Big Brother Brady

I have absolutely LOVED having Brady at home with me during the day while Eli is at kindergarten.  Brady has really been able to blossom and show off more of his personality, and he actually gets to speak!  With Eli around, there isn't much getting to do what you want to do or say what you want to say when you are Brady (Eli dominates those things).  I was really worried about what it would be like without Eli, but it turns out it has been great for Brady.  He has really been talking to me and showing me how smart he is.  He is very caring and doesn't like Major crying.  He constantly tries to play with him and keep him company so he won't be upset.  I love this sweet little Brady!

 Photo 1: Brady showing Major (and helping Major) play the "Go Fishing" game

 Photo 2: Brady holding Major so he won't cry

Photo 3: Brady put all these dinosaurs out around Major so he could look at them.  Brady then told him what each dinosaur was and gave him one to hold.  This way, Major wouldn't be alone and would have something to play with.  Brady is such a great big brother!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Eli started school at Cornerstone Christian Academy!  (In case I haven't written it down before, I have been doing curriculum for the school this past summer in exchange for Eli's tuition.  I cannot express the gratitude I have that Eli gets to attend a Christian school this year!)  The day is finally here.  We've been counting down to this day since the end of pre-k in May.  I think Eli has been ready for a very long time and he came home just beaming and telling stories of his day.  He said that his favorite parts today were getting to go to PE and for math time, they wrote their numbers in shaving cream.  What could be better than that?  He said they read the story "You Are Special" by Max Lucado and played freeze tag and colored and learned the rules (which he recited to me) and went to chapel and he had hot lunch and just went on and on.  I will admit, the morning was a little hard for me.  I'm so thankful that Eli allowed me to go into the classroom with him and give him hugs and kisses.  And although tears did come to my eyes, I did not allow myself to cry. :)  When I left, I know Eli was getting nervous, but that obviously went away quickly.  Before I left I asked him what he was and he said a leader, and I asked him whose he was and he said God's.  Precious angel.  I'm so glad he had a great day and I'm looking forward to a wonderful school year!

 Photo 4: Eli at his table in his classroom

 Photo 5: Eli with Ben Mize

 Photo 7: What Eli called his "boys club"...from far left and at the bottom of the picture going around, Grant Miller, Jack Gowens, Eli, and Ben Mize

Photo 7: Brady saying bye to Eli, his best friend.  What a great helper Brady was today.  He helped me go shopping and helped play with Major.  Brady has also gotten so big and he is itching to go to kindergarten, too!  He did much better than I thought he would without his big brother to play with him!

Photo 8...my big kindergarten boy!  I love you, Eli!

Last Day of Summer...School Starts Tomorrow!

It is time...Eli will start kindergarten tomorrow!!  So to celebrate his last day without school we went to Fun Tiki in Missouri City where we played mini golf, games, and ate pizza!  It was a great time and a great way to send Eli off to school!

 Photo 1: Brady and Eli with their pizza

 Photo 2: Eli and Brady ready to play some mini golf

 Photo 3: Brady showing off his skills

 Photo 4: Eli getting ready to launch the ball up a big hill...Brady staying way out of the way

 Photo 6: We stayed at this hole a long time...the ball went down the water and to the hole.  The boys thought this was great fun.  And since we weren't keeping score anyway...

 Photo 9: Brady playing basketball...he did great!

Photo 11: Where was Major all this time?  In his car seat and being such a good baby!  He slept through the golf and games and woke up to eat!  Here I think he's saying, "What are you two doing?" In reference to his brothers' crazy table manners while eating pizza....

Tomorrow is the big day.  KINDERGARTEN!  The whole family will be attending this event...more pictures to come soon!

Major - 1 Month Old and Lots of Brotherly Love!

As of August 11th, Major is 1 month old!!  He still pretty much just does newborn stuff...eat, sleep, cry, and poop!  He has smiled at me once or twice, but it is not a regular occurrence.  His "awake" time is from about 9 pm to 1 am (or sometimes 2 am) which is bad because that means I get about 4 hours of sleep a night.  (Bill is in full time football, so that means he leaves about 6 am and gets home about 8 pm, except for on Thursdays (JV games) and Fridays (varsity games) when he doesn't get home until midnight or even later.  Basically, I am on my own during football season.)  Eli and Brady get up about 7, so Major sleeps from 2 to 6, I get up to feed him, then the other boys are up and we begin our day.  Major does great sleeping during the daytime.  Now, if we could only get that to happen more at night!  This beginning newborn time is sure exhausting!

 Brady and Eli in the crib with Major, trying to get him to stop crying.  They love to do this, and are generally pretty good at it!

 Photo 2: Brother laying time on the floor.  See Major looking at his big brother Eli?

 Photo 3: Major and Brady talking to each other.

 Photos 6, 7, and 12: Major's official 1 month pictures.  With both the other boys, I took pictures of them once a month, every month, during their first year and put it in their scrapbook.  I plan on doing the same for Major, but with this blog, I haven't actually printed out pictures in over a year!  I'm going to have to do better about that.  I'm not sure which 1 month picture to choose... 

 Photo 8: Major and Brady

 Photo 9: Brady after having put Major to sleep!  (Yes, I'm serious.  Brady sat there and talked to him and patted him until he fell asleep.)  5 minutes of rest time for me!

 Photo 10 and 11: What are the older 2 up to while I'm tending to Major?  Well, they play track, baseball, soccer, football, tag, hide and go seek...you name it, they play it.  Here I have a picture of a soccer/football player and his coach.  The other picture is of the boys having a track meet around Major.  He just laid there and watched them.  I'm sure he's wondering what crazy family has he been born into...

Random Major Photos

Photo 1: July 26, 2011 (2 weeks, 1 day old)

Major is wearing a size "newborn" outfit in all of these pictures.  The only one of my boys small enough to wear newborn clothing!  Both Eli and Brady went straight to size 3 months clothes. :) 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I just got the blog to work again, so I am catching up on some long over due pictures!  Here are several pictures from sweet Major in his second and third week of life.  It is already hard for me to imagine life without him.  As a matter of fact, as I type this, Major is sleeping on my chest.  I love having a sweet little one again.  I know that it goes by all too fast, so I'm trying to savor these moments as much as I can.

Photo 2: July 31, 2011 (1 day shy of 3 weeks old)

I bought this outfit for Brady when he was born.  It makes me so happy to get to put it on Major.  I think it is just so cute!

 These next few photos are from Major at 3 weeks old on August 1, 2011.  I love this little guy sleeping on me!

 Photos 4 and 6: Major's "little brother" outfit.  This will be the last time he gets to wear it.  He's already getting too big!

 Photo 5: Eli holding Major.  He LOVES to hold his little brother and asks constantly to do so.

 Photo 7 and 8: Looks like Daddy can't resist a sleeping baby on him, either!

Photo 9: Okay, I realize this is not of Major, but I wanted to include this one.  Because of the demands of a newborn, I haven't had time to cut the boys' hair and school starts next week!  So I took the boys to an actual barber shop and had their hair cut.  Here is the finished product.  I like their hair a little longer, but Nana likes it shorter, so this made her very happy!  I'll definitely have first day of school pictures for Eli up next week!

Major's First Bath

These pictures were all taken on August 1, but I've had a really hard time getting posts to load on the blog, so I'm a little backed up with my postings.  This first picture is one of my all time favorites.  This was taken right after the boys helped me give Major his first "real" bath.  He was almost 3 weeks old in the photos.  As you can see, Eli and Brady were a really big help and loved taking care of their little brother.  These little guys love each other so much, and it makes my heart soar!

Major loves bath time.  As soon as I turn on the water he becomes immediately calm and stays that way for the duration of his bath.  I hope this is a trend that continues throughout his baby-hood.