Sibling Bonds

One of my favorite things about parenting is watching my kids build relationships with each other. For awhile, it seemed like Myles and Ryker might have a bit of a contentious relationship. Without Sydney around to mediate and direct their play, they would kind of compete with each other about everything, which usually ended in a fight. But, as of the last couple of months, they have grown into the greatest of buddies. They can entertain each other for long periods of time; laughing, building blocks, running, kicking balls, dancing, caring for each other - it's so heartwarming to watch.

Here they are playing in Ryker's crib, where they stayed laughing for at least 45 minutes.

On our way into church last Sunday I was holding Ryker when he said, "Walk with Myles." I put him down and he ran up to Myles and grabbed his hand.

And Sydney, she is still the best with both of her brothers. Here, she and Myles are circling things in a toy catalog that they want for Christmas. For the record, they circled pretty much everything.

I love these kiddos!

Preschool Pictures

Little Cuties

Halloween Festivities

We stretched Halloween out over the course of a week this year with lots of fun activities. This was the first year the kids were all excited about Halloween, which made it really fun for us too!

Spooky Streets

The Friday before Halloween, my mom and I took the kids to Streets of Southglenn for Trick-or-Treating at the stores. The kids were so well behaved, which always makes it more fun!

 

We ran into two of Myles' classmates from last year!

Face Painting

The Saturday before Halloween, my parents watched the kiddos while Gilby and I were at the annual Down syndrome fashion show fundraiser we go to. It was fun to get photos like this sent to us while we were there...

  
Pumpkin Carving

The Sunday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins (which mostly meant Gilby and I carved pumpkins while Sydney watched, Ryker ran around the backyard, and Myles nearly stabbed himself and me with the carving knives...accidentally, of course).

School Parties

Halloween morning I took Sydney and Ryker to their preschool for a Halloween parade and classroom parties.

The afternoon of Halloween I was able to go to Myles' school to also watch his school parade and help during his class party. 

 Myles and his good school buddy, Jasper. The two Spideys.

Trick-or-Treating!
We had a great time this year Trick-or-Treating with some neighbors. All of our kids had so much fun, but I was especially proud of Myles. Last year, he was too scared to come out with us, and this year it seemed like he was going to choose to stay home again. But, on Halloween day he was so excited to meet our neighbor friends that he didn't seem scared at all. He did great for the first hour, had a series of meltdowns for about 10 minutes after he got tired, but was able to pull it together again for the rest of the time.

Trick-or Treat Street
The day after Halloween we had our last event (whew!), and went to a Halloween party put on by Arapahoe High School students for Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Association. Each group of high school students chose a theme, decorated a classroom, and made up a game or activity for the kids to do. They had a Santa's workshop room, 50's room, superhero room, zoo room, Monsters Inc. room, under the sea room, etc. I was impressed with all of the work they put into it and how enthusiastic the students were to interact with our kids.

Happy Halloween!

Ryker's BirthDAY!

Ryker's birthday landed on a Thursday, which happens to be one of our busiest days as a family, but we were still able to celebrate our newly turned 2-year-old.

Ryker woke up to balloons in his room, and since our kids absolutely love balloons, he pretty much thought this was the best. 

We had been asking Ryker what he wanted for his birthday dinner, and Sydney coaxed him into choosing pizza, but on his own he said, "french fries!" Homemade baked potato french fries are a staple in our house, so Gilby had the idea to make the french fries as a crust with pizza toppings on top. So yummy!  After dinner, he opened presents (with lots of help from his siblings) and we had cake and ice cream.

The birthday celebration continued on Sunday when we had brunch at Grandma and Grandpa's, more presents, and apple pie!
 

Happy birthday sweet boy!

Sydney's Babies

Sydney is almost always playing pretend these days, sometimes with her brothers, but often by herself too. Usually she's either a teacher or a mom, and typically assigns us names and roles as well. On this particular day, she came up to me and simply stated, "I had six babies in my tummy, but this is the first one that growed and came out, so now I have five." That girl, too funny.