sweat that happened at lunch time but I managed to get Noah rolling and eating and laughing with his brothers.

 

There is a family with five boys (ages 2-12)at our church. I've always admired how well behaved the boys are and what a sweet family they are. The mom is in my bible study and I've admired her calmness with her boys and her strength (one boy has celiac and the other type two diabetes) I watched the brothers yesterday as they ran to their car after church. Four of the brothers raced to get to the car first, then a wrestling match followed, I believe someone was punched in the face by accident. These nice, well behaved boys, were just doing what boys do (I've come to learn)...I am learning daily....Mom and dad strolled up, Dad had a word or two to say to them in the back of the car while mom climbed into the front seat. I smiled.

 

So here are some pictures (and a long video) of our Monday morning. A cloudy day, a happy day, just being home and soaking up our time together.

 

The following three pictures sum up the boys nicely in one quick capture I think.

 Noah Samuel (sweet, dimply, gummy grin, rolly polly, all smiles almost all of the timw)

Caleb Lincoln (explorer, investigator, builder, climber, inquisitive, intelligent, sensitive, and kind) 

 Lucas Gregory (mischievous, the family comedian, head strong, independent, charming, determined, passionate)

All three...completely loveable 

 

Our backyard is a gigantic garden right now with fruit trees and vegetables in bloom. The boys like to graze, daily, all the time. If they get hungry we tell them to pick some food to eat.

Grape picking is their favorite. But so are the peaches, tomatoes, zucchini, peas, and looking at the daily growth of the pumpkins, nectarines, corn, and apples to name just a few. (This all thanks to dave. I'm proud of all the hard work he has done and instilled in our young charges. It's a family effort, but mostly Dave and Caleb work together on these things and I love watching their excitement over the daily changes)

(those faces! :)

 

My heart is overflowing with love for my three little men and their daddy. I feel so blessed to be theirs. 

sunbutter

a lump of phone pics and a quick update during a sweet  morning sleep in for all three boys.

we had a great fourth of july down south with my family and a nice week with my mom after. Fireworks and Gilroy Gardens were some highlights. (check out those faces with the car steering wheel, lucas loves all the rides that have steering wheels :) and caleb's face!! love them)

 Noah, there is so much happening with you! Where to begin? You are rolling a lot.You are scooting and if I leave you for a second you've already turned around and taken a 180 in another direction. You adore your big brothers. Last night Lucas and you were laughing hysterically together in the tub. You are reaching your hands out to our faces to hold onto and your slow, sweet, smile that spreads across your face when you look at someone melts me. You are easily distracted if you're nursing and if someone comes over you pause and stare then resume again. This cracks me up. We took your arms out of the swaddle-because see swaddle pic below- I can't believe you are almost six months in a couple weeks! Those sweet newborn days passed way too quickly and each day passes even more so. I wish I could bottle you up. Even though this blog has been little on the updates just know we love you so!

 There is nothing as sweet as watching these three brothers together and each unique relationship forming.

 fourth of july race, it was fun and hot :) It was my first 5k and I got a third place medal for my age group (pretty exciting!) but only because I had my handsome husband in front of me the entire way (and my goal was to not let him out of my sight! it worked and that's probably why I ran faster than I normally would have!) 26:09 for me and 23:26 min for dave! Now training for our half marathon in November.

 The sound of the fireworks scared them (but the show was pretty cool!) the grand finale was made more grand by the fact that caleb had to pee at that exact moment! So dave held his ears and I pulled down his shorts and on the beach sand and while the fireworks went off caleb had his own show. I won't soon forget that. :)

Our last night before taking Noah's arms out of the swaddle!

An emotional week for me last week. Lucas did his allergy re-test. (It has been a year since we discovered his tree nut allergy) He tested positive to 6 out of 7 tree nuts (last year was 5 out of 7) and now positive to peanuts as well:( I had some hope that he would be the same or even better but not so. Forging ahead with two sets of epi pens and a lot of prayer for safe keeping of our happy go lucky lucas.

 on our daily evening stroll around the neighborhood. (one of my favorite times of day as a family)

we had such a fun fourth swimming in pools, spending time with family, watching the fireworks, etc. And a great week with my mom. Now we are gearing up for a trip north for camping with Dave's family and a few days with my parents next week. I'm treasuring our days together this summer as it feels like the end of something big. Our final days home together before caleb starts TK and Lucas starts one day a week preschool. If I think too much about it I'll cry. I know this will be good for them-but hard for me. I blinked and now I have school aged boys but it feels like yesterday they were babies and the days stretched out long and slow. Now they are going faster than fast and all I want to do is hold on and treasure each moment. We've had so many fun beach days as a family this summer, special time with friends and family, and a lot of  sweet summer memories. I haven't been taking as many pictures or blogging much, just trying to soak up each day with the boys. I'm more and more aware of how special and sacred this time really is. How short lived it is. So I'm bottling it up and savoring it with everything I've got :)

couple more family pics....

 four generations (grammy great (my dad's mom), poppy (my dad), mama (me), and all her boys (grandboys and great-grandboys!)

a day at the park with my loves