While Dennis Is Away...

Movie night...

Wednesday was parents night for Colin.  Dennis relieved me at soccer practice so I could go.  Colin's teacher, Mrs. Lewis seems great. She has lots of experience and is very excited about her job.  She also raised 3 sons of her own and 3 step sons, so I know she should have no problem relating to boys.

Thursday morning Dennis left for Vegas before the rest of us woke up.  He is there until Sunday night for his best friend Jeremy's bachelor party (Dennis is the best man).  Luckily, our neighbor was willing to watch all 3 boys at her house so I could still make it to Evan's parents night that evening.  When I met Evan's teacher she told me that Evan said his dad was out of town and that he is friends with the president???  I have no idea why Evan made that up.  When I asked him, he said he was trying to trick her.  He is such a silly kid sometimes.  Evan's teacher, Mrs. Sizemore, seems sweet.  She is a younger teacher than Colin's, but Evan seems to really like her.

While Dennis has been away, I have been doing a ton of cleaning and organizing.  Friday the bunk beds and new furniture for Colin and Evan's room arrived.  I am itching to start getting the room set up, but since it is all sitting in the garage, it will have to wait until Dennis gets back.   In the meantime, the boys helped me by moving Logan's books into what will soon be his new room and putting Evan's books away for now.  I have also been going through the kids clothes to make sure they had the right sizes in their drawers and putting away what no longer fits.

Friday I met Evan for lunch at his school.  He was excited to see me, which was so cute.  We enjoyed talking to each other during lunch.  His teacher told me there were some tears after I left and that she held his hand walking back to class, but he recovered pretty quickly.  He is definitely becoming a more sensitive kid and is no longer the kid that doesn't get phased by anything.  I love that this school gives parents the opportunity to have lunch with their child whenever they would like.

I was hoping to spend the whole weekend at the pool, to enjoy it one last time before it closes for the year.  However, it is supposed to rain all weekend.  Since there is nothing worse than being out and about with 3 kids when it is pouring rain, we opted to stay in this weekend.  While I cleaned and did laundry, the boys helped me with a few little projects and some cleaning.  They also spent a lot of time playing together.  Days like this make me grateful for lots of kids.  Sure, it would be quieter with less kids, but at least they have each other to play with and keep entertained.  This left the "I'm bored" and "What is there to do" comments to a minimum.  We ended both Friday and Saturday with movie nights at home.  We are getting a little restless and I will have to be more creative tomorrow with stuff to do, but it's nice to have quiet weekends sometimes.

Logan has been talking a lot lately.  His language has just taken off over the last few months.  I heard "Mama what you doin'?"  many times today.  Except he says it with what sounds like an indian accent.

The boys have also kept themselves entertained by playing dress up....

Productive Weekend.

Monday, I spent all day in Colin's classroom helping his teacher cut out stuff and organize binders.  It was nice to be able to help out, since I know I won't be able to once the baby comes.  School seems to be going well for both Colin and Evan so far.  They have both adjusted into their new classes well.

Friday, the boys school had a party for Kindergartners and their families.  The boys got to get their faces painted and do a craft.  They also had a show with different animals.  The boys got a kick out of the snake and owl.

Saturday and Sunday Colin had a soccer game both days.  He also had pictures before his Saturday game, which meant he had to be on the other side of town by 7am!  Dennis took him to the pictures, while I got the rest of the kids ready and then we met them at the game at 8 am.  Colin's team won the game.  Colin did great and managed to get a couple goals too.  The Sunday game was not until 3pm and Colin was dragging.  He was very tired, but still did a good job.  They ended up in a tie 2-2.

Colin scoring

Sunday morning Colin, Evan and I went to church.  I think the only reason they agree to come with me is to go to Starbucks afterwards...I guess we need to work on that, since they are missing the point.  After that, we all went out to pick up some paint so Dennis could touch up some areas around the house (our builders recently fixed all the nail pops around the house as part of our 1 year warranty) and then we had a nice lunch out.

We didn't have any plans this weekend other than the games, so Dennis got a lot accomplished around the house.  It is always nice to have a productive weekend.

I am technically back to work, but have had no patients yet.  Which means I have had time to do stuff around the house too.  I have been cleaning and organizing the kids clothes, putting away what doesn't fit and pulling out the next size up.

Today, I emptied out all of Colin's drawers and cleaned off the top of his dresser and desk so I could take pictures of his furniture.  We are hoping to sell his bedroom furniture on craigslist, so we can make room for the new bunk beds that should be coming next week.  Then we will be able to really organize all the kids stuff and shuffle the kids into different rooms to make room for the new baby.  I am very eager to move Logan to a big boy bed and to get all their clothes organized in their new drawers.

The pregnancy is going well.  I have my 6 month appointment next week, so I haven't been to the doctor in a while.  I think Dennis and I are still shocked we are having a girl.  He actually seems to be less anxious about baby #4 and having a girl than I am!

Gen Con

Gen Con is an annual four day convention for gaming which takes place in Indianapolis.  People come from all over the country for it.  There are people dressed in costume as Star Wars characters and Superhero's, as well as other characters.  Big gaming fans like those that play Dungeons and Dragons come.  Dennis decided to take Colin and Evan today and they had a blast!  They played different games, got their faces painted and saw a bunch of characters.

One of our favorite games is Catan and the boys got a chance to play Catan Junior which they really enjoyed, so Dennis was able to purchase it for them.  Now we can all play as a family.

Saturday was spent at Colin's first soccer game.  They have goalies this season, so scoring was a bit harder, but he still managed to make a goal.  His team lost a close game, but they did very well.  Colin's coach came up to us afterwards and was pretty impressed with his playing ability.

The rest of Saturday Dennis had 2 different fantasy football drafts that he did over FaceTime on the computer.  In between, he hung out with us outside.  After the kids went to bed I went over to our next door neighbors house to hang out on their back patio.  They let off their fireworks that they had not gotten a chance to do for Fourth of July, due to a ban on them (because of the drought).  It was neat because a bunch of different neighbors all were sitting out on their back porches and watched as the fireworks were set off in the common area behind our house.  Dennis was still doing his second draft, but he came over for a short time after.  It was a busy weekend for Dennis and a pretty uneventful one for me.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that on Friday Dennis took Colin to the Carmel Highschool football game.  The highschool in this town is HUGE.  4,000 kids for just 9th-12th grade.  And football is a big deal.  Dennis said there were thousands of people there (we were told something like 20,000 people come for the games, not sure if that is true).  People were even tailgating before the game!  They stayed for the first half and then came home since it was way past bedtime for Colin.  Colin really enjoyed it though.

Back To School 2012!

My kids have made the first day of Kindergarten very easy on me.  When it was Colin's turn to go, he got right on that bus and smiled and waved to me.  Today, it was Evan's turn to head off to Kindergarten and he too had not one bit of nerves.  If I wanted to get down on myself I could wonder why my kids are so eager to leave the house, but I prefer to think of it as a good thing, that they are secure and ready to face the world.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It was very cute because Evan had to sit up front with the other Kindergartners, but Colin moved up from his seat to sit next to him.  I love that he is taking care of his brother, especially without me asking him to.  They both had great days at school.  Colin was excited that his best buddy from first grade is in his 3rd grade Math class.  Evan was excited about Lunch and the bus and said his teacher was "very, very nice".  I hope that the rest of Kindergarten and 2nd grade go this smoothly.

I will say this school prepared the Kindergartners well.  Monday night I took Evan to the Kindergarten orientation.  They had the kids ride a school bus to get used to it and talked about safety.  They went through the lunch line and got a snack, they did a scavenger hunt in their classrooms and they did a craft in the library.  It was a very well organized evening.

While they were at school, I had some errands to run and then I decided to surprise the boys with a cake when they got home.  They were super excited!  Wednesdays are going to be a busy day for us for the next couple months.  We had Evan's gymnastics from 4-5, which he is really enjoying.  Then, we had Colin's first soccer practice of the season from 5:30-6:45.  Dennis helped me by picking up Logan and I made sure dinner was in the crock pot, so they could eat when they got home.  I guess it will be crock pot Wednesdays for us until after the fall season.

Friday, I am officially back to work....well, at least until I have this baby and then I think I will take an extended time off from working.  It has been a fun summer, but there is something nice about getting back into the school routine again too.

Evan's first day of Kindergarten.

Colin's first day of Second Grade.

Indy State Fair 2012

We have been to the Virginia and Maryland state fairs so we thought we knew what to expect going to the Indy one this weekend.  Well, we had no idea how HUGE it was.  It was easily the Maryland and Virginia ones put together and possibly even bigger than that.  I have never seen so many food stands in my life!  There was also way more rides than we were expecting.

We did a ton of walking.   Had I known how big it was I would have brought the double stroller, because Evan was exhausted from all the walking not even half way through.  But, we ate good, had some fresh ice cream (cows were the theme of the whole fair), rode a few rides, saw some lego exhibits and Evan even got to ride a pony.  It was a great day.  Oh, and we lucked out on weather.  It has been a VERY hot and humid summer here (drought conditions and one of the worst summers they have on record since the early 1900's) and most days have been hotter here than in Virginia.  But, on the day we went to the fair it was upper 60's/low 70's and perfect.

Looking at the Lego displays

Oh and in other news...My parents 14th grandchild and 10th grandson, Brandon David was born on Thursday August 9th!  So, Julie and Phil now have boy, girl, boy.  We are so bummed to not be there to see him and will have to wait until October to meet him at his baptism.

It's A Girl!!!

At our 13 week ultrasound the Tech guessed that we were having a girl.  However, I had read that many times the guesses are wrong this early, so we didn't take it too seriously.  She said sometimes she doesn't even bother guessing, so I should have known she must have been somewhat confident in this guess.  We decided not to tell anyone since she could be wrong.  But, prior to that moment I was thinking that I must be having a boy because everything seemed pretty similar.  I never even thought about the possibility it could be a girl, because I just assumed we would have 4 boys.

Between 13 weeks and 20 weeks my opinion slowly started to change.  I noticed I was nauseous a bit longer and carrying my weight in places other than my stomach...unfortunately.  So, I started to think maybe she was right after all.  It definitely made waiting for the 20 week ultrasound harder, because we were very curious to see if she was right.

Well, the day finally came today.  We brought Colin and Evan along since they are home from school.  This time we were at a different place with a new Tech, so that made me confident that if they both saw the same thing, they are probably right.  Dennis and I eagerly waited through all her measurements to see what she would guess.  We both thought we saw that it was a girl as soon as the screen went up, but stayed quiet waiting for her to say something.  Finally after about 15 minutes of her doing all the measurements and looking for what she needed to see she said, "Well, looks like it is a girl!"  We were so excited.  The boys were excited to, well as excited as little boys get about this sort of thing.  They didn't really care what the sex was.  Evan did comment that she was "Chillin" and "Chillaxin".

Dennis and I are still in shock, it is hard to imagine how a girl is going to shake things up around here.  I am excited to get to see Dennis with a daughter and hoping the mother/daughter bond is as strong as the mother/son one, because I loved having baby boys!  I am also eager to start going through our baby clothes to pick out the few neutral stuff and purging all the rest.  We don't have a single girl blanket, sheet, clothing item, toy, etc, in this house so we have some work to do between now and December!  Hopefully, we will get hand me downs from family or friends...

Anyway, it has been a very fun day finding out.  I really wanted to wait until she was born to find out and that would have been a lot of fun to tell people at the moment.  But, being that we are not prepared for a girl, it probably will be helpful to be able to get some hand me downs before she is born.  It should be a fun next few months getting ready.

In other news....Evan had his first gymnastics class today!  He absolutely loved it!  I look forward to bringing him again next week!

(I need Dennis' help to scan the ultrasound photos and post them, so that will be posted later...)

Home Haircuts.

Dennis and I have been talking for a long time about how much easier and cheaper it would be if we just buzzed all the kids hair here at home.  Their hair grows so fast we go for haircuts pretty often.  Really, we were just thinking Colin and Logan, since we like Evan's hair longer, but Evan didn't like being left out and wanted his hair cut too.  So, here are the results...

Evan Before...

And After...

We have been watching a lot of the Olympics around here...

Watching the Olympics, they always seem to end up right next to each other when they watch shows.

Yesterday we spent about 4 hours at the pool.  I am still so happy that my two older boys play so nicely together at the pool.  In between swimming some laps, I was able to read some of my book and they just played and played.  Of course Logan was not with us, when he is with us I have to be near the water watching much closer.

Today, I took the kids to Conor Prairie for the first time.  I have been meaning to check it out for a while now and I was happy to finally go.  It is an old praise town, where people are dressed up and you can see what an old school house looked like as well as wagons and different tools.  There is also an Indian town and a Civil War area.  The boys were most excited about the indoor Science/Lego area and crafts, but in their defense it was super hot today.  We didn't get to see everything and with a big family I am realizing we are better off buying a membership to most sites, so we will be back again.

I am almost 20 weeks pregnant and I am still nauseous this time around.  I have also been very tired.  But, I am trying my hardest to give the boys a fun summer.  I am really hoping it goes away soon, but it sure isn't looking good.  Luckily, it comes and goes and some days are better than others.