Happy Birthday Ciara!

This:

to this:

to this:

That went fast! Happy 4th birthday Ciara. I thought you were the craziest kid I’d ever met. But then I met your sister. Love you princess!

crazy eights.

Neil and I our celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary today! I cannot believe it’s been eight years already!
Seems like just yesterday we were only 19 and dating…
Ahhh, those were the days.
What were we, like, 12, when got married? No, I think we were at least 21, but it sure seems like a long time ago.
We may have been young, but we weren’t dumb. Marrying Neil was the best thing I ever did. Eight years later and we’re still happy (who would have thought!?). We have three beautiful boys (again, who would have thought?- I was sure I would have three girls and then a boy). I was telling Neil yesterday how sometimes I look at our life and think- “How did this happen? Where did all these responsibilities come from? How did we get all these kids? How did we get to be almost 30 so fast? Where did the time go? This is insane. Our life is in.sane.” But I mean it in the best way possible. There’s no one else I’d rather do this life with, even if it is crazy sometimes. Well, all of the time lately. Neil is a wonderful husband, the best I ever could have asked for, and a fantastic dad. He exceeds my expectations. I feel so blessed to be married to Neil. I am excited for what the rest of our lives will bring us (Kids that sleep in maybe? Hey, it’s the simple things in life I look forward to right now). As I sit here typing away Seth and Ben are tearing apart the basement in search of their favorite books (“what this one said Mom?”) and Oliver is crying that he’s starving. Again. But that’s our life, and it’s a happy one.
I love you Neil. A whole lot. Happy Anniversary!

Kitchen Renos, continued.

It’s been a long while since we did anything in our kitchen. Like a long, long while. But we did recently purchase some tile for the backsplash, and this weekend Neil put it up. And it looks AWESOME.
Here’s a shot of Seth helping Neil out:
And here’s a shot of the finished product (well, almost finished- it still needs grout- maybe next year…)

Our kitchen has come a LOOOOONG way. If you forgot how bad it was, you can revisit this old post for a look. Wow, I love our new kitchen so much better. And so does Neil. Great job Neil!

Grammy’s house.

Neil was in Vancouver for a couple days, so I packed up the kids and headed to Grammy’s. Alissa and Adam and the kids were there for the day. The boys love playing with their cousins. Seth was so excited to swim in the pool and I think he helped Ciara gain a little confidence swimming too. Emery jumped in on her own- poor Grammy had to jump in the pool fully clothed to rescue her. Everyone had a fun swim even with their teeth chattering!
The babies didn’t swim, but they did have a very cute little nap together!

Alissa wanted to take Seth home with her for a few days (I think she’s crazy, but she’s also my hero!). So the next couple days at my mom’s were probably the quietest I’ve experienced in, say, 4 years. It was really nice! Ben asked where Seth was a few times and I told him Seth was in Pine Dock with Aunty Alissa. Ben said “I want to go to Pinecone one day.” Anyway since we had so few children around, my mom hauled out a huge puzzle for us to do. Once I was fully engrossed in the puzzle she announced that “she’s not really into puzzles”. So here I have this 2000 piece puzzle that I’m working at like a CRAZY person. Seriously, I didn’t care if Oliver was crying and needed to be fed- I was doing a puzzle for goodness’ sake! Even with the help of one of my mom’s friends- a serious puzzle lover like myself- we could not get it done before I had to head back home.
Hopefully mom and dad can find a way to transfer it off the table so I can work on it when I’m back there next time. Anyway, it was sure a fun, relaxing couple days! (And I have to say, I was a little worried about having to “entertain” Ben without Seth around. But Ben did great, and clearly I underestimated the amount of time I spend breaking up fights between those two- it was SOOO quiet without Seth! Thanks for the break Alissa! You are awesome!).

Camping.

We went camping last weekend. Yes, Neil and I took a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 6 week old camping. In a tent. AND…
we had fun!
Even though I spent almost the entire weekend doing this:
or carrying Oliver around like this (seriously I think Oliver has spent more time in the cuddly wrap in 6 weeks than Ben and Seth did in their whole lives):

Oliver wasn’t the biggest fan of doing anything besides eating, really.
But we still had a lot of fun. Neil set up the campsite pretty much by himself since I was pretty tied down with Oliver.
We bought a dining tent so we wouldn’t be eaten alive by the mosquitoes.
The kids wouldn’t nap but they did sleep at night (one not as well as the other- SETH you stinker). After they fell asleep I tucked them into their sleeping bags…

Ben at least slept all night and believe it or not both kids slept in until 7:40!! That is almost unheard of for our kids! Anyway, good morning boys- you are very, very cute.


In the morning we packed up a picnic and walked/biked/wagon’d to the beach. It was a beautiful morning! We spent some time at the playground first. They have this thing you sit in that spins around. Neil tried it out and thought it was fun, until he thought he might throw up.

Seth didn’t last too long at all, but Benji LOVED it. Check out this face!Ben actually DID throw up! But he still wanted to go again.

I took a picture of Neil and the kids- it was father’s day after all.
I think this picture sums up our life on most days lately:

After the playground we hit the beach. The kids and Neil caught tadpoles, played in the sand, and ate ice cream. I mostly nursed Oliver and did nothing else. Except I ate ice cream too.What a great weekend! We’ll be doing it again soon- we have a campsite booked for the first weekend in August. Hopefully Oliver is a little better at sleeping on his own by then. If not, I’ll still think he’s cute, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

the red team.

Seth’s first year of soccer, playing for the Mini Knights Red team, is officially over. He played 2 games a week for the last 6 weeks. Using the word “played” is being a bit generous, but I think he had fun anyway. The first 3 weeks Neil was on the soccer field more than Seth was (Neil was quickly promoted to assistant coach- way to go Neil!). Seth eventually did venture out onto the field, where he spent the games twirling around or lifting his shirt over his head or blowing spit bubbles, that sort of thing. Seth did actually participate in at least one game- he actually kicked the ball and made a save as goalie! But that was a only a one-time thing. Oh well, what matters is that he had fun- and it’s over now, thank goodness!
So last night was the Mini Knights soccer wind-up. Seth was presented with his medal and then there was food and games. It was pretty fun.
Seth actually sat and got his face painted for the first time in his life (usually he starts wiping it off before the face painter is even done).Then the team moved on to some good old fashioned sack races. I am sad to report that Seth was terribly pathetic at this. Clearly we need to practice jumping in a forward motion. It was pretty hilarious though. After that there was some ball tosses and goal kicking and that sort of thing. Everyone got a treat after each game. One of the treats was a sour soother, and Seth was generous enough to share a bite with his little brother Ben. I’m so glad he did, because it was pretty funny…
We finished up the evening with a tug-of-war, coaches against kids.
The coaches tried hard,but the kids won

Great job Seth! Can’t wait till next year!

Swimming lessons.

Seth finished his first round of real swimming lessons on Sunday. He had 8 classes, although he missed 2 of them. Of the remaining 6, approximately 4 were spent screaming or crying for at least half of the lesson. I took Seth to his last lesson because Neil just couldn’t take it anymore. The two other kids in Seth’s class couldn’t make it, so it was just Seth and his teacher. And he rocked it! I was so proud of him watching him listen so well to his teacher (why doesn’t he listen that well to me?). He did what she asked and swam so well! He’s going to be a great swimmer one day pretty soon, but for now we are all more than happy that swimming lessons are done and we will have our Sunday afternoons back again.

Great job Seth! We’re so proud of you!

first!

I feel like I’ve been waiting FOREVER for this first. Oliver’s a little behind when it comes to Moran babies and smiling, but on Monday he finally did it! He gave us his first real smiles! AND the best part was I just happened to be snapping pictures of him anyway. I seriously almost started crying- I feel like I really needed a smile out of that kid ASAP or I was going to trade him in for a happier model. But just in time…
Oliver, I think I will keep you after all. (I think I’ve said this before…)

Lonely.

I miss you, blog. I think about you often but I just can’t find the time anymore. This new baby is a bit of a demanding one. He doesn’t like to be put down. He’s kind of cramping my style a bit, even if he is super cute. I’m used to having my evenings all to myself. Now I usually spend a good part of, if not the whole entire, evening breastfeeding. Like, literally. That kid can nurse from 5:30- 10:30 pm straight, with only a few minutes rest in between. I think he’s finally asleep and try to lay him down, anywhere, it doesn’t matter, he wakes up 3 1/2 minutes later. He insists on being held almost all the time. Little stinker. Although last night and today he’s actually had some LONG stretches of sleep (like over 2 hours!!) in the swing. Believe me, we’ve tried the swing over and over again, but last night I thought, “Hey, maybe I’ll turn the swing thing-y so that it swings side-to-side instead of front-to-back”. Maybe this was the miracle cure? I doubt it but I sure have enjoyed the extra time to myself today. I even FINALLY finished an apron I’ve been sewing. Normally it would have taken me about an hour and a half. It’s taken me a week and a half. Oh well, I can handle the lack of “me” time if this is who I get to hang out with.

Help me Mom!

Those were the words I heard the other day. I came to help and found: