Graham feeding Eli

Graham loves his brother, well Eli, at least. Not sure about his love for "uke" yet. Graham likes to talk to Eli, give him toys, and even help hold his bottle. Joe was changing Eli's diaper and had the bottle next to the changing table. Graham picked it up and went over and put it in Eli's mouth and tried to feed him. It was very cute and we hope the brotherly love continues.

SLED RIDING

We had more snow today. Erin took both boys outside. It was an adventure getting Graham's boots on while he is screaming. Trying to get the fingers into the gloves and not have 2 fingers in one finger hole. Trying to keep the hats on and not have them overheated before they made it outside. Once they got out there, Graham fell a lot which was followed by cries, as he couldn't get back up with his snowsuit. Joe got the tractor out and we hooked the sled up to the tractor and the boys got rides on it. They enjoyed it a lot and even Joe went for a ride with Graham. Luke came in and said "Daddy fell while trying to surf" so I guess surfing on the snow with a sled pulled by a tractor isn't a good idea. When it was all over-luke enjoyed his bowl of hot chocolate soup.

Mickey Mouses(s)

Ever since coming home from Disneyland, Graham has slept with his 2 Mickeys. Some days they come downstairs and some days they stay in his crib. This is him carrying them downstairs, normally one gets carried by the nose, but his "mos" as he calls it doesn't seem to mind.

SNOW

We had our first snow fall of the season where there was any accumulation. We had some snow a few days ago but it was only a dusting, Luke however was excited to go outside in the snow and proceeded to eat the snow. So with this snow falling, Aunt Erin took him outside and pulled him around on his new sled. They even built a very baby snowman.

Christmas Countdown

Luke is all excited about Christmas. I got Joe some gum for his stocking stuffer and made the mistake of wrapping it in front of Luke. He of course loves gum and wanted to open it now and chew it. I tried explaining that it was a) Daddy's and not Luke's present and b) we had to wait until Christmas to open it. This really isn't working as every day he asks if he can open Daddy's stocking. Joe said when he was little they would make a chain of rings and countdown until Santa comes. So we made this and for the last 2 mornings, Luke has slept with his "ring" of the evening and today he brought them downstairs with him. I am not sure if we are going to have 25 rings in his bed at the end of this month or not??

psu

While Joe was hunting in Colorado this past weekend. Erin and I took the boys to Philadelphia to visit my aunt and uncle. We had a great time playing with our cousins. The boys enjoyed the extra attention. A friend got the boys PSU shirts so we got their picture taken. Maybe someday one of them will end up there!!

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We r still in disneyland but today headed to california adventure-a place with pixar characters-cars, woody and buzz, a bugs life. We got to talk w crush the turtle from nemo and see playhouse disney show. We then traveled around in search of characters as donald was requested by luke today. Along the way we came to arcade games. So luke played and beat 7 other players by rolling a ball into a hole and he won bulleyes the horse from toystory. Graham woke up and went fishing and won fishing mickey. Erin also played the water squirter game and won a dumbo but we gave it away to a little girl as eli didn't seem to interested in it. We found mickey, pluto, donald, and chip and dale today. So it has been a hit!!
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Breakfast conversation

Luke: mom can graham have part of your muffin

Mom: I don't know that graham wants my muffin

Luke: (yelling to graham who is across from him) graham do you want part of my mom's muffin

Graham: yeah (one of his most popular answers to any question asked him)

Luke: looks at me and says 'graham says yeah'

Mom: breaks off part of muffin and hands it to graham

Graham: sniffs it and shakes head no
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While everyone is talking about this guy mickey mouse, I am busy doing my own milestones--rolling over!!
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We arrived at disneyland! Graham isn't too sure of the characters and shakes his head and says "no no" as they come near. We ate at goofy's kitchen where a lot of characters came to your table to say hi. Jasmine from aladdin was the only one graham would let get near him!!
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This innocent face is that of every parents worst nightmare on a plane. As he got over tired and tried to fall asleep he couldn't and ended up screaming for 45 mins straight wiggling around. Half the time his eyes were closed! He finally fell asleep 15. Mins prior to landing! Needless to say erin and joe pretended like they didn't know me as I tried to get graham to be quiet! No just kidding they had their hands full w/ the other 2! We are praying for an easier second leg into sf!!
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At the airport eating breakfast and watching planes take off!! Our journey to california has begun! 6 people, 7 bags checked, 4 ticketed passengers, 1 stroller and 2 stuffed animals!!
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Making food for Eli

I have made homemade baby food for all the boys and Eli is no different. The other weekend the boys were helping me make Eli's food. They wore their aprons and Luke helped put the pureed food into the ice cube trays, and Graham liked to play with all the cooking utensils.

ELI

Eli is 3 and a half months old now. He loves to laugh at faces the boys make or seeing you in his vision. He enjoys his brother talking to him and taking his hands and singing the "doo doo song" their dad made up. He is still waking up one time at night, but he really a very pleasant baby.

Port Farms

Eli and Drew ended up getting cuddled closely the whole time, but Luke and Graham and Josh and Grace enjoyed the whole experience from bowling, to going down slides, to hay rides and picking our pumpkins.




We have gone to Port Farms around Erie for the past 3 years with our friends from Medical School. It was last year at this time that we found out we were expecting again, and were very excited to not be in the same situation this year, as we have our hands full! But their kids are the same ages as our 3, only their middle child is a girl.

Hunter

It is deer season around here if you are using a "crossboat" as Luke calls it. The boys have been excited about hunting and enjoy watching hunting shows their dad. This am before church Joe got Graham all ready to go with his hat, and his binoculars, and had his stuffed tiger that got shot a lot.

SUPER ELI

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING SNAIL. STRONGER THAN THE STRONGEST INFANT. ABLE TO DRINK MILK LIKE A CHAMPION-IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, NO IT'S SUPER ELI!!!!!

FISHING

We traveled to Bradford for the weekend. Joe had some computer work to do at my Dad's house so we took a road trip. Joe decided to take Luke fishing for part of the day on Saturday and the rest of the family tagged along. A picnic lunch was made up and off we went to the Wolf Marina. The highlights were feeding the ducks and seeing the HUGE carp as well right below the walkway for the docks. Graham enjoyed throwing the balls and walking around. Eli and Grandpa took a nap and got a lot of comments from folks walking by. Fishing was a success-Luke caught a few sunfish and then he hooked a HUGE CARP, however he was scared of it when Joe got it out of the water, as it was probably 20-25 lbs, as you can see he is running away from it!

What will i be when I grow up??

Some days i enjoy looking at birds.




some days I wear my stethoscope all day long




some days i carry a broom around all day

2 months old

Well Mom dressed me up today and took me to the doctor's where she proceeded to hold me down while they gave me 3 shots :( I wasn't too happy. However I have recovered and am sleeping the day away. I am up to 11 lb and 1 oz, 50% which is great.
You may wonder who took the picture of Eli and his Mom-that would be brother Luke. He took about 25, and this one came out!!

Road Trip

WE traveled to Indianapolis this past weekend to meet Joe's Mom for a little vacation. It was only supposed to take us 6/1/2 hrs to get there-well factor in 3 kids-one who is potty trained and one who needs to eat every 3 hrs and that 6 hrs turns into 10. We get there and go swimming in the pool with the boys in their super duper swim suits. Graham would just walk in the pool and not car what happened. WE went to the Children's Museum which was wonderful-Graham dressed like a dinosaur and the boys played together. We also went to the zoo and saw the dolphin show, the walrus, and giraffe's and the other animals there. We departed on Sunday for the 6/1/2 hr journey. It took us 3 hrs to travel 20 miles in the beginning due to a traffic jam and our GPS routing us in circles. But we made up time and traveled the rest of the time in 11 total hours. At the end we realized we were in Wheeling, WV-not sure how we got there as we didn't go that way to get there. So we stopped at Cabela's and fed Eli and the boys played with pop guns. Needless to say there are no more LIVE animals at CAbela's as Luke shot all the bears and deer and turkeys he could find. At home he is shooting humming birds! As Eli's shirt said, it was a Wild Ride and we are glad we did it, but happy it is over!!

Who do you see?

I was looking at old pictures of the boys and decided to hang some up. Eli is definitely taking after Luke at this age, but Luke and Graham don't look that different at one year, but now look worlds apart. Eli will soon have his picture added to the walls, but we need to get them taken first!!

8 weeks

It has been 8 weeks since my life went from 2 boys to 3 boys. i am finding life easier everyday. I think I have the schedules down where I don't have 3 boys screaming for food at lunch time and dinner time. I have arranged naps so the older 2 are down together and Graham usually sleeping longer and I can either nap, or do something around the house that needs done. Dinners are making their way to the table on most nights. We appreciate everyone who donated a meal to us, as we used them all and enjoyed not having to cook!! It is hard to believe I have to go back to work in 4 weeks, but I am looking forward to that part of life as well. Right now I am enjoying the time with my little ones and still working on some projects-mostly doing a new quilt for our bedroom. I am still not brave enough to go out with all 3 by myself, but we will have to try that someday before I return to work!

Brotherly Love

Luke and Graham are starting to play together. Luke continues to say that he "loves ELI" but "doesn't like GRAHAM". He told me the other day he wants Graham to go far away to be with Jesus. (our cat died and we told Luke she went to be with Jesus and this is what I think he was referring to). I told him that would make Mommy sad if Graham went to be with Jesus. In the next breath he is asking if Graham can play with him, or ride in the tractor with him, or watch him go pee. The other day, Luke and Graham were on the floor, and I don't know what Luke did, but Graham put his arms around Luke's neck and tackled him. Unfortunately, Luke just laughed (as did we). But give Graham a few months and he will be terrorizing Luke.

They have started to enjoy coloring and often are found on the picnic table, sometimes we fall off and go boom, other times we are pushed off or told we are invading "my" space. Graham still responds "yeah" to most questions so it is often funny to hear Luke talk to Graham during their play time. "Graham NO" is still the most popular thing out of Lukes mouth.

Just today i put them down for a nap at the same time. Graham has really started to like books, and takes one or 2 to bed with him. Well he had this duck book with a button that you push that "quacks". I had left them and gone downstairs to feed Eli and it is quiet then I hear Graham scream. Not his I am upset with being upstair, but his all out wail. I go upstairs and Graham is throwing a fit and Luke is just walking back to his bed with the duck book. Sure enough he went and took it from Graham in the crib and Graham wasn't happy. I think he would have tackled Luke if he could have. Instead I intervened and gave the book back to Graham and gave Luke another book and everyone was happy.

So I know the brotherly love will continue, especially with little Eli in the mix!!!

Eli

Eli is 7 weeks old and is doing pretty well. He still likes to lounge around and hang out most of the time. He often sits on a big animal in the boys room when it is nap time or bedtime so he can hear the story as well.





He likes to smile now and Joe always seems to get him to laugh by making silly faces at him.







He also likes his floor time, whether on his back or his stomach, the trick is just to keep his brothers away from him so they don't step on him or squeeze him!!