It's All About The Milestones, Baby!

We're hitting those milestones, left and right.  In a few weeks, Cullen turns five.  F-I-V-E.  I cannot believe it.  Cullen is wonderful for so many reasons, he's happy-go-lucky, he's hilarious, he has the best laugh, but he lacks a little bit of discipline and focus.  So, we signed him up for karate.  The first class was rough, he spent the majority of the time falling on the floor; apparently, he already knows what karate is all about- hitting, he's seen it on Power Rangers.  But the instructor had patience and made sure that he was focusing on the actual sport of karate and not just the action-shot highlights. He did a lot better during his second class, his focus and participation was much more refined.

Arden got signed up too.  He's a natural athlete and needs to harness some of his athletic skills for screaming, "watch 'dis!" as he jumps off of any spot that he can find. Arden has taken on the role of the younger brother: you fall, I fall; you laugh, I laugh; you make fart noises, I make fart noises.  Karate helps Arden harness some of his energy and also find constructive ways to show his talent, rather than just jumping from surface to surface.

And finally, the baby.  She's getting teeth.  Not going to lie, I thought for some reason that maybe she wasn't going to get any teeth, like they hadn't formed or something, so I was real happy when she started cutting the bottom two.  And as luck would have it, girl likes to eat.  She gets that from her Mama.  We started off small, baby food and what not and we've now moved up to anything Gerber that doesn't require teeth or small pieces of anything that's soft; bread, cake, pie, you name, she's tryin' it.

It's a very exciting time for our family, we're all learning and growing together.  The boys are becoming more athletically inclined old boys (Cullen yells at me when I say that he's a young man) and Jameslyn is chewing and once there's chewing there's talking and then there's everything else...  And that's what I'm looking most forward too: the everything else.

Wanted: A Baby Sister

Not too long after we told the boys that they were going to have a sibling, the gender talk started.  My husband was firmly in the boy camp- thought it was a boy and wanted a boy.  I, on the other hand, thought that it was a girl and said I wanted either a boy or a girl... but I won't lie now, I really wanted a girl.  As most things went in our household at the time, I figured I would be outnumbered in the wish-upon-a-baby-boy-star, but surprisingly that wasn't the case; the boys really wanted a baby sister.  Obviously, there's nothing that we could have done at that point to grant their wish, but they were the first two people I thought of when we learned it was a girl; her big brothers were going to be happy.

So far, they love having a sister and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that she's great.  On the rare occasion that she cries for longer than 30 seconds, one of them comforts her by saying, "I'm here Sissy, don't cry."  I realize that this kindness and concern may only last for another few years, and eventually they may become the cause of her tears, but for now I'm sincerely in love with their love for her.  They are much more gentle with her than with anything else in the whole world.  When they talk to her, they both use a soothing, higher pitched voice.  They, above all else, show me that they love her and that's all that I've ever really wanted, love for my children.

This week, I've been nearly ready to put her in her crib.  (I know, I know; that beautiful nursery that I'm so proud of hasn't gotten any real use...) We've been hanging out more in her room and she's spending little periods of time in her crib to grow accustomed to it, but when all is not well and Sissy is done with the crib, her brothers come rushing in and soothe her and tell her not to cry.  And she stops and watches them and then everything is right in the world again.

J is for Jameslyn

For those of you who have noticed that I've been gone for a few weeks now, I am happy to announce that it was for a very, very good reason; I had a baby.  A baby girl to be exact.  Jameslyn (more on the name to come) joined us about a week ago and has been such a wonderful addition to our family.  I can't wait to share more details of the last nine months and her first days.

Until then, here's our baby girl.

It's My Favorite

Christmas time is my favorite; probably because it's right before my birthday, everyone is in joyous spirits and the house is filled with kind of beautiful things.  Decorating is crazy though... advice from parents of older children, when does the fighting/ornament breaking/disregard for the lovely ambiance that I'm working hard to set up- stop?  Is it around 4 years old?  'Cause that'd be nice.  Every year I expect that the boys will be too delighted by the sounds from the TV seasonal music station that their fighting will be temporarily put on hold, but that's not happening.  But... it is getting better.  Only a handful of smashed ornaments and one or two meltdowns each; I'm cool with that.

We had a few firsts this year: first train set, which was immediately broken and still remains off the tracks in the family room, first Christmas in our new house and first time that Cullen took a real interest in helping to set things up- more man business as he would call it, I suppose.  The results are perfect- for us.  I love all of the planning and time it takes for this to take shape, it's a nice way to spend time together, even if it is mixed with some fighting and crying, because it's what we do and how we do.

Giving Thanks

Let me tell you how these three are what I am most thankful for. 

Quite frankly, I don't care if everyone else on Earth says that about their children and husband, 

I feel blessed to be on that band wagon to begin with.

Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

Friday Short

Here's a look at my little Bubbles on all four of his birthdays.  How cute is he?

I Totally Made This Thing

ATTENTION EVERYONE, I TOTALLY MADE THIS CAKE!

(Can you tell that in my mind, I'm kind of a big deal right now?)

When Cullen told me that he wanted a Ninja Turtle cake, I did what any parent would: google image searched Ninja Turtle cakes until I found one that I thought I could replicate.  With zero knowledge of cake decorating, unless you include countless hours spent watching Ace of Cakes and the cake testing for my wedding, I embarked on what I thought was sure to be a simple little cake.  

Yo, I was wrong.

This thing was hard.  It was heavy and time consuming, but totally worth it when Cullen exclaimed, "Mom, I love it!"  (I swear, I didn't even make him say it.)  It brings back fond memories of the time my Grandmother made me a Barbie cake for my birthday and it was awesome; the skirt was made of cake! Who wouldn't want a cake skirt?!

As I warned all of my family members, if you don't like it, lie to me.  So on that sentiment, I will leave you with the cake from start to finish and the response I got from my sister after I emailed her pictures:

Megan- It looks really good
Me- Really or are you just saying that??  Because it took a lot of work!
Megan- Well you told me to lie; Just kidding, I think it looks good.  I bet for the party it will look even better
Me- Uhm, let's not go making assumptions... I literally gave it all I got this time!
Megan- Well you'll need to give it 110% next time

Four Questions For A Four Year Old

Today is Cullen's birthday.  I love and adore him more than he will ever know and I am happy to share some moments with everyone that we've shared as a family over the past 24 hours.  On his fourth birthday, I decided to ask him four questions, mostly because that is about how long his attention span is, but also because I think I saw this on Pinterest like two years ago and thought it would be a nice idea.

So, here are the four questions I asked and Cullen's answers:

What is your favorite color?  (It's his birthday, so I let him have two favorites!)

What are you most looking forward to this year?

What is your favorite thing to do?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Fall Photo Shoot 2013

For several years, we've taken the time to document our children outdoors during a beautiful time of year.  This year, we headed out to a chic landscaping store, because we had a gift card, and I happened to grab our nice camera; while it certainly didn't start off being our Fall Photo Shoot 2013 that's totally where it ended... and I'm thrilled.

And keep an eye out for Arden's blue car, which managed to sneak into quite a few pictures.