what the boys are thankful for (or: I just figured out how to use the scanner)

How cool is this!?! I figured out how to work the scanner feature on our printer! (I by figured out how to work it, I mean, turned it on and pressed scan-it was actually really easy) I scanned these papers the boys did last Wednesday night at church. In case you wondered what small warriors are thankful for...

I just want to say that Ewan is also thankful for Insectasorus from the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens. In almost all his prayers, he mentions that.


How sweet of Cale! And, notice his coloring-we think it's really good!


Marcus spelled out his own words: family, friends, toys, food, good day. At school, Marcus also wrote that he was "thankful for food. It is good for me."

7 months old!

too big and too cute! that about sums up how I feel about Liam turning 7 months old! time goes too fast!

Operation Christmas Child Box

This year, I decided to have the boys participate in Operation Christmas Child. This is a program, part of Samaritan's Purse, where you pack up a shoebox size box full of little gifts to send a child who otherwise might not get anything for Christmas. We got the idea from watching a music video called "Give This Christmas Away" (I love this song!) on the newest Veggietale video. The boys did great picking out gifts even after finding out that they would not be getting anything. Another neat part, is that we will be able to track where our box goes to see what country it gets sent to. Here they are, getting ready to drop the box off. At the drop-off location, the boys were able to see lots of shoeboxes getting packed up and then a room full of already packed boxes-very cool. Plus, they also got to have some cookies-a complete day!

invasion of the ninjas

The ninjas have invaded our house! They came to play the Wii and play with play-doh. Who knew that's what ninjas do?

This video is of one of the ninjas given a dramatic interpretation of a quote from the movie "The 300" (which he has never seen, the same quote is on a CD he listens to a lot). The words are "This is where we fight. This is where they die. Arm these shields boys!"

A few pictures from Cale's birthday

Here are some photos from Cale's 5th birthday. We had a birthday party for him at our church for his preschool class and then the next day, we celebrated his actual birthday at home. Cale loved all the attention, decorations, presents and cake!

with Mommy on his birthday

and with Daddy

with his ice cream cake!

we had a pinata for the party, the kids had fun trying to hit it, and then once everyone had a turn taking a wack at it, we just pulled out the ribbons until it opened up

play-doh time at the party-It gave the kids a chance to calm down before cupcakes. The kids also played "Duck, Duck, Turkey", Freeze Tag, Hit the Ball the Farthest, and ran races. It was nice to have the open space of the gym to let the kids run in.

Cale is 5!

Happy birthday to Cale! He turned 5 years old today! I cannot believe that he is old enough to be 5. Time goes by too fast. While I will post pictures of his birthday festivities later, I wanted to take a minute to celebrate my new five year old. Cale is an very intellegent boy. His teachers say that he knows every answer and is always raising his hand first to answer questions. He is also an excellent sharer and is kind-hearted towards others. Cale loves attention. Right now he is the only child in his Sunday school class and he is relishing in the attention that Mrs. Peggy is giving just to him. Cale can also be very determined/stubborn/focused (call it what you will). We always say that Cale will probably be a defensive player in football because of this character trait. He also loves soccer and has an excellent swing off the tee for t-ball. When he gets excited, he hops up and down-he just can't stand still (so cute!). He is just a sweet, caring little boy. We love him so much!

late night tv

I was up with Liam last night and thinking about being up with the other boys when they were little. Andy and I have decided that we can identify those late night times with each of the boys with certain television shows. I just wanted to list them for fun...
Marcus: repeats of Late Night with Conan O'Brian, I remember waking up Andy once to watch a skit that I thought was funny (it was 2am)
Cale: I watched a lot of "CBS Up to the Minute" (early, early morning news)with him
Ewan: this is when we discovered Scrubs reruns and Dharma & Greg (thank you WGN)
Liam: I'm watching a fair amount of crime shows-Cold Case, Without a Trace, old Law & Orders too

a rough patch

Oh boy, Ewan has been giving us a rough time with potty training. Really, he is potty trained. He knows when he has to go to the bathroom and he is dry at night. The catch is, he waits until the last minute to go to the bathroom and does not make is in time. This has resulted in many impromptu floor washings and extra laundry. He did it again last night and I was so frustrated I gave him a time-out on the toilet-I just told him to stay there for a while. Then, I collected my thoughts and went ahead with the planned bath he was going to get. I know that he knows when he has to go to the bathroom. I also think that he is just trying to control the situation (imagine that). I'm hoping this passing because I am growing weary of the constant vigilance of Ewan's "potty signals". The other thing that Ewan has decided he enjoys is peeing on the side of the road. If we do not force him to go to the bathroom before we leave the house, 99% of the time, Ewan will say he needs to go potty while we are driving. What to do? We don't want an accident and usually there is no place to stop (smart kid). What a boy, is all I have to say to that. I can't wait to tell these stories to him when he is older.

A state to hide in

The other day in Marcus's Bible class, the teacher asked, "Is there anywhere that God can't see you?" Marcus raised his hand and said, "Yes, Texas." "God can't see you in Texas?", the confused teacher replied, wondering what in the world Marcus's parents are teaching him. "God can't see you in Texas, but Jesus can.", was Marcus's response. "Why is that?" asked the teacher. "I can't remember", said Marcus, "It just is."

Now we know where Jonah should have gone.

Halloween 2009

Liam stayed home to help pass out candy


our pumpkins


Ewan rode around in the wagon all night. In fact, he had to get in the wagon between every house in our subdivision. By the end though, he was too tired to get out (even for candy!) and would only get candy if we could roll up in the wagon to the person handing out the candy.


the boys before we started out. no one wanted to wear their masks but everyone had on an extra layer of clothing to stay warm in the 40 degree weather. we went to the trunk or treat at the church in front of our subdivision first and then worked our way back to our house. the boys' bags were full of candy by the time we made it home.

spiders for the tea party

This year for the preschool's Miss Spider's Tea Party, Cale and Ewan were spiders. Their costumes were super easy to make since they made them one day @ the YMCA while they were in child care. All I had to do was pull out their black clothes (the shirts were a size to small, but they fit). These were probably the easiest costumes we've done and the boys were excited to wear something they had made.

"little" Liam is 6 months old!

Liam was 6 months old as of October 24th! We love him so much! He is such a joy to have and a very good baby! He's a big boy-just look at the size of those hands! He's has 2 teeth now, the first one came out the day we took the boys to the Butler game and the 2nd one made it's appearance yesterday (Oct 31st). Liam is crawling around now, and has also mastered maneuvering his walker. And, he's sitting up great without support. (a mom just has to brag!) He's eating 3 meals a day-we've given him apples, bananas, pears, you know, the good stuff. He loves watching his brothers play and he definitely loves his daddy! Liam will turn to Andy's voice as soon as he hears it. He's still taking 2-3 naps a day, kind of depends on the day he is having. Liam also likes rhythms and likes having you do a "boom-chuck" beat. The doctor just loves him and thinks he's doing great! His recent height/weight were: 28 1/4 inches long (75th %) and 19 pounds 12.5 ounces (95th %). To compare....
Marcus: (at almost 7 mos) 27 1/2 inches, 19 pounds 5 ounces
Cale: (6 1/2 mos) 28 inches, 19 pounds
Ewan: (@ 6 mos) 28 1/2 inches, 18 pounds 9 ounces
right on schedule

carving pumpkins

Yea! for Aldis who had pumpkins on sale a week before Halloween! We got three big ones for the boys and an actual pumpkin carving kit (which Andy said made a big difference in the carving). The boys did some of the work. We made them help scoop out the insides. This was not a cool of an activity as you would think it would be for 3 boys-they don't like having sticky, dirty hands. But, we persevered and then Andy did some carving, and we had some great looking pumpkins to put outside on Halloween night!

Ewan's pumpkin


Marcus and Cale's pumpkins


making the kids do some of the work...

proud Marcus

Marcus got the "Principal''s Pride" award at his elementary school recently. He said that he got the award for "helping to get the class quiet". He got the award and a water bottle from the principal-very exciting! At home, Marcus wanted to hang up the award. I gave him the tape, and said "Hang it up where-ever you want". Marcus chose the front door :-). Here he is posing with his award. Marcus liked hanging his award on the front door so much, that he also hung up last week's spelling words on the front door too!