Love, Mommy: April 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

Baby Boom

Our parish had 6 babies born last year--a new record that will probably stand for a while.

Love this...

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Budding Photographer

Dominic spent about 20 minutes running around with my camera the other day. Here's some of his shots:

Mom...Say Cheese!

And my very personal favorite, the toilet shot. When I told him how funny it was that he took a picture of the toilet, he took about 5 more.

Summer

Nothing says summer like having friends over, Luke's grilling and eating in the back yard!

Mmmm Bop

When you get D in there, it totally reminds me of the Hanson Brothers. If only I could be so lucky. ;)

Jackson is pushing the buttons on his train book and Patrick (obviously) is accompanying.
Then they dance around for a bit until Patrick says "Jackson, your turn" and they switch. Adorable.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Cute Leo, you are still a mostly mild mannered baby. At four months, you were in the 60% for height and weight, making you the biggest Deaver baby ever :) You just started rolling over on March 31st. And by started rolling over, I mean, you rolled over, because you've only done it once. :) You got your first haircut on April 9th--and look how cute and big you look now! You are still a little stubborn, as your longest stretch of sleep at night is 4 hours (if we are SUPER lucky) and you'll have nothing to do with a bottle or pacifier. Daddy has to be very patient with you when I go to do Pampered Chef parties! You love sitting in your bumbo chair, but so do your brothers, so you don't get to sit in it all the time. You are very giggly and sweet!

Luke's 31st

We celebrated Luke's birthday with a very exciting trip to Pizza Hut. Eating out with four littles is about a once every few months adventure, so we thought it deserved some documentation.

Man, I love this little Packa. He is so funny and super crazy pretty much all the time. He still has a very, very big personality.

We weren't able to get out of the house on Luke's actual birthday, so we stayed in and I prepared a meal of Chicken Fried steak and potatoes, homemade rolls and banana cream pie. Luke often reminds me that he was afraid we'd all starve after we got married because I hated cooking. I've come a little ways since then... :)

Happy Birthday, Love!

Busy, Busy Jackson

Sweet Jackson, you have become a very fun little boy in recent months. All of the sudden you can talk and put words together. This has altered your mood completely! Instead of an often sullen mood, you are happy and silly. Listening to you is like listening to an adult just learning the English language--a little broken and hard to follow, but you can get anything you need now by talking instead of whining! You are so thoughtful of others and often get blankets or sippies for your brothers without being asked. You love to do whatever Dominic does--you two get along pretty well. You are also mommy's big helper. You always enjoy helping me bake or cook and love to clean anything and everything with a wet washcloth. A crayon or paint brush in your hand can keep you busy for a very long time. You also drink about a gallon of milk a day--I cannot keep up with your need for liquids :) We love you, Jack-attack!

Leo, 3 months

Dominic loves playing with Leo. No one else can make Leo laugh and laugh the way Dominic does. I think it is a good outlet for all the crazyness and silliness Dominic has inside :)

The beginning of a great friendship...

Happy Birthday to my Twinnies!

Jackson and Patrick turned 2 on Jan 20. We had a low key, but very fun birthday!

We went to Kearney for the day and met up with Jake and Jena and their kiddos.

First stop, the children's museum.

All the cousins--minus Leo.

Jackson loved this ball thing.

Dominic and Jessica are pretty much best friends. Too cute.

Then we went to Valentino's. The kids were SO good and we attracted LOTS of attention with all our littles.

On the day of their birthday, we had a few friends over and they both got cake.

Happy Birthday to my two favorite 2 year olds!!

Congratulations Ben and Brittany!

January 8th, we were happy to welcome a new member to the Deaver Family! Luke's brother, Ben, married Brittany!

D was a ring bearer and our neice, Jessica, was a flower girl. They referred to themselves as the prince and princess, though.

He was super shy at the rehearsal and only made it down the aisle halfway before bursting into tears. At the ceremony, though, he made it all the way down by himself! He was so proud!

Loving on my oldest.

I played piano and sang, and Luke was best man. The reception was CRAZY beautiful and super fun!

Congrats to Ben and Brittany!!

Snow Days

Since it was kind of impossible for me to get outside with the littles in the snow by myself, Luke took them out a few times. I was surprised to see how their little personalities all took to the snow a little differently.

I was pleasently surprised that Jackson actually loved playing in the snow. He is always a little annoyed by things that are "cold" or "hot" (two of his first words) so I was sure he'd only last a few minutes, but he probably enjoyed playing more than his brothers.

Mostly, I think Luke looks kind of scary in this picture :)

Patrick did NOT love the snow. Normally he has little regard for his body, throwing himself off tables and down slides with no thought, but apparently the snow was too much for him. He cried to be held most of the time while outside.

D loves making snow angels...we still have to make them on the carpet and in the grass!

Christmas '10

Christmas is more fun every year--like experiencing it for the first time. Christmas Eve was spent at Luke's parents. We did a big unwrapping present party and a quick Oyster Stew dinner. I was in charge of music for the midnight Mass in North Platte.

The next morning, we opened presents as a family.

D opened his second his second St. Dominic Savio coloring book (great minds think alike, right Susie? :))

The boys played with (and fought over) the electronic drum set and keyboard they got from the G and G Deaver all morning.

Yep, Dominic...that's exactly what I was thinking...

Probably going to be keeping the keyboard and drums at Grandma and Grandpas in the future... ;)

After the 10 AM Christmas morning Mass, we drove to Wahoo for the Mach Christmas.

All the kiddos LOVE Uncle Jake.

The whole Christmas thing was a tiring event for little Leo.

Another favorite Uncle, Uncle "Yoo-cas" (Actual, all the uncles are favorite uncles)

And the annual Bruggeman Family Gift Exchange. The theme was "Disney." Somehow that got changed to "Jewish Disney" by a few family members...yeah...I still don't get it.

We did get these sweet Mickey Israel t-shirts for the twins. Not sure when the perfect occasion will be for them to wear them...

And Luke got Iced. Neither of us were really cool enough to know what that was, but when he opened his Bruggeman gift, he found a Smirnoff Ice in the bag. I think he really only took about three swallows before he gave up.