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!

Cool Fall Pics

The manic blogger is back! Wow, Fall came and went in a flash, am i wrong? That is a retorical question. I savored every minute of it, especially those warm days before winter showed up. I tell ya, you can take the girl out of California, but you can't take California out of the girl. I think that my blood has thickened since we have moved here, but clearly not enough.

I don't know if you can tell, but this is a cobweb. Jules found these fascinating and Spence found these facinating to tare to shreds.

Alexis played soccer for the first time this year. It turns out that she was a great goalie, she's like her mother, and truth be told, doesn't like to run. SO this is the perfect position for her. But in the final tournament of the season the coach didn't play here here at all and kept benching the best players. Hey coach why don't you be a little more obvious about wanting your season to be over. FOR THE LOVE!!!

This is a controlled burn that the fire department did. Here is the view from our house. Pretty cool. It was surprisingly loud too. This was taking as it was dying down but it raged for quite a while. Dan took the girls over to get a closer look and i stayed and watched from my upstairs window.

Meet me at the Fair

One last thing and i will be caught up. I have decided that i am a manic blogger. Anyway, in September we went to this fair called the Sandwich Fair. It is a pretty big deal and we ended up seeing people that we knew from all over the western suburbs. This is a classic rural fair with livestock, bunnies for sale,carnival rides, barrell racing, John Deer tractors for sale, arts and crafts on display and even baked goods. My favorite was the wedding cake section. This one made me think of my Dad who loves James Bond. But this cake may be taking it a little too far. It was awesome!

The kids sitting on a John Deer tractor. Spencer loved this section

Little Jules may seem small and helpless but that girls is a daredevil at heart. Alexis was too scared to go on this ride so Julia went on it by herself. And she loved it!

We had a really fun time, walking around, lookng at all of the animals, riding the ferris wheel, eating apple rhubarb pie, and people watching. There was so much to see. We ran into some good friend of ours there and everyone ended up at our house for pizza after. Maybe next year we'll stay for the Tractor Pull.

Pretty in Pink

So you may be wondering what Spencer does all afternoon with both sisters out of his hair. Well his main activity is his nap but he also likes a little relax time on his own. His favorite part of his day though is taking Julia to the bus stop. He is the only boy there with about 6 Kindergarten age girls and their little sisters. Him and Julia started out the year riding their bikes to the bus stop and of course Spence wanted a backpack too but i only had a girl one. So here he was on a pink bike with a pink backpack. That poor kid. Luckily he doesn't seem to care about it at all.

Not a bad bike rider for a 2 1/2 year old.This is him reading a book on my bed. Ahhh, time to himself. Actually the truth is that he misses his sisters a lot when they are not home. And he often asks "Mommy, where's Jewyah, where's Yex?" But it is a chance to have Mommy all to himself and sometimes he'll even say "Mommy, yets cuddle" oh so sweet. I know i better treasure that while it lasts.

Back to School

So the girls went back to school in August. It still seems crazy that Julia is in Kindergarten but she seems to like it. Alexis started 2nd grade and has had a bit of a reality check coming in to it. It seems that "you don't get to do any crafts" in 2nd grade. But she is still doing great and we are trying to suplement that need at home.


Julia couldn't wait for Kindergarten, after telling me everyday last year that preschool was "so boring".



So after she caught the bus i rushed over to the school to see her line up take some more pics, along with a ton of other parents. It's hard to let those little ones go!

After school the girls get to ride home on the bus together. Julia is lucky to have a big sister that takes such good care of her.