Validate me

(That's a line from the movie Sneakers. You really don't have to validate me. Unless you want to. I am one of 12 children after all, I like attention).


Anyhow, as I try my hand at sewing and making things, I like to get feedback. The little boys in my house aren't the best at this, so I take pictures with my phone and text them to my sisters and mom for their thoughts.

Here are some of the projects I've done recently in the form of my phone pictures.

Hats for boy baby showers.

Scarves for me or for others.





Gotta love poor Andrew on my hip. He had had enough of my inattention. That flower scarf took hours. I kept throwing snacks and toys at my children: "Mommy's working on something!"

Ice Show

Look how close I got to Mitt Romney! Only thousands of people between me, on the second row to the top of Energy Solutions Arena, and Mitt on the ice for the special "Stars on Ice" 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics Anniversary.


I got 6 tickets through work. I took Max, Ben, my friend JoLynn, her daughter Katie and friend Haylie. JB and Roger stayed home to watch sports and let Andrew go to bed on time. It was a late night! Benny fell asleep on me during the show.



I had so much fun though. Thankfully Benny woke up in time for David Pelletier and Jamie Sale -- remember them? The silver then gold medalists in 2002? I went a little nuts with my cheering.

Remembering the Salt Lake Winter Olympics made me smile as I went back in time to those early days of living in the city after graduating from college. Going to events with Autumn, walking around downtown -- it was such a good time.

Work it!

I kid you not, Andrew's favorite toy right now is the vacuum. If we leave the closet open after getting a coat out, he goes right to it and pulls out the vacuum.

That smile, that pose, that cheese! As soon as JB pulled out the camera Andrew looked up, flashed his 6 pearly whites and crinkled his eyes. I just noticed he also matches the vacuum in that outfit.

I can't believe how grown up this 14-month-old boy is becoming. He just got his second hair cut by the way. I don't think our other boys had hair like this one!

Pics from my phone

My dad texted me this picture he found. It's me, and I believe my little brother Peter (#5 in the lineup). He was the cutest baby. And don't I look like Benny?!


Speaking of Benny, he's been helping Andrew walk around the house. Andrew is a total toddler now. He's the cutest walker.


And finally, these two pictures I took last week during a 45 degree day at the playground. The boys had been laboring over writing up their Valentine's Day treats for their classmates, so they each got a treat as well.

Train Show

We had such a blast recently at a train show that came to town. All sorts of model trains were set up inside the Expo Center. Our favorite was the setup that included thousands and thousands of Legos.


Look at Andrew in my arms.

"Let me loose, momma! Let me get to those trains and put them in my mouth. I want to eat those Legos. Please let me toddle-run wherever I want!"

My little conductors.

They had a Thomas train ride that went in a circle. Max is such a good big brother. He held on tight to Andrew the whole time.

Boys are so fun. Trains, Legos, cars, dinosaurs, superheroes -- they have taken over our house!

Milestones

Hey there. My name is Drewbers. I love my dad's lasagna. And I'm cute. Tee hee.



I'm just chillin' here. Letting it digest and feeling it all over my chubby cheeks.

Andrew walks now, and fast. He's all over the place. I love to watch him toddle and I love how proud he is of himself.

Meanwhile, Max lost his other top tooth! He was very glad the tooth fairy remembered to come this time. She forgot last time.

He lost it had school. Reports say the other kids were chanting "Pull it out! Pull it out!" It was a flapper -- just dangling for a while before it gave up. The teacher had a little container to put it in for him to bring home. Very exciting stuff.

I've often wondered....

...what it would be like to have a girl.

Meet "Andrea" Rockwell Richards.


JB's note:

She’s not the prettiest girl in class but she’s got a really good fastball and a deadeye three point shooter.

(Nonna watched the boys last night and didn’t have any other jammies in his size at her house. )

Benny the baseball player - updated

My sister-in-law Suzanne's friend Amy took a recent church picture of Benny (where he posed as a baseball player) and photoshopped it. Look how cute!


And with a bat:


Isn't that killer? He loves it, and often asks to see the picture with the bat. I'm going to print it out to put in his room.

Cruise part three - our boys

I was worried before our cruise about my baby. Worried because he didn't sleep very well at night, he still nursed a few times a day, and he often was rather clingy to me. But I have an amazing mother-in-law. Saint Pauline I now call her. And I think I underestimated this baby. He quickly learned to love Nonna as his meal ticket, and she quickly sleep-trained him.

That's right, this 13-month-old now sleeps through the night. I. love. Pauline.

Here's my darling baby in the car Saturday night at the airport when we got back.



Here he is with daddy.


(For the record I took my pump on the cruise. He now nurses twice a day so we are still slowly weaning, my cute little baby!)


I shouldn't have worried about Andrew so much. I should have worried more about my four-year-old Benny boy. He missed us a lot. I heard rumors of some meltdowns and tears. He would tell me on the phone, "I'm still thinking about holding you."

Here we are reunited again:


I'm doing my hardest to spend some one-on-one time just with Benny every day, to help his behavior improve. He is the definition of a middle child.

Max did the best of all the boys. He was a good helper while we were gone, and I believe he would have been just fine if we were away 2 weeks. He often tells me Nonna is nicer. She took him to McDonald's afterall, and got him Costco pizza twice, and bought him a BeyBlade from Wal-mart (they are all the rage in his class).



I was so happy to see we didn't miss him losing a tooth! It happened Sunday while he and Benny were wrestling, and he ran up to show us.



I love that face!

Cruise part two

The Norwegian Epic had fantastic entertainment. Fantastic, I tell you! We saw Blue Man group one night, which was amazingly crazy. Then we went to The Second City comedy troupe the next night, and keep in mind on a cruise this is all for free. We loved The Second City so much, we went to 3 more of their improv/sketch shows during the week. I laughed so hard my cheek spasmed.

The Epic had Nickelodeon characters and activities on board for kids, so I thought my boys might like knowing I met a very large Dora. Hola!


JB played basketball a lot at the ship's court. One day a game was put together, shirts versus skins, and JB went up against a guy who was pretty tough -- serious about basketball, fought with JB over every rebound, etc.

Then, that night or the next night, we went to the show on board called "Legends," featuring a Steven Tyler, Lady Gaga, and Elvis impersonator. Guess who was the Elvis impersonator? Mr Basketball!



He recognized JB and said, "Hey, you're the guy I fouled the hell out of!"


Besides the fun on the ship, we also had ports. The ship went to St Martin, St Thomas, and Nassau Bahamas. In St Thomas JB and I took the ferry over to St John, one of our favorite places ever.


In St Martin we took the public bus for $2 (really a minivan) and went to Caho Beach, which is right by the airport. How close? Those are my knees, there's a plane coming in over the water.




And there's the plane overhead.




Here's JB in the ocean with a sailboat behind him.


I don't think we took any pictures in Nassau, but we had a nice time. We took the bus for $1.25 instead of an expensive taxi, went to the beach again, looked around the Straw Market, things like that.

Next post -- seeing our boys again, and how on earth could they grow so much in just a week?!