Keaton

I cannot believe my baby is turning 7!!! I love the little boy you are. You have such a sweet heart and a independent soul. You are serious, cautious and organized, you get that from me. Don't get me wrong, you are all boy and still do normal boy things and make boy messes. You are very competitive, you get that from your dad. You love all sports especially basketball and football. You get upset when you don't win or if it doesn't go your way. But don't give up, you will learn great life lessons from all your efforts.

You are extremely smart and I am so glad we decided not to hold you back a year in school. Even though you are one of the youngest kids in your class, you are having no problems keeping up with them and even excelling. School seems easy to you. You have a great memory. I noticed this for the first time when working on scripture memorization for AWANA. You also did great learning your line for the 1st grade class Christmas presentation. Your line was long (On Dasher, On Dancer, etc) but you learned it easily and presented it well. You looked out into the audience of parents and spoke loud and clear.

You had your share of notes sent home from your teacher. Most of them stated you were having problems paying attention or talking too much. I never stressed too much about such instances because I know you are a good kid, just being a kid. (I got in trouble for talking a lot in 1st grade myself) I honestly feel you were even a little bored, and so we usually disciplined you with positive reinforcements. If you corrected your behavior we would reward you hard work and efforts instead of punishing you. We wanted you to know we recognized your good behavior and not just punished you for the times you got in trouble. Because in the great scope of the year, you were a very good student....and son!!

Keaton-7 years old

54 lbs

51" tall

I love it when I see your cautious side. We recently ate dinner at Carrabas and from our table could see the grill light up with fire. We tried to assure you that it was normal and we were completely safe, but you sat mesmerized the entire dinner. You were worried the restaurant would catch on fire. And then the other day, Cort stopped up the shower drain and was playing in the water accumulating at the bottom of our stand up shower. We overheard you tell him to stop because he was going to flood the whole house.

And I also love it when you make me laugh. One day when I was pregnant with Gage, I was driving to work and laughed so hard that I started crying. I was thinking about you and something that happened the night before. We had all been upstairs and you wanted something to drink. You didn't want to go downstairs by yourself, because it was dark and you were scared. We told you to turn on the lights and you would be okay. You ran as fast as you could down the stairs and through the kitchen, grabbing a juice box, and ran back upstairs....the speed of lighting. There was a noise from the kitchen as you whirled past the kitchen counter. We questioned you when you topped the stairs about the noise and you said with a quick comeback, 'oh that, don't worry about that, that was nothing'. It may not read as much here in written words, but the sauciness in which you said it was hilarious and had your father and I rolling in laughter.... and then me in tears even the following day. There was also the time you tried to convince us you could speak Chinese. I was in tears again that day from laughing so much.

You are a negotiator. Others would say it crosses the line of back talking and at times it does, but I can see you are a debater, a salesman like your father. I hope this quality, as it develops, will help you to achieve your dreams and make you successful in life.

You are showing us the first signs we are soon to be broke......from groceries. Sloppy joes, Manwich, is your favorite meal....and you can eat 3 of them.

Happy Birthday Keaton Edward!

I am so glad you were born!

Now can you stop growing??

Gage -2 months

I can't say it enough, it goes by too fast. Gage is already 2 months old. I didn't think I took a lot of pictures this past month, but discovered as I sat down to write this post that I took more than I thought. Gage broke out in the baby acne rash around 1 month old. Keaton also had baby acne, but Gage's case seem to be a lot worse. (Cort's skin on the other hand was beautiful) After experiencing this with Keaton, I knew what to do and I didn't run off to the doctor like I did with Keaton....at least not at first. The hospital now tells all moms not to use baby powder, oil, or lotion on the baby....so I didn't. I usually do what 'they' say to do. (and I would never put my baby on its tummy because they say not to) But as soon as I saw the bumps appearing on Gage's face, I started applying baby lotion several times a day. Because mostly it is caused by dry skin. Their little face is having to adjust to life outside of the womb and is exposed to all of our detergents on our shirts, sheets, etc. Sure we wash all of his clothes, blankets, linens in Dreft, but not our clothes. Anyway, the heat seem to also make it worse. Keaton was born in the summer months, but we didn't spend much time outside. Gage on the other hand spends a lot of time outside watching big brothers play every afternoon. The rash got so bad that Mark begged me to take him to the doctor and so I did. Of course, only to find out that it will clear up on its own and lotion would help. I did switch to the fragrance free Johnson & Johnson (yellow bottle) since it is his face. Although it is no fun putting lotion on your baby that doesn't smell like a baby. The rash still seems to come and go, I think due to the heat, but has mostly cleared up.

At 6 weeks when we went to the doctor for the rash, he weighed 11 lbs. At his 8 week check up:

Weight 12 lbs 9.5 oz. (75%)

Height of 22 3/4 (50%)

FOC 39.0 (27%)

Gage getting ready for bed. I love gowns. It makes diaper changes in the middle of the night so much easier with no snaps. How we spend our afternoons outside watching Keaton and Cort ride their bikes. Gage is either napping or.....Watching

My sweet perfect angel asleep at Cort's graduation in daddy's arms. I love how babies sleep all sprawled out. Although at night we still swaddle him to keep him from waking himself up with his arm movements. Oh how Cort loves his little brother. Keaton does too, but Cort gets to spend all day with Gage at home. He wants to hold him, feed him....

and take naps with him.
Gage, mommy loves you so much!
He is starting to smile

I was looking back at Keaton and Cort's baby pictures and thought I would share. I wish I had started my blog when they were born so I could have shared all of their pictures. I did try to actually scrapbook a little back then, but I can just keep sneaking their pictures in here too.

Keaton at 2 months.

13 lbs 9 oz

24.5"

Look at all that hair!

Cort at 2 months

10lbs 5 oz

21.5"

So who do you think Gage looks like? Or is he just Gage?

Thirty-six years

Mark always says the month of May is busy for him. There is Mother's Day, my birthday, and Keaton's birthday. My birthday and Mother's day always fall so close together, but Mark tries to make sure to make both days special for me.

This year for Mother's day the boys brought me roses and jewelry. Mark took them to James Avery and let them pick out some beautiful earrings. Although Cort had wanted to go to Jared. Powerful TV marketing....after seeing the commercial, Cort asked me if I knew how to get to Jared. When I said yes, he said he wanted to go buy me a bracelet for Mother's Day. Too sweet.

I did get some bracelets for my birthday....silly bandz. The boys picked out some 'fashion' silly bandz for me. This is a cute new fad to collect and trade little rubber band bracelets. Mark completely spoiled me for by birthday with a summer membership to Massage Envy. I am going to enjoy a lot of pampering. Maybe this will help with the stress of going back to work.

And food....we have celebrated my birthday with food. We have used it as an excuse to eat out. Mark and I enjoyed Johnny Carinos so I could get a Tiramisu fix. We have celebrated at Las Lomas and LaHacienda as well. I even let Keaton stay home from school one day (shame on me) and we celebrated my birthday at Chuck E Cheese! And my mom baked my favorite cake. I am enjoying it all now because we know the diet is somewhere in the future.

It is fitting that Mother's day and my birthday fall so close together I guess. Because when I stop to reflect on my life, this is exactly where I wanted to be... a mother. I dreamed of having a family of my own my entire childhood. Some may say my life is boring because my bucket list has been check off completely. Sure there are things I may enjoying doing in this lifetime, but the 2 things I wanted more than anything were to be a wife and a mother. I am living my dream.

So even though Mark may get stressed out a little in May, I love this month. Not only is it my birthday month, but the month I became a mom when Keaton was born May 31, 2003. Seems fitting we also celebrate Mother's Day this month as well.

Thank you Keaton, Cort and Gage for making all my dreams come true. I am so proud to be your mom.

Where has the year gone?

We have almost completed yet another year. Keaton has done such a great job in 1st grade. We are so proud of all his hard work and good grades. Keaton has done exceptionally well in math this year and his reading is impressive. We went to Keaton's 1st grade program and this is the only picture I was able to get. His class was only standing for the one song they sang and I could barely see his little face. Once his class was done, we couldn't even see him sitting on the floor. There were many disrespectful parents there that were standing in front that made it even harder to see. I know they were trying to get pictures and videos, but I couldn't believe they were blocking everyone's view (as you can even see in my 1 picture). There were even parents yelling at them to sit down. But, Keaton was all smiles and we really enjoyed the program.

Our little Cort graduated from preschool and will be heading to Kindergarten next year. Since I have been home on maternity leave, Cort has attending preschool at our church. They had a graduation ceremony and reception.

Cort with Ms. Sandra and Ms. Glynis

Cort and Ella--Ella was the ONLY girl in the class!The cake at the reception
We also completed another year of AWANA. We are so proud of both the boys for finishing their book and receiving the book award.

Cort with his Cubbie vest and all the patches he earned.

Keaton with his book award ribbon