How can I catch up???

Hi.  My name is Rachel.  In case you have all completely forgotten me, I thought I would re-introduce myself.

It has been so so long since I have posted and I feel like I just keep putting it off because I don't even know where to begin in order to catch up.  And then I realized that I don't have to catch up at all.  I might try and write a few things about what we did over the summer and such, but I am just going to start from where we are today!

Ty started Kindergarten!  He is in the dual immersion program for Spanish here at our neighborhood school.  He is loving it.  He comes home each day with a new phrase he has learned and it is so great for him.  He goes from 8:30 to 2pm everyday (except for thursday, when it is a minimum day) so it is a long day without him!  Ty comes straight home from school and loves to get his homework done right away.  He loves reading and writing and spelling.  He is such a social butterfly and we just cant leave school without saying "nos vemos" to all his friends.  His teacher said he has quite the little fan club of little ladies that follow him around.  When I asked him about it, he just said "Oh those girls?  They are just my friends.  Sometimes they watch me read or play computer games and when they sit and look up at me, it kinda looks like a puppy."  I tried so hard not to laugh and I understood completely the phrase "puppy dog eyes".  Ty has lost several teeth and he is really proud of it.  He is an incredible big brother and sometimes I feel like he is a 10 year old.  He helps me out so much with Andrew and the three of these boys are just as cute and sweet as can be.

Cam does Joy School and, despite my initial concerns, I think things are going great.  Last year was kind of hit or miss with Cam and Joy School.  Sometimes he would absolutely love it.  Sometimes he would throw a tantrum on the doorstep and refuse to go inside.  So, I was really worried about it this year and wondered if it would be better for him to just do a public preschool.  But with such a great group of women, and such cute kids for Cam to be with, I thought we would try it again.  I am so glad we did and so far, we haven't had any problems!  Cam`has just grown leaps and bounds these past few months.  He is really beginning to be able to communicate how he feels and what he needs and it has been paramount in us getting past a little bit of a rough patch.  His most common phrase now is "My body has too much energy, Mom!"  And as soon as he says that, I let him pop on his shoes and run laps up and down the parking garage.  It is so awesome!  Or after a long time sitting in his library storytime class (30 min) he usually said the other day "My tummy hurts from being calm for such a long time.  I was jumping in my mind though."  When you ask him what he wants to be, he says he wants to be an Olympic athlete...in anything.  I wouldn't put it past him!

Andrew is still a wonder-baby.  He really is.  Easiest baby yet.  He eats and sleeps and smiles. 22 pounds of happiness.  He doesn't cry all that often.  He usually is just content watching Ty or Cam color or play with toys.  Some of the kids at school and their parents nicknamed him "Happy Baby" because he gives the best smiles to anyone who even looks his way.  The nickname kind of stuck and now everyone we pass hollers out "Hi Happy Baby!"  Kids I have never seen before are smiling and waving at little Drew, who grins and giggles at all the attention.  He started crawling a few weeks ago and since then he has become a bit more of a handful.  He LOVES loves the bathroom.  LOVES.  He crawls straight for it as soon as I put him down.  He goes straight to the bath and giggles.  Now that he is mobile, he isn't as content just sitting around in his carseat and watching all the action.  But, since he is just a crawler and not a walker yet, when we are outside, that makes it pretty tough.  He loves the sand...and takes big handfuls of it and puts it right in his mouth.  He crawls right through big puddles.  He gets sooo dirty.  This is that hard phase where they want to be able to play, but without walking it is pretty tricky, especially with all the rain we have been getting (no crawling on that yucky ground!)  I can't believe he is going to be one at the end of the year.  How did this year pass so quickly??  Even as I was typing that, I can still remember some of those nights a few months back when I felt like I was going to die from lack of sleep and I wondered why time was going so slowly :)

Scotty and I have been doing great as well.  I don't really know what to say about us...we are just parents now and we don't do anything interesting :)  Scott plays softball with a bunch of friends and has a blast.  I try to be "crafty" and I painted horizontal stripes on our living room wall.  I totally love it!  Now all I need to do is update the family picture so we have one with all three kids in it!

A few McPhie moments:
Last week, Ty and Cam were arguing over a toy and Cam started to run away with it and Ty stuck out his leg to stop him from getting away.  Cam tripped and hit is forehead on the corner of the piano bench and just started gushing blood.  Of course I stayed totally calm (yeah right) and handled the situation with ease (screamed and called for Scott who had just barely walked in the door from work).  It totally freaked me out and I realized I need to work on my response to things like that, as I am sure it won't be our last experience.

Our neighbor came by the other afternoon to bring a knife back to us that he saw the boys playing with and assumed they had just left it out on accident.  I told him it didn't belong to us and he said he was sure he saw the kids trying to cut branches off a tree with it.  I turned around and saw two little heads peeking around the corner of the kitchen and I said "Do you guys know where this knife came from?"  Silence.  Cam's sweet little voice said (shaking a bit) "So, I told a tiny little lie before and now I am ready to tell the whole truth.  Aren't you proud of me mom?"  My boys playing unattended, out by the street, with a knife they FOUND IN THE GUTTER, trying to cut off branches from a tree.  Yep, I am a super proud mom.  I am doing an awesome job at this mothering business.

On Sunday, Cam was drawing during sacrament meeting and he drew a big circle.  Then, inside that circle he drew another circle just barely smaller than the outer circle and then a small circle next to that.  Then two lines coming out the side and two lines coming out the bottom.  He looked up at me and said "Look Mom!  I drew you!  Here are your arms and your legs, and your one big eye and your one little eye!"  I love that he said that as if it was common knowledge that I have one big eye and one little eye (duh, mom!)

We have totally gotten into the World Series as our very own San Fran Giants made it!  We have watched both game one and game two with the boys in their Giants shirts, sitting on the couch, having snacks right before dinner time, cheering "lets go Giants, lets go!"  I am pretty sure they don't really have any idea what is going on, but when we cheer, they cheer.  It is super cute.

The boys are really excited for Halloween and keep changing their minds about what they want to be.  Cam recently asked what I want to be and when I told him I wasn't sure he said he thought I should be a princess cause I already kind of look like one.  Made my day!

Hopefully many more posts will follow!
(Cute pic of Scott and Drew at the high school football game)