Cousin Camp

Long story short.  Ross Grandpa Tupper passed away in North Dakota a couple of weeks ago.  He was 95 years old, led a great life, and was honored by his family.  Ross made the trip up north to pay his respects but the boys and I stayed home.  This fat, swollen mama wasn't prepared mentally or physically to do a whirlwind adventure in 48 hours.  And flying the four of us, renting a car, traveling in that car for hours and hours....it just wasn't going to work.  I wanted to be there for Ross and felt terrible for staying home, but I guess those are some of the sacrifices you have to make.

Anyway, Ross' brothers whole family went to the funeral and his parents brought my nephew Isaac home with them.  They are on their way back to Arizona to drip him off with his family as I write this, but we've had some grand adventures while Isaac was here.  He's only a little squirt, 3.5 years old, and was with Grandma and Grandpa for almost 12 days.  That's a long time and we did our best to fill that time with fun.

The three musketeers ran through the sprinklers and chased soccer balls.  Grandma Connie and I took them to the zoo where we saw the amazing polar bear in action and chowed down on churros and diet cokes and stood in front of the misting fans until our faces were sparkly with water..  The boys ate lots of kids meals, built lots of trains, and ran around like wild men.  

Isaac came to t-ball and Uncle Ross tried to teach him (albeit unsuccessfully) to swing a bat and hit a pitch.  He did okay hitting off the tee, but I'm not sure anyone has ever pitched a ball to him before.  He did however do alright fielding and throwing.  Why is it that boys all know how to throw?

But then, our adventures took a downturn.  After a pretty traumatic attempt at getting Isaac home after a family dinner at our house, and a crazy rough night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Isaac was taken to the emergency room in the morning and was told that he'd have to get his appendix taken out.  A whirlwind of phone calls, the decision of his parents to stay in Arizona, and transport to another hospital later, that cute little boy had his appendix out, was discharged early from the hosptial and grandma and grandpa have been taking good care of him since, with a movie and some drawing at our house as part of his recuperation.  Which has been pretty speedy and miraculous.  He's lucky that Grandma and Grandpa caught it so early.

Isaac will be back to Utah in August an the boys cannot wait.  They will both be in school and our summer will be "over" by the time he gets back, but we'll still have the evenings to play and be wild....which is just what little boys need to do with their cousins.

Home made mints

I had a little bit of time last week (you know, when one kid goes to a friends to play and the other takes the last nap of his life) to sit at the computer and look around on Pinterest for some inspiration.  Food inspiration, that is.  After all, tis the season of the summer BBQ and family party and I needed something new to bring to the table.

And I found these.  Homemade peppermint patties.  Sort of.  They were fun and easy to make and I should have made a double batch.

Chocolate Mints

1 pound (1 bag) powdered sugar

4 oz cream cheese, soft

1 tsp mint extract (and a little more to put in the chocolate)

6-8 oz chocolate chips

1.  Add sugar to the cream cheese.  Beat until completely incorporated.

2.  Add the mint extract

3. Using a teaspoon to measure, roll the dough into teaspoon sized balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

4.  Create a small bowl/indentation using the back of the teaspoon into each ball.

5.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

6.  Melt chocolate chips, add mint extract and blend well.  Place chocolate chips into a zip lock bag, cut off the tip of the bag and pipe the chocolate onto each mint.

7. Let the chocolate set, cover and refrigerate 4-6 hours (or over night).

Keep the mints in the fridge.  I bet they will be good for at least a week, if they last more than a few hours.

a week....

For as boring as life feels sometimes, it's generally quite the opposite.  Four weeks ago, as Memorial Day hit, I made a list of summer activities to do with the boys.  You know, the typical list of places to go, people to see, that sort of thing.

Well, Elliott starts kindergarten in 4 weeks.  Our list?  I lost it.  I cannot say that we are really hitting all (or any for that matter) the things I'd planned to do but we sure are busy and seem to be having a great time.

Wyatt is officially in a big boy bed and after almost a week, still hasn't wiped the smile off his face. He is IN LOVE with his bed, is sleeping like a champ, won't get out by himself in the morning, and is doing better than we'd ever have imagined. The crib is down for a few short weeks to be sanded and repainted (too many bite marks) and then the big boys will be sharing a room while the new baby gets his own.

We've spend a lot of time at Toys R Us lately, perusing the merchandise and picking up a few things for summer like a sandbox and lots of bubbles. You'd think the boys were at Disneyland, not a toy store but it works.

We wrapped up our first session of swimming lessons today. Elliott is an absolute fish and almost passed off two levels in a mere 8 lessons. Wyatt, not so much. The kid is not a fan of putting his face in the water and so we'll try swimming lessons again next year. Elliott had such a great time that I'm signing him up again and we'll be ready for round two next week. Now, we just need to get ourselves some time in Great Grandpa's pool.

T-ball is back in full swing two nights a week, two hours a night. Both boys are playing, dad is coaching both teams, and when Wyatt isn't crying because he didn't field the ball first or hit the ball far enough off the tee, he's really having fun. Elliott is doing so well his dad finally convinced him to bat left handed and he got some great hits. His dad may have even shed a tear at the first hit as a lefty.

And, perhaps most important, our cousin Isaac from Arizona has been here visiting for the week and the three boys have had some great cousin time.

And, what week would be complete with out some time with our other cousins, Molly-wog and Jackity Jack. Oh, we love playing with these guys too.

So I guess, it seems like we're pretty busy after all...

What's in a name?

Our family of four is about 9-10 weeks away from becoming a family of five.  Ten weeks feels like an eternity when I think about days and hours and minutes but, it doesn't feel fast enough when I feel swollen ankles and severe heat exhaustion and know that I'm starting to waddle a bit.  I told my husband in one of my almost midnight complaint sessions a few weeks ago that this baby process is so slow.  I mean, we have smart phones and remote controls and live in a world where everything is immediate and we can stream movies on our computers.  Jokingly I told him that someone needs to figure out how to speed up this whole baby thing.  Because, 38-40 weeks is an insanely long time to wait for something.

And, I might start sleeping on the tile floor in my laundry room.  It's the coolest room, temperature wise, in the whole house.

How was that for some randomness?

Like I said, we've only got about 10 weeks and the family expands.  That expansion, "little twitchy" as I refer to him is going to need a name.

A name that as of right now, doesn't exist.

I know so many people who name their kid before he's born.  I'm cool with that.  Part of me wishes it could come that easily...that my husband and I could come to an agreement on something and have a few months or weeks to test it out to make sure it works.  We don't however function that way.  Names have been batted around our home and our extended families for months.  Everything I like, he despises.  Everything he likes, I think it comes from so far in left field that he's just trying to get my goat.

With the other two boys, we had a few "rules" if you will.  Rules that still exist for little twitchy.

1.  A first name that is easy to spell and pronounce.

2.  A first name that isn't immediately nick-nameable into a thousand different names.  Nick names are okay and great (for the first 6 months of his life, Ross called Elliott, Fred.  And the Chick, well, he's going to be Chickie until he's an old man, even though we don't really use it anymore.) but a little annoying, too.

3.  A first name that is unique enough that there won't be three of him in a school class but not so strange that people look at us like we are weirdos.

4.  A first name that is the name he goes by, not a middle name (We already screwed this up with Wyatt and don't need to do it again.  Ross and I are both middle namers and it's a pain in the butt a lot of the time.)

5.  A name that really feels like it fits the boy who will be stuck with it the rest of his life.

6.  A name that transitions well - good for a baby, a boy, and a man.

7.  A name that someone in any of our immediate and extended family (still living) doesn't already have.  (I love the name Luke, but we have two.  There are plenty of Ed's.  We have three cousin's named Max.)

It's not too complicated, right?  Right?  The rules I mean...they aren't too crazy.

For Elliott, we had a middle name chosen well in advance and a list of four or five first names that we liked and when it came right down to it, I picked Elliott. For Wyatt, we had a middle name (that became a first name) and a list of four names that we liked and Ross chose Wyatt.  Not until much later when my mom realized that both boys names ended in "tt" did we ever notice that we'd already done the pattern thing.

Ug!

Does that make us like the Duggars?

Now, "little twitchy" doesn't stand a chance.  

We could go with another "tt" like Garrett or Bennett or Emmitt, but that puts us over the top of cliche hill.  

We could go with some alliteration like Henry or Hayden or Hal.  

We could go with our roots and use Sven or Anders or Olaf.  

We could go trendy and use Aiden or Jacob or Noah.  

We could go off the beaten path with Grady or Clem or Ollie.  

We could go super traditional with Mike or David or Joel.

We could go presidential with Truman or Davis or Jefferson.

We could go super different like Stone or Prince or Blanket.

We could go with a hyphenated name like Jean-Paul or Jean-Luc or Walker-Texas Ranger.

We could go with a location like Boston or Baton Rouge or DC.

We could go with nature like River or Aspen or Flood.

We could go with a nickname for a name like Maverick or Goose or Ice-man.

We could go with a spin on a family name like Ever or Peter or Eccles.

We could go familial with Karl or Dick or Ross.

We could just name him "generic" because we couldn't come up with anything good.

At this point, the list has seen it's fair share of additions and subtractions with absolutely no agreement.  We came up with four names for two other boys, but we really don't seem to be able to come up with a single name for boy number three.

It blows my mind how hard it is this time around.  Like with the other boys, we're pretty sure we have a middle name selected, but besides not being able to come up with a first name, figuring out a first name that fits well with the middle name is proving to be overwhelming.

At this point, were open to suggestions.

Any thoughts?

About Fathers....

I love my dad.  I can sit down and think of so many experiences with my dad that have helped to shape me into the person that I am today.  I grew up with parents who taught me to do hard things, to never give up, and to be honest and dependable and respectful of others.

My dad is a good dad.  He has always been willing to drop anything and everything to help.  He will lift heavy things, listen, and rescue nearly on demand.  I loved growing up with that.  Of course there were frustrating periods of my childhood, and lots of reaching around to the back seat to pinch our legs when acting out, but the older I get, the more those intense periods with my parents fade from memory and I only remember the good times.

My husband is a good dad.  I can't say that in the very beginning I looked at him and said, "golly he's going to be a great dad!"  I'm pretty certain that for the first three years of our marriage, when there really weren't children on the horizon, the thought about how Ross would be as a father almost never crossed my mind.

But now, as we are inching our way closer to 3 boys, I couldn't be more in love with the boys in my life.  They are rambunctious and curious.  They love to sing and dance and tell jokes and play imaginary games.  They are mostly nice to each other, and are so smart.  Sometimes, I spend so much time with these two crazy monkeys that it gets a bit overwhelming....I am very lucky that I have a good husband and my boys have a good day to pick up the slack.

He never hesitates to take them on adventures to the dumps, or to run his Saturday errands with him.  The three of them love to visit Home Depot together and almost always come home with slush's from Sonic.  They build Lego's.  They dig in dirt.  They learn about sports and the boys give their dad a forum for all that knowledge and useless trivia just bursting out of his head.  He gets up with them in the night, reads them stories, and is patient with them in ways that I am not capable of.

I know that I often take my husband and our relationship for granted - unfortunately it's pretty easy to forget each other, and the ways that we quietly support each other when life gets so busy and brains start to swim.  We wouldn't be able to get through this life without each other, and our kids wouldn't be such great kids without both of us.

So, it's a day late (and probably a dollar or two short), but I'm really grateful for fathers.