Fair Trade?

I was cleaning up the kitchen this afternoon while Will was sitting in the living room holding Luke. We were talking about how sweet he is and giggling when we would hear his little noises.

I asked, "Do you think we'll have anymore babies?"

"I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"There's just too many boys here. If you have another baby, it will be a boy and we will have 7 boys including Cooper. That's just too many."

"It is a lot."

"How about we ask Aunt Julee if we can make a trade for Ceseley?"

hahahaha "Okay, and who would we trade for Ceseley?"

Not missing a beat, "Sam."

He is a bit of a threenager right now (bless his heart), so I can totally understand how he came to this conclusion.

Ice Cream Sunday

I made some homemade hot fudge and caramel sauce for our treat. The kids decided they wanted theirs in cones with m&ms. I had mine with strawberries, fudge, and caramel. So good.

Sunday Morning

Will asks at least 50x a day to hold Luke. Unfortunately he doesn't get to hold him that much. He is gone at school or Luke is eating or fussy, so he doesn't get near the amount of snuggling that he would like. He asked this morning and it worked out just right.

This is what Sunday morning looks like at our house right now; Little boys in underwear, cuddled under blankets, and watching veggie tales. I couldn't resist taking a picture. I wanted to remember this moment so badly. All of my boys. In one spot. Happy to be together. 

3 Year Old on the Loose

We invited a few friends to help us celebrate Sam's birthday Friday night. Sam wanted a Rescue Bot cake, so I searched Pinterest hoping there would be something within my limited ability to deliver. Thankfully other moms had come up with a pretty simple way to create the cake. I had a sweet helper that loved to climb up behind me during the process. I started just squirting chocolate out on another piece of parchment paper trying to keep him from climbing all over me. It worked pretty well.

Sam's friends who came to his party were Cruz Hunnicutt, Mattie Jenkins, and of course Ella who he says is his best friend. They brought along their brothers and sisters which made for a fun and loud house! Patrick and I had a good time visiting, too.

Sam had been waiting for his birthday since Jack's birthday in September. He was always sad it wasn't his turn yet. So when the time came to sing to him and blow out his candles he was more than ready! We sang, "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you," and he blew out his candles, haha. He was definitely the messiest eater of the cake. I don't think another kid had it all over them (or the floor) like he did.  He really enjoyed every bite. He'd been wanting a piece since I had frosted it the day before and asked for cake at each meal time.

Samuel Owen Big Boy (you like to be addressed this way),

You are our all boy boy. You love all things boy. Will and Jack were never into super heroes or wrestling until they were a lot older than 3. You have grown up watching them and loving all the things they love and thinking you are just as big as them. You have been a super chill, go-with-the-flow kid. You have probably been my easiest so far and take disappointments really well. You are so super sweet and most of the time have the best manners. You don't love sharing too much, but I'm betting you'll grow out of that. We love you so so much and are so happy we are a family.

Love,
Mom

Sam's Club

Do you want to go to Sam's club with me?

Yeah, at my club they have pizza. 

Spoiled? Just a tad. Those days are numbered, though. Might as well make the most of it while we can! I'm gonna miss our one-on-one time.

Will's Baptism Day

Will had been waiting patiently for his baptism day. We had postponed it from November when my Grandma Miller had started to really decline. He had been looking forward to this day, and we had spent a lot of time at home talking about baptism and the covenants we make with our Heavenly Father. Will had some very special people come to his baptism, and some of them traveled pretty far just to be there. His Great Grandma Mary Hitchcock, Two of his Great Aunts, Terry and his cousin Mariah, and Great Aunt Marsha and Uncle Mike. His Aunt Julee and Uncle Dan drove all the way from VA to be there, and they brought two of his favorite cousin friends Ceseley and Natalie.

 A couple weeks before his special day, Will decided who he would like to speak and what music he would like to sing. I made a program in photoshop (I had never done that before, big learning curve for me!) and he approved it. :) He also asked me to make a few of his favorite cookies to share with everyone for after the baptism, devils food cookies, lemon chunk, and chocolate chip. 

It was a simple and beautiful service. Will's feet popped up and he had to be immersed twice--something he had said he hoped wouldn't happen. His Nonna spoke on why it's important to be baptized and that when are we are promising to do our best to be like Jesus and help others. And his Pa talked about how it feels when the Holy Ghost talks to us and how we can recognize those good feelings and warnings and know who those promptings are coming from. When the Primary President gave Will a chocolate bar with a red pencil scripture marking pencil. She asked if he knew why we marked our scriptures. Jack raised his hand and he said, "So you know which ones you've read, and you never read them again."  It was pretty cute and funny. 

 We are so proud of him and the good young boy that he is. I know the Lord is proud of him too. Will is very caring and wants everyone to be happy and safe. He is almost always smiling and he really does try very hard to do his best and make good choices. Love him to pieces!

 Love these two best of friends

Brothers

This one just makes me smile. I love how Will is holding Sam's face to look at the camera.

Samuel's EEG

Sam's EEG was today. I was really nervous about how he would handle it because even though he's pretty mellow and go-with-the-flow, he can also be a really spunky and feisty kid. He was only supposed to get 4-6 hours of sleep last night so I think that was really helpful in keeping him still, but I was worried it might go the other way and have him super angry and uncooperative. He laid very still and let the EEG Tech put all the electrodes on his head. He did his best to close his eyes and to blow on the pinwheel. When she asked him if he could try and fall asleep he nodded. She then asked if he wanted a pillow, he nodded. And lastly she asked if he wanted a blanket, he nodded. It took a few minutes but he fell right to sleep, thank goodness. I hated waking him up because I knew he was just so exhausted. But he had a pretty good attitude about that, and we washed his hair and went on to meet with the neurologist.

The neurologist read over his EEG and then gave us the results: epilepsy. Not surprising but still crappy to hear. We discussed different medications and things that had worked/helped with Will. We decided to start with depakote. I love/hate relationship with that drug. It helped so much with Will's seizures, but man, it is so hard on a body, especially the liver. Hopefully this will help with the atonic seizures he's been having and also hopefully hopefully hopefully prevent other seizures types from occurring. I will hang on to the hope that his seizures might not spiral out of control like Will's did. That his experience will be much much milder. That he will be able to grow out of this like we are hoping Will has/is.  We go back in 3 months to meet with our neurologist, Dr. Ess. Hopefully this will work and we won't need to see him before that.

Sam cried almost the whole way back home. He was soo tired and really getting hungry. We stopped and got him a gravy and biscuit, cinnamon raisin biscuit, and an orange juice on the way home. I sat him in my lap and fed him till he decided I was moving too slow and took the fork and finished feeding himself. He ate pretty much all of it, and only shared a few bites with me. I love this little spunky boy so much. I hope I can be what he needs.

Snow Day Snuggles

Stop Scum!

I actually took this before Christmas when I was trying to get the house tidied up and clean. I just got around to editing it yesterday though, so I'm counting it as my photo today for the project 365 I'm attempting to do this year.

I had been cleaning in the bathroom and little man was my shadow--complete in his batman mask and ninja turtle underwear. While mopping the floor on my hands and knees across the bathroom, I saw this. I got my pregnant self up off the floor and went to find my camera hoping the battle wouldn't cease to be over until I got my photo. Luck prevailed! and I am happy to have this moment captured so it's never forgotten. Love being a mom to little boys. I could have never imagined what fun and happiness moments like this could bring. And this picture...it's just so so Sam!

Football Fan

My Favorite Boys

The boys were very helpful with cutting down some small trees and cedars, while I helped Patrick with putting up the fence. They did a great job of helping us start a fire to stay warm and clear out brush. They paused to take a little break and snuggle up with there favorite big pup.

Crock Pot Hot Chocolate

Before Christmas, I had bought all the ingredients to make hot chocolate, hoping that on or right around Christmas we'd make some. We usually just buy the nestle mix and call it a day. But for something special I thought it might be fun. Until the past couple days the highs have been in the 60's and 70's so we weren't really feeling the need for hot chocolate. But today was COLD, about 42! and wanting to savor the last precious moments of everyone being home from school and work, I made it a point to mix it up as soon as I got out of bed. 

Patrick spent the day outside {brr} putting up a fence around a cave that has a pretty steep drop-off. It's been on the to do list for awhile, but you know how that goes. Will and Jack went fishing with Lane, Ella and Uncle Clinton at a pond just behind the house {brr again} and Sam and I stayed inside for most of the morning putting away Christmas decorations. We went out to help burn some brush Patrick had cleared out around the cave once the temperature had about reached the high.

The hot chocolate was waaaay too rich for me, but the kids loved it! They got to have a cup sometime around lunch and then after dinner that's what they chose for dessert. I must say it tasted better after several hours than it did when it was first "done." But still not a fan. I'll have to look for another recipe for special hot chocolate, I guess. I also made homemade whipped cream to top it off and that was delicious!

New Bed

I had been waiting and waiting for our bed to arrive. I ordered from Joss & Main and it took it's sweet time to get here. Almost 6 weeks.  It took me forever to make a decision and stick with it...what's new? So I was so anxious for it to get here and for Patrick to put it together. I'm trying to get as much done furniture/home-wise before the baby arrives. I'm starting to feel the need to nest, but not so much in getting a room ready for baby, but getting my house ready for baby.


Anyway, I LOVE LOVE IT!!

This little stinker climbed up in my arms and fell asleep (not complaining, lovin' the big almost 3 year old snuggles!) So wouldn't you know he was the first one to get to try it out. Lucky Duck!

Movie Night

The boys got the movie Inside Out for Christmas. So we invited the Blatter's over for a movie night. We made popcorn, and I tried to get rid of lots of our Christmas candy. Ella was a big help. She came and sat in my lap for a while during the movie, and I let her eat all she wanted. :) The movie was really cute and we had a fun night visiting and playing.

Tornados? In December?

We have had some crazy warm weather this December, but tornado warnings a few days before Christmas is just ludicrous. We had some strong storm fronts that moved through tonight and we grabbed the kids out of their beds and shoved them in the closet. Remarkably they slept, but we did hear the occasional elbow, leg, or head hit the wall. Kinda cracked us up. And thankfully it just rained really hard and that was it.

Sunday Morning Struggle

Only 3 more Sundays of 1 o'clock church! Sam has been battling an ear infection, pink eye, and cough. After his cough medicine this morning, he went up to his room and stayed there. He had closed his door and fallen asleep right in font of it.

Baby Laurel

Sam and I were picking up a few things from the pharmacy one night when we walked by a few toys. Sam spotted this and insisted we get it for Baby Laurel. I asked him if he'd changed our mind and decided our baby was a girl now. He said, "Nope, that's Baby Luke." 

Dentist

Samuel had his first dentist appointment today. He did such a good job! He laid up there and let the hygienist clean his teeth like such a big boy.

Fall Day Walk

Samuel and I took Cooper on a walk behind our house on this gorgeous fall day.