Pate Family Fun

Happy Birthday Hudson!

2011-12-16T19:58:00.001-08:00

Dear Hudson,

What a fun 8 years it has been with you. You started out this tiny little baby who slept perfectly and almost never cried, grew into a pretty wild toddler and pre-schooler, and have grown up into a sweet, independent full-on-grade schooler.

You are a kid who really has two sides. You are sometimes shy and quiet. I see you sit back and wait to see how something is going to turn out before you try it. You have no interest whatsoever in doing anything up in front of people. What is so funny is you have that laid-back sort of charm that you can't teach someone. It means that other kids are drawn to be with you because you sort of make them work for your attention.

It is the second side of you that is why they want your attention. You can switch from being quiet and shy into this silly, outgoing, pretty wild kid. You will laugh loud, talk a ton, and play really hard. You live to play with your friends. You come home from school and just want to go outside to find Colby.

I've noticed in the past year that you are really pretty artistic. For a kid who didn't really pick up a crayon until kindergarten this surprises me. You really like to draw right now. One of your favorite things to do is have me print out pictures of things on the internet (star wars characters, snakes, eagles...) and then you try and copy them. You shade colors well and have good perspective. Your handwriting... well.. that is another story. It could use some work!

You are really into the Oregon Ducks right now. You are definitely starting to align yourself with your daddy. You've of course always loved and looked up to him, but it is becoming different now. He's your role model, and he loves Duck football- so you do too.

I marvel at how completely "boy" you are in everything you do. Your whole birthday is a great example. This was your family party year so last Saturday we went swimming at the North Clackamas Aquatic Park. You took Jackson Glover with you and the two of you had an amazing time. You did the slides over and over and had crazy amounts of fun. You and Camden shared a cake that day, and you guys picked a dirt bike hill cake. For your birthday dinner tonight we had meatballs shaped like footballs, salad and bread. To top it off the cake you wanted was a bomb. I'm doing my best at parenting boys Hudson, so I did my best at making you a bomb cake. It said "boom" on the side of it and an actual smoke bomb on the top.

Your doing great in school, not that you tell us anything about school. You love your class and love going, but don't have much to report despite my probing questions. It is interesting because when you are in the right mood you can be very chatty and tell us lots of things, but on a normal day you don't tell us much about what you are thinking. You are in Mrs. Terveens class this year and she is a great teacher for you. It is pretty funny that you are in her class because I was job-sharing with her in a second grade class when I was pregnant with you!

My biggest worry for you is that you can be a bit of a follower. It is probably because you and Ainsley have always played so well together and she directs what your doing so it just comes naturally. One of my biggest prayers for you is that you will choose right and stand up for what you know to be true.

You are really a super sweet kid. From someone just hanging around with you initially they might not initially see how gentle and kind you are, but you have a soft, tender little heart. You are getting so tall and so grown-up, but you will still snuggle in my lap, even though you don't fit. That reminds me- I can't believe it has taken me until almost the end of the letter to mention how much you eat. Man, you are ALWAYS hungry. You eat so much and then are still hungry an hour later. It is crazy. I can't imagine what you will be like as a teenager because as a 7 year old you about ate us out of house and home. Your the tallest in your class and are taller than some of the kids in Ainsley's 5th grade class.

Daddy coached your soccer team this year and it was great. You did really well, and so did your whole team. It was so fun to watch you play and do well. What you are really excited about though, is basketball. You love basketball and are so excited to play. Daddy is coaching Ainsley's team and you go with them to practice most times. Your doing great. Last Friday night I went and watched a Barlow boys game and thought about how someday I will probably see you out there playing in high school. It is going to be fun to see what you do.

You are a wonderful boy Hudson. It is such a blessing to be your mom. I pray that God will fill in all the things that your daddy and I miss as we are caught up in the day-to-day work of parenting. My prayer for you right now is that God would grant you wisdom to make good choices and see that walking a life with the Lord is the greatest and most fulfilling way to live. Proverbs 16:17 says, "The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life."

Hudson, your daddy and I couldn't love you more. Thank you for being such a wonderful son and sweet brother to your siblings. We love you so much. I hope your eighth year is a wonderful one.

Love, mom.

This was outside setting off the smoke bomb from your cake.

Grandma and Grandpa gave both you and Camden remote control cars for your birthday and you love them!

The dirt bike hill from your shared party!

A hand-full. (as in 5)

2011-12-05T20:42:00.001-08:00

Dear Camden,

Today you turned 5. And sweet boy, now you are officially a hand-full. And I couldn't love you more. As I sit down to write this, I don't know exactly what I will say, but with you I'm thinking it will pretty much write itself.

The thing that stands out about the last year is you starting pre-school. You are a Bruin Buddy. To say you love going to school would be a colossal (one of your favorite words) understatement. We didn't really know what to expect as far as how you would act at school, but evidently you are quite the little rule follower. You listen and obey. We are feeling really good about that.

You like girls. You play hard and wrestle and have lots of playmates who are boys, but you also love girls. You don't necessarily play with them, but you really like to take care of girls. We have had to have conversations about not hugging girls and holding their hands at school. You also love your cousin Eleison so much. Tonight after talking to her on the phone you cried at bedtime because you want to see her so much. A month or so ago we went to the Woodards (from church) for dinner and as we were getting ready to leave you asked if you could wear a pink shirt. We were so confused, because of course you don't own a pink shirt. After questioning you about it you explained that Abigail (their 5 year old daughter) likes pink so you wanted to wear pink so she would like you. You settled on drawing a pink flower picture for her. So cute.

You are a thinker Camden. Your mind is always going and trying to figure everything out. This has led to some interesting theology. You do fully understand that God should be the most important thing in our lives. You frequently say, "I love you, but not as much as I love God." Or you will say, "This is so great, but God is the greatest."

A good word to describe you is passionate. I know it is cliche, but about you it is true- if you are going to do something, you are doing it 110%. Good or bad. If you have something to say or do you usually feel very strongly about it and it is hard to stop you. You are SO opinionated. If you believe something, your mind rarely will be changed. This year for our Sunday School Halloween party daddy and I dressed up as Samson and Delilah. When we came out and you saw us you said, "I know what Samson and Delilah look like and it is not like that!" In the past few weeks you have been saying, "I have some advice for you." Then you let us know what you think we should be doing differently.

Your crazy smart. You love numbers and doing math problems. You are sounding out words and continue to shock us with your vocabulary. It is amazing. You are strong and coordinated. You came home from playing at Jalen's house this fall and said, "Hey, I can ride a bike without training wheels." Sure enough, you had gotten on his bike and without us ever teaching you, you took off riding.

You are an awesome kid Camden. Nothing with you is ever boring. People say to us all the time that it is going to be fun to see what you do with your life. Whatever you do it won't be something dull. You have more personality packed into your now 5-year-old body than most people ever have in their whole life.

Your choice for your birthday dinner tonight was hot dogs and Cheetos. It was interesting. That pretty much that sums up your whole life. You, my little love, are always interesting. I'm not sure we have ever worn you out. Your energy is without end. I so hope that your daddy and I can be the kind of parents that you need and deserve. As long as we can help you channel your energy and passion in the right direction, you will be amazing.

Happy Birthday Camden. It is such a honor that of all the moms in the world, God chose me to be yours.

"Grow in the grace
of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.
Get to know Him better.
Give Him glory
both now and forever.
Amen."
2 Peter 3:18

School Days

2011-11-18T14:39:00.001-08:00

School pictures:

Ainsley the 5th grader

Hudson the 2nd grader

Camden the big preschool guy.

Happy 2nd Birthday Reagan Joy!

2011-11-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

Dear Reagan,

Here it is. TWO. As in technically not a baby. It doesn't seem possible that we have been this little family of 6 for two whole years. But much has happened since your last (first) birthday letter. Lets get to it.

You are a love. Always have been. So patient with so many people wanting to give you love and attention. I'm still amazed at your siblings devotion to you. I thought that this would be the year that someone (especially the someone closest in age to you, ahem...) would get frustrated and mad at you because you would get into their stuff and mess it up. You have of course become very mobile and capable of destruction this year. Amazingly there is almost no irritation with you. I try hard to protect your siblings creations to protect your relationship with them, but even when I fail as protector and you destroy something, for the most part there is no frustration. They all just love you so much that they want you to be with them. Amazing. Crossing my fingers it continues.

There is irritation when you scream in the car. Sometimes you just don't want to be pinned down by that darn car seat and you go ahead and let everyone know how you feel. Loudly. This brings great irritation because you drown out the radio/adventures in odyssey and make it difficult to read. It also produces in Camden the need to scream, "beeeeeequiiiieeetttt!!!!" which does little to stop your screaming. Just had to throw this part in so you don't look back someday and think it was all sunshine and roses everyday!

Ever since you started walking you have been a hand holder. Not really out of needing to be connected, but to bring one of us over to do whatever you want. When you bring us over you then shove our hand on whatever it is you want. Often it is to the pantry or refrigerator. Lately it is becoming to bring me to a book you want to read. There has even been a time or two that you bring me over to show me something that you just got into that you know you shouldn't have. Yeah for developing a conscience! For awhile when you first started walking you wouldn't let two people hold your hand at the same time. I think it was way too confining. That was before your siblings taught you the joy of, "one-two-three-WHEEE!" and now you love to hold two peoples hands so you can swing away.

Speaking of swinging, I think we have a little dare-devil on our hands. Faster and higher is better. And big wild slides.. you love them. It is fun to take you places because you will try anything. You definitely think you are a big kid. You think jumping on beds, couches, and if someone will lift you on, the trampoline is great fun. Your sweet little laugh is intoxicating!

You are also the first Pate child to learn how to climb out of your crib before the age of two. That sort of threw me at first. However you and I have come to an agreement that if you climb out, you get put in your little pea pod tent. You don't mind it, it is where you sleep when you are away from home, but you prefer your crib when here. Consequently you don't really climb out. I am still a bit shocked! Nice that you caught on quickly.

You are still a binkie and blankie girl. Two blankies to be exact. The funniest thing you do is when you are tired or needing soothed you put the little fringe part of your blanket up under your nose. I guess you are smelling it. Adorable.

"Dada" was your first word, but "mommy" wasn't far behind. You understood what we were telling you quite awhile ago, but saved talking until the last few months. Every animal until about 6 weeks ago was a doggie. In the past month you have been stringing words together to make little sentences. Your first sentence was, "where'd my binkie go?" Great. That is going to be fun to take away. When you call your siblings by name it melts their heart.

Your favorite foods are pizza, spaghetti and pancakes. I hate to admit that you have discovered, thanks to Camden, that you love the tv show Curious George. You lead me over to where the tv remotes are and say, "show" and "monkey." You do love books, or "bookies" as you call them. You don't really have a favorite book, but we try and keep you away from non-board books right now because you are fond of ripping pages of paper books and then bringing them to me and saying "open." Evidently you are a little confused between things like raisin boxes or granola bar wrappers and books.

I think our favorite thing about you that we have discovered this year is your funny little personality. You like to laugh and make us laugh. You know when you are doing something funny and delight in it. You are also so pretty and cute. People stop me all the time to tell me what a pretty little girl you are. Daddy especially loves your soft, golden blonde hair.

This morning your siblings woke you up so we could have breakfast as a family and open presents. You weren't super impressed with the whole thing. Tonight when we had birthday dinner and opened gifts with grandma and grandad gave you a birthday cake toy that you were obsessed with. You loved it so much you wouldn't open up anything else. It was great practice so you knew how to blow out the candles on your cupcake!

We love you so much Reagan Joy. It is so fun to watch you grow. You are so cute and fun right now that I want to freeze time and keep you this way forever. However, I know that I'm going to love what you turn into. I love every minute with you sweet baby girl.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious to you.

May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace.

Happy second birthday Reagan Joy.

Love Mom.

October!!!

2011-11-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Our family actually did all the following October events in a period of six days. It was a busy end of the week/weekend! Here is the recap:

Camden's preschool class took a trip to the pumpkin patch last Wednesday. Gramma Arlene got to go as a chaperone with him. It was a beautiful day and he had a great time. How cute is his little class!?!

This was his High School buddy for the day. Each kid had their own high schooler with them, and each group of three kids/high schoolers had one adult chaperone. The kids were well watched!

After trying to find a day we could go on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch with Gramma and Grandad and Auntie Kate we finally were able to go on Friday night. Unfortunately Grandad had plans so he couldn't come. I almost said that it was unfortunate that it rained, but actually it wasn't bad because most of the stuff was actually indoors (we don't actually pick out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch) and there were NO lines! Ainsley's friend Sydney came with us- here they are in the acorn pit:

Reagan is the family animal lover and so she loved the goats and chickens.

There isn't much I need to explain about how Hudson feels about the giant swings.

Reagan loved the swings too.

Auntie Kate helps out Camden on the swing.

Saturday was the Sunday School Harvest party at the Strandbergs. Whoever ordered the weather did a great job. It was super fun. Strandbergs are pretty much the best ever for letting us all come over. In a rare moment of boldness Andrew and I dressed up as Samson and Delilah.

Ainsley trying to eat a donut on a string.

Sunday was pumpkin carving day. Andrew did a great job. Ainsley made Minney Mouse

Camden wanted the bird from angry birds. How awesome is this? It is better in person.

And Hudson represented the Ducks. Don't be fooled and think that is a drawing of a duck on top of the "O". It's not. It is a bat. Because that makes sense right?

And finally the culmination. Halloween night. I didn't actually get any trick-or-treating pictures because have you ever had four kids trick or treating that all walk? We hadn't either. Turns out that keeps you busy. We went with a whole pack of kids from the neighborhood. The big group of kids along with no streetlights in our neighborhood (okay, in our whole town) make it really tricky to keep track of your kids. Hudson's goal was to be the first kid at every door. Ainsley and her friend made their way a little slower. Reagan wanted to walk, but of course couldn't keep up. She made it up to three doors total. I carried Reagan on and off and tried to keep my eye on the older two.

Hudson-Jango Fett, Camden-Buzz Lightyear

Andrew was with Camden who enjoyed every minute of Halloween. Camden saw no reason to hurry through the event. He didn't keep up with the other kids. With Andrew watching him he would go up to each door alone, having been left in the dust by the pack. He would procede to have a long conversation with each person who opened the door, about everything from their house, their Halloween decorations and how he thought they could be improved, and their candy selection. Andrew said it was hilarious. Two times the person didn't come to the door fast enough and Camden opened the door to try and let himself in. Andrew explained that he couldn't do that because we don't know those people. Turns out that wasn't the best explanation because at the very last house which was our next-door neighbors who Camden loves he opened the door without even knocking as he was yelling to Andrew at the driveway, "this is okay because I know these guys!" I will have to do a whole post on Camden and our neighbor Chuck. Funny stuff.

After much debate over a costume choice for Ainsley she ended up going with tennis player Maria Sherapova. Not only is it her favorite sport, but Maria wears necklaces and dangly earrings. Getting to buy new jewelry to make up a costume was the icing on the cake.

Reagan was the fourth Pate child to wear this giraffe costume. She wasn't a big fan. I finally got the costume on, but never was successful with the little hood/head part. Oh well, she is plenty cute without a giraffe head.

As you can see no one lacked for candy.

My friend Tara made these shirts for the kids, and Gramma and Grandad grew the pumpkins with each kid's name on it. I just tried to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. Fail. Super fun and successful Halloween for everyone!

Facebook and my blog had a fight...

2011-10-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

It is accurate to say that Facebook sort of ate my blog. Facebook is faster, a bit more interactive, and if forces me to be more concise. However, one of the main reasons I write my blog is so our kids will have a little glimpse back into our lives. I have had the blog printed into a book. Facebook you can't do that with. I am probably being super 20th century because of the need to have it printed into an actual paper book... but whatever. Just in case my kids do in fact read the paper book, I actually spent two hours going through my facebook account from my post a couple days ago all the way to when I joined FB in 2008. It was actually pretty fun. I copied the postings that I though would be good to remember. Here they are, going in backwards chronological order. Fun little snapshots into our lives.

Facebook October 2011- 2008

Hudson, "It sure is easy that jeans match everything, huh mom? It makes it less confusing."

If every time the over timer dings your almost 2 year old yells, "Cookies!" you might need to change your cooking just a little. Maybe.

I just took Reagan and Camden with me to a u-pick tomato farm. They spent the whole time holding hands walking up and down the rows amassing a collection of caterpillars. It was so cute it made my day.

Camden spilled on his shirt, Hudson says, "Hey, that used to be mine. Don't ruin it. It has been around for generations." (Laura Holleman Terveen I think "generations" was a vocab word at school right?)

Camden, "I'm going to be a Chinese spy when I grow up. And a missionary too."

Reagan was just *ever* so helpful and removed almost every single item from the finished dryer and put it back in the washer.

Wise words from Hudson this morning, "I liked it better before Reagan learned to yell the word no." (we made it to almost 2 before she said "no" and now in the last 4 days she has made up for it.)

Reagan doesn't have many words, however "COOKIE!!!" is clear (and loud) as a bell.

Camden to me, "I love you more than all the dancing magic trees in the whole universe." Thanks sweetheart.

Hudson, "So I'm going to get straight A's so then I can have any job. What is the worst grades you can get?" Me, "I guess straight F's." Hudson, "Then your only choice for a job would be an artist." (apology to any friends I have that are artists :) )

Reagan's new plan is to open the door and let the dog in the house. Not acceptable in our house. The delight of letting the dog in seems to override any discipline. Good times.

My girl is home! She loved camp seems about 5 years older. It is good to be a complete family again.

You know the way you feel when you see an ultrasound of your baby for the first time? The relief that it is there and is fine? That is how I felt this morning when I saw this picture- my baby is there and looks like she is doing fine. (not that she has sent me a letter to tell me that!)

Ainsley and Emma waiting to be assigned to a cabin- they look (and were) stressed. Hoping that it is all good now. Not that I will know for 6 more days! Kid better write.

Just dropped off my firstborn at Trout Creek Bible Camp... I'm sure she will be fine-but wow Saturday seems like a long ways away!

Camden's prayer at bedtime: Dear Jesus, help Reagan to grow up. Amen.

If your trying to stop smoking, hang out with Camden. He has announced loudly twice now in front of a stranger lighting up, "Hey, that guy is "cigaretting" and so he is going to die!"

Ainsley at bedtime last night, "Mom, you really need to get Reagan back on a sleeping schedule. She has been really crabby since we have been in Milton-Freewater." Kid will make a good mom.

Reagan is on a hunger strike. The only thing she wants to eat is corn and black bean salsa. Three bowls of it (no chips- just eating it with a spoon/her hands) before 9am. The breakfast of champions.

Hudson says to me, "You know what I learned from camping?" What? "It is not a good idea to collect sticks, then put them in the fire, then let them touch your skin." You had to go camping to learn that?

Today is my amazing dad's 70th birthday! We are surprising him by meeting him in Hood River for dinner tonight. If you live in M-F stop by C21 and wish him Happy Birthday.

Last weekend we showed up to the church retreat with a child with a black eye, (he actually ran into a wall) this week we are showing up to church with one that went to urgent care today for a cut above her eye (toddler meets fireplace hearth). And to think summer hasn't really started yet.

About to head out for the 4th grade "over-nighter." I will not be sleeping on the gym floor. I will be going home as soon as the kids settle down and are asleep. Hoping I'm home by 1.

Camden: "When you guys laid me was I cute?" Me: "What?" C: "Like when you laid me out, was I cute?" Me: "Like when I lay you down on the floor?" C: "No, like when you laid me out like when I was an egg." He is missing a little information.

We have gone from all winter Reagan's goal was to take her shoes off to use as a chew toy. Now she has discovered that shoes equal getting to go outside, and are consequently wonderful. She wants them on ALL.THE.TIME. She napped today with them on because that is what worked.

Just got a text from Andrew who is on a field trip with Hudson's class. Sounds like wandering through the forest with a bunch of first grade boys in the cold and rain is super fun *insert sarcastic tone*. Pretty happy he decided to pick up this field trip rather than me!

Learning the difference between showering to get wet and showering to get clean was the lesson today in the Pate household.

I take back what I said before about not liking the caterpillars that were soon to be butterflies. The caterpillars and their cocoons were gross, but the excitement the kids have over getting to watch them open up into butterflies makes it worth having bugs in your house.

‎"Hudson, change your shirt- you can't wear an orange shirt with red shorts." "Yes I can mom, I look cool like fire!"

There are some parts of parenting I'm just not cut out for. Case in point: we got a butterfly kit for Easter. I was okay with the little caterpillars in the cup at first, but now that they have grown bigger and their "waste" has accumulated in the cup I'm gagging every time I look in their direction.

The lesson Reagan learned today: Mommy is right, even though the orange peel looks better than the inside part, it really isn't as good. Only took three times.

I put on my sunglasses and Reagan looked at me and started freaking out. That is the definition of, "It has been raining too long."

Ainsley and a couple friends are out in our front yard trying to do a lemonade stand (finally a sunny day!) . She just came in and said, "We are going to do a buy one get one free, we have to do something to drum up some sales before we just drink it all ourselves." Drinking it all yourselves is a profit killer.

Andrew to Reagan as she falls (again): "gravity is your enemy." Glad I was clear he was saying it to her, not me :)

Andrew just sent me a comic strip that says: "Give me the best sunscreen you've got." (persons hands over a piece of paper) "What is this?" "Directions to Portland."

Over half way through the Hubble IMAX movie Camden whispers to me, "Mom, is this real?"

Our sweet 19 year old neighbor girl told us that last week she called the police because our house was all dark and there was a flashlight going all around. She went outside to look closer while on the phone with the police and saw we one of us in the window so the police didn't come. Good thing- we were playing sardines with the kids and everyone had a flashlight. Need to remember to close the blinds next time!

Cousins ETA: any minute. Excitement level in our house: off the charts.

As Camden is putting on shoes and socks, "Mom, I can't wait until it is summer and I can wear naked feet with sandals."

Ainsley this morning, "Wow! It is Friday already? People are right, when you get older time does start to just fly by!"

Snowy-rain, windy, cold... must be the first day of tennis season. Want to re-think which sport you coach Andrew Pate? Or re-think coaching altogether?

After the 3rd trip to the bathroom (swimming at Great Wolf Lodge) in an hour Andrew tells C he has to quit drinking the water. "I can't, it keeps pouring in my mouth!"

Off to Great Wolf Lodge after church today. Fastest my kids have ever gotten ready for church. :)

Hudson about going to a girls birthday party, "I want to go, but I'm not watching her open presents 'cause I don't want to see all the girly stuff."

‎"Mommy since it is snowing we should get presents!"

My prayer this morning was, "Please Lord let him learn to use his gifts for good not evil." And also, "Please answer this prayer quick."

Must take a picture of Reagan playing peek-a-boo by covering her ears. Brings new meaning to cute.

I always pray that my kids would get caught when they do things wrong. I think I'm going to pray that for this week they just wouldn't do things wrong...I need a break.

Beginning to re-think not putting baby latches on the cabinets because "it is our last baby and why go to the trouble for just one" plan. Do you know how much trouble "just one" can get into?

The word "Hey" spelled out in fish sticks on my front porch this morning tells me it is time for Christmas break to be over because the High School kids are getting bored.

Just completed another level in the game of parenting boys. I decorated a birthday cake camouflage. The addition of army men and weapons will make for a happy little 7 year old.

Impromptu vocab lesson in our house this morning was courtesy of a Christmas carol: "offspring of a virgins womb."

Making a bowling ball and pin birthday cake with Hudson... he tries to convince me to let him put army guys all over it. Perhaps we should have gone with lazer tag rather than a bowling party? (his stocking goodie bags do have army guys in them, so we aren't going to be unarmed at the party.)

Dear feaverish, fussy, high-maintance baby: Please bring Reagan back.

Camden this morning, "Mom, how many days until my next birthday?" Me, "364" him, "Oh no."

Camden says in the middle of a discipline chat, "but mom, some days I just forget that your in charge of me."

If a child runs in, while you are showering and yells, "THERE IS A SNAKE IN OUR HOUSE!" you might initially panic. However, if they continue with, "it is pink and I think it is changing into a dragon," you will probably relax and go back to enjoying the shower.

Got Reagan's first birthday letter written and posted with 34 minutes left of her birthday. It was a great day and great birthday for her. Except for the little thing of one of her siblings throwing up at the table during her birthday dinner. This is the family your in little one!

Last year at this time I was on my way to the hospital to meet Reagan Joy. Astonished it has been a year already. What a love she is!

My plans this evening? Snuggling on the couch watching election returns. It is an exciting life when you are married to a Political Studies teacher.

Camden, "How much longer until the next Halloween?" I had to be the bearer of bad news.

I think my kids brought home approximately their weight in candy. I might leave the front door unlocked tonight in hopes a candy burglar is out in the neighborhood. If that doesn't happen, my plan is two pieces a day until Wednesday or Thursday. Then after a big, really healthy dinner, the message will be: eat everything else you want because after that it is going to Daddy's school kids.

How cold does it have to be before my boys will decide that the uncomfortableness of pants is better than the coldness of shorts?

It is possible I have a vampire baby. Hug her and she snuggles her head down in your neck, then bites.

Multitasking=monitoring one child's time out at your feet, helping one child fold a cootie catcher, quizzing another on spelling words, all while nursing a another child.

‎"Camden, where are your clothes?" "I was putting on my watch." Mutually exclusive because...???

‎2 1/2 hours in Urgent Care to end up with the glue stuff instead of stitches. Don't get me wrong- happy A didn't have to have stitches, but can I just buy that glue? I know I could do what the doctor just did, and I wouldn't glue my glove to the child's forehead...

‎"Don't tell the baby to 'fetch.'" "But mom, it is her favorite thing to do!" Sadly that is true.

Camden trying to teach Reagan to sing the alphabet just made my top ten cutest things ever list.

Not what I expected. Currently C. is out riding his bike. He has been up since 2 am seriously bouncing off the walls. Evidently Tylenol with Codine takes my very active 3 year year old and turns him into an indescribable ball of energy.

Home! Little boy is doing great. As we were giving him little sips of water he asked for french fries. So... he has now had cookies and french fries. Go figure. They said (and we have experienced before) that day 4 and 5 are often the worst- so I'm going to enjoy the drug induced okay-ness of today. Thanks for praying for him!

Big C is out of surgery and with us- surgery went great- tons. and adn. were enormous. Now the fun begins...

They just took back Camden for surgery (tonsils) he was actually really excited. A ride on a rolling bed was very exciting. Please pray for our little guy!

Tonsillectomy tomorrow morning- Can we go through this again? Pray that it goes more like it went for the girl than it went for the boy last time!!!

Reagan learning to crawl solves two problems for me. I no longer have to take the time to feed her in her high-chair because I don't sweep anymore either. (just kidding-mostly)

‎"Camden why are your hands so dirty?" "Because I've been doing dirty things." Al-righty then.

It is possible I over did it with all the choking hazard lectures. Now if Reagan picks up a little piece of lint off the floor and Camden notices he starts shrieking, "SHE'S GOING TO DIE!!!"

Sometimes you just need another adult around to laugh with you. The boys were building competing docks this morning with legos, I overheard Hudson say to Camden: "Camden, size does totally matter!"

Hudson has entered a new phase. Wounds are no longer something to be upset over, now they are badges of honor earned in hard play.

Nothing jolts you out of bed faster than the sound of the child who crawled in bed with you a few minutes before throwing up. I should know, this is the second day in a row that it has happened to me. Different child each day. I should be really fast by #4.

There are the beginnings of two cute little teeth in the baby's mouth! She should look like a perfect little jack-o-lantern by Halloween. Wow do I love that little pumpkin.

At bedtime Camden just prayed for Reagan and said, "and I just bless (that means please in his little prayer language) that Reagan won't get hit by lightsabers anymore." ANYMORE??? Okay, what did I miss?

Today's best vacation comment by Ainsley, "I just love mini-marts. They have such an interesting variety of amazing products."

You know the next day is going to be busy when the night before you write your to-do list and it simply says, "clean everywhere, pack everyone, buy everything."

‎"Stop trying to teach your sister how to crawl!"

Camden appeared from his nap. "Camden, where are your pants?" Camden, "I don't know, but I didn't eat them."

Listening to Camden explain to his swimming teacher the "right" way to blow bubbles is priceless. Poor teenage girl is thinking they are not paying her enough for this.

Just discovered my kids outside "practicing" for field day tomorrow, with eggs and barbells. What sort of games do they think Mr. Lustig is planning?

Camden (after 90 minutes in his room to pick up one bucket of toys that should have taken 1 minute) "I'm all done!" Me: "great." Camden: "but just don't go check it." Yeah, right.

Reagan is already a multi-tasker. She scratch/pinches my back with one hand, tries (and often does) pull my hair with the other, flails her legs around trying to kick something, darts her eyes all around trying to see what is going on 360 degrees around her, all while nursing. Yep, she is another Pate child.

Watching the septic tank get pumped is major excitement for 3 and 6 year old boys.

I just put my daughter on a bus with her dad and 14 high school boys for a tennis tournament- 3 days, 2 nights. A good thing or should I have my head examined?

A & H are outside with tape and saran wrap trying to create a fake accident that they want to film for America's Funniest Home Videos. Nothing good can come of this.

I just helped Camden fill out his bracket. He believes the winning score will be, "winners 100, loser crying numbers." (there wasn't a spot for that in the ESPN bracket.) All three big kids took Duke to win, they love their daddy. (so did I :) )

Love when I'm doing something else and then look over to see the baby looking right into my eyes smiling, then when I make eye contact she squeals happily because I noticed her. If only making everyone happy was that easy.

Baby finds foot. Mommy finds 10 minutes of quiet.

‎10 acres of greenspace and a playground behind our house and my kids are playing football in the front yard because, "there's nobody in the greenway right now and somebody we know might drive by on the street." Honestly, my kids would probably love living in an apartment complex because of the social opportunities.

We have a houseful of new toys from Christmas and from two boys birthdays and what have Hudson and the friend he has over been doing for the past 40 minutes... happily wrestling and punching each other.

Camden's newest pick-up line, used liberally on women at church, his siblings friends, and random people in stores, "what's your species?" Perhaps we need to stop watching Dinosaur Train.

So amazing when you are feeding an infant and she looks up at you and makes eye contact, stops eating, and slowly a smile emerges. What a blessing to get to love babies. It also makes me happy when they start doing this because you know there is something going on in their little head after 4 weeks of sleeping and cross-eyed looks.

motherhood is not for wimps.

We're officially outnumbered 2 to 1 and the house is still standing, so all is well.

is falling madly in love with a little 8 lb bundle of delicious newborness. Thanks for all the well wishes and comments yesterday everyone. I'm going to print them and put them in her baby book.

Here she is! Woo Hoo!

Getting ready to push, and still debating three boy names. Nothing like waiting until the last minute...

At the hospital: check. Epidural: Check. Now it is nap time!

enjoyed our kids soccer season, and enjoyed the thunder that ended the game we were sitting through in the POURING rain! Also pretty happy I get to meet #4 in about 48 hours!

forgot to avoid a power struggle. He has to know I'm going to win, but he would have to give up his almost 3 year-old status if he doesn't give it a shot.

Just said to a friend, "a week from now I won't look or feel like this." She said, "no, a week from now you'll look and feel even worse." Thanks- but it has to get worse to get better!

I love my daughter- she is currently sorting all her candy by type, has weighed it (4 pounds worth), and counted- 80 pieces. Hudson is wondering if his "atomic fireballs" will blow up if he puts fire on them or throws them on the ground really hard. Is it any surprise my kids are mixing up Halloween and 4th of July?

I'm helping in Hudson's class today and will be there when school lets out. I explained to him that I would take him home because I would already be there, suddenly he was on the verge of tears because HE WANTS TO RIDE THE BUS! No problem bud, ride the bus home! So cute!

overheard in the car on the way to the library: Hudson, "Ainsley can you tell me how you puked that one time when mom made you eat more salad, because I want to do that tonight with the stew."

it makes my day when Camden runs up, lays on the floor in front of me and says, "if you tickle me, I will laugh."

waiting for Ainsley and Hudson to come home from school- Hudson for the first time- Hope his first day of kindergarten was great. I have his requested peanut butter cookies currently in the oven.

It is amazing how cranky kids can be even when they are not saying a word. It is also amazing how mad a 2 year-old who is used to having two older siblings always entertain him can be when said playmates are not up to their roles as entertainers.

Progress- 3 hours of sleep in a row. The the longest since as Ainsley wrote (because she won't talk), "they ripped part of our bodies out of our mouths!"

Tonsillectomies don't make for the best weekends ever.

Home from the hospital- other than throw-up in the car on the way home they are doing pretty well. So after a pretty engaging, positive summer, we will fry their little brains with lots of TV and ice cream right before school starts. Oh well- thanks for praying the surgery would go well!

Praying and waiting.... one in the recovery room, the other currently in surgery. Darn giant tonsils.

My kids loved our trip to the store today, we purchased ice cream, jello, pudding, and juice. They won't be as happy tomorrow- both A & H are getting their tonsils taken out. If you think of it- say a little prayer for us!

took Ainsley on an adventure to Powells this morning. She then made herself carsick reading on the way home. Oh well- happy that I have a child that passionately loves to read. One down, three to go.

is getting ready to go out for the night with Andrew. Camden is at the door yelling, "Cheri, where are you? I wanna see you." God bless babysitters and thank goodness my children would prefer to have a babysitter over for the night than have me stay home.

is enjoying having a cell phone again, and also enjoying that Camden has his blue blankie back. Nothing like leaving a special object behind for a week to point out that really a little piece of fabric is far more comforting than a mother.

is wondering what diseases her youngest will get from alternating feeding chipmunks by hand and then eating the peanuts himself. Never mind the ticks he is probably picking up from the deer that he is PETTING! Aren't these wild animals?

just got back from the "big" ultrasound. Sweet, wiggly, big, baby. For the fourth time we didn't peek. We figure we will know if it is a boy or girl for the rest of our lives. Might as well keep it a surprise for these short (long) nine months.

peeked in on #4 again today. In keeping with Pate tradition at 12 weeks it measures 2 weeks bigger than it should. I should have married someone smaller if I didn't want big babies.

Is off to pre-school Mother's Day tea after being informed that, "Dads and donuts was way better than this is going to be mom, because tea is not as good."

Ainsley just made a batch of muffins by herself- followed the recipe perfectly. The spilled cinnamon may never come out of the grout in my floor- but oh well.

was happy to see a little wiggly body and heartbeat today. What a miracle.

is happy to be excused from Jury Duty. I said I could come if I could bring my 2 year old. Wonder why they excused me?

just walked in from taking Ainsley to the bus stop and found Camden up at the table eating butter.

was happy that when she told her kids that we were staying in M-F and our presents aren't here Ainsley said, "well, Christmas isn't about presents anyway."

is happy that Mr. Clean magic erasers take sharpie off cabinets- Thanks Camden.

4 months in 2 minutes.

2011-10-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

So what do you do when you essentially took about 4 months off from your blog? Since I make these into a book I can't just pretend June through September didn't happen. So I either had to quit blogging, or do this. So here it is. A ton of pictures really fast. I'm going to try and write in sentence fragments and be fast. Who am I kidding- I can't tell anything fast and I pretty much always use sentence fragments... so... oh well. Here goes:

June: Sunday School Swim party.

First day off school we took a trip to the State Capitol because Ainsley missed that field trip going on a tennis trip to Medford. Look how education we were being!

Heather and Brent go to Jamaica, we keep Lauren and Lydia. It was great fun. (Okay- so probably more fun for H&B, but we had a great time with the girls.) Ainsley and Lauren went to the Oregon City girls basketball camp. It was amazing.

June: Andrew went with other dads from church on on a camping trip with all the kids. Basically what I heard can be summed up with, "had a great time, really cold night, totally will do it again" and from Ainsley, "I was the best at shooting a gun!" and from me, "Yeah! Everyone came home injury-free." Oh and one other thing I thought of while I was typing that. Ainsley did throw up that night in the tent (she doesn't do real well with bad for you food, ie... hot dogs, chips, and other dad stuff) and Andrew's solution was to just throw the blanket she threw up away at the campground. It reminded me of a time when she was maybe one and a half and I was working and she was sick. Andrew stayed home with her that day, but decided he needed to run an errand in downtown Portland. She threw up on 84 on the way there. Rather than turn around he drove to Pioneer Place, went in the Gap, and bought her new clothes. Went right on with his errand. It is good for kids to get experiences with both parents :) Makes them tough. Look at me just summing up everything so quickly...

July: begins my favorite part of summer. Hanging out with my parents and sister's family. Here we are at a family wedding in Spokane.

We tried so many times to get a picture of all six kids looking good together. Turns out we can't do that.

Camden and Eleison are so cute together. One of my favorite memories of the summer is the first night we saw them Camden just kept petting Eleison's hair. He was so happy to see her. They play so sweet together.

We went to Wallowa Lake. Fun, but a nasty little plague of fever/headache made it's way through all the kids. Made sleeping a little less than fun.

We did go-carts, Camden was awesome and yelled the whole time out of pure joy. Eleison yelled, "best day ever!"

We waited, in the hot sun, for a long time, in Joseph to see some horses ride by. Probably won't do that again.

Cute picture of everyone sitting in the back of Scott's truck waiting for it to happen. "It" lasted about 15 seconds. The smell lingered longer.

We came back to Portland and celebrated Zech's birthday at John's Incredible Pizza. Super fun place.

Even the daddies had fun! (okay- they usually have fun :) )

Man Christmas is a long time away... really love my niece and nephew. And I really love the relationships our kids have together.

We pacified the sadness of them leaving with a beach trip with Grandma and Grandad. It was super fun. The kite in the background here says "Lincoln City."

As always- the kids loved the beach. Just wish I could turn up the temperature at the Oregon Coast.

We came home from the beach and the next day took Ainsley to camp at Trout Creek Bible Camp with her friend Emma. Yikes. A week was a L.O.N.G. time to not have contact with our firstborn. This was when we dropped her off. They look a little nervous don't they?

Ainsley had the time of her life. She LOVED camp so much and can't wait to go back. We are so glad. She is trying to figure out how she could go for more than one week next year. It was that good. She had to "kiss the moose" everyday. (you have to kiss the moose if you get a package or more than three pieces of mail that day.)

One of the last big adventures was a trip to the Oregon Garden with Grandma, Grandad, and Auntie Kate. Our kids are so blessed to have two sets of such amazing grandparents.

Not pictured from the summer is lots of swimming, playing, complaining that the weather wasn't hot enough this year, tennis camp (a couple of them) and in general lots of fun family time.

So there you go. It is the middle of October, but I did a summer wrap-up. If you stayed with me I'm guessing your name is Tennille. I would be shocked if anyone else made it this far! But hey - now the blog-book will be more-complete!

Pre K, 2nd, and 5th. A post. Finally.

2011-10-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

So it may seem like I'm about 6 weeks late posting first day of school pictures, but I'm actually not. It makes sense I waited because Camden's first day of school was actually October 3rd. So I just waited for him. I'm bad at blogging, great at rationalizing. Here are my cute little fifth and second graders. Wow. When did they get so big?

Ainsley is really enjoying Ms Secor's class.

Hudson is doing great in Mrs. Terveen's class. Crazy that I job-shared with Mrs. Terveen when I was pregnant with Hudson!

After watching Hudson and Ainsley go to school for all of September it was finally time for Camden to go to pre-school. He was so excited, but then on the drive there he said, "Hey, I'm nervous!" Super cute. He is going to Bruin Buddies at Barlow. He is amazed that daddy can go in the school office and watch him on the surveillance TV.

He marched right into school ready to go. Every day since he goes in without so much as a glace back to me to say goodbye. I'll take that as a good thing that he loves it.

My favorite story so far is that on Thursday night last week, after 4 days in school, Camden asked me if he would still go to Bruin Buddies next year when he is in Kindergarten. I explained that no, he would go to Deep Creek. He burst into tears sobbing, "but then I'll never see Mrs. D again and I love her." Lets dial back the drama a bit, you've been with her for 4 days so far and you have a whole year left with her. Save those tears.

And here is Reagan, who goes nowhere but out to the gate almost every morning in her pj's to watch as Ainsley and Hudson go to the bus. I'm probably never going to let her go to school.

Honestly

2011-07-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

How many basketballs does one family need?

Oregon History

2011-07-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

Ahhh... Eastern Oregon. After the rainy, cold spring and summer at home we are loving the blue sky and ZERO percent chance of rain here. For an adventure yesterday we went to Whitman Mission. Because there is nothing like explaining an indian massacre to a 4 year old.

Actual Oregon Trail. Actual ruts left from the Oregon Trail. Not actual children from the Oregon Trail. Based on the amount of whining about how hot and tired they were after a couple of hours wandering around outside I'm pretty sure they would have never made it.

Cute little comments

2011-07-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Gramma Arlene had Camden tell her two things he liked about each person in our family. She wrote down his answers. Super cute.

Ainsley: She sometimes lets me go in her room.

She is nice to me.

She sometimes lets me make stuff for her.

Hudson: He shares his toys with me.

He built a Lego City

He's so friendly to me.

Reagan: She's just always silly.

She can climb on things- a great, great climber.

She laughs when I do funny things.

Daddy: He's always letting me build things.

He picks me up.

He plays basketball and tennis with me.

He lets me use the tennis ball shooter.

Mommy: She's good to me.

She makes good tacos with cheese.

She is very very pretty.

Diligence

2011-06-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

Camden found his new calling. Hours and hours of pounding nails. I'm quite sure these two boards won't be coming apart any time soon.

70 is the new 90

2011-06-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Degrees that is. This spring has been so wet and cold I think it has re-set our kids perceptions of hot and cold -not mine- I'm fully aware of how cold it is. On Thursday morning when we finally had a mildly warm day Camden was outside running in the sprinkler before 8:00 am. Crazy. Not surprising however. He told me at one point, "it is so hot here it is like a desert." Uhh... no. I think there are still rain puddles in our front yard dear. We are more like a rain forest. Anyway, on to the photo proof of their craziness:

This was the early morning sprinkler time:

Later that afternoon Hudson came home and helped Camden set up the slip and slide. The temperature had easily climbed all the way up to 70 by then.

Warming up on the warm patio.

Hopefully we will see some more sun so we can see more things like this~
.

Double Digits!

2011-04-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Ainsley,

Ten years is so long! I can't really think of anything outside of being married that I have done for ten years. Now, I've been a parent for a whole decade. I can't even believe how blessed I am.

You are just adorable. As I put you to bed tonight you could hardly contain your excitement over one of your birthday presents. We are letting you get your ears pierced. I knew you would be happy, but I didn't anticipate how much. An indication of how you are growing is that what you are so excited about is going to school tomorrow and telling your friends. We have officially entered the tween years with you. Everything is better when you get to share it with your social group.

Thinking back to other birthday letters, some things are still the same. You are still a wonderful sibling, you still love Adventures in Odyssey, books are still your constant companion, and you still think you want to be a nurse or doctor when you grow up. Other things are changing. You've gotten taller, look so much older, and sometimes when I have conversations with you I forget you are not an adult. And lets not forget that if you tried to fit into the shoes I wore at my wedding they would be too small for you! Fortunately pregnancy has stretched my feet out so my feet are bigger than yours are now, but only just barely!

You are both strong and gentle. This has been the year that we have really had to begin navigating through the social minefield of school. I know that this is only the beginning of "girl drama," and so part of me wants to just keep you at home and insulate you from the cruel world out there. But fortunately, I know better. I know that you are strong, and have wonderful character. I know that my job is to help you remember every day that your worth comes from the firm foundation of knowing that you are a Child of God. That God loves you and ultimately that is all that matters. I know that I need to help you (and myself!) remember to first love the Lord your God with all your heart strength and mind, and second to love your neighbor as yourself. The "neighbor" may very well be unkind and difficult. But you are called to love them.

And the way girls are, that same person could be your best friend next week!

When you or your siblings choose your birthday dinner menu I'm never denied entertainment. Your request was chicken, cheese bread, strawberries, and twice baked potatoes (the chicken and cheese bread are both Cyndi's recipes, I could have just sent you over there for dinner) and specifically no vegetables. I loved the no vegetables part.

This was your friend party year (we alternate years between friend parties and family parties), and you made the most of it. After much debate over what kind of party to have you went with a pool party at the Sandy pool because that way you could have lots of guests. Fifteen in fact. It was so fun for everyone. Your friends were all so sweet and polite and just enjoyed playing in the pool together so much. It was a great group of girls. We just finished making a movie of your party that captures how great it was. I won't be posting it to the internet, but I know we will love watching it and looking back on this fun stage of life.

I love you Ainsley Grace. Thank you for being the one who gave me the best job in the world. Forgive me for all of my shortcomings, look past my mistakes. Know that your daddy and I want you to look to God all the days of your life. These verses say it far better than I can:

"Ephesians 5 ¹ Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We love you sweet girl. Happy 10th birthday. Love mom and dad.

Camden's future pursuits

2011-04-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

The following is from Friday- but I had to wait to post it until Sunday after Andrew used it in the church opening.

Camden, Reagan, and I went on a walk this morning. (YEAH NO RAIN-So far I love you April!) This was one of my favorite Camden conversations ever. I came home and gave both kids granola bars right away so I could do the best job possible of writing it word for word. Precious. And we have some work to do, but pretty much at 4 he is wrestling with what we all struggle with- earthly pleasure vs. Heavenly rewards.

C: All my friends are going to preschool (lamenting there was no one to play with on Friday morning.)

Me: Won’t it be fun next year when you go to preschool?

C: No, I don’t think I can handle it.

Me: Why not?

C: Because I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up yet, so I don’t think I can handle preschool or college.

Me: Honey, you don’t have to know what your going to do when you grow up for a long time, certainly not in preschool.

C: Oh. What does a Missionary do?

Me: They tell people about Jesus, remember? We’ve read about missionaries.

C: I want to do the thing that makes the most money and Hudson says that missionaries don’t make the most money. But I know that they get the most awards in Heaven. I want to do the thing that makes the most money and gets the most awards in Heaven.

Me: REwards in Heaven are much more important than making the most money sweetheart. Heaven’s rewards last for eternity, money on earth only lasts a little while.

C: I want them both.

April Fools Day

2011-04-01T15:06:00.001-07:00

Tennille just asked me this morning to post something. I had nothing. Then, like Manna from Heaven the single best conversation ever with Camden. I came straight home from the walk it took place during to write it down word for word. As I was writing Andrew called and I told him about it and he asked me to save it until Sunday so he can use it for the Church opening (so all 2 of you don't hear it ahead of time :) ) Anyway- I made April Fool's Day treats for my kids lunch- "Doughnut Seeds" (cereal inside the seed pack!) and for dinner tonight we are going out for Jim's birthday so I made cupcakes- special ones. I took a picture of all of it so I have something to post.

In downloading the pictures I found these of RJ- pretty cute if your not the one cleaning it up!

But how far can you see?

2011-02-14T20:59:00.000-08:00

A conversation with Ainsley that Camden must interject himself into:

Ainsley: Daddy your car stinks.

Daddy: No it doesn't. Mommy has the best nose in our family and she says it is fine.

Ainsley: I can smell better than mommy can.

Daddy: No you can't.

Ainsley: Yes I can, I can smell salad!

Camden: Well, I can smell God!

A little comparison.

2011-01-21T16:51:00.000-08:00

Remember back when Reagan was 3 months old and I said she didn't look like the other kids? Want to see who she does look like?

Here is Reagan at 14 months.

Here is me (Tiffany) at 13 months.

***Please overlook the fact that my mother had far more time with me, her first child, than I do with Reagan, my fourth, to do things like; fix my hair, get professional pictures taken, and put shoes and socks on me.

Braces Off!

2011-01-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

One set of braces down!

A tale of two trips to the store.

2011-01-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

Camden is never boring. Here are two quick adventures to the store.

First was Tuesday night. I was tutoring. Andrew is a rock star and took all 4 kids by himself to the mall. What could possibly make him want to do something that crazy? His hope that the Duck Store would have stuff on sale after the game on Monday night. That, and he would rather be out of the house with them when I tutor rather than trying to keep them quiet in the house. When I take all four kids somewhere people ask me if they are all mine, and if I know how babies are made. When he takes them somewhere he is treated like a rockstar. People tell him how great he is and give him stuff. Amazing. Anyway, back to the Camden part. He was looking at a little duck light and walked up to the clerk (a young college girl) and said, "Excuse me nice, young lady. Could you please tell me how much this costs?" Not sure how you would make that sentence more polite or complete. The "nice young lady" part kills me.

Compare that to yesterday at Winco. Winco. What a place. Do they have a cart that the baby holding straps aren't broken? I can never find one. Consequently I'm always trying to keep Camden with me, while keeping Reagan from standing up in the cart and falling because the darn straps don't keep her in the little seat part. This while shopping, then bagging my own groceries. While bagging groceries Camden found a way to entertain himself. That turned out to be putting two packages of Lifesavers in his pockets, without paying for them. The part I can't believe is that he got all the way to the car, we drove all the way to Barlow to see Andrew, drove all the way home, and unloaded all the groceries before he took them out of his pocket! He then shows them to me and says, "Hey, look at this! I can eat these!" How did Mr. Impulsive pull off that sort of patience? So we promptly loaded back up in the car (which Reagan was so happy to do considering we had gone to Target before Winco- 2 hours in the car or carts at this point) to go back to Winco so Camden could return his stolen goods. We practiced what he would say in the car to the person when he returned them. He did a good job of saying what he did, apologizing and asking for forgiveness. I keep reminding myself that I'm so happy he got to learn this lesson at 4 rather than at 14!

Hudson turns 7

2010-12-17T01:38:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Hudson,

What an awesome kid you have grown into. An example of just how sweet you are is last night I asked you what you wanted for breakfast on your birthday. You said, "cinnamon rolls." Then you said, "no pancakes, or how about both?" When I said you needed to choose one or the other, you said, "which one will be easier for you?" What a love. The other thing this little exchange shows is how important food is to you. You are pretty much always hungry.

This has been such a fun year with you. You are huge. I know I will think I'm crazy when you are 14 and have grown a foot taller than me and I'm saying your so big now at 7, but seriously, you have grown up so much this year. (I'm probably going to look back at the previous paragraph where I talk about how much you like to eat now and laugh compared to what you consume as a teenager, but I'm just going to enjoy being naive right now.) You are this little, big, grade-school boy. You love legos, nerf guns, and playing with your friends.

Speaking of friends, you are quite the social little guy. You really like playing with friends, and get along so great with them. You are able to play with different kids at whatever level they are. If the kid is super physical, wrestling all the time, you are right there with them. If it is a different friend that wants to just play with legos or draw, you are up for that too.

I have loved so much watching you develop into this boy who loves to play outside and be just a total boy. You love playing with Colby, a neighbor boy, all the time. I feel a little like it is a story out of a book from the 1950's. (or maybe that is just the extent of my experience with your age of boys playing). You guys will take off, and do who knows what. I think mainly you entertained with making forts, exploring the magic of pocket knives, riding your bikes, and building lego creations in our attic. I do know if the amount of fun you have is proportional to how dirty you get, your having a great time.

School is going great. You love first grade, and I am loving watching you learn how to read. If you had your way, about 90% of school would be P.E. or recess. Your standard response to questions about school is, "I don't remember." It takes quite a bit of questioning to get much information out of you. The day before yesterday you built the base of a gingerbread house at school. That night I got an email that had a picture of yours, which went way beyond the four walls and a roof and had a porch on the front and back, along with an extended addition to the house. Mrs. Breyer wrote, "Hudson is TAG at building gingerbread houses." So cute.

You have been plotting out this year's birthday party for quite some time now. Your goal was to get a bowling pin. So a bowling party it was. Narrowing down the guest list was torture for you. You really wanted to invite just about every boy you have ever met. We did a bowling theme for the party, but for your actual birthday at home (your party was the Saturday before your birthday) the cake had to be camouflage with lots of army guys on it. You love setting up little battle scenes and arranging the army figures. Your cake reflected this obsession. You couldn't wait to stick the figures on it after I had done my best to frost a camo design. Because really, what says "Happy Birthday" better than miniature, plastic weapons?

Once you decide you are going to learn how to do something you stick with it. For the past few months you have spent a great deal of time practicing some sort of cartwheel/hand spring. It is pretty cute to watch you practice it over and over. Amazingly even though most of the time your doing it in our not huge house, you haven't hurt yourself badly or broken anything. Yet.

You continue to be amazingly sweet to baby Reagan. I am still just shocked at how much you just adore her and how great you are with her. You and Ainsley still have such a good relationship and play so well together. You and Camden are a little more complicated. You sometimes play amazingly well together, and sometimes (okay, a little more than sometimes) your main goal is to elicit a reaction from him. You know better than anyone how to get him upset, and his reactions are so interesting for you to watch you do it frequently. WE NEED TO WORK ON THIS BECAUSE SOME DAYS IT MAKES ME CRAZY!!! I"m pretty sure that some day when you and your siblings sit around and talk about me as a mom, you will say that I always said, "don't stir up trouble!" I think you get tired of hearing me say it. But if you would just stop stirring up trouble I wouldn't have to! I am praying that this is a year that you and Camden really enjoy each other.

You really like going to Kids Club at church. You are the one who reminds everyone to take their Bibles. You have become more quiet, so it is sometimes hard for us to know what you have going on in your head, but more and more we hear you pop up with something that totally shocks us that you are understanding or know about. This year you finally got to go with the big kids at VBS in the summer and they have more of a worship band, this was the first time you really got into music. You now have some songs you like and are interested in. We are really excited about this, because until then you never really wanted to sing much at all.

You played soccer this year, but you LOVE basketball. Daddy can't wait for this season to start because of how much he thinks your going to like it this year. You also are really liking tennis and have an amazing swing for a kid your age. So far in the team sports you have played you have good skills, but haven't developed a competitive drive. You are just out there having fun, which mom thinks is great, but dad is looking forward to lighting a little competitive fire under you.

Hudson, I just can't even begin to tell you how much I love you. Your just such a great kid. Thanks for bearing with me as I learn how to parent a boy. Your daddy and I just adore you so much. We can't wait to see what amazing things God has in store for you. Love you big boy.

P.S. As I was just uploading pictures I have to mention how excited you were that we gave you the Lego Police Headquarters. Delighted beyond belief.

We made it through 3!

2010-12-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Camden!

May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of Heaven and earth."
Psalms 115:15

I am sighing a huge sigh of relief that we have made it to four. I have always argued that three is much harder than two, and four is a breath of fresh air. Three was for sure harder than two, so I'm hoping that four is easier. (the last few months have been, so I have high hopes!) I love you like crazy Camden, but there were days this past year I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Specifically most days in March, April, and May of 2010. Most of the days in that hard stage...well... you won. I was chewed up and eaten for lunch. You have an iron strong will, are pretty impulsive, and are crazy smart. I have learned that I have no business judging other parents because each kid is different and just when you think you have parenting figured out (as if) God humbles you in a new way.

I'm sure I talked about this in your letter last year, but it bears repeating. Your language skills are amazing. The sentences you compose are beyond complex for a child, and they are often quite funny. I wish I could think of one to quote right now... but nothing. So I will move on to vocabulary. You NEED TO KNOW what everything means. If you don't know a word it can't go un-investigated (not a word). Yesterday we spent a good five minutes trying to define "endure" to your satisfaction.

As a family we have been learning a Bible verse to go with each letter of the alphabet for Sunday School. One of them is "My son, give me your heart." This has been perplexing because you can't wrap your head around the idea of giving away your heart. It has also been fun because you don't just repeat things without considering them. The verse, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News" has brought up many conversations. We have had to explain over and over what the Good News is, but the part that you have really fixated on is "go into all the world." You asked, "but how can I go into the whole world, even farther than Sunriver?" (Where we went a few weeks ago and you were convinced that the three hours it took to drive there were about the same as if we had driven for three weeks and arrived on the other side of the world.) Your daddy and I have especially loved that if you can't remember a verse you just confidently default to your favorite of the verses, and you YELL, "Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it."

We have really seen God moving in your life this year. You have such amazing questions and observations. We went through a stage where you passionately expressed that you didn't want to die because you didn't want to go to Heaven. You didn't want to go to Heaven because you didn't know what it looked like. Despite my descriptions it just wasn't enough information for you. You are very literal and need to be able to understand something. Once you have a question no one should stand in your way of discovering the answer. If you hear a sound or see something and don't know what it is you must, right then, go and investigate. This may not sound like a big deal, but the thing is, sometimes that happens at inconvenient times.

A month before your third birthday you became a big brother. So this year you have learned how that works. You adore Reagan so much, even if you are a little wild with her sometimes. Despite the fact that she should be a little scared of you because you are not always clear on "gentle," she is absolutely enamored with you. You are so fun and exciting. You are her biggest source of entertainment.

You and Hudson have an interesting relationship. He knows how to push your buttons quicker than anyone can imagine. He does it skillfully and often very quietly. Your response is never quiet. The two of you have wild fun together when you both feel like it. You are so good for each other, and would stand up for each other in any situation. Hudson can wind you up, and Ainsley can calm you down. She is patient with you and can get on your level to play with you so well. You told us one night at dinner that your job is to help Ainsley pick a good boy to marry. A few weeks later, (happily you were willing to repeat it for a video camera) you said that you just want me to pick out the girl for you to marry when you grow up. I'm all for that honey!

You are so funny, even when you don't mean to be. Last week you came to me and said, "Mom, I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news. The good news is most of the pee went in the toilet. The bad news is a little of the pee went in my underwear."

Grandma Arlene is so great to come every Wednesday to hang out with you and your siblings. You were a little sad about Ainsley and Hudson going back to school, so she started doing, "Grandma School" with you each week. You love it. You have your own little desk tag and she brings papers to do with you. You think it is the greatest think and look forward to it all week.

Camden, your amazing. I'm not sure anyone on the planet has ever elicited the range of emotions in me that you can. Sometimes from one extreme to another all within a period of 2 minutes. You are going to be fun to watch grow up. You have so much potential. We know that God will do special things with you if you chose to walk with him. Our greatest prayer is that you will chose to follow God all the days of your life.

We love you so much Camden. Happy 4th birthday.

***All the rights and responsibilities of being four are now bestowed upon you. Specifically, you can now go up on the top bunk in your bedroom, and now you must eat the crust on your bread.***

Reagan Joy's First Birthday

2010-11-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Reagan,

A year ago tonight I cuddled you in a hospital bed astonished at how blessed I was that God gave me the baby girl I wanted to complete our family with. Tonight I am still just amazed at how blessed our whole family is by you Reagan.

As far as a first year, it is hard to imagine a baby doing it better. It is a good thing no baby in our family has to follow your example. You have slept very well, hardly been sick, are very social and sweet, meet every developmental milestone right on time, didn't spit-up constantly like your siblings, eat almost anything we give you, snuggle and love on us, and are just generally a ideal baby. We have so much fun with you. When I say "we, " I do mean all of us. Adore is not a strong enough word to describe how your siblings feel about you. Ainsley is so delighted to have a sister and loves taking care of you. Hudson has always been just enamored with you and is so sweet and attentive. Camden, while not always as safe as we would like around you, just loves you. He has been given the job of finding choking hazards which he takes quite seriously.

You have 5 little teeth, which you love to use. We do have to watch our toes and sometimes even our legs because you like to try out your teeth on us. Ainsley read the Series of Unfortunate Events books this year and there is a baby in the book named Sunny who bites everything. You are right there with her. What really cracks us up is when you try and bit the kitchen table in an effort to raise yourself higher so you can see what is going on up there. You bite tables, couches, books, toys and even the wall corner once. It is never out of being mad, just something your trying out right now. Cute as it is, we won't be sad when you move on to something else!

You crawl everywhere and pull up on everything. And while you do cruise around while holding onto furniture, you don't seem super close to walking yet. Your not at all interested in standing up on your own, so I think we have a few weeks before you find your legs. Crawling doesn't slow you down much, you get most places you want to go. You wave and clap, and I think are starting to say something close to "mama" intentionally.

A couple of weeks ago you had a sudden enlightenment. You discovered you could open cupboard doors and also at the same time quite being easily distracted away from things I didn't want you getting into. I learned you did in fact understand the word "no." When you would crawl over to the open dishwasher and I would move you away from it and say no you no longer would get distracted with something else. Now that makes you want the dishwasher even more and you run/crawl right back over. When I in a more stern voice tell you no you throw yourself back and cry. And so began the busy training period that will last for... well... years.

A month or so ago someone commented to me that you don't look like your siblings. I said, "I know, I look at her and can't believe that she is really mine." The lady commented back, "it is actually your other kids that you should be confused about if they are yours or not, she clearly belongs to you!" You may not look like your siblings, but just like what happens with them, people comment all the time about how cute you are. You are so fun to take places because when someone looks at you and comments about how cute you are, you grin and coo at them as if you totally understand what they are saying. You have your Daddy so tightly wrapped around your little finger it is amazing. Putting your hair up in two little pig tails is just about his favorite thing in the whole world.

I know we have lots of training to do with you in the next few years, and that parenting gets more challenging all the time. But as a family we have so enjoyed this year with you Reagan. It is a cheesy movie line to quote, but truly you have completed our family. The addition of you has made your daddy and I love each other and each of your siblings even more than we did before. It is just amazing how love multiplies.

In the crazy, business of life I forget to thank God for you every day. But I should. None of us can imagine life without you. I want to savor ever second of your littleness and at the same time I am so excited to see you grow and find out what sort of person you are going to become.

You were a spectacular birthday girl. You loved your cake, and were so cute when you opened presents. You loved the toys and were just delighted with the whole experience.

My prayer today for you Reagan is that you would continue to be such a joy to the people around you that people can't help but look to God because of you.

Happy Birthday baby girl.

Fall

2010-11-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

It has in fact been over a month since I have found time to post. So in the interest of catching my little blog up quickly, here is a glimpse of the last month in bullet points and pictures:

*We survived Camden's tonsillectomy. It was less than fun, putting it mildly. He actually did well, if it wasn't for a VERY BAD reaction to the steroid. Wouldn't you know, the steroid is what I thought was going to make this round so much easier because it was supposed to shrink the swelling in his nasal passages. It may have done that, but it had the side effect of making him crazy. If you have ever spent more than 2 minutes with Camden you know he is plenty active. Now imagine that times...oh... say 1,000. We are talking 2am the morning after surgery JUMPING on my bed, running around the room, literally (and I really mean literally- people use the word literally and don't mean it) bouncing off the walls. Crazy. He didn't sleep from 2am until 4 the next afternoon when finally my parents drove him around for hours to settle him down so he would sleep. This after going on two walks and a bike ride. Thedayafter having surgery. Seriously crazy. But we made it. Here he is with a get well cookie from the Carls. What I still find perplexing is that the steriod made him so nuts that he didn't really register pain. He never complained about his throat hurting. He ate anything. I had to be careful to not feed him things that could get stuck in the holes in his throat because that should have been self-regulating with pain making him only want soft foods. Didn't work that way. That was a long bullet point. I'll try to go faster....

~Soccer. 2 kids, 2 teams. Really fun. Don't have any idea how we will handle it when there are three playing and doing activities. Let alone 4. Please note there is an opposing player between Hudson and his teammate Lucas. He isn't fighting one of his own teammates for the ball. (not that we've never seen that before though) That was a much shorter bullet point.

~Trip to the pumpkin patch with Grandma and Grandad. Look at the size of these pumpkins!

We are finding it challenging to get all four of the kids to take a good picture at the same time.

My favorite part of the pumpkin patch was the kids with the map. The place we went to had tons and tons of activities (Bauman Farms-near Salem) and they had a map with everything on it. The kids all three studied that map and plotted out their course. This picture is when they are looking at the map after one activity to find there way to the next. Super cute.

~Field Trip to Astoria. Andrew has to do this one next time. It was a pretty long day. Ft. Clatsop (good, but not worth the trip to Astoria) and the Maritime Museum. (at one point Ainsley came up to me at the museum and said, "I just don't want to hear anything else about boats." that pretty much summed it up.) It was fun to go with her friends. She has great friends and the kids were amazing.

Deep Creek 4th graders. Cute bunch of kids.

~Halloween

I need you to know that Reagan puts this bucket on her head herself! She does it over and over and thinks it is the funniest thing ever. Somewhere in my blog archives there is a post about Camden putting a white (not Halloween) bucket on his head. What is it with these kids?

Here is the group of kids from our neighborhood that we went trick-or-treating with. Can you say mob-o-kids? We had a potluck first with the Katz family and then all took off together. The first house Camden went to when they got to him he asked the lady who answered the door, "how did you know we were here?"

At Jim and Polly Carl's house.

Here is everyone in their costumes. Ainsley is a Barlow cheerleader, Hudson is Darth Vader, Camden is a football player, and Reagan is a dog. And yes, Hudson's pumpkin does have two plastic bats coming out of it. And no, I don't know why.

Reagan is a good sport about all the places she gets drug around to. When I think of the life Ainsley experienced (like specific nap and meal times) compared to Reagan it is astounding how well Reagan rolls with the punches. Halloween made very little sense to her. And as you see in this picture, she let us know a couple of times!

There is no shortage of candy at our house. My favorite part of Halloween is when they get home and sort it all out and the trading (manipulating) begins. It is hilarious. The kids were excited to give out candy when we got home to a few kids. Another cute Camden moment was when the first group showed up and our kids were passing out candy he yelled at the kids, "Hey, what is your names?" Because really, if your going to show up at our house and take our candy, shouldn't you introduce yourself?

~Yeah! All caught up!

The calm before the storm?

2010-09-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

Can you see how big a smile he has in this picture? We are going to remember that for the next few days.

Because it might be the last big smile we see for a little bit. Tomorrow morning we take Camden in to get his tonsils and adenoids out. You might remember back a little over a year ago when Ainsley and Hudson both got theirs out the same day. That wasn't exactly the greatest 10 days or so that our family has ever experienced. But, thanks to some giant tonsils we get to do it all over again tomorrow morning with #3. No- we are not doing Reagan at the same time. Fool me once... not that she is old enough anyway, we will save that fun for another day.

Anyway- Camden is actually SUPER excited about getting them out. I'm feeling guilty about how he doesn't know what is coming, but not guilty enough to tell him. He is just excited about ICE CREAM AND TOYS! His siblings have been coached to not be buzz kills, so instead they are just talking up the treat part. They are happy because they know it will mean more treats and movies for them, so they are all for it.

Anyway- the fun Camden had today was he finally go to do soccer. It has been killing him to go to soccer games and practices and not get to participate, so I found a little tots class that he can go to. He had so much fun. Every once in awhile he would turn around and yell to me, "Mom, this is really fun!" It was so cute. He ran so hard and was totally focused on soccer the whole time. Once he does something, he does it 110%, so it was awesome. What a cutie.

No one was going to get a ball in his goal!

Reagan was the water girl. Say a prayer for Camden that his surgery and recovery go well!

The end to the troubled tooth and double the tooth fairy.

2010-09-09T16:13:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in my previous post that Hudson was probably getting his tooth pulled. Indeed, that is what happened. Here is the background.

When Hudson was 18 months old we were having dinner at our neighbors house. Nothing strange happened, no collisions, I fed him dinner and there was nothing wrong in his mouth. When we got home as I was changing him into his pajamas I was shocked to notice that his front left tooth had a huge chip! To make a long story short, we had it capped which was a horrendous experience. They gave him (remember 18 months old) some liquid something to drink that was supposed to make him calm and sleepy. Instead it made him a screaming lunatic for 3 hours. The dentist words were, "he will make a really bad drunk." Nice. Anyway, they went ahead and strapped him down on the board thing (hands down my worst parenting experience ever) and capped the tooth. Ever since any little bonk to the mouth is really painful for that tooth. The dentist thought it would last hopefully until he was 3 or 4 and the fall out. Well, here we are at 6 and amazingly we still had the tooth. Until the night before first grade.

Camden and Hudson were out on the jumpy and had a collision that left Hudson with his tooth bleeding and hanging down half way. It was quite a look, and totally impacted his speech. Nice way to send your child off to first day for the first day of first grade.

You can sort of see how it is hanging down in this picture. Fortunately we got him into the dentist (I had to tutor, so daddy took him) that afternoon and he did get it pulled. Unfortunately the big tooth is not very far down so the roots were still there (and he is going to have a hole for awhile) and the extraction required 2 shots. He was amazing and didn't even cry, sweet boy.

The best part of the story though is how our family bounces between complete over-parenting/helicopter-ness and neglect. You see I went to bed and forgot to put $ under Hudson's pillow. Our rule (funny how these things evolve) is you get one gold dollar for a tooth, but if the tooth is pulled or falls out at school (both things that happened with Ainsley, that is how it happened) you get two. Andrew went to bed, and I was already asleep. Before falling asleep it occurs to him, being the awesome dad he is, that I didn't put any money under Hudson's pillow. So he gets up and finds my stash of gold dollars that I keep just for teeth and puts two under his pillow. He then gets up and goes to basketball before I am even awake. I wake up and as I'm walking in to get Hudson remember about the money so run back in and get two dollars and slip them under his pillow. I wake up Hudson and leave his room. I'm in the bathroom with Ainsley and Hudson comes running in saying, "I got four coins!!!" Ainsley starts flipping out, we have broken the rules! I say, "No he didn't, he is tricking you." But then he holds up his four dollars. I figure out what happened and start laughing saying, "the tooth fairy visited twice!" Ainsley thinks I should take the extra two away because this is of course not fair, I'm laughing at how we either forget to leave money, or both do it. But there is no way I'm taking money away from the kid who endured his first day of school with a nightmare tooth and then got it pulled and was so awesome about it. My kids know the truth about the tooth fairy. (have you ever read this story?) So now we have a new rule at our house, you get one dollar for the tooth, one more if it is pulled or lost at school, and an extra dollar for each shot that it takes to get the tooth out. By the time we are on Reagan who knows how many "rules" there will be in this family!

Here is our now tooth-less boy.

First and Fourth

2010-09-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

Is "first and fourth" a football phrase? Sort of sounds like it. Anyway- for us it is this school year. And it is a blessed thing. This is one of my "off" years. Two kids in full day school, two kids in no school. That means no driving anyone anywhere- the big kids ride the bus to and from, the littles stay home with me. Next year will be pre-school for Camden and I'm dreading it. I hate half day school when it involves pick ups and drop offs. Yuck. Anyway- so I'm going to enjoy ever last day this year. Here is the first day run-down. As always, it seems, there is a pretty good story.

Our big first grader. I managed to talk him into this shirt rather than the one he wanted to wear. It also was a Nike t-shirt, but it said, "Don't Cry... I'll go easy on you second half." Nice. Not really a good first impression shirt. I didn't buy it. I don't buy any of his t-shirts in fact.

So my great first day story. When I saw Hudson's teacher I just had to giggle. You see, she is new to his school so I have never met her before. Last year Hudson did meet her. She came and read a story to the kids who were going to be in her class. I peppered Hudson with multiple questions to try and get any sort of information out of him about his teacher, and he had next to nothing to report. One thing I asked what she looked like. His response was, "ummm... I don't know, just like Mrs. Manzella I guess." Okay, Mrs. Manzella was his Kindergarten teacher. Brown hair, very cute, here she is: (if your reading this Amy I hope it is okay I just posted your picture)

Now... if only I had a picture of his teacher this year it would make this story so much better. But remember, according to Hudson she looks just like Mrs. Manzella. So I was pretty surprised to see that Hudson's teacher doesn't quite look just like Mrs. Manzella, see, she is Asian. Keen observational skills Hudson. When I talked to Andrew's mom this afternoon she said hopefully Hudson won't ever have to identify someone involved in a crime. No kidding.

Here is Ainsley in her classroom. She was so excited. She had never met her teacher before, he also is new to the school. This morning as she was eating breakfast she was pretty wound. Suddenly she went off on a tangent where she was convinced her teacher was blind. What??? She thought it would be cool if there was a guide dog in her class. Some days you just don't even know what to say back. Anyway, we met Mr. Moss and he was very nice, and also not blind. Good news.

Anyway- we are off and running with the school year. Camden made it through the day without them, we went to OMSI this morning so he would have something fun to do, Reagan went along for the ride nicely. Ainsley and Hudson are both home now and had great days. Well, actually Hudson is not home currently. He is with Andrew at the dentist, he had a collison last night and is now probably getting his front tooth pulled. But that is a whole other story...

Where to begin????

2010-08-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

This seems like a good picture to start out a summer post with.

I'm going to blame my lack of any post whatsoever in the last month on my sister. Yep, it is my little sisters fault. Never mind that she actually asked me to post so she would have something to read, brought my darling niece and nephew all the way from Minnesota to Oregon so I would have funny little stories about my children's interactions with them, and went with us to do all sorts of fun things that we probably wouldn't have made the time to do had she not been here, it is really all her fault. She just took up too much of my time so I didn't have time to upload any pictures. Now that she is safely home in Minnesota, *insert weeping and gnashing of teeth* I will take the time to upload a few pictures and tell you what we have been doing. (I should just change the date on the post and pretend I did this in mid-july. I'm sure no one is reading blogs right now anyway- so if you are just tuning in, on a rainy day in October, pretend I posted this a week after my previous post rather than a month, thank you.)

So jumping back one month- we went to Andrew's 20th high school reunion. Of all the people in his class I definitely married the right one! :)

The next day we took off with my parents and my sisters family and went to the Carl's beach house in Rockaway. It was so much fun, except of course for the stupid Oregon weather. We loved going Kayaking on the lake behind the house. We had a great time.

How cute is Eleison?

Grandpa withe Reagan- catching the 12 minutes of blue sky we saw.

Kayaking

We took a train ride on a steam train from Rockaway to Garabaldi. It was very fun!

Next up was Milton-Freewater. If I ever figure out how I will upload movies from our trip. Uncle Bob took the kids out on a swather which might have been the highlight of their time!

Our kids had so much fun with Zech and Eleison. Camden almost daily still tells me, "I miss my bwest friend Ehwason." They played so cute together. The only bad thing is how not fun it is when it is time for them to leave.

Honestly could some very smart person please improve transportation technology so there is a way to bring my extended family here for dinner tonight, have it cost about $3 to get them here, and return them home to their own beds tonight. That would be great, thanks. It certainly would be more useful than an ipad.Grandma and Reagan in the alfalfa field.

Oh and here is a little public service message. If your kids swim in grandma and grandpa's pool day after day there is a very good chance that *all* of them will end up with swimmers ear. Plan accordingly.

After a trip down the gorge, we unloaded at home for two days then packed back up and went back to the beach again. On the way we stopped in McMinnville and went to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.

Then it was on to the beach. We went to the beach once the end of July and once the middle of August and didn't really see the sun at all. It was 95 degrees in Portland at the time and we were happy if it hit 65 at the beach. Between the weather and how much I don't like sand I may never go back to the beach again. Although I certainly have never gone to the Oregon coast for the actual beach part, it is all about the company! We spent our second beach trip in Lincoln City with Andrews parents for the first couple of days.

Grandma and Grandad took us to the aquarium in Newport. It was so fun- the kids loved all the animals. I didn't get a picture of it, but when we were in the shark tunnel there is a glass on the floor that you can see underneath and of course Camden's response was to lay down on the floor to see in. It was very cute.

For our last little beach fun the Strandbergs came to join us. Our kids are in heaven when they are around. What amazing teenagers to put up with the punishment our kids put them through.

We went on the Drift Creek Falls hike when we were in Lincoln City. This is such a great hike. The bridge is a suspension bridge and no picture of it can do it justice. You hike down to a beautiful waterfall. We did this hike two years ago (funny how two years ago I was doing a similar "catch up on everything" post) and Camden did not enjoy being held the whole time, in fact he screamed the whole time. I'm happy to say that this time went much better.

Okay. You are officially all caught up. I could have posted about 3,247 more summer pictures, but blogger was freaking out on me with just these. And really, if your still reading this I'm amazed. Hope your summer is as fun as ours!

A trip to the dentist really does deserve a blog post

2010-07-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

Although I already did a facebook status update about our little family trip to the dentist, and although I haven't done a blog post about the significant things in our families lives receintly (you know, July 4th, the weather finally getting warm, my kids doing swimming lessons, basketball camp, tennis camp, my parents taking them to the Lion King, the fireworks tent, basically yadda, yadda, yadda) I'm going to actually do a blog post about the twice yearly family trip to the dentist. The important stuff. You know you could quit reading right now and save yourself...

Yesterday, July 8th, 3:00.

The plan is all 5 Pate family members that currently have teeth that protrude from their gums will go together to the dentist. Honestly, Dr. Monnes and his staff are beautiful people for making this happen. We begin by getting Reagan up from a nap to pop her and Camden in the car. Andrew was picking up Ainsley and Hudson from tennis camp at Cascade and just meeting us there. The plan was I would send their toothbrushes with him so they could brush their teeth at the club before showing up at the dentist. I forgot. I also forgot to brush my own teeth before I went. Oops.

So, I put Reagan in her car seat and hand her the little pringle like container that has Gerber "banana puffs" inside. She has had cherrios and these little puffs a handful of times now and really likes them, I break each one in half and give them to her one at a time. I am nothing if not vigilant when it comes to choking hazards. I was impressed as we were driving to the dentist at how quiet she was, and Camden fell asleep on the way so it was a lovely little drive. I should have known, when I park and open her door she has managed to get the lid off the puffs and has dumped the entire container out on herself in her carseat. She is shoving handfulls of the puffs in her mouth and has wet saliva soaked puffs smashed all over and in her hair. Awesome. So much for the choking hazard thing. Bonus, now I know I don't have to break them in half for her anymore. I take her out of her car seat, pick up as many as I can and salvage them back in the container, shake the rest out onto the rock parking lot ground. Your welcome birds.

I have to tutor at 4:30 so I ask when we go in if I could be the first one to be taken back. I'm assuming that means they will take me, then a kid or two and then I will leave while Andrew and any remaining children have their turn. I take Reagan back with me, my plan being I would just give her puffs one at a time while I was getting my teeth cleaned and that would keep her occupied. She of course has had all the fun she wants with the puffs and instantly is not okay with just sitting there. So I begin my cleaning with her on my lap. I'm holding her tummy and back with both hands and she is sitting just above my knees. I'm trying to keep her facing away from me and as far down as I can reach, because she is obsessed with trying to get the little paper bib I have on. It must be exciting to see someone else wearing a bib. Now, my hygienist is a very sweet woman, but I must tease her a little here because she kept saying to me, "hold on tight, you don't want her to fall on the floor." Really? You think that would be a bad idea? Okay- if you really think so, I'll try and keep that from happening.

Now, just as she has started the lovely scraping (did I mention I forgot to brush my teeth?) I hear them bringing Andrew back, and then I hear Ainsley coming back too. Wait!!! There were only three open chairs. Are you getting what that means? Despite having a sharp object in my mouth I knew what it meant. The three members of the family that can take care of the other three members will all be lying down, staring at the ceiling, with instruments in their mouths unable to tell the other members things like, "DON'T TOUCH THAT DRILL, AND NO!!! DON'T USE THE X-RAY MACHINE!"

I actually have to give the boys credit. They did a lovely job. Although at first I totally panicked. First they hung around Andrew's chair, for about 2 minutes, before moving over to mine. So I was holding Reagan and of course Camden had to climb up on me too. She was trying so hard to get to the shiny sharp objects and my bib and Camden was trying to count my teeth. When we talk to him about going to the dentist we tell him that the dentist has to count his teeth so he has to make a big alligator mouth. So he kept telling me that I was making a good alligator mouth so he would count my teeth so Dr. "Mommis" wouldn't have to. He repeatedly asked the hygienist to move out of his way, she was totally interrupting his important business. As this was going on Hudson was standing over me asking me questions, "Mom, when are we going to be done? Can Colby come over when we get home? What did I get Alec for his birthday present? When I go to Alec's party tonight will I miss dinner at the Strandbergs? Could I have dinner at Alec's house and at the Strandbergs? Can I have cake at Alec's party and still have the dessert you made for tonight?" You get the idea. Of course I couldn't answer any of these questions, and yet he continued asking them, over and over and over. At this point with all this going on at least the hygienist quit telling me to not let Reagan fall on the floor. I'm thinking at this point she was probably wishing she could fall on the floor.

I'm not sure I've ever had such a fast cleaning. She actually didn't even floss my top teeth. I also don't think the fluoride was in long enough, but it was good enough because Reagan finally succeeded at grabbing something and it was the tube that connects the little sucker thing that you hold in your mouth while you have the fluoride trays in your mouth. So I just had the tube, but no sucking was going on. It was a miracle I didn't throw up because one of the leftovers from 4 pregnancies is that I can no longer tolerate anything in my mouth that isn't food without gagging. It sounds like a silly thing, but you know how you put a comb in your mouth when you are putting a pony tail in a little girls hair, or a hanger between your teeth if your hanging something up and buttoning it also? Can't do those things anymore without gagging. Oh, you shouldn't put things like that in your mouth you say? Well, whatever. I can't do it anymore and the comb thing is especially frustrating. So all that to say the flouride trays without the sucker thing just about did me in.

Finally I was done, Ainsley was finished and so the boys both took our places. Andrew was just about finished so I took the girls home so I could tutor and left Andrew there with the boys in the chairs. As I left Camden was asking if they could make the chair go up and down and up and down.

As I have sat down to write this I realize I never actually even asked Andrew how the boys did. For all I know they have ten cavities each. What I do know from their visit is that one of them brought home a whoopee (how do you spell that?) cushion that they are fighting over every chance they get. But the thing is, we get to check "dentist" off our list for the next 6 months.

Tennis

2010-06-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

Continuing to jump back in time...now to May and Barlow tennis. For the 7th year in a row Andrew coached the Barlow boys to the league championships. They did the best at state they have ever done this year. The picture of Ainsley is from when she sold concessions at the game. She loved it.

Field day (more catch-up)

2010-06-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

Deep Creek managed to find one nice day this spring to have field day. Reagan and I got to stop by and watch the kids. It was so fun. Hudson was amazed by the water bottle they gave him with his name on it... so cute. Have I ever mentioned how amazing the view is from the school playground? Not a bad place to hang out.

Canoe Field Trip (catch-up post)

2010-06-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

So before I get behind on summer pictures- I'll try and catch up with a couple things that were fun in the last month or so that I haven't posted anything. Andrew got to go on a field trip with Ainsley. They went on a HUGE canoe on the Willamette river. It looked like so much fun. I call that I get to go the next time one of our kids does this field trip, Andrew says that he is doing it again and I can do OMSI and the Children's Museum. I don't think so. They spent all day and despite getting rained on (because you know, it is spring 2010 and all it has done is rain) they had an amazing time. They went into the locks at Oregon City and went up to the water fall. They saw sea lions, and went over onto an island to have lunch and play Native American games. I'm totally going next time.

Camden Conversations

2010-06-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

Our third child is an adventure every ~~day~~ minute. You never know what he is going to need to talk about. Here are some recent conversations:

(very agitated) "The sun IS NOT fire mom, there is no fire in it. Fire is red, the sun is yellow. There is no fire in the sun mom." (how does he know what color the sun is? We haven't really seen it this year.)

(again agitated) "I want Mountain Hood to wake up and not be sleeping, I want it to explode. I want to see it 'rupt. Mom, WAKE IT UP!"

(in the car) "We are going to wrong way mom!" me: where are we going Camden? "I don't know where we are going, but this isn't how you get there."

Baby toys

2010-05-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

If I had digital pictures from when Ainsley was a baby I would insert them here. Use your imagination and picture a little baby girl, laying on the floor playing with little pink bunnies, rubber ducky teething toys, and baby Einstein peek-a-boo mirrors. Now look at the baby who has two older brothers. That is a shield of some sort that she has pulled on her tummy, and a soccer blanket she has wiggled her way onto.

And yes, that is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask she is playing with. We are all about developmentally appropriate toys around here.

Let the messes begin

2010-05-13T02:47:00.000-07:00

Here it is, "The First Bite."

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to two different people that I hadn't started feeding Reagan baby food yet. She was sleeping through the night and if you have ever seen her thighs, arms, cheeks, or even her little feet, you would know she is hardly malnourished. And the thing is, feeding a baby takes lots of time. It is not like I'm wandering around aimlessly looking for things to fill my time with, so I was going with the far end of the "start solid foods between 4 and 6 months" guideline.

Of course she promptly started waking up at 4:00 in the morning with a growling tummy.

So a few days shy of turning 6 months old it was time to break out the baby food. Hudson was happy to help. She loved the food (I mashed up avocado) but she couldn't figure out how to swallow it. So rather than swallow it, she figured out all sorts of other places to put the avocado.

By the time we were done, it was everywhere. How cute are those little green slime covered feet?

I have some mixed emotions about my last baby starting food. (I think many things the last baby does will elicit mixed emotions.) On the one hand it means other people can care for the little bottle rejecting princess in my absence. On the other, that first bite is the beginning of her breaking up with me. And even when covered in green slime, she is too cute to want to let go of her.

***Edited to add: I fed her a couple of times for two days, then got busy and didn't feed her again for 4 or 5. Oops. But we are back to baby food again about once a day. The fun thing is last summer and early fall I spend lots of time with my vita-mix and made then froze lots of baby food for her. Funny that I'm starting to pull out squash from the freezer that I grew, harvested, cooked, and mashed for a baby I hadn't met yet. I have lots of pears, peaches, squash, pumpkin, carrots, and who knows what else that we grew or bought from Thompson farms (on our street) in the freezer ready to feed her that is actually older than her.

May the force be with you (because that's the only Star Wars phrase I know)

2010-04-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hi my name is Tiffany and I don't like science fiction. In fact, I've never seen an entire Star Wars movie, which I believe is the gateway drug to science fiction, and all things nerdy. Consequently I have not been super excited about my kids liking Star Wars stuff.

However, their father has managed to sneak it past me and they have a full set of Star Wars garbage and we even own the movies. The conclusion I have come to in observing many different parents is that lots of people feel okay about letting their kids play with S.W. stuff because it doesn't feel like they are fighting with weapons, but these same parents won't let their kids have fake guns.

We have chosen to be okay with fake guns, because my boys can make a gun out of a peanut butter sandwich. I have to tell you, in the kids minds there is no difference between S.W. weapons and G.I. Joe weapons. And the thing is, if my boys were out there right now with fake guns, there wouldn't be nearly as many injuries as there are when the are swinging plastic sticks at each other. On another note, but stay with me-it is related, as I mentioned before I buy Valentine's after the 14th each year for the next year. Hudson is so excited because he got G.I. Joe valentine's, completely embracing the love theme of Valentine's Day don't you think?

Grandparent Football Game

2010-04-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

My parents may have raised two girls, but they had no problem playing football outside last weekend with my boys- and Ainsley. Petty cute.

Hospital Tour

2010-04-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

Ainsley has thought for awhile now that she wanted to be a nurse or doctor (see more from her birthday letter below). Andrew happens to have the son of a fundraising director from Providence on his tennis team and she was sweet enough to take us on a tour today. Ainsley just loved it. Hudson went also and he did a great job of listening. Ainsley says after going on the tour today that she definitely wants to be a doctor, and Hudson decided that he wants to be the driver of the oversized golf cart that they have to help move people around the hospital!

What a fun day!

Happy Birthday Ainsley Grace

2010-04-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Ainsley~

Nine years ago today you made me a mom. You made your daddy and I parents. You made us learn what true love is.

Over the course of these nine years you have made us so proud we wanted to explode, so happy we want to dance, and sometimes so frustrated we want to lose our minds. We love you fiercely through all of it.

This has been a big year for you. It is the year you got a sister. I don't know if a child could be happier about anything on the planet. You love Reagan so much it is amazing. You love taking care of her and having a baby in our family again has matured you. Your pride in her and what you can do for her overflows.

You have also had some interesting experiences this year. Tonsils removed, braces on, a ride in an ambulance to an emergency room, and a lazer procedure to lighten a birthmark. When you were younger you didn't like going to the doctor or dentist at all. It was a MAJOR trauma. Now your much more okay with it, in fact, now you very interested in medical stuff. Your a huge planner, and consequently your talking about wanting to be a doctor or nurse when you grow up. It is going to be so fun to see what you decide.

You are fabulous at school and have surprised your teacher with how well you have done this year. You sailed through state testing amazingly well. To say you are a voracious reader would be an understatement. You love, love, love to read. I wish I had a list of everything you have read over the past year, but your favorites have been mystery books. (this makes mommy happy because that is my favorite fiction genre as well- could be I've pointed you to books I enjoyed as a kid).

We are loving how helpful you are around home. You have such good common sense we can really trust you and your going to be a great babysitter when you are older. You already were the babysitter for our community group this year. The kids all stayed in another room and you did deal with all of them really well.

You have always loved music, and this last year you have become quite the little Christian Pop music connoisseur. The Fish radio station is always on in you room. It is hard to find a song they play that you don't know all the words to, and usually you can quote the title and artist. You and daddy went to the Rockin' Worship Road Show this spring and you just loved it. It was a big concert and was so much fun for the two of you to do together. One of the presents you are opening today is tickets to see another concert, Natalie Grant and Britt Nicole. Your going to get to take Lauren with you to celebrate your birthday.

Ainsley, you are growing into such a beautiful young lady. Your beauty is not just on the outside, but on the inside as well.

We feel like we are seeing you change every day. Thanks for making us parents! We love you.

Pictures from your birthday tonight. We have entered a new faze- no toys. You wanted itunes gift cards (you got two ) book store gift cards (also two) and a play make-up set. You also got clothes and a pretty wallet. We also got you the aforementioned concert tickets and a hospital tour for next week (maybe the thing you are most excited about.) Where did our little girl go?

Have you seen anything cuter than this today?

2010-04-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

It is hard to beat the first pony tail!

I don't want to miss anything.

2010-04-01T08:14:00.001-07:00

Last night we were driving home from OMSI and Hudson was doing some thinking:

Hudson: Mom, you know when I'm 8 and I get to go to Seattle with Grandma and Grandad?

Me: Yes.

Hudson: When I'm there, don't go to OMSI.

Me: Okay.

Hudson: Long pause..... and.... don't go to Disneyland either.

Me: Don't worry honey, we won't.

Hudson: and..... long pause... don't eat any Oreo's.

Me: Laughing

Hudson: Quiet. Nothing for 3 or 4 minutes. (Ainsley is reading, Reagan is fussing, Camden is quiet)

Hudson: And mom, (yes), don't have my birthday then.

Me: Okay sweetie, we will just sit around the house and miss you.

Camden, Camden, Camden...

2010-03-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

This kid keeps us busy and laughing. A couple of quotes:

Camden: "Mom, I'm really, really sorry for when I cut things that weren't paper."

Me: "Okay, just don't do it again."

Camden: "I will do it again, but I'll be really, really sorry about it."

(that's called premeditation sweetheart!)

__________________________________________________________________

About Reagan: "Mom, her mouth is getting covered up by the food in her cheeks!"

Also about "little" Reagan: "Mom, I think Reagan has a baby in her tummy too!" (I hope when you say "too" you mean that you still think you have a baby in your tummy and your not referring to me!)

___________________________________________________________________

"Mom, we can't flush my poop down the hole in the toilet because next time I'm going to poop that one's mom and I don't want them to be sad because they're not in there together."

___________________________________________________________________

One of these things is not like the other

2010-03-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

Get in touch with your inner Sesame Street character and sing with me.:

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,

Can you tell which things is not like the others,
By the time I finish my song?

Three of these kids belong together

Three of these kids are kind of the same
But one of these kids is doing her own thing

Now it's time to play our game.
It's time to play our game!

***Actually she does totally belong...it just turns out I (tiffany) was able to actually sneak a little genetic material of my own into little miss Reagan! It is pretty strange to look at one of my babies and see blue eyes! Her head shape, nose, and eyes are completely different than the other three. Her mouth looks look Ainsley's mouth which is different from the boys. I always said I wanted our babies to "match" - Andrew's Dad and sister both have red hair- and it is beautiful, but I was worried that I would end up with a couple of brown haired kids and then have one with red hair that would look like they didn't belong because neither parent has red hair It didn't even occur to me there was a third option! The pictures are all at 3 months, the order of the pictures is Hudson, Ainsley, Camden, and then Reagan.

A weekend with dad

2010-03-01T08:50:00.000-08:00

The Cornerstone Ladies's Getaway this weekend meant that there were a whole lot of kids home with daddies this weekend. My sweet husband documented dinner at the Libey's house with lots of them on Saturday night. He used this video for the opening at church on Sunday morning. I just want to point out that although it is my son who first jumped in the bag of popcorn, none of my children had anything to do with lighting the backyard on fire.

http://vimeo.com/9810740

Daddy Weekend (By Andrew Pate) from Barry Arnold on Vimeo.

A trauma that wasn't and a trauma that was.

2010-02-25T11:20:00.000-08:00

Forty-Eight hours after a very scary day I'm ready to write about it. I need to write it down so my kids have something to look back on to see how God worked in our lives. So here it is.

I was coming home from working in Ainsley's classroom. The boys were at my sweet neighbors (thanks Tracy!) and I needed more dishwasher detergent. (the exciting life I lead) Tracy had told me she could keep the boys a few extra minutes so I could run to the store after my time at school. So with Reagan I was going to run into Bi-Mart in Damascus really quick. This meant rather than turning right out onto highway 212 like I would going home, I was turning left. I came up to the stoplight, stared right at the green light and slowly came to a complete stop. I had some internal dialogue going on in my head and was completely driving on auto-pilot. I have no idea why I stopped, but just as I was staring at that green left turn arrow slowing down to a stop my attention was grabbed by a loud, long horn from a semi-truck. A big, red, semi comes flying down hwy 212 and right through the intersection. As he was right in front of me I actually had brief eye contact with the driver and he put one hand up in the air and I think he might have been mouthing "sorry," although honestly I might have made the sorry part up in my head. I'm not sure. As he flew through the intersection I looked up to the light above him and it was of course as red as red gets. I looked back over to my green light, and slowly think, "wait, why am I stopped?" Right then my light changes to yellow. Then to red. I sat there through that red light and process the fact that had I gone through the green light like I should have, that semi-truck would have hit me full speed right on my door and the door behind me where Reagan was. I keep thinking about that really old Amy Grant song Angels Watching Over Me and the line, "Near misses all around me, accidents unknown. Though I never see with human eyes the hands that lead me home." All I can do right now with tears in my eyes it thank the Lord that I get to be here another day. That was only the first time on Tuesday I got to see God at work.

I went on to Bi-Mart, got my dish soap, and picked up the boys. I came home, nursed Reagan then got out the crock-pot to get dinner ready. Just as I was opening the refrigerator my phone rang. My heart skipped a beat when the caller ID was from the school. When Kathy, the secretary, started talking I knew something wasn't good. She said Ainsley had fallen off the bars at school and had walked in from the playground but was having a hard time breathing and they couldn't quite tell what was wrong. She thought her back and stomach hurt, and that she hit her head. I said I would be right there. I put the little kids right in the car and headed to the school. Ironically, just as I was turning through the intersection from the near-miss this morning happened my cell phone rang and it was Kathy again, she said, "Tiffany we are calling 9-1-1." Not the type of thing you want to hear.

I was almost there so I beat the paramedics to the school. I parked and left the 3 little kids in the car and ran in the school. Ainsley was in the health room with the principal, secretaries, and the school counselor. I sat down next to hear and she wasn't moving and gasping for breath and prayed out loud for her. I prayed she would be okay, I prayed for the paramedics coming to take care of her, and for peace for her and for me. The paramedics came and started assessing her. In the interest of not making this blog post a novel I'll skip some of the details but they were concerned she could have a spinal injury, head injury, respiratory injury, or internal injuries. That is just not good. They strapped her down on a stretcher and took her out to the ambulance.

I had called Andrew, he rushed out of Barlow and was on his way to us. The staff at Ainsley's school was amazing, the school counselor and the secretaries took care of my little kids. They went out and were with them in the car, and then after Ainsley and I left in the ambulance, they brought them in and took care of them until Andrew got there. When Andrew got to the school he went in and got Ainsley's lunch and had them feed that to Hudson, then left him there to go on into kindergarten. He took Camden over to our neighbors (thanks again Tracy) and headed out with Reagan to the hospital. From the ambulance I called Arlene, my mother-in-law, and she was a saint and jumped in her car to come to our house from Salem so she could pick up Camden and be there when Hudson got home from school.

At first the paramedics said I had to ride in the front of the ambulance. But Ainsley's breathing was getting worse and he decided he was going to put an IV in as we were driving so he said, "your nice and calm and will help her be calm so as long as you are going to stay under control you can ride back here with her." We left the school and headed in towards Gresham, it had been about 5 minutes and Ainsley's breathing wasn't getting any better. Suddenly her blood pressure went up to 140 something over something I don't remember. Then it dropped down to 70 something again over something I don't remember - it is a blur. He started feeling her stomach again and said it was really hard and he was listening to it and said he couldn't hear any digestive noises, which he should have been able to. He then called up to the driver and told him to turn on the lights.

Evidently, "turn on the lights" also means go really, really fast. Suddenly we were going through town at about 70 mph and one thing I learned is that city streets aren't made for going 70. When you go 70 on the freeway it feels right, through town it is a bumpy, wild ride. Another thing is the siren on an ambulance is MUCH louder when you are actually in the ambulance. Wow.

The paramedic yelled over the noise to me and said, we are going to re-rout to Emmanuel because we need to get her into the trauma unit. Okay. More praying. I just kept praying outloud for her to be okay and for her to have peace, and to know that Jesus loves her and God was in control of everything.

He put oxygen on her and had an IV going. After he radioed ahead again to the hospital that we were 10 minutes out he explained to me what was going to happen. He told me a trauma unit would be waiting to take her right in. He had told them he thought she had internal injuries, he was guessing her liver or spleen because he could feel on the sides where her kidneys were and they felt okay. He said that a child her age wouldn't have muscles as tight as she had and so he thought that there was internal bleeding and that is why he couldn't hear anything. He said that if they thought they had lots of time they would do a sonogram to look, if they were more worried they would get her into a CT scan, and if her vitals continued to be really bad (her blood pressure was still weird and her pulse was really high) they would skip both of those and just assume there were internal injuries that they needed to fix and would take her right to exploratory surgery. He said he thought she would need to go right to surgery because kids often are okay for a little bit like she was, but then (his words) "crash" really quickly.

Just as we were passing the Rose Garden, so getting close to the hospital, her breathing started getting much better. She had enough breath to say a few words and the panic that was on her face from that horrible feeling of not being able to get enough air started to relax.

When we pulled up the the hospital it was just like you see on TV- a trauma doctor and a group of nurses were waiting right at the door and just surrounded Ainsley and began assessing her. A social worker immediately came and got me and started explaining that I wouldn't be able to be with her in the room they were taking her into. I said no problem, started talking with her and giving her my insurance card. After about one minute she said, your fine actually, so I can take you in with her. She brought me in the room and a nurse explained that we were going to go down to do a CT scan. Ainsley's breathing had settled down so much, and she was answering their questions. In the scan room they told me I could stay with her if I remained calm, otherwise she would be in there alone. The nurse said as long as Ainsley stayed calm they wouldn't have to sedate her for the scan, so if I could stay with her and keep her calm it would be best for her. Ainsley did great and did exactly what they told her to do. She had to hold so still, despite the scary situation, and did an amazing job. We were in doing the scan within about 4 minutes of arriving at the hospital. (on a side note, love the medical system-don't mess it up government)

As the scan was being read her vital signs continued to improve and they took her off the oxygen. She was talking breathing so much better. They came in to tell us about the scan and they had found some fluid in her abdomen but they didn't think there were any major injuries. The tightness in her stomach was in fact just her muscles that were so tight after the hard fall. They said she was in respiratory distress, that basically she had the wind-knocked out of her times about 10. He lungs had taken such a hit that there were spasms happening that were preventing her from being able to breath well. The oxygen in the ambulance had helped get her out of the spasms and helped stabilize her. They took her off the spinal injury board and un-strapped her head (to her great relief). They said they would keep her overnight to observe her, and she flipped out the most she did the entire time. She WAS NOT staying in the hospital over night.

The doctor finally agreed she could go home, (like Cyndi said, very few people walk out of the trauma unit) and she has a huge bump on the back of her head (we think she hit the bars on the way down, because she couldn't have gotten that bump from the bark-dusted ground) and her back and chest are really sore, but she is okay. She was up for much of the night on Tuesday night because her body hurt, (and emotionally she was a bit shook) but she wanted desperately to go to school on Wednesday (Wednesday is library day). One of her main worries in the hospital was a project that she needed to finish and it wouldn't be done because she wasn't there that afternoon. Her precious, amazing teacher put the project in her backpack and sent it home with Hudson, saving us much emotional turmoil.

Her other big concern is that she doesn't want the other kids to make a big deal at school about what happened. So... if you are reading this and are the parent of a friend of my little love, don't share the story with them. Again, her wonderful teacher protected this and kept it quiet so she didn't have to deal with it much the next day. It was okay with her for me to write about it, but she just doesn't want to talk about it much.

The lessons I learned on Tuesday? The first is God is good, God is good, God is good. Keep saying that 800,000 more times and it doesn't quite do it justice. The second is life is so precious. The third is that staying calm in scary situations really does pay off. I was able to make it so much less traumatic for Ainsley because I was able to be with her almost the whole time. Had I flipped out (like would have been easy to do) I wouldn't have been able to be close to her during everything.

I so thank Arlene for coming to our house so I didn't have to worry about the boys, Tracy for taking Camden on literally a moments notice, and the staff at school- they were so great. It is pretty wonderful to have teachers at the school telling you they are praying, and Ainsley's teacher gave her a card and stuffed animal the next day. We also so appreciate the prayers of everyone who prayed, my parents church and Tennille's church were praying. It all happened so fast and my phone calls were just to our parents and making child care arrangements, so I didn't even get Cornerstone called! God knows all of you would have prayed had you known what was happening :) . (did that last paragraph sound like I was accepting some award?)

Anyway- Hug your kids. Praise the Lord.

Determining her priorities for Valentine's Day

2010-01-31T14:53:00.000-08:00

Last year after Valentine's Day I bought boxed valentines for the kids to use. They each picked out a kind and we bought them at like 75% off and packed them away to use this year. Ainsley picked High School Musical.

Fast forward to last week. She came to me and asked when we were getting the valentines out. She then said she thought she maybe wanted different valentines than the HSM ones. I asked her if she didn't like the HSM ones, and she said they were okay, but she thought maybe she was getting to old for High School Musical and she really wanted puppy ones. (does that make any sense?) Anyway, I decided it wasn't the few dollars that another box would cost, it was sort of the principle of buying other ones.

So after I thought about it for a little bit this was our conversation:

Me: Ains, I'm happy to drive you to any store you want to buy new valentines, but since I already bought one box I'm going to let you pay for the next box.

Ainsley: (without even hesitating for a second) Oh okay, then I'm going to be just fine with the High School Musical ones.

Funny how spending your own money on something changes the priorities a bit.

Baby Dedication

2010-01-18T15:58:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we dedicated Reagan's life to the Lord at church. We have done this three times at Cornerstone, and once (Ainsley- pre-Cornerstone) at our house with our family and friends there. Each time we have written a letter to the child expressing our desires for their life. Barry made a video already (how great to have a pastor that is not only amazing- but puts up video links to events just a few hours after they happened!) - you can view the rest of the dedications (there were 5 kids total on Sunday- all sweet families with great kids) at www.cstonechurch.com

Reagan P dedication from Barry Arnold on Vimeo.

Here is our letter in case you can't see/hear the video:

Reagan Joy,

Sweet baby girl we love you so much. You are wonderful little baby who has proved the pattern that every baby in our family gets easier than the one before. However, I also have observed the pattern that every three-year-old gets harder than the one before, and it is because of this you are going to stay the baby of the family by being the last Pate baby. Three years ago when I wrote a letter like this to Camden I mentioned that if he was looking to fill a unique position in the family, the role of the calm-quiet, compliant child was available. Well, as it turns out that role is still open. However, I have come to the conclusion that you probably don’t possess the genetic material for such a personality, and I wouldn’t know what to do with that anyway, so instead I am looking forward to raising an ambitious, energetic, and strong girl.

My first desire in life is to glorify God in all I say and do, my second desire is to raise you and your siblings to have the same first desire as I do. Reagan, I pray you would have a fierce love for the Lord and while I will fail you I want you to know that He never will.

Reagan you completed our family so perfectly. You couldn’t be more loved by us, or by your older siblings. If experiencing each new stage of parenting has taught us anything, it is that we on our own are insufficient to the task of being good parents to you. The great thing about that is that when we rely on Jesus, we don’t have to live life and parent you and your brothers and sisters on our own. We pray that as you grow up, that you will pursue a deep relationship with our savior, that you will boldly proclaim his name and that you will realize your need to depend on Him always. We pray that we would continue to seeks God’s wisdom and quickly turn to Him in times of trial, so you can learn positive lessons from us.

Today Reagan, we dedicated you to the Lord. We ask that he would guide your life and you would serve him all of your days on this side of Heaven, and you would look forward to Eternal Life with him. We dedicate ourselves to doing our best, through the Holy Spirit, to raise you in a way that leads you to the Lord and into a life of service to Him.

Love, Mom and Dad

Haiti

2010-01-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

This post is one that has been rattling around in my head for the last two weeks, stopping any of my typical cute little kid stories for appearing here. But this post doesn't "fit" my blog. But the earthquake in Haiti yesterday was the prompt I needed to actually sit down and write it, even if it doesn't fit. So stick with me even if you showed up here looking for a cute little story about something my kids have done.

My sister-in-law gave us a book for Christmas called "Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle." We celebrated Christmas with them early because we were going to Milton-Freewater for Christmas, so I had the book ahead of Christmas. While we were packing to go to M-F I put the book in the car thinking I would skim through it a little on the drive. With a 5 week old I honestly was not doing much reading, if I had time to sit down long enough to read I was instantly asleep. Well, I didn't even look at the book on the drive to M-F or the entire time while I was there. However, when we were driving home I found myself in the position to open it.

You have to picture the situation I was in when I started reading the book. We were coming home with my family so every seat in two cars was full. Nathan was in the front seat with of our van with Andrew, so I was in the very back of the van in the middle of Ainsley and Hudson. It is four days after Christmas and our van is quite full with 7 of us and all of our Christmas gifts.

The book is the story of the author and his wife as they went to serve in Haiti with an organization called Beyond Borders. To begin their time they had to spend 8 months living with a typical Haitian family. I knew very little about Haiti before reading the book, and I can hardly believe how deplorable the conditions are (and this was before the earthquake yesterday). 80% of the people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day, transportation is a nightmare, there are often floods and landslides, deforestation has ruined much of the country, water is usually contaminated, and the government is unstable.

Kent Annan, the author of the book, is a wonderful writer. The story is engrossing and compelled me to do something. What that something is, I don't know. However, there are some parts that I must share. On Kents blog he has a video that shares part of the book that precedes my favorite paragraph of the book. In this video he is listing all the things he wants after being in Haiti for 5 months:

And now the paragraph that follows:

"Things on the above list aren't all bad. But part of why I looked forward to moving to Haiti is because I hate how easy it is to satiate my hunger for God and for good and for love by stuffing my appetites with food, with entertainment, with ambition, with stuff. How easy it is to fill the echo chamber that calls me toward God and good and love with other clanging noises. The absence in Haiti of choices to feed this profound hunger is unpleasant.. but I need it I'm too often too weak to hunger for good (or, to be more biblical, to seek the kingdom of God) and to pull away from the dancing lights that have embarrassing power over me, like over a mindless, fluttering moth."

So here I was in the car with my four healthy, well fed, well clothed children who have more toys than they know what to do with reading about conditions that are worse than anything we would find in the poorest cities in America. I have lots of "stuff" that way to often satiates my hunger for God, and does the same for my children. Ainsley asked for something to eat just as I was reading one part where he recounts the story of a boy who rescued a page out of an American magazine that he had thrown in the garbage fire and the boy carried it around for months as one of his most cherished objects. Nathan handed Ainsley some tortilla chips and she started complaining because she didn't like that kind of chips. My response to her was a little more harsh than usual. It has really made me think about how my kids are growing up, and what I should do about it.

As I'm writing these scattered thoughts I just heard more news about the earthquake on the radio. They are reporting that there are bodies of children piled up outside of a collapsed school, the UN building collapsed, the national prison broke open so all the criminals inside have escaped, and they are estimating 500,000 people have died. It brings me to another quote from the book:

"The aphorism "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps" comes ironically to mind because it's so inapplicable: if you can't afford boots, don't have any power and barely any resources, if there's no way to hoist yourself up, then when you need something (say, food or tuition for your kids) the choices are either to ask for it or take it. Or suffer quietly. ...So are good, brilliant, powerful people working somewhere to find systemic economic and political solutions to the problems we see crushing down on our neighbors? And will the good guys win? Because too often they don't."

I know ultimately THE Good Guy wins. But in the mean time what am I doing for the people of the world who don't have the resources that I/we treat as a birthright? How can I live and how can I raise my children so we don't try and fill up our need for God with entertainment, other people, and the stuff that is so easily acquired here? Hmmm... My prayer today is that the earthquake in Haiti brings light and attention to this country that is in desperate need.

The Christmas Post

2009-12-27T22:25:00.000-08:00

Happiness: Visiting M-F, Hanging out with my family, playing games all evening after the kids are in bed. It is good. Here are the kids with my parents on Christmas Eve~

Here are the kids on Chrismas Eve tracking Santa. So cute.

Eleison and Camden - little partners in crime. Today they were dumping out the entire Blokus game. When I talked to them about it Eleison said, "it was fun."

Thanks Strandbergs for the Gingerbread house to decorate. It was so fun, and some of the candy even made it on the gingerbread house!

My mom and dad made Christmas gifts for us. This was ours, my mom cut out and painted a Nativity set for us. I love, love, love it!

Look how cute it is- it will be so fun to put out every year.

For Nathan and Tennille they made windows for their house. They will look amazing. Say a little prayer that shipping all three of them back to Minnesota is successful.

One of my favorite quotes from Christmas is courtesy of Hudson. He got $20 in his stocking (good for the kids when my dad does the stocking stuffers). The $20 was tied in popularity as the favorite stocking stuffer with a little plastic gum ball machine from the dollar store. I asked him what he was going to do with his $20, which is about $19 more than he has ever had in his life. His response was classic: "I think I'm going to buy 2o more of the gumball machines."

Ready for bed Christmas Eve- How cute are my girls?

And finally, here is Reagan in her Christmas dress.

Hope your Christmas was as great as ours has been.

Three already???

2009-12-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Camden~

You turn three today. THREE! I can hardly believe how big you are! You tell us all the time that you are a big boy, yet you love to get out of the shower and have me wrap you in a towel and, "carry you like a baby" and even rock you all snuggled up like that.

I started blogging right after you were born, so much of your life is chronicled here. You have led a life these first three years that has given me lots and lots to write about. I don't see that changing any time soon.

You have a personality that just doesn't stop. You make us laugh constantly and amaze us with the different things you figure out. You talk ALL THE TIME. As in CONSTANTLY. Something crosses your mind and it is out your mouth before the thought could possibly be finished in your little head.

You want to do everything your older brother and sister do. This year that included school. Since Hudson and Ainsley were both in school this year we had to do something, so when they started school this fall you and I started "potty school." You told everyone that you were going to potty school. It actually worked quite well, until you learned that you couldn't ride the bus and that was a bit of a problem.

You love the letter C and anything that has a C in it you think is yours. Other children with boxes of Crayola Crayons are a bit of a problem because there are two C's you can find, so clearly they belong to you alone. When Grandma Arlene told you that you had earned an "A" in potty school you were stressed and told her that you had a "C," at first she tried to tell you that an A was better, until we realized you were wanting a "C" because that is the best letter.

A few of our favorite things you do are:

-put your fingers up over your eyes to make little circles like they are binoculars when we are out on a walk and you are looking at something special.

-you save face when something has not gone quite right by saying in this cute little voice, "oh yeah, sorry, that was just and ac-s-dent."

-every book you read is your favorite.

-you call Reagan's blanket that is like your blue blankie her "pink-blue blankie."

-daily you exclaim that Reagan is, "so cute!"

-you will try to do just about anything.

The last few weeks since we had Reagan have been a bit challenging for you. You had a good run as the youngest in the family, and it is a tough position to give up. If I am nursing Reagan you sit on my lap too, if I'm holding her you suddenly have a tummy ache, and you are putting her binkie in your mouth and chewing it- you haven't used a pacifier since you were 6 months old so you don't even know how to suck on it! Despite being a bit traumatized right now I know it won't be long before you don't remember life before Reagan and that you are going to like having someone younger than you in the family and another person to play with.

Your energy level can totally wear us out, but we wouldn't change it for anything Camden. We love you so much and have so much fun watching you grow and develop. This last year has brought us so much joy in watching you change from a baby into a little boy.

We can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us with you. We know it won't be boring with you around. Most of all we are excited because we know this will be the year you start to know and understand more about the God who made you and loves you.

We love you Camden.

Here you are with your soccer ball birthday cake.

We went to Mt. Scott pool to celebrate your birthday.

I interrupt your day...

2009-12-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

for some cuteness~

doesn't it make you want to go snuggle up and take a nap?

Yep, we are Hudson.

2009-12-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

I was up in the attic getting Christmas stuff down and Hudson of course followed me. I don't know what exactly what it is about the attic that he is so drawn to, but he loves it up there. It could be the pull down ladder, the bins of mysterious stuff, or the slightly dangerous feeling he has up there, but for some reason he loves it.

When I moved Christmas tubs around to reveal our outdoor nativity set he looked at it and said, "OH! I forgot about that!" (Christmas decorations are so fun with kids, I love how they seem so new and exciting, but yet elicit memories for them at the same time.)

Then he said after a pause, "We are really big fans of Jesus aren't we?"

That is pretty high up my list of my favorite things my kids have ever said.

The Christmas Tree

2009-12-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

There are lots of reasons I love living in Damascus. One of my favorites is being able to walk to Thompson Farms to get produce. It really benefits us every season because they have 8 acres of Christmas trees growing just across from our greenway. It made me giggle to think of the years we drove for miles to get to a you-cut tree farm. Here are the kids next to the tree we picked.

Proud Siblings

2009-12-02T17:11:00.000-08:00

The adjustment to having a new sibling is going pretty well. Bringing Reagan home from the hospital to meet the kids was so fun. They were waiting outside for us and rushed up to the car, we had a hard time even getting her out of the car because they were so excited to see her.

They had made a big sign to put on our garage with my parents. It was so cute.

Ainsley is just so happy to have a sister. When we were at the hospital she wrote a song for Reagan that she sang over and over to her on the phone. When we got home she had written the song out on a little poster- this picture is when she was singing to her in person for the first time- the pink paper is the song.

The big surprise has been how Hudson just adores Reagan. He went from telling us he wasn't going to hold the baby if it was a girl, to BEGGING to hold her all the time. He is absolutely in love with her.

Camden is the one that has had his world rocked a little more with the new member of the family. This doesn't surprise any of us, being that he is the one who has had his position in the family changed the most. While he is being really clingy, he does exclaim at least 5 times a day, "she's so cute!" so at least he does enjoy her. He also has tried biting my feet, legs, and shoulder telling me that I'm feeding him, so we are for sure dealing with some issues.

I took Reagan in to the kids school so they could show her off. They both were so excited to show their friends how they could hold her and how little she was.

Everyone asks if Reagan looks like the other kids, she does. Her face is a little narrower than the other kids at this age, but she looks like Ainsley's baby pictures. She even has the same amount of hair. I'm so happy that they all match!

Turkey Bowl

2009-12-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

As long as I'm trying to catch up on blog photos I thought I'd also jump back to Thanksgiving. One of our neighbors (thanks Katz family!) organized a Turkey Bowl out in our greenway. Hudson has been excited about it since Halloween when we heard about it. He wanted to practice all the time. It was flag football, but he practiced tackle, "the real way" he insists.

Ainsley was originally drawn to the event by the promise of donuts and hot chocolate, but ended up loving playing football. She found that her soccer skills transfered over and she did a great job of kicking off- perfect straight, long kicks!

It was pretty wet and cold, so Camden stopped about half way through, but daddy, Ainsley, and Hudson had a great time to the very end. Can you see the chocolate smeared all over Camden's face? Our kids didn't need Thanksgiving dinner- they were happy with their morning treats.

I would be a negligent wife if I didn't mention that Andrew scored not one, but two touchdowns. :)

Baby catch-up post

2009-12-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

Okay- It has been three weeks since we had Reagan, and since I posted anything on our blog. It is not for lack of blog material- it is for lack of time, as anyone who has ever had more than one child can imagine. Someone at church told me that when you have one child you are a couple with a child, when you have two kids you are now technically a family, when you have three kids and you are now outnumbered and life really begins. I am adding that when you get to four kids it is a whole special kind of crazy.

The good news is so far it hasn't been very crazy- but come March when it is raining all the time, tennis season is underway, and my mom is not here all bets are off.

So, while I have the time here are some pictures to catch you up on little baby Reagan.

Here I am with her right after she was born:

I am so happy that I don't have to be pregnant again, but I will miss not getting to do "delivery days" ever again. All four of my babies births have been so wonderful- Reagan's birth was so calm yet exciting. What a blessing to get to have babies!

Here she is having her first bath, which she didn't appreciate much.

And here she is all dressed for the first time- in hospital clothes- see more about that below.

And here we are with her the next morning after she was born.

Andrew went to Lloyd center to buy clothes for her- we didn't have any infant girl stuff. Evidently 8 years is too long for me to keep clothes without giving them away. We discovered the night before going to the hospital that we didn't have girl stuff. I'm pretty sure that was Murphy's Law kicking in and that is why we ended up with a girl :) So actually that worked out well. (Although actually we are crediting Ainsley with the girl because she said she prayed every day in the shower the whole time I was expecting that the baby would be a girl. Her teacher told us that she told her whole class about her prayer schedule.)

Lots more pictures and stories to come!

Here she is!

2009-11-09T18:48:00.001-08:00

Woo Hoo!

Reagan Joy Pate joined our family at 5:16 pm today. She weighed 8 lbs and 1.5 oz. She is 21 and 1/2 inches long.

She is absolutely darling! She matches her siblings in looks, lots of brown hair.

We have had the name for the last SIX years, waiting for a little girl to give it to. If we had a boy we were in trouble because we were stuck between Beckett, Beckham, Baylor, and Tabor. We were probably going to go with Beckham Malachi.

She is a doll and my labor and delivery went great. I pushed for 10 minutes and it was simple and perfect.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. We can't wait for everyone to meet her!

Here we go...

2009-11-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

Checked into the hospital this morning- we are very ready to find out who little Pate #4 is going to be!

Here is the obligatory picture of me for the LAST time looking like this! Woo Hoo!

And look, my cute painted toes- courtesy of a fun pedicure with Heather and Cyndi yesterday afternoon. Who could ask for better friends!

I will post as the day goes on...

Family planning

2009-11-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

The upcoming arrival of #4 is the big point of conversation around our house. It is going to be interesting because Ainsley is desperate for a sister, Hudson says he won't hold the baby unless it is a boy, and Camden thinks the baby in his tummy is bigger than the one in my tummy.

One of our best conversations happened yesterday morning. Ainsley was brushing her hair in our room when the following conversation happens:

Ainsley: So both my grandparents had 2 kids, you guys are having 4, so I'll probably have 6.

Me: What if it is a doubling pattern instead of an adding pattern so you'll have 8?

Ainsley: No way.

(pause) Andrew and I giggle.

Ainsley: Well, I guess if this baby ends up being a boy and I have to learn to deal with three little brothers I could probably handle 8 kids.

Good. I'm looking forward to lots of grandkids. :)

The differences between kids.

2009-10-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

I know your not supposed to compare you kids, but it sure is fun sometimes to see how different God can make people even with the same genetic make-up. Ainsley and Hudson both going to the same school has highlighted these differences lately.

Our little first-born, rule-follower has NEVER in her entire school career gone to the nurses office. She has come home from school two times, ones in first grade and once in second actually crying because she was so sick but wouldn't tell her teacher because she was too freaked out to go through the trauma of being sent out of the room to go to the office and health room.

Our little second-born adventure seeker has managed to make his way to the nurses office twice already in 6 weeks of half-day school. The first time he evidently witnessed another child getting to get an ice pack because he had a headache. So the very next day Hudson convinced his teacher he needed to go get a ice pack. When he told me about it he explained that he did have a headache, "remember, back when I got my tonsils out." Yes sweetie, but that was in August. His second time he saw that someone else got a neon yellow band-aid and he thought that was cool. So he picked out one of the numerous wounds on his leg that are always around and suddenly needed a band-aid for it. What is especially funny about that is he wouldn't actually put it on the abrasion, he just wanted the band-aid. Ainsley has discovered, and shared the information with Hudson, that band-aids do not actually do anything to help the pain of a wound, and eventually inflict more pain when the band-aid must be removed. Consequently, they both would rather let blood gush out of a cut for hours rather than apply a band-aid.

Camden is not yet capable of understanding of this reasoning and would love to have his entire body covered in band-aids at all times. The problem with this is he is super sensitive to the adhesive in band-aids, so a week after the sore has healed he still has huge red marks where the band-aid was stuck. Figures doesn't it?

I drop Hudson off at school every afternoon. He recently revealed to me his little routine when he goes into the building. It turns out rather than go directly into his classroom, my little adventurer heads down the hall, then the wrong direction to take a stroll through the cafeteria. His drop off time is between the first and second lunch times so there aren't any kids in there yet, but he wanders through to see what is going on in there, see what is for hot lunch, and sometimes talk to the lunch lady. He said he also looks down the long hall to look for Ainsley, and then sometimes walks through the library. Ainsley would go directly from point A to point B, Hudson is on his own little self-guided school tour.

Ainsley has had hot lunch at school exactly one time, in kindergarten. She vowed she would rather not eat than ever have hot lunch again. It is gross, and even worse, it takes too long to get so you don't get to chat at the table as long or go to recess as early. The first long Wednesday when Hudson got to eat at school he of course wanted to try hot lunch. He of course has asked for it every time since. I've explained that he can have it every once in a while, but I'm not paying $2 routinely for him to eat a sandwich on white bread and chocolate milk. Fortunately he ran his new little plan by me before actually executing it (I hope). He told me that no one would notice if he just went and got a chocolate milk, and he thinks it is okay to just go and get one because it is "just like getting a drink out of the drinking fountain." Uhhh... no honey, you have to pay for the milk and your not having chocolate milk. It was like talking to a wall for a little while to try and convince him he couldn't go and just help himself to milk. He honestly couldn't quite grasp that it would be stealing to do so.

Ainsley lost a tooth at school once and it was a traumatic event. So traumatic that it turns out the tooth fairy will leave you $2 for a tooth that falls out at school rather than the $1 that you get for a tooth lost at home. Hudson has his first wiggly tooth, and our little capitalist-attention seeker has decided that he is ONLY going to wiggle it at school so it will fall out there where all his friends will see and he will get more money. Can't argue with that logic!

It is so fun to watch kids grow-up.

So if we just give lessons to the first ones...

2009-10-28T05:42:00.004-07:00

...then they will teach the little ones, right? These pictures are from a couple of months ago, but I just found them. Makes me ready for summer again. Hudson and Camden are in our backyard and Hudson was actually trying to give Camden a tennis lesson. How cute is that? Look at him in the middle picture showing him how to have the right grip. :) They figured out if they hit the ball on the roof it would come back down and they could then try and hit it again. Consequently there are probably now lots of interesting things on our roof I don't know about.

Too funny...

2009-10-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know consistency does eventually lead to sanity- but this is just sometimes too true!

Conversations with a 2-year-old.

2009-10-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes conversations with Camden leave you scratching your head.

Examples:

Daddy: Do you have to go potty?
Camden: I already did.
Daddy: When?
Camden: Halloween. (today is October 18th)

Mommy: We got you some books at the library. (said in a nice voice by the way)
Camden: Okay, Okay, you don't have to be so mean.

Driving in the car, at about 10am
Camden: go left and we will drive to the dark time.

Camden: Mommy, is the baby in your tummy getting bigger than the baby in my tummy?
Mommy: Yes
Camden: NO IT IS NOT! IT IS NOT! (very mad)

A couple of Ainsley's punchlines

2009-09-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

Two funny things Ainsley said this weekend:

We were out to dinner at Red Robin (overstimulating restaurant, lovely because kids can be loud and no one can hear them over the other noise) and they had this advertisement in the middle of the table that was shaped to be like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Andrew explains to the kids what the real Leaning Tower of Pisa is and tells them about when he walked up the stairs inside of the building. He then tells them how engineers are trying to keep it from continuing to lean more because if they don't eventually it's center of gravity will be too far off and it will fall over. Ainsley pipes up with, "The news people will love it when that happens."

My parents were here this weekend and when ever they leave it is TRAUMATIC for the kids. Camden screamed, and screamed, and screamed when they left. As Ainsley and Hudson were telling them goodbye and Camden was freaking out Ainsley says, "This is going to take me years of therapy to get over."

No drama around here.

Mouth Jewelry

2009-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

As if poor Ainsley didn't have enough trauma to her little mouth lately (tonsillectomy) she got braces this week. She loves how they look, but is not enjoying the way they feel. Fortunately, the attention at school for having braces might make up for the pain.

Kindergarten!

2009-09-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

It was a very long week and a half after Ainsley started for Hudson to wait to start Kindergarten. Finally on Tuesday he got to go to his "gradual entry" day and yesterday was his first official day and now we are on the every day schedule. He is in afternoon so waiting all morning is a bit long too, but I like only getting one ready in the morning. (and I'm also going to enjoy the next 8 weeks before I have the baby of the afternoons with both big kids in school and Camden taking a nap!) Here he is before school:

Camden needed to be in a picture too (he is doing "potty school"- happily that has been really easy. Talk about a blessing for me!)

How cute is he?! He had a great day and loved his teacher. A funny coincidence is that both A & H have student teachers in their class, and both of the student teachers at one point had Andrew for a teacher at Barlow! Small world.

Here he is in his classroom:

Here he is coming off the bus THE FIRST DAY! Riding the bus home with Ainsley is the part of school he has been anticipating the most. So cute!

Third Grade

2009-09-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

Today we sent Ainsley off to third grade. When I picked her up after school I could tell before she even said a word that she was not happy. As we were walking across the parking lot she said her day was horrible and she would tell me about it in the car. I responded with, "I'm sorry it wasn't great, but I'm glad your done for the day because I missed you." She then said, "Well, you'll never have to miss me again because I'm never going back."

Don't worry, she is going back. Happily Ainsley didn't just learn school work today. We had the opportunity to process the difference between expectations and reality. By the time she went to bed tonight we were to the point that she was willing to go back, had determined that her teacher might actually be nice, and she has flowers ready to take to her in the morning. Who knew you needed the skills of a hostage negotiator to parent?

A watched pot may never boil...

2009-09-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

...but watched cookies do bake.

Double the pleasure, double the fun... right?

2009-09-05T16:30:00.001-07:00

A resounding no. Two kids getting their tonsils out was more like double the misery, double the pain. It sounded like such a good idea...they both need it done, so just do it at the same time, right?

How did it go? Not. Fun. In fact, notfunnotfunnotfunnotfun.

But now, 8 days later, we are getting close to back to normal. I have had repeated requests for a blog post, similar to when I posted about Hudson's tubes. The thing is, I haven't slept through the night since the night before, I've been playing nurse to two uncomfortable children, and I'm 7 months pregnant. On top of that the tubes were a few hour event, this has been a week plus event, so it is just not going to happen.

The best I can do is tell you that Ainsley is doing well. She wouldn't talk from Saturday to Wednesday, (that was a strange event) and still complains that her throat hurts. But for the most part she is fine. Hudson is not so okay still. His adenoids evidently caused some damage when they came out so his little sinus system is a swollen mess which has led to labored breathing, hurting ears, and a sinus headache that makes his sore throat the least of his concerns. The biggest of my concerns is that he is having a really hard time sleeping, and so I am too.

And while I am not up to a blow by blow account of the ordeal, I will answer the other question I keep getting, "Why did they both need them out?" Evidently our genetic make-up has created children with insanely ginormous tonsils and adenoids. All three of our kids (well- the three that we can hear sleeping currently- good chance little yet-to-be named in-utero baby is currently growing giant worthless parts as well) snore. I was told by our primary care doctor, "snoring isn't something that we treat, especially with a surgery like a tonsillectomy." Our kids have been for the most part pretty healthy, and have never had strept throat or any bad throat issues. But after Hudson started for the first time getting all the ear infections last fall I started noticing even louder snoring and that his voice really started taking on a nasal quality. So me and my medical degree decided that since Andrew and I had both had ours taken out, mine because they were so big, I needed to investigate if our kids needed theirs out. In fact, my actual words were, "I'm going to just start taking them to ENT's until someone can solve this problem."

Well, the first (very nice) doctor we went to I sat down across from with Hudson and explained that I thought he had big tonsils, he snored, and I thought he needed his tonsils out. Before looking at Hudson the doctor started into a very rehearsed speech about how they just don't do tonsillectomies very often any more, and really never unless there is lots of documented evidence of multiple infections. But he would take a look. Hudson opened his mouth and although I have the ability to exaggerate, I'm not here, the doctor says loudly, "WOW! These are real whoppers!" I'm pretty sure whoppers is a medical term. Anyway- he goes on to determine that his sinus and ears are a mess because his adenoids also are huge and the doctor says he is actually worried that his tonsils even pose a choking hazard for him. He immediately explains that he thinks that there is no doubt that he really needs to have them removed. Score one for my medical degree. I then go on to explain that my daughter and other son are in a similar situation, and this man who started out saying basically there was no way he was taking out tonsils, actually set up Ainsley to have hers out at the same time, even though he hadn't seen her yet. He agreed to see her and confirm that she needed them removed, but said he wouldn't even look at Camden because he wouldn't ever do the surgery on a child under 3. (at that crazy time I thought doing all three at the time would be a good idea- haha!)

Anyway- I brought in Ainsley and there was no question she needed hers out as well. I took Camden with me to this appointment, even though he had said there was no chance with him. I asked him to just check his to see when and if he wanted me to bring him back. Again, not exaggerating, the doctor looks in Camden's mouth and says, "these are the biggest tonsils I have ever seen on a two-year-old in my entire career. He actually said he would take them out at the same time as the other kids, but there wasn't time in the hospital schedule to take all three of them (thank you Lord for sparing me that nightmare). So whenever it is convenient for us we will have Camden's out.

I'm considering waiting until after he gets married so his wife can take care of him. Let's just say that I made the right decision in not choosing nursing as a career. I don't have the patience.

There you go, I planned on a two or three sentence "not fun, but were okay" post and ended up with this little disertation. Overall we are very blessed to have this over with and no big complications. Thanks for asking... (oh you didn't, sorry!)

Our kids: the little High School Students

2009-08-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Every family has a different culture based on what the family is involved in right? Our kids have lots of experience hanging out with High School kids. Going to "Daddy's School" is always one of their favorite things to do. Most kids are probably pretty overwhelmed with the big, crowded halls that await them as freshman. Because of our families "culture" I'm guessing this is not going to be all that strange to our kids.

These were a couple of pictures of our kids with "big kids" that I thought were fun.

This one is at the tennis party- Hudson looks so happy to be included with all the boys in the hot tub.

Ainsley was happy to get to be in the middle of the pool game they were playing.

This picture is from a BBQ we had at our house to say goodbye to some of the kids from Andrew's Bible Study group that are leaving for college. Our kids end up attached to these kids because every Tuesday morning a sleepy, but committed group of kids show up at our house for breakfast and Bible Study. It is a toss up for our kids what they like better, the attention they get from the High School kids, or the fact that some of these mornings I serve sugar cereal for breakfast. Both are big treats!

We feel really blessed that our kids have the opportunity to be surrounded by such great examples, and it makes for a good supply of babysitters!

It would be best if I just posted that I was taking the summer off!

2009-08-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I has been what, 6 weeks? Sorry little blog. The sun has been out. I do have tons and tons of pictures and adventures to share, but it seems silly now. However, I will make an effort to do a few posts with a random assortment of pictures and adventures so at least the summer of 2009 (I accidentally just typed 2007- wow, I have issues) will not be completely missing from this little history of our family. So here we go:

One big part of our summer was a trip to Wallowa Lake with my family. Tennille and Nathan came from Minnesota (they are so great to spend a month of their summer with us every year) and we all met there. The kids got a "camping" experience (the big kids stayed in my parents trailer with them, Camden stayed with us it a great cabin that my parents rented for us and Tennille and Nathan.)

While there we took a gondola up the mountain, like WAY up. The kids loved it. At the top the chipmunks were VERY friendly, and would eat right out of the kids hands. Of course Camden would eat one, then feed one, eat one... you get the idea. Good news is despite my concern no one came down with any weird illnesses.

We had the full experience of the Wallows by taking the kids to the Chief Joseph Days rodeo. The kids were amazed at the trained buffalo show, and couldn't believe that people would be able to stay on bucking animals like that. The two best moments were during the calf roping when every time a calf would get roped Camden would be very concerned and yell, "HE'S STUCK!!!" over and over. My mom was holding him and it was hilarious. That was followed by the Mutton Busters, the little girls that try and ride sheep. Ainsley was amazed because all the contestants were younger than her. We ask her if she would try and it was a definite no, that is until the end when she heard the prize. The 7 year old girl who won got $75. That prompted Ainsley to say, "well, maybe I would actually try riding a sheep." That's my girl. Anything to make a dollar.

And yes, this last picture is a car in the lake. And no, it is not photo shopped in. My parents friends have a car that actually drives on land, and then right down into the water. The looks we got from people as you just drive down the boat ramp and right into the water were priceless. This was a ride the kids won't soon forget.

My favorite story from the week at the lake sadly doesn't have a picture to go with it. We had just been down at the campground and Hudson and Zech (our nephew, same age as Hudson) were playing some game of jail. Nathan leaned over to Andrew at one point and said, "when do you think it will be that the two of them will really get in trouble together?" Well, not 30 minutes later Nathan was up at the cabin with the little kids sleeping, and Hudson and Zech were playing outside the cabin together. Have I mentioned how tame the deer are at Wallowa Lake? They will let you touch them (unless you have a mother that is worried about diseases, see above chipmunk story). So Nathan is inside and he hears the boys coming in the back door with a very suspicious laugh, he gets up and goes into the kitchen just in time to see the boys with pretzel sticks in their hands luring a deer into the kitchen. I'm not sure what their plan was once they got the deer inside, but they were having a great time. Nathan shooed the deer back outside and instructed the kids deer were not allowed inside the cabin. Only minutes later Nathan's peaceful afternoon was interrupted again by the sound of someone yelling pretty loud, an adult. He looked out the window to see a guy stopped along the road yelling at the boys. Nathan raced outside to find out that the boys had filled empty bubble containers with rocks and they were shaking these little noise makers they had created at the deer and were chasing the frightened deer, very quickly down the hill and out into the road (the kids weren't going out into the road, but the deer did) so this poor guy almost hit the deer that were frantically running from our little darlings. Good news, the deer didn't make it in the cabin far enough or long enough to do any damage, and no ones car was totaled by our kids chasing deer in the road. So, we escaped the kids getting in "really big trouble" that day.

A rose by any other name...

2009-07-16T21:27:00.001-07:00

Ainsley and Hudson are both going to VBS this week at Abundant Life. They have loved it (although there is an Ainsley story from the 1st and 2nd nights that when I have time I will write down for my other blog). I confirmed tonight another example of something that Hudson and I have in common. This year at preschool it took him a really long time to learn the other boys names, and aside from 1 or 2 he never knew any of the girls names. Like me, Hudson just has a hard time remembering peoples names. I was suspicious last night, and confirmed tonight, that he is just calling any boy he plays with "Jackson" or "Connor." We originally thought Jackson from church was going to go to this VBS and Conner was his best friend at pre-school. So rather than learning the kids actual names, he is just calling them the two names that come to mind easily. I guess that works when you are 5. I think I'm just going to pick a name to start calling people who I can't remember. Will that be a social problem?

Catch-Up

2009-07-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... everyone is busy. But I promise, we have been really busy, which is my excuse for why I haven't blogged anything despite 35, or maybe 350, possible blogging entries. So for the two of you who may still check my blog despite the lack of entries, here is why there has been nothing new for quite some time:

We sold fireworks. Some people go on vacation with their friends. We run a business with ours. There is no family better to hang out with in a parking lot for hours at a time, stress out over fire marshall visits, worry about slumping sales, be happy that we are not selling in Vancouver this year, and generally be hot and dirty with than the Strandbergs. Any money we have made or will ever make is not going to be enough to balence out the fact that our children are now OBSESSED with fireworks and for the rest of their lives will spend way to much money on them. The highlight of the year for us really was that Ainsley spending hours there with us, by choice. She actually got quite good at running the adding machine, counting back change, and memorized tons of prices. Overall, even if we made no money, she improved her math skills by at least 1/2 a grade in 10 days and loved every minute of it. While I'm happy for people to buy fireworks from me if they are going to buy them anyway- I have to admit (and please forget I said this by next summer if you buy fireworks from me) I just don't get it- go light some dollar bills on fire. (and this is where Eric tells me to stop saying that.)
For Ainsley's 8th birthday, Andrew's parents gave her a trip to Seattle on the train with them by herself. (awkward sentence, sorry-not going to fix it). She took that trip in June and had a spectacular time. Hopefully soon I will upload pictures of her trip, she had an amazing time and so did Jim and Arlene. They said that it was so fun to see something through the eyes of an 8-year-old. I need to remember that!
We have been keeping the medical community in business. We finished fireworks on Sunday, then Monday morning we took all three kids to the doctor for shots (good mom points that I'm not waiting until the week before school to get them caught up! Some post in the past that I'm not going to spend the time linking to records a time when everyone was way behind. We were behind this time also... but at least I got it done!) Of course with our kids there is a story to go with the shot adventure. Hudson and Camden always "shoot" each other and everyone else by yelling "fire!"with play guns, or you know ANYTHING because anything can become a gun if you are a boy. For Camden this has evolved into yelling "fire!" when he is yelling and really mad at something or someone. "Fire" has become the worst word he knows. This has continually evolved into yelling "Your Fired!" at me or anyone else when he is mad. My response is often, "great, I don't like this job right now anyway." He is not a little Donald Trump wanna-be, he doesn't know it has anything to do with an actual job. However, our poor nurse doesn't know this, because of course as she was giving him the shot, you guessed it, he yelled, "YOU'R FIRED!"
We moved right along from the shots to at 1:30 taking Andrew to have back surgery. He has struggled for 5 months with a back problem that is a re-occurrence of back problems from last year. After trying physical therapy, steroid shots, and rest, nothing has fixed it. So the next step was surgery. It was a 3 hour surgery and when the doctor came out he said that he would have never gotten better. A bump, like a knuckle, had developed on his disk. There was a nerve that was fusing itself right on that bump and that was causing the pain in his back, hip, and down his leg. They chizzled off (ewee-yuck!) the bump and cleaned out the disk. He should fully recover. You never know how God is going to answer prayer because we have been praying the other treatments would have fixed the problem, or make it tolerable so he could avoid surgery. However, if one of them would have worked it would have masked the pain and without fixing it there would have been long term nerve damage. So we feel so blessed he has had the surgery and is now on the other side. He is recovering well, although month 6, 7, and 8 of your pregnancy is not exactly when you would choose to have your husband not able to lift anything over 15 pounds (of course ruling out all of our children and all of the bags that we will be taking when we travel different places this summer) but we will make it!

Okay- I'm tired of writing- and if you have read this your tired of reading and really should get busy doing whatever it is your avoiding right now. Hopefully at some point soon I'll get pictures off my camera and do a better post. Until then this will have to do.

I'm praying for his future wife.

2009-06-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

As I was helping Hudson clean his room tonight:

Hudson: Does everyone HAVE to get married?

Mom: No.

Hudson: Good. I'm not.

Me: Why not?

Hudson: 'Cause then I can live all by myself and nobody will make me clean up.

Me: So you want to just live in a mess?

Hudson: Yep. I'll never put my toys away.

Me: Okay, but you have to get married to have kids.

Hudson: Oh. Well I want to have just one kid.

Me: Why just one?

Hudson: Because then I just will have one to tell what to do. And my wife can just clean up the toys.

Maybe we should read Jacob and Esau.

2009-06-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

I came home from Bible Study last night and Andrew told me he had witnessed the funniest conversation between Ainsley and Hudson he had ever heard. This is how it went:

Hudson: I'll pay you $20.

Ainsley: What for?

Hudson: If you let me tell you what to do.

Ainsley: For how long?

Hudson: Ummm.... a year.

Ainsley: No way.

Hudson: How about a month.

Ainsley: No.

Hudson: A week?

Ainsley: No.

Hudson: A day?

Ainsley: No.

Hudson: Five minutes?

Ainsley: Okay.

Andrew: NO! Your not paying your sister to tell her what to do.

Ainsley and Hudson: AAAwwwww!

Brothers

2009-06-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

Ainsley and Hudson really are good friends. I've been anxiously awaiting the transition when Camden plays well enough that he and Hudson will move on to the friend stage, when they can play and entertain each other. I think we are getting there. Hudson now wants to take Camden with him to the playground and "be in charge of him." How cute is this:

Congratulations Nathan!

2009-05-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Our brother-in-law Nathan just accepted the job as the principal of the upper school (middle and high school) where he teaches at Hope Academy in Minneapolis. Last spring break when we visited we went to see the school and loved it- here is the blog entry from that portion of the trip.

Hope is a great place. It is an inner city school (and inner city Minneapolis is WAY different than even inner-city Portland) that serves a very diverse population. It is certainly not your "typical" private Christian school. Almost all of their students are there on a scholarship of some kind. The children that attend have a sponsor that pays for their education... it is a pretty amazing program that they have started. The sponsors actually come and visit, and are involved with, the kids in school that they support. At least 70% of the kids qualify for free or reduced lunch. Here is their mission statement and vision: (the vision statement actually makes me get tears in my eyes- then again I'm a hormonal mess right now...)

Our Mission

To foster hope in God within the inner-city neighborhoods of Minneapolis by providing children with an outstanding, Christ-centered education.

Our Vision

Believing that all children are created for God's glory and endowed by him with an inalienable potential to acquire wisdom and knowledge, Hope Academy covenants with urban families to equip their children to become the responsible, servant leaders of the 21st Century. Committed to the truth, discipline, and values of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Hope Academy pursues this aim by mobilizing educational, business, and community leaders towards the important goal of serving the children of Minneapolis with a remarkable education, permeated with a God-centered perspective. This inter-denominational school will seek to unleash kingdom citizens who work for justice, economic opportunity, racial harmony, hope for the family, and joy in the community.

Hope's website is: www.hopeschool.org if you want to know more.

Again- we are so proud of you Nathan- and Tennille, we know you can handle it too!

A realization

2009-05-25T20:35:00.001-07:00

A few times during the last couple of months I have thought, "why if we were going to have 4 kids did we spread them out so much?" (basically 3 years between everyone) I have focused on how long I have/will have been changing diapers, rushing home for naps, etc. I have also contemplated the fact that I will be 41 when I go to kindergarten round-up for the last time. That is wrong. (by the way- our spacing was actually because I read some studies about how 2 years 9 months is the ideal spacing for siblings so they have the best socialization and language acquisition. I also liked the idea of after nursing for a year giving my body a break of a year off before becoming pg. again. Now I'm thinking- who cares? My kids are all talking well, social, and like my body has had "time off.")

Just now as I was getting ready for bed and brushing my teeth (and yes, it is only 8:30) it dawned on me the positive of the spread. I WON'T EVER HAVE FOUR TEENAGERS AT THE SAME TIME! Ainsley will turn 20 when #4 is still 12.

Some days it is the little things that get you through.

Go Barlow!

2009-05-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take this opportunity to publicly brag about my husband. Everyone okay with that?

Barlow won the district tennis tournament today, for the sixth year in a row! Andrew would be the first to say that coaches get too much of the credit and too much of the blame, but really he deserves lots of credit. This was the year that his team was young and had the possibility of loosing a match or two, but they were undefeated in league (I think now it has been over five years since they have lost a league match). Yesterday and today was the district match, and because of some strange tennis rules I don't understand even when you beat every team in individual matches, you still have to get a certain number of points at the district match to win the league title. Barlow got a REALLY bad draw, the details of which I have had explained to me repeatedly and I'm still a little fuzzy on, and during the tournament yesterday one of his players was walking by a post and the post randomly FELL on his foot requiring a trip to the ER. Yet despite these circumstances they still won.

The boys on the tennis team are so fortunate because not only do they have Andrew for a coach, but Randy Alcorn volunteers as his assistant coach. Randy puts in an amazing amount of time and really invests in the kids. Earlier this season he was interviewed for an article for the Bruin Banner (being in a high school newspaper probably not top on the list of important accomplishments for someone who has written books that have been on the New York Times Best Selling List, but you know...) and this is what Randy said about Andrew:

"Probably the best thing is that Andrew Pate is such a great coach. If I didn't think he was a great influence on the kids and had a great attitude it wouldn't be worth it. I can't say enough how much I respect and appreciate coach Pate and what a great person I think he is."

It is one thing for me lavish praise on him, but it is nice to have it come publicly from someone like Randy.

Way to go Barlow... and Andrew. Love you!

That backfired.

2009-04-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a little stretched thin on patience right now. Andrew is on his way home from his second weekend in a row of tennis tournaments, along with his late nights of tennis, this has been a long stretch of not much daddy at home.

So picture dinner tonight. First off, don't judge me for the content of dinner, the vegetables were french fries. And no, I didn't cut up the potato and fry it myself, they were frozen out of a bag. As I was getting something for someone Hudson helped himself to more ketchup, as in lots more ketchup. I turned around in time to see him s-t-i-l-l pouring it out and I told him to stop, which he didn't do immediately. The resulting pool of ketchup was about 1/4 of his plate.

I took a deep breath and said, "you will be eating all of that." He didn't say anything. When he was "finished" with his dinner he brought his plate over to the sink, with most of the ketchup still on the plate. I said, "your not done." He replied, "but my french fries are all gone." I handed the plate back to him, used one hand to guide him back to the table and picked up a spoon with the other hand and put it on his plate. Without anymore words from either of us he actually sat there and ate his ketchup with a spoon. I was gagging as he did it because I'm not much of a condiment person anyway, but I really hate ketchup.

He brought his now empty plate back to me and said, "can I have a bowl of ketchup for lunch tomorrow?"

Win some parenting battles, loose some.