Entertainment by Joshua

I have been grabbing my camera a lot lately to video the boys...I'm trying to make sure we have some fun things documented. Since Joshua has been talking and singing so much lately, I wanted to share a few of those videos.

Joshua created his own medley of his favorite songs. In this video he started with the A,B,Cs, then went straight into Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and halfway through that song changed to Jesus Loves the Little Children.

Joshua Song Medley from Melissa Murrell on Vimeo.

Almost every night we read Goodnight Moon, sometimes more than once. Lately he has been reciting the words along with me. Here is Joshua telling the beginning of the book. He got distracted and wanted to look at himself in the camera as I was videoing him. I am just amazed that kids his age can memorize things...

Story Time with Joshua from Melissa Murrell on Vimeo.

Gabe's Officially Crawling!

In my last post I said that Gabe's main mode of getting around has been army crawling. Well, last night he took three crawling steps toward me...then today he has been practicing some more. I went to his Kid's Day Out class today and grabbed my camera as he started to crawl across the floor. He is still going back and forth between army crawling and crawling on his knees, and I'm honestly a little worried about him getting around even faster than he has been. He is going to be keeping me on my toes!

Gabe Crawling from Melissa Murrell on Vimeo.

Gabe - 8 Month Day!

Gabe is 8 months old today...where has the time gone?! He is such a sweet and happy baby, and brings us joy each day. Here are some of his recent developments:

-He cut two more teeth this week, bringing his total to four.
-He says mama, dada, and nana. Talk about melting my heart when he says "mama" repeatedly while "crawling" toward me.
-His main mode of transportation is army crawling.
-He enjoys standing up while holding onto toys or the couch.
-He is 20 pounds!
-His eyes light up when Joshua is playing with him.
-He laughs easily and smiles at everyone!
-He enjoys eating cereal and most baby food, but hasn't seemed too fond of the jarred meats...I don't think that I would like them either!
-The best development yet is that he has been sleeping through the night almost every night for the last two weeks!




















Here is a video of "a day in the life" of our boys. Joshua was being sweet to entertain Gabe with a game of "Where are me?" (a.k.a. "where am I?" or peek-a-boo).

Ike, Missing My Boys & Grapefest

All week long, Peter and I have been watching the weather channel, trying to figure out what Hurricane Ike was going to do. The boys went to Houston last Sunday to spend the week with grandparents. Our plan all along was to drive to Houston yesterday and spend the weekend with family and then bring the boys back Saturday. As Hurricane Ike continued heading toward the Galveston area, we decided to just drive down yesterday and turn right back around. We met my parents in Conroe just hours before I-45 got unbearably clogged. We were so grateful to not be stuck in that terrible traffic! And so glad to be reunited with our boys! That was my first time to be away from Gabe and definitely the longest time away from Joshua. Peter and I had a good time hanging out together and did a few things that we don't get to do often...like go see a movie and ride our bikes.

Now that Ike is pounding Galveston, we are glued to the tv. I am just so distraught over the fact that there are so many people that didn't evacuate Galveston Island. We are praying for their safety. I guess we will know much more in the morning.

I wanted to leave you with a few pics from Grapefest...it is going on this weekend in Grapevine. Last night we met up with Janelle & Ella, and Todd, Kristin & Laney . It was so much fun! We just walked around for a while, let the kids dance to the live music, and did some serious exercise in the bounce house.

Peter took on the responsibility of pushing the boys in the stroller...


















My sweet Gabe...he seems like such a big boy sitting up in the stroller.























I love this picture because Ella and Laney are so excited to be dancing to the music. As you can tell, Joshua was not as excited. He did enjoy running circles around Janelle for a while.


















This picture is so sweet as the kids rush over to give Kristin a hug...I like to think that they were all talking to the twins.























The kids loved the bounce house...Joshua was sweating and red in the face by the time we convinced him to get out.

Gabe Army Crawling

We finally took a video of Gabe in his very fast army crawling mode! It just so happened that when I was recording this short clip, Joshua decided to show off his new thing also...making sure brother doesn't get any of his toys!