#1 son is NINE!

Time really flies.  I thought it felt weird to celebrate ten years of marriage a few weeks ago, but now I am definitely feeling old with my firstborn turning 9 today!

Blake is a great kid.  He is fun and smart and mostly obedient.  He has really been a great help these past few weeks when it came to helping with chores and volunteering to hold Sophie or put Kade's shoes on.

He loves to read and has really surprised me with the knowledge that he absorbs from the books he checks out of the library at school.  Every so often he will spout off some random fact about snakes or tiger sharks or history.  He got straight As on his last report card, which is the first report card where they gave "letter" grades.  I hope he continues to love school and learning as much as he does now.

This past year he played two seasons of baseball.  The first season he played "coach pitch", which was kind of hard since he hadn't played tee-ball for two years.  Then came the second season or "Fall Ball" where he played kid pitch.  Poor kid didn't know what hit him...although several times it was a very hard white ball with red stitching on it! It was pretty hard to watch the poor kid strike out time after time. After a few games of watching him hack at the ball with his bat we sought the help of a batting coach here in town and after just a few sessions Blake went from being the worst batter on the team to being....not the absolute worst.  We never expected him to become the best, but we do want to give him all the tools he needs to at least improve. His regular coaches were also pretty great in teaching the boys how to slide and steal bases. I never realized how technical batting is.  There are many little tricks in how you hold the bat and where you place your feet that I never knew existed.  He is continuing to go to batting practice with Coach Clay and while he may not play baseball for many more years he is enjoying it for now.

Blake has also learned a few harder lessons this year.  Since he was baptized last January he has had to make decisions on his own about his behavior and has had to be accountable for some of his not-so-great choices.  For example, during Scout camp he borrowed a pocket knife from my mom to use for the whittling merit badge.  Unbeknownst to me he took it in his pocket the next day as well.  You can probably guess what happened next.  He lost it.  I probably wouldn't have been so upset with him if it had been mine, but I hate to borrow something from someone and not be able to return it in it's original condition.  Blake really "cowboyed up" and called my parents to confess to them that he had lost the knife, and then he did work around their yard to repay them for the knife. 

We are very proud of our hard headed almost-redhead.  He is stubborn and ultra competitive, but he is also sensitive and usually kind.  He is not one to physically lash out at his brothers when angry, which has always been something we appreciate (especially since Trevor is pretty much the opposite!). 

When we asked Blake the other day what kind of cake he wanted he didn't hesitate to say that he wanted a Tron cake.  I Googled Tron cakes and to my extreme delight found that I could make one very easily and I had most of the tools I needed.  I went to Target and picked up a couple of "light cycles" and voila! A Tron cake was born. 

So here's to another year of growing up with Blake!  We have always joked that having him born on New Year's Eve has always given us a good reason to celebrate...even though most years we are still in bed by midnight! 

Introducing...

Sophie Brielle McGhie!

She was born Monday, December 20,2010 at 10:26 am. She weighed 6.9 lbs and was 19" long. She has TONS of dark hair with frosted reddish tips, which is funny because Blake had light brown hair with blonde tips.  Apparently our children like to hit the salon before they are born.

We are all so in love with her!  It is so cool to watch the boys hold her and coo at her. Trevor just informed us that she sleeps more than a rattlesnake.  Chad is really good at waking her up to eat, he generally just gets her down to her onesie and holds her up until she is good and mad.  He is enamoured with her as well, I distinctly heard him call her Babe yesterday...something I would never have guessed would cross his lips!

That's it for now, stay tuned for more Sophie posts in the next few days!  

Ten Years

Ten years ago today I married my Chad.  We were married in the Oakland, CA Temple for time and all eternity.

 I would love to say we lived happily ever after, but that would neither be realistic or represent the ups and downs that a real marriage goes through.  I can say that I love him more today than I did on that day.  In the past ten years we have:

Moved six times
Had (between us) nine cars
Traveled a lot of the country from Florida to Hawaii
Suffered loss and grief, and also experienced great joy
Been blessed with 3.9 wonderful children
Had one miscarriage...so make that 4.9 wonderful children
Laughed together
Cried together
Yelled together
Prayed together
Seen many of our siblings married in the temple for Time and Eternity
Bought one set of couches
Cleaned up a lot of barf
Spent thousands of dollars on medical and dental bills
Obtained two college degrees (both of them Chad's)
Watched both sides of our families grow...we now have 7 nephews and 12 nieces (we started ten years ago with two nieces!) and one more niece or nephew coming sometime next summer

And there is so much more, but it would take forever to type it all...which I guess we have, but I promised myself I would clean the bathrooms today.  Funny how I was heading to clean the second bathroom when the siren call of the blogging world caught my attention...or maybe I was just really not looking forward to fumigating cleaning the boy's bathroom!

But I digress.  I'm good at that.  Ask Chad.

So let's all raise our metaphorical glasses of sparking cider and toast TEN long happy years of marriage to my Chad.  Let's hope the next ten are just as fun...with less barf please!

***Before you say it, I know Chad looks a WHOLE lot younger in these pictures...I have a way of aging the people around me!  I tried to tell myself that he's aged since he's been in the bishopric...but no, I am pretty sure it is me! 

After Months of Waiting...

Chad got two job offers in one day!  It is always nice to have options.  The first offer to come in was from the company in California (Kema) that Chad flew out to interview for last month.  The second offer to come in was from the company he currently works for (Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA) that has been about seven months in the making, from first hearing about it and applying to interviewing to the offer. 

We have been worried for weeks that when it came down to it we would have a really hard time making a decision. There are pluses and minuses for both jobs. 

If we took the Kema job we could return to CA and be able to be closer to many of Chad's family members.  It would be more money, however, the commute into Oakland from wherever we could afford to live would take up most of that "more money"...not to mention the higher cost of living in general and the quality of the schools out there.

The TVA job would be less money, but we wouldn't have to move which has many advantages as the kids love their school, we have family here as well, we are pretty well settled and the cost of living is a whole lot lower.  This job would be in the Electric Vehicles department which Chad has pretty much no experience in, but the manager has faith in him and it is a Project Manager role, so he would basically be doing things that he knows best...making spreadsheets and learning constantly.

Originally we were saying that when the offers came in we'd go the usual route of praying and attending the temple to gain insight and perspective to help us make our decision.  As it happened, we didn't even have to blink an eye over which job to accept, it just felt right (for once) and while we still prayed about it, our decision was easy. One of the offers was just sorely lacking in pretty much everything Chad had asked for.

So are you totally on the edge of your seat now?

Drum roll please....

You are reading words typed by the wife of TVA's newest Senior Project Manager in the Electric Vehicles dept.!  This is a huge blessing for our family and we are so grateful for it.  Phew...now I don't have to stress about having to move shortly after having a baby!

Bits and Pieces

Chad is finally back after 5+ days in California doing a job interview and visiting family.  What a relief!  I may complain that he doesn't do much around here, but when he is not here I really notice and appreciate what he does do!  Just the amount of refereeing that I have to do when he is gone is exhausting in itself, but add to that the fact that I:

locked my keys in my car one day, forgot to send Trevor's homework packet another day, did the majority of the Christmas shopping (thanks to my awesome parents who took the boys for most of the day Saturday), hemmed two pairs of pants, went to a Court of Honor/baptism, the kids missed the bus Friday, started making thank you cards, top stitched the top of the curtains for the nursery, Primary Program practice, cleaned the house, did laundry, went to the doctor, went to the dentist, got a swing from Craigslist for the baby, finished painting the furniture for the nursery and (with the help of my mom) moved it into place, put all the cute little outfits and other awesome stuff I got from the shower away....and I am sure there is more but I think I just passed the record for the world's longest run on sentence!

I lost the point of all that, but just typing it was pretty tiring so it is no small wonder that I am pooped! 

I am actually starting to look forward to a four day "vacation" in the hospital...just not the whole 7 inch long incision that I know from experience can have an inconvenient way of not wanting to heal properly resulting in weeks of additional pain! 

Anyway.  I got a lot done and I am not feeling nearly as overwhelmed about the upcoming events (five weeks from TODAY!!), but it is nice to have Chad home.  Hopefully within a few weeks we will hear back from either Kema (the company Chad interviewed with in Cali) or the electric vehicles dept at  TVA about the jobs that Chad has been interviewing for.  I hate waiting in limbo on this stuff, but in the end all will work out. 

A funny thing happened last night.  Yesterday when the boys talked to Chad on the phone while he was waiting to board his flight back they asked if he would wake them up to say goodnight when he came in.  He went in and gently shook Trevor and said "Good night buddy." Trevor rolled towards him and opened his glazed over eyes and said, "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah."  We got a good chuckle out of that one. It was right up there with the time I went to put another blanket on Blake and he said, "Dun dun dun, wah wah wah"!

Here's Your Sign

Last night we sent Blake in to take a shower while I was making dinner.

*Side note~ Blake takes REALLY long showers, fogging up the mirror and causing the water pressure in the rest of the house to plummet to pretty much zero.  We keep telling ourselves that we need to get a timer to put in the bathroom so we don't have to bang on the door every few minutes, yelling at him to get out.  Since we keep forgetting the timer whenever we go to the store we have to just content ourselves with taking turns at door banging duty.  Even Kade likes to get in on this action, and has been known to start banging on the door as soon as Blake walks into the bathroom, just to keep him aware I guess.

So last night a few minutes into the shower ritual, and before anyone had a chance to yell at him to get out, we heard this huge crash, followed by loud wailing.  Our house is pretty small, so I was able to hear this "all the way" (about 20 feet) in the kitchen.  Chad was on it faster than I could waddle in there, but to my surprise, instead of sounds of comfort, all I heard was Chad berating Blake for doing something very dumb.  Over the sounds of Blake crying I heard Chad telling him that he could have died and that he had better not have taught his brothers that trick.  I stayed in the kitchen since I figured he had it handled and I couldn't have worked up any better lecture than what I was hearing, but all the while I was wondering what could possibly have gotten Chad so irritated, since I am normally the one to bring up the "you could have died" speech.

I was amply rewarded a few minutes later when Chad came in to tell me what had happened.

Apparently our #1 son decided that it would be great fun to squirt some of his 2-in-1 shampoo/soap on the bottom of the tub and then slide back and forth like a slip and slide.  I am not kidding.  I am not creative enough to make this stuff up.  Well, it was all tons of fun until he got going a little too fast and ended up face planting on the bottom of the tub. Hard. 

Now it makes sense that Chad would have been concerned that Blake might have shared this little trick with his brothers doesn't it? 

Anyway, Blake had a few rather large red spots on his face when he came out, which we put ice on.  I was happy to see this morning that this little stunt didn't leave any lasting damage, other than maybe humility.

Kind of brings new meaning to "I slipped in the shower", huh?

Then again...maybe not.

If you read my previous post I was shocked to find out Friday that I have only gained 9 pounds with this pregnancy (at least before we went to my sister's for Conference yesterday and ate way too many cinnamon rolls and homemade chicken soup!).  As is pretty much always the case, something happened Saturday to burst my weight gain bubble:

Blake in the car leaving Walgreens:  "Mom, how did that lady that you were talking to know that you are pregnant?"

Me: "Ummm, because I have a huge belly?!"

Blake: "Huh. You don't look much different from the way you were before."

Me: shocked and indignant silence.


That kid is so lucky that a) I love him.  b) I was driving at the time this conversation took place.  c) We have third row seating in our Durango and he was in that third row.  d) I have short arms and couldn't reach him.

I guess I don't get any Oreos today!

So far so good...

I finally got up the courage to weigh myself this morning before stepping into the shower and found to my extreme surprise that I have only gained nine pounds so far with this pregnancy.  I am 27 weeks today so this was a pretty big shock.  It totally justifies the Oreos I just ate during my "naptime celebration"!  My camera is dead, but I am not really the type to take weekly shots of myself anyway, just suffice it to say that I am very obviously pregnant. It looks like I swallowed a large watermelon or walrus depending on which side you view from!  I am carrying this little girl pretty much the same way I carried the boys, right out in front.  That is what you get when you are only 5'1'' and your uterus is tipped completely forward (or so I have been told, and by the angle the ultrasound tech's arm was at when she said this as she did the internal ultrasound, I believe her!).

We still don't have a name for this little one, but we are leaning strongly towards Keira as a first name.  As soon as it is official I will let the world know.

I realized today that Christmas is exactly 12 weeks from tomorrow, which means that the baby is coming in just around 11.5 weeks.  Eeek!  I have a lot to do to get ready with many projects in the works, including a nursery set, at least 2 quilts, car seat strap covers, a cover for the handle of the car seat, a new diaper bag (made with this tutorial), painting a few pieces of furniture, and there is probably more that I am blocking forgetting at this moment.  I have a huge pile of fabric on a chest in my room that makes my heart palpitate every time I walk by it, but I figure I will just take things one day at a time, and it's not like it all has to get done before she comes anyway...unless we end up having to move (which is a WHOLE different post altogether). Luckily I have the most awesomely talented mother around and she will be helping me with at least some of these projects. And if I kiss her hiney good enough she may even make me some burp cloths!

I have collected some girl clothes and I am now coming around to the idea of having some pink around here.  When my mom took me shopping a few days after we found out I pretty much chose outfits that were girly but mostly blue, so I am making progress!  My sisters have offered to do a baby shower for me in early November so I am looking forward to that quite a bit. 

That's it for now. I am off to iron temple clothes in preparation for a trip there tonight with my parents and the hubby for Stake Temple day...and maybe one more Oreo!

A Misadventure For One of My Little Pineapples...

I have debated whether or not to blog about this, but in the end I decided that this blog is like a journal for me and I want to remember this event, even if it is just to make me cringe and hold my #1 a little longer when I tuck him in at bedtime.  I am posting only one picture that would make anyone slightly uncomfortable, and I am posting it at the end, so Mom (if you are reading this) feel free to discontinue reading or not look at the picture.

A few weeks ago we were at a missionary farewell or Open House for a missionary who was leaving to go to Germany. The boys were playing in the front yard and Chad was on the porch.  I was somewhere in the house.  All three of my boys were running around like the fiends that they are and the missionary's family dogs were out there as well.  I didn't see what happened next, but it sounds like one of the dogs got a little more aggressive with it's playing than it should have and the next thing we knew Blake was on the ground screaming and the dog was very nearly on top of him.  Chad was over there in a little more than a split second and had Blake up in his arms, as well as Kade who was about to start  running and become the next casualty.  Another man was able to get over there very quickly and took Kade from Chad, who then brought Blake into the house, crying.  I was near the front door when they came in and hopped up quicker than a six months + pregnant woman normally can and over there in a panic.

There is something about seeing your child in those kind of tears that brings out some serious speed.  When we lifted up Blake's shirt and saw his back Chad and I both gasped. There were several lacerations from claws and teeth, they looked a lot worse than they were, but we still weren't expecting anything like that.  We got him into the bathroom and started cleaning him up.  He obviously didn't need stitches, but the cuts were starting to bleed and swell pretty good.  We got him cleaned up and calmed down a little bit and went on our way to my sister's house for dinner.

We decided to keep him home the next day from school to monitor the cuts and to make sure he didn't need to take a trip to the doctor.  It is pretty rare for one of the boys to be home from school and not really sick (not being able to sit back completely in a chair doesn't count as being sick), so it was kind of a nice day for me.  Blake is a pretty mellow kid when Trevor isn't around to fight with him, and it was nice having some quality time with my #1 son (and I guess #3 since Kade was there too).  When Kade was down for his nap I let Blake work on a little fossil project that he had gotten at a birthday party a few days before.  He had to "dig" the fossil pieces out and then put them together.  He was pretty enthralled by it (my little archeologist) and then asked if he could borrow my camera to take some pictures of his new little buddy.  Thank goodness for digital cameras because he sure took a lot of pictures!  I was pretty impressed by some of them, we may have a little photographer in the making.

Blake's back is healing just fine, though he is now pretty afraid around large dogs (and some small ones) and was pretty nervous when even his brothers were playing fetch with a super sweet Golden Retriever at our friend's house the other day.

 This was taken the following day just after the swelling had gone down and the bruises were getting nice and blue. 

Peanut Butter Brownies

Otherwise known as Jeff's Peanut Butter Brownies...but since I have no idea who Jeff is I am officially dropping his name from the title.  These brownies were a go-to dessert in our house when I was growing up, and we still see them several times a year from either my sister, my mom or myself.  I got a hankering for them yesterday and had to call my sister for the recipe because I couldn't find it anywhere in my recipe box.  I figured I should probably just share it with the world so I will have more people to call for the recipe the next time I want to make them and can't find the card in my recipe stash!

Not the greatest picture, but it was all my camera's fault...I swear.

Peanut Butter Brownies

2 cubes butter or margarine (completely melted)

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 cups oatmeal

Peanut Butter

Chocolate Frosting

Preheat oven to 350.

-Mix sugar with melted butter until creamy

-Add eggs, mix well

-Mix in flour one cup at a time

-Add oats one cup at a time

-Spread in greased 13x9 pan

-Bake 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean)

-Cool on wire rack

-Spread peanut butter over bars (I used crunchy this time, but use whatever you have on hand...this would work with almond butter too)

-Spread chocolate frosting on top of peanut butter

-Cut into squares and try not to eat them all!

Nauvoo: Day 2

Saturday morning we all kind of took our sweet time getting up and out the door, which is sometimes the best way to be.  Then we headed down to the Nauvoo Visitors Center and watched a movie about Joseph Smith and the Pioneers.  We grabbed some tickets for the Carriage Ride and headed off to the Oxen Ride.

After visiting with the Oxen and taking a short ride around a little pasture we headed back up to the Carriage Ride at the Visitor Ctr.  We were early so we got to talking to the Elders who were in charge of the carriage we would be riding on.  They brought the horses over to a set of stairs so the kids could pet their noses, I had to join in cause I have a weird fascination with animals like that.  They were really sweet (BIG) draft horses, so it was a good thing there were stairs so I could reach too.

My father in law, who is just like Trevor and has never met a stranger, struck up a conversation with a certain Elder Cecil Hill.  Eventually the topic got around to where they were from and when Von heard that Elder Hill was originally from Holbrook, Idaho his eyes lit up.  Chad's paternal grandmother was from Holbrook, and Von spent many summers there while he was growing up.  Turns out, Chad's great-grandmother, Ada Smith, taught Elder Hill when he was in elementary school in a little one room schoolhouse.  His great-grandfather, Joel Smith, was Stake President there when the Elder went on his first mission as a young man.  Von and Elder Smith knew many of the same people and it turned out that his brother, Lyle, and his wife are also currently serving missions in Nauvoo, so we were able to go and see him later that day at the Brickyard.

(My FIL doesn't normally glow like an angel...did I mention how much I hate my camera?)

 

 I think the carriage ride was one of my favorite experiences from this trip.  At one point they stopped the carriage at a little stream and Elder Hill spoke about Joseph Smith as a young man going into the Sacred Grove and praying about which church to join.  All around us we could hear sounds of nature, but we didn't see any houses or roads or people or telephone poles.  It was so peaceful.  The kids were so quiet and well behaved.  Then Elder Hill announced that he'd like for us to sing a song, so he led us in singing "I Am A Child of God."  Apparently everyone on the carriage knew the song, so we all joined in.  Tears came to my eyes as the Spirit was so strong at that moment.  Even now I can still recall the feeling of peace and love that warmed my soul while I sang and listened to my children and everyone else sing. We learned later from Elder Hill's wife at the schoolhouse that this was his very first time doing the talking part of the tour, we never would have known.

Next we went to find a picnic table to have rustle up some lunch.  Being able to bring a lot of our own food (or rather, food from The Walmart in Keokuk) was a great thing as it was a whole lot cheaper (especially since Chad's parents bought most of it...thanks guys!) and a lot better for us.

After lunch we sent my FIL, Chad, Cody and the kids off to the little area they had set aside for childrens activities and games and us womenfolk went over to the Scovil Bakery.  We then joined the young folk (which doesn't necessarily include any of the menfolk) and headed off to do some more tours, including the Gunsmith, the Post Office, John Taylor's home, the Brickyard, the Schoolhouse, and Lucy Mack Smith's house. 

Blake modeling the "running water" system...young boys would run water up to the construction site of the temple using contraptions that looked a lot like this.

Trevor, Blake and Madison catching up on some math homework at the Schoolhouse.

Another view of the schoolroom, the room itself was pretty small, maybe 10x12 feet.

John Taylor's parlor.

 The lady doing the tour of the John Taylor home would make a great Primary President...and I would not be surprised if she was a teacher or something as well.  She was really great with the kids, animated and engaging them with stories and questions.

When she took us upstairs to what would have been the children's room she told a story about how the children had to leave behind most of the things that they played with and loved.  Apparently John Taylor and his family were no exception and made it across the Mississippi River and about two days from Nauvoo when suddenly one of their little boys started sobbing uncontrollably.  When the missionary asked why the kids thought he might be crying Trevor immediately raised his hand and said, "Because he had to leave his treasures behind?"  Sure enough, he was crying because he missed a little wooden rocking horse that John Taylor (who was a woodworker by trade, among many other things) had made for him.  This broke his father's heart, so he saddled his horse and made his way back to Nauvoo.  He had to sneak back into his own home in the middle of the night to get the rocking horse because he was such a prominent Church official and the mobs were still looking for him, but he made it out safely and back to his family.  At the completion of this story the missionary looks around and asks the kids if they have any questions.  Trevor's hand pops up immediately.  "So, if they took the rocking horse with them why is it sitting right there?"  The rocking horse was indeed sitting right in the middle of the room. The adults got a good chuckle out of expression in his voice as he asked because it was kind of a "duh" sound.  She explained to him that when John Taylor's descendants heard they were renovating the house in Nauvoo they sent the rocking horse back from Utah so it could be part of the house once again.  Nice to know Trevor was thinking on his toes...now if he could just refrain from getting in trouble for it at school almost everyday!

Nauvoo Trip: Day 1

We're baaaack!

I have so much to share, it is going to take a few posts to fit it all in and not completely bore you.
You know me and my deep love of history...and if you don't, you will after this!  I have done a lot of reading about the history of the Church and I love to visit the sites that I have read about. When my mother in law mentioned that she wanted to come visit us in September I told her that I we wanted to take a trip to Nauvoo and she could just meet us in St. Louis and we could make a weekend of it. We ended up being able to cram a few more family members into the plans, so we got to see my father in law and Chad's brother, Cody, and his family as well.

Thursday night we packed up and headed north and west to Hazelwood, MO (which is just outside of St. Louis). There we met up with Cody and his womenfolk and Chad's parents, who flew in later that night. We all stayed at the worst Ramada Inn in the history of Ramada Inns and lived to tell about it (luckily) and geared up for the final leg of the trip. 

The next morning we drove up to Carthage, IL and went on the Carthage Jail tour.  The kids were so good during the tour, and they were fascinated with the fact that Willard Richards is their great great great great great grandfather on Chad's father's side.
  

Chad and Kade in front of the window that Joseph Smith fell from after being mortally shot several times.  The bed behind them is where John Taylor hid after being shot in the hip. Willard Richards later pulled him out and hid him in the dungeon next door, covering him with straw. The straw helped the blood to congeal, which kept John Taylor from bleeding to death.

The hole from the bullet that was shot through the door,which hit Hyrum Smith in the face, killing him instantly.

My men outside the jail.

The boys with their cousins, Madison and Kailea.

After the Jail we got some lunch and squished into our cars for the final descent into Nauvoo...after a short detour into Keokuk, Iowa for provisions at The Walmart. *Note-if you are anywhere in the Southern US and need to stop at a Walmart it is offensive nigh unto treason if you don't call it THE Walmart. 

We finished out Friday by checking into our hotel (The Nauvoo Family Inn & Suites), where we were able to get a suite with three bedrooms, a little kitchen, and two bathrooms. It was a Mormon big family dream come true!  We found a great little park for the kids to run and frolic, Chad and my fil were able to toss their frisbee golf discs a little bit too.  Then we headed to Hotel Nauvoo for a pricey nice buffet dinner.  We rounded out the evening by taking the kids to the pool and allowing them to thoroughly saturate themselves (and Chad and Cody) before dragging them off to bed.

***I have officially decided that I hate my little point and shoot Kodak camera because all the pictures I took ended up blurry or with a huge glowing glare on anything lightly colored (and sometimes both), therefore the pictures are less than stellar, but at least I remembered to take some!

Spongebob

I was talking to my sister a while back and we got on the subject somehow of how it is kind of sad how a little kid loses his front teeth and then they are replaced by gigantic adult teeth that takes years to really "fit" their face.  **We were pretty much just talking about our own oldest boys who are eleven months apart in age, so please don't be offended if you have a child who is afflicted with this.

My sister made the comment that sometimes she half expected her son to open his mouth to say something and let loose a big "eeeee awww", you know, like a donkey.  I am a cruel and unusual person so I found this funny enough that I laughed til I snorted (see, I have my own issues to deal with so don't judge too harshly).

The truly sad thing for Blake is that since he lost the two teeth on each side of his front teeth it has taken an unbelievably long time for their adult replacements to appear.  Enter in the Spongebob era.  A few months back we noticed that when he holds his lips a certain way he looks remarkably like Spongebob Squarepants.

Like this:

See the resemblance?  Well, Kade thinks it is hilarious.  So much so that he now does it himself:

Because of this new found funny face I can't get a decent picture of the kid to save my life...not that the camera I have been using lately is any help, but you get the idea.

" "That's it, I'm getting off the loony express."

~Squidward

Lately

I am trying to get in the habit of typing writing down things that my kids say that I shouldn't forget, and just this week there were four (that I remember anyway):

At Hobby Lobby on Wednesday:

Me: "I think Mommy might be going nuts."
Kade: [with a very worried tone] "Awww man!" [slight pause] "No Mom, you not going nuts." 
 *What a relief. My three year old still believes in me. Despite the fact that everyone else around me would tend to agree with my observation!


In my bathroom Thursday morning:

Trevor: "Hey Mom, could you spike my hair today?"
Me: "Why?"
Trevor: "Cause the girl who sits next to me at school says she likes it that way."
Me: "In that case, no."

Today in Academy Sports:

Lady on the loudspeaker: "Blah blah blah."
Kade: [frantically trying to keep pace with me as I dragged him to the back of the store] "No! We just going bathwoom!"
*Now imagine him yelling it loud enough for the lady on the loudspeaker and the rest of the patrons in the store to hear. Gotta love potty training.

Just now as I was typing this post:

Kade: "Mom! Trevor hurt my crack!"
*How does a mother even respond to something like that? 

We're Having a Baby...

GIRL!

Yesterday was our 20 wk ultrasound appointment.  We decided that since this is our last baby and Blake and Trevor are old enough to understand and know what is going on that it would be fun for them to be there too, so I picked them up from school early and we dropped Kade off at my mom's house.

I was a little disappointed when the ultrasound tech called us back because she was the same one who did the ultrasound when we found out about the miscarriage, and I knew her bedside manner leaves something to be desired.  True to form she said pretty much nothing during the first twenty minutes or so, leaving me to wonder if something was wrong...but I could see the heartbeat and everything looked ok.  I could tell that the tech was having a hard time getting some of the measurements because the baby was in a tight little ball...so stubborn!  I rolled to my left side, then my right side trying to get her to move and she just stayed rolled up.  Finally the tech (who decided she was going to be more friendly) told me to get up and walk around for a few minutes to hopefully get the baby to shift a bit.  After about ten minutes we went for it again and lo and behold she had moved enough to get some good pictures.

It still took a few minutes to figure out exactly how she was situated, so we all just kept waiting. Finally the tech announced, "It's a girl!".  Ever the skeptic, I said, "Really?" The tech was surprised also, so she made sure to double and triple check...she said she had also figured that it would be another boy.  Then I kind of laid there in shock as it all sank in.  I was completely blown away (I think I still am!). Chad was pretty shocked too.  The boys didn't act too excited considering that (as they have told everyone who asked the past few days) girls "scream too much and won't let us get any sleep".  They were probably more disappointed that we can't used their awesome boy names (Duke or Batman) now!

They did seem to enjoy the whole experience though, until Trevor started getting antsy towards the end.  They got to see her little heart beating and we were able to see her swallow and make a great big yawn, which they got a kick out of.  At one point there was a shot of the bottoms of both of her feet and we could see her kicking her right foot up and down.  Blake thought that was pretty cool.

I am still of the mindset that I will believe it when she is really here, and I honestly would have been ok with having another boy, but I am so thrilled!  I have another ultrasound in four weeks to get some of the measurements that the tech couldn't get, so it will help put my mind at ease to just make sure one more time.  

We have no names at this point as we were pretty much just talking boy names.  The funny thing is that we had finally come up with one that we could both tolerate (Tucker) and wouldn't you know we have to go right back to the ring and "duke" it out over a girl name now! 

The running joke in the McGhie family is that eventually someone needed to break the family "curse".  Chad is the oldest of six, there are five boys and then one lonely girl who came along at the very end.  All of Chad's brothers (except for the one who doesn't have children yet) have little girls.  In fact, there are eight granddaughters and four grandsons (Chad's sister finally had a little boy last year).  Chad's brother's wife is also pregnant with their fourth girl, so that would make nine girls before ours.  The curse was that everybody seemed to only be able to have one kind or the other, so this is big news!  On my side there are nine grandsons and only three granddaughters...and all three of the girls are from one of my sisters.  So I guess this is big for both sides of the family.  A little variety to shake things up at family get togethers!

One of These Things...

really should not be on a 1st grader's writing assignment!

As I was checking through Trevor's take home folder from 1st grade on Wednesday I came across this paper:

I neglected to take a picture of the front, which was basically just a full page of practicing writing the letter "P". Imagine my surprise when I turned the paper over and the one on the (sort of) top right assaulted my eyes.

Apparently he finished the assignment on the front pretty fast so his teacher told him to write down any words he could think of that begin with "P".  Aside from the fact that I have no idea what a "paxixcr" or a "plarhan" is (I am thinking that "pene" is penny, but I have my doubts), leave it to Trevor to write "Pooprzr".  Yes folks, my six year old wrote the words (albeit misspelled) on the sign he sees every time he sits on the toilet to do his business!  If you missed my last post this has no significance for you, so scroll down and read before you die of curiosity.

I really hope his teacher didn't look at this too closely before she put it in his folder.  What a fabulous first impression this one must have made during the first week of school.  I put it on the fridge because it makes me smile every time I walk by though.

I think I have found a new "Trevorism". Heaven help us til he graduates from college!

Potty Training Purgatory

We are knee deep in the second full week of potty training Kade and so far it has gone....ok.  He has the pee part down pretty well and even tells us when he needs to go a lot of the time.  (It probably helps that we have a large jar of M&Ms standing by and he gets two when he goes number one!)

He has only had one or two nights where he hasn't stayed completely dry and has finally started going in public bathrooms.  I think he was afraid of the bigger toilets, but he really gets a kick out of the "magical" toilets that flush themselves.

Our major problem at the moment is that he pretty much refuses to do the "doo" in the toilet. I won't go into the details (mostly because I still gag when I think about it), but it has been very frustrating!  We are now implementing the "big guns".  We are resorting to extreme bribery in order to get him motivated to get the job done.  Yes folks, we are bringing out the POO-POO PRIZE. 

Wish us luck!!

Pickin' Blueberries

It is really lame that I am far enough behind on blogging that I haven't covered 4th of July yet...but I am going to skip it and just go straight to the middle of July.

On the 15th (and the only reason I remember this is because it was Kade and my niece Ashleigh's birthday) my sister and I bravely took our combined eight kids to pick blueberries at The Blueberry Patch. We found out later that it was supposedly the hottest day of the year, and the amount of sweat we poured out while we were there can attest to that! The kids were all pretty good little troopers; Kade picked a surprising amount of berries. He may have eaten as many as went into his bucket though! We all picked a combined total of just over ten pounds (five for each family) in just under an hour. We rounded out the visit with a stop at the playground and outhouse (with an authentic half moon cut into the door) and snacks at the picnic table. It was a ton of fun and the muffins that we have made so far with the loot that we froze were spectacular!

Happy Birthday to Kade!

Today is my #3's third birthday.  I can't believe it has already been three years.  We have been through a lot with this little guy, RSV, MRSA Staph infections, ear infections, bronchial infections, tubes in his ears, hernia surgery, hospitalization for Failure to Thrive. Funny that most of my memories from the last couple years involve countless doctors offices and hospitals!

Here are a few pictures of his two surgery days and his four day long hospital stint:

 I don't know if I have ever admitted on here that I was rather shocked to find out at our 20 wk ultrasound that he was not the little girl I was desperately hoping for, but was in fact another rambunctious little boy.  I went around for a week in a state of shock, not disappointment necessarily, but shock.  Finally one day on my 45 minute commute to Vanderbilt (where I was working at the time) I suddenly got a very warm feeling that everything was going to be ok, that the Lord was sending this little man to our family with a purpose.  From that moment on I got excited to meet him, and he has never disappointed.

Kade has brought so much joy to our family (and anyone else who happens to meet him) from the time he entered this world.  As a newborn his sweet spirit was very apparent. My doctor (who was pregnant with her first child at the time) would steal into the nursery at the hospital or to my room every chance she got to just come and hold him.  The nurses marveled at his patience and laid back attitude...and he has seen A LOT of nurses in his three years!

Chad and I went round and round about his name for months before his birth.  From the beginning of my pregnancy we entertained using the middle name of Smith after Chad's paternal grandmother whom we were all really close to when we lived in CA.  Her sweet spirit was a comfort to everyone around her and I wanted her legacy for him.  We finally settled on naming him Kade Smith McGhie.  Four months after he was born Grandma McGhie passed away from complications with Alzheimers, and Kade made his first trip to California for her funeral.  Chad and I were both very upset at the funeral, but just holding Kade seemed to offer so much comfort to us.  It is funny that he should be so much like her in his loving personality, I know she really would have loved him. 

Newborn and babyhood:

He has grown so much since his little 6 lb. 12 oz. body joined us!  He has gotten feistier the past year or so and can pretty much hold his own when his brothers bully him.  But he never hesitates when I ask for a kiss or hug and is always ready with "I wuv you toooo!" when we vow our love to him numerous times a day.  His most current obsessions are Batman and baseball, and he even has the other little ones in Nursery (at church) using a stuffed tiger tail as a baseball bat, and then they charm the Nursery ladies into throwing whatever they can find that passes as a baseball.  I can't wait to see what life has in store for this little guy, I am so grateful that he was sent to us and can't imagine our family without him.

Toddlerhood Mayhem:

Mr. 3 year old Casanova, ready for his closeup (ok, ok, so I took this in May...but he still looks pretty much the same!):

Happy Birthday Mr. Kade! 

Time for this mama to make some Batman cupcakes...