Happy Birthday Lenny!

Today Lenny is 4 years old! We still can't believe it. He opened his presents this morning before daddy went to work. Lenny also had his 4 year check up this morning. It was terrible of me to schedule this on his birthday because he ended up getting 4 shots in his legs! Poor guy. He really didn't want them but he was a real trooper. After he got his shots and it was time to leave, he could hardly walk. He was still partly crying and he said, "I have to walk real slowly." It was so pitiful watching him leave.

The nurse and his doctor said that he could have 4 stickers and 4 lollipops since he got shots on his birthday. So as we were leaving, we stopped to pick them out. Lenny picked his 4 and had a tough time deciding on a few Diego stickers. As he was limping out, he turned to the nurse and said, "I will have to get baby jaguar the next time." He was being so sweet and cute that the nurse picked up that sticker and told him that he could have it this time.

Lenny got the carnival set for his take along Thomas. He's been asking for this for a while.


He also got a new bike! And a Thomas helmet with knee and elbow pads. His bike is so cool! Dominic had a great time picking it out.




When we got home from the doctor's office, we put together his carnival set. He was so excited and has been playing with it since then. And occasionally going over to his bike and sitting on it. He'll be super excited to take his bike outside to play.

For this picture below, I asked Lenny to sit down so that I could take his picture. He said that he couldn't sit down because he got shots. He said that he could bend down. So that's what he is doing in the picture.

Happy Birthday Lenny! You are truly a wonderful little boy and you have been such a joy to us! You amaze us every day and we are always waiting to see what you are going to say or do next. We love you very much!!

Lenny's 4th Birthday Party

Lenny's birthday party was on Saturday. This was the first year that he had a party where we invited his friends. Every other year has just been family. He had a wonderful time. On the way home and the rest of the day, he kept telling us how much he loved his party. He said, "I really really really really really loved my party."


We had it at the county gymnastics center. And of course, it was a Thomas the Tank Engine themed party. I still don't have pictures from everyone that was taking them for me but I will post what we have from my camera.

They started the party by spending an hour with a staff member who took them through all kinds of obstacles in the gymnasium.

Walking back from jumping on the trampoline.



Jumping in a big foam pit.


Liam and his sister Lily in the foam pit.


Lenny swinging on the rope.


At the end of the hour, they played with the parachute. The last thing they did was to make a bubble under the parachute and jump inside. They then sang happy birthday to Lenny. It was very cute.


Brooke and Nathan even had fun on the mats.



After the parachute, they all headed back to the party room for cake and ice cream. There was a total of nine of Lenny's friends at the party. And there were six younger brothers and sisters there too. Two of them belonged to Lenny. :-)


I didn't get a picture of the cake on my camera but we got a video of it. When Lenny saw it he said, "I love my cake!".

Lenny had lots of fun opening all of his presents. His friends were very eager to help him.


After the presents were opened, it was time for the kids to help Cranky get some packages out of the water that he dropped.


Each of the kids got a turn to try to fish out a package and they were able to keep what they caught.


Ean and Matthew are checking out the packages that they got out of the water for Cranky.


Mikie and his mommy are looking at the Thomas puzzle that came in the package.


Kierra is looking at the kaleidescope.


David figuring out the puzzle.


Melanie playing with the jumping frog.


As soon as we got home, Lenny had to play with all of his new things. He was so excited. Later, he was telling me how much he liked his Thomas bag. Here he is posing with his bag.


I was so pleased with how the party turned out. I loved seeing how happy Lenny was and how much fun he was having with his friends and how much fun they were having too. This is the second Thomas birthday party that Lenny has had (his 2nd birthday was also Thomas), hopefully next year we can do something different. :-)

We Are Free

For the weekend that is. I took all three of the kids to mom's house today for the weekend. I'll be picking them up on Sunday. Yippee. Dominic and I have not been in this house by ourselves since Lenny was born and he will be four years old this month. We have lots of home improvement projects that we need to get done and it's almost impossible to get them done with the kids here.

My mom is one brave woman especially now that Brooke and Nathan are at that age where they get into everything. Lenny was so easy at this age. I didn't have to put away any of my nice things when Lenny was little. He has always been so good about that. Well, Brooke and Nathan are a completely different story. They get in to everything. I had a wooden birdhouse (that's not breakable) that I kept on an end table in the family room for the longest time and I joked that I wasn't going to give that up. I was putting my foot down. Well, just a few weeks ago, I moved it to another room. Now there is nothing in the family room on the end tables and we don't even have the coffee table in there anymore.

I think it is because there are two of them together that makes it harder to teach them to leave things alone. They team up on me so that I can't keep them both away at once. I know that is their tactic. The best way to describe it would be like this. You know in football, if you have a really good offense then you can really wear out a defense by the second half of the game. That's what happens to me on a daily basis. I'm playing defense against a really good offense. By the end of the day, I'm just wore out. About the time that I think I have Nathan covered and am getting him off of the table, that's when Brooke comes along out of nowhere and pulls the vent cover out of the floor.

Good luck Woman!

Taking Me Back A Few Years

Isn't it funny how you can listen to a song and it takes you back many years and you can remember things so clearly as if they happened yesterday? I love that. This past week, Dominic has been going through all of our CDs that we've had stored away and he has been putting all of them on my iPod. I've really been enjoying it. It's been a great surprise to me every evening when I can listen to my iPod and find many songs that I have forgotten about.

I have a very diverse selection of music on my iPod. Seriously, it goes from the Stanley Brothers (bluegrass) to Salt-N-Pepa to Jimmy Buffet to ACDC to Phantom of the Opera to Destiny's Child to Randy Travis. I love all kinds of music and it shows.

Dominic has great taste in music. He always likes the music and bands that end up sticking around for years. He put all of his CDs on it to. It's funny to watch him because he'll pull out a CD and say, "You're going to love this. You'll remember it once you hear it." He has favorites like Billy Joel, George Thorogood, Rush, Bob Marley, James Brown, Tom Petty, and his all time favorite--Journey.

Tonight I've been reminiscing while listening to Skid Row and Van Halen from our high school days and Pearl Jam from the college days. And of course, my all time favorite band from high school--Def Leppard. I still love them just as much today.

After Brooke and Nathan were born, I didn't have any time to listen to the radio. I still don't really. The only time I would have an opportunity to listen to the radio would be in the car. And, to be quite honest, that is also my only time for some peace and quiet. At this point in my life, I opt for the peace and quiet and don't even care to turn on the radio. Sad, I know.

Anyway, this year for my birthday, Dominic got me an iTunes gift card. I was so excited to get some new music for my iPod. Of course, I first downloaded a few music videos.

Then I started thinking about music that I hadn't heard for a long time. Who remembers Dr. Hook? My mom played Dr. Hook a lot when we were kids. I still remember my mom, sister, and I singing, You Make My Pants Want to Get Up and Dance. What about Sharing the Night Together and Sylvia's Mother. That was when they were on 8 track tapes. Mom and Kristi, do you remember singing those in the blue Monte Carlo?

I will never forget the Super Bubble 8 track tape that Mom used to listen to that had I Think We're Alone Now and Yummy Yummy Yummy on it. I was just talking to Mom the other day about it and was describing the picture on it. Well, I decided to do an internet search and I actually found a picture. It was exactly what I remembered.


I've been having lots of fun finding songs to purchase but I wanted to listen to some new music too. As I mentioned, I don't know any new music. The newest that I had was the Evolution of Robin Thicke. I remembered that a while back my friend Karen posted about a concert that she went to and had a great time. She had gone to see Maroon 5. So, I decided to buy two of their songs to see if I liked it. I LOVED it and ended up buying the entire CD. I listen to it all the time now. Thank you, Karen, for posting about that and without knowing it, helping me to learn some newer music.

I'm anxious to see what Dominic loads on it next.

I'm curious. What's on your iPod?

Just Pictures

Believe it or not, I don't have any stories to tell today. I'll just post some pictures from the last few days. The babies have been learning a lot of tricks.

This end table has become quite popular with Brooke and Nathan. They both love to crawl through it.


Every now and then, I hear Nathan saying, "Ah? Ah?" That means that he wants me to look at something. It could be a toy or him. Here is what he wanted me to look at the other day. He was chillin' on the very edge of the couch.


Lenny had to put his engineer hat on him and one on Thomas too.


Brooke rarely sits still for very long at all. I was surprised to see her laying on the floor with her dolls. She was laying there for a few minutes.


And then a little later in the day, I looked over and saw her laying on the couch reading a book.


Nathan loves books too.


Lenny getting ready to eat his smiley face breakfast. Gotta love the pancake puff to make perfect eye muffins.


Nathan has been watching Lenny jump around on his Thomas bouncy ball with the handle (I don't know what it is really called). Nathan found a ball and decided to give it a try.


I think that my kids may actually be musicians. I sure hope so. Papaw Wood better get ready to start some music lessons for these kids.




From the Mouth of a Three Year Old

Over the weekend, Lenny had a cold. He woke up sounding sick and as the day went on he sounded worse. He was playing and had to stop to blow his nose. When he was done he said, "Oh, I have a terrible cold."

What Will Be Next?

Things have really changed around our house since having kids. It started with Lenny when my sewing room was converted into a nursery. But I loved it because it meant that we were having a baby that we so desperately wanted. It was so much fun decorating his room and then bringing him home to it. Then as Lenny started to approach his second birthday, we decided that he needed a bigger room. So at that point, we lost the guest room. That was OK too because we were able to make a cool Thomas the Tank Engine room for him that he loved. And we knew that we wanted another baby and the nursery room would be filled again.

Little did we realize that we would get two new babies at one time. That threw a wrench into everything. The nursery was perfect for one baby but not two. And we had just given Lenny the big room and I wasn't going to take him out of there. We knew that we had some time to figure things out so we decided to "think about that tomorrow".

When the babies came, Dominic had to give up his truck so that we could get a van. Dominic started driving the XTerra and I drove the van. Before buying the van, we couldn't all go somewhere together as a family because we couldn't fit three car seats in the XTerra. Dominic reminds me every so often that he lost his truck. Poor guy, he did like having a truck.

Soon the babies stopped sleeping in the pack n play in our room and we absolutely knew that they couldn't sleep together in the same crib and room. At that time, we lost our computer room. Brooke took over that room and Nathan took over the nursery so that all three of them would have their own room.

You think it would end there right? Wrong. Just about a week ago, our dining room was converted to a play room for Lenny. Yep, we lost that too. Oh, don't worry about Brooke and Nathan--they have the family room. The kids have taken over every other room in this house including the living room where Lenny now plays his computer games. Dominic and I only have our bedroom and bathroom that belongs to us. And sometimes, we find about thirty Thomas engines peaking out from the bedskirt under our bed.

Who would have thought five years ago that our lives would be like this. I certainly did not. I thought I was doomed to a life without kids. And to be honest, I'm so very very happy that it has turned out this way. I love every bit of it. I would give up anything in this house for our kids--actually, I think we already have.

Lenny loves his new play room. Now he doesn't have to go to the basement if he wants to ride his Thomas train.

He even takes his brother and sister for a ride.



The pictures below are from this past week. Brooke and Nathan were watching Lenny play in his new play room. They aren't allowed in there very often because Lenny has many toys with small parts. But Lenny still plays with them and their toys in the family room. I'm sure Lenny enjoys some time alone to play with his toys without them taking it from him.


Brooke was just being silly. She had milk all over her face. She's still a very messy drinker and eater. When it comes to food, Brooke just shovels it in and doesn't waste any time. She is always done way before Nathan. Nathan picks up one piece at a time. He takes a very long time to eat.
As I've said before, Nathan loves to put things on his head. My Mom keeps reminding me to put hats on Nathan so that he would be used to it. I always forget with him but I never did with Lenny. Well, Nathan absolutely loves it. He thinks he is so cool with his hat on.


He also LOVES footballs. He will find them and carry them around. We are certain he is going to be a sports fan. And he can throw it far too. It's cute to watch him walk around with a football in one hand and do other things with the other one.

I just liked this picture of Brooke.


From the Mouth of a Three Year Old

A week or so ago I was taking the kids to one of Lenny's friend's house for a preschool co-op with some other moms. We were driving down the road and Lenny was asking if we were there yet. I told him we weren't and it wouldn't be much longer. All of a sudden a car in front of us needed to turn left off of the road so we had to stop. Lenny said with a disappointed voice, "Oh, we were going so nicely."

Ahoy There

This weekend we were finally able to get together with Dominic's brother and his family to exchange Christmas gifts. Here are a few pictures of one of the gifts that they gave to the kids--a pirate ship.

All three of them can play in it together with plenty of room.

Brooke steering the ship.

Nathan steering it. His eyes are closed but this is the best picture I got of him. He wouldn't stop moving long enough to take a good picture.

Brooke trying to shoot the cannon.

Nathan took the cannon off of the ship to figure it out. He was so interested in it.

Lenny looking for land.

Lenny had so much fun. There is a map on the ship too and Lenny would say that he needed to check his map. And he would go look at it and give us three destinations just like they do on Dora. He was having a blast. This ship came complete with a telescope, cannon that fires, and music that is motion activated. How cool! Thank you Uncle Robbie, Aunt Tracey, Anthony and Catherine for the very cool pirate ship that you gave the kids. We all love it.

We've had a very busy week, lots of play groups and parties. It's been a lot of fun but it hasn't left me much time to update the blog.

Here are some pictures from the last week.

For some reason, all of our kids think that they are acrobats. Brooke and Nathan both try to stand up on their rocking horse.

Lenny enjoying some popcorn while watching a movie.

Nathan has really figured out this remote control thing.

The next few pictures were taken at a playground inside the mall. Lenny's playgroup was meeting there that day. All of my kids had a great time. Nathan is such a shy little boy though. It's so cute to see him. He stayed close to me for a while and then he finally started walking around but very cautiously. If it had been only my kids there, he would have been climbing all over everything.

Brooke on the other hand was visiting with every single person there. There is only one entrance to the playground and I was next to the door so I knew that she couldn't get out without me seeing her. I would look for her and she would be sitting with a group of women that I didn't even know. She was just socializing with them. It was so cute.

Lenny was having fun with his friends and running around all over. He always makes sure that he says something to Brooke and Nathan. He is very proud of them.



For this picture, it was one of the times when Lenny came to check on his babies. He came over and said, "Nathan! Is that Nathan?" And then laughed hysterically and ran off. He was acting very silly and loud too. It was funny, I'm sure everyone heard it.

From the Mouth of a Three Year Old

The other day Lenny was watching a movie. He was on the couch all covered with his blanket and looked very cozy. It was time to push the play button. He called in to me to ask if I would push play. I told him that I would. He said, "Thank you, mommy. I appreciate that."