Mr. Gull's 4-month stats

Height: 25.5 inches
Weight: 14.5 pounds
Head: 16.25 inches

He's growing up way too fast for me - I know I hate when people tell you that, but I guess it's true. I'm trying to enjoy each day as it comes and goes. I won't have another little guy to enjoy...at least not until I'm a grandma. I love this guy's smile and the little laugh he's developing. I most love watching him watch his two big brothers and his dad. It just seems that he already thinks the world of them.

Mommy loves you, Alex!!

May I see your card, sir?

Every time I enter the doors at the local Costco, I am greeted by an employee asking to see my membership card, and every time I show them my card and grab a cart and wonder what yummy samples they are serving. I have started to wonder how soon this will all come to an end for me. Apparently, my husband doesn't believe in showing his card when he enters the doors at Costco.

A few weeks ago Mark and I went to Costco. As we entered the door, the man said, "Sir, do you have your card?" Mark simply answered in the affirmative. The man then said, "May I see your card, sir?" To which Mark basically ignored and loaded the boys in the cart and went on his way. At this point, I was a little paranoid that this guy was going to track us down in the store and MAKE us show him our membership card. Could he take our card away? Would our trips to Costco be coming to a traumatic halt?

We made it through unharmed, yet Mark continues to believe he is exempt from showing his card as he enters the store. He told me the other day the woman at the door said she was calling security on him. He is such a rebel. But then, why do you have to show your card as you go in? It's not like you can buy anything without a card anyway! Maybe Mark has a point.

I just know that the next time I go to Costco, I will automatically take out my card and flash it to the person standing there - my entrance through the Costco doors shall remain untainted, as long as I don't let Mark come with me!!!

Where are the keys?

I must be getting old, at least that's what I'm telling myself. I can no longer blame my forgetfulness on being pregnant. I think I rode that one for all it was worth, but really, I have to admit, I have a problem. If there was a Twelve-Step program for overcoming this, I would be the first to sign up. There's actually two parts to my problem and I would like to explain them both.

1- I just can't seem to keep track of my keys. Simple responsibility, I know, but I often find myself running around the house, searching for the keys. Poor Mark, he has to deal with this too. Whenever I take his car or borrow his church keys, chances are, they're not back in the drawer where they are suppose to be.

This morning it was time to take Ethan to school, and surprise, the keys were missing. I finally gave up looking for them and took the spare key so I could get my son to school on time. Then, low and behold, when Ethan opened the door, there were the keys, just hanging there in the lock - OUTSIDE. Now mind you, they had been there for over 15 hours - they had been there all night long - they had been there and ANYONE could have come right in our house - they had been there and I was all alone with my three little boys (Mark's out of town for work). I just had to thank the Lord for keeping us safe through the night and for helping us finally find the keys.

2- I hide things on purpose. I'm sure I'm not the only mom that does this. You know, hiding things so the kids won't find them, be it a Christmas present, chocolate chips or my sewing scissors, I have to hide things from my boys. They are amazing at finding things I don't want them to have. Aaron has told me many times, after finding something, "I found your hiding place mom, you can't trick me."

So when you add these two problems together, my forgetfulness and hiding things on purpose, the only thing you get is a disaster. Case in point, Ethan's Valentines!!! I helped the boys put their class valentines together on Tuesday. Aaron took his to preschool on Wednesday and that made it nice to have them all done for Ethan. Problem - a bag full of candy just sitting on top of the fridge for three days. Everything was fine until this morning when Aaron found the bag and helped himself to the candy for Ethan's class. Now there weren't enough treats for the whole class. I told him that wasn't too nice and took the bag. I then had to go back to the store to buy more candy for Ethan's class. I broke the news to Ethan and told him I got even better treats this time, so everything would be just fine. My only problem, I couldn't remember where I stashed the valentines and left over candy. Finally I told Ethan I wasn't sure what we were going to do. He said we should pray and ask for help. Of course, leave it to Ethan to come up with this plan. I reminded him that Heavenly Father might not be able to help us immediately, that I would have to think about it some more and maybe by the morning I would remember where the bag was. It wasn't but 2 or 3 minutes later that I thought of a place they might be that I hadn't checked. Sure enough, there they were. Problem solved, right?! at least until the next time Mindy tries to hide something from the boys or Mark needs his car keys.

"Living the Good Life"

Who said it? Yes, that would be our crazy Aaron. He's one of a kind. I missed posting anything on this guy's birthday. I guess I won't try and make any lame excuses, we still love you, Aaron!! You have such a great love of life and you bring so much happiness to everyone around you. I love (well most of the time) how you like to make others laugh. Happy 5th Birthday to my little "Ground Hog Baby."

Course 2 Graduate

Luckily I wasn't graded on my work, otherwise I most likely wouldn't have passed. I learned alot, had a fun time, and met some rather nice ladies. Here is a pic of the cake I created for my final class. We learned the basket weave and had to top the cake with all the flowers we were taught during the course. I had to be a little rebelious and made a color flow lady bug instead of the bird they have you make in the Wilton book. My next adventure, cookie decorating.

Black Eye Girl

It's taken me forever, but I finally downloaded some photos from my camera. With the computer upgrades, I haven't been all together in the computer area. But, here they are, some funny pics of Mindy the Bruiser...


February 1 - Night of the Super Bowl and Round 1 of Mom vs. The Crusher.


February 2 - Mindy and her "purple eye liner"


February 3 - It just kept getting more and more colorful. I think it was the next night that Mark thought it looked the best, but I didn't take any picture. My eye is still a little bruised, but it's looking much better. I'm starting to wonder when this glue is going to come off.

Super Bowl Party Gone Bad

We really didn't have a Super Bowl party, but every Sunday here we get to experience some of the same hard hits and tackles they have in the NFL. My boys love to "tickle," at least that's what they call it -- what it really is is WWF. I've tried to stay clear of any pillow fight or wrestling they engage in, especially when I was pregnant. Now that Alex is here, I just say, I've got the baby and can't play with you guys.
So Sunday night, like clockwork, the boys began their regular routine of playing with dad. I thought to myself, (and now I'm wondering where this thought came from) if I tackle Mark and start kissing him, maybe they'll leave him alone. I think I really just wanted to try and put some moves on my husband. I pushed him down on the couch and was about to kiss him, when the CRUSHER, (that's what Aaron has named himself when they wrestle) tried to get in the middle of things. Not sure how or what, all I know is that my head sure hurt and I started crying. I was holding the side of my face when I realized I was bleeding. I assume my glasses meeting Aaron's head had to be the culprit...I had about a 3/4 inch cut on the side of my eye. Once we got things cleaned up I debated whether or not to go to Instacare and ask about stitches. Long story short, because this is already too long...we put the boys to bed and had a neighbor kid stay with them while Mark took me to the doctor. The doctor said he could glue it shut, and I think he did a pretty good job. I just didn't want to have a bad looking scar at the corner of my eye. Heaven knows I'm going to have enough wrinkles there soon enough. I also had to get a tetanus shot. So when my head finally stopped throbbing, it was my arm that started hurting.
Now, I'm just bruised - from my black eye to my arm. I'm looking pretty sad. You can all feel sorry for me. I'll take your sympathy.

Upgrading...

We recently upgraded our computer and monitor. I went from a 17 1/2 inch monitor to a 19 inch monitor. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but let me explain. That's not 17 1/2 inches wide in the viewing angle, but 17 1/2 inches deep. You know, one of those monitors from the dark ages. It makes me laugh to look at the old monitor and compare it to our new ones. Yes, that's plural. We have two monitors. Mark says I'll never want to go back to one monitor. I'm still just getting used to how much space I have on one monitor compared to my old one.
So for now, I still don't have everything loaded on my new system and things in the office are all a mess. I'm really behind on posting somethings that I thought were blog worthy, if there is such a thing. I'll have to post now and add photos later, when I can...