Better Late than Never - Happy Birthday Jack!

Poor Jack's birthday fell in the middle of a lot of craziness in our lives, so he never got a birthday blog post. I figure late is better than never, so here it is! Happy Birthday Jack-a-roo! What a quick and fun four years it has been! Here are some of my favorite things, and memories, about Jack:

• When Jack was born, like every other newborn, he was crying when he hit that cold, bright world. But I will never forget the moment he was handed to me and I said hi to him. He immediately stopped crying and just stared up at me. It was love at first sight for both of us.
• Jack is my little book reader. From very early on, Jack liked to read. I remember one of his daycare providers joking about Jack bringing her book after book every day. Even now he will sit and listen to a dozen books at a time or even more. Not too long ago he said to me, "Mommy, I can't wait until I can read."
• Jack is such a well rounded kid. He is a sports nut and will wrestle and rough house like the toughest, roughest kid around. Then a few minutes later he will snuggle his baby doll and tell me he is rocking her to sleep. He loves everything from sports, to princesses, to sea creatures, to trucks, and just about everything in between!
• Jack will talk your ear off. Just today when he got up from nap he talked for about 30 minutes straight to me. He starts most of his comments with, "Hey Mommy..." His first two words were "Mama" and "no," which brings me to the next thing about Jack...
• Jack is incredibly independent and stubborn. He wants to do everything his way, in his own time, by himself. (Unless it is picking up his toys, then he says, "Do I have to pick them all up by myself?????") He will argue a point for as long as you will allow it to go on. He always wants to be right and he always wants the last word. We're working on this with him, but good luck to his future wife!
• Jack is hilarious. The other day we were getting a few last minute items for the Christmas tree at Walmart. I was looking at some lights and turned around to see Jack wearing a three foot, gaudy, tinsle-y blue tree on his head like a dunce cap. He just grinned and said, "Look at me, Mommy!" We, of course, now own a three foot, gaudy, tinsle-y blue tree. Best $6 ever spent!

Jack is a typical preschooler and tries our patience on a regular basis. However, we know he is a really good kid, and love that so many of our friends and family tell us how wonderful he is. I am amazed at how smart he is, but am also incredibly proud of what a good person he is becoming. He is thoughtful, kind, sweet, and funny. The fact that so many kids really like playing with Jack tells me that he is becoming the kind of person we hope he will be. We are so proud of our little Jack-a-roo and love him all the way to Planet 51 and back!

The Blog is Back

The blog had temporarily been interupted by, well, life. As most of our readers know, Troy is a high school football coach, so fall is busy for family. This fall was extremely busy as Troy was extremely successful. His Zeeland East Chix made it three rounds into the playoffs for a 11-1 season! Fabulous for the Chix and Troy, but me and the kids sure missed him for 12 long weeks! Some of you may know that work has been very busy for me lately. There are normally three people all doing the same job as me. In the spring we went down to two, then in the fall we went down to one - me. It made for some long and stressful days. Right about the same time, my editing work picked up as well. With the sharp decline my editing took when the economy was rough, I hated to turn down the opportunities. So after my long days at work, I had long evenings in front of the computer. Finally, many of you may not know that my mom has had some serious health issues for the past year, which really took a downward turn this fall. She fell on September 1st and we have been dealing with hospitals, doctors, and various facilities since then. Just when we think we are making headway, we come up against another obstacle. It has been exhausting, stressful, and at times, heartbreaking. So all of this has left little time for anything other than getting by from day to day. I've had to learn to live with a much messier house than I can usually stand, less than perfect meals more often than I'd like to admit, and not doing the things I enjoy like blogging, reading, and scrapbooking. While life is still crazy, I need to find a little bit of time to get back to what I enjoy. So here is the return of the blog. Keep checking back for posts again.

Summer Project Wrap-Up

As summer comes to an end, so does my little "project." In late spring, I began researching some of the choices we made as a family when it came to the food and products we bought. I looked into the type of milk we drink, the "stuff" in our food, the fruits and veggies we eat, and the products we use to clean. If you look back through the blog, you can see what I have learned about all of these choices. But learning and doing are two different things. So what's different in our house now? Here's a few changes we've made:

• This summer, most of our fruit and veggies have come from the farmer's market each week. We have a "guy" we buy from every week and I'm pretty sure Jack thinks he's our buddy now since we see him every week. We've discovered how great fresh fruit tastes and we've even gotten the kids to try (and like) some new fruits. Brett is a blackberry fiend and Jack has discovered fresh peaches are pretty darn good. Next year I plan to try more recipes with what is in season to add a little more variety.
• We still buy regular old milk and still love drinking it. While we probably should consume less, we haven't worked very hard at this. Although, we have all gotten better about drinking more water, so at least we've improved something in our drinking habits.
• We have eliminated a lot of the foods we used to buy with hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. We've found there are many good substitutes such as the Kashi brand products and the Meijer brand naturals and organics lines. We've been able to still enjoy cereal bars, graham cracker cookies, and snack crackers while getting rid of the ones with the junk in them. Since we've gotten rid of a lot of sources of these additives, I don't feel quite so bad about the ones we haven't eliminated.
• We've switched to "green" cleaners. I'm going through a twelve step program to give up my antibacterial addiction and am slowly recovering. :)

I had been worried about if all these changes would be costly, but I haven't really noticed much of an impact on our budget, which has been a pleasant surprise. Our fruit and veggies cost slightly more by getting them at the farmer's market, but I'm willing to pay a little more to reap all the benefits of buying local fruit and veggies from local farmers.

So, I'm glad I undertook this project and honestly believe my family is healthier for it. I've also taken the opportunity to talk to Jack a little about why buy the food we do and why we don't buy the foods we've given up. It helps me to feel like I am raising a lifelong healthy eater and an environmentally conscious kid!

Now I'm going to go bite into a big, juicy local apple! :)

Green Clean?

The last installment of my summer project is to look into "green" cleaners versus their traditional counterparts. This was a tough one for me because I am a clean freak. Somehow, the words "antibacterial" and "disinfectant" are just comforting to me. I realized I am a salesman's delight and have probably bought into the advertising gurus who want people like me to think I have to have these cleaners, but I have always believed they must be better. After all, no germs is better than germs, right? I only had to time to do minimal research on this, but I found several negatives to using the traditional chemical-based cleaners. The chemicals used in these cleaners can be bad for people, animals, and the environment. Children and pets were mentioned several times in the articles I read because they are closer to the ground and much more likely to put their hands (or paws, I guess) in their mouths, therefor ingesting the chemicals in the cleaners. And since I would certainly be concerned if my children were drinking the bottle of Windex, I was concerned when I thought about this. One article I read mentioned the spread of the chemicals in the air in a household and the increased risk of respiratory problems. Several articles also noted the negative impact on the environment when these chemicals were washed down our drains and found their way to drinking water supplies, rivers and lakes, and ground water. So I am grudgingly giving up my treasured bottles of Windex and Lysol and and using some of the new "green" alternatives. At least most of the time. I may sneak some heavy stuff in for those spring cleaning blitzes! On the positive side, I did read that even just warm, soapy water is effective at removing germs from surfaces. And we have found some fairly inexpensive Meijer-brand eco-friendly cleaners to replace or chemical-laden favorites. In my mind, I believe these new cleaners are better for my family and the earth, but you may see me slowly walking down the cleaning supply aisle at Meijer with a tear in my eye for the next few months! It is a tough break-up for a clean freak like me.

Happy 1st Birthday Chunky Monkey!!!

Wow - I can hardly believe it has been a year since Brett Casey Ayotte was born! I used to roll my eyes a little when I heard people say things like - and then I had babies and realized somehow the birth of a child makes the clock spin far faster than it ever did before. During this first year, Brett has developed into quite the little character. Here are some of my favorite things, and memories, about Brett:

• Brett's arrival in this world was an adventure. Nothing about it seemed easy. He chose to not come out on time, then when he finally decided it was time to meet the world, he caused quite a stir. From my water breaking in the McDonald's playland to Brett requiring a suction to get his big noggin out, he was anything but typical. That set the stage for Brett's personality!
• Poor Brett spent the first weeks of his life crying, sleeping, crying, eating, crying, crying, and crying. My poor little guy had a belly ache from an intolerance to milk. But despite his pain and discomfort, he still remained cuddly, if not always happy. And once we figured out how to make his belly feel better, the happiness just radiated from him!
• Brett has always been a huge blankie boy. When he was a baby, he had to be wrapped up in a blanket to go to sleep. In fact, we were wrapping him up all the way until the weather got warmer! By then he had attached himself to a few smaller blankies, which he still adores. If he sees one of his blankies on the floor, he will get a huge grin, pick it up, and smash it right into his face!
• Brett is the cuddliest baby I have ever known. I absolutely adore that he will be playing with something, stop, walk over to me, and just throw himself into a cuddle with me for a minute, then go back to playing.
• While it can drive me crazy when I am trying to get something done, I still love that Brett is a complete Mama's Boy. The way his face lights up when I walk in a room makes me happier than anything else can!
• Brett has been an early walker and, being such a chunk, looks like Frankenstein when he walks. It is hilarious.
• Brett is so stubborn and has a level of focus I have ever seen in a baby. Which basically means, if he wants something he can't have, he will make life hell for anyone near him. He will try everything to get it and will not be distracted by anything. Redirecting does not work on Brett. I don't know if he is too smart for it or too stubborn for it, but either way, the world better watch out when he wants something because there will be no stopping him.
• Brett loves to make people laugh. He is such a goofball and I think he already knows it. He has figured out he has an audience at the dinner table and will do the goofiest things to get a laugh out of us. When he usually succeeds at doing!

Brett is most definitely the funniest, cuddliest, most determined baby boy. But he manages to make me smile every single day. Happy Birthday my little Chunky Monkey!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday (with just a little cheating)

Summer Catch Up - Continued!

So here is more Super Summer Catch-Up! Random pictures from June and July that are too cute not to post!

Thing One and Thing Two

When Jack and Kyle were younger, my sister found these adorable Thing 1 and Thing 2 t-shirts. Being the scrapbookers we are, we thought they would make for a great scrapbook page! (They did!) And the boys just looked so darn cute in them! Here's the picture from September 2007: And now, we have another Thing 1 and Thing 2 in our families. They look just as cute as the first ones!

And the original Thing 1 and Thing 2 are so much bigger now - but still just as cute:

So now we have four little Things to love!

And I love that all our little Things, love to play together. They all look so happy - and that is the best kind of thing!

Super Summer Catch Up

So when I said I was busy this summer, I wasn't kidding! Here's some posts to start catching up on our summer happenings. These are just a few of the things we have been up to. Keep watching all week for more pictures and details of our summer so far!

Tigers Game

We went to a Tiger's game to celebrate Big G's 60th birthday. Here's some pics from game day (some of my favorite pics of Jack from this summer are from this game!):

Summer Vacation - Lake Bellaire

We went up north to Lake Bellaire with the Penningtons again for our summer vacation. Some of my favorites moments were:

• Topping the list is how cute it was that all four kids would fall asleep when we went for a boat ride after lunch. Jack and Little Derek literally fell asleep on the floor of the boat!
• Jack and Derek had a ton of fun "fishing" together. I use the quotes because their poles had a plastic fish on one and a plastic princess castle on the other.
• Brett discovered the water was not so bad - as long as he was naked! We stripped him down and he could have stayed on the beach all day!
• This was the first year where neither Katie nor I was pregnant!
• The kids love playing at the park. Both Brett and Jack had a blast on the swings!
• We went cherry picking one day. Jack was absolutely serious about his picking!

4th of July at the Lucius Pool Party

We spent the 4th of July at the Lucius pool party. We had a blast! There was plenty of swimming, great food, and fabulous friends! Here are some pics:

Beach Day

Monkey's first trip to the beach was a blast. We headed down to a new beach spot - Deerlick Park. It's our "secret" beach that the tourists don't know about. It's small, secluded, and perfect for taking kids for a relaxing day of surf and sand. Here are some of my favorite memories and some of my favorite pics:

• Brett was very unsure of the water. He cried any time he got the slightest bit wet.
• Brett loved the sand. He kept picking it up and running his fingers through it. He loved feeling the difference between dry sand and wet sand.
• Jack is a little water bug. He would be in the water all day if we let him.
• We decided to skip naps on this day so we could fit in a beach trip and so we could get the kids to bed early and enjoy dinner just the two of us. The boys were exhausted after the beach. As you can see, Brett actually fell asleep while I was holding him on the beach and kept right on snoozing when I set him on the beach towel!