Professional Pictures

All the boys

his baby bum

look at the love

kisses

my little ham

i *love* this one!

carter acting like wolverine (i love how he can put one eyebrow up and one down)

my three sons

he loved the balloons

my naked baby

so big

i feel like i can see his soul in this picture

my favorite of callan

A few weeks ago we got Callan's 6 month pictures and Camden's 2 year pictures taken. Of course we got them taken by the wonderful Curt Brinkman of lifesastoryphotograpy.com. They turned out amazing. There are a few of them that just make my heart melt. Here are a few of them. If you want to see them all click on the highlighted web site above and go to clients. Type in Chad and then Niebuhr for the password.

7 months

little baby callan is 7 months old today. it is going by faster than ever now. he is sitting unassisted now for longer periods of time and just needs to have a little buffer between him and the ground just in case. he still has no teeth but i am sure the day is coming soon. he can get around by rolling all over and seems to find all the toys he should not play with. the other day he giggled and laughed for about 10 minutes straight as carter entertained him. those two have a special connection. i love watching callan light up when carter comes around. he has now tried green beans and a combination of plum, grapes and banana. i have fed him twice a day for a few random days but I am not ready to commit to feeding him that often yet. still sleeping about the same. 7pm-7am most days. his naps are all over the place and i have been trying hard to stick him to two naps a day instead of 3. but this child does what he wants. he has also been playing with his feet a lot lately. he looks for them and is really happy when he can grab them. the other thing he *loves* is splashing in the bath tub. if i lay him down he will just kick and kick. then when i sit him up he will splash with his hands. he cried the other day when i took him out of the bath. that is about all that is new with my baby. he still nurses every 3 hours during the day for about 5 feedings. i think my milk supply is depleting a bit but it doesn't seem to bother him. i remember this happening with camden too, but camden was not wanting to nurse and kept pulling away. callan eats well he just gets distracted easily. when i pump when he is away from my i get just 2 ounces. so i am assuming he is only taking 2-3 ounces at a feeding except the first morning one. i will post some of the kids latest professional pictures i got taken when i get the cd. they turned out great and were taken by curt brinkman of lifesastoryphotography.com. if you go to the web site you can go to clients and type in chad and then the password is Niebuhr.

repeat

I decided to take a picture of each boy in the same outfit doing the same thing around 7-8 months old. I think this shows how different they all are!

Visitors

rachael reading to camden and austin

all the kids

callan and austin

second cousins

due to cold weather we had to improvise with indoor projects. carter was begging to play with glue.

look mom, i can fit my whole fist in

some *advanced* reading

cheese!

all 4 kids again

sorry for the late post. we have been extremely busy the last two weeks and it doesn't seem to be slowing down any. last weekend we had my cousin rachael and her son austin come stay with us. they live in rhode island but will be moving back to kentucky soon. we had a blast while she was here and the boys *loved* austin. they still talk about him every day and keep asking when he is coming back. austin is about 5 weeks younger than callan so it was fun to see them together. i also had a great time catching up with rachael. it has been a long time since we have seen each other. thanks to facebook we reconnected before our last boys were born and have been keeping in touch ever since. rachael and i got to spend some time chatting and reminiscing about our childhood as well. it was a lot of fun and i hope we get to do it again soon. we also got to attend the baptism of our newest nephew, mason and aunalie's birthday this past weekend. the boys have been busy, soaking up anytime they can outside. callan has had some major and wonderful things happen the last few weeks.
he learned how to find his binky in his crib and put it in his mouth. (i mentioned this on the last update but he has mastered it now) i know this sounds like such a dumb thing but it is amazing. i will hear him fuss and then nothing. when i check on him later he is fast asleep with his binky in his mouth. i am not sure our other boys did that or cared to. i am a huge fan of this milestone! another great thing is that he is sleeping 7pm to 7am most nights now. he has the occasional 5am or 6am wake up but for the most part it is 12 hours! i feel like a normal human being now getting decent sleep. he is also sitting unassisted for short periods of time. i don't think it will be that much longer before he is a full time sitter. he has also been able to try squash, sweet potato and peas. the only other food i made that he hasn't tried is the green beans, but they don't look that great so i have been holding off. on the hive front we haven't had any major issues. he still gets a random hive or two but for no rhyme or reason. we are still praying that this is a non-issue and just some stupid phase. he still takes about 3 naps a day about 2 hours apart. that is about all the longer he can be awake before needing to sleep. but every day still seems to be different.
camden is reminding us every day what it is like to be two. our house is filled with whines and tears on a regular basis. the drama that oozes from that child is amazing. he thinks his life is pretty rough and he lets us know that. he is still pretty clingy to me when we are out doing things and is the most stubborn when it comes to picking up toys or eating his food. he has missed many meals for refusing to even try the food. he also likes to dilly dally when it comes to picking up the toys. this leads me to his latest shenanigan. two weekends ago while rachael was here the triplets came over and had a sleep over (for a few hours) in the boys bedroom. although we knew there would be some talking i warned our boys (mainly camden) that if they got out of their beds that they would have to sleep in our room all alone. after about ten minutes camden got out of his bed and went up to carters. so i took him out and put him in our room. needless to say he was not at all happy about this and threw the biggest fit i have ever seen him throw. he was screaming and crying as loud as he could. this went on for quite awhile until he worked himself into such a fit that he starting coughing. this of course led to my child throwing up in my bed. awesome!he did eventually calm down and go to sleep but it was a lot more work than we bargained for. when camden is not under the influence of his older brother you can usually find him playing quietly by himself or sweetly asking your to read or sing with him. i get some alone time with him on mondays and wednesdays while carter is at swimming and callan is asleep and i really cherish that time. he really is a sweet boy underneath the terrible twos.
we had carters parent/teacher conferences last week and they went well. his teacher said he is doing really well and has the social part down. she said the class is unusual because they all play together and they are all friends. i guess they usually pair off and find one or two people they gravitate to. she said he is polite and uses good manners and is a good role model. this is the kind of stuff that makes us as parents feel good and makes us feel like all the hard work we put in during the day is paying off some where, even if it isn't always like this at home. :) it was also fun because we got to see things like the drawing of himself at the beginning of the year (which was just a bunch of scribbles) and now (which is more like a person with arms, legs and a face. even if the arms and legs are sticking out of the head) :) we also got to see how well he did writing and tracing letters at the beginning of the year and how much that has improved. i love watching his academic skills improve and seeing how he puts all of things he learns together. he has been learning a lot about 911 and fires and has been very vocal to us about these subjects. i look forward to hearing all the stories he has to tell me about what he learned at preschool. even though sometimes they are hard to come by. sorry for the really long post. it has been hard to find time to sit down and write.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY FROM THE SCRIBNERS!

We are not doing anything too special for St. Patricks Day this year. Finding green to wear was tough enough. (Camden has on green socks and there is a bit of green on his shirt) Otherwise we played outside a little bit but Camden is not feeling well so it has been a low key day. Carter is sporting lots of green by not only having it on his clothes but he still has green frosting on his chin and apparently on his right eyebrow from his cupcake at preschool. We hope everyone is having a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Sick Kiddo

I have always said that my kids almost never act sick when they are sick. I have never had days where the kids lay around and do nothing. Even though today was no exception, I did find my sick little Camden asleep on the living room floor after reading a book. He was doing his normal Thursday morning play. He was playing quietly while Callan was sleeping and I was making dinner. I noticed it was a bit quiet and looked over to find him like this. I let him sleep there for a little bit but had to wake him to go get Carter from preschool. Poor guy has a fever and cough, but doesn't seem to be too bothered by it. He is eating normal and playing normal. Since this is such a rare occasion at our house I had to post about it.

6 months

We are half way to one! I can't even believe it. Our little baby is turning into a little man! He likes to sit supported but will lean forward on his hands some. He rolls all over the place and I have even seen him bring his legs up underneath himself a few times. One day during nap time I heard him start to fuss and then I didn't hear anything and when I went in later to check on him he had found his binky and put it in his mouth. I wish he did this all the time but we know now that he is capable of doing it. His little hands are grabbing at everything now and he is really enjoying all his toys and all of Carter and Camden's toys. We now have to teach the kids not to give Callan any little toys. He also got to try sweet potatoes and squash this week. We did have a little scare, and maybe we are not even out of the woods, with a hive issue. It started last Sunday when after he ate he got a few faint hives on his face. They went away within an hour and we hoped it would be a fluke. Then the next night we gave him another food and same thing. After a bunch of different trials and different combination's we are pretty sure it is not food causing them. The problem is we don't know what is. He has been hive free after eating for 4 or 5 nights, but has gotten random hives on his face throughout the day. Some days he will get one hive, one time and others, none. It could be dogs, or soap or nothing. We just pray it is not an allergy to anything, especially food, but some weird fluke chronic hive thing. The other good news is that lately he has not been waking up extra at night and he has been pushing his feeding to 5 some nights. This has led to me getting some good sleep. His naps are still nutty but he has been taking some longer ones here and there. Here are his 6 month stats- 17lbs 3 oz 44th percentile Length- 27inches 70th percentile and 17 1/4inches for head. Which is the 51st percentile.

march comes in like a lion...

hanging around

enjoying the *cold* weather

after church

chad found carter reading to camden one morning

reading in our new bed

reading again on the floor

the baskets full of baby food i made

all my stored milk

happy tummy time

all three enjoying tummy time

and hopefully it will go out like a lamb. unfortunately it has been cold again so we have not been outside as much as the kids would like. it looks like this week will be a bit warmer so i am looking forward to that. the last week has been filled with lots of new and fun things. first off we welcomed two babies into this world. one is the kids new cousin mason born last monday to shawn and carrie and the other is our neighbors new baby ava. the kids, especially carter, are very excited about these new babies. carter also got his fill on birthday parties over the last week. both carter and camden got to go to a party twos saturdays ago and then carter went to a party on friday night and saturday morning. both of those parties were for preschool friends. carter had a great time and has been talking about his birthday a lot now. carter has been status quo. we often see him being more and more nurturing to camden and callan, and *talking* to them about how to behave. he also jumps at every chance to say that he is doing something that camden is not. such as "i ate all my dinner and ate with good manners, but camden didn't." we are trying to get him to focus on himself and worry about himself. the funny thing carter said this week was while going to the bathroom at church. chad was with him and he saw the pastor come in and go potty. he turned to chad and said "why is god going to the bathroom?" it was pretty funny to see how his brain perceives the pastor as god.
camden is becoming more clear with his speech and has really started using it to get a lot more things. he has also mastered the words to a lot of songs. just two weeks ago he was hit and miss on some of the lyrics but he knows almost all of them to all of the songs we sing. he also really enjoys singing and will have you sing with him until you can't sing anymore. he is also a willing participant in the dinner prayer. he reminds us to say it and knows all the words now. it is really cute.
i am going to post about callan in my next post since he turned 6 months on sunday. i also need to post that chad and i got a new bed from my parents a few weeks ago and it has changed our life. :) we got a king bed that we both have wanted for a long time. mainly because when i sleep i like to sprawl out and i don't like to touch anyone when i am sleeping. i felt like in our queen bed we were constantly waking each other any time we moved. we both got up several times a night and were tossing and turning a lot. little did we know that having a king bed with a memory foam topper would change our lives. we now have many nights that we don't get up to go to the bathroom because we are not aroused when the other one moves and we both have the freedom to stretch out while we are sleeping. i feel like a new woman, and i *love* my new bed.

Before I was a mom...

I thought this would never happen to me...


I am pretty crazy about what I let out of my kitchen for this above reason. Now that Carter is more responsible and understands what he should and should not do with art stuff I let me guard down a little bit. Carter and Camden were coloring this morning at the table. We left the crayons out after they were done because we were distracted. I went down stairs to put something away and heard Carter yell "daddy look at what Camden is doing." Then I hear Chad yell, "no, Camden, no! no!" I took a deep breath knowing that whatever was going on up there was not going to be good. Little did I know what was really going on. I was so afraid the generic crayon would not come out, but thank God it did. So I got a quick picture of the culprit and his art work.

rollercoaster weather

enjoying nice weather

loving the bikes

matching feety jammies

brothers

playing nice together

with my kids

ALL the boys

It seems like things have been busy over here lately and I blame it on the ever changing weather. We seem to be busier when it is nice outside. Of course we have had some nice days and some bitter cold ones lately. The boys are ready for every day to be an outside day. I am really ready for that as well. They really enjoy their bikes, chalk and just playing in dirt, but most of all they love the neighbors. We are so blessed to live in a great neighborhood with lots of kids. We all tend to meet up at 4pm in our driveways and just let all the kids play. The only downside to this is that I have to be outside as well since it is in the front. But even I have needed some fresh air lately. I feel like I have a big to-do list I need to finish before spring arrives. (then I will have a big spring to do list, such as putting shelves in our garage.) On to the kids. Callan is getting crazy big, and I am reminding myself every day to enjoy every moment. He is growing up so fast. In the last few weeks he has mastered rolling. He is even scooting his body places. He is all over the crib and really enjoys being able to move around. He is sitting for tiny amounts of time, and I am counting the days to when he can do this on his own. I think he will love seeing the world this way. He is still a very happy baby who enjoys taking in the world around him. I weighed him with his clothes on the other day and he was 17lbs 10oz. He is really enjoying his baby food and has tried all of the following: rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, pears, apples, peaches, and carrots. He is eating several ounces of food at about 6pm and he looks forward to it. He knows when he sits in the high chair that he is getting food. He has starting laughing a lot lately. Carter can really get him going, and he is very ticklish. The funny thing is that when you tickle him, he giggles but also seems to have a look on his face like "I don't think I like this." He continues to be a laid back happy baby that goes with the flow. The only exception is sleep. He still naps haphazardly and can wake up several times in the night on a bad night. Usually he goes down (easily) at 7pm and sleeps till 4-430, eats and then back down till 6:30-7am. But for many unknown reasons he can still wake up several times crying, and we don't know why. He is almost six months and I really want him to sleep 12 hours. Is that wishful thinking? Oh well. In another six months I probably won't even remember it.
Carter has been doing a lot of sweet things lately. First of all he has had some times of not crying before Sunday school and swimming. This makes us very happy. Also, he has really been trying to include Camden in a lot of things and making sure he has what Carter has. My mom told me that at story time Carter came up to her and started crying. When she asked what was wrong he said he *lost* Camden. They both looked around the room and when Carter found him he was very relieved. He really wants Camden to come to preschool and swimming with him. I love seeing that they love each other and want the other one around. Carter hit two milestones in swimming the past two weeks. He first got a prize for keeping his face in the water for 5 seconds and then later that week he got to dive for a seashell. This meant he had to submerge his entire body and look for the shell underwater, grab it and bring it to the surface. His reward was to keep his seashell. He felt pretty good about his accomplishment. Carter is also telling some interesting stories lately. They really make you think about how his brain must work. One day at breakfast he asked me if Mrs. Fanton (preschool teacher) had a phone. I said "yes, why do you want to call her?" He says, "only if it is an emergency." I say "what kind of an emergency?" and he says "you know, if we looks a crayon or something." I guess to a child that is an emergency.
Camden is reminding me while I don't like the twos. This sweet, smart little boy knows exactly how to push my buttons, and make me crazy. We have had several battles of the wills this week, and battles they were! His clingy nature is getting worse. Although we did use this to our advantage on Sunday. He was whining in church and talking out loud. So after one timeout I told Chad to take him to the nursery. He hates being away from us so this was a punishment for him. He of course cried, but it only got worse when he found out that he was not going to get a doughnut after church since he didn't behave and sit through church. We had one sad little boy on our hands. We will see if that helps his behavior next week. On the good side of Camden he still loves to have one on one reading time at almost any moment of the day. Curious George and "the monster and the end of this book" being his favorites. He will walk around the house saying "uh-oh" and pointing to Grover stuck under a pile of bricks. He thinks it is funny that when you turned the page you buried him in bricks. He also *loves*singing songs. He can now recite a lot of words to twinkle twinkle, ABC's, ba ba black sheep, jesus loves me, row row row your boat, and if your happy and you know it. He just watches your mouth move and he spits out as many words as he can. He loves to say "like a diamond in the sky" He will keep singing until you are all sung out. He also plays so nice and is such a sweet boy on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when Carter is at preschool. I think he likes the alone time.
That is about all to report for now. We keep praying the the weather turns nice and stays nice. We need a lot of outdoor time!