A little peer pressure, please...

To celebrate the end of summer (well, you know what I mean... I would never, ever actually celebrate the end of summer!), Tyler took the older boys on a much anticipated trip to Chicago on the Amtrak. This picture is my absolute favorite from the many Tyler took that day.

Check out those eyes... just like his daddy.

For the record, I have no idea what that structure is in the background. Because I wasn't there. And maybe I should just know what it is anyway, but I don't. Because being pregnant four times has fried a lot of my brain cells.

That's what I like to tell myself anyway.

I missed this trip, because a three and one year old would have been on complete meltdown around hour three of the seventeen hour day. And you already know that we just don't do that.

But, we also want to take advantage of the ages that Jack and Trey are now. Fun, energetic, curious, learning ages.

So sometimes, we split up.

And it works.

For us.

Back to those amazing pictures.

There's no way I'm doing them justice. Because minus one famous Chicago building, and the ones who have the titles printed right on them, I'm pretty clueless about what is what.

So, I'm asking for a little help here. If you have a spare second (and you must because you're reading this!), leave a comment in the comments section (duh, where else!) encouraging Tyler to post about their fun adventure to (on the train) and in Chicago.

Maybe enough "votes" will convince him to share...

I think he definitely wins on the brain cells anyway, so I vote him.

A little peer pressure, please... :)

College town...

I love living in a college town for lots of reasons. MY college town. At first we wondered what it would be like coming back to Purdue country as a family instead of as college students. What we've found is a great balance of university energy and family friendliness.

During the school year, we don't get to campus much. It's a busy place. Don't get me wrong - I actually look forward to when the students arrive in the Fall. The city comes alive, and it brings back some great college memories (along with the other memories of Organic Chemistry... oh dear). But traffic gets a little hectic, parking becomes more difficult, and I have to redevelop my skills in dodging fearless jaywalking pedestrians.

I'm quick on the ol' minivan brakes, don't you worry.

But summertime. Oh, sweet summertime in this town...

We take advantage of walking around the quiet campus. The boys play in the fountains, and I tell them where I first kissed their daddy. Tyler and I reminisce about when we were young and thought we had so little time and so much responsibility.

You heard that right.

That's what I thought when I was taking approximately two naps per day. In between eating breadsticks at the Union and hanging out way too much with four guys who lived on Littleton Street when I should have been studying.

But do cut me some slack, if for no other reason than Organic Chemistry.

Sounds like a good time to change the subject.

So we played in the fountains and I tried to get a sweet brother picture after they were done.

Because when there are great flowers in the background, every mother wants the perfect frameable picture.

Why I try, I'm not quite sure. I think I must have told Trey 10 times to keep his gum in his mouth.

...which caused even more distractions...

...and more...

Until finally I made him throw the gum in the flowers.

There.

I can live with that. :)

Summer memories...

A trip to Tropicanoe Cove with Grandma and Grandpa Fincher... Lots of bike riding with friends...

Four weeks of swimming lessons...

T-ball for Trey (and coach Dad)...

Fun at the ballpark for Chaser...

First year Pinto for Jack...

Still here...

...and with lots to say... I'm just one busy momma! The last week or so has been packed full of good, but busy stuff. Just for fun, here's a glimpse into our lives these last few days:

- We spent our last few play times with our great friends, the Zuyderwyks. Tyler and some other guys helped them load up their moving truck last week and we said our tearful goodbyes as they began their new adventure to New Mexico. My boys have grown up with Brock and Tristan, and they're going to miss their good buddies!

- Hosted an awesome Father/Son camp out in our backyard over Labor Day weekend! The original plan was for Tyler, Jack and Trey to try out a campground for the first time, but everything was booked over the holiday. So, they opted for our backyard instead - this time with our brand new tent! The Beaver boys joined us overnight, and they enjoyed lots of pudgie pies, S'Mores, ribs, backyard creatures, light saber duals, biscuits and gravy, sticks, and general boy stuff. Fun!!

- Chase started preschool!! That cutie - he loves it. And I love it that he finally has something to call his own after watching the big boys do their thing all this time. He goes Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-11:30am, just enough time for me to lay Tess down for a nap and start a load of laundry. :)

- We've had a some neat opportunities to minister to some families this past week. We've taken some meals to friends who've had babies, plus another one to a busy, recovering momma with a recently repaired ACL.

- The hatch on the van door finally got fixed! This seems terribly lame and insignificant to even mention, until you try to unload your groceries with a baby in one arm, a grocery bag in the other, all the while propping the hatch up by your forehead. Yeah. Hopefully no one in town actually spotted me doing this.

- The big boys started Fall baseball (Trey's crazy into it. Jack, not so much), and the-momma-without-a-nursing-infant-for-once started attending a Ladies' Workshop at church on Wednesday nights.

- One very sweet husband spent his morning off work taking care of the little ones so I could make an early morning trip to visit the Paschals at Riley Children's Hospital last Thursday. It was an emotional trip for me for many reasons, one being the fact that we spent many hours in the same hospital treating Jack's urinary reflux a few years ago. Nolan is doing great post-surgery... please continue to pray for his recovery!

- We even squeezed in a garage sale (ok, it dominated our lives for days on end) with our neighbors last weekend. I am seriously a glutton for punishment. I thought about throwing in the towel half-way through pulling out every item out of every cabinet and closet I own, but then realized that I'd be stuck with one huge mess if it didn't all go. Somewhere. It ended up being time well spent after all: we lost some significant clutter (even after all of the men in my life carried at least one thing back into the house...), and gained almost $600 bucks to show for all of our junk. Sweet.

- A baby shower for my cousin back in my hometown, plus our first meeting for our new small group bible study rounded out Sunday. All of this in one week!

Did I mention the two sick kids, the girl who learned to climb up onto everything overnight, and the rebellious three year old?

Never a dull moment, folks...

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.

Compromise... or not.

If you don't know Tyler or me very well, I'll let you in on a little something. We're perfectionists. Both of us. Aren't opposites supposed to attract? Anyway, I suppose every couple works differently, but God knew that we both needed the other to be some sort of a perfectionist. I say some sort because I think we're perfectionists in different ways. And in a healthy sort of way, at least I think. Hmm... now you've got me thinking about that. But, this is getting way too complicated for a post on the fair. Ahem.

So how do perfectionism and the 4-H fair go together? Well, perfectionism is how we landed on our plans for this summer. Tyler and I like to do lots of things, and we like to do them well. But we also know how limited we are with four children ages seven and under. Many people are great multi-taskers. Lots of parents (and children) are way more flexible than we are. But through trial and error, we know our family's limits. And we'd rather do a few small things well than tackle more than we can pull off successfully.

Do you see it all coming together yet? Yeah, I'm not so sure either.

We try to think like a three or one year old when making plans, and that often sways our decision one way or the other. So instead of lots of travel, forcing kids out of their schedules, unmet expectations and crabby children (and parents!), we opted to simplify our lives this summer. Really, this mentality has become a way of life for us over the past year since Tess has been born. And guess what? We are having the time of our lives!

Here's a newsflash in the world today: kids don't need fancy stuff to make them happy. Now "stuff" could mean lots of things here, and if I start listing examples someone is sure to get offended. Which might not be a totally bad thing. What I mean here is that I feel the pressure the same as anyone else. Jack and Trey are constantly talking about their friends and their latest trips and gadgets. And it's easy to start the comparison game.

But what I've found is that my kids can go a long way on a little attention and some cotton candy.

I'm just saying.

We have this fair tradition. Even though the older boys hit Indiana Beach this summer and got to experience bigger and better, they wouldn't have missed the fair for anything. We left without our camera this year, and had to drive back to get it, because our photo-fair-tradition dates back to 2004. That's not long to you and me, but that's a heck of a long standing to a seven year old. And he would miss the 2009 pictures if they weren't there.

We always get foot-long corn dogs. We used to share, but now we have to get six of them. You could eat for a week on what six corn dogs cost at the fair.

We're also getting distinct in our fair roles. Daddy rides the rides, and I cheer everyone on while watching the baby. This is a good arrangement, trust me. And when there's no baby, I'm still not riding rides.

Just so we're clear on that.

Mostly because I wouldn't be able to keep my corndog down, and nobody wants that.

Wait, I do have to ride the green wavy slide every year, because Tyler won't do that. Yes, I think I can handle that. The last official day of summer break is today, and I'm off to find Prang watercolors for my school boys. Anybody know where I can find some? Eight stores already searched, the rest of the city to go. I'm a woman on a mission. More summer stuff to come!

Now I know why...

Remember the Summer Rewind Series (SRS for short... catchy, huh?) on this blog last summer? Well now I know why I had to do that. I originally thought it was because I had a newborn and was nursing half my life away at the time (wanna bet?). Turns out, summer itself just does that to me (although it's still good to blame a newborn for a lot of things). And summer should.

I neglect the inside and soak up every minute of fresh air I can get. I work in the yard when the little ones are napping, monitor bike riding on the road in front of our house, hand out lots of Bomb Pop Jr.'s to the neighbor kids. I drive a van load of kids (yes, they're all mine) to a different park than the day before after Tess's morning nap, and pack a lunch so we don't have to come back home until it's time for her afternoon one.

I've watched cute little baseball players come into their own, and took three very happy boys to four straight weeks of swimming lessons. And oh yes, there were the children to feed. And bathe. Unless of course Tyler talked me into pool time taking the place of bath time.

Hey, it's summer.

So I find myself catching up again, and I'm not one bit bothered by it. Because summer makes me care a whole lot less about things like this. I'd rather be in the back yard, reading with my six year old, smushed right next to him in the middle of the hammock.

(I get really sweaty sitting that close to someone, but it's worth it when it's your boy.)

So, at the risk of sounding repetitive and a bit uncreative, I'm committing this week to catching you up on our summer. Don't hold your breath for too long...

It looks a lot like last summer.

Minus the newborn, that is.

The Backseat...

Classified Ad: Wanted

• snacks..........check
• flame thrower..........check
• super strength coat..........check
• dynamite..........check

Say...does anybody have a boulder axe we could borrow?

College Girls' Weekend

I did it. I left four children ranging from seven to one in the care of their very capable daddy. Went away for two entire nights and days, something we had planned for almost six months. I stayed up until 4am, an hour I hadn't seen, well, at least for a month or two.

We talked and laughed. We looked at ridiculous pictures of ourselves from 15 years ago and remembered details about each other's weddings. We covered kids, schools, our kids' friends and how to encourage our husbands. We might have even noticed that we're aging. We went for a walk in the rain, then ran home the last bit, completely soaked and giggling. We opened up the Bible on the porch and were reminded of how we got here.

Friends.

Sisters in Christ.

No matter how much time passes.

She's One!!

Tess Elena is officially one year old!! Unbelievable ... well, sort of. :) The year has been back and forth, sometimes going slowly and hectic with much maintenance. Other times it flew by as we watched Tess accomplish more and more each day. Either way, we are loving this age as she settles into her own sweet personality (and I am loving the fact that she now crawls around saying "Mama").

Tess and Nana at her party...

(this monkey is her favorite... maybe because her daddy calls her "Monkey"??)

These girls share a birthday!

Not sure how it happened, but we ended up with a "sweets buffet" of sorts.

No one seemed to mind. :) Steph and Cory's famous peanut butter balls, designed in party colors! Too cute! Something healthy... (note to self, de-skewer fruit before giving to your children, especially if they are boys!) Tyler's surprise to me... a BonBonerie cake - all the way from Cincinnati (courtesy of the Costellos) - for our last one-year-old. When the first few cousins turned one, Cory and Stephanie started this tradition. If you haven't eaten one of these cakes, you've never lived. :)

Our smiley (unless Mama's in the room),

12 hour-sleeping (but has to be in bed by 6:30pm),

jabbering (words: "Mama," and "Hi"),

brother-loving (they babysit in the toyroom when I'm in the kitchen -

sometimes for a "happy heart", and when I'm really desperate, a quarter!),

book adoring (and book-eating!)...

attention-craving,

teeth-cutting (8 and counting),

Baby Einstein watching (four for four!),

baby wrestling (with the boys)

one year old!

Kissing her new baby doll!

We weren't quite ready when Tess grabbed for the cake.

Nothing that a little lick won't fix!

Her own personal brother fan-base!

A true girl at heart... so excited about her new shoes...

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

"3"

I have two days before a little girl in the house turns one year old, and with all of her birthday planning, I realized I had forgotten to blog about a very important day (oh geesh, if you must know, at the end of April!) when a very grown-up boy turned 3!

Funny how life with four kids changes you. Seriously, I never thought I would be thinking about stuff like equal blogtime for my kids. :) But with each unique personality and relationship that God has given us with our kids, I do think about equality. And how much attention each one gets. And who I read to last, and for how long. And whose turn it is to fetch me a diaper. And how much each one ate at supper, and when they pottied last.

I did it with one, so I'm guessing that you do it too.

But the funnier thing about all of this is that I like the idea that many children leads to less equality. Because in a loving way, it's healthy for them to know that it's not all about them all of the time.

Yes, I realize this is a birthday post. Are you still with me? :)

All mom-guilt aside, the point is, Chase is 3. And he's quickly going on whatever age Jack and Trey are acting like on any given day.

I remember "3" with the other boys. And I'll admit, it makes me cringe a little bit. Tyler adores this age. I seem to have less patience for it for some reason. But with a bit more experience this time around, I'm soaking up all the cuteness I can, because there sure is a lot of it. And I'm convinced that in God's great wisdom, he made "3" the cutest age, so you can live through those 3 year old moments when they forget all about being cute.

I like to say that Chase is the oldest three year old I have ever had. He likes to run with the big boys. He does more, knows more, and says more stuff than the other two ever did at this age. Trying to be big brings him much happiness a lot of the time, and much frustration the rest of the time. Because three year olds can't always do what 6 and 7 year olds do, no matter how hard they try.

He's into Scooby Doo big time, and says the word "Like..." way too often because Shaggy Rogers is his hero. He talks about going to preschool this fall, but he doesn't know what August means in terms of timeframe, so he asks every day if "today is the day" when he will go. He loves to cook with his momma, and would bake cupcakes every day if I said yes. He talks nonstop, and entertains us constantly with his made-up songs, usually to the tune of the Star Wars theme song ("I-have-to-go... to-the-potty.... yes-I-do..."). Oh, and speaking of Star Wars, he knows more about the characters than I do. His memory amazes me.

Chase loves to play dress-up. Lucky for him, the third time around I've decided to choose my battles, so he even gets to wear his Spidey outfit to the store on occasion. He wants candy for breakfast every morning, and never tires of asking, even though I've told him "no" every day for the last 58 days straight. Chase has a very special relationship with his daddy. They often run errands together or go out to breakfast, just the two of them. And when he's not with his dad? Well, let's just say that I have a shadow closer than Peter Pan's.

Did I mention that he's cute?

And really stubborn.

If I try to open the door for him, he gets frustrated and tells me to shut it because he wants to open it. Then he (fumbling and taking what seems like forever) opens it for me, and says, "The gentleman always helps the ladies."

And the cute factor wins again.

He's silly and smart, which might just turn out to be a pretty good mix when he gets his emotions in check. Whenever that might be. My guess is it's not happening at "3".

But you never know. This one could be different.

Then again, he always repeats everything his brothers say.

Chase Dylan, my sweet third boy.

Thanking God for you, and for "3".