Mother's Day Tea at AppleTree...

The Mother's Day Tea at Gavin's school this May could not have been more precious. When the mommies arrived in our Sunday best, the class was lined up in Mrs. Tonelli's room eager to welcome us to their classroom. The little boys--and my Gavin was first in line--held out their arms like little gentlemen to escort their mamas to their seats. Then they proceeded to ask us what we'd like to drink and to serve us our beverages. I was all "happy tears" in the first few minutes, and I kept looking around somewhat surprised to see so many dry eyes. This was my boy! He had been so excited about this event, and he had managed to keep all of it a surprise at home. The kids made their mommies special cards, hand print frames and homemade soap (go, Mrs. Tonelli!), and the classroom was so beautifully decorated for the occasion. Gavin was beaming with pride, and he was not at all surprised by my wet eyes. The kids had answered some questions about their moms, and Mrs. Tonelli read the answers and let the parents guess who was being described. I knew it was mine when Gavin got my age right because we had been talking about that and he had been so hysterically sensible about it, like, "Of course, Mom, you're 35." He was not among the kids who guessed that their moms were two or ninety two. There would be none of that nonsense with Gavin. :)

This was the class reciting a Mother's Day poem to us. In this picture I can really see just how tall Nick is (the one in green)! I was always surprised that there were one or two boys even taller than Gavin in his class.

More of this, please...

Wow, this is cute and pretty rare, I have to say. This is Gavin "reading" a book to his little brother in Gage's bed. It doesn't get much cuter than this. And please give me more of it, wherever it came from...

Taddy II...

This is the last picture of Taddy II taken before his sudden demise while I was in Oregon. As you can see he had successfully become a frog, and we had just ordered special froggie food when the unexpected occurred. Lesson learned: We are not good pet owners. We'll just stick with kids.

Gavin graduates from Miz Liz?

This is Gavin's last official swim lesson. Miz Liz declared that there was nothing else she could teach him. He just needed to practice a bit more with all the stuff he had learned. Above he is working on diving into the pool.

Gavin usually starts off looking pretty strong but then lacks the commitment to take it all the way into the water, and in the end he belly flops.

The pool never runs short of toys, and these hoops present a fun activity as they swim through the middle of the hoops under the water. Gavin may need to do some follow-up lessons down the road, but for now he's been talking about he "graduated" from Miz Liz' class.

Loungin' with Mom...

What a funny picture of me. I seriously just opened this post and wondered, "Who's that?" I do really love to read to my boys, and I treasure the times that I can read to them (rare is the time that it is successful for very long with both kids at once) because I know that someday they'll be reading to themselves.

Our first visit to urgent care...

Pobrecito! Look at my baby. He's pointing to the head wound that landed him in urgent care, and he hardly looks phased. I was making dinner in the kitchen, and Gage was playing "bridge" while watching something on TV. This game entailed walking on the piano bench between our two couches, and when he was trying to multitask during one of his bridge trips, he fell off the couch (or the piano bench?) and cut his head--right above his eye--on the edge of our wooden coffee table in the living room. The blood poured--as with all head wounds--and I freaked out, as I do most times that blood and my loved ones are concerned. Thankfully, Brent was calm as a clam and told me to take him across the street to our PA neighbor/friend for a quick "consultation" before packing him up to take him to get fixed. Both Brent and our neighbor suspected that Gage would need stitches, but they ended up gluing his head together due to his age and the nature of the injury. It did take about an hour in the local Urgent Care unit, but Gage just so calm through the entire procedure. He has a little scar right now, but supposedly it may fade at this age and hardly be noticeable (if at all) when he's older. We would never have guessed that Gage would beat his big brother to urgent care.

More swimming...

Gage has to entertain himself somehow during Gavin's swimming lessons.

That is Gavin--the one in the middle--SWIMMING (!!!!) with his head down in the water. Such an accomplishment, if you ask either one of us, and the head down thing was one of Miz Liz' major goals for Gavin.

He really loves the water!


One day after Gavin's lesson we stayed and played at the school park next door. Gage is quickly picking up the funky picture faces from his big bro.

My Legos are the tallest...

Gavin and Gage often find time to build Legos together. What usually happens, though, is that Gavin comes into Gage's room to build stuff and then promptly takes it back to his room to sit on his dresser. Every other day or so, this ends up with Gage having like four Legos left in his room and Gavin having an entire Lego city in his. Gavin is usually pretty good about rationing out a few Legos for Gage to build something with in the end, but it never seems like much of an equal split. In the above picture, we show evidence of them actually working together--a rare but wonderful moment--to build a super tall Lego tower. Gage is so proud and loves to build his own "creations" when he is allowed the space and pieces to accomplish this task.

Serious business biking crew...

Like father, like sons! Check out the motley crew of bikers that live under my roof. They mean serious business, especially Gage. (Nice face, Buddy!)

We have so much fun biking together. Gavin seems like a semi-pro by now (like Daddy), and Gage really gets around on that Strider (balance) bike of his. We recently had to replace it, in fact, because the boys had really ridden the first one into the ground. We're firm believers in the Strider. It teaches kids to balance first, and "real" biking is the result so soon after they get the hang of the Strider.

Short shanks and funny faces...

Looks like this little photo session was taking place while Mama was getting ready for church.

They really feed off of each other, as you can see. This can be good, and this can be very bad.


I can't believe how short their hair was in these pictures! What cuties we have, whether with short or long shanks.

Saturday morning swim lessons...

Seeing this picture actually makes me miss Miz Liz's swimming lessons for Gavin. He really got so good in the water with her that the Saturday morning lessons were totally worth it.

Clean up on aisle 6...

Thankfully, our boys have no objection to using the dust buster to clean up the daily messes around our place. It's nice to be able to have some help!

I love this face on Gage! Like he was caught red-handed...helping, for crying out loud! I have to admit that the dust buster was one of my favorite Christmas gifts.

Fun-o-thon...

Gavin's school did a neat fund raiser at the end of the year that they called the Fun-o-Thon. The students were sponsored by family, friends and neighbors to participate in as many minutes of ongoing activity as they could. It was no shocker to any of us that our Gavin had no problems being active for the entire time.

Sarah's shower...

This is my precious Sarah, formerly pregnant with twins, and now the proud mommy of two baby girls, Violet and Juliana. These gifts were a long time coming, so all of us turned out to celebrate when Sarah's mom and sisters hosted a baby shower at Mama Hearty's home (so many fun memories there) in South Boulder. Honestly, Sarah never looked like she had two babies in there. It was only one week after her trip home that she actually ended up in pre-term labor, and things were looking pretty scary there for awhile. Thankfully, "they" were able to stabilize Sarah, and she was put on bed rest for essentially the rest of her pregnancy...until two sweet, healthy, fully-developed baby girls emerged at 38 weeks!

This funny shirt (does any wife really feel good about her husband wearing this shirt with the plural "moms" reference?) was a gift to Brent from Dave and Sarah when I was pregnant with Gavin. It was only right, then, that I should re-gift this shirt to Sarah for Dave when it was their turn. I love the look on the woman's face in the back. This was a really fun occasion to honor and bless Sarah, and I was so thankful to be there.

Strider time...

Gage has become quite proficient on his little Strider bike...so much so, in fact, that he wore it to the ground (with a lot of help from Big Brother, of course). We thought that the timing might have been OK since we were transitioning him to a bike with training wheels, but then we recently decided to replace his Strider with a new used one to have for the summer months. He just has so much fun on it and really gets around with so much confidence that it's almost hard to believe it's the same kid when you watch him on the bike with training wheels. He's so much more tentative on that one, and biking as a family isn't as much fun when he's on it.


Ride on, Little Buddy! We're so happy that you have a bike that you love. He's been telling people, including Daddy, lately, "I have a new bike. It's not broken."

Brothers...

This was taken in the extra time that Daddy always has with the boys on Sunday morning when I'm getting ready for church. It hasn't been an immense amount of extra time, might I add in my own defense, which has been surprising to even me: I've figured out how to get ready in much less time these days. All of my boys may have to cut me some slack as the only woman in the house and give me more than the five minutes that they each need to get out the door. How does that work with guys?

Messmakers, messmakers, make me a mess...

I think the wacky face (classic Gavin) was just a bonus; the real reason for the photo was the amazing mess on both kids' faces...and clothes. There are just some things that that darned stain spray can't get out.

The double feature here is the mess + a little muscle shirt action for free. We never dress either of the boys in these sleeveless numbers, so Brent found this especially amusing.

Where does he get the haminess? I mean, really!!! (My family is saying, "Hmm, look at any of your childhood photos, my dear.")

Easter at Mom's...

We spent Easter at my mom's this year and had a mini photo shoot in her back yard at one point. It was sunny so everyone was squinting and the shadows were a plenty (am I writing a poem?), but that didn't stop us.

It might not be close enough for you to see here, but my mom is doing her usual gritting of the teeth because she thinks her grandboys are so unbearably cute. (And they are, for the record.)

One little brownie and one little blondie, just to give us some variation. I like it...

And, of course, there's never a dull moment if Gavin's around. After emptying the contents of his Easter basket, he's wearing it. Why not, right?

And poor Daddy was still working on grad school...even on Easter. I think it's fair to say that we'll all be very glad when he's graduated with an MBA in about a year from now. (Am I doing the math right, Babe? Don't even bother to tell me if I'm not and I'm undershooting it.)

Dad's 70th!

I can't believe it, but my dad really did turn 70 on April 7. He and Sandra graciously invited us to join them at the Flagstaff House in Boulder for what Brent has deemed the nicest (and most expensive, I've added) meal of our lives.

Brent and I felt honored to be their guests, really. It was an unexpected surprise to be invited to celebrate my dad so lavishly. In this picture, I really can see the family resemblance. Can you?

The restaurant printed various copies of their menu with the message "Happy 70th Birthday, Terry!" across the top. A nice, personal touch, and Dad was excited to take home the extra copies. It was fun to have a reason to dress up, and it was nice to be together to celebrate such a momentous occasion.

Easter time!

Dyeing Easter eggs was really fun this year with both boys on board. Our kitchen table may be worse for the wear, but it was definitely worth it. (I tried to tell Brent that now the wood just looks more like cherry, but I don't think he bought it.)

I think I forgot to refrigerate these (again?!) so I felt badly when they all went to waste. But they were fun to decorate and pretty at the time.

How cute is Gage's level of concentration in this picture? He's such a cutie.

Facial art...

This was so cute, and I honestly can't even remember where Gavin had the butterfly painted on his cheek this time. The boys will hardly let us wash their tattooed, stamped and painted parts, and eventually we have to insist on it when we can convince them that the blur on their skin no longer resembles anything recognizable.

Mama's got a brand new ride...

My sweet husband bought me a new road bike for Christmas...or was it my birthday? It's actually a men's frame, so I like how he put the feminine flare on it with the addition of the pink water bottle holders. I gotta give him credit where credit is due.

It is SO fun to ride alongside Gavin! Not pushing him or picking him up off of the ground but actually riding with him. It's awesome. And he really loves it. I've enjoyed a few recent Mommy/Son bike rides, and Brent and Gavin have had lots of Father/Son outings on their bikes together.