Finn Morse turns ONE year old!

A very typical facial expression from Finn (holding him is his godfather, Kevin)

Opening presents from his godparents

Lots of helpers to open gifts!

Finn and his "Little Monstah" shirt from their recent Boston trip (godmother Melissa on right)

A decent family picture of all of us!!

For me??

Hmm, what will I do with them?

Happy 1st birthday Finn!

He liked the mess for a little while and then he was all done.  He didn't eat a lot of cake.

Pretty sure he would rather have his pacifier than cake

I am going for it...

Got it, now stay right there

ahh, there it is

Mine

Thanks, Kevin.  That was fun

Pretty Blue eyes is 1 year old!

Finn Morse Carrithers was born on July 29, 2013 and turns ONE today!!  I really can't believe the year has gone so fast.  For the first six months of his life, he battled one ear infection after another, but after he got tubes he became so much happier.  He is the sweetest guy with such a fun-loving personality.  He loves to babble and compete with the noise from his brothers.  He always wants to eat whatever we are eating so he usually does.  He loves pizza, spaghetti, any type of fruit (especially watermelon, bananas, and pineapple), yogurt, popsicles, oatmeal, pancakes, hotdogs, and cheese quesadillas.

He is fast right now and always on the move.  He rarely sits still for any length of time.  He pulls up on tables and chairs and coasts around the room.  He is starting to stand for a few seconds at a time and occasionally takes a few steps behind his push toys.  He wastes no time in putting anything and everything in his mouth including legos, sand, mulch, and crumbs we drop on the floor.  He is BIG, really BIG.  At his last doctor visit, he was slightly larger than either Luke or Aiden at the same age.  My guess is that he is around 25 pounds, but we will soon find out at his 1 year visit.  He wears size 18-24 months in most clothing and a size 4 diaper.

Over the weekend, we celebrated Finn's 1st birthday with his godparents.  He enjoyed his first taste of cake.  He liked it pretty well, but wasn't crazy about having the icing all over his fingers.  Finn is looking forward to celebrating his birthday with family over the next few weeks so stay tuned!

Goodbye Raphael

The boys and our sweet neighbor getting ready to let the turtle go

Finn is pointing at the turtle.  He loves to point right now!

Taking the turtle down to the pond near the area where Aiden and I found him on the sidewalk

This is tricky to see, but the turtle is swimming in the water on the far bottom right hand side of picture.

Big bubbles!!!  After much frustration with the bubble mixes that don't work well at the store, we made our own and it worked much better.

Aiden and his bubbles

Liam and Luke and bubbles!

Forgot to post this last week...the boys are enjoying one of the slides at the park

Biking to the park with Calvin and Aunt Sarah (another one from last week)

We finally decided it was time to let Raphael (our baby painted turtle) free.  Aiden and I found Raphael on a run in mid May and I never intended to have him quite this long, but he has been quite fun to watch.  I found some turtle food for him on Amazon and we made a "habitat" for him so he was quite happy.  The boys enjoyed watching him and caring for him for the first month or so.  Then, it seems that chore started to get a little monotonous and it was time for Raphael to move on.  We took him to a pond near the area where we found him on a sidewalk and we let him go.  Thanks for staying with us for awhile, Raphael!

Luke and Liam have enjoyed a fun week at Vacation Bible School for "big kids," grades 1-6.  It has been more like a camp with college counselors and it is high energy!  Aiden has enjoyed several fun playdates by himself and Finn is counting down the days until his first birthday!!

Cousin Visit #2

Calvin trying out the slip n slide

Taking a break with Aunt Sarah

Bingo

Painting T-shirts

It was just as silly and loud as it looks

And once again

Cousins...

Best Friends

Talking about some serious stuff at the park.  Liam and Calvin really hit it off.  They are basically the same size and got along very well together.

Beautiful Day at the Arboretum

Sweet Finn was very tolerant 

Now if I just had something to drink and a little snack

Aunt Sarah and Finn

Mommy's favorite time of the day-Bedtime!

Ice Cream treat


We were very fortunate this month to enjoy not one but TWO visits from out of state cousins that we don't see often enough.  The boys have had a blast with each person that has visited us in Minnesota.  The hardest part by far has been watching how sad the boys are when their friends and cousins have to go home.  By no means does this imply that we always played nicely together and there wasn't any arguing, tears, over tiredness, or injuries...but we made lots of special memories that the boys will remember for a long time.

This week we enjoyed a visit from my sister, Sarah, and her son Calvin.  As most people know, Calvin was born on the exact same day as Luke and Liam.  In fact, I am pretty sure the boys somehow think they are real brothers.  Aiden called his cousin "Calvin Carrithers" at one point and Liam asked if Calvin was really their brother before Sarah "went off and married Uncle Jason."

We had a great week with Calvin and Sarah and enjoyed many special outings together including a trip to the pool, the backyard slip n slide, trampoline park, a local park on steroids called chutes and ladders, the arboretum, and finally many games of kickball in the backyard.  It was a fun-filled week.  Finn was very tolerant of being toted around and enjoyed meeting and spending time with Aunt Sarah.  The boys were pretty sad today when they had to tell Calvin and Sarah goodbye, but we look forward to seeing them again soon.  

Cousin Visit

All Six Boys (Collin holding Finn, Aiden, Luke, Liam, and Carter)

Water Balloon Baseball with our cousins and neighbors

John and his brother are spraying down the slip n slide.  These pictures were taken early in the day.  We had several neighbors join us later in the day which made it even more fun.

Finn was not so sure about all this 

Here comes the train:  youngest to oldest

Still coming

And coming...

Finn took one short ride with Daddy

All five boys at the Kirby Puckett statue at Target Field for the big game

Checking out batting practice

Sitting in the golden glove (Left to Right:  Uncle Jason, Carter, Luke, Liam, Aiden, Collin, and John)

Harmon Killebrew Statue

AJ's Lou Gehrig Bobble head doll

Luke at Second

Carter getting ready to pitch the ball

Luke, Carter, Liam, Collin, and Aiden coming home from the pool

Just a little hoops before fireworks since we absolutely cannot sit still and wait....

Collin in the outfield

Testing out the fireworks

Luke is crazy about fireworks

Break out the electronics when everyone wakes up way too early after getting in bed way too late

Over the next month, the boys are very excited to see several of their cousins on both my side and John's side.  Our first cousin visit was over the 4th of July when John's younger brother, Jason, came up to visit us along with his two boys, Collin (9 years) and Carter (6 years).  All six boys had so much fun together.  They really played the entire time and barely stopped for meals.  Carter and Collin love baseball so they played many baseball games in the backyard.  Liam and Luke introduced them to street hockey on the driveway.  On the 4th of July, John and his brother took the big boys to see the Twins play the Yankees.  They went early to watch a little batting practice and to try and get a bobble head doll, both of which they achieved.  Following the game, we shot some fireworks in our driveway (these boys are CRAZY about fireworks and I am guessing this applies to ALL boys) before everyone headed down the street to watch the neighborhood fireworks.  

We also enjoyed a water park one day and on the final day we had a pool party with the slip n slide, pool, and swing set in our backyard.  John smoked a huge pork butt all day so we enjoyed a wonderful dinner after all the outside water fun.