The Loveland Family: 2009

Wow it has been a long time since I made a post!! Time does fly when you're having fun-- and when you are really busy! The babies have their days and nights mixed up so a lot of the time I don't even know what day it is since I haven't slept yet. :) So it's with groggy eyes that I make this post now-- so over look the typos and sentences that don't make sense and just enjoy all the pictures. :) To save time I will post a lot of slide shows so hopefully they work for you. If not, sorry!!

Since I last posted we have had a lot of "firsts." I guess that can be expected when it's the babies "first" year of life, but we have had some "firsts" for the rest of the family too. So I guess that will be the theme of this post: FIRSTS.

FIRST, this is the FIRST post in a long time which also makes it the FIRST post this month, too bad it's the last day of the month and will also be the last one this month too. (Just had to add those ones to the list-- I am tired remember).

FIRST off, I know you all want to know about the babies. Over the last three months since I posted they have turned 6 months, 7 months, and now 8 months old. They are really growing up! They are doing quite well, other then deciding when to sleep. :) Philip can sit up and is almost crawling. Even though he's not officially crawling yet he gets around all over by rolling and scooting. He is very independent. Kylie, on the other hand, knows she is a princess and wants to be doted on. So instead of sitting up and getting around on her own she is content to just lay on her blanket and have things handed to her. Silly girl! They are both very smiley and are well known at church for giving smilies to anyone who will look at them. They love to babel and Kylie can even click her tongue and blow raspberries.

They just had their check up last week and here are their stats:

Philip:

Weight: 19.9 pounds, 60th %tile

Height: 29.3 inches, 95th %tile

Kylie:

Weight: 15.5 pounds, 15 %tile

Height: 26.8 inches, 54 %tile

Here are some slide shows of pics of them at each of their monthly birthdays:

6 months:

7 months:

8 months:

As mentioned before, the babies have had a lot of FIRSTS. One, that I got some pictures of was their FIRST taste of baby food. Philip always wants food so bad but then when you give him a taste he always pulls a face like he doesn't like it. Kylie loves food and will happily gobble up anything you give her.

Their FIRST taste of baby food, I think it was sweet potatoes:

We finally found a food that Philip loves without pulling a yucky face when he eats it-- french fries. Kylie didn't get any since she was asleep while we were eating them but Philip loved them and would even reach out and grab them if I held one up.

His FIRST french fries:

The boys took swimming lessons all summer. One of the days after their lessons we got to stay and play in the pool as a family. So the babies got to go swimming for the FIRST time. They don't really like water and so they actually didn't enjoy it much. Babies are supposed to like water since it reminds them of being in-utero. It was so cramped in there maybe mine don't want to remember it. (He-he!!)

FIRST swimming photos:

Here are some other cute pics of the babies (sorry it's really long):

My youngest sister visited us over the summer. While she was here we took her to see the National Mall. So the babies had their FIRST trip to the Mall. We didn't have time to go until late in the evening so it was very late at night when we got home. The Mall is lit up and is very beautiful at night. It is also still very busy. It was amazing how many people were still there. The bad thing we discovered was that at night the rats come out. They were everywhere! For most people it probably wasn't a problem, I doubt most people saw them. But for me it was a big problem! I am like deathly afraid rodents such as rats and mice. Since there are so many people around the little critters weren't scared of us either. I was trying to be brave and was doing okay until we headed down a path that wasn't as lit and one came running up from behind me and then ran past me only inches away from my feet. Then only seconds later one ran in front of the stroller I was pushing so close that I almost ran over it. AAHHH!! I just about lost it then. Derek almost had to give me a piggy-back ride out of the place. Timothy wouldn't have been too happy about that since he was the one getting the piggy-back ride. But I sucked it up and trecked on and we made it to the car fine thanks to my sister who stood next to me and stomped all the rest of the way to the car in order to scare them away. Thanks Sis!! Anyways, heres some pics of the event:

While my sweet sister was here we also went to our FIRST 3-D movie. It was a first for everyone except Derek and my sister. Not only was it the babies FIRST 3-D movie it was their FIRST movie at a movie theater too. They did really well. They actually slept through most of it. The boys did really well too except that Timothy wouldn't keep his glasses on. They need to make a size that fits kids better. The movie we went to was G-Force. The kids wanted to see it really bad. We actually ended up seeing it on opening night without even planning it. It was much cuter than I had anticipated. It always makes me laugh when the kids are playing and I hear Andrew shout, "G-Force in the house!" He even has the pose to go with it.

Some pics from the theater:

While my sister was here Andrew decided to get out one of his large puzzles and got us working on it. We put together a 1000 piece puzzle. When we were finally finished it felt like quite the accomplishment. It was a FIRST for all of us to put together a puzzle that large.

The finished puzzle:

With football season upon us, it is Fantasy Football time again. During the few weeks before the season started Derek and I were busy drafting our teams. Brian and Andrew became quite interested and wanted to know when it was going to be their turn to draft. So we set up a special league for them so they could play too. Thanks to all those who are playing with them. They had a great time drafting. It was a live draft via the internet. Each person had like 3 minutes to make a pick. We had explained to the boys how to read the cheat sheets to know who the best players were. But it didn't matter. They picked players according to what team they were on and whether they liked their name or not. It was quite funny. They ended up with some interesting teams. Brian had the first pick of the draft. I had showed him who the best players were and he was going to draft one of them. While we were waiting for the draft to begin he asked me who the Raider's quarterback was (Andrew is a Raider fan and Brian is a Seahawks fan). I showed him who he was, JaMarcus Russell. He told me that he wanted him. He was rated like 28 or something like that out of 32 so I pointed out to him that he could wait to draft him until later in the draft and he would still be there reminding him that he wanted a quarterback closer to number 1. He knew how to run the draft on his own so the second it started he drafted JaMarcus Russell. Then he immediately turned to Andrew and with a big smile on his face said, "I got your quarterback!" Ah, sibling rivalry! Much later in the draft Brian finally drafted Peyton Manning, the quarteback for the Colts. He was rated at about a 4 this year and has been a number 1 or 2 in the past few years. After the draft was over it was time to set the team line-ups. I was reminding Brian that he probably wanted to put his higher ranking players in to begin with. So we put Peyton Manning in. As soon as I turned away from the computer he went back in and put JaMarcus Russell in and benched Manning. Derek and I just laughed. We figured that had to be a FIRST since no one who knows anything would ever bench Manning for Russell.

Some pics of the boys drafting (Derek helped Andrew and I helped Brian):

Going over the cheat sheet

Brian drafting

Andrew drafting

Brian consulting the cheat sheet

The boys had their FIRST day of school. I know, everyone else had this a long time ago, but since we don't start until the day after Labor Day it was much more recent for us. Andrew started kindergarten so it was really his FIRST day of school as well as his FIRST time to ride the school bus. He was way excited to go. Both boys like school and are doing well. It has been a big adjustment for Andrew since kindergarten here is full day and he never went to any kind of pre-school or pre-k program. His teacher so far is good about working with his allergies so we will hope that all goes well with that. At least he's not the only child in his class with a peanut allergy. There is another little girl. So they sit together at the peanut-free table at lunch and Andrew thinks of her as his best friend. His was quite sad when she missed a day of school last week.

FIRST day of school pics (the boys picked to wear their matching shirts themselves, I had nothing to do with it. They also made sure that their attire matched in some way for the whole FIRST week of school. I think they like going to school together.):

HERE!!

I know this one may seem amazing but Timothy and Andrew ate their FIRST ice cream cones. They had never had one before. Derek and I prefer our ice cream in a bowl rather than in a cone so we just never buy cones to eat at home and with Andrew's allergies we never buy them from a restaurant. The boys got coupons for ice cream cones in their prizes for the summer reading program and that got us talking about them. The boys were so excited about them. We quickly realized that we had deprived them of this special childhood treat and had them as a Family Home Evening treat. Talk about a big hit. It was almost as popular as root bear floats. The kids can't wait until it's time to have another.

We took our FIRST metro ride. (Derek rides the metro to work everyday but the rest of us had never ridden it.) We rode into D.C. to the Verizon Center and went to "Walking with Dinosaurs an Arena Spectacular." It was the FIRST big event we have gone to as a whole family. It was quite an adventure but it was lots of fun! Derek had Philip in a tummy-pack and I had Kylie in a tummy-pack with the other 3 boys trailing behind. I'm sure it was quite a sight as we got a lot of looks from people, but at least they were all quick to move out of our way. :) The boys loved the train ride. Timothy keeps asking when we are going to ride it again. The dinosaur show was, as it says, spectacular. It included 15 life-size dinosaurs that were robotic so they came out and walked around, chased each other, and growled at us. The story line was set up with a paleontologist who was walking us through the time of dinosaurs showing them to us. It was really quite interesting and I learned some things. The boys LOVED it!! Even the babies were totally enthralled through the whole thing. The dinosaurs really looked so real. Here is a link that shows a preview for the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_zbUp-M1Z4&feature=fvw

Here's a few pics from the adventure:

Oh, I almost forgot, Brian had a birthday in July. Since we moved the day after his birthday that means we have now lived here for 1 year. So we made it through our FIRST year here. We can't believe we have been here this long already. We really like it here and are happy that we will be here for a few more years.

Now for an update on Derek's thesis. He is still working on getting it done. Someday it will be finished! So he is still working on his FIRST masters. (He hopes to get another one someday that's why I can say FIRST.) He has started his new job, which is his FRIST job since being a student, and so far he really likes it. But he does feel a little out of place at times since he is the only one in his office that isn't a Lt Colonel or Colonel. Nothing like being the low man on the totem pole. The people in his office are really into football. On his FIRST meeting with the commander the FIRST question he was asked was, "Who's your favorite team?" Once again Derek is a minority in his like for the Raiders. The other guys at work teased him when they FIRST found out saying they had never met anyone who was a Raiders fan. His FIRST tasking from the commander was to go home and buy a jersey. They have tailgate parties every week and everyone has to wear their team's jersey. Derek was excited about getting a jersey. He has wanted one his whole life but never gotten one. So now he has his FIRST jersey and he loves it, he also loves that he has a reason to wear it. Now he is shopping for his second jersey and he wants the spikey shoulder pads and face paint to go with it. Anybody know where we can get spikey shoulder pads? :)

Hmm. . . working on this post has left Timothy unattended. Not a good thing. :) I usually seem to end these mega posts with pics of him, but I think I will save you from the pics this time and just tell you about it. I just found him outside jumping on the trampoline, not a bad thing, except that he was doing it buck naked! :)His clothes are strewn all over the tramp around him. Normally in a backyard that wouldn't be to bad. But in our backyard we have a nature trail right behind our back fence that has runners and walkers on it all the time. Hope no one ran/walked by and saw the show. :) Earlier this summer I got the boys some cheap little water guns to play with it. They were running around in the backyard spraying each other having a great time. Then a guy ran by on the trail and they all ran after him spraying him with their guns. Boys will be boys!!

I always have to keep my eye on that Timothy. On Saturday we went to Lowe's as a family, another adventure. :) After checking out, we were standing outside in front of the store gathering everything out of the cart. I looked down and noticed that Timothy was holding one of those mega packs of batteries. It was not on our list so I asked Derek if he knew anything about them and he didn't. Apparently Timothy had picked them up from the display near the register and had just carried them out. We quickly ran them back inside and put them where they belonged. Good thing Uncle Trevor doesn't work at that store! :) Silly kid!!

Okay I did find some cute pics of him to post here. We found him like this after we got home from church one day. I guess he was too tired to make it upstairs to change his clothes.