May the Force Be With You and a Few Funnies

We have entered a definite Star Wars phase. After watching a bit of Episode IV a year or two ago, Luke had terrible nightmares. So, we put off showing him any more. Clay finally decided that Luke was missing a big part of a kid's life experience, so he showed him all 7 episodes (including The Clone Wars). Luke was hooked and, thankfully, no bad dreams. Now it has been all light saber fights, Star Wars legos, pod racers made out of screwdrivers, Lego Star Wars Wii, "Use the Force, Luke" quotes, etc. Luke's favorite character is Luke. He claims it is because he is one of the only characters who uses both a light saber and blaster, but I think we all know the real reason.

Luke feels deeply indebted to my mom for the "real" light sabers and lego set for his birthday. No more taped together toilet paper tubes for this boy!


Love the scrolling words in the background?


Luke's Art of Persuasion: "Audrey, do you want to play light sabers? I'll let you have the red one, which is kind of like swinging around a pink magic wand." or "Audrey, will you play gun fight with me? You can have this orange gun, which is kind of like pink and shoots out princess bombs."

I hate this one because of the mess in the background. I love this one, because you can see Clayton doing the sound effects. He makes the best light saber sounds.


Now that Luke is 5, I think I can safely make a confession. Episode III came out when I was pregnant with Luke. We had already picked out the name purely because we liked it, but I did feel a little thrill when I first saw Padme say "Luke" when he was born. There, I've said it.

A few more funny Star Wars-related items. Have you seen the Disney movie Cars? Audrey calls Darth Vader "Dark Mater". I think it is hilarious. Along those lines, Clayton= "Dad Mater".

And here are a few non-Star Wars-related items about Audrey.

Max was sleeping in his car seat after we had run some errands one day. I was in the other room and heard sudden, loud baby cries. I ran to see what happened, and I found this. Poor little guy. I don't know how she managed to put everything on with him strapped in, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty to watch.


I got him out of his seat, de-accessorized him, cuddled and rocked him, and laid him down for a second to do something. When I came back, she was back at it again. She was singing "I Know You" from Sleeping Beauty to him. "He likes it!" she said in her own defense.


I think he was becoming resigned.


And finally, after I made little homemade pizzas for lunch out of bread slices, Audrey prayed that we could "go to the pizza place instead, because the pizza place is just great". What a character.

So Big!

Our little monkey is 2 months old, and this is as close to a picture of a smile as I can get. He started smiling for real (as opposed to those cute sleep-smirks in the beginning) at about 5 weeks, and we can invariably get huge grins and coos from him if we make eye-contact and talk to him. He is so jolly and happy, particularly with the full attention of whomever is around. Cameras don't make eye-contact, however; thus the difficulty capturing his adorable full-face grins.

Just a few notes about life with our baby: At his 2-month doctor's appointment, he officially became our chubbiest baby at 95th percentile in height and 90th in weight. I know it is totally irrational, but when the nurses all acted amazed that he was so chubby and exclusively breast-fed and then called me "Super-Mom", I felt a rush of pride. It's probably a good thing that they couldn't see the inside of my house right about then. Ha.
At about 6 weeks Max started sleeping a good 7-9 hour stretch at night, which is amazing to me. I think I'm starting to figure babies out a little bit, but I am mostly just blessed with one of the best. He also goes to bed pretty much at 7 every evening with the other kids, so I feel like I have some time to myself. This is huge for my sanity. I should be feeling very well-rested, except that I've been staying up way too late getting things done, and I often stay awake after that 3 or 4 AM feeding to work some more. Why isn't my house cleaner, you ask? Good question. I'm not quite sure when I'm going to get the hang of taking care of things with one extra body in the house, but, for all I'm lacking as a wife, mother, and house-keeper, I do love my little/big family. Max keeps us all smiling with his naturally happy disposition.

Luke and Audrey are hilarious with him. Luke has got the high-pitched baby-talk tone down, and he is convinced that Max has said his first words in response. Luke will definitely be excited when Max can finally grasp a light saber. Audrey has a special bond with Max, probably because she adores spending time with him. She still begs to hold him all the time, and she just sits there talking to him and getting him to smile. I think Max has a love/hate relationship with his older siblings, as they can get smothering very quickly. Not to mention how Audrey never ceases to move Max when I happen not to be looking; like when I had him on his playmat on the floor, and the next thing I know he is across the room on her lap. Yikes!

This picture cracks me up, because it is the scene around here so much of the time: Luke and Audrey vying for attention, with an "I-need-some-space"-look on Max's face.

Audrey surprised us all at her 3-year doctor's appointment with these stats: 95th percentile in weight and 100th in height! Holy moly! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, as she is just a few inches shorter than Luke and wears almost the same size clothes. Big brother is definitely not going to be the big one in the family. I think Audrey is too cute for words, though. A la Fancy Nancy, she must be fully accessorized with sequined bag, feather-lined shoes, all manner of jewelry, and her pink Care Bear umbrella just in case before we head out the door... pretty much every. single. time.
She just started her first ballet class, and it made me want to jump for joy that I have a little girl. All those little 3-year-olds in their tutus were just so dang cute. The teacher warned me that the freshly-turned 3-year-olds usually drop out of the class because they are too shy, but I don't think that's going to be a problem for us. She has a touch of shyness about her, but Audrey was SO excited for this dance class, that she jumped right in and fully participated. Thank goodness all my children aren't going to have Luke's disposition. Don't get me wrong, I love my little Luke to pieces and wouldn't want him any other way, but having a very shy child can be draining. We needed one with a little spunk, and we've got her!

First Day of School ...and then the Second First Day!

Here is a picture of Luke outside his school for his first day of Afternoon DK or Developmental Kindergarten (it is basically a Pre-K or Young 5's class from which the kids can either go to another year of Kindergarten or move on to 1st Grade). There was quite a bit of anxiety on my part before that moment. Luke has always been painfully shy, and I knew school would be a little bit hard on him. We had talked it up a lot beforehand, taken a tour of the school, done a massive countdown to school with an activity for each day, and now it was time. Audrey and Max were at a friend's house, and Luke and I were there. It even felt like school-time, as the temperature had dropped 25 degrees in honor of this special day! Unfortunately, there was a power-outage and the school was closed. Major let-down. Most of the other kids in his class were there, too, and we all had a tour of the classroom with a flashlight before going home to try again the next day.

Showing off the new Star Wars backpack

On to the second-first day!


Showing off that backpack again!


By his locker. He basically looks like a teenager to me in this one.

At his table, where he sits by a little boy named Max. Luke thought that was great.

Luke did so well, I couldn't believe it. While other kids cried and hung onto their moms, Luke sat at his desk, albeit nervously, and waved goodbye to me. I did see him sneak a few peeks at the heart I had drawn on his palm. His super-sweet teacher handed me a note about how she knew it was a hard day and that she would love and take care of him as her own, which opened the floodgates on my end.
Here is a picture he drew on that first day. Is it just me, or does the picture he drew of his teacher look like an winged angel? I also love how every single kid in his class drew themselves as a circle head with stick arms and legs growing straight out of it. Such a cute stage in artistic development!

Day two Luke had a little bit harder of a time, but I held myself together. Day three, and we both handled things well. I can't believe my little shy-guy has started school, but I think it will be fun for him. Now I've just got to figure out how to get him to talk to his teacher...

Our 6-Week Old Max-Man

One of the most sad hours of my life happened around this time. It was a Sunday, late-morning, and we were starting to get ready for church. I lay Max on my bed for a second while I went into the next room to do something. A moment later, Luke and Audrey were at my side, letting me know that they had locked Max in my room. It was a room with a real lock (not one you can just stick a toothpick in), and we had no key. Clayton was furious, and I was a little bit panicked. Obviously, the kids hadn't wanted to do something bad. They were just curious and playful. But, Max was in there all alone and screaming. We tried everything: credit cards, lock-pick set, prying the window open from the outside, contraptions made from hockey sticks, belts, and tape to try and fling up the belt and catch the handle. Nothing was working, Max was still screaming, Audrey kept telling Luke that he had killed Max, and the locksmith with the 15-minute guarantee was 15 minutes late. Clayton called again, and they said it would be another hour (!) before they would get there. He knocked the door down. I was glad. Luckily, the door didn't break - just the trim around it. Also, Max was okay. We knew he hadn't suffocated due to the hour-and-a-half-long screaming fit which nearly broke my heart, but he settled down just fine. We rushed to get dressed, rushed to church, and our sweet, little, worn-out babe slept for the duration of church. However, the story continues. The following day, I was in Luke and Audrey's room helping them change after swimming in the back yard. Luke, for some unknown reason, locked us in. Aarrgh! Again, we were separated from Max. Luckily I was in this time, so I climbed out the window in my bathing suit, ran around the house, and found an open door. We have had a lot of talks around here lately about never locking doors!

Birthday Bonanzas and Princesses

Birthday Season at our house now begins July 15 with Max, followed shortly thereafter by Clayton at the beginning of August. This was a big year for Clay, as he hit the 3-0 mark. He's not a big party guy, so we kept it simple at home. The kids and I blew up 30 balloons, made a poster of 30 things we love about him, and showered him with 30 presents. Okay, it wasn't quite 30, but he did get a lot of presents this year. I don't think he was necessarily excited about turning 30, but he took it in stride as we celebrated him and how glad we are that he was born! What he was looking forward to the most for his birthday was water-skiing, as the timing of Max messed up our annual Montana trip. We did the next best thing and headed for a long weekend to Missouri. More on this later.

This is pretty much the only picture I have of Clayton this whole summer. Poor guy!


Next on the birthday list is Audrey. I was planning a big music party with every kid we know, until I caught our little princess in bed, crown on head, princess book grasped in hand. Clayton suggested we just do what she would obviously pick for her party, and we did just that.

We had a princess soiree with a few of her girlfriends, and we did all her favorite things. All the girls came in their princess attire, and they decorated crowns.

We painted nails,

Put on makeup,

Accessorized, Played in a cardboard castle,

And danced to Sleeping Beauty music. Isn't that Sleeping Beauty dress that my mom made for her so darling?!

It was a success, because Audrey loved it.



Happy Birthday to our little princess!

My birthday came along at the beginning of this month, and I racked up another year to make 27. Even though the day was a lot like any other, everyone went out of their way to make me feel extra loved. I received lots of phone calls, little treats from girlfriends, and LOTS of hugs, kisses, and attention from my kids and hubby. I really felt so blessed this birthday to have such a sweet husband who I know loves me unconditionally and immensely. I can really, truly tell. And no, this wasn't my only cake. I got the most big, beautiful, Dairy Queen Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake you can imagine.


Now we only have Luke left. He has been waiting so patiently!