Kyle's Collections...

Kyle can find use of any kind of container when he plays... He will ask me ot get boxes down from his closet and he always has something in mind for it with his imaginary play.  It can be a house, a vehicle, a jungle or anything else he has in mind at the time.  He loves to find little toys from various playsets and start collections or treasure boxes.  It drives me crazy because at the end of the day I get to put everything away, but I love his imagination and the elaborate stories he comes up with! 

I guess he likes to organize like his mama...

 While it looks messy he has an order to what he is doing and if you change it, you will hear from him!

 Humm, where should I put this?

Kyle, I love your attention to detail and your drive to figure things out!

Technology

When the IPad first came out, Mike's boss got him one... Our busy lives and that fact that you can't train an old dog new tricks, prevented us from using it too much because we were used to our PC interface/keyboard. Lately, we finally have been checking it out and the features it offers- like its free apps.  Joshua has tuned in and now has "IPad nights".  Two nights a week, he is allowed play games, read stories, put together puzzles, etc (assuming that privilege hasn't been taken away) for 15-20mins before going to bed.  It is amazing what this thing can do... It is a bit addictive!  Currently our favorite game is 'Cut the Rope'... If you have an IPad or IPhone, you need to check it out. 

It is amazing how quickly these little ones catch on to technology... J is able to navigate like a pro!

Brotherly Love, I better enjoy it now- I am sure they will be fighting over it in a matter of months!

They have a lot of educational stuff geared toward the preschooler.

We have a new photographer in the house

For quite some time, Josh has asked me if he could take some pictures every time I took my camera out & when he found out that they made cameras for kids, he begged us to get him one for Christmas.  We broke down and bought him one after it became a frequent request.  He is such a little man... His biggest requests for Christmas gifts were a)a watch b)a camera c)a bike bell?! 

So what is it that a 4 year old takes pictures of?  Well come see for yourself...

I took this picture, this is what he looks like behind the camera

And of course he had to take a picture of me taking a picture of him!

This is his Lincoln Log train set, but he told me he was really taking a picture of his Iron Man night light.

More toys...

...And yet more toys, do you see a pattern?

He captured dad's Spider man Shirt...

And then captured his face.

"Kyle, say CHEESE!"

"Mom, say CHEESE"... First thing in the morning, lovely!

"Jakey, don't run away from me!"

"Here is my backyard"

"And this is the picture I colored".

Even though the quality isn't as good, it is fun to see things through his 'eyes'! 

Fire Station Tour

A couple of weeks ago we went on a field trip with our Mom's Club to the local  fire station.  The boys had a lot of fun meeting the firefighters, stop/dropping/rolling under the "smoke" from the fog machine, climbing in the trucks and trying on the gear.  Thanks Station #27 for sharing with us! 

Some of the group proudly standing with one of the firefighters.

Heavy helmet!

J was so excited to try on a real ff jacket and hold the door crusher- aka an "ax".

Little J, was content to stay with me... the big trucks and outfits were a bit much for him.

K could have spent all day inside the trucks exploring the many buttons and equipment!

There must have been something really interesting in this truck!

By the way, my prego scatter brain forgot my camera-  Thanks for the pictures Martha! 

Showered with Girlie fun!

In just a few short weeks, 5 to 1 will be the ratio of guys to girls in our house...  Lucky for me I have some great girlie friends who took me out to a tea cafe for a girls only brunch/baby shower.  We sipped  tea, ate scones and egg sandwiches & enjoyed several hours of girlie company.  What a blessing this group of gals have been over the years of baby rearing!  When we first met there were 9 little ones among us (I am counting J, who could not make it because she was out of town) & now we have 20 little ones... that is 2-3 babies being born a year since we met! 

The serious picture & you can see my huge bump...

The fun pose, this how we usually are!

Can't forget L, the photographer and M, the little mommy helper!

 Lots of diapers and cutesy shower gifts.

 This gift wins for Best Presentation!  I love getting baskets, thanks Mitra!

 I couldn't ask for a better group of friends!  Thanks Megan & Eileen for putting together such a special day! 

Mike and his boys

Almost every evening at about 4:30, the craziness begins... The afternoon snack has worn off, the house looks like a tornado ran through it, I am scrambling in the kitchen to get dinner started, the sun is going down and the cold sets in.  That is when my boys decide to magically turn the bored hyper switch on and the whining, pestering & crying begins.  That is why the winter is so long... No sending them outside to run off their energy and all of the sudden when it is dark outside ALL their toys are suddenly boring!  So while I can temporarily distract them with markers, stickers, play dough, etc for a few minutes at a time, they pretty much remain in this feisty state until they are nice and cozy in their beds for the night.  Mike has really stepped up lately and it has become a team effort to get this crazy crew of kids from dinner to rough housing to bath to book to bed.  After dinner he tackles, wrestles, tickles and plays superheros with them to get their hyper energy expelled (maybe his too!).  The loud action packed playtime migrates to the bath and the four of them have lots of loud splashy pirate fun while I clean the kitchen, get their pjs, vitamins, toothbrushes, etc ready.  One by one I get them dried off and dressed as he continues to entertain them in the tub... Straight to couch for a book with dad as I gather up the blankets and binkies.  Several cuddles, one on one talks about their days, bedtime prayers and off to bed, our exercise session is over :)!  They sure love their dad & I love you too... Thanks for all your help, you are an amazing father! 

Climbing

The boys certainly got blessed with many gifts this Christmas, but one unexpected (yet very appropriate for a household of active little boys!) gift came from Mike's cousin Carl and soon to be wife.  It is a climbing dome and fits perfectly into our yard full of toys and boys.  Mike and the kids had fun building it last weekend and even more fun playing on it... When the weather gets nicer, they are excited to make a fort dome out of it.

Big J helped Mike during the whole 2+ hour building process... His determination and hard work amazes me!

 K helped too!

 Counting, unwrapping, building- it was a team effort!

 This toy is solid!

 Little J had a bird's eye view of the building from his swing.

 Finally it is playtime- "Look Mom, what I can do!"

 They all can play with this one :).

 I had to throw in the "I am almost 3 and am getting an attitude look!". 

Suprise visitors

It has been awhile, I know, I have been busy getting organized with the anticipation of our newest little guy to make his appearance- I will get to some of those projects in later blogs... For now, I will catch up with our everyday life.

A few days after Christmas, we had a pleasant surprise visit from Mike's uncle and cousins from California.  His two local cousins joined the fun too as we enjoyed a evening of dinner and catching up.  When Mike and I were dating in high school, I remember each one of these kiddos as a little baby- where did the time go?  Ironically they are just about the same age difference as our four kids... It was kind of a fast forward look at what times will be like in about 12 years!  It also goes to show how much our grocery bill will be going up as I didn't nearly plan a big enough dinner for our house full of teenagers- sorry kids and your bottomless bellies! 

Kyle felt like such a big boy sitting with his older cousins!  He also totally hammed up the attention they gave him.  

 He is still our tactile kid and was obsessed with Uncle Donnie's curly hair... He was so thrilled that Donnie let him touch it.

 What great teenagers these are... They played with our kids all night.

 They were also super polite and interacted with the adults a lot.

 Not one of them spent any time texting or being preoccupied with anything... They were an absolute pleasure to be around the whole time!

It is strange how the circle goes, we were just there as teenagers at Mike's family functions playing with these kids when they were toddlers, who knows what will happen in the next round of 12 years or so... 

 We truly enjoyed your company and the boys are still talking about each of you.  Come visit more often and stay longer, I promise I will have more food!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, family and friends- Joy to the world that the Lord has come to save us from our sins and graciously give us an eternal life in Heaven if we believe!

This has been an ever changing year with 3 little boys and while I still need more patience to deal with constant chaos, we are learning to slow down and enjoy the simple things.  Big J has been soooo interested in the true meaning of Christmas this year as he has brought me his nativity advent calendar first thing in the morning every day of this month.  He was so excited to for the 25th to come along so that he could celebrate Jesus' birthday.  We read a few different story books on the birth of Christ and he took every detail in.  I overheard him telling K about why Jesus came to earth and as a mom, I couldn't help but melt at his excitement in the matter.  These tender early childhood moments reinforce the need to train and guide their little hearts everyday!

Finally, the day came that he opened the 24th box from his Advent calendar and he knew that it was Christmas Eve...  We celebrated with our usual get together with Mike's side of the family. 

Family picture after the gathing... We all look a bit tired and full of homemade tamales, pasole & pie!

Boys waiting patiently for everyone to arrive so that we could eat and open presents.

 K getting loved on by Dad and great grandparents.

 J roughhousing with uncle A!

 I guess Santa was in the neighborhood... This one was a pretty funny Santa telling lots of jokes, K just kinda stared for awhile.

 Little J wasn't so sure about this silly guy.

 Santa handed out foods that the kids love this year- cheese balls, frosted mini wheats & animal cookies.

 You don't need to get K any gifts, he just likes to play with the gift bags.

 He also REALLY likes bubble gum flavored chapstick... He ate the whole thing by the end of the night.

 I finally completed little J's 1 year memory book... you can check it out for yourself here if you wish.

After a fun night with family, we put the kids to bed, cleaned the house and got ready for brunch in the morning... Christmas Day rolled around really quickly with some eager to wake up kids in the morning!  Stocking suffers kept them busy while I cooked and we all waited for G&G R to show up. 

The excitement of a 4 year old getting something (ANYTHING!) is hilarious... J had so much enthusiasm about opening gifts!  I think we could have given him a rock and he would have ran around the house shouting "Yes, that is just what I wanted!!!". 

Matching PJ's to wear from Grandma R! 

 He was very proud of his new analogue 'Spiderman' watch that he asked for over and over!

 Yay, G&G are here!

 Let the opening begin.

 Little J's favorite new toy of the day was this green ball

 Group gift... a Zoo set for all of them.

 ...It took us forever to put the pieces together!

Mike recently converted some of our old VHS family videos into DVDs so we had fun watching our1985 Christmas gathering with my parents, it is hard to believe they were younger than us in those videos! 

Another highlight of the day was to Skype with my brother's family cross country.  We just learned how to use this technology and this was the first time my parents got to experience it.

Hi R family!  The kids had fun showing each other what they received for Christmas.

 And this is what we looked like! 

It was fun filled day and finished off with ham and scalloped potatoes, Yum!  Merry Christmas!