{two proud papa's}

Oh Benny boy!!!
You have a big day today. The father of two in the picture above is turning .......
{30}
Hope you don't mind me telling the blogging world how old you really are.
Ben we wish you the best 30th birthday ever!!!! I'm sad we can't be there to give you some black balloons and prune juice. It would have been so fitting. How many grey hairs did you say you have now?????? No, I tease. We love you Ben!

And this fellow, who is a new daddy, has a birthday today too.
Happy Birthday Court!
I hope you can get some sleep with your new gal around. We really miss you guys!!!! Have a fantastic day!
I love these two pictures because both of these guys just had new additions to their families. I love this time in our lives. It is so fun to see all the new babies. I really want Christmas to come!

{i know i'm late....but here she is}

Jake's little sister Nicole and her husband Courtland had their first child on Sept 15th. I know I'm late on posting this but I had to do it anyway. She is so cute. At least from the pictures I've seen. We won't get to see her until Christmas. It kills me!
Her name is Mckell Riley Astill. She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 20 inches long. Don't you just love the name? I do.
We are so happy for you guys! Life it totally different with a baby. But we know you will be awesome parents! Congratulations Cole and Court!!!!!

{really?.....9 months!)

Another month has come and gone and Lukie is 9 months!!! Where does the time go, seriously? So we had Luke's check up today and he is 17 lb 13 oz, which is 10% for weight and he is 29 1/4 inches long, which is 80% for height. So once again we have a ridiculously tall skinny boy. He dropped in weight this time. He use to be in the 20%. The doctor said it is because he is more mobile now. Still, Luke is eating every three hours on the dot. So weird.
Luke has been developing and making us laugh daily. For example, I was doing the dishes right when we got back from his appointment and all of the sudden he is pulling himself up to a standing position on the dishwasher. I ran and grabbed the camera to prove it. What!!! He hasn't done that yet. This is no good. That means he will be getting in to a lot more stuff.
Luke is babbling a lot more lately. He still sticks with "da da" and "ba ba" and I've heard an occasional "mmma". I'm really stretching it though. No worries. He loves me more than Jake. Let me tell you why.....
Jake thinks that both boys love him so much more. So I said let's see. We put Lukie down in the middle of the room (this is the second time I might add) and we see who he goes to. Without any persuasion he came right to me. And the other day at church he was fussing when Jake was holding him. His arms were stretched out reaching for me. I grabbed him and he was completely fine. I love it!!! It is nice to have one of the boys show their love.
Luke is still doing the army crawl. What a geek. He follows Nolan around everywhere but throws a fit when we put them in the tub together. Luke is terrified of Nolan and screams until we take him out. So we are now bathing the boys separate. Luke has 5 full teeth and 2 more that have almost broken through. His right tear duct is still blocked and we have to continually wipe it. He hates it! He is sleeping from 7:30 pm - 6:00, drinks a bottle and then goes back till about 7:30 am. He is the worst napper ever! He maybe takes an hour nap in the morning and maybe an hour nap in the afternoon. But regardless, he is still the happiest kid if we are hanging out with him. We love our Lukie! I can't believe his next check up will be his 12 month! Ahhhh!

{i'm probably the best mom ever... i'm just sayin'}

I was rummaging the other weekend for a crib for Lukie and came across this amazing fire truck! I couldn't pass it up. For only $7. It is as big as Nolan. He was so excited when he saw it that he didn't know what to do.
For the first few days he would get really mad at it if it didn't do what he wanted it to. I think he was just trying to figure out the big truck.
We finally put batteries in it and tada, Nolan was great after that. It makes fire truck sounds and the ladder goes up and down with a lever. The lights turn on. This kid is in heaven. If he could only learn to share with Lukie. This is the new coveted toy in our house.

{my little bro....}

.......turns 22 today!!! Happy Birthday brother. We wish we could be there. You've been home off your mission since February and we've only seen you once. Not fair!!! Can't wait til Christmas.
Eric, you are the best brother ever!!! It's funny how wise beyond your years you are. Thanks for being my therapist and telling me how it is. You have an amazing testimony and it shows. You are so smart and fun to be around. I always tell you this, but you are the best kind of friend anyone could have. Love ya brother! Don't have too much fun this weekend! And I love the long "Billy Ray" hair!

{13.1}

My friend Kelsey talked me in to running a half marathon a while back. I thought, why not. It should help me loose some of the unwanted baby weight I'm still holding on to. So I began training at the beginning of July and the race was on Sept 5th.
I probably should have started a lot sooner and trained a lot harder then I did but I still was pleased with my time for my first 1/2 marathon. It was definitely a challenge to train for this with two kids and my husband pretty much nonexistent. I think running with the double jogger really put a damper on my pace. Even though I was able to do the training with my boys I really wanted to get a good time. I was shooting for a 9 minute mile for the entire race.
I did almost that. My pace was about a 9 1/2 minute mile. Not bad! I finished in 2 hours and 3 minutes. I know the picture says 2:04 but my official time was based on when I passed through the start with my chip and when I finished.
So lets get going on how the race was. I loved it!!! The whole atmosphere and thrill of racing. Everyone was so anxious to go. I totally feed off of that. There were about 1000 runners total for the race. Our race was called the Lake Country Half Marathon. It was so beautiful. It was held around the city Oconomowoc, which is about 40 minutes away. I couldn't believe the scenery that I was going to be running around.
The majority of the race was around this amazing lake that had beautiful homes with their own private docks. Heaven!!! If we had to stay in Wisconsin I wouldn't mind living there.
The first 9 miles just flew by. I was so entertained by all the runners and the cute little town. It really wasn't hard at all. Around Mile 11 they had a few uphill stretches that didn't feel to good on the buttocks, if you know what I mean. And the last mile was brutal, to me. The majority of it was uphill and the sun was starting to beat down on us.

But they had so many people cheering us on that it made it easier. My new shoes were amazing. I had no hip or knee pain at all. Before I got them I was living off of ibuprofen. I did receive a few gargantuan blisters out of it though.
The end was wonderful! I was so glad for it to be over. But don't think that I won't do it again. I'm actually looking forward to running it again next year. I want to better my time.
The race wouldn't have been as fun or complete without mine and Kelsey's amazing friends! Haley and Tiffany came out to support us. They made us the most hilarious posters ever!! One of them said, "you're outta this world." And they blew up pictures of our heads and put them on popsicle sticks. I was laughing so hard when we saw them during the run. They were so cute. Every few miles I would see them cheering me on. Then they would drive and honk as they pass me and be somewhere else yelling and screaming. Seriously, they are the best!!!!
After the race we went to the Original Pancake house and I got my 49'ers pancakes. Oh, they tasted so good.
I had such a good time doing this race. I don't think I will ever do a marathon. That just seems too hard and too time consuming. As for the baby weight falling off. Um, not quite all of it came off like I'd hoped it would. But it is close. Just a few more pounds to go! I can officially squeeze in to my skinny pants now without as much effort. So thank you running!! And thank you Kelsey for motivating me to do this. I will catch you next year......

{cute boys}

My boys are so funny. I was trying to keep Lukie quiet the other day while Nolan was still napping so I fed him some oreo pudding. He loved it!!!! It was all over and he kept making the funniest sounds when I was feeding it to him. I think that my boys may look like Jake but they definitely got a lot of me in them. Especially when it comes to food choices.
Which leads me to my next subject, dinner. It is always an event at our house to get everyone to stay at the table and eat what is put infront of them. Nolan is real naughty when it comes to that. But my boys still manage to make me laugh and help me realize how lucky I am to have them. Even when dinner is full of, "come sit down or you'll go on time out." and "finish your food or you'll go to bed hungry." Yeah right. Like Jake would ever let him do that. I'm all for it but for some reason Jake can't seem to do it. Maybe it's because Jake is a lot nicer than me.

{Dan the Man}

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!!

Today is my brother-in-laws 29th Birthday. Pretty much he's old. No, Jake will be there soon enough. We here, at the Rabe household, wanted to wish you a happy birthday. What a perfect day to celebrate on Labor Day! We wish we could be there. Have a wonderful day! Make sure Kim and the boys pamper you.

{all i can say is....AMAZING!}

My darling friend Marissa was so nice to take our family pictures a few weeks ago. I was incredibly worried about them because I have THREE kids in the picture. Yeah, that's right, you heard me right, THREE. My husband is considered the third. But she captured so many good images!!!! I seriously can't pick out my favorite. So here are a few that I loved!!
You all should check her out {HERE}. Marissa you are so talented!!!! Thanks you!

{more Lukie to enjoy}

Luke has gotten much faster than before with his army crawl. I'm so proud of him! He has even ventured in to the almost real crawl. He will get up on all fours and rock back and forth, then try to put one hand out and fall. I think he'll get it soon enough.
As for this video, this just gives you a small taste of what Luke goes through in a day with Nolan around. Oh, and what I go through trying to knock Nolan out of the way. I love at the end of this video how Nolan is on the floor and Luke is crying. So typical.

{I've decided that....}

even though I am constantly cleaning up after these boys, it doesn't mean a thing when you see them all cuddling like this with their dad. I can get through the day with an incredible amount of poopy diapers, boogers, already-been-chewed food all over the floor, getting tackle or bit more times than I can count, no naps, tantrums, more poopy diapers, drool, spit up, and much more if I just look at these cute pictures. I love being a mom of boys!!

{oh Nolan, what are we going to do with you?}

Nolan is seriously one of the funniest kids I know. He gets on these kicks and won't budge.
I pulled out the big boy bibs for Luke to start wearing so that I don't have to do laundry so much for just bibs and Nolan decided that he wanted to wear them because one of them had cars on it. He also insisted that I wear one of the bibs too. I'm not kidding and I don't make this up. Ask Jake.
I'm sure you all know where I'm going with this next. Nolan desperately wanted to wear the bib to bed. So along with his cars shirt, walle undies, and car bib he was set.
We really only let him wear it while reading stories because we didn't want him to choke through the night wearing the bib. He wasn't too happy with us when we took it away. But we did manage to convince him that he could put it on right when he woke up. He never forgets.
Also one night Jake came home and went to the bathroom. Nolan really likes to stand by Jake to get the idea of the whole potty training thing. So we let him. The next thing we know is Nolan threw his Lightning McQueen in to the toilet, pee and all. Gross!!! I was laughing so hard because Jake had to fish it out. I don't know what Nolan is thinking when he does things like that. So weird. Jake said that after he threw Lightning in he said, "see ya bye car." At least he understands that the car could be flushed down.

{Fox Brook}

My friend Marissa invited me and some other gals to Fox Brook Park a couple weeks ago. It was such a perfect day! Not too hot but not too cold for the kiddos.
When we pulled up it was packed. I'm guessing because it was almost the last day to go swimming for the summer. Nonetheless, it was a blast! Nolan didn't want to leave.

A little while after we got settle in Nolan met a friend. His name was Ty and he was so nice. He let Nolan play with his big black truck and really cool John Deer Tractor. Of course Nolan was beside himself. I have to admit, the tractor was pretty cool. It had a bunch of hooks ups for a plow and a mower and baler. I'm mean really, how technical do we need to get for kids toys.
Luke had a good time. I'm sure he would have loved it more if I wasn't always wiping his hands because he was trying to eat sand the whole time.
It was funny because all of the other kids were swimming and playing in the sand but not my Nolan. He was laying on the towel staring at the tractor and truck. So weird! Sometimes I wonder about that kid. But he was happy and that's all the matters to me. So thanks Marissa for the invite. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again next season.

{big backyard}

Jake's rotation this month is wonderful!!! He gets home @ 2:00 on Monday's and 12:00 on Friday's. Love it!!





We have been taking full advantage of time with Jake since we know that the winter won't be as nice. Nolan has been in love with tricycles for awhile now so we took him to the Big Backyard. Heaven!!! He loved it. And so did Luke. Luke would just watch all the kids race around on their tricycles.
















Nolan was trying so hard to be a big boy like the other boys and was reaching for the peddles. Still a little too small. Maybe next year buddy!


We had a blast being together and letting Nolan be in his element. Luke was perfect as always. This particular afternoon he was enjoying Jake a lot. I love the picture of them both laughing. I have the best boys a girl could ask for.
Since going to the big backyard Nolan has been asking for his own tricycle. I'm thinking that will have to be a Christmas present. We might just do it early so he can enjoy it while the weather is still good.


If any of you have any good ideas as to what kind of tricycle to get let us know. We want to get him one that will last through Luke as well. We better get it soon. This kid has been asking us almost everyday for a tricycle. One of his cute friends has a pink one and they bring it over every time they come and Nolan is right on it. It is a radioflyer. So cool! I don't know if he'll get that nice of one.