I got in trouble....

..for not having any new pics of Aydan so here he is!!!

He's almost 9 months old already, I can't believe it - time is just going by so fast!!

Halloween in July?!?!?!

A couple weeks ago some friends gave us a bag of dress-up clothes for the daycare kids to use. The night I was going through them Dylan & Ryan came in and wanted to have a "Halloween Party" in their room & invited J.D. & I to attend(well it was more telling us we had to, but you get the point). So being the fun loving parents we are we dressed up, grabbed the camera & entered the ~dark & scary~ room(lights were off).

Lowes: Kids Club

Last Saturday J.D. took the boys to Lowes for the Kids Club activity. This is the project they did. They give the kids safety goggles, a Lowes apron, and a patch after they finished.

J.D. helped Ryan with his.


Dylan did his all by himself!! He kept the stickers & said he didn't like them on it.

At least someone is getting to enjoy it.....

Well a couple months ago I planted a garden. I keep seeing the plants starting to produce veggies, but then a couple days later they've disappeared. Last Monday I went out to discover a baby bunny eating my cucumbers then he quickly made a getaway under our back fence. On Wednesday I went out and found him laying with his legs all stretched out & his tummy resting on the ground just soaking up the sun, but when he saw me...again under the fence! So being the person I am I rush to Amazon.com to buy a trap!!! My cute little live trap got here Monday, so I set it right away. Within 4 hours here's what I caught(yes I set the trap twice). We took them that night and released them far far away.

Well, two days later smart little bunny boy in still loving my garden.
At least I got a few things!

Aarrgg!!! Me gots teeth!!!

Well, last Thursday Aydan got his first tooth!! He gave us no signs, no swollen gums, no crabiness - nothing! It just showed up!
Front bottom left.

Today he got #2. For this one his gums were a tiny bit red & were white on top so since about Monday we knew it was coming!!
Front bottom right.

He did it, he finally did it....I knew he would someday...

On Friday the boys & I were making some nifty little Fathers Day cards while J.D. was at work(they are sail boats made out of paper plates and the stand up on their own!!), well once we were finished making them Dylan & Ryan asked if they could do some "art" with the left over construction paper. I told them they could as long as they cleaned up their mess when they were done.

Dylan got finished first so he went on to his room to play, then Ryan went running through the living room with the scissors so I told him he needed to go back to the kitchen with them. He went into the kitchen put them down and ran back through the living room....well I immediately knew something wasn't right - for two reasons #1 he NEVER listens the first time you ask him to do something and #2 he doesn't give up an opportunity to make a mess using paper & scissors... So away I went on my search to find out what he did.....

Here is what I found


I was soooo sad...I've worked so long and so hard to grow out that sweet red hair.
Well I guess I'll remember these sweet locks by putting them in his scrapbook (of course that means I have to actually find time to scrapbook).

Of the two older kids he is the one I expected to try this. He just has that sort of personality.

6 years as of May 31st - boy what a great 6 years!

I don't watch a lot of TV but when I do I like to watch "Jon & Kate plus 8". I've always been impressed with how well they've done raising so many little ones all the same age. Anyone who knows me knows how much that show is right up my alley.
Last night I watched and found out that sadly yesterday they filed for divorce. I understand things can be tough with kids and just life in general, but don't get how two people who love each other enough to get married in the first place can just let it all go. They had made it through so many struggles in their lives, but now just give up. I know of at least 20 reasons why they needed to stay together...8 blessings, 10 years & 2 people who love each other (but just can't get past their anger). Life is so much more then anger towards someone.

Well, okay time to get back on track. So anyway, all of this made me proud of what God has given me. I may not have a TV show on TLC, a big giant house, or 8 kids...but I do have a wonderful Husband a three wonderful little blessings. I'm so proud of where I've ended up. I guess I'm just lucky.

Today I pulled out our wedding video. While I watched it I though about all the things we've been through together easy & hard. Sometimes we have been brought almost to our knees but we've always been able to stand back up - Stronger then before.

6 years Strong!!

1 Cat($100+)
3 Kids($10000+)
Many Friends & bridges that have been put under construction(okay so I need to work on that still).($???)
1 House (personal)
1 Dog ($100+)
=1 Wonderful Life!! (Priceless)


On to ten years! We are planning to renew our vows then. So I guess I'll have to try to get the wedding gang all back together for that.

Sorry for the most random post ever! :)

Fishing can be painful..... :(

Saturday evening we decided to go fishing at the lake. This lake is completely man made so it has a cement border all the way around it.



The fish weren't biting at all so Dylan & Ryan were running around when Ryan tripped on the cement.
He scrapped both knees & his head. Needless to say the next night when we started getting ready to go fishing again Ryan didn't want to go.
We still went & had no owies this time. Together we caught 5 fish though!!

Time to eat...

Last week Ryan & one of my daycare kids told me they wanted to "cook" for me. (They were playing restaurant) So first they took my order & Nana's order, then proceeded to make our food. Of course Aydan had to join in. As soon as we got sat down they asked if I needed a highchair for my baby & brought me one. (Isn't he so cute in it!! Just ignore the color, that's all Step 2 ever made them in!!)

Sorry about the blurred out faces, I don't put daycare kids pictures on my blog without asking first. If I get permission I'll fix it. (Of course this means I have to remember to ask...lol)

What are they doing to me???? (part 2)

We just took Aydan to his 6 month appt. with OSU for their research study. (For info on it please check my blog form March)

Well this appt. was fast!! Less then an hour. Could've been even faster but Aydan wanted to play with his toes during the first test (computer screen faces thing), really he was doing anything he could to keep from looking at it. I think he thought it was funny to not look. Finally I gave him his paci & rubbed his head so he settled down & got it over with. It took about 15 min, when he could have had it over with in about 4-5min.

He had no problem with the second test though(cap brain wave thing). He nursed & played the whole time.
We go back for the last appt. at 9 months so I guess sometime in July/Aug. Hopefully that one goes as well as this one!

Why you wear safety goggles while doing yard work....

This happened today while J.D. was using the weed eater in our front yard. He was about 6-7 yards away too!
Just a reminder to always use your safety gear and keep youngsters away too!

Took a while to clean up! We'll park the cars down the street from now on!! :)

The spinach must be working...

..oh wait he can't eat that yet ~ must be something else...

Well Aydan is 6 months almost 7 now. He's growing so fast! He is very active always wiggling! Sitting up on his own, rolling over & pushing up on his arms now. Aydan is such a happy baby!!!
He also loves to eat! The kid can eat a 4oz jar of veggies in one sitting!!

Dylans Last day of Pre-K

Well, I can't believe it's went by so fast...it seems like only yesterday we were searching for that "perfect" backpack. Now it's got holes in it and is falling apart! He used it well! He brought home so much art work this year that I'm having trouble deciding what to keep & what not to, I sure can't keep it all.

On his last day His teacher sent home a cd of pictures she had taken throughout the year. I can't post them all(over 450) but here are a few.....The first one is his whole class and his teachers(Left: Mrs. Case-TA, Right: Mrs. Germain).

Note to Mrs. Germain~
I was so scared to send him that first day & spent the first week or so really wondering if we did the right thing or should we have waited? You quickly made me see we did the best thing possible! He has blossomed so much this year it's just amazing. He went in my baby and came home a little boy. He changed so much over the last 9 months, he's grown not only in height but in strength, imagination, skill, knowledge, and in personality. He has learned so much this year, and all future teachers have a lot to live up to! I hope he manages to get teachers just like you the rest of his years in school!
Thank you so much for making this year the best first year of school for my little boy. Thank you for helping him grow, and taking such good care of him.
We hope you have a wonderful summer break!!

~*~Pictures~*~

......well....

Within two weeks of the fishy post we lost 3 of our new fish. Lollipop, Spot & Diego all came home with "Ich" and quickly started showing signs of being very ill. They also made Pistol Pete(the black one) sick but with a lot of TLC he's still holding on. He's been on a routine of having to have 25% of his water changed daily by "vacuming" the rocks to remove any "Ich" eggs, adding salt to maintain a .03% level to kill the newly hatched, being fed every 3-4 hours to keep up his weight (yes fish strugle with it too-him having to add a little)...It was harder then having a newborn! Babies are sooo much easier!

But now he is doing well, I no long have to wake him from his constant sleeping to eat, and we can no longer see his little fishy ribs - hopefully he's made a full recovery!

Paci Fairy!! Come back!!

Typed March 22nd - Forgot to Post!

Well she came....

Ryan isn't taking it so well though. I don't think the kid will ever sleep again. His paci's have been gone for about 2 hours now, but probably seems like forever to him. He just keeps searching the house for more (we only had 3 and they all went into the bag).

I'll start from the beginning though.....

We got up this morning and asked him who was coming today he said "Elle & Emma?" which of course we replied "not today, who is coming today?" "Paci Fairy" Ryan responds....

So we proceed to talk about how the day will go - Playing for awhile then getting all the paci's into the little green bag, putting it onto the tree which Ryan quickly told us he didn't want to put his paci's on the tree because the bees will put them in their mouths. So we told him of course that the bees will not get them & the Paci Fairy is going to take them to new babies who need them. While he's napping the Fairy will come and leave him his new big boy gift.

So as planned we put the paci's into the green bag, tied them to the tree & off to nap he went. Well the nap never happened - he refused to stay in his bed so after about an hour we let him up.



Then he noticed "it" the big boy gift sitting just where he had left his paci's he loved it! The Mater tricycle was a huge hit....for about 30 minutes at which time he realized the paci's were no where to be found. So he's ready for that Fairy to come back take the trike and give his paci's back.

It's going to be a long night........

~~~~UPDATE!!~~~

Well, He did start sleeping again, we had about 2 weeks of sleepless nights...either him not going to be until 11:30 or 12:00, or when he did go to bed he would wake up 2 to 3 times each night.
Now things are much better, the speech has gotten a little better but not as quickly as I had hoped, but hey we're getting there!

P.S. - Check back in 2006 - notice anything???

Goodbye....Hello

Last weekend was sad for us a we lost our good friend Sponge Bob Jr. he had been in our family for about a year and a half so we were sad to see him pass.

Just the day before we had finally bought him a friend "Pistol Pete". We had noticed SBJ hadn't been acting normal for about a week but had hoped a new friend would help. But no such luck.

This past week we upgraded our fish tank from 2.5 gal. to 10 gal. so we adopted 3 more fish. Here they are...

Pistol Pete - Black Pop Eyed Goldfish
Lollipop - Sucker Fish (get it lollipop-sucker fish??)
Diego - Orange Fantailed Goldfish
Spot - Calico Fantailed Goldfish

Can you find them all in this picture??

What are they doing to me?!?!?!

A couple weeks ago I signed Aydan up for a Nutrition & Development study for breastfed babies at OSU. They observe the babies at 3, 6 & 9 months as well as test the mothers milk & blood as they are trying to determine the effects of major metals on brain development.

Well to do this they monitor his vital signs while he watches a computer screen with random pictures of people on it. Then they put an electrode cap on his head and test his brain waves while he listens to different sound through baby headphones.


For me this was very exciting because I'm very interested in how babies learn so the students doing this study were able to explain alot about their findings so far. Plus the picture make for fun scrapbooking! For Aydan it was exciting because he had a whole bunch of people paying attention to just him! He only got upset once and I think that was from wanting to nurse but the sound from the headphones were making it very hard to relax.

I'm Sorry, Sooooo Sorry!

I know it's been a really long time! Life with 3 kids is just so much more tiring than I expected.
The family is doing well though! At least as well as can be expected. We all have finally recovered from the flu. Luckily everyone was able to get treatment for it except me...because of Aydan - I refused to use formula for a week...

Dylan celebrated his 5th birthday this month. I can't believe he's 5 already! He is thriving in school! Coming home with new things he's learned everyday. He just finished up his spring break this past week. While on it he learned to read 2 sight word books! I've been so proud, and he is so proud of himself for being able to sound out the words. He also just recovered from his 4th year of HSP, once again he broke out in those awful red spots & was in pain for a week. He's much better now & back to his handsome little self!

Ryan is growing slowly but growing! We've just made it into 24 month jeans! Woohoo! We just completed potty training & he is even staying dry at night-1 whole month now! (this is huge...I really need me sleep! and no more pull-ups!!) He's getting ready to have a visit from the Paci Fairy tomorrow. He has very mixed feelings about her arrival - well really her departure more... I'll let you know how it goes!

Aydan is changing so much right now. Just over the past 3 weeks he has went from tiny cuddly baby to a mover & shaker - learning to push up on his arms & roll over. He laughs all the time which causes awful hic-ups & in turn makes him very upset. JD is convinced that he already says "hi" - but I'm not too sure....

Welcome Aydan Colby!

Well, he's here!! (Been here for a month already, sorry I took so long to post!) Born Nov. 7th at 4:21 P.M. weighed 7lbs 11oz & was 19 1/2in. Dylan and Ryan are super proud of their baby brother & actually fight over helping do things for him. Ryan doesn't like it at all Aydan is sad or crying - he thinks I should drop everything I'm doing to make Aydan happy right away.
Overall he is a pretty happy baby though, having some tummy trouble but otherwise very content. Sleeping -okay- at night so we're pretty happy...
Aydan is definitely our "chunky" baby - it's so crazy to have a baby with a big enough tushie to hold up his diapers! Hardly any leaks!!

Here are a few pictures from the first week he was born. I will post more I just need to pull them off the camera first! (Sorry I'm a little behind - it's hard getting used to the craziness that comes with 3 kids!)

"Bean" (the Turtle)

This is "Bean" (Ryan named him). We have had him since May?? I think. He showed up in our back yard & made a perfect new little part of our family. We have a wonderful "Multi-Dollar" condo for him (wanted to say Multi Million, but that would be lying..lol), but he keeps burying himself in the substrate and refusing to eat, which was causing him to loose weight. So he and his good friend "Sam" got moved into -prison- to force them to act like turtles should in the summer. Their condo is currently under construction as we think the UVA & UVB bulbs are too far away from the babies causing them to think its winter?? So until the upgrades are complete they will just have to like prison. They seen to actually enjoy it though....the sunny window seems to be keeping them happy....




No animals were harmed in the making of this video. The babies are very used to Ryans little hands being in the cage with them.
Yes-Ryan washed his hands as soon as filming was complete - so no children were harmed either! :)