10 for 10. . .

10 facts about you, little sweetheart, at 10 months of age. . .

1.) Your new favorite thing to do is to stand up holding on to your superyard! And, one of your big brother's favorite things to do is to cheer for you and then pry your sweet little fingers off the superyard and make you fall. :-( He loves you to pieces, I promise! He just has a funny little way of showing it sometimes!! :-)

2.) You have two teeth which makes for a very cute little smile! And, even though you are eating baby food 3 times a day and nursing, you still wake up at least once at night for a little snack!!! Silly boy! One of these days, or should I say one of these nights. . .

3.) You love everyone! And, I do mean everyone! You will go to anyone and everyone and smile at them the entire time. Mr. Mike and Mrs. Susan helped me get to the van with all you boys after chuch yesterday. When we got to the car Mr. Mike said of you, "He is my little buddy." And, Mrs. Susan very quickly said, "Mike, he's everybody's little buddy!" And, it is so true!

4.) You might be part dog! Just kidding, but you do love to chew on shoes ~ especially crocs! We have to hide our shoes from you because they are your favorite teether! :-)

5.) I don't know much about who you will become, but two things I do know. . . You are happy ~ the content kind of happy ~ not the bright and shiney kind of happy. And, you are layed back. You don't get too worked up about anything. In fact, one night we put you to bed and from the other room we could hear you crying. Erik said, "That's unusual." And, I said, "I'm kinda glad. It's good to see he has a little fight in him." You are just a calm little man.

6.) You have brown eyes! I've never had a baby with brown eyes!

7.) Put #5 and #6 together and what do you get? You are very much like your namesake-your Daddy. I always tell Erik, "I think this must be what you were like as a baby ~ calm. Your Daddy is super layed back ~ unlike your high-strung mama! And, you look like him, too, Mr. brown eyes!

8.) You have a very sweet and special relationship with your big brother James Christofer Truett. He adores you. He wants to hold you and feed you and take care of you in any way that he is able. It is so fun for this mama to watch her little boys develop friendships!

9.) You love to crawl around the house and explore! You are a busy boy!

10.) You make life so much sweeter. You go from car seat to stroller to swing to superyard to walker to highchair without complaint. You just look up at me and smile like, "Hey, I'm just happy to be here." And, you know what, I'm so happy you are here, my little surprise baby. I can't imagine my life without you, and I love you with all my heart!

We love you to pieces! It is hard to believe that you will soon be one year old!!!!!!

What I did today. . .

*Woke up at 5:50 to the sound of a hungry 10 month old.
* Nursed him and rubbed his cute little fuzzy head.
* Showered, made coffee, and held 3 little boys in such a way that they all thought they were sitting on my lap and sipped coffee without burning anyone!! :-)
*Checked email, my calendar, and made breakfast.
* Kissed Erik goodbye.
*The boys and I prepared a small cooler with bottles of Gatorade for the garbage collectors to pick a drink from. Posted a sign on cooler instructing them to do so and letting them know we appreciate them. Oh, yes ma'am, we appreciate them!
*Got boys dressed and ready to play.
* Put Erik Daniel down for morning nap.
* Boys played inside while baby slept.
* Erik Daniel woke up and I took boys outside to play and to wait for garbage truck.
*An hour later, sweaty and still waiting. Decide to regroup, make lunch, and have picnic in the 90 degree heat.
* Hear garbage truck coming. Boys are giddy! Garbage collectors see cooler and wave with big smiles.
* Boys are more than pleased!
* Hey, wait a second, they took the cooler! They weren't supposed to take the cooler ~ just the Gatorade! This concerns Joshua. I assure him that we can replace the little cooler. All is well. Joshua says to JCT, "Doesn't it make you feel good to do something nice for someone else!" I think he has heard that line before??? :-)
* Finish up lunch and head inside for afternoon naps and rest-time.
* Nurse Erik Daniel and put him down.
* Sing to Elijah and put him down.
* Settle big boys in their room with puzzles and books.
* Go downstairs and spend 30 minutes looking for a babysitter to watch the little boys while I take Joshua to 2 birthday parties on Saturday. No babysitters available.
*Call Erik and complain that I cannot find a sitter to save. my. life.
*Unload dishwasher and reload.
*Straighten kitchen.
* Read a friend's blog.
* Tell big boys that they can come back downstairs.
* Hear Erik Daniel waking up, nurse him, and pack diaper bag.
*Wake up Elijah and load the boys in the van to go get hair-cuts.
* Call 2 of Joshua's friend's moms on the way to salon and ask if they could possibly take Joshua with them. Strike 2 and 3.
* Joshua overhears me talking on the phone and from the back of the van I hear my sweet boy say, "Mom, I don't have to go to both parities. Really, I don't. Just don't worry about it. I don't have to go. I'll just stay home."
* I assure him that I will get him to both parties ~ no worries!
* Spend the rest of the drive threatening JCT not to touch anything that doesn't belong to him at the salon.
* Get to salon. Load Erik Daniel in stroller and walk inside. Want to cry when I see a customer sitting in our hairdresser's chair with wet hair. Begin to point out chairs for each boy to sit in when I notice sidewalk chalk sitting on a little table.
* Ask Ann (hairdresser) if we can play with it. She says yes, and we head out to find a little corner of concrete to write on.
* Ann comes out to get us, and boys get hair-cuts.
* Laugh at my Elijah as he is getting his hair-cut. The child who never sits still looks as if she has put him in a trance! :-)
* JCT obeyed! He managed to keep his hands to himself! Hooray! Ice cream for everyone!
* Drive to Sonic.
* Make one last attempt at finding a babysitter.
* Bingo! The brave soul agreed to watch my boys! :-) God be with her and bless her abundantly!
* Pull into parking place at Sonic and order ice cream.
* Receive order, get boys out of car seats and head to picnic table area.
* Grab entire roll of paper towels from van.
* Feel like Mother of the year as I walk my well-behaved little boys in a straight line to eat their ice cream.
* Oops. Not feeling like Mother of the year anymore. Mother of the Year would have realized that eating ice cream in the summer heat would not be a good idea. Ice cream is literally running down their arms, their shirts, and onto their shorts and crocs.
* Have to laugh at what a bad idea this was and at how adorable my little men look with ice cream goatees!
* Try desperately to clean them as they eat all the while holding Erik Daniel on my hip.
* Attempt to sit down and look as if this is easy and very much under my control since I have a captive audience of hamburger eating folks gawking at me. But, when I sit down Erik Daniel grabs the roll of paper towels on the table behind me, and it falls to the floor unraveling all over the dirty concrete.
* I attempt to collect myself and the runaway paper towels without dropping the baby!
* Praise God when one by one they begin to finish their cones!
* Head back to van.
* Go to the library because I love books, and it just makes me feel good and peaceful.
* Let the boys pick out one book each, then head to the front to check them out.
* Realize that my library card is at home in our library bag. Where else would it be?
* Ask if she can just look me up in the computer.
* She says she needs to see my drivers license.
* No problem, only it is in the car. So, I leave books at desk and haul all four boys back to van. Elijah begins crying because he thinks we are leaving without his Barney book. I assure him that I would not do such a thing and try to explain that we are coming right back.
* Go back inside, check out books, and head to park. . .
* Yeah, I'm a sucker. They asked and the park was completely vacant, so I said yes.
* Drive to park, load Erik Daniel in stroller and head out to play.
* Again feeling a bit like mother of the year until I hear. . .
* Wailing and Gnashing of teeth! JCT realizes that he! has! a! blister!
* Go back to car where I remember seeing that someone stuffed their sock in a cup holder. I have been meaning to bring it in for a week at least, but I'm glad that I didn't! Give JCT the sock to put on and head back to play.
* Play for 30 or so minutes until JCT is almost asleep on the swings, then load everyone back into van and head home.
* Get home, make dinner, bathe boys, read to boys, take out Rain, slowly one by one put boys down.
* Take 2 Extra Strength Tylenol for my aching legs, get a glass of milk and three chocolate oatmeal cookies and sit down at the computer. . .
* Talk to Erik, and now I am calling it a day.
* Amen.
* And, amen, and amen, and amen.

A Few of My Favorite New Things. . .

I am not a spontaneous type of girl. I am much more of a planning, checking, double checking, triple checking, etc. type of girl. But, last Friday I decided at the very last minute to drive to New Orleans.


6 hours.

By myself.

With four children.


Don't let your mind wander to how I handled potty breaks. Let's just say I had my hands full. And, I obviously didn't think ahead because I wore drawstring yoga pants. Have you ever tried to tie drawstrings with a twenty-something pound wiggle worm on your hip? It was an experience! :-) But, we made it, and I got to see my sweet husband who had been in New Orleans with his parents all week, and that is all that really matters!!!

Jen and Jason were there, as well, and Jen gave me this awesome Mother's Day gift. . .








She knows me well.

I mean, seriously, how cute!! "Mommy's Sippy Cup!" I love it, love it, love it! I have used it the last two days straight! And, I begin my mornings sipping it and holding cute little red-headed boys. But, once they begin to get up and play, I grab my Bible and this workbook. . . .




and head to my favorite chair at the bar. I sip my coffee and do this wonderful study! I love it because I like to talk a lot, and I don't mean just to others. I do a whole lot of talking to myself. And, I don't talk quite as kindly to myself as I do to my friends. So, I am in desperate need of a thought closet makeover!

And, when I glance up from my Bible study, I see this new frame that I bought with a picture of four of my favorite little people!

And, speaking of those four little people. . .
I have a new favorite book to read to them!


It is a take-off of Goodnight Moon. And, it is perfect for our family because the Big Easy will always have a very special place in our hearts.

And, these are a few of my new favorite things!

Leaders, Confrontations, and an Upgrade

I haven't been posting as often lately, and I think the reason for that is two-fold. On one hand we are busy. Erik is in and out of town taking care of his parents. The boys have a summer agenda which consists of lots of outdoor play. And, we had Vacation Bible School at our church last week ~ the boys attended and I helped with crafts.

And, on the other hand, I am going through a kind of funny stage right now.

If I have learned anything about parenting in the last 6 years, it is that it comes in stages, phases, or whatever you want to call them. Some stages are sweet, some are fun, some are trying, and some are downright difficult. And, right now the testosterone level in this house is wearing me out! I don't consider myself to be a leader. Deana B. would argue with me on that, but I think it is true. And, I have four little wanna~be leaders growing up under me, and I am learning how to handle them ~ how to handle myself. All my life I have fought to avoid confrontation at all costs, and now I am facing confrontations all day everyday.

Little boys.

God made them with the desire to lead, to conquer, to fight, and to protect. Those are wonderful things when they are under His direction. But, harnessing them, channeling them is a huge challenge ~ one that I didn't see coming. But, I am attempting to adjust, to get my barrings, to figure this thing out ~ if that is possible.

All that to say, I have been a bit distracted from the computer lately! But, hey, speaking of leaders, my number 3 boy has a new thing that he likes to say to aggravate his big brothers. He walks up to them, puffs his little chest out as big as he can, and says in his loud, deep, raspy voice, "I da BOSS of dis house." This angers his big brothers who argue that Daddy is the boss of the house. But, Elijah, unrelentingly repeats his little phrase over and over, all the while smiling overcomingly as he fuels their anger. He loves it. They hate it. And, these sorts of things go on all day long within the walls of our sweet home!

So, here is Lijah in two pictures that I like to call. . .

The Upgrade. . .

This summer Erik Daniel has taken over the baby swing, and Elijah has upgraded to a big boy swing. And, he is oh, so proud of himself!!! Can you tell??

VBS Video for Grandparents!

The video above is of the rehearsal LuAnne did with the kiddos right before the service. I love that you can hear her voice at the beginning! Erik focused on Afton and JCT as he videoed this song. But, if you look closely you can see Lij on the other side of Afton. He stayed on stage for rehearsal, but he decided he didn't like being front and center when the room filled with people. So, he sat on his sweet teacher Miss Lauren's lap during the actual performance. In the video below, I start out videoing Afton and JCT, then move over to sweet Joshua, and then scan over a little further to Miss Lauren and Lijah.

Mr. Ken and Mrs. Diane, I know this is no replacement for actually getting to be here, but I hope it helps!!!!! :-) Hope you enjoy it!! Love you both!

Hard. At. Play.

Before. . .


During. . .


And, after. . .



Joshua.

He plays hard.

Wow. I keep catching glimpses of him around the house and for a second, just a quick little second, I see him as a teenager one day. It is the strangest thing. He went into Kindergarten a little boy and came out a little man. Yikes!

Joshua wakes up biting at the bit to get outside. And, his new thing is wanting to "play football." He asked me to take these posed pictures of him. . .


In this one. . .he has just finished begging his little brother (the one pictured) to play football with him. But, Brett Favre didn't even respond to his request. He opted to continue hanging upside down on the swing. . .

No worries, Joshua had an alternate plan. . .

He just went on down the line. . . And, this little man would do just about anything big brother Joshua asked him to do. . .

Joshua has a bit of an unfair advantage playing with Elijah, but Elijah is just happy to be included in the game!

I like to call these next two pictures. . .

The agony. . .


of defeat. . .

Mommy beat him again. Erik told me not to let him win, so I don't. One of his favorite things to do is race around the track he created in our front yard. One of his least favorite things to do is lose. I keep telling him that one of these days he is going to beat the socks off of me, and I will be so happy when he does! I may just bake him cupcakes on that gloriously victorious day. I told him he was very close to beating me, and that by this time next year he would most likely have beaten me. But, that didn't help. I might as well have told him that it would be sometime in the next century!

I'm not sure what got into me, maybe I was feeling a little overly confident, but yesterday evening after church we were all taking turns racing Joshua around his track, and I challenged Erik to a race.

Yeah.

He beat me.

Still not sure what I was thinking.

But, boy, oh, boy, was it fun!

Relay for Life 2009

Last night my sweet mama and I took the boys to our community's Relay for Life. The weather was perfect ~ sunny with temps in the 70s. We met a few of our favorite friends there and had a blast. . .

The kiddos enjoyed mechanical bull riding. . .

Joshua. . .
JCT. . . And, sweet Afton. . .

I love that little girl, and I always tell her mother that she reminds me of a butterfly ~ the way she flits and flutters and dances around on her toes. . . And, last night, ironically, she had a butterfly painted on her cheek! That made me smile!

Me and one of my favorite hometown heroes. . .

After several bounce houses and obstacle courses, the boys discovered boxing and talked Brother into letting them try it!

Joshua, you are supposed to punch the bag, baby, not Brother!!!!!


Who knew a punching bag could be so much fun! We may have to invest in one of these!


Fun!

Little Miracles. . .

Walking through the journey of Erik's parent's accident has been a series of little miracles. And, every week when Erik makes that 6 hour drive home, he returns encouraged because he has witnessed another little miracle. Progress is slow but, it has, at least so far, remained constant. Thank You, Jesus!

Years before the accident, Grandma made Build a Bears for each of the boys. And, I will never forget the first time after the accident, when Grandma lay still in a coma, that I accidently stepped on Joshua's bear's paw and heard her voice, "Hi, Joshua, this is Grandma. Be a good little boy. We love you. We're praying for you." It was a hard moment. Joshua and I just looked at each other both wondering if we would ever hear that familiar voice again.

Well, good news, we have heard her sweet voice once again! The other day Erik came home from work, handed his cell phone to Joshua, and said, "Someone wants to talk to you." He took the phone from his Daddy, and said, "Hi, Pop!" Then, a few minutes later he looked up at Erik and said, "Is it Pop?" Erik encouraged him to listen, and a minute or two later he realized who was on the other end of the phone telling him that she loved him! His eyes lit up, and he smiled from ear to ear. Later that evening we went to church, and Joshua bragged to every person who would stand still long enough for him to them that. . . "My Grandma can talk! She told me she loved me on the phone today!" And, our church body rejoiced with him!

Since the accident happened, my Joshua has thought of little else. His school papers throughout the month of May were covered in pictures of Pop, Grandma, the accident, the car that hit them, the police, their hospital rooms, their names written on hearts and stars, etc. It is easy to understand why psycologists analyze the art of children. It is a window to their heart. I remember sometime after the accident Joshua drew a series of pictures of his Grandparents. In the first they were leaving guest housing across the street from the seminary. The sun was smiling and so were Grandma and Pop. Then, he drew a picture of the car that hit them, Grandma and Pop laying on the ground, and he wrote the word, "Oops" at the top. The next picture had the police talking to the man who hit Grandma and Pop. The man was saying, "Oops," and the police were saying, "No!" And, in that picture the sun that had once been smiling was now crying. When he brought me these pictures and told me the story, tears filled my eyes as he pointed out to me, "Look, Mommy, see the sun is smiling here, and here it is sad and crying." A glimpse into my little man's soul. Children draw what they are thinking.

So, it was of no surprise to me that Joshua drew this picture the day after he heard his Grandma's voice. . .

Complete with stapled on tissue for her covers! I love that little creative boy!

And, he would want me to point out to you that if you lift up her covers, you can see her feet. . .

He is proud of that!

Anyway, I thought I'd add a picture that JCT drew of Pop just for fun!

Thanks again for your prayers! We are seeing little miracles every week!

Evil-doers Beware. . .

There is great power in dish-towel "cates" and undies worn on top of pants!

Mr. 9 Months

This morning I had the great privilege of taking my youngest son to his 9 month well baby check up! Miss Megan came and stayed with the big boys while I enjoyed 3 hours of being the mama to one sweet little baby. We ran in and out of a few stores ~ so easy when you only have one to load and unload!! The weather was beautiful and the outing was a breath of fresh free air for me. Yesterday was one of those days. It was full and loud and hot and tiring, but this morning was peaceful and easy thanks to my sweet little companion.

The little mister weighed in at 22 pounds, 4 ounces and was a whopping 31.5 inches long - the M.D. said that he was the length of the average 15-16 month old. Maybe my little Erik will take after my big Erik???!!! :-) He smiled and babbled all the way through the exam ~ happy as a clam! And, thankfully, no shots this visit!!! :-)

Okay, my sweet one, do you know that I adore you? Of course, you do! I love you to pieces! You have always been a calm, sweet presence, but this month something changed in you a little. It began a few weeks ago while I was changing your diaper. Now, up until this time, you used to lay perfectly still and let me do my work. But, this particular day you began twisting and turning and rolling all around while I wrestled you back onto your back in order to put a clean diaper on your cute little wiggly booty! I laughed out loud at the change in you and reminded myself that even though you have been a gentle, easy baby, you are, after all, a boy!! Changing your diaper has become a full contact sport. I mean, seriously, you went from calm, sweet baby to active, curious little boy in less than one month!! Whew!

The picture above was taken at the zoo in New Orleans. You are always easy to take places ~ just happy to be along for the ride. . .

Your big brothers adore you. The only problem is that I fear they may smother you one of these days. I took this picture in our little apartment on the seminary campus in New Orleans. I came around the corner and saw this. . .

You tolerate all the attention so well!

I think they kinda like you, little man.

One thing is for sure. . .

Being the fourth boy, you will be one. tough. cookie.

I love you so much!

Can't wait to see what this month will bring. . . and the next. . . and the next!