Tales of a Fulltime Mom

For a moment, I was almost sorry that I had another boy if this is how it's going to be. Mister Brady had ganother accident...this time requiring six stitches. Let's see, so far he's suffered from a cough that lasted for four months which included a bunch of tests and bloodwork, busted the side of his face and got two stitches, had a bout of Croup in which I thought he was dying, had a shower curtain bar fall on his nose (no damage, thankfully), knocked a chair over backwards while he was standing on it (also no damage done), fallen off a chair several times onto the tile floor, and now most recently, slammed his face off a table. Yes, I know that some of this stuff isn't his fault and could happen to anybody. But needless to say, if this is the first two years, I'm not looking forward to the rest of it.

Ricky and Ana were here on Sunday afternoon/evening to watch the Patriots game with us that we had recorded from earlier in the day. We had just gone upstairs to watch it on the big screen. The kids were in the playroom, playing, with Ana. As happens with kids, they'll put themselves into bad situations and in the blink of an eye, before you can even stop them, bad things happen. In this case, Brady stood up on this big ball (looks like a giant yarn ball) that we are using as chairs at our table in the playroom. He didn't hold on to anything and just like that, he fell and he landed facedown on the table. Splat. I heard the screaming and I thought I heard someone say it was his nose and I was imaging a broken, mushed in nose, but it ended up being his eyebrow. I couldn't even look. Thank goodness Ricky and Ana were here so that Rick could drive Duncan, who was holding Brady, to where they needed to go. The "where" was up in the air. Once again, I tried to get them into Nite Lite Pediatrics but two of their locations would not do stitches on a two year old. So frustrating because they are a PEDIATRIC facility. I mean, it seems like many kids must get stitches. I didn't want to do the ER because we have a co-pay of $175. Fortunately, the Centra Care down near Disney was open until 8 pm and they were able to get him in just in time. We weren't sure that they would do the stitches there either (they did his first stitches but this was in a little bit more precarious of an area) but in the end, they did. When they got home at about 9:45, with a big sundae from McDonald's for Brady who woofed it down, they filled me in on how brave he had been. When they put the numbing needle in and then did the first four stitches, he barely made a whimper. Only on the last two stitches, since the numbing needle apparently hadn't numbed that area, did he cry a little. The nurse said in her fourteen years she's never seen a 2-year old be so brave. So hey, probably by the next set of stitches, he'll smile through the whole thing. Ha!

Pre stitches.

Monday was our big day. The first day of school! Things will never be the same again. By the time we had breakfast, had worship, and I took a shower, we didn't get started until about 9:45. As I've mentioned, we're using "My Father's World" first grade curriculum and it's great because everything is all laid out for you. You just follow the lesson plan book step by step which honestly, is something I really need at this point. I don't know that my creative juices are really flowing right now with the amount of sleep I'm getting. My plan was that the baby would be sleeping (he was) and that Aubree would entertain Brady (she didn't). Instead, Aubree pretty much thought she was a student along with Calleigh and wanted to do everything she was doing. It ended up being fine and actually, these last two days, she's only been half involved. So I think she will just come and go. At any rate, the curriculum starts you off pretty slowly, which I'm appreciating, so it's really only taken us about an hour and a half, at most, to get through the schedule each day. We have had to break it up a little bit because I've had to stop each time during the lessons to feed the baby. I think it's nice to have a little break though anyway. So far Calleigh appears to be enjoying it. Three days down, only 2,157 to go.

Everyone else did these really cute signs they got off Pinterest. I didn't have the energy to do anything but this!

Yesterday we had to do our school in the afternoon, during quiet time, because Colby had his two week checkup...back at our old pediatrician. Ironically, I had to wait 35 minutes to see the doctor. Nonetheless, I was still happy with the decision to go back. For one thing, I was able to drop off the other three kids at Ron and Elaine's, which they are always excited about, and which obviously makes things easier for me. Secondly, I do really like the doctor I have for the boys. As far as Colby goes, he is up to 8 lbs, 11 oz compared to his birth weight of 7 lbs, 14 oz. Last Tuesday he was 7 lbs, 12 oz so he gained almost a pound in a week which is excellent. Oh, if only I could have a chubby baby! Brady gained weight really well too until he got sick. I hate going through the whole "not even on the growth chart" thing so it would be so nice if Colby could maintain a good weight. For now, I'll just enjoy seeing a "75th" percentile next to weight on the card. Besides the weight, the big thing they look at at the two week appointment is the heart which thankfully was fine. Everything else was good too.

Colby continues to be an easy baby. One thing that the doctor said was that by this age, you can usually tell what kind of temperament they are going to have. Boy, I hope so! If that is the case, we have been very blessed. I told my mom that when Colby cries, I almost don't even recognize it because it happens so rarely. He just really never cries. Of course, that's probably because like most babies his age, he's asleep a good portion of the day. Nevertheless, I know how tough it was with Calleigh and her crying and all that so I know a good thing when I see it. We are obviously not in any kind of schedule yet with him but I will say that after his eats at about 7:30, he goes to sleep in his swing until about 11:00, eats, and then goes into his bassinet. He'll wake up around 3:30, eat, goes back to sleep, and then wakes up again about 7:30. Of course, these are not set times or anything but we've had some four hour stretches and a five hour stretch already so it's looking promising for the future. Meanwhile, I've gone through the 22-episode first season of Revenge on Netflix. Very entertaining show, I must say. It's funny because I just really don't watch much TV but once you have a nursing baby, you find yourself turning it on. Oh, and I did attempt to watch Downton Abbey but apparently it's not on Netflix any more.

Strange sleeping position

The girls like to "dance" with him, as they call it.

His cord came off when he was nine days old so time to get out the tub. Despite his face, he didn't cry. And yes, my hand is covering up the stream of pee that immediately started shooting out.

My mom left on Friday morning which was a very dramatic event. She started crying and then Aubree just started bawling. It took her probably the whole day to get over it. At one point during quiet time, both girls came downstairs and sat on the landing and started crying, "We want Gigi." Aubree declared that she wished Gigi could live her for a whole year. I didn't have the heart to say to her "Gigi wouldn't live here in a million years." At any rate, it was SO nice to have my mom here for so long and we are counting down the days until Christmas now.

We celebrated my mom's birthday on Thursday night (evening before she left) although the actual day was Monday (9th).

Monday was the first day that we were really alone since obviously Duncan was around over the weekend. We ventured out in the late afternoon to get a prescription at Walgreen's for Brady and then I needed to go to Publix. As soon as we got out of the car, Brady spotted his usual cart that's shaped like a rocket. I broke the news to him that we weren't going to be able to take that cart because there was no room for Colby's car seat. Well, this news did not go over particularly well. I had no idea he was so attached to said cart but apparently he is (he also only had an hour nap not to mention went to bed late the night before do to the stitches). He started crying and crying. I told him the two choices were to take a regular cart (and he would need to walk) and we would get a cookie (Publix gives them out to the kids) or we were going to leave. He didn't stop crying and there was no way I was going into Publix with a screaming kid so I had no choice but to pick him up and carry him all the way back to the car. Not sure how carrying a baby in a car seat and a 23-pound kid under the other arm works out with recovering from my surgery but I had no choice.

After the Publix fail, I was determined that we would make it somewhere with the five of us. After picking up the kids from Ron and Elaine's, I decided to make a stop at Sam's Club, mainly because I needed diapers (as a side note, it's so frustrating how both of my boys have not been able to wear size Newborn diapers even though it's supposed to go to 10 pounds. They leak out of them and I've tried multiple brands. I'm assuming it must have something to do with the placement of the little appendage). Colby was asleep in his car seat and since I only needed a few things, I knew I could put him in the big part of the cart and have Brady and Aubree sit in the front seat (it's a double). I retrieved a cart and started loading everyone in. I've totally got this, I thought. Nobody is crying or complaining about this set up. So yup, feeling good....until a lady beeps her horn at me and says "Ma'am, your dress is stuck in the back." OH MY WORD. My dress was partially stuck in my underwear. Fortunately, nobody else was around and it wasn't competely revealing but STILL!

Later in the day, I went back to Publix for round two hoping for better results. Thankfully he had given up on the space shuttle cart but then he wanted to sit in the regular cart meaning I would have no room for the groceries. I thought we were going to be at a stale mate again but then it suddenly occurred to me that I have an able bodied six year old who can push a cart. Problem solved! Calleigh pushed Brady in one cart and I pushed Colby in the other with Aubree tagging along behind. So we made it...coupons and all. In a few weeks, if not before, Colby will be ready for the Baby Bjorn which will make it easier.

Monday night I had a little middle of the night visit. My sleep is precious to me as I am getting a reduced amount these days so I wasn't too thrilled when I heard a noise that did not sound like the baby. Through my sleepless stupor, I made out the figures of two little girls who were standing next to my bed. They didn't utter a sound until Calleigh finally said "Does Satan live here?" I replied "No, Jesus lives here. Go back to bed." And with that, she was gone (we had to prod Aubree to get her to go back because she had already fallen back asleep on our bed). The next morning, I found out Calleigh had a bad dream. I asked her why she had woken Aubree up when she came down to my room. "Well, I thought it was real and Satan was in this house." I told her that I was really glad she hadn't waken up Brady too. "Oh." she says. "I forgot about him." So there you go. Hopefully there's never a real emergency.

Not to be outdone, Brady had a middle of the night wake up too which is an unusual occurrence. When it does happen, it's usually because his binky has fallen out of his crib. He started calling my name and this time I was awake nursing Colby. I had no choice but to go up with Colby still attached. I didn't say a word to Brady, just gave him his binky and turned around to walk out of his room. "Bye Colby" he says. It totally cracked me up because I seriously haven't heard Brady ever refer to Colby by his name. It's always "the baby" or "my baby brother."

I will end here with some pictures.

My mom, Ricky, and Ana took the kids to the Science Center on Thursday.

Brady is already crazy about my brother. Whenever he arrives at our house, Brady goes running to the door, "Uncle Wicky, Uncle Wicky!!!"

Now that we have school going on in the mornings, we are finding ourselves sticking pretty close to home. So far this week, on Sunday I went to CVS and yesterday we went to Publix. Other than that, it's been home sweet home. That's not necessarily a bad thing especially as far as gas goes I suppose. But it's definitely a change of pace compared to the "old" days when I usually liked to get out somewhere each day.

Week Two of school is rolling along. Fortunately Calleigh is still enjoying it. I keep waiting for the moment when she says she doesn't want to practice writing her letters or something but so far so good. I've quickly determined that she is gaining a very important skill...the ability to concentrate/work with major noise going on around her. A silent classroom we have not. Aubree and Brady are constantly in and out, talking loudly, yelling, running around, asking me to do stuff for them, etc. Sometimes the baby has been known to make some noise. So yeah, it's not exactly what one would call the ideal learning environment. I find myself thinking, "Hmm, in about four or five years, things will be so much better because the youngest will be five and we can hopefully have a little bit of quiet in our school." Of course, by then I'll potentially be dealing with five and seven year old boys who like to pummel each other. So it could all be a pipe dream really. In the meantime, I just keep reminding myself that it may not be the perfect situation but we're doing the best we can. It's not like she's trying to figure out the Pythagorean thereom after all. Surely one can make a perfect "S" despite some background noise

Showing off their craft we did on the five senses.

A quieter moment in the school room.

Let's see...what have we been up to other than school. So Friday we had our first serious yard sale outing. I say serious because we did try to make a trip out yard sale-ing while my mom was here only to be waylaid at the first sale when I realized I didn't have my wallet and my mom didn't have hers either. Nice. Back home we went on that one. We would have gone back out but my mom had to leave at 11:30 to catch her flight so there was no point. Anyway, this time everything was aligned. The only downside was that Colby had the one grumpy day of his life and didn't seem to sleep at all while we were out. Not that he cried the whole time but I could tell he was displeased. I was also reminded that I need to set my sights a little lower on the number we will be making it to since I have to stop and feed Colby along the route. Still, I will not be deterred! We didn't find a whole lot, however, on this particular day although I did find some nice white bowls from Pier 1 that I love.

We had a nice Sabbath although the schedule still didn't work out quite how I had hoped. This was our first time going to both church and Sabbath School with Colby which takes some great teamwork in the morning to pull off. Ideally, he would be eating around 7 am and then again when we get to church at 10 am but darn it, he has his own schedule. He ate at 6 am which means he had to eat at 9 am which meant Duncan had to get the kids ready (showered, dressed) by himself. Thankfully he was a good sport. With this timing, though, Colby was due to eat again during Sabbath School which is a bit of a bummer although I suppose at 2.5 weeks, he didn't really know what he was missing!

Saturday night I left Duncan in charge so that I could attend a baby shower for my friend and neighbor, Catherine. She is due to have a baby boy in November to add to their two girls. Sounds familiar. Tangie and I car pooled to a nice Mexican restaurant in Winter Park where we had a nice private room. This was particularly nice since I obviously had my little buddy with me and we thus had plenty of room to spread out. Colby slept the entire time despite being held by several ladies. Meanwhile, back at the homestead, Duncan had a houseful of husbands and kids who all came to hang out there while the ladies were at the shower. I was afraid what I was going to find when I arrived back home but everything had been cleaned and put back and I couldn't even tell that there had been 10 kids running around.

Lisa and Magally (holding Colby)

Catherine

Brady eating with the ladies back at home.

Sunday we got a few things done around the house. In the afternoon Ricky came over to hang out (the wife had a lot of studying to do) followed by the Isidros and Bruce and the boys. They wanted to come and watch the big Manning vs. Manning football game. Later, Jennifer followed and made some quinoa burgers with buffalo wing sauce. So good! So yeah, it almost turned into a little party with everyone over there. Only problem was that Broncos beat the Giants. Yes, I said it. I was actually rooting for the Giants. Boy, that kills me.

Hanging with Uncle Ricky

Oh, also on Sunday morning, we got stalked. Duncan opened the door to get the papers and we noticed that there was a rooster on our front lawn right near the road. A rooster. There are no farms or people with backyard coops or anything anywhere near us so we were a little mystified. Even more so when the rooster did not go away. In fact, he kept getting closer and closer and eventually came right up to our door and started pecking on it. He probably stayed on our front door mat and the surrounding porch area for a couple of hours. Finally, Duncan opened the door and chased him away with a rolled up carpet and that was that. But very strange! No sighting of him since.

On the Colby front, things are pretty much the same. We're still at about three hours during the nights. I'm patiently waiting for that to start stretching out :) Actually, the time he is doing the four hours is from about 7:45 pm to 11:45 pm and I even have to wake him up from that one. If there has been any pattern to his habits, it's that he goes to sleep in his swing every night after I put the other kids to bed (so around 8:45) and sleeps until I wake him up to feed him so I can go to bed. He is also taking a nice nap in the afternoons during quiet time. He sleeps for almost three hours which has been perfect because I've been able to nap too. This has been one advantage in comparison to when Aubree and Brady were born. Since I'm no longer working, I can take a nap when everyone else is sleeping/being quiet. It's made a big difference. Yes, part of me feels a little guilty for not getting other stuff done around the house but on the other hand, it really helps to keep me going since I'm probably getting about five hours of sleep at night.

A few tidbits from the kids before I close...

Calleigh is holding Colby and Aubree and Brady are crowding around and "bugging" the baby.
Calleigh: "I'm glad you guys weren't hanging around when I was born."
Aubree: "Well YOU were the one bugging me."

Duncan to Brady: "Don't touch the baby, dude."
Brady: "I not dude. I Brady."

The kids were all in bed and I had the monitor on. Brady was trying to talk to me through it but he has his binky in so I can't understand what he's saying.
Me: "Huh? What did you say?"
Brady: Unintelligible question
Me (finally just answer to get him quiet): "Okay, yes. Good night Brady."
Brady (binky clearly is now gone): "Guys! Guys! Guys! Mommy said we can go to Sea World tomorrow."

Oops.

Helping me make bread bowls for chili

The finished product

Anyone with a two year old and a newborn knows the two year old will inevitably want to pretend he's the baby again.

The rooster has returned. Last post I mentioned the rooster that was hanging out at our front door. Well, after about a four day absence, he was back with a vengeance. At first, he wasn't really hurting anything although I was getting a bit weary of the pecking sound of his beak against our door. Then, Saturday evening I had some friends over and I got this text from Ashley, "Ummmmmmm, there is a big rooster at your door." So yes, my guests couldn't even get into my house because my "watch rooster" was standing guard. When Jennifer arrived, I had to go out with a broom to try and scare it away...only I forgot to close the door behind me and my efforts to get it away from her van actually propelled it towards the house and the open door where the baby was resting in his little seat. Thank goodness I managed to dash in front of him and shut the door in time. But really, the last straw was when I noticed some white gunk on my wood floor and realized that someone had tracked chicken poop into my house. So yes, I was suppose it was only inevitable that with all the loitering/stalking around in our yard, he would have to relieve himself which he did over and over again upon closer inspection.

Stalking Jennifer's car.

Monday morning I awoke to to some crowing and then discovered him in our back yard this time. I told Duncan in no uncertain terms that he had to get him out of there. Duncan took the hose and sprayed him down really good and that seems to have done the trick....knock on wood. I've heard him crowing every morning from a distance. This morning when we left for yard sales, I found him prancing around in front of our neighbor's yard. So he's still around but leaving us alone, for now at least.

Duncan left the door to his truck open while he helped Calleigh buckle into her booster seat and this is what happened!

Incidentally, I did call our HOA who said there wasn't anything they could do. I checked on animal control and it looks like they only deal with cats and dogs. So if the rooster returns, I told Duncan he needs to just put him in the back of his truck and take him to some farm a few miles away. But honestly, the whole thing is odd. We can't figure out where this thing came from...if it's someone's pet who escaped or what. Nobody probably wants to put up a sign because I don't think you're allowed to have these kinds of pets in our community.

In other news, Colby turned one month old today. On Tuesday, he was four weeks old and this discrepancy between turning four weeks old and turning one month threw Calleigh for a loop. We always say that a month is the same as four weeks but I had to try and explain that it wasn't EXACTLY four weeks. A teachable moment I guess. Anywho, on Monday I weighed the little man and he was up to 10 lbs, 7 ounces which means he's gained two and a half pounds since he was born (as a barometer, they say a baby should double his birth weight by six months so he's well on his way). I'm thrilled with that news but trying to be cautious since Brady had a great first month of weight gain too. If only I could have a baby with a little bit of chubbiness to him, I would be thrilled!

One Month

I had been waiting for Colby to go a little longer between eating during the night and actually discovered by accident that he is able to do so. He goes to sleep in his swing around 9:00 and I've been waking him up when I go to bed around 11:30 to feed him because I assume he will be waking up at any time and I just want to get it done with. Well, a few nights back, it was 10:30 and I was really tired. You always come across that quandary...do I just stay awake until he needs to eat or sleep for like an hour and then have to wake up? I decided to just go to sleep and it turned out that he didn't wake up until 1:45. Last night he didn't wake up until 2:45. After that feeding, though, he's only been going three hours for the rest of the night. What it boils down to is that he is the opposite of my other three kids who would eat when I went to bed and then they would go longer and longer stretches after that.

For the past week, he's been sleeping in his swing for the night and I've been on the couch. I had been putting him in the bassinet after his feeding when I was going to bed but now that I'm not waking him up, it's been easier to just leave him in the swing. Duncan would like to make it very clear that he has not barred me from the bedroom or anything! He feels bad that I'm on the couch but honestly, it's not a big deal at all. I supposed I could just move the swing into the bedroom but we just haven't.

His little angelic face as he sleeps in his swing.

Let's see...what else is happening. Last Friday night we introduced Ricky and Ana to the food trucks. The weather has finally gotten a little less hot and so it's quite comfortable sitting out there eating near the lake. I just about had another heart attack with Brady though. Blake and Evan were there and the kids were all running around and being goofy. The next thing I know, here comes Brady back to our table, crying dramatically. He opens his mouth and I can see blood in there. All I can think of is "Oh, no. Not again. And please don't let it be a tooth." Duncan himself thought the worst because when he looked in his mouth, he thought he saw a bunch of skin split open or detached or something. That turned out to just be a french fry. He did have blood in his mouth but we think he just bit his tongue when he and Evan were roughhousing. Whew.

Uncle Ricky and Aunt Ana came over after the food trucks and read the kids their bedtime story.

After church, we had the pleasure of going over the Zbaraschuks for a potluck lunch so we could all visit with some old friends. Stephanie and Matthias Vohwinkel, were in town for a week with their brood of four (a girl and three boys). I worked with both of them many moons ago now at the hospital but they moved in 2002 to Texas. The kids had a great time running all over the place and we got to visit and see the Z's house now that they are moved in.

The men eating lunch. Not sure why this was the only picture I took! Too busy talking and stuffing my face apparently.

Saturday night I had some ladies over for "Ladies Night Out" or in my case, "Ladies Night In." Jennifer had discovered that I have never seen the movie "Steel Magnolias" and as a true southern lady herself, decided that needed to be remedied ASAP. We ended up having a scheduling conflict with some of our friends who are in a different Adventurers group and had Induction that evening and couldn't come. So we had a smaller group than we thought we might but it was just a really nice time anyway. Duncan took the kids (minus Colby) to his parents so it was quiet here (other than having to avoid the rooster). We all made desserts so we sat and ate and talked before putting the movie on. All of us are doing home school in one form or another so that was the obvious topic du jour. The movie was a real tearjerker as I'm sure everyone else knows because apparently everyone but me has seen the movie.

Stephanie, Heather, Leslie, Ashley, and Jennifer.

Tuesday was our busiest day this week. Our good friends, Freddie, Kathy, and Bruno Rondinelli are in town for about three weeks as they usually are in September. Tuesday was rainy (as were most days this week) so they called us that morning to ask if they could come over. Usually we can't pry them away from the beach but the rain can do what we can't. The kids, especially Calleigh, were thrilled with their arrival. We only finished about half of our school work but no matter. Ricky came over as well and at one point when there was a break in the weather, they all went to the pool for a swim although the water was quite chilly I'm told. They also went on a nice long stroll around the neighborhood with Bruno and Calleigh on their respective scooters which reminds me that this is the specific reason that Calleigh says she will marry Burno...he likes to ride scooters with her. Hey, there could be worse reasons. But Calleigh did emphasize again while they were here, and in Bruno's presence, that she's going to marry him. If nothing else, this will be fun to tease her about when she's a teenager.

Calleigh having lunch with her future mother-in-law.

They left and about a half hour later, we had our next round of guests which were the Vohwinkels who were coming over for supper. Their kids are eight, six, four, and one so it's just the right ages to hit it off our crew and make lots of noise. And indeed there was. Good thing I'm used to it. Lukas is six and a few weeks younger than Calleigh. He's also doing the same home school curriculum as she is so they have quite a bit in common. But she was funny. Right after they got here, Calleigh pulled my head down and whispered in my ear, "What's the six year old's name again?" Anyway, the kids all played upstairs and eventually put on a show for us. While they were practicing, I was able to catch up with Stephanie and I was reminded how alike we are in a lot of ways. Miss you Steph! Right after they left, Aubree came over to me and said in all seriousness, "They are my best friends."

Wednesday evening we had Induction at the church for Adventurers. We had to be at the church at six and it was a little crazy getting us all out the door to get there. We had to eat supper at 5:00 which made me feel like an elderly person since we don't usually eat until 7:00! No time to make food so it was cereal all around. Duncan was able to meet us there which was fortunate since Brady started getting loud. Aubree was quite proud to be in her Little Lambs uniform, all dressed up like her big sister. Was it really already two years ago that Aubree was just an "honorary" Little Lamb alongside Calleigh? Wow.

"Heeyyyy, why do you have all of those badges and I have none?"

Still friends.

I will never get sick of seeing these two put there arms around each other.

This week for school we've been learning about the two different vowel sounds. Of course, Calleigh's known the vowels and their sounds for years but apparently I've never specifically mentioned the general names given to each of the two types of sounds. As I was showing her how the "a" sounds different in "apple" as compared to "ape" I said that the "a" in apple was called the short vowel sound. Thus, the other "a" sound must be called...."the TALL vowel sound" she says. Yup, apparently these names never came up before now!

A day in the life of our school...Calleigh trying to learn something off the board...the room's a mess...Brady's on the table, screaming.

A craft we did last week.

If Calleigh doesn't become a scientist like she says she wants to be, maybe she'll become a reporter or a newscaster. She may look like Duncan but I at least see one trait of mine in her. She loves the news. Every day, and sometimes multiple times a day, she'll ask me if I have any stories from the news. I had started telling her some of the positive stories I had read in the news and that spiraled into her wanting to hear more and more stories. If I turn the TV on for whatever reason and the news happens to be on, she'll get all excited and say "Leave on the news." Of course, there is NO way I'm going to do that with all the stuff that's on. Yesterday while I was feeding Colby I was reading the Yahoo news on my phone, as I often do, and Calleigh immediately questioned me "Do you have any news stories?" Obviously there were indeed many stories but none that I wanted to share so I just said, "No, not really." But she jumped on that, "So there ARE some stories!!" I can't really blame her because I'm the same way.

One final exchange with Calleigh before I close. I know she's asked me this question before and I've given her the answer but she asked it again:
Calleigh: "Mom, how many people are in this world?"
Me: "Six billion."
Calleigh: "No! You just had a baby."
Me: "Pardon me. Six billion and one."

Have a great weekend. Oh, incidentally, I've been trying to write my blog on Wednesdays now but was deterred by a headache this week. Yes, the dreadful headaches are back. I didn't suffer from a single one my whole pregnancy and now I've had two since I've given birth. Makes one want to be pregnant...that and being able to eat cookies without feeling guilty.

At Costco last week. When they check your receipt when you leave, they always draw a smiley face on the back of the receipt. Thus, handing the receipt to the person becomes a battle of "It's my turn. No, it's my turn." This time, they walked to the exit each holding half the receipt to hand to the person.

Look who got no half. Ever since he fell out on his head, he must stay firmly buckled in to his seat.

Much happier this week.

Brady decided not to nap last Friday, a first for him, and this is what happened in church in the morning.

His brother held out until Sabbath School.

Hanging out with Grandma

His sisters...

With Daddy...

Guess you need to brush more Aubs.

Love those moments right after you take the swaddle off...

Someday you can get them back for all of this...

First off, since I'm sure everyone is just dying to know, there have been no more rooster sightings since I last wrote. So either we really and truly scared him off with our water treatment or maybe someone decided he'd look tasty in a soup. Either way, I'm just glad he's gone.

On to other things...this past weekend we had a first which was bound to happen. Calleigh got invited to a birthday party and Aubree did not. Let me say that I'm wholeheartedly supportive of this since let's face it, birthday parties are expensive and even more so when everyone in the whole family is there rather than just the friend of the birthday person. So I had no problem at all with the invitation to Marley's party being just addressed to Calleigh (plus, I knew this info ahead of time). The girls did not take it well. They both flipped out and Calleigh was actually more upset about it then Aubree and stated that if Aubree couldn't go, then neither was she. While I appreciated her concern and camaraderie with her sister, I told her that this was how things would be some of the time as they get older. They couldn't always do everything together. It's actually a strange thought since I was always think of them as a pair but the reality is that they aren't. Then, as luck would have it, we got an invitation to another party at the exact same time so Aubree and Brady ended up having their own party to go to so it all worked out.

Colby, of course, got to come to the girl party although he slept through much of it. The party was for both Macey and Marley and Ashley did a fantastic job with the decorating around the baking theme. All the girls got their own aprons and hats and decorated cookies and cupcakes to take home. This apparently made an impression on Calleigh as this was the conversation she had with Aubree the next day:

Calleigh: "I'm going to be a baker when I grow up."
Aubree: "I'm going to be a storer."
Calleigh: "What's that?"
Aubree: "You know, the person who sells the cupcakes and cookies in their store."
Calleigh: "Oh good. Brady can be the garbage truck person, Daddy can buy our stuff, and Mommy can eat it. Then we can all be together."
No mention on Colby's role.

Ashley's mom sewed the part on the bottom on all the aprons and I'm guessing the hats. So cute!

Marley, the birthday girl (turning 6)

Aubree and Brady's party was for Kenny (turning 5) and Katelyn (turning 2). They totally remind me of Camden and Acadia. Their party was at Monkey Joe's which was very exciting for them since I think this was Brady's first time going there in which he could actually do stuff. He had a great time although reportedly was freaked out by the giant Monkey Joe mascot. Looking at him, I can see why.

Kenny and Katelyn

Our week since then has been pretty routine. Wake up, eat, school, a quick errand if time permits, eat, quiet time, play time, eat, go to bed. Throw in a bunch of Colby feedings in the mix and you pretty much have our daily schedule. Oh, I occasionally do get a shower.

I finally got most of the school room done so here are a few pictures.

On the Colby front, unfortunately it looks like I have another spitter-upper. The girls NEVER spit up and then Brady came along and I got introduced to the phenomenon and now it's back. It was all good for about the first three weeks but since then, I've had to keep a steady supply of burp clothes on hand. A lot of times it doesn't actually hit there so I've had the displeasure of spit up going down my shirt, down my back, etc. And good think we got our sectional sprayed with some kind of protective coat because I've been cleaning it off there frequently. You always wonder how any of the milk is left in them after you see all that comes out but he's still peeing and pooping with gusto so evidently it's not ALL coming up. I also finally got his 0-3 month clothes out and have put the NB stuff away for good. Never to be used by another Grodack baby again. Sniff, sniff.

I just love looking at him from this angle. Love those lips.

Speaking of babies, it occurred to me that I may not have mentioned that my dear brother and sister-in-law are having another baby! Those not in the inner circle may have been surprised by the announcement a few weeks ago. I am beyond thrilled since really, three is so much better than two, right?? So yes, Shawn and Camille are expecting in March and I have my fingers crossed for a girl since Camille has all my girl stuff and I have all her boy stuff down here. Although, I suppose a boy would be nice because then he would be close in age to Colby. We shall see. It seems we are due for a girl though since the last five babies born to Latimer cousins have been boys.

Colby's sleeping is pretty much unchanged. Still sleeping in the swing and still going for about a six hour stretch. Last Saturday night I finally put him to bed in our room in the swing but it was miserable. He seemed to grunt an unusually large amount of times and woke up sooner than he does when sleeping in the living room. Who knows what the deal was. All I know is that poor Duncan didn't sleep as well as he usually does either so I told him it was nice seeing you and all but we're out of here. We're moving back to the other side of town. And here we shall remain until further notice.

Duncan's big project over the last two weeks has been to do put in all the landscaping in the backyard. You will recall that we had the landscape architect map it all out for us and they put in the patio and our three big trees. Well, as stunning as the rest of the design was, the price was also stunning so we decided to just do it ourselves (the "we" and "ourselves" of course, being Duncan). He has a good portion of the plants put in and today he cemented in the poles for the hammock. We are awaiting on the hammock itself from LL Bean. It's been crazy how much cheaper it's been to do it ourselves. We will have outlayed about 20% of the amount they would have charged us to do it all. I will post pictures next week.

Oh how I love the month of October when it comes to yard sales. Probably the best month of the year since so many places have community sales going on. Last night I got all the sales loaded into the GPS and I knew there was no way we would get to all of them especially with our shortened schedule...we have to break and feed Colby. But I got everything all prepared (snacks, drinks, clothes) so we could get out of here as early as possible and then I had to make sure that Colby's schedule worked out so that he ate right before we left, ensuring that he would only eat once while we were out and not twice. We left the house at 8:15 and finally got back at 1:45. It was a great day. I got tons of clothes for $.10 (most of which we will never wear. Going right to Goodwill for a tax deduction) and lots of books. Our first sale had this brown paper bag full of books and it had a sign on it that said "Free." I asked them if I could take the whole bag for my school and they said, "Yes, you can. They have people's names on them, though." Ahh, okay. As far as I know, a book is still just as good even if it has the name Joe written in the front cover. Crazy. But hey, we got a bag of like 30 books for nothing so works for me.

A book I got myself for $.50. I hear it's very good.

Last night we had the kickoff to the new Bruins season. Uncle Ricky came over to watch the game with us. It's funny how I haven't had the NHL package on TV for years but somehow last year I really got into it again and now I was counting down the days until the season started again, despite the very poor conclusion to last year (losing the finals to Chicago). Reminded me of my youth actually as I very distinctly remember my excitement of the season starting and watching the games on like a 15-inch TV that my parents had (this was when I was a teenager. Before that, no TV). I let the kids watch the first period (fast forwarding through the fight, mind you) and my main objective was to find Calleigh a new favorite player since her's, Tyler Seguin, had been traded to Dallas in the offseason. We seemed to have landed on Milan Lucic since he wears # 17 and her birthday is on the 17th. Everything almost went awry though when she announced that maybe she was going to root for Tampa Bay (the Bruins opponent last night). Aubree chastised her and said that "No, we go for the Bruins." And Calleigh said "But WE were not born in Boston, Aubree. We are from Florida so we should vote for the teams from here." They always say "vote" instead of "root..." So funny. In the end, she is still cheering for the Bruins.

Here are a few more pictures to close.

Praying.

Aunt Wanda

Perfecting the side hold. She should know. I had to keep her like this for the first few months, the big cry baby.

New house getting built nearby. They had the crane in for the heavy lifting.

The floor is yours, Colby Jack (a nickname that Uncle Ricky has bestowed on him).

Hmm, an empty bottle in the fridge. Laziness or an ingenious way to keep track of our recyclables?

So he really does like us! I've been wondering what he thought of our family. Colby graced us with his first smile this week which is always one of the more exciting milestones in my humble opinion. For the record, it came at six weeks, one day.

This posting is coming to you a day late. I had the best of intentions of writing this last night (Friday) but somehow, things went astray. I put the kids to bed and then decided to take a nice relaxing bath while I sipped a decaf tea. I got out and by this time it was about 9:30 and as I put on my pajamas, I looked over at my bed...you know, the bed I no longer sleep in...and it looked so inviting and I thought "I'm just going to lie down there for like 15 minutes." And then the other voice said, "Don't do it because you'll never get back up." But the first voice won. Fast forward about an hour and a half and I finally wake up and groggily make my way to the couch where Duncan is passed out cold. The voice says to me again, "Boy, that couch looks really comfortable. Let me just rest my head there for a few minutes." And yup, by the time I woke up again, it was 1:20 and the blog was not happening. So is the life of a mother with a six week old baby.

Backing up to last Sabbath, Calleigh went to a new Sabbath School. I mentioned previously that she had ended up in Aubree's class (four & five year olds) because there was no teacher for the 1st - 4th grade class. That may seem strange but we actually have two sessions of Sabbath School at our church. There is the Sabbath School at 10:00 and then there are also Sabbath School classes at 11:15. This is the 11:15 one which has smaller attendance. Anyway, there was no teacher to start but then a few weeks ago one was found.

Calleigh had wanted to stay with Aubree but then someone mentioned to us that Calleigh might get more out of the other class so she decided to try it out. Of course, this then forced me to go to Aubree's class with her because she didn't want to be by herself while meanwhile, Duncan had both the boys in Cradle Roll. The girls' classrooms are across from each other so I dropped Calleigh off and then went with Aubree to hers. It turned out fine because I helped out one of the tables with the crafts, etc. At 12:15 as we were about to get out, I saw Duncan peeking in the door and then he sent me a text saying he was going to the van. A few minutes later we were done and Aubree and I started to go get Calleigh but then I noticed that the lights were off in her classroom so I figured Duncan had gotten her. Aubree and I casually made our way to the van. As we got there, Duncan says "Where's Calleigh?" And I say "What? She's not with you??" Neither of us had her! Duncan took off like a shot to go find her. I wasn't really worried though since it's the church and all (not that bad things can't happen there) and Calleigh's smart enough to not panic or whatever if she can't find us. A few minutes later Duncan texted me that he had her. It turns out that her class moves to the room next door to do their crafts at the end which I obviously did not know. Calleigh, of course, was oblivious to the fact that we "almost" left her behind like Jesus. As for the class, it looks like it was a hit and she'll be going there permanently.

I almost forgot to mention that the girls had signed up to the collect the offering at church this week which would be the first time for Aubree. We had to rush to make sure we got there in time but when we got to the back room, we discovered we were the last ones to arrive so we drew the short straw of having to do the offering on the balcony. Just as the girls were about to leave to go up there, Aubree whispers that she has to go potty. I tried to take her as quickly as I could but naturally, as we got upstairs, they were just finishing. Aubree held the plate for a few seconds but didn't actually collect any offering. Oops.

Sunday morning Duncan left for Kansas City for work. He doesn't usually leave in the morning on a Sunday but this was just the way the flight worked out this time. Kind of stinky but it is what it is. He was gone until Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, back at the homestead we had the triplets second birthday party to attend to which was at someone's barn in Apopka. It was a gorgeous setting, all decorated for fall. It was not fall weather however as we alternated between sweating and getting rained on. It wasn't a big deal though because the barn was plenty big enough for us to all hang out in as we waited for the shower to pass by. There were some games and even a pony to ride on which Brady was extremely excited about and was all he could talk about on the way to the party. One of the games was trying to eat a donut as it was hanging on a string. Calleigh exuberantly recited to me about how she won the game which I unfortunately missed while feeding Colby. Darn baby. Ha! The low light of the party for me was when Aubree offhandedly commented to me, "Wow, Mommy. Your belly is still big." Hmm. That might have been after I had my third bowl of chili. But hey, I thought it was only polite to try all three different kinds.

That was one of the tallest treehouses I've ever seen. The only way up and down was that ladder. We thought there should be a fire pole or something.

Don't you wish you had this in your back yard?

Calleigh bobbing for apples. She was unsuccessful. There is Will, one of the triplets, watching. I have no other pictures of the birthday kids.

Riding Angel.

Checking the Broncos score. Go Cowboys! Didn't help.

With Duncan gone, I would, of course, been on my own with the four kids but Ricky ended up coming over each afternoon/evening to help and watch various sporting events with me. That worked out very nicely since the kids just love Uncle Ricky. The last night here he enthralled them with the story of his head/brain and how he had surgery on it and they had to peel down some of his skin on his face to get to the spot. Calleigh, especially, was on the edge of her seat.

Telling the story.

Showing them the pictures.

On Wednesday I had my six week post-op appointment at my doctor. I dropped the three kids off at Ron and Elaine's who had a fun day lined up. They were going to keep them there for the rest of the day and bring them back later in the afternoon. This, of course, was like a gold mine for me because then I could go do a bunch of errands and I even got to the Salvation Army where they have half of clothing every Wednesday. Meanwhile, since Calleigh was missing school that day, I gave Elaine some instructions on doing some things for Science like collecting and studying flowers and also looking at soil. It looks like they had a good time working on it and indeed sent us home with a box of different containers of various flowers, plants, insects, etc. Anyway, the doctor went fine and courtesy of my "official" weight check there, I have 16 pounds left to lose. Exercise starts Monday. Yay! That was very sarcastic.

Studying flowers with Grandpa

One of the last swims of the year, I presume. The water is getting pretty chilly.

All tuckered out.

Because all of my errands kept me around their house, I went back to Ron and Elaine's to pick them up around 4:45 which would save them a trip to our place. The girls had Adventurers that night and as we puttered on home in rush hour traffic, I quickly came to the conclusion that we were not going to make it home in time to eat and change and get to Adventurers on time. I called Duncan who agreed to meet us at the church with their clothes. We ended up grabbing a bite to eat at Taco Bell and ran into a bunch of other Adventurers who apparently were in the same boat as us including the Bergherms. I fed Colby at the church and then took Duncan's truck back home while he stayed with the three kids. The only problem was that Duncan has a headlight out and it was starting to get dark. That equated to a stressful trip home as I debated between blinding people with my high beams on (both headlights worked in this case) or taking the chance with the one and hoping I didn't pass a cop. I was about three minutes from home and had my high beams on when what do you know, a cop passed me coming the other way. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice the high beams and it was all good but I was glad I dodged a bullet on that one.

On Wednesday when Duncan flew in, he went right to the nursery to pick up some plants and trees that we had to order because they weren't in stock. The two trees were Crepe Myrtles and somehow he didn't realize how big they were and that there was no way they were going to make it in his truck. Fortunately there happened to be a couple of guys in the parking lot who had a lawn care business and they offered to bring the trees and help him plant them (they're 300 pounds each). So it all worked out. While they were there, Duncan lined them up to do some work on our irrigation system and also most importunately, re-sod our backyard. We haven't been happy with our grass back there pretty much from the get-go especially when we compare it to the lushness of the Isidro's grass. Yes, we have grass envy! We think it all stems from back when we first moved in and we didn't realize our water was turned off and our grass wasn't getting watered. However it happened, we haven't been pleased and now that we don't have as much grass back there due to all the plants/trees we've put in, it's not THAT much to re-sod it. I was hoping to post some pictures of it but unfortunately they haven't finished it yet.

Notice the trees are loaded onto his truck. Not going to work!

Planted.

The hammock ready to go.

Yesterday I ran to get a few things at Publix and there was a lady at the front giving out samples of cheese. "Would you like to try a sample of this bry cheese" she calls out to me. Hmm, I thought. Never heard of bry cheese before but sure. I look at the package and see "Brie" cheese. Bless her heart.

Today we headed over to Pine Lake Retreat where the Adventurers are camping for the weekend. Two years ago we stayed for the weekend but the last two years we've opted to go for the "day." I put that in quotes because we really just stay for about four hours. We got there around 10:00 which is when worship started and then they worked on an animal honor. To that end, they had two ladies who brought a bunch of animals with them including a python, prairie dog, hedge hog, among others. After, they rode their scooter and bikes while we waited for lunch to be ready. Aubree was very excited because she got to ride her actual bike instead of her tricycle. We had lost her helmet but got one at a yard sale yesterday so she was back in business. We left about 2:00 to get home for naps.

They had to make an animal out of Play Doh. Calleigh chose a hammerhead shark.

Meanwhile, Brady pretended he was the third Bergherm boy. Evan was actually almost named Brady. Thank goodness he wasn't (his middle name is Brady, though).

Spaghetti for lunch. Time to remove the shirt.

Practicing his Miley Cyrus face.

Some other pictures....

For school, Calleigh had to pull these sentences out of a hat, read it, and then do it. Of course, Aubree and Brady joined her and you should have heard the laughing. They just loved it! I need to make some of these myself.

Another activity was that they had to pull these blocks out of a bag with two hands with their eyes closed and guess how many they had. Aubree yells out "EIGHT!" and wouldn't you know, it was exactly that. She was very proud of herself.

During school another day, it was very quiet in the other room so I came to investigate what Mr. Brady was up to. This is how I found him, eating toothpaste (didn't get a picture with him actually doing that.) When he saw me watching him, he gave me the toothpaste and said "Here. Put this back there where I can't reach it."

One afternoon during quiet time, I was on the phone with Camille. When I got off, it was really quiet upstairs which is very odd for the girls. I went upstairs calling out for them and caught Aubree getting out of bed, getting up from a nap but Calleigh was no where to be seen. Finally found her behind some stuff in the play room, sound asleep.

This was a sample at Costco the other day and they totally sucked me in. It's a mix of cheese and caramel kettle corn and it is SO addicting. I think I ate most of the bag myself. And I don't really even like popcorn/kettle corn.

I just love baby feet.

I don't think I've ever mentioned it but they each have their special stuffed animal. Calleigh has her bear which I got from someone when she was born. It's named Calleigh. Yes, she named it after herself. Not sure if that is normal or what. Meanwhile, Aubree has a dolphin that she got for her 3rd birthday from Madison Hilliard. It's named...wait for it...Dolphin!

Colby Jack. I caught Brady licking his hair and head the other day, saying "Mmmm, him delicious." Still trying to confirm if he tastes like cheese.

I took the crew for a walk the other day to the playground and Calleigh snapped this picture.

Brady's new invention...the binky toothbrush.

Duncan brought cupcakes home one day and Brady purposely put the frosting all over his cheeks. The worst part was when Calleigh came over and starting licking Brady.

Hanging out at the Isidros.

Christening their new fire pit.

Some yard sale finds from yesterday. These will go in Colby's room with his jungle theme.

Also got this vase for $4 that I love. Don't know where it will go but I couldn't resist it.

My crew.

As I've lamented on here, a quiet school environment is a foreign concept for us. Between Brady's rambunctiousness and having to attend to Colby who makes his presence known from time to time, there are constant interruptions. It's true that Calleigh mainly seems to work through it but it doesn't stop me from wishing that things were just a little quieter. Plus, there's the fact that our mornings are pretty much shot. By the time we get up, eat, feed Colby, have worship, shower, feed Colby again, and then have school, it's almost lunchtime. This leaves basically no time to get any errands done because after lunch, it's nap/quiet time until about 4:30 - 4:45, feed Colby, and then get ready for supper. When do I get to Publix, Costco, the library, etc? With some inspiration from my mother, I decided to make a change. School would now be in the afternoons during quiet time.

I had originally thought this would be how the schedule worked but then I always hear "kids are fresher in the mornings and better able to learn." So I went with the morning school schedule. But I really just don't think that works best for us. On Wednesday, we switched to starting school at 3:00. The kids eat lunch around 1:15, go up for nap/quiet time by 2:00, I feed Colby from 2:00 - 2:30 and then I have 30 minutes for a quick cat nap. It's only been two days (we don't have a regular school day on Fridays) but I can say that it worked SO much better. The mornings are much more relaxing and we were able to go to Costco yesterday without having to rush, rush, rush. The main upside is that we can have school without Brady and Colby (who also takes a long afternoon nap). It was blissfully quiet.

We are still doing a few things in the morning like reading books (I try to do at least three library books a day - 15 minutes of reading time) and also Calleigh's reading lesson. I haven't mentioned it on here before but to learn to read, Calleigh has been doing a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." It was recommended by a friend of mine. I actually had gotten the book a few years ago but we just never got around to doing it. I finally started it with Calleigh in June and we just finished lesson 69. It really is remarkably easy and she's reading great. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to teach their kid to read. Aubree is very interested in it too and I had started the lessons with her but decided it was just too much to be doing both girls so I think I'll start her when Calleigh's finished...if she's still interested.

One of my favorite things about the fall season (although...is it really fall? Couldn't tell today with the weather in the upper 80's) are the fall festivals. On Sunday we headed over to one in Apopka with the Isidros (minus a working Tangie) and the Bergherms. They had a hay ride, maze, and a bunch of bouncy houses. Unfortunately everything cost money and not just a little bit. The bouncy houses were $10 PER kid. I made a small gasp when I saw the price and muttered to Duncan that maybe we shouldn't have had so many kids. Fortunately they didn't charge us for Brady or else we certainly would not have participated. Needless to say, we did not partake of any of the other items that cost money.

Watching the animated scarecrow old man.

Later in the day, Ricky came over so we could watch the Patriots (4-1) vs. Saints (5-0) game and then later on the Red Sox vs. Tigers in Game 2 of the ALCS. We started the Patriots game late and when I hit Play, it turned out it hadn't recorded. I had set it up to on one of the football Sunday Ticket channels without realizing that it was on one of the local channels and thus was blacked out on the Sunday Ticket. Shoot! So we missed almost the first half of the game. We were pleased that the Patriots were winning but then as soon as we started watching they started to stink it up....which included blowing a lead and going behind in the final minutes of the game. Brady threw an interception with like two minutes left and I was so close to turning the game off but we kept it on. And what do you know, they scored a touchdown to win the game with five seconds left. Very exciting! We did realize that we have to watch what we say though because after Brady threw the interception I said "Come on Brady!!" in disgust and my Brady was like "What?"

Oh, the Red Sox, the Red Sox. My how things have changed in the last six or seven years. I recall with fondness the times (decades, really) where I would watch every non-Sabbath game. And now, I hadn't watched a single game all year until they got to the playoffs. That's what having kids does to you I guess. No time to watch a 162 game season. They still have a few players left from the last time I watched fairly diligently in 2007 but the rest of the guys are strangers. And what's with the beards? I guess that's a thing. Anywho, the Sox were down 5-1 in the 8th, getting completely dominated and Big Papi hit a grand slam to tie the game and then they won it in the bottom of the 9th. One could say that this was one of the more exciting days in Boston sports in quite a while. As I write this, the Sox are playing in Game 6 and are winning 1-0. If they win tonight, it's on to the World Series.

One of my big activities of the week was preparing for and shopping at the two consignment sales that come to the area twice a year. Since the baby shop is closed, I decided to sell some of my fall/winter maternity clothes. At these sales, you set your own prices and tag your own clothes and you get 60% of the sales price. It's a bit of work preparing everything but hopefully it's worth it. I don't know that it will be in my case though because I set my prices fairly high. If you don't, you'll make less money than just donating it to charity and taking the tax write-off. We'll see how it all pans out. At any rate, Duncan came home a little early on Tuesday so that I could go drop the clothes off and then I went to the other consignment sale. Colby, of course, accompanied me on both missions and did great in the Baby Bjorn.

The rest of the week was pretty routine. Today we had church as usual. Aubree stayed in her Sabbath School class by herself this time which I was very pleased with. For lunch, one of Duncan's colleagues, Terry and his wife Sussie, invited us over to their place for lunch. Their boys are all grown up but they have grandchildren so they had some great toys for the kids. We had a lovely meal although, as I suspected, when I put the food on Brady's plate he said "Yuck. I don't like this." I had to keep shushing him. At least you can excuse a 2-year old for embarressing you. Calleigh, on the other hand, as soon as she finished eating, loudly asks "Are we going to have dessert?" I guess these are the risks you take when bringing your children out to social engagements outside of your usual circle of people.

Terry holding Colby

The only downside was that Brady had to use Steelers stuff. Oh well. Since they're 1-5, it's not so bad.

This evening we went over to Ron and Elaine's for supper. I had a secondary purpose though too. The consignment sale was having the 50% sale and since it was pretty close to their house, I was able to leave the kids, including Colby, at their house with Duncan and go by myself. That worked out quite nicely for me. The visit was nice though too and it was good to see Russ and Saray. Ron and Elaine had gotten a ride on Jeep and some other toys at a yard sale last week and Brady, especially, was very excited with these acquisitions. His face just lit up upon seeing them.

Aubree gets the old Jeep to herself now.

I scored this for Brady at the sale. Should make Shawn and Camille happy.

On the Colby front, things are pretty much the same. If I wake him up before I go to bed (around 11:30) and feed him, he goes until between 4:00 - 5:00 until he eats again. I'm somewhat impatiently waiting for this to get expanded. He's still sleeping in the swing. I'm considering moving him to his crib once Duncan gets the camera set. I would sleep in the guest room. But I'm not sure if I want to be in a separate room at this point. We'll see. I guess I could also try putting the pack-n-play in the guest room too so at least I'll be sleeping in a bed. He mostly does fine in the swing other than when he wakes up to eat but sometimes he'll start crying out a little. As soon as I turn the music back on, he's fine. Let me just say that the whole music thing really ticks me off. I specifically got a plug-in swing because I was under the obviously mistaken impression that if you had a plug-in vs. a battery operated swing, the music would stay on continuously. Clearly, I was wrong. Very annoying since the music is like magic. I got the bright idea to put his music/noise maker on next to his swing so that the music could just stay on but then this didn't seem like such a grand idea when I realized that it plays the one same lullaby in a continuous loop. Of course, I'm usually asleep in 3.5 seconds myself so maybe it's not that big of a deal.

The real problem at night has been Mr. Brady Breton. I don't know what's up with this kid but he has a had a real problem the last few weeks with waking up during the night or early morning hours. Sometimes its two or three times a night/morning that I have to go up there. Usually he settles down once I put his blanket back on or give him a new binky or make sure he has a drink. But it's waking me up during a time when sleep is very precious. Between him and feeding Colby, I'm awake nearly every hour. Alas, this won't go on for ever, I know, so I will just grin and bear it.

Thursday I finally started my exercise regimen. I'm doing a program on the Xbox four days a week. It's intense but at least pretty interesting. My old program (post Aubree and Brady) was a 12-week routine of doing weights and the treadmill. Hopefully this will be adequate replacing that. So yes, I'm sore but it's worth it if I can shed this baby weight.

Quotes from the kids...Calleigh and I got into a chat somehow about getting married...

Calleigh: "I'm not going to get married because I don't want to have a baby."

Me: "You can get married and not have a baby, you know. Some people do that."

Calleigh (incredulously): "But what happens to the baby then?"

Me: "Oh wow. Look at the nice day outside."

I'm not ready to get into these discussions yet.

I was changing Brady's diaper on his changing table when I started giving him kisses.

Brady: "No, don't kiss me!"

Me: "But you're so cute, I can't help it."
Brady starts to sit up and for a second I thought he was going to kiss me or turn his cheek to let me kiss him but instead, he reached past me, grabbed two clean diapers, and used it to wipe the kiss off his face. That bugger!

And the Red Sox are going to the World Series!! Have a great week.

Duncan put out stone walkway in.

Our big news of this week is that Duncan finally got a new car. I say finally because he's been researching, pondering, mulling, the situation for months. His truck did not have that many miles on it, less than 100k, even though he had it for almost ten years. I would have loved for him to keep it for many more years so we wouldn't have to pay for a new one but really, the truck just wasn't reliable any more. We could never figure out why it would randomly not start and as a professionally employed person, it was rather embarrassing for Duncan to have times where he would be late to meetings due to the truck dying out at an inopportune time. It would only happen once every month or two but that's enough to be very annoying.

Duncan couldn't decide if he wanted another truck, an SUV, or a car. In the end, he went with the car because he could get more for his money (more, as in, technie stuff like blue tooth, etc). It's a 2014 Volkwagon Jetta GLI. Hopefully we won't regret having a truck but so far so good. Mostly, I'm just happy that he's safe again. The truck was down to one working headlight and no working blinkers so it wasn't a good situation (of course, these things were fixable but he hadn't done it yet knowing he was trading it in). Calleigh was a little disappointed with the news that the truck was gone since apparently there was something exciting about riding around in it. But after the first spin around the block in the new wheels, she seems to have come around.

Duncan took them for the first spin on Tuesday afternoon and ended up down at the dock. Brady was very concerned about the soccer ball they spotted in the water but obviously nobody was going to try and get it out with all the alligators we see around there.

Sunday we headed to Sea World seeing as we hadn't been in months. You always want to get your money's worth on your passes! Whereas we usually try to go early and get home for naps, I had no interest in doing so this time. I was up late watching baseball and of course woke up during the night so I wanted to not have to rush come morning. We didn't end up getting to the park until after 11:00. The park was a little more crowded than usual because of the Halloween festivities they have going on during the weekends in October. We don't celebrate Halloween, of course, but we did let the kids get some of the candy they were giving out so they were quite pleased.

I believe this is our first family picture with our family of six.

Working on a craft while Daddy puts sunblock on her.

If you look closely, you can see that the Christmas trees have already been set up out in the water. This is very exciting for me!

We did a few of the rides, went to the Shark encounter, and tried to do the Penguins (the new exhibit) but the line was too long so we'll have to save that for next time. We brought the double stroller out for the first time since having Colby and I remarked to Duncan that it seemed not that long ago that we were strolling around in theme parks with the two girls in that stroller and now it was our two boys. By about 3:15, we were tired out, Duncan and I that is, so we decided to take off (Duncan had gone running in the morning thus his fatigue).

Eating lunch

Calleigh and Daddy on the roller coaster.

Brady goes on the crab ride for the first time. He seemed a little apprehensive at first.

There's a smile! When I reminded him yesterday about going on the ride he told me, "I think I like that crab."

On the way home, we swung by the Orlando Jai Alai where the consignment sale had been son that I could pick up my clothes that hadn't sold. The pick up was between 4:00 and 6:00 and I was anticipating a quick run in and run out. I had Duncan go in. It was about 4:15. He came out a few minutes later and reported they weren't ready yet and needed another 30 minutes. I had to feed Colby and then ran into the grocery store. By the time we got back, it as about 5:10. I sent Duncan in again while we waited..and waited..and waited. The major problem here was that Duncan didn't have his cell phone. He had left it at home in the morning and didn't have it at Sea World either. You don't really realize the inconvenience of that sometimes. Well, it was a major one in this case. Brady had fallen asleep so I didn't want to wake him to try and go in and see what the hold up was. By the time 45 minutes had gone by, I couldn't stand it any more. Plus, the girls had to go to the bathroom. I moved Brady to the double stroller and put Colby in there and then the four of us traipsed inside. Of course, Duncan was coming out just as we went in and he had a huge scowl on his face. There is a new owner this year who apparently didn't have their ducks in a row and it was a huge back up. Duncan told me "Don't EVER involve me in your consignment stuff again." So yeah, it didn't end well. I only sold about a dozen things which was not unexpected, however.

So a few hours after leaving Sea World, we finally made it home. Ricky and Megan came over to watch the Patriots/Jets game which didn't end well either courtesy of a "bogus" penalty called on an overtime field goal attempt by the Jets.

Our week was pretty uneventful. This was our first full week with our new afternoon school schedule and it's still going great. It's been just such a relief to me to not have to be on a schedule in the mornings. We've been starting school at 3:00 and we finish between 4:30 - 5:00. Both boys typically sleep through the entire thing. Brady usually gets up around 4:45 from his nap and Colby sleeps until between 5:00 - 5:30.

On Thursday we had a visit from Aunt Toni who flew down to move her inlaws from Avon Park to their (meaning, Toni's) home in New Hampshire. They are getting older and need to have some oversight. We were thrilled to see Aunt Toni no matter the short duration. We are sad, however, that they will no longer have an excuse to come down here at random times now that Papa and Nanny will be up there.

Sitting on the front porch waiting for Aunt Toni to arrive

Making pizza

We have run into a little bit of a health challenge here at the end of the week. On Thursday when Brady woke up from his nap I noticed that he seemed pretty warm. I took his temp and it was 101.8 so I gave him some Advil. He had no other symptoms and was acting normally. Yesterday the fever was gone but Calleigh had a low grade one. This morning, neither of them had it but Brady had a rash that was spreading from his trunk to his face and by the time I left for church with the three other kids, it was getting pretty bad. We are thinking roseola although the only symptom, besides the rash, that he had was the fever for that one partial day. There is nothing you can do for it so we haven't taken him any where. We'll see what happens. Meanwhile, Calleigh had a slight fever again late this afternoon. I'm wondering if she will have the rash too at some point. The good news is that Colby hasn't gotten since that makes you nervous in small babies. Plus, he hasn't had any of his shots yet. That will be partially remedied on Monday when he goes for his two month check up.

Brady hung out with Daddy while the rest of us went to church.

Waiting for us to get home. Hmmm, I wonder what he was doing here? All I can say is that when I walked in the door, Duncan informed me that I needed to change a diaper. Lest you think that was mean of him to save it for me, he did have lunch all out on the table for us though.

Today Colby had his first bottle. I've been majorly procrastinating on accomplishing this since I HATE pumping. There was the pain of having to try and find all the equipment, which I finally did, and then finding the time to do the pumping where I didn't have the kids to keep track of. I can only imagine the heyday Brady could have with torturing Colby while I was incapacitated. After I fed Colby last night at about 11:30, I had my first pumping session and got about two ounces. I pumped again after feeding him from his nap today and got two more ounces. I was a little nervous on how it would go. With Calleigh I gave her a bottle at a month old and it went great. With Aubree and Brady, I waited too long, especially Brady and they never really caught on to the bottle. Brady, in fact, pretty much never took one. Anyway, the question would be why I would even bother with Colby. The answer is because I want to have the option of some freedom. We have the Gala coming up next month that I would like to go to. The great news is that he took it like a champ. I put it in his mouth and he started sucking away like he had done it dozens of times before. He drank the whole thing without a problem. Major relief! Now if I can just remember to give him one periodically so he doesn't forget.

I think that's about it. In closing here is a conversation from this morning while we were in the shower. Aubree had kissed Colby who was sitting in his chair and woke him up.
Me: "Thanks a lot girls, for waking Colby up. I really don't appreciate that."
Aubree (very confused): "But you said thank you."
Calleigh (sighing): "Aubree, she was being scartastic."

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Brady LOVES to help make the smoothies. I need to make a movie some time because his facial expressions are hilarious.

Love the hands.

The kids were playing outside and Calleigh came running in, "Mom, Mom, give me your phone. I need to take a picture of Brady because he's so cute." And this is the picture she took.

Aubree was so amused that Colby had his shirt up.

Sporting a new outfit from Aunt Toni.

Last Sunday, the 27th, Colby turned two months which precipitated a trip to the doc for a check up. I guess you could call it good timing since Brady was still "suffering" from his rash and on Sunday evening Aubree had fallen victim to the fever that Brady (Thursday) and Calleigh (Friday) experienced. I figured they all had the same thing and didn't want to pony up the $25 co-pay for each of them to see the doctor so I just scheduled Brady for an appointment at the same time as Colby on Monday morning.

We had to sneak in the back at the doctor's office due to the rash and they put us right into an exam room to wait for a nurse. About two minutes in, I hear this noise. I turn around and suddenly there is this giant puddle on the floor. Yes, Aubree has thrown up on the floor and worse, on herself. She hadn't eaten supper or breakfast so it was all liquid (thankfully!) but it was quite a mess. She was quick to assure me, "I'm not sick, Mom, I feel fine." And it's true that none of them complained about any discomfort or sick feeling while they had their respective fevers. Anywho, I don't carry around extra clothes for the girls so unfortunately Aubree had no choice but to keep wearing her dress which I tried to clean as best I could with baby wipes. The floor I had to wipe up with little paper towels I found after Calleigh and Brady had both stepped into it a few times. Yuck. But I suppose if you're going to be sick, what better place than at the doctor?

The doctor looked Brady over and found nothing wrong with him and declared the rash to just be some viral infection that would pass...which it did. I thought maybe the girls would get the rash too but they haven't. So all they really had was the fever for like a day and Aubree the one vomiting episode and that was it. No idea what that was all about but I'm glad it came and went quickly.

As for Colby, thankfully he didn't get any of it which is no small miracle when you consider how much the girls are in his face. We were able to focus on his check up and I watched with baited breath as he got weighed which came in at 12 lbs, 11 oz. Yippee!! The nurse gave me his measurements and I looked at the markings of height, weight, and length all in the 90 - 95th percentiles and I thought, "Finally, I get a fat baby!" But then the doctor came in and said "Hmm, looks like the nurse put him on the girl chart by accident." Devastating. But wait, after re-doing the card, he was still in the 75th percentile for weight so still good. For comparisons, Brady weighed 11 lbs, 2 oz and the girls each weighed about 10 lbs, 4 oz at two months so he is by far the biggest. Now if we can just keep this up. Brady totally tanked after two month since he only weighed 12 pounds, 10 oz at four months. Let's hope Colby doesn't follow that same trend.

Colby got a few shots too. I just love his pediatrician. He is so nice and thorough, explaining each shot in detail and acting like he had all the time in the world to sit and talk to us. You don't always get that from doctors. The rest of us got our flu mists and called it a day. It was funny because I went first to show them it wasn't a big deal and then Calleigh went and she was a little apprehensive but then finally cooperated. That made me a little worried about how Aubree and Brady (who hasn't had the mist before) would react but neither of them uttered a peep or moved a muscle when they got theirs so just goes to show you that sometimes your kids can really surprise you.

On Sunday we had the pleasure of attending Forest Lake Education Center's (FLEC) fall festival. Ron and Elaine met us there and it was a gorgeous fall day. Calleigh and Aubree unfortunately got it in their heads that they really wanted their faces painted so they spent probably a good 45 minutes in line waiting. The face painters were not professionals so they spent an inordinate amount of time on each face getting it just so which created long lines and very impatient parents. I was like, "What is this? Disney World?" That's how it felt waiting. At long last, when it was their turn, I convinced them to get a simple baseball stamp and "RED SOX" written on their facees which only took about three minutes. The girl doing Aubree's face had to ask me how to spell it, bless her heart. Other than that, it was a great time although I did have a momentary bit of panic when at about noon I realized I had not set the DVR to record the Patriots game at 1:00. Thank goodness for neighbors who can pop into your house and set it for you. Thanks Allen!

Whew. Spelled it right. You know how tricky it can be to spell "RED."

Going on a little train ride.

Speaking of Red Sox, this was of course a big week with the World Series. Unfortunately, Ricky, who had been watching the games with me, flew up to my parents house on Friday (a week ago this past Friday) so I was left to watch Games 3 - 6 all by myself. Not exactly as fun watching the World Series by your lonesome. Duncan was into it back in 2004 when they hadn't won it in 86 years but this time, not so much. The kids watched in an inning or two with me and I tried to teach them everything I knew. Brady kept calling it hockey though and Aubree asked me if my favorite player was Tom Brady. So we still have some work to do, clearly. It was a little sad when they got the final out on Wednesday night and were crowned champions and all I had for company was a sleeping Colby in his swing but that's how it goes sometimes. Still very exciting to see them win their third championship in the last decade. But you know who is probably most excited? Mrs. Napoli, Mrs. Pedroia, and Mrs. Gomes who were like "Yes! The season is over and now our husbands can shave those horrendous beards." Seriously, I don't know what woman could put up with their hubby sporting a mountain man beard like that but I suppose if said hubby was making millions of dollars, its more tolerable. Anyway, with this victory, I now have a sports trivia question. Which one of my children was NOT born in a year that a Boston team won a championship? See end for answer.

Umm, no thank you.

The blog was meant to encompass the last week but I'm so doggone tired that I'm going to have to finish the rest tomorrow night. But wait, I'm supposed to be getting an extra hour of sleep tonight, right? Funny.

We had lunch at Grandma and Grandpa's after the doctor's appointment and found this new play set that a neighbor was getting rid of. Perfect for Brady and Colby.

Poor Aubs. This was her on Monday afternoon after the doctor's appointment.

Calleigh made this card for Aubree which I thought was really sweet.

As you can see, we do need to work on spelling.

Trivia Answer: Aubree. The Red Sox won in 2007 and 2013 and Bruins in 2011.

This past weekend was our annual Leadership Weekend event with the hospital. The last few years we've gone to Jacksonville but this year they decided to move it from the east coast to the west coast and thus we ended up at the TradeWinds Resort on St. Pete Beach. There were many things to like better about this change of venue with the two biggest things being warmer weather and more things to do with the kids.

As timing would have it, Thursday was Halloween which meant we had been planning to go to Trunk or Treat at the church. The kids were disappointed that we weren't going to go so I thought maybe we would go for like an hour and leave for St. Pete from the church. But Thursday morning when I got up, I decided that would mean we would get there pretty late so I managed to persuade the kids to skip Trunk or Treat and just leave in the afternoon. It actually didn't take much persuading...just the promise of getting to swim when we got to the hotel.

Duncan got home early from work (since this was a work function and all) and took Brady to get a haircut and then we were off. Going in the afternoon worked much better with Colby's nap too and he slept the whole way there.

Our accommodations were on the top floor and I was curious to see how big the room or rooms were. In previous years we've stayed in one room which would be tight now with six but certainly doable. Fortunately adding a kid seemed to catapult us into the next tier because this year we got two rooms and a sitting room with kitchen. Of course, this may be because this hotel had many suites while the one in Jacksonville did not. Either way, we were very pleased with the set up and the girls were tickled that they had their own room and each had their own double bed. Thankfully at two, Brady was just excited to have a spot to set up his pack and play in the girls' room. Meanwhile, we lugged the swing for Colby which forced us to use the roof top carrier. I know...seems a little weird for a weekend trip but those darn swings take up a lot of room.

Our view from the seventh floor.

After checking in we checked the place out and Duncan and the kids went for the promised swim. Later, we went on a hunt for a place to eat and found it one minute down the road in the form of IHOP. It was about 6:45 at this time and as we pulled in, we noticed there were no cars in the parking lot although there was a sign lit up that said OPEN. We walked in and there was not a single other customer in the restaurant. Apparently Halloween is a good night to go out to eat! We were more than happy to have the place to ourselves and we got free kid meals to boot.

Waterslide with Daddy. She would later go down many times by herself.

The waterslide from afar.

A little shallow pool just the right size for Brady. He loved it!

He loved this too.

Friday morning Duncan had meetings. I was able to drop the girls off at a special program put on by the hotel for 4 - 12 year olds. They also had child care for 0 - 3 year olds but when the hospital person gave me the sheet with the information on it, it said it was $55 for three hours. This was babysitting provided by the hotel and I think I may not have had to pay (since the hospital was) but I was like "Holy cow!" Imagine paying for that. Honestly, the whole place would have made you feel like you were being nickle and dimed. It was $10 to ride the paddle boats, $4 to go down the slide, etc, etc. Of course, we didn't have to pay for anything fortunately. Calleigh was amazed at this fact. When I picked the girls up, she told me how they went for a treasure hunt all over the hotel grounds and how "we went in the store and got all this stuff and it was FREE! We didn't have to pay for anything. Everything was FREE." She must have repeated "Everything was FREE" about two dozen times over the weekend. She just couldn't believe it. Anywho, even if the babysitting for Brady was free as I suspected, I didn't see myself dropping him off there by himself. Instead, the two boys and I hung out down at the beach with Jenny Davis and Lisa Myers and their kids.

It was interesting walking around with the two boys. For four years, I identified myself as a mother who only had girls. If someone who didn't know me saw me with the two boys they might have thought that I was just a mother of two boys. It was was kind of a strange feeling to think that I now have two of each and I'm just as much a mother of boys as I am of girls.

Speaking of boys and girls, we had found out on Thursday that Shawn and Camille are having a girl. That just works out so perfectly and I'm glad Acadia will have a sister. With this addition it also means that the Latimer cousins will be tied up again with eight of each. Who will be next to have a baby?

After Duncan got out of his meetings, we went back to IHOP for lunch (only about three other tables this time) and then they hung out at the beach and pools for the afternoon. I stayed behind with the boys because I especially wanted Brady to have a nap which he did. He had woken up a few times during the night so I knew he was tired.

Playing with Maddie Hilliard. By the way, Calleigh and Duncan did go swimming in the gulf. The water temp was about 78 degrees. Not too bad much cooler than early August when we were at the condo.

We hit the beach after his nap.

I thought the food was especially good over the weekend. Every meal except Friday lunch was provided for us. Not a good thing for someone trying to lose 15 pounds, mind you! Getting the meals proved to be a little challenge however. In Jacksonville, the buffet line was in the same big dining room as all the tables. For the breakfasts where I didn't have Duncan with me, I was able to situate the kids at a table next to the buffet so that I could watch them while I got the food. Unfortunately, at this hotel, the buffet was outside the seating area. Shoot! There was no way I could get the food while pushing Colby in his stroller and I didn't want to leave them unattended at the table. Fortunately an employee helped me so it worked out. Of course, once we got to the table, there was a bunch more stuff that they wanted (drinks, milk for their cereal, etc). Thankfully we found some people I knew to sit with so I could leave them. I didn't want to make a million trips though so I "stole" a big tray they used to put dirty dishes on and took that with me. Problem solved. I would say this eating set up was the only negative to this hotel as compared to Jacksonville.

Emily Escobar holding Colby at a different meal.

While Friday was a beautiful day, Sabbath was not. It was raining. To get from the dining room to where the meetings were, we had to walk for a ways outside. The hotel provided us umbrellas but with the wind, it made for an interesting walk. The kids were just thrilled to have their own umbrellas though. I guess if any day it was going to rain, it was good to be that day. In the afternoon we had already planned to go visit Aunt Shirley in Largo so we weren't planning any outdoor activities anyway. Aunt Shirley, who is nearly 80 although you can't tell to look at her, had a health scare a few weeks ago when she had blood clots in her lungs. So it worked out well that we were over there to go visit her. On the way there, I was telling Calleigh how scary it had been for Aunt Shirley to go through the experience with the clots and this is what she said:

Calleigh: "Why was she so scared?"
Me: "Because someone could die from having something like that happen to them."

Calleigh: "But she can just pray to Jesus and he will be with her. Plus, her brother is a preacher."

Somehow I have to find a way to talk to her about how sometimes bad things can happen even when you pray.

On our way back from Aunt Shirley's, I saw a billboard with an advertisement for First Watch. I knew we would need a place for lunch on Sunday....

Me: "Oh look. A sign for First Watch. We should hit that up tomorrow."

Aubree: "Yeah, and we can eat there too."

A little blurry. Sorry.

Daddy took them for a ride on Aunt Shirley's golf cart.

Before we left for Aunt Shirley's, Brady and Duncan took a little nap. Brady actually fell asleep right on Duncan who was thrilled!

Saturday night they had a lot of activities like face painting, balloons, snow cones, games, etc. Calleigh and Aubree had made friends in their class with a seven-year old and five-year old and Calleigh declared that the seven year, named Abigail, was her best friend...I think she meant of the weekend. They both had gotten cats painted on their face and that was just very exciting for them. I finally met the girls' dad who is the Director of Imaging at East Orlando. They also happened to have an 18-month old son. I told them they needed to have one more son to match us but he seemed appalled at that notion. Guess it's not for everyone.

Brady's class on Sabbath morning. Supposedly there were fifty kids in his age range but only about seven showed up for the class.

They brought in animals from the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. This was an anteater that STANK to high heavens. We were in a room that had a bunch of tables set up to eat for some other big group. I felt very sorry for them.

I love watching Aubree get her face painted because she stays so perfectly still.

Brady won't do his face yet but I did convince him to get his arm painted like a shark.

Saturday night the clock changed which meant everyone was up by about 7:00. I was not complaining because Colby was a rock star over the weekend. Friday night he slept from 9:00 - 5:45 and Saturday night from 9:00 to 6:30 (well, 5:30 the new time). At home I had been waking him up before I went to bed but since I wanted to go to bed earlier at the hotel, I didn't do it. Clearly, I'm not doing it any more even at home. Now if I can just get him to go until 7:00 or ideally 7:30, it will be perfect.

Sunday morning Duncan had his last meeting. We hung out some more at the beach and pools and then left for home. We made a few stops on the way home with the last one being at Walgreens so I could get an ear wax removal kit. Yup, it's that time again. Every few years I get an episode where my ear is so full of wax that I can barely hear out of it. I've noticed a problem for a few weeks but it finally came to a head yesterday. It was my left one and if I laid on my right ear, I almost could literally not hear. I put in the drops and tried the bulb syringe to try and get it out myself by squirting water in there but to no avail. I think the most annoying thing about it all is having to go to the doctor.

Thank goodness for in-laws who can watch your kids on such short notice. I dropped them off on Monday morning at 10:30 and then it was off to the doc with Colby. I really need to get a non-OB doctor but usually I just go to the Center for Family Medicine at Winter Park because they have a bunch of docs there that you can see really quickly. I figure if I have my own doc, I won't be able to get same day appointments. The doc tried to get it out with a tool but as I suspected, he couldn't so the nurse came in to spray warm water in my ear. I won't lie, it hurt because of all the other prodding that happened in there first. But, I gritted my teeth and the wax came out pretty quickly. And voila! I can hear again.

I think that catches us up. Have a great rest of the week!

Looking at a toy catalog that came in the mail.

My favorite time of the year!

At the end of last week, Duncan finally got the camera installed in Colby's room so I no longer had an excuse to not move him from the swing into his crib. Yes, Calleigh slept in a swing for the first four months with great success and I've been tempted to let it just ride with him but considering that we will be at my parents for several weeks for Christmas, I do not want to be tied to a swing. I was excited about the move upstairs to his room since it also meant that I was also going to be moving into the guest room which is right across the hall. Yay...a bed! I want to be clear again on the whole couch thing. Duncan is MORE than happy to have me sleep in our room. It has been my choice to be on the couch. He's always afraid people will think he kicked me out. Okay, I think that's cleared up.

Last Thursday was his first night and went okay. No problems falling asleep but he did wake up at 4 am. Oh, so let me go back and just say that after the great sleeping at the hotel over that previous weekend, he only went until almost 6:00 one time after that. Apparently just wanted to get my hopes up and then dash them to pieces. The second night, it went a little better and I made the bold move to invite Duncan to spend the next night in the guest room with me. It was kind of fun...almost like we were at a hotel. Alas, the night didn't go well with my having to bring Colby in bed with us in the middle of the night. And so it goes. He sleeps fine as soon as he hits the bed next to me but when he wakes up in his crib, he seems to be having a difficult time going back to sleep in it. Tonight, as I was putting him to bed, I had the clever idea to take off my dress and put it next to him in the crib. Maybe he'll be tricked into thinking I'm there when he smells me (side note...I did not shower today but hopefully put on deodorant although the spit up smell may overpower all of that anyway). We shall see if it works.

By the way, right about now is when I'm really mad that we have a master bedroom on the ground floor and
the kids' room upstairs. Our tiny townhouse isn't looking so bad. I foresee me in the guest room for quite awhile.

Last weekend we didn't do anything particularly special although we did have several groups of friends over for dinner. On Friday night we had the Isidros over who it seemed like we hadn't seen in ages. Saturday night we had Ricky, Ana, Tiffany, Anthony, and Megan over. We hadn't seen the latter three really in ages so it was a nice catch up time with them.

Sunday was the chance to do some things that have been put off for awhile. Duncan took Calleigh on a trip to Lowe's (he likes to take each kid out separately from time to time) and then I was going to go get the oil changed in the van and also drop some clothes off at the consignment store. I found a Jiffy Lube nearby and was told it would be about 15 - 20 minutes. I was in a bit of a hurry because any time you are out alone, you like to make the most of it...not by sitting in a waiting room leafing through In Style magazine. By the way, colorful coats and shiny skinny pants are in right now in case you were wondering. As the time ticked by and the van wasn't ready, I struck up a conversation with an Asian woman who was the only other person in the room. She was very nice. A hairdresser with an apparent gambling problem as she regaled me with stories of how she was no longer welcome into casinos on the west coast of the state. Anywho, eventually the mechanic came in to talk to me and apologized for how long it was taking which was partly due to the fact that the oil filter or some such thing was in a tough place to reach. So I respond, "Oh those Koreans. Trying to be tricky." And then the nice Asian lady pipes up, "I'm Korean." Oops. I never did make it to the consignment store as the oil change took almost an hour. Thanks a lot Jiffy Lube!

While I was gone, Duncan took the crew for a walk. Colby's stroller is one I got at a yard sale this past Friday for $10. Duncan was complaining the the other umbrella stroller, which Brady is using, was getting too dirty. A fact which did not stop him from using it, clearly.

That afternoon I went over to pick up Jaime's wife and daughter. Jaime is the gentleman who did our painting and I had offhandedly mentioned couponing to him when he last painted for us. Turns out he was very interested in it and his wife, Lydia (not how you spell it, I know) called me to ask if I could teach her. They don't have a car so I drove over to pick them up. I was kind of excited about because I got to drive Duncan's new car. I had to wrestle the keys out of hands to do it though. Just kidding. Sortof. They have four daughters and the second eldest who is 10, Lily Beth, came with her and played with the girls, much to their delight. The training went well and we even stopped at CVS on the way back to give her a real lesson. I was glad I did because they had school supplies on clearance for 90% off so I got a bunch of nice notebooks for $0.19 each. It was funny because she told me that when I told her on the phone that CVS was a great place to shop, she had told her husband and they both thought I was joking. They NEVER go there because the prices are so high. Not true, not true.

The end of last week I started my new workout routine. Yes, I gave up on the XBox. It really wasn't that bad and I think it was probably working but it was just not my thing. So I'm back to what I did with Aubree and Brady. I do the treadmill three days a week and dumbbells three days a week. It's a 10-week program on-line that I'm paying for. I was somewhat reluctant to do so because I'm going to be interrupted by being gone for Christmas but even if I can get in five good weeks, it will be worth it. But boy, it's so annoying how it takes up a chunk of my evenings when I could be doing so many other things with my time like laundry, paying bills, house cleaning, preparing lesson plans for school, sending my tenants a new lease, making Christmas lists, meal planning, preparing coupons, going through my homeschool convention bag which is still sitting on the floor in the office after five months, cuddling on the couch with my hubby while we watch a TV show (but not eating cookies, thank you very much), etc. You get the drift. And now I'm depressed when I see all that I've shirked to write this blog.

Last week the thing on my to do list was to go through the kids clothes again. Just when you think you're good, one of them goes and grows on you and you're at it again. This time it was Aubree who has moved into 5T. I also had to get rid of the rest of Calleigh's 6/6X. And Colby, that little weed. I haven't switched him over yet but any day now he'll be into 3 - 6 month clothes. As I was looking for bins in the garage I came across one that said 2T that I hadn't noticed when I transitioned Brady a few months ago. Hmm. When I had gone through his 2T stuff, I saw that he didn't have that many vests for church so I focused on that at the consignment sales. I opened this bin and I'm not going to lie, it felt a little like Christmas. Low and behold, there were like 20 vests in there. I was thrilled although a little ticked at myself. Needless to say, he'll probably need to start attending church on both Saturday and Sunday to wear all the vests he now has. Thank you for the hand-me-downs, Camden and Evan!

A few days ago I did find the time to make some muffins with the kids. I just have to say, it was so funny with Aubree as my little helper. Here's how it went, in all sincerity.
Me: Pouring flour into the measuring cup.
Aubree: "Here comes the cauliflower.
Me: Dumping wheat germ into the bowl.
Aubree "Oooh, garlic!"
Me: Adding dark brown sugar.
Aubree: "Yum! Chocolate!
Me: Adding baking powder.
Aubree: "Now the sugar."

It was a hoot because she seriously though those were all the things and she was excited because she knew them but it was wrong every time..

A few more pictures to close it off..

I had to take the girls to Adventurers last week since Duncan had to a Magic game.

Reading with the gang after school. You can tell this is a day we didn't go anywhere by looking at Aubree's outfit.

Now she wants to be cowgirl.

Have a good week. Only two more days until the Christmas music starts. Yippee!!

That is the name of my favorite Christmas song which I have already listened to dozens of times since the start of the Christmas music season on Friday (my dad's birthday). Seriously, is there anything better to pick up your spirits than some Christmas music? There is just something about it that fills me with such joy. I have it playing pretty much every second of the day and I can't help but smile at every lovely and familiar song. It brings back the wonderful memories of my childhood and and the excitement of making new memories with my own children. Ahhhh, it really is the most wonderful time of the year.

It's finally starting to FEEL a little like Christmas too. Last week we wore...wait for it...pants!! Crazy, I know. The downside of that is that you bring the pants out after a few months hiatus (since we were in Maine for campmeeting) and sure enough, there is at least one kid on whom they no longer fit. This time it's Brady who is graduating from 18 - 24 months to a 2T. I didn't realize they didn't fit until he was getting ready for church on Sabbath morning which then set me off in a panic trying to look through the dozens of bins in the garage for a pair of khaki colored ones. I found some at long last but as I expected, while the length was now proper, the waist was so large he could have practically fit another person in there. Oh, that I could have the same problem right now with my old jeans!

If there is anything that would deter me from having another kid (to be clear, I am already deterred as there are absolutely no plans for another) it is this little post baby issue of losing the weight. I am in week two of my program and combined with some of the other program I did, I have lost four pounds from a goal of sixteen. So it's happening just ever so s-s-s-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-l-y. Part of the problem, no doubt, is that I am pretty much always hungry. I have limited myself to only eating at meals and I no longer am eating a cookie in the evening or other sweets, but honestly, at lunch I could probably scarf down three or four grilled cheese sandwiches if given the chance. Now, to a person like my brother, Shawn, that may seem like no big deal but that is just unacceptable for a proper lady. Hopefully this appetite thing will pass once Colby isn't getting all his sustenance from me.

I am sticking by my assertion that I made a number of years ago that girls are better sleepers than boys. At that time I had no hard evidence of my own because I only had girls but I now feel like I'm in a position to make it a definitive statement. To be sure, Brady wasn't that bad, especially given his four month cough, but Colby is by no means the star that Aubree or even Calleigh was. In my last post I said that I had moved him to his crib. Yeah, well, that came and went. The dress in the crib didn't work, sorry to say. It's not like he would cry or anything, but he would keep waking up between 12:00 am - 1:00 am and toss and turn and not go back to sleep. So I would take him in bed with me (I wouldn't nurse him) and he would be okay for a few hours and then start tossing and turning again around 4:00 am. And so on. Finally, after about a week of that and feeling too fatigued after a rough Thursday night (I had gone to bed at 1:30 and woke up at like 4:30 and never really got back to a good place), I decided it was back to the swing. This time we set the camera up on the swing in the living room so I could sleep in my own bed. Heavenly! He went to bed at about 8:30 and didn't wake up until 5:30. So you can pretty much guess where he has slept since then! He has stumbled a few times since but it's still going better than the crib. Not sure how this will parlay into the sleeping arrangements at my folks but we'll figure it out as we get closer.

As for our activities of late, here are some pictures to show what we've been up to:

Last Wednesday we went to the mall to check out boots at Payless with a stop at the mall playground.

While the bigger kids played, Mommy got to make Colby smile.

Friday was yard sales and this nice lady who was putting on one of the sales was nice enough to offer to hold Colby while I shopped.

Brady at Sabbath School. You can tell the pants are just a little baggy.

Saturday night we had our friends the Solers from the hospital/church over for supper. Milca loved to hold Colby but really wanted to take Brady home. She was completely smitten with him and he actually let her kiss him a bunch of times.

Ready to get our Sunday rolling.

She has at least one gene from me.,,sensitive eyes. The sun was too bright for her to look.

The whole family came with me to drop some stuff off at the consignment store and this is where we ended up afterwards....getting a new battery put in courtesy of Mindy. The car would hardly start a time or two. Glad that happened on the weekend and not while I was by myself somewhere.

Quick stop at Goodwill to drop off some clothes and a pop in to look for boots. Brady found these slippers and was absolutely devastated when we left without them (the line was too long). This is him saying "Puh-lease???"

Sunday night we went down to the outlets to go to the Croc store to get shoes for Aubree. With money from the consignment store burning a hole in my pocket, we made a detour at Subway for some supper.

Getting hair done at Daddy's salon yesterday. Duncan has surprised me with some very good hairdos on the girls lately!

Last but not least, here's a video we took tonight of Brady with his purse. Click here.

I'm going to end here so I can attempt to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Have a good rest of the week.

Free slurpee day at 7-Eleven on...7-11.

We had the pleasure over the weekend and beyond to spend more time with Angela and Alan, Elaine's sister and brother-in-law from England. We haven't seen them since we were in London in 2003 so we were certainly due! We could have spent the whole time just listening to them talk, especially Alan's stories, but we did do other things too. On Friday evening we went over to the Casselberry Food Trucks to give them a taste of this American phenomenon. We have only ever been to the Ocoee ones so this was a new venue for us. I found it to be a bit nicer...there were a lot of nice grassy areas with nooks and crannies to spread out a blanket and then I also found that they had different trucks which struck my vegetarian fancy (I had a watermelon, tomato, mint, and shaved feta salad and it was delish!). The only downside was the live band that was playing that made it a little difficult to hear but I imagine on the day that they had a jazz band playing, it would be lovely. We were worried it was going to rain but the weather held out and the evening proved to be very relaxing. The chocolate-strawberry-cream crepe didn't hurt matters either. I was glad the girls were distracted with some friends they had made so they didn't bug me for a bite.

We bring our own food for the kids to save shekels. Brady saw me pack this peach and all he could talk about was eating his apple. I kept saying "No, it's a peach" but he kept right on asking for his apple.

Who is that cute kid back there next to the fountain?

Saturday night we went over to Ron and Elaine's for another visit and also to celebrate Alan and Angela's birthdays. Alan had his several months ago but Angela had hers on the 7th so we thought it would be nice to do something to celebrate. Russ and Saray came over as well and Elaine made a great supper. And of course, we had cake. Alan had some more hilarious stories to tell (why is that a story sounds twice as funny when someone with an accent is telling it? In this case it was an English guy telling a story with a Swedish accent) which I unfortunately missed since I was tending the kids inside but I could hear the belly laughs. Duncan's middle name is Alan, courtesy of THIS Alan and I think it is fitting they share a name since they share the same sense of humor. We got home about 9:30 and shortly thereafter the verdict came back in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case so we were glued to the TV for the rest of the evening. I won't get into my feelings on that but I was not surprised that they jury found him not guilty based on the case that the prosecution presented. It has been an interesting week with all the fall out from the verdict. It reminds me of the Casey Anthony stuff that went on two years ago...which will be forever etched in my memory because the trial was taking place during the time Brady was born.

Let them eat cake!

A little gift from Uncle Russ.

They left yesterday so on Monday evening they swung by our house to say good-bye to Duncan. The kids and I ended up seeing them yesterday morning, before they left, because I dropped the kids off at Ron and Elaine's while I had my doctor appointment. As we were leaving, Alan pulled out some fake finger apparatus that made it look like his thumb was lit up red. Brady was intrigued and kept saying "Do it again." We probably would have been there all day if I hadn't dragged him away. Little mention was made of it that afternoon but that evening when I was brushing his teeth, he brought it up again. Brady HATED to get his teeth brushed and I would struggle mightily with the task each night. I almost thought I was going to have to get a straight jacket. I'm not kidding. It was that bad. Then, a few months ago, I came up with the idea of singing a song about his day to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb as I brushed. We do three verses and for each verse, I sing about something he did that day. Voila! No kicking or screaming now. As I was singing the first verse on Monday evening, which I think was about him swimming in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's, he started saying "No, No, No" and stopped my singing and then said "THUMB!" It was an impressive looking thumb, I must say.

Speaking of my doctor's appointment, all went well. Only six weeks to go! We've had a lot of inquiries as to whether this little bugger has a name and the answer to that is a "NO." Duncan is getting the final say this time around and he seems to be taking his time pulling the trigger. A few weeks ago I went through his list and weeded out all those I didn't like and added a few of my own that he did like which has left us with a list of about 10 - 12 names. On the way home from church last week he presented a first and middle name that we both really liked but there's a little problem with the names going together so we don't think it will work. So we're still, or should I say, he, is still undecided. In the meantime, I decided maybe we'll just keep our decision a secret and announce it after the birth. This way there is still a little intrigue. Because you know, the reaction to the birth will probably be like "Oh, the Grodacks just popped out another kid. Whoopie." Now people can tune in and see if we name him something like North West Grodack...oh wait. That's been taken.

Sunday morning we went to a birthday party for Blake and Evan which meant being plied with fabulous goodies from Jennifier. She also served a brunch, a personal favorite of mine, so it was perfect. French toast to my heart's delight! It was a pool party and the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves as did Brady who spent a fair amount of time on Daddy's shoulders. My giant pregnant belly and I were happy to watch it all from the sidelines.

The theme was LEGOS, in case you can't tell.

Brady eating a lollipop shaped like a LEGO.

Allen led the kids in some pool games. Here they get ready to see who can hold their breath under water the longest. That's Calleigh in the goggles. She didn't win but what chance did she have against a 9-year old boy!

Most of the group of kids (sans Aubree and Brady)

Calleigh gets ready to throw a swimming noodle through one of the circles. Don't think she actually made it. Good effort though.

Sporting their LEGO shirts that they got in their party goodie bags.

The past few days (or should I say Monday & Tuesday) have seen a flurry of activity in our backyard. The landscaping/patio people came Monday morning to start on our patio. Most excitingly, they brought a tractor with them. Brady was all aflutter when he spotted it. We spent a good portion of Monday morning just looking out our window from the second floor watching the men and the tractor at work. Cheap entertainment. Or, when you think about it, not so cheap! The pavers aren't coming in until tomorrow so they spent the first two days just preparing the area and installing our three Japanese Blueberry trees. They weren't here today but they will be back tomorrow and Friday to put in all the pavers. Then it will be shopping time for us to find some outdoor furniture.

I'm not too pleased with all the marks on our lawn from this thing.

Our trees in the process of getting planted.

We were impressed to see them working in the rain.

This morning we hit up story time at the library and then paid a visit to our neighbor's, the Isidro's, for lunch and some backyard water activities. The kids loved it and it reminds me why we moved out here....just to be able to do things like this.''

Hurry it up Allen. We've got a big queue forming here. I thought I would say at least one British thing on here in honor of the departed relatives.

Allen made us smoothies. Gee, we need to do this more often!

Braelyn tried to teach Calleigh how to do a cartwheel.

She made it look so simple...yet, this is how far Calleigh got. I didn't want to be a Debbie Downer about the whole thing but kid, if you are anything like your mother, it's never going to happen. It's just not my thing.

A little Brady story before I end...this evening he took his little airplane and hurled it, on purpose, at Aubree's back which naturally made her cry hysterically. Duncan took him into our room for some very intentional punishment. Of course, within moments I heard some loud cries coming from the room and then Duncan left him in there for a few minutes to think about his actions and we could hear the sobs continuing as he sat there alone. After about two minutes, Duncan went in to get him (and to tell him to come out and apologize). The first thing Brady did was walk clear across the room to where I was cleaning the laundry room to tell me "I okay, Mom. I okay." And he gave me a hug and caressed my face. You could still see the dried tears on his face. It was just so precious. Now I know why the girls can't resist comforting him every time I reprimand him and he starts to cry. He always goes to them, all pitiful like, for hugs. And even if he just pulled their hair or scratched them or whatever, they always comfort him as if HE is the one who has just suffered some great tragedy. That boy. We're all suckers I guess.

I have forgotten to mention it but I am all but officially retired from my paying job. I am still technically an employee (I asked to still stay on for awhile in case Valerie needs help...that way I have access to files and stuff) but I'm not doing any work. Can I just say it is wonderful??! To be clear, I loved my job and honestly, I really had it made to be able to work from home like I did for the last six years but I'm so enjoying the extra time in the afternoons to get stuff done (or, sneak in a little tiny nap as the case may be. Don't judge me...Didn't I mention that I'm giving birth in six weeks?). On June 22, it was 15 years of employment at the hospital so I was glad to make it to that milestone. Here on out, no paycheck but it's so worth it! Thank goodness I have a studly husband who makes this all possible.

Two other pictures...

Snake picture from last week that I forgot to post. Thankfully no repeat sightings although I swear I heard the bags rustling while I was in the garage this afternoon.

It's baaaaack. We all joked about how we sang the theme song during Cradle Roll at Campmeeting like 10 times a day, "The Big Blue Ocean." Well, what do you know. It's the theme in Brady's Sabbath School class now. And this giant whale is one of the props. Yup, you guessed it. He had a fit when it was taken away about put back up front.

Have a great rest of the week.

We have had several projects going on at once in our backyard. Last week consisted of them planting our trees and putting in our new patio which fortunately wrapped up on Friday. We were a little concerned that it wasn't going to be finished since the brick pavers didn't arrive until late Thursday morning. They assured us, however, that they would have two teams working on it on Friday and it would be done. Well, on Friday I got home from yard sales at about 1 pm to find no vehicles of any kind parked out front. That was rather alarming. I went inside and looked out the back and it appeared that very little was done and although there were about three or four guys there (which was only one team, not the two they had said) they were just lounging around (perhaps on a well deserved lunch break but considering that there seemed to be a lot still to do, we weren't happy with this). I sent Duncan an urgent text. He was already on his way home anyway and called Andy, the guys in charge, to leave a message. We had never mentioned that they couldn't work on Saturday and then the community doesn't allow work to be done on Sundays so we wanted to make it clear that we expected it to be done that day. Duncan left a very stern message and Andy called him back about 15 minutes later and within a few minutes, the second team miraculously appeared. And it did all get done much to our delight. Eventually we want to put in a pergola, fire pit, and obviously some tables and chairs but for now, it looks pretty empty! But we are very pleased with the outcome.

Friday morning our new play set arrived which meant that Duncan's free time has disappeared for the foreseeable future. It took months to decide which one to get but then he finally picked one (Calleigh insisted on one with monkey bars) and it turned out that the best price by several hundred dollars was at Sam's Club. Even with the $45 membership fee, it was still worth it so now we have a membership there for the next year. I'll have to go at least once just to compare them to Costco. It was free shipping so that was an added bonus. We had ordered it a few weeks ago and the day it ended up scheduled to arrive was on Friday. Now, this play set has thousands of pieces and we weren't sure how many boxes it would be so we figured someone should be here when it arrived to tell them where to put it (in this case, the garage). When I found out it was coming on a Friday, this sent me into panic mode. They were going to give us a one hour heads up on its arrival but I was so worried that they would call at like 10:30 am which meant I was going to have to take a break from yard sales to come home...a major pain if I happened to be like 30 minutes away. On Thursday night when I saw there were a ton of good yard sales (not really common for July), I was REALLY worried. We got an especially early start, right after 8:00, and just as I was driving out the back gate, the front gate called to say there was a delivery. Major relief! It turned out to only be four boxes which took about five minutes to unload and we were back on our way.

Duncan did a little bit of prep on Friday and then the real work started Sunday morning bright and early. Allen was kind enough to come over early afternoon to help and then came back again in the evening and they worked until dark. The stinker was that Duncan left for Kansas City on Monday afternoon so he couldn't do any more work on it until he got home today...obviously he would have been at work during the day but there are still several hours of daylight after getting home. I would say he's like 75% of the way done at this point. The kids are just really excited about it while meanwhile, I'm already stressing about how I'm going to keep Brady from climbing up the rock wall or from falling down the ladder steps that will be out of my line of sight. Oh goodie. Hopefully he'll be contented to spend most of his time in the sandbox in the bottom part.

That table on the right is full of all the nuts and bolts. Millions of them it seems.

Brady and Maddy working on things on Sunday night.

What a cutie!

Helping Daddy this afternoon.

Looking for his missing ball.

He actually did help Daddy by handing him the appropriate boards.

Going back to yard sales...I was astounded at the number of good yard sales this week and even last week too. This is usually what happens in October, not in the heat of July. Now that we are starting homeschool in the not too distant future, there are a whole new array of items I'm looking for. And I struck it big. Most of the time I go to sales in Apopka/Maitland/Altamonte and on occasion over in Winter Park/Casselberry. Usually there isn't much in Ocoee itself. I had found a bunch in these towns and had them programmed into my GPS. At the last second, I found a really good sounding one but it was in Winter Garden, the opposite direction of all the rest. Did I really want to go at least 30 minutes out of my way? It said that there were a lot of school stuff at the sale and in the end, I went for it. Boy, was I glad I did! It was a jackpot. I got probably 100 easy reader books for $2, a US and world map for $.50 each (big ones that are laminated), and a ton of other books and odds and ends all for $18. The lady tutored out of her home and she wasn't even retiring...just decided she had too much stuff and wanted to get rid of some of it. I have to say, it was a major high! Kind of like when you get awesome coupon deals. I found a few other things at other sales so it was an altogether an awesome day. I'm sure if I had bought all that stuff new it would be hundreds of dollars but only $20 in this case.

Big stacks of reader books.

My haul.

Going back...last Thursday was the girls semi-annual dentist visit. All went very well. No cavities so I was very happy. I'm hoping they take after their parents in this category who didn't get any (and even then, just one) until adulthood. Of course, now that I say that maybe I want to take it back. I had braces for three years and that was the pits! Duncan, meanwhile, has had perfectly straight teeth all his life so now, not only do they all look like him, but hopefully they'll get his perfect teeth too.

Playing with the iPad in the waiting room.

Sabbath afternoon we headed to Aunt Wanda's house to have lunch with her and my cousin Heather who is in town from California. It was lovely not to have to cook and plus, Aunt Wanda always makes great food so it was wonderful all around. What wasn't wonderful was Aubree's fear of little dogs which is still ongoing. It's quite tedious, really. Hard to believe this kid grew up with two little dogs up until last year. You go through this quandary as to whether you keep the dog away, like in a separate room, or do you just make her face her fears? It turned out we did a little of both. Other than that, it was very nice to see Heather who we hadn't seen in a long time and she had bought the kids some Play Doh stuff and a couple of other things so they were thrilled. One funny thing was that Aunt Wanda makes this jello dish called "Seven-Up Salad" that the girls just love. It has whipped cream and marshmellows on it too so it's almost like a dessert although we do eat it with the meal. Duncan had told Calleigh that she had to eat her other food first and then she could have some of it. A few minutes later while Aubree was eating her food and asked to have the jello and I said "No, you have to eat some of this other food first." You should have seen Calleigh. Her ears perked right up and she looked at me with this smile and said "Wait a second. Did you just say SOME?" It was so funny.

Monday morning I had a dermatology appointment. I have had a mole on the bottom of my foot for at least four or five years. I've had it looked at before and there was no concern over it but I've noticed that it's gotten bigger. My regular dermatologist is in Oviedo, a good 40-minute drive, so I attempted to find a doctor closer. The key being "attempted." Some weren't taking new patients and some were but it was going to be a few months. When I expressed my disappointment that it was a shame that someone would have a questionable mole and have to wait several months (to be clear, though, I don't fault a place for being too busy to see me) to have it looked at it, they said they could get me in at the end of the month but they could ONLY look at the mole. They could not do a once over on the rest of me (a two-minute process). That just cracked me up. Sounded like a waste of time to have to go two times so in the end, I bit the bullet and just went back to my old doctor. I'm pretty used to the trip over to that area now anyway. The doctor looked at the mole and she still wasn't concerned as it is very uniform looking and all that but said to just keep my eye on it. The rest of me was fine too so happy times.

So for the last probably three weeks and then some, I've been working on trying to find someone to teach Aubree swimming lessons. Calleigh did private lessons when she was four, to great success, so I really wanted that for Aubree too. Calleigh's teacher, Zoey, was terrific but of course, that was at Ron and Elaine's pool so once again, here I was trying to find someone closer. I had gotten a few contacts on some possible teachers and about two weeks ago I had called one of them with my request for her to come to our community pool here. I wanted lessons for both girls and then also the Isidro kids were going to get in on it so I figured it would be worth someone's time come out here. Well, the girl hadn't called me back after like five days (after sounding all positive about it after our first conversation) so I called her back and had to leave a message. Then I sent a text messaging since the "younger" generation is so into that. She finally texted me back and we started to work out the details. But then it would take her several days to text me and only after I would prompt her. It because SO tedious but finally, it seemed like we had it worked out and lessons would start Tuesday (yesterday). When I texted on Monday afternoon to confirm it all and gave her my address, she texted back that it was too far to come and she couldn't do it. I was so annoyed. What a waste of two weeks. I know that I had told her at the beginning that we were in Ocoee. As I've said to a few people, this is Exhibit A of why texting can really stink. A second phone conversation would have resolved all of this in five minutes flat.

So back to the drawing board. I decided to just text Zoey (my usually mode of communication with her in years past) to see if she could do it and I didn't care if we had to drive back to Casselberry for it. It would only be like six lessons. She texted me back in about 60 seconds saying she was out of town for the summer and couldn't but gave me the name of a friend. I called that friend, Gail, shortly thereafter, she said she could and we could start the next morning. See how simple it all can be? Geesh. Not only that, but she's only charging me $16 a lesson as compared to $25 and since both girls are doing lessons, I think it's worth the drive.

We did the first lesson then yesterday at 9:30 and poor little Aubs was just shaking like a leaf when she was done. Even though the water temp was in the low 80's, the sun wasn't really out so she got cold in the water. Gail seems very nice and I thought the lesson seemed to go well, the few times I peaked outside to look. But then when we were in the car afterwards, she said she didn't want to go back to her lesson and that I should be the one to teach her to swim. I thought "Oh boy, here we go again." She is so different from her sister. The same thing happened last year after one lesson and I wrote it off as her being three. Shortly after her complaint, she did start talking excitedly about how she had floated on her back all by herself so I figured all was not lost. After a few tears this morning, I assured her I would stay out on the patio and watch her this time and that appeased her. Each time she would do something today, she would look over at me and I would give her a big, excited face and that kept her going. She did really great. She's already swimming a little ways by herself so I'm feeling confident that at the end of the six lessons, if not before, she'll be off on her own like Calleigh was. Calleigh, as expected, was super ecstatic about doing swimming lessons and afterwards Gail was like "Wow, she's a good swimmer. I would barely get the words out of my mouth as to what I wanted her to do and she was already doing it." She worked on her back stroke.

After leaving the lesson yesterday, we came back over here near home to meet with the second of two pediatricians that I wanted to meet. The other one was a week or two ago and as you may recall, I wasn't impressed because it was just him. This practice has four doctors, two male and two females which works out much nicer because I can just have them all in one place (I really want the girls to have a female doctor since this was a HUGE bone of contention for me when I was their age. I remember crying when I had to pull down my underwear for a male doctor when I was little). We met the one lady doctor and she was very nice so I'm glad that this decision is now made. I guess we'll be back there in a little more than five weeks to bring in baby ???? for his first appointment. As for the name, fortunately George was like 8,763 on my list so I don't have to worry about people thinking I'm copying the new prince for our baby name. I can't decide if that name reminds me more of an old man or a monkey.

Last night I decided to take a trip down to IKEA to check out furniture for our classroom. Since Duncan was not with us (in KC for work), I knew I wouldn't be able to buy anything because I didn't want to try and maneuver big boxes but at least I could look. I never have to convince the girls to go to IKEA...they are always so excited when the announcement is made. I dropped them happily off at the play area and Brady and I strolled around checking out all the desks/storage unit/bookshelves, etc. Decisions, decisions. I've found a few posting of classrooms on Pinterest that were almost completely furnished with IKEA stuff so I'm taking inspiration from them. After our stroll, I picked up the girls and we had supper there since it's Kids Eat Free on Tuesday nights. Dinner for four for $9 (including a dessert for me). Nice!

I've decided that Calleigh is not going to be a doctor or a nurse. Aubree suffered some minor injuries this week and I couldn't believe the hysteria coming from Calleigh. First off, Aubree got her fingers stuck in the back door. She wasn't even crying to hard but she came over to me to show them to me (which barely had a mark) but you should have seen and heard Calleigh. I mean, she was hysterical. She would not even came over near Aubree to look but fled to the other side of the room with tears pouring out of her eyes and said "Are her fingers still there?" Like, she really thought they had come off in the door. Then, today, while they were in quiet time, I heard Aubree crying upstairs. Not unusual in the least since I typically expect Aubree to cry at least twice while they're in quiet time (often, over really stupid stuff). But about a minute later, Calleigh comes down the stair, just wailing, "Something happened to Aubree's eye!!!" She ran into my room and I could hear her bawling in there as I walked up the stairs. I got to Aubree and sure enough, there was a tiny, red mark about her left eye where she said Calleigh had hit her accidentally. She was fine. I softly called Calleigh to come up the stairs (Brady was sleeping through all this..I have no idea how since he sleeps with his door wide open) and Calleigh was just beside herself..."I didn't mean to do anything. Is her eyeball still there?" It took me like three or four minutes to get her to finally calm down and come up the stairs and see for herself that Aubree was fine. Mercy.

A few other pics in closing...

Our curriculum came in the mail and Calleigh was excited to look through it all.

Meanwhile, Aubree and Brady were excited just to play in the boxes it came in.

Friday night was supposed to be food trucks but it was rained out so we took the show to Tijuana Flats. I hadn't eaten there in like ten years.

Sneaking into Daddy's bag to go to KC with him.

We are at home as is our tradition starting last year in our new house. The excitement for the holiday is mounting especially when Angie (Duncan's sister) and Chuck arrived early this evening from Little Rock. My phone is showing a cool 46 degrees outside with temps in the high 30's in the morning when Duncan goes out for his traditional Thanksgiving round of golf. Just a great, great time of year!

Aunt Angie distributing gifts

Some things we've been up to this past week...

On Friday, Ron and Elaine took the girls to Legoland. They had gotten a deal on the tickets. Originally they wanted to take Brady too since he was free but I convinced them that it would be a lot better without him since he can't go on most of the rides anyway. I didn't tell the girls about the outing until the night before just in case something happened and they didn't go but also so that they wouldn't have a bunch of time to talk about it and have Brady feel bad he wasn't going. Of course, it's not like he even knows what Legoland is so it really wasn't a big deal for him when he was left behind. Plus, he was happy to go to yard sales to look for a new airplane (he is into airplanes right now and always wants to find one at the yard sales). The foursome had a great time.

Aubree driving. Much better job at four compared to last year at three.

That city behind them is made of Legos.

Her "driver's license"

Riding the roller coaster with Grandpa. When they saw her face, they just had to buy the picture.

On this roller coaster, they figured out when the picture is taken and smiled accordingly.

Sabbath afternoon I stayed home with the boys while Duncan took the girls to Pack the Forest at Forest Lake Academy. This was the same thing that I had taken Calleigh to last year where you put together bagged meals of lentils, beans, etc for underprivileged kids. This time Aubree got to go but we were sure to take a stool for her to stand on. They both enjoyed it and saw a bunch of friends there so that was an added bonus.

Saturday night I went to a movie with Jennifer and Tangie. This was my first time away from Colby for any amount of time. He eats his last meal of the day between 7:30 - 8:00 so once I feed him then, I'm free for the rest of the night. I was a little torn about going to the movie because I had been contemplating going to CVS at midnight when the week of "Black Friday" deals started. I knew going to the movie would preclude that. In the end, I went with the movie. I got home about 12:45 and then after pumping (trying to get some milk for the next evening), it was about 1:15. Colby woke me up at 3:30 and I ended up on the couch with him (didn't feed him though). He was back awake about 6:15 and since CVS opened at 7:00, I put him back in the swing after he was done eating and it was off to CVS.

There weren't any other customers so I had the store to myself. I got almost everything that was a freebie in the store although they were out of a few things. Just a little annoying since the sale started that day and I was the first one there so clearly they weren't sold out of it. They just plain didn't have it in stock.

Sunday evening was the Gala down at the Coronado Springs Resort at Disney. I had gotten a dress before last year's Gala from Jennifer's mother-in-law that I didn't wear because Jennifer had worn the same color and I had already gotten something else. It was in the back of my mind that I would wear it this year. I waited until Thursday night to try it on hoping that my workouts would have worked enough so I could squeeze into the dress. That was a big giant NO. I sucked in as much as I could but there was no way Duncan could get the zipper up. Shoot! So I ended up Sunday morning at Ross looking for something suitable. Not that I spend much on my Gala dresses anyway but I especially didn't want to spend much on something that I would hopefully be de-growing (the opposite of out-growing...I just made that up) and never wear again.

Ron and Elaine came over to watch the kids and we took off with Allen and Tangie for our night on the town. We were sitting at the same table which was nice compared to last year when we went with Bruce and Jennifer but were at different tables. The entertainment this year was Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight. Unlike in past years where there is a) Only one entertainer and a) It's at the end, this year there were two and the first act was before dinner. Now, no disrespect to Smokey Robinson but when was the last time you said "Gee, I really wish I could go to a Smokey Robinson concert?" I pretty much figured that we were not the target market of the Gala organizers. But honestly, once you got past the plastic surgery, he actually was pretty funny and good. The vegetarian meal was delicious this year although, being the always starving breastfeeding mother that I am, I couldn't help but notice the vegetarian meal was like half the volume of the meat meal. Perhaps that's why I ate my whole dessert while most others left portions of theirs on their plates. At least, that's what I told myself.

Ran into some friends there. Weird seeing us all without our kids.

Smokey, pre surgery?

At age 73.

During this event, another event was happening. The Patriots and Broncos were playing each other in Sunday night football. In case it hasn't been mentioned, Allen and Tangie are big Denver fans since Tangie is from Denver. I made Allen swear under no uncertain terms that he would NOT get updates on the game because I was recording it and were were going to watch it upon our return. I did not want any inadvertent clues being shared. Thankfully, he complied although it was probably hard. I made sure I didn't get any updates either. Everything was going just right. And then, as we snuck out after Gladys Knight's second song, I ran into some people I knew in the lobby and what do you know, "Hey it's a great night. The Patriots are losing." Ahhh! So maddening. None of my three companions heard it though so at least they were spared.

Allen and Tangie went home and put on their pajamas and came back to watch it with us and Ricky (their kids were in Avon Park with Allen's parents). The Patriots couldn't have started off any worse with three straight fumbles and were losing 24-0 at halftime. I said it would just make our comeback all the more exciting. And if they didn't come back, I figured it was still a win-win because I was so stinking tired and I could go to bed before the end of the game. But I hung in there and slowly but surely, we made our way back into the game....and Allen and Tangie made their way home. Allen got too nervous and couldn't watch it here any more. I did feel bad on his behalf because the Patriots ended up winning with only two minutes left in overtime. It was seriously one of the most exciting games I've seen. Not to mention that it was like 20 degrees during the game and was very windy. What can I say but Brady is just plain better against Manning. If only I could say the same against the other Manning brother...The only thing I was mad about was that of all the games to go to overtime, why did it have to be the one we didn't start until 10:30? We didn't finish until 1:40 which made Sunday night another VERY short night.

Monday morning the show must go on no matter how tired Mom is. Unbeknownst to me, this whole week is chaos at the JCPenney picture studio since kids are out of school all week and everyone wants to do their Christmas pictures. I didn't know this little piece of information when I made an appointment a few weeks back. Epic fail on my part. We had an appointment at 11:20 and the place was bonkers when we got there. I was tempted to just leave but stuck it out for a bit (afterall, it's a lot of work to get the kids all dressed and spiffied up). Fortunately, the opened a second studio for the busy times and we got back about 11:45 and had our favorite photographer, Liz. Apparently a half year makes a big difference because Brady was completely cooperative this time unlike at his sitting for his second birthday. I got a few nice group shots of the four of them so I left a happy camper.

Waiting for our turn.

We went to see Santa afterwards but Brady kept his distance.

Yesterday we went to Christmas Tree Shops to look for a few decorations for the table and such for Thanksgiving. So yeah, don't wait until two days before Thanksgiving to shop for Thanksgiving stuff. The extent of my purchases were some brown plates. That's it. They had like nothing there. Evidently I am the only one in Orlando who procrastinates. Lesson learned.

We stopped at Costco and CVS afterwards and made it home just in time for lunch. This is where I'm always in a pickle because Colby is also ready to eat at this exact same time forcing me to prepare lunch often times while listening to him screaming. Because I'm so hungry, I eat at the bar while feeding him at the same time. This particular time, I needed some salt for my lentils and because I'm trapped, I asked Calleigh to get it for me. Well, Brady was NOT happy that I didn't ask him and he ran over as fast as he could to stand on the stool and get the salt for me. In his haste, he banged his chin off the counter and I could see the blood. Of course, I'm thinking "Hear we go again." and "Please don't let it be his teeth." I had to yank Colby off even though he had only been nursing for like three minutes and "throw" him on the couch. Upon close inspection of Brady, thankfully it was only a cut lip. We got the blood stopped and cleaned up and he was good to go.

We ran into Allen at Costco who took our picture.

Okay, I'm going to say it. Colby is my worst sleeper. This kid is killing me. We have had a few great nights where he will sleep all the way to like 5:30 but those times are fading in my memory. The last several weeks he is almost without fail waking up at 12:30, 3:30, and then 5:30. I don't feed him at 12:30 or 3:30 and he isn't bawling but he's awake tossing and turning and making noises. I imagine if I didn't address it, he would start crying and I believe he's too young to let him cry it out. So I've had no choice, it seems, but to take him in bed with me or in some cases, on the couch with me. I just don't know what his deal is. Also, he hasn't been taking his long afternoon nap like he used to. He's waking up after about 45 minutes. I think if I laid down with him he would go back to sleep but typically I'm trying to do school at that time and don't have the time to lie down with him. I certainly hope this is all a phase he is going to grow out of. I'm not used to this!

I've had him back in the swing the last week and then that took a bad turn on Sunday night when it completely stopped swinging. The music still worked so I knew it was plugged in fine. I suppose this is what you get when you buy a used swing. Those motors only last for so long (and the reason, no doubt, I've had to get a new one for each kid). I calculated I could get a "new" one at the consignment store on Black Friday for $63 but I really didn't want to. Duncan to the rescue! Monday night he did a little research and low and behold, discovered that the motor in the swing is the same motor used in a Glade Sense N Spray air freshener. I had gotten a bunch of those a few years ago for free with my coupons and I still had some. So see, it really does pay off. Sure enough, Duncan switched it out and it worked! I was supremely impressed. Kind of hard to believe that a baby swing and an air freshener would have the same size motor but indeedy, they do.

My hero!

So I've been noticing that Brady is, of late, displaying some behavior similar to his oldest sister. That is, not wanting to wear certain things. Calleigh went through a bad stage of that and still has problems from time to time. Aubree is pretty good about just wearing whatever I put out. But Brady has had a few times now where he says he doesn't want to wear that shirt or those pants. Now, to back up, let me say that usually he wears a button up shirt to church each week. And usually we'll say "Wow, Brady you look so handsome." On this particular day, I had gotten a button up shirt for him to wear. He took one look at it and says to me "Nooooo, I don't want to wear a handsome shirt."

In closing, I have to share this really stange, coincidental story as relayed to me by Amy Z at the Gala. About nine months ago, I was at a yard sale in Apopka where I bought a little green time out chair. I happened to take a picture of Brady sitting at the end of the driveway at that sale. I very rarely take pictures at yard sales since I'm so busy looking at things but happened to do so at this particular one and posted it on this blog. While Amy was reading it, she recognized that the picture was from the house they were going to be purchasing. What a coincidence. But then it gets stranger. Last week I posted a picture at a yard sale (don't know if I've even posted a picture from any yard sale since that one I just mentioned) of a lady holding Colby. At the Gala, Amy told me that the lady holding Colby was the lady they bought their house from! So she moved, had another yard sale, I went to both of those sales and happened to take pictures at both of them. Strange, huh??

A couple of other pictures...

Calleigh discovers she likes hummus. A big break through!

Obsessed with kissing Colby. Just like I was with Shawn when he was a baby.

My little three-month old peanut as of today

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with temps in the low 60's and bright sunshine. The day started out pretty chilly though and Duncan was a little cold to start off his traditional golf outing with Allen, Bruce, and Jared Clarke. The "feels like" temperature was only 33. Meanwhile, back at the homestead, things got under way when Jennifer and the boys arrived around 10 am with her simply delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I made some pumpkin pancakes (which I must say were quite good) and the day of eating was off to a great start. Chuck and Angie were here, of course, after arriving the night before and Ron and Elaine soon arrived as well. It was definitely a leisurely day of watching the parade, football, and preparing for the meal that would not take place until 5:30. Its nice because you don't feel rushed at all. Later in the day, the men came back from golfing and then the Isidro clan (including Allen's parents), Rick and Ana, and the Zbaraschuks arrived. All said we had 28 people including infants.

Jennifer mashing the potatoes

Aubree showing off the appetizer table

The gentleman checking out the Black Friday ads.

Of course the Isidros brought something fancy. And it was delicious!

The spread.

Grandpa (at least we think that was him) even put on a magic show.

Last year apparently people were lamenting because there wasn't any leftover turkey (what a shame) despite Jennifer having made a 35-pounder. This year she decided to go bigger but had to settle with two 20-pound ones since she couldn't find one big enough. She cooked one in our oven and then one in the Isidro's. And then, oddly, even though we had about the same number of people, they only ate one turkey. So something was very off. There was pretty much one whole turkey left over. I came down from putting the kids to bed and most everyone had left, including the Isidros who I had somehow thought were taking the turkey back with them (this was the one that had cooked - - is that even the right word? Baked? - - at their house) and the giant Tom was still sitting on my counter basically intact. What on earth was I supposed to do with it?? Thankfully Angie disposed of it for me which involved some flushing down the toilet or something and I don't know the rest. Anyway, everyone was so terrific with all the ladies helping to clean up. After the kids were in bed, I came down to find the kitchen wasn't completely in order and there were still some dishes in the sink waiting to go into the dishwasher which was running at the moment. I decided to rest my head for a few minutes on the couch which turned into more than a few minutes. When I came to, Elaine and Angie had my kitchen completely spotless as if nothing had ever occurred in there. It was so nice of them I was almost in tears. I really have the best family and friends.

My little nap provided me with the energy to look through all the Black Friday ads so I could see if there were any bargains out there that could not be missed. Mostly the answer was no but I saw a few things of interest. Please note that we were NOT out shopping on Thanksgiving evening although I did buy some poinsettias on Lowes.com at like 12:30 am. Why go into the store at 5:00 am when I can order online and have them ready and waiting for me to pick up any time?

Since Duncan had his little golf outing Thanksgiving morning, I felt like Friday morning was my day although I was out a little longer than he was. I left the house with Colby at 7:30 am and went to Once Upon a Child (two locations), Big Lots, Produce Market, Walmart (can't believe it), Walgreens, Babies R Us, another Walgreens (where I cleaned house big time), and Publix.

I had quite the adventure at Once Upon a Child, the Orlando store. First I went to the Ocoee one. They were having a 35% off sale from 7:00 - 9:00 am and then it dropped to 25% after that and so on. I got to the register at 8:45 and asked if I needed to pay by 9:00 and they quickly assured me that no, I just needed to be in the store by 9:00 and in fact, they were about to hand out pink slips of paper to people in the store so they would know they were there by 9:00. Huh, I thought, that makes great sense. I'm sure the Orlando store, which was having their 35% off sale from 8:00 - 10:00 must do the same thing. I got to that store at about 9:10 and didn't even look at my phone as I was busy loading my cart and keeping an eye on a mostly sleeping Colby. I finally went to pay and as the clerk was ringing me up she says "And you get a 25% discount." I said, "What?" and looked at my phone. 10:06. So yeah, turns out that you have to pay by 10:00 at their store, not just be in the store. I started pleading my case that with all the clothes, which amounted to $74, that clearly I had been in the store longer than six minutes. I asked to speak to the person in charge who just kept stating over and over again, "I'm sorry but this is how we do it. We aren't affiliated with the other store. I can't do anything about it." She made it sound like she was physically unable to give me the 35%. I said "Come on. I know you CAN give it to me. You just don't want to." They recommended that I email the owner and that was that. I was really ticked off, let me tell you. It only amounted to $7 but that people running a store could be so uncompromising to the "rules" even when situations such as this arise, was just mind blowing. In the age of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, why would you be so non-customer friendly? It's not like I was trying to take advantage of a situation. It was an honest "mistake" considering that none of their advertising on the sale (email, Facebook, flyer attached to the front door) gave any information as to paying by the deadline. Even a simple announcement at 9:50 saying the sale was ending in ten minutes so please bring purchases to the register would have been nice. But no.

I went back to the car and immediately sent an email off to the owner who, to her credit, emailed me back very quickly and wanted me to call her so we could discuss. I did and she was very reasonable and was pleased I had called her about the situation. She said they had been doing it this was for five years and never had a problem but she could see how it was confusing and that she needed to look at perhaps doing it differently. She took my address and said she would be sending me some coupons and such to make up for it. So thankfully this seems like it will have a happy ending. As you may or may not recall, this is the second incident I've had with this establishment. The first was a few years ago when they wouldn't give me a fourth stamp on my customer appreciation card even though I was at $39.97 and needed to get to $40.00 for the fourth stamp. This is all in the quest to get 20 stamps to get a 15% discount. Not to inherit half the store. Jeepers.

Anyway, the rest of my shopping was considerably less stressful although my "big" purchase of a portable DVD player at Big Lots for $34.99 did not happen. They were out of stock. Another store had them but it wasn't any where near me. Oh well. A bit later I stopped at Walmart looking for a safe they had on a sale and decided to just stop by the electronics on the off chance they had that same DVD player. In fact, they had exactly one of them. Jackpot. It was $59.99 but Walmart price matches and I had the Big Lots ad with me so I went to the register and sure enough, they changed the price and I left a happy camper. At least Walmart has that going for it. I really hate the Walmart near my new house but at least this was my old Walmart so I didn't feel as dirty shopping there.

Meanwhile, Duncan took the kids to Downtown Disney with Chuck, Angie, Ron, Elaine, and Russ. They were only there about two hours but a good time was had by all since they got to go on a couple of rides.

Friday evening we, along with the Bergherms, went to the Isidros for supper as they were lighting up their outdoor fireplace. Boy, did we need it. It was a chilly night and we had to don our turtlenecks and sweaters. Poor Colby had a really tough time. I put him in his little chair that I had brought and situated him outside by the fire with a blanket on. He started crying hysterically and I had to take him inside to calm him down which took a while. After a bit, I took him back outside and within a minute, he was back to crying again. This repeated itself again and all I can come up with is that he doesn't like the cold. That will not bode well in a couple of weeks!

Saturday night we were all geared up to go to a boat parade and other festivities they had going on at Lake Ivanhoe which is near downtown. It started at 6:30 so to get there in time, we needed to leave by like 5:30 which meant no time to cook supper. We were all chowing down on some cereal when I had the bright idea to check some details on the event. Thank goodness I did since I discovered it had been the previous Saturday night. Not sure who does a whole Christmas themed event before Thanksgiving but okay. It was still a win though because I didn't have to cook! We ended up going to Ikea and Mall at Millenia instead. I stayed in the car for the first bit at the mall while I fed Colby and Duncan took them in to the Apple store, where else. After a bit he sent me an SOS that Brady had a pee accident. I suddenly realized I forgot to pack a back up outfit. Oops. Fortunately walking around all wet didn't seem to phase the little guy. And yes, I realize we were in a MALL which has stores that sell pants but I wasn't about to pay those kind of prices (it's an upscale mall).

Duncan was looking at office equipment for work. The girls were dropped off in the play area, of course. Brady had fun (see picture) but when we picked the girls up, he was so excited and gave both of them big hugs.

Getting a treat at the mall.

Victory!

Sunday morning we went for brunch at Ron and Elaine's. Chuck and Angie stayed at their house for the last three nights after being at our house the first two so we were reunited with them. Angie and Elaine outdid themselves on the French toast and hashbrowns and I ate way more than a person who is looking to lose weight probably should be eating. But my rationale is that brunch is technically two meals in one so I could really eat as if it were two meals. After stuffing ourselves, we left for home and stopped on the way at our old Christmas tree lot where we picked out our tree. We only got a seven footer since I have no desire to pay big bucks for one that we'll only be enjoying for a week and a half. We paid $58 after using a 10% off coupon I had saved from two years ago.

Trying to get a photo of him in his Red Sox getup but he couldn't cooperate.

No, definitely not that one.

This one's a keeper.

Colby was part of the search.

As of this writing, only two ornaments have meet their demise.

We got home and Ricky came over to watch the Patriots game vs. Houston. Another 34-31 victory and a come from behind one although not as dramatic as against the Broncos. At some point in the afternoon, Duncan started looking for his wallet and could not find it. I started helping him look...the car, our bedroom, all his pockets, etc. with no luck. He was worried that it had fallen out of his back pocket when he went running that morning. After checking all the spots we could think of, I gathered the kids and said we needed to say a prayer that Jesus would help us find the wallet. A minute or two later, Duncan turns to Brady and says "Have you seen Daddy's wallet?" And Brady says "Yes, it's in the office." I go in there and start looking around and underneath the desk I come across an AmEx with Duncan's name on it which starts a trail of several more cards strewn about under there. Brady leads Duncan right to it all. So yes, while we were frantically looking for it and then saying a prayer, right in front of Brady, he seemed oblivious to it all. It did stick in his head though because when he woke up Monday morning the first thing he said to me was "I won't play with Daddy's wallet anymore."

I don't know what prompted it but Duncan had told Calleigh on Sunday afternoon that she was going to learn to ride a two-wheeler, finally. For whatever reason, it's just not something we've gotten around to doing. She's never expressed an interest in learning and we never mentioned that she should learn so thus, it never happened. But once Duncan did mention it, she was really, really excited. His plan was to take her over to the grassy area near our clubhouse and just let her go there. He took the training wheels off at our house and had her get on the bike while they were still here to just give her a few preliminary instructions. Instead, she just started riding. And that was that. He never actually had to teach her. She just started riding it and hasn't fallen once or anything. I'm assuming this is because she's 6 1/2 and most kids learn long before now. At any rate, now all she wants to do is go on bike rides. Not a bad thing, of course.

Monday morning I had a doctor's appointment so I dropped off all four kids at Ron and Elaine's. Chuck and Angie had a flight in the afternoon, back to Little Rock, so they were getting ready to leave as I arrived. Now get this. Their flight was at like 2:00 pm on Monday afternoon. They just got home at 10:00 am this morning. Wednesday! So it took them almost two days to get from Orlando to Little Rock. That is just insane and would greatly discourage me from ever flying anywhere during Thanksgiving. I don't know all the details that delayed them but the second night, which was in Houston, was because there was so much fog in Little Rock. I don't know if they will ever come back after that but we sure were glad to see them.

Tuesday we had a stay-at-home day which was greatly needed as I had to transition Colby to his 3-6 month clothes although in all seriousness, I almost think he needs to skip right to 6-9 months for a lot of the stuff. He's getting to be a big boy....almost 14 1/2 pounds. My other three were at this weight at six months. Maybe being chubby makes you wake up at night. I don't know. He's really not improving in this area. But, I'm improving. I've decided to embrace it instead of getting bothered by it. I realized this is my last baby and if takes snuggling in Mommy's bed at 4 am to go back to sleep, then so be it. I will never have a cuddling baby again and the shortened nights will eventually end. This too shall pass. Always one of my favorite slogans. One thing I did that has helped a little is to get him a new swaddle. The 7 - 14 pounds one was much too small and the 14 - 20 pound one was apparently too big because he kept breaking out of it. I found another brand, Aden & Anais, and decided to give it a try. It's a little different in that it has snaps rather than Velcro. It was working great but then last night he got an arm free. I'm hoping that was just a fluke. But seriously, why is it so hard to keep a kid in a swaddle? Someone needs to invent a better product. Go on Shark Tank or something. I'll buy it.

This morning we did some errands which included a stop at Publix where Brady suffered yet another injury. The bagger brought out our cart to load the groceries into the van. Brady seemed quite taken with her and was acting all silly. I got him out of the cart and told him to get in his car seat. He started walking towards the van and was looking back at the lady. When he turned, he walked right smack into the edge of the sliding door which I had obviously opened. Thank goodness there was no blood but he had a big welt on it. I still had Colby strapped to my chest in the Bjorn so it was quite a feat to hold and comfort Brady at the same time. Of course, he was crying and I had no binky but he gladly took Colby's. He sat in the front seat, whimpering, sucking on the binky as I got Colby settled who then started wailing probably because he had no binky. As I came back around to Brady, he popped the binky out, I think since he heard Colby crying, and said "I'm done" and handed it back to me. I wanted Colby to use a different brand so there would be no sharing of binkies but I guess in this case it worked out.

I think that's it. A few parting pictures.

Isn't he pretty much perfect?!

Good night!

LOVE this picture!

Sunday we had planned to head to the beach for the first time this year but a somewhat poor weather report turned us off. Now that we're farther west, the driving time to the beach has been extended to about an hour and twenty minutes and we weren't crazy about the thought of driving there and then getting stormed on. So, it was Plan B. This was the first Sunday in awhile that we didn't have some planned event (like a birthday party) and Duncan usually wants to do something since he obviously doesn't get to spend as much time with the kids as I do. Thus, we came up with going to Downtown Disney which we haven't done in a very long while. It ended up being quite warm (imagine that!) but nonetheless we enjoyed strolling along. The major attractions were the Dinosaur Trek restaurant (we just looked at all the dinosaurs but didn't eat) and the Lego store. The one drawback was that we didn't bring our stroller and Brady and Aubree, in particular, started getting tired and a little whiny from the walking. Daddy to the rescue...hence the picture above!

Digging for dinosaur bones or staring off into space. One of the two.

Daddy helping Calleigh build something or maybe just Daddy building something well Calleigh pouts about Daddy hogging the Legos.

Riding the carousel.

Going back to last week, our Friday was back to normal with yard sales after a week off from the convention. We are starting to get into the slow time of the year so I was surprised to find quite a few good sales especially in Ocoee which seems to be pretty rare. After quiet time, all of us headed over to our old townhouse in Winter Park to say good-bye to our tenants who have broken their lease early to move to North Carolina for a job transfer. At first I wasn't very happy that they weren't going to finish out the lease which ends on August 31 but in the end, it's really worked out well. We told them that we wouldn't charge them once we found a new tenant although we were going to make them pay for finding a new tenant. This time we hired somebody to find us one because I was not about to go through all of that again so soon. It's one thing to have people not show up to see the place when you live in it. It's another thing for me to drive clear across town and not have them show up. They found a new tenant pretty quickly at the same rent we were charging before so we're pleased. It's a single lady this time moving in which is at the end of June and since the old tenants moved out on Friday, it gives a few weeks to get the place in order.

Yesterday I took the kids to JCPenny to get their birthday pictures taken. We always go to the same place because I love the lady, Liz, who takes the pictures. I didn't schedule it until 11:20 but I was still running around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to get out of here in time for the appointment. Obviously I should have planned better but at the last minute I was trying to find coordinating outfits for them all to wear and just when I thought I had something figured out, I would realize one of the outfits was in the dirty laundry. I really need to do better planning. We did make it on time but then things got off a little rocky when Liz suggested a pink background to Calleigh for her pictures (major no!) and then made the mistake of calling her "princess." Thankfully Calleigh got past it all and took some great pictures with the green background she picked out. Of course, Aubree had to have the same one and she did great too. That left us with Brady. So yeah, not quite so smooth. The only way we could get him to take a picture was sitting on this beach chair prop and even then, he would barely smile. I also realized that I really didn't like how his hair looked. I had just washed it that morning and it looked too neat. Personally, I want to just give him a buzz cut for the summer, a look I love on little boys, but I've been outvoted by the other half of this parental unit. Anyway, we got a couple of decent shots and then I made the attempt to have a picture with the three kids. It just wasn't happening. Brady cried and wouldn't get in the picture and so that was the end of that.

It was all fun and games after we were done.

On the way home, Calleigh started asking me to tell her some stories. It's funny because when I was at the convention, in one of the lectures they advised that every parent should have at least a dozen stories ready to go so they can "pull one out" on short notice. I guess now was one of those times. I told her one I already told a few times about Rad hitting me with the egg in Nova Scotia and then my dumping (very expensive) milk on his head. She demanded more stories so I searched my brain for something new and finally came up with a story about getting pulled over for speeding when I was rushing to take the keys to the cash register back to Friendly's after a shift. I had no license with me but managed to get out of a ticket. Not sure how impressed a six year old is with that story but I commented to her, "Yeah, Mommy has been pulled over a few times for speeding, which isn't good, but thankfully I've never gotten a ticket." To which she responded, "No, no. Remember that time you backed up and bumped that car and the police gave you a ticket?" I stand corrected. And when is she going to forget that incident? Seriously.

Want to know the difference between a 2-, 4-, and 6-year old? Here you go. There's an old trick that you pull as a parent where if a kid isn't following you like they're supposed to, you just go ahead and act like you're leaving so that they'll follow suit. Well, it doesn't always work. For example:

(Nearly) 2-year old - Starts flipping out in the aisle in Publix so I threaten to leave him there if he doesn't stop crying and get up. When the crying doesn't stop, I start walking away and eventually I even turn the corner so he can't see me anymore. I peak around and instead of him following me in a panic, he's still sitting there crying and now several shoppers have started coming down the aisle from the other direction with worried looks on their faces as they see this little kid sitting alone in front of the freezer section. Epic fail.

6-year old - Is having a fit because I told her she couldn't bring a bunch of toys into the car (because they get left there and junk up the van) and insists that she isn't going if she can't bring them. Fine, I say. We'll just leave you here. "No, you won't because I know you won't leave me here by myself." Yikes. When did she start outsmarting me? Fail.

4-year old - We're trying to get to the pool and she won't put on her shoes to go so I tell her we're leaving and we all head out to the van with her left behind in the house. "No, no, no. Don't leave me!!" She comes running out of the house screaming with her shoes in hand. Yes! Mommy wins!

Some pictures...

Daddy took the girls to the park on Sabbath afternoon while Mommy and Brady napped.

Riding the tram to get over there.

Our garden is coming along. The lower right is lettuce which we've been using to make salads. The bottom left is an abundance of basil some of which I used this evening to make tomato/basil soup.

Another part of the garden. All the bushes in the back are tomatoes. We planted a ton of different kind of tomatoes since we love them so much.

Sabbath evening dinner outside. Can't wait to get the pavers put in which should be happening come next month.

Saturday night kicked off the conference finals for the Bruins vs the Penguins. The girls obviously didn't make it the whole game. They watched with me again last night which was a 6-1 Bruins victory. When I told Calleigh the score this morning she said "I'm glad the Penguins at least got one goal since that would make Papa happy." She knows that Papa likes Sidney Crosby and is rooting for the Penguins.

He told me that he had made a train. I guess you could say that is what a line of books and a sippy cup looks like!

Yeah, I know. You're thinking what's the point of this random broken down car picture? The point is that when Brady got out of the van at Publix this morning, the first thing he said was "That car is broken" just as clear as could be. It's amazing how well this boy is talking. And how he notices things.

How can your heart not just melt into a big 'ole puddle when you see this? Calleigh's arm around Aubree, holding onto her hand in the midst of sleep.

A bunch of rain this afternoon but that didn't stop the girls from playing in the back yard. They kept calling to me to watch their tricks. No hands!

Uh oh. It didn't rain any harder today than it has on many other occasions but I heard this strange noise this evening that sounded like a drip. Sure enough, there's a hole in the ceiling and the rain was dripping down. Nice! That will be fun to have fixed. Thankfully we're still under warranty. Let's see how quick they are to take care of this request.

It's always nice to have things to look forward to.

Brady turned two on Sabbath, June 8. Honestly, I could not love this little boy any more than I do. Why didn't someone tell me boys were as awesome as girls?!! Let's just hope TWO boys are as great as two girls.

Since it was Sabbath, it was a normal day with going to church. We sat with Jennifer, as usual, which brought up the subject of the car cake she was making for him. He talked quite a bit about that car cake! In Sabbath School, we all sang happy birthday to him which you can see by clicking here. I'm happy to say he wasn't shy about sitting in the rocking chair and getting sung to like Aubree has been up until this year. Just after Sabbath School, I got a text message from Jennifer which said "Is the party tonight???" Yes, yes it was. Poor Jennifer. She thought it was on Sunday and she didn't have any of the cake done so that sent her into a mini panic. It was an understandable mistake since usually all parties are on Sunday. I wouldn't normally have a party on Sabbath anyway but this was really more like just supper and a cake. After the one for the girls, I wasn't about to do decorations, games, etc. again. Too much work!

Since I wanted to keep it a very low-key event, we just had Ron and Elaine and the Isidros and Bergherms over for make-your-own pizzas, salad (using just lettuce from our garden), and fruit salad. Allen's parents ending up coming too because Allen and Tangie had planned to go out to see Blue Man Group after the party to celebrate Tangie's birthday which had been on Thursday. It was a nice time and thankfully we avoided our smoke alarm going off despite all those pizzas baking in the oven. Later in the evening we got around to Brady opening his presents and I wish I had gotten a video of him seeing his present from us...one of those little bikes with no peddles. His face completely lit up with excitement. The bike is for age 2 and up but unfortunately because he's so small, his feet don't even touch the ground on the lowest setting. Duncan just has to push him around. It's cute though because Brady keeps messing it up and says "The bike is too tiny." Maybe we can put it on storage and surprise him again with it for Christmas.

The gang with the birthday boy.

One of the gifts from Papa and Gigi.

His new bike. When he gets excited about something, he sticks out his tongue.

Sporting gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma had gotten alarmed when Brady tried on a wedding dress for dress up when she was baby sitting a few days ago. Hence, boy dress up clothes for his birthday!

The party was definitely over on Sunday morning. I had gone on Friday to look over the now empty townhouse with our rental agent and assessed the cleaning and such that would have to take place. Fortunately they had done a pretty good job of cleaning before they left but we still needed to clean the grout on the kitchen floor, all the blind and windowsills, do paint touch-up, and change some light bulbs, etc. This seemed like the best time to do it and fortunately Ron and Elaine were very kind enough to offer having the kids come to their place while Duncan and I did our thing. Cleaning blinds is pretty tedious work (hence, why I ever rarely do it!) and I was very thankful we didn't have a bigger place we were renting out. Some three hours later, we decided things looked pretty good but we determined that we needed to replace the dishwasher and that we needed to paint the upstairs hallway and downstairs bathroom. Both of those areas are still white and we were very dumb and never found out what shade of white had been used by the builder. So now if anything happens to the walls, we haven't had any paint to touch it up. Or, in the case of the tenants, they used a white we had in the garage (that we had used for trim) and used that and now there are two shades of white on the walls. Not good! Ahhh, the joys of owning a rental property. Thank goodness our other tenants have been there for years.

This week is Vacation Bible School (VBS) which we have been counting down for weeks. Seriously, I don't think I could take one more story by Calleigh about the snacks she got at VBS last year. Each time she would tell Aubree about it, she would tell it as if it were the first time she had ever shared this information. I've been excited about the whole thing on their behalf but one thing I wasn't looking forward to was the logistics of it all since it starts at 9:00 and it's a good 30 minute drive away. Brady doesn't even get up until 8:15 these days so I knew we were going to have to make some schedule adjustments. Added to that is that we are having Jamie here this week doing some painting. Anyway, we've made it work pretty well so far. So Monday morning on the way there, Aubree must have asked six times when we were going to get there. She was so excited about it! I've been curious how it would work out because Aubree is pretty much the opposite of Calleigh when it comes to being by herself or participating in activities with groups of people, etc. This would be the first step to see if she was ready to be on her own. I had requested that Aubree be in a group with Evan and I was hoping that would work out.

Heading in Monday morning.

The theme this year was "Athens" which is the story of Paul. As usual, the church was all decorated and there was a big crown. Calleigh is in a group with four other kids, two of which are named Marley (one being Marley Whitaker, her friend). Her leader was supposed to be a lady named Kristin but for whatever reason, she never came and so a lady named Amy filled in who apparently was nice because today Calleigh informed me that Amy would be with them all week and she was very excited about this news. Meanwhile, Aubree's leader is named Pearl (sorry, but I can't associate this name with anyone under the age of 70 but what do you know, it's a normal looking thirty-something) and she did end up with Evan and Kaleb both (we had not requested Kaleb because they usually group them by age and Kaleb is five while Evan and Aubree are four). A double win! Aubree had gotten to the group first and when she saw Evan you could tell how happy she was and she went and put her arm on his back to lead him the rest of the way to Miss Pearl. Miss Pearl's daughter, Alaina, is helping her mom with the group. She's probably around ten or eleven and has taken an apparent liking to Aubree and vice versa because now Aubree is talking about her all the time and this afternoon and evening kept saying she can't wait to go to VBS in the morning to see Alaina. It's so good to know they are enjoying themselves.

Aubree with Miss Pearl on the left.

Calleigh appears to have missed her cue with the hand motions on the theme song.

It's a happening place.

Meanwhile, Brady and I have been on our own. It's amazing how much easier it is to go places with one kid instead of three! And that's what we've been doing...going places. I haven't wanted to go all the way home so we've been hanging out mostly in Casselberry (not that it's a whole lot closer) doing various things. Yesterday you could see that he wasn't used to being by himself because he would say "Where'd Aubree go?" And then five minutes later it would be "Where'd Calleigh go?" And then it would repeat and repeat. He didn't say it as many times today though.

Just hanging out with Mommy.

Apparently VBS is very tiring. Calleigh came downstairs yesterday after quiet time and seriously fell asleep like this. After about 10 minutes, I moved her and she kept right on sleeping.

Today we had his two year well visit. Remember how I mentioned that when we were there for the girls' appointment he took off his shoes to step on the scale just like they did, completely unprompted. Of course, this time, he would have none of that. Without them there, it was all a dud. He wouldn't step on the scale or stand to get his height checked. Surprise, surprise said the mother with total sarcasm. So we had to go back to the baby scale and do the height lying down neither of which are as good. On the plus side, Brady is now on the growth chart for weight. Hurray!! Of course, I think a lot of it could be the fact that he had a bunch of pee in his diaper but nonetheless, he clocked in at the 10th percentile so surely there couldn't have been THAT much pee. He is still moving along nicely on his own personal curve so that was good to see. The doctor was very impressed with his talking abilities and commented to me that if you want him to be ahead in something, you would much rather it be on the verbal/intellectual scale than on the growth chart (assuming he's progressing on his own curve, of course).

Here are his stats with the girls as well for comparison:

Brady Aubree Calleigh
Weight 24 lbs, 11 oz (10th) 26 pounds 30 pounds
Height 33 inches (10 - 25th) 33 inches 34.5 inches
Clothing Size 18 Months
Shoe Size 5

He's still the smallest but hey, he and Aubree were the same height so that's progress. I'm only slightly comforted by the fact that Acadia has out-measured Camden at all the milestones as well. Something about these boys with the Brace genes. They are both smaller than their sisters. I'm hoping baby-no-name can break the trend.

As I mentioned, Jamie is here this week painting. We were holding off on painting the last four rooms because we wanted to do it all at once and we needed to know if the baby room would be painted for a boy or a girl. Ironically, we are now painting it the neutral colors of tan/brown. Go figure! The rooms he's doing are the girls (pale yellow, which, FYI, we've officially determined that yellows require more coats than other colors as we had to do two coats on their room and they got three coats in their bathroom which is a darker shade of yellow. So beware if you like yellow!), Brady's future room (navy blue with a red stripe), the schoolroom (light blue which historically, I've hated but decided to go with it since most of the walls will be covered up anyway), and the aforementioned baby room. As Jamie was wrapping up today he mentioned to me that his wife cleans houses and I was like "If only I had known that last week!" That would have saved me from cleaning the blinds myself. Oh well. I will know for next time.

Girls newly painted room. Time to start putting stuff on the walls and getting curtains!

The paint job we're doing on Brady's new room. This is just a sample!

And that's it. I can barely keep my eyes open because I didn't have a nap tonight. Have a good rest of the week!

Last week we wrapped up VBS at Markham Woods Church and this week the girls are at it again at Florida Hospital Church. Can't get enough of VBS...or can we? All went well with the girls the first two days last week and then came Wednesday. When I went and picked the girls us, Miss Pearl (Aubree's leader) informed me that Aubree had cried. With the theme being "Athens," they had a guy dressed up as Pual and apparently "Paul" had rushed into a room where the four year olds were waiting and yelled "An angry mob is after me!!" Aubree had interpreted him to say "An angry MOM is after me." which only added to her panic and she started to cry along with a bunch of other kids in the room. She did calm down and the rest of the morning went fine.

On Thursday she went to VBS as normal but she told me herself when I picked her up that she had cried again for me. So I wasn't surprised a bit on Friday morning when we got there and she told me she wanted to stay with me (on Thursday and Friday, Miss Pearl wasn't there due to an illness in the family so I'm sure that also added to things). That was fine and she accompanied Brady and me on our yard sales. She was so cute because the first thing she said was that she wanted to buy Calleigh something at a yard sale. We had a good morning and Aubree declared that she was the big sister which of course, she always is Brady's big sister but I guess she meant the BIGGEST one since Calleigh wasn't there. Since I hadn't been anticipating her being with us, although in hindsight I probably should have guessed, I had only brought a snack for Brady and before long, Aubree declared her hunger. I didn't want to get out so I went through the drive-through at McDonald's and got some french fries as a special treat. When Aubree realized what we were getting she told me, "Don't worry. I'll tell Calleigh we didn't have any." Good, good. She'll never catch on if that's what you say. But Aubree ended up being the one with the problem. When we picked Calleigh up, I made the mistake of asking what the snack was and when she answered "cupcake" and well, that just set Aubree off. She burst into tears and seriously, cried the entire way home. Calleigh tried to make it better by saying "Aubree, it didn't taste very good. Well, it was good but not VERY good." Thanks, that really helped.

Despite her tears and cupcake hysterics, Aubree was still gung-ho on performing in the closing program on Friday night so I was happy about that. They had made tunics during the week so they were all dressed up to look like Grecians complete with leaf crowns. Brady was excited for his own reasons. He was extremely taken with the mascot, aka "character" named Filos which was half cow/half horse. Apparently it was supposed to be a horse but looked like a cow. At any rate, all week, this is all he could talk about. He would constantly say "Go to BVS and see the character." And when we would get there and see it, he would go bonkers with excitement. The program went very well with the girls singing the theme song with the whole group (the very catchy "Yes, It's True) and Aubree singing "Love Round" with the four and five year olds and Calleigh "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" with the kindergarten group. Afterwards we had refreshments which the baby and I enjoyed immensely (meaning, I had more than one helping).

Filos. Cow or horse?

Miss Amy, Calleigh's leader.

The crown kept slipping down on her head.

Evan and Aubree, pals.

Waiting patiently for the program to begin.

Things got a little silly waiting for refreshments.

Sabbath was the last day for the girls in their respective Sabbath School classes since we will be gone the next two Sabbaths and they switch to their new classes in July. Well, Aubree switches at least. I was told by Pastor Barb that they don't have anyone to teach the class that Calleigh is going into next (Primary?) so she will be staying in her same class which would now become the class for the 4 - 6 year olds. That means the girls will be together again so from that perspective it will be nice. On the down side, Calleigh will not have not have same teacher as Miss Deanna and Mr. John are retiring. That is definitely sad news as Calleigh adores Miss Deanna. With Aubree leaving the three-year old class, Brady will also be moving to his normal class of the 0 - 2 year olds. So everyone is getting a new class. One thing that I thought was funny was that Aubree's teacher, Miss Patti, whom I help out every other week, commented to me on Sabbath that she saw Aubree at the VBS program the night before when she was there with her sister, Bonnie Shim. This whole time I had no idea she and Bonnie were sisters...I worked with Bonnie for many years at the hospital and her son, Adam, was the Bible boy in my wedding. Small world!

Opening a gift from Aunt Wanda at church.

Story time in Sabbath School. Notice Brady (in the white shirt) facing backwards! He stayed like that the whole time.

Graduation certificate from Kindergarten.

Father's Day was Sunday and we didn't do anything all that special per Duncan's request. I was willing to give him a day to himself but he told me that it was the opposite for him. Since he is away from the family a lot, he would rather spend it together. Having said that, he spent the morning at our townhouse preparing it for the new tenants (moving the washing machine out, steaming the carpets, changing light bulbs, etc). This was really the last chance to do it. During Brady's nap, I did some errands and then when Brady woke up he decided to take Brady with him to Home Depot and Lowe's and I was going to take the girls with me while I got a haircut (seeing as it had been seven months since my last one). Well, when Calleigh saw that Brady was going with Daddy in his truck, she flipped out. She loves going places in the truck, I think partly because she likes to sit in her booster seat (we still have her in a car seat in the van because it's safer than a booster, a fact that irks her when she sees other kids in boosters). To compensate, I decided we could get a treat and I stopped and got two little cups of ice cream for them, figuring they could eat it while I got my haircut or while we waited. As we pulled in to the haircut place, I noticed a truck that looked a lot like Duncan's and indeed, it was. It turns out he had brought Brady in for a haircut and as we walked in with the girls eating their ice cream, I was thinking "Uh oh. This may not turn out very well." Alas, Brady was sitting on Duncan's lap calmly eating a lolli-pop and didn't bat an eye when he saw the girls eating their ice cream and in fact, it was Calleigh who then declared "NO FAIR. I want a lolli-pop." Geepers. There is no keeping these kids happy.

Monday morning it was back to VBS, same time, different place. This one had told me that you had to be six to leave your kid there alone and I knew I wasn't about to stay there with Brady for three hours so I was afraid it wasn't going to work out but in the end, they said Aubree could be there since she would be with an older sibling. I also had a bit of low expectations on this one. Markham Woods is the caviar of VBS programs (150 kids attend and if you don't sign up in the first day and a half, you have no chance of getting in). They really have their act together. Considering that we signed up just last week for this one, I thought maybe it wouldn't be all that. But I was pretty impressed with their decorations and the parts of the program that I saw. Brady was, of course, eager to see "the character" but I kept telling him there may not be one at this one and there wasn't. But they do have puppets so that has partially made up for it. Aubree had put last weeks issues behind her and voiced no complaints when I left them yesterday. Braelyn is coming to this one so she accompanies us and the three girls are in the same group.

Brady and I went to JCPenney to pick up our pictures and he loved the mannequins.

He also loved the playground that we haven't been to in ages. When I said it was time to go he said "Two minutes" and then he went around to all the stuff and kissed it good-bye.

When I picked them up yesterday, I heard good reports on the way home but later on, Calleigh informed me that she didn't want to go back. "Why?" I asked. "My leader doesn't pay attention to me." she said. I don't know if she had really high expectations after her leader, Miss Amy, last week or what. I did notice today that the leaders are high school age kids and they seem to be on their phones a lot so Calleigh may have a valid point. Anyway, I told her that we were still going to go today because we were going to take Braelyn and it would be up to her if she wanted to stay or not. As I suspected, she did opt to stay. Aubree, on the other hand, said she wanted me to stay with her. I told her I couldn't and that got her upset so I told her she was just going to have to come with me and Brady which she did but again, here came the tears. They eventually stopped and she ended up having fun going to a story time and a consignment store but then as we neared the church to pick up the girls, she started telling me that she wasn't happy that she missed the movie and the snack. So I said, "Aubs, you could have stayed if you wanted." And she says "Well, I DID want to stay and I was trying to tell you that but you didn't give me enough time." Likely story. I told her she could stay tomorrow so we'll see how it all goes down.

This evening we had Cory, Amanda, Noah, and Jake Reeves and the Isidros over for a hot dog supper and some fellowship. They are in town from Georgia for a conference and we were thrilled to get to spend some time with them. We had seen Cory and Amanda a few months ago but this time they had the kids with them. Calleigh and Noah are only a few weeks apart in age and Jake is almost four. The kids had a great time outside in the kiddie pool and then they came in to play upstairs. Noah and Calleigh did quite a bit of wrestling despite our insistence they take it easy. Calleigh told me "I wish Noah was my brother." So there you go. I will remind her of that in like 15 - 20 years if they some how hook up.

Jaime has finished painting and we are really happy with the results. We had to take him over to the townhouse last week to do a little painting over there so he wasn't able to finish over here until yesterday (he had another job on Thursday & Friday last week). It took a whole day to do the stripes on Brady's new room but we are thrilled with how it came out. This officially completes all the painting to be done in the house so that is nice to have done! It was funny though because when he finished yesterday I took Calleigh up to see it and while we were walking out of the room (while he was still there) this she whispered this to me:

Calleigh:"Are you going to give him some money?"
Me: "Yes."
Calleigh:"How much?"
Me: I tell her the amount which is very reasonable.
Calleigh:"WHAT ON EARTH?"
Apparently it sounded like a lot to her but obviously she doesn't understand the going rate for this kind of thing.

School room. Clearly we have a lot to do in the next two months!

Brady's new room (in two months)

Brady's current room/Baby new room. Best picture I could get with Brady sleeping in there.

We got some rockers for the front porch...finally.

The countdown to campmeeting finally hit zero and on Thursday, June 20, we left for Maine (via Providence) with great excitement. Because of not going to Nova Scotia (major BOO which I'm still trying to wrap my head around), it was decided that Duncan would accompany us for the entire time. A major plus! It is so much better for all of us when Daddy is around. We flew on Jet Blue leaving at 7:50 pm. All went well although Brady got a little fussy at the end trying to get out of his seat...this was the first time he had his own and it was evident that he would have done better being able to cuddle on someone's lap especially as the hour got late. Believe me little buddy, my wallet wishes you didn't have your own seat either.

The excitement was mounting at the airport while we waited for our flight.

Brady was definitely all wound up.

Not that you could tell in this picture.

The girls are usually really easy on plane rides. They just sit and do their crafts.

We basically said hello and good-bye to my dad who unfortunately was once again having to be at Southern New England (SNEC) Campmeeting which was taking place at the exact same time as the Northern New England (NNEC) one (which is where we went). Thankfully next year NNEC has scheduled it to be back at it's normal time which is one week later than SNEC and my dad will get to come up and spend time with us. Kind of stinks to be all the way up from Florida for 10 days but only see your dad for a few hours.

My mom, Duncan, the kids and I crammed into my parent's van on Friday morning and headed out on the almost three hour trip to Freeport, Maine. The weather cooperated nicely for us and we got up there and set up without a hitch. Just like last year, we had four tents together: ours (which housed Duncan, Brady, and I), Shawn's (Shawn, Camille, Camden, and Acadia), my mom's (her and the girls), and Aunt Toni (her and Aunt Lori). Shannon and Finley did not come this year since the birth of her baby was imminent (more on that later). We actually had not reserved our same tent from last year and it got taken by someone else so we had a little different set up this year but it all worked out nicely in the end. Alison was in another section with Tyson and Westin and her mother-in-law and sister-in-law and Kelly, Steve, and Caleb were in their camper with a bunch of Steve's relatives (for some reason, I have no pictures of the three of them.)

We had barely left my parents house and Brady was already asleep. I guess arriving at like 11:30 the night before will do that to you.

We had two screen tents set up between our tents. In the evenings, we adults would hang out in here drinking Chai and tea, eating cookies, and talking. Loved it!

Apparently he really liked his yogurt.

A great time was had by all! The girls and Camden were in the Kindergarten (ages 4 - 6) class together and had meetings each day from 10:50 - 12:15 and 3:40 - 5:15. Their teachers were the same ones as last year, Kandace and Krista, and they did a fantastic job. The theme this year was Noah and the Ark so much of what they did centered around that theme including making little animal crafts each day to go into a homemade ark. In the evenings, they went to Primary (ages 7 - 9) from 7:30 - 9:00. The first night I was a little leery because the class started off with like a 75-year old man named Earl (so fitting, really) playing an accordion. It picked up from there thankfully. The brother of Kandace and Krista, Ben, told a continuing story each night in the first person from a book called "The Queen's Gold." He was Steven and he told how he had been shipwrecked and captured by pirates. Each night he would leave off at some cliff hangar and the kids would go crazy. And each night Aubree would start looking so tired after we would get to the meeting and when I would suggest that we just go back to the tent she would always mumble, "I have to hear the story." Obviously it kept her attention because she actually stayed awake every night to hear it even though I was skeptical she would make it.

Acadia accompanied the older kids to the afternoon class (Brady was napping during this time).

The girls were always happy to go up front and help with the songs.

The night class. That's Earl up in front on the right.

One night they had this dog character. As you can imagine, Brady went bonkers over it and it also started him talking about Filos from VBS again.

Brady came to the meeting each evening and then Duncan and I would take turns taking him back to the tent to go to bed around 8:15 or when he became too loud, whichever came first.

He would find ways to keep himself entertained. Here he is staring at a picture of Acadia on my phone.

Another night he sat next to Kathy and talked back and forth with her for quite a while.

Brady had one meeting a day which was from 11:00 - 12:15. Last year this overlapped with his morning nap time but this year we had no scheduling problems and he enjoyed it very much. I was pretty surprised how well he did because he has a hard time paying attention and participating in Sabbath School but he was very engaged the whole time. The theme was the ocean and he enjoyed the props especially the little turtle which he would always refuse to give back. The teacher, which is a friend of ours, Janel, started each class with prayer and every morning when she would ask if anyone wanted to come up and pray, Brady would always shout "me, me, me" and run up to kneel next to her. I don't think he's gone up once in his own Sabbath School at church when the teacher prays. Go figure!

Clowning around with Acadia with their glasses.

The bench that did in my foot. That also happens to be the little girl on the slide that did it.

Praying up front with teacher Janel.

Hanging out in the boat with Tyson.

When he realized he had to give the props back, he started hiding his favorites behind his back so he wouldn't have to return them to the basket going around.

Besides attending the meetings, the kids kept themselves busy by playing in the tents, playing in the field with other kids, and going to the playground (the sandbox there was a big hit). We also took some trips to LL Bean, of course. Brady in particular greatly enjoyed seeing the animals there especially the moose and talked a lot about going back to see them. I'm not sure what age it occurs to them, "Wait, these animals are all dead." Apparently not yet.

The view from the playground looking towards our tents. That big field was right across from our tents and proved to be a favorite play spot.

Gigi had picked up this dinosaur set at a yard sale the week before and it was very popular.

Intrigued by the moose at LL Bean. These moose had died because they couldn't get their antlers unlocked and were moved to the store and stuffed without the antlers ever being untangled.

We had several big rocks near our tents that became a great place to play or sit.

My boy. He melts my heart.

Sometimes it was fun to just sit and watch people go by.

The girls and their friend Anani who was also six but about the size of Aubree. Nothing wrong with that!

The necessary picture on the boot.

Calleigh was not happy to go to LL Bean on this particular occasion and sat sulking while Aubree lounged on the bed in the home goods store.

As I said, the rocks turned out to be very handy props.

Calleigh and Bruno in their almost matching shorts. They spent a good deal of time wrestling in the field on Sabbath afternoon and Calleigh was showing me all her bruises from it. I think she had five or six.

On Sabbath and the first few days of the week it was pretty warm, even for Florida standards, so we decided to hit up the beach on Monday. It was about a 45-minute trek to Popham Beach and it was well worth it. Just a gorgeous setting. The water was quite cold and honestly, it started feeling painful to me after just having my feet in for about a minute. Despite that, Calleigh still went in. But they mostly enjoyed just playing in the sand. My favorite thing from the day was when Camille and I each got out the bread to make PB&J's for our respective families. I started by making one sandwich for Duncan and asked him if he wanted another one and he said no, he was good for now. A minute or two later, my brother walks by with a plate full of sandwiches. Yes, FIVE sandwiches, all for him. Crazy! Shawn has always had a big appetite although one couldn't tell to look at him. Duncan still can't get over that Shawn downed 10 slices of bread in one sitting.

We did have one downside to the trip and that was watching the last two games of the Stanley Cup Finals with the Bruins and Blackhawks. Game 5 was Saturday night and Alison, Aunt Toni, Aunt Lori and I went over to the Peltons to watch the game (although they weren't home because Ron was running in a race the next day). It was a little eerie going into their house, almost like we were returning to a crime scene. This is the house that had the carbon monoxide incident in November where Ron almost died. I ended up having my own troubles there although on a much, much smaller scale. My back started hurting so I got the bright idea to move to the floor to watch the game. Within a couple of minutes my eyes started watering and I deduced that they must have or had a cat. I knew their dog died in the incident and if they had a cat it would have too but clearly, the hair must have still been stuck in the carpet if they had one. Those few minutes on the floor screwed my up for the rest of the week and even today. I have had terrible problems with my left eye and have had to wear glasses for a lot of the time. So annoying. To make matters worse, the Bruins lost the game so the evening was a total bust. Game 6 was on Monday night and I was glad to just stay back at the camp site and watch the game on my phone. Of course, that was a bust too. The Bruins had a 2-1 lead that disappeared with about a minute and half left to go. I had about 17 seconds to think to myself "Hmm, I don't know that I'm going to have enough battery to watch overtime" before the problem was solved for me...the Blackhawks scored to make it 3-2 and win the game and the cup. Boy, that did not end well. I decided it was at least much less painful watching it end like that on my iPhone screen than my big screen at home. Also, since the Bruins just won it all two years ago, I'm not in a position to complain too much about losing.

Al and I watching the game before my eye problems and the Bruins lost.

I had a few other little injuries too. I stupidly didn't put anything on my lips while we were at the beach so my bottom lip got burned and I had several cold sores appear by the end of the week. Not full blown but enough to make my lip puffy and painful. You pay attention to your kids and their sun protection more than to yourself, clearly. Then, on Wednesday while we were hanging out in Brady's class after the meeting had finished, a little girl knocked a wooden bench over on to the top of my right foot. It hurt but not too badly but right away Alison says "Corey, your foot!" I looked down and this big bubble looking thing had formed on the top of it. Thankfully Alison is an ER nurse so I knew I was in good hands. We quickly got an ice pack and a bandage. I could move my toes and it didn't hurt all that badly so the initial impression was that I hadn't broken it. There were no crutches so for the rest of the day I had to hobble around with no shoe and just the bandage getting dirty from the road. On the plus side, I got to use the handicap private bathroom but on the downside, boy, is it slow walking around with a bad foot. When I went to bed that night I was thinking I would have to find some crutches somewhere the next day because it was very tedious to get around. Amazingly, when I woke up, a lot of the pain (not that there was a ton) was gone and I could walk almost normally with a shoe on. Thank goodness. However, I'm still having some lingering pain all the way to today. For example, I can't kneel because it hurts the top of my foot. I'm just glad it's me and not one of the kids.

My injured foot. Every now and then, Brady steps on it or does something and I say "ouch" and then he quickly comes over to it, bends done to pet it and says "That's okay, that's okay."

Towards the end of the week we some of other relatives who would come just for the day like Leigh, Mia, and Bode. Ricky and Ana came on Friday and it was so good to see them since it had been since Christmas. We also saw Rad, Uncle Charlie, David, and Yully on Sabbath. It stinks to think that most of these people we won't see again until Christmas.

Mia was only here for one day this year much to our disappointment.

Camden with Bode.

Aubree with Westin (who was there all week).

Alison and Ana.

David and Yully with their new dog, Toby.

The weather was pretty good most of the week but then on Friday things went significantly down hill. We woke up to rain that morning and although it only rained in the morning, the damage was done. The area between the tents that we set up with our screen tents which contained our kitchen stuff and tables, became a mud pit and was basically unusable. Boots and the bottom of pants became grossly covered with mud which got tracked into the tents. By the time it came to pack up on Saturday night and leave Sunday morning, I was ready to get out of the those conditions. I feel like the conditions have not changed since we've been home although at least we are now in a house.

We ended up taking down our screen tents because it was just too muddy. That didn't stop Calleigh from having fun.

Our flight departed out of Providence at 3:50 on Sunday afternoon so we left the campgrounds and pretty much headed straight there. Unfortunately the flight got delayed and didn't end up leaving until 5:15 but what can you do. This time we were on Southwest and as soon as Brady sat down in his seat he started messing with the seat back in front of him and saying that he wanted his movie on. We had to break the news to him that this plane did not have it's own TV like we had on the way up. We had the same seating arrangement as the before. The girls and I on one side and Duncan in the middle seat and Brady in the aisle seat in the aisle across from ours. About half way through the flight, Duncan realized he had gotten the shaft with the seating arrangement because Brady was having some challenges. I was peacefully reading a book with Aubree asleep and her head on my lap while Calleigh worked on a craft. Thems the breaks, kid. I said I didn't want to wake Aubree up so we would just have to keep it the way it was. He said next time, he wasn't getting Brady but I reminded him that next time I would have an infant on my lap so he would get all three. Eventually we did switch Aubree and Brady and I do think Brady did much better anyway to be in a middle seat next to one of his sisters for entertainment. Not sure if she agreed with that though. Ron and Elaine kindly picked us up and vacation was officially over.

Waiting for our flight. I came back from the bathroom to find Brady cuddled up against Aubree's chest. I couldn't get a picture in time of it but here it was at the tail end. It was so cute.

One incident with Brady I will share from the trip. We were in Shaws getting groceries and Calleigh had to use the potty so in the four of us traipsed, all of us going into the handicap stall. As Brady is want to do, he immediately went to the toilet and started flushing it. After he did it about two times and made no move to stop, I firmly told him to stop immediately. Of course, he did it again. I took his hand and smacked it a couple of times saying "NO." You know, a little spanking on the hand. Nothing crippling but enough pressure to sting and to get the message across. He immediately starts crying like he's dying and goes right over to Aubree, puts his arms around her for a hug and some comfort and says "Mommy hit me." Apparently I need to teach him the word "spank" as compared to "hit" since the last thing I need is for him to go around telling people that I hit him.

A few more pictures from campmeeting:

On Friday we went out to lunch at Amato's (sp?) to avoid the rain. Brady is quite perplexed by something on screen.

The three girls cousins wearing their matching pillow case dresses made by Camille.

Duncan had to give Brady an emergency bath due to a diaper leakage issue.

Another day we went to Panera for lunch.

We also ate at the cafeteria for breakfast a couple of times. This particular morning they had really good cinnamon rolls.

Brady slept very well although the last few days he started waking up around 6 and wanted to come into bed with us. We had a really, really loud sound machine and we honestly couldn't hear anything even though people around us would stir starting around 6:30.

We had a big group meal on Sabbath afternoon. What else? Haystacks!

Have I mentioned how glad I was that Duncan was there?

They did slip-n-slide on Thursday afternoon with their class. Unfortunately this was the day it started getting chilly. I had a sweatshirt on but that didn't stop them.

Monday morning I had an OB appointment and since I knew it was be a quick one I brought the kids with me. Unfortunately I was out of non-messy snacks and brought some Saltines with me to keep the kids busy while we waited. It was my second time in the new building and had I gotten lost, not to worry, we left a distinctive trail of crumbs to find our way out. I was quite embarrassed actually. Note to self on that one. The appointment went well and I measured right on for being at 31 weeks. I got my C-section scheduled for Tuesday, August 27 at 8:15 so it's nice to have that squared away. As my doc was leading me to the scheduling area she asked me off offhandedly if I was scheduling a tubal as well. I said "no." Boy, did she give me a dirty look when she said "Well, you know, this is your fourth C-section and it really becomes much less safe after you've had that many to have another one." To be clear, we are not planning another kid but we just don't want to take permanent measures at this juncture.

Speaking of babies, Shannon had her baby boy yesterday evening in what I can only describe as the easiest delivery I've heard in quite some time. He was due today but came a day early much to her relief. Extended cousin # 14 is named Griffin Michael weighing in at 7 lbs, 1 oz. Considering that she had a scare at her twenty week ultrasound when they told her they thought she had a hole in her sack (not good), him being born healthy and with all his appendages is a major blessing.

On that positive note, I will wish you good night and happy 4th!

Last Friday was Independence Day and our schedule included a parade that morning in Winter Garden. This was the 10th annual kids' parade and we were excited to join the tradition. I was happy to have Duncan come with us as I wasn't sure how long things were going to go and I was thinking of all three kids petering out along the route and my having to somehow get the three of them somewhere in my current physical state. The route ended up being maybe a half mile at most and all three did fine so I didn't need to worry. It was a neat experience. It started at 10:00 but we got there a little early to decorate our wagon and scooter with free decorations they were handing out. If we had gotten there at 8:00 we could have gotten a free breakfast too but that would involved us getting up early and I wasn't interested in that. The parade was mainly just kids and their parents walking with their decorated conveyances but there was also a paddy wagon and a truck carrying three guys playing instruments. We really enjoyed it all!

Waiting for the parade to start

Besties on their scooters

The paddy wagon. I was so surprised when Brady was looking at the pictures on my phone yesterday and said "paddy wagon." How did he remember that??

Tangie and Jennifer and their broods.

The front of the parade. It was on a divided road and since we were at the end, we could said the front coming by us on the other side.

Triplets. Two boys and a girl just like our friend Ashley's.

The afternoon wasn't quite as fun for those able to do physical work. I was happy to take a little snooze while Brady napped. Duncan, the girls, and Ron and Elaine, who were so kind to come and help, all worked on our backyard. We pulled the trigger on a play set and thus came all the work of preparing for it. Our backyard has a slight slope along the back so Duncan wanted to flatten it since we were going to put one end of it against the back. I think the work ended up being a lot more than was anticipated. They had to get rid of all the grass first and then the extra dirt. This is quite intense on a July afternoon in Florida (at least I assume so since I wasn't doing the work!). Let me tell you, Elaine was working like a dog. This is a lady in her mid-60's and she blows me away with how much she is able to do. Both she and Ron were a huge help to Duncan. Aubree was also quite helpful. We've come to the conclusion that of the two girls, she is the one who is more interested in working on projects or helping out. She's definitely the gardener who helps Duncan with everything garden related. She probably worked for at least a half an hour, shoveling dirt into the wheel barrow. I was quite impressed with how long she stuck with it. Then, when Calleigh heard that we were going to be paying Aubree for her work, she got very upset and started complaining that it wasn't fair. It finally connected with her that SHE should start working and she would also get paid and at last, she picked up a shovel and contributed.

Aubree digging in.

Calleigh finally helping. I'm sure she can't wait until her two brothers can do all of this work.

With all the dirt getting removed, we created a huge dirt pile in another part of the yard that has been a popular play spot for the kids. I'll be sad to see it go (more on that later). They pretty much completed all of that work on Thursday afternoon and then Duncan spent Sunday building a wall along the perimeter to keep the dirt from collapsing. And to think the work isn't over because once the play set arrives (which should be by 15th), there will be many more hours of labor involved. Any volunteers welcome. Ha!

The semi-finished product.

To go along with that happening in our backyard, we're excited that our pavers will be installed next week. It was all very up in the air because we have had very poor communication from the company we went with to do the installation but despite that, we're moving forward. Even though they weren't getting back to us, they still have had us on their schedule this whole time to start on the 15th so hopefully everything will work out fine. They will be here probably the whole week as we are getting the pavers installed from one end of the house to the other and then also getting three trees installed along the back fence.

But back to the 4th...we had planned on meeting up with Isidros and Bergherms in Winter Garden for early evening festivities and then fireworks but between not finishing up the backyard work until after 6:30 and then it raining, we put a hold on that and ended up treating Ron and Elaine to dinner at Mimi's instead. It was a well deserved meal out for all the hard work by everyone (well, I did have to "work" hard on watching the kids play on the dirt pile and making sure they didn't drown in the kiddie pool. Hehe). We left the restaurant just in time to get into downtown Winter Garden for the fireworks. As expected, there was no parking to be found so we just started circling around the block and watching the fireworks as we drove. Calleigh was NOT happy with this and wanted to get out. I had Duncan drop us off and we sat along a sidewalk to watch. But then I started getting paranoid that it would end and they would block off the road because of all the people leaving at once and I would be trapped there with the kids at 9:30 at night. After Duncan went by us once, I called him to hurry back. As it turned out, he barely made it back because he said they indeed started closing roads and he had to sneak by two cop cars blocking the road off. Whew! That was close. What we deciphered from the fireworks watching is that Aubree does not like the really big ones because they make the loudest noise (each time she would bury her face in my shoulder) but Brady isn't phased by any of it. Tough guy.

Friday we were back on the yard sale circuit after several weeks on hiatus. As per usual in the month of July, there are not millions to be found but we still found a few and had great success at one. Calleigh found a set of 16 nature books that we got for $5 and we are all very excited about them. The first one was about whales and dolphins, which we've already finished, and now we are on to bears. It's great to see them so excited about nature. But then, what should we expect from Nature Hunters?!

These books have a lot of meat to them!

Sabbath was the first week for the kids at their new Sabbath Schools. Or, in Brady's case, old Sabbath School since he is now back at his real Sabbath School for the 0 - 2 year olds (which he hasn't attended in a year since he's gone with Aubree to the 3-year old one). The girls were very excited to be together and although the new teachers (who are actually rotating each week with three others), did a great job, the reality of not having Miss Deanna and Mr. John there set in. Oh, if only they hadn't retired! Since we only have one kid that needs to be monitored in Sabbath School at the present moment, I'm able to handle that on my own so I told Duncan he has seven weeks to go enjoy adult Sabbath School before we're back to two kids again.

Saturday evening we were invited over to the Isidros for roll-your-own night (meaning, sushi). It has really grown on me, I must say. The best part is that I make Duncan make them for me since he's so good at the rolling bit. There were several other families there so we had quite an enjoyable evening between the food and the company.

Sunday, as I mentioned, was more yard work for Duncan. At one point, I took the kids all to Target for some shopping. I think at this point I'll mention that we've started the Dave Ramsey for Kids program. For those that don't know, Dave Ramsey is a financial guru who has a radio show and has written books about being debt free (basically, you should use cash to purchase everything with the exception of a house). My parents had given the girls kits and books for Christmas and we decided it was time to implement it. We set up a list of chores for them to do and decided they will get paid $0.50/chore each week. This does not include things they should be doing every day like getting dressed, putting clothes in the hamper, making their bed, etc. It does include, however, other things like dusting, clearing off the dishes, getting the mail, and other extra things we have them do. They have three envelopes to put their cash in...Give, Save, Spend. We've taught them about tithing, which is the envelope you first divvy out money to and then you split the rest between Save and Spend. We paid them each a couple of dollars for the yard work and then also paid them on Sunday for that week's chores. After putting money in Give, they decided to split the rest evenly between Save and Spend. Dave advises that for "Save" the child picks something out and then you discuss how much you will put in each week towards purchasing it and how many weeks it will take. Thus, they are working towards a goal.

That was the object of going to Target...to pick something out. But they also each had $2 burning a hole in their Spend envelope. As we walked around the store they kept asking how much everything was and my usual answer was $15 or $20 and you could see them getting more and more deflated that everything was so much money. We finally came to the section that had some cheapo toys that they could afford with their $2 (or, $4 since they had already determined that they could combine money and buy something together). But I was so proud when they finally decided that they weren't going to be buy anything at all that day and instead, move the $2 into their Save envelopes so they would have more for later. Yes!

While we were at Target, Duncan sent me a text message that took me a moment to figure out. It was a picture of our garage...with a black snake in it. Just great! I don't mind bugs, spiders, cockroaches, whatever, but snakes I do not like one teensy bit. He got it out and I know it was a harmless racer snake but I will be thinking twice now when I walk around our garage or put my hand in a bin of clothes to get something out. Yes, I know. I live in Florida. What do I expect.

So far this week we've had our carpet fixed (it was sticking up in some spots), been to the library, the playground, and then today we went to meet a potential new pediatrician. The kids have been going to their old ones across town but with the baby needing to go much more frequently, I don't feel like a 35-minute drive each time. Hence, the search for one closer to home. I thought the doctor himself was pretty good but the problem is that it's just himself. Meaning, if he's on vacation or sick or whatever, I have to go find some other doctor at a different office rather than just seeing a different one at the same practice. So, that's a bit of a turnoff. We'll be meeting another one next week that has three other docs at the practice so that may be more promising.

Monday evening we went out a day early to celebrate Jennifer's birthday. We met up with them and Allen and the kids at Mimi's in Altamonte. Thankfully it was pretty slow on a Monday night and we were able to sit in a semi-private room because the kids were all over the place and somewhat loud. Some day I know we will look back on it all with nostalgia but for now, man, it's a pain in the neck. Finally, towards the end of the evening we did a game to see who could stay quiet the longest. Calleigh, Evan, and the twins quickly were out of the game and that left Blake, Aubree, and Braelyn who all lasted until the end. I gave each of them $.50 for their victory. Well, that set Calleigh off on a big tantrum. It wasn't FAIR. Oh, how many times do kids utter those words?? Now that she has her money envelopes, money has become far more important and she proclaimed that she didn't know you would get money for it because it was just a game. This was going on and on as we left the restaurant but lucky me, I didn't have to listen to it all the way home because Duncan and I switched cars so he could take the kids home and I went to a movie with Jennifer. Thank goodness! We went and saw "The Heat" with Sanda Bullock and Melissa McCarthy and it was totally hilarious.

This evening Ron and Elaine came over with Elaine's sister and brother-in-law, Angela and Alan, who are on "holiday" from England. They are so funny and part of the fun, of course, is listening to their accents and how they have a slightly different way of saying things. A trash can is called a rubbish bin, for example. They had dinner here with us and Duncan took them for a walking tour of the neighborhood and then after the kids went to bed, we sat around trying to get some nice English name suggestions for the baby. I'm not sure that Rupert will fly but we did come up with at least one good one by evening's end. They are around until mid-next week so we will see them again.

So, the last few days Brady has become obsessed with his pockets. Whenever he is dressed, all he wants to do is have his hands in his pockets. I have no idea where this idea came from but it's rather amusing. If he takes his hand out for a minute or two and then wants to put them back in, he often gets baffled with finding the opening again so he'll start saying "Where'd my pocket go?" like someone came and took it or something. Other times he will get frustrated because he'll walk with his hands in his pockets to the car but then can't get them back in once his car seat is buckled up. Then, this morning when we were in the waiting room at the pediatrician's office, he was playing with some toys with Aubree in a kids' section out of my line of sight and he started to cry. I walked over and found him lying on the floor. He was crying because his hands were in his pockets, he'd fallen over, and didn't know how to get up without taking his hands out. Oh, the frustration!

In closing, here is a question Aubree asked me this week...in all seriousness. "When it rains, is that because Jesus is using his hose up in heaven?"

Have a great week.

We tried a few scientific experiments. Pencils can be poked into a bag of water without it leaking. Who knew!

Brady happily played with this big lump of Play-Doh for like 30 minutes by himself.

One of Aunt Wanda's students came over to give us a schpeel about some knives he sells for his company. Very nice knives but at $600 a set, ah, we're good.

The cherry tomatoes in our garden are flourishing.

Sister torture...although he seemed to be a pretty willing participant.

More Stitches & First Day of School

Homebodies

Chicken Stalk

Going Solo

First Smile

Schedule Change

New Car

Two Months

St. Pete Beach

Moving On Up

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The English Relatives

Home Improvements

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, & 2-Wheeler

Family Time

Brady is Two!

More VBS and Good Friends

Campmeeting 2013

4th of July Festivities