all about mlg

mason's solo party outing

2012-01-29T09:17:00.000-06:00

mason received an invitation to a classmate's 3rd birthday party a few weeks ago. the party was going to be at pump it up and mason was pretty excited. since i was ill this week, matt took mason to buy the birthday present he had already selected for his friend benji - a fake lightening bug in a jar. (it is actually pretty cool. you tap on the jar lid at the 'bug' lights up and 'flies' around very realistically. there is also a monarch butterfly version.)

today we wrapped up the gift and got ready to go. and that was when madelyn discovered that she was not invited. this was devastating news to her. i explained that she was not invited and did not know benji. i also assured her that she would be invited to birthday parties that mason could not go to in the future; she was more than happy to share this information with mason.

it has been a while since mason has been to somewhere with inflatables so i wasn't too sure how he would do. he had no problem bouncing around, but it took him a few tries before he would come down the slide. he would climb all the way up, look down and climb back down. or he would get climbed over by some of the older kids and come back down. he finally came down once he learned that he could slide down on his belly (his preferred method of sliding). and he didn't stop sliding after that!

i think he spent at least an hour of the party sliding. he would go try other things but always came back to the slide. it just took that first trip down to get him hooked. i am just thankful that i didn't have to climb up there with him!

another mom did help encourage him from the top of the slide - anthony's mom! when she heard mason's name she asked if he was the same "mason" from the preschool class. i guess she had a similar conversation with their teacher about mason and anthony's playing together. watching them today it was amazing how similar their personalities are! mason was really excited to see him when we got to the party but i thought he was just surprised to see someone from school.

mason and his buddy anthony

the party was a lot of fun for the kids. not so many that they were being trampled but enough that they were aware of other kids to play with in/on the inflatables. the birthday boy is in the red striped shirt.

after playing, the kids were treated to pizza, ice cream and cake. what was mason most excited about? pink lemonade! you could tell which kid doesn't get to drink juice on a regular basis! i was almost embarrassed by how much he drank! i actually had to cut him off. when i asked if he liked his drink, he asked if it was lemonade. when i confirmed he smiled and took another big drink.

while the kids finished eating, benji got into the big birthday boy chair and opened his presents. mason did come up to show him how the firefly worked and told them all about it, but then he went back to his cake and ice cream. he was the last kid eating at the table. i think picking up every crumb he dropped on the floor slowed him down a little. that and drinking all of that lemonade.

mason thoroughly enjoyed the party. in retrospect, i should have sent matt to the party because he would have had an easier time climbing around after mason - not that i had to very much but most of the parents were playing too.

when we got back home, madelyn was very excited to see what mason brought home in his goodie bag. love.

just becase i said he doesn't...

2012-01-27T08:42:00.001-06:00

...maddux has started signing - "more" and "all done". anytime they can make mommy out to be a liar. love.

parent-teacher conferences

2012-01-26T20:12:00.001-06:00

even though i have been terribly sick all week, i went to parent/teacher conferences for madelyn and mason tonight. i was feeling a little better and since the kids had it first (although much, much milder), i didn't feel that i was exposing their teachers to anything they hadn't seen already.

the evaluations had been sent home earlier in the week so that matt and i could review them prior to the conferences (he stayed home with the kids since they were not invited). madelyn's was what we expected - straight "my progress is satisfactory. be proud of me!!". her teacher did put a comment about her stuttering and that she was ready for kindergarten. we weren't worried about the kindergarten recommendation, but it was nice to see. with madelyn's teacher the conversation was primarily about being the oldest/youngest/tallest in her class through school. her teacher said that she felt madelyn was confident enough and a "leader" that she felt comfortable recommending her for full-day kindergarten but would support a decision to keep her back a year (so that she wouldn't be one of the youngest) if we wanted to do that. matt and i have discussed this several times over the past year and feel comfortable letting madelyn go to school next year and being on the younger side of her class. we have more hesitation with mason being the biggest and the youngest but have some time to think about that.

mason's conference was the one we were really looking forward to since this has been his first year in school and he is so different from madelyn (who has typically crossed milestones very early). his evaluation is marked primarily with "progress is satisfactory". he had a few "we are working on this at this time" but we expected them in the "language" category since he is more on the 'normal' timeline. there were a few that surprised us a little. he needs to work on his listening during stories and songs, helping to put things away and tearing paper. mason is always asking to be the "big helper" and is usually great at cleaning up. the tearing paper one made us laugh because we are always teaching the kids not to rip things up! and the listening one is understandable because he tends to go do something else if he doesn't like a story at bedtime or a movie we might be watching (he's got that wander/disappearing act like his dad and uncle).

mason's teacher explained that the cleaning up has to do with mason getting giggly with his friend, anthony. apparently these two are quite the buddies and get into their own little world. mason often talks about playing with a "boy" but now i had a name and the areas he needs to work on make much more sense. his teacher had nothing but kind things to say about him and how much she looks forward to seeing him on his two days. she said that he is totally normal and she has no concerns about his development at all. that was what matt and i wanted to hear. here is a quote from her write up:

"mason is a pleasure to have in class. his smile and friendly attitude add joy to our day. he is always quick with a hug and so willing to please. mason has made many friends in our class and is asked for and talked about by classmates."

she did mention that she has actually been pleasantly surprised by how well he has done adjusting to school. mason is on the younger side of the class (some of the kids turned three at the beginning of the school year) and started a few months into the year. she said that it is also obvious that he has siblings. he really excels at imaginative play and i told her that he gets lots of practice with his sister. she said that he is a typical two-year-old boy but shows no aggression towards others (meaning that he doesn't tackle someone not playing 'wrestle' which some boys might do) and is extremely easy to redirect if needed.

all in all, we have been very happy with the school and the progress the kids are making. love.

"jesus loves her"

2012-01-24T14:25:00.002-06:00

madelyn was snuggling with me on the couch one night while i was watching the local news. after a few minutes she said, "mommy, jesus loves her." i had to have her repeat it before i realized that she was talking about the reporter on the screen. and then she told me again that jesus loves them when they went back to the anchors. yes, she is right. jesus does love them. love.

20 weeks

2012-01-24T14:22:00.000-06:00

it isn't the best picture (but really, do i like any of them...?). i wasn't really feeling that well and just wanted to get into my pajamas. my sleeve kind of covers my 'bump' which has just appeared in the past 2 or 3 days. it is a little bigger in the picture than normal because i had just had a big dinner with desert and had a wicked stomach bug brewing (i was a little bloated).

half-way there. and in two more weeks we will get a chance to find out the sex of the baby.

unfortunately, i spent all of monday very, very sick with the bug the kids had. only i didn't get the 'good' kind. i got it much, much worse than they did and even called matt to come home early for maybe the second time in 10 years because i was in so much pain and just needed to go to bed. he only got home 15 minutes early, but it helped get me to bed faster. and the kids were one their best behavior since they were all feeling 100% again so it was more about me having to leave the unsupervised more than i was comfortable with that made me call matt. thankfully, i had already planned on a slow cooker meal and he just needed to make cornbread to go with dinner.

here is a picture of me just shy of 20 weeks with maddux for comparison, i think that i am actually smaller this time.

'belly picture'? check. now i can wait a few weeks before having to take another. love.

date with daddy

2012-01-21T14:02:00.010-06:00

daddy took madelyn out for a special 'date' to see beauty and the beast in 3d. it has been a little while since just the two of them have gotten to spend time together and madelyn really enjoyed it! i would have loved to go too, but it is really important to me that madelyn and matt have a special relationship.

madelyn was very excited about going to a movie theater and that daddy got her pink lemonade. she has already requested to go on another 'date' with daddy soon. i think that daddy is looking forward to their next date too. love.

hair cuts

2012-01-21T13:23:00.003-06:00

now that maddux had his one-year pictures, we took him in for his first hair cut! and since i had gotten mason's hair pretty uneven last time, i had them cut his hair too.

maddux kept enough length to keep his curls. it was a little sad to cut off the length in the back, but he was starting to look a little too 'pretty' and i was getting the urge to put a clip in front when he ate - it was time.

we got no pictures of the actual haircut because matt had to go get cash when we discovered that they didn't accept credit cards and i had to hold the boys on my lap for each of their turns. and then i didn't take 'before' and 'after' pictures either. so here are pictures the next afternoon during snack time.

mason's haircut wasn't any better than i do (at least i blend it better in the front so that his bangs aren't so straight), so i will most likely do the rest of their haircuts. he was pretty proud and wanted me to take his picture too.

i had gotten the play-doh out for the kids during nap time and they just kept right on playing into the afternoon. maddux even got in on the action and only tried to taste it once. i think madelyn played with it for almost 5 hours straight! it was a great quiet activity for them and we need to do it more often (i just hate cleaning up all of the little crumbs left behind on the floor when they are done). love.

like big pop

2012-01-20T13:51:00.004-06:00

big pop loves the dolphins. and he wears a lot of dolphins gear. for Christmas he gave mason his own dolphins shirt and today he picked it out to wear for the first time so that he could be 'just like big pop' ( i can't remember exactly what he said - "match" or "just like"). i thought that it was sweet that he remembered and put the two together (not surprising because big pop really likes the dolphins). i just love this picture of him because it is so 'mason' to me. love.

sickies

2012-01-17T13:36:00.001-06:00

the two older kids had this bug over the weekend, but maddux came down with it today. i knew something wasn't right when he was laying his face on the couch while standing next to me. the weird part was that when i got up off the couch, he didn't move. i would call maddux my second skin, but he likes to be closer than that. madelyn has even commented that he is going to "be in big trouble when the new baby comes" because he will have to share me.

this was a 'good' illness in my mind because it didn't bother the kids more than being tired (and the boys had a few days of very unfortunate diapers). all three just took naps and rested on the couch while i had some super productive time. there were no fevers, no coughing, etc. it still broke my heart to see them so unlike themselves. at least it only lasted two or three days. love.

throwing in the towel - again

2012-01-16T13:41:00.001-06:00

we have stopped potty training - again. over the course of the week there was only one accident outside of the bathroom (on a neighbor's indoor trampoline!), he woke up dry every day, he willingly tried to sit on the potty without being asked, would generally go 'try' when asked (like before getting in the car or before meals) and was getting great feedback from his teachers about how great he was doing at school (he stayed dry/clean but never went at school). the problem was that he would hold it as long as possible. there is no problem with bladder control here - we are talking more than 5 hours in some cases.

the problem was that he would jump off the potty at the moment he couldn't hold it any more and pee (and/or poop) on the floor. we tried everything. we let him have treats while sitting on the potty, play games on our phone while sitting on the potty (that was our one total success) and every other means of keeping him sitting at the moment he started peeing. what was worse is that mason is our super neat kid who has to use a napkin (or several napkins) at meals, he likes to be clean and the mess of pee was getting to be too stressful for him. not to mention that the twenty trips to the potty and crying leading up to actually going was starting to wear on me! but peeing on daddy while he helped in the bathroom - twice - was what caused us to throw in the towel.

we will try again in the spring. i really, really don't want to have three in diapers, but i don't want to stress mason out either. just from hearing from other friends, it seems that turning three is the threshold for successful potty training for boys. only mason doesn't turn three until after baby is born... love.

sledding

2012-01-15T13:01:00.003-06:00

it wasn't a lot of snow, but it was the most we have had, so matt took the kids out 'sledding' into the back yard. i don't think mason was willing to give it a try, but they did have a pretty good snowball fight. love.

that's me!

2012-01-14T12:51:00.001-06:00

whenever mason sees a picture of a blond haired boy, he says that it is him. especially if the boy is doing something mason likes or wants to do. he was looking at one of matt's 'history of baseball' books and found a boy just like him with a man just like daddy. he was so excited to share this news with daddy and me! unfortunately, the video does not capture his excitement or chattiness (he is getting to be quite chatty at times).

one-year pictures

2012-01-14T12:46:00.001-06:00

so i am pretty late with maddux' one year pictures. but at least i finally got him in! (he hasn't helped with bruising his face at least once a week and having a super red nose from a fall on the concrete and tissue wiping.) he was all smiles and personality in the waiting room even clapping and 'talking' to other waiting but the second we walked into the studio he clung to me for dear life. the photographer commented on the change. the had to crop me out of most of the pictures just to get any. he was semi-willing to sit on the little chair for a bit but most of the time he cried and clung. i was amazed that we got as many decent pictures as we did; at least i don't have to bring him back again until the birthdays in june. love.

maddux speaks

2012-01-13T09:05:00.001-06:00

maddux is accumulating spoken words and i wanted to jot a few down here: dada, mama, ball, dog, teeth, yes, all done (not totally clear but definitely what he is saying), choo-choo, vroom, brrroom (the car noise), sis (for madelyn) and i am sure that there are one or two i am forgetting. he seems to be adding every day. and he is the first one that didn't do any signing. mainly because i forget in the rush of waiting on everyone else during meals. we have been working on it more, so he might sign yet. love.

baby week 18

2012-01-10T15:09:00.012-06:00

had a "belly check" today while the kids were in school. maddux just watches/listens quietly. baby's heart rate sounds good and the doctor confirmed that this on is quite the mover! his guess was a boy but he said that he has been wrong all day.

bummed to find out that we have to wait until 22 weeks for the ultrasound! oh well. i was able to schedule it when matt and the kids can join me.

on a related note, matt was able to feel the baby move too the other night - i think on the 8th. this kid is very busy and seems to be awake during the day. so much of this pregnancy reminds me of madelyn's that i am really 'feeling' that it is a girl but i was wrong with maddux too...

i hate 'belly pictures' but will try and take one soon - or at least when we go to the ultrasound. i think i just look 'thick' as opposed to pregnant. i thought that i would show much quicker with this one, being #4, but i haven't really rounded out yet.

more in a few weeks. love.

potty training - again

2012-01-09T12:52:00.000-06:00

doesn't that just say it all? potty training is going fairly well so far. the past few times he has done well for the first three days or so and then mason gives up entirely and puts forth no more effort to make it to the potty. he hasn't had a ton of successes, but he is very enthusiastic about keeping his underwear dry and gets super excited when he gets even a little urine in the potty.

it occurred to me that i do not want three kids in diapers come june so we are going to try and hang tough this time for more than a week. we do put a diaper on him at night and he doesn't go while he is sleeping so we just need to build the successes during the day before we will let him sleep in the underwear. the getting out of the diaper and into underwear in the morning has been the most difficult part so far, but once he is in his underwear he is very happy about it. and he stays dry in public - so far. i am hoping that going to school this week will really help him with the transition to using the potty all the time. i know that it helped reinforce things for madelyn.

time will tell. love.

good weather continues

2012-01-06T12:34:00.004-06:00

today's weather was even better! near 50, sunny and no wind. we picked madelyn up from school and headed to the zoo for lunch. mason was very excited to tell her the news when we picked her up too!

it was much warmer, but not warm enough to not have a jacket. madelyn thought that it was and chose to leave hers in the car. so i let her wear my scarf to help stay warm.

i was feeling the beautiful day and decided to let maddux walk as long as he could behave. he blew me away! he isn't holding a hand when he walks yet, but inside the zoo i let him roam free with his sister and brother. he loved every minute and walked almost the entire two hours we were there. he only stopped for lunch and when we were getting ready to leave and had to go down a steep hill i put him back in the stroller.

we know that maddux is pretty fearless but i was surprised that he took off across the rope bridge. it might have helped that he watched madelyn and mason do it several times before he went over to the starting side.

not only is maddux fearless, but he is quite tough. i have mentioned before that i don't usually let him walk when we are in public places because it is just easier to keep him in the stroller for safety with all three. and hills were definitely new to him. he fell down a few times but would just brush himself off and keep going. he did stop himself from falling once, but the stop was so sudden that he tipped right over and landed on his forehead. he cried a little that time, but just a little. mainly he just ran and laughed trying to keep up with madelyn and mason.

just a fun day in the sun. love.

good-bye pictures with big pop and grandma

2012-01-05T17:36:00.001-06:00

for some reason we always wait until the last possible moment to try and get some pictures of the grandparents with the kids. and this time was no different. we were literally walking out the door for school while my parents were loading up to head home. the boys were set to wandering around, but we did manage to get semi-decent pictures none the less. love.

playing in the snow

2012-01-05T12:18:00.002-06:00

unfortunately for big pop and grandma, it warmed up the day they left. it had been in the teens and single digits with the wind (40-45 mph gusts) while they were here and today it was around 40! the kids were bummed that the inch of snow or so that we had gotten over the past few days had all but melted. it was nice to spend a little time outside though.

the kids rode bikes and scooters for a little while and then we chased each other around the yard throwing small, slushy snowballs. madelyn scraped together what was left of the snow on our front step into a "mommy and daddy snowman".

and mason made his own "snow mouse". i guess he called it a mouse because it was so small...

it was really nice to get some time out in the sunshine and fresh air while maddux was napping. love.

a girl and her doll

2012-01-02T17:25:00.000-06:00

madelyn got a new doll and accessories for Christmas which has given her an interest in dolls again (she doesn't really play with them very much generally). i think the matching jammies might have helped too. love.

indoor training

2012-01-02T17:18:00.003-06:00

because we can't get enough golf around here, we now have an indoor putting course. just maybe not the one matt had in mind... unfortunately golf clubs are weapons and the course is only open for limited times. love.

1...2...3 with big pop

2012-01-01T22:29:00.001-06:00

wet, cold walk

2012-01-01T20:46:00.001-06:00

the forecast was not that great for big pop and grandma's visit but new year's day looked like we might be without temperatures that would be too extreme and mostly dry so we headed out for a walk.

it is a mile and a half walk to a shopping center where we could have lunch. only the restaurant wasn't open so we had lunch at wendy's instead. it was very busy because it was one of the only places open.

after lunch we walked over to starbucks for warm beverages for our walk back home. and then it started pouring! it was very cold and very windy. matt ran all the way home to get the van and pick us up while we tried to huddle by a bank. realizing that this was crazy because we were cold and wet - we went back into wendy's to wait for matt. we felt so bad for him, especially when it stopped raining around the time he might have made it back to the house. we would have had a rough walk with the wind by the time it stopped raining anyway so we were very happy to see matt with the van.

before it got messy out, we had a nice walk with just a few drizzles. here are a few pictures.

mason talked to big pop the entire time.

big pop and grandma enjoyed the walk and hope to do it again when it is a little warmer (or maybe a lot warmer). love.

Christmas with big pop and grandma

2011-12-31T14:55:00.002-06:00

we waited to do presents to/from big pop and grandma for until they were here. they had shipped the larger items to us when they ordered them and then (somehow) managed to bring more with them! we had a few for them too.

madelyn could hardly wait for them to get inside so that she could give them the gifts she picked out, wrapped and labeled all by herself. in fact, she didn't wait and met them at the door with their gifts. and then requested that they open them right then. we convinced her to wait until after dinner for presents.

maddux checking out his spinning lights wand

more gift opening

the best part was that i had jokingly considered letting big pop and grandma assemble the gifts they got the kids when they got here. and then i talked to my brothers who had to assemble the same toys for their kids (the words "crazy" and "bleeding" were used). we were definitely going to let them assemble! so matt and grandma had a race to see who could get theirs together the fastest. matt won. and i was crying from laughing so hard! i was also texting grandma's comments to my brothers so that they could share in my joy (and they did). big pop thought that it was all pretty funny too. matt finally helped grandma finish up so that we could go to bed.

we were lucky to get to extend Christmas another week. love.

pro football hall of fame

2011-12-31T07:58:00.052-06:00

we won (bought) four tickets to the pro football hall of fame at a charity auction. unfortunately, they expire today. and big pop and grandma won't get here in time to go with us. we only needed two tickets for our family so we figured we would pick someone at random to get our other two.

we weren't sure how it would be for the kids, but it turned out to be a pretty fun outing. madelyn and mason both said that it was a lot of fun and wanted to go back some time. madelyn was particularly fond of the rings and trophies. mason liked all of the touch screens and buttons at the displays.

madelyn was full of poses today

there was a hologram of the hall of fame ring that you could sort of 'try on' if you could keep up with the rotation. you can sort of see that it is 3D with matt's finger.

i found all of the exhibits to be very interesting. i did laugh at faith hill's dress because there was no plaque with explanation - just a black dress and a picture of her face. and then i liked this sign next to dick butkus' helmet that merely said, "played angry."

the kids spent a lot of time 'listening' to the recordings on the 'phones'. i am not sure that they really listened to very much but they had a lot of fun.

maddux spent almost the entire time in his stroller chowing on cheerios. i did let him out for a little while at the end where he tried to 'kiss' all of the exhibits. (maybe he was just that excited about football history...)

we thought that the board displaying every team's record since 1920 was pretty interesting too.

of course the room for the lombardi trophy was a good photo too. and it was the only picture i was in thanks to all of the mirrors (otherwise i wouldn't have been in any of them). you have to look in the mirrors to see mason too. maddux is 'kissing' the trophy case - of course.

and how is this for a pose from madelyn?

and this might be our favorite picture from the day. i told them to pretend someone was pouring water on them and they did a great job! i particularly liked mason's expression.

we had a good time and will probably go back again sometime. it was amazing how busy it was! and the tickets aren't cheap so it might be a while or when we have company. love.

curls

2011-12-30T14:28:00.001-06:00

maddux' hair is very curly. well, what i would call very curly. but he sleeps on his forehead at night and pulls food through it during the day to straighten it out so i tried to get some pictures of the ringlets on his forehead after his bath tonight since they are the first to get pulled straight. the pictures do not do justice to how much curl there actually is in the front. it looks like he might actually keep it; at least there seem to be more curls as his hair grows instead of less. we will find out if i would ever get his one-year pictures taken so that he can have a haircut! i think now that we are past the holidays i might have to time to take him...

both sides of the family have lots of curls (dark on big pop's side and light on both grandma and papa's) and everyone takes credit. i think that he is pretty cute either way. love.

the new couch

2011-12-29T11:16:00.000-06:00

we went shopping the day after Christmas. we had so much luck last year with very little crowd that we decided to try again this year. plus, we were hoping to get a deal on a couch. we have not owned a couch since we left wisconsin. and we missed it. very much.

even though we haven't had one, we have not been in a hurry to buy one either. we have been watching for a deal on the right couch and hoping to get one in january. with our ever expanding family, we thought that a sectional was the way to go and matt talked me into leather (because it is the easiest to keep clean with small children).

we were so excited to find a sectional that easily fit our whole family, fit into our living room (it is probably a little large for most people, but it works for us) and was the right price! and they delivered it today. the kids have been ecstatic about the new couch. maddux in particular. and then it occurred to me that he has never had a couch or ever sat on one outside of a furniture store. he thinks that it is so neat to crawl down the length of it and try each 'seat'. we are really looking forward to our first 'movie night' on the new couch! it has been hard to snuggle up with three kids in the chairs.

all three of them were climbing all over it and laughing and sliding off as soon as the delivery guys closed the door, but i wasn't fast enough to get the camera. i am sure that there will be lots more couch fun. love.

birthday cake

2011-12-27T11:16:00.000-06:00

it took us a few days, but we finally made our baby jesus birthday cookie cake. madelyn wanted to sing the version of happy birthday, jesus from her school concert.

taking out the trash

2011-12-26T18:30:00.001-06:00

mason has taken up his first "chore" (other than generally cleaning up their toys) - taking out the trash. it started with him helping me bring in the empty trash cans and recycling containers but a few weeks ago he bundled up to help daddy carry boxes out to the curb on 'trash night'.

there was a lot of trash the day after Christmas so madelyn and mason helped daddy get it ready for pick-up. only madelyn and mason wanted to work faster than daddy and just carried the cardboard out to the curb without breaking it down or stacking it.

it is very dark, but you can see mason's light up shoes and here him dragging the shovel on his return trip.

mason loves his 'chore' so much that when i asked him to take a box out to the garage last week, he came back to ask me to open the garage door. he thought i wanted him to take it out to the curb! so sweet of him to offer. love.

24, 17, 19

2011-12-25T22:56:00.000-06:00

these are the number of months between our children. and for you that might struggle with math, you need four children to have three gaps. and number four is coming in (wait for it...) june! yes, we are having a third june baby! at least this time it should be early june (i say "should" because we have had no problem with going 40+ weeks).

we had a 10 week ultrasound at this doctor's office so here are some profile pictures. you can see the head on the left and a foot/leg on the right. you can also see an arm/hand near the neck area. baby looks great so far and has a very good heart rate.

i have had maybe four or five appointments (there seem to be a lot at this practice). i have already had my glucose test because maddux was 11 lbs. they want to test me earlier to make sure diabetes isn't an issue (that generally leads to babies over 10 lbs.). and i will have a second blood/glucose test at 28 weeks. i didn't get a phone call, so i am guessing that i am in the clear on the blood work (they only call if something is wrong). i have another check-up in a few weeks so i guess i will get a definite negative at that time.

i am guessing that we will find out boy or girl at the end of january because that is when i will be 20 weeks (i am 16 right now). and we will be finding out. either way the baby will sleep in madelyn's room because she is the heaviest sleeper and then we will arrange things for gender appropriateness (if needed) when the baby is ready to leave the crib (some time after turning one).

we just told family on Christmas because we wanted to hold the grandparents off on presents for the new baby. our house just can't take any more toys! :) it was a fairly easy secret to keep since we hardly know anyone here and it is winter (lots of layers and bulky clothes). i did have some trouble dressing for matt's office Christmas party because i was 14 weeks and he hadn't told his boss yet - who was going to be there. thankfully, i have not shown quite as early with this one as i did with maddux (or i just didn't lose as much weight between kids...).

mainly i have had aversions to sweets (and really most food doesn't taste great), teeth brushing makes me dry heave and i am exhausted. this is all similar to my other pregnancies, but the sweets aversion was only with madelyn so i am thinking that it is a girl. we are hoping for a girl to even things out but will be happy either way.

the next six months are going to be busy! my main goal is to have mason potty trained before the baby gets here because i don't want three in diapers! love.

happy birthday to Jesus!

2011-12-25T18:16:00.001-06:00

i wasn't expecting the kids to get up all that early. ever since we have gotten settled into our house, the kids have been sleeping to 7, 8 or even later! it has always been a struggle to get madelyn to stay in her room until 7am and mason and maddux have been pre-7 risers too. anyway, i woke up Christmas morning to the sound of quiet playing - i knew that it was mason (madelyn would have come to get us and maddux is still in a crib).

last shot of the tree Christmas eve (most of the presents are not from matt and me).

we got the boys a firehouse/police station playset and that is where mason was when i came out into the living room. he was so excited!

mason and maddux were so cute playing with their firehouse/police station all day. (notice that they are still in their church clothes - mason was even still wearing his name tag on his back!) at one point they were playing peek-a-boo through the windows (maddux was on the outside and mason was inside) just laughing hysterically; i just couldn't get the camera fast enough.

it was really nice to have mason to help open presents this year - things went a lot faster. maddux has been open presents for weeks (and i have been re-wrapping) but today - nothing. we could not get him to open a single present. once they were open though he was excited. he would even cry when we would try to take the box to open it; he didn't want to give it up for even a moment.

madelyn was going to get a doll house, but ultimately, she likes little things and loved her castle.

madelyn asked "santa" for a pink train with pink tracks; she got a pink conductors hat and two pink trains. mason asked for a green truck book so he got a green dump truck and several truck books (some with green trucks). maddux got a blue step stool for the bathroom from "santa".

because daddy was getting cabin fever because i wouldn't let him do any 'work' around the house, he took mason out to use the newest baseball tee. as you can see, it was fun for all! madelyn and i were bummed not to have a white Christmas, but i think it worked out for the best.

we hope that you had a wonderful day celebrating Christ's birth! i know we did (even though we never got around to making his birthday cake - oops - it's the first year we didn't make one). my favorite thing about Christmas this year is that the kids said "baby jesus" about a hundred more times than "santa"! we are really working on keeping the focus in the right place. love.

Christmas eve

2011-12-24T18:10:00.001-06:00

Christmas eve was a quiet day at home. i did all of the food preparations for Christmas so that i wouldn't have to do any cooking tomorrow. mason discovered how to button his jammies and must have unbuttoned and buttoned his shirt a hundred times over the course of the day! they were all sitting at the table waiting for their next meal/snack so matt tried to get a picture with all three smiling - it didn't happen - but i thought that some of these were cute.

we went to a Christmas eve church service with plans to look at lights afterwards. i wanted to get a family picture, but it didn't happen. i should have at least taken a picture of madelyn because she wore her velvet and sequin dress from her school concert with knee high "joy" socks (red and grey with green letters) and pink glitter tennis shoes! she got a lot of comments on how nice her outfit was - which she loved!

there were several houses with lights set to music near us so we went to see a few. mason fell asleep a few moments after we left the church parking lot but maddux and madelyn stayed awake for the first house. matt did get in the back of the van to wake mason up so that he could see the disney portion of the show (they had a projection screen showing movie clips while the lights danced to the soundtrack). mason went right back to sleep as we drove away and maddux wasn't far behind.

here is a video of the second house (which was actually two houses). the music is black eyed peas which is funny because the song before was i want a hippopotomus for Christmas and the next song was silent night!

we didn't get home until after 9 - way past bedtime. normally we would have gotten the boys into their jammies but we couldn't risk them waking and being up for a few hours so we just put them down in their church clothes. madelyn woke up when we got home because of a promise to let her open some new Christmas jammies from under the tree. but she could barely stay awake. i had to put out the santa cookies, etc. myself. next year we will go see lights earlier in the week so that Christmas eve can be less rushed.

matt did a lot of assembly and i did some wrapping and stocking stuffing before calling it a night. love.

Christmas cookies

2011-12-23T18:09:00.023-06:00

i should have taken pictures of us out on delivery - or even of the cookies the kids helped make - but i didn't. we put together a few plates of cookies and fudge to give to our immediate neighbors for Christmas. we loaded the plates into the wagon after daddy got home (he was home just after lunch) and maddux was sleeping. the kids were so excited to give out the cookies they had worked so hard on. we made sugar cookies that were sugar with a capital "s"! and the kids decorated them with an assortment of sprinkles. we also gave chocolate fudge and iced pumpkin spice cookies.

it was much colder out than it had been earlier in the day and madelyn in particular was not dressed warmly enough (by choice, i tried to get her to wear a hat). after our deliveries, we came home and had hot chocolate and watched a Christmas movie (i think it was the veggietales version of it's a wonderful life). i did take pictures of them with their hot chocolate, but madelyn would not look away from the movie long enough for a picture. i did like mason's attempt though.

next year we will make cookies again and deliver them a little earlier in the week. love.

p.s. one of the reasons i wasn't thinking of pictures is that i was in a hurry to get the cookies out. i had also spent the morning in my pjs and robe expecting to take a shower and get cleaned up after matt came home - which i did. but not before maggie ran away and i had to chase her in my robe in front of a stranger and a neighbor i hadn't met yet who were trying to help me. did i mention that it was 11am?! no more late showers for me.

half birthday

2011-12-21T18:07:00.010-06:00

madelyn's school does "half birthdays" for all of the summer birthdays. madelyn's day was the last day of school before Christmas break. she chose funfetti cupcakes with strawberry icing. i had picked up some papers with red flowers for her too. thankfully, this time i was able to find strawberry icing and didn't have to make my own again. i have been baking up a storm for other Christmas treats.

madelyn wore her Christmas best to school and they gave her a crown and a cake sign, but she would not let me take her picture. instead she posed for this one several days later (and, yes, her mouth is full of food but i take what i can get). love.

little things

2011-12-13T15:50:00.015-06:00

when we were leaving the zoo one time recently, madelyn started telling me a "at my house with the red door..." story. and then mason started to tell me a similar story that started "at my house with the blue door." they were each telling a story at the same time and it was a little difficult to follow both detailed plots, but mason's "blue door" made me laugh. oh and madelyn's story had a sister where mason's had a brother.

maddux has started "brooming" and "vrooming" cars when playing.

just didn't want to miss these. love.

gingerbread house

2011-12-11T14:06:00.000-06:00

i have never made a gingerbread house - which madelyn was shocked to hear. so i thought that we should give it a try. i picked up a kit at bjs and was pretty impressed at what all it came with, except any clear picture of what the finished project should look like. it didn't matter. we all had fun trying to figure it out from a very small picture on the box.

the kids were very pleased with our finished product and can not wait to eat it! there have been quite a few 'tracks' in the snow/sugar. then i caught madelyn sticking her finger in it and solved the mystery. love.

day out for daddy

2011-12-10T14:09:00.000-06:00

daddy had a lot of "work" work to get done this weekend, so i offered to take the kids out and give him a few hours by himself at home to work without interruption.

but first i started the day with letting daddy sleep in. he has left the house at or before 6am all week and the kids and i discussed letting him sleep in. they didn't get up super early which was nice. we had some breakfast and then i made up our lunch to take out.

daddy woke up shortly before we left which made it a lot easier for me to get myself ready to go. our first stop was lowe's to make the second part of the christmas train - the coal car. both kids opted for the candy stickers in the holiday theme instead of the 'realistic' coal car versions (they each got both to choose from in their kits). the place was packed and we had to sit on the floor with several other families.

we browsed around for a little bit to check out the christmas selection. i hadn't realized how late it had gotten and we had to hustle over to the zoo so that we could eat our lunch before the 'story hour' at 1pm. apparently, this is the first year they have offered a 'cabin fever' series of stories and craft events every saturday. all i can say is that we will be back.

they put out carpet squares for the kids to sit on and then gave each of them their own box of popcorn. i think they read 4 books and it was very interactive. they even brought out a groundhog and told the kids about hibernation. did you know that the groundhog is the largest mammal (maybe just in north america) that hibernates - not the grizzly bear?

i tried to get a picture before it started but mason didn't look at the right time

so a few minutes later he called me back up to take his picture! he really hates to miss out on a photo.

i was surprised that the lady reading the stories was in costume. it was really very nice.

the kids both got cards to hold up during a 12 days of christmas-esqe story. madelyn had the first one and mason had the ninth. he was so focused on holding it up at the right time and kept checking what the picture was that when his turn came, he missed it! at the end they had all of the kids line up in order for the last reading of the list. mason is supposed to be in the gap on the right side of the picture but was heading towards madelyn. until he saw me holding the camera and stopped where he was to give a smile pose.

madelyn is on the left and mason is in an orange/brown shirt in front of one of the taller boys towards the left.

we returned home about 5 hours after we had left. it seemed like daddy was able to get a lot of work done (he said so too). the good part is that he can do the exact same outing with the kids next week and i can stay home! love.

a night in bethlehem

2011-12-10T13:04:00.005-06:00

the church where the kids go to school had a free "night in bethlehem" this weekend. i wasn't really sure what to expect, but i wasn't expecting much. the flier said live animals, snacks and crafts, so i figured it would be worth checking out. it was amazing!!

i could not believe how much they did from the time we picked madelyn up at school on friday to saturday afternoon. i had a difficult time figuring out where we were in the building because it was so transformed. matt said that he didn't think i should take any pictures in the market place. there were 'local' snacks (mason ate an entire fig - and liked it), crafts for the kids, 'taxes' to be paid with the 'coin' (large washer) we were given when we entered the building and a 'jail' for those who had given their 'coin' to a beggar. madelyn started crying when the jailer asked her if she had been good (he was in roman soldier costume and had just put an older kid in the 'jail').

after the market place we heard about Jesus' birth and life from some 'shepards' and 'prophets' before making our way to the manger where they had a live baby boy as Jesus!

then we went out to see the animals in the stable and matt said i could take pictures (no one else was taking pictures any where - which shocked me because it all looked so amazing). there were all sorts of animals but the kids were really excited about the donkey/mule (i think the other one was a pony but don't know for sure).

maddux slept through the entire thing. maybe next year he will get to take part. love.

the hideout

2011-12-09T09:10:00.001-06:00

all of the kids love this little gap between the wall and the bookshelf in the office. they can each sit in there and 'hide'. maddux (and mason a little) likes to use it for playing peek-a-boo. maddux loves to 'hide' himself all of the time for peek-a-boo. he doesn't like to play with his hands over his eyes very much, but really likes to 'hide' behind books, plates, walls, doors, blankets, etc.

i like the office hideout because it lets me spend a little time on the computer without him/them getting into everything in the office that they shouldn't. win-win. love.

maddux 1-year well-check

2011-12-07T09:44:00.000-06:00

we haven't changed pediatricians yet. i had planned to but then couldn't get in with anyone for maddux' one year, so went ahead and scheduled with our old pediatrician. but i had waited too long and had to take him in a month late. oh well.

here are his one year stats:

height: 34 inches (99th percentile)
weight: 24lbs 8oz (67th percentile)
head circumference: 19.3 inches (96th percentile)

he is the tallest and leanest of the three at one year - granted he is one month older than the other two were at their appointments. madelyn was 32 inches and mason was 32-1/2.

the doctor was shocked by how many teeth he had - 16 - and was pleased with his comprehension of instructions and balance. maddux is right on track and i was given no instructions. she wasn't concerned about his weight, but we are beefing up his milk because we really weren't giving him enough. mainly because the other two drink water all day and maddux just has the same foods and drinks as them. now we are giving him milk at every meal. although he does prefer water. love.

zoo lunch

2011-12-05T17:02:00.002-06:00

we went home after the concert and i let the kids watch a movie in the car while i ran in and threw together a lunch. i was really, really, really tempted to just pick up lunch on the way or buy it at the zoo. but we were at the very end of the month and did not want to go over budget. i was glad i made the effort once we actually got to the zoo because i know that everyone gets a good lunch and enough to eat.

we had the whole place to ourselves. i felt bad because they had to pop some popcorn so that we could use our free popcorn coupon that i just discovered; it expires at the end of the year.

i thought it was funny to see them all bundled up watching the penguins.

the kids were not cold but i was freezing. madelyn wouldn't even close up her coat!

they had a really pretty christmas display set up but the lighting just wasn't great for pictures.

i had thought that maddux would want to walk around a little with his sister and brother, but, no, he did not.

he was much happier snuggled up in the stroller! love.

christmas concert

2011-12-05T16:05:00.002-06:00

friday was madelyn's christmas concert at school. they do two performances - one on friday morning (for "grandparents") and one on sunday evening. they don't have enough room for everyone so they encourage extended family to come on friday so that the actual families can attend sunday night. i didn't learn until today (because i just got around to reading the newsletter) that you weren't supposed to attend both performances - oh well.

we dropped madelyn off for school at 8:45 and then the boys and i headed to the sanctuary to wait for the show. the room was already pretty full so i was glad that we were able to get an aisle seat. i was not prepared for how long we were going to be sitting still - and quiet. i had grabbed a few snacks on our way out the door, but i did not have nearly enough to make it through the performance. by the time madelyn's class finally started singing, i had both boys on my lap and maddux was crying for freedom. we couldn't see anything either because the family in front of us were there for the same class and could not stay in their seats. i finally gave up and headed to the back of the room where a kind lady offered to hold maddux so that i could take some pictures (yes, i was trying to get video and pictures while maddux was crying and fighting to get off my lap).

the boys waiting nicely for the show to start - with snacks.

madelyn marching in. i asked madelyn if her teacher told her what to wear; she said "sparkly" or "cozy". i had her dramatically under dressed in gingerbread tights and pink.

all the classes sang a few songs together first.

decided to take a picture with the boys while all the kids found their seats for the individual class performances.

my idea was that i could get pictures and video on friday so that i could not mess with the camera on sunday and actually enjoy the performance. here are a few videos, but i was thrilled to learn that they are selling a dvd of the performance and will not even bring my camera next year (well of course i will bring it, but i just won't use it during the show).

after the concert, everyone was invited to have cookies and punch. that was the one good thing about having to leave the sanctuary early with the boys, we were the first in line for the cookies! madelyn was a little disappointed that there weren't plates for her to pile with cookies and she would have to settle for just one on a napkin. but i explained that there needed to be enough for everyone and she was okay (although she did end up with two).

and that was it. she was free to leave with us for the day. that part was a surprise. i thought that she would be staying for the other hour and a half of school and we could run home and make lunch for the zoo that afternoon. oh well - on to plan b... love.

hanging at home

2011-12-05T16:04:00.000-06:00

this past week was extremely busy for me with work so we didn't do too much. but the kids are always busy! here are a few pictures of them at play...

all three kids took a snuggle with the pillow pet maddux got for his birthday. everyone has their own, but maddux is the first one to really use and play with his so now the bigger kids are taking an interest too. (notice that madelyn has a nativity set in the bag she is holding - she is rarely without at least one piece of a set this time of year.)

maddux has been getting into a 'monkey see, monkey do' phase and decided that he could sit at the table too. he got up there all on his own! i think madelyn might have given him his water before calling me to take a look. he doesn't sit on the bench to eat - yet - because it makes us a little too nervous.

madelyn was a messy eater, mason was/is very neat but went through a phase where he rubbed everything in his hair and maddux is following suit with his hair and his face! this week he decided that every meal would be a great mask and hair conditioner. on this morning it was oatmeal. i can barely wipe him off any more. i just strip him down in the chair and rinse him in the sink after each meal! i think that he is already moving out of this phase, but it sure has been a messy week!

and maddux wishes he was just a few inches taller so that he could get his own water. every time he has an empty cup, he heads to the refrigerator for a refill.

so there is a little overview of their comings and goings around the house. love.

christmas concert - the real deal

2011-12-05T15:16:00.001-06:00

madelyn was so excited to have daddy join us for her concert and to wear her sparkly, twirly dress. mason wanted to be in on the action too and they happily posed together. mason was excited about getting another cookie after the concert.

after friday's concert madelyn said that she was so exhausted from ringing her bell and singing that she couldn't go on sunday too. but after resting on saturday, she felt up to it. whew.

i couldn't pick which picture was the "best", so here are the ones i took. and the only ones i took. there were none at the concert and it was SO much more enjoyable. i actually noticed the bell ringing and gestures. way, way better. so there will be dramatically fewer pictures during events. i only get to be their mom once. love.

birthday boy

2011-11-26T12:23:00.001-06:00

today was matt's birthday. madelyn called him "birthday boy" all day. i had wanted to let him sleep in but the kids had other plans for me last night and when mason woke up on the floor of our bedroom he went to matt and i could not motivate to stop him. oh well. it made it that much easier to take daddy out to breakfast - which we were planning anyway.

we took him to dunkin donuts (his choice because we had coupons). i have never had breakfast there before, but their hash browns are awesome! after that we headed over to do some shopping. there were still some really great deals and since we were out early, we had the stores mostly to ourselves. we were going to take him out to dinner, but we were very close to the restaurant at lunch time so we decided to save ourselves another trip out. we tried a barbecue place and daddy really liked it. there aren't that many barbecue places around here so it was a real treat.

yesterday, the kids and i made matt's birthday cake. we made a vanilla cake with a vanilla pudding and sliced strawberries filling covered in chocolate, chocolate chip frosting. yum, yum!

daddy said that he had a nice day and i really think that he did. we love you, daddy/matt! love.

festival of trees

2011-11-24T20:17:00.001-06:00

matt surprised us all with a trip to the 'festival of trees' after thanksgiving dinner. apparently this is an annual even where local businesses and families decorate Christmas trees and wreaths and donate them to the show where they are sold to benefit the children's hospital. the pictures don't really capture how beautiful the trees were all lit up. and the picture to the right was just the overflow; there was a whole ballroom of trees that i didn't take a picture of for some reason. there were easily over 100 trees and lots of other holiday decorations.

the kids were asking to have their picture taken in front of their 'favorite' trees, but they could barely hold still long enough for a picture before seeing their next 'favorite'. and there was just way too much to see to pause for pictures.

the kids were very cute in their search for "baby jesus" - and there were lots to see. we thought that this one using teddy bears was the most unique.

the event was closing, but we stopped by to see santa before we left. i think the santa was a little tired because he was a little frustrated that the kids wouldn't speak louder. he wasn't rude or anything that the kids would have noticed, but i decided to step in and repeat their answers above a whisper. madelyn said that she wanted a candy cane for Christmas and when santa kept pushing for her to say something else, she said that she wanted a guitar. we could not believe that the girl who has reviewed every toy circular in the paper - multiple times - and marked every toy that is her "favorite" - and she has a lot of favorites - could not think of something to tell santa. "guitar" was inspired from maddux' birthday present that all three kids like playing with and then we found one with princesses on it - so not totally random but not something i would consider to be in her top twenty. mason was more predictable with a "race car". the santa seemed disappointed that they didn't want more toys. he kept asking "are you sure you don't want anything else?" until i decided that we had better be on our way.

did i mention that the event was free? we will most definitely come back next year. love.

happy thanksgiving

2011-11-24T18:50:00.001-06:00

gathered around the table for our first thanksgiving in the new house! it was a great day with just the family. now if the turkey had not started the day frozen... but it never had a chance because even our carrots were icy! we only ate one hour later than planned and everything worked out great. it was a lot easier to have three ovens instead of just one.

maddux surprised me by eating everything on his plate! he ate more than madelyn and mason. if we had not needed to leave, he probably would have kept eating. he has been really picky about what he will eat lately, but i will say that sitting at the table has made a huge difference in him not just throwing food on the floor.

the kids brought home some thanksgiving items home to decorate our table.

madelyn brought home a prayer turkey. each of the colored cards had a prayer/song on it and we have used it for several meals. madelyn likes them all on the back instead of spread out around the turkey.

mason made a place mat with a turkey made out of his hand prints and foot print and a 'picture' of our family on the back. it was so cute how proud he was of it and how he explained every detail to me and then later to matt. a great keepsake!

we have so much to be thankful for! we are all healthy, we have a beautiful new home, we have jobs, we have been blessed with beautiful children. i hope that everyone takes time to be thankful for the simple things in life - like health and time with the ones you love - because those are the most precious things.

after dinner we went to get into the Christmas spirit. love.

sleep

2011-11-22T13:21:00.000-06:00

as everyone with small children knows - sleep is constantly evolving. we started out doing pretty well, but things have been challenging. our kids have always been early risers - between 6 and 6:30am. we work towards staying in rooms until 7am.

the new room situations seem to be working out well - actually better than i had hoped. mason does not seem to be bothered my maddux' crying most of the time. and being seperated from the boys has actually allowed madelyn to get more sleep. but for some reason they must be having a secret meeting each evening to decide who gets to wake up in the middle of the night and come into our room. madelyn doesn't draw that straw often, but she gets her turns. mainly it is mason and he goes right back to sleep (usually in or next to our bed). but maddux likes to go with a 5am wake up call. he was at 4:30am for about a week, but 5:15am seems to be his favorite time.

out of despiration i decided to just let him cry until 7am. knowing that it would wake up mason. mason was getting a little too comfortable with sleeping in our bed after waking up before 7am so we have started only letting him sleep on the floor next to our bed - which he does not mind at all. in fact, i had to wake him up at 8:30am on sunday so that we could go to church! he has since come into our room and laid down without making a noise. but maddux did not take as well to crying. i wake up when he does and turn off the monitor so it isn't so loud and then lay in bed listening to him cry. i do not enjoy it, but he is fine and will be better when he sleeps longer. the first day i think he cried off and on for an hour before going back to sleep. all three kids slept until 7:30am that day. the second day he woke up at 5:30am, cried softly twice and went back to sleep. i woke up at 7:45am and was the first one in the house awake! (it was a saturday.)

we are still working on it and it is a little bit of a process with figuring out getting daytime napping and early morning rising balance out but we are much, much closer than we were a week ago. and we are all a bit more rested and cheerful. love.

mason

2011-11-21T14:42:00.000-06:00

i feel like it has been a while since i have done a post just about mason. he is such a sweet little snuggler, but he can also be super silly trouble.

- mason doesn't always speak in complete sentences. i understand him about 95% of the time without any trouble. i only have to ask him to help me when i don't know what topic he is telling me about - like when he comes in from another room.

- mason loves school and gets so sad on days we take madelyn and he doesn't get to stay too

- he knows all of his colors (not confusing any like madelyn did with black and brown for a while)

- he often sings to himself. i can almost always recognize the tune but can't usually make out the words.

- he knows a lot of his letters, but i haven't sat down with him to figure out how many (i really should do that though...)

- mason is very independent and rarely gets to an "i can't do it". if he can't get it done he will calmly ask for help. he only gets frustrated when you won't let him try. that is one of the qualities i love most about him. i must hear "no, mommy/mads/daddy me do it!" 50 times a day.

- he can do most puzzles and is getting better at matching the picture instead of just matching the shape (he has a puzzle set where all the shapes are the same so i know that he is looking at the picture more). his teachers at school have mentioned that his ability to do the 'hard' puzzles is impressive and their 'hard' puzzles are just the shape cut out kind, not an actual jigsaw type puzzle that he does at home.

- dressing himself is rarely a problem. he is very focused on not putting things on backwards.

- potty training has been illusive. he starts out fine and can go in the potty without any trouble, but then he starts begging for a diaper and stops making any effort to go in the potty. i think he is one that we just have to wait for him to decide when it is time. unfortunately. his will to wear diapers is stronger than ours to quit diapers. the last time we potty trained (a few weeks ago) he was so determined to put his underwear back on by himself that he got a leg hole around his waist! and it was very tight. we couldn't believe that he was able to pull it up over his bottom without getting frustrated or giving up.

- he has started taking a book to bed with him just like bunny bear. it doesn't matt which book because he doesn't look at it, he just sleeps with it. he has also taken to 'reading' by himself instead of having us read to him although he does listen to stories when we read at bedtime with madelyn.

- he has a strong interest in basketball. matt says that it must skip a generation since papa and big pop both played and matt and i didn't.

- still sucking his thumb. i have started working with him about only sucking it when it is sleeping time and he seems to be very accepting of that rule. i am actually impressed by him immediate removal of his thumb with a smile.

- he notices everything and talks almost non-stop. i love listening to him.

- mason loves being my "helper" when we go shopping and he truly is helpful by carrying things and getting items off shelves.

you always hear how wild boys are but mason seems to be pretty tame. don't get me wrong he comes at you full speed when it is play/wrestle time and is "all boy" at times. we are very proud of him and love how loving he is to everyone around him. so there is a little update on our growing boy. love.

more teeth

2011-11-21T13:54:00.000-06:00

it was tough to give a count of teeth on maddux' first birthday because there were so many coming in at once. and as of today he has the last four for a grand total of 16 until he gets his two-year-old molars. we are all super glad to be done with teething for a while. love.

little drummer boy

2011-11-18T14:02:00.001-06:00

the kids' school's church had a family movie night screening of the little drummer boy - aka the new veggietales movie. we actually have a copy that maddux got for his birthday, but we have waited to watch it at this event.

it was cute. they had all the kids make 'drums' on their way in (styrofoam sandwich containers covered with Christmas themed stickers) and then had them 'drum' while we sang "the little drummer boy" Christmas carol before the movie. then they explained how the drummer boy isn't in the bible, but that it uses Jesus' birth as its inspiration.

everyone is invited to wear pajamas to the movie. here is our crew waiting for the show to start. mason is in that squinty, nostril 'smile' phase that makes a good group picture difficult to come by.

and i was there too...

i wasn't sure how maddux would do during the movie. i actually thought that he might fall asleep. he wasn't noisy and didn't cry, but he kept touching the lady in front of us so i took him out to walk around. mason kept switching back and forth from walking with us and sitting with matt and madelyn.

after the movie they offered a 'bed time snack'. there was more sugar than we would normally let our kids eat that late, but let them have their treats since this was a special outing. mason wasn't looking for the first picture, so he requested to have his picture taken again once he was ready to 'smile'. madelyn leaned in at the last second which is why she looks surprised.

i think that we would do this again if the movie was something of interest to the kids. it was a nice family night out and i think we all enjoyed it. the best part was that we were home only a few minutes past bedtime. love.

watercolors

2011-11-18T13:55:00.004-06:00

i let the kids paint with water colors for a while today on the easel. madelyn is much better than she was before we moved and mason just wanted to paint black "trees". although he did switch to brown so that he could paint a "geese" (i am having trouble convincing him that when there is just one, it is a goose). love.

maddux meets the swing

2011-11-18T13:15:00.001-06:00

we hung the swing in the basement a few weeks ago. and maddux finally got his turn! it's a little too high for him to climb into but he loves it any way. i don't think you can really hear him laughing or see how big he is smiling. it doesn't really look all that fun, but he loves it! love.

big kids

2011-11-16T14:54:00.000-06:00

mason completely selected his outfit, removed his pajamas and put on his clothes all by himself today! madelyn was wearing a pretty good outfit of her own choosing and mason wanted to pose for a picture with her. i hope that this keeps up because it was really nice to only have to dress one (and myself) before school today. love.

meet mommy and daddy

2011-11-14T23:03:00.000-06:00

madelyn and mason were playing quite a game of pretend that evolved into madelyn being the "mommy" and mason being the "daddy". to complete their outfits, madelyn thought that they needed to wear our shoes. the funniest thing was madelyn was concerned about how matt could go to work without his "work" shoes. i explained that he has more than one pair. love.

this was the pose they chose to 'show' me the shoes.

and they both fell down after the picture; i caught them getting the shoes back on

maddux at one

2011-11-14T21:13:00.000-06:00

i wasn't able to get maddux a one-year check up until next month. so i thought that i might jot down a few things about maddux right now...

- he has 12 teeth
- he can go up and down stairs by himself (he just started going down this week)
- he points at what he wants as his own form of 'signing' (no, i haven't been very good at teaching him signing)
- maddux wears 18 - 24 months clothes, 4 shoes
- when he is done eating or drinking he just throws the rest or his cup on the floor; this makes me insane
- biting does not seem to be his favorite activity any more! although he did bite mason this week when he was trying to take away a toy
- he has more or less stopped nursing.
- he is walking full time
- generally sleeping from 8-6 with a two hour nap although he will take a morning nap too if he/i need him to
- maddux loves his brother and sister! he tries so hard to understand their running around games and keep up
- he says "dada", "mama", "sis", "dog", "this" and tries to say "book"
- he literally devourers books; i am working on him about this because i hate to see the books getting destroyed
- everyone who interacts with him for any period of time (like the church nursery) they comment about how "sweet", "easy" and "happy" he is - yes
- maddux likes to lay his head on my shoulder, but only when i am standing. if i sit down he is very likely to wiggle down
- his hair is still curly, but so fine that sleeping on it and rubbing food in it can straighten it out over the course of a day and it seems to be lightening up a little

we love him and couldn' imagine our family without him. love.

being the youngest

2011-11-14T20:37:00.000-06:00

while maddux was napping on his first birthday, i looked up pictures of madelyn and mason's first birthday. and it occurred to me that instead of letting maddux do things sooner, he does things much, much later. where some people are over protective of their first and then loosen up, we encouraged madelyn to be independent and develop. it isn't that i am trying to keep him a baby or anything, it is more that i am so distracted by the other two. i noticed this a little with mason but it was much more pronounced looking at the pictures of the other two at one.

maddux is still in the high chair, still in a stroller when we go places and sleeping in his sleep sack. he walked as early as madelyn and we let him do what he wants to if he seems physically able but i think that we do hold back on his freedom a little.

i just thought that this was interesting. love.

the reading chair

2011-11-12T19:07:00.001-06:00

maddux picked up a book, climbed up in this chair, 'read' it and then got down to pick another book before doing it all over again. it was so funny to see him picking out a book and enjoy it. love.

cozy coupe

2011-11-12T19:06:00.018-06:00

maddux got a cozy coupe for his birthday from big pop and grandma. how we managed to go this long without one is a little amazing. the weather warmed up today so daddy put it (and its trailer) together and maddux took it out for a spin. i stayed inside to get some work done but i could see them racing up and down the sidewalk. madelyn and mason running and maddux riding along.

i am sure that this will get a lot of use come spring and summer! unfortunately, there most likely won't be too many more days were we can get out to use it before next year. love.

maddux turns 1

2011-11-10T15:54:00.074-06:00

although today is also our 10th wedding anniversary, the day was spent celebrating maddux' first year. we didn't really do anything too special during the day. madelyn and mason went to school and maddux and i went to the grocery store and bed, bath & beyond before maddux had a melt down.

maddux is the first child that didn't get a homemade first birthday cake. but according to madelyn, the ice cream cake we had instead was "the best cake ever". we had bought a free dairy queen cake in a silent auction and thought that we would cash it in. thankfully, the lady at dairy queen didn't let me settle for something too basic and maddux ended up with a pretty cute cake.
papa and nana sent a few small gifts for madelyn and mason so that they wouldn't feel left out (not that they did since they opened all of maddux' presents). they loved that they got their own special presents.

maddux was having a pretty miserable day. we were at bed, bath & beyond looking at humidifiers. he is sleeping fine but the coughing from he and mason was getting worse. maddux could not handle me looking up reviews on my phone and we left empty handed. i didn't take very many pictures because he was not in the mood - at all. i tried to get a picture of him with matt and i but he wouldn't let us hold him or get near him. and then i realized that i didn't take a picture of matt and i for our anniversary either! oh well.

this was one of the few happy moments in maddux' day. he managed to open the dishwasher and get inside. he was quite pleased with himself.

and then he went back to being needy...

madelyn and mason were excited about maddux' birthday and decided that they could help by watching for the macaroni and cheese to be "brown and bubbly". i kept having to remind madelyn that the bread crumbs were already brown to start with and that it was the cheese that needs to get brown.

after naps we went to cvs to take another stab at picking up a humidifier and to get maddux a birthday balloon. he could at least have a balloon!

he really, really liked the balloon (and the way mason hit it which he thought was hysterical). and it seemed like he was even trying to say "balloon" by pointing and saying "ba".

i love his expression - like what is this?

and then he got more excited and put his finger right in

and a finger was pretty much his eating technique

and when he was done...

...he was done.

madelyn was excited to show maddux the special card she made him

maddux started with interest in the first gift, but he was quickly moved to the background as his brother and sister couldn't stand the anticipation.

it was a nice first birthday. of course, it would have been a lot nicer if he had been healthy. matt and i were discussing how fast this year has gone by - in retrospect only. and how fast the past ten have past. we are blessed. love.

the kids are still growing and changing

2011-11-09T13:59:00.059-06:00

we are nearing "unpacked" status! it has been SO much work and the kids are not very willing to let us unpack while they are awake. and while i haven't been posting very much, they have certainly been busy! i would say that the biggest changes have been mason's speech and maddux' walking. and since i haven't taken a moment to capture any on video, i did today.

it was picture make-up day at school again (the first one was before we moved and the photos got 'lost', the second was cancelled due to the photographer being ill and today was try number three for some families). since it was not actually a day when mason stays for class, they 'snuck' us in right at the start of the day. i am hoping that the pictures are not too crazy expensive, because i think that they got some really cute ones of each kid on their own and of madelyn and mason together. the photographer offered to have maddux join in too, but he burst into tears after the first awkward shot and i told her not to worry about him. he wasn't feeling well and i wasn't going to force it. i was bummed that i didn't think to take any pictures myself before going to school, but oh well.

after maddux' nap, madelyn really wanted him to snuggle with her while he drank his milk. and much to my surprise (and delight) he did! i got a few cute ones, but they were both watching a cartoon and not that interested in looking at the camera.

and mason didn't want to be left out so he gave me a few "cheese" pictures. for some reason the lighting was different from that angle and the pictures didn't come out as nicely.

then we headed down to the basement to play with the toys. it would be a lot more ideal if they would play down there without matt and/or me, but they (read: madelyn) won't. we are hoping that with time they will. i think it is still a little adjusting from always being together in the apartment.

maddux is full on walking now. i honestly can't remember the last time he crawled. here is a little video of him. he isn't quite steady enough to hold my hand and walk in public but at home he gets around just fine.

i was trying to ask mason questions about school because he talks about it almost non-stop, but he was more interested in golfing. i love the way he says "pumpkin pie" (he made a cute pumpkin pie craft last week that he really liked). and the video redeems itself at the end...

and our day ended with a beautiful and complete rainbow behind the house! the sun came out between the clouds just long enough for us to get a good look at the rainbow - the picture does not do it justice. madelyn was beside herself with joy because it was the "very first rainbow i have ever even seen!" of course, it is not the first rainbow that she has ever seen, but it has been a long time (not since wisconsin).

here is a taste of the kids since i haven't been doing a good job here lately. the boys and i have been sick, so i haven't been willing to give up any sleep for blogging and there just hasn't been time during the day. love.

contact information

2011-11-07T14:27:00.000-06:00

because of all of our moving during the past year, i haven't really bothered to work with madelyn on learning our contact information. i even plan on changing my cell phone number in the near future (if i ever get around to it...). but her new class was working on phone numbers so i had to teach her mine (we don't have a home number). i was so proud of her because the teacher asked me on friday afternoon which phone number i wanted her to learn and she went in monday morning with it memorized! she wouldn't tell it to me but felt confident that she would know it for her teacher. she had even practiced writing it down and took it to school with her to help her teacher 'test' her. love.

mops playdate

2011-11-04T13:02:00.000-05:00

there is an official mops (mothers of preschoolers) group through the kids' school that meets once a month. the mom the school's director introduced me to randomly is one of the primary contacts for the group, has three kids, and her husband was born and raised in waukesha, wisconsin (where we just moved from). needless to say we had a lot to talk about as we were making small talk. she mentioned that the mops group was meeting for lunch and then going to a local church to play in their 'playland'. we had visited the church with the 'playland' and thought that it sounded like a fun way to spend an afternoon so we met up with them today.

as you can imagine, lunch was a little hectic with all of the moms getting their kids situated. there was another group of moms meeting at the same wendy's and i guess they only have three highchairs in the whole place. our group was there first and had two of the highchairs. while one of our moms was in line getting her family's lunch, a mom from the other group came over and asked the kids sitting at the table (without an adult) if they were using the high chair. when they said, yes, she questioned them about it again saying that she had a "baby" that really needed that highchair (first her "baby" was closer to mason's age than maddux' and, second, she was trying to bully kids 5 and under). thankfully, one of the other moms from our group stepped in and explained that the baby was in line with his mom (a child under the age of one, who actually needed the highchair to eat lunch).

anyway, i made some small, getting-to-know-you, conversation over lunch. as best as we could with our children around. and then we all headed over to the church.

the playland is a pretty impressive indoor attraction. and it is free as a ministry of the church. there wasn't really any conversation between the moms once we got there because a lot of the little kids kept getting 'stuck' or scared once they got to the top. it is nice because this structure is large enough for an adult to easily get up inside and retrieve their child. thankfully, i was able to only observe and did not have to learn first hand. madelyn and mason did a great job looking out for each other and sticking together so that i could focus on maddux. there was a separate, contained area for kids 2 and under, but maddux could not be distracted from the real action of the larger play equipment so i let him spend the bulk of his time walking around the larger structure. there were a few too many big kids going too fast for me to let him climb up inside, but he didn't seem to mind too much.

madelyn and mason spent the entire hour climbing up to come down the "bumpy slide". here is a little footage towards the end of our time.

it was nice to get away from unpacking and meet some new people. i am looking forward to my first mops meeting next week. they meet in the evening so i will be leaving the kids at home with daddy. love.

first day of school!

2011-11-01T18:33:00.001-05:00

today was madelyn and mason's first day at the new preschool and mason's first day of preschool ever! he was so excited about going to school and madelyn was excited to get to meet some new friends.

it worked out kind of nice too because matt had taken yesterday and today off to work on moving/unpacking so he got to come too. i would have taken more pictures but we were running a little late.

mason will be going two days a week and madelyn will continue to go four days. we will see how it goes on the days when mason doesn't get to stay for school too...

the first day went great and mason talked pretty much non-stop on the ride home. even madelyn was more interested in asking mason about his day than telling about her own! madelyn did tell me that she made two friends, but she couldn't remember their names. love.

boo at the zoo

2011-10-30T16:19:00.000-05:00

our fourth, and last, halloween activity is "boo at the zoo". i went back and forth on this one because i had to buy tickets for the kids - oh, and that we are in the middle of moving. but the kids had been pretty into the decorations the past few trips to the zoo and i wanted to see what it was all about.

the parking lot was full so i was a little nervous about how it would be...

for some reason, every single person last night and tonight thought that maddux was a girl! i don't know what about lion costume and a blue (sports) blanket says "girl" but that was all we heard.

as always, since daddy was with us the kids got to go for a ride. i wasn't fast enough to get a picture with all three faces, but you can see everyone between the two.

it was actually a really nice afternoon/evening at the zoo. the decorations were really cute and madelyn and mason got cards to stop at 14 themed 'stations' to get a 'treat'. and they were good treats too - king sized candy bars, fruit snacks, coloring book, little debbie cakes and snacks. okay so maybe not "good" as in good for you, but they were not cheap treats like i was expecting.

there were also a few cute photo opprotunities (like the one at the top of the post). madelyn refused to join mason and i in the pumpkin patch, but mason gave a big "roar" (by the way, the real lion was roaring like crazy! it almost sounded like a sound track but it was really the lion).

even matt thought it was fun and worth the cost and effort - which is saying a lot. we will most likely do this again next year. love.

sitting around

2011-10-30T16:17:00.000-05:00

maddux was sitting with one leg over the arm rest of this chair so i went to take a picture. and then he turned on the personality. love.

trick-or-treat

2011-10-29T15:52:00.002-05:00

our neighborhood trick-or-treated tonight instead of actually on halloween. we had no idea how many kids we would see so i was worried that we wouldn't have enough candy. thankfully, we did. this is a king-sized-candy-bar kind of neighborhood. the kids had a really great haul - which is good for mommy and daddy... :) madelyn was most excited about a toothbrush! isn't that great?

pre-trick-or-treating with flash

and again with no flash so that you can see the 'glow' from our make shift jack-o-lanterns.

unfortunately, it was pretty cold and it started raining. not pouring but enough to make the kids really cold. matt came back to drop the boys off but madelyn wanted to keep going and the rain was of the stop and start variety.

after trick-or-treating they had a party at the club house. and it was a party. complete with smoke machine. we didn't stay long because it was already almost an hour past bed time and maddux fell asleep in my arms. he was so out cold that he didn't wake up while i carried him home (in a light rain), took his costume off or dressed him for bed. we only went so that we could meet a few neighbors before everyone is in for the winter. i am sure i won't remember most of the names, but at least i know a few faces. love.

reading nook

2011-10-29T15:35:00.001-05:00

we need to get a book case for the boys' room so for now i have used a windowsil in the living room (madelyn was already sitting in that corner to read in the mornings while waiting for the rest of us to get up.) maddux was sitting there 'reading' before trick-or-treating but i wasn't fast enough and he started to get up when he saw me.

so instead i got an action shot. love.

jack-o-lanterns

2011-10-29T13:43:00.000-05:00

i love carving jack-o-lanterns. so to admit that there just wouldn't be time this year was a little sad for me. but i couldn't go without anything, right? so about two months ago i started collecting jars - at least when i remembered. every time we finished some food item in a glass jar, i would rinse it out and set it to the side. the kids and i had already bought orange paint and sponge brushes for our 'pumpkins' and we already had painter's tape.

i cut out whatever shape (and teeth count) the kids wanted out of the painter's tape and then they stuck them on and painted the jars. once everything was dry we peeled off the tape for the candle light to shine through. if we had done them more than a few hours before trick-or-treating, i would have done more than one coat of paint.

i think we ended up with seven or eight jars. they didn't turn out half bad either. madelyn really loved the project. i will show you the finished arrangement on the front porch in the next post. love.

fall festival

2011-10-27T08:59:00.005-05:00

i didn't know much about what to expect with madelyn's 'fall festival' at school. her teacher said to send her to school in her costume and to come back and join them at 10:30 (school gets out at 11:30). the boys and i went to browse a nearby store while we waited to go back for the party.

essentially, it was the parents watching the kids finish out their school day, but in costumes. we watched them eat party food (there was none for parents or siblings - much to mason and maddux' dismay). then the kids listened to a story, colored a turkey craft, posed for a group photo and headed out to the common area for a few 'festival' games. the most difficult part for me was keeping maddux from destroying the classroom! he was feeling extra busy and almost nothing was appropriate for him.

our two lions playing (the other parents kept trying to direct mason to doing things with the class because they thought that he was 4).

a parent read halloween-ish stories

madelyn coloring her turkey kit

they had a few left over turkey crafts (one of the parents had brought them for the kids), so mason was invited to join in. he was very focused on his task and happy to have something to do.

i couldn't get into position for a good shot of the group because it put me too far from maddux the destroyer. here is my best shot. the kids just wanted to get to the candy and games - there are a few funny expressions in there.

mason and maddux tried to have fun with the games too but there were a few too many kids for the number of games. even madelyn got a little whiny about not having a game to play.

the matching game wasn't too popular, but our kids enjoyed it and they could play together which was nice too.

i sound so down on the event. it was nice that they did it for the kids and they enjoyed it overall. i might have had expectations that were a little too high... and i might not have enjoyed it as much because i was sweating from wrestling maddux. love.

plan b

2011-10-25T19:08:00.011-05:00

like i said in the last post, today looked like the only nice day for the week. i had packed a lunch for us to eat at the zoo after picking madelyn up from school. only then i got a call that the electrician could come look at the ovens again (yes, of my three ovens, only one was working - one was electrical and one is the appliance) this afternoon. and then i remembered that i had 2 and 3pm meetings scheduled for work. oh well. mason was so disappointed that he cried - more than once. why, oh why, did i break my own rule about not telling where we are going until we are on our way?!

i promised them that we would go to the neighborhood park and get the bike and scooter out after my meetings. mason was pretty interested in the bike since he had no memory of it and stopped crying about the zoo. he did keep talking about the zoo though...

climbing the rope ladder at the park.

riding the 'bike' on the sidewalk in front of the house.

it wasn't quite what any of us had in mind for the day, but it worked out. and it helped that i could promise them another trip to the zoo that weekend. love.

killing time

2011-10-25T18:51:00.014-05:00

every day this week we are driving 40 minutes to take madelyn to school and then 'hanging out' until it is time to pick her up and drive the 40 minutes back home. yesterday, i took the boys to get a few things from the apartment and work on clean up. it didn't go so great because there wasn't anything for them to do other than try to break blinds and doors. today was going to be the only rain free day of the week so i thought that we would wait for madelyn at the park.

i took them to the grocery store first to try and redeem a rain check. of course they still didn't have what i wanted so we picked up a few donuts for a mid-morning snack at the park. they were both pretty pleased with eating donuts at the park and it was a nice day for it.

it wasn't as wet as i had thought that it would be so i let maddux do a little 'walking' around. he loved it! and he was so cute. several kids came over to play with him too.

maddux thought that he could just climb up like mason.

it was a nice way to spend the morning and it makes me look forward to maddux getting really steady so that he can have fun too instead of just watching. love.

trunk or treat

2011-10-23T15:18:00.026-05:00

just because we are moving, doesn't mean that we can't still get out for a little fun. the debut of this year's halloween costumes? trunk or treat at church. we are so sad to be moving so far from this church. plus, we aren't too excited about 'church shopping' again... oh well. both of the older kids were very excited, but madelyn was especially excited. mainly because we bought glitter to spray in her hair.

madelyn was an angel - at her request. i was going to make her an angel costume but i bought this complete costume for way cheaper than i could put one together. and we just happened to already have a long sleeved shirt with silver stars on it to put underneath for warmth.

our angel and lion #1. mason had just woken up and it was a little bright out for him.

one angel and two lions (at mason's request). all three kids have worn the lion costume maddux is wearing. if i had thought about it i would have dressed him as daniel so that they could have a 'daniel in the lion's den' theme.

mason 'jumping like a lion' for his candy.

an angelic madelyn showing me her face painting (a red butterfly).

isn't this so sweet? they held hands waiting for their balloon swords.

the folks at this car thought that it was a good idea to give mason a bat and suggest he hit something...

how cool is this one with balloon art? she said she just looked up online how to make each piece.

and mason's favorite (and mine too) - mary poppins!

we had a pretty nice time. the trunks were pretty impressive overall, but the food and activities were way better at our church in wisconsin. the kids all had a great time and the costumes were really great. it was nice to get out and have a little fun. love.

toyland

2011-10-22T15:15:00.001-05:00

the kids got the first box of toys out of storage (most of the toys in the picture were in the apartment). inside was madelyn's tea set and she cleared just enough space to have 'tea' with her dolls. she was also pretty excited about her swimming goggles! love.

moving

2011-10-21T14:59:00.004-05:00

all this moving has worn maddux out. he fell asleep eating lunch! it really has us all worn out. we slept on the floor last night and will again tonight (maddux slept in the pack-n-play). i think the kids fared better than matt and i but it was worth it to wake up in our own house. matt picks up the truck tonight and the movers come tomorrow! let the unpacking begin! love.

maddux walking

2011-10-19T12:23:00.000-05:00

maddux is getting really good at walking and i thought that i should try to get some video. the camera cut out during the first bit but he never fell in the whole distance. he walks all over the house while we are there and his confidence is definitely growing. enjoy. love.

exhausted

2011-10-18T05:58:00.001-05:00

but our day wasn't over yet... the forecast doesn't look good for tomorrow (100% chance of rain - all day), so i decided that i should try to make two trips to the house. we have moved stuff in every night since sunday so that we can start living there this week. the method is to put all the kids in the van, start a movie, load the van with as much as we can safely fit, drive to the house, unload the van, unload the kids, put things away, load the kids back in the van, turn on a movie, load in the empty boxes and drive back to the apartment. does it make you tired? did i mention that our apartment is upstairs so there is a flight of stairs when carrying each box, bag, item? today i discovered that the whole process takes almost four hours.

the kids and i went home to each lunch after the apple orchard. while they were eating i started loading the back of the van. once they were finished and cleaned up, they went in the van so that i could finish loading. we have typically been bringing things after dinner, but going during the day meant that i may run into a crew (they are touching up a few things that we requested last week). and they were there. because they were parked blocking the driveway, i couldn't pull all the way into the garage like i normally do to unload. instead i had to park by the trail and walk. it took around 20 trips to get the van unloaded. then i brought the kids in. the tricky part has been that we don't have the baby gate installed yet (and not for a lack of trying) so we have to keep maddux contained to a bedroom while we unpack. he is not too fond of that, especially when his sister and brother are running all over having fun outside of the room (i am in with maddux - we don't leave him by himself). and then kids back to the van, filled with empty boxes and drive back to the apartment.

the kids ate a snack while i packed up the boxes i had just carried back up into the apartment (why haven't we just bought more boxes? because we just can't stand spending money on things that aren't necessary and we know that somewhere in one of the two storage units are all of our empty boxes from moving into the apartment - matt just can't find them). then kids back in, boxes in, frozen pizzas for dinner in and back to the house.

thankfully, matt was already at the house and unloaded the car. i was in the kitchen trying to figure out our new wall oven so that i could cook our frozen pizzas for dinner (we had some carrots too). once we were done, i didn't want to leave. just a few more days. unpacking has been so relaxing. just to have some space to put things and gain a sense of 'permanance' again.

the kids saying, "new house"

we still have a lot to do, but are doing it joyfully! and i fell right to sleep when i got to go to bed - utterly exhausted and happy. love.

field trip

2011-10-18T05:50:00.032-05:00

we were all able to go on madelyn's class field trip to an apple orchard (we later learned that they also grow peaches). it was huge and right in the middle of a regular (under a half acre lot size), established neighborhood. i kept thinking that i was going the wrong way, but then there it was.

first the kids played with their sign that has a little door that folds down so that you can stick your face through. imagine 10-15 four-year-olds (and mason) playing on both sides. guess who got their finger pinched - madelyn. sometimes it feels like she just looks for ways to injure herself... mason liked it because it was a little like playing peek-a-boo with the little trap door.

once it was our turn, we all piled up in the wagon for a hayride out into the orchard. it was beautiful. and huge! i couldn't believe that we were in a neighborhood!

madelyn wrapped her arm around mason the whole time so that he wouldn't fall (i didn't get a picture).

after a few minutes of riding, they let us off to walk around and pick an apple each. having never seen an apple tree, madelyn and mason kept going for the apples on the ground. i had to explain that they only wanted ones off the trees. mason still didn't get it and kept putting his down and would need to pick another.

the grower told us that they only spray when they are blossoms so the fruit was fine to eat in the field (it has also rained a lot the day and night before so they were fresh 'washed'). i didn't eat mine because i was carrying maddux and it would have been too tricky. mason ate the entire apple - the entire apple - seeds and all. he and madelyn both said that they were delicious. we had fiji apples because that was the only variety they hadn't finished picking. and the apples are hand picked. we were all surprised by this and got to watch them working on the neighboring row.

madelyn and some of her classmates (with mason)

isn't it pretty?

after the orchard, we were taken back to their 'factory' where they make cider and clean and bag apples. did you know that all of the apples go through a little computer that weighs each one and sorts them into bags so that each bag weighs exactly the same? or that apples don't freeze until 27 degrees because of their high sugar content? (at least i think i heard that right - i should google it before i post, but you can...) on the way out they gave each child an apple stamp on their hand and a little bag with an apple farm coloring book and an apple juice in an apple shaped container.

it was a nice field trip and i love that mason can participate too. love.

sleeping giant

2011-10-16T19:25:00.000-05:00

maddux rarely sleeps on his back like this and he looked so huge in his crib so i had had to take a picture.

notice the bite marks on the top crib rail. this kid bites everything!

sweet boy

personalization

2011-10-15T14:11:00.003-05:00

the kids are pretty excited about moving. but i still wanted to do something that was 'special' for them. we went to michaels to pick out supplies to make personalized door hangers for their new rooms!

they didn't quite get it at first, but once we started they were very into it.

and here are our finished products (of course, we had to decorate both sides).

madelyn has a butterfly that she painted glued to the back side. we had picked out a painted, flat, wood train to glue on mason's but he decided that he would rather keep it just for playing than glue it on to the door hanger.

we can't wait to hang them up this week! love.

first ohio pumpkin farm

2011-10-14T19:36:00.000-05:00

the moms' group i have been attending had a field trip to a local pumpkin farm. i say "local" but it was more than a 30 minute drive and was actually pretty close to our new house. i was pretty excited about it (i am still like a little kid with all the fall and winter activities!). the problem was that it had been raining for days and the forecast wasn't great for for trip. the group decided that we would go rain or shine since there was an indoor portion. so we hit the road.

it did not rain one drop the entire time we were there! there was a lot of standing water, but the mud wasn't too bad overall. i did come prepared with bags for our boots so that we wouldn't have to wear the muddy boots in the car.

there were several group and a lot of 'walk-ups' (schools were closed friday) and the farm staff was fantastic about handling everyone. we had a wonderful time and plan on bringing daddy next year!

there was an automated 'guide' at the entrance that scared the kids at first, but once i walked them up they relaxed - a little.

the inside 'barn' area had some animals to hold/pet, a corn 'pit' with a slide, a hay bale maze/tunnel and picnic tables. the hay bale maze/tunnel was something where the kids climbed up a 'staircase' of hay and went down a slide before going into a 'tunnel' were sheets of plywood were laid over the top of some hay bales to make a 'tunnel'. a very long, dark tunnel. madelyn made it down the slide before she started screaming for me. mason only made it to the top of the slide. madelyn went through it several times after she was able to follow another little girl through first. mason stuck with the corn 'pit'. by the way, madelyn said that the corn pit was her favorite part.

due to maddux' tendency to put everything he can touch in his mouth, he spent most of the trip in the stroller but still had a great time.

one of the activities for our group was face painting. they asked for a few of the moms to help with the painting. one painted the yellow moon, i painted an orange circle (to be a pumpkin) and green 'grass', then another mom painted a face on the pumpkin before a farm employee added bats, a cat, or other detail. madelyn and mason were pretty excited about it and both chose bats.

after we finished up in the barn we got to go on a 'hay ride' (there wasn't really any hay). they drove us to another section of the farm to pick pumpkins and then drove a little more to let us pick some small gourds.

madelyn was pretty happy about her selection.

they dropped us off near the cars so that we could put our pumpkins and gourds in our cars instead of carrying them around. then we got to go feed some of their animals. each child was given a small bucket of feed to hold out for the animals to eat from. the kids fed calves, ducks, geese, sheep, bunnies and chickens. i think mason enjoyed this part the most.

there was a cute pumpkin photo op near the animals, but i think i was the only one who snapped a few pictures. mason was more interested in feeding the animals, but he did finally come over for one picture. for whatever reason it is so blurry that it isn't even usable. oh well. next year.

and last on our list of group activities was an oil drum train ride. i was a little nervous about letting mason go on it because i was a little afraid that he might try to get out if he decided that he didn't like it, but i should not have even considered mason getting out of a train ride. he did really great and actually looked like he was going to fall asleep when they came back.

then we ate our packed lunch before heading for home (well, i couldn't resist and stopped by the house to see if they had finished up the touch ups ahead of our move next week). one more stop to pose in "cinderella's carriage" (per madelyn's naming) for a "prince" and "princess" picture.

very fun. we will certainly come back next year! love.

the kids that read together

2011-10-14T19:27:00.005-05:00

madelyn woke up very excited about the books we had picked out at the library yesterday. and she was sharing with her brothers. before i got the camera, mason was listening to the story too.

and then mason had to 'read' to maddux too. love.

why choose?

2011-10-11T11:53:00.000-05:00

madelyn doesn't see the reason to choose a pair of shoes to 'match' her outfit when she can just wear one of each!

and since madelyn posed for a picture, mason wanted his taken too. of course madelyn wanted to be in on it too. (notice her multi-colored finger nails - her own design.) love.

trust jump

2011-10-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

madelyn and mason have played this most of the day. from what i could gather, one of them climbs up on the ottoman and 'screams' like they need to be rescued and then they 'jump' into their sibling's arms to be caught. it is pretty cute. love.

last hoorah of the season

2011-10-09T20:17:00.001-05:00

matt had to work a charity event for work from 9-2 today so i took the kids to the zoo after we ate lunch. it was 'boy scout day' so it was a little on the crowded side. they have also closed up several exhibits for the winter and a construction project for future exhibits (completed in 2013). since it is getting to be the end of the season, the carousel and train should be closing up soon too. i decided that we would use up the rest of our pre-paid rides today since we might not be back again this month.

riding without daddy is highly unusual. it is difficult for me to bring all three kids on the rides and it makes it easier to not have the discussion about riding every time we go if i have a "only with daddy" policy.

first came our train ride. i have done this before with all three and it was nice that there was a breeze today so that i didn't feel so claustrophobic in the little train car.

maddux is starting to get down, but they were cute all three standing in a row watching for the train.

madelyn and mason on one side...

...maddux and i on the other.

i also got some videos of the kids playing in the jellyfish exhibit. first they dance in the entrance where the disco ball is - mason dances the longest and maddux usually laughs the whole time.

and then they climb on the rock wall. what i couldn't figure out in the beginning of the video was mason saying "scared". i couldn't see it from where i was sitting, but there was a huge (maybe 7 or 8 feet) halloween figure in the corner where he likes to run and play. he was really scared of it. i felt so bad afterword because i didn't understand and wasn't particularly comforting.

and then i did the unthinkable and took all three kids on the carousel! i had to hold mason and maddux while they rode since they weren't tall enough to ride on their own. this was maddux' first ride so i wanted to take pictures but had to be a little creative with getting them since i couldn't let go of either of the boys. i was just holding the camera in front of mason and asking him to look at it because i was standing right next to him. i was amazed that i was able to frame it up that well.

i also forgot that there is another reason i don't take the kids on - i get motion sick! after a few turns, i couldn't even look at the kids. i had to just keep my eyes on my feet. if i looked up i got nauseous and dizzy. ugh. they had a great time though.

we just wish that daddy had been able to join us. love.

sitting happy

2011-10-09T09:29:00.001-05:00

maddux loves sitting in chairs. he really liked sitting with the remote control too. i love the smile he gave me for the picture.

and 'watching' football with daddy after church. he wasn't really watching the football game, but it looked like it and i had to get a picture. love.

2011-10-08T16:02:00.000-05:00

i don't post a lot of madelyn's artwork, but i thought that the variety in this one (front and back) from church was worth sharing. see if you can find each of the actions she described to me (some are written around the parameter of the page):

a heart, a person sharing a hat, a nurse taking care of our world, a bible, a ghost saying "boo", a person praying and a person singing.

i hope that we can find another church that she loves as much as this one. love.

as if we needed another reason

2011-10-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

as if we didn't have enough reasons to want to move into the house... tonight matt's side of the closet ripped out of the wall! oh well, i guess tonight would be a good time to start packing. love.

update

2011-10-07T15:49:00.016-05:00

this week has been crazy! my days have started before 6am and ended between 1 or 2am. it has been a heavier work week (not in hours, but in the complexity of the tasks) so i have been working starting the second the kids go to bed until after midnight.

second, madelyn had a 24-hour vomit bug thursday that kept her home from school and in bed almost all day. the worst was that she was starving and wanted to eat and drink. but she couldn't even keep down water. and she kept trying. i was trying to convince her not to drink and eat, but she cried for food and water. at least it was only 24-hours.

third, and this is the best part!, we found out that we get to move into the house a whole week earlier!!! we had a miscommunication about when the builder was going to be done with the house and are so, so, so excited that we get to move sooner. as a result we have had to kick all of the transitional tasks up too (getting movers, forwarding mail, utilities, etc).

fourth, we were over budget last month from all of our travels so we only bought absolute essentials the last two weeks. this week the new month started and i could buy everything we needed - like, laundry detergent (i did 15 loads this week!) and groceries (thank goodness for my 'couponing' because we spent very little and ate pretty well).

now, i am caught up for the most part but wanted to explain the lack of posts. i don't expect things to be very consistent (post-wise) for the rest of the month as we move. anyway, we are all good and healthy now (well, mason and maddux have a stomach bug of sorts too and maddux is cutting three molars). love.

keeping the fun going...

2011-10-03T14:11:00.000-05:00

it was so beautiful out and i felt bad about taking mason to the park when everything was too wet for playing, so i went home, made lunches and packed everything up for the zoo. i let mason tell madelyn where we were going after we picked her up, but she didn't believe him! she told me that mason was saying that we were going to the zoo. yes, madelyn, to the zoo for lunch! she was so very excited that she was trying to yell this information out the window to her teacher as we drove away!

we lucked into an insect table that was set up just for the day. madelyn asked if she could touch them but the lady thought she said that she was from a local suburb - oh well. madelyn and mason were both very interested in the critters and we even came back for a second visit on our way out.

now that maddux is taking more and more steps, i decided that he can get down and explore on his own a little. there weren't very many people at the zoo today so we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

we ended up having to leave shortly after this picture because mason had two false starts in the bathroom and i couldn't haul the stroller into the bathroom one more time (it really is a difficult maneuver to get all of us in there and the bathroom is not air-conditioned). even with the abrupt end, it was a nice afternoon outside. love.

boys at the park

2011-10-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

i have had the best intentions about making the time madelyn is in school special for the boys, but it just hasn't been possible. today we were able to go to the park after dropping her off. unfortunately, it was very wet with dew still so we just walked around the path and 'explored'.

mason found what might be the last dandilion 'puff' of the season! the seeds did not want to 'fly' though. he even said "huff and puff" (like the big bad wolf).

next he helped me push maddux around the path. maddux kept trying to figure out who was pushing when he could see me.

it wasn't too exciting, but the boys and i had fun. love.

safety day at home depot

2011-10-02T09:44:00.002-05:00

we haven't gone to a home depot workshop in a while. i think that it has been a combination of things - having other plans, not being interested in the project, etc. but i was planning to potty train mason so it was something for matt to do with the other two. instead of waiting, i started mason on friday - again. he had a great day and was super excited about going on the potty. so this ended up being our first outing with him in underwear! we had some false alarms, but he stayed dry. and built a rescue helicopter.

home depot had quite a spread with cookies, muffins, popcorn, hot cider and coffee. there was a table set up with a police officer giving away school supply type items (pencils, erasers, stickers, etc.) and a fire truck outside. the kids were pretty excited - especially mason. love.

goodnight moon

2011-09-29T19:48:00.000-05:00

while i was working this morning, mason came in and started 'reading' goodnight moon. this was the first time i had ever seen him trying to 'read' a book from memory and he did surprisingly well. i asked him to recreate it this afternoon, but it wasn't nearly as good. i think that the pressure of madelyn drooling to 'read' it too made him a little shyer. mostly his is saying "night", "moon" and "bears" enjoy. love.

synonyms

2011-09-27T20:24:00.000-05:00

mason has started saying synonyms for what i am not understanding. when i am just not understanding him, he pauses, looks up to the right (like when thinking) and says a different word that comes close enough to the same idea to try and help me.

i have noticed it several times over the past few days, but here is an example from tonight. we were trying to guess what he was saying during dinner and it sounded a little like "rash". after a while he did his thoughtful pause and then said "all done" (with the sign too). oh - "trash"! (and i should have known this because this was one of his early words - it just didn't fit the conversation we were having.) now it made sense! he was talking about how the cracker sleeve wrapper on the table was trash. i am so glad that he can find a way to come down to our level of reasoning... love.

moving up

2011-09-27T20:17:00.000-05:00

and, no, not into the house. yet. :(

maddux is moving up to sitting in a chair. this week he has figured out how to climb up and turn around to a seated position. he also does this to sit in my lap. except to sit in my lap he spins around before he sits down. love.

a glorious fall day

2011-09-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

the forecast for this week doesn't look at that great. when i was listening to the forecast for today this morning it said that the rain was going to stay off until overnight and i decided to spend as much time outside as possible.

we dropped madelyn off at school and the boys and i headed over to barnes and noble for some train time before story time. they pretty much had the table to themselves for an hour and mason still hadn't had enough! they were so cute. when we move into the house and get our train table out of storage, we may never see mason again...

after stories and a craft (making an apple tree), we headed over to a park near madelyn's school to play for about 45 minutes. first we hit up the racquetball courts with our can of tennis balls. mason liked throwing them up in the "sky" and bouncing them into the "wall". then we went to spend the rest of our time on the swings. both boys had so much fun!

since it was so beautiful out, i thought that we should eat lunch at home and then head over to the zoo. both boys fell asleep waiting for madelyn - this happens almost every day. usually i let them sleep after we get home (until 1 or 2:30), but today i woke them up to eat.

thanks to their power naps and a good lunch, everyone was in great spirits for the zoo. madelyn and mason even managed to take turns pushing the automatic (yes, handicap) buttons - instead of fighting and crying like normal.

several exhibits were already closed for the season. and this is the last month for the jellyfish exhibit (i think...). the kids are going to be so sad when it is gone.

maddux got in on drumming the "rhythm of the jellies" for the first time

co-anchors

they even got a private session at the "touch tank" thanks to the lack of visitors today. i couldn't believe how few people were at the zoo on such a beautiful day!

i often have mason say "bye" to animals as a way to get him to move along, but today he kept saying "hello" to each one. it was so cute. he would even turn to me to tell me that he said "hello". sweet boy.

maddux was really engaged with the animals today. he did not know what to think about me rolling him up so close to the bear pushing it's nose on the glass. i think he felt better about it when mason came over too.

i forgot how frisky the animals get when the weather cools down. we were splashed by the penguins zipping and leaping in the water, spent a long time with the lemurs leaping in the trees and watched two bears pestering each other. so nice. i hope we get a few more good days like this before the winter greys settle in. love.

anytime, anywhere

2011-09-25T19:24:00.001-05:00

just to show that he still does it. i was getting caught up on the blog after all of our travels (if you couldn't tell) and when i came out to make dinner, here is what i found. mason passed out on the floor under matt's legs. and matt had no idea he was even asleep. he just plays until he can't play any more and sleeps right there. i love it. love.

the many faces of maddux

2011-09-24T19:04:00.001-05:00

i ordered maddux' one-year picture frame like the ones i have for the other two. but then it occurred to me that i don't know if i will have enough pictures of maddux' face to fill the spot for each month... so here are some pictures i took as options for the "10 month" spot.

it also occurred to me that with everything else going on, i haven't really done a post about what maddux is up to so here are some notes i made...

- his upper, right molar has been a huge swollen nightmare of discomfort. it still hasn't come in, but the left, upper one came in on 9/13 (or that is when i noticed it) quietly.

- he is a dancing machine! the kid hears a beat he likes and he starts bopping along.

- he is also a biter. not while nursing (thankfully!), but any time he is hungry he will tear into you. there are times when i am covered in bruises up and down my arms and shoulders.

- maddux puts everything in his mouth - everything. madelyn was like this too but i forgot after mason since he didn't do this at all. while we were at the wedding i was holding maddux' hand and letting him 'walk' in the grass. he was bending down and picking up fistfuls of grass to put right in his mouth.

- maddux points. he has done this for months (and i think i mentioned it in another post) but it still amazes me how he gets his little index finger out to point at what he sees.

- when maddux is done with something he throws it down. finish getting a drink, toss the cup on the floor. finished eating cheerios, toss them on the floor. some kids throw things down as a game but his is more of a i-am-so-done-with-this. there is no attitude to it, it is just his nature.

- he had the weirdest moment of separation anxiety. i was nursing him and letting him hold my finger (as a way of keeping him from flailing about). i needed my hand to reach for something and he went crazy like i was leaving him. hellooo, you are nursing! i am not leaving you. crazy kid.

try as i might, i am not giving him the same level of documentation as madelyn... oh well. i love him just the same though. love.