Four and a half?!?!

Geez this kid grows up too fast!  Today marks his 4.5 years on earth, which he was actually pretty excited about.  Dave continues to amaze us-he is just so funny and personable to be around.  He really cracks us up all the time and has incredible insight for being so young.

I asked him a couple of questions, and here they are:

Favorite Food-Banana
Favorite Song-"Pompeii" by Bastille
What he wants to be when he grows up-"Worker at Meijer, oh wait, I mean Walmart".
Favorite Book-Avengers
I really like video games
I really don't like to be bothered, especially while playing my video games

I have no clue about his career aspirations, and I am not sure why banana popped into his head (he only eats them occasionally).  He definitely loves that Bastille song, we even did some research about volcanoes and watched youtube videos of the Vesuvius eruption.  That kid sure loves his youtube!  He and Josh still watch the videos about Transformer toys (and many others) every night before bed.  And I won't get started about his video game obsession...just know that it is intense and he loooooves any Lego game.

He spends lots of time building stuff out of actual Legos and pretending scenes with his many action figures. Dave loves having conversations with adults and always asks everyone we see how they are doing, how their day has been, etc.  He has now finished with his first year of preschool, and will move up to Pre-K next year!

Last day of preschool (until next year).

At the graduation/promotion ceremony.  He did a great job!












Dave is really into jumping on our neighbor's trampoline, or "trampa" as he likes to call it.  I got him to do some sweet moves for me the other day.

My favorite one-practicing to be a superhero.

Trampoline time!

Stunning in some shades.












Have I mentioned how much he loves wearing sweats?  I am so glad it's finally warm enough to retire those for a while!  Dave has been sleeping a little better recently, usually staying in his own bed until around 4 or 5 before wanting to sleep with one of us.  However, he still gets up at the crack of dawn every morning...boo to that!  Praying for the day that he wants to sleep in!  He is super stubborn at times and can fuss and whine better than any other kid out there.  Usually, this whining results in multiple time outs and/or the loss of his video game.  That's also been getting better lately, so I am hoping that he is getting past this stage.

I'm pretty sure that he and Josh are constantly conspiring against me.  The other day I asked him something and he turned to Josh and said, "Mom's crazy isn't she?".  Haha, I think the cats out of the bag for that!  Anyway, he really is a great kid and it is such a joy being his parents!  He may tire us out with his constant questions and general craziness, but I wouldn't change him for the world.

Cousin Time

Last week we had the pleasure of spending some time with Brittany and the kids.  They are moving to southeastern Indiana soon, so it was great to get in some time with them before the move happens!  Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, so we were stuck inside the whole time, but we still had lots of fun.





Sophie and Dave playing blocks.














Zac trying to play the flute like the big kids.

Ike and Sophie being goofy on the couch.  He really loves hanging out with her!

Ike was not especially gentle with Zac.  And of course, he has no shirt.

Is it just me, or do these kids look a little too grown up lately?  

 Caleb and Ike became fast friends since Dave and Sophie were off in their own world.

Caleb was really excited to see the turtles.

They spent a lot of time just watching them.  Caleb was hoping to see one of them poop  :)







Caleb also got to try out our drumset...here's a video of him playing. 

We had so much fun playing with the cousins!  Sad to see them move a little further away, but we know it's a great opportunity (Chad got a head pastor job down there!).  We will just have to be more intentional about getting together!

Evansville for Mother's Day

We went down to Evansville for Mother's Day to visit with family and so Josh could participate in the yearly golf scramble with my mom, stepdad, and Tony.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate this year, but we still had a great time hanging out with family and celebrating all the moms!

 My present was a new camera!  Josh and the boys surprised me with a smaller camera that I can carry around all the time (which means more pictures of course!).






First picture with the new camera...  selfie

Dave using his photography skills.









No trip to Evansville is complete without a trip to Gatti Town.  This time my mom and Tony both came with us to enjoy the gloriousness that is a pizza buffet and arcade games!

Dave and Josh playing some kind of Batman game.

















Ike driving the Nascar. 









After Gatti Town, Dave went with Josh and Tony to Toys R Us.  Somehow Dave ended up with a super awesome Transformer courtesy of Uncle Tony.  Funny tidbit-Ike has started getting really good with people's names.  And his name for Tony is "Nona".  Which I just find hilarious. 

Dave and Josh posing with the new Transformer.

Ike and Uncle Nona playing in the pool.

Dave's present he made at preschool!  Lots more of these in my future  :)






Hope everybody had a great Mother's Day!  We had so much fun hanging out with my mom and my stepmom.  And we have gotten to spend some time with Josh's mom this week, so good times with all the moms in our lives.  :)

Ike Turns 19 Months

I am really getting behind on posts!  Almost two weeks late for Ike's monthly update...oops.  Our little guy is not so little anymore, and every time I look at him he seems to change!  







His monthly picture...a day late this time  :)













Ike has really started to mature lately.  For the most part, he is much more reasonable about sitting still through short things (like worship at church and going to the grocery store).  However, he has started experiencing some separation anxiety which is unfortunate for us!  Hoping he gets over that a little before we head to Vegas!

His vocabulary is coming right along.  I think my favorite Ike word is the one he uses interchangeably for lawn mower, grandma, and Elmo.  Unless you know the context, they all sound the same.  Although, he is usually saying lawn mower since that is his latest obsession.  When we were in Evansville last weekend, Ike and Dave both insisted that my dad take them on lawn mower rides.

 

Ike and Dave get along about as you would expect two young brothers to get along.  Basically they think each other is the best ever, until two minutes later when they are both screaming and Ike is sitting on Dave.  It sure is fun to watch them interact though! 


















Notice the fantastic child proofing (plastic bag tie) going on in the cabinet behind them.  I cannot wait until Ike quits getting into things!

Dave is physically unable to sit normally for a picture.

Ike spends most of his time sitting on this and watching out our front windows.

And he still loves the cozy coupe at Gamma's house.

Swimming for the first time this year.  And he's graduated to wearing floaties! 








Here is a video of Ike pointing out Dave's facial features while they were taking a bath the other day.

This and That

So, I have been slacking once again in the post department.  I'm gonna blame this one on the weather.  Either it's really nice and we are outside all day, or it's nasty and I am trying to convince Ike not to scream about going outside.  Fun stuff  :)

Anyway, I have some random stuff to update about, and here goes.

The week before Easter we took the boys to Marion to go hang out at the mall play area.  I dropped Josh and the kids off to go grocery shopping by myself.  As I was walking into the store, I got a call from Josh and it was a lady on the phone saying I needed to get back to the mall because Ike had hit his head and was bleeding.  Eeek, was that ever a difficult phone call to receive!!  I was totally that person cutting people off while driving so I could get back there fast.  

Ike's forehead had collided with a metal bench right in the middle of the mall, so Josh was dealing with quite the bloody mess, while also calming Ike down and making sure Dave stayed put.  Thankfully, a super nice lady (also a nurse) stopped and helped him!  By the time I got back, the bleeding had stopped, so Ike didn't have to get any stitches.  But it sure was a gash.

After we got home.

Grandma fixed him up with some steri strips and a bandaid.  Of course, he ripped those off immediately at bedtime.  After that, we upped our game with some nicer bandaids!  He is healing nicely now, and I don't think it will end up leaving much of a scar, so that's good.

Didn't affect his sunny disposition at all.

 One positive from this experience is that Ike now can say bandaid and boo boo.  Here's a video of him showing off that he knows where most of his facial features are.

Other Ike updates include his weird vocabulary.  Tonight at dinner he told me that something was spicy.  Not sure how he figured that one out!  And he insists that I sing him Katy Perry's "Roar" every night before bed.  I think I listen to too much pop radio  :)

The boys playing with chalk outside.

Dave is super into his Lego video games still and was talking about them to his friend Kyson, who lives a couple houses down from us.  He came over to play video games with Dave this week (since the weather was horrible!), and they ended up playing games for about 20 minutes and then played with toys the rest of the time. 

Glad to see playdoh is still more fun than gaming!

Posing with his transformers inspired lego robots.

Here's a video of Dave battling with his robots.  He mentions in the video that he is doing a "review" of his legos.  Josh and Dave watch this guy (Mitch Santona) review toys on youtube every night before bed, so Dave is constantly reviewing everything now.  I can't believe how old Dave looks lately.  And, he only has two weeks left of preschool this year...he's growing up too fast. 

Finally, yesterday we met Britt and Chad's family to celebrate Zac's first birthday.  I can't believe he's a year old already!  

 

Zac and Ike doing a little snacking before dinner.

Checking out his birthday cupcake.

Dave photobombed Zac's cake eating.

He ended up eating almost all of it!  They sure were tasty!











How's that for a random post?  Whew, it feels good to be caught up.  This weekend Josh is working, so we are hanging out at home.  But next weekend we are going to Evansville for Mother's Day and the golf scramble that Josh plays in with my mom and brother.  I am ready to get off campus for a bit!