Hello spring!

The weather has been so nice lately. It's not super warm but it's warm enough (40's) and sunny enough to be outside without snow pants and play for long periods of time. Giving my boys time outside is good for everyone. They love exploring the outdoors and they sleep much better when they've had a chance to get fresh air.

This afternoon we went on our first walk of spring. I can't even describe how good it felt to be out walking in the crisp air watching the trips ride along in the choo- choo wagon, Colin on his tricycle, all of them pointing and chattering about all there was to see. It was wonderful.

When we got home, I made dinner and Chris got home from work (by walking upstairs from his new office in the basement :) Everyone ate fast so that they could go outside again. I think my pregnant hips have had enough of standing in the backyard and then walking today so I've pulled the rocking chair by the window where I can watch Chris and the boys play while writing this memory down.

I love spring.

30 weeks

I realized that I'm 30 weeks preggers today.

Homestretch here we come!

I realized this while driving home from Lowe's with about 50 hook options for our new foyer. We have been busting our butts to get our list of "projects we must have done before baby arrives" completed asap. It has been a long few weeks attacking project after project but late last night after putting together playroom furniture Chris and I looked around and felt pretty excited by how the house is coming together. When we first walked through this house with our realtor my only thought was, "No. Way". I thought it was too small, not conducive to raising small children because of the floor plan, and WAY too outdated. But now, ten months later the hard work is paying off and its transforming into our home, with our style and a much more functional layout, if say, you're raising five little boys. I can almost see the finish line!

So yes, we've been uber busy.... so busy in fact, that I missed my OB appointment on Tuesday. Just plum forgot. As soon as the lovely receptionist called to inform me of this I felt a wave of guilt come over me because I never would have missed an OB appointment for Colin or the Trips. Their pregnancies were all consuming, Colin being my first and the trips being, triplets. But with your fifth..... well, life is so busy and before you know it, you're 30 weeks and your belly is bigger and you realize you should probably start trying to remember where you put that bin of newborn clothes.

However, every so often in the midst of the busyness, like today while driving home from Lowe's, it will hit me. We're having another baby. I get to experience a newborn again. And not just any newborn but this little peanut inside my belly who starts kicking as soon as his brothers go to bed and the house gets quiet. It makes me all mushy just thinking about snuggling with a new baby, nursing him, studying his features, getting to know his likes and dislikes.... what a blessing. Seriously.... I can't wait..... although I do want to get these home renovations done :)

Dear little man in my belly,

Don't let the busyness of our days or the fact that I can't remember those darn OB appointments fool you, you are in our minds and hearts all the time. Your brothers like to pull up my shirt and say, "Hi baby!". Colin reads to you and asks if you can hear the book alright. He plays his guitar for you. You've been named for a while now and your name is spoken every day around here. Colin will often whine that it's taking too long for you to grow. He wants to you to arrive now! (don't listen to him, you take your sweet time). Point is, we're all so excited about you. And we're busting our butts to get this house ready to welcome you home (even though I'm guessing you won't care. You'll probably just want milk and snuggles).

Carter helping to pick paint colors

Colin, testing out chairs at IKEA

Colin, testing out the ice cream at IKEA, after I've purchased most of the store

Chris, putting together an IKEA toy bin.... Chris *hates* putting together IKEA furniture!....but he loves me so he does it :)

Finn, ready to help

Colin, carrying out dry wall bits. Goodbye useless front hall closet which was crowding the already small foyer!

Birthdays and present making

March is the month of birthdays around here. All my guys (except baby #5!) have March birthdays.

Chris's birthday is tomorrow and the triplet's birthday is next Friday.

Colin has been busy making presents in his upstairs workshop. Yesterday afternoon, he kept asking to go upstairs and work on his gifts. I thought it was so cute and great that he could play independently for short periods in his room.

I had no idea the "work" he was doing....

Turns out the gifts he was making came from random items he'd found while rummaging through boxes still unpacked from our move almost a year ago, and grabbing lotions, diapers, towels and other items from the upstairs bathrooms.

His room was a mess but he assured me that he had it all under control. He said that he even had a gift for me.

"Awe, thank you."

"I wonder what it is...."

With that he handed me an enormous bag and inside I found quite the assortment of gifts.

Two diapers, lotions without caps, and the best part, a seat and bucket from a training potty which I wasn't positive had been cleaned thoroughly since one of the triplets tried it out the previous night before bath.

"Do you love it?!" Colin asked, with a huge smile on his face.

..............................

Then tonight, my parents stopped by on their way through town to say "hi" and give Chris his birthday gift. Once Colin realized that birthday gifts were being given he jumped up and said,

"WAIT! I have a gift for Daddy upstairs in my workshop!" and then he sprinted up the stairs.

I warned those around me that it could be a toilet.

But it wasn't.

He'd carefully boxed up two finger paints, car screws and a re-purposed a Valentine's day card.

It was sort of heart melting to be honest..... because he stood there SO proud to give it to Chris.



My Dad also found this sign which he gave to both Colin and Chris:

Colin's nightstand/ workbench

Once Colin figured out what the words said, he once again sprinted back up to his workshop to put the sign there.

:-)

I love being a boy mom

Colin, Chris, Everett, Carter and Finn in what's left of the fort

Now I don't know a thing about raising girls, but I have noticed something about boys.... or maybe just my boys.

They like tasks.

Jobs.

Projects.

Today it was cold but sunny and when the wind stopped blowing, you could almost sense that spring was on the horizon. Oh I hope so!!! We even heard and saw a few birds which almost made me cry for joy because I'm SO ready for spring! (have I mentioned that yet??)

Chris and I took the boys outside and they immediately chose shovels to "play with" and started digging. This is a common theme in our outdoor play. They dig dirt. They dig snow. They move dirt and snow in the wheelbarrow to various places in the yard. Always on the move, these boys. Digging, moving, digging, moving.

Colin of course has his digger which is even cooler than a shovel and so today he spent a lot of time on that. He'd fill a wheelbarrow and then run it across the yard yelling, "Dirt coming through, everybody watch out!" (even if no one was even close to being in his way)

Finn

I mostly sit back during this sort of play. I figure they'd rather do this kind of stuff with Chris. Plus, I feel a bit out of my element even though I love watching them all in action.

Then today Colin yelled over, "Mommy, wanna be my helper?"

I jumped my pregnant self up off the deck stairs and waddled over to him. My enthusiasm was genuine because if Chris is around, he'll usually ask Chris for help thinking that I don't know as much about this "worker stuff".

"Sure! I'd love to be your helper!!"

"What can I do?"

"Okay Mommy, help me move my digger..... no this way.... yup, that's it..... now pat down the dirt.... nooooo, not there silly mommy, around the digger..... can you move the wheelbarrow closer to catch the dirt? Hold it steady....okay, let's move the dirt to the work site".... etc etc.

It was great.

I can honestly say that I love being a mom to boys. True, I don't know any different, but I know this is good stuff. When I was younger and pictured my life as a mom, playing with my children, I often pictured tea parties, barbies and dress up (things I enjoyed as a child). So far, my life as a mom has involved a lot of dirt, tools and digging. I swear that I've learned more about tools and trucks over the past four years than in my previous 32!

Whenever I get overwhelmed about being a mother to five boys, wondering "what the heck do I know about raising boys??" I try and remember that they will show me what they need. We'll learn together.

And slowly but surely we are.

I mean, who knew I liked to dig in dirt??

Finn, Everett, Carter and what's left of our snow fort

Finn, off to do some digging

A fresh coat of paint and a visit from my Dad....

makes for a very good week!

My Dad was here all week while my mom visited my grandmother in Pennsylvania. 

It was so great to have him around.

He also did a lot of painting for us which was incredible!

I haven't written a whole lot about our current house since this post. Basically we bought another house with great bones, as they say, but in need of A LOT of updating. The house was vacant for almost two years before we bought it. The paint on the ways was pretty yucky. As always, we're doing most of the work ourselves and yet with four littles and me pregnant, our pace of renovation has slowed way down. Slowly but surely we'll get this house to the place where we see it's potential. I think I'd like to share more about the renovations we've done and are in the process of doing, here on this blog, mostly so that one day we can look back and remember where it all started.

We can't seem to help but buy fixer uppers. Somehow they grab us and I know there are many other people out there that also can't resist a good ole' fixer upper. Those fixer uppers and the potential they hold just suck you in!

Our parents are always so wonderful about coming to help with renovations. I think the cute little grandson helpers are a huge draw too :-) We have been so grateful for their help and this week was no exception. My Dad offered to come and paint which was a HUGE help because it's been so hard for us to find time to paint.... and yet my nesting instincts are kicking in big time and I so badly want the house in better shape for when baby #5 comes. Plus, this house hasn't been painted for years I'd guess. The walls look pretty cruddy.

So one room is painted and looking lovely (although pictures are not back up on the walls so I'll share photos when we clean up the mess). Only about six rooms and a lot of trim to go and our interior house will be painted. Wahoo!

We're in the process of painting all the dark trim, banister and railings. I think lightening it all up makes such a difference. 

Of course Colin got in on the painting action too. He was so mad that he had to stop his painting work to go to pre-school. 

What our living room looked like much of this week. So worth it to get a fresh coat of paint on the walls!

Happy Birthday Colin!

Colin turned four years old on Monday. 

We had such a wonderful time celebrating our little man. 

Though he and I had gone out hunting for party decorations, nothing seemed to quite fit his interests. 

Luckily, I found a few items on Etsy that totally fit our hard working four year old who's top three requested presents this year were a jackhammer ("to dig up the backyard"), a nail gun and a sander! 

We went with a "Tool Time" theme.

I found these cup cake toppers here. Aren't they cute??

Yup, I'm aware there's one cupcake missing.... pregnant lady's got do what pregnant lady's gotta do.... I have no control over when these cravings hit :)

We waited until the trips woke up from nap to start the party. This picture cracks me up because you can tell that they are still waking up. In fact, they awoke to a house filled with relatives and I think they were still trying to figure out what was going on.

Carter, Finn, Everett, Colin

When asked what he wanted for his birthday lunch, Colin said pancakes, so we went with a brunch theme. Pancakes, granola, yogurt and fruit salad... yummmm.

Present time!

This digger for the sandbox was a favorite. 

Make a wish!

On his actual birthday, we decided to take the boys to Chuck E. Cheese. I hadn't been there since I was a kid myself! The boys loved it! They had such a blast playing games, riding rides and just enjoying the chaos that is Chuck E Cheese.

And we even got to meet Chuck E Cheese himself.

................

Colin will tell you that he has three workshops in our house. One is in the playroom (which looks like this kitchen we gave him two years ago.... but apparently it's actually a workshop), another in his bedroom, and yet another is in the backyard. He fixes books, makes toys, whittles down chalk and builds complex saws. He makes and fixes all sorts of things. He's always designing and redesigning his workshops as well. Some days it's exhausting (for me, not him) but he loves it. He loves to "work" and his imagination is never ending. 

He's kind, creative, thoughtful and funny. He is shy. He calls his brothers his, "very best friends".

Four years ago he made me a mother and life has never been the same, in the most wonderful way.

Thank you Mr. tree cutting man....

for keeping my boys entertained for an entire afternoon!

Sometime just after nap, a truck pulled up across the street, a man jumped out, set up a bunch of orange cones and from that point forward my boys were hooked!

What was all this excitement going on across the street??

Turns out this man was trimming the huge oak trees across the street. The whole process took a few hours and many machines, saws and other gadgets. It was all VERY exciting (to my boys)!

Colin even ran to get his camera at one point.

Little does this man know how much easier he made my life that afternoon, by entertaining my boys. I even had a chance to prep dinner! When he finally packed up his supplies and left, I wanted to run after him asking if he could please come back tomorrow.

*** Tomorrow I'll share pictures from Colin's birthday! We had such a great weekend celebrating with our families!