Phone Pictures

I finally pulled the images off of my phone - it had been awhile. I found some funny ones I couldn't help but share....

Ethan was laughing really hard one evening when he was taking a bath. (laughing or crying are generally not great signs.) Concerned, I went in there to find this. There really aren't any words, but I had a good laugh.

This was another instance of where I got a little concerned. I was getting Harper ready for bath when she got really quiet. (I guess I should add quiet to my list of "warning signs") I found her cuddling with Ironman. I guess we don't need to worry about getting her any dolls.

And Owen has provided us with some "material" as of late. I don't know if it's the age/stage or what, but he's been making us laugh a lot AND ask each other "what do we do???"

He potty trained for about 5 hours a couple weeks ago. He woke up and insisted on wearing big boy underwear. I've always known that if it's going to happen it was going to have to be his idea, so I've been waiting for him to initiate. Of course this particular day we had different people coming to the house to work on our kitchen, a billion errands to run, etc. But we went with it. Oh, he was excited. He did really well all morning with no accidents. We decided to eat lunch at a park since I didn't have my kitchen, and while we were there it all fell apart. It fell apart all over our picnic blanket. After that he decided big boy underwear didn't "work" and he needed his diapers again. I have no idea when we'll try again...but I do know I am not looking forward to it.

And the last Owen story came from last week. I let the boys take turns going first picking out a cartoon they want to watch in the afternoon. It was Ethan's turn to go first and Owen threw a fit of massive proportions. I told him it was Ethan's turn to go first and that he didn't have to watch Ethan's show if he didn't want to. He replied, "FINE! Me not watch it at all!" And he didn't. He laid face down on the couch with his eyes closed for the entire 20 minute show. I'm pretty sure he didn't open his eyes once. When it was his turn, he popped up had a big 'ole smile on his face, asked for Bob the Builder and all was right with the world again. He truly is more stubborn than I am. Oh, my....

Grandma's

We went to visit Grandma Debbie last weekend. When we got there, the kids were greeted with hugs, smiles and some peach water (much to the boys great delight!). It was a gorgeous weekend, so we spend a lot of time out on Debbie's great back porch. Owen and Ethan stripped every cushion off of the patio furniture and played "cement workers", "astronauts", and "pilots" for what seemed like hours. Harper loved having as much attention she could get when her brothers were playing outside!

I was really not feeling well the whole weekend (I caught whatever virus the kids had and it then turned into a sinus infection), so I didn't do a very good job of capturing all that we did while we were there. The boys and Grandma went to the park on Saturday morning, had a fun lunch at McDonald's, and then we went to the zoo that afternoon. The boy's favorite animals to see were the monkeys! Afterwards we ate dinner at Ted's Escondido and I think that may have been the highlight of my weekend! Oh, Ted's how I have missed your tortillas...

Sweet E

Here's a picture I took of Ethan the other day while still trying to figure my camera out. I am working at learning to make eyes "pop". I find myself staring at his eyes trying to figure out what color they are!

My first born is growing up... I rely on his help more and more with his brother and sister. I was trying to get dinner on yesterday when Harper decided that all she wanted was to be held. Ethan said he'd be her babysitter and proceeded to sit on the floor with her, giving her toys and making her laugh. So sweet. I feel like at times he is my little clone (poor kid). I understand his sensitive feelings and what makes him tick. It's helpful, but there is something uniquely difficult dealing with a person that is very similar to yourself! I honestly don't know if we'll be able to home school...he and I butt heads almost immediately when we try to do something! Regardless, I am so proud of my little guy and thankful for his sweet little spirit!

The Three Kids at 6 Months

It's been funny hearing comments about how much Harper looks like her brothers. For the most part people think she looks like Owen, but I definitely see some of Ethan in her expressions. Chris was looking at pictures of all three kids, and he said the one thing they all have in common is their large heads. He said it looks like I Photoshopped a big head on a small body...surely one day they'll grow into them, right?

OU vs TX

OU vs TX is kind of like a family holiday at the Hoyle house. Chris informed me that it might be bigger than Thanksgiving to them... Anyway, we headed to Paw Paw's to watch the game and hang out with the family. My morning started with my boys yelling Boomer! Sooner! It's still odd to me that MY children are OU fans...

Owen could have cared less about the game; all he wanted to do was to ride the tractor and 4-wheeler. As soon as we go there he told Paw Paw it was time to go get the eggs. That boy is in heaven on farm. While everyone watched the game he played outside driving his 4-wheeler around (a little tricycle).

 Chris enjoyed watching the Sooners win big as well as playing some catch with his brother.

 Harper hasn't been real sure what to think of Paw Paw's deep voice, but it didn't take long for her to warm up to him on this trip! They were buddies by the end.

Harper also LOVES her big cousin, Alyssa. Alyssa fed her lunch, held her, and played with her most of the day. I have a feeling Harper is really going to look up to Alyssa... Of course Ethan loved playing with Adam, and he could spend all day in the play room going through all the old action figures Paw Paw has. 

Thanks, Paw Paw, for the wonderful day!

A New Blog

About 4 years ago (?), our friend, Shawn, suggested that we do a meal swap once a month. Everyone would make one meal for multiple families and then we would swap those meals between us so we only had to make one thing but would get several different meals. (does that make any sense?!) I was skeptical, honestly, but boy, was I wrong. It's been a genius idea that we've continued ever since. We've had some really good recipes come through the mix and there has been some discussion on how we could get a place to compile all the "keepers". So, we've started a new blog where we're going to post our favorite recipes. Feel free to check it out, and definitely let us know if you have any recipes to share!

Harper is 6 Months Old

A half a year has gone by since my little lady was born...that does not seem possible. At all. It's been a fun and fast 6 months...

She's becoming more and more vocal - to the point where we're having to talk over her at dinner. Owen has even told her she's loud, and coming from him, that speaks volumes (pun intended). My favorite thing right now is her belly laughs. Her brothers and our neighbor, Emma, can make her laugh hysterically. It's a beautiful sound! She also loves to pat things. When someone holds her she pats their arm. When she's at the table, she pats it. When she lays in her crib to go to sleep, she pats her tummy. Maybe we'll have a drummer?!

She's finally rolled over (from back to front), but mostly she likes trying to sit up on her own and take in everything. She's sitting pretty well on her own, but her head does seem to pull her over. (I took her in for her 6 month well-check, and she's in the 10th percentile in weight, 15th in height, and 70th in head size. A true Hoyle baby.)

She tried eating "solids" for the first time last week, and it hasn't gone over very well. She has a serious case of tongue thrust, so nothing is staying in right now. She still doesn't take a bottle or a sippy cup. Surely one of these days she'll be able to eat without me!

A Visit from Mimi

Mimi came to visit last week and it was so fun having her around for two days! She managed to whip together curtains for my room that I have been too scared to start myself, as well as getting some good time with the kiddos. Thanks for the visit, Mimi!

Oweo

I'm having fun playing with my new camera and trying to figure it out. I'm also realizing that the whole editing process is a completely different world that I'm going to have to try and learn too. I have no clue what I am doing right now, but I'm having fun trying... This picture was pretty cute to look at while playing in Photoshop. (I am sure I have bathrooms or something I should be cleaning right now...)

Guy's Morning

As much as it pains me to have the men in my life wearing OU paraphernalia, I have to admit I think they're pretty cute all dressed up together. They all decided to don their red for a Saturday morning donut run, while Harper and I had a quiet morning at home. I guess she and I will have to wear our OSU orange together and go for quiche or something.

Rosemary Beach 2011

We took our first family vacation as a family of 5 this past month as we went to Florida with my brother and his family. Flying with 3 kids seemed a little daunting, but we decided it was worth trying with a beautiful beach as our "prize". (sorry this post will be annoyingly long and full of lots of pictures!)

We flew from Tulsa and met my brother's family in Houston. We were so excited that it worked out for us to fly together at least one leg of the trip, and we felt a little sorry for the other passengers as we had 6 kids 5 years old and under with us! The kids, however, did amazing and I think they could have been happy with just a family trip of flying on airplanes. I think one of the more comical times of our trip was getting all our luggage at the airport when we arrived. Between the two families we had 12 bags (thank you Southwest for letting us check so much stuff!), 2 double strollers, and 6 really excited kids. I felt like we were the 3 ring circus entertaining all the people in airport. At one point I had a woman ask me if they were all my kids. Right.

We got to the house around 5:30, unpacked our bags and headed straight to the beach with the kids. The sunset was gorgeous and the kids couldn't believe how much cooler this was than just riding an airplane! Ethan had no qualms about jumping right into the water, and it was so fun watching his complete joy swimming in the water. Owen was a little more hesitant, but he was thrilled to play in the sand.
Our first morning there we ate and headed straight out to the beach. This was Harper's first time to see it all, and she wasn't overly impressed. I think it mostly had to do with the fact that she was NOT feeling well. She did grab a handful of sand and try to eat...so she was checking it out!

True to form the boys approached the beach very differently! Ethan was in the water the minute we got there and didn't get out till it was time to leave. Owen, however, was not a fan of the waves and chose to let them touch him a little bit - if he wasn't busy "cooking" with Claire in the sand.



All the cousins got along wonderfully. Jack and Ethan picked right up where they left off last time, and they loved swimming together. Claire and Owen were the most surprising buddies of the trip...they both have the tendency to play in their own world and not with other people. Fortunately, their worlds meshed well together, and they both seemed to love playing together. By the end of the trip, Claire was calling Owen "punkin' " and Owen called Claire "Clairey". It was pretty cute.


We went to Seaside one afternoon for lunch at the Modeco Market. We also hit a fun ice cream shop that was on the Today for having chocolate dipped key lime pie (it was wonderful!). We also were sure to hit "The Sugar Shak" that was around the corner from our house. It was every kid's dream full of candy for any taste. One morning we walked to The Donut Truck only to find it closed, so we settled for powdered donuts from a convenience store to appease the distraught kids. They seemed just as happy with the donuts, but we adults were saddened because they did not taste as good as we remembered from our childhood!
The last night Chris and I went on a date to Cafe 33 (Jon and Katie went to The Red Barn the night before), and we enjoyed some AMAZING seafood and a beautiful walk on the beach afterwards.

It was such a wonderful vacation, and we are so thankful that we were able to share it with our family. I am pretty sure we're all ready to go back in 2012!

A Harper Taco

Sometimes I wonder if Harper should be a little less laid back. I was making dinner and Chris was playing with the boys, and Harper was content on her mat. Little did we know she was IN her mat... It scared me a first - until I saw her face.

The Rest of LABOR Day Weekend

The rest of our Labor Day weekend was pretty relaxed. Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market and ate crepes for breakfast. Owen loves watching "The Crepe Lady" make our food, and he spend the rest of the day pretending to be the Crepe Lady making us food. (we need to introduce him to a crepe making MAN) We enjoyed spending as much time outside as possible and soaking up every minute of the beautiful weather! On Monday, we went to the lake with our friends. I wasn't sure how to handle a boat and a 5 month old baby, but we borrowed a friend's infant life jacket and decided to try it out. Harper is mostly very chill about things, but as soon as that boat got going she was NOT happy. I think she and I lasted 5 minutes on the boat till I took her home. When the wind hit her face she couldn't breath, and when she'd catch her breath she'd scream. I was sad to leave the boys and Chris on the boat and miss out on the fun, but it wasn't worth it. I guess there's always next year... All in all though, it was a perfect Labor Day weekend. Now on to our Florida trip to finish telling summer good-bye!

Starting LABOR Day Weekend Off Right

Chris had Friday off, so we decided it was time to head down South and visit Paw Paw on the farm. I forgot my camera, so I didn't capture a lot of the fun we had, but I did get some of it with my phone camera. The boys had a good time collecting eggs, and I am enjoying the fruits of their labor with almost 200 eggs in my frig now! (thanks, Paw Paw!) They visited and fed a lot of the animals on the farm, rode the four wheeler, and they even got to see some of their cousins for a little bit.
We also made it down to the creek. It was Harper's first time to be down there, and after she realized all she needed to do was lay back and enjoy the ride in her boat, she was happy as can be. I think Owen preferred being around the animals and on the 4 wheeler, but he did enjoy floating down the creek with Chris and his big brother. Ethan, however, loved every minute of the water and enjoyed the rope swing. It's fun that they both have different aspects of the farm that they REALLY enjoy.

Artistic Spiderman

I've been inspired by Pinterest lately to do some re-decorating, and painting the kitchen was something I did two weekends ago. I also painted the chalkboard and cork board that were in the mudroom a cream color and then moved them into my new blue kitchen so the boys could draw on it. Ethan broke the chalkboard in by drawing me a picture. When he was done he said, "Mom this is a picture of you. It shows how I feel more in love with you every day." Ah, he's going to make some woman very happy one day with his romantic side. As long as she can handle his mood swings...

5 Months

My girl is closer to 6 months now than 5 months, but better late than never, right?! It's been a fun last month as Harper is becoming more engaged with her surroundings. She's really close to rolling over, but lifting her head up seems to be a really big task thus far. (she graduated to the 60th percentile in head size at her 4 month check up...35th in weight and 20th in height) She still has refused to take a bottle, so I am attempting to get her to start a sippy cup. It's been our breakfast entertainment watching her try to get the cup to her mouth. The boys do not understand what is so difficult about it! She's obsessed with her hands and constantly has them in her mouth. I keep trying to give her a pacifier thinking it might be an easier habit to break, but she'll have nothing to do with it. She also seems like she has a lot to say if she could just get the words out. When someone talks to her, she gets her mouth all ready but all that comes out are coos. It's pretty cute. I am hearing that she looks a lot like Owen these days...with a smaller head. Thank the Lord.

The Many Faces of Ethan

I found a good tutorial online on how to make eyes in pictures stand out/sparkle. The whole photography and image editing world is completely overwhelming at this point, but I decided I need to at least try it out. I asked my trusty model, Ethan, to head outside and strut his stuff so maybe I could get some good pictures of his eyes. (I promised a cookie if he would stand still and not keep running off) He's my very emotionally in-tuned child, so it was hilarious asking him to show me "sad"...give me "angry"...how about "happy"...."sad"..."scared"? (I've always thought him watching Thomas the Train and observing all their moods and faces helped develop this side of him, but Owen has watched the same thing and could care less about emotions. He seems to have two emotions: happy or really unhappy...) I'm not sure I got any stunning photographs, but I was able to start playing around with making his eyes stand out a bit more, and we both enjoyed a nice cookie after all the hard work!

Brothers

The boys are having more and more fun playing together these days, but Ethan still is a bigger brother who enjoys getting a rise out of his little brother. This particular day they started out riding together and singing as they went down the street. Until Ethan started going down the driveways. Then anytime he'd go up an incline, Owen would freak out thinking he was about to fall out. Ethan would laugh a horrible laugh, Owen would scream...then they'd be fine...till the next driveway.
Harper is taking notes for now. I'm sure she'll put all that she's learning now to good use some day soon.

Grandma Debbie

Chris' mom and her husband, Lynn, came to visit last weekend. They drove the "bus" here, and the boys thought it was the coolest thing being able to drive around in a vehicle with a bed, couch, kitchen and bathroom in it. That really is the way to travel! The boys loved playing on the bus and drinking peach water (a Grandma Debbie trademark drink). We had a fun Saturday that started out with crepes and smoothies at the Farmer's Market, and then the boys took Debbie and Lynn to the pool to show off their swimming skills. That afternoon a random rain shower hit, and the boys entertained us all with a dance party in the rain. It was so fun having them here and making memories! Now if we could only talk them into borrowing their bus to take a few trips of our own...

My boys

It's been sooooo hot lately. We've stayed inside more than usual because of the heat, and it's been fun watching the boys entertain themselves and seeing just how different that looks for each of them. Regardless of the heat, Owen wants to be outside mowing or playing in the sandbox. This particular day he was playing "Dad" and was wearing his stuffed dog in his "moby wrap" (aka shirt) as he mowed. Ethan, however is completely content sitting inside imagining a whole world with his action figures or acting something out himself. As Owen was mowing, Ethan was pretending to be Han Solo in a blizzard looking for Luke Skywalker. It seemed a little weird getting all the hats and gloves out, but whatever it takes to help out his story!