Lulabelle has a tooth. I know this is an incredible milestone, but her toothless smile is forever changed. I’m not sad, I’m happy…really, I am, but my BABY has a tooth. The boys were both 10 months old before they got their first teeth. Blake will be 6 months old next week. Why is she growing up so fast?

Not as lucky is Zeke…he has an ear infection. After being in much pain on Monday night I took him to the doctor yesterday. Only one ear is infected, but according to the doctor it is pretty ‘nasty’.

Max has a sore shoulder. We are still trying to decide if this is a real issue or not. But, if he is faking…he has kept the act up very well today and tonight. Maybe he is just sore from gymnastics yesterday…I guess time will tell!

This week I had the privelege of attending two assemblies at Max’s school. On Tuesday my dad and I joined Max for his Veteran’s Day Assembly. It was such an amazing assembly. I got teary eyed several times. As I get older I realize the price that has been paid and continues to be paid for our freedom. I am so proud of my daddy and all our soldiers! On Friday Max was awarded the ‘Cougar With Character’ award for his Kindergarten class. The whole family was there to see him receive his award and a bonus was that cousin Joseph received the award for his class! I can’t wait to share what his teach wrote…I should be receiving that from her next week. It was so precious. It was also pajama day at Max’s school, so of course Max was totally in to that!

Blake is getting lots of hair and I also purchased two darling crocheted hats for her…I’ll post pictures of her soon. She is such a happy little girl! She was up all night last night, which is odd, so I guess we’ll keep an eye on her ears this weekend.

Zeke is hilarious. He is both such a joy and such a struggle to me. You know the nursery rhyme about the boy with the curl in the middle of his forehead…when he was good, he was very, very good, but when he was bad… On Tuesday night Zeke loaded the dishwasher for me after dinner. He WANTED to. It made me so happy and it was so fun to watch him. Last night I was laughing hard listening to him talk to Jamie. Zeke was in the bathtub and Max had chosen not to take a bath. Zeke was VERY concerned about Max. We had pancakes with syrup for dinner and Zeke was telling Jamie about how he was so sticky and he was sure Max must take a bath because he was surely sticky too. My pumus stone had fallen into the bathtub and Zeke said, ‘What is that?’ Jamie told him it was mine to make my feet soft. Zeke, very seriously and sternly, said, ‘Get that out of my bathtub!’ Oh, Zeker. He was also up all night for whatever reason…torture we think.

Oh Zeke…he’s an interesting little guy. It’s 9:20 pm and he is showing no sign of going to bed. He is happy (yes, that’s right) and is working on a ‘project’ at the dining room table. He received some ’slime’ as a party favor today at a birthday party and he is putting different things in it. I would make him go to bed, but he slept for about 3 hours this afternoon and didn’t get up until close to 6:00 pm. He may outlast Jamie and me both! Max headed off to bed about 8:30. He announced he was ready for bed, brushed his teeth and went to his room. I read to him and he was ready to go to sleep. About 30 minutes ago Zeke said, ‘Where’s my Max? Is he hiding?’. I just had to smile that Zeke called him ‘My Max’. Pretty sweet.

Blake went back to the doctor yesterday. On ear is clear and the other has not improved much. So, she is on a stronger antibiotic that she is taking much better!

We’ve had a good weekend so far. We played ‘Turkey Bingo’ at Max’s school last night, went to a birthday party today, watched the Sooners play and also celebrated Popp’s birthday. It is supposed to get colder here in the next few days. I don’t know if we are ready…the weather has been so beautiful!

If you could, please pray for my sweet friend Bonnie and her husband Corey. They have two beautiful girls. She is pregnant with their third baby. She went in for her routine 20 week ultrasound and got some bad news. Their baby’s kidneys and bladder have not developed. The doctors do not think they will develop. With this news the prognosis is not good. They tell her the baby will die in her womb at some point in the pregnancy and if the baby does make it to full term, he/she will not live long after the birth. As you can imagine, this news is overwhelming. Please pray first and foremost for a miracle and for peace as they endure these next weeks and months. Our God is good and his plan is perfect no matter how it looks to us.

The boys had a great time Halloween night. We went to MeMe and Coach’s to trick or treat and have some dinner with the cousins. Then we headed to YaYa and Papa’s for more trick or treating and fun. They have a couple of houses in their area that decorate BIG TIME for Halloween. The boys thought it was fun and Zeke ate candy every step of the journey. Blake had gotten sick right before heading out for the evening, so she did not really enjoy her first trick or treating experience.

On Saturday morning Blake and I headed to Texas to see Chris and Shelly. We had a nice visit with them and Shelly’s family. Their shower was so nice…they are blessed and will be well taken care of by their church family. Blake did great. She only had one big throw up and it was also her last one! It was a quick weekend, but we are so thankful we got to go. The next time we see Chris and Shelly, they will have their sweet baby Selah. Jamie had a good time with the boys. They went to the museum to see the dinosaurs and the boys really liked it. I have some great pictures from Halloween and this weekend that I will post soon!

Thank goodness the boys have finished their rounds of antibiotics…we made room for Blake’s pink meds today. She continues to throw up…mostly snot. It’s gross and sad. I took her to the doctor this morning and both of her ears are infected. Her doctor says she is a tough girl! She is sleeping OK, (was) eating OK and isn’t running fever. But, her ears look bad. So…meds for her. She hates them. Tonight she let them run out of the sides of her mouth. Then she ate and threw up (I think) what she had gotten down.

We went to the pumpkin patch today. Blake did go in her stroller. We’ve been in since Saturday and I thought an outing would do her good. She LOVED the hayride and enjoyed being in the sun. It was a beautiful day. Tonight was Holy Halloween. Zeke wore his Batman costume…thank goodness and Max was an awesome Ben 10. Blake looked super sweet in her pumpkin costume, but it was obvious she did not feel well. Maybe everyone will feel good on Friday for Trick or Treating and we can get a picture of all of them, in costumes, together.

Blake and I are supposed to go to Texas this weekend with my parents for a shower for Chris and Shelly. Please pray we get to go. I am really looking forward to it. I need to stay healthy and we need Blake to be well.

And finally, for all you who like to check out other’s blogs…I have enjoyed this one so much, passed on to me by Maggie. You’ll have to go back and read the grim prognosis for baby Stellan (scroll down right of screen and you can see his profile), who was born today. He is doing great! And, check out his ‘name gallery’…it’s really fun! Please pray for him tonight!

We survived the week with YaYa and Papa gone. The boys missed going to their house, but we kept busy on our own. Not that we didn’t miss them very much, but they will be home in just a few hours! Yesterday was crazy hair day at school. I don’t know what it is about Max…although he seems to be shy and not much of a performer, he takes crazy hair day s-e-r-i-o-u-s-l-y. He chose blue and was anxiously waiting to leave the house at 7:45 am. Keep in mind all the other days I am saying ‘Come on, Max. We have to go…NOW’ at 8:00 am. Blake’s friend Shelby came over for a small ‘photo shoot’ in their ‘casual Halloween’ outfits. I’ll post pictures. They are so cute. Shelby was a good sport coming straight from her 6 month appointment…shots and all! Blake started throwing up around 3:00 this morning. She has not felt good all day, but now at 6:30 pm I am crossing my fingers that everything is staying down. She ate at 5:00 and I have not seen it again. And, she is peacefully sleeping. She has slept a lot today. Poor girl. I just now wonder who will get it next. Yuck…hopefully no one. So, I am home with the boys and girl while Jamie is at a super fun work function that we have both been looking forward to. Oh well. Jamie did run the boys to his work family fun night before he left. They had their faces painted and went down a big inflatable slide…pictures coming soon. Zeke came home and fell and busted the inside of his upper lip. Lots of blood and lots of crying. His painted spiderman face slowly ran all over the place and he passed out on the couch. So, that’s the good and bad of this week.

Update: 8:30…she is still throwing up. (sad)

We survived Fall Break! We managed to keep ourselves busy and the weather was beautiful. On Thursday we took lunch to Auntie (who is still recovering from knee surgery) and the boys some lunch. They were able to play outside for a bit and MeMe came over too. On Friday, my friend Melissa was in town and she brought her two boys over. Brooks and Max really hit it off. They both love superheroes. And, Zeke was sweet to her little guy Finley. I am so sad I did not take any pictures! But, since they had so much fun and they come to the city quite a bit, we are sure to set up some more playdates. On Saturday, Jamie went to the game with his brother, so we stayed home. We had another beautiful day and the cousins rode their bikes down to play. Auntie and Uncle Lance came over for the game and pizza. It was nice to have some company!

After church today, we went to lunch and then the boys went to the fire station. October is Fire Safety month, so for three Sundays in October, the fire stations are having open houses. The boys got to climb up in the truck and came home with all sorts of stickers and coloring books. Max is VERY excited to go back to school tomorrow. He said he really missed it. I am so glad he enjoys school. I am anxious for Zeke to go back too. He regressed a bit on the whole potty training thing. I am still being patient and know he will get it, but it is really not an enjoyable phase. Pray it all clicks SOON!

The boys got their flu shots on Monday. They did GREAT! They are such brave boys. Max was pretty dramatic about his sore arm for days, but I think finally he has forgotten about it. My friend’s husband who serves in the 45th National Infantry returned home on Tuesday… Heather’s Blog. I tried so hard to convince Max to miss gymnastics to ‘watch the soldiers come home’. He would not give. I thought it would be a really neat experience for him. However, after gymnastics when his arm was sooooooooo sore, he did say ‘I should have watched the soldiers come home’. I know one day he will grasp the amazing sacrifice these men and women make.

It is Fall Break here and we are trying to stay busy. We had lunch with the cousins today and will see some friends from Tulsa tomorrow. Max went to a movie with YaYa yesterday and Zeke got to play with cousin Hannah. Life seems to be happening so fast around us! Blake is such a mellow baby…she’s just along for the ride!

This week has been a blur. I don’t even remember what I did on Tuesday during the day. I know we had spaghetti for dinner… Wednesday we went to the Cowboy Hall of Fame. It has a more formal name now…The Western Heritage Museum, I think. The boys thought it was really fun. We visited the ‘Old Town’ where they put each other in jail. Blake had her picture made in front of ‘Blake’s Feed and Seed’. We visited the Kids Cowboy Corral and Zeke loved the puzzles there. I have pictures, of course. Mirka and Ana joined us which is always fun. And…Zeke went in big boy underwear! He is doing so great and staying dry. I am so proud of him. Of course, there are still some issues to work out (I’ll spare the details), but with a little time he’ll get it down. Thursday was crazy…CRAZY. But, it was a good day except for the fact that part of the craziness was being worked into the doctor’s office to find out that Max has a pretty bad ear infection. So, our refrigerator is now full of pink medicine for both boys!

Today slowed down…a little. But, I think the funniest part of the day was when Max got in the car after school and said, ‘Mom, did you see me sitting by Marlie?’. I replied, ‘No, I didn’t. I like Marlie.’ And then Max said, ‘I said to her, ‘Would you like to be my girlfriend?’ And, she said ‘Yes’!’ So…I guess Max has a girlfriend…she is pretty cute and pretty sweet. I’m calling her mother tomorrow.

The boys are spending the night at my parent’s. Blake went over for the evening. Jamie and I ran some errands and had dinner. It was really nice. Tomorrow is the big OU v. Texas game. It should be exciting to see No. 1 (us) and No. 5 go against each other. Should be a real game!

Zeke weighs 30 pounds and is 37 inches tall. He chose not to talk at the doctor’s office, but just kind of make sounds…high pitched, humming sounds. Weird. He is doing great except for the sinus infection he has. We got him some meds and hopefully he will be feeling better soon! And…as of 5:30…we have had a dry day!!

Our special, little Zeker turned 3 yesterday. Jamie ran ‘Race For the Cure’ yesterday morning and then we had a family trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Yep, that’s where Zeke wanted to eat for his birthday lunch. The boys had fun and they were absolutely worn out by last night. We watched the football game yesterday afternoon and I went to a wedding last night. Jamie said both the boys crashed on the couch before he could get them to bed. Zeke woke up around 11:15 crying that his ear hurt. After some Motrin, he went back to sleep. It was a day packed full of fun! Thankfully his well check up is tomorrow and we can get those ears checked too.

Today we dedicated Blake Lulabelle. She wore a beautiful gown that my mom made for her. She made it out of my wedding gown and it was just perfect. Pictures are coming soon. Unfortunately, I think her dedication may have looked more like a 3 ring circus. Blake cried…no screamed the majority of the time. Go figure…naptime! Zeke ran around. Christian held him for awhile, Uncle Lance held him for awhile. Max kept trying to just sit down because his ‘legs were tired’. Jamie and I tried to stay focused. But, it was still a special time for our family. We had a family lunch at my parent’s and then had Zeke’s birthday party. Poor Zeker fell asleep on the way to lunch, so we woke him up to have his party. He loves all his new stuff and both boys spent all afternoon playing with all of it.

Friday night we gave the boys their Halloween costumes. Max LOVES his Ben 10 costume. We are hoping it makes it to Halloween since he is wearing it every opportunity he has. Zeke does not like his Wall-E costume. We are sending it back tomorrow. Over and over he has been saying he wants to be Wall-E. Well, now it’s Batman…

Happy Birthday Zeke! You keep us busy…and a little crazy. We love you for who you are. You are really ’special’. You are smart and so, so funny.

Miss Lulabelle…today we dedicated you to our Heavenly Father. Your daddy and I did that the day you were born, but today it was a bit more public. We pray that you will grow up to love Jesus with all your heart. We pray that you will be kind and pure, obedient, loving and smart. You are such a joy to us!

Zeke had school today. When I picked him up his teachers were SO excited and SO proud of him. They had finally convinced him to wear his ‘Thomas’ underwear. I have been sending it in his backpack, but he always tells them he is ‘too tired’ to put it on. So, this morning when he told them he was too tired, they said, ‘Oh no you’re not!’. He stayed dry all day at school. He had a sign on his cubby boasting that he had a great potty training day and they also gave him a special treat. I left him in his undies when we got home and he remained accident free! After his bath I put on his pull up and put on his pajamas. We went through our normal bedtime routine. About 2 minutes after lights out he started yelling that he needed to go potty. Jamie told him to go and met him in the bathroom to assist. He managed to squeeze a little out and of course was very proud. As he was getting everything back on I started laughing so hard because I heard him say…very loudly…in his best grumpy Zeke voice, ‘Hey! I don’t wear diapers anymore. SHE put a diaper on me’. Ha! Jamie explained that at nighttime he would have to wear a pull up for a little while. I guess we are committed. We’ll go the underwear route from now on and see how it goes!

Blake was 4 months old on Saturday. Her well check was today and she is 25 inches long and 16 pounds! Goodness. She is a big girl. Her brothers were both 25 inches long at their 4 month check ups, but weighed just a little less. Max was 15 pounds 9 ounces and Zeke was an even 15. She got 3 shots and one oral vaccination. Boy…she was NOT happy…at all…lots of tears. My mom has been working hard on her dedication gown. It is going to be beautiful! It is really going to look like a mini version of my wedding dress.

We had a horrible night Friday night with Zeke. Max has had croup. Zeke has had croup. But, Friday night Zeke had croup like we had NEVER experienced. He was so scared, which made me so scared. We did everything we were supposed to do and after 10 minutes in the steamy bathroom he coughed up a whole bunch of stuff and was finally able to sleep after barking and crying for an hour. He only had one night of it and seems to be fine now. A little snotty, but fine. After missing two days of school last week, he will be going back tomorrow (smile).

Max is just Max. We ordered his ‘Ben 10′ Halloween costume. He is constantly moving and turning into aliens or superheroes. He asks about his flu shot everyday. I don’t think he is looking forward to it, but he knows it is coming! I told him about how brave sister was getting all her shots today, so maybe he will be just as brave (with fewer tears).

Please pay attention to the detail in the picture below. Note the argyle socks on his feet. And the sparkly, thermal socks on his arms.

What a week! Zeke missed two days of school due to a stomach bug. UGH. I’m praying the rest of us don’t get it. We had Max’s parent/teacher conference on Tuesday evening. It was good. He is right where he should be for this point in Kindergarten. We are proud of him. Lulabelle is rolling! She has been rolling onto her tummy for a few weeks, but now she has mastered back to front, front to back. The boys love ‘helping’ her roll across the floor. We had a garage sale last weekend and the boys sold a lot of their toys. So, tonight they got to go to Target and take their money and buy a NEW toy. It was quite exciting for them! I finally updated the September photo album. I was having some technical difficulties, but thankfully my computer behaved tonight. You will see a series of Blake with my wedding gown. My mom is making her ‘dedication dress’ out of my gown, so we snapped some pictures before cutting it up. Check them out! I do have some more pics to put up…maybe tommorrow. They should be titled the ‘Superhero Series’. Max is really into superheroes right now and he can do some pretty awesome poses!

Max and I went to church tonight. Jamie and the little ones stayed home. On the way home from church we prayed for Auntie. She is in Africa right now working in Tharaka at a clinic and speaking to women. And, of course her luggage was lost, so the trip was off to a frustrating start. After we finished praying, Max told me he does not want to go to Florida next summer, he wants to go to Africa. I asked him what he would do in Africa. His answer…’Fight Aliens’!