Ready for School

This week has been filled with getting ready for school to begin. We are all just so excited for Ethan to start the first grade. And while he's weary about the fact that he has to go EVERY day, he's still pretty excited! We find out who his teacher will be today and that should be fun. We're hoping for a friend or two from church or the neighborhood in his class this year.

Grammy has been here all week to help us out after Aidan's surgery, which went great. If I ever have surgery I'm definitely going to try for the pediatric unit. It was great treatment for the little guys. Video games, videos, teddy bears, wagon rides, bubble gum scented "gas" to go to sleep with, you name it!

To get us out of the house a little bit and distract Aidan from his discomfort, we have spent the rest of the week watching movies, buying school shoes, making cakes, and generally anything that is a "quiet activity." But now, he seems all better and we think we better let him release some energy today, or we'll all go nuts! I think we may head to the "soft" playground in the mall today where he can't get bonked too bad. Anyway. . .

That is our week! Nothing terribly exciting! (thank heavens!!!) I'll report again soon!

Tired Mama

I am one tired mama! Hence, I've had no energy for blogging the past week! Gordon spent three days out of town on a backpacking trip with his boy scouts, and the three boys and I spent the week cleaning out closets, getting ready for school, and thinking of fun places to eat dinner, because I refused to cook! :)
The boys started soccer this week, and have really been enjoying that. We have some friends with six children of school age, and they were sick of paying the hundred fifty dollars per kid, plus uniform to the city league, so last year they started their own league. We got permission to use the stake center Field, and there are about 160 children from all over the community participating this year. The teams are parent coached, just like the city league, and we made goals out of PVC pipe. The cost? $12 per child, and that includes the uniform and the end of season pizza party. It is awesome! They are both just loving it!
I am in my last week of the first trimester, which is nice. One third down. . . and the fun trimester coming up. Less nausea, less whizzing, more energy, and actually starting to look pregnant instead of like I've put on 15 lbs. Very fun. . . It's my favorite, before the pain begins. . .
Chandler graduated from the height chair this week, and into his booster seat at the big boy table and has been eating better than ever since we made the switch. It's kind of fun. We also put the chairs back up to the table as he's not so dangerous now, and that's nice, not to have to use folding chairs anymore! Yea!
Grammy is coming to town today to help take care of the guys with me. Aidan's having a little outpatient surgery tomorrow and it will be so nice to have her here for that! Hurray for Grandma's! Have a good one. . . I'll try to update more frequently!!!

my 100th Post!

Wow! I can't believe this is my hundredth post! If I had to give it another title, I'd call it a "mish mash" of the last week. Here goes!

Here are the photos of the Blue Angels air show. It was such a hit! The boys walked and walked to get to the spot where they were told they would meet the pilots after the show, and then all the pilots came walking by, hopped in a van, and drove away, right to the spot where the guys had been standing! 15 minutes of more walking, and they finally got to meet them! They were just beaming when they got home and the pilots signed their special shirts!

Here is Ethan with the "city" that he built out of the school supplies we purchased for him. I can see already that this is going to become a major expense as we get more and more children in school. The list was insanely long! (don't get me started) and then there's the fact that they don't let you label anything, it all just goes into a big class pot. Which means we get to buy scissors, pencil sharpeners, calculators, etc. . . EVERY YEAR. Like I said, don't get me started. . . I'm sure this is convenient for the teachers and such, but it's a rip off for the parents!

Here is Aidan teaching Chandler to play baseball. It is so cute! He hangs the whiffle ball from his finger and lets him go for it! Luckily, he hasn't been hit in the nose yet! Look at that tongue! I think he is channeling Cami here, our little friend from when we lived in NY. That girl has the cute tongue thing down. . .

And finally, we had lots of fun this week playing with our friends wagon. I had to borrow a wagon to haul coolers full of water to the park across the street for a Girls Achievement Activity. It was a huge success! You can see pictures of the giant water slide I made HERE (on Keren's blog - she was the only one with a camera!). Anyway, after the activity, the boys had a wonderful time hauling the wagon around the backyard, especially with the babies inside! They loved it! Chandler even tried to pull little Carolyn for a while. What a gentleman!

Oh wait! One more thing! I almost forgot I promised to post this for Grammy and Grampy. Here is Ethan practicing his talk he gave yesterday in Primary. He is the only child in his class who will stand up at the podium and just give his talk without a parent whispering in his ear. We're pretty proud of the little guy. He helped write the talk and did a fantastic job!

A post of Good News!

Ah, what a breath of fresh air after the last two posts! Things have been going more smoothly here over the last few days. We've been running to and from little sports camps this week, and having some rest.



And now for some news! We're so excited to announce that our family is growing again! I finally made it into the doctor today and everything seems great so we're ready to announce! We told the boys tonight and they are so excited and both the big boys have made it very clear that they are hoping for a girl. We'll see what this little one has in mind in about 8 weeks or so. I'm about 12 weeks along right now, and they did a little ultrasound to confirm my due date of March 3rd, (the day before my birthday) and I got to see the little guy all wiggling around and kicking his arms and legs. (I say he because hey, I can only assume, right? :) I showed the boys the ultrasound pic and Ethan was commenting that we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl yet, and Aidan said, "Yea, because it doesn't have any hair yet." If I see any pig tails in the ultrasound I'll let you know! We are just so excited, if not a little overwhelmed at the prospect of raising four rambunctious kids!



As far as how things are going - just normal for me. A little queasy here and there, constantly exhausted, and that's about it. Except for the cotton mouth. This is a new symptom for me and it's driving me nuts! I constantly feel like I've just eaten a giant jar of pickles, and yet I haven't. I'm hoping it will disappear as mysteriously as it appeared about 10 days ago.



Happy day! I can't believe we're going to be a family of 6!!!

A fun quiz for the blogging comunity to take. . .

58%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Dating Site

Mahina, I want to see your results! You really are an addict!!!

What could be worse, part 2 & 3

Part 2

What could be worse than cleaning up five gallons of liquid laundry detergent? Well today I'm going to go with cleaning up five gallons of broken glass.

Last night the boys were taking a shower. Just when I thought they were old enough to handle a shower by themselves, too. . . We heard the shower door slam about 3 times, and Gordon went running in. I heard him yell, "Stop Aidan!" and then one more big slam and Ka-Pow! Our shower door in 10kazillion pieces. We got the kids out, who were buried in broken glass, and showered them off in the other shower, and sent them straight to bed. Then we got to work for an hour cleaning up endless shards of broken glass. Ah, it was finally cleaned up. Let's go have a rest. . .

Part 3

What could be worse than cleaning up five gallons of broken glass? How about cleaning it up twice? Right after we finished, Gordon took the bucket off the toilet seat and started to walk down the stairs. He hit the first stair, and the handle on the bucket broke off, and down, down, down, went the bucket of glass. So began cleanup number two. After that, I was really ready for bed!

Okay, I promise my next post will be full of good cheer and fun things. . . at least I hope!!! I need a break!

What could possibly be worse. . .

. . .than waking up on Saturday morning with about 10 loads of laundry to do, and not a drop of detergent? Well, please allow me to enlighten you!

We ran off to Costco this morning to get detergent right as they opened, and then ran home, started a load, and then left the house to go help Uncle Jeremy paint his house. Upon returning, we found the entire washroom area flooded in 5 gallons of liquid concentrate detergent about a half an inch deep. OH MY YUCK. Somehow it fell off it's shelf and busted open.

An hour later, 12 bath towels, every kitchen towel in the house, major mopping, moving the washer and the dryer. . . it's finally cleaned up. And now, I once again have no laundry detergent (except in the soaked towels, which I plan to use to do the loads) and now about 5 more loads of completely soaked towels to add to the mess. And the fun goes on and on. . .

Quivering with Excitement!

So, the air show is back in town! Gordon and I had great fun plans to go out of town this weekend with the family to visit with some friends on the coast, and then. . . the Navy Blue Angels. Zooming around over our house for hours a day, flying in formation, shaking the very foundations of our house. (How the baby sleeps through this, I will never understand!) Sonic booms, a dive bomber flying in and landing here and there, you name it, the air show has come to town. Lucky for us (well, I guess that really depends on how you look at it - and if you have 3 little boys) we live about 2 and a half miles from the airport where this all takes place. So, we get to see them all pull into town, and then practice. It's quite the exciting stuff! So, the boys are so excited that all I hear is "oh Mom! Here they come!" "OOOhhh!!! Four of them!!!" "Mom! Come quick!!! The landing gear is down and everything!!!" So, we canceled our plans to go to the coast (after much begging and pleading) and we're taking them to the air show. They are literally giddy with excitement.

Yesterday Ethan asked me if I could sew him a special Navy Blue Angels shirt to wear to the show, to which I said, "I think not. That sounds like a big project." And, his shoulders slumped and he was SO dissapointed he didn't have a special shirt to wear. So, I rounded up some old blue T-shirts and let them go to town with fabric markers and now they are all air show outfitted. It's so cute to see them SO excited about something. Honestly I don't know if Christmas was this good!

POW!!!

na-na na-na na-na na-na na-na na-na na-na na-na. . .

Bat Baby!

And Monkey baby, all in the same day! What a fun little guy!

Fast Food Philosophy

So today we were enjoying a quickie lunch on the run when Aidan posed the age old question. . .

A: Mom, what is Wendy's all about?
Mom: What do you mean?
A: You know, what are they all about? Maybe Chicken?
Mom: I am confused. They make food for us to have for lunch, is that what you mean?
A: (exasperated that I am not understanding his every meaning) No mom, you know like In-n-out is "all about" hamburgers? They can't both be all about hamburgers!

And then he sang for me. . .

In-n-out, In-n-out,
That's what a hamburger's all about!

I guess he's been well taught by his So. Cal mommy! (and his Daddy that can't get enough in-n-out!)

Weekend Update

Hello one and all. We spent the last two days up in Olympia, WA having lots of fun and adventures. Much of Gordon's extended family lives up there, so it was fun to go and see the great grandparents, and an Aunt here and there too. . .

On Saturday afternoon we visited Grandma Willis, Gordon's Grandmother.

Then it was off to the Thurston County fair for fun and games. These guys were my favorites. . .

But the boys had an affinity for this kind of stuff. . . The looks on their faces are totally them. Ethan was looking a bit nervous and queasy, and Aidan was "woo hooing" and loving every minute of it!

We stayed just long enough to ensure everyone was exhausted, and then off to explore our hotel, always an adventure with the kids! They love it. We all went to bed at 9, and then this morning we went to visit Aunt Lynn and Tara, and then off to Great Grandma and Grandpa Tolman's this afternoon. (Gordon's Grandfather)

Lots of fun, lunch at Sizzler, and then three very tired little boys into the van for the drive home. We're exhausted but had a great time!

What a Week!

Phew! It's over! The week of craziness. So much for a relaxed summer atmosphere. We've been running around town like crazies. Okay, really it hasn't been that bad, but we were a bit overscheduled this week. We had basketball class every morning, from 8:30 to 9:30, way across town. Then, we had an hour off, in which we did many things like run to the grocery store, dry cleaners, etc. Then we ran home, changed into swimsuits, and hit the pool from 11 to 12 for swimming lessons. Home at 12:15 for lunch, Chandler's ready for his nap from 1-4, time to make dinner, the day is over. I am exhausted. I am excited for next week when it slows down to just swimming. One activity a morning is about all I can handle right now! But, I must say that Basketball was a blast. They learned a lot and made some fun new friends. And, every time they scored a basket, the little girl on their team would yell "Team Hug!" and they would all rush to the middle to celebrate. It was halarious!

Chandler is glad it's all over and he's not trapped in the car seat, stroller, car seat, stroller, any more. Poor kid!

Here's some fun pictures of the kids with Cousin Carolyn. Aidan's favorite thing right now is giving her hugs, and he is always insisting that we run and get the camera because she is being so cute and hugging! It's very sweet. She'll sit and hug him for five minutes. What a snuggler!

Not to be outdone, Chandler and Ethan also got in for a little hugging action. . . But Aidan's still her favorite!Riding the airplane. . .
And now for your viewing pleasure, here is Chandler, just being Chandler. He loves to do semi-dangerous things like this. That little smile just says to me, "Oh, look at me mom! Standing dangerously on the arm of the couch! I may fall at any moment!!! What you gonna do about it?" Oh, story of my life with Chandler. He's constantly finding something bigger and better to climb. this week it was the bunk bed ladder, which he promptly fell off. I wasn't aware he had mastered that skill yet, so it was a bit of a surprise. I've been keeping the boys bedroom door closed since that happened. Luckily he wasn't hurt! But it did scare him a bit, which I think may have been good for him! :) Anyway, here's Chan-man!