Blazer Game

Today is a good day to document the Blazer Game. It’s helping me to remember that just 10 days ago were much happier days for our household. Days in which we weren’t hit with the stomach flu and a cold at the same time. Days where me getting the flu on Tuesday (thus missing out on Thanksgiving with my family), then Sam throwing up through the night on Thursday, then all of us getting a cold by Saturday, and Ben throwing up this (Monday) morning would be comical.

So here’s to remembering a wonderful Friday night. Ben and I had been waiting to take the boys to a Blazer game forever, but wanted to wait until Sam and Seth could have fun at the game and understand a bit. So when a groupon came through my email where we could get tickets for $20 a piece, we jumped on it! The boys decked out in their best blazer gear…even I wore my black and red!

Seth and Sammy loved the Blazer game. They got to touch the game ball, they shyly gave the mascot a high-five, they cheered, and when we asked them if they liked it, Sam said, “Yah! Can we go again tomorrow?” It was a great game, where the Blazers came from behind to win in overtime. And although it was a late night, the kids never cried or complained, and walked all the way back to our free parking spot across the freeway at 10:30 at night. It really was a wonderful experience as a family! Sam, Ben, Seth Mama and Seth Sam, Seth

Elk Hunting and Grandparents’ Visit

While Ben was off in Eastern Oregon elk hunting with his brothers and dad:

(pictures complements of Nathan—who is an amazing photographer!)

My mom came for the week to help me with boys. I always love it when my mom comes because she helps me finish lots of projects (especially sewing ones) and I check off a lot of things on my “to do” list. She helped me finish sewing my pillows for my guest room, thus almost completing the room. I love how these frames ended up looking. I used fabric to cover the matting. Seth and Sam painted the bottom pictures and I used stickers to complete them.

Enough about the room re-do—overall my point is that my mom is awesome and we had a wonderful time during the week! My dad then came for the weekend. Seth and Sam love their Papa and were very thankful for a little much needed man-time, i.e. wrestling, playing bucking bull, etc. We also got a trip to Bauman’s Farm in with my sister and her kids: Seth, Grandma and the funniest looking alpaca ever Sammy’s turn Seth Papa and the boys (who have learned the “cheesiest cheese” smile) Wow, Sam, I hope this camera smile is short-lived All the Grandkids…not too bad…at least they’re all looking forward, right? And a decent picture with the Grandparents

A full Grandma’s heart: reading to ALL the kids at once!

Bob’s Red Mill Field Trip

Last Friday my sister and I braved a trip to Bob’s Red Mill with all our kids. First we went to the plant and got a free tour. It was really fascinating. Although it was a lot of talking, all the kids were really intrigued. One of Seth and Sam’s favorite stories is, “Where Does Bread Come From?” by Richard Scarry, so they were really interested to see the real life mill stones and assembly lines. I was amazed by Bob’s Red Mill’s story and how well run their plant is. They have an entire section of their mill dedicated to gluten free flours and are very rigorous in making sure there is no gluten in those products. They definitely secured my future business!

We then headed to the Bob’s Red Mill store to purchase all the alternative flours via their bins. The prices are amazing! I’m sure by the time we left the store, everyone was glad to see us go. The kids really did well, by how long can one expect squirrely little kids to quietly wait for their mom’s to load up their carts?

Katie and I laughed a lot about our “crunchy” field trip. Crunchy is the word we’ve been using to describe our new food outlook. It describes this odd, hippie, foodie lifestyle we’ve had to adopt to avoid all the allergy foods in our lives. We’ve been having to make almost everything from scratch, read every label, and shop in bins. But, you know what: it’s okay! Our families are eating healthier than ever before and we couldn’t live in an easier place to have to buy all these alternative products than the Portlandia area. Where else could you take your kids on a crunchy field trip? The tour guide describing the mill stone “Boys, scoot together.” This is a picture of them looking at each other and saying, “You scoot over,” “No, you scoot over.” Seth, Sam That’s where the gluten free magic happens The best out of  10+ pictures—yikes!

A quick update on our families food allergies: I can’t remember if I blogged that we had the boys tested and they both are highly allergic to wheat and gluten as well. Regardless, Ben is the only one in our family who eats wheat now. It actually makes it easier in some ways. Seth’s stomach has vastly improved with the the diet change, as well as his countenance…he’s so cheerful and laughs so much more now! The biggest improvement in our household, however, has been SLEEP! Lots of undisturbed sleep! For the first time in the the boys’ lives they are sleeping through the night without waking up frequently. Their terrors and nightmares are almost completely gone! It is quite amazing!

Seth and Sam adjusted so well to having to be “gluten free.” In fact, they kind of drive me crazy with it. “Mom, does this have gluten in it?” “Can I eat those chips mama?” Every meal, over and over again. When they play pretend food, now they’re making everything gluten free, or with wheat for daddy. Kind of cute, kind of sad, perhaps just their way of adjusting.

Oh The Things They Say…

Sammy’s (still) obsessed with his daddy, and now that his daddy is 30 years old, that is Sam’s dream as well. Daily I hear things like, “When I’m 30 I’ll reach that,” or even, “I can’t wait to be 30 like daddy.” It’s hilarious.

While snuggling in bed with Ben on a weekend morning, Seth says, “Daddy, your face stinks.” Ben replies, “It’s not my face.” Seth says, “Oh, it’s probably your eye boogers then.” And Sam was sure it was Ben’s ears stinking!

As the boys were getting ready to “drive” to their football (in full gear of course), Seth asks Sam, “You gonna drive fast or slow?” Sam replies, “Slow.” Seth says, “Good, I’ll fix my sock in the car.”

Is describing their poops in detail a kid thing, a boy thing, or (please tell me no) just my kids’ thing? “It’s a train yard and a long snake.” “Look: a daddy poop, a mommy poop, and a baby poop.” Or Sam’s usual, “Mom, it’s this long,” (showing me with his hands…always exaggerated). I guess I should just be happy it’s in the toilet!

While at the beach, Seth and Sammy were falling down in the sand. Seth asks, “Daddy, you want to fall down?” Ben answers, “No.” Sam says, “Daddy doesn’t know how to fall down.”

I heard this in the background: “It’s with Jesus.” “Who’s with Jesus?” I asked. “My fruit snack is with Jesus,” Seth replied after popping one in his mouth.

“Mommy!” (very loud with a finger point in the middle of Target), “That boy is wearing earrings…only girls wear earrings. He’s silly!”

And luckily we were in the car for this loud observation of another person: “Mommy, that boy colored ALL OVER his arms with markers,” one of the boys tattled to me about the man with arm tattoos.

Seth’s prayer the other night, “Dear Jesus, thank you for the weekend, and for daddy’s work. Thank you for Jesus protect us when we take a nap and daddy go to work and whenever we eat dinner quickly. Thank you for all these things. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Sammy: “I’m gonna go to a kids’ super hero place and do super hero things, wearing my superhero glasses.”

Sammy: “Why can’t I go elk hunting?” “Well, you’re not old enough sweetie,” I replied. “When I be old enough?” “Um…maybe when you are 10,” was my answer. “No, not 10,” Sam says, “30. When I’m 30 I’ll elk hunt.”

And because no post is complete without pictures, here’s a photo shoot I did the other day because the boys actually picked out identical clothes. They both love these shirts because they’re gray and red, which are Dufur Ranger colors. The glasses are complements of Papa and their Halloween baskets.

Seth, Sam Seth wasn’t too keen on the photo shoot Sam was more cooperative

 

Love these ones!!

To the Zoo with the Fischer Family

Ever since we visited the Fischer Family back in August (post here) the Fischer kids have been heroes in our household. “I six and I’m Jaelle.” “You be baby Esther, and I’ll be Titus.” Our kids seriously role-played Fischer family almost every day. So when the day came for their family to visit us here in Portland, stay at our house for a night, and for us to all go to the zoo together, Seth and Sam were very excited.

We had a blast with them, although it is quite crazy to have 7 kids under six all in one house! Our zoo trip was a bit cold and rainy, but that meant we practically had the whole zoo to ourselves. It was fun to show the Fischer’s around the zoo, and I realized how spoiled we are living right down the freeway from the zoo and having a year-round zoo pass. My favorite thing was that the lions were literally laying right by the glass; this rarely happens and was a real treat. They are so regal and HUGE.                 Well done Ben! Four kids on your back: Seth, Hannah, Jaelle, and Sam Sea Lion in the background “High-Five” penguin Lunch time…the cleaning guy kept circling past our table…I think he was anticipating quite a clean-up. It was Esther’s first birthday! Titus and the cheetah  I was reminded why I rarely take my camera to the zoo: zoo pictures are so frustrating! It always ends up being the back of the kids and a reflection off the glass of the animals. Oh, well. I’m thankful that we somewhat documented our fun visit from the Fischer family!

Mud Fest!

What was I thinking?

Well, actually I know exactly what I was thinking. I wanted to work out, the kids were totally antsy inside, and a little bit of rain wouldn’t hurt anyone. So I hopped on my elliptical in the garage and figured that the kids would be happy for the next 30 minutes of outside playing. When I checked on them five minutes later, Wesley was splashing in a puddle, and the boys had shovels. No big deal, right?

When Seth and Sam starting running into the garage to tell me that they were sledding maybe I should I have checked to see exactly what they were doing. But with a quick backwards glance, I said, “Fun,” and continued running. By the time I finished up and went to see exactly what those three little boys were up to, they were all COVERED in mud. In those 30 minutes, they managed to dig a big hole, fill it with water (without a hose), and proceeded to slide into the hole, aka: sled. Wesley was sitting on his bottom next to hole scooping handfuls of mud and throwing them.

I did what any half crazy mama would do, I laughed and went to grab my camera.

Seth, Sam. Notice the depth of the puddle, filled with water from who knows where. So what started out as my 30 minutes of freedom ended up as 45 minutes of clean up. SO. MUCH. MUD. All three boys had mud caked on every single article of clothing, throughout their faces and hair. But they were happy. And a midday bath is always fun. And this is the stuff life is made of: days with little boys laughing, covered in mud, then splashing in the bathtub. I love my life. Seth, Sam, and Wesley