the crazy life of a family of 5

It's been a while, but I decided I needed to at least write a short blurb of what's been going on with the Templetons. We moved to a new city, had a new baby, started new schools, and have taken some fun trips. :) I document most of what's going on on Facebook, but I would like to try being better about actually writing up a blog. Abby is turning 4 in less than 2 weeks and her personality is so fun to see. She's very independent, wants to pick out her outfits, make her snack packs if we are going out somewhere, and likes to boss her older brother around. :) She's very affectionate with her baby brother which usually turns into her laying on top of him, so he's already started "tattling" by screaming anytime Abby gets near him. They will have a very interesting dynamic I can already tell. :)

He is such a happy baby when he's being held. :) 

This winter has been CRAZY mild. I can not even believe it. I never knew a New England could be so pleasant. We've definitely had legit snow storms, but the weather has been so nice. We've only taken advantage of winter fun (sledding, rolling in the snow, snow men, etc.) a few times (having a baby makes it tricky-for me at least!) so I'm a little afraid the snow is already done (we have ZERO snow on the ground right now!!!), and the kids might be a bit disappointed. But me- I'm a happy mommy if spring is already coming!!! :) 

This was a snow fall we had a few days after Valentine's Day-gorgeous 

Ethan is almost 8 months old and is such a happy little dude (when he's getting attention...haha!) he is so smiley and laughs so much. But I won't lie-he's been a tough one. He is still not sleeping through the night (do they ever??!) and will scream when he's left alone for more than 5 min. No lie. So making dinne is always very stressful ( I used to hold him but now he grabs everything which is very dangerous to say the least..) He's definitely kept us on our toes, but I think he's going to be a very happy content little guy once he starts moving. He's already almost crawling, but won't sit! So crazy- he's going to be like me (I don't sit still easily...) 

Todd and I had our first date night in 8 months the weekend of Valentine's day. We had to divide and conquer with the kids because I don't think I will ever be able to leave a babysitter with all 3 (unless there are like 3 babysitters....) We had dinner and I actually got to finish eating and drinking my wine AND eat dessert without having to hold a baby so that was nice. I also put on makeup and fixed my hair and wore a fun outfit, so that's always nice for a stay at home mom

no pictures of me and the husband-oops ha!

My phone was full of photos the day of Valentine's so I wasn't able to get pictures of the kids' treats.  I went up to Abby's school the Friday before and did an activity with her classmates. That was lots of fun and brought back memories from my  teaching days. It also involved candy which the kids loved (and I love that they can have candy at her school on special occasions) ;-) hehe Ethan is always SUPER PERFECT and quiet when we go to her school and will just sit in his carseat watching all the kids...which is totally out of character-so they always talk about what a perfect baby he is. I just go with it....:) HA! 

That's my Abby- "going on a trip" :) gotta love the outfit

Andrew just celebrated the 100th day of school yesterday-he wanted a red shirt with all his car stickers that we already had so it was actually super easy! My neighbor let me borrow her fabric markers and glue, so it was a much easier project than I expected. :) I'm slowly getting *a little more crafty* in my parenting ;-) 

Speaking of neighbors- our neighbors are the best. We have already met more people living in this neighborhood for less than a year than we did at our other house for over 2 years.  They help us out tremendously which is so important since we don't have family here. I know it's all meant to be. :) 

Best friends

I just dropped Andrew off at school and wanted to sit and write a blog about  this stage in his life. He is in his 2nd year of preschool, will be 5 in a month, and will start kinder in September. It really does fly by and he's transforming into a big kid right before my eyes. When I dropped him off, 2 boys yelled- "Andrew!!! Hey Andrew!!" with such excitement and it just warms my heart to see him making friends at school. :)  He will soon welcome a younger brother to the family (who he insists on naming Emmitt from The Lego movie- and we've actually considered this name- but I've been calling him Ethan and it's growing on me). :) A few weeks ago, Andrew's teacher Ms. Lisa sent a note home in his back pack from another child's parent. It read- "Dashiel would really like to have a playdate with Andrew. He talks about him all the time and he would really like to play with him outside of school. I was wondering if you could pass this along to Andrew's parents so we can try to set something up." That made my heart melt. :) Andrew has talked about Dashiel quite frequently, so of course I contacted his mom and set up a time for him to come over for a playdate. It was the cutest thing ever and I just can't believe Andrew is old enough to have friends over to play. :) Last week- right after  Andrew got off the bus yelling, "Bye Dashiel!" he asked told me he was going over to Dashiel's to play. About 10 minutes later, I got a text from his mom asking when would be a good time to get the boys together again. :) I love that he has a best friend. He talks about him all the time now and they are such a cute pair.  He is going over there tomorrow afternoon during my IEP meeting for Andrew.

Andrew keeps talking about this show called Paw Patrol (a show that he claims he saw in the mountain house in New Mexico and then of course that techie kid of mine found it on YouTube and has been watching it daily- he truly amazes me). He says Dashiel has all the Paw Patrol characters so he wants them for his birthday. :) ( we recently spent 20 minutes in the Paw Patrol toy section at Target-when I turned my back for a second- there was a Paw Patrol back pack, 3 of the characters, and a massive Paw Patrol station in my cart....lol!) I think I know what to get him for his birthday.

As I said- I have an IEP meeting for kindergarten placement tomorrow and we just received all the results from his testing. The day of his testing- I was told he just kept going and going with the questions/puzzles (his teacher was shocked when he told her Texas was the biggest state in the United States and New York City was the largest city... lol!)  He's doing really great (the teacher in me can already see he is going to struggle with writing and probably master math and science), and he will be in an inclusion kinder class with some outside support. I had to laugh a little when I read that he needed some help with pragmatics in the classroom setting (IE- announcing to the class when he has to use the restroom or answering the question "Why do we wear clothes" with an answer such as "Because they say vroom vroom!!" followed by laughing)- because yes- that is my Andrew. :) And I'm sure he was getting very tired of the testing (because he IS 4) and began answering deliriously.  I am so proud of my little guy and how much he has accomplished. He is really a sweetheart and plays so creatively lately (he has had to resort to using other toys to "pretend they are paw patrol characters" :) I know he will go so far in life with his kind heart and problem-solving abilities. Even while wearing clothes that say "vroom vroom.". ;-)

Building a fan with his circuit set 

This poor snowman got completely buried after snow storm #3 (he couldn't survive the 105 inches from the season...Who can blame him?)

Hot chocolate after some sledding

Focusing on  the instructions for his circuit set

Christmas 2014..oh so eventful

*I started writing this months ago and then had a little scare in my pregnancy and kinda went into a blur (along with a pretty rough winter- I just wasn't ever in the mood to write about what was going on). It's unfortunate really- but it's hard for me to hide my emotions in my writing and I didn't want to be a whiney blogger. :)

I've neglected my blog lately and really need to catch up-instead I must blog about our Christmas adventures before I forget the details.

17 days- that's how long we were traveling-the first 7 days of our trip were crazy...we stayed at 5 different places in those 7 days (a total of 7 places in the 17 days of our trip). Not quite planned- of course my husband is an adventurous man so our original plan was fly into Dallas-drive to amarillo the next day- drive to New Mexico with his family for 3 nights and then head back to our home town for Christmas festivities. And then I wound up in the hospital with kidney stones AND a kidney infection...womp womp...and I happen to be pregnant right now which makes EVERYTHING more complicated. The irony here- I had kidney stones while pregnant with Andrew too (not with Abby..maybe another boy??). :)

Yes- I'm pregnant again...we will become a family of 5 come July!!! Pretty scary and exciting all at once. It's been my toughest pregnancy so far which with 2 other kiddos to take care of-things are just not getting accomplished the way they should (to say the least...). Here was how we announced the news (Todd's idea I must add). ;-)

Slightly different Santa picture from last year, right?? :) 

Long story short about my little hospital visit- was transported to Santa Fe via ambulance (because I'm pregnant and they really didn't know how to handle kidney stones/infection in a pregnant woman), stayed 2 nights, woke up in a hospital bed on Christmas eve being poked with needles (no...fun...),  I missed the entire ski trip in a BEAUTIFUL mountain house in Taos (Andrew started crying in the hospital because he wanted to go back to the mountain house :( Heart-breaking.....) , and then we headed back to Texas (a few other things happened along the way  but need not be mentioned here...it was a rough drive to say the least...and by then I was just ready to go to my own home and we still had 11 days of our trip to go...whooaaa). Everything was great once we made it to my grandmother's for Christmas Eve dinner. It really ended up being a fun Christmas and we were finally able to relax and stay in one spot once we reached Dallas and stayed at our friends'- Jake and Leslie's- and got to hang out there for a few days. We were only going to stay a night and then it turned into 3. :) It was so nice to see them and to be around our friends with young kiddos. Then it was off to Breckenridge, Tx for our friend's wedding-back to Dallas and then our flight back to Boston. Whew...wears me out just talking about it. :) These pictures are in no certain order- just a few random pics from the holidays, 

Santa left a kitchen in Boston for Abby!

On the plane (a much better experience than last Christmas) 

Andrew, Carson, and Cole Before ski school (my little Andrew wasn't a fan of ski school this go around) 

The view on the balcony at our New Mexico mountain house! 

The kids got to see Santa at the hospital on Christmas Eve (not the best pic...lol) 

Abby with my Grandmother :) 

Abby helping Nani in the poker tournament :) 

Yes- Abby is in her PJ's in this pic (she threw a fit about 30 minutes prior and then I was crying because we didn't get a family photo so this is the best we could do). :) 

Todd's parents had just moved out of their house in Dumas- a house they had lived in since Todd was Abby's age. Lots of special memories in this house. Todd and I went back one night and took a few pics. It looks so much smaller when it's not filled with furniture and family. :) 

Galan, Ryan, Blake, Todd, and Presley- buddies from high school (out for Blake's bachelor party) 

The kids at Blake and Lindsay's wedding 

The dudes

High school buds 

Blake, me and Todd

Todd, Abby, Cole, and SueAnna 

Andrew and Abby having fun with their Pop Pop :) 

Eddleman Family Poker Tournament 

This was New Year's Eve- I look so lively ;-) It had been a long trip and this is at Jake and Leslie's house where we were finally able to chill (Alex, Andrew, me, and Abby) 

All in all- it was a fun-filled, emotional, adventurous Christmas. :) 

Seasons are changing

I don't have a good reason why I haven't sat down to write a blog in the last oh...I think 3 months...opps (well, my son just asked for breakfast so I must get up and take care of that. I thought I still had 30 min before he woke up but blast you daylight savings.) So....we've been pretty busy around here and now that cold weather is on the way, I may just have more time to spend on the computer typing up what we've been up to. Even though we won't be up to near as much because we'll be stuck in our houses for 5 months due to brutal cold and never-ending snow. lol...just kidding...kinda.

We took a few trips this summer (Vegas, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard)  and spent lots of time outside at the beach, picking strawberries, playing at lots and lots of new found parks. It was fantastic. Here are some pics from our fun adventures

celebrating our 8 year anniversary 

My cousin Mike and his wife Sarah at my cousin's vow renewals (at the Little White Chapel) :)

My cousin Jaime, her dad and son Justus. 

Fun times with my cousins!! 

The whole group at the Little White Chapel 

All the fun girls. :) What a great night...

Cape Cod

   Abby snuggling with Nani

 

Beach at Cape Cod

Martha's Vineyard

Pop Pop and Andrew on the Ferry to Martha's Vineyard

Abyy and Nani on the Ferry 

The "Gingerbread Cottages" were adorable! 

The little 

Enjoying some delicious ice cream! 

We had an awesome time over fourth of July at Cape Cod with Todd's parents and the kids! We were expecting a huge hurricane but luckily it wasn't as bad as they expected. Fun times! The kids love hanging out with their Nani and Pop Pop. 

We also went on our annual apple picking trip. This was the first time we were by ourselves picking apples (the first year we went with our entire MIT dorm and last year our friends Jake and Leslie and their son Alex went with us). It wasn't quite as fun I think because we knew what to expect, they didn't have Golden Delicious apples (my absolute fav kind), and Abby had an accident in the middle of the orchard and I had to make a mad dash back to the car to change her only to find I only had a pair of Andrew's underwear and no pants...yep...that stage of life. We still enjoyed some delicious apple cider donuts, the weather was perfect, and Andrew was able to enjoy some of the fun activities with Todd while Abby and I waited in the car (she wouldn't wear Andrew's underwear so I think she had to ride home bare bottomed...lol!)

Todd's parents have since made another fun trip back up here to see us and that will be a whole other blog. :) I'm so behind! Have a happy Monday!