Ruined!

About an hour after all our gifts were opened on Christmas morning Silas came to me and very sadly proclaimed, "Christmas is RUINED!" I asked him why and he said because all the presents were gone. So sad. I guess we'll have to wait 'til next December to fix Christmas.

Merry Merry!!

Jude is very excited about the toys Santa brought. Actually he smiles pretty easily.
Caleb and his "lump 'o coal". Apparently he's been naughty this year!
When the boys opened their gifts from the Jeffers it STOPPED Christmas. They were so into reading them that Caleb and I were putting things together before we opened any more gifts.
So next year for SURE we're getting cute Christmas pj's. These just don't quite cut it.
Do you think Silas could use some pj's? Even if he had them he would only wear them for 5 min. The kid loves to be naked!!

It was a great Christmas. Elias tried to get up at 1am. We had the "talk" with him this year so he wouldn't be made fun of for being the only 4th grader still believing. Even with this knowledge when we told him to go back to bed he proclaimed, "But Santa CAME!". It was as if we'd never had our little discussion. We did tell him that you have to believe to receive so that he won't spoil it for the younger kids but seriously...he had jingle bells in his eyes all month. We finally got up @ 6:30 and we spent about 2 hrs. opening gifts. We'd open and play and open and play. It snowed all Christmas day so it was an awesome White Christmas! Hope yours went as well as ours!

Bring on Christmas

Well, I can now say that I am ready for Christmas. We had our Christmas program at church today and I was asked to sing a solo. Not a so low. I really enjoy public speaking but public singing isn't something that I enjoy. In fact, I will admit that it makes me nervous. I usually sing to myself in the shower and no one really has to listen.

Whoever coordinated the program did a great job though. They put me right after the primary. I guess they figured as long as I didn't pick my nose and wave to my family while moving my lips without singing, that I would be okay. If that's all I had to do, then it was success.

Christmas 2007

It’s that time of year when everyone starts to think about all the letters they are going to have to read from people they haven’t seen in years. Don’t worry, I won’t deviate from the norm on this one. By the time you are done reading this letter, you will know anything and everything important that happened in our lives this year.

On a good note, Tami isn’t pregnant anymore and that means that our fourth and FINAL son Jude was born in September. He has been the model baby during the day. He hasn’t yet realized that darkness and night time are for sleeping but he will get around to that. I was going to describe all the amazing things he does but when I started to list them, they all involved bodily functions and I don’t want this letter to go that direction.

Silas is now 3 years old. We are extremely grateful he left the terrible twos behind but we aren’t so excited that he extended it to the terrible threes. I think his first word was something like “blank head”. For some reason, he enjoys calling people bad names. It can range from stupid to nice, back to dumb but they all end in head. I thought that if he was going to pick up swear words, he would use the ones that he hears in the house. He has been spotted several times in the neighborhood helping the neighbors “water” their trees. We are trying to teach him to be a little more discrete about that. It’s a dead giveaway when he has his pants around his ankles and his little white bum is hanging out. Did you know that flowers don’t thrive on that type of water?

Isaac is our tenderhearted 7 year old. He has been very helpful with his new little brother. Isaac played soccer this year. I used to think that soccer wasn’t really a sport. Now I know a little more about it. At this age it’s kind of like running cross country in a group huddle. The amazing thing is that they actually use a ball and they have boundaries. I think the boundaries are there so parents can keep track of the kids and they don’t have to follow them all along the racecourse. The ball is there so they know where to run. He also plays the violin. I always tell Tami that she has to be firmer about making the boys practice their instruments. That’s easy for me to say, I don’t have to listen to them practice. The violin has to be one of the most beautiful instruments when it is played correctly. It is also one of those instruments that should be practiced in the morning before school while I am at work.

Elias lives for sports. He is in the fourth grade this year and gets really mad when people ask him if he is a second grader. I always used to think he would make up for being short with smarts because he does so well in school but he picked football and basketball as his favorite two sports. The football season went just like last year. We were the worst team in the league. I tried to get Elias hooked on golf but I’m probably not the right one to teach him that golf is a relaxing gentlemen’s game. We only golfed once as a family and I had one guy yell at me for just about hitting him with a ball. Let’s just say it wasn’t the right time for him to yell at me while I was trying to keep two boys and Tami moving through the course while making sure Silas didn’t get hit with a ball. Elias just started basketball and he has to put up with having a dad as a coach. I feel sorry for him for that but I made it known before the season that if anything goes wrong on the court, it will be his fault. I also made it known that one player can make a mistake and not hear anything from me. Elias can make that same mistake and he will get yelled at. So far he seems to be okay with that but he sure does get poked in the eye a lot. His eyes seem to water daily.

Tami has been busy with her book clubs, bunko night, dinner exchanges, PTA meetings, volunteering at the local shelter, cooking for the homeless, sewing for the less fortunate and anything else she can do to help. Yeah right, with four boys and a husband who travels almost every week, she has been doing her all to keep the house from burning down. So far she has been very successful. She has managed to continue bunko night once a month. I keep telling her bunko night is kind of like a poker night but she doesn’t seem to go for that. I asked her if she would like to try one more time for a girl and we haven’t tried since.

I am enjoying my job. I travel a lot but we seem to do pretty well with it. When people ask me what my hobbies are, I look at them and tell them I have four boys. They then get the wrong idea, ask me if we have a TV and then I have to explain that the boys have sports, scouts, instrument practices and all the other extras that come up. It is fun to take all the boys to a store together. By fun, I mean miserable. The fun part is the reaction of all the people in the store. When we had three, everyone thought that was kind of cute. For some reason, the fourth puts cute over the edge, to completely annoying.
Merry Christmas from cousin Eddie!!!! (National Lampoons Christmas Vacation)

So forth, so on, so, what not

I know every region has their filler words that they like to use when a person doesn't have anything else to say. I finally realized that the words here are so forth, so on, so and what not. I was in a presentation a couple of weeks ago and I heard one of those filler words or statements in every sentence. I was looking at the customer wondering if he was thinking "if they say that one more time......". We tend to use them when we get nervous or what not. It seems like we also use them when we really don't know what we are talking about and so forth. So.....I decided to start watching what I say because they can really sneak up on you when you least expect it. So I am going to make changes starting today and I'm going to say what I mean and so on.

Master Card

Pure Bred Puppy $300
Accessories $150
Micro Chip $40
Shots $50
Classified add $75

Learning for the third time that you don't really like dogs and your kids don't either.......priceless!!!!!!!!!!

SOLD!!

So, the breeders were out of town. They came back and they took the dog BACK!!! Yippee. I, Tami Zimmerman, will never get another dog again!

Puppy Anyone?

Yes, we were wrong to think we could handle it. I made the decision to keep my life simple 3 days too late! He's a really good dog, but I've found out that a 2 month old baby, very attention needy 3 yr. old and puppy are a bad combonation. I know you all knew it... too bad we didn't consult you first. So, I have a FREE pure breed mini schnauzer, white male, 13 wks., crate trained, house trained, with all the BRAND NEW puppy gear (crate, bed, food bowls, food, treats, leash, harness,brush, pooper scooper, toys...hmmm I'm sure there's more). He's had his 2nd shots and he has a microchip that we can have registered to you!!! My expensive mistake is your gain...anyone??? Please save me before I go completely insane! What a great early Christmas gift! Seriously, spread the word!

Work Christmas Parties

My work Christmas party is tonight and I don't think I'm going. I know I should go and support everyone and mingle just to make a showing but I'm having a hard time with it. Tami can't really go because Jude would not be good at something like that. So, I would be going to the party alone. That doesn't really bother me either, because I know some of my coworkers will probably go through an escort service to make sure they aren't going alone. The other issue is that it is being held downtown Denver about 3 blocks from our office. I shouldn't be a complainer but I don't like going downtown on the weekends because I work there. Lastly and most importantly, I have a hard time finding anything related to Christmas in the party. All the booze that everyone can drink and a big dinner. Some people probably do celebrate Christmas that way so it feels right at home for them. Alright, enough complaining about the Christmas party. I just needed a place to vent. I'll tell you how it went tomorrow.

Keep Life Simple

My sister Ashley just gave me a Birthday present. It was one of those glass blocks with the words, "Keep Life Simple" on it. It came at the perfect time...right as I was feeling totally overwhelmed with everything I've got on my plate. Getting the puppy has put me over the edge. So, that phrase has become my new motto. In an effort to do just that I'm quitting all my "extras" except Bunko. I'm hoping this will help me feel a little more sane!! So, thanks Ash for the perfect reminder!

Vacation

We made it back from our vacation. Tami didn't trip over any "ghost kids" or anything in the airport on the way back so it was pretty uneventful. I'm still trying to figure out who's kids she tripped over. She blamed it on our kids but they weren't anywhere close to her. And to defend myself, I didn't even know what was going on until she was already getting up. I stayed away not because I was embarrassed but because I didn't want to get in the way of all the other rescurers that came to her aid. On the way home, we ran through the airport to make sure we stayed far enough ahead of Tami so that if she fell again, she couldn't place the blame on us.

We had a great vacation. We cleared land, ate, cleared land, ate and then repeated the process many more times. The kids played in the fire, road fourwheelers and raked about 10 leaves. They didn't quite finish the job they were assigned.

I have a question. If Tami is putting up Christmas decorations and swearing when she finds out that the kids broke the manger scene, does that take away from the Christmas spirit? We will just turn the Christmas music up a little louder.

You will see in the slide show that we had a complete lapse of good judgement. We saw how much the boys liked playing with Tami's parents dog that we decided they needed one too. I don't think he has been put down one time. The poor dog is going to forget how to walk. Jude on the other hand, better figure out how to walk quickly because it seems he was replaced in the boys eyes. I never realized that they were using him as a pet because they didn't have a real one.

Oh yeah, there are a few pictures in the slide show that some of you may not recognize. The one of the guy posing in front of the burn pile is my brother Jarom. (Single) The other picture of the guy actually working right in the fire, is of my dad. Somehow, it seems like all of us inherited a lot of traits from my dad but the one that was recognized the most this trip was our love of fires. We all have the same general idea of fire too. "The bigger the better." It comes from a long line of burners. My great grandpa used to clear land, pile brush and burn his piles. He cleared a lot of acres of land without any power tools. We had to make sure the tradition keeps going so our boys had to play in the fire too.

Up Up and Away (We All Fall Down)!

Flying with four young children is NOT something I'd recommend. However, it sure beats driving 16 hours with four children. SOOOOOO... We get to the airport with all the kids and luggage and head to the check in counter. Luckily Caleb flies a lot and qualifies for the "special" line where there is no wait. Caleb is carrying two car seats, a carry on bag, computer bag, diaper bag and pulling a large suitcase. Elias is pulling a large and small suitcase. Isaac is pulling a medium suitcase. I'm holding Jude and various baby accessories and Silas is getting in everone's way. We walk up to the line and the boys are having difficulty turning the corner with the suitcases... So somehow I FREAKING TRIP over one of my kids (it all happened so fast I'm not sure if it was Isaac or Silas). So imagine the Mom with too many kids tripping while HOLDING her 2 month old baby. Yes there were lots of concerned shouts... you would not believe how fast two airport employees were at my side concerned with my well being. Caleb's at the counter pretending not to know me (he said he didn't see it happen). Yes, the baby's fine. It's the type of fall where you do everything you can to save the baby and sacrifice your body instead (oh yes and I pulled down one of those line divider things as well). My knees will be sporting some fancy bruises by tomorrow I'm sure. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I'm very glad to know that I'll never see those people again. It could NOT have been more embarrassing! The sad thing is I was planning on people making rude comments about the number of children I have (as they seem to feel the need to do as soon as you have 3). I was prepared with the perfect comeback, compliments of Kris Jeffers ("Oh these kids? They're my sister's who just passed away and we're taking them in" - perfect right???? Don't you feel dumb for asking after that one?). But instead I trip over one of my too many kids (so many I can't tell you exactly which one it was). Pathetic!!

Breaking Glass and eardrums

Jude was extra smiley this morning so in the spirit of good moods I began singing him a made up "Good Morning To You" song (to the tune of Happy Birthday To You). Midway through the song he burst out in the saddest of cries with the hurt feelings saggy bottom lip... I knew I was a bad singer but geeeze!

Just Say You Are

Gotta love your kids' philosophy on having babies... The other day Caleb and I were talking about someone not being able to have anymore kids. Isaac was listening in on our convo and said, "Yes they can, all they have to do is say they're going to have another baby and they will." I love his innocence.

WORDS TO GO BY

“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.

I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.

I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn.

I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children.

I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden.

I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley-

Tagged

Here you go Erica!

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Paper route
2. Cashier/Hostess at a restaurant until I caught one of my classmates stealing from the register and didn't want to get beat up by her.
3. After school child care Site Director...where I learned the appropriate amount of time a child can be in time out.
4. Pharmacy Assistant

Four T.V. Shows I Watch:
1. Prison Break
2. Pushing Daisies
3. Lots of Reality (Survivor, Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance)
4. Friday Night Lights

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Raspberry Cheesecake
2. Chicken burrito from Qdoba (which I can't have right now due to breastfeeding).
3. Berry and Peach Pies
4. Orange jello salad with cool whip, mandarins, cottage cheese and marshmallows.

Four Movies I Love:
1. What About Bob
2. Dumb and Dumber
3. Most of Adam Sandler's Movies
4. While You Were Sleeping - The Preachers Wife

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Everyone's Blogs
2. Fox News
3. US Bank - Bank of America
4. Craigslist

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1. Anywhere without the kids
2. Bunko
3. Idaho
4. Shopping (again without the kids).

STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!

Yes, I did something really DUMB!! Elias needed an empty 2 liter soda bottle for his science lab this week but it had to have the little plastic sealing ring removed. I tried all the safe methods to remove it first... prying with my fingers and then with a fork. That didn't work so I decided it would be a good idea to pry a steak knife under it and try to pop it off. WELL, the knife slipped off and stabbed me in the hand. I said a few choice words and began panicking when I saw all the blood and the gaping wound. Caleb tried to close it up for me with butterflies, then medical tape and then a fancy band aid... none of which worked. So I called my friend who is a real Doctor (sorry Caleb) and he was nice enough to stitch it for me. Looking back I'm really angry at myself for my poor knife safety skills (or lack there of). Later that morning Silas wanted a piece of cheese. He got the block out of the fridge like he normally does and brought it to me so I could cut him a piece...then he looked at my hand and said "Oh Mom, you can't cut my cheese, you'll sharp yourself with the knife, I'll wait 'til Dad gets home". It was a little sad but I'm still scared of the knives and don't want to "sharp" myself again!

Halloween

Smile

Have you ever noticed that some people just don't know how to smile??? If you haven't noticed it yet, take another look at the pictures of our kids in the blog. I always looked forward to teaching kids sports, how to pee on a tree, teaching them how to tie shoes and do other normal things that dads teach boys. For some reason, I never envisioned teaching my boys how to smile. Now that we have recognized the problem, we have to fix it. This is one of those issues like sex that I'm not sure if they are at the correct age for teaching yet. I guess it is never too early to get started. Please keep tuned in to the blog and see if we are making any progress in the future.

Isaac!

Gathering

I am back from hunting and I have decided that maybe I could excel more at gathering. I wasn't ever very good at picking berries but I always seemed to find them and eat them. I am also pretty good at picking fruit and eating it. I will continue to hunt just to get out and have a good time hiking around the mountains and taking my rifle for a walk but I may have to start gathering if I am going to provide for the family. I took the deer to the processesors today and they had a little cartoon that broke down the cost of a deer. I think we are paying about $100/pound for meat. The good thing is that most deer meat isn't all that tasty unless you add pork fat to it. There goes the idea that wild game is healthier.

We had a good time and got to see a lot of animals. Most of them weren't legal to shoot. We saw a black wolf yesterday. We knew no one would believe us but we were 100% sure it was a black wolf. We stopped by the DOW office to tell them about it and they did believe it. They saw possibly the same one a year earlier and it was the first wolf sighting in the state. I guess this makes the second because they hadn't seen another one until now. I know what all of you are thinking right now and remember, this was hunting so there aren't any fish stories.

We also saw a huge bull moose with a cow and calf. They really stood out because they were as black as the angus cows that were further down the road. And then we had a stupid fox in our camp. The boys thought it was really cool and I guess I did too at first. I wasn't too excited when I woke up the next morning and he had eaten part of the deer. I chased him, threw sticks and him and tried everything else to keep him away. People must have been feeding him.

This concludes the boring hunting trip log.

One Month Old

Jude is one month old already! Sure wish I could be one of those parents who say, "my baby slept through the night from the time he was 6 weeks old". But, no such luck here. The middle picture is Jude being scared. I love that reflex. Silas was having way too much fun when I took that picture. He thought it was funny to scare him (I wasn't mean, just touched him while he slept).

Success!!!

The boys couldn't look any prouder! Caleb shot this deer (I had to call and ask if it was a deer or an elk) this morning. The pic is from his cell phone. Sorry it's not so clear. I can't believe the smiles on the boys' faces! He still has two elk tags left and 3 more days to get them. I'll update if he does.

CHEATERS!!

Yesterday Caleb and I helped out at the school jog-a-thon fund raiser. He and I both noticed a couple of PTO members cheating!!! When the kids would make a lap and come through the chutes they were giving them two tallies instead of one. The lady I saw would say, "here's two because you're so polite", or "here's two because you're encouraging your friend", etc. I was so mad cuz all the lazy kids figured that out and would only go to her to get tallied...she would have a line 5-6 kids deep while 5-6 of us talliers had no one. For one, she was stealing from the people who pledged per lap and secondly the kids who really worked their butts off and ran like crazy the whole time got out lapped by the lazy kids by like 10-15 laps. Elias did 18 laps. He and I counted them when the time was up and he was quite satisfied with his number. However, when he came home from school he miraculously had 30 something tallies on his runner's tag. I guess the pressure of the lazies having more laps than him was too much! So we're no better because he cheated too! Lucky for me I sponsored him a flat rate and not per lap.

Fire Safety Week

I believe this is national fire safety week?? I've been putting off buying a fire escape ladder because they're so expensive ($85). But the boys came home from school all "fired" up about safety so I searched again and found them on Amazon much cheaper. Just thought I'd share the link and encourage you to get some ladders!!!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005OU7B/ref=ord_cart_shr/103-6606710-0051064?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

The Pictures Tell the Story

Birthday Boy

Silas' Birthday

Tami has a new camera and I'm not sure where everything is to download he pictures from Silas' birthday. I will write a little bit about it and then Tami can post the pictures later.

Silas understands the birthday thing to some extent. He knows that you get presents but he doesn't quite understand when or where. He has been asking for a towtruck for about two months. If a store had a tow truck and we left without it, he would get very angry. Tami took him to Costco and they saw a tow truck there. They left without and he told her that she needed to turn around right now and get that truck.

On the day of his birthday, we had fun too. We had all of his presents and we were going to save the tow truck until last. That didn't work very well. He opened the first present (a sticker book) and there was a combination of sad and mad that we had not seen before. He said, "No this is not for my birthday......I get a tow truck for my birthday." He almost started to cry so we pulled out the tow truck package and told him to open it. It was really funny because he was so excited about getting a present that he already expected to get. He still doesn't quite understand everything when it comes to birthdays but don't mess with that kids gifts.

I was in Lake Louise for budget meetings this past week. There were a few of us that wanted to jog the trails around the lake. The first day we took the trail that followed the shore of the lake. People were dressed in snow suits and hats and had all sorts of winter gear on. We were running in shorts and sweatshirts. They all looked at us like we were crazy. The second day, we decided to push ourselves a little bit harder. We were going to jog the trail that went to a lake that was further up in the mountains. There were four of us that day. We started to jog up the trail and it got steep very quickly. We ended up jogging about 50 yards and then walking fast, then we went down to a slow walk until we made it to the half way point and it was starting to get dark. We decided to turn around. Only because it was dark of course and we didn't want to be out there when it got really cold.

I'm going to end the blog on a good note. Elias' football team won a game yesterday. We were all surprised. We knew that if they didn't win this one, we might not win another one all year. The team they played hadn't won a game yet and probably won't if we beat them. Then we found out the worst news of the year. We were expecting next week to be his last game of the season. Then they told us that all teams get to go to the playoffs no matter how bad they are. All of the parents were really hoping that they only took the good teams with winning records. The only good I see in all of this is that maybe we can get some real football weather by then. That will separate the true fans from the want to be fans.

These are pictures of Lake Louise. I was there for the week. I will blog more after Silas' birthday party

NEW CAMERA!!!!

Jude @ 3 weeks

Broken Camera

I've been reprimanded for not posting more pictures of Jude...The problem is that we discovered our camera is broken. I don't see myself heading into town anytime soon so I bought a new one off of circuitcity.com and it should be here by wed. or thurs. Just in time for Caleb and Silas' birthdays and so we don't miss too many more precious newborn moments. I have become a big time Internet shopper. I bought all the boys clothes this fall and some of Silas' b-day presents (the rest Caleb picked up at Costco) that way. I figure it saves SO much stress, gas, time, germs and sanity.

Since I don't have any new pictures of the baby I'll post some pictures we took of the boys in August (pre-Jude) when we took a trip to Martin's Cove. The boys had fun pulling the handcarts and we really enjoyed and were humbled to learn what the Saints went through.

Still Alive

Yes, I'm still alive. Jude is 11 days old and not sleeping great so I've been sticking to the bare minimum. I did catch up on the laundry and ironing today...only 2 weeks worth. It was good to know that we could make it 2 weeks and still have clean clothes. Caleb has been a TON of help which has been really nice! I wouldn't have survived without him. Also, a BIG thanks to Kris for helping me so much with Silas and Elias. I'm too tired to be witty or funny... just writing to let you know we're still kicking along.

Life Has Changed

We thought we were doing a pretty good job of updating or blog regularly. That all seemed to change once Jude came to our house. Actually, he has been sleeping like baby. He sleeps for 30 minutes and wakes up screaming. He has been doing a lot better the last few nights and Tami has actually been able to sleep at night for a few hours instead of 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there.

Elias had his best football game yesterday on offense. He had a great run on the option. We were just happy he caught the pitch and then he turned the corner and he actually ran fast. I guess speed changes depending on the size of the guys chasing you. In the past few games, the only time he came off the field was when they did kick off return. (Sadly, that happens quite a bit with his team) Yesterday they put him on kick off return too. He told me the only time he came off the field was at half time and at the end of the game. It is always easy to pick him out on the field because the average weight of the team is around 80-90 pounds. Elias brings that average down with a weight of 63 pounds.

I went to Isaac's first soccer game on Thursday.

Silas doesn't play sports yet but he really likes going to go to the games and play with his friends. He gets mad if we leave him.

I guess I should elaborate on Isaac's soccer game. The first two minutes were great. Isaac took the ball all the way down the field a couple of times and almost scored. After that, he was tired and wanted to come out of the game. I think he could use a little conditioning. I will say that they only need a field the size about 10 kids with a little bit of spacing. Every time the ball would go somewhere, both teams would swarm together and go to the ball. I don't think they understand spacing yet. Of course, I don't understand soccer so maybe that is part of the feel good, everyone is a star, don't hurt feelings game.

The boys wanted to earn money so I told them I would pay them to wash my pickup and to wash Tami's car. Both of the vehicles are too tall for them wash the top so I did that part for them. After Isaac kept trying to scratch the vehicles with the nozzle and Elias washed only parts of each panel, I decided that I would cut their pay in half and help them. They vacuumed the vehicles too but you would never know it. Elias vacuumed my pickup but never took out the floor mats or anything else that was on the floor. It really cut down the time it takes to vacuum though.

We used to have Monday and Thursday nights free so that we could have a little time off from sports but now Isaac has practice on Monday and games on Thursday. We will just have to enjoy the two hours we have on Sunday afternoon. Besides, we would all be bored if we didn't have so much going on.

Just pictures (four boys)

One more boy (but we are excited)

Jude Caleb was born September 13th at 2:12 PM. Everything went great. Tami and Jude are both doing really well and they are now relaxing at home. He was 7lbs 11 oz and he was 20 3/4" long. He is our biggest child yet and ever. Everyone keeps telling us that if we would just have one more we could have a basketball team. I tell them that having five kids that will never be over 5'5" tall really doesn't qualify as a basketball team so we will just have four.

The good thing is that the mold that we used for the first three wasn't broken. He looks just like the rest of them. Come to think of it, he looks just like all newborn babies. Anyway, everyone is doing great and we are all happy to be home. I don't want to speak for Jude yet but I think he is happy too.

One more thing....I got to help deliver Jude. After his head and shoulders cleared the doctor had me step in and grab Jude. I think he does that so we don't complain about the price we pay the doctor. He is worth every bit of it. I can't imagine doing that with someone other than your own child.

Kid's Wisdom

Tami left early this morning for the hospital to get all the paperwork done and to get things ready. Once the kids head to school, I will drop Silas off at Kris' and then head to the hospital. I keep wondering if there is anyway that they will start without me.

Isaac explained everything about having a baby to me yesterday. He said that once mom has the baby, she will be able to eat a lot more. Right now she can't eat very much because her belly is already full. Once she has the baby, her belly will already be stretched out and then she can eat more. I never knew it before but I guess I must have been pregnant at some time in my life too.

Eating Breakfast

Silas came into our room this morning and he was spitting and trying to get something out of his mouth. He obviously had a bad taste in his mouth that he was trying to get rid of. He was rubbing his tongue trying to get the thing off. He told us that he licked Elias' belly wiper. We had no idea what a belly wiper was so Tami asked him to go and show us what he licked. He took Tami to the bathroom and showed her Elias' deodorant stick with a big bite chunk out of it. So if anyone was wondering, deodorant tastes bad.

Elias had his first football game yesterday. They got beat something like 37 to nothing and the other team got a safety. They don't really keep score and they don't kick field goals so technically, they got beat by 5 touchdowns and a safety. Elias weighs 63 pounds. The biggest kid on his team weighs 120. The other team had two kids that played line and they had to weigh at least 160 pounds. They couldn't really move at all but you wouldn't have known it. I think our kids were more scared than anything.

Isaac starts soccer tomorrow. I would say that we have two kids playing sports but that would mean that soccer was a sport. All kidding aside, we are excited that Isaac is taking up a hobby that is only two days a week. He can play football next year.

He thinks he is really funny because he figured out how to leave messages on our home phone. He calls our number and then leaves messages for Tami. She is always checking to see if we have messages and she was surprised to have two messages when she never heard the phone ring.

The time is coming up shortly for Tami to have the baby. She is scheduled to go in on Thursday to be induced. I tried to get out of being there for the delivery but she wouldn't let me. I want to go back to the days when dads had to wait outside. I would be just fine with that.

We will post some pictures once the baby arrives. Tami is really excited about having her picture posted right after having a baby.

Payback

First let me say one thing. This is not a skateboard. After all those years of making fun of skateboarders I could never get on one. I don't really believe in Karma per say but I'm sure I would get some type of payback. The boys had ripsticks and I wanted to get on one of them but I really didn't want to do it in front of anyone. I held on to the basketball hoop pole and started rocking back and forth a little bit to try it out. (that was after I looked around to make sure no one was watching) I really liked doing it so we went and bought a fat person one that holds up to 250 pounds so that I could ride it. I had to skip breakfast so that I wasn't over the weight limit. It was either skip breakfast or ride naked so that I could be under the limit and I assumed the neighbors would appreciate option #1 a lot more than 2. Elias loves having someone on a ripstick that is terrible because it really makes him look good. I'm glad that I could be the one to boost his self esteem. He also likes to cut right in front of me to mess me up and make me fall. Elias, Isaac and I went for a ride this morning and I thought I was going to have to get off and walk because I was so tired. We rode by a lady walking her dog and she told me that I needed to have some elbow pads, knee pads etc. I told her that I would just make sure I fell backward and I would have plent of cushion for landing.

I Scream, You Scream!!

Here are a few Rocky Roaders! Silas is quite a messy ice cream eater... We made Elias and Isaac put chocolate on their lips to make Silas feel better. This morning Silas woke up and tried to convince me that his Daddy said he could have ice cream for breakfast. This is his usual method (using the absent parents' permission with the present one). Needless to say I didn't fall for it.

We are 2 weeks and 1 or 2 days away from my induction date. I'm getting very tired of being pregnant! A friend of mine reminded me that we have to get miserable enough to be willing to go through child birth. She hit that one right on. People keep asking how the kids will react to Jude. Elias will be great I'm sure. He loves and helps with Silas so I think a new brother won't effect him. Isaac wants a pet so bad he can't stand it so a baby will be a good substitute (I'm hoping). Silas thinks he's excited but I don't expect his enthusiasm to last long. He may like him eventually but I'm guessing the competition will bug him. We're just really hoping he doesn't regress with his potty training. He's been in underwear for 3 weeks now and doing great. I guess that means the Grandma's are off the hook. I had a friend who told me it was the Grandma's job to potty train all the Grand kids. I was really planning on making this a family tradition for us too. Well, I guess they will still have Jude to train!! HAHAHA

On a different note... On Sunday I was walking in the hall during Sunday school to go take Silas to the potty. I happened to walk by Isaac's primary class where the Primary President was kindly lecturing the kids on keeping all four legs of their chairs on the floor at ALL times. After church we asked Isaac if he was part of the tipping crew and he innocently admitted that he was. So... he and Caleb made chocolate chip cookies and he had to go to his teachers' houses and apologize. We're hoping we humiliated him enough so that he won't want to follow the crowd in that way again.

Speaking of cookies... Last Saturday Isaac had a play date with a friend where the Mom helped the boys make chocolate chip cookies from "scratch". I HATE making cookies because it's so time consuming so we just buy the tub of cookie dough from Costco and make a few for dessert whenever we want them. Isaac was SO impressed with the whole process. He was quite jealous that he's been missing out on the complete cookie making experience. He asked his friends Mom for the recipe so that maybe I could make some from scratch too.... FAT CHANCE!!

History

We had a very interesting conversation with Elias yesterday. We were driving home from somewhere and we told all the kids to roll the windows up. After a few minutes of thinking, Elias told us that he knows why we call it "roll" the windows up. He had ridden in a vehicle that you had to roll the windows up with a handle. It kind of made us think that we are getting older. We don't really know what records and eight tracks are. The boys won't know what cassettes and video tapes are. We finally got rid of our VCR and threw out all of our old tapes. I finally have all of my old songs from CD's on my cell phone now so that I can listen to all of my favorite songs on my phone. We can also e-mail, talk, go to Mapquest and Google maps and do all other sorts of exciting and pointless things on our phones. So now I have been trying to figure out what we will substitute in the place of "roll" for the windows. Touch, push, button and toggle don't really go with "your window up." I guess we will just yell at them and tell them to put their window up.

I usually go back and read everything I have written before I submit it. After reading the above paragraph, it sounds really weird but I am going to post it anyway.

Silas in his big boy underwear with his (short lived) remote control jeep. He is obsessed with trailers btw so he hooked up a little horse trailer behind the jeep and towed it around.

SUCCESS!! - Knock on Wood

I believe the Poo Poo Party was a success. The party was 8 days ago and we've only had 4 accidents since. We've had to make some adjustments however... Silas really liked the party idea so every time he used the bathroom for 3 days after we had to light candles for him to blow out. After the first day, the cake we made was trashed with candle holes so I transitioned him to a scented candle. After, 3 good days he finally earned his remote control jeep which he LOVED and after one day of use tried to "ride" and broke. He started to have some regression on the poo aspect of the training so we turned the Poo Poo Party into Poo Poo Presents. Isaac and I gathered up 6 gifts (new crayons, coloring books, etc.) and wrapped them and told Silas that every time he pooped he could get a present... By 6pm of day one he was out of presents. Silas quickly learned how to force himself to poop in order to earn presents. It was a little hard to reward when he only produced a pea size product but I guess the concept was there. For the next few days we were going through 6-7 poo poo presents a day. He realized that poo in the potty was like GOLD!! We were getting worried that he was causing hemorrhoids... but yesterday he only produced 3 presents which was a nice adjustment. This little stinker is smarter than we know.

Today is officially the last day of summer vacation!!! Oh sorry, did I sound too excited there? Caleb asked me the other day if my life was really so bad that I would be this excited for the boys to go back to school.... Um no, my life is not that bad. However, I'm 9 months pregnant and ever since June the temp. has been in the upper 90's so we've spent a lot of time indoors going a little crazy. We could all use a little time apart each day. Caleb should know that when he's home for an extended period of time with nothing to do that he drives us all a little crazy!!

That's about all of our excitement here...countdown to baby is 4 weeks from tomorrow (hopefully)!

Like Mother Like Son

I have been gone for a few weeks with only a day or two at home between trips. I know that Tami has been a little bit stressed lately because she is raising the boys by herself. I really thought she was doing a great job. They will probably turn out better that way.

I was a little bit shocked on Sunday morning though. We were getting ready for church and had our door locked. Silas started beating on the door and before we could get to the door he yelled, "Open the dang door". It was then that I realized, I better be home once in awhile so that Tami doesn't get driven to swearing. I told her that I was just happy that he said "dang". There are a lot of other words that could have come out of his mouth.

Poo Poo Party

So this is the kind of excitement we are having! I tried to edit the photo to keep you from barfing!! We decided that maybe the trick to potty training Silas would be to have a poo poo party. We made a cake, sang a lovely poo poo congratulations song, blew out candles and let him open presents (which were his own toys that he helped me pick out and wrap up). He's thinking this is a great idea... I'll let you know in 3 days if we were successful or not. He's had a brand new, remote control jeep sitting on top of the fridge for almost 2 months now that he can have once he's a REAL BIG BOY. So far that hasn't been motivation enough. I REALLY need him out of diapers before Jude is born. Wish us luck!

Wild Week

I tried to include pictures of the boys in their element. Isaac is always climbing on anything he can get enough grip on. Silas is always into something and extremely mischievous. Elias is vain and likes to look at himself in the mirror and take pictures of himself. He is kind of mad at me for writing that, but not mad enough that he doesn't want it out there for everyone to see.

This was one of the many wild weeks that we have planned in August. I flew up to Spokane and then went to Bonners Ferry for my grandmas funeral. It seems kind of strange that a complete generation of the Zimmerman family is gone. It was the best funeral I have ever been to. Not that I am frequent attender of funerals but this was a good one. She was an amazing lady and everyone recognized her for that. She wasn't the least bit scared of dying and probably looked forward to it so that she could move on and get started on the next stage of progression.

It was great to be able to see aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. Every time I go to North Idaho, I realize what a beautiful place it is and I am ready to move back. Then reality sets and I realize that I wouldn't have a job up there. We do really enjoy Denver and I love my job so we will go wherever we need to and have a great time doing it.

Tami and the boys picked me up at the airport yesterday at 5:30 after visiting her sister. We have about 24 hours together before I fly out for Phoenix today at 5:30. Then I will fly back in on Friday at 6:30 so that we can leave by 7:30 to go to Utah for Maggie and John's wedding. After the wedding we are going to visit Tami's grandparents and then take a tour through beautiful Rock Springs, Wyoming (it really isn't that bad), Vernal, Utah and Rifle, Colorado.

Enough of the travel log. We are finally getting to eat peaches from our tree. They seem to have little bruises about the size of Isaac's fingers. He makes sure he squeezes them to see if they are ready to eat. As long as he can make an indent, he considers them ready. Tami is going to have a busy week picking black berries, green beans and peaches. What a great week to be gone.