Boy, n. : a noise with dirt on it

The title of this post is what is on a sign in the boys room... here is one of those dirty boys. They love playing in the dirt.

Too Many Boys!

If I had my photoshop program, I would have played around with the cover of the book "Too Many Toys" by David Shannon to make it say, "Too Many Boys!" I did a post back in February about this book - the boys wanted to read it again tonight. Alex misread the 1st page (and then the 2nd) and I thought it was kind-of appropriate:

"Spencer had too many boys. They covered the floor of his bedroom and piled up in his closet. They were stashed under his bed. They spilled down the stairs and into the living room. He had big boys in the backyard... and little boys in the bathtub."

Sometimes it feels like we do have them everywhere...

Mama's little attachment

I love watching Weston snooze (sometimes he ends up with funny expressions). He is so fun to hold because he still curls his legs up so tight. He has gotten pretty particular about where he sleeps. His favorite is being held by mama, of course, and his next favorite spot is laying next to mama in her bed. Lately, the only way he will go back to sleep in the early morning hours is if he's right next to me. I really don't want him sleeping in our bed, but we do have to get sleep too. The only other place he sleeps is in the carseat. He has yet to sleep well in the pack 'n play. It's funny how we have to adapt and do things differently with each kid. I never thought I'd be "resorting" to the carseat or having them in our bed - I feel like we're starting bad habits, but I guess that's the way it is right now if we want to get any sleep. (I've always been opposed to having a "family bed". I think Weston knows what he's doing. Is it possible for them to be manipulative at 2 weeks old?)

Weston did sleep through the night a few times this week (in his carseat) - he did an 8, 7, and 6 hour stretch. That was a nice break from the "up every hour" that seems to be the norm for the nighttime. It still takes him at least an hour to go back to sleep and sometimes he's been up for FOUR hours, mostly just wanting to nurse - that's what really takes it out of me. By the way, Da-da seems to be "no good" when it comes to holding him. Weston only likes mama...

more pictures, for curiosity's sake

Since I know you've been wondering how we're doing... here's some more recent pics.










Family of six!











We enjoyed having Papa and Baba here. (Papa even set up the trampoline for the boys.) Come back soon!























Some house pictures... usually when you move, you move "up". We've moved "down" somewhat, as we went from owning our home back to renting. This is just temporary, we hope - we don't know for how long, but I bet you're still curious. Things look pretty similar to our last place. The one thing I wasn't quite ready for is the bunk bed. I didn't think the boys were big enough for it yet, but I had to give in on that so we could fit Nathan, Jared, and Owen in one room. We switched Owen to a big boy bed as soon as we got here, and he's done surprisingly well with the "big"' boys. And Nathan hasn't fallen off the top bunk yet... (by the way, this bunk bed was Alex and Jim's when they were growing up.)











kitchen










living room










baby room /guest room - we just barely could fit a full sized bed in there for guests. The baby isn't sleeping in the crib yet anyway. (I love our keepsake quilt on the wall - given to us as a farewell gift from our OK friends.)










We're in a 3 bed 2 bath, about 1100 sq. ft. home - but you don't get to see pics of our room. Right now, we're on just a mattress on the floor, with no dressers for clothes and no nightstands. Still shopping for new bedroom set...

Things are working out for now. We're grateful for what we have!

It's a girl!

Well, we finally got a "girl" around here - picked one up at K-Mart... (there were no boy baby dolls at the store)

Owen has been having a hard time with the new baby. He wants to hold, poke, and play with Weston. And he has no concept of what it means to leave a sleeping baby (or awake for that matter) alone. "Baby!" (as he pokes at his face or gives him kisses one after another)

I thought if he had his own baby, he might leave "mine" alone. Not really. It was worth a try - all the boys enjoyed it for a while, but Owen really went nuts after getting to play with the doll. He definitely wanted to hold Weston now...Owen was screaming and pulling at him and nearly pulled him right out of my arms.

Nathan and Jared thought the doll could do some good karate moves. And pretty soon the baby was just lying naked on the floor. I'm pretty sure a girl wouldn't leave their baby like that. So much for my little nurturing sons, right...

Oh well. At least we have one doll around here for girl visitors. (Maybe cousin Hailey will adopt her...)

more pics

Weston Dean is here!

We finally have a name. He is here and a big boy. He was 22 inches long. Here are a few pictures.

He's here!

Baby #4 is here! I can't post a pic from this I-touch, but my mom has a pic on her blog: debnronilylt (look on the side for the link). We named him Weston (and haven't settled on the middle name yet). He is a big boy - weighed in at 9 lbs 3 oz. He seems to be pretty mellow and sleeping a lot. He has my hair color.

The delivery went well - although I didn't have a choice on anesthesia. I just had to do general anesthesia, but that went well. We have a healthy boy. We love this little guy already. It's amazing how quickly we feel that bond. Anyway, look for pics later...

39 weeks

It's nearly time! We have the C-section scheduled for Tuesday morning. My parents arrived yesterday and will be here all week to watch the boys. Hopefully everything will go well - I met my doctor a couple of weeks ago and had 2 appointments - I don't know much about him, but I heard from another lady that he's one of the best doctors in the area for C-sections. So that's comforting. It's a possibility that I'll be able to get a spinal block (and be awake for the birth). We'll see what the anesthesiologist says when we get in there. (Say a little prayer for me - I'm always a little nervous going in for surgery...) Check back in later this week for pics, update and hopefully a name. :)

Next door neighbors

I looked out the window and what did I see? 3 chickens! (We don't live in the country, so I was surprised to see them in our yard.) We asked around to see if any of our neighbors had chickens, thinking they may not have known they were out and about. The owners of the chickens were not home, but the other neighbor next to them said they just wander around from time to time. They weren't scared of us at all - we've got some very friendly neighbors... I thought it was cute to see the boys following those chickens around.

Happy 4th!

We're here

We've been here (remember, try to be sensitive about our location in comments if you know where we are) for about a week now. Our stuff arrived on Monday, so we're still surrounded by boxes. I can't post too many pictures yet, since everything is still a mess, but here's some of the boys. They've been to the beach 4 times already, since we're about a mile away from it. This particular beach is very rocky, which the boys LOVE.




And here are some of our backyard - we moved into our rental without having seen it, so we weren't sure exactly what to expect. The ad said it had a "big backyard", which it sort-of does, but it's filled with plants and trees. When we saw it, we were disappointed, but the boys were excited about their new jungle-like yard. There's a hill along the fence, which doesn't seem good for playing, but the boys actually spend all of their time digging in the dirt on that hill. They don't need open space - they just need their diggers. There is one space that we might be able to put the trampoline, if we can figure out how to put it back together.

Our patio, which is filled with boxes right now (and the boys have lined up all the chairs).

the open space

So there's a peek at one portion of our place.

The house isn't too bad, although half of our stuff will have to go in the garage (it's much smaller than our other place - we're trying to get creative with our organizing). We spent quite a bit of time last week cleaning - it wasn't too dirty on the surface, but not up to my standards. It reminded me of a cheap motel- it's clean from a distance, but if you look closer, you don't really want to touch things. I have to know that I'm living in my own grime at least... some of it doesn't seem to get any better, since it's an old house. But at least I know it's been scrubbed. If we ever get things in place, I might post some pics of the inside, although it's nothing fancy.

We're trying to get used to the culture here and make transitions. One thing I really miss is Wal-Mart. My cheapo self has a hard time buying groceries at Albertson's and similar stores. I can't find 88 cent hotdogs... everything is a little more expensive, besides the produce. Our landlord has provided us with oranges, apricots, and avocados though. We've enjoyed those.

We did have to laugh on Sunday after we picked up Owen from nursery. For nursery, they asked if we would mind bringing snacks in every so often (families take turns bringing them). However, they said we can only bring fruits or vegetables or maybe garbanzo beans! Ha ha. I just can't imagine taking beans for nursery snacks. (Owen eats steamed broccoli well - should I take broccoli to nursery?) At least we know Owen will be getting one healthy snack a week.

Anyway, I'm sure Jo (the nursery leader) will find out about my blog soon, so I hope she doesn't get offended. She is very nice. We just aren't used to the whole healthy culture out here.

We have appreciated how friendly everyone has been towards us and the help already offered.

We have most of the initial things set up - phone, internet, bank, utilities, and such. The internet guy found a surprise in our attic, but we won't say what it was since we don't want to scare away the visitors coming soon... :) We still are shopping for a vehicle and trying to unpack everything. We're doing pretty well though. I had a doctors appointment today and everything seems fine. The boys love playing outside and with all of their "new" toys. Now, if we can just get out of these boxes and have this baby, maybe we'll start to feel normal again.