Our new baby boy!

Announcing:
Lucas
January 27, 2010

photos by Ana Hopkins

www.anahopkinsphotography.com

Catching up with the Batsons!

Happy Birthday Eric!

Near the beginning of November we unexpectedly took a trip to Idaho for Kendall's grandather's funeral. It just so happens that the perfect stopping point is the Nampa/Caldwell neighborhood. My parents live there as well as Kendall's sister and her family.

Since it was just a couple of days before Eric's 12th birthday, we took the opportunity to celebrate with lots of family that we don't get to see very often. I baked a cake at my folks' house, then we took it over to Kendall's sister's home and shared it with her family, Kendall's parents and his older sister as well. Eric was in disbelief that I could have made a cake without his knowing about it. He even asked me just a couple of days ago how I did it. :) Giggle! We sang and ate chocolate cake. And had cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents there to celebrate with him. Fun times!

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving here at home. We did a semi-real Thanksgiving dinner. The main things that Kendall wanted were a pumpkin pie, and a berry pie. I knew 2 pies would be a bit much for our little family, but I went with it. We found some gorgeous blackberries at Costco and I did my best. I think out of all we ate that day the blackberry pie was my favorite! Kendall loved it too! I had to take a picture to prove I did it and, of course, Eli insisted on being in the picture! The pie was a nice accomplishment, but not nearly as wonderful as having Eli in my life!

Speaking of Eli, he is really developing his creative side. He is extrememly interested in things from my bathroom and for some reason they're even more exciting when mixed with his toys. This is one of his "sculptures" that I found one day. Bummer that I didn't have a good setting on the camera, it's kind of dark, but I had to include it anyway. He was really proud of it.

Just cute Noah. He was a little tired, obviously, but still so cute and sweet!


Just a fun day in the tub...Doesn't it look like Eli is about to do something devious? And somehow, Noah is the one laughing his head off!

A couple of goofy Noah pics...

Finally Christmas time! We set up our tree which, thankfully, is prelit. We didn't even put any ornaments on it because the little guys wouldn't leave it alone. It was so abused throughout the season, I can hardly believe it was still standing through Christmas!

Sphinx

Time to brag just a little bit about our oldest son! He had an assignment for school to do an Egypt project. The kids could choose what they wanted to do it on. He chose the Sphinx. He had to do a model, a paper and a presentation. This is probably the most involved project he has ever done. I have to say, it was awesome! Even his teacher and other staff members at his school were amazed. Just so you know, Eric did his own research. He looked at pictures on the web and drew them free-hand on paper to decide how he wanted his sphinx to look. I took him to the craft store and we found some great Crayola molding clay that would harden on its own, and some paint to finish the details. Eric was a little nervous about starting, but I just told him to jump right in. Okay, this is coming from a very un-artistic person. I knew he could draw pretty well, but could he sculpt? Oh yeah! When Kendall got home he was really impressed with Eric's progress. He helped Eric with a bit of the detailing, but Eric did most himself and had so much fun too! He did all the painting himself too!
Way to Go Eric! We love you and are so proud of you!
(Please stay tuned for other exciting blogs about Eric and our other amazing boys!)

Mud bath!

Today I took the little boys with me to Eric's soccer game. Kendall had to work, so I was trying to be supportive and actually watch some of the game rather than just drop Eric off and pick him up at the end. Since, my 2 little guys typically run in opposite directions and I'm getting fatter by the day, I didn't think this would be the most fun idea. Well, Eli found a mud puddle. I guess this was a good thing, because he stayed in one spot for 1/2 hour. However, the clothes and the kid were completly muddified! He rode home naked!

It's July, so I'll add a post!

Okay, let's not be too shocked. I have been a little preoccupied lately. Busy? Not really, just stressed and obsessing about certain things.

#1 We are expecting a new baby! This isn't news to many of you by now, but it is something that's been occupying much of my conciousness. I'm about 12 weeks along at this point. Here's the ultrasound pic from last week. The really exciting part is that the doc said I was further along than we had thought! Wahoo! He bumped up the due date by 11 days to Feb 2nd! That is definately good news. However, we all know that I'll never go that far. This kid will be born sometime in January.

#2 We took a trip to Yellowstone and Utah and back through Idaho to home. We camped and froze, but still had fun. We visited friends and family in Utah and got sunburned and had some more fun. Regretable I have misplaced (on my dad's computer) all of my vacation pictures. I'll get them back someday, but for now you all will miss out on seeing the really huge bison that we saw next to our car!

#3 I've been sewing! This is monumental for sure. I told Ana I would make her a Mei Tai (asian style baby carrier) for her baby. Well, the baby was born and I hadn't even started the project. I had the fabric, but I was a bit intimidated as I had never made one before. And, of course, it has to be perfect! Since I'm cheap, I will not "buy" a pattern. I looked up pattern instuctions on the web and found a few that I worked from. Now, if you know me, you also know that I am not so good at vague instructions. I need specific details, a very outlined pattern. These different sets of instructions had different methods and styles and ways of finishing off the carrier. I spent a lot (a very lot) of time trying to wrap my head around this project. Of course it shouldnt' be this difficult, but for me it is. The end result is that I finished it today and delivered it to Ana. Isabella is now 4 weeks old (tomorrow) and just about big enough to start riding around in this cool thing, so I guess I didn't do too badly. I'm just thrilled with how it turned out and I can't wait to make another one for me. Yes, I already have one, but I need one for home and one for the car, duh!

Thanks to Eli for loaning me his bear, albeit reluctantly, so I could model the Mei Tai!

Just a couple of shots from today. When Kendall works in the evening I often take the boys out to a park to play and burn off some of that last energy of the day. They were being way too cute. Eli was doing his usual of searching out for bugs, then screaming when he found them. Noah is ultra confident on these play structures, he climbs all the ladders and everything. He was hanging from the bar today and swinging and saying "Weeeeeeee!" These are the moments that help me get through the screaming fits and tantrums from 2 little kids!

Haircuts today...Honey, forgive me!

So our warm weather has finally arrived and Eric
has gotten to the point where he was just sure he would die of heat from his hair! I'm a big fan of short hair on him, but he likes to keep it kind of floppy. Today he said he wanted a buzz cut. So, I took him in.

Before:

After:

He said he felt lighter and he was so excited to be able to feel his scalp!

So we got home and I started thinking about how much easier it would be to take care of Eli if we took the clippers to his hair too. Here's the result
Before: (This pic was a couple of weeks ago, but the just recent post also shows how long and thick his hair was.)

After:

Wow! What a difference? Is it just me or can you actually SEE Eli now? Man he's gorgeous!

The rest are just a few shots of the kids today. Yeah, they're usually all over each other, or all over me!

Eric and I went to drive the Bumper Boats today. It's a bit of a rip off, 7 bucks per person for about 10 minutes, but hey, we had a good time. Then we went inside and each one a game of air hocky, played some dancing game and really blew it at Guitar Hero. After that we did a little shopping and got his hair cut. It was some needed me and him hanging out time. I love you Eric!

Just the boys...

We had chocolate cake today. That will explain all of the messy mouths. But is there anything cuter than this look? I keep getting the feeling that my baby isn't a baby anymore. He is talking like crazy and his personality is developing so fast. He does something new every day! In fact, He climbed out of his crib today for the first time. He did it so effortlessly, it looked like he'd been doing that for months! What ever shall I do? I'm not ready to train him to stay in a regular bed! Uggggg!


A little bit of a forced smile on Eric, but you get the picture. He's an awesome kid and he's growing up so fast.


Typical Eli, I'm not really sure what else to say here. We were all really tired by the end of the day today!

Just a little dazed and confused, either that or trying to hypnotize Eli. Yeah, that could be it.

This was a happy scream, really it was! No one can say our kids aren't enthusiastic!

Grandpa Stark with Eli. In fact, Eli has taken to calling him Grandpa Stark all day every day! They've been doing some intense grandpa/grandson bonding.