HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MADDEN!!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDEN!!!  Can’t believe our baby is 4 years old!  Just doesn’t seem possible.   Madden is such a sweetie!  Yes, he is crazy and a handful but on the opposite spectrum of that he really is such a sweetheart.  One of my favorite things about him is he always calls me ‘honey’ and I love it.   Although there was a time when he use to tell most people in the family “I don’t like you” when he was mad, he is now the opposite with multiple times a day saying “you are my best friend” to most people in the family.  I am happy to be on the receiving end of that almost every day.  Just the other day his preschool teacher told me that he steals her heart.  He told her “teacher I use to cry when I came to preschool but I don’t anymore b/c I love you teacher”.  Isn’t that precious.  He is so loving.  Makes the difficult times a little easier to handle J

I have to say I feel very sad and guilty about Madden’s childhood, yes he is still a child but I am talking about when he was younger, pretty much his first year or two.   Our house was pretty crazy with 4 boys born within 3 years and when Madden was born Baker was only 13 months old and we were going through a lot with him.  Lots of hospital visits and stays and stress about figuring out what was wrong with him.  Having twins and a special needs child for siblings takes a lot of attention away from him and I feel really bad about that.  I can’t remember so many special moments in his life and that breaks my heart.    I think it is my fault that Madden was a bit of a challenge when he was younger; ok maybe still  a bit now but I figure most little kids are J I didn’t show him enough one on one, special attention and I was probably short with him at times b/c I was very stressed.  I am so sorry Madden.  You are a precious, sweet boy and you mean so much to me and your Daddy and your brothers.  Your older brothers treat you pretty much like you are the same age as them.  They are hard on you but they love you.  They are just making you into one tough cookie J  You are our best friend too and we love you so much and can’t wait to watch you grow up. 

THE TOILET IS MY BEST FRIEND

Ahhhh the long awaited time is here - Madden is consistently pooping in the toilet!  Let's celebrate!!!  This momma thought this would never happen.  He has been going strong for a couple weeks now and I am SOOOO proud of him.  He has been peeing in the toilet for along time and wearing underwear all day long and just needing a diaper for poo time...don't judge, I tried absolutely everything, every bribe, every punishment, every reward possible and nothing worked, i knew it would happen  in time and meanwhile he told me when he had to go and I would rather give him a diaper to poo in then clean poo out of underwear - yuck!!  I have to confess i just threw a few pairs of undi's away poo and all b/c I just couldn't handle cleaning them anymore.  Is there anything more gross really?!?   Anyhow the thing that finally enticed him enough was his big brothers offering him gum to go on the toilet oh sure, go for them.  Hey whatever works right!  It didn't last though, he went back to the diapers off and on.  I took him to "the tractor store" to pick out his own toy tractor as his first reward for doing the deed on the toilet and he also got to sit on every single tractor outside the store too and was quite disappointed that he couldn't take one of those home.   Now I am happy to say that now according to Madden the toilet is his best friend and he spends a lot of time with his best friend.  I would say he goes 5-10 times a day....seriously!!  Today when we were out running errands he had to go 5 different times.  And every single time (each day not just today while we were out) no matter how many times he has asked it before "are you proud of me mom" of course I am honey.  He often goes down the whole list "Daddy proud of me?  Talan proud of me?  Deegan proud of me?  Baker proud of me?"  So cute!   Yes, Madden we are all so very proud of you and pray that you continue to have the toilet as one of your "very best friends" :)  by the way he has many best friends, this is a subject of conversation every single day.  I am told I am his best friend every day (ok melt right) and if he is mad at someone he says they are no longer his best friend.

So proud with the tractor (actually bobcat) that he chose

I love you so much Madden and am of course SO PROUD OF YOU!!

IT'S WINTERTIME

Been awhile since I have posted.  We had a great Christmas.   The kids had so much fun and we had wonderful time with our families.  I am a bit of a kid myself when it comes to Christmas.  I think I get just as excited as the kids.  It is my favorite time of year.  I love the decorations, the Christmas spirit that fills everyones hearts.  Christmas programs, talking about and celebrating Jesus' birthday and ok I love the presents too.  Don't you love buying your kids presents!  I start early to spread out the spending and then I have to be careful b/c I just want to buy and buy for those cute little suckers of ours :)   Here are just a couple Christmas pictures:

Love these sweet boys!

I actually forgot my camera for the Christmas celebration with my family (smart huh) so I need to get those pictures from my sister yet.

Anyway it is the new year, welcome to 2012 and we have snow and lots of it.  Doesn't every kid wait for this!  The first sight of it and the boys are asking to go out a bit after 6am...still totally dark.  So we hold them off until about 7:30am.  They love it.  Snow kept accumulation to over 10 inches.  A child's dream.  Snow days off of school.  Sledding, building snowmen and snow angels.  Lots of fun. Unfortunately Talan got sick at a bad time with a cough and cold so I am trying my best to keep him in the house but my heart  breaks for him as he stares out the window at his brothers, don't want him to miss out so on Tuesday I broke down and let him go out for awhile and he loved every minute of it of course.  Yesterday was too cold and windy for any of the kids to go out so we have watched lots of movies, did some baking, played games and just stayed warm inside.  We will see what today brings.  With all the wind the yard isn't looking so pretty anymore and is no longer the nice white blanket but rather covered with scattered branches so not sure if there will be anymore sledding but i am sure some snow angels could be made.
By the way our sledding consists of being pulled behind the suburban or pickup.  No we do not have a hill and the 4-wheeler is not working so this has worked out great.  Grabbed a few neighbor kids and so much fun to see 5 kids being pulled behind you.  Baker even got his turn when I drove and Jeromy sat on a sled with him. 
Baker is realizing what is going on around him more and more and gets sad and frustrated when he doesn't get to do things when he wants to.  When we first went sledding Jeromy was driving the suburban and I sat in the back with Baker with the hatch open and we were facing the boys on the sled.  Baker was so mad and crying so hard so we switched.   I drove and Jeromy held him on the sled and then we had a happy boy.  The other times have been too cold for him to be on so he has been in the pick up with us and as long as he can't see the boys behind us he thinks he is just going for a fun ride so that works too :)
Here are a few pictures of our fun times thus far:

This was on the first morning of a snow so not nearly as much on the ground as there ended up being

Added the full face mask to the wardrobe and that is a big help

Nice that we kept the infant car seat.  It works great for situations like that.  No we never have him ride in the car on the road like this but we use it for play situations in the house or a fun drive in the snow :)

The beautiful view

All bundled up and ready to face the cold snow

HALLOWEEN AND PARTY TIME

As my last post mentioned Madden just turned 3 so on Sunday we had family over to celebrate this sweet little guy.  Here are a few pictures.

Then of course Monday was Halloween so we got the boys dressed up - Talan and Deegan were spider man (they chose to be the same but Talan was the black spider man which little did I know was the bad spider man) and Baker and Madden were as always old costumes of Talan and Deegan's - this time Motocross guys.  Baker didn't want to keep his mask on; imagine that ;)  We headed to a party at church (NCCTK) and also trick or treated at Grandpa and Grandma D's, K's and Auntie Dar's.  The boys had a good night; unfortunately we did have some explosive vomit on the car ride home and no it wasn't from too much candy, although I am sure that didn't help.  Despite warnings from us, Madden bit into his glow in the dark bracelet and it exploded in his mouth - very yucky I guess b/c up came all his dinner and candy - all  over the place.  Ewww.  Such a fun way to end the night.  Immediately when he was done he said "mommy I feel better".  Poor little fella :(

Going..

going...

...gone.   I love Baker trying to figure out who is under that mask.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDEN

Oh my oh my, how is it possible.  How is it that my sweet little baby is 3 years old today?  Doesn't seem possible and actually makes me really sad.  Time is going way too quickly and I don't want my baby to grow up.  Slow down Madden :)
You are a crazy, fun loving, energetic, spunky, strong willed, funny, amazing little guy.  You always have us all laughing and you keep up with your older brothers as if you were their same age.  It seemed like you took awhile to get together clear sentences but you really do great now.  Even people other then mommy and daddy can understand you :)  You still say some of the cutest things - saucy is still means sorry.   Floffy is still our dog Roxy.
Just like Talan and Deegan, you are an amazing brother to Baker.  You give him sweet kisses and you hand him toys when he drops them.  You try to share your food with him even though he isn't able to eat.  You are just so kind hearted.
Yes you can be naughty but then so quickly you show your sweet side.  "mommy are you sad", "I'm saucy mommy", "i yuv u mommy"  oh my goodness, so precious.
You love being outside, riding bike, playing in the sandbox, chasing your brothers in the razor.  Your favorite shows are Chuggington, Umizoomi and Word World.  And you love playing with trucks.
Thank you for being our sweet little baby for 3 years and now we can't wait to watch you grow up!!  Love you so much Madden!!

BAKER'S BIRTHDAY!

Saturday was Baker’s 4th Birthday! It is so hard to believe he is 4, he just seems like my baby yet and 4 sounds so old.

We had a great day together as a family. Right away in the morning we started off with giving Baker his gifts. Deegan was happy to help him open and Baker was very excited for the process and for his fun surprises. We of course had to fit in a family 4-wheeler ride too…all 6 of us on one 4-wheeler :) What a site, but one of Baker’s favorite things. I also had to go to Bellingham to get a friend a baby present and I took Baker with and let him pick out a couple new books; oh and he talked me into a couple other fun little things for him too. He is such a sweet talker I couldn’t resist :)

Yesterday we had family over for a Birthday party. I wanted to make Baker a special cake even though he isn’t able to actually eat it. He loves cars, trucks and trains so I made him a pick up truck cake. I am so far from being gifted with any sort of crafty/artsy ability so this was the best I could do. He looked excited by it and we gave him a piece of cake and he did a great job of squishing it between his fingers. He even brought a big handful up to his mouth – oh how we wish you knew how and could safely chew and swallow! He got a taste of some frosting though and we also put a bunch of whip cream on his tray while we were all eating so he could play around with that and have a taste of something.

Baker you continue to light up all of our lives. At some point pretty much every day I seem to get stressed out and all it takes is a moment with you and you can calm me down and bring me peace. You are the happiest, sweetest child in the world. You want so much to be a part of everything that is going on around you and it saddens us that at times you are wanting to do more then you are physically able. Despite that you giggle and wiggle your heart out and everyone around you loves every second we get with you.

I often think of this cute little poem when I play with you – Precious and priceless, so loveable too; the world’s sweetest miracle baby is you!! Then I just ran across this and thought it was something you would like to tell people: Blessed are those who stop and listen to my chatter. You may not understand me; but I love when people talk to me, for I long for companionship, too.

Praying for many more Birthday’s with you Baker!! We love you more then you could ever comprehend!!

Enjoying the new fishy lava lamp and turtle night light we got him

his cupcake on his birthday...he got to squish this too

The cake

I love this boy!!

He is excited about the cake :)

Hmmm, I am going to squish this

He wants to eat it so bad

See he got a little taste of the frosting.  I just had to pull a couple small pieces of cake out of his mouth but he stayed safe and had fun!

TALAN AND DEEGAN ARE 6

Yesterday was Talan's bday and today is Deegan's birthday. Yesterday we went bowling and to their favorite restaurant - Red Robin. Today will most likely include mini golf and maybe the park and a picnic. Can't believe these boys are 6. This coming weekend we will have some of their friends over for bday party. We are so blessed with these 2 boys, they really are remarkable. Hearts of gold. So kind, generous and caring. Talan told me he wanted to give me his birthday presents and that he would share them with Baker and Madden too (before he knew what he got but he probably would still hold to it if we asked, which we won't of course)). He always wants to make others happy. They are THE BEST big brothers in the world. They care for Baker with such love and compassion and they include Madden (most of the time) when they play. Deegan always wants to help me clean and you will often find him vacuuming and picking up toys when I ask. The love to help me dust and want to help in the kitchen. Even though it may be faster and easier on my own I love including them and I can only pray they want to help mommy forever. I get a lump in my throat when I think about how blessed we are with all 4 of our boys but today as I focus on the blessing of 6 years ago and the magic and joy and miracles that came into our lives I am humbled knowing that God chose us to raise and mold them into the best little men we can. THANK YOU GOD FOR our little family!!