Proud

Last week was one of those weeks that my cup ran over with pride for our oldest son. I was amazed at how much he grew up in a span of 7 days. How kind he was, how thoughtful, how well behaved, how much fun he had, how much he learned and soaked in and how willing he was to teach. I was most proud of how brave he was.

He loved Safety Town and learning how to follow the "laws", be safe and have fun!

He went from being scared of sleeping on the top bunk of the boys' new bunk beds, to one night climbing up top, Lovie, kitty and soft pillow in hand and informing me that he was now going to sleep on the bunk. Fear gone, goodbye, see ya later!

He loves to swim but has always been fearful of jumping in, even if someone is going to catch him. His feet never really leave the side of the pool until his body is submersed in the water. Yet, at Grandpa Brian and Grandma Pam's house he, ALL on his own, decided it was high time to jump in the pool, the deep end none the less. He did it over and over again and told me how with each jump he felt his body diving deeper in the water. He LOVED it!!

I am just so proud of him and all that he is learning. He is really facing some big fears, diving right into them and conquering them!! He is such a great kid, and I just love him so much!!

Safety Town

Charlie graduating from Safety Town

(pictures that Charlie wanted me to take)

Charlie is at Safety Town this week. The house seems empty without him. Thomas really misses him and literally asks for him every half hour or so. He also refuses to play in Charlie's room without him. He calls out for Charlie to "help Arlie" when he is trying to put together his Geotrax train set...but Charlie isn't here. And you should see the big hugs and kisses that Charlie gives Tommy when we go to pick him up! They might throw each other down on the ground in a wrestling fit (ever hour!) but they truly are the best of of friends!

Charlie really enjoyed safety town. They set up a little city in the parking lot and let the kids ride tricycles around on the "street". They have traffic lights and signs and teach the kids how to ride their bikes safely, not take candy from strangers, not to eat cleaning supplies and medicine etc. They had a box that was decorated like a clown and the kids got to choose what to the feed the clown, healthy food, candy, medicine, soap etc. Charlie thought it was hilarious when he fed the clown soap and medicine and the clown (box) threw up...at least he is having fun!

There are also several kids from his Tball team and a little boy he took swimming lessons with at the camp. But Charlie is the kind of kid that makes friends with all the kids or has just as much fun playing independently. He is also one of those kids that people remember, I am hoping it is because of his wonderful good manners and brilliant blue eyes or perhaps his mature sharing skills ;) He is really a good kid, a five year old boy, but none the less, a very good little boy!

Charlie teaching Tommy the "Stop, Look and Listen" song

The end to a great week!

Charlie LOVED Safety Town and wants to go every week!!

Father's Day Part I

Trent and his Dad

This year my honey gets to celebrate Father's Day 2 times, but we celebrate how great he is EVERYDAY!! Honestly, the boys are beyond blessed with the Daddy that God choose for them!! And I am SO grateful that I get to witness our boys being loved on, taught by and played with one of the BEST examples of a loving, thoughtful, sensitive, honest, loyal, and motivated man that I have EVER met. Perhaps I am little bias, but sweet heart, you are the BEST in our eyes!!!

We had the privilege of spending the weekend with Trent's Dad, Stepmom and his sister. Words can not even explain how special this was for all of us!! It was wonderful to be with them and watch them with the boys and with Trent and we can't wait to see them again! They were beyond gracious hosts to us and we only wished our visit could of been longer!!

Brian and Pam have a beautiful home and even prettier gardens! The boys loved running through the grounds looking for frogs in the waterfall, helping Grandpa Brian clean the pool and water the flowers.



The fellas had a blast splashing around in Grandpa Brian and Grandma Pam's pool. Charlie even jumped into the deep end all by himself and without any coaching! He was SO brave!
And Thomas LOVED laying on the rafts and being carried around by Daddy.

Daddy had fun on the donut raft
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Trent commented on how beautiful Chelsea was, and she is! She is such a sweet and smart young women and our hearts just melted watching her play Legos with Charlie or read to the boys. Charlie said on the way to NY that Aunt Chelsea was going to be his favorite. He really loved everyone, but I think Aunt Chelsea has Charlie wrapped around her little finger!!

Tommy watching a show and having a snack with Grandpa Brian.

Charlie with Grandma Pam

The Guys

The family

I know that Trent had a great Father's Day and I hope his Dad did too!
Next week we are off to celebrate with one of my favorite Dads...my Daddy!
Happy Father's Day to ALL the great Dad's!

And it is a................................

GIRL!!!

I can hardly believe it! The technician said that in 20+ years she has only been wrong once or twice...believe me, I asked!

Her little hand clenched in a fist.

She even has Daddy's big toe!! Just like the rest of our babies :)

That is right folks, we are going to be adding a sweet little girl to our family!!

I am truly still in shock, 48 hours after seeing our baby for the first time and discovering that the baby is a girl. I really thought it was another boy and thrilled with that idea!! We even had a boys name picked out, I had dreams about a little boy etc. I hadn't even entertained the idea of a little girl!

Trent on the other hand said he was not surprised at all, he thought it was a girl all along. He added that when the technician couldn't "see" the baby parts right off the bat that it was just confirmation to him that it was a girl. With the boys there was NO guessing what they were!!!

We are beyond thrilled and are so excited to meet our sweet little girl right around Halloween!! Daddy has even picked out her name and I just love it!! But it will be a "secret" up until the very end. Trent has really been cute, I think this little girl is already starting to wrap herself around his little finger.

I was a tad worried about what Charlie's reaction would be since he did not respond well to the idea that our good friends just had a little girl after having 2 boys. When I even mentioned that our baby might be a girl he said that if it was then he was going to throw her in the garbage. ?!?!?! I have NO idea where he would get an idea like that but we had a nice little talk about how every baby is a blessing from God and that we need to love and take care of the baby because that is what Jesus would want us to do. He then said it would be ok if the baby was a girl as long as he could teach her how to play trains. :)

I needn't have worried because as soon as I told him that he was having a sister he started jumping up and down, had a huge smile from ear to ear and was yelling "yeah, we are having a baby sister!!!". He is truly a sweet child and everyday since our big news, he has told me how happy he is to be having a sister. He is even planning already all the "girl" toys he can buy for her, a small table and chair set with a tea set is already on the list. You know, so they can have tea parties together.

And Thomas, well I am not sure how much he gets the fact that there is actually a baby growing in my tummy, let alone a girl baby. When we told him, he said "NO, a Mimi guy in Mama's tummy". (Mimi guy is a fireman) So, I told him a Mimi girl was in there. Too funny!! Tommy is all about listening to the baby's heart beat though on my fetal monitor (yep, I broke down and bought one and it has been the BEST $60 I have spent!). He brings me the monitor almost daily and asks to hear the "bum bum, bum bum". He thinks it is a telephone and will talk into the monitor to the baby and then asks why the baby doesn't say "hi" back. Love him!

My reaction, like I said, shock but pure bliss! I am just beyond grateful that this baby is healthy and growing strong! We are really blessed!

(if you click on the pictures I think it will enlarge them)

The week of treasure

The boys and I had a fun week last week. Daddy was away all week on a business trip and so I planned a few special activities to get us through :) We have taken some time off of our rigorous school schedule to do more free play, adventures, organizing the house/school materials and just plan relaxing. Mama has little energy these days but on the days I do I try to pack in a lot of fun stuff for my fellas.

A few months back I had purchased some fun pirate "stuff" in the dollar section of the art store. I didn't want to focus on pirates, I am not much into the whole cranky old guy waving a sword around, but rather on what our "treasure" is or should be...with a hint of cranky old guy NOT waving a sword around :)


I started by reading one afternoon during lunch, Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I told the boys that the real treasures are our love and relationship with Jesus Christ. That His Word is a great treasure and teaches us how to live our lives so that they are pleasing to him. We had a lot of discussion about things that are important to us but that ultimately it is our faith and love in Jesus that is the biggest treasure of all. We also read a story about a man who sold everything he had to purchase a piece of land where he knew there was buried treasure, in our children's book. Charlie has a new love of reading his Bible and told me the other day we should read it everyday. I am so glad he is more enthusiastic about reading it, we had been reading it almost daily and he grew tired of it, so we put it up for a few weeks and did other biblical based activities.

We made treasure maps. This is Charlie's

We decorated our treasure boxes and the boys had free creative reign over their designs. They had so much fun and I really enjoyed watching them and helping them glue their "jewels" on their boxes
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We made our own edible jewels out of marshmellows, a thin frosting of powder sugar and water, and of course jewel like sprinkles. The kids LOVES these and they are so simple and easy to make!!

Charlie made a pirate ship out of legos and other blocks. He is really into building and LOVES his legos.


Charlie made a real pirate ship out back using the red wagon, a large tree branch and a milk crate. I loaned him a table cloth for the sail and he and Tommy were off and sailing.
And what treasure week wouldn't be complete without a treasure hunt!? I made up a treasure map and hid picture clues around the house and outside. They had so much fun running from place to place looking for their treasure boxes. They found them in the backyard under the slide. I had put little golden chocolate chicks (leftover from Easter) in them.


Charlie wore his pirate hat and gave Tommy and S. red bandannas to wear, you know because they were his mateys.

We also did some other fun learning activities, sensory bin with ocean theme.
Tommy played with Mr. Potato a lot and playdough was also a big hit. Charlie worked on his phonics and math workbooks as well. Thomas wrote his name for the first time. He has been able to write the T and the O for a long time but just recently got the hang of writing the M. He was really proud of himself, and so were we!!!
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It was a great week and Charlie told me that he wished he could have a treasure hunt everyday!

Day Out with Thomas

We made our annual trip out to Peninsula to see our beloved Thomas the Tank Engine!! We didn't ride again this year. The boys seemed OK with that, but I am thinking that next year we will have to bite the bullet and ride.

But we did our usual tour of all the fun activity tents, picture with Thomas and of course, we got our tattoos.

It was rainy and kind of gross out and I was feeling a tad under the weather. I wished we could of done more, but it was a quick, fun trip.


Our favorite is to drive down to the crossings, eat lunch, put pennies on the track and watch the train come back and forth. You get really close to the train and the boys love it!
Tommy was heartbroken that Thomas flattened our pennies. And he LOVES to look at these pictures and says "Me crywin" and then pretends to do a silly fake cry...too funny! Charlie loved the flat pennies....go figure!

Baby

Me on Monday, May 31 at 17weeks and 3days
(but who is counting?!)

Baby is doing good! We went a few weeks ago and everything seemed to be status quo, which is a huge relief! I was pretty sick in the beginning, almost daily and didn't want to eat anything. And of course all that did sound good to me was junk, so typical of my pregnancies! But I am feeling better and can now actually stomach good food again!! I am feeling really good, but my body is just tired. I am sleeping well, but I have very low energy and have to stop and take many breaks throughout the day. Which is a challenge since I am running after the boys and they keep me moving! :)

We go in 10 days (again, who is counting?!!!) to find out the sex of this wee person! And I am beyond excited!!!! I am thinking boy, and honestly, I would LOVE to have another boy!! Yes, the energy level in our house is already high and another boy would probably send it through the roof, but bring it on!!

Even though, the idea of having a mother, daughter relationship would also be nice. I figure though, that if we don't have a daughter then we can a good loving relationship with our daughters in law.

Either way, we are just praying for a healthy baby.

I am definitely feeling the baby move and have been for several weeks. It is amazing how my body just falls right back into being pregnant. I started showing much earlier this time and could feel movement much earlier then in any of the other pregnancies. I also lost my chin much earlier then normal too :( Honestly though, I am super excited about the idea of actually getting my pre-baby body back...or at least somewhat close to it!!! But it is ALL worth it!!

T-ball

Charlie started T-ball this Spring. We weren't sure if he would enjoy it but thought it was a good chance for him to be exposed to something new and have fun with other kids his age.

Charlie running HOME!!!!

Charlie on 3rd base. The poor thing can barely see from underneath the helmet!

Batter UP!! And he HIT the ball!!!

The first game went pretty well. He enjoyed running, goofing off with the other boys, batting, looking for rocks in the out field :), and going for ice cream afterward. Oh, and he is SUPER excited about his uniform...any guesses why??? Orange only happens to be his favorite color and he lucked out by being on the orange team!!