my boys

Madden

is 5 1/2 now.

finally fully adjusted to all-day kindergarten and loving it

He was trailblazer of the week right before fall break and got to make a poster all about him to share with his class. 

I went to the school and had lunch with him to celebrate him being trailblazer of the week. 

he chose subway for lunch and all of his friends wanted to sit by us.

All the girls in his class said that Beckett was cute as a baby unicorn.

He is amazing me with his spelling and reading skills and his progress report shows that he is right on grade level and even above grade level in some areas.

I'm excited to teach art masterpiece in his classroom in a couple weeks.

and he was excited for mustache day at school.

he also gets excited to wear his "comfy" clothes to school on early release days

Its been a battle for us this year.

I want him to wear all the cute school clothes I bought for him when we went back to school shopping, he wants to wear basketball shorts everyday.

I told him he wasn't aloud to wear "comfy" clothes to school.

He told me "But Jaron's mom lets him wear them everyday!"

So we compromised and now he is only allowed to wear them once a week, on early release days

(damn you, Jaron's mom)

I die over the art work he brings home from kindergarten and I have a hard time throwing any of it out.
he is totally surprising me with his artistic skills...he definitely doesn't get it from me, thats for sure.
he loves to draw and color and his fave subjects in school are art, music & P.E.

he's also loving having his dad as his primary teacher at church.

he had a speaking part in the primary program a couple weeks ago and did a great job.

though he still refuses to sing.  it's just not his thing.

he's such a great big brother to beckett and plays with him and shares his toys with him all the time.

he's doing great at soccer and scored a goal at his last game!
he gets to play on the same team as a bunch of his friends and his friend Beckam's dad is his coach this year.
My friend Alyssa took Madden's soccer pictures this year and I think they turned out so cute!

he got a new haircut for family pictures.  I think its my fave haircut he's ever had.

he also has a bazillion scratches on his face for family pictures, because Beckett is always clawing his face off when they play together.  thank goodness for photoshop.

we've had a hard time coming up with a halloween costume for him this year.

He wanted to be the grim reaper

and to that, I said hell to the no.

after weeks of arguing and shopping and brainstorming, we finally settled on a ninja

Beckett

is 8 months old now.

He is officially crawling everywhere and trying oh so hard to pull himself up onto all the furniture.
he can't quite get into standing position yet on his own, but he gets up on his knees and does this ridiculous hip-thrusting motion all.the.time.

he is eating all kinds of baby foods, except he still hates green beans and peas.

he is getting really good at holding his sippy and drinking from it on his own.

he can now push himself into sitting position from crawling or laying position and its his favorite new trick.

he does great sleeping through the night, but has gotten into the awful habit of waking up at 6 am, much to my sleepy-eyed dismay.

he wakes up happy as can be, just talking in his crib, and the first thing he usually does is pull himself up on the crib railings to look for Madden on his top bunk.
He just recently started sleeping with his bum up in the air and I think its the cutest ever.

he is obsessed with playing with his toys right now, just like Madden was at this age.

he is so sensitive and tender-hearted, just like his brother. We have been getting stern with him, telling him NO! when he scratches or pulls our hair and he gets so sad and cries.  

Whenever we cheer really loud for Madden at his soccer game, Beckett will burst into tears and is inconsolable.  Its actually kinda funny and kinda heartbreaking at the same time.

he's starting to show favoritism towards certain cartoon shows. his current faves are Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on PBS and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel.

He is still a really good, chill, happy baby and everyone always compliments us everywhere we go on how quiet and happy and good he is.
At church, however, he's a different story.  He just doesn't wanna be held or sit on our laps, he wants to crawl around and play.  And church time conflicts with his current nap schedule and he is at the age now where he doesn't nap on-the-go in his carseat as well as he used to, he prefers to be in his crib at home.  so church is a struggle.

He loves puppies and whenever we go up to Snowflake he follows Grandma's puppy Willy all over the house, just giggling and babbling at him.

he is babbling and baby talking all the time.

he is still obsessed with Madden and with other kids and babies.

I took him to play at the mall baby play area for the very first time and he loved it.

he gets so excited when his daddy gets home.

now that he is mobile, he doesn't love sitting in his carseat for an hour when I take him to physical therapy with me.

but we love meeting daddy for lunch after physical therapy.