A busy week!

It's been a busy and exciting week for the Duncan boys! Yesterday we returned from a final Myrtle Beach trip, this time with MeMaw & Papa. Papa is the Six Mile Fire Chief and this weekend was the South Carolina Firemen's Convention. The boys had a blast (of course). They only spent about :15 on the beach because the pools at our hotel were awesome! They enjoyed hanging out with their Grandparents and showing off in the pool. The boys insisted we eat at Margaritaville the first night we were there. Here is Luke having a boat ride at Family Kingdom.

We had to say goodbye to Silas before we left. We had a great time hanging out with him for the last couple of weeks. We miss you Silas! Hopefully we can go visit him soon.

Luke is a wild man, crawling everywhere and destroying anything in his path. Forget toys, he only wants to empty cabinets, put his fingers in uncovered outlets (I gotta get on that babyproofing), throw his passy out of the crib then cry for it and tear down anything Nate & Henry have built. They think Luke is funny which encourages bad behavior. As Luke is sinking his teeth into your shoulder, he will nod "no no." He knows he shouldn't do it, but he does it anyway. He going to be the rebel.

And the big news....

Nate pulled his first tooth last night! He has really worked on wiggling it all week and it paid off. So, the following picture needs a warning: parental discretion is adviced, if a little blood makes you queasy, don't look....

The tooth fairy brought a $2 bill. They're hard to find these days. Nate was impressed.

Happy 4th of July

Family Fun on the Fourth!

James swinging with the boys at the riverhouse.

Luke enjoying fireworks at church. He loved them!

Palm Coast, FL

Cliff & James in St. Augustine

A few of my favorite pictures from Palm Coast.

It was a great week because I was able to spend time with my my boys & Bryan, plus my all 3 of my brothers & their families & my parents. I'm so blessed that my whole family can get together and have fun and get along so well. They're the funnest people to be around!

John Daddy w/Silas & Luke

Robin's visit & Palm Coast

Oh how I've wanted to update my blog, but our days have been so busy. We had a great visit with Robin & her 3 children. I haven't gotten the pictures off my camera yet, but we had fun swimming at the pool, visiting Stumphouse Tunnel & hanging out in the yard. 6 children with Nate being the oldest. It was crazy fun!! Robin & I didn't even stay up to visit after the kids went to bed. We were so wiped out that we just went to sleep when they did.

Here are a few pictures I stole from Denise (thanks!) of fun here in Palm Coast, FL. We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of John Daddy, Uncle Cliff, Uncle James & Aunt Stacie. The beach is so different than Myrtle Beach. There lots of creatures that make me go "eww" and thrill the boys. Just today they caught several fish, sand clams and something Bryan called sea fleas. They looked like roach bugs to me though. Why do little boys love things like that? The boys love seeing Silas. Henry wants to carry him around which makes us all a little nervous. Luke has been a trooper. We left at 5:30 am Saturday morning to drive 8 hours. Luke took about a 10-15 minute cat nap the entire day. He never sleeps in the car & then he was having too much fun once we got here to take a nap. He's recovered now, but Saturday was a rough day for him.

Looking forward to posting some pictures of the sea fleas! I know I'll have bad dreams about them tonight....yuck!

Beach Trip

We just returned from a great week at Myrtle Beach. The boys are exhausted. Highlights of the week include riding rides at Family Kingdom, Myrtle Waves Water Park, lots of fun in the ocean & playing in the sand and of course, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. The cast didn't slow Nate down one bit, but I can't wait until tomorrow when we get it off! The doctor warned us to not get in the ocean because sand would get trapped in it, but he did anyway. Bryan said if we had to go get it sawed off while we were there & get a new cast it would be fine, but he wasn't going to make Nate stay out of the ocean.

Luke enjoyed trying lots of new foods. Unfortunately most of them were junk foods! Here he is chewing on a pickle (yuck!) and enjoying his first Oreo.

Today we're recovering from our trip & getting excited about my friend Robin and her 3 children coming to visit tomorrow. She's driving 10 1/2 hours with 3 kids under the age of 5 to see us, I hope we're worth it!

Family Kingdom, Myrtle Beach

Mashed Potatoes

A new fiberglass cast

Yesterday Nate's kindergarten class entertained the entire Elementary School & their families with a puppet show. It was very special. The children made and decorated all the puppets themselves and then performed adorable songs & rhymes on the stage in the cafeteria.

It was so much fun and Nate was so happy. The class had put in many hours of practice & hard work and it showed.

Today was the big day for the broke arm. X-rays showed that the break was healing pretty good. It was still bent, so we can't do a splint yet. But, we did get one of the waterproof fiberglass casts. This one comes below his elbow so he can move his arm more. He's so happy. He came home & jumped straight in the pool! We go back in 2 1/2 weeks.

Finally our garden is doing great! You can see our first tomato here in this picture. No giant pumpkins yet.

So many things are going on now that the end of school is near! Henry and Luke are having to have all their fun with water while Nate is at school. Nate gets terribly frustrated when he hears of Henry getting in the pool and he's not interested in trying to wrap his arm with a bag and get wet too.

Luke is getting in lots of trouble. Last weekend, he pulled this table over on himself, breaking the lamp with his head. This table was also where our dwarf frog lived in an aquarium filled with water. Of course it broke too, froggy was hopping around in the floor with all the rocks and 2 years worth of frog poop. We rescued froggy and he now lives in a 3 gallon aquarium with 3 neon fish and a snail. I was lucky to get out of Petsmart with just fish & snails. Nate was begging for a hamster and Henry wanted a snake.

Friday morning we go for an x-ray to see if Nate's arm is healing straight. I am praying that he will be able to get a waterproof cast then. Happy Memorial Day!

Nate reading to Luke

Luke went for a 9 month well visit yesterday only to discover he had an ear infection. Here is Nate reading to him before bed.

The Broke Arm

With 3 boys, I'm bound to see my share of injuries....

Wednesday after school, while playing with me and his brothers at a playground, Nate fell off a see-saw and broke his arm. He has been such a trooper. We didn't even know it was broken, despite the pain he was able to move his hand and because he already had a really bad ant bite, we weren't sure what was causing the swelling. When I looked at it Thursday morning, I knew we'd better get it checked out. Because the bone is bent at the break, he's wearing one of those plaster casts that you can't get wet. The doctor formed the cast to put pressure on the bent bone in hopes that it will heal straight. We go back in 2 weeks for another x-ray to see if it's working. We're praying that they'll give us a waterproof cast at that point.

Kids + summertime = Fun in the Water and this cast is really gonna slow us down, but I'm thankful that he's taking it well. He even insisted on going to school today. Henry has been just a little bit jealous of all the attention. He's wrapped his arm & leg with ACE bandages and has been extra mischievous!

Well, just because I haven't blogged in a while doesn't mean I haven't had anything to say! Mark, Denise & Silas came to visit last week to celebrate Silas' first birthday! Happy Bithday Silas! They stayed all week which gave us all a little time to visit. We had so much fun playing with him. He crawls everywhere & just learned to walk

Despite the faces in the picture, we had a great time at the Grand Opening of the new patient tower in Oconee Mem Hospital. They had a parade with all the high school bands, fun activities & events for children. Oh, by the way, Henry has been wearing a tie most every day.

I had a busy Mother's Day. Bryan had to work all day, which left me to get everyone to church, and then visit all the Grandparents. But, the big news came last night when Nate discovered he had a loose tooth! I've never seen anyone so excited over teeth. Last night his bedtime prayer went like this, "Thank you Jesus, I love you so much, please help my tooth to get looser so it can come out and the tooth fairy can come and then I can look like everybody else."

Then, tonight's prayer went, "Thank you Jesus for this loose tooth, please help me to pull it so I can get one of those little pillows to put it in so the tooth fairy can come."

What's the going rate for a tooth these days? I guess I'd better ask around.

The Garden

Bryan, Nate Henry and Luke have planted a garden in our backyard. Well, Nate, Henry & Bryan did most of the work, Luke just sat on the grass and watched. They are so very excited about it. Nate told me, "Mom, You're gonna be so happy. You're not gonna have to go back to the grocery store anymore." (I wish!) And for several nights now, his bedtime prayers have included the garden. One night he prayed that the giant pumpkins would grow giant in a tall way, not a fat way so they wouldn't smush all the other vegetables. And every morning before school he wants to go see if anything has sprouted. They planted mostly seeds, and a few tomato & pepper plants. If only we had a cow, maybe I could avoid the grocery store this summer.

The River House

The boys are so fortunate to have all their grandparents living nearby & involved in their lives. Bryan's Mom's family grew up on Eastatoee River and they have a getaway house there that we go to on most holidays & special occasions (like when Aunt Mary comes to visit from Seattle). We spent the day at the River House on Saturday and the boys had a blast. Henry caught a huge frog that he carried around for hours and Nate & Memaw caught a fish. The creek was freezing, but these boys felt no pain & dove right in.

Then we enjoyed celebrating Nana's birthday (my Grandma) with dinner at Athens. A great weekend!

3 Man Band

Here's what I've been listening to lately.....

A Trip to Remember!

Bryan and I realized this week that the ultimate vacation spot for Nate & Henry lies just over the mountain. Had we known that the Duncan boys "paradise" was so close to home, we'd went before now! Nate & Henry discovered Dollywood on Thursday. For those of you who know Nate, you can probably picture him watching the skilled craftsmen weld metal

into a sign or form a vase out of pottery. And the rides.... they were great. The weather was perfect & it wasn't crowded & the company was lots of fun (Thanks Christie!) They wanted to move to Tennessee! Luke stayed in SC, spending one night with each set of grandparents. They also enjoyed driving go-carts & riding the chair lift up the mountain.

Bryan, Henry and I all crashed last night with the television on only to find out today that Nate watched quite a bit of Deadliest Catch before going to sleep. We have no idea how late he stayed up, but he was asleep tonight by 7:30!

4 boys

Here is Nate, Henry, Silas & Luke enjoying a visit over Easter weekend. We love you Silas!

Just wasting time...

Very often I just can't relax. If I am home, I feel like I need to be cleaning, doing laundry, reading with Nate & Henry or helping Luke learn to sit without falling over. I never just sit down and do nothing, until now......

I have discovered 2 incredibly wonderful ways to "waste" time & relax. Remember Super Mario Bros you played on your Nintendo? Well, Nate & Henry got a handheld Nintendo ds from their Memaw & Papa for Christmas and Mario is even better than I remembered! I am getting pretty good. I've made it to world 5.

And Twilight.... Okay, I know you've probably heard way too much about this series & you're sure you're not interested, but it's soooo good! I am almost finished with Book 2. I never had time to read before I found this book. But now, I'm finding ways to prop the book up while feeding Luke, hold the book just right while I'm going thru the pick up line at school, I'm no longer addicted to 24 (or American Idol) for that matter. It's good stuff so far, even if it is about vampires!

I love being a busy stay-at-home Mom, but it's nice to just do nothing sometimes.

3 in the tub

So life at the Duncan house is returning to normal. Bryan is home, although his work has been very demanding with an outage about to start in a couple of weeks. We're a week away from spring break, and just 5 days away from a visit from Silas (and Mark & Denise).

Nate and Henry have been enjoying some pretty weather. Here is a picture of a sign they made for their clubhouse. They are enjoying t-ball, but Henry did tell me last night that he didn't like it because they didn't have a snack at the end of practice. When you're 4 years old the snack is often the best part of sports. I told him today I would pack a surprise snack for afterwards. Right now Luke is playing with Henry on my bed. Henry is taking his picture & doing a fine job. In fact, the cutest pictures I have of Luke, Henry took! Maybe he'll be a photographer one day.

Luke getting into trouble!

Luke is all over the house in his walker! Bryan captured this a couple of weeks ago and since I've just learned how to upload videos to blogger, I thought I'd share!

T-ball for Nate & Henry started yesterday. They seem to be loving it!

Swinging

Flu Update

Well, of course the flu made it's way through our house, one by one, taking us out... Luke was hit next, fever, up all night... Then me. I haven't had 103 degree fever in who knows when??? But Luke & I laid in bed together on Thursday night, tossing back the Tylenol & Motrin as often as possible. Then, Nate. He's finally recovering and we're all hoping that spring is just around the corner marking the end of winter sickness.

2 Teeth

Luke is getting 2 teeth! They're coming in at the same time and he's so glad to have 2 down at once. It's been a long week already (and it's only Wednesday). Bryan got stuck at home due to the winter storm & had the flu. He finally made it to Pittsburg Monday night, about the time Henry got sick. I will be surprised if Luke isn't next, simply because Henry loves him sooo much & constantly kisses him. Here is another shot of Luke discovering animal crackers!

Bryan's home!

So it was a major dose of testosterone in the Duncan house today. The boys spent the day with Bryan shooting the pellet gun, chopping things down with a machete and attaching little green army men to firecrackers & blowing them up!

They had a blast being with Bryan every second of the day. The weekends seem to go by so fast while the weekdays drag by. I can't wait until this training is over. These boys need their Daddy at home!

Esther

So, I'm starting week 4 in a new Beth Moore bible study. I love Beth Moore. Her studies work for me. I have found that for a few months after the birth of each of my 3 boys, I have had a hard time focusing on prayer and devotions. Maybe its the lack of sleep or crazy hormones, but something causes me to be so scattered in my spiritual life (at just the moment I should be most in touch???). Anyway, this is my first attempt to get back to some sort of "routine" bible study.

And my point is...

I have learned something very important in Esther. If you know me, you know that I am a worrier. I worry about germs, I worry about my children being in a car accident when they're riding with anyone but me, I worry about natural disasters occurring when I'm away from my children, I worry about anything that is out of my control when it concerns Nate, Henry & Luke. I am forfeiting my joy as a mother with "futile speculations". So when I feel that worry creeping in, I am going to say "NO!" I will not be in mental torment over things I can do nothing about.

Something else I've learned in Esther is that I need to be thankful for my overly active guilt complex. That feeling sorry for the smallest offense I make to someone is a good thing. Conviction is designed by God so we would make amends quickly.

I had no idea I would learn all this from Esther!?!? Just thing, there are 5 more weeks to go...

Happy Valentine's Day!

So we "attempted" a Valentine's dinner at a new Italian Restaurant in Clemson called Brioso. I shouldn't say "attempted" because it was a great dinner considering it was all 5 of us. The restaurant was wonderful with pastas and sauces made on site & gelato! Yum!
This is the start of week 4 of Bryan being out of town. I'm hoping for a better week this week. Things got a little crazy last week.
Luke is so proud that he made a new sound today. "Bbbbuuuuuu, bbbbuuuuu." and sometimes bubbles come out!

Here are the boys before bedtime. Luke is wearing a pair of pajamas that both Nate & Henry wore! They are quite a trio.

The Pirate Dinner

Aaaarrrrggghhh!

My friend Elizabeth gave me the idea to have a pirate dinner. She told her children that if they practiced good table manners throughout the week, that she'd reward them with a pirate dinner - where good manners are not required. The boys were so excited on Thursday night to have their own. We had rotisserie chicken (compliments of Walmart), buttered noodles, green peas (a favorite of Henry), kabobs of mango, pineapple, strawberries & marshmallows, crescent rolls & chocolate pudding for dessert. All to be eaten without utensils. No napkins, you were to wipe your hands on the tablecloth (a quilt). If you needed to burp, you went right ahead and feet on the table? No problem! Of course, you know my children, they can't do anything in moderation. Of course it got a little out of control. I'm talking rubbing deodorant on the mirrors on their closet doors. Yes, you give my boys an inch, and by gosh, they'll take a yard, maybe more. We had fun, and the mess wasn't too overwhelming.

Here is Henry sporting a tatoo drawn by yours truly, and I wore a moustache! Nate, of course kept his school clothes on, he's not one to get too wild & crazy.... he's so much like Bryan.

So, we start week 3 of Bryan's training....

Week 1 down, 10 more to go...

Well, I just survived the first week of 11 that Bryan will be gone (for the majority of the time) for training at Duke.

I have been dreading/agonizing over this since Thanksgiving and I really thought that the hardest part would be being lonely. I figured that I could handle the feeding, shuttling, bathing & bedtime for these 3 wild boys, and the hardest part would be after they all go to bed, just missing Bryan's company. Well, I was (naturally) wrong. The week was crazy. I did handle the days routine, but it

was tough. Bryan does a lot. And just knowing he's gonna do one of the things on my to-do list, like brush Henry's teeth at bedtime does a lot for my morale. (Sometimes that a difficult job!!) And, I was lonely at night. But, we survived and I think he missed us as much as we missed him.

There were only a few glitches in the week, including a meeting of my car with our house (Bryan wasn't happy about that) and possibly the least amount of sleep I've ever had in a week. We had a great weekend with Bryan that included some bowling, some Texas Roadhouse (Nate's favorite) and lots of books. So, we'll see what week 2 holds...

By the way, here is a picture of Luke with his first sippee cup of juice. Yes, I know he's a little young for this (5 months now) but we were having fun, and by baby #3, you just don't sweat the small stuff!!