Hi everyone!
I've (pretty much) set up the new blog. From now on my posts will be made at www.thewallacepack.com. Don't forget to update your RSS or bookmark!
I have included a page with links to various picture, video and social media sites. I'll add more as I get around to finding them all...
Also I added a widget so that you can subscribe to the posts by email. Look for it on the right side of the page.
I will keep this page up for a few months and then delete it. All of the posts on here will already be on the new site, don't worry!
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sean's Turn for the Tooth Fairy
He's obviously nonchalant.
After a long hard fight, Sean's first tooth fell out last night. Rich went to give it a tug with a napkin right before bed, and Sean pulled back and started a retreat, but it was too late. Rich had the little tooth and Sean didn't even notice that it was gone. Sean's response after Rich showed it to him (when he finally stopped jumping up and down while shrieking) was to say "YEAH BABY!" He was very excited this morning when he got his loot from the tooth fairy.
From my Facebook today:
Sean says "Daddy, what's your favorite color?" Daddy says "I like red and blue equally." After a brief pause Sean says "OK, so you like purple?" He's a funny little guy.
He's been full of little quirks lately. Last week we had spaghetti for dinner one night. We were halfway done and Sean just smashed his face down into the plate of spaghetti. He kept it there for a couple seconds while I picked my jaw up off of the floor. Finally I told him to get his face off of his plate and go wash it off. I somehow managed to keep a straight face until he left the room. Of course he doesn't know why he did it.
I'm trying to transfer this blog over to another account but I'm having problems with blogger uploading my old blog. In any case, I'm going to redesign it and I'm going to try to do a weekly recap type thing so as to better keep up on here. I'll keep you guys updated if the blog address changes.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Picture Time
Sean in Daddy's Office
Quin playing with his dinosaur.
Evie at the Zoo on Ryan's 2nd Grade Field Trip
Sean and Evie at the Zoo on Ryan's 2nd Grade Field Trip.
Evie's 3rd Birthday Party - Tangled Cake
Camping 2011 - Catching Crawdads in the Creek.
Camping 2011 - Evie's Perpetually Dirty Face.
Camping 2011 - Sean and Evie Mugging for the Camera.
Summer 2011 - Evie and Ryan Running Around Like Maniacs. Notice Ryan's "Bald on Top" Haircut...
Brushing Teeth Getting Ready For School - August 10, 2011
Ryan - August 10, 2011 - 3rd Grade
Sean - August 10, 2011 - Kindergarten
Evie - August 10, 2011 - Preschool
Ryan, Sean and Evie - First Day of School 2011
Sean & Ryan walking to the bus stop, first day of school 2011.
Sean at School - First Day of Kindergarten
Evie in her Preschool Classroom - First Day of School 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
End of Summer 2011
What an exciting summer we had this year! We had camping, cooking days, craft days, lots of library days, movie days, and game days. The kids all played together well (for the most part), everyone had a ball in their swimming classes, too. Ryan graduated to Level 5 for next year, which is the highest level the swim lessons go to, Sean will be in Level 3 next year and Evie is an Otter. Quin loved his swim lessons too, and although he was usually one of the youngest in his class and can't even really walk yet he was an expert at climbing out of the pool at the edge. I had other parents with older babies ogle us when he just shimmied his little tush out of the pool like it was no big deal while their kids were flopping around getting nowhere.
We had a great time when Grandma Hoppe, Aunt Heather and "Uncle" Tyler came to visit. The kids loved the extra attention and extra energy they provided! They still talk about them all the time. Evie saw a shirt in my closet the other day and said "Hey, that's Uncle Tyler's shirt." I said "No, it's mine." She said "NO. It's his." She simply wouldn't believe me. It was a tie dye shirt I had picked up a couple weeks back. Apparently tie dye will always be associated with Tyler now (I suppose because he wore tie dye about every other day while he was here...)
We have had some monster monsoon dust storms, some really good monsoon rainstorms and loads and loads of scorpions in the house. Quin has been stung twice, once on his foot in the master bath (with a trip to the ER after) and once in his crib while he was sleeping at night (no ER needed, thankfully). We've done everything we can to keep them out, from sealing the cracks in the house and surrounding the house with diatomaceous earth, to getting a new monthly pest control service and putting the legs of his crib in glass containers. I suppose we will have to just hope the cooler weather gets here soon so they will start to hibernate. Maybe we should get a cat. I hear they like to eat the scorpions.
Quin is making great strides toward becoming a toddler. He's off the binky and the bottle. He recently has sprouted at least 3 new teeth (he's only had the bottom middle two since he was 6 months old). There might be more coming in but when we try to look he tends to try to crush our fingers with his new little chompers. Apparently he thinks we have no business sticking our fingers in his mouth. He also took his first steps the day before yesterday. Just a quick walk a couple of feet over to me, but he was so happy and excited that he did it. He's been pushing his little ride-on Cars car all over the house. He even pushes Evie around on it.
Miss Evie has taken to dancing for us a lot lately. She even sings her own music. It is terribly cute to watch, even if her dancing is interrupted by gales of her giggles between sets. She is positive that she is the funniest thing around! She is getting good at drawing pictures - you can actually identify the drawings as being of people now, not just a bunch of scribbles. But man, oh man can she make a mess. Between her and Sean the house gets wrecked in just a few minutes after I clean up. Fortunately there's a solution - school!
Sean. Oh Sean. That kid says the funniest things. I really need to start writing them down right away, because sometimes I swear I'm talking to a teenager when I talk with him. He really takes sarcasm well - although sometimes he can't tell if we are joking or not, he pretty much just assumes we are when we tell him something outlandish. If we are being serious we have to tell him several times that we really are serious, and even then he keeps a skeptical eye on us. Also he is very good at drawing conclusions and making observations. His logic skills impress me on a regular basis. He is going to really do great in school.
And lastly there's Ryan. He's still my sensitive little guy. When he's happy he's REALLY happy. Do you know how many times he's said "This is the Best. Day. EVER!"? Almost every day. Yet when something goes even the littlest bit wrong he's raining tears. Like today we were playing a round of miniature golf at the waterpark and his ball got stuck in a dragon head on one of the holes. The instant my ball came out and his hadn't come out yet, he got all anxious and the waterworks were coming. So I threw my ball back into the dragon head to try and knock his ball out, but that didn't work and he got even more upset. The whole time I was calm and telling him that we can just go and ask for a new ball if we can't get his out, but he didn't want to listen. Finally I bonked my putter around in the dragon head until I knocked his ball loose and he was instantly fine again. Ugh. And man, does that kid hold a grudge. But he really kicks my butt at racing games in the arcade! I don't stand a chance against him when he grows up. He also reads like there's no tomorrow. I told him that this last time we went to the library he could check out as many books as he wanted and he was jumping up and down and squealing as though I had told him he could have one scoop of every flavor of ice cream in the ice cream shop. He has become very helpful around the house as well. Not very willingly, but he's capable of doing so many different things now. It's neat seeing him evolve into such an independent young fellow.
The kids have been playing Cars 2 on the PS3 for half the summer. Ryan is getting dangerously close to being able to regularly beat Rich at that game. It's crazy how good he is at it. It's not like the kids get to play it all day long - they get to play maybe once or twice a week for a half hour to an hour. Ryan sometimes also plays after Sean and Evie go to bed, too. But they are all very good at it. I, however, struggle with the game. It requires you to push the gas button, steer, jump around and shoot lasers and whatnot, etc, and I just can't control that many movements with my fingers at the same time. Rich says it's painful for him to watch me play. I truly suck at it. Ah well.
Today was the End of the Summer Super Happy Do Fun Stuff Day. We had the kids' back to school breakfast at IHOP, went shoe shopping for new tennies for the kiddos, had lunch at Chick-fil-a, and then I took Ryan to the waterpark while Rich took Sean and Evie to Makutu's Island to play. Ryan was extremely excited to go to the waterpark, he's been asking all summer to go there and we kept saying no since his siblings are really too young to be able to have much fun there yet, but I thought it would be a nice treat to take him alone. We rode on every single water slide (he did a some a couple times). I even dragged the outrageously large and heavy 4 person rafts up 6 flights of stairs by myself so we could go on the really big rides. It was extremely tiring and at the same time wonderfully awesome. My knees are going to be screaming tomorrow, though. Evie, Sean and Daddy had a great time at Makutu's as well. Rich followed Evie around all the tubes and everyone went down the banana slide about a billion times from what I hear. Rich says the kids had giant smiles plastered all over their faces the whole time. When I got home from the waterpark with Ryan, I went in to kiss Evie good night. I asked her if she had a good time at Makutu's and she said "Yeah, well not really." Drama Queen.
Tomorrow three out of my four kids will be attending school. Ryan will be a third grader, Sean in kindergarten and Evie in preschool. We are going to drop the boys off at the bus stop and then drive over to their school so we can escort Sean to Kindergarten. It's important that he knows how to ride the bus and that he rides the first day, but we want to help him to his class and see his excitement about it, too! Ryan is cool as a cucumber - this whole "back to school" thing is so no big deal to him. So after we make sure Sean is safe and sound in K we'll take Evie to her preschool class. That should prove to be very exciting as well!
We have survived another summer.
We had a great time when Grandma Hoppe, Aunt Heather and "Uncle" Tyler came to visit. The kids loved the extra attention and extra energy they provided! They still talk about them all the time. Evie saw a shirt in my closet the other day and said "Hey, that's Uncle Tyler's shirt." I said "No, it's mine." She said "NO. It's his." She simply wouldn't believe me. It was a tie dye shirt I had picked up a couple weeks back. Apparently tie dye will always be associated with Tyler now (I suppose because he wore tie dye about every other day while he was here...)
We have had some monster monsoon dust storms, some really good monsoon rainstorms and loads and loads of scorpions in the house. Quin has been stung twice, once on his foot in the master bath (with a trip to the ER after) and once in his crib while he was sleeping at night (no ER needed, thankfully). We've done everything we can to keep them out, from sealing the cracks in the house and surrounding the house with diatomaceous earth, to getting a new monthly pest control service and putting the legs of his crib in glass containers. I suppose we will have to just hope the cooler weather gets here soon so they will start to hibernate. Maybe we should get a cat. I hear they like to eat the scorpions.
Quin is making great strides toward becoming a toddler. He's off the binky and the bottle. He recently has sprouted at least 3 new teeth (he's only had the bottom middle two since he was 6 months old). There might be more coming in but when we try to look he tends to try to crush our fingers with his new little chompers. Apparently he thinks we have no business sticking our fingers in his mouth. He also took his first steps the day before yesterday. Just a quick walk a couple of feet over to me, but he was so happy and excited that he did it. He's been pushing his little ride-on Cars car all over the house. He even pushes Evie around on it.
Miss Evie has taken to dancing for us a lot lately. She even sings her own music. It is terribly cute to watch, even if her dancing is interrupted by gales of her giggles between sets. She is positive that she is the funniest thing around! She is getting good at drawing pictures - you can actually identify the drawings as being of people now, not just a bunch of scribbles. But man, oh man can she make a mess. Between her and Sean the house gets wrecked in just a few minutes after I clean up. Fortunately there's a solution - school!
Sean. Oh Sean. That kid says the funniest things. I really need to start writing them down right away, because sometimes I swear I'm talking to a teenager when I talk with him. He really takes sarcasm well - although sometimes he can't tell if we are joking or not, he pretty much just assumes we are when we tell him something outlandish. If we are being serious we have to tell him several times that we really are serious, and even then he keeps a skeptical eye on us. Also he is very good at drawing conclusions and making observations. His logic skills impress me on a regular basis. He is going to really do great in school.
And lastly there's Ryan. He's still my sensitive little guy. When he's happy he's REALLY happy. Do you know how many times he's said "This is the Best. Day. EVER!"? Almost every day. Yet when something goes even the littlest bit wrong he's raining tears. Like today we were playing a round of miniature golf at the waterpark and his ball got stuck in a dragon head on one of the holes. The instant my ball came out and his hadn't come out yet, he got all anxious and the waterworks were coming. So I threw my ball back into the dragon head to try and knock his ball out, but that didn't work and he got even more upset. The whole time I was calm and telling him that we can just go and ask for a new ball if we can't get his out, but he didn't want to listen. Finally I bonked my putter around in the dragon head until I knocked his ball loose and he was instantly fine again. Ugh. And man, does that kid hold a grudge. But he really kicks my butt at racing games in the arcade! I don't stand a chance against him when he grows up. He also reads like there's no tomorrow. I told him that this last time we went to the library he could check out as many books as he wanted and he was jumping up and down and squealing as though I had told him he could have one scoop of every flavor of ice cream in the ice cream shop. He has become very helpful around the house as well. Not very willingly, but he's capable of doing so many different things now. It's neat seeing him evolve into such an independent young fellow.
The kids have been playing Cars 2 on the PS3 for half the summer. Ryan is getting dangerously close to being able to regularly beat Rich at that game. It's crazy how good he is at it. It's not like the kids get to play it all day long - they get to play maybe once or twice a week for a half hour to an hour. Ryan sometimes also plays after Sean and Evie go to bed, too. But they are all very good at it. I, however, struggle with the game. It requires you to push the gas button, steer, jump around and shoot lasers and whatnot, etc, and I just can't control that many movements with my fingers at the same time. Rich says it's painful for him to watch me play. I truly suck at it. Ah well.
Today was the End of the Summer Super Happy Do Fun Stuff Day. We had the kids' back to school breakfast at IHOP, went shoe shopping for new tennies for the kiddos, had lunch at Chick-fil-a, and then I took Ryan to the waterpark while Rich took Sean and Evie to Makutu's Island to play. Ryan was extremely excited to go to the waterpark, he's been asking all summer to go there and we kept saying no since his siblings are really too young to be able to have much fun there yet, but I thought it would be a nice treat to take him alone. We rode on every single water slide (he did a some a couple times). I even dragged the outrageously large and heavy 4 person rafts up 6 flights of stairs by myself so we could go on the really big rides. It was extremely tiring and at the same time wonderfully awesome. My knees are going to be screaming tomorrow, though. Evie, Sean and Daddy had a great time at Makutu's as well. Rich followed Evie around all the tubes and everyone went down the banana slide about a billion times from what I hear. Rich says the kids had giant smiles plastered all over their faces the whole time. When I got home from the waterpark with Ryan, I went in to kiss Evie good night. I asked her if she had a good time at Makutu's and she said "Yeah, well not really." Drama Queen.
Tomorrow three out of my four kids will be attending school. Ryan will be a third grader, Sean in kindergarten and Evie in preschool. We are going to drop the boys off at the bus stop and then drive over to their school so we can escort Sean to Kindergarten. It's important that he knows how to ride the bus and that he rides the first day, but we want to help him to his class and see his excitement about it, too! Ryan is cool as a cucumber - this whole "back to school" thing is so no big deal to him. So after we make sure Sean is safe and sound in K we'll take Evie to her preschool class. That should prove to be very exciting as well!
We have survived another summer.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Evie's Birthday
We had Evie's 3rd Birthday party this afternoon. Only one cousin came - others were sick or had prior engagements, but Evie had a good time with her pool party nonetheless. I was disappointed that the play kitchen I ordered her didn't arrive in time for her party, but they promise it will be here before we leave for camping. Wouldn't it just be a kicker if it is delivered the day before we leave and the poor thing won't get to play with it until we get back?
The first full week of summer vacation has gone well. I've made a schedule for the kids so they have something to look forward to every day - Monday is crafts, Tuesday is cooking, Wednesday is movie day, Thursday is game day and Friday is library day. So far it has been a big hit, although they saw the craft things that I bought and they want to do all the crafts ASAP. I guess patience will be one of the lessons they learn this summer.
We've also started swimming lessons again. I should have enrolled Ryan in the next level up from what I did - he's a great swimmer already and he's bored to death in his class. Sean is making great strides in his class. Evie is stuck in a parent-tot class because her birthday was one day after the cutoff for the class for her to swim without a parent, and she would rather play around than do the baby stuff in the parent-tot class. However Quin thinks the parent-tot class is super-totally-awesome. He absolutely loves it.
I haven't been feeling too creative lately. It's hard to think of anything to blog about. I have the urge to write - not only on the blog but to just write in general for my own amusement, however nothing comes. No ideas. Nothing that seems worth putting the time into, anyway. Part of the problem is lack of quiet thinking time as well, I think. Par for the course with having 4 young kids in the house, naturally. Meh.
The first full week of summer vacation has gone well. I've made a schedule for the kids so they have something to look forward to every day - Monday is crafts, Tuesday is cooking, Wednesday is movie day, Thursday is game day and Friday is library day. So far it has been a big hit, although they saw the craft things that I bought and they want to do all the crafts ASAP. I guess patience will be one of the lessons they learn this summer.
We've also started swimming lessons again. I should have enrolled Ryan in the next level up from what I did - he's a great swimmer already and he's bored to death in his class. Sean is making great strides in his class. Evie is stuck in a parent-tot class because her birthday was one day after the cutoff for the class for her to swim without a parent, and she would rather play around than do the baby stuff in the parent-tot class. However Quin thinks the parent-tot class is super-totally-awesome. He absolutely loves it.
I haven't been feeling too creative lately. It's hard to think of anything to blog about. I have the urge to write - not only on the blog but to just write in general for my own amusement, however nothing comes. No ideas. Nothing that seems worth putting the time into, anyway. Part of the problem is lack of quiet thinking time as well, I think. Par for the course with having 4 young kids in the house, naturally. Meh.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Another Last Day of School...
Today was Ryan's last day of Second Grade. Next year he will be a 3rd Grader. Whaaaaa? Almost halfway through grade school already?
So next year Ryan will be 3rd Grade, Sean will be a Kindergardener and Evie is going into Preschool 3 days a week. Amazing.
Ryan got all A's all year long. It was close in Math this last quarter, though. He pulled it off with a 90. We went out to Olive Garden for his celebratory dinner.
This week Rich finished up making a bike ramp for the boys. Just a simple little jump ramp. Ryan and Sean were all over it the past few days. This evening, however, we had our first wipeout. Ryan went off the ramp, landed wobbly and crashed hard. He scraped up an elbow and smashed up his knuckles. I patched him up (poor guy was wailing the whole time) and we went back outside. Then he said that today was "The worst last day of school ever!"
He continued wailing until we found a toad (the same one that attacked me in the garage last night, I think) in the dirt next to our fence. That kept him busy for a couple of minutes, but once the interest in that waned he continued the crying spree. He was very angry, he even decided he didn't want to go with us when we went for a run/bike ride tonight. He's still sulking even now. I'm wondering how long he will avoid his bike and the ramp.
So next year Ryan will be 3rd Grade, Sean will be a Kindergardener and Evie is going into Preschool 3 days a week. Amazing.
Ryan got all A's all year long. It was close in Math this last quarter, though. He pulled it off with a 90. We went out to Olive Garden for his celebratory dinner.
This week Rich finished up making a bike ramp for the boys. Just a simple little jump ramp. Ryan and Sean were all over it the past few days. This evening, however, we had our first wipeout. Ryan went off the ramp, landed wobbly and crashed hard. He scraped up an elbow and smashed up his knuckles. I patched him up (poor guy was wailing the whole time) and we went back outside. Then he said that today was "The worst last day of school ever!"
He continued wailing until we found a toad (the same one that attacked me in the garage last night, I think) in the dirt next to our fence. That kept him busy for a couple of minutes, but once the interest in that waned he continued the crying spree. He was very angry, he even decided he didn't want to go with us when we went for a run/bike ride tonight. He's still sulking even now. I'm wondering how long he will avoid his bike and the ramp.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
My oh May
Next month is going to be so busy. Rich will be in San Francisco for a week (boooo!), Aunts Kris & Dee will be visiting for a week (yay!), then I get to go on my solo R & R vacation in San Diego for a few days (don't wake me until noon). A few days after I get back will be Ryan's last day of school. I'm not sure what happened there - I could swear we just went to 2nd grade Open House and now all of a sudden it's the end of the year. Must've been a time warp or something.
We've started letting Ryan stay up an hour later than the other kids. He was absolutely floored with happiness when I told him that we would let him have a later bedtime. The others weren't so happy, but they'll have their turns soon enough. Rich got a new game - Portal 2 for the PS3, and Ryan has been having a great time playing that after the others go to bed. Sean is very jealous - he likes to watch when Rich and Ryan play games - but he's stuck in bed. Poor little guy.
Quin just had his 9 month old well visit with the pediatrician. He's in th 75th percentile for height, 25th for weight. Which is weird since when it's meal time he eats like it's going out of style. Evie was the same way, tall and skinny. I suppose that's a good thing, although Quin doesn't look as skinny as Evie did. Anyway, he's healthy as a horse. He pulls himself up to standing whenever possible and is slowly starting to cruise around using the furniture. Since I weaned him he's finally started to sleep through the night, but he still likes to wake up early - sometimes 5, sometimes 6am. At least we're making progress and I'm finally getting some solid sleep again!
Duke is doing great. He's still quite skittish in situations that he's unfamiliar with, but he's starting to get a hold on the rules. He and Evie are doing better - she's finally stopped shrieking and running every time he approaches her. She still freaks out at times when he jumps on her, but I can't really blame her for that.
We've had a heck of a time keeping ducks out of our pool. Those little fellas are quite persistent. Rich and the kids throw tennis balls at them whenever we notice them out there, but they keep coming back. We went looking for a deterrent at the pool store and the salesperson recommended a shotgun. Nice.
I took Quin into the pool for the first time today. The other kids and I were going to swim so I put Quin in his bouncy seat on the patio to watch. I managed to have a few minutes of swimming before Quin started complaining about his situation. Since I wasn't ready to get out of the pool I decided to see how Quin would react to being in the pool. At first he screamed his head off like I was submerging him in lava, but after a minute or two he calmed down, then after a few more minutes he was splashing around and kicking his legs while I held him. I'm glad he enjoyed it since I'm pretty sure we will be in that pool every day this summer.
We've started letting Ryan stay up an hour later than the other kids. He was absolutely floored with happiness when I told him that we would let him have a later bedtime. The others weren't so happy, but they'll have their turns soon enough. Rich got a new game - Portal 2 for the PS3, and Ryan has been having a great time playing that after the others go to bed. Sean is very jealous - he likes to watch when Rich and Ryan play games - but he's stuck in bed. Poor little guy.
Quin just had his 9 month old well visit with the pediatrician. He's in th 75th percentile for height, 25th for weight. Which is weird since when it's meal time he eats like it's going out of style. Evie was the same way, tall and skinny. I suppose that's a good thing, although Quin doesn't look as skinny as Evie did. Anyway, he's healthy as a horse. He pulls himself up to standing whenever possible and is slowly starting to cruise around using the furniture. Since I weaned him he's finally started to sleep through the night, but he still likes to wake up early - sometimes 5, sometimes 6am. At least we're making progress and I'm finally getting some solid sleep again!
Duke is doing great. He's still quite skittish in situations that he's unfamiliar with, but he's starting to get a hold on the rules. He and Evie are doing better - she's finally stopped shrieking and running every time he approaches her. She still freaks out at times when he jumps on her, but I can't really blame her for that.
We've had a heck of a time keeping ducks out of our pool. Those little fellas are quite persistent. Rich and the kids throw tennis balls at them whenever we notice them out there, but they keep coming back. We went looking for a deterrent at the pool store and the salesperson recommended a shotgun. Nice.
I took Quin into the pool for the first time today. The other kids and I were going to swim so I put Quin in his bouncy seat on the patio to watch. I managed to have a few minutes of swimming before Quin started complaining about his situation. Since I wasn't ready to get out of the pool I decided to see how Quin would react to being in the pool. At first he screamed his head off like I was submerging him in lava, but after a minute or two he calmed down, then after a few more minutes he was splashing around and kicking his legs while I held him. I'm glad he enjoyed it since I'm pretty sure we will be in that pool every day this summer.
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