Oh the things they say...

 So we were all dressed coordinatingly on Sunday so we decided to take some family pictures... 

 

Connor was our little focus tester...

And the only picture we could get with everyone looking at the camera and not blinking or scowling... 

Vale wanted to give baby Schafer a kiss :) 

 The baby, and mommy will take all the love we can get!! :)
 

My three little men and me.

 

I come out into the living room and the boys are cuddled together on the couch under a blanket with both their arms up... :)  They are so sweet!

 

The boys have been wanting to sleep in the same bed lately... they are too cute... :)

Connor

So Connor was misbehaving and being mean to Vale... doing blatantly unkind things in front of us.  Jimmy took him back to his room and sat him on the changing table and looked at him and said, "Connor I don't understand why you are doing this?  You are a very smart boy but you are doing some very foolish things!"  Connor looks right at him and says, "It's because we are sinners dad."... oh well now that you've cleared that up for me I'll just move on... ha oh me oh my... this kids too smart for his own good.

I asked Connor during dinner one night, just out of the blue.  'Hey Connor, how does somebody go to heaven?'  His response: "You die." ... yup... good call... next questions... :)

I'm not sure where he picked it up but Connor has started making up names for things, putting a whole bunch of random words together and then adding the term 'incorporated' on the end.  Such as a 'panther police python incorporated' or 'blue footed seagulls incorporated'... this kid... I'm tellin' ya...

So Connor says to me, out of the blue while he's playing, "If we die, we should go to hell because of our sin but if God looks at us and sees Jesus we can go to heaven!"... yes, yes that's very true buddy... :)  Then about two days later he says... "Brennan (his cousin who just came to visit) is a sinner so that means he needs a savior and the only savior is Jesus Christ"... yup... another truism bud... keep it up! :)

Connor LOVES to pretend he's an animal.  There isn't a day that goes by that he isn't pretending to be something, either a lion, a mountain lion, a leopard, a cheetah, a bear and most recently a dog.  Not just any dog though, he's a ferocious guard/attack dog.  He always wants to be my pet _____ . So I often have a pet lion protecting me as I do the dishes... he's on the lookout for bad lions... just in case... :)

Connor finally gave in a sang the ABC song to grandma on the phone!  YEAH!  He's been able to identify the letters and tell me their phonetic sound for a while but refused to say them in order or sing the song... break through!! :)

Vale

Vale is doing great with the whole potty training thing!  We put him in big boy underwear the day after his second birthday and he peed on the potty twice and wet through about 6 pair of underwear... ugh... I was not encouraged... but the second day, I started taking him about every 45 minutes or so and he got it... he understood the urge to pee and was controlling it!  He even peed on the potty at church when the nursery workers took him!  I've been taking him frequently and he has only had a few accidents since that first day!!  I'm still putting him in a diaper for nap time and night sleep but during the day, he's doing great!!!  He's not always telling me yet when he has to pee but he's controlling it and will occasionally let me know... which is awesome and a step in the right direction!

The taking away of the paci on the other hand... not so smooth.  We decided to just go cold turkey with him, one, since he's so stubborn and a fighter, if we tried to do it gradually it was gonna be 6 weeks of knock down drag out fights... secondly, we really want him done and used to not having it by the time Schafer gets here.  I really don't want him stealing his paci if we can help it.  It takes him a lot longer to settle down for sleep time now and today I put him down for a nap and 45 min later he was still awake and playing. I tucked him in again and 45 minutes later, he was still awake and playing... I tucked him in again and came back about 30 minutes later, he'd obviously been out of bed but he was passed out, face tucking into his blanket.  Pheww!  Well when he woke up... he came in with a paci in hand that he had found under the bed while playing and had used it to go to sleep that third time!!!  Little stinker!  Sigh... we'll get it... it's just gonna be rough for a bit...

Vale has started saying 'Oh Man!' correctly and it's hilarious.  I gave him a cup when he went to bed and he looked at me and said 'Juice?' and I replied 'No water buddy' and he goes 'Oh Man!' :)

Vale hurt himself somewhere on his head (not uncommon with Vale) and he came to me crying while I was reclining on the couch.  I picked him up and put him on my lap (well what lap I have left, basically the space under my belly and above my legs) and he laid down with his head on my chest, we were belly to belly.  He was crying and Schafer started kicking wildly.  Vale sat up and scowled, looked down at my belly and yelled 'Stop that Schafer!!!'... I really think he thought that was going to be effective.  Poor kid... 

Vale LOVES the nursery at church... to the point of he's trying to bail out to get in before it's my turn to check him in and when I come to get him, sometimes he doesn't want to leave.  Sigh... that's a great change from about 7 months ago when he was screaming bloody murder when I'd try to drop him off. :)

Vale's Actual Birthday

 Vale came out on his actual birthday to a chair full of presents from family! :)

Connor was very eager to help him :)

It was nice cause he got to play with each thing before going on to the next one...

He got two bath Pirate ships which was awesome!  They wanted to go right away and play in the tub with them.  They spent over the next TWO HOURS in the bath... :)

They then played with glow sticks they got from their cousin for Vale's birthday... 

Then got a snack! :)  Mommy doesn't have to clean up any sticky mess from these suckers! :)

 Vale ate some more of his cake for dessert that night...

Sportin' his new Steelers hat... he's such a handsome boy!

Vale loves to put the silver dollars in his piggy bank that he got in a birthday card!

At night, before bed, we snuggled down and read some new books that we got in a box from the east coast! :)

I think he had a fun 2nd birthday!  Doing things he loves! :)

Vale's Second Birthday

So Vale turned 2 on the 11th but on the 9th we had a little party with family for he and Trevor, my brother, who's birthday was on the 1st.

My sweet birthday boy!  He's getting so big!

We had a pirate birthday (I mean that's really what Trevor wanted...) and so we had a treasure hunt where we'd hidden some buried treasures around the neighborhood and they had to use a map and go find them.

The kids obviously couldn't READ the map but they had fun letting us read it and pretending like they knew...

And they are off!  The neighbors must have thought we were having a parade...

Connor and Brennan were always the first ones there and way into it!  It was cute.

They found some treasure!!!!  (cheap dollar store bobbles!!) :)

Our whole line of treasure seeking pirates... arrrrggg! :)

Vale was enjoying the chaos... :)

So where do we go next?!  Jimmy was having the boys find land marks on the map and go to them.  It really was cute... 'find the two BIG trees side by side.  Do you see them anywhere?' :)

Vale was just digging... I think he would have thought bugs were perfectly good treasure too!

'Mom, I think I need a metal shovel...'

'No? Alright I make this work...'

So the plan was minimal decorations...

but then Lauren (my cousin) got involved and it was all down hill from there :)

She did a great job with the couple of decorations I had bought and things that we already had at our house

We bought a 'beach' theme cake and put some pirate stuff on it (I mean cause like that's totally what TREVOR wanted... ;-])

I was gonna use a roll of paper to draw a very crude pirate map as a table runner but again Lauren wasn't having it and made it look GREAT!

The birthday boy indulging in some of his treasure before opening some gifts.

It's so fun when they get to the age that they can open wrapping paper and actually get excited about what's inside!  (I was having to hold back the hounds AKA Connor, from helping his brother... :))

I think he had lots of fun at his birthday! :) YEAH!  Success! :)

Updates and Stories on Boys

Schafer

Baby Schafer is doing very well and growing and kicking.  

He likes to do cardio kick boxing between 11 and 12 at night whether I'm asleep or not.  Does not bod well for out of the womb... sigh...

He moves A LOT, almost as much as Connor did but his movements don't hurt as much as Connors... Connor was a violent little fetus!

Schafer, as opposed to the other two, likes to sleep during sermons... hahahaha I'm not sure what that means... :)

In ultra sounds, Schafer seems a lot longer and skinnier than the other two did... that doesn't really mean much as of right now but we will see.

He definitely becomes more active when I have caffeine, which is different than the others.  Well with Vale's pregnancy, I'd just throw up if I had caffeine... so I guess that was a reaction but Vale's behavior wouldn't change.

Vale

Vale has such a sensitive heart and I love it! A friend bit Connor's finger the other day (as all kids do) and Connor cried for about 30 seconds and was over it... Vale on the other hand who witnessed the whole thing was troubled by the incident for about 2 days and kept repeating to me that Connor got bit and his finger was hurt! :) It was so sweet!!

Vale has a serious sweet tooth!!  This kid will gobble down anything you give him with sugar in it.  Connor will turn down sweet and Vale will eat Connor's portion... ha!

Every time I get a booger out of Vale's nose he thinks it's HILARIOUS to pretend he's going to eat it... so gross and he thinks it's the funniest thing ever.  Sigh...

Vale loves to sing!! Even if he doesn't know all the words to every song he definitely knows the tune.  He's got very good pitch and rhythm!  His favorite songs are Jesus Loves Me, Nothing but the Blood of Jesus, Tonight you Belong to Me and ABC's.

Vale's verbal skills have exploded in the last 3 weeks!  He's talking in full sentences and repeating everything he hears (be careful!).  He asked for something from his daddy this morning by saying, "Please may I have that Daddy."... yeah no joke...  2 months ago he was saying "peas daddy!"

Vale knows and has known where most of his body parts and facial feature are, on both himself and others.  He can say his ABC's, though some parts are not very understandable and he counts to 12.  He doesn't know what the numbers or letters mean but he'll rhythmically say them to you.

Connor
  I asked Connor the other day who his best friends were... he named about 8 kids and they were all family except one... that makes me so happy! :)
 
I was putting the boys in PJ's and Connor wanted to Vale to go first, I told Connor he'll want to go first cause then he'll have more time to play after he's already dressed to which he replied 'well if I wait, I'll have more time to play now!'... ummm ... yup, yup you will... kids too smart for his own good.

Connor came up to me and out of the blue asked me, "If PopPop is in heaven, what man is going to take care of GiGi?"  I almost started to cry... I told him that Jesus would take care of her.  He's promised to take care of ladies who's husbands die or kids how don't have parents... I really was choking back tears.

Cononr got in bed to snuggle with me in the morning and I had shaved and lotioned my legs the night before.  He touched my leg with his foot and said what is that?!  I said, 'my leg' and he goes 'no it's not, there are no pokey things!'... thanks kid... 
  We recently went to a Disney show, pirates and princesses, and dressed up like pirates, which was encouraged on the website.  About half, maybe a little less, of the children there were dressed up so we weren't alone!  But during the intermission Connor looked at me and asked if were were going to go up on stage.  I told him "no I didn't think so", to which he promptly responded indigently "Then why are we dressed like pirates????"... nice...

Today at the mall, Connor was screaming in the children's play area, "Attention everyone!!!  Jesus is coming!  Jesus is coming!!"  I swear I almost peed myself.  Oh my goodness... the mall has wonderful acoustics and he was usin' them!

The other day the boys are playing in the next room as I was doing dishes and Connor calls out 'Mom, can we have some tissues and a match to make a fire?'... ummm... no.  At least he asked right...

Connor loves to pray for any meal we have (by the way he thought that we only pray for hot food... which was pretty funny...) and he prays for EVERYTHING... the chairs, table, forks... etc... The other day he prayed, "Dear Jesus help me to not disobey ever, ever, ever, ever so I can go to heaven and play with Jesus." :) His childish understand makes my heart happy. :)

It's awesome how God provides opportunity to teach our children.  Sunday morning Connor didn't want to go to his class as we were checking in and I was prepared for tears when I dropped him off but when we got to his class his best little friend in his class was by the door crying hysterically for his mommy.  I told Connor that it was important for him to be a friend to his buddy and he needed to be sweet and help him out.  Connor went right in and comforted his friend and soon they were playing sweetly.  I told him on the way home that I was very proud of him for not thinking about himself but thinking of others.  Well then on the way to church that night Connor says, "Mommy I love God and I want to learn about Jesus and go to heaven but I don't want to go church."  I told him that it was good that he wanted to know Jesus and that you didn't have to go to church to go to heaven but it's very important that we obey Jesus and he says that we need to go to church and spend time with other people who love Jesus (Heb 10:25).  I told him that not only did Jesus say that but he also said that we should help out other believers (Gal 6:2) and how will you know how to help out and pray for your friends if we never go to church.  I told him to remember his friend that morning and how he was able to help him out.  If we didn't go to church he would have missed the opportunity to be a blessing to his friend and help him.  I think he understood and I was so grateful that the Lord had so perfectly orchestrated events for this teaching opportunity.

This behavior is normal for boys right? :)

 We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of baby Schafer!!  We love him already!

Figured I'd put up before and afters of the boys and their haircuts two weeks ago... 

Before...

After!

 Connor is such a good big brother to Vale... Vale's on the potty and Connor wants to help... :) ha

We went to a fair at church and the boys had such a good time!

Vale was a little soccer star making all three goals!!!  wheeeww whoo!!!  He's a natural! :)

My boys have so much fun together!!  They are total goof balls and I love it!

Everything seems to be hilarious when they get in these moods!

Their smiles make me smile :)

Connor thinks he's pretty funny... Vale maybe not so much... :)

This is what Vale looks like without the curls!!!  He needs his hair washed... ha

Then the REAL fun began... :)

The decided they wanted to jump from the chair to the couch...

They were taking turns leaping across the chasm...

Connor was very conscious of style...

He would jump across and do a somersault along the couch into the cushions.

Vale was more of a flop style...

Here he's saying Ready Set GO!

Up and away!

He kept springing himself onto the floor... then laugh hysterically... sigh...

Connor's face was hilarious as he jumped... Vale's was pretty funny to but I couldn't get a clear picture of it, he kept tucking his head. :)

I absolutely love it that my boys have so much fun together!