Organized Chaos

Hello!

2010-07-16T16:21:00.006-04:00

Hello out there! It's been a long time! I keep meaning to post, but I guess life gets in the way. We've had a fun, busy summer. I can't believe it's already winding down. The older boys go back to school in less than 4wks! Thomas will be in 2nd grade and Griffin will be in kindergarten! Summer has been so fun so I'm not quiet ready for it to end.

Here are some recent pics of the boys. Max is 15months now. He just started really walking within the last week. He had been taking 2-3steps for couple of weeks, but has really started walking around the room this week. It's so cute. I love how the stumble around at first ;) He also recently quit breastfeeding. I was going to wean him slowly over the next couple of months, but last week while we were away for a quick getaway to Holiday World, he just quit all together. It's definitely bittersweet. While I'm excited to have my body back after almost 4 years of pregnancy and/or breastfeeding, I'm really sad b/c he's my last baby. And he's growing up too fast :( But it is really fun to watch him interact more with his big brothers and watch his personality develop more.

Griffin will be 6 in a few weeks. He's REALLY excited about it, it's practically all he talks about. He is much more comfortable in the water this year. Last year he would barely get in and usually just sat on steps and now he gets all the way in. He still won't go under, but it's a BIG improvement.
Thomas is also doing great swimming! He does all kinds of flips and jumps in - he's also much more comfortable than last year. He finished up baseball in mid June. His team made it to the final 4 in the tourney. He had lots of fun! He also finally learned how to ride his bike at the beginning of the summer. He never really liked riding much last year so he didn't learn earlier. He went to cub scout camp in June too. At the end of the week he camped all night with Mike.

Lucas turned 3 in June. He is still a total goofball. He cracks us up all the time. He's totally obsessed with the Wiggles, although luckily lately he's also into Toy Story. He quit napping this summer :( We are working on potty training. It's so frustrating. Last winter, he practically potty trained himself and was potty trained for about 2months, and now not so much. No idea what happened, but I'm planning on forcing the issue more once the big boys are back in school.

Max is 8 months!

2009-12-06T23:05:00.004-05:00

I'm a little late on this, but the pictures were actually taken when he turned 8mo. He's getting so big! He's rolling all over the place. He keeps getting stuck under the Christmas tree. He's found his voice recently too. He babbles all the time. It's so cute!

Thomas is 7!!

2009-11-18T23:19:00.006-05:00

Thomas' 7th birthday was yesterday! It was a really fun day. I volunteered in his class in the morning then stayed to have lunch with him. It's really fun to watch him interact with his friends and see what he does everyday at school. We had most of Mike's family over for pizza and cake. He had a great time playing with his cousins. We got him a DS and he was really surprised! His party is this Saturday. He's so excited and keeps asking how much longer.

7 seems so old to me. He's not a little boy anymore. It really seems like he was just a baby. Time flies so fast! It seems like I just had him but yet he's 7 and the oldest of 4!

Max is 7mo!

2009-10-25T10:44:00.005-04:00

Wow, I haven't posted in a month. I just can't seem to find the time. I do have lots of updates so I'll try to get to them soon, but this post is about Max being 7 months old! He had his 6mo appt on Oct 1 and he was 20lbs 10oz and 27 1/2 inches. He got several shots which he wasn't happy about but he usually calms down pretty fast. He is sitting up better, but not for too long at a time. He's rolling a lot more. He has 2 teeth now and I think more are on their way.

He started solids. So far he has had oatmeal, avocado, banana, and sweet potatoes. I'm attempting to make a lot of it this time. I also tried with Lucas and it didn't go so well so we'll see.

Max is 6mo!

2009-09-26T17:00:00.005-04:00

I can't believe Max is half way to his 1st birthday! He hit a couple of milestones a few days ago (9/21). He finally rolled over! He rolled onto his stomach then about a minute later rolled back onto his back. He seemed kind of shocked that he could do it. Later that day I noticed his bottom right tooth had broken through. He's also able to sit up briefly on his own. He seems like he wants to sit up and watch what is going on. Whenever he is on the floor he lifts his head like he's trying to sit up. It's so fun watching him figure all of this out. I do hope he takes his time on getting mobile though ;) His 6mo appt is next week so I'll update then.

Griffin's 1st Day!

2009-09-14T10:29:00.003-04:00

Griffin started pre-K last week. Finally! Thomas has already been in school for a month. He goes Tues-Friday in the mornings. Luckily he has several friends from his class last year in his class again. Several went on to kindergarten though so he's a little confused about that. He just missed the cutoff by a few days, but I think it will be good for him to be older. Taking him to school is sort of a pain though. His school is pretty close to our house but they are doing construction on the main road to get there so it takes twice as long now. And this year his class is upstairs so I get to drag Max and Lucas upstairs to sign him in. I've over it already and it's only been 1wk! But he likes his class and is having fun! It is nice having time with just the 2 little boys while he's in school. It's easier to run errands and to have time to focus on just them. Griffin and I get alone time in the afternoons while Max and Lucas are sleeping. His new favorite thing is watching the Food Network. Sometimes we make real things and sometimes he pretends to cook. It's so cute to watch him b/c he's so serious about it. I'll update on the other boys soon.

State Fair

2009-08-31T14:14:00.006-04:00

We went to the State Fair recently. The boys loved it and we had great weather. Luckily we waited until the last weekend - the first couple of weeks were HOT, but it cooled down a lot which made it much more enjoyable. We thought about riding the fair train down, but decided not to spend the extra money. I kind of regret it now b/c I know Lucas would have loved it b/c he's really into trains now. But he's also into tractors so there was plenty of that. He loved climbing in all of them (some of the big ones cost more than 2x as much as our house!) Here are some pics from the day.

Max is 5 months!

2009-08-24T14:01:00.000-04:00

Max is 5 months now! He's such a sweetie! He loves to be held and cuddle. He's so much fun now. He is past his fussy stage and is starting to play with things. He loves watching his older brothers. They always make him laugh and smile. Lucas still calls him "big guy". He isn't rolling over yet, so it looks like he'll be following his brothers' laziness. I'm in no hurry for crawling or walking so that's fine! No teeth yet either - all of the others had a couple by now.

First Grade!

2009-08-14T17:43:00.005-04:00

Thomas started 1st grade on Wednesday. He was kind of hesitant to go at first, but he seems to really like it so far. It's really strange having him gone all day. This summer went too fast! I can't believe I have a 1st grader! Wasn't he just a baby?!?!

Max's baptism

2009-08-14T17:29:00.005-04:00

We had Max's baptism last Sunday. It went well overall. All of the boys did really well through mass (which is unusual!) but of course that didn't last through the ceremony. Max was crying off and on and the grandparents didn't do the best job of keeping the other's in line. His Godparents are Aunt Margie and Uncle Barry (Mike's sister and bil). Afterwards we had everyone over for lunch and cake. We also celebrated Griffin's birthday since everyone didn't come to his party on his birthday.

Happy Birthday Griffin!!

2009-08-14T17:20:00.005-04:00

I'm a little late on this, but Griffin turned 5 last week. On his birthday we had a party at Monkey Joe's. All of the kids had a great time! And it was really nice not having it at home. Last Sunday we had the family over to celebrate his bday along with Max's baptism.

Today was his 5yr dr's appt. It went well overall, but he was not happy about the shots. He was really brave about getting them, but once they did them he got really mad. He is 40lbs and 44 1/8inches.

Max is 4 months!

2009-07-24T23:43:00.004-04:00

Max is 4 mo today. He's getting so big! He's mostly in 6-9mo clothes now. We got out the Jumperoo and he loves it. It's nice to have another option to keep him occupied. I can't lay him on the floor when Lucas is awake unless I'm sitting with him. Lucas doesn't bother him too much when he's in it. He usually just kisses or pats him on the head then moves on. He's holding toys in his hand better now. He's not rolling yet, but gets on his side so it's probably not too far off. I'm pretty sure he's teething because his hands are always in his mouth. The other boys all got their first teeth about now so I'm sure one is coming soon. He really likes watching his big brothers. They are constant entertainment for him.

More vacation

2009-07-22T16:06:00.009-04:00

I totally forgot to finish posting about our vacation. Despite some problems along the way, it was nice to get away. We went to Santa's Land - it was an amusement park with a small zoo and Christmas theme. It was cute and the boys had fun. Our last day we drove to Lake Lure. It was really pretty and the boys loved playing on the beach. Max was fussy so I spent most of the time feeding him and pushing the stroller along the beach (not a bad workout!) The drive home wasn't too bad, but we were so glad to be home. It's hard to believe that was already a couple of weeks ago. This summer is flying by! Thomas starts school in 3wks! I can't believe he'll be in 1st grade. Speaking of school - Mike just started his first class for his MBA. We need to get a better routine down for him to have time to work on it, but so far I think it's going well. I'm more worried about this fall when he takes 2 classes.

Vacation

2009-07-05T14:03:00.007-04:00

We are on vacation, but so far things aren't going great. It started out good. We left Thursday morning and stopped at the Cincinnati Zoo. The weather and the zoo were awesome! We drove to Lexington and spent the night there. The hotel was really nice (although getting 6 people to sleep in 1 room is not fun) and the boys loved swimming in the pool. We left Friday around noon. The boys weren't very fond of being in the car so long (making me really glad we weren't driving all the way to the beach this year!). Max was really fussy, Lucas wouldn't sleep and screamed a lot, Thomas kept asking how much longer. Griffin actually did pretty good. We arrived in Maggie Valley, NC around 6pm on Friday. We were tired of being in the car so we ordered pizza for dinner and stayed in the rest of the night. Yesterday was our first full day. We went to the pool, but it was way too cold for me! The boys had fun though. Mike took Thomas and Griffin back while the little boys napped. We went out for an early dinner. The food was great, but Lucas had diarrhea right when we got there and Max cried most of the time. Then we decided to head to a festival for fireworks. After finding one of the last parking spots available, we saw that Lucas had diarrhea ALL over when we were getting out of the van. So Mike took him home to bathe and change and I took the other boys into the festival. Not impressed. There were a couple of bounce houses with REALLY long lines and some food. It was very crowded and every other person was smoking (including 3 pg women and 1 woman with a newborn blowing smoke right on the baby - I try not to be judgemental, but come on!) So when Mike got back I suggested we try to find some place else to watch the fireworks and he said he thought our resort was having them so we came back to watch from our balcony. Well turns out they weren't having any, but we weren't too disappointed b/c our town had them last weekend so we didn't totally miss out. Last night Lucas was still having diarrhea and started throwing up. We had already changed our plans to go to Lake Lure for the day b/c it was supposed to rain all day, but staying in with a sick kid is really no fun! So now we are really hoping no one else gets sick and we actually do some fun stuff over the next 2 days. Here are some pictures so far.

Finally!

2009-07-05T13:58:00.002-04:00

Thomas lost his first tooth last week!

Max is 3 months!

2009-06-24T13:36:00.005-04:00

Max is 3mo today! Time has really gone fast! He's already outgrowing some of his 3-6mo clothes. His personality is really starting to show. Luckily he seems to be growing out of his fussy stage. He still has his moments, but overall he's more content. He likes watching his big brothers and smiles and giggles a lot. He is still sleeping great. He usually goes to bed about 10pm and lately has been sleeping until about 9am! That works great for me ;) For now he's still in our room - actually our closet. It's not as bad as it sounds - our closet is really big. ha ha. But it keeps the light from waking him up at the crack of dawn. We are still trying to decide who will share a room. Here is his 3mo hat picture. This one went much better than the last 2.

random pics

2009-06-23T14:04:00.006-04:00

Father's Day. This was the best I could do getting a picture of all of my boys. We had a nice day. Mike played golf in the morning then we had our Dad's over for a cookout. Lucas giving kisses to Max.

Finally got some pics of Max smiling! He giggles now too. It's so adorable! He'll be 3mo tomorrow!

I got out the bumbo seat last week but thought Max was still too little, but he's not! He loves sitting in it and being able to look around. Thomas and Griffin were in camp at the parks department last week. Thomas' was a jungle theme so he had his face painted on the last day.

Lucas lounging in Max's bouncy chair.

Lucas is 2!!

2009-06-23T13:45:00.008-04:00

I'm a little late on this, but Lucas is 2 now! I can't believe how fast time has gone. It seems like he was just born and now he's 2 and has a little brother! We had his party the day before his birthday. The theme was construction trucks b/c ever since they started doing construction next to Griffin's preschool it's his new obsession. He got lots of cool gifts and had a great day! On his birthday we went to the Children's Museum. He is really into it now. He loves the dinosaurs and trains. That night we went over to the splash park.

He had his 2yr well check last week. He's 28lbs and 34inches. She said he's right on track with speech and other areas of development. He has always been really laid back and easy. I kept waiting for him to go through a hard phase because the older boys went through the "terrible two's" at 1 1/2yrs. Well, he decided to start being 2 out right! He woke up that morning having a tantrum and had a few others throughout the day. He's totally wild some days. He just started flipping out of the pack n play (I have video if I can figure out how to post it I will) and climbs up everything. He cracks us up all the time! He loves giving hugs and kisses and always asks for "one more". I can't wait to see what other fun and silly things 2 will bring!

Busy

2009-06-16T15:46:00.006-04:00

Things have been really busy around here lately so I haven't had much time to post as I'd like. The older boys went to VBS last week and loved it! They got a cd of the music and that's all they want to listen to in the car. Luckily the songs aren't too bad. This week they are both in camp at the parks department. They've been having fun and it's been nice having them gone in the morning making it easier for me to run errands and get things done. Although last week the stomach flu went through the house which was not fun at all. Max was the only one spared.

Thomas recently finished up his first time playing flag football. I think he had fun, maybe a little too much. When they received their trophies, the coaches said something about each player. Their comment about him was something about always being able to count on him for a laugh in the huddle.

Last Friday was our 10 year wedding anniversary! We celebrated the weekend before by going out to dinner at Maggiano's and then to a comedy club. Then we went out with the kids to Red Lobster on our actual anniversary. I can't believe it's been 10 years.

Max is 12 wks today! He's getting so big! He's smiling a lot and sort of giggling. Lucas is still obsessed with him and has recently figured out how to climb into the pack and play to be with him. Not good! That was the one place I could put Max and feel like he was safe if I needed to leave the room to do something.

Also, Lucas just turned 2! I'll do a separate post for that soon. Oh, and the roommate thing didn't work out. It lasted 2 nights and we realized they are too different and everyone would be better off if they were separate. So for now everyone is back in their regular rooms and Max is still with us. We will probably put Lucas with Griffin. We are also considering Lucas and Max together, but I don't know how that will work out with naptime. I don't want any sleep sacrificed ;)

Roomies

2009-06-04T16:31:00.004-04:00

Thomas and Griffin are officially roommates now! We borrowed bunk beds from Mike's sister and set them up last night (side by side for now). Since we found out I was pregnant with Max we tried to figure out the best situation for sharing since we have 4 bedrooms, we thought this was the best idea overall and luckily they agreed. Last night went ok. Could have been better and could have been worse. Hopefully each night will get easier and very soon they'll (Thomas)go to bed on their own. Lucas will be moving into Griffin's old room. We'll probably do that this weekend. For awhile we are keeping him in a crib. He sleeps really good so I don't want to mess with that. And Max will move into Lucas' room. I'm not exactly sure when we'll move him, but I think I'm ready.

Last Day of Kindergarten

2009-06-04T16:21:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday was the last day of Kindergarten. This year went really fast! It was a good year for him. He made new friends, although his 2 best friends he already knew. His teacher was really great. It's awesome to see how much he has learned over the year. He didn't get in too much trouble in school. He had 4 "yellow days" the whole year (mostly for talking when he wasn't supposed to). His school doesn't do a Kindergarten graduation, but they had a picnic last Friday night to celebrate the end of the year. I can't believe he'll be in 1st grade!

2 Months

2009-05-24T23:57:00.008-04:00

Max is 2 months old today! He is smiling and cooing a lot. He can still be pretty fussy at times, but seems to be getting more content. He's falling asleep easier at night (most nights) and luckily still sleeping all night. In my mind I still think of him as a newborn, but today I was at the mall with him and we saw a newborn that was so tiny. It made me realize that he's not so tiny anymore. I know each milestone with him is going to make me sad since he's our last.

Here is his hat picture for this month. I'm going to take another one tomorrow because he was not happy. Maybe it's the hat because he wasn't thrilled last month either.

We've been having a great long weekend so far. Today we went to the new splash park by our house. The kids loved it. I think we'll be there a lot this summer.

Kindy 500 and Preschool Graduation

2009-05-24T23:39:00.006-04:00

Griffin's preschool graduation was last week. He was really excited about it. They sang several songs during the graduation and he had been practicing them for weeks. One of them was "I Am a Promise" (Veggie Tales). He sang it ALL THE TIME at home - I'm not sure I'll ever get it out of my head. Friday was his last day. He'll be in pre-K next year since he misses the kindergarten cutoff by a few days. I think he's looking forward to it now, he was upset since some of his friends will be in kindergarten. I think it will be better for him being older when he starts.

Thomas had "Kindy 500" on Friday. It's sort of the kindergarten's version of field day. All of the kids were given a cardboard box to turn into a car. He (and Mike!) had fun making it. They had a parade and race at school for parents to watch. It was cute. He has 3 days left of school. I can't believe how fast this year has gone!

Smiling

2009-05-13T10:50:00.003-04:00

Max started smiling last weekend. On Saturday we were at Erica's house for Lily's birthday party and he smiled at Erica's father in law. That figures, but I was there to see it. He smiled at me on Monday a few times. Mike still hasn't seen it but I'm sure soon he'll be doing it more. He's getting so big! He is 7wks now. Here is a picture of Max and Griffin. It's a couple weeks old, but I haven't gotten the newer ones off the camera yet. Most people think Max looks like Griffin.

1 Month

2009-04-25T16:39:00.005-04:00

Max turned 1 month old yesterday! It really seems like I just had him last week. At his appointment earlier this week, he was 10lbs 13oz and 22.5 inches. He is starting to look a lot bigger. He's growing out of 0-3mo clothes and I just bought size 2 diapers. He still sleeps a lot, but is having more awake time during the day.

I decided to take a picture of him in the same hat each month to see how much he grows (I totally stole this idea from Girl and Michelle). He wasn't very cooperative. I'm hoping they turn out a little better when he can sit up.

And a couple of other pics just because. The first is Thomas and Griffin at the park. The last one is Lucas holding and kissing Max. He wants to hold him constantly. Any time I pick up Max, Lucas will hop in the chair and say "hold my baby". That is the chair where I usually feed Max so Lucas holds it hostage until he gets a turn.