Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!  The boys had a blast today.  We spent the day at home just hanging out and then went to a neighbors house for a pre-trick or treat dinner.  This is the 4th year that they have hosted a chili dinner in their driveway for a bunch of the neighbors. 

Trick or treating was a lot of fun for the older boys this year!  I stayed home with Logan to hand out candy while Dennis took Colin and Evan.  They went to a lot more houses this year and really enjoyed it.  Their buckets are full of stuff that I am sure will take a good 6 months to get through.  What a great weekend.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Well, fall soccer season has come to an end.  It ended on a good note.  Colin had a great game, he was goalie the first half and didn't let a single goal go through again.  He is starting to like the goalie position and as a result has been goalie for most of the last 4 games or so.  The second half he really dominated on offense and scored two goals!

Evan did well in his game too, he came close to scoring a few times.  He came up to us at one point and said "Me am doing awesome!".  He is still easily distracted, if someone says "good job Evan"  he turns to look at them and then completely looses track of where the ball is.  We are very proud of him though, he plays almost the whole game whereas other kids are throwing temper tantrums, refusing to play, crying, etc.  Evan smiles the whole time!

Funny story at lunch...We were telling the boys that we were going to a party this afternoon at Evan's teammate, Carsons' house and Colin was trying to figure out which of two Carson's it was.  Colin asked "the one that talks a lot?"  Evan responded "No that is me"!  Ha Ha, so true!!!

We had one of the best times ever at a party this afternoon.  Evan's soccer team had the best group of parents and one of them decided to have a fall party.  I have never seen so many Halloween decorations and they had tons of food, drinks, a pumpkin carving station, treat bags, cookie decorating, etc...it was just a blast.  We hardly saw the boys the whole time because they were having so much fun playing.  It figures that we would make some good friends right before we move, but hopefully we will be able to hang out a few more times before that day comes.

7 months!

Logan turned 7 months old today, with each baby time seems to be flying by faster and faster!  At 7 months Logan is sleeping about 11 hours at night (7:30 pm to 6:30 am on average), and taking 2-3 naps during the day.  He is nursing (or taking a breast milk bottle) 4 times a day and eating 3 meals of stage 2 baby food, with the occasional bites of my food if it is soft or crackers.

Logan loves his mommy, sleep, eating big people food, laughing at his brothers, and chewing on toys.  This week we moved him out of the infant car seat and in to a regular one because he is so tall and he would rather sit up in his stroller than lie in the infant carrier.  I think he is already trying hard to keep up with his brothers.  Logan is generally happy but like his brothers were as babies, he lets you know when he is not (which is most evenings).  He is a lucky baby as he not only gets a lot of love from Dennis and I, but also his big brothers.

Today Evan's preschool had a Halloween parade.  Evan was so excited to go he jumped out of bed when I woke him up from his nap and quickly got in his costume.  I have never seen him move that quickly.  Then when we got in the car he said "Mommy your my best friend because you put my costume on". 

Evan is Spiderman for Halloween, this is the 3rd time this costume has been used (Colin wore it the previous two years).  I wish they liked something a bit cuter but unfortunately they just want to be superhero's every year.  Can't get much easier than that!

Pumpkin Lighting

Dennis was late getting out of court today due to spending 4+ hours in deliberation coming to a verdict.  He really enjoyed the whole process of being a juror.  As a result of being late, he was missing in action for Colin's school pumpkin lighting and dinner.  I had to go ahead and take the 3 boys by myself.  Luckily, a neighbor was there and helped me carry all the plates to our table, I don't know what I would have done without that help.  It was very cute to see all the decorated pumpkins the classes did.  I was very proud that the boys helped me out and were well behaved (of course they did have a talking to on the way there to make sure they were on their best behavior). 

We had a showing today which we haven't heard anything about, so I am assuming that is bad news.  But, anyway, when Evan went in his room after he got home from school he said "Me room looks so nice, you vacuumed it Mommy".  It is cute that he even noticed and it was so nice to be appreciated by a 3 yr old.  Yesterday, he learned his phone number and address, I was very proud of him and he was very proud of himself too. 

Play Date!

Logan had his first play date today.  Three of my old PT classmates came over with their kids, we have 11 kids between us, but some of the kids were in school.   All four of us have had babies within the last nine months.  I think Logan enjoyed seeing some different faces in our house.  It was fun time!

Colin is having a great time at school.  He is starting to recognize some words and we are practicing writing different words and using them in sentences.  I am amazed that even when he gets home from school he is excited to sit down with me and work on his "wall words". 

I am trying to teach Evan his phone number and address, which has been entertaining.  I will have to try again tomorrow when I can sit alone with him and work on it.  He was eager to learn but there was too much going on during that time.

Dennis spent the day in Jury Duty.  He actually had a lot of fun and thought it was interesting. 

Oh, update on the Colin "bullying" situation...I am guessing that it was just a one time thing.  I never got a call back from the school, but they did start doing assigned seats on the school bus so my guess is there were some other issues that happened with other kids.  Everything seems to be fine, Colin is making a lot of friends at school and really loves going.

Stay At Home Mom

I am loving being a stay at home Mom!  It feels so good to get things accomplished and to have my house in order.  Today, I cleaned the house including the the floors, made blueberry muffins for a play date I am hosting tomorrow, dropped off a couple bags of stuff for some teachers at Colin's school, made dinner, picked up Evan from preschool, got both boys to soccer all while entertaining, feeding, and napping Logan. Oh and I did some studying for a continuing education home study course I am taking.  Of course I am exhausted now, but it puts a smile on my face to see things cleaned and organized.  It will be tough to go back to work some day! 

Go Redskins!

The more kids we have the more we have to divide and conquer.  This morning was one of those examples.  Colin had religious education class this morning so I took Colin to class while Dennis stayed home and took care of Logan, bathed him and put him down for a nap.  Meanwhile, Evan and I hung out at the church playground while Colin had class. I am very grateful to have a husband that is so helpful with the kids.

The afternoon was of course spent watching football.  It was nice to see the Redskins get another win and it is so cute that Colin is starting to take an interest in the games.  He will say things like "did you see that interception, you need to rewind that"!  He will watch for a little while and then he gets all excited and starts throwing a football up and catching it then running around the house.  Dennis took him outside to throw the football around after the game to get some of that energy out.  Colin is already asking when his next football season is, maybe football will be his sport like his Daddy???

Evan said something cute this evening....he said that he wants to share a room with Colin in the new house.  I asked if he wants bunk beds or to share the same bed and cuddle.  And he said he wants to cuddle.  He was completely serious, like of course he wanted to cuddle.  Colins response....he wants to share a room with the next baby and if we don't have another baby then he wants to share with Logan, that boy loves him some babies!

Soccer and Mexican

We had 3 soccer games today, since Colin's team is doing a round robin tournament to determine placement in next weeks Championship games.  Colin's team unfortunately lost both games but Colin did a great job, especially as goalie and defense.  Evan also did great today, he scored 2 goals!  He still is pretty distracted during his games, but in his defense he plays almost the whole game compared to the other 3 year olds that have to be forced to go out on the field and he smiles the whole time. 

We tried out a new Mexican restaurant tonight that was awesome!  Unfortunately, Logan has started an ear piercing scream when he gets really upset.  I am not sure why we bother going out to eat when we know he is fussy in the evenings, looks like it might be take out for a while!  He does seem to have a Dr. Jeckyll/ Mr. Hyde personality, once we got home he was laughing, playing and blowing bubbles...silly boy!

The Drool Monster

I have been thinking that Logan must be teething for the last 4 months, since he is always putting his fingers and toys in his mouth and drooling a lot.  Well, obviously I was wrong because he doesn't have any teeth yet.  But, the last couple days he has been soaking 3 bibs a day with drool so I am thinking for sure he must be getting a tooth soon??  

One thing we are experiencing with Logan is that he spits up....a lot!  He often goes through multiple outfits a day and I usually have at least one outfit change too!  With our other boys we could use the same burp cloth for a week and it would never get messed up and I never used bibs except when it was feeding time.  But, with Logan we are putting all those burp cloths and bibs to use!

The Witching Hour

I am told it is called the witching hour, that hour or so in the evening before bedtime that babies get real fussy.  I remember all of my boys being more fussy in the late afternoon/evening and Logan is definitely taking after his brothers.  If it were up to him bedtime would be 6pm.  Dennis and I try to keep him up until at least 7, but he is really fussy during that time. 

Tonight we had a "spirit night" for Colin's school.  This is where certain restaurants have nights where a percentage of their sales goes to the elementary school.  Dennis and I weren't going to take the boys but, then Colin showed up from school with a big sticker on his sweatshirt, reminding parents of the spirit night...so sneaky!  So, we decided to go since he was so excited about it.  I think Colin enjoyed seeing some of his classmates outside of school and his teacher as well.  I absolutely LOVE his teacher this year, I don't know how he got so lucky! 

Getting back to Logan...dinner was good, except for Logan of course was very fussy.  It is hard to be away from home past 6pm because he gets tired and cranky.  I know we are lucky that he is such a good sleeper and can't go more than 2 hours during the day without getting tired and wanting to be put to bed, but it does make it hard to leave the house.  He really loves his bed.  Oh well, could be worse at least he loves to sleep!

Brothers Take Care of Each Other

It is interesting to see the dynamic between each of the kids with each other.  Today Logan and Evan were home with me.  They really seem to love each other.  Logan laughs at Evan but does seem a bit cautious of him.  I don't think Evan realizes how fragile babies are and some times is a bit rough, even when he is just giving hugs and kisses.  They do have fun playing together. 

Dennis and I have been really lucky that we haven't dealt with any sibling jealousy at all up to this point.  Both of the older boys love babies!  So, when Evan was born and now with Logan we haven't had to worry about jealousy.   Colin and Evan actually fight over who gets to hold Logan or "babysit" him when I need to do something.

We have a house motto "brothers don't hurt each other, brothers take care of each other", I remind them of this when they hurt each other.   I am sure at some point the sibling rivalry will kick in, but I hope they always love each other as much as they do right now. 

In other news....I guess this picture shows who the boys get there drawing talents and love of drawing from (see yesterdays post)....

A Pretty Good Day

Another fun day hanging out with Logan.  I recently started pulling out some of the bigger baby toys for him and he is loving just sitting and playing.  I love his laughs and smiles.  He is also sleeping pretty good...3 naps during the day and about 11 hours at night.  If he gets fussy during the day he is most likely sleepy.  He seems to cry more when he is tired than any other time.

Evan got his school pictures which turned out great!  I was happy to see he didn't do the squinty eye, cheesy grin that he seems to do in most pictures.  His teacher said he had another good day at school.  He is having an awesome year at school and has yet to get in trouble.  I am crossing my fingers that this good behavior at school continues.

Of course, Evan couldn't be perfect all day....at practice he punched one of the Dads in the privates!  I didn't see it and am hoping it was at least somewhat on accident.  Needless to say he had a talking to after that!

Fall Festival Fun!

This has been a big year for Colin, a few months ago Colin started swimming and riding a 2 wheel bike, within weeks of each other.  This was huge for Colin who is by nature pretty cautious.  However, like most things with Colin, once he gets over the fear, he takes off and learns things pretty quickly.  By the end of summer he was swimming all over the deep end and was even going down the water slide.  Today, he went out with Dennis and practiced riding his bike some more, he is really getting the hang of it!  Evan had fun riding his tricycle, which he also mastered this past summer.

The afternoon was spent at our neighborhoods fall festival.  We absolutely love our neighborhood here in Richmond, there are so many kid and family activities.  Today they had pumpkin decorating, hay rides, a playground, cotton candy and apple cider, a petting zoo, a blue grass band, face painting, balloon making and games.  The boys were mad that we didn't tell them they could go in costume, but when they got over that they had a lot of fun! 

The boys were mostly good at the festival, but this picture taken at the end pretty much sums up life with a 3 year old at times.....

This was slightly better.....

Grandma And Robert Visit!

The boys both had soccer games at the same time this morning, so we had to bounce between the two games.  Colin played his heart out again.  He scored a goal and came very close a couple other times.  He also did a great job on defense and goalie again, not letting any goals get through, he was really all over the field.  I am not sure if Evan was playing soccer or superhero's, but he also had a lot of fun.  He kept making superhero arms as he ran.  The parents make a tunnel at the end of the games for the kids to run through and that was by far Evan's favorite part of the game.

After the game Grandma and Robert gave the boys gift cards to the bookstore so they went with them to pick out books.  Of course the boys came back with a pile of books (mostly superhero ones).  My boys love books, so that was a perfect gift for them.  As always they really enjoyed their visit from Grandma and Robert.

The rest of the day was spent playing outside with Daddy.  Colin did pretty well learning to catch a football mid run.  Of course outside play ended with an injury....Dennis kicked a ball right in Colin's face, nice job Daddy!  The cherry on top to this great Saturday was watching the Hokie's win!

The Whole World Loves Me

When Evan woke up he came charging in to Logan's room where I was feeding Logan, his hair was sticking straight up and like every morning he had a big smile on his face.  He is a morning person just like his Daddy.  He gave Logan a big hug and kiss and said "Logan loves me".  Then he said, "The whole world loves me".  Now, I am completely biased, but I do think if the whole world knew Evan they would surely love him.  He is just one of those happy, lovable kids that always has a big grin on his face and talks in a cute way (just like Cookie Monster according to a couple people).  To know him is to love him in my opinion.

I remember my mom saying that two and three year olds are cute because it keeps you from killing them.   There is something about the way Evan looks at me with his big brown eyes that makes me give him kisses right after I have yelled at him.  We went to Red Robin for dinner and he was a bit of a mess, laying all over the booth.  And, if he wasn't so cute, I don't know what I would have done...

That little boy for sure has a special place in my heart.

I Love Rainy Days

It was storming today when I got Colin on the school bus and dropped Evan off at preschool, so I decided to abandon my plans to run errands and instead enjoy the day at home.  I put some soup on the slow cooker and enjoyed the smell of that all day while I played with Logan and listened to the rain fall.  It was just a great day to be at home!

When Colin got home he wanted to help me make corn muffins to go with the soup.  Colin and Evan both really enjoy helping me bake.  It is really fun to have them in the kitchen with me!  If you look really closely at the picture you can see Colin is missing his bottom tooth.  He lost his first tooth a few weeks ago, and was so excited to get his first visit from the tooth fairy.  Dennis and I both felt like it was a big moment and he was really growing up!

Dennis got home tonight from Indianapolis!  It is always nice to have him back and I can't wait until we move so that he won't be traveling anymore.

Rub A Dub Dub

Today was just one of those days.  I sit here now with a busted lip thanks to Logan giving me a head bonk!  It started when Evan woke me up at 5:50 am for some reason (after he did not fall asleep until 9:45pm last night).  He was cranky and whiny all day as a result.  I took him to play group to get out of the house and him and Logan both had a good time.

Colin then got mad at me because I wouldn't let him have a snack right before dinner and he told me "You are not my best friend forever and ever, until I die".  That was the first time he had told me that and it of course made me a little sad.  Someone once told me boys don't hold grudges and sure enough within a minute he was over it.

There was a bright spot in the day, CNN was on pretty much all day showing the Chilean miners being rescued, I couldn't turn it off, it was so touching!

My favorite time of the day was baths and bedtime.  The boys calmed down and had a lot of fun bathing in the bath together.  And, I was happy the day was over and we could start over again tomorrow.  Time for wine and a chick flick!

The Way To A Boys Heart....Food!!!

Colin came home today as "King of the day", not really sure what that meant except that he said he could pick what "center" he wanted first.  One of the interesting things about having a kindergartner is that you never really know what they are doing at school.  For example, I asked him today what he had for lunch and he said "I had the best cheeseburger ever, it had candy on it"??  I have no idea what he is talking about and highly doubt the school lunch included candy!

Speaking of school lunch...Colin's school participates in lunchmoney.com.  It is so neat, I can put money on his account and have it so it automatically takes money from my credit card to pay for his meals.  I can also see what he is eating and make restrictions on what he can eat.  Dennis and I decided to not restrict the amount he spends, because we wanted him to be allowed to get an extra milk if his spilled or more food if he was hungry.  But, we thought what a great experiment to see if he really eats what he says he did.  He does a great job with it, but the third week of school he comes home and says "There was extra money on my card so I got a cupcake"!!  I guess it was a matter of time before he discovered that.  So, we came up with a compromise.  At the end of the week if he has been on "green" all week (they have a traffic light system for good behavior at school), then he can get an extra "treat" at lunch on Fridays.  So, far that seems to be working well.

While I am on the subject of food...I gave Logan his first finger food today, a cracker.  He LOVED it!  I think he was so excited to get to eat big people food.  I also gave him meat baby food for the first time, which he seemed to like.  We have tried every fruit and vegetable and he loves them all.  I have a feeling he is going to move to table food pretty quickly.  He is growing up too quick!

Adventures In The Porta Potty



Logan enjoying Colin having 3hr early release from school!



Colin took this picture!

Ahhhhhhhh.....I can finally put my feet up and relax.  Dennis is Indy this week which makes for an exhausting week for me.  Especially Mondays with having to get the boys to soccer practice.  Dinner was helped out by McDonald's drive thru.  I am still waiting for the boys to realize that happy meals can come with fries, I always get apples and milk for them and so far they are happy with that.

Practices went ok except for Logan being fussy off and on, and Evan having to go potty.  I was just thanking god for little boys because I was able to take Evan to the woods instead of the dirty porta potty, when Evan says "Now me need to go poo poo"!  Ugh!!!  So, with Logan in one arm I helped Evan go in the porta potty, it was not an easy task and thank goodness for antibacterial soap!

Well, practice ended at 7:15, I had to unload the car, feed Logan, put him to bed, give the boys baths and get them to bed and pump.  Somehow I managed to get it all done by 8 pm!  I don't know how Moms that don't have good organization and time management skills do it, I really think "Stay at Home Mom" should be able to go on my resume!