Catching up...

Su, this one's for you. xx

Things have been a bit busy in the T house since Jack's birthday. A few days before Thanksgiving, two big things happened:

(1) Thomas started walking.

He was just a few days shy of 10 months old, which is right around when his brothers started too. (This is fun when the first baby does it, but much more difficult when subsequent babies do as there are more little folks running in opposite directions to chase around.) This has been uniquely challenging with Thomas, also, because he is very very tall. Tall enough to reach items on the kitchen counter already, yet young enough not to understand danger or consequences. It's forced me to have to rethink what items I can just leave on the counter to go help someone with the potty, for example. Thank God he's never been hurt by anything, but I've seen his little fingers just about ready to grab some of my sharpest knives and it's very frightening.

(2) We found out we're expecting again.

This came as a complete and utter shock, as we were definitely not trying and instead working to give ourselves a little more time to decide when we might be ready to have another. Apparently, God made that decision for us and while it took a few days to sink in, we were both happy about the prospect of adding a new little somebody to our family.

We visited family for Thanksgiving and even got a little snow that day. It was such a nice holiday.

Christmastime had me really feeling nauseous and tired. Exhausted, actually, and really nauseous too, I guess, since we all got a stomach virus the week before Christmas. It just picked us off one by one, starting with Thomas, and ending with me. I'm pretty sure I spent all day Christmas eve in bed with a trash can. Not exactly a holiday to remember, but the boys got to play with their new toys all day, which they loved, and I just tried to get myself to keep down a few sips of apple juice. It was weird to wish I was only feeling the pregnancy nausea and not the virus nausea, but I was praying for that several times a day.





A few days after Christmas, I had my first ultrasound for this pregnancy because I was feeling a little bit bigger and the doctor thought perhaps my dates were off.

Wrong.

Here's what we saw.


I'm glad I had a little inkling (I knew I was feeling larger than usual, and I also knew that my dates were probably not wrong), otherwise I may have just rolled right off the ultrasound table. So, rather than adjusting to the idea of one new addition to our family, we're mentally preparing ourselves for TWO! And the idea of five children under the age of five. It's been scary and overwhelming and exhausting and daunting, but also exciting and amazing (and did I mention exhausting?) and leaving us feeling tremendously blessed. Five years ago, as blissful newlyweds, we could never have imagined that we'd have five children one day, and now, here we are. The doctor is pretty sure they're identical twins, and while we usually wait to find out the gender, we'll be finding out this time around. Our big ultrasound for that is on March 9.

January brought lots of snow


and Thomas's first birthday.



My, that year went quickly! He is the most happy, outgoing baby and it's hard to imagine life without him. He makes us laugh. He tells us knock knock jokes. (Really.) He keeps us on our toes. He says Mama, Dada, knock-knock, up, cracker, ba ba (bottle), ball, hi, and bye-bye. His smile is contagious. He's a dancing machine.

I also got to visit my sister in San Francisco in January and somehow managed not to take any pictures of our time together. We had a great time doing a few things for her wedding in March, walking around San Francisco, and playing Scrabble.

It's hard to believe it's the last day of February, and March and springtime are just around the corner. This year, I could not be more thankful. It's been a long winter cooped up in the house feeling tired and nauseous with three energetic little boys. We're all anxious to get outside and play!

Happy 4th birthday, Jack!

Four years ago today, I became a Mommy.

My life changed in ways I never could have imagined as I got to know this new little person
whom I loved so much that my heart ached.

Watching you grow, watching your kind heart make itself known as you have
learned to communicate better and better has been a joy and a privilege.

You are the most thankful child I have ever met. You began signing "thank you" any time you were given anything before you could even speak, and have not stopped expressing gratitude
whenever you're given anything.

This makes it such a joy to give you gifts and do things for you.

You are generous and giving, and have been bringing me flowers, leaves, anything you find outside that you consider to be beautiful since you could walk,
always saying "For you, Mommy!"

It makes me feel so very special.

I love being silly with you.
I love your smile and your laugh.

You are curious and bright. You love to learn new things and to teach other people what
you have learned. You are such a kind big brother and so good at sharing with
and caring for PJ and Thomas.

You are learning to read and it is so neat to listen to you figure out how to spell words
and to sound them out when you see them written. You are very good at it!

You are growing so quickly, and Daddy and I are so very proud of you.

Today, we celebrated your birthday and you got the Buzz Lightyear you've been
talking about for months.

We went to the mall to see Santa, and you and PJ gave him the collages you made of
toys you might like to have for Christmas.

You got elf hats, and we had cheeseburgers at Burger King with Daddy.

You got froggy boots from Aunt Devon, just like Caillou has.

After dinner, we sang Happy Birthday and had some Buzz Lightyear cake,

which you made sure to share with your new Buzz.

Happy birthday, my sweet Jack!

Thank you for teaching me to be a Mommy
and for loving and forgiving me even if I mess up.

I love you more than you will ever know!

Cruisin'

This little push toy has been inside the torso of the scarecrow sitting on our front porch for the past couple weeks. During that time, nine-month-old Thomas has been pushing his Leapfrog table around the house and cruising along the furniture like an old pro.

I knew that as soon as I brought the walker back in, it would only be a matter of time before I had another little person running around this house. He's already crawling at the speed of light and getting into everything.

Today was his first try with the walker and he took to it like a duck to water. Once the novelty of the spinny things on the front wears off, I'm sure he'll be pushing it all over the place.

Trick or treat!

Boo! It's not Halloween, but trick-or-treating took place tonight here in Lancaster County, so we decided to go with the Halloween thing all day, starting with breakfast. Ghost pancakes

and spider pancakes. Sort of. (Octopus, maybe? Sunflower?) Eh, let's stick with ghosts.

I made sure to wear my Halloween finest,

and this guy. . .

(Who, me?)

Yeah, it was time to whip out the Yoda costume again. One of my favorite Halloween traditions. We might have to have one more baby just so we can use it again.

Come on - can you stand it?

Jack and PJ could not wait to don their superhero costumes again, and they had a blast trick-or-treating! Those pumpkin buckets were really heavy by the end - maybe because one neighbor was giving out juice boxes. (Seriously?)

They were actually excited to sit on the porch and pose with their costumes this year, and you might notice that in addition to the muscles in PJ's costume, they're both looking a little buff because I had to put several layers of clothing on them first. It was cold here tonight!

I love these two little guys.

And the way they love on this other little guy.

Happy Halloween!

Welcome, Fall!

Monday morning, we visited the local farm stand to get things to decorate our front porch.

The boys picked out their own pumpkins for painting

Look at poor PJ's eyes- allergies much, buddy?

Jack, who enjoys pretending that everything can talk, said his pumpkin told him it felt funny getting painted. He reassured the pumpkin that it wouldn't hurt a bit.

Thomas loves watching his silly big brothers.

While PJ and Thomas took a nap, Jack and I found some of Daddy's old clothes to make into a scarecrow. We painted a papier mâchée head that had started out as a dinosaur egg project but never quite made it there.

Jack was fascinated by the scarecrow and insisted on posing next to him for a picture.

I love the Fall, and love that we can get these things for so little money - it was $11 for everything. (In fact, all the corn shocks were only $1.50. Last year, I thought that price was per stalk, so I asked for four of them and the farm stand owner said they'd deliver them and a hay bale to the house later that night in their pickup truck. They came while I was putting the boys to bed and when I came down it looked like Children of the Corn on our porch, so this year I knew just to order one.)

I am also bound and determined to make those gorgeous mums survive for at least a week before they start to turn brown!

Family getaway

Last weekend, we had a little family getaway to the Pocono mountains. A friend of ours offered us his cabin and our day-to-day lives have been so crazy between Patrick's work, taking care of the boys and keeping up with housework that we thought it might be nice to do a little retreat of sorts. Not so many rules, barely any chores. Just quiet, fun time together as a family.

Or so we thought.

We arrived at the cabin on Friday afternoon, after a late start and driving almost five hours in the rain. We were all a bit cold and cranky, but when we got there, we seemed to unwind instantly.

The cabin was beautiful.

I pictured Patrick and I sitting out on the porch in the morning with some hot coffee,

with a view of the lake through the trees and lots of wildlife around.

Can't you just hear the boys mocking me for thinking such a thing?

The inside of the cabin was just as beautiful, but as you may be able to tell, the loft-style sleeping arrangements made it difficult to realize my other dream of Patrick and I putting the boys to bed and sitting on the couch by that cozy fire watching a movie or talking.

Because all day Friday had torrential downpouring rain, we did a lot of this

Candyland and Go Fish!

The combination of the pounding rain, the metal roof, the beds at ceiling level, and the open floor plan meant that Patrick and I each got about an hour of sleep Friday night. And that not all together - it was more like 10 minutes here and there up and down with the boys who couldn't sleep because of the rain, or fell out of their beds, or had bad dreams. It was rough.

Saturday morning, we discovered that overnight, we'd also had some rodent visitors who'd helped themselves to the food on the counter (shame on me for leaving it out). Tired and grossed out by the discovery, we determined to make the best of our day.

The boys wanted to take some pictures of their own, so I let them use the camera. Here are Jack's photos, straight out of the camera - no editing from me. I love to see how he chooses his shots.

First, our family






Then, of course, Lammy



(I love that he kept trying to get the right angle. . . and that in the last picture, Lammy looks like he's had enough.)



Next, his backpack and toys



Then, some other random shots:

My "red sweatshirt," which made me cry laughing when I actually saw the picture



Daddy's bagel (one of the few that wasn't nibbled by the mice)



And I love this one of his and Patrick's feet



PJ's turn to try his hand at it with some of his favorite toys



and the deer head which both fascinated and appalled the two of them.



Finally, the rain stopped and the boys were excited to see some sun peek through the clouds

So I dressed the older boys and took them for a walk by the lake while Patrick and Thomas napped.

It was good to stretch our legs

but it was COLD - sweatshirts were not nearly enough - and we had to dodge a lot of puddles.

The lake was beautiful, though


Then, we hopped in the car and headed to the nearby town of Honesdale, which has a train and some shops and, we figured, dry places to walk and let the boys burn off some energy.

On the way, we passed a road with a familiar name.

The boys loved seeing the train, and sitting on a tractor parked on the sidewalk


That night, we made a fire in the fire pit and the boys got a kick out of cooking their own dinner for the first time as they roasted hot dogs on sticks over the fire. Then, of course, we had to have s'mores for dessert.




We were all in bed by 7 that night and even though I'd put all the food in the refrigerator, we could hear the mice all over the house that night. They ran back and forth along the rafters and I even saw a furry nose peek through a space between the wood planks of the ceiling while I was lying in bed. They chewed holes in everything that had ever touched food, including the baby's bottle nipples, the rubber tips of his spoons, and some of the bottles for Patrick's medicines. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night either, though the boys slept really well.

Maybe it was a bit city slickeresque of us to expect anything different, but more than a little grossed out by the mouse droppings that were everywhere - in the coffee pot, even - we decided to pack up early on Sunday and go out to breakfast on our way home.

Thankfully, the boys have become pretty good travelers, despite the fact that two relatively new potty trainers require lots of pit stops. And hey, they look cool too!

It was a beautiful drive home on Sunday with clear skies and gorgeous fall colors. The boys especially enjoyed seeing all these wind mills which dotted the landscape for a good part of the ride.

The trip might sound like a total loss, but it really wasn't. We got to spend a lot of time together, and Patrick and I talked a lot in the car during the drives, something that we don't get to do much of for extended periods of time these days. Plus, it really helped me to appreciate our home (and our beds) and our family, and want to make being together here special too.