Meeting Cache!

We have been anxiously awaiting this meeting since the announcement that Lauren and Caleb were expecting last summer. Actually, longer than that...we have all been wanting another nephew for forever :) Caleb is sooo amazing with kids, and it's so fun to see him as a dad. Lauren is a great mommy too, Cache is a lucky boy!

So, he was born on March 23, around 9:20am, and weighed in at a measly 8 lbs flat. I say measly, because with Caleb being 6'6", we were expecting a 9lb+ baby. Thankfully for Lauren, this wasn't the case. We were sick last weekend though, and it was just killing me that I couldn't run up to the hospital to meet Cache. But, we did see an online slide show of him, and Blaze and Alanna sat and watched that over and over again as if it were a very intriguing movie. Blaze says that Cache is "his" baby, and you can see him looking a little protective in the first picture I posted. With my kids each being 2 years apart, the older 3 had a baby sibling at Blaze's age. But, Cache and another expected cousin will have to be surrogate brothers for him.

I love newborn babies and think they are all beautiful, but there is something very special about a sweet bundle who is linked to you by blood. I just keep looking at pictures of him thinking he is soooo beautiful!  Cache looks so much like Caleb already too, and it will be fun to see a little Caleb running around. I was 7 when Caleb was born, and I remember changing his diapers, lifting him out of his crib, entertaining him while mom made dinner, etc. It will just be a nostalgic experience seeing my younger brothers with kids. And my kids absolutely love their cousins. Now...if we could summon Andrea's baby to come any day now, we'll have double the joy :)

My Blaze-a-Roo!!!

Sometimes I like to tease Blaze and call him other names. He gets really mad and says "I not (fill in the blank), I Blaze-a-Roo!" I've called him that since he was a few months old, so I'm glad he likes his nick name. This kid is so cute that I always tell him I'm going to eat him up too. I almost literally do by kissing him all over, and of course, he loves it. He'll run away like he doesn't like it, but he's like Brer Rabbit in the Brier patch :) 

James usually put the kids to bed, but he's been working on insulation in the basement for the past couple of weeks So, I get the chore, or uh, great privilege of trying to put our 2 year old to bed! He begs to watch Curious George on my phone, or for one more book, or wants to "sleep with you, Mommy!" I have found a trick to getting him to bed though. He loves to sing 10 Little Monkeys, Monkeys swinging in the Trees, and NURSERY RHYMES! I started laying in bed with him and rattling off all of the nursery rhymes I know, and he would start requesting certain ones. Then, he started saying a few words with me here and there. And now, there are several that he will recite on his own, and the rest he just needs an occasional prompting. His favorite right now is "Georgie Porgy Pudd'n Pie, kissed the girls and made them cry...". It is THE cutest thing ever because he has a bit of a lisp, and he's barely 2 1/2, and he's my baby. Soooo sweet!

Potty training has been our latest challenge. I haven't done it with my other three until they were around 33 months old, but we are going to Hawaii in a couple of months and it would be so nice not to worry about diapers! We've gotten to the point where Blaze will sometimes run to the potty on his own, but he's not consistent. It's really hard with #4 because I have to be out and about most days. And there is no way he is ready to wear undies out and about! I'm not a fan of the pull-ups, my kids just treat them like they are diapers. Tonight, James got after Blaze for pooping in his pants instead of the potty. That was his mistake! James was changing the oil in the van and coming in and out, so Blaze locked James out of the house and was yelling at him from inside. James asked Blaze to let him in, but Blaze just shouted "no, you mean daddy!" Don't mess with Blaze, he can and will lock you out. Locks are his new toy, so at least he knows how to unlock as well.

It's so interesting to watch the baby of the family develop. He definitely picks up bad tricks from his siblings, but he also learns some useful "street smarts". Blaze seems to understand the concept of money, how everyone wants it, and that you can buy things with it. The other night Paul paid Blaze three pennies to help him clean his room. He's yet to learn the relationship between work and money and what that is worth! Alanna has Blaze excited about learning his letters and sounds, and since those two are so competitive, it's a great thing she's challenging him. It's not so great that when Alanna gets mad at James or me she goes into a tirade of " Well you're a stupid, dummy, butt, dummy, stupid head...!" and on and on with the very offensive insults. My little Blaze has started to carry on like this when he gets mad too, and he has a temper. He's so little still that I just have to turn my back so he doesn't see my amusement :)

When I was pregnant with Blaze I was really hoping that I was having a girl, for Alanna. I don't have a sister, and of course, it's so fun to dress a baby girl! I was a little disappointed when we found out we were having boy #3, I'll admit it. A very wise and thoughtful friend told me that I would have the sweetest baby boy and that I would just know that's how it was meant to be and I'd never trade him! How right she was!

More St. Patrick's Day Fun!

The Leprechauns and James really messed up our guest toilet. The kids have a theory about how a Leprechaun enters our house...through the toilet!

That pesky leprechaun painted mustaches and/or devil horns on all of the pictures in our house.

That evening, we had the Perkins over for dinner. I was so excited about my wheat grass decorations which are so pretty and easy to grow. Since nothing in our garden has ever produced any fruit, we are considering growing our own wheat now :) Yeah right. The kids were so excited to get their own little pot of grass at their place setting, and they have had lots of fun caring for their grass. And by caring for I mean watering and generously trimming it!

We dined on corned beef, of course, Irish scones, Irish Soda Bread, a bruschetta spread, an all green salad and green fruit. I also made colcannon - a potato and cabbage dish.

 I warned everyone to wear green, but Lauren did not! She got pinched!

 Peter is so much fun. He's so imaginative, and he tucked in  this balloon "tail" to the top of his pants and was slithering around on the floor like a snake. I also had some entertaining conversations with him while he was playing in the playhouse while he served me ice cream and cake.

It's always a wrestling match with the uncles around. They need some good ruffing up!

 Andrew took pictures of all of the kids and was using photo editing to turn them into Leprechauns. Not on an IPad, it was an Android device :)

 

My favorite part - dessert! This was a trifle of layered chocolate cake, brownies, white chocolate mint mousse (couldn't get enough of that!), crushed mint Oreos, and Andes Mint baking pieces. It was the kind of dessert that is so good that you just had to go for seconds even though you were already full! James and I were left with about a 1/4 of it, and this dessert is completely responsible for the 2 pounds I gained this week! I can only allow myself to make it when I know it will be entirely eaten when 1st served with no leftovers for me to pig out on :) Why am I so addicted to sugar?!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

Our fun friends, the Lombardi's, really know how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! We all really looked forward to this party and it did not disappoint! We had delicious food, all in keeping with the Irish, and were entertained by limerics guests wrote, and some Irish trivia. It's just all around fun to socialize with friends. My kids LOVE playing at their house too, they've got everything a kid could want :)

I need to find out what was in these crock pot potatoes, so creamy and delicious.

I made this colcannon. It's a traditional Irish dish of cabbage and potatoes.

I don't know how much the Irish eat broccoli salad, but it was very festively green and tasty.

Cassie made corned beef cooked in beer, and then cooked the cabbage in beer and the juices from the meat. I heard the corned beef was really good! I had a sandwich made with green sage cheese in it! It was so good, and I've never seen green cheese before (not the kind you were actually supposed to eat anyway!)

This fruit salad was held together with key lime pie filling! So good!

LOVELOVELOVE these eggs. It's guacamole with only a few egg yolks in it! Definitely making these for Easter!
So James said my scones were not authentic because they tasted too good! I'll take that as a compliment from him though?! They had lemon, crasin, and white chocolate chips in them. I'm in trouble, because I keep thinking of different flavors to make. These aren't the healthiest little treats!

I loved watching the kids playing together. They were having their own little dinner party at the picnic table under the playset.

Doesn't everyone look good in green! My face isn't so great in this one, but Cassie looks gorgeous!

I wasn't paying close attention to "Pin the Shamrock on the Leprechaun", but Paul claims he won. He could be lying though...

Wow! I had been hearing about this cake for a couple of weeks and was so excited to try it. Looking at it I just though of Cake Boss. Inside was banana with chocolate mousse and peanut butter mousse filling. The rainbow, coins, and clouds were made out of fondant that acutally tasted really good.  I could have eaten it all! I had to ask for an outside piece because I really love frosting, it's the best part. I know that is disgusting to some people, but I see people scraping frosting off of their cake all of the time and I think it's such a shame. I am going to have to try to recreate the peanut butter mousse with the banana cake. Winning combo for me!

Beaty and the Beast...

Our Belle!

 Alanna was playing dress up, and she's so beautiful that her daddy wanted pictures. And then Alanna wanted to take some pictures of her daddy...The Beast!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss...

 Just to enjoy childhood and keep life exciting, we couldn't resist celebrating a very influential man...Dr. Seuss. Along with Mother Goose, he has taught my kids how to rhyme!

We had green eggs and ham, "Oh the Places You'll Go" cookies, and an eatable fish tank for "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." Only, it's really hard to find blue jello around here these days, so we had to settle for green jello with Swedish Fish floating in it.

 We all enjoyed watching "The Lorax", and the kids also have fallen in love with a version of "Cat in the Hat" they found on Netflix. It's a British production with live actors, and they would watch it over and over again if I let them!

We never celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday when I was a kid, (maybe because he died in 1991), but it's a fun tradition for my kids. With Pinterest around, everyday can be a holiday. I wonder how long they will get excited about green eggs and ham!!!