11 Months!

I have to admit that I have been putting off this post because I simply cannot believe my boys are almost a year old. I'm not ready for them to be a year old, at all. At 11 months the fun keeps rolling in. I have no idea what the boys weigh, the boys haven't been at the doctor at all since their last well child exam. Everett is into EVERYTHING. For instance, we never had to worry about the toilet or bathroom with Sofia. We now have to keep the bathroom doors shut and I plan to buy a toilet lock soon. I caught Everett lifting the lid this morning and about to put his hand in, when I said his name he practically jumped out of his skin. He is getting better at taking steps with his walker but prefers to climb up to his sister's rocking chair at her art table and push it around to walk. You can imagine how much Sofia likes this ;) He is also a speed crawler, especially when Frodo is around, Daddy comes home, there is an open door, or food hits the floor. Everett loves testing how things work. He will frequently take different objects and watch how they roll down an inclined surface. He can spend 15 minutes doing this. He also plays fetch with himself or Frodo. This month I think he officially became Frodo's favorite. Frodo frequently drops toys at Everett's feet. Everett is still waking up at night because he's always hungry. He eats almost two extra bottles per day lately. His hair has grown faster and longer than any of my babies. It's long and curly in the back, I think it's gorgeous. Sofia loves brushing his hair. Everett is a very happy baby, actually both boys are almost always happy. I thought Sofia was laid back and happy but they take it to the next level. They spend a lot of time playing together but also play independently.

Sullivan is also much more mobile but hasn't really started taking steps while pushing things yet. Sully is definitely the best eater out of the two when it comes to solids. He chows down at every meal and picks everything up with his pincer grasp. He isn't nearly as messy as Everett when he eats and almost never chokes. This month we found a new favorite food for Sully as he inhaled two containers of farm fresh strawberries that Grandma Rainey brought over from Baraboo. He has always been our very unique guy. Sully spend a lot of time in various yoga poses, his favorite is downward dog. Sofia has started copying him when he does it and it always leads to a lot of laughing and silliness. Sully has also started "singing" when other people sing. He has this cute little singing voice and he will just sing along as long as someone else is singing. He also loves to clap and looks for any opportunity to wave at people. We were at the zoo this week and when we ride the train we always wave at people along the way. All of a sudden we noticed Sully waving at people from the train, normally he just watches the surroundings. Everett spent most of his train ride squealing with joy because I let him sit on the seat by himself and hold his head up to look out of our train car. Sully is such a laid back little guy.

This post is very late because we have been out enjoying a marvelous Wisconsin summer. I have also been busy snuggling and playing with my baby boys who have less than a month left as "babies". I remember how nervous Tim and I were when we found out about our boys but I can honestly say I can't imagine life without them and they are both such important members of our family. Yes, it's been a lot of work having three kids 16 months apart from one another but I feel like we are through the toughest phase. It's amazing how close they are with their sister already. I am so thankful that God chose to put these two little boys in our family.

11 months old!

My little charmers

Father's Day

We had an awesome Father's Day and weekend. I forgot my camera for absolutely every event so these are all cell phone pictures! As soon as Tim got home from work on Friday night we packed the kids up for the first Summer Sounds Show in Cedarburg. There was a concert at the shell in Port too but it was blues and we were more interested in the artist at Summer Sounds. We were huge fans of the Levitt Shell in Memphis so we were excited to take all three kids to a concert here. The last show we had taken them all to was last summer in Devil's Lake. Anyways, it was awesome. The venue was much different, it was a large park surrounded by rivers and two playground. Tim and I were stunned to see how big the crowd was, it's hard to guess but we think there were between 1500 and 2000 people there. We set up our blanket and chairs and just relaxed, well, we relaxed as much as you can with a two year old and two speed crawling 11 month olds. We even ran into some old friends from college.

Sofia happy as can be in her chair between Tim and I.

In typical Wisconsin fashion the boys are searching for drinks in the cooler.

I tried to go to bed early because my first triathlon of the season was Saturday but Everett had other plans. I had to pick up one of my teammates at 3:40am so we would all be on the road by 4am for the race. I was so completely exhausted until I got in the car with the girls and we were all so pumped for the race that I just forgot how tired I was. The triathlon club that I'm in decided to have us all compete as relays for the first big triathlon of the year. I think this was a great idea for our team to warm up for the season. The Ozaukee Club had about 35 members at the race. My friend Deidre swam, I biked, and Liz ran. The bike portion was 22 miles and although it was a very windy day I felt like I had a great race. I beat my goal time by 28 minutes and was averaging 19/20 mph for most of the race which I felt good about considering the wind and the two hours of sleep I had the night before. My sweet hubby stayed home with the kids, this race was too far away for the kids to come and cheer. I had so much fun competing and hanging with the team. I can't wait for my next event. Unfortunately it isn't until August. All of the triathlons that I really wanted to do this year fell on the same day as the three weddings we are attending in June and July.

Before the race, pumped and ready to race!

After the race!

Father's Day was great. Tim got to pick out a brand new pair of fancy dress shoes. He is VERY excited about his new shoes, he has had crappy dress shoes for the past 5 years since we were students. It's nice for him to finally have a nice pair of shoes. We went to church with my family and then made a big brunch at our house. We spent the afternoon at Harrington Beach with the kids, my sister, and my parents. Then we grilled out and watched the kids swim in our kiddie pool at home. It was a great Father's Day! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is also an amazing father. Tim is such a selfless guy when it comes to being a parent. I am so thankful for such an awesome partner in this crazy journey of raising three kids born within 16 months of each other. Tim makes this journey so much more fun, he is willing to do any crazy adventure I come up with and is always ready (well, not quite ready but willing :)) to get up with Everett in the middle of the night when I'm just not up for it. I could go on and on but some things are just meant to be kept in our family.

My Dad and I with the boys, I think they are getting ready to chicken fight.

Ev & his Daddy

Everett James

Everett and his Grandpa

More videos :)

I still don't have the boys' 11 month post ready. And I have another big post coming your way, some MAJOR changes are coming to the Ruder household that I am very excited to share. But for now I'll leave you with two sweet videos from tonight. Youtube asked me if I wanted the shakiness corrected and I said yes, but the way they corrected it makes it look worse. Sorry about the fuzziness. I LOVE my kids and hearing them laugh.

Frodo and Everett are best buds. I think Everett is Frodo's favorite out of the three, although he is very protective of Sofia.

I promise, Sully was not harmed in the making of this video. These guys are constantly wrestling and rough housing, I can't imagine what my house will look like in 5 or 10 years.

Video update

I don't have the energy to write, Tim and I are still recovering from a VERY fun wedding this past weekend in Holland, MI. My first race is in 5 days so I've been waking up very early to put some miles in on my bike so I don't let my teammates down :) So, here are some random videos from the past week or so. I will be doing a formal update pretty soon as my boys are turning 11 months old tomorrow. I could cry!

Here is a video from our most recent hike at Lion's Den. We took a break half way through the hike to hang out by the lake and let Frodo go for a swim.

This video is during our hike. Little Miss Sofia is a bit like her dog Frodo and prefers to lead the group.

This is from two weeks ago. Everett was feeling awful all day and spent the entire day in my arms or in the Ergo. Finally I decided to bring the swing up from the basement. Surprisingly it worked, but mainly because he got so much attention from his big sister.

This is about 3 weeks ago, the boys were taking a bath with Tim so I took Sofia on a bike ride to the nature preserve by our house.

Last video for tonight, this one is from Memorial Day weekend at Sean's birthday party.

Teething ten month olds

The boys are teething, and man oh man are they TEETHING. They slept through the night for almost 6 nights and the last week has been absolutely awful. Tim and I had two pretty rough nights where we finally decided to split up and each take a twin. We really wish we had a fourth bedroom because I ended up in the living room with Sully and Tim worked with Everett in our bedroom. There isn't enough space for an adult sized bed in the boys' nursery. Last Friday I was teaching at Messmer and of course this was after the second of the roughest two nights, so I was absolutely exhausted. While I was teaching Tim drove the kids to his parent's house. We had planned the weekend as a painting/work weekend and Tim's parents offered to take the kids to make it easier on us. What perfect timing it was, Tim and I were able to get so much done and sleep through the night two nights in a row! Tim's poor parents were up constantly for the two nights they had the boys. We are SO grateful for their help. We painted our living room, dining room/kitchen, and the hallway. We also installed new lighting fixtures in the entryway and dining area of the kitchen. Slowly but surely this house is becoming completely updated. Tim and I went out to eat, went biking and worked our butts off to finish our projects before the kids got home. As nice as it was to sleep through the night, Tim and I both thought the house was way too quiet. I actually love all of the hustle and bustle in our house. I love the sounds of Sofia singing and dancing through the house and the boys crawl/chasing each other around or chasing the dog.

The weather continues to be amazing. I forgot how much I love Wisconsin summers, after 4 blazing hot summers in Memphis this weather is just perfect. We live less than a mile from Lake Michigan so we have the "lake effect". The lake effect gives us a warmer winter and cooler summer. By cooler I mean perfect. When it's 90 and humid everywhere else in the state we are a lovely 78. The only downside was that spring was a little cool. Temperatures vary from 5-15 degrees depending on the day and the wind. This weekend we are headed to the other side of Lake Michigan for Tim's cousin's wedding in Holland. I'm excited to catch up with the extended Ruders but also sad because kids aren't invited to the wedding. A lot of new Ruder babies were born in the last year so we were hoping to see them all together but it will have to wait for another time. My kids will enjoy spending extra time with my parents this weekend who are coming to our house while Tim and I are at the wedding. Hallelujah for having family close!

I've been really bad about taking pictures lately so I only have a few fun ones to share. I didn't grab my camera in time to catch a picture of Sully participating in one of Sofia's daily tea parties. Sullivan was actually invited to one this week, it was adorable. Everett is strictly forbidden from tea parties, he gets a little wild for Sofia's taste. Sully lasted about 5 minutes before he was asked to leave.

Spaghetti is a total hit with the boys

My sweet Sofia

Sully man!

Everett

Snuggles with Everett

Preparing a tea party for Pooh & Tigger after lunch (which is why her shirt is such a mess). Her brothers were NOT invited to this tea party.