It's Hard To Imagine

It's hard to imagine that when we started counting down until Grandma Mary and Grandpa Chuck came to visit, our countdown chain was THIS long! Four different colors for the four weeks we were counting down. Now, there is only one link left. Technically, we pick them up tonight, but technically, not until after midnight....so I decided to make the last link be for Saturday. We will put the boys to bed tonight, and then wake them up to head to the airport. On the way out the door, we will remove the last green link. The boys love midnight sojourns to the airport. We are very excited and have way too much to accomplish to in the last few hours!

Since the sun has been shinning for the last few days, I have been dressing the boys in shorts, even though it still is far too chilly (in my opinion) for shorts. But the truth of the matter is...Bug has so many adorable shorts outfits that will fit him now and not later that I have to dress him in as many as possible before he is too big! Silly me!
But even you can't say that he isn't just the cutest thing you've ever seen! In this picture, it actually looks as if he is feeding his waffle to the alligator on his shirt.

Two Years Ago

Two years ago, Nick left this weekend to drive up to Alaska. Trying to say good-bye to him at 4:30am, knowing that I wouldn't see him for three months, was very difficult. Watching him pull out of the drive was so hard. It didn't help that I was six months pregnant.

Two years later, here I am, six months pregnant again! This time, Nick doesn't have any plans to be leaving me for three months, so that's nice. Can you believe that it has been two years that we have been gone, living in Alaska? When I look at how much the kids have grown, it seems that time has gone pretty quickly. But when I think about the fact that I have been in Alaska and haven't seen my family for so long....well, it seems as if a near eternity has passed. It was Nick's commitment to me that we would be in Alaska for two years (that way I wouldn't keep trying to move sooner) unless, of course, an opportunity came by that couldn't be passed up. Well, there have been several opportunities, and all of them fell through. So...now that he has fulfilled his two year commitment, I pray that the next opportunity will be the one that allows us to get out of Alaska and back to a place where I can be closer to family. Even if I am not 'home' (as Oregon will always be home), if I can at least be close enough to drive home every few months or so, I will feel so much closer and less trapped.

Here is a picture showing Bug's independent sense of style. I will admit that the mismatched pants and shirt are Nick's fault.....actually, Bug was wearing an outfit, and then ate yogurt. The top did not survive. When I asked Nick to get a new shirt, he didn't think it important enough to try to match what Bug was already wearing. No big deal. The Bug came around and found his basketball shirt in a pile of dirty clothes and started practising putting his shirt on by himself. So if you take anything from seeing this picture, take a sense of pride and wonder that Bug is figuring out how to dress himself! (I mean in the motor skills area, not style.)

Hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day.

Field Trip

Nick took a week off from work last week, just to spend some time with us. Since I had the extra help with the kids, we took the three boys to the Wildlife Conservation Center near Girdwood. It was a pretty dismal day, so we just stayed in the car and looked through the windows at the animals that were out. I know I have put pictures on before, but there are a couple pictures that I didn't get before that I wanted to show.
The brown bears were mostly hiding in their cabin, but this one braved the weather enough for a photo op. I have never been so close to a bear and I found it really amazing. We did actually get out of the car to look at the bears, but the wind and rain was so cold that we quickly got back in. I say "quickly" with some humor, as there is nothing quick about trying to get three boys buckled into car seats.
Here is a group of elk relaxing around the trees.
This is my favorite picture. Here are the prairie bison...with a couple bison babies! Aren't they adorable?
And then, as we were on our way out, the caribou were laying around in the grass.

It was nice to get the boys out of the house, even if we did spend the time in the car, it was a nice change of scenery.

Finally, A Minute To Myself

My poor sweet Baby Nick hasn't been feeling good since Thursday. He is normally not a cuddly boy, but I have not been able to get him off my lap since last week. He has been fussy and not sleeping. He was running a fever on Friday and seemed to tug on his ears occasionally. So we thought his ears might be bothering him.

We took him to the doctor and were relieved to find that, although he had fluid in his ears, he did not have an infection. We were told to keep an eye on him and if he wasn't feeling any better in the next couple days, and continued to run a fever, to give the doctor a call back. All weekend he would bounce back and forth between acting normal and acting like he was feeling miserable. The worst was when it was time to lay him down in bed. He would not sleep, at least for long. I spent most of the night either rocking him, allowing him to sleep sitting up, or getting up and down every time he cried trying to get him to go back to sleep.

Finally we took him back to the doctor last night. Nick does have an ear infection and the ear drum has already burst. No wonder he feels so awful. I had several ear infections when I was growing up and have ruptured my ear drums more than once. So I know how miserable it is. Now, he is on antibiotics and should be feeling better soon. He slept better last night, only getting up and needing to rock once. He actually smiled at me when I got him up this morning.

I thought I had a minute to write up this post without needing to be sat on, but that only lasted until Nick was done eating breakfast. Now he is back on my lap (my ever shrinking lap) I will be lucky to get it back all day!

Have a great day.

Four Years Flies

I can't believe how quickly four years can fly by! Joey had his fourth birthday last Monday, the fifth of May. The day he was born is still so clear in my mind, and all those feelings I had while I first held him. I didn't know that someone you held for the very first time could invade my heart so completely and become so precious in an instant. It's good for me to remember how I felt that day, especially when his attitude of late doesn't make that feeling seem so logical.
Joey wanted an "Incredibles" cake this year. I love it when they want lots of red icing....it's the color that stains the most (along with green.) We decided to get a banana flavored cake, thinking it would taste good with the Bavarian cream filling. After licking the icing off the bottom of toy I discovered that it was not just banana, but banana nut! It was disgusting. The others liked it which was fine, but I was disappointed. My biggest complaint was that there was no disclosure that there were going to be nuts in it. If any of us had an allergy to nuts it could have been very bad. We are fortunate not to have any allergies.
This picture cracks me up. Nick has a hard time holding still for pictures. He wants to get up close and personal. He really just wants to see himself in the camera. What he doesn't understand is that we have to be able to take a picture first. This picture makes him look like he is pouting because Joey gets presents and he doesn't....but he really isn't pouting. It's just what happened to be on his face when the picture was taken.
Joey had a great birthday. It always makes me sad that they have to "party" with just the four of us, but they don't seem to mind so much.

One of his favorite gifts was the Buzz Lightyear helmet and pads set so he could start riding his big boy bike. He wore those things around the house the rest of the day. For several days after, he wore his helmet as long as I would allow. He's such a goofy boy.

The countdown is on! We made a four-week paper chain to countdown the days until Grandma Mary and Grandpa Chuck come to visit. I made it with four different colors (one for each week) so that the amount of links wouldn't overwhelm Joey and he could get a sense of how long it takes for a week to go by. We are nearly through half of our second color.

I am looking forward to this afternoon. The Women's Clinic I go to for my prenatal appointments gives you three free 1/2 hour sessions with a prenatal massage therapist. Since I have a hard time scheduling my appointments (because I have to try to accommodate Nick's schedule so he can stay with the boys for me) I haven't had any massages yet. But since Nick is taking the week off, I scheduled an hour long massage for today! That will take up two of my sessions, but it will be so worth it.

Rock Concert Loud

The boys had me laughing so hard the other day. They were singing at the tops of their lungs. Now, Joey can sing an actual song with actual words...even if he makes it up. Nick will just open his mouth and let sound come out. You have got to hear it! But what is even more funny is what Nick looks like when he sings. He takes his singing VERY seriously. The following pictures show just how serious; he has his mouth open as wide as he can, a look of total concentration on his face (almost looks like a scowl) and is making noise as loud as his body will allow.



Joey likes to sing with a microphone. Since we don't have one, he uses the broom handle from Nick's toy broom...removing it from the base. When they are singing, the decibel level in the house rises too far for my aging ears to handle.

I will post more later....we did have a birthday while we were computer-less. But for now, I need to rock with Joey and read to him before bed.

Growing Boys

The boys grow a lot in a month. Okay, maybe not so much, but they seem to. Sometimes I look at Nick and am breathless with how cute he is. Joey is cute also, but the cuteness is changing from the little boy cute I am so used to, to a more "big kid" cute.

Nick (I am trying to get out of the habit of calling him "Baby Nick" as he is not so much a baby anymore) is branching out in more words, finally starting to talk. He doesn't say much, but there are a few words that I can at least tell what he is trying to say. He is so funny about it though; if Nick (my husband) or I try to get him to say something, he usually smiles a bit shyly at us and won't say anything. But if Joey asks him to say something, he will at least make an attempt.
Here are a few recent pictures. Nick had his first Dilly Bar and as you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed it. He is in the habit of styling his hair with whatever kind of food he is eating. I have given up trying to keep his hair clean. As long as I can get the majority out of his hair with a washcloth, I won't dunk him in the tub every time. I just don't have time to give him a bath after breakfast, lunch and dinner every day!
Joey also enjoyed his Dilly Bar, although he was a bit more careful with his. I think it is funny that he wanted another tattoo....this time, we put it on his shoulder so it would stay covered with his shirt. He looks like a big soft "tough" guy in this picture with his shirt off!
We took them outside to play for a few minutes on a day where the sun was partially revealed through the clouds. As you can see, the snow was still melting, creating these large puddles of ice cold temptation. I love seeing Nick's pants wet up to his thighs and the look of enjoyment on his face. His shoes were soaking through, and when we came inside, he was stripped down to his diaper and shirt.
Joey wanted to cut down the trees around our place. So he brought out is chainsaw and started hacking away. He was a little frustrated when it didn't actually cut the tree off. He took to hitting the limbs with his saw to make them come off. He had a blast.
Nick has finally learned the art of showing off his muscles. I love the expressions on his face. He is so animated in his face. Here he is showing how strong he is. He actually is quite tensed up to show his muscles, and his face is just short of turning red. But he sure looks like he is having fun.

New Computer

I don't have time right now, but I just wanted to let everyone know we finally got a new computer today. It has been nearly a month since our laptop broke on us and I have been dying to get online and stay current in my reading.

So....I have not intentionally been ingnoring my blog. I am back and should have more to say later. My husband is begging for a chance to get back on the computer to get his game installed, so I should let him get to it.