superheros and knights in shining armor

My house has been filed with Superheroes lately.

 Mostly just one superhero, but he changes his identity from Superman to Batman to Green Lantern to Captain Awesome to Hercules so frequently that it seems like they are all here.  He does usually get a few more friends to tag along to be Super Mom or Super Baby.

 Let me just be clear.  Gus has never seen any TV shows staring super heroes.  He has seen a few in books, but mostly just pictures.  Nana watched some of a documentary about comic books with him, but again he just saw very brief clips of these characters.  Apparently, it made a strong impression.  She did also buy him three t-shirts that he basically insists on wearing every day or there are tears if I make him pick something else (Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern).  He has already requested that I make him a Hercules costume "out of thread."  If you aren't familiar (because you haven't been around Gus in the last year) Gus is very obsessed with the Disney movie Hercules.  When his Dad recently pinned a blue hankerchief on his back he was beyond ecstatic because now he looked "just like Hercules."  Apparently, all the time he had spent wearing a black one as Hercules was not nearly good enough.  I guess a Hercules Halloween costume might have to be in the works.  

 Did you know Batman can make banana bread?  Well, he can.

Also, did you know a baby can easily become a superhero by turning her bib around to become a cape?

Well, she can.

Knights with swords are just as popular.

Basically, if you have a sword Gus loves you... even if you are the bad guy.

He was in heaven playing with Declan at Aunt Emmy's house once the two of them discovered the knight costumes.

 Randi has become his favorite babysitter thanks to this get-up she has at her house...

 Margaret and Jojo came over one morning to play and were disappointed by the assortment of dress-up available in the boy's room.  They found princess crowns, but I kindly looked through my personal dress-up clothes and pulled out some lovely "princess dresses" for them.  Margaret kept shouting, "We are going to be so beautiful!!!"  I thought she might explode.  They were overjoyed to have Gus as their knight.  He proudly protected them from the evil witch (me) and other beasts (Nora).  

They did drag Gus into a few tea parties.  He is acting all cool and bored, but he loved it...

 Note the sword in the back of the shirt below.  This is where it frequently lives for easy access throughout the day.

 

My hero.

erin and gene

Our slew of visitors back in February wouldn't be complete without a visit from Aunt Erin.  

This time she brought Gene along.

As usual he is a popular guy.

Aunt Erin offered to take the kids bowling and Jimmy was super excited since he had never been before.

Gus had never been either and probably for good reason.  He thought it was super fun, but even with the bumpers his balls either didn't make it down the lane or the needed an extra push from Dad or Mom. At least two balls needed to be retrieved by the staff and then we just started sending other balls down the lane to push Gus' stuck balls.  He still thought it was all awesome.

Jimmy was proud that he got the highest score of the kids in his first game ever.

We thought it was fun and all had a great time, but we could have done without the constant view of music videos from Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and One Direction.

Erin and Gene are always fun to have around and go on adventures with.

They are also good sports about having to be Hercules in pictures...

We are also happy to announce that since this visit Gene proposed to Erin.
Looks like the kids will have a new uncle sometime this summer!

bianco's with taylors

Our dear cousins Jess and Ryan from Wisconsin came to visit in February.  Ryan had a work conference here so Jess tagged along since she loves us and loves Phoenix.  #1 on the priority list was to revisit Pizzeria Bianco as we had the last time they came.  As usual, it didn't disappoint.  We got five pizzas since there were five of us if you count Nora (which I do since she stole lots of crust).  There were no leftovers.

We got to go hang out at the resort they were staying at and go swimming.  They loved the unseasonably warm weather and were not looking forward to going back to the snow.  We loved getting to see them and hope next time they bring the kiddos along so all our kids can play.   We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our family.

valentine's day 2014

Valentine's Day always sneaks up on me.  Somehow I decided that volunteering to be the parent in charge of Jimmy's class party was a good idea since I am usually not so busy around that time of year.  Wrong.  It just so happens that all the resident faculty in the theatre department at my school went to their annual theatre festival and needed me to sub all week.  Bad timing, but I survived. We did manage to get Jimmy's Valentine's for his classmates made early so at least we weren't scrambling to get those done the night before. 

  Sorry to everyone else we love that we would have sent Valentines to if we had time and were more on top of things.  You know we love you though so I don't really care. I promise that we think UR Dino-Mite!

 Valentine's morning the boys were excited to wake up a little early and open the cards they got from grandparents and see what little treats they got in their mailboxes.

 So the party ended up being a success, but only thanks to all the other great moms who helped.

Randi made this cute photo booth...

Then we had a dance party where I attempted to teach the kids the YMCA and Hokey Pokey

Nana sent Nora the cutest little dress as a present so we had to dress her up in it and take pictures.

 There is lots of love in this family...

watching mater

Gus gets to choose a cartoon to watch post-nap if he actually sleeps.  It is usually one of Mater's Tall Tales.

I decided to just take pictures of how happy his face is when he watches these.  

He is just too cute for words.

nora around seven months

Here is my attempt at keeping track of Nora's milestones.  I am keeping a baby book, but those are always slow going for me so writing things on here is always a good reference for me.  I always end up going into the baby book and being like, "When did that happen?"... and then a just write something down.  I am just proud I have completed books for both my boys and Nora's is in the process already. So here is what Nora was doing in January and February... 

 Crawling everywhere faster then we can keep track of and getting herself into tricky places...

Exploring food...

 

Loving her bath time...

 Spending lots of time in her swing outside while we all enjoy the beautiful (and unseasonably warm) weather...

Making us all laugh...

We still think everything she does is adorable expect for that stint where she would wake up numerous times every night and only be happy if we walked her around for awhile.  Thank goodness that passed.  She is a little more opinionated these days and also gets a little more upset when Mom leaves the room.  She is still a joy and we forget what life was like without her.