Gabe and Marguerite usually get an hour or so in the morning, just the two of them, before Josh wakes up. It's such a joy to see how much they enjoy each other.

This is the one picture we took with my camera at Josh's birthday party

Josh loves to try to ride Gabe's bike (aka - sit on Gabe's bike, while I push)

On the days when I try to be an organized mom, we spend about 1/2 hour at the table doing "learning" time. Gabe does his work sheets because the crazy child LOVES worksheets. Josh colors and tells us stories in Joshanese. I'm hoping he'll learn English soon, or that Gabe will catch on to Joshanese and start translating for us, because those stories sound like they're very interesting.

Sometimes Gabe likes to play Angry Birds on my kindle. And Josh and Marguerite like to watch.

Josh likes to rearrange condiments.

Marguerite likes to eat.

When Brian gets home from work, the boys like to hide from him. Can you find them?

How You Know it's a Second Birthday

Mom and Gabe: Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!
Josh: STOP!
Mom and Gabe: Happy Birthday dear Jo---osh.
Josh: STOP!
Mom and Gabe: Happy Birthday to you!
Josh: NO!
Mom: Happy Birthday Josh!
Josh: NO!
Mom: You're two! Yay!
Gabe: (in background) You're two. You're two. You're really, really too (repeated over and over).
Josh: NO! NO!

In reality, Josh is a wonderful boy, exploring very methodically all over the house - each drawer, cabinet, bookcase, etc. He is very grateful too, and even thanks me after diaper changes. He loves his siblings, tries to keep up with Gabe (and does a really good job), and is super sweet with Marguerite. He is a very special spirit and we're so grateful to have him in our family!!

Eating Time

Gabe, 2008

 

Josh, 2011

 

Marguerite, 2012

I'm always amazed at how fast the first 6 months of a child's life goes by. Marguerite is already eating solid foods, and spinning around like a top when she's on her belly on the floor. She is such a happy baby. I'll admit with the boys, I'd take 20 pictures while trying to to get them to smile, then post the one picture I got with them smiling. With Marguerite, one can simply look at her and she gives you the biggest grin, like you walking in the room and glancing at her was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her. It's such a pleasure to have her sunny disposition in the house. It rubs off on everyone. When Gabe is grumpy, I stick Marguerite in his face until all his grumpies leave. It works every time.

Gabe loves to feed her.

He also loves his bike. We try to go on a bike ride every morning. He's up to 1.5 miles, which for this suburban kid is quite a lot! I usually run about 1/2 the time to keep up with him.

But it gets pretty hot. This is a picture of him after his first "long" bike ride - totally drenched with sweat.

Josh also loves and adores Marguerite. He loves jumping over her, laying on her, laughing at her when she cries, and for some reason, biting her feet. (He doesn't bite anyone else, or her anyWHERE else, he just loves to chomp those feet!) Whenever she's on the floor like this, Josh will often lay right by her, get right in her face, and just say, "oh Siiiissy." It makes her smile. Josh has also gotten the best laugh out of Marguerite yet.

He also loves to color and paint (Christina, I took a picture of this artwork for you and will be sending it shortly).

But one of his favorite activities right now is to dress up like Superman. I usually have two Supermans running around the house every afternoon. Gabe Superman likes to rescue me from the car wash. Josh Superman likes to declare his identity while running wildly through the whole house.

I just sat down to do a little catch-up post, which should include Gabe's 4th birthday, and I now realize I took not ONE picture of him on his birthday, nor did I take a single picture at his birthday party. So here's a rare wordy description...

Gabe's actual birthday included a present scavenger hunt, a trip to the park/splash pad with lots of friends (actually a birthday party for a friend of Gabe's), and dinner with family friends at Chic Fila. His actual party took place in New Orleans with family. A HUGE thank you to GiGi and Pops for hosting the party and for making the whole weekend wonderful. I've been reflecting about Gabe's birthday celebrations, and I think in the future I want to focus a little less on things and presents and establish family birthday traditions that create  memories rather than "stuff". Ideas? Thoughts? Experiences?

In May, (actually on Mother's Day), Brian was extended a new calling as Branch President of the 4th Branch (Spanish Speaking). We're both overwhelmed (Brian with caring for and growing a flock of the Lord's sheep, me with sitting alone in Sacrament meeting with 3 young kids), but mostly really excited. The branch is small, but close knit and loving. And I get free Spanish lessons in Relief Society. It's great! This week I learned the word for a person who gossips a lot.

Here are some pictures from other happenings in the last month:

Aunt Tiff, Grandma, and cousin Peter made the trip from Utah to Texas to visit. We LOVED having them here, and for a whole week after they left, Josh would ask upon waking, "Pe-er? Tissy? Gama?" Then he'd proclaim where he thought they all were. "Nap!" (Which they probably were, just not in Texas. We wore poor Peter out.)

Then there are these eyes.  She gets kissed a lot. I took the poor girl to her "well"-child exam this past week and it turns out she had bronchitis. And a cyst on her head.

Josh graduated from the pacifier for about a week. And then he got sick. And started working on 4 molars at once. So the cries of "paci, paci, paci!!!!" grew more frequent and I gave in. Maybe we'll try again once all those molars work their way through.

Marguerite has recently discovered her hands, fingers, thumb (in mouth), and feet. Here she is admiring the shoes and matchy-smatchy outfit her aunt sent her. 

Brian and his band, "Off Our Rocker" played at a festival in a nearby town held this past weekend. The coordinator of the festival RAVED about them.

We've had candy sitting on our counter for the last week, waiting to make it to Brian's new office at the church. It finally got the better of my boys. Gabe threw all this candy to Josh (he's always watching out for his younger brother). When I found Josh, he was like this, but what you can't see are the 5 pieces of candy he sucked on for two seconds, just to throw down to try the next piece.

And Marguerite just encouraged their delinquency with this smile.

This is how Josh gets away with most of his mischief. He just distracts you with this smile and a laugh. He thinks everything is funny right now and will just sit and laugh sometimes. Most of the time, I can't figure out what is so funny.

Going to kiss his sister.

I told Gabe to give me a look of pure joy for this picture. So he smiled big and told me all about his bow and arrow (the hanger).  Gabe is a jitter-wiggle-squiggle bug right now. If he's forced to sit, he's jiggling a leg, tearing something apart with his hands, or gives bursts of yells like he's suffering from turrets.  He's taking swim lessons right now and that helps use some of his energy.

I love that Mother's Day is a time to reflect on what I do all day every day.

I'm incredibly grateful for the wonderful children with which I have been blessed. I'm grateful to make fun memories with them, like go to the zoo, where the most interesting thing they found, after 2 hours of driving, was this wishing well. (Which Gabe peed in while I wasn't looking. But the zoo employee sure was looking.)

And I absolutely love their little (sometimes really BIG) personalities. Josh loves to put this fire person hat on and walk around the house with the "choo choo". My favorite thing about Josh right now is the way he sings Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. "Winkle, Winkle, da da STAR!"

And Gabe tells funny jokes like:

"Knock Knock"

"Who's there?"

"Apple"

"Apple who?"

"Eat Apple!" 

(Said with a look on his face that clearly expresses his opinion that he is just about the funniest person in the world.)

Then there's the little one. Everyone just loves Marguerite. Whenever she's awake (and happy), the whole family gathers around and tries to make her smile. It's not difficult to do, but you pretty much feel like the king of the world when you achieve your goal.

When my parents were in town at the end of April, they helped us plant a garden, so these pictures are mostly so they can see the fruit of their labors...

Zucchini

Watermelon

Tomato. This is Gabe's surprised face. It goes perfectly with his new favorite phrase when I tell him something he likes to hear, "Oh! I didn't know that!" Gabe is also trying to figure out how measurements work, and I absolutely love to hear him talk about anything with numbers. An example: The other day, I put a CD in that we hadn't listened to in awhile, and Gabe said, "Oh! This is my favorite from like... 100 years ago." He'll also say things like, "That bike is 82 45 96 pounds away from us." It doesn't make any sense, but it's delightful.

Josh loves cars. He almost always has one in his hand. He is mostly laid back, but when he's not, he's REALLY not. He already loves to attempt to buckle himself into his car seat, get dressed, go to the bathroom (really anything that Gabe does.) He insists on going pee in the toilet after almost every diaper change, but gets really frustrated when he stands there, just like Gabe does, and nothing comes out. I think he thinks he just hasn't found the right button yet, or something. He's also in the stage where he can't make up his mind about anything and get's really mad when I don't keep up with the ever changing decisions. Mostly, he's delightful and fun and a joy. His laugh is one to bring joy to the heart.

Both boys adore Marguerite. Gabe loves to hold her and make her laugh. Whenever she starts crying, Josh runs right over to me yelling, "Mom! Sis! Cay (cry)!" over and over until I get to her.

And just look at that smile. Even though she doesn't sleep at all (almost literally) during the day, we still can get this smile out of her, as long as someone is paying close attention to her, and/or holding her.