Whatever Keeps Them Entertained

Thanks to Grandma (who is no longer teaching piano) we are the lucky LUCKY recipients of a Yamaha Clavinova piano. It is by far the most expensive toy my boys have and they absolutely LOVE it! Each and every day any one of my boys will climb up onto the piano bench and get their favorite demo song playing. Isaac's favorite by far is "Do Re Mi" and he just can't help himself from running and dancing around the room in big circles. I never know what Zekie will be in the mood for...anything from a little "Love Story" to a patriotic "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

I just couldn't decide which one of these pictures I liked better. The top one is just so funny with his little "cheese" smile and the bottom one truly shows the joy he experiences with each song that he loves. Caleb can seriously get his groove on too...not to be outdone by his brothers.

Just look at that posture. I'm signing him up! This piano has really saved my life. Caleb thinks he needs to be hauled as often as possible. I often tell Rob about Caleb's proclaimed "hot lava" days when his feet are not allowed to touch the ground! The Clavinova is the perfect solution: I don't have to hold him AND his feet don't touch the ground. It's amazing.

Caleb's 1st Birthday!

My sweet baby turned 1 on May 2nd, 2009. We had a little party complete with balloons, cake, presents, and "helpful" brothers. (If you enlarge the picture you can check out Zekie and Isaac's artwork on the wrapping paper.) Here's the big birthday boy, grinning ear to ear at all the festivities.
Here are the aforementioned "helpers". Caleb wasn't especially into unwrapping his presents. Zekie and Isaac were more than happy to oblige. Caleb got a water table, giraffe ball toy, clothes, sippy cups, bubbles, and beach toys.

A little cake for a little boy...and plenty of cupcakes to go around. The cupcakes were officially GONE by the end of the day.

Dada and Baby Caleb, celebrating the joy of the birthday boy!

Caleb thoroughly enjoyed his birthday cupcake with rainbow chocolate chip frosting. Yum!

Happy happy birthday Baby. We LOVE you!

Fun in the Sun

Caleb is clearly an outside boy! As you can see, he does not shy away from crawling in the grass. He was loving every minute of his first splash pool experience.

What a poser!

We are so lucky to have a whole street chuck full of neighborhood boys. Here are Sam & Squeaks...and Zekie & Chaffee. They are so ready for the hike to the lake.

Zekie absolutely idolizes Chaffee. Luckily Chaffe is very sweet to Zekie and humors his requests to hold hands and be best of friends :)

Easter Eggstravaganza!

Here's Zekie doing his very best job of being brave while sitting on the creepiest Easter Bunny you've ever seen. I told Zekes to run up and sit on his knee so I could take a picture and he whispered back very concerned "ummmm....can you come with me?"

Good ol' Lehi City put on an Easter Celebration Friday that Zekie and I thoroughly enjoyed. The glory is we got into all the festivities for free (a $10 value) because right when we pulled up it started to drizzle and they packed up the ticket table and hauled it away. Our evening included walking through the Lehi museum, viewing live birds of prey, making a bunny shaker (pictured above), coloring an Easter egg with a gummy dinosaur inside, petting a REAL bunny, and eating a sweeeeet hot dog dinner with Costco cookies while listening to local bands. It was truly a fabulous Mother/son date of Easter joy.

Behold the Bachman boys...ALL of them. This was Sunday morning before church. I was hoping to get them cute matching vests but settled for shirts they already had that I told myself were practically Easter egg colors.

We were blessed to have Rob's parents come visit us for Easter. Our main activity was hopping into our new van (a light blue Honda Odyssey) and taking a joy ride up to the temple. After that we came back and bummed around the house. Everyone was happy because I got help with the boys, Diane got to play with her grandkids, Rob Sr. and Jr. got to watch golf, and the boys got plenty of love and attention. We never did get around to dying Easter eggs or having a true meaning of Easter lesson...but as before mentioned we were all happy...and that's worth celebrating :)

Sunday Funday

My little man Caleb all decked out in his Sunday wear. Is he handsome or what?

If I can't have a little girl...atleast I can play matchy matchy with a Magenta Zekes.

Rob and his "shadow", whipping up some delish cupcakes. Major father/son bonding :)

Friends

Hooray for friends! They make keep my kids entertained and busy. What more could a mom ask for? My boys are lucky enough to have a joyful assortment of neighborhood friends that make the days happier for all of us. Every day Zekie tells me he's "happy...but a little bit sad because he needs a friend." Usually at some point during the day a friend will magically arrive and he's happy once more.

This is the "girl next door" in every sense of the phrase. She is officially Zekie's first crush...and what's not to love? She's an older woman (5), cute, blond, and tons of fun. Zekie tells me often that someday he's going to marry her...in the temple no less. Now we just need to convert her :) There's just one little problem. There's a major love triangle. Zekie loves her however, she's got the hotts for Isaac. Whatta you do?

"Say CHEESE!!" Here's Isaac and his friend enjoying some cheese after a bout of tag, trucks, and trampolining. Ah the life of a 2 year old.

What could be more fun than a day of make believe with your best friend? Rides on Thomas, playing Blue's Clues, exchanging WallE conversations...the fun never ends. Zekie and his preschool buddy play at each other's houses every Monday and Wednesday, ALL day, every week, from 9:30-6 and until recently cried at each other's parting. They have TRULY found each other.

And then there's Caleb. All he's got is brothers...his best friends...his worst enemies...it changes every couple seconds. I love this particular picture though because you can just hear Isaac saying "Ahhhhh". He's got the food feeding skills down pat. Caleb's usually more than happy to oblige.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we spent the morning kickin' around the house, the afternoon at library and Cafe Rio, and then the evening was all about me and Rob :) My mom graciously watched the boys for us and we got a couples massage and Pei Wei take out. Not to shabby.

"Pink is my favorite color!" Zekie happily exclaims to anyone and everyone (much to Rob's chagrin.) Lucky for Zekes they had "pink day" at preschool, so I had an excuse to to buy him this lovely pink shirt. Then to top it off, his Bre"nanny" found a sweet deal on a pink guitar which he got for Valentine's day...instantly transforming him into a rockin' pink Zekes!

Aww...LOVE day :) Zekie and I just had to take some pictures with our matchy matchy pink shirts and we figured we'd throw Cupid Caleb in the shot while we were at it.

I do love my baby Caleb. He is such a smily boy and always wants to be part of the action. He is tough as nails, which is good since his brothers rough house him daily. He's aventurous and trouble... He's sweet and fun... sweet, sweet baby Caleb.