How to make a 9+ hour trip bearable

How do we manage a 9+ hour car trip with three wild boys? A big bag of tricks! Luckily, my two biggies are wonderful travelers! Lawson LOVES to draw and kept himself quite busy with that on the way. Jagger watched DVDs and as long as I was sitting next to Rhett he was pretty good as well. I love these pictures of Lawson drawing. He has such a love of it! Guess he gets that from his (extremely) talented daddy!

We are still alive!

Yes, the Young family is still here. We have not gone missing, despite my lack of blogging. We have been BUSY!!! I have had so little time to do anything.

Things seem to always pick up at work at the end of semesters and this year was no exception. I was slammed for about a week but finally things (at work, anyways) seem to be returning to a normal, much more manageable pace. 

With baseball season now in full swing we spend our nights at the ball park (at least when it isn't raining!) We run from point A to point B on such rigid time schedules...I know...I know...you can hear my violins in the back ground, can't you? I'm just saying... :)

Anyway, I thought rather than try to post everything into one big post I'd break it into several posts. Each child will have their own post (because I know that's what most of our readers are interested in anyway) with one post at the end about me and the hubby. So sit back and enjoy catching up with the Young "childrens". :)

My Sugar Bear

Sugar Bear has had a very busy year! We've had lots going on. He started baseball season in April. He says it is much more fun than soccer. Thank goodness! We had to drag him to all the soccer games. I'm still not convinced that organized sports are his niche but at least he is not constantly complaining.

His very first baseball game he got plunked in the mouth during warm-ups. The game had not even started. Not the way we wanted to start the season. But he was tough and stuck with it. I was proud and was thankful that Brandon was there to help us deal with the drama. (It was a hard hit-knocked his two front teeth loose. Someone asked me what it was about my kids knocking their teeth out--to which I had no reply.) Lawson received the game ball that night for his dedication. That made it all better and worthwhile. We let him write his name on it and dated it. He has it sitting in my (uh-hem dusty) curio cabinet next to his soccer trophy.

On May 11 he graduated Pre-school. He was so excited. He wore his tie and wanted to make sure I knew exactly when to snap the picture at graduation. He said it was time to take a picture when the teacher handed him "that yellow thing that sits on papers". Huh? Had to be on my toes to not miss that one. Turns out he was talking about the yellow envelope that held his diploma. Whew! That was a close one and I DID get the picture!

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Graduation was complete with a Star Wars finale. The three girls in the class didn't stand a chance with all 11 boys! He had some great teachers and we're very thankful for what he's learned over the past year.

We also got him registered for Kindergarten. That was interesting. He was very excited and I tried to be. :) It's hard to think about sending him to school by himself all day long. I know he'll do great and will love it. I think he's prepared and ready and I hope the teachers enjoy him as much as I do.

Lil' Peanut

Our little peanut...what can I say? He is such a joy and is so loving! No one gives better hugs than my peanut! He still loves to rock at night which I oblige most nights. I've learned that soon he'll be too big for that and I'll miss it so I take the opportunity each time it is offered!

Peanut is excited about starting pre-school next year. After seeing Lawson's pre-school graduation, he's more than ready to do it all on his own. He's very independent and it's often hard to get him to let us help him with things. Both a blessing and curse depending on the situation!

He loves to dress up and he's the glue that will hold my boys together I feel sure. He always makes sure to include both the other boys in whatever they are doing. He kisses on Rhett constantly and is Lawson's biggest fan at all the ballgames. I love that about him. You can tell family is important to him and he likes to tell us "I think I'll keep you!". Love that sweet boy!

He shares the love of chocolate with his mama! Loves to clean the bowl of brownie mix! He has a laugh that is just infectious and I just can't get enough of it! He loves super heros, doing kindergarten workbooks, games and looking at books of all kinds. He can recognize all of the letters of the alphabet and we're now working on recognizing what letter a word begins with.

He's such a blessing and I'm thankful for each day with him and those belly laughs!

Little Cuddle Bug

My little cuddle bug will turn 9 months old in four days. Yes, you read that right! 9 months old!!! Pardon me while I reach for my tissues!

To have gotten off to such a rough start, he's quite the happy baby now--as long as things are going his way! :) My little man loves lots of things but nothing quite like his mama! (Insert boasting motherly grin here.) I laugh and joke with everyone telling them that it is just my reward for putting up with him through the rough start! Many days I felt like he hated me. Now he does not want to be 2 feet away from me.

I tried weighing him yesterday and we think he weighs right at 21 1/2 lbs. Not sure how tall he is but he'll have his 9 month checkup on June 3rd. For some reason that date rings a bell. Oh yeah! Wedding bells! It will be 10 years of marriage bliss for me and the hubby! ;)

But back to cuddle bug, he is a cuddler. He loves to eat! He pretty much eats and likes everything with the exception of peas! No matter how many times we try them, he still does not like them. And he likes peaches but I've had to cut those out because they seem to upset his stomach.

He's getting braver by the day and now turns loose of whatever he's holding on to while standing. With dad in Brazil on his mission trip he's scared to death he'll be walking by the time he comes home. I pray not! He's still supposed to be a baby. :)

He's quite mischevious and loves to get into anything and everything he's not allowed to. He loves remotes, phones, electrical cords, and any item on the floor small enough to fit into his mouth and choke on (and bubble wrap as pictured below--and yes, I did take it away after I took the picture. I however, did not get a picture of his face when it was taken away but use your imagination). To say that he keeps us busy is an understatement. He loves watching his bigger brothers. He pats his Bible along to the song and likes to look at books. He's saying dada, bye-bye (and waving) but still no mama. He still just has the two bottom teeth but we suspect the top two front teeth will pop through any day now.

Some friends of ours came over and their baby is only 3 days younger than Rhett. They were quite interested in each other, wanting to pat each others' head, face, etc. At one point sweet Hudson grabbed at Rhett's face and Rhett hit him back--with some force that time. I had no idea he would do that so I'll be honest, we learned what a temper he had that night. We also learned that you can definitely tell he has older brothers! Thankfully they were still friends at the end of the night. :)

We just enjoy every moment with sweet baby boy! Try to treasure these days and burn them into our memories! Of course blogging about them helps, too so we can look back on what we can't remember.

Me and Mine

As for me and the hubby? Well, we're rolling right along on this very fast paced ride! We often remark on how quickly time passes. It seems that we close our eyes only to open them and find that our kids are getting bigger and bigger. I guess my very pessimistic side just sees my boys driving off in a car waving good-bye as they head to college. Oh, I know we aren't there yet but it seems like only a few brief seconds before we are!

A few things that have gone on with us lately consist of a visit from hubby's sister and a visit from my brother. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of Aunt Mandy but I did manage to get a few pictures of my bubba. 

Also, recently I got a new camera (a lower end one but still nicer than what I had) only to find out a few days later that my Nikon was repairable! Whoo Hoo!!! So excited my GOOD camera is back in commission!

The boys picked some flowers for me recently and below is a picture I took of them with the new camera.

My dad is currently in Brazil on a mission trip so mom has stayed with us a few nights at the house. We've all enjoyed having her there with us.

Last Sunday we had a group of friends over and this is what we found our little ones doing out in Brandon's shop (or as he so masculinely refers to it--the MAN cave). The boys were lined up playing video games out there. It really is the perfect hang out for the male gender. It has everything boys like complete with XBox, surround sound and drums. One of the girls and I remarked that in a few years we won't be able to DRAG our boys out of there. BUT, I won't complain because if they are there I don't have to worry about what they're into elsewhere! :)

Other than that, that is about all that is new with us. We are planning to head up to the hills tomorrow to visit with hubby's family. Looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same time. 2 days in the car and 2 days to visit. Sure wish we had more time. (Is that a recurring theme? Ha) We are looking forward to seeing all the family. Most of them haven't seen the baby since Christmas and, well, he's grown just a little. ;)

Please pray that we have safe travels!

I Heart Faces

I know many have asked me what is going on with us. It's been over a month since I've updated our much neglected blog. I do have MUCH to blog about and will try to get to that soon. For now, I wanted to enter my photo for the I Heart Faces contest. I know many of you have seen this photo before but it is one of my favorites. BTW, it is so HARD to choose my favorite photo as all my boys are so photogenic! :) Nevertheless, this is my entry for the week. Head on over to see many other WONDERFUL entries!

"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."