I knew it had been a while since I had updated our poor, neglected blog...but I didn't realize it had been about 2 months!  Yikes!  Let me try to give you a brief rundown of how everyone is doing!

Harry:  He is...well, depending on what day, what hour, or what minute it is, he is generally great, funny, and sweet!  But there are times, very bad times, at least once a day when a case of the defiant grumpies sets in and there is absolutely no reasoning with him!  I think I can say that those times are becoming less and less frequent, so that is a plus.  He is still doing fantastically at school, and ahem, not to brag but his teacher told me a few weeks ago that he is definitely ahead of his classmates in letters and numbers, etc.  He must get that from his mother, or it could also possibly be from him wanting to read I Spy Little Letters about a million times since we purchased it a few years ago.  He is quite the little planner.  I couldn't even begin to tell you how many times a day he asks me what we are going to be doing tomorrow.  It starts the moment he wakes up until it is time to go to bed.  He has started to say his own prayers at night which is adorable.  It starts out, "Thank you, God when we...." and then he proceeds to tell God exactly what he did that day.  You can tell when he is stalling bedtime by how excruciating some of the details are.  He is a funny kid!  He has been saying for a while that he wants to be Santa Claus for Halloween, and of course, I have looked high and low for a Santa costume and can't find one.  We are planning on going to the pumpkin patch this weekend and costume shopping, so maybe he will find something else that catches his eye.

Elliot:  Elly Belly is turning into quite the little wildman!  He is talking so much, he loves to sing, and doesn't hesitate to let you know how he feels about something good or bad.  Someone told me a few weeks ago that he is the most polite one year old that they have ever known.  He does an excellent job at saying please and thank you, excuse me, bless you, and love you.  He is equally impressive at protesting when things don't go quite his way.  If he's really upset, he usually throws whatever he is holding or he finds a clear space on the floor to lay down and cry his little heart out.  He's lucky that he's still in that too cute for words stage because I can usually laugh off what he does, but man...I think we will have our hands full with him!  His latest tool to try to aggravate his brother and parents is to turn off the TV over, and over, and over again.  Every time he does it, he turns and looks at us with the biggest grin on his face as if to say "Aren't I just the cutest thing in the world??"  He has even been put in time out a few times, but he finds this totally hilarous.  We had his 18 month checkup last month and here were his stats:

• Weight:  21 lbs. 6 oz (4th percentile)
• Height:  32 1/2 inches (50th percentile)
• Head:  I don't remember the measurement, but he was 75th percentile

He is still quite the lightweight!  I can't explain it, and the doctor isn't worried about it so I'm not either.  I would say his appetite has scaled back a little, but I would still be willing to bet that he eats more than Harry.  That is probably a mystery that we will never figure out!

Baby Sister:  She is still camped out in my belly, and she seems to be doing just fine!  I will be 39 weeks on Saturday and everything has been going great so far.  I have definitely grown more tired and worn out the last month or so.  I would say that I'm physically ready to have her, but not emotionally prepared!  We have things just about as ready as they are going to be for now except we have not decided on a name, and I don't have my bag packed.  I have been feeling some contractions lately, but nothing that would suggest I'm going into labor anytime soon.  Harry is soooo excited for Baby Sister to be here.  Lately, his favorite activity is writing her a "letter" (scribbles and some letters) and putting a "stamp" (one of our address labels) on it to give her.  He is going to be an awesome older brother for the second time around.  As far as Elliot goes....I'm not so sure!  I think he might have some massive jealousy issues, but we shall see before we know it!!

Has summer just flown by or what??  I can't believe August went by in such a rush!  I started off the month spending a few days in sunny Florida with some dear friends.  We had such a great time relaxing, swimming, eating, and being silly girls together.  As usual though, as great as it is to get away for a while, it is always great to get home and see all of my boys!  It has been nice getting back into our daily routine as monotonous as that can be sometimes.  Vacations have picked up around work in preparation of me being off the last 2 months of the year, so that has caused me to work quite a bit more than I'm used to.  The weather has been so awesome in the evenings that we usually spend the last few hours before bedtime playing outside!

Harry continues to amaze us every day with his increasing vocabulary, with things he learns at school, and with his everchanging attitudes!  His mood swings have thankfully evened out some, but man!  He can be such a pistol sometimes!  He wears me out most days with his high energy level, constant questioning, and trying to get me to change my mind to see it his way.  He got a haircut on Saturday--a mohawk!  We thought it fit his recent attitude quite nicely.  Rebellious, but cool all the same.  His little brother Elliot is getting to be to the age where he also stuns us with all the new things he learns every day.  Some of his cool new words are apple and Elliot, and some new phrases are "no, I'm not!", and "see you tomorrow".  Of course, these aren't said perfectly but he manages to get his point across.  He loves to try to sing the Veggie Tales theme song, and he thinks that Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes is the funniest song he has ever heard.  It's hard to express how much they light up our lives!

Here are some shots from our yearly trip to the State Fair:  

He loved the rides, and I'm loving that fake smile of his!

Mmmmmmm, corn dog!

And one last unrelated picture, just because it's cute!

All I can say about the month of June is...whew!  Just thinking about it makes me tired!

Before we left I checked the weather report for Florida and realized how stinking hot it was going to be.  Poor little Elliot's head would have suffered greatly with all of his long, flowing, golden locks.  So, sadly it was time for a haircut.  He was not happy about it, but like the good boy he is, he still sat still in the barber's chair.  Here he is after the trauma, almost back to his normal smiley self.

We left June 5th for sunny Orlando.  Travis wasn't set to join us until the 8th, which made the trip down there a bit of a harrowing experience for me.  Getting 2 toddlers, myself, my carry-on, and a double stroller through security while everyone stands and stares at you is something I could have done without, but I guess it's all part of it.  The boys were as good as could be expected on the flight, although I'll have to say I don't think I would try to save money by not buying Elliot a seat again.  We could have used the extra room!  We didn't have much on the agenda except the pool once we got to the resort since we wanted to wait for Disney until Travis got there.  Thank goodness our friends Nate, Krista, and Mary were there to keep us company!  We missed him so much...it felt sad to be on vacation without all of us there!

One of the pools at our resort was absolutely great for the kids.  They were able to walk in and out by themselves since it didn't have steps in the shallow end, and it had fountains all around that they could play in.  It also had a little beach/lake area so they could play in the sand a little bit.

Once Travis got there, we hit the ground running!  Six straight days of Disney!  Since we were going with a 3 year old and two 1 year olds, we decided to do half days so we could still sneak their naps in.  We would typically head to the pool in the morning, head back to the room for lunch and a nap, then get to Disney about 4 or 5 and stay until the park closed.  We made it to Magic Kingdom 3 times, and the other 3 parks (Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom) one day each.  The highlights according to Harry were as follows:  the Small World ride (of course), Dumbo (of course, again), the Playhouse Disney show, and getting sprayed with water at the "bug show" (A Bug's Life).  He also is currently coveting his Disney T-shirt, which he calls his golf club shirt.  He really means golf ball, because it has the Epcot ball on it but you can't reason with a 3 year old.  He asks about every other day if he can go to Disney World again, so I guess it left a lasting impression!  I know he won't always remember his first trip to Disney, but Travis and I know what a great time he had so we will remember it for him and Elliot!

The boys were definitely unsure of the characters!  Harry gave Mickey, Minnie, Handy Manny, and 3 of the characters from the Little Einsteins high fives, but that was it.  Goofy was a little bigger than the rest of them and he was really freaked out by him!  As you can tell by the photo, he would tolerate getting pictures taken with them, but never wanted to be right by them!

We HAD to get the hats, of course!

By the time the 6th day was over, I was definitely done with Disney for a while!  We had a great time, but the heat and the hassle of toting the boys around getting them in and out of the strollers had definitely taken their toll on us!  I was so grateful to get home, sleep in my own bed, shower in my own bathroom, get the boys back into their regular routine, and do laundry in my wonderful Duet!  After spending nearly every waking hour with the boys for so many days straight, I was so ready for my girls' trip to NYC!  I thought I would be sad and nervous to leave the boys at home for a few days, but I totally wasn't!  I guess I trust my wonderful hubby and caregivers more than I realized! 

We had a truly excellent time in NYC.  The best part was catching up with my old roommates and reminiscing about our good old Purdue days!  We laughed so much and most likely annoyed anybody sitting close to us in any restaurants or cafes we visited!  We of course did a lot of walking, shopping, and eating.  The highlights for me was the broadway show we saw (Rock of Ages--totally spectacular, and in my top 3 broadway shows for sure), Crumbs cupcakes, and trying some new ethnic foods (Thai, Indian, and Korean).  In true Sarah fashion, my camera battery died and the few stores I looked in didn't sell the battery that I needed so I will need to rely on the other girls for their photos.  Although I had a great time, I was definitely ready to get home.  The last few days there, I kept noticing kids around my boys' ages and it made me miss them so much.  I'm so glad I got some time to relax and refocus on what I am most grateful for, and I definitely realized the need for doing that since I had never done it before. 

The day after I returned, it was back to work and regular life which I was excited about!  Before I was due to be in, we had our big ultrasound appointment.  Number 3 is confirmed to be a girl, and looks to be totally and completely healthy and normal!  Bless her little tiny heart, she is soooooo in for it!  It is so still rocking my world to think what life will be like with 3 little ones, but I'm still excited nonetheless.  Now the big tasks are to pick out a name and decide how to reconfigure the bedrooms.  

The travelling summer continues tomorrow when we leave for Tennessee to visit Nana and Poppy for the July 4th weekend.  Harry is convinced that we will be playing tennis in Tennessee (he doesn't quite get the concept of states yet), but we will have to see about that.  A precocious 3 year old with a racket and tennis balls sounds a little bit scary to me!  Have a great holiday!

The stomach bug that has been floating around in our circles since Christmas has steered clear of us...until now!!  Harry started it off last Thursday afternoon with what possibly was the WORST diaper change I have ever experienced.  I won't explain further, you can get the mental picture.  The nastiness continued through Friday, and the fun times got better when he vomited the chocolate milk that I reluctantly gave him.  "Oh, I spilled it!" he said.  Only Harry could make the grossness of vomit funny!  Elliot started acting funny Saturday afternoon.  He was starting to get really whiny and felt warm to the touch.  We sat down for dinner (Harry was still staging a hunger strike at this point--I think he ate 2 crackers for dinner) and throughout the meal, Elliot was going down hill fast and crash landed with projectile vomit.  Everywhere, including on me who was in the line of fire.  Good times!  Nothing says fun like scrubbing down your kitchen on a Saturday night!  Sunday had a rough start with the boys trading off gross diapers, but improved greatly at dinner time with both boys eating decently and in good moods.  We even sent them to daycare and both got good reports.  I even had the notion of heading to house church since they both seemed fine.  Then Elliot started acting funny after dinner like he was about to get sick again.  As I picked him up I realized that his belly was a ton bigger than usual and hard as a rock.  I called my dear friend Kelly to tell her that I had changed my mind about going to house church since Elliot was acting so strange and she suggested I call the doctor (she is a nurse, and much smarter about this child rearing thing than I am).  So I did, and to make this excrutiatingly long story shorter we ended up in the ER.  Sigh.  They took some x-rays, checked for infective diarrhea, gave him some Pedialyte (which he promptly upchucked all over me), and sent us home after the x-rays came back and showed no bowel obstructions or anything like that.  Not how I expected to spend a Monday night, but that is okay.  I suppose it comes with the territory.  I'm just glad everything checked out okay, and he so far seems much improved today.  We'll see after dinnertime since that seems to be his downfall!

The disaster that was this weekend got us thinking about one thing....vacation!!  Travis got busy Sunday and planned us what I think will be an awesome time away.  The only bad thing is, we have to wait until November!  We decided to go the week before and of Thanksgiving which will drastically reduce the days he will have to take off work since the office will be either closed on some of the days or very slow.  We are going to drive to Florida, first heading to (gulp!) Disney World for 3 days then heading to Captiva Island for a week.  Since we will have almost 2 weeks we can take our time travelling back and forth and hopefully have a relaxing time.  That is, we can relax after Disney World!  Since Harry will be a little older when we get there, I think he will be so stoked to meet all of the characters.  The house that Travis found on Captiva looks awesome, is the perfect size for us, and is close to the beach.  We might be having seafood for Thanksgiving dinner, but that is totally cool with me!!

This post is going to be random, cute, funny things about us that I don't want to forget.  I am aging, the memory is starting to go, so I need to preserve these thoughts in the blog so when I am officially senile, the boys will be able to know these things I adore about them! 

Yesterday while I was working, I was enjoying one of my very favorite snacks of graham crackers and diet coke and I thought of my little Elliot.  This is my favorite snack for a special reason, and not because graham crackers are so very tasty.  Right after Elliot was born, it was getting close to midnight and the nurse asked me if wanted something to eat.  I could have anything she said.  Nothing really sounded that good.  I was sicker than a dog with a cough and a bad sinus infection and despite the strenuous activity of just having birthed a child,  I really wasn't all that hungry.  She offered some crackers and I asked if they had graham crackers for some odd reason.  They did, so she brought me some with the necessary diet coke (that was also my first request after Harry was born!).  I wolfed those suckers down.  I guess I was hungrier than I thought.  And they tasted like heaven.  Now I eat them all of the time, and each time I am reminded of my sweet little baby and that unexpected, wonderfully blessed night.

Harry is getting funnier and sassier with each passing day.  He now tells the baby he has to go to time out, and he often points his finger authoritatively at Mommy and Daddy and says things like "No, YOU be quiet!"  He is currently in a big no phase, meaning that whatever you want him to do, he doesn't want to do it.  Doesn't want his diaper changed, but doesn't want to go on the potty either.  If you turn on the Backyardigans, he whines for the Little Einsteins.  He doesn't want to eat, but whenever we drive by McDonalds or Wendy's, he says it's time to eat.  You get the picture.  Sometimes, however, he can be so very, very sweet.  Almost every morning he walks by his fish tank and says "Good morning, fish!!"  He is always so happy to see his little brother in the morning.  He bursts into Elliot's room when he hears him and says in the most high-pitched voice "Hi buddy buddy!!"  He tells me all the time that Elliot, Oscar, and Callie are so cute.  He tries to say big words like non-negotiable and Princess Fiona and keeps us in stitches.  His recent obsession with the Little Einsteins causes him to say things like Igor Stravinsky, "yeah Rossini!" and "Catcheye the Ogre is bad!!"  When he says "hold my hand" or "Can I hold him?" he sounds a lot like Bob Dylan.  We love him more than we could ever describe!

We haven't been up to a whole lot since the weather has been so cold.  We have our inside routine during the day down pat, and surprisingly we haven't been too bored.  We will be ready for springtime for sure though.  I took the boys to Toddler Time at the library last week (they read a story, sing some songs, and make a craft) and he had a blast.  I honestly think he was the most engaged kid there!  After we got home, he was playing with the penguin he (or should I say I) made, I asked him what his penguin's name was.  He immediately said Scott!  That struck me as so funny!  He then changed it to Eyes, then Nose, then he changed it to Jim.  Hilarious!  I think he called it Jim not because we know someone named that, but because Travis and I joined a gym last week and the boys have gone there a few times with me and stayed in the child care area.  The toddler mind never ceases to amaze me.  This kid doesn't forget anything!

After a week in the hospital and five days in a rehab facility, Travis's Granny is back home and doing super.  We are so thankful and grateful for everyone's prayers!