Fall photo shoot

I've spent the last few days trying to get some good photos of the kids...a little tricky when the lighting changes so fast, and the sun is only out for 5 minutes at a time. I still want to get a couple more of Zack and Tasha...

Mia breastfeeding already!

So Mia decided she was going to breasfeed (BF) a doll at a playgroup yesterday. Well, she tried to get me to BF it first. Brought it over and held it up to me saying "Nummas!" I thought she wanted to nurse, so I started to pick her up and she said, "No. Baby nummas." I said, "No honey, Mama's nummas are just for you." She thought about that for a second and then unzipped her sweatshirt while saying, "My nummas!" She pulled up her t-shirt and "latched" the doll on with the BIGGEST grin on her face. I was so proud!!

The boys are doing really well with the homeschooling. Dominic has discovered "color by number" activities and is fascinated. He also really likes the "letter chips" we use to practice spelling. I bought some cheap poker chips and wrote letters on them. I made capital letters on the white ones, and lowercase letters on the blue. I thought about doing vowels on red, but then couldn't decide what to do with the "y"...sometimes a vowel, sometimes not...?

I found that Zack was horrifically bored with the first phonics program we were using. We switched to the Kumon series, and he is much more interested and engaged with it.

Everyone is healthy with the exception of the usual sniffles for this time of year, let's hope it stays that way!

Kids...

I love it when Mia picks her clothes. Today she is in a bright pink sweatshirt with a dog on it, a light pink flowered skirt, and rainbow striped leggings.

The things kids do...

so Dom just comes in from outside and says "Mom, I peed in the tree!" OK...he was playing and didn't feel like coming in. The really funny part is I look outside and there is Mia with her panties down and skirt up trying to do the same thing...good thing our backyard is privacy fenced.

The first fish...

We got the kids fishing poles and went down to the lake for fishing off the pier last week. Dom has a "big boy" Spiderman pole, and Zack has a "bigger boy" pole. Mia's is Barbie.
Mia lost interest rather quickly...

...but when I caught a fish on her pole, she was ecstatic about reeling it in. The boys had a blast and each caught several fish. Dominic was really funny when we were taking pictures of Mia with her fish...he wanted to touch it, but freaked out every time it wiggled on the hook. All in all they had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

My baby isn't so much a baby anymore!

Mia turned 2 on Sunday!! I'm amazed that she is so old already. I feel like I say that every week! She's talking a lot more, and I've gotten pretty good a "Miaese." We also haven't had any potty misses at home in the last three days! I'm content to say she is an "at home" EC graduate. I think we're almost there on outings, she just needs to remember to tell us when we're somewhere new. She's got Nana's/Papa's, our church, and the parks we frequent figured out, it's just new places where we occasionally have misses. Speaking of parks, we took the kids to Cushing Park this weekend, and as usual they had a blast. Mia spent most of her time in the sandbox, and the boys were all over the place...sand, slides, swings...here are some pics:

Today we cleaned the garage and I cleaned my van (pulled the seats out and everything), so now I can park my clean van in the clean garage!! Woo-hoo!!

The kids have spent the whole day playing with the neighbor's kids, and Tasha painted nails...hers and the boys'...purple and pink with silver dots. Mia also got hers painted, and I've never seen her sit still that long at one time.

Joe finally got a picture of her "pouty face" which is a new addition recently. When she gets mad, she crosses her arms and purses her lips up in what she thinks is a pout. We think it's adorable. Here it is:

Tooth news!

Zack lost his first tooth last week! Well, actually he removed it. We were having lunch and he didn't want to eat his sandwich because he said his tooth hurt. When I looked, one of his baby teeth was bleeding and loose. We figured it would be a couple days before it came out...should have known better with that kid! The next day, he said it was bleeding again. A few minutes later he came up to me yelping that "Part of my tooth came off!" Well, it was the whole thing, and I said, "Oh, it fell out already!" He says, "No, I chomped it with my other teeth because it had blood on it." Apparently he didn't like it in there and bleeding so he worked it out with his top teeth. I don't think we'll have any worries about him being freaked about losing teeth!

In other tooth news, Mia has another molar coming in. Unfortunately, she gets fevers with her teeth, so she's been pretty crabby the last couple of days.

We went camping with a group from church a couple weekends ago, and the kids had a blast. The weather wasn't the greatest...it rained from Friday night until Saturday morning, and then it was in the upper 80's and humid, but we had fun anyway. I had a couple of "camping revelations" while we were there.
#1. I will never attempt to use air mattresses for the kids again. We wound up borrowing some bunk bed cots, and they worked unbelievably well. The kids were excited to have their own beds, and everyone/everything was kept dry because it was off the floor. We're going to have to get some of our own!
#2. Packing everything in Rubbermaid totes was the best idea I've had in months, so I'll be doing that from now on.
#3. We need a bigger tent. Ours is pretty big (three rooms, sleeps six adults) but with 4 kids and gear it's a tight squeeze.

I'll get pictures posted soon!

This morning Dom informed me that he wanted to go to the pet store and get a raccoon. He didn't really understand why we can't have one for a pet, since the one outside "already lives here". Our neighbor is presently trying to trap it so he can relocate it.

Zack has started to show a real interest in learning to read and write. He'll ask us how to spell words so he can makes "signs" for around the house. Today he asked what the (Corn Pops) cereal box said, and proceeded to write a sign stating, "I LOVE POPS"...with the 'e' and the 's' backwards. I get "I LOVE MAMA" signs just about every day! He will also write a whole bunch of letters (with the word 'mama' thrown in), and then ask me to read them...he thinks it's hilarious when I speak gibberish.

We've decided to stay here at least another year...our concerns have been addressed, and since we really like the location, we don't feel like moving again. Happily, we've managed to sell, toss, and donate an entire garage space full of crap we've been moving around for the last five years. It feels really good to no longer be bogged down by "stuff." We had a garage sale a couple weeks ago, and it went really well. To help the kids get into the spirit of purging, we told them they could keep all the money made from selling off old toys. They made $50!

Bible camp last week was great. This was the second time they used the theme "Fishing for Faith." The first time was in 2002. I volunteered to help this year, but had no idea that I would wind up building a whale. They had the backround panels, the framework for the bottom, and a good portion of the PVC from the first time they made it. The old PVC was too brittle and old to use, so my job was to figure out the pieces that were missing, calculate all the materials needed, and assemble it. Thankfully I had great help getting it built and we knocked it out in about four hours. The purpose of the whale was so the kids could go inside to hear the story of Jonah. Here is a picture of the kids sitting in it:

Each age group was a different color, and since it was a fishing theme, they had fishing hats that they got to put pins on every day. They all had a great time!

Mia has added the words "yeah" and "no" to her vocabulary. Well, it actually comes out "nooooooo" and kind of sounds like a cross between an owl screeching and a cat getting stepped on. I'll have to see if I can get her doing it on video...

Lori got married this weekend, which meant a drive to Kentucky. We did the trip down in two days...thursday night to Loda, then friday to Kentucky. The return trip on Sundy required we do it all in one shot. We left the hotel parking lot at 10:08 a.m. and pulled into our driveway at 10:04 p.m. Yes, that means 12 hours of traveling with four kids. We set the timer in the van and discovered we were only driving for about 8 1/2 hours, so the other 3 1/2 were pit stops to let the kids decompress and a stop off at the in-laws to get the dog. I will never, ever, EVER go more than six hours in a car in a single day with the kids again. I don't care if it takes us three days to get somewhere.

On the way back we had an interesting experience on I-94. We got curious about the a driver when I was driving behind a car for a few miles. It crossed the center line multiple times, changed lanes without signaling, and cut off several other vehicles. I was uncomfortable driving near the car (figuring the driver had to be drunk), so I passed. When I did, Joe looked into her car to see a young woman texting on her phone with both hands and driving with her knees...I'd like to point out we were going 65 miles an hour. We decided to slow down to see if we could get a video of her stupidity via Joe's phone. We did get video of it, but the quality is not good, and with the glare from the window you can't see what we saw. We think she might have seen us because she floored it so she was several car lengths ahead of us. A little further down the road, the road split in a construction zone, and we went left. She went right. As it happens, we got next to her again, to realize she had added smoking a cigarette to her utterly moronic multitasking. I just cannot believe some people.

I can't sleep

So I've been up since about 3:30...woke up and just couldn't get back to sleep. Talk about annoying!! Anyway, I've been putzing around and it occured to me I could update the blog.

Zack has decided that he is going to catch the rabbit that lives under a tree in the front yard...we're not sure what he intends to do with it if he catches it, however. Every time he sees it he grabs his "net" (a pop-up toy basket we use for stuffed animals), dashes outside and chases it around the front yard until it eventually makes it back under the tree. He never gets close, but the squeals of joy he makes the whole time are worth letting him try!

Dom has decided it would be better to shoot the rabbit, cook it, and eat it...then we're supposed to shoot a deer and eat that. Joe is so proud!

Mia is still the princess of the house. She's developing quite the attitude sometimes, but we've found that "thinking time" with the Parenting with Love and Logic method works quite well for stopping the tantrums.

We'll have Tasha for three weeks straight starting this weekend, so that will be nice. The weekends just aren't long enough to get really good visit time with her.

Bible camp is next week, and I'm really envolved with the planning this year. I'm reconstructing a giant whale (about 8 ft long and 4 ft high so the kids can sit in it and hear the Jonah story), and working with the activity planning and preparation for the preschool program. I'm also going to be a group leader for one of the preschooler groups. I'm really enjoying getting more active in the church, and feel lucky that we have such a great parish here.

The weather was a little better last week, so we took the kids to the beach, and went to a water-skiing show that the Pewaukee Lake water ski club puts on Thrusday nights. I give them props for the sole reason that the water was FREEZING!! There were kids as young as six skiing, so it's a very family orientated group...maybe something we'll get involved in when the kids are a teensy bit older. They're having a "learn to ski" day a couple times this summer, and I may try to get Joe to learn. My brothers tried a few years ago to teach him, but he couldn't never get up. I haven't skiied in...at least 10 years...probably closer to 15, so it might be nice to see if I still can. The village also has concerts on the beach every Weds. night, so we might take the kids down for one of those soon, too.

We got the stained glass shop set up in the garage last weekend, so now we have a place to work. Unfortunately somewhere in the last two moves we lost all of our stained glass patterns...can't find them anywhere. Fortunately, we found a fantastic glass shop about 20 minutes away...it's about three times the size of the one we went to in Champaign...I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time there.

Joe noticed something last week and that is the "follow blog" button on the top bar of this page. Since I update this blog so infrequently, that might be something you want to consider (if you haven't already done it). I have no idea how many people actually read my blog, but my understanding is that it will alert you when I post something new.

Well, it's about 5:30 now, so I'm going to go try to lay down for a bit before the kids get up in a half hour. As always, thanks for checking up on us!

Springtime fun

It's finally getting warm out!! The kids are thrilled to be able to spend time outside, and I'm thrilled to let them. Both boys have bikes and love zipping around the driveway and sidewalks of our cul-de-sac...Mia gets pushed on her toddler tricycle.

Sadly our neighbor has moved, so we'll be getting new ones at some point. I hope they are as good as our last ones.

We got the garden planted. We did some containers on the side of the house, and used the plot by the shed. We're hoping to get peppers (3 kinds), tomatoes (3 kinds), cucumber, zucchini, eggplant, onion, green beans, and strawberries.

Here are some recent pictures of the kids:

Things have been relatively tame as of late. Lexi had her tumor removed and did swimmingly. The gal that took the staples out couldn't believe how she didn't twitch the whole time she was removing them. The fur has almost grown completely back, but I think the scar will be pretty visible anyway.

The kids are all great. Mia is really liking the "Signing Time" DVD's, and is starting to sign more and more. The boys are remembering them better, but I think I need to work a bit more on signing to them during the day. Use or lose it, ya know?

We swapped bedrooms with the boys, which has made a big difference in the clutter downstairs. They kept bringing all of their toys down to the living room, and I guessed it was because they didn't have much floor space in their room to play. So we gave them the biggest bedroom, and we took theirs. So far, so good, they only bring toys downstairs occasionally, and are much better about cleaning their room up. Now I just have to figure out a way to declutter the basement...well...it's nothing a forklift and a dumpster couldn't fix in a jiff...

We've learned that our landlord intends to refinish the deck this summer...probably at the beginning of August. Which is a really good thing...except for the part where we can't set foot on it for a minimum of 7 days. Yeah, three kids, in the summer, and we're not supposed to go on the deck at all for at least a week. Anyone else see a problem with that? We're probably going to have to go on vacation or something...we're thinking camping for a few days, then maybe visit some friends or family. Eh, we've got time to figure it out I suppose.

We're still getting along just fine with the neighbors, and the kids are really chomping at the bit for the weather to warm up consistently. Just about every day they ask if we can go for a walk to the beach! They really enjoy the big deck, and we're very glad for the fully fenced yard since we can pretty much just kick them out the door and let them play.

Here are a few recent pictures from a train show we took the kids to...and one of Dom after he fell asleep at dinner...again.

Not much new!

There's not a whole lot new to report. The kids are finally over whatever bug they had, and are adjusting with no difficulty to the "not having TV anymore" thing. It's really nice actually. They're spending most of their time creating things with Legos, Bionicles, and K'Nex and playing together better than they ever have. I'm missing it a little, but I'm adjusting. Joe is so busy with work stuff, I don't think he's even noticed!

The kids are consistently getting up around 5am, which is good and bad. It's good in that it makes for a long day, and I can get a lot done. But it's bad in that it makes for a long day, and I'm wiped out at the end of it!

I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed in a week, so that will be fun. In other surgical news, Lexi is scheduled to have her tumor removed on the 10th.

I've got a few pictures to post. There are a couple of pictures of the kids crashed out with Joe the other night. (Joe is awake) Zack kept insisting that he wasn't going to sleep, he was just "resting his eyes." Where he picked up that phrase I have no idea. And there's a picture of Joe giving Mia her first lesson with power tools...he was hanging some stuff and she got curious.

Just a quickie update. The kids have been not feeling well for about a week...coughs mostly. They're on the upswing, so they're starting to act like themselves again.

Joe and I have decided to try something rather...unusual in today's day and age. We were never thrilled with our service from Time Warner Cable, so we decided to switch providers. While discussing who to go with, it occured to us that we don't really watch a lot of TV. The kids don't watch it much either (usually only Cash Cab, Dirty Jobs, and How It's Made), so we starting tossing around the idea of not having it anymore. We've decided to try it for a month, and see how it goes. We've not had it for a few days already, and we've already noticed that we get more done, and the kids seem to enjoy it...instead of plopping down in front of the Discovery Channel at night, we've been playing Legos, doing puzzles...basically just hanging out together, and it's been really nice.

We had some tests run on Lexi, and it doesn't appear that the cancer has spread to her lungs, but we're waiting to hear back from the radiologist. It also doesn't appear that the surgery will be as much as we thought, so we think we'll be able to swing it.

That's all for now...I'll post pics next time!

The boys have recently become fascinated by x-rays. They always want to look at ours when we go to the chiropracter, and they ask Joe and I to "draw their insides." This weekend they asked Tasha to do it, so she did. We were sitting at dinner, and Dom had brought his picture to the table. I told him that I really liked it, and he said, "Yeah, that's my brain." (pointing to the head) and then he pointed to a thicker line and said, "And that's my penis!" Tasha, who was only half listening looked up in horror and said, "What?! No, that's part of his leg!" Joe and I couldn't stop laughing. If I get the picture scanned in, I'll post it.

Now for the bad news. About a year ago, we noticed a funky little growth on Lexi's (our black lab) chest. We had the vet look at it, and they told us it was just a fatty deposit that would probably get bigger, and when it got to a certain size, they'd remove it. Well, it did get bigger, so while we had her in for a broken claw on Sunday, Joe asked them to take a look at it. They aspirated a fluid sample and sent it to a lab. They didn't seem to think it was going to turn anything up, it was more of a "just to be sure" kind of thing. We got a call from them today saying that it is a cancerous tumor, a very invasive kind, apparently. They're recommendation is obviously surgery, with all sorts of tests to confirm that it hasn't spread, etc. While we haven't even talked to the vet about what that would cost, we are incredibly doubtful that we will be able to afford it, so at first glance it looks like we're going to have to put her down or give her up to an organization that can give her the care she needs. I'm so incredibly heartbroken about this. I suppose if I think about, I've never had a pet that died of old age, or sickness. They all got hit by cars, or just disappeared (outside cats). I'm really struggling with how to explain this to the kids, because they love her so much. We've had her for six years, and I really can't imagine our family without her. So I guess I would appreciate it if you could keep us in your thoughts while we try to deal with this impending loss.

She's gonna be trouble...

I've come to the conclusion that Mia may just be more of a stinker than both of the boys. The following pictures illustrate my point.

In this one, she went into the pantry cabinet and took out a box of cereal. Now, we prefer to let the kids explore and learn about stuff, as long as they aren't in danger of hurting themselves. So, we let her play with it. We figured she'd probably tear the box apart a little bit. Joe and I got involved in a conversation, and when we went back in the living room a few minutes later we found this:

Not only had she gotten the box open, she'd managed to tear open the bag and plopped herself on the couch to have a little snack! Needless to say, child locks were installed on the pantry in short order.

Just today, Dominic had pulled his chair up to the bar height counter to get a book off of it. He didn't put it back at the table however, so Mia climbed up and helped herself to a permanent marker:

Thank goodness that we've dealt with marker art before and I had a bottle of Amodex on hand. I got every bit of that off in under five minutes.

She looks so cute and innocent doesn't she?

While we were at Christmas with my family this year, one of my Aunts told me she checks the blog every day for updates. I realized that I really need to do a better job at updating this...yeah, yeah, I know I've said that before (a lot), but it's a new year, right? So this is going to have quite a few pictures. I have to start with this one of Joe's truck. We got back from a shopping trip and saw this when we pulled in the drive...doesn't it look like his truck has eyes?!

Our holidays were crazy sometimes, but overall quite enjoyable. We had Joe's side on the 20th, a quiet Christmas Day at home with just us and the kids, and then spent four days in IL with my side over New Year's. The boys are at an age where they "get" Christmas, and it was really enjoyable for us to see their excitement. Santa was a bit worn out because he didn't finish their teepee until 11:38 on Tuesday night, but it was worth it to see them going crazy over it! While the boys tore into their presents, Mia just sort of stood by the couch looking very confused...she'll probably "get it" next year. Here are some pics of them from Christmas...Zack and Mia are in the teepee, Zack and Dom are showing off the spaceship they made, and Mia being fascinated by the tree:





We've had plenty of snow so far...I think we're in the neighborhood of fifty-some inches. For a while it was three feet deep on the back porch, and the kids have had a blast playing in it...Zack made himself a cave:Speaking of Zack, I'm happy to report that Meredith found another detox program for him, and we are able to get it into him much better. It will take us around 2 1/2 months to get him all the way through it, so we're just waiting to see how well it works at this point.

And just for laughs, the kids have decided to learn how to make funny faces...Joe taught them quite a few: