Daddy's little helper

Little T. has been crazy about his Daddy lately. He has especially taken an interest in helping cook. Here are some adorable pictures of him helping Dad cook. Here is is making granola. By the way if you want a great granola recipe talk to my sister. We love making her granola as a snack or as cereal.

All my kids have gone through mommy stages and daddy stages. Right now is this little kids time to be in a daddy stage. Thanks honey for being such a great dad to all of our boys.

Red Ribbon Week

What mom would let her children go to school with these kinds of outfits. I mean really, look at all those mismatched socks. Well, I guess I am one of those mothers. I do have a good excuse though. Today was the beginning of Red Ribbon Week. A week dedicated to teaching kids to stay away from drugs. Today was crazy sock day to "sock it to drugs". My kids got really into it wearing layers of soccer socks mixed with purple Halloween socks and white and black regular socks.
Even my 1 year old wanted to be like his brothers so we put some soccer socks on him too.

The Bus

All three of the older boys are now in school all day long. I thought Little T. would have a hard time not having his brothers to play with during the day but surprisingly enough he has done very well and even seems to enjoy having the time to play by himself with various things. He's been fine for a month but the last few days he has had a problem with letting the boys go out the door to the bus. He cries and tries to push his way out the door saying "bus, bus" to go with them. Yesterday the older boys were gathering their lunches and Little T. went to get a bag with a handle and carried it around with him. Again today, he wanted a lunch bag like his older brothers so I gave him one with a couple snacks in it. Fortunately I seem to have resolved the crying when the boys go out the door. We've walked to the bus stop the last couple days and Little T. loves to see the bus. We wave "bye bus" after the boys get on and then he watches the bus drive away. After that he is totally fine. Hmmm, maybe it's not that he doesn't want his older brothers to leave, maybe it's just that he wants so badly to see the "bus".

Poor Baby

A few weeks ago Little T. was having a rough few days. He had been knocked down by his brother, fallen off of the stool in the kitchen, and then he fell in the living room towards one of his toys. Although it didn't seem like much of a fall, he hit his head just right on the edge of the toy and ended up with a cut above his eye. (He was obviously eating when I took this picture. His cute face is underneath the food).
Within the same couple of days he got his finger slammed in the heavy sliding glass door. Within minutes it had turned purple. Then it was swollen, black and purple for several days. I'll spare you the gory details and end with saying that his entire fingernail fell off after a couple weeks.

He Can Open Doors

I know it sounds like a Sunday School lesson but I'm talking about Little T. Yesterday I put him down to sleep in his bed and closed the door. About a minute later he came proudly walking down the hall. I wasn't sure if I should be excited about this new discovering of opening doors or upset for him coming out of bed or overwhelmed at the new stage that this opens up. Actually I felt all those feelings all at once. The older boys enjoy closing the door and playing a board game in their room knowing Little T. can't get in. Now we will have to adjust things again to accommodate this new stage.

Little T.

Little T. meets a baby goat.

Summer Swimming Pool

Every summer we set up our pool for the boys to swim in all summer. These pictures were from back in June and we actually took it down this weekend (or we're in the process of taking it down - it looks like the last picture. It's a fun process and it provides HOURS of entertainment. My silly boys

Little T. gets a chance to splash around with the big kids. Big J. thinks it's funny to try to splash his mom.

While the hose was filling the pool the boys played "stick races" in the water. Little T. liked to drink a lot of the water.

Daddy was so busy at the beginning of spring that I set the pool up by myself for the first time. The hardest part is leveling the dirt (especially after the kids dug a huge whole right where the pool would go). But one of the funnest parts is having the kids and I play in the water while it gets filled up.