Good Bye Dear Friend

The time has come to say good bye to a dear old friend of ours. We are getting a new sectional for the basement to replace our old, tired, battered, well loved relic from the past. It's silly to care so much about a piece of furniture. But this couch has been in my life since, well, the beginning. It was either purchased in 1980 or 1983, regardless that makes it around 30 years old. It lived in the basement of the house I was born in (not literally). It lived in the living room of the house I grew up in. Half of it lived in my college apartment and half of it lived in Paul's college apartment. It then found a home in our first apartment as a married couple and then in our first town home. It was there when we brought Jack home from the hospital and then again when we brought the twins home. Once we bought our house in Morton it had a short life on our main floor before we decided to place it in the basement. I remember as kids when my grandparents would visit, we would rearrange the pieces to make a bed for them to sleep on. It's just one of the comfiest couches. My dad still would take his naps on it if he could. As a teenager when I couldn't sleep I would go to the living room and tuck my arms and legs into the crevices of this couch where I would soon drift off. No idea why that worked better than my bed. I also remember laying tiny Jack in creases of the cushions as a baby. The couch would cradle him and my arms would finally get a free moment. Then there was the time that Paul sat down and got a needle in his butt. I suppose after all those years the couch needed a little retaliation. As kids we jumped and flipped and did handstands on this couch and as you scroll down you'll see that my kids do the same. Never have I met a bouncier couch. So it's silly to be so attached to a piece of furniture, but it's really all the memories it holds. After 30 years the couch it tired and worn out. At least one corner sags quite low when you sit on it. Every couch has rips on one if not both sides. The fabric is so thin it will hardly hold a stitch, though not for lack of trying. A side piece has recently begun to lose large quantities of stuffing. It's in a sad state. But it has not lots its bounce!

Mommy Vacation

We got home from our Florida vacation and I spent the week laying around feeling tired and out of sorts. Why does vacation do that to us? Vacation with kids is not so relaxing or energizing even if it is fun and memorable. So I was super excited that less than a week after getting home from Florida I was back on the road this time with my mom and sisters and no kids for a weekend getaway. A while back Amanda and I were shopping at the Washington Square and having a marvelous time when I thought hey, we should shop together more often. I suggested that the four of us take an annual trip to celebrate our birthdays and do a little shopping. Instead of buying gifts for each other on our birthdays we would go on this trip with the intention of buying something and having a good time. You know, since we were spending so much money on each other anyway. Ok, not really. We rarely do stuff for our birthdays, we are so lame and I am the worst. Everyone seemed to like the idea and we quickly planned a trip to Galena, IL for their annual giant craft fair. It turned out to be an extremely cold weekend to spend outside, but Galena was still beautiful and we had a great time wondering the booths and downtown shops and spending each others money. We had such a great time I think we are all looking forward to whatever we plan for next year. We went out for dinner, we watched movies, we shopped, we talked and we laughed a lot. It was just what I needed.

One of my major purchases. Hopefully, it won't be years before you see this hanging in my living room filled with pictures of my boys.

The Thing I'm Most Scared Of

Disclaimer: Some may find these pictures to be inappropriate. I find them to be funny. And nothing is showing that shouldn't be.

I've been tossing around the idea of potty training the twins now for a while. I know they are on the young side and many will and have said that I should wait until they are at least 3. But right or wrong, I'd love for them to be able to go to preschool next year and you have to be potty trained for that. If I wait until they are three then we will only have a month or so to potty train and that just doesn't seem like enough. So I thought maybe we could start now. I was ready to go gung ho after this potty training thing and then the week I said I would start drew near and I freaked out. Potty training scares me. I have no idea what I'm doing and the boys have no idea what they are doing and it's a mess everywhere and it's hard. I hate it. So then I rethought my plan. I decided to still introduce potty training to the boys I just wouldn't be so gung ho about it. We'll start slow and see what their response is. So I bought some (a lot) of undies and washed and dried them on my hottest settings four or five times. I think they are shrunk as much as I can get them. We got out the potties and we've been talking and sitting and having fun with it. Jack has taken on the roll of teacher and invites his brothers to watch him pee and poop whenever he remembers. When the boys aren't sitting on potty's they are in diapers. I'm just not ready for pee and poop everywhere. We've had no successes so far and one #1 & #2 accident that I was unaware of until an hour later. But they are enjoying it and I really think they kinda, sorta get it, not really. I think for a while we'll just stay on this take it easy course and try to eventually have a success so they can see what that's all about. Eventually, I'm sure we'll have to go gung ho but I'm praying that at least one of my children will be a very quick learner. 

Yay! New undies!!! They were so excited.

Trying them on right away. By the end of this day they each had on over 6 pairs of underwear over their diapers. That will really bulk a kid up.

First day sitting on potties. Jack of course had to be included.

I find this so funny.

Jack talking through how you poop in the potty and the twins taking an observational roll.

Logan wanted Mickey to practice too. It took a few tries but he finally got Mickey's tiny bottom to sit on a potty.

Family Vacation

A few weeks ago we took a family vacation to Florida. This was no ordinary family vacation but a much anticipated, extended family trip that we had been planning and talking about for over a year. We had a group of 11. Our group included the five of us plus Paul's brother's family and Paul's parents. A total of 6 adults and 5 children, ages 4 and under. In an effort to maintain sanity and friendliness we started out with a few rules. Rule # 1 we were not traveling together. Each family had to get to Florida and get home from Florida by themselves. Rule # 2 each family would have separate hotel rooms, we were not cramming us all together in a hotel room for a week. We ended up keeping rule number one which I think worked out well and we ended up breaking rule number two which I think also worked out well. Thanks to some fancy maneuvering of the system I was able to get us four nights in the presidential suite at The Fountains, a resort included in our timeshare. (Yes, we have a timeshare. It's a long silly story that we never knew how to tell you about. I figure by now maybe you've figured it out anyway.) The presidential suite was a three bedroom, three bath suite with and indoor and outdoor kitchen, a dining area and two living rooms. It was bigger than our town home in Palatine and possibly bigger than Janet and Gregg's house in Morton. It was huge and amazing and allowed us all our own space with plenty of room for the kids to play. Despite the hugeness we ended up sharing a room with our kids so we didn't have to put them in the room leading to our beautiful patio and thus making it useless in the evenings when we would be most apt to enjoy it. It was an experience that I'm glad we've had now. The kids thought it was fun and of course took forever to fall asleep each night, but they did eventually fall asleep and it ended up being totally fine.

The view from our suite.

Our vacation wasn't planned intentionally as a Disney vacation but once you get to Orlando you feel like you must go visit the life size mouse and his gang. We spent one day at Universal's Islands of Adventure, one day relaxing at our hotel and one day at Magic Kingdom. Overall we had a great time with only a few major issues. Like Jack's insane meltdown at the entrance to Islands of Adventure or the five minutes of panic when we legitimately had no idea where Schaeffer was. That was terrifying, but the Lord answered our panicked prayers quickly and I found him before too long walking with a park person. I think the ordeal still gives Paul nightmares though. Magic Kingdom wasn't my first choice of places to go with so many small children but we ended up having a great time. We had been telling the boys we were going to meet Mickey and see where he lives and really talking it up so they would be excited. Of course when we actually met Mickey and Minnie everyone got scared and clung to Paul and I. Still they now think it was fun.

After a few days in Orlando we drove across the state to Panama City Beach for two nights. We had found a beach house big enough for all of us (see, we shared the whole time). It had five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The best part wasn't the house, but it's location. It really was right on the beach. The white, squeaky sand was at our backdoor with an amazing sandbar for us to play on in the ocean. For me this was my favorite time. We spent almost every moment we could out on the beach and in the water. Jack and Kyle played their hearts out and loved every moment of it. The twins were free to dig and play in sand without worry of getting dirty or having me stop them. They were a little afraid of the water at first but they quickly adjusted and enjoyed splashing at the shoreline, running on the sandbar and jumping with the waves while Paul and I held them. Sadly, not everyone could enjoy the beach. Miss Hayden had been sick most of the week and Nicole ended up taking her to the ER the afternoon we arrived in Panama City. So their beach time was a bit limited. After a day and a half of beach time we had to pack up and start the long drive home. That long drive home is always the hardest, but the kids were troopers and did well for the most part. All in all, it was a great vacation and I'm glad we got to share it with Paul's family.

We Ran a Race

Well not sure I'd ever be posting about a race that my whole family participated in. We just aren't the running types. Or maybe all that's changed. This year, as part of our family weight loss bandwagon that many of us jumped on, we decided to all do the Pumpkin Classic, we even got Dad in on it. The Pumpkin Classic is a  10k race or a 2 mile run/walk. Paul ran the 10k and did an awesome job. I feel pretty good about his run since this year he at least trained for it unlike last year when he kicked my butt in the 2 miles with no effort. Matt and Dennis and Amanda ran the 2 mile and also did pretty awesome. The rest of us walked/jogged the 2 mile. We had four stroller kids, three running kids and four adults. It was so much fun and a good pre-pumpkin pancake workout. I made us all shirts which worked out really nice for keeping an eye on everyone and getting some compliments. Jack said his favorite thing about the Pumpkin Festival was the race and he will exuberantly tell you that he won, he won!

Possibly one of the best pictures ever of these three. Jack, Micah and Hailey

Papa and Grandma with the running kids.

A little pre-race fuel.

All the stroller kiddos!

Megan and I before we had to chase down the older kids who took off like bullets from the starting line. Although a bullet goes straight and those three definitely did not run straight at first. 

So fun to race with my boy!

Look carefully and you'll see Paul running in his orange tie-die shirt. Kinda on the left side. 

These two pictures were taken from the Pumpkin Festival facebook page. The first picture is us at the start of the race. The second picture is Hailey, Jack, Mari and I finishing the race strong!

So proud of these guys! Killer times for all of them.

Grandma and Papa with the grandkids. Fun times!

Pumpkin Festival

Another P-Fest has come and gone. It's always such a whirlwind of activity and excitement and fun. Jack is old enough to remember previous years and the anticipation he had was a lot of fun. He was quite eager for the festival to start and his excitement spread to his brothers. We made it to the fest every night, which I'm thinking is overkill, but the kids love, so hmmm. We did the opening ceremony with the balloon release and the kids did really well with my 5 ride per night limit.  Of course the first ride Jack picks is the Octopus. I think he's crazy but he insists and the carnie says he can ride with me. Jack was excited as we climbed into our seat and before I could utter a word about how we don't need a crazy spin before the ride start, the carnie whips us around and we spin into oblivion. I felt sick before we ever moved. Then the ride started. It was aweful! I used to like this ride. I don't ever remember fearing for my life on this ride. Darn you old age. We spun wildly around for what seemed like forever. I had my feet braced to the floor, my right hand grasping the handle with all my strength and the left arm wrapped around Jack as tight as possible. I was sure we were both going to fly out of our seats. I was honestly scared. Unfortunately, Jack was scared too and almost instantly started asking when the ride would be done and telling me he was scared. I know he get's motion sick like me so I told him to just stare at his knees, I had a nice little rip on the seat I was staring at. He seemed so scared and upset I started telling him to talk to Jesus. He didn't know what to say to he just asked for the ride to be over. Poor kid. Finally it stopped and we climbed off and I hugged him. He was such a champ. He didn't cry or get worked up he just stated how scared he felt and that he didn't like that ride and we moved on. Of course I felt sick the rest of the night and four rides later while we were standing in line for food Jack got really pale and puked. Then he was fine. He would still tell you he had fun though. 

Balloon Release.

Probably the favorite ride since all the kids can do it.

We drove the cars a lot.

My cousin Lexi (and Terri and Gage) has a booth at the craft fair. She knows how to turn Alpaca fur? into yarn. Jack was giving her a hand with the spinning wheel.   

We enjoyed the pancake breakfast as we usually do. Logan hardly ate anything, but once he discovered the butter he was all set. In all he licked up three containers of butter and enjoyed every minute of it.

School and Teacher Visit

Jack started his second year of school the other week. He is in Mrs. Suttles' 4 year old preschool class at Bethel and as expected he is having a great time and has already wont the heart of his teacher. He runs in his classroom every morning and greets her with a big smile and "Good morning Mrs. Suttles!" Last year I would always tell him to go into class and say "Good morning Mrs. Hart!" It always made her smile and so on the first day I reminded him to greet his teacher and now he does it on his own. No reminder needed. It looks like he is in for a fun school year.

The week before school started his teacher came over for a home visit. Jack was super excited and could hardly sit still while Mrs. Suttles talked to him. He also couldn't stop talking! She was asking him questions and he would just talk her ear off telling her all sorts of stories from the summer. She heard about how Papa shot a snapping turtle and how he threw up repeatedly the day we went to the St. Louis Zoo and how we visited John Deere tractors. I had to tell him to stop talking about throw up because he just kept going on about it. Mrs. Suttles finally made it to the last question and she tried to steer Jack back to the intended conversation by saying, "I have one more question for you Jack." He immediately responded with, "Ok, but let me ask you a question first" and proceeded to tell another rambling story. Finally the questions were done and the meeting was over, but Jack couldn't let his new teacher leave without dragging her up to his room to show her is turtle bones. Later that day we were asking him how he liked his teacher and he seriously announced that he was being shy when she was here for her visit. Perhaps he talks incessantly when he's shy?

Good Deal, Great Fun

For a while I've thought it would be fun to get one of those giant inflatable water slides for the backyard. But the kids are little so I was trying not to rush into anything. I did keep my eye on craigslist though in case a great deal happened to come along. I also had talked to Nicole about this and she was interested in splitting the cost and sharing one. Sounded fantastic to me, but still we were going to wait, no need to buy a brand new one at full price at the end of summer. Then last week I was clicking through craigslist and came upon just what we had been looking to buy at some point and it was over 2/3 cheaper than brand new. I emailed the people and texted Nicole and picked it up on Friday. I think it was definitely a good deal and splitting it with Kevin and Nicole makes it even better! With everyone having work off yesterday and with temps near or in the 90s we decided to give it a try and make sure everything worked. The kids had a blast and we are very happy with our purchase! Kyle, Haley and Jack slid and slid and slid. Hayden played for a long time and never once got upset about being sprayed with a water canon or slid into by the sliders. She was one tough little cookie and seemed to love every minute of it, despite having her swim suit on backwards and thus sporting a 1980s high cut aerobics look. :-) Schaeffer and Logan loved the water canon and thought it was hilarious to spray people, especially Hayden. They also enjoyed climbing in and out and sitting on the edge and bouncing. They both went to the top of the slide a few times, but Schaeffer only slid down once and Logan never brought himself to try it. I think next summer it might be a different story. I have a feeling we'll be getting a lot of use out of this.

One Funny Kid

Schaeffer is a funny kid. It's hard to explain what makes him so funny but if he's in a good mood, it's hard to look at him without smiling and giggling a little. I thought maybe it was his shaggy hair but now I've decided that perhaps it's his eyes. He just has this kinda goofy, mischievous look about him. The other day we were playing out front and my parents stopped by to pick up Jack. Dad started pulling weeds out of the front yard...helping us not get kicked out of Morton for poor lawn upkeep! The boys started helping him. Then they started pulling out this flowery vine that was growing in the middle of one of our bushes. The boys, Schaeffer especially started bringing the purple flowers to my pot of purple mums and adding them in. Then Schaeffer brought over the whole vine and placed it just so with the mums. Then he picked up a single leaf and careful placed it just so among the flowers. It was just so funny how he went about it, like he was really doing something to help me decorate the front porch. 

John Deere Day

We kept ourselves busy this August by squeezing in a few mid-week day trips before school starts (tomorrow!). We did the zoo in St. Louis which Jack's teacher heard all about on her home visit, puke stories included. And a few weeks later we went for a visit to Iowa to spend the day with Megan, Dennis and George. With four little boys one of our favorite things to do when we visit Iowa is play on tractors. We first went to the John Deere headquarters where they have a big display floor filled with a variety of tractors, many of which they allow you to climb into. Jack has been several times before but this was Schaeffer and Logan's first time. It did not disappoint. They all ran from tractor to tractor climbing in cabs, buckets and wheels, pushing every button and testing every control and of course pretending to run me over. Jack even took me on a safari in one of the Gators. If you've never played on huge tractors then you nee to know that climbing in the giant buckets, shovels and wheels is a must. Especially for little kids. It's a wonder to them to see how huge these tractor parts are and that they fit right inside and often many of them fit right inside. After getting our fill at the headquarters we grabbed lunch and headed over to the John Deere Pavilion. This is like a show room with information and several more tractors and a kids area. Jack's absolute favorite was a forestry machine that actually walks in a strange bug like way. He didn't get to climb in it but he got to see a video of how it works and he thought it was really cool that the tractor could walk. I'm with him, it was pretty neat. The kids played and played and then we went over to the gift shop where they have play tables with lots of tractor toys for the kids to try out, so we played and played some more. My three will all thrilled to walk out of there with new John Deere shirts and a new little tractor toy each.

It takes a lot of little people to operate a huge combine!

Jack in the combine, another favorite of his.

Megan and George

Schaeffer and Logan taking a sleep in the bucket.

Nearly impossible to get a good pic of these four.

Georgie!