Just a glimpse of our lives the week before school...

Playing with cousins at Nana's house - and when we play, we play MUSIC!  ha, ha, ha!

How does my garden grow?  huge raspberry bushes and you can't see the tomato plants to the left - but I HATE, HATE, HATE the spiders!!  I muster the courage to pick once a week....

Day before school starts - we had fun at the Gateway fountains...  I'm learning to play with my manual settings on my camera and was pleased with a few of my shots.

8 years and 11 months

I have been officially changing diapers on a regular basis for 8 years and 11 months... and suddenly I have found myself in a whole new territory of NO DIAPERS!  Our big 3 year old decided last week that he wants to wear underwear (uh-er-ware) and he is so proud of his cartoon undies!  And I'm sooooo amazed that he DECIDED and I'm not fighting for it.  I fought Hunter and Cole for a good year each - both of them completely capable and able, and simply did not care if they had a dirty diaper on their bum.  So, I've laid back and bit my tongue and just encouraged Danny whenever possible - without force.  It's a miracle (I keep singing the song from Fiddler on the Roof in my head)!!!  I even returned a recently purchased box of diapers for the big guy, so it's official - we're not going back.  I'll have a nice little break...  then just 3 years more, or four.  I'll do my best to wait for this little guy to decide on his own too.  And I'm sure this will be a process with Danny too - but so far, this process has been a 180 compared to his big brothers.  I'm so GRATEFUL!!!  Thank you Danny and you are AWESOME!

We are what we eat...

With 3 boys (soon to be 4) and the thought of having 4 teenage boys - I often imagine how my shopping will change over the years.  I wonder if I'd laugh to see the things that the boys "use to eat" these day and wondering if they'd EVER eat a full meal.  So, just to humor me in the future - here's what we are this summer:

Typical STAPLE foods in our refrigerator/pantry:
2 gallons of 1% milk
1 gallon of whole milk (for Danny)
some yogurt
tub of sour cream
1 loaf of white sandwich bread (sometimes wheat for me)
eggs (a carton will last us a month)
tortilla chips
occasionally wheat-thins for me
a new fav - V8 fusion, Strawberry/Banana (yum)
OJ
cheddar cheese
Pepper Jack Cheese (Hunter's fav)
tortillas
bananas
Multi-Grain Cheerios
Other fav cereals: Rice Krispees, Cinnamon Toast Crunch & Lucky Charms
"Cheesey Shells" Alfredo Pasta Roni (Cole's fav)
Mac-N-Cheese (Kraft only)
turkey hotdogs
Tomatoes
Green/Red Peppers
Ramen Noodles
beans: refried and black - always stocked!
and of course, frozen burritos

And I forgot to mention one more thing about Danny on his b-day post - he LOVES mustard since the April Fool's prank by his parents.  He'll even scoop it up by the spoonful if we're not watching.  He often requests mustard with ANYTHING...  tee-hee-hee.

Bear Lake vacation

Well, since we were already going to Bear Lake for a reunion, why not make a week of it and make it vacation?  Shayne took off a day of work, but then had to go back to work - so the boys and I stayed there with Grandma and Grandpa and had ourselves a great time!  Here are a few highlights of the week:

A picture of the boys with Great-Grandma Hunter

Danny turned 3!  (There was an earlier post dedicated to this event)

The boys had TONS of fun boating (tubing) with Steve and Chanin's family.  I opted to play it safe and stayed on the beach enjoying the sun and relaxing.  I have no complaints.

Cole loved finding more treasures, including a bag of these tiny seashells.  He planned to sell them for 5 cents each at home...  They came home with us but no seashell sale has been arranged yet.

Danny in Cherae's hat...  love this picture.

Hunter sporting his new sunglasses - he sure is growing up.

One day, we set out to the North Beach and plopped right down next to our BFF's Kristy and Chris - who also had a family vacation planned at Bear Lake that week.  Cole was SOOOO excited to spend the day with Emily, but in reality, he spent the day digging and creating and maneuvering water with Em's little bro, Max.   It was such a great day.

My boys posing for a "dive" into the special "soap" they had been making ALL DAY LONG.  I'm so glad they had so much fun.

It was a great week!!  Thank you to all the family and friends who helped us create such wonderful memories!

Bear Lake - Hunter Reunion

A year ago, we had an unforgettable experience of doing a grand-family reunion and we were all in the same room (30+ beds), babies, kids, and all - it was really funny (after it was over!)  Well, Shayne's parents organized the reunion at Bear Lake.  We met at a park and had an afternoon filled with "Hunter Olympics," "Minute-to-win-it" challenges, and water games too.  I had lots of pictures, but these are few that I wanted to share....

The remarkable woman we all adore and know that she loves us right back....

"Opening Ceremony"

One of the Olympic events - check out those hurdles!  And check out those leaps!

I wish I could remember the name of this game, but they had to shake ping-pong balls out of the boxes on their bums... it was funny!

The classic Oreo moving down the face challenge - no hands allowed.

Who is the fastest at emptying a tissue box with 1 hand....  Sheldon took top awards for this one.

I guess we wore Danny out - and he so loves Julia... what a wonderful cousin she is to him!

The finale was a bunch of organized water games - which, of course, turned into water fight....  We couldn't get Chris and Sheldon to stop till they were soaked to the bone.

It was a fabulous day!  We had a great turn-out - but we also missed a lot of wonderful family who could not be there.  Next year, ok guys?

Tooth fairy mystery...

Hunter lost a tooth last week - how can he lose another tooth when he looks like "toothless?"  I don't know.  Anyways, that night he made a special bed for the tooth fairy to rest on (which I think is a brilliant idea from our darling friend Myla) and we thought the tooth was next to the bed.  That night, the tooth fairy came, but couldn't find the tooth.  She wrote a sweet note thanking Hunter for the place to rest, but she couldn't find the tooth.  Hunter wrote a little note back apologizing for the mix-up as he had kept his tooth next to him.  I loved this note - it's a little torn up now (as this happened a week ago) but you see his anticipation of some cash from this kind lady.

Here is the mystery....
The tooth fairy came that night, she left 81 cents.  I was grateful that Shayne had remembered but wondered why "81 cents?"  Then he asked me the same question....  well, if mommy didn't do it, and daddy didn't do it...  I guess the Tooth Fairy really does exist and she prefers loose change.  Although, we did find 1/2 of the tooth later (Cole found it) and Hunter figures she only left a portion of the money since she could only find a portion of the tooth.  Honestly, I'm baffled!!

Terrible 3!!

I don't have terrible 2's in this house - it all starts at about 3 and then I think it keeps going and going.  I keep thinking Cole is over it - but as I type this, he's throwing another crying tantrum - so don't know when it ends. Danny has started to assert his independence and stubbornness.  Sometimes, that kid doesn't know what he wants.... that makes for a fun time.  But, when he's happy - the whole world can't help but to smile with him!  

Here is Danny showcasing his new "big boy bed" blankie from Nana... it's Cat in the Hat.  I should have taken an closer pic of the blanket - it is super cute and very much loved.  He doesn't have the big boy bed, yet...

We were at Bear Lake when he celebrated his actual birthday.  All morning we kept saying "Happy Birthday Danny" and he'd say, "NO, no cake, no presents - NO BIRTHDAY!"  So, we whipped out the cake and gifts at lunchtime to convince him it really was his birthday.

What do you give your kid when your older brothers already have it all?  We got him his own little chair for watching soccer games - he'll spend a lot of time watching those big brothers play soccer this fall!  He also got a bubble blowing gun - which lasted for 15 minutes...tops.

Favorites of Danny:
Taking off his own clothes and diaper
Picking his clothes for the day - he is very opinionated
Wants to play and do as his big brothers do...
He loves chocolate, milk, and of course Chocolate Milk
Loves cheese ("the orange one, not the hot one")
Being read stories (that he chooses)
His teddy bear
Picking on Cole (it's a two-way street on that one)
He loves babies
Loves taking OFF the shoes

I love you Danny-boy!  You are the sunshine in our day - EVERYDAY!

Boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh BOY!!!

Yeah - we won't have ribbons or dresses or dollies around here - until my little boys become daddies themselves!

And FYI, I'm totally fine with it.  People look at me with sympathy, but the thing is, I know what to expect.  It would have been a whole new ball game with a little girl in this house and she would have been a little pampered too.  We have the clothes, the toys, the blue bedrooms - so, honestly, I'm thrilled about having another little guy in our home.  If I could only think of the PERFECT name.....  I'm all out of ideas on that one.