Sickos

We spent the last week in pure misery. We caught either some epic cold or the flu. It knocked Caleb, Eli and I OUT! We had low grade fevers off and on, we sneezed non stop, our noses ran constantly, the bright lights burned our eyes and even now we are still coughing and hacking up unidentified matter. I seriously can't remember when I've felt worse! Thomas seems to have caught it too but his only symptoms are a runny nose, what gives?! And for now Phil seems to have escaped getting it but he shouldn't celebrate just yet, there is still a chance he could start up!  The worse part is that it has thwarted our plans for the long weekend, stay-cation it is : (

The boys couldn't seem to peel themselves off of the couch
to do much of anything but sleep and watch tv

Caleb and Eli easily polished off half a bottle of children's tylenol

The only nice thing was lots and lots of snuggles

Perturbed, Frigid, and Elated!

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks!

Perturbed, frigid, and elated!

TEC

Thomas getting a special treat when he went with dad to run errands. Thomas always wears his fireman jacket when he goes with dad since he knows he won't object to it. I won't ever let him wear it when we go out in public, ha! (mostly bc they always wear it at home and it gets kind of dirty after a while)

The boys have learned several site words (oso=bear in english), and Thomas loves to see if he can write them too! I'm impressed at how well their penmanship has gotten just in the last few months.

Lock up your daughters when these three are around!

Eli and papi at an assembly last weekend : )

Here are a few cute videos of the boys, mostly for the grandma's and aunties : )

Eating noodles is hard work!

This one is from summer and the boys are arguing about how to assemble their new bikes. 

Eli is vicious!

National Preemie Awareness Day!

It is very sad that so many babies are born way too soon. Many lives lost and others with long worry-filled hospital stays before they are able to come home. We could have lost our boys at any given time during our high risk pregnancy. When I think back I was a bit naive and shutter to think that it could have easily happened to us as it has for so many. We are just so very grateful that we came out of this on the other side with three boys as healthy as any parent could wish for!

Papi with TEC 1 week old : )

Sauvie Island Beach

Last Saturday we took the boys to Sauvie Island beach (about 20min from our house) and the boys had so much fun that I kept asking myself why we don't come here more often since it's so close! We come often to the island since it's full of u-pick farms in the summer and pumpkin patches in the fall but for some reason we just never make it out to the beach. We will try harder once winter is over : )

Thomas
I couldn't get a straight face on anyone that day!

Eli

Caleb

The boys never play with this car at home but on the beach it was a hot commodity!

Get ready for some big waves!

CET, I don't know why I thought they wouldn't get wet! At temps in the low 60s (maybe high 50s, can't remember) they didn't want their sweaters and were more than ready to wade in the frigid waters of the Columbia river!

Caleb and Eli 

Another boat went by, waves coming in!

ECT

It was a beautiful day albeit a bit chilly.

Caleb

Ready For Winter

Bring it on winter!
We are ready but it's been so warm that we've had no use for our cute winter clothes yet! Can't believe I'm complaining that it isn't cold enough, haha!

Aunt Janet visited last week and we had lots of fun with her! She treated us to a real life train ride that goes from the train museum to just past oaks park. If you are a local or visiting with young train enthusiasts you should definately do it bc its about 40min and only $5/person.

In true Caleb style (full relaxation).
We rode in the top part of a red caboose! Even the adults thought it was cool : )

Two weeks ago on a day hike

Thomas has finally started writing his name with the letters in the right order! And since this picture his A's have significantly improved. Now I just need to work with Caleb, he writes his letters out of order and backwards (right to left and mirror images). It will take some work to correct this!

Caleb got a hold of my phone and I had about 50 pictures like this!

Our Newest Addition

We've added a new addition to our home and it's not the warm cuddly type so don't get your hopes up, ha!

We milked the little potties for as long as possible and about 6 months ago I just about had it with cleaning out poop from them. The boys have never been afraid of using the big potty (aka the regular toilet) but it's inconvenient because they are short and it takes extra effort to pull up the step stool and put on the adjuster so they don't fall in. So to encourage them to poop in the big potty I told them if they went in it I would give them a cookie in exchange. Yes! It worked like magic until they started pooping several times a day in an effort to get more cookies! In addition to that, so many times I had to kick them off the pot because I or one of their brothers had to go and they had been on there for several minutes and still hadn't gone (they have no concept of what urgency means!). So because of this we were still using the little potties for peeing. After a couple of months of going through a pack of Oreo's a week we decided that we really really need another bathroom in our house! While construction was in progress I wised up and bought smaller cookies and told them that as soon as the new bathroom was up and running it was bye bye little potties and no more cookies after pooping.

So the last weekend in August Phil got to work and did all the skilled labor himself except the plumbing. He worked on it in his spare time all the way until mid October. Then I came in and did the unskilled work (painting, and decorating).

Let me tell you it is soooooo nice having an extra bathroom. I grew up in a family of 5 with only 1 bathroom my whole life so I knew very well the hardships to come once we had completely outgrown the little potties. I just couldn't live like that again!

We had this "office nook" that had a desk which we never used and just had piles and piles of crap on top of it. A complete waste space!

TA DA!
Plaster was torn out, gypsum board replaced it, a wall was built, insulation was placed, holes were made, piping went in and so much more! It's amazing how much material and time such a small space can take! We still have a few details to address (like the threshold) but it's pretty much finished : )

I re-purposed an old drawer to use instead of a vanity (I got the idea from Pinterest)
The drawer was like $3 and the mirror was $20 I think, so it saved us a bit of money!

I love LOVE my octagonal tile and wainscoting, it looks so good in old houses!

Phil had a great idea of building a wall niche, I didn't plan on putting these pics of the boys up but I quite literally had them laying around so they'll stay here until I can find and print out some more bathroom appropriate photography, ha! 

Another re-purposed drawer with a picture that I did mean to put in this bathroom.
So we were planning on remodeling our other bathroom to match this one but after ALL that work and a wedding in New York coming up soon (woohoo!), I think we'll put it off until next summer : )

These boys only go in big potties now! Yay, less work for mami and papi!