Logan Turns One!!

I can't believe Logan is ONE YEAR OLD. His favorite "activities" now are initiating peek-a-boo, throwing stuff on the ground .. just because it's funny, and pulling stuff in and out of drawers LOL. What a mess, but very full of life and energy!!

Stats:

Weight: 21 lb. 7 oz.

Height: 30"

Head: 47.8 cm

Logan's first steps!!

Cassi was upstairs napping and I was downstairs playing with the kids. I was really just practicing with Logan on standing, when all of a sudden he starts walking!! He beat his big brother by one month; five days shy of his first birthday. Here are a couple of videos:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Logan 11 months / Korben 4yrs old!!

Logan is just one month shy of his first birthday and his big brother Korben is now 4 years old!! They are 2 peas in a pod.
Logan is crawling EVERYWHERE and FAST. He loves to initiate peek-a-boo, being outside, is a very curious explorer, and eats all kinds of food now like mini pb&j. He also had his first haircut yesterday.
Korben had a haircut too shortly before his 4 year doctor visit with five shots in his legs :(( He is growing up and becoming confident like his daddy and a very good negotiator like his mommy. At the doctor's office he weighed in at 36lbs (50%) and measured 41 inches tall (75%) !!
Both boys play very well together and entertain each other, making the other laugh all the time. Korben and Logan also like to watch their new favorite cartoon The Octonauts ...




Logan was mad because he wanted to crawl away and not sit still.












First haircut, could not sit still but smiled the whole time!!




Hard pic to get him playing peek-a-boo but here is his "after" smile.




Korben gets himself dressed just as soon as he wakes up, ready to start the day (and adventures).




Big boy car seat in daddy's truck.




Went to see THIS movie in 3D !!




Like I said two peas in a pod.




Racing up the slide at McDonald's.




Dallas Zoo with mommy and friends.

10 Months!

My littlest monkey is now 10 months old! Seems so crazy. Wasn't he born just yesterday?? Does the growing ever stop? I guess I should know by now that it doesn't. Can we at least slow it down a bit? I guess we can't do that either... dang.

Logan man is changing every day. He started "for real" crawling last month but has now pretty much made that his main form of movement and given up the army crawl. Of course he would still prefer to hold someone's hand and walk around. He loves to open and close doors and since Korben's play kitchen is just the right size and has plenty of doors to open, it has become one of Logan's favorite things to play with. Almost every morning, the first thing he does when we make it downstairs is grab my hand so we can walk over to that kitchen. And then he plops himself down and goes to town with those doors and starts pulling stuff out. I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of it; I really should get one.

He's also been cruising pretty well these days and is constantly getting into big brother's things. Korben is constantly yelling at his little brother for taking his toys. "Logan, that's not yours, it's mine!" and "Logan, that's not a toy!" are very common phrases from our oldest monkey these days. And "Uh-oh" is a commonly used phrase from our youngest monkey when he drops said toys. Of course that's about as far as his vocabulary is extended to anyway besides "mama," "dada," "bubba," and "GAH!" When Logan isn't nabbing one of brother's toys though, the boys are still actually very sweet with each other. Korben is Logan's favorite person and Korben loves that he can make his little brother laugh. I love it when Korben randomly gives Logan hugs and sugars and says, "I love you, little brother!" It melts my heart!

Something else Logan is into these days is Wheel of Fortune. I have no idea why he likes that show so much but he does. No matter what he's doing, he drops it all as soon as that first puzzle comes up and crawls straight to the TV to watch. It's hilarious.

When bed time comes around, Logan likes to listen to music when he falls asleep. The music thing used to just be Daddy's thing when he put Logan to sleep but there have been a few times lately when I've had to pull out the tunes also. I used to get away with not having to play any songs since I always feed him to sleep but the boy does love his music. It actually kind of makes me happy that he's got some musicality in him... I hope it stays that way!

A mini version of his "scrunchy" face

Getting his Wheel of Fortune fix in

Spending some time with Gram in Abilene

Walking with Grandpooh

Getting some Gal time in

Hanging out with Gus

Love that smile

My boys!

Wearing their matching stripe pajamas... I do love matching pj's!

Korben sharing some of his ice cream with Logan - he was very appreciative :)

We finally had a warm enough day to take the Power Wheels truck out for a spin to the park

Asher the Elf

In the last post, Josh mentioned our family elf, Asher. Since he was such a big part of our Christmas this year, I thought he should have his own post!

It all started when I kept seeing pins on Pinterest of ideas for this elf on the shelf thing. I had never heard of it but quickly caught on to the gist of what it was basically about - an elf doll that comes from the North Pole to keep an eye on the kids and report back to Santa every night if they had been good or bad that day, then moves to a new spot when he returns from the North Pole each night. I thought this looked cute and after inquiring with other parents who had done this tradition before, I knew I wanted to make it one of our own family traditions!

Our elf arrived at our house the day after Thanksgiving. He showed up on the fireplace mantle next to the book that tells the story of  "Elf on the Shelf." We read the book to Korben and explained how you can't touch the elf because he might lose his Christmas magic. Then Josh and I asked Korben what he wanted to name his elf but he needed some choices so we gave him the options of Rufus (which means red and the elf's outfit is red), Sneaker (since the elves sneak around the house every night), Twizzle (because twizzlers are red? Not really sure where that came from but it was cute none-the-less), and Asher (which means happy since you know, elves are very cheery and happy)... Korben almost immediately chose Asher! And so it began!

I thought Korben would have an issue with the no touching rule but he actually did quite well with it! There was one day that he accidentally touched Asher and knocked him over while trying to get back a toy that Asher had "borrowed" and Korben was really upset about it! Poor thing felt so bad about Asher losing his magic! Thankfully some of the other elves came to the rescue and gave Asher his magic back! :)

Asher was quite the mischievous elf! He was quite fond of Korben's toys and took them to play with pretty frequently! I don't have pictures from all of Asher's "spots" but some of the places he was found were hanging from the ceiling fan pull string, playing with Korben's toy cars, roasting marshmallows on candles, eating cereal bars in the pantry, and reading a book to Korben's stuffed animals and action figures. Korben LOVED finding Asher in a new spot every morning! Asher even got blamed for a few things that he didn't do too. When I hung up all of our Christmas cards, Korben insisted that was all Asher! It was so much fun having Asher around and we can't wait for him to visit again next year!

One day Asher wrapped up Korben's books (enough for him to unwrap and read one a night before bed). There were a few new books snuck in the pile too... Korben especially loved it when he was surprised with a new book! :)

Asher making some adjustments to the light with Korben's toy Turner screwdriver. Korben yelled at Asher for taking his toys that morning!

Santa made an early visit to fill up stockings and Asher caught him on film with Korben's camera!

We were glad to see that Asher knew how to use the potty... we were also surprised to learn that elves have green pee! (Sorry if that one grossed you out... we thought it was funny though!)

Hiding under a glass!

Gone fishing!

Asher got got a little toilet paper happy and tp'd Korben's room!

Asher isn't in this picture but there was a day that he sat at the front of Korben's gingerbread house and ate some of the candy from it! I hadn't posted a picture of the house Korben made yet so there it is.

On Asher's last day at the house before going back to the North Pole with Santa, he left a goodbye note to Korben and made reindeer donuts!

Logan 9 months / Christmas party of FOUR !! (posted by Josh)

Logan had his 9 month appointment a couple of weeks ago, and is developing quite a personality these days. He definitely knows how to get his way. His favorite activities include the army crawl (even though he can "for real" crawl now), sitting and playing with all the new toys that he got for Christmas, walking while holding onto Mommy's hands, and climbing the stairs (baby gates are up). Here are his stats as of 12/21/11: Weight 19 lbs 14 oz (50%) Height 28 1/2 inches (70%) Head 46.5 cm











As well as being Logan's first Christmas, it was also Korben's first Christmas with his new baby brother. And as our family grew this year, so did the fun!! We went to ride the train in Grapevine at the Polar Express to see Santa, looked at Christmas lights just about every time we left the house at night, Korben had his own tree and unwrapped a book every night before bed time, built and ate a Ginger bread house, baked cookies with Mommy (and ate those too), watched tons of holiday movies, made homemade gifts and ornaments, and let's not forget we welcomed our newest elf friend Asher !! WARNING : ** CHRISTMAS PICTURE OVERLOAD **