Mason's Prayer

"God, thank you for my life, thank you for my friends and me. Now, make sure everyone's ok and don't move. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. And all of God's children say - Amen."

Merry Christmas!!!

McDougall's Apple Junction

Every year we have gone to McDougall's Apple Junction, and I guess it's sort our family tradition. We absolutely love it there and the kids have a blast. This year was just as fun, beautiful weather and we went to the actual pumpkin patch to let the kids pick out their own pumpkins. It was a very fun morning, again, at Apple Junction! And as always, we bought our home-made peanut butter...it's the best peanut butter you'd ever eat! I can't wait to dig into it! Here are some pics from our morning. Enjoy!

Hey, why not?!

It's October 12th, why not build a snowman?!?



We ended our fun in the 'snow' with snow angels!



And a sneak peek of why I really don't have extra time on my hands ;) This is when Evan is in kindergarten...

Wow.

Yep. Wow. Things are going too fast, too much is going on, and it's raining. I sure hope to getting back into blogging, I miss it! I hope to get some recent pictures up and explain what we've all been up to lately! It's been nuts!

Well, here's a quickie update:

Evan = kindergarten = he loves it. He will be turning 6 the end of November and we have a fun birthday planned out! He's learning a lot of new things from school and its been a lot of fun to watch him.

Mason = preschool = he kind of likes it. He's just Mason...what else do I need to say?!? He's goofy, he's funny, he's whiny, he's 3 1/2. He makes up stories, sings to himself and he loves to play. He whines. Did I mention he whines?

Carter = home and ECFE = he is explorative. C can climb, he's starting to figure out his legs can move faster (running) and he climbs as high as he can. He's into throwing tantrums, throwing toys, throwing puzzles, throwing books, etc. He also enjoys hitting Mason. I don't know why. It's weird. He has a total of 6 teeth at the moment, and we're hopeful for more so he can actually chew more food. He wants our food, and we feed it to him, but depending on how chewy it is, he usually chokes. Other than that, he's a bundle of fun and all boy!

Brian = headache still = still doesn't like it. Ugh. Need I say more?

Me = lots of stuff = yep. I'm going to be opening an in home daycare in my home and I'm looking forward to it! It should be interesting... I've had my first home visit, and the fire inspection visit and both went well. My next step is receiving CPR and First Aid training (which will be October 17th), the 2nd and final home visit from the daycare licenser, and working on my contract. Oh, and getting families! I'm giving myself one full year of this daycare stuff to see if I really enjoy it or really cannot handle it. We shall see, I'm sure I'll be praying a lot!!!

Well, that's the quickie update. I hope to be back blogging regularly again soon!

I have a goal

My goal of the day is to try to update this blog!!! Hopefully I'll be back later...life has been so crazy busy!

Okie dokes...catch'ya later.

Wow, it's been a while!

I didn't realize how long it's been since my last blog! I guess I've been very busy lately...anyways, here's a quick update...

Kids are doing good - Evan is done with preschool, he had his little preschool graduation and it was adorable :) He'll be heading to kindergarten this fall! Mason is done with his ECFE class and he'll be headed to preschool at our Church this fall. Carter is almost 1!!! Yikes, where did that go? He will be turning the big 1 on June 30th...the day after we get home from Grand Marais! Yippee!!! We are headed up this Thursday and coming home Monday and we could not be more excited. It's a much needed getaway, and we're super excited to see family up there (every year we have a little 'reunion' there with my side of the family).

Brian's doing pretty good. He had his afib heart thing again, and we went to ER a couple weeks ago - we actually went due to extreme back pain for him. Anyways, he ended up spending the night due to his heart and they had to shock his heart the next day to get it out of afib. It was the scariest 10 minutes of my entire life. Thankfully, the shock went perfectly, he woke up and felt great, and he's been doing good since. It took a few days for him to recover from that! On the headache issue, we're headed down to Mayo Clinic in early August to go to the headache clinic...hopefully we can figure something out.

As for myself, I am back to attending weight watchers meetings. I really enjoy it, it helps me a lot with staying on track and 'attempting' to lose weight. However, this past week has been so crazy I haven't tracked very well. Oh well. It's a work in progress.

We had our Strawberry Fest in Cottage Grove this past weekend and had a great time! We also celebrated Father's Day and 'I think' Brian had a nice day! At least I hope so!!! He sure deserves it. He is such an amazing father and husband, we all adore him to pieces! When I have more energy, I will post pictures later...as for now this is all I can handle :)

Garage Sale, Birthday, Biking, Garden, etc!!!

Whew, it's been a while since my last blog! Woopsie daisy! We've been very busy with, well, life! Here's an update of our past couple weeks...

We survived our first garage sale and it was awesome! It was totally worth the hard work and we're glad it's over. I'm still working on the 'clean-up'...sorry about that hon...we'll get it done and get your truck back in the garage soon!

Brian's 30th birthday was May 7th (along with our nieces 5th birthday!) and we kept the day low key...which was sneaky...I threw him a surprise birthday party on Saturday the 9th and I pulled it off! He was actually surprised! We had a fabulous time with family and friends! Thanks to all who could make it! It was a gorgeous evening, perfect for the kids to play outside, and we ended the evening with a perfect bonfire. It was so fun!

Then Mother's Day was that Sunday and I have to say, it was the best Mother's Day I ever had! Brian asked what I wanted, and I told him that I want to stay in bed and relax all day :). I woke up around noon, got an amazing brunch in bed, opened fabulous gifts from the kiddos and hubby - they made flower pots and planted flowers that they picked out - how cute is that?!? Then we got my favorite for dinner - Papa John's pizza...oh yum! It was a perfect day! Thank you honey!!!

Evan has a new trick - he can now ride his bike without training wheels! As of yesterday, May 14th, he just took off! It's really fun to watch him and he absolutely loves it! He's doing so great and growing up so quickly! He graduates from preschool on Tuesday...I better get the kleenexes ready!

We are also working on our garden 'plot' in the backyard! How exciting is this...we are going to hopefully grow some food! Yippee! The boys loved helping out and we're hoping to get it tilled up today and get the plants in soon!

I tried to make this as short as possible! I think for myself I did fairly well :). Enjoy the pics!

Evan and Mason selling pop at our garage sale:

Brian's Birthday:


Brian's surprise birthday yummy dairy queen blizzard cake:

The boys with their Mother's Day gifts:

Evan riding his bike:

Happy Birthday Maverick!

8 years ago, our first born arrived into the world! Maverick Turbo Darling was born April 26th, 2001. He was purchased a few months later as an absolutely adorable puppy, and he grew into a wonderful dog. He's always been fun, mischievious, silly, and when the kids came into the picture, he became more fun and very protective! He is such a great dog, and we absolutely love him to pieces! Except for when he drags mud into the house and onto the carpet ;). Or throws up on our comforter... But we still love him :) Happy 8th Birthday Maverick!!!

Overwhelmed

Wow. I'm having my very first garage sale...hopefully next weekend...and I'm realizing how very overwhelming it is. Brian and I worked on cleaning out our 'laundry room' last night and it took almost 2 hours. 2 hours?!? Yikes. I still have to work on our bedroom, guest bedroom, guest bedroom closet, kids toys, kids clothes, baby clothes, our crawl space, the garage, the shed...not to mention taking care of 3 kids while trying to attempt this! I'm a little overwhelmed. We have so much stuff it's crazy. I'm looking forward to hopefully selling most of it! I hope we earn enough money so I can buy myself a new pair of tennis shoes!!! That's my goal :). We shall see.

So I want to get this all done by next Wednesday, so I can open the garage up to friends and family to take dibs on stuff they may want, then I want to open the sale on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On top of that, Brian's turkey hunt is this weekend. So he'll be busy trying to get a turkey.

This is very overwhelming. I'm glad I have goals, I just hope I can reach them! I've received some good advice for holding a garage sale...any more advice would be greatly appreciated!

Ok, that's my thought of the day. It's busy around here. :)

Fun weekend!

We had such a great weekend. Saturday was spent with a couple of my friends doing an 'Open House' for our direct sales companies, and we had such a great time. It was nice to 'hang out' outside of my home for a day :).

Then Sunday, today, is Mason's 3rd birthday. 3 years ago, at 5:54pm, our 2nd little man came into this world...pink in color...then red in color...then jaundice in color...and he had this sweet little whimper cry. He was so quiet we could hardly hear him in the hospital! I remember laying there in the hospital bed looking at him, and thinking 'that's all you got??'!

Then we went home, only to come back to the hospital for 3 more days due to his jaundice. Poor kid. He got to lay in his 'tanning bed' for 3 whole days, with funny little glasses on. It was horrible at the time, but now that I look back I just thank God for the medical advances there are! We are so lucky he was ok...he had jaundice really bad. He even had a jaundice buddy laying in a 'tanning bed' across the room. Although the other baby actually looked like a baby because he only weighed 6lbs and some ounces. Mason, on the other hand, looked like a toddler in his 'tanning bed' weighing in at 9lbs 10oz. It was funny to compare the 2. Anyways, the nurses were fantastic and Brian and I were lucky enough to be able to stay in the hospital because they had a lot of extra rooms. Plus, we were so lucky to have Grandparents to help with Evan so much while we were in the hospital.

3 years later, we now have a typical goofy 3 year old that loves to laugh, dance, sing, play, jump, climb, and make us laugh. He is so hilarious and he is so sweet. He loves to share stories and be read to. He also loves his cartoons and to play outside. We have our hands full with him, but I can't complain. We have 3 healthy and happy boys and it couldn't get any better!

Happy Birthday Mason!!!

and off go the training wheels!

Evan's been begging us all winter to take off his training wheels this spring. So, we did. Well, Brian did (some things are difficult when you have a baby attached to your hip). It's been a whopping 2 days now and he's 'starting' to kind of get it. We're working on teaching how to balance and helping push him along. He's also been doing a lot of the work by himself, he does really well with that, plus he relies too much on us to hold him up. Last night he went almost half way up the driveway by himself and he got so excited, he stopped. He'll go about 2-3 pedals, get excited and then stops. Then he screams with excitement. It's been fun to watch him and he's loving it. He's doing a really good job! We're getting excited for future family bike rides!

Crawling and Sprouts!

We are proud to announce that Carter is now mobile! He started crawling yesterday at lunch time. I was in the kitchen getting Evan and Mason milk for their lunch, I look down and there goes Carter across the floor! I was so excited, I grabbed the camera and got some blurry shots (you'll see the pics below), he's very proud of himself and his big brothers are just as proud!
On another exciting note, we have sprouts...lots of sprouts from our garden! Although, now we're in a predicament, we think we may have planted too early. This is our first year, and the plants look like they're already running out of room! I was just going to be happy if we actually grew something...and I guess we were successful! This picture was already taken a couple days ago, and there are now green sprouts in almost every spot and they're getting taller and taller! Yikes! Is there a 'transitional' pot or something?!? Hmmm...we may have to figure something out :)

We did it!

I'm proud to announce that we have sprouts!!! If you're a follower of my blog, you'll note that a while back I talked about our garden. We have decided this year to tap into gardening, and low and behold, we actally have some sprouts! We are very proud of our new little green sprouts, here is a pic of them:


On another note, we now have a 9 month old. Carter turned 9 months old on the 30th of March. His newest endeavor is attempting to crawl. He hasn't gotten it quite yet, but I'm sure it'll be soon. He is, although, rather good at scooting around and sitting up from laying on his belly. We have still been attempting food with him...and well, look at the pics. He still thinks it's hilarious.





We were able to enjoy some of the nice weather a weekend of two ago...I can't remember, it's just been too long since it's been nice! Here's a pic of my 3 stooges.


On the 'headache' front, there is a new update. Brian saw his neurologist, told him the meds aren't working, so he increased the dosage, he'll take those for another month, if those don't work the neurologist will try another medication for a month, if those don't work, we'll be looking at getting a referral to the Mayo Clinic. Let's hope and pray the meds will work...please.

That's about it for now, I'm sure I have a lot more to blog about, but that can be for another day :)

What a day.

Brian left at 5am this morning for St. Louis to go to a 'Haunt Show'. For those who are curious...it's this Halloween convention thing. Yep. Halloween. It'll be interesting to hear about it. Yep.

Anyways, Carter decided he wanted to join the 5am party and wake up to be cranky and eat. So, as Brian left, I got Carter back into bed about 5:30, he fell asleep about 6:30, my alarm went off at 6:52am, I climbed out of bed at 7:20am, got Evan taken care of with morning cartoons and breakfast, went downstairs to shower in Brian's shower (for those of you who don't know, my shower was broken and I've been using a needle nose pliers for about 6 months, Brian fixed it but it now leaks), came upstairs, got ready, got Evan dressed and ready for preschool, woke up Mason and then woke up Carter about 8:30am, got them dressed and barely fed to leave by 9am to get Evan to preschool on time. Got Evan to school, went to the post office to mail a package, then went to the grocery store to get some much needed food, headed home, got the groceries put away the kids fed again and then left again to get Evan from preschool early because we had a Doctor's appt for Carter's 9 month check up.

We arrive at the Doctors office, I get the stroller out put Carter in it, fought with Mason about riding in the stroller and I quickly gave up, got into the clinic, checked in and was told the Doc had to rush up to delivery. Since it was 11:40am already I decided it was a good time to catch some lunch and wait for the Doctor to come back. It was his last day and our very last appt with him, I was NOT going to miss it! So we head over to the cafeteria, which was pretty crowded with lunch rush, with a double stroller and 2 kids running around, figured pizza was a good option. So we had a very healthy lunch of pizza, french fries and milk. Well...after I purchased it which is another story. I had the tray, 2 loose kids on the run, and the double stroller. I got into line, the gentleman figured out my total, I tried to hand him my visa only to find out it's cash or check only. Crap. Cash??? Who carries cash anymore?! Luckily I had a few bucks in my wallet, but of course not enough. So I had to dig for some change...in this time, my wallet dumped out all over the floor. My credit cards, business cards, change, pictures, etc. Can you picture this?! Anyways, I had enough cash to pay for our lunch. We sat down and the kids enjoyed the food. Well, Evan did at least. Mason of course didn't eat much because the pizza looked 'icky'. Whatever. Eat or be hungry. Also during this lunch time, I get the table set up and everyone arranged and I hear the words - 'mom, I have to pee'. Seriously?? I can't just leave all our stuff there. Anyways, this wonderful couple sitting at a table next to us offered to watch our stuff while we take the bathroom break. God bless them! So we get into the bathroom, and Mason, who had to pee, didn't pee. He said he didn't have to. So I made Evan pee so at least we had a successful trip. Another woman had come into the bathroom also, obviously, it is a public bathroom. Anyways, as she was taking care of business, my boys decided it was time to laugh and ask what that was. I heard her break out in laughter and I almost died. Then Mason 'tried' to peek under the stall (I didn't let him) and he waved and said 'hello' to the other lady. Good Lord, are we done yet?!

Oh the day continues if you wish to read on...

We go back to check if the Doc is back from delivery and he is, so we patiently wait to be called back. Luckily it was only about 5 minutes of wait time, so not too bad. We cram into the clinic room, the wonderful nurse brings in toys for the boys, we get Carter arranged and ready for his check up. He weighs in at a whopping 18 lbs 3 oz and 27 1/4" long. The Doc comes in and we chat for a while which was wonderful. Today is his last day working in the clinic as a clinic Doctor. I am so heartbroken that he's leaving. He delivered all 3 of our boys and has helped us for the past 7 years. He was the most wonderful Doctor I have ever had. Anyways, he tells me they have to take Carter's hemoglobin. Ok. So the nurse comes back in and pokes his little finger, does what she needs to do then places a bandaid on the finger. I put him in the stroller so I could put Mason's shoes back on (we had to go take his weight because he has an ear infection...ugh). Then Evan starts freaking out saying there's blood everywhere. What?!?! I look at Carter, and sure enough, there's blood everywhere! So the little poke from the test is bleeding like crazy and I take the little bandaid off, and try to get it under control. About 20 kleenexes later I couldn't get it. The Doc came back in and took care of it. So I have a very tired and bleeding baby at this point. The Doc then chatted some more and got Mason's prescription sent to the Target pharmacy for us to pick up.

At this time it's now 1:30 and we leave the clinic. I have a heavy heart due to the fact that our Doc is leaving and Mason is sick. It didn't take long for Carter to fall asleep in the car, so we ventured to Target. The visit went well, we got our prescription from the 'crabby' pharmacy tech. How fun really...not what I needed was some crabby tech. Anywho, we got some junk food to snack on for the weekend since Brian is gone. On top of this, my key remote thingy for the car doesn't work all the time and the only place to unlock the car is from the drivers side door. Use your imagination, it's just another frustration.

So we finally got home about 3:00pm. Thank God. I hope the rest of night will stay peaceful and I'll be able to work on some projects around the house I have in mind while Brian is gone. We shall see. Oh - and chocolate has been purchased.

Motherly duties are calling, so I better run. Good day.

On the mend...maybe??

We think Evan is getting over his pneumonia. He has a follow up appointment this afternoon to 'listen to his lungs'. Hopefully it'll go well and he'll be clear! Mason's still got a runny nose and cough, but he seems in better spirits than he was this weekend. Carter also is still suffering a runny nose and cough. He was miserable on Saturday and Sunday and it broke our hearts. It was kind of his first 'big' sickness. He cried all day and had a fever, he was miserable. Poor thing.

Our sick little guy :(

On a fun note...we have decided to tap our fingers into some dirt. That's right, we are attempting our very first garden! We are extremely excited about it and hope we grow something! We spent Monday evening in the garage planting our seeds to get some of them started. The kids really enjoyed it and are excited to see some 'sprouts'...as Brian and I are hoping 'sprouts' will appear ;). We shall see! We planted watermelon, cucumbers, green beans, sugar peas, sweet corn, sunflowers, jack-o-lanterns, carrots and some other blue flower thing. I think it'll be a fun adventure and we hope to have some yummy food this summer! I'm not really counting on the watermelon...but the boys LOVE watermelon and picked it out. So we mine as well try, right?! Here are some pics.



Well, other than trying to get everyone healthy there really isn't anything else too new around here. We are just looking forward to everyone getting better, are still staying hopeful in kicking Brian's headache in the toosh, and the spring weather that is approaching! It's on it's way and it'll be here eventually. Someone has to stay positive, right?!? :)

Cough, cough, cough, cough....cough, cough...

Poor Evan. He has pneumonia. I feel so bad for him, he coughs so much it exhausts me! He's had a fever for 5 days in a row now and he's just miserable. He has amoxicillin and I'm hoping it'll start kicking in real soon. He has to miss his preschool, which he is so upset about. He absolutely loves preschool and it's killing him to have to stay home. Plus it's really hard to 'try' to have him rest as much as possible...he's a 5 year old boy, what's rest?! Although, he's been fairly lethargic so it's been going ok as far as 'rest' goes. On top of that, Mason has a cold and he's extremely whiny and cranky. He also is sporting a fever and is miserable. And on top of that...Carter is working on his 2nd tooth. So he's been cranky and miserable. Poor boys.

And yes...Brian still has his headache. He has another follow up (or is it his first one with this neurologist?? - I can't keep track anymore) coming up, so I'm anxious for that to see what this neurologist has to say. He's had his sleeping machine for a while now and he feels he may be getting better sleep, but the headache is still there. What other option could there possibly be?!?!? Poor guy. I have fallen off my 'end of the rope' a while ago...I don't know where the heck it went. I'd like to try to grab back on and climb back up. Of course, at the same time, I want to climb into bed in our dark bedroom and not come out for about a month. Would that be an ok thing to do? I think so ;). Ok, maybe not.

This is about all I can handle right now for blogging, I'm exhausted. Good night.

Mischief...

Little Carter is trying SO hard to be 'on the move'. He hasn't been successful yet, but he's starting to get frustrated about it. He can scoot on his toosh and spin around in circles...which is very comical and cute. He goes forward with his hands, from a sitting position, but his legs stay crossed. If he gets to ahead of himself, he falls onto his tummy and gets rather upset. Which in a way is sad, because you'd think he could just roll over...but no, he doesn't decide to roll. He can roll, he just doesn't want to. Silly boy.

It's not the best picture, but you get the idea! When he starts moving, I'm sure going to have my hands full!

Evan and Mason have been good. We're all very anxious for spring to arrive. I can't wait to get them into the backyard and let them run out their energy. They sure need it! A while back, Brian cleaned out the garage and he took them in there to play and they loved it! They could run, ride bikes, scooters, blow bubbles...it was glory for them. Evan's really enjoying preschool and now know's his friends name - Andrew. He has other friends, but apparently this is a friend that he 'talks to' and they play cars. Mason's also really enjoying his ECFE class. He goes Thursday nights and gets to experience playing with lots of new things. He'll start preschool at our church this fall and I know he'll be so excited. Evan starts kindergarten this fall too - and he sure is excited! He is very ready to start, it'll be so good for him!



Nothing else is too new around here...I'm still trying to move furniture around our house to attempt making it more 'functional'. I'd love to try and incorporate a play room specifically just for all the toys. My brain's going in circles trying to figure it out! Oh well. We're planning on having a garage sale in spring, so hopefully we will be able to sell items we do not need anymore! We've gotten rid of a few things on craigslist and it's been so wonderful. It feels good to make more 'room' but at the same time it's hard to get rid of baby stuff. I am just looking at it as starting the next chapter of our life. So here goes...to the next chapter!

Oofta, what a busy day!

Today has been crazy! First, Brian had to wake up at 3:45am to get ready to drive out to Wisconsin Dells for a work meeting, which he's been at all day! He still isn't home and probably won't be home until midnight! Poor guy. Well, it's also Thursday which means Evan has preschool and Mason has ECFE. I was able to get up at 5am to feed Carter and get him back to bed, then get back to bed about 6am myself, to only get up at 6:45am with Mason. Got the boys ready, woke up Carter, got Evan to preschool on time, fed Carter a bottle in the Church parking lot, made my way to drop off the water bill, get to the post office to mail some jewelry that needs to be exchanged, then to Rainbow (which is now my favorite grocery store...), then home to unpack groceries, get Mason and Carter fed and taken care of, then to head out again to get Evan from preschool. Then we got home, had lunch, Mason and Carter went down for naps, more cleaning occured, then my Mom (bless her!) came down to help watch Evan and Carter so I could take Mason to his ECFE class which I had completely forgotten tonight was the last night! So I need to call tomorrow morning to try to enroll him for the next 6 weeks - he loves it so much. Then got Evan and Mason down to bed about 9pm, gave Carter a bath (he had 3 blowouts today!) and got him to bed about 10:15pm. Now I'm working on laundry that desperately needs to be done, and get the boys packed for tomorrow - they're heading to Grandma and Grandpa's for the night! Woohoo! Well, except for Carter, he'll be staying home with us. Anywho, I'm typing this enjoying a smirnoff raspberry burst drink. And I'm waiting for my hubby to make it home safe! That was my day in a nutshell. A little crazy, but not too out of the ordinary ;)

No more fever

Evan woke up without a fever, hungry as a horse, and acting like his typical self! How weird?! He had that weird tummyache thing going on, but never got sick...I think he almost got sick last night but faught it ;). Although, last night I was a little worried about his tummy since he hadn't actually gotten sick, so I poked around on him and his very lower abdomen seemed to be the culprit. So I thought something intestinal? Maybe a bladder infection? So I was going to call the doc this morning, but now he's totally fine...?? Oh well! I guess we'll just continue to keep an eye on him! Poor little guy was so miserable yesterday, he fell asleep on the couch for about an hour and a half! He doesn't nap anymore, so for him that was very not normal!

Today has been a good day of getting some things accomplished...cleaning wise. I was able to vacuum, dust, swiffer the floors, do the dishes, 4 loads of laundry, and already get the garbage out. Well, not to the curb, but it's at least in the garage waiting to be put into the trash can and out to the curb. I've also got Mason and Carter down for a nap and Evan's playing some Wii, so I'm taking some time for me! Yay! Although, I did sneak in a game of bowling with Evan - and I actually beat him! It was fun...maybe I'll have to talk him into playing bowling again :).

I guess I don't have anything overly exciting to share right now...so I guess that's it. I have a lot of things cooking in my mind for 'to do', but don't have to strength or motivation right now ;). Maybe tomorrow...

Poor Evan

Evan seems to have spiked a bit of a fever and is complaining of a tummyache. His fever is low which is good. He's also been eating fairly well too...so I'm not too sure what's going on with the tummyache. His left eye looks a bit more 'red' than his other eye, so maybe he has pink eye or a cold?? I'm confused. Oh well, nothing much we can do right now except wait it out. He missed preschool today and he's been pretty sad about that. He loves preschool. I think I'll be putting in a movie for him to watch while he rests. Poor kiddo.

I am excited though that I have changed the look of my blog and changed the name to 'The Darling Days'. So I don't know if that changes the blog website yet...I guess I'll have to look into that. Anywho, I found a cute website to change the blog background and it's fun! Well, I better go. Until next time...

We have a new tooth!

Carter FINALLY popped his first tooth! It's his bottom right. This explains the fussiness, runny nose, sleepless nights, crying fits, ear grabbing, and 'only wanting mommy' moments we've been experiencing over the past couple weeks. Well, he does great for Daddy when I'm gone, but the moment I walk through that door he won't let me do anything else but hold him. He seems under a better disposition now, so it's been nice. Although, I forgot his appointment for his flu shot booster...oops. I have yet to re-schedule. I should probably do that... Another Carter adventure is that we are starting to ween him from booby to bottle! He's now finally taking a bottle from me and he gets about 1/2 the day of me and 1/2 the day of formula. We've tried cereal and oatmeal, and he still doesn't want anything to do with it...well sort of. He still thinks it's really funny and just spits it all out. He'd rather drink his bottle. Oh well, I'll just keep plugging along with it!

Evan's doing great in preschool, he had his Valentine's party and he really enjoyed passing out his litte race car valentines with a sucker attached and receiving Valentine's from the other children in his class. He came home and emptied his 'loot' onto our couch and I couldn't believe it! It was like he dumped out his Halloween bucket! Anywho, he's really starting to open up and talk more. When I picked him up one morning with Mason and Carter in tow, the teacher stopped me and told me that she actually had to tell Evan to 'be quiet'! It was a GOOD thing, and she laughed when she told me. She was just happy that he's finally coming out of his shell. Now he's been talking about his friends he plays with, but cannot remember their names (poor kids!) and how much fun he's having. He is also really into our Wii. He absolutely loves bowling, and he beats Brian and myself all the time. He got a score of 212!!! It's really fun to watch him.

Mason's also doing really well. He still seems to crack us up every day with some funny statement, silly motion or hilarious story. Some funny Mason moments include when he's doing a magic trick and he puts one hand on his belly and the other one in the air, takes a bow and says 'sank you sank you'. This next story is a little weird, but regardless it's funny...Mason is now potty trained, but he still needs some assistance. Well, when Brian's home and takes him potty, Brian spits into the toilet (I don't know why, it must be some 'farmer' thing that's still in him) but anyways, Brian always says 'who did that?' and Mason always replies 'raccoons...raccoons are naaauuuggghhhty.' We have not a single clue where he got this from, but it's so funny and every time he says it we can't help but laugh.

That's about it for now, I'm hungry so I'm going to get a snack. Not like anybody needed to know that, but this is my blog and it's about my thoughts, so there you go. Until next time...

Fun Adventures!

I haven't blogged in a very long time, so I thought I'd let you blog readers know about some current adventures we have taken. A couple weekends ago, we went to check out Under Water World at Mall of America and we had a great time! The kids absolutely loved it, we even got to touch stingrays! We had an ice cream treat then went up to the food court for some pizza dinner...what's wrong with having dessert first?!





Then we spent an afternoon outside on the 40ish degree day last weekend and the boys built a snowman! They had so much fun and it was great for them to get outside for some much needed fresh air.



We now have a 7 month old little man! Carter has been such a joy. His older brothers love him to pieces and it's really fun to watch them play with him. We are still working on introducing food and last night he attempted a bowl of rice cereal with squash and I think he liked it...he thinks it's 'funny' that we feed him and he makes silly noises, smiles and spits. Oh well, he'll eat eventually! His favorite things to do now are sitting up and playing with toys and jumping in his johnny jump up - he swings himself all around and loves it!



Brian took Evan ice fishing this past weekend for the first time and he had so much fun. Even though no fish were to be found, they had fun and it was a very special Daddy and Evan day. I'm so happy they were able to get out and do that! It was also kind of nice to hang out with Mason and Carter at home, they were really good which made it easy and fun :). Other than that, we have just been busy as usual and enjoying the days...and I'm looking very forward to spring!!!

I should be sleeping...

but I'll blog instead. Brian's up north fishing...way up north...in Baudette near the Canadian border. It's cold up there. He called today and said they haven't had much luck, but are having fun. I sure hope he can get some much needed relaxation in. With everything going on, he sure needs it.

Evan and Mason are having their first real slumber party at Grandma and Grandpa Darling's house tonight. I brought them up there earlier this afternoon and I'll be picking them up sometime later tomorrow...or rather later today :). I just got home from book club, I love book club...and Carter is sound asleep in his crib and I'm realizing how quiet the house is. I know I should be massively enjoying it and taking advantage of the quiet, but I'm realizing how lonely it is. As much as some days I wish I could have more days like this, I miss my family more. Carter had his 6 month appointment yesterday and he got 4 shots (poor baby), so he's been fussy. Which means I have not been able to do anything I've wanted to do while I had this quiet weekend with just Carter. Although to be honest, if I got 4 shots in my thighs I'd want to be held and cuddled all the time too. Oh well, it looks like the organizing and cleaning will have to wait...again. Maybe I'll get to it someday.

Nothing else too new to report right now...I just hope I can get a good night's sleep tonight - we'll have to see how Carter does though! Hopefully he'll sleep through the night tonight...we shall see. I hope Evan and Mason are doing well and sleeping ok for Grandma and Grandpa. I also hope Brian is doing ok sleeping up north and not taking off his sleep apnea breathing machine thing. Maybe he'll be more relaxed and can sleep better?? Maybe with it being so cold he won't think of his headache anymore and it'll magically go away?? I can hope.

Well, it is almost 1am, I have a load of laundry in the washing machine...should probably do something about that. The dishes are calling my name, and the scattered toys need to be put to a home. I wonder where my kitchen counters are? Do you think they're under all that cluttered mess?? Maybe I'll find out...maybe I'll find out later...probably tomorrow (or, later today)...if I have the energy to clean them off. Nah, I think I'll just go to bed. Hopefully I can sleep.

Good night.

Hoo Hoo

So I have a funny Mason story to share...here goes:

To start out, I need to tell you that in our house, for some odd reason, we have come up with the word 'hoo hoo' as female anatomy. I don't know why, it's just how it's evolved. Anyways...Brian was putting the boys to bed the other night, and every night we read a story, say prayers then go over what the favorite thing of the day was with each kid. That night, Mason got to go first by saying what his favorite thing was...here's how it went:

Brian: Mason, what was your favorite thing today?
Mason: My favorite thing was....going to go get hoo hoo.
a cluster of laughs surrounded the room...
Brian: Ok, Evan what was your favo...
Mason: wait wait! I have another favorite thing...
Brian: Ok Mason, what is it?
Mason: My favorite thing was saying hoo hoo!
more hysterical laughing occurred.

I'm not sure what brought on this whole 'hoo hoo' talk, but regardless we thought it was funny.

Happy New Year!...uhhh...belated :)

We decided to ring in the new year by staying at home wit our kiddos. We were invited to a couple places, and we would have loved to have gone, but Evan ended up with a little cough and we didn't want to spread anything. His cough was very minor and is pretty much gone now, but still, we don't want to be those parents who take their sick kids out and spread lovely germs. :) Anywho, I put the boys all down for a late nap and we all stayed up until 12:30am! It was really fun, Brian went outside and lit off some legal fireworks, we watched Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest New Year's Eve special, we got the boys some 'sparking apple juice' and we had a bottle of champagne that's been in our fridge for about 3 years that Brian and I enjoyed. We banged on pots with wooden spoons at midnight and the kids really enjoyed it. With being so burnt out from Christmas, it was nice to stay home. Plus with 3 kids, it's really tough to go out :(. Oh well, we all had a good time!

Carter's 6 month appointment is next week, on Thursday the 15th. He has a new trick...check out the picture below! He's so proud of himself to be able to sit up, but it's kind of funny because he gets tired and he sits there and starts to pout and whimper! So we have to save him by laying him down or holding him. He's so funny. His only downfall is that he still wakes up about once at night to eat. Oh well. He's not into 'food' yet, so we'll try again in a while! He's still nursing and that seems to be all he wants to do! Oh well, he's happy and cute, so that's all that matters ;).

Gotta go, motherly duties are in need...