Happy 3rd birthday, S-man! May 2, 2008

Today, Seth turns THREE!!! Can you believe it? Most of y’all have watched him grow up from a bitty baby by following my blog. I’ve been blogging longer than he’s been alive. Finding pictures of him for this post was easy because he’s always bringing me a camera and asking to have his picture taken. We’ve celebrated and celebrated today. Right now, he’s celebrating in true 3 year old boy style by ripping up the box his gift came in and throwing it all over my living room. But he’s the birthday boy and he’s only going to be this age, right now, once. I’m content to let him be.

I had to be up early this morning. I came home from the church at about 8:50 and was planning to get him dressed to bring him over with me. He was already dressed and Kait was helping him put on his shoes. He dressed himself - completely with backwards dress pants and his favorite Thomas the Tank Engine tshirt. I just let it go. It’s his birthday. We walked into the church, where the church rummage sale was in full swing. He walked in the door and the place ERUPTED in cheers of Happy Birthday and the Birthday Song. It was all a bit overwhelming for him and he hid behind me until it was done.

We spent most of the day hanging out at the church. When we were done, we loaded up in the van to go buy his birthday cake - angel food cake and fresh strawberries. We made a quick stop on the way home for some strawberry plants at Buxtons and a short visit with Sam - the garden farm dog. We came home then and cut up the strawberries and put them in the fridge and then he got his birthday present - a little people alphabet zoo - from us.

What came next was a big moment in Seth’s life. He threw away his beloved “gi” (hard g, long eee sound). His paci has been more than just a comfort item. It’s been a friend to him. And today, he took the brave steps towards growing up and threw it in the trash. There were no tears, but he did need a big hug and a lot of reassurance that this really was part of the growing up process.

And to celebrate all of his growing-up-ness, we did birthday dinner at McDonalds. All day long he said he wanted to a hamburger for dinner, but when it came down to it he ended up with chicken nuggets. After that, we drove THREW a storm front (it was really cool to come out on the back side of it) for a trip to Target. We bought him a new pair of Cars “flip flops” (really sandals but he insists they are flip flops) before coming home to play with his new toy and watch Alvin and the Chipmunks (I was pleasantly surprised with since even Chip and I found it rather entertaining).

Monday, we’ll celebrate in normal Sanders’ fashion - Build-a-Bear and Chuck E. Cheese. It was very important to Seth that PawPaw and Gamma (Chip’s parents) come with us - so we’re postponing it just a few days. I’m looking forward to another whole day of listening to him sing happy birthday to himself!

Happy birthday, Big Man! You bring more joy into our home than you’ll ever know!

April 2007 - helping clean up the floor after we pulled up the carpet…

May 2007 - Ready for swimming in the big pool…

June 2007 - Summer days just make him tired…

August 2007 - He held his new cousin Wesley more than anyone! Now Wesley is so big I think he’d have to hold Seth…

September 2007 - Not EVERYONE was happy on the first day of school. Seth was *not* happy that his “bo-bo brother” (Noah) had to do schoolwork instead of playing with him…

October 2007 - Seth is the ONLY one I got a picture of this month. He absolutely INSISTS quite often that I take his picture. This one because he got a new shirt…

November 2007 - This is one of my favorite pictures of Seth and Noah. They really are more than just brothers - they are also best friends…

December 2007 - decorating the Christmas tree…

January 2008 - Seth developed his own cooking show that we all watched daily for most of the month of January. It was a long, cold winter…

February 2008 - We potty trained Seth at his direction. The book on his head is called The Potty Train…

March 2008 - Seth STILL loves his cheese fries…

April 2008 - Noah took this picture of Seth while we were at the chiropractor…

May 2nd, 2008 - by the time I took this picture, Seth was DONE with birthday pictures…

Happy 11th birthday, Elijah!!! April 26, 2008

My oldest turns 11 today!  ELEVEN!!!  I can hardly believe it!  He’s grown up so much in the past couple year. He turned FIVE about five months after we moved into this house. He’s a great big brother - always helping to take care of his little brothers and sister. He takes his job as the oldest very seriously.  He makes me proud! 

Happy 11th birthday, Elijah!

Celebrating his birthday at his restaurant of choice - Pizza Hut…

On his 10th birthday - April 2007…

Elijah with the HAL ball (hustle, ability, leadership) - May 2007…

Fun with mud - June 2007…

The HAL ball for the second time - only one other kid on the team got it more than once - July 2007…

Meeting his cousin Wesley for the first time - August 2007…

Starting 4th grade - September 2007…

Didn’t take pictures in October, here’s why - October 2007…

His first facial at his sister’s spa party, oh the things he’ll do for his sister - November 2007…

Celebrating Christmas - December 2007…

On the moving truck when we helped pack up cousin Taet to move to Wyoming - January 2008…

We got A LOT of snow this year - February 2008…

Easter legos - March 2008…

My great protector/mouse hunter - April 2008…

Happy, happy birthday Elijah!

Blah, blah, blah… April 25, 2008

With this post, I’m officially 1/4 of the way through my 100 days of blogging and I feel like I’ve got nothing to say today. I’m tired. It was a L-O-N-G day. A long, blustery day. I got about 75% of what I wanted to get done, done. I should work on folding laundry, but my back is killing me. Probably from doing laundry earlier.

And apparently it was a hard day for Seth too because he just crawled up into Chip’s lap a few minutes ago and he’s already snoring. We’ll wait until this Bee Movie is over and then put the kids in bed. Here’s some pictures of what he was up to today…

He pretended to mow and they got to help clean up afterward…

Using his little weeder to whack the weeds…

Sweeping up after all was done…

Playing soccer with his brother….

This day keeps getting weirder… April 18, 2008

It was weird enough being woken up to an EARTHQUAKE this morning. In Illinois. But then we came home from running an errand this afternoon and found this dog (Bailey)…

On this roof…

Chip had opened the upstairs windows before we left this afternoon. I normally don’t open Kait’s window because it doesn’t have a screen on it at the moment. It had been threatening rain all day, so the dogs were in the house and usually we put a gate at the bottom of the stairs to keep them downstairs. We ran home for a minute between errands and *I* forgot to put the gate back up. We came home and drove past the front of the house and Noah shouted “THE DOG IS ON THE ROOF!” Since he’s the kind of jokers, we all just kind of laughed. Until we pulled around the corner and the dog was indeed on the roof!

I wonder if this day can get any weirder!?

***EEK*** April 2, 2008

There is nothing that makes my heart jump more than one of my kids yelling, at the top of their lungs,

“THE CAT HAS A MOUSE!!!”

The fear that grips my heart and I jump up onto the nearest chair is hard to put into words. And when that cat brought the mouse around the corner where I could actually *see* the mouse, my heart was actually in a panic.

So, I did what any girl would do. I called my husband! WHO DIDN’T ANSWER THE PHONE!!!  I dialed his cell phone, the church phone, the cell phone, the church phone and by the time I’d called the 7th time, I was frantic! “You can’t come home if you don’t answer your phone!!!” He tried to offer me an explanation about not bringing a phone into the bathroom, but OH MY GOSH! WE HAVE A MOUSE!!!  I was a bit short with him on the phone and told him to get home - NOW - because we have a mouse! And I don’t. do. mice.

My boys on the other hand, quickly put on their shoes and scurried to help the cat apprehend. Why shoes? Because they know that if a mouse runs in front of you, you STOMP on it. A trick their dad taught them. The dog got in on the action and the mouse was hiding in the pile of bunkbed pieces that we had laid in the dining room. Elijah started pulling boards out (Chip still wasn’t home - how long does it take to walk from next door? I’m still freaking out at this point) and carrying them out to the garage.

By this point, Kait has come out to find out what the fuss is about and as soon as she hears the word mouse, she leaps up onto the dining room table in her best Tom & Jerry impression! I’d join her, but I’m not getting down off my chair!

Elijah moves the right board and drops it just as quickly as the mouse makes a break for it. The dog and cat quickly chase it back into the pile and Chip finally walks in the door to help.

 

Chip and Elijah move some more and cat gets the mouse! Carries it off somewhere out of sight with my boys hot on the trail. I’m not sure what exactly happens at this point, but I do know that the mouse is dead and no longer in my house!

I’m considering making some medals for my boys later today! Or maybe I’ll just make them some chocolate chip cookies…

Basketball season is OVER… March 8, 2008

And it was ugly today!  They actually played well for the most part, but let me tell you, kindergarteners can be VICIOUS!  Especially those girls! At times it more resembled a wrestling match than a basketball game.  I’m really surprised there wasn’t bloodshed! When I asked Noah about it later, he just looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “Mom, we were playing NO FOUL basketball!” Apparently in the mind of a 5 or 6 year old that doesn’t mean you’re not supposed to foul, that means you can foul all you want and not get called for it!

Elijah played really well in his game. He was in there getting rebounds and passed the ball very well. And he worked really hard on the traveling (not that they call them on it) and not fouling.

And as much as I enjoyed how much my boys enjoyed basketball, I’m soooo going to enjoy sleeping in again on Saturday mornings. At least until baseball starts in a couple months! (Click the picture to see it bigger).

 

Here they are with their trophies. Doesn’t the trophy look like it was modeled after Noah?

All’s well that ends well… March 5, 2008

We’re home. The dr’s office was waiting for us when we got there. They took us right back and the doctor was right there. Seth was great for the doctor/nurse. They had this little crochet hook thingy that they stuck up there and just pulled it out. We were in the office for less than 20 minutes. And he’s a happy boy because he got two stickers, a little toy and a trip to McDonalds.

And Kait has decided that all of her beads are going in the garbage!

Pictures are up on Flickr… February 2, 2008

I’ll post some here tomorrow - but if you can’t wait that long, you can go see them now -

You can see the rest of the pictures here - February 2008 pictures

At least the kids enjoyed the snow…

 

 

And it’s still snowing… February 1, 2008

I was awake all night. I’m not sure where there was a plow because you can’t see the road in front of our house (or on the side for that fact), but I could hear the stupid *beep* *beep* beep* as it traveled through town all night last night. I hate snow!

I woke up this morning and not only is there a foot of snow on the ground (who knows how much of it blew away), but it is STILL SNOWING!!! UGH! I’ll take more pictures once the kids are out in it…

4:30pm - 01.31.08 January 31, 2008

It’s still going strong out there. It really doesn’t look like that much snow because the wind has been blowing it everywhere out there. I’d say at least as much has blown away as there is on the ground.