Beware... it's too late to type a post that makes any sense.

Not sure if these guys are watching March Madness or Food Network... you have a pretty good chance of catching one or the other most evenings at our house these days. I got a kick out of how they are sitting exactly the same. Great thing is, that is only the beginning of the similarities they share. I love their closeness and their ability to relate to each other. And their crazy skilled analytical sides mixed with a level of compassion that might be somewhat hidden, but is severely loyal. And one day, Jack is gonna show up his wife in the kitchen, and she's gonna love it.

Notice Jack's new glasses too! Pretty handsome, I must say. Yep, these are the ones that replaced the broken ones that snapped when he and his two year old sister were playing "Dog". Don't ask. Only my sisters will get a good laugh out of that. Apparently playing "Dog" knows no generational barriers. Ha. Anyway, the only bad thing about these frames is that it makes my nine year old boy suddenly look about thirteen. Not right.

School conferences were last week, and you'll be glad to know that I didn't cry this time. Not in front of anyone anyway. So proud of my boys. Both boys got all A's, minus Trey's 89% B in Writing. He writes beautifully when he wants to. It's just that he really can't be bothered by it. He's our only lefty so far, and he doesn't mind to smear and slant as he goes. He shoves his papers in his backpack until they're all crumbly, too, but it's small things like this that make him love life in a carefree sort of way. Write however you want to, Treyman. You can type everything when you get older. Now I have to fork over eleven bucks - a dollar for every A - and I'll try not to think about it going towards buying rocks at Von's, or worse yet, Pokemon cards.

In other exciting news, we started a DIY house project today. I love the thought of this, and I even remember a time when it was completely romantic to tackle some sort of creative home improvement challenge with my husband. But fourteen years and four kids later, these projects don't go as quickly or as uninterrupted for us as they used to. So now, I have the great ideas (ok, truth is, Tyler always has better ideas that trump my initial starter ideas), and Tyler gets to follow though while I wipe bottoms monitor small children in another part of the house. It's the office this time, and I have a feeling that we've started something that I like to call the slippery slope. I'm sure you've experienced what I'm talking about. The closet organizing turns into new custom shelves that turns into the organizing of another closet to fit stuff that doesn't fit in the old closet anymore (hmm... might need new custom shelves for that closet too, hon). Then I'll need new storage bins and a new paint color, and now the curtains don't match and the furniture looks dull against the new curtains. And you can't get this far without another bookshelf and new accessories to complete the look.

*Note to Tyler: this slippery slope will NOT somehow result in a new flat screen TV for the living room. It just won't.

See, I told you I had all the great ideas... right babe? If you need me, I'll just be downstairs.

One last exciting something to announce before I call it a night. Coming next week to Raisin' 4... wait for it... our very first giveaway!! I feel so blog-official all of a sudden. Stay tuned to see what we'll be giving away!

The follow-up to my LEGO followers...

Blogs have all different kinds of identities. In the "serious" blogging world, some would say that every blog needs a theme if it's ever going to become anything. There are fabulous cooking blogs, how-to craft blogs, blogs on families' adoption journeys, how to manage your money blogs, political blogs, home improvement blogs... plus everything else in between. Something that pulls readers in and keeps them coming back for more.

Here we have no theme or topic that keeps you on the edge of your seats. Good thing we never planned on becoming anything. Heh. But one time we did mention our slight obsession with LEGOS, and we made all sorts of new friends! I think I feel our rise to fame coming on. :)

Anyway, we got all sorts of questions after that post. So for Mitchell and all of you other LEGO fanatics out there, this post is for you... Q: Where do you store your LEGO sets once they're built?

A: Tyler built these wooden shelves in Trey and Chase's room a few years ago (imagine desk tops on each side underneath the shelves, which Tyler hopes to complete when life slows down a bit... hahahahaha). We got the idea from a Pottery Barn magazine, and I had lovely design dreams of color-coordinated decorations and cute little labeled bins placed neatly on each shelf. But boys don't care about that sorta stuff. They want Husky toolboxes filled with LEGOS in their rooms instead. So this is one of the main places where they store their LEGOS that they want to keep as sets.

Other storage spaces? Every square inch of my house.

Q: Do your boys keep their LEGO sets intact to play with them, or do they tear them up after they build them?

A: They actually do a little of both! Sets always get built according to the directions, and they leave them intact for at least a couple of months. If it is a particularly large set, or one of their favorites, they leave it built for longer than that.

Take this Hogwarts Castle. It's not getting torn up any time soon. We do, however, try to encourage the boys to break up a lot of their sets after they've enjoyed them for a time. We feel like part of the fun and skill building happens when they build their own creations from their imaginations. We have sets all over like this one below:

This is Jack's latest creation, straight from his own head... a Ninja Training Station. I wish you could see all of the detail in there, like the weapons storage area, the security cameras, and the cafeteria ('cause Ninjas have to eat, you know). He'll build a set like this, then will keep going back to it for a couple of weeks straight, making small changes to it as he comes up with new ideas. Then he'll bring it downstairs, pin me in a corner, and talk about every itty bitty detail for what seems like days. :)

It's interesting to see each boy's personality come out as they play with their LEGOS. Jack's favorite part is definitely coming up with his own creations. Trey likes to build sets according to the directions, because it's a means to an end for him to play with the final product. Chase is what I like to call our builder-in-training. It's been fun to challenge Jack to spend time teaching Chase simple little ways he can build using his imagination. We've totally seen Chase's confidence skyrocket, and he and Jack have had some great LEGO bonding moments.

And for the record, I'm a little shocked that I got a picture of him with his shirt on.

Q: I never thought of separating and storing LEGOS by color. Why did you choose to do it this way?

A: Our hope was to encourage the boys to rebuild some old sets that they had torn up. We have a bin full of all of their instructions, so they can simply sort the pieces they need (Remember that page in the instructions that has rows of pictures of all of the pieces included in the set? Nice.) and build the set all over again. So much easier to find by color.

Q: What are your suggestions for LEGO storage with a small baby in the house?

A: Oh geesh, keeping LEGOS out of an infant's mouth (or out from under Daddy's feet) seems like an impossible task, doesn't it?! And it seems like we have always had a baby in the house. Our first strategy was a pretty obvious one: we moved all of our LEGOS upstairs. Of course pieces made their way down the steps for show, but for the most part, the baby gate kept these little choking hazards at bay. Although we found no method fool-proof, when our kids were a little younger, we used to keep all of our LEGOS on our old train table. The boys were just old enough that they had lost interest in playing with the train set every day, so this became a great way to spread LEGO pieces out and keep them in one spot. The more pieces we got, the less user-friendly it became, but it worked quite well for a while. The best part about the table was that there was no expectation to keep pieces separated and organized for any length of time.

Ok, now it's your turn!

What are your favorite LEGO "solutions" around your house? We'd love to learn some tips from you (because like it or not, it looks like these little guys are going to be around for a very long time)!

The Home Depot trip that got a makeover...

It started out like any other Home Depot trip. Four kids takes some sort of system anytime you go out in public, and Home Depot is a slam dunk. One parent takes the kids to load up on the free popcorn, and sits them all properly on their very own lawnmower. Letting your children eat popcorn on lawnmowers buys you all sorts of time for the other parent to shop. Tyler reminded me at one point that these are $4000 lawnmowers, but seriously, if you don't want them test-driven by a two year old, then you're going to have to rethink your display.

So I'm monitoring the really expensive lawnmowers - uh, I mean kids - while Tyler heads to the storage section to look for some bins to hold our newly sorted LEGO collection (thousands of miniature pieces now sorted by color... this is how we spend our Friday nights). We had talked though our vision before we left home, and knew exactly what we were looking for. Something big enough and flat enough for proper LEGO building. You know, so the pieces aren't so piled up that you can't find exactly what you're looking for. We're LEGO freaks around here, and this sort of thinking is critical for maximum output (I'm so glad I went to college for this stuff).

Ladies, never, and I mean never, send your husband to roam freely by himself in Home Depot. Or the grocery store when he's hungry. It's just plain not safe. Or Sam's Club for that matter. The large containers are just too tempting for any man.

I could go on, but all you really need to know is this. We went in for a few plastic storage containers, and came home with this:

Now I'd like to think that I have an open mind. But Tyler... Tyler sort of has a reputation for thinking outside the box. Let it be known that his creativity has served our family well over the years. But I have to tell you that I was not prepared for this. The Home Depot dude could see it written all over my face. "You want that in their room?" I asked the kind employee if he was married. He nervously giggled, then smiled and said, "Yes ma'am, thirteen years ma'am." Hmm... ironically the same number of years as us. "Would your wife let you put that in your house?"

I don't remember his answer, since I'm pretty sure I was chasing a toddler while cleaning popcorn off the floor at this point.

There was one left in the box, a left-over from Christmas that hadn't sold. It was sturdy, and boy-like and the drawers were large and flat and slid in and out oh so smoothly. And you could even lock a two-year old out of it if you wanted to.

And when the boys were done with it? Why, there'd always be some sort of use for it in Tyler's workshop.

Mmmhmm.

What happened from there is kind of a blur, but somehow I caught the vision, and here we are. It's perfect in form and function. The whole family is in love. Except for the two-year old, who is officially locked out.

Winter boy fun!

Chase cannot wait for the big boys to get home from school so they can join him outside!

My most common intervention phrase: "Not in the face, boys!"

Sliding down the driveway (if you've been to our house, you know why this is a favorite!)... One awesome dad to the rescue... Jack asked for this!

This is why dads go outside, while mommas stay in with the baby to cook dinner...

How many boys in that pile? FOUR!

Dinner and hot chocolate will be waiting inside!

Quick...

How many boys can you count in this picture?

Have I told you lately

how much fun

it is

having

boys?!

The answer, and more snow pics to come!

Still three...

When he's not making you laugh hysterically, he's making you plain tired. But his prayers are pretty sweet lately. Things like:

Please help Jesus and God to feel better.

Please help Pa to feel better. But he already feels better. But please help him to feel better.

Please help me to obey my mom and dad. And oh yeah... and Jesus.

Thank you we had a great daaaayyyyy.

Thank you for my beautiful singing.

Help me to eat my lunch fast so I don't have to go to the porch...

:)

Family Game Night!

There's nothin' better than a little friendly family UNO competition

on the back porch on a warm summer night.

There's nothin' better than hearing Chase yell "BAM!!" every time he plays a card with words on it (Skip, Reverse, Draw 2, Wild Cards...). No, this is not in the UNO rules, but we'll do whatever it takes to keep a three year old happily in the game...

There's nothin' better than playing with two kids who actually

"get" how to play a game, according to the rules.

Finally.

There's nothin' better than hanging out with our favorite little people...

and showing them that's exactly where we want to be.

Bad Hair Day....Take 2

Not to be outdone by their younger brother...."the boys" (as I still call them, which I got in the habit of doing back when they were the only 2 boys) went all out on "crazy hair day" at school -- right down to the Flying V and tie dye T-shirts. Trey got sent to the office....which was a good thing in this case....where he competed for "best hair" in the school. CHA-CHA-CHA-CHIA!!

Bad Hair Day...

...just in need of a haircut in the worst way. Problem is, his daddy likes it this way. Long, that is. Not exactly this post-nap way. My problem with the whole thing is that my little boy suddenly looks like he's 10 years old.

And yes, since you were wondering, it takes him a bit to "wake-up" from a nap. We know this by now and we're pretty good at giving him his space until he's good and ready.

Unless we want to take his picture, that is.

More whistling while we work...

Yesterday we stripped beds for washing, and you would have thought it was Christmas around here. Now, ask them to make their beds (or ask them to make mine... hey, I'm no dummy), and it's like pulling teeth. But there's something about the words "boys" and "destruction" that just go together, almost like peanut butter does with jelly. This is one job they are giddy about. And I don't even need 80's music to boost moral.

Checkin' In...

Since I've yet to download LOTS of pictures (still documenting our Winter activities, you know!) and it's been forever since I posted, thought I'd tide you over with some pictures of the boys...

More to come soon (including lots of girlie pictures - her hair is officially long enough now for a hair bow!)...

Now I'm a Believer...

This baby boy turned 6 years old in December. Can you believe that?! Let me just say that those sweet blue eyes and pretty eyelashes light up even the hardest of days for me. Trey truly is my joy. I tell him that often, and he crashes into me with the biggest hug every time. Trey came just 16 months after Jack, and his babyhood was sort of a blur to me. But what I do remember is that out of all of my babies, he was the least needy. And he still has the ability to do his own thing in a happy sort of way... well, most of the time! He bounces around and has a hard time being quiet, mostly because he is just excited about life. He is creative and artistic, and I said out loud the other day that "I wish I could dance like Trey". The boy has some moves, and a gift for music that I can't wait to see blossom one day. Trey cares about people, and cried the other night when I told him to be firm with a girl at school who has been picking on him (don't worry, she's only secretly in love with him!). He's the first to share or give up a turn for someone else. He makes a new friend at the McDonald's Playplace exactly 30 seconds after we arrive. He begs to read the Bible every night. And he gets his baby sister to smile like no one else can. Now, we're still working on the whining and not interrupting others, but he's come a long way since he started Kindergarten, so there's hope!

He's been six for a month now, but I still wanted to share some pictures from his party since we took the big plunge. You guessed it. THE Chuck E. Cheese's plunge. Now if you're a close friend of mine, I know what you're thinking. That the day would never come. The truth is that I've never been a big fan of this place in the past. Too many kids acting like crazies, the noise volume, and the never-enough-tokens-to-satisfy-any-child dilemma. Oh, and then there's the whole ticket system. Which gets you nothing, except for maybe a microscopic plastic spider for something like 1000 tickets. Which makes your child want more tokens. Are you sensing the cycle (and the humor!) here? And all the while I'm trying to teach my kids to be frugal. But suddenly I'm a believer. And I'll tell you why...

First of all, look at this face. That is one happy boy. And sometimes it's OK

that it's all about the experience, and nothing about what you take home with you,

except for a very happy kid.

Secondly, we scored big. I shouldn't let you in on my little secret, but we're all friends here and you deserve to know. If you book a party at 10am or earlier, the place is empty. Literally empty in our case until we showed up. Nice. We had our own space to be crazy (space which incidentally had doubled in size the day before, when they opened up the newly remodeled part for the first time ever. Twice the games, twice the fun! What timing - a total accident.). And, the best part.... any party before 10am on a Saturday gets you DOUBLE TOKENS! That's right. Instead of each child getting 20 tokens, they got 40! Definitely enough tokens to get that plastic spider if you play your cards - uh, I mean tokens - right. I like this picture for two reasons: One, because Trey never put his tokens down when he was playing a game. Like someone (Chase) was going to steal them or something. And two, because the shot of Tyler in the background is totally hilarious. That's the Dad alright, feverishly feeding the ticket counting machine, after he had convinced all of the kids to pool their tickets together so they could get one big item to give to Trey for his birthday. Meanie.

The most entertaining part of the day might have been these two, who bought some tokens for themselves and then went back to buy some more. Not sure what Grandma Cain was saying here, but they were both a little competitive, to put it mildly. The party was over and we almost had to leave them there because we couldn't pull them away from the machines. And GrandDad. Oh yeah. He can dance with Chuck like nobody's business.

Now people, don't everyone show up at Chuck E. Cheese's before 10am on a Saturday morning. If you do, then I might be back at square one. :) Or, you might just get talked out of your hard-earned tickets. I wouldn't risk it if I were you.

The Tree... a picture story by the Daugherty boys

"Yes, Whitney, I know you want to go get a tree. You've told me about a million times, but you're not breaking my 'Absolutely no Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving' rule. I know it's only 19 days until Christmas, but I'm the practical one here, and we don't want the tree to die before the actual day. Anyway, I can't stay awake long enough to even think about it." - Tyler, slightly paraphrased, after working the overnight shift for seven nights straight.

"Do we have to get a tree, or can we just ride this thing all day?" "It's just me, Chase. And I'm really, really cold. But if you tell me to smile, I'll try really hard." "It's so cold, I hope that it'll never be cold ever, ever again. Ever." - Trey, showing off the five teeth he skillfully shifted in a sledding collision the week before. "When are we gonna get off of this thing?" - real words from Jack

"Dad says this is THE one, but it looks just like all of the other ones if you ask me. Either way I'm relieved. Did I mention that I'm really cold?"

"My favorite part was the grill. Not the tree, not the experience. The grill." - Trey, warming his hands, and getting his coat really stinky by the fire.

"Hey, isn't this the spot where my Mom peed her pants that one year? Nevermind that she was pregnant and Daddy was taking way too long looking for the perfect tree, and she was racing us in between the tree rows to pass the time. We'd be in trouble if we peed our pants. Hey guys, let's never let her forget that story, ok?"

"Hey, would you mind taking a picture of our family, fast? It's really cold out here." - Whitney, all smiles after coming out of the warm van with Tess for approximately 2 minutes to get a family picture, and right after reminding Tyler that it was a whole lot warmer right around Thanksgiving.

Tis the Season...

If you're like me, you can remember J.C. Penney catalogs. What fun it was to flip through that huge book over and over again this time of year, dreaming of what Santa might bring for Christmas. After much admiration, page corners were turned down, and wished for items were carefully and deliberately circled and initialed by all the kids in the house. If it weren't for the Internet and the environment, I'd probably still be pouring through that thing.

Well, apparently my boys don't need catalogs. One morning before school last week, they sat at the breakfast table (self-initiated) and deliberated for a long and hard while. They whispered back and forth to each other while Jack wrote as quickly as he could. I thought they were coloring and went about my business. They finished their breakfast and headed to the bus stop and off to school. As I cleared the table later that morning, I found this: You should know by now that I don't make this stuff up. I'm going to have to laminate this or something.

Not that the season's focus should be all about presents, but I'm all for getting something cool for my kids for Christmas. My parents did it. I finally got my dream come true in junior high I think it was... the 13 inch black and white TV. Oh, you got one too (but the real question is, did yours go to college with you?)? Then there was the year that I got everything Smurf. Don't ask.

Anyway, I think these two might be a bit disappointed this year from the looks of this list. We'll have to see what Santa comes up with.

Oh, Halloween

No costume purchases this year. We would have enough dress-up clothes to last us until Halloween 2020, if they didn't grow, that is. So with all of the variety that we own, tell me why, oh why, did we end up with two Spidermen? That one sure does want to be just like his brothers.

The crazy Trick-or-Treaters, led by Dad the Viking (oh my). I have no words. (He actually wore this to work for an office party.)

I love this shot. The Viking pushing the stroller looks so natural.