Road trip!

We made it to Colorado in one piece!
I have to admit, I was pretty nervous the night before we left, kind of wondering, "what was I thinking?" I can't believe that I get to say this, but the drive was fun. We took six days to drive out here. Our first leg was to Atlanta, where we spent the entire next day with my high school friend Maggie. Then we drove to my Dad's in Tennessee. We took the kids boating and I got to revisit my high school days in FL when we used to go water skiing. I must admit that I didn't really want to get in the dirty lake water, but I knew that I would regret it if I didn't try. I get to report that I did pretty good. I got up and was even able to drop a ski in an attempt to slalom, but wiped out shortly after. I also tried knee boarding. It was kind of strange doing that and not having my brothers egging my Dad on to throw me off! T. Jay and Summer also tried knee boarding and they loved it! I can't believe that they were able to hang on, but they were. Matthew even wanted to try. I wish we had had the time to let him try, I bet money he would have done it!
After that, we drove to Topeka, KS and stayed at the "best hotel ever!" according to T. Jay. It had a spiral water slide that kept the kiddie kats busy for an hour and a half. Up the big flight of stairs, down the slide, swim to the side and do it again. It was so fun to watch their joy and bed time was a piece of cake! Mission accomplished!
On the sixth day, we got to Mom's and the kids have had a great time playing on her swing set and having free run of the fenced back yard. We will be here for two weeks and then head up to MT for another round of fun there! Adventure everywhere! I'll keep you posted!

Insane?

About a week ago Kelli and I were talking about how hot and muggy Florida is and also how fast our kids are growing up. Kelli was a bit sad that we live so far from the Grandparents. She had a thought about how to resolve all of the aforementioned issues on Sunday night, looked over at me and said, "I'm going to spend the next month and a half in Colorado, Utah, and Montana." I looked at her, and taking her only half serious, said "OK". She then said, "And I'm leaving on Wednesday", which she did!

My wife is totally awesome. She is by far the best mother that I know. She handles 4 (5 if you count me - which she regularly does) kids with the grace and ease of an angel. She handles our 4 kids better than most people handle 1 or 2. Those of you who know her can attest to this. Even with this super-human mothering ability I wondered aloud if 3000 miles wouldn't be a bit much with just her and 4 small children in the car. To make my point very clear I told her that for the record, I thought she was insane. Tonight she is in Topeka, Kansas and so far the kids have been wonderful.

Secretly I am glad that she up and left since I now have the chance to meet her in Montana, spend a week on our ranch on the Yellowstone River, and make some great memories with my family!

Independence Day!

I am really good at making chocolate chip cookies. I don't need a recipe and they are always perfect. I make them at least once per week, and sometimes more. Since the first step to addressing a problem is admitting that you have one, I am posting some rather disturbing stats. When I make cookies, I eat no fewer than 6 cookies in one fell swoop. Sad. I often skip meals and replace it with cookies or some other yummy thing. When I do, I usually wake up with a tummy ache and oddly enough repeat the whole thing over again like a dummy! Yummy and dummy rhyme (that is what TJay would have said if he were reading this)! Anyway, Jess and I are declaring our Independence from sweets on this very appropriate day. We binged like crazy all day in preparation, too. Hopefully tomorrow will be my last morning "you ate garbage before bed" tummy ache for a while. Jess is giving himself a year to achieve his health goals, and I am aiming for the end of the year. Putting it in writing makes it so, right?! Wish us luck!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th! Or as T Jay was calling it, "the birth of our nation." Quoted,"Are the fireworks kind of like the candles on our nation's cake?" He also prayed that the "birth of our nation would not be rainy." (referring to the fireworks show) The kids were decked out in their red, white and blue, we attended the pancake breakfast, had a BBQ with friends and topped it off with a fantastic fire works show! We hope yours was smashing good fun!

Omelets

Yesterday when I woke up, I went straight to the computer because there was something that I was waiting for. I got carried away clicking on all of your blog sites, and spent a little more time than I had planned in the seat. As I was reading, I heard dishes clanking and assumed that the kids were downstairs "cutting up the table," so I didn't pay too much attention to it. A few minutes later, I began to smell food cooking. Just as I was closing out the page I was reading, Summer came in to take my order. "Would I like mushrooms or cheese on my omelet?" That was my cue to run downstairs!
The picture is me (my order) and the squares are my cheese for my omelet.

Sure enough, T. Jay was making omelets. He had the cooking spray out, the pan was on Medium heat and he was flipping a perfectly executed omelet. I was greeted with,"Hi Mom, I'm making omelets! What would you like on yours?" He is getting way too big, people!

My kitchen staff at work. Who's doing the dishes guys?

* when I was telling Jess about this, he asked me if I told T Jay that he needed to have an adult around when he is cooking, I guess I need to do that.

* I learned how to spell omelet (I thought it was omlet) writing this post. Kind of sad that there are still words out there that I don't know how they are spelled.

P.S. Matthew got a dart gun. It's a lot of fun!

It's been a big week...

So I told myself about two weeks ago that I would potty train Matthew when I was out of diapers. Well, that happened about a week ago, so I moved on to a stash of Pull-ups that I had on hand. Monday I finally decided to do the loathsome task. I use a book called Toilet Training in Less than a day (T.Jay was trained in one day). Well, at least what I can remember from it. I had Matthew in the bathroom for most of the morning, so we brought a few toys in to keep him happy. All I can say is Matthew has quite the bladder. I gave him a ton to drink, and it took him over an hour to go the first time. He's not complete, but most of his pees go in the toilet and about half of his poopies. He says, "oh, I gotta go potty." and he runs off! It's funny, I told him that the pocket on his underwear goes in the front, so he runs around going, "where's my pocket, oh there it is!" I am also trying to convince him that he is not a rack to hang things from!
The Lab

My supplies. Lots of drinks, check. Towels, Check. Bucket for wet undies, check.

Summer "babysat" Lexi for me while I was working with Matthew. She was so pleased with herself!

Matthew posing in his new digs.

This is how he does it. Notice the toilet paper has already been removed. I re-rolled yards of paper already. If you come to my house, you'll have to take the toilet paper in with you!

And so it goes, wish us clean and dry days to come.

Here's What Lexi has been up to...

I took Alexis to her two month well baby appt. on the 12th of June. She was 12 and a half weeks at her appointment (she will be 14 weeks on Sunday). Here are her stats: She weighed 12 lbs 10 ozs (90th%), she was 23 1/2 inches long (50th%) and her head circumference was 15 and 1/2 inches (75th%).
Other tidbits about her at this phase:
* She is full blown smiling and laughing, and has huge dimples to display when she does.
* She loves to watch the other kids play.
* She is consistently sleeping between 10 and 11 hours at night.
* They call her mellow yellow.
* She doesn't seem to mind baths, showers or the pool.
* She will not indulge in the wonderful milk that I have pumped for her. Who knew bottles would be so offensive!
* Loud noises scare her-we're talking large trucks, a slamming gate or anything louder.
* She has discovered her voice and her hands, so cute!
Check out her latest feats...

Alexis 13 weeks from Kelli Melin on Vimeo.
And this little bit...

lexi laugh 13 weeks from Kelli Melin on Vimeo.