So here I am, officially pulling myself out of the non-blogging abyss. I have a kazillion and one excuses as to where I've been and what we've been up to (Selling a house. Pregnancy laziness. Packing, packing and more packing. Pregnancy laziness. Chasing busy boys. Napping when they do. Pregnancy laziness.....) but really, what fun are those to hear about??
So, a very, very brief description a la photos we shall do. And then hopefully (hopefully!) I can once again make a point of being a more stellar student when it comes to blogging.
SOOOooo, what exactly have we been up to?
Building, Moving, Packing...well, not the building so much as the packing and the moving. But, there is indeed a house being built, and it is indeed for us. Is this new news? I can't remember if I've mentioned it yet....
The house should be finished at the end of October, just a teensie bit after the baby is due. Yep, we're those crazies. The ones trying to sell/pack/move a house while bringing a brand new baby into the world. Let's just say the instinct to nest and make a place for that sweet baby to come home to, has just about made me bonkers as I've been packing up the nest instead of fluffing and preparing it as everything in me keeps telling me to do. He's a trooper that hubby of mine, because there have definitely been a few days now where thanks to pregnancy hormones (or maybe just plain craziness), even I am beginning to think I've lost it.
The boys in their new room :)
With moving has come lots of boxes being stored throughout the house. Fortunately, boxes with a sheet tossed over them equals an instant fort....
...with endless opportunities for entertainment inside!
And just because they're awfully cute, Collin and his buddy Nathan from one of our playdates together.
We've also celebrated a few birthdays since I last blogged. Nathan and my brothers-in-law Burke and Tyler all have birthdays in the month of August. Us girls got together this year to give them all the matching birthday present of a flight up to Eugene, OR and tickets to go see Fresno State play the Ducks. My Dad and one of the boys' friends Lancey Poo also went. ...And because we're awesome, we not only got them matching gifts, but also matching little outfits to wear for game day. Awe, now isn't that just precious?
Those stellar looking fellas would be (in order), the hubbs, Uncle Burkie, Lance, and Uncle Ty Ty. I think my dad took the pic, which would put him sitting next to Nathan.
After the game, what did we all receive? A cell phone pic with the declaration "We heart beer". I'm going to go out on a limb here and say a good time was had by all. :)
And since we not only missed most of the month of August blogging, but also a good portion of September, there were September birthdays celebrated around here as well. Drew's best buddy Noah turned 4 a few weeks ago, so on the actual day of his birthday we spent the morning with that cute birthday boy and his family at an indoor trampoline play land extravaganza called Skywalk. (Any of you have one of these near you? It's new here and also this Momma's new favorite place to wear out preschoolers!). We originally had considered taking the boys for an hour and a half thinking that the hour long session may not be long enough, but changed our minds once we got there. Well, turns out an hour was plenty. Good gracious, but the end of that hour Collin and Noah's little brother Nathan were literally laying across the trampolines instead of bouncing! Fortunately, they were able to do so since we went at the 6yrs and under time slot and there was only one other family in the entire place with us. It was a super fun morning and a great way to wear out the kiddos before nap time! We will definitely be visiting again sometime soon. (Be forewarned, very few pictures turned out clear since my kids were never, ever not moving!)
Collin, Nathan, Drew and Noah
The foam pit was of course, a favorite.
Collin eventually got bored of just jumping in feet first and would attempt to flip himself into the pit. Coming from Collin this is shocking, right? Just shocking. ;)
All of the trampolines also went partially up the walls. The older boys figured out you could climb to the top....
...and then slide down at top speed. Love Drew's face here!
We have also managed to get a few date nights in, which has been fun. We owe a huge, huge thank you to Jenn and Burke who were willing to watch not only our kiddos one night, but also Noah and little Nathan so that Laura, Aaron, Nathan and I could all go out to the Fresno State football game. I saw a pin on pinterest a while ago for a drive in movie night, so Saturday afternoon before the game, the boys and I painted and created little box cars for each kid to use that night. The idea was to hopefully make it an easier night for Jenn and Burke. Not sure if it actually panned out this way, but the boys sure had fun! Thanks again Heffy and Burke!
Just make note of Uncle Burkie in the background. We owe you Burkie Turkey!!
And finally, since it's been that long since I last blogged, I'm due for this again:
Three Things about:
Drew:
1. He knows how to write his name without tracing it. He'll still ask the order of the letters, and they aren't always written in any real order on the paper, but the point is he knows the letters and can also write them alone.
Definitely not in order, but from top to bottom: W, D (with a lower case r right next to it), R, and on the far right, E.
2. Loves to sneak into our room and fall asleep there. Unfortunately, he's really good at it. We never, ever hear him. We discover he's not in his bed only when we go to check on him before we head bed for the night. The first time this happened it actually sort of scared me. Drew wasn't in his bed and a quick scan of the house left me wondering where he had gone off to. The logical part of my brain said I never heard our alarm panel beep that any of the doors had been opened, so he had to be inside at least....but where? Long story short, when I went to peel back our seemingly perfectly made bed (no lumps and pillows in place), there he was, curled up under the pillows and fast asleep. Scared the holy moly out of me! It was like having someone jump out of a closet you expected to be empty. He of course, woke up to my reaction and since, now thinks its hilarious to try to scare us or find a new place to hide and sleep. We've now found him asleep under my dresser, in his bathroom on the floor, in the corner of our bedroom curled up with a pile of pillows, etc. Fortunately it's pretty expected at this point, so the someone's going to jump out of the closet feeling has subsided. It has made way though for a new set of rules concerning Drew staying in bed at night and not getting out.
3. Running off of what I said about Drew loving to dress himself last time in the three things post, if dressing oneself is good, then dressing oneself in layers is even better. Oh yeah. That would be SEVEN pairs of chonies that boy has on. (This goes for shirts too right now).
Collin:
1. Has been self potty training. I kid you not. And seriously, I feel the need to pinch myself over this. I wasn't planning on even starting to potty train him until after Baby T arrived and we were all moved over to the new house and settled in, but starting two weeks ago, that boy will not wear a diaper. I'm not talking will occasionally take the diaper off to be naked, I'm talking you put a diaper on him, he pulls it off and brings you a pair of Drew's chonies to wear instead. I didn't think too much of this at first so long as he wasn't peeing on my floor, but when he started heading to use the potty all on his own initiative I thought to myself, "you know....maybe I should go with this." Ding, ding, ding! So we bought him some of his very own big kid chonies, made a very big deal of how big he was getting and how going on the potty was so very big of him, and voila! We've been doing great since. Few accidents here and there, but for as little effort as I truely have put in on this, I'm pretty impressed. Can they all be this easy please?
2. With the self potty training has come the refusal to wear a diaper at night as well. Not so thrilled with this idea as I am with the above. I generally check in on the boys just before Nathan and I head into bed and the past few nights, this is what I've found:
3. Learned the words "Mine!" and "No!". Such a sad day. ...And why is it exactly that every kid says mine with such a whiney and demanding tone. It's never just the word "Mine." as a statement, it's "Mmmmmyyyyyuuuuuun!!!!!".
**And just because, one extra, that applies to both the boys: They love to dress as a firemen (this one has been ongoing for Drewski, but is new for Collin). The boys have a fire fighting movie that they love to watch and in it one of the firefighters gets dressed in his full turnout gear. Well, since watching him put on the protecting beanie (for lack of a better word) under his helmet, the boys have been going around with chonies (yes, underwear) as the protective shield under their firefighting helmets. Although this most definitely applies to Drew, the recent photos I have of all of this seem to be of Collin....
The underwear that's fun to wear!
It is still right around 100 degrees everyday, but this is most often how Collin looks while we go out. Drew's generally just in the boots.
On the fire fighting video they also talk about wearing a face mask....aka firefighting goggles in our household:
That's still the firefighter hat on his head. Collin wears it so that the "bill" is to the front, like a baseball hat and Drew wears it the normal way.
Yep, even on the potty. How cool is this kid, really?
Baby T:
39 weeks as of this Sunday! Crazy how fast this pregnancy has gone by! As it is likely my last, I am trying to savor these last few weeks of pregnancy (because yes, in my case, it is still plural. I have at least two more weeks to go if this kiddo is on par with my other two). I do love feeling him move around, but truth be told I'm feeling pretty squished at this point and ready to be done!
Christi insisted my last preggo pic looked like I had a third boob (thanks to the mirror behind me), so this time I had her take a belly pic while she was here this morning. Man, what a blogging pain in the hiney that girl is! ;)
Whew! What a ton to catch up on!! Hopefully the next time I'm posting it's because we have a new baby to introduce! (One can hope, right?)
