Happy Birthday Bekah!

Our Bekah Mae Mae has just turned 3! Really? It doesn't seem like she's only three. She acts so big (and she's quite tall too!) that it surprises me sometimes that she's still so "young." Ah well. I guess that's what happens when you try to do everything your four and a half year old sister does. What a big girl!

When we went to the store to pick out a special birthday cake, Bekah wanted three different cakes, "Because I'm three," she said. Shawn liked this thinking but Mommy squashed the idea. With just us celebrating together this year (sorry if you felt left out...but I didn't feel like hosting after such a difficult past couple of weeks), I knew we would barely be able to handle this little cake, let alone three! Bekah and Kelsey didn't fight much over the rings: each got two and they were content.

Both of her gifts were a big hit, although I'd say the Mr. Potato Man was the best loved by everyone. Even Jack wanted to try on the glasses-- to be like Mommy and Daddy. But Bekah has loved the baby doll more than I've seen her love any other baby doll. Yeah! Thanks to all of you who love and support our little Bekah!

Number Five is on His Way

Surprise to y'all! The battle of the sexes has been somewhat won--for the time being. John has convinced Kelsey that having a new baby brother really would be better than getting a new baby sister. I think Bekah doesn't really care either way. She loves playing with Kelsey and a new baby wouldn't be someone to play with for a few years anyway.

But anyway, in about five months, we should count seven in our household. That's how many seat belts we have in the van. Time to upgrade?

I love little baby feet!

Autumn Leaves and the Kids

It's been a pretty mild Autumn this year and the leaves have been pretty slow to fall near our home. The maple trees across the street have finally all turned yellow and are dropping their leaves. But the sycamore trees in front of our house are barely starting to turn brown. We'll see how quickly that changes after the next couple of days when the cold storm finally hits.

The kids have loved going across the street to pile up leaves and jump in them. Jack loves to run through them and listen to the crunch! Kelsey and Bekah pretend they have bouquets of flowers and they love to throw them in the air to see them fall again. It's been lots of fun to see them playing.

Shawn and I were remembering back to our first home with the Box Elder tree that dumped bags full of leaves on our lawn. We had such fun piling them together to let John play in them. Ah well. Memories and photos are what we keep of that. But it's great to see all of the kids enjoying the changing seasons.

Happy Halloween

To all of you ghosts and ghouls, we wish you a Happy Halloween! It's a few days late, but here's some of the highlights of our kids' experience. I have to say, it turned out better than we expected...since it was thundering and pouring at 1730 when we had planned to get started. By 1800, it had cleared enough that we thought we'd get a few houses in before the rain would start again. Luckily, it didn't rain again while we were gathering candy.

John forgot to wait for his sisters and Jack was always at the rear. But we had Jack trained by the end of the night to say "thank you", in his own way. It was fun and we got quite the haul. Poor Bekah's handle on her candy bucket broke it was so heavy! Sorry, no pictures of Jack in his frog costume. But I'm sure if you checked out last year's pictures, you can see Bekah in the same costume Jack wore this year.

The kids picked out their own designs for the pumpkins and I got the privilege of gutting, cleaning, and carving the jack-o-lanterns. Not too bad...since I had kids bumping and hovering over me during the sawing process. Jack got the bat and the moon; Bekah's became the owl when Jack broke the frowning jack-o-lantern; John chose the flaming pumpkin; and Kelsey chose the witch. It was fun! Hope you had a fun Halloween too!

War Paint

Chalk art is always an adventure with our kids. It usually gets all over their clothes and then just brushes off. Add an artist to the mix, and you get even more unusual results-- not bad, just unexpected. Jack got the inspiration this time. Doesn't he look like a "native?" I think he went around town like this for a few hours...and he still brings smiles to our faces.

Zoo Day With Three of the Kids

On a whim, and because John had been begging to go, we decided to go to the Hogle Zoo. Shawn was home working on school stuff and "volunteered" to "watch" Jack take a nap. That made it so much easier for me to get around the zoo. The kids asked where the red wagon was (that has been a constant companion for the past two years) but we didn't have to take it this time! Everybody walked! Ah, such freedom from a stroller or a diaper bag! Sorry, Jack...we didn't really miss you. Love ya!

We had such a good time taking it slow and looking at whatever we felt like seeing. Bekah was excited for the baby elephant. John wanted to see poison dart frogs (Kelsey plugged her nose in the animal house). And everyone wanted to ride the train at the end. There was hardly anyone at the zoo (poor Shawn would have LOVED this part of the day!). So, we got some good pics to prove the fun we had.

We were the only ones on the tail end of the train. The kids thought it was great fun to be by themselves. And to show how empty the zoo was, check out the following picture of the parking lot. Usually, it's packed and you have to search for a place to park. This is what it looked like as we were leaving the zoo at 1600 (one hour before the zoo closed).

This is what Shawn would have loved. Ah well. I did think of you!

His First Word

We've come to the decision that Jack's first word was "Ball." He has been repeatedly saying the same word every time he sees one. It's kinda cute. I first noticed it when I set up the umbrella stand as a make-shift t-ball stand for John. The height was too low for John but Jack caught on quickly and took over the batter position when John got bored.

Anyway, he's been overjoyed with the popper gun (which holds and shoots balls!). He will ask for the guns whenever I pick him up. Oh, and "easss" is "Please" for Jack Jack. So, he's exploring the world of words and sounds. I'm grateful. It's much easier to guess what he wants when he can put a word to it, rather than a whine and reach.