Fabulous News All Around

This week was quite an amazing week in our house. First and foremost, Evan graduated from physical therapy this week! We suspected this was going to be the case, but, I didnt want to blow the surprise just in case. A couple weeks ago his physical therapist had indicated that Evan had met all his goals we set a year ago when we first started therapy. He was at or above Kindergarten level for all his gross motor skills! She suggested we take a week off and come back to make sure that Evan was maintaining his skill level without therapy during the week. And sure enough, we came back on Tuesday and Evan was doing just as fabulous. Our physical therapist is confident that Evan has built up enough muscle mass and acquired enough balance skills to see him through! We could not be more pleased with this news!!!! Evan is such a hard worker. He has patience and determination and never quits. This is evident in how far he has come in such a relatively short time period. Physical therapy was HARD for Evan. It was an hour workout every week where he would be sweating and exhausted at the end. Of course our therapist made it so much fun for him, but, still it wasn't easy. He is very proud of himself to say the least, and so he should be. I was absolutely beaming when I heard the news. Evan has already decided that he wants to take karate now that he is done with therapy and we have a free morning! I havent signed him up yet, but, I feel like my strong, coordinated boy deserves a shot at something he loves!!!

Secondly, this week we confirmed that Nathan is no longer allergic to milk! A month back now Nathan accidentally ate something that had milk in it. And he had no reaction. But, the milk content was so low that I just wasnt sure. Then over the past couple weeks we have been introducing things like yogurt, which is a "safer" milk product. Or things containing cheese. And yesterday I gave him straight cheese with no issues at all. All that is left is to give him milk in a cup. This makes cooking/eating/shopping for food so much easier for our family. Now all we have left is to outgrow the egg and nuts allergies!!! Fingers crossed.

Nathan's Two Year Pictures and the Boys' Fall Photos

We haven't been to get the boys' pictures done in 11 months! I once would not let a single holiday escape without a trip to the picture studio. However, with three boys its really, really hard to manage a photo shoot. I always feel bad for the photographer because not a single one of the boys likes to get their picture taken. At all. Today G and I went together to the studio and the boys were very cooperative (a little bribery never hurt anyone) and we managed to get a few decent shots!!! Happy Fall!!!

Photo Dump

The week's random photos:

At the park with Nathan, Justin and Evan. Nathan insisted on bringing sock monkey who got to swing too!
Playing hide and seek. What could be cuter than a group of 5 year olds playing hide and seek together?!
This is "brotherly love" at the park.
After the park there was the farm. Evan was clearly very tired and decided the pumpkins made a good place to rest.
Justin with the pumpkins.
Nathan wanted to lift ALL the pumpkins and got mad when he could not lift the larger ones, I tried explaining that only ants carry more than their body weight but he wasn't listening.
At the farm with our friends and their two boys Tyler and Brayden.
Nathan on the hay maze at the farm. He was really proud of himself.
Nathan ADORED the goats.
He could not and would not do anything but feed those goats once he saw them. It was true love.
At a playdate at a friend's house, tracing eachother on the driveway.
Afterwards it looked like a crime scene with all the little bodies outlined around the driveway.
Running around in our friend's yard.

Nathan tried really hard to blow bubbles, but, he still needs to perfect his technique.I love this picture of Nathan contemplating the bubbles.
At our favorite library, isnt it so beautiful in there?
Wondering what this beautiful flower is? From our yard.
Evan playing football in the yard.
Nathan and Evan playing football together in the yard. Please ignore the mess in the background while we finish our shed project.
Blueberry bushes! For my birthday my parents bought me 12 blueberry bushes for our yard!!!! We replaced some of the flowers and bushes near the fence with the blueberry bushes in hopes of having a huge crop in the coming few years!!! YUM.
A newly rediscovered toy, a hotwheels track. It took Nathan watching us show him how it worked ONCE to mater the technique.
My crazy boys.

Videos of Nathan Talking

A couple short videos of Nathan talking. I have been wanting to get him saying Lightning McQueen on video for awhile now. Its just so darn cute.

Photo Dump

I take alot of pictures. And only a small portion of those make it into my blog. So, Im going to try and start dumping a bunch of our random pictures that dont make it into our daily blog here.

I made this artwork for the boys' playroom. I got the idea online. It was fun but a very messy project. Before you get too impressed, it isnt hung yet :)
I found Nathan hanging out like this the other day. Binky, monkey and crammed into a toy bucket. He seemed comfortable.
Justin took this picture of me because I was standing next to my favorite color wall while we were bowling. He also told me he would NOT want a wall that color in our house. Sigh - life with boys.
Evan with a giant jaw breaker in his mouth.
Nathan in the town firetruck at the firehouse open house. Funny thing, the little boy standing behind him is my friend from middle school's son who we bumped into unexpectedly, I love our small town feel!
Dyeing rice for a project.
Deer in our garden, now I know what ate all my zucchini plants at the end of the season, next year a better fence!!!!
My hat I crocheted for winter.
Nathan in an epic meltdown. Face bright red. Tears. But still holding on to his binky!
A look and find I made for the boys!
My birthday cupcakes YUMMMMMMMMMYYYY!!!!!!!!!
Evan and Nathan, this is a sweet photo, not staged, of the two of them. They are such buddies.
Nathan sporting some Fall clothes, finally getting to break them out with the cooler weather!

Fall flowers, some of the last from our garden for the year, sob.

Happy October!

This weekend our family split up and had some "big kids" vs. "baby" fun. G was taking Nathan to a concert to see a "baby show" that the boys had no interest in. So, I decided to plan some fun "big kid" only activities with Evan and Justin. We made a list of all the fun things we like to do that we can't with the baby in tow. Then we did them!

The first on the boys' list was mini golf. A recipe for disaster with the baby. The big boys however, had a blast!!! We also did the pitching machine and batting cages at the golf place. Justin can pitch 27 mph balls and Evan pitched 24 mph balls! It was so much fun!!

After mini golf we met up with my parents for lunch at one of the boys' favorite restaurants, the Weathervane. Resturants with the baby are a nightmare for many reasons: food allergies, short attention spans, etc. This was a real treat.

Then the boys and I went big ball bowling (something you could NEVER do with a baby). Justin is quite the bowler! He got SIX spares in one game. It was such a fun day. Im so happy I got to spend some special time with my older boys. Im thinking we need to make this a tradition of sorts!!!

And meanwhile...at the concert...Nathan and G during the concert:

The cast:
G and John and the kiddos:

G brought Nathan to his first concert! He went with his friend John, his wife and their daughter who is the same age as Nathan. If you don't know what Yo Gabba Gabba is I envy you, and also implore you to watch some on you tube. Nathan LOVED it! He sat enthralled for the entire show not nearly even shifting in his chair except to "break it on down" (thats part of the Yo Gabba Gabba lingo). They had amazing 3rd row seats which was a real treat for the kiddos!!

Nathan had his first dentist appointment this week. I have no pictures of the event though, because my hands were wrapped around Nathan's squirmy body in the dentist chair. Loving the dentist as much as you know I do, you can believe that the whole experience was much more traumatic for me than Nathan. I love our dentist though, he is so practical and great. Having a daughter the same age as Nathan there was no "is he flossing?" or "its time to give up the pacifier" discussions because LETS BE REAL, those things are not happening in our house. Any nearly two year old parent will understand. Nathan had no cavities and has one killer overbite (there is some technical term for this which is something like you-will-owe-thousands-in-orthodontics but I cant remember). And so begins our every 6 month trips to the chair. I figure, with three children now on regular visits, Im actually at the dentist 6 times a year, or every other month, which is a whole lotta dental visits for someone who breaks into a cold sweat just typing these words. The things we do for love and good teeth.

We have been trading sickness around our house for a few weeks now. That combined with all the rainy dreary weather has made for some long days. Im hoping that the sun comes out and I can air out the house to let these germs all out!!!

Nathan at the concert: