July 4th

As I was tucking Ben into bed last night, he said it was the best Fourth of July and I have to agree with him! After attending Mass, we came home and had a family lunch before Ben and Caroline went down for naps. Ben had to be bribed with, "You can stay up later if you nap now" and it worked. Jack and I took a nature hike and then started to decorate his bike for the parade. Nate and I made signs for a wagon we used to pull Caroline in and Ben decorated his scooter when he woke up. The parade was super fun and the kids had a blast riding their decorated rides. I was really nervous that we were going to have to cut our night short because Caroline did not smile the entire parade. After a hot dog and the band started playing, she caught her second wind! When we got back to the house, we did sparklers and were just about to go to bed when multiple firework shows started going off in the neighborhood. The kids just sat in the cul-de-sac and were able to enjoy the show without us leaving our neighborhood.

New Camera!!

I am in love with this camera. I will work on posts about what we have been up to (hint- it starts with the letter b and rhymes with maseball). But in the meantime, here are some pictures from the weekend.

So long, farewell...

I am giving up the non-work related Internet for Lent this year. So no Yahoo emails, facebook, or blog. I have asked Nate to update the blog so we will see how that goes. I haven't done the best job this year! Project 365 anyone?
See you back on April 4th!

Bear Bear is 15 months old!

Since we hit the year mark in October, I am going to do these pictures when she has doctor's appointments--15 months, 18 months, 24 months, and then yearly. We decided to celebrate 15 months of life by coming down with another upper respitory infection! We ran a high fever, didn't sleep or eat. But after some fun one on one time with Mommy and some antibiotics and steroids we seem to be back to normal. I hope she will start to grow out of these illnesses or at least build up a better immune system.
We had Caroline's well visit today. She is growing like a weed and hitting all of her milestones. She weighs 24 pounds and 10 ounces (75th percentile) and is 31 inches tall (70th percentile).
In case you were ever curious, it is totally true what they say about girls maturing faster than boys. I am blown away at all of the things Caroline understands at this age. She will nod yes or shake her head no if you ask her a question. She tells me when she is stinky, throws her diapers away, brings me shoes when I say "time to go outside", and lays down where I change her when I say it is time to change your diaper. A true sign of the times is the other day when I was giving the boys hand sanitizer she came up and stuck her hands out. I gave her a teeeny tiny bit expecting her to put it in her mouth. Instead she rubbed her hands together and was on her merry way.
The Bear has always been my musical child. Every night we listen to Baby Tad ("six minutes til nite nite") and I rock her and hum. The other night I didn't hum so she started doing it for me. It was the most precious sound! She also likes to "read". She will pull some of her books out and start babbling while flipping the pages.
Before we eat any meal, we always say grace (The Blessing!). Since we are Catholic, we start and end with the sign of the cross. Usually Caroline is chowing down while this goes on. Tonight she did her own little sign of the cross, folded her hands and nodded along when the boys prayed. The boys did not pick up on that until they were at least two.
And just like her brothers, and every kid on our street, she LOVES being outside. She will stand by the door in the afternoon because she wants to be outside with the big kids. Her second favorite thing is playinng Mommy. She gets her sunglasses on, grabs her purse and takes her babies for a walk. She has started putting them in their crib, kissing them and covering them with a blanket. It makes my baby loving heart so happy!

I have lost my mind...

I am not a runner. Period. I had to train for a 5K. So what does one do when they are not a runner? Oh they sign up for a half MARATHON. THIRTEEN POINT ONE MILES. I think my commute to work is shorter than that, but I am honestly afraid to check. Come April 24th I will be running the Nashville Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon with my some of my best friends from college. Now I can only speak for myself, but the reason I am running has less to do with the whole "sense of accomplishment" thing and more to do with the fact my friend Katie (who just ran her first half in Novemeber) is teeny tiny. So my thinking is that I get a fun weekend with my girls, plus I will be all set for bathing suit season. We start the official training on February 22nd, but since I have not run in so long I have started running regularly again as to not embarass myself when we all get together for our weekly long runs. I have already made peace with the fact that I am going to finish last out of my friends. But I will finish because let's face it--I have now announced it to the Facebook and Blog World-- I kindof have to. Wish me luck! More importantly ask me how my training is going.

Stafford Sanders

What a wonderful addition to our family! Nate and I were both very weary about adding a four legged creature to the brood. We have not had the best luck with pets in the past. First there was Porter a mutt puppy we adopted from the pound. He was a sweet enough puppy. After awhile we thought that maybe some time on Nate's parents farm would be good for Porter. He needed a lot of exercise and no matter how many walks Nate and I took him on, he was always hyper. Porter loved the wide open spaces a little too much and found another home. Then we had Grady the cat who also decided domestic living was not for her. She ran away from home shortly after we moved to our new house. So we basically swore off pets at this point. Then Jack got to be a certain age and really pushing for a dog. We just found out we were pregnant with Caroline and I told him it was going to be awhile. He continued to make mention of a dog and then got Ben to chime in too. In the past year Nate's traveling has really picked up and I was getting lonely at night and not sleeping well. So I started looking at breeds on the Internet. I knew the typical family dogs were out of the question. I wanted a pet the boys could take for walks themselves, so no labs or golden retrievers. It had to be a small dog that wouldn't shed. Our neighbors have a Bichon so we borrowed her one day. She was such a sweet dog and really good with Caroline. So after many, many conversations Nate and I agreed it was time to get a dog. So we told our elf Nick if Santa thought the kids deserved a dog, then we would be ok with it. Christmas morning came and our little white furball was under the tree. The kids LOVE him. We named him Stafford after the great Georgia quarterback. He is such a good dog. He is almost fully housebroken (For the record I potty trained the boys faster than this dog!). Bichons like to be with their owners as much as possible so after trying the crate one night, Stafford now sleeps with us. He sits at our feet while we eat and watch tv. Even when we play in the playroom, he is right there. He is such a sweet dog and we are so excited he is part of our family.

Tubes: Take Two

So 15% of children who get tubes have to get a second set. Guess who is in that 15%? The Bear! We went in on December 28th--shockingly we had already met our deductable for 2009. ;)Caroline has been to the doctor and ENT enough to know that when someone with brightly colored clothes and a clipboard in their hand calls your name, nothing good is going to happen. She cried as soon as they took us to her pre-op room. And she didn't stop until they bumped our surgery up(Probably at the request of the other patients). Since she was so upset, they asked me to come back while they put her under. ALL PARENTS TAKE NOTE--NEVER, EVER, EVER GO BACK WHEN THEY PUT YOUR CHILD UNDER. EVER. It was horrible. I walked into the OR and lost it. Her ENT looked at me and said, "Really not helping much Mom." Hopefully I will never have to do that again.