3...4 and Under

I am looking and feeling quite pregnant the last few weeks.  Tonight while I was cooking I was about ready to make a comment to Clark about how big my belly is when I burned my belly on the pan I was using, now there's your sign!  No comment necessary, just a painful reminder that I forget how large and in charge I really am.  

I'm starting to get the comments from strangers.  I have had two ladies this week approach me to ask if I am having a girl this time.  When I tell them we're having another boy they give me such looks of pity, then they immediately ask, well how far apart will all these boys be in age?  Caden will be about 2 1/2 when this baby is born, I don't feel like they are spaced so close together to warrant such looks of concern.  But all these well meaning, worried women have made me start to panic.  Do you all know something I don't know?  Am I in trouble having 3 boys 4 and under?!

But then I remember who my boys are.

My little boys are fun.  They are not quiet.  When we are out and about they probably look and sound more like 6 little boys and 2 pet monkeys.  We are always noticed in public.  For example, on Friday we had to literally sprint not once but twice into gas stations for an urgent potty break!  The last time Ethan about tripped a lady as he dashed in front of her through the door while announcing he had to go potty really bad.  

Our last 2 Walmart visits were also quite fun.  A few days ago I was pushing one of those carts that have the extra seats on the front for kids...making the cart about 5 feet longer than it should be.

That afternoon Ethan was so sleepy.  He kept falling asleep and his head would fall onto Caden, or onto the bar of the shopping cart.  Caden on the other hand was quite energetic.  He kept singing, "baby you're a firework," at the top of his lungs in his deep little baritone voice.  The combination of the bobbing head and the singing made me giggle uncontrollably, I had tears.  Oh my, I got so many strange looks, but still I couldn't stop laughing.

Then today, we were making a quick Walmart run so I once again used the Cadillac sized cart, but didn't buckle the boys in.  Of course, they were climbing all over the seats pretending it was their rocket ship.  I was trying to hurry through and wasn't paying much attention when I hear Ethan tell Caden to put on his parachute, then he counted down from 5 and Caden literally jumped out of the seat (as we were moving) right in front of a cart coming the other way.  Luckily the lady stopped before running him over and I got him back in the cart.  When I asked what in the heck they were doing, Ethan explained that their rocket ship was about ready to explode so he saved Caden by pushing him out of the cart.

And it made me smile.  Because even though we may sound like a small 3 ring circus everywhere we go, I do think my boys are fun.  And I'm really excited to add another little one to this crazy mix!  I just hope he's ready to play!

A Big Day for My Little E

Today Ethan had his first day of preschool.  We are doing a home preschool co-op with 4 other moms here, so we rotate having the class at our different houses.  We only do 2 days a week, for 1.5 hours.  I'm excited to set up our little preschool room and be a teacher again.
Ethan felt the full gauntlet of emotions.
He was a little bit contemplative:

A little bit nervous:

And a lot excited: 

When we got to the house he bolted out of the car and never looked back.  According to Ethan his first day was "great."

Later this evening he had another big first.  His first day of Mighty Mite soccer!  He was nervous, the last few days he kept asking questions like, "what if I never score a goal?" or "what if I kick the ball the wrong way."  But soccer practice proved to be the favorite part of the day for this little boy who loves to run! 

Judging from the way he fakes injuries already, I believe he will be a really good little soccer player.  Every time he got hot and wanted a break he would fall to the ground and tell his coach he was hurt.  Then he'd run over to me, get a sip of water and head back out.  It was pretty funny.   

Now Ethan is sound asleep, today wore him right out.

Caden on the other hand is not asleep, he is downstairs jumping and singing in his crib.

Today was a hard for the little brother.  After we dropped him off at preschool he kept saying, "I want to go too Momm-o."  During soccer practice I kept having to chase him off the field.  "I want to play soccer ball too Momm-o, I big too."  

Now I need to get used to having my Tuesdays and Thursdays so scheduled out, a fun new phase for us.

Labor Day Weekend

We had such a fun Labor Day weekend, miraculous really...although Clark was on call he didn't end up going to the hospital once.  Yippee!
Saturday we discovered the Harvest Festival in Windsor, a cute little town about 15 mins. from where we live.  There was a concert, bbq, and dance on the beach of the lake in town.  The boys had a great time digging in the dirt and swimming.  

Caden loved being buried in the sand multiple times.

We even tried the aqua trike.  It was a lot of fun and also a good workout.

Today we went back to the festival and enjoyed the parade.  When I asked Caden what his favorite part was he said, "candy!"  We were so excited to have Clark home 3 full days!

Thumbs Up

This is Ethan's new thing:

And I love it.  When he gets excited about something, or thinks I'm funny he'll look at me and give a big thumbs up with a wink.  My new calling in our ward is to teach the 6 year old primary class.  I was excited last week to be in sharing and singing time with Ethan.  I got a lot of these thumbs up throughout singing time.  Ethan loves to sing, and boy does he get into it.  The chorister is so funny and just plays into him, last week he started calling Ethan his assistant choreographer, and let me say Ethan did his job of demonstrating the actions to the songs with gusto.  I couldn't stop laughing.  At one point the chorister had just Ethan's little Sunbeam class sing the chorus to the song.  Oh my, I thought for sure a blood vessel was going to burst as he belted out, "I will go, I will do...the things the Lord commands."    

The part I love is that he is so sincere, he just sings because he loves to.  And every winking thumbs up just makes my day!

A Good Day

We are pretty easy to please around here.  A good day is meeting Clark at the hospital for some free lunch at the cafeteria.

The only problem is he doesn't quite have enough hands to hold.

Creative Differences

My two boys are as different from each other as can be in so many ways.  One way that I've really noticed lately is in how they create things.  Caden LOVES to color.  He goes crazy coloring on every bit of paper he can find.  I have started to take a part boxes for him to color on, he just can't get enough.

 

Ethan on the other hand doesn't like to color, never has.  It holds his interest for about 5 seconds.  When we do something crafty, he is always coming up with something more.  Instead of drawing a picture of an airplane he wants to build an airplane, then he wants string and tape, then the next thing I know I'm standing on a chair taping his airplane on to the ceiling fan to watch it fly.  He is always asking me to tie things together and try different experiments.  It is kind of fun to see his little engineering mind at work, especially because I don't think that way at all.

One craft we all enjoyed together was making puppets of Grandpa and Grandma Johnson!  We made them for a video we made for their 50th wedding anniversary.  I've decided puppets are 10 times the fun when they have faces of people you know and love.  My boys now love to play with their grandparent puppets.  Grandma and Grandpa have been on lots of adventures now (they've fallen off cliffs, driven motorcycles, and have even hung out with a walrus and bear in Antarctica).  It is quite entertaining.

Little Corn Farmers

The church has a welfare farm here in Greeley.  They have a small little corn field that is open to the public to come and pick as much corn as you want for free.  So I took the boys one day and we found some corn.  I gave each of the boys a bag to put the corn in.  Ethan's bag was empty the whole time because he was having too much fun playing in the mud.  Caden filled his bag with husks and bugs.

I decided it was time to go when I noticed Caden eating all of the raw corn out of our basket.

I didn't end up picking enough to freeze, but we have been loving a lot of corn on the cob at our house this past week!