It's a Mad Mad Mad Van Boerum World

Random summer pics (or what we've been up to for the past 3 monthes)

2009-08-23T17:00:00.001-07:00

So here I am playing catch up again:) The following pics pretty much sum up what we've been up to this summer. In May Braden graduated from his first year of preschool. Me and three other moms did a co-op where we rotated on a weekly basis. It was great and Braden had a wonderful time. I was in charge of graduation at our house, let's just say it was bitter sweet seeing the end of the year:)

Here's Jacob exhibiting a fairly normal Sunday afternoon at our house (or pretty much any afternoon at our house) dressed in jams and whatever costume he wants to wear. Braden was Batman that day and Gavin sported his own Batman costume. Jacob is Super Jacob, but that's not really a costume is it, he's super every day!

We got out and did a lot of fun things mostly because my good friend Shawna organized some super awesome outings. Here is Braden and his best friend Bradley at the Airplane Museum. They had everything from very old wooden planes to the capsule from one of the Discovery shuttles. The tour guide was a very nice old man who had probably flown a lot of these planes, unfortunately he moved a little too fast and breezed past many of the things the kids would have loved to see. In the back however was a whole Jay Jay the Jet Plane playland that the kids got to run around in and in the very back they had the nose of an actual Southwest plane that they could go up in and play around, they had a lot of fun. At one point it was only Braden and Jacob up in the nose of the plane and when Braden came down by himself, I asked him where Jacob was. He told me he was still up there but I couldn't see him so I went to investigate and I found Jacob locked in the bathroom, and we wonder why Jacob beats up on Braden...

June and July were actually really rainy (well for Texas anyways) so I let the boys take advantage of this blessed event and get dirty:) They loved running in the pubbles and were absolutely soaked and filthy by the time they got in but very very happy:)

We also spent a lot of time at the library in June and July. Braden and Jacob both participated in the summer reading club. Braden finished rather quickly, he loved reading Spiderman and Magic Tree House and Berenstein Bears and pretty much anything to do with trains and baseball. Jacob on the other hand would sit still for about 5 minutes and than run off if I was not giving him exclusive reading attention. But he did finally finish and they both got to pick out new books at the library. The boys loved going into the teen room at the library where they could play chess and sit in the super plush chairs and 'jam out' to some tunes:)

On another adventure we met some friends at a park in Plano and than rode the DART train down a couple stops and then back again. Braden insisted on bringing his back pack so he could show KP his scriptures and when we got off to switch trains, he left it on the train. We were just heart broken when we realized what had happened. We headed back to the park and had a picnic lunch and played. As we were finishing up , a lady we had chatted to on the train and my friend Melissa had just happened to tell her what our plans were, came up with Braden's back pack. The Lord was definately watching out for Braden that day!

We've spent a lot of time at the park on any day that wasn't so hot you could fry eggs on the sidewalk:) here we are at the park by Grandma VB's house playing with our friends Wade and Traten. Our favorite park by far is the rocketship park with a 3 story rocket structure with huge slides coming off the top and ride on rockets. When given a choice, that's what the boys pick:)

On another fun outing Shawna set-up we went to the police station and then later to the firestation. The boys loved seeing the police car and the fire trucks and the officers were all super friendly and helpful.

Here's Gavin at our last trip to the park. I was letting him crawl around and enjoy the park from the ground, when Braden picked him up(he thinks he's so big to do that) and plopped him onto the bottom of the slide. What does Gavin automatically do? He climbed up the slide! I couldn't believe it, but hey why not, he climbs everything else:)

So that's pretty much what we've been up to this summer. Oh yeah and swimming swimming and more swimming, but with 3 kids, who has time to take pics of kids in the pool, so just imagine with me or a minute. Braden has on his spiderman goggles and is spending 90% of his time underwater and swimming all over the place, Jacob hangs out where the water only gets about 6 inches deep or clinging to whoever has dragged him away from his safety zone and Gavin is kicking and squirming like crazy to get away from you so he can get swimming too, he's definately going to be a little fish like Braden. So that's about it for us, I think we're all ready for school to start, or maybe that's just me:)

Happy Birthday Gavin

2009-08-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Gavin! I can't believe my baby's turning 1! What a joy and blessing (and trial) Gavin has been for our family over the past year, he just lights up the room with his happy smile (or brings chaos and destruction with his demanding screaming but we won't go there today:) Here are some highlights from the big day:

When Gavin woke up he immeiately got to play with 'new' toys that we had pulled down from the attic, I'm not sure if Gavin or Braden was more excited to see the animal train return from the attic, but Gavin definately enjoyed the 5 minutes he could steal it away from Braden and he loved the steering wheel toy, but he loved screaming into the microphone the most I think:) Gavin also got his first taste of cow juice. I think the video says it all:) After a yummy pancake breakfast he got to go to the doctor that morning and get his happy birthday shots(:( ) He weighed in at just over 20 lbs and 28 1/2 inches. Still kinda runty down in the bottom percentiles but to me he is so big and just perfect:)

Braden and Jacob loved wishing Gavin a happy birthday all day long (they definately get that from their dad) and they loved helping dad decorate for the party that night, they also insisted that everyone wear a party hat and in some cases 2.

To say the least Gavin LOVED his birthday cake (he also loved the bath afterward). He got lots of beautiful clothes from Grandma VB, some new jams and cars from Aunt Kristie and a zylophone from Auntie Laura. Gavin is so blessed by all the wonderful people in his life and we in turn are blessed to have him. It was indeed a very happy birthday.

My Happy Gavin

2009-08-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

Gavin is a happy baby pretty much most the time, he is such a joy in our family and we are so grateful that we get to have him with us. Here are a couple pics of him over the past few monthes as he's grown and grown and grown.

Here's Gavin at 81/2 monthes, loving his blanket. He's absolutely enamored with his afghan from Grandma VB(not pictured:) Every night when we take him up for bed, his face lights up as soon as he sees it and then he grabs it and shoves his face into it. I've never seen a kid so happy to go to bed:)More happy babyHere's Gavin enjoying our walk in the woods. Braden and Jacob love sitting in the rocker Great Grandma Lichtenberg gave us, that used to belong to her dad when he was little, so it came as no surprise when Gavin wanted to jump in and have a ride too:)10 1/2 monthes, notice the bruises starting to form, he's in to everything!Here's my sweet baby, tired out from all his playing with brothers, he crawled into his room, pulled my afghan off the chair and fell asleep on the floor. Night night Gavin, we love you!

Laughing

2009-05-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's so wonderful when Braden and Jacob get along and super great when they find ways to entertain each other:) Here Braden is 'entertaining' Jacob. What's so great about this is that is carried on for about 20 minutes and Jacob was still belly laughing as hard at the end as he was at the beginning. In fact I just showed him the video again and he still laughed every time Braden popped out on the screen. Hope he brightens your day like he does ours:)

To Infinity and Beyond

2009-05-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

We love Buzz! Jacob loves to run around as Buzz and the swings just add a whole new level of fun to this game! Enjoy!

Shannan

2009-05-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce my amazing friend Shannan to everyone. There is really no better way to describe her than incredible! She is super gifted and super creative an awesome mom and she will share the best recipes ever with you. I love her and miss her deeply! It has often been heard said in my house "because Shannan said so" whenever Paul questions something I've said (which he is learning not to do:) She is truly the domestic goddess. Love ya Shannan!

P.S. Shannan is also hosting a giveaway on her blog right now which did motivate me to write this post but in absolutely NO WAY invalidates or influences ANYTHING above mentioned. Go check her out at: http://thejohnsonsjungle.blogspot.com/

This is for you Kris!

2009-04-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

This post is 95% for our dear Aunt Kristie for kicking my butt and getting me to FINALLY post again:) It's not that I don't like to post or don't have fun pics of my darling children, but life is just BUSY! Or maybe I'm just a slacker, either way here's what we've been up to since January (and I'm sure many of you will be relieved to see that my life no longer centers on Gavin's sleeping habits:)

In January we went and visited the dinosaurs at the Heard Museum and they were AWESOME! They had one that spit water that the boys carefully avoided and a life size T-Rex (it also roared and moved) that instilled proper fear into my dear Braden, if only I could figure out how to do that at home...
This is what the face of fear and awe look like...January also brought rice cereal back into our lives, mushy disgusting nasty rice cereal. But we love it because it also meant that Gavin was FINALLY sleeping through the night and I was finally sane again, so life was good, and Gavin didn't seem to mind, but he also didn't know any better:) This face would later be joined by grunts and screams any time the spoon took more than 5.2 seconds to re-enter his hungry little mouth. He's really intense about his food!

This picture is really 100% for Kristie, look SNOW in TEXAS, really it's true! AND there's enough for Braden to attempt to make a snow angel. It was a REALLY exciting day:)

Jacob loves and adores Gavin, sometimes I worry that he will love Gavin a little too much. This morning Braden was off at pre-school and Jacob really got to step into the big brother role (Braden can sometimes be a teensy weensy bit over bearing, you never would have guessed:) I had Gavin propped up in the bean bag and Jacob proceeded to bring down all his stuffed animals AND Braden's special blanket just for Gavin. Then he got cow and entertained Gavin with his cow puppet. He's such a sweet brother!

February brought carrots to our house again and as much as we love the rice cereal, thank heavens for solid food that at least resembles in some form real food. Gavin was a little unsure at first and than decided that they were much better than rice cereal so he better eat them. That lasted about 2-3 weeks until he realized the rest of us didn't have to eat everything smushed to a pulp and than he started demanding proper table food. At first we didn't know what was going on and were just beside ourselves that at 7 monthes he was so demanding and picky, but we don't call him the Gavinator for nothing, the little tyrant:)

I just had to post this next pic so everyone can see how much trouble these two really are. They thought it would be really funny to take all the condiments out of the fridge door and stack them on the counter. They were giggling like crazy so I finally came and checked on them and they were so proud of their mischevious little selves. It was at that point that I gave up, got Paul to clean everything up while I grabbed the camera, dear sweet wonderful children...

March was just gorgeous and so we hit the park A LOT! We found this awesome one tucked away that had great walking trails and huge trees and lots of great exploring fun. This is Gavin's first adventure in the swing, Let's just say he LOVED it to put it mildly:)

This was Jacob's first venture in the big boy swing and he was so proud of his clever little self. Braden helped me push both of the boys, he's loves to help mom, cause that's what big guys do, and superheros, which is what he is:)

And here is Braden giving me my first heart attack of the day as he jumped like 2 feet from one bench to the other. I swear I could already hear the ambulence coming for his poor cracked head. But Braden is a REALLY good jumper (Dear Dad, we really really really need a trampoline. Love, the couches)

In April our ward did a family temple trip activity. Both Braden and Jacob immediatly and excitedly pointed out the Angel Moroni. They were so well behaved with Braden helping us keep close tabs on Jacob, he really does help out so well with Jacob, I just love that kid! Aren't they all just so adorable:)

And finally here's my Gavinator in the bath. I can't believe how well he's sitting up all by himself! He's gotten SO big and he's doing so many things but he'll always be my sweet baby:)

So that's pretty much been our life for the past couple of monthes, just busy growing our wonderful sweet family and trying to stay sane while doing it! Hope you enjoyed the post Kris, hopefully I'll be better about doing it now, we love ya!

Braden's First Crush

2009-01-13T20:37:00.001-08:00

It's finally happened, at just over 4 Braden has developed his very first sweet little crush. He has of course picked a beautiful girl with lovely red hair just like himself. He talks about her non stop and we do word search games that are filled with her name and we color pictures of her. Who is you ask, why that would be Daphne Blake of Scooby Doo fame:) Admittedly we have been watching A LOT of scooby doo and I assumed my kids would just really like that crazy dog and his crazy companions and little did I know that he would find love. Of course don't tell Braden he just says, "Mom did you know I like Daphne, she's so pretty mom" Not sure if this is healthy or not but at least he has good taste!

Sleep

2008-12-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning at 7:15, not at 4:45 and then back to bed again, but 7:15. What is even better is that I woke to the sound of Paul reminding me that it was time to get up, not to the sound of hysterical crying baby demanding attention. In fact I didn't even hear hysterical demanding baby until 8:35. Let me recap, Gavin went to bed at about 10:15 last night and I didn't have to get up with him, hear him or attend to his every need until 8:35 the next morning, THAT IS OVER 10 HOURS PEOPLE! I got to get up, get ready, and eat breakfast all before attending to his needs. I just wanted to share this blessed day with ya'll. Much sleep to everyone out there!:) (Of course Gavin would do this right after I write about him being a difficult kid, really he's just trying to be, well, difficult:)

The Gavinator vs the Jumper

2008-12-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

As many of you are quite aware, Gavin is a ......special baby, perhaps better described as 'high maintnance'. He insists on pretty much constant bouncing and patting and attention while he's awake (which is not easy when there's 3) and then he only sleeps for 45 min-1 hour on average. He sleeps 7-9 hours through the night before feeding again and he demands that you stand and rock and bounce and pat while holding him in just the right position so he can scream at you for about 10 minutes before he will finally fall asleep no earlier than 10:00 (on a good day, but it's better than midnight which is what it used to be) This past week has been especially difficult with very fussy awake periods and very short naps, I have been exhausted by the sheer energy required to calm this teeny tiny little man, so it was much to my relief today when we discovered...the jumper.

At first he was a little unsure about this new bouncy thing

But then his brothers stepped in to show him all the many options this new toy offered. First Braden bounced him very gently. Jacob grabbed on and bounced him very un-gently and was asked to play with something else. Then Braden pushed Gavin to make him swing, he had to be told a couple of times to be gentle. Then he spun him like a tire swing and let him fly, he was very quickly told NOT to do this again. Gavin survived the ride and secretly I think he may have really liked it:) It was really fun to see the boys 'playing' together

After the help from his brothers, Gavin REALLY liked the swing and was actually bouncing himself. I'm really quite impressed for a 31/2 month old first time bouncer. I think this could mean trouble, but I'm not sure yet. Oh well, at least he's happy:)

But finally play time was over and the jumper came out victorious. I realized things had gotten quiet, too quiet, so I peeked over at Gavin and this is how I found him:I was so happy I almost cried. He hadn't screamed or even fussed, he had simply fallen asleep without any help at all from mom. So today I am thankful to whoever invented the johnny jumper that finally exhausted the fight out of our little Gavinater.

Horn Spanking

2008-12-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

Whenever we are out driving Paul always feels it necessary to inform drivers on the road how reckless or absentminded they are by what has lovingly been referred to at our house as a 'horn spanking'. Braden has taken careful note of everything dad does. So Thursday we were at our favorite local Kroger where they have the blessed car cart that keeps my kiddos somewhat occupied while I try to get through the store without an extra box of yummy-o's tossed in my cart. After we had somehow managed to make it through the store past the tempting candy displays and through the checkout, Braden hopped aboard the car cart with Jacob and the two sat in there giggling their heads off as they 'drove' the cart. Trouble started as we headed into the parking lot. As we walked to the car I heard honking coming from the car cart and when I asked what they were doing, Braden said they were giving all the naughty drivers horn spankings, of course. When we got to the car Braden then proceeded to hop up on top of the car cart and direct Jacob in who to horn spank, and not just the cars. As people walked by Braden would point and say get 'em Jacob! and Jacob would of course oblige and horn spank these poor innocent bystanders. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or melt into the pavement at the activities if these mischevious little guys, ahhhh boys.

Stickers

2008-11-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

So this post is a shout out to all the old Brownstone friends. Braden and Jacob were playing at the table this morning (getting horribly disfigured by the markers) when Braden walks over with a James sticker on his forehead and says "here mommy, here's a Percy sticker for you." Immediately I knew I too was expected to place the sticker on my forehead and in the same instant I was taken back many many many years ago to a Sunday afternoon spent in apt. 17 watching Veggie Tales and you guessed it with a sticker on my forehead. I really can't remember what induced a lovely group of sensible people to sit around with stickers on our forheads but I'm pretty sure it was all Eric's idea. Even worse, what made us think that capturing that moment on film was a good idea, but we did it anyway and now here it is back to haunt us and remind us of a time when we did silly things probably just because everyone else was doing it. And now as I write this post, have I learned from my past, absolutely not:) Here I sit again with a Percy sticker on my forhead because I still love to do silly things sometimes and more importantly because I love Braden and I wouldn't want him to miss out on silly days gone by. So here's a walk down memory lane for some of you and a good laugh for others.And now to see how life really doesn't change so much fast forward to today...Even with stickers on their heads they are still oh so handsome!

Super October

2008-11-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

October is such a busy month for us! It all started with Braden's birthday. It was a very Thomas birthday full of trains and games.

Then there was Braden's Super Hero birthday party. It was pretty super if I do say so myself! We had a bunch of his friends over and just let them run around in the back yard and pumped them full of sugary goodness. Braden kept asking to play duck duck goose and hide and seek so we attempted to get a group of 3-4 year olds to play. I loved all the 'hiding' places the kids came up with and without fail at least 3 would be crammed into our 'bat cave'. Of course super hero capes were provided:)

Braden and Bradley had loads of fun playing Batman and Robin together, they continually kept Joker and Penguin from ruining our party:)

Next up in October came Jacob's birthday on the 19th. Paul was horrified that we didn't throw a huge party for him(it's the younger brother syndrome), but hey he's two, he'll be happy as long as there's cake and presents and both were in ready supply:)

Note the huge scab on his nose, 5 days earlier he tried to run away from me as we were leaving Grandma Wood's house and he tripped over his feet and ate the cement. This is actually looking much better than it did than. Jacob got lots of great gifts, but he especially loves Mr. Potato Head, thanks Aunt Kristie!

Gavin also turned 2 monthes old on the 19th. He's really losing the newborn look. Even more exciting, he's starting to coo and talk and smile and laugh. Newborns are cute but I love this way more.

Braden LOVES being a big brother!So October was shaping up to be a pretty fun month full of festivities, and then THIS happened... About 10:30 pm on October 25th, Paul was out in the backyard cleaning up his tools after a long day full of yard projects, when he heard a long screeching of brakes and looked up just in time to see a car crash through our fence, narrowly missing the tree tower. He rushed over to see if everyone was ok. There was a loud hissing sound coming from the man's car and he was telling him to turn his car off when he realized that the man had run over our gas meter, severing it at the ground, and the sound, that sounded like a car running, was gas spewing out of the pipes! We ran inside and grabbed the kids and got across the street as fast as we could. All we could do was pray and wait for the boom. Luckily emergency crews got there pretty fast and they had the leak shut off within about an hour and a half. It was about one in the morning when they finally cleared our house but we still decided to stay with Paul's parents that night. The man was arrested for intoxication and we were without hot water, stove, oven and heat for 5 days (this was not how I wanted to spend MY birthday, but who needs a hot shower anyways:). It was an adventure we hope never to repeat but we are so grateful for the Lord's protection through it all and the kindness of all our friends and neighbors.

Despite all the excitement we did still make it to church the next morning so Braden could participate in his very first primary program (he was splendid).

We finally got gas back on just in time for the next round of festivities. Braden has been watching Peter Pan almost non-stop for the past couple of weeks and was very excited about dressing up and trick-or treating. This is his Super Peter Pan costume. He wore it regulary in the days preceding Halloween.

Jacob on the other hand did not understand how much candy was at stake and was NOT excited to get dressed up. It was a fight I was determined to win and he thanked me later, or least he would have if he wasn't only 2.

Here's a picture of the pumpkins because of course we have to take one of these EVERY year. This year was a bit different because Uncle Jeff wasn't in the picture showing off his picture with dad:( Those two LOVE to carve pumpkins! Instead, this year I got a turn to carve a pumpkin 'with Jacob', a tribute to his love for Scooby Doo (It won the most original pumpkin prize at our ward's fall festival:) Paul's was pretty good too:)And here's what the boys did after trick or treating and mom's-first-attempt-at-from-scratch pumpkin pie.

This would be my sweet and affectionate boys watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" just as their father before them, ahhhh...traditions:)

The next day was my sister's wedding reception (She actually got married back in June so Francois' immigration paperwork would be easier). Doesn't she look pretty:)

And then the day after we had Gavin's baby blessing.

He looks so happy, can't you tell?:) We were really grateful for all the family we could have with us for this and especially grateful that my Grandpa could be there to stand in the circle with Paul as he gave Gavin a name and blessing.

So October and a little into November have been rather crazy for us. Fortunately now we'll have some down time, at least until Thanksgiving and then it'll be crazy around here straight on into Christmas!