Our adventure started on a beautiful June day in 2004. Fast forward 12 years and now we are the proud parents of 3 active, beautiful boys. Nathan, Bracken, and Marco. We call Prescott Valley, Arizona home and are constantly reminded that there is never enough time to accomplish and experience everything we think we want. Life with a young family is precious and simplicity is our ongoing quest.
This is the first year we have participated in the 4th of July Kiddie Parade. Our boys were super excited to be IN a parade and they had fun decorating their bikes and picking out their outfits.
We rode along with fellow bikers in the "decorated bike" category. The Prescott Kiwanis Club sponsors this event every year and they judge the participants in each category and pick a winner. Our boys didn't win anything but our niece Ava, won the "Best Decorated Scooter" category!
Jaxon
This little parade is just right for kids. It isn't too long, it was over in about 30 minutes, and at the end everyone got and ice cream sandwich!
Marco enjoying the fresh air and getting ready to take a little snooze.
Nathan enjoyed being famous for the weekend when his picture ended up on the front of the Daily Courier! We had people calling us for several days afterward asking us if it was him or not. Nathan thought is was pretty awesome!
Last month our Stake hosted a community preparedness fair. They had a great turn out with lots of great information. Smokey the Bear made an appearance and he let our boys check out his giant green fire truck.
The back seat even had enough room for Curtis's lanky ol' legs!
His little personality is really starting to shine through.
Marco is a happy baby. He adores his big brothers and lives for their (hopefully gentle) attention. When Marco smiles his entire face lights up. He is super ticklish and we all love to nuzzle his neck and steal his sugar. His giggling has really taken off, there are not many sounds that can compete with a babies laughter. Marco is starting to enjoy holding onto toys and immediately sticks them in his mouth. He loves to suck/chew fingers especially his own, but only for play not comfort. Luckily my persistence is paying off, because he has figured out how to suck and hold a chupi in his mouth though he prefers it only when he is tired. The moment he is deep asleep that sucker falls right out.
Marco is still a little butter ball. This past month we have moved up to 9 month size clothes and size 3 diapers. After having 2 days in a row with several major blowouts I decided it was time for bigger diapers.
Marco's eyes are even more twinkling and bright now that his tear ducts have cleared up! Both eyes cleared up within a week of each other and I love staring into his goop free dark chocolate eyes. YUM!
We have officially moved Marco into his crib! He is such a good sleeper. When he is tired all I have to do is give him his chupi and a blanket to snuggle with, cuddle him for a few minutes, lay him in his bed and he drifts off to sleep. He is regularly sleeping from 8pm-4am with a 15 minute feeding and then he goes right back down.
Our 8th Anniversary fell on a Monday this year. We really wanted to attend the Temple but they are closed on Mondays and with all our weekends in June already spoken for we opted to celebrate our anniversary on it's actual day and still head down to the valley and just have some fun. Nathan and Bracken spent Sunday night with Grandma and Grandpa Kleinman so we could get an early start, but it ended up that we used the time to sleep in a little and then combined with caring for an infant along with my inability to control my hair (you would think by the age of 29 I would have the whole hair thing down but some days it still gets the better of me) we hit the road a few hours later than planned. But luckily we didn't have any pressing business other than leisurely filling our time so it worked out fine. We stopped in at Ikea and picked up a few things for our bedroom. I have been itching for some change around the house and decided to start with our room since what I had in mind were small changes compared to other spaces in our home. Not having our older children with us allowed us to soak everything in and take our time getting ideas for other future projects. After that we ate a late lunch at Mimi's Cafe, and then did a little shoe shopping for Curtis. He was in desperate need of new b-ball shoes and we were able to find a pair that fit his long size 14 feet comfortably. On our way home we grabbed some frozen custard from Cullvers and headed back to our boys. I forgot the camera so no pictures to document the day but it was a fun and rejuvenating outing with my love.
Later that same week, Grandma and Grandpa Kleinman took our little family out to the Windmill House, a nursery/restaurant/event location in Chino Valley, for dinner. The Windmill House has gorgeous grounds and the boys loved running free and enjoying the fresh, cool evening air. We all enjoyed the BBQ buffet and live country music. Bracken even treated me to a few dances. He even joined Curtis and I during a waltz. I wasn't able to talk Nate into dancing with me, he had one of his rare shy and reserved moments which he later regretted. Every now and then Nathan tries to talk me into eating dinner there again so he can dance with me too.
After dinner the Grandparents lingered in the dinning room to enjoy more music and watch our sleeping Marco allowing the rest of us to play a rousing game of tag outside. It was a blast. We were all laughing like crazy and for some reason all my boys, especially Curtis, enjoyed ganging up on me so I was "it" a lot.
If you look really close you can see Nate and Brack on the play set. They had noticed it through a fence in another part of the property and the little buggers figured out a way to get to it. I was impressed with their craftiness.
At our house we keep the blocks stashed up in the closet for a couple of reasons. My boys didn't play with them on a regular basis so keeping them in the closet keeps our precious space freed up for the favorite toys and I discovered I like to be in control about when the blocks get pulled out since my kidlets rarely clean them ALL up THEMSELVES. So when we do dust them off and pull them out of the closet they really enjoy them.
Of course seeing who can build the highest tower is always a lot of fun but usually the winning tower doesn't last long because playing "knock down my brother's tower" is probably their favorite game of all.
He is extremely pleased with himself and enjoys practicing his new skill every chance he gets. He has even learned how to double knot the laces.
This is just another milestone reached that has reminded me how fast the years pass and babies grow up. I have a 5 year old soon to be kindergartener who can ride a bike without training wheels and ties his own shoes. What a lucky Mom I am!
As I have mentioned before Bracken LOVES his Baby Marquito. Usually to the point of causing Marco some physical pain. Marco is more on guard when Bracken's full attention is on him but life with brothers is tough. On this particular Sunday afternoon Bracken was playing very sweetly with Marco and he loved sharing and building little "baby tracks" for Marco to play with.
Our nephew Jaxon had a simple birthday wish, he wanted to go camping! Lucky for us he wanted to include the whole family for this trip which gave us our first camping experience for the season. His actual birthday was Memorial Day weekend, but since that is a famous weekend for camping we opted for the first weekend in June. The weather was great, not too cold not too hot. We had fun cooking, eating and of course there was plenty of playing and several adventure excursions. We did have a few bug issues, and most of us came away with the itchy bites to prove it, luckily my kids were spared. I guess I sprayed them better than I sprayed myself. Bekah and I also conquered our fear of giant ugly spiders (at least for the day) when we teamed up to kill a beastly spider that had made a home on her tent.
Curtis slept in his hammock, and he looked too comfy and goofy to not capture the moment. We have officially out grown our 4 man tent. The boys and I slept, very cozily, on our air mattresses and Marco slept all bundled up in his bouncy chair since there is no room for the pack'n'play. We need to upgrade our tent situation if we want to do more camping this summer.
Marco was a champ and very accommodating. I was hesitant about going camping with a 2 month old, but I figure I can weather just about anything for only one night. As it turned out he went to sleep no problem and slept through the night just like usual. He even napped really well. Every day I am thankful for my angel baby.
Camping is a lot of work but it was totally worth the it!
My boys loves baths and I love giving them baths. There is something very satisfying about taking a sweaty little boy, sticking him the tub and getting him squeaky clean and sweet smelling again.
And bath time is especially fun when you get to splash and play with your brother!
Against all odds, another year passed and Curtis, much to his dismay, is one year older!
Curtis is not a huge Birthday fan when it comes to his own special day, so we kept it simple. His "cake" was a tower of doghnuts and we gave him a blower/vac yard tool which has been greatly needed.
...because if forces to you take a leap of faith and potty train!
I knew Bracken was really close to being ready for potty training and I was so over changing his diapers. Compared to Marco his little buttox was not very cute anymore. Several times a week I would ask him if he wanted to learn how to use the toilet like Natey & Papi. He wouldn't skip a beat before answering "No, I like diapers!" So I didn't push the matter until one weekend when we were dangerously low on diapers. I knew I needed to make a diaper run but Friday passed me by and before I knew it Saturday was almost done and gone and I had no energy left for a shopping trip. I knew I could raid our 72 hour kits if I got desperate so I opted to wait it out and see how the chips fell. Sunday morning came and we had 3 size 6 diapers to our name. Amazingly enough we only used 2 diapers that day leaving us one remainging diaper for Monday morning. When I was getting Bracken dressed for the day I decided to take the plunge because I still didn't feel like hauling my posse to the store. I looked him in the eye and said "Bracken, guess what? We don't have any more diapers, they are all gone! You have to wear underwear now." I braced myself for a tantrum of some sort, but he smiled and said "Okay mommy!" And he has been wearing undies ever since!!!
That first week went really smoothly with only a few minor accidents of both varieties. By week 2 he pretty much had the drill down and he was even waking up dry 90% of the time. I was one happy Momma! It has been a month and a half and he is still going strong.
There isn't much that beats a chubby toddler toosh in little undies, especially when they have Cars characters on them. And in my eyes, Bracky's toosh is cute once again!
Earlier in May, Tia Marci came all the way from Fayetteville Arkansas to visit us. Nate and Brack adore Marci and they were super excited to have her with us for a whole week
We had nice warm weather so we busted out the pool and Marci had fun soaking up our dry Arizona sunshine while the boys splashed it up.
Marci has a thing for adorable cowboys and these are 2 of her favorites. She decked them out with some new cowboy gear but they had to promise to be good, if they had any fits the new boots, spurs, and hats would disapear. They were pretty good about keeping their promise. Bracken loved his boot so much he slept in them, napped in them and wore his boots for 3 days straight.
Our little Marco took a while to warm up to Tia Marci. For the first few days she was here he fussed when she would hold him. So one day she decided to win him over and persevered through about 30 minutes of fussiness and he eventually decided she must not be all that bad. For the remainder of her visit he enjoyed his snuggle time with Tia Marci and awarded her with plenty of smiles.
We spent one afternoon at Lynx Lake. We went on a little hike and tried our hand at letter boxing but either we couldn't follow directions or the map was bogus because we could find half of the trail markers that were supposed to be there. The boys were dissapointed that we couldn't finish our "treasure hunt" but we gave it our all. I think Curtis stuck his hand down every hollow trunk along the trail.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch near the lake and of course we can't be near a body of water with out tossing a bunch of rocks into it. Nathan tried to learn the art of skipping rocks since Papi and Tia Marci are pros but he doesn't have a keen eye for picking out skipping appropriate rocks yet.
Even though it looks as though Nate is about to whack Bracken, that rock made it safely into the lake with a pleasingly large splash.
Every time Marci comes to visit the boys beg her to take them riding and she is always happy to oblige. Luckily she has connections with a super nice family that let her ride when ever she is in town and both boys were in horsey heaven.
One evening Curtis surprised us with a last minute shooting adventure. We drove out to one of our favorite spots and the kids had fun shooting up cans of soda and some random pieces of garbage we scrounged up.
Nathan is turning into a little sharp shooter. Tia Marci was pretty impressed with his skills.
When all of our daylight was we enjoyed some grilled chicken, hot dogs, Kmart brand pineapple soda, and a whole lot of silliness.
Boot Buddies
Marci was able to catch one of Nathan's t-ball games before she caught the shuttle down to Phoenix.
It was a glorious week having Marci with us, WE LOVE YOU MARCI!
