More Update

Here's super baby! Joshua has discovered his voice and loves to squawk and squeal and we cannot get enough. He is ready with smiles and giggles except in the middle of the night when he wakes up hungry and I have the nerve to change his diaper first, he screams in pure fury and it cracks me up. We love Joshua.

Benny loves our neighbors, we all do, but Benny is obsessed with them. They have three kids named, Tyler, Diana and Will and Ben has sort of lumped them together and refers to them collectively as Tyana. Anyway, he always wants to play with them and the other day he asked if he could go see if they could play. I told him not right then because I had to go shower and then we needed to run some errands. He said, "Okay, I'm just going to go outside to look for bugs." "Okay, but stay in the back yard." The phone rang and after chatting for a few minutes I peeked out back to check on Ben who was no where to be seen. I got off the phone and then called my neighbor and sure enough Benny was there. What a little stink! Also, lately he will get Joshua in a headlock or some other less than gentle gesture and when I tell him to stop he says, "But Mom, he loves me" "Yes he does love you, but you still can't put him in a headlock." We're working on it. We love Benjamin.

The other day Nate walked into my room where I was making Joshua laugh. The baby got giggling so hard and it was so cute. Nate stood there with the biggest grin on his face and then said, "We are sooo lucky." "Why are we lucky?" "Because we have Joshua". I love that my 6 year old gets the magic of our baby. Then again, the other morning he came into the kitchen carrying Joshy and said, "Here Mom, Patches woke up." "Uh, Patches?" (Patches is our guinea pig) "Oh, I mean Joshua!". We love Nate.

For Abby's parent teacher conference the other day I had to bring Joshua with us. When Abby became aware of that she reassured me that she had already talked to her teacher about the fact that even though parents were supposed to try to leave siblings home, there was a possibility her 4 month old baby brother would have to come. I had never mentioned anything about any of this, but found it so funny and so like Abby to have thought it all out and discussed the possibilities with her teacher. "Don't worry, Mom, Mrs. Sutton said it would be okay to bring a baby if we needed to." In so many ways she's about 5 steps ahead of me. If I need to be sure I don't forget something I ask Abby to remind me and can count on it. She's a huge help. We love Abigail.

Anna and Chloe are in full swing of their latest creative venture. They managed to get a good group to sign up for their play. They've scheduled 2 hours each week in our basement for play practice. (When I say "they've scheduled" that's exactly what I mean, I asked to look at the flier right before they went to pass them out). I told them I just couldn't be involved this year, even to answer the door because there's a good chance I'll be feeding the baby. They agreed and so far have kept their word. The first week they did auditions which took about 10 minutes, but they somehow managed to keep their wards entertained for the rest of their 2 hours. They're desperate for boys, but Nate isn't interested so they had to settle for Benny He was willing, but got uninvited after the first hour when he kept trying to sword fight with pool sticks. They are basing this play off a barbie movie of The Princess and the Pauper. In the script they put together based on that movie one of the characters was "Mrs. Madamecarp." They're very cute and very serious about this and I can't wait to see the play. We love Anna.

Update

Last weekend Brennan took the girls down South so they could hang out with Grandma Jamie and Grandpa John while he played in a golf tournament. They left around 4 am Friday morning so they could get there in time for his 10:00 am tournament start time. Around 8:00 Brennan called me to report that they had been in an accident. Thankfully they were all fine, a little shaken up (Anna thought it was pretty exciting, Brennan and Abby were traumatized.) They hit some rough weather and started sliding off the road. Brennan corrected and they slid sideways off the other side of the road which was a big ditch in between the freeways. Miraculously they didn't roll and they and our car, except for two tires, were fine. Also miraculously a passerby happened to have a winch which he managed to pull them out with and an air compressor to get their tires to make it to the nearest town to buy new ones. I am unbelievably grateful that my family was spared. They managed to get to their destination 20 minutes after Brennan's two day golf tournament started. The girls had a great time with their grandparents and Brennan managed to golf, catch up with old friends, and enjoy the girls and John and Jamie.

The boys and I met Macy, (my SIL) and kids at the zoo to freeze to death and see some adorable baby animals. There's a baby elephant and monkey and tigers. I think our favorite was the baby monkey, so tiny and so cute! On the way home Benny was in an exhaustion induced coma, Joshy slept so Nate and I chatted. It was so much fun to get a real look into his life. He told me all about his friends at school and what he does at recess and all those things that I'm always trying to get him to tell me about. We stopped for dinner and grabbed a movie to watch at home. It was so great to be with my boys.

Saturday Nate got to go to a football game and sit in a box with my Did with yummy food. He LOVED it.

Sunday we were happily all reunited and topped off the weekend with dinner and my parents. Life is good.

Just Some Stuff

This post has no rhyme or reason to it, it's just some things I've been thinking about and wanting to record.

First of all, last week I got to have my nephew and two nieces, Rex, Lucy and Molly over for not long enough. I barely saw Rex and Lucy as they disappeared with my big kids soaking up every second they get together. My 2 year old niece Molly however, was all mine. We did puzzles and took care of her doll and just chatted and sang songs. She's amazingly verbal for a barely 2 year old and she knows about 14,000 more song lyrics than I ever will. She talks perfectly, but has a slightly nasal tone that I can't get enough of. She's totally dialed in to everything and everyone around her. It was pure heaven, I LOVE 2 year olds.

Yesterday Eliza and her two littles came over, Abe (3) and Belle (almost 2). Joshy was sleeping so we played a few games with Ben, Abe and Belle and ate lunch and they played in the leaves. It made me so happy. Abe and Ben are so cute together, sometimes they butt heads, but they love each other SO much and most of the time get along so well. Belle is so funny and quirky I could watch her all day long, did I mention I love 2 year olds? I was always so excited to be a mom that I sort of forgot how much fun it would be to be an aunt. I love all my nieces and nephews so much and one of my greatest joys is how much my kids adore their cousins.

I've mentioned before how my oldest brother and his family live in TN so we rarely see them. They were able to come to Grandma's funeral and one of my favorite things about their visit was when their two oldest boys, David (almost 16) and Spencer (14) came over to watch football with Brennan. It made me so grateful for Brennan and how great he is to have invited them over and have so much fun with them. He'll be such a good teenager dad. David and Spencer are both such sweet, good boys it made me excited for teenagers.

Eliza forwarded all of us siblings something my mom saved. It was a family home evening we had back in 1994 where we all said why our other siblings were lucky and my Mom wrote them down and saved it. It was hilarious to see what we envied about each other. My very favorite was for my brother Davis it said "Prestigious job" he worked at DownEast Outfitters. The thing is, it kind of was one of those jobs where cool people worked. So funny. Anyway, the thing that amazes me is that my mom not only wrote them down, she actually saved and was able to find it all these years later. She always did such cute things like that. We have the cutest audio tapes of her asking us questions and our funny answers and cute little voices all throughout our childhoods. Thank goodness for blogs, because if we had to depend of me typing something up, printing it and filing it, we'd be up a serious creek.

For an event at school the kids were encouraged to wear a t-shirt, preferably one they decorated. I think it was for red ribbon week so it was probably supposed to have an anti-drug message, but Anna jumped at the chance to decorate a shirt. She gathered leaves and used them as stamps. I just love her creativity. For some stupid reason the picture keeps showing up upside down no matter what I do.


At Joshua's 4 month appt. my doctor said they've changed their feeding recommendations pretty dramatically. Now we're supposed to start them on solids at 4 mos. This was his first meal with his wheat cereal, he wasn't loving it.

I love this little guy so much, he's so full of smiles and laughter. We're very blessed.

Update

Wow, I can't even tell you how much I have missed having a computer and thereby a connection to my friends and family! Our computer was very, very sick so we bought a new one and I'm so grateful to be connected after a VERY long week.


Joshua turned 4 months old this week! He's chunking right up and as adorable as ever. We love Joshua!


Ben is in that really tricky phase transitioning out of naps. He still kind of needs them, but whenever he does it takes forever for him to fall asleep at night. My sweet, happy boy has been pretty grumpy especially late afternoons and often falls asleep in the car or on the couch which kind of breaks my heart. Why is it so sad to me when little kids are so tired they fall asleep wherever they are? He wanted Nate to help him do something the other day and Nate didn't want to comply. Ben quickly said, "Nate, member we're best buds?" We love Benjamin.


The other day we went to be vaccinated for H1N1 and they were running low on the shots so they wanted to give us the mist. Abby has asthema though and can't have the mist. She started melting down that she had to be the only one to get a shot. Nate quietly said, "Mom, I'll get a shot too so Abby won't be the only one." Oh, he can be so sweet! Brennan and I were able to get shots with Abby and Nate didn't have to. We love Nate.


Abigail loves a boy in her class, well several to be completely. However, one in particular plays with her almost every recess. She gets a sloppy grin on her face whenever she talks about him. The other day she said, "Yeah, it was fafe's dart that found my Cam." She'd heard that phrase only it was "fate's dart" on a tv show and felt it applied perfectly to her. She's a nut. She's also just compiled a book of poetry. Here are a few of my favorites:

#2 - Winter is Fun

Winter is Fun.
Winter is cold.
There is a mess where ever it blowd.

#7 - Hollidays

I love Hollidays, who wouldn't? Special dinners and games with winners!

#12 - Golf

Every day my dad comes home late because he's been golfing neer the lake.

We love Abigail.


Anna has officially gotten to the stage where she really cares about what she looks like. I remember a friend of mine got grounded from hairspray in like 10th grade for a week. Anna doesn't use hairspray or I would seriously consider that. Brennan has threatened we're going to cut off her hair if she doesn't start hurrying in the mornings. He's planning to cut off some blond doll hair and scatter it on her bed so that when she wakes up she'll think he made good on his threat. I'm all for it. I'll let you know how it goes. Instead of their annual dance class/recital for the neighborhood girls this year they're trying to do a theatre class. It's called ACPP (Anna, Chloe Play Production) and they're going to put on a play of Princess and the Pauper. Wow, am I re-living my childhood, this is such my life with my older brother, Braden, who went on to get his Phd at NYU in Children's Theatre. I love that they love this. We love Anna.

Halloween

Our laptop is dying a slow and painful death. I'm kind of dying being cut off. Currently, I'm at my sister's house using hers and getting my fix. Hopefully, we'll get ours fixed or replaced soon. While I have access I wanted to post our Halloween pics. I've also loved seeing everyone else's who's posted.

First we have Joshy the lion patiently putting up with his mother fussing over him.

Here we have Benny, the Storm Trooper or technically I think he's a Clone Trooper, but we prefer the characters and terms from the older
Star Wars movies. Here he is showing his face

Here he is in full fab-leous costume

Nate, the Crocodile Wrestler

Abigail the snowman or snow woman.

Anna as Elvis

Here are my neice and nephew or Man in the Yellow Hat and Curious George, isn't that darling?`

The Gala

Thursday night my parents called to tell us they just found out we were invited to attend the Governor's Gala. Do you pronunce it gay-la or gah-la? They were going, but didn't realize that they could bring their family. A girl in my line of work doesn't get a lot of gala invites, so with 24 hours notice and nothing to wear we set out to make it happen. Brennan borrowed a dark suit from a friend and that just left me.


Friday the kids were out of school so I figured if I could feed the baby and get him settled he always takes a really great morning nap then I could leave the kids with Anna in charge and go shopping and actually try things on.


I fed the baby and just before laying him down Ben needed help going potty. I set Joshy in his bouncy seat just outside the bathroom so I could help Ben. When he finished I stood there watching while he flushed the toilet. For some dumb inexplicable reason it started to overflow. I stood there helplessly for a second then sent Benny out while I ran to the other bathroom for the plunger. I got back just in time to see water pooling all over the bathroom floor. I plunged and it finally stopped. Now I stood in disgusting sewer water thinking that this day was going very differently than I had imagined it. I will also (not proudly) admit that during those types of moments the thought "Where is my good-for-nothing husband! The nerve of him out working hard to provide for our family instead of being here to deal with this sewer water!" tends to go through my head. I called him just to tell him to feel grateful he was at work but then he said that he was at the dump installing dispensers in the bathrooms. Then he told me that there actually was something I could have done. Evidently there's a valve that shuts off the water. Good to know.


I started yelling for the kids to bring towels which were all in the laundry room. They didn't quite sense my urgency, but luckily Ben did and jumped right in to action. Anna, Abby and Nate finally brought me some towels, but Ben stuck by me in the hall making sure I had enough towels and rags. Upon hearing the big kids fighting he even said to me, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll take care of it." Then I heard him say in his best weary exasperated Mom voice, "Guys, what's the matter?" I smiled for a minute until I remembered I was wiping up toilet water. About 50 towels, a LOT of disinfectant, and a shower later I was finally ready to put Joshua to bed and go shopping.


I tend to misplace my keys a lot; however, I rarely really lose them so I didn't panic when I couldn't find them initially. As time went on and my precious window of opportunity ticked by and after searching the diaper bag 37 times, the car 42 times and my usual key drop spot about 73 times panic set in. I offered my kids $5 if they found them, but no such luck. I was defeated and ready to give in. Just then my Mom called and when she heard my dilemma rushed over so I could drive her back home and then take her car. My fairy godmother!

In the end it all worked out. My bathroom floor is cleaner than it has been for quite some time, I managed to find something to wear for very little $$, I even remembered I had a darling dressy outfit for Joshua that someone gave me when Nate was born. It was fun to dress up and see everyone else all dressed up, Joshua was an angel baby, dinner was fancy and I tried scallops for the first time (fyi: didn't like them, I wanted to, but found them to be like fish-flavored marshmellows), we had excellent company at our table, and there was a fabulous program of singing and dancing to some of my favorite broadway numbers. Such a fun night.

One of my handsome dates, wish I would have gotten a picture of Brennan and me, oh well. Isn't he so cute?

Update

Brennan was golfing on Saturday and just as he was about to take a shot he heard a buzzing sound and started panicking and swatting at what he was sure was a bee coming in for the kill. After a few fruitless swats he realized the "buzzing" was actually his phone in his back pocket on vibrate. We love Brennan.

Anna and Chloe spent about 2 hours making Nate over. They put make up and girls clothes and a wig on him hoping they could convince us all that Nate had invited a new school friend, "Brittany" over. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I can't find my memory card. He was quite a sight and a very good sport. Her greatest joy is to scare or trick someone. We love Anna.

A good friend of mine called the other day with wonderful news that they're expecting a baby. When Abby heard this she was so excited and quickly rattled off how perfectly their family matches up with ours. "Emily and Anna, Abby and Abby, Jackson and Nate, Cooper and Ben, their baby and Josh, and Mac (their dog) and Patches!" So like her to include our stinky little guinea pig. We love Abigail.

Nate has his first basketball game tonight. I can't even describe how excited about this he is. This morning as he laid in his bed upon waking up he started yelling, "Who's coming to my game tonight?" My kids are all pretty transparent, especially Nate. This fact has its disadvantages, but I absolutely love this about them when they're happy or excited. We love Nate.

I get excited about Halloween costumes for my kids. I love it when we can think of something unique or especially fitting for them. However, inevitably, each of my kids go through a phase of wanting to be the same thing every other kid that age wants to be. I give in knowing eventually they'll be up for a more fun costume another year. This year Ben has been bound and determined to be a storm trooper. Yesterday I finally bought him the silly costume with the stupid mask that covers his cute little face. Right when we got home he wanted to try it on. He was so excited and as soon I finished helping him get it on I suggested he go look at himself in the mirror. He came running back to me yelling, "I look FAB-LEOUS!" It was the cutest, most sincere, most enthusiastic little utterance ever. I'm so glad I didn't deny him that joy. We love Benjamin.

Joshua is getting more and more delicious every day. He is so quick to smile and laugh and just be plain adorable. I feel like I'm going to explode with how happy he makes me. He's getting pleasantly plump and I can't get enough of him. The other day Benny was shaking toys above him and got him to laugh which made Ben burst out laughing which made me almost die of laughter and joy. I'm sure the three of us on the floor laughing at a few rattles shaking was quite a sight. We love Joshua.