Koen's Weapons!!!

Koen has two teeth that he uses all the time as some pretty ferocious weapons. He loves to chew on everything now. He chews on his fingers so much that Austin has picked up the habit as well. He is pretty miserable some of the time because I think his top two teeth are coming in as well. He is still a pretty happy baby and a real joy to have in our home.

Koen's First Rice

Well, we finally braved the rice feeding. We have been putting if off because of his RSV and asthma and what not. We actually started on his 6 month birthday (May 30th). He did really good. He took to the rice really well. Here are a couple of pics of the occasion.

First bite - huh - pretty good stuff! Doing really well!

Not so sure. . .

He has had enough!

Afternoon feeding went really well. He finished the whole bowl!

A week later we introduced Peas - wasn't quite sure he like it.

We survived the peas! But doesn't want anymore EVER!

All in all - we made it and Koen loves food!!!

Potty Training + Babysitting = Bad News

Well, here it goes, my first blog ever! Katie refused to write this story down and I thought it was great and that we needed to share it. That and Katie threatened to kill me several times if I didn't post this. Don't worry fellas, I am still officially a non-blogger. Today, I am only fullfilling my duties as last years winner of the "Husband of the Year Award" and will only do this when my wife asks me to, so here we go:
The other day a couple of my young men came to me asking to have a chance to babysit Austin. I told them that they could and to come over that weekend while Katie and I went to dinner. Of course I made sure that their parents were home and ready to help just in case something bad happened, but it's just Austin and Koen, how bad could it be? Right? Before we left we gave them all the instructions and told them that Austin was starting to use the "big boy potty" and to help him if he needed it. Well, Katie and I really enjoyed dinner and it was great to get away from the boys for a couple of hours. Just as we were pulling into the drive way we got a phone call. Of course, the babysitters claiming they had a serious problem. We walk inside to find Austin with a new pull-up in his hands saying repeatedly "I don't want a cold shower, I don't want a cold shower" (never a good sign). Apparently Austin had to go to the bathroom why we were out. Well, he was a little late getting to the bathroom and Katie and I in the past have been rinsing off his poopy bum with not so warm water to help motivate him to go in the potty. So........... in order to avoid the cold shower, he decided to transport the evidence to the toilet to recieve a fruit roll-up instead (smart kid, gets that from me). Well, he wasn't as coordinated as he needed to be with it (gets that from Katie) and ended up smearing it all over his hands, the toilet and the floor. Trying to clean his hands off, he got more on our bath mats, his legs, arms, and face (apparently that crap was hard to clean up). Unfortunately we didn't take the time to take a picture, but the experience was priceless. Worst news, however, is that we have two more people out there that are unwilling to babysit our son ever again. Oh well, Austin is a champ and is doing great. Since that day he has never pooped in his pull up. We are coming up on three weeks. This week he is in "big boy cars underwear" and we are hoping for the best. Way to go Austin - you da man!

Soccer Champions!

Well, I meant to post this earlier seeing as Soccer ended about 3 weeks ago, but you know how it goes! Scott and some of his PA buddies put together a soccer team for the Pocatello City League Soccer Games and had a great team. It was made up of PA Students, a couple of the guys' wives (no, not me! I air kick the ball all the time and Scott laughs at me), and then 3 other people. They had a great team and played really well together. They ended up being undefeated throughout the season. Some of the teams heard about them and how good they were and decided not to show up for fear of the score - so they had a couple of forfeits. They did awesome though and we had a good time going and watching them.

This is a picture of the team - we were missing a few this day! These next few are some pictures of Scott and his team in action! Scott is the one in the bright blue shorts!

A fight? A fight? No, I don't think there really was a fight, but there were some pretty crazy arguments during this game. YIKES!

Everytime Scott subs out, Austin has to go over to him and be held! Austin loved going to Scott's games, as did Koen and I. I do think there was only one that we missed and we missed it because I had to be to mutual - other than that - we were there every single time whether it was freezing cold (and we would sit in the car) or warmer than warm (which rarely happened). It was really fun to go watch and get out. It was our hightlight of the week. Something to look forward to!

This is the boys right before we went to the last game. I loved their matching shirts and unfortunately we didn't get to show them off because it was too cold and they had to wear their coats. I thought they were cute though!

Happy Koen after the game! You like how his shoes are way too big for him - yeah that's nice huh? Well anyways - we loved going to daddy's games and look forward to going to some more soon!

Potty Charts

Well, we have been working on getting Austin potty trained and I think we are slowly getting there. He filled his firsy potty chart (which took about a month to fill) and he was so excited to go and get his first prize.

We have tried to make it a big deal when he goes that it is a little too big of a deal. When he goes he has to tell everyone whether he goes at great-grandpa's house, daddy's school, grandma and papa's house, etc. etc. The minute he is done he will run out where people are and say, "I went in your potty." It's really quite cute. His first prize was a set of plastic kid's golf clubs and of course his dad had a little influence on that one. He is so excited to go now (well - sometimes) and is doing really quite well. Hopefully here in the next little bit he will be completely potty trained. Is that wishful thinking? Good Job Austin! You are such a big boy!!!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, Scott and the boys decided to get me a bike and a trailor so that we can get out and do something. (We kindof struggle coming up with ideas of things to do while Scott is at school.) I was so excited that Scott would let me get one. I have wanted one for a while, but never felt like it was something we needed right away. We went on Saturday (before Mother's Day) and picked them out and also ended up getting one for Scott (for Father's Day) since it's no fun to go riding by yourself. We have been riding everyday since we got them. The boys love it and it's great exercise for Scott and I. We have gone on two pretty long bike rides and boy is it difficult.

Right before our first bike ride.

The boys were so excited to go on our first bike ride together.

Austin had to get in it right after Scott got done putting it together. Of course we had to add Koen to make sure it was going to be a comfortable ride!

This is after our first long bike ride and the boys were beat down. It is definitely a good way to put your kids to sleep. Works everytime!

This is the cute Mother's Day card Scott made for me. Is he quite the scrapbooker or what? He does a really good job. He's really good at using up my scraps. And by the way, those flowers are free handed. Yeah I was impressed as well.

I am so grateful to be a mother and to be a mother of such wonderful boys. I wouldn't change them for anything. It is so fun to be there to watch them grow and learn and see what kind of great (and not so great) things they pick up. I absolutely love being a mom and hopefully my boys love me being their mom. Thank you Scott for the great Mother's Day gift and super cute card and for making Mother's Day so special.

Koen's First Tooth

On Friday, May 2nd, I was playing with Koen and noticed something a little different about him. I looked a little closer and discovered that Koen had his first tooth. He had been kind of fussy for a while and I jokingly was saying that he was teething (knowing that he was probably too young to get teeth), but I was wrong. It's kind of crazy to have a child that has teeth at 5 months because I don't think Austin got his first tooth until he was almost a year. Maybe that's a sign that Koen is going to do things a little faster than Austin did. :) It's crazy to think that Koen is 5 months old already. He is growing so fast already.

If you look closely, you might be able to see the tooth! You'll have to excuse the pink bouncer. This picture was taken at my sister's house. She has a baby girl, therefore it's pink!

This is Koen's favorite position. He sucks on his toes more than anything. I think he gets his flexibility from his mom :) (Not really!)