8 Months!!

Where has the time gone???   It seems like just a few days ago we were bringing home our biggest baby yet - Caleb was a whopping 8 lbs. and 5 ozs. compared to his next oldest brother at 5 lbs. and 2 ozs.!!  You can imagine we were quite surprised to have such a butterball.

But now, 8 months later, we have a bouncing happy baby boy.  Caleb is crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything and cruising up and down the couch.  He is so proud of his accomplishments and loves it when Drew and I notice what he is doing.  Sometimes, he even claps for himself and forgots to hold on to the couch and falls on his little bottom!  :)

Caleb really gave Drew a surprise yesterday and said "da-da" for the first time.  Since then, he has been saying it over and over.  Now, I'm trying to encourage Caleb to say it in the middle of the night when he wakes up!  :)  He's also trying to say something like "ah-duh" for all done.  

In the teeth department, Caleb is a little behind his brothers' records.  He now has 3 teeth - two on the bottom and his top left tooth in the front.  He is vigorously chewing and drooling to try to work the top right tooth through.  

Because of his dairy protein and soy allergies, we have to be a little creative in the food department.  Caleb pretty much enjoys all of the foods he has tried with some of his favorites being mango, peaches, pears, applesauce, sweet potatoes and squash.  He also eats bananas, plums, apricots, white potatoes, pumpkin, green beans, broccoli, rice, cheerios and crackers.  I have to be very diligent in reading labels - have you ever looked to see how many foods have milk or soy products in them???!!  I have been reading online in the evenings to find alternative options for food products that we can use.  It's mind-boggling, but I am trying to make sense of what foods will be the best for our little bug in the next few months.

Happy 8 months, Caleb!!

Mommy

Bountiful Blessings

I know this is the Christmas season, and Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago, but we have had some wonderful blessings in the last week that I thought I would share.

Some of you know that Drew was laid off in April of this year.  Since then, he has had some side work, but nothing steady.  The construction industry around our area has all but come to a grinding halt.  We were hopeful that he would get a position with a commercial construction company before the end of the year, but the company has postponed making a decision about offering the position until sometime in January.  So, we were kind of bummed about that, but we are continuing to trust in God's timing to provide for our needs.

Last week, one of the pastors from our church called and said a few people at church wanted to do some things for the kids for Christmas.  So, I gave him a few ideas and thought maybe each of the kids would get a couple of things.  When we arrived at church Sunday morning, he said that there were some items in his office that we needed to take home with us.  We were absolutely overwhelmed!  Each boy has several packages to open in addition to a large gift bag for each boy containing clothing items (and much needed dress shoes for church!!) that they needed!  As if all of that was not enough, there was an envelope simply labeled "Merry Christmas."  Curious to see what was inside (and if anyone had signed the card!), I opened the card and found not one, but two $100 gift cards to Walmart.  The thing is, we needed groceries (okay, we really needed groceries!) and I had no idea how I was going to pay for them until we were given those gift cards.  Also - hang on for this one! - the battery on my van died, completely died, Monday morning.  Drew was able to jump the van off for me to drive it to Walmart to have the battery replaced, again using the gift cards.  And as a quick side note, they had one battery left that fit in my van.  Call that coincidence?  Neither do we!!

And if all of that was not enough, there's more!!  Thursday was Zachary's last day at school before Christmas vacation, and Friday was Justin's.  Both boys' school bills were two months behind, and the schools have been wonderful in working things out with us.  But, they both wanted one payment before Christmas vacation started and the entire bills caught up before the end of Christmas break.  We had absolutely no idea how the bills were going to be paid, and we had actually been praying about whether I should homeschool the boys beginning in January.  Then, Thursday morning when I was at the boys' Christmas parties (and Drew was home sick), I got a phone call from Drew.  A good friend from church stopped by with a gift from our Sunday school class.  They apparently collected some money, and it came to almost $2000!!!!!  We were able to pay the school bills in full and also pay some other bills.

We are so grateful and thankful for our friends who extended themselves to help us this year.  Drew and I are continuing to trust the Lord that He will provide for our needs in His timing.  May each of you find God's blessings in this Christmas season!

Nancy

Sneak Peek

A couple of Saturdays ago, Drew and I decided to take some Christmas pictures of the boys.  These are a few of my very favorites.....Enjoy!!

Zachary is growing up so fast I can hardly believe it!  He had to be the cool, calm unruffled sure-I'll-sit-here-if-you-want-me-to-and-show-the-others-how-it's-done one of the bunch. :)

Justin is such a sweet boy.  He loves to have his picture taken and is more than willing to pose frequently!

Melt my heart....need I say more?

I know he's not smiling, but this is absolutely the most adorable, just-have-to-pinch-his-cheeks picture I have taken of Caleb!

Can you believe we got all four of them to actually sit still, look in the same direction and all of their eyes were open at the same time???  Oh, and they actually are all smiling, too!

Pickles and Chocolate

You know, the funny thing about pregnancy is that you never know what sounds good until you are actually eating.  Or, at least it's that way with me.  I absolutely LOVE pickles...any size, shape or flavor.  When I was pregnant with Caleb, I probably consumed more pickles in 9 months than the rest of my family put together eats in an entire year.  Guess what?  I cannot even stomach the smell of pickles right now!  Justin has been enjoying bread and butter pickles on his cheese sandwiches for lunches the last few days, and it is all I can do to open the jar and toss a couple of pickles on the sandwich before I feel like I am about to be sick.  I am so sad that I am not enjoying pickles right now.  :(  But chocolate?  Ahhhhh, the love of my life....... :)  At least I can still enjoy chocolate!

Nancy

Teeth

Zachary is thrilled to be able to say that he lost his 8th tooth at lunch today!  Unfortunately, he really did lose the tooth somewhere in the cafeteria.  He was a bit worried that the tooth fairy might not give him a fair exchange, but his teacher and I reassured him that it would still be okay.  Now I have to remember to prompt the tooth fairy........

Caleb, on the other hand, is still working on his teeth.  He has been somewhat crabby off and on the last couple of days, and he is chewing and drooling like a, well, like a baby!  The next ones to come in are his top front teeth, and his poor gums are so swollen.  Maybe by this weekend he will get some relief!

This tired Mama is heading to bed....y'all have a great night!

Nancy

Catch-Up

Okay, so it's been a while since I last posted.  A thousand pardons......but there has been a lot going on lately!

To start with, Zachary had a red letter day at school today!  His day started off with a smiley face this morning for doing his papers correctly last Tuesday.  Yeah for Zac!!  But the very exciting thing is that he was moved up to the red reading group (the middle group)!!!!  We are so proud of Zachary working hard on his reading and showing so much improvement since the beginning of the year.  Here's Zachary's quote for the day (said while he, Justin and Aaron were cleaning up their balls in the living room), "Justin, don't pick up the balls you can see; pick up the balls that you can't see!!"

Justin also had quite a start to his day.  We were the second car in car line this morning, and as the car in front of us exited the line, I started to move slowly forward.  Well, Justin caught sight of Sara Kate and opened the car door to jump out while the car was moving!!!!!  I snagged the back of his jacket as I hit the brakes and we managed to avert any potential disaster.  Needless to say, I think he missed Sara Kate over Thanksgiving break!  He said they had a fun day at school and played together at play time.

Aaron has been his cute little self today.  In fact, I told him this evening that if he got any cuter I'd have to send him back.  He told me "You don't send me back.  I Aaron; I stay here."  :)  According to Aaron, our dinner was "some getti" (anyone want to guess?), and he ate lots of it!  Aaron also spread his pants out on the floor to put them on and told me "It's [the pants] like a swimming pool!"  When I asked him why, he replied "You just dive in!"  Too much!

Caleb has been crawling and exploring all over the house.  Unlike the other boys, he seems to like having something in his mouth constantly.  He spent the better part of the evening crawling around the kitchen with a washcloth hanging from his mouth.  He was perfectly happy - snorting and giggling.  Other objects that he enjoys carrying in his mouth are his small stuffed squeaky frog and pieces of plastic food from the play kitchen.  It is really cute to watch; I guess when we took the pacifier away, he came up with his own versions!

And for the last piece of news, for those of you who may not know, we are excited to announce that we are expecting Baby #5 in July!  It will be a while before we find out this baby's gender (or in other words, confirm that he is a boy! :), but we are eagerly anticipating this little one's arrival.  It will add a very new dimension to our household since Caleb and Baby will be only 15 months apart.  We were VERY surprised since we were not even thinking about thinking about trying to get pregnant, and in fact were trying NOT to get pregnant, so this one truly is God's timing!  We'll keep you posted on how things are going for Mommy and Baby!  :)

Nancy

Give Aways

A couple of my  blogger friends have gotten into the holiday spirit with contests for free stuff on their blogs.  Brittany is giving away a One Step Ahead Tummy Time Safari Mat for babies.  It is super cute and would be a great addition to our baby collection!  If you know of anyone who would be interested, just hop on over to her blog and leave a comment under this post here to enter the contest.  It would be perfect for a Christmas or shower gift, or to keep for yourself!

And MckMama is giving away Canon Digital Rebel XSi prize package!  This is a camera that I would love to get my hands on, one way or another!  :)  Plus, all donations made (suggested donation is $10/raffle ticket) benefit 3 charities that are super special.  String of Pearls is an organization to help parents deal with a fatal diagnosis for their child before or shortly after birth.  The other two organizations, No Hands But Ours and The Ellison Project support and assist in adoptions of special needs children from China.  So, if you are interested in a way-super-cool camera (with lots of extras) as well as benefiting some great charities, check out this post by MckMama here.  Or, click on the Canon Rebel icon on the right side bar of my blog to enter.

Nancy

Fryday Contest

One of my favorite blogs to read in all of blog-land is My Charming Kids by MckMama.  She is now the proud mother of 4 small children, known in blog-land as Big Mac, MckNugget, Small Fry and MckMuffin.  The youngest, MckMuffin, was given no chance to live in utero, but is now alive and thriving!  Anyway, MckMama is having a contest to give away a free custom-designed blog header and some cool camera stuff.  All I have to do is link back to her blog!  :)  So here you go, MckMama!  Love your blog!!!

Aaron's Field Trip

Well, after much hard work trying to get this video clip downloaded from our camera (without losing it!), I have it on my computer, but can't get it to post!  I'll have to ask Drew to help me figure it out (when he's not sleeping!).  The original field trip conversation started a week ago Thursday (Nov. 6), and Aaron is STILL talking about his field trip today.  That evening during dinner, he started talking about going on a field trip in an airplane.  He had no destination, but plenty of ideas about what we could bring and what we will do.  In case you are wondering, he still hasn't come up with a destination, but we are going on a field trip! 

The following is an excerpt from the field trip conversation that I wasn't able to record on video:

Drew: Can we ride kangaroos?

Aaron: No....they live in the animal spot.

D: Why not?

A:  They live in the ark.

D:  We don't have tickets for the ark.

D:  My elephant wets the bed at night.

A:  We can bring diapers.

Justin:  Did you remember to bring wipes?

A:  Yeah, for my monkey.

D:  What about for my elephant?

A:  No, just for my monkey.  But....um.....ummm....ummmmmm.....the kitchen  can't fit in our airplane.

D:  What about a smaller kitchen?
A:  Yeah.

D:  Can we have a campfire on the airplane?

A:  No.  Just a little tiny kitchen on the airplane (holding thumb and finger very close together).  We might take your pillow away.

D:  Why?

A:  I will not take your pillow away.  I will take Mom's pillow away.  "Mom, I gonna steal your pillow!" (much laughing and giggling)

D:  Can I bring my swimmies?

A:  Yeah.  We might go saw bears.  WE MIGHT SHOOT SOME BEARS.  THEY MIGHT CRAWL ON US AND BITE US!!! (said in very loud excited voice!)  But we might go hunting.

J:  Do bears live in the woods?

A.  No.  Up in the mountain.

Zachary:  Are we going hiking?

A:  No.  We might take the TV with us.

A:  We might take the windows with us.

D:  We're taking the windows with us?

A:  Yep!  And we might take doors.  Ummmmm....we might go to a nicnic (picnic) at the park on our field trip.

D:  Can I bring my ants?

A:  No.  They might eat all our chocolate.  Then we might buy some more.

And all of that conversation was about 5 minutes of a 45+ minute discussion about Aaron's field trip.  Trust me, it was all that good!  :)

The other really cute thing Aaron has been doing lately is wanting Drew or me to throw him over our shoulder like a "tock a taters."  (sack 'o taters)

I really couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!  You should all have a 2-almost-3-year old!  But, you'll have to get your own!  This one is ours!!! :)

Nancy

New look!

In honor of fall, I decided to change my background!  What do you think?  It's different from my previous one, but I like it lot!  

Tomorrow (Saturday) we are planning to do some chores, finish the laundry and maybe bake some cookies.  For now, I am really tired and ready for bed....

Nancy

We voted!

Well, Drew and I voted today...we each had to wait a little over an hour in line, but it was a beautiful day, so the wait was not bad.  The church where we vote has a small playground where Justin and Aaron were able to play for about 30 minutes while I stood in line with Caleb and watched them.

In other news, I made fresh green beans for dinner (as opposed to frozen).  Aaron especially was so fascinated watching me clean and cut them.  He eagerly put a large forkful of beans in his mouth and said a big "Mmmmm....mmmmmm.....uh.....dem berry ucky!"  I wish I had captured the facial expressions to go with the words!

And the other BIG news of the day, Caleb has his second tooth!  The bottom left tooth in the front finally broke through today.  Poor guy has had a stuffy, runny nose for over a week, a bad cough in the last couple of day and has just been miserable.  We elevated his mattress and purchased a warm mist humidifier to use with Vick's vapor medication yesterday.  The combination has really helped him sleep better.  I put him down for a nap at 4:00 this afternoon and he is still asleep now (at almost 10:00).  I'm just letting him sleep it off! :)  He hasn't exactly had very restful naps and bed times the last few days.

Zachary had a great day at school today.  He got a smiley face this morning for having all smiley faces on his seatwork on Friday.  That got his day off to a good start!  :)  He is so excited about reading.  He is speeding through all the library books that we bring home and is working his way through the bookshelves of books that we own.  Zac read finished reading his first short chapter book this afternoon and was so proud of himself!

Justin and Aaron had fun playing with play dough this morning.  I typically like to reserve it for an outdoor activity, but today was fairly cool (at least this morning), so I let them play at the kitchen table.  All in all, they did pretty well.  Justin made cookies and a teddy bear, and Aaron made "ars cream" (ice cream).  They had lots of fun!

Time to run.....little man has finally woken up and is very decidedly hungry!

Nancy

Not Me! Monday

Each week on Monday, we are allowed to be brutally honest and live to tell about it!  It's called Not Me! Monday and the original post can be found on MckMama's website here.

I did not arrive at home from picking Zachary up from school (with Aaron and Caleb riding along with me) and pull into the driveway and sit in the van for 2 or 3 minutes explaining to Zachary and Aaron that Justin had gone to work with Daddy for the afternoon and therefore would not be home to play.  I further did not get the little guys out of the van and into the house and come back to the van for more things before realizing that Drew's truck was parked in the driveway the whole time!!!  I had pulled in right next to the truck, stared at it through my whole "It was Justin's turn to go work with Daddy - you will have a turn another day" speech, and never realized that they were in fact back already.  Wow!  I'm so glad I did not do something like that!  I mean, if I had, where would my brain have been???

I have not wondered for the last two days why Caleb was getting unusually fussy around 6:00 pm or so.  I then realized tonight that his "clock" is still running on Daylight Savings Time.  He was ready for bed!!  :)

I am not currently so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open to finish this post......Goodnight ya'll!

Nancy

Dressed Up!

Even though we don't go Trick or Treating, the kids enjoy dressing up and passing out candy to those who come to our house.  We had several groups come, and the kids all had a great time.  They were so excited about passing candy that they didn't even let the kids get to the door.  They opened the door and ran down the sidewalk to meet them.  :)

Zachary loves Georgia Tech football!  Way to go, Jackets!!!!!!  

(Can't imagine where he gets that from!)

Ever the outdoorsman, Justin decided to be a cowboy.

All he needed was a horse!  :)

And Aaron.....

Aaron wanted to be a servant.  Yes, you read that correctly...a servant.

Apparently, he has been listening very well in Sunday School and church

and knows that Jesus was a servant, so that's what he wanted.  

Wow, what a kid!

And here's the whole gang.  Aren't they cute?!!!!

Nancy

Bath Time Fun!

For the last year or so, the only person in our house taking baths has been Caleb.....until this week!  We had to ban baths in favor of showers when there was more floor (and walls!) getting wet than boys.  But, Justin was given a set of Thomas the Tank Engine bath toys for his birthday, and this is the result.....

Three silly monkeys having fun in the bath tub!

One very unhappy monkey in the bath tub with his brothers.  Contrary to what it may appear, this very unhappy face occured only when I pointed the camera in Caleb's direction.  Once the camera disappeared, so did the very unhappy face and out came the laughs, smiles and splashes.  It was very funny!  I wish I could have gotten some video of it.  :)

All in all, the kiddos had a great time in the tub and I was able to clean their bathroom!  :)

Justin Pictures

These are some pictures of Justin from the last couple of weeks.....

Justin and Sara Kate at their field trip to the Max and Ruby play.

The mighty hunters are ready to go (at 6:00 a.m.!!!!!).

Justin is checking out the scenery and watching the turkeys.

Ready just in case Daddy sees something!

Randomness

I have been working at trying to record some of the cute stuff the boys have said in the last couple of days.  Aaron, in particular, has kept us rolling with some of his stories.  I'm sure I will be posting more of these cute stories and pronunciations in the next few weeks....

Zachary-isms:

tench ta pur: temperature

ter moniter: thermometer

bungled: bundled as in "I'm all bungled up in my blankets!"

Justin:

Justin is just being his cute self as usual.  He is really enjoying playing board games, and he and Drew played six or seven games of Chutes and Ladders earlier today.  It was so funny - when he had to go down the slide, he would put his hand over the bottom of the slide so Drew couldn't slide his piece to the bottom.  Then he would laugh hysterically.  It was so fun to watch.  :)

Justin also went on his first hunting trip with Daddy on Saturday.  They didn't see anything, but they had a great time.  Drew said Justin spent the entire time chattering about things in the woods, hunting, and all kinds of stuff.  While they didn't see any deer, they did listen to and watch a flock of wild turkeys for about an hour.  According to Justin, a turkey says "goggle, goggle!" 

Aaron:

Monday, Aaron was playing with an empty rubbermaid crate in the living room.  You know, the long, shallow under-the-bed kind.  It usually holds the kids' Thomas the Tank collection, but that was all over the living room floor, so the box was empty.  He was crawling with the box upside down hooked over the heels of his feet so it was dragging behind him.  As I was cleaning, I tuned in to his somewhat constant chatter and heard the following.

"I crawling on the floor with the box, mommy!" {Insert distressed sounding voice}  "Mommy, the box is following me behind my back!!!!"

Tuesday, on our way home from Zachary's open house, Aaron was in his car seat playing with a Little People car and a Little People girl.  The girl was contendedly getting in and out of the car and driving around Aaron's car seat.  Then, I hear a small "Uh oh" from the back seat.  The conversation proceeded as follows: {caution:  the following excerpt contains potty-training talk - not for the faint of heart}

Me:  "Um....uh oh what, Aaron?"

Aaron:  "Sher (Aaron's word for she/her) has stinky feet."

Me:  "Okaaayyy...why does she have stinky feet?"

Aaron:  "Because sher has stinky pants.  Ewww..sher has stinkys in there." (Looking at the bottom of the Little People girl)

Me:  "Does she need her pants changed?"

Aaron:  "It won't come out."

Me:  "What won't come out?"

Aaron - very matter of fact: "The stinkys won't come out of her."

Me: (thinking "what in the world do I say in response to that????)

Aaron - very vigorously shaking the Little People girl up and down:  "Mommy!!!! It's coming out!"

Me: "Um....what's out?" (cringing)

Aaron:  "The stinkys all comed out.  Whew!  Sher is all clean now, Mommy."

Where do they come up with this stuff??? :)

Sara Cake: Sara Kate (Justin's best friend)

Fwumbers: Slumbers (Aaron's stuffed bear)

ars cream:  ice cream

fwippers: slippers as in "I have my fwippers on my feet!"

Hope you enjoyed the funnies!! :)

AWOL

I am just writing to let you know that I really have not gone AWOL!  This has been such a busy week, and it is only Tuesday!!

Zachary's class had their open house today (where all the parents could come to school for the day and "shadow" their student.).  It was  a very busy day, but we enjoyed it.  Zachary, of course, loved showing off his classroom and what he does.  I will do my best to post some pictures in the next day or two.

Caleb is fighting another runny/stuffy nose, but I think it is directly related to teething.  His bottom right tooth is on the verge of coming through, although he will be a day or so late in tradition!  He is officially 6 months old (as of 6:28 pm today), so his first tooth will come at 6 months, not at 5 months like his three brothers.  He's showing us all that he will be a different person than his brothers! :)

Justin is counting down the days (and would be counting hours if he knew how!) until his first field trip EVER on Friday.  He is so excited!  He had a great day at school today - music class and chapel in one day.  In music class, they have started practicing their songs for the Christmas program already.  He said that Mrs. Riley told them they had to practice now so they could sing them by Christmas! :)

Aaron is being silly Aaron.  He had lots of fun this morning at Zac's Open House.   He made friends with several of the moms from the class, and he was a very good helper when we set up the refreshments and cleaned up at the end of the day.

I'm falling asleep at the computer, so I'm taking that as a sign that I should go to bed.  Pictures will be coming in the next couple of days.....

Nancy

Not Me! Monday

Well, I thought I was doing pretty well this week as far as "not" doing anything to crazy - until....

I did not lock my keys in my van while grocery shopping Saturday morning!  It only took about 20 minutes for my husband (and 3 kids!) came to bail me out! :)

I did not make four DOZEN sheep cookies (!) for Zachary's class on Sunday afternoon.  Bleat, bleat, bleat......

I currently do not have more laundry than couch space in my living room right this very minute.....

And, I am not sitting on the small space of couch left blogging while ignoring said laundry! :)

Y'all have a great week!

By the way, you can check MckMama's website here for more Not me! Mondays.

Tagged!

I was tagged by Brittany!

“7 Things About Me” … i.e. blogging about 7 things you may not know about me.

The rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 7 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post.
4. Pass on the tag.

1.  I have moved 10 times and lived in 4 states - IN, TN, GA, and SC.

2.  When I was younger, I used to tell people that I wanted 12 children.  Still sounds kind of fun! :)

3.  I have more projects on my to-do list than I will have time for in the next five years!

4.  I love to sew, crochet, cross-stitch and scrapbook when I have the time (which is not very often!).

5.  I rarely paint my toenails....my husband thinks it's disgusting! :)

6.  My favorite author is Karen Kingsbury, followed closely by Beverly Lewis.

7.  I absolutely LOVE fall....which means Christmas is right around the corner!

Now, I tag anyone else who wants to play....just post a link in the comments to your blog, and I'll read your list!

Nancy

Not Me! Monday

Yippee!!  It's time for Not Me! Monday again!  As always, you can read the original Not Me! Monday post on MckMama's website here.

I did not vacuum the house for twenty minutes in hopes that Caleb would finally give in and go to sleep without his pacifier.  It didn't work, but at least my house got vacuumed! :)

I most certainly did not wait until my MSC (Many Small Children) were safely sleeping in their beds to sneak over to my neighbor's house while she was out to dinner to see what kind of landscaping she has paid to put in on the opposite side of her house.  And, while I was sneaking through her backyard with just a keychain flashlight, her motion sensor lights absolutely did not come on lighting up her backyard for the rest of the neighborhood to see!  And knowing said lights came on (obviously!), I did not keep on sneaking around to the other side of the house to look at her landscaping!  I mean, if I did things like that, which obviously I *don't*, what kind of neighbor would I be??? ;)

I did not lose Caleb under a pile of clean laundry in my living room when he rolled over into the laundry basket and pulled clothes down!  No way!!  Who has that much clean laundry piled up and not folded???

Glad not much happened at my house this week!  Y'all have a good week!

Nancy

Saturday of Fun!

Well, we definitely had some fun today!  The kids were up playing this morning before we left to go to Sky Top Orchards to pick some more yummy apples.  They have fun playing with their GeoTrax.

While his brothers were busy playing, Caleb was on the floor being absolutely cuter than any baby should be.  These are a couple of the cutest pictures.  Look at how cute he is!!!!

No pictures, please.  :)

After a fun, but chilly morning and picnic lunch at Sky Top, we came home with loads of apples!  We picked Granny Smith, MacIntosh and my personal favorite, Cameo!!  After we got home, Drew left with Derek to hunt for the afternoon (They saw a small buck, but they're going to let him get bigger for next year! :)  So, while the cat's away, the mice will play!

First, we made pizza for supper.  The kids had a great time putting sauce, ham and cheese on the pizza.  It was yummy!

Then, we cut open some of our Granny Smith apples to see the star inside.  After we took the seeds out (The kids want to plant them.), I cored the apple halves and filled them with peanut butter.  Yummy dessert!!!

So after pizza and apples, we decided to cut open our pumpkin so I could cook it.  Zachary decided that he wasn't having anything to do with the slimy pumpkin at first.  By the end, he was scooping seeds out with a spoon.  The pumpkin is cooked, the seeds are washed, and in the next couple of days hopefully we will get them roasted.

Zachary's comment was something like "Ewwww!  That's really gross!!!"

So, all in all, the kids had a really great day.  Aaron told us "Thank you for going to the apple store to play" about half a dozen times today.  Everyone is sleeping soundly and we're hoping for a good night.

Nancy

More pics!

To appease Papa (and return myself back to good standing :) I am posting a few more pictures of what the boys have been up to lately.

Aaron has been a lot of fun the last couple of days (okay, even more fun than his usual fun little self!).  I absolutely love when he is talking to or about Zachary and Justin.  He runs their names together like they are one person.  His favorites are: "Zacdustin" at school."  or "Dustinzac play in sandbox with me."  He also loves to sit on Daddy's lap after he finishes eating his meals.  His question is usually something like "I sit your wap, Daddy?"  Then, once he is seated on Drew's left knee, the statement that follows is "Daddy, I sit your udder wap."  He likes to sit on Drew's right knee so he's closer to me.  :)  He's such a sweet boy!

Caleb is continuing to eat more and more foods.  He loves peas, applesauce, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes and has had some cheerios broken in half and some pieces of bread.  He is not at all content to sit in his high chair and watch the rest of us eat anymore. :)

Field Trip Pictures

Megan, Cade, Catherine and Zachary!

Zachary is milking a "cow!"

Zachary is actually feeding a goat!

Zachary's class at the fire station.

Catherine and Zachary

Zachary

Zachary has had a lot happen in the last couple of weeks, so I'll fill you in a little.

First, he lost his 6th tooth (the second one on top).  He was brushing his teeth and literally brushed his tooth loose.  How's that for easy?  It didn't bleed much at all, for which I am VERY thankful!  He still tends to freak out at the sight of blood, most especially his!

Then, he turned in his first project for first grade.  He chose to do a report on zebras. Do you know that baby zebras are born with brown stripes?

On Friday last week, Zachary (and I!) went on a field trip.  The absolute highlight of his field trip was getting to ride in a school bus!  Having been transported by "Mom's taxi" to school and back for all of his short little school life, a bus was a BIG deal!  And to top it off, his favorite P.E. teacher was the bus driver.  He will not have her until 3rd grade, but he loves Ms. Johnson already!  We first went to a farm and had a non-hay ride (a ride in a wagon with no hay), then fed goats and the kids played some games.  We were also treated to some ice cream! :)  Then we all piled back into the buses and went to a fire station where we had a scavenger hunt.  That was pretty fun!  From there, we went across the street to a small park to play on the playground and have lunch.  Then it was back to school and home.   I had Zachary and three of his friends in my group - Megan, Cade and Catherine.  There is a limit of how many pictures I can upload to one post, so I will be posting the field trip pictures separately.

So that's what Zachary has been up to lately!  If I can get him to cooperate, I'll try to take a small movie of him reading a book this weekend.  He's getting to be a great reader, and the best part is that he LOVES reading!!

Nancy

Just a little fun...

These are some pictures we took Tuesday afternoon after the kids got home from school.  We had a lot of fun playing on the swings.

By the way, it seems that Caleb is coming down with a cold again.  :(  He is stuffy with a bit of a runny nose, and a little more fussy than usual.  But he had mashed potatoes and applesauce for supper tonight and loved it!  :)

Cold Turkey Part 2

Well, Day 2 was SO much better than Day 1!!  Caleb only fussed for a few minutes before supper was ready tonight (when normally he would have happily sucked on a pacifier till his supper was ready).  He went to sleep for both of his naps and bedtime with little more than a whimper!

It's late; I'm tired and going to bed.  I just wanted to let you know how today went.  I will be posting some really cute pictures from playing outside tonight when I am not so tired.  Hopefully tomorrow.

Nancy

Cold Turkey Update

Well, tonight was the test, and it was a loooonnng hour!  Caleb went to bed (the first time) around 6:45.  At about 7:00, I went up to get him and calmed him down (the first time).  After another ten minutes of crying, I went in and calmed him down again.  Then I decided to vacuum the house hoping the background noise of the vacuum would help Caleb go to sleep.  Nope!  When I stopped, he was still protesting loudly.  I went to get him and rocked him for a little while, but every time I tried to get him into bed, he screamed.  It was close to 7:45 by the time I finally laid a very drowsy and almost asleep Caleb in his bed and haven't heard from him since.  Whew!! Hope we don't have too many more nights like that!

Nancy

Life.

Just to catch you up on things today.....

Zachary had a really good day at school.  He was very excited that he completed all of his work ON TIME!  He also came up with some really interesting mathematical terminology.  For example, do you know that Walmart has a "katrillion" shoes for sale?  By the way, a katrillion is all the way from the floor to heaven.  And, furthermore, a "kabillion" is more than a katrillion.  A kabillion is all the way from heaven down past the floor into the ground.  How on earth do they come up with this stuff???

Justin had a GREAT 5-year old check up at the doctor's.  For the first time EVER in his little life, he now weighs more than 30 pounds!!!!  We were so excited that he is finally on the growth charts!  He is now in the 2nd percentile for both height and weight!  After 4 years of not being on the charts at all, we are thrilled for small accomplishments.  He officially is 39 and 3/4 inches tall and 32.4 pounds.  He still wasn't speaking to Nurse Cindy when we left (after his finger prick), but all will be forgotten by the next time we see her.

Aaron is still.....Aaron.  Funny, frustrating, cute, tormenting, adorable and aghhhhhhhh!!  all in one little boy!  He LOVES when he is the only "big" boy at home and he can play with Mommy and read books without bigger brothers interrupting.  According to Aaron, the monkeys still live on the moon and party each night when the sun goes down.  "Listen!  I "seerous" (serious)!" is a phrase we hear often throughout the day, usually with his hands turned up and forcefully shaking for emphasis.  Today, "Fwumbers" (slumbers the bear) was "hiding" and Aaron had to find him.  It was so cute to see Aaron "looking" everywhere except where he knew Slumbers was.

Caleb is going COLD TURKEY!!!  Our goal was to lose the pacifier by the time Caleb was 6 months old.  Not having had a pacifier baby before, we are in uncharted territory, but nevertheless, we are working on it.  So far, today is Day One....we'll see how tonight goes.  He really only uses it to calm himself down and most of the time spits it back out before he falls asleep.  He has taken two naps today without it - one screaming at the top of his lungs and the second was very peaceful (he was also VERY tired by the 2nd nap!).

Drew is out looking at a couple of jobs this afternoon and probably will not be back before the kids are in bed.  So, Mommy is pulling double duty tonight!  Maybe I can get caught up on some more ironing before Drew gets home.  :)

Nancy

Not Me!

Okay, so it's Monday again, and time for the world at large to know everything that I didn't do this week!  Also, if you want to read more Not Me!'s, feel free to check out MckMama's blog here.

I did not splurge and have ice cream on Thursday night with Drew because I knew that I would not be nursing for several hours while on Zachary's field trip Friday.  Nope, not me!  Thankfully, Caleb does fine with a bottle!  

And I did not let Aaron run around the house in only his underwear on Thursday afternoon because he came in the house covered with sand from the sandbox and I stripped his clothes off.  And the reason he was just in underwear?  It was so much easier than getting yet another outfit for him to wear for a couple of hours till he took a shower!

Furthermore, I did not bribe Justin with a hash brown and chocolate milk (his favorite McBreakfast) so that he would let the nurse prick his finger and draw blood at his check-up this morning.  Who in the world would do something like that????

And, I most certainly am not going to have to quickly make up for lost time in my house cleaning today because I've been blogging about Not Me Monday!  Nope, I would never do something like that!

Nancy

Charities

Squidoo (an online group that raises tons of money for charities) is giving away $80,000 to selected charities from now until October 15.   There are no catches, and no gimmicks - all you have to do is CLICK HERE to visit their website and vote ($2 per vote) for the charity of your choice (from their list of about 50).

There are several good charities (and some off the wall!) to choose from, but the one that got my vote was March of Dimes.  They provide funding for research to reduce and prevent premature births, and they provide support for families with preemies.  Because of pregnancy complications, we have come close to having two preemies (okay, so Aaron technically was a preemie - by 1 day!), and we have several friends whose babies were very premature.

Each vote gets $2, and you can only vote once (more than that and they will delete your vote(s).  Remember, voting ends October 15!  So, whether you vote for March of Dimes, or something else, support a worthwhile charity.  

Nancy

Eggs according to Aaron.....

As I was putting Aaron to bed tonight, we were cuddling for a few minutes, and for some reason, he had his mind on eggs.  The conversation went something like this:

Aaron: I like eggs.  (Side note, I have not seen him ever willingly eat eggs!)

Me: Really?  Why do you like eggs?

Aaron:  When you bang two eggs they break.

Me:  Yes, they do break.

Aaron:  And then you have to sqeeze them out.

Me:  What do you do when you sqeeze them out?

Aaron:  You mix them up in my birthday cake and eat it! (laughing)  But it's Christmas first and then my birthday cake.

Nancy

Cute Clicks of Caleb

What's not to love????

Nancy