The dangers of hanging out under Tanner's chair...

...sometimes you get Ramen noodles dropped on your head.

You say tomato.....

"Ah bee ah beez!" This is Tanner speak for just about everything. Usually it means, "What's that?" but sometimes, if accompanied by a delighted shrieking sound and a finger pointing at food you are currently eating it can mean, "I want some of that!". Actually, ever since he discovered how to say "bird poop" his vocabulary has increased by leaps and bounds. He repeats everything we say and even though only a trained ear could understand it, he says "fist bump", "high five", and "hug" (our routine at bedtime). The other morning I got Faith up- which always causes a loud and excited rendition of " BABY!! BABY!! BABY!!" from Tanner. I laid her down to change her diaper and said casually that she was poopy. He literally ran over, grabbed a diaper, wipes, and cream, sat down beside me and began to wipe her bottom and spread on cream (no matter that it wasn't open). He is infatuated with a book that we have that has pictures of a dog in it and a grandma. He points to each page and says "doggy" and "nana" incessantly. He can do this over and over and over and over. We may need to hide that book soon to keep our sanity! He loves to push his lawnmower around and tonight on our evening walk/bike ride he insisted on pushing it. We didn't get very far as he was trying to eat a candy cane, push the lawnmower, and pick up every fallen leaf he saw. We are concerned about evening walks once the leaves really start to cover the ground :)

Faith had her six month check up this week and was declared to be "perfect" by her doctor. She is tall (27 inches) and weighs 14 pounds. She smiled for everyone and only cried when they did her shots. She is trying so hard to crawl- she gets up on all fours and rocks, then gingerly tries to move one knee forward before collapsing onto her belly or head and starting over again. She babbles, loves Baby Mmm Mmm's (an Idaho baby treat that we discovered with Tanner last year), and is getting a little more fuzzy hair on her head. Her daddy calls her "fuzzcicle".

Jake is settling in really well at Foothills. He has become very comfortable there and has made lots of friends. Yesterday he went on his first "lunch out" (each class goes out to eat once a week at our school) and tomorrow has his first library visit (the Boise library is across the street). He has yoga, art, spanish, and music weekly. It's pretty cool. I love having him there and getting to have a little one-on-one time each morning. Knock on wood and everything else, Jake has been going to sleep a little easier the last few nights, although a complete nights sleep is still not on the mommy and daddy menu. He still comes in to our room at some point each night for one thing or another. It has been: 1. a drink the first night, 2. to be re-covered up the second night, 3. and last night because he wanted to give daddy a kiss on the arm. Normally, you can hear his footsteps when he comes padding down the hall, but sometimes he sneaks in like a midget ninja and is just standing next to the bed when you open your eyes. As Brian sleeps on the side of the bed by the door, I am a little afraid that Jake will give him a heart attack some night (it's just like The Shining...)

As for me, I am adjusting well to the school year. Working 85% is heavenly- I drop Jake off M-TH at 8:30 then drive to the gym (3 minutes away) to work out and shower. Sometimes I stop for a cup of coffee. It's great because it allows me some alone time and also makes my mornings easier since I don't have to get myself ready in the AM- I just throw on some workout clothes and can concentrate on feeding, dressing, and playing with the kids. My students are much more normal this year. No one is in equine therapy yet. I am enjoying the school so much more this year. The new leadership has made a huge difference in morale and being able to call most of my colleagues "friends" again is huge. Riding out the bumps last year was hard, but worth it.

Updates

Some updates on the blog. The MP3 player is there for your enjoyment. It is our MP3 files hosted at an off site server, so nothing weird will happen if you click it. We picked some songs that we liked that we thought you might enjoy while you read. We will change them from time to time for variety and thematic sake!

We also have our new fall colors. The leaves are already turning here and the 100+ temperatures seem to be yesterdays news. Looking forward to the changing seasons once again.

Enjoy the changes, as always, all feedback is welcome. Thanks for reading!

Hittin' the Road

Faith is finally old enough to ride in the bike trailer with Tanner, so we took off this morning for our first family ride. After weeks of resisting it, Jake loved riding on his trail-a-long and T and F just chilled out in the trailer and enjoyed the scenery. Fall is just starting here (it got down to 41 degrees last night!) and the chill in the air made our morning ride so enjoyable. We rode out behind our house through farmlands. Faith fell asleep a half hour into the ride and Tanner let us know by "Shh-ing" us and pointing at Faith. We are heading to the "real" Redfish Lake in two weeks for our anniversary and are so excited that we can bike around the lake with the kids.

PS. Can you believe this is how old Tanner was when we moved here last year and we found out Faith was on the way???? Crazy.

Manhattan (Sleep) Project

Jake's on-going, repeated and cyclical issues with sleep (going to, falling, staying etc.) have made Marisa and I quite the pre-schooler research scientists. We are constantly looking for causation, patterns, alternative methodologies to get him to go to sleep so we can watch some G*d#mm%d "Prison Break" and have some kind of life together outside of, "Do you smell something?" "Where is (insert name here)" and "Can you please get (insert name here) I've got my hands full and you are just sitting there doing nothing.".

Along the way, we have learned to function on severely reduced sleep, to instinctively take over when the other is close to infanticide and generally cope with the fact that the odds of getting all of the kids to sleep on time and for them to sleep through the night at the same time are roughly the same as being attacked by a shark that is being struck by lightning.

Along those lines, another bedtime change. We were recently given a double bed, which was the plan for the boys down the line, they would each have their own double bed. Jake has cycled back to Armageddon-like bedtime struggles and one of the openings that our trained scientific ears heard was that he said he thought he would sleep better if he and Tanner shared the big bed. We had been toying with the idea of moving Tanner out of his crib for awhile now (needing it as we do for the baby-Jesus, even that sentence is crazy!) and figured that as long as bedtime sucks right now anyway, we might as well kill two birds with one stone. It makes no sense to get Jake to the point where he goes to bed easily and then to move Tanner and start all over again. So we jumped in and moved Tanner and Jake into the big bed as shown in the photo.

We are on our fourth night or so and it's getting easier. Jake is going to bed easier, although part of Tanner's nightime routine is hitting Jake in the head repeatedly, and Tanner likes the new bed. One of his consequences for the aformentioned hitting is being put back in his crib, which makes him cry. When you ask him if he wants to go back in the big bed, he points towards it, puts his binky in his mouth, grabs his stuffed monkey, and says "da". He is still getting used to getting himself to fall asleep in it with Jake, and Marisa has taken to laying between them until they both fall asleep, which allows me to write basically whatever I want, unchecked, on the blog. Tomorrow, my opinons on abortion, legalization of marijuana and who I think killed Kennedy....stay tuned.

Kindergarten Bound

After much debate we decided to take Jake out of his preschool/daycare and try him at Foothills with me. Being as this decision was made last minute, there were no more openings in the early learners program so we started him in their Primary program- which is a K-1 classroom. We enrolled him with the intention of him completing a Kindergarten year at Foothills then a "real" year of K at the public school next year. He was really excited to come to "mommy's school" and although he had some sadness at leaving his friends and teachers in daycare, he mostly was feeling positive.

His last day of daycare was so special. His teachers all expressed their joy at having had him there and their sadness at his leaving. He has always had a special place in his teachers hearts and this has never been more evident than on Friday. Miss Pam ( the tough Southern lady that even scares me a little) gave him a huge bag of gifts and cried. At naptime Jake asked Rhonda (the owner) if he would be allowed to come back if it turned out he didn't like Kindergarten. She took his face in her hands and assured him that he would always have a home there. More tears were shed. Despite the fact that I wasn't thrilled with their pre-k program, I never had any doubt that he was very loved and I am so glad Tanner and Faith are still there to grow with that loving care.

He has had a great first week at Foothills. Although he is smaller than most of the other students he fits right in. He is in the classroom right next door (and I use the term "door" loosely as the school has no real doors between rooms...) so I can stop by and have snack with him each day or participate in read aloud or art, etc... So far I am loving it and I think Jake is, too. I had a lot of anxiety about the move and it became obvious that I was pestering him too much about his feelings about the change because on Day 2 he finally looked at me and said quite matter-of-factly, "Mom, I'm not sad. I'm not upset. I'm just really tired!" I took that as my hint to back off :) Carry on, Little Man.

(On a similar note, Tanne was moved into the toddler room today. We all feared he would take it hard, not being one that embraces change easily. But he proved us wrong. He participated in circle time, slept on his mat, ate at the table, and generally was amenable to all the changes this brought to his day. We are both really proud of our guy.)

Wildfire Summer

One thing that I didn't think about when moving here was the fire danger in this part of the country (especially with global warming, sorry republicans - but yes it does exist!). There have been fires all summer, mainly out of our part of the state, some in UT, up in the Ketchum and McCall area. But Thursday it was our turn.

The fire in the picture is right behind Hidden Springs. The brick building in the picture is the Merc, and if you haven't been here to visit us yet, the black roof that you can see over the top of the Merc is ours. The fire burned for most of Thursday afternoon, over 100 acres up in the hills. There were ground crews, two helicopters and two bombers figting it for most of the day. You can see the house it got closest to up on the hill in the picture.

Our nieghborhood was never in real danger. In fact I sat on our friends swingset down the street in the afternoon with my buddy Greg watching the helicopters pick up buckets of water from the ranch across the street to dump on the fire line, as did most of the folks on our street. It was interesting and a reminder that eventhough we live in the biggest city in the state, we're still just a little speck in the wilderness up here.

Career Choices and New Words

It's been a funny week.

Tanner discovered "bird poop" and now points at every splotch he sees
and asks, "Ber poo, mama? Ber poo?". Our son... he knows a limited number of words
and for some reason one of them is "bird poop". Go figure. In the category of "maybe he'll be riding the short bus to school one day" he looks out the window of my car constantly and excitedly points to the bushes and trees and screams, "Moooooo!".

Jake, having exhausted his parents by resisting bedtime (and by resisting I mean screaming, hitting, yelling, complaining, crying, and acting- in short- like his hair was on fire) was up late with us one night- our strategy being that we were done fighting and he could go to bed when he wanted but we would be ignoring him completely. We were watching (this is embarssing but I'm going to admit it...) LA Ink, a reality show about tattooing. He was on the couch and wasn't much interested or paying attention, so I thought. Apparantly he was more intrigued than I thought as he announced a few minutes into the show, "Mom, I know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a tattoo artist!". His dad is very proud but I'm quite certain we are out of the running for the Parents of the Year Award.

Our Kids in 17 Syllables

Faith
Laughing, loves to play
There's more to life than milk now
Big drool machine


Tanner
Mischievous smile
Hey guys...catch me if you can
Blowing raspberries


Jake
Smart, funny, kind heart
Did I mention "challenging"?
Please send instructions

A Full House

Mary, Lisa, and the four kids came for a weekend visit to Boise on their drive from CA to Minnesota. We had a great time! Even Tanner enjoyed the visit- once he realized that none of them were here to babysit and that mom and dad weren't going anywhere without him! Our visits with Lisa and her family have gotten so few and far between- especially considering we used to get together monthly back in CA- so we are so grateful for this one. We hung out at the pool, got icees at the icee shack, went out to breakfast (the waitress probably wanted to go into hiding when she saw us approach her section!) and basically just watched the kids play. We turned the boys room into the bunk house with 5 of the 7 kids sleeping in there on various mattresses and beds. We got to know Connor a little bit and Lisa got to know Faith. Jake loved being with his cousins and cried and cried when they had to leave. Several phone calls ensued over the next few days as he worked through his withdrawl :)

Tahoe Vacation

Like all family trips, this one had its ups and downs- the cranky days and the spectacular ones, the stellar parenting moments and the ones you hope no one was around to witness. (Or, as Buffet says and real life proves, "The good days, the bad days, and the going half mad days"...


There was the evening drive there where the boys only slept for the last hour and were hyper at midnight when we arrived; the afternoon fishing trip where Jake proved to be an absolute genius at casting; the dinner out in Squaw Valley where all the kids ran around and climbed on rocks and tried their hand at pool with Brian in the arcade; the last minute decision to drive to Tahoe City for the free concert at the playground that turned out to be one of the best nights of our trip; kayaking (or as Jake called it, "sailing" on Donner Lake); rafting down the Truckee River (Jake's third trip and Tanner's first) with Auntie Shannon ("Nikko's Shannon" not "Wyatt's Shannon"); getting all 7 kids (mine, "Wyatt's Shannon's", and Kim's) together for a BBQ and popcicles on the deck; Jake playing tennis with Papa; Jake drinking too much root beer (against my advisement) and throwing up all over the Bass Outlet; Faith rolling halfway across the living room in record time and sitting up alone; Tanner learning to say "Nana" for grandma; sitting at River Ranch after our raft trip and enjoying drinks and hotdogs on the patio; the kids getting to spend lots of time with grandma and papa, both "auntie" Shannons, and Kim and her family. I am truly thankful.

Here's hoping you all are having more good days than bad days and are keeping the "going half mad days" to a minimum :)

Daddy/Tanner Roadie..

This was a very complicated vacation from a scheduling standpoint. I was back and forth to Tahoe a total of four times; two times driving and two times flying in the space of two weeks. The plan was for Marisa, Jake and Faith to head down to the Bay Area for three days while Tanner and I drove back to Boise from Tahoe. Circumstances made it so that Tanner and I ended up driving back to Boise from the Bay Area instead. We drove down and dropped Jake off at his Auntie Sues and then Tanner and I headed off to Boise and home from there - a total of 14 hours in the car for my little man.

Tanner was an absolute champ the entire way, yes, that's right, all 14 hours of it. My man was the perfect road trip companion (way better than my wife). As I explained to Marisa; Tanner was fine with whatever I wanted to eat, he was perfectly happy with long stretches of silence, didn't need to stop to go to the bathroom (god bless diapers), and never, not once, not the entire trip, complained that the stereo was too loud. We didn't stop so we could get out and stretch our legs as Marisa often makes me do. It was the perfect roadie for me; start the truck, crank up the iPod and don't stop until you get where you're going (isn't that why God made drive -thru's?).

Tanners limited vocabulary became fairly clear during our time in the car. He would say; kar, twuck, at (which means hat), dojies (which means dog) and eventually (around the Oregon boarder), finally figured out moo is what the cows say. On a complete aside; remember the river scene in City Slickers? Billy Crystal is trying to herd the cows across the river and exclaims, " I'm 40 years old, and I'm saying moo cow in a river." Substitute me being 38 years old instead of 40 and a Suburban with all the windows rolled down for the river, and I was there man ( I love that scene!). He also asked, every 10 minutes or so where mama was, baby was and dada was. When I explained that dada was driving the car, he would giggle hysterically and then start over again with mama. We got home about 11:00 PM and Tanner and I fell into bed and slept like two guys who had just completed a monster road trip.

We spent the next three days together, just Tanner and me, and it was Daddy/Tanner time long overdue. I had a great time with him, and if I need to take another long road trip - I'm gonna be lookin' at you big guy (at least until you're out of diapers, after that I am taking your sister!)

Catch Anything?

Jake has been talking about going fishing for awhile now. Don't ask me how he knows what fishing is, but he does. It has been years, I don't even know how many, since I have been out fishing, but I promised I would take him. Cori had bought some kids fishing rods at a garage sale and Jake really wanted to go, so I said we would go while we were on vacation.

We went to the sporting goods store and bought me a rod as well and then went down to the Truckee River, right where it connects to Donner Lake. I have never been in there before and it was really cool. For you Fish & Game people out there, we did not use hooks as we didn't have a license, so there Mr. Smartypants!

I figured that it was going to be a frustrating experience learning how to cast, getting the line tangled up, losing bobbers, etc. Man I couldn't have been more wrong. After about five practice casts, Jake was flipping his line out into the middle of the river with no problem at all. He was doing way better than me trying to learn how to fly cast!

I enjoyed fishing a lot back when I used to go on a regular basis so I am hoping that I will be able to take the kids out quite a bit (I've got a 1 in 3 chance for a real fish crazy kid!). I have picked up a fly rod and am looking forward to trying to learn how to do that while the kids spin cast. It's also an Idaho thing (A River Runs Through It and all that) and you can't live in the state unless you are willing to kill something for sport. If I get the kids into fishing, and we don't tell anybody that we catch and release, maybe we can fit in a little bit - since I won't, under any circumstance, take any of them hunting.

Crowded bed....Happy Birthday!

I am officially on the "far side" of my 30's. But I look at this picture and can't help thinking how amazing my 30's have been so far- and how lucky I am. Breakfast in bed -complete with fresh berries, homemade lemon cream, and fresh squeezed OJ- was followed by a day of my choosing. We got a babysitter for Faith and took the boys to school. Starbucks and the paper, a relaxing lunch out, and a matinee of Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard filled the afternoon. The movie was so ridiculous and I LOVED every second of it. I am still a huge Bruce Willis fan- 25 years after my first crush on him began (although I no longer hang pictures of him all over my bedroom walls!).

My Trip to Auntie Sue's

Auntie Sue and I played baseball. I played baseball with my cousins and Grandma Mary. I went to Chuck E. Cheese for Cayden's birthday and I played air hockey. I ate pizza. My mom and dad were at Boise. I watched Air Bud Volleyball and played checkers with Christian and Cayden. We ate root beer floats and chocolate donuts- and the plain kind. I slept with Auntie Sue. I want to be back there and it was FUN.

by jake

Jake had a great time hanging out with his four cousins, Mary, Lisa, and Auntie Sue. It was a packed house and a busy three days. Mary and Sue are still recuperating :) Jake didn't seem to miss us much and actually cried when I showed up to pick him up on Wednesday! (I tried not to take it personally!) I told him that Southwest will let him fly alone when he turns five and he is already angling to get a weekend trip there next year. I know this is a trip he will remember forever and Brian and I are so grateful to have such wonderful family in our lives.

by mom

Tanner's Motto

"Be prepared.... and always bring a broom."
The princess knee and elbow pads (intended for Abby) were a big hit with Tanner. He generally wears his bike helmet with them. You can't blame the guy... you never know when you might get a "boom" injury.

Of Patriotism and Pizza

Everyone dressed in their finest red, white, and blue for the 4th of July parade. We set up a tent in our front yard and had neighbors over to listen to music and BBQ. Tanner and Faith watched from our front yard as Jake rode his decorated bike in the parade, waving to spectators and throwing out candy. We visited the pool twice and ate too many hotdogs. We were all beat by 6:00 and decided to order the traditional patriotic meal of take-out pizza to end our day. We didn't make it to the fireworks downtown- (boy it was a lot easier to do things
like that with one kid!) but no one seemed to notice :)

Faith

Our little girl is 4 months old already. At her check up she was 12 pounds and 24 inches long. She is holding her head up really well, rolling both directions, and chattering up a storm. She smiles and coos and sort of giggles. She is a happy baby and loves to be talked to. She is sleeping much better now (thank goodness!) and only wakes up once a night to eat. We are having so much fun with her, as are her brothers. She likes to go to the pool with us and sit in the water on my lap. She loves having her diaper changed. Go figure. There are definitely days when I look at Brian and ask, "OK, which one is it gonna be? We can't keep 'em all." but I wouldn't trade her for the world.

Camping Stream of Consciousness

Dirty cheetos, s'more induced mania for Tanner, dirt, sleeping chaos, Jake's first kickball game, bottles out of a thermos, dirt, fascination with the porta potty, hot cocoa but only eating the marshmallows, constant surveillance- keeping Tanner out of the fire pit and away from the river's edge, lots of wet wipes, dirt, tired kids, even more tired parents, dirt, four people in a queen size airbed that quickly lost air and nobody in the crib, cold night- not enough blankets, lots of laughter, hot cocoa first thing in the AM ("breakfast in tent" for Marisa), owies, dirt, 20 miles down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, "Can you believe we live in IDAHO?", 8 person tent suddenly seems small, (dirty) crayons everywhere, Tanner pointing at the moon incessantly and saying "Ball, ball, ball!", helpful camping neighbor bringing me coffee when he overheard me telling Jake that I forgot to pack it, dirt, coming back to the camp after washing dishes to find a different camping neighbor holding Faith while Brian balanced TJ on his shoulders, set up and take down being a lot harder with only one person doing it, dirt, really cold/refreshing river, Tanner and Faith snuggling in bed like an old married couple, Jake loving the idea of s'mores but really only eating the plain, cold marshmallows, Tanner into EVERYTHING, Faith taking it all in... a really good time.

Cousins Reunite!

We are forever thankful for the willingness that my sister and her family have to come visit us here in Boise. They made their third trip here last week. While it's a far cry from living 40 minutes away, it makes the distance seem less formidable. We had a great visit! Abby and Jake got along so well. They shared, they laughed, they talked (in fact they had some very funny conversations!). It was so nice to see how quickly they picked up where they left off- even though it had been since January that they had seen each other. There was a community concert and "family night" on Saturday evening. It was held right across the street so we set up a few shade shelters in our front yard and invited a few of the neighbors over. The kids had a blast. There was a bouncy house and root beer floats and we BBQ'd for everyone. That's Aidan with the watermelon. We went to the pool several times and hung out talking and catching up. Bill made lots of new friends (as he always does!). In fact, I am sure he is now closer to a few of my neighbors than I am! Since Brian and I are not particularly social, it would be nice if Kim and Bill could move here so we could make more friends through their incredible ability to befriend and meet anyone. (OK guys... you know there is a house for sale two doors down from ours....you could save a bundle on airfares!). Thanks for a great visit!

In Lieu of a Baby Book

DISCLAIMER: This family blog also serves as our baby book for our kids- since the younger two got gyped out of any sort of memorabilia (as so often happens). The following is for our own remembrance and for our kids to see when they get older. We absolve ourselves of any parental guilt as well as journalistic need to inform or entertain. The blog is both our way to keep in contact with our friends and family and our way to record the milestones of our kids. Read the following at your own risk :) because, to be truthful, it's kind of boring and sappy.

Faith is 3.5 months old. She "talks" a lot, can roll over from tummy to back, looks at people closely and smiles prolifically. She is finally sleeping (mostly) in her crib, which has now been moved into the Bonus Room (since her biggest brother is still in her room!). She fits into most of her 3-6 month clothes, has been swimming a few times already, and charms everyone she meets. She is a very well dressed baby thanks to friends and relatives and is her mothers own personal Barbie Doll. Her closet glows with a pinkish glow that can been seen leaking out from under the closed doors when the lighting is just right. She charms everybody she meets into holding her, which her parents use as an opportunity to vanish into the crowd and pretend to be young and single again.....

Jake is 4 years old (plus three months). He never stops talking, loves to sing and listen to music, likes numbers- and is very good at counting and adding. He reads a few words, likes to listen to stories, and ride his bike and scooter. He loves to play baseball and soccer, ride around the house on a tiny push car, and talk to/play with his little sister. He loves school and is going to summer camp in our neighborhood and taking swim lessons. Jake really likes to swim at our community pool.He is finally out of our bedroom- even though he still rarely sleeps through the night!!! Jake is always looking out for his little brother, trying to keep him safe. Tanner for one looks up to Jake and always wants to be doing what Jake is doing.

Jake starts conversations in very grown up ways; "by the way", " in other words", and "just so you know". He also starts conversations in very little kid ways, "Dad"....(long pause)..."Yes Jake"...(long pause)...."what do you want"....(long, frustrated pause)..."I don't know"..."I love you Dad". He loves his sleepy cow, superheroes and Grandma Mary blanket at bedtime. He is currently listening to a Buffett Lullabye CD that I made for Faith (seems fair since he is sleeping in her bed..) He likes to sing "Little Miss Magic" and "Breate In, Breathe out, Move On" (a GREAT song if you haven't heard it).

Tanner is 19 months old. He is saying lots of words, loves dessert already (kind of like someone else I know...), and brings you book after book after book to read (not always different books mind you, and always some rotation of the same five or six). He is still a great sleeper and loves his baby sister to pieces. He already has a great throwing arm and tries hard to hold the bat up when we pitch to him. He likes to swim and is fearless (to a really scary degree) at the pool. He has already jumped in, on his own and gone under without anyone right nearby. He comes up with a big smile on his face, pointing at the side of the pool and excitedly chattering so he can do it again.

Of all the things listed above that catch our boys fancy, nothing even comes close to...sweeping. Tanner loves any sort of broom, he really loves the broom that Daddy uses in the garage. He holds the handle and sweeps; the garage, the sidewalk, the floor, the lawn. The first thing Tanner does now when he gets home from school is get out of the car and walk up to the garage door and point for his "boom" - if you don't let him have it, and he didn't nap that day, well, to paraphase Wyatt Earp, "hell follows". We had a very funny moment in the Home Depot the other day (where we purchased the broom in question). We were shopping for some items in the plant area, which is near the broom aisle. Tanner saw about 20 brooms that were just like ours at home and I thought his head was going to explode!

Fathers Day II

Father's Day has come again, this time with one more kid and even less time it seems. Marisa's vacation day post made things seems much more dire then they are. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some growing pains going on in our family. Two kids gives you the illusion of control; on the worst day, you take one, your spouse takes one and you have it handled. On your worst day now, that doesn't work anymore; they truly do have you outnumbered. I don't mean that in a "lock the door and hide the handguns" sort of way, but sometimes there is more need than you have capability to field, even when you are both doing it. This can add a ton of emotion to the mix from either one, or both parents- sympathy, frustration, sadness, anger, laughter,take your pick. Now... quiz for the couples out there....odds that both you and your sigificant other will both land on the same mood at the same time in the middle of the chaos? That's right, slim to none! Like I added at the bottom of Marisa's post, it's a rythym thing...we'll get it.

That being said, from the other side of the coin, I have a lot more to be thankful for this Father's Day. Having the kids be this close together in age is really cool in some respects. It doesn't allow you to "check out" as a parent when the other one has it covered. You're in the game all the time. We both sneak off every now and then to internet surf, check email, read,mow the lawn etc. but pretty much it's a two person shift all of the time. To me, this is the coolest part of it all. Being human (read lazy), I know myself well enough to know that I will take as much rope as I am given, and generally will do stupid things with it. The kids all being little forces me to "be" there. I am not missing a lot of the small stuff that I think some fathers may miss or be able to gloss over. Sick kids, dirty diapers, midnight feedings, small, cool, little stuff that happens in the blink of an eye that you never get back. I have no choice (not that I want one) but to be in the middle of it.

This, to me, is what fatherhood is all about...being there. I get the kids up and dressed in the mornings, I put them in the car for school, I fix them dinner, I bandage the knees, I change the diapers, I live their lives with them...they aren't just a part of mine. What I am being exposed to is what, in past generations, was the stuff that only the moms got. The good, the bad and the ugly, I am there for all of it. I hope it is making me a better father, I know it is making me a better man.

Never Confuse a Vacation with a Family Trip

This is wise advice someone gave me once. Or did I read it in a magazine? In any case we discovered several weeks ago how true it is. Our family loves to take road trips- day trips, weekend trips, etc... Load 'em up in the car and get out of town. No meltdown so large that a few snacks, loud music, and Scooby Doo on DVD can't cure. In that frame of mind we embarked on our first "road trip" with all three children. We drove out to Redfish Lake (the REAL one this time, for those of you that remember our doomed venture last summer!). The three hour drive there went well. But once we got there we discovered how challenging it is going to be to take all three of the kids ANYWHERE and keep them safe, happy, and entertained at the same time. The view, as you can see, is gorgeous. Those are the Sawtooth Mountains in the distance. The lake was surprisingly warm. But we were unable to enjoy it very much. It is the first time we felt truly outnumbered by our children. "We're not in Kansas anymore," I thought. It's a whole new ballgame now.

I wanted to swim with the boys, but one of us needed to stay with Faith. Tanner was covered with dirt and mud and needed to be rinsed off, but Jake wanted to play baseball. Brian wanted some peace and quiet out in the water, but everyone needed help.

We tried to eat a picnic lunch but had nowhere to put Tanner so he dragged his pbj through the dirt and we chased him away from the water's edge. Faith fussed and needed to be held, so I ate with one hand while patting her butt with the other. Jake was disappointed and whiny that we couldn't figure out how to get a game of baseball in.

Needless to say our stay was short. We were happy to get back into the car, turn the tunes back on, get some ice cream cones, and head for home. We don't regret our trip: these are the memories we choose to make. We would miss out on so much if we just stayed home because it is easier. At least the drive was relaxing (and gorgeous) and we got to sing at the top of our lungs everything from John Denver through Axl Rose. We are heading out for a camping trip this weekend. I'm sure lots of memories (good, bad, and ugly!) will be made there. Wish us luck!

We are both assuming that all of these trips, outings and things are imminently "do-able". After all, families much larger than ours have done things far more formidible than this . We know there's a light in the distance. We both assume that it's just an experience thing; there's a rythym there that we just haven't hit yet. At this point it just feels like a needle in a haystack; we need to find it, only the haystack is the size of Texas, it's dark and raining, and all of the kids are "helping".....

In Which Tanner Discovers Cinnamon Rolls and Learns That There Truly is "No Place Like Home"

We knew it was too quiet. Three kids, four and under- you don't get a lot of quiet Sunday mornings. We should have known better, but we were too thankful that for once we had nothing but the Sunday paper and morning coffee to deal with. Jake was playing by himself on the play structure, Faith was asleep upstairs. But where was Tanner? "Aw done! Aw done!" we suddenly hear. "All done?" we asked ourselves. What was our youngest son "aw done" with? Turns out he was all done with the entire pan of cinnamon rolls that we had left to cool on the counter. Considering Milo was right at his feet, we are sure that the dog inhaled a bunch, too, but Tanner definitely had his fill. It was plain old toast for the rest of the family that morning.

Mom bought these fancy red shoes for Abby... but guess who found them first? That's my boy. He was proud as a peacock strutting around in these puppies. You know us... gotta start debunking those sexist sterotypes when they're young. Who says boys can't wear red and black polka dots?? This combined with Jake wearing three necklaces, two bracelets, two rings, and a watch all last week almost put Brian over the edge :) They do keep us laughing, these two Alan Boys.