This one's for you, Cade

Taylor's blessing - 2003

Avery's blessing - 2009

My two beautiful girls!

Today at the park

Bubbles

cheeks

My new favorite picture!!

So we needed to take the kiddos somewhere, and I wasn't quite brave enough to battle the Texas temperatures, so we took the family to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. It was amazing! At some points it was more like a giant playground (playground/giant box of germs) which THRILLED the kids. (I believe the technical term for "giant box of germs" is "hands-on") Taylor was psyched about the dinosaur dig and the "real actual" paleontology lab, which I admit was awesome. And yes, real paleontologists look like you would imagine. (think more Woodstock and less Jurasic park) We had lots of fun- and as you can see in the last picture, Cade was no exception. :)

A few random more...

Yes, you would think that I would be posting mostly pics of the sweet new baby, but I haven't read the (quite large) instruction book for the new camera, and I don't know how the stupid thing hooks up to the computer yada yada yada. It's on my to do list!!

The kids love to play in boxes- can you believe he actually fell asleep in that thing?


This was Taylor and Lincoln's subtle way of telling me that I had turned the air conditioner down too low and I was the ONLY one who was still hot.

T has wanted to be a paleontologist for quite a while now, and it was so cute- we went to Dinosaur Valley and she took very good notes.

There it goes!....

Some summertime fun!

See any similarities? (I wish I were sleeping!)

First day home with the family!

Adams Family... party of six!

Sooooo..... yeah. It's been a while since I have updated the blog. Let's see..... yup- still going to blame the baby on this one! :) She is finally here (seven weeks old now!) and she is SUCH a great baby! She was a teeny 6lbs 12 oz and 18 1/2 in when she was born, but she is getting chubbier and chubbier by the day. Sometimes I think I can actually see her growing. Why do babies have to grow up so fast? The kids are amazing with her (I was worried there for a while...) and if anything I just have to make sure that they don't go all "Lenny" on her and squeeze and love her just a little too much. And yes- she is the last baby, and yes- I have every intention of spoiling her. What is it with the last baby?.... (love ya Becca!) Anyways, here's my shout-out to Andy- he told me that every day he checks the blog, and every day he dies a little bit inside because it's, well... we covered that already, right? Anyhow, I told him that the next night that I got a combined total of more than 6 hours of sleep I would post. But here's the bummer- nobody really cares what I have to say, you want the PICTURES! And I have tons! But either my computer is retarded or I am retarded because I can't get them to post! I'll keep trying, and Andy- this one's for you!!!

Kiddos

So- Link is two now, and WAY too big to still be in a crib, yet I don't have the energy/will power/heart to put my baby boy in a bed. He is such a great sleeper!! Why would I ever do that to myself? (ok- so it IS really all about me) But come on- I put him down when he's totally awake (bedtime and naptime) and he doesn't even cry! He sleeps througth the night, and in the morning do you think he lays in there and cries for me to come and get him? NO! He plays and talks to himself until my lazy bones ( I mean- my bright, sunshine morning face) gets around to going in his room. What am I going to do in 10 weeks when I need that crib for little baby girl?!?!?

My sweet, funny Cooper! Ok- so on Easter weekend we had an egg hunt (of course) and after the treats had all been found the kiddos went inside to open all of the eggs and check out all of their goods. Taylor opened all of the eggs, gathered her candy together and organized them into piles (don't know where she got that from...). Lincoln sat in his highchair and started just shoving things into his mouth as fast as he could- wrapper and all. And Cooper just sat at the table and watched. He didn't want to open his eggs. He knew there was candy inside of them, but he refused to open any of them. (and believe me, Cade and I both tried to help, and our help was not wanted!) And almost a month later, they are sitting nice and safe in a giant zip lock bag in the pantry, still unopened....

Taylor had "rock star day" at school about a week ago, and we had some fun with it! (hey- any day that's not Halloween that you can spray color in your hair, I'm all for!- except I think I was high like half of the morning after that.... I don't know, it's all a blurr....) :) So we went for it! It was totally fun, and she even got her picture in the paper! (don't worry Mom, I bought an extra copy for you!)

So the boys and I were eating lunch a few days ago - hot dogs and Cheetos (don't judge me!! ketchup counts as both a fruit and a vegetable!) and Link insisted on using a fork. Not fully understanding why, but wanting to save myself the battle I got up and got both boys a fork. I'm sure it was one of those moments that you "had to be there" to think it was funny, but they both started forking Cheetos, and each time they scored one and it made the crunch sound they would laugh so hard I thought for sure I was going to have to do the Heimlich on someone. It was hilarious!! Boys are funny!

Numbers...

Numbers are a funny thing. Lincoln turned 2 on Friday, and it's freaking me out! How is my baby boy two?! And it hasn't made me "baby hungry" or anything (let's put a pin in the small fact that I'm preggers), it' just doesn't seem possible! And how about the fact that I am trying to prepare myself for kid #4 in 6 years.... there's some crazy numbers. Or how about the fact that Cade and I will have been married for 10 years this September?! That's crazy to me! I won't even go into the numbers in my checking account or in the stack of bills on the counter, and those DEFINITELY make me crazy! How about the number of times Cooper gets out of bed at night? Or the number of times that I actually care enough to get out of bed and take him back? The number of diapers in my garbage can right now... the number of Easter eggs I stuffed this weekend... (or the number I stuffed into my mouth!)... the number of Build-A-Bears in Taylor's room... the number of things to do on my list... OR the number of snotty kisses I got today from Link, the number of smiles I got from T while she was coloring eggs for the Easter bunny, the number of people that I love, the number of long, dark eyelashes Coop has, the number of times I hear "nano" (the phrase for "I love you" from the kiddos), the number of times Coop gets out of bed at night and sprints to my side of the bed and touches my cheek so softly to wake me up. -- SEE?....numbers are a funny thing.

Wanna hear a CRAZY story?!?

So today Cade and I (and the boys, of course) are shopping in a kids clothing store, and we hear Cooper say, "My Chuck-E-Cheese money! My Chuck-E-Cheese money!" We don't pay too much attention to him because if he finds a penny on the ground it goes in his "Chuck-E-Cheese stash". Well I am of course busy searching the sale racks and trying to keep Link happy, and Cooper is a few feet from me not being too rowdy riffling through the clothes on the wall, and so I am not paying too much attention to his new-found money... that is until Cade (in his urgent tone) says, "Amy! Amy! Did Cooper get in your purse?!" And I'm thinking- who cares?! I have like a buck fifty in my wallet! If he wants it, let him have it! And I turn around, and Cooper is double-fisting wads of bills! And not just any bills- he found ELEVEN, ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS!!!! That's right!! $1100!!! And he is standing there with a big grin on his face yelling, "Chuck-E-Cheese! Chuck-E-Cheese!" (You can imagine the words coming out of Cade's and my mouth.) So we are all standing there FREAKING out (Cooper because we took his money, Lincoln because I wasn't paying attention to him anymore, Cade because he thinks that we are on some kind of hidden camera show,and me because, well- ELEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! and the sales clerk because we were the only ones in the store and we were making quite a scene). So we called mall security and the cops and filled out statements yada yada yada and gave Cooper the buck fifty (which was in mostly change, so he was even more excited) and called it a day. But.... ELEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! Seriously?!? Now that's a crazy story!!

That's right! More pics!

 
 
 
 

Time of Our Lives!

 
 
 
 

Pathetic!!

What's pathetic, you ask? How about the fact that T brought home a note today from school talking about the Easter egg hunt (exciting!) and that she needs to bring eggs filled with TOYS, not CANDY for everyone in her class. (pathetic) Yeah, yeah, yeah- kids are fat. I get it. (If you think about it, it's the only holiday they really have to earn the candy- running around, pushing and shoving to get the most biggest shiniest sparkliest eggs...) So then let me ask- What's the difference between Easter candy and Halloween, Christmas, or Valentine candy? Are the sixlets too easy to choke on? Is the Easter bunny involved in some kind of cult that I am not aware of? (you should have seen the amount of sugary crap they had at the other parties) Get this- last week T came home (of course, they have snacks every day in kindergarten you know) excited because Louisa brought Doritos and Little Debbie cakes for snack time that day! You can see where I am going.... Pathetic!!!

My official stand - I am blaming the baby!

So basically at this point I have two options. Option #1- apologize profusely for my lack of dedication to this blog, and spend the next 5 days updating you on what has happened in our family over the last 6 (more?) months, including all of the special events, birthdays, and holidays and of course posting an OBSCENE amount of photos..... OR Option #2- blame the baby. Seems like such an obvious choice....

Status update- We are all doing great! I am now 6 months into my last pregnancy (that feels nice to say) and it's a GIRL! (Even better!) I know what you are thinking. 4 kids?! In 6 years?! Yeah..... that's what we are thinking, too. The boys seem to have no clue what's going on, but I secretly think that they understand and are planning their payback for when she arrives. Taylor on the other hand is totally excited, and that has been a lot of fun! Cade is, well- great. If I were him I'd be pretty sick of dealing with the hormones, puke, more puke, the fact that my significant other went on strike from doing dishes for a couple or few weeks... you know. But he still holds my hair and acts like he doesn't care that the laundry should have it's own zip code. You are my hero!!