Baking with the Boys

Silas was here for a while today and requested to bake the cookies he and Jack refused to help me with the last time he was here. So why not. They had a blast and I had a good exercise in controlling my anal tendencies. I had to retrieve egg shells, repeatedly tell them not to spit or cough on the cookie dough, remind them to keep the flour in the bowl and scoop up flour off the counter and chairs numerous times. Jack was constantly asking for a lick and I caught him tongue out, diving into the bowl a few times (he was stopped prior to actually licking). In keeping with Vest family tradition, once the dough was done and scooped onto the trays I offered the boys a lick of dough. Jack kept asking for more and Silas wouldn't even try it. Of course once the cookies were done Silas devoured his and asked for more while Jack took two nibbles and said it was good but let me finish his cookie. Funny boys.

Stir it.

Mix it.

Scoop it.

Bake it.

Eat it.

Zoo Fun

We finally made it to the Peoria Zoo. I mentioned to Brittany that I wanted to go and just like that we made plans for this week! It turned out to be a gorgeous day for it. Silas and Jack had so much fun together and from the moment we got there until they end they were running around acting like little monkeys. Their personalities couldn't be more different, but they get along great and have a lot of fun together. We covered the entire zoo and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade. All the babies did great though I'm not certain how many animals any of them actual saw. I still maintain that while camouflage is great in the wild it makes animal viewing very difficult for little ones. :-) Perhaps all zoo animals should have a bright dot painted on them. Our fun time was capped off with my van being dead thanks to a certain 3 year old leaving something on when he was pretend driving while I sun screened babies. Thankfully, Brittany just had a refresher course in van jumping last week thanks to a certain 2 year old who left a light on in their van. She had the jumper cables in her front seat still and between her, her mother-in-law and myself we got my van running lickety split while the park police officer sat in his car and watched us. So the zoo was great and I loved that we could go in the morning, see everything and be home in time for afternoon naps. Sometimes smaller is better.

The tiger was up and roaming while we were there and walked right by us a few times. It was very cool for the kids to see him so close.

Giving me their biggest roars.

Our crew.

Monday Pictures-Week 49

Creeping ever closer to 52 weeks. Today as I tried to snap pictures of the boys I thought to myself how I only have to do this a few more times. I'm sorta glad. Of course I'll still take their pictures but the pressure of doing it every Monday is getting to me. I have high expectations of myself and am so glad to have done this every Monday for a year, but they are getting more and more difficult to photograph, especially together. I suppose a harder task is coming though and that is creating a Shutterfly book for each of them with all of their Monday pictures. Jack has one of his Friday pictures and as difficult as it will be to do two more, it will get done, eventually. I might have to cut myself some slack though and not do theirs so much from scratch like I did Jack's. This week has been like many, fairly normal. We did get to visit Amanda and the kids which was fun. The boys stayed awake in the car both ways thanks to the crazy antics of big brother Jack. It's hard to sleep when someone is being so loud right next to you and laughing at you and throwing blankets on you. But they did fine regardless and I do love hearing them all laughing together. It's a sweet sound that I hope I hear for many years.

Thanks to Mike K. for getting this great picture of Schaeffer. Finally, his happy face has been captured to my liking. 

Rocks make an excellent afternoon snack.

Wish this wasn't so out of focus because they both look so darn cute here.

Me, A Runner?

Call me crazy but I'm starting a running program. I've always been very anti-running. I'm not fast. I've never found it enjoyable. I've always found it painful. I chose sports that didn't require a lot of running. I've always claimed that it's horrible for your joints (and I still think it is). But despite my better judgement I've started a running program. The bottom line is, I need to lose weight and get in better shape. Three kids took their toll on my already not slim body and now the scale reads numbers that make me cringe. The thing is, I don't have hours to work out every day. The gym costs money that I'd rather go towards college funds and house projects. And the gym requires loading and unloading three small children and then most likely getting called from working out to deal with a child having separation anxiety. So for now, the gym is not calling my name. Perhaps one day it will again. I considered doing a video at home. I even bought it and did the first 1.5 workouts. Problem is that workout plan required 6 days a week with a minimum of 45 minutes a day. That is a big time commitment for me right now. Plus it turns out I am not currently strong enough to make it through the first week of workouts. So that is on the back burner. I'm still very interested, but the time commitment is unrealistic and I need to be in better shape to even consider doing it full time. I might try to mix in a few of the workouts with my running though. We'll see. Then I heard about this popular running program called Couch to 5K. It sorta seems like all the rage to me right now, but whatever. Goers is doing it and liking it so far and she along with other runners I know have inspired me. I keep seeing other people running races and completing triathlons and I think it would be so great to have the ability to do those things. So I'm inspired. Plus the C25K requires only 30 minutes, 3 times a week. That time commitment sounds so much more doable to me. The other great things is I'm doing it with people and accountability is always a good thing. So who knows, maybe by the end of the summer I'll be able to run a 5K. I think that's a fairly high expectation so my real goals are this: 1) complete the program 2) run in the Pumpkin Festival 2 mile run in September. Check back with me to see how this non-runner is doing with her running program.

Cars 2

I'm writing this down in hopes that I'll better remember the lessons we learned today. We took Jack to the movie theater for the first time today. It was supposed to be a big deal. A mommy, daddy, Jack date and a super fun new experience for Jack. But I'm not sure that was the end result. I booked my mom to keep the twins and we planned on a matinee so as to not mess up naps or spend a complete fortune. We double checked the time online and headed to a nice theater with good popcorn. As expected there were lots of families with kids, but we got there plenty early in case the theater happened to be full and also to give us plenty of time to use the restroom and purchase popcorn. I scanned the board with movie times and saw no 10:45 listing for Cars 2. I was like, "uh, Paul. I thought you said the movie was at 10:45". No other movie times were in the very near future. But we realized from the people in front of us, from further scanning of the board and from talking to the cashier that Cars 2 in 3D was at 10:45. Irritatingly they did not have it listed correctly online. Since we had made all the arrangements and made the drive we decided to stay and watch it in 3D. This is where we made our biggest mistake. We should have gone home. I'm not a fan of 3D movies in the first place and it turns out Jack isn't either. He didn't like the glasses, though he tried. He didn't like the fuzziness without the glasses. He asked if we could go home about half way through. I'm pretty sure his head and eyes hurt (mine did!). Poor kid. We made him stay the whole movie. We probably should have just gone home. He also made approximately 10 trips to the bathroom claiming he had to poop, but never actually pooping. Some of his trips were only minutes apart. I think he liked the ramp to get there, the door he got to open and the break it gave his eyes from watching the big fuzzy movie. We also learned that we should not have come early to a movie. Had we arrived at 10:45 we might have finished all our premovie activities and still been able to view multiple previews. It was ridiculous, there were previews before they dimmed the lights and then after the lights were dimmed there was another 30 minutes of previews, many of which were not appropriate for my 3 year old! Our movie did not start until 11:15 and Jack sat pretty well through those first 30 minutes. Perhaps had we arrived late he would have sat better through the actual movie. So next time we will not watch 3D even if it means going home, we will not go to a movie on opening weekend and that way we will not feel like we have to get there early. We will however, get just as much popcorn. That, of course, was a major hit and was consumed in mass quantities.

Splash Baby, Splash

I think it's safe to say I've finally learned my lesson. Pee cannot be left in the little potty unattended. It is time for Jack to learn how to dump his pee into the big potty when he is done, without dumping it all over the floor, which I just know is going to happen. I've known for a while about Logan's love of the bathroom. But typically he didn't venture in unless someone else was in there. Today that all changed as both Logan and Schaeffer went exploring and came upon this incredible find of a frog potty filled with pee. Splashing ensued. As did pushing and crawling and before I knew it they had pushed the potty into the kitchen, splashing all the way. Jack was the first to notice (bad mommy award?) and started yelling that they had his potty. He was more upset that they were touching something he considered his than the fact they were playing in pee. I set down my laundry and was disgusted but immediately jumped to action to get rid of the pee, sanitize all hands, strip down all clothes and generally clean up the mess.  While I hope to never find my children playing in pee again, I did find the situation to be a bit amusing and I imagine with 3 boys we will have many more pee incidents of varying disgustingness. Good times in the Friend household.

Catching Up and Hanging Out

I unloaded all the pictures off of my camera yesterday and realized I had many things to blog about and needed to catch up. I'd rather not cram all of this into one post, but tonight it's the best I can do.

Last Wednesday we had a wonderful day playing with our friends the Lewis'. Lisa was a good friend of mine when we lived in Palatine. Interestingly enough she lived in Paul's neighborhood for a few years when she was little. Small world. So she and her girls drove down for some playtime and some catch up time. I had so much fun getting some time to talk and reconnect with Lisa and the kids of course has fun playing. It was a short trip, but a big blessing.

He did not climb up here. But when I was standing at the fence talking to our neighbor he grabbed on with a fierce grip and hung there until I pried him off. 

And here's Logan being all brave and crawling in the grass. 

I love this picture. Logan was so sweet on Saturday morning. I let him play with the remote and he thanked me with extended cuddles and smiles.

The boys and neighbor/best friend Haley hanging out last night. We love when Haley comes to play. I get adult interaction, I get an extra set of hands (all from Trisha) and Jack gets a wonderful playmate. 

Jack's Iron Man face. He requested that I take his picture yesterday while I was taking the brothers' pictures. So we did a series of funny faces. Paul and I think his Iron Man is hysterical, this picture doesn't do it justice. 

Kyle, Jack and Haley painting pictures for father's day gifts. They did a great job although I found it very difficult to not tell Jack what colors to choose to coordinate well together or where to put his paint so it didn't just all turn brown. I don't usually think I have control issues until I sit down to do arts and crafts with toddlers.

Pee Wee Fun

Pee Wee season is here and Jack is enjoying playing t-ball and soccer. Every Monday and Wednesday we leave the house around 8:15 and go to practice. I thought it would be hard to get out of the house that early, but so far it hasn't been too bad. Perhaps it is my excitement that gets us going bright and early. I'm having so much fun seeing Jack try new things and learn new things and interact with other kids and his coach. The few things I've observed so far is 

• Jack is small. Yes, we knew that, but seeing him standing next to all these bigger 3 year olds puts it in perspective for me. 
• He does not seem to be competitive.
• He might be the kid who doesn't pay much attention. On Monday he was supposed to be fielding but while other kids took their turns he was "falling" on the ground trying to be funny.
• He isn't super skilled. Granted he's three but some kids appear to have natural talent. Jack isn't awful, just not great. He could care less about learning the proper way to do something as long as the end result satisfies him.
• He is enthusiastic. 
• Perhaps one of the great things though is that he doing this. He isn't scared or afraid to run out to his coach each morning and meet the other kids and try new things. He also is somewhat listening to his coach though is attention span is far from superb.

We talk a lot about t-ball and soccer in our house right now. We talk a lot about his coaches name-Coach Joe, and his team name-the Green Gators. We talk about what order to run the bases in and how fun it is to wear shin guards. I'm loving this experience for him (and me) and look forward to see how much he learns in these few weeks.

Monday Pictures-Week 48

Eleven months! That's how old these two are now. One month until their birthday. I can't believe how quickly it will be here. Schaeffer and Logan seem to be growing up a lot recently. They are starting to pick up on more and more things and although not saying real words they jabber quite a bit. Occasionally it seems as though they are even repeating me. They clap all the time, especially if someone says good job or yay. They play so big and like to make funny sounds like clucking their tongue with the roof of their mouths. I've been trying to teach Schaeffer how to give kisses and every once in a while he seems to know what I mean when I ask for a kiss. Stairs of course are still Logan's best friend and he's started climbing on anything he can find. They eat a ton but we learned this weekend that they do have limits even if they don't realize it. Saturday night we let them eat too much and we paid for it. Schaeffer puked up his entire meal minutes after getting out of his high chair and Logan blew out two diapers the next morning. One of which the church nursery had to deal with and one which my mom and I cleaned up. The second one was probably my second most disgusting poop experience ever. The first being when Jack exploded all over me at the doctors office when he was not very old. Sunday on our way home from church Jack asked what "that" was on Logan's hand. We couldn't figure out what "that" meant so I craned my neck back to see what he was talking about. Logan was covered in poop. His hands, his pacifier, his face, his legs, his car seat, his toys. It was disgusting. When we got to my parents I took him straight to the bathtub where we scrubbed and scrubbed to clean everything up and get rid of the awful smell. So gross!

They are always taking toys away from each other. I love the look on Schaeffer's face here.

Playing so big with daddy and Jack. Jack loves to play so big with the brothers. Jack's version is a very quick back and forth between so big and so small which usually turns into so high and so low.

Monday Pictures-Week 47

I'm so thankful to have my happy boys back. Those colds they had were nasty and left us all tired and cranky and nearly insane (at least me). This week we've kept quite busy with the pool and the farm park and lots of shopping. I've started planning for their birthday party so they've had a lot of car seat/stroller time as I've been running around gathering supplies. A few things stand out to me about this past week. Though these things aren't necessarily new. Logan eats a ton! We've really noticed this in the past week or so. He just crams as much food in his mouth as possible and has both hands full of food while he sits there and chews. Often when we take him out of his highchair he brings two fistfuls of food with him. It's hard to know when the kid is done because he almost always just keeps eating as long as there is food on his tray. Schaeffer is a bit more picky and not quite so big into shoving his mouth full. He takes his time a bit more but also eats a lot of food! Another thing that has been big for them this week is stairs. They have hit that stage where they can't get enough climbing the stairs. It's a bit tricky keeping an eye on the both, especially when one wants to go up and one wants to go down. Logan pretty much as both directions figured out. Schaeffer does to, but he's not as sure about the down part yet.

Farm Park

Yesterday I made a last minute decision to take the kids to the local farm park. It was around 94 degrees out but for some reason I thought it was a good idea. I think I had just enjoyed our time out the day before so much I wanted to get out of the house and have some more fun. Well, it was blazing hot and we all were red cheeked and sweaty within minutes of exiting the van, but we had a good time. Jack was super excited to see a cow for some reason. So excited that he dumped his entire cone of animal feed in the cow's pen even though the cow wanted nothing to do with us. So much for actually feeding animals. Oh well. We did manage to give our cone to a horse who was very appreciative. Jack said his favorite animals were the cow and the pig. He loved telling me what all the animals said and reminding me that he did not oink or moo or cockadoodledoo, rather he talks. The babies seemed to enjoy themselves as well. They rode in their wagon and played with their toys and I'm sure viewed an animal or two. They had no complaints and even sat patiently while Jack and I enjoyed some ice cream under a shade tree.

The barn slide which Jack enjoyed several times.

Milking a pretend cow.

Sweaty but happy.

Checking out the big turkeys.

First Pool Visit of the Summer

Yesterday was hot. Which made our plans to go to the pool that much more appealing. I had decided to take the kids to Toddler Time with Brittany and her kids. She arranged three helpers to go with us to help with the six kids. The pool was crazy busy but it didn't phase Jack in the least. As soon as we were in he was splashing and exploring and sliding. He had so much fun. If you ask him what he did at the pool he'll tell you he got in the water and got wet. Pretty accurate description I suppose, just minus a few actual details. I figured Jack would probably enjoy it and be fairly independent. I wasn't sure how the babies would do. Logan held tight to me like a monkey at first. Thankfully, Schaeffer was ok sitting with one of the girls we brought along. After a while of just sitting and taking it all in, both babies got a little adventurous and began crawling around and splashing. Logan even clapped for the first time. They were smiley and happy pretty much the whole time we were there. I wasn't sure what to expect for our first trip to the pool but this definitely exceeded my expectations. I know it would have been much different had we not had extra hands to help when kids needed it, keep an eye on Jack and change diapers and clothes when it was time to go. It was pretty much a stress free adventure which doesn't happen often. So I guess I just need to get over my ridiculous fears of finding helpers for the summer and just do it. If you're wondering what fears I have, I'm not really sure. Just nervous about calling up someone I don't really know and asking them to help me out. I don't really enjoy initiating meeting new people, I don't know what to talk about with a jr. high or high schooler. What if they don't like me? What if it's really awkward? Like I said, ridiculous. I would think an 14 year old would be more nervous to talk to a 28 year old rather than the other way around.

Monday Pictures-Week 46

Last week the boys were still recovering from the nasty cold that hit everyone in our family, except me. As the week wore on the crankiness, clinginess and crying began to subside. Thank the Lord for that. Logan started giving high fives and sort of does "so big". Schaeffer is clapping all the time. On Sunday we built a playhouse out of the giant cardboard boxes that our new couches came in. All the boys have had a blast crawling around and looking through the windows. 

Puff stuck to his head. "You lookin' at me?"

The best picture I could get of the boys "together". Getting them looking at the same time is getting harder and harder.

Surprise, Surprise!

Know what that says? December Baby. This is one of many tags made to adorn yummy cinnamon rolls to announce the coming of a new Friend baby! Surprised? Me too!! God truly is in control. He can make things happen that we didn't think were possible. All we have to do is trust him and his plans for our life. Isn't that so much easier said than done?

Did I have you going at all?

Let's be very clear about this, Paul and I are NOT expecting another baby. But Kevin and Nicole ARE!!!!! I was shocked and extremely excited when Nicole first told me over six weeks ago. While this pregnancy was completely unexpected it is also extremely exciting and a true gift from God. We look forward to welcoming our 6th niece (fingers crossed) or nephew this December!

Congratulations Kevin and Nicole!

 Congratulations Kyle! You're world is about to be rocked.

If you'd like to share your excitement with Kevin and Nicole please leave them a message on facebook.