The rundown...

Family update time:


Jack:
All of Jack's cub scout dreams finally came true when the Pinewood Derby rolled around. Kyle hooked him up with a sweet looking Batmobile and all was right with the world.  Unfortunately it wasn't the fastest car on the track but that was all good. We prepped him for possible failure on the car ride over, reminded him of good sportsmanship, and talked up all the dessert possibilities when the whole shin dig was over. Yea for root beer floats!

 Mr. Batmobile and his chief engineer



Some top contenders....love the Lego block..it took 3rd!

Cole:
Little Mr. first grade is rockin the violin. He has passed off all 9 songs needed in order to move into the "big kid" (2-5th graders)room. These are all the big kids who know lots of violin stuff and have played for at least an entire year longer than Cole. It's clicking and I LUUUUUUV it!

Mr. Big Kid room

Brody:

The smirk kinda says it all lately.

Quote of the day:
Me: "Brody just eat your breakfast so you won't be hungry in an hour...don't come whining to me about needing a snack cause ya won't be gettin one!"
Brody: "That's o.k. mom, I'll just sneak one when you're not looking!" -said nonchalantly with above smirk. I remind myself that patience is a virtue on a daily basis with this sweet child 'o mine.


Kate:

I adore this girl...this one right here with crazy hair and Mr. Potato head glasses. She's hysterically funny even with her 3 word vocabulary: Mamma-Nya Nya (snack/treat) and Ba-Bo(bubbles). That's it, that's all she's got to go along with her constant gibberish. Oh that and her shrill, high pitched, fake scream of terror she busts out whenever Brody is approaching. She totally works it. 




Kyle: I hooked him up with the biggest can of peanuts he's seen to date. It doesn't take a lot. He's a happy happy man.

As for me, I'm really content. Life is good. Bring on June!



Weekend review and such...

It's hard to type tonight...it smells a little like skunk outside and it's wafting (a word perhaps?) into my nasal passages- inside. Not cool. One of the numerous benefits of country life I suppose. Out of habit it must be said.... P.U.

The fellas have been puttin pencil to paper now for 2 straight weeks. Little man on the left tried to wish his way to school, any school ..but that didn't pan out. -Peace

Mr. First Grade and his lonely little shadow

Cole is in a music program where.....drumroll: he gets to learn the violin at school!!! For his music loving mother it's a dream scenario. Isn't that tiny violin fantastic? I'm sensing some mad violin skills are going to ooze outta this kid?

Mr. Third Grade: Lucky pants Jack is also in the music program, also gets to learn the violin, AND gets to be in thee exact same class as super fun cousin Sidney. Life is good for this kid.

We had a thrilling weekend full of:

Meltdowns over lost remotes. Yes, I the eternal lifesaver of this crew found said remote under the kitchen cabinet next to the oven, on the floor. Of course!

Family Movie Night: I had to take a picture so I could go back later and ask myself....."am I a fuddy duddy?" It kinda looks that way. I mean, what kind of family movie night consists of eating your popcorn and rootbeer at the table? I guess mine.

Movie of choice seen 4 times in 10 days: Diary of a Wimpy Kid.....ZOO WEE MAMA! Funny stuff!

'playin with the powerball cleaning tabs....all 93 of them, every few hours after my mom forgets to put the rubberband back on the door knob for the 37th time!

'Ridin the wonder pony....Kyle was a painting fool this weekend getting all of the fence around our property painted. Chance the wonder pony's shed is almost complete and then mongo barn will come last. The weather was lovely so what's a guy to do but go ride his horse!




And so another week begins!

Some good stuff....

I can't seem to stay on top of the blogging thing. I don't think it's my calling in life. Right now my life is to cook, clean various sizes of undies, change diapers, bring down the volume levels, make sure pull-ups remain dry and vacuum, oh and cook some more. The month however has moved along and some good good stuff has happened......

Handsome cousin Blain returned from his spanglish speaking mission in Tucson Az. My boys think Blain in thee coolest so having him back is a pretty sweet deal! Great missionary and great example! Aunt Lorri hosted a lovely spread of good eats and everyone just sat around and did their thing.

Brody chose to push cousin Megan on the scooter OUTside. Jack chose to perfect his 4 wheelin skills OUTside. Gramma Peggy was back from Hannah Montana (as Brody refers to it) getting some Kate time and where did we find Cole all evening.....?





playing the gigantor wii. Even though it wasn't the

"wii-kend" I let him. It was a Blain party and he was showing his love and support via Super Mario Brothers. Good stuff.

And then we have this morning. After pancaking it up at the church we headed to our beautiful local cemetery for the VFW Memorial Day ceremony. I tell you what, seeing the entire cemetery lined with hundreds of flags brings a lump to my throat every time. After a brief and sweet ceremony complete with the gun salute we walked around reading headstones and talking to the boys about why we were there. Seeing those sweet and handsome veterans in their navy blue best just hit me. My most favorite guy....my grandpa Len was a WII veteran. For years and years he was one of those darling vets who attended every meeting, funeral and ceremony of fellow soldiers. He died in 2005 and I miss him dearly. He was simply the best. I named my Jack after him...Jack Lendell......Not since his funeral had I witnessed a military gun salute. So today it really was special to see and hear it again. Definitely a Thomas family tradition has begun. Good stuff!

Like mother like....sons??

So my brother and his family used to live in the house that we all grew up in...you following me? Anyway, they have since moved closer to my family and thus, we see each other more often, which is fun. He had recently returned from visiting said house (and would you believe that another brother now lives there with his family?) and brought back some treasures from the good 'ole days ie: cabbage patch dolls and pony plates. Now don't think the Thomas fellas couldn't appreciate a good cabbage patch doll when they saw one...especially "maked" ones. They have been given the names"Jo Jo and Roosie-not to be confused with Rosie" and dressed appropriately. Jack wins good sport award for indulging Brody for a good 30 minutes. His reward...watching the original "Karate Kid" -one of my favorite movies of all time. And would it shock you to know that....he loved it?!

Cole is reading like a maniac lately which is fantastic. He's the type of kid that sits quietly and giggles to himself, completely enthralled in the detailed plot lines of mischievous felines such as Garfield. I used to love that cat myself...who knew?

Cole is a man of few words.....he's cool.
He even sleeps cool!

Brody is into kissing everything, all the time. Yesterday I had to stop the love fest in the produce section at the grocery store. When you touch the broccoli (especially with 3 year old lips) you buy the broccoli. Now I'm a big proponent of affection yet prefer kissing my husband and children and I leave it at that.

In the meantime, he'll just continue to drive remote control cars over Kate and I'll continue to take pictures because I find it just as humorous as he does.

Before and After

Just a little walk down memory lane to keep up with the goings on:

First stop: Ms. Kate. It's hard to believe that she came in such a teeny tiny package. She's sittin pretty at almost 16 lbs., has earned her first tooth and is maybe 23 floor scoots away from crawling. I love this stage..aren't quite mobile, totally smiley, and just delicious!

Next we have Brody Brod.
He was such a cute baby with big milk dud eyes. He wore diapers back then. And now that he's totally 3 and gigantor....he's STILL wearing diapers! Grrr.

The other day I asked Cole and Brody to pick up the bonus room before coming down for lunch. I told them to let me know when they were done and I would do a little checky check. All was going famously well (-it looked surprisingly great and in record time)until I asked him to put the pillows back on the couch. "Uh, don't worry about the pillows mom, they'll be o.k." Cole's lying alarm starting blaring and I immediately asked him to remove all the pillows conveniently shoved in the corner. Oh the beauty and shame of it all. He was mortified, ( and rightly so) mad, and so very 5. I gave myself parenting kudos that day for handling the situation like a champ. Find the problem, take appropriate pictures, resolve the situation peacefully. Cole was grounded from the Wii (his BFF) for 5 days, one day for each year of his Wii deprived life. Those 5 days Wii-less were glorious and thus I instituted our new system: Wii-kends. That's right, only on the weekend can the Wii even be considered. It's not rocket science and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Yea for a playing with siblings with actual toys!!!!

Last up: Mr.Sweat himself. Jack is thick in the middle of b-ball season and is having such a good experience. He's improved with every game and I'm seriously loving watching him play. I still don't understand how a capri sun and doritos or ding dongs are the snack of choice after running for an hour. It goes against my better judgement to give out anything Hostess after a game. So now I gotta come up with something fun so I'm not the lame mom with gross "treats" when it's Jack's turn for snack. Ideas?

There you have it...January in review.

The late in coming.. getting warmer review

Here it is, Dec. 11th and I still haven't posted a thing for weeks. Everyday, literally, everyday since last Thursday there has been something that someone in this family or all, have had to attend. Insane craziness and I'm sure you all can relate. This post probably has a few too many pictures but come on....its been weeks, weeks full of juicy juicy tidbits and goings on. Here's a little review:

BRODY:

I'm starting with this little guy because he is now officially 3. Yes, December is his b-day month and he couldn't have been more thrilled. It's all documented fully on my new beautiful camera. My new beautiful SLR camera that I have been wanting for years but couldn't bring myself to purchase due to sticker shock. I must admit with the surprising addition of Chance the wonder pony into our family...the sticker shock wasn't as shocking....hmm. My beautiful SLR camera that I cannot (nor can my completely computer literate pal) figure out how to retrieve my pictures. I know the answer lies somewhere deep inside the user manual but I literally haven't had time to figure it out. . Sooooo, in the meantime I'm taking lots of fun and fast pictures and hoping one day to see them in print. I'm thankful for my slow as molasses point and shoot AND my darling sass a frass of a 3 year old!.

(Oh, I could just eat them up. I love having 3 darling boys!)

Kate: Speaking of eating your children.....this little gal is delicious! She's having an awfully hard time letting me blog at this very moment but man she's adorable. Latest tricks: -staring at the ceiling fan...oooooohhhh

-rolling over, 6 oz. bottles..are you kidding me, sleeping through the night, finding and sharing her darling little voice, and blowing out her pants on a daily basis. What's with little ladies and diapers? I cannot find one that shall we say "controls the leakage." It's so grody and annoying and not very lady like. Totally, totally, totally, loving her.

Cole: This kid kills me. Here he is in all his kindergarten glory last night at the school Christmas snooze/sing a long. I admit that a major Thomas flaw is tardiness. Not 15 minute tardiness but like 4 minute tardiness. Lame none the less. So last night we show up at 7:02 (if that) and the kindergarten kids were already up ON stage and singing. All be darned if my kid was gonna miss singing "Mousey in the snow." So picture me with 3 clothing layers and a puffy vest,(it's like 15 degrees outside) my gigantic Mary Poppins bag, holding Brody's hand and herding Cole and Jack up to the front to get that kid on stage...pronto. Now I'm weavin and bobbin through a stuffy packed house until we make it to the front of the auditorium. It's go time. "Cole, when the song is over, walk up on the stage and go stand next to that kid." And this is why I love Cole. He obediently waited allllmost until the song was over and just walked up...right across the stage and just found a spot to stand. The 2 minutes late Thomas' have arrived. I had to document his coughing spells. Coley has seasonal asthma which is quite annoying..is that bad to say? He coughs, and coughs, and coughs. They're not big deep clear your throat and make progress coughs. These sound fake and wimpy....thus annoying. Anyhoo, I laughed to myself as he sang through the last song and every 10 seconds or so...cough...faa laa, la, cough, la la mousey in the snow, cough! Out comes the nebulizer.

Kyle had an awesome time at the sing a long. He got stuck in the back back with Kate, a bottle and no burper cloth. See it was all up with crazy 2minute late mom and her Mary Poppins bag.

Jack: Let's see, what to report with this guy. He's either uber helpful or the spark that gets everything/one annoyed. I'm trying to focus him on being helpful without being the parent....fine line Jacky pants. Can I tell you that this kid is a fantastic speller?! It's so fun to quiz him throughout the week and then get his test back with 100% . He's a funny one who really really really enjoys watching tv and who's really really really observant. He's not to pleased that I control the remote and cartoon network is not an option. Ah, to be 7 1/2 ..so rough.

Chance the wonder pony: It's Fa-reezing here, bone chilling cold. Thrilled would be an understatement describing the fact that Chance now has his blanket on. I'm not a pet person, I don't want to think about animals outside in the cold. I know that's the way they're made....it's natural and all that. I just don't want to be responsible for a cold animal. With blanket on and backyard fence built, Chance the wonder pony is a happy horse. Kyle is almost done building an enclosure for him to protect him even more during the winters. It's a good thing cause we've ALL been a bit too chilly around here. Which leads me toooooooooo:

Heaters: See this little beauty, she's been running non stop for 2 days, helping me thaw out. In a nutshell the downstairs of our house has stained concrete floors. We love them. At least we thought we would love them. Then the temps outside hit ya know, 15 degrees and real quick it got real chilly inside. Now our floors have radiant heat to stay warm in the winter but nothing was happening. It was 58 degrees in my bedroom and 62 degrees in the rest of the downstairs. You know how annoying it is to be constantly cold??!!! I had Kate in 3 layers with tights and hats on, just ridiculous for being INSIDE. Anyway, Kyle brought home heaters while he figured out what was going on/not working. Finally yesterday he did some tweaking in the control room and just like that....you can feel heat under your feet and it feels soooo good. We are officially back to loving our WaRM concrete floors.


Finally......(my apologies to anyone who is actually still reading) this is for my sister who wanted to see my decor this year. We're still not completely settled and moved in but pretty close. I do love Christmas time as it is most appropriate to use red and green (my personal decorating faves) like crazy! Now I just need to restring the tip of my pre-lit Christmas tree which decided to go dim a few nights back..sAweet.

Whew, that was a good blogging session for me. Thanks for listening. And if you're really lucky your Christmas cards should be out come March.

A few topics to discuss

Topic ONE: NEW House
First off, may I introduce you to my new garage doors. I'm quite fond of them. Kyle picked out and ordered them all by himself and once again, he came through with flying colors. The sheet rock is up and currently being taped/finished. It's amazing how different a house looks when all the wood is covered up by walls!! The driveway/walkways are being poured by Kyle and his handy helpers (thanks fellas) tomorrow so we are making progress! It's a good thing because.........

Topic TWO: Old house

We thankfully sold our house.......unfortunately in 3 days which means July 7th we are officially homeless. My amazingly helpful and loving in-laws are once again welcoming us to live with them for the summer while Kyle finishes the house. I am so thankful for their generosity. I have to think of the positives (Sold the house in crappy market, only had to show it for one weekend, 2 months without a mortgage payment, warm and lovely home to stay at while we are without an address) or the negatives (NO BACKYARD WITH A GATE SO MY SPASTIC BRODY CANNOT ESCAPE, no swing set/trampoline, ward hopping limbo, husband still won't be home at night AND oh yea, another baby due within the month, school will be out in 5 short days )-will reduce me to gently rocking back and forth in the corner of the room. I choose to think positive. My in-laws have thee best yard for exploring (it just needs a very large Brody gate or possibly a shock collar) and so my attitude and energy will be focused on keeping him in the yard. Or maybe I should focus on the fact that he is also no longer a fan of staying in his crib. In fact as I type I can hear him upstairs.....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It is 9:45 p.m.......he's TWOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??? That will be another fun aspect of my summer living headquarters. All 3 crazies in 1 room and no more crib. Ugh-give me strength!

Topic THREE: Waiting room

So my favorite story of the past 2 weeks has been: Celery Lady. Let me set the stage for you:

I had the pleasure last week of taking my lovely mother to a dr. appt downtown Seattle. Now I love the Emerald city and all but no sane person can deny that once you cross into the city limits....weirdies (or people with zero inhibitions) are everywhere.

With that being said, picture yourself in a dr.s office, a rather large one at that. There are maybe 50 seats available. You are seated near the door with your purse sitting on the seat next to you-reading a delightful issue of Country Living magazine. There is one gentlemen seated on the complete opposite side of this expansive waiting room but other than that...empty. A woman with the total Seattle vibe walks in, checks in, and proceeds to sit down.......RIGHT NEXT TO MY PURSE. Yes, there we were, the 3 amigos, 1-2-3...all snuggly and close to each other in that gigantor waiting room. I'm sorry, why do people do that? Why on earth do people choose to sit NEXT to another person when there are 48 other chairs available? Well, if that wasn't awesome enough she proceeds to pull out a baggy full of ..............CELERY !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you even kidding me? While my left pointer finger was lodged into my eardrum to mask the sound of her hideous crunching, I thought of all the quiet foods she could have chosen to bring into a waiting room instead. What's wrong with:

-marshmallows

-raisins

-red vines

-a nice quiet slice of bread

-maybe even a few grapes but CELERY. It was about a 7 minute chomping session I had to endure, with only my red purse serving as a buffer zone.

Topic FOUR: Backyard water cheapness.
Yes, this is our only surviving pool. Our ultra cool one from last year still has those microscopic holes that drive my husband nuts. You know the ones where you think you got them patched and so you get all excited and fill 'er up and the next morning it's empty and flat....yea those holes. And seeins that we're moving and all, we're making due. So here we are with our buddies...making due.....in a pathetically small plastic purple pool.



Topic FIVE: The Littlest Cricket

Jack had the sweetest gig the last two weeks at school- reading the part of "littlest cricket" for his reader's theater. I'm so glad he loves school and loves to read with "expression" and had his name picked from all the other Popsicle sticks. Cute cricket.

Topic Six: Lowes is never a fun place to go with 3 spastic boys!

Do I really need to explain anything?

Topic Seven: Indoor camping =latest craze

Kids are funny. I'm kinda partial to my kid's funniness and lately it's been "Indoor Camping." They get their sleeping bags, stuff them in the
backpacks, fill up their water bottles, get out their guns to shoot animals (nice) and camp in each room of the house. It's so cute to listen to their deep and clever camper insights.

TOPIC EIGHT: T-SHIRT OVERKILL

My little brother Allen had this t-shirt when we were younger. It was baby blue and had the word "TEXAS" written across the front and each letter was attached to a balloon. It was thus named the :Texas Balloon Shirt. We all hated that shirt simply because we saw it so often. I do believe my sister resorted to "hiding it" if my memory serves me correct. See the two little Thomas boys in the middle of this picture.......do you see where I'm going with this?

Topic NINE and TEN: Life in the triage unit:

So I'm holding steady at 34 weeks. The last 2 weeks have been dr. visit mania. In a nutshell: at 32 weeks during a routine NST (non stress test) Kate's heart started having an arithmea (?) it was beating up in the 187-200 bpm. It did that on Monday when my dr. wasn't there. They sent me to the hospital to have me monitored and have an ultrasound to make sure all was well with her cord etc. She calmed down, so did I and I finally got to go home hours later. I was told to come back that Wed. so my regular dr. could see me. I had another NST on Wed. and she did great, normal as ever. Came back on Friday (yes that's my 3rd visit in a week) for a routine NST and she does it again....totally high heartbeat and an ultrasound shows her heart just going nuts. I'm sent back to the hospital triage unit for monitoring and ultrasound. Given an IV to get her hydrated and she eventually calms down again. Of course my dr. is leaving for a weeks vacation that night and gives me her cell phone # to call if anything happens. She schedules me to be monitored at the hospital all weekend and then have another ecocardiogram on Kate's heart Monday morning. The eco showed nothing "of concern" which was great and any other testing will obviously be done when she is born. So all in all, INSANELY crazy dr. visits the last few weeks. She's been great my last few appts. In fact today the little darling finally flipped head down!!! I'm so excited to meet her I can hardly stand it.

So THAT ladies, is my low down. I applaud those of you who made it through its entirety. I must now retire to my bed. I will first stop in to see where Brody has fallen asleep. Will it be on the floor in his room, on the stairs, or spread eagle in the middle of the hall? The possibilities are limitless!