Isaac

Our little Isaac will be one next week! He is making some funny faces lately and is incredibly busy and curious. He loves to laugh and interact with his brothers especially. He's got a few words he can say and he does some loud yelling when he's frustrated or needs help. It's great at the grocery store:) He seems to be somewhat interested in trying to walk when we're holding him up or at least tries to take steps now. He climbs all over the furniture if he gets a chance. Here are some of Isaac's funny faces...I thought I'd give him a post of his own this time...

Still has those blue eyes!

Jeremy and I think he might be an IT guy by the amount of time and determination he puts toward playing with the computer! :)

Long Overdue!!

This post is long overdue...we're afraid to upload pictures as our computer warns us that something is nearly full and we'd hate to lose all of our unbacked up pictures. Anyhow, we've been up to lots of busy weekends lately and the boys and I have taken advantage of the cooler weather during the week. Just after Labor Day, Elijah got a new, bigger, bike. He loves it and he switched right over and is popping wheelies and even rode 5 miles with Jeremy to the new McDonald's and back!! (with no help on the hills this time!) Aron, in turn, got Elijah's old bike and we put the training wheels on and he loves riding and is not afraid of the higher bike at all. We're going to try him without training wheels soon, but he's not totally mastered the brakes...kind of crucial :) This morning it rained and they LOVE riding to the spots they know have big puddles in the neighborhood. Both boys were pedaling up a pretty steep hill, hopping on and going as fast as they could pedal down the hill, then pulling their legs/feet up to their chests and splashing through the puddles at the bottom. It looked like fun, but did make me a little nervous with the wobbling when the feet came off the pedals, but no big wipe outs!

Proud Aron on his new big boy bike!

Elijah riding in style!

Riding off into the sunset, literally :) We have daily bike rides after dinner now...Isaac and I walk behind. I can't believe I had this much to say about bikes, but it seems that it's almost a new phase for me as I can walk as fast as I want to again and they can keep up. Jeremy's borrowed his Dad's bike after Elijah kept saying, "I wish you had a bike to ride with me, Dada" :) Thanks, Papa!!

Labor Day

We had a fun Labor Day weekend with the family. Saturday, we went to a Labor Day parade and the boys seemed to like the bands, motorcycles, firetrucks, and, of course, the candy! On Monday, we went to the Matthews Alive Festival and the boys and their cousins had a fun time riding rides. Jeremy and I really went for the kettle corn which was worthwith the fam! the trip :) Later, we went to the Rau's for a barbecue.

Another week

The big boys and I relaxing on the couch...Elijah's sleeping :)

Isaac ( Elijah calls him"chowing boy" ) eating away, his second top tooth there still hasn't come through!

Elijah still blowing on Isaac's tummy.

The summer has flown by! The weather's been great here and we've been spending more time at the playground than the pool this week. Isaac's moving and doing new things daily now. He's talking up a storm too. I looked up at small group last night and Isaac was cruising up the stairs, never seen him even try the stairs before. I went in his room this morning and he was standing up trying to open the blinds from his crib...life is new and exciting to him right now. Elijah and Aron are always busy playing together, riding bikes, jumping on the mattresses upstairs, racing on the push toys around the downstairs, pulling cushions off the couch, etc...boys for sure! Each of them is in a fun phase to watch right now! Jeremy and I are ready to start recovering from the Olympics! My 9 mile run yesterday was pretty tough, hopefully just due to my severe lack of sleep. I probably train too fast on my long runs, too, just trying to get it over with. I've got 3-4 weeks until my 1/2 marathon. After yesterday, I'm thinking I'll be lucky to walk to the car after my 13 miles :) Heidi, I don't know how you do those long runs for your marathon training!

Michael Phelps?

Isaac has been inspired by Phelps:)...maybe in a few years ?

We visited Latta Park with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time last week.

The boys had a great time playing in the water park.

Elijah loves playing with his little brothers and he and Aron love blowing raspberries on Isaac's tummy!

Uncle Mason returned from his European Jaunt and brought some adorable gifts for all of the kids...Greek soccer jerseys for the boys and little shirts for the girls. Thanks Uncle Mason!
We have been staying up way too late watching the Olympics but are loving it! The boys love watching too and we've let them stay up late every night to watch. Elijah has just started swimming on his own, under water mostly, but can tread water if he needs to too. I guess it just "clicked". He's also become little bike man. He's been doing great on his bike for a long time now, but has started riding around the neighborhood, up and down all of the hills, loves pedaling as fast as he can, and even stands up and rides some. Aron is doing great on his tricycle, but those things are so slow! I think it's time to move Elijah up a size and let Aron take a shot at the training wheels...Aron loves writing with ink pens and making letters with me. He is in love with the Olympics and gets upset if we try to leave when they're coming on. Isaac is crawling all over and seems to like just exploring around the house. He's pulling up and standing alone once in a while. His top teeth have been coming in for about 6 months I think and one finally ruptured a week ago and is coming in quickly, but the other hasn't broken through yet, so he's a little bit snaggle tooth. He can get away with it though...still cute :) Well, Isaac is letting me know it's taking way to long to get this post up so I need to go!

Camping trip in the mountains

I am finally posting about our camping trip, in the mountains, two weekends ago in Brevard, NC. We had a full weekend including Sliding rock, hiking, lots of waterfalls and swimming. Jeremy and Aron are on sliding rock in the picture above. They are about to hit the ice cold water hole...I got to go down once and loved it!

Here are some of the waterfalls we hiked to and Jeremy, Papa, Elijah and Aron swam to one the last day and even went off of a rope swing.
Scott, Olivia, Ian and Elyse at Pretty Place.
All of the cousins lined up at Pretty Place
Swimming out to Hooker Falls.
The oldest Cousins :)

Papa and Isaac , Isaac spent most of the trip in the pack but didn't seem to mind too much. Papa was a big help with the boys on the hike! Thanks Papa.

Aron and Dada taking a break.

Milestones

We've reached some milestones in our family this past week or so. Isaac is crawling around now and Aron has gone on the potty several times now. We were not really trying to potty train yet, but he seems to be excited about it right now...may not continue but we're going with it for now. Elijah is turning into a pro on bike and is standing up while riding and trying to "jump" over the curbs. It's really fun to watch his excitement when he gets going fast and challenges himself. This first picture is Aron and Elijah with their cousins Olivia, Elyse, and Ian. Isaac is pausing while crawling and the others are just some shots of our three growing boys. Want to congratulate Ryan, Jessica, Kiley, and Emma on the birth of Lathan this week as well. We got to meet him the day he came home and he's beautiful! Amazing how quickly we forget how little newborns are and how quickly they grow up!