1 Boy + 1 Boy + 1 Boy + 1 BOY = 4 BOYS!

We're thrilled to know that we'll have our 4th sweet bundle of frogs and snails and puppy-dog tails!  Can you believe it, really what are the odds!  Pretty cool and unique and a lot of trouble if you ask me!! :)  Now that the initial shock (I called it, but you never know for sure until it's official)  is over and my life as a mom with 4 boys has sunk in, I can't stop smiling and shaking my head.  This is no mistake that God gave us this combination, and I can't wait to see how His perfect plan is going to shape our family.  Sure there were some moments, like right when we clearly SAW within seconds that it was a boy that 'everything stopped', but it was quick, and to learn that we have a super healthy baby boy on the way, and 3 very excited older brothers was enough to put everything into perspective. 

The hardest part for me is what I originally worried about when even having number 4, and that was other's reactions to not being equally excited for another boy. Because most people see a "complete" family has both genders, so they assume that without both this was a disappointment. I know people don't mean to act that way, but that is the part that sucks, because just as crazy, happy, and excited we were to be blessed with our first boy, this special baby is no different. So yes we are EXCITED, HAPPY, and haven't skipped a beat! YAY for healthy boys!!!

Oh my goodness the boys were hilarious in the ultrasound, just Crew and Brody went.  They love the Star Wars movie, Ewoks Battle of Endor, and Syndal is the girl character, and Wickit is their favorite Ewok. So for the past couple weeks it was going to be Syndal or Wickit. Brody was still on wanting a girl, and Crew a boy, so they were chanting out their names the whole way into Bellingham.  When they knew it was a "Wickit" Brody was totally happy, and even though Crew was pulling for a boy he decided he wanted to change his mind.  "Mom, I decided that maybe we should have a girl instead... there are enough boys in this family and I don't want you to be the only girl!"  My heart was sad for a second, and then I said, you know buddy I have 4 awesome boys that will be kind enough to their mom to marry 4 amazing daughter in laws and that will be so much fun!  And you may have a girl someday Crew, what do you think about that?  "Mom I am not having a girl, no way! Girls have babies, not boys..."  Now he can't stop talking about his baby brother! 

So for now the baby is Wickit (cute isn't it?), and I am trying to relay to the boys that is okay to call him that now, but we really need to find him a name we can call him when he is out of mommy's tummy.  So next step on our list is a name, the hard part, especially to fit with Crew, Brody, Kyler....hmmm  if you have any suggestions let me know!  I can now officially start planning for HIM and am starting to find how much stuff we actually need, it is almost like starting over after the boys being so hard on all the gear, and Crew will be 6.5 when he gets here so a lot my baby stuff has seen better days.  Let the fun and shopping again begin!  Wait it already has, Wickit needed some new outfits too!

Our family is COMPLETE with 4 boys and we can't even to begin to imagine what our family is in for! We are unique, full of energy, and loving life!  Please keep us in your prayers as we are hoping for a healthy and HAPPY baby to get lots of snuggles and sleep with... ha!

Razz Fest!

What a fun time of year, the Raspberry Festival!  It's a huge 3 on 3 tournament downtown Lynden with basketball for all ages and plenty of craft booths, treats, and fun things for the kids to do.  Starting last year Crew was old enough to start playing in it, so knowing what was coming this year he was geared up to play and have a fun time with his buddies! 

Here is a little pregame pic with my boys, all ready to go and support Cruiser!  Little did we know that his first two morning games would be in a complete down pour, not fun for the fans, but the boys ended up doing pretty well considering they were drenched and they were bouncing balls threw puddles!

Kys is always copying his brothers-- another reason why Crew being the oldest hasn't helped control our wild and crazy household!

So sweet

The two Lynden teams met up first game--Crew, Westyn, Brody, Charlie, Brady, Cooper, Lane, and Brant, can't wait to watch these boys grow up.  What a nice group!

Same game time action

Coach Chris and Cruiser

Hanging out and running around in between games was just as fun!

Just one of our happiest fans--  Cousin Bryce!

Crew, Westyn, Lane, and Brant!

We even got to play our Lyncs rivals, ha, with Chris and Josh coaching, and lots of cute little boys playing, it was a fun game to watch!

The next day we came back with Stacey, Taylor, and Cole to do some of the kid festivities.  It didn't last long because of our temperamental sweet child, Mr. Kys wasn't digging the stroller, and wouldn't agree to the boundaries...So jammed packed some activities in real quick and were home within 30 minutes, ha!

Rock wall 3 tries for $5 per kid

Jump House $3 per kid for 10 minutues

Full face pace painting per kid $8

A bowl of ice cream with fresh raspberries $1 per kid (deal!!!)

Listening to Kyler scream for 20 minutes straight in his loud obnoxious way, PRICELESS!!!!!!

Cruiser braving the rock wall

Brodes, Cole, & Ky

Can you really believe that Brody chose spiderman?

Ky and Tay

Cole, Crew, Brodes--their faces turned out great!

Josh and Stacey came to our house after and we bbq'd and hung out, fun day, and always interesting when getting all the kids together!  Next year Brodes and Cole can play in the Razz fest too, now that should be interesting!!

Boy or Girl?

Tomorrow is the day we find out if I will be completely out numbered or not! :)

Since the day we announced we were pregnant with number 4, the guesses began, and it seems like everyone is very open about wanting us to have a girl.  Which I know is part of the pregnancy thing, I am the queen of guessing and giving my opinions, and wanting to know what others are having (I love everything about people having babies!)...  But I NEVER wanted this pregnancy, our forth child, to feel like they were decided on because we wanted to see if we could get "our girl".  I know people don't mean to put pressure on it, because I can totally see how awesome it is for people to experience raising both boys and girls, and they in return just want us to have and experience the same joys that they do, because that's what they know and were given.  Complete strangers have their comments and best wishes, and I know its only natural to tell a mom with 3 boys that you hope she gets "her girl"...  But from the years before we even knew we would have four, I knew deep down in my heart that God was going to bless us with four boys, or all boys for that matter.

God has been preparing my heart for some time on this, and it seems so ironic how many boy moms I have come across in the last 4 months, it is pretty interesting to see how many families whether its 2-4 kids are all the same gender.  How cool and unique is 4 boys really?  I know there has got to be a club out there somewhere! :) My dreams are all very real of this being a boy, and God has really given me a calming peace about being a mom with all boys. And most of all being okay with not experiencing the girl thing, and the different experiences that come from that.   Sometimes I get hung up on and a little emotional on how much a daugther would change Chris' world, and for the boys to have a little sister to protect, and learn how to treat properly.... But then I step back and get real, there is a BIGGER picture in this life, and getting past those little emotional things about a girl has really helped me just feel very content and excited for this sweet little baby that is growing inside of me.

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
On so many different levels in life we will never know "why" here on Earth, (I mean how many Price boys do we really need, ha!)  But in all seriousness I just feel so very special that God has chosen me to have another baby, and what His plan is for this baby. After all, we may think we know what is best for us, or our family, but God's plan is PERFECT.  I know I am talking like I know it's a boy (yes I am that confident) and I am so excited to have that official confirmation tomorrow and be able to say "4 BOYS!!!!!".  My prayer this pregnancy has been all along, for a healthy and happy baby, and I would love to be able to fully enjoy our last baby, and be able to take it all in.  For some reason the only memory I have of being a mom to a newborn was survival mode with a screaming baby... :)

For those of your still holding your breath for a girl--I will be shocked!!  Please pray for a healthy baby in that ultrasound tomorrow!

Catchup!

So I realize that July is flying by and my pictures are stacking up-- so I promise to get some new posts up today, tomorrow, and hopefully be all caught up by the end of the week!  I am going to be back dating things so check back for updates!  Hope everyone is having an awesome summer :)

Summer Lovin!

Summer is flying by, it seems weird that we are already planning back to school shopping and supplies.  The weather has been a lot better in July, so we have been out and about going to the parks, playing outside in the pool, slipping slide, sprinklers, bey blades, basketball, baseball, and lots of time with the neighbor kids.  Trying to keep up with these boys is the hard part, they are always ready for the next adventure!

They have earned their baths these days, you know your day was a success when the bath water is brown and they are scrubbing down!  One thing that comes with dirty summer days, is late summer nights and we are kind of getting use to this schedule of staying up late and even sleeping in some mornings.  I guess we will be back to reality soon enough!

Lots of park mornings, Shane had all the kids on the teeter totter one morning

We get in our dad time as soon as he walks in the door, KyKy for how much he is a mama's boy this kid gets really pumped up to see his dad and asks for him a lot throughout the day. 

We had Wade and Karli's going away party and the kids got to play with all the kids--Cole and Brodes

The 3 girls!

Nothings screams summer like ice cream!  Joelle surprised all the kiddos with mini blizzards one night, yum yum!

Since the beginning of summer the boys have been in Sandlot mode! They ask almost every day to watch the movie, Kyler's first thing when he wakes up is "Sanyat".  They barely get into the first 15 minutes of the movie and then they are off grabbing their mitts and balls to play some catch.  Brody still gets pretty frustrated with being able to catch the ball consistently, but  Crew is getting getting it down.  They will never say no to playing catch, they love baseball!

"You play ball like a GIRL!" and many other quotes from the movie are commonly used around the house.

Crew got to go to the Jump Start Basketball camp the week after school got out, he had his buddy Brady and Lane there too.  They had fun and maybe even learned a thing or two!  Next  year Brody gets to go along too and he is excited about that!

Well we are looking forward to Crescent Bar coming up very soon, and of course our summer highlight of the FAIR, our countdown is getting closer!  Looking forward to making more summer memories with the kiddos! 

Potty Training-- Round 1 of ?

Potty Training--those two words are like fingers on a chalk board, I just shutter at the idea of doing this a third time, and knowing that there will be yet another round with #4.  I know there are those stories out there of those kids that supposedly just potty trained themselves, or once they put on underwear they never had another accident.  That parent that says, well just keep putting them the toilet every 30 minutes, or make it really fun and make it a game, be consistent and don't give up! Have you ever heard of putting cheerios or fruit loops to aim at in the toilet? Or that parent that asks me.... Just bribe him with candy!?  Seriously you don't think I've tried that?  I had a "candy bar" of all you could eat candy if you would just go ONCE! :)  So yes I would pay big money to have my child leave for a weekend and come back diaper free.

Maybe stubborn parents produce stubborn kids?  Probably.  After all Crew and Brody were 3 before they got it and when I say "got it" it wasn't overnight, it was long hard days, and we did everything we did from charts with stickers, to candy, reading potty training books,to consistency, to positive reinforcement, to potty dances you name it before they finally decided when THEY were ready.  Key word THEY.  So if one more parent tells me my kid was potty trained at two and it wasn't that big of a deal, I might scream.

So yet again I thought well I got this down, Kyler your up buddy boy, it's Monday and you WILL be potty trained by Friday.  Hahaha.  Talk about the battle of the stubborn people.  Me vs. Kyler, guess who won?  After 5 days of hard core, me and him, potty chair, treats, on the toilet every 20 minutes, lots of crying, and just wanting his diaper back on....Winner is Kyler.  So bummed because I almost feel like I wasted 5 days of my life sitting there trying to make this fun, and not lose my patience, and remain super positive.  We had spouts of sitting on the toilet for anywhere to 20-80 minutes in one sitting before he would eventually lose small battles and "go".  He NEVER once in those 5 days told me he had to go, or would go before 20 minutes of sitting there.  Keep in mind I have a 4 and 6 year old that are not wanting to sit around and WAIT for Kys to "go" either.  Although we did our darnedest to make it a group effort, we all cheered, we all celebrated together with M&M parties, and high fives, and called dad when it did happen, but I guess it just wasn't the right time, because HE wasn't quite ready to make the call and do this. 
So we called it Round 1 and left it at that...I really wanted him to be potty trained before we went on vacation again because swim diapers aren't allowed in the big pool....  We will try again maybe in a couple weeks.  One positive thing since this though is he wants to be changed RIGHT away if he goes number 2, so I know he is probably close to not wanting diapers, but we will see when HE DECIDES the time has come.  Patience, there doesn't seem to be enough to go around these days :)

For now here are some pics from Round 1:  I don't even want to add up the time we spent together sitting on the potty chair for 5 days, but none the less, call it Mama and Kys bonding time!

Taking subs for Round 2, any takers?

Happy Birthday Chris & Bill

We celebrated Bill and Chris' big 33rd birthdays by going out and doing a picnic lunch at the BP Rec place, and then coming back to the Mart's to BBQ that night and let the kids play.   A day packed full of festivities that's for sure.  Court, Shane, and Kendallita joined us at the park too! 

 We really need to take advantage of this place more--so much fun, wide open space to camp, play on multiple playgrounds, basketball/sports court, big covered BBQ area, and much more!  Now that I have my own official BP badge I can go out there anytime!  Fun!

 Birthday boy you may be just a little too big, don't you think?

That night we came back and made Teriyaki Chicken/Pineapple and veggie Kabobs that were delish!  The kids wore us old parents out to say the least, but we had a blast, and always have a great time with the Marti Party. 

No birthday is complete without a DQ ice cream cake, even when you are 33!

All wild kiddos- Brodes, Mart, Hai, Kys, Cruiser, and Dane--SO EXCITED to watch the dads blow out the candles and sing happy birthday

Birthday boys!

Group effort to get the candles all blown out

Blanket wrestling

It's all fun--until someone gets hurt!

Shadow poses-- Bill and Brodes

We had a fun day!  With Chris wrapping up his project at work it will be nice to have more summer days like this.  No more 6 days a week (65+ hours)!  Its been a long 8 weeks and we are excited for some much needed time off and family days and vacations!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD DADS!

Swimming with Teacher Shannon

We LOVE teacher Shannon! She has been a life saver for our boys and learning how to swim!  Brody did a couple rounds with her at Homestead this winter and we had a very rough go with him, he can be VERY stubborn and was so scared of the water, so coming into these summer lessons I was very nervous to see how he would respond because after crying 90% of the last lessons I didn't really want to battle that again.  To my SURPRISE he did AWESOME!  We prepped him days ahead of time, and starting with Day 1 he was a completely different kid in the water, and after about 5 or 6 lessons, he changed again and was even jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder by himself!  A MIRACLE!
Teacher Shannon just does such a wonderful job with these kids, they love her, and that makes the biggest difference when wanting to see them get better and improve their swimming skills.

YEAH BRODES!

Brody can hold his breath for 14 seconds, awesome.

You got it buddy your swimming ALL BY YOURSELF!

He has got his dad in him here, really evaluating the situation and just a little scared about what might happen....

Diving board, this is fun stuff!  Why did I wait SO LONG to try it?? :)

Ok...seriously, head first now?  Whose kid are you?

Now this little monster, he was a game changer in the whole swimming lesson thing.  See I was smart enough to drop him off with Nana (who lives right by Teacher Shannon) all the other days except the LAST day of lessons when I actually wanted to get some pics.  This guy wanted to go in the pool, throw things into the pool, sit on my lap, get off my lap, GO HOME he kept yelling, and when I brought him to the play area he hijacked it to the neighbors house... There is one word to describe this strong willed child of ours---INTENSE.  Oh yes he can be very happy and sweet, in the right environment, but take him out of his comfort areas, he is hell on wheels!  He is one speed, and you better bring your running shoes!  Chris makes fun of me, because honestly I can barely catch him these days!

So poor Cruiser, didn't really get too many pics of him showing off his very much improved swimming skills because Kys and I were doing "other" things.  But this kid is really taking off in his ability to swim.  First of all he LOVES swimming, was totally pumped every single day to go.  He learned to swim on his own without anything, and feels confident swimming in the deep end and is able to get to the sides if need be.  He did an excellent job of listening, and trying his very best.  Made him mom very proud, it's so fun to see hard work pay off!  Good job CRUISER!

Working on the front stroke!

Love this boy!

Now we are super excited to go back to Crescent Bar again and see what 10 straight days off swimming can do to help them feel more confident in the pool and have a ton of fun!  Thank you so much teacher Shannon, you truly are the best at what you do!!!