Almost 6 month'er who is sitting.... and VERY chatty boys

I don't have a lot of time to do this post so I am going to try keep it short as I have a TON of pictures to share. But one thing I must share concerning the whole family..... we are all settled into our new rooms. Our closet is finished so all of our clothes are moved in and we have been "living" in there for about a month. After the carpets were cleaned we moved MacKay and Oscar into our old bedroom (which is pretty sparse as we are waiting to figure out where everything is going to go) and Evie into the boys' old room. We moved up my old Ethan Allen dresser to put in the boys' new master closet to hold all their clothes and double as a changing stand... and moved the matching twin bed (to the dresser) into Evie's room as a spare bed for us/guests to sleep etc. So we seem to be pretty settled and things are going well. We even stuck up some Thomas the Train adhesives in the boys' room (something I swore I would never do as I have pretty simple tastes) but they LOVE them and love pointing out each character as they know them all.

Some details on Evie to start.... she is almost 6 months and a couple weeks ago she started sitting up on her own. Who knows, maybe she could have done it a month ago.... but just a few weeks ago I decided to prop her up sitting on the floor and she just sat there. She's doing pretty good at it now and I think in total has only flopped over a handful of times...... tho if left too long she will start to get tired and fold like a taco. The boys were so proud of her when she sat up and were pointing and sitting next to her .... it was pretty cute to see them excited for her. She's rolling around quite a bit too.... and seems to prefer being on her tummy (vs back) when playing now. And in general is still a pretty laid back and happy baby. She really only cries (and man, she does have some power in those pipes when she wants to) when we get her bottle to her late. She's been napping like a champ in her crib ... and right from day one. I was doing the "no no" of letting her nap in her swing most days before she got her own room/crib, and was nervous about making that transition but she seems to be very good at falling asleep on her own. We're thinking of starting solids (cereal) next weekend, so that will be exciting. She's already had some experience sitting in her (the boys' old) high chair while the boys have lunch at their new "big boy table." Pretty soon we have another photo shoot with Trina Sutton (LuminousPrints.com) and I am excited to get some new shots of her sitting up in her little tutu again :)

MacKay and Oscar are our little chatter boxes. Not only are they copying things we say, but amazingly they are putting together sentences of their own AND saying words that I don't EVER remember working on them with. They will just all of a sudden point at something and say what it is... and it isn't something we've consciously "worked" on with them, but more something they have just observed in passing conversation with us. They are so amazing to me. They LOVE to read and are constantly climbing up on us saying "Read.. Book".... sometimes followed by a "Peez" (Please) :) They are understanding rules and enforcing them by telling each other not to hit, bite, no no etc.... in fact the other day I was holding Evie who was slapping my arm and MacKay walked up to us and looked at Evie and said "No hit, Evie." They love to tell each other what to do too... .just today as I was getting them together to head out to our re-fi closing Oscar was saying "Come on 'Tay, Let's Go." They surprise me daily. And MacKay..... LOVES to color. He probably whips out his coloring stuff 3x a day. Tho I must clarify... loves to color DINOSAUR pictures. It started with his Toy Story coloring book... he found the picture of Rex and colored it to the point where it was starting to tear. And now he won't color anything but a picture of a dinosaur, usually T-Rex... but he loves to color and is getting very good at putting the caps back on the markers and picking up after himself. They boy are learning their colors quickly this way too. They will pick up a marker and bring it over and tell us what color it is... or ask if they are unsure.

They are now sitting at what we call the "big boy table" (my old kitchen table) that we moved up to the dining room just for them. They graduated from their high chairs and now sit on boosters at the table. The only challenge really has been teaching them that all food stays on their plate... before they had that tray on the high chair that they could do anything with, so that is new for them and we're working on that. We also are working on them drinking out of real cups too. Oscar took to it immediately. MacKay tried it here and there but got embarrassed and frustrated easily when he would spill and then would refuse to drink of out it for a while.... when he would finally try a day or two later again the same thing would happen and his pride would get the best of him. But lately he has been doing really well at it with no recent spills... so I think we are good to go on that one.

Well there is so much more to share but I really want to wrap this up and get the pictures out here for you as there are SO many this time. I really need to get better at paring these down .....

Daddy with his kiddos. Reading to Oscar and MacKay (in their prized Thomas the Train PJs) and hanging out with Evie in the recliner.

I'm a horrible mother I know..... I took the picture before consoling her (tho it only took a few seconds)... but this is such a rare thing to see that I had to capture it. Evie just doesn't cry that often, at least not hard core like this picture.

Oscar and MacKay drinking out of cups (love the look on MacKay's face like "I won't drink if you snap that")... and going to town on Mac n Cheese (one of their favorites lately)

Our little artists .... the boys coloring their pictures. Of course Oscar with a picture of a train, and MacKay with his usual dinosaur picture. (I've had to print out multiple pictures of THIS particular dinosaur coloring page cuz it seems to be the only one he ever wants to color).

MacKay coloring.... had to include these of MacKay as he was walking around the house coloring like this (like someone taking notes or an order) in his Toy Story book (Rex) until we could get him some other dinosaur coloring pages. Lastly, we very often find MacKay coloring like this. He will go get a big book to put under his coloring page too (like we showed him once) and will lie down next to his picture and color away.

Some early pictures of lil Evie sitting up (more later too)

Just a cute picture of Oscar.... we were cooking dinner and all of a sudden realized he wasn't in the living room playing like we thought and ran around looking for him. Quickly saw him as we turned the corner.... he was sitting by the front door on this chair with his little stethoscope just smiling at us.

Evie having fun in her exersaucer ... she loves this thing, especially when the boys rally around her and help her play with the toys. She laughs so hard at them.

The boys' new love..... Yoplait Trix yogurt. Couldn't get them to eat much a while back.. but now can't seem to get them enough of it.

More coloring. We set up the coloring stuff at their big boy table. MacKay colored away but Oscar was more interested in his ability to stand the markers up on their ends

Lunch time at the Hoglund house looks much like this.... MacKay and Oscar goofing off entertaining Evie. On this particular day the house was just full of squealing and laughter.. what a good day.

MacKay and Oscar enjoying their first ENTIRELY self fed meal of waffles and syrup. Usually we will hold the plate for them to fork their pieces off of (to minimize messes and sticky stuff everywhere). But it was time to trust them and let them go at it... which they did very well at. Oscar HAS to fork up at least 2 pieces at a time, and MacKay loves to smear his pieces in as much syrup as humanly possible.

Boys will be boys .... and here they are being just that. They came across their winter boots in the closet and since then just HAVE to wear their boots all morning.

Some more pictures of Evie.... sitting up, hamming it up, grabbing her feet etc.

MacKay and Oscar have this obsession with vacuums, brooms and mops. Here they are playing with the broom and mop from their cleaning cart .... I hope this fetish doesn't end before the time where they could actually lend a hand in cleaning the house. At this point, if there were a little older they would be quite useful around the house. :)

MacKay and Oscar were pretty excited to see their old top spin toy and bongo drums ... but pretty confused when they were intended for Evie. Tho they were very gentle and showed her how to use them. They were also full of hugs as you will see..... tho not the best pictures, I find them utterly hilarious when I look at the expressions on Evie's face as she is being "loved up" by her brothers. :)

Come back soon....

Happy 2010

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season ... and hope you all got our Xmas card. If not, get a hold of me on Facebook or email and get me your address as we have extras, and will get you on the list for future mailings :) We had a wonderful (and busy) holiday season... as usual running around to all our families' get togethers, and there are a lot of them to hit. We celebrated Xmas Eve with Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Dean (Hoglund) and family - as usual the boys raked in the gifts, and so did Evie as this was her first Xmas. The highlight for the boys this year were the Dyson vacuums they got.... Oscar hasn't put his down since. It is like an all out war trying to pry his fingers off of it when we need him to eat or sleep :) They also got these awesome Schwinn Roadster trikes that are going to be so fun for them in the spring once we get our driveway paved. And Evie scored with a bunch of cute outfits and her Sophie the Giraffe teething toy that she just absolutely loves. As usual, Santa stopped by to visit and deliver presents ... MacKay was his usual stand-off'ish self and wouldn't have anything to do with him (tho we did get him to give Santa "knuckles" before he left), but Oscar seemed pretty curious about the jolly fellow and waited his turn to sit on his lap and receive his gift (toy guitars). Evie even snuck in a picture sitting with Santa for the first time. After the celebration with the Hoglunds we headed to Grandma Chris's (my mom) to spend the night and then celebrate Xmas day with my side of the family. I would have to say the highlight for the boys there were the tons of Thomas/train and Dinosaur books and their beloved Thomas PJs that Gma Chris bought them ... and of course the dinosaurs that their Uncle Dennis got for them. MacKay couldn't tear through the paper fast enough when he peered through a little hole and saw what was in there... but as soon as he got it out and took a good look at it he sorta was taken aback by it and wasn't sure how "friendly" it was. Oscar did the same thing with his and slowly kept taking steps backwards saying "Niiiice..... niiiice..." :) So glad we captured that on video. Gpa Gary and Gma Terry had visited us up in Brainerd (to check out the changes to the house) earlier that week and had brought the boys' Xmas gifts with... and they loved their Thomas outfits - fully equipped with Thomas puffy jackets, shirts and cargo pants. They immediately wanted to try them on. Evie got some fun toys and dolls.... but Gma Chris gave us a GC to buy Evie her very own convertible car seat - which we're hoping she won't need to go into until spring. That quickly got used and we now have her carseat in the basement, waiting til we need to make the switch. Then Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Gma Diane's for Xmas with his mom's side of the family. The boys had a great time with everyone (despite they skipped their nap - tho MacKay started getting pretty cranky right before we left and tanked out in the car ride home). The kiddos raked in even more gifts (you had to see our suburban packed full for the ride home)... one particular highlight being some Cookie Monster shirts that Gma Diane got for the boys. After being washed and put away in their dresser, Oscar saw it one morning and wouldn't be appeased with any other clothes - just HAD to wear his "Coooo Keee" shirt. MacKay proudly ran out of the room to show me after Chris put his on too. And Evie got a really cute personalized quilt that will come in handy when she finally gets her own room (which should be soon). Well, that about wraps up Xmas. Onto some more fun stuff.

Good news..... we are moved into our new master suite. YAY. We are having the carpets cleaned in our old room and the boys' current room (Evie's new room) on Monday (1/4) and after that happens we can move the boys into our old master suite and then finally work to get Evie into her own room. IT'S ABOUT TIME eh? :) I really am liking the new set up ... it took a bit to get used to (especially a new bathroom), but I am so glad we did this vs trying to find another house that would work for us.

Let's start with some Evie updates..... Evie is now EXACTLY (as of today) FIVE MONTHS OLD. Wow, the time sure flies. She is now down to 4 bottles daily (started that right before Xmas as she wasn't seeming hungry when I was offering her 5 daily, every three hours) .... about 4 hours apart and ~8 ounces each. And she's starting to develop a schedule (for eating, play and napping) that I can somewhat rely on and plan around... which is nice when your household is as chaotic as ours is. She still is teething like crazy and cramming her fingers/fists in her mouth every chance she gets. She also hit another milestone..... on Xmas (12/25) at my mom's, she rolled over from belly to back for the first time. We all watched her do it (she's been trying to do it for so long and getting SOOO close) ... and since then she is a rolling machine, constantly flipping back and forth all over the place. I don't think she gets that it is a mode of transport yet, but at least it keeps her happy as she has more freedom to be in the positions she wants to be in. She spends a lot of time in her exersaucer too - building up her leg strength and playing with all the toys on it. And she is getting very good at standing on our laps for long periods. She is constantly smiling, and giggling at her goofy brothers when they try to entertain her.

MacKay and Oscar... what little chatter boxes they are now. Oscar parrots everything we say still.... even after we've put them down for nap/bed we will hear him in there spouting off new words, things we've said, things he's learned (Santa goes Ho Ho Ho..... Owl goes Whoooo Whooo Whooo) etc. MacKay is really sharp and totally understands us when we ask something of him .. and he's getting so good at articulating what he wants too. Sure there still is a lot of fighting and temper tantrums here and there, Oscar still wants to play with anything MacKay has etc. But I am so amazed to see (and hear) the things they learn daily now. And they are constantly asking "Wass dis?" They love to be read to and frequently bring us books asking us to "Read Read", and when they are hungry they tell us by crawling up in their high chairs and saying "Eat Eat", and they love to help us out and find great pleasure in knowing they are doing a good job. Oscar loves to talk about the "Boken Cock" (I need to clarify.. this is Broken Clock) at Gma Chris's --- MacKay had hit it with his light sabre and it fell and broke .... funny thing is this happened months ago and Oscar still remembers it and attributes it to Gma Chris. MacKay's got Chris worried cuz his new favorite words are "Owie" and "Hurt" ... anything that doesn't feel good = Owie and Hurt for him lately. They know almost all of their Thomas figurines, and even more characters and items from their Thomas books. Really they are at such a fun stage.

Onto the pictures - which there are a lot of. Check back again soon... hoping to get some pictures of the house once we have everything as it should be and share them. For those of you that know what it used to look like... I think you will be pretty shocked at the transition.

Just a cute picture of the boys in their studly little sweater outfits they got from Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean last year for Xmas. They wore these to Chris's work Xmas party.. as well as to my family's Xmas.

Oscar sporting his new Colorado hat from Gpa Gary and Gma Terri (I think he is trying to put his hands in his pockets... yet has missed the mark) :) And MacKay "ROARING" with his dinosaur figurines we just had to take with us when we left Chris's work Xmas party cuz they couldn't part with them..... sorry Michelle and Tim - we'll get those back to you sooner or later....

Grandpa Gary with Oscar and Evie (couldn't get MacKay to sit still long enough). And a picture of Gpa Gary, Gma Terri and the boys sword fighting with old wrapping paper cylinders and light sabres .... classic

MacKay playing with a track that Gpa Gary helped setup for him. Had to put this in cuz it actually held up for quite a while .... but literally these two pictures were taken 15 seconds apart. It doesn't take them long to make these train sets look like a tornado hit them. And Oscar lounging in Evie's bouncy chair .... funny, they hated these when they were infants, screamed every time I put them in it... but now they love it.

Our own Xmas that we celebrated at our house before running all around the state of MN .... The boys opening up some DVDs and showing each other their little light sticks they got as stocking stuffers, and Oscar showing off his new Xmas stocking.

Xmas (Eve) with the Hoglund family:

Oscar and Evie with Santa (like I said, MacKay didn't want ANYTHING to do with this weird man) :)

Oscar and MacKay with their new toy guitars from Santa. These things are hilarious ..... they play popular songs, allow you to "spice them up" by plucking the strings... and they have a whammy bar.

Oscar (with Auntie Denise) and MacKay (with cousin Taylor) wearing their cousin Sophie's fashion glasses.

Xmas (Day) with the Kamp family:

Uncle Dennis holding Evie - which is a HUGE thing. He would have never ventured to hold the boys when they were this young. I think the first time he ever picked up the boys was after they turned one... he was afraid he would break them. So this picture is one for the books... :) And just a cute picture of Evie complete with matching headband for her little lady bug outfit.

MacKay and Oscar tearing into their Xmas gifts ... MacKay pointing out a character on his Thomas book... and Oscar checking out his new Thomas PJs.

Oscar showing Uncle Dennis his new Elmo and Thomas books..... and the boys digging into their presents from Uncle Dennis (dinosaurs... or as they call them "Do-So's")

MacKay showing off his new T-Rex dinosaur... and Oscar with his Dyson vacuum. We made the mistake of setting those up when we got to my mom's house. We could barely get Oscar to sit down to open presents cuz all he wanted to do was "back-ooom" (vacuum)

Xmas Celebration with Gma Diane and family:

Caught a picture of the boys getting a little snack (crackers) sitting at Gma Diane's breakfast bar.... with their cousin Devin hanging out with them.

Evie sporting the cute polo outfit she wore to Gma Diane's Xmas - courtesy of the Wolfe family.

The boys with their new Schwinn Roadster Tricycles that Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean got for them for Xmas. Gma and Gpa came up to visit the following week (to bring up some of the bulkier gifts we had to leave behind) and helped us set these up for them. They enjoyed navigating them around in the living room... but we quickly hid them in the garage after they went down for a nap for when spring finally gets here.

Oscar and MacKay sporting their new Tonka hard hat (came with dump truck set). MacKay was attempting to give us a smile... and Oscar loves wearing this thing around.... had to even let him wear it for dinner one night as he couldn't be parted from it.

Evie in her Bumbo chair helping me make brownies.... and then just striking a pose and smile for the heck of it. (She was previously leaning over trying to get at the brownies).

OK.... HAD to post these pictures. There are quite a few of them (and even more that I didn't post) ... so bare with me. The boys have this fascination with Evie's bumbo chair... and amazingly they actually can still fit their cute little rumps into it. This infactuation turns into an all out brawl at times over it. Lots of screaming, crying, hitting, biting going on at this point. (which we are trying to stop, yet laughing and documenting this on film at the same time). Here is the proof:

Oscar, per usual, wanting anything that MacKay currently has (or is using).

The boys sitting on each other while in the bumbo... thinking this might annoy the other enough to get them to give it up.

Love this picture... MacKay has just fallen off of Oscar's lap (I think he pushed him off) and Oscar is in the back just crabbing it up.

A few agressive photos here..... love the one of MacKay finally fighting back and pushing Oscar away.

And the finale to this ordeal. 1) A picture of the RIGHTFUL OWNER of the bumbo (Evie) enjoying her time in it, chewing on her fists. and... 2) An actual picture catching the boys playing nice hiding behind the new car seat we got for Evie.

Wishing you all a great 2010!