Trick-Or-Treat Town

On Saturday, we took the boys to Trick-Or-Treat Town. We didn't go last year, but we did go the year before. We are not big on Halloween, however, both Nick and I have fond memories of the fun we had as kids for Halloween, and we want that for our kids. Trick-Or-Treat Town is a fun and safe place for the kids to be able to trick-or-treat without having to go out in the freezing and pitch black night. It is held in a big warehouse and there are about 50 booths sponsored by the companies around Anchorage. The kids travel through the warehouse collecting candy from each of the booths. Each kid is guaranteed at least fifty pieces of candy! That provides us with "good behavior" awards for a long time. The boys had a lot of fun dressing up. I was very proud of the way they both were well behaved. Even Nick said "ay oo" after getting candy. Yes, he is finally making an attempt at the phrase "thank you."


Ethan was dressed up as a horse. He is adorable, don't you think? He, too, was well behaved. In fact, he slept through the whole thing. Just as Nick did two years ago!

Joey was dressed as a knight and Nick as a scarecrow. You will have to excuse the scowl on Joey's face. He was upset that the helmet didn't fit as it was supposed to, and it frustrated him. After three or four pictures with the same expression, Nick felt there was no need to try to get a better picture. I must say, the Scarecrow is the cutest scarecrow I have ever seen!

After walking through the whole warehouse, we stopped for a snack. There were dancers from all the different dance classes in town. It was so cute to see some of the boys and girls Joey's age get up and perform.

This is a much happier knight. We took his helmet off because it kept falling off when he looked down in his pumpkin to see how much candy he was getting. You can tell that he had fun.
Look at all this candy they got! I tell you, we are having quite a time trying to make them understand that they don't get a piece of candy whenever they want. Every time they go in the kitchen and see their pumpkins on the fridge, they remember that they want a piece of candy.

I have such short bursts of opportunity to blog, and I have already taken more time than I should. The boys require a referee. Have a fantabulous week.

Big Boy

All three of our boys are growing so much. Joey is turning into this skinny little kid that you never thought would happen since he was such a chubby baby. When looking at pictures on the computer, even Joey will say, "There's Chubba Bubba." Now, his 3T size pants are starting to look like high-waters, but the waist still has to be cinched in. So we will have to get him the next size up for length, but cinch the waist in even more.

Friday was a day of appointments. First, I had a follow up appointment with the optometrist. He noticed at the first appt. that I had some retinal scarring on my left eye, but since I had to drive, we couldn't dilate my eyes for him to get a better look. So we set an appt just for that. I have never been told before that there was a scar on my retina, but the doctor took some pictures of my eye and I could see the damaged area. The doctor said that, at this point, it doesn't seem to be effecting my eyesight, but we want to keep watch over it so that it doesn't get worse. He said it would be really bad if it got fluid under it which would cause the retina to detach. The encyclopedia says this about the retina: "The retina is a thin layer of light-sensitive tissue on the back wall of the eye. The optical system of the eye focuses light on the retina much like light is focused on the film in a camera. The retina translates that focused image into neural impulses and sends them to the brain via the optic nerve. Occasionally, posterior vitreous detachment, injury or trauma to the eye or head may cause a small tear in the retina. The tear allows vitreous fluid to seep through it under the retina, and peel it away like a bubble in wallpaper."

I have the comparison pictures now for two months. This first picture is Bubba at two months, 7/5/04. He was already 16 pounds by this point. What a chunk.Nick was two months old on 10/12/06. He weighed 13 pounds and 10 ounces. Everybody thinks that Ethan looks like Nick. I think it is because they both have blue eyes. I think that Ethan is such a mix of the other two boys that it is hard to say who he looks more like.
Ethan had his two month check-up on Friday. Here are the stats: Ethan weighed in at 13 lbs 8.6 oz putting him in the 75th-90th percentile. His head circumference was 41 cm; 70th percentile. And this tall little dude is 25 inches, placing him in the 95th-97th percentile! He has grown 4 inches in two months. Ethan is two inches taller than Joey at two months and an inch and a half taller than Nick! He also weighs less tan both of them did.

Every week when we get home from church, Nick picks Ethan up and calls him "Pass-Around Pete." That's because he can smell all the different perfumes from the ladies who lay claim on Ethan.

Yesterday we took the kids to Trick-Or-Treat Town. I will post pictures of them dressed up a little bit later. I am feeding Ethan right now, and it is very difficult to type with just one hand.

Through The Night

I can't believe I haven't blogged the most amazing thing. For the last couple of weeks, Ethan has been sleeping extremely well at night. I would say that, at the very least, he gets a full night sleep for a baby. He usually sleeps at least six or seven hours straight. There are times he even sleeps nine or ten!

I usually lay him down around 11:30pm, sometimes earlier. Most days, he doesn't wake up until 7:00 or 7:30am. I think it has something to do with Nick having to touch him to make sure he is okay...which of course, wakes him up. Nick has been that way with all of the boys; but just a few weeks ago, one of the ladies he works with lost her four month old granddaughter to SIDS. It hit really close to home for Nick, so he has needed more reassurance that Ethan is okay when he is sleeping.

When Ethan wakes up, he is such a happy boy. He coos and smiles (after eating, of course) for quite awhile before needing to go back to sleep. This morning he got up at about twenty to seven, which is a little earlier than what has become normal, and after eating, spent the next hour making Mommy smile with his happiness. At about 8:00am, he decided he had had enough and was ready for a nap. He is still upstairs sleeping in his bed, giving me a rare chance to eat breakfast while the big boys are eating.

I hope everyone has a productive, peaceful week. God bless.

One Sixth Of A Year

Yes. I know; hard to believe, but true. Ethan is 1/6th of a year old already. Translated, that means he is two months old. Normally I would have comparison pictures, but I don't have them ready yet. In fact, I am missing almost all of Nick's first year. They are (hopefully) safely stored on our old computer, so we just need something (Nick knows what he needs) to be able to get the pictures off our old computer to put on our new computer. I think I will die if we can't manage to get the pictures. I have no other copies, and since we are far away from family, there are no other pictures of him for that year.
Here is my Ethan-man, a very cute two month old. Everybody at church is amazed at how big he is. There were two other babies born a couple weeks before Ethan, but he is by far the biggest of the three. It will be interesting to see how big he has grown when he goes in for his two month check up on Friday.
I love this outfit. He is so warm and snuggly. Lately he has been spending more time awake and has lots of smiles for Mommy and his big brothers. Joey and Nick still dote on him and are anxious to help out. Joey will say, "I haven't held Ethan for years and years. Can I hold him?"
Look at that spectacular smile!!! He was full of smiles at church today. We spent time in the nursery so he could be down on the floor wiggling around. I think he would do very well in the nursery, but I would miss him too much. I am still not sure if I am ready to leave him in the nursery.

Well, I have got kids to take care of, so I better go. I will try to find some more time later to blog some more. I just wanted to get Ethan's two month pictures up for you to enjoy. I sure didn't want you to think I was slacking!

Always Growing

I must admit that I find each of my kids the most beautiful kids in the world. Sometimes it is hard to believe that they are as big as they are.

Joey still makes his way into our bed sometime in the middle of the night. Since there is not enough room to comfortably fit us all, we put him down at the foot of the bed. It amazes me to notice that his feet reach all the way to our hips. He started sleeping in our bed when he was two, and I can still remember how small he was. He is showing good reasoning skills and is learning to put letter sounds together to make words. He is also starting to recognize rhyming words. He is looking forward to going to school next year, and excited to get a backpack. My heart starts panicking when I think about him going to school. I don't know if I can handle the separation. But he is such a social child; he's always talking about his "friends". The sad thing is, he doesn't really have any friends. He plays well with the kids at church, but he only sees them for the time that we are at church...its not like he has anybody to come over for play dates. So I suppose I will have to be strong when it comes time to taking him to school.

Nick seems to get cuter every day. He's the one that keeps me laughing. There are times that Nick and I have to turn our heads away to laugh when we want him to believe we're serious. He still is not talking like he should. He has a few more words that he says, and he is always willing to make an attempt if Joey asks him to say something. But he is usually very clear about what he wants, and if you ask him the right question, he will let you know if you are right or wrong. He loves to sit on the potty like a big boy, but he hasn't yet gone while sitting there. Soon we are going to spend a weekend of intense concentration on the potty training thing and see how it takes. I would love to see him potty trained by the end of the year.

Ethan is already almost two months old! I always forget how fast the time flies for the first year. There is always some sort of milestone that you are looking for during the first year that makes the time go so fast. He has a doctor's appointment scheduled for a week from Friday, so I will know then how much he has grown. We have just moved him to the next size up in clothing. Although the 3-6 month size is still a little big, the 0-3 month size was getting too small. He enjoys spending time on the floor, as long as he is on his back. He will coo and smile while kicking his little legs and waving his little arms. He doesn't stop moving while he is awake. But he has done an excellent job sleeping this last week. Since last Monday night, he has only gotten up one time! He will go down sometime between 10:30pm and 11:30pm and he hasn't gotten up before 4:45am all week. Last night was the best. He was asleep in my arms by 11:30pm, but I didn't get to lay him down until midnight. He did not get up until 6:40am! He's such a good boy.

I got my new glasses last Thursday. My old glasses were five years old....so the prescription was quite different. I am getting use to the new prescription, but for the first couple days it felt like I was walking through the ground because it looked like the ground level was up by my knees. I spent quite a bit of time high-stepping it because it looked like I needed to take a step up or I would trip. Of course, the mental image of what I must have looked like to other people kept me laughing at myself. Its times like those that I miss my mom and sisters. I know they would have been laughing at me, too.

Nick is very busy at work. He has been without a technician for almost a month, so he has had to do all the work in the warehouse as well as doing all the stops. He hasn't been home on time for awhile. He has to try to get his office work done as well, so he is stressed and overworked. He has hired somebody from the Olympia, Washington branch who is dumb enough to want to move to Alaska. But he won't be up here until November 10th. So he still has a month left of having to do all the work. In fact, he has to go to Homer on Wednesday, so he will be staying overnight in Kenai because the drive is too far for a single day. This will be my first night by myself since Ethan was born. Hopefully, he will continue to sleep as well as he has.

Nick and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Sunday. It is hard to imagine it has been six years! The time has gone so fast. But I suppose it would seem to go fast when we've had three kids in six years. We didn't really do much on Sunday for our anniversary, but if we can find a babysitter, we plan on going out to dinner, maybe even a movie. It depends on who we get to babysit and whether or not we bring Ethan. We will probably go to the Outback because we were given a $50 gift card by a lady at Nick's work as a "Thank You" for the baby clothes and Pack 'N Play we gave to her daughter who has very little.

The boys have finished their breakfast so it is time to get them dressed and ready for the day. I hope everyone has an enjoyable week.

And So It Begins

It started snowing today. At first, it was more rain than snow, but then it turned into huge wet snowflakes. The ground was pretty wet, so I wasn't anticipating it sticking at all. But it actually did stick to the roofs and trees. Nick informed me that it is supposed to get well below freezing tonight, so it will be slick driving tomorrow. As pretty as it is to watch, I can't get excited over the snow anymore. It is even difficult to pretend to be excited for the kids' sake. They, of course, still think snow is a wonderful thing.

Ethan is starting to enjoy his floor time. He will spend quite a bit of time by himself, just looking around, occasionally cooing. And if I have my hands full with something else (which NEVER happens) and he gets tired of being by himself, he will usually cry himself to sleep. He is such a good baby.

Dinner is almost ready, and then I still have so many things to accomplish before the end of the day....so I will say farewell for now. Hope everybody has a wonderful week.

Getting Colder

It is amazing how, in a land that doesn't ever really get warm, you can still tell the definite difference when it turns cold! The high temperatures are in the mid-forties now, so even if it reaches the high temp, I'm still freezing. Winter has seeped into my soul which wasn't too hard since the shadow of winter never left this year.
The snow has started its trek down the mountains, the cars have frost on them in the morning, and although the sun has been out for the last week, there is no warmth radiating from it. Winter is definitely on my door step.
The boys are doing well. Ethan is getting so big. He fills his clothes very well. He still sleeps a lot, but the time that he does stay awake is usually pretty calm. He is following in the footsteps of his brothers; demanding to be fed the second he deems himself to be hungry! You would think that he never ate by how much he fusses when it is time to feed him. He is starting to coo a little....which is always a nice change from fussing. He is also following his brothers at church; being adored and exclaimed over by one and all!
Nick is my "monkey see, monkey do" boy. Anything he sees Joey do, he does. He even copies Joey's reaction to whatever. If Joey jumps in surprise, so does Nick. If Joey whines over an unpleasant answer from Mommy, so does Nick. If Joey jumps and spins around the house, so does Nick. Nick is such a sweet and loving boy. There is nothing better than a hug from Nick when he pats you on the back. He is so quick to give kisses if he thinks you need one for any reason. But on the other side of that is the ability to throw huge tantrums at the drop of a hat.
Joey continues to be my creative one. One thing he likes to do is pretend he is a waiter. He carries around a pen and pad of paper and will ask me what I want for lunch. He has a habit of changing my order for me. For example, when asked what I wanted for dessert, I told him I wanted Apple Crisp with extra carmel. He says, "How about some ice cream with carmel frosting." When he brings me the ice cream he asks if I want a candle. I said, "No thank you." He said, "I'll just give you a candle and you can blow it out." After taking my order, he brings the paper to the "chefs" in the kitchen, which are usually his grandpas.
You can see how big Ethan is getting, and how fully he is filling out his clothes! He likes the swing, which helps me out so that I can take care of the other kids.
Although we have no yard, when the leaves are covering the ground, we can almost pretend that there is a yard. The other day, although it was very cold in my opinion, I took the boys out to play in the leaves. They had a blast! They would make little piles and jump in them, or throw the leaves up in the air. After I finished feeding Ethan, I got the broom out and swept the leaves in a really big pile for them to jump around it. Here are some pictures to show how much fun they had.

Choir practice started last night. Unfortunately, I didn't make it. Nick didn't get home from work until about 9pm. Of course, he has to have a busy day on the day that I have something I want to do. Just my luck.

Well, the boys still haven't gotten their clothes on, so I better facilitate the completion of getting dressed. Hope all of you have a fantastic weekend.