Party of Six

The past few months…

2010-01-23T13:41:00.001-08:00

Wow so I haven’t posted in a while. I have thought about it but to say things have been busy around here is an understatement. We have had three solid months of visitors and travels. While I would love to say that I will go back and give you a detailed account of all of the fun things we have done, it probably won’t happen. I’m going to try to sum up the past three very eventful three months in one post. Get comfortable. This could take a while.

In October, Jim’s parents came to visit. We did a lot of sightseeing and they did a lot of playing with the kids. We went to Lousia May Alcott’s orchard house, the Museum of Science and saw the Harry Potter exhibit, and to Sturbridge Village. Jim and Cole also took Grandmother and PeePaw to a Bruins game on Halloween day. The kids dressed up as Commander Cody, Princess Ariel, and Nemo and had a wonderful time trick-or-treating.

Shortly after Jim’s parents left, we decided to tell the rest of the world that we are expecting Baby #4. We were hoping to wait a little bit longer but I had to start rubber banding my jeans and wearing yoga pants around week six. Several people have told me that after your third, you just start looking pregnant REALLY early but I was totally unprepared for quite that soon. So just after 7 weeks along, we sent out our photo message to our family and friends.

9 weeks!

SO far the pregnancy is going really well. I was sick from about week 3 to 13 but that’s pretty normal for me. I think the hardest part is keeping up with the other kids. Avery is the only one who still naps so they are pretty nonstop all day. I thank God each day for a husband who picks up my slack and forces me to rest when he is home. The hardest part so far was when I got H1N1. (Alli got it first). Jim happened to be out of town at the time. I don’t know if I have ever felt so bad in my life and the kids were more than I could handle. My neighbor came to the rescue and stayed with me most of the day and even gave my kids dinner and baths while I laid on the couch moaning.

Cole had a very fun homeschool Thanksgiving party. All the kids dressed up. They made Stone Soup, played a bunch of games, did some crafts, ate lunch, and then ended the party with a turkey pinata.

These are some of the kids- minus a few families who were sick.

Our next visitors were Dallas and Sutton. We were so excited to have them for 10 days over Thanksgiving! It would have only been more perfect if Jay had been with us too. His presence was sorely missed but we are thrilled that the Moore family will be reunited in the next few weeks. We had a wonderful visit. Dallas and I had a great time catching up and the kids acted like no time had passed at all.

Outside the Aquarium

We all went to Alli’s Thanksgiving party at her preschool

Me and my sweetheart

Christmas tree in downtown Boston

I just love this picture of Avery in her “My Daddy is a Rock Star” t-shirt

The Spouses Club here puts on a great Breakfast With Santa event. Cole was the only one who wasn’t afraid to meet Santa.

FISRT SNOW!!

Well, I thought I could catch you up in one post but I’ve been at this for an hour now and the kids are coming in from outside, I hope to get back to it soon!

Circus and Snow Day

2009-11-11T16:19:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago we surprised the kids with a trip to the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus. We took them to Friendly’s for dinner first and told them where we were going next. We were a little worried that Avery wouldn’t sit through the whole thing but she loved it just as much as the big kids. I remember liking the circus too but I think it has gotten even cooler over the past 20 years. Alli’s favorite was the ponies, Avery liked the dogs, and Cole liked the seven motorcycles in the giant ball. It was a great show!

The next day, we needed to go to Loews so we left around 3 to pick up a couple of things wearing pants and jackets. By the time we left the store, it was snowing!! It was pretty crazy to see that much snow in early October. Cole kept asking in the car if it was winter already. Jim just replied, “No Cole, it’s Boston.” I took a few pictures of the fall flowers and Halloween decorations covered in snow. Such an unusual sight.

My snow covered mums

View from our backyard

September and October

2009-10-21T20:06:00.001-07:00

This past month has been filled with soccer, ballet, and a whole lot of apple picking. We are very much enjoying the fall. You all know we are now homeschooling and that is going very very well. I am loving the extra time I get with the kids and everyone is learning a lot and having fun. The homeschool group on base is fantastic and we have had a great time on the apple picking and fire station field trips. Cole’s soccer team is called the wolves. Jim thought it would be funny to howl loudly after the team huddle and “Go Wolves” cheer. Cole gets so embarrassed and rolls his eyes. After 4 games, the howl is now part of the team cheer. Cole is still embarrassed. Very cute.

Cole got an Air Force tattoo at the Base Fall Festival. Jim was so disappointed and pretended to fake cry. Cole thought this was hilarious and told Jim all night that he s going to join the Air Force one day.

Cole’s apple graph. Thanks for all of your help!

Our neighbor is a former art teacher. Now she has triplets so that is on hold for a bit but she teaches a weekly art class to Cole and another homeschool neighbor. Cole is LOVING it.

Cole and Sparky at the Fire Prevention festival.

The grease fire demonstration

I love this picture of the two of them laughing.

Cole and Alli covered themselves in googly eyes and called themselves aliens for a day.

Jim has been doing a Science club with some of the neighborhood kids on Sunday afternoon. He likes to do explosions.

This is the soccer team in their coats this past weekend. It actually snowed the day after this was taken. The kids took their coats off to play and then bundled up as soon as they got on the sidelines.

Science club this past weekend.

Alli really likes preschool. I had her parent teacher conference the other day. The teacher had wonderful things to say about her and said that she was such a sweet and caring girl but she also told me a funny story. Every day she rings the bell and the students are supposed to clean up their choice time toys and go to the bathroom to wash hands before snack. Every day the teacher rings the bell and Alli is suddenly missing. She continues to find her in the bathroom already washing her hands. Last week the teacher finally told her, “Alli, we clean up our toys first and then wash our hands. Alli replied, “Oh that’s okay, I don’t really like cleaning up. I’ll just wash my hands instead.” I told the teacher that she should definitely keep working on Alli following directions and not thinking she is queen of the world.

We made Dora cupcakes with Alli and her friend

Alli and I put together the dinosaur puzzle one afternoon and she decided she wanted to pretend to live with them. She played on top of this puzzle for about 45 minutes.

She is a great big sister

The “biggest, giantest leaf ever”

Alli has also been playing soccer. Her season just ended and she was thrilled to get a medal.

Avery seems to be changing overnight. She is determined to be one of the big kids now. She wants to do everything they do. She is saying more and more words all of the time. She also has a newfound love for Elmo. She carries an Elmo doll around with her all of the time and gives him hugs and kisses. She also likes to put him on the potty. Her favorite words right now are “snack” and “Mine.” Alli’s dance studio is offering a six week mommy and me ballet class during Alli’s regular class time. Since all Avery and I are doing is hanging out is the waiting area with the other moms, I decided to sign her up. I also decided that she needed a matching dance outfit for this 6 week class and that $15 was a small price to pay for this picture perfect preciousness.

She loves to pull out everything in the cabinets and drawers while I cook.

We took the preschoolers and Avery on a separate trip to the fire station. Alli and Avery weren’t all that into it but the boys we went with loved it and I found it interesting.

Jim showed Avery the dancing Evian babies on youtube. Now every time she sees the computer she starts screaming, “Babies!” She can watch it over and over again and she laughs every time.

We have also been apple picking like crazy. We have gone with the homeschool group, our neighborhood friends, and a couple of times with our family. We have visited several different farms/orchards but our favorite has several animals you can feed. Alli absolutely LOVES this. She spent a better portion of the trip running around from goat to goat feeding them. She talked to every rabbit, every sheep, and every chicken. She was memorized. She has now decided that she wants to be an animal doctor when she grows up. We are really going to encourage this since this is the first time she has said she wants to be anything other than a princess. We are trying to find all kinds of animal pictures to hang up in her room. Avery loves eating the apples when we go and Cole pretty much likes everything although he thoroughly enjoys the hay mazes.

With the neighbors

Picking her first apple

I bought corn at the farm and Cole didn’t know what it was! He did not remember ever having seen corn in its natural form. He learned all about growing corn that night along with how to shuck it. Avery was scared of the corn husks. She kept coming into the kitchen and then running away screaming. Cole and I couldn’t help but find this sort of funny.

Crazy amount of apples

No more corn!!

Twice a Month Blogger

2009-09-19T09:48:00.001-07:00

Apparently I can only get to updating this every couple of weeks. Here are several pictures to catch you up on all we have done. Enjoy!

Cole’s first day of kindergarten. More about school to follow…

Checking out the new backpacks.

This is Alli checking out her new preschool for the first time.

Picking Cole up from his first day.

We spent Labor Day weekend visiting some friends. The girls (minus Avery) went to the American Girl Museum in New York City and the boys (plus Avery) went to the Natural History Museum. I had the camera with me so the pictures are just of Alli.

Alli didn’t have a bit of fun being in baby doll paradise.

We had brunch at the cafe where there are chairs to put your dolls at the table. Everything is pink and they bring cups and saucers out for your babies as well. Even the pink bathrooms have seats for the dolls.

Alli ordered “Flower Power Pancakes” which were of course shaped like flowers. The best part was the cup of syrup. Alli thought the waiter had brought her coffee at first and was thrilled to discover she got to pour her very own syrup.

We had a neighborhood Labor Day party when we got back to Boston.

Here is all of the kids rolling down the hill. I guess that was the super fun thing to do that day.

Alli’s first day of preschool

So this is the other morning when Alli decided she wanted to marker herself with spots and call herself a cheetah. When Jim woke up, I told him to look out because there was a cheetah in the house. He came downstairs and Alli jumped out roaring at him. The best part was when we put her in the bath and realized that one of the markers in our marker bin must have been permanent. She had faint green spots on her tummy for a few days. At least she kept the washable ones on her face.

Jim turned the kids into mummies the other day. Cole thought this was great.

Here is some finger painting fun from this week.

This is the start of Avery learning how to undress herself. She can now strip herself completely naked and likes to do this all day long.

Avery is up from her nap now and we are heading out to go apple picking. We will have to update more later. Happy Saturday!!

A Poem for Cole

2009-09-02T18:12:00.001-07:00

In lieu of Cole starting kindergarten tomorrow, I thought I would post one of my favorite poems. This was posted on my refrigerator when I lived in Germany to remind me during those sleepless nights that this too shall pass and to cherish all of those precious baby moments. It’s hard to believe that he is big enough to go to school. I have cherished every moment of these past five years together and I cannot wait to see what kind of man he will become. Oh the places he will go…

My Baby Boy and Me

It's three AM, they're all asleep,
and no one's here to see.
As we rock slowly back and forth,
My baby boy and me.

His little hand is feather light
Tucked up against my chin.
I hold his tiny hand in mine,
and stroke his baby skin.

The house about us creaks and groans,
The clock hands creep around.
He snuggles closer to me still,
And makes his baby sounds.

I love these quiet hours so much,
And cherish every one.
Store memories up inside my heart
For lonely nights to come.

All too soon he'll be grown up,
His need for mama gone.
But until then I still have time
For kisses and for song.

Time for quiet hours like this
With him cuddled in my arms,
Where I wish he'd always stay
Protected, safe and warm.

And yet I know the day will come
When his tiny little hand,
will be bigger than my own.
He'll grow to be a man.

But until then he's mine to love
With no one here to see.
As we rock slowly back and forth,
My baby boy and me.

Karate Kid

2009-08-31T10:43:00.001-07:00

Cole had his first karate lesson this past week. They do two private lessons first to basically show them how to enter the school, what to say, and some basic stances. After they have memorized their creed, they can get their white belt and join the regular classes. Cole will be getting his white belt tonight. Cole has been asking to do karate for quite some time now and we figured the start of the school year was a good time to begin. I was a little worried that he would be shy and wouldn’t like it but he did GREAT! Better than great! He liked his teacher and answered questions. They talked about the importance of being healthy, being respectful, and having a disciplined life. Before you enter the room, you must bow and say, “Do my best.” He is also required to look him in the eye while speaking, no whining-ever, and to learn something new every week. The instructor told him that he didn’t care what he learned as long as it was something and even said a new way of picking your nose was great. Cole thought that was very very funny. He was a little quiet at first when he was doing the punches and saying, “Kia!” but he eventually got louder as he got more comfortable. I asked him if he liked it when he left and he said. “ I LOVE karate. I want to do Karate forever. If I do karate forever, I can be a karate teacher!” I think we’ll stick with this for a while.

Go Dad Go!!!

2009-08-31T10:30:00.001-07:00

We were finally able to take both Cole and Alli to one of Jim’s hockey games. He plays very late at night during the regular season but gets to play at 8:30 during the summer. We put Avery to bed, hired a sitter and went to watch Daddy play goalie. Cole had been before with PeePaw but Alli had no idea what to expect. She was actually scared of Jim when he first came out with all of his pads on. They had a great time cheering. Alli stood up and started doing her ballet moves on the sidelines. They got really excited whenever Jim waved to them.

Enjoying Boston

2009-08-31T10:20:00.001-07:00

I have to interrupt my trip journaling to write about all of the exciting things we have been doing in Boston (otherwise I’ll forget.) The past few weeks here have been so fun! We decided when we got back to take a few day trips to explore and enjoy this great weather. We have gone to the Children’s Museum (of course) to see the space exhibit, the aquarium which is probably one of the best I have ever been to, and toured Fenway Park.

These pictures are from the construction room. The kids could build, race cars, and sit in trucks.

They have added a new section called “Peep’s World.” There are shadow rooms, climbing trees, and water play. Water is Avery’s absolute favorite.

Catching and throwing the balls. Avery was so confused.

Cole teaching Alli how to us the tools.

After the museum, we walked around in Quincy Market and got some ice cream. Two female street vendors got into a very heated argument and the kids learned all kinds of new words!

Alli likes to let her ice cream melt and then eat it slowly one spoonful at a time. This can seriously take an hour, Jim showed her how to drink her ice cream which she thought was very silly.

We did the Fenway Park tour the following week. Actually I should say some of us did the tour. Right as we started waking through the gates (all tickets already purchased) Avery just started crying. And crying and crying and crying. It was clear that the other patrons were already sick of our crew before we even started so Avery and I opted to leave and wait for the rest of them outside. I didn’t see the tour but they tell me it was great. As soon as we got outside she stopped crying. Maybe she’s a Yankees fan? We walked around Boston to kill time for an hour and stumbled upon a Starbucks. What better time than now to get baby’s first Starbucks? I got her a smoothie, me a high calorie iced drink, and we sat on the steps at Fenway having the time of our lives with our frozen treats.

Cole took his spider on the tour.

From there we headed to the aquarium. We all enjoyed this for a while but once we were about halfway done, both girls fell asleep. Cole played only child and got ALL the attention. He had a great time and especially liked learning about the frogs.

Avery watching the sea turtles.

They had a children’s learning section where a woman from the museum did a frog puppet show and taught the kids all about frogs.

Week 2 of Our Texas Tour

2009-08-28T15:23:00.001-07:00

We packed up all of our stuff and went to stay at my Mom’s house during the second week of vacation. I should add that I don’t think we ever stayed in one place for more than 4 days so we became really good at packing and unpacking. Mom had hound Chrissy’s old ballet costumes recently and set them aside for Alli. Alli was in costume/dress up heaven. She was so so excited. Her favorite was the duck costume because she wanted to pretend to be on the Duck Boats from Boston. Chrissy was nice enough to let her keep that one.

My mom and I threw a bridal shower for a very dear friend. It was such a fun party and so great to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

The next day, Jim, Cole and I got up and met my Dad, Amy, and her son Ryan out at Texas Motor Speedway to drive actual Nascars. I was a nervous wreck all morning. I was surrounded by a group made up almost entirely of men who were all itching to get behind the wheel of the car and just tear things up. I have anxiety about cars anyways so putting myself behind the wheel of a tiny car that goes that fast was terrifying. Jim couldn’t wait and Cole thought it wsa so cool to see everything up close. I was deemed to “Tortuga” or turtle of the race track. Jim, Dad, and Amy lapped me several times. It was definitely an experience!!

This is Cole watching Daddy’s car.

Just a few days after we went to my mom’s, we packed up the kids and sent them back over to Grandmother and PeePaw’s house so that Jim and I could go with some friends and my mom to the Aerosmith concert. It was so so fun. The timing worked out perfectly. Jim and I rarely get to do things like this when we aren’t in Dallas with so many people willing to babysit. It would have been nice to see Dave Matthews too but I’ll take what I can get.

We met up with my Mom and Jimmy at the concert.

The next night was the first night of the Boston Red Sox vs. Texas Rangers series. Jim and I went with a bunch of friends fully dressed in all of our Red Sox attire. Boston lost. We enjoyed the company but didn’t care much for the score of the game. It was also at this point that our camera battery died so we don’t have any pictures to document this night.

BUT, we went back to the Red Sox/Rangers game two nights later with Dad and Amy. We also took Cole and Alli with us this time. Alli was VERY excited to be big enough to go to a real baseball game. The kids had a blast. It’s amazing how much they can eat. They also loved cheering for YUKE!! and Big Poppy but once again, the Red Sox lost.

Dad and I before the game. They had a little birthday party before me before we left.

This is as close to cheerleading as I EVER want her to get.

We spent my 29th birthday at the water park. We had tried to go the week before but got rained out so this was the perfect time to use our rain checks.

The kids LOVE birthdays because it also comes with cake. They got trick candles and I really think we were pretty close to setting the smoke alarm off with all of my candles.

A Month’s Worth of Memories

2009-08-21T11:12:00.001-07:00

We have taken a month+ hiatus from blogging due to our insanely busy but fun vacation. It will probably take about 12 entries to catch up. I think I’m going to take it week by week and try to remember everything we did through our pictures. I just love summer.

We flew to Dallas on July 10th and spent the first few days of our vacation at Jim’s parents’ house. We all had a fantastic time playing in their two inflatable pools in the backyard. The kids especially liked spraying their grandmother with the hose.

We were also able to spend some time with Uncle Greg, Aunt Ashley, and cousin Jordin. Greg and Jim surprised the kith a water gun fight.

Alli and Avery enjoyed cooling off inside with their Aunt and Uncle. Ashley is expecting Baby Max in Jan. so the heat was especially unbearable for her.

With naps out the window and 100+ temperatures, the kids tended to be a little tired by the end of the night.

The day after we arrived was our sixth anniversary. Grandmother and PeePaw babysat so that Jim and I could go out to dinner. We went to PF Chang’s, my favorite. Then we went walking around this new shopping area that recently opened by his parents house and afterwards, went and visited one of our favorite people to see when we are in Dallas, Sharon. We also decided on this anniversary that when our last child grows up and heads off to college, we will spend July 11th of that year renewing our wedding vows and “starting” our life as a married couple. Three kids in six years has left little time for Jim and I to be alone and while we are loving the ages that are kids are right now and the demands that go along with them, I think we have many adventures in store for us in about 20 years too.

We have been wanting to have an actual campout with the kids but we figured that might be hard to do with Avery right now. Jim and I had the brilliant idea of camping out in an actual tent in Jim’s parents’ backyard. We had not factored in the heat when we made these plans. Grandmother asked around and found a tent for us which we decided to set up in their living room. We made s’mores (yes, we even had a July fire in Texas) and told spooky stories. We turned all the lights out and held flashlights while we each told our stories. Cole’s was by far the most original. It was so much fun.

We were hoping to be able to spend a couple of days with some old friends in Oklahoma but our schedules were just not permitting it. We chose to do a quick day trip to visit with some very close friends. I do wish we had been able to see everyone but I think the kids would not have been able to handle too much more traveling. We were able to visit Steve, Amy, Corban, and Nathan. Steve was our old associate pastor. Amy and I (as well as Steve and Jim) grew very close during our years at Ft. Sill. Corban and Cole grew up together there and Amy and I shared our pregnancies and first year together with Alli and Nathan. It was so great talking with them and seeing how much everyone has changed.

The boys acted as though no time had passed. It was so fun to watch them laughing and playing together again.

The day after we got back from Oklahoma, we met up with my dad, his new wife, her kids, Chrissy, and Steve and his girlfriend. We all went to dinner, a rare treat for all of us to be together, and then went to watch Steve’s band play. It was great to hear them play. It has been a couple of years and they are always getting better.

Andrea, Chrissy, and I at the show

That about wraps up the first week. Alli is begging me to take her outside so I’ll have to write more later…

Pretty in Dirt

2009-06-30T18:32:00.001-07:00

Someone told me today that little girls are just as pretty in pink as they are in dirt. How true! Here are some pictures of our other little princess who is always looking beautiful. Now that she is walking, she has taken after her sister and is another dirt magnet. She sits in puddles, stomps, and digs. We think she’s pretty darn cute.

This is Avery’s very best friend.

And I just had to throw in a picture of my other cutey-face because he is just so fun too.

Happy Father’s Day!

2009-06-30T18:21:00.001-07:00

We wanted to make sure we posted some pictures from Father’s day and let you know what we did. Since Father’s Day/Mother’s Day is always on Sunday, we never really get to do the sleeping in thing but we still did breakfast in bed. We made pancakes and the kids all ran in and jumped into bed with Jim. Jim may have missed his calling as an actor because he does an amazing job of acting overwhelmingly surprised when three kids who have been yelling and running around the house for an hour try to wake him up. Then we came downstairs and opened presents. I had the kids paint their handprints on a t-shirt and that was their big gift from them. They also made pictures and Cole made a calendar at school. I think the calendar may have been Jim’s favorite. They asked Cole why his dad was great and he drew a picture of all of us at the Red Sox game which included some green scribbling on the side for the green monster. We taught Children’s Church that morning and made cards with the kids for their dads. Then we hung out at home and just relaxed. Jim even took a two hour nap while we were playing which almost never happens. We are so so lucky to have such a wonderful Daddy here.

Avery Entertaining the Big Kids

2009-06-30T05:19:00.001-07:00

(by Jim)

So, last night we gave the kids ice cream for desert, and after a few bites Avery started shaking her head (I think she had brain freeze). Well, Cole and Alli thought it was hilarious and started laughing. Avery kept doing it and would look over for the big kids to laugh again, which they did. As you can see from the video, she is hamming it up for her brother and sister. Oh what fun we have in our house with three!

Here she is doing it some more...

2009-06-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

Cole's Preschool Graduation!
(by Jim)

Well, our little man is officially a preschool graduate. It was probably about the cutest thing we have ever seen. As you can see in the video, the kids all had graduation caps and were called up one at a time to receive their certificate of completion from their teacher. Cole was pretty excited. Hope you enjoy the video.

Alli’s Birthday

2009-06-24T18:20:00.001-07:00

Alli is 3!!! Alli had a terrific 3rd birthday. She woke up bright and early and before her brother and sister. She came creeping into our bedroom and crawled into bed with us. This almost never happens. Once one kid is up, another one is right on their heels so having some time alone with Alli that morning was pretty special. She was very excited to go downstairs and see what was in store for her. We decorated everything with Hello Kitty and pink. She ate her birthday donuts and was ready to start tearing into presents. Alli loves presents like Cole loves candy. She is always so excited to see what is inside. Her biggest present wasn’t wrapped and was a “big girl” pink bike. She has been begging for a big girl bike for a while and we have kept telling her that she had to wait until she was three. After she opened some presents and played, we went down to the park for our friend Jack’s birthday party. Jack is a good friend and shares a birthday with Alli so she actually ended up with all day sugar and cake. We left Jack’s party around 2 and came home to wait for Pop, Amy, Adam, and Seville to arrive. The kids were very excited to see them and warmed up to the boys right away. We loaded up and went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. Adam and Seville won a ton of tickets for the kids so they wound up with plenty of prizes. Then we headed back to the house for birthday cake and more presents. Alli had a wonderful 3rd birthday. Once it was all said and done, Jim and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that birthday season is behind us. We are tired, tired, tired but waking up to their cute little faces makes it worth it.

This is our traditional “Go to bed two, wake up three” picture.

The umbrella straws ended up being a huge hit. So easily amused.

It has a princess basket and horn and a ballerina helmet. Did I mention the bike itself was a garage sale find that we got for $5!

Seeing her birthday stuff

She got a lot of Fancy Nancy dress up clothes from Mimi. Here she is making a Fancy Daddy.

Fancy Alli

I let Avery “help” with the icing. She enjoyed herself.

Alli started writing her name a couple of months ago but it usually doesn’t look very legible. This one turned out so nicely that I had to blog it. She’s growing up!

This is the boy Alli says she is going to marry bringing over a birthday card he made for her.

Round 1 of cake

Scaring Pop and Amy with the bugs they got from Jack’s party

Her new glass slippers

Her pink Hello Kitty cake with sparkly sprinkles. It was everything she wanted.

She got embarrassed and hid when we sang Happy Birthday. She came back to blow out her candles.

Happy Birthday LoveBug.

Happy Father’s Day!

2009-06-21T15:20:00.001-07:00

Daddy Weekend!

2009-06-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

(By Jim)

So this weekend Natalie went out of town to the PWOC Women of Faith conference with some of her friends from the post chapel. They left Friday morning at 6am (I think, I was still asleep) and should return sometime late on Saturday night. Which of course means that I get the distinct pleasure of watching the kids for two full days. Not that I haven’t taken care of the kids myself before, but usually Natalie is a short cry for help away.

So, Daddy Weekend started off with the kids sleeping in, normally a great and rare thing, except that it was a Friday which meant that Cole had school, so we couldn’t sleep in. Natalie actually called around 6:40 to make sure I was up (which I wasn’t) and getting everything squared away to take Cole to school. After waking up all three sleepy-headed kids and getting clothes and breakfast, we headed to pick up Cole’s friend Jack and drop them off at school. Then the girls and I headed to the Commissary to get groceries, since Natalie’s Dad and his fiancé, Amy, are coming to visit on Sunday. Alli was big helper at the Commissary, helping me pick out the produce and trying to sneak every princess cereal, fruit snacks, or crackers into the basket. Well, as we were walking by the bakery section, she spotted the cookies and asked if we could get one for her snack. As we approached the cookies she noticed the gingerbread men frosted with Red Sox uniforms, and asked to get a Red Sox cookie.

I of course agreed, especially after the Sox beat the Yankees in the eight inning the night before. So, along with our full grocery list we got two Red Sox cookies and some Spaghetti-Os for for lunch. When Cole got home from school he was excited for his Spaghetti-O lunch and Red Sox cookie desert.

We then had our friends Danny and Emily over, since their dad was also assuming the role of stay-at-home dad for the day (his wife Lydia went to the conference with Natalie). We played for a few hours till dinner time. Then, we had quesadillas for dinner. Then after dinner we made a trip to the local PetCo. Cole’s preschool class brought stuffed animals to class that morning and made a pretend zoo. Cole and Alli kept asking me after he got home to go to the zoo. Of course I was not going to take 3 kids to the zoo by myself, so we decided to go to the pet store and pretend it was the zoo. The kids both fell in love with the cockatiel and have been constantly asking me to get one for our house since we left. We came home and all three kids pretty much passed out immediately.

Then came Saturday morning, when we had no plans and no reason to wake up, and all three kids are up by 6:20am! Awesome, pure awesomeness! We had donuts for breakfast and got ready for some visitors. At 8:00 Danny and Emily came over for the day (their dad had class from 8:30-4, and their mom was at the conference). Yep, 5 kids (5, 2.99, 2, 1, and 1 years old) versus 1 dad. Again, not such an unbelievable occurrence, so many moms and dads out there do it every day, just not me. Of course, we had a good day (so far at least, it is only 2pm). We played with lots of toys, which means toys everywhere. We made bracelets with beads and pipe cleaners I found in the basement.

We had Goldfish crackers for snack (what did parents do before Goldfish crackers?) and Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets, green beans and carrots for lunch.

Now, the two 1 year olds are taking a nap and the three bigger kids are watching Aladdin while I type this and get a breather.

So you might be wondering, why did you just waste 3 minutes reading a detailed account of our weekend, and why did I spend 15 minutes typing it all out. To try and give you some perspective on what I am about to say…

Stay at home moms (and dads) are AMAZING! Seriously, I truly want to tell every stay at home parent, past and present, that you ROCK! It is amazing to me that you can do this day in and day out. I love my kids, and I have really enjoyed our time together, I just can’t wait for Natalie to get home! To all the stay at home parents out there, thank you for being awesome. To my mom, thank you for being patient with me, I know my kids are way better than I was, and I am grateful that you put up with me. To my amazing and beautiful wife, you are the bomb. Thank you for making doing what you do for our kids and our family. I LOVE YOU!

Cole’s Zoo Trip

2009-06-09T15:56:00.001-07:00

I was so thrilled that Jim was able to take the day off this past week so I could chaperone Cole’s zoo trip. I don’t know which one of us was more excited. I am very much anti-school bus BUT all of the buses in Mass have seat belts. Yay!! We all met in the classroom and the kids did their morning meeting and talked about what was going to happen. Everyone was really looking forward to their bumpy bus ride. We had a few minutes before we left so this was also a good opportunity for me and the other room mom to work on the end of the teacher gifts. It’s going to be really cute but more about that later. We got on the bus and had a fun ride out to the Franklin Park zoo. We got there around 9:45 and ate our picnic snack outside the gates. That we were ready to go as soon as they opened. The first thing we did was hit the bathroom (of course). I don’t know if any of you have had the privilege of going to the bathroom with a classroom of preschoolers but it was definitely an experience. That portion of the trip alone took around 15 minutes. Right outside the bathroom was an ATM machine. Some of the kids were pushing the buttons and playing around while waiting on their classmates. The next thing I know, Cole comes up to me and says, “Look Mom, twenty dollars.” Sure enough he had $20 in his hand. He pushed some buttons and it just came out. We probably should have immediately gone to the zoo manager or made a plan to put it into the offering plate at church or something really moral like that but his teacher looked at him and excitedly asked him what he was going to buy and told him how cool that was that he got $20! His eyes immediately lit up and you could see the wheels spinning in his head thinking about what toy would be coming his way. We ended up letting him keep the money, explaining that you usually do not get money for nothing, and getting him a light saber with it. After the lucky kid free money thing, we went to a zoo classroom and the kids learned about some different animals. They touched a giant tree roach (SO GROSS), a blue-tongued skink (really cool), and a very stinky ferret. Then we toured the zoo and saw of the other highlights. Everyone really liked the gorillas, lions, and giraffes. The coolest thing about the lion is that it stood up when we were all watching and roared about ten times. All of the kids roared back and it was very cute. Overall it was a very good zoo trip and very fun for me to be able to go. Jim spent the morning playing with the girls, then he took the big kids to the pool when we got back. When we sat down for dinner at 5:30 that evening. He looked at me and said, “Man, these kids have really worn me out. This was way harder than the weekends. It’s a long day being at home with them all day. There is just never a break!” I just looked at him and smiled. I am thankful for days like those. Thankful that I have such a great husband who is a big kid at heart and loves to play with them and thankful that he understands what it is like to walk in my shoes sometimes and appreciates what it means to be a mommy.

You may notice in these pictures that Cole’s hair is “spiked.” The hairdresser put gel in his hair one day and he has since decided that spiky hair is his new five year old look.

I can’t tell you how hard it was to get the whole class in the picture.

Weekend Wrap Up

2009-06-08T05:59:00.001-07:00

It’s hard to keep this updated over the weekend because we always have so much going on but here is a little wrap up of all our weekend entailed. Jim came home early on Friday which gave me time to run to target and pick up a few things for Alli’s birthday. She wants a Hello Kitty birthday so I was waiting for a time to shop solo so she didn’t see everything. Friday night we decided to have a fondue and movie night followed by a “campout.” Those of you who have experienced these campout with my kids know that this really just means they get to stay up super late, sleep on the pull out couch, and eat unlimited popcorn and candy. It’s fun. We watched 2 movies and stayed up until about 10. We spent almost all of Sat. playing outside except for my additional target run for light sabers. Cole recently got $20 by sheer luck and wanted to spend it on a light saber. He was supposed to go to the store with me to pick it out but all of his friends were outside playing so he asked if I could just go get the toy for him with his money. I cannot resist his sweet voice. As I was leaving, Jim told me that he would also need a light saber because you can’t have just one so both the boys got new toys on Saturday. Alli immediately claimed one for herself and then began the biggest neighborhood light saber/ sword fight I have ever seen. Amazingly no one got hurt and all the kids were really good about not beating each other with them. The game soon turned into all the kids chasing Jim around and attacking him which was pretty funny. We eventually had to pack it in to go to dinner. We took Jim’s cadet from West Point and his girlfriend to where else? Rainforest Cafe. It is the only restaurant loud enough to mask our children’s voices. Everyone had a great time as usual and we got Alli her birthday volcano cake. The kids crashed as soon as we got home after being up so late the night before and we had our neighbors over for our weekly game night. Sunday we actually had to wake the kids up to go to church which never happens. It would be great if they slept past 7 on a Saturday. Jim and I have been teaching children’s church which is usually okay but this week turned out to be a little out of control. All the kids decided it was their day to misbehave. We have two sisters in our class who can’t seem to stop spitting at one another. I’m not sure anyone got much of anything out of this week. A little frustrating but we are coming up with a better plan of action for next week. We spent yesterday afternoon outside all day again and had a neighborhood cookout to say goodbye to some friends who are moving. I hate having to say goodbye to so many people all the time. I still feel like we just got here some days! It’s hard to believe that this time next year we will be packing up and moving again. Avery took her first bath in the big tub last night with Alli which was pretty cute. They both came in covered head to toe in dirt. It cracks me up how filthy these two little princesses love to get. That’s about it for our weekend. Hope yours was great too!

Alli’s Birthday Party

2009-06-05T10:45:00.001-07:00

We decided to do Alli’s birthday party a few weeks before her actual birthday because so many of her friends were moving. She will probably always have to have hers early because her birthday falls during PCS season and either she will move or half of her friends. That’s just the way it goes. We have three kids in our courtyard turning three within weeks of each other so once again, we decided to do one big party. Everyone loves the loval bounce house place, Jump On In, and while it is a little pricey, split between three families made it well worth it. We didn’t have to plan any games or activities and the staff cleans up the party mess. Best of all, I’ve never met a kid that didn’t like the place. Rather than cakes, we did three separate cupcake towers. Cara and Alli both love the same girly things so we did one princess, one tinkerbell, and one Wall-E for Collin. Everyone had a wonderful time bouncing and I am thrilled to be done with birthday party season around here. Having April, May, and June babies might not have been the best way to go after all. I have a feeling that every spring will leave us exhausted!

Avery’s Rough Time

2009-06-04T03:48:00.001-07:00

We found out at Avery’s last appointment (about 2 weeks ago) that she has fluid in both of her ears. Not unusual but this fluid looked like it was from an old infection that never completely healed. The last time she had an ear infection was three months ago! The doctor thinks that she has basically not really been able to hear for three months. Everything has been muffled. She decided to give her some different antibiotics than what she normally gets because Avery could be immune to the other. So she started the meds and also got her one year shots that day. No fun. Her ears are almost completely healed and it is amazing how much more she is talking- and sad to think that everything has been muffled for a quarter of her life. Well Monday she woke up with a very light rash. Knowing that this can sometimes be a side effect to the medicine, we decided just to watch it. Tuesday was much much worse so we took her in to the doctor again. She is having an allergic reaction to either the antibiotics or her MMR shot and there is no way to tell which one it is. Yesterday she was completely spotted. Head to toe. Her poor face is covered. It seems to have gone down today a little bit so I think she is getting better. We had to stop the antibiotics (obviously) so I guess just be praying that her ears completely heal on their own and that her rash goes away quickly. She is still happy as can be and always smiling.

Our house is sometimes a zoo!

2009-06-03T07:04:00.001-07:00

By Jim

Today Natalie went as a chaperone for Cole’s Pre-school field trip to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. I took the day off to stay home with the girls. Well, Alli was kind of disappointed that she didn’t get to go to the zoo, so we decided to make our own zoo!

As you can see, we had “cages” for the animals, especially the tiger and lion because we didn’t want them getting out and eating us. Alli even decided to organize her very own zoo animal parade.

This was a special zoo, because you could touch all of the animals.

There was just one rule at our zoo, that you had to be in your “Papa-Juliet's”. (That is PJ’s for all of you non-Army people out there).

The girls had a blast as I am sure Cole and Natalie did at the real zoo.

Avery Walking!

2009-06-03T04:40:00.001-07:00

Here It Is!

2009-06-03T03:16:00.001-07:00

There are a few videos coming…

Cups

2009-05-31T19:56:00.001-07:00

Avery always wants to drink out of everyone else’s cup. She screams if we try to take it away or move it and she only wants to do it by herself. She doesn’t like us holding it for her at all so basically, she covers herself in water and ends up soaking wet all the time. Cole and Alli, of course, think this is great.

Thankful for the sun

2009-05-31T18:55:00.001-07:00

I love love love warm weather which means Boston is probably not the best fit for me but it also means that I get to be really thankful for bright warm days. We had a neighborhood yard sale this weekend. We periodically get together with other neighbors and do one giant yard sale. The problem with that is that I usually end up buying more than we make. This sale, however, I acquired 2 bikes, a baby bouncer, 2 weeks of chess lessons for Cole, and still made money. It was good. The kids had a great time outside with their friends. They had a whole caterpillar hospital thing going on and 3D sidewalk chalk. Very cool. I wanted the whole family to come to the library with me, something we try to do together every couple of weeks, but Cole was having way too much fun outside so it was just Alli and me. She picked out several books and then since we were having so much fun, we decided we should go on a girls only ice cream date to Friendly’s. We took some of her new books in and spent a wonderful afternoons eating pinkalicious ice cream with sprinkles and reading “Alice in Wonderland.” I love having girls. Then we went home and played played played. It was a good weekend. And the biggest news…Avery is WALKING!!! She has been taking about 5 or 6 steps alone for a few weeks now but she decided this weekend that she could be an all the time walker. So cute. Pictures to come later. Here’s some pictures of this weekend.

Ma-aaawm

2009-05-29T14:12:00.001-07:00

This is what I hear all day long. Don’t get me wrong. I love my children. I love the ages that they are and the time I get to spend with them. Some days, however, they are “extra grace required” children. Like today. Every time I leave the room, whether it’s to brush my teeth or grab a new shirt for one of them, I will hear the Ma-aawm call. It is as though they have come with little tracking devices that know when I get more than a few feet away. Cole and Alli have decided to enjoy each others company today by fighting, yelling, sitting on each other, breathing too close to one another, and doing everything they can to tick the other one off. Then they start the whiney tattling that I love so much. Poor little Avery has been exposed to this behavior for a year now and now I think I need to find a conflict resolution class for my one year old. I took her to the doctor the other day and she asked me a list of questions to make sure she was developmentally sound. One question was whether she objected when I take an object from her. I stood there for a minute and responded, “By object do you mean bite, hit, and scream?” Seriously! Most days I am able to blog about all of the wonderful things they are doing and they are wonderful, amazing children, but I also wanted to write about the sheer exhaustion and hair pulling days that come along with raising little people. I want to raise children who become productive, generous, caring, Christian adults. I have made lists and prayed about the qualities and attributes we are trying to foster in our children. And then they spend their days sitting on each other and I throw my hands in the air. I will not give up. I am so disgusted daily by the grown adults I see acting like whiney, spoiled children that facebook alone can motivate me never to give up on raising nice kids. I just wish they really did come with an instruction manual some days. Here is a picture of Alli today after she got her rear end stuck in the musical instrument bucket. Ma-aaawm! All I can say for myself is that I at least can see the humor and snap a picture before pulling her out.

I also wanted to add that the only way I am even able to write any of this is because my wonderful husband came home early and took all three kids to the mall so that I could clean up this disaster area. Here’s a picture of a portion of what our house looks like today.

I think children were the reason that coffee (and margaritas) were invented.

Our Fashionista

2009-05-28T20:11:00.001-07:00

Alli has a very unique sense of style. It has gotten pretty funny with some of the other neighborhood moms watching what kind of ensembles Alli will choose to put together. There are many days that the clothes I pick out only stay on her for an hour. Some days, she never even bothers with pants or shorts. She just goes straight for the tutus. She was most recently compared to a crazy garden lady that once lived in the neighborhood. I am convinced she will be an actress or fashion designer. Here are some of her beautiful clothing choices.

Cole’s Caterpillar Collection

2009-05-26T03:36:00.001-07:00

Cole is a bug collector. He got a bug catcher from one of his friends for his birthday and he has had hours and hours of fun with that thing. The entire world stops when he sees a worm. Lately the fun thing to catch has been caterpillars. His class is growing butterflies in school so that probably has a lot to do with the new caterpillar craze. This weekend, he and his buddy, Nicolas, found a couple of caterpillars and saved them in his bug catcher. He named them Sherman and Spotty. He wants to keep them as pets. He put some leaves inside for them to eat and then put them on the back porch overnight. We weren’t sure of they were going to make it but they were fine yesterday morning. The first thing Cole asked to do when he woke up was to go outside. I had forgotten about the new pets so I told him that it was too early and that we would go out after breakfast. “But what about Sherman and Spotty!!?” Oh yes, by all means, you may go in the back yard to see your caterpillars. He “played” with them outside for a better part of the morning until I finally made him come in and eat breakfast and get ready for Alli’s party. After the party, we all played outside and he and Nicolas found a tree behind the house covered in caterpillars. They were probably back there for about 45 minutes “bug collecting.” When they returned, they had filled the bug catcher with caterpillars. Cole decided they needed some grapes. He has a lot more naming to do.

Princess Dirty Face

2009-05-26T03:24:00.001-07:00

Jim has started calling Alli “Princess Dirty Face.” The reason? This child is always filthy. Always. I have to clean out the bath tub daily because she brings in so much dirt and grass every time she comes in the house. She can get out of the tub and manage to get herself dirty in a matter of minutes. She loves to play in the mud and if she is not outside, she has usually painted or glued herself. What is really funny about this is that while she loves to get dirty and play rough with the boys, she is also about as prissy as they come. She loves pink and princesses too and that is why she is now called Princess Dirty Face. I would like to call her Princess Talks a lot because her mouth NEVER stops moving. I wanted to share some pictures of her and Cara last week after dance. Cara came over to play ponies but they ended up outside. It started with the girls “teaching” me their ballet moves and ended up with both girls digging in the mud. Fortunately Cara’s mom has a sense of humor and didn’t mind me sending home a dirty ballerina.

Bedford Farms

2009-05-26T03:14:00.001-07:00

Jim surprised us on Friday night with a trip to Bedford Farms. It is famous for its ice cream. We have been hearing about this place from friends and neighbors for months and finally decided to go. The kids asked a million times in the car where we were going for dessert. Jim finally told them that we were going to a farm to eat corn and carrots. They were less than thrilled. The ice cream was really good but the most fun was watching Avery sample all of the flavors. Avery’s very favorite thing to eat is ice cream. She started off in Jim’s lap sharing with him but she kept reaching for everyone else’s . She eventually just started cruising around the table and getting bites from everyone she passed. I’m glad Cole and Alli were willing to share. She probably would have bit them or pulled their hair otherwise. Here’s some pictures of our Friday night…

Avery’s Birthday!!

2009-05-23T17:41:00.001-07:00

We don’t have a baby anymore. I can’t believe she is already one although I cannot remember life without her! Avery’s birthday started out with the traditional house decoration and birthday morning doughnuts. She had Elmo decorations because she loves Elmo. But before I go into her day, I have to start by writing about what Cole gave his sister for her birthday. Right before we went downstairs, Cole yelled for us to stop because he has a present for his sister. He ran back into his room and climbed into his bed. Then he came back out with his blue blanket, the same blue blanket that he has slept with his whole long five year old life. He used to carry it around with him until we had a “goodbye blanket” party when he was three and now it is only reserved for bedtime. He brought it out to Avery and told her that he is a big kid now and doesn’t need it. He told her Happy Birthday and gave her the blanket. He hasn’t asked for it since.

So Avery and the rest of us came downstairs and started the birthday celebration. She loved her doughnuts. She ate one at first but then signed for more. I put the box in front of her to pick and she picked up two doughnuts, one in each hand, and dove right into those too. Then we packed everyone up and went to the zoo. I think all of the kids really liked hearing the roosters and she had a great time on the merry-go-round. All of the kids slept on the way home. We ordered pizza for dinner and played outside. Then she opened presents and ate cake. She LOVED her presents and LOVED the cake. I think her favorite gift was a little stroller/walker. She pushes it all around the house laughing. Thanks Mom. All in all it was a wonderful 1st birthday. She had a lot of fun, got a bunch of toys, and ate A LOT of chocolate.

How Cole manages to get anything he wants

2009-05-23T15:51:00.001-07:00

Cole was the first one up this morning and actually managed to make it all the way downstairs without waking up his sisters. I was already up reading so I decided to take an opportunity to have breakfast with just the two of us. Cole (and Alli too) say the sweetest and the funniest things when they are one on one. So this is how our conversation went:

Cole: Mom, Did you know why I love you? (almost all of Cole’s sentences start with “Did you know” these days)

Me: Why

Cole: Because your hair always looks super pretty (my hair is in a pony tail and this is first thing in the morning)

Me: Wow Cole, that’s a very sweet thing to say

Cole: Mom, Did you know what I’m going to do for you today?

Me: What?

Cole: I’m going to take you on a date and I’m going to let you pick where you want to go

How can I resist this?!

Me: That’s a fantastic idea. Let’s look up the movies and see what’s playing.

Cole: That’s just what I wanted to do! And did you know what else? I’m going to share my gummy worms with you too!

And that is Cole ended up with a trip to see “Night at the Museum” and gummy worms today. Jim and the girls went shopping for Alli’s party and then we all went swimming. It was a really fun day.

The things they will do to their sister…

2009-05-22T11:09:00.001-07:00

Out in our courtyard where all the neighborhood children play, someone started digging a hole. None of the moms are sure who started the hole hole but it has become fascinating to all the kids. Day after day we fill it so that no one falls and gets hurt and day after day the kids keep digging it- always in the same spot. We have lost toys in the hole and had 10 kids all trying to frantically find them but the most recent fun thing to do in the hole is to try to bury themselves. The five year old boys thought this was a great idea but they soon found that they were much too large to fit their whole body inside. Then Cole and Alli had the brilliant idea that Avery was just the right size for burying. We watched and laughed as the kids tried to bury Avery in the dirt. She was filthy and thought it was the funniest thing ever. I’m glad she has a sense of humor about these things but I’m not sure if that will last forever. I have a feeling Avery will be the guinea pig for many of Cole and Alli’s ideas for years to come.

Avery’s Birth Day

2009-05-22T06:24:00.001-07:00

Avery’s birthday story is FAR less dramatic than Cole’s but still every bias special. We were on a bit of a time crunch when Avery was born. We were living in Lawton, OK, just three hours from Dallas. Avery was due to arrive on May 26, 2008. My little sister was set to graduate down in Dallas on May 23rd. My doctor assured we the whole pregnancy that I would make it to Dallas to see her graduate. It got closer and closer. The week before graduation arrived and still no baby. I went in for my final appointment sure that my doctor would give me the go ahead to be induced. But my doctor had decided to go out of town. I was pleading with his resident to induce me, assuring him that this really had been the plan all along. I told him that I was going to Dallas baby or not and I hoped she wasn’t born in the car on the way down. He laughed and said he would call the doctor and that he would be back on Monday to let me know. Great. Tuesday morning came and I still hadn’t heard from my doctor. I decided that morning I was just going to call and see what was up. Apparently there was a miscommunication because he thought I was already at the hospital. The nurse had failed to call. So Jim and I hurried to the hospital at around 10:30 am on May 20th. I had never been induced before but I decided that had to be the most relaxed, easy way to have a baby. Everything was so calm. They hooked me up to machines and the labor began. There was no rushing around or painful trips to the hospital. Finally, around 7 pm, Dr. Zweig came in to start delivering the baby. He looked at Jim and told him to put on a gown and gloves. Jim assumed this was normal procedure for cutting the cord or being in the room. The Dr. then called Jim over and told him to start delivering the baby. He talked him through pulling the baby out. It was a pretty amazing experience. Afterwards Jim said he NEVER could have done that if he had known in advance. This is a guy who freaks out just administering IVs so delivering a baby was never in his life plan. But since he really had no choice and the baby was coming no matter what, he was able to do it (with a completely horrified look on his face) and was happy and amazed after the fact. So after Avery Brooke was cleaned up and ready fro visitors, my mom brought Cole and Alli up to the hospital to meet their newest sibling. They were all so cute and excited and Avery was just perfect perfect. My mom then drove the big kids back to Dallas the next day and Jim and I spent two days in the hospital with Avery. We checked out on Thursday, drove to Dallas Friday, and took our 3 day old baby to watch her Aunt graduate that night. And on a side note, after all that stress and craziness to get to Chrissy’s graduation, about one minute before Chrissy was being handed her diploma, Alli looks at us and tells us she needs to go potty. We told her to hold it or figured she would just have to wet her pants. We did not make it that far to miss it for a bathroom break.

Ballerina Girl

2009-05-21T04:34:00.001-07:00

Alli started ballet a couple of weeks ago and it is the cutest thing ever. Her best little friend from the neighborhood, Cara, also goes to ballet so she was really excited about it. The first week she wore her gymnastics clothes because I didn’t want to buy her all new stuff if she didn’t end up liking it. She LOVED it. She and Cara held hands the whole class. The whole place is decorated in pink, flowers, and butterflies. The teacher talks to the girls in a sing-songy voice like a Disney Princess. It just doesn’t get much better than that for Alli. She has talked about nothing but ballet for the past two weeks. Now she wants to be a ballerina girl when she grows up. This should work out much better for us since she has previously only been saying she wants to grow up to be a princess. Last week, I surprised her with her own ballerina outfit. She was thrilled and said that now she is a “real ballerina.”

Avery’s Birthday Party

2009-05-18T18:50:00.001-07:00

Once again I have let this blog go a bit too long but since Jim is out celebrating his last day of finals at the IMAX watching “Star Trek” and the kids are all asleep, now seems to be the best time to catch up. We had Avery’s birthday a few weeks early because we celebrated FIVE babies in our courtyard turning one at the same time. We have triplets living next door so three of the five came from one house. We deci ded to have a big neighborhood cookout. Our courtyard consists of about 10 families but when you factor in all of the kids we all have, neighborhood BBQs usually have at least 40+. Did I mention that the triplets had about 20 family members in town? They were the life of the party too I might add. There were tons of decorations, tons of burgers and of course, tons of cute little babies turning 1. I made 4 pink tutus for the 4 baby girls and the baby boy’s mom made him a big crown to wear. He was the king of the party. I don’t think you can get anything cuter than 5 babies in a row doing anything but put tutus and crowns on them and you end up with absolutely priceless pictures. All the kids had a great time playing outside and having water balloon fights but the highlight of the party was lining the birthday babies up and watching them all eat cake. It was funny to see how they all would respond. Baby Emily dove in face first which just reminded me so much of Alli and her green Tinkerbell first birthday cake (she was covered). Avery picked at hers a little bit and eventually decided she liked it. Overall, it was an absolutely perfect day. I have thrown several parties over the past five years but this was definitely one of my favorites.

Happy Mother’s Day !!

2009-05-10T19:52:00.001-07:00

To our Mother, Grandmother,

Mi-mi, Nana, and Aunt Ashley:

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

2009-05-10T04:17:00.001-07:00

Little Angels

View more presentations or Upload your own.

You know you’re a mom when…

1. You plan your day according to when Sesame Street is on.
2. You have signed a check with a crayon.
3. You find Goldfish crackers in the glove box of your car.
4. You wipe other kids' noses.
5. You have accidentally brushed your teeth with Desitin.
6. You have caught spit-up in your hand.
7. You leave for a date with your husband carrying a diaper bag instead of your purse.
8. You have finally paid for all of your groceries and are heading out of the doors when you realize one of your kids has lost a shoe somewhere in the store.
9. You can recite Goodnight Moon and Green Eggs and Ham by heart.
10. You have shared a fifteen-minute conversation about your baby with a complete stranger at the grocery store.
11. You filled up your child's baby book before her first tooth appeared.
12. You silently curse people if they call during naptime.
13. You forgot your mother-in-law's first name because you now only refer to her as "Grandma."
14. You arrange your travel itinerary based on McDonald's Playland locations.
15. You are just as surprised when you sleep through the night as when your child does.
16. You consider the person who invented the Sippy Cup a genius.
17. You see a mom from your child's playgroup at the mall and know her son's name but not hers.
18. You consider it a major triumph if you shower by noon.
19. You justify every excessive crying spell with teething.
20. You pick up the phone and call your mother when your baby rolls over for the first time.
21. You have kept your favorite babysitter a secret from other mothers in your playgroup.
22. You have your pediatrician's telephone number on speed-dial.
23. You own the entire Baby Einstein DVD collection.
24. You find yourself humming the "Rubber Duckie" song in the shower.
25. You have dressed your baby in whatever is on top of the clean laundry pile.
26. You cry at Johnson & Johnson commercials.
27. You have considered trading your whole life savings for just one good night of sleep.
28. You see your parents in a whole new light.
29. You consider parenting to be the best job in the world.

Poem for the Wife of a Soldier

2009-05-06T04:21:00.001-07:00

This is for a dear dear friend whose husband will be deploying this week. We will will miss you terribly and will be praying every day for you all. And for all of our other friends who are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan and for their families. Thank you for all that you do. We will be forever grateful…

IF YOU'RE NOT IN LOVE WITH A SOLDIER!!! (or a Marine)

If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't know adventure. You don't know smelly gray PT uniforms that require daily washing. You can't understand green and brown camouflaged bags flooding your bedroom floor.

If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't understand the meaning of the phrase going to the field and the weeks you spend away from each other.

If you're not in love with a soldier, you can never imagine the hole in your heart when the phone call comes. Honey, I am leaving tomorrow to go overseas. I don't know how long I will be gone or exactly where I am going but I want you to know I love you Always!

If you're not in love with a soldier, you don't know what it's like to say that final good-bye. You don't know what it really means to be glued to the television. You don't understand fear and you can't possibly understand the
sleepless nights of endless crying wondering if you will ever see the love of your life alive again.

If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't know the immense joy, the uncontrollable smile, or the butterflies in your stomach when you see your soldier march onto a parade field upon redeployment, You can't understand
the self-control it takes to stand a mere thirty feet away from your man as some higher up gives a seemingly endless welcome home speech while all the soldiers stand in formation. You don't know what it is like to have the
second first kiss or what its like to experience puppy love all over.

If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't truly understand how to make every moment count because you never know when that phone call may come again.

If you're not in love with a soldier, you can never really understand how very delicate life is!!

The Army may have my soldier, but I have his heart!

I've commanded you to be strong and brave. Don't ever be afraid or discouraged! I am the Lord your God, and I will be there to help you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

Cole's Birth Day

2009-05-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

It is birthday season in our house and with that comes a lot of memories of our kids "arrivals." Since every year on my birthday I get my birth day story from my grandma, I thought it might be fun to write each of my childrens' stories. For those of you who may not know, Jim missed our first wedding. We had a wedding date set for June 7th, 2003. All of the plans were made; dresses, flowers, and reception arranged. I spent months planning the perfect June wedding to my Prince Charming. I went to visit Jim in Germany in March, the last time I would see him before our wedding. There was talk of a possible invasion of Iraq but at that point, we didn't really know anything. Jim suggestied my parents purchase wedding insurace just in case. Thank goodness we did because the day my plane landed back in Dallas, Jim found out that he would be in the first wave of troops to go to Iraq and was to be leaving ASAP. So Jim left, the wedding was cancelled and suddenly my perfect dream wedding seamed like such a trivial thing in comparison. Jim was only there a short time; he arrived back in germany on July4th and into Dallas on July 8th. We were married in my parents backyard by his cousin on July 11th and headed back to Germany the next day. Jim was being assigned to a new unit and we wanted to look for our first home. And like every other military family who greets their loved one home from Iraq, we had baby fever. We became pregnant with Cole just a couple of weeks later but our timing could not have been worse. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Guess what? I'm pregnant!
Jim: Guess what? My new unit is heading back to Iraq!

Whoops. And so began the craziness of my first pregnancy. I flew back to Dallas for a few months while Jim went to training. Then I headed back to Germany to be with him before he had to deploy. We had to make the decision whether I would have the baby in Germany or back in Dallas. The problem was, if I wanted to get back to Dallas, I had to fly back in January and miss time with Jim. I opted to stay in Germany so that I could see Jim off. My mom came over to help me just a few weeks later. We headed out to Wurzberg, Germany about a week before the due date so that we could be close to the hospital. On April 10, 2004, around 1:00 am, I went inot labor. I'm not sure how many times my mother called Sgt. Davis trying to get a message to Jim. Thirteen excruciating hours later, my baby boy was born. Still no word from Jim. God definately had his hand in that day. Little did I know that Jim was involved in a battle that had I been at home watching the news, would have had me worried sick. I was blissfully ignorant and busy having my first child. When Jim returned to the base that night, he went straight to the phones to call me as I was due to have a baby any day now. He got no answer so decided to call the hospital just in case. The nurse told him that I was in fact there, and that he had a son. She put him through to my room. I don't know if have have EVER been so excited to talk to one another. Jim passed cigars around to all of his friends that night and they celebrated becoming a father. As for my mom and I, we spent the next three days watching our precious little angel sleep and loving every minute of it. It is hard to believe that five years ago, a baby boy was born ; forever changing the world, forever changing us.

Cole’s Party

2009-05-03T12:41:00.001-07:00

This past week was very busy. Jim’s parents came to visit us her in Boston and we had a wonderful time. We went to the Children’s Museum, saw Jim’s lab and office at MIT, and had Cole’s 5th birthday party. We decided to do a mad scientist theme; something we had seen in Family Fun magazine. Cole and Alli love when Jim does science experiments so this seemed like a great party idea. The best part about it-Jim planned almost the entire thing! The science party was right up his alley so I actually got a break from all of my usual party planning and let Jim totally take the reigns on this one. All of the kids got lab coats, goggles, and gloves when they arrived. Each of the labcoats had their scientist name embroidered on them thanks to Jim’s mom. The kids made lava lamps, slime, volcanoes, and watched Jim shoot off Mentos and diet coke. They also played hot eyeball rather than hot potato. The biggest hit of all was the food. They ate brain jello which had bugs snakes and gummy worms inside and eyeball birthday cake. It was a lot of work but all of the kids couldn’t stop talking about the party this week. They had so much fun!

PaTRIOT’S Day

2009-05-02T17:36:00.001-07:00

I couldn’t go on without catching you up on Patriot’s Day weekend. Patriot Day once meant nothing to us but here in Mass, it is a HUGE event. Patriot’s Day marks the start of the Revolutionary War. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love history and living in Boston has been a great place to live and to really see where our nation started. One thing I have noticed about Mass: They embrace every season and take advantage of every opportunity they can to celebrate their state and what it has to offer. On any given weekend, there are at least ten activities published in the Boston Parent’s paper about things to do with young children. You just can’t beat it. We live just between Lexington and Concord, just along the Minuteman trail (where Paul Revere rode his midnight ride). A few weeks ago, we took our kids to the Patriot’s Day activities. We saw a full reenactment of the Revolutionary War. We saw Red Coats shooting off cannons and the Colonial soldiers marching. Everyone was dressed in full colonial attire. t was really really cool. We had taught the kids all about Paul Revere and what they did. Both of them were riding in the stroller all along the Minuteman Trail saying”The Red Coats a coming! “ He also knows all about one if by land and two if by sea. Alli kept thinking the “Red Sox” were coming. Um..no, the Red Sox are the good guys, the Red Coats are the bad guys. Alli was especially funny because every Red Coat that came by made Alli cower. She was scared to death of all of them. I am so glad we were able to experience all of it. The kids had a great time.

Happy Birthday Cole!

2009-04-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a while since I have updated this and there is SO much to update. I'll have to backtrack (hopefully) but the biggest excitement this week is Cole's 5th birthday! Cole was so so excited to turn 5. He has been counting down the days from April 1st and talking nonstop about what a big boy he is. So here's what happened: We ALWAYS take a picture of the kids the night before their birthday and say, "Go to bed four, wake up five!" They think it's funny. Following my own mother's tradition of decorating the house while we sleep, Jim and I stayed up late Thursday night to decorate the house in all things Transformers. We have done this every year and it makes the birthday mornings so special. We have several friends who have also adopted this tradition so it's funny to think of all the children around the world who are now waking up to a decorated house. We also have a long tradition of birthday doughnuts so Jim got up before 6 and went to get breakfast for the birthday boy. I heard Cole and Alli up talking while I was feeding Avery. I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying but I did hear Alli singing "Happy Birthday" to her big brother. So cute. Then Cole came running into my room screaming, "Mommy! I'm 5! I'm so happy!! My head is a little bit bigger and my feet are a little bit bigger and my ears are a little bit bigger..." Then he went downstairs and saw the birthday explosion. He got a scooter and a bike which was not wrapped and then he started unwrapping. The first one he opened was from my mom and it was legos. Cole is obsessed with legos so that effectively ended present unwrapping time and began we must put legos together and play with that for an hour time. Cole ate his birthday doughnuts and opened some more presents eventually. We had a huge neighborhood egg hunt that morning and the kids all had a great time. We did a big pot-luck lunch and stayed outdoors for the morning. The kids also all sang "Happy Birthday" to him and I think he got a little bit embarassed. Then we loaded everyone up and went to the mall. My dad sent Cole some birthday money and Cole went straight to the lego store to spend it I think he must have his father's brain for math and putting things together. Jim and Cole can sit and build for hours. It's cool that they have a hobby that they can do together. We went to Rainforest Cafe for dinner because you get a volcanoe cake on your birthday and Cole has been asking to go there since the first time he saw a birthday there. It was an exciting and eventful day. I can't imagine it being any better for Cole. He had such a great time. Happy Birthday little man!

Torn

2009-03-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

I have been struggling and struggling with a the huge decision of whether or not to homeschool my kids. It's something we have been thinking about for 3 years now and kindergarten registration is fast approaching. I have prayed about it, talked to homeschooling friends and family about it, read countless numbers of websites and blogs and am still having such a difficult time. My neighbor just decided to homeschool. One week, she said she was absolutely not even considering it and the next week, she was thoroughly convinced that this was the way to go. Why can I not make a decision so easily? Why am I up all night going over and over this in my head? We have made our pro and con list and the biggest thing standing in my way is that I feel like I am signing my life away. It was very important to Jim and I that I stay home with our children when they are young. Done. I couldn't be happier. But I have long been looking towards the day when they would all be in school and I could start MY life. Jim and I got married when I was still in college and got pregnant just a couple of weeks later. I never had the opportunity to start a career before life with children began. I have no regrets and I meet stay at home moms every day who have quit their jobs as lawyers and pediatricians to stay home with their kids and love it, but part of me is very selfishly looking forward to that day when it is my turn. Should I homeschool, that day could be delayed for years and years. Never mind the added bonus of the extra income; my sanity could be at stake!

For whatever reason, however, I still feel called to do this. I look at today's society, it's focus on materialism, sex, and power, and I just feel like God is telling me that this is what I should do. I'm certainly not saying that I think every kid who goes to school is doomed for failure or that there aren't wonderful school systems out there, but what I am saying is that I feel like God is telling me that MY kids, maybe one, maybe all three, may not be able to withstand the pressures of the world if I send them out in it right now. My all time favorite verse:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but continually be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God's will is-what is proper, pleasing, and perfect" Romans 12:2

This verse has helped me so many times since I've been married, especially when the temptaion creeps in to shop for unnecessary things, to try and keep up with the Jones', or hyper-parent my kid into every music class and sport. But now I think it is helping me make the decision to teach them in a comletely unconventional way that I know will earn me plenty of negative feedback. But nobody ever said following God's will was easy.

Jim is supportive either way. Jim also had a wonderful school experience and didn't make many bad decisions growing up. We differ just a little bit there. I don't recall actually learning much of anything in school. The idea of homeschooling is new to him but the more research he does on it, the more on board he is. Ultimately, however, it will be me who will be doing the bulk of the actual schooling so he would be just as supportive if we send them to school too. So if you're reading this and you are at all concerned about the outcome. Please pray for us and this decision we are facing. I'll keep you posted on what we decide and I hope that is very very soon.

How to save your girlfriend when she is being heckled by an SUV full of guys

2009-03-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

(This is MY first post on our family blog)

This weekend some of my buddies I served with in Iraq came to Boston for a mini-reunion. It was a blast, and we really had a good time. We visited quite a few bars and even toured the Sam Adams brewery. That tour consisted of 4 minutes talking about the incredients in the beer, 4 minutes in the actual brewing room pointing out the various vats and kettles the beer is brewed in, and then about 40 minutes in the tasting room. Definitely worth the $2 donation. We went out again on Saturday night accompanied by Pete's girlfriend, Gennie, and Natalie. After last call, we were walking back to our hotel when a SUV full of 5 dudes passed by sloqing down to "ooh and ahh" at Gennie who was leading the way back. Demonstrating his quick thinking and clear respect for his girlfriend, Pete immediately yelled out "She's a man!" The guys in the SUV stopped their heckling and drove off. Pete and Gennie clearly have a loving relationship! It was a great weekend filled with lots of laughs, mostly at the expense of our former commander, and no injuries.

Weekend Guests

2009-03-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

We are in the midst of a big weekend for us complete with reunions, a visit from Mimi, and an unexpected house guest, Brown Dog. Brown Dog is Cole's class pet. He is not a real dog (thank goodness). Every weekend, a different child is chosen to take brown dog home for the weekend. Over the weekend, Cole is supposed to be drawing pictures, taking pictures, or writing stories about their adventures. Brown Dog has not left his side since he got home from school yesterday. So far, Brown Dog has played legos, been dressed up in princess clothes, fed from a bottle, met some soldiers that Jim served with in Iraq, and slept in Cole's bed. Today Brown Dog will be meeting Mimi and enjoying whatever fun they have planned for tonight. I'll post some pictures at the end of the weekend but the whole thing is pretty cute. It's really funny how much these kids enjoy taking care of this stuffed animal.

A Job Well Done

2009-03-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

It's always good to hear you're doing a good job, especially when you are working (and loving) a job that will never give you a pay raise or even sometimes get you a "you're so unfair!" Jim came home tonight when Cole was writing a letter to somebody. I have been teaching Cole to read this year and he is doing really well. He is becoming more confident and has lately really liked writing stories and trying to spell words on his own. Tonight he was writing his grandfather a letter about Cole's spooky Halloween. Halloween was spelled HALWEN but he did it all by himself and sounded it out as best he could. Jim also saw him sound out "Frum Cole." Close. Close enough that Jim was pretty impressed. When the kids went to bed, Jim told me what a great job he thought I was doing with the kids. It's nice to get a compliment like that from time to time, especially when we live in a world where you so often hear criticism. Oh, and just because I am a bragging mother for a couple of minutes, Alli is learning to write all her letters (Upper and lowercase) and Cole is also very good at math. Thank you, Jim, for acknowledging that stay-at-home moms really can make a difference in the life of a child. None of us get that nearly enough.

Cole's Clothes

2009-03-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

Cole has been REALLY in to picking out his own clothes lately. I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of some of his original outfits. Yesterday he wore his warm up pants and a shark t-shirt with his basketball jersey over it. Tonight I sent him upstairs to get ready for AWANA. He came down with his Cubbies vest on but had also decided to wear a cape. He wore it all night and was so cute. Alli is without pants in this picture because Alli is almost alwasy without pants by lunch time. She changes in and out of princess dresses and her tu-tu all day. She really wanted her picture taken in her rainboots. I included one picture of Avery because she's cute and I still get to dress her up and she can't argue or take it off. Oh, I should also mention his most recent "prayer." So Cole always wears socks to bed. The other night, Jim told him he needed to air his feet out so he should not wear his socks. Jim walked off and then came back to Cole's room to check on him. He heard Cole talking to someone.

Jim: Who are you talking to?
Cole: God
Jim: That's cool. What were you taling to God about?
Cole: About wearing socks to bed

We have told Cole that he can talk to God about anything but we thought this was pretty funny. Oh, the problems of a four year old. So simple.

Avery's First Sled Ride

2009-03-09T19:01:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I have posted anything but we had a fun week last week. We actually got some warmer weather here so the kids were able to play outside for longer than 30 minutes. Jim's parents sent a sled a while back and Avery is just the right size for it now. It has a seat belt so we were able to buckle her in and Jim pulled her all around the courtyard and down the hill out in front of our house. She LOVED it and Cole and Alli loved watching her. She's becoming quite the big kid now. She wants to do everything the big kids do and Cole and Alli seem to be accepting her into their cool kids club. They have even started getting angry with her for getting into their stuff which is really not okay but funny at the same time. I love that Avery has even found her way into the pecking order of the arguments too. Here's a couple of pictures of her sled ride and her hanging with Cole and Alli.

Perfect Snow Day

2009-03-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those really perfect snow days. We got a call from the school last night that all the schools were closed as opposed to this morning so we were all able to relax and stay in jammies a bit longer than usual. Since all of the snow had finally melted over the last few weeks, getting another twelve inches was an unexpected but fun surprise. It was just a long enough break from snow that all of the kids were eager to go sledding first thing this morning. It also could very well be the last big snow of the season so the whole neighborhood wanted to take advantage. After our noses were all frozen, our lovely neighbor invited us all in for lunch. The kids stripped off their snow gear and ran around in their long underwear while she made spaghetti. Then we got home and Jim surprised us by coming home early today. His classes were cancelled and he was able to take the noon shuttle home. What a perfect day!! I'm going to go start the chili now for tonight's dinner...

Cats Speak Chinese

2009-03-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

A few days ago Alli and I were talking about China. While I like to pretend that all of my children are little prodigies, I wasn't teaching her Chinese or anything; it just happened to come up. I told her that in China people say, "Ni hao" instead of hello. She walked around the house for a few minutes saying, "Ni hao. Ni hao." Then she walked back up to me and said, "Mommy, cats speak Chinese too!" "They do? I've never heard a cat speak Chinese," I said. Alli in all seriousness replies, "Yes Mommy, they say Mee-ow, mee-ow." I could not stop laughing. You just can't make this stuff up! I wish I could just spend five minutes inside my kids' heads to see what they are always thinking.

Culinary Genius

2009-02-24T15:35:00.000-08:00

Tonight I put a whole chicken in the oven and went to the store after Jim got home. I needed some milk and I figured I had just enough time to get back and finish cooking so that dinner would be on the table at the usual time. Guess what? I forgot to turn on the oven. I came home to a completely raw chicken and really not much in the pantry or freezer that was a "quick" meal. The kids were already asking if dinner was soon and I was contemplating pizza or spaghettios. My brilliant husband announced, "Breakfast for dinner!" Crisis averted. The kids all love pancakes. I'm on a roll today. I think I could use a nap.

And the winner is...

2009-02-23T17:52:00.000-08:00

Well it was a big weekend for Cole. After we went to the Children's Museum, we went to the mall to play at the indoor playground and eat dinner. We had no idea that a new lego store had opened and this just happened to be their big promotional weekend. They had several tables set up where kids could build different pieces to be added to a giant pirate. Once you complete the piece, you receive a certificate to take down to the lego store in exchange for a little pirate mask. Ok cool. We have some time to kill and that might be fun. Well in the center of all of these tables was a guy giving away lego prizes to people who could answer a trivia question correctly. We walked over and stood with about 40-50 other kids and parents and waited for the next question. The next prize being given away was the pirate lego set that Cole has seriously been begging for for weeks. I have been telling him to put it on his birthday list. The question was to name a famous pirate, real or fictional. He went around the crowd once and heard about 20 answers. Nobody guessed it right. When he came close to Cole, Jim told him to say, "Captain Morgan," which he did. Everyone thought that was quite humorous coming from a 4 year old. The guy continued to ask around and around and after about 15 minutes, no one had managed to come up with the right answer. He finally gave a hint (Captain in a famous movie) just before getting back around to Cole. Somehow Jim thought of it just in time and Cole responded with "Captain Barbosa!" He won!! Everyone cheered for the Cpt. Morgan kid. Cole's eyes got so so big. He was so excited. Cole woke up the next morning at 6:15 asking to play with his new legos. He played all day, only stopping for meals. It was a big day for him.

Our Favorite Place

2009-02-23T17:46:00.000-08:00

Our favorite place in Boston (so far) is the Children's Museum. Now we have only scratched the surface of things to do with kids in Boston but this place is never a disappointment. The best part about it, it's totally free to the military! You can't beat that. It has three stories and so many fun things to do for kids of all ages. I don't ever take the kids by myself because I am so worried I would lose one, especially now that they feel so comfortable in the place and we are constantly having to remind them to stay near one of us. We decided to spend the day there this past Friday to celebrate Avery's 9 month birthday. Here are some pictures from our day...

Thank Goodness for Girlfriends

2009-02-20T17:52:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a wonderful movie and ice cream night with some friends. I know that probably doesn't sound too exciting but for a bunch of moms who only see things in the theater that are animated, it was a good time. We saw "He's Just Not That Into You" which was actually pretty good. I'm definitely glad I'm not trying to navigate the dating world in today's society after seeing that. Of course Jim had to hear the whole play by play of the entire movie when I got home. But what I really enjoyed the most about my evening was the company. There is something about the military that just bonds people together. As much as I hate packing up and leaving all of my friends every three years, God never seems to leave me lonely for long. There are always amazing new women waiting at our next post with open arms. What amazes me is that everyone is in the same boat, somehow or another. We all make friends quickly because none of us will be around for long so it's easy to bypass the formalities. We have all dealt with deployments and loss and can understand how difficult it is for someone to go home to an empty house just to turn on the news and pray for nothing. We've all gone through difficult times while far away and separated from "old" friends and family. There is a reason we refer to our military friends as our military family. Because we are. These are the people we will spend Thanksgiving with. They are the people who call you or knock on your door if they haven't heard enough chaos coming out of your house. They are the people who will send you encouraging emails or bring by dinner in the middle of the week when your husband is in the field and your kids are sick. They are the people who don't have to know who you are or even much about you to welcome you and invite you into their inner circle, even though you are new. I'm certainly not saying that they are a replacement for your real family, but they are pretty darn close. So thanks all you military spouses, for understanding the day to day struggles, calling on me when you need help and answering my calls as well, and welcoming me into your lives. This life certainly isn't easy, or like anything I could have imagined, but the people who have touched our lives have made it more than worthwhile.

First Foods

2009-02-18T18:35:00.000-08:00

Avery is officially done with baby food. I feel like this is a bit early but she has taken after her sister and is refusing any spoon fed meals. We have learned in the past few days that she has great reflexes and can swat a spoonful of food away much quicker than we can get it in her mouth. So basically we are in the stage where she can't swallow more than little bits, I have to find appropriate foods that I can cut up into little bits, she refuses to be fed from a spoon, and she will only eat things she can pick up herself. We made an additional trip to the commissary today to accommodate her new dietary needs. We have also come to remember this week that this stage of babyhood requires a bath after almost every meal. Ahhh, life is fun.

I'm A- Cookin' Mommy

2009-02-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

Alli has found a new interest in cooking. She wants to cook with me EVERY night. She loves mixing ingredients together but I think the best part for her is cooking for her family. She is so pleased with herself to present her meal. She tells everyone in the house that she is making dinner for them. Then she asks everyone what kind of vegetable they would like. Jim is really great about praising her for all of her hard work. He used to get them all in unison to say, "Thanks for dinner, Mommy." Now it is Alli that we all thank. It has been really fun watching how excited she gets; and not so fun cleaning up all of her kitchen messes.

I also want to add that after this first picture was taken, Alli was COVERED in bisquick. I told her to wash her hands in the bathroom. She replied, "No, Mommy. Dumbledore will lick them and they will be clean." She then tried to call the dog over to clean her hands. "Um. No, absolutely not. Go to the bathroom and I'll be there to help you in a minute." She covered herself and the bathroom hand towels in water in the moments she spent alone in our bathroom off the kitchen. It is almost impossible to stay on top of all of her messes. The second picture is after she had a wet shirt change and is setting the table with Cole.

My Cole

2009-02-18T18:24:00.000-08:00

I didn't have anything spectacular to write about Cole today. He had a wonderful day and did plenty of fun things (played with legos) but he wouldn't smile for any pictures and I have nothing new to report. So... I just wanted to write about how special Cole is. First let me say that I truly love all of my kids. Someone once told me that when you have more babies, your heart grows bigger but the hours in your day do not. That is so true. I have to divide my time between the three of them and Jim but my heart has certainly expanded to let me love all of them equally. BUT, I do want to say that Cole is my special little buddy. Maybe it's because he is my only boy; maybe it is because he is my first (nothing beats the first moment when you realize you really are a mom); or maybe it's because his daddy was in Iraq for the first year of his life. Whatever the reason, we have a very special bond. He is my little buddy, my special man, my big helper. He can make all the world's troubles go away just my saying a few words. His mind is so simple and perfect. Even though I have nothing spectacular to report on this day, I really just wanted to say that I am blessed with a phenominal little man who amazes me every day. I cherish every second I have with him. It seems like yesterday that Jim was calling the hospital and I was telling him he has a son. Now he is almost 5 and I know the time will continue to fly by...

We've Started a Blog!

2009-02-16T05:36:00.000-08:00

We have started one a couple of times and haven't really kept up with it but we are really going to try to keep this one going. We have enjoyed keeping up with some of our military friends' blogs and thought this would be a great way for you to keep up with us! Send me a link to yours if you have one and I don't know about it. Happy Monday everyone!

Fun Facts About Avery

2009-02-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

-She loves to play with the refrigerator magnets
-She has two teeth on the bottom. Her smile is so cute.
-She recently learned to clap and wave so she does this often.
-She likes to clap whenever she sees us dance or do something silly
-Her favorite food is peas
-She gets very jealous if another child is in my lap
-She does not like me leaving the room right now
-She loves the bath and splashing water at Cole and Alli
-She pulls Alli's hair when she gets close enough
-She likes to be picked up and danced around. She is pretty happy whenever there is music on but seems to particularly like Dave Matthews.
-Her eyes are becoming more brown like Jim's.
-She will not wear socks. She pulls them off almost immediately after I put them on.
-Her favorite songs are "Wheels on the Bus" and "Shoo Fly"
-She has one very favorite book about trucks that we read probably 15 times a day. She laughs the whole way through.

Fun Facts About Alli

2009-02-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

-She goes back and forth between wanting to be called Alli or Allissa. She says she likes them both.
-She thinks she is a princess and wants to be a princess when she grows up. She also wants us to get a bird to live in the house because princesses live with birds and talk to them all day.
-She lines everything up in rows and counts them. We had a friend in Oklahoma that used to do this too. Every time Corban came to our house, I knew I would find all of our refrigerator magnets lined up in neat rows after he left.
-Her favorite color is pink. Surprise surprise.
-She has a bad temper and is not afraid to show it. She absolutely does not let anyone mess with her. She will turn and growl at people who try to take things from her or push her around. We are trying to help her find some other ways to deal with conflict.
-She is also extremely empathetic. She gets very concerned for other kids who are upset and she is always the first to run over and ask if they are okay.
-She is insanely protective of her baby sister. She doesn't like other kids getting too close to Avery and will instruct them how to touch her gently.
-She loves all animals.
-Her favorite dinner is spaghetti and meatballs or Fondue.
-It does not matter if Alli has just finished eating. She will ask you for whatever you have should she see you eating something.
-She does not like stories with witches. We are no longer allowed to read Snow White because there is a mean witch.
-She loves to paint, cut paper, glue anything she can, and cover herself in stamps.
-She loves to dance but only wants to dance with a partner, preferably Cole. She will settle for her parents if Cole refuses to dance with her.
-Alli is loud. There is just no other way to say that.
-She does not like nap time. I think she will be outgrowing them pretty soon.
-It is a happy day if I buy Doritos from the grocery store. It doesn't happen often.
-She loves shoes. She will pull all of her shoes out just to try them on and walk around the house. This is cute now and keeps her pretty occupied. Her shoe fascination will not be cute when she is 15.

Fun Facts About Cole

2009-02-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

-Cole has to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch. When I make him something else, he will eat that and ask for a pb&j to go with it
-Cole gets hooked on things and decides he will obsess over it for a few months. It started a couple of years ago with the Wiggles, then Larry Boy from Veggietales, then Lightning McQueen. Right now he is obsessed with dinosaurs.
-He is a candy monster. He would eat nothing but candy if I would let him. Seriously I've never seen a kid like candy as much as he does.
-Cole loves containers of all kinds. He likes to put things like his legos or cars in them and then carry them around.
-On July 4th, 2006, Cole watched a space shuttle launch and the obsession with space began. This still continues today. We have taken him to NASA twice and he tells us at least once a day that he will be an astronaut. He used to say that he would take me to space with him but he has now told me that only astronauts may go so I will have to stay home.
-Our good friend, Sutton, also wants to be an astronaut so we have arranged their wedding. It will be a wedding in space.
-His favorite ninja turtle is Michelangelo.
-Temporary tattoos are about the coolest thing ever.
-He likes to take his friends for rides up to space in his space shuttle tent.
-Cole has a new found interest in basketball. I don't know that genetics are in his favor but we will support him as long as wants to play.
-He likes to help me pack his snack for school. He always requests either a gogurt or a fruit by the foot to go in there.
-He goes sledding at recess.
-He hates eggs and grape juice.
-He likes legos, the hokey pokey, and puzzles. He is really good at puzzles.
-Cole sleeps with about 8 stuffed animals every night. His bed is crazy.
-He is an amazing big brother but he LOVES when the girls are napping and he gets Jim and I all to himself.

Our Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T09:32:00.001-08:00

I received an email from a single friend recently which started by telling me how much she couldn't wait for Feb. 14th to be over so her friends would stop trying to find her a husband. It got me thinking about Valentine's day and how everyone views the holiday so differently depending on their stage in life. Cole and Alli have loved all of the festivities this week. They have passed out cards, gone to parties, and eaten tons of candy. Cole made me a heart shaped pin at school and was so so proud to give it to me. HOWEVER, I look on facebook and see all of my single friends complaining about it being the worst day ever. Then I have my military friends who have deployed husbands and Feb. 14th just becomes another huge reminder that they will be going to bed alone- again. One of my best friends got engaged a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure this will be a good Valentine's day for her. I have another friend who is dressing up her daughter and sending her out on a special date with her daddy. Her dad has also been gone for 6 weeks doing training so I think this is a special day for them too. I have had some wonderful Valentine's days, especially after meeting Jim. One year he even surprised me by flying to Dallas from Germany to take me out to dinner. So sweet. But I really think that the best Valentine's days are not the ones filled with romantic dinners or evenings out. They aren't the anti-valentine's night out with your girlfriends although those are pretty fun too. I think the best ones are the ones you get to spend with your young children. They are so sweet and just want to tell everyone they love them. I love the homemade cards and the sweetness in their voices. They were so excited when they woke up this morning and saw the cards and treats we had left out for them. They have spent all morning on a sugar high and decorating the house with hearts. Jim made pink, heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and they called their Mimi to scream, "Happy Valentine's Day!" I think I pretty much have always loved every holiday but I just don't think you can beat watching the excitement in a child on these special days. I know days like today will provide me with so many happy memories for years to come. At least I can cherish these years before they all become teenagers and complain to me about the commercialism and horribleness that is Valentine's day should they find themselves without a boyfriend or girlfriend on Feb. 14th. I'll just wear my little heart pin from Cole and remember this day and how perfect it has been.

A Little Catch Up...

2008-10-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Well I have been planning on starting a blog for a while but have found very little time to actually start one. I hope I can catch you up, keep it up, and give you all a little taste of what is going on in the always adventurous Gifford house. The fun never stops here and there are always plenty of stories to tell. I'll start with the most exciting event of this year; the birth of Avery Brooke. She was born May 20th at 7:12 PM just three days before my sister's high school graduation. My doctor was nice enough to induce labor just so I could make it down to Dallas in time to see it. He was also nice enough to throw some scrubs on Jim just minuted before she was born and let him do the actual delivery, with the doctor's assistance of course. It was quite an experience for all of us. Jim said there was no way he would have been able to do it had he had any time to think about it. I think because my doctor knew Jim was deployed when Cole was born, he wanted to make sure he was as involved as possible. But back to Avery- she was 7 lb. 7 oz. when she was born which is pretty small in our house. She was absolutely perfect and beautiful. My mom brought Cole and Alli up to the hospital and Avery had of course brought them each big brother and big sister presents so they decided she could hang out with them right away. My mom took Cole and Alli back to Dallas with her the next day and Jim and I spent two very peaceful days in the hospital with our new daughter. We checked out on the 22nd, spent one night at home, and drove down to Dallas the morning of the graduation. There wasn't much time to spare but the entire week worked out just perfectly.