The Rayhorn Family

Valentine's Day and Anna's Room . . .

2012-02-15T20:17:00.000-08:00

The kids were super excited about Valentine's Day . . . they make every holiday fun and exciting. Anna and Ben-ben loved their gifts - pajama pants (Mario and Luigi ones for Ben-Ben!), sucker bouquet, little notepad (they're always looking for something to write/scribble on). They also got some Valentine's cards, including ones all the way from Arizona from their Great Grampa Mike and GG! Fun! (Caleb thought it was all pretty exciting too . . . he just can't talk yet, plus he's sicky again. )

So, Ethan and I went out to celebrate on Saturday and had a cozy night in on V. Day, after the kiddos went to bed. For dinner on Valentine's Day, Eth took Anna out, and I took Benjamin out. As you can see, we all dressed up and made our "dates" extra special. Ben got so many compliments from people. . . he looked like a little man, and was really well behaved even though we went to a sit down restaurant, and there was a bit of a wait. Auntie KC was Caleb's valentine . . . they stayed in and snuggled and watched movies. Sweetness!

Okay, now on to Anna's room. The before shots below show the blank canvas we had to work with. Everything was the same creamy, off white color - trim, ceiling, walls, doors, blah. And we'd already started ripping out the carpet, so you can see a little of the dirty/painty wood floor and the carpet pad. Anna really wanted a girly and colorful room, and I was more than happy to oblige . . . with some compromise. She wanted pink walls, but she got a beautiful green color ("Green Leaf" Valspar... LOVE!) with pink bedding. Well . . . you'll see. BEFORE:

So, we ripped out the carpet, refinished the floors. Painted everything - ceiling white, trim and doors in ultra white, and walls green. Anna got our old bed from when we were first married, a queen size bed handed down from the Peterson's. It needed some girly bedding and I found an awesome deal for a "bed-in-a-bag" for $30 from Target that was about what I was looking for in the room. We also got the leaning bookshelf for her room for about $25 from Walmart, clearanced. Otherwise, we had everything.

The empty frame above her bed was given to me by a friend and it was a dark wood. So of course I painted it white and added a butterfly. I think I want to put some fabric in it so it looks even more like a head board. The other "art work" was handed down from her cousin, Rebecca, who is moving in to a new house/room soon and is going for a slightly older look. :) And the lamp, mirror and purple board we already had too. Oh, and the butterflies/dragon flies were left over from Anna's birthday party, and go perfectly with the art Rebecca gave her and the room. I need to find a way to make the butterflies look like their flying and not hanging (dead) in the corner. And maybe add some tissue paper balls in that corner too. Anyway . . . the little details are fun for me . . . especially when they're cheap or free! :)

The desk in Anna's room is Ethan's Grandpa Rayhorn's. Then it was Chuck's, then it was Ethan's. When Caleb is done sleeping in his pac-n-play (when he's about 2 1/2), it will be moved in to the boy's room to keep the desk going down the line of Rayhorn boys. But, I think we made it look girly enough for now . . . and I'll look for a desk for Anna at garage sales and good will in the mean time. And I'll probably end up painting it white. hehe. Okay, see what I'm talking about! AFTER:

I love her room. It's a very happy, bright place. Just like I wanted for her. I love that her closet doors have the original glass knobs on them. I loved the old fashioned radiator. (We just need to add trim to the bottom of it to hide the paint under it.) I love the fun wall decals by her door. Such a cheap, easy way to make it feel more girly . . . and then peal them off when she grows up. Anna was so relieved to FINALLY have a room to herself, but good grief she's only six. I had to share a room with a brother until the summer after 5th grade. hehe. Although, the kids room at my parent's house was starting to feel pretty crowded the older Caleb got. :)

Oh, and Anna loves telling people that she has a queen size bed, but I always try to clarify that it was free, and we already had it. . . 'cause a six year old doesn't need it. hehe. It is nice though, because when we have someone over, Ethan and I can stay in Anna's room, Anna can sleep in the bunk bed in the boys room, and guests can have our room with a little privacy. So, now we need some guests. Anyone, anyone? hehe. Actually, I think a friend of mine may be coming this summer . . . and we have some other possible visitors before that too. Yay!

So, the only thing I'm still going to do in this room - trim around the radiator, and possibly hang some tissue paper balls with the butterflies in the corner. The end. For now. :)

Now, we just have the boy's room, two bathrooms, and the kitchen and we're done. I'll try to get them up quickly, now that I'm finally feeling pretty finished on some projects I had. I need to get this "Here's the house and all the hard work we did" thing over with. hehe. We'll see. I keep finding little projects to get in my way! Well, Until next time . . . Adios!

A Little More House . . .

2012-02-02T21:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I do love to show off the new house... but mainly just in person. That way, I can easily/quickly tell people all the hard work we put in to it (mostly ourselves), and what we still want to do. That's why I've been so slow to put up pics on here (because it takes FOREVER to type all the explanations I want to give . . . hehe). And although I'd like to wait until all my projects are done, things really slowed down once we got all moved in. Which, I suppose is a good thing that I'm not feeling quite so urgent about getting everything done. I need to focus on my sweet, little family! (Even before we moved in, and now that we're in, almost all the time we put in to the house were between the hours of 7:30pm and 12:30am. . . so as not to loose out on too much time with the kiddos. And to try to keep babysitting requests to a minimum. :) BUT, people keep asking so I'll add two more rooms today. hehe.

First a little explanation. When I'm explaining the rooms, I often mention where we got things and even sometimes how much things cost, or if they were free or given to us. Mostly it's 'cause I really love a good deal, and just can't help from sharing. :) And also it's because I love our home, and I'm proud of the fact that we did most of the work ourselves (saved tons there! :), and because even the things we fill our home with are often hand-me-downs, garage sale/Good will stuff, gifts, awesome deals/sales, etc. And I like that. So I want to share. :) Anyway . . . moving on.

Here is the main Basement room BEFORE:

It doesn't have that basement, musty smell to it, which is good. And it's dry, which is also good. (The stairs down to the basement are a bit of another story . . . but we knew about that and can't do anything until the spring/summer.) But the basement was definitely grungy. It hadn't been used as living space for awhile, since a young, childless couple were the ones renting the house before we bought it and didn't need the extra space. We definitely wanted to bleach everything down, and clean very thoroughly before we did the painting. I was going for fun and colorful in the basement, so we painted all the huge cabinets and doors celery (bright green) surrounded by ultra white. Then we painted everything that was concrete (floors, outer walls, stairs, etc) with a special concrete basement paint, and then a sealant coat on top to hopefully make it stay nice longer. It was supposed to be light grey, but I'd consider it about two shades darker than what I consider to be light grey. See for yourself. :) AFTER:

It looks like the walls are wet because we wanted the most durable paint/sealant we could find and they recommended this stuff. The darker grey grew on me too . . . And the pictures are kind of dark, but that's just my camera. It's pretty light for a basement since it has 4 windows.

Notice the didgeridoo Ethan brought back from Australia in the corner. :) Next to an entire wall and a half of deep storage cabinets, and a little built in bookshelf. I love how much storage we have in the basement! Plus, not pictured, we have a whole storage/work room, a deep closet with shelving (holding skis and work out stuff), and a really decent sized laundry room with shelving and a freezer too!

Okay, also notice the little "table house" my mom made for Anna when she was two. I love that we can always have it out now, since we've never had an extra table before. And we got this sturdy, maple table from Good Will for $10. Sorry, had to share. :) So the table side is usually covered with toys on top and beneath, but I cleaned up for this pic. We'll use it for crafting and "school" too, and extra eating space if we have lots of people over. Right now it is pretty chilly down there, but we have a pretty good space heater, and the kiddos just wear their robes and slippers . . . and sometimes their hats too. hehe.

The TV side is also a lot of hand-me-down stuff, garage sale stuff, and stuff we already had. . . except we bought the futon and two pillows specifically for this space. (Super cheap at wal-mart :) Caleb almost never uses the exersaucer anymore, and we'll be putting it in the garage sale pile in the storage room eventually, but I like having it down there because I don't quite trust him crawling/walking around the basement/laundry/heater area just yet. I'll probably look for another chair to take that spot at garage sales this summer.

So, not really much I have left to do down there, actually. I'd like to get some fun posters to frame and hang on the dark grey walls to lighten them up, but that's about it. Or maybe I'll find a creative way to hang/display/frame the kid's art work on those walls. Oh, and I need to get light covers for the two ceiling lights down there. But that's pretty much it. So, now on to our bedroom. BEFORE:

Yep, it was a hot tub room. And said hot tub could not fit out of the door. Seriously, we had multiple people look at it and come to the same conclusion. (Everyone assumed they must have put it through the large window.) That is why the second row of pictures show a huge hot tub mess. Ethan had to borrow a special saw and cut that baby to pieces.

After it was out of the way, it was very clear that this room would need to be painted. I was hoping to work with the dark paneling for the sake of simplicity. . . .but it was seriously gross and damaged from all the splashing water and chlorine from the tub. The ceiling even looked like it had splashes on it, or old leaks. Either way, we did a quick coat of ceiling paint too. Well, not quick, and not fun, but I'm glad we did it. And man, even the carpet needed replaced, as you may suspect. Gross and bleached from hot tub water. Lowes has an almost non-existent installation fee for carpet, and we happened to like their cheapest one the best (it was the lightest color, most durable, etc. and only 65 cents a square foot. Seriously I was so excited). We did splurge on the fluffy rug since Ethan was hoping for fluffy carpet . . . and by splurge I mean about $30. hehe And luckily paint costs almost nothing, BUT it took 4, yes FOUR coats because the finish on the wood kept bleeding through. And we ended up using a darker shade than I had originally wanted, but I think I love it even more. (The original color was a VERY pale, bluish/grey.) This room was almost the death of me, but it's probably my favorite room in the whole house now. AFTER:

(The pics where the wall color looks a little more grey-ish are probably the most accurate.)

So besides the paint and the carpeting, we already had all the furniture, so we just arranged it to utilize the space the best. (It's a pretty small room, 11 by 12 I believe, but we're not really fans of huge bedrooms since it's usually just the two of us hanging out in there. :) We took the heavy wooden closet doors off, and replaced them with sheer white curtains. Makes the room feel more airy. I also put up new, white curtains . . . but really they're fabric shower curtains. (It's a lot cheaper that way!) I even hung these as shower curtains, 'cause I thought it'd be kind of a fun look in the room. I think it goes. My mom hemmed them so they don't fall behind the bed. We've been doing the white bedding thing forever . . . since we got married, and I'll probably never change it. And with bleach, it can look pretty crisp for a long time. This time, I added some bright yellow high lights, and tried to make the room look a little more modern than antique. The yellow place mats were clearanced at Target for 1.50 each . . . and I "splurged" on the throw pillow for $12. . . . which really isn't too bad since decorative pillows can get CRAZY expensive. But I digress.

My jewelry is all organized in the white vases on the dresser, and I LOVE the look. I'm sure it's been done before, but this just popped in to my head, so I'm claiming it. One holds buttons, one rings, one hair clips, and the tall skinny one has my bracelets around it. My mom gave me some of them and I already had some. (And we already had the hooks I'm hanging my necklaces on, but we'd used them for something else before.)

So, what I still want to do in the bedroom - paint all the frames in the "frame cluster" white, plus the one wood frame on the dresser white too. (Some of the frames need filled in or photos switched out, and I already had all of these frames - given to me, garage sales, etc.) I want to paint the tan bookshelf white, and the other little black end table white. But I'm leaving the wood dresser and mirror their natural wood color. That's about it . . . not too much in this room left to do either. :) But geesh, after all that painting, I really don't feel like painting anything still . . . even really small stuff. I'll get back in to it though.
I love the view from our bedroom and how much light flows in. I love that it's a little ways away from the kids rooms (although I thought this would bother me more . . . we can still hear everything, and can easily have Caleb's pac-n-play in our room too.) I love that it feels like we have our own bathroom - though not officially a master bath, it's right next to us. :) I wish I wasn't so busy, 'cause I could spend hours lounging in my room! hehe. It feels peaceful and relaxing in there, which is always what I'm ultimately going for with our bedroom. :)

Now a couple fun pictures. Auntie Ashley visited!!! The kids hadn't seen her since the beginning of September, and they were so excited. Even Caleb warmed right up to her even though he's been pretty picky about people lately. The kids got lots of Auntie Hash time . . . and all three even managed some alone time with her too. So sweet. (I love the pic of Ashley and Caleb. . . it's a yawn/smile combination.)

The next pic shows Anna and Benjamin watching some men work on the power lines and switch out the pole right in front of our house. They made up a whole story that sounded very similar to Fern Gully, mainly because they kept calling the pole a tree and the workers were bad guys stealing it with their big equipment, and Anna and Ben were fairies. (When Ben told Anna that boys aren't fairies, and that he wanted to be spider man - his current obsession - instead, Anna told him she'd seen boy fairies before. So, Ben-Ben said, "okay, I'll be a fairy.") So cute. This took up most of the morning. :) I love them.

And the final pic is baby Caleb J. Such a little smoo. He spends most of his days in his jammies. Mainly because he almost never goes anywhere. Why, you ask? Because he keeps getting sick! He has caught one thing after another since October, and as you may recall, even a "normal" cold is a lot more serious for him. Poor little man. Oh, and Cabers finally took his first steps!!! It was January 29th, and he's still not a full blown walker yet, but he's working at it. :) Love him. (This picture also shows that we're still working on finishing up/touching up the trim. :)

Well, I could think of more things to write about, but I must get to bed. And let you all get back to your lives, and stop reading this incredibly long, boring blog post. So, hope you all have a fabulous weekend! Ciao!

Five Things I Have Learned In The Last Few Months . . .

2012-01-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

1) Painting is hard work. I thought we'd only paint a few rooms starting out. Well, everything got painted except the kitchen and two bathrooms. So, three bedrooms, three ceilings, one large living room (and we had the ceiling done/textured by a friend), the entire basement room and floor and stairs/walls going down to the basement. Whew. I may never paint again. Just kidding. I already have about a million "little" painting jobs to do . . . like frames, and small pieces of furniture, and . . .

2) Sanding floors is hard work. And man, those machines are powerful and scary all at the same time. Oh my goodness, it looked so much better when we were done! Come see for yourself! :)

3) If you move in to a house thinking you'll only do a couple things, a couple will turn in to many more. And cost more than originally thought. And be a lot of hard, but rewarding work. I'm pretty sure IF we ever move again, hehe, it will be into a house that needs NO work at all. Those homes exist, right? I guess since Ethan and I love older homes, that's not very likely. (And I say "if" because I can not possibly imagine moving ever again right now. Give me 5 years. :)

4) Moves are stressful. I know, obvious. I had forgotten already though. Plus our 10 am pickup for our U-haul fell through, and we had to scramble for a new one. And of course we had people waiting/ready to help us, which really made me stressed. But, we started at 10:30, and were done moving in the last box by 1pm-ish. (We had three different places to pick up stuff from. So not too bad, considering.) And we were lucky to have some great help from friends!

5) I love our new house. Oddly enough, it feels much bigger with all of our furniture in it. With our Front Street house, it took us awhile to fall in love. (I think we were just really nervous about the large purchase for awhile.) But we are instantly in love with this one. Probably since we've already "given" so much to it. It's so perfect for us. And has some old charm to it too - fireplace, built in cabinet, original maple floors - which we've always been drawn to. It is a little weird being in a one story; I feel like we have to be more mindful of privacy, but at the same time I love everything being on one level. (Oh, and there is the basement play room, but that's only usable when the space heater has been going for awhile, or the kids are completely bundled up to go downstairs . . . but it'll be awesome in the summer! :) Anyway, we are happy to have our own place again. Especially this place. We feel very blessed with how everything turned out.

So Ethan wants me to share pictures of the house right now, but I really want to do a few more projects, and finishing touches before I do. We are all unpacked, and a lot of the art/decor/photos are up, but not all. I think I'll just have to resign myself to the fact that it will always be a work in progress. So, I will share a few photos for you today:
BEFORE -

Okay, so none of these pictures are great quality/lighting. But you can probably see that the living room wall color was pinkish/tan (not my thing), and a creamish/off white color. I wasn't a fan of the window treatments either, and had already started to pull them down. The carpet was way dirtier than you'll probably be able to see in the pics, and the maple floors underneath were pretty dirty/painty too. Sooooo . . .

AFTER -

Ta da! :) We painted the walls "Winter Wheat" (or brown . . . which is not for everybody, but I LOVE it), and the rest is painted ultra white. We sanded the floors and had a friend of ours seal them for us. I cleaned out the fireplace which is currently sealed up (not drafty) and painted it with a special fireplace paint. I was going to have candles in it, but the kids love it for playing, so no. We had a friend from church smooth out and texture the ceiling because it's an old house and had some cracks etc. We had the track lighting taken out and only use floor lamps in the living room, which we're big fans of.

We're still decorating, like the wall behind the piano (oh how I LOVE having my piano back!!!) is now currently the "gallery wall" with lots of different frames I'll be painting a uniform color. We also have new tiles to put around the fireplace, but haven't gotten to them yet. They're small, and multi-colored. It will be beautiful!!! (We're also having our friend build the fireplace in to the floor so it's not "floating" anymore.) I'm also going to paint the two stools next to the love seat white. It's so convenient having them right there by the door for putting on shoes, etc, but they're hand-me-downs and don't quite match the other wood things in the house. Anyway . . .

The desk is Ethan's great grandfather's "Grand Bobby," I believe. I think I might try to find a white cloth runner thing to help lighten it up since it's against a dark wall. And the frame above the desk is going to be painted white to stand out more on the wall. (All the explanations are exactly why I wanted to wait to show after pictures until all my little projects are done. hehe :) Also, the thing we use for a TV stand is something my mom and I found at a garage sale together when I was little. I used it as a dresser in my room growing up, and eventually helped my mom refinish it. She let us have it when we moved in here, and it is just perfect in the room. Can you tell that not only do we like older homes, but we're drawn to older furniture/decor too, with character and significant meaning preferably. :) I try to mix the older stuff with newer, more colorful things too, but I'm still working on "lightening" the room up. (I was worried that having so many of the walls painted ultra white, and having light floors, that it would be too bright . . . but nope.)

The rest of the stuff we already had, and it was just so good to get it out of storage after so long!

Some just for fun pictures! Thank goodness I cleaned out that fireplace! :) The second pic shows the awesome baby gate we have. That way I didn't have to baby proof the whole kitchen. Love it. And the final pic of Caleb crawling around in a tutu shows a pic of the beautiful floors in the day light.

And lest we all forget, it was my birthday on the 13th. :) Even though I was super stressed/busy with all the house stuff, the kiddos (and my sweetie momma) still made it an extra special day: breakfast in bed, a DELISH cake, sweet gifts, and they sent Ethan and I out to dinner. Then we went to work on the house until after midnight. :) Ethan didn't give me my presents until about a week after my birthday (he wanted to wait until I wasn't so crazy with all the house stuff so I could really enjoy opening them . . . hehe.). I LOVED what he picked out for me!!! So thoughtful - some piano music from a current fav artist, Tina Fey's new book . . . hilarious!, a cute hat, and a gift card for a tanning salon (which I haven't done in FOREVER, but I'm really looking forward to). Not that he spent tons, but he said he was making up for lost time . . . this was my first birthday we weren't "poor students" anymore. :) It was a good birthday, but next year I will be back to my birthday WEEK tradition. hehe.

A final picture, just because I think it's hilarious. I walked in the room and found them in almost the exact same position doing the exact same thing. hehe. Caleb has really been missing his Grampa Dewey since we moved, and vice verse, but they're both managing to survive . . . barely. :)

Happy New Year . . .

2012-01-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

. . . About a week late, but Happy fresh start to 2012 all the same!!! We had a fun, low key NYE "party" at my parents house from 5pm-ish to 7pm-ish. The kids really wanted to have a party with food and games and festivities. We were just going to have it be our own, little family, but then my parents got involved and Andrew's family came over too. (Which was really fun, and made it more festive for the kids.) My mom and I got all the food together, and it turned out to be a super yummy variety of snacky foods. My mom is the reason most of it's displayed on pretty plates. It's her thing. :)

We played a couple party games with the kiddos, and they had tons of fun. Then we sent them upstairs to play and the grown-ups played a fun, new game Andrew and Sabrina brought over - Battle of the Sexes. The boys won, but juuuuust barely. Oh, and little Hudson was obsessed with the football above, it was pretty cute.

New Years Day pictures. All dressed up for church in their new clothes from GraMelissa and Grampa Chuck. So cute! I love the matching sweaters for the twinners, Ethan and Ben-Ben. (Caleb got one too, in blue I believe, but he was sick yet again on Sunday so he stayed in jammies.) And Anna just looks so adorable in this outfit Auntie KC helped pick out . . . and grown up too! I can't believe how much she's changing and growing lately. The last picture Benjamin is crying, as you can see. His feelings were very hurt because I wanted a picture of just Anna. Ben likes be part of everything that his sister is doing, so of course it really hurt his feelings that I didn't want him in the picture too. Yeah, he's a sensitive one, that boy. :)

And finally, little Caber Z. Getting over another sickness, snuggled up in his swing with his blankie and nuki. (Yes, he is over the weight limit on the swing, but if it breaks . . . he's close to the floor anyway.)

So, I'm not doing resolutions this year . . . although I always have things I'm working on. Mostly, I just need to get settled in my house and get back into our normal routines, and lifestyle, and space, etc. We pushed our moving day back to this coming Saturday, the 14th. Everything just took way longer than we thought it would, but all the major stuff is done now. So we're gradually moving in this week, and then renting a moving truck on Saturday for all the storage unit stuff. Ah, I'm so excited!!!!!!!

I'm so focused on the moving stuff, getting the final touches on the house, etc. that my birthday week snuck up on me.  And with everything going on, I think we'll only have time to celebrate on Friday, my actual birthday. How sad, huh? hehe. I guess that's okay for this year. Especially since moving in to our new house is like the best birthday present ever!!! (Also, some of our stuff has been stored for 31/2 years so it'll be like Christmas opening up some of these boxes. Yay!)

So, as I was filling out my new calendar for 2012, I also took the time to look back over 2011's calendar. We had lots of good stuff happening - play dates, baby blessing, birthdays, etc. Also, there were ALOT of doctor appointments. hehe. I thought I'd do a short recap on all of us from 2011, based on what showed up on the calendar. Here it goes . . .

ETHAN - Ethan did a lot of traveling for internships. A lot! Even though Eth was gone tons, he still managed to be an awesome daddy and husband to his little family. Thanks for everything, babes! He also had some biggies this year, like - graduating from his Doctor of Physical Therapy program, turning 30, passing his licensure exam, and getting his first "real" job with an awesome company. Hooray for Ethan! :)

ANGELA - I turned 30! And I took care of kiddies alot . . . including our new, sicky one. hehe. (Not that I wrote that on the calendar . . . 'cause it's an every day kind of thing . . . but I tried to keep things going as best I could while Ethan was gone.) I feel like I spent the first part of the year trying to keep my head above water with all the appointments for Caleb (and me too with working through the thyroid/blood pressure stuff after the pregnancy), all the medications he needed, getting Anna and Ben-Ben out and about, and to different activities. Things eventually managed to calm down . . . somewhat. I got a new calling this year in the Primary Presidency, and was pleasantly surprised with the excitement I felt, since I thought I'd been doing the primary thing for long enough. Love the people I serve with, and love those kids!

ANNA - Had her first ever ballet recital. She turned 6, and started kindergarten at Sandy Knoll. Anna had a kidney infection for the first time, actually two back to back. It was quite the traumatic experience for both of us, and included many different tests, IVs, ER visits, overnight hospital stay, and lots of antibiotics. Also, Anna had lots of play dates with friends, and continues to be a social little butterfly.  And such a sweetie! :)

BENJAMIN - Ben-Ben turned 3. He went to lots of MOMs Club activities with me. He started pre-school, and also ended his pre-school career. (It's a long story . . . well, mostly I just felt like it wasn't the right thing for Ben. . . which is sad 'cause I really liked having a break for a couple hours M-Th. :)   Benjamin also finished his time in nursery at church, and transitioned to Sunbeams in the month of December. Oh my. All my kids are growing up too fast! Ben's best friend - Logan - moved, and he still talks about him all the time. (And apparently Logan does too. :( We're still working on finding him another bud to hang out with, but for right now he thinks that all of Anna's best friends are his best friends too. Poor Ben. hehe.

CALEB - Caleb had about 40 health related appointments in 2011. Ridiculous! A totally healthy baby would have had 3-4 appointments in that same amount of time. (I'm counting all kinds of things - lab work, synegis shots, MRI on his big head, two trips downstate to specialists, regular checkups, dr. appointments for sickness, developmental appoints with early on, PT pediatrics appointments, etc.) Wow! That's alot. Besides all the appointments on the calendar for his health, he was also blessed in February, and turned one in November. What a first year! (He's actually been sicker this season so far, I swear he's catching everything. Plus, he only caught one cold last season. We just know him better now, and what's normal for him, so it requires less appointments.)

So, here's to a HEALTHIER 2012 for all of us - hopefully Caleb will continue to grow out of these lung issues (I'm hoping his appointments will at least be halved!), and Anna won't get any more kidney infections (or any new kind of infections!), and Ben-Ben will stay healthy (although he's been getting rashes lately. . . I think he has some mild allergies, geesh we can't catch a break! :), and Ethan and I will just get healthier in general . . . (once we're in our own space, and actually have a place at home to work out again, and are eating better again . . . and . . . . :).

The Traditional Christmas Post. . .

2011-12-29T07:07:00.000-08:00

So, I'm kinda torn with blogging lately. On the one hand, it's our family journal, and there are so many things I want to remember. (Plus, it's a good way for far away family to see what we're up to.) On the other hand, there is still SO much to do at the new house right now, it's hard to take time to do anything else or focus on anything else. (And we're only 9 days away from moving in!) But, here we go - I'll try to keep it short and sweet. . . . for me. hehe.

Anna's "Holiday Sing", and Benjamin's preschool "Christmas program". Auntie KC was able to make it to both of them. So special. (And Grampa Dewey was able to attend Anna's. . . and babysat Caleb during Ben's program since it was during his nap time.)

It's become tradition to do a Christmas Eve Eve (23rd) get together with my side of the family. As usual, delicious food and nice, relaxing "hanging out" time. Anna and Ben-Ben loved their present from Gramma and Grampa, and they also loved playing with their cousins. (Almost all of their cousins on this side are much older than them, but they're such sweeties and play with - or humor - Anna and Benjamin. :)

Christmas Eve we were at Chuck and Melissa's. We feasted. Oh my, it was soooooo good. (Caleb's such an adorable feast-er, I had to include some pics.)

The Christmas puzzle! Not quite the same this year with fewer numbers to work on it (Ash and Meg + families didn't come home for Christmas this year - we missed them!). Luckily, it's become tradition for my sister and her crew to stop by on Christmas Eve, and they all LOVE working on the puzzle. And since Chuck had knee replacement surgery on the 15th of this month, hopefully he'll have plenty of time to work on it too.

There was more present opening, and playing with said presents. Fun!

(Yes, Caleb got a walking toy from his Auntie, because he is STILL not walking. hehe. He'll get there. He may be one of a few 13 month olds that recieved a walker as a gift. :)

Christmas morning. Santa came!

Present opening continues. Magical.

(You know. It seems that no matter how "simple" we keep it, there is just too much stuff. Maybe one of these years we'll hit the right balance. :)

We all got cleaned up and ready for church. (Caleb did too . . . in an adorable grey and red striped cardigan, but was sleeping during this pic.) I sang "Oh Holy Night" in church, and it had been awhile since I'd sang a solo.

That evening, after nap time (for Caleb and me), it was back to GramMelissa and Grampa Chuck's house for Christmas breakfast for dinner. Delish.

***All of these Christmas celebrations were intermixed with going over to work on the house. On Monday, Ethan didn't have to work and we spent the whole day sanding our floors. The WHOLE day. I was so sore after that, and am starting to get burnt out on house stuff. Never again will I buy a house that is not "move in ready." I know it will all be worth it in the end, but man, this is all turning out to be way more than I had initially thought. And then we'll start the fun process of unpacking about a million boxes. Ahhhhggghghhhghgh. This is all so overwhelming. I may just never move again once we're settled in here. :)***

So, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! And hope you have fun, safe New Year's celebrations!

'Tis The Season To Be Jolly and Joyous . . .

2011-12-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

Ginger bread houses! I love that you can see how much they want to eat them in the last picture. hehe.

Christmas party at church. Even though Ben-Ben was nervous, he loved seeing Santa. I loved the "family style" dinner we had. . . and Benjamin and I were surrounded by family. Delish. The music was beautiful, and I felt the Spirit. I love our Marquette ward (congregation)!!! (Ethan stayed home with Anna and Caleb who were not feeling 100% . . . we want to be especially careful again this winter season. Pobrecitos.)

The primary kids dressed up and sang the Nativity song. Benjamin was the cutest little Shepard you've ever seen. :) I like how he's kind of checking everyone else out instead of singing the song (which he didn't know). . . typical three year old, I guess. hehe. Oh, and that's me playing the piano.

Aaaaaand . . . here are two photos of the new house. Of course it will look cuter when it's summertime and green. And the backyard pic does a pretty good job showing our awesome yard and deck, but I couldn't get it all in one pic.

We've been working super hard over at the house painting, ripping out carpet (to get to the original maple hardwood floors), fixing, painting some more. It's been pretty all consuming lately, but it will be so worth it when we're ready to move in . . . and it will look so much better/cleaner! We feel very blessed with how everything worked out for this house, the deal we got, and the loan we were able to qualify for. We're just very excited to move in to our own place again and have space for everything and everyone. But first, more work! (I'm waiting to show inside pictures for when we're done painting, finishing the hardwood floors, and all moved in. Then I'll do before and afters.)

So, I kept putting off my Christmas shopping this year, but finally did it last Thursday evening. (I've never done it this late - I'm usually finished by early November!) Every time I'd go to the store it would be to pick up house fixing/painting related items. Then I'd walk in and remember that it's Christmas time, and that I still hadn't done any Christmas shopping. So, I finally stopped putting it off. I did it all in one go, multiple stores, and all done in 2 1/2 hours. I was pleasantly surprised with how fast everything went. (I hadn't bought one single present before this trip.) I got all the stocking stuff and presents for the kids (we keep gift giving pretty simple), Ethan's stocking stuff (we're only doing stockings this year for each other to keep it simple and cheap since so much is going in to the house right now), my mom and dad's presents, Ethan's sister, and my brother. Whew. Ethan still needs to pick out a couple things for me, and I told him he can pick out presents for his parents this year (he ALWAYS does last minute shopping). And done!

So, life is pretty busy with trying to get the house ready to move in by January 7th (that's our goal . . . that WILL be met :). But, I'm still trying to take the time to enjoy holiday cheer with my sweet family. Like - Muppet Christmas Carol, ginger bread houses, the kiddos Christmas programs at school (pictures to come), watching the Nativity story for family night, etc. (No sledding yet, since there's even less snow on the ground than the pictures above. Geesh!) Hope you're all finding ways to enjoy this beautiful Christmas season!

The Christmas Spirit . . .

2011-12-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

Anna and Benjamin in their pj's, snuggled up with Grampa Dewey, watching the Christmas Devotional on the computer.

A shot of the little tree my parent's put up this year (easier to keep Caleb away from it). Not a lot of decorating yet, but the white Christmas lights are just perfect. (Notice the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the computer screen. :)

Final picture of the night - couldn't leave Buddy out!

Last December was a blur of Ethan being gone alot, Caleb in the NICU and trying to visit him as much as possible, and trying to provide fun Christmas memories for Anna and Ben amidst all the chaos. And while there were things that were touching and special about last Christmas season, I was hoping this one would be different. And I guess it is. Ethan is with us. Caleb is not in the hospital, but is a healthy little one year old. Anna and Benjamin have lots of fun Christmas activities happening. But, I was really, REALLY hoping we'd be all settled in our own place by Christmas. (And although I haven't given up on that, it looks like it will be a long shot.) We were supposed to close on our house on November 21st, but it's been pushed back til tomorrow. *I'll make sure to mention when it's official, and put pictures of the house up then.* Soooo, that leaves less than three weeks until Christmas to paint, remove carpet, fix/change stuff, move all of our stuff in, AND be unpacked. I just don't think it's going to happen. But we'll try our hardest. :) I don't want to be so busy and focused on house stuff that we miss out on the joy, and spirit, and magic that is felt this time of year.

December things we have been enjoying: We watched the Christmas Devotional online tonight, a church broadcast from SLC, Utah. It invited the Christmas spirit and the music was beautiful! (And the kids loved trying to look for Gramma Susan who was attending, as she is visiting my sister Christie in Utah right now.) We've had a little bit of slushy snow, but nothing I'd really count yet - the kiddos LOVE it though. It's so new and exciting every year. (Except when Benjamin realized that it would get on him and make him wet. hehe.) We've helped my mom decorate a little this year, and the kids love playing with her nativity set. Oh, and another favorite activity is singing Christmas songs in the car when we're driving somewhere.

We're also looking forward to other activities: Anna's Winter Presentation at school tomorrow, Benjamin's pre-school Christmas program on the 22nd, a Christmas party at church, making ginger bread houses, sledding (once we get some real snow - hopefully by Christmas!), watching some of our favorite Christmas movies - with hot chocolate!, the primary kids are singing in church on the 18th, and I'm singing in church on Christmas day, making Christmas cookies with Anna and Benjamin, focusing on the Christmas story for family night and scriptures, and all the usual fun happenings on Christmas Eve/Day.

When I read over my "list" I realize we have many wonderful things happening this holiday season. And I know I shouldn't feel bummed just because we may not be doing some of these things in our own home . . . yet. That's not what's most important (although it is pretty important to me. :) So, mostly this journal entry is a reminder that I need to try not to get stressed (about the house . . . I don't really "stress" about Christmas stuff), focus on the most important things, and look for opportunities to invite the true spirit Christmas into our lives.

The Rest of November . . .

2011-11-25T18:36:00.000-08:00

I know there have been a lot of pictures of Caleb on here lately . . . but it's his birthday month. And he's growing up too fast. And I realized that I didn't have many "nakey" pictures of him. And he's adorable. And I needed some "blankey" pictures too. And these were taken on his actual one year old birthday. Okay, moving on . . .

Pasty dinner. (It's a U.P. thing.) And it was Caleb's first time trying one . . . he loved it. Me, I'm not really a fan, but ketchup helps.

Anna and Benjamin being silly at GraMelissa and Grampa Chuck's house. They have been playing so well together, and so often lately, and making up super funny pretend scenarios. I LOVE it.

My dad had his "Graduation" party this month. His retired on October 31st, and some Scouting volunteers planned this party for him the middle of November. It was cool to see how many people attended (friends, family - including my grandparents in the pic above, co-workers, volunteers, Rotary people, community people, etc.). It was also neat to see all the awards/honors he received, the kind remarks from multiple people who have felt influenced by my dad, and especially touching at the end when my dad had my mom come up to receive recognition of her own for all the support and volunteering she did during his career. Sweetness. So yeah - very happy for my dad . . . and my mom.

And since we're still living with my parents (we are closing on our house SOON), it's been fun to see first hand his transition into retirement. Like long hikes with buddy - not his usual hour or so . . . closer to 3-4 hours on some days! Lots of grandkid time. :) He's become a little more spendy, and is always going out to eat with my mom, and planning trips and "get aways." (They deserve it! :) He's actually home in the evenings, a rareity before, and watches a little TV now. And yes, he has occasionally seemed lost, but quickly recovers. Oh, and he's spent plenty of time at the office volunteering, so that helps too. hehe. Congratulations, Dad!!!

Thanksgiving this year was so relaxed. I loved it. We all slept in. Ethan and I both had early afternoon naps. We watched the parade on TV with my parents. We watched some football. We snuggled and lounged with the kids. We stayed in pj's until the afternoon. We prepared a few simple things to bring to Chuck and Melissa's. We had a beautiful before dinner walk around Shiras Hills. We ate a delish meal . . . it was SO yummy. Anna helped with some fun decorations, and reminded us all to go around the table and say what we're thankful for. (Doesn't she look so grown up in the pic above?!) The only thing - poor Benjamin was sick with a 24 hour bug or food illness. So sad for him! Especially since he is so obsessed with food and had been looking forward to this for so long. He actually watched movies and slept through the Thanksgiving meal. Caleb on the other hand . . . you can see for yourself, below. He was in Heaven.

I'm feeling pretty thankful for all the good things in my life. Especially family. Immediate, extended, near, far, older, younger - family means so much to me. I've been positively influenced, and loved, and helped by so many different family members (many of whom are probably reading this journal entry :), and I'm just so grateful for that. So, hope you all had a fabulous month and joyous Thanksgiving as well! Love to all!

My Baby Is One . . .

2011-11-16T06:50:00.000-08:00

Caleb J. turned 1 today, November 16th. (We had his party on Sunday, which is why I'm all set with this journal entry today. :)

What a year it has been . . . but more on that later. First, enjoy some pictures!

So, you may have gathered that I like to plan birthdays for my kids. It's not necessarily time consuming, and is never pricey, but I like to plan them out (like Anna's cute/fancy picnic in the woods in August :). Well, despite that, we keep it pretty low key for one year old birthdays around here . . . just family (although, even with just family we had 20 or so people there), finger food (including frozen pizza, hehe), cake (my mom made Caleb's cute cakes with a blue number one and polka dots - thanks mom!), and simple decorations (we don't really do a theme when our babies turn one, and these few decorations were left over from Ben's first birthday). They are so oblivious at this age, that I just can't bring myself to put much thought or time into the party. To me, the high-light of a one year old's party is when they eat the cake . . . and Cabers did not disappoint. hehe

Oh, and the picture above is my favorite from the whole bunch. I am a sucker for my baby's profile . . . the cheeks, the squishy lips, the chubby arms, the little button nose, the soft wavy baby hair. LOVE it!

Party hats and blowers (left over from Benjamin's one year old party); the CAKES my talented momma made; Caleb enjoying his birthday dinner. Yum!

Cabers really liked being sung to. . .

Anna helped blow out the candle; Caleb tentatively starts to try the cake; and it makes him HAPPY. hehe.

Handsome, blue-eyed boy. "This is really good cake, mama."

Group shot of serving up cake; People chatting and mingling in the kitchen; And Rebecca and Rachel - super cute sisters! (We had the party at Chuck and Melissa's house. We always have Sunday dinner over there . . . we just invited the rest of our family along for Caleb's birthday this past Sunday. Thanks for having ALL of us!)

Party hats! Caleb was not a fan of the party hat, surprise, surprise. I didn't get a pic of everyone who chose to try the party hats, but thanks for being good sports. :)

Love this pic of Cabers standing up next to his happy birthday sign. Cutie pie! He much preferred to try to grab the balloons than open his birthday presents.

Anna and Benjamin "helped" Caleb J. open his presents. As in, they did it for him. He got some cute, sweet gifts. Thanks everyone!

Okay, and one last photo - below - of my adorable, chubbers. You can see that he finished almost all of his cupcake. Not surprising. hehe.

Now, let me reflect for a bit on my baby boy . . . he's come so far. I know it's only been a year, but all the complications from his birth and six week NICU stay seem like FOREVER ago. Almost like a dream. And although we're still dealing with some lasting effects from the chronic lung disease/asthma (that he may still grow out of in a few more years), Caleb just seems SO much healthier now.

It's hard to remember that he started out like these pictures below . . .

Doesn't he look so different?! (That second picture is especially gooney looking - I think he was going potty :) Medical Update - When he's not sick with a cold, of which he's had a few his first year, Caleb takes only one medicine through an inhaler twice a day. It takes less than a minute to give it to him and he doesn't usually mind. Not too bad, when you're used to so much more. If he has a cold, then he'll usually do another medicine through the inhaler - as needed - to help with wheezing and retracting, and sometimes he'll need some liquid steroids - decreases lung inflammation, and an antibiotic if the doctor suspects pneumonia or an ear infection (which he develops easier than most). Also, when Caleb is totally healthy, for him, he may sometimes use an additional inhaler medicine if he's wheezing or showing other breathing symptoms, as his doctor suspects he may have allergies. So, although I feel like Caleb's first year was pretty good, healthy, etc, (he only had a couple colds - not bad when you have two germy older siblings :) and that I'm on top of his medical stuff, I'm still SUPER nervous going in to this winter season. We'll just hope for the best!

Okay, enough about Caleb's health situation. Other tid-bits about my Cabers: He walks when he's holding on to something. He can stand on his own for a few seconds before falling. I'd guess he's still two months away from walking, which is not unusual for our kids who have had to hold up lots of chub and very large heads. :) (Anna was 14 months when she walked.) He is a power crawler, and is always on the go. He loves to be sung to and tries to do hand motions to some of his favorite songs. He loves to snuggle and give kisses. He loves to look out the window. He loves to be in "the know" and right in the middle of everything. Caleb does not like to be alone, he needs people around him. He loves his nuki and blankie . . . it's so adorable seeing him look for his blankie, crawl across the room for it, then snuggle it up to his cheek with a content, sleepy look on his face.

Caleb loves to eat, and is ready to try almost anything from bananas to pesto salmon. He eats three meals a day with a sippy cup of water. He has three bottles of milk a day too. (We try to get him to drink the sippy cup himself, but Ethan and I like to give him his bottles of milk for extra bonding/snuggle time . . . usually until our babies are two.) Caleb says "dada" and lots of baby babbling, but no other real words that we can tell. He has the biggest, brightest smile - it's as simple as seeing someone he loves, and he'll get a big smile on his face. Sweetness! Caleb usually takes just one nap a day for two to three hours. He also sleeps from about 7pm to 7am for the night - give or take, straight through. (I know, we were blessed with three very good, scheduled sleepers. My sister Beth is envious. :)

Hmm. what else? Some days have been hard and overwhelming with Cabers this year (especially when he's been on steroids!), but his cuteness, and chubbiness, and sweetness, and snuggles, and smiles, and laughing make up for it. We love him to pieces, and we're so grateful Caleb was sent to our family. He's such a little smoo.

Happy Birthday Caleb Jones Rayhorn!

Family Pictures 2011 . . .

2011-11-11T14:45:00.000-08:00

I don't know exactly what it is, but this is my favorite picture of the whole bunch. I love those babies.

This is my favorite family shot, even though Ben and Caleb are looking pretty serious. I love that we're all huddled together, the background, the sun coming in from the side, and my handsome hubs. :)

I will blow this one up and frame it.

This is another cute family shot, but it's a little too . . . oh I don't know . . . typical? I've always been a fan of more natural, in the moment photos, than the staged, everyone smile at the camera photos. (I do think that Anna looks just beautiful in this one.)

So, Caleb was a little nervous, unsure during this photo shoot, and so we got a lot of faces like the ones above. haha. He is usually my smiliest little guy. Seriously, it's so easy to get him to smile, but apparently not for a stranger (who was taking our photos).

My beautiful, sweet Miss Anna Ellene. (She is such a natural, and loves getting her picture taken.)

My handsome, silly Benjamin Parr Rayhorn. (He loves to be referred to by his full name.)

My cutie, chubby Caleb Jones. (He was either eating leaves or making weird faces during his turn. But the photographer managed to get a few smiles. Yay!)

We got some cool leaf throwing pictures. (Wish you could see Caleb and Ethan better though.)

Just the girls, then just the boys.

I love the background in this one with the lake and lighthouse, and that we're all sitting in a row. But Benjamin looks a little off . . . :)

And finally, a few more family shots that aren't going to make the cut, but that I love.

There are way more photos on facebook that you may have seen already (and I didn't even add them all). So I didn't want to put TONS on here (but I still did, oops).

We try to get family pictures every few years, and it had been 2+ years, AND another kiddo had joined the fam, so we thought it was time. We're so used to our friend Brian McMillan taking our pics, and letting us exchange babysitting for them, that we'd been putting it off for awhile. (Pictures are just SO expensive . . . and the McMillans moved.) Anyway, I was very excited to hear that the MOMS Group I'm part of was having a fundraiser. A friend of someone's in the group, who does photography as a side job, took pictures for families in moms club for a very low price, and part of the money would even go back to the club. Awesome! And you got the whole CD of pictures to make however many prints you want/size you want. We were really happy with the pictures, all taken in a half hour time slot. It's funny how hard it is to get a decent shot with three little kids involved, but I love the "outtakes" too. :)

So, any grandparents, parents, or siblings that would like to make a request for certain pictures, just give me a call or e-mail. I plan on printing them in the next week or so.

Wrap Up . . .

2011-11-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's November 5th already, so I think it's time I do a quick wrap up of October. . .

First up, the church Halloween Party the Wednesday before Halloween!

I love the one of Chuck and Caleb, because Caleb looks so serious. But he's got big elephant ears on the side of his head, so how can you take him seriously? It makes me laugh.

Benjamin was a knight, but didn't keep his costume on most of the night. (He got the knight stuff for his 3rd birthday this year, and still LOVES it.) Anna was a belly dancer. Chuck got the costume when he was in Europe at a Turkish Bazaar, and Anna LOVES dancing around in it.

The one of Hudson and Cabers cracks me up . . . it looks like they both think the other looks completely ridiculous. hehe. I dressed up as a witch . . . with a floppy hat. (The kids love when I dress up too.) And the last one is Anna with her Auntie KC.

On Saturday, we went to another Halloween party with some friends from the Moms Group I'm in. But, I didn't get any pics of that. Yummy food, good conversation, and the kids had a blast.

Caleb found a new snack that he LOVES.

Anna got all festive the Thursday before Halloween (she doesn't go to school on Fridays). And I believe that Ben-Ben is showing me what a brave knight he will be.

On October 30th the Primary kids at church had their yearly Primary Program. (I'm in the presidency, so I was pretty involved with it too. :) Ben and Caleb are too young to participate, so it was just Anna. All the kids did such an amazing job with the parts that they prepared, and sang all their songs so well. There were 30 kids there that Sunday, which is great for our ward. (A typical Sunday is 20-25 primary kids.) We had so much positive feedback. Yay! I love those kids! I also love the three kids in the above pics. :) We declared it cardigan Sunday for the boys in the fam (next time we'll all participate, hehe), and Anna chose her outfit because she wanted to look "grown up."

In October, Anna and Benjamin found a new use for the baby gate. Looks . . .fun?

We went to Anna's school to see the parade on Monday, the 31st. Auntie KC came, my mom walked up, and we met up with a few friends who have kids at the school. For Halloween day and trick-or-treating, Anna decided to be a ladybug and Benjamin was a cowboy, and Caleb J was still an elephant. Adorableness! (Since we have a dress up box of old costumes, garage sale finds, hand-me-down costumes from older cousins, etc, there are always plenty of costumes to choose from.) We went trick-or-treating with Anna's good friend Kate, and we even went to our soon to be new neighborhood. (Our new house was not giving out candy. :(

The traditional sorting of the candy after getting back from trick-or-treating. Anna was pretty excited she got a toothbrush from someone. And I love their pink cheeks, although it was a pretty nice evening for the U.P.

Now, on to NOVEMBER!!! We should become homeowners again this month. WOOOO HOOOOO!!!

TEN Random Thoughts, TEN Cute Photos . . .

2011-10-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

1) Ben is obsessed with food - cooking with real food, pretend toy food, eating, cook books, cooking magazines. We were at Chuck and Melissa's for dinner a few Sundays ago, and Benjamin was looking through her cooking magazines, which is something he does pretty often over there. This time he asked if he could take it home. And of course Gramma said sure. Then Ben asked if he could get some of his own "food magazines" for Christmas. Wow, he may be the only 3 year old boy that has ever asked for cooking magazines for Christmas! hehe. He likes to look at the pictures and talk about what food it is, if it looks yummy, if he'd like to make it, etc. Funny kid.

2) I feel like I'm barely staying afloat as a mom some days. . . like the days Ethan doesn't get home until 7pm. Or the days that I haven't slept much/well for various reasons. Three kids often seems overwhelming still (but, no, not always). There are so many opportunities when I think, "This would be so simple without a baby (naps, feeding, diapers, etc.)." There are so many places to be, so much noise, so many needs, etc. I feel like it will get tons better when I'm in my own home again (we're supposed to close November 21st!!). I need to work on staying calm and keeping a peaceful countenance, big time. No matter the noise level, or how many little people are asking me to help them/do something for them/listen to their story/etc. Man, if it was just Anna and Ben-Ben, or just Caleb J., life would be SOOOO easy! But, all three . . . not a moment of rest! For the love! :) And I know three kids in five years is not unheard of. It just seems like I'm still adjusting, and I didn't expect that. Sometimes I'll look at all three kids playing on the floor, close to each other. It's noisy, there are toys everywhere, I know dinner needs to happen soon, and then the whole bed time thing for all THREE of them, and I think, "I have too many kids. It's so much work!" So, just thought I'd vent for a second. (And of course can't say all this without clarifying that of course I love them all, and am so grateful for the little babies Heavenly Father chose to send to me. . . but knowing that and feeling that doesn't always make the day-to-day go perfectly.)

3) I recently went to a Women's Conference in Green Bay for my Church. I'll admit, I was mostly going to have a break from the kids (see above comment :), but I got so much out of it. Some of it was a little "cutesy" for my taste, but mostly I felt so happy to be part of this awesome Stake filled with amazing women who taught me so much that weekend. My mom taught one of the workshop classes at the conference (and I sang for it), and it went so well. She did a fantastic job! I felt uplifted and reminded of important truths that I need to focus on.

4) I love scarves, and sweaters, and cardigans . . . so I'm happy it's fall! And it has to be pretty chilly for me to wear these items, and we're finally there. I love seeing my family wearing these things too. Gram Melissa just got Caleb his first cardigan ever - gray and red thick stripes and it's super adorable. I'll take a pic next time he wears it. (We had a little shopping day with a few other girls from the ward after the Women's Conference in Green Bay. Fun!)

Ummm, so the pictures posted to the middle of my list, and I didn't want to take the time to move them around. So, there you go. The top photos are of an afternoon hike a week or so ago around Lakenen-land. It's junkyard art made from scrap metal that a local guy (Mr. Lakenen) creates and displays for free. Cool. He sets them up in the woods, about 15 minutes out of town. The kids loved it. Benjamin has brought it up at least once a day since then, and really, really wants to go back.

After, we stopped by Gram Melissa's (Grampa Chuck was in Vegas . . . for a work conference) for some pizza and BABY KISSES! Caleb was on a roll with GramMelissa. It was so cute! (So sad the pic of Cabers giving a big, slobbery smooch to Melissa turned out fuzzy!)

5) Okay, I guess this one goes along with #2 - so a little more venting. :) I thought that living for 9 months with Ethan gone so much would prepare me for longer hours when he started working his first job. Apparently not. Because days that he doesn't get home until 6:30/7:00pm are SUPER hard for me. And it means that he only gets an hour or LESS with the kids before their bedtime, which is SUPER hard for him. I am so grateful that he has such a wonderful job, that he's doing so well at it, and is in a career he loves. He works three days a week at the Medical Center in town and is done right at 5pm or so. Even if he has a little paper work to finish, he can go back later - after the kids are in bed. BUT, the two days he works at the Munising hospital, sometimes appointments go a little long (He's supposed to be done at 4:30), and he has to finish all the paperwork before he leaves (which sometimes takes awhile), and THEN it's an hour drive home. Bleh. But, he's getting quicker with the paper work. . . and I know I should not be complaining. Three days a week Ethan gets home at 5-ish, and two days a week he gets home around 6-ish, occasionally later. It could be so much worse! I know. Moving on . . .

6) Anna doesn't like school that much this year. It makes me sad. She's really easy going, and she doesn't make a huge deal about it, but she loved going last year, and just isn't loving it this year. But, she's been loving being at home with me. (She goes two full days and one half day for kindergarten.) I've been trying to do fun stuff with Anna the days she's home, and Ben's at pre-school and Caleb is napping. We've baked some and done some crafts. It's special. I love having one-on-one time with my girl!

7) I had a little lunch date with my sister, Beth, last week. We try to get together regularly, but hadn't for awhile. I've missed it. I love all the conversation - frivolous, spiritual, kids, house related things. (They just bought Stuart's parents house on the Lake, but they're re-doing all of it to make it their dream home . . . and I'm moving in to a house soon and have a few - less significant - plans of my own. But, we both love talking about house plans. And we both feel a bit of stress and of wishing it was all over.)   Anyway, I love my sister time.

8) Cabers gives such sweeeeet kisses.  (See pics above. :) I'll admit, Ethan gets them more often than I do. It's kind of their thing. But, sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a few slobbery, open mouthed ones for myself. hehe.

9) I've been volunteering in Benjamin's pre-school class on Wednesdays, and I have LOVED it! It's been good to be back in a classroom setting (as far as my education degree is concerned . . . it's been awhile!) even if it is a preschool classroom. And it's been especially interesting to see little Ben at school. He is a great listener, quiet, shy, helpful, etc. at school.  And it's not like he's never those things at home, but mostly he's my little, wild man.  (Especially compared to Anna Banana. . . which isn't fair to compare, but . . . )  Anyway, I've been loving it.

10) Hmm, final thing. What to share, what to share. Oh, Caleb is on some liquid steroids (prednisone?) right now.  His lungs need some help getting over a cold he had (at least it didn't turn in to pneumonia this time!). In case you've forgotten, steroids have some pretty crappy side effects and are NO FUN! But, today's the last day. Woo Hoo!  After feeling pretty on top of Caleb's health issues for a while ('cause it was summer time?), I've been feeling a little stressed going in to the fall/winter season, and all the bugs that go around then. I'll just hope for the best, and I need to remember that even if he sounds AWFUL - wheezing, congestion - he's always had good blood oxygen levels even at his sickest, and his lungs have greatly improved over the last year. (The last two times he was sick Cabers didn't develop pneumonia. Yay!)  So yeah, just another opportunity to keep things in perspective, and try to stay positive!   Okay, I'll cut myself off now.

Have a Happy Halloween filled with fun!

Fall, Beautiful Fall. . .

2011-10-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

I was glancing at the blog and realized that we didn't have many "Fall-ish" pictures on here. And it's already October 17th, for goodness sakes! The main reason is because we've had such warm, lovely weather this month, we haven't been doing many of our typical October activities. But, luckily, it's now nice and brisk and chilly. (40's and 50's) Just like Fall should be. hehe. Well, before I get to the few autumnal photos I have, let me just share this one below.

This is Grampa Dew and Caleb last week when it was 80 + degrees out. I put this on here because a) It was my dad's birthday yesterday. And, b) I love the picture. Caleb is always taking my dad's hats off his head, and putting them on his own, large melon.

So, my dad turned 62 yesterday. (And he only has 10 workdays left until RETIREMENT!) My mom kept it low key since work people are planning a big retirement party for him in November, so just the in-town siblings and families came over for cake. (My dad's fav is angel food with strawberries and whipped cream. . . in case you were ever wondering, "What in the world is Dewey's favorite cake??") To earn the birthday treat, my mom said we all had to say a memory about my dad. It was fun hearing everyone's stories. They were mainly funny - Ethan's made me laugh the hardest, and a few sweet ones. And I think everyone except Rebecca shared. . . we'll let it slide Becca. :) It was good to reflect - I have some really great memories of my dad. The one that felt most touching to me was that when I was younger my dad used to "tuck me in" for the night with a handful of sayings/songs. He did it all the time when I was little, and even occasionally during my high school years and beyond. But, not since I've been married.

Well this past year, when Ethan was gone a lot, my dad came in and did the little routine a few different times. It was sweet. And a nice reminder that I'm always my "daddy's girl". . . even if it is his 29/30 year old daughter he is tucking in at night. hehe. (He doesn't literally tuck the bedding in . . . he kneels by the bed, or sits in a chair now that he's older, and sings a song and has a few other saying thingys. . . and some general chatting too.) Sweetness.

So after I shared that, Beth said, "Don't worry, I'm sure Stuart would love to tuck the girls in even when they're 30 . . . if they'll let him."

A classic Fall activity: We carved pumpkins tonight for Family Night! Adorableness!

A friend of ours from church asked if the kids would dress up in Halloween costumes and be in a commercial for the pumpkin patch that she was producing. (Anna is a fairy, Ben is a cowboy, and Caleb is an elephant in the wagon. The pirate and fireman were the owner's grandsons.) She e-mailed us a copy of the commercial and it is soooo cute. We're not allowed to share it though . . . maybe once it airs or is done airing? Anyway, that is where we got our pumpkins this year. The owner let the kids pick out any pumpkin they wanted as "payment" for the commercial. (Caleb got a little pumpkin too, we just didn't carve it for him. I'm going to let him color it, or stick Mr. Potato Head stuff in it tomorrow.)

Well, I guess this post didn't turn out too Fall-ish after all. This coming week we may try to go to a corn maze, and we have all the Halloween stuff coming up - church party, trick-or-treating, dressing up for school, Mom's Group family party. Oh, and we had family pictures taken last Sunday afternoon, and I am sooooo anxious to see how they turned out. They will be very fall-ish. So, lots of fun stuff to look forward to. Love this time of year!

October??? And Our Exciting News . . .

2011-10-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

We have had warm, beautiful weather this past week. Very unusual for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And even though I'm not a fan of hot weather, it was kind of fun! (Yes, a few days even got into the 80's!)

This past weekend we really took advantage of the great outdoors, and were reminded of what a beautiful place we get to call home.

So, Ethan and I have been wanting to have a little "get away" just the two of us. Overnight. No kids. Much needed. We try to do it once a year, and it'd been a year and a few months . . . so it was time! We ended up staying in Marquette because I was still a little nervous leaving Caleb . . . so I wanted to be close, just in case. Cabers stayed with my parents, and Anna and Benjamin had a fun overnight with GramMelissa and Grampa Chuck (including the High School Homecoming football game! and staying up waaaay past their bedtime! :)

We stayed at the Birchmont motel and LOVED the view from our porch. It was beautiful sitting out there on Saturday morning, after sleeping in until 9am!, and being a little envious of people who get to do that every weekend. (But we love our kiddies to pieces. . . really! hehe.)

We had dinner at Red Lobster . . . one of our favs. We eat there once, maybe twice a year, but have never been while they've been having their Endless Shrimp special. Oh. My. Goodness! So delish. hehe.

We enjoyed the fall colors Saturday morning, and then did some shopping. Fun, fun! Everything without kids seems special these days. We picked up our kids a little before 1pm, and although we were excited to see them, we also felt like we could have used a little more time away. hehe. We've never left them for more than one night before, but maybe next time we'll go for two. :)

So, thanks to our awesome parents! We had such a great time.

The rest of Saturday, after Caleb's nap, we spent at the beach. It was beautiful. We don't get too many beach days in October around here, so we had to take advantage! This was Caleb's first real beach experience - crawling around, getting wet, eating sand. Typical. He loved it!

Love that squishy face! (On both of them. . . hehe.)

My parent's and Buddy came along too. Fun, fun. My mom even went all the way in . . . impressive!

Love the picture with the shadows, and the one below of the boys walking back to the car. What a beautiful, simple day!

Okay, now for our exciting news! We put an offer on a house that was ACCEPTED. We should close in 3-4 weeks. Ethan and I were not opposed to renting, and kind of wanted to go that route. But, after doing a little research, we discovered there weren't many options in Marquette for the size we needed (which isn't big) unless we wanted to pay more than what we'll be paying for a mortgage payment on a house. So, buying is what we decided was a good choice for us right now. And although this isn't the first house we've bought, in many ways it feels like it, and is just very, very exciting!

We LOVE the house - awesome location and close to everything (and great neighborhood, so it'll be easy to sell when needed), cute outside and so many nice features inside, perfect size for us (I've never wanted a big house, and this one is only 1750 square feet including a finished basement room, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and there's potential to finish additional space/bedroom in the basement), beautiful (big-ish) backyard with no houses behind us . . . just woods and a fit strip (that's lit til midnight! and groomed for cross-coutry skiing in the winter), some original built-ins and doors (it was built in 1940), attached garage (awesome for the winters), and more.

The house is about a mile or less to so many things: Medical center - .6 miles (and where Ethan works 3 days a week), Anna's elementary school - 3 blocks (so also 3 blocks to the school, a park, tennis courts and basketball courts too), the High School - .5 miles, the Hospital - 1/2 block, the beautiful library - 1.1, my parents - .5 miles, the beach - 1.0 miles, NMU - three blocks (where we occasionally attend the theater, concerts or other community events. . . or to visit Grampa Chuck :), Third Street shops and restaraunts - three blocks and only .7 miles to Border Grill! :)

We never thought we'd find a house that we loved as much as our first one, seen HERE, but this one has the potential to do so. (It's not as old, but there are other features about it that we love too, maybe more?). I never thought I'd want/like a one story house, but I love this one and already think how convenient it will be! I'll show pictures once it's all official. We've already had the inspection and the bank is scheduling the appraisal for this week, I believe. We are sooooo excited to get our own place. And even though my dad threatens to keep our kids hostage at his house, I think my parents must be excited to get their house back too. Maybe . . . hehe. (And, for the love, we're only a few blocks away from them. Oh, and 2.5 miles from Chuck and Melissa. :) It was a good experience doing two years of apartment living down-state, and this year at my parents was good in many ways, and such a blessing. But we're so ready to have our own little house again. Yay!!!

Benjamin Bear

2011-10-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Little Ben-Ben started pre-school (Headstart) two weeks ago, and it was quite the adjustment. Actually, the adjusting is still happening. And knowing what I know about my little man, I wasn't really surprised that it's been hard for him. He needs time to warm up to things; Benjamin likes routine (more than your average 3 year old). The first day he was so excited to go. He'd been looking forward to going to school for so long, and hopped right on the bus when it came. I met up with him at school and helped him get situated. He said good-bye, and was okay, but I could tell he was nervous . . . especially since he didn't realize that I wouldn't be staying at school with him. The teacher sent a note home the first day and said Ben had a good day, but got sad (cried) a few times, but quickly got over it.

When he got off the bus the first day, he hurriedly said, "Mom! I cried at school and they didn't let me call you." But he said it in an excited, no big deal, kind of way. I asked how school was, if he had fun, what he did, and he said, "Great!" "Yeah!" "I played with a new friend, Ruby." All good answers. Then, he said, "But I don't want to go back tomorrow."

So, the next couple days got worse and worse, and I didn't know how long this pre-school thing was going to last. Then, on Thursday of the first week (he goes Mon. - Thur. 10:00am to 1:30pm) I offered to drive him, and it made all the difference. I think the bus thing was just too much, although he still rides it home. He still says he doesn't want to go, but he doesn't cry anymore and he tells me all about the fun things he's doing and all the new, little friends he's making. Sweetness.

Oh, and can I just say that I LOVE the headstart program. Benjamin's teacher is a fellow graduate of the El.Ed program at NMU, and I knew her from classes together. (There are also two additional aides in his class.) I am going to start volunteering in his class on Wednesdays, and I'm very excited. Once my kiddies are a bit older, I think this would be my ideal job to start out with! I've also thought about starting to sub. for the headstart program . . . and maybe in public schools too. I need to start getting back into the Education scene. . . nothing extreme right now, but little by little. :)

Ben-Ben just got his hair cut a few days ago. (See the pics above I just took tonight before bedtime.) I LOVED his long, blonde haystack, but it was time. . . . always getting in his eyes, etc. I think we'll let it grow out again. Speaking of long, wavy locks -

These pics were taken during the summer, but I only posted them to facebook, not on here. I think they just capture so much about my little boy. Of course there's the obvious adorableness. . . hehe. But I can see so much more in these pictures. Maybe it's just because I'm his mama, but I see his curiosity, his playfulness and sillyness, his intelligence, his kindness and love . . . everything. I love him. Even when he throws little crying tantrums, or gets SO particular about things in his life, or when he doesn't listen. I still love him . . . I could just work on staying more patient with him. :) Benjamin always says the most interesting, funny things. (Wish I could remember something specific right now.) I love the three year old, verbal age. . . and that he's still little enough for snuggling and smooching! My favorite thing right now is when he's busy, busy, busy, but then takes a second to run up to me and say, "I love you, mama." He's not the most affectionate kid out there, but can be such a sweetie, and he does have his moments with Ethan and I (and his Grandparents too :), and it makes them that much sweeter.

Okay, final thing to wrap up this super long journal entry - I have some very, VERY exciting news to share with you in my next post. Like, so exciting that I've been having trouble sleeping. So, until next time -

Cheers!

Do You Remember When? . . .

2011-09-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

. . . . We used to sing, sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-ti-da? Just going to catch up on some randomness, for anyone far or near who may be interested what the rest of our August (not already journaled about), and first part of September was like. hehe.

So, do you remember when Ethan competed in his 4th Copperman Triathlon in August, and did awesome? Me too. (Although he did lose to his friend, Ian - They've got some friendly competition going on, and Ian made his comeback this year. So Ethan had to wear that ridiculous tie to church. hehe.) Eth improved his time significantly from last year, and had fun. Good job!

And do you remember when Ethan turned 30 on August 9th?! Woo Hoo! We kept it pretty low key, because we STILL have plans to have a little overnight alone . . . . somewhere . . . sometime . . . soon to celebrate both of our 30th birthdays.

Do you remember when my good friend from high school, Mike, came for a quick visit on a Saturday afternoon in August. (He was in town for a wedding.) I hadn't seen him since Anna was a baby! Too long, people, too long. So, he got to meet the other two kiddies, and we got to catch up for a bit. Miss you, Mikey! :)

Do you remember when I took los ninos on a picnic some random afternoon in August and it Totally. Made. Their. Day. They'd been wanting to have a picnic for forever, and we finally got around to it. We go to the park tons in the summer, but to me, the extra step of packing a picnic usually seems to add too much stress to the outing with three wee ones. It was fun though, and gorgeous weather too!

Do you remember when Ashley and Joe got hitched? Ash and Joe were married in August and it was fun, and hectic, and exciting, and busy, and beautiful. Anna and Rorie were the flower girls and Benjamin was the flower boy (he insisted on being called that instead of ring bearer. hehe). Ethan was one of Joe's Groomsmen. Anna had been looking forward to Auntie Ashley's wedding for months and was super excited, and counted down the days weeks in advance. Benjamin didn't know anything about weddings before this, but for a few weeks after, he kept asking me if he could get married and have a party like Auntie Ashley and Uncle Joe's. Sweet. :)

My favorite part of the wedding weekend was seeing Ethan's extended family and catching up . . . and trying to squeeze in some quality famliy time with everyone in between wedding craziness. Patty and Robb (Ethan's Aunt and Uncle) had to leave before this picture above was taken, but the rest of the Parr family is present. Wow, first time we were all together since . . . well, since I've been married to Ethan, so I guess I'm not sure when the last time was.

Do you remember when we finally got around to taking Anna and Ben-Ben camping!?!?! Roasting hot dogs and s'mores, campfire, boating, exploring in the woods, family, games, playing in dirt and sand, bug bites . . . The kids have wanted to go camping all summer, but scheduling just hadn't worked out for it. (It turned out to be a pretty busy summer!) Granted we stayed in cabins, not tents, but we still felt like we had a good camping experience. At the last minute, my dad convinced me to bring Anna and Benjamin out to Camp Hiawatha - the Boy Scout camp - with them and my brother and his family. It was just a quick overnight, but still lots of fun, especially for the kiddos. Ethan and Caleb (who was watched by Chuck and Melissa and KC) stayed home because Ethan had TONS of studying to do for his PT exam. (And he passed, by the way! :)

Do you remember Anna's first day of school?! What a cutie! Oh my, she's growing up so fast!

And finally, do you remember the first time I ever experienced canning? This was a Relief Society activity at church. I'm surprised I've made it this far in my life without having experienced canning in any way. It was cool to watch and help, and the result is tasty and pretty . . . but, it's not really my thing. Maybe down the road I'd be interested in getting in to it. (Do you see one of Anna's eyes peaking out from behind the jar? She tried to get into every picture I took of the carrots and soup. hehe.)

Well, I think that pretty much sums up what we've been up to . . . except for one very important event: Benjamin starting pre-school. But, little Ben-Ben is going to get his own journal entry, so you'll just have to look forward to that for next time. :)

Have a beautiful week!

Caleb J. is TEN MONTHS!

2011-09-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today, Caleb is 10 months old. Wow, time flies. I'm thinking about one year ago, September 2010, when I was so uncomfortably preggers, and Ethan was gone most of this month. Not fun. It seems like forever ago. And just look at Caber Z. now . . .

A day at the park last week. Eating sticks, rolling around in the grass. You know, the usual. (It was kinda funny - Caleb started rolling down the hill, unintentionally, and couldn't stop. Notice I just kept taking pictures, and my friend actually went to "rescue" him. hehe.) I like that Caleb still uses a nuki, and doesn't typically take it out himself, because it keeps him from eating all kinds of things he shouldn't. Nice.

Breakfast - with Anna and Ben-Ben too. Mmmmmm.

My big, smiley boy.

So, Cabers is 10 months old. This past month he had an explosion of development. It's been so fun and exciting to watch. I think because I know he's my last, and because Caleb had such a sad, rough start, every little milestone is so significant again . . . just like it was with my first, Anna Bean. :) Who am I kidding, it was exciting with Ben-Ben too.

Caleb has finally moved on from his "walrus," stomach crawl (or flop chop, as Ethan called it), and is crawling like a "normal" baby now. He pulls himself up onto things, but only to his knees. If you stand him up he can hold himself up and balance well. He does lots of baby babbling now - dadada, and lalala, and ahahah being the most common. He has six little teeth - SIX. He eats all kinds of things, baby food and bits of softer "real" food. He LOVES to eat . . . and gets pretty worked up over it a lot of the time (super impatient and demanding!). Cabers has such a fun, happy, lovey, snugly side to him. I love it. I think my favorite is when he just randomly rests his head me . . . which makes me think he's telling me he loves me, but it could just be because he has such a big head and needs to rest it somewhere.

And if I want to be a completely honest momma, which I do :), smiley little Caleb has a "complainy," discontent side to him too. Man, sometimes he just gets on a role. During these moments, if you give him your undivided attention, and entertain him, or even just pick him up, then he'll be fine. But that's not always an option. . . but we manage. Kind of. hehe. (I say kind of because he is KILLING my back. He's such a chub, which I love, but he's soooo heavy. Sometimes I think I can't possibly pick him up one more time . . . and then I do. And then Ethan often cracks my back and rubs it at night - sweetie! But I digress. . . .hehe.)

Oh my goodness, Caleb loves to laugh and chuckle . . . it's so cute. He's also a good little sleeper, thank goodness! (We've been so lucky with this THREE times . . . even with our early riser, Benjamin Bear.) Caleb J. loves being sung to, and clapping his hands, and feeling like he's "in" on the joke. Love him! I can't believe we're only two months away from Caleb's first birthday. He's come sooooo far! Yay!

Note - I've got so much blogging to catch up on . . . it's kind of overwhelming. Maybe I'll just do a little summary post next. Ethan's B-day, Ashley's wedding, camping trip, first day of school, and a few other odds and ends. So, just look forward to that for next time . . . if I get around to it. :)

This Is It . . .

2011-09-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

Ethan graduated on August 28th, 2011 from the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at the University of Michigan, Flint campus. I am so incredibly proud of him. He worked hard and did well. He had a lot to balance, with some of the church volunteering and responsibilities he had, and as one of only a few students who had children. . . let alone two children, with a third born during the program. Ethan took such good care of us, even when he was so incredibly busy with classes, papers, projects, presentations, studying, meetings, clinicals, etc.

It was so great (and fun) celebrating Ethan that weekend, and making a special little trip downstate to his graduation. He deserved it!

We had a celebratory dinner on Saturday night at a yummy place in Frankenmuth, where we were staying (and, no, Ethan doesn't usually eat like that . . . he was just being "funny"). Quick shout out to KC, who kept Cabers happy and fed most of the weekend. hehe. Note - One should never stay in the city of Flint. It just isn't done. hehe. But, campus and the few blocks of surrounding downtown Flint is really, very nice.

On the drive down, we all packed into our van, including my parents. So every seat was taken and it was a cozy, little trip. For the trip home, we switched it up a bit and Anna and I drove home with KC and Melissa (and Chuck went in the van) and had some fun, girl time. Wheee!

The pics above show a scenic overlook at a rest area along the way. Benjamin goes potty about every hour, so it was a long trip, but with lots of pretty scenery. :) The other pic is from our hotel room at Zehnders's Splash Village in Frankenmuth. My parents got a family suite there in honor of Ethan's graduation. . . and to make the trip exciting for the kiddos too.

Also, check my dad's blog for a few pics of the kiddos in the awesome indoor water park at Splash Village. The kids LOVED it. www.deweyandsusan.blogspot.com

It doesn't show the biggest water slides they have - that I would scream down when Anna or Ben insisted that I take them - but you get the idea. :)

The morning of the graduation, we had some time to kill, and Caleb needed some quiet for a morning nap. Ethan and I took the older two to walk around Frankenmuth and we reminisced about how much we loved our time downstate. (We lived about 15 minutes away from the Frankenmuth/Birch Run exit.)

Ethan being hooded!!! (Love the funny looking robes of graduate students. hehe.)

It was fun for Ethan to see most of his classmates again, and for me to catch up with the few I know.

Oh, my handsome man. So proud of him.

Love these shots of the kids. You can see how excited they are for their daddy! :)

Ethan with his proud parents, Chuck and Melissa. And Ethan with his Gramma, Lee, who made her visit to Michigan long enough to include this graduation. Thanks, we were so happy you were there with us!

And finally, me and my sweets. Love him.

So. Ethan has graduated. He takes his licensure exam tomorrow. He has a wonderful job lined up at U.P Rehab Services that begins on Monday. I am so grateful for him, and all the hard work he put in to get us here. Yay!!! Good job, babe!

Now, I can't believe we aren't students anymore.

Weird!

But, it's a good thing. :)

Miss Anna's 6th Birthday Celebrations . . .

2011-08-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Anna's fancy birthday picnic!

Anna just had her friend birthday party this week. . . she was waiting for her good friend Kate to come back from a family trip. All the waiting was worth it . . . .

Anna read the book, Goldilicious, back in February-ish. She loved the book, and would look at one particular page for hours. It was of the little girl, and her imaginary unicorn, having a fancy picnic in the woods. My mom thought it would be a fun idea for her birthday party this year. Here's how it turned out . . .

Presque Isle Gazebo. Notice all the "fancy" decorations . . . tissue paper pompoms (easy and inexpensive!), butterflies and dragon flies my mom found at the dollar store, left over decorations and tulle from Auntie Ashley wedding!

Yummy, fancy food (including a real tea pot to pour their juice). Beautiful scenery. Lovely, breezy weather.

Blowing out the candles. (Anna and Ben-Ben loved helping frost and sprinkle the cupcakes with me.)

Dancing . . . we played a freeze dancing game that all the little girls loved!

A treasure hunt, with cute little clues on pink paper attached to sticks.

Finding the fancy treasure box, with their gift bags.

Time for presents!

Such sweet gifts from her little friends!

These two were lucky to be invited. Anna wanted only girls, but we convinced her to let her brothers come. :) Ben-Ben was dancing for joy! :)

After all the fun, we walked them over to the park and the kiddies got out more energy while waiting for their parents to arrive.

And a few adorable shots of Caleb swinging. He loves it.

I can't believe my baby girl is six! I love her so much. She is my sweetest, silliest, most helpful girl. I am one lucky momma.

The Actual Day of Anna's Birth . . . August 4th. She requested a pizza party; specifically that we make our own pizza's. It was fun. And simple. And delish.

Proud of their creations.

Relaxed and fun family birthday party . . . with my parent's too, since we are living in their house right now. :)

That day, Anna opened up the present from Ethan and I. I was so excited about it, especially the deal I got. It's the green "fairy" costume. Someone had already given Anna some Tinkerbell looking slippers, and this just went with it perfectly. Also, Anna's other wings had recently broken. This will look really cute with one of her ballet leotard's underneath. Anyway . . . Anna also opened the little present Benjamin picked out for her, one from Great Gramma LaJoice, and one from Grama and Grampa Jones. (We celebrated with the Rayhorns on the Saturday following this.) Ben-Ben put on his knight outfit just because . . . and then proceeded to attack his daddy. He's such a boy sometimes. hehe.

Anna's Hospital Stay . . .

Okay, one last thing to add to this incredibly long post: Between Anna's actual birthday, and her party, she had an overnight hospital stay. So sad! She had a kidney infection the end of July, her first one. Then she got another one a week after the antibiotics were done. So, they wanted to do some heavy duty antibiotics through an IV, and monitor her for a bit. They also did an ultrasound of her kidneys, which looked infected. Today she had another test done to see how the whole Urinary Tract is working, and everything looked good. So, she just needs to drink plenty of fluids, follow some specific hygiene tips, and make sure she doesn't "hold it." Oh, and cranberry juice. Hopefully she never gets another one! All the poking and prodding was so sad for a momma to watch! Anna was so brave, and such a little sweetness. And, in the 24 hours she was in the hospital, she had so many visitors, gifts, and treats. . . . it made the whole thing a little easier for her. :)

Remember When . . .

2011-08-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Remember when Anna was eight months old? (Easter Sunday 2006)

And remember when Benjamin was eight months old? (Christmas 2008)

And remember when Caleb was eight months old? (Right now. :)

So, do you see any similarities? I do. They're all super chubby, and super adorable. hehe. And two of them have dimples. Otherwise, I think the three are pretty unique looking.

But what about these two? (Ethan on the left, Benjamin on the right.) Ben-Ben is Ethan's little mini-me. Adorableness! When Benjamin saw the picture of Ethan, he insisted it was him, not daddy. So cute. I'll have to find a picture of me at Anna's age, because everyone says she looks just like me.

FIRSTS . . .

2011-08-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

So, I thought I'd list some of the "Firsts" that we have been experiencing lately. The big and the small. So, numero uno . . .

We went to Munising to meet up with some friends of ours downstate who were vacationing in the area. It's 45 minutes away, so perfect for a little day trip. It was a first because we've driven through Munising numerous times, but had never really spent time there. It. Was. Beautiful. We swam and pic-niced at Sand Point Beach, and we hiked around at Miner's Castle. Best of all, we got to see Jackie and Maddie and Jadon and Don. We hadn't seen them for about a year. Such a great family. So fun spending the afternoon with them. Oh! And this was the first time Caleb has been to the beach. What a cute, chubby beach baby! :)
Caleb got his first tooth a week ago. You can kind of see it if you blow up one of the close up pictures above. Anna and Benjamin were both six months when they got their first tooth, and Caleb is 8 months, so we were wondering when it was going to happen. I think he's pretty proud of it. hehe.
Anna had a kidney infection for the first time (and hopefully the last time). It was a very stressful experience because she got SO sick, and it took a week to figure out what was wrong. She had high fevers, stomach pain, vomiting, dehydration, no appetite, no energy. Pretty sad, and pretty scary. She was the sweetest little thing during all of it, even though she felt so crummy, and even though she had to have multiple IV's, blood tests, urine tests, yucky medicine, and doctor visits. Both kids had only one cold last fall, and then each had really bad colds in March. So I can't complain too much about sickness this year. (Well, if you don't count ALL of Caleb's stuff. hehe.)
Caleb did the swings at the park for the first time. He loved it. There will be pictures to follow. :)
I am the momma of a six year old for the first time. Crazy! Little Anna Ellene turned six yesterday, and we had a little, family pizza night (everyone made their own), and a movie of her choosing. Anna is waiting a few weeks to have a friend party since she has a good friend out of town right now.
Ethan accepted his first job of his PT career this past week. (Just in time to say he got his first Physical Therapy job while he was still in his 20's. hehe.) He got a wonderful job offer for a place here in Marquette, called U.P. Rehab Services http://www.uprehab.com/ It's a great, well run company that Ethan is very excited to be part of. We don't have a lot to compare it to, but we discussed the offer with people who know, and the company has great benefits, continuing education/certification/specialization opportunities, and the salary was more than we were picturing (and is above the national average for PTs fresh out of graduate school). Perfect. So, we are happy for a job to start soon, and we are happy to stay here for a bit. Especially Anna. :)
I can't think of any firsts regarding Benjamin, but I can't leave him out of this post, oh middle child of mine. Especially a middle child as full of life and adorableness as Ben-Ben. hehe. Oh. He has a new nick-name (although it's not his first). It's "hay-stack." My dad started calling him that because we've let his hair grow out a bit and it gets blonder in the summer. My dad thinks it looks like a hay stack on his head. It's catching on. Actually, I think in the last few months Anna and Caleb have each had a lengthy post just for them. So I guess it's time I do a little Benjamin Bear update. You can just look forward to that for next time!

Let's Play Catch . . .

2011-07-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Catch up on July happenings, that is. Lots of things I've failed to blog about lately. This summer has just seemed so busy. Mostly, a good busy though. So, first up, nothing too exciting -

A visit to the Children's Museum.

The Mom's Group I'm part of schedules two Children's Museum days a month (free for members), and it's something we try not to miss. The pictures above are from a visit earlier this month. The kids love it. Anna and Benjamin played well together the whole time. There were so many friends there I hadn't seen in a while, and it was great for me to catch up with them. This CM visit was Caleb's first time. I'm not usually a germ-a-phobe, and think germs and sickness are a natural and even important part of childhood. But, I've been more careful with Caleb for obvious reasons. So I held him or he stayed in the stroller the whole time. No crawling around gumming all the communal children's museum toys. Cabers loved looking around at all the stuff though, and was perfectly content the whole time. Fun visit!

Visit from Indiana Cousins.

My cousin Amy, her husband Chuck, and their three kids visited this past weekend. It was so good to see them, have the kids play, and I always love to show off Marquette. Sad I didn't take more pictures of the visit, especially of Anna and Kenzie, who LOVED playing together. The pictures above show a dip in Lake Superior at Black Rocks, and Lower Harbor park watching the tall ships come in. Also fun - hiking Sugar Loaf, delish lunch at Union Grill, game night at Beth and Stuart's.

Feeding the Little Fatty!

Feeding this little chub baby food has been happening more and more lately. And he loves it. A little too much. See that crazy look in his eye? Caleb takes his eating very seriously. hehe. And I wasn't the one feeding him in these pictures above. It is possible to keep him neat while he eats. But these pictures are just priceless, so I'm glad Ethan feeds him a little . . . differently. :) Oh my goodness, I love that baby boy!

Putnam family reunion.

The second weekend in July we went downstate to the Putnam family reunion. (My paternal grandma's side of the family.) My dad thought we'd like to go along - I hadn't been for about 10 years - and it was actually perfect timing, as Ethan had a weekend test prep class downstate. We all just went together, except my mom who decided to stay home at the last minute. (That means her snoring stayed home too. :) The kids had a blast, it was good to see everyone, and I didn't even get tired out til the ride home. hehe. Fun weekend, but as is typical when traveling with three little ones, it's always good to get home and back to the routine.

So, lots of fun happenings, big and small. And lots more to come. Until next time, hope you all have a beautiful week!

I'm Grateful . . .

2011-07-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share just five quick things I am grateful for today  . . .

1) I'm grateful: Weather was in the sixties today - in the middle of July. Love it. Sunny, cool breezes, white fluffy clouds. This summer has been so mild, but with some days warm enough for swimming. It. Is. Perfection!

2) I'm grateful: Caleb's MRI to check his head went smoothly - all 4 + hours we were there, starting at 6:30am. He was such a little trooper - see picks above - even though he couldn't eat past midnight, and he is a very scheduled eater!  And isn't he too cute in his little, baby hospital gown?! (They had to sedate him since he's a baby, so I'd been a little nervous leading up to today's appointment.)

3) I'm grateful:  I had a beautiful afternoon at the park with my three kiddos. Even though the littlest monkey was killing my back. (All the kids were monkeys and I was the zoo keeper . . . and the baby Caleb monkey is HEAVY!) I love spending my days with them . . . except when they stress me out. :)

4) I'm grateful: For Ethan.  Always grateful for him. I've been trying to tell him and show him appreciation more often lately. I don't know how I'd get through my days without him . . . or how I managed the 9 months he was gone so much. He's my sweetest thing. Super patient with me. Love him.

5) I'm grateful: For a big, comfy, king size bed to lay down in every night. (Pillow top, yet firm enough, cozy feather comforter, all white bedding . . . heaven!) We've had this bed since I was pregnant with Anna six years ago, and I still LOVE it just as much as the first day! After getting up at 5:30am this morning to get to the hospital, I am VERY MUCH looking forward to getting in my bed tonight . . . SOON.

Until next time, buenas noches. Duerme con los angelitos.

Let Freedom Ring . . .

2011-07-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

There are so many pictures from our fantastic, festive, fun Fourth of July weekend. How do I narrow it down?! Hmm, I'll just post all of them. hehe.

I love celebrating the birth of our country, and reflecting on how grateful I am for the freedoms I enjoy. I love the principals and ideals our country was founded on when it gained it's independence. I love singing the National Anthem. I love all the traditions that accompany this holiday - BBQs, fireworks, parades, family time, red white and blue decor, American Legion breakfasts, memorial services, etc. Although I am not the most patriotic person out there, during this holiday I love to reflect on my family members who are - especially those who were and are willing to risk their lives and give their all serving our country and defending our freedoms.

Oh, I love my country.

God bless the United States of America!

Now, on to those before mentioned pictures. The day started with my dad taking the kids to the pancake breakfast at 8am, and was jam-packed full of fun until they fell asleep during the fireworks at 11pm.

I'll try to keep the rest of this short and sweet . . . enjoy the pictures!

First, Lunch and lounging at Chuck and Melissa's, aka Gramma and Grampa's.

We took lots of family shots while we were over there, as you can see. I just couldn't resist when we were all in our match-y-ness. We ate a delish lunch prepared by KC, chatted, helped stuff/address envelopes for Ash and Joe's wedding, kiddies played outside, etc. Fun and relaxed.

Fourth of July Parade, Marquette Style!

Ethan, Chuck, Anna, Ben and I went to watch the parade. (We left Caleb with Melissa and Ashley.) It was a big hit with the kiddies, especially since there was tons of candy, and it wasn't nearly as hot as last year. And I of course had to include the traditional picture of my dad taking a picture of us during the parade. (He always participates in the parade with the Boy Scouts and the kids love seeing him.)

Making our Traditional Flag Cake!

The kids loved helping me with this. They were so cute. They were very proud of the finished product. And the cake was so tasty! Hmm, whipped cream topping is my fave!

A few random shots I just had to include:

1) Ethan dancing. Adorable. hehe. 2) A cute shot of us. Wait. Scratch that. A cute shot of me . . . Ethan, um, not so much. hehe. 3) My festive toenails. Just ignore the dry, callused feet. . . I need a pedicure!

Picnic at Beth and Stuart's!

My sister invited the siblings, my parents, and my grandparents over for dinner on the Fourth. Yummy food! Good conversation! And football! The first picture shows Hudson (my brother's son) and Caleb playing a little football, and the second pic shows Ethan and James (my sister's son) playing a little football - while Anna and Ben-Ben cool off in the pool. Fun family gathering!

Finally, FIREWORKS!

Since we're so far north, fireworks don't typically start until right before 11pm. Super late for our kiddos (we did leave Caleb at home with my dad). But, we thought we'd give it a try this year since we hadn't the last two years. We picked up Chuck and Melissa on the way, and headed to South Beach - our favorite spot to watch the fireworks. Anna and Benjamin started off "brave" - having fun with the sparklers and smoke bombs, playing in the sand, and seeing the fireworks some other people on the beach were lighting off, as we waited for the real show.

Then, things changed.

Ben-Ben got more and more nervous, which required more and more snuggling from . . . everyone. See below. And he fell asleep before the real fireworks even started! Geesh. Anna was fine until the loud fireworks started, then she needed to be sitting in some one's lap, with her hands AND their hands over her ears. Then she fell asleep half way through the show. Good grief. And we got sprinkled on too. Anyway, it was still pretty fun and I love the pictures I got, but I think we'll wait a few more years before we try that again.

What a fun day! What a long day! What a long post!

Health Update On Caleb J. . . .

2011-06-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

So. I haven't done a real medical update on Cabers in awhile. And since he's had some significant appointments lately, I thought I'd document it in my journal.

Caleb had his six month well-check appointment a little over a month ago, and everything looked great. Growing and gaining weight is not a problem for him . . . that's an understatement! He's in the 80-90 % for height and weight. His head is pretty big - off the charts - which we could tell just by looking at him. His pediatrician wants to keep an eye on it though, as it could signify brain swelling or other serious things. We're thinking it's just hereditary since Ethan had the same situation as a baby (extra appointments for head measurements), and Anna and Benjamin also had exceptionally large heads. hehe. What can we say . . . that's just how we make 'em. Super chubby. Super big heads. :) With the other two, it all evened out in a couple years, and hopefully that's the case with Cabsie Pie too. He's having an appointment later today to get his head measured, so we'll see how he looks. Last thing about this appointment - Caleb's Pediatrician also requested a little follow up with a pediatric cardiologist, to address some concerns they had when he was in the NICU. Everything looked totally fine with his heart. Yay!

On to Caleb's six month Developmental Clinic at the beginning of June. Babies that spend considerable time in the NICU, or have certain health issues, often have a developmental clinic scheduled for six months to see how they're doing. It's a 2-3 hour long appointment at the hospital, and you meet with multiple heath care workers - pediatric nurse, physical therapist, speech pathologist, Pediatrician Specialist. I was so happy it was scheduled during Ethan's week off so we could both be there for it. Caleb was right on with all the developmental checks. Babies who are born prematurely are assessed based on their due date rather than their actual birth date. Since Caleb was one month early, for his six month developmental clinic he was actually assessed as a five month old. There are a few things the physical therapist wants us to help him along with, but really nothing major, or any "delays." With the doctor, we spent the majority of the time discussing Caleb's large head. . . he even measured Ethan and my head to make sure it does run in the family. Geesh. :)

Okay, final major appointment - Pediatric Pulmonary Specialists in Ann Arbor. We actually just got back from that appointment yesterday. His lungs sounded good, and they thought he looked great. They changed Caleb's medication to a longer lasting dose, and for long term use. Also, instead of taking the medicine through a nebulizer, Caleb will be using an inhaler. It's still twice a day, but instead of 10 minutes of breathing treatments, it will only take 1 minute of inhaler. Yay! They consistently refer to his symptoms (occasional wheezing and retraction breathing) as asthmatic symptoms (moderate to mild), and are treating it as that. This is still something they expect he will grow out of in childhood, so not really anything has changed. . . which is a good thing. So, although they wanted to change his medication for more long term use, they still thought he was doing well, and were especially pleased to hear that he only got sick once this season. Apparently it was an especially bad RSV season that lasted longer than normal. Way to go Caleb! :)

As a side note, some things I was reminded of on our trip down state:

1) I really like my parents. Of course I love them and appreciate them, but I also really like them. So it was nice to spend this time with them - even though I live with them...life is just busy - and have a long car ride to talk and hang out. (I went down with my mom and dad because my dad had a work thing in Lansing at the same time. Worked out perfectly.)

2) Caleb is such a good baby. He's so happy and easy going and smiley! He was a good little traveler, and only had one short episode of crying in the car. . . which is pretty dang good considering we went down and back in a day and a half! It seemed like Caleb could tell this was a special trip, and a rare ratio - three adults to one baby Caleb. And no noisy older siblings. He was so cute! :)

3) I can NOT share a hotel room with my parents ever again. :) A light sleeper + a loud sporadic snorer + an all night cougher = only about three hours of sleep for me. Glad Caleb slept through it all like a champ. Man, I got so desperately tired (especially since I'd gotten less than 6 hours of sleep the night before AND I can't sleep in a car) that I considered going down to the front desk at 2 in the morning and getting my own room. Anyway, just a note to myself since it had apparently been awhile, but just so I don't make this mistake again - DO NOT SLEEP IN THE SAME ROOM AS THE PARENTS! hehe.

Okay, just to make this long post a little longer; here are a few general updates about my seven month old baby Caleb: *He is rolling around, almost sitting up...he still needs a little help :), and when he's on his tummy, he scoots and rolls and moves all over. (All of our kids were a little slower in the physical development stuff . . . could it be due to their large noggins and extreme chub? hehe. They were never "delayed" in the developmental milestones, but they were certainly not ahead of the pack. And the same is true with Cabers.) *Especially since Caleb is our last . . . we're in no rush for him to grow up and do all the physical stuff . . . 'cause he'll get there. Ethan and I actually really like this about our kiddies because they're more easily contained the less mobile they are, AND it makes them seem like babies longer. :) *Caleb is such an interactive little guy. He loves smiling at people and interacting with them. When doctors and nurses have tried to distract Caleb with a toy, he will often keep looking right at them instead. He loves attention from his big brother and sister, and smiles and laughs at them all the time. *Caleb is such a good little sleeper. He takes two to three naps a day, and goes to sleep for the night around 7:30 or 8pm. He doesn't wake up until around 8-8:30am. He still gets up around 6am to drink a quick bottle, but then goes right back to sleep. *We finally started Caleb on baby cereal and baby food, over a month ago. No surprise, but he likes it. A lot. We aren't very regular about it, so he is still getting most of his nutrients from his bottles, but again, we're in no rush with the feeding thing either, and did the same with Anna and Benjamin. *I love Caleb's big smile, chubby dimpled cheeks, and bright blue eyes. They light up a room and attract tons of admirers to him. *Cabers is a pretty quiet baby - rarely cries, and is easily soothed if something is wrong. He only occasionally does the baby squealing thing, even his laugh is pretty quiet and sweet. . . a deep chuckle. Mostly he likes to sit and observe and take in the world around him. One noise Caleb does seem to make more and more is the "raspberry" sound with his lips. Pretty cute. *He loves songs, especially ones with hand motions, and he loves to play peek-a-boo. He loves putting everything in his mouth and one of his favorite "toys" right now is my cell phone. Typical. *Alright, I think these are enough updates for now, hehe. We just love our little babers. We feel so blessed that Caleb was sent to our family. He's such a sweetie, snuggly, little man. We are loving watching him grow and develop and get stronger and healthier every day.

Have a fun Fourth everyone!

Father's Day, Family, and Farm Animals . . .

2011-06-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

Sweet Daddy Time pictures, that turned into . . .

a smooching fest . . . which quickly turned into a tickling party . . .

until Ethan has to protect the baby from the tickling monsters . . .

Because he's just so little and helpless. hehe. Just look at that sweet, squishy baby face. . . don't you just want to smooch it and pinch it?! Love.

First of all, Father's Day. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Ethan is such an amazing Daddy. He's a natural. Anna, Benjamin, and Caleb are so lucky to have such a fun, kind, silly, smart, hands-on, faithful, energetic Daddy. He does it all, people. And so, I am also lucky (blessed) to have such an amazing Daddy to my kiddies. I love him so much.

And for my own daddy - living with my parent's these past 10 months has been such a blessing, as I've mentioned many times before, and will many times after this. There have been little ups and downs, but mostly ups. There have been lots of good, fun, funny memories. The relationship my mom and dad have with my children is so unique and special right now. They interact so much, and love each other so much. And although we only plan on staying with them a little longer, I hope we will all be able remember this unique time, and my kids will always feel close to my parents. SO, I love and appreciate my dad for many reasons. But I think most of all - lately - I love him and appreciate him as a Grandpa to my babies. So much. He is such a good Grandpa, and that has been even more evident during our time staying in his house. Cooking eggs with Ben-Ben, night-night songs, playing with Caleb (Cabers LOVES my dad, and my dad LOVES Caleb J. . . it's pretty sweet to watch), daily compliments for sweet Anna, and he's even changed diapers and helped with potty time. Wow. Thanks dad! You are a natural at being a Grampa, and my kids love you so much!

Also, a quick shout out to my older brother Andrew. He celebrated Father's Day for the first time this week as a new dad (and his 32nd birthday). It has been sweet seeing Andrew be a daddy to baby Hudson. He is doing such a wonderful job. . . .warms my heart. :)

Next up, Family. (I don't have the time to mention everyone right now, but know that you're loved!) We have been especially grateful for all of our family lately. My kids love their family, and it has been great living so close to all of them for this year, especially since we still don't know where we will end up after Ethan graduates in August. The first picture above is from a tea party cousin Rebecca planned for Anna and Benjamin a few weeks ago. She is so sweet with them, and they love her. And they love going to Auntie Beth and Uncle Stuart's house. (Anna often asks Ethan if he can make her a play set like Uncle Stuart made. hehe.) My sister Beth and I try to get together about once a week or so just to chat, catch up, and sometimes have lunch. Love my sister time! (And we've recently resumed playing doubles tennis - after a two year hiatus - with Stuart and Ethan . . . so fun!)

The second picture shows Uncle Joe helping feed Caleb his first bites of baby food (a few weeks ago). They both look very in to the whole experience. Ashley and Joe are getting married in August, and then Joe will officially be Uncle Joe, although he's been called that for almost two years already. My kids love him, especially Ben-Ben. Joe and Benjamin have recently started having occasional "guy time" together, and Ben just loves it. . . he's even trying to plan a slumber party. hehe. Speaking of, Anna has a few slumber parties of her own in the works, with her Aunties - which is why Ben-Ben wanted one of his own - we just told her she had to wait til summer.

"Gramma Time" with Gramma Lissa has been a popular activity lately for Anna and Benjamin. They take turns, so they can get some one on one time with their Gramma. I think Ethan started calling it "Gramma Time," because he'd always call his mom to set it up. Funny thing, during Benjamin's Gramma time last week, Grampa Chuck tried to entertain him a bit, but Ben-Ben would have none of it, "Where's Gramma? I don't want to be with you, I'm supposed to be with Gramma." Geesh, we'll have to start calling it something else so Benjamin knows it's okay to spend time with his Gramma and Grampa and Auntie KC too. Silly boy.

These three pictures above show a few "projects" my mom did with the kids. She is always up with making messes, and doing projects . . . something I'm not always as great about doing lately. (We love the HOW ARE YOU PEELING book we checked out from the library. So fun.) So, no pictures of Gramma Suse, but her influence is always around.

And finally, Farm Animals. We were at Econo (Grocery Store) the other Saturday, and they had a little petting zoo set up. Random. The kids, of course, loved it. I stayed out there with them the whole time while Ethan got our groceries. I thought it'd be a good opportunity to explain, again, about which foods we get from those animals. But Benjamin and Anna just wanted to focus on petting them, and feeding them hay. There were two big cows, a baby cow, a baby sheep, and a big, fat piggy. They should do that more often! Not that we typically grocery shop as a whole family.

Okay, enough of my randomness. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Anna's Big Week . . .

2011-06-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Last week was the last week of school, and Anna had a few big events. Like, Kindergarten Graduation! Above, Anna is getting her "diploma" from Mrs. Longton. Man, she's growing up so fast. And this is a graduation for "Young Fives" kindergarten which means Anna will be in regular Kindergarten next year, since she has a late birthday. I'm glad she got in to this program, for so many reasons, but mainly because I think it will keep her "younger" longer. I am in no rush to see my kids grow up! :)

So, I went to the graduation thinking it was all a little silly . . . that our society really celebrates every little thing in life. I still think that's true, but I was surprised that I got emotional and a little teary eyed during the ceremony. It's hard to see your kids grow up. Good, but hard. I could tell Anna thought it was so special and important. Also, I LOVED the teacher Anna had this year, and seeing Mindy get choked up about saying good bye to the kids was touching to me as well.

Sweetie Benjamin giving Anna a hug and an animated, "You graduated!" while baby Caleb looks on. Love that all three of Ethan's sisters, Anna's Aunties, were able to make it. And finally, Anna with Gramma Suse. How would Anna have made it through this school year without her?! hehe.

This first shot shows how Benjamin occupied himself during the graduation ceremony. Pretend food and pretend cooking. Typical. And the second one shows the whole group that was there (including Caleb, but you can only see his feet). The note said to invite anyone the kids wanted - grandparents, aunts, uncles, close family friends, etc. Anna had the biggest turn out, and we didn't even tell all the fam about it. What a lucky girl! :) And Grampa Dewey took us out to Border Grill after for a little celebratory lunch. Yummmm.

I loved looking through the memory book Anna's teacher put together. It showed work from the beginning of the year, compared to the end of the year (and had lots of fun pictures of all the kids). Anna learned so much during the school year! She went in not quite knowing all of her letters, especially lower case, and now she is in the beginning stages of reading! Anna sounds out words, and short sentences all the time. Wow . . .

Anna also had a dance recital that week, including a few long pracitices, and two performances. The picture above shows the dance recital practice on Saturday morning. This is the grand finale number at the end. . . hence all the dancers up there, and not everyone in full costume. Anna had a fantastic teacher, Miss Kristen, and a great experience in her ballet class.

Anna with her cousin Rebecca, who was also in the recital. Rebecca did a ballet number as well, and did beautifully! And they happened to have similar styles in costume, fun. I was glad Rebecca was there at all the practices and performances because they were LONG. And although they had supervisors, Anna is only five, and it would have made me nervous if Becca wasn't there too. Thanks for keeping an eye on her! :) The second picture shows Grampa Dewey giving Anna some flowers after her performance. She was so excited about that. AND, she got flowers at her Sunday performance too, from Grampa Chuck.

Cutie pie.

Anna doing some posing after we got her all ready for the show on Saturday evening. (Minus her ballet slippers.) Don't look too closely at her make-up . . . I had NO idea what I was doing, but the directions were very specific on what she should wear for stage make-up. :) Her bun was a big improvement from when I did it for her pictures, but all of this stuff really isn't my strong suit.

Most importantly, Anna had fun. She loved performing and was SO ADORABLE. Anna thought the whole experience was special and really "took to the stage." She thought it was especially exciting that she got to stay up until 10:30pm on Saturday night! Three hours past her bedtime. I love that Anna was able to take ballet this year, and have the whole experience. She may be on to other interests next year, but this experience will always be such a great, precious memory! Good job, little Anna!!!

Now, on to enjoying the summer!

The Pictures! . . .

2011-06-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

So, here are the pictures that go along with the following post. (The ones I couldn't figure out how to get on here last night.) They include a few of the high lights from our awesomely awesome week. hehe. Like . . .

Swimming!

Love the picture of Anna running out of the freezing water above! And the ones below of the kids buried in the sand crack me up. Ben-Ben would only let us bury him to his knees.

Feeding Baby Caleb J.!

He had quite the audience. . . and lots of help from his big brother and big sister. His first taste of baby food was rice cereal . . . nothing too exciting. Caleb was really interested, but wanted to feed himself.

And Hiking Sugar Loaf Mountain!

It was super windy at the top, as you can see from Anna's hair in the first pic. Also, notice the third pic above . . . it's of Ben-Ben giving me a smooch on the cheek. I just didn't take the shot at quite the right time. Darn. :)

We had a picnic at the top . . . at the insistence of Ben-Ben. Now he calls the top, the "food place." Oh, and Anna is carrying Ethan's empty diet coke bottle around to use as a "club" in case she saw any wild animals. We didn't have the heart to tell her that it would help her in no way to have that little plastic bottle.

So, enjoy the pictures. And, if you're interested in reading about the rest of the week, scroll on down to the next post. Have a beautiful week!

Best. Week. Ever. . . .

2011-06-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

So, blogger isn't allowing me to upload any pictures right now, and I'm too tired to figure out why. I still wanted to write a quick journal entry about this past week because it was just so perfect. Have I mentioned how much I love my family? :)

We did so many fun things. Such great family time. And the kids kept saying, "You don't have to go back to Alpena, Daddy." As if Ethan would forget that small detail if they didn't keep reminding him. hehe.

Ethan and I had some alone, one-on-one, time with the kids. Priceless.

We hiked Sugar Loaf Mountain all together. Beautiful.

We went swimming two different times, minus Cabber Bottoms. (Even though we had a few warm days this week, the water was still freezing, so we mostly just played around at McCarty's Cove, and then South Beach. Ethan did go under . . . brave soul. And I think both the kids fell in at least once. :) The kids remembered why they LOVE going to the beach! Except when they get scoured by wind/sand.  Seriously, it's super traumatic for them, even though all the other kids at the beach seemed fine with it. It was so funny, and so sad all at the same time.

I took Anna and Benjamin to the Children's Museum on Friday. We let Anna skip school on Friday to allow for more family time. (She thought that was so special.)

We fed Caleb his first taste of baby food - rice cereal. Adorableness. And messy. :)

WE POTTY TRAINED BENJAMIN!!! Finally. This is exactly when I was planning on potty training him in the first place. But since he showed interest in going potty since last fall, we didn't want to stifle his attempts. :) He's had ups and downs, but this is the real deal, baby. Last Saturday we did the whole "cold turkey" thing with Ben-Ben, just like we did with Anna. No diapers. No pull-ups. Just underpants. So, it's been just over a week, and it is going SO. GOOD. He's had a few accidents here and there, but also goes days without any.  And he is great at telling us when he has to go, so we don't really have to worry about making him "try" all the time. . . he knows when. :) Such a good feeling. . . and money saver!

We had a movie night all together.

I enjoyed some kid-free time with friends this week, which is always appreciated. Thanks, babe! Fun, fun.

We took the kids to the high school track to run around and "train" for a race we want to do together. The July 2nd, Firecracker Race. I think I'm going to try and do the 5K, and we'll all do the mile race together.

Ethan was able to share the "take the kids to the doctor" responsibility since he was off this week. That was especially helpful since we had a big developmental clinic for Caleb which takes a few hours, a dentist appointment for Benjamin, and pediatric cardiology appointment for Caleb J.

Caleb was the smiley-est little babers ever. That's not really specific to this week, but it just melts my heart. And I like to think he is enjoying all this extra daddy time . . . I know I am! (Ethan's been doing the 6:30am feeding. . . woo!)

Ethan and I had a lot of alone time after the kiddies went to bed at 8pm sharp :). . . went for walks, rented movies, watched the NBA finals, talked about "grown up things" (since the kids pretty much dominate the conversations when they're awake), etc.

Family walks. Playing games.  Reading book. You know, the usual. But it was so special because we were ALL TOGETHER again. Happiness.

It was such a great week. It was just what we needed. Especially since this coming week is going to be SO. BUSY. - Ethan starts his final internship tomorrow. Dance practice, and extra rehearsals for the dance recital for Anna. A Doctor/Dentist appointment for Caleb and Anna. A primary presidency meeting for me. Last week of school, including a "graduation" program for Anna. A few more things I'm forgetting. AND Meg, Jake and Rorie will be in town, so we'll want to spend lots of time with them.

So, life goes on . . .

A Happy "Stay-At-Home Party" For Daddy . . .

2011-05-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well, Anna is our little party planner. Any excuse for a party, and she's all over it. hehe. Anna had the fun idea of having a "Welcome Home" party for Daddy, since we'd been counting down the days until Ethan would be done with his internship in Alpena. We ended up calling it a "Stay-At-Home" party because Ethan had been coming home every weekend, so we were seeing him pretty regularly. But now . . . now. Oh the excitement of it all. hehe. He gets to STAY HOME with us, and not leave at 6:30pm on Sunday evening, coming home late Friday night. No more traveling back and forth all the time. No more missing each other so much. No more long stretches of time apart. The kids are super excited, and I'm super excited!

It was just a small group at the "party", kept that way on purpose :). (We weren't going to invite anyone over, but Anna finally changed our minds at the last minute.) The mood was fun and relaxed . . . and there was plenty of excitement in the air mostly from Anna and Ben-Ben. Well, Caleb looks pretty excited too, he just wasn't making any noise. And everyone was super happy to see cute, little Hudson too . . . and Uncle Andrew. My kids LOVE their cousin, Huddy, especially Anna.

Benjamin and Anna were super interested in all of the things that Andrew was feeding to Hudson, especially since we STILL haven't fed Caleb anything. . . we're getting to it this week. Second pic - Besides the fact that I rolled out of bed just in time for the breakfast - so ignore my look - I love the shot of Caleb chomping on my arm. Typical. (Also in the pic, the lovely Miss Amy.) And I love the pic that shows the big, platter full of bacon. Ethan loves bacon, LOVES IT!, and we wanted to make sure there was enough. It was a fun, lounge-y kind of morning. Perfect.

The whole day turned out pretty relaxed and low key. For the first time in a long time there was not one single thing any of us had to be at or do that Saturday. So perfect for Ethan's first weekend back with us. We lounged. The kids watched a movie after breakfast since it was raining out. . . and movies are so perfect for rainy days. We went to the sand dunes after it cleared up for some fun and exercise - ran up and down them, threw rocks in the river to see who could get the biggest splash, played hide-and-seek in the woods, had mini races on the hike back to the car, met some new doggies (and their owners), and both kids went pee-pee in the woods (yes! since it wasn't in their pants . . . except Ben-Ben a little bit :). Fun afternoon activity. The day was rounded out with Grampa Dewey calling us on the way home from the sand dunes to say that he was almost home too, and was picking up some dinner, if we'd be there. So, we stopped and got some sides, enjoyed a delish dinner, bathed the filthy/sandy kiddos, and popped them into bed. Then, Ethan and I had some alone time - grocery shopping together and watching a little MadMen when we got home.

I am so happy these nine months of Ethan being away so much are finally over. It was a crazy nine months, as you've read in detail on here. It would have been nice for him to have been here for more of it - or all of it - but we made it through. Mainly because we had some amazing family and friends to help us and spend time with us in his absence. Thank you all again!!! I am grateful that Ethan's longest stretch away (most of September) was over with first. Then, we had every other weekend for the rest of the fall semester. Then, weekends and Thursdays during his 10 weeks in Iron Mountain (that started the beginning of January after his entirely too short Christmas break). And finally, his 10 weeks in Alpena when he came home every weekend, which are now done. Ethan has the coming week off to hang out with us, then he starts his last 10 week internship at Marquette General Hospital in town. . . only a few blocks away actually. The kiddos and I will probably try to walk over to have lunch with him once a week . . . or more. And Ethan just found out his schedule is from 7:30am - 4:00pm. Perfect for the summer. . . done at 4 with plenty of sunshine and time left in the day. So, bring on a beautiful Marquette summer that we can enjoy all together! Now, we just need to get our own place again. . . as soon as Ethan finds out where he's getting a job. :)

Friends - They Come and They Go . . .

2011-05-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

We are grateful for good friends in our lives, but recently we've had to say good-bye to a few of them. No fun. (And yes, I include some family as good friends too. . . you know, the whole "blood is thicker than water" thing.) Above are pictures of the kids with their friends Logan and Jay. Their family moved to Utah this past week and we are going to miss them all so much! We already do. Benjamin has asked numerous times if he can play with, have a picnic with, or go to the park with Logan many times. . . and it hasn't even been a week. Those two played so well together, and it was fun for Ben-Ben to have some "boy" time, since Anna was at school during many of the get togethers. We had our final "play date" last Monday and it ended up lasting the whole day . . . which we were all happy about. :)

Here are a few pictures of Anna with one of her good friends, Kate. They are such sweeties together. And I love that they do the "girl" thing together. Sometimes it's hard for our fancy Anna, being the only girl with two younger brothers. Little brothers just don't understand sometimes. So, yay for girl play dates. Anyway, Kate isn't moving, but we might be. . . . since we don't know for sure where Ethan will be getting a job. When Anna asks us about potentially moving, leaving Kate is one of the things that make her sad to think about it.

Caleb is such a smiley, happy, interactive baby. He's only had a few moments of "stranger fear," and usually warms up to people pretty quickly. He just smiles his big, adorable, cheeky smile at everyone and wins them over immediately. :) His "friends" mostly consist of his family, but he's starting to venture out in to the big, wild world. I love the picture of Grampa Dewey and Caleb catching up after a long day, and of course I love the big gummy smile in the second one. :) I couldn't resist a smooch.

Finally, cousin Rorie Pie. Meghan and Rorie moved a few weeks ago, and it's been so sad. Anna and Ben-Ben miss their cousin, friend, and playmate so much. I think they are just finally starting to understand what "moving away" means. . . or at least they don't ask where Rorie is quite as often. When it was just Anna and Rorie, they did the sweet, girl thing. But, man, add Benjamin to the mix and both the younger ones changed - and not for the better. Then, Anna mostly acted as the mediator between the two little ones . . . because they needed a lot of mediating. They all loved each other sooooo much, and would always be super excited to see each other. But, within a few minutes Rorie or Benjamin would be upset, or crying, or not sharing, or taking toys, or hitting. It. Was. Crazy. I'm pretty sure neither of them were ever like this with other kids, just each other. Cousin love, I guess. We really had to limit "Rorie exposure" for the first while we lived here. hehe. But, it got better, even though they still had their moments. By the time they left, Rorie and Ben-Ben were mostly playing well together . . . all three of them. And when we let them, they would be all over baby Caleb J. too. Luckily, we'll be seeing them two more times this summer, so we got to save our "real" good-byes until later. Then, the Kenison family will be off on their new adventure in San Diego with the Navy. We are grateful for the year we had to live close to them - right around the corner. And although the kids are little (I don't have any memories from when I was 2/3 . . . and hardly any from when I was 5), I hope they can at least look back at pictures and perhaps have faint memories or their time together this year.

Life's Little Happenings . . .

2011-05-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

APRIL 30, 2011. Happy Anniversary! SEVEN YEARS, BABY!

Anna and Benjamin really wanted to make our anniversary extra special this year . . . after my mom explained what an anniversary is. They're such sweeties. Anna wanted to plan a whole, big party . . . but there just wasn't time for that in the day. Plus, seven years . . . she can plan one for our 25th. :) They made us signs and prepared some special pretend food for us. It kind of hurt their feelings that we would go do something special - ALONE - together later that day. Why wouldn't we want to celebrate the whole day with them!? hehe.

We kept it low key this year, but our date was so fun. I really wanted to DO something. So, we had Chuck and Melissa babysit all three bambinos (thank you!!!) for a few hours on the afternoon of our anniversary, and we went to play some tennis. Loved it. Ethan beat me - big time - but it was nice to play again since I couldn't last summer. Love Ethan's game face in the picture above. hehe.

We followed it up with one of our favorites - Border Grill. Mmmm.

AND, we both got new rings. Nothing fancy, but I L-O-V-E the ring Ethan got for me. I've gotten so many compliments on it (and it's just a cheap-ish ring from Target! :) The picture doesn't do it justice. I love the diamond ring Ethan picked out for me when we got engaged, but currently it's a bit tight, and I like having other, more non-traditional options to wear too. Ethan got a new ring too. He's on to his 7th - one for every year we've been married. Hehe. (Some have lasted years, some months, and the original was lost in less than a week while we were snorkeling in the Atlantic Ocean. So, needless to say, we don't spend much on Ethan's rings. He hasn't been able to find his last one for a few months. This was a $10 ring from ShopKo, but it does it's job. hehe.) So, not really important, or that exciting, but I loved picking out new rings for each other on our anniversary!

I love Ethan. He's my best friend. My favorite person. My love. And it feels awesome to know he feels the same way about me. I'll keep the mushy stuff short, since I've gushed about Eth many times before. :)

MOTHER'S DAY 2011!

Loved the sweet little notes and presents from my little ones this year. Ben got me squirt guns, Anna got me some stick on jewels for crafts, and Ethan got me a pretty note-pad to make lists on (perfect! :). The kids were trying to be so thoughtful, and picked out the presents themselves, and wanted to make "my day" so special. Precious.

I love being a momma. I love my three babies. I feel so blessed and so grateful when I think of the sweet spirits Heavenly Father sent to Ethan and I. It's not always easy, and sometimes I get overwhelmed, or don't stay as patient as I should. But, I keep trying. I keep trying to do my best. I try to do fun, positive things with them everyday. I love the little moments in motherhood - the snuggles on the couch, the songs, the precious conversations, the holding of sleeping babies, etc. Love it. Love them.

SURPRISING ETHAN IN ALPENA!

Caleb and I surprised Ethan in Alpena last week. We thought we should check out the area, since he's loved it so much at his current clinical placement. (And they've loved him. :) It was SO FUN surprising Eth, and it was fun to have alone time with Caber Bottoms. . . and have some extra time with Ethan. We got there Monday afternoon and left Wednesday after Ethan's lunch break. So, two days of fun in Alpena. . .

Ethan drove us around, giving us the grand tour of Alpena. Second picture shows Caleb and Ethan snuggling at the Motel Tuesday morning.

Caleb and I went to the Shipwreck Maritime Museum one day while Ethan was at the Clinic. It was really cool (and free! :), but Caleb slept through most of it. They had a replica of a ship built inside the museum that you could tour, and it felt like you were out on a stormy night - lights, rocking, the sounds of thundering and waves. The Thunder Bay Museum is the only National Maritime Sanctuary located on a lake and not the ocean. The area of Lake Huron right by Alpena is known as Shipwreck Alley, and it was really cool learning about all the wrecks. So, if you're ever in the area. . . hehe.

And finally, Caleb J. was such a good little traveler. I was a little nervous about going so far with him by myself (no one in the back to entertain Caleb J. if he got fussy), but I seriously could not have asked for a better, happier baby on this trip. Cabsie was a HUGE hit at the clinic Ethan works at, and smiled and charmed the pants off everyone. He became instant buddies with Ethan's Clinical Instructor, Wynne (who had us over for dinner while we were there, so sweet). It was too cute. Everyone gave him the nickname, "Cheeks" which is pretty appropriate for Caleb. hehe. Thunder Bay Therapy and Sports Medicine seemed like a great, friendly PT clinic. Ethan has loved his time there, and we were glad to see it and meet everyone. AND, Caleb even got a little physical therapy in with his daddy while he was there. hehe.

LLAMAS IN PAJAMAS!

These are the matching jammies the kiddos got in their Easter baskets this year. Love seeing Caber's and Ben-Ben matching. (And Anna loves being unique. :) Couldn't resist a little picture time before bed. Love them.