Storytime

Eric read was reading a few stories tonight before bed.  Parker loves books.  Oliver has been reading (being read to) chapter books lately.  We have read James and the Giant Peach and are started on Charlotte's Web.  We have read a Superman chapter book a few times and are reading it again.  Oliver was playing with Julia in her swing.  

Oliver helped me make some bread today, Parker even helped a little bit.  They both love helping in the kitchen.  I don't really have pictures of them because neither of them can be trusted too long by the ingredients.  They are pretty good at helping.  Eric has them help with brunch on Sundays and has even started letting Oliver crack eggs- I'm not quite that brave yet.  I shouldn't do this late night posts because I just ramble and don't have much to say- I'll have to get the camera out tomorrow and get some pictures.  We are going to a play date in the morning so I'm sure the kids will have a good time.  I'm going to get some sleep, hopefully I'll make a more coherent post tomorrow.  :)

Train Boy!

For Christmas, Grandma & Grandpa Shook got Parker a subscription to a Thomas the Train magazine. He got his first issue today.  He was very excited about it.  He was playing upstairs with the GeoTrax trains when I took it up to him.  He immediately started looking through it with a big smile on his face.  He said "Choo, choo!" a lot!  

Monday!

Julia as happy as can be- I raised up her exersaucer to the next level, she is getting tall :)

Oliver doing a silly dance

and the dance continues

Building a GeoTrax town!

Today started out busy.  Eric had a call with Kent State (in Ohio) this morning to start discussing a start-up package as he has been offered a tenure-track position there.  Very exciting news for us!!  While he was on the call, I took the boys to a friend's house and dropped them off.  Then I took Julia to an appointment with her geneticist- Eric met us there.  The appointment went very well, no new information really.  He said she looked great- she weighed in at 17 pounds, 6 ounces and was 26 inches long!
After her appointment, we went and picked the boys up and then we dropped Eric off at work.  It was almost 50 degrees when we got home so the boys played outside for a little while before lunch.  The rest of the day was pretty quiet, Eric finished up the day at work and we hung out at home.  After dinner, we all went upstairs to play for awhile.

Sunday

We had a good day today- we went to church (me, Eric & Julia), Sunday school (Oliver), and nursery (Parker).  Then we came home and had brunch.  Oliver, Julia and I went to a birthday party for one of my friends.  In the afternoon, 2 of the kids friends came over and we watched them while they parents went out- they had done the same for us last weekend.  The kids all had a lot of fun running around and playing.  Tonight is going to be short and sweet- I was asleep on the couch and ready to go to bed when I remembered I needed to do my post.  Tomorrow I'll try and take some pictures.

Happy 5 months Miss Julia!

Our smiling baby girl is 5 months old today.  Julia stays busy with lots of fun things in life.  She likes to roll and can roll both ways.  She seems like she really would like to crawl, but can't quite do that yet.  She tries to sit up whenever she is being held.  She likes her exersaucer and swing.  She does pretty well sleeping at night- last night was 9-6.  She still likes to snuggle.  She is wearing 6-9 month clothes.  She likes to look at books and loves it when we sing her songs.  She loves watching her brothers.  She is playing with some of her toys (and by playing I mean holding them ;)).  She wakes up in the morning with the biggest smiles.  

She makes us smile everyday and we love her so much!  Julia- we know this upcoming month is going to be a little rough, but I'm sure you'll be smiling big for your 6 month picture!  We love you baby girl!

Last Friday's Campout

Last Friday night, we had a campout.  We did our usual Friday night movie and pizza, only this time, we set up tents.  The boys had a lot of fun.  We even made a "fire" and "roasted" marshmallows.  Then the boys got to stay up late and watch a movie and snuggle with us.  Parker didn't really have any interest in going his tent when it was actually time to sleep.  He ended up going into his crib.  Oliver was very happy to sleep in his sleeping bag in his tent.  Julia and Eric slept on the couch for quite a while, but then eventually made their way to the pack and play and bed.  I opted for the bed :)

Here are some pictures from our campout:

Julia was asleep before supper - don't worry she woke up later that night :)

Parker happily went in and out of his tent prior to pajamas

Oliver excited to get his tent all set up for the night

Sitting by the fire

Roasting marshmallows