Our first pink

So this afternoon we got our first pink thing in our house- my wonderful neighbor gave us his baby girl's carseat-it's pink & black and looks brand new. K thought it was pretty neat that we're going to have a baby girl & someone gave us something pink.

We had a good day. "Pops Leon" (as the boys call him) came for lunch- I think he may have been amazed by the amount of chilli that T & C each ate. The boys were excited that he came to visit. I was glad too- it's always good to catch up and he definitely made my errands easier this afternoon. I thought about staying longer after T's doctor appointment since it was so quiet with just one boy there :) and it's amazing how easy it is to pick up a few groceries by yourself! Very good afternoon! We went to K's karate & T's gymnastics after that. K enjoys his karate and T absolutely loves gymnastics- although I wasn't sure if we were ever going to leave the balance beam today.

Yesterday was another good day- we had new friends from our neighborhood over- an adorable little girl C's age & cute little boy T's age. The kids had a blast playing. I'm so glad God puts great new people in our lives. We had a great time and it helps me focus less on missing James. The boys always ask for "big Daddy"- the full screen skype picture. The boys have been doing lots of "preschool" (their favorite time of day besides snacks)- making granola & flourless cornbread today, making feltboard Thanksgiving story characters, lots of coloring and blocks (K made him playing soccer).

Great weekend!

After our wonderful ultrasound where we got to see our beautiful little Kayleigh for the first time, our weekend continued to be good. When I picked them up from Rodriguez CDC, the boys said they had a really good time and they ate lunch without me (a big deal to them!) They were a little too excited to nap- either about their baby sister or Grandma & Uncle Brian coming to visit. C was all over the place when they got here- a combo of excitement & exhaustion! The boys are always so excited to see our family visit that I don't get much time to visit- so it was nice to have a car ride with Brian to catch up with what he's up to. When we got home, the boys tried to rush me out the door which was okay with me since I'd been looking forward to my night out with the s for a while. 12 of us went to Olive Garden for Christy's baby shower. It was wonderful to have a meal where I could have whole conversations, only feed myself, & only use one napkin. We had a great time! I got home way past my bedtime. The boys went to bed "in the middle of the night." (After dinner, K saw how dark it was outside & said "it's the middle of the night," headed to his room, & got ready for bed.)
This morning the boys ate their weights in pancakes (although we saw today that C is up to 36 lbs so maybe he didn't!) It was nice to have people helping flip and cut all those pancakes too! T took a good nap & the big boys played with Grandma & Uncle Brian while I cleaned up our attic, ran some errands by myself, & got my haircut. Then we all had lunch at Chick-Fil-A (Sat lunch is a crazy time there) & went to Fascinate-U (the children's museum.) T now knows that he really likes to copy the big boys doing everything- driving firetrucks, demolishing construction sites, mailing packages, ... The boys were very happy to sing "Happy Birthday, Uncle Brian" again this afternoon (I missed the first singing last night.)C really wanted to go home with Grandma but K told him he'd have to go to work if he went home with her. T was our only napper this afternoon so he got to stay up a little later than his brothers & started putted shapes into the shape sorter tonight.

Beautiful Baby Girl!

We were so blessed this morning to go have a wonderful ultrasound. I knew this baby was wonderfully made & knit together by God, but it was so good to see. We're also very excited (and a little nervous) to find out we're having a baby girl! The boys are excited about their baby sister Kayleigh Grace. She was quite the busy girl- she's practicing going fast to keep up with her big brothers! She stayed still long enough to see that she is a baby girl and was on the go after that. What a blessing! And James got to call me soon after- he was excited to open the pink Cowboys' onesie.

Now I get to celebrate tonight- we're going to have cake to celebrate Brian's birthday. Then I'm going out with friends while the boys play with Grandma & Uncle Brian. What a good day!

Thankful Thursday

Since a dear friend reminded me to be thankful, here are some of the many things I'm thankful for.
Today we had an absolutely beautiful fall day & 3 boys who were well & could go out and enjoy the beautiful day!
We've met some great new people lately who I look forward to getting to know better. I was able to IM with James which is definitely not the same as him being here but it's good to be able to talk to each other. Tomorrow is my ultrasound and I will be able to see this baby that God knit together in my womb. I have some great friends who prayed for me while the boys and I were sick. I assume the political ads are off the air now (the good news from them is I mostly stopped watching TV & now have time at night for reading, blog updating, facebook time wasting, or I guess I could clean my house better!) I'm thankful to God who gives all the good things.
I could go on and on with things I'm thankful but right now I'm very thankful for a quiet house so I can go try to get some sleep before our big day tomorrow!

Out of the house

You won't believe that I went shopping again- I used to think that I would go insane if I had to go shopping; today I went to stay sane. We were having quite the morning. I'm not sure if the boys were upset that I stayed up & watched a movie last night (Seabiscuit) or upset about the bad news on the election. Either way, T was up at 5:15 and C not long after him and neither one happy. When we all finished breakfast before 7 am- I thought we're in for a long day. When C didn't want to leave my lap, I was really worried. So we went shopping- three stores- none of them walmart or the commissary! I did find some great Christmas gifts at Tuesday morning- I have a good friend with four kids and found several instrument sets- drumset, horns, recorder, electric guitar- won't that be perfect! I also figured out the source of C's whining- he didn't like being up early either- he fell asleep in the car before we left our neighborhood.

Everyone took good naps & we had a much better afternoon. We went to C's first gymnastics class- he had a blast. Right up his alley- run, jump, knock things down (I'm not sure that he was supposed to do that.) Then off to the park- the first nice afternoon in a few days- everyone loved being outside. We saw a dog at the park and T walked right over and said "Dog". Neat to see him learning new words.

I got my camera back yesterday so soon I'll start adding pics again (although it's probably good that I haven't put pics from the last few days!)

It's not easy being green

Well, we painted the town red last week so I guess we can't complain much about being sick this week. But it's still not fun. We are praying that this is a 24 hour bug and we are all back to healthy tomorrow. Funny, when I was up for about an hour each night with C, I prayed to sleep all night; after being up so long last night, an hour doesn't sound bad!

We did enjoy some more fun things before this yucky bug caught up with me and the boys. Saturday morning was K's last soccer game. He didn't kick the ball much this season but he sure had fun playing which is definitely what counts especially when you're 4! Another good part of the weekend was all three boys went straight to sleep at 7- I think a week of lots of late nights drained all of us- and then an extra hour for Fall Back. Yeah!!

Sunday we went to church and then a neighbor's son had a birthday party- firetrucks everywhere. The boys all had a blast. T is definitely trying to keep up with his two big brothers now- he's even figured out how to put legos together! So fun to watch him learning new things.

Pray for us to all get better soon especially with my ultrasound Friday!

What a week cont.

Thursday we did our own pumpkin carving- K had been talking all during pumpkin season about Daddy carving the pumpkin and taking the sin out. Last year we talked through the Pumpkin Parable as James carved the pumpkin. This year the boys got to take the "mushy/gushy sin" out themselves- I roasted the pumpkin seeds but now they told me they don't want to eat sin. We also did lots of pumpkin painting- the boys painted 40-50 paperplates orange for their friends to decorate at our costume party.That afternoon was K's last soccer practice with a pizza party at CiCi's after practice. I'm very thankful for friends who help with kids bc otherwise it would be very hard to get started feeding 3 little boys at a buffet. K was very excited to get his soccer medal- he had a great time playing soccer this season. That night I followed my good friend's advice to not spend much time cleaning before having a houseful for a costume party Friday morning.

Our phone started ringing at 9 and didn't stop until 1030. As several women called to say they had sick kids, I started thinking we might have a small group. I didn't think they for long- I think we ended up with 57 people- 20 moms, 37 kids (30 were three & under). I guess my friend was a little right when she called me nutty for inviting so many. K & C were superman and flash gordon again- T dressed as sleeping baby (he slept from 9-1130.) I barely saw K & C- they had a blast decorating paper pumpkins, coloring, & playing with friends. We were blessed with awesome weather which meant some people could go outside. I was also blessed with plenty of friends who helped set up, clean up, and just keep things going ok. Another friend took a ton of pics which I'll add when I get them. It was a little crazy but a lot of fun!We were all worn out from all the fun & took good naps which was good since we had even more fun planned for that night. Our friends the lamb, butterfly, bumblebee, & their mommy went wiht us to the Cadence Hospitality House. On the way we stopped at one more trunk or treat where we got lots more candy. We were again blessed with great people who helped with our kids so we could fix food for 6 little ones. Everyone had a good time except little T who I thought was just tired until he got sick all over his borrowed Pooh costume. He seemed happier after that. The kids did relay races and bobbed for apples. Another fun, late night!