Family pictures 2018. These turned out pretty well considering Patrick was sick this morning and we didn't realize it. I have some excellent parenting traits, but diagnosing a crabby three year old with an illness who is still eating everything and running around wildly is just not my thing .
Here is my favorite family pic. I used some very basic photoshop skills to make Nathan have a smiley face in this picture and I am extraordinarily proud of myself.
We did a little gender reveal for baby #4! It was just a small cake with colored frosting on the inside that I got from Price Chopper and we did it for the kids and my parents.
It didn't exactly go to plan ... I asked each of the kids if they wanted a brother or sister before cutting open the cake and did not expect everyone to vote blue.
Bradley: I want a boy because I like the color blue better than pink!
Eleanor: I want a boy because I don't want to share my room.
Patrick: I want a boy because I love my mommy so much.
One child may not really have understood the question as much as just trying to go along with the group and please everyone.
And then ...
It's a girl!
Bradley was displeased that the cake was not blue and pouted until he got a second helping of cake. Then he was fine.
Girl cake!
We are very excited about another girl although Nathan and I can't agree on a name and Bradley's suggestion of Princess Velociraptor Scott is sounding better and better. She's beautiful, but watch out, she'll get you! I like it.
Also, Eleanor pointed out that we had a pattern that was boy girl boy girl so it meant the next one would be a boy. I said a hearty no to that. Four children is enough!
We all went on a cub scouts outing to Deanna Rose a few weeks ago.
Eleanor and I ditched the boys after the main activities and she asked for cute photos of herself on a bridge. I so enjoy how well trained for photos this girl is.
They had another scouts event last week and I about lost it when Nathan told me about the event that he ran where the boys had to hit a ball and run to a base pretending to be an animal. And then the other scouts had to guess what that animal was. Bradley is pretending to be a shark here. Obviously.
The video. Bradley is such a good shark.
Bradley warms my heart on a regular basis. We've been eating a lot of apples lately and it's been fun trying out different varieties and seeing what kinds the kids like best. The other day I told them I was giving them Pink Lady apples and Bradley cautiously took a bite and then asked "do I still look like a boy?"
We've been embracing the last of the shorts and t-shirt weather. Although we ran into our new neighbor who was out on a walk and as he walked away from us Patrick yelled "I did not like that guy's smell!" so I'm not too unhappy about the prospect of fewer interactions with neighbors in the near future.
Boys and sticks. He keeps collecting these things and bringing them home with him. This one was particularly impressive.
Nathan took a break from watching football to play football with the boys on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
Honestly I would watch this over an NFL game every time. This is way more entertaining.
Patrick has been dragging out all the sports equipment we own after he gets home from school each day. We ended up buying a batting T because he wouldn't stop yelling at me and anyone else who was available to throw him the ball. On repeat. And how do you say no to a guy this cute?
Followed up by some backyard swing hijinks. I credit playing on this swing on a regular basis for how strong these three kids are.
Seriously, I'm impressed.
Or maybe she's strong from having brothers try to pile on top of her for cuddles on a regular basis. The kids have a day off from school today and they seem unable to play more than a foot away from each other.
Fort building. Together, of course.
Nathan appreciates this snuggly business on the weekends. Eleanor is cuddling with his foot in this photo ...
Bradley got to wear a snap button shirt to church last week and was eager to demonstrate its powers to his daddy. His daddy was properly delighted by this.
Another weekend tradition is Patrick's football naps with Daddy.
Looks tough, doesn't it? We celebrated Nathan's birthday a day early this last week so we could have the family festivities on a Sunday and I think he had an okay day.
Patrick still gets very tired on other days though. Good thing he has kitties even when Daddy is at work. One cat picture ...
Two cats ...
Three!
Patrick is delighted when he finds a kitty on his own bed. I convinced him to just play in his room for quiet time on this particular day and said he didn't need to take a nap.
I was wrong about the nap bit.
Patrick has started to make a conscience effort to call Bradley "Bradaley" instead of "Bayee" because they couldn't understand him when he wanted to talk about Bradley at his new Sunday school class and apparently this was unacceptable. I don't know how often he has to talk about Bradley, but I guess when he does it's very important.
Bradley and Eleanor brought home some "sticky men" toys from their school fun run and Patrick and Bradley have been getting their fair share of entertainment from these silly little toys. So much delight, so much joy.
The other night during her bath I walked by the bathroom as Eleanor was singing a song to herself about not having a family.
Me: What are you singing??
Eleanor: You have to go away, you're ruining my song.
And here she is with Patrick "testing out" the new mattress we got for the master bed.
We recently signed up Eleanor for American Heritage Girls with her friend Naomi. We're doing it instead of Girl Scouts because it's cute, she already has a friend there, it's Christian in content, and best of all - we don't have to sell any cookies!
I need prayer while raising these children. Yesterday afternoon I found a bunch of writing in sharpie on the side of Eleanor's little chair by her desk. I gasped and asked Eleanor what she had done and she started to sob and said "I just wanted to remember my loved ones!" To my credit, I didn't laugh when she said this. I suggested a piece of paper next time but was told that wouldn't be big enough.
It's hard to be too upset when I'm one of the loved ones included in her chair graffiti. Also featured are the initials of her brothers and daddy (N for Nathan) and the weird symbols that can only be described as butt-like are how she draws hearts right now. She also included her friend Izze and M for her friend Maya.
Weekends have been so nice, we did group tennis with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Steve. All of the kids still like tennis after this and they're actually getting pretty good so I'm quite pleased with the whole endeavor.
Although Patrick sometimes enjoys climbing tall things and terrifying his grandparents at the nearby playground after tennis.
We got Bradley some little clubs and Nathan took him out to a driving range last weekend! We're very happy he's no longer doing taekwondo, it's freed up the weekends for activities like this.
He's super cute to watch. Maybe this clubs are a little big for him yet.
Bradley is such a sweetie. I got to help out at his school fun run and he was so happy I was there.
I got to mark off his shirt for each lap he ran. I think it ended up being about three miles or so in total, he was a very tired boy that evening.
I got to stay for the first part of Eleanor's fun run and then Grandpa Steve helped for the last bit. These school events are so cute, especially for the younger grades.
Patrick got to bring home Elliott the Elephant from his preschool class and I took pictures of him with the elephant over the course of the weekend. He got a little goofy about the whole thing and shared some new sounds he invented with me.
But they had fun adventures, we took Elliott to the Louisburg Cider Mill and shared donuts and cider with him.
I even got a fall picture with my cute boy who was a stinker and refused to put down his cider for a photo with me. He's often a stinker, believe it or not. The other day he wacked me in the head with a toy so I sternly asked him "Patrick, why didn't you say sorry when you hit me in the head with the toy?" and he cheerfully responded "I DID say sorry in my head!"
Ever since school started I've been able to take a lot of time to work on a side project, my new game website called Game Like A Mother! It's unofficially up and running as of two days ago, I'm going live with it after Halloween.
It has meant I've had to play a lot of games with the kids for "research purposes."
Luckily, the kids and my parents are both willing and enthusiastic in this endeavor.
Patrick and I played Blokus the other day, a game that's technically for ages 7 and up. I wasn't sure how he would do but Patrick automatically knew that backstabbing and trying to block the other person was the entire goal of the game. It was a pretty amazing game.
"I blocked you! Wahahahaha!!"
Bradley in particular has been so happy about trying out new games. Here he is with his new Roller Coaster Challenge game.
He is so sweet. And so good at building cool roller coasters!
Sometimes it's a little exciting to play games. Eleanor brought a new element to this game due to her desire to sit herself in what I was told was the best spot in the room. Lucky Grandpa.
Lots of ballet moves.
This may be my favorite picture. We were playing Sleeping Queens.
Many many points to Nathan who has been very enthusiastic about my website idea from the get go and even got me a fancy lighting kit to help me take better pictures of games. Not to mention bringing nerd engineer level of attention to website edits, I would not have been able to do this without him.
This was our Wednesday night. The coolest!
I feel like I haven't been spending as much time with the kids through all this but then Nathan takes a video like this at bedtime and it just warms my heart. Love this crew. Let's have another one!
