Happy Birthday Colin Sam!

Colin Sam Silvey is here! He was born last night at 11:17. We are so excited for Nate and Kirsta, we know they are going to make awesome parents and we can't wait to meet the cute little boy in person!Kirsta and Colin

Nate, Papa, and Colin

How does he learn these things?

I have to start off with what happened last night. Donovan, being the smart and independent little boy he is, decided he needed 2 baths last night. Here's the story: We had the missionaries and the Hiatt's over last night, so of course Mason and Donovan took a bath together after dinner(Mason always wants to take a bath the "dabeby"). After I got Donovan dressed I handed him off to his daddy so I could work on the dishes. I could hear Donovan in the back ground for a few minutes, but all of a sudden I didn't hear him anymore so the first thing I thought of was the bathroom. I asked Lenna if the bathroom door had been shut and she gave me an "oh shoot" look and ran toward the bathroom. Once she got there she was laughing hysterically, so I ran in there as fast as I could to see what Donovan had done. He was sitting in the tub just chillin' like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to get in the tub with his clothes on (we usually don't get to draining the tub until he goes to bed, we just try to remember to keep the door shut). It was the funniest thing, so of course I ran into the living room laughing to grab the camera, so Scott and Brad had to come see what was going on. The best part is, he had to have climbed in. At first I thought he would have had to take a nose dive, but his head and most of the front of his jammies were dry. He is too smart for his own good, it never takes him too long to figure out how to do something.

"what are you all looking at. Oh, hey Mason, wanna get in?"

It seems like Donovan eats more off the floor than he does in his high chair. I think he throws things on the floor thinking, "I'll get to that later". I usually try to clean up the floor after he eats, but sometimes I get distracted and he cleans it up for me. There is a little net under his seat that catches a lot of what he drops so he treats it like his feeding trough.
We recently discovered that he enjoys mac and cheese. He likes the cheese so much that he was licking it off his plate! I have been trying to get him to eat more healthy foods, but he doesn't like most of them so he ends up getting macaroni, pb &j, or chicken nuggets for lunch. He does enjoy bananas though, so at least he gets something healthy throughout the day besides formula!

Peek-a-boo is his favorite game.

I was trying to fold his fish blanket to put it away the other day and he started to giggle and get really excited because he thought we were going to play. So of course I played with him!

We are trying to break him of the "I am going to open every drawer and dump everything out" habit, so I hold them shut until he gets bored,

but this was one day when we were both being stubborn, he would not give up and I certainly wasn't going to!

The thunderstorms and tornadoes continue! Okay, so we haven't had any tornadoes for at least a week, but we had an awesome thunderstorm on Friday. It looked like a hurricane!
Our power went out from around 5:30 pm to 11:30 pm. We took the food from our fridge to Lenna and Scott's because we had heard that our power could have stayed off until the next morning. I did some grocery shopping on Wednesday so I didn't really feel like having our food go to waste, but I think we would have been fine. You just never know! It is nice to know we always have people around who are willing to help us out. Thanks again Lenna and Scott!

More Donovan news, he is finally attempting to walk! He took 2 steps in a row when the Hiatt's were here and decided to humor us even after they left. He stopped after I pulled out the camera, of course!! I will try to get a video to post this week.

We want to give a shout out to Nate and Kirsta!! They went to the hospital today to have their first baby. We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet our new nephew. It is going to be a long day waiting for news, but we will try to be patient. We love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Donovan...

Lenna and I scrapbooked for the majority of the day yesterday and the boys were really good. Donovan had his "I want mommy" moments, but for the most part he stayed pretty happy. I don't want to make Scott feel bad again, but I have to tell the story. When Scott got home he was really nice and played with the boys so we could keep working and put them on their bed. He made the mistake of leaving Donovan on the bed and leaving the room. A few seconds later we heard a crash and we all rushed to the room as Lenna was saying something along the lines of "Scott, did you really leave Donovan on the bed" (not exactly her words, I am pretty sure she said something like this, but I wasn't really paying attention, I was worried about Donovan), he had fallen off their bed, which is not very close to the ground, so he was pretty scared and a little hurt. I grabbed him from Scott after he picked him up off the ground and I rushed to Mason's room to try and calm him down on the rocking recliner and of course I started crying, I am usually pretty tough and don't cry in front of people, but when it comes to my child I am a softy. He was crying like he never really has before and it broke my heart. Scott felt really bad about it. I wasn't mad, but I hope you have learned your lesson Scott!! Donovan ended up with a little rug burn on his nose and forehead, I had to work pretty hard to get a decent picture, but I think you can see at least a little of what it looked like. Of course it already looks better, children heal so fast!

So far this week...

I thought I would just do a short post about our week so far along with my craft project.

Sunday soccer has started again. Brad is playing on the old man's league again. It is a lot of fun to go watch him and give Donovan a chance to play outside and be around a lot of new people.

He was surrounded by girls of course, he is such a little stud. I won't lie though, he mostly just wanted to crawl around and try to get into that storm drain behind them. He did like it when the girls would hold him for a little while though. The game started at 8, so it was past his bed time and he usually likes to be held when he is tired, unless he gets excited about something.
Mason and Lenna joined us too, Donovan really liked that. He loves to watch and chase after Mason. Toward the end of the game he was getting a little grumpy and Mason was having a blast running around, so I helped him chase Mason.
Of course Bradley had to throw him around a little. The little girl watching him is Hope. She made sure Donovan didn't get into any trouble and played with Mason. She is a cute little girl.Yesterday I tried on Donovan's cute hat that we bought in Park City for $.99. It doesn't quite fit, but he kept it on long enough for me to get a few pictures, this was the cutest one. We are going to let Mason borrow it for a while.

We hung out with Lenna and Mason for a while yesterday, we went to Hobby Lobby, the library, and after Donovan ate his lunch, we headed over to their place so I could finish my craft. We made a little trip to the park and Donovan would not get out of the swing. I think he stayed in there for about 30 minutes.He loves his Aunt Lenna. She even kept him quiet for a while when we went to Hobby Lobby so I could pick out some paper. Can you tell he didn't get a nap yesterday?
I was really excited when we went to Hobby Lobby, the letters we had bought a while ago were 50% off again, so I got Donovan's name too. I had some other letters for his name, but they were smaller and not quite as cute. Their scrapbook stuff is also 50% so Lenna has convinced me that I need to start. I just need to find the time, Donovan is still demanding, but he is really good when we go to Scott and Lenna's so we may have to do it over there. Here is his name, I think it's cute, it isn't very matchy though, it's all pretty random. I like it though, he doesn't really have a color scheme in his room, so it works.
These are the original letters I bought. If I put soccer stuff all over the wall, it wouldn't matter how tacky it looked, Brad would be happy.I have one more craft to finish, I have to get one more board, they only had one set of 2 when we went yesterday. I'll have to get it when I stock up on scrapbook paper sometime this week.

So far we have spent almost every day with Lenna and Mason, and sometimes Scott. I am surprised they aren't sick of us yet! It is nice to have some family around, so we appreciate that they want to play with us, because we like to play with them!

This post is much longer than I first anticipated, so I apologize, but I have to add one story. So I went running last night, and when I got back to the Res Hall, I saw a truck in the parking lot (the only vehicle besides ours) and saw someone inside. I decided to get the key I put in my shoe out before I got to the door so I could watch the truck. As I walked past, 2 Japanese guys opened the doors, so I stared them down as I walked trying to figure out what exactly it was that they were doing. They were watching me too and as I stared them down they got back in the truck. As soon as I got in the building I heard them drive away. I won't lie, I was a little creeped out. I don't know if they were up to anything, but I am glad that I kept my eye on them. I hate the world we live in today sometimes, now I am scared to go running again by myself. I go in the evenings after Donovan goes to bed and Brad is home, so it is usually dusk when I get back. I will just have to find a running buddy I guess, you can never be too careful.

Just another week

This week hasn't really been too exciting. Unfortunately the College World Series is in town, so it is pretty silly to venture into certain areas of Omaha right now. We haven't attempted a trip to the zoo, Rosenblatt Stadium (where the games are played) is right next to the zoo so it is a mess over there.

The other day Lenna and I went to a scrapbook/craft store and got some cute paper so I could copy her cute project. I will have to post pictures as soon as I figure out where I want everything on Donovan's wall. We covered some cute letters with paper and they turned out way cute. We bought the letters a while ago and were going to paint them, but Lenna came up with this idea instead, it looks way cute. I couldn't resist being a copy cat. She also did cute signs that said "lead me", "guide me", and "walk beside me" that went along with some pictures they have of Mason. I am going to copy that one as well, since she had extra sayings in a different font (thanks Kirsta!). I am pretty excited for Donovan's room to be cute, I will be sure to post pictures as soon as I am finished. I am going to try to finish it all up tomorrow.

Donovan loves it when his dad stops by in the middle of the day for his breaks. It gives him a nice break from his mommy.


We discovered Donovan's favorite song this weekend. The second we played this song, he was quiet. We have tested it many times now and know for a fact that he loves this song more than any others we listen to. So his Papa Sam will be happy to know that Donovan likes Phil Collins. Specifically "Strangers Like Me" from the Tarzan soundtrack. This video doesn't really show how calm and happy he usually gets when I play it because he wasn't upset before I turned it on.


He was playing like this in the tub the other day. I think he sounds like a little Indian at a pow wow or something. He is so silly sometimes.

Hi!

Donovan has been waving for a while now, but I haven't been able to catch it on video. Today he finally decided to cooperate.



We had a pretty fun day today. We went to the park this morning. He still loves the swings!
After I pulled his stroller out of the closet for our walk after the park, he had to crawl into his closet and get into everything in sight. He finds the strangest things.
He is so funny. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but he loves to push his stroller before I put it away after we take a walk. During todays walk, we stopped to play in the grass at the soccer fields and pushing his stroller was all he wanted to do. He did this for about 5 minutes before moving on to something else, that is a long time for him to focus on something that isn't food!!

This is what he did while I was working on dinner...how do boys know how to be so destructive? Is it in their genes? Lenna and I were discussing this and wondered if maybe the lack of destructive behavior indicated a more feminine boy.
I think he is enjoying his new teeth.
I just love this kid. He is such a cute boy. He was a little grumpy before dinner, but after he ate, got his bath, and we read a book, he was very happy and giggly. This video was taken after he had settled down a little, but I still think it's funny. Don't mind me in the shot.

SURPRISE!

I feel like such a slacker mother. I have been so focused on Donovan's ear infection that I didn't realize some of his pain was from 2 more teeth coming in. Joyce will laugh because I discovered one of them at her house and when I got home I discovered another one!! Usually his teeth take forever to cut through, but these 2 came in before I even knew they were on the verge! I was excited, I'm sure nobody else will care as much as me though. He now has 6 teeth.

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all you daddy's, but especially my daddy, Brad, and his daddy.Donovan loves his daddy, they were going back and forth from Baby Einstein to the US vs. Barbados World Cup Qualifier and he was pretty content snuggling with his daddy.
Donovan giving Bradley a pool side massage. What a good boy. He looks so chubby without a shirt on!! But still so cute. You may notice the lack of hair, we buzzed it again, it has only been growing on top and that got annoying. It is already growing back though, a little more evenly thank goodness.

What a week! We went to the zoo with Mason and Lenna twice, swam, and had a few tornado warnings. Donovan also got his first ear infection. I think it started last week, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions and take him to the doctor's office for nothing, but Friday and Monday were HORRIBLE. He would scream at me randomly and not stop for 30-45 minutes, no matter what I did, he wouldn't calm down. It was rough, so I finally called Dr. Jones on Tuesday and thankfully they had an opening that afternoon. I just had this nagging feeling that it was an ear infection but wasn't sure because the only symptoms he had were crying sporadically and sticking his fingers in his ears. When we got there, Dr. Jones thought it might be a stomach bug that has been going around (he hasn't had many solid poops since we got back from Utah), but the second he looked in his ears he knew they were infected on both sides. Yuck! But now I know what's wrong, thank goodness. So now he is on amoxicillin for 4 more days.

I have really been neglecting the camera lately, I apologize, but Donovan is getting to be so silly and so much fun! Of course there are moments when he drives me insane, but then he is just so cute that I forget about all the annoying things he did 5 minutes before. We borrowed Newsies from Lenna and Scott this weekend and he recognized the songs that we dance to. You will never see video of me dancing, don't worry, but he loves it! He cracks me up when he dances. He will stand up against the couch or the small table and bounce to the beat (well, almost to the beat). We watched most of it this afternoon with Lenna and Scott, but when we tried to get his dance on video he wouldn't do it and Mason was being hilarious, so we got video of him instead. Sorry Lenna, I had to post this, it is just too funny. Watch Mason's hands, he was being so funny with his hands. It was way more funny in person, if you can't tell by the laughing.

Donovan is starting to laugh a lot more, he used to just smile and jabber, but now he is actually laughing. He has so many favorite games now! He loves to dance around the room with his mommy, play peekaboo with anyone (but mostly his daddy), push anything on the floor (I think it's time to get him some cars!), crawl as fast as he can away from his mommy when she needs to change his diaper or dress him, open drawers and pull everything out, be thrown in the air by his daddy, do anything outside, dance and jump around like a crazy person, snuggle with his mommy for 2 seconds before his next spastic episode (it seems like he always has to be moving and can't relax for more than a second unless he is asleep), and many other things that make us laugh and wonder if our child is just a little crazy.

This is the cart that Donovan and Mason fight over, they both love to push it around.

He is finally starting to eat the food I make, and even liking it! He still spits things out, but usually tries them again after a few minutes. He loves my lasagna.

Right now I am working on getting him down to one nap and so far we are doing pretty well, with the exception of today (we have church from 11-2, right during nap time). He was taking 2, 30 minute naps which was driving me insane! Now he takes one 2-3 hour nap and is MUCH happier in the evenings. The hard part is keeping him distracted until 12:30!! So far his best nap days have been when we have done something fun to wear him out in the morning, but with so many rainy days it has been tough to find things to do. I guess I will just have to get more creative!

We are safe!!

Last night some pretty yucky tornadoes came through Nebraska and Western Iowa. One tornado hit a scout camp in Little Sioux, IA and killed at least 4 people and injured about 40. Scary stuff. I was really glad it didn't hit us. I know it was pretty close to where we are, but didn't get us. We were watching the news for about 2 hours and they just kept popping up on the screen. The storm hung out in one spot for a while, just west of us, and slowly made its way past us. So far we have been pretty lucky not to get hit.

It's only been three years?

Brad and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary yesterday (June 10). It seems like it has been way longer, not because it has been miserable, we have actually been very happy. It just seems like we have always been a family. It is hard to imagine what life was like before I knew Bradley, or even before we had Donovan! I am very grateful that Brad and I both came out to Iowa Western so we could meet. He is one of the most amazing people I know. He provides very well for his family and is very good at saving money, unlike me. Sometimes it takes me a while to work on him if I really want to buy something, and if he knows I really want it, he eventually caves in. He just let me buy a swimsuit that was a little more than he wanted to pay. It took him awhile to cave on that one, but he did and he hasn't said a word about it since...that could be good or bad... He is a great father to Donovan. Whenever Donovan sees his daddy he immediately gets that giant toothy grin on his face and either tries to get out of my arms to get him, or crawls as fast as he can after him. Donovan loves his daddy and is always sad when he has to go to work. Brad has always been strong spiritually and has a knowledge of the scriptures and the gospel. I have had many people tell me at church that Brad gives great lessons and knows what he is talking about. I am so grateful to Brad's parents for raising such an awesome person! He cleans the bathroom because it is my least favorite chore and always makes sure the house is clean when I come back from a trip or a weekend away. He is always willing to help with Donovan when I really need it, even if it's changing a poopy diaper (his least favorite thing to do). He is very loving when he wants to be but never too lovey dovey, which is fine with me because I am a lot like my mom when it comes to people touching and hugging me all the time, I can't stand it. But he does cuddle with me when I need it.

Enough about that. Here are a few pictures of us from (almost) beginning until now.

November '06

December '06

Summer '06

Donovan's first soccer game, about 3 days old.

Family pictures '07

Disneyland, February '08

Donovan is always scratching his side, I think it's so cute.

He makes it all worthwhile.

Life in the Midwest

We had another tornado warning this morning, at 2:30 am!!! Brad and I woke up to the city's tornado siren and the Residence Hall alarm. A tornado had touched down in West Omaha and was heading our way. We got Donovan out of his bed and headed to the cinder block laundry room for shelter and watched the wind and rain out the door, the wind was blowing so hard that Brad thought it might blow the tree outside right on top of our cars. By the time we called and woke Lenna and Scott up, the tornado warnings had turned into severe thunderstorm warnings...sorry guys. We were back in bed at 3:30 with no damage to our cars or the building.

In other news, I didn't take many pictures of our adventures this week. We took Donovan to a real pool for the first time yesterday, Lenna and Scott have a pool at their apartment complex so we headed over there to play with them. The water was a little cold, but it felt pretty good compared to the hot, sauna-like air. I think it got up to 91 yesterday. Anyway, Donovan didn't really think much of it at first, but I think he enjoyed floating around in Mason's floatie. Mason didn't mind that Donovan was using it, so everyone was happy. We were in there long enough for Donovan to get a pretty cute tan line. I had him in a rash guard so he has a little farmer tan. I wish I had pictures, I really was a slacker. Lenna took a couple, but I will just have to take some at the next pool outing. I am sure we will have plenty of them this summer.

I did take a couple. Donovan is struggling with the whole nap thing right now, I am really hoping we get it figured out in the next few months. The day that we went to the zoo, he didn't take one nap, but still stayed up until 7:30 and slept until almost 8:00 the next morning. The day after, he took a very short nap in the morning and was getting grumpy around 5:00 so I put him in his new high chair (which Brad picked out and couldn't have done a better job, it's great!) and he ate gold fish and his crunchies. I guess he was pretty tired, this is the first time he had ever fallen asleep in his chair.

Yesterday, I was doing the dishes while Donovan was playing with his daddy and I thought I was safe, but he is just too helpful, he had to come over and help his mommy.It's pretty hard to get mad at this face, I do succeed sometimes, but not this time!
The worst part of the week was me swimsuit shopping, oy, I did not enjoy that. If anyone has a good place to get a fairly inexpensive swimsuit that is actually cute, let me know. All I can find are bikinis and ugly one pieces. My torso does not fit in a one piece and nobody wants to see my torso in a bikini!!

That was our week in a nutshell, pretty uneventful.

First of many summer zoo trips

I love our zoo. There are actually things about it that interest Donovan now too, so it makes it even more fun. We went yesterday with Lenna and Mason and had a lot of fun. I found a hat that Donovan can't take off while we were there so it was a productive day. He sure tried to get it off, but with no luck.
Donovan likes to reach for everything nowadays. He was trying to grab the tigers, he loves cats!
What a handsome little boy he is, and he did so good in the wagon. Of course there were escape attempts and he liked to hang over the edge and touch the wheels as they moved, but for the most part he did a good job. The fact that there was no crying or screaming was nice.
We love the polar bears, I think they are my favorite. I haven't seen them swim the last few times I have gone, so it was fun to see one of them in the water. He swam back and forth, and of course Donovan tried to touch him.
Come back!I have the feeling his favorite part is the fish. He would see a fish and try to chase it with his hands, it was pretty cute. However, when we went into the big dome aquarium, all he wanted to do was play with the vents on the ground.

This one's for you Daddy.

For anyone who has never seen a midwest thunderstorm, you are totally missing out. It is intense!! I used to love watching the thunderstorms in Utah, but they didn't happen very often and didn't last very long. Then I came to the midwest and learned what a real thunderstorm is. The lightning lights up the whole sky, it rains cats and dogs, thunder cracks louder than you will ever hear anywhere else (in the continental U.S. anyway) and it goes on for hours, sometimes all night long. The first one I saw was my freshman year at Iowa Western and my friend Katie and I stared at it for hours and played in the huge puddles afterwards and had a blast, it was so much fun. Now I settle with just watching, but I still love them. So anyway, getting to the point. Brad, Donovan, and I went to Glenwood (Iowa) this evening for Brad's high school soccer girl's banquet. About an hour after we got there the tornado warnings started, I think one came pretty close, maybe about 5-10 miles from the high school. It was pretty intense. On the way home the rain was coming down really hard and fast, as was the hail. I was afraid we were going to get dents in our new car, hopefully we didn't, I will have to check in the morning. I got a video from our back door, but didn't see the lightning bolts, just the flashes. You can hear the rain, but it is hard to see in the video. This is mostly for my dad, just to make him jealous because I know he enjoys a good thunderstorm, he barely missed the last one out here too by just a day or so. So here you go Dad, it isn't the best video, but I am sure you can imagine it!



Here is the picture I got of the rain, it just doesn't do it justice.

Utah, part II

I guess I should start with the reason we went out to Utah. Brad's mom turned 50 on the 29th of May and everyone agreed that there should be a surprise party, and a surprise visit from those of us who live in Iowa (Brad, Me, Donovan, Lenna, Scott, Mason and until recently, Hannah). So we drove out on Thursday, stayed the night in Cheyenne and made the rest of the trip on Friday making a pit stop in Park City to shop, of course. The party came on Saturday and unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures there, not one! That is so unlike me, the camera is usually an extension of my arm. Anyway, Tia figured the party surprise out, but we managed to keep the fact that we were out there a secret. She was floored (literally, she fell on the floor), she had absolutely no idea we were there! It was pretty awesome to see how excited she was to see Donovan and Mason, and I guess she was a little excited to see the rest of us too.

While in Utah, Donovan decided to try and stand up for longer periods of time. I tell him, "stand up like a big boy" and he puts his arms in the air to let me know he's ready for me to let go. It was pretty cute, he even took a step once. He hasn't tried to take any steps since, but we are working on it.
My best friend Jessica came over to my parents house one day and brought her little boy Heath. What cute little boys they are. I wish I could live closer to Jessica, she was my running partner in high school, I really wish I had her out here to keep me motivated!
I took Donovan's swim suits out with us, but he didn't really get to swim. He had fun watching Mason throw toys in the water and they would both try to fish them out.
Here is Donovan trying to take a sip of Mason's water in the wagon. He will not stay in that thing, but Mason's wagon has seat belts, so hopefully he will be secure enough to ride around the zoo with his cousin this summer.
Donovan loved McRae, he had fun playing his guitar and grabbing at his face.
He also liked the silly laugh McRae would do. He would be playing and when McRae laughed he would smile and keep playing. He had a lot of fun pulling my brother's towers apart too.

This is my favorite picture. Donovan certainly isn't afraid of my scary dad!! I don't think he's scary either, but I know a few boys who do.
My mom bought a new 15 ft wide and 3 1/2 ft deep pool for the back yard and while we filled it up, we dipped Donovan and Jayla's feet in it. Jayla loved it, but Donovan couldn't decide.
Donovan enjoyed the all of the pets he encountered. He was more intrigued by Ivory than Rocky for some reason. Rocky would lick his fingers, which he didn't mind, and then lick his face, which he didn't like quite as much.
I think his favorite was Iggy, the Silvey's cat. This cat is extremely old and deaf. She let him do anything he wanted to her. I wasn't there, but his Granny let him play with her. He pulled her by the tail, pulled up her ears and even pushed on her stomach. Poor cat, but she let him do it, I think she liked the attention.

The ride home wasn't too bad. We made really good time and the boys were surprisingly quiet. Donovan slept most of the time, but had his moments of whimpering and crying. Mason did a lot better than Donovan in my opinion.
The worst part of the drive was my speeding ticket, yes, I got a speeding ticket. I have only had one other ticket and that was over 4 years ago. The crappy thing is, I hardly ever go more than 5 mph over the speed limit but I decided to be brave and set the cruise on 85. According to the state trooper, I was going 86, so he made my ticket for 11 mph over. He wasn't very nice. I was surprised at how well I handled it though, I was shaking a little when I saw the lights, but I didn't really get upset, I just got angry. So now I owe the state of Wyoming $100, as if the gas didn't cost enough. Luckily Brad is getting $75 back from a class he paid for back when I was making most of the money, so he isn't quite as mad as when he first found out. Anyway, that was our trip. It was a lot of fun and sad to leave, but Donovan was happy to see his dad and I was happy to see my husband. We miss everyone already!!