Colors!

You'd think with my love of colors and the color wheel I would have done better at this little game. Still fun anyway!

46

How fun!

I've seen this fun game on a lot of blogs lately so I thought I'd try it out. How fun!!!

81 words

Speedtest

My cute hubby...

So I asked Mark to pick up some grapes and some chips from the store to go along with the Sloppy Jo's I was making for dinner last night. When he got home he made a big deal about some items in one of the sacks. He said "I bought something today for someone in our family that kind of gets forgotten about" (I knew he wasn't meaning me or the kids because he brings us home treats ALL the time) so my immediate guess was Toby the cat. I had no sooner said his name when Mark pulled out some cans of moist cat food and a catnip toy just for our furry little family member. I thought this was so sweet. Cuter still was when I went to put something in his wallet later that night and found his little post-it shopping list inside. It read:

Chips
Grapes
Bananas
Oranges
Cat food and toy

How funny that it wasn't even a last minute decision, but was carefully planned out. Toby REALLY appreciated it. So much so in fact that we had to take the catnip toy away after about 30 seconds. He was going CRAZY with it. I don't think he's ever had a "drugged-up" toy before. Poor kitty.

Smarter than a 3rd grader?

After Joshua completed his homework tonight I asked him to bring it to me so that I could correct it. He said "okay...oh, and I'll get the calculator for you too".....

So sad...so very very sad.

Famous!

Well....kind of.... :) for those of you that get catalogs from the "Oriental Trading Company" and happened to get their new one for spring 2008, I'd like you to go to pg. 44 lower left hand corner and read the name of the "sample" personalized pencils. For those of you without a catalog here's a picture:
Yep, our little Sam is famous, at least his name is! This has actually been the "name" on the pencils on every catalog I've received from them since Sam was an infant. A friend of mine noticed it first in her catalog forever ago and brought it to me to check it out. We've always thought it was so funny that his exact name is printed on them with the exact spelling and everything...I mean seriously, it's not like it's a hugely popular name! We thought it would be fun to call and order him some pencils with that name, just to see if they said anything, we could just tell them to send us the exact pencils from the photo. HAHA!

On a slightly similar note, this catalog is killing me with it's darling party stuff. I'm now convinced that Sam needs to have a "luau" party and Gabe needs to have a "Beach Monkey" party this year for the big 6 and 3. SO FUN!!

Look who's waving Bye-Bye!

Will officially learned to wave Bye-Bye a few weeks ago. We couldn't be more proud. He really tries to mimick everything we do lately which seems to be pretty early if you ask me, I think he's just dying to catch up to his big brothers already! I'm also convinced I've taught him to sign "more" but I know that noone will believe me until I get it on tape, I don't think he has any idea what he's doing, but he puts his hands together just like I do when I sign it! It is so funny! :) He's SO cute and awkward when waving, his whole arm gets in on the act and then his fingers go straight to his mouth. I included a video for your viewing pleasure but I'll warn you, it involves an overkill amount of me saying bye-bye in an annoying sing-song voice (do I REALLY sound like that?!), a telephone interruption, and an underwear clad 2 year old. I couldn't get the baby to wave for ANYTHING the second time around, but at least Gabe provides us with some entertainment at the end!

I'm sorry...

I was on the phone with Charlotte the other day when I walked into the front room and onto this scene...

Apparently, Sam had decided to clean up the front room by placing everything that was on the floor on top of Will as he was trying to enjoy his bottle. To break it down for you, he had a HUGE rattle (meant for the tray of a highchair) in one hand, a dinosaur in the other, another rattle between his head and left hand, a hat "laying" on top of his head, a Mickey Mouse bracelet around his right wrist (under the huge rattle) a tiny blanket and Gabe's sippy cup all piled on top of him. All I could think to say was "I'm sorry, baby" ....Poor little 4th child. :) Seriously though, these pictures might go down as my favorite of 2008. They absolutely CRACK me up!

Family Night at the Discovery Gateway

I started this post yesterday knowing that we'd be going to the Gateway last night for FHE. They have a Children's Museum there and until last Thursday the boys and I had never been. We had the chance to go with a friend and her boys last week and the kids had SUCH a blast. I ended up buying a 6 month pass because it was only $25 more than what we were paying to get in anyway and now we can go for 6 months. The Gateway is a really fun outdoor shopping mall. Our favorite thing about it is that it has an awesome fountain in the summer that shoots water from the ground and is set to music. The boys LOVE it and we usually go at least 3 times while the boys are on summer vacation. Anyway, we had so much fun last week that we wanted to take Mark there to join in the fun with us. I planned on taking lots of pictures but unfortunately my camera batteries died after my 2nd picture. So cookie faced boys are the only pictures I have to share. :) We had a blast, it's kind of like entering a new world where everything is set to "kids" size and the adults are the minority. There is so much to do and explore, and you can just see their little minds soaking everything up. We were all so tired by the time we got home that everyone went straight to bed. All in all, it was a great night!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful day! Ours got off to a bit of a rocky start, but got lots better as the day went on. Poor Sam woke up in the middle of the night with a belly ache and threw up twice. Ugh. Poor guy! He did fall back to sleep though and felt a lot better in the morning thank goodness. Joshua was up bright and early and dashed in our room to ask if he could begin "the hunt". Since we hadn't gotten much sleep the night before we begged him for a few extra minutes of rest. He crawled into bed with us and russled about until we decided it just wasn't worth it to try to sleep any longer. Especially after Joshua - CONVINCED that Gabe had left his room - went out to find him, only to burst into his room and discover he hadn't gone anywhere afterall and was still sleeping....well WAS still sleeping until the bursting into the room incident. Ah, well....church begins at nine so we DID need to start getting things going. Last night Gabe and I discussed the Easter Bunny and where he thought the furry guy would hide his basket. We thought maybe by the piano, so that is the first place that Gabe went and GUESS WHAT?! There his basket was! He was the first to find his, followed closely by Will who found his on the fireplace. Josh and Sam had high hopes that their baskets would be hidden in very hard to find places so it took them quite awhile to find theirs. Joshua finally found his in the guest bathroom bathtub/shower and Sam (with a little prompting, and help from Gabe and Josh who happened to have discovered it earlier) found his inside the t.v. armoire. Joshua loved his Pokemon board game and his treats, Sam loved his little Ben10 guy and spiderman playdough mold, Gabe loved his new octopus playdough set (I think mom was more excited about this than anyone else...it looks like SO much fun! - I'm really not being sarcastic, it looks DARLING and I am REALLY excited to play with it...with the boys, of course..) :) And Will loved his little monkey rattle and bunny rattle. Mom and Dad enjoyed a few new shirts and lots of treats. It was so fun to wake up to a house full of surprises this morning!

We quickly made some toaster waffles for breakfast and hurried to get ready for church. The boys looked so handsome, Joshua in his Navy blue suit, Sam in his spring sweater (Joshua's from a few years ago), Gabe in his spring sweater and blue/yellow checkered shirt(Sam's from a few years ago) and Will in his blue/yellow checkered shirt (Gabe's from a few years ago). About 2 seconds from returning home the boys had already changed into play clothes much to my dismay. I wanted to get a picture first. Grr. oh well, we still have a lot of spring left, thank goodness. I'm sure I'll have another chance. Church was wonderful. Josh and Sam were really excited to sing their easter songs to us. Sam mentioned to me twice that he "knew ALL the words to the song" and was going to show me and wanted to make sure that I was paying VERY close attention. They sang "I feel my Savior's love" and "Did Jesus really live again" As soon as they started singing I started to tear up. I'm a TOTAL sap when it comes to children singing, ESPECIALLY when those children belong to me. What brought the tears the most was watching little Sam with his eyes FIXED on me, making sure I was watching him sing every word. I didn't dare take my eyes away from his, and only had a chance to glance at Joshua once or twice which worked out fine since Joshua wasn't worried about me at all and was just excited to be part of the scene. All I could think about was how lucky I was to have a little boy up there that cared more about singing to me at that moment than anything else and how I needed to cherish every second of it because that little boy is going to grow up SO FAST! I absolutely LOVE this time in our lives with these amazing little boys. They really seem to be at the perfect ages right now and sometimes I wish I could just freeze time altogether for awhile.

We had a wonderful Easter program, with beautiful testimonies of Christ, and the boys were SO good. It couldn't have been better. We're starting to cut the amount of "things" we're bringing to the meetings little by little each week. We're down to zero snacks, a Friend magazine, a few small books for Gabe and a bottle for Will. It's working out great, we're finding out that less is DEFINITELY more as everyone seems to be getting a little more out of the lessons/talks.

We came home and hurried to grab a light lunch and put the littles to bed so we could begin preparing our Easter dinner. We had the Birschbach's over along with Brandon's girlfriend Vanessa and her two sisters. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Ham, cheesy potatoes, two salads, two jello salads, rolls and cake. We played a game called "Boxers or Brief's" which was fun, except that I lost terribly. We had a great time playing and chatting. It was fun to have everyone here. Shar and I missed our mom who was working in Phoenix today, but we have high hopes of being with her next year if things work out like they should. All in all, it was a great day. Tomorrow is supposed to be SIXTY THREE degrees which I am absolutely PSYCHED about. I'm hoping it will be enough to get me through the days at the end of the week that have a "chance of snow" ERGH. I am SO TIRED OF stinking SNOW! Tomorrow is the last day of the boys' spring break so we are lucky that it is going to be so warm! We hope you all had a WONDERFUL Easter Sunday!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a fun day today wearing GREEN!!! I've been so excited for the boys to wear their St. Patrick's Day shirts ever since I bought them a few weeks ago. My older two and sometimes three used to match ALL THE TIME. They were always perfectly coordinated and if they didn't have matching outfits I would at least put them (and sometimes ME!) in coordinating colors. I know, I'm a total nerd. But I LOVED it! Fast forward to 4 boys and now it is a total challenge for them all to match and I think this is actually their first set of identical shirts, I still try to color coordinate them a little but I'm losing my touch...or just REALLY outnumbered, who knows! Plus, Joshua is getting older and seems to be happier with the "cool" shirts like guitars or flames or skateboards than he is with matching his younger brothers. Sigh. Oh well, they LOVED matching today so it was lots of fun. Last Friday Josh was assigned the "show and teach" task where he is in charge of teaching a craft/project to his class. We did the pins that Sam is wearing in the picture. We went and got Sam out of class so he could come and make one too. They had so much fun with them, especially when it came time to pour the glitter on top of the glue. The whole class just LIT UP! It made me realize how much fun kids have with this kind of thing and that I really need to do more of this at home. He has SUCH a sweet class, they all seem to really respect and like each other which I think is kind of rare for 3rd graders.

Since there's no fun in dressing up with nowhere to go, as soon as Daddy came home we loaded up and went to eat at Cafe Rio. YUM! I was quite festive with my green salad (really, it's the ONLY thing I order there) and Mark with his burrito smothered in green sauce. :) The boys loved their free kids quesadillas and we loved that we were on our 10th punch on our card so we got one meal for FREE! Then, as luck would have it, Daddy went the wrong way in the parking lot and we got all turned around and somehow ended up in the McDonald's parking lot which called out for us to get ice cream cones for our FHE treat. I probably gained 5 pounds tonight! GRRRrr. We came home, had a lesson from Daddy about families and the importance of staying together, took pictures and went to bed....well they all went to bed. I'm still up and blogging as you can tell. Anyway, we had a fun day wearing green. I really should study up on this holiday, but all I know is that it has something to do with a guy named St. Patrick and perhaps something about driving out snakes?? I'm not sure how that has anything to do with the color green, leperchauns, pots of gold or four leaf clovers...but hey, at least none of us got pinched today!

This is the first picture we took at home. Daddy had just told them a dumb joke that they thought was HILARIOUS!

ROOMS

I don't think I've posted pictures of the boys' rooms (except Will's) and I want to remember them at this stage forever so I took advantage of a clean house the other day and snapped away.

This is Gabe's room. I actually liked it a little more when it was a nursery because his crib bedding matched so perfectly. I was worried about the day when we moved the crib out and I'd have to find "boys" bedding in pastel colors to match his walls. I thought about this AFTER I'd painted of course... :) This quilt couldn't have been more perfect. I've called him my "little monkey" since the day he was born with all of his jet black hair on his head and down his back so I've always collected ANYTHING and EVERYTHING monkey for him. A friend of mine bought this set from Target for her son's room and the minute I saw it I KNEW it was what I needed for Gabe's. It had the lighter colors of his wall in the quilt, mixed with darker more boyish colors as contrast AND to top it off, was COVERED in monkeys!! The only problem was it was a discontinued Target line and my only source to find it was Ebay. GRRrr. I watched auctions for it for WEEKS, and they always ended WAY over $100 plus $25 or more for shipping which I just didn't want to pay. FINALLY I found one that was "buy it now" at $65 with free shipping AND a free coordinating pillow and light switch cover! I was SOOOOO excited. I also made the three pictures on his shelf which say "beautiful little monkey" in the darker colors to tie in the darker colors of the quilt. I do like the way it turned out a lot, but keep wondering if I should shade the outside edges of the stripes in the darker shades to make it look a little more rugged. ANYWAY....sorry you had to sit through the novel...this is just stuff I want to remember later! :)






This is Josh and Sam's room. It used to be the 4th car garage area, but was finished as an extra room that has been used as a storage room for the last few years. When Mark went on his MBA trip to Paris last May I used the time to pack up EVERYTHING in the storage room (the stuff is actually stuff that belongs to my mom) labeled everything and moved it into the garage, had a yard sale AND painted book shelves. I truly don't remember another time in my life that I've worked so hard for SO LONG. Mark was gone for ten days and I don't think I rested the entire time. I never got more than 4 hours of sleep each night AND I was 6 months pregnant! It was SO exhausting but SO SO SO worth it. I think I was fueled on determination and the fact that I could picture the way I wanted it to look and I was so excited to reach that point. The fact that I was "nesting" probably didn't hurt either. :) Also worth mentioning, the shelves with the blue curtains on either side is their closet. There wasn't a closet in the room so I had to improvise and make one. I love that they have their OWN space and each side has 3 levels of curtain rods so I can organize their summer/winter/church clothes a little more effectively. The shelves in the middle are for organizing the clothes that they will wear during the week. This gets done some weeks and others it doesn't....truthfully MOST weeks it doesn't get done, but at least it's a goal! :) I really couldn't have done it all without the help of my sis and her family. Jeff came by and helped move and secure shelves, Shar and Erika helped pack and move boxes and Elise stayed the ENTIRE day of the yard sale and played with the kids AND cleaned my house! LOVE them!!!

My favorite part of decorating their room was adding the art/computer area. I think I made about 15 trips to Lowes by the time the 10 days were over picking up shelves, and getting the wood for the peg board and the art/homework table. I picked up the totes and trash bin from Ikea which I think is what sparked the idea to make the table. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way it turned out and the boys love it too. They've really been great about keeping it clean and organized and it has been perfect for giving them a quiet place to study when things are going crazy in the house. It really is a good room for them with lots of space to play.

Look who found his feet!!

Will has discovered his little piggy's in the last few weeks and just loves to grab onto them. It's SO STINKIN' CUTE!!!

SIX MONTHS!!!!

HOLY COW! Where have the last 6 months gone? I absolutely cannot believe this wonderful little baby is already half a year old!!!

We went in on 2/27 (sorry, I'm WAY behind on the blogging front) for his 6 month checkup only to find that he had a horrible ear infection. I had mentioned to the Dr. that he'd had a little trouble sleeping the past few days, which I attributed to him cutting two of his top teeth. The Dr. literally gasped when he looked in his ears and said "oh wow, his ear is REALLY infected, it's actually GREEN inside!" POOR BABY!!! I wanted to cry! Gabe ALSO had an ear infection (surprise, surprise) so we left the office with a mild antibiotic for Will (since it was his first time on it) and a kick-butt antibiotic for Gabe (since it was his THIRD time on antibiotics IN A ROW!) We went back last Friday for their ten day checkup and they had both healed perfectly, whew! Their Dr. is so good about checking everyone's ears all at the same time. He's never asked me to make seperate appts. for the other kids and always asks for updates on everyone else on every visit. He's also extremely positive and laid back. We just love Dr. Jackson!

Anyway, we got Will's 6 month stats on 2/27 but had to wait until last Friday for him to get his immunizations.

Here's how he's shaping up!

Weight: 15 pounds 4 oz (10th percentile)

Length: 27 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circ: 44 (50th percentile)

The Dr. says he's "Tall and Skinny" and growing perfectly! We just LOVE this little boy!

No worries...

Well, since Kandis FINALLY posted a comment on my last post I guess it's time for a new update. Hee,hee. :)

A few of you have expressed concern regarding my heart after reading my sisters post about me going in for an echo cardiogram. I just wanted to post and let you know that all is well and normal. It made us nervous for awhile because it was acting so weird - it started skipping beats (A LOT) just before our AZ trip so I went into the ER where they gave me an EKG and monitored me for awhile before sending me home with instructions to get a Holter (sp?) 24 hour heart monitor the next day. The weirdest thing for me was lying on the hospital bed and watching my heart beat, beat and then flatline, beat, beat, flatline....EERY! Anyway, I wore the monitor and when we got the results back the Dr. said there were about 2200 premature (skipped) heartbeats during the 24 hour period. He said sometimes this is a cause for concern and sometimes it is completely normal and just the way our heart or other muscles in our body act sometimes (like when your leg decides to twitch off and on out of the blue, etc.) He wanted me to get an Echo Cardiogram just to rule out a virus that might have settled in my heart which could have caused permanent damage. Lucky for me, it came back completely normal! The skipping has almost completely subsided also. It was pretty constant for a solid 3 weeks, but now only happens once or twice a week. SO, no worries - but thank you so much for your concern!! It looks like I'm going to stick around for awhile longer! :)