What a difference a year makes!

This was me on December 7, 2009 right before we left for the hospital.  No wonder people stopped me regularly at Kroger to gawk. 

24 hours later we had this...

And 365 days later we have this...

Happy Birthday to my sweet boys.  I love you so much.  I wish life had a pause button so that I could freeze you guys, your brother and your sister right where we are now so that you all would stay sweet and cuddly and would never have to grow up.  But I can't, so I will quit sobbing about how fast time goes and try to enjoy every minute.  I have a feeling the next 365 days are going to be quite a ride.

Fall in Review

Claire is pacifier free and is thrilled ;). She is also about 50% potty trained - mommy is thrilled to be on the verge of only having to purchase diapers for half of her children.

Caden went fishing with Nana and caught his first fish. He brought it home, watched daddy gut it, had daddy cook it, and then ATE the whole thing.

Halloween: Caden was a white GI Joe ninja, Claire was a ladybug and the twins were skeletons.

Happy Birthday Caden!

I can't believe it's been 5 years since Caden was born (I also can't believe I have 3 other children younger than him, but that's for another time...). What to say about Caden? He's a bundle of energy and has a vivid imagination. He loves to play with his "men" (action figures). He can't wait to start kindergarten next year and ride the bus with all his buddies. This past year he played on two different baseball teams. It was fun, but we are turning our sights towards football next fall. Major milestones: he's learned how to swim and ride a bike without training wheels. I love my boy!

Two Steps

10 months old

Dane: 21.5 pounds, 1.5 teeth, stands, crawls, adorable! He was the first to stand but hasn't yet ventured towards walking.

Drew: 22 pounds, 2 teeth, stands, crawls, took 2 steps last night - unbelievable! We were all in the playroom together - all 7 of us - when Drew pulled himself up on the ottoman and walked to the couch. Only two steps but he was extremely proud of himself. He spent the rest of the night trying to do it again.

Labor Day Weekend

Hiking and rafting and bears, oh my
A nice spacious cabin way up in the sky
Good food, family, friends
The fun didn't end
'Til next year, can we beat it? We'll try!

Williamson County Fair 2010

Even though this summer has been hot, hot, hot we still took our annual trip to the county fair. It was a blast as usual - my favorite exhibit is Little One's Farming. The kids get to walk through planting their crops, gathering their crops, tending the animals, selling their crops and then receiving a "dollar" to spend in the store on something produced at the farm or using farm products. Claire rode some rides, Caden went on the Ferris Wheel with Nick, and Caden is the proud owner of a monkey prize. Daddy was kind enough to help Caden be ripped off, I mean win, a prize. It was a game where Caden threw darts at balloons. Mommy was annoyed at the wasteful spending but got over it - eventually. Thanks to Aunt Lauren for being our photographer.

8 months old

Due to my continued lack of a camera (thanks Claire, February) I have relied on the kindness of others for my pictures - thus no 6 or 7 month pictures of the babies. Not that people weren't kind in months 6 and 7...just no photo opps. So here they are - 8 months old last week. This is a perfect picture of them - Dane is the finger sucker and Drew prefers the pacifier. They can both sit up and do the army crawl. Drew sometimes will crawl properly but is so much faster army style that he will change mid-adventure. We've noticed that Drew is about a month faster in physical fitness tasks - he is also pulling up to a standing position with regularity. Dane is just a bit more laid back. I think he's my sensitive, calm child. 1 out of 4 isn't bad I guess! They're both over 19 pounds and are eating solid food 2x a day. Sweet, sweet boys.

How We Survived Summer

Fairly consistently whenever I leave the house with all 4 kids at least 3 people make the comment "you sure have your hands full." The other question I receive regularly is "are you surviving?" The short answer to both questions is YES! We're surviving and managing to have some fun at the same time. Much of this is thanks to my beloved Longview Rec Center. We spent many summer mornings enjoying the outdoor pool. It is an awesome pool - zero entry, water slides, fountains, the "deep" (all of 4.5 feet but to the little ones it's an abyss). Some days I take a babysitter to help and on other days (which are my favorite) I take the twins to the child care inside and then swim with Caden and Claire. The babies like the pool, but they are just as happy inside and quite frankly don't need to be in the sun all that often. This summer Caden has learned to swim. He's not ready for the swim team, but he's making progress every time we go. He's also taking swim lessons. Claire thinks she can swim - big surprise. We started the summer with the swim jacket and wings but now we're minus the wings. Occasionally we're even minus the jacket. I predict full on swimming by next summer for that one.

That's Our Girl!

Although apparently she thinks she's a boy...

Letter #511

Things to think about:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/14/letter-to-the-president-511-a-graduation-speech-what-not-to-learn/

Claire's New Trick

Twice now Claire has dressed herself...in Caden's clothes. She's officially crazy.

The Maycomb County Picnic

by Nick:

Towards the end of the school year, we started reading the book "To Kill A Mockingbird." The whole book was in a town called Maycomb County in Alabama. This "county" gets together at the end of the book to have a picnic because the big case in the book is solved. After we were done reading this book, we all had to pick a character in the book to dress up as and I was Dill.

Welcome Summer!

We celebrated Memorial Day with our fun family, friends and neighbors.
Good food, good company, good weather - can't beat it.

Caden's World

Last week - mom tells Caden "no" about something, who knows what...

Caden: "You're mean mom."

Mom: "Sorry" (or I sure am, or something like that)

Caden: "I'm going to run away."

Mom: "Well, we're going to miss you."

Caden: "When you run away does the mommy drive you to where you want to go or do you have to walk?"

Mom: "You have to walk."

Caden: "Oh."

Mom: "If you run away you can run away to John and Sam's (our neighbors 2 doors up) and then I'll know where you are."

Caden: "OK"


Caden, today on the way to soccer...

Caden: "My girlfriend is on my soccer team, she's 5."

Mom: "Oh, what's her name?"

Caden: "Well, there are two Zoeys."

Mom: "Oh, so there is a girl named Zoey on your team and she's your girlfriend. Why is she your girlfriend?"

Caden: "Because I think she has cool toys. Even she has Barbies, and that's cool, I like Barbies."

What???

The Flood

Usually when something major happens in the world I watch about it on TV for an hour or so, be glad it doesn't affect me directly and then move on with life. Not this time! Fortunately our home and our little city of Spring Hill sustained little lasting damage but it's certainly different to watch the TV and know that the devastation is a mere 30 miles up the road. There's a good chance that my first house in north Nashville was damaged - my street ran parallel to the Cumberland River. There's an even better chance that several of the children I taught over the years are now homeless. I have had a hard time wrapping my brain around this flood and what we would have done if the rain had poured 13 inches on our house rather than stalling 20 miles to the west.

This coupled with the threat of oil washing onto the beaches of our beloved Gulf Shores has me feeling a little blue. But I know Nashville will pull through...we were even the subject of today's letter to the President:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/05/dear-president-obama-471-wholl-volunteer-for-tennessee/

New Pictures

I pulled out the exer-saucer a couple of weeks ago and quickly discovered that I'd need a second. Fortunately one of my neighbors had one in the garage sale pile.

The boys are almost 5 months old already!!! I can't believe how big they are - both around 16 pounds. They sleep 12 straight hours at night, roll from front to back and back to front and started solid foods the first of May. They are about the sweetest boys ever. They smile, laugh and are pretty much happy all the time (except when they're hungry). Drew is wearing green and Dane is wearing the gray. I realized that since their birth I have taken their blog pictures in the matching farm chairs. It's cool to see how much they've grown just by how they fill the chairs.

A favorite...

My favorite news personality is far and away Anderson Cooper on CNN so I check his blog regularly. Most of the posts are news stories, but one featured journalist is a guy named Tom Foreman. This guy has written a letter to the President every day of this president's term. What I love about Mr. Foreman is his ability to address current events without shoving his political views down one's throat. I also really appreciate a good writer and this guy has a way with words - cracks me up almost every day. Check out today's letter:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/28/dear-president-obama-464-let-them-eat-derivatives/

Lucky Ladd Farm

In celebration of Claire's birthday we went to Lucky Ladd Farm. It was a really cool place with a petting zoo, baby animals (in the Spring), hay rides, a really cool playground and other farmy things (in the fall they do the pumpkin patch, etc).

I had read on the website that a professional photographer was on hand to take pictures of the kids holding a baby bunny, goat, or chicks. I dressed Claire up (as much as she'll allow) and even had a bow in her hair. She was all excited to hold the animal - she picked the bunny, but unfortunately the photographer took too long trying to get her to look at the camera and smile. The bunny got restless, scratched Claire, Claire threw the bunny on the floor and gone were my hopes of a cute 2 year old picture. I have a really cute picture of Caden though...

After eating lunch and seeing the baby animals in the barn the kids watched a guy do science experiments. Claire was selected to help squeeze some "super science juice."

Next we walked around and fed the animals. The goats had a catwalk type thing they climbed on which ended up at the "goatercoaster." This was a conveyor belt rigged that carried food from the kids on the ground to the goat perched above.

Finally, the kids enjoyed the huge playground. They took a barrel ride, played on swings and playgrounds, roped pretend cattle and played in a sandbox filled with corn. The most exciting attraction was the monster slide. One side was a huge pipe and the other side was flat, open, and lined with hay. Who was the first one down? - you guessed it, Claire. She climbed up the hill, up the ladder, and before I could find someone to help her she was at the bottom ready to go again. That girl is a mess.

We will definitely visit again in the fall.

Soccer Superstar

It's the middle of our 3rd season of exciting YMCA soccer. I think it will be the last - soccer just isn't Caden's sport. He has fun, which is the point, but this year he's on the 4/5 year old team and the kids are just plain bigger than he is. Surprisingly Caden is not very aggressive when it comes to getting into the game. He runs with the kids but doesn't fight for the ball. We'll hold out for baseball and football in a year or so.

Happy Birthday Claire

Saturday, Easter Eve, 6 pm

Caden: "Mom, is the Easter Bunny going to leave eggs filled with candy outside for us to find?"

Mom: "What?!?, I don't know, why do you ask?"

Caden: "Last year the Easter Bunny left eggs for us to find."

Mom: (crap) "Wow, Caden, you're right. The E.B. sure did."

Caden: "So will the E.B. leave eggs?"

Mom: "Don't know, we'll just have to see."

Mom, loudly: "Hey Bill...can you run to CVS for me?"

5 minutes later...

Caden: "I can't wait for the clothes the E.B. is going to leave in my basket."

Mom: (again, crap) "What clothes are those?"

Caden: "You know, the E.B. will put whatever I want in my basket and I want clothes, toys and candy."

Mom: "Well, we'll just have to see what the E.B. can fit in your basket."

(I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad...)

Our Garden

One of the perks of living in the pseudo country is lots of open space. We really have the best of both worlds...a fun neighborhood with good friends nearby and the opportunity to take advantage of resources such as the community garden. Today we went with some of our neighbors to attempt cultivating our plot of land. We planted tons of seeds - the only criteria was whether or not we enjoy eating it...ignored were proper seasons, soil conditions, and the like. We have no idea what we're doing, but it sure will be fun. And, who knows...maybe we'll get lucky and something will pop up.

Breathe

left: Drew, right: Dane

We can, finally. The boys literally. Me figuratively.

The last few weeks have been nuts. Three weeks ago today I thought that Drew was having an ear infection relapse. I took him to the doctor for more antibiotics only to be told that I needed to drive to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and not to pass go or collect my $200. This began what would become a 2 week stint in the hospital. We went to the ER 4 times - twice with Drew, twice with Dane. Drew's inpatient stay was 5 days, Dane's 3. This week we've been to the doctor twice for follow ups. Drew is good to go, yesterday Dane got a "B." I'll take it, gratefully.

All this thanks to a virus called RSV. Not such a big deal once you're about 6 months old. A big deal when all you can do is lie there.

Many thanks to the family and friends who took loving care of Caden and Claire during this whole mess. You know who you are.

Many thanks to those of you who called, e-mailed, texted, prayed, and just wanted to help, even if I wouldn't let you do anything. You are much appreciated.

We are so glad it's spring...and by the way, the boys are now 3 months old and weighing in at around 14 pounds each.

Good Morning Sunshine

Twitter

One of my few accomplishments over the last few weeks was to catch up on all the computer things I've wanted to check out. One of these things was Twitter.

I don't get it. For so many reasons...

In order to see what it is all about I had to set up an account. In case you want to "tweet" me or "follow" me my name (I guess this is what it's called) is @alrwalker. What does that mean? Why the @ in front of the name?

In less than an hour of signing up "Simon Bosely" was following me. Then I figured out that I could enable the accept or decline followers feature. Enabled. Since then Eva, Elroy and Flora have asked to follow me. I have also figured out that these "people" are really just spam and their tweets are newsreels.

I feel like I am learning and speaking a foreign language.

I am following 4 people (or entities): Regis and Kelly, Ellen, Martha Stewart, and Anderson Cooper. Most of their tweets are links to their websites and/or blogs. The only person who actually writes her own stuff is Kelly Ripa and honestly it kind of makes me feel like a stalker.

I'm thinking that this Twitter phase will not last long. I am going to keep the account until I get a new cell phone only because one can somehow set up the Twitter stuff onto the cell phone. And (gasp) I'm going to get a texting package on my new phone.

I know, pick your jaws up off the floor. I kinda like the texting thing. Maybe Twitter will be next.
Until then - Tweet me!

Top 10 List

In honor of our 2nd visit to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in as many weeks:
(This time Dane is sick - same RSV)

Top 10 Reasons VUMC is like vacationing at a spa:

10. Friendly staff

9. Room with a view...

8. ...if you can get a room - there's a waiting list

7. Being lulled to sleep by the soothing sounds of LifeFlight

6. Free wireless

5. People to wait on my children hand and foot (and by wait on I mean suction, rectal temps, IV's, blood pressure, etc)

4. Valet parking

3. Ben and Jerry's in the food court

2. Room service menu - they bring me 3 squares a day.

1. Bang for your buck - probably could've paid for college by now. Can't wait to see the bill.

Now all I'm missing is a manicure, pedicure and massage and I'll have it made!