Free for all

Tuesdays from now on will be our "Annie" days where she comes and hangs with us for the morning and her mom can have a little down time with the new babe. My sister Kiersten did this for me after I had Cole and it was ah-mazing.

Can you stand the cuteness?

Pretty much we could do nothing the whole morning except drive around with the three in the backseat and theyd be happy. They alternate between holding hands and passing stuffed animals back and forth. I alternate between dying of cuteness and picking up said stuffed animals.

Fin conquering the dragon at the park

Cuties swinging

Zeke and Jess joined. Slide races.

Soo apparently taking three kids three-and-under to park feels like 9 kids b/c they all run in opposite directions, typically all towards a mud puddle or up the wrong way on a slide. So fun though and just a day where I feel especially grateful to be able to stay at home while Pat works for us.

Random thoughts

- Our dryer broke. It gave me no warning, just up and had a nervous breakdown. My reaction: Let's call someone and fix it. Pat's reaction: GREAT, now we have to buy a new dryer.*Deep Breath* No, wait. I'll just take the dryer apart and fix it myself...with no experience.
I see many trips to the laundromat during this mr. fix-it venture.

-Fin took his stuffed dog to Chikfila and when the worker there asked his name, he replied without hesitation, "Kumquat". The boy has never seen or eaten one in his life. Always keeps me on my toes.

- I am more then a little obsessed with my kids jammies. Some people like to put their kids in smocked dresses and collared shirts, I LOVE when my kids are in jammies. They are so stinkin cute and look so skinny, cuddly and edible all at once.

-I switched the boys closets and dragged out all their summer clothes. So let's just skip to May now please, k? K.

-Pat has been recording his voice for different presentations he's been working on for this upcoming weekend. He won't let me be in the room and he also won't let Fin and I beat box in the background. How rude!

-There are baby birds that have built a nest in our garage insulation walls. Every night I leave the garage door cracked so they can get in and out, safety be damned :o) I also have a ladder next to the nest so I can go look in there many times a week.

-Today I traded warm cinnamon coffee cake to Jamie for the chance to hold her baby. I'm not above bribery. That baby is so beautiful, even if he is a boy. Love me some newborn, much to Pat's chagrin.

That is all.

Sunny Days

We had the most beautiful week this past week full of pure sunshine and warmth. I told the boys there would be no tv and we would live outside from sun up to sun down soaking in the sun. And by golly, we did.

Cole helped me stock up the fire pit by helpfully taking out any stick I put in and throwing it back into the woods.

Fin also was a help by dragging out ginormous sticks that had about 836 potential sharp edges for stabbing people in their eyeballs.

One of my favorite things about where we live is we can walk to our local grocery store. I love to load up the boys in the wagon, walk to the store, let them pick out a snack to share, and tote our groceries home.

Give this boy a ball and a truck and you've basically given him the moon.

Unfortunately it wasn't all play. Fin did have to go to work some at the ol' Tractor Beaver Hump.

One night Pat took Fin out to get some snacks at Trader Joes. While they're gone, my phone starts ringing that someone wants to do Facetime. Lo and behold, Fins little face pops up. The boys thought it would be HILARIOUS to Facetime me from the driveway. Fin seriously loved it.

The boys brought back Trader Joe's treats for me :o) Perfect ending to a day.

And one of my favorite gems for the week. Kiersten kindly babysat for us AND left her scarf that I love by accident. Win-Win. I sent her a ransom photo. Hello pretty pretty scarf I will now wear to church.

Don't think I take this weather in February (!) for granted. But now that I've gotten a taste for it, I find any temperature under 60 degrees unacceptable.

Lost in Translation

This morning we hit the ground running by the boys and I hitting up Great Clips and then heading out to North Hills to have lunch with my mom and sister. I've been aching for Thursday all week as I knew it was going to be 75 degrees and it is soooo beautiful outside.
     Driving home, I had to fight to keep the boys awake so they didn't ruin their naps. This is a common occurence if we're out driving anytime after 11, but I'm pretty much a pro at this point. I open and close windows, reach back and take off their sock and shoes and tickle their feet to keep them from dozing off.
    Despite my attempts, Cole's eyelids were very heavy when we were a minute from home. I instructed that when we got home, I was going to go in and lay Cole down, and Fin was to follow, go pee, and meet me in his room. Since things seem to go in one ear and out the other, I asked him to repeat the instructions back to me. With a grin he said, " Weed whack the grass and play outside with cars while you put baby Cole down". Stinker. I smothered a smile and repeated what he was supposed to do when we got home.
    As I was putting Cole down I hear a toilet lid slam, and then.....TWEET.....TWEET......TWEET. Homeboy had found a RECORDER while he was waiting for me. Obviously not a condusive noise to putting a baby to sleep.
      I got Cole down and marched to Fin's room to find him nowhere to be found. I did hear rustling in the living room though.  Upon entering the living room I found Fin lying in the middle of the floor with a recorder, his silky blanket, big smile on his face, eyelids fluttering while he attempted to pretend he'd fallen asleep. I poked him with my foot and he burst into giggles. I gave in and laughed at him, then followed it with a lecture on remembering to listen, and put him down.
He is such a little imp, but man is he cute. Some days it is like we are speaking a different language though.

Pimp my nursery

While I was at work last night, Pat was at home preparing for a presentation and I came home to this:

The pictures are super grainy because it was dark but Pat had set up his projector screen in Cole's room and was playing Elmo and Muppets on the wall through Youtube.

Imagine that face as you're sleeping :o) The boys loooved it and thought it was so cool. I thought it was funny that Cole looked like he had a pimped out crib. Doesn't every baby have a big screen tv in their room?

Sweet.Moments.

It has been a very sweet time in our family lately. Cole went from challenging to just a joy to be around and parenting has been dreamy lately (knockonwoodknockonwood).
     We tell the boys "I love you" all the time and Fin will say it spontaneously to us several times a day, but Cole usually just repeats it back to us. Today Pat was laying in bed with Cole stroking his hair and Cole looked up at him and said, "I wub you". Melt. my. heart. Then later when I was putting Cole in his crib for naps, he said it to me before I had a chance to say it to him. Made me want to squeeze him until his head popped off. He is just a butterball of cuteness right now.
     Tonight Pat was putting his shoes on to go to Starbucks and get some work done and Cole picked up on the fact that he was leaving and brought his own little shoes for Pat to put on him.

Then he went and laid next to the door. I guess in hopes Pat would pick him up on the way out.

Love those little baby legs so so much.

On another note: When I grew up I have this specific memory of my mom rocking me in a rocking chair in our first house. She was wearing her night gown and had baskets full of laundry at her feet. It was right before bed and I remember snuggling against her as she rocked me and talked to my dad. And I just vividly remember her smell. You know that soapy, skin, comforting mom smell. I love that memory.
Tonight I took a shower, threw on my pjs and was putting Fin down when he asked me to snuggle with him. I climbed in and we giggled about how it was snowing and he kept saying, "I heard it's snowing in Raleigh" which cracked me up because he has no idea where or what Raleigh is, he had just heard someone say that. So I kissed his cheeks, sniffed his head, said good night and as I was leaving and closing the door Fin shyly called out, "Mom...I love the way you smell". And it reminded me of how good and safe that mom smell is. And how omg I'm someones' mom (!).
And how much I love this job. Because I so very much do.

Lunch.Time.

A little glimpse into lunch at our house. Eccentricities and all.

Cole chilling with his legs up like a boss man. Out of all the fruits and veggies on the plate he decides to dip his ginger snap into the ranch dressing. Nasty.

My niece Emma was over for the day. She insisted on eating with a flashlight next to her. What, doesn't everyone do that?

Fin whittled his gingersnap into a triangle and stuck it in his mouth claiming he had a sharks tooth.

While I was cleaning up lunch, I looked over and Emma had made sure spiderman was getting nourishment as well. The mouths to feed in this house are multiplying. This isn't a homeless shelter for forlorn comic book heroes and panda bears. We're not made of gold here.

Disclaimer from these pictures: We never claim to be normal.

Spring Bucket List

So it's almost the end of February which means it's basically March which means Spring is almost here! Now I can't really complain about this winter. Except I can because if it's below 60 degrees at any time or rainy and damp like this week, I'm totally over it. I've been so looking forward to spring and summer this year so for fun I'm going to make a bucket list for this spring...

1) Check out new Pullen Park with the boys.
2) Do a day beach trip.
3) Go to the zoo for the day.
4) Browse latest bikinis and drool over options. Also, keep going to gym :o)
5) Re-paint living room and trim. Painting the first time without electricity did not bode well for results.
6) Pick up fresh flowers everytime I go to Trader joe's.
7) Last but not least: Get so pumped for 5th anniversary trip in May to do canopy tours and go whitewater rafting with the hubs. Without kids. First trip in 5 years. I'm having a panic attack just thinking about leaving the boys.

All do-able things. I want to basically live outside with the boys because we all know once that summer heat hits, we ain't going anywhere but places with A/C and the pool.

My Valentines

Best. Valentines. Day. Ever.

Filled with chocolates, sweet baby kisses, and time with my boys.

Started the morning off with Pat getting us chik-fil-a at 6:30 in the morning and the boys waking up to little stuffed puppy dogs. These boys LOVE them some stuffed animals.

Fin was SO excited to give me my gift that he wrapped and thought of himself. It's his dinosaur sleeping bag that I can take to his work and use to have a sleepover at the ol' Tractor Beaver Hump. So practical.

Pat got me sweet flowers from him and the boys and a cake.

And then of COURSE the boys and I had to try these bad boys out after breakfast...and then go get heart shaped Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We had coupons for goodness sake!

Sweet neighbor dropped these treats by later.

Highlight of my day/week: Holding sweet Noah for the first time and rocking him. I was in heaven. The hand of God is on this babe. He is doing SO well and just needs to gain some weight to come home. His mom Jamie is my hero, she is such a champ and to see her and David work together through this is inspiring to me.

The day ended with a good old jump fest in the living room on mattresses. Nothing says vday like flips in your underwear.

Action shot.

Got to tell my lil' Honduran Valentine how much I love her. Sidenote: Doing Facetime in the bathroom b/c the boys are in the tub has an added benefit b/c the lights behind me make me look like I'm heaven :o) ha!

Off to snuggle the hubs. I promised him I'd rub his feet for tonight but he had to wash them first. Romance my friends ;o)

Chores and Chocolate

Weekend Recap: It was the best of times, it was the chorest of times, it ended in peanut butter fudge.

Saturday started with Nicole hosting some of the sibs for brunch. Little suzie homemaker cooked for us AND gave us appetizers of Krispy Kreme donuts with Nutella on top. Thank goodness I'm related to her.

Then all of Saturday was spent steam cleaning our carpets which was a little tricky with little ones running at the vacuum like it's a bull fight the whole time.

When they weren't standing in the direct path of the vacuum or walking on the soaking wet floors, they climbed the couches like monkeys.

Not gonna lie, Saturday ended with some grumps. We'd been in the house cleaning most of the day, I'd attended a funeral earlier, and the boys were stir crazy. I was supposed to cook but I REALLY did not want to and was subtle about it by saying things like,"well I GUESS I can make stir fry, but I'm really not in the mood for it, and I really don't want to cook, but I'll make it if you really want...".

Needless to say, we ended up at Chikfila that night and came home to this sweet suprise on our door from our neighbors.

And these sweet treats in a package.

 Not a bad way to end a day. Add in valentines treats from my mom and we were happy campers.

Sunday we woke up to a clean house, a great church service and fantastic naps afterwards.

Then Aunt Sarah watched the boys while Pat and I went on a Valentines date.

I LOVED that my diet coke was served in these mason jars. It's the little things.

And while the cats away, the mice will play. Yes that's ice cream in the bathtub.

Busy but blessed.

What I'd miss...

I may lament sleep. A lot. And I may crave it sometimes like a druggie. But if I'd slept in today till 10 like I did in college then I would have missed this...

Sesame Street. Playing Cars by the fireplace. Sweet brother time.
So really, it's more than ok.

crazy craze

Soo...I know it's been a week. And I have gotten emails from people asking if I was dead, including my dad :o) But this past week has been nutso. It started with Cole coming down with pneumonia and having a 104 fever for four days which was not fun times 10000.

Sick baby alternated from my arms to the tub...

To wailing in his highchair and not eating...

To conking out anywhere at any given time. So very sad.

So I had literally nothing to blog about besides, "Dear God someone please bring me some cookies and let me run out of the house screaming". I literally did not leave the house for 4 days except to go out in my backyard one night and have a bonfire with pat. And the freedom felt awesome people, let me tell you.

Thankfully, homeboy is back to his cute, healthy, crazy self. And I love that self. I loved the sick self as well but it just breaks my heart to see him so sick.

And then as soon as Cole got better, my friend Jamie unexpectedly delivered her baby and so this week I've had the joy of serving her and watching her daughter Annie some. Annie is the third musketeer to my crew and they are hilarious together. She fits right in and is our sweet feminine addition.

Her new brother Noah is under 4 lbs, is doing awesome and is literally the SWEETEST baby you have ever seen. He is just like a little baby bird. I'm pretty sure my uterus was glowing as I was able to touch his little fuzzy head in his incubator in the NICU. I can only imagine what will happen when I can actually hold him. I'm pretty sure my uterus will explode then. Let's just say too that I am NOT above stealing babies :o)
     Jamie is superwoman and has the best attitude about everything. We're praying with them that Noah will come home soon!
   And in the grand circle of life, my next door neighbor Cindy passed this morning from cancer. She fought a year and a half battle with it and I"m grateful she's at peace with our Lord. I am going to miss going over to visit her with the boys and our little chats. I was feeling sad this morning until I had to sit down and tell Fin that Ms. Cindy had passed. I was dreading this but his face immediately lit up and he said, "I'm so happy because Ms. Cindy is alive in heaven now with Jesus and has a new body". Floored me. He is SO right and why on earth am I mourning her here when she was in so much pain? Thanks be to God.

So that's our week in a nutshell basically except I'm leaving out that I ate eight (!) break and bake cookies last night and haven't done laundry in a week but I turn on my dryer everyday to get wrinkles out of clean clothes intending to fold them, and then they just lay there and wrinkle again. Life's too short for that junk :o)

Starting 'em young...

Fin and Pat are best friends. Like in cahoots, snickering when a toot is heard, going out on errands and coming home with gatorades and chewing Big Red, kind of best friends. Of course they are best friends with Cole too, but he's still a little young for their shenanigans.

Tonight Pat was sitting on the porch smoking a pipe and highlighting tax documents and Fin went out there with a highlighter and construction paper and sat their highlighting things next to him. Pat kept calling questions to me about certain expenses throughout the year and Fin kept coming in, highlighter in hand, with his own questions for me:

"Alright mom, when it's the summer time, we have to go to Walmart"

"Ok mom, it says here that I highlighted that when it's 12 in the morning, we have to go to church, ok?"

When Pat was done with his pipe and I told Fin to put his mask on for his breathing treatment, this is what I found...

Notice the pipe? Something wrong about "smoking" and getting a breathing treatment at the same time.

When driving to meet Pat for lunch yesterday Fin said shyly, "Mom, something very exciting has happened. I have HAIR ON MY ARMS! I'm a man now". It took all of me not to belly laugh, but he was so serious and so excited. So I ooo'd and ahhhh'd over the peach fuzz growing on his little arms and later told Pat about it where we had a good laugh.
Today we gave Fin his first wallet (spiderman of course) so he has something to bring his offering to church in. Pat presented it to him with a serious face saying, "Well Fin, we've been noticing that you've been growing hair on your arms and we think that now that you're becoming a man, you need a wallet". It was like a coming of age ceremony. Fin acted like we were giving him his first car or something. So So funny.
Parenting without laughing is something I need to take a class in. Or I need sedatives for. Either way, I need help.