A few thoughts from Miles

Guess who didn't realize I'm tall enough to reach things on the table? That'd be mommy. And guess who left me a half-empty (I'd prefer to look at it as half-full) yogurt container on the edge of the table? That'd be my new favorite brother Isaac. Thanks again- cause this stuff ROCKS!
Oops I may have spilled a little there. (really this picture doesn't do me justice since I'm literally covered hair to toes in blueberry yogurt)
(When Taylor called me over to see what was happening and then refused to pick up the child because he was still in his work clothes, the only thing that kept me from screaming was taking these pictures and the thought that I'd blog about this. So thanks for sharing in this now-laughable (but not then) moment so I could be calm and patient with my kids.)

The Joy Boys Return

Can I say how wonderful it is that I last taught the first week of September and we're just now getting back to me! I love having two mornings a week with just Miles and I but I also love having these guys back. Look at all their smiling, happy faces. We started with playdough.
And then read a book about colors and then went outside to hunt for colors. It was perfect timing since all the leaves are changing but it's still been warm enough that our flowers are alive. We were able to find all the basic colors. Then we took a trip to my mother in law's vegetable garden to see all the plants that are growing and then we came inside to talk about plants and where all our food comes from. One of my cute boys refused to believe that food comes from anywhere but the store, but the others were more convinced by seeing the apples on our tree in the backyard and the tomatoes in the garden. They had previously planted beans and were all fascinated to see the roots and stems. Overall a very fun time for everyone. And my favorite part? I just love that they all get along so well. This is the only other picture I remembered to take and it was during free play time. I love that not a single one is looking up at me. They're all playing and happily engaged in their own thing.
Okay the other best part was this morning when I reminded Isaac that his joyschool friends were coming over and he danced around and sang for the next 20 minutes "my joyschool friends are coming to my house, la la la". Not sure there was much of a tune, but he was pretty excited!

Miles' Block Party

Since there's really not much of a party for most babies turning one (Ethan was very upset when he asked what games we'd be playing at Miles' party and I said none- "but it's not a party without games mom!"), so the cake seems to become the focus. Ethan and Isaac's first birthday cakes were kind of a bust. Ethan at that point wouldn't eat ANYTHING sweet so I ended up baking a corn muffin in a cake pan shaped like a 1 and frosting it with squeezy can cheese. At least I got the messy face pictures but it still didn't feel all that honest. For Isaac's first birthday we were in Portugal and the only cake mix I could find was written in Portuguese. So I felt fortunate to be able to bake the sucker and didn't really dwell on it not being that fun or fancy. For Miles (who does eat sugar (as much as you'll give him) and WILL be in the US for his birthday) I decided I had to do a fun, big cake. I looked online for ideas to steal and fell in love with the idea of cakes made of blocks. Most of these such cakes just said BABY and were for baby showers but I decided I could write his name and just combine 2 letters on 1 block to fit all 5 letters.
Some parts of it were very easy. I used candy melt chocolates and squeeze bottles to make all the letters and shapes. (took like 10 minutes)
The only hard part was frosting each of the blocks. Normally frosting a cake is easy, but once you've cut into the cake and then try to add frosting, all the crumbly parts fall off. Oh well, it's not like Miles or the rest of the family cared about my frosting job and then sticking on all the chocolate pieces took less than 2 minutes. So super easy.
Here's the letter S block. It had S's on 2 sides, a snake on one side, sun on the other, and smiley face on the top.
Here's the I and L block which then had an Ice cream cone on one side, a leaf on the other, and a Love heart on the top.
The E block had 2 E's, an elephant on top, and an egg and an eye on the sides.
And the M block had 2 M's, a moon, a monkey, and a #1 with the candle on top.
Here's the finished product. Sloppier than the ones online where they used fondant- but this one tastes better.
Sadly no up close picture since Miles was pretty intent on grabbing the lit candle.
He went for the chocolate pieces first and ate almost every single one.
Then he dipped his fingers in the icing and wasn't too impressed with the squishiness. So we gave up and let him have a spoon and with that he polished off enough to feed a small army.
After washing that pretty face (and removing every bit of clothing since the bib wasn't nearly enough to save them) we gave him his presents. The Block idea was also partly perfect because we gave him 2 block toys and a bunch of blocks I found on craigslist. Can I just say I don't feel bad about giving my kids second hand toys? So many people over buy for their kids and then these fabulous toys hardly get played with and they sell them for dirt cheap. Less than $20 for the incrediblock, wagon, and 20+ blocks. They're in perfect condition and my kids LOVE them. Love them enough that they won't even look at me to smile even though I've called their name 15 times in a row.
This toy totally rocks. At least that's what I think he's saying.
His favorite part is the side that has the shape sorter. He drops them in the top and laughs hilariously as he pulls them out again. A happy birthday boy and a happy mommy.

Hippo Birdie two Ewe (Miles)

I almost can't believe that this little munchkin is one already. The time truly has flown. Partly because life is really busy with 3 boys but also partly because Miles is so easy going and wonderful. I truly could not have dreamed up an easier child. He slept through the night on his own at 2 months and has been a perfect sleeper all along. He rarely gets upset and usually only if his brothers trample him or steal a very interesting toy out of his hands. Other than that he's happy as can be, crawling around, playing with his brothers, and being dragged along everywhere we go.
And my favorite thing? He's a true-blue momma's boy and a cuddler! He prefers me over anyone, anytime. By one both Ethan and Isaac preferred their dad since he would throw them around and play, but Miles hates being tossed in the air and LOVES being cuddled. If I'm ever sitting on the floor he bee-lines for me and crawls into my lap. He loves rolling around and being tickled and has started patting my back when I pat his. Love that!
On Friday we went to the doctor for his 1 year checkup. He's 30.5 inches long (75th percentile) has a head that's in the 92nd percentile and is only 18.6 pounds (3rd percentile). He's right on track to be a tall skinny boy like his brothers. As always he was a perfect little patient for the doctor and didn't cry once. And what was his reward for being so good? 6 shots! 3 in each leg. How sad to see and his little legs are so small that 3 band aids barely fit on each one!
He currently has 3 1/2 teeth which is a record for us since the other 2 didn't get ANY until 13 months.
He LOVES his food. His current favorites are edamames and black beans although mac and cheese is in the running too.
And he has discovered his tongue which is pretty hilarious!
We love this chill boy!
Miles wasn't quite sure what all the singing today was about, but he's happy to clap along!

Little Stinker Pot

So I've earned a new nickname lately...
Cause I kind of get into everything..
Lucky I'm so dang irresistibly cute or I'd be in a lot more trouble!

We're so glad when Grandma comes home

(to our home I mean) We've been very happy to have my mom visit us this year at our house 3 separate times. This NEVER happens and we've loved each of her visits. This time she came to help one of her best friends do a wedding/reception for her daughter. This is one of the same friends who also came out to help my mom with Jeff's wedding in August. It's really cute to see what good friends they are (they act like teenagers when they get together- ignoring others in the room and laughing and giggling and gossiping, they even buy matching shirts sometimes). Since her friend drove out and stayed a full week, that meant we got to keep my mom for a full week too. Yeah!
She mostly did family history research at the library downtown and then hung out with us in the evenings and over the weekend. This was perfect since my life is very much lived in the car right now and thus not all that interesting. Tragically I forgot to take pictures until the morning she was leaving but trust me she did plenty of ticking the boys, reading books with the boys, doing dishes, helping out, and shopping.
And since Miles' birthday is tomorrow and there's no point in paying for shipping, she gave him his present early. I love his eyes. We didn't bother to wrap the package since it's huge and he had the funniest look as we sang to him and set it in front of him.
Of course he instantly had competition over who got to play with it.
Thankfully Isaac was patient (at least for 15 seconds) so Miles could try out the buttons.
The verdict: he doesn't like sitting on it but walking behind it is fabulous and so are the buttons!
It's hard to watch others get birthday presents but luckily Miles is pretty happy to share the toy as long as you don't just flat out ride off with it (which has happened several times already).
Come back soon grandma! We love having you!

This Week's Projects

Okay so I promise to not show the spoils of my couponing every week but I had to follow through from last week. Every fall Rite Aid does a big gear up for winter cold season rebate event. So everything in this photo was absolutely free- or at least it will be. I paid with a gift card from transferring a prescription previously and I'll be getting a check in the mail for $31.50 back. Yeah free money and we'll definitely end up using all of it.
And this would have been the regular coupon freebies from Rite Aid- no rebates here. Total with tax came to $4.46 which I paid for with money from last week's rewards and I'll have $10 left for next week to use. Everything was free (except tax) except the eye shadow was $1 after coupons. I figure it was worth the splurge.
And the Walgreens trip was quite productive too. All this for a grand total of $0.16. Yep, most of my tax was even paid for by leftover rewards from last week and lots of coupons. Plus the razors have inside them a $2 off coupon on your next purchase and since they were $4 to start with a you get a $3 coupon reward for your subsequent purchase I'll actually be EARNING a dollar when I go back tomorrow and buy another box. And then I'll have $10.50 to spend next week too. Can you tell I'm having a little too much fun with this? The best part is the store clerks are VERY familiar with coupons and all these rebates so they're very patient and even congratulate you on how much you saved.
And just because I don't have enough projects going on... here's a little teaser for you... I'll be remodeling our main bathroom this weekend. This picture was post removing the really grimy shower doors (love the gold everywhere). I had to make sure they could come off first and since they do, HERE WE GO!!!

Just another Saturday

Doing yard work...
(some day I hope these boys are more helpful :)
And soccer games... Isaac isn't allowed in Ethan's soccer game so he makes his own- even if it's a combination of soccer, football and rugby.
Half the fun for Ethan is being on the team. 5 of the 8 players are in his kindergarten class so they get to see each other almost every day. When it's not their turn to play on the field, they're playing on the sidelines- tacking each other, laughing, tickling, sometimes watching the game and cheering for their teammates- but mostly just having fun.
Isaac makes an occasional appearance as a spectator and sits in his favorite spot (on a ball).
But mostly he's off playing himself and has to be reminded to stay off the field (since he frequently attempts to join the game on his own).
I love watching him have so much fun with his friends and a fun sport.

With all my free time (ha ha ha)

Actually I am grateful to find a few moments and some days even a few hours where all the kids are either at school or napping and I have some quiet time to myself. So I've started a few projects- the first of which I saw on one of my good friend's blogs and was an absolutely adorable playhouse made of felt. Since we always travel at Christmas and don't want to drag large presents back and forth, Isaac more than anyone gets the shaft since he misses both his birthday and Christmas. So this year since he will actually understand that it's his birthday, I decided to make him one of these play tents. And since it's just fabric is should fit in a suitcase nicely and the poles for the frame can just fit in Taylor's golf bag. So here's a little teaser since this will take me FOREVER to make. A garden on this side.
A window and pond on the back.
And a door and mailbox on the front. The other side will have a store front and doggy door. My boys are currently obsessed with knights and dragons so this will end up being a castle. I love that they'll be able to play on the inside as well as the outside.
And my other new project is couponing. Taylor got the paper for me as a present a while ago and I've used a few of the coupons but not really many. Then one of my friends sent me a blog she loves where the people say they don't and haven't bought toiletries for the last 2 years literally. No toothpaste, soap, deoderant, shampoo, tooth brushes, razor, shaving cream- none of that! They get it all free. So I decided I'd try it. Here's my first weeks spoils: from Rite Aid all this cost $6.41 (and $4 of that was for the diapers I was giving as a baby shower present). Basically just $2.41 in tax. Plus I have $12.50 in rebates to use on next week's toiletries. Pretty decent especially since it's all stuff we'll use and actually I'd have needed to buy the body wash and chapsticks anyway so free is always better. And Taylor was excited since this is his favorite kind of toothpaste.
And here are the spoils from Walgreens. The total came to $1.84 after all my coupons and rebates and I actually went back the next day and bought the same stuff again since I have double coupons. I'm pretty pleased and I'll keep you updated on how this couponing goes.

Bowling

With Taylor's long hours at work and all the weekend activities we have, we sometimes feel like we don't get much time all together as a family. So twice this month we went bowling just so we could have some "family time". Trust me- there's NO complaints from these boys- more like woops and cheers. They LOVE bowling.
And last time as an added bonus we arrived just in time for cosmic bowling- so everything glowed, the music was hopping, and so were my boys.
This is the best picture of Isaac I could get bowling. Yes, I know pretty pathetic, but really, as soon as Taylor put the ball on the holder, Isaac would shove it right off. No waiting, no aiming, just push and then jump around.
It's cute to see him watch his ball and then cheer for himself whether or not any of the pins get knocked down or not.
Ethan is getting old enough that he thinks he's big enough to do everything and of course wants to prove that. So he insisted on carrying his own ball even though they seem heavy to even me.
And he's getting old enough to want to do well so he takes time to position the holder and then to use just the right amount of force.
Miles was very upset to not be let down on the floor but he did enjoy dancing to the music and watching the lights.
After a while of me taking pictures Ethan asked if he could. There were a lot of random, unfocused pictures but this one I think is pretty amazing- and all on his own.