Kyler Turns 4

I can't believe Kyler Dude is 4!!! How is that possible?!? On the other hand, I have only been a parent for 4 years?? That doesn't seem possible either!! This guy was so so excited for his birthday this year.  We had a countdown for about 8 days once the 12th got closer.  He would ask every night how many times he had to go to bed before his birthday.  And everyday since he tells me, "Mom tonight I go to bed and tomorrow I will be 5!"  We are still working on the concept of time.  He had a great day because he was able to get ice cream at Sam's, get a present and cupcake from a friend at storytime, and the highlight of the day was getting his present from Oma that had an envelope with money to go to Chick-A-Lay (aka Chick-fil-a).  He even had to stand in line with me at pay with the money himself!  The next day, one of Kyler's favorite people came to our house.  His cousin Tyce!!  A lot of Kenney's family came in for the weekend and were able to celebrate Kyler's birthday with us, making his birthday even better.  Overall, Kyler had a great birthday and we can't imagine our lives without him!

Can you tell he was excited?!?

We love this little boy so much!!

He got them all in one try!!

Daddy's wrapping job!  It took Kyler a while to figure out where the present was, but he thought that was pretty funny!

Kyler continues to love balls of all kinds.  He was excited to start practicing his dribbling skills.

These are the cupcakes Kyler and Damon helped to make.  Kyler picked out the red cupcake liners, blue frosting and Christmas sprinkles.  He got what he wanted.  However, this year he also just wanted ice cream.  We only made cupcakes because a lot of family came over for a party.  He asked for ice cream with candy on top!   I love how easy they make it on me; no crazy complicated cakes!!

This is the boys playing at Chick-fil-a.  This video shows just how high Damon can get.

The beginning is hard to see, but Damon is just crazy!!  He gets so high; at least twice his height!!

Radley enjoyed his dessert too!!

Playing Outside & Damon's Stories

These boys love getting out any chance they get. Since we don't have a yard we have been trying to make do with what we've got, a parking lot! What is there to do in a parking lot? Throw rocks of course!! I told the boys the only way they are allowed to throw rocks is if they throw them at the fence and away from cars and people. Surprisingly they obey, for the most part! After they got tired of the rocks, they decided to bring their basketball goal outside. It was a good way to pass time while Daddy was studying and mom needed to distract the kiddos!!

Find the biggest rock possible out of the pothole and throw it at the fence or over it!

He of course had to join the fun too!

I'm not sure we are instilling good habits, but at least they are occupied and throwing away from the cars.

We try and avoid this pothole every time we pull in and out of our parking space, and my boys are kind enough to make it bigger!

Papa Dude would be proud of this trick shot.  This is how he used to play PIG/HORSE with me.  He never shot a 'real' shot.  Kyler usually makes all these shots.  Go figure!

Slam It!!

Kenney's hoping one day we will be able to compare this shot with him doing it on a real basketball goal!  We'll see, but for now he's pretty much dominating!

Getting ready for a bath and just so stinkin' cute I can't take it!!

He thinks he is so big and just like his brothers.

Here are some of the new basketball tricks Kyler has. I think Damon doing the tricks is pretty funny. He tries to do everything that Kyler does. I was trying to get Kyler to tell about how he thinks broccoli is what makes him big and strong, but he only talked about how big he is going to be one day!

  

Damon telling stories is hilarious. Here he is telling a story about thunder and Kung Fu Panda (the movie). Kenney was reading them a book, and they were talking about thunder. Something reminded Damon of the movie Kung Fu Panda which caused him to tell this story. His facial expressions are so funny, and he takes it so serious!

Valentine's Day & Some Videos

These boys get especially spoiled around holidays and mostly from people other than me. They got 3 Valentine's Day packages, and they LOVED every bit!! Oma & Papa Dude, Aunt Shandi & Uncle Chris, and Gma & Gpa Hill all sent them a package full of fun surprises and candy of course! I'm not sure they quite understood what Valentine's Day really is, but they could have cared less what day it was. All they knew was candy was involved and that's all they needed to hear!!

Coloring some stuff from a package and writing Daddy a Valentine.

This kid made his Daddy somewhere around 20 Valentines!  He really likes to write letters now and writes all combinations of letters.  He then asks me what it says.  I of course have no idea what his combination of letters spells and he doesn't care and just keeps on writing.

This is Damon's Valentine's Day outfit.  I told him he should wear red and he said, "No. Orange!"

These boys even have people from church spoiling them.  A very sweet lady came and dropped off some little surprises for them!

Radley's first time actually sitting in a cart at the store.  Usually one of the other two takes the spot and Radley stays in his carseat, but he is no longer content to stay in the carseat. He thinks he's pretty cool!

Pictures from Daddy's phone

A typical place for Damon to be at some point during the day.  I put all the kid movies on a shelf above the freezer trying to keep them away from the children.  Obviously nothing is ever high enough to keep Damon away.

Our playgroup has been out on a few excursions lately, and the most recent one was a visit to a local grocery store United.  They gave the kids a tour around the whole store; let them go in the freezers in the back; the seafood guy showed them crab legs and frog legs, they got to take a banana from the produce dept., the deli counter gave them cheese, a girl in the bakery decorated the cake above while they watched and gave it to the kids to eat; a girl in the floral dept. put some flowers in a vase and gave it to us; and they got goodie bags full of fun stuff!  It was pretty cool!

Radley's cute little squishy-nosed face!

He is moving everywhere now and wants to stand up ALL the time. He is even letting go already and trying to stand on his own. He just turned 8 months this week. I seriously need him to SLOWDOWN!

 This little boy was so excited to be sitting like a big boy!

This video shows Damon's personality perfectly! Kenney likes how he waits after the first hit to see how Kyler will react and then just keeps on hitting him.

 My favorite video!! I could seriously watch it over and over, and I have!

Crawling & More

He is officially on the move! Radley has been able to get around for a while now, but he is on hands and knees now ready to go!  His only problem now is that he has not figured out how to follow any of us.  He will stay in a room and scream rather than crawl to find us.  Hopefully once he figures that out the screaming in our home will decrease, but I'm not keeping my fingers crossed!!

I love this chubby little face and those blue eyes!

This hat has made both Kyler and Radley's faces look so round.

Someone left a chocolate animal cracker laying around and look who found it!

Grandma Hill sent the boys a Valentine's Day package and these lip whistles were in there.  Be grateful I didn't add a video of the lovely noise they make :)

These next pictures show just how different Kyler and Damon are.  This is what it looks like after Damon puts his clothes away.

This is what Kyler's drawers look like after he puts his clothes away.  I know that Kyler is 3 and Damon is 2, but Damon just muscles the clothes in and shoves them in the drawers.  Kyler, on the other hand, makes sure all his clothes fit, the drawers close and nothing is hanging out.

And Kyler couldn't stand Damon's clothes hanging out, so he went and tucked them all in the drawers!

He's getting so BIG!

Watching his brothers to make sure it's safe for him.

He likes to be right in the middle of everything; just ask Damon!!

This is how I found Kyler after I put all their clothes in the washer!  Goofy boy.

I know this is kinda gross, but I think his face is just priceless!  One night at dinner Radley all of a sudden started throwing up.  He then just sat there perfectly content!

Kyler's 'Test' & Krispy Kreme

Kenney is currently taking a pediatrics class at school and was given an assignment to perform a developmental test on a child. Since our house has plenty of children to go around, Kenney offered his classmates to use our kids to test. He decided to do the test on Kyler to see where he was standing. We thought he would be the best and easiest to test since he has a good ability to concentrate and understand what was being asked of him. We also thought it would be faster to test Kyler rather than Damon. Another group asked to do Radley, so Kyler it was! The test ended up taking 2 hours and 15 mins!! Apparently the child has to get 3 zeros in a row on each section of the test before stopping. Kyler made it to the end of every section and the test goes through age 6 and he is only 3!! We thought he was a little above average, but we were shocked!! He had the most trouble with scissors, but with good reason.  I have never let him use scissors!!  He did things I didn't even know he could do.  Needless to say, he made quite the impression.

We told Kyler that he was going to Daddy's school to take a test.  He went in his room to get ready, and this is how he came out.  He had a backpack and a lunchbox ready for school!!  It was pretty cute!

Here are his results:
       91 percentile for gross motor
       84 percentile for fine motor
       Overall 91 percentile (in one section for grasping he scored perfect)

So this is how Damon chooses to play around the house everyday.  If it was 80 degrees outside I wouldn't think anything of it, but it is freezing (literally) outside.  Our house is not that warm either!  He also refuses to wear pants outside, and rather than fight him, we now have a compromise to just put pants on over his shorts.  Crazy child!

Radley on a playgroup field trip to Krispy Kreme.  Sorry these are not the best pictures.  I was trying to hold Radley and watch the other two while taking pictures!

Kyler's horrible CHEESE face!

I was amazed that Krispy Kreme gave all of the parents and kids donuts, chocolate with sprinkles.  They also set the boxes down right next to us so the boys thought they each needed 2 donuts.  Kyler said, "Mom I only had ONE donut.  I need more."