Downtown

As usual, Jack was the one most willing to model for me.

I did manage to get a few shots of them all together though to use for Valentine's cards.

This little guy is relating more and more to his big brothers and I am so excited to see him in the big brother role too!

They are such hams for the camera...and how cool is this gold door?!

Don't you just love this little downtown nook?!

Well, that's about it.  It was a quick trip around the block and then back in the car and back to the 'burbs.

We finally visited IKEA

While Bryan was on a business trip last week, the kids and I finally made the trek and visited the famed IKEA store.

It was fun, we played, snuggled broccoli pillows, ate meatballs, and even bought a few little things.

On a completely different topic, I hosted a little get together for some moms in my neighborhood who just had babies and Nolan got to hold one of them per his request. Look how proud he is! He is going to be an awesome big brother!

Took a little photography class downtown yesterday and got a bit motivated to use my "real" camera more and try harder to get those special, frame-worthy shots!  Will share a few from an impromptu session with the boys this morning soon.

Mark my words...

...this boy, our middle-son for now (hmmmm what are we gonna call him when there's not really a middle child?), our foodie, our child who loves to be coddled and nurtured just a scosh more than the average bear--I'm quite certain he won't go far from the comforts of home as he grows up. I predict a very maternal woman in his future...someone crafty in the kitchen who keeps a super clean house.

I made this soup twice this week for neighbors who have just had babies. The first night, Jack inquired as I was packing it up to deliver. The second night, I indulged and served him a bowl (and then another) before packing it up. He actually cried as I was leaving "don't take MY soup!"

So, of course I had to make it for him today for lunch. It is hearty Italian soup with tomatoes, kidney beans, Italian sausage, pasta, and spinach. Practically should be called "Jack soup" since it has all his favorite ingredients. I served it to him with sourdough french bread with a healthy portion of butter and he devoured saying "I love all these ingredients, Mom!"

Oh Jack, what a special little kid you are!! Nine times out of ten when I ask you if you want to eat out for dinner or lunch, you say "no thanks, just make me a sandwich." You LOVE to be home. You love your family and your routine and your bed.

You also say you want "about 12" kids. Ha! Can't wait to meet this amazing woman who will be privileged to be Mrs. Jack Lawson :)

Love you kiddo!

21 Weeks

Yesterday was the big systems check ultrasound. We brought the whole Lawson crew. The kids did pretty good being crammed in tiny rooms at the doctors office and totally put on a hand puppet show with the examination light in the room. It was funny and mildly inappropriate. Fortunately my doctor is way cool and visited with me while sitting on the exam table with two of my boys while I sat in the little spinny doctor's stool thing.

The ultrasound went great! We have another perfectly healthy active little boy coming our way. He was moving a ton making it hard for the tech to get all the measurements, but we clearly saw his perfect 4 chambers heart and all limbs, digits, facial features, etc. His heart rate was 150 bpm, probably because he was running some kind of marathon in there.

We didn't get any great printout pics because he was a blurr of boy, but here I am at 21 weeks:

Even though the doc assured me I am on track with the exact same size and weight gain as the previous three, I feel HUGE! I guess each baby can carry a little different and our little Luke is all forward. I almost feel like this belly is a detachable prosthetic or something. He is so far out already!

Anyhow, it goes without saying that we are all so excited and in love with our little guy. I can't wait to see who he looks like and if his hyper womb behavior persists out here.

We took the boys to dinner at Texas Road House after the appointment to make it special and memorable and they all three proceeded to beg us to have a 5th. Already! What?! Daddy's not having any of that! ...(yet)...

Loving these visuals!

Found these in the crate of newborn clothes the other day. All three boys' hospital hats. They have all been born at the same hospital by the same doctor and Luke will be no exception! Thinking I need to make one of those corny shadow box things with these with all the birth stats under each one :)

The FOUR BOYS IN A ROW visual! We love the mall play area, especially when we have a friend to play with too.

I am really having a ton of early nesting lately. Luke's nursery is all set up and ready to go! Went and bought a few little items for him like a new bobby pillow, nap nanny chill, swaddle-pod, a mesh "breathebaby" crib bumper, white noise maker, a new bottle set (for when someone else wants to feed him breastmilk of course!), and a sophie giraffe toy...I know, how could I possibly need anything baby-related?! Well, new cool stuff comes out and our stuff gets gross and ruined. Bottles do not get handed down (umm gross chewed up nipples etc) and neither do the boppy pillows since each kid has become attached to their pillow and kept it well into toddler-hood.

The only other outstanding purchases are diapers and a stroller! This stroller to be exact:

The Wave stroller by First years. It will be a bit of a splurge, but considering that this kid will be wearing a wardrobe on its fourth go round for his entire childhood, I feel like we can swing it.

Anyhow, we have an ultrasound tomorrow, which the whole clan will be attending.  Kind of crazy to think this is the last time we will "see" him before he makes his debut in May.  I am 21 weeks and this pregnancy is flying by.  I am already so ready for him.  It may be silly to get ready so early, but I like to strike while the iron's hot and while I have the energy!

Getting ready so start a 6 week long after-school club on Rockets/Solar System--making the alkaseltzer rockets we learned about at the library a month ago and also solar system mobiles on coat hangers.  Should be good! 

Guess Who?

This has quickly become a favorite activity around here, especially now that we are post-satellite tv and occasionally in need of activity suggestions by Mama.

Guess Who with friends!

So, how's it going at our house with only a handful of tv channels? 

Great!

We are watching local news, Jeopardy, PBS cooking shows that inspire, short simple kids shows that don't have crude humor...but mostly we are NOT watching tv even more than ever.  The tv is off so much more now and the kids do not miss it and haven't asked anything about it once. 

I can feel myself detoxing from reality tv on junk cable channels and mindless home improvement shows and droning on and on cable news.  Feels good!

I have no desire whatsoever to subscribe to paying for crap tv to enter my house again.  I think Bryan feels the same way ;)

Babies!

{Car-napping babies...}

{...allow for Mama to spend time with homework-doing babies.}

{And when homework is all done, Mama can focus on making Dutch Babies...}

{...with fresh-squeezed lemon and powdered sugar and plain fresh berries to serve. Yum Baby!}

{Not at all related...but proof positive that we're raising independent babies, who can sniff out a juice box a mile away.}

Happy Birthday Chef Jack

The kids were always asking me about The Young Chef's Academy every time we would go through our local Starbuck's drive through, so we finally planned a birthday party there. Jack's SIXTH!!

We had a room full of happy excited little chefs...

...but none more so than the birthday boy.

We got to make little pizzas!  It was hard for little fingers to not grab the cheese before it went in the oven.

Yum!

And hang out with favorite classmates.

And heartily sing Happy Birthday to the man of the hour...

Who bashfully grinned from ear to ear from behind his lit candle....

...And who's big sixth birthday wish was that "Legos would grow like grass."

Oh, and check out the gift/goodie bags I put together...pretty proud of myself for these :) gave each kid measuring cups, pot holder, and stuff to bake cookies.

Jack is totally our Leave it to Beaver kid...saying "that was a great party mom" at the end of the festivities.  Such a sweet deserving boy!

Love you Jack.

Catch-Up/Catch-All

Christmas break was awesome! We did so much in hindsight and it flew by.

These are in no way chronological order or anything, but here are some snapshots of what has been going on around here.

I took my little posers to the downtown aquarium.

Jack!

Warren got to go to the Bronco's game last night with his Dad and some neighbor friends.  Note his seat number ;)  Getting season tickets was one of our better moves recently!

Boys got right to work excavating away on one of Jack's birthday presents from his cool birthday party at Young Chef's Academy on Saturday.  My next post will be of his actual party, promise!

Spent some of the holidays missing family like my beautiful mom and sis.

True Fan!  This is what he does during most of the games...

We stayed on track eating lots and lots of healthy foods during Christmas break!

Yum!

 

Shoveling in plain quinoa, one of his favorite foods aside from pistachios, yogurt, and cherry tomatoes!

I loved seeing Warren with his nose in a book over the break.

Of course we had to see the latest Chipmunk movie, we've seen them all!

Oh, there's Nolan!

Most days, when we didn't have an outing planned, like the butterfly pavilion or something, the boys would build elaborate race tracks and entertain themselves most of the day.

Goes without saying that we stayed true to our tradition of visiting Bass Pro Shop right before Christmas.

Nolan is officially DONE potty training!  And so so so ready for preschool.  Got him all registered to start in August!

He loves Rio and calls this his Rio bird.

Bryan installed one of my Christmas gifts in my laundry room utility sink.  We are calling this Luke's spa...considering it will be a while before he can join the big dogs in the real bath tub.

Took the kids and neighbor girls to Little Monkey Bizness.  So fun!

This was at 18 weeks and I am now 20 weeks!  Without fail, every time Nolan sees this pic (he is constantly thumbing through my iPhone pics) he says "mommy is too fat!"

While the cat's away...each big boy took a turn visiting Grandma Caryl in Pueblo, and while they were gone Nolan would totally get into all their new toys that were "off limits."

We had to visit Chuck E. Cheese, which Nolan cannot seem to stop calling Mac n cheese.

This was Warren's activity choice and he loved it.

Speaking of Warren, I started working on Algebra with him the other day.  He is a math whiz kid and is taking to it like a fish to water, thanks in part to this great book I found at the library.

We got rid of cable officially!  Have been toying with the idea for ages and had scaled back our package to bare minimum for months.  Gone!  No one misses it in the least.  And the antenna in our window adds a nice homey touch, don't you think? :) 

We got a new toy storage thing in our living room from one of our awesome neighbors and Jack now says our living room looks like the gift shop at the Children's Museum. Yes, I suppose it is very apparent that LOTS of kids live here.

It took a while, but this was the last Christmas gift to finally get opened (oh wait, we still haven't opened Warren's new microscope!) and Jack and I spent nearly two hours building and building this motorized sea monster made of gears with 115 pieces.  Whew!

That's all!  Stay tuned for Jack's birthday party run down!