Oh boy these guys are BUSY.  We have been on a roller coaster lately.  Work is ramping up for both Ed and I and so is weekend recreation.  Jr. had a good soccer season.  What started as a gang-esque tackling karate chopping not listening little troop of apes actually turned out to be a pretty decent soccer team.  There was still a lot of pre-schooler hijinks at the last game, but the kids could turn the ball around and kick goals - sometimes.  I was pretty proud of him for coming so far himself - plus he loves to play, he always wants in the game. 

Plus I have to say - I am pretty enamored with 4-year old.  He is so sweet lately and his memory is crazy good.  He asks about 4 brazillion questions a day which is a little maddening, but his smarty pants still blow us away.  The things I love about 4-year olds are: telling us that he is hungry and what he wants to eat, eating by himself sometimes, getting himself dressed, putting on his own shoes, getting himself to bed after he gets out if it for the second or third time...  well....  there is a lot of things to love about 4-year olds.  A lot.

Jr. starts pre-school next week.  We are so excited... but he will miss Aimee a little bit.  I wonder what it will be like for Graham without his brother playing with him (knocking him down) all day. 

Graham is a talking wonderboy.  He is pretty much 90% communicado lately.  It might take a time or two to understand EXACTLY what he is saying, but he can speak in sentences and finally let us know what he wants.  It has cleared up a lot of frustrations between us.  He is also spunky.  We lovingly refer to him as the blue eyed devil, that sweet little sh*t, or that nasty little cutie.  He is so stinkin cute, generally happy and so snuggly and loving - but you cross him and BAM! you mess with the bull you get the horns boy.  Like when he can't do everything the exact same as his brother.  M-A-D.  He is still so full of hugs and sweet kisses and sings and dances all day, you quickly forget that he just bashed you in the head with his juice cup.  Cutie.

I am a video.  A very sweet video of a dance party.  These happen about once a day.

I had to add this photo because of Graham's dragon fleece outfit. 

Crayola washable sleeve tattoos.

In the camper up since around 5AM.

I am a video of Fishy the Bullfrog at Canyon Ferry.

Oh man, that bullfrog is FUN!

Fishing baby.

Bullfrog named fishy.

Camping Family.

Last day of soccer.  It was a great season.

Fantastic Four

Dear love of my life, today you turned four.  I can hardly believe it.  When I think about how far we have come since the day you were born I well up with tears.  I am so proud of what an awesome little man you are...  You are very funny.  The things you say are amazing.  You hear us talking and you understand about 90% of it.  Your dad and I have been reduced to spelling almost everything.  Talk about a wake up call, when your kid repeats your words and phrases back to you.  It is like listening to a recording of your voice.  We had better wise up real quick - us parents of yours.  The other day you asked me why I said Oh Crap!  What was I to say?

You are SO smart.  We are stunned at your brilliance some days.  Everyone tells us that you are smart just in case we aren't convinced.  I am excited to help you learn.  I love talking to you about ideas and the world.  You are such an amazing artist too.  You draw some beautifully complex patterns and you can draw recognizable shapes.  I love your sunshines.  I hope you always feel free to create.

Le Artiste!  You begged to paint all morning.  I think it is fantastic.  You asked me about mixing colors to make new colors.

You are pretty nice to your brother, you help him and look out for him all of the time.  We are very lucky for all of your help.  I know it is hard to share with him and put up with his little brother shenanigans.  He is kind of a turkey these days.  I see you two playing nicely one minute and I well up with joy and pride and then the next minute you are beating each other around the head with sticks or rocks and I try to let you sort it out... I call it toddler justice.  I do intervene when it is either too loud or I fear that one of you might end up in the emergency room.  Boy does your brother love you.  So many of the arguments you get into is because he just wants to do what you do.  You are pretty darn special.  All of the daycare kids worship you too.

He is NEVER going to give up his binkeys.

Recognize the hat.  He won't wear his new hat, insists on his brother's old hat.

Let me tell you about your fourth birthday.  You kept asking for a transformer and a skateboard.  The skateboard changed to a motorized scooter, but only just a little to late after your father and I purchased you your first skateboard - SPIDERMAN skateboard.  It is completely boss.

The awesome buildings Papa Bill built you for your car town.  Coming soon.  Promise.

They are SO cool, they deserve two photos.

Your fourth birthday weekend started out with your very first soccer game.  When we got there I think the crowds freaked you out.  You were shy and just wanted to stand by your mommy.  Once the action started you wanted IN!  You were a cautious observer of the game from a safe location behind your coach.  I stood with your grandparents behind the goal and yelled and yelled for you to kick a goal.  You finally did.  We were stoked!  You did a lot of tackling of kids on the other team and even some kids on your team.  You fell down a lot for no reason whatsoever.  It was the most hilarious thing any of us had ever seen.

Star of the Red Rhinos

Coach Sam, Coleman and Zachery with Jr. on the Red Rhinos.

We had a nice family party for you on Saturday and Sunday.  Your grandparents fully spoiled you like crazy.  It was so unbelievably hot here this weekend, it was nice for a change to see the sun.  Your little friend party on Sunday was pretty cute too.  You little stinkers got a hold of squirt guns.  You were ruthless. 

Faith coming over to celebrate your birthday with you.

Jr. and pretty Adrienne surrounded by birthday loot.

Jr.'s buddy and our fantastic neighbor Colter.

Today, your for real birthday, I took the day off to hang with you and do whatever you wanted.  You wanted to watch your new movie - Puss and Boots, play with your new toys and paint outside for a while.  You were so mellow, so quiet.  Your dad came home to hang out with you too, you then took a 3 hour nap.  We wanted to take you fishing or take a hike, nope.  You just wanted to be home and be quiet.  We picked up your brother and hit the park.  Only after a little leftover cake got you going.  It was actually pretty great to spend a nice quiet day with you - snuggling, visiting and playing.

After birthday nap.  Check out the hair.

You start pre-school soon.  It is hard for me to think about you being done at Aimees.  You have learned so much from her and your friends there, it so so safe for you there.  It will be such a big change for all of us.  You are ready though.  You need some bigger tough boys to play with and you will be back with Seri and Adrienne every day.  I am really looking forward to that for you.

The day before Jr. was born.  I was so scared.

Jr. a few days old.

Jr. right around his first birthday.

Jr.'s second birthday.

Jr. at age three.

Your dad and I are looking forward to the next amazing year with you.

Love, your Momma

No New Photos

Sorry in advance. I have been a major slacker on the camera as of late. You will have to put up with some old photos.

Big news for daddy. He has a new job too! Big promotion to bureau chief. He beat out two guys with tons of program experience. It is the next step up in the state food chain. We are all so very proud of him. He starts next week.




As for baby news, I made them move my due date back. I know when bell pepper was made and I can do the math. The bonus of moving the due date back is that if I go overdue again I will have 8 extra days of overdueness - you may notice we are repeating week 18. I would very much like to have a different birth than we had last time.

I didn't feel the baby move at all until Friday, now I feel that little sea monkey moving all of the time. Friday is the ultrasound and yes we will find out the sex, but that isn't what is important. It is important to make sure that bell pepper has all of the pieces and parts and after that, we will find out what bell pepper will be.

What do I think it is? Girl? Maybe. Ed is SURE it is a boy. He says that there is a lot of testosterone going on inside me making me want to wrestle him and push him down sometimes. Couldn't be that he does things that are irritating. No. Baby's fault.

My new job is going well. It was a little boring at first, but is starting to pick up. I need to be busy, I need it to be worth those extra 8 hours a week I am giving up with my baby boy. I need to know that being a Soil Scientist is worth it. My job would be perfect if I could work 3/4 time again. Maybe. . . someday. . . If I was still at my old job, I would have quit when little bell pepper was born. My old job didn't mean enough to me. That is why I need this one to be worth it.



And now after a lot of blah blah blah, lets get to Jr. We went to spend Valentines Day with Jr.'s most beloved Auntie Liesel (Lee-sow as he says it). He enjoyed spending some time running around her house chasing beagles and the cutest terrier ever. He was a champ of a boy. He was great on Saturday night when we took him to Hooters. Yes. You read that right, we took him to Hooters. He adored our waitress ate a hot dog and left with some Hooters crayons.

He was great at the carousel, park and out to lunch on Sunday. He was very excited to play on the Ebola train at the mall and didn't even notice that his mom had left him with Liesel to run and buy some maternity pants. All and all, I would say he gets the MVP of babies for the weekend. It was nice to have three straight days with him.

He is really talking like crazy. I don't know how better to put it. He can count to 10. He repeats sentences in context. He sings sweet little songs. He knows his first name "Junior" and sometimes even knows his last name. He is getting very loving and didn't hesitate with Liesel at all, he is starting to remember people and pick up where he left off with them. His development is amazing.

Oh and he loves pickles, tomatoes, bananas, apples, grapes, berries and oranges over ice cream or cookies. Weirdo.

Janeen and I were joking that we should name our new babies after the food that we craved while we were pregnant. She said that her little girl would be named DQ Blizzard. Mine might be strawberry ice cream or pizza crust.

Baby Sister

Oh no, we don't know if it is a boy or girl yet. Don't worry, we will let you know.

This is Jr.'s "baby sister". He loves to haul around baby sister and feed her, burp her, put her night night. I like that he has dollies to play with, Ed is less than thrilled.

Jr.'s baby sister or baby brother is now a bell pepper.

So Much

So much has happened in the last few weeks. First let me say that Florida was amazing. It was so relaxing. It was just what we needed after the longest coldest December I can remember. Fun in the SUN!







Jr. LOVED his grandparents.





He LOVED his uncle Ock and aunt Patty.


And he LOVED the beach. We didn't do much, just went to the zoo, ate out a couple of times and spent every day at the beach. We loved the sunset. When we could we would head down to the beach, watch the sun set and say "bye bye SUN!" and then have a sunset "mooch".







Thank you MIL and FIL and Bill and Patty for the best week.



Then I had the luxury of a week off. That was one whole week with a whole lotta nothing. Well actually I had a ton of small tasks to check off of my list before crunch time. Today was the first day of crunch time.

I napped, pulled out maternity clothes, sorted Jr.'s clothes, cleaned the house, so on and so forth. I also had a fabulous lunch with Janeen and Carter. Carter was the most AMAZING baby I have ever been around. Carter tooled around his house playing quietly and sweetly. He then behaved like an ANGEL during Janeen and my hour plus lunch. I always say that I hope that our next one is a girl, but damn, I would settle for a little Carter in a heartbeat. His mom claims he is a handful, but I think she is a total liar.

Our weekend was fantastic, Uncle Brian came to visit and Jr. was THRILLED. He brought him a little hot wheels fire truck, we went to the boat show, which was also incredibly thrilling. Jr. got to drive the boats.

Saturday night we took Jr. skiing with Kim and Neil. Just like with everything new, there was a ton of grumpusing. Jr. has a pretty plush little stroller with skis on it that is pulled by his daddy or his uncle Neil. The four adults were thrilled with how slick the whole contraption worked, but Jr. wanted to get out and walk. Of course I totally forgot the camera for the entire weekend.

Sunday we went over to papa's house to see Uncle Bean. Then it was buttoning up the last few details and getting ready for my new job. I had to wake the baby up early, before he was ready and slap some clothes on him, bust him into the car, ditch him at Aimees and then I was off to my new job by 7:45 AM. NUTS!

My first day was LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG. Lots of talking about work, filling out forms, faxing, mailing, shaking hands and not remembering names of my new co-workers. I didn't even step outside until after 3. By the time I left to pick up Selma to the vet I was totally exhausted. Maybe it was the extra two hours I worked today, or maybe it was the first day I worked after two weeks off, or maybe int was just information overload, but I am spent.

I could also blame Turnip Coleman for tireing me out, but I have actually been feeling great lately. Minus the scortching headache I had last week (way to ruin three days of my vacation Turnip!).