Twinmint

Moo!

2010-11-02T22:53:00.000-04:00

So, yeah. The boys had a great birthday party at Chick-fil-a. Back in August. Here you go. :)

They were a little excited. Teehee!

Everyone got to meet the Chick-fil-a cow.

The workers refused to share the gender of the cow when asked by all the kids.

Some cousins were a little intimidated by the cow.

Singing Happy Birthday with the cow.

Lots of generous gifts were opened.

And fun was had by all. BY ALL!

And a super-cool cake was served!

Fabulous Fall Fun

2010-10-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

Hopefully someday I'll get around to posting some pictures we've taken over the beautiful summer we've just ended, and from the boys' birthday party... In the meantime, here's a peak at our first official celebration of fall. We went to the pumpkin patch with Grammy, Aunt Brianna, Laura Anne, and Caleb again this year. This time, Aunt Sheri and Stellan got to come too! For consistency's sake, we happened to choose another day with highs in the 90s. (No editing here. I'm just flinging them up, quick as a bug.)

This is Isaac. This is Isaac some seven feet in the air, climbing a horizontal ladder.

This day goes down in the books.

Finally, just some recent sweetness. I can't resist these shots of them vegging out together. And in pj's? Come on.

Sweet sibling fun. Anna is finally ready to really get in there and rowdy with her big brothers. These three were doing all kinds of adorable tumbles.

Dependence

2010-10-01T19:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, so God is our all-in-all, and the only One we need. But He gave us relationships for a reason, right?

Atmosphere

2010-08-18T14:06:00.033-04:00

I like to think today has been one of a sweet and learning atmosphere around here. We got to do some cool sand art from our neato Toy Story 3 project box from Aunt Nicole. (These pics are from the other day when we got to do tattoos and decorated 3-D foam punchout characters.)

Can you tell this was her first time with Playdoh? Yes, that's what's dribbling down her chin.

We also got to make some shortbread cookies together. We used our neato animal cookie-cutters from ♥IKEA♥. Unfortunately, the boys weren't too excited about the taste - I think I overbaked them. But they loved making them and agreed to try them again next time, when I cook them better. :)

We got to read together, something that's been a little neglected lately. We all miss it very much, so I'm jazzed to have it a priority again.

My princess and I got to spend some alone time together, since the lawn guys were outside interrupting her nap. All. Day.

After plenty of playing with our awesome new train set, we packed up and headed to church. We all love our church so much, but Wednesday nights are our favorite. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to their teachers, as they will be promoting to their new classes next week.

To top it all off, the boys got to cheat and watch some cartoons after church, too.

I am so very excited to finally be able to hibernate in our house for a while. I love my sweet babies and have missed alone time with them so much these last few weeks. I can count on my hand the number of days in the last two months that we've been able to stay home all day. It's been a great summer of fun and a little adventure, but I'm definitely ready for a time of peace.

We miss our daddy very much already though. He's our strength and comic relief.

Slowly but surely absorbing some Charlotte Mason goodness... Humbling stuff right here:

“That he should take direction and inspiration from all the casual life about
him, should make our poor words and ways the starting-point from which, and
in the direction of which, he develops—this is a thought which makes the best
of us hold our breath. There is no way of escape for parents; they must needs
be as ‘inspirers’ to their children, because about them hangs, as its atmosphere
about a planet, the thought-environment of the child, from which he derives those
enduring ideas which express themselves as a life-long ‘appetency’ towards things
sordid or things lovely, things earthly or divine” (Parents and Children, pp. 36, 37).

Grace, Grace, God's Grace...

2010-08-16T21:06:00.000-04:00

On my mind a lot lately. And C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain has been an amazing study in God's goodness and what it means. The clearer thoughts below are from him. God is good. In our finite, created minds we don't know what good actually means.

God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good.

One of those sayings we believers share as a sort of pep-talk. But do you notice, we usually mention it when we've come out of a challenge or prayer-filled season of life with favorable results? The results we were hoping for that would be most convenient, comfortable, or safe? Not to say those aren't great things to pray for. But how often do we remind each other that God is good when we aren't exactly enjoying His responses?

Good doesn't simply mean kind. Kindness, when taken to its extreme, is more akin to hate. Kindness means you desire total comfort, fun, "happiness", and ease for the one you are kind to. If this is what you limited someone's or something's life to (as if it were possible), they'd never grow. Physical growth hurts. Mental growth frustrates. Spiritual growth is agonizing sometimes.

God is good.

I have a lot more to note on this topic, mostly from this amazing book, but I have to go back and review, then finish it up. I haven't been able to read it in a couple of weeks, so I'm dying to get back into it.

Please.

Read.

This.

Book!

Susannah Wesley's 16 Rules

2010-08-10T22:28:00.002-04:00

I only just now found this site, so I have no comment on it itself yet, but I love this list they provided. These are the sixteen rules Susannah Wesley had for her home and child-rearing. I love them because they are sensible and just put into words a lot of what we feel are the important rules around here, though we've failed to properly and simply outline them like this. Excepting a couple of them, like #1, #2. And there are a couple I know are major weaknesses on my part, but I do commit to be better at.

1. Eating between meals not allowed.

2. As children they are to be in bed by 8 p.m.

3. They are required to take medicine without complaining.

4. Subdue self- will in a child, and those working together with God to save the child's soul.

5. To teach a child to pray as soon as he can speak.

6. Require all to be still during Family Worship.

7. Give them nothing that they cry for, and only that when asked for politely.

8. To prevent lying, punish no fault which is first confessed and repented of.

9. Never allow a sinful act to go unpunished.

10. Never punish a child twice for a single offense.

11. Comment and reward good behavior.

12. Any attempt to please, even if poorly performed, should be commended.

13. Preserve property rights, even in smallest matters.

14. Strictly observe all promises.

15. Require no daughter to work before she can read well.

16. Teach children to fear the rod.

Yes, we are alive

2010-06-21T23:17:00.001-04:00

There have been many comings and goings around here the last couple months. I think I will eventually get back into making notes on here from time to time, but in the meantime I wanted to say hi!

These little crazies are all doing very well lately and are just getting funnier, smarter, sweeter, and cuter every day!

I'm sorry, what's that sound?...

2010-04-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

Oh, that's just the sound of both of our boys trying to sound out tons of words in one of their picture word books tonight. Yeah, that's all...

I'm flying high! It's just a step, one of many more to come, but it is a huge step! And the fact that they were both into it, almost equally, floors me! It's becoming quite clear that these two learn pretty differently, and it's freaking me out. So to make a leap like this at the same time calms me down a lot.

That's all...

Today our boys were...

2010-04-21T22:22:00.001-04:00

Cracking all of us up with general silliness and repetition of: "I'm making a joke!" *insane giggling* "I'm making a joke!"

Sharing incredibly intelligent conversation and comments.

Dishing out wonderfully sweet dialog, including randomly complimenting each member of the family in some fantastic way at least once, and encouraging each other. That's something that both makes me proud and melt from the cuteness of: my boys love to tell each other how great they are doing at something. If one cute little boy is coloring, building something with legos, or pedaling his bike, he has a cute little boy cheerleader at his side to keep him going strong.

Being much more attentive and obedient most of the day. I guess I should take into consideration the fact that they did take a nap today and then spent a couple hours in someone else's care at church, hehe. That might have made the day seem a little easier. But really, they were very good today.

Begging me to do school and squealing with joy when it was time. And then squealing again when we talked about how we get to do it again tomorrow. I am loving this eagerness!

Joyfully playing with their baby sister and giving her the best afternoon. The look on her face when they are purposely spending time with her is priceless. She looks like she feels like their equal.

Being friendly and so silly at church, greeting everyone we walked by and cracking up their teachers.

Making bonds with friends. They have always been pretty independent kids in group settings, like at church. I think it's partly because they know they always have each other at home and stuff, so they felt no pressure to connect with other kids when they were there. Also because they were just quiet little men. But now they are starting to blossom and show an interest in their friends' whereabouts and personalities. Tonight they shared with me which kids they played with, what they said, when they didn't share, and who else played with whom. It's so exciting and scary at the same time. I know some of these kids' abilities to be hurtful at times, and I just wish I could be a kangaroo momma forever and protect them from every single hurt!

Admiring the adorableness of some younger siblings of their friends. I can tell they genuinely see the beauty in a smaller kid attempting to communicate and be sweet to them and I love it!

Growing in leaps and bounds. This was one of those days when I totally get how almost every parent thinks their preschooler is a genius because of the intense leaps they make in intelligence. I have long noticed patterns in their learning curves. They seem to hit a plateau of sorts, when they are processing and playing. These last weeks or months. Then they suddenly rock my world, busting out with crazy insights and maturity. Parenting is one of God's most amazingly wonderful plans, and I am so incredibly thankful that I get to be in on it!

Today

2010-04-15T20:53:00.001-04:00

...we went on a fairly successful Walmart run (meaning we only got in the way of 4 or 5 other customers with our random running in circles up every aisle).

...we stopped by the library for a quick stop and some Thomas the Tank Engine books. Frankly, I am so sick of them and hate the way they read. But the boys keep checking out the same derned ones. One of them is basically the Thomas Bible, at a whopping 508 pages.

...we got some more parts of our fun handwriting stuff in the mail - the wooden lines and curves we'll use to play games and make letters with.

...we "dressed up". She requested each of these accessories - bib included - be added to her outfit as we played together this afternoon.

...we unwrapped our beautiful tulips from their protective plastic and enjoyed their beauteous beauty. And thought about what a wonderful man we have in our family.

...we enjoyed our snack and some productive playtime on the patio, out in the gorgeous spring air.

...we marveled at the wildlife on our patio. This butterfly has been flailing around back there for something like a week. He's very interesting, with a big fluffy white body and crazy yellow antennae. (I've now researched, and it's a Luna Moth. This is the one in the Lunesta commercials.) I thought it was nearly dead the first time we saw it on the ground, twitching. Then I saw it flopping around a couple days later. And now it's found its way up the wall, where it's barely twitching when blown upon. And the frog didn't look like he was feeling too good either.

...we fended off a fever in an already demanding little girl. It started last night at 101 and hovered under 100 throughout today. Thank God for acetaminophen. And spell check.

...we dissected a Honeybaked Ham and a rotisserie chicken to freeze most of them. I got some good deals on them, but being a "single mom" with picky kids means I have to save most of it for later.

...we watched tv and ate popcorn after dinner. We've avoided tv use for several days now, and Thursdays tend to be the hardest for me as far as loneliness and lack of energy to entertain them. So we vegged tonight.

...was a pretty decent day!

It's Here!!!!!

2010-04-09T22:45:00.001-04:00

We received our Sonlight Curriculum box this morning! We were all so ecstatic when the FedEx man rang our doorbell and we dragged the box into the living room and opened it up and caressed all the new books!

The boys didn't know anything was coming. They aren't that surprised anymore when we get a package - it seems I've been ordering something online every week lately - but when they could tell I was extra excited about this one, they were bouncing all over the place and squealing to have it open. Basically mimicking me, heh.

I spent a lot of the rest of the day feasting on the instructor's guides and setting up my binder. (Today was the day the kids stayed at Grammy's.)

I ordered the preschool 4/5 curriculum, which has read-alouds that cover language arts, history, science, and social studies, at least as much as a preschool curriculum can. It also comes with some workbooks that show their strengths and weaknesses in perception and stuff - very fun looking.

I also ordered a pre-kindergarten level handwriting readiness program that is so much fun: Handwriting Without Tears. They do handwriting up through elementary school, but I just got the preschool stuff. It uses all their senses to help them absorb the fundamentals of writing in general and capital letters. There are hands-on wooden curves and lines that we build fun stuff with, and then start building letters with. There is a song CD with all kinds of fun stuff on it, like left-right, letters start at the top, and so on. There is a mini chalk slate that you do a Wet-Dry-Try practice on to start drawing the letters.

I also ordered the language arts program for kindergarten. This is supposed to be ordered with their little kindergarten reader books that the kids start to read on their own as soon as they learn just a few letters. But those had bad reviews, so elsewhere I ordered the Bob Books that do the same thing (those arrived today too!). But the language arts stuff is what I'll use to teach them the letters and their sounds, and all kinds of other fun stuff about words and how we use them.

I know it might seem crazy that I am already thinking of starting them on that stuff - I thought so too until just recently. But these boys have been showing some mad readiness to start dabbling with reading the last few weeks! I can't answer enough questions about "What is that word, Mommy?" as they read through their books on their own. They "read" the words with their fingers, left-to-right, all the time now, and are memorizing and emoting through their favorite books like crazy. When we discuss what we'll do tomorrow or later in the day, there is always a request to read together, without exception.

I waffle because I see these opinions all the time, that preschoolers shouldn't be bothered with learning to read, even if they are capable, because they should only be playing and enjoying their youth. But my boys love this! I can't keep it from them, or not at least try it out.

So I figure we'll test the waters. If playing with the real thing doesn't work out, I'll put it aside and try it again in a few months.

Anyway, I could not be more excited about this curriculum and the months ahead. I have some plans for things I want to do with them for the next few weeks, and we are planning a vacation when Brandon returns home. So I think we'll get started on this in May sometime. Woohoo!!!

Knick Knack!

2010-04-08T14:25:00.000-04:00

We are listening to a fun cd right now and I wanted to hurry up and share/document it. It's the accompaniment cd to a book from the library, called Knick Knack Paddy Whack.

It is an alternate version to the classic song that introduces the kids to instruments and what they sound like. And it's very cute and fun and sounds pretty.

The three kids were all gathered around or on me as we flipped the pages and listened to the song over and over again. I love to watch them all boogy to fun music. They enjoyed hearing each new instrument between verses, and watching the cute dog do different things on each page.

They are still sitting around me on the floor reading other books and listening to the instrumental tracks on the cd keep playing. Might have to order this one to keep.

Knick Knack Paddy Whack

Stinky Alligator

2010-03-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

The boys and I started a new game a couple days ago when they were stalling for bedtime and I had a rare bout of evening patience and played along. We take turns calling each other something stinky. They crack up after each one, sometimes genuinely and sometimes with this painfully forced cackle.

Some excerpts from tonight's ride home from dinner...

"You are a stinky... SNAKE!"

"You are a stinky... DOOR!"

"You are a stinky... SIGN!"

"You are a stinky... CAR!"

"You are a stinky... GATE!"

"You are a stinky... LEAF!"

When we'd pass a gas station: "You are a stinky... GAS! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Then things got a little risqué: "You are a stinky... BUTT!"

"You are a stinky... BUTT TRAIN!" (Heh?)

"You are a stinky... BUTT BUTT BUTT!"

"That's enough with the butts, we don't say butts."

And finally: "You are a stinky... LOTS OF THINGS! HAHAHAHA!"

Spring!

2010-03-30T15:34:00.002-04:00

Spring is definitely upon us, and it's been a wonderful couple of weeks lately, spent with windows open and pollen flying.

So we spent a few days learning a little about spring around here. For all the days, there was a "word of the day" that we learned, illustrated, and copied with magnet letters.

On the first day we discussed spring in general, read some springy books...
Word Bird's Spring Words

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree (one of our favorites)

Arranged some beautiful flowers I picked up at Publix...

Made some pretend bouquets...

And took a spring walk, during which we sang about the signs of spring and searched for them. It was warm, the birds were singing, green leaves are on all the plants, and we collected many flowers.

On the second day we discussed seeds and how they grow into plants. We set up carrot and bean sprout experiments (nothing yet), planted some apple seeds we had saved from an apple earlier (not holding out much hope for those), planted some herbs from a Christmas-gifted kit from my mom...

These have actually started sprouting - well, the basil and thyme have...

Played with beans, peas, fake leaves and flowers, and "rain clouds" in a sensory bowl setup...

Did a flower petal counting game/craft project I made up, and had an educational popcorn snack that night. They thought it was so cool to learn about the corn seeds exploding into our snack.

On the third day we learned about rain. We read some books about rain...
Word Bird's Rainy-Day Dance

I Love the Rain

Did a little experiment with a sponge "cloud" making rain, made cloud pictures, and jumped in chalk rain puddles on the patio.

Finally, we were supposed to discuss wind. But we got a little lax and only read the books, which are very cute.

The Wind Blew

Curious George Flies a Kite

Look what came in the mail today!

2010-03-15T15:56:00.000-04:00

Nana sent a surprise follow-up to Anna's quilt! It's a very adorable little pillow, and Anna really seems to love it. Thank you again, Nana!!

Why does her head look so huge?

Maybe because I put her in a dress two sizes too small because I'm not ready to let it go...

I also recently finally ordered these cool thingamajigs to hang our plate collection with. The shockingly blunt yellow walls in the kitchen are begging for some balance. Excited about these!

RAW(e) Distraction

2010-03-15T14:30:00.002-04:00

I've been wanting to join in the RAW(e) photo challenge fun on Sami's blog for a couple weeks, but never got around to working on it in time.

This week, the theme is distraction. Since when I read the theme I was up waaaaay too late for my own good and the good of my kids and my devotion time, with the desk covered in most of my selfish distractions, it was the perfect time! I couldn't wait all day today until the post was up to link to.

My distractions are many, but the main ones are the computer, planning the kids' homeschool (way overplanning, they are in preschool, for pete's sake!) because it's so fun, and crafting. I let these things override far too much of my time that should be devoted to time with God, or providing more attention and structure for the boys.

Anna's Special Quilt

2010-03-12T21:35:00.001-05:00

My sister and I both have special quilts made by our Great-Nana B. Mine is been partially demolished by the family cat, but is still something special to me.

The boys each have their own that my Nana made them a couple years ago. They are very sweet - covered with embroidered and colored images of sweet little boys and girls. I think there's a name for what type they are, but I'm drawing a blank. And they are tucked away in bed with the boys for the night, so I'll have to post a picture later. The center block on each has a really pretty stitched monogram.

The boys haven't been using them for more than a year, because I just wasn't ready for them to wrestle with them like they did with the rest of their bedding. But we busted them out in the last few months, and the boys love them a lot. They are their top blankets every night.

Well, Anna received hers in the mail this week. I love it! It's sweet shades of purple, with lots of adorable Precious Moments images nicely painted on. I let her check it out when the package arrived, hoping I'd get a great pose of her on it. Pshh! That girl doesn't stop for a second, unless it's in my lap. So this is the best I was able to get. She really does seem to like it a lot, and it's laying on the spare bed in her room. I can't wait for her to cherish it as her pretty keepsake from her Great-Nana!

Thank you Nana! We love you and are so thankful for your craftiness and love!

God Bless You

2010-03-11T21:53:00.000-05:00

Baby Bear has been paying attention these last 4 weeks of illness in this house. She recently picked up fake coughing. She enjoys it, but doesn't seem to do it for the thrill. It seems like she thinks it's the thing to do in this family.

Tonight she started fake sneezing. It cracked me up. We were out at IHOP for dinner, and one of the boys did a double sneeze. She just sat there and kept eating while doing several stinking adorable "choo"'s. Again, she didn't look like she was doing it as a hilarious show, just trying something out. The boys and I were so amused.

Just another note to ourselves. :)

Old men are the cutest

2010-03-10T21:52:00.005-05:00

So two weeks ago was Brandon's big 3-0! We had several mini-celebrations over a week and a half, and I think it added up to a fun birthday for him. Of course, I took too long to document it, so I've forgotten a lot of the details... Honey, feel free to fill in the gaps in the comments.

There was a small celebration at our house, involving a teeny-tiny ice cream cake and two necktie-shaped bookmarks, coated with many layers of colored pencil and marker illustrations and gobs of stickers.

I'm pretty sure one night we had dinner out somewhere and called it his birthday dinner. (We ate out about a hundred times the last few weeks, so it's all a blur.) And he got himself his gift for me one night when we were out with the kids. At least I picked it out. Wait. At least I decided which thing he'd recently told me he wanted I'd get for him.

Most exciting of all, we went to the Monster Jam with the boys and Dawn and Matt. It was "for the boys", but I distinctly remember being told it could count as his birthday present last month when I was being convinced to splurge on the tickets. It was really great fun, and I think we all discovered a new passion. Unfortunately, we didn't prepare the boys well enough for the very cold evening, so there was plenty of guilt involved. I took over 600 pictures, so I'll have to set up an entire post devoted to that outing.

Say what?!?!

We ate out with my family another night. It was funny because the staff had to sing happy birthday to at least 8 tables while we were there. Apparently once it happens a couple times people start getting silly and claiming birthdays left and right. Ours was real, yay! (Dimly lit, so I have no good pictures, boo.)

Finally (I think), we had dinner at his family's house. I kinda ruined it by being really sick and droopy, but the food was good, and I'm told the cake was yummy. The boys "helped" daddy blow out his trick candles. There was an entire layer of boy-spit covering the whole thing by the time the last candle gave up. It was hilarious.

I am so proud of the man that my man is becoming. So manly. :) For a few minutes, this celebration sent me into another tailspin of panic about being 30 myself. It wasn't as real when I was still married to a 20-something-year-old stud. Thanks for being my stud, you sweet geezer.

Big Day!

2010-03-01T17:59:00.000-05:00

The boys have been progressively getting more independent in dressing themselves. And today was the big day! They managed to completely get whole outfits on all by themselves! This is just a note to ourselves to remember this day. For the longest time we have let every milestone go unmarked, so I wanted to hop on and make this one official.

Woohoo!

Growth

2010-02-17T17:46:00.000-05:00

I've been posting a lot just about Baby Bear. I am working on some posts dedicated to my crazy sweet prince boys too.

Baby Bear's 12-month well visit at the doctor didn't go as planned. Since she still had a runny nose and isn't sleeping well because of a cold this week, they had to check her ears to make sure they weren't infected. If they are, she can't have her immunizations as scheduled. Um, she didn't have her immunizations. She has horrible ear infections that even grossed out the doctor. So she's on an antibiotic, with two more appointments scheduled. I feel so horrible for her! Except for not sleeping well, she hasn't shown signs of suffering in that way. All our kids have been that way, sneakily hiding the disgustingness festering in their ears.

She is also still a little-bit. She is 29 1/8 inches long (52nd percentile) and weighs 17 lbs 6 oz (10th percentile). That's actually up from <10% last time, so they were pleased. And since she had a nice little pot belly showing, they think she'll be just fine. Especially now that she'll be taking whole milk.

I've been weaning her fairly quickly for the last two weeks. She only nurses first thing in the morning, which will end after tomorrow. Brandon and I are hoping to go away for two days tomorrow night, so she'll be on her own from here on out. I'm pretty sad about it, but have no doubts that it's time. I'm just a mess picturing that last time tomorrow, and when she's done she's done. Sigh.

Still no signs of walking. She does now take some steps when you hold her hands out and walk behind her, so she's figuring out that she's capable of that movement. Until now, it's been funny watching her practically ignore her legs like they were dead weight. She also just recently started crawling "normally", and is doing a little less of her famous army crawl.

Here's our weather panda that we started using this week. First thing in the morning, we open the front door and check the weather. Then we head to our calendar and update it, followed by dressing our weather panda. It's good fun. Not a lot of variety in his wardrobe lately - it's just been cold and sunny for the most part - but fun, just the same.

Sweetest Birthday

2010-02-13T22:54:00.002-05:00

Today is the day our little princess angel baby doll girlie girl turned one whole year old. It has been a difficult, limit-testing, cuddly, pink year. We are so thankful for our sweet girl and our two awesome little boys.

We had the most fun at her Valentine's Day birthday party. It was one of my favoritest-est parties ever. All the kids had a blast and played so well together (yeah, all 8 kids under 8), the food was dee-lish (we managed to make this Pioneer Woman basic drip beef recipe, and it was amazing), and we got to enjoy most of our favorite people (yeah, all 14 adults, not including us). Baby Bear had a great time - once she got used to all the craziness - and got some awesome toys and adorable outfits.

God is way too good to us, and we are humbled by the bountiful blessings He doesn't stop pouring out on us at all times. We love all you peeps we are blessed to know and be known by.

Aunt Brianna did an awesome job as photographer for most of the event. Thank you! It was very difficult to narrow down all the photos to post here, but I've pulled it off. You're welcome. :)

Decorations - The boys helped me make this garland, and I love it so much that I am considering leaving it up all year.

After we ate lots of yummy food, it was time to open presents! The boys helped with a lot of them.

Hugging her new cuddly unicorn that cousin Laura Anne picked out just for her.

You know she knows which camera is mommy's!

The best party entertainment ever (for kids and adults alike!). They went to town with all the wrapping and tissue paper - for over half an hour, I'd say. It was so awesome.

Adorable birthday girl having a blast.

The bottle... yeah, we weaned her just shy of her birthday. I just love it when she'll hold her bottle for me. It's the cutest thing ever, especially to me since her brothers never once held their bottles. Never!

The boogers... yeah, we couldn't keep up with them as fast as the pictures were snapping.

And then it was cake time! She didn't take to it right away, but slowly worked her way through quite a bit of icing.

Popo helped us assemble her cool new toys while she napped. When she woke up, she was pleasantly surprised. She loves all her new things and is having tons of fun figuring them out.

My Heart is Breaking

2010-02-10T09:00:00.001-05:00

Bubby is sharing with me these pleasantries this morning:

"I don't love you."

"I don't like you."

"I'm still sad."

(He went to bed crying last night because of an atrocity involving bedtime book choice. Apparently it's still rocking his world.)

That's bad enough, but my tears began because of his brother. After I explained to him that even though he's making me very sad by saying that, I'll still be sweet to him because I love him no matter what. Then I left the room. I just heard Popo asking him why he doesn't like Mommy and why is he making her sad? Bubby repeated himself and Popo responded: "But she loves you."

Oh, it hurts so much.

Funny, because yesterday I spent some time explaining Valentine's Day to them - about how you spend that day showing the people you love that you love them by being sweet to them and giving them nice things. Mostly all that's stuck is that they'll get candy on Baby Bear's birthday, since that's also a Valentine's Day party at our house. Sigh.

Brandon and I are totally feeling deja vu (or what's that term for war veterans who have flashbacks of horrible scenes?) with the extreme moodiness on the preschooler front this week. It's exactly like just about one year ago. We are now solid believers in the theory that most kids will have behavior/mood issues at their half-year birthdays. They are unreasonable wailing time bombs at times. And you see it coming, similar to last year.

We will get through this phase. Again.

Enough is Too Much

2010-01-14T21:32:00.000-05:00

Balance is impossible. This is my lesson of the week. Actually it's my lesson every week. I know this fact, but it's amazing how it is drilled into my life so constantly.

The kids and I have been getting pretty lonely around here lately. With the crazy cold here for the last two weeks, our only options have been to stay home, go shopping, or go out to eat. And each of those things gets old. Really old. Plus, it would help to have some distractions as we count down these slow, final days of Brandon's trip.

So I was looking forward to a little action this week. On Tuesday we went to church for Mom-to-Mom, which was lovely. And yesterday I worked while the kids hung out at Grammy's, then we went to church.

I originally typed out most of the gruesome details of what made yesterday a frustrating, utterly exhausting day. But I've deleted it to spare you. The point is that it was a seriously stretching experience. I'm actually thankful for it, and was slightly aware of that during the suffering, because it's the only way I grow. I actually saw a speck of extra patience in my dealings with the kids when we got home late, hungry, and pooped last night.

After all the craziness we could cram into two days, I was ecstatic about a day to hang out at home with the kids today. I've come full circle! I was dying to get out of here just 48 hours before the madness broke me down. I'll never be satisfied.

But that's really the point, isn't it? Life on this earth will never be just right. It's a world of extremes and frustrations. Thank you, Jesus, that this is all just a shadow!! I actually wasn't planning on there being a moral of my story, but there you go.

Baby Bear's Firsts

2010-01-09T20:53:00.001-05:00

It's been a week of many firsts for Baby Bear as we've broken into the new year.

Well, today she may or may not have swallowed her first foreign object. I talked to the doctor's office and they gave me advice. I cannot be sure yet if she even ate it at all, but time will tell. I'll post a photo when I know. Just kidding!

Her first park trip in 2010

Last weekend she had her first girls' day out with Mommy and Nana. Where else, but IKEA! This time she did not eat through the pamphlet.

Her first tunnel exploration mission

Her first trip to IHOP (Not her first makeout session with a stuffed animal)

Her first nude photo shoot of 2010

How could I almost forget to include today's first, my inspiration for this whole post?

That's right, her first taste of chocolate. I don't think we gave the boys any until they were at least one, but I'm not sure. She wasn't too sure about it at first - same as with any new thing - but she ended up seeming pretty pleased with it.

Oh, and see the hairclip keeping her locks out of her little eyes? Yeah, that's our foreign object...

Sibling Revelry

2010-01-05T19:22:00.001-05:00

Okay, not really. But we did have fun as most of us siblings on Brandon's side gathered for our Secret Santa swap and to watch our kids in another frenzy of gift-opening. Garrett, Chris, and Brandon were missing, but it's the best we could do.

Almost none of the pictures of "adults" came out very good, not sure what was up with the camera.

Steve showing off his awesome new shirt

Madness

Super-cool cape Aunt Jen made each of the boys. They love them.

Can you tell I'm a little obsessed with my collage feature? Which one do we like the best? (Oh, good job on the mini photo shoot, Aunt Brianna!)

More Christmas Fun

2010-01-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

We had a great time at both the grandparents' houses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Enjoy!

A very cool car train. An important Christmas Eve project of the boys'.

Goodbye, 2009!

2009-12-31T23:42:00.001-05:00

Farewell 2009! Thank you, Lord, for making this such an amazing year. You've provided so much strength and love to find our way through the amazing path you've laid out for us. Thank you for all the wonderful people we met this year. Thank you for all the beautiful loved ones we got to spend time with or we missed this year. We are so blessed and wouldn't have wanted anything this year to have been different.

I have always loved New Year's. I remember when I was told as a kid to go to bed because kids didn't get New Year's, it was only something grown ups really comprehended and enjoyed. I didn't get that - I was so excited to be passing into a new year and making a point to make it special!

The kids and I got some Bagel Bites and mozzarella sticks and made a movie night out of it. I had planned on watching Up, but their votes were for Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Horrible, horrible, horrible movie. They, of course, loved it and requested we watch it again immediately. Didn't happen.

Brandon and I got to Skype for a bit just now, as he woke up on the first day of the new year and I prepare to watch the festivities here. I am looking forward to spending this holiday with him next year.

So, I say goodbye to an awesome year as I sit here and listen to music I have no means of describing radiating through the wall from our neighbors', and pray it doesn't wake the baby. I'm trying to be cool about it because this never happens - they are pretty good neighbors - but a "single mom" doesn't have a lot of patience to work with when it comes to baby sleep issues.

Peace out, 2009! Rock on, 2010!

Hip Hip Hooray!

2009-12-28T22:00:00.000-05:00

This is my 100th post on the blog, hooray!

I wasn't going to post again tonight, but just received this great picture in my email box and had to share. This is none other than my goofy dad as an adorable little muffin...

Christmas at Home

2009-12-28T21:42:00.001-05:00

Some images and moments from our Christmas festivities here at home...

Our very first gingerbread house. I had no idea what I was doing and read the directions twice. We had a lot of fun with it though. Each boy got a side of the roof to decorate and a bowl full of candies to use. This was Bubby's side, and you can Popo's below (the full shot of his side turned out fuzzy).

I had to double-up the cards because Baby Bear was taking it upon herself to admire the lower ones in the best way she knows how... with her mouth.

This is the cool little fiber optic tree I bought to send to you, my sweet husband, to enjoy for Christmas. I obviously didn't quite follow through on that one. The kids and I are enjoying it a lot though, and I'm excited to make it a part of our yearly decorations.

Some candy pretzel treats I made to share with loved ones. I only managed to package a few up for our neighbors. Looks like the rest are a treat for myself. Yum.

Sweet ornaments that their Sunday School teachers made for them.

The tree and presents as arranged before I went to bed on Christmas Eve. Their stockings were just about stuffed to capacity.

Their pile of gifts to open while sleepy Daddy looked on via Skype.

Chatting with Daddy.

Christmas breakfast: waffles and apples, with Christmas sprinkles.

Baby Bear, gearing up to have at her new toy. Basically her only present she got from us. I'm still working on three, yes, three crochet projects for her.

On our calendar for this month, we used some cute date cards I found online. Each day was an empty manger until Baby Jesus's big day! The boys had a great time counting how many more days until Christmas for the last week or so.

Don't worry loved ones, I'm doing another post about our celebrations at your houses.

RIP, SB

2009-12-27T22:36:00.000-05:00

This one's for you, Babe...

2009-12-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

Mmm-hmmmm

One of your freak sons doing his thing with the puzzle

Both your freak sons celebrating their success!

Your stinking adorable snaggle-tooth with her first big biscuit. I'm not showing the after shot - it's too gross for me to look at.

Same adorable munchkin at the hangar Christmas party

Your cool dudes with their awesome, masculine toys they picked out with Christmas money with Papa

Angel Bear having fun with Papa after said outing

Disney World!

2009-12-21T20:12:00.000-05:00

Yes, believe it or not, I'm finally posting some pictures of our trip to Disney World. Once you recover from your shock and pick yourself up off the floor, enjoy... (I'll post pics from the other days of our vacation next.)

They still include Mickey's House in their prayers every day.

Baby Bear and Minnie Mouse really bonded, since they were matching. Baby Bear wanted so badly to eat Minnie's nose.

One of the highlights of the day for them. A real-life grasshopper!

Waiting in line with Mommy for a ride with just the two of us. Popo was a little too nervous to try the spaceships. They really were pretty high.

Baby Bear was such a trooper. She slept maybe 20 minutes all day, only because I covered her up in the sling a couple of times. She had a blast.

Watching fireworks at the end of the night.

In the Spirit

2009-12-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

Sweetness

2009-12-13T21:10:00.001-05:00

I am just popping in to say I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days, and that it will be at least another day or two before I do. This has been the most exhausting week of my life, due mostly to physical stress, and I just couldn't imagine stopping to chitchat about it.

Please forgive me, and I will try to make it up to you with lots of photos. But I make blog promises all the time that I just don't stick to, so...

Leaps and Bounds!

2009-12-08T14:47:00.001-05:00

Okay, so it's just a stair. It's an extra big deal around here. I was taken totally off guard, and the boys are so tickled to see their baby sister doing something neat and new.

I was upstairs with the boys last night, getting the bath for the three of them ready. As I came around the landing, my heart leaped with joy and fear. I couldn't resist getting a shot or two, so Popo came and protected her while I snapped away. We discussed that the gate would have to go back up. I guess I'll just have to teach them how to open it.

Popo's strange expression is a new look he's trying out for photos. He got it from his brother. It's actually a cute squinty-face, but he was tired of holding it for shots, and this is what it eroded into.

(And okay, yes, her diaper is full and hanging off, and Bubby's pants are almost off. Preparing bath, remember?)

Some more practice today...

Homey

2009-12-06T22:06:00.001-05:00

Today was a sweet, homey day. After church, lunch, and nap, we hung out at home and it was nice and cozy. We made some fall and winter trees (which did wear my patience thin - we're so working on the glue concept), followed by at least an hour of Play-Doh time. I actually got to make a real dinner, even though I didn't think I was up for it. Then we played, snuggled, and watched TV into the night. Sigh.

My poor husband barely got fed any real meals at our house the whole month he was home. We were either on the go, tired, or surprised to find we were missing an ingredient or two. Sorry, babe. The tomato soup chicken tonight was really good, and we thought of you. The boys actually voluntarily tried a bite, knowing that's the routine now. Since that's going so well, I think I might bump up the amount they are "forced" to eat. They never seem to mind the food, it's just a psychological thing. Hopefully I can wean them off of it. (Right.)

So, Play-Doh seems to be our hit toy/activity for now. They can sit there, next to each other, and create away. They make up stories of what they've made, where that creature or person is going, and what untimely death it inevitably meets. They swap cookie cutters and knives and have their creations battle wars. I was totally in awe at the power of the Play-Doh today. May it reign for a long time.

Bubby, as he cut out a cookie cutter heart shape: "Mommy, I'm making a heart, see? To make all the people happy!"

Oh wow, I totally forgot about yesterday. That was also a sweet hangout day. At one point I decided to let the kids have at tearing up a magazine that we have grown to hate and are cancelling our free subscription of. Bubby kept eying me to make sure it was for real and I wasn't about to freak out at them. And proper Popo took a little while to get into it. But get into it they did, and it was a blast. I love how at this age, it's just as fun to help clean up as it is to make the mess.

Enjoying a snack together. Sitting on the stairs together is their new favorite thing.

In the evening I loaded up a YouTube playlist of all the Swedish Chef clips and listened to them cackle away. Baby Bear was amused by their amusement for a little bit, then kept exploring.

She had a rough night. I put her to bed slightly early because she was so exhausted. She changed her mind an hour or so later, just as I thought about bragging on Facebook about my early bedtime. I tried a few times to put her back to bed, only to rescue her from drowning in the snot and tears a few minutes later. So she snacked and played on my bed until almost 11. It was a really sweet time though.

And We're Off!

2009-12-04T22:43:00.002-05:00

Okay, so today was the day. Daddy left us for 45 more days. We are both relieved this day is finally over. It's been an emotional, exhausting two weeks he's been home with us from work. Don't get me wrong, it's been wonderful. We've just been hitting that to-do list pretty hard, and you just get tired of trying not to think ahead to that big day.

I'm planning on diving in with the Christmas stuff big time with the boys pretty soon. The house is all decorated already, and we've been listening to Christmas music. That was all part of maximizing on Daddy's time here. But we have big plans to make a gingerbread house and some treats for our friends, and making our own decorations and stuff. Can't wait.

First, I thought I'd work in some "study" on seasons. I figure it's a good time, since things are finally really starting to change around here, and I can squeeze it in before the big Christmas stuff. I got a ton of cute books on seasons at the library and have found some neato projects to do with them to help them get the differences.

So as far as that stuff goes - my days home with the boys - I'm looking forward to getting back to "normal". (It's funny, I said that today and Brandon and I realized how weird it is that at this point, "normal" means when he's not here. You know, since he hasn't been home as long has he's been away in a while.)

And I'm pretty psyched about where the boys are right now. They seem to have come out of a little season of observation, in which they just sponge up everything going on around them, without as many new skills demonstrated. I knew throughout that time that that was what they were doing, and I was fine with that. But I'm so excited that they are in a mode of trying new things again. So I've stepped up my conversations with them. When they ask questions, I explain things a little more deeply than before. And I am challenging them with more interesting questions. It's so stinking fun!

Speaking of new skills, I was so floored by one we discovered today. The boys helped me make some pictures and stuff for Daddy to open on his trip. As always, I spelled their names out loud as I wrote them on their papers. Out of nowhere, Bubby was spelling ahead of me. I let him go with it and he did his whole name by himself. I jumped and shouted in glee, and he was so proud! Then, of course, Popo wanted to try. He didn't remember as smoothly, but he caught on as we kept going. So I drove them crazy having them help me spell their names on everything in sight all afternoon. We had so much fun!

Hard at work on our projects today

Some sweet memories Brandon and I wanted to be sure to remember from their time today playing with Play-Doh:

Popo made an L with his and was asking what L was for. Another mini lesson in phonemics (letter sounds) and lions followed. We are doing lots of those mini lessons these days. ("L says 'luh'. Luh, Lion")

Then Bubby took his white Doh and wadded it up in a ball, then made a lump on top. "I made God, Mommy." "You made God?" "Yeah. Riding in a teacup. Whee!" as he rolled it around the table.

Play-Doh action shots

Baby Bear got some super cute new hairclips in the mail today and she and I are both very excited about them! Can't you tell?

Getting ready to see Daddy off

Getting ready for bed tonight in our new bear pj's that Daddy hasn't seen us in yet. We also love these, obviously.

Toys are fun

2009-11-30T23:07:00.001-05:00

If you're on Facebook with me, you've already seen these photos. I just can't stop playing with them.

We took the kids to the park today. We took over 200 photos while playing and frolicking. With my super fantastic new camera my sweet Brandonian got me for Christmas.

Hopefully this is the beginning of lots more posts chock-full of fabulous photos. Brandon will be leaving again in 4 days.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T00:21:00.001-05:00

We are very overwhelmed this week with thankfulness to the Lord for the wonderful life He's blessed us with. Not only do we get to be with Him every day, talk with Him, be held close by Him, and live with Him forever, He has given us too much to enjoy while we're here. God is good, people. God is good.

We had a wonderful holiday with our families. It was so perfect, even with splitting our time among three homes: ours, my parents', and Brandon's parents'. All the kids were well behaved, everyone was in good spirits, and all the food was amazing.

Our only issue was that the boys were pretty pooped all day from a nonstop fever that started last night. This seems to be the same flair up they've had twice in six months already. Odds are that the fevers will subside tomorrow, to be followed in two or three days by a bumpy rash all over. If this turns out to be the same thing, they are definitely visiting the doctor.

Before we left this morning, we made some adorable turkey place cards for everyone eating at my mom's house, where we had our big meal. We traced the boys's hands for most of the adults (one of mine for the odd-numbered extra adult), and Baby Bear's for her and cousin Mady. We managed to completely forget to make some for the boys themselves, so Daddy whipped up some copies just before we ate. (Baby Bear's looks a little mangled because it accidentally got wadded up and trashed for a little bit before I panicked and found it.)

They have a new kitten of unknown gender, currently going by the name of "Kitty kitty". Cute, but causes all the Lingles to have allergy issues.

Cute kids posing for the camera as they "ate" dinner, and other fun goings on.

Then we headed to Brandon's fam's house for dessert and more fun. Rock Band, kids, Spongebob, and games were enjoyed. Okay, we had the kids vegg out while we played Pictionary. I feel bad. (And they don't necessarily look like they're enjoying the show, but trust me, they did.)

Sweet Day

2009-11-19T20:14:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I fibbed. I will eventually get to the post about our Orlando vacation. There are hundreds of photos to sort through and prepare. In the meantime, I don't want the rest of our life to slip by undocumented...

We went to the zoo yesterday with Grammy, Aunt Brianna, Laura Anne, and Caleb. It was a blast, and I took over 80 pictures, so...

On to today! :) Joshua came over and played with us most of the day. Right away we went out for a nice long walk, zig-zagging around the neighborhood. Three boys are such dynamos of energy! They feed off each other. It was a blast and no one got any lasting boo-boos.

And they're off!

Sweet boys showing me their "five stick" and "one sticks", respectively.

Graceful princess, keeping an eye on all her loyal subjects.

Homecoming

2009-11-16T08:55:00.000-05:00

So, yeah it was two weeks ago. Wow.

Daddy returned not only on time this time, but several hours early! So I didn't get to doll up like I'd hoped, but I got the kids all dressed up in their halloween costumes like I'd planned. He had missed it, and it was only a couple of days after, so we surprised him.

It was also nice to sit and wait and greet him in the airport, instead of picking him up at the curb. We got to do the whole adorable running-to-see-him thing. It was a blast.

The boys look like they're looking at all the other paparazzi cameras

Then we went out to eat nearby, a tradition we seem to have started for his return days. This time it actually went really well. Baby Bear seems to have moved past the stranger fear phase, and she was flirting from the moment she saw him. She has been so happy to see him and be with him ever since. And the boys of course were jubilant. Thankfully we were there when the restaurant opened, so it wasn't too rude to have the boys so happy.

Conked out after a fun day with Daddy!

Since then, it seems like we've been moving nonstop. Next post is about our immediate vacation to Orlando.

Halloween!

2009-11-08T19:26:00.001-05:00

We got to go to the pumpkin patch again Halloween morning, with Grammy, Aunt Brianna, Laura Anne, and Caleb. It was wicked hot out - Jacksonville tied the record high of 86 that day - so we weren't out there too terribly long. Also, in case you weren't aware, a pumpkin patch that smelled just fine one day won't necessarily smell sweet three weeks later. FYI.

These cute boys forgot they were still holding hands for a while

Honestly, the best pic I got of all of them at once

Angel bear

Then we spent the evening at Nana's and Papa's house. We celebrated Papa's birthday a little with dinner, then dressed up and headed out for treats! The boys and Mady had a great time. They were a little nervous about the whole process, but once they got it down at the first or second house, they were frantic to get to another one. It went really well when the older kids weren't barging in front of ours and practically pushing them over.

It was great fun sorting through their stash afterwards, and Baby Bear got a little buggy after she worked her way through the wrapper of a Tootsie Roll Pop and sucked it for a while.

Bestest cousin buds

I need to find the picture of me as a tot, in my halloween costume, posed just this way. Pretty similar!

Ready to go!

Pretty excited to find out what this whole thing's about... the stash!

Boo Bash!

2009-10-29T21:50:00.002-04:00

Tuesday was the Halloween celebration at work, "Boo Bash". I did go to work that day, so I got to take part in the food, treats, costume-gawking, and fun! Most of the departments decorate and dress up to a theme and when the employees' kids come through the building in the afternoon for treats, they vote on the best room. I didn't get to help out this year, since I only come and go occasionally, but my department did awesome! It was a general fairytale theme, with castles, an enchanted forest, a magical talking mirror, a knight guarding a giant dragon, a king and queen, and a slide to ride down into a pool of packing peanuts! I'm sure that room won, because you couldn't tear the kids away from the slide the whole time.

My boys had a blast, of course. Baby Bear was a little overwhelmed I think, but came along for the ride. I'll be taking more pictures of them on Halloween, and hopefully those will come out better. (Still no sign of the camera battery around here.)

Today Aunt Jen and Joshua came over and played with us for a while. We spent a little time at the park. For some reason Popo got the most camera time today. The last one is of him hunched over on the swing. He wants to love it, but just can't help but panic.

She's getting so big!

2009-10-25T21:44:00.000-04:00

We had a fun trip to Walmart today...

184 hours to go!

2009-10-24T21:53:00.001-04:00

Our camera came back several days ago, but I can't figure out where the "safe place" is that I put the battery while it was gone, so I'm still working with the cell phone. Here are some pics from the last few days.

Fuzzy, but you get the gist of her super-girlie-adorableness

Stud Popo

Our newly-rainbow-organized kids' bookshelves. This was fun to do.

Found when I was sweeping the leaves off our patio this week. (Snake skin, if you can't tell)

The first draft of our picture schedule system. Popo loves to move the notes when we are finished with something.

Bubby forcing nibbles of his tater tot down. I try to explain that they are just mushed-up french fries, but they don't buy it.

Action-man Popo

Bubby crushing acorns on our recent walk. We had a blast crushing them and learning about baby trees inside them and we "planted" several so they can grow into big trees.

The stash I got today at the Great Jacksonville Book Sale for $16. We went with my mom and it was so fun. I'm considering going tomorrow (even cheaper on the last day), but would love to go without the kids this time, so I can loiter.

Some of the books I got just because they were crazy humorous or nostalgic for me. This one is dated 1954. It's so cool to flip through it and see what the concerns and advice were back then. There's a whole chapter on whether comic books are okay for children and how to get them to read "real literature".

This one is a little notebook they explain as "a socialization skills primer for pre-schoolers". It's from 1977, and it's written by two hippy ladies. Really interesting.

And this is one I've heard of, and it seems to be well known. This is the first US edition from 1980. Too cute to pass up.

This one takes me back...

Eating mac n cheese (whole grain, with hidden sweet potato and broccoli in it, yay!) while watching some of the VeggieTales we got today.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetness!

2009-10-23T08:38:00.000-04:00

Today is the 13th anniversary of the day my sweet man asked me to be his girlfriend. On the phone. It was so stinking cute.

B: "So, people have been asking me if we're going out."
A: "Oh, really?"
B: "Yeah."
A: "Hmm."
Blah, blah...
B: "So... Do you want... to be my girlfriend?"
A: "Okay."

Heehee, very romantic of both of us. Today has always been special to both of us, even when we weren't dating for a couple of years. We both "observed" it to ourselves. I don't think either of us remembers the date of our first date, prior to this day, but this one has stuck with us.

Congratulations, baby! We've both come a long way from those silly little kids. I think. I know you are even more Godly, patient, giving, caring, funny, studly, and adorable a man!

(I owe so much more updating, but since I got less than four hours of sleep last night, chances aren't good I'm going to stay coherent long enough to get it up here today.)

Rambling Fool

2009-10-20T22:20:00.000-04:00

Grossness warning: I didn't get to shower today, so I'm hurrying up this post to get that taken care of. I'm just gonna list a few things I was thinking of.

First of all, apparently I need to whine more often in my posts. You guys really came through for me on the comments! Heehee. Thanks you guys for all the love! I'm hanging in there!

Baby Bear's tooth has a buddy now. Its match has ever-so-slightly popped through the gum. She actually did a smidge of damage nursing tonight, but nothing major. Yet...

I finally removed the gate leading up the stairs yesterday. We could have done it a long time ago, but were too lazy to commit to giving the boys freedom to roam the entire house. I did go up and down the stairs a lot more often yesterday, to help them with things and make sure they were following their upstairs rules. I think we'll have to install a crazy-long extension to the light pull in the middle of their room. It's the only way to light the room, and it'd be great if they could take care of that themselves.

I booked our Orlando vacation yesterday as well. When Daddy gets home we are spending a few nights at the Nickelodeon resort there. We're staying in a Spongebob suite, and the boys will have their own twin beds. I hope we get to use the cool water park and entertainment and stuff there. We'll also be spending one day at Disney. Hopefully it'll be an exciting but relaxing time, as I think we all dream our vacations will be.

The boys skipped their naps today because Bubby had difficulty with his lunch. Part of their well-balanced (I specify because it's not often I pull that off, and I was proud of their lunches today) meal was broccoli. I try to continue to offer them veggies, knowing full well they won't touch it. I also had some yummy yogurt for them, which they were given to eat once they swallowed the minuscule grain of broccoli I broke off for them. Popo managed to comply and ate his yogurt all up. Bubby couldn't swallow it. He eventually gave up on the yogurt, wasn't phased by everyone else finishing up and leaving the room, wasn't motivated by Spongebob in the living room (I turned it on specifically to lure him), and didn't mind sitting in his chair for AN HOUR all by himself. I checked on him regularly and tried to give him advice on getting it down, pulled the whole "I love you and I want you to be big and strong, and you have to swallow this broccoli so it will go down in your tummy and make you a big, strong boy" thing, tried to force him to keep it on his tongue (he was storing it between his teeth and lip), was sweet to him, stern with him, and everything in between. I was praying so hard that I'd know what to do. I eventually got a smidge of bread and buried the broccoli in it. He watched and then I cheered him on to chew it up quickly and force it down. It worked, but I'm totally unclear on whether I accomplished anything.

So that took lunch way into their naptime and I decided to let it go.

It's really frustrating to sometimes feel like I have to choose between two extremes when it comes to these food issues. On the one hand, there's the argument that they have to be obedient, no matter the topic. In my impatient state lately, this is the extreme I'm tending towards. So if I tell them they have to eat x amount of carrot, they have to eat x amount of carrot. On the other hand, I'm bombarded with junk about not making mealtime a battle because the kids will be permanently traumatized by it and have eating disorders as they grow up. I usually feel like we're in the safe gray area with our general policy of "they'll eat if they're hungry", mixed in with a little deceptive veggie concealment. But sometimes I get sick of tiptoeing around the table.

Okay, that's off my chest... So much for a quick run-down.

We did some tracing, coloring, and pasting practice today. Things are improving on all fronts. Popo is really taking off with the tracing. He's holding the crayon correctly with no prompting from me. I usually have to remind them how fairly often, but he ran with it. Bubby wasn't as on it today, and I think I bugged him too much. I tried to back off him the rest of the day because I think I caught a sign of stress on his face about the whole thing.

Oh, Brandon: I'm not sure I'll remember to tell you this. Out of the blue while we were singing Wheels on the Bus at bedtime, Popo had a crazy memory flash and was telling me about how we sang that song when we were waiting at Tire Kingdom last year. I don't even remember singing it then! He explained to me about the cars being up in the air and they were fixing the wheels so they could go on the road and stuff. I found it somewhat disturbing.

They are really absorbing the dentist information. We got The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist at the library yesterday and they really seem to get it. And today we made some cool mouths with torn-paper teeth and when I was explaining how if I was a dentist, I'd want to look close at those teeth to make sure they were healthy, blah, blah, and they ran with it, telling me what a dentist is, about his chair, his mirror to see the back of their teeth, etc. They think it's pretty cool. Hopefully they'll keep that outlook when we go for their first visit on Monday.

Okay, apparently I could ramble on forever, so I'll cut myself off here. We expect to get out of the house tomorrow, yay!

Ups and Downs (again)

2009-10-18T22:01:00.001-04:00

Baby Bear's first toothie finally poked through today! I've been able to see the whites of both middle bottom teeth for a while now, but they were still covered with some gum-skin. Today I was able to discern that one of them has cut through. The boys were so excited about it. I'm thinking I'll do some "homeschooling" about teeth. Yay! I'm excited for her. For now. Remember, she still nurses...

And Bubby almost got to make his first trip to urgent care tonight, yay! Oh wait... Yeah, he ker-plunked, head-first, onto the floor as he was climbing into his booster chair at the kitchen table. I did a little shriek, picked him up, let him cry in my arms for a couple of minutes, tried not to giggle at Baby Bear sitting in her chair at the table and cracking up, tried not to be frustrated with Popo in our faces: "What happened? What happened? What happened?", then took a look at the damage. He instantly had a crazy purple and red doozie on his forehead. It was huge and it was different than the usual ones, so it freaked me out. My mom and the pediatricians' nurse advised me. He wanted his Tylenol and when asked said his head hurt, but really seemed fine right away. Until he squeezed his pinkie finger in the folding door. Bad night for the little fella.

Somewhat difficult day again today. We were very lonely and had cabin fever. We didn't make it to church because Baby Bear's been sick. She was still a mess today, but could be much worse.

I still had the smallest sliver of patience throughout most of the day, but it wasn't quite as bad as last night. A nice walk and ride on their bikes midday boosted our spirits a little. And after their naps, we really had a great night together (except, of course, for the medical incidents). We had breakfast for dinner, then painted pictures and played games. I love my kids.

It wasn't really cold enough to warrant the hoods, but they love them so

This trip sure has been getting difficult for me lately. Scoop: it's really hard to be a "single" parent to three small kids, 24 hours a day, with no external forces imposing structure (like a job or something). It's all up to me to make our days organized but fun, keep them from killing each other (a task becoming more daunting each day), train them, and feed them. Oh, and occasionally get some food in my mouth. And keep our house standing. I'm not really whining, just laying it all out. Earlier today I was whining.

Something's in the air...

2009-10-17T20:51:00.001-04:00

Sweet brothers reading together two days ago

What a lovely day! (Yes, I know I use "lovely" way too much, but it's just what I feel!) We woke to temps in the low 50s, and it took it's sweet time warming up. Very autumnal for us. And a great change from the high 80s and low 90s we've been groaning through these last couple of weeks in October. This slightly cooler weather puts me in the mood for a road trip to see family. Anyone's family, really. :)

Nana had the boys last night, so we met up at a ginormous craft show midday. Grammy and Aunt Brianna were there, peddling their super adorable clothing and paper craft wares. We were there for quite a while, partly because our hot dog lunch took something like an hour to accomplish. The boys had to go potty during it, including Bubby's midday poopie, which took like twenty minutes to... um... accomplish. Then Bubby displayed his record-setting skills at eating like a sloth. Even though I was watching him and he had food in his mouth the whole time, it still took him an insanely long time to eat a stinking hot dog.

They were good boys though, and Baby Bear was a sweetums, even though she seems to have a cold.

She had a lot of trouble nursing today, and had a snotty face all the day long. She actually pulled off her first booger bubble today, one for the baby book!

I made some super scrumptious white chocolate cookies this morning, and was able to share some of them. They are so yummy! The boys ate them up too, after dinner, without inspecting them to discover nuts in them. I think I'll go enjoy some now...

But first, some pictures from our playground time yesterday. Popo continues to be courageous as can be. Baby Bear wasn't feeling well at first, but then perked up. Oh, this was their first time on the big swing all by themselves. You can imagine/interpret which one of the three loved his swing time, and which other two weren't as psyched. Actually, these pictures are a little deceiving. Bubby loved the big swing and Popo wasn't as sure, though he clearly wanted to love it. He tried multiple times to love it, but just couldn't fake it.

Woohoo, most comments ever!

2009-10-13T21:18:00.001-04:00

I'm really proud of you guys... *sniff*

We are back on the up part of my tumultuous mood cycle. I'm all warm and fuzzy about my kids and our day. The main reason is because my little Baby Bear is a cute little cuddly bear again, no longer the rabid raging bear of the last few days. She was so super sweet and giggly and cuddly today! She kept crawling over to me and climbing up me, often stopping to giggle and smoosh her face into me. She got such a kick out of herself. When she was in my arms, she wiggled and curled up into me in the sweetest way possible. She also played all alone for good bits of the day again. It was baby heaven.

I could tell her brothers were happy to have her back too. They enjoyed her giggles and activity.

She did have a lot of potty problems today. Since I gave her medicine the other day, she could no longer hold it in, so we had some drama whenever she had to give in and deal with it (I cry for her at these times, it's pretty intense). I'm still working on how to keep that from happening. Poor baby.

The boys and I had a blast as usual. I wasn't necessarily going to do much teaching or work today, but they begged for it! We did tracing practice, cutting practice, sticker practice, coloring practice, reading tons of stories, puzzles and fun games. Now, when I specify say, coloring practice, I'm not calling anything they color "practice". I'm referring to their Kumon practice books, which are super-keen. They really take them slowly through a skill, getting a little more complicated as they go.

Oh, we also decorated everyone's pumpkins with cute pictures this morning.

We went for a nice walk tonight after some yummy leftover Filipino food. The boys took turns pushing Baby Bear in her stroller (her first time in the umbrella stroller - she loved it) and we played at the playground for a few minutes. Popo was totally brave and got up the ladder and down the slide several times. He had a blast! I know that sounds pretty silly for a three-year-old, but he's a scaredy-cat. He rarely gets all the way up the ladder without freaking out, and almost never goes down the slide, instead making me carry him down the ladder. And he really, truly enjoyed flying down the slide. There was no death-freeze look on his face. I was so proud. As always, Bubby was a crazy man.

One proud Popo, at the top of the slide

Quote of the day: "Mommy, my poopies are mad at your peepees. They are going to catch them!" I'm curious to see if anyone can correctly guess which adorable goober this was. Hint: it wasn't Baby Bear.

Bestest Evening

2009-10-11T22:21:00.004-04:00

I just enjoyed the sweetest night in a long time. Baby Bear is staying at Grammy's house (THANK YOU!!!!!!!!) so the boys and I could have some quality time together.

After we dropped her off, we headed to the pumpkin patch at a nearby church. We drive by that church any time we drive to Grammy's, and almost every time we did since last October, they pointed it out and talked all about going to the pumpkin patch there last year with Grammy. So they were beyond thrilled to finally go back today. We had a lot of fun looking at all the different colored pumpkins, the crazy types of gourds they had, and the sad, sad Jaguar game that was playing on a computer there. They picked out their own little pumpkins, and helped me find a tiny one for their sister. Popo's is plump and bumpy, and Bubby's is just perfect. Or it was until he snapped the stem off on the way home.

When we left there, I called for a pizza and we headed to Red Box. We all got out and rooted for there to be an available copy of Monsters vs. Aliens, which there was! We then picked up our pizza and headed home.

We all really relaxed while we watched the movie and ate yummy cheesy goodness. They went to bed so well for me. (Bubby kept showing signs of doing the toddler meltdown thing he's famous for, but kept himself in check.)

This evening was exactly what I needed, and it was wonderful to be able to just enjoy my boys, without the constant underlying stress of my baby's needs. They so deserved some attention too. They've been good sweet boys through all the drama. I am so blessed. My next goal is to spend some alone time with each boy sometime in the next week or two. Brandon and I have only managed to split them up for special attention maybe twice ever. They should get that more often.

Mom reminded me that I could use my USB charger cord to move my cell phone photos to my computer (duh!), so I managed that tonight. Following are the shots from tonight - some of them are horribly fuzzy, but I wanted to show what they did there. I'll post the other ones I've been taking lately tomorrow or sometime soon.

P.S. - Yesterday we had a fun day at Nana's house, celebrating her birthday! We had homemade lumpia and pancit, and it was all delicious! Happy Birthday Nana!

Wearing Daddy's silly t-shirts to bed

PLEASE!

2009-10-09T21:11:00.002-04:00

Please, God, PLEASE let it be teething! And PLEASE bring on the teeth!

I miss my husband.

Raging Bear

2009-10-08T21:29:00.001-04:00

Oh. My. Goodness.

Baby Bear was a HIGH-NEEDS child today, to put it mildly. Please God, please let it be teething. She does seem to have some growing bumps in her gum, so I have some hope. Teething can't last forever. If that's not it, she must be having some excruciating internal pains, or she's just the clingiest, whiniest child I've ever met. That's saying a lot, because I've met some brats. Either way, it's just not good.

I know I'm sounding awfully selfish. I do feel for her, and tried my best to help her out all day. It's just that after an entire day of listening to an infant screaming every time you try to tend to the needs of your other two children, go to the bathroom, or fix yourself some food, you get a little weak.

To try to lighten the tension, and make up to the boys for my bad mood, I blew up the bouncy castle for the boys (while she took her nap). It takes up most of our living/dining room, but it's so worth it. The boys entertain themselves in and around it for hours and get out their energy. Gonna have to crack it out more often in the winter this year.

I'm rethinking our preschool plans. Not the if but the what and how. Going to continue as we have been, but I think it's going to morph a little over time. Not a surprise at all, except that it's happening so early. I think we're going to move a little more in the direction of "unit study" (or "themes") and less in the "letter of the week" format. If you care, you can search on those terms and find lots of info online. I'm too tired. :)

Today we worked on cutting and tracing. Both were very frustrating for me, with no patience and all. Those aren't their strong points, and it's so hard for me to explain when I'm like I was today. I wasn't really planning on doing much school today, but they requested it! And I did see a glimmer of progress in one of them, the one that was actually behind on these things, so it was a little encouraging.

I think the main thing they are enjoying and absorbing is the Bible story, Adam and Eve. I wasn't sure it was really sinking in, but they related it back to me so well today. And the Adam and Eve story books are what they keep asking to work on at the table. I think tomorrow we'll do a math craft with apples on a tree. So excited. Hopefully I'll have a little more patience tomorrow.

Oh, and we started our character trait today! I was being lazy and underestimating them all week, but figured "what the heck" and brought it up with a related craft. This week it's Attentiveness. It took some practice and patience with them goofing off with it, but they've got it! I can't wait to keep practicing it. That's the perfect one to start off with because, obviously, it's a foundational trait they need to learn to really get anywhere with their learning.

I have dozens of things swirling around my mind at all times that I need to get done. Some are basic household duties, some are appointments to make, some are nice things I'd like to do or send to people, some are improvements I'd like to make in the house, and some are relaxing things I'd like to do for myself. I am pretty overwhelmed, mostly with remembering any of it (including stopping to write it down - just not gonna happen at this point). But a lot of the time, I have a peace about it. I gave the list to God (the parts I could remember and the ones I couldn't), and asked Him to please help me remember what I need to when I need to. I know some things will have to fall through the cracks, because I'm a silly little human lady, but I'm prepared for that, and sure that He's prioritizing for me, and delegating my resources for me. Does that make any sense?

MUST GET REST...

Beautiful Genius Mom Seeks To Hire Interesting Title Writer

2009-10-07T21:50:00.001-04:00

Today was jam-packed, mostly with good stuff.

We got some schoolwork done at breakfast, and then got out of here crazy early (for us), just after 9:30. We dropped off the camera for repairs (two to four weeks, bleh), browsed Target (yes, browsed... I have no idea how I pulled that off with three small kids), and got lunch at Firehouse. They usually take good care of us there. And we go so often that my meal is very often free because of our rewards cards.

After naps we headed out to church. We ate our pbj's in the church dining room. I thought we got there plenty early (because I tried to have us leave early enough to run another errand, but didn't quite make it, so we headed straight to church), but they took their sweet time eating so I got to service just on time. I was only disappointed because I brought my Apples lesson to work on while I relaxed. Relaxed, ha! What a concept.

I'm not too frustrated by that issue of no relaxation lately, but I was pretty psyched to just sit and chill. It's all good though, because the sermon was really good. Because the Word is so so good. It was on Ephesians 5:3-14. Very powerful stuff. As God so often works it, it went right in line with our Apples lesson from last week: Purity. What a sweet mission, to seek to be pure in every possible way, starting with our thoughts... to be like our Father, to please our Father, and just plain be happier! And it's only possible with His help, by being in His Word and consciously in His Spirit's presence all the time. Our teaching mentor this week put that part this way: We get our hands and feet dirty by touching the world around us, which we must do as we live our lives each day, so we need daily to go to the Bible to bath in His Word, to wash it all away.

There Richard, I didn't even mean to give in to your demand for bits of Applesauce, but you're welcome.

Then satan tried to take the shine off the evening by tempting me to freak out when Baby Bear screamed the whole way home. I was definitely tempted!

One of the goals of our Target shopping was to finally wrap up the Operation Christmas Child boxes we did this year. It's been so fun to pick up various little tidbits to put in our boxes. I decided we'd do two girls' boxes, aged 5-9. So fun! I wish I'd taken a picture of them before I turned them in tonight. I think I can remember most of the items:

Headbands and hairclips
Socks
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Crayons
Coloring book
Stickers
Mini stuffed Smurfette
Spiky-squishy bug-eyed toy (wow)
Notebook
Lollipops
Note from our family

I always remember the joy Brandon and I got out of doing a box for a small boy our first Christmas we were married. We could not afford it at all, but we had a great time really thinking about what to put in there and "splurging" on a sweet little boy out there. It was such a sweet time. I highly recommend the experience.

[Enter Clever Title Here]

2009-10-06T22:12:00.001-04:00

I'm afraid this blog is going to be a lot less entertaining for a while. I still haven't brought the camera in for repair, and it always takes them at least a week to do it. And this time it's a lot more broken than usual. I'm documenting everything with my cell phone camera, but this computer doesn't have a memory card reader, and I'm not gonna email myself all the dozens of pictures. I'll try to go through some old pictures to share.

Today had its highs and lows. This morning was very stressful. Things eventually picked up, but the boys did stay in their pajama shirts all day long. I am almost over it. Even when we went out for a walk after dinner, they wore their Spongebob pj shirts with regular shorts. I actually found it quite cute.

We got our box from Sonlight this morning, a day early, yay! I am so psyched out about all the fresh books. They smell amazing! The boys harassed me all the day long to play with the two games. We finally did and they got off my back. It looks like I'm going to have to order a second Mighty Mind game. We also read a couple of stories. I took some neat pictures of the stack of books, but since I can't show you those, here's the one from their site.

We got to have our taco dinner early tonight, which always makes for a more peaceful evening. I love cooking or at least prepping dinner while they're napping, feeding them when they wake up, and doing a snack later in the evening.

The boys have it in their heads (I have a feeling someone was being cute with them at a meal sometime) that when they eat food, it goes down into their tummy, then keeps going "down and down into my piddies (toes)". I haven't felt the need to correct them on this little fact yet. Lately they've also been adding "and then it comes out!" And tonight I was discussing with Popo whether he'd finished his vitamin ("Spiderman candy"), and he did the whole shpiel (correct spelling, believe it or not, I checked), only this time he added "and then it will come out, and I'll eat it again!" I happened to be brushing his teeth when he said this. I love kids. And I get to hang out with them all day!

Homeschooling sampler, what we worked on today:
We reviewed our letter of the week - Aa, and it's sound
We reviewed our theme words of the week - apple, ant, alligator, ambulance, astronaut
We colored some theme word pictures (yesterday we did a cute craft turning the letter A into alligators)
We sang our song of the week - Ants Go Marching
I read our poem of the week a couple of times (it's about apples)
I read the page from our 101 Bible Stories about Adam and Eve, and read through a couple of little folded books about Adam and Eve from online
We did some adding with our Goldfish crackers
We did matching with our Teddy Mix & Match game
We did some matching, finding, and building with our Mighty Minds game
We read some stories and discussed them

I think that's everything. It's stretched out through the day, with a dedicated chunk right after breakfast. Tomorrow we do more of the same, with science thrown in. We'll learn about some A animals.

I am having so much fun with this. It's definitely going to be a little overwhelming at times, even though it's "just preschool". But that's why I want to get us started now. I want us all to get used to some amount of structure now so it's not a shock when we get into actual grades. Mostly me. I know I would go into it with crazy expectations, whatever grade we started, and I want to get past that point and into the reasonable goals stage. And the whole original reason we started this was because we were considering sending them to preschool this fall, but decided against sending them out of the home yet. Though I didn't want them to miss out on the semi-structured learning through play that they'd get at preschool. So here we are!

Here are a couple of pictures I did send myself...

Bubby with his alligator craft yesterday

Popo on our walk tonight

I smell like holiday ham

2009-10-05T22:28:00.000-04:00

Super-duper fast...

Saturday afternoon/evening was spent at Grammy's house, celebrating her birthday. Almost everyone made it, but we missed those that were absent. All the kids were pretty well behaved, and so were the adults. It was actually somewhat relaxing, even though it was a house jam-packed with 10 adults and 7 small children.

Saturday evening at home wasn't all that fun. The boys were both waking up and hollering for me with tear-soaked, shaking faces. Not sure what that was all about. Popo told me his mouth hurt, but I'm not sure if he just remembers me asking him that sometimes or not. And when he heard his brother get offered "strawberry medicine" (Tylenol), Bubby piped up about his aching gums too. They did sleep after that and some water, so I just don't know.

On Sunday we missed all church activity, for obvious sleep-deprived reasons. We spent most of the day at Nana's house hanging out with her, Aunt Nicole, and cousin Mady. Mady was a trip, and really took off with her walking while we were there. Little kids really get inspired by other kids running around them like maniacs. That was a refreshing day and I got to get some of that browsey shopping done that you just can't do with three small children.

Today we started homeschooling preschool! It was such a thrill. I have some pictures, but they are on my phone because I broke our camera, so I'll have to get them online later. The boys were so into it and I just have a great feeling about it all. For now. :) Baby Bear wasn't always patient with our efforts, but she'll get used to the routine eventually.

Tonight was Apples of Gold, which was completely lovely, of course. There's only one week left, and I'm already so sad it's going to be over. All the ladies in our group are just so sweet and wise. And the food is to die for! Mom watched the babes for me and they had a good time.

I would love to expound more on each of these things, but really only have the time and energy to summarize. We are having a great time being a goofy little family, missing our Daddy, and growing bigger and stronger every day. We just can't wait for Daddy to come home so we can have real family time. And go to Orlando, woohoo!

You'd think I didn't feed her...

2009-10-02T20:46:00.001-04:00

I'm sorry, but I'm incredibly tired again, so this is going to be super short and boring.

We didn't get to hang out with Joshua today because he was deemed contagious by the doctor, so we missed him.

I got a lot of work done on a work database, which was lots of fun. I so love working in Access. If anyone out there thinks of some random listing they'd like to do cool things with or anything, I'm more than willing to make something up for you. I just love it.

We did enjoy starting our cutting and stickers and pasting workbooks, coloring, and driving our cars around. Baby Bear did lots more exploring. We tried to get to the library, but it was already closed. So we got some stuff at Bed Bath N' Beyond we needed to pick up. Then we tried to watch a Mickey Mouse movie someone gave us, but it didn't work right. So we watched some Spongebob on DVD while we ate some ice cream.

They haven't had ice cream but maybe 5 times in their life. They did such a good job eating it, considering they weren't looking at the bowl or spoon the entire time, hehe.

I'm feeling like it's time to ask for help, but I just don't know. I can't seem to get caught up on sleep, and there are a few errands I need to get done. But I can't picture what kind of help I need, and I despise asking. I haven't snapped yet, and I'm really excited about just how far God has helped me stretch, but I don't want to get to that point either.

G'nite ever-body!

And happy birthday to Grammy!

So Tired

2009-10-01T22:08:00.001-04:00

My eyes are burning!

Quick summary...

Yesterday was supposed to be my last day at work, but we worked out a neat idea for me to work as able and wherever able going forward, if it works out well for all involved. I'm going to take a week or two off to get into a routine here at home (hopefully), and then we'll try it out. I'm pretty excited about it and humbled that the opportunity is available to me. I'm also nervous about the decision.

Today was crazy fun...

First, we got to see Daddy on the computer for a while, with no technical issues. We all got refreshed from that.

After that, the kids and I went by my work to pick up something I forgot there yesterday. That was fun #2.

Then we ate lunch at Chick-fil-a, where we were basically waited on by half the staff. I love that place. The boys behaved and ate well so they could play in the playground, which was fun #3. Until some boys a smidge older than them came in and were very rude to mine, and my savage Mama Bear came out and explained to them that they weren't to yell at them that way. And we left, because I wasn't sure I could resist the temptation to trip them or something. And my heart was hurting because my sweet boys were still trying to play with the meanies. Man, I might cry about this. I'm so tired.

Sword fighting with our straws at lunch

Fun #4 was the great nap we all got this afternoon.

And fun #5 was just the rest of the day hanging out at home. My kids are so fun and funny and sweet and smart and so many other wonderful things. They are my favorite people after their daddy. They helped me finish my big New York puzzle.

Baby Bear rolled around and explored and chewed and entertained herself for the majority of the day again. She's watching her brothers with more intensity and attention to detail. Not sure if that makes sense, but I'm too tired to do any better.

Another puzzle genius in the making

I plan to have Joshua play with us again tomorrow, so we should have a super fun time again.

I am going to crash now.

Ups and Downs

2009-09-29T21:39:00.000-04:00

Today was a day of many emotions. Over and through all of them was joy, but what a menagerie!

My work day flew by today. I spent most of the day very nervous, almost like it was my first day, because I'm stressed that I get my work done before my last hours tomorrow. I'm making some neato databases for the team to use, and none of my coworkers are completely familiar with how to tweak them if changes need to be made, so I'm really pressed to make them just perfect. It's a lot of fun, but scary.

The short feel to the day may have had something to do with oversleeping this morning. Hehe. Interesting how differently your morning starts when there are no children in the house.

When I left work today, I packed up my personal stuff and brought it home. I don't want to have to deal with that tomorrow. It's already such a big deal to leave on your last day, so why make it an awkward, fumbling experience with a big box of junk? So that was bittersweet and surreal. I felt sad to be closing this chapter on my life and to be preparing to say goodbye to my friends there (though I'll be bugging them with visits much too often). But as more people asked me about what I was going to be doing and we discussed homeschooling and raising my kids God's way, I got so very excited. It didn't help that I was skimming through the homeschooling supply catalog I got in the mail during my breaks either. I was all a twitter fantasizing about watching my boys learn and grow with me every day.

It was all very surreal.

And when I picked up my kids from Grammy's, I was so joyous and lighthearted. My kids usually do that to me these days. They are pure light and refreshment and sugar. Most of the time.

Then we had one of those nights where another adult would have made all the world of a difference. We got home late, dinner did not cook well, the baby cried for her meal and from exhaustion, and the boys got rowdy. Finally, someone knocked his full milk cup all over the table and floor and his brother. That's where my down came in. I got kinda loud about that one. Then I was so frustrated with the culprit for not showing enough concern. One of them gets very emotionally effected when he's scolded, the other, not so much...

Praise God, Baby Bear did go to bed a little early, which helped me sort of get a handle on things. And finish my dinner. Sheesh.

And last night she spent her first night away from me. We both handled it very well. Except for the oversleeping thing.

So I have to get a move on now to do a little work on those databases. Hmm, or more homeschooling research...

Ketchup

2009-09-27T22:19:00.002-04:00

Tonight we snacked on small pretzels and pretended they were faces - "pretzel men" - their idea. So then we made them talk and sometimes they were happy and said sweet things - "Hi, Mommy!" - other times they were mad. We decided they were mad because we were going to eat them. They roared with laughter as I voiced the pretzel men's screams for help as they were devoured by each of us. Sigh. Oh, and sometimes they were animals, who made their own special sounds of terror and agony.

We had a lovely day today overall. It was really a struggle to feel motivation to get up and get to church this morning, but God promised He'd bless if I obeyed, so up I got. We actually made it to Sunday School on time, believe it or not! The lesson and sermon were inspiring, and as often, right in line with what He's been revealing to me from all sources throughout my days lately.

Lunch was great. We had our leftover pizza pinwheels (another Apples of Gold recipe) from last night's dinner. The tooth-wielding members of the family really like it.

They took a nap today (eventually) so I got a lot done around the house. I love being caught up most of the time lately! I'm not used to it, but I'm getting there!

All I remember after nap is that we had an early dinner and goofed off. And I got more stuff done.

The boys were pretty sweet and happy today, and I was fairly energetic, so we all got along really well. Baby Bear missed her morning nap because of church, so she was a little off, but it was manageable. I'll manage for her sweet highness.

We've had dinner early the last two nights and I've loved it. Really loved it. Last night I think we ate before 5, and tonight it was around 5:30. That way there's no pressure to hurry up eating, the boys have enough energy to eat well, and we have plenty of time to play afterwards. Then we just have a small snack a little later. It really takes the pressure out of evenings, and I'm going to do my best to continue the practice.

I'm getting close to nailing down my "ideal" daily schedule. On paper, that is. I'm suddenly super excited again about getting to own my days with the kids soon. This is my last week of work, YAY!

To catch up, yesterday was pretty cool too. I did not think so for the first half. It took until 1 pm to get us out of the house. The boys and I were ready hours earlier, but Baby Bear took a nice long nap. I felt so bad for the boys because I didn't let them go outside and play because I was anticipating her awakening at any minute for so very long. Then we went to their favorite store in the world, especially Popo's, Target. Then headed to Publix for a handful of things we needed. The boys were so good, even though it was well into their usual nap time. I had been promising we'd go to the park the whole time, so of course it rained as we left the store. Instead, when it stopped raining, they requested to go out on the patio and use their sidewalk chalk. So while Baby Bear napped again, we played out there. I got to weed the giant dinosaur-food-weed that grows back there (I just finally found it online, called "air potato" - nasty bugger) from all over the back fence and plants. They had a ball coloring over each other's markings on the ground and giggling like madmen. We skipped their nap altogether, and that actually wasn't a problem for, I think, the first time ever.

So that was yesterday.

Oh, and on Thursday evening we got to have a lovely dinner with Brandon's grandparents as they passed through town. My pictures didn't come out great because my camera battery was dying and when it's in its final throes, it doesn't behave well.

I purposely left this one uncropped - I had accidentally shifted the camera before I took the photo. I thought it would be funny to show as is. And look how sweet their faces are!

Okay, I think I'm all caught up on the major action of the last few days. Here are some random pictures to make up for my delinquency...

Princess Baby Bear on her throne

Popo imitating his daddy

Pillow fight with cousin Joshua on our play day last week

Two sweet brothers at nap time today

Baby Bear rolling around on my bed today as I cleaned up my room

Baby Bear feeling very impatient with my delay in serving her immediate need to be somewhere else

You think this picture is sad? You should see the ones I'm not showing you from five minutes later because they break my heart to look at them. She's so very dramatic and pitiful sometimes. I love her so.

Remember when...

2009-09-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

I said I was going to get some rest last night? Yeah, no.

I had a rough night with the wee barne last night and she finally went down to stay at midnight. Yes, my 7-month-old decided it'd be fun to play until midnight. She screamed in her bed for over half an hour, then tried to play in my arms as I tried to rock her for another half hour, followed by more screaming in my arms for half an hour. I gave in and tried to nurse her - she wouldn't have any of it! So she rolled around on my bed and played while I read for about an hour until she finally had enough.

I got lots of super cute pictures of her on my phone while she played though. Can't upload it to the computer right now, sorry.

We had a lovely day again today. After we played a little this morning, we met April and Emily at Five Guys for lunch. The boys had a great time goofing off and eating hot dogs and fries. Then I took them to Grammy's and went to work for half a day, to try to get things finalized before I ditch them for good next week. It was actually a very productive Friday afternoon at work, believe it or not.

So, you can forget about any more information than that tonight. I am wiped out (seems to be the general theme when Brandon's gone) and not fully convinced she's down for the night tonight. She gave it her all to protest her bed for a good 45 minutes. All's quiet now, but that doesn't necessarily settle the issue.

So once again, I leave you with a promise to share more pictures and stuff later. I know I don't always follow through, but that's me. I have many limits to my capacities. Since you are here reading my blog, you either love me despite that, or I don't know you and don't care. Teehee.

I love you too.

Who's Visiting From Brazil?

2009-09-24T21:49:00.001-04:00

I use Google Analytics to track some stats on usage of my blog and I hadn't checked it in a long while until a couple of days ago. I have had one visitor from Canada and seven from Brazil in the last month. How interesting/weird is that?

I've recently changed the comment settings on this blog. I've opened it up for all visitors to comment, not just the ones signed into Google. I'm a little scared of this, but I know some of my family and friends don't want to sign into Google to comment, and I understand that. I personally live and breath Google, but I know not everyone's quite as cool as I am.

Just so you know, I am a comment coveter. My heart skips a beat when I see anything other than "0 Comments" at the bottom of a post. I don't care who it is or how random their thoughts are, I love comments. Just so you know. Purely an FYI. Now you know. There it is.

We had a fun, exhausting day today. Joshua came and played with us for most of the day while his mommy worked. Naptime was... interesting... Hehe. Then we met a bunch of our family out at a restaurant to spend time with Brandon's grandparents, who were travelling through town.

It was all great fun and I took lots of pictures. I'll get some rest now, fix up the photos tomorrow, and then write all about it.

I wasn't going to post tonight...

2009-09-23T21:21:00.002-04:00

...but my child just threw a tear-soaked-and-booger-covered-face tantrum in his room because his sheet wouldn't cover his feet. Because he was laying with his pillow at the foot of the bed. On most of the sheet.

I thought he was being strangled.

Being a parent is the most... interesting occupation there is.

I remember a library teacher in junior high that told me people say "interesting" when they are too lazy to come up with a good adjective.

I believe people also say "interesting" when they are too tired to come up with a good adjective.

A Day in the Life

2009-09-22T21:41:00.034-04:00

Okay, this is going to be one of those detailed posts about our day. It was a great stay-at-home day and I was very aware of how we spent our time. In anticipation of homeschooling in two weeks, I am working on getting structure back into our lives, so I'm trying to keep track of the general times we do things around here and how long they take. It used to be so great to have a good (but slightly flexible) schedule when the boys were babes (that was the only way to go with twins), but things have been so crazy since Baby Bear has blessed our lives. Here's a breakdown of today:

Today was absolutely gorgeous. It was one of those days to enjoy freedom from being intimidated by the sweltering heat or the bite of winter - one of the 12 days a year that we get here.

I finally got to take a shower before everyone else totally woke up, so we got to hit the ground running. The day goes very differently when I have to squeeze in a shower while they're up or skip it altogether.

After breakfast, Baby Bear went down for her nap and the boys and I headed outside with their big wheels. It was so nice out! Definitely warm, but not oppressive at all, with an occasional breeze. They had a grand old time scooting their bikes up and down the parking lot and running up and down the sidewalk. We took pictures and video. I showed them their first rolly-polly, and we had a great time driving it nuts.

Preparing to pose for a sweet picture for me. This was totally their idea.

This is the resulting photo:

(Yes, Popo's hand is often found in that location. Still adjusting to his boxers, I think.)

"C'mon, Mommy!"

This is Popo, coyly going too far, then his exuberant run back to safety - you MUST click on some of these next few of each of them to see zoomed in - their faces are so cute.

Bubby decided to play copycat

The minute we walked in the door to come in for snack, they were recounting all the fun things we did outside. "Well, that was a lot of fun..." says Popo, with a super cute, finalizing shrug.

There was lots of puzzle time today. I love love love that they love their puzzles. And they are so helpful to each other sometimes. One of them will walk up to the other one, mid-puzzle, and help him with a piece he's not sure about. I love to hear "OH, that's where that goes, thanks Popo!" Puzzles are the best practice they have with putting things away when they are done with them, so they are getting better at that too.

All three of my kids doing something or other with a puzzle piece

Baby Bear rolled around and explored the living room for most of the day all on her own. Her sense of adventure makes me proud. I love that she's not content to sit and watch the world go by, though she does love to watch her crazy brothers sometimes. I know the day will come where I wish she'd sit still, but that's where her brothers will show up to reign her in for me. Right?

For dinner, I made mac'n'cheese with hot dogs. Super secret mac'n'cheese! I added pureed carrots to the finished Kraft product. It was super delicious, and the boys ate it up. We did the same thing last night at Apples of Gold with the Velveeta kind (it was Loving Your Children week so the menu was kid-themed), and it was similarly scrumptious. I'm so excited that they got a serving of veggies today! That doesn't happen often.

Oh, no! There were some great statements they made these last couple of days that I carefully burned into my memory to share... I've lost them... That breaks my heart. At least I'm getting some of it down on this blog.

Baby Bear has upgraded out of her baby bathtub into the sink itself. This was her waving at me, her first time a couple of nights ago:

... That the LORD Has Made

2009-09-18T21:29:00.001-04:00

If you remember, this is the same shot we took the last time we took Daddy to the airport for his big trip. He thought of the cool idea to always take this same shot so we can watch them change over the years (or months, if we don't make it through years of this).

Yes, he's outta here. We dropped Daddy off at the airport together early this evening. We weren't sure about taking the kids with us to the airport. We thought maybe they'd remember what happened the last time we left him there and freak out. But they were really cool. And so was I!

This week has been pretty surreal, preparing for his trip. It hasn't seemed real for either of us and I started wanting to hurry it up and get it over with. I didn't want to think about it and fret, but all the preparing left me no choice. So I was actually relieved when we finally loaded up in the van and headed out. It was a sweet drive together as a family.

As I write this at 9:15 pm, I am STARVING. Yeah, still no dinner yet. I've been dealing with one, two, or three kids' needs at a time since I got home. Baby Bear is in my lap now, grabbing everything off the desk, showing no signs of tiring at all. (Are CD's incredibly dangerous for her to taste, or just regular dangerous?) She must know he's gone.

I already tried to put her down to bed and she screamed her little head off for much too long. She's finally got a decent routine now, so I could tell that it wasn't her usual going-to-sleep cry, but something much more furious. (If you never receive your thank-you card for the boys' birthday, it's because she just knocked them in a crevasse, and chances aren't great I'll remember to get them out. Just know you're thanked!)

So I'm cutting this short now. Enjoy a visual tale of our evening.

Eating their favorite dinner of all: Chicken nuggets, cheese, bread, and apples

Baby Bear hanging out after her bath, in her sweet Baby Legs

This is the Day...

2009-09-13T23:28:00.005-04:00

Okay, so seriously, a great, exhausting day. Tonight we had Baby Bear dedicated at church. It was a great experience - I love the way our church does it - and there weren't too many hitches.

As we prepared to go into the auditorium before the service, we were telling the boys that they were going to to go "big church" and that they had to be very quiet so everyone could hear who was talking. Bubby turns to me and whispers: "Is everyone sleeping, Mommy?". (They hear that they need to be quiet because Baby Bear is sleeping all the time.) I love my boys.

Baby Bear was incredibly delicious in a Grammy one-of-a-kind number, complete with teeny-tiny hair clip. I am totally obsessed with these clips and I think they will become a permanent part of her daily wardrobe from now on. She behaved exactly as we would have hoped. She gazed at the pastor as if to determine her approval, then brought out the sweetly bashful flirty smile as she watched him explain her name's roots and read her verse. After a few moments she saw her face on the tv on the floor in front of us and sweetly smiled at it. She is just so edible!

(I really wasn't depressed, I guess I just overdid the trying-not-to-look-too-amused-by-my-own-kids-being-silly-in-front-of-all-these-people thing.)

The boys were pretty amusing in front of the church during the actual ceremony. They had gotten all wound up (especially Popo) in the time leading up to it and were jumpy when we got up there. But they were quiet and didn't actually climb the pulpit stairs or run around or anything. They did run away to sit with Grammy, Pops, Nana, and Papa in the fourth row for a few minutes though. That was pretty funny.

Baby Bear and Grammy

Here I am, looking around at the boys one of about 56 times I checked on them.

We got so many amused comments afterwards, especially from all the offering-taking deacons that got to sit on the front row and watch the action close up. I can't wait to see the video of it to see their shenanigans in perspective.

Pastor Brunson was inquiring afterward about the boys' twin status (yea or nay) and age and we reminded him he dedicated them almost three years ago. I think he really feels honored by the dedication ceremony and gets a kick out of watching the children and families grow.

Popo did have an accident in the van just as we got to church, so he didn't wear his nice pants to church. Instead he was a thug in his graffiti jeans. And we had just decided to proclaim them potty-trained! We did tell ourselves to prepare for some accidents now and then, but it should have been implied that we did not mean they could happen on big occasions, sheesh!

After only one real nap today, which she was awoken from to come back to church, Baby Bear was pretty pooped by the time church was out. When I went to pick her up at the nursery, the lady was standing at the door holding my red-eyed crying baby and sweetly asking people walking by, "Is this one yours?" The poor girl did that pathetic gasping for air as she calmed down from a big cry for a while as her grandparents fawned over her.

I will post our official family picture they took just before the service, once I receive it. Also, there are some cute pictures of Baby Bear with Nana and Papa, but they are on Nana's camera (mine didn't turn out as well as hers did), so I'll add that here once she graciously shares them with me too.

I like this one because it looks like I'm saddened and embarrassed at my studmuffin husband's rose handling skills.

Anna - German for "gracious"

Celia - Latin for "heaven"

Psalm 116:5 "Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate."

2009-09-09T22:05:00.001-04:00

I miss you, blog. I just wanted you to know that.

I really want to post something, but so much has been happening that it's overwhelming to catch up. And I feel like I'm betraying some memories if I only write about some of them.

Sometime soon I will be writing about the boys' birthday parties that finally did happen, despite all the illness mess.

I'm almost looking forward to Brandon leaving for work again so I'll have to update daily. I just miss it.

Stolen Goods

2009-09-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

This is a sweet picture Aunt Brianna took this weekend. I've swiped it and I am planning on framing it for her room. And mine. And every room there is. Maybe.

Trials and Tribulations... not really

2009-09-01T17:50:00.000-04:00

Being sick stinks. I'd say ask my kids and they'll tell you, but they don't realize that they are and will attack you if you try to tell them so.

They've been ramping up being sick with some virus over the last couple days. Bubby started it off with some coughing a couple days ago. It was after some great fun with cousins, so we thought it was just from exertion. But it's just gotten worse. And the fevers started yesterday, with Popo joining in the fun.

So we went to the doctor today and she said it's a virus that we'll just have to stick out with whatever relief Tylenol will provide.

I wouldn't mind them feeling yucky so much if they'd be needy or cuddly or something. Instead they get extraordinarily high-pitched and moody. Bubby in particular. You know it's coming when he doesn't answer you when you ask him a question or to do something. At this point he's resetting into psycho mode. Then the chalkboard voice squeaks: "Bubby no go upstairs." Parent: "Okay." Bubby: "Bubby go upstairs!" Parent: "Okay." Bubby: "No, Bubby NO GO UPSTAIRS!" The tears are streaming by now.

If you give up and walk away, he stalks you throughout the house, screeching whichever his last response was. If you decide to fight it out, he turns red and screams like a banshee. He can't hear you if you try to reason with him or comfort him about not feeling well. And don't you dare try to hold him or caress him to calm him down.

And this is the mild version. It kicks into high gear at bedtime. If we're lucky, he gets through storytime, songtime, and prayers before he remembers his agenda. If we're not, he squeals through the book that he doesn't want to read that one. Then he shakes his head in protest through each song, refusing to sing along, followed by begging to sing it the very second the last word is sung. Next is refusal to pray until Daddy's done. Now we hear about what songs he wants to sing by himself, but refuses to when you give him the green light. Next is denial of hugs or kisses, until you close the door and the screaming for hugs and kisses begins. Finally, the wild card. You never know what he'll come up with to cry about through the door, for around half an hour.

I feel horrible, but sometimes the only way to break him out of these episodes is to be harsh and threaten him. Then he just cries a low moan until he falls asleep or gets distracted. Usually, Popo is a patient bystander to all this. Occasionally he'll pitch in with some confusion as to what he wants as well, but generally he's a sweet quiet boy. He seems to understand that Mommy and Daddy need some help with the situation so he stays out of the way. I try to quietly give him some love and thank him for being extra sweet on these occasions, so he doesn't get any crazy ideas of how parental attention works.

I love my boys so much. I really do. They are usually such sweet, funny boys. God will show us how to help them manage their discomfort and get us through this. They won't be too scarred by the learning process, right?

Day of Miracles

2009-08-25T19:55:00.000-04:00

The kids and I had another great day together. Some great notable accomplishments were made.

I finally had time to try out the boys' new boxer shorts today. Ever since we got them in the mail and washed them up, we've been out and about too much to work with them. I love them - they are some of the cutest things the boys have worn in a long time. I also have had high hopes for them because the boys do so well when nude or lightly and loosely clad down there.

So Bubby tells me he has to go peepee on the potty mid-morning, no big deal, they do that quite a lot. But I went to check on him and help him along and he told me to go away to the living room, like they do when they need privacy for number 2. So I backed off and observed him from a distance. He did the entire bathroom visit entirely on his own! This involves getting his bottoms off, prepping the potty, doing the deed, getting toilet paper and wiping, getting soap and washing and rinsing his hands, then turning off the water and light. I usually help out with those last few things. I was so proud of him for taking charge and getting it all done. He did this the rest of the day and inspired his brother to follow suit. He is getting very independent lately and it makes me melt inside.

Inspired by the boxer-cuteness and the Bubby-confidence, I decided we were gonna go crazy and make our BJs run like big boys with only boxers and shorts on. I figured it was the perfect test scenario: BJs is moments from our house, it wasn't a crucial errand (if things went horribly wrong, the items I sought could wait until later), they have large aisles, few crowds, and child-shriek muffling acoustics if we got into an argument about it.

After a couple of in-depth discussions about what we'd do if we needed to go while in the van or the store, we headed out. I lined their car seats with towels, pointed out the portable potty, and away we went! We discussed our plans for peepees or poopies countless times on the ride and as we parked. Soon after we got inside, Popo said he had to go. So we sped across the store to the potty, all unloaded from the cart, and claimed the women's bathroom for our own.

The rest is history. They did everything perfectly in there and had no issues the rest of the time in the store or the van. I gave them a little treat when we got home. I can't wait to try it again! Daddy took them out to the mall tonight, but he was too chicken to go without some super-absorbant coverage.

I know this all may seem a little silly, but if you've never been a parent burnt out on potty training from at least a year of it on and off, you have no idea what a thrilling experiment this has been. If you have, you are probably thinking that I have no idea what a breeze this was, and what true challenges I have ahead of me. I'll deal and write in detail about them in due time, I'm sure.

Check out my three kiddos with some form of mohawk today (she woke up that way from her nap), and some other cute pics from our day...

Kinda sitting up today. Almost.

She also tried out and enjoyed her play center for the first time today. Took to it right away.

Not. A. Single. One.

2009-08-21T23:02:00.015-04:00

We had such a great day today. I can't gush about it enough.

This morning, after having a fun goofy time at home, I took the kids to the library for a little bit. It was nirvana. They were so well behaved and sweet. They were quiet, put their puzzles and books away, and shared. I just wanted to crush them with gratitude and pride. It was pretty different from the last time I took them...

Then we went to Firehouse Subs for lunch. Yes, again. That's the only place they'll eat up their whole lunch and it's not fried! They were a little crazy when we first got there, hurling their chips bag (and mine) on the floor until they were sacks of crumbs, but as soon as we sat down, they were angels again. Baby Bear fussed a little with the sleepies, but playing with her kept it manageable.

After some good nap time on their parts, we watched and listened to the awesome thunderstorm that hit just as they woke up. Then we all had super yummy pbj sandwiches for dinner and headed out to the mall. We'd planned on going to the baseball game and were all disappointed when the rain cancelled that idea. So we decided we'd go 'trol the mall.

That turned out to be the cheapest, most fun time for us all. We were in just the right mood for it. We rode the cool elevator, played in the toy store, watched Daddy's gum ball slide down the neato contraption, rode the merry-go-round (we never have money for that, so it was a nice change), and visited the doggies in the pet store. Baby Bear and I entertained passersby with her laughter. She was so jovial this evening that I had her cracking up with anything I tried.

She felt so much better today. She's been having some issues with digestion. Her little body wasn't quite prepared for so much solid food and it gave up trying to do anything with it for over a week! I was finally able to give her some prunes yesterday, and it's done the trick! Every diaper since the night before that has had poopies. And we're talking lots of poopies. Her poor little hiney is suffering, but I think we're almost done. She's definitely in a much better mood anyway. I never thought I'd be so proud to find poopies in a diaper before...

While they napped today, I read up and conversed with God about homeschooling, raising our kids, and His immediate plans for our family. I am so giddy with anticipation of what's to come and the decisions He has for us to get through.

I have no complaints about my life. Not. A. Single. One.

We played with some hats this morning

And Baby Bear hung out on the couch

Some sweet boys loving on Daddy

Extended Celebration

2009-08-18T22:01:00.105-04:00

The view from our beach condo

Yes, we are still alive.

We had planned to update the blog occasionally while we were on vacation, but one of the many mishaps of that week was that we discovered on night one that we didn't have the power cord to charge the laptop battery. Plus, the condo didn't really have dependable internet access anyway.

We had a super fun time on our St. Augustine Beach vacation. I'm going to lay it all out for you, so this might get a little long...

We packed up Tuesday and met Ryan and Steve for lunch so the boys could catch up. They really need a guys' weekend. They never ever have enough time to talk about all the dude stuff they discuss. They are worse than women to get separated. It was a lovely time and the kids had fun running around Five Guys. No cup explosions this time.

After some final (yeah right) shopping and prepping, we finally got to our condo around 6ish.

It was a very nice, new building and our unit seemed pretty sweet. It had a big balcony with a "peekaboo" view of the ocean, and everything we'd need in the kitchen except food. But before long we discovered the A/C was leaking water out of the closet and onto the carpet. We used a bunch of towels all week keeping up with that.

We took a walk through the neighborhood to the community boardwalk, winding around the condo buildings and a couple of pools, to the beach. We decided that no matter what else happened on this trip, it was all worth that beach walk. The breeze was perfect, the sunset was gorgeous, the dunes were romantic, and the kids were hilarious.

The kids were all up way too late and it was a big day, so we were looking forward to sleeping in. So funny. The boys greeted us a little before 7 am, looking at the clock and announcing: "It's six time, time to wake up!" No idea where that one came from. Baby Bear thought it was a good idea too.

Wednesday was super fun. Also super hot. We went to the Alligator Farm, which was a big hit for the boys, as expected. They loved the alligators, turtles, snakes and birds. They fed the baby alligators and explored the gift shop. We were there just a little too long. On our way out, Brandon was showing Bubby the albino alligators again. "Bubby, you see that white alligator?" "No, no more alligators!"

And it got a little hairy in the gift shop. They were so ADD with the toys that we had a hard time figuring out which one to buy. Next time we'll make an executive decision much quicker. Popo had a meltdown so he and I ducked out while Daddy made our purchase. They love the rubber alligator and spinning egg-gator thingy they got.

We all settled down for naps after that outing - yes, we were all five sleeping, believe it or not. But this time of bliss was abruptly halted when the ear-piercing fire alarm went off in our condo unit and the entire building. So we headed outside. It was extremely hot outside, we were barefoot, and grumpy from deep naps. Over five minutes later, the fire truck showed up. The firemen were so disappointed that it was a false alarm that they grumpily, slowly, shlumped themselves down to the control room. So for about twenty minutes we all huddled in the sun, grumbling against St. John's County servicemen.

After we recovered from our super-funk, we headed out to the World Famous Oasis Restaurant for dinner. As was the trend for this week, Baby Bear was sleepy fussy, so one adult was feeding or walking her throughout the meal. It was a good time, though.

That night we ran out of memory on the camera. Without a computer to upload to, we were stuck. So we went to Target again to pick up a memory card. Ours was super tiny anyway, only 128mb, so we were due for an upgrade. It turns out our camera is too old to handle anything bigger than a 2gb card. We bought a 4gb card. Yeah.

Thursday morning we set out to catch the Matanzas Bay boat tour. We had to run by Target (for the third time) for another memory card for the camera, so we decided to go straight to the public parking garage rather than look for a closer spot, since we were running pretty late. We hoofed all three kids all the way across hot, muggy downtown St. Augustine in about 12 minutes, passing dozens of prime spots on the way. We really didn't make it in time, but the nice lady at the booth had them hold the boat.

We were so glad we made it. It was a gorgeous, breezy ride. The boys loved the first 45 minutes or so, then got a little bored. They entertained themselves by climbing on and around Daddy. Baby Bear ate her lunch and then just watched her brothers.

After the boat ride, we all ate macncheese and apples on our patio. The boys enjoyed the novelty of it and they got a kick out of watching the people in the pool. The rainy breeze was so relaxing and sweet.

Then the boys all took naps at the condo while Baby Bear and I drove into town for her 6-month well visit at the pediatrician. Yeah, that's right, we planned a whole vacation around that appointment, totally forgetting about it. It worked out fine though; she got a nap and the drive was pretty smooth. She's in good health and growing just about right. I got some advice on timing her feedings and naps a little better because she's been in an adjustment period lately, getting fussier much earlier in the evening. Praise God, it was actually a transition time to an earlier bedtime! She was asleep at 8 pm all this week!

That night we ate Taco Pie (yum!) while we waited and prayed for the water to come back on in our building. It cut off in the afternoon until early evening. That was depressing. The owner of the condo offered to let us shower in a spare house he had for sale, but thankfully, the water came back on just in time.

The boys spent 90% of their time in the condo working on their jigsaw puzzles. They are obsessed. We are going to get them some more for their birthdays. (Gift idea, wink wink!)

Friday morning started similarly to the previous two days, bright and early. We packed up and headed to the St. Augustine Beach pier. There is an awesome splash pad there for the kids to run around in, with a sand-pit playground attached to it. We got there before the crowds. The boys were so funny as they tried it out and got used to it. Believe it or not, Popo was the one that fell in love with the water jets and was exploring them forever. Bubby never did quite get comfortable with them. We are so psyched that we found this spot.

Then we walked down the steps to the actual beach and hung out for a little bit. The boys are dealing with a pretty drastic fear of going in the ocean anymore. Bubby actually stands there and sobs in fear if anyone in his family goes out into the ocean for more than a minute. He thinks they aren't coming back or something. So they played in the sand and on the rocks a little.

Popo was immediately enthralled by the concept

Bubby was a little more interested in the playground

What joy!

This is as brave as Bubby got for a little while, but he did grow more confident

Consulting about heading down to the beach

Friday night at bedtime

Saturday, after a yummy breakfast out on the patio at the Oasis, we headed home. Oh, and after we got across town, remembered we forgot to return our Blockbuster rentals (Coraline for us, Madagascar II for the kids), drove back and returned them, I fed Baby Bear, and turned back around. She fussed during breakfast, but passed right out in my arms. She really konked out.

We had such a great week celebrating Daddy's return and enjoying each other. God has blessed us so richly and beyond anything we could ever deserve. I have so many more great pictures from this trip but I'll just have to post more later.

Brandon's favorite quote of the week... Me: "I'm so glad we aren't staying in a hotel. This is so awesome, I made dinner, I just loaded the dishwasher, and I have a load of laundry going! Oh wait, everything I just said is work..."

Thank you

2009-08-17T22:01:00.000-04:00

I'm working on a huge post about our vacation, but my eyes are starting to bug out with all the typing and photo-editing, so I am going to finish it up tomorrow.

In the meantime, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that was so sweet to pitch in and help me out while Brandon was gone. Thank you so much Jen for checking up on me often and providing some adult companionship as well as kid distraction for me several times. Thank you Mom for helping me keep my house from getting too far behind in the battle against grunge and for taking the kids off my hands a few peaceful nights. Thank you Mom G. for taking care of my kids while I went to my "sane place" and got some work done. Thank you Brianna for trying more than once to help me out - we just never quite got it together. :) Thank you to my work friends who listened to me gripe.

I'm very blessed to have any family around me, let alone such supportive, unselfish family members nearby.

Hopefully I'll get more and more independent and competent at doing this on my own. I'll get more practice sooner than expected - he's leaving again sometime in September.

Party Peooooooopppppppllllle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-10T22:37:00.000-04:00

Yeah, he's home. Big deal.

YAY, HE'S HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God tested the patience of each of us one last time today, and I'm not sure either one of us really did a great job, but we survived.

His flight from D.C. to Jax was supposed to leave at 12:07 pm. It's such a long story, but after being delayed again every 20 minutes, he finally took off around 4:30 pm. So I missed several extra hours of work, he sat in Dulles for longer than anyone ever wants to, and the boys kept being put off from going to the airport. Thankfully he was able to keep me informed from the get-go, so I didn't take the kids to the airport four hours early. Of course, with his flight 4 hours delayed, I was late to pick him up. I had such a good plan for his 2:06 arrival, but it all fell apart when we tried to squeeze naps in between. And that was a huge, frustrating mess. One kid took a nap, but she takes three or four naps a day.

So the pickup didn't go as planned, but it was so great.

Then we went out to eat, and that didn't go as planned. We spent almost the whole time with one of us walking around with Baby Bear outside or feeding her in the van. But, hey, we were all there! Oh, Baby Bear didn't react well when her daddy first tried to hold her either, but she's already getting better.

We are totally in shock that this day is finally here, and we're all going to sleep under the same roof again. It's going to take some adjustment to get back to our family-normal, but as you can see, s'all good.

Now we have sooooooo much packing to do for our trip tomorrow. We were supposed to do that together this afternoon, but, you know. So we'll be pretty busy tomorrow morning!

Sixteen Hours!

2009-08-09T22:18:00.000-04:00

This is it, we're down to counting the hours! The boys are pretty excited, but I don't think they quite get it. I've been telling them today that he's coming home tomorrow, after Grammie's house, and they get excited, but not as excited as they would if they realized the real Daddy will actually be here, hugable and throw-you-up-in-the-air present.

Church was lovely. All the kids behaved well. Then lunch and naptime went well, I even got a little nap myself. I also got a lot more done this afternoon. The house looks pretty spiffy! I have to some final toy shuffling, now that everyone's out of the way - oh wait, a boy and a girl are both crying in bed...

That brings me to my wrap-up of the day. Tonight has been maddening. Popo peed on my living room twice. I let them have their Tootsie pops from their Sunday School birthday bags this afternoon. Will not happen again anytime soon. They have some sugar once in a while, but this was apparently hardcore overdosage. They were bouncing off the walls like I've never seen before. Maybe it also had something to do with someone's accidents? Here's hoping. And Baby Bear has been getting increasingly fussy in the evenings this week. Daddy's coming home just in time. It's near darn impossible to get them ready for bed with her needing my full attention from 7 pm to 9:30. Goodness, I'm tired.

One of the main little things I'm looking forward to having him help with is tooth brushing. I never did care for it much, and I'm so very sick of it now.

Okay, I'm off to stay up way too late doing every little thing that pops in my head to prepare for tomorrow. God is so good to me! All the time!

So close I can almost taste it...

2009-08-08T21:52:00.002-04:00

44 - My third birthday party (ohmygosh, I just now realized this is the age of my boys, yikes!) and there's a super-special someone sitting right next to me! If I'm reading it right, this is just before everyone sings to me, I cry, and my husband-to-be jumps on my birthday cake. Good times. I don't think my boys look like Daddy in this picture, but Baby Bear does.
45 - Me and my sister, being goofy cute kids. I'm sorry, but I see my boys in this picture.
46 - A cute coloring page I'm working on. Work in progress. I may put it up in Baby Bear's room. In case you don't know, her room is going to be a gallery of sorts, all kinds of pictures in it.

We are in the final stretch here, people! Only two days left!! He's sleeping now, and when he wakes he starts packing and doing paperwork to prepare for his flight home. Then he'll be on native soil Monday morning, to arrive home that afternoon! One more full day, I really hope I don't explode by then!

Today was nice. Mom watched the kids for me while I went for groceries - the first time I've done that alone in months. It was so easy! Then they all napped well again and I got some more work done and some rest. I am basically caught up enough to start focusing on packing for vacation, woohoo!

Are there enough exclamation points in this post yet? Not sure!

I also tried some of my pilates video this morning. That was shocking. It was always a challenge, but I barely made it through 10 minutes... maybe. And at first the boys thought it was all a game and were all over me, and under me, but eventually they left me alone and then were laying on the floor beside me, trying it out. It was so cute. I'm going to keep trying, but I can tell it's going to take a while before I make any progress in strength. S'all good!

If anyone has any specific fun ideas for surprises for Brandon's return, email them to me. Obviously, don't post them in the comments here since this is a blog mostly for him to read! I have some ideas but I just know someone will tell me something cool after the fact.

Here's the cute day 43 picture of my niece that got sent to my spam inbox, so I didn't see it until it was too late. What a doll!

Making some fun plans to celebrate the boys' third birthday (gasp!). It's going to be pretty low-key, but super fun for them. I already received their main presents that I ordered online, but have resisted the temptation to open the brown shipping box to see them because once I do, I'll have to find a place to hide the gifts, and then remember where I've hidden them. That's a risky situation.

I just had a huge showdown with Bubby at bedtime. I can only assume he's teething, because he's not sick or very tired. He was doing that completely irrational, downright psychotic, toddler thing. It sounds terrible, but he eventually cried it out. I had to feed Baby Bear, and there was no pleasing him anyway.

Oh yeah, I forgot. He got started because his brother bit him on the arm. Hard. You can see each tooth's impression. I'm so very tired of punishing them for hurting each other. They fight CONSTANTLY over every possible thing they encounter or discuss throughout the day. I'm utterly exasperated.

Off to bed, somewhat early for me lately, yay! And then I actually get to go to church and sit through a sermon, yay! And then I get to prepare to see my beautiful husband and to go off with my crazy, wonderful family for super fun times, yay! And then I get to see my beautiful husband and go off with my crazy, wonderful family for super fun times, super yay!

Newness!

2009-08-07T22:01:00.000-04:00

That's my crazy funky boys up there! This is not quite how I'm going to be styling it - this is how the ladies did it at the kids' salon. You can tell they had fun! Popo got pretty nervous when it was actually time to sit in the car-chair, but really did well. I'm so proud of them both.

That outing was this afternoon, just before we went to Nana's for yummy pasta dinner.

And for lunch today we met with April and Emily at the boys' favorite restaurant, Firehouse, and had a lovely time as well.

In between these outings, they all napped really well and I got even more housework done!

But it turns out I've reached my body's limit for fun action and housework productivity. I'm so incredibly exhausted. Tomorrow will be totally relaxing, except for hopefully some grocery shopping alone while Aunt Jen helps me out yet again with the boys for an hour or so. I can't wait to sit around and color and watch tv with the boys. Our last full day home alone before Daddy comes home!

G'nite everybody!

Impending explosion

2009-08-06T22:57:00.000-04:00

That's right, I think I might explode from the super-fun awesomeness of this day!

It started out with me just a bit irritable. Or a lot.

But then Mom got here and we got to work. We got so much cleaned and organized, it's ridiculous. The kids were really well behaved and we were a whirlwind of cleaning action. Baby Bear took two naps, with little or no complaints, and the boys took a three-hour nap! I don't even care if it keeps them up late, it was so worth it.

When they woke up (Mom was gone by then), we packed up and headed out to Bed Bath N Beyond for some organization stuff. The boys were so well behaved. A store like that can be pretty risky, but they are such good boys. As long as there's more to see, they don't mind being told what not to touch.

Then we had dinner at Five Guys. And there were five weird guys at the table next to us! It was funny though, I could feel eyes on us from the moment we walked in. Lots of people were watching to see how we'd do, me and my three tots, all on our own. And you could hear almost everyone in the restaurant catch their breath when Bubby dropped his little styrofoam water cup and splash all the water all over our table, chairs, and floor, the instant we picked a table. After I cleaned up the furniture and moved us to another table, then let a worker know about the floor, Bubby then proceeded to drop his refilled cup on the floor. I let the worker know and asked for a new cup - you see, this time he destroyed it with the crash. The boys and I agreed I'd keep the cups on my side of the table and they'd let me know when they were thirsty. Dinner was lovely, everyone shared ketchup with no complaints, Baby Bear gnawed on a teether, and the food was delish. Then Popo took his final parting sip of water and, you guessed it, dropped his cup and contents all over the floor.

As we packed up, a grandma there with her two little ones in tow stopped by on her way out to ask how I do it with three. I told her the truth. "I pray. I pray a lot."

Believe it or not, I was really pretty cool throughout the whole thing. Got downright prideful about how laid back I felt. I'm just so thankful that tonight was one of those times God chose to give me a extra heaping portion of patience and relaxation.

My boys are geniuses. I may have mentioned that before. You wouldn't believe their puzzle-solving skills. We have some Spiderman, Cars, and animal puzzles, you know, jigsaw puzzles, not the wooden ones. They have been flying through them since the second time I helped them. Just had to let you know that.

They are very excited to go to get their hair cut tomorrow. They saw me researching a cool place to go on the computer. It has a slide and games and stuff in the waiting room. Popo is generally not comfortable with the whole haircut experience, but he's thrilled to go now that he knows it's a new place with a slide! I called them to ask if they were accustomed to doing the look I was going for and she said they do those all the time. I'm so very excited and relieved. It's on Fleming Island, so we'll head out there tomorrow afternoon.

Looking forward to lunch out with my work peeps tomorrow too! Hopefully the kids will be in good form.

Here's to the most productive week ever!

Doobedoobedoo

2009-08-05T22:36:00.001-04:00

Your fixed computer says hi! See the spiffy-new power supply unit?
Sorry babe, I'll eventually get these photos caught up. For reference, today was supposed to be 43, YAY!

Simple day. Work, church, home. The kids were good, but Baby Bear had some crying fits tonight at home. She's sleeping well right now though. She lay in my arms caressing my face as she gazed into it for a while before she conked out. I almost died.

Tired.

Hungry.

So very excited the days are flying by!

So much fun it hurts

2009-08-04T22:49:00.001-04:00

(Slowly gonna get caught up on these pics since the computer was down.)

We had a super great day today. Jen brought the boys over and we went nuts. We went to the mall for Chick-fil-a lunch, then they ran around the kiddie play center there for a good while. We came home and went swimming in the pool for a while, then watched The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything while I whipped up some easy comfort foods for dinner. We ate various combinations of PBJ, macncheese, and hotdogs. Then more crazy play time for four overtired boys, baths, and bed. They left just before bed. What an action-packed day!

Bubby was such a funny boy at the play center today. There was a younger baby girl there, probably a year and a half. She was toddling around, being very adventurous. He decided to take her under his wing and keep her out of danger. He didn't want to let her into the playhouse, up the stairs, or down the slide. He was very gentle about trying to keep her away and sweetly explaining to her that she couldn't do those things. He followed her everywhere and I had to keep telling him to let her do what she wanted. Her mommy was very understanding and didn't mind it really. He even was shielding her from some other kids trying to talk to her. It was so very sweet, but I felt bad for the little girl. She didn't seem too annoyed. Just a little. :) Baby Bear is a very lucky little sister.

All our boys play very well together. I love watching their little personalities interact. They are all fine-tuning their social skills, and it's such an amazing process to watch.

Baby Bear was just perfect all day, that's all there is to say about her. Oh, except that she woke up with some little red spots on her face this morning. I thought it was little pimples, but when she's had those, they vanished within hours. She went to bed tonight with the same spots. They are only on her face, so I'm pretty sure it's not a new food allergy/reaction. The only thing I can think of is tiny bug bites, but that's weird too. I changed her sheets before bed (also because her diaper leaked during naptime today), so we'll see how she looks in the morning.

Our new power supply unit finally arrived via UPS this afternoon, yay! I took advantage of an adult's presence to get it installed while the kids ate dinner, and I'm working on my perfectly-working computer now! I am so thrilled that I got to diagnose the problem, research the replacement part, order it, and install it all by myself! I consider myself fairly tech-savvy, but I've watched too many unexpected issues come up when it comes to specific computer problems to have expected it to go so smoothly. It seems to be running a tad slow, so I'm going to have to look into that. I wouldn't have expected a new power supply unit to affect the speed, but I'm definitely no expert.

Our building got power-washed today, and it looks spiffy new! I also had him do our green mildewey patio, and it's practically glowing in the dark out there.

What a wonderful day of family fun and productivity. I can't believe the amazing sense of accomplishment God's blessing my week with. It's so helpful as I try not to count down every single second of this last week without my sweet man.

2009-08-03T22:51:00.000-04:00

We had a fun time tonight at Zaxby's - it was kid's night, so the boys ate cheap. Then we picked up our free Red Box rental, and we're watching it now - The Tale of Despereaux. The boys are enthralled so far. Baby Bear is sitting up nicely on half of my lap, with the laptop on the other half. I love a cheap, easy night with the babes.

Work was fun today. I got a lot accomplished. It's rare to feel that way with my job. And I always enjoy my girls and homeboy.

Baby Bear is trying very hard to crawl. She's going to beat out her brothers big time. I think they were 8 months old.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the lightning yesterday. While the baby sat on the counter in her bumbo chair and helped me chop, steam, and puree veggies in the kitchen, a storm dumped MORE rain on us (I didn't think there was any left up there, it's been raining every day for weeks and weeks). The boys were watching Spongebob in the living room. In a split second, there was a snap, fizz, pop, with a bright light flashing just on the other side of our patio fence, followed by booming thunder. I jumped, dropped the knife (safely somehow), and looked at Baby Bear. She looked around in 20 different directions in an instant, it was so funny. She didn't cry though. I hugged her quick and told her it was okay. The boys were totally unphased - Spongebob is mesmerizing. I checked outside and didn't see any fire or anything. I had goosebumps/static shivers for several seconds, it was weird. Anyway, the short version is that lightning struck just outside our back door and it was very exciting for us girls.

Sorry this has eroded into a bunch of choppy statements - everyone is in bed now and I'm so very tired. After two productive days, my body is ready for a breather. Off to dreamland!

Deceptive Yum!

2009-08-02T22:01:00.001-04:00

Okay, believe it or not, this is my sons eating a sneaky meal! I observed as casually as I could, with baited breath, as they nibbled, then gobbled their hidden-spinach pizzas down. Bubby especially liked it. Then they asked for more as we got ready for bed. I am totally floored!

I have resorted to Deceptively Delicious meals because my toddler-men refuse to eat basically any vegetable. They also won't eat any real meat (meaning unprocessed meat that hasn't been rolled in lard and fried or squeezed into a tube), but I haven't yet found any secret recipes for that. Thank goodness for whole wheat and peanut butter! We adults have really enjoyed all the sneaky recipes I've tried so far. And the boys also liked my sneaky oatmeal cookies. This pizza has had a failed attempt before, but today it was a winner, yay!

I try not to be a downer to newer moms, but I have been advising them to get the good food into their babes while they still like it. The theory that if you start your kids eating healthy as babies they'll always eat well is bunk. I prided myself on how well the boys ate whatever I gave them for a long time. Sigh. Those were the days.

My service in the nursery this morning was pleasant. It often depends on who I am serving with, and today I worked with the boys' sweet Sunday School teacher, so the workload was nicely balanced. Even so, 15 3-year-olds make for a crazy scene!

I got a lot done today. Dishes, laundry, cooking and pureeing veggies, cooking sneaky pizza, and baking applesauce muffins (yes, sneaky ones, yum!). My hips, knees, and feet are killing me, between nursery-work and hours of barefoot pacing my hard kitchen floor. The smell of cinnamoney-goodness filling my house tells me it was all worth it. That, and the fact that my boys' little tummies are full of spinachey-goodness, too.

There are only 7 days left of loneliness! A week from tomorrow!