Braly Buds

This morning (after a smattering of errands) Tav, Penn and I had a fun, laid back playdate at the Braly's.  Tavin loves going to Kaiser's house!  Kaiser is phenomenal at sharing and his little bro, Porter, does just as well.  And Tavin loves the cool boy toys they have on hand.  Today he was particularly excited about the helicopter.  Here's Tav with the helicopter nad his bud, Kaiser.

Tavin also remembered the train tracks (with automatic Thomas engines!).  Here are all 3 little guys working together.

Now, little Miss Malone and Penn are a lot of fun to shoot photos of as they just sit there and make cute faces and sort of interact with one another.  So much fun.  Here's what I got this morning...
"Is she touching me?" says Penn.  Malone seems to think it's funny!

Penn decides that he is going to use this invasion of space to his advantage..."well, I have an itch right here, Malone, can you get it?"  Malone doesn't look amused.

"So, Malone, what face do you think we should do next?...Oh, that's a good one!" says Penn.

It was a super fun, relaxed morning catching up with Kyndal, getting our kids together (well, most of them, Koen was at school of course) and we also got a visit from Captain America.

Thanks for a nice morning, Kyndal!  We love you guys!  

Home Church: Honesty

Although I prefer getting out with other believers, the fellowship, the corporate worship, the teaching, etc., I have to say, I enjoy these opportunities to simplify things and just learn by teaching my boys.  Today I chose honesty as our theme since Koen has become a master of little white lies that make his life easier.  I found some great resources online.  First of all, I let them watch a Hermie & Friends DVD segment..."The Truth About Telling Lies."  Then we worked on our memory verse...

Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.

I had that song on CD from "Hide 'em in your Heart" by Steve Green.  In the second verse you hold your tongue and sing the words (not easy!), Koen loved it.  Hopefully it helps the powerful words stick!  Koen pulled out his guitar for our worship time and he instructed that he was going to play along with the CD and that Tav and I could sing and hold our tongues.  Thanks, Koen.

Next I read an applicable Bible story that I had found from a great Focus on the Family website (it's actually Focus on the Family Canada!).  I chose to read the Jeremiah 28 story where Jeremiah calls out the prophet Hananiah on a lie.  I thought the summary sounded good last night when I read it before bed, so I figured it'd be great.  Yep, always read the text before plowing into it with your little ones.  Oops, God kills Hananiah for lying.  Well, I guess I got my point across.  You should've seen Koen's eyes open wide!  

Then we moved on to snacktime (which probably eradicated any fears of smiting due to lying).  And finally, craft time.  I also got this idea off of the Focus on the Family website I shared.  We made Certificates of Authenticity.  The boys wrote their names in, I signed it and then they decorated it to make it super special since it is such a big deal to say you are trustworthy.  The boys both loved this activity.  Glitter, glitter glue and glue were the most popular decor items.  I need to invest in much more of this stuff!  Here's Tav working.

And Koen...

Here's his finished product.  He was quite proud.

I have to say that home church was really the highlight of our morning.  I love doing this stuff with the boys.  I definitely missed getting out to church, but this was a great and special substitute.  Love you two and I do pray that the Lord will help you keep those tongues from evil and those lips from speaking lies.  

Weekend Work and Woes

Friday and Saturday were beautiful weather days here in the Burgh.  Warm, breezy and the perfect atmosphere for Spring yardwork.  Doug used every spare moment to get things done outside and Koen was his right hand man.  Tavin was the understudy and did quite well also. Doug was excited that the boys proved to actually be quite helpful.  Having a brood of boys could be as useful as it is fun!  Here are some pictures of the big boys hard at work with their dad.

Tavin was feeling a lot better on Friday and loved the opportunity to be working with Doug and Koen.  He has quite a good work ethic when he's feeling up to it!

Oh yes, do note the new sunglasses.  He's crazy about them.

Koen is impressively strong and able to really help Doug (as long as he pays attention to instruction!).

Now the reason the blog post is titled "Weekend Work and Woes" is because of the yucky cold that continues to keep a few of us down.  I was still feeling pretty nasty on Friday and poor Penn was pretty uncomfortable as well, but definitely slightly improved over his Thursday fevers, etc.  Penn and I didn't get outside much during his wake times, but here we are catching a little observation time and sun.

Later in the evening I had him out and threw one of Tav's hats on him to keep him warm as the sun set and the cool Spring evening began.  He was adorable in the hat and pathetic with the snot, so I had to include these pics (sorry about his nose!).

Thankfully everyone had a good night's sleep on Friday night despite all the congestion and coughing heard over the monitors (this is a nasty virus/cold, but Tav and Penn are such troopers!).  In the morning Penn had some great energy even though the cold was definitely still present.  He even cooperated and showed off his newest trick for the camera.  Penn does, "SO BIG!"  Come on, Penn, like Koen...

Up, up, come on, Penn!

Yay!!  So big!

Unlike Penn, Tav seemed to be quite tired on Saturday, but thankfully he was still eager to be outside.  I took all 3 boys for a picnic at the park while Doug had to be away at midday/in the afternoon.  Here are the Melder boys enjoying their playful lunchtime.

I had to take some pictures of Penn as it was great to see him with a little more of his usual energy (and slightly less snot).

We headed home for naptime and this is when the improvements and encouragement kind of came to a quick close (back to the woes of the weekend).  Penn barely slept due to his congestion and coughing.  Poor kid!  Tav did sleep, but when he woke up he was really lethargic and after awhile I discovered that he had a fever of 102!  Here we go again.  Ugh!  (Although I'll take this over the stomach bug any day!).  Tavin was pretty much a wreck until bedtime and Penn was overtired too.  We got through the evening though and even took a wagon walk down the street (sickies in the wagon, big bro pulling the two...so bummed I didn't grab a pic!).  With Tav having a fever so close to church time on Sunday, we were unable to attend today even though he seems much better again.  Hopefully that means he doesn't have an ear infection.  I'm sure everyone at church is pretty happy we didn't bring in the runny noses either!  Check out the next blog post for home church recap. =)

Koen's 6 Year Old Appointment

It still seems so odd that I have a six year old!!  Koen was very cooperative and did a great job hanging out with me and then chatting with his doctor.  When we first got into the room, we passed the time by taking some pictures.  Koen was very specific that I just got his head in these shots since he didn't have his outfit on for his checkup.  Pretty cute that he was all aware and wanted his privacy.  Here's his sweet face (nothing else was allowed in the pic!).

Koen is growing great and checked out totally healthy and thriving.  We are so thankful and blessed.  Here are his stats at age 6: height 46 and 1/4 inches (65th percentile) and weight 44 lbs. (50th percentile).  I'd like to mention here that my eldest son is 72% of my height.  I wonder which year he will pass my 5 ft. 4 in. stature? =)

Littlest Handy Man

Tavin has been loving Bob the Builder and Handy Manny lately.  Not just the shows, but the books and the imaginative play to be just like these fix-it guys.  Now, I attempted to get a few pictures of him with his tools and hard hat, but the poor thing was sick (combo of allergies and a nasty cold) and in every picture he just looked so dilapidated and pathetic, I deleted them all.  Later in the afternoon his handy man toys were still laying around, so I let Penn play with them for a few minutes.  I grabbed my camera again and with this happy, healthy baby it was easy to get some adorable shots.  So, here's Penn, the littlest Handy Man, representing the handy men in training at this house.  

Now what is this for?

Peekaboo!  It's me under here!

This hammer is hilarious!

Oh, and it's yummy too!

Snapshots of Spring

With all the spring flowers in bloom around our neighborhood (and therefore my allergies are flaring up like crazy!), I got just a tad inspired and had to take a few pics of the radiant colors and creations that bring me so much joy to see again after the long, cold winter months.  Here are my favorite three shots from the photo scooter walk with the three boys.

Although I'm miserable with allergies, I'm still so happy to see these beautiful blooms, buds and blossoms!  Hope they brighten your day too.

Quick Koen/Tavin Compare

Today I pulled out a spring jacket and matching warm hat (the chill in the air lingers here in the Burgh) for Tavin to wear.  The second I put him in it I remembered a picture of Koen in the same exact thing.  That of course meant that I would have to share it with all of you.  Here's the picture of Koen in March 2009, that means he's at just before 2 (apparently I totally forgot about this jacket for Tav...should've pulled it out a year ago!).

And here's Tavin at 3 years and 4 months.  

Any similarities that you see?  I do.  You can definitely still see that Koen's just a babe and Tav's a little older.  At the end, they are both pretty cute. =)

Weekend Catchup

It's been a great weekend.  Mostly the ordinary routine, but we love hanging out together so that makes it extraordinary.  Plus, we had a few special extras too.

On Thursday, Doug picked up Koen and his buddy, Mary Boyd, from school and headed over to the CMU Carnival.  We carpool with Mary Boyd and she and Koen have developed quite a sometimes silly, always sweet little friendship.  Carpool moments between these two are absolutely priceless.  I'm jealous Doug got to take in these two for an afternoon.  I'm sure it was hilarious!  Here are a few pics I received via text.

On Friday morning, Doug had another fun outing...a walk before the rain and coldfront with super happy Penn Rye (Tav and I were at "class").

Today, Doug and Koen attended a wedding of a friend of ours.  I wasn't able to find a sitter, so Koen willingly offered to go as Doug's date.  He was so excited to dress up, tie and all.  It was precious.  He and Doug had a great time.  Doug said he was super attentive and sweet during the ceremony and then he played with some other kids during the casual reception (and ate his weight in snacky appetizers apparently).  Here's the handsome duo when they got home.  A serious pic and some silly ones too.

After naptime, Miss Kylie stopped by for a few hours.  The boys are so comfortable with her (well, except for Penn who cries when passed to anyone) and Doug and I love Kylie like a sister, so it was really fun to just have her hanging out while we fed the kids dinner and played before bedtime.  Here's Kylie with Koen and Tav.

One final thing.  We've developed a new game with Penn.  He loves rolling balls.  He just giggles and squeals as he watches it, touches it and attempts to participate. It's so adorable.  Hope it makes you smile!

Well, that's it so far this weekend.  Tomorrow Doug heads to his long work day and the boys and I will be at church and then home for the remainder of the day.  Hopefully it'll be a good finish to a great weekend. =)

Penn's First Wagon Ride

In the 85 degree weather today, we decided to get outside in between lunch and naptime.  Tavin has been a little frustrated with his scooter as of late, so I suggested that he pull his wagon around on this walk.  He was thrilled with the idea and made a job of collecting sticks along the way.  When we got home I put the stroller away and stuck Penn into the wagon just to see how it would work.  Tavin then wanted to get in with him and so I took them on a mini-walk to test it out.  Penn was squealing with excitement and Tavin was just happy being pulled.  Here are the younger brothers!

Penn looks like he's saying, "hmmm, I wonder if I should try that?"

And this one says, "Mom, are you going to stop taking pictures and pull us somewhere?"

Ok, one more smile and then we keep walking!

So fun that we have yet another way to get out and about and enjoy the weather now that Penn can sit up and be sturdy enough for a wagon ride!

Ups & Downs

I think this sums up how Tavin and I feel from day to day as we get used to our new routine (now on week 3 of Speech Therapy, only week 2 of it being 3 times a week).  Sometimes I find it really exciting to watch him improving and stretching himself and then getting so proud of his improvements.  But then there are days like today where it's such an effort to go and I feel like progress is slow and he seems bored or even annoyed with the process.  I have to give Tavin so much credit.  He is quite a sport with working on sounding out his words with better articulation and trying his hardest to imitate the correct pronunciation.  It is very encouraging at times, but then there are other moments where I just feel so frustrated that we are in this situation, that he has to deal with this hiccup in his learning process and I have to bother him with working on this skill that often comes so naturally for little ones.  Well, after Speech Therapy today we headed to meet Aunt Megan, Alex and Andy at the Children's Museum.  It was a nice distraction from our blah and frustrating start with a ho-hum session, but I feel like neither of us were really able to rise above it all the way.  Here's just a few photos of our quick visit to the museum.  He loved creating a design with the light sticks.

He was very curious about the bubble-making see saw, we spent some time looking at the tubes that send the air up into the water, etc.  Very cute to see his engineering interest.

This picture sums up our mood this morning.  'Ok, sure, I'll try my best to have fun, but I'm just not in the mood, Mommy.'  Don't you think his sweet, fair baby face is just so precious?  

So, anyways, that's a brief sum up of our morning with a little info on where we are with Tavin's speech therapy...up and down (both words that he says so well now!).