Drumroll please.....

Well, I suppose I've been eating too many frogs and snails and puppy-dogs' tails........it's a BOY! Now I am not going to lie--I know it's taboo to say, but I am a little bummin'. I REALLY REALLY wanted another girl for many many reasons but alas, it isn't to be. Good news is that the baby looks great and healthy as far as they can tell. My belly isn't faring so well--I look huge for only being half-way there. Oh well, I guess by number 4 I can't be too hard on myself. Though it is pretty pathetic when you think your maternity clothes feel a bit snug. So now it's time to pick out a name....Eric is really pushing for Gus, but I keep reminding him this isn't a mouse from Cinderella. Tyler is reading this over my shoulder and just suggested the name Chunk--"You remember, like from the pirate movie, 'The Goonies'?" I am pulling mom veto on both of those. If I'm the one who has to get fat and actually HAVE the baby (Jacob told me last night to go to the dentist so he could take out the baby) then I get at least 65% say in the name! And just for reference Jacob's pick is Hunter. Sad that my craziest kid comes up with the most normal name.

I haven't taken any kid pics in a while (Jacob and Maggie have had pink eye--gross!) so photo ops were few and far between. Plus don't you think it is so frustrating how hard it is to capture the essence of your kids' cuteness on camera--a nearly impossible feat. Especially with Maggie now because she will be so cute and I will get out the camera--the next thing I know she sees the camera and runs up to it so I can't get any pictures. Ugh! Here are a few my mom took when she was out a while back...

Don't let the angelic smile fool you--she is just trying to lure you into her sweetness before she turns into The Pest-icator!

A few things...

Jacob came to me the other day and told me he didn't like his bed because it didn't have a "cool" tent like Tyler's did. He said he needed a new bed. Well, I wasn't about to go buy him a bed, let alone that my house is way too small for anything other than a bunk bed, so I came up with this....It isn't perfect by any means, though I am pretty proud I was able to put in a "window"! Two actually, but I was making it late at night so couldn't go measure it in the boys' room. So the back side is a little off, but the kids don't care. I did make several mistakes but the boys don't care so it's all good! They LOVE playing in it and Jacob loves to sleep in it.

Then yesterday I turned on the oven and after a minute smelled a really weird BAD BAD BAD smell. The oven wasn't heating and none of the burners would turn on. I called the housing maintenance people and they filed it as an emergency and told me they would have to notify the fire dept. Okay, so we waited outside since it smelled to bad inside. A minute later we heard sirens. The boys said, "They are coming!" I told them that must be for something else--they wouldn't use the sirens for us! Lo and behold around the corner comes the fire truck, sirens blaring! 3 Firemen in their fire jackets and helmets came inside, pulled my oven out (totally embarrassing the mess that was under there by the way....) and checked for gas leaks. Turned out the construction down the way broke a gas main and the smell was the propane mixing with air or something. No biggie, but it certainly added some excitement to the kids' day!
Lastly, on Sunday Tyler kept opening the front door to look at some baby birds in a nest up on our porch eave. I told him to stop since every time he opened it Maggie would run outside and I would have to go catch her. He didn't listen so I told him firmly to knock it off. He got upset so tried to slam the door but ended up slamming his toe....
Nasty! I did feel bad, but I do have to admit there was a small part of me that wanted to shout out, "I told you so!" but I restrained myself. It looks so much worse in person! The nail is all raised up because of the swelling. Yuck! But he told me yesterday, "Mom, I wish I had listened to you and stopped opening the door." I'll take that as a minor victory, despite the wound.

Muddy Mayhem

Do you think this is too close to watch tv?We went for a walk/bike ride (kids) last Saturday. Jacob is getting to be decent at riding his bike considering it is way too small, completely rusted from 4 years of use and being outside and basically falling apart (guess what he is getting for his birthday...). Still, he never complains....what a stud! Plus we can always tell where he is...."squeak squeak squeak...."
The other night we gave Maggie some "Chocolate Lush" dessert--I think she liked it...... She ended up licking the plate clean, then her high chair tray too.
The kids were outside playing and happened to turn on the hose (on my mom's watch). Mud ensued as did a few dirty kids. Maggie is perfecting her stink eye. In this instance she dropped her bowl of sunflower seeds in the mud and I wouldn't let her pick them out and eat them.
She got a little dirty but it definitely could have been worse. I know I am posting a few boring pictures, but I swear I could look at pictures of my kids all day long. Which is odd because they are way cuter in person and I get to see that all day long. I think it must be that looking at pictures there is no need to get them a snack, clean them off, stop the fighting, put them in time out, clean up messes, etc. etc. etc.

This morning Tyler slammed his toe in the door and was resting it while propping it up on a chair. Maggie decided he looked too comfortable so she climbed up and sat on him. The Jacob, never one to let the action pass him by, did the same. They all thought they were pretty silly.

Baseball baseball baseball

We've been pretty busy out here in the desert. The weather has been good most days so we go outside a lot. Maggie LOVES to play outside. Any chance she gets she runs out the back door. I have to keep it locked all the time or she will go out back. She has even figured out how to get onto the trampoline! She can't get off yet, so that causes some problems.... We'll have to work on it.

The boys love to collect "treasures" (i.e. garbage) outside and put them in their special treasure boxes they each have. They also love to hammer everything so we went to Home Depot a while back and got some scrap wood, let them each pick out some washers, nails, S hooks, etc. A few things they found interesting. Now they can hammer away at their stuff and stay out of our real tool supplies. They love it! As you can see above, Maggie loves it too!

Maggie also LOVES this little plastic car. I found it outside the thrift shop here on post for free. I cleaned it up and brought it home. You know, sometimes you get stuff like that and it never gets used but this is different. All the kids love it but Maggie has claimed it as her own. She bolts outside and heads straight for it, gets in, then waves and calls, "Bye bye!"
Maggie also has a little quirky thing she does--she raises up her shoulders. It is so funny. She does it to be funny, too--like she understands it is a silly thing. I tried and tried to get a picture but she loves to act silly when she does it so I couldn't get her to hold still. This is the best I could get. I will have to try to get it on video....
I was really sick on Sunday and could hardly get out of bed. So I laid in bed while the kids watched a movie and Eric was gone at church. After a little while the boys came upstairs and brought me all this---waffles with syrup, a bowl of Nilla Wafers, glass of water for food, A glass dish of water and some soap in case I needed to wash my hands, several tissues, and a few toys to make me feel better. They also loaded me up with stuffed animals which you can't see because they are all on the bed. It was very sweet, although it made a mess for me to clean up later....
Tyler has been playing baseball here on post for a few weeks now. It keeps us busy. Officially there is one practice and 2 games per week, but his coach has added 2 additional practices each week too! That means Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri and Sat are all baseball days. Sheesh! I skip out on a few of the practices just because I think it is too much. But Tyler is doing so well! He is the best hitter on his team and Eric is working with him on catching. It is fun to watch him play, which is good, I guess, since I have so many opportunities to watch!

A couple videos

Look what Tyler learned at school.....

Even though the boys were crazy, Maggie LOVES her baby!

HELP ME!

Okay, so now she loves to stand on the open dishwasher door. Plus, notice my cell phone sitting there as well. I found her here licking chili out of that tupperware dish.....nice.

The other night Maggie was very tired. The boys were watching a movie and Eric sat Maggie on the sofa like this, and she just sat and sat....just like this....
Notice the pink spot on her head?
She snuck outside (she can open our doors--I often find her playing in the toilet water) to where Jacob had colored in a circle with pink chalk. Well, being Maggie, she decided to lick it. She put her face right down on the ground and started licking up the chalk. She enjoyed every minute of it.

Goings on....

Well, recovery from the tonsillectomy has been pretty uneventful. The last few days of "soft food" got a little rough as Jacob was pretty much starving to death (the child won't eat anything normally, now for 10 days he can only eat mushy soft stuff). But we survived and now he is all healed up. For all of us who were hoping he would have a much better disposition once they were out....no luck as of yet. He seems about the same. Little stinker. Don't get me wrong--the boy can be sweet as pie when he decides to be....but when he feel otherwise you better watch out. The biggest difference is his voice--he used to have a cute little husky voice but now it is this high whiny voice. Much more annoying. At least he doesn't snore at night anymore. I have to go stand next to him to make sure he is still alive at night.

On to other things. The above picture is one of Tyler's Lego creations. A Star Wars "Superstation." Please ignore the sink full of dishes in the background.

Maggie's new favorite toy is this hard baby doll a friend gave us. It was old and she was getting rid of it and thought Mags might like it. Well, she hardly puts it down! She puts it's binky in it's mouth, and has even tried to give it her blankie. As you can see she is very excited about having her picture taken with it.
Maggie is also my new kitchen "helper" (read: "annoyance"). She is obsessed with the dishwasher. I found her taking out all the silverware the other day and putting it on the floor. I am so frustrated with her! She won't stay out of it--dirty, clean, doesn't matter. Takes dishes out, puts them in.....I can't keep the girl away! I know most of you are thinking, "Duh, just lock it." Well, whenever I keep it locked she starts it. At least 3 times a day I walk into the kitchen to turn off the dishwasher. So I leave it unlocked and I end up with dirty dishes all over the house. I leave it locked and she runs a cycle. Ugh--I can't wait until she outgrows this!
One more note: I don't know what it is with my kids and "science" (remember Tyler telling me he needed to collect some bones so he could "science them"?) but yesterday Jacob was on the trampoline and saw a coyote out in the fields (of dirt) behind our house. Either it ran away or was imaginary to begin with but neither Tyler or I could see it. Jacob then informed us that, "Only I can see it because I have science eyes that are really good at seeing science things." Well, that explains it.