Birthdayness

Fall is a time of pure "Birthdayness" at our house. Ally kicks us off in August and we all follow suit in each succeeding fall month. September was my month. I may or may not have entered a new decade that starts with "T" and rhymes with "squirty." I spent the first half of 2010 denying said birthday but by the time it rolled around, I had fully embraced it. I finally feel like I've arrived into adulthood. I think we spend most of our twenties figuring ourselves out: what we like, what we don't like, what comes easily to us and what we should stop pretending we can do (ahem...like cooking.)
So, anyway I'm enjoying this new decade as I have embraced who I am and have stopped stressing about who I am not.
One thing I am, is crazy about my entire family. For day one of my birthday celebration, we went to one of our favorite places: the Zoo.
And can I help it if everywhere I go people stare at my beautiful children? I mean, who wouldn't? (See what I mean about 30? Now that I don't care what anyone thinks I'm just saying it like I think it.)




Days 2 and 3 of my celebration were spent with Brent in Leavenworth for their Autumn Festival. It was a great time to be there to kick off the spirit of fall and most importantly spend time together without any interruptions. I didn't even take my cell phone. Our families helped watch our kids so we could get away. Of course, we both left our cameras with our kids so, no pics. I was so mad! I actually did my hair and had makeup on, but oh well. So it goes...


We celebrated Brent's birthday in October. Brent spent it fishing with his Dad at a special river that I cannot name for fear their sweet spot will be known to all those fishermen out there who frequent my blog.
The boys are OBSESSED with blowing out candles. (Apparently pyromania is inherent in the Y chromosome.) I can't count how many times we lit the candles...




Keith and Cole celebrated their 3rd birthday this week as we entered November. Can anyone else believe that it is November?!!!
I must post many pictures or run the risk of losing my inheritance and being thrust out of the family circle of trust. You wouldn't believe the scathing emails and voicemails I'm receiving from my sisters right now...
So, here goes...





















The boys are thrilled with their Buzz bikes. They spend all their waking moments in the garage trying to figure out how to pedal. They are doing way better than I thought they would, so it's only a matter of time before we're out on a family bike ride.





































































The only problem with that is that until the boys' birthday, Brent didn't own a bike. Don't worry, Brent took care of that. He decided to come home on their birthday with a little something for himself. Doesn't this little baby look awesome parked in our garage? It's currently sandwiched between his brother's dirtbike and his dad's dirtbike. I am told they will not all be hanging out in the garage forever. Don't worry, I stopped believing him long ago...:) I'm a mature adult now, remember?
One problem about this bike is that we might have a little trouble pedaling to keep up with him, you think?

I feel I must defend Cole's ridiculous pajamas in these birthday pictures. He absolutely insists on wearing pajamas all day and all night and not just any pair, it's either his dinosaur ones or these penguin ones that were in a pile to go into the attic because they are a size 18 month. Once he saw them of course he had to have them. Wait. Let me rephrase that: once he knew I didn't want him to have them, of course he had to have them and now he wears them 95% of the time. But, since he's officially doing this...

I can't complain. He can wear just about anything else he wants as long as he's wearing underwear. And the helmet? Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go--no time for particulars. :) (We made him hold the towel since this is a family-friendly blog)


These pictures were taken the morning after Keith and Cole's birthday. I eat birthday cake for breakfast the day after my birthday. Why shouldn't they? If you look closely, there is a banana in the photo. I tried...

It's all part of the birthdayness celebration.

Stay tuned for more on Halloween and other fall festivities. I know you're all on pins and needles...

Overheard

If you were a fly on our walls, you would have heard the following within the last week:

Brent: "Keith, don't cry. If Cole punches you, just punch him back. Crying won't help you."











Cole: "I smell like a puppy dog, Keith."
Keith: "I smell like a puppy dog, too."

Cole: "Are you pushing the shopping cart, Keith?"
Keith: "It's the 'food of generosity'".

Me: (at 8:30 a.m.) "Eat your cupcake first, Keith. Then you can get down and play.


Brent: (over dinner and surprised) "This is really good, Darc--it looks like dog food, but I like it."

Cole: "I'm saving Keith and Ally! I don't want them to get burned up. I'm saving them from the dragon!"


Cole: "Time-out makes me tired."

Cole: "Mom, can you go clean the kitchen?" (Translation: Mom, can you go away so I can look for trouble?)

Cole: "My earrings are falling out." (he means head phones)


Keith: "I want to listen to Tarzan on my head cones."


Ally: "Yeah!" In answer to any question, this is how she responds. She also loves to say "Hi" to everyone and anyone.
And she has added, "What's that?" (sounds like 'essaaaat') as she points to things about 1,000 times a day and expects an answer every time.

Keith: "Do you want to come sleep on the bottom with me, Cole?"
Cole: "Yeah, Keith. I want to come sleep on the bottom with you."
We just got bunkbeds for the boys, so everyone is adjusting to this change which includes an enormous lack of sleep. But the boys are sooo excited and spend hours climbing up and down on their new ladder.

Keith: (just waking up from a nap) "I'm all sweaty. I'm sweaty like Dada."

Cole: "My fingers are in my ears."
Me: "Why are your fingers in your ears?"
Cole: "Because my head is open."

Look Who's One

Rather than make excuses for my 2 month blog-hiatus, I'm just going to delve into today's reason for celebrating: Baby Ally's Birthday. If my only daughter's first birthday can't bring me back into the blogosphere, what else will?

The festivities began yesterday when Buck and Emily were able to have cake and open presents with us.

(Emily scored extra points with Ally for giving her some licorice. As if Ally needs any more reasons to be crazy about Emily.)


Ally was way more interested in bouncing on top of the wrapped presents than finding out what was inside, but Keith was eager to help show her how to tear off the paper so eventually she was able to get to the goods. (Cole in the picture). She was spoiled rotten as usual by Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, Aunts, honorary aunts, and a soon-to-be-aunt. Needless to say, Ally is well-loved. As are all of her new toys by Keith and Cole, who spent the better part of today fighting over who got to push around her new pink shopping cart and who gets to push the pink buttons on her new Little People house and who gets to build with the pink and purple blocks in her princess carriage.

I debated as to whether or not I should post this picture for fear it would haunt Brent's dreams--as if it's not enough that Cole wants to have a "Princess Party" or insists on drinking out of Ally's "Princess" sippy cup. To watch Brent squirm when Cole talks about princesses is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It absolutely cracks me up. Here, Keith has commandeered the shopping cart, but you can see that Cole is closing fast.

In addition to breaking up fights, I spent the morning attempting to give Ally a fresh new look for her special day. After several failed attempts at pigtails, she ended up with this rather Bam-Bam-ish pony on top of her head that didn't even last through her morning nap. Sometimes I question if I'm fit to be the mother of a girl. I just pray she can do her own hair soon. Lucky for her, she has some really cute little curls going on, so that usually distracts people from noticing that her mother is truly lacking in the hairstyling skill department.

In a rare moment today (and only because I was peeling both brothers off of her) Ally got to push around her shopping cart. The training of shopping starts early and is taken seriously in this family. I'm sure Ally has it in her genes to keep up with her Smart aunties. Don't worry ladies, training day is here. Ally is taking several steps on her own now. It won't be long before she takes each store by storm. Look, she can already wave and push her cart at the same time--a born multi-tasker.

In true Ally-fashion, bedtime was prolonged for the fifth day in a row, due to the fact that she is a true party animal. I foolishly tried to put her to bed before her brothers. She goes down like a champ if her brothers are already in bed, but anytime I try to put her down first, she fights hard and simply refuses to go to bed. Ally has to be the most persistent and determined little person I know. If she wants something, she finds a way to get it. She doesn't care what she has to climb over, under or through and she doesn't care whose elbow, fist or foot she has to endure, she finds a way to get what she wants. I love her for that and I fear her for that.

Tonight as I reflected on this day a year ago, I couldn't help but be grateful that it's August 9, 2010 instead of August 9, 2009. Partly because I wouldn't want to endure the post-partum recovery and sleep schedule again, but mostly because I'm so grateful for the last 365 days I've been able to spend with this little lady. She makes me smile every day. And even though I've been known to refer to her in certain circles as Ally Oops, I can't imagine my life and our family without her. She was meant to be in our family and it just seems like she's always been with us. Her face literally lights me up. Keith and Cole are equally enamored with her, as evidenced by their constant squeezes, smacks, kisses, kicks, petting and punching. They are always asking, "Where's Baby Ally?" and begging for her to come play on the couch with them. Considering the picture below depicts a typical "couch game", is it any wonder Ally has begun to shy away from participating?

Brent has already informed me that he will have no part in disciplining her. He claims he renders himself completely incapable of doing such a thing. He is utterly smitten with her and cannot even walk by her without smothering her in kisses. So, wish me luck as the toddler stage looms and pray for me when she turns 13. I'm on my own.

At any rate, we don't know where we'd be without each of our three babies. Although after looking at these pictures today I realize that I cannot really classify them as babies anymore...Swallow...Sigh...Smile.

Bring on Boston!!

This is my first blog entry, but since I know Darc would never put anything about herself on here, I felt the need to inform her loyal followers of the level of awesomeness she displayed yesterday at the Newport Marathon.

Darcee finished her first Marathon in 3 hours and 31 minutes, earning her a qualifying spot at the Boston Marathon in 2011. To put that in perspective, she ran 26.2 miles and averaged about 8 minutes per mile. I have been running a little bit too. I average 10 minutes per mile when I go on my long runs of about 3 miles. Darc ran 26.2 miles at an 8 minute clip. This should clear up any questions about why I don't run with her.

Her time of 3:31 was good enough to place 4th in her division and 11th overall out of about 300+ women in the race. I haven't done the official math yet, but I believe her time puts her in the top 40 of all 800+ runners in the race, men included. Did I mention this was her first marathon? Did I also mention that she had a baby 8 months ago and has trained relentlessly through the cold and rainy Portland winter, despite averaging 5-6 hours a night of sporadic sleep?

For those that care, I'll give you the play by play. Thanks to Emily and Grandpa and Grandma Burnett for staying with the kids, Darc and I were able to go over to Newport on Friday evening so that Darc could relax a little bit before the race started the next morning.

The race started at 7am in Yaquina Bay State Park on a beautiful crystal clear morning on the Oregon coast.

Darc was pretty nervous throughout the week, but by the time the race started, she had her game face on and was ready to take it to the streets of Newport.

Darc ran hard and fast from start to finish, undoubtedly being inspired by the "Marathon Mix" iPod playlist that I created for her the night before. Michael Jackson's "Beat It" was the lead off song. I knew there was a risk of her starting too fast with a lead off song with that much power, but it was a risk I was willing to take. She managed to control the fury and keep her pace over the entire race.

This guy, like many others, was wishing she'd controlled the fury a little more, since she passed him at mile 17 like he was standing still. I heckled him as she went past, "hey, 833, that's my wife that just passed you!" "This is her first marathon!" "She has 3 kids at home, including an 8 month old!" "What's your excuse?"

I'm kidding, there was no verbal heckling, the look of shame on his face said enough. I'll send him this picture though and tell him not to be ashamed since Darc beat most of the other men in the race too and that making Darcee's highlight reel should be considered an honor. Seriously though, can you believe this girl had run 17 miles at this point?

Darc kicked it into high gear after mile 17 and made up ground on a lot of the weaker runners in the race. She proudly told me after the race that nobody passed her after mile 15, but that between miles 15-26, she passed a lot of the women (and men) who had started out ahead of her.

I knew she had to get in before 3:40 to qualify for Boston, so as the clock crossed 3:30 I started to get really nervous. I hadn't seen her since mile 17 and was worried that she may have suffered a setback at the tail end of the race. Much to my relief, she came across the finish line at 3:31 to the raucous cheers of her fan club (Me, Cole, Keith, Ally, Grandpa and Grandma Burnett, Clint, Julie, Wee Man, and Buck and Emily). It was so great to have them down to cheer her on. Not only did it mean a lot to Darcee, but they were all so much help with the kids so that I could focus on being Darcee's coach, mentor and inspiration (I'm sure Darc would use those same words to describe me).

Anyway, after crossing the finish the line, Darcee still had the energy to snap photos with me and the kids.

Darc will undoubtedly be embarassed by my shameless bragging, but I honestly could not have been prouder of her today and can't wait to watch her run in the historic Boston Marathon next April.