Coonskin brothers

Keaton put this coonskin cap on Mark this morning. 

I was able to snap a quick pic before he pulled it off. 

Mark
7 months old

I knew I had a similar picture of Keaton around the same age.

Keaton
7 months old, obviously after some sweet potatoes or carrots :-)

Maybe they are looking less alike now? Still definitely brothers! So fun to compare and contrast as they get older and more of Mark's personality is coming out. 

Easter Sunday

Leading up to Easter, I tried to downplay the whole "bunny and egg" thing and make sure that Keaton understood exactly what Easter was really about this year: 

"Jesus died on the cwoss, and was alive again!"

He was so surprised to wake up on Easter morning to a basket full of goodies. Among his treasures: new crayons, Cars bandaids, windup boats for the pool, Spiderman plate, and of course - plenty of candy! Baby brother got 2 sippy cups, a new paci clip, and some puffs in his basket -
very practical boy, that Mark :-).

Easter Baskets! 

Keaton acted like I was the meanest Mama in the world by putting a collared shirt and long pants on him for church (my "Hawaiianized" boys are not used to dressing up so much). Thankfully, he perked up enough for some Easter pics.

I love these boys - have I mentioned that?

Dada and his boys! 

I apparently did not get the "green shirt" memo.

After naps, we headed over to the Heaths, so Keaton could hunt eggs with best buddy, Lucas.

Look what I found, Mom!

Such a great day of fellowship, resting, and remembering Christ's sacrifice and ultimate victory over the grave! Happy Easter! 

7 months

Another month. A whole new set of tricks.

His 2 bottom teeth finally broke through. Hello, drool! He won't let you get close enough to look at them, but he sticks his little tongue out all the time making sure they are still there. 

I can't believe I ever thought this kid would be a poor eater. In the last month, he's turned into a complete solid food junkie. He eats everything from smoothie to oatmeal to black beans and rice to quinoa and zucchini.  Still working on getting him to take a bottle. So far, he only likes THAT kinda food from one restaurant.... 

Despite my discouragement and promises that mobility is WAY overrated, the kid gets around. He already army-crawls his way across the room with ease, usually on a mission to get one of Keaton's toys or some other thing he's not supposed to have. 

I even caught him pulling up to the TiVo box the other day. Won't be long before he's showing me how to work it.

He said his first word! 

"Mamamamamamamama..."

 I'm pretty sure he knows what it means now too. 

Mark loves his big brother! Keaton makes him laugh like no one else can. One of my greatest joys as a mom is watching this relationship grow as these two interact more every day. 

No Biggie

Happy birthday to me! 

This is me at 8 months. 

I'm 30 now. 

Weird.

Last night, Scott threw me a birthday party. Not a surprise - thank goodness. I made it clear months ago that I had no interest in being a "surprise-ee" on my birthday. 

My party was was perfect: close friends, good food, Costco cake, Dance Dance Revolution. Well, that last part was not my idea, but it was surprisingly fun anyway.

Me and my boys

Dance Dance Revolution

Scott vs. Suzy

Yes, we even made the preggers get up there.  Karen won the DDR tournament - 3 weeks from her due date! 

Her face is priceless here.  

How appropriate that my 30th birthday would fall on a Monday, and I would spend the majority of my day folding laundry and wiping bottoms? Not complaining - I love spending time at home with my boys, and what a perfect picture of my life at 30 years old. Honestly, turning 30 has been no big deal to me. I mean, I've been married 7 years, I have 2 kids. I might as well be 30, right? It's like I'm finally acting my age. I feel so blessed to be where I am doing just what I'm doing right now.

At lunch today, I made Keaton sing "Happy Birthday to Mama!"  before he could enjoy a piece of leftover cake. I can do that because I'm the mom. 

And I'm 30.

Ice cream in the house

There are 12 bowls in my dishwasher right now. This can only mean one thing. There is ice cream in the house, and I'm eating way to much of it. There was recently a coupon for $5 off $15 frozen foods at Safeway. It might as well have said "$5 off ice cream" when I clipped it.













I don't have a favorite ice cream flavor.  Nuts, fruit, coconut,  Neapolitan, brownie bits, cookie dough - bring it on. I can't say no. Right now, I'm really into Extreme Moose Tracks (aka Double Chocolate Kiss of Death). Scott's not a fan. I can't remember exactly how he described it - something like "offensively rich." :-)

I never forget when there is ice cream in the house. In fact, I think about it quite a LOT. You could even say that I plan my day around it sometimes. You could even say that I put my kids to bed extra early sometimes, because I can't wait to scoop myself a bowl. I know, sad.

Scott loves ice cream too. We love eating ice cream together on the couch while we watch our favorite shows. He would probably say his favorite ice cream is Breyers Vanilla Fudge Twirl. It's what his mama used to buy for him. When I'm not home to remind Scott that we have ice cream, he will forget and not have any. Help me understand - how does this happen??? This might be biggest difference between men and women - dessert awareness. I never EVER forget when we have ice cream in the house. Thank goodness I'm lactating right now or I would probably weigh 300 lbs.

Here's someone who doesn't know we have ice cream in the house... he he he (evil Mama laugh)

Here's someone who doesn't even know about ice cream yet. Mmmm, boy. Just you wait, little Mister. I gotta feeling this one has a sweet tooth.