Halloween Characters!

I have a rule about Halloween Costumes. They must be worn for 2 years. That way I feel like my money has been well spent. It is crazy how expensive they are! Anyway, this year was Andrew's turn for a new costume. He wanted Batman. I think he looks adorable in his fake buffness!

Zane got to be the froggie this year. It was funny, everyone seemed to think he was cute but half of the people thought he was a girl. Hmmmm..... that seems a little odd to me. I don't think he looks anything like a girl.

Lucy was a hydrangea plant. While out trick or treating she got very little notice. She was in her stroller, but when we went to church she was quite the hit. I got the costume from Joanna. Her mother-in-law had made it for her daughter lots of years ago. Now we got to benefit from it which I think is fantastic! Super cute and just the right price! Several houses asked me if I didn't want candy for the baby. Huh? No I don't want candy for her, it just means there will be more for me to eat!

My three characters!

I was so excited that Eric was home last night! He has had to work the past few Halloweens and it means I get to do a ton of work. This year at least the boys would mostly go up to the doors by themselves unless the house was super scary. It just made it so much easier to have someone with Lucy in the stroller and someone with the boys.

Finally, I got an outfit this year. It has been many, many years since I have dressed up as anything. I found this bee costume and I thought it worked well! It was super warm and easy to put on in the chaos of getting ready. All day I wore my black pants and black top and looked all cat burglar-ish. It was fun though and you will probably be seeing me as a bee for years to come!

Hope you had a great Halloween!

Cookie Creations

The kids, Eric and I made Halloween cookies today. We made bats, spiders and pumpkins. I have a whole set of cutters but I have found limiting the variety is a good choice. They boys are not known for there patience while cutting them out. If I don't watch them like a hawk they have put a cutter in the middle of the dough and then nothing else will fit. Anyway we had fun and it was a good activity to do to keep there mind off when they get to trick or treat. Night takes FOREVER when you are 5! We told Andrew he couldn't ask when we are going or he didn't get to go. So far I have yet to hear a peep out of him! It is a wonderful thing! I will post costume pictures later.......

What Happened to My Butterball Turkey?

This is a sight I never thought I would see from Zane. Andrew has always kinda looked scrawny like this but Zane? Never in a million years would I have guessed he would thin out this much! I think he must be finishing up a growth spurt.

A Little Bit Adult Already?

So Andrew has been mentioning in the last few weeks that he feels mountains in the back of his teeth. I looked in there and sure enough it seemed like adult teeth would be in his future. Today I was curious so I asked him about them. Lo and behold there was an adult tooth almost all the way in back there! I was floored. Who knew that adult teeth could come in so painlessly when baby teeth are horribly irritable for babies! So now I have two kids teething and only one crabby. I guess it is a good thing that we have a dentist appointment scheduled. I really want my kids to have sealants on their adult teeth. Two other of his adult molars are starting to break the skin too. It will be shocking to me when he gets his full set AND when he starts loosing teeth. Anyway, my baby is now a little tiny bit adult. I am not ready for sure!

School Conferences with No News

Today we had conferences for Andrew. As we expected his teacher said that he has no problems and seems to be having a wonderful time. She retested the students this year, he understands his prepositions (in, above, below etc.), he can recognize all the letters (upper and lower case), he knows what sounds the majority of the letters make and he can recognize numbers up to 30 (as high as she tested them). She told Eric and I that we had done and great job getting him ready for kindergarten. I think that Andrew is just a natural learner though and is very driven personally to understand. We talked some about his speech and we do not have an action plan yet. Apparently the speech therapist has yet to send a report to the teacher. We obviously haven't gotten one yet either. What came as the biggest surprise to me was how confident Andrew is in school. Not only in the classroom but socially as well. He is very comfortable and confident with himself. His teacher commented on it and how great it was. Apparently a self confident kid reflects a good job by us. My one question was if he seemed to have problems getting other kids to understand him because I know sometimes even adults can't fully understand what he is saying (if I am honest I can't all the time either). His teacher said that he never seems bothered or embarrassed by it. He just says that word is a little tricky for me. Which of course comes out sounding like: Vat word is a yittle fricky for me. It is a wonder they can understand his explanation LOL! The recess lady was in the room working too and she said she has seen no problems on the playground either. That is a relief to me! All in all it was a great report! Oh, and last night we went to a literacy night at school and Andrew and Zane went to listen to the story time. Andrew's teacher saw how sweet both boys were and she said she can't wait for Zane to start school too! Eric and I laughed and said that he can be just as sweet but a bit more of a stinker!

No Sleep for Me!

So Miss Lucy Fern is cutting teeth. At least that is what I am hoping the problem is. Last night she woke up at 11:30. I gave her some tylenol, nursed her and put her back into bed. About 12:15 she starts crying again. I decide to let her tough it out. She kept at it and never simmered down. I finally got her and brought her to bed with me. She fell asleep on my chest around 1 and stayed in bed with me for the rest of the night. I don't generally do this but I was pretty desperate for some sleep myself by this time. In fact we had a first at our house last night. Eric got home for work at 4:30 and tried to get into bed. Lucy and I were sprawled all over it and he asked if I wanted him to put her in bed. I told him no! So he went and slept in the other bedroom. I can tell you right now that has never happened. He always crams into bed and then complains. I think he must have been super tired or something. All I know is Eric never lets the kids sleep with me so he must have sensed that it had been a rough night. I really hope that tooth comes in soon because I need more sleep than that to function!

My Two Fish

We have been making great strides in our swimming lessons the last few weeks. Zane for one of the first times actually put his head back into the water while he was supposed to be back floating. His teacher this session, Miss Hannah, is wonderful and it is nice that he trusts her. Zane has some serious trust issues when it comes to things he feels nervous about. It takes him several sessions to get comfortable with anyone especially in the water. He seems sure they are going to let his head go under. I have been happier with his teacher this time. He had a different instructor last session and she never seemed to be fully paying attention to the kids. She was always looking outside of the pool at what else was going on. Hannah has her focus on the kids and it certainly makes me feel more secure having Zane in the water without me!

Andrew is turning into an absolute fish. This level is requires much more work out of the kids and harder stuff. It will be a long time before he passes it I am sure. But he seems to be enjoying himself immensely and that it ultimately the point. Right now they are working on the crawl stroke, the butterfly and the breast stroke legs (I have yet to see the arms). It looks like lots of fun. I asked him how he like the butterfly and he said "its a lot of work." I am sure it is but I love that he is willing to keep at it!

Fun at the Park

Yesterday we went to the park before the boys swimming lessons. It was a beautiful day and Andrew has been after us to go to the park for weeks. Of course he usually reminds us 3 minutes before we have to leave which gives us no time to play or he will ask when it is raining cats and dogs. Neither situation works for park play. But yesterday he remembered to ask as soon as he came home from school and since it was super gorgeous out we said yes!

This trip was the first time that I have really let Lucy get down and play on the toys. Always before she has been too small or I haven't trusted the other kids or equipment. She was super crabby though and the only thing she seemed to really enjoy was the swing.

Zane was a wild man on the slides. I was feeling a bit distracted and the next thing I knew he was walking down the slide, walking up the slide. I don't allow either of those things so he knew he was doing something naughty.

All in all it was a great time at the park. I hope we will have a few more beautiful days like this before the super cold, wet weather kicks in. It is so hard to be housebound!

Speech Therapy?

As many of you know already my Andrew has a difficult time with several consonants when he talks. When we went in for our kindergarten registration he was screened by the speech pathologist and she told us then that she would be checking back in with him in the fall before conferences. I have been asking and asking his teacher if she has come in to see him yet and she kept saying no. Finally the speech lady said that she never told me she would be checking in. It was up to us to request it. Ahhhhhh! I was frustrated especially since this week is conferences. However, Andrew came home today talking about how he got to go to some ladies room and play games with letters. AHA! I think all my asking and keeping track of it has paid off. Today was Andrew's last day of school for the week (no kindergarten during the rest of conference week) and I am hoping there will either be a Hooray he is fine (not super likely) or a game plan on what he needs to work on. He struggles with several sounds but one huge one was the letter L and it seems to be kinda coming around. Words with an L in them kinda come out funny but he still is saying it much better than he was before. Anyway I will keep you all posted about it but I am glad that something may be done. I just don't want to let it wait when early intervention may save him from some teasing in the future!

Our Pumpkin Creations

As if you couldn't guess, we carved pumpkins this afternoon! The boys had a great time and it was so much easier to carve them this year. I had Eric to help me (last year he was working the Seahawks) and it was wonderful to have someone to clean them out. That is my least favorite part.

The pumpkins turned out great. From left to right they belong to: Me, Andrew, Zane and Lucy. Eric decided he would have enough to do scooping and carving the boys and Lucy's so he didn't need his own. I got to help with Andrew and do my own. And draw the design for Lucy's pumpkin. She didn't seem to care what her pumpkin's face looked like :)

Andrew insisted that he wanted a scary faced pumpkin. It was cute. Zane wanted one with teeth and a smile. We had such a great time and the boys will insist on them being lit each night until they are super rotten I am sure!

Off to the Pumpkin Patch!

Today we went to Carleton Farms to get some pumpkins. We try to go each year and the kids really look forward to it. It is always amazing to me how they remember these events AND I find it even more amazing that the last time I went to a pumpkin patch I was 7 months pregnant with Lucy and Crystal was with us. The kids had a lot of fun even though they have terrible sounding coughs. I felt kinda bad about it because they sound terrible and I am sure everyone is wondering why I am taking my plague-ridden kids out in public. Andrew went to school today though so I felt he was well enough to pumpkin patch if he was well enough for school.



Zane was in what can only be described as "a mood." I had to threaten him with no pumpkin to get some pictures of him. It makes for a totally rough trip when he is in acting like that!



Lucy thought the whole thing was fun and she LOVED the tractors. Every time one drove by she about broke her neck trying to watch it.



Andrew was by far the most excited one with the pumpkin patch. His school class went a few weeks ago and they got to take home a pumpkin. Andrew kept asking Eric, who went as a chaperon, if he could bring home one for each of us. So Eric promised that we would be coming to get our own pumpkins a different day. That seemed to appease him but we knew we were going to have to follow through our he was going to be super disappointed.

A very happy boy!

Two cutie pies at the pumpkin patch!

But the real question is What did we do with all our pumpkins?.....

Still Sick

I am keeping Andrew home from school for the second day this week. He is so bummed. Today was supposed to be his sharing day at school and he really wanted to show off this monster truck creation that he made out of construction paper. It has wheels that wiggle and road to drive on. I think it was the fact that he got to use the stapler that made it so cool to him. Anyway, my little man will have to wait until tomorrow to be able to take his stuff. (If they miss or forget they can bring it a different day) I sure hope he feels better soon. His temp yesterday kept spiking to 102 but this morning is hovering right at 99.6. I have Motrined him up and I hope that he will be fixed. His cough seems slightly better though so that is good. I hate having sick ones. It is so hard to tell him he can't go to school when he loves it so much. He keeps insisting that he feels really good and should go but I can see the dark circles under his eyes that tell me different. Poor baby, I hope he feels better later today!

SICK!

Andrew stayed home from school today because he is running a fever. He didn't really look good yesterday but he went to school. After he got home he kept complaining that he was cold. I just figured that he was tired and whiny and needed a rest because he has had a cold. Finally about 4 I took his temperature. It was 101.9. No wonder he was chilly! I administered some tylenol and then some Motrin. His fever finally came down before bed but it was back up this morning. I think he just has a cold but his cough is awfully nasty and I am trying to avoid croup which they are both prone to get. I think we have missed it this time but you never know for sure. Zane also woke up with a fever and a cough this morning. We are going to have a semi-mellow day. Andrew was a bit bummed about missing school but I am hoping an extra day of rest will help him mend. Hopefully all this misses Lucy. Three sick kids won't be any fun at all!

Lucy Fern- 9 Months

Today was Lucy's 9 month well child check. She is getting bigger all the time. It always amazes me how fast they grow. Anyway she is doing well and has finally slowed down on the growing curve. I was imagining an amazon on my hands with the way she was growing! Anyway here are the latest stats!

Height 28.5 inches (81%)
Weight 20# 1 oz. (72%)

We will hopefully not have to go to the doctor again until her 1 year check. In other Lucy news she is finally cutting her other top middle tooth. She was up at 1 last night for quite awhile crying. We tylenoled her up good and used some oragel. It seemed to help. Add in some mommy food and she finally went back to sleep. I don't remember the boys being so fussy with the teething but it could just be selective memory!

Finally, I thought I would pass along a story about Zane from this morning. After my shower Zane came tromping up the stairs with the Tonka truck ride on toy. He had a brilliant idea to ride it down the staircase. Eric told him no, I told him no. He insisted yes. Just as I was headed to yank him off the truck he rolled it just forward enough for the front wheels to slip off the top step. Down, down, down the stairs went Zane and the truck. I raced over to the top only to see Zane sprawled out flat on his face upside down on the stairs. The truck made it all the way to the bottom but Zane fell off mid-slide. Once I got him upstairs he ran for one of the bedrooms and shut himself in. He wasn't hurt at all by the fall just scared and mad that he had been wrong and Eric and I were right. I finally went to get him after a few minutes of shrieking. (He absolutely needs some time to calm down before a conversation) We have all decided that it was a bad idea that should not get repeated. I don't think he will do it again though. It scared him pretty good and that usually fixes things for him. Oh the joy of having a child who must figure it out on his own. The teenage years should be tons of fun!

One Week of Laundry for 5

I thought you would be amused to see how much laundry I do in one week. It usually works out to be somewhere around 6 loads. I definitely makes for a full day. I know I am kinda strange in that I would rather do all my laundry at once rather than spread it out over a whole week. My mom prefers to do a little bit at a time but that makes me crazy. I think it is mostly because I hate putting the laundry away, especially hanging up clothes. I don't mind putting it in the machines or even folding it. But putting it away is my least favorite thing to do so I condense it as much as possible. It is nice that now the boys are big/old enough to carry there laundry upstairs and put it away in their proper drawers. That just leaves me responsible for Eric, Lucy and myself. Oh and all the general use stuff like towel and washcloths. Now if I could only convince Eric that he should be responsible for all the putting away of clean clothes, laundry wouldn't be a chore at all!

Tights!

There are many things I adore about having a little girl. One of them is tights. Now I know all who knew me growing up would be astounded by this announcement. I have never been one for really dressing up and being all frilly but I am having a ton of fun dressing Lucy up while I still have the chance. I can't help but wonder if she will end up being slightly tomboyish with two older brothers. I am also imagining that sometime around age 6 she will refuse to dress in tights for me, maybe later, a mommy can hope right! Anyway, I will be having fun with her while I have the opportunity! And who knows, she could grow up to adore all things girly and make my day!

Not Sleepy At All!

So I was folding laundry today out in the living room and Zane came out and laid down on the other couch. He had been up since just before 6 this morning and I knew he was a bit on the tired side. One thing I have learned with Zane, when he is tired pretend you do not see it. If you ask him if he is tired he will say no and then somehow find the energy to get up and play. If you leave him alone chances are decent that he may lay down and fall asleep on his own. Well, I took the gamble and didn't talk to him and sure enough within about 3 minutes I heard soft snoring. Why is it so stinkin' cute when my babies snore and so obnoxious when my husband snores? Anyway, he has been sleeping like this for over an hour now and I know it will make my evening with him go all the more smoothly.

FYI: Lovey fell asleep with Zane but ended up falling to the floor as Zane moved around. A rest/nap couldn't be taken without that silly elephant!

Team Picture

I am ridiculously behind on my blogging. Andrew got his team picture this week for soccer. It is so much fun to watch him play soccer. He gets this little concentrated and ticked off look on his face. Too cute. He is so competitive it cracks me up. So far he doesn't seem to care so much about the winning or losing part. I don't know that he ever knows the score. Eric on the other hand can give you the score at any point in time. According to him if you aren't going to play to win you might as well not play at all!

Playing so Nice!

My boys seem to want Lucy to walk. I would be just as happy with her continuing to crawl. She thinks hanging on to the back of the Tonka truck and walking while the boys ride it is the funnest game ever. I think it just means that she will be walking sooner rather than later. Although everyone giggles when they are playing like this. Lucy will be a little tyrant with the boys. I think she expects them to jump at her beck and call right now!

Awesome Kids!

I just wanted to let you all know that I have three wonderfully awesome kids. They hung out with me for 3 hours at the doctors office today with only a minimum amount of crying and fighting. There was a whole lot of crawling around on dirty exam room floors but I was in no mood to argue. They are wonderful and I am the most blessed mommy around!

Poll Results

Well, it seems as though the majority of you think I need to come up with rules for Lovey. I agree. It would make life much easier for everyone in theory. However, a certain little boy who adores his Lovey disagrees totally with this plan. It is like pulling teeth to get him to leave Lovey anywhere for any other reason than a time out. And I don't want to leave Lovey in time out all day every day. Somehow it isn't quite fair. Although Lovey was hiding under a stool the other night and didn't get found until way after Zane went to bed. At least he will go to bed without him if need be. I don't know what I would do if he couldn't sleep without him. I snuck Lovey into his room after he was sleeping and it was super cute the next morning when he woke up. He acted like Lovey had climbed into bed and found him. The look of joy on Zane's face was just precious.

A Friend for Andrew

Today we crossed a new bridge in the world of friends. Andrew asked one of the little boys down the street over to play. It has been several weeks of "Brayden wants me to ride bike with him after school" so we finally decided to do something about it. Andrew walked down this afternoon and asked him to ride bikes. I figured we needed to take advantage of the good non-rainy weather while we had the chance. It is nice to finally meet someone else with little kids on our street. There is a little boy named Sam who lives across the street too. He is awfully fun as well. I just think that it is nice Andrew has some little boys to play with on our street. I know when I was little Reece had a ton of friends to play with and it was a constant revolving door all the time. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship for Andrew!

Random News

I felt like I should give you the quick and brief update on what the kids have been doing lately. Andrew has been busy with his kindergarten. I have been helping out in his class on Tuesday morning and I really like his teacher. She has WAY too much energy but I guess that is what makes a good kindergarten teacher. They have to have almost even more energy than the kids. Anyway, he is having a great time in class. There will be a trip to the pumpkin farm next week and he is very excited about it. Also today was picture day and I am really hoping they turned out great. I mean, he is super photogenic but I still liked having the picture picking control. I will just have to get used to it I guess :)

Zane just finished his first session of swimming lessons. He is doing pretty well but I can tell that we will be in this class for quite some time. He doesn't seem to want to actually do the activities as much as he wants to hang out and play with the teacher. That is fine for now. I know it is all a learning process and if I think about it Andrew was quite a bit older when he first started lessons because the pool had a fire and they had to cancel lessons the first session I had signed him up for. Also it has been so cute to see Zane be his own person. I get so used to seeing him in the light of being a middle child that I sometimes forget exactly who he is and what he is into. He is so cute talking to the other kids in his class and his teacher. So sweet, he just melts my heart with his cute little personality. Zane has also been super cute at home too. He has such a wonderful imagination and he loves to play using it. Last night he was dragging a laundry basket around the house and telling me that he was going to Haagen. Then he went into the kitchen, pulled off some magnets from the fridge like they were his groceries and brought them back out to me so we could have a snack. It was just too much fun.

Lucy just got another tooth. Here I was all set for her other snaggletooth to come in because it has looked swollen forever but nope. It was one of her middle teeth that came in. So now she has both top teeth on her right side and nothing on the left. It is quite the attractive look let me tell you. She is also getting so good with standing and cruising. I know I will be in trouble soon. Tonight she was playing with the boys for the first time. She would grab onto the back of the riding Tonka truck that we have, while one of the boys was riding it. She would stand up on her feet and try and walk behind it while they were riding. Obviously she fell a whole lot because they went way too fast for her to keep up but everyone was giggling and having a great time. Very cool in my opinion. Although I did have a moment of dread thinking of all the trouble she is going to be getting into in the near future. It is frightening for sure.

Anyway, I think that is all that has been going on. We have just been so stinking busy and I never seem to find the long amount of time to type that I need to put a post together. Either that or I tell myself I will do it in the evening and then by the time evening rolls around I have totally forgotten what I was planning to blog in the first place.

More Wrestling Fun with Daddy

Eric had the night off today and as usual a rowdy game of wrestle was on the agenda. Lucy decided to get into the swing of things for the first time though. She seemed very into the wrestling and is shockingly tough for such a little thing.

There were two main games for this evenings session. The first was lets push over daddy. All three (four if you count Lovey) were intent on winning. Eric finally lost.

The second game is a variation of pig-pile. As you can see Eric was on the losing end of this one too. I tried to hold Lucy on my lap so Eric could play tougher with the boys but Miss Lucy was having none of it. She wanted in on that fun. Somehow I think wrestling will be big business at our house for a long time.


In other news: Lucy has started to babble. She says da-da. Not exactly about Eric but she still says it. This is totally different from the boys. They started with ma-ma and stayed with it for a long time. I think Eric is thrilled that finally one of his kids could potentially acknowledge him first. I think it is sweet.

Work In Progress

I am changing the colors of this blog. I got bored. It may be kinda random for awhile. Please stick with me until I find something that doesn't make me want to claw my eyeballs from their sockets!

Not Sick, Growing Perhaps?

Zane recently gave up all napping (unfortunately). He is finding it extremely difficult to stay up until bedtime this week though which is new since the naps went. We were fine until bedtime for about a month. Now if he sits down and relaxes at all I find him asleep before 7 pm. Bedtime for the kids is between 7:30 and 8 most nights depending on when baths get done. I have been taking him upstairs when he drops off on the couch and changing him, putting on the pj's and then putting him in bed. He is always awake when I put him down but he goes right to sleep. I don't hear a peep out of him. I am trying to decide if it is the no napping, a growth spurt, the change of seasons or some weird combination of the three that is causing all this early to bed stuff. He has been eating like a tank which is usually a give away for growing in my family. Believe it or not Zane is actually a pretty light eater. Especially in comparison to Andrew. He has always been able to pack away the greater quantity of groceries. Anyway, I know he isn't sick. He isn't acting sick at all. What do you all think? Oh yeah, I periodically will find him asleep in the house too in the afternoon or in the car if we go somewhere long enough. But of course I can't convince him to take a nap anymore.

Eureka!!!

Lovey has been found. He was hiding in a pile of clean laundry. I am guessing that he got put there by Zane and then Eric covered him up while looking for a clean shirt to wear to work. I guess this just means that I should put my laundry away on a more regular basis! LOL

Emergency!

We currently have an emergency going on at our house. Lovey is missing. I think he has been elephant-napped. I have torn this house apart like nobody's business. I am completely at a loss. I am sure that Zane probably stashed him somewhere and can't remember where he put him. I have searched all his typical hangouts. I am really hoping that he turns up though. Trying to get Zane to go through a day without his Lovey is ridiculously hard. Hopefully he doesn't wake up at 3 am looking for him (it has happened). He is pretty inconsolable when he can't find him, especially in the middle of the night. I will keep you all posted on the search and rescue!