From Crawling to walking

Boys are growing like little monsters and we had a fourth in the mix this week when a friend stayed with us for three nights.

Braydon is seems to have two focuses right now, eating EVERYTHING in the house and asserting his own will on everything he does or is expected to do. He is full of opinions which I love but we are still working on how to deliver those opinions. Unlike all the other kids (moms that I talk to) he has strong thoughts on what he is going to wear each morning. I try and get him to "match" thing up but that usually backfires with plaids and strips mixed or another strange yet justified concoction. We just went to the store to get him a few things (he wears a 5T). I picked out a pile of clothes and then he goes through it takes most out and decides what we will keep. When he is not picking out clothes he is building lego towers, jumping on the trampoline (the fun has yet to wear off), riding is bike, playing golf or at school.

Poor Caleb was at the store with us and not sure why he doesn't get any new clothes. I try to explain to him he doesnt need any but he is so focused on a Rodeo/Cowboy shirt that he saw that I had to give in. He is a cowboy and there is no way around it. I am not sure if he is sick of people telling him that they like his boots or if he is just growing up but his reaction has gone from getting a HUGE grin and then sheepishly looking up to say thank you to wear we are now. Now when people say "I love your boots" He looks them dead on and says "thanks, I have spurs too" No grin, no sideways smile just the facts. Then off on his own clanking all the way. He too loves the trampoline but his favorite toys are still his horses and barn. He loves his little bro and is sooo patient with him when he crawls over to his horses and messes them all up. " AAAAUUUUSTIN".....is all he will say and then he goes about putting them all back where they belong.

AAAAUUUUSSTIN...is on the move. He started crawling about two weeks ago but never loved it. Even when crawling he would try to get on his toes and crawl hands and feet, not hands and knees. Now we are three days into him pulling up to his feet and one day into him walking around tables and ottomans. He LOVES it. He smiles so big when he takes a step and then goes right back into concentration mode to prep for the next big move of foot. :)

Seems like they have all gotten some of Robs qualities that I love to see. Braydon has the patience of a saint (Jobe to be exact). Caleb sticks his tongue out when he trys to build things or is focused. Austin can do anything he puts his little mind to. He is sooo strong and you can see his determination at just 7mos.

I am a LUCKY MAMA!!!!!!
Hoildays are around the corner and we can not wait to see you all! Miss everyone!

Not much to tell....

Not much to tell....we have been busy with the weather getting nicer here there are festivals every weekend. We went to October fest last weekend and Taco Festival this weekend.

Austin and B had Doctors appointments this week. B got shots and they HURT. I felt so bad for him. He had forgotten that they were gonna hurt and then one of them was a bad one that caused him to not move his arm for the next 30min. But he was tough and got a popsicle. Austin did great, he is measuring "off the charts" but all of his measurements put him as an 18 month old (he is 7mos). He looks more and more like Robbie everyday!

We have had lots of playdates and outings to the library. This week is a special week for everyone because their best friend Eoin will be staying with us for two nights so SLUMBER PARTY here we come!

Miss you all!!

Fun Times with my boys.

We had a great week.

Caleb, Austin and I are having fabulous "us" time while B is at school. Boys are growing like crazy and Austin is once again full of announcements@

Braydon loves school and is doing wonderful! I met with his teacher the other day and she was very complimentary but also gave us some things we could work on at home. We have been practicing how to hold a pen, cutting and drawing at night...HE LOVES IT! and I am so impressed. Thanks to Jess, I know how to be pushing Caleb as well and he is drawing circles and making ladders (drawing them) like he has been doing it for years. Braydon is blessed with the ability to concentrate and stay focused "the patience of Jobe" according to GiGi and I have to agree. We will sit at the table and after about 10min Caleb is up and looking for something else to do. After 20min I am up looking for something else to do. After 25min Rob is throwing all sorts of other activity options at B to get him away from the table but B will just sit there forever perfecting what he is working on or asking for another letter to practice. You go kid!

Caleb....my little cowboy. He has been wearing his boots and spurs ever since we left the ranch. We talk to about 4 strangers a day because of those boots. The conversations always start with "Hey man I love your boots!" "tanks" Caleb replies and then the person looks at me for the story. I let them know there is no "story" he is a Cowboy, we wear them everyday, we have to leave our hat in the car or at home but he is a Cowboy! Caleb grins and walks off..spurs jingling. :) He loves being a Cowboy. For Halloween he wants to be a "commercialized cowboy" so he is going to be Woody. My girlfriend gave us the outfit but he was not taken with the onsie that had just a picture of a holster and bandana. So we are gonna be the real thing. We have the jeans, boots, spurs, and hat. I am making the cowhide vest and this week we got him holsters......and the fun began! The boys have been wearing them everyday and shooting "banging" as they call it, everything they see. Their favorite target is the dogs. They actually run!
On a side note. Caleb's boots got really dirty the other day and he said he would put on other shoes (cause I said I wouldn't clean them right then and that he had to wait). He walked away to get other shoes and I was shocked with how sad I was that he was not going to be in his boots. "what if this made him change his mind about the boots? What if he stopped wearing them all together..... Not an option!" I ran and cleaned the boots, handed them to him and they have been back on his feet for the last few days like they should be. Things are right at the Doanes

Austin is a rock star we have an upper middle tooth that has just came through. He is CRAWLING!!! That is right he is off, only 4 or 5 crawls but he gets where he wants when he wants to! He is also SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! He is working hard and growing fast. We go to his 6mo check next week so I will keep you guys posted on how it goes.

Miss you all and love you.

Howdy

Finally feeling a bit "back at home". Kids are feeling better, we are in full swing of school, playdates and other extra curricular activities.

Skinny baby is doing all sorts of new and amazing things, he is up on all fours constantly and has done a crawl (never a series) a number of times, he is growing hair and teeth! He is getting much better at sitting up and sleeping. Overall he is taking off! He thinks his brothers are the best thing in the world. He will sit in the living room with them and watch them for hours!! If they laugh he laughs and most of all, they love him! They stop playing sporadically throughout the days to give him a kiss or hand him a toy. They love their little bro.

Zonie is a HOOT! He loves being a comedian and is always doing CRAZY things to get a response from his siblings. Wear sounds, faces, outburst, body contortions, you name it! (he is pretty funny too). He is also my little soft heart. He is the first to say I love you and he is ALWAYS in the mood for a snuggle! Could be the age but whatever it is I love it.

B is doing great, my guess is he is growing again because he is eating us out of house and home and never fights me on taking a nap. His naps are lasting 2+ hours each day and this was the kid that just two months ago had me thinking he was out growing naps. He has been practicing his writing and he is doing excellent. He writes his letters (freehand) now and is as proud as a little peacock about it. Rob and I are in deep discussion on when to put him into Kinder and how to get him ready because the schools here wont take him until two years from now (unless we do private). Private it may be.....who knows.

Miss everyone

WE ARE BACK!!!

We are back and what a blast!!! This is all going to be in summary because there is WAY TOO much to talk about in one blog. But WHAT A WONDERFUL VACATION!

Everything started with the Doanes and McCarthy families on the ranch for a little RnR. It was great to get away with good friends, all the kids got along so well and little Austin stayed with Jess and Mom so it was REALLY nice to get to sleep through the night and sleep in! Thanks guys.

After a great time at the Ranch we got a short visit with Jonny, then celebrated a 4year old birthday party for B and Grace! Can yall believe they are 4! Holy cow! That means that Rob and I are old too...... It was a great party full of participating adults with games like "egg on a spoon race", "eat the donut from a string", balloon pop and two cakes!!!!! Thanks to Jess and Bob for hosting.

Then we had week or so with the Burke family that was sprinkled with all sorts of family visitors. We saw aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents etc. Everyone looked great and lucky to be able to say Everyone is doing great.

Then back to the ranch, 6days with Mame and Cap'n and 2 days with Mame, Cap'n, Jess, Bob, Grace and Sam. Everyone but Rob :(
Other than missing dad, the kids had a blast! tons of time was spent swinging, running, camping, hanging around the fire, bug hunts, frog hunts, riding horses, finding cows....on and on and on.

The following time was with the Burkes where we all had a blast and the cousins were inseparable! Thanks to everyone that hosted and we miss you all. Look forward to a Thanksgiving visit here shortly.


Sorry I don't have pics on snapfish for everyone, my camera died early in the trip and I am VERY short on pics. Love to all.

What a week!!

Austin is teething, Caleb had a UTI, Robbie got in a wreck, one of my good friends had a stroke (at 28) and I am emotionally SPENT!!

Monday: I get a call from a girlfriend telling me the news that one of our great friends has had two strokes. She was unconscious for 48hrs and unable to move the left side of her body.

Tuesday- Wednesday: Caleb Complained for a day that it hurt when he went potty, on day 2 there was blood in his urine! We rushed to the DR and with the preliminary test saying it was not a UTI we postponed antibiotics for 24hrs and did baking soda baths. After SCREAMING each time he went potty, having a fever and needing to be cuddled every two seconds I demanded the antibiotic and we had relief in 6hours.

During the UTI, fever, snuggles and cranky Caleb time we had Austin teething....also screaming, having a fever and needing to be cuddled every two seconds.

Poor B was house bound with crazy siblings and a mom who didn't have much extra time :( So he decides to play in the front yard/dirt/cement. He was barefoot (after mom warned him not too) and within 15minutes could not walk and had a half dollar sized blister on the balls of both feet (gotta love phoenix heat).

Thursday: I get 8 calls (missed them all cause me and the boys were outside) from Rob and finally a text message saying "I have been in a wreck, car totaled, I am ok."

WHAT?!?!?!?! The boys and I are loaded in the car in 2minutes flying down to find our dad on the side of the road with a car that looks like it has just been "had" in a monster truck rally.

Thank God he is OK!!! Turns out he and 4 other cars were at a dead stop on the freeway (due to a hit and run in front of them) when a Buick comes barreling down the road not noticing the "stopped traffic" ..... Rob was the last in line of "stopped cars" so he took the full impact....and subsequently passed it along to the RAV4 who passed HIM on to a Ford F150. It was a shit show on HWY 202! Did I mention how unbelievably lucky we are to have him home and safe?!!

Now lets all keep our fingers crossed we get a new car out of this :)

WHEWWWWWWW....the week is over! As a follow up....Austin is still teething, Caleb is feeling better, B is getting attention, his blisters are healing, Rob is healthy, we are down to one car and EVERYONE is exhausted!!!

Miss you guys.

Big Changes in the Doane House

Well the boots are still on everyday but the great news about the boots is that he has decided to wear socks with them so we are no longer dealing with the smell! Over all the big news with Caleb is that he is POTTY TRAINING and i venture to say trained (but we all know how that turned out last time). So after my last blog when I admitted to not using cloth diapers anymore I had to ask myself why I had stopped since now I am at home and they really do save $. I had no valid answer so I pulled them out and have been using them for the past 1-2 weeks. Well Caleb hates the feeling of being wet it turns out and would ask me every two seconds for a new diaper. I would refuse (you all may see this as cruel or gross but it works!) and only change him every two hours, not every time a tsp of tee tee went in it. But each time he would cry to me "new diaper mommy, this wet" I would tell him "No diaper, you need to stop your tee tee and tell mom BEFORE it goes in your diaper if you want a dry diaper" and bingo. Three days ago he announced that his tee tee was coming and we rushed to the potty, put it in the potty, got a reward and we are three days and a few hundred M&M into this with only one accident to speak of. Way to go Zonie!!

B is the cheerleader ever! With Caleb potty training B is the first to sing him a good job song or remind him to go get his treat! It is sooooo cool. He even told Mame and Capn' on skype the other night that Caleb was doing "so excellent" at potty training. I love it. He has also been using the word "enjoy" quite a bit which i find adorable. ex: "B do you want some more steak?" "no, I didn't enjoy it as much as the mashed potatoes, I will have some more potatoes". I don't know why but i get a kick out of it each time, it just sounds so grown up. Along with "enjoying" or "not enjoying" things, he is very interested in"teamwork" and takes every opportunity to get his brothers help with something by declaring it "teamwork". Ex: I say "B pick up all of these cars you took out". "ok, mom". then Braydon says "Hey Caleb, lets use teamwork and you pick up all the cars and I will hold the bag". Most of all INDEPENDENT is the word that stands out about B. if he can not reach something, he pulls a chair over and figures out how to get it or he will work at something (like turning his shirt right side out) for 10min until he gets it so he doesn't have to ask for help!!! Go B Go!!!

I have been exhausted with all of Austin's late night partying so Rob has taken matters into his own hands. He is letting AJ have an afternoon nap but is then keeping him up until 9pm every night and AJ has started sleeping through the night, with an occasional wake up/ limb getting stuck out of the crib. But there are no more night time feedings or 2/3 wake ups!! WHAT SUCCESS! I knew I married a great man :)

So lets review the way Rob and my's life has changed in the last week....DRAMATICALLY!!!! Two of three children are potty trained, we are down on our diaper budget, we are actually sleeping, and we have two major parenting hurdles out of the way!!!! We are living right!!!

Miss you guys!