At first, I was disappointed that none of our family members could make it here for the baptism of our fifth child.

Then, I realized, our family did make it!

The Remicks were able to come a few days early, so we managed to spend some quality time together.

Bergen and Luke

Jack and Keegan

Maria and Zoe

Carsten and Andrew

Sam and Bergen

Luke was not left out. He's behind the pillar.

(More pictures can be seen by clicking the Flickr badge in the left hand column of this page.)

We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and that they were able to make the long trip to be with us.  Kyle, Troy, Keegan, Bergen, Carsten, Zoë – we miss you already!!!

We’ve really had a great time hosting visitors this summer.  We have plenty of room, so if you haven’t yet, call today for a reservation!

Just Born

8 Years Old!

Who would have thought that we’d love him so much that we’d end up with FOUR MORE?!?

I can’t believe 8 years have gone by… it just doesn’t seem possible.  I hope time will slow down a bit, as I dread the thought of the next 8 flying by as fast as the first.  (Plus, I can’t afford the car insurance.)

Here are a few of my favorite pics of my first born:

Seriously, though, last weekend, Jack celebrated his First Reconciliation, or First Confession.  We were very proud of him, as it’s pretty nerve-wracking to pour all of your 7-year-old sins out to a priest.  We were not so proud of our other three, who had ants in their pants throughout most of the morning.

Doesn't he look so grown up? And isn't the priest tall?!?

Here’s my lumberjack reference… Gran sent a new box of clothes and the boys all got these shirts.  (Jack hasn’t had the opportunity to wear his yet, as he’s been in uniform all week.)

We love flannel!

This is Lukie’s new favorite shirt!

So, I’ve been slacking on the blog. But not to worry!  I’m here today to update you on all the excitement occurring in our household!

You saw the pictures of my beautiful new Godbaby, but here is one now of my new niece:

Her name is Abby and she is now the youngest of the grandbabies on Dan’s side of the family.  Think this little girl will be spoiled?  (Hint:  her mother is the youngest of 6 and is the only girl.)  We will be seeing this beauty in just a few days.  The kids cannot wait!

Speaking of not being able to wait, yesterday we celebrated Dan’s THIRTY-NINTH birthday.  (Is he old or what?)  As soon as the kids were home from school, I had them blowing up helium balloons, wrapping gifts, decorating a banner and baking a cake.   We wanted to surprise Dan.  The problem was, there was too much waiting time.  Dan doesn’t get home until 6:30ish and the kids were finished decorating by 5.  They were in their hiding places with their party squeakers and party hats, ready to go long before Dan was due home.  Jack called him several times, so I’m sure Dan had NO CLUE what was going on.  But, we had fun!

Lukie's ready!

Surprise!

Dan didn’t get to blow out his own candles and his gifts were unwrapped for him.  But at least he got to eat cake!

Also this week, my little boys started preschool.  Sammy for the first time.

The backpack is as big as he is!

Brothers

Back home after the first day. Love that crown!

In the fall, during the first open house/teacher conference, Maria’s teacher told me, “I’d take a hundred Maria’s.”

Within a few weeks of that, Maria had been “red-carded” several times and started a behavior chart to help keep her in line.  Thankfully, it worked and she pretty much sailed through the rest of the year.

I didn’t hear any more comments like that first one, however.

The Procession

Maria tells what she liked best about kindergarten*

Receiving her "diploma"

This frightens me... think 20 years from now.

with Grandma and Grandpa

*Get this… her favorite thing was learning about “star behavior”.  When the children did something exemplary, they received “star bucks” to earn special privledges.

Jack has graduated in Boy Scouts from being a Bobcat to being a Tiger Cub. We missed the ceremony due to a conflict, but he has received all his official pins and badges. (Meaning more sewing for me… unless Katey wants to come back???) The scout rocket launch is this afternoon – look for pictures to come. I think real fire is involved, so it should be… interesting.

Maria has already had her class picnic and will be graduating from kindergarten next week. I can’t believe she’s going to be a first-grader! Grandma and Grandpa are coming to help celebrate. I’ll be sure to post pics next week.

Lukie has graduated recently from a tricycle to a 2-wheeler (with training wheels). He looks pretty serious now. He’s also getting ready to finish up his first year of preschool, where he’s learned to color better, write his name and play non-competitive musical chairs. (?!?!)

And Sam… as you know from the Poop Party, he is on the cusp of graduating from diapers to undies. I can’t believe I’ll have a diaper-less house after all these years.  Whatever will I do?

And me? I’ve just graduated from crazy to crazier

After many years and much stress we do have three children that have ceased voiding in their underwear. For the most part, anyway. But, any success is due to nature, age, or something not having to do with me.

So, with Number 4, I have chosen NOT to potty train. For the most part. I mean, I got out the little potty and the potty seat for the big potty. And, I ask when he wakes up if he wants to go. I also told him that whenever he decides to start pooping on the potty, we’ll have a party. And I’ve encouraged the other kids to encourage him. That’s about it. I’ve told everyone that with Sam, I’m going to wait until he comes to me and says, “Mom? I need to use the toilet now.” And then goes off and does it on his own.

Preschool doesn’t start until September and at a recent meeting the teacher told us that if our children weren’t COMPLETELY potty trained not to worry about it. She’d go easy on us. That, let me tell you, takes a ton of stress off.

Well, amazingly, it’s happened! On Friday, Sam pulled out the potty seat, put it on the potty, and told me he needed to poop. “Do you need any help?” I asked. “No,” he told me. While I went on with my business in the kitchen, he got down to business in the bathroom. The next thing I knew, he was hollering that he “did it!”  Truthfully, I didn’t believe him, as we’ve had false poopers in this family before. But, when I looked, it was definitely there!

WHOOOOHOOOOOOO! All those experienced moms with six kids DO know what they’re talking about when they say kids do it on their own when they’re ready.

I joyfully sang the Super Duper Pooper song to Sam and he asked about his party. We planned it for the next day.

As Dan had to work on Saturday morning, I bravely chose to run some errands with the kids. Besides going to Home Depot for shrubs, we hit Target for cake mix and Kohl’s for Underoos. (Sam had said he wanted Cars underwear.)

Since Kohl’s was having a buy 2 get 1 free sale on Underoos, I bought all the boys a set. When we got to the register, the cashier asked who had chosen the Batman pair, as her son was a big fan. Maria – spokeswoman for the family – answered with, “Those are Jack’s. Sam got the Cars ones ’cause he pooped on the potty yesterday. BIG!” The cashier chuckled, the woman behind us clapped and I about died.

I don’t have any expectations that Sam is completely finished with diapers, but I am hoping that by the time we’re finished with the current package (remember, we shop at Costco) he’ll be in his new boxer briefs regularly.

Last night we all celebrated with chocolate cake (’cause what other kind is there?) and sang the Super Dooper Pooper song to Sam. He is SO PROUD!

This evening I had a brilliant idea.

“Jack,” I said.  “How about if after dinner we tie a string to your tooth and tie the other end to your new train engine and let the train pull your tooth out?”

“Okay!” Jack said.

Of course, as we got closer to the big event there was some a lot of stalling and some silliness.  He had an entire audience – Luke and Maria sat on his bed while Sam kept trying to fiddle with the train before we were ready.  Cheerio was even in on it.  (Dan was working late and missed it.  I’m sure he’s devastated.)

The first run was a failure.  The string pulled off of the train.  We made some adjustments and tried again.  Then the string came off of Jack’s tooth.  A third try failed to pull the tooth because the train was going too slow.

Finally (with a teeny bit of covert help from me)… success!

(Don’t forget to click on the pic to enlarge it, so you can see the string.)

Now we just have to worry about what the Tooth Fairy is bringing.  I don’t know what nut has been talking to my kids, but they have their sights set waaaaaaayyyyy too high.

It happened in our hotel room just after returning from dinner. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lukie run through the room. Then he was falling and screaming. I grabbed him and hugged him and told him he was fine. He quieted down and I and went to run a bath for him and Sam.

While getting Sam undressed I happened to look down at my arm – and saw blood. A lot of it. I ran to find Luke. He was on the bed talking to Jack and when he sat up, there was blood on the pillow. There was a gash on the back of his head. He must have smacked his head on the edge of the table/countertop when he fell. It looked pretty nasty.

When Dan walked into the room (he had driven separately), Jack and Maria couldn’t wait to give him the gory news.

“Luke is bleeding!”

“He hit his head!”

“It’s really bad!”

Dan and I looked at the wound more closely together and Dan suggested he run Luke over to the night clinic. It’s our regular doctor’s office and it’s just minutes from the hotel.

A little while later, Dan called to give me the news that Luke would need stitches. Oh, how I hated not to be there for him!

I hung up and Jack and Maria started asking a zillion questions.

“How do they stitch it?”

“What will it look like?”

“I’ve never seen stitches before. Will it hurt him?”

“Can we wait up to see Luke’s stitches?”

I answered their questions as best I could and prayed Dan and Lukie were doing okay.

In no time they were home (or what we call home at the moment, anyway). It turns out the doctor chose glue over stitches. As you can see, it looks pretty nasty. I’m glad it’s on the back of his head. I asked Luke if it hurt. “It hurt when they glued it,” he told me. And, according to Dan, he let everyone know it. (By the way, the nurses told Dan, “Remember, we’re nurses, not barbers.” I agree.)

Unfortunately, the doctor’s instructions include no swimming for SEVEN days. I don’t know if that hurts Luke more or me more. We were planning on swimming tomorrow while we wait for Dan to get off work. We have to check out of the hotel at noon and we won’t be heading to St. Louis until after 5 p.m. I explained to him that he won’t be able to swim and that Jack and Maria may still go swimming while he plays with the other kids at the Y. He told me that was okay, but I have a feeling that that will change come morning.

Then again, maybe there won’t be any swimming. As I was updating my mom on this evenings events, Maria came up to me and said, “Mom, I don’t want to go swimming tomorrow.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because I want it to be fair for Lukie.”

Wow. Is that sweet or what? I mean, I don’t doubt that she’ll change her tune in the morning, but still. To have said that. It almost brought tears to my eyes.

Well, it was a first for us. We’ve been muddy and bloody (usually on Dan’s watch) but thus far we’ve had no stitches, broken bones or trips to the emergency room. We’ve been pretty blessed, considering having four children under the after of 7, three of whom are boys and none of whom are gentle, quiet or sedate.

As you can see (for more pics, click on flickr in the left hand column), the kindergarten class had a small ceremony where they sung some songs, delivered roses to their parents and received awards. Oh, and TBTITWW put together a wonderful slide show of the kids.

Jack was beside himself excited. So excited, in fact, that he got into trouble yesterday during graduation practice. He came home and told me he wasn’t going to be able to graduate because he had been goofing off so much. Since there was no note from TBTITWW to back this up, I assumed it was a warning threat and that he would be participating.

Participate he did, and he was wonderful. Except for the VERY loud “AAAAHHHHHH CHOOOOOO!” (a legitimate sneeze turned dramatic) in the middle of the ceremony. Fortunately (or, really, unfortunately) everyone thought it was very funny and he got a lot of laughs.

Despite Jack’s spiritedness and his lack of ability to always contain such, he really is so sweet. Really. All the way to the core. He absolutely basks in a good word or a smile from a teacher or parent. Anyone willing to look past the occasional constant craziness that is Jack seemingly falls in love with him.

Yesterday, as we pulled up to school, Jack spotted the principal. She is a wonderful person, but for the sake control and order, she comes across as stern and serious. (When she smiles, though, you think she’s your best friend). Many kids and a lot of parents (including me) are intimidated by her.

Jack, unsurprisingly, spent more time than some getting to know the principal this year. When we pulled up yesterday and saw her, though, he said, “I love her.” Mmmmmhmmmmm. It’s a good thing we’re moving. Jack has her figured out.

When we stopped to talk to Jack’s teacher at the graduation party, she told me to be sure to look on the board in the classroom before we left. She had put up a picture that Jack had drawn her of himself so that she wouldn’t forget him when we move to Chicago. (The blond on the right is the teacher.)

Makes your heart melt a little, doesn’t it?