Kuddos Kiddos

Daniel and Vincent and I went to Fresno this weekend to celebrate Devyn's 2nd Birthday. It was a great trip, thanks to Tracy and Paul watching Gavin for the day. Life is so much easier with two.
On the way home, we got to see a beautiful sunset...I know, beautiful scenery is the first thing that comes to mind when contemplating a drive to Fresno, but there is was. The boys and I really enjoyed it. We rarely see the sun sink low in the sky due to the hills just west of us, so this was a real treat.

Happy Birthday Devyn! Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes.

Gavin is getting an ATTITUDE! Just ask auntie Jess. She dared to tell him not to touch the stove the other day and she got STINK EYE.

We worked right through breakfast the other day.

Vincent woke up from a peaceful night of slumber and the first words out of his mouth "Can you put on my pumpkin socks?" Immediately followed by "Where's my watch?" Thanks Auntie Robyn and Auntie Megan.

Daniel drew his self portrait this evening on the Doodle Pro.

For about a year we've been trying to get Daniel to get up and use the potty on his own if he needs to at night. He refused to get out of bed without yelling for us and getting permission first, even if it's 2am. We weren't really complaining, it's great he stays in bed so well. But we really could use as much sleep as we can get, so I came up with a different idea, since explaining it clearly was not taking.
He now keeps his "Hall Pass" on the shelf next to his bed. He carries it with him when using the facilities. If he leaves it in the bathroom, he then yells for us to bring it back to him. "I forgot my Hall!" We're getting there. His face lit up like he just got a great present when I first gave this to him.

Poo Poo Dinner

Poo is a word we hear quite a bit in our house. We try to keep the boys from talking this way, but for some reason, it seems to be a universally fantastic concept for kids this age.
We eat dinner around 6pm every evening. At some point during the meal, both Daniel and Vincent need to take their daily constitutional. George and I can't figure out why this is almost always during dinner, but it is. We've come to deal with this. Daniel excuses himself from the meal and Vincent who is still in diapers just sits there all red in the face. Appetizing. Even Gavin is joining in on this nightly ritual.
This evening, Gavin is constipated. He has been for several days now, so we've been giving him pears, prunes & watermelon to try and help loosen things up. During dinner he was crying and trying to push something out. So sad. We're pretty much done with dinner when Vincent says "uh oh" There's a strange dollop of something on the chair he is now straddling backwards...then the smell hits me and there's no denying what is dripping out of his diaper, down his leg, onto the chair and onto the floor. I don't know how he does it, but that was....well, I have no words. We carried him out to the backyard, doused him with warm water while he touched his toes, then got him back inside for a bath. Wow, ending dinner with a bang.
As soon as I got Vincent's clean diaper on, dried off from the bath, George and I trade. He hands me a fussy Gavin while he gets Vincent's jammies on. So I take Gavin into the other room to see if all his crying and pushing during dinner produced anything. No luck. I go for the pediatric suppository and stick it in....there's no room. It pops back out 3 times. The poor little guys was just so backed up. Then he starts to push again, I hold his knees up to his chest, trying to do what I can for him. He's in pain. He's making progress. At this point, I'm literally pulling poo out of my baby's booty. Gross, but that's what a mother will do.
What is Daniel doing this whole ordeal...you guessed it. Sitting on the pot, yelling at the top of his lungs "I'M ALL DONE!" This is our queue to come wipe him. How is there this much poo happening at one time? I don't know, but I'm done for the night! Just thought you all should know about how our dinner went tonight.

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Daniel's Fourth Birthday

Cupcakes with Sprinklers, a watch, Buzz Lightyear, his first camera...Daniel is Four! He got his hearing tested at his 4 year check-up and looked like such a big kid, raising his hand or saying "I hear it" when it beeped. Sometimes it's the little things that make reality sink in.
Daniel brings so much joy to our family. He is a sweet, sensitive boy. He loves playing with his brothers and often calls Vincent his "honey". He enjoys coloring, painting, writing his letters and riding his bike. He's also recently starting singing his heart out- his own made-up songs. We are so thankful that God put Daniel in our family.
Our friend, Mark took photos at the birthday party while I walked around aimlessly. Kia had her baby at 5am the morning of the party, so I was up all night with text messages, kids waking up, George coughing...I was totally out of it. The new little cousin is a healthy, adorable baby boy. We're very excited for Kia and Ryan.
Jessica was able to come up for the birthday party and the birth of the seventh cousin. She timed that trip well. It took my parents 4 years and one day to rack up seven grand kids, they were so close to getting there in under four years.



On Daniel's Birthday, we went to the pumkin patch with some neighbor friends. The boys had fun running around with Anden and Hudson.
Vincent is a big fan of showing off his muscles, he also likes to see everyone elses and then acts really impressed when someone flexes for him. "Whoa!" he says.
George got the boys (and himself) a Hot Wheels track. This thing shoots out the cars onto the track and they can go around and around indefinitely, well, until the batteries run out. Vincent keeps saying "it goes wealy, wealy Fay-ust". He used to say "fast" with just one syllable, but he's recently changed it to two syllables for emphasis. Maybe he learned this at "Spreekool."

Oh boy!

Gavin is now 11 months old. He's walking half-way across the room, getting more steady every day. He's really quick, after hearing certain sounds, he comes racing into the room to get in on the action. Examples of things he likes to get into would be- the refrigerator, dishwasher, oven, sliding door, setting a drink down on the end table, the bathroom door, the pile as I try to sweep. He likes to be in on all this action....right in the middle of it.

Rainy day Superheros

It poured rain all night and all day today. It was great. The boys dressed up as Superman and Batman. We painted, colored, played the keyboard, played in the garage, watched Bug's Lifeyear...that's Toy Story. They jumped off the back of the couch and the armrest yelling at the top of their lungs "to infimibee and beyond!!!" over and over. They stayed in their jammies all day.
We were supposed to go to "Fun with ABC's" at the community center this morning- our preschool. But there was no way I was dragging three little boys through 300 yards of torrential downpour to get to a 45 minute class. We practiced the letter "D" at home today.
It was great to have a cozy day at home. I got my fill for a few months now, unfortunately it's the same forecast for tomorrow...and we will actually be leaving the house for day two. I'm hoping Daniel makes a good umbrella carrier when we head off to Bible Study in the morning.
By 6 this evening, the rain let up and bit, so the boys got their shoes and coats on (over their pajamas) and went and played in the puddles, getting drenched. It was great to get some fresh air before dinner.
For our 2 and 3 year olds, these were our options for costume sizes. One is "toddler", which Vincent is busting out of. The next size up was "small" which Daniel is swimming in, especially with the built in muscles. I don't get it. I guess 3T and 4T are not big money makers.

Auntie Tracy was over on Sunday. So Daniel decided to play pretend with her.
So he says: "I'll be God and you do something bad."
We all died laughing.
Then I was interested to see what in the world he would do with this senario.
So he tells Tracy the same thing again, this time Tracy struggles to find something "bad" to do, so he tells her to hit her head...which she does. Then Daniel hides behind the couch, he comes out a minute later saying, "you're all better now!"
He was hiding and healing her, just like God in Heaven. We pray to God and he makes our boo boos all better, we believe this even though we don't see Him.

The Backyard Then & Now

All the boys on Saturday morning, motorcycles, ramps, coffee... mom gets a shower in peace.


Here is our backyard today. See the tree house in the corner, Tami. It's been almost 5 years since we moved up here from Orange County. There is still a lot that we have to do to finish the landscaping, especially in the front yard, but we've put in a deck, garden, lawn, lots of concrete, a new shed and now a tree house.
This was the yard when we purchased our home. It had a really nice shed where the tree house now stands. I remember pulling up layer after layer of plywood flooring from that shed. It rotted over time and the previous homeowners just put another layer of wood down over the last one. Lots of bugs in that old shed.
It rained in the weeks previous to the this picture, so the mud sprouted some "lawn"...it was not really a lawn, but we mowed it a couple times anyway. There was also a tree that we removed along with all that concrete by the old backdoor.
There were 5 Cypress trees along the back fence which we cut down to 4' stumps. George had always planned on doing something with them. Originally we had talked about making a bench, but I like the tree house better.

Friday Morning

This morning, all three boys were bathed, clipped, groomed...okay, I skipped the tooth brushing. Here is another attempt at photographing all three of them.
Gavin is taking 6-8 steps at a time now and standing up drinking from his brother's sippy cup.
This morning we made pancakes so we could enjoy the maple syrup that Auntie Robyn and Jeff brought us from from the orchard in Ohio. It was delicious.



Robyn has been coming over every week to watch the boys in the morning while I get some office work or grocery shopping done. It has been really nice for all of us. On Thursday she made us apple muffins with the apples she brought back from the orchard in Ohio. They were so good, then she made us apple pie that evening which George hasn't stopped talking about. He said it was life-changing.
Dominic came to hang out right before his first haircut. Megan did the hawk for a final shot before the trim.

Christmas Project

In addition to taking family portraits, I'm also creating custom holiday cards this year. These are folded 5x7 cards that you can print your Christmas letter and family updates on. Click on the image above or visit the details tab on my website for more info. www.covingtonstreet.com
Holiday postcards are also available again this year.

Treestump House

The boys have been enjoying old Superman, Spiderman and Batman cartoons thanks to YouTube. They're now flying around the house in capes. I tried making one for Daniel to match the one Jody made for Vincent. The iron on seam tape stuff did not hold up well. So much for cheating. We got a Superman costume for Daniel with a good cape, and a Batman costume for Vincent. It's fun seeing how into those old cartoons they are.
Daniel and Vincent spent about 20 minutes just hanging out in the laundry baskets, working on their laptops. It was so nice and quiet....who needs a tree house when you've got laundry baskets?
We do!
George and Eric went to work on our new addition this weekend. They finished it in just a few hours. They boys were really excited to help, especially with the power tools and the radio tuning.


Daniel helped paint. George did some rolling and mom got to have a huge canvas to play with.



Here is our dining room floor less than two hours after being swept and mopped. Sweeping has to be done at strategic times, when Gavin is sleeping or occupied elsewhere because he crawls right into the pile of dirt and food over and over if he's anywhere near the sweeping. Gavin is taking 5 or 6 steps at a time now, getting better at walking. He loves being right in the action with his big brothers.
We got a new next door neighbor this week. Little Sean was born Oct. 1st, he and his mommy are doing good and Maggie is so excited to have a baby brother. Congratulations Jordan, Sean and Maggie.