Good Times-September

It's hard to believe that September is over. It's such a busy and fun time of year here.

Seth and Sam were introduced to dessert this month. They've really taken to the idea.Every Friday the children destroy the playroom or rather, they play make-believe with every toy we own. They love it!
This is a shot of Chloe on our wood-gathering outing that didn't make the first cut.
Madelyn's school schedule has really wrecked havoc on naptime. Seth takes it where he can get it! Also, notice how he divided his burger and placed each piece on a Wendy's logo. Daddy's so proud!
Like I said, he takes it where he can get it. He was asleep on the couch this night but it was bathtime so we tried to wake him only to find him sleeping on the table a few minutes later.
Family Game Night gets intense not to mention long when we break out Monopoly Jr.
Sleeping Seth...again!
While we work on catching up on our sleep, we hope you are enjoying your fall. Happy October!

Feelin' the love

I am such a lucky girl! I was honored with a baby shower for #6 this past Saturday. An afternoon with my favorite ladies, a couple hours away from the kids and yummy food. What a treat!

The kids get excited when Mom dresses up. It doesn't happen often. They sent me out the door with, "I hope you get lots of presents!"My dear friend Casey was the hostess for the shower. Everything was perfect from the flowers to the food and especially the company.We played some fun games. The challenge with our group is to find new ones. Our original playgroup that started when Madelyn was 6 months old has swollen from 4 mommies with 5 combined children to 8 mommies with 26 children total. (That doesn't even count my two 'friends with 5' who attended.) There have been a lot of baby showers in between as you can imagine.

Then we did presents. It's always so fun to revisit all those 'little' things we'll soon be needing.Thank you ladies! No matter whether we see each other weekly or monthly, I always know that I will have a great time catching up with you and watching our children play. What a blessing friends like you are!

The great debate

It all started about a week ago. I was walking out of music class with Catherine and Chloe. Catherine observed that there were more boys in the class this fall than in the summer class. I agreed but pointed out how she was sitting next to Chloe and Grace and across from two other girls.

"But," Catherine replied, "Grace is not a girl."

What? I thought through why she would say that. Grace was wearing purple pants and a cute shirt with a flower made out of buttons on it. Besides, her name is Grace.

"Why do you think that Grace is not a girl?" asks Mommy, who is hoping that Grace and her Mommy don't round the corner and hear this conversation.

"Because she has short hair," Catherine answers. "And she doesn't wear dresses."

Indeed, Grace has super-short, cropped hair. And she doesn't wear dresses either out of personal preference or because she walks to music class. But she is still a girl! So I go on to point out other examples of how there are no strict gender guidelines for appearance. Like how boys can have long hair and earrings. In fact, it reminded me of a time when Madelyn was 2 or 3 and I was doing some blood test. The tech was a young man with earrings. Madelyn pointed them out and said, "That's silly Mommy!" After turning four shades of red, I had the same talk with her as I was attempting to have with Catherine last week.

Unfortunately, Catherine and Madelyn don't share the same disposition. When Catherine is challenged she gets very emotional and combative. So her sisters and I spent the next half-hour trying to reassure her and to stabilize her shaken perception of people. We didn't talk about it again until this Saturday when once again we saw Grace. She was wearing pink pants with a purple shirt and her new sneakers look a lot like Catherine's. Catherine's verdict: Grace is a girl!

Phew! 35 weeks down, 5 to go!

I made it! I have been a little distracted the past few weeks because it was at this time in my pregnancy with our boy twins that our life spun out of control. We moved to Texas when I was 32 weeks pregnant. A week later at my first OB appointment with my new doctor I was sent to Labor & Delivery for monitoring. This turned into a full-fledged bout of preterm labor. I was having contractions every 1.5 to 3 minutes. My blood pressure spiked. There was protein in my urine. And we knew not a soul in Austin to help with our three precious girls. Fortunately, between all the meds they pumped into me, a few calls to grandparents, and some deep breaths I was able to calm down and the birth of our boys was delayed until the following week. They were born at 34 weeks, 4 days. At St. David's Hospital that meant an automatic stay in the slammer...oops, I mean NICU.

So as I've been tiptoeing closer to 34 weeks, 4 days with this pregnancy I've been growing anxious. I am convinced the preterm labor issues I had with the boys were due to stress more than anything else. Or were they? Thus, it was with a deep sigh of relief that I woke up this morning knowing that even if my baby was born today, our family wouldn't necessarily have to be punished by a stay in the NICU. So, again, I say, "PHEW!"

My little lumberjacks

We have spent one day of the last two weekends scavenging the National Forest for dead-and-down firewood. Since moving to our home in 2005 we have ordered a couple of cords of wood from a local company every winter. This year we thought we'd make gathering firewood a family adventure. We will use the wood as it gets cooler to heat our main living areas.

I'm not sure if it was because they want to be warm this winter or because they were really eager for a family outing, but the girls (and the boys too) were super helpful and in good spirits. With seven variables, it's tough to have a perfect today but yesterday came pretty close.

Daddy was the head lumberjack and the girls carried the wood back to the trailer. The boys helped as they were able and willing. And I was the family cheerleader and picture taker.
Taking a well-deserved break. Madelyn is quite the workhorse. She doesn't stop until the job is done and even then she's ready for the next task.It was cool when we got to our spot yesterday. Seth stayed warm in the picnic blanket.Daddy showed off by carrying five or six logs at a time.Madelyn helped Sam find some logs that were just his size.
Ta Dah! Our crew ready to head home. It took four hours to fill the trailer but it will hopefully take us all winter to burn.

We interrupt this blog...

...to deal with some sleep issues. Every night at least three of us engage in a game of musical beds. You see in our family we have three people (Mark included) who are sound sleepers. You know, the kind that you could ring a gong over their heads at night and they would never know. The kind who you kiss goodnight and don't see or hear from again until morning. The kind all parenting books are written about.

Then we have four people (me included) who are restless sleepers. We wake to small noises and seek comfort in sleeping with others. We have disruptive nighttime behaviors. We've learned a lot about this category of sleepers in our seven years as parents. Madelyn started us off. She would startle herself awake as an infant and we'd find it difficult to let her self-soothe. Thus we held her a lot. No regrets though! She is much better now and eases herself to sleep with books these days. Madelyn's only quirk is that she sleepwalks. It started when we were in Texas. We would get so frustrated with her because she would just appear at the end of our bed and stare at us. It took me a week to realize that she had no idea what she was doing. We've been able to study her sleepwalking pattern and now know that she does it most often when she feels anxious. Just the other night she walked into our room with her comforter and sheet. We're not sure why but I thought it was hilarious. She had no recollection of it in the morning.

Next in the restless sleeper category is Catherine. She has never slept well at night. She almost always creeps into our bed in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately she has stopped wailing during her walk from her bed to ours. That was always an adrenaline rush. Now she sneaks in, gets settled and promptly starts grinding her teeth...LOUDLY. Me being another restless sleeper cannot tolerate this. Mark even bought me earplugs for Christmas last year so that I could hopefully sleep more soundly. Not enough! So now when Catherine arrives, I exit to Madelyn's bed.

Last in our nightly game of musical beds is Sam. He's the latest one to join the game. For the first week he stayed in his 'boy' bed with no problem. Then he must have realized he could get out so for the next two weeks he would stand at his door and cry at some random point in the night. We added a nightlight to their room. Now, Sam just leaves the room being sure to shut the door behind him before joining Mark and Catherine in our bed. We're thankful for the quiet.

Our nightly dance will surely evolve when the baby arrives in a month or so. I refuse to leave my bed when there's a newborn next to it and I also refuse to sleep with a teeth grinding preschooler. I think Mark is going to have his hands full! Sorry, hon!

Good Times-August

Papa stopped through on his way to see cousins in Arizona and brought a basketball hoop. Madelyn practices shooting.
We made friends with a grasshopper. We studied him for the day and then released him.
We harvested our first watermelon. That sucker was huge! The good news was we were able to share it with some friends. The bad news was there were seeds. I thought I had bought a seedless variety. Oops!

Sleeping Seth! Our adventures don't just wear me out.
Getting ready for bedtime. All the kids go to bed at the same time now that the boys have switched over to big boy beds.
More gardening feats! After three plantings of sunflowers, ONE finally grew.
I made pickles from some of our many cucumbers. And guess what? They taste like pickles.
We harvested our pumpkins last night because the squash bugs were taking over the foliage and we didn't want to lose the crop. Bring on fall! We're ready now!