You've got a friend in me

Sometimes your camera catches just the right moment in time.

best buddies

He's the sweetest big brother in the world!

my big boy bed!

Keegan's growing up! He loves Elmo and school buses (just like Logan) and has an excellent appetite and a good pitcher's arm (just like Gavin). He looks up to his brothers and considers himself "one of the boys". The transition out of his crib and into his toddler bed went smoothly thanks, in part, to the Elmo sheets and stuffed animals.

I'm a big kid now!

Logan earns his yellow tip!

LOGAN: "I'm a higher belt than Daddy now! He's the lowest belt in the class and I know more stuff than him!"

(Actually, I don't think I've mentioned that Jay has started taking TaeKwonDo with Logan. I'll have to take a picture to post for you. Although the class meets three days a week, Jay usually makes it to the first class and spends the rest of the week nursing his aching body. Not quite a spring chicken anymore!)

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

We had a full house this year and loved every minute of it. It's such a blessing to be able to host Thanksgiving dinner for our family. This year, Baby Amelia joined the group and the McKee family (including DellBoy) came to stay with us for a few days.

Gavin's Thanksgiving Decorations

Gavin and Ashley's Thanksgiving decorations! The pine cones are huge and rather sturdy, so I put them in the "holiday box" to use again next year.

who's the boss?

Logan's Kinetic Family Drawing. For my non-psychologist readers, the Kinetic Family Drawing was developed a time when projective tests were frequently administered as a way of assessing a person's psychological functioning. In this type of a drawing, a child is asked to draw a picture of his family (including himself) "doing something".

Logan drew our family outside "looking at the weather and butterflies".

My most basic interpretation of this shows a fundamental problem in our family dynamic: Logan thinks he's a) our peer, and b) superior to Gavin and Keegan. It probably doesn't take thousands of dollars in graduate loans (like I have) to see this. Mom and Dad are close together (a good thing), but Logan is just to the side of us, on our level, and the younger boys are underneath. Clearly we have some more teaching to do!

cake to the third power

Are we crazy for taking our kids to three birthday parties in one day? Well, maybe so, but how could we say "no" to one kid and "yes" to another. So, this was a day of cake-times-three.

Party #1 at the park for Gavin's friend from school.

The lighting was perfect, so I worked on getting a good shot of Sir Never-Pose-When-You-Want-Him-To.

Ring Around the Rosie?

Turning the volleyball court into a sandbox, of course.

Party #2 at a house we've always wanted to visit. Jay chose the right party to go to -- this one had beer for the grown ups and a babysitter (balloon man) for the kiddos.

Logan and Jonathan (best buds)

Sportin' his black eye and a balloon gun, of course.

By Party #3 I was too exhausted to tote around my camera. This party was for Hannah's son (our former nanny) and was at a different park. As I was getting Keegan out of the car, I heard the boys yelling. Thinking they were fighting over who was going to carry the gift (again), I ignored them. Unbeknownst to me, Logan had fallen into a ginormous ant pile while wearing flip flops and carrying the present. Apparently it took him awhile to realize it, and those ants had him for lunch. Never one to miss out on a social event, however, he took some Benadryl and toughed it out in the name of cake and sausage pizza!

In the year 2010...

Logan ~ Age 5 ~ Kindergarten

New Year's Resolutions

LOGAN: "I'm going to be a green belt."

GAVIN: "I'm going to be a really great baseball player and when I'm five, I'm going to take karate."

KEEGAN: "BuhBuh. Go. BuhBuh." (I think this means he wants to drive a bus. We might have to work on this goal-setting thing with him. I was thinking more along the lines of using the big boy potty.)