The Many Faces of Toby

This kid is absolutely hilarious.  We get comments all the time about how cute he is, how funny he is, how happy he is, how animated he is.....and they're all true!  He's got quite the personality.  Toby will be 21 months old this week and doesn't say much (maybe a handful of words, what you would expect normally around 12 months), but what he lacks in vocabulary he makes up for in personality.  

And dimples.  Oh, the dimples!

See for yourself :)

Zach is five months!

That baby who's looking at me is so stinkin' cute.

October: Halloween

As soon as we got back from California, it was Halloween. (Literally.  We got back on Sunday and Halloween was the next day.)  For some reason this year I got a wild hair and decided to make the boys' costumes.  Nathan wanted to be a superhero so I decided that they could all be superheroes.  It wasn't too hard because Nathan already had the mask and shield he needed, so we went from there.

I bought a couple of shirts and looked at a lot of pictures of the superheroes online and made a plan.

Can you figure out who they are???

And can you tell that the costumes significantly decrease in complexity from oldest to youngest?  (Zach's was not made by me!)

If you haven't figured it out, here's the answer.  Nathan is Captain America, Isaac is Ironman, Toby is Green Lantern, and Zach was Spiderman.  A good, SAFE time was had by all :)

October: California!

In October we went to to California to celebrate Grandma Brock's 90th birthday.  Most people might find it absolutely nuts to take a family of six, whose children range from 6 weeks to 5 years, on a cross-country flight to stay for four days.  And those people would be right.  It was crazy.  But there was no way we were going to miss it.  Jimmy and I have a very close relationship with his grandparents.  Though he grew up 3,000 miles away from them, he moved to California for college and that's when an already close relationship really grew.  Then I moved out there, fell in love with them, and we went to visit them every chance we got.  We've been back to California once a year since we moved in 2008.

Grandma Brock is someone I would be more than happy to emulate in this life.  She is a godly woman who loves her family and her husband so well.  She has the ability to make every grandchild and great-grandchild feel like the favorite.  She made Jimmy a quilt for our wedding that is stunning--and she didn't even follow a pattern!  She's very talented.  I'm so glad that we got to go, even though the logistics of the trip were kind of crazy :)

Great-Grandpa and Nathan playing Wii bowling.  Great-Grandpa usually wins, but I think Nathan might have won one game.

Great-Grandpa holding Zach.

Great-Grandpa with Isaac and Toby.

Isaac pushing Toby on Great-Grandma's walker.

Andrea and Katie came up to visit!  What wonderful friends!!!!!!!!!  They drove several hours for a couple of hours to visit with us.

Toby examining Aunt Betty's cake.

Wayne made balloon animals for the kiddos.

Malachi loving on Zach.

Great-Grandma and Toby.

What a cute couple!!!

Dinner Tonight

Tonight we are having one of my favorite FAVORITE dinners.  There are many reasons it's one of the best:

1.  It's easy.
2.  It's tasty.
3.  It's healthy and low-Points (I'm counting Points because I'm doing Weight Watchers--more about that in the November post).
4.  The boys like it (that's a huge bonus).
5.  It goes in the crock pot so nothing to do last-minute.

Salsa Chicken
Ingredients:
Chicken
Taco seasoning
Salsa
Black beans (drained and rinsed)
Frozen corn
Sour cream
shredded cheese
rice/tortillas/tortilla chips

Directions:

1.  Put the chicken in your crock pot.  I did not include amounts because it's really up to you and really easy to alter based on what you've got.  Today I did 3 boneless, skinless breasts.  I put them in frozen but it's fine if they're thawed.

2.  Sprinkle on taco seasoning.  If you're using store-bought, plan for about a package per pound.  But, can I encourage you to make your own?  It's REALLY easy and in mine and Jimmy's opinions, tastes much better.  Here's my recipe:

• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder (I just throw in some dried minced onion b/c it's what I've got on hand)
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (omitted today because I didn't have any)
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2-1 tsp cinnamon

3.  Cover or mostly cover the chicken with salsa.  Today I just threw in one jar of salsa, minus the actual jar.  I've cooked this with the chicken anywhere from 1/2-completely submerged in salsa and it's great every time.

4.  Cook on high or low until the chicken is cooked through (today I'm cooking it on high because I didn't get it in the crock pot until about 12:30.  I'm hoping it will be done in 5 hours but I'll check it periodically).

5.  Shred chicken with a fork right in the crock pot.  Add in black beans and frozen corn and keep heating until they're heated through.

6.  Serve over rice or tortilla chips, or as taco meat.  If over rice, we put sour cream and shredded cheddar on top.  I'm omitting those right now because I'm going dairy-free for a while and also because that's where you really rack up on the WW Points.  But it's still good without them!  We also sometimes substitute low-fat plain yogurt for sour cream and you really can't tell the difference.  We're all about using what we've got on hand :)

We usually serve this with a salad, but it goes well with almost any vegetable.

Enjoy!

September: Welcome Zachary!

Disclaimer: While there are no gory details in this post, there is some childbirth information.  If you prefer to believe that children are brought in by a stork, it's fine with me if you skip to the pictures.  If you care to know more details, have questions, or really like gore, I'm happy to provide you with more details privately :)

We welcomed sweet Zachary James on Monday,  September 12.  This is the first time I have gone into labor on my own and I really wanted to avoid being induced (though for Isaac and Toby it was a drug-free induction).  I really wanted Zach to be born on Saturday Sept 10, both because I was tired of being pregnant (he was due the 15th) and because I thought it would be cool if his birthdate was 9/10/11 :) But that didn't happen.  On Sunday the 11th I felt pretty horrible so I had a feeling that things might get going, but I didn't want to get my hopes up.

I went to bed Sunday night feeling OK, but not great (who does feel great at nearly 40 weeks pregnant?!?!).  I woke up Monday morning feeling the same, nauseous grossness I'd felt the day before.  The big boys got off to school and Jimmy was about to take Toby to his Monday morning activity.  Around 8:30 I told Jimmy he probably shouldn't take Toby because I thought we might be heading to the hospital.  He decided to take Toby just around the corner to the grocery store.  By 9:00 I knew I was in labor, having pretty regular contractions.  They weren't that bad, though they were close together.  (Until this point, the only contractions I'd had in labor had happened after my water had been broken.  The difference in pain between water in-tact and water broken is ridiculous.  These were painful but very manageable since my water was still in-tact.)  I called Jimmy home from the grocery store, we got Toby to a friend's house, and we got to the hospital at 10:00.  I was already at 8 cm!

When I was in the waiting room there was someone in front of me being checked in.  When a contraction would come I would sway back and forth until it passed, but I waited patiently for the woman in front of me (she wasn't in labor).  A nurse saw me and said, "Are you in labor?" Me: "Yes." Nurse: "What number is this for you?" Me: "Fourth." Nurse: "She knows what she's talking about.  This is going to be fast.  Let's get her in a room."

I got into the room and go over all of the check-in stuff while stopping for a contraction every now and then.  Then the nurse says, "Ok, time for the hep lock."  (A hep lock is the IV line without the IV attached.)  I said that I was hoping to avoid it because getting the IV needle is horrible for me and makes me pass out, and that my doctor has said it's fine with him if I don't have one.  Nurse: "Have you had a natural childbirth before?" Me: "Yes, two." Nurse: "OK, we don't have to do it, but I'm going to kill you if you need a blood transfusion."  At this point you could have knocked me over with a feather.  It's incredibly hard to avoid getting a hep lock at a hospital and I wasn't going to be a jerk about it if they were really adamant.  But it's something we'd prayed about a lot because it's so, so horrible for me.  I love how God cared enough about the details to answer that small prayer!  

Anyway, I labored for about an hour at which point they checked me with no change :( The nurses questioned me about my previous births and decided that once my water broke, he would be here almost immediately.  They asked me if I wanted to keep laboring along or if I wanted to have my water broken and get it over with.  I opted for the latter because, let's face it, I was ready to hold the little chunker!

They called my doctor, he got there within a few minutes, broke my water (then the contractions REALLY REALLY HURT), and Zach was born at 11:57am!  9 lbs, 3 oz, 21 inches long, 14 inch head.  In case you're wondering, he was a BIG baby with a BIG head!

Mommy and Zachy in the delivery room.

Big brothers visited that afternoon after school.

Getting ready to go home!

I love a fat little baby!!!!!  (Good thing, since I've had four of them!)

August IV: Kelly's Wedding

The last wonderful thing we did in August was drive to Iowa to attend the wedding of our good friend, Kelly.  Kelly is one of our Iowans.  We became friends with them in California when we moved to Long Beach at the same time.  This is a post dedicated to our dear Iowans.  Nathan and Isaac were invited to be ring bearers in her wedding and we didn't even think twice before we said "YES!"  We were so happy to celebrate with her and see our other two Iowans, Andrea and Katie.  (Unfortunately this post contains no pictures of Kelly.  She was kind of busy, though she definitely had time for us.  Just not when I had my camera!)

Nathan was completely taken with this Monarch butterfly.

Andrea and Toby became fast friends.

She tried to teach him to walk.  He succeeded a couple of weeks later!

The ring bearers pulled the flower girl in on a wagon.

We stayed at Andrea's parents' house.  Andrea's brother is a baseball player.  The boys loved getting into his baseball stuff!

This is how Nathan required everyone stand for the picture.  Absolutely no closer together.  

I think they should wear tuxes more often.  So handsome!!!