Number Five is Alive

Do ya'll remember that movie?? Growing up we LOVED Short Circuit. To this day my boys associate that movie with my parents house. "We want to watch the Robot Movie" is one of their first requests...followed by the quote (from the movie of course) "Your Mother was a Snow Blower"!! (lovely, huh?!)

If you haven't seen it, it's a pretty cute movie (all though I do remember being shocked by a few wirty dords that the boys didn't pick up on).

Well all this to say, the tag line from this movie kept floating through my mind yesterday as I saw this:



"NUMBER FIVE IS ALIVE!!" (I know how corny am I)

We found out on January 16th that we are going to be having another baby. We welcomed the news but wanted to wait a little before spilling the beans. On Thursday I had my first appointment. The nurse tried to find the heartbeat but all we could hear was my heartbeat which was deafening when you desperately want to hear a little one. Yesterday I met with my doctor and he got out the ultrasound machine. It took way longer then it seemed like it should have but sure enough after a minute or two, a HEARTBEAT!! We are thrilled.

We told the boys this morning and their general consensus is that we should have a girl. Of course we are hopeful to have some pink and some "dolls to shoot" (Sam's exact words) but I know we will love a little boy just as much.

Please pray for us as we begin yet another chapter in our parenting lives. I will be ten weeks on Wednesday. My babies have all been born at 37-38 weeks which means I have about 28 weeks to prepare for our new bundle of joy!!

Four Boys

Ya'll know I have four of em' right?  Four stinkin' rotten boys.  I love every inch of their bodies and would do almost anything for them.  I want to have this built for them....

Sorry if it's a little hard to see, a certain 18 month old decided to do a little redecorating of his own, hence all the tape.  I have been wanting to get them bunk beds for months but haven't found what I was looking for.  These are SO cool.  I love that they have shelves at the head of each bed for all of their "stuff" and I especially love the lights each has for reading.  

We are sending this picture to a carpenter.  How much you want to bet he quotes us a lot more then we want to spend!

Happy V-Day!!

My dear husband surprised me with this lovely watch:

I think I shall keep him!  Poor guy, he had to surprise me on Thursday night because he knew I would FREAK out when I saw the charge.  I do the budget and the guy pegged me exactly.  He knew when I did the budget the next morning (I do it almost every morning) that I would totally believe someone had stolen our debit card.  Does the man know me or does the man know me!

This morning we had yummy cinnamon rolls, cantaloupe and chocolate hearts.  The boys also enjoyed their Crayola Valentine surprises (the house is once again exploding with paints, markers, and colored pencils.  I cull our coloring supplies often).  We finished the morning going around telling it each other what we loved about each other.  Corny but we had a great time!

Hope everyone enjoyed their day!  I know I did.  

XOXO

"It's My Turn"

I have been procrastinating. It's really a daily occurrence, don't be too shocked. Several weeks ago I read a fabulous book. I mentioned I was having a hard time getting ready to blog about it because I wanted to be sure and do it justice. Since then I have totally misplaced the book. I wanted to include clever quotes in my review, but I guess that just isn't going to happen. (If I quite procrastinating on cleaning my house I would probably find the book!)

I recently read Ruth Bell Graham's book "It's My Turn".


I don't know that I would necessarily call this book an autobiography, more short glimpses into her life. I loved these glimpses. Ruth Bell Graham was a FEISTY woman. I need to read about feisty women. I don't relate well to quite, hands folded, under opinionated women. God didn't make me that way, and I have to believe that he made me the way I am for a purpose. I think Ruth gave Billy Graham a run for his money, and he loved her for it. Her favorite quote was "If two people agree on everything one of them is not neccesary". LOVE IT! I'm going to stop butchering this review and encourage you to go buy and read this book. I read it in less then 24 hours and will probably read it again (if I can find it!).

On a similar note, one of the things that inspired me about this book was her love for scripture. This book encouraged me to just read scripture every day and study it. She recommends just reading and taking notes (seems too simple, huh?!). One of the things Ruth remembered about her childhood was her parents always reading the Word and encouraging her to do the same. Bible reading and memorization were things she remembered fondly. I wanted to make this a similar theme in our house.

Last week I told the boys that for every four versus they memorized I would take them to the Dollar Store to pick out ANYTHING they wanted. Suddenly those boys became very interested! Last week we memorized:

Honor your Father and your Mother. ~ Deuteronomy 5:16
Truth will last forever; lies are soon found out. ~ Proverbs 12:19
With God everything is possible. ~ Mark 10:27
Children are a gift from the Lord. ~ Psalms 127:3

Even Gabe did a great job. Here's their loot from our trip to the Dollar Tree:

This last picture is from our weekly Friday night pizza/movie night. They LIVE for Fridays. Often Blockbuster has their previously viewed movies 3 for $20 and sometimes 4 for $20. I stock up on newly released movies and they LOVE that we get to keep them. Even Joel likes to get in on the action. Look at him here chillin' with the big boys:


Have a WONDERFUL weekend, Valentine's Day and President's Day!!

Wordless Wednesday

100 Days of School, Again, Already?!

Ethan and I stayed up late last night working on his 100 days of school project. Thankfully his project this year was no where near as "difficult" as the project we did for Sam last year. For Ethan's project we had to have 100 of anything sorted and displayed. Ethan eagerly agreed that M&M's would be a great medium for his project and was ecstatic to help eat any extras.

We spent about an hour sorting, counting, hot gluing and labeling his project. We were both pretty happy with the results. He was desperate for his brothers to ask questions about his project this morning, unfortunately his audience was no where near as excited as he was.

Of course as soon as Ethan got out of the van this morning to get on the bus he promptly dropped the project on the wet ground, let's hope those candy coatings held together! Happy almost 100 days of school (it's actually the 5th)!!

Snow Day

Today it is beautiful and sunny. It is doing amazing things for my spirits plus my sweet husband let me sleep in, really late! I have been up a lot in the night with a pukie child and a baby that feels the need to be awake every morning at 3 AM for absolutely no reason.

On Tuesday we had a beautiful snow day. Here are some pics from our day:

Hope there is sunshine in your world today. The Lord knows I needed it!

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night...

I don't know about you other fellow bloggers, but I plan and think, and think and plan about my next blog entry. Often I have so many thoughts in my head I just give up, completely overwhelmed and never post.

Today I had not intended to blog about the mail. I have a great entry forming in my head about a recent book I read. I must admit I'm slightly fearful that I won't be able to do it justice. So instead of stressing over writing the "right" words in this rather melancholy week, I thought I would discuss something that makes me happy. (Snow and ice, while fun for a short time, often send me into seasonal depression, I'd say I'm in the throws of it now!)

The mail man makes me happy. I love to see that little red, white and blue truck pull into my cul-de-sac. I know he must think me crazy, for as soon as he closes that little black door on my mail box, I'm out in a flash checking the contents. Sadly, I don't get a whole lot. Mainly just junk. I actually enjoy getting bills because I love to pay them. (Am I a total dork or what) I just love the feeling of knowing that all are bills are taken care of and there is still plenty of money in our bank account (thanks Dave Ramsey!). Today the mail man came to me loaded down with packages and mail. He's not the friendlest guy in the world. I often smile and wave and ask how his day is but he's much to busy for me (guessing he's not from the south).

Gabe and I tore into those two packages like a couple of kids on Christmas day. The first was this:

It's a "Quillow" from Comfort Silkie, the final gift for the birthday boy. Gabe LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, his "silkie blankie". He's had his silkie blankie since he was a baby. He loves that thing. He loves to lay on it, cuddle with it and smell it (which I find humorous because I honestly don't think it smells like anything, it must smell like home to him). Before his birthday he was concerned about one day losing his blue silkie. We discussed him possibly getting another silkie for his birthday.

"What color would you like, Gabe"....he thought for awhile "I would LOVE a red one, Mommy"....and then thought for a while longer...."actually (his favorite word) maybe we should stick with a blue one, I KNOW they are super soft and silkie"

Well in spite of his wishes I decided to go ahead and order this red one. It has his name embroidered on it and the large blanket folds into a nice neat pillow. This is a picture of him modeling the blankie with the pillow flap on his head (what a goof ball):

Thank you Gigi and Papa for his new blankie, he is in love.

The second box we received today was this:

I follow quite a few design, homemaking, crafty blogs. When one of them suggested buying a vintage scale I jumped at the idea. I had been thinking about getting a vintage scale and reading about her new scale pushed me over the edge. Impulsively, I went to ebay, and found this little number. I felt like I was predestined to stumble on this thing HELLO "My Old Kentucky Home" made in "Louisville, KY". Well now that I have it I don't know what to do with the silly thing. This is why I don't buy clutter inducing items. I don't have an artistic eye and most things just lay around just waiting for a yard sale....oh well....at least it only cost me $23, shipping and all. Any suggestions??

This Will Have to Do For Now...

A lot of people took a lot of pictures of the Gabers turning 4.  Once I compile them all I will have to post them.  For now, my dear friend Nancy always makes a sweet collage to commemorate the day.  I suppose this will have to do for now:

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Monster Trucks

Back in December we received a catalog from Oriental Trading Company. Gabe had NO idea what kind of party he wanted to have so I had him flip through to aid in his decision. He decided on a Monster Truck theme. I have to say I was a little surprised. Last year we did Finding Nemo (also his choosing), where has my little boy gone. Fish to gigantic car killing trucks seems very drastic.

For each child's birthday I try to make a special cake to go along with their theme. I'm certainly no pro but once again I'm delighted with how things turned out. Normally I don't let the boys see their cakes until the day of, but I simply did not have the time to make this cake while Gabe was sleeping. Gabe is thrilled with the results, check them out:


Excuse his messy face! He enjoyed a lot of icing. More B-day pics to come, stay tuned!!

Sprouts?

As children we were given the luxury of one "yuck food".  My brother hated cheese, a rather tricky yuck food.  Mine was carrots and my sister's, yellow squash.  The details of a yuck food were as follows.  Every child gets to choose one and only one food that they NEVER had to eat.  The choice was made very young (I'm actually thinking my Mom made the decision) and the choice could never be changed. There were plenty of other foods on my yuck list that just had to be swallowed, sometimes whole and with a giant glass of milk but carrots never had to grace my pearly whites.  Brussels sprouts were one of those "other" foods.  I can literally remember staring down the three little cabbages on my plate.  Once I think I managed to sneak them into my napkin before Mom noticed but then felt terribly guilty and never did it again.  Even my Dad hated Brussels Sprouts night.  What can there possibly be to like about a vegetable that literally smells like someone has "cut the cheese" if you catch my drift?  

Well once again my friend Nancy has gotten to me.  She was pretty sure, if prepared correctly, that I would grow to love and actually enjoy these veggies (funny my Mother has been telling me this for years but I never believed her, sorry Mom).  Last week, while doing my bi-monthly commissary trip, I stumbled upon a fresh crop of Sprouts.  Oh what the heck I said to myself.  Why not give it a try.  After sitting in the fridge for almost a  week I finally got ambitious and found this recipe on www.allrecipes.com:

Shredded Brussels Sprouts is DELICIOUS.  But then what could be wrong about anything mixed with bacon, bacon drippings, butter, pine nuts and seasoning salt.  I made two servings and finished them both off with a side of fresh grape tomatoes.  Yummy!  I have been instructed by my husband to only make these when he is out of town...guess he couldn't get past the inevitable stinkiness...but boy were they good!  

I *Heart*...

I *heart* wiki sticks. The boys are so creative with them. An added bonus is getting them with the kid packet at PF Changs. YUM!!

I *heart* wood burning stoves. When that thing really gets going we can get our house to 76 degrees. So nice and cozy.

I *heart* paper bug models. These are from Chick-fil-a. Aren't they cool!! The one on the left is a Honey Bee the right is a (squished) lady bug.

I also *heart* babies in baskets....my pictures of that were somehow erased...boo...

Books

I remember hearing once that reading increases ones vocabulary.  This is intriguing to me.  Is there a certain quality of book that must be read in order to accomplish this goal?  Will any ol' book, magazine, or pamphlet do?  

Regardless, throughout the years I have attempted to satiate my thirst for knowledge and a stuffy vocabulary by reading, and reading a lot.  Despite my four children I would like to still be able to hold my own in an adult conversation!  In my quest for learning I thought this year I would take the time to blog about each and every book I read, good or bad.  

You will probably laugh as I start the year with this book:

In between giggles you can now see why I question the quality of vocabulary building books.  I am a wee bit embarrassed to admit I'm reading these...but if you know anything about the "Twilight" series of books you know that I'm hooked, this is book three!  I was intrigued by the vast number of people reading them and when my girlfriend Nancy finally succumbed to the trend I had to try them out.  Let me preface this "review" by saying these are not great works of literature.  Stephanie Meyer will never be the "Dickens" of our time.  That being said, the books are a decent read.  My only problem so far has been the dynamic between the main characters.  It REALLY bothers me that they are so wildly obsessed with each other, really to the point of stalking.  There is no way I would let a teenage daughter of mine read these books.  I cannot imagine the unrealistic expectations of boys they would walk away with.  No man can ever live up to a storybook character, but we women tend to forget that.  I could feel myself being mildly frustrated with Greg while reading the first book...thoughts of "why can't he be romantic" or "why can't he love me like that" bombarded me.  I'm almost 30 and have been married for almost 9 years, if those thoughts are in my head they will surely be in the mind of any high school girl!

As I sign off here, I'm heading over to buy the last title in the installment.  As batty as these books have been driving me I do enjoy them.  Maybe the next book I read will be a little more vocabulary expandabling!

How to Get a Fantastic Christmas Picture

A lot of people have asked me how it was possible to get a good Christmas picture with four ornery little boys. It's actually easier then you think!

First I highly recommend Children's Place:


I managed to get all the boys "tops" for under $90!! And don't they look cute! I must confess I steal clothing ideas off of manikins. I'm the poster child for "What Not to Wear" and would pass my dorkiness onto my children if not for Store Marketing!

Second you need a fantastic photographer. Here's mine:


Third a nice camera:


Fourth, this super awesome tripod:

Plus it doubles as a kid's play toy when not being used for photography! The boys make it into al sorts of creative things.

Fifth, super handsome subject matter:


Sixth, PATIENCE and I mean A LOT OF IT!!! We probably took 100 pictures that day. For our family, saying "PICKLES" instead of "CHEESE", seems to help in inducing award winning smiles.

Seventh: Having a graphic designer in the family never hurts! Thanks little bro!!

Just hoping next years photo turns out as good as this one! Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

I totally stole this from my friend Darby's blog, but I thought it was super cute:

I hope my boys will be this thoughtful and wise when they are 13. Merry Christmas!!

I know this is getting obnoxious....

But I just had to post this picture...I'm just one proud Mama! Ethan (and that's Gabe in the background) is part of Sesame Street's e-"holiday" card!!

Also if you click here and go to the right hand side about 3/4 of the way down there is a link that says "Military Families Highlight Video", click on that and you can watch a video, we are about half way through it (it's not super long). Or you can try clicking here and it should take you right to the video!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Double Extend

I tried this mascara today. It's Loreal's new "Double Extend" mascara. Let's just say I don't feel doubly extended. Hoping tomorrow I'll have better luck. 11 days until Christmas. I gotta get my Christmas cards out...sheesh!

Memories of Rob

Check out this video from Rob's funeral. It's a little long but really shows how much Rob loved his family, friends, and country.

Rob

Our dear friend Rob went to be with the Lord yesterday afternoon.  Greg and I are devastated.  Neither of us can fathom the fact that it is really true.  

2 Corinthians 5:8 says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Rob's body was so broken and I know he is now cheerfully whole with the Lord.  I think the angels are rejoicing to have him home.  

Please pray for his family, for his wife, his children, his mother and all those who have been touched by his life.  I sit totally in numb of this loss.  

Rob you fought the good fight, you finished the race, you kept the faith (paraphrase 2 Timothy 4:7) rest in peace my friend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just came from a fabulous meal at the Kules house.  It was so yummy and so fun.  Hope everyone is having a great day with friends and family and counting all of our many blessings!!

A Fork in the Road and SkippyJon Jones

Joel has entered the inevitable and very annoying picky baby stage. It drives me crazy. Two months ago that kid would eat ANYTHING. Meat, veggies, fruit, etc. Now, almost nothing. His two current favorites are bananas and white bread. I'm fairly certain you cannot live on bananas and white bread, I'm also shocked the child can actually poop...(TMI?)

One almost sure fire way to get Joel to eat is with the use of a fork. Forks some how inspire him to try new things and even eat a few things that he wouldn't normally eat without one. Strange child, I know.

Joel has been super cranky lately. I hope/pray that is because he is getting new teeth. Look at this face it just screams "QUIT LOOKING AT ME!!"

On a silly note...you know this time of year is very dangerous for Turkeys...because of this we had to disguise a Turkey for Ethan to take to school.

Isn't our SkippyJon Jones turkey they cutest thing you ever saw!! Plus the boy holding it is pretty darn cute too!!

Maybe

Maybe when we finish the basement I'll do something like this:

Then maybe I won't feel so chained to the one set I have.  Don't get me wrong, I love my washer and dryer.  They are 1000x more efficient then my previous set and yet I feel like laundry is all I ever do.  Wash, dry, fold, wash, dry, fold....

Yummy Yogurt

Have you had these:  

Man oh man are they good!!  They are the Gerber Graduate Yogurt Melts, they come in strawberry, peach and mixed berry and they are DELICIOUS.  They totally remind me of the astronaut ice cream we used to get as kids.  They are a bit pricey for the amount you get (almost $3.00/bag at the Commissary) but we all love them!  Greg even says that if he ever deploys again that I need to put these in his care package!

Honking

Am I the only one who is glad that the elections are over?  Virginia is a battleground state, it's no joke.  We received knock after knock on our door and phone calls.  Signs were EVERYWHERE and the TV ads, my goodness!

On Tuesday morning I awoke early.  I hadn't slept well the night before, I was too excited to go and vote!  (Is that sad or extremely civic minded?)  I called my parents on my way to the polls.  It was barely 6AM when I made it to the school and the cars were everywhere.  No joke, there were probably 300 people in line in front of me when I got there.  Luckily, I only had to wait an hour to cast my vote and I must admit I rather enjoyed the election day camaraderie.  

After I voted, Greg and I began our pathetic trek around the city to get all the voting "freebies".  I picked up a free coffee at Starbuck's and then we headed over to get our free Krispy Kreme!!  YUM!!  We probably would have headed over to Ben and Jerry's for our free ice cream cone had Joel not vomited all over the backseat and himself.  (If at all possible do whatever you can to not have to give your baby a bath in a Target bathroom...I nearly threw up at the thought of it!)

On our way to Krispy Kreme we passed and honked at these McCain fans over by the Pentagon:

I love the guy in the middle, his sign says "Dudes for McCain".  Too funny!

Speaking of honking...the other day Gabe kept asking me why "Jesus honked at the grave".  For the life of me I could not figure out what he was talking about and kind of changed the subject.  Finally we were sitting in the kitchen and he very adamantly said...

G:  "Mommy, why did Jesus honk at the grave?"

M:  "Gabe, I'm sorry buddy I really don't have any clue what you are talking about"

G:  "You know, like in the song Mommy"

M:  "What song Gabe?"

G:  "Mighty to Save...it says Jesus HONKED at the grave"

M:  (light bulb moment...giggle...giggle...)  "No Gabe it says Jesus CONQUERED the grave, it means he beat it!  It means we get to go to heaven when we die if we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins"

G:  (sheepish little grin) "Oh...(under his breath)...Jesus honked at the grave (giggle)" 

Man, constant reminders that "little pitchers have big ears", huh?!  I'm glad he's paying attention!

Henan Doodles

Sam was only 17 months (exactly) when Ethan was born. Evidently "Ethan" is very hard to say as a toddler so Ethan became Henan, which for me became Henan Doodles. I don't know when we dropped this nickname, but it kind of makes me sad. It means he's growing up, he's not a baby. On Sunday, the 2nd, Ethan turned six. It's hard to believe I gave birth to him six years ago in a crummy little L&D room in Fort Riley. He has been trouble (all good) ever since! Here are some pics from his big day:

The cake. It's an edible light saber. We had a Star Wars theme if you couldn't tell! The base of the saber is made out of Rice Krispie Treats. The covering on it is Plastic Chocolate. It wasn't the best tasting "cake" in the world (very sweet) but it sure was fun to present him with it!

Blowing out the candles!!

The birthday boy!

Most of the Spencer clan. Joel was taking his siesta. Check out our blue teeth!

Daddy putting everything together with some help from some boys.

On Wednesday, Ethan had an appointment with the Pediatric Ophthalmologist at Walter Reed. They have been following him to prevent a lazy eye. More proof that my baby is getting older, check this out:

I'm not sure how we are going to be able to get him to consistently wear these (they are just readers for now) but isn't he cute! He picked them out and is very proud. We go back in six months and he may be getting bifocals then, YIKES!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!! WE LOVE YOU!

Halloween

Obi Won (we joked that he was actually Jesus, creepy mask, huh?!  One neighbor actually said...are you some sort of religious figure?  HA!), Batman, Darth Vader, and a Cute Skunk

With all the loot!

My lil' stinker!  He had a blast doing Halloween.  His favorite part was twirling glow sticks!

Joel is finally standing and attempting to walk!  He pushed up to this all by himself!  Notice the candy on his front.  I had just recently fished a drooled on M&M out of his chest hair!