Grocery Shopping With the Little Boys

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A Tour (As requested by my mom)

Since our family lives so far away the only way they'll see our new home anytime soon is via pictures posted here.  So I thought I'd take you on a little tour.

  I started with the upstairs.    

This is the view from the top of the stairs into the great room. We're using it as the playroom for now. 

 The hallway to the boys rooms. 

 Evan and Seth's room.  Bare bones for now, eventually we'll jazz it up.  Kane's room is identical and right next door, I didn't take a picture of it b/c his bed is still in pieces and we have lots to figure out in his room.  But it looks a lot like this but with a toddler mattress on the floor. :) 

 Upstairs bath, this is the vanity area, which is very narrow but I love having two sinks!  Oh and a five month pregnant, pre-shower, me.  

Toilet/bath area with a pocket door.  Very nice so if one of the boys is showering or using the potty the others can still get ready using the mirror and sinks!   

 Fordster's room, aka, the catch all room.  We're still trying to figure out how we fit into our new home and we don't have an attic or basement so a lot of stuff ends up here for now.  Eventually this will be "baby girl's" room and Ford will move in with Kane.

This is what the boys are capable of doing when I'm distracted with, well, anything for 30 seconds or more.

Now back downstairs. 

The stairs and tv. 

Living room and the boys watching tv. 

This hallway leads to the garage, laundry room, the half bath and our bedroom.  I would have taken a picture of our room but it needs a lot of work still and I'd rather wait until its ready!  

My cluttered kitchen, there is no doubt that we live in our home!  The enormous pantry is to the left there.  

The dining room.  Jed just put in the ceiling fan a week ago and we can finally have dinner at the table (previously there wasn't a light in that part of the room and it was too dark)!   

The backyard.  To the left and off in the distance is the community playground and swimming pool.  

And to give you a little perspective on how close our neighbors are, there's their back porch! 

There you have it!  Now someone come and visit so we have a reason to get the bedrooms ready for guests! :) 

Cuteness

"I love hot mollies!"  hot mollies= hot tamales  A little embarrassing when shouted by my 3 & 5 year old in Target.

While looking at a diagram of the solar system in a book.

Kane:  "Look mom, its the fire moon!"

Me: "We like to call that the sun, sweetie."

Kane: "Oh yeah, the sun."

When Evan and Seth read a certain number of books in a month they get a coupon for a free Pizza Hut personal pan pizza from their school.  Evan met his quota and got his coupon earlier this week but Seth hadn't so to help his little brother out Evan sat down, read 8 books to Seth and then wrote down all the books on the book sheet (this took almost as much time as reading the books).  It was so much fun to watch them work together.

About once a week we take Jed a McDonald's sugar free vanilla iced coffee during his work day.  I love that he only works a few miles away instead of in Orlando!  Anyway, as soon as Jed's office building is visible Ford begins clapping and squealing "dada".  Its so sweet.

Ford's signature move, the point.  

Feeding

Today we were happy to see that all three ducklings survived the night! 

 Today they were happy to see that we brought them food. 

Yum! 

Evan and Seth spent a good portion of the morning standing by the pond on hawk watching duty.  

 Seth declared that we were never allowed to leave the house again so he could stay with them. 

Eat up little one and grow, grow, grow, so we can stop worrying about you!

 Hope to see you all tomorrow! 

Sitting Duckling

The good news, the boys discovered that one of our female ducks had five babies and chose to debut them on the pond today!   

The bad news, within 2 hours of the debut, momma went from 5 ducklings to 3. :(

We ate dinner on the back porch tonight and had a front row seat to a hawk snatching one of the babies and then enjoying its meal in a tree nearby.  So sad.  

Soon after the attack I noticed a bald eagle and several vultures circling the pond.  I'm beginning to wonder if any of the little babes are going to make it to adulthood. 

Evan took today's events in stride but Seth was bummed, thankfully he was easily distracted.  Kane and Ford were blissfully unaware.  

Dam Camping

We went camping this weekend. We made our way out to a campground near the Ocala National Forest, otherwise known as hillbilly country.  I sometimes forget how suburbanized (I just made up a word there) we are here but a quick trip out into the sticks is a good reality check.  

It was a great trip.  The site we had was in a perfect spot for our family, the rangers were pretty lax patrolling (read: the dogs didn't have to be kept on a leash the entire time), town was only 15 minutes away and we were near a dam with lots of cool areas to explore.  

The lake created by the dam had beautiful sand beaches (the water was disgusting though) that were littered with driftwood. We didn't see any rules about taking the driftwood so we snagged a few pieces for our fire and a few for home decor!  

Kane was convinced at one point that the beach was covered in spiders (scrubby grass) and flipped out.  It was like this summer, when we were on our road trip and he became terrified of being outside.  He screamed and screamed as Jed, Jay and I all took turns attempting to work him through it.  We tried the loving approach, the rational approach, the stern approach and finally the abandonment approach.  As we all left him and continued down the beach (still able to see him of course and close enough to reach him if he suddenly lost his mind and took off for the water, which I knew was a possibility with Kane considering its, well, Kane) he kicked his tantrum into high gear before slowly moving towards us.  When he reached us we were throwing sticks into the water/mud and he was soon distracted from his spider obsession. 

Later as he was climbing over a huge pile of driftwood with his brothers he shouted, of course while giggling, "This is the most fun day of my life!"  We'll be looking into a possible bipolar diagnosis at his next doctors appointment.:)

Well, I would end this with some pictures but I lost the USB cord for my camera around Christmas time and last week Ford decided to chuck my iphone into my coffee.  So this blog will be picture-less until the USB cord that I ordered on Amazon arrives.  

And if you need to get a hold of me try email, facebook or if you have his number call Jed.  

Adios.

And Its A...

My ultrasound was earlier this week.  

We decided to take all the boys with us this time and beforehand I had each of the older three guess if it was a boy or girl.  Evan guessed, boy, Seth, girl and Kane, girl.  I was surprised Seth guessed girl because he's been telling me for weeks that he wants it to be a boy! 

   At 21 weeks, this was the furthest I'd been along for my "anatomy sono" so the baby was more squished than usual and kept its legs together for most of the appointment.  

At the very end the technician told us that she'd seen flashes and was fairly confident of the gender but wanted to try to move the baby to get a better look and hopefully picture for us before announcing it.  

 I turned on my side while she tapped my belly with the wand.  I suddenly became anxious.  Would we have to take our tech's word for it on the gender of our baby?  Come on kid open your legs! 

Then she got the shot... there it was in black and white, three little lines!  

We're having a girl!! 

Just to give you a little perspective on mine and Jed's mindset when we walked into the appointment here's the conversation we had had the night before, after settling on three potential boy names. 

Jed: "What if it's a girl?"  (said as if it was the first time the possibility had crossed his mind)

Me: "Ha, babe, at this point, I don't think you produce X chromosomes.  We're good." 

Jed: "Yeah." 

Needless to say, we're in shock right now.  In a good way though!  Now its back to the drawing board on names! 

And as of the end of our appointment I've been banned from going to Target by myself!  Thankfully Jed doesn't know about Etsy!  :)   

In the waiting room before the appointment. Blissfully unaware that their all boys club is about to be turned upside down! :)   

He's still my baby boy! 

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Campin With Evan

Playin ball as often as possible. He has gotten really good at handling the soccer ball these days and isn't too bad catching the football or hitting a baseball.  

Loving the new responsibility of taking the dogs for walks.  

Hiding in the camper, on a chilly night, coloring in his new Phineas and Ferb activity book.  The kid doesn't like to be cold!  

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Baby Belly

Before my appointment. 

Kane:  "Mommy can I take a bath?"

Me:  "Not right now, mommy has to go to the doctors but maybe when I get home."

Kane: "Why do you have to do to the doctors?"

Me: (patting my stomach) "They're going to check on the baby."

Kane: (his eyes as big as saucers staring at my belly) "WHY IS YOUR BELLY SO BIG?!" (as if he hadn't seen me in weeks)

Me: (laughing) "Because the baby is in there and its growing bigger and bigger everyday!"

Kane: "Can I see your belly?" (Lifting my shirt, then gently patting my belly while smiling and cooing at it)

Me: "The baby and my belly will get bigger until the baby comes out and then you'll have a new baby brother or sister!"

Kane:  "I cant wait to say hi to it!"

Me: "Me either."

Kane: "Mom, I'm going to grow and grow too until I get to go into your tummy one day."

 Me: "Sweetheart that's not how it works, you've already been in my belly before you were born."

Kane: "I was?!"

Me: "Yup."

Kane: "Oh I know, I am going to have a baby in my belly when I get big!"

Me: (taking a second to decide whether to correct him for the thousandth time) "Cool."

After my appointment.

Kane: (running to me as I walk in the door)  "Did they take the baby out? Where is it? Where is it?"

Me: "Kane I told you they weren't taking it out yet, it has to keep growing."

Kane: (holding my belly) "Hurry up baby and get big!"