"DONE!"

My brother Aaron got married this past weekend in Cincinnati - the final one of the five of us - bringing the number of stockings hanging from Dad and Kim's fireplace to a grand total of 23 this Christmas. Now that's just nuts. Large families are never dull, as Ashley is about to find out! Congratulations you guys! What a fun weekend... you should have seen my kids dancing with their dad at the reception (they certainly didn't get any of their moves from me, and boy am I glad!)! We are recovering today after three full days with no naps for the boys. The whining on the drive home told all.

I have no pictures to post until I steal some off of Cory and Steph, since we forgot our camera (it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because I didn't have a free hand to hold it). Hey, I remembered all of my kids and their toothbrushes too, so I consider the weekend a success. Well, except for that outburst from someone's two year old during the ceremony.

The officiant asks, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"

The father of the bride replies, "Her mother and I."

Chase waits until it is completely silent and announces loudly to the entire room, "DONE!" He obviously has had enough sitting still for one day.

The crowd roars with laughter, and I want to crawl under my seat. But wait, I can't. I have too many kids on my lap. And the newborn is starting to cry.

Did I mention that I went the entire evening without getting spit-up on my outfit once? I told you it was a success.

A big thank you to Aunt Patty, Teresa, Stephanie and Natalie for saving my tail more than once over the weekend by taking one or more of my children. They'll sit still someday, I just know it. Until then, all that really matters is that Aaron and Ashley are married. At least I think they are. I kind of missed that part when I had to step out with the baby who forgot that her only job all weekend was to sleep for that 15 minutes. Oh well. Four kids later, I'm actually cool with that.

Miss Maddie

I am one thorough mom when it comes to homework. One of my favorite times of the day is when the boys get home from school and we get to review the completed papers shoved in their backpacks. So you know I had to ask Jack just who he was referring to when he wrote this little note on his paper. I was just sure he was thinking of his Mom when these sweet traits came to his mind. But after inquiring who he thought was "nice" and "preety," I realize now that I have some competition. Her name is Maddie, and she's smart too. And blond. I think I'm going to suggest to his teacher that he needs a little more work at his desk to keep him busy. Yeah, that's it. Let's keep him real busy.

Priorities according to boys

What do you do when you have to go to the bathroom right in the middle of reading a book to your brothers? You finish the book, by golly. On the potty. Hey, we're family here.

A visit from "The Royal Family"

So yesterday was my day off -- and I'm hard at work at home: I'm holding Tess on the couch, watching Trey bowl on the Wii, and trying to figure out how I can play while sitting down holding Tess, when the doorbell rings. Trey darts to the door, opens it up, then runs back into the living room -- he doesn't know the couple standing at our door. Whitney heads to the door to see who it is and I hear her scream out with exceeding joy and laughter. I'm thinking she and the Schwan man are tighter than I thought. Or perhaps the time spent sending all those hopeful mailers back to Ed McMahon in high school is finally paying off. I was wrong on both counts. In walks this fine English pair, and it takes me few seconds to wrap my brain around who just walked into my living room. The fog clears, my memory returns, and I fill with the same excitement that Whitney expressed moments prior. This is one of the dear families we met in college on our mission trips to Formby, England. They have a son in Chicago and decided to road trip and pay a few old friends a visit in Indiana. We couldn't have been more thrilled. What a great afternoon strolling down memory lane, catching up, and bringing our worlds together once again. Thank you, Paul and Janice, for taking the time to drop in. We love all of the Lister family, and wish them all continued blessings from God.

SRS Post #2 - Because they're boys

Ok, since you all have been waiting, we're back to Rewinding our Summer! It's intense, I know. Who knows what you were expecting next, but trust me, if you could have been here, you would know that this turtle deserves a post all his own. I told you to keep your expectations low, remember? You get what you pay for. Anyway... In lieu of a trip to Disney World this summer (we weren't going anyway, but it sounds good with the story) due to my 9 month pregnant status, we saved this little guy's life in the middle of our street one day instead. You might argue with me, but the entertainment he provided these three might have competed with at least Epcot. Well, maybe. I'm just saying. We were on our way home from the last day of preschool. It was also the first day of my-house-is-going-to-be-trashed-the-rest-of-the-summer-because-all-they-want-to-do-is-play-outside. Try getting the 2 year old to stay in and help fold laundry with you while his brothers are on the other side of the window. It's pointless. And they're right, really. Winter inside just lasts way too long. Good thing there is less laundry in the summer (shorts, Crocs, and no shirts for these guys and you're good to go). We're maybe six houses down from ours on our drive home, and I skid to a complete stop as our turtle friend tries to cross the road ever so quickly. Why swerve around him, when you can take him back to your place? So with one hand on the wheel and one on the turtle, I drive the rest of the way home. I wondered if turtles were like frogs and always pee in your hand, but I think turtles must have larger bladders. That, or this turtle has never had a baby. Trey introduced himself and had many conversations with his new friend throughout the day. No, Trey doesn't know a stranger. Even a turtle stranger. He would have slept with him that night if I would have let him. I'd like to say that the boys shared him evenly, but let's just say that I was glad that he was still alive at the end of the day. They did make him a little home in a box full of grass and sticks, where he "slept" while the boys took their naps. That was because I wouldn't let him sleep in Trey's bed.

What else can he do? Well, not much really. But if you had these six hands on you for an afternoon, you'd stay in your shell too.

I thought I already learned this once...

Since Tess has joined our family, I purposely haven't planned to accomplish much most days outside of the regular kid-routine. Tyler works hard at work so I can work hard at home, and that is that. Today, however, I felt an extra burst of motivation (and guilt!) to finish some long-overdue thank you notes I had let pile up. I got up early and showered before anyone was awake. I even was able to spend some sweet time in God's Word and in prayer, and felt energized for the day. I was ready to tackle something other than the daily essentials. Oh, it would feel good to get those thank you notes written and crossed off of my to-do list! I should have known.

Tess fussed throughout the morning, and wouldn't let me put her down for five minutes. One minute per thank you note... didn't she know that's all I needed? She finally napped, and I was able to get a couple of the notes done while Chase sat on my lap. Did he take the "needy cue" from her today? I gave up for a while, still determined to get those crazy notes in the mailbox before lunchtime (and before Trey came home from Kindergarten, surely adding another needy card to the mix!). It's like kids know when you're on a mission to accomplish something (like they know when you're on the phone, but that's another post for another day). No one ever got happy, so I decided to leave everyone to their needy status and just finish the only project I had set out to get done today. After what seemed like an eternity of stopping and starting, a stack of well thought-out, neatly written, detailed thank you notes finally made their way into the mailbox. And even before the mailman came. Yes. I crossed the job off of my list with satisfaction, finally.

By this time, Trey is home from school, and chaos ensues again. He's really frustrated over his paper airplane that just won't fly. We tape and support and refold until my patience is starting to wear thin, and it is obvious that he needs a breather. So I send him out to get the mail. He loves getting the mail, and I thought the quick walk outside would help him refocus. He would walk out crying, and walk in 30 seconds later a new boy, I was sure of it. Well, he did walk out crying - that was the part that I got right. But he walked back in crying even harder. Sobbing actually. Trey walked straight towards me, devastated, holding a pile of mail he had dropped in the puddles at the end of our driveway. Completely soaked, every bit of it. Only when I looked at the pile more closely, it wasn't today's mail that was dripping. The mailman hadn't come yet. You guessed it, it was all of my thank you notes, done for. Oh man, this was enough to put me over the edge. Without a word, I escaped to the bathroom to cool off and asked the Lord to give me His perspective on the whole deal before I lost complete control.

After a few deep breaths and some praying, God reminded me of my primary purpose in my life right now. So I headed out of the bathroom and off to find my kids, to tell them that I love them more than pieces of paper dropped in the rain. Most days lately I work really hard to see few tangible results at the end of the day. But I am working towards something greater than a clean house, timely thank you notes, or time to myself (though you have to remind me of this often). And if I forget this again, say tomorrow, tell me to read this post, would you?

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. ~Galatians 6:8-10

SRS Post #1 - What's summer without a little baseball!

Rewinding back to May, our first event of the summer was T-ball for Jack and Trey. So why is there not a "T" in this picture, you ask? Because in Battle Ground, folks, we don't mess around. It appears that the T-ball we grew up with is a thing of the past. To train our lads (and the one lassie on our team) to be "one-step ahead" competitive players of the future, the "T" is only used after four misses from the too-fast-for-my-comfort pitching machine. A little intimidating for a 5 year old, if you ask me. Jack was now a seasoned player coming back for his 2nd year, and this was Trey's first go at it. We were lucky enough to be placed on our neighbor's team with their two boys and their dad as the coach. Wait a minute, I guess lucky isn't the word when we sort of arranged it in the front yard one day (small town T-ball politics can get you far, I tell you). The grandparents requested a game schedule, so I sent out this email... I thought it summarized the upcoming season well: "Hi guys! Here is the T-ball schedule as promised. Thanking the Lord that he chose to bring Trey along when he did… makes for much easier scheduling when they share a team! Games are every Saturday from May 10 to June 28 from 9:00am until about 10:30am. Come ready to yell “Go White Sox!” with Chase. Hoping I don’t miss either of the last two games. I have it planned out that if I have the baby any day Sunday through Wednesday, I’m good. Having the boys on the same team made me a little nervous at first, but they’re having a blast together. This is after the lecture about “building each other up” and not “tearing down” if they’re partners and one of them doesn’t make a good throw/catch. Patience for imperfection seems to be missing a little more with brothers! So to overcompensate, Trey has been trying very hard to encourage Jack ALL practice long. He is constantly cheering for him and saying things like, 'That’s ok buddy, you’ll get it next time.' We get to hear Trey talk the ENTIRE practice nonstop (I get a lot of 'Hi Mom!' and thumbs-up from him too. As you can imagine, Jack is a bit more focused.). Hmmm…. I guess that’s better than the other, but now I’m not too sure that everyone else can handle listening to him! He’s really going to get into saying 'Hey batter batter' one of these days... And oh yeah, Chase cries the entire practice because 'I play, please Mama, I play with boys'. Can’t wait for games when the concession stand opens so I can feed him taffy to distract him."

In any event, we had a great season, mostly because it gave us an organized outdoor activity twice a week. One of the perks for me was that we got to visit with many of the families on our street at the fields on game day. We learned that Jack's strength is throwing and Trey's strength is hitting. We also learned that we're still not really sure if Trey, the lefty, throws better right or left-handed. Neither one is all that great - yet. We learned that if we had one more letter in our last name, that it wouldn't fit on the back of their shirts. The boys learned that you don't fight over the ball in the outfield, especially with one of your teammates. They also learned that you only get to pick one thing from the concession stand, and only on game day and only if you've shown sportsmanlike behavior. And everyone learned that Chase really, really likes taffy.

Introducing...

The Summer Rewind Series (SRS for short!)

Just to keep things interesting around here (we always follow through on our promises!), we thought we would recap a bit of our summer for you in a new and on-the-edge-of your-seat kind of series... featured right here on this very blog! Heh. I know, I know, you can hardly stand the suspense. Now people, if you're looking for crazy exciting happenings like a trip to Disney World or say skydiving, you're going to have to visit some other blog. Don't forget, after all, that we did have a baby this summer! But, we did do some pretty fun things around here that are becoming traditions in our family. So come along with us as we Rewind our Summer. Keep your expectations low, your imaginations high, and you'll fit right in! Remember that it doesn't take too terribly much (except for a lot of attention) to entertain a 6, 5, and 2 year old and a sleeping newborn. SRS Post #1 coming soon to a blog near you...

Girly-Head

That's what Trey calls her! Our friend Tonya in Africa has been waiting patiently for a picture of Tess with her eyes open, so here it is! That is a task in itself, since she's usually sleeping, or we're holding her, or she's not very happy about the fact that one of the first two things isn't happening! Either she's one of our fussier babies, or we can't remember how fussy the other ones were (the Lord helps us forget, doesn't He, kind of like labor!). But somehow that doesn't even matter, because it's all new and pretty amazing, this girl thing. And by baby #4, you've learned how to chill out, big time (well, most of the time). The boys are the ones who can't stand to hear her cry. Before I can even get to her, she's surrounded by her posse, and they're ready to shush, pat and talk in really high voices until they're convinced that she must be ready to eat (even if I just got done feeding her). She doesn't seem to mind that none of us can stay out of her face for very long. Good thing, because we're not stopping anytime soon.

Disclaimer Entry!!!!!!!

No . . . I didn't give her the title below!!!!!!!!!! -Tyler

This is huge, folks...

Guess who started wearing big boy undies this week?!

Oh yeah babe (in Chase's words).

I wondered if maybe it was a bit early, and frankly thought I was busy enough (read landlocked) feeding a baby girl many times throughout the day. So when I ignored him, what did Chase do? He started asking Trey to take him potty. Yeah. Thanks, Trey, for being Chase's biggest cheerleader. Yes, you can have some M& M's too. I'm sure that's not your only motivation. Three down, one to go. Sweet.