Mom! Dude!

Having a three year old is a lot of fun...one morning, on the way to school, we saw a lot of backhoes at the construction site across from school. So I purposely drove by the construction site and slowed down so Alex could look, and all you could hear from the back of the van was, "Wow! Mommy! Look at dat backhoe! What is dat, Mommy? That a backhoe?", etc., etc., etc. Then, when we got to the parking lot, every hole in the parking lot, which was caused by the recent rain, every cement glob in the parking lot, every crack in the sidewalk, Alex would ask: "That made by a backhoe?" Or "a backhoe did that?" Then, upon seeing the large sinkhole in front of the education building, Alex asked if that was made by a backhoe. I told him, "no, that is part of the Earth. It's a sinkhole. God made that." Alex then asked, "Did God use a backhoe?" ....I told him yes....now he thinks God is so cool for using a backhoe! That's Alex's new wor

So we roll into 2008 in our new house, with our three boys. Austin, in one day, started saying 3 new words: cookie, thank you, and kit-cat. It started one morning, he was looking at the cookie jar and was babbling, so I wasn't paying too much attention, but then, all of sudden, he said, "cookie" and pointed. So I happily gave him one, and said, "OK, Austin, what do we say? We say thank you." And he looked at me and said it. Sort of babbled it, of course, but you could understand him. Then, old Luck-luck came into the room, and Austin is just fascinated with him, and out of the blue, he said, "kit-cat!" Three new words, in one day! One Sunday, Alex really hammed it up at Sunday brunch himself. We were with Aunt Chris and, as usual, we were the loudest, messiest people there. We always take a table near the back, so people can avoid us if they wish. Well, next to us one aisle over was a group of older ladies, just out of church, too, having a nice brunc

The year 2008 dawned with us continuing to settle into our new house, recover from the holidays, and pray that I recover from the flu. On January 3rd, 2008, we welcomed a new baby into the family...but this time, our grandchild! Lukas, second born son of my step-son and his wife, was born bringing the current total of little boys in our immediate family to 8! A healthy baby, a happy family, and almost our own baseball team...what better way to start the new year! On January 8, 2008, for the very first time, unassisted, at 10 ½ months, our middle son, Austin, took his very first steps! What a big boy he was. He really took off after that...by January 13, he was completely walking everywhere on his own, but then it was on to climbing, climbing and more climbing. On his second day of walking, he discovered climbing, and even managed to get up onto the bathroom counter! January 8, 2008 was a big day for another reason: at 1:45 PM, we had the final hearing for Andrew's adoption!

OK, apparently while I've been busy with tax season, two trials coming up at work, adding two rooms and a deck to our house, raising 3 boys and preparing for the arrival of our latest addition due to be born in 6 weeks, I've been TAGGED by two friends and fellow bloggers, and I'm just now getting around to tagging it forward. Wow, am I bad at this or what? And my brain is so fried these days with everything going on that I actually had to print out the rules to this tag game in order to remind me to follow through, and then do it. Please bear with me...the baby isn't even here yet, and I'm already walking around in a daze.... OK, the rules to the tag game are: Mention the blogger that tagged you and be sure to link to them. I was tagged by Beth at and by Lisa at http://pinkinahouseofblues.blogspot.com/. They are both great moms, great people and great bloggers, so please go check them out! Next, post your lists of 8s. Then tag 8 bloggers of your choice and te

Well, we survived the three big meals in one week during Thanksgiving week, and I probably gained 20 pounds that week alone. You would think with all that good food in me, that I would have stayed well for a while, but I did not. I fell sick again, just at the end of November. I was gasping, rasping sick on the day we closed on our new house, December 3rd. We were scheduled to move the next day, and I had planned on going to work, but I woke up barely able to breath. Quite literally, barely able to breath. I scared Pete horribly with the way I looked and sounded, and was rushed to the doctor's office and sent home with more drugs than skid row, and banished to my bed, which was kinda hard to do considering they were loading my bed up for the move. I ended up not going to work the rest of that week, and barely managed to do anything to assist in the move. The first thing assembled at the new house was my bed, and I crawled in it and stayed there (and my new hot tub) for the b