My so-called life

Here are a couple of weird things that happen every day around here.  Maybe they're common to everyone, but I have a hunch probably not.

For one, I feel like I wipe someone's butt like 8 times a day.  Call me crazy, but that seems like a lot for 3 kids!  Seriously, Caleb and Nathan both poop about 3 times a day.  I mean, I'm happy they're so regular and all and have healthy digestion (I've read you're supposed to go at least once a day), but give a mom a break!  I'm usually hesitant to go places at certain times of the day because I know nature will call.  One time Caleb had 3 adult-sized poops before noon!  How all of that fit into his tiny body, I'll never know.  People, you'd be jealous of these too.  They are so clean and perfect, they require virtually no wipes, but I have to wipe him anyway, of course.  Sorry for all the details, but those are just the facts.  And in his 4 1/2 years of life, I don't think he's ever not pooped.  In fact, if David and I talk about it, it's usually over the fact we think he only pooped once that day and wonder if he's going to wake us in the middle of the night to wipe him.  Ha!  I think I need to get on that getting-him-to-wipe-himself thing stat!

Another weird thing I think is probably uncommon is I usually have to wake all of the kids up from their naps.  And it's hard!  I don't think Nathan has ever woke on his own, but a handful of times.  And this is after they have napped for 2+ hours!  I wake them because I don't want them sleeping past 4, or much longer than 2 hours because I want them to sleep well at night.  I'm not complaining much about this one.  I know what a blessing it is to have kids that love to nap.  I usually get at least an hour to myself when all of them are down...or in Caleb's case, reading in his room.  But those couple times a week when Caleb does nap, I have to wake each kid up.  Sometimes it takes like 30 minutes to get them to wake up!  Ugh!  I dread getting them up for school during the teenage years!  And they are usually somewhat grumpy and groggy from being woken, so I have 3 boys that want to sit on top of me and cuddle.  And many times I'm trying to nurse Matthew!  I need another set of hands!  :)

Not sure if those are normal for everyone, but it's definitely part of my so-called life.  :)

Hello again!

Hi long lost blog!  How is it already summer?  Where did the last 2 1/2 months go?  David bought me a new tablet, so my camera and computer were forgotten for awhile.  I think I can blog from my tablet, but I store all my pics on my computer, so the blog would be kind of boring without picture updates!

Here's a quick little phone dump, and a little update on the boys.

Me and Matthew coming down the stairs after a nap.  We make this trip many times during the day, and we always stop and look in the mirror.

Aunt Susie visited us and brought some cool garage sale finds - a cool truck and a bunch of mini dinosaurs.  This was the creation they came up with:

Matthew likes to join in with his big brothers.  He's rolling over quite easily now.  But sometimes he gets stuck on his stomach, and forgets how to roll back.  So he'll get frustrated.  Luckily, with two older brothers, there is usually something entertaining going on.

Nathan wanted me to tuck him in and make him "snug-a-wee."  And he wanted his animals to peek out.  What a cutie!

Matthew was laughing at his brothers on the playground.  Just a matter of time before he's joining them!  Poor little guy has been neglected on the blog.  Gotta try to do better about updates on him.  :)

We had a lot of baby toys stored in the garage, thinking we were done with them.  But our little surprise Matthew gave us reason to keep them and bring them back out.  Of course the big boys loved playing with them.  It was like Christmas over here.

We participated in the annual Father's Day fishing tournament.  No catches again!  We must have bad Father's Day luck.  Nathan was reeling in a really big one, but it got away right before pulling it up.  Maybe we'll get lucky when Matthew participates with us next year.

Here is the video:

The boys love taking Boomer on a walk.  How cute are they holding hands?

We had Matthew's parent commitment services at church.  It's always a special time to pray for our boys and dedicate to raise them in the Lord.  Here is the picture we used:

Matthew means "gift from God."  And the verse we chose for him is "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."  Romans 12:10-12

Here are the growing families of our wonderful friends!  We've been through lots of babies together!  It's fun to do these meaningful ceremonies together.

And we took some cute pics of the boys this weekend.  It's getting a little easier now that Matthew is more stable.

Photo-a-day: day 31

Happy Easter!

Photo-a-day: day 30

We were so happy to find out there were some bluebonnet patches close to our house!  After attempting our pictures, there is no way we could have driven any farther to get them!  It's always a little chaotic to find a good spot, set up the tripod, and wrangle the kids.  But I think we did it!

I wish I would have had more time to pose the boys and take artistic pictures, but I had to take what I could get.  They just wanted to run around like crazies in the field.  I was thankful enough that they sat for the family picture.  We even let them take turns pushing the remote for the camera.  I'll post some of those cute pics later.

Here was our attempt at a brothers picture.  Since it looked so silly, I had to add some thought bubbles.

Photo-a-day: day 29

We made an Easter garden today for Good Friday.  It's a hands-on activity we've done for the past 3 years to tell the story of Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead. 

The boys know the story really well.  Caleb is especially interested in the Easter story this year.  He was so excited when he found the Palm Sunday story in his Bible after I told him about it last Sunday and they did a craft about it in church.  He's been asking so many questions: "Why was Jesus sad?"  "Why didn't they like Jesus?"  "Why did they take his clothes?"  "How did he get his clothes back? (after the resurrection)"  When I told him I guess God just gave him new clothes, he said, "No, they were the same ones."  Ha!  I guess that's what the picture book shows.  His little mind doesn't stop.  I love that he's so curious.  He gets really excited when we read the part about Jesus' resurrection.  He has to tell me about that part when we read about the cross.  He knows it's the good news.  He knows that the darkness on Friday isn't the end of the story.  Who wouldn't want to turn the page for the victorious ending?