Sleep and school

From this picture you can gather just how uncharacteristically tolerant our dear Gus is. From the look on Carter's face, you can tell that this is a very conscientious "gentleness". Looks like little man is even getting a chance to pet him.

Due to the cooler temps, Carter choose to wear his new jammies. Isn't he handsome in his "poot-bul shammies". Scott and I are just hysterical these days with what comes out of his mouth. Such a honey!

I love this one of the two boys. Yikes! Carter is looking so

much older these days! He refers to himself as "super Carter" a little

game he has picked up at daycare! He runs through the house playing super hero!

This week has been a whirlwind! So much fun, so much newness, and so many memories. Ella is loving school. To my surprise, she finds it exciting that we get to go to school together. For once with her, I feel like a celebrity! (not sure how long it will last so I am taking it ALL in) Each time she sees me in the hall or as I pass her she is waving and watching for me. I am absolutely soaking this up since this isn't the warm reception I'm used to at home. Carter and Christian are my snugglers and Ella...well....lately she's constantly been testing the waters to check out who's in charge around home. Glad things are going well at school but the waters at home have been a bit choppy. I am assured by many this is typical behavior. It doesn't help that we are all a little short on sleep with as busy as it's been.

Here are a few shots from this week. The first day of school Ella was ready to go. The only drama of the morning was saying goodbye to Gus. Luckily, Scott and the boys were staying home so they could take care of him.(Scott had an unusually EASY morning. Carter slept in til 8 and Christian took a 2 hour 45 min nap. Why didn't either of those things happen to me all summer??) Ella had such a great first morning. She skipped to class, hung on her teacher's every word, kept her glasses on, and was excited to come home and tell me all about the day. As we were walking hand in hand to the van, she asks, "so are we coming back here everyday?" I said, yep! She said, "Good!" Oh, I am so grateful she loves her teacher and thinks school is a fun place! It appears we are off to a good start.

Here she is today outside her classroom. She brought in a birthday treat to share with the class (Pony gummy snacks of course--her choice in sticking with the theme)

Ok- so I took a few QUICK shots while she was busy passing out the treats.

She looks so grown up!

I need to go get a few more things around for the birthday party. We are going to have a bit more low key party. The last thing any of my kids need is another toy! It will just be a few friends and family members gathering to celebrate our big 5 year old! Hooray!

Welcome Gus!

snuggling together while watching TV

We all knew it wouldn't take long before she did this!

...to our surprise, it appears Gus enjoyed the stroll



There's a new distraction in town and his name is Gus! Ella absolutely LOVES her new pet and can not get enough of him. Once we decided that we would take the plunge and actually get a pet, I had been praying for the "just right cat'. It had to be spunky enough to play especially with all the energy this household has, it had to be big enough and tough enough to weather all the love it was bound to get (and the fact that Carter isn't always gentle), it had to be sweet enough to snuggle whenever Ella was feeling the need, and it had to have personality plus to withstand the stuffed animal treatment (see above photos in the stroller). This is a long wish list I was praying for ( oh yes and I didn't want anything that would shed TOO much or meow alot, or pee on the floor, or cause my life any more grief than necessary) and God has provided! Scott and I have found ourselves looking at each other with mouths wide opened saying, "can you believe this cat?? it is sooooo good, sooo snuggly, sooo perfect for our family! It just takes all the love our family has to dole out and doesn't seem to blink. Ella is smitten with this kitten and for the past 4 days it has been well worth every penny we paid! Secretly, Scott and I have enjoyed playing with it after the kids go to bed. He wakes up and gets a bit frisky around 9:30. Which is perfect timing.

A five year old in OUR house??

It is hard to believe that we have a five year old in the house. Ella fills our days with laughter and challenges us with her independent nature, but no matter how you look at it, she is a blessing to our family. For the past few weeks we have been preparing for the school transition. Last Tuesday we had her kindergarten Open House. For those who don't know, Ella will be attending kindergarten in my building this year. She'll just be a hop and skip down the hallway from me. We are feeling so blessed to have my dear friend Julie as her teacher. However, Ella doesn't know that Julie and I are such good friends. It was precious at the open house on Tuesday. I had to stay in my classroom to meet and greet my students and Scott was managing all three kiddos and taking Ella into her room. She was curious and excited all at the same time. The school had an ice cream social in the gymnasium to top off all the excitement. It was adorable when Ella came running into my classroom demanding I come meet her new teacher, Mrs. Galer. We walked down together and Ella introduced me. Julie and I acted as if we hadn't met before (we'll see how long this will hold up??) During this experience, I had one of those "moments" of overwhelming emotion of 'how did we get HERE?' It seems like just last week we were bringing home our new baby girl and here she stands with her kindergarten teacher. Aww! I am so excited, nervous, and happy for her all at the same time. But for the weekend, we are focusing on celebrating her birthday. I am sure there will be more mush and gush come Tuesday when I see her with her backpack, outfit, and glasses all set to head off to school.



As for the celebration....with Ella it seems like her birthday goes on for at least 2 or 3 weeks. We haven't had a party on the 30th because of the holiday. So we celebrate on her day, then typically the following weekend. Scott and I have been having the great debate about the gift. We are tired of toys and other things that clutter our house that she rarely uses. So in looking at things she LOVEs and things we can live with.......we have quite foolishly decided to grow our family by another member. Yep, we got a cat!

So we have been researching (because as many of you know I was not 'for' pets at our house) not at this stage of craziness. However, we talked and I have seen the light (maybe)! Every time we go to someones house who has a pet Ella disappears. She is found malling whatever pet they have...cat, dog, or anything else. We also figure it will be good for teaching responsibility and maybe she would let off mothering the two boys????

Well we visited local pet shops and did some online searching. Who knew that adopting a cat would be so much work. One might have thought we were trying to adopt a child. We had to fill out an application, with references of course and then there was the half hour phone interview with ME and finally the in person visit. After the cat lady told me over the phone that she was concerned about the number of small children we had at the house, I decided it would NOT be a good idea to take Carter for the in-person- visit. So on Friday afternoon, after the phone interview, Scott and Ella hurried over to the Critter Cottage to meet with three potential adoptees. We hadn't intended for the process to come together so quickly but considering it was the holiday weekend they were trying to help us out. Here are a few pictures of Ella at the Critter Cottage picking out her newest best friend.

Bonding with "Amos" during the in-person-interview.
He was the favorite right from the start since he ran right up to her and let her shower him with her love!

Brewster and Simba were other options. But Amos (whose name we have now changed) was the obvious match for us!

Friends forever!

Ella was more than thrilled to bring him home. While she and Scott were finalizing the adoption, the boys and I rushed to the local Pet Smart to pick up the necessary equipment. It's been a whirlwind (but hey isn't it all a whirlwind at this point??) I will post more soon!

Simple Joys

ahh!! the sweetness of a beautiful summer evening filled with happy sounds coming from the backyard. The kids are getting along on the swing set. Ella swinging and Carter in the sandbox (of course). Scott was playing around in the yard as well. Christian and I walked out to the play set to get in on the action. I stuck little man into the baby swing (not sure why it has taken me so long to think of this but this is his first time in it) he was in absolute Heaven. Of course Christian is highly entertained with Ella singing and dancing around him which also fills him with joy. It was one of the simple family moments that you hope continues to play over and over in life. Nothing exceptionally special about it just that it was absolutely picture perfect, everyone was happy, together and enjoying the moment. In the sometime chaotic ruckus life as a family of five, I find myself enjoying these sort of spontaneous, quiet moments and refer to them as my simple joys. A sweet moment with one of the kids, a perfect cup of coffee, a chocolate treat, or great trashy magazine also fall into this category! No matter what the simple joy is, I am trying to get better about enjoying the moment. Unfortunately, with school just around the corner I think that it will have to be a more conscientious effort to slow down and live in the moment.

One sweet parade

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we have sheltered Ella and Carter so much that they've never been to a parade (outside of the annual 4th of July boat parade at my parents). So in order to broaden their horizons, we ventured out to Greenville this morning for the Danish Festival Parade. The kids were eager with anticipation with all the fun and excitement. Here are are a few pictures of the big event.

Elle was sitting in her lawn chair 30 minutes before the parade started anxiously waiting!

First up in the parade was the loud but very cool firetrucks, ambulances, and police cars. Carter LOVED it but was covering his ears from the noise.

Scott bipped across the road to catch this shot. We didn't want all the pictures to be of the backs of their heads. You can see Ella's bag-o-sweets was filling up fast! I could NOT believe how much candy each of the kids got. It was worse than Halloween. I had to sit in the laundry room ditching all the pixie sticks and broken pieces.

Carter is so proud of the new football he caught.

It was a perfect day for a parade. We parked at Aunt Janet's house, loaded the kiddos in the wagon along with all our stuff and made the 6 block trek to Jeff & Cathy's house right on the parade route. We had great seats. The kids loved every hot minute of it! It was adorable to come home and watch them form their own parade. Carter had a stick and an empty coffee canister and Elle took the big yellow flag from the bike cart and was twirling away! Carter petitioned me to join the parade as he handed me the tambourine from the music instruments from the basement. He instructed me I had to "MARCH" like him. We made our way around the house and yards a few times while Scott drove the lawn tractor. It was one of those precious moments that connects my childhood to theirs, since Evan and I did the same thing. Gotta go! I've been ping-pong-ing back and forth between posting, the Olympics, and making Ella's birthday invites. Hard to believe she turns 5 in two weeks from today! She wants a My Little Pony party so we're working on it! :)

A Glowing Friday

T.G.I.F.....or so I thought. Yesterday began like many Friday's at our house, the normal early risers hyped about breakfast and the lack of cereal choices I had available, followed by whining because I said no to the plea to watch T.V. (by the end of the summer Elle is going to think using her imagination is a terrible thing), then I finally banished the older two to their rooms for "space to play by themselves". (at this point I can still mask that this is NOT a punishment but rather a fun chance to play with their special toys all by themselves. While they were playing I cleaned out my closet, downed a couple cups of coffee (realizing early, that this day would require caffeine) and managed a happy 'mommy mentality'. Ella & Carter emerged from their rooms a much happier crew and even went outside to play very nicely on their own while I nursed Christian. At this point, I thought the day had turned itself around. Our agenda was a planned one for the afternoon. We had to go to Grandville to 1st pick up Ella's new glasses (that's a whole other blog in itself), drop her off at a friends birthday party, and then the boys and I were going to head to the mall to pick up new tennis shoes for the family.

We had a quick lunch and an even quicker nap time. I ended up waking up Carter (....I know sacrilegious) forcing him into his car seat while he is screaming "not yet mom, I need more sleep!" Ella was eager to get this afternoon off to a good start since it was filled with all things fun for her! We got to the optometrist's and the glasses fitting went well. Shockingly, the boys were quiet and good..so I even managed to pick myself out a new pair of specks! Ella helped, she definitely had her opinions about how the things looked on me! She looked adorable and was more than thrilled with the case and cleaning cloth they sent her on her way with. She was really excited to wear the glasses to the party that was until we got there. As we walked up the driveway the birthday girl says, "I don't recognize you with those glasses!" with that, Ella took them off and told me she really didn't want to wear them, "anymore,anyways!" (Lovely.....ok, I didn't plan for that).Kissed her good bye and was on the way to the mall with the boys. All went well there. Then we headed back to the party to pick her up and head out to meet Scott to get hair cuts and dinner out. Ella had so much fun at the party. It made me a bit sad to see her independently trot off to this big girl party and then come back so thrilled! She shared a few things from her goody bag with Carter which brightened his spirits since for some crazy reason he thought we were going to his party when we left home. It took me a long time (and buying him icecream at the mall) to try to reason with the half sleeping boy that he would not be having a party OR turning 3 until April. He is adamant though, that we will be having a race car party. Ok-will deal with that later!

We got the hair cuts (which was a bit hectic) and went out to dinner. All pretty uneventful. Then we got home and the kids slipped into their pjs just a wee bit to easily. I should have sensed something was up. Scott had stopped to pick up diapers and some other necessary materials at Home Depot. He phoned on his way home to say he had a smashing, nauseating headache and needed the bed and some drugs. So I got Carter down and was just about to put Ella down when Christian decided he was starving. So there I sat, reading bedtime stories to Ella nursing Christian. She was just a chatty cathy recalling all the fun from the day and dreaming of the fun we'd have at Saturday's parade. I wrapped things up with her and sat at the bottom of the steps, nursing Christian, on the look out , for any child who may attempt to come out of their room. Finally, figured it was safe to go upstairs to check on Scott. He wasn't feeling much better. Whew! It seemed to have been a long day. I was ready to relax. All of the sudden I hear Ella crying in a panicked way and I met her in the dark stairway to see a shocking sight. Her mouth was glow-in-the dark-purple! In the favor bag she had gotten these glow in the dark bracelets and thought they were so wonderful. With all the commotion at bedtime I failed to notice that she had them in bed with her. I am sure she saw the shock on my face turn to panic as she started howling about how her mouth was tingling and burning. I quickly called the mom from the party to ask if she had the packaging. No luck, but now I had two moms worried. Ella is now in hysterics because she overheard me say something gruffly to Scott about the possibility of this stuff being a "poison". So in my attempts to get to the bottom of this, I started to dial 911 thinking that would connect me to poison control but then realized they have their own separate number. I hung up the call before it ever went through. I talked to poison control and they assured me that this was a very common call to get and that she just needed to drink a glass of water and eat a few crackers. During all this craziness, I stopped feeding poor Christian, laid him in the middle of the floor and tended to my daughter with the glowing mouth. Finally, picked him back up, called the sweet and concerned mom from the party back and attempted to finish feeding him so I could put him to sleep and sign off on the chaotic events of the day. I was chatting along with the mom and all of a sudden a police officer is knocking at my door! For what, the third time now, I stop feeding Christian, hang up on the mom in mid sentence, and make myself presentable to the police man standing at the door. (this late night knocking brings Scott back out of the bedroom with eyes as big as saucers to see me talking to the officer). He was responding to the 911 call that had been placed from our residence. YIKES! I apologized profusely and wanted to crawl into a deep dark hole by this point. Miraculously, Scott was feeling better so we sat in the living room together chuckling over our excitement as I finally finished feeding the poor, starving, baby!

Sorry I don't have pictures to post on this story. They would have been some good ones!

A day trip to the zoo

Mom, Dad & the kids looking for the 3 new lions that moved to John Ball Zoo this summer. Poor, Christian he will get in the pictures as soon as he stops riding in the Bjorn.....oh that'll be around his first birthday!


Carter loves animals, here he is in the aquarium.

Ella in her glory, brushing the little goats. I think she named that one Polka Dot!


To add adventure to the day, we decided to go for a camel ride. Of course, Grandma wanted in on the fun and rode along with. Now the kids have ridden a horse and a camel!

One of Ella's favorite parts of the zoo last year was petting and feeding the manta rays. Here she is waiting for Grandpa to give her another fish to feed to the Manta Rays. I love her adventurous spirit.

It is so fantastic to have the summer off to enjoy time with the kids. We have had a great summer filled with sun, sand, trips to the library, the YMCA, and play dates with friends. However, we are now approaching that time of year that transitions us back into more of a routine and earlier mornings! I honestly can not believe that Ella is going off to school in just two weeks. The boys will be heading to a new daycare which is just up the way from us. I am looking forward to a great school year, as well. I have lots of new ideas that I am excited to implement and I won't need to be prepping for maternity leave! Whew! I just love my school, East and am so excited to have Ella coming with me for kindergarten. It will be special that I can bip into her room on special days, for parties, and see her projects displayed in the hall. We will just be up the hall from each other.

Speaking of school, Ella had a special day with Grandma Blackmer on Monday. They went shopping for a special 'back to school' outfit. After much deliberation, she finally settled on dark jeans, a beautiful 'sparkley" teal shirt and a bright hoodie. She gave Scott and I a fashion show when she returned home and we were shocked. It was as if our little girl turned 7 with the change of an outfit. Wasn't she just sucking her thumb and twirling my hair??

I am soaking up all the extra special snuggle times right now. Time just flies too fast. I could fill my whole day with cleaning, organizing, and prepping but I won't get these stages back with the kids. I am in a stage of constant battle with the laundry. With Carter back on the potty training kick, we seem to be doing a bit more than usual. He has firmly proclaimed that he WILL be peeing standing up. LOVELY! I am all for him exercising his independence which he does frequently, but this standing up business is messy! I swear the upstairs either smells like pee or vinegar! Constant disinfecting of the bathroom is neccessary. Ella has temporarily moved out of that bathroom. I guess I can't blame her. :)


Each summer, about this time, I find myself in a bit of a frenzy. I am trying to cram in all the playdates and day trips that we haven't done yet. So last Friday, mom and dad went with the kids and I to the zoo. (see above pictures) This will go down in my mind as one of my favorite summers. We have so many fantastic memories. I better go, Christian just woke up. He is cooing in his crib.....man I love that baby boy!