Finn's in School!

 Finn started going to pre-school in January of this year. Isn't he the cutest little student ever?

We were lucky enough to get him into a program that busses him to and from school, 5 days a week from 12:30-3:30 -- it is awesome! Since Kate and Rex nap at the same time in the afternoon, I usually get at least one hour to myself which has done wonders for my emotional well-being.

He has always been good with letters, but his love for reading and writing has grown even more and he has acquired a lot of new skills! Every day he comes home with some new little craft in his backpack. It makes me happy.

 His cousin Gemma is in his class which has made the whole experience more fun.  These two really are inseparable.  These are some shots I took of them on backwards day and crazy hair day.

Kate loves to walk with us to the bus and is always a little sad to see her brother go, but is consoled by the fact that Finn gets home by the time she wakes up from her nap.  I can't believe he only has a month left! In the fall, he'll be starting kindergarten. It's funny how I am so excited for him, and so sad at the same time. I don't think I have ever felt those two emotions at the same time before.  I can't wait to help him on this journey, yet I don't want him to leave. I guess I'll just add that to the list of feelings that come with motherhood, and do the best I can to nurture him where he is, and always encourage him onward. So proud of this little man!

The Best Dog in the World

Anyone else want to sing the title of this post to the tune of that Tenacious D song? Just me?...ok moving on...

Our faithful German Shepherd, Cleo, passed away suddenly in February this year. And since she really was the best dog in the world, things just wouldn't be right unless she was somehow immortalized in blog-dom.

Cleo was only middle aged, and should have been with us for 6-8 more years. One night she started acting really lathargic, and when she got worse the next day, we took her to the vet and found out she had a tumor that ruptured. $1500 surgery to remove it and even then her life expectancy was a matter of months, so we decided to put her down. It was so sad to lose her so suddenly!

I won't go on and on about her, but I need to document just how amazing she really was:

She knew 50+ commands, and was very obedient

She didn't slobber at all, and never chewed on anything that wasn't hers. We bought her some rawhide bones for Christmas once, and she wouldn't even chew those but hid them around the house instead. Every few weeks we'd find one somewhere random like the laundry hamper or a toy bin :)

She always greeted us at the door when we got home

She never barked, but would howl with firetrucks which was just plain awesome

She never jumped up on people

She never got on the furniture

She was super mellow, but was ready for a game of tag any time

She was very gentle with the kids

She kept all her 'business' contained to one area in the backyard

On walks, I could balance her leash loosely with a couple fingers while I pushed the kids in a stroller and she always stayed close

Our neighborhood is full of yappy dogs that would always freak out when we walked by, and she never even batted an eyelash

Okay, I kind of did go on forever but there is so much more I could have said -- we are sure we will never have another pet as good as Cleo.

When we told the kids what happened, their reactions could not have been more different. Kate got immediately sad and was on the verge of tears for quite a while. Finn listened calmy and then jovially replied, "well, it's kind of a good thing Dad, cuz now she won't get in your way anymore!"

Ha! Wah. That night, we all wrote a note to put in a container with her leash to bury in the backyard. Rest in peace, Cleo. We will miss you.

We are on the lookout for another pet, but want to take our time and make sure we get something that is a good fit for the family. The kids really want a cat. I am definitely more of a dog person, but am consoled by the fact that if we do get a cat, I can name her Blanche. Or maybe Gladys. But probably Blanche.

So, Christmas Happened

Whelp, March is almost over. No time like the present to blog about Christmas 2011!
We got our Christmas tree at Lowes this year and lucked out on a mis-marked tree -- a 6 footer for $20! It was perfectly cold the night we went to get it, just right for getting in the Chrismas spirit. This video is nothing spectacular, but I love to watch it just to see how excited the kids are...I remember being this excited when it was time to get the tree when I was young:

After the tree was decorated, we turned off all the lights, sat on the couch and basked in her yule-tide glory while sipping egg nog. Aaron and I agreed this was our best tree yet. It's so fun when your tree starts to get jam-packed with home-made creations and souvenir ornaments that are tied to great memories. We finished the night by watching "Pluto's Christmas Tree", a nastolgic cartoon from Aaron and I's childhood

Aaron's birthday is right in the middle of Christmas time and this year's was probably 1000 percent better than last year's. I made a delicious chocolate cake, Aaron made steaks, and we all wore party hats.

Christmas Eve we made our own delicious feast and had Ellen join us for all of our traditional stuff (rudolph game, cookies for santa, nativity story from bible, Christmas carols, short nativity video) Did I not take any pictures of that? Sad.

Christmas mornings just keep getting better and better. Santa scored a ton of Geo Trax for free from a friend and so Finn woke up to his very own train set. Kate was very excited about her princess barbies. Rex was an angel and liked to look at his new Tigger before drifting off to sleep. Candy was eaten before 8am. It was great. Aaron's favorite gift from me was the laptop I sneakily fixed for him (which I broke in the first place...we won't go there.) And my favoirite gift from him was...my cute boots! I sure loved wearing them all winter.
Being Sunday, we had church at 10am and being the choir director, I had a program to lead! I was totally nervous and glad when it was over. But it turned out so well! The hilight was "What Child is This"...I love that song and the choir did such an amazing job bringing the spirit into our meeting.

The rest of the day was filled with family and food and fun. My kids are so lucky to have so many cousins their age to play with all.the.time. And of course, having Grandma and Grandpa around was great too.

Finnisms

It wouldn't be a Finnisms post without some of his latest self-portraits, right?
Finn has grown up so much in the last few months! Right around the time Rex was born, Finn discovered his passion for texting. I literally showed him ONE time how to send a text and the rest is history -- he was hooked!
Aaron and I were upstairs together when Aaron's phone got the above text message...and we realized Finn had found my phone in the basement and sent it all by himself! Later that day, I noticed the following message in my drafts folder:
He has always had such an inquisitive mind and we are constantly amazed at the stuff he can figure out on his own. He is getting really good at sounding out words and can carry on quite coherent text conversations!

He recently discovered a text-to-speech website that he loves. (Moms -- let your kids play around on one! It will entertain them forever while teaching them letter sounds...serious life saver for me) Annnyway, one morning I heard him trying to get Kate to say "your voice sounds like a robot." Naturally curious I went in to see what was going on and and when she finally said it, Finn went straight to the computer to click the mouse...I had him try and reinact it...I thought it was pretty funny:

******
Finn: Mom, can I have some milk?
Me: You've had enough milk today. If you're thirsty you can have some water.
Finn: But I'm not thirsty, I'm milky!
******
Finn: Hey Mom, guess what my favorite vegetable is?
Me: What?
Finn: Chicken!
******
We are all at the dinner table, Finn finds out we are having spaghetti and meatballs and proclaims, "Yes! Meatballs are my favorite kind of balls!"
******
Finn: Mom, I like you and Dad more than Satan, you know why?
Me: (laughing) Why?
Finn: Cuz Satan's a big meanie.
******
Aaron took Finn to the grocery store and Finn was riding on the front of the cart. While Aaron was walking down the aisle Finn extended his arms, leaned back his head and said loudly, "This...is...SERIOUS!!!"
******
We were running late and grabbed McDonalds for dinner one night. After eating Finn said, "Dad, I'm still hungry, can I just have like, a vegetable or something?" We made him some peas and my mommy heart grew three sizes that day.
*****
And the piece de resistance:
Finn: Guess What?
Me:What?
Finn:Chicken Butt. Guess why?
Me: Why?
Finn: Chicken Pie! Guess who?
Me: Who?
Finn: Chicken Goo! Guess when?
Me: When?
Finn: Chicken Butt...again! (a few minutes pass) Mom, Guess what?
Me: (sigh) what Finn?
Finn: Chicken Penis!

He wasn't even trying to be rude, he was just trying to think of another body part to say. This was followed by a discussion about private parts, and the need to omit them from casual banter.

Oh, hello there

There's no denying it: I suck at blogging now. Rex is almost 5 months old and is happy and easy, but I am still having a hard time organizing my life and fitting everything in...so blogging got kicked to the curb. There is hope though, because Finn just started pre-school today! Now that I will just have two in the afternoons, I'm hoping I will have a little extra time to actually document the life we are living. And without further adieu, I give you Halloween:
Finn was Woody and Kate was Rapunzel. We have gotten A LOT of mileage out of that Rapunzel dress-up let me tell you. Here are the kiddos with their friends at our Playgroup Halloween party. Love getting together with these kids and their mamas.Halloween afternoon the kids got to go trick-or-treating at Aaron's office building. They had fun walking through the spooky decorated hallways and got waaaaay too much candy.

Terrible picture taken on my phone when they got home from trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. I just love how excited they are...well, not Rex so much. Finn wore that duck costume when he was a baby...sigh.

Finn and Kate LOVED carving pumpkins this year:

I will be compiling Finnisms, Kateisms and Thanksgiving and Christmas posts over the next few days...wish me luck!

Rex's Newborn Photoshoot

My sister-in-law Lesli was kind enough to let Rex poop all over her props so we could get some newborn photos. We had a pretty difficult time getting everyone to cooperate and I learned a lot for the next one of these I do...but we ended up with a few really great shots and that's all I need!



I wanted to get a shot of all three kids together, which didn't happen because Rex was floppy and irritable and the other two forgot how to follow directions all of a sudden. But we did get some great ones of Finn and Kate on their own:

And these of them together, the second of which I absolutely love:

Finn is a little out of focus and I think if he was making a more serious face like Kate it would have made this picture absolutely amazing, but of course I love his smile too. That picture just melts my heart. Thanks for capturing all these Lesli!

Rex is now 8 weeks old and has just started smiling a lot more often. He is also starting to coo and experiment with his voice which is pretty much the cutest thing ever. I am surviving as a mother of three...but my house is not! I am lucky if I shower before noon and usually have to choose if I want to look presentable or keep the house liveable...someday I might get to do both!

Rex is Here!

Hmmm, well...yes. This post is extremely overdue. But what can I say? I'm the mother of three now! Ergo...no free time. I guess I do have free time but the majority of it is spent lying comatose on the couch before I stumble to bed. Today a miracle occurred and all three kids took a nap at the same time...hence this post is finally being written!

The day I went into labor, I was a BASKET CASE. I couldn't keep focused on one thing for longer than 5 minutes and I was cleaning parts of the house I have never touched before. I was seriously running around all day. I was having contractions but was just more annoyed by them than anything. Aaron told me he was pretty sure I was in labor and we both laughed it off.

Around midnight, the contractions started to get more intense. I'd already gone through a false labor situation and was still two weeks from my due date so I didn't want to jump to conclusions and decided to take a warm bath to try to make them stop...but they just got worse. I finally called Megan and she sent Neil over to sleep on the couch. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE living two blocks from my sister...cuz it's pretty much the greatest thing ever.)

The next two hours were HELL as the contractions escalated to ca-razy mode but as usual I don't progress so it took them a while to admit me. When the nurse checked me and I still hadn't progressed yet, Aaron was ready with a trombone app on his phone that he recently downloaded that goes "wa wa wa waaaaahhhh". That's a man for ya. The nurse was totally on my side and shot him an evil look. I have to admit it was actually pretty funny. Luckily as soon as I was admitted, the anesthesiologist was right there and hooked me up with an epidural. Three hours later Rex was born!

The actual delivery was a total breeze. Zero stiches makes a happy mamma. And with this little cutie pie as the reward, how could I ever complain?

Rex Bennett Parks. 6 pounds, 14 oz. 18 1/2 inches long. Lots of dark hair, most of which has fallen out by now, but it doesn't matter because he just keeps getting cuter.

I had lots of wonderful visitors in the hospital, but I have to say my favorite ones were Finn and Kate.

Coolest Aunt Ever award goes to Megan for not only taking care of them for a couple days but painting their faces too!

Love this video of Aaron helping Kate hold Rex:

Both kids are very good with the baby. Finn is a good helper and is always getting baby items for me or giving Rex his binki and Kate just LOVES to hold him and look at him.

My mom and dad arrived two days after I got home from the hospital -- perfect timing! Dad got right to work fixing a gazillion things around my house (seriously, he never stopped working) and Mom kept the older kids entertained, bought lots of groceries and gave Rex lots of cuddles. We even managed to get a few card games in! I was so sad to see them leave...they were soooo much help and such great company. Here are a couple shots of them in action:Aaron and I are both so happy with our little family. Rex is 6 weeks old now and a really good baby...a WAY easier newborn than my other two were and we are just in love with him. I took these pictures a couple weeks ago...he changes so much every day and is already chubbier than these pics.

Welcome to the fam little Rex. I know I didn't imagine it -- you looked right into my eyes and smiled at me today! I promise I'll try my hardest to be the mom you deserve, I already love you more than words can say.