New Car

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.