It's Been too long

OK, it's been a loooong time since I've written. I was worn out chasing after my 3 kiddos and being pregnant, but now that Zach is 6 weeks old, I think I'm getting some energy back! The biggest news is that Zachary William was born at the beginning of July. It was a quick delivery (1-1/2 hours after the Dr. broke my water and sent me into labor) so there was no time for an epidural this time! He is a huge blessing to our family and we are enjoying him every day. He seems to fit right in with the other kiddos and they love to hold him and give him kisses. He is still waking up a couple times a night, but he goes right back to sleep so it's not too crazy. Of course I'm hoping that he starts sleeping longer stretches at night soon.

I think since it's been so long, I'll go backwards in time in this post, if I can remember what we did. Joe and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 22. We usually try to go away for a weekend (or at least a night), but since I was 37 weeks pregnant we just went to dinner. We'll try to do an out-of-town weekend later in the year.

We attended the Hugghins family reunion on June 20th in Huntsville, TX. It was kind of a small group this year, but we enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up. I think they decided to do the reunion every other year from now on, so we look forward to seeing everyone again. The last reunion was in 2005 when Ben was the youngest Hugghins in attendance.

The boys took swim lessons in the beginning of June. Abby will have to wait 2 more years since she'll need to be 3 years old (or we may try to sneak her in at the end of the summer next year when she'll be just a month shy of 3). They did really well. Sam loves to go under water and look around and he likes to sink, which makes mama nervous! Ben is a little more timid, but did a great job and has been improving all summer. We are blessed that Grandma & Grandpa have taken the oldest 3 swimming several times this summer while mama gets some rest at home with Zach.

In May Sam was playing soccer and he scored some goals in the final few games. My cousin Tom and his wife Missy moved to the D/FW area in the spring so they came down for a visit in May and attended one of Sam's games. It's kind of like herding cats (watching 5-7 year olds play soccer) but there was noticeable improvement between the fall and spring. Sam is looking forward to playing again this fall.

Also in May, our church had a baby dedication ceremony and we had Abby dedicated to the Lord. A couple of other friends had their babies dedicated too, including one that was born 2 days after the dedication. I can't remember much else about the month of May so I'll just post more later if I think of anything.

In April we went to Gonzalez, LA to visit Gramby and Pa. They are living there for a year while Pa works for his daughter's company. We had a great visit just hanging out with them and going to Pa's "favorite fishy place" where we all ate some fried alligator. The kids all did well on the 6-7 hour drive. Abby kind of lost it the last hour each day, but who can blame her when she's strapped down into a car seat for the whole trip.

March involved a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. We saw lots of animals and had a good time. It's really a nice little zoo that's inexpensive and a good size for a family with little kiddos. We can cover the whole thing in a couple of hours.

Frustration to Laughter

I was trying to get the boys to clean up the HUGE mess all over our house. They kept getting sidetracked and playing and generally not obeying. I was getting very frustrated with them and should have issued some sort of punishment, but I wanted to get some things done while they cleaned. About 20 minutes into this, Ben came to me crying and said the Sam had kicked him in the face. I found Sam in the playroom closet, asked him if he'd kicked Ben and he said, "Yes." When I asked him why he indicated that it was because Ben was trying to sit on the big blue exercise ball and Sam wanted his feet there instead. I was sooooo frustrated by this point that I was looking at Sam rather intensely while I was trying to decide what punishment to issue. All of a sudden Sam got this strange look on his face and said, "Your eyes! They look like dragon eyes!" I couldn't help myself and burst out laughing. I told Sam to go to his room, but I think it probably lost some of its effectiveness. It was hysterical at the time, but I really don't want to be looking at my children with "dragon eyes", but with loving eyes...even when I'm frustrated and they need to be disciplined. Lord, I really need help with this! P.S. It took us an hour, but we eventually got everything cleaned up!

Yuck!

The day started when one of the boys came into our room at 2am saying his underwear and pajamas were wet. So we got that taken care of and I told him to sleep in the bottom bunk (a full size mattress) with his brother. I couldn't get back to sleep, but finally dozed off at about 3am. After breakfast, the boys were playing nicely in their room when one of them said, "Mama, you need come here. We have a problem." The other boy had been coughing and vomitted as a result...on the bottom bunk. So, my one load of laundry (from the wet sheets and PJs was now turning into 2 loads. Not a big deal. After lunch, I went outside for about 3 minutes today to show my mom some stuff in the yard. Well, I heard Abby fussing inside so I decided we'd better go in. She walked up to me holding out her hand making a "yucky" face and fussing. It looked like she'd gotten into some chocolate so I'm thinking to myself, "How did she get into chocolate. I dont leave chocolate around where she can get it." Then it clicked in my brain. She has a poopy diaper and yep, that's poop on her hands! I carefully carried her over to clean her hands off with wipes and then changed her diaper. As I was changing her, she kept putting her hands up to her mouth saying, "Poo". Oh NO! Please tell me she didn't! I wish it weren't true, but I'm pretty sure she ate some of her poop! I finished the diaper change while my mom got her drink for her to wash the "poop taste" out of her mouth then I took her to wash her hands. I'm just hopeful that she didn't touch a bunch of other stuff in the house before I got to her! (For those guys coming to our house for guy time tonight, I'm pretty sure she didn't get into anything else.) Oh, and Abby's nose has been running all day. I think we've covered most, if not all, of the bodily functions in one day! It's still worth it, though and I love them to death!

Daddy's Little Girl

Abby is quite the Daddy's girl. She is almost 17 months old and her favorite person is Daddy. When he comes home from work, she'll cry if he doesn't pay attention to her for at least 10 minutes. He's who she looks for when she wakes up in the morning. It delights my heart to see her interact and be close to her daddy (at least as close as a 17 month old can be). I hope to see it continue for many years to come. I also hope she will be equally excited about her Heavenly Daddy one day. That she'll delight in spending time with Him and look to Him for comfort and assurance. I am so blessed to be married to a man who sets such a good example for her of who Jesus is (not that Joe is perfect, but an excellent earthly representation). On a lighter note, all of us we were riding in the van last weekend on the way to run some errands. The boys had brought along some of their Star Wars guys. Out of the back seat we heard Sam say, in a deep voice, "I'm Darth Vader, but you can call me Lord Vader." Too funny! Also, Abby has taken to getting Darth Vader and walking around singing her version of Darth's "theme music".

Good Way to Start the Day

Sam slept in late this morning, until around 8am. One of his favorite parts of the morning is giving Daddy a hug and a kiss when he leaves for work. Well, Daddy left before Sam got up so Sam was very disappointed when he woke up and asked where Daddy was and I had to tell him that he already went to work. He was walking down the hall with his head down and being generally "droopy" when Abby came running up to him and gave him a big hug! It totally made his morning (and mine too)! Now, if only I could remember that my heavenly Father is always ready to give me a big hug when I'm feeling down!

Brotherly Love Part 2

I managed to convince Ben that it's OK for brothers to love each other. The other night at dinner he was going around the table saying I love you to each of us. When he told Sam, Sam's response was, "That's embarassing." I don't even know where he learned that word, but we thought it was hysterical.

Brotherly Love

The other day, when it was nice and warm outside, I let the boys go out and play. Abby loves being outside too, so I went out with her. Ben came and sat on the porch swing with Abby and me and said, "I love Abby and I love you Mama." Ahhh...what a Norman Rockwell moment! That is, until I said, "I love you, Ben and I know that Abby does too. And you love Sam, right?" To which he replied, "I don't love Sam...we're brothers!" I have no idea where they got this notion in their heads (Sam had said something similar) that brothers don't love each other, but I thought it was humorous! I know that they do love each other, but I'm not sure why they can't admit it!

You never know what they'll come up with...

This morning I asked Sam & Ben to clean up some toys. Ben obeyed but Sam didn't so he had to go to his room. About 10 minutes later I went to talk to him and when I walked in he was "reading" his Bible. I asked him if he was ready to obey and he said, "Yes". Then I asked him if he wanted to come out of his room and he said, "No, I want to read my Bible". What's a mom supposed to do with something like that? It was so sweet, but I can't help but wonder if he wasn't trying to manipulate me in some way. Maybe I was just feeling guilty that I hadn't read my Bible in too long. Anyway, he and Ben sat and read the Bible for another 10-15 minutes. Abby was napping so it was a nice break!

Let it snow!

I know that everyone around these parts has been updating their blogs with snow pictures, so I kind of feel redundant in doing the same. However, this blog really is for me to help remember what happens around here so I'm going to do it anyway. The boys ask me about snow fairly regularly when it's cold out. I always tell them that it will probably never snow here in College Station, but that if it does, I promise they can go out and play in it. Well, it actually happend! We got about 2 inches of snow on Dec 10. The paper the next day said we haven't had more than 1 inch of accumulation in CS since 1973! Of course I had to let the boys go outside. The day started with some slushy snow on the ground and I figured it'd melt by noon so I let them go out in their footy PJs and cowboy boots. They were only out for a few minutes before they decided it was cold. Well, it started snowing for real around 4pm and it just kept coming! The best part was that Joe, who had been out of town and wasn't due back until 10pm, caught an earlier flight so he got home around 4:30. We were able to enjoy the snow as a family. Everyone went outside. This time the boys had their cowboy boots (the only boots they own) and both their jackets on since we don't have heavy coats. We could only find one pair of mittens so each boy had one and kept his other hand in his pocket. At first I was just going to carry Abby around, which is why she has bare feet in the picture below, but then she wanted to get down and play too, so we got her all bundled up as well. It didn't take her long to decide she didn't need to walk around on her own. Every time she fell down, she'd put her hands in the snow to stand up and then just sit back down and start crying. Of course snow balls were involved. Even Puki, our dog, was going nuts! It really was a blessing to all of us and the kids enjoyed warm baths and then sitting by the fire to warm up. It was a rare taste of the winter weather I grew up with. I have discovered, however, that living in Texas for 13 years had made me a cold-weater wimp! Oh, and yes, those red blobs on the table in the picture above are cherry tomotoes that Joe had just picked. After all, it was 80 the day before!

Magic School Bus

One of the boys' favorite shows is Magic School Bus. I'm amazed at what they learn by watching it. Not that I think TV can replace other learning, but here's an example. This morning I was reading the paper. The boys had already had breakfast and juice. Ben came and sat down at the table with me and said, "Do I smell apple juice molecules?" They had learned that we can smell things because molecules go into our noses. Amazing! I must admit, I don't know if I've ever really thought about why we can smell things.