a birthday party.

on may 16th, lane turned 4.   it felt almost right being back in omaha, his homeland:), for his birthday.   it was a beautiful evening just like the same day 4 years ago when he was born.  for months he had been saying he wanted a blue birthday party.  well, thats easy enough!   simple, cute, & fun...just like the 4 year old we were celebrating :)

 lane was in charge of the music for the evening, playing the fisher price record (or dvds as he called them) player that i played with as a child.

 the kids table.

((thanks aunt dana for all your help!))

 a game of toss between the little boys.

 new baby jedidiah joined the evening fun.

 beautiful boy.

 & with his beautiful grandma gwen.

 family of five.

 gage yells "cheeeese!" and scares logan.

 with some of his favorite people.

 what an AMAZING picture!!

 he loved the blue balloons, they went everywhere with him.   totally worth the 5 dollars.

 happy birthday to you!!!  ...gage is looking suspicious...

 ...gagers waiting for the perfect time...

 ...getting close...

 ...yep, got em...

...devastated.

 round 2.

 so much blue frosting!

 owen's blue eyes!

 uh oh penny!

one of my most favorite pictures.

see, the balloons went everywhere with him.

happy birthday sweet boy!!!

logan grace(6 months).

you are 6 months old and i can't quite get used to saying that.   fastest 6 months ever, faster than your brothers first 6 months.

i hardly remember what life was life without you.  you fit perfectly in with us.  you make having three kids very easy.

you weight 14 lbs 11 oz.   5th percentile, thank you very much.

you are starting to wear mostly 6 month clothes now.  i'm always shocked they fit, you're my little peanut, those clothes seem way too big when i hold them up!

you sit up like a pro.  you sat for the first time on your 5 month birthday.

lane always calls you logan gracIE.   i sometimes forget that your middle name is just grace and call you that now too.   other nicknames for you are "missy miss", "peanut", "skittle", and "girlie girl."

you now get mad if i take something away from you.

we haven't started solids yet.   i keep saying, "maybe tomorrow."  so, maybe tomorrow?

your hand control is crazy good.

you love paper.  maybe i should consider paper being your first solid.  you seem to have extend-o arms and reach for whatever paper is around and eat it up.   at church you throw a fit if i take the bulletin away.

you giggle when anyone sorta bumps your hands & feet up & down.

and every time we're on the steps with your brothers, you laugh.

if a towel is on my hair you stare and stare.

when i hold you, you curl yourself into a little ball & snuggle into my neck & shoulder.   its so sweet.

you can pout your lip more than any other baby i've seen but are also the smiliest baby.  all we have to do is look at you & you smile.

you refuse to let anyone but me hold you.  you cry pretty much automatically and then giggle/smile when you're handed back to me.

month 5 was a toughie.  you had a horrible ear infection, strep, & thrush.  there were some loooong nights.   for a few weeks you'd sleep in 5 minute increments.   cry, sleep, cry, sleep, even while being held.   we were thankful to be staying at grandma's house to have some help, multiple nights you slept in grandma gwen's or aunt renee's arms.

you are getting better in your car seat.

i have a dilemma.   every night i can't seem to put you down in your bed to sleep.   i just want to stare at you, at the sweet baby who i've been kissing all day since december 21.   i keep telling myself that soon there won't be a day that you'll let me just hold you while sleeping.  soak it up!  oh, how we love you.   we can't believe you are ours.

and just because i never got 5 months posted, here you are exactly to the minute 5 months old...

just some sentences.

we've been gone from home for the past SIX weeks!!!  crazy!  ((more on that later.))

right now i'm averaging less than 5 hours of sleep a night.   i often wonder how much better i'd function during the day with a full nights sleep.

the fires in our beautiful state are heartbreaking.   the news coverage makes me speechless.   today its smelled like a campfire all day.   pray, pray, pray!

who else is excited for the olympics?!   for the past 3 olympic games we've had a new baby in the house.   not sure how much longer that trend is going to continue.

another trend we're not sure will continue for much longer...unintentionally all of our kids names are also counties in kansas.   some counties/names that won't be used as possible future kids names: chautaugua, trego, kingman.

we came home the other day (from being gone for nearly 2 months) to our lawn being taken over by a fungus.  lovely.

loving these free prints with verses that are decorating our fridge.

in the past six weeks i have developed a full-fledged addiction to coffee.   it is one of the first thoughts when i wake up in the morning.

i'm feeling confident enough to say, gage is potty trained!!!   woohoo!!   we still sometimes have accidents from time to time but not enough to keep track, we're newly potty trained but not really in training mode anymore.  i'm a happy happy mama!!

we're back in business with a computer.   thank you...you know who you are.  there aren't enough thank you's we can say!

lane knows all the planets.   my favorite to hear him say is jupiter.

every year as the 4th of july approaches i say to myself that i need to learn how to photograph fireworks, maybe this year i will?

looking forward to blogging again:)

away.

so many people have told me, this will be a summer you won't forget...i think they're right.      being away from home and having us all (some of us extremely) sick has been far from what we imagined the start of summer being.   even though its not what we expected in summer, we're thankful to be spending so much time with family and loving having extra hands during the wee hours of the night.  (big thanks to grandma & aunt renee!)   so...here's to no more hours at the dr's office & spending no more money at walgreens.  maybe we're just not used to the humidity?  :)

...there are hundreds of pictures to share BUT sippy cups leak and WILL destroy your computer.   so, until we can buy ourselves a new computer don't expect too many updates  :(