Random Picture Challenge

This week's random picture comes from November 2007.  If you want to play along, visit Brittany at Four Little Men and Girly Twins.  Aaron was a couple months shy of his second birthday, and this was the first time he had ever had butter cookies - you know, the kind with the holes in the middle so you can stick your fingers through them. :)  They were obviously a big hit!  :)

I had been working on this post for a little while, compiling a list of some of the funny things Aaron says. Since the Random Picture ended up being Aaron, I thought I would add a list of his funnies, too!

Aaron-isms

A bone arrow (bow and arrow)

wike (like) Pretty much any "l" sound comes out as "w."  Makes for some interesting interpretations!

The Brothers (Aaron's collective name for Zachary and Justin.)  No kidding, he uses this phrase just like a name!  "Mommy I going to play with the brothers.  Mommy, where are the brothers? Daddy, the brothers are sleeping." 

Aaron's favorite part of homeschooling is "scissoring."  The first thing he does when I say it is time for school is run and get his scissors out of his pencil box.  A piece of junk mail from the trash can occupies him for almost an hour!

Recently, we were going to a friend's house, and Aaron knew we were going somewhere, but he kept (literally, every 5 minutes or less) asking Drew where we were going.  Finally, after about 20 times of Drew saying you'll find out when we get there, Drew answered Aaron and said, "We are going crazy."  Aaron promptly ran from the kitchen to find me and said, "Mommy!  We are going to crazy!  That's gonna be fun, huh, Mommy!"

At breakfast one morning, Aaron saw a morning double on the fence near our bird feeders.  Any guesses?  Well, he correctly identified a mourning dove!!!

We have an animal sounds toy that makes various animal noises as well as plays a couple of songs.  One of those is "The Farmer in the Jail (Dell)".  Either my son has a really Southern accent, or he and his brothers have played police a few times too many!!

Sparry-goat - This one threw me the first few times I heard it until I realized that he was talking about his safari boat.  :)

Nancy

Addition

4 temperatures checked

3 fevers found

2 throats swollen

equal

1 tired Mommy!!

Nancy

Choffy

Never heard of it??  Well, where have you been?  Just kidding; until tonight, I had never heard of Choffy either.  BUT, now that I have heard of it, I think it's going to top this year's Christmas list!!

Tsh over at Simple Mom is giving away two bags of Choffy this week, and it sounds yummy!  What, you ask, is Choffy?  Well, simply put, it is brewed chocolate...think coffee meets chocolate (minus the coffee).  Brewed hot cocoa...full of antioxidants...full of iron...full of magnesium...and the best part?  Caffeine FREE!!  What could get better than that?  Except, you know, actually having some of my very own to drink! :)

Nancy

Not Me! Monday

I know it's been a while since I've played along with MckMama's Not Me! Monday, but this Monday deserves a post all on it's own!

I did not wake up this morning shortly after 6:00 to the tune of Caleb crying.  I further did not go downstairs, make a bottle, come upstairs to get Caleb to give him said bottle only to peek into his crib and find him sound asleep!  No way, that would never happen to me!

I did not go back to bed hoping for a few more minutes of sleep only to be awakened again by Zachary and Justin loudly whispering and banging in their room at 7:05.  The rule in our house is that all children (insert Zachary and Justin) must stay in bed until 7:30 to avoid waking up Caleb and/or Aaron.  So, since the boys were already up (and stripping the sheets off their bed for cleaning day), I told them to quietly go downstairs and read books until 7:30.  Five minutes later, I did not hear clattering and clanging.....When I went to investigate, I found that they had matchbox cars out and were racing them off a ramp built from wooden blocks.  Books?????  

I went back upstairs intending to start cleaning my bedroom and bathroom and was not interrupted again by Justin.  He most certainly did not tell me that while he was in the downstairs bathroom, Aaron came in and did not stand there and wet his pants.  All. over. my. bathroom. floor.  No, that certainly did not happen because my children know better than to do something like that.  Must have been the neighbor's kids.

By 9:30 this morning, I did not check 3 throats and take two temperatures for my sick boys.  I do not have one sick little boy who will be having blood work done at the end of this week unless he shows significant improvement in the next 3 days.  

And I did not  just recap the first 3 hours of my day for you all.  Seriously, I hope you did not have a morning like mine! :)

Random Picture Challenge

This weeks Random Picture comes from August 2007.  Brittany at 4 little men and girly twins (actually, Brittany's son) chose picture #30.  Here it is!

On this particular day, the boys had decided to play camping (in anticipation of an upcoming camping trip in September).  Zachary would have been 5 and 1/2, Justin was a month from his 4th birthday, and Aaron was 1 and 1/2.  They dragged pillows, blankets and teddy bears into our - of all places - downstairs powder room and "camped" complete with sunglasses!  I just had to get a picture when they were being so cute!

Nancy

Catching up with Caleb

This afternoon, being that it was frigidly cold (well, okay, below 30), I let the boys set up what they refer to as their "tent."  It's really a series of pop-up rooms and tunnels that they love to play in and would probably get out on a daily basis if I wanted my living room to look like this every day!  Anyway, this is the first time since Caleb has been mobile that the tent has been out while he was awake.  I loved his reaction to it!

You want me in there??!?

Okay, I'll think about it...

Ha, ha, ha!  Yeah, that is so not happening!

Boy, how time flies the first year!  Caleb will be 9 months old tomorrow, and he is way into cruising right now.  Anything is fair game - around the toy chest, down the couches, even a wall or door works for balance!  He has been braver about taking a little step here or there without holding on to something.  I've seen him step between the couch and toy chest a couple of times without having something to grab on to.  

Caleb isn't really into talking that much (too busy trying to walk and keep up with three older brothers!), but he does say "ah duh" (all done), "dada" (daddy) and "uh oh."  We (I) keep trying to get him to say "mama" but nothing yet.  He does spontaneously say "Mmmm" when he has a bite of something he likes (such as the cherry popsicle he tried a few days ago!).

Caleb likes to play peek-a-boo.  He "covers" his eyes with his hands (covering usually means that one eye is covered and he's peeking with the other eye!).  Then he waits for someone to ask "Where's Caleb?" and he throws his hands in the air and giggles.  He also is waving more and clapping anytime someone says "yay!"  As in "Yay, Caleb, you ate all your food!"

Our tooth count has gone up quite a bit this month...and we're still working on more!  Caleb has seemed to spread out getting his teeth much more than his older brothers.  Each of the older ones seemed to get 5 or 6 at a time and then we had a break before the next round of teeth.  Caleb seems to get one tooth at a (painstakingly slow!) time.  He now has all four teeth across the top in various stages of growth, and his two bottom front teeth are in.  We are working on the other two bottom teeth in the front to round out the four.  So at nine months, our total tooth count is six!

We have a nine-month check-up coming up in a couple of weeks, so I'll have all the pertinent stats then, but the last time we were at the doctor's (for Justin's strep throat), he was 18 lbs. and 10 ozs.!!  Pretty unbelievable when I stop to think about all the foods that he can't eat because of his allergies!

Happy nine months, Caleb!  You're growing into such a big boy!!!

Nancy

The Long-Awaited Birthday Pictures!

Here they are....after a couple of weeks of waiting...Aaron's third birthday pictures!

This little three year old was waiting for one thing and one thing only - CAKE!!!!

Aaron's birthday cake (that he helped with, I might add).  :)

Aaron blew out the first candle.....

Looks like he tried to eat the second one (rest assured, it only looks that way!).....

Aimed a little low on the third attempt, so.....

We got a little help from Daddy, and......

Nailed his final attempt!!

A new tool set from Grampy and Grammy.

Another part to our Thomas the Tank Engine railway from Daddy and Mommy and "the brothers."

A new "picture-looker" (translate: ViewMaster) from Papa and Nana!

Aaron really did have a terrific third birthday.  Thanks to all of you who helped make it special!

Nancy

Random Picture Challenge

Brittany over at 4 little men and girly twins has started a Random Picture Challenge on Saturdays.  She picks a month and a number, and you go to that month's picture file and that number of picture in the file and post it along with a description.  This week was January #8 (the 8th picture in the January file).

Being that I am on top of everything and oh, so organized (ahem), my January 2009 folder is empty.  All of our January pictures are still, ummmm, on the camera. 

So, I went to my January 2008 folder and chose the 8th picture.  Which, ironically, was taken on January 17, 2008 (same date as today!).  It snowed beautiful white fluffy flakes that piled up about an inch and a half.  It was the only snow for last year, and tragically was mostly slush by the time the kids woke up in the morning.  :(  So, all the kids were able to do was look at the pictures we took.  *sigh*  Maybe it will snow this year.....

Catching Up!

I know it's been a few days since my last post, so this post will probably be all over the place catching up on what has happened. 

Sunday, we all made it to church in the morning, but Caleb refused to willingly stay with the nursery workers (without screaming loudly enough to be heard through half of the building!), so I ended up spending Sunday school and church time in the nursery with him.  He never did take a morning nap, which only compounded his grumpiness!  When he finally did fall asleep at 2:30 in the afternoon, I also took a nap.  Drew realized how tired Caleb and I were and decided to let us sleep through evening church.  Justin also wasn't acting like himself, so Drew stayed home to watch the bigger boys and let me sleep.  Good thing, because by late afternoon on Monday, Justin was complaining of a bad headache, a bad sore throat, and had a 101.5 temp.  When we got into the doctor on Tuesday morning, my suspicion of strep throat was confirmed.  :(  Since being on antibiotics, he is doing much better, although I can tell he is dragging a bit by the end of the day.

Yesterday was Drew's birthday (Happy Birthday!!), and Zachary decided that Drew wanted a carrot cake.  So, the boys helped make a yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Mmmm!  We also (finally!) finished packing away the remaining Christmas things yesterday and are ready this weekend to set up the office for home schooling.

This morning, Justin was well enough to go back to school, which he was very excited about.  He said that he had a great time and that at playtime he and Sara Kate and Austin and RJ played football.

After dropping Justin off at school, we headed back to the pediatrician for the second time this week.  Today was Aaron's 3 year check-up.  He was a very big boy and only cried for just a second when his finger was pricked to draw blood.  Everything else checked out just great.  Aaron was born with two heart murmurs, and today the pediatrician said he faintly heard one, but the other is gone altogether!  He is recommending that we don't even need to return to the cardiologist for a follow-up visit!!!  :) Good news when you don't have insurance!  Both murmurs are described as benign, which means that they do not indicate any abnormalities in the heart.  So, the are "normal" murmurs, if there is such a thing.  :)  Aaron is 24.2 pounds and 34.75 inches tall.  We are slowly but steadily climbing up the growth chart!  Zachary on the other hand, is a back-breaking 46.6 pounds!!!!  No wonder I am struggling to fit him into my lap!! :)  Caleb topped the scales at a healthy 18.10 pounds.  He's going to surpass Aaron by his first birthday if he keeps growing at this rate! :)  No kidding, Caleb is wearing clothes that Aaron did not wear until close to his second birthday.

From the doctor's office, we headed to BJES (Zac's school) to pick up his books from first semester.  I was kind of bummed because they did not let us keep all of his reading books, and I argued that we paid for all the books at the beginning of the school year, so we should get them all.  But, the didn't budge, so now I have to buy the complete set of six to get the last 3 books that we need.  Grrrr.  They also did not have a math book or phonics workbook to give us because the teacher tears the pages out of each of them at the beginning of the year, and they said they did not have any others we could have.  SO, on to the resource center to purchase the books we did not have.....I was able to get almost everything we need (I think!) except for the set of reading books.  That will just have to wait as it is almost half of the cost of all the other books combined!  The bright side is that if I do homeschool Justin in first grade, I will have about half of the books that I can re-use from Zac.  If I am able to do quite a bit of planning over the next few evenings and this weekend, I would like to start school this coming week.  Hopefully it will work out that way.

While we were driving around town this morning, I was playing "what if" with Zachary and Aaron.  It's something we do once in a while and something we have fun with.  Sometimes it's "What if you were a bird, what would you do, where would you live, what would you eat, etc.?" But this morning, I decided to check with Aaron to see if he remembered what he should do if he were to get lost.  Nope!  I first asked him what Mommy and Daddy's names were so he could tell an adult if he was lost.  He remembered that Daddy was Drew, but I am just Mommy!  :)  Then I asked him what he would tell an adult if he was lost and couldn't find Mommy and Daddy (thinking he would say, "I'm lost" or "I can't find my Mommy" or something like that).  Nope, again!  Any guesses?  Well, you wouldn't have guessed it anyway.  The most important thing to tell an adult if you can't find your mommy or daddy is "I need to tell them I am scared of monsters!"  :)

What can I say?  He must be his daddy's child!  :)

Nancy

114 Kids!

Yes, you read that right....at lunch today, Zachary calmly informed me that he intended to have 114 kids when he was a Daddy.  Uh....yikes!  :)  The conversation went something like this.

Zac:  I want to be a daddy when I get big.

Me:  You are going to be a great daddy.

Zac:  When I'm twenty, cause I have to be grown up first.

Me:  Well, maybe a little older than twenty.  You need to finish college first and then find a nice girl and get married and then you can be a daddy.

Zac:  Mommy, what if I married you?  Then you can be my Mommy.  Can boys marry their mommies?

Me: (ahem) Zac, I think you will find a really nice, really pretty girl who is your age, and you will really like her.  Then you will get married and she will make a great mommy.

Zac:  Yep, that's probably good.  Cause you can still be my mommy then.

Me:  I'll always be your mommy.

Me:  (very unsuspectingly) So, when you are a daddy, how many kids do you think you'll have?

Aaron:  I want 3 kids.  Just 3.  We can play legos.

Justin:  I want 10 kids cause then there's lots of people to play with.

Zac:  I want 114 kids.

Me: (!!!??)  114?  Are you sure about that?

Zac:  Yep!  My wife and me will have 114 kids.

Me:  How will you put 114 beds in your house?

Zac:  No, Mommy.  We will have 116 beds cause me and my wife will need beds too.  :)  (I'll remind him of this comment in twenty years - hee hee!!)

Me:  Okay, where will you put 116 beds?

Zac:  Well, we will have bunk beds....lots of bunk beds....three beds high and two beds in every room.  Then there will be six kids in every room.

Me:  So that's....umm.....20 rooms, Zachary.  Are you going to have a house with twenty rooms??

Zac:  Nope, I'm going to live in a fire station, cause I'm going to be a fireman.  There's lots of room in a fire station.  I'm going to be a fireman....or a framer.  I might be a framer.  Or a fireman...or maybe both.

Me:  Okay, those are good jobs.  

Zac:  You know, that's why I'm having 114 kids.

Me:  Oh, why?

Zac:  Cause they're all gonna help me frame houses.  I need all those kids to help me at my job.

Me:  Wow!  That's a lot of workers!  How are you going to buy Christmas presents for that many kids?

Zac:  Oh, they aren't getting Christmas presents.

Me:  They're not?

Zac:  Nope.  The first kid will get a something to do when my wife or me tell them to quit wrestling and calm down.  They all need something to do when they have to calm down.

Me:  Oh, so what are you going to get them to do?

Zac:  (a little puzzled)  I'm not buying them toys.  They will get things to do, you know like stuff like books and stuff.  (I never really did get an answer to this one!)

Me: So, how is your wife going to take care of 114 kids?

Zac:  Oh, the first one will help the second one, and the third one will help the fourth one and they will all be buddies.  Then she won't have to do anything.  (Me thinking, "Yeah, right!!")

Me:  That sounds like lots of fun.

Zac:  (losing interest)  Yeah, we'll play a lot and work.....

And he was gone to play with toys in the living room.  I had all I could do to keep from laughing at some of the comments he made, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings.  I love it when the kids want to talk about their dreams for the future.  Zac, when you read this 15 years from now, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed talking about it!!  :)

Nancy

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Three years ago, we were sitting in the waiting room for the NICU at the hospital where Aaron was transfered just hours after his birth.  After 6 weeks of bedrest, Aaron finally made an appearance three weeks early weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs. and 2 ounces.  The doctors discovered a small birth defect that needed surgical correction, so less than 24 hours after his birth, Aaron had surgery to correct it.  We've come a long way in the last three years!!!  Aaron is the most energetic, imaginative and creative little guy I know!

Happy Birthday to a fantastic three-year-old!!!!!  Aaron wanted to celebrate his birthday with his friend Megan, so he will be having cake and presents on Friday evening.  Pictures to come this weekend!!!

Nancy

Happy 2009!!

Well, I must say, 2008 held surprises that none of us expected in 2007!  Some were good, some were not so good, but we trust that our Lord is in control and we are exactly where He wants us at the beginning of 2009.

Aaron celebrated his second birthday on January 6 (2008), and he took off socially and developmentally!  We enjoyed seeing his speech and imagination grow in leaps and bounds.  Quite possibly, Aaron is the most imaginative child that we have had thus far!!  He is constantly imagining or creating, and he loves to tell all about his stories.  Aaron is very much looking forward to his third birthday next week and has already requested a chocolate cake with yellow, green and purple (??) frosting.

Justin began 2008 as a four-and-a-half-year old and entering his second half of 3-year kindergarten.  Because Justin's birthday falls in mid-September, we made the decision to start him a year later in school.  So, he actually had his fourth birthday about 2 weeks after he began K-3.  We have not regretted our decision a bit!  This year, he is flourishing in K-4 and has already begun to read simple words, write his name (and his letters), and do some simple addition and subtraction.  Justin is a very logical thinker and will spend time studying and analyzing a situation before he jumps in.  Justin accepted Christ as his Saviour at Thanksgiving this year, and it has been such a blessing to watch him learn and grow in the last couple of months.  Justin is excited to be going back to school next week to see his friends.

Zachary......where to start with Zachary.  He is our headstrong, always right, loving, gentle bull-in-a-china-shop son.  :)  It amazes me how one six-year-old can be opposite extremes within minutes!  Zachary celebrated his sixth birthday in March and graduated from Kindergarten in May.  We have now entered the world of first grade - yikes!  Zachary accepted Christ in July, and he has been so eager to learn and please his Saviour.   In September Zachary started first grade, and we have been so pleased with his progress this year.  He began the year a bit behind in reading (compared to the rest of the class - I thought he was just fine!), but by Christmas break, he has quickly moved up and is a very fluent reader.  Some of his favorite Christmas presents were chapter books, which he is enjoying reading.  Just before Christmas break, Zachary was tested for an auditory processing weakness, which was confirmed.  His ears work fine, but his brain is not correctly processing all of the sounds that he hears.  So, we are going to be working on some skills to strengthen his processing when school resumes.

In April, Caleb arrived and has been growing and growing!  He is crawling, cruising, waving, clapping and playing peek-a-boo.  Fruits and veggies are a big hit, as are turkey and chicken.  In the last few weeks, we have been transitioning from nursing to bottle-feeding, and Caleb has taken to it like a pro!  Before we know it, April will be here and our little guy will be a year old already.

Mommy has had a good year.  In March, I finished the required classes to renew my teaching certification for another five years (whew!).  In the summer, I spent many hours at the pool with the boys (even Caleb!) swimming and playing.  In August, the entire family enjoyed a long weekend at the beach for the wedding of one of Drew's cousins.  In November, we were all very surprised to find out that our family is growing again!  This little one is due July 18, and hopefully in February we will find out if this is Kyle or Rebekah!  :)

Daddy had a not-so-great April Fool's Day this year when he was laid off due to the company closing.  Since then, Drew has been self-employed, doing whatever work he can find.  He does have a potential job possibility sometime after the first of the year, but we are waiting to hear back from them.   All in God's timing!  

As we begin 2009, we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us.  Happy New Year!