Baseball fever

Cooper and Nelson are both in baseball this spring/summer. It is proving to be quite the challenge during the week. They both practice on different days, and sometimes while one is at practice the other one needs to be at a game. That's not usually a problem, except when Travis is on call and they have practice and a game at the same time 20 minutes away from eachother. That made me work hard for my Wonder Woman cape! Thankfully my wonderful brother was able to step in and help for 45 minutes.
Cooper is loving baseball! He loves practice, the games, throwing, catching, batting!! And he's really good at batting and throwing!!
Nelson.... Well, he will tell you he's not good at catching, when he throws he looks like he's lobbing a javaline at someone, and he has a lovely 360* spin when he swings the bat. His first game yeilded 2 injuries in under 10 minutes. I am hoping that as the season goes on he enjoys it more and more.

Divia and Max

Saturdays in the Ferris house usually consist of Maddox waking up about 6-6:30, and strolling into our room, where he snuggles while I go back to snoring. Somewhere about 7am, he gets tired of that and goes back to his room to wake his brothers.

But this Saturday, I bribed him from waking his brothers by promising him a snack (in big kid terms, that's breakfast). I stumbled out of bed like a sailor coming out of a bar at 2 am. I had only managed to get one eye open, and was having difficulty navigating over the dogs, past the laundry basket of clean clothes that didn't get put away last night, and over the kids shoes in the hallway. I tried masagging my left eye open by rubbing it harder, but it was unrespondsive and felt paralized. As bad as I wanted coffee, it was too dangerous to attempt in my state; I would have to find another way to bring myself into coherency before I could wake up with a cup of joe.

By this time, Maddox has already ran down the hall and is in the kitchen throwing a fit because his snack had not appeared out of thin air and wasn't waiting for him at the kitchen table, and at the same time, I am greeted by the headache-inducing cries of my daughter indicating that she's awake.

Survival instincts are amazing. I can't tell you how I survived taming the hunger beast of a 2 year old, all on a few hours of sleep, with one eye open, a child glued to my hip, and still managed to keep Mommy and the older 2 asleep, but somehow, it happened, and it was well worth it because I got to see Maddox becoming a big brother.

All throughout breakfast, "Max" as he calls himself would talk to "Divia" and she would wait till he finished, and start cooing back to him. After she finished, he would say something else, and so the conversation went on, back and forth for some time, so I decided to grab the camera and capture the moment.

If you wake up with bed-head like this, you either have the worst hangover ever, or just had the best night's sleep in the world.

Apparently, Maddox liked breakfast. He old me it was "2 thumbs up"!

It won't be like this for long...

This phrase is so true! It has especially been brought to light in the recent weeks as a country song by the same title climbs the charts. Who would have thought that Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish had a country album in him?!?!!
Anyway, I have to remind myself that sooner than I care to admit I will have 4 children grown and out of the house. No more during the night cuddles, no more play-doh stuck to the area rugs, no more crayons on the wall, stove, dishwasher, fridge, floor...
Today I have to remember that this is only a season, a short season, when looking at the life before me when it comes to my kids.

Olivia is going to sleep through the night and I'm going to miss rocking her at 3AM and whispering "mommy loves you so much" in her little ears.

Maddox is going to stay in bed longer than 6AM and stop coming into my room to say, "mommy, I like you."

Nelson is going to leave the house without a cape or blanket tied around his neck like a cape.

Cooper is going to be "too cool" to sit on my lap and listen to stories about when he was a tiney baby and we would sing the song "Cooper Boy" to him (words and music by us at 2 AM when he was 10 days old).

Yep, I'm going to miss it all!!!!
Days like today make me long for missing it, but then I have to remember, "it won't be like this for long"
http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAhpbYpfxOY

What a week...

It's only Tuesday and I'm longing for Sunday afternoon!
**3/4 of my children are sick (for those of you who aren't gifted in math, that's 3 of the 4).
**Two are signed up for baseball and have practice today, Thursday, Saturday morning, and then games Saturday afternoon.
**One has a birthday party Friday night.
**One has a birthday party Saturday afternoon (between baseball practice and one of the games)
**One has been teething for half her life and still only has sleepless nights to show for it.
**One has a new phrase, "I don't like it!" and uses it for everything from food choices, clothes choices, and toy choices. I mean multiple times a day!!!!!!
**Travis had to reschedule a confrence call tonight for baseball practice.

I really don't think there is enough coffee around to get me through this week.

Our fun Easter weekend

We had the ultimate family weekend! We colored eggs, watch a movie, ate pizza and just enjoying being together. It had been too long since we had done that last. The boys loved coloring eggs and Maddox did a great job of putting them in the dye without slam dunking them (like he did last year). Today the boys looked absolutely handsome in their shirts and ties, I love it that my boys want to dress up!!! Olivia looked absolutely adorable in her pink linen dress and cardigan. I love that I have a little girl to put in cute dresses :) We had an absolutely amazing day with our dear friends the Fites. They openned up their home to us and we really enjoyed celebrating Easter with them and their daughter, Andrea.

Beans +cups = hours of fun!

We had a playdate with my friend Donna and her daughter Andrea today. We went over there to dye eggs and just have some fun. Before we dyed eggs the kids played. Andrea had a rubbermaid tote full of dried beans and with it several different cups. Who would have thought it would be such a great toy?!?! My boys loved it. They loved it so much we had to stop at Target on the way home for a tote and the grocery store for bags of beans. For under $15 I have a toy that has entertained them for over an hour. Olivia is also enjoying it, she sits in her highchair and squeals at the boys while they measure and dump beans.

What to do on a dreary morning with no big brothers...

Nelson went to school with Cooper this morning because they had early dismissal day. That means they were home at 12:30PM to immediately pick up on the bickering and fighting that ended when they got on the bus (I doubt it ended I just got a reprieve from listening to it). It was just Maddox, Olivia, and me for the morning. I needed to clean the kitchen and get ready for company for dinner. Olivia was sleeping and I needed Maddox out from under my feet and out of the dishwasher I was empty-ing and reloading, and off of the counters that I was washing. I pulled out the Play-Doh and cookie cutters.... IT WAS AWESOME!!!! I had to tell him to pack up over an hour later when it was time for lunch. I'm in love with Play-Doh, I never thought I would love it, but he's clean with it and he's so quiet....

Not "baby girl" anymore.

We lost our "baby" on Friday. She's been replaced with a "big girl". You may be wondering what has brought on this change at such a young age. No, she's not a prodige; no potty training, speaking in sentences, or even sleeping through the night (the latter would bring me to weeping tears of joy). After and intervention staged by my mom and my husband, Olivia went in for her first haircut. I was very brave, I called Sheila, cried for a few minutes about the loss of my baby, and then marched through the doors and bit the bullet. From the pictures below, you can see the baby is gone and a big girl is in her place. The tongue is still sticking out, some things just don't change with a new 'do.

before
after