Happy 12th Birthday Colin!

12 years old. Apple products are key to his world so the cake speaks for itself. Ryan is quite the creative soul :)

12 years old. Gifts requested were a 2 lb. bag of jelly beans, Under Armor socks (this is the first year in his life he has asked for a "name brand" anything!), a wireless mouse, batteries, a book and an Apple logo cake.
So the morning began with all of the above.....
and we continued our day by celebrating all things Colin. With the girls in school, the boys and I headed out to breakfast followed by a game of racket ball followed by a shopping trip to the ever so popular Target.....and then a golf outing with Daddy and Pryce during which he was surprised with a new golf bag....and then C came home to a house filled with his favorite peeps.
C was so funny. He walked in and glanced at the balloons not really saying too much. Then he noticed one friend, and then another, and he grinned from ear to ear.
It wasn't long before a game of football was staged in our backyard.....
and we practically had to pry them out of their intense game and into our house for dinner!
Alas, dinner was had. Candles were lit (by Colin of course because he is 12 now and he can handle these things!). Happy Birthday was sung. Gifts were opened.
The party was on and the boys were.....
well, the boys were boys....wonderful, fun, well behaved, lets-goof-around-a-bit-more boys! Colin has some amazing friends and we are all so glad they were here to share in his special day!
Then the party was over. And reality will hit tomorrow. He is 12 now. 12. Wow.

Colin-Eve

Look at this handsome little guy!!!! Here he is just nine months old. And tonight, I find myself going down memory lane as I remember when C, our oldest child, was born. It's Colin-Eve and tomorrow he will be 12 years old! Unbelievable.

12 years ago, Ryan and I found ourselves shopping for clothing to take to the hospital when the baby was born. He was the first, and even though we still had two weeks to prepare, we thought it best to get a few things packed, you know, just.in.case. We found a few things but I told Ryan that I would just come back one day during the next week and get what I needed, you know, because I had two weeks until the baby was to arrive. We left the mall, nothing purchased, not even the chicken nuggets that I was craving, and we went home.

Evening fell and we set out for an evening of celebrating our little bundle of soon-to-be joy with friends from church. A showering of gifts was upon us. Prayer time was had.....and it got LONG, very, very long. I was pregnant and I needed to go to the bathroom soooo badly during the prayers. I contemplated getting up, wondering if people would notice if I left for just a second???? I made it, though, and not too long after the prayers were said, I had my first pain. It wasn't "dull" like the Lamaze class instructor said it would be AND we had two more weeks to be pregnant so I didn't think much of the pain except that it was really uncomfortable. And when the second pain came not too long after, I realized it was just a bit more uncomfortable than I wanted to admit. With the car packed, and my pains coming and going, we said our goodbyes and headed home for a good nights rest. After all, we had two more weeks before we would endure our sleepless nights, right?

Wrong! Got home. Pains kept coming. And coming. Called the doctor who said, "Well, you do have two weeks until your due date. How about you drink some water and call us back if you are still having some pain?" Hmmmm. Water didn't help.

With the car still packed. And with my special pillow and a toothbrush, we made our way to the hospital. No bag. No realization that we were leaving our home as two and could very possibly return as three.

Triage confirmed what Ryan had thought all along, I was in labor. The staff was so calm. I was in shock. And Ryan was simply tired. The nurses graciously looked at us and said, "Well, here is your room. We will make a bed on the couch for you, Dad, and the two of you will have a baby sometime tomorrow morning." Ok. With that, they left the room and said to ring a bell should we have any questions.

Not thirty minutes later, we were ringing the bell with a vengeance. Could it be that said baby may appear sometime before tomorrow morning??? Say, maybe, really, really soon???

Yep! Our baby boy, all 7 lbs of him, arrived with the cutest little cry ever and he looked just like me as an infant....head full of black hair! He had no patience for waiting until the next morning. Instead, he was on a mission and maneuvered his way into our world in four hours flat. And from that moment on, our world was changed for the better. We became parents.

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful! The children, who had somewhat finished their work, took a two hour break and played outside together. The weather was beautiful and listening to the four of them play together was priceless. A perfect day in my world.

Of course, I had my camera out. C has a big day coming up and the girls do too. So, I am busy trying to get some pics of them to share on their special days. The boys are not as much into the whole camera scene....in fact, they see the lens and rUn the opposite way. The girls, however, are all about a good picture.
Maddox has a new trick. Serberts. And she is good at them. And she is putting more and more two word phrases together. Remarkable.
This was just a fun pic. She was actually using the flowers as a weapon but I managed to sneak in a shot without getting hurt :)
Our FAB four. These guys are my heart. My joy. Yesterday, seeing them all together, playing a game in which all of them had a part, was just perfect.

Our week began at the doctor with Maddox. She was just not doing well and I have learned that she just bottoms out crazy QuICk. Thankfully, 24 hour of meds plus lots of rest worked wonders for her and by Wednesday she was up and running full speed ahead!

Wednesday, the children and I jumped in the car and went to visit my grandmother. Who knew that we could put Annie in for the girls as we were backing out of our driveway and the credits would be rolling just as we pulled into my grandmother's home?! We have all been singing the songs over and over and over. I digress. Nannie was waiting for us and was all smiles! She had spent the better part of her day preparing one of my favorites - biscuits! No one can make them the way she does and the homemade jelly was the bomb. Awesome. The boys immediately engulfed two each and then asked for another - yikes! They are going to eat us out of house and home! There was a piano in the dining room and the boys took turns sharing their songs and talents. The people loved it! Instead of "BRAVO," they were yelling, "Play another one!" and "Don't stop, that can't be the last one!" I will have to say that my favorite part of the day, besides the biscuits and loving on Nannie, was talking with the residents. They were quite funny. One lady came over and said, "The children are beautiful! Do you work in a home that houses these children?" I just smiled and said, "Oh no, these children are all mine!" I am thinking the Asian plus the not-so-Asian kiddos threw her off a bit. She never said another word but you could tell her mind was pondering the situation.
Friday night we tipped off our week with the boys' piano recital. Always so much fun! We are so thankful to my friend Shauna who graciously teaches the boys, and others, how to maneuver their hands across the keys of the piano. The children all played beautifully!
These two were the original piano students. And they go waaaayyy back. Back to infant-dom together. They are now 12 and one week shy of 12.
And these two go waaaayyyy back as well. Back to infant-dom as well too. 9 years old and 9 years old. The second born kiddos. The successful, push forward kiddos yet the lets-kind-of-be-silly-too kiddos. Never a dull moment.
And then you have the aspiring musicians of America. This picture was just too sweet not to share.

Creative Discipline

The short part of the story is that the boys have always gotten along 99.9% of the time. Truly, I could count their arguments on one hand up until recently.

Recently, they get along 89.9% of the time. And the disruptions drive this momma CrAzYYY! After one encounter, I called Ryan, at work no doubt, described the incident and asked what in the world to do??? His response (and his parents will love this!) was, "Well, I don't know. How did your parents punish you? I never got punished." Just what was he implying???

At the end of the day, the boys are not bad....and even their arguing is not bad.

However, we are addressing their little spats with a bit of creativity. Today they were told to write 200 ways (each) that they could show kindness to others, be it a family member or an acquaintance. Each day they will do 5 of the examples until the 200 have been completed. Here are some QUESTIONABLE examples:

"I can show kindness when buying a car for someone." OYE - this purchase will be a Matchbox no doubt!

"I can call someone skinny, not fat."

"I can help Dad unload the pizza when we eat it." Great, that will be EVERY Friday.

"I can drive someone to school." Thing is, neither have a license.

"I cannot bite." Ok, that one hasn't happened since these guys were little, very little.

"I can give a pet to someone." Not sure that will go over well.

"I can give Dad a sport coat."

"I can tell Dad he looks good in a sport coat."

"I can watch the Sound of Music with the boss." Yes, I am being referred to as "the boss." This is the term used in Cheaper By The Dozen when referring to the mother. We finished the book today.

"I can buy Gran a Krispy Kreme gift card."

"I can let ***** use the green wheelbarrow." (Apparently, one brother always makes the other brother use a tiny little red wheelbarrow when doing yard work)

And so on and so on and so on.....suffice it to say that Ryan and I got a good laugh when reading their suggestions. Some were serious and spoke to our hearts....

"I can teach someone about God."

"I can play the piano for someone."

"I can encourage others around me."

"I can do the laundry." AMEN! Wonder when he wants to begin with that one?!!

And, with that, I close by simply saying that I just love my boys to pieces.

That's What Siblings Are For

MK: "Pryce, can we play together sometime?"

Pryce: "Mason-Kate, we have the rest of our lives to play together!"

Celebrating Lulu home forever! Sunday we were able to gather together, the moms and the girls in our adoption group, and celebrate another miracle. So happy for the Hatcher family and their littlest one - glad they are all under one roof together, safe, happy and forever!

Sadly, our littlest one fell sick soon after. She was just not herself. Fever. Coughing. Rapid breathing. And she was oh so tired.
Poor baby girl just wasn't comfortable unless she was sleeping in the middle of everything - the phone ringing, the dryer buzzing, the children doing school, MK dancing....she slept right through it all. However, if you chose to put her into a bed, she woke up extremely unhappy.
So we let her sleep wherever. And we continue to pray that she will feel better soon.