Breakfast

Nothing like a good thumb after breakfast! Thought mama marge and auntie Lois would dig my "towel bib"...clipped it on with a chip clip!

Back to school clothes

Fishing

We had a lot of.fun fishing this weekend! Mags caught 3 fish and Grant caught 1! I even caught a couple! Patrick was pretty excited to be a part of it all! We are certainly adjusting to our "new normal"together!

Maggie's Kindermusik solo today!!

We're making dinner

Among the many things I worry about being a mother of three, one big one was how will I ever cook dinner? It seemed hard enough with Grant and Mags. But, here we are cooking dinner (albiet scrambled.eggs and toast) together! G and M helped with the eggs and did the toast all on their own! Now if only I could manage lunch and breakfast so well!

At last...they meet

Saratoga has been beside herself with the coming of Patrick!  She has been grumpy and irritated for the past couple of months!  Now, at last they meet...

Morning snuggles!!

Let's Play Ball

Grant started his baseball season last night with a couple of great hits!! He is so excited about this season!  He wanted to be sure I got a picture of his jersey from the back so that everyone knows his new number!

One Week Old

Today Patrick is one week old!  He is such a healthy little guy!  He and I are working out the kinks with nursing and he's starting to be more alert during the day! I must admit that this last week has been such a huge transition for this Mama.  As every mother knows, the first couple of weeks with a new baby are the toughest.  I know this too.  However, it doesn't seem to matter how prepared you might think you are for this huge event, things don't always go as you planned.  Mama Marge put it so eloquently that, "your MIND and BODY need to recover" and that as difficult as it may be we, as mothers, must allow that recovery to take place.  I think that's one of my biggest weaknesses (probably most Moms')...taking time for me!  So, today I am trying my best to stay camped out in bed with Patrick while Grant is at school and Maggie is with my generous mother-in-law, who has been such a HUGE help this week!  So far, we have done pretty well!

 

It never ceases to amaze me how being a mother grants you so many blessings and challenges all wrapped up in one amazing package!  It makes me ever so grateful for my own amazing mother and all that she has done to give her 4 children the love and guidance we needed to become parents ourselves.  It also makes my heart smile to know that no matter the distance between us she can still make me feel like I'm the most amazing thing in the world!  Thanks Mom...I love you!

Thriving!

Patrick went to see the doctor today! He is back up to his birth weight and his muscle tone is great! He has great color and beautiful skin!

As for his Mama, I am doing well too! I am navigating through nursing again...the milk man paid a visit last night ( like my nursing humor?)  It will.certainly be interesting to work my way through next week when Peter goes back to working from the office instead of home! I can't guarantee it will  be pretty but we'll get it done! Thank god I can at least have a beer now!

Big brother

Grant is beyond excited to be a big brother again! He has been so helpful, loving and understanding! My sweet, sweet boys!

Big sister

Maggie is SO excited to be a big sister!

And away we go!

On our way home!

Patrick and Mommy

Here we are yesterday enjoying visits from friends! Patrick is doing great! He passed his hearing and saw his pediatrician! We're both getting released today! So excited to get home and let the chaos.begin! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes! We are indeed blessed!

Patrick Phillip Singleton

Patrick decided to show up on his due date and quickly at that! We arrived at the hospital at 6:00 this morning and he was born at 7:11! He is 8lbs and 20.5 inches long! He is perfect and Mommy and Daddy are doing great!

Science Fair First Pres

Maggie's school hosted a science fair on Friday night!  What a wonderful time we had there!  They had students' experiments, Mobius Science Center was there doing demonstrations, The West Valley Outdoor Learning center had an Owl AND a red tailed Hawk to see!  They also had a bee keeper with live bees AND real squid the kids could disect and write with ink!  Here are a couple of videos I took and some pictures!

Daddy and Mags on the way to the dump!! What a Saturday adventure!

Here is Maggie at swim lessons at the Y!  She's becoming quite the little swimmer!

Here is a short video of Grant making a circuit at the science fair!  The kit they had provided a book of instructions to follow in order for the circuit to produce different results!  The one he is building here makes a noise when it is made properly.  I LOVE the look on his face when he hears the sound!  Very Cool! 

Grant entered a project in the science fair this year!  He did an experiment to find the porosity in different rocks!  Tonight was the fair!  He and Maggie both had so much fun looking at all the projects and were both so proud of Grant's work!  The local kids science center was there and Grant found himself right at home building circuits (Papa King; you would have been so proud!) They were able to do a stomp rocket and made kazoos too! We had a really fun night!

Fashion it up!

Maggie's new obsession lately is fashion!  She loves to "fashion up" her stuffed animals, her dolls and most recently herself!! We had a fashion party the other day (just the two of us) and this is how she looked after we were done!  Good thing I have her to keep me looking good!

Build a Bear

We took a trip to Build with our good friends, the Kuney's, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day since the kids had the days off! ( True, it's not the most honorable way to honor Dr. King, however, you might notice the multiple colors of bears the kids chose so we did, in some small way, teach some tolerance of our differences!) When you visit the store after you already own a bear you can bring your bear back to be "groomed" and, of course, purchase clothes and accessories!  Grant and maggie brought their bears with us and picked out some sleeping bags for their bears! Our friends, Sammy Jo, Emma and Mitchell made brand new bears!  Super fun day!

Fairies and Falling

In the past couple of days Maggie has been more and more curious about the fairies that were once visiting her fairy garden (Thank you Grandma King!) she started wondering why they weren't visiting  during the winter.  I suggested that maybe it's too cold for them to visit in the winter and we do have a few inches of snow.  Perhaps they can't fly when it's so chilly!  Quickly Maggie reminded me that TinkerBell's sister, Periwinkle, is indeed a winter fairy and she can definitely fly in the winter!  The cold doesn't bother her at all!  In fact, she is a frost fairy so "there is no way the cold can bother her"!  Touche Maggie, touche!  She decided it would be helpful to check out the fairy garden and see what the fairies need to make them want to visit the garden again. After inspecting the current status of the garden she sternly reported that the garden was "a complete disaster".  There were pineneedles everywhere and the snow had covered most of the furniture and fencing.  The tree which we built the garden underneath wasn't "protecting the garden at all...because all the leaves fell off!"  After careful consideration, she decided the best thing to do was to build the fairies their own shovel to clean up the garden!  She decided a small plastic spoon would do the trick!  Below is a picture of the finished product!

Before you peruse the video that follows you must know that NO MOMMIES OR UNBORN BABIES WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS VIDEO! You also must know that less than a week prior to this video I feel on the ice and bruised my knee!  I've been hobbling around and whining about it ever since!  O.K., now you can watch the video below where Maggie discovers that the fairies did indeed visit her garden in the winter and the addition of the shovel helped tremendously in cleaning up the "disaster" that was once her garden!

We did some sledding in the last couple of days of Christmas Break!  Here are a few highlights