Wordless Wednesday

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is special around here. We go all out. From decorations to Valentine's themed shirts and heart shaped brownies to special little gifts for each of the kids. It was kind of a crazy day because Daddy was out of town for work and Nathan had to go to school, but we still had a great time. Happy Valentine's Day from all 4 of my Crazy kids!!

Grateful

Grateful for four kids. Grateful or healthy kids. Grateful because I've never had to now what it feels like to lose a child. Grateful because I realize how lucky I am. Grateful because in the middle of the roughest days I can stop and remind myself to be grateful for even the bad days. If I am ever unfortunate enough to lose a child, these bad days will become good days compared to that kind of gut-wrenching pain. I pray every night for parents who have lost a child. That kind of pain is unimaginable to me. I pray for peace and comfort for them. I just can't imagine that the pain ever gets better, whether it was yesterday or years ago. There are so many ways to lose a child and it scares me to death. On one hand I want to lock my kids in the house and never let them leave. On the other hand I want to take them to the doctors everyday to make sure that they're free of that horrible monster called cancer. I can't protect my kids from anything, so I pray for them. I pray all the time.

Being a mom is the hardest thing that I've ever done, but it's also the experience that I am the most grateful for.

Tate's BIG Tractor Party

For his third birthday Tate wanted to have a BIG tractor party, which translated means he wanted to have a John Deere tractor party.

We had a house full of family to help us celebrate and I can honestly say that I don't think I've seen him that happy and excited in a long time. He was beyond thrilled. He loved his balloons, his BIG tractor cake and all of his presents. We love this little guy beyond words and are grateful for every crazy moment he brings to our lives.

Happy Birthday Tate!!!

How Much Her Brother's Love Her

Have you ever had one of those moments as a parent where you think your kids are really starting to get all the things you've been trying to teach them? Well, maybe not ALL of the things, but you really rejoice when you discover that they understand just ONE of the things you've been trying to teach them.

One of the things we've been trying to teach our oldest two boys is the importance of taking care of their sister. We want to teach them to protect her, to respect her and to show her that they care about her. We've also been teaching them to take care of each other. It's not just about their sister, it's about sticking together and helping each other out. TJ and I may be gone one day and we want to make sure that the boys can help Lana with whatever she needs. It's not just about protecting her from bullies at school, or helping her with her homewoke. It's about helping her mow her lawn if she needs it or shoveling her driveway when it snows. It's about the little things and the big things. It's also about helping your brother with his home improvement projects or with his computer problems.

Anyway, back to my story. Our two oldest boys went to the grocery store the other night with my husband. While they were there they decided to buy me flowers. It doesn't happen that often around here, but it's always nice to get flowers. After inspecting the flowers they decided on red roses for me. Then after thinking about it for awhile the boys told their father that they needed to buy their sister flowers too!! They picked out the cutest bunch of pink carnations for her. When they got home they gave her the flowers and she got the sweetest look on her face!! She just lit up! It was such a special moment between two big brothers and their little sister. It makes me cry just thinking about it. Love those kids!!!

Lana's Little Pony Tail

 Lana is just barely starting to grow some hair. For the most part it's just peach fuzz, but she does have a spot on the top of her head with some longer hairs. They are just long enough for the cutest little pony tail you ever saw! It may not be much, but we're so proud of it. It only took 15 months to grow it! She loves her little pony tail too. This morning she brought me her pony tail holder and actually stood still long enough for me to put her hair up. When it was all done she ran away giggling. When it falls out she brings me her little pony tail holder and we put her hair back up. She just thinks it's the funniest thing and her brothers aren't sure what to make of it. They point at her hair, touch her little pony tail and give her weird looks. I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually, but for now Lana and I are enjoying this new experience.

Nathan's Lost Tooth

On Saturday night Nathan discovered that he had a very wiggly bottom tooth. Daddy inspected it at dinner time and decided that it really wasn't ready to come out. Nathan was really excited but a little nervous since he didn't know what to expect. He thought pulling it out would hurt. Despite being afraid that it would hurt I found he several times in the bathroom looking in the mirror trying to pull it out himself! When he finally wen to bed that night he still had all of his teeth.

The next morning we headed off to church and the first thing he did was show Pap his wiggly tooth. Pap took a good look at it and wiggled it himself and decided that it probably wasn't ready to pull yet. But just in case he got his secret tooth-pulling weapon ready. (That would be a tissue- he claims you need to dry the tooth off and use the tissue to pull it so that you can get have a good grip on the tooth as you pull.) Pap, my dad, has been the official family tooth puller for as long as I can remember. Pulling most of my teeth, my sister's teeth. I also have very specific memories of him pulling teeth from two of my cousins during visits to my grandparents house. You could say he has a lot of experience. Since he had said he didn't think it was time for it to come out I turned around to take care of one of the twins and the next thing I know Nathan has a hole in his mouth! I guess the tooth was ready to come out afterall.

Nathan was so excited to lose his first tooth. He told everyone at church that would listen and even showed a few of them his tooth! That night he got to use his very special tooth fairy pillow for the first time. He was excited to wake up the next morning to find that the Tooth Fairy had visited him and replaced his tooth with $2!

Jackson's First Haircut

A couple of months ago it became apparent that Jackson needed a haircut. His hair had started to grow and it was getting pretty long around his ears. I put it off as long as possible. It seemed to me that by getting his haircut, I would be proclaiming to the world that he's not a baby anymore. It's just such a hard thing to do with your last little one. (For the record, Lana is nowhere near needing a haircut since peach fuzz really doesn't count as "hair.")

But after months of putting it off I finally broke down and took the little guy to my favorite hair salon for his first cut. Since he's my shy guy he was pretty timid at first and even cried a little bit when we first put him in the chair. But he settled down pretty quickly once all the girls in the shop started talking to him and flirting with him. It didn't take much before he was all trimmed up and looking like such a big boy!! What a difference a haircut makes!

2010 In Review

I thought some of you might be interested in reading our 2010 Christmas letter. Many of you interact with us on a regular basis so you don't receive our yearly update so hopefully this will be a treat for you! I pray for health and happiness for each of you and that you will follow the link for Declan's Journey and read his story. I also pray that some of you will be moved enough to make a donation to a Pediatric Cancer fund and to pass his story on to your friends and family.

Love,
Erin

Dear Friends and Family,
What a year 2010 has been!! It has been non-stop here in the Spahr household. I feel like I haven’t sat down once all year! Having 4 little ones has kept me busy, but the year has been full of bright spots. Mostly small moments of playing in the basement, the backyard and eating a lot of pizza!! We are all looking forward to seeing what 2011 will bring our family and getting to venture out into the world.

Nathan turned 5 in May and started Kindergarten in August. He is really enjoying school. He loves riding the bus and buying his lunch each day. Thanks to my dad he has learned how to ride a bike (without training wheels!) and how to tie his shoes. His favorite toys are his Transformers.

Tate turned 2 in January and is quickly approaching his 3rd birthday! We’ve worked hard with him this year trying to improve both his speech and behavior. We are so proud of his accomplishments. He went from not speaking at all to using two and three word sentences. He still has trouble with pronunciation, but he’s trying really hard in speech therapy to improve. His biggest milestone was saying his own name in October!! He’s still our stubborn and independent wildman- you can depend on him to do the unexpected (like flush his brother’s toothbrush down the toilet!) but that just makes him who he is!

Lana and Jackson celebrated their first birthday in October. They have hit all of their milestones and are doing amazing. They both crawled early and learned to walk at 10 months. Lana is very outgoing and loves to play with her older brothers. She laughs hysterically when they tackle her. She also loves her dolls and is often found “talking” to them. Jackson is our shy guy. He is often scared by the physical play of his older brothers. He loves music and loves to dance and clap. He is just the sweetest little guy. He is content to sit quietly and watch the chaos around him.

I don’t have much going on outside the kids and house. I enjoy two mornings a week exercising at my local YMCA. We tackled some big home improvement projects, completely redoing the first floor bathroom and the living room/dining room/kitchen. Life is certainly crazy but I’m finding a way to be thankful for every moment. When I think about all the little ones fighting cancer it breaks my heart and I wish I could do more to raise awareness about how much still needs to be done to save them! A baby boy named Declan has changed my life and how I think about the precious moments I have with my kids. If you’d like to hear his story I’d love for you to go to www.declansjourney.com or donate in his memory at www.journey4acure.org.

TJ: I am still working for Microsoft spending most of my time with government customers, and mainly the USDA again this year. Six business trips in 2010 did have me away from the family throughout the year. I worry about them while I am away and I honestly don’t know how Erin does it on her own. I am very lucky to have such great kids and a super-mom wife to get us all through it.

Merry Christmas!! We hope that your journey this year will bring each of you much joy and happiness!!!

Tis the Season!

I know. I know. I'm behind again. Life is just soooo crazy busy for us!! We seem to move from one busy day to the next with no break from the craziness. Since it's the Christmas Season we did want to wish each and every one of you a VERY Merry Christmas!! May God Bless You and all those you love!!

Happy 1st Birthday Lana and Jackson!

It's so hard to believe that it's been a whole year since you were born. We've had quite the year to say the least. I'm so proud of all the things you've accomplished and am looking forward to all of the adventures we'll have together in the future. We love you very much!!!

First Day of Kindergarten

With 4 little kids you can imagine that we've had a very busy summer and start to the fall season. We had a huge milestone in our house recently. Nathan started Kindergarten. So far he's really enjoying school. He likes riding the school bus and buying his lunch. Enjoy a picture from his first day of school.

Jackson's 3 B's

Jackson's three favorite things in the whole world happen to begin with the letter "B." He LOVES his Binky, his Blanket, and his Bottle. Enjoy the picture of him hanging out with his three favorite things!

Lana is Growing Up!

Lana is one determined little lady. She is definitely a lot like her big brothers. She is not content to just sit still and she wants to make sure her voice is heard in this crazy house!

She started saying "Dad-Da" the other week and she says it as loud as she can constantly. You can hear "da-da-da-da-da-da" no matter where she is in the house or where you are. She has also learned how to sit up by herself and she has started crawling. There won't be any stopping her now! As you can probably see from the picture, she has also gotten her first two teeth. She has discovered that it's very funny to chew on some poor unsuspecting person's hand when they're holding her! They are usually quite surprised when she BITES their hand instead of just sucking on it.

She is definitely a cutie pie!

Summer Haircuts

For the past couple of years TJ has given Nathan a buzz during Memorial Day weekend. This year we decided that Tate had enough hair to get one too.
It's a great summer haircut! It makes life so much easier in several different ways. First, it helps with bed-head in the mornings, bath time at night (because there is less hair to rinse shampoo out of). Second, because their hair tends to grow fast we take them for haircuts every 4 weeks when they don't have buzzes. Giving them a buzz cuts at home eliminates all those trips to the Hair Cuttery and helps our monthly budget. Since my kids tend to spend the summer in our backyard and camping it also makes it a lot easier to search their hair for ticks and keeps their hair from looking too dirty when they've gotten hot and sweaty.

Nathan still isn't a big fan of the clippers, but he puts up with it because he likes having his hair short during the hot summer months. Tate was very excited about getting his haircut by Daddy and happily went first when Nathan refused to. He laughed and smiled through the whole haircut and was amazed by how his head felt when TJ was done. He looked so strange to me the first couple of days after his haircut but now that I've gotten used to I think it really looks good on him.

The Graduate

We have an official preschool graduate in our house. Nathan graduated from Good Shepherd Preschool yesterday during a really cute ceremony at the school. The kids had a nice program singing some of their favorite songs from the school year, including "You Are My Sunshine," "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee," "Skidamarink" and "God Bless America." At the end of the program each child was recognized individually and given their diploma.

Nathan was especially excited because not only did TJ and I attend the ceremony, but my mom and sister also attended.

The school has been a wonderful place for Nathan. He has had some amazing teachers and made great friends. It has also been a great place for him to prepare for Kindergarten. I am confident that when he heads to school in the fall he will be completely ready.

Nathan's Thoughts on Preschool: Ms. Karen and Ms. Stef were good teachers. I learned a lot. I will miss you this week. I am going to Kindergarten next fall. I liked preschool. I liked the blocks with the tractor set. I learned stuff. I learned how to write letters. It was fun. My friends were Tanner and James. My favorite letter to learn was "F" because "fish" starts with "F." My favorite part of graduation was "You Are My Sunshine."

Happy Mother's Day!

Of course this wasn't my first Mother's Day, but in many respects it felt like my very first Mother's Day. They last six month's have certainly felt like a trial by fire, so being able to celebrate Mother's Day right after the twins turned six month's old felt very appropriate.

Mother's Day weekend started with a Mother's Day Tea at Nathan's preschool. It just so sweet having him pull out my chair and serve me. He had also made flowers out of tracing of his hands, a poem with his handprints and a shadow picture of his profile. I loved being able to spend a little one-on-one time with him.

On Sunday we attended church in the morning as usual and then going to my parents house for lunch. Nathan loved the Monkey Bread we had at his Mother's Day Tea so much that he wanted to make it for dessert for our Mother's Day dinner. Nathan, Tate and I had a lot of fun rolling the pieces of dough in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and literally throwing them into the cake pan. It's such a simple thing to make and such a big hit with kids!

Baths in the Big Tub!

The babies have officially graduated from the infant tub to the big tub! They love their bath chairs because the chairs enable them to safely splash and play. They have also discovered that bathtime is much more fun when you have someone to play with. They are just so cute! Enjoy the pictures from their first bath together.

Seven Months Old!

Lana and Jackson are seven months old now. They have gotten so big in the last couple of months. At their six month check-up they were both over 17 pounds!

They love their solid foods. I'm really astounded they have both liked everything that they've tried. For breakfast they have oatmeal mixed with a fruit, and for lunch and dinner they typically split a container of fruit and two containers of vegetables. But by far their favorite food are these little baby rice cakes made by Baby Mum Mum. They each can eat two of them at every meal! They are also learning how to hold sippy cups with handles and enjoying a small amount of fruit juice mixed with a larger amount of water.

They're also on a pretty consistent schedule. At night they will both sleep about 12 hours, going to bed around 7:30pm and waking around 7am or a little later. Lana almost always sleeps through the night, while Jackson will occasionally wake up looking for his pacifier. Once he has found it he quickly goes back to sleep. I consider myself very lucky to have two good sleepers. Nathan and Tate didn't sleep through the night consistently until after their first birthdays. Both twins are also taking consistent 2 hour naps during Tate's afternoon nap. Nathan and I LOVE the quiet time this provides.

Lana has even gotten her first two teeth! She loves to show them off! They are both very mobile. They roll everywhere they want to go. Lana is also getting up on her hands and knees and trying to crawl. I suspect it won't be long before they are both crawling, sitting up on their own and pulling themselves up to stand.

An Interview with Nathan

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A fisherman and a hunterman.
Mommy: "Those aren't jobs. What job do you want to have?"
Nathan: "I want to read meters for a job."

Q: What's your favorite thing about preschool?
A: Going outside in nice weather and playing blocks inside.

Q: What are you looking forward to most about Kindergarten?
A: Going to a school named Deer Crossing (see his original answer to the first question to understand why this is so exciting to him!)

Q: What's your favorite thing about having brothers and a sister?
A: I never had a sister before. I like to play Transformers with Tate and playing Dinosaurs with all of them.

Q: What is your least favorite thing about having siblings?
A: When they knock things over that I build.

Q: What are your favorite...
Food: Fish
TV Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Movie: Wall-E
Toy: Wall-E
Drink: Chocolate Milk

Q: What other things do you like?
A: I like Spongebob. I like to play games that Tate can't play.

Q: What are you looking forward to the most this summer?
A: Warm weather outside

Q: What do you want to be doing when you're....
10 years old? A. Hockey
15 years old? A. Playing Soccer
20 years old? I don't want to go where grown-ups go to school (college) after Big Boy School (high school). I want to get a work job.