Let's Hear it for THE BOYS!

When I was pregnant for the third time many people would say, "I'll bet your hoping for a BOY this time!" Mark would always reply, "We love our girls. We don't care what we have." He was convincing and I believed him. The day of our ultrasound came around. We were both really excited to learn about the baby. Would the baby be healthy, have all it's fingers and toes?? Would it be a BOY or a GIRL. Mark was still insistant that he didn't care--and of course he would have been thrilled to have another daughter, but when the technician announced that we were having a boy and Mark JUMPED out of his seat and cheered. I think his reaction even took him by surprise.

He was stoked!! Beyond stoked.

So, today marks one of those occassions that brings that day to mind. Yep, it's the Father's and Son's camp out. Mark is taking Matthew, of course. Matthew is 2 1/2. Both are super excited. Mark, as an adult is able to contain his enthusiasm, but Matthew keeps talking about going camping with just dad, eating marshmallows, and having none of the girls in the family around. Mark's probably excited about the same things.

So here's to my boys! Have great time tonight, eat all the marshmallows you can, sing camp songs until your throats get dry, enjoy playing at the beach, and above all TRY and get some sleep.

The girls and I are going to a movie!

Tickle Monster

A few weeks ago I went on an annual retreat with some of my dearest friends. I love the feeling I have when we are all together. We share ideas to help us a mothers, we talk about how to strengthen our families, we reminisce (we have known each other since 1992--a few of us even longer), we eat out, we eat junk, we talk all night... you get the idea. We also always have a gift exchange. This year one of the gals brought this book, Tickle Monster by Josie Bissett. It was a hot item, and switched hands a couple of times. I didn't get it. But fortunately one of my girlfriends found it online for a screaming deal and I picked up the "laughter kit" for my family when I got home. Here are the results of last night's unveiling the book---AND MITS! Tickle Monster is a cute little story of a monster that comes from outer space who loves to TICKLE everything from toesies and nosies to underarm pitties! Emma wasn't so sure about being tickled, so she made sure to keep the tickle monster in line by lightly BITING ME! Anytime the mits got too close, she let me have it! Matthew and Abbie loved it!

All in all, it is a great book. I love how the mits transformed me into a silly tickle monster. The kids loved that too. Even Emma came around later that night and asked me to read the book to her again...this time without any bite marks!!