DA DA DAdaDADADA....

Can I tell you just how much I LOVE the olympics? No. I can't because there are NO words to describe it but these pictures are worth a thousand words.


Not sure how that got in here?

Sorry Frenchies. Maybe next time you'll "crush" us? Oh wait we could do that with our little pinky.

A Feva...

"I've got a feva, and the only cure is more camping..."
So I don't know if I got bit with the camping bug when we did the girls trip, but since then that is all I could think about. We even went back up for another day trip to G.P. (well mainly to get back the little red wagon, which the extremely nice lady kept hidden under her desk for a week so the families checking in to their cabins couldn't play with it. Thanks to her!)
Nate had a week of vacation and we had a bunch of plans for that week. However due to a bunch of things we stayed around home and had a fun relaxing week of family time that went by all too quickly.
I unfortunately didn't document any of these activities cause I forgot my camera when we went to Hershey park (and you've all seen us there a hundred times.) Nate and Liam spent many a morning down by the pool while Owen took the longest naps due to the extremely quiet non liam singing house. So no pictures of that either. However an important note, Liam has graduated from his swim tube to floaties.
But to make it feel like a vacation, Friday we went camping with our great friends the Banzhafs. (this time I brought the camera, but left the memory card in the computer. Duh. So these were some of the pictures Eden took. Thanks girl. Oh and BTW she is an awesome travel agent. Everyone needs a friend like her who plans and books YOUR family vacation.)

We went camping about an hour away at a state park called Pine Grove Furnace.
This was beautiful. Tons of trees, two lakes, a good little hike for Liam, and a flat place to put our tent. I highly recommend site #20.


Here is a list of things that I have forgotten about camping, or forgot to bring camping.
-Tennis shoes. It would have been nice to have my feet covered. Instead I wore flip flops.
-A jacket for me and the kids for the cold morning. It was 90 degrees when we got there.
-A spatula. We were in charge of breakfast so we decided on pancakes. But soon discovered that I'd forgotten the spatula. But no worries, I found an old CD in the car that did the trick. Yes I am that crafty.

-non flushing toilets. YUCK YUCK YUCK. So I love camping but not the outhouses. I cringe even writing this. But lucky for us they are in the middle of upgrading to new flushing toilets and showers.
-Firewood. We brought one pack and that wasn't near enough. Good thing we had three 3 year olds to help look for sticks. And Nate and Mike "found" some logs at a guys house back in town. (Thanks guy. Hope you found the note and $10)
-Newspaper to get the fire started. Lucky for us there were dry leaves that night. A little smokey but they did the job.
-Nate's guitar. But the neighbors may have been more annoyed by this than the three boys screaming and running around like crazies or the two babies taking turns crying when wanting to be pushed in their strollers to fall asleep.
-It ALWAYS rains when you camp. No matter what the weather forecast. Our new tent did great and we stayed dry, but Mike on the other hand was running around at 3 a.m. trying to put up his rain fly during the down pour.
-Liam's swim suit. But lucky for him he is so skinny that he was able to wear his brothers 6-12 month trunks. They were a little John Stockton-ish, but hey it was better than swimming in his lightening McQueens.


The boys loved it. (well I know for sure that Liam did, he could tell me. Owen I'm not so sure but he didn't complain so I'll take that as a yes.) I didn't get ANY sleep due to the fact that the rain sounded likequarters on a metal floor and the airmattress had lost it's air after the "Terrible Three" were done with it and I wasn't going to go to the effort of putting more in so I slept in the middle V while Owen and Liam slept basically on top of me. Next time I'll go to the effort.

Liam learned a lot this trip but most important was using his "plumbing" how God intended it to be used. (anywhere anytime. No seat or paper needed.)
Liam has never peed standing up and although there have been other attempts made, he has always gone sitting down. (don't blame him. I hadn't enlightened him on the standing up option. I think all boys/men have lousy aim and should always sit down.)
I didn't want him sitting on the gross seats in the outhouse. So I told him to pee on the tree. That was all he needed to get over the standing up fear. I didn't even have to ask him again he'd just find his tree and go.
But when we went swimming at the lake the following day and I couldn't find him. To my horror, he was peeing on the side of the pavilion with people walking by.
Not his fault AGAIN. We should have explained when and where peeing outside is acceptable and made sure to do so when we returned home to our house. I didn't want to find him going on the dishwasher or something.
The trip I think was a success and I can't wait for another trip to the great outdoors.

A little MOMS and ME(s) action

My friends Chrissy and Annie decided that they wanted to do an ALL girls camping trip. Originally we'd planned on camping overnight with all our kids. NO husbands. (since none of our husbands have schedules that would allow all of them to be able to come at the same time.)
That idea what nixed. Most the husbands felt uneasy about there not being a "man" there to protect us from all the crazys out there, the others laughed at the thought of us setting up the tents, making a fire, cooking dinner, taking down camp and watching our 13 kids all by ourselves.
So instead we decided to do a "day" trip. We went to a local state park where we all got lost (Except me. That's one bonus about being last. They all call you and tell you how to get there.) But most people would have had the same problem. It has a weird layout.
Once we all got there, we unloaded the kids, put them in their bathing suits and took a dip in the murky 80 degree lake water. The kids loved it.
One lady in particular (I'll let you guess which.) was afraid of the unnaturally warm and murky water, mostly because of what could be living and swimming in that murky water? But never mind the fact that she is from the OC and swims in the ocean with sharks???
Once we'd gotten the kids good and dirty we drove to the campsite, started a fire, (Thanks to Cheryl and Heather), put our tin foil dinners in the pit, ate all the side dishes while the main courses cooked, yelled at the kids: "DO NOT TOUCH THE FIRE! IT'S HOT AND IT WILL BURN YOU!!!!" Then yelled at them again when they each took a turn at. "who's kid can get hit by the wagon towing a trailer that has passed 15 times going 30?" All I can say is that I'd put my money on Tamara if I needed someone to jump in front of a moving car to save my life any day!
Once our dinners had cooked, we got out the 'Smores.


This was Liam's first time to encounter the art of roasting mallows, and turning that golden mallow into a a chocolaty gram delight.
He was super excited about the fact that he was finally allowed to get near the fire and, like his dad, burn something.
To be honest, I haven't had a 'Smore in over 15 years because as a child, they always made me throw up. Too much sugar I'm guessing? But I wanted to see if this was going to still be the case. And guess what? I was only mildly sick. Welcome back 'Smores welcome back!
We even set up a tent for the kids to play in. So there! I think we could all be boy scouts.


I think it was a total success except for the fact that my legs look like I have the chicken pox from all the mosquito bites, and the little red wagon is MIA. (I take that back, the ranger found it and needs its owner to pick it up. That'll happen.)
Thanks ladies! Lets do again. Maybe next time JUST the girls?

Where does the time go???

Can it already have been 6 months? I can't believe that our baby Owen is 6 months already. He is such a sweet baby. I'm glad I had him second, cause Liam demanded a lot more than Owen does. For the most part, he is content as long as he is either being held, or you are within close eye contact. People are always commenting on the fact that he is such a pleasant baby. To this I say Yes he is, most of the time.
He still doesn't sleep through the night. But occasionally he gives me a preview of what 7 hours sleep feels like, and it gives me hope.
Here is a slide of a day I took some pictures of him and Nate playing. there is also a video clip of him when he learned he had a tongue and could use it to make noise. (I'd lost my voice so that is why it sounds so weird.)
We always laugh because lately he has been sticking his tongue out for most pictures, sometimes I wonder if Nate is secretly having Owen watch old KISS music videos and calling him Gene jr.?
But every time Nate comes home from working in the NICU I count my blessings that he's healthy, happy, and a part of our family.
I truly feel like I am the "luckiest."

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7-11-08

So what did we do on 7-11 this year? Well...
A friend informed me if you dressed up like a cow, and went to Chick-fil-a you received a free combo meal. WHAT FREE food you say? I'm there. I don't care what I have to do to get it either. (I reminded myself of the Jerry Seinfield Halloween stand up act follow this link if you haven't heard it yet. I laugh every time. We even have the book.
So I dressed up the kids and drove the 25 miles to the closest chick-fil-a (yes I know, I spent more in gas than the free food.)

On my way there, Nate called to see what I was up to. Here is our conversation.
Nate: Hey babe, whatcha doing?

Me: I'm driving to Mechanicsburg dressed like a cow to get a free combo meal at Chick-fil-a.

Nate: How old are you?

Me: (pause hmmm how old am I?) 28, but I'll do this when I'm 50 if it means free food. What are you doing?

Nate: I just got done helping deliver a preemie and am supposed to have another admit here real soon.

Me: You know you could be doing something a lot more exciting like dressing up like a cow, none of this saving babies stuff... Don't you wish you could come with us instead?

Nate: No. Hey, I gotta go, I'm being paged. (click)

Me: (as I'm hanging up the phone.) That's the story of my life.

I even dressed Owen up and we took his meal to Dada afterward.
I'd also planned on going to 7/11 to get my free slurpee, but that didn't happen. Next year. Next year.
That evening we went to listen to a local "Jazz" band for my dear friend Annie's birthday. I use "Jazz" becuase this band had obviously never been to New Orleans to hear what real Jazz sounds like.
That being said, it was still fun and the company was awesome. All in all, 7/11 was a great day!

Patriotic WACAMOA

So our fearless WACAMOA president (Ruth) graduated last month and moved on to greener pastures. We will miss her and the rest of our fellow WACAMOAer's. I know I've blogged about WACAMOA before, but for a refresh, Ruth started a brunch group with some of the anesthesia wives but instead of calling it brunch group,(cause that's a lame name), she came up with the title W.A.C.A.M.O.A. = Women Absolutely Crazy About their Men Of Anesthesia. So for the last couple of years, the anesthesia residents wives are known to be found every other Thursday at someones house, a park or even Chocolate World. We enjoy good food, (we all bring something to share), talking, letting the kids run free, talking, oh and did I mention talking? It's a great group of ladies and such a fun tradition.
This being said, I didn't want my monthly dose of talking to other adults vanish so me and a friend decided to take over the "President and Vice President" roles and keep the tradition going.
This week Molly hosted and since the fourth of July out here was wet, wet, wet. And since it's an election year she chose to do a Patriotic WACAMOA theme. We had it at one of my favorite parks.
The food and company were awesome. Molly makes a mean flag cake! Here are the pics.

Give 'em here Mama...

So my favorite Liam tale as of late are from church the last two weeks. Week before last, we got there late (when I say late, I mean 5 minutes early, but you have to be there 15 min. before the meeting starts if you want a bench towards the back, 10 for the middle, and you guessed it, 5 for the front.)
We were on the second row and Owen was getting all fussy cause he needed to eat. They were just getting ready to start the sacrament and so I decided to try and nurse Owen right there. I had my nursing cover and figured it was better that, than getting up and walking all the way back and across to the doors to get to the mother's lounge.
Owen did not want to cooperate (he no longer likes it when I nurse him with the cover on, he wants to be able to see what's going on around him.)
I got myself back together and placed the cover on the bench next to me. A few minutes later Owen is fussing again and all of a sudden I look over and Liam has put on the cover, pulled up half his shirt and has his arms out to me and say's "here mama, hand em to me."
Nate and I both bust up laughing and are trying to control ourselves since it's completely quiet with people who are trying to take the sacrament in peace and meditation.
Then this week I decided to bear my testimony since it hadn't been done in over a year. I walked up to the stand just as 3 other people did and I was last, so I sat down in one of the chairs to wait my turn. (we were once again on the second row, but this time front and center.)
Liam wanted to come up there with me but Nate told him no. Liam stands up and slowly starts inching his way up towards me. He has his arms folded. Thinking maybe no one will notice the kid with the bright white hair that almost glows gliding up to the stand??
He gets almost to the stairs when it's my turn, Nate stands up to grab him and he starts to scream, "MAMA MAAMAAA MAAAAMAAAAAAAA..." A friend takes Owen so Nate can take Liam outside to calm down.
See why I don't do this very often???

Happy 4th of July

We just wanted to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!
Corinne sent the boys these outfits. Thanks!!!
Hopefully the weather clears up and stops raining so we can see the fireworks.

Daddy Time

Owen was cuddling with his dad the other night and I loved how sweet they looked. He stayed like this for an hour, just playing with Nate's hands and cooing.

Ahoy!!!

Liam Loves to dress up as a pirate. He had me get out his pirate Halloween costume and then wanted Owen dressed up too! Don't they look fierce?

The Big Apple

So Nate's Mom Marie and Sister Amy were in New York for work a few weekends ago, Nate surprisingly had the weekend off so we decided to drive up there to see them and see some of New York. (Nate and I have only been there once before and it was only for an afternoon. We saw A LOT that day but so much that it's all a blur.)
We loaded the kids in the car and took some advice from a friend, to drive to Newark and then take the NJ transit in.
This would have worked perfectly if Google maps hadn't been off by 10 blocks. It had the station listed on the wrong street completely. But after driving up and down the wrong street 15 times, I finally saw some signs pointing us in the right direction. (The trip home went flawless and I too would suggest this route to anyone driving to NY.)
It was so fun to see family and to have four extra hands to help with the kids. I think Amy carried Owen most of the time. We had a stroller for him but she didn't want to waste anytime pushing him in the stroller, if that meant she'd get less time to hold him. I'm guessing she carried him for miles, and I know her arms must have been tired, but every time I offered to put him in the stroller she just kept walking. She definitely wins the best aunt award, and of course, Owen LOVED it!
We still want to go again cause there is still so much we didn't get to see. We are hoping more family members come to NY so we drive up and can see it all!
Thanks Nana and Amy for the great weekend. My boys were so spoiled, I'm not sure if they'll ever recover. Liam is still wearing his pirate hat and hook most days. I blame you for his new vocabulary of Arrgghh, Pirate captain Liam, and matey!

If we might make a recommendation...

In the 1940's Aldous Huxley wrote a book that you should read if you haven't yet. It's called a Brave New World. The book is set in the future, and the future is bleak. Mankind is bred in factories into specific classes and are conditioned at an early age to what their role in society should be. In this society, the sole purpose is the seeking of pleasure and the gratification of desire. The opening talks about how all of the difficulty in society was built around longing for something and never achieving it. Whether it was unrequited love, or never attaining a certain career or status, or just plain old depression, the solution was to set specific expectations and then give people whatever they wanted. The members of this society are sexually promiscuous, go out seeking entertainment ever night, and if they ever get down there is always a government approved drug that takes away the blues. Of course the book is about how the main characters are ultimately unfulfilled and empty from this pursuit. It is a chilling picture of the future, but I think it is a great thought experiment for what could happen people made the search for gratification the only purpose of their existence. I certainly did not expect to ponder the deeper meaning of this novel when I took Liam to WALL-E this afternoon.


So the true recommendation of this post is please, please, please go see WALL-E. The previews really reveal nothing if the story, so when I sat down in the theater this afternoon I expected what I had gotten from Pixar in the past, a well crafted, light, enjoyable yarn with few surprises. I will spare you a synopsis of the plot (plus I wouldn't want to ruin it), but it poses a lot of the same questions that Aldous Huxley did. The amazing thing to me was that they did it in a cartoon with about 40 total lines of dialogue, mostly one word lines, and they did it all in a way that was G rated. When someone produces something so remarkable, I feel obligated to spread the word.

Also Steve Jobs slipped me 50 bucks to write everything above. Yes, I am that poor and that cheap.

Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler

I know this is not a post most mother's would do, but I couldn't help it. I walked into the room to find that Liam had put his swim goggles on Owen. Liam thought he look like a super hero. I on the other hand saw Milton from office space.

The Stinky Forest

SO there is a road by us that I take only if I have to because it is next to the sewer plant and it smells so bad! I start to hold my breath and try to hold it until I pass the plant. It's that bad.
So yesterday we had to go on that road and it smelled especially "ripe" yesterday. So ripe that Liam started to cry. I told him to plug his nose. to which I got. "Yah thanks Mama thank you."
Once we'd cleared the smell he says to me, "Mama I don't like the Stinky forest."
It's a small street with trees that surround you on all sides and creates a canopy over the road. I guess that's where he got the forest part from.
On our way home he saw me turn down that road and immediately yells, "Mama plug you nose, it be better soon, don't cry Mama, I hurry."
The funny part is, there used to be a golf course next to that road. There wasn't a whole lot of people wanting to play so they closed it. I can't imagine why? Who wouldn't enjoy an afternoon of golf and the smell of a sewer plant as you breathe to take in the "Fresh outdoors?"

Nate's 2 cent (or 30,000 bhat)

So it's been a while since I put up a post on our blog. For all of our fans out there, let me just say we find your voyeurism flattering. Rest assured that there will be a never ending stream of exploits. We would have to stoop to the ratings stunts that other forms of entertainment have to in order to maintain interest. You will never read a blog post where Owen suddenly discovers he has an evil Siamese twin from which he was separated at birth (though it would be cool. I would make him like those twins that used to be on G.I. Joe. You know, when one got hurt the other felt it. But then they would fight constantly, and do stuff like have a friend kick one twin in the nuts while the other twin was on a date so he would suddenly crumple in front of the poor girl writhing in agony. Yes, this the stuff that runs through my head all day.)


Many of you may know that I am an rabid fan of the Red Sox. When I was a young pup, my little league team was the Red Sox. They were the sports team that I first started following on a regular basis.






For the better part of decade, being a Red Sox fan was pretty much described by this picture. It was painful, and yet you couldn't look away. But all of that changed in 2004.





After being down 3 games in the 2004 ACLS against the Evil Empire they improbably came back and won 4 straight to crush the spirit of every bandwagon Yankee fan and end a reign of terror even Robespierre would have admired. The Nation would no longer have to hear the taunt of 1918, no longer have to fight the ghost of Babe Ruth. For the whole week of the series I wore the same shirt, had the same 3 meals every day at the same time, and tried to avoid anything that would break the spell of good fortune and sway my Sox back into their usual tail spin. I had tried it before, but this time it worked.

My wife has patiently dealt with my obsession for years. Though I have followed the team for years, I had never actually been to a game. Jen decided to end that this year by getting me tickets to the Red Sox Phillies game in Philly.




Coco Crisp (yes you read that right. Seriously that's the man's name) knocked a 2 run Dinger in the top of the third and scored the only other run off a Julio Lugo RBI. The Red Sox beat the red hot Phillies 3-0 off some great pitching from Jon Lester who absolutely shut down Chase Uttley and Ryan Howard. I guess it just goes to show that the NL is still just AAAA ball where the AL is the real majors.

Solid food phase I

(I love the look on his face. YUCK!)

So in other news, Owen has been getting up every two hours to eat during the night for the last 3 weeks. (he didn't even wake up this often when he was a newborn.) We decided to try feeding him some rice cereal to see if that would keep him satisfied longer. But NO he still woke up just as much that night. And since then when I try to feed him he screams so I decided to hold off for another month to try again with the cereal. Until then it's just me and him getting in some really good "bonding time." I'll remind him of this when he's older.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com