Date Night with Dinner and Groucho

Holly and I earned our date night last night.  I say earned because as excellent parents and upstanding citizens we always work hard, so we deserve to play hard, at least play as hard as two folks with 3.4 kids without a baby sitter can do these days.

My unfortunate job to administer
for the past two weeks...

I finished a culmination of two weeks of administering state exams at work and Holly has been busy with her BumGenius Cloth diaper page and putting up with Anderson still climbing onto the dinning room table to swing on the light fixture each half hour.

Holly first went out to a baptism of a child in the ward and then to a Relief Society activity.  I stayed home with the boys and fed them dinner.  Admittedly, as usual, I got caught up in some internet chess games, and when I resurfaced I found the boys upstairs in the playroom laughing in the middle of a pile of toys. We cleaned up (some) and I put them to bed.  Holly came home soon after with dinner for date night.

She brought Fajita Grill nachos for both of us.  We enjoyed those while we watched an episode of You Bet Your Life on Netflix, a game show with Groucho Marx from the 1950s.  We then continued the Groucho Marx theme and watched Duck Soup.  This was when I opened all the other gooides Holly brought, including a bag of shrimp, pistachios, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and some new Canadian Dry 10 Ginger-Ale.

Duck Soup (1933)

We got a kick out of Duck Soup and went to bed.  Holly's favorite line: "We need some of those metal things that go up and down like this?" "Tanks?" "You're welcome."  My favorite line: "I outta join a club and beat you with it."  Classic.

How can I help you say goodbye...

Parker had to say goodbye to his closest friend so far. Mason and the rest of the Lystrup family are moving clear across the country. Baldwinsville, NY to Pasco, WA. 

Parker is heartbroken. They left last Friday for their travels and should be arriving to WA soon. 

I don't think I can put into words without crying how much Mason has affected Parker. From the first time they played, Mason (even though he is a couple years older) took Parker under his wing. He introduced him to Lego Star Wars which is now Parker's very favorite thing. Parker introduced Mason to chess and got him his very own and first chess set. They always played great together: never fighting, and just plain having fun. I am grateful that Parker's first 'best friend' was such a great little boy. Mason has a really big heart and he is just the sweetest kid. Mason, thank you for being such a great example and friend to Parker. He will really miss you. 

Here is the dynamic duo at their last playdate. (notice the nerf guns)

Parker was wearing a Syracuse lacrosse shirt and Mason said he had one like it- and went to put it on so they could match. 

Mason: "Is this the last time I will see Parker?"

Me: "Yes, for a while anyway" 

Mason: "Oh. That sucks."

Me: "Yes, it really does."

News Flash

On February 14, 2013... we received the best news. Baby4 would be joining our family. I had flashbacks to the Valentine's Day I found out I was pregnant with what would be Parker. :) I was overwhelmed with joy. I am so blessed. I decided that we would wait to call the dr/schedule an appointment until I was about 8-9 weeks and we would tell the world sometime after that.

My first appointment was 03/26/13 ( 9w5d but baby measured 10w). It was supposed to be an internal sono but she couldn't see a thing. My uterus was way too high to see that way. Belly sono it was-- Everything looked great and baby had a strong heartbeat of 170. We decided we would tell family on Easter and luckily it was only a couple more days away.

On 3/30/2013, Easter morning, I told my family by getting these pretty flowers for my mom's Easter table. "Love your 5 Grandbabies" (Parker, Carter, Anderson, Annabelle, and newest baby Steffen)

Mom was shocked.

We posted it to Facebook on April Fool's day while sitting in Cafe Rio. :)

 My next appointment was 04/16/2013 and it was just the first ob visit. Pap, bloodwork, etc.... The PA was trying to find the heartbeat with the doppler (she was way too low) and she sent me for a sono stat.

The sonographer told me last time that my uterus was really high and this time she said "Woah, your uterus is huge! I wouldn't be surprised it your belly measures ahead for the whole pregnancy". As soon as she put the thing on my belly, I saw a wiggly baby... arms and legs flying about. It is amazing how it went from a little gummy bear to a baby in a couple short weeks.

This time baby measured 13w 5d (when my lmp dd I am 12w 5d) so who knows what they will do with my due date. I still think my DD based on lmp should be 10/24/13 but we'll see.

Heartbeat was a strong 158bpm.

my budding artist/writer

Parker drew a picture the other day and put it on top of the tv for the whole family to see and admire. It is a "skyscraper" and "our house". I asked him what he wrote on our house. "We love everybody," he said. Right on, little man, right on. 

So proud of my boy. 

When we went to the Strong Museum of Play on Friday-- Parker's favorite part was the mail room. He loved writing mail!! 

 This is Anderson with his Mail from Parker.

"I don't like girl stuff" is what he wrote on these. HAHA I love his smirk in this photo. Captures his personality for sure.

Museum of Play

While dad was at a meeting all day at work, Holly took the boys to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester.  There, they met up with Aunt Heather.  The highlight of the trip was of course Lego Land, a new exhibit Parker and Carter have been asking to go to.

Parker in the Lego Car

Carter in the Lego Car

Anderson in his less exciting-- stroller

Puzzles!

Holly and I have a fistful of things in common but a whole lot of things not in common.  One of them is that I love to do jugsaw puzzles while Holly thinks its a waste of time.  I see her point, I mean, it's just putting a piece of cardboard together.  But I have always really enjoyed it.

I bought this puzzle way back in 2009.  It's a simple 300 piece one, but it has an autumn theme and I really like autumn themed puzzles for some reason.  After putting the boys up to bed last night, I brought it down from the attic and dumped it out on the table.  56 minutes later, it was all together!

What was great about it was Parker and Carter kept coming down to observe the construction.  Each time they saw the progress I had made, they had wonderful comments to say like, "WOW DAD!  You are so fast!"  I asked Carter if he could do it and he said, "No, because I am small."  I asked if he thought if I could finish the puzzle and he said, "Yeah, because you are big!"  It made me feel like a champ.

Each time I do this puzzle I flip it over and write a note on the back.  So the log for this puzzle is...

First  9.19.09 Brian

Second 2.11.11. Brian and Holly New Window Day
Third 9.24.11 Brian and Parker
Fourth 3.4.13 Brian 56 min

Doing this puzzle of course set off my puzzle kick again.  So I dug out a 2,000 piece puzzle my brother Matt gave me for Christmas a few years back.  I set up a table in the basement inside my soda can collecting room and set to work.  I had picked at the puzzle before and sorted a lot of pieces, but now I was able to spread it all out and get working.  Hopefully, I will finish it before I get sidetracked from puzzles again.

The 2,000 Piece Project 

KPS Carnival

On Friday went to the carnival at Parker's elementary school.  They had pizza, cotton candy, carnival games, and prizes!  Carter even won a stuffed animal after winning a tricky ball-catch game.  It was a great family outing!

Carter enjoying the pizza at the carnival.

Anderson trying cotton candy for the first time.

Parker and Carter trying their luck at the pick a duck game.

Afterwards, Holly and I had a nice date night with take out subs from Garafalos and Girl Scout Cookies.