behind...

Goodness, I feel so behind on here. Connor turned the big 1-0 (yep, he's in the double digits now as he likes to tell me) last Sunday and we had a great time celebrating. We had a family party to celebrate his and Cale's birthdays on Friday night (the 19th, not last night...yes, as I mentioned I am a bit behind on my blogging!). I will post pics from the party as soon as I get a copy of my MIL's pics as she took a lot more than I did. We had a lot of fun with the family and Connor and Cale got spoiled beyond belief.

On Saturday morning Connor and I headed out for some birthday shopping as he got lots of cash this year on top of everything else. Since he is just like his daddy, he had to be sure it was spent immediately! First we hit Target and Connor got the Super Mario Winter Olympics DSi game (can you believe they already had a game out for that?), a tech deck ramp (as if we needed yet another one in this house :)) and a Star Wars DVD. Then we went to Barnes and Noble where he bought 7 new books. He was in heaven. He spent the entire afternoon reading. I think the books were his favorite. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE that he loves to read. He got that from me! There's just nothing better than enjoying a good book.

(I do have to mention that Connor tried to give his cousin John Michael $10 of his birthday money at his party. John Michael told him no, he couldn't take his money, but Connor pressed until John Michael finally accepted it. Connor really wanted John Michael to have it. Aunt Sara and Uncle Michael woudn't let John Michael keep it as they don't want him to think that every time someone gets money, he'll get it as well which I totally understand and would've handled it the same way, but we were thankful to see such a spirit of giving in Connor. He also tried to give me a twenty to spend at Bath and Body Works while we were out shopping. Oh, I was tempted, but there's just something not quite right about taking birthday money from your ten year old ;))

When we went to church on Saturday night, they tried to bump him up to the pre-teen room (as their system goes by age and not grade) and he freaked out a bit. He was soooo nervous. We took care of it and he can still continue to go to the same class as usual until he's in the fifth grade. I'm glad that he's not ready to be in the pre-teen room yet.He's only ten. There will be a time for that, but I don't want him to ever feel uncomfortable at church and clearly he was not ready to be in there.

Sunday morning didn't start out too well. Both Coby and Cale woke up sick. Coby had the runs diarrhea and it hurt when he breathed (I think it was because he had been coughing for a few weeks) and Cale had a sore throat (we found out on Wednesday that he has a Staph infection in his throat...yuck!). It was Connor's birthday however, and I promised him a breakfast out and a movie. So, we left Cale and Coby at home with daddy and Connor and I went to breakfast at Panera. Then we went to see the Blind Side. I was unsure if it was appropriate to take a 10 year old to a PG-13 movie and was very conflicted about it, but Kristen and Kennard saw it and said it was completely fine for Connor to see. I am so glad we went. It is the best movie I have ever seen and Connor liked it as well. I have to say that it is really wierd having a child old enough to take to a "real" movie now, but I loved having the Connor/mommy time. Plus, Darren and I have such different taste in movies so I am hoping that I'll have a buddy to go with me to some that D won't go to....at least until Connor thinks he's too cool for me, which probably isn't too far off.

Connor's favorite restaurant is Panda Express (isn't that funny?) so Darren went and got some black pepper chicken and brought it home for dinner on Sunday night (since we had two sickies) and with that, we wrapped up Connor's birthday weekend.

And here I sit a full week later and again we have two sickies. This time it's the stomach bug of 2010 and both Connor and Coby are infected so far. Poor Coby, this is the second weekend in a row of him being sick. Sadly, we changed up our Family Fun Friday last night and had chili rather than pizza. I bet my kids will never want to see chili again! We did get to watch 'Ice Age: Land of the Dinosaurs' in between the sickness and it's really cute. Cale loved it of course and just kept saying thanks for getting this for me mommy (he LOVES dinosaurs and while I did get the movie with him in mind, we all enjoyed it!). In fact, they're all laid out on the floor watching it again as I've been typing this. Hopefully, the boys will feel better soon and I pray that Cale, Darren and I will avoid getting it. I really don't want Cale to get it, Darren and I can take it, but Cale has had enough going on this week. :(

Cale is FOUR

Exactly one week ago today, this little guy turned four years old. I still can't believe he's old enough to be four and even more surprising to me is the fact that I'm okay with it. He's my baby and he's growing up just like he should be. I am completely content to be the mom of a 9 (just days away from turning 10), 7 and 4 year old. It's probably a good thing I am too because Darren would think I had lost my marbles if I wanted another baby around!

Cale had school on the day of his birthday and I forced kindly asked him to let me take a picture of him on his birthday. He happily oblidged for a minute or two, but as you'll see in a second, things quickly went south!

Oh yes, this kid already has an attitude (he learns everything he know from his brothers)! Sad thing is that he's been sporting the attitude for a solid year now. Maybe he's getting it all out of his system now and the teen years will be a breeze! ha

He wanted chocolate cupcakes with camo stars on top to take to school.

I have to brag on Cale for a moment. We really haven't celebrated Cale's birthday yet as we are having a combined family get together for his and Connor's birthdays this weekend, but I fully anticipated giving him a present on his actual birthday. You know what though? Not one time on his birthday did he mention wanting presents or getting them. I was very impressed by this. I mean honestly, who doesn't want a little something on their birthday? So, since he didn't ask I've just saved his gifts for his party! (I just remembered that he did get a very early b-day gift back in December...a train table, but I doubt he remembered it was a birthday gift).

There are a few things that I want to remember about Cale at this age. He weighs 32 pounds, which puts him in line to be the "biggest" of his brothers (which isn't saying much!). He loves to be read to and loves to "read" to me. He knows all dinosaurs by name and can tell you what each one likes to eat. He's even made up a few...let's see there's the diarrhea-o-saurus and the wipee-o-saurus. He has a very active imagination! He know what sound each of the letters make and often times when I say a word he can tell me what letter it starts with. He loves to learn and especially loves going to school. He is a momma's boy (and I love it!) He is the most outgoing of all the boys and he talks non-stop. He is hilarious and when he is around, there is NEVER a dull moment! I love this little guy so much and am so thankful that we were blessed with him.

• Cale had a great birthday and I think it wore him out. He did start out in his bed under the covers, but by the time I went to check on him before going to bed myself, I found him like this! At least he didn't roll all the way off this time! :)
  

  
  

it's a "show" by Cale

Cale is very intrigued by the video making feature on my computer and he wants to "make a show" every single day (sometimes several times a day!). Here is the latest....

The boy likes to talk (and watch himself talk)! Be thankful I shared only one because we have lots of feature presentations starring Calebug. (Excuse the darkness, we were sitting in the living room with the lights out as the rest of the family was watching our family fun Friday movie during the making of Cale's "show").

cabin fever/taking charge

So bored that I've resorted to taking self portraits. I NEVER take self portraits.

So bored that we took pics with my new computer's camera over and over and over again.

Can you tell that Connor and I are getting bored? We're getting desperate for entertainment!

Sooooo, today marks day SIX of cabin fever. The boys have been out of school since Thursday due last weeks weather event snow. Oh sure we get out a bit in the evening (only after Darren gets up as I do not drive when the roads are questionable. I am a big weenie, plus it's not worth getting the boys out anyway as they'd moan and groan about it the entire time...I'd rather suffer from cabin fever!) but other than a trip to Target here and there, we've been in all day every day for SIX days. And to add insult to injury, I've learned that the boys don't like the cold. They don't even want to venture out in it to play in the snow. If they can't be outside playing basketball or riding their bikes, they don't want to be out. So, it's been a looooong SIX days. I am really teasing about how bad it's been because truthfully it hasn't been bad at all. The boys have had lots of fun playing legos together, reading books, playing the Wii, DSi, playing in tents, costume play (Coby), etc. All things considered, they've handled the cabin fever very well and as for me, well, Darren has only had to witness one meltdown. Fortunately I recovered quickly and all is well again. :)

I do have to share what happened after I ventured out into the world living room this morning....first, a little background. Darren gets off work in the morning so if it's not a school day and I'm still in bed, I'll stay in bed when he gets home and he tells me about his night at work. We were in bed talking this morning when we hear Coby yell at Cale..."I'm telling mommy and daddy..." Coby enters our room and we tell him that we don't want to hear about it (does that get us the parents of the year award? Probably not, but we want them to be able to handle their own problems every now and then. Oh, and we get SO tired of the tattle telling!) Moving on...after hearing about D's night, the house was eerily quiet so I thought I'd just go ahead and get ready for the day. About 30 minutes later, as I walked into the kitchen I hear Cale from his bedroom saying, "Can I come out of my room now?" I was a little confused because I knew that Darren was sleeping soundly and hadn't sent Cale to his room. I told Cale he could come out and asked him who sent him to his room.

Cale: Coby did.

Me: What did Coby say to you.

Cale: That mommy said I had to go to my room.

Me: Coby, did you say that to Cale.

Coby: What? You weren't handling it and Cale choked me so I sent him to his room. I had to take care of it since you weren't!

I thought that was funny. And Coby is lucky that I found it funny! I've always called Coby a caretaker and he certainly took care of the problem. Good for him. Although not good about the part where he lied and said that I said for Cale to go to his room...we'll have to discuss that later.