A Face That Only A Mother Could Love

 

Apparently face washing and nose wiping are highly overrated at this house.  This picture just doesn't do it justice.  Trust me.

Wahoooooo!!!!!

Trent has been at his national sales meeting all this last week.  He just texted me from the awards dinner to let me know he won the incentive trip this year, and we're going on a cruise! We'll be leaving port from San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is where Trent and I spent our honeymoon.  Can't wait!  Way to go babe!  Thanks for working so hard!

Picture found here.

Random

So we did the craziest thing a week and a half ago...  We got ourselves another pup (which I said would never happen again), but one look at this sweet pup's face, and I was more than willing to let him stay.  The best part is that he is a year old and is already trained.  He is such a good dog.  My kids are all in seventh heaven, but the best part is how happy Trent is with having a dog again.  

His name is Captain Caliber Stock (Cal for short).  He is a German Short Hair Pointer, and he is the most beautiful dog.  We have all fallen head over heals for him, including me.

 

Look at how happy this man is.  Cal just wants that dead Chucker.  He's going to be Trent's Pheasant hunting companion, so Cal started his bird training this last Saturday.  He loved it, and did very well!

I love Cal's polka dots.  In this picture, he's waiting for Trent to throw the Chucker again.  Like I said, we've all fallen in love with Cal.  He is my constant companion.  He literally follows me around all day.  I call him my "shadow".  I always know when he wants a pet because he'll lean his whole body against my legs and about knock me over.  Such a sweet pup.

On another note, I broke a glass jar with coins in it the other day.  Glass and coins were strewn all over my kitchen.  I thought I had gotten it all cleaned up, but later when I went to turn the disposal on, it locked up and was totally jammed.  Well, there was nothing to do but take it apart.  Trent was out of town, so I was on my own.  It took a little while, but I got it all cleaned out, and found the quarter that was jammed in it.  And my trusty companion, Cal, was by my side with his chin on my shoulder pretty much the whole time.  I think he was silently cheering me on.  ;)

And on yet another note, my little Viv is the sweetest girl.

I have had a load of clean towels sitting on the hall floor the last couple of days that I just haven't had time to get to.  My darling girl took it upon herself to fold them for me today.  The funny part is that she folded them just like I do.  I've never shown her how to fold the towels, but all this time she must have been paying attention.  It made me wonder what other things she has been logging away in her little brain.  Hopefully it is mostly the good stuff!

Some Laughs

I love three year olds.  They say and do the most random things, that generally could make you laugh until you pee your pants.  Last night, Preston had just gone to the bathroom, (#2) and shortly afterward, he was walking around the house saying, "Whew!  I wreak!"  Trent and I about busted a gut we were laughing so hard.  Not too long after that, Trent and I were in the office chatting about some things.  We were pretty absorbed in our conversation, and it took me a minute to realize that Preston was standing next to me screaming, "Mom! Mom! Mom! MOM!!!!"  I looked at him, and in exasperation said, "What?!"  To which he responded with this...

 

That's it.  Nothing he needed to tell me.  He just wanted to show me his new face.

Another gut busting laugh I tell you.  Love this kid.

Birthdays

January is a birthday month in our family.  We've got Preston's birthday, then four days later it is my birthday, then four days after mine is my father-in-law, Steve's, birthday.  I had a wonderful birthday this year.  It started about three weeks ago when Trent gave me an iPhone for my birthday.  Love it!  The weekend before my birthday we went to dinner with some friends.  We had a great time and lots of laughs!  The night of my birthday, Trent and I were able to have a date night.  I always love being able to spend time with my sweetheart. And Trent was so kind to get balloons for our balloon tradition, 31 to be exact.

  This past Sunday we had a big family get-together for all three birthdays.  Poor little Preston wasn't able to make it though.  He had been vomiting all day, and was running a fever.  Poor kiddo missed his own birthday party.  So the older kids and I went while Trent stayed home with Little Buds.  

 

My mom made the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake.  I've been dying to try it, and am happy to say, it did not disappoint.

The gift of the night was dad's "Don't Forget My Senior Discount" hat.  Thanks everyone for the wonderful birthday!

And So It Begins

Pretty much every morning, Vivi comes and hangs out in my bathroom with me while I get ready.  She loves going through my makeup, looking through my jewelry, smelling all my lotions, and looking through all of the colors of nail polish.  Although she can be a pretty tough girl, with three brothers and all, she is a very girlie girl.  She wears pink pretty much every day.  It is not uncommon to see her in pink, from head to toe.  She even has three different pairs of pink shoes, ranging from boots to Crocs.  Anyway, back to getting ready in the mornings... lately as she goes through all my things, she will say things like, "Mom, I never see you wear this.  Maybe I should have it."  Or, "Mom, I haven't seen you use this in a long time.  I could use this."  It has already started.  And she's only FIVE!  She has already confiscated pretty much every lip gloss I own.  It is amazing what I can find when I go through her 50 purses, which btw, she has claimed a few of mine as her own as well.  I guess because I didn't use it for more than a week, I couldn't possibly ever want to use it again. ;)  I don't mind though.  It is fun having another girl around to share things with.  Although it might become another matter when she is a teenager.

Shiner

I don't know what it is, but anytime someone gets hurt at our house, about 85% of the time it is Vivian.  She is like a magnet for danger.  Yesterday she managed to step in front of her little brother right as he was swinging a shovel full of snow, so of course the shovel got her right in the eye and sliced her eyelid open.  Within a minute or two, it was all nice and swollen.  Luckily we had a nurse here with us when it happened.  She took extra good care of Vivian and got ice on her eye right away.  Luckily Vivi didn't need any stitches.

She had a nice puffy eye all night though.

When she got up this morning, it wasn't swollen any more, but it sure was bruised!  She's got a nice black eye going.  Poor girl.  I tell you what, after growing up in a house full of boys, she's going to be one tough cookie.

Zippidee-dee! Preston's 3!

I just love this boy.  I am so grateful for the day he came into our lives.

Earlier, I was thinking about the time when Preston was born.  Trent and I drove to the hospital in a blizzard that day.  And just a few short hours later, we had a beautiful baby boy.  The first several months of Preston's life were a little hairy.  When we went in for his two week check up, we found out that instead of gaining any weight, he had actually lost just over a pound.  After checking a few things, the doctor found out that he was tongue-tied, which made it difficult for him to eat properly.  We went to an ENT the same day and got his frenulum snipped.  A week later we went back in to the doctor for a weight check appt., and while he had gained a couple of ounces, he also tested positive for RSV.  To the hospital we went for a couple of days.  Of course any weight that Preston had gained, he promptly lost again, and then some.  So our little boy that came into this world weighing 7 lbs. 5 oz. was weighing in at about 5 lbs. 12 oz. three weeks later.  Well, he recovered from the RSV, and we spent the next 6 months in the doctor's office 2 times a week for weight checks and various other illnesses.  When he was 6 months old, they did some blood tests and figured out that the problem had something to do with his kidneys, and that his little body was burning calories faster than he could take them in.  We continued going in for weight checks every 1-2 weeks, and by the time he was 18 months old, he finally made it on the growth charts!  He was only in the 3rd percentile for weight, but we were so excited!

In spite of all of the  crazy health issues this kid went through in his first year of life, he was the happiest, most easy going baby.  Then he started crawling and walking, and turned into a holy terror, although he was still very happy. ;)

 

We had a fun day today.  We got the boys off to school, then ran to the store to get donuts (Birthday boy's request).  Breakfast of champions!  He spent the morning playing with his balloons and watching a movie with Viv.  Those two have been the best of buds lately.  Preston is getting to that age where he is getting more fun for the kids to play with.

After a lunch of chicken nuggets (also b-day boy's request) we took Vivi to school, and when asked what he wanted to do, Preston requested that we go through the car wash.  (He went yesterday with grandma, so I think it was fresh in his mind.)  That kid loves the car wash.  His favorite is when the blue foam squirts all over the car.  After the car wash, we went and picked up balloons for the balloon launch.

He requested yellow cake for his birthday this year.  I don't know what happened, but the cake totally fell apart on me.  Before I even attempted to put any frosting on it.  It took two cans of frosting to get it to look even a little bit okay.

He didn't notice or care though.  As long as he got to blow out candles.  He loved being the spotlight of the night.

He got some new Play-Doh with fun new Play-Doh tools.  He loves Play-Doh!  It is one of those things I can give him to play with, and he will still be sitting there an hour later, having a great old time.  Plus he's being creative while doing it.  Double bonus!

He also got a basket ball hoop.  He has been begging us for one of these for two months now.

He has already started making good use of it!  He wasn't quite satisfied though until we raised it up as high as it would go.  The kid loves a challenge!

And of course the balloon launch.

 

We usually will all stay outside and watch the balloons until we can't see them any more.  It only took about 5 seconds tonight with it being so dark.  Still super fun though, and Preston loved that it was his turn for the balloon launch tonight.

Like I said, I just love this kid to pieces!  I am forever grateful for the day he came to join our family.  Love you Buds!  Happy birthday!

Can I get a Woot Woot!

We are DONE, DONE, DONE!  With diapers that is.  Preston has quite decided that he no longer has need of them.  After 4 kids and 10 1/2 straight years of diapers (except for that 3 month break between Colson and Viv), you won't hear me complaining! ;)  So after doing a little jig about not having to change anymore diapers, it hit me.  We don't have a baby in our house anymore, and all of a sudden I felt a little sad.  Although, after a while of not having to change nasty, smelly, poo diapers, I'm sure I'll manage to get over it. ;)

Assume the Position

We always know when Preston is about to fall asleep.  The tell-tale sign is the arms behind the head.