5 Kids, 3 Dogs, 6 Adults, and 2 Houses

Mom moved in over Memorial Day Weekend. Yippee.... we have grandma as a neighbor!! (Well, not officially until mid-October when she comes to stay for the winter and spring, but, still, it is VERY exciting!) My dad, Lisa, John, the two girls, and their two puppies came up to help with the move. There was actually more fun to be had than there was actual moving- although all the work DID get done by Monday morning. We spent Saturday at the Farmer's Market downtown and the zoo, then Sunday we went to the pool and then out to dinner. In between the cousins played and played and played while Lisa and John shuttled the puppies from our house to Nana's house, depending on which house Tanner happened to be in at any given moment. He was terrified of them and screamed hysterically whenever they dared occupy the same room as him. Poor guy was a little traumatized but when they left he made sure to wave goodbye to Niblet and Rocky and acted very much as if they were his best friends even though in reality he could barely look at them through the patio door without freaking out! Jake adored his cousins like usual. Faith hung out with everyone (well.... except that mean ol' Papa!) and tried not to let the four front teeth she is getting bother her too much.

Lisa and family left on Monday morning, Dad left on Tuesday afternoon, and Mom stayed on to finish the fun stuff- unpacking boxes, arranging knickknacks, going to Target to get supplies, etc...

Sadly, Brian's grandma was hospitalized with pneumonia and taken off life support on Thursday, so he drove to Northern California early Friday morning and stayed through the weekend to offer support, say goodbye, and spend time with his Dad's side of the family. Mom graciously stayed on to help me with the kids. We introduced them to the fine art of garage sales: Each of the boys took $5 out of their piggy bank on Saturday and we went to lots of houses. They bought all sorts of stuff! The biggest hit, however, is the Tinker Toys- the old fashioned kind. Both Tanner and Jake are loving building cool things with them. Faith found a plastic xylophone that she simply couldn't part with, so it now has permanent residence in our home.
Like our house needed more NOISE???

Three of Faith's teeth popped through and she is walking like she has been doing it since she was born. She loves to swing on the swingset in the backyard, dump anything out onto the ground, and take her shoes off (and try to put them back on unsuccessfully). She enthusiastically blows kisses and has added "Mine!" to her repetoire of words.

Tanner has begun singing to amuse himself- his favorites being: Take Me Out to the Ballgame and The ABC's. He also has started saying, "What's up CHICKENS?" to Nana, Jake, and I, and giggling like it is the funniest thing in the world (which it kind of is actually). He is truly a little imp and continues to test, test, test. He also pushes me in the chest (in a joking way) and says, "BACK OFF, BABY!". He is a character and a half.

Jake is getting really good at skateboarding and swimming and continues to amaze me by how many people he knows in our neighborhood. His Kindergarten had an Open House and a carnival last week and I think he will know 30-40% of the kids in his class next year. We just finished reading the second Fudge book- thank goodness he is done with the Scooby Doo chapter books for now!!

They are all adapting well to our new nanny situation, although Tanner keeps asking me when he will get to go to school again. We've only had Vanessa with us for four days, but so far she seems great. She has brought new things to the house for the kids to play with each day, has taken them to the library twice, and had TJ and Jake make charts- Jake's is to record how many books he reads and Tanners to record his potty successes (to date there are NO stickers on Tanner's chart, and about 20 on Jake's!). Potty training for boy #2 is proving to be more of a challenge. I am still unsure on the "Nanny vs. Daycare" thing, but it definitely makes my mornings more manageable and less hectic. Now if I could only get that neighborhood job I've been angling for....(the original reason for hiring a nanny!)

Happy Mothers Day 2008

Mother's Day started early for us. 5:00 last night marked the first concert of the season in Hidden Springs. The entire community came out to celebrate- both Mother's Day and the fact that spring is here to stay finally. We all had such a great time- we know so many more people in the neighborhood than we used to- either due to T-Ball or Jake attending daycare at Theresa's house or both.

Jake just ran around, riding his scooter, playing with various kids while we ate hotdogs, shared beers with friends, kept our eye on Tanner and Faith and checked every once in awhile to make sure Jake was still somewhere nearby. He is a little social butterfly and introduced me to at least 5 new people during the concert.

Faith liked walking around to everyone else's picnics and helping herself to their food. As of yesterday her walking to crawling ratio is about 8 to 2. She is really proud of herself! Tanner pretty much followed Jake everywhere. The ICEE shack opened, too, and happened to coincide with a card from Grandma Mary that included a 10 dollar bill since "a little bird had told her" that the shack was back. We stayed out until almost 8PM and the kids just crashed when we got home.

The fun continued today with Brian taking the kids downstairs at 6:45 and letting me sleep in. I woke up to presents from Jake- a smorgasboard (I have NO idea how to spell that!) of cards, pictures, candles, notebooks, paper roses, etc... He was very excited. Tanner opened his gift to me before we even left daycare on Friday- it is an adorable hand,food, hand, foot print artwork that he made with his teachers there. Faith made a similar project with a flower- her hand-prints were the leaves. Brian made me a beautiful slide show DVD with pictures of the three kids with "I Can't Stop Loving You" as the background music. Made me cry.

After a rocky morning- behavior wise- we gave all the kids early naps with the plan to ride our bikes out to a local restaurant for lunch. After living here almost two years we finally rode on the Greenbelt. and we can't believe it took us so long to discover it! You can ride all the way downtown along the river. There are restaurants, parks, and playgrounds along the way. The kids all loved it. We ended up at the same place we had eaten our Easter dinner at (Joe's Crab Shack). We ate outside in the sunshine, then stopped at a playground and went out for ice cream on the way home. All in all it was a 3+ hour venture. It was early baths and early bedtime all around.

The following picture is of the newborn baby birds that were born this weekend in the nest that the "crazy robin" built above our hot tub. This particular bird has been attacking the windows of our house for the last three months, and we could not figure out why, eventually, she gave up and built a nest on top of our stereo speaker - thus earning her nickname. Happy Mothers Day to you too Crazy Robin.