The Baby

Our Baby is 3

3 years old. 

Three years ago, this baby completed our family. I imagined my life with some sons-but never in a million years did I imagine my life with four boys. And, now, never in a million years, can I imagine my life any different. 

Oh Zeker, you are such a sweet boy. You know how to make Mommy happy - a hug and a kiss gets me everytime. You know the way to Daddy's heart too..."wanna westle?" You brothers adore you. You make them laugh. You make all of us laugh and we love you so much! 

Gentle and sweet one moment, "The Hulk" the next. We never know what Zeke we are going to get...and we wouldn't want you any other way. 

Paci Free

Zeke has been "Paci Free" for 3 days. This is a BIG deal. He was practically 100% "pacifier dependent" just a few days ago. Like, it was ridiculous. Everything I said my kids would never do, he was doing....the most annoying was talking with his paci in his mouth. It was so annoying...but not so annoying that I had the energy to do anything about it.

Then, at daycare, he lost his paci. Vickie didn't have one for him on Thursday and Friday....and he did just fine! So, Saturday, I hid them all. He surprisingly, he did just fine. He did wake up in the middle of the night and "hulked" out so we caved in and gave him one so we could get some sleep. Sunday, same thing...he did great. Took his nap without it, and even went to bed without it. This morning he woke up sometime after 5 when I went to workout. When I got home, I saw that Ben had given him one. I can live with that...he went all day without it and went to bed without it tonight. I didn't think this day would EVER come!

Funny
This morning when I woke him up, this was our conversation:

Me: "What is this in your mouth?"
Zeke: "Dad gave me it"(as he hands his paci over to me)
Me: "Why did he do that?"
Zeke: "Cuz my like my paci"

So there you have it...it was totally Dad's fault.

The Hard Way

Isaac got an ant farm for Christmas. We ordered the ants then, but they couldn't ship them until the weather was warmer. The ants were finally shipped and we received them this week. They actually came on Saturday, but I didn't get the mail until Monday. When I opened them up, they all looked like they had died. The boys were upset and I was mad at myself for not checking the mail. It has been still getting so cold out at night that I was sure that they were dead. We went to school and a I reassured them that we would order some more and we wouldn't have to wait so long now that the weather was (kind of) warm.

After lunch, I got a call from the school saying I had to come get Eli because it looked like he had pink eye. When I got into the van, what do you know...the ants had woken up! It must have warmed up enough that they were back to life.

Eli was so bummed that he was missing school. His eyes filled up with tears and he was sad that he was going to miss outside recess. To cheer him  up, I showed him the ants and told him we would put them in the ant farm when we got home. We were both pretty excited.

Not even reading the directions, we opened up the ant farm and dumped them in. Before I could get the lid on, we had ants crawling EVERYWHERE trying to escape. I couldn't get the lid on without smashing them. By the time we would get one back in, we had five more escaping down the side. Eli thought this was the funniest thing in the world! I was so grossed out. He was picking the ants up off the black counter top as I was trying to push the others back in. It was a disaster!

After we finally got them in and the lid on, I looked at the directions. We learned the hard way that you are supposed to put them in the fridge for 15 minutes to "SLOW THEM DOWN". Yeah, that would have helped! And that also explains why they looked dead in the morning. They were cold and SLOW! Next time we'll read the directions.

These Girls….

Are just what this Mother of FOUR boys NEEDS!
Seriously? The ruffles and the lace and the bows…...


 

Easter

I LOVE Eli's real smile.

And I LOVE that Isaac is always thinking and always wondering something.

And I LOVE that when you are 2 1/2 everything is a new experience!

I LOVE that Evan has grown up so much this year, but is still a good sport about doing things like dying Easter eggs

I LOVE that these boys are ours.

And I LOVE how much the little ones admire the big ones. And how much the big ones love the little ones.

You call it CHAOS....we call it FAMILY

You know you have too many people in your bed in the morning when your husband calls you on your cell phone from the kitchen at 6:15 to see if you are coming home soon from working out, not realizing that underneath the pile of boys in your bed, you are still sleeping and not working out.

{I rarely skip my workout time. Like in two and a half years....I've hardly ever skipped my 5 a.m. workout. I didn't work out today because my hip is bothering me and for some reason there isn't really a workout that "rests" sore body parts. Ben forgot, got up and was patiently waiting for me to come home. I get home at 6 and then he leaves and works out at 6:15 or so.

This morning, Eli and Zeke both ended up in our queen sized bed. By the time Ben's alarm went off, Zeke was laying across my pillow on my head. Knowing I have few opportunities to sleep in, I didn't want to move him in fear of him waking up before I wanted to. I guess Ben didn't notice me underneath the boys!

To add to the story...

The van was parked in the driveway, not in the garage since we have projects going on in the garage. To make the morning more chaotic, all the windows were down in the van. I guess it was so nice out last night, we jumped out of the van to play outside and never thought twice about the windows. This wouldn't be a big deal, except the van was in the driveway and not sure if you noticed, but it rained last night. A lot.

All Ben and I could do this morning was laugh at the chaos.

"Some people call it chaos, we call it family."

Spring Break

This year we went to the Kalahari at the Wisconsin Dells with three other families. The kids had a blast together!

Kaden and Zeke

These two have the same birthday, one year apart. We also share a cul de sac with them....They are destined to be friends! 

Eli and Kami

Our neighbor girl, three days younger than Eli...She will be the one to keep the boys in line. She already does her best to keep Eli out of trouble! 

Zeke had a BLAST! 

Here are the "kids" minus Evan who is hiding behind the pretty girls! 

Can you hear him through this picture? I can! 

Evan and Isaac's best buddy, Ike

We did a lot of this too...kids were exhausted by the end of the day - or sometimes in the middle of the day. 

Eli has no idea how much he will love this picture when he is 16 years old! This is his babysitter on the right, Jamie, who also happens to be our friends' 17 year old daughter and her friend.