The perfect picture of our kids!

I have just spent quite a bit of time going through pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch yesterday. As I sorted through the pictures it was very obvious that we tried many times to get that "perfect" picture of all 4 of the kids together. Seriously, if you have more than one child you know exactly what I'm talking about....that one picture that shows all of your kids looking at the camera, smiling, and looking like they are so happy to be together on this glorious family outing. Well, as I was searching for that "perfect" picture amongst our numerous outtakes I came across this very special picture. I instantly knew this was the one-the picture that deserved its very own blog post. Why? Well, le'ts look more closely.....first we see Paige on the far left. I'm not exactly sure what she's looking at or what she's thinking. But, oh does this capture Paige..that distant daydreaming look she so often gets. Is this the look her teacher sees when she mentions that Paige isn't completing her work because of daydreaming? Next we move on to Ryan. Is that a yawn?? Seriously, dude, we are working on trying to get THE perfect picture and you have the nerve to YAWN? No doubt, that's Ryan--just laid back and cool as a cucumber (just don't make him mad). Now what is AJ doing? I'll tell you exactly what he's doing....he's pointing out an airplane flying overhead. And no, it makes no difference that we have said "cool, an airplane....now look over here" a gazillion times. He's nothing if he's not persistent. Too bad the other kids were done by the time the plane was completely out of sight. And now we move on to our eldest child....WAIT!!! Do we have one looking at the camera and smiling? Well, I guess 1 out of 4 isn't too bad.

And, here are more of the outtakes of us trying to get the PERFECT picture:

Goofing off on a lazy Saturday morning

Disclaimer: The following stunts are done by a rambuctious, fearless toddler. Do not attempt at home! I'm pretty sure this isn't what Fisher Price had in my mind when they created this little bounce n spin pony, but AJ sure does love practicing his stuntman routine on it. Enjoy the next series of pictures. We sure had fun snapping the pictures. We were all just sitting around watching TV--kids were doing various things. Out of nowhere AJ started trying to balance himself on the pony. Like the good parents we are, we went and grabbed the camera and told him to do it again instead of telling him "get down before you hurt yourself". That's what we probably would have said with Kaeli, but on the 4th one we just consider it entertainment and enjoy the break from kids arguing.

And, here he is....the masked hero of our story.

And, now he's thrown his mask aside and is attempting his daring ride balancing on the horse's back as it gallops at full speed!!

Oh wait.....will our hero fall??

Alas, he regains his balance and is back in control as his horse gallops off.

Did he just jump off??? What was he thinking? I see now, he's off to rescue his damsel in distress as she lays face down on the ground. Hurry, fearless hero....save her!!!

Now our hero watches over his TWO ladies after his daring rescues. He must be exhausted. (actually these pictures were taken later in the day--he just looked so cute laying there watching over his babies)

Of course, our hero has received so much attention that there are bound to be copycats that follow in his footsteps.

THE END.....

Birthday Cake

We also had a little party--it was really the Fisher Price Playdate house party, but we did buy him a cake and sang happy birthday. Here he is showing off his cake and saying "cheese"! As soon as we let him get the train he proceeded to use it to "dip" into the cake for taste-testing.

AJ turned 2!

I'm definitely running a little behind!! AJ's 2nd birthday was Sept 19. These pictures are from the actual night of his birthday. We had chicken nuggets for dinner, followed by cupcakes, and then let him open his presents.

As you can see from this picture, he's certainly enjoying his cupcake!

And, now it's time to open presents.

He was very excited about his cars.....and also the Thomas the Train stuff he got. He loves, loves, love Thomas and cars!! The cars he's showing off in this picture are Darda cars he got from Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop. I didn't know what they were until Mom-Mom bought him some last Christmas. Now we all love them! They come with little flexible tracks and the cars go by themselves after you "wind" the car up by pulling it backwards and pushing it forward really fast. It's very easy to get them wound--easy enough for AJ to do it by himself. We are constantly losing these cars because they often going flying through the house and, of course, under furniture. One of these days when we move out of this house we are going to find a ton of the Darda cars hidden all over the house.

Yes, I'm really adding a new entry!

I actually have so many pictures and at least 2 videos I'd love to get on here eventually....but it's coming along. I have too many "irons in the fire" I think.

Let's see, where should I start?

I'll start with Kaeli since she's the oldest. She joined the 3rd and 4th grade chorus this year. She came home today and told me that the teacher chose her as the announcer for the chorus recitals. I find this completely shocking and I can't help but wonder what the teacher was thinking--especially when Kaeli described how it happened. Kaeli signed up to audition for a particular part. When it came time for her audition she was just too shy to do it in front of all the other kids. So, she auditioned for the teacher in private. Kaeli did not get the part she auditioned for, but the teacher told her she has a wonderful voice and assigned her to be the announcer. Now, I'm wondering....if Kaeli couldn't get up and audition in front of a bunch of kids she KNOWS, how is she going to get up in front of an audience of unfamiliar faces and announce anything? This should be interesting and I can't wait to see how it plays out. Kaeli definitely is feeling quite proud of her teacher's comment about her "wonderful voice". WE are in trouble! She already walks around singing constantly. Unfortunately, I think her teacher meant that she's good at projecting her voice--not that she has a good singing voice. But, what do I know? Maybe she'll surprise me. Other than the star in training, she's handling 3rd grade superbly. She was very concerned because she had heard how much harder 3rd grade is...but she's rising to the challenge. She's so self-motivated that I'm finally beginning to relax a little and realize that she will always do well because of a drive from within. I actually felt apprehensive at the beginning of this year for a variety of reasons-it's nice to realize that apprehension was completely unfounded. WHEW...one down, 3 to go (and something tells me they won't be so easy).

Paige learned to ride her bicycle without training wheels last week! We tried early in the summer, but she just wasn't ready. This time we decided to try on a whim and she took off without a problem. She was off riding like a pro with the first push. I've been working on editing that video to share it so hopefully it'll be up soon. She was so proud of herself! At school she's really excelling as well. We do still struggle with the motivation and daydreaming issues, but it's obviously not affecting her grades. She got her mid-term progress report on Friday and so far her averages are 100, 100, 100, and 98. The 98 was in math. She was sitting at the table when I was looking over her progress report. I went through each one and called out the grade. When I got to the 98 she very incredulously, with a definite questioning tone, asked "98?!" We all got a good laugh out of that for a moment. Ok, but this is only 1st grade, so I won't be letting my guard down anytime soon. Still have to keep an eye on this one. One more thing about Paige-I'm beginning to wonder if she has allergies. She's been coughing like crazy every night. It's been pretty terrible and she wakes up looking exhausted. This happens EVERY single year and the Dr has never been able to give any explanations. I called and talked to the nurse today. She asked about allergies and suggested that maybe I could give some OTC allergy meds a try to see if that helps. So, tonight I gave her Claritin (non-drowsy allergy meds) about an hour before bedtime. I could not believe it when Kaeli came down to tell us that Paige had fallen asleep while they were reading. Not a single cough! I went up to actually get her in bed and she was completely out and never once coughed. A couple of hours later and I still haven't heard a cough! This would be sooooooo awesome if a dose of allergy meds every night fixes this coughing problem!

Ryan-quite honestly, there's not a whole heck of a lot going on with him. He's loving school now. Last year he would ask if he had to go to school and start crying if I said yes. This year he says "I not mind". Then when we get to the school his teacher is usually waiting at the door. He will literally run all the way up the sidewalk until he gets to her. We have to keep reminding him not to run. The first day he did that I actually teared-up a little. There was just something very sentimental about watching my BIG boy run off to greet his teacher without so much as a glance back at me. Natalie, his speech therapist, is just amazed by him. She can't believe how well he's doing now! It's pretty amazing to see how far we've come in only 6-8 months. These days he's just working on adding more words to his sentences and how to say multisyllable words more fluently. But, there's probably not a day that goes by when he doesn't surprise in some way or another. In fact, his memory has been shocking me lately. He's been workng on memorizing bible verses for AWANA. I cannot believe how quickly he learns the verses!! And, he actually LOVES to practicing them! He's one sweet, adorable little boy!

AJ--what do I say about him? AJ is just about the most lovable 2 yr old in the whole entire world.....and just about the most frustrating 2 yr old in the whole entire world. There are some moments that I want him to freeze at this stage and never grow older. Then there are, of course, days that I keep wishing he'd grow up faster. He's so affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses. Sometimes he'll give me a tight hug completely unprompted. His signing vocabulary grows daily! He has really caught on to signing so much more quickly that the other kids ever did. Of course, I have been using it more regularly with him. But, it's still amazing how quickly he picks up new signs and starts using them for real communication. I can't even describe how thrilled I am that we can use signing for communicating. He does try to use words, but they are so off most of the time that I'd have no idea what he was saying without the accompanying signs. He's taking a huge interest in the potty and will often ask to sit on the potty. He knows exactly what he's doing and will usually produce a little bit of peepee when he does sit on the potty. We just might start considering real potty training within the next few months!! Could it be?.......might I actually get to a point where I won't have to buy diapers????? Of course, I will continue having to buy pull-ups for a while, but no diapers would be amazing!

Other than the kids, I just got a call from my mom today!! She's coming to visit for a long weekend Oct 16-19!! My mom lives too far for it to be considered driving distance so we rarely get to see each other. I'm very excited to see her again! It has been so long! I told the girls about it today and they were very excited as well.

I'm sure I could write tons more since it's been so long, but I will stop there. I really have to get myself in bed! I will make it a priority to get at least one of the videos on here within the next week.

Could they be any more different?

All 6 of us attended open house at the kids' school tonight. It went well....considering that we have 4 kids with one in the terrible twos. They only had 2 sessions so we went to Kaeli's and Paige's classes for the whole speech and just dropped in look to at Ryan's class really quick.

Ryan's teachers said he's a pleasure. While he's mostly quiet, he does participate in class and even raises his hand to get called on.....how sweet!

The thing that is so interesting to me is how night and day different Kaeli and Paige are as far as schoolwork goes. I didn't get a chance to talk to Kaeli's teacher tonight but I have talked to her recently-last week, I think. Paige's teacher was the one I was so glad to talk to. Her teacher hasn't been exactly stellar in the communication department. I feel like she could be giving more information since we are dealing with 1st graders. So, I got a few questions answered about the weekly vocab list and about when I should expect homework. I knew Paige was getting vocab words every week, but I didn't know what she was expected to do with them. Fortunately, she just needs to be able to read then on sight. She's a pretty good reader already so that hasn't been a problem. But, I did find out that she's supposed to have homework every weeknight--according to Paige she doesn't. I know last night she didn't bring any home. I also found 4 half-finished papers in her desk. I showed them to her teacher and found out it's morning work that Paige isn't completing (even though I know she has plenty of time). Paige's attitude toward all of it? A shrug of the shoulders and a little, sweet "oops". This is so incredibly different than Kaelil that I don't quite know how to handle it. Kaeli is obviously a type A personality. It drives her crazy to forget to do something. Not only does she does what's excpected, but she often goes beyond the expectations. She's soooo self-motivated that his made my job al ittle too easy, I think. Now, here I'm dealing with Paige who is absolutely opposite. I realize that I will just have to be in CONSTANT contact with Paige's teacher in order to keep her motivated. Her teacher is also going to stay on Paige a little more and have her stay in for recess and complete any work she doesn't turn in. I told her to do whatever it takes to get her in gear with taking more responsibility for herself. I taught way too many 7th graders with this problem. I think it'll be alot easier for us to correct this problem now than when she's in the older grades when this behavior can heavily impact a grade. But, I have to say, I wish I could have her "oh well" attitude a little more. She puts no stress on herself and rarely does she allow anything to really bother her....doesn't really sound like a bad way to go through life, though, does it?

At least I can let myself off the hook and stop blaming myself for Kaeli's almost neurotic approach to schoolwork. I can't imagine any stronger evidence for the theory that kids just come into the world with a certain amount of persoanlity already set. I wonder which one Ryan and AJ will be most like?

At least I can recharge a car battery now

The DVD player in my car has created a very bad habit for me. First of all, it automatically comes back on and starts up in exactly the spot it left off when I restart the car. The kids have now watched "The Lion King" a gazillion times--and they still can't get enough of it. When we get home from a quick trip AJ always wants to stay in the car to keep watching the movie. The bad habit is that I actually let him. I pull into the garage, close the garage door, and just leave the car ignition in the "on" position (so the car isn't running). I take off his seatbelt and leave the house door open so he can come in when he's ready. He ALWAYS comes in within 5-10 min and I USUALLY go out and turn the car off then--except today. I just completely forgot to go turn the car off when he came in. So, from 11:15-2:00 the car was running a DVD player. You guessed it--my car battery was dead! I called Steve and he walked me through the steps to putting the battery charger on it. Now, I have to say, I'm terrified of dealing with anything like that. But, Steve was very patient with me throughout the whole process. I didn't even hear laughing when I told him I had to put the phone down to connect the little recharger clips--although I'm sure he was laughing quietly to himself. I had to put the phone down so that if something bad happened I could react quickly without worrying about the phone. I know, my mind goes crazy with all the things that could go wrong. I'm very pleased to report that nothing bad happened and I got everything connected just right with no injuries.

But, while the battery was recharging I had to walk to the school to pick up the girls. Fortunately, we are less than a mile from the school. The problem was that before naptime Ryan scraped the back of his heel. I had forgotten about the scrape, but he certainly had not. When I tried to put his shoe on that foot he SCREAMED and wouldn't allow me to come anywhere near him with the shoe because he was afraid it would hurt his booboo. The problem was that we only have a single stroller now. AJ had to ride in the stroller and Ryan couldn't wear his shoe so he couldn't walk or ride his bike. Just as I was about to throw my hands in the air and cry, I saw the wagon. WHEW! It wasn't fun dragging a wagon all the way to the school, but at least we did all get there and in time.

As soon as I got home, the car started right up. Many lessons were learned today. I hope I never have to use the skill again, but at least I do know how to recharge a car battery now.

Update to the guinea pig bite

The bite looked better this morning so I decided AJ didn't need to see the Dr. Also, I did a little online research--I know, shocking!! haha--and found that infection from guinea pig bites are uncommon. That doesn't mean I won't keep my eye on it, but it's comforting to know the odds are on our side.

Other than that, nothing interesting going on arond here. Paige is having significantly less problems with sleep. She's only complained of a few stomach aches. Kaeli loves her teacher and her class. Ryan is even going to school without any crying. All in all, life is good.

Guinea pig bite

Wouldn't you know that a biting guinea pig is very rare and we seem to have one! To give the guinea pig the benefit of the doubt, I don't think he really meant to BITE. I think he was planning to have a nice juicy sausage for snack. Yesterday, AJ was sitting on the floor without shoes on while the guinea pig was running around on the floor. Completely unprovoked (or so I hear-I wasn't in the room) the guinea pig came up and took a bit out of AJ's big toe. There was a good bit of blood and the cut seems to be fairly deep. But, we cleaned it up as best we could, put some neosporin on it, and covered it with a band-aid. I just took the band-aid of a little while ago. It's not TOO terrible looking, but doesn't look great, either. Right around the bite area it's kind of a purplish, whitish color and then there is a big red ring around that. I'm thinking the purplish area may just be bruising, but I don't know for sure. But, the fact that it looks a little bad now has me thinking about how much bacteria was probably introduced into that bite area. Just the thought of a deep-ish bite wound from a hairy little rodent now has me a little weirded out. I've decided, to be on the safe side, I'll take him to the Dr tomorrow. At least I'll feel better if he tells me there's nothing to worry about.

What have I been up to?

I've been creating a new blog! I enjoy writing and I enjoy sharing with others. In a nutshell? I love blogging! But, with all the very personal info on this site, it wasn't exactly conducive to sharing with the whole world. Well, now I've created a new blog that is completely separate from this one. I will continue to update this blog on a personal basis so not much will change for my family and close friends. Just keep reading here for the mundane details of our everyday life.

Because I do have a category of posts on my new blog about some of the anecdotal situations with the kids I am creating a link from this blog to the new one that will take you specifically to those posts. The link will be just before the posts themselves on this blog. At this point, I don't know how often I will be adding to that section. Just check periodically to see if I've added anything new.

AJ's first two word sentence-kind of

AJ just came up to me and did the signs for "eat" and "more" back to back to ask for more crackers!! That is his first official two word sentence--even if it is in sign language instead of actual speech. The reason this is significant is because it means his level of understanding speech is right on target for an almost 2 yr old. I'm also impressed because he took two signs that he knows and formulated a plan in his head for how to use those to get what he wanted. I'm not exactly surprised he was able to do this because he's always seemed fairly intelligent. But, it is definitive proof that he's where he needs to be and that as soon as his ability to form words catches up with his understanding his speech will take off at lightning speed. Not unlike his older sister and brother, of course.

I must say, this late speech development becomes easier and easier to deal with the more you go through it. Kaeli started talking right at 2, Ryan at 3......chances are I wouldn't get too concerned about AJ until age 4. But, I'm confident it won't take him that long. He already has several words and will try to say lots more words--they just sound nothing like the target word. But, the important thing is that he's trying and he IS communicating! One thing I find funny is that AJ's word for train is exactly the same as Ryan's first word for train. The word he uses is "eee". We never understood why Ryan chose such an unusual substitution for the word. But, even more strange to me is that AJ has chosen the exact same substitution. (Ryan does say it correctly now, so it didn't come from hearing Ryan-I don't think). Interesting!

Maryland Science Center

Back in the early part of August my neighbor and I took the kids to the Maryland Science Center. My mother-in-law watched AJ for me all day to make it a little easier for the older kids to have fun without dealing with a toddler. In fact, I saw a little girl about his age throwing an all out tantrum a little after noon. I thought to myself that's exactly what AJ would like right about that time when he started getting tired. So we were able to stay all day and the kids had a wonderful time. I just love the Maryland Science Ctr and wish we lived closer-it's about 1.5 hrs from here.

So, here are some pictures from that outing.

Here's Paige, Ryan, and Sarah "discovering fossils". Very cute how much Ryan is concentrating on it.

This was such a neat part of the Science Ctr. Children 8 and older were able to perform a REAL experiment. Lindsey, Kaeli, and Sarah did an experiment to determine which household cleaners were most effective at killing germs. I don't think they got a clearcut answer, but they all gave a different answer when I asked. But, the sure had fun acting like real scientists!
Notice the look on Paige's face here. She's sulking because she couldn't do the science experiment since she's only 6. She and Ryan got to look at prepared slides under a microscope instead. She did finally come around when I started showing her cool stuff like human blood.

Our future scientists: Lindsey, Sarah, Kaeli, and Paige

Ryan, Kaeli, and Paige

Here's Kaeli in her space gear

Paige and Ryan standing next to a mannequin in a real space suit.

What an adorable astronaut!

Sleepwalking

I talked to our pediatrician today and he's pretty certain Paige's "waking" episodes are actually sleepwalking episodes. Tonight seemed to prove that theory. At bedtime Paige's stomach was hurting as usual. We did all our usual "calming" activities and then she asked for the heating pad. I had forgotten about that one. So, when she fell asleep she had the heating bad laying on her tummy. About an hour after she went to sleep we saw her in the hall upstairs. She was carrying the heating pad with her. We tried to ask her what she was doing and she didn't really respond. That is the part that was always confusing me.....she always *appeared* awake but didn't necessarily respond. The responses I did get were often just confusing and didn't make sense. So, I was aware that she was probably sleepwalking everything made more sense. I guided her back to bed and put the heating pad on her.

Now, why I never thought about sleepwalking is beyond me! She has definitely been wrought with sleep issues for most of her life. Up until about a year ago she had night terrors. Talk about SCARY! Well, night terrors and sleepwalking are all related. Also, sleepwalking has a genetic component and I've heard enough stories about my sleepwalking and talking antics to know exactly where those genes are coming from. I still talk out in my sleep from time to time when I'm overtired.

So, the reason for an increase in this sleepwalking is probably related to the stress of starting school. Stress and anxiety can trigger these episodes. So, while it is still related to her anxiety, at least I know she's not having nightmares all night long about school. Also, if it's sleepwalking she's not losing as much sleep as I originally thought.

As soon as I can get to the store I'm going to buy her some calming herbal tea for kids that a friend told me about. I'm also going to have her take a bath every night in my whirlpool tub with some calming bath bubbles. We'll continue with the relaxation/positive imagery techniques and heating pad at bed time. In the meantime, the pediatrician is going to get in touch with a child psychiatrist that he sometimes gets advice from. He's going to see if there's anything more we should be doing. If things don't start improving within the next couple of weeks I will have to start taking her to weekly therapy appts again.

On a good note, Kaeli's evening was MUCH better. No crying episodes or emotional outbursts. She was much more pleasant tonight. WHEW!

The school blues!

The adjustment to returning to school has been pretty rough on the kids so far. I'm sure it also has a lot to do with the fact that things inherently change at home as well. I know I am stricter with routines and chores during the school year than I am during the summer. So, I think I'm seeing the fallout from transitioning to new routines and changes in general.

Kaeli isn't terrible. She does cry alot more during the afternoons and she's just much more emotional in general. She has said at least once a day this week "why is everyone stressing me out".

Paige is the real problem for now. She isn't outwardly emotional, but she never has been. I think she keeps it in and that's why we see most of her issues appear at night. Before bed she gets bad stomach aches. Then she wakes up several times a night just crying out in her sleep. Monday night she was only up 3-4 times. Last night she was up 3 times before 10:30. I don't know exactly how many more times she got out of bed after that, but it seemed like a lot. She says she had a bad dream, but then she can't remember the bad dream. My concern is that she must be exhausted during the day. I did call the Dr's office today to discuss it with him and I'm waiting for a call back. I don't know what options we have, but we really need to do something for her. At least she hasn't had a pee accident yet. Maybe we have at least worked through that one!

Ryan is doing fine. He's crying at drop off, but I know he gets over it quickly. He has been somewhat difficult, but really not much more than usual.

First day pictures

First day of school approaches

Tomorrow will be the first day of school for Kaeli, Paige, and Ryan. Kaeli is going into 3rd grade, Paige will be in 1st and Ryan will be starting his first full year of preschool. I'm very excited--looking forward to things being a little quieter during the day. I'm guessing AJ will be lost for a while.

Kaeli is very apprehensive. She's heard many stories about 3rd grade and is very concerned that it will be too difficult. I do believe she'll have to work harder, but I doubt it'll be too much for her. Fortunately there will be plenty of familiar faces in her class this year. There are 4 kids in our neighborhood (within 2 blocks of us) that will be in her class--2 girls and 2 boys. The 2 boys are twins and were in her class last year. A few times this summer she rode her bike down to their house to play. As a side note, I forgot about the one time last weekend that was so cute. She walked into the door for the day and I saw only one of the boys walking down the driveway away from our house. He had walked her home and I thought that was so sweet! It's also funny because they get into alot of friendly competitions at school--it's a good, healthy academic rivalry that keeps them both motivated to do their best.

Paige is incredibly excited about starting school! In fact, she came downstairs this morning fully dressed and ready for her 1st day! Steve asked her if she was practicing for her 1st day of school tomorrow and she said "that's TOMORROW?!" So, she turned around with her head hung low and proceeded to change into something else. I sure hope her day goes well. She seems to have a very nice teacher. At this point we don't know any of the other kids in her class. I did just find out that our future girl scouts leader's daughter is in the class. So, while they don't know each other yet, I know they'll probably becomes friends since they'll be seeing each other outside of school as well. I'm looking forward to her becoming even more competent in reading. She's doing well, but I know she'll do even better with some direct teaching of more advanced decoding skills.

I know Ryan is going to dazzle his speech therapist with his new skills! I tried to warn her that she's going to be completley amazed by him, but I don't think she has any idea just how amazed she will be. I just wrote her a long note explaining where he is right now and what areas she might want to address. I'm certain that he will make progress in even bigger leaps and bounds once she starts working with him. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't qualify for services at the end of this year.

I will post their "first day of school" pictures when I get a chance tomorrow.

Excited to need deodorant?

YIKES! Strangely enough, Kaeli has been asking to wear deodorant for the past few months. I always told her she didn't need it yet and not to rush things. Well, a few minutes ago she put her arm around me and much to my huge surprise--she does indeed need deodorant now. I verified that it was her armpits I was smelling and not my own...lol. Then I informed her that she does indeed need to start wearing deodorant. She proceeded to jump up and down and celebrate. Then ran into the next room where our two neighbors were (they are over playing) and announced the news to them. Sarah said "you're GLAD to need deodorant?" When she's a teenager I'm sure she'll enjoy hearing all about her initial reaction to having stinky armpits. ;)

I yub you, mommy

Last night as I was taking Ryan upstairs for bed I told him to tell daddy "goodnight, I love you". He did exactly that. At that moment I realized how amazing it was for him to be able to repeat that phrase with such ease. I remembered not too long ago (maybe 6 mos ago) sitting next to his bed as I tucked him in saying "I love you" several times hoping he might try to repeat the phrase. But, all I ever got was a big grin. I waited so long for him to be able to say "I love you" back to me. I mentioned this memory out loud...... so Steve said "tell mommy you love her". With absolute ease Ryan said "I yub you, mommy" and gave me a gigantic hug!! You can better believe my eyes were full of water as the tears welled up.

Everything is looking good for school!!

I have been eagerly waiting to find out what Ryan's schedule would look like this year and I finally got the letter today. For the 3 yr old program there were lots of options--2 days/wk, 3 days/wk, morning, afternoon. I really, really wanted 3 days/wk in the morning and guess what???? That's what he got!!! YAY!! I could only put in my request, but space and other kids' needs were the first consideration before requests. I was a little concerned that they would cut him back to only 2 days a week since he's made so much progress in his speech. So, now I know he'll still get 3 days a week of speech therapy and that is awesome! While he's come a LONG way I know the more help he gets the more quickly we'll see MORE improvement. At this rate he just may be completely caught up by Kindergarten--that would be awesome!!

The other reason this schedule is so perfect is because Kaeli, Paige, and Ryan will all be dropped off at exactly the same time. They are all in the same building, so the girls can go in with me and just keep walking to their classroom when I stop to drop off Ryan. Then I just go back to get Ryan at 11:15. I'm so excited that I will have a FULL 3 hour window of time to do whatever needs to be done. Last year I dropped the girls off at 8:15 and then Ryan got dropped off at 8:45 (in another building) and then I had to be back to pick him up at 11:15.

Everything's looking good......all 3 have orientation on Aug 22 and then classes start Aug 25.

Ryan is lost.....

without his sisters! Every single day this week he has asked when Kaeli and Paige will be home. He doesn't understand days yet, so it's been hard to explain to him that it's going to be quite a while yet. But, it's been kind of neat to watch Ryan and AJ learn to play together without the girls running the show. Boys sure are different than girls. I'm SURE to find trouble any time these boys are on their own for a few minutes. Let's see....today I discovered toothpaste ALL over the bathroom. It's obviously pretty cool to paint the bathroom with toothpaste. Another time I was putting away clothes.....I hear Ryan saying "drop it, AJ". I heard this phrase a few more times before deciding to intervene. Ryan was downstairs in the family room encouraging AJ to drop anything he could find down from the balcony. At one point, AJ crawled into a chair with a book and proceeded to flip through the pages acting like he's reading. You know you're in trouble when the older of the two says "what is AJ doing?" The sad truth of the matter is that AJ is the one that gets "shafted" when it comes to having a book read to him at night. Being the bottom of the'food chain' means sometimes mom and dad just don't have the energy left to read another book at the end of the day. Besides, he doesn't complain.....YET!!

I talked to the girls today. Sounds like they are having a great time. Grampa signed Paige up for 2-- 1 hour private swimming lessons. She had her first lesson yesterday and is already diving into the deep end of the pool. This morning she said to me "I can swim in 9ft of water now, mom!" I'm so happy for her. She often gets left behind by the older kids in our neighbor's pool. Kaeli learned to swim this year, so she hangs with the bigger kids in the deep end. Paige usually just occupies herself in the shallow end. And, just like Paige--she never makes a single complaint about it, although I think it bothers her deep down. So, now she won't be left behind anymore.

Just us and the boys this week

Kaeli and Paige are staying the whole week with their grampa and grammy in North Carolina. I met my dad halfway (about 3 hrs) between his house and my house. The girls are incredibly excited because my brother's family will also be there. I think it's been 4 yrs since the girls got to spend time with their cousins. This is also a big milestone because they have NEVER been away from us for more than a day or two at most. I even found myself tearing up as I walked back to my car without them. Of course, I didn't let them see my tears. They were all smiles and weren't the least bit upset. I know they'll have a great time.

Steve and I didn't waste any time taking advantage of having only 2 kids. We already had a babysitter lined up for tonight. Normally, I have the babysitter come over after Ryan and AJ go to bed. But, since it was just the two of them we decided to have her come earlier. I was so proud of Ryan!! About an hour before Kailyn came over I told him what would happen. His only response was "how long you take?" When it was time for us to leave Ryan just waved and went back to playing with Kailyn. Even Kailyn was surprised because he normally screams and tantrums when we leave. Steve and I had a nice dinner all alone.

It should be an interesting week. I'm guessing it'll be a lot quieter!

Refrigerator is back in action

But, I don't think I'll ever call GE service again. They are EXPENSIVE! It only took the guy 30 min and it cost me 150.00 in labor alone. The part was 110.00. That's because they don't charge by the hour, it's by the job. Evidently our "mainboard" was bad and needed to be replaced. It basically looked like the "brains" of the fridge. So, I'm a little miffed that the brain died after only 4 years and cost so much to replace. I'm pretty sure I'm done with GE appliances. Our GE dishwasher is also only 4 years old and all the little plastic pieces are falling apart. Based on my experience it appears that you can only expect 4 good years from a GE appliance. Personally, I believe that major appliances are expensive enough to last longer than 4 years!

I did email their corporate customer service but didn't get anything more than "sorry". Oh well, live and learn.

This is off the subject, but has anyone else know a dog to CRAVE tomatoes? Our dog is insane! He has now stolen 6 tomatoes from my countertop! He got 4 on Sunday and then he got 2 more yesterday. I really need to learn to put them high enough that he can't reach. When he gets them he devours them--not a piece is left behind. It's just the weirdest thing ever! If I don't get more careful about where I leave the tomatoes he just might eat our entire crop. Thank goodness we have the fence around the garden or else I'm positive we'd have no tomatoes at all.

Room-temp refrigerator

Well, it appears that our refrigerator has decided to quit working. There is a digital thermostat that is very visible when you open the door to the fridge. When I opened it this morning, the freezer was -4 and the fridge was 52. We tried unplugging it to reset the computer, but it hasn't helped. The refrigerator part is now at 68 (perfect room temperature). Something about the whole thing is working because the freezer went from 12 degrees back to 0 degrees. But, the fridget just seem to stay at room temp. Fortunately, we have an extra refrigerator that only has drinks in it. We cleared out all the drinks today and filled the extra fridge with all the food. WHEW! Thank God we have the extra refrigerator.

I already scheduled a service call. The guy will be here sometime between 8 and 3 on Monday. Would you believe the first time given was 8-5.....why don't they just say ALL day? I was worried that the deal was over when I said I had to leave the house by 4. But, she changed it to reflect that necessity. But, seriously, sometimes I wonder how people do it when they have jobs. I mean really, is someone supposed to take an entire day off work to sit at home and wait for an appliance repair man? That's bordering on being completely ridiculous. Let's see, you can choose between having a broken fridge forever or taking an entire day of work. This is GE, by the way. And, believe it or not, they no longer have a "troubleshooting" dept. That also seems pretty ridiculous to me. Oh well, you do what you have to do, right?

You have to take a look at this!

I just got the link to the blog my sister set up for her new hand-made frame business. All I can say is WOW!! Click here to see the site Also, it's linked on the right hand-side under "favorite sites". These are beautiful frames and she DOES ship. Keep in mind Shana and Jeff make these frames completely from scratch. If her designs inspire you to come up with your own ideas she would also be willing to work with you to design your own custom frame. The ones with sayings are just beautiful and make me think of scrapbook pages made for hanging on the wall.

So, if you get a chance, take a look and don't hesitate to contact her if you are interested in one of her custom frames.

Back from the family reunion

Kaeli, Paige, Ryan and I all left for NY at 8 AM on Thursday morning. I kept in contact with my dad by phone the first 2 hours, then followed him the rest of the way. Before I go any further, I have to tell how we met up because it was pretty amazing! Keep in mind I only knew what town he was staying in (he stayed in a hotel Wed night). When I was about 15 miles from the town he was in, I called to let him know he could leave and we'd find each other on the highway somewhere. When they got on the highway Jeanne called and asked where I was. I told her we had just passed the Allentown exit. She said "that's the exit we just came off of". We discussed a couple of landmarks we were passing and I suddenly realized I was right behind them!! They obviously merged onto the highway right in front of me and I didn't even realize it. Talk about perfect timing!

After many stops--the kids seem to have to pee every hour--we made it to Delhi, NY around 3:30 or so. We spent the rest of the afternoon setting up the tent and preparing ourselves for night fall. The kids headed down to the creek and played there most of the afternoon/evening. The creek was just beautiful and very shallow. An absolutely perfect place for kids to play and explore endlessly. Over the course of 3 days they found crayfish, minnows, small fish, tadpoles, baby frogs, salamanders, and toads. I did hear about the discovery of one snake, but did not see it personally.

The field where we set up camp was in a valley and had no cell phone coverage. I have to admit that was hard! I wasn't expecting it and I felt a little cut off from Steve and AJ back at home. I was able to call and touch base when I went back into town about once a day.

So, I'll do my best to write a quick summary of our 3 days in the mountains.....

This event was a famly reunion/80th birthday party for my gramma. My Gramma has 13 children and each of them now has children and many of those children are having children. So, there were 4 generations at the party and when you start with 13 kids that makes for a lot of people! Also, my grandmother's siblings always attend with their extended family. I was certainly born into the right family because these reunions are the only time I ever feel so content, comfortable, and "right at home" with a LARGE group of people. Everyone is so down-to-earth and fun-loving. I loved watching my kids play with their "cousins". Before I go any further I will explain that in this family "cousin" is used loosely. As you can imagine, when one has 13 kids, there is a huge spacing of ages. I'm the oldest grandchild (36) and the youngest grandchild is 3. So, obviously alot of the "cousins" my kids played with were actually MY cousins. And, they were also playing with my cousin's kids and I have no idea what my cousin's kids would be to me, much less what it would the relation would be between them and my kids. But, regardless, it was so great seeing the kids enjoy nature and exploration with their "cousins" like I did as a child at these events. In fact, I can't help but wonder if, just a little, it helped shape my desire to major in life sciences. At one point Ryan told my gramma (his great-gramma) "look! a frog". She took him by the hand and walked him over to look, then went on to gently and patiently explain that he had actually found a toad. She explained all the differences between and toad and a frog. Soon after they were discussing snails.

So, I was explaining our weekend. The kids seemed to enjoy camping in a tent and so did I. Besides all the fun the kids had, I enjoyed having three kids that were old enough to go off and play while I sat and talked. I missed AJ, but it was nice not having to worry about him every 2 minutes. I belong to a family of beer drinkers, so we spent lots of time talking around a campfire and drinking beer each night before retiring to our tents.

There are at least a million more things I could write about our weekend. But, I'm tired of typing and I'm sure everyone is tired of reading. Here are some pics:

bathing in the creek

Muddy hands

These are my gramma's grandkids! This is definitely not all of us. I am kneeling ot the right of gramma.

These are the great-grandchildren that were there.

Here is a pic of Ryan roasting a marshmallow with one of my cousins.

Pictures linked to each vacation entry

Steve was so nice that he uploaded all our pictures to photobucket, organized them into folders by the day they were taken, and then linked them to each of my previous vacation entries! I guess he got tired of waiting for me to do it....:)

So, there is a blue link just underneath each title for pictures. Also, I'll be away from the computer until at least Sunday. No reason to even look for new entries during that time. I'm taking the 3 older kids up to NY for a huge family reunion combined with an 80th birthday party for my gramma (my dad's mom). Steve is going to stay home and take care of AJ. We decided it would be better this way since it's mostly a camping trip. I just don't know how AJ would do sleeping in such close quarters.

So, I better get off this computer now and get to packing!

It's good to be home!

We just got home tonight and didn't even bother to unload the car--we are going to be busy tomorrow! Wouldn't you know today AJ chose to wake up early! I think it was around 6:30-that's actually about normal for him but I was getting used to waking up after 7. I guess I got spoiled.

But, waking up early was a good thing. We got the house cleaned up and the cars packed and were out of there by 11. We went to Mommom and Poppop's house first because we were doing a late birthday party for Uncle Jimmy who turned the big THREE-O on July 4. It worked out great because Mommom had lots of food. We were able to eat dinner there and then headed home around 6:30ish. So, it was nice to not have to worry about dinner once we got home.

Now, here's the very sad (weird?) news! I knew our little above ground pool would be a mess after no upkeep for a week so I headed straight out to add chemicals and start up the pump. Would you believe the pump/filter was GONE?!! Someone took the pump-hoses and all. At least they were kind enough to put the little plugs into the holes left behind. I had left the plugs on the ground because you have to have them when you change the filter. Also, there were little metal clamps holding the hose in place. Someone came here with a screwdreiver, took the clamps off, took the hose and pump, and put the little plugs in place so all the water wouldn't escape from the pool. It's still baffling to me because someone really planned this out. If they had done it in the middle of the night, they never would have found the little plugs because they are black. Very, very strange! Kaeli's reaction was pretty funny. She was telling me to call 911....I still laugh when I think about it. I guess in her mind the loss of a swimming pool pump WAS an emergency. She was so mad that I wasn't doing something to get our pump back. I did call the police station's non-emergency number just to ask them if they had heard of a lot of pumps being stolen, but nope. At least Kaeli felt better when the police officer came over and verified what I had already told her--there's nothing the police can do about it. Oh, by the way, we live in a tiny town so the police aren't exactly really busy. I only called to ask a question and they sent an officer over. I guess they needed something to do. Fortunately, I can order a new pump from ebay that comes with all the parts. It's just frustrating since we have to spend more money and the pool desperately needs to be cleaned NOW. I just can't imagine why someone took our pump--we don't exactly live in a private yard. Very, very weird!

Day 8, Friday

I'm writing this on Saturday, but postdating it since I just didn't have the energy last night!

We spent another full day on the beach today. Actually, I tried a different approach. Steve took Kaeli, Paige, and Ryan over around 10:30. I stayed home and put AJ down for an early nap at around 11. Steve bought the other kids home for lunch at about 12:30-leaving all the stuff on the beach. After lunch we all went back together and stayed until 5.

It was an absolutely beautiful day for the beach!! It couldn't have been a more perfect last day! Even the water temp was up a bit. Today was the first day we could actually venture out into the water without freezing to death. It's interesting that in a matter of a day the water temps rose from around 55 degrees to around 65 degrees. I know it must have something to do with water currents and such, but it's just amazing.

Kaeli and Paige spent the entire day playing with their new friends. Ryan and AJ were pretty easy. The tide was coming in most of the day and the beach has a very, very shallow slope to it. So shallow, in fact, that it almost appears flat and makes for a PERFECT place for kids to play. I dug holes for them in the sand and used the sand from the hole to make a big "mountain". Ryan and AJ had so much fun jumping into the hole full of water from the pile of sand and splashing in the water. I don't have much to report from Kaeli and Paige because we honestly only saw them sporadically from time to time. Every day they had a standing date to meet their friends at the lifeguard stand at 12:00. Before we left Kaeli got her friend's email address and phone number. It was really neat to see her make a new friend over summer vacation.

Now this part I didn't actually see, but Steve has told me all about it. While I was sitting in a chair holding Ryan (trying to get him to take a nap) AJ was behind me where I couldn't see. But, I obviously missed out on seeing AJ flirt with 2 approx 13 yr old girls. For about 30 minutes AJ was quite intrigued by them. He would look at these girls with his little "side-eye" look and grin at them. I never saw him do it, but I've seen that look many times and can just picture it. Then he "fell" right next to them and as he was getting up he kind of did a a downward dog stance (for those that know yoga) and grinned at them through his legs for a several minutes. Steve said he also laid in the sand for a while just looking over at them grinning. The girls and their mom were getting quite a chuckle out of him and were amazed to see how well he flirted already. :) We are in trouble with this one! He gets so much attention for being so adorable! And, you can just see the twinkle of mischeif in his eyes.

Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted Friday night!

Day 7, Thursday

The weather was much more conducive to beach-going today! The wind was just about perfect, few clouds in the sky, and the air temperature was warm. The only thing that could have made it better would be warmer ocean water. But, the kids still had a great time playing in the surf.

We had to trash our poor canopy today. It's been slowly falling apart all week, but today it required the help of duct tape to keep it up. We've used it for 4 summers now, so we got plenty of use from it. I guess tomorrow we will have to depend on a regular umbrella. That's going to be hard since we've kind of spoiled ourselves with a nice, big tent-like shaded area on the beach.

We left the beach around 3 in order to get cleaned up and allow the boys to have a late nap. After naps we went out to dinner and then played around on the beach to watch the sunset. We have to watch the sunset over the bay since we only get a sunRISE on the ocean here on the east coast. But, our annual sunset trip is always alot fun. I think we got some good pictures and I can't wait to see them all!

Again, the kids went to bed without a moment's hesitation! I'm guessing they'll sleep great and I'm HOPING they sleep late again--8:00 would be nice.

Tomorrow is our last full day here and we plan to spend it on the beach again. Saturday will just be for packing up, cleaning, and driving home.

Day 6, Wednesday

We thought we were going to spend another full day on the beach, but the weather had other plans for us. We got all set up on the beach around 10:30 AM....after packing up enough for a full day on the beach. At first, it was a little chilly, but not terrible. About an hour after we got all set up the cloud coverage got pretty heavy and the wind became much cooler. The kids were all sitting down with towels wrapped around them. Soon after lunch we felt some light rain and decided to just call it a day. But, as we were packing up the kids started having a great time in the really loose sand near the dunes. The sand in that area is always nice and warm from the sun so the kids were running around and then jumping into the sand. They were playing so well together and having so much fun we decided to stay a little longer. Steve took the bulk of our stuff home and we only kept the neccesities.

For a cold, miserable weather day our time on the beach turned out to be alot of fun. The kids and Steve made up a cute game. They lined everyone's shoes up and then tried tossing a small ball into the shoe. Each shoe was worth points (Steve's shoes only worth one point, then AJ's shoes were worth 5 points). It kept them busy for a little while, at least.

Kaeli eventually started saying she was ready to go home. Jokingly, Steve said "you know where it is--go ahead". She looked really surprised and said "really?" Steve and I looked at each other and seemed to know what the other was thinking-sure, why not, let her do it. Now, I should say the house is right across the road from the beach and it is not a busy road AT ALL. There are a few cars here and there, but the biggest obstacle is usually bikes. So, we let her go home to get a headstart on showering. We were only about 10 minutes behind her, but that little bit of freedom seemed to mean the world to her!! She was so proud of herself. I can't believe how grown-up she's becoming!

So, she handled that little bit of freedom and responsibility so well that we took it a step further a little later. Kaeli has become incredibly attached to Bailey (our dog) lately and has been wanting more responsibility for his care. She's been asking and asking to take him for walks and we've always said no because he can be very hard to control when he sees another dog. So, today we gave her the end of the leash and let her give it a try. I watched anxiously from the deck. There wasn't a single problem and she definitely seemed to know how to handle him. So, I gave her the go-ahead to take him for a quick walk around the block.

We didn't do much the rest of the afternoon. We cooked a big dinner and just played around and watched a movie.

Day 5, Tuesday

On Tuesday we spent the entire day on the beach! The weather was pretty nice....a little windy and slightly chilly, but not bad enough to keep the kids out of the water. Of course, it would take a lot to keep them out of the water!

Around 1:00 I took the boys back to the house for naps. Steve stayed at the beach with the girls. I had about 2 hours to relax. I was feeling a little bad for Steve until I called to check on him. He said the girls had found some friends soon after I left and had been off playing with them the whole time. So, Steve was able to sit and relax on the beach for 2 hours just reading a book!! Around 3:30 the boys and I headed back to the beach. We finally called it a day and headed for the house around 5:30. We had a quick dinner and took a walk to the ice cream store.

Perfect day! The kids went to bed without a single moment's hesitation.

Monday, day 4 of vacay

It's 3 o'clock-middle of naptime for half the Kirk kids (and Steve, too). This morning we slept until almost 8 o'clock!! That could be a new record for us since having kids!! I'm guessing the time spent running around on the beach until almost 8 last night tired everyone out. We'll be doing that again tonight for sure!

Since the house is quiet I thought I'd take a few minutes to write about our morning. We headed to Ocean City's boardwalk around 10:30 this morning. We knew that we had to make at least one trip to Wonderland's Pier (small kid-friendly amusement park) this week and decided to do that this morning since it was still pretty overcast. The rest of the week is supposed to be mostly clear and we intend to spend most of the days on the beach. We had pizza on the boardwalk and then headed over to the rides.

It's always interesting to see how much our family has "aged" when we do something that happens only once a year. Last year only Kaeli was ready for the "big kid" rides. This year Paige was about an inch too short, but fortunately none of the ride attendants cared. So, we had K and P riding all the big kid rides together and Ryan and AJ were able to ride the little kid rides together. As hard as it is sometimes to get through the day with these 4, it's times like this that make me so grateful. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect situation. The girls buddy up and do things together and then the boys still have each other.

Paige rode all the same rides as Kaeli except for the pirate ship. She just couldn't bring herself to get on it. She wanted me to ride with her, but I made that mistake last year. I just can't handle that ride-it does terrible things to my stomach. Kaeli loves it and has to sit right at the very end of the boat! It still amazes me that she is such a thrill-seeker considering that she is such a nervous-nelly. It's fun to watch, though!

At the end, we had just enough tickets left over to all get on the carousel--all except for Steve who was manning the cameras the whole time. I think he got some great pics overall and of us on the carousel. This may be the very last year we'll get Kaeli on the carousel. She's evidently getting too old to be seen on such a ride. As we were leaving we got another group picture of all 4 of them sitting on the bench with the ocean behind them.

The girls brought their own money and were allowed to spend some of it at the boardwalk. We are now the proud owners of 2 hermit crabs named "beachking" (Kaeli's) and "sharkie" (Paige's). We did a little research about hermit crabs when we got home and realize we have to go buy more stuff. The little cage they bought at the store isn't acceptable for a long-term habitat. But, the really neat thing is that these little critters can eat just about anything. The girls are just loving that! They're having popcorn for a snack and have shared a couple of pieces with their hermit crabs. They are just so excited. For the past couple of summers they've been asking for one and we always said no.

Well, AJ is now awake from his nap and we are just waiting for the other two boys (Steve and Ryan). When they wake up we'll head over to the beach for a couple of hours before dinner.

Sunday, day 3 of vacation

Link to picture album for 7/5 and 7/6

Today we all woke up late (after 7AM) and feeling very refreshed! It was raining for most of the morning, but the clouds broke around 10 and we had to get out of the house. It didn't seem like much of a beach day, so we decided to just get in the car and make it up as we went.

We headed south toward Cape May. We took the scenic route and drove along the stretch of private beaches where multimillion dollar mansions sit. It's always amazing to see those giant houses and just imagine what it would be like to live on your own private beach. Kaeli was just amazed....the other kids didn't seem too impressed. :)

Once we got to Cape May we started seeing signs for the lighthouse. So, the lighthouse ended up being our first stop. We first took a walk on the bird observatory deck. It's a good thing not many people were trying to observe birds because we certainly scared them all away. A set of ramps led up to the main deck and Ryan and AJ had a lot of fun running up and down the ramps. Why wouldn't they? How many 3 and almost-2 year-olds do you know that would want to sit and stare out over a swam watching birds?

After looking for birds we walked over to the beach area for a snack. After our snack we took a walk over to check out the WWII bunker sitting on the beach. It was very interesting to see and just imagine what it all looked like when it was in use. It was also amazing to see how much beach erosion has occurred over the years. At one point the bunker was completely on land. Now it's halfway under water during high tide. During our walk AJ and I were on the back side of the bunker. An rather old gentleman walked past us and only said "looks like you have an engineer in the making". He was referring to AJ and I still wonder what it was that made him say that. I'm guessing it was that AJ always has such a serious look on his face-especially when he's looking at something interesting. It probably looked like he was very much studying the construction of the bunker.

We stopped by the visitor's center before heading off again. For our next stop, we went to Cape May Point--the very end of NJ. We played in the surf for a while and then had lunch.

Finally, we headed to the Cape May zoo. We make at least one trip to the zoo every year. This time our trip was rather short because we were all so exhausted by now. AJ was pretty grumpy because he only had about a 30 min nap in the car. Inside the zoo he had a tremendous tantrum over the fact that I would not put him inside the fence at the flamingo exhibit. For some reason he really, really wanted to get up close and personal with the flamingos. He was making quite a spectacle of himself--but I've become pretty accustomed to getting all these looks when he throws his tantrums. I try my best to avoid eye contact with people and just smile when I can't. We finally got AJ settled down and then it was Kaeli's turn. She wore her flip flops-even though I always tell her flip flops shouldn't be worn when we're doing lots of walking. She did have a blister between her toes, but as usual with her, it turned into a HUGE drama. Again, me feeling like the whole park was starting at us. We put Kaeli in the stroller and started heading for the exit as quickly as we could. We only stayed about an hour, but I should say this is a small zoo and is free. So, it's not like we lost out on alot of money by staying just a short time.

After recuperating at the house for an hour or so we had dinner and then headed over to the beach. It was very late in the afternoon (probably around 5:30), but it turned out to be a perfect time to just play at the beach. There was a huge tide pool and the kids just had a great time playing in it! We will definitely be spending more time on the beach in the late afternoons. It's a great way to waste those last couple of hours before bedtime.

It's now 10:00....the kids are all sound asleep and I'm very much ready for bed myself. I think tomorrow we will spend most of the day playing on the beach.

Vacation at the Beach

We're in the middle of our yearly beach vacation this week. We got here on Thursday night and will be staying until July 12. Unfortunately, we won't be able to upload any pics until we get home. But, I'm going to try to do a little blogging every couple of days so that I won't have too much to catch up on when we get home. Besides, time ALWAYS fades the memories--especially now that there are more kids to warp my brain and more gray hairs showing my age-- and I'd rather write before that happens.

Thursday night was uneventful. We got here around 7PM and had just enough time to unpack and then put the kids to bed.

MomMom, Poppop and Kristen came down on Friday. We all spent the afternoon on the beach. It was a beautiful day for the beach. The water was pretty cold, though! My feet were actually becoming numb from standing in the surf. I couldn't believe the cold water did not slow Paige down one bit! She jumped right into the water and played on her boogie board for a really long time. Kaeli tried getting in a few times, but she couldn't take the cold water for that long-and I can't say I blame her. Once AJ got accustomed to the beach atmosphere he had a great time, too. He kept pulling Mommom further and further into the water. Of course, he knew his limits, but he really went in further than I would have expected. I love seeing how much he enjoys the ocean now! Ryan also seemed to have fun. He went in at times, but he also couldn't deal with the freezing water for long. Overall, we had a great afternoon on the beach.

After the beach on Friday we got everyone cleaned up. I put AJ down for a late nap so that he could stay up for the 4th of July celebrations later in the night. Fortunately, he actually slept. Around 9pm we all walked over to the beach to watch the fireworks. The kids did pretty well when we first got there. Kaeli really didn't want to be afraid this time and put up a really good front for a while. I think everyone would have been great if not for the fireworks going off RIGHT over our heads. I'm serious--I mean literally over our heads. I was getting pretty nervous myself because it was a group of teenagers, who were obviously drinking, that were putting on this fireworks display. Not exactly a comforting feeling having drunk teens setting off fireworks right next to you. It is illegal to have fireworks on the beach, but that didn't seem to stop anyone. There were lots and lots of individual fireworks being set off. With all the fireworks going off all around us all 3 of the older kids were becoming pretty scared. So, we decided we'd be better off watching the fireworks from our deck at the house. When we left it was starting to sprinkle, by the time we got back to the house it was actually raining. So, it was good timing anyway. I just wish for once we could watch the town's fireworks without having people setting off their own right next to us. Oh well, it was definitely an exciting night.

The boys went straight to bed without complaint. I told Kaeli and Paige they could stay up as late as they wanted with their Aunt Kristen. I think they finally fell asleep sometime around midnight.

Saturday morning was just a long, lazy morning because everyone was still pretty tired from the day before. MomMom, PopPop, and Kristen had to leave around 2. At about 3, the boys woke from their naps. To waste the rest of the afternoon, we took a walk to the playground. After the playground we came home and ordered pizza and had an early bedtime.

I'll write today's activities in a new post. This one is getting long and today was a very busy day!

I guess this is what it takes sometimes

This morning I asked Kaeli and Paige to clean their room. As usual, before too long I heard arguing and screaming. It's always the same argument. Kaeli complains and makes Paige's life miserable because she blames the mess on Paige. Paige picks up stuff at a snail's pace in hopes that Kaeli will get most of it done before she "has time" to do much. Well, today I decided I'd had enough. I walked up to their room with 2 big garbage bags in my hand and a scowl on my face. No doubt I was mad!! I told them not to worry about cleaning the room because I was going to do it for them. I proceeded to walk through the room filling my garbage bags as quickly as I could. The girls were hysterical because I have thrown their toys away before--so they knew I would follow through. They begged and pleaded and I just kept right on working and ignoring. By the time I was done they had settled down and were making their beds. I told them to make their beds while I was "cleaning" or I'd take their blankets and sheets, too. So, once we were done Kaeli calmly asked if I could just put the bags away and let them earn their stuff back instead of throwing it away. I agreed (which was my plan all along, anyway). I didn't touch underneath their beds and I didn't "clean" anything that was already in boxes or toy boxes. So, I put the 2 big bags full of stuff in the hallway and told them I'd give them one bag if they organized the toys that were left and thoroughly clean out from under their beds. Of course, the rule was that if I heard any arguing or complaining then the deal was off and I'd put the stuff in the basement for a month. After about 20 min I checked on them and they were doing a wonderful job!! Working together and everything! I helped with the last few things and then brought the first bag in. They were so unbelievably excited that it was actually kind of funny. I dumped the bag and told them they would earn bag 2 back if they put away and organized all the stuff from bag 1 (with no arguing or complaining, of course). By the end of it, they had all their stuff back and the room was completely clean and organized.

In the end, I decided I kind of like this method. Their room was such a mess that it was overwhelming anyway. So, by gathering up all the junk littering the floor it made the mess a little less intimidating. Then, by giving the bags back one at a time it kept them motivated and kept the mess manageable. Maybe next time I won't even have to get mad since I know I'll have a plan of action if the arguing and complaining starts. Of course, it would be nice if the room never got that bad in the first place--but I think that's just a dream.

Happy Birthday Paige!

I will get the pictures on here tomorrow.

Wow, 6 years didn't take long to pass right by! Paige was so excited about her birthday. You would've thought it was Christmas this morning when she came running into my room yelling "Today is my birthday!!"

At around 1:00 we headed to Mommom an Poppop's house. We had some snacks, played outside and then Paige opened her presents. She asked for Barbie stuff, so of course she got plenty of it. After presents Steve and I took her out to a Japanese steak house while the other 3 kids stayed with mommom and poppop. I think Paige had fun having a nice dinner out with us and NO siblings. Although, I must admit, Paige loves having siblings so she might have had more fun with them there. She's soooo quiet that Steve and I were feeling a little lost. I guess we are so used to Kaeli's non-stop talking that the silence with Paige felt almost uncomfortable. At the end of dinner, the waiter brought her some ice cream with a candle in it. The whole restaraunt sang happy birthday to her and she turned a bright, crimson red. Poor thing was so embarrassed. Being the center of attention is hard for her, but I think a small part of her enjoyed it.

After dinner, we went back to mommom and poppop's house for cake and ice cream. We got home tonight just in time to put everyone down for bed.

Babysitting

We had the great pleasure of babysitting Jessica's youngest baby today. I'm so glad that I was able to do this for her because it allowed Jessica the opportunity to spend most of the day being with her dad and taking care of him at the hospital. Jessica's mom is still in the other hospital, but they think she'll be able to come home tomorrow. Jessica did get to spend the morning with her mom before bringing Daniel over here in the afternoon.

Jessica's husband, Garr, brought the baby over around 1:00. My two boys were sleeping and the girls were next door. So, Daniel and I had a good little bit of time to get used to one another without any other kids vying for my, or his, attention. He was such a wonderful little guest and we very much enjoyed every minute of it. AJ and Ryan were just in awe over him. I was very surprised about how nurturing both of the boys were toward Daniel.

Here are Ryan and AJ just staring at him. They did this alot....just watched him play. Daniel has 3 sisters so I'm sure having kids right in his face is nothing new to him. It definitely seems to be taking in stride.

AJ is giving Daniel a hug

And in this picture, AJ is patting him on the head. I was just amazed by how sweet AJ was being the whole time.

I love this picture of Ryan just admiring Daniel

And here is the happy boy enjoying the Jumperoo without kids right in his face for a moment.

A friend in need of prayers

My friend Jessica's parents were in a motorcycle accident last night-- so for anyone that prays, please add them to your prayer list. Their names are Sharon and Dan. You can click here to view Jessica's blog. In addition to being very worried about her mom and dad Jessica and Garr are having to visit them at two different hospitals that are 40 min away from each other. Mr. and Mrs. Orshaw have always been so kind to me and my kids and they are just wonderful people. It breaks my heart that they are in so much pain and suffering right now.

Jessica said her dad has a broken shoulder that will likely need surgery soon. His eye is messed up and swollen so they don't know the extent of damage to the eye right now. The Dr's are concerned about some possible spinal damage, but they aren't really sure about that part yet. He also got scraped up pretty badly. It sounds like he's in a great deal of pain. Mrs. Orshaw has a laceration of the liver, but the Dr's think it's superficial and are monitoring the situation right now.

Also, please keep Jessica's children in your prayers. They are very close to their grandparents and I know they are going to be so worried. Fortunately, the two older ones (close to Kaeli and Paige's age) are at camp this week and are staying busy. But Jessica and Garr also have a 5 yr old and 7 mo old. The 5 yr old is staying with another friend today and tomorrow and I may watch her on Thursday and Friday. The baby is breastfed so he needs to stay near mom.

I guess I just want to ask that everyone who reads this keeps this family in your thoughts and prayers. They have so much on their hearts and minds right now and I can't even begin to imagine the stress on this whole family at this moment.

My latest hobby

Not long ago I shared one of Steve's comments about me....he said "your hobby is finding new hobbies". And that latest hobby is coupons. In fact, I will blame my lack of journaling on that newest hobby. I've been using what little bit of computer time I have to learn all I can about using coupons effectively. I got really good at it a couple of years ago. Actually, it was soon after Ryan was born. I remember it so well because it happened around the same time that I had to switch from breastfeeding to formula feeding. The cost of formula completely shocked me and since I had never formula-fed a baby before I certainly wasn't expecting that expense. Of course, he also had to have the hypo-allergenic formula that was crazy expensive. When AJ came along 19 mos later, I was so busy trying to keep up with a young toddler and newborn that coupons became a distant memory.

Recently, I found myself becoming completely disgusted over the amount of money we spent on groceries every month! When I looked back over grocery expenditures for the past year I realized we were spending close to $1000.00 a month JUST on groceries--that's not including eating out. I know we are a big family, but 1000/mo is just absurd! When I was using coupons faithfully I was only spending about $400-500/mo. It just so happens that as this grocery dilemma entered my mind I came across a coupon link on another blog. It was the perfect motivation I needed to get myself back in the game. Using coupons effectively is HARD work, but definitely worth it!

The added "fringe benefit" of using coupons is the overall frugality that often comes along with it. I find myself weighing in on wants vs. needs much more frequently. A perfect example was today when I realized Disney Store is having a really great sale. They have beach towels for 4.99!! I will admit that I added a few towels to my online shopping cart. Then I went and read a few frugal living/couponing websites before purchasing. The bottom line is that we do not NEED more beach towels. No matter how inexpensive they seem right now it doesn't make sense to buy them. So, I consider this a small victory!

Interruption!! Wow! I just heard little footsteps upstairs so I went up to investigate. I was amazed to find that Ryan had gotten up to use the bathroom! He went potty and then ran right back to his room. He's extremely reliable with potty-training during the day(hasn't had a single accident since the 2nd day of training). But, he wasn't as reliable at night. Tonight seems to be a pretty big step for him. He is a truly amazing kid!

Tomorrow I will post some coupon links and I'll also include a picture of my newly made coupon organizer. I know there are probably some others out there that might be interested in using coupons more effectively as well.

I will also attempt to do some catching up over the next few days. I actually have quite a bit on my mind and I really should get back into the habit of writing out those thoughts. Just typing brings so much more clarity to my thoughts and feelings. Of course, it's a little strange when you know people are reading those thoughts. But, that's also why I named my blog "Bridget's Ramblings" because sometimes that's all it really is!

This is fragile

I don't think Ryan's newest words will ever cease to amaze me! Yesterday he was playing near one of our cabinets in the family room. He was making up all kinds of games and doing tons of pretending. That, in and of itself, still amazes me. It worried me so much that he no kind of pretend play up until close to 3....suddenly it started and I still just feel in awe every time he brings me a plain, ordinary toy and says "this ice cream". I gobble it right up and smile inside over how far he's come in such a short time. So, back to my original story.....the other day he was playing and I walked in. When he saw me he pointed to the curio cabinet in the family room and said "this not toy, this fragile". What an amazing word for him to just pull out of nowhere! If there was ever any doubt that he's taking EVERYthing in, that word certainly put those doubts to rest.

I'm so thrilled that our biggest obstacle now is getting his speech more clear. His speech is more choppy than most kids and he gets the order of words mixed up sometimes, but he can definitely get his point across. We joke about how he's just making sure to keep the listeners attention to the very end because he often says things like "I like salt not". In fact, just about any time he uses a "negative" in a sentence he puts it at the end. It's become one of those endearing little traits that we just love as part of Ryan. So, when he gets mad at me I frequently hear "I like you not!". Sounds kind of cute when it's said like that, isn't it? :)

Food from the garden

I'm so thrilled to say that our dinner tonight came partly from our garden. Actually, I'm pretty thrilled with how things turned out! I was watering the garden this morning and realized the romaine lettuce was ready for harvesting. I brought it all inside and cleaned it up. Afterwards I called Steve to tell him we needed to have salad soon. Steve has a real knack for cooking that I've never possessed, so he immediately started coming up with ideas. My thoughts revolved around what I needed to go buy at the grocery store to make caesar salad. But, Steve suggested I make some croutons and then make salad dressing. As usual, my first thought was "I can't do that!!" To quiet my reluctance Steve looked up a recipe for dressing and as we went through the ingredients I realized we already had everything including the blender for mixing it. Then he reminded me that we had leftover steak and chicken in the fridge from our Father's Day cookout on Saturday--I was beginning to think I could actually do this!

The boys were still napping so there was no better time for me to make the dressing. Click here to see the recipe we used. It calls for just oil first, and then olive oil--I only had olive oil so I just used the amount of olive oil listed first and omitted the second amount of oil. I actually wonder if that was some kind of mistake. I can't imagine it needing even MORE oil! I found a similar recipe on allrecipes.com and that recipe stated that the dressing is better after sitting in the fridge for a day or two. I'll have to check on that in a couple of days. It wasn't bad, but I still think the oil taste was a little strong--but it wasn't bad at all on the salad.

By the time I got to the croutons the kids were all awake. They were all fascinated with the idea of making our own croutons so I decided to enlist their help. I gave them each 2 slices of bread and a plastic knife. They really did a nice job cutting the bread into small pieces. We put the pieces into a big ziploc bag and added some melted butter. I sprinkled it with garlic powder. That's when the idea hit me that I could use some herbs from the garden. The kids and I all marched out to the garden to cut off some oregano and parsley. I chopped it up really fine and added it to the bag. The I lay the bread on a single layer on a cookie sheet and let it cook at 350. Not sure about the time--I just kept checking it. The croutons were a HUGE hit!! I don't think I will ever buy croutons again--they were so easy to make and so good!

The final dish included the romaine, croutons, fresh bacon bits, hard-boiled egg, left over chicken and steak, and our homemade dressing. Steve also added some kalamata olives. It was actually quite good.

I have to admit it was a little weird for me at first to be eating leaves that had been growing in my yard for the past month. I KNOW it's even healthier than the stuff you buy at the store, but it's just a mental thing at first I guess. It just seems strange. The kids didn't have the same problem. They were sooooo excited when I brought the lettuce inside. I can't seem to get Kaeli to eat any vegetables, but she was absolutely loving the fresh lettuce. They really couldn't get over the fact that we were eating stuff that *WE* had grown.

I'm definitely hooked now! Why had I been so reluctant to start a garden? This is fantastic! The weeds haven't been bad and it's been very low maintenance. Of course, I'm so excited about it that I can't wait to check on it each day--that probably helps in the maintenance department. We have the very beginning of one tomato. We also have the beginning of zucchini and cucumber. I think it's only a matter of a few weeks before we start getting food from the garden on a regular basis!

I've been getting back into couponing lately and being much more conscious of what we spend at the grocery store. So, to make dinner without spending a single dime (utilizing what we already had in the house) was so great! I have to admit that is HIGHLY unusual for me. Of course, I couldn't have done it without Steve's help. I keep hoping his cooking skills rub off on me, it's a slow process but I think it's happening. After all, I came up with the idea to add herbs to the croutons all my myself--it's progress!

Oh, that reminds me of a cute thing from Sunday. Steve always surprises me with breakfast in bed on Mother's Day (he's GREAT at cooking breakfast, by the way). The kids and I talked about making breakfast in bed for Steve for Father's Day. I asked what we should make.....Kaeli said "cereal?" I laughed and asked why we would make cereal when he always makes me such a great breakfast. Her response?....."because that's all you know how to cook for breakfast". I still get a little chuckle from that. She was absolutely serious!