zoo and petting farm birthday

 we went to the zoo on tuesday with clara and the coupon this month was free bird feedings...i am too scared to do it (and so is jack), but not clara!! she is so brave! it was so nice to go with just andrea, clara, and joseph...it has been a while since we went with just them (not that i don't love going with everybody else :))

 yesterday we went to eli's birthday party at the petting farm. it was so much fun! when we pulled up to it jack said "i want to have a barn birthday one day"...in my mind i thought "great now he is not going to want his firetruck birthday", but i think he is happy with the firetruck bday party. 

jack loved feeding the goats 

 eli and lillian being goats

this is the best group picture that i got. 

when johnny got home last night from work the first thing that jack told him was that he got to eat at the top of the barn :) i thought that was so cute because i didn't even think about the fact that we were eating in the barn. and he told him that there was a stage in there :)

finding nemo

 jack made a train

 we went to see finding nemo with lillian and john whitten last week. jack of course loved it because finding nemo has been one of his favorite movies for years. i think lillian liked it. poor thing cried a lot. it is a very emotional movie. she was so good that she sat through it even though it made her upset. she cried sad, scared, and happy tears.

 charlie did great! he ate lunch and snacks and loved sitting in melissa's lap (so much that he didn't want to come back to me...he did the same thing with alli the next night) i love that he loves my friends!!

john whitten did great too!!

 jack really wanted to go to the top of the stairs

 jack went to visit mimi and papa this weekend and had a blast of course! when i got home from picking him up we decided to celebrate having him home by going on a picnic at railroad park. it was a beautiful day!

 jack took this :)

video of charlie walking

charlie has started to walk, but only if we make him :) he can take about 8-10 steps at a time!

bye bye

charlie said bye bye yesterday :) maybe this will jump start the whole talking thing!
i guess jack thought it was really funny!

ruffner mountain

 we went hiking at ruffner mountain with jason, lori, and silas. we had a ton of fun!

 silas fell asleep

 jack had fun exploring. he loved picking up the acorns, but they were different looking acorns (green) so he called them "vegetables"

 we ran into this snake! 

 

we will be going back really soon to explore some more!!

botanical gardens

 johnny went to san diego last saturday-tuesday and i was alone with the boys. so i brought them to botanical gardens one night for a picnic and to let them play to get some energy out.

 i got jack a knight costume from the dollar store and he has LOVED it! 

 we went on a picnic after church yesterday.

 jack found a roly poly 

(charlie was digging in the dirt and there was a lot of ants in it...he threw some down his outfit so we stripped him and just left his clothes off)

bath

 we finally let charlie take a bath without his little bathtub...although i am seriously considering making him get back in his little tub. he is so hard to give a bath...he stands up, tries to put his face in the water, crawls, etc. but he sure is cute hugging his brother!!

charlie's first steps!!

charlie has started to take some steps!! this video was taken on 9-5-12. he is so cute walking and so proud of himself!

he still crawls everywhere unless we make him take steps. i think it will be a while before he really walks :)

charlie is weaned

saturday night (september 1st) was my last time nursing charlie. that means that i nursed him 13 months and 25 days. i was nursing him 2 times a day (once before bedtime and once in the middle of the night...yes he started waking up in the middle of the night again when he started teething and then he made a habit of it). 

this weekend i got strep throat and went on an antibiotic that johnny was afraid that it might give charlie diarrhea. so that put an end to nursing him. 

it has been fine. i don't hurt at all. i give him his sippy of milk with dinner and let him drink it until bedtime. i brush his 5 teeth before bed and then give him water while i read him a book. then i have given him water the past couple of nights in the middle of the night, but last night i started the crying it out thing again. it worked A LOT faster this time. i just had to lay him back down once and then he slept until 8:30. 

so i am done nursing. i would have liked to know that the last time i nursed him was the last time, but it didn't work out that way. i guess this means that he is growing up!! my big baby boy is a sippy drinking boy! (and he is drinking out of a normal big boy sippy...crazy)

first day of 3K

 we made miss ginny a little first day of school treat

 jack was really excited about seeing his friends from last year and meeting new friends. he said he was a little nervous  though :)

 he picked out his thomas lunchbox

i asked him last night if he wanted me to walk him to his class or if he wanted to go through carpool. he said carpool. so this is him walking into school :) big boy!!!!

i am proud of him for being so brave!!

charlie standing alone

 charlie has been able to stand alone for a few weeks now (only if we help him stand)

 jack really pretends to be an animal pretty much all day. of course he was a tortoise here!

i got strep throat over the weekend while we were in columbus :( since johnny had the day off monday he decided to bring both boys to see an imax movie by himself so that i could rest. such a good daddy!!