How McPhies do Holidays

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Christmas.  LOVE.  And this year, it was practically perfect.

Lets actually start back at Thanksgiving!

The "Master in the Kitchen" Scott did his thing again this year.  All the planning.  All the cooking.  All the cleaning.  ALL OF IT!  Which pretty much makes Thanksgiving the greatest day of the year.  He brined the turkey again this year, made his famous stuffing from scratch, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry salad (new recipe this year and we loved it!), corn dish, and even homemade rolls.  You should have seen him in his apron rolling out the dough :)  We had the missionaries over for Thanksgiving dinner and it was just wonderful.  We had a blast.

After Thanksgiving, all the holiday festivities began.  The day after we brought out all the storage bins (yes, all two) and the Christmas tree and decorated the house.  One perk of living in a small place is that it doesn't take much to make the whole house feel like you live at the north pole!  It was like living in heaven for the whole month.  The smell of cider simmering on the stove and seeing all the twinkling lights is enough make me cry.

We started the month off with the Christmas parade in Los Altos with lots of friends.  A few days later we had our annual Gingerbread House Evening with the Walkers and this year I even did some research and found out the best ways to cut graham crackers so that the houses actually stay standing.  And oh, ours did.  And with all the candy on it, that was a definite miracle!  We ate pizza and candy and felt so amazingly happy by the end of the night!

The next week we were able to go to the Walk Through Bethlehem down in San Jose.  This has to be my all-time favorite Christmas tradition and it did not disappoint.  We talked with the roman soldiers, we helped make bricks, we used a real saw to shave bark off a tree, and cleared the path as Mary and Joseph made their way to the stable.  We watched the wisemen come in (on real camels!) and saw the shephards worship baby Jesus.  It really is incredible.

We made so many cookies and candies.  We decorated sugar cookies for classrooms and preschool friends.  We delivered treats to our neighbors.  And can't forget to make an extra batch so that we have lots around the house.

I was able to have a few fun birthday outings with my friends.  These women here mean so much to me and made me feel so special.  Love my girls!

We attended a Ugly Sweater Christmas party and white elephant gift exchange.  I love these kinds of parties.  So fun to get out (without the kids) and have fun and laugh with all our friends.  The Nelsons really know how to throw a party.  And the white elephant gift exchange was a blast.  I didn't tell Scott, but one of our white elephant gifts was a snow globe with a shirtless picture of him in it.  He was definitely shocked when someone opened  up that gift :)

Every year we go to the apartment management company's Christmas party and the boys were extra excited this year because they got to order salmon (their new favorite food) and could barely wait through dinner until Santa arrived and delivered a present to each of the children.  It was really fun!

We did dinner and game nights with such fun friends and even tried to put our kids down at other houses so we could stay up late and play (we really think we much younger) and what ended up happening was that our kids stayed up til 11 in their sleeping bags.  We still had so much fun!

We walked down Christmas Tree Lane in Palo Alto with some great friends and enjoyed the wonderful weather and all the lights and decorations and an entire bag of homemade caramel popcorn!!  (Thanks Steph!)

We saw the movie Frozen on Christmas Eve and it was a hit.  I think I might have loved it more than anyone in our family, but the boys had a great time and keep asking if we can see it again.  Scott fell asleep for part of the movie.  We came home and had some delicious soup for dinner and then the boys headed to bed right on time just giddy with excitement.  They tried so hard to stay awake to hear Santa and Ty swears he heard a "ho, ho, ho" in the middle of the night (probably just a homeless guy outside) and Cam swears he heard reindeer paws on the roof (probably just rats running through the walls).  

Christmas morning was magical.  Just magical.  The boys loved their presents from Santa, we ate Christmas morning casserole, per McPhie tradition, and munched on candy all afternoon.  Then Scott got busy in the kitchen again and whipped up several delicious Christmas dishes.  But nothing says Christmas like our favorite christmas tradition of "shlub" (thanks Laytons!") and we toasted with our cups filled to the brim.  (Shlub is a frozen banana/pineapple yummy mixture that you cut little pieces of and put in your cups and then add sprite)  It was such a great day.  We had so much fun the rest of the break just being home with Scott, playing with new toys and Drew riding his new bike.  On New Years Eve day, Scott took Ty and Cam up to Bear Valley and went skiing.  They left early early in the morning and didn't get home until bedtime.  We had a quick dinner of pizza bagel bites, mozzerella sticks, and yummy appetizers and did our countdown at 8pm.  The boys were asleep probably by 8:15.  They say it was one of their favorite days of the break.  (Me too.  I got up and cleaned the house first thing in the morning and guess what??  It stayed clean!  All day!  I did still have Andrew with me, but I didn't let him make any messes :))

Honestly, I look back and can't believe how fast December went by.  It makes me sad that it is already over, but the truth is, there was so much fun and happiness and family memories packed in there and I couldn't have planned it out better.  Don't get me wrong...we still had our share of timeouts, our "oh, darn, I think you need to go to bed early", and our "I don't hear children that scream and shout and roll on the floor" moments.  But December just has a way of erasing all the bad memories and helping you focus on those wonderful precious moments.  I think that is how I want every month to be :)

Perfect way to start off the new year...with a goal to make every month a happy month!

 

A Few Interesting Facts

In no particular order...

*Yes, we are still alive over here.  Life still chugs along and we are still happy.  Even though I haven't blogged about it in awhile.

*The kids are getting big.  Huge, in fact.  I can't believe that Cameron is almost 5 (well, at the end of the summer).  Drew is 18 months.  Ty is 6 1/2.  Can't forget the 1/2.  He always corrects me if I just tell people he is 6.

*We started reading the first Harry Potter book together as a family.  Some mothers might judge me, but I think they are just fine.  If it is just their own little minds, Voldemort won't be too creepy and nothing will be too scary.  They are loving it!  Every single night we snuggle up and read a few pages. It will take us forever to finish the book, but to be honest, I don't even care if we ever do.  I just love the time together.  And I love hearing them talk about going to "Warthog" instead of "Hogwarts" or say that they wish "Professor Bumblebee" was real.  Cam gets confused between Dumbledore and the transformers.

*Andrew bites his binkis.  Like, he really bites them hard until the little plastic part just hangs there.  And since that is a very real choking hazard, I just throw them away.  I keep telling myself that since he bites them, I should just ween him from the binki.  And then I remember that I LOVE the binki and I am not ready for him to give it up.  So, I just bought a new package at target today.  Sigh.

*I am already listening to Christmas music.  Kenny G Christmas music, to be exact.

*I really miss my family.

*Cameron says the funniest and most amazing things.  He is at that perfect stage where he still can't say his "r"s or pronounce everything just perfectly, but he talks so well and can really tell you what he is thinking so it just sounds so funny when he makes a mistake.  Today he asked for "blettuce" on his ham sandwich.

*The kids love swimming.  All three of them.  They could do it all afternoon.  (And we did!!!) I love it when they swim.  They get all worn out and sleep so well.  Win, win.  Plus Ty and Cam LOVE going around without their shirts on (they get that from Scott).  Ty often says "I am going to go look in the mirror at how tan I am!" and Cam says "I want to look at my muscles!" Win, win, win!

*Drew is at that super fun stage where he throws a tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants or if I take something away from him that he does want.  Makes me feel like such an awesome mom when he throws himself down on the floor of wherever we are and then screams.

*I have been drinking green smoothies like mad lately.  Morning and night (except when we were on vacation).  Am I crazy that I love drinking them even though they taste like grass sometimes??  It just makes me feel like I am being healthy.

*Scott is a handsome devil.  Loving his job and knocking everyone's socks off.

*During the summer, the boys have to do a little bit of reading and writing everyday.  Some days it is a hassle and other days they spend all day just reading or writing in their journals.  I told them they could write about anything they wanted.  Ty decided he was going to make a "Battle Notebook"  spelled "Badel Notbuk".  Every day he writes something new about what people think when they are in battle or what is the best way to win a battle.  Today he made a list of all the things you would need in a battle.  They included ax, slingshot, bombs, and armor.
You guys, where have I gone wrong???

*I haven't cooked dinner in a long time.  I mean, actually cooked dinner.  Lately I am trying to run the kids hard so they get all their energy out and when we get home we just do anything that takes less than 10 minutes.  Sometimes even Mac n Cheese takes too long.  We are all about PBJs, yogurt and toast, smoothies, chicken nuggets, scrambled eggs, quesadillas.  I feel bad about it.  But I also love it.  I wonder if I will ever be good at this...

*I love the smell of our new laundry detergent.  It is just Arm and Hammer and I only bought it at Costco because there was a coupon.  But I am seriously addicted to this smell.  Today Cam asked if he could snuggle on my lap and I have to admit I was half just loving that cute little body and half smelling his freshly washed shirt.

*I haven't cut my hair in almost a year.  Actually it has probably been over a year...anyway, I am ready to cut it.  Not super short.  But enough.  I want some layers.  But not too many.  Yep, now you can see why it has taken me a year to do this.  But that is my one goal for myself for the month of July.  GO GET A HAIRCUT.

*How high is too high for a 4 year old to climb?  Because everywhere I go, Cam manages to get to the highest place possible and people always give me that look like I am being totally irresponsible for letting him get that high.

*Drew loves kicking and throwing balls.  He is such a "ball" kid.  Can't be seen without one.  Can't go anywhere without one.  If you have one, he is your best friend.

*Drew also thinks it is the most fun game to climb in the car and instead of getting in his car seat, he climbs to the drivers seat.  And just waits for me to get there.  Usually I am the last one out of the house, I turn and lock the door, my arms are full of whatever we are bringing and I walk to my door to set it all down and he is sitting there and then he just laughs his little head off.  And his cute little body shakes all over.  And you can see all three dimples.  It is so amazing.

Lots of love from us!!

Can I get a little credit here?

I know I haven't posted in a long time.  I know I haven't posted pictures in a long time even though I said I would.  I know, I know!
But can I at least get a little credit for changing our title to "The McPhie Pride: Scott, Rach, and the Three Cubs" (updating for the third child that we had one year ago) and I also put up an updated picture that includes our little cub!
Phew!  Man, that was exhausting work!

I am so mad because I really have so many things to blog about and so many fun, exciting, cute things happen all the time and I always think "Oh, I am going to take a picture and blog about this" and then I never do.

Let me at least blog about a few things that I have really wanted to put out there:

First off, my husband is pretty amazing.  He is so manly.  He can grow a big ol' thick beard, he begs me to let him buy a motorcycle, he wrestles with the boys any chance he gets, he plays the electric guitar and loves heavy metal.  Pretty manly stuff.
But...he has a...how do I put this...he has a "matronly" side to him as well.
Scott loves Panda cam.   Have you ever heard of it?  I hadn't.  Scott found out that some zoo (I think maybe the San Diego Zoo?) got a baby panda bear.  And they have a camera on it ALL DAY LONG.  And people can go and watch what the baby and the mama do all the time.  Usually it is just sleep or eat or really boring stuff.
But then randomly I will get an email or a text that says "LOOK AT PANDA CAM RIGHT NOW!" and Scott will tell me that the mama panda was snuggling the baby and it was so cute.  Or one time the mama was playing with the baby and they were wrestling and Scott just loved it.  I think it is pretty darn cute too.  But what is even cuter is that Scott likes it.  And watches it.  And that he thinks it is pretty endearing to watch a mama panda snuggle her baby.
Scott also really loves to cook.  He volunteered (I really mean it when I say volunteered, like he said he would do it all by himself and I didn't ask, or beg, or prod in any way) to cook the ENTIRE Thanksgiving meal all by himself this year.  And he did.  He did everything.  On the Saturday before, he took Ty and Cam to Costco and Safeway and was gone for probably two hours and came home with a trunk full of groceries and everything he needed for his big day of cooking.  He started brining the turkey a few days in advance and the night before he even worked out a "cooking schedule" where he had the different dishes all organized as to what time he needed to have them ready to go into the oven so that everything could be baked and ready for the big meal.  He cooked pretty much all day long.  He made: a perfectly brined turkey, homemade stuffing (from scratch!), mashed potatoes,  gravy, jello, mexican corn dish, candied yams, and then pumpkin pie for dessert.  (Ok, actually, the pumpkin pie was bought from Costco).  Everything turned out beautiful and tasty and I have pictures of it all...but they are still on the camera (sorry folks, I don't think I will ever really become totally computer savy).  I was so impressed.  And to be completely honest, there really is nothing more manly than a man in an apron.  Don't believe me?  Just wait til you see these pictures!


So many other things I just can't ever catch up on...my birthday in December and Scott to me to Morton's Steakhouse and then to see Twilight, my friends took me to dinner at Pluto's for my birthday,  so many fun Christmas traditions and parties.  All last weekend was pretty much blissful and we spent the holidays with such close friends and had so much fun.  We LOVED Christmas Day with just our sweet little boys and we opened gifts galore, staying in our pajamas all day, opened up all our new toys, ate delicious food, and just had a wonderful time.  Then our sweet little baby Drew (who isn't really a baby anymore) turned one just yesterday!  I know it deserves a post of its own, but I fear that I just won't get around to it and I just have to say how amazing he is.  Our little "Happy Baby" (as all of the kids at Ty's school call him) has truly brought more happiness into our family than we ever thought possible.  I recently had a mother from Ty's kindergarten class, who I know and chat with just casually, tell me that she and her husband have decided to have another baby and it is all because of Andrew.  He really just brings so much light and joy and happiness and it radiates out of him and hits everyone around him.  We are so blessed to have him in our family.

This has turned into a very long post and it is now...yep, 1am.  Good for you Rach.  Guess I will be taking advantage of "Sunday afternoon nap" time!
 

Funny

Lots of funny stuff has been happening at our house lately.

Cam told me his first joke yesterday.  I laughed my head off.  It came totally out of the blue.
Cam: Why did the chicken eat the goose?
Me: I don't know, why?
Cam: Because the goat ate the human baby!

Scott made me laugh so hard this morning.  So hard.  He did it by explaining to me what happened last night in the middle of the night when I suddenly heard a huge, loud crash!  It woke me up out of a dead sleep and I yelled "Scott!" and I heard his voice coming from the floor on the other side of the bed.  When I asked what was going on he replied "I don't want to talk about it" and so, because it was like 3am, I just rolled over and went back to sleep.  But in the morning, the truth came out.  In the middle of the night, Scott suddenly remembered that he needed to plug his phone in and that he had left his phone on the couch.  So, assuming he was in the middle of our king size bed, he knew he would have to do a complete roll to get to the edge and so he used his leg and kicked himself to the side.  Unfortunately, he was right on the edge already.  He FLEW off the bed.  I didn't see it, but he must truly have been flying to reach the ironing board that was set up all the way against the wall, break said ironing board and send the iron crashing down onto himself.  After I found out he was okay...I laughed my head off.  I still can't stop laughing.

Last weekend, Scott and I went on a date.  We like each other.  Even when the other person is a little bit weird, we still like him/her.  But Scott says he might be rethinking taking me into public after our date.  We decided to go see Skyfall (the new 007 movie) and the theater was packed.  Full to the brim. Not an open seat.  So you know how at the beginning of movies there is that lion that roars and then the movie starts?  Well, that part came and suddenly, I had this thought that I could probably make the exact same sound as that lion.  It all  happened so quickly.  I heard the lion roar, wondered/assumed that I could make a pretty good "roar" myself, and then simultaneously the theater went silent right as I let my best "ROOOOAAAAR".  It sounded much better in my head and I don't think I even realized it had actually come out of my mouth until Scott turned to me and whispered "What are you doing??!!"  Luckily, there were no more outbursts after that.

Other updates:

Our kitchen floor is being replaced after my heels completely sank through the flooring.  I am happy that the problem is being fixed.  And sad that it is happening the week before Thanksgiving.  Wrong week to have your kitchen out of order.

Drew stands and walks around with a little digger/walker toy.  I can't believe it.  I really can't.  He is going to be walking soon.  Feels unreal that he is almost one.

Halloween was a blast.  Ty was a fireman, Cam was a SWAT guy, and Andrew was a...a...baby tiger?  Or the boys called him Baby Jaguar.  Some kind of baby jungle cat.  We had so much fun at Halloween parties and Trick or Treating with friends.

Should go without saying that I am already listening to Christmas music.  I have been for some time now.  My favorite is to listen to (get ready for this one folks) "Michael McLean's Forgotten Carols" and turn it to the "Homeless" song and watch Scott go crazy with anger.  He HATES that CD and really, really HATES that song.  It puts me right in the Christmas mood.

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)

This is the real deal, people.

What???  Am I really posting on my blog?  This is not a dream people, this is really happening.  Listen up.

I feel like life just kinda happens around here and I have no time at all to sit down and write it down so I can remember these fun years forever. Well, fun and also crazy and hard. But still fun.

In no particular order:

Ty had a birthday! He is our wonderful 5 year old! Scott took him skiing on Saturday Feb 25th (the day before his birthday). Ty was over the moon excited for his special trip with Dad. They woke up early and left to get to the ski resort right when it opened. As soon as they got there and started changing from pjs to their ski clothes, Ty suddenly threw up all over Scott and all over the car! Poor Scotty spent the next hour cleaning up the inside of the car and wondering if he was going to have turn around and drive home. But Ty sat patiently and said he was feeling great and ready to ski. So those boys spent the whole morning and afternoon on the slopes and by the end of the day, Ty was doing the bunny hill like a pro! (Did I mention that Ty has never been on skiis before? So it was the bunny hill all day long, but I think that for his first time that is pretty good!) He keeps asking when they can go back.

When the boys got back, Ty still acted like he wasn't feeling well and was "under the weather" for a day or so. Nothing too bad. Oh...but this began the worst few weeks of my life! Right after that, Cam got this yucky flu bug that was going around here. TOTALLY. WIPES. YOU. OUT. Seriously, it was awful. So Cam got it. Then I got it. Then Scott got it. Then mine turned into the worst sinus infection ever. Then Scott's turned into pneumonia. Then Cam's cough (yes he still had it after three weeks) turned into bronchitis. I am just thanking my lucky stars that little Drew didn't get it. Nothing short of a miracle.

In other news, Ty lost his first tooth. Soo cute! He feels so old now and seems particularly interested in how many teeth others have lost. He asks everyone he can! He even leaned over during general conference and whispered to me "Mom, do you think President Monson lost all his baby teeth yet?"

Ty also got accepted into the Dual Immersion program at our neighborhood school and I am really excited about it. Walking distance to school and lots of friends are going to be there with him. Can't believe I am going to have a kindergartener soon!

And then there is our darling Cam. It has been so fun to watch Cam "grow" into loving little Drew. He begs to hold him all the time now and always tries to make him smile. He loves him a little too much even...a few days ago I was trying to discipline him (and was holding the baby at the same time) and Cam kept looking at the baby and each time I would remind him that he needed to be looking at me until finally Cam just said "Ok mom, but hurry. I just love the baby so much I can't stop looking at him!"

Other favorite quote of Cameron's these past few weeks Cam when I was explaining to Cam why he didn't get a sticker for his kindness and obedience chart. He was so sad that Ty got a sticker and he didn't and I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to him about how obedience brings happiness. But after going through my explanation and reminding him that the chart is called the "kindness and obedience chart" and so that is how he needs to behave, he promptly replied "I want to change my chart to 'the wickedness chart'".

And then there is Drew. Drewby. King of the Babies. Wonder-baby. Drew-Drew Binks (the boys thought of that one...from Jar Jar Binks in star wars). This boy is the center of attention at all times in our house. When we go to parks Ty always wants to take Drew on walks and push the stroller around. Cam invites complete strangers into our house to look at his little brother (true story). He is smiling like you wouldn't believe and it is just marvelous. He is starting in that laughing phase...just little giggles here and there. But last night Scotty got him to do a really good real laugh. It made tears come to my ears to hear that precious little boy laugh. He coos and squaks ALL day long. I think he is going to be a real talker, this one. He is almost always just a happy little trooper that goes from place to place with us and doesn't really make a sound until he is hungry. We love our little guy.

The latest

So, I know that what I really need to do is post pictures...but I am the worst mom in the world and I am not great at taking pictures. I do have some pictures, but I never have the time to move them from the camera to the computer.

So if you only like reading posts with pictures...you are out of luck! Sorry to disappoint. But this is what we have been up to lately..

We got Ty all signed up for Kindergarten! He is so excited! He was definitely NOT excited about his Kindergarten shots, but now that those are over with, he is just looking forward to learning Spanish (he is doing the dual immersion program at the school), walking or riding his bike to school (the school is literally a stone throw away from our house), going to school where his cousins go (sad that this is Linsdsey's last year at the school, but happy that Lucy and Sophie will be there!), and just genuinely excited to learn. Ty is just doing phenomenal at reading and he is picking up books left and right and reading them. We are just so proud of him.

Cam is so super fun. He is wild and active, but he has really started turning the corner on obedience. I think that the older he gets, the more he "gets it" as far as how to listen and be obedient and make good choices. Before this, I think he mostly made decisions based on what was the most dangerous thing to do or what I had previously told him not to do.

He is loving earning stickers for his obedience chart and he has recently been enthusiastically saying "Sure Mom!" when I ask him to help. He loves little Andrew and keeps asking when Andrew will be able to play "people" with him (that means playing all the little army men that Cam has).

Ty and Cam lately have been working on their "dirt biking skills" on their bikes. When I asked them what it means to have dirt biking skills they showed me what they have been working on with their bikes. They ride down to the end of the parking lot and then ride as fast as they can towards me. Just at the last minute, they slam on their brakes and then turn the wheel so that their bikes skid to the side. Ty can get his bike to do a complete 180 degree turn. Where do they come up with these things?? Heaven help me when these kids are older.

Andrew is a little piece of heaven. He is an angel baby. (You can't see the halo in his pictures, but it is there!). He sleeps 10-12 hours at night..every night for the past few weeks. He eats so great and then when he is awake, he is just so happy and smiley. He dirties more diapers than I ever thought was possible (he is almost 8 weeks old and we just bought our 4th box of costco diapers...216 in each (I think)...that is a TON of diapers!) But I love that he never has a tummy ache! We are loving this little guy. The boys call him "King of the Babies" all the time now. I don't know how it got started, but it has totally stuck. They always ask when "King" is gonna wake up or holler "Mom, the King smiling at me!" Last night in Cam's prayer he blessed Dad, Mom, Ty-Ty, Camer, and King of the Babies. I love it so much!

In other news, Valentines Day was a blast. The night before Valentines Day, I made pink heart shaped pancakes and pink scrambled eggs and hashbrowns for the family. I did a fun meal for the boys the night before so that I could do a fun dinner for just me and Scott on actual Valentines day. The boys had mac n cheese and hopped off to bed and Scott and I had the most delicious Honey Dijon Baked Salmon, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and then for dessert we had chocolate fondue with fresh strawberries and bananas. I think it might have been my favorite Valentines Day yet. We stayed home and didn't have to deal with reservations or over-priced meals or babysitters. I got to get all ready for Scotty and do my hair and make-up and feel pretty, but then as soon as dinner was over I changed into my pajamas and we got to just cuddle on the couch watching tv til we fell asleep.

Scott has been working long long hours for the past several weeks. He gets up to leave early early in the morning and doesn't get home til way after the kids are in bed. We miss him so much and it is such a treat for the boys when Dad is home to tuck them into bed..way better than when Mom tucks them in :)

Anyway, I can't think of much else to say and I have a cute little baby looking up at me and smiling and I just want to hold him!