Happy Halloween!!

We had a fun Halloween!

We had the kids on the street come over for pizza tonight prior to trick-or-treating. It was a madhouse of superheros (mostly Galactic...) with a ghost,a pokemon and a pirate thrown in for good measure.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment!

The gang - note, Leia is trying to escape!


Our three (with a spare under the swing...)

Happy Birthday, Blaire!

A year ago tonight I was taking an ambien, so I could sleep before my c/s.








We dropped the boys off the next morning in a very normal fashion and made our way to the hospital, expecting to greet our third boy. Well, I was. :)



As they were delivering the baby, gender still unknown, it began SCREAMING. This baby was NOT happy. Carleton told me, well....we have a screaming head! That was new. Justin wasn't breathing at birth, and Collin cried just a bit before quickly settling. This baby was howling. Then came shock #1 - It's a GIRL! And shock #2 - only 7lb 3oz! Oh, she was just so lovely! The operating room staff was so excited - nurses who aren't assigned to you poke in your recovery room to find out the gender. It's so rare that people don't know! They wanted to know right away what her name was. We had no idea. It's shameful, as we'd been having children for over 6 years....you would think we would be fixed on one. We had three girls names...and we wanted to check her out and see which one fit!



Blaire has been the sweetest baby. This past year has flown by! She's cuddly and loving - and completely attached to me. Only recently is she showing some independance. She'll toddle off after the boys now. Just this weekend she has started playing outside in the sandbox with Collin. Of course, she's eaten a little bit of sand....but she is really starting to enjoy "toddler" activities...not just being on mommy's hip.



I still stumble over the word "daughter"...it's just so different after boys / sons. I have managed to stop referring to her as "buddy" or "little buddy". In fact, she may never know her actual name since we all use nicknames on her constantly. Miss B, princess B, Sister B, Blaire Bear.









So, Happy Birthday Blaire! What a joy to watch you grow!

I'm so far behind!!

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I posted.

Blaire has been walking for just about that long. It has been so fun to watch her master this skill....and she has done it with fewer bruises than her brothers did. She scraped her head going down the driveway once, but for the most part she's been injury free. The boys always seemed convinced they could recover their footing, even when rapidly closing in on the concrete. Blaire, on the other hand, is always willing to sit, should things start to look shaky. She reminds me of, well, me. I took the very same approach to skiing for several years after I first learned. Any chance I was headed for a fall.....sit down. It works. Your rear might get wet, but your arms and legs are not broken. I consider Blaire a smart girl.

Justin is in a Deion Sanders phase...simultaneously playing baseball (coach pitch) and soccer. This was a parental scheduling error. At one point he had 5 soccer and 2 baseball games in an 8 day period. It was a bit much, and we won't be making this particular scheduling error in the future. Fortunately, he seems to be happiest when on any sort of field. So this hasn't been nearly as stressful for him as for his parents! First grade is going well. He is thoroughly enjoying his teacher. And, like the rest of first grade, he is absolutely obsessed with Pokemon. I still don't really know what it is....but will admit it is a welcome change from the summer obsession with Star Wars!! We no longer have to refer to him as Luke!

Collin is enjoying his time at preschool. He takes gymnastics and got to ring the bell last week. He "completed" his backwards roll. Very exciting when they get to ring the bell! Today we went on a date - just Collin and mommy. He had been very anxious to go see the broadway musical version of "The Lion King". I had considered it, and then essentially forgot over the summer. When the ads started up again this fall, the tickets were scarce. A wonderful friend surprised us with some this weekend. So we put on our "fancy church clothes", as Collin said, and headed to the Music Hall. He was mesmerized. For three hours he sat and watched in awe. He was first on his feet after the particularly rousing numbers - clapping his little heart out. At intermission we sat to have a snack. When the "five minutes left in intermission" announcement was made over the PA, Collin scooped up the rest of his snack, shoveled it directly into his mouth, grabbed his playbill and headed back to his seat. I didn't even say a word! He was NOT going to miss a second of the show. He was in my lap for the finale and I was all tears and sniffles when he leaned back to tell me how "awesome" this day was. He was so right! Collin is a very creative child and this musical simply thrilled him. The music, the animals....everything. It was absolutely worth putting on your fancy church clothes, to him. :)

It seems we are regularly tired these days...and I'm always a step behind on the housework / laundry / etc.....but I'm so grateful to have the chance to spend my days with these little people.

Collin and mommy on the way to the Lion King.