5 months old

 My sweet baby is 5 months old today!

He likes to kick his arms and legs, coo and babble, play with toys and the new skill he learned while we were in New York is to roll over!!!

 I love his big blue eyes in this picture and how you can see his blonde hair growing in.

 I love to see him playing with his feet. 

 I love it that he smiles so easily at me.

I took over 30 pictures this morning and when he started trying to eat the sticker on his shirt, I decided it was time to be done.  :)  I love it that he tries to get everything in his mouth.  I think he is teething lately.

How blessed we are!

SCCS

It was the morning of the 20th.  Dorian's first day of first grade at Sioux Center Christian School!  Nathan was awake getting in some work time.  Dorian came up at 7:00 all dressed in his new shirt that he picked out for his first day of school.  And I was excited to have coffee and cinnamon rolls with all of my boys.  Levi came up around 7:20 when Mason was still asleep and commented on how he was the last one awake.  After informing him multiple times that Mason was still sleeping he said, "I'm just counting like the people that can talk.  Not the babies that cry."  Oh, how I love the way that he thinks and phrases things.  :)

 

It was pretty easy to send Dorian off to school this year since he was ready.  He was a little nervous, but nothing compared to last year.  I told him that I was going to bake cookies while he was at school so we could have them together for an afternoon snack when he got home.  Levi missed his brother.  At one point in the afternoon he said, "I was just thinking of Dorian.  I just want him to be home."  They played together A LOT this summer!

 

Yeah!  I found a picture of Dorian on Facebook before he even got home!  :)

 

When 3:00 hit, all I could think about was Dorian getting on the bus for the first time.  Levi and I went outside at about 3:15 knowing that he wasn't scheduled to arrive until 3:33.  And when it was 3:43 and I still didn't see a bus, I nervously texted Nathan.

Yeah!  There it was.  Bus #10.  I was so excited that he did it.  He rode the bus all by himself perfectly.  And it was SO good to see him running to me with a smile on his face!!!

We looked at his papers and talked for a little while.  And then he sat to relax and watch Wild Kratts with his brother.

August 21, yesterday.  Levi's first day of TK (Transitional Kindergarten) at SCCS.  He was excited about the new shirt that he picked out and he was really ready and excited about going to TK.  He posed for a picture for me before we left.  He goes from 12:00 to 3:00 and can ride the bus home with Dorian. 

I have only heard wonderful things about Mrs. Vander Werf!

She emailed some pictures last night of their first day together!

Again, I was pacing on the driveway, waiting for my boys to come home.  I love how excited they were and that everything went smoothly!

And I finally got Dorian to pose for a picture after his 2nd day of school.  :)  I had to bribe him with an extra cookie. :)

And this morning, Levi wanted me to take a picture of him before his 2nd day of TK.  :)  He's looking so grown up! 

 



I'm proud of both of my big boys.

ALL boys

We  stayed for 2 nights (the 11th and 12th) in the cabins at Inspiration Hills with 4 families who had ALL boys.  :)  10 boys to be exact.  It was a lot of fun!

 

The Wallaces.  The Schuttingas.  The DeGroots.  And us.

 

Levi lost his first tooth!!!  Oh my!

The boys played a lot of football.

Camping isn't complete without a campfire and sticky smores.  :)

Craft time.  :)  I took along masks for the boys to color.  They wore them on their morning hike!

Levi was "helping" Nathan grill hot dogs and brats.  :) 

Mason wasn't starved for attention.  :)

The dads enjoyed a competitive game of Bocce Ball.

The pool was open just for us on Monday afternoon!

Baby Kai is only 1 month older than Mason.

Packing up.  We shared the large cabin with the Wallaces.  Everything went smoothly and we had a lot of fun. 

Thank you God for friends!!!!!

Firsts

Dorian and Levi spent quite a while constructing this large heart for me.  How sweet!  It says, "Dear mommy.  We hope you like our heart.  All of the boys."

This was Mason's first time to sit in his high chair and join us at the table for supper!

This was the first time we discovered that we have a plum tree in our yard!   :)  And check out our wildflower garden.  Or shall I say, weed garden.  It was supposed to be a beautiful, colorful patch of wildflowers, but it didn't turn out that way.  Oh well.  Dorian had a blast pulling weeds shortly after taking this picture.  Maybe next year we'll plant vegetables again.  :)

First time on 2 wheels!  Levi came in the house after playing with the neighbors and told me that he wanted to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels.  Since the motivation was there, Nathan took him out to the bike trail that evening and it didn't take him long to be a pro on 2 wheels!  Go Levi!

Lake Okoboji

I joined my mom and sisters at Lake Okoboji to help Kerry celebrate her 40th birthday!  I can't believe we are getting that old already.  :)  It was wonderful to have Ashley and Emma babysit our children so that we could go out for lunch and get pedicures together.

We took the kids swimming in the afternoon, ate supper, went miniature golfing and had a campfire in the evening. 

I stayed overnight and the next day we went to Emerson Bay to swim and play in the sand.

Mason took a nice long nap that afternoon so it was super relaxing for me!  And we stayed for a boat ride before heading back home again.

Grandpa and Grandma at the Lake House

July 28-August 2

We decided that driving over 24 hours with an infant just wasn't an option, so we flew to NY instead.  When we arrived we took family photos in the airport.  Yup.  Right after landing.  :)  And then we went out to eat with the whole Tintle family.  It was nice to all be together even though it was only for a short time over dinner.

 

Great Grandpa Tintle had found this train set and thought Dorian and Levi would like to play with it.  He was right.  They played for hours with it.

Oh, there is nothing better than to hold a sleeping baby.

It was Mason's first trip to New York!  He did really well, except he decided that it was fun to get up a lot more frequently at night and he still hasn't broken that yet.  :(

Uncle Drew is so good to the boys!  He made up a game of tennis and played a long time with Dorian.  It was the highlight of his day!

All of us enjoyed a couple of boat rides.

Dorian and Levi each took turns tubing with us.

I think it's so fun to watch Mason play with his feet.  It's been one of his favorite new discoveries.  :)

Dorian finished his puzzle!

And Nathan finished the family puzzle!

The weather was really nice while we were there and we really enjoyed a relaxing visit.