Little Drummer Boys

     Trying to look for fun and creative ways for JT and his friends to play during the day, we brought out an old favorite this week- kitchen drums. It's been around for ages and more typically uses pots and pans for the drums, but I like to use plastic storage containers. Even though they are still quite noisy, they are quieter than metal pans and I have tons of containers for the boys to share. All we needed was 4 wooden spoons and a handful of containers and it provided lots of fun!

 Rocking out some tunes!

 JT performing his solo

 Finn getting groovy

 The wooden spoon also provided relief for Finn who is cutting his 2 year molars :)

The debut of the Terrific Two Year Olds!!!

Car Surfing

     Somehow we managed to hold on to several large Barbie cars from when the girls were younger. JT has had a great time playing with these "big cars" and driving them all over the house for several months. Typically he will put all of his small cars into the Barbie cars and then push them around. A few days ago, JT discovered a new use for the cars- surfing!

 Car surfing provided a great opportunity to practice balancing....

 Even a trick or two by twisting and little jumps...

My favorite move--Ta Da!!!

First College Bowling Tournament

     This past weekend, I made my first trip to Campbellsville University to visit Sarah! Sarah has been at college a little over a month, so it was wonderful to see her in person! Courtney was my little travel companion for this trip. JT isn't quite old enough for up/down trips as well as sitting in a non toddler zone (bowling lanes) for several hours- so John stayed at home with him.

     Part of my reason for going to visit was this was the Lady Tigers first bowling tournament for the season- Sarah's first college tournament! Since the team will be travelling over much of the nearby states in the next several months, and this tournament was at "home", it was the perfect opportunity to go cheer on Sarah and her fellow teammates.

 Sarah was so sweet to make a welcome sign in her dorm room

 Courtney enjoying Sarah's accommodations

 Getting ready for the game

 Back of her jersey. Go Tigers!!!

 Hair pulled back, uniform on, Sarah is ready for her long day of bowling!

 Sarah has quickly made some wonderful friends on the team. Kaylee who is from NY, and Katlin who is from Louisville.

 Some of Sarah's "non bowling" friends came to show support! Here with Lacey sporting an inside joke poster :)

 Jessica, another bowling team mate.

 All of the Lady Tigers warming up and stretching before the games begin.

     When I mentioned earlier about it being a long day, I was NOT joking! Before college, Sarah's meets in high school consisted of playing against 1 other school at a time and 2 teams of four who played 3 individual games. It took usually 2-3 hours most days. Now in college each tournament will have several schools represented (this weekend the women had 10 teams total) and they compete in 2 different ways. First is there are groups of 5 and they each play 4 individual games. This is how the individual winner is determined of overall score aka series score. Then there is a brief break, 15 or so minutes, then the Baker games start. What is a Baker game you ask? Something I had to become familiar with myself this weekend. A Baker style game is where a team of girls collectively bowl 1 complete game. Not sure if Baker team size vary, but for this weekend they were teams of 5. Each individual was assigned 2 frames to bowl, Sarah had frames 1 and 6, and they go head to head against each of the teams. For the Baker style games they played 16 games...Yes that is correct SIXTEEN!!! A very fun way to bowl, but wow it was a long night!!! The ladies started bowling at 4pm(after the men were finished) and they bowled until 11:15.

     Sarah performed quite well for it being her first college tournament. In addition to being coached the past several weeks on perfecting her approach, motion,etc Sarah had just received her new ball on Thursday ( 2 days prior). This ball is about 3-4 pounds heavier than what she has been using and it is a fingertip grip. The fingertip grip is where just your tips(slightly below the first joint) insert instead of the entire fingers like most balls us novices use. In the end, she will have more success but considering all of the changes she has worked on SARAH ROCKED!!!

     I don't have any photos of Sarah bowling, because you shouldn't use flash photography while they are bowling and the lanes were so dim that my non flash photos where blurry or too dark. I did whip out the flash camera for one shot though... Sarah's high score personal game...

Sarah's high score for the day- 185!!! Overall she performed better than she did when in high school, so I think Sarah will only continue to improve. Very exciting to watch as a parent.

Here is the entire Lady Tigers team. I borrowed the photo from the official bowling website :)

Didn't want to forget to mention that the Lady Tigers won the overall tournament and the #1 bowler was from Sarah's team! Way to go Sarah and the Lady Tigers!!!

Spider Man

     For some time now, JT has known about Spider Man. How, I have NO idea! We have never seen a show, cartoon, book, anything except a few items it the store. He does have a pair of Spider Man sandals that he insisted on getting when selecting summer shoes. I guess the Spider Man image is very easy to recognize/remember at a young age. When JT sees a Spider Man item he will shout "Pider Man, Pider Man!!!"

     When at the store recently, John found a toddler Spider Man costume and JT was excited. Thinking maybe this is what JT could dress up for Halloween, John tried on the Spider Man mask on JT.

 Adorable Spider Man! Ready to fight injustice!

     We bought the costume, right? NO! A few seconds after I took the photo above this is what happened.....

JT wan't a fan of the mask and his Mommy had to snap a picture of his misery before taking it off.

     I think we might need to try and find a costume without any masks, hats, or things to wear on the face this year......

Choo Choo

     JT has discovered a new toy that he is enjoying- Trains! He recently got his first train track, Thomas train, and a few cargo cars. JT will play for quite a long time with his track set and Thomas has been making many trips during the day around the house and on errands in the car. It's cute to hear JT exclaim "Pom-ass!" when he wants to play or is looking for his Thomas train.

 Waiting patiently for Daddy and Lindsay to set up his track.

 Up the steep hill and curve!

 Cargo train cars have hay and fireworks that can come in/out of their containers.

 Love how intent his face is focusing on his train

Choo Choo!!!

Bedtime Songs

     One of my favorite parts of being JT's Mommy is doing his bedtime routine. I enjoy it because we get to spend a little bit of time cuddling, reading books, talking about the days events, and singing songs. Most every night I get to reflect on this sweet blessing God graced us with and how quickly he is growing. *Side note- I do reflect upon the girls as well, but I don't sing songs and read books on my lap every night :)

     The songs are the nightcap to our routine. They usually now take place while JT is laying in his bed and I'm getting him all cozy with blankets, taggies, and maybe a car or 2 to hold. Since I'm trying to work with JT's speech development I try to do something that will help him form his words or sounds. For a while now, we have been working on the ABC's. I discovered that singing the song like we all usually do wasn't very helpful. JT could pick up on the rhythm but the letters ended up getting all jumbled together. So instead we slowly say them to help with his sounds and learn the progression of the alphabet. He is doing quite well and many times if I say" B", JT will follow by saying "C". While this recording doesn't show his true ability to it's finest(Mr  Ham acts silly when I record) I just love hearing all the toddler ways of saying his letters.

     This next video is of the "Night Night" song I sing to JT every evening.It's a little song that I made up sung to the tune, Frere Jaques/Are You Sleeping. I have been singing this since JT moved into his own room/crib when he was about 4 months old. JT will now sing along with me or finish a line when I stop singing. So precious to this Mom. I hope you enjoy it.

Noises

     Last night while JT and I were cuddling (Yay for that!) before bedtime he wanted to look at the pictures and videos on my phone. He just loves looking at the photos, mainly of himself, and will sit for quite a while. In the middle of looking at the photos, JT started making this weird noise with his mouth. It was so random and he just made the noise while continuing to look at the pictures like nothing else was going on. Courtney was able to record JT in action.

In this video, his face is blocked a bit by my phone, but you can hear the noise.

Here you can see his face and what he's doing. For those of you who knew my Grandfather, this noise made me think of him. It would have been something he would have done to get a smile from his grandchildren.

King of Rock

      As JT is getting older, we are finding he is starting to enjoy more and more mainstream music. He particularly likes songs with a strong beat, upbeat/peppy, and what I would describe as heavy base sounds. This type of song makes it easy for his little body to move :)

     A few days ago, JT found that he loves many Elvis songs and he couldn't help but shake and move. His dance skills at this point are about as good, actually probably better than his parents, but since he is adorable and young looks absolutely precious. Enjoy!

Redesigned Rooms

     Since Sarah left for college, that meant there were some changes in the bedroom assignments. Lindsay and Courtney have been sharing a room since moving here at the beginning of the year. They both anticipated having their own space since then, even though they didn't have any issues when they shared.

     John and I decided to have Courtney move into Sarah's room and Lindsay remained in her current room. They have been loving spreading out their stuff in their new spaces. Rest assured Sarah is still welcomed here anytime! While she might not have a designated bedroom, she will be able to either share with Courtney or Lindsay during breaks and visits- all part of being a large family :)

     Over Labor Day weekend, we decided it would be a great time to paint each of the bedrooms to the girl's taste. Courtney had a clear vision in her mind for some time- pink, black, and damask. Lindsay needed a bit of inspiration and browsing before she came up with her plan. Their rooms are a bit of in the progress still, but the majority of the work is done. A few more artwork/photos need to be hung and ideally we'd love to get Lindsay a queen size bed within a few months because Miss Long Legs is often hanging her feet over the edge of the bed.

     Here are a few photos giving a taste of what the finished product will look like. Hope to take some more photos by the end of the week once we have everything hung up. I'll then create a new post showing their rooms as a whole.

 Courtney's paint job required quite a bit more work. We had to put a tinted primer over Sarah's grayish purple that was on the walls.

 Damask! We were so excited to find this large stencil at a local craft store.

 Courtney painted the entire Damask wall.

 Preview of the finished product. Big impact!

     Lindsay's room was a breeze to paint. First she selected a new comforter that served as her inspiration for her paint colors and how she wanted the room to look. I didn't take any photos of the base color, but it is a middle shade of gray.

 Lindsay also chose a large stencil to use in her room. She chose 2 vibrant colors of blue and lime green to color them in with.

 Lindsay working her stencil magic.

Preview of Lindsay's stencil. She chose a different way of incorporating her stencil into her room that we will reveal later this week.

Empty Cones

Trying to catch up on the blogging world this week!

When JT gets hungry he will now go to the pantry and say Eat, Snack! Quickly followed by a Please at my insistence- got to help shape his manners :) One day, JT noticed the box of ice cream cones in the pantry. He exclaimed Eye Creeem!!! I explained that we didn't have ice cream (not would he get any since it was only 10 am), but would he like to have a cone? "Yeah!" was JT's excited response. Since Finn was here for the day, I asked if he would like one and he replied yes. Thinking the boys would just take a bite or two, I gave them their cones and snapped some pictures of them eating their empty cones.

 Much to my surprise, they loved eating them!

 Finn was being quite cheesy this morning...

They were so cute sitting on the window sill and eating their snack- gearing up for more play time!

Linus

     Linus. One word or name. For most, it should pop up an image from the Peanuts cartoon of a little boy who drags around his beloved blue blanket everywhere. It represents security and love to him and Linus happily carries his blanket anywhere he goes.

     While we don't have a full fledged Linus in our house, JT has taken to loving blankets within the past month. Never mind it's the middle of summer or the fact that JT usually is so sweaty when he cuddles up with his blanket. No, make no mention of it! Our boy is happy being swaddled up in his blanket.

      The blanket he has taken the greatest attachment to is this soft green Christmas blanket that is actually Lindsay's. One night JT grabbed it off of her bed and ever since then, it's "mine". Lindsay is so sweet to let JT use her blanket. Here he is playing in a little tote wrapped up in softness.

I love this shot- he looks so comfy and relaxed on the couch. I'm hoping his love for blankets and being all cozy will stick around through the cold winter months when it will be needed :)