Titan's 2

Leading up to today whenever we would talk about Titan's birthday and ask him how old he was going to be, without hesitation he would ALWAYS say, "freee" (three). And if you didn't know him or how old he actually was going to be you would believe him.  He has the abilities, vocabulary, social skills, memory, and spirit of a child much older than two. 

He is the most joy filled, spirited child I have ever been around. He makes people feel special. I'm not even sure how he does it, he just has an aura about him and you can't help but smile just being near him. It seems like at just the right time when I need it the most, he tackles me or jumps on my back and tries to, "Get mommy!" 

His new favorite thing is when Dan gets home he tells him to, "Get Mommy, Daddy!" Followed by Dan saying, "No problem, Ty" and tackling me and then Titan jumping on both of us. He thinks its hilarious and wants to do it again and again. And he can already take down his big brothers and is quite a dominater in their wrestling matches. The big boys know that they have to be careful with him. He on the other hand brings it 100% and on several occasions I have to go rescue my big boys from their little brother.

Titan Timothy does have some sass in him too. He knows exactly how to irritate his siblings, and nudges Myla just the right way. And I hear my fair share of, "Ti-TAN NOOOO!!!" throughout the day.

He has embraced his role as a big brother and a middle child with ease. He now shares a room with Jett and when I go to get them both out of bed in the morning he is just talking or singing to Jett. Then usually the first thing he says is, "Where Daddy at?" or "I hear Rex, Myla, Quinn." He always loves to be in middle of the action.

 

He looks up to his older siblings a lot. I love watching how he loves each one of them. He is a skilled Ninja Turtle player and has great Barbi playing abilities. He is a go getter though and won't sit down for very long. 

I don't ever feel like Titan was much of a baby. I don't think that it's because he can't wait to grow up, I just think it's because he loves being included and involved in everything going on. We LOVE his personality. We LOVE his desire to constantly be at the center of all that's going on in our crazy life. We LOVE his tackling hugs and his slobbery kiss. He is our favorite two year old in the world.

Blessed beyond words to get to love this boy every day. We could not be more proud of the little man that he is becoming. We cannot wait to see how his joy filled, go-getter, determined personality will carry him through life. Titan Timothy you are a DELIGHT. Could not be more thankful to be his momma!

Happy 2nd Birthday Titan.

Rachael

There are not very many childhood memories that I have that don't include Rachael Gassman. The Gassman family moved down the street from us when I was two. They had three girls, we had three girls. Rachael and I were 3 months apart and best buds. 

Our families grew up spending weekends together, seeing each other on Christmas day, some Thanksgivings, playing on traveling soccer teams together, traveling to gymnastic meets, going to their cabin, going to church on Easter day and brunch and then flying kites together every year. We have yearly pictures of the 6 of us little girls in our Easter bonnets and gloves together. So many memories.

Rachael and I rode the bus together every day, and then got rides with her Dad to school and then drove to school together. Although college took us our separate ways, Rachael to Montana and myself to Iowa we still would call each other on our birthdays to catch up. November 28th will not pass without me remember Rach. And although life has caused us to talk less and less she is still someone who I am truly thankful for and feel so blessed to have so many memories with. 

When I heard Rachael was getting married I knew it was going to be one wedding I couldn't miss!

I had never met Phil until the wedding but the smile on Rachael's face makes it apparent that he's quite a guy!

It was a beautiful outdoor wedding right on the lake. Perfect for us Minnesotans, something people in Iowa just can't understand.

And here are the Gassman/Miller Girls!

Rebecca, Jessie, Dana, Rachael, Meg and Kelly

So thankful that I got to go and celebrate a beautiful day with a beautiful friend! I hope that someday my kids have as many good memories with their friends that I have with Rachael and the Gassman girls. Old friends, sweet memories!

Fashion

I pick my battles.

Before I was a mother I always imagined my children dressed just as cute as can be. And although I do believe that my children are just as cute as can be, and quite often they are dressed as cute as can be, clothing is one of the battles I choose not to fight most days.

I live with three little boys (one day Jett will care too) who love to wear basketball shorts EVERY day, all year round. They like to pair up black basketball shorts with navy jerseys, and tall socks.

There are times throughout the week that I pick their outfits and there is no arguing with momma, but as soon as they are allowed, they change back into basketball shorts.  

My daughter is pretty funny when it comes to clothing. Some days she is, "Fancy Nancy," and the next days she's in basketball shorts with pearls. 

And then there are some days that are just "Pink Cowboy Boot" kind of days!

And some days are "pink cowboy boot, band-aid in the middle of your head, and tons of beaded bracelets and necklace," kind of days. 

Don't you ever have days like that? Where you just need a band-aid in the middle of your forehead?

And then there are days in the middle of summer where your daughter puts on sweatpants and no shirt and your boys put on winter hats and gloves and they dance around the house. Do you ever have those days?

And I know that we all have days that we wish we could just put on rain boots and a diaper and run around like crazy.... or that could just be Titan. He has lots of rain boots and diaper kind of days. But when you're this cute in rain boots and a diaper you should wear them as much as possible.

My kids might not always have matching clothes on (except on Sundays) but they are usually ready to play any sport, splash in any puddle or wrangle any horse.

Sweetest kids in the world.

I love being their momma!

Like Father, Like Son

Quinton just did his first organized t-ball league. If there was one sport that Dan just loved playing it was baseball.

Like father, like son.

 

Quinton did a two week t-ball team through the parks and rec and has seemed to enjoy it. The heat has made a game or two a little long (like where five year olds decide to sit down and draw in the sand on the field). It was a fun and very casual way to introduce him to a few more ideas of the game than just hitting and catching. And he thinks that he is just the coolest kid around because he's on an official t-ball team.

As I checked him in the first day I teared up. He has done several other activities but for some reason t-ball just makes me think he is so old. I also came to the realization that over the next 18 years I am going to spend hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours sitting in bleachers cheering on my children. I can't even wrap my mind around five kids all doing sports at the same time, going five different directions, having five different games and five different teams. The future holds lots of fun times for this Rude family. Two weeks of t-ball was a good prep for starting soccer in the fall. 

I remember some of the first times going to Dan's parents house when we were dating and his mom would pull out articles from high school when he was in the paper for sports. I think she was trying to impress me! Totally worked! I'm a sucker for a guy in a jersey! 

Here was some of Quinton's cheering section.

Rex looking for bugs while watching.

Check out this stud!

I was so proud of Quinton and his attitude and how hard he tried.

Maybe next year he will get a full uniform and look like his daddy.

What a guy I married!

And someday if Quinton decides that he likes baseball he could again look like his daddy, like father, like son.

Or maybe this will be one of my other children. Excited to see what the future holds, but today I'm content cheering my children on in my front yard. I'm in no rush for tomorrow!

5 Months

5 Months doesn't get any cuter than this!

My sister Kelly suggested that we nickname Jett, Harry Potter. Jett's room for the past month or so has been our closet. We moved a couple of things out of our closet and into our room and moved his pack in play into the closet. Sleep is VERY IMPORTANT FOR EVERYONE! We have three bedrooms upstairs in our house. Our three big kids share a room and then Titan is by himself. Jett can't join Ty until he sleeps the same 8pm-8am (he's getting really close!). Titan will be so excited to have a roommate. He desperately wants to go sleep with the big kids.

I laugh to myself regularly thinking about how much time I spent getting Quinton's room ready and Jett sleeps in my closet. He doesn't seem to bothered by it. Loved the same, just different accommodations. I'm fairly certain Jett will be better off having slept in such a special little room. 

His 4 month stats (which were two weeks late) he came in as a tall, skinny boy with a big head! And that tall, skinny boy is my perfect little man. If I had to guess who he was going to be built like I would guess the one that he looks like, Quinton. Jett's eyes are still a BRIGHT blue. Daily I am told what beautiful blues eyes he has, to which someday he will say, "I got them from my momma!"

I continue to be in awe of what an incredible little man he is. As long as he can see all the action he is totally content. He may never know the meaning of personal space because right now he doesn't have any. Even after five months his older siblings can't wait to hold him, help me get toys for him, snuggle him, feed him a bottle and talk, talk, talk to him.

I have attempted rice cereal a couple of times and each time he takes a bite or two and then has no interest. For a while feeding babies food tends to be quite time consuming and can be inconvenient. It is just so easy breast feeding or bottle feeding. On the flip side, I love the puff stage when you give them a little puff and they can suck on it forever. Someday Jett will eat food, I'm in no rush.

5 months of sweetness. Can't wait for many more!

6 Years

6 years of being married to the most incredible man. I mean seriously, he is incredible. I have never met a harder working person in my whole life. Since much of my life revolves around superheros, it would only make sense to compare Dan to a superhero so you all can get a better understanding of the man I married. He's kind of like a real, live Superman. He leaves for work before most people even wake up, he flies through his day loving the Lord, loving people, swooping home if he happens to be driving by to give me a kiss, take a child for a loop on a bike, change a diaper, he loves the hard to love, sacrifices sleep to talk through situations with people, and loves me, serves me, and showers each of our five children with so much love. They adore their fun loving, always ready to play daddy.

one of our first pictures together

 not quite sure what was going on with my bangs in this next one...

6 years of learning how to best love each other. Although I am still crazy in love with my husband, even more than I was when I said, "I do!" six years ago, love is an action. It has to be more than a feeling in order for marriage to thrive. It's cool to see how Dan and I have each grown in learning to love each other, learning to love what's important to the other person, learning to speak each others love language. 

6 years of adventure. I don't think that either of us would have believed it if someone had told us that we would have five kids in five years, lived in two different houses, been a part of an amazing church that has grown tremendously, had children in the hospital multiple times, taken many long road trips with lots of little kids, survived hours awake at night together while feeding Rex and Myla (and watching Cake Boss), lived through lots of chaos and sweet noise and so much more. Our life is an adventure and I can't think of anyone else I would rather be on this adventure with!

6 years of being Rude. I can't say that Rude is that last name that I imagined having when I got married, mostly because my sisters and I always talked about cool Italian sounding last names, but it fits and I like it.

6 years of fun dates and late night talks. 6 years of being lovers, best friends, labor's for the Lord, parents, each others biggest fans.

6 years, I AM BLESSED! 

Titan Timothy

Titan Timothy is our party dude and a perfect forth child. Age is just a number when it comes to Titan and he doesn't let it define what he can or cannot do. Anything his older siblings can do, Ty can do. Titan has been like that since he was born.

Titan stayed warm inside of me the longest of any of our children 38 weeks and 6 days. Our biggest baby weighing 8lbs 14oz, he came out rough and tough and ready to party. He was rolling over when he was just 6 weeks old and smiling from 3 weeks. He has continued that trend throughout his life and seems to just dominate anything he puts his mind to, walking at 10 months, climbing ladders, jumping off stairs, sitting in a big boy chair. He an incredibly driven and active little man who refuses to be left behind.

I have been told more times than I can count that people just enjoy watching Titan because he has such a fun personality and joyful spirit. I an unaware of a happier and more fun child to be around. He is just delightful.

Titan has a unique ability to remember people's names and situations with people, combine that with his love of being around people and his incredible smile and you've got yourself one social and sweet boy.

One of Merriam Webster definitions of a titan is: one that stands out for greatness of achievement. I think that our Ty lives up to that definition.

Despite being a big brother now, he is still my baby and my heart delights in him.

This is Titan's new updated page. It was about time. The last time I wrote about him was when he was a couple months old. Time flies! Love our little party dude!