September 29, 2006 - Family Train Time

I know you've probably heard of Family Game Time, but tonight was Family Train Time. Since the minute I picked Nicholas up from preschool this morning he was talking about building a new Geo Trax. He loves to build track, tear it down and build it again. He is constantly trying to figure out how to get the switches laid out correctly so the train doesn't get "caught in a loop". So....tonight Papa and Nicholas headed upstairs to build a new track. Upon completion, out came the trains and the remote controls. One for Papa, one for Nicholas and one for Gabrielle-so far Allison just tries to sit on the track and grab the trains. It was so fun to watch them play together, and to see the wheels spinning in Nicholas' head as he made sure that they stopped at the right time to let the other train go by, otherwise there would be a head on collision. I'm sure with another boy on the way, we have many years ahead of Family Train Time and track building and rebuilding.

September 29, 2006 - Computer Time

Now that the weather is getting cooler, outside time is getting less and less accessible. During the fall and winter months the kids are allowed to trade some of their TV time for computer time. Nicholas has been quite good at the computer games since last year, partly because he uses computers at preschool too. However, today Gabrielle decided to give it a try playing Care Bears. She is going to take a little longer to get the hang of working with the mouse, but hey, she's not even 3 yet. Of course, Allison had to get in on the action too and was often caught giggling at the action.

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September 20, 2006 - Big Day for Baby # 4 - The Ultrasound
Today was one of the big days in the life a pregnancy. The ultrasound. We are officially half way through the traditional "40 week" pregnancy. Yeah! Paul and I were thrilled with the ultrasound technician, she was very thorough, easy to talk to and always showed us what she was looking at. Of our previous experiences this was definately the best one, and it lasted about 30 minutes. The doctor stated that it was a "picture perfect ultrasound". They were able to get all the photos they needed and everything looked PERFECT. The baby is in the 93rd percentile at this point, so we may have a big baby ahead. Here are some of the pictures:
2 feet
Face

In case, you didn't notice on the last picture, we did something we have never done before and actually requested to be told what the baby's gender is. We are having a BOY! Everyone in the household is thrilled. We will now have 2 of each, and Nicholas is super excited to share his room with a baby brother. He doesn't quite understand however, that the baby won't be able to sleep on the bottom bunk right away.

September 18, 2006 - Priceless!

Another Kodak moment with no camera in sight! When Allison wakes up in the morning it is quite common for Nicholas and Gabrielle to run and talk to her while she is still in her crib. This morning was no different. When I came upstairs, I got Allison out of her crib and, now that she can do the stairs, I just put her down on the floor. The next thing you know Gabrielle reached out her hand and Allison put hers inside. They walked hand in hand to the top landing of the stairs and then Gabrielle got down on her tummy to show Allison that she needed to go downstairs backward.

My second priceless moment occurred last night when I found Gabrielle reading a word book to Allison. They were sitting side by side in my rocking chair and Gabrielle was pointing to all of the pictures and telling Allison what they were. It was so cute, but by the time I got the camera they were done.

September 15, 2006 - Climbing down the stairs!

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September 15, 2006
A big owie!

Shortly, after Paul returned from dropping Nicholas off at preschool on Friday the phone rang. It was the preschool! My thoughts jumped to: Did he wet his pants? Did he poop his pants? Is he having a melt down?

I'm glad it was none of those things, but didn't like what it was either. Nicholas got hurt! They just wanted to let us know
that a wooden puzzle had fallen on his head and he had quite
a gash there. They were able to get it to stop bleeding, but he
had received quite an egg. Nicholas said he was fine, so it
seemed there was no need to come and get him, but they
wanted us to know before we arrived to pick him up.

September 15, 2006 - A Haircut for Gabrielle

Gabrielle didn't like the "booster" seat thing one bit, we tried the snacks that worked for cousin Joshua but to no prevail...but once she got to sit on mama's lap AND got her fruit snacks we were ready to roll.

Much cleaner looking, most people won't notice the haircut but it is so nice to get rid of all of the spit ends and even up the layers that are naturally there from all the new hair growth they get at this age.

September 13, 2006 - Two girls

It's hard to believe that it can seem like such a different household when Nicholas is at school, but (although I hate to admit it) IT IS! The girls play so differently together when he is gone. So often he is playing nicely and they intrude, or vice versa. So far, the girls are playing so well together, I feel like I am seeing a different side of them. I caught this moment while they were hanging out together.

September 11, 2006 - First Day of Preschool

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September 8, 2006 - Singing in the Rain!

Well, I guess it was more like playing in the rain and not much rain at that. We very rarely go to Walmart anymore, now that the new Meijers opened up by our house. But, I went there on Wednesday looking for valances for the kids rooms because I hadn't been able to find anything reasonably priced that I like anywhere else. (I did find them by the way, exactly what I wanted for less than $10 a piece). Anyway, I perused the other departements having not been there for a while. I found some little kids umbrellas on clearance for $3 and decided to pick them up for the kids (primarily for next spring). Well, lo and behold it managed to sprinkle a little on Friday night and the kids had to get their rubber boots out and their umbrellas.

In case you're wondering, YES Paul is sprinkling the lawn in the rain. Truth be told it sprinkled for about 2 minutes and dried up just about as fast. Definately, not enough to put the sprinkler away.

Garage Sales Galore
(well, actually only 3, but we made out with some pretty good deals as far as I'm concerned).

Little Tikes Castle - $2
Nicholas fell in love with this castle at the garage sale. Especially, after they showed him the working catapult. The castle is now the home of the dragon, "knave" as Nicholas says (knight) and the princess, which Gabrielle always calls the queen. They they moved indoors from the sand and water table that Nicholas got for his birthday. The interesting thing is that the king of this castle is a Care Bear, one never knows what they'll come up with next. Allison just likes to climb inside which doesn't make Nicholas very happy.

Gabrielle first called this her "skater", but is now learning that it is actually a scooter. It may be red, but she doesn't care, she loves this $3 purchase.

New highchair for her "doll baby", "baby Zoe. - $2
On numerous occasions I have found Gabrielle with her baby in Allison's highchair, often trying to feed her something. So how could I pass up a highchair for Zoe. Gabrielle's face just lit up when I walked in the door with this special prize. She wasn't with me when I found it. Allison thinks it is pretty cool too!

The big purchase of the weekend:

Bunk bed for Nicholas $25. He thinks he's pretty cool, but mama and papa are a little nervous of the first few times he has to get down in the morning by himself.

Nicholas also got really neat, handmade book ends set that looks like a train to keep books on his dresser. Don't have a picture of that one though. - that purchase was only $1.

Best gas prices in town!...and full service too!

Occasionally, Nicholas requests a road to be drawn on the drive way for them to play with their riding toys on. The other day, their road "city" came complete with a gas station they could pull into. So, with Nicholas and Gabrielle both riding their fire trucks around and around their chalk city, Allison decided she would become the sole proprietor of her very own gas station and proceeded to fill up their tanks whenever they pulled in. It was so cute, to actually see all 3 of them playing together.

Mr Potato Head, I presume?

Allison has recently found the glasses in the Mr. Potato Head box and realizes that glasses go on your head. She walked into the kitchen to see Paul looking like this the other day. Isn't she cute? Ha-Ha

Snack time with the Big Kids!

Allison usually eats her snack in the living room with Paul and I and the kids eat theirs while they watch their bedtime video. The other day she was playing on the couch at snack time, so we served her along with Nicholas and Gabrielle. She thought she was pretty hot stuff.

It was actually quite interesting! Our love seat that the kids sit on has two recliners, so there is a definate line between the cushions. Nicholas and Gabrielle have a "stay on your own side of the line" rule to avoid as many fights as possible. On this particular night, however, they commented that Allison got to sit ON the line. It was just assumed that this was her new spot!

August 25, 2006
A fun day of new experiences - and mama forgot her camera!

Well, it looks like our camping season has finally drawn to a close. We have pretty much been camping every weekend since the 19th of July and were supposed to spend one final weekend at the lake this week. However, the weather was not forecasted to be very nice and to be honest, we were just ready to be home. Given that and the fact that Grandma and Grandpa would be gone most of Saturday to a funeral we decided to just make a day at the lake on Friday, pack everything up and come home.

The weather indeed was kind of dreary in the morning. The sun finally did come out in the afternoon but by that time we really didn't feel like going down to the lake. It takes more time to get everybody ready to go than the time we would probably spend at the beach itself. So...we decided to take the kids to Putter's Creek for their first experience at mini golf. We were told it would be $3.50 for kids under 10 so only Nicholas and Gabrielle would golf but when we got there kids 4 and under are FREE. Awesome! So, all 3 kids got there own tiny golf clubs and there own ball. Grandma decided just to watch Allison instead of golf. Toni, Paul and Grandpa tried to golf but soon gave up on that idea and just had fun with the kids. It was so much fun watching the kids explore each hole.

Allison was watching her ball one time as it came back down a hill toward her. It went right through her legs and she kept following it to the point of standing on her head looking backward through her legs. She did hit the ball a few times with Grandma, but for the most part she was thrilled with carrying her ball and club around. Every once in a while she would grab someone else's ball and walk around with one ball in each hand behind her back with this look on her face like "I know that I'm not supposed to have this, but what are you going to do about it?"

Gabrielle, was totally not interested in receiving help in holding the club correctly, but totally into getting that pink ball of hers into the hole. She would practically end up pushing the ball around the green as it went in a direction she didn't like, but each and every hole she made sure her ball ended up in the hole.

Nicholas, was a little more open to being instructed on how to hold the golf club correctly and by the end of the game he was definately trying to do it the right way (at least for the first shot off the "tee"). One hole, he did actually complete in 2 shots. Yeah, Nicholas. He is also very into telling anyone who will listen the details of certain holes. Exactly what they looked like and what you had to do to get it into the hole. Most people have no idea what he is talking about, but me having been there, am quite fascinated by what he is actually trying to communicate.

As a side note, we also saw 2 garden snakes on the course - YIKES!

After a game of golf, Grandma decided that they needed to try the go-karts as well. So Grandpa took Nicholas and Paul took Gabrielle. Gabrielle was a little unsure at first, but by the end she was squealing in delight, especially when Papa tried to catch up to Grandpa. Nicholas loved the whole experience and had a smile frozen on his face the whole time. Allison watched with mama from the side lines and once she figured out what was going on she squealed with delight as the cars reached the half way point of the track where she could see them coming and new they were coming her way.

What a fun day we had with the kids, with there first experience of both mini golf and go-karting. I can't believe I forgot my camera because I missed a lot of cute shots.

Portraits - August 2006

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Here are the most recent professional portraits we had taken. Nicholas' 4 year portraits and Allison's 1 year pictures. Allison was a perfect angel and cooperated in every way. Nicholas started out well and then got bored, so it took a little persuading and the promise of a trip to Toys 'R Us. We also got a group shot - seeing as how 2 out of 3 were already dressed up we thought we'd give it a try. We ended up having to bribe Gabrielle with a flower, which of course, meant Nicholas wanted one, and with that Allison couldn't be left out. Luckily, they had 3 and everyone was happy!

Bathtime in the Trailer 081806

Watch the videoAugust 18, 2006 Bathtime in the Trailer

August 18, 2006 Tea Anyone?

Gabrielle decided that she needed to have a tea party. So....she dragged the little table over, set up everyone's chair around it and summoned Nicholas and Allison to join her for a tea party complete with juice in a sippy cup.

August 18, 2006 - The Wagon

Well, last year Nicholas and Gabrielle practically lived in our little red wagon. However, even though we have had the wagon at the lake all summer we really haven't been using it. Gabrielle seemed to always want to ride her bike or ride in the lightweight foldable stroller. This past weekend though, Allison discovered the wagon and boy did she love it. One day when we put it back under the trailer she proceeded to throw herself into a 5 + minute temper tantrum and do everything she could to get it back out under her own power (which she was unsuccessful at).