A new leaf

So, ever gotten to the point that you are so behind with something that it is overwhelming to contemplate starting? Ya. Me too. Well, here I am, ready to re-start the blog. I'm *planning towards* blogging every day in December and hoping that will give me the ol' ooomph I need. I know, you're welcome, (mom) all of one's of readers.

As shameful as it is, I am going to back-blog the fall events that I've missed...there have been quite a few. :) My attempt is to blow up your google readers. Ha! So, here goes life in our house from late summer through the fall...

The boys had their first days of school....

Jack was so excited to go to school that this was the best picture I could get. You can see his feet blurring from moving towards his teacher. No tears, or even "bye mama" from this guy! He goes twice a week (and wishes it was every day!)

Ryan was also excited to go to preschool. He was thankful for Lydia to be in his class. Ryan goes all 5 days, 9-1.

Saying goodbye!

 

Obligatory front door pictures. :)

What's in a name?

If you are me, a lot. :)

So I previously hinted at some of the "rules" or parameters for naming Mark. It became quite a lengthy and extensive list by the end of the process. :) We had many friends pondering with us as we attempted to find the perfect name.

Family name.  Had a good meaning. Four letters long.  Contained an "A".  Did not begin with "A", "R", "J" or "H". Couldn't end the same way as our last name. Not short for anything (ie, "Will" was off the table because it is short for William).

***

So, for fun, I will include all of the kids' names and their meanings.

Anna-Grace, favor
Kate-Pure
Ruth-Faithful friend

Ryan-Little king
Elliot-My God is the Lord

Jack-God is gracious/His gracious gift
Henry-Ruler of the home

Mark-Strong warrior
Christopher-Bearer of Christ

I have loved watching my kids grow up and take on their names, and what their name meanings have brought us to pray for them. Just a little special thing for me.

Updates

Well, there is still no news on the insurance front. My adjuster is in the process of going through arbitration, so there hasn't been a final answer. So there's that.

 I had a lovely shower thrown by my sweet friend, Leigh-Ann, last week. But that is a post in itself. :) Chris was heavily pursued by an awesome company and finally decided to make a change in a couple of weeks. I am so proud of him and beyond thankful that his commute will be less than half what it is currently. Amazing. Praise the Lord for providing what we didn't even know we needed!

 Me. My back is still hurting. I'm not completely useless, which is an improvement, but am definitely starting to count days, which I don't particularly recall doing in previous pregnancies. 38 days, if you were wondering (And, holy cow! Typing that is UNREAL!!!). I was texted a "baby update" last week that advised me to have all of my baby clothes, toys, paraphernalia washed and put away to be ready. Ya, a bit overwhelming as we still don't have a nursery set up, (and I'm in the midst of dealing with my second fabric choice being sold out everywhere...I evidently have amazing taste...) a name for our child, (and thank you to Anna-Kate for pointing out last night that "Anna, Kate, Ryan and Jack all have "a's" in them, so we'd better have a 4 letter name with an 'A' in it too Mommy." Wow. I hadn't even thought of that yet. Great...) and are still in the midst of settling the big boys (weird) together in one room. Ya, hopefully they will get washed before he arrives. And hopefully the race to the finish nesting will kick in. By evening I'm doing good to walk upright to the bed. Sigh. I'm stretched a bit thin right now and am feeling my emotions heavily as I am dealing with a few disappointments. I find that I expect people to react, respond and do things they way that I would do them--which isn't fair, as God created us all differently, and is 100% not reality (unfortunate as that is...lol). Though I'm stressed out and worried about this summer, I am very much looking forward to a slower pace and more time to sit back and enjoy my kids (though, I'm praying they don't get bored out of their minds with endless summer days and a mommy recovering from surgery).

 Anna-Kate is devouring books. I'm so proud of her and thrilled that she loves to read! She literally is beside herself if she forgets to bring a book in the car with her. She's gearing up for her party and is thrilled that it is soon, along with summer. :)

I am loving Ryan at age 4. The freak outs, tantrums and hardness that was three has produced a precious boy who loves to learn and is a sweet brother and son--Praise the Lord! He loves his school, which is a huge blessing and has started giving me good information when he gets home (something I feared wouldn't happen as I've heard boys don't share as much).

Jack is still my happy boy--though age two has brought a new naughtiness to him. He will look me in the eye as he does something wrong and then just give the biggest, happiest smile in the world. Little stinker. He's precariously close to opening doors. Praying we can hold that off a bit longer.

Baby Caboose is continuing to grow. I mean, if we are taking bets, I'm betting he is close to 9 lbs and I'm not exaggerating! I can barely breath sometimes! He remains a bit violent in the womb. I keep telling him to get it all out now so he can relax and sleep in his lovely new nursery when he arrives. (fingers crossed). So, that's what we've been up to. (well, that and the 50 other things that have pictures associated with them that I am too tired to upload and blog about today...). :)

2 year old stats

Well, it's official! Jack is our "tall" child. :) He is 34 inches tall which puts him in the whopping 39%--a record for any of our children. Ha! {and no, I'm not kidding.} His weight is 26.4 lbs (29%) and he has the smallest of all of my kids' heads at 49 cm (59%).

She was completely comfortable with all of his milestones (including his speech-yay!). Of course, he was a ham with her and showed off all of his skillz. :)

Stupid me forgot to bring up his motion sickness/constant vomiting which she told me talk with her about at his 2 year appointment. Wanna know what reminded me of that fact? Yep, about 45 minutes after his appointment he threw up {but that is a story for another post. Yep, a whole story.}.

Jack turns TWO! {the party version}

Well, my baby is two. Tear.

We started his {fake...ie party day} birthday with our traditional birthday breakfast of donuts and eggs. He spied the Thomas the train napkins I scored at Target for $1.48 a pack and was over the moon about it.

Man, he's a cute kid. :)




His party was at 11 so we did the final things to prepare. I actually got in bed before midnight, which is early for me--especially for a night before a party. :) Chris got in bed at 11, he refused to stay up as moral support as I made Jack a birthday shirt to wear. He did not appreciate the "need". :)

I seriously wonder how people planned parties before pinterest. I love that site! I have been storing away ideas for months now and was very happy with both the cuteness and simpleness of the party. And, bonus, Jack had a blast--and that's really what it's all about (not a photo-op, I have to remind myself!).

Party favors were little trains. The original idea I found was to make the body of the train from a tube of lifesavers. Well, unless special ordered, lifesavers are only available in bags, which didn't help me at all. Because of peanut allergies I couldn't use the tubes of mini-M&M's, so I was seriously scratching my head! Two nights before the party, as I was searching my 6th (yes, sixth) store for lifesavers, I saw bubbles packaged 3 for $1. Done. So we have bubbles, a rolo, hershey kiss, "thank you for coming" on the back, lifesaver wheels and the toothpick cut off of the thomas heads--intended for cupcake toppers--to form my train. Cheap, cute, allergy free, not too much of a sugar high and relatively practical use wise. :) Super.



I found super cute wrapping paper at Costco and put out a request for shoe boxes from friends to come up with my train cars for my food. Very happy with them.

Food set up...(that would be a log car--pretzels, aquarium car--goldfish, citrus car--orange slices, coal car--raisins, and the next picture shows, produce car--celery, carrots and ranch, station house sammies--ham and cheese, and the adults' pasta salad and wagon wraps--spinach wraps with avacado, cheddar, ham, bell pepper and lettuce--and they were awesome!).



Closer up...



Cake Table:



Jack spent a good portion of his party sitting in Poppy's lap eating pretzles, err, "logs". :) He was in hog heaven...






And, my simplest cake to make yet, and the birthday boy L-O-V-E-D it. For simplicity sake I served cupcakes to the kids and cake to the adults. I pre-scooped birthday cake icecream into muffin liners (in a muffin tray) and had them in the freezer ready to pull out and serve. I did it for Ryan's party too and I think it's one of my favorite birthday party ideas yet.



He wasn't sure about everyone singing to him, but as soon as everyone finished he started trying to blowout the candles.



I'd say the cake was a hit. :)



Sweet little Caroline--that poor beautiful dress! :)



Chris totally wins a prize for father of the year. :) He often begrudgingly plays along with my crazy ideas, but this time he totally ran with it. I showed him a {pinterest} picture of a train built from boxes. I had been asking friends to save them for a few weeks (PS, you can't get refrigerator boxes anymore--all of the big companies sell/recycle them.). He spent over an hour constructing the train for the kids to play in. It was such a hit and he did an awesome job! I had a can of markers for the kids to decorate the train and they could climb all in it--such cheap fun!

Annie, Anna-Kate and Luke decorating. :)



Lydia in the train.



Me, with my big 2 year old!



We blew up the bounce house again (such a good investment for us!) and the kids enjoyed our backyard toys and the awesome new bubble machine that Mimi and Oompa gave Jack for his birthday!





Bubbles! (and every time I see kids giddy over bubbles it makes me think of Nemo. Lol).



Jacks buddy, Jack, going for a spin.



We ended up leaving the bounce house up all afternoon and the kids jumped to their little hearts' contents. Then we ate dinner outside, (leftovers from lunch-YES!) they jumped some more, threw them in the bath and everyone slept like rockstars. The end.



The big kids {And Anna-Kate showing off her "pink" tooth. Lol.}



Happy 2nd birthday little Jack...time sure flies when I'm having fun.

Translation

In case you were wondering, when Jack says...

"Eddie", he means "Woody"
"Essie", he means "Jessie"
"Ex", he means "Rex"
"Isa Buzz!", he means "Buzz Lightyear"
"Yee-haw" or "sigh" he means "Bulls Eye"
"Ninny", he means "Minnie"
"Kickey", he means "Mickey"
"Woof-Woof", he means "Pluto"
"A quack quack", he means "Donald"
"oofy" or "tat", he means "goofy" (and usually is referring to his hat)
"lip smacking noise" he means Nemo or Flounder
"uh-sess", he means "princess"
"beast", he means "Belle" (really awkward when he points to a sweet little girl in a Belle costume and repeats loudly-- "BEAST, BEAST!!!")

He's not a baby anymore.

Sniff, sniff.

I took Jack to his 18 month old well baby {ya, ya, poor 3rd kid, it only took me a few weeks to post it...}. OK, he is 23.15 lbs (22%) and 31 inches (13%). His head is 48.5 (69%--lol, that's all of my kids' highest percentage, but he has the smallest head of all....Anna-Kate is in the 80's and Ryan is near chart topping around 97% ha!). She was completely happy with all of his milestones, (speech included, praise the Lord!) gave him his last round of shots until age four and sent us merrily on our way.

My sweet "baby" who goes with me to the chiropractor 3 x's a week. While I lie on the adjustment table he always lies down next to me on the pregnancy adjustment thing. Hilarious.



I hesitate to share these, terrified to jinx it, but I will continue. We took Jacks paci away on Friday night. If you need a refresher on how it went for Anna-Kate, check HERE, and Ryan, check HERE.

Clearly, I was anticipating the worst. It took me a while to get him to throw them away (he sucked on one for about 5 minutes, spit it in the trash can, then moved to the next and next. Funny. I finally took the last from his mouth and threw it away. No tears, but his lower lip came out and began quivering. I had tears in my eyes. When I put him in the bed he continued with the quivering lip, but snuggled up with his bunny, he cried (not hysterical at all, just fussy) for about 15-20 minutes, then went to sleep. He woke once with a dirty diaper, but otherwise, slept through until morning. I was on cloud none, but holding my breath for naptime (typically the worst part for us). He went down fine and work up at 4. Last night, no tears, it just took him about 20 minutes to fall asleep. Still napping now. He is truly awesome! :) Love this boy and so proud of him!

Boy talk

Every morning as we pull into preschool I turn to unbuckle Ryan, and as he stands up he asks me to "blow down the window please Mommy?". {he loves to stick his head out the window and wave at his friends as we get close to the drop off area. Social butterfly, that one is.} I can hardly stand to correct him.

At the dinner table tonight Ryan looked at Chris and said, "Daddy, I've changed my name. I am now Captain America."

Ryan came in my room early this morning and said, (in that loud whisper that could wake the dead) "Mommy, I have bad news. I'm awake!" {why yes, that is bad news...}

He is into the bad news thing. At lunch with friends today he came up to the table of Mamas and said, "Mama, I have bad news." I asked what was wrong. He pointed to a little girl and said, "I don't remember her name." Ha.

***

So, Jack is finally "talking". :) I am choosing to forget the fact that a mommy friend just told me her daughter, who is 1.5 months older than Jack is speaking in sentences...I know he has more than this, but this is all that is coming to mind at the moment.

He still signs more, please {"peez"}, milk, all done, up and thank you {"ank ew"} and he has finally learned to differentiate between yes and no. For example, a month ago, if I asked him if he wanted a cookie, he would emphatically shake his head no, then run to the pantry. Now, he puts his hand on the nearest chair for support and, bending at the waist, with a straight neck, rocks his whole body back and forth to "nod" yes. Hilarious.

"OW-KE-SIGH!!!" {with banging on window/door} That's Jack for "Mommy dearest, I would love it if you would please take me outside."

"Bzz-Bzz" {Buzz Lightyear}

"uhsairs/ouwsairs" {upstairs/downstairs}

"chuzzz" {cheese. aka, the thing he would eat forever}

"Nana"

(he's finally added to Dada, Mama, and Ah-Kay,(Anna-Kate). He tries so hard to say Ryan, it is just indistinguishable. And animal noises for monkey, cow, dog, duck...he has others, but those are favorites/the most comical.)

Manly Men

Parenting either gender is a huge calling and enormous responsibility. Today I've been thinking more about my boys, about their character and the kind of husbands and men I hope that they become one day.

Maybe it's because I've been spending extra time with my two boys lately, but I'm a bit overwhelmed as I think about the obligation of raising two boys who will one day, Lord willing, be responsible for their families. I pray they will be godly husband and fathers. But what does the training look like? Of course we train them to hold doors, wait for "ladies first", we teach respect for authority, to protect women and children and to stand up for what is right (well, we are working on this with Ryan. We are just working on talking with Jack...baby steps. Ha!). I know there isn't a formula for "do this and this happens" with kids, so I guess besides prayer I can just be thankful that my boys have an incredible model to watch in Chris. Any hints for training up godly young men are appreciated.

Funny thing, this picture is what got me thinking about it.



A friend (hi Emily!) remarked on facebook that this was hubby in training. I would like to think that real men are happy to help a tired wife out with the vacumming. I am so thankful that Chris is happy to jump in and help when asked, and often, without even needing to be asked! What a blessing!

And, just sticking with a theme...here's poor Jack with his first black eye. He had a little run in with the wrought iron railings as he fell down a few stairs (seven, to be precise.). Ahh, boys will be boys. :)

The power of words

I am trying to be extremely intentional and cautious with my words. Words hold an amazing power--to uplift, teach and encourage or to tear down and devastate.

The other day I dropped Anna-Kate at the soccer field and told her to start playing and I'd park and be there in a minute {our friends were right there to intercept her, it wasn't dangerous. We were late, what else is new?}. I came back and she was playing with a friend on the side of the field. I called her name and she didn't hear me, so I called it louder followed with "what are you doing I thought I told you to go play your game???" {or something equally as sensitive and kind...}. The look on her face brought tears to my eyes. I had beyond embarrassed and shamed her in front of her friends, and for what? She had misunderstood me, she was not intentionally disobeying. My words absolutely cut her down. That evening I pulled her aside and told her that I was so very sorry for embarrassing her in front of her friends and for not speaking with kindness and love. She smiled and told me she forgave me and loved me. I teared up--I had an opportunity to show her love and grace {and teach about giving others the benefit of the doubt} and I blew it by raising my voice. Shame.

The next morning she handed me this note. She got help with her spelling, but this is my first note from her. I will cherish these words, simple as they are, always.



When she read me her note she said, "I love you. Love, Anna-Kate. For Mom." and added, "I did your name in pink because it's our fabrit {favorite--I just will cry when she says this right. It's one of the few things she incorrectly says} color". :)

***

Ryan keeps me laughing with the things he says. So I can remember...

"I want a peanut bluller sandwich".
"I need persmishion?" {permission}
"Get these things of of me!" {desperately wiping tears off his face. This always makes me laugh and think of Seinfeld's "salty discharge" episode. LOL.}

***

Jack is now speaking, which is thrilling. In addition to "dada" {which he has said exclusively for months, little stinker} he now appropriately says "mama", "yay", {with arms lifted up to cheer for something} "anana", (banana) "Kaaa" {long "A" sound, Anna-Kate} and he is signing "please". I'm thrilled with his progress and desperately trying not to compare him to his much more verbal siblings. :)

The stats

I took Jack in for his 12 month well baby {what a joke!} today. In addition to discovering that he has another double ear infection, (no surprise there) he has also lost 1 1/2 lbs in the last month. I think it's a combination of eating less, being sick and being so very active. She wasn't too concerned, but we are going back in two weeks for a weight/ear check. It's always something, I guess.

He is 19.8 lbs, (10%) 28 in. (10%) and 47 1/2 head (92%). LOL, another "little and smart" one. :) He took his shots pretty well and is just chilling, despite the extremely bad ears. She wanted to move him up in the antibiotic world, but I asked if we could try amoxicillan again. Fingers crossed that it works!

I told my pediatrician about our month and asked for another pink eye prescription since there has been a lot of waste on Ryans' eyes {in case you were wondering, of all of my kids the 4 year old and 1 year old take the drops well--the newly 3 year old is the hands down hardest to put eye drops in. In fact, I have to sit on his chest using my knees to hold his hands down and head from moving..}. I had to laugh when she wrote me a prescription with three refills so everyone could have their own. Only other reportable news is this annoying keep them rear-facing in the carseat until age two business. Our carseat goes until 30 lbs so I will keep him rearfacing until that point (which, if he follows his siblings, will be quite a while...) but I just feel bad for him. The statistics are staggering though, 75% less likely to have a spinal injury if rear facing. With those stats I couldn't in good conscious turn him to the front. O well. :)

Jack turns ONE!

What?!? My baby is a year old? Say it ain't so!

Alas, it's true.

Chris' parents came in town last week to kick off the big birthday festivities. Friday we went out to a yummy dinner and then watched Anna-Kate's soccer game. She did a great job! We got home and Chris began smoking pork to be made into bbq while I prepped the sides (macaroni and cheese, fruit, and cakes, of course. Thanks to mom for bringing slaw and baked beans!) Saturday morning Jack woke up with (what I would be shocked to find out is not) an ear infection. He was not happy. We made the best of it singing "happy birthday" as we got him up. Chris, Mimi, Oompa and the big kids took a trip to browse Toys R Us while I did last minute party preparations. Jack woke up way early from his nap which was bad news for both my preparedness and his mood. Lunch was delicious and we were blessed to be surrounded by family (and friends who are like family). Jack ate his weight in macaroni and cheese and then shocked no one by eating {almost} the entire smash cake! He was loving his life about that moment! He took a rock-star nap and woke up in much better spirits. It began pouring rain, but despite the weather, we went out for dinner since I was DONE being in the kitchen! We went to our two favorite pizza places and both were at max capacity from multiple parties, so ended up at IHOP for Jack's birthday dinner. At least kids eat free, right? :)

The cake table:



Family pictures, pre-bbq sauce :)



Mommy, Daddy and the big birthday boy!



The big kids felt they needed to join in. :)



It only took one look at the cake {that didn't immediately get snatched out of his hand}...



Making some headway...



He's all in...



Chasing the goodness with some cold milk. :)



Opening presents (post-bath):



Enjoying his new book:



Ryan with his Poppy {total trooper who sat with an iced foot all day after having surgery the day before!}



Papa, Anna-Kate, Ryan and my dad.



This picture makes me laugh! Anna-Kate is all into the "silly picture" now. :)



Ryan wanted in on the silly-action!



Sweet Anna-Kate and Nana picture



After festivity naps. Oompa read Ryan so many books and they fell asleep together reading about Jimmy Zangwow and moonpies (for the millionth time!). Ryan ate all of the attention up!



***

Happy birthday, sweet Jack. We love you so much and have been beyond blessed this first year of your life.

All grown up.

In preparation for Jack's 12 month pictures, I decided to get his hair cut. It was long overdue. {like, she cut two inches of straight, not at all curly, hair. Long overdue.}

He did great and sat pretty still with no tears {even with the buzzer!}. At first he was a bit wiggly and I asked Ms. Gwen how long it takes to get used to moving targets. She replied that she'd been cutting kids' hair for over twenty years and it "ain't no thang".

The first cut {watching Toy Story in a daze}



He loved the airplane!





"AHH! I'm one!"



Taking the buzzer like a man! :)



I was trying to get him to look down under the airplane so she could buzz his neck. Cutie pie!



All done! Such a handsome boy.



With my big boy!



***

{an iphone picture of the picture}