no escape

I have realized my children are a lot happier(for the most part)...if they can't see me/don't realize that I am around. Atticus, my slightly more emotional child, always likes to know where I am and for it to be within 2 feet of him. He has figured out exactly where to stand in his crib to be able to see(thru the curtain, thru the bedroom doorway) all the way to the front door. If I forget to close the bedroom door then he stands there ready to glimpse the slightest movement and start yelling so I will know that I am caught. Crazy thing is he really does have more fun playing if he doesn't have me right there to turn to every time he falls down!

another monkey

Jane is my little monkey in training(Gavin is rapidly achieving the rank of master climber...so far Atticus looks like the only non-climber in the bunch). She is climbing or at least trying to climb on EVERYTHING! She has already made it up onto the couch, and then promptly crawled off onto her head...rolled over and crawled away like nothing happened. She has fallen out of her high chair, and so now gets to eat in a 5 point harness. She makes it about halfway thru every meal till her hunger is not as pressing and then realizes that she can't stand up. This makes her extremely angry...my mellow Jane screams thru the end of each meal time now. This morning Daddy fed the babies so that I could take a shower....and forgot to strap her down. With Jane that means you turn around once and find this...

Welcome to the world Hyrum Huish!

8 lbs 7 0z and 21 inches long. He has sweet kissable cheeks that just about rest on his shoulders and strawberry blonde hair...heavy on the strawberry.
I know Laurie will post more details of the actual birth, but I wanted to celebrate the arrival of this sweet spirit! Now we just need to get Julie's baby here, and then it is a home stretch till September

double barrel baby launcher...

it seemed like a good idea at the time...

...to load up 4 kids, 2 women(0ne nursing, the other pregnant) in the van and head home. Leave the menfolk to follow after doing clean up detail at the party. No worries...we just replaced the radiator in van, and that recurring thought to ask my husband for his phone was easily relegated to the back of my mind. 1 hour, 1 overheated van, 1 completely dead cell phone(sis-in-laws), 4 screaming kids later...I realize that that recurring thought...that was a PROMPTING! Eventually we were able to make it down the dark and scary feeder road to a little gas station and contact the menfolk who rode in on their white horses and rescued us with a jug of antifreeze. Other notable findings from this wonderful experience....
-Crystal realized in time to avert catastrophe that my sweet and stressed out 2 1/2 year old was not in fact holding a pacifier in his 3 month old cousins mouth...he was just covering her mouth with his hand to stop the screaming...
-I realized that Atticus(the first and loudest screamer) was mostly upset because he had pooped all the way out of his diaper. He felt much better when that was remedied.
-My complete gratitude to the gas station attendant who took pity on us as we came in bedraggled and trying to trade out a gold coin dollar for quarters and let us use his phone.

Jane's first...

fake smile caught on camera....

MOM! didn't you foreget something....

US! Who wouldn't want to answer natures call with a tub full 'o twins right there cheering them on. They are very secure in the knowledge that I need them with me for every event in life...