Fish Tales

John took Wyatt fishing in the boat this afternoon. They both came home and said that they had a good time! John said that Wyatt was really into catching fish and wanted to reel and take them off the hook without any help. He even caught a 10 inch perch! It looks like we will have enough for a fish dinner later this week so we are excited!

Projects

John and I stayed home today and put a dent in a lot of our home improvement projects. We power washed the windows, painted the front door, painted some of the siding on the back of the house, power washed the deck, painted the deck, sorted out kids clothes that were outgrown, made a Costco run, and gave this little peanut a bath. Tomorrow John is going to take Wyatt fishing. I have a feeling that they will both come home with a lot of fish stories!

Bird Facts

The kids and I were eating lunch in the kitchen today and a bird flew into the window. It made a really loud thud but then flew away and the kids kept asking "what was that?" over and over again? I explained that a bird flew into the window by accident so they wanted to know why. I said that the bird probably didn't see the window and Wyatt said "why Mom, because his eyeballs fell out?". Ummmmm maybe......
p.s. John took the vin number for the van to the Honda dealership this morning and they made us a new key so we are back in business again.
p.p.s. Jonah has learned to climb out of his crib. I will write more about this exciting news later when I am not drunk!

Locksmith Anyone???

We made it back from Michigan on Monday night at about 12am! We were so tired. I was driving and had to trade with John because I was literally unable to keep my eyes open any longer! Yesterday John went to work and I stayed home with the kids to get them back on schedule and rested back up. It was a pretty rough day and I didn't even get all of the unpacking done! Today was a lot better! Wyatt went to camp for the morning while I went to my exercise group! Everything went well today until Wyatt locked both sets of keys in the van tonight! John spent hours trying to unlock the van without any luck, so we are going to have to call a locksmith tomorrow morning! Life is never dull around here that's for sure!

AVisit to Michigan

We are in Michigan for the Memorial Day weekend. This was our first trip to Michigan as a family of six and it went surprisingly well! We stopped three times before we got to Grand Haven....once to nurse Shane and feed the boys snacks, once to visit my parents, and one more potty and nursing break. Unfortunately, Wyatt and I are suffering big time from hay fever from all of the pollen in Michigan right now. I can actually see yellow pollen on the surfaces of the cars and patio furniture. Yesterday Wyatt's eyes were almost swollen shut! He is taking Zyrtec around the clock now and seems to be a little better. I can't take any allergy medicine since I am still nursing so I am taking a lot of showers and complaining a lot! Today I ran in a 5K run in a neighboring town. It was my first 5K since the Turkey Trot my sophomore year in college at Michigan State (16 years ago...gasp!!!!) and I finished 190th place out of 400 runners! I beat most of the children under age 8 and the people pushing strollers and finished in about 30 minutes so I was thrilled. I'd like to thank Kathie and Mari for watching the boys and my ipod for keeping me motivated...without them this wouldn't have been possible! In hindsight, I think that I actually could have done the 10K, but I wasn't sure how well I would do on "real roads" since I am usually running on the treadmill. Next time I might get brave and try the 10K as long as I can find somebody to watch the kids! Any volunteers?

A Quiz

Any guesses on whose baby pictures these are? (Click on it to embiggen it)

Graduation

Today Wyatt graduated from 3 year old preschool! It was bittersweet because he has really learned a lot in school this year and enjoys his teachers and the other kids and I will really miss having a little break from my chatterbox two days a week, but packing up 4 boys in the car for a 3 mile drive gets a little old after a while. I am hoping that by next school year the twins will be able to get dressed on their own and buckle themselves into their car seats so that we can get out the door a lot quicker! This week I am busy trying to plan some activities to fill up a couple of our mornings now that preschool is over. We need structure...and a schedule...and to get out of the house in the mornings to maintain any level of sanity in our house. I am starting to panic... when does preschool start again??????

A+ Weekend

This was one of the most fun weekends that we have had in a long time! On Saturday morning we took the kids to Akron Ohio to A Day Out With Thomas The Train. We went on a train ride, got Thomas tatoos, played in a maze, watched a model train village display, and played with some Thomas trains. By some miracle, the kids didn't fall asleep on the hour and a half trip home and still took naps when we got back! Yipee! Then John and I got a babysitter and went out to dinner just the TWO OF US! It was so nice talking without interruptions and completing all of our thoughts! We didn't get home until 10:30! It is definately going to become a regular thing!

TGIF

John has been out of town all week. I had the boys to myself from Monday until yesterday night! I was ready for a BREAK! I was ready TO BREAK! My patience has been tested to the limit (omg the poop!!!!!) and if it weren't for this guys little blue eyes and cute smile.....well let's just say that I might not have survived!

Sand Man

This is what I found when I changed Sammy's diaper after some playtime in a sandbox!

Shane Speaks

Little Mr. Talker always clams up when I try and get him on video, but this one isn't bad!

Tired

I'm tired so I'm just posting an outtake from yesterday's photo shoot.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Happy Mothers Day! Mom and Kathie, we are a little behind on the mailing of your gifts, so look for them some time next week! My favorite Mother's Day gift from John was a picture of me with all of my boys....the best part was that everyone was looking! Trust me that's hard work!
(p.s. Congratulations to Kelly and Ed on the birth of Lucy... she's beautiful!!!)

A Little Kindness

I took Wyatt to Madison's 4th birthday party today and John stayed home with the other 3 kids. Wyatt and I had a lot of fun at the party and left with a treat bag full of candy. On the way home he was preoccupied with talking about how much candy was in his bag and how he was going to eat all of his candy as soon as we got home. Unfortunately, I told him that he couldn't eat any of his candy in front of Jonah and Sammy because they didn't get any candy and they would be sad. We talked about how we were going to put the candy up and that he could have some after the twins went to bed for the night. Imagine my surprise when we got home and Wyatt charged into the house in from of me and yelled "Boys, WE got candy....do you want some?". He then proceeded to reach into his bag and give each of his brothers a matching piece of candy before helping himself! What a nice Mother's Day gift for his Mommy.... the gift of kindness!

My Little Helper

The biggest threat to Shane's survival are his big brothers. Lately Wyatt has started picking Shane up and carrying him around! Thankfully Shane has pretty much mastered holding his own head up because Wyatt usually grabs him around the waist. Wyatt tries to carry him over to me when Shane is crying or put him in or out of his car seat because "Mom, I'm such a big help aren't I?". Um yeah... not so much! So, now when I hear Shane cry I have to literally drop what I am doing and sprint over to him so that I beat Wyatt to the punch. I am hoping that this is just a phase that will pass soon because I am getting really jumpy. "What's that noise? Is it Shane? Where is he? I gotta go get him NOW! Ohmygosh Where's Wyatt? Is he already in there? Holy crap! Wyatt where are you? Did you open the gate? Wyatt! Wyatt! Wyatt! What? You are in the bathroom pooping. Excellent. I've got Shane now. No need to panic! Breathe...breathe." Repeat 25 times a day and you get a feel for how quickly things can escalate around here! My life is definately not boring these days!

Mother's Helper

Today I had a little 12 year old neighbor girl come and play with the kids downstairs while I did some organizing upstairs. I needed to switch out the winter clothes with all of the summer clothes in the boys bedrooms. I can't ever get this done because when the kids are sleeping, I can't be re-arranging their dressers or I would wake them up. So, I got 50% of it done today and Kristen is coming back next week so I can finish. She is going to come every Thursday from 4-530! I am so excited. The kids seemed to like her and the best part (besides the fact that she only charges $5 total) is that she is the oldest of five kids and has 4 younger brothers so she is seasoned enough to handle my boys!

Envy

We are back from our trip. It took me a couple of days to unload the van so I didn't have my camera until today to upload my pictures and I still have a lot of cute ones and a video to post but first a story... This morning I had a woman come up to me in the Walmart parking lot (while the kids were all sitting quietly in the shopping cart looking all cute in matching orange coats) and say “Well, I sure don’t envy you!” and then turn and walk away.

I didn’t even respond mostly out of shock, but when she walked away Wyatt said “Who was that?” and I said loudly “Just some nut job…don’t worry about it!”

What are people thinking??????? Wouldn’t it have been better to say nothing???? I mean my kids have ears and can hear negative comments!

So, this is a picture of my crew from this morning. What do I see when I look at them? Lots of brotherly love. Lots of Motherly love. Lots of joy. Lots of pride. Lots of beauty. Lots of happiness.

West Virginia Day #4

Our activities today consisted of swimming and another visit to the museum. We will be sad to leave tomorrow!

West Virginia Day #3

Let's take a sleep deprivation quiz....

1. Which kid ran into at least 4 walls head first today?

A. Sam B. Jonah C. Wyatt D. Shane

2. Which kid spent at least 50% of today in time out?

A. Jonah B. Wyatt C. Sam D. Shane

3. Which kid can roll with the punches with little or no sleep?

A. Wyatt B. Sam C. Jonah D. Shane

4. Which kid is never sleep deprived?

A. Sam B Shane C. Wyatt D. Jonah

If you answered B for all of the above questions, you were right! The quiz for tomorrow will be food deprivation!!! (Just kidding!) But seriously if we have another day like today we might be considering the option in the last picture!

West Virginia Day #2

We visited a farmers market, a childrens museum, a park, a shopping mall, and then back to the hotel today and Wyatt and Sammy still managed to fight off falling asleep until around 10 pm!!! They are going to be SUPER fun tomorrow....I can't wait!