Happy Halloween!!!

We had a really fun Halloween this year. Between church, school, and neighborhood, we really wore ourselves out. It was hard work raking in all that candy. Lex was a vampire (i barely recognized her when she wore her wig), Jules was Hermione Granger's sister (Go Gryffindore), Spence was a dragon, although he never wore the head up so it was hard to tell, and Mase was a Hot tamale, although he was more like a stuffed pepper since he was busting out of his costume. And that other boy is a banana, in case you couldn't tell. He is Spence's "Best Buddy".

Butter Ball

Oh how i wish you all could be here to hold this little tub of love. He is so soft and round and snuggly (and heavy). Seriously, i can't get over how soft his pudgy skin is! I just want to hug him and hold him and snuggle with him all day. I think i may have carpel tunel in my left wrist from doing that. Did i mention he was heavy.

Here he is sporting one of Dan's baby outfits. Apparently Dan was a big boy too. 30 lbs at a year (heaven help us and my carpel tunel).

I am experimenting with his hair. Comb over or standing up? This is combed straight up. I like it, why fight nature, i say go with the flow of the cowlicks.

Here he's hanging out/falling over. Sorry kid. But he was strong enough to catch himself so good job Bud.

Hello out there

My life seems to be made up of catching up. I am always behind. I have started to own this fact of life. "It is what it is" that is my motto these days.


Is he cute or what! He is about 3 months here.

First day of school

Our one and only cucumber. You should see our zucchini though. It was a sight to behold

May

This is what we have been up to

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a good Easter. The kids were so excited it was like Christmas for them.



On Friday we decorated eggs, old school, with no kit. We used crayons and food coloring. Cute and free. Spencer enjoyed petting the eggs delicately in my presence and then cracking them when i wasn't around. This was post-cracking for most of them.

The kids dutifully lined up on the stairs before they could see what the Easter Bunny bought. It is like Christmas, minus the cute new p.j.'s and all the presents. On the plus side there was an easter egg hunt, or two, and plenty of chocolate. And this year... bubbles for all!



Look at these adorable outfits. Thanks MOM! Alexis actually helped me pick out the girl's dresses. I was shocked when she actually chose pink for herself. So girlie, it was a rare and wonderful moment.
For dinner we had the Johnsons over. They are our Chicago family. We love that we didn't organize anything until Sunday morning and it all came together beautifully. We had lots of yummy food including Meg's vegan dishes. They were delicious, especially with grilled chicken! Hmmm i guess Dan and i aren't quite ready to go vegan yet but it was good to eat healthy (minus the cake and rice crispy treats i personally stuffed my face with). We let the kids have grape juice in goblets and they kept toasting eachother. I kept hearing "cheers" from the breakfast table followed by clinking goblets. After dinner the kids had another easter egg hunt. Spencer loved it and wanted "Mr. Bunny" to bring him more eggs (especially since Megs and Zeke fill their with spare change and candy).

Conversations with a 2 year old

The manic blogger is back. Sorry no pics on this one. We just lost 4 years of pictures because our F- drive won't work. The whole point of the external hard drive was to stop this from happening, wasn't it? I am bitter, but there is still hope that we will be able to retrieve stuff, including thousands of hours of work that Dan has put in! Last week the house that he had lined up to renovate burnt down. That was about the same time as the F drive situation. When things go that wrong it makes me almost start to laugh hysterically . . . almost.

So Spencer was really sick a couple of weeks ago, and i finally took him to the doctor only to find out that he had bronchitis and an ear infection. The PA who saw us was awesome and he didn't cry or kick and scream at all because she told him she had to look for the animals in his ear. Sure enough she found some bunnies and sheep to name a few. A few days later Spencer came up to me while i was making dinner.
Spencer: Mom, there's something in my nose

Me: Oh really, what's in there?

Spencer: An iguana

That's a pretty uncomfortable animal to be in your nose, but he was excited about it.


When we went for the ultrasound and saw the baby in my stomach he looked at the screen and said "there's a baby in a spaceship". I guess that image does sort of look like a spaceship if you think about it. Very observant.
Yesterday we were back at the doctor's office and a man in the waiting room was talking to him and being really nice. Seeing that i was pregnant he asked Spencer if he was excited to be having a baby sister or brother.
Spencer: We're getting a baby from China"
????????????What the heck. Of course i smiled and said that no we weren't (laugh, laugh, try not to blush). I decided not to explain that Spencer was obsessed with this idea since he saw an episode of Arthur where Binki goes to China to adopt a baby sister. Julia also thought that this was a good idea so i told her that when she has her own family she is welcome to adopt a baby from China.

My favorite thing that Spencer does is help me with my "morning routine". Every morning he comes into my room to wake me up. Usually i mumble something about "as soon as i go to the bathroom we'll go downstairs and i'll get you some breakfast". So now it goes like this:
Spencer: Mommy, wake up, it's morning time. Come on Mom, i'll turn on the bathroom light.
Me: grunt, ok.
Spencer then takes my hand, leads me into the bathroom, turns on the light and proceeds to hand me a magazine. Sometimes he reads one too while he waits. Then he flushes for me and turns off the light. What a helper! And here i thought the bathroom was the one place where i was guaranteed privacy, not so.

This morning he brought me a book to read to him when he woke me up. It was "You are Special" about a little wooden Wemick named Punchinello. So i started to read and he said, "What's his name? Punch-a-man-out?"
"No, Spencer, his name is Punchinello."
Oh, that boy cracks me up.

It's a BOY!

Yes, that is right people who aren't related to me. We are expecting a boy towards the end of May. I know that it is kind of weird that this is the first that you are hearing of this and i only have four months to go, but that is life with three kids and a ton of other stuff going on right now. I am really happy to be having boy #2 and, dare i say, the final addition to the clan. This pregnancy has been the hardest for sure and it seems like my body is trying to tell me something. Hmmm, what could that be...oh yeah, STOP. I always wanted to have all my kids by the time i turned 3o and it looks like it is turning out that way. I know that this may seem odd to some people but i can tell you that my body and my stamina are not what they were at the 22 when i had Alexis (it still shocks me a little to think i was that young). And hey, all my kids will be out of High School before i hit 50, cool!