How can you be the best and the worst at the same time?

Just be Benjamin lately!  

I hate to say this, but he's just turned sort of awful!  But he's also just terribly, terribly cute!  Even in a super small Alabama onesie!  But again, so terrible!  Throwing toys, hitting Nico, screaming in the car, pulling Nico off of his chair at the table, dumping bins of toys we've just cleaned up, pushing Nico off of the little kid picnic table.  Do you see a trend?  Destruction and Nico.  That pretty much sums it up.

Except for his cuteness, you dig?  He's still cute.  Ridiculously so!  It's just so confusing!  I mean, one minute I'm offering him an apple and he points at it and says "baple" and "da"* and the next minute he's throwing the plate across the room and swearing at me in Russian!  Or whatever language he speaks!

People usually react to hearing that I have three boys by saying, "You have your hands full" or "You're one busy mom" or they simply just shudder.  Still, until about, oh, um, 2 days ago I really felt like I only had 2 boys and 1 baby.  I don't anymore.  It's three boys.  Three boys who might not be fluent in Russian, but who are fluent in the languages of throwing, screaming, teasing, jumping, and being pills.  Not all of the time, but now that Benjo's thrown his hat into the ring it's gettin' crazy up in here! 

Help me.  I miss my baby so much.

*("Yes" in Benjaminese is "da".  Benjaminese is a slavic tongue I guess.)

To Natalie

As per your comment: I am here. We are here. We are well.

But, in order to walk to the library or the store or the other store or the bus stop or the church pictured below is the minimum effort I have to put out (to say nothing of putting my own coat, hat and scarf on).



Oh, and the boys' gloves (not pictured above) are just about as crazy making as really crazy stuff. They come off just about as fast as I can put them on. Glove on. Glove off. Repeat.

Apparently the creative juices to blog equal the strength to bundle two small children. It seriously feels like "The Christmas Story" every day around here. My struggles are especially disheartening when my friends with a Chicago winter under their belts scoff at this even being that cold. Gulp.

So, I have had lots I've wanted to blog about. But when the ideas enter my head I am either getting ready to go out, I am out, or I've just gotten back. And honey, my mind is pretty lax around those times.

The thought of you, Jackson and Grandma Jan coming is warming the cockles of my heart. We can hit the museums, hit the Magnificent Mile or just sit around, talk and eat fudge and candied pecans. You'll be warm, you'll be happy. And I can't wait!

Thank you for caring. Thank you to you both for coming. It's the best Christmas present ever.

Here's the new view from our window.


















Oh, and for the uninitiated I give you the Bundle me.

Dear Winter:

We are no longer friends.

You give me a cough that lasts a month and you give my kids multitudinous infectious diseases. These sicknesses seem to never overlap (ex. Jacob just finished a cold, so Nicholas spiked a 102 fever tonight -- which really happened). This never happens in summer. Explain that, would you please?

This means that our general enjoyment is diminished through sickness and by the fact that WE CAN NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE!

You'd better shape up sir.

Oh, and you came 2 months early.


















Thank you.

How to have a happy Halloween

1. Start with some leaf raking...make sure someone has applied liberal amounts of red hair spray to Maddie's hair. It's also a good idea to go help a World Series Champion finish up raking his leaves (I like to drop names and such).




























2. Suit up one Ariel, two firefighters and one dalmatian (firehouse dog). Take kids trick-or-treating at the World Series Champion's house and a few regular peoples' houses too.




























Did you miss that dalmatian? Here you go.














3. Succumb to the trunk or treat pressure and hit the ward party.














Oh Nico.

4. Have someone tell Jana that they "forgot she had twins".














5. Stick Nicholas in the trunk to hand out (play with) the candy. Bravo on the great idea Grandma and Grandpa.














6. Stick all of the kids in the trunk...just 'cuz.














7. Go home tired, yet happy and document it. (Isn't my mom beautiful?)

Updates and Thank you

Thank you, thank you for letting me air my grievances and for the helpful advice. Allow me to fill you in on our progress.

1. Nicholas has pretty well learned that nobody's coming to get him before 6:00. He yelps at around 5:30 and then just goes back to sleep until 6:00 or 6:30. He finally learned nobody loves him! Far from it, but he's learned the sleep schedule. My cup runneth over. I am so grateful that we're moving toward more sleep in the mornings.

2. Jacob is now pretty much persnickety about everything. His situation is now reaching epic, dire proportions. Not really, but tonight Matt and I have been feeling pretty blue about his "ways".

I guess our long-term goal for Jacob (and all of our children) could be summed up by Virgina Pearce talking about her parents, Gordon & Marjorie Hinckley, and their parenting style. "Mother and Dad taught us that there was a difference between principles and rules. There are never enough rules to tell you what to do in every situation. But they did put a few principles in place. We felt free to make decisions because we knew the fundamental principles against which everything could be measured."

Long-term sometimes takes a long time. We're hopeful that some changes and helps on our part will create modest short-term success that will bear long-term fruit. And just a little acquiescence every once in a while!

Lastly, Grandma Jan sent me this clip of Nicholas's beautiful "Hello". Thanks Grandma.

Oh, it's on

This move, that is. I feel like Matt and I are throwing down our best game in the packing biz. (In true Olympic fashion.) We've now reached the "junk phase". The nice, tidy stuff is packed and now it's the ugly, odd-sized stuff remaining.

The master plan has been to move all packed boxes into our room...which is now almost unnavigable. This picture was taken two days ago and the boxes have practically doubled. Trust me, it's nice.














We have known about this move for eight long months, and now that we are a week away I am feeling so reminiscent of the last week or so of pregnancy. At the end of both of my pregnancies I have felt excited, afraid, uncomfortable, stressed, joyful, nervous, nostalgic, bittersweet and ultimately happy. Knowing that life will never be the same. But excited for the new life awaiting us. Just really confused. So here we are. Waiting for this move with the apprehension of waiting for labor. Sigh.

Today, as we've packed and sorted and packed some more, it's been crazy. Jacob and Nicholas have been underfoot throughout it all. And I've felt so annoyed at their presence. Just wishing I could focus on the task at hand. But tonight Matt and Jacob ran a quick errand and it was just me and Nico. It was just fun to spend time with him and not feel stressed to be filling a box at the same time.

What a stud.










































I can't wait to get to Chicago, unpack and get back to normal. I miss normal. I love normal.

So so much to do

Honestly...sometimes Jacob is so poetic. The way his expressions capture my feelings so perfectly. Beautiful.

Higgity Hair Cuts

Finally.



















































They really needed it.

Was this worth 1,500 dollars?

Our buyer (yes, you heard right) wanted the septic tank pumped and inspected prior to purchase. Apparently, before finding our amazing home, they were very interested in another home with a septic tank. A septic tank that hadn't been pumped in 30 years. Yes, you heard right, 30 years! To add to the nightmare, the owner of that disgusting septic tank didn't want them pumping and inspecting it! Oh golly, it's so gross (having looked our septic tank in the eye) I can't stand it!

Anyway, when the septic tank guys came they had a DIGGER hitched to the back of their big pump truck. Now, it was actually a mini-excavator. Jacob was hooked. So happy. And totally engrossed.


















They located the septic tank through a 6th/septic sense. They stuck a small rod into the ground and thumped on the tank to show me that it was there. I truly had a small hope that there was a treasure chest there and not a box of poopies. Alas...

We stayed outside and watched until they opened the tank. I had read online that you should never clean your own septic tank (like we would want to!) because the fumes would kill you and--ahem--anyone who attempted to rescue you. Truly. That's what it said. Unfortunately, the fumes aren't really that deadly, because they beckoned me out and (as I previously mentioned) they forced me to come near it and look into it! The workman insisted that I OK every aspect of the job. Please, no! My eyes! My nose!

They were using septic terminology that just meant nothing to me and the smell and concept were horrid. "The hoozibob is crumbling and there are roots growing all through the whatsigig. We really should put some chirrioos in it and replace that crumbling hoozibob."

I would have agreed to anything...ANYTHING! Just to escape!

So, I was able to flee after forking over $1500 and looking into the thing 5 times. It was harrowing.

But seriously, to have a digger in your own back yard...

Priceless?

I sure hope so.


















Do you see Jacob?























Jacob had one request during the digging. Listen up as I coy-ly ask him "what?" about 4 billion times. Diggers are amazing AND loud.

Ta da: Part 2 or Freedom

We did it. We finished all that we needed to do to show this here house. This week has been incredibly challenging and also a lot of fun. I grew up working on our house and yard. A lot. I won't bore you all with my "I roofed the house" or my "I installed a sprinkler system" stories (I'm far too modest), but working on my parents' house was a constant in my life. It hasn't been such a constant in this house. We've been a little too good at making do. So, this week has helped me remember how much fun and how much work it takes to really make a house shine. We could not have done it without Grandma Jan. She painted, edged, trimmed, cleaned, organized and did just about anything else we needed. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I also have realized how great our house is. Serious, what's not to love?

I love you, slanty house.















I love your big ginormous living room with the cute guy walking through.















I love your bar for serving lime rickeys and shirley temples.















I love your kitchen with beautiful appliances and ugly wallpaper.















I love your freakishly large master bedroom.















I love your slightly garish yella' room.




















I love your very minty mint chocolate chip room.




















I love your deck. No words. To pretty.















And most of all, I love your bathroom that finally isn't unbelievably ugly.

Before (see if you can spot all of the different materials used in the hardware):




















After (it looks way more beige in this pic, but trust me...it's gorgeous!):




















Sorry about the unexplained underlining. Too tired to figure it out.

Ta da!: Part I

Check out the preliminary fruits of our labors here.

Doesn't the house look extra pretty not covered in toys? As we've been working I've been falling back in love with the house all over again. I have to leave this for student housing? Goodbye dishwasher. Goodbye yard. Good (sniff, choke) bye.

Anyway, we're having an open house this Saturday, April 19th from 5 -7. If we do have any readers who are interested just comment here or contact us via our craigslist info to get directions. Imagine if we could sell our home through blogging! Ah, blogger, is there anything you can't do?

We will be working more throughout the week. Thankfully Grandma Jan is coming to help us get the final things together. We're really grateful she's willing to sacrifice the time to come. But really it's just payback for her. Kidding! (I'm pretty sure she'll be working a lot harder here than we ever did there.)

Look forward to more exciting pictures of our bedroom, Nicholas's bedroom and (the real excitement) the guest bathroom!