Grandpa Bakken's 90th Birthday Bash

We went out to Seattle this weekend for Dan's Grandpa's 90th birthday party. We always have such a blast when we go out to visit, and this was no exception.

Jack was helping with the cleaning.

Patrick didn't help so much, but he did enjoy playing with Jesse.

Dan helped out with the meat. Look at that stack of ribs!

And I helped Becky out with the appetizers.

This guy just napped. What a lazy baby.

He had his 2 month checkup last week. He weighed in at 14 lbs 1 oz and measured 24.5 inches, putting him in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. I couldn't believe he gained 2 lbs in just 3 weeks. He far outweighs Jack and even Patrick at this age. What a chunk!

And here's my new copper pots (garage sale find!) hanging up on the wall Julia Child-style.

Fair Time

Stale old ice cream cones were a hit for snack time this week. Now whenever Jack wakes from his nap he asks for "pinecones" for snack.

Jack thought he needed a bit of Vicks on his nose.

We went to the fair this afternoon. The chickens were the most popular with the boys.

That is until they saw the farm equipment...

Birthday Bash

Well, he did it again. Jack has completed his third trip around the sun and we thought we'd celebrate.

After blowing out one candle he exclaimed "I did it!" We encouraged him to keep trying and after several unsuccessful attempts Jack cheerfully chirped "I'm doing a good job!"

Between the Toebbens, Jones and us, there were 8 boys and 1 girl aged four and under. Poor Abbey :-)

Enjoying his birthday loot: cuddling with his weed whacker while watching Peter Pan.

And I finally finished Isaiah's baby blanket. Let me just say - there's a reason why most people crochet baby blankets. Knitting something this big is really slow-going. Isaiah sure grew a lot faster than his blanket did. I think he's shaping up to be our chubbiest boy yet. And our best sleeper. I know I've mentioned it already, but I'm still ecstatic. This boy is already sleeping through the night, where has the time flown?!

What we do in Idaho

But first a little update about this guy. Isaiah now weighs 12 lbs and is an absolute doll. I thank the Lord every day for this little one and for what a good baby he is! He loves to sleep, and what more can you want from such a little guy? It's his way of helping out around the house. And when he's not sleeping he's pretty content to watch his brothers and smile.

Last Sunday we took the boys to see the bears at Washington State University's veterinary school. "Rawr!"

And just today Trinity had its annual fall bbq. Instead of three-legged-races and sprinting with eggs on spoons like they do in more civilized corners of the nation, we cabor toss and have cow milking contests. The video is a clip from the cabor toss contest.

Just for fun

I thought it would be fun to compare pictures of Isaiah (who is 5 weeks) to Jack and Patrick at that age. When Isaiah was first born I thought we had another little Jack. And while he certainly does look more like Jack than Patrick, he is definitely getting his own look. His eyes look especially different to me.

Jack at 6 weeks.

And our little blondie... Patrick

And for one more comparison - here is a before and after shot of our house. So far we've removed all the rocks and mulch from the front yard, grown grass from seed and removed the tree. It's not a true "after" shot since we have new windows coming this fall, a new tree and shrubs to plant. Next summer we want to install new garage doors and paint the house.

4 weeks

This little guy is going to be a month old tomorrow! He's such an easy little guy and is very content to sit in his bouncy chair and watch all the events around him. It won't be too long before he's running around with his crazy brothers. He's already rolled from front to back (he had his arm stuck under him... but at just 3 days old, that's still pretty impressive) and he ooches all over the place. Just the other day he ooched his way off our bed right onto the floor. Looks like I probably have another early walker on my hands.

Patrick takes his dinner very seriously. Actually, he doesn't. But it sure looks like he does here.

I try really hard to get good pics of the boys together, and this is what I get.

It has been very crazy around here since Isaiah came along. I say this as Monkey #1 is hanging around my neck. Both boys have had the flu and colds here (Isaiah got in on that one too.) We're healthy here, except for the baby. But Jack's dropped his nap and Patrick's not sleeping well at night. And Patrick seems to have the baby blues too. So uhm... yeah... this is what results....

Fun times with Grandma, Grandpa and Gracie

My parents and Gracie came our for a week-long visit last week. We had a wonderful time hanging out and even went boating up in Coeur d'alene with them.

The boys warmed up to them immediately, even though they hadn't seen them since January. Thank goodness for Skype!

Isaiah is a bit more aware of his surroundings now.

I'm trying to wean the boys of this activity. Needless to say, when there are three crying boys, one of whom needs to be nursed, the cartoons are turned on.

This is supposed to be fun?

Thanks to Gracie for the pictures!