Just because I'm on a roll...

.....and because she's so cute. But if you could only smell her!!!!! I wish I could bottle it up and send it to all of you, she smells like delicious sweet baby. But now she's awake and crying, my blogging is done for today. Comments on all of your blogs coming soon. Bless that baby swing!

"Ain't nothin' like 'em nowhere"

Lewis received his federal DEA number in the mail on Monday, so we decided to celebrate. This means that he can now write presciptions. This is worth celebrating because our loan money came last week and it is only enough to last us a month or two. (WHAT?!?!?) Pathetic. Because paying for our health insurance took at least half of our loan money this year, we are sure glad Lewis is licensed and ready to work! Celebrate!

Dreamland is a great place to get barbeque. You start with pieces of white bread and sauce to dip in.


Then you wait for the ribs.


And even let your impatient 3 year old take some pictures.


The bbq sauce made B's cheeks turn red.


What? I didn't want to get messy!


Then we ended with some delicious banana pudding. It has cake and whipped cream in it which makes it edible and delicious for even Lewis, who hates most anything with bananas.


I think the best part for the kids was playing at the playground across the street after dinner. Even though it was tiny, dirty, covered in graffiti, and five million degrees out.

No blue bell?

Try this, it's terrific. You can get it at Whole Foods.




Also, poor A got stung by a bee!!!!!!! On the ear!!!!!!!!

Back to the drawing board.....

well, Grandma Dee is off now, on her way back home to Grandpa in Russia. So now I guess I'm left to figure this three kids stuff out on my own.
So far so good. Except we didn't do much today. Except RAKE THE YARD!!!!!! Yes, you understood that, I raked the yard today. Well, only for about 5 minutes until I realized I was too hot, sweaty and out of shape. Especially with a little hot babe strapped onto me in a black sling. You see, Monday night, out of NOWHERE a quick storm blew in. We were in the car and glad Lewis was driving because it was pure craziness. Tree branches breaking off and whipping around, pine cones hitting the ground and the car and rain falling horizontally. Luckily, we made it home safe and no trees fell on our house. Our neighbors weren't so lucky, they had a tree snap off and hit their deck, smashing it in an eerily similar way.... I guess I will pick up the thousands (literally) of leaves and branches from our yard and be grateful that is all I have to deal with. But it was a crazy storm.

And if you live where you can get this, get it. If you don't, I'm sorry.

The BIG 3!!

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to the sweetest little guy I know!!! Brooks is such a joy to have around. He is thoughtful, kind, gentle, funny, sweet, and just wonderful in general. He also can throw a come apart fit like no one I have ever seen. BUT, typically he is just the greatest person to be around and people love him as soon as they meet him, even though he is painfully shy. We feel so blessed to have such a great kid in our family, so happy birthday Brooks!

STOP--- Hammer time

(this is just for your enjoyment, you can thank me later. it is in our neighborhood, another reason to come and visit--like you need another reason really)














Brooks had his 3 year check up and Cate had her 2 week check up (a week or 2 late) yesterday. Brooks was in true form, actually he was totally terrified. He would not let the nurses weigh or measure him. Luckily, Aiden was in the waiting room downstairs with Aunt Tiana and so we called her in. Once B saw A doing exactly what the nurses asked, he was willing to give it a try. But he did not speak one word the entire time we were there. Hilarious. The doc asked him questions and he would only shake his head. I think he was wondering if B actually does talk because last year at his 2 year checkup he wasn't speaking much yet and we were a little concerned. Well, now that he does talk (and talk and talk and talk) he wouldn't show off for the doctor. Luckily again, A was there and answered all the questions for him!!!! What a helper. We also got to see Batman at the library (after I stood in line for 45 minutes) and had a little party for the B man. Don't worry, we had another one of my ghetto homemade cakes. Lewis drew the Batman, I just mixed up the frosting. I can't believe he will be 3 tomorrow. What a peach he is. Speaking of peaches, we canned some yesterday. My mother in law taught us how, and I am thrilled! We'll have peaches in the winter. Today after dropping Tiana off at the airport we stopped by the farmer's market and got 3 boxes of tomatoes to can, a watermelon, and cantaloupe, some more peaches to eat now and freeze, and some corn.

cate the great stats at about 4 weeks: 8 lbs. 13 oz. and 21 inches long (ha, don't you love how they "measure" babies!)
Oh, and brit, she TOTALLY looks like my other kids as babies. I will post one of Brooks for his big day tomorrow and you can compare.


B stats at 3 years: 29 lbs. and 36 inches tall

babies for peace

Cate the Great

Here are the latest pictures of our little jewel! She has been such a great baby so far, hooray. We are enjoying some great times with Grandma Dee here and the "big" kids are especially loving the attention. Speaking of big kids, guess who turns THREE next Sunday? The big B. How crazy is that? I am just happy to say the "accidents" have tapered off. Our potty trained master boy regressed when the baby came, but I am thrilled that he is back again. Good thing too, because we are already going through enough diapers around here with Cate the super duper pooper. She seriously has projectile pooping abilities. I know, I know, my kids are super talented, you don't have to tell me. She likes to poop when she is having her diaper changed and she gets some serious power behind it. A is doing well, getting all ready to start kindergarten, but she is nervous about the fact that her supplies list has "a change of underwear" on it. She can't get her mind around that one. Lewis is loving (sort of) his experiences at the county hospital working as a medical student. Just don't say that he isn't a "real" doctor or that he didn't do a "real" intern year. I don't know many other residencies besides OMS that make you work 100+ hours a week and have you taking trauma call ON YOUR OWN the first year. AHEM. Anyway. I am doing well, taking it easy to make sure none of my insides fall out. No lifting more than 10 lbs., etc. Just don't get me started on the insurance issue. Let's just say it's a good thing we haven't (at least this year) maxed out our student loans because otherwise I don't know how we would have come up with the approximately $10 million it is going to cost us to be insured this year. It's pretty insane and I get all fired up when I even think about it so............. enjoy the great pictures of my sweet fam. And I'll keep enjoying the peace and quiet of not having to go to church!

FLC

So if you are not in-the-know that stands for Funny Looking Cucumber. It is pretty basic green-thumb lingo, but I realize not everyone exercises their horticultural side, but I wanted to flex a little chlorophyll-fed muscle and show off our great prizes we are cultivating in our back yard.



First off is the Jalapeno (jal-a-pee-no--I think, in case you are not Tex-mex savvy either). This little guy grew not one-quarter, not one-third, but one-half of the predicted size based on the card that came with the plant. We waited about two weeks with no growth despite the PGH (plant growth hormone) injections. Seriously I did try some sort of plant food, but to no avail. At any rate, the plan is to slice it up and have a jalapeno cheeseburger tomorrow for lunner (a brunch at 4 PM, if you weren't previously aware).



Next comes the FLC. This little gem started growing about a week ago and quickly surpassed the jalepeno in size despite the frequent pep talks and growth rallies we held in the corner of that spicy nugget. It has a great bulge and a funny curvature that reminds us of a "J" for JJ who, incidentally, planted the thing about a month after everything else in the garden. This great thank you to its benefactor will hopefully survive the onslaught of kids 5 and under who will be here for tomorrow's BBQ so that we can enjoy it in a week or so.



Anyway, we have learned a few things: we planted too much in too little of a space for the fertility of the soil down here--more grew than we had planned and we did not have the heart to play God and pluck up what we felt were the weaker plants. Instead we are letting natural selection run its course and so we may end up with nothing more than a 1.5 inch jalapeno and a J shaped cucumber. We are OK with that because we have also learned that every single one of us loves to watch the plants grow and check on them daily--what a great earth, what a great gift we have to be able to cultivate and develop the land we live on!

Happy 4th of July!

Although it won't be as exciting as Long Beach or as fun as Park City on the 4th of July, we hope to have a great day today. The 4th of July is Lewis' and my favorite holiday. Mostly because it usually means 5ks, pancake breakfasts, crazy hippie floats (PC), barbeque, whiffle ball games, family, and fireworks. This year will be a little more low key for us, but we are sure grateful to live in such a wonderful country. No matter where we travel throughout the world, we are always glad that we live in the good old USA.