The Boys

I was excited to get Drew and Joey together the other weekend. We have skyped with the Stolp family several times, but of course it's never the same as actually being together and seeing the boys interact. Joni kept telling me how Joey is getting chunky and catching up to Drew in the size department. (They are 3 months apart.)

I had to go back and post a picture from when Joey was first born. In the picture Joey is a newborn and Drew was 3 months. What a size difference only 3 months can have! Drew looks like a monster next to Joey.

Here is a picture of the boys from Easter weekend. Drew is 8 months and Joey is 5 months.

It was fun watching the boys interact. They were very interested in each other. Drew even crawled right over Joey a couple of times. Sometimes when Drew would come near Joey, Joey would reach up and take Drew's nuk right out of his mouth. As you can see from the picture, we had to keep a close eye on Drew, so he wouldn't attack Joey. It wasn't all attacking though....at one point the boys were laying next to each other holding hands! So sweet! We were thinking maybe Joey would learn a few tricks from watching Drew move all around. But no luck - Joey left on Sunday still not rolling over or crawling :)

Drew liked pushing Joey around in the walker and playing with his toys.

The boys on Easter morning with their matching pajamas.

I look forward to when these two little guys will be running around playing together and golfing with their daddies!

Easter 2012

We packed the family up and went to Medford for Easter weekend. It was nice to visit again, because he hadn't been there since Christmas! On Easter morning, Bella was one lucky girl, because she got to find three baskets! Of course they weren't all hers though...

First, she found Drew's basket before Drew was even awake. (Don't be mistaken...that baby boy isn't my Drew. It is Joey.) Doesn't look thrilled about the Easter basket?

Next she found Joey's basket for him.

Here is the boy with his new toy cars and Spiderman plate.

Finally, she found her basket! It was hidden oh so hard behind the couch. I had fun filling her basket with goodies from Target's $1 bins. I love that section of Target. Whenever I go there, I can never resist peeking at what they have!

I also found these adorable interactive stories/stuffed animals by Hallmark. They made a great Easter present for the kids.

We took a quick cousin picture right after church.

Tyler, Joey, Hannah, Drew, Chloe, Bella

Family Picture

Easter Egg Hunt

The weekend before Easter, we had some friends over for an Easter Egg Hunt. They have a little girl that is a little younger than Bella. The girls really like playing together, so we invited her over to look for Easter eggs filled with fruit snacks, stickers, and candy. The girls went all around the backyard gathering the eggs.

There were even five baby bunnies in a nest in our backyard. Their eyes weren't even open yet!

A quick stop to eat some candy while looking for eggs.

Once the girls found all of the eggs, they sat in the middle of the yard and started opening all of the eggs. They sat and ate candy and lots of fruit snacks.

Sharing...

Daddy and the Boy

Drew loves to sit on Andy's shoulders and pull on his hair. He will get a big smile on his face, and he will dig his face into the top of Andy's head. Then he will squeal and yell.

Andy usually refers to him as "the boy" or "Buck." When Andy was little, his dad called him Buck. Now he has a "Buck" of his own :)

8 Months - Drew

Drew has grown up so much in the last couple of weeks. For several weeks he had been army crawling around the living room and scooting along. He has been so close to crawling. After a couple of days of working really hard at it, he finally had success! At first it was very robotic as he went from room to room. Now he is getting faster. I just love when babies first learn to crawl, because it is so darn cute. I can just see his excitement that he can finally follow us around. He wanders into the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms…if I take my eye off him, I could find him anywhere now!

About a week later, I walked into the living and found him up on his knees. He used the bumbo as a support to get himself up, and he was leaning against it. Drew had this huge smile on his face, and he was giggly. After repeating the process of getting up on his knees for about 30 minutes, he progressed to standing! The little stinker is standing all the time now. He pulls himself up to the table, couch, chairs, etc. It just all happened so fast!

I think this is a really fun age, because he likes to laugh and play, yet I can still call him my baby. Sometimes he crawls down the hall to Bella’s room. She is usually dancing in there, and she will shut the door once he is in there. I can spy on them with the monitor in her room. It’s so cute to watch them play in the room together.

Drew gets into everything! I don’t remember Bella getting into so many things. She probably did…I just can’t remember anything J Drew gets into my picture frames, picture books, magazines, papers, computer cords…everything! If it’s within reach, it is in his hands and then quickly into his mouth.

I have been working on getting him to say “mama,” but it has not worked yet. All I want the boy to do is give me the first word! Andy claims he says “dada,” but I didn’t really believe him. My parents were visiting last weekend, and my mom said Drew really said it. I’m still not ready to write it in the baby book as the first word. I’m sure I’ll have to give in soon!

Click here for a video of him when he first started crawling.

Disney On Ice!

On Saturday Andy and I took Bella to see Disney on Ice. She was so so so excited to go! She talked about going all day Friday and Saturday. When it was time to get ready to go, she insisted on wearing her Snow White dress. I'm glad we let her wear it, because there were a lot of little girls at the show wearing their princess dresses.

When we first walked into the Resch Center, they had Minnie and Mickey statues for the kids to pose next to. Bella was thrilled by this. She went up there with no hesitation and gave Mickey Mouse a kiss.

Going up the stairs to our seats...

Do you like the jeans with her dress? I didn't know how cold it was going to be!

Mickey Mouse ears

Look at the concentration she has while watching the show. Minnie, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy came out and she loved it!

She liked when Goofy fell on the ice :)

Tinkerbell made an appearance with Peter Pan.

For some reason she was really excited about seeing Princess Jasmine. She doesn't even know Princess Jasmine.

It was a really neat show to see. The costumes, props, music, and skating was all great entertainment. We all had a really fun time, and we made some great memories!

LOVE

When Andy says "I love you" to Bella, she usually responds with, "But, I love mama!" Then she grins and looks at him, waiting to see what he's going to say. Today when Andy was getting ready to leave for work, their conversation went like this:

Andy: I love you, Bella.

Bella: But, I love mama.

Andy: I love mama too.

Bella: No, I love mama. She's my mama.

Andy: She's my wife.

Bella: No, she's my wife!

Andy: I knew her first.

Ahhh....it feels good to be loved by these two....loved so much that they argue over who loves me more :)