A 3 year old and a 9 month old...we're busy!!

 

Carson is the big 3!! His little party was on the 1st at Hafer Park in Edmond. Carson really enjoys going to that park and feeding the ducks and playing so we thought it was the perfect spot for his celebration. Some of our friends and their children came out to help celebrate by feeding the ducks, sliding, and of course eating cupcakes!! Carson had a great time, thanks to everyone who took time out of their weekend to help us honor our big guy!

 

Grandma Lynch and Bradley

Gary, Joey, Carson, Brayden, and Rhys feeding the geese.

Brayden, Ben, and Carson

The face says it all!!

 

Both the boys had their wellness checks on the 16th. Carson weighs 37 lbs. and is in the 90th percentile for his age. That is about 6 more pounds than at his 2 year check up. He is 39.5 inches tall and is in the 90th percentile for his age group. Which is 4.5 more inches than a year ago. So he is a big boy!! Doctor had him count to five and identify colors, and did great! He told Carson that he needed to work on eating more meat so he could get bigger muscles, so we're hopeful the doctors orders will work to get our little guy to eat more protein. He got to pick two stickers this visit since he did so great and because he is totally potty trained!! We also went to the eye doctor for the first time this month. Carson did fantastic. He was just in awe of all the instruments and things to look at. He has a little farsightedness and a little astigmatism. Neither things concerned the doctor at this time so it's just something we'll keep our eye on as he grows closer to school age.

Carson currently loves peanut butter and jelly, applesauce, fruits, and almost all sweets and snacks, he also loves elephants, the zoo, all transportation vehicles, Disney Jr., books, sports, telling stories and talking up a storm, music, and his brother.  He is all boy and I enjoy watching him continue to grow into the person God has planned him to be!  

 

 

Happy 9 months baby boy! ( Look at all those teeth)

Bradley turned 9 months on the 14th. He weighs 17lbs and 13 oz, which is the 18th percentile for his age. He is 28.75 inches tall, which is the 67th percentile. So he is still tall and slender. Doctor said he looked great and was doing well besides the ear infection he discovered (ugh!). He now has 6 teeth, he can wave, cruises all around the place, can walk behind a pushing toy, and can stand alone for a short period of time. He is still eating baby food and occasional table food. He loves to follow Carson's lead, feeding himself snacks, he can be quit the giggle box especially if brother is playing with him, he enjoys music, his head being rubbed, and his mama :)

Bradley also went to see the eye doctor this month. He also has a little  farsightedness and his right eye is a little weaker than his left so we are working on strengthening it. The doctor recommends we help him go cross eyed while playing with him which will help the eye. She will need to see him in a year to check in on the eye.

He is the sweetest little guy and I really can't imagine our life without our baby brother!

 I of course got another amazing picture of my three guys :/ This is Father's Day morning before church. We did however have a nice Father's Day honoring our sweet Daddy!

 

This past month our family has went through a few changes. I said farewell to teaching for a little while so I can stay home with the boys. It was a bitter sweet decision. I truly love teaching but with the desire to be with the boys, the cost of childcare, and the stresses of the education system right now it was the best thing to do. I am thrilled that we've been blessed with the opportunity to do this and are so thankful for the job Kyle has been blessed with to make it all possible. But because I am staying home the boys no longer will be going to daycare, which Carson has taken a little harder than I thought. He has been with many of those kiddos since he was just an infant and he misses many of them often. We are sending the boys to a Mother's Day Out twice a week and the transition has been a little rough. Kyle thinks once Carson makes a friend he'll adjust and be more excited about his new "school." I pray he is right because I really want him to like our new routine. Bradley has some separation anxiety so I am hoping with age he'll get past the crying when I leave. It really pulls at my heart strings to see them get upset when I leave, especially because its all because I changed our old routine and quit working! Other than that as of right now it feels like I am on our usual summer break and the boys and I are living it up with play dates, pool time, fun outings, and establishing our new daily routines.   

 

We are looking forward to a great rest of the summer full of fun and wonderful memories!!

8 Months

        Our little man is eight months old!! I honestly am in shock that in about 4 months we will be celebrating another first birthday!!! Where in the world does the time go?!?!? Bradley has four teeth, two front bottoms and two top fangs as I call them. One of the front top ones is trying to come through and I am praying it hurries up because the vampire baby look is a little alarming! He is still enjoying baby food and is now enjoying more snacks and slowly more table food, as you can tell from the pick he is getting a little more meat on his bones so food is something he enjoys! He is a crawling machine and has gotten pretty fast at it. He is still pulling to stand up while holding on to something and this past week he cruised around the ottoman. Kyle feels pretty confident that he'll be walking by 9-10 months. He continues to be madly in love with brother and everything he does, he loves playing the drum, putting everything in his mouth, music, bath time, and Carson's toys ;). He is talking more (babbling) and we feel like he may actually be saying mama, dada, and bubba, but he doesn't do it all the time so we aren't sure if he is really saying what we think he may be saying, lol!

       Carson turns 3 on June first so we are busy gearing up for his celebration and finishing up this school year! All four of us are anxious for summer to begin!

Look at those eyes! And if you look very carefully at his bottom lip you can see the tops of his teeth. I haven't been able to get a good pick of our vampire baby teeth I am hopeful I will before more come in!

Happy 7 months!

This past month has been full of changes for Mr. Bradley!! Our little man has had three teeth come in (one on top two on bottom), is crawling, goes from laying down to a sitting position, and occasionally pulling up to stand!!! Of course he decided to show us all his new tricks in a two week period so it was a whirlwind! He is still having three meals a day and has started little finger foods, we've introduced the sippy cup but he would rather have brothers cup of course. He is madly in love with brother and playing with anything he can get his hands on (especially brothers things :(.

 

He is a very determined crawler! 
 

(This is a picture of Carson at 7 months.)

 These pictures (one above and below) were from Bradley/Family's 6 month photo shoot. Bradley was a great model...big brother was a tough little one to work with that evening but I am glad we were able to get a few keepers!

 
 We had a wonderful Easter as well. After church and nap time we went to my mom's for a yummy ham dinner and watching the cousins run wild for the Easter eggs. Carson did three different egg hunts, one in our neighborhood, one at daycare, and one at my moms, so he was deeply saddened when Easter time was over.

 Above is a picture from our neighborhood egg hunt below is a picture of Easter morning.

 I have exactly one month from today left for this school year. So it is going to be a very quick and busy month as usual but I am super excited to begin summer and to make some more fun memories with my boys!!

Bradley's 6 months old!!

   Bradley turned 6 months old on March 14th. It really blows my mind that 6 months have already come and gone and we only have 6 more till our baby is one!! Why must it go so fast?!?! We had his 6 mo check up on the 14th as well. He is now 27 inches long (69th percentile) which is that exact same as Carson at that age, 15lbs 8 oz (14th percentile) which is skinner than Carson at 6 mo., and 43 in. head circumference (above average) which is also the exact same as Carson's at 6 mo. The doctor says he looks great and showed us his two bottom teeth that are trying to make their appearance. He sits up on his own now and recently has been trying to pull up on somethings, he even tries reaching for things in a beginning crawl stance, and has begun eating baby oatmeal, veggies, and fruits everyday! He is a very smiley baby, loves watching brother, playing along side brother, being held, yelling and chatting, and toys that make sound.  

 Bradley at 6 months (please excuse the snowmen pjs in March)

   Carson at 6 months

Carson continues to amaze us with his large vocabulary and knowledge and recently has become a big sports fan. Kyle took him to his first Thunder game a month ago and now he is hooked! The other night he told me he couldn't take a bath because "I gotta watch the Thunder with Daddy!" He is now asking to go to all sporting events and when its warm out his wants his t-ball set, basketball goal, and golf set out! Needless to say Daddy's excited! He is also becoming more and more of a big brother with Bradley. He wants to help him do everything!! 

I'm on Spring Break this week so the boys and I are enjoying our life of leisure with playing, picnics, zoo trips, and napping!!

Carson's 1st Thunder game!

 

Happy Spring!

Bradleys 5 months & Carsons potty trained!!

So our family was finally getting back to normal and then sickness got us again! A couple weeks after RSV and ear infections, Kyle came down with strep throat. Then the stomach bug hit the entire family! Needless to say we are all over this winter season and getting sick! 

However, through out our sickness our boys continued to grow and change! Bradley turned 5 months on Valentine's Day. This past month he started trying out cereal and is now eating it twice a day. He loves watching brother, playing with his toes, and bouncing. He rolls everywhere!! If he sees something he wants he'll roll to get it. We were sure hoping he'd follow Carson's development pattern and become mobile later. If you leave him on the floor don't walk too far because he will not be in the same spot when you return.When feeling well, which has been rare the last two months, he is such a smiley and content baby.

Carson has now been wearing his underwear and potty trained for almost a month. We've been working on this for some time now but weren't really getting anywhere. Then one day he woke up saying he needs his underwear and hasn't looked back since! We of course are still working on a couple things, public, nap, and night time, etc. but he is doing great and we are so proud of him!! 

Due to the cold weather and sicknesses it was a pretty uneventful month but our family is looking forward to the warmer weather and all the fun Spring has in store now!

Bradley's first taste of cereal

Bradley at 5 months and our two sweet Valentines!

Kyles the Big 3-0 & Bradley's the big 4 months!!

Kyle turned 30 on January 12th! On the 11th we had our friends over for a beer tasting party. We had such a good time looking at old pics of Kyle and celebrating his 30 years. Such a wonderful time that I forgot to take any pictures of the friends that came and all the decorations :( I am so disappointed in myself. But I know Kyle had a great time so I guess that memory is all I was really shooting for! Thanks to all who came!! On his actual birthday we spent the day relaxing and that evening the boys and I took him out to eat at Ted's. Its hard to believe we've spent 11 birthdays together, I still feel we are 23, lol! I can't wait to spend all the rest with you either babe!

Our house has been quite the roller coaster ride here lately. Starting Christmas Eve and lasting about week, the boys got really bad head colds. Luckily they pasted before I had to return to school. However, the Friday before I was returning to work I came down with strep throat. Thankfully that pasted in time for me to head to work Monday. Unfortunately then I felt like I was treading water all week to keep up with school and home work from being down a whole weekend. Moms truly weren't meant to EVER be sick!! Then on the 11th poor Bradley started to show signs of coming down with something. By Monday morning we knew it had to be something pretty serious because it was getting worse. Kyle stayed home with him that day. When he dropped Carson off at school that morning Bradley's teacher stopped Kyle and told him a child in our class had RSV. That made us a little worried. By the time I returned home from work we realized he was really struggling to breath. We called the doc and the nurse listened to Bradley over the phone and determined we should go straight to the ER since he was breathing to hard and fast. So Monday we spent the evening mostly waiting in OU Children's ER waiting room. They did confirm he had RSV, and thankfully he was able to obtain anywhere between 90-100% oxygen while we were there so we were able to go home. They did also warn us that we probably hadn't hit the worse of it yet so to come back if his symptoms got worse. They were right, we hadn't seen the worse of it! Tuesday Bradley turned 4 months and we already had his wellness visit schedule for that day which was perfect because the ER wanted to have a follow up visit with either them or our regular pediatrician. While at the doc we learned the RSV had caused Bradley's first ear infection as well. So we had one sick little man and it was a rough week for everyone involved. As of today Bradley seems a lot better. His breathing sounds a lot better, he is coughing less, and is more playful. The sickness really took a toll on his eating and sleeping. He was eating around 30 oz before he was sick and was only waking once during the night if his paci was lost. Now we are lucky if he will eat 3 oz at sitting and he is waking to eat every 2 hours. And to top it all off Carson has now gotten a stuffy nose and cough! Needless to say we are all very exhausted and are praying he will bounce back any day now.

 Bradley 4 months old (taken on 1/19/14)

Above: Carson 4 months old. I think they look a lot alike! 

   At 4 months Bradley weighs 13 lbs 14 oz (17% for his age/weight/height) and is 26 inches tall ( 85%). He is tall for his age group and is skinny for his age and height. Since our doctors first visit with Bradley he he has been telling us how tall Bradley is and how he is sure he'll be bigger than Carson. This visit he predicts Bradley will eventually even be taller than Kyle! I can imagine having children the same size of my hubby but I never could have imagined them being any taller since I'm short. Can't wait to see if the doctor is right! Currently Bradley loves talking. I think its to keep up with Carson's chatty personality. He loves to play with Kyle, Carson, and myself. He especially loves to watch what Carson is doing. He grabs for things, giggles, loves to be held to sit up or stand, and hates tummy time! He did roll over two times on Christmas (from tummy to back) but hasn't done that since. We got the ok from the doctor to begin the journey of cereal and baby food when we are ready. I can't believe we can start that already, please time slow down!         
Carson is still in love with brother and keeps talking about the things "they'll probably play" when he is bigger. Carson loves school, friends, books, trains and all modes of transportation, Disney Jr., peanut butter and jelly, and doing everything by himself! He is such a smart and sassy 2 year old. I can already envision what our parent teacher conferences will be like with his future teachers :/ He keeps it very fun and interesting around our house!!       

I hope you'll continue to pray with us for our sweet boys to regain full health and mommy and daddy to regain their sanity.          

3 months old

   This post is a little late, but with family in town and all the holidays it was a challenge to blog. Since my last post I have returned to work, celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my birthday, and Bradley has turned three months old. That is a lot for one month!!
   I went back to work on November 18th. That Monday was pretty rough and long!! There were tears shed in the morning, of course by me and not any of the boys, but once my sweet little 2nd graders walked in and showered me with hugs and I missed yous it made my little heart feel a little better. A student's parent even sent flowers to my classroom to help brighten my day! Bradley of course had a great first day. Kyle was a sweet hubby and even called to check on Bradley mid day for me to insure everything was going well.
   Since going back to work our school has had a week off for Thanksgiving, three days off for snow, and now two weeks off for Winter break. So our little family hasn't really been able to establish a great weekly routine. I am not complaining one bit about the extra snuggles and family time I have gotten. But if you know me well you know I thrive on a good routine!!
   Over Thanksgiving break Kyle's parents flew in to meet our newest addition and to spend Thanksgiving with us. While they were here we got the chance to take Carson to the Science Museum for the first time. He really loved the big tree house area, the train exhibit, and the children's area. We also went downtown to look at the Christmas tree and all the beautiful lights. Also over the break my brother, sister in law, and nephew moved back to Oklahoma. Devan took a position with the ROTC at OU teaching a class. We are so excited to have them back and to get a chance to make some cousin memories with the boys. Unfortunately, sickness feel over everyone on Thanksgiving and the rest of the weekend so we didn't get to do much of anything else. But we enjoyed his parents visit and Bradley's first holiday with us!

 Playing at the museum

 My first Turkey

 Thanksgiving 2013

  Kyle's Mom and Dad at Thanksgiving dinner

 After Thanksgiving break a big snow storm hit Oklahoma. Carson loved all the snow and getting to play in it. Kyle and Carson built their first snowman together. And every day after Carson insisted on checking on him! It was a sad day when he began to melt :(

   Kyle and I were given tickets to the Bedlam game, which was in the middle of the below freezing temps and snow. But we went anyways!! I don't have any pictures to show of it but we had a good time for as long as we lasted! And I like to think the only reason we pulled off a victory was because we attended the unbelievably cold game!!
   We visited Santa again at Bass Pro Shop for the third year. This year was very exciting since Carson had a better understanding of what the whole Santa thing is all about. So he took telling him his wish list very seriously. However, I guess Kyle and I didn't explain WHEN he would actually get the presents very well. As we were walking away from Santa and getting our picture Carson burst into tears. Once we were able to calm our upset and napless two year old down a little, we discovered that he thought once he asked Santa for the gifts he would receive them right then and there!! I felt terrible for him, he was soo upset and confused. We rediscussed when he gets his presents, had a nap, and perhaps a little I'm sorry gift was involved, and he was good as new and excited for Santa to come to our house again!  We of course also did a lot of talking this season about what the true reason for the season is and celebrating Jesus's birthday was something he looked forward too. The entire candle lighting service at church he kept asking Kyle and I when we were going to have the cake since we were there celebrating Jesus's birthday, lol! So as you can see our little man takes everything very literally and this month has really taught Kyle and I a lesson on how to explain things to him!

 Carson, Bradley, and Cousin Aidan

   Bradley and Carson (Carson wouldn't stop waving at the man taking the pic)

On December 14th our little Bradley turned three months old!! I can't believe it (I'll probably say that every month.) This month he has been smiling like crazy, giggling when tickled (he is very ticklish), he rolled over on Christmas Day, and is staying awake longer during the day. He enjoys listening to everyone talk, being held, any toy or chair that vibrates, standing up, his elephant toy, and being swaddled. He no longer needs a feeding in the middle of the night and only occasionally wakes for a paci!!  On Christmas eve I had to take him in to the doctor because he was unable to sleep due to a bad head cold. We were afraid it was something worse that is why we visited with the doc. Thankfully it wasn't and we just needed to give him some extra snuggles, saline, and Tylenol to help him get over the it! While at the appointment they took his weight and he is now 13lbs.

 One month

 

Two months

Three months

   Unfortunately that same nasty head cold hit Carson Christmas morning. He woke crying and with a fever so the excitement of Santa leaving him gifts wasn't as mommy and daddy had hoped :( Carson wanted more trains, train tracks, race cars, and Thomas the Train books for Christmas. Santa, mommy and daddy granted those wishes so in spite of the cold we did have a very thankful and happy 2 1/2 year old most of the time!

   It was a very busy and fun month for our little family of four. However, having these boys makes the holidays and all of our celebrations twice as much fun and even more worth it!