June 2013

Welcome to June!  We went on Father/Son Campout again...

...and took our friend Eric again.  It was beautiful weather and perfect for swimming, canoeing, and cooking food on the fire!

In June we had a family memorial service for GG's brother Timothy, a fisherman from Gloucester. 6/8/2013

June is when school lets out, right?

Congratulations Hannah, on finishing your first major hurdle to adulthood!  We're so proud. 6/9/2013

During the middle of June, we did some early summer sorts of things.   You know, splash in puddles, play in the sprinklers, and laze around the house chewing on things.  It was a good end-of-school and welcome-to-summer transition month.

Once school was officially out, we went to Maine for a little relaxing weekend.  Ian and I went fishing with Papa and saw some neat wildlife.  No fish, though. 6/29/2013

 

Worthy of note:  Grammy got 6 new chicks this spring to bring her flock to 18... er 17.  The boys are getting more confident with the little birds, we'll see how they do when they are full-fledged hens!

We saw this amphibious car, which I thought was really neat.   Some people use them to get to the closeby inhabited islands off the coast of Maine and Cape Cod.

And last, but  not least... the pigs are getting better.  There necks are thickening, their grunts are more meaty, and their mouths are big enough to hold a rotund apple.  :)

May 2013

May was a fun time fora  few reasons.  We had family come to town for Graham's baby blessing on 5/5/13.

A good looking family, eh?

Everyone letting loose.  Just a little loose, cause it's still the Sabbath, of course!

Graham and his ancestry.  Very glad the TN grandparents and ME grandparents could be there.

This odd picture was taken on 5/9/13.  I don't think we've been rehearsing WWF moves during playtime, but boys come up with the darnedest things sometimes, don't they?

This one is for two reasons: Look how long Jen's hair was on 5/11/13!  and can you believe how well Blake was doing with the lettuce knife!?  His first time!

By 5/11/13, Grandmama and Granddaddy were back in town for Mother's Day weekend, so we played some board games!  What fun!

We went down to the old Hartwell Tavern along the Battle Road (Lexington to Concord, if you'll recall), and had our own reenactment with some minutemen.  Well, perhaps five-minute-men, because we took a while to find just the right stick, then practice our traipsing through the fields.  I can tell Granddaddy has some experience in this, and he did a great job of tutoring Ian. 

Of course, we had to retreat to the country for some Kimball's action.  Old Reliable was still there waiting for us as Jen prepared to go out and harvest from the ice cream fields.

Then Grandmama showed Blake this really awesome toy with a gymnast cat!  He really loved watching it flip and balance and have fun on the high bar!

Oh, yeah.  May was the month the boys got eye infections.  Ewww!

I perceive that Blake is no longer our little baby.... though when he's fresh from the bathtub he can almost pass for it!

And lastly, in May, we discovered Woombie.  For all your swaddling needs.

Oh, one more note:  We bought a pig.  So for Memorial Day, we went and did some farm chores.  You know, build a pigpen, convert a coop into a pig hut, and root around for the best grub.  We enjoyed the "running of the pigs" as Petunia, Tootie, and Oreo transitioned from the old chicken yard to the pigpen!

April was kind to us.

April was equally good to us.  There were a few more interesting things, too.  For example: 

We shared Easter dinner with some of our favorite folks.

Tom Turkey came around for a week or two to strut his stuff.  That is to say, we had a rafter of turkeys come through our backyard and show off and go into full display.  Methinks we'll be seeing some nice looking poults pecking through our yard later this summer.

Graham cought on to the spontaneous smiling thing.  He wears that face like a natural now.  It's almost like those cheeks were made for smilin'.

We have been very happy to grow our "family club."  We do silly things together and make faces at each other and have a good time pretending.  It's really a treasured season of life for us, where Jen and I can look at each of our kids and say, "Isn't _____ the cutest kid you ever saw?"  This is what life is made of.

And here we have Graham trying on 30-some-odd year old baby Jennifer clothes.  Yeah, his legs don't really fit.  His belly doesn't really fit.  The baby needs to wear big boy clothes, it seems.

Graham and I took on a fascination with the new Dr. Who on Netflix.  It's tough to tell which Dr. he likes the best, but no matter.  Just a spin around the galaxy in the Tardis and Graham's ready to fall asleep for a few hours.  Not through the night, but at least until 1:30 for his late-late feeding.

Blake goes in for his first tooth cleaning.  He went in with me last time to watch Ian get his teeth done, which I think was a feature.  If you look carefully, you'll see my shirt there.  Yes, he insisted that I ride the chair lift with him, and he had his checkup on my lap.  Baby steps.

This was a neat resolution to a year-old problem.  Last July we started having problems with the gas oven not heating.  It plagued us so much, that we basically avoided baking through the fall unless we were desperate and willing to cook at 450 F.  Well, turns out a $20 igniter can solve that problem.  Why didn't we think of that sooner?

Check out this cool pattern on the under-side of the flame spreader.  I'm a fan of textures/colors found from natural processes, like heating/cooling of metal from a natural gas flame.  Awesome.

General Conference at home proved to be a win-win for paying attention from the comforts of our own computer.  The boys had an envelope with snacks set aside for the time when each Apostle spoke.  They were VERY attentive to match names with the envelopes.   After all, wouldn't you if there were gummies and mints and such?

For Patriot's Day weekend, we went to GG's house in Chatham.  This year, we also got the family pass to the MASS Audobon, which meant we could go to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was beautiful and overcast.

We made an attempt to get our family photo for the first time.  I'd say it was... a success.  Well, we were all in the picture at the same time, at least, and I think that's what counts!  GG enjoyed helping us get the boys ready and engaged, then they let us take their picture a few times, too.  It was really a treasure to have some down time with them with just a big RELAX on the schedule.

We had our annual, "Dig in the backyard" saturday, and had another day at the more local MassAudubon location.  It was fun to spend a cool day with nature.

In April, Jen caught a nap.

Blake began to learn the fine art of diapering.  Which is good, because we could use a hand around here!

I discovered that an easy way to get Blake ready for a great day while Ian was at school was to set up his train set in an intricate pattern and let loose his imagination.  The way I see it, 15 minutes setting up in the morning to yield 2+ hours of imaginative play with twains was well-worth the delay!  (And fun to figure out how intricate I could make it!)

March On! That is... March 2013 for our family...

So.  It's been a while since we've updated the blog.  Turns out that with three kids, discretionary time where there is any sort of neuron activity available is hard to come by.  Having just returned from a vacation, I've got a few brain cells that are relaxed and ready to be used again, so I thought I'd review what has happened (more or less) since Graham was born in February.  Don't worry--it's all good stuff!


First up!
Graham at a month was a hoot.  He leaned up against pillows.  He nursed like a champ.  He slept alot.  He was a happy little guy who was willing to sleep anywhere and everywhere.  We were really happy about that, especially as we needed him to sleep so that we could attend to the other two children without making them feel neglected.  I think we did alright.

Blake had been having a really hard time napping once Ian went to 1st grade for some reason.  Well, perhaps it was empathy for Graham (and in this case, I think he also had the flu), but he started napping again!  Here we have one of the rare cases where he didn't actually make it to his bed. 3/5/13

We got this fluke storm in March that was pretty heavy.  You probably saw it on everyone's facebook page.  We loved it.  Ian tried his kid skis, but found they were pretty miserable to stay upright on.  Oh well.  Thanks for the try, Marden's!

With first grade comes an aspiring reader.  Ian was getting quite good.  He could read his "old reliable" books, but needed encouragement for some of the others.  His teacher encouraged 20 minutes a day, and we kept track of it for their Journey through Books!  (Reading with parents, counted, too.)

Jen got her quilting juju back after the baby was born, and made this beautiful quilt.  I advised her that having the planes go every which way was not good traffic planning, and was sure to cause some distressing situations.  She obliged and at least lined them up to play follow-the-leader.  (Later in the summer, she got this quilt featured in Quilty Magazine, with an article to go with it!)

Also worthy of note, the boys got very good at working on projects together during the day while Jen attended to the wee one.  Play dough, paints, coloring/markers, paper folding/shredding/taping, legos, and general mess-making were definite favorites.  I really cherish that Ian and Blake have learned how to play so nicely together.  (Much credit to Ian on this one!)

New bedtime routine: Pajamas, PianoGuys, scriptures, prayers, teeth, song/story, sleep.  Seriously, PianoGuys EVERY SINGLE NIGHT leads to some clever innovation with boys who want to pretend to know how to play the cello and/or piano!  (Check YouTube for more information.)

This was 3/26/13.  Graham is demonstrating his early habit of smiling.  We had to give him prompts back then to smile, but now... hoo boy, now at 6 months, all it takes is "Hey Graham!" and he's all gums! 

Did we mention that we feed him?  And he eats? 3/29/13.  Yes, his rolls have rolls.  Everyone loves a baby with rolls.

With the thaw, we had a chance to do some early spring geocaching.  I think this is the first time that I can recall Blake going geocaching and actually walking.  It was stunning.  I have hope yet for long hikes with my boys without someone saying, "Daddy, UP!"  It may still be a few years down the road, though.

An anonymous quilter at church made this quilt for Graham.  I love the fabrics and patterns, and think it's awesome that someone would go through all that trouble and not even take in the praise for their efforts!  

Ian's puppies started nesting, too.  Strange, Chester (not pictured), a mammal, went on to lay an egg this spring.  It was undoubtedly one of the most curious surprises of the season.

And here, last of all.  In preparation for Easter, we made these "Empty Tombs" for family night.  It was alot of fun to see that the dough covered marshmallow was transformed and the marshmallow (kind of) evacuated the tomb.  Not a perfect analogy, but the marshmallow seemed to disappear and these treats were very Yummy!