MacFadyen Clan

New blog!!

2010-08-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

So i've made the switch to word press and i'm loving it.

Please join us there if you want to continue to keep up with the crazy mac boys.

The address is:

www.themacboys.wordpress.com

I don't know if it will work with google reader but i love the format and ability to have multiple pages, etc.

Great mother's day gift idea

2010-05-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

I would like to introduce my new best friend..."Roomba".

If you haven't heard of this wonderful invention...let me quickly fill you in. Roomba is a vacuum that moves around your house by itself! You just push a button and voila! it's magically off making your life better. AND when it's done it finds it's way back to the docking station to re-charge.

I got my new best friend for my birthday from my mom and mother-in-law.
The first night i used it was when i realized it's more than just a household help...it's a NANNY!

Bruce and i sat at the dinner table having wonderful conversation while the Roomba cleaned my floors and entertained my children. The boys followed "Rumbo" (as quade as named him) all around the house.

Oh, another perk of my new best friend is that the boys clean up their clutter due to the fear that "Rumbo" may vacuum it up! i'm telling you it's the best invention ever!!

little discoveries

2010-04-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

With three boys around it's hard to keep track of them all, all the time.

This is what i found on the counter after dinner.

GOAL!!

2010-04-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

On April 13, 2010 Quade scored his first goal! Prior to that day quade loved to just run around the field and "pose" and pretend to be playing soccer...which was hilarious and great. He still does it.
BUT once he scored a goal something clicked and he is actually trying to kick the ball now.

The best part is that he is having fun and getting exercise!
(these are pics from that game, not necessarily of the goal...hard to capture that exact moment while entertaining a 2 yr old and feeding a 8 month old)

mini-entrepeneurs

2010-04-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Since we've scaled back quade's time in school, we have more time at home, which has been good on so many levels.
In this instance it allowed me the opportunity to say "yes" when quade had the idea that morning that we needed to have a lemonade stand.

Price was his first customer

yummy!

Once price was sugar-high on lemonade, he started marketing (aka yelling at our neighbors that ventured outside). They legitimately sold 2 glasses of lemonade. making $1.50

Watch out world! The Mac Brothers are coming!

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

We were in San Antonio for Easter with Bruce's sister Sherri. Easter morning we were rushing to get 6 boys aged 5 and under to church on time...so the typically Easter day pics were taken in the parking lot at the restaurant we ate that day.
These are the boys that day.

boys don't do flowers

2010-04-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

Fortunately i have come to accept and enjoy the fact that boys and flowers just aren't quite the same as girls and flowers. AND trying to get a cute pic of all 3 boys, looking at me, in cute matching monogrammed outfits with flowers in the background is impossible.

So what i do is just show up...and put them all in the same general area and take as many pics as i can...just capturing the stage of life i'm in and the fact that i have 3 sweet boys that don't need to smile to show personality.

could they look more bored?

um, yeah

love this one

the best pic of the day, thanks to some stranger who felt pity for me and tried to get their attention.

photo shoot of a chunky baby

2010-03-31T13:39:00.000-07:00

One day i was inspired to take some pics of one of my favorite stages...the sit and be cute stage.
Here is Watts at about 8 months

the bus stop

2010-03-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

tonight while driving home from small group price was throwing a major tantrum. While we were trying to figure out what this typical 2 1/2 yr old was upset about and trying to distract him, the idea of going to the zoo came up.
He immediately stopped crying and announced that "yes" he wanted to go to the zoo.
Unfortunately he wanted to go right now. He kept saying "go to the zoo". We try to tell him that we couldn't go to the zoo right now and again the tears...
So Bruce said that if Price wanted he could take the bus to go to the zoo. To which Price responds, "okay". oops.
Then we decided to talk him through the realities of this decision.:
I said, "oh wait, do you have your money? you'll need money for the bus".
Price: "no i no have mine money"
Bruce: "i'll give you a dollar for the bus"
Me: "where are you going to sleep? outside in the rain? b/c the zoo is closed"
Price: in a sad voice "no sleep in the rain. i sleep on bus".
oops.
Bruce: "ok. when we get home i'll get you a dollar and walk you out to the bus stop in front of our house."
Price: "okay"
what?
So we get home and Price is totally fine with this plan. Bruce hands him the dollar and walks him outside in the rain down to the bus stop in front of our house. Bruce walks back to the house, says goodbye and pretends to shut the door, standing outside to keep an eye on him.
As soon as he shuts the door he hears Price yell "bus! come! where are you ?"

I was inside with Quade who was getting upset saying "i'll miss price. i want him to sleep in my room with me. not on a bus" So we decided to go outside and rescue him. Despite Quade's pleading Price was determined to go to the zoo. I told him we were going inside to get some dinner...he didn't care.
Then Bruce said "would you like a snack?" to which price responded "sure" and inside he went.
Boy are we in trouble!

Poop on the ground...looking like a fool with your poop on the ground

2010-02-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

(title stems from the american idol audition song "pants on the ground" check it out on youtube)

On a lighter note from my previous two posts, i thought i would share one of my recent adventures living with young boys.

I was standing in the kitchen after lunch. Price was upstairs. Quade was running around the house downstairs (around our little circle of hallways). I was holding watts and getting water ready for nap times when i hear a "splat" sound. followed by a little voice saying: "Need a new diaper"

I went in the downstairs hallway (where quade had just run through) to find the following.

yes, that is a diaper and yes those 3 little piles are poop that shot out from the diaper when it was dropped from the upstairs.

I was dumbfounded to say the least. Holding watts i just started pacing the hall, not knowing what to address first. I told quade how lucky he was to have just missed having poop on his head (of course he thought that was a hilarious idea) I decided that i needed to find price and clean him up before he sat anywhere...you can only imagine the damage a poopy bottom left uncovered can cause!

needless to say, it was all cleaned up and everyone survived the diaper bombing.

However, i will forever be more careful when walking that fateful hall. I will keep my eyes upward and vigilant, for fear of being the recipient of an unwanted surprise.

The STOP button (an update)

2010-01-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

When i last wrote on this blog it was the first day of December and I'd realized that life was moving too quickly. I discussed the treadmill concept. Well the holidays and the automatic commitments that come with that time of year did not help me get off the treadmill. There was a week in December that i had a Christmas party or event every night...which culminated in me crying with a stranger at a christmas party. um yeah.

The following day I was late to set-up for Quade's class christmas party (that i had signed up for at the beginning of the year). I spoke with his teacher about how hard it was to get all 3 little kids in the car to get quade to school every day. I asked if in the Spring if she thought it would work for him to come only 3 days a week. She thought that was a bad idea...and of course i started crying. Then she suggested i join a carpool (yeah one more thing i need to coordinate)...then she offered to pick quade up, which is very kind. However, the bigger issue wasn't just getting him to school 5 days a week it was not having him home...he is going to be in school the rest of his life, no need to rush it!

So that conversation happened on a thursday, that Saturday we left for Houston and i had the best part of my December. This was unexpected because we were in one house with 19 of us, 9 of which were kiddos aged 5 and under. (i need to write some posts just on our christmas...).

It was such a relaxing week. I got to play with my boys, have conversations with adults, play games and hold watts a lot!

Then we came home and i had some decisions to make. I was considering pulling Quade and Price out of school and having a a home school semester. I got really excited about the idea, but a little fearful of not having any break during the week. So looked into getting a nanny to come to our house one day a week to watch all three boys. but those options didn't pan out...

I had a week to decide if i was going to take quade to school this spring, then i realized i needed to decide about next fall (because his current school's contract for the fall was due january 5th...seriously!). So i started doing research on schools in the area. I decided that proximity was most important, i also wanted a place they could all attend, a place quade could go as a 5 year old (since most 5 yr olds are in kindergarten), and only a few days a week.

Well Sunday night i emailed a school and the next monday morning i called that school to follow up...after i introduced myself saying I'm a mother of three young boys the assistant said "oh, is this Heather? I was just responding to your email"...amazing!! This was their first day back at school after the break and she was able to respond to my email.

She told me that they would be able to take all 3 boys in the fall. She then said "I don't know if you are interested in this Spring but we have a spot for both your older boys on tues/thurs". God answers prayers!!

Here is a list of amazing ways God provided in the next 24 hours:

-I was able to tour the school that tuesday (the day i had to decide whether to return to quade's school and whether to return in the fall).

-The school was minutes from our house (instead of the 15 solid minutes it took to get to quade's previous school).

-school was AMAZING! (i didn't care if it was mediocre).

-The facilities were fabulous

-The teachers were engaged with the kids and at least appeared like they wanted to be there.

-they have chapel once a week (his other school was not part of a church)

-Quade would be in Spanish once a week.

-There were only 6 other kids in the class Quade would be in and 2 teachers! (his other class had 12 kids to one teacher)

-If we were students in the spring we wouldn't have to wait in line in February to enroll for the fall.
-The director took her time and showed me every detail of the school and was so patient with the boys (who were with me...wanted quade to see it and see if he liked it before i made the big move).

So I DID IT! I HIT THE STOP BUTTON!! I called Quade's old school and told them we wouldn't be coming back. The two boys started that thursday!

Of course satan tried to get involved and tell me the lie that perhaps quade's new class was so small because the teachers were bad.

nothing could be farther from the truth! they were wonderful. loving and caring and sweet!!

GOD IS GOOD!! He knows exactly what we need, when we need it!

Bruce's mom was so helpful in talking through this decision. She told me that when something is wrong with us physically we experience physical pain. When we experience emotional pain (stress, tears with a stranger) it is another way that God tries to tell us something is wrong.

May God give you the awareness of where there is stress in your life, the strength to hit the stop button and the faith to know He will fill in all the details!

sleep, the treadmill and wild things

2009-12-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

Here is what's going on in my brain lately (mixed in with some pics of our nutty life)

SLEEP

November was a difficult month for our family. Watts got a bad cold and stopped sleeping well at night. At first i was able to manage getting up 2-3 times a night, but after 3 weeks of severe sleep deprivation it started to show. In addition Bruce was working a lot. He worked until midnight, or even 3:30 am some nights.

During this time I was a wreck...i couldn't hold a conversation with people. I was constantly frustrated with the boys. I don't think i smiled much during that time. I was feeling overwhelmed and hectic. I wanted to drop all commitments and just stay home for the next few years. Bruce and close friends told me that maybe i just needed to get more sleep. Which i think was mostly true...i still felt like i was going, going, going and for no reason (more on this in a second).

The week after Thanksgiving I decided to do a little crying it out with watts. I got 7 hours straight of sleep one night and i woke up feeling like an entirely new woman. I texted friends to apologize for anything i might have done or said in the last few weeks. My brain was suddenly inspired. Sadly it didn't totally "stick" and he is still waking up at least once at night, but i am now very aware of the importance of sleep. =)

bathtime kisses

The TREADMILL
After being in Indiana with my parents and seeing old friends i was struck by how nice it was to not be busy all the time. The pace of life was so much more relaxed than our days here in Dallas. I talked with one friend who made choices for her family so they could spend more time together. I was inpired by her example.

This past Sunday our pastor (neil tomba, northwest bible church) spoke about "The Treadmill". The point of his sermon was that we make a job out of everything. We complicate the holidays, doing more and more. The reasons we do this, he suggested, was our competitiveness and envy. For me i think it is also my desire to make everyone happy. I say "yes" to too many activities. He also said that by staying on the treadmill we rob ourselves of rest and relationship.

Hearing this sermon helped me solidify my thoughts and recognize what changes i needed to make (realistic ones, not drastic, sleep-deprived decisions). I decided that before i say 'yes' to something or before i spend my time doing something i need to ask myself "Is this necessary?" "Does this help or hurt my family relationships?". We are an outgoing, extroverted bunch, so staying home all day, every day would make us all crazy. BUT i do think i need to choose to stay home more and do less.

by staying home things like this happen...a little people parade

WILD THINGS

During Thanksgiving I became frustrated with our boys and our parenting of them. I felt that every couple minutes one of my family members was telling me about something one of my boys had done. The boys seemed like out-of-control crazy men and it was exhausting!

Bruce and I had recently sat down and decided that we were going to focus on 3 main rules for our family: 1) respect authority (obey) 2) respect others (be kind to others) 3) take care of the things God gave us.
It helped me focus my attention on these three things. However, I feel like every day i am repeating these 3 rules a billion times. I discipline all day long and, again, it's exhausting.

I feel like when we are with others at a social gathering or at a friend's house to play that my boys completely forget how to behave, despite being told a thousand times...

Then i found a book on my bookshelf "Wild Things: the art of nurturing boys". Whew did i feel better after this. Boys are just WILD! They make crazy choices that make you scratch your head and say "what were you thinking?". This book has a chapter for each stage of development for boys. The stage my boys (2-4 yrs old) are in is the explorer stage. If you have boys check out this book and feel encouraged that you are not alone!!
my rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

my diaper head

All in all i've recognized that sleep makes everything better. That i do myself and my family a favor by stepping off the "treadmill" of life. And lastly that it's good to provide rules/boundaries of behavior but ultimately boys need to be boys and i need to set realistic expectations to allow them to be the wild things God created them to be!

Price's turn

2009-11-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

There was a lot of "discussion" about who was going to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween and who would be Woody. Obviously the more "fun" costume is Buzz. Of course, poor price's opinion had to come 2nd to his big brothers (last year price was the robin to quade's batman).
BUT once halloween was over Price found the costumes and decided it was his turn to be Buzz.
So here is Price's turn as Buzz (note the attitude)

(quade was not thrilled when price asked him to put on the woody costume).

Laugh out loud

2009-11-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

one of my favorite milestones...

don't spell with your food

2009-10-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

10 yr college reunion

2009-10-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

The last saturday we were in Indiana we drove up to Upland, IN for my 10 yr college reunion. We had to stop on the side of the road to get this picture to prove that this school really is in the middle of the cornfields (it is also always windy!)
We had a great time being together without the older boys revisiting old haunts and talking with college friends and professors.

This is the bell tower in the middle of campus where Bruce proposed to me on my 21st birthday! We feel so blessed with all God has done in our lives since that day.

Here i am with my favorite Bio professor and my great friend Jen Dake who i studied, laughed and lived life with while at Taylor. Going to a small school was so nice. This professor and his wife invited us over to their house every monday night to watch "Seventh heaven". He would make us special treats (homemade ice cream, popcorn...) and they just showed us wonderful hospitality. It was a home away from home. They even hosted a wedding shower for me.

That night after a dinner with people from our class Jen and I went over to Dr. Moore's to hang out, talk and eat breadsticks from TOPPIT pizza! yummy! The perfect end to a perfect day!

Walk in the woods

2009-10-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of my childhood exploring in the 1/2 acre of woods behind our house. My parents moved to a new house when i was a senior in high school. That house has a wooded park nearby. The park also has a public water well that my dad gets his water from.
So one day while we were in indy we took the boys to the park to get water and to explore. It made bruce and i really want to have a home someday with some land for the boys to be boys!

skipping rocks...

it will make you wish you were a kid again

2009-10-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

(okay this happened almost 2 months ago, but wanted to document the experience!)

While in indy we visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum. I used to come here as a kid and have vivid memories of time spent there. So i was excited to have the boys visit. I didn't realize how much they had added. The best thing they added was the amazing dinosaur exhibit, with real palentologists working that you could talk with and ask questions! We had a great day and made some of our own wonderful memories.

chilly zoo

2009-10-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

we checked out the indy zoo. it was great!
we went to a dolphin show, explored the safari, rode the train and wen to the petting zoo.

good times with old friends

2009-10-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

This trip to Indy i was a little more organized and contacted some of my old friends (who were also bridesmaids of mine) to get together.
It was so nice to catch up to meet their kiddos and just talk!

I had lunch one day with Jeni, a friend of mine who is the assistant director of special education at an indy school district. we talked about her work and her life in indy. it was great to be able to catch up after all these years and have so much in common in our career interests.

this is my friend michelle...i've known her since before she was born!
my parents are her godparents. we were babies together and now it's fun to have babies the same year.

This is my friend susan. We met in high school, where we laughed all the time!

Susan has 3 little ones as well. although hers are 8,6 &4.
It was so amazing to see a glimpse into my future. I was so impressed with how she is rearing her kiddos. They were so sweet, fun and respectful. Quade loved meeting the "older boys" and Price loved meeting Lily the "older girl". =) It was a great day!

first day in indy

2009-10-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

quite an impressive way to start the day...fancy breakfast on a tablecloth in the formal dining room.
(quickly learned that a 2 yr old and 4 yr old probably do better in the kitchen)

Off to a local fall festival...

all in all a great first day

up, up and away

2009-10-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yes we are a little crazy.
When i am out and about with my 3 boys i draw a lot of stares. When you fly with 3 young boys you draw even more attention. some people give you looks of pity, others are fearful that you may sit near them.
However, this flight to Indy the boys were great. those around us had to be satisfied with their flight experience.
(we won't talk about the flight home...celebrate the victories, forget the defeats).

We worked as a team. Bruce sat with Price, I sat with Quade and we passed Watts back and forth.
We had just enough toys, just enough snacks and just enough video entertainment...

These were the happy grandparents that greeted us...with dinosaur puppets and everything!

buddies

2009-10-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

One of price's best buddies is Mason. They are quite a pair with a lot of energy. Here they are at Chick-fil-a's play area.

Swinging monkeys

silly faces

short shorts

2009-10-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

Our new "trick" for solving the dilemma of what to do when quade's clothes get wet and he doesn't want to wear them, is to trade clothes with Price. This works for 2 reasons: 1) Price could care less if the clothes are wet 2) Quade's hips are so skinny that he wears the same size Price does.

Here is a picture of Quade at 4 yrs old

Here is a picture of Quade at 17 months wearing the same shorts!

Fair Day (or maybe fair night)

2009-10-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

October 2nd was Quade's school's fair day...which means that school is cancelled so students can go to the Texas State Fair.
Since Bruce just started at his job he couldn't take a weekday off. But he could leave work a little early. So we decided to do a post-nap, evening trip to the fair.
It just so happened that there was a major storm headed towards downtown dallas the night we decided to go.
we went anyway!
Because of the storm we parked right by the entrance, the weather was cool and there was nobody there. Perfect!
At school quade has been learning about the fair and he thought he wanted to ride the ferris wheel. He changed his mind when we arrived.

We went to the bird show...the first time we had been.

I was a little distracted as i watched the storm arrive.

As soon as the show was over we sought shelter and ate a little dinner.

After only 15 minutes the storm passed and the sky was beautiful!

Tried fried cookie dough and fried butter...enough said!

Breath-taking midway

Quade's first ride...when it whipped him around he decided he wasn't a fan.

Price wanted to ride all the rides (including the big kid ones)

Convinced quade that the bumper cars were not scary and he LOVED them!

It was a great time and we made some great memories!!

special delivery

2009-09-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

I walked into the kitchen from my office and found this!
more joy! (makes up for the fact that he threw up on the car ride home from school today). =)

Uncle Adam and Cousin Zachary come to visit

2009-09-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

A few days before Labor Day Weekend my little brother emailed me to see if he and his little guy, Zachary, could come visit us for the weekend (his wife was going to visit a girlfriend).

They live in South Carolina and we hadn't seen them since Christmas so of course we were excited.

We had an awesome time. The boys got along great with Zachary. Quade and Price thought Uncle Adam was hilarious!

Uncle Adam's love for chocolate milkshakes definitely a genetic trait...Zachary was a huge fan as well!

Getting ready for church...silly guys!

"identical cousins"...these two guys were hilarious together. two little curly headed blondes with very happy personalities.

Finding the joy...

2009-09-22T13:21:00.001-07:00

So with my mantra "find the joy in parenting"...here are some recent stories that have brought laughter to our home. Enjoy

Quade: i have a mosquito bite on my leg! it's right next to my favorite leg hair.

Price: mommy, mommy, MOMMY!
Me: yes Price
Price: knock knock!
Me: who's there?
Price: Price!

Quade: Daddy I want to be a pilot. like Pontius Pilate.
Bruce: um, pontius pilate wasn't a pilot. in fact he killed jesus.
Quade: ok then i'll just be a pilot

After asking Quade about what he learned in Sunday school he said he learned about Jonah and David. We informed him that David is not in the Jonah story.
Quade's response: "Well, David is Jonah's middle name".

in the car on the way to school, after saying "no" several times to the requests to watch a movie. I said we were going to listen to music. Price starts chanting "Rock, rock, rock!". then he proceeded to shoot down all radio stations until when a rock song started playing he said "yes, rock! price song."

keep the joy coming! i LIKE it!

Breaking records...

2009-09-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

disclaimer: parental bragging below

Watts is already trying to show up his brothers.

So far he is the tallest and biggest of the 3 boys.

He is quite the sleeper...i thankfully got 7 hours straight of sleep last night (praise the Lord!).

He broke quade's record for rolling over...rolling from his tummy to his back at 5 weeks. way to go mr. watts!

My promotion...

2009-08-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

A month ago i was promoted in my job. That's right I moved from stay-at-home mother of 2 to stay-at-home mother of 3!

What's even crazier is that from December '08 until the week before my promotion, Bruce was working from home. He had meetings and lunches and work to do but he was around if i needed extra help. For the last month or so he was very helpful with the boys...making them breakfast, cleaning up breakfast, putting them down for naps, cleaning up dinner, giving them baths, putting them to bed, etc. We also went on a lot of fun, family outings.

When Watts was born i went from having 2 kids and 2 adults at home, to 3 kids and 1 adult.

I am trying to see it as a positive and view it as a "promotion".

New positions definitely come with their adjustment periods. So here are some of my thoughts rom my first month into my new position.

2 of my charges planning their next challenge

1) In general, going from having no kids to having your first is the most difficult parenting transition. However, going from 2 to 3 has proven to be the most difficult when i want to get out of the house. Since i am an extrovert and like to stay busy this fact of parenting 3 kiddos has been the hardest for me.

Fortunately some of my good friends have volunteered their time and energy to meet me at fun places and help me with the kids. We have gone to the spray park, chick-fil-a, flight museum...

2) When i am out in public with the 3 boys i have a couple of things i've learned...I have to remember to breathe deeply and be patient. Take one hurdle at a time. For example, at the park the other day all of these things needed to be done or were being done at the same time: feeding Watts, phone rang, Quade needed to pee, neighbor friend walked by, and Price had a dirty diaper, oh and it was 90+ degrees. one thing at a time.

3) I think more places should have drive-thrus. Once i have loaded all three boys in the car they are so easy. If more places had drive-thrus i could run all my errands very easily. Can't we get a drive-thru grocery store? maybe just for necessities (bread, milk, eggs, wine =))?

4) The first few weeks of being home by myself with the boys I had the hardest time while i was feeding watts. I was stuck on the couch for 40 minutes or so. Typically the boys would have destroyed the house during this time (even if i thought ahead and set them up with an activity). Once i was done feeding/changed a diaper/put watts to sleep, it then took another 20 minutes to get the boys to help me clean up all their messes.

5) Each child brings his own challenges and joys. Quade is the most emotionally demanding and relies more on me for entertainment. Price is the most exploratory and too independent for his own good. Watts is a newborn...self-explanatory. On the positive side, Quade LOVES baby watts and wants to hold him whenever he gets a chance. He is also very obedient and helpful. Price always makes me smile with his little head bobble and cute sayings ("here it is!", "kay?"). He gives me kisses throughout the day. Watts is soft and cuddly and is just starting to flash a smile now and then.

6) Life is good if you can get all 3 children to nap at the same time! Because the kids are so close in age i have had the luxury of being able to take a nap myself most days. glorious!

7) Hormones can be my enemy. The first few weeks i definitely had the "baby blues". I think it was more the "I have 3 small children and am losing my identity" blues. I felt like having another child affected my life significantly more than bruce's and was jealous of his freedom. Given some tears and time, my perspective has altered. I have some new mantras and goals:

"Find the joy in parenting" "Rediscover my interests" "God is greater, i am lesser" "See each challenge of my day as a chance to grow emotionally and spiritually".

Most importantly I have learned that:

Taking care of these 3 boys is impossible on my own strength. It requires humility to accept the help of friends and family. It requires daily dependence on the Lord and the Spirit giving me patience, self-control, peace, love, kindness, and JOY!

My current faves

2009-08-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

I realized that the end of my pregnancy and the beginning of this newborn phase i have developed some new favorite things that i wanted to share.

1) Food network

my sister told me about the shows "Chopped" and "next food network star". I had always thought it was ridiculous that there was an entire channel devoted to food...what an indulgent society we live in. However, i am a changed lady. I LOVE this channel. It has inspired me to try new recipes and appreciate different foods. since i am officially a stay-at-home mom more than a speech-language pathologist i figure that cooking is something i am going to be doing a lot over the next 20 odd years. So i'm happy that perhaps i can enjoy the process a little more thanks to the food network.

2) Baby log application on my itouch

This application has made me use my itouch more than ever. It's like that itzbeen device...tracking feedings, diaper changes, sleep, baths, and "other". It's awesome!

Also while i'm nursing and have access to wifi i can surf the web and check my email. love it! Oh and it makes a great night light to guide my way in a dark bedroom and to check on baby Watts when he makes little squeaks.

3) Pampers newborn diapers

first of all i love how tiny they are compared to Price's gigantic size 5 diapers. secondly, they have advanced the technology of these diapers and a yellow strip in the front turns blue when the diaper is wet...taking the guesswork out of whether it needs to be changed. Unfortunately my gigantic baby only wore newborn diapers for a week. =(

4) Sonic happy hour

what a fabulous idea! half priced drinks from 2 to 5! amazing. Nothing like a 44 oz cherry limeade for a dollar to turn this frown upside down. And for another dollar i can make two little boys happy with cranberry juice slushes. Especially on a 103 degree day...yum-O!

The monster did it!

2009-07-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today was a little crazier than "normal" (whatever that means).
Before naptime Price dropped a chair on his big toe...he will most likely be loosing his big toe nail in the next few days. It is really disgusting and looks extremely painful.

When Quade woke up from his nap he immediately came out of his room and told me that he woke up when he heard a boom and his sound machine was off. He then said that he had a dream that a monster came in his room and knocked over his dresser and turned off his sound machine, but it was just a dream.

I didn't think anything of it until Bruce took the boys upstairs to put them to bed and found the following in quade's room.

Now i don't believe in monsters but how can an almost 4 year old create this scene?
We were relieved to see that his toy play garden broke the fall of the dresser and that no one was hurt. We have explained to quade how dangerous it is that this dresser fell...just in case he was responsible.

Until we get the story straight, I guess i'm going to have to set a huge monster trap so we can stop this from happening again!

thank you nana!

2009-07-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here is sweet Watts in his going home outfit that Nana bought him
and the blanket that i crocheted for him.

Nana goes home tomorrow...we will miss her and all her HUGE help!

watts goes to church

2009-07-26T20:13:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday i was contracting during church and went to the hospital only to be sent home but delivered the next day.

This sunday we had 3 boys to load in the car and take to church...CRAZY!

Here are the boys in their matching polos...

the first pic demonstrates the typical nuttiness that we experience on an hourly basis.

then the calm and sweetness...

,more sweetness

back to the nuttiness!

Mac cousins meet Watts

2009-07-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend Sherri (bruce's oldest sister) and her family were in town for her husband's work. They came over to go swimming and for dinner Friday night. Saturday we went up to christina's (bruce's youngest sister) house and went swimming.
The kids had lots of fun and lots of frozen treats!

Aunt Sherri, Bruce and Watts

The 5 oldest cousins and their first popsicle of the weekend

2nd frozen treat! yummy

Here is a clip of the kiddos swimming in our backyard...they are a wild bunch!

First outing

2009-07-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

While my mom was here i decided to take advantage of the help and get the boys out of the house.
Here is our loaded down car...

Quade the big helper pushing baby Watts

Quade and Price holding hands and checking out toys.

Besides Price running away a few times it was a successful trip. =)

first morning home...lots of brotherly love

2009-07-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

If Watts is awake (and sometimes when he is asleep) Quade wants to be holding him or kissing him.
This was our first morning after the hospital...

Are these 3 boys seriously all mine?

headed home

2009-07-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

birthday buddies

2009-07-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Watts and I ventured outside of our hospital room to go visit his new birthday buddies.
Fortunately we only had to walk down the hall and stop in to visit Ashley and Finley (who is sooo gorgeous...love her!). Finley was born 2 minutes after Watts.

Then we visited in the hallway with Janna and went to her room to meet his other birthday buddy Samuel. Samuel has a brother Quade's age and a sister Price age...i see perfect playdates in our future!

Another birthday buddy was born Monday afternoon in Chicago, IL to a good friend from college. This is Allison...who Quade just told me is cuter than Watts. =) gotta love toddler honesty. Happy Birthday Babies!

Ready for my close-up

2009-07-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

Realized that in the previous pics you couldn't really see Watts' cute face. So here are some more pics of our cute boy.

First Day...just starting to open his eyes

Second day...more and more alert

love from the big bro

With his poppy and momma

Watts Corban MacFadyen...newest clan member

2009-07-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

It was a week of contractions but once we got to L&D and they didn't send me home it was only 2 hours until he arrived!

Around 6:30 am i received an epidural...much better from the one i had with Price. It was the same anesthesiologist i had with Quade...we love him!

Around 7 am i felt a strong "kick"...turns out it was my water breaking. Didn't realize it was my water until about 20 minutes later. I told the nurse that i could feel the contractions stronger through the epidural so she checked me and saw the water had broken and that i was completely dialated.

My doctor (whom i love!) came in around 8 am. We started pushing around 8:05 and

Watts made his appearance at 8:17 am weighing 9lbs 7oz and 22 inches long!

He is a big boy who loves to eat and loves to be held. I think by your 3rd child you realize that holding them a lot at that the beginning is not going to spoil them. =)

The older brothers came up to our postpartum room to meet Watts around 11:30 am. Quade's first comment was "Oh, baby watts is so cute! look at his tiny feet!". Price was not interested at first but by the time they left was saying hi baby watts and wanting to give him kisses. I think he was following in his older bro's footsteps (thanks quade for being a great example of a big brother).

To be honest I have loved my time in the hospital...i get to lay in bed all day, they bring me food, i visit with friends, i cuddle with my new baby, watch t.v., sleep...they even have a towel warmer in the bathroom! It's a mommy vacation!

I need to thank my mom for all the time she has spent with the boys. I'm sure she is exhausted but it has been nice to be able to just relax and recuperate.

Here is our new family of 5!

Third times a charm...

2009-07-20T04:24:00.000-07:00

in more ways than one.

Well i'm at the hospital (for the 3rd time this pregnancy) and they AREN'T sending me home!

i came yesterday and they sent me home with some pain meds. i had a great day with my family (parents, sis and her kids) playing cards, going to blue goose, and watching some t.v..

took an ambien before i went to bed so i could get some good sleep.

around 1:45 am i was awaken by some strong contractions. For the next 3 hours i had strong regular contractions every 3 to 5 minutes. At 4:45 am bruce asked if i was okay. i decided to take a warm shower and see if things continued...they did. He convinced me we needed to go in.

I called the doc...she said "are they more intense? when i asked you yesterday you said they were and then nothing happened." what a jerk! (she is not my doc...just the on-call).

So we came in and i 'm 5 to 6 cm!!! hallelujah!!

She said there is a bulging bag of water...so already different from his brothers in keeping that bag intact.

3rd boy...3rd trip to hospital...AND we have 2 friends from church having c-sections today at the same hospital (i have a 3rd friend from college having a c-section up in chicago...good luck sarah!).
Watts will have 3 birthday buddies that we know!

that's all for now.

Faith of our Fathers for a tired preggo momma

2009-07-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

The last 2 Sundays we have had a guest speaker at church, Dr. Abe Kuruvilla, from Dallas Theological Seminary. The overarching topic of his talks has been "Faith of our Fathers". The first week was focused on Abraham and the second was on Isaac.

What has struck me the most from his sermons is that these 2 men of God forgot God's promises to them and took matters in their own hands.
Both Abraham and Isaac had moments of weakness where they forgot that God promised them descendents and lied about their wives. They didn't trust that God would take care of them.

I find this fitting in my current "waiting" situation.

Saturday i went to the hospital thinking that i was in labor but was sadly sent home. Since Saturday i have been contracting regularly and not sleeping. I have been in a bad state mentally thinking that this baby is never going to come out (of course i know he is...but feels like never).

These are the things i'm learning from my spiritual fathers:
1) I need to make sure i remind myself of God's past faithfulness...He has brought me 2 beautiful boys in their own unique way and timing. If He was faithful in those deliveries, will he not also be faithful to deliver for this child?

2) I also need to remember His promises. My dad sent me this verse: “Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? Saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? Saith thy God”. He ensures to fulfills his promises and he always brings babies forth! amen! =)

I went to see the doc this morning and she said despite all the contractions i was still only 1-2 cm dialated. She said that he was playing tricks on me. She prescribed me a sleeping pill to take (took it an 1/2 hour ago and my eyes are already getting blurry). Hopefully i get a good night's sleep and maybe delivery this baby tomorrow? But if not then i will trust Watts will be born on the perfect day!

nighty night...this ambien rocks!

staycation 2009

2009-07-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

What do you do when your husband has the week off (starts work Monday) and you are 38 weeks pregnant so you can't travel? Staycation!!

This past week we had a great time enjoying each other and the DFW area!

Monday:

cold front=outdoor, non-swimming activity possible!

We took a trip to the Ft. Worth Zoo. I forgot what a wonderful zoo it is...so shaded and so many great animals. Here are the pics:
two cool cats

mommy and her little monkeys

highlight of the zoo...feeding the birds

silly daddy

pure joy at spotting the candy shoppe

pure joy at spotting the train
so happy together

Tuesday:

movie time! Regal cinema has free family movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10 am. They offer a G and a PG option. we went last week and the boys did great so we did it again this week.

Wednesday:

boys in school means date for mommy and daddy! We went to my doctor's appointment and then went to a nice lunch at Stephen Pyles...this dessert (heaven and hell cake) was amazing!! devils food cake, angels food cake, peanut butter mousse, thick chocolate icing and raspberry ganache! yum-o!

Thursday:

100+ degrees means time for water activities!

We went up to Flower mound and took my teenage niece and nephew to their local recreation cener water park...super fun.

then when brought them home with us (just in case i had to go into the hospital that night...they could stay with the boys).

gotta love wild about harrys...wow i'm so gigantic i make the human-sized hot dog look small.

Friday:

date with quade day!

Bruce took quade out for donuts in the morning. Then quade and i went on an all morning date...hair cut, back to school shoe and clothes shopping (a little early but will be a lot harder for me to do in late august), lunch and birthday present shopping. we had a great time!

My mom got in town friday night. I had contractions all night and then went into the hospital Saturday morning...but it was a false alarm.

So we're still waiting...

movin on up...make room for the 3rd!

2009-06-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

Baby #3 should be making his appearance within the next 3 weeks (i'm not even going to consider going past my due date).

About 2 weeks ago i finally realized that we needed to start getting ready for this little guy.

We went back and forth about sleeping arrangements for the boys, etc. Finally i decided that i wanted Watts to have his own room and his own space. Which meant that Price was movin' up to Quade's room. Here are the sequence of events which have had to occur to get the room ready for Watts:

1) get rid of Price's pacifier

-didn't want to go through this traumatic event while he was sharing a room with his brother

-happy to report that we only had one bad nap, the first no "bubba" nap, but then he slept great that night and subsequent naps.

-sadly for price he got his first 2 year molar the first week he went without a pacifier...he's a trooper and did fine.

2) get quade a bed

-we debated whether we get a bunk bed or just a twin...we opted for a twin with a trundle. That way eventually price could sleep on the trundle.

3) move price into quade's room and have him sleep in the thomas toddler bed.

-the first night (after putting the fear of God in both of them) they did really well. We didn't hear a peep from either one and they both slept until 6:30 (a little earlier than we would like but a good start).

-they haven't been as quiet subsequent nights...including tonight (found price playing in the toilet 2x)...but it's a work in progress.

-naptime though is another story...after threatening price and spending an hour or more getting him to stay in his bed and be quiet, we have just decided that it's best for him to nap in the crib. --Quade has started to just hang out in his room and not sleep several days a week. So this allows quade the ability to read books and not sleep and gives price the nap he so desperately needs.

This is what quade does when he is not sleeping at naptime...creating interesting outfits. Bruce and i found this one pretty hilarious. Note: the t-shirt is a 2T and the jacket is 18 months!

Whew! so after 2 1/2 weeks we are ready for watts to have his own room (except from 1 to 3:30 pm) =).

Now we wait!

rockin at VBS

2009-06-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

last friday night our church had family VBS night. We weren't sure if the boys would be too young to enjoy it, but decided to go anyway. Well we only lasted an hour but both boys thought it was great!

Here's a clip of him doing his version of the "J-E-S-U-S" song (note him attempting to make the "S" with his leg up).

it could have been worse...

2009-06-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

(the title for this post comes from a little book we read the boys about a mouse who keeps avoiding disaster after disaster, but thinks he's had a hard day. when he finally gets home his mom says "it could have been worse") .

For all you non-dallas readers, we've had quite a night and morning here in the DFW area. Heavy rain, thunderstorms, etc..

The term "timing is everything" was brought to life in our family today in a couple of ways.

1) I was at the gym this morning, finished my work out and had just lathered my hair with shampoo when the electricity went out. Actually not bad timing b/c at least it wasn't during my work out and i was completely able to shower in the dark and found it quite relaxing. =)
I had decided that i could go to my dr appt that morning with wet hair and it would be no big deal (since there was torrential rain outside).
However, just when i was ready in my regimen to dry my hair the electricity came back on! (it's the small things).

2) Bruce took the boys to camp this morning (so i could work out and go to my dr appt). When he got home he opened the gate and garage and parked in the garage. Then the electricity at home went out.
The timing on this was good b/c if it had gone out a second earlier he would have been tempted to pull into the driveway to park and not go in the garage...which would have meant that a huge tree limb would have landed on the suburban.

3) Unfortunately, when the electricity came back on bruce was unable to get the suburban out of the driveway b/c of the huge limb that was in the way and kept the fence from opening. But my manly man was out in the pouring ran with a handsaw cutting through that tree so that we could get the car out to go pick up the boys.
we were about 15 minutes late to pick them up...but IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE!!

bday dinner for daddy

2009-06-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Last week was bruce's big 36th bday. So we all got dressed in our finest (well not necessarily our finest, but pretty nice) and walked over to The Porch for some yummy food!

The boys...

36 and still young at heart!

yummy breakfast

2009-06-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

I am someone who can eat the same thing every day for days on end...especially something delicious.
So my current favorite breakfast is:
- homemade granola (thank you, thank you, thank you Jamie for the recipe),
-mixed with greek yogurt (has more protein than regular yogurt and less fat)
-topped off with fresh berries (raspberries are 99cents at kroger!).

i also enjoy Cran-grape light juice to wash down this delicious meal.

Here is the granola recipe in case you get in the mood for some yummy breakfast as well.

Homemade Granola

8C oats
2C coconut
2C almonds,cashews
1/2C br sugar
1/2C oil
1/2C syrup
1C craisins

Mix first 4 ingredients in lg bowl, combine oil & syrup in separate bowl and mix into dry ingredients. Toast on jelly roll pan at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Turning every 15 minutes. Mix in craisins when granola has cooled.

single digit countdown

2009-05-31T14:10:00.000-07:00

I am now 33 weeks and we have 7 weeks left! (or maybe less). The single digit week countdown always makes me feel like the due date is so much closer than it really is...i mean 8 weeks is also 2 months which is 1/6 of a year. oh well. =)

Here is a recent pic of me and baby #3...

For comparison, here is me at 34 weeks when i was pregnant with Price:

I personally think i look smaller with price and maybe a little happier. =)

movie ratings

2009-05-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

question: how can the following movies all be rated PG?
-"Up" A Pixar cartoon about a retired balloon salesman who ties a bazillion balloons to his house to go to south america...or something like that.

-"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, the unfortunate night watchman who continues to encounter living and breathing museum exhibits.

-"Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince" Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was

Don't movie makers make G movies any more? I remember when cartoons were G. Now the only G i have heard of recently is the "Hannah Montana" movie...seriously?

I'm glad that there aren't as many R-rated movies right now, but have we lowered the standards on what makes a PG-13 movie..."Terminator", "State of Play", "Angels & Demons", "X-men originals: wolverine"?

This has just been on my mind lately and i thought i'd share.

concert in the park

2009-05-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

While we were in Houston we went to a park to play one day...well most of the kids played. Quade decided he'd rather give us a concert of all his end of the year school songs. He decided to give them more of an "edgy", angry rock 'n roll sound (think of a mini-Adam Lambert). His dad was very proud. =)

And here is his ultra-fast version of the pledge of allegiance...to make his grandparents proud.

more stopping and smelling

2009-05-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Mother's day...what a wonderful day for all mothers, but for a very pregnant mom with 2 young children it is an amazing day.
Of course many days there are the little rewards that remind us that all this work is worth it.

While we were at the grocery store i asked quade which flowers he would get me for mother's day if he could buy some. He decided on red roses. So he was very upset when we got home and found these flowers on the counter from daddy. He told me he was going to throw them away b/c they weren't the red ones. =)

After church on sunday our little family went to a mother's day brunch at the Hilton. Fortunately we were seated next to the berries and fruit station...perfect for my little fruit lovers! instant gratification makes for quiet children.
After the meal they give each mom a rose. I was carrying quade to the car and he was carrying the rose.
He said "mommy stop". so i stopped and he took a big whiff of the rose... then said "mmmm they do smell good". What a sweet reminder to stop more often and smell the roses of mothering!

Thanks to my boys for a great mother's day!

school's out for the summer!

2009-05-19T14:40:00.001-07:00

It's official...Quade is done with his first year of preschool. Quade loved his "music school" and his classmates! His teacher was perfect for his personality, appreciating his cute little comments and nurturing him throughout the year.

first day of school

last day of school

Last week we were in Houston and missed his end of the year program. I went to the dress rehearsal and was so impressed with how many patriotic songs these little guys learned.
Congratulations Quade on completing your first year of school!

Friends make life more fun

2009-05-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

Price and his buddy Mason have a great time together. Here they are entertaining themselves in the mirror.

play dates with mommy

2009-04-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

The last two saturdays Quade and i have gone on "dates" to see plays (like my tricky play on words?).
We saw "Peter Rabbit" at the Dallas Children's Theater (not my favorite, very boring) and then my niece's school musical "Seussical the Musical" (which was very well done!).
Here are the pics:
quade waiting "patiently" for Peter rabbit to start

In front of Mr McGregor's garden (the stage)

quade getting mr mcgregor's autograph...his idea by the way...so cute

q and his cousin allison at seussical

quade and his aunt andrea

been there...

2009-04-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

if you are a mother of a boy (and even some talented girls) then you will find this commercial as humorous as i did!

enjoy a laugh

it's a bird, it's a plane...

2009-04-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

it's TWO supermans!
Quade already had his super hero pjs, when we found some for Price for 25 cents at a neighborhood garage sale, it was a no-brainer.

"rescuing elmos and pacis in a single bound!"

easter blazers

2009-04-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Despite the rainy easter morning, we were all smiles when we got these two cuties dressed in their Easter outfits (thank you Target!).
Price was proudest of his "new" shoes. He stopped people in the hallway at church to point out his shoes.

Aunt Andrea, Uncle Scott, Stephen and Allison came over for easter lunch. Aunt andrea bought the boys the perfect little gifts...a very hungry caterpillar game for quade and a stuffed elmo doll for price.

neighborhood hunt...but not our neighborhood

2009-04-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before Easter we decided to crash another neighborhood's easter egg hunt (our friends the Ossenforts). Fortunately we were invited, which was nice since our neighborhood is not exactly full of kiddos.

Here are the hunters...

Determined to get that egg

price caught on quickly, even though it was his first easter egg hunt (last year he just laid in the grass).

i love this pic...it reminds me of their little friendship and how quickly they will grow up!

the hunters and their kill...i mean eggs

The boys confiscated another child's wagon...provided an hour's worth of entertainment!

eggcellent

2009-04-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

(A little late posting these)
Your first question..."why would heather have the boys dye easter eggs while wearing white shirts?" good question.
it was not thought out and price ended up shirtless (see below).
They had a blast and only 3 eggs ended up completely smashed.

price examining to make sure they really are grade A.

Easter isn't easter without a Thomas the train egg.

boys like animals...not flowers

2009-04-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to one of the mommy and me events at the arboretum. The boys definitely enjoyed the arboretum this time more than previous visits....b/c of the petting zoo!

my best attempt at a pic with the boys and flowers

We ran into friends and the kids started an impromptu game of "ring around the rosy". so much sweeter than any of my attempts to orchestrate a cute pic.

A day out with Thomas...

2009-04-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

The day i returned from Austin my mom had planned for us to all go to Grapevine for the "Day out with Thomas". I had missed the boys and bruce soooooo much that the whole time we were at this event i was enamored with those boys and couldn't stop taking pictures!

This is my mom and the boys in front of the real thomas the train

Price was obsessed with Sir Topham Hatt...kept trying to "cut" in line to go see him.

Loved the huge lionel train display

they rode this little train 3 or 4 times in a row

pure joy...

DWTT

2009-04-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

This is our new version of DWTS..."Dancing with the Toddlers"!

Enjoy...

Cousin zoo adventures

2009-03-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

Despite the crazy crowds...we had a great time!

Flight museum...take 2...double date that is!

2009-03-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

The day after Quade was born, his friend Bree was born.
Her mom and have walked many roads over the past 3 1/2 years together (colicky infants, sleepless nights, toddler antics, etc).
Unfortunately the kids' preschool schedule this year have been completely opposite.
However, since they both have spring break this week we made sure we got these too buddies together.
To complete the double date, she also has a 1 year old girl that Price could chase. =)

Much better experience than an aforementioned trip to the flight museum (see previous post for more info).

Luck of the Irish...i mean scottish

2009-03-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patricks Day (a little late)!
I mean we are scottish, not irish, afterall.

Price very proud of his backpack

A Snow Angel for Quade

2009-03-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

For our 10 year anniversary Bruce and I headed to Park City Utah. We met college friends (3 couples) and rented a house. It was a great trip, despite my low expectations (nothing like a ski trip for a preggo...planned before the pregnancy).

Of course you can't spend a weekend away from your kids without thinking about them. Here is Bruce making a snow angel for Quade, who desperately wanted to make one this winter but never had a chance (unlike the rest of the country...no snow for Dallas).

What a great dad!
(Thanks Aunt Christina for watching the boys!)

"day is dawning..."

2009-03-03T12:05:00.000-08:00

"...Almost sounded like a warning
Wind was rushing through the trees almost falling
I never thought that I'd become
The proud father of my three sons"-elvis costello

My random thoughts:
Here we go again!! round 3 of a baby boy born in the summer!
I'm working on our fraternity name and greek letters.
It's a good thing i grew up with 2 brothers or else i would be completely overwhelmed by all the testerone that will be filling our abode!
God is good and we feel blessed with the opportunity to raise 3 strong Christian male leaders.
The MacFadyen name definitely lives on!!

practicing on cousin xander

2009-02-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we headed down to houston to help out bruce's sister sherri and her new baby, xander.
Quade is so excited about our 3rd baby and was really excited to get to help out with xander.
Here he is on bottle duty with his sidekick makenna.

Price on the other hand, not so interested in holding the baby, but did like to look at him a pat his head. fortunately he was gentle.

Bruce getting some newborn cuddle time in...

matching pjs time!

We find out this Tuesday if we will have our own little boy to join our fraternity or a little girl to pump up the female numbers around here! I'll let you know!

1/2

2009-02-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

That's right...Quade's half bday was this past weekend. Due to my insatiable sweet tooth currently, i decided to bake 1/2 a cake from scratch (including the icing...what was i thinking!).
We were having some friends over to play and so we decided to just celebrate with them.

He was soooo excited to be 3 1/2...

the many looks of price

2009-02-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

Price makes us laugh with his constantly changing expressions. Lately he has been into exerting his will and saying "no" with a grouchy face. Here are some of the more pleasant faces...

an hour at the flight museum...

2009-02-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

One dreary day last week i thought i would take the boys to the Love Field flight museum (hadn't been since price was a few weeks old).
i had forgotten this great indoor option. Unfortunately if you are not a member it can be a little expensive if you only stay for an hour.
Hopefully you will be able to stay longer than we did...

Of course the boys loved looking at all the airplanes. One of the sweet volunteers gave us our own personal tour of some of the planes and took us on the 'moon walk', which quade loved. The favorite part of the museum is the play area. They have a kid-size airplane that they can pretend to fly, be a passenger...

or just practice going out the emergency exit. (price's personal favorite).

There is also a flight tower that kids can climb up into. Unfortunately our trip was cut short when Quade yelled down to me "mommy i'm going peepee". To which i responded "you are going NOW or you need to go?"...the answer was not what i wanted to hear. Yes, this pregnant mommy climbed up the flight tower with a huge wad of paper towels to clean up a nice puddle of pee. Fortunately none of the pee landed on the poor unsuspecting boy who was climbing up the tower at the time of the "incident".

Don't worry the picture of the tower was taken before the "incident".
My advice if you go to the flight museum...make sure to take your preschooler to the bathroom before you go to the play area.
Oh, and if your preschooler should have an accident and you are cleaning it up in the bathroom, keep an eye on your toddler. You may discover him playing in the public toilet with his pacifer hanging in the dirty toilet water...i'm just saying.=)

Not to be beat down by such a horrible day, we returned to the flight museum a week later with my receipt and used the money i had spent toward getting a membership. With 2 boys (and possibly a 3rd...we'll find out soon), we will definitely be back to look at all these big planes!

Quade's photo shoot...

2009-02-26T19:07:00.000-08:00

These are some of the pics Quade took when he found my camera the other day...

yes, i know my belly is gigantic for 18 weeks (i think that's what i was when he took this pic). I told myself that perhaps it looks so big b/c of the angle of the pic (from below). However, today at the zoo i realized my enormous size was a reality when i frightened a rhino to the point that he felt the need to charge me and flare his nostrils...

Love is in the air...

2009-02-14T12:40:00.000-08:00

Yes it's valentine's day and love is on all our minds, but for my little Quade it seems to be frequently on his mind. You remember his summer time crush on Nastia luikin (olympic gymnast)?

Well one of quade's classmates' mothers was in the class one day and observed a few things that she shared with me.

She said that when she got to class quade was surrounded by all the girls who were playing with his hair and had some cloth draped around him. Then they handed him a babydoll which he gladly held.

She also reported that he took a girl's face in his hands and kissed her right on the lips!

When i saw quade's teacher a couple days later i apologized for the "kissing" incident. She laughed and said she had an even better story. They were sitting at the table going around saying something nice about each of the students. Quade was supposed to say something nice about Natalie. He said "I want to see her naked". um what? oh my goodness!

Thankfully the teacher was very amused. whew!

Quade sitting next to Natalie

Last week was Quade's class Valentine's day party. He was so excited to pass out his little valentines (one of the moms made cute little mailbox-backpacks out of cereal boxes...super cute).

Quade with his buddies Reid and Baker

My favorite part of visiting his classroom is seeing the artwork they've done. This month they painted hearts. She then i guessed asked them what they loved. Some kids said "i love to dance with my family" or "I love squares".

Quade's said "I love mommy!". So sweet. there's no competition between mommy and those other girls when it comes right down to it.

FYI Natalie's said "I love Quade"...hmmm...i may have a bigger problem than i thought.

Price's fleet of guardian angels

2009-02-05T12:34:00.000-08:00

Price is an easy child in most regards. However, he is difficult to keep safe. He prefers absolute freedom and adventure.

Last week i left the house for 10 minutes to run an errand and Bruce stayed home with the boys. While i was gone Price took a nose dive off our leather chair in the den and right into a framed picture leaning against the wall.

Here is what the picture looked like afterwards:

Amazingly Price didn't even have a scratch! (thank you Lord!)

Once i got home and heard the story we were in the family room and price climbed up on quade's little table and i told him to get down. on the way down he slipped and hit his mouth on the little chair resulting in a bloody mouth! Of course on my watch.

what happens when it has been cold outside for too long and you haven't left the house in 2 days!

2009-01-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

after building a fort out of couch cushions, danced to crazy music, built a rhino out of blocks (see picture above), made chocoloate chip muffins, played with trains, read some books, played with playdoh, and made cranberry-sprite frozen treats...you resort to the bounce house indoors. (please ignore the fact that once again price is only in a diaper--the result of too much drool, changed his shirt 2x in one day, and spaghetti for dinner)

what happens when it's cold outside

2009-01-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

News in a new year

2009-01-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

So there has been a lot of "new news" going on this new year in the Mac home that i haven't posted about yet...so hold on to your hats:

New job:

In October of last year Bruce resigned from his previous job, but stayed there until right before thanksgiving. The good part about this timing was it allowed us to have 10 day vacations with each of our families over the holidays.

At the beginning of January Bruce formed his own LLC (limited liability corporation). It's called "Quebus Ventures, LLC". He has been networking like crazy, meeting with business brokers and bankers working on buying a business to run.

It's a super exciting time and he is loving the whole process. I'll let you know when his website is up and running.

New baby:
This year in July we will celebrate the birth of our 3rd child...we should find out whether it's of the boy or girl variety in about 5 weeks.

We will then discover if Quade has true prophetic skills. He was the one who told me i was pregnant before i had taken a test and he also has decided that this is a girl ("we already have a boy baby, mommy. we need a girl and we need to buy a bow")

The other great part about Bruce having more flexibility with his work is that he has been able to help me more with the boys as i haven't felt 100% this first trimester.

At the park on a Thursday afternoon, unheard of with Bruce's old work!

New degree:
In August 2005 not only was Quade born, but that same week bruce started taking classes at SMU for his masters of Accounting.

This month we received his diploma in the mail!!! (very grand graduation ceremony, don't you think?)

So here is a picture of Quade at 3 1/2 and the diploma representing 3 1/2 years of work

New faucet: In the past six months we have had a finicky faucet that preferred to leak. So Bruce and i decided to attempt a home improvement project (a brave endeavor for folks who have no experience in such things).

We are very proud to say that we successfully installed a new kitchen faucet, handle and soap dispenser! AND we did so without a single disagreement. =)

Here is Price helping with the project.

A Flashback...

2009-01-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

It's only appropriate that i would have to "flashback" to our New Year's Eve party...since that was our theme this year.

Everyone was asked to dress as themselves at a former stage in their life.

The idea for this theme came from the fact that in 2009 bruce and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary. In celebrating that huge milestone this year we definitely have and will be spending time looking back at where we have come from!

(shout out to the Kruses for all the great pictures!)

lots of letter jackets

gotta love the leg warmers

who didn't wear overalls at some point in the 90s?

our friend josh even cut his hair into a mullet just for the party...dedication!

The SACG band

First song... "more than words"

then the real rock began!

the whole band...JP on drums, Jonathan on guitar, Heather on keyboard, bruce vocals

finishing the set with a little Ice Ice baby
ringing in the new year

The karaoke

for my costume i wore my jr high synchro swimming warm-up

bruce wore his jr high PE uniform...enough said

a little breakdancing broke out

The Dancing

As you can see we had a great time and were so grateful to celebrate with some of great friends the beginning of a new year full of exciting adventures.

Christmas in Florida: wrap-up

2009-01-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

After Christmas we still had 4 more days in Florida and they were perfect.
lots of beach time and family time.
One morning our little family went down to the beach and decided to bury Price.
Of course he loved it!

During one of our trips to the Ritz, Quade picked a flower and gave it to Hannah...time for the "cousins talk".

Here is the Ritz's famous sand castle.

Finally, the matching sweater pic with the grandparents.

Christmas in Florida: Christmas DAY!

2009-01-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

classic christmas morning pj pic

quade trying out his new camera and price with his car carrier

(and bruce the red-nosed reindeer)

your typical post-christmas feast activity...boating!
Quade was still napping when we left and i knew from the past that he wasn't the biggest boating fan...however, he was quite upset when he woke up and we were gone.

Price absolutely LOVED boating. At the end of the post is a little video of him while we were going a million miles per hour on the gulf. (my least favorite part...his favorite)

Christmas in Florida: Christmas EVE!

2009-01-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve morning we went to a waterpark in Naples...very fun

Here's the one moment Price was listening and sitting still during the Christmas Eve service.

Cousins

Quade and his cousin Hannah...who were Big Buddies during our time in Florida.

Christmas in Florida: Part Three

2009-01-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

My brothers and their families arrived a few days after we did. Unfortunately my older sister, Andrea wasn't able to come this year b/c her family was headed to Israel for the holidays.

Here i am with my bros and their kids (minus Thomas who was playing video games).

Quade was convinced that he had to find a coconut since we were at the beach.
Thank goodness he found one!!

Poppy Price and baby Price

Isn't my niece Katie super cute? we had a great time together!

Christmas in Florida: Part Two

2009-01-04T18:41:00.000-08:00

The next couple days in Florida we had the place and my parents to ourselves.

We took a morning beach walk down to the Ritz Carlton hotel to get a little hot chocolate treat.

The Ritz lobby houses a huge gingerbread house...with real gingerbread cookies and candy...the boys loved it.

There is also a teddy bear tea at the Ritz...it's like $50 a person and it's technically for kids. we decided to forego the expensive tea and just get a picture with the giant bear.

a little pool time

Price's gansta pose

Christmas in Florida: Part One

2009-01-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about posting about our trip in Florida while we were down there...but then i realized i was having too much fun in the sun to sit in front of the computer.
So now that the holidays are behind us, here are some posts about our fabulous time in Florida with my family.

DAY ONE: arrive, eat, nap and watch the sunset!

Price was in love with the water...it didn't take long before he lost his pants.

joy to the world indeed!

Second Christmas

2008-12-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

Last thursday we had our 2nd Christmas. This time it was our little family's christmas. We wanted the boys to have some time to play with their car and bike before we left on christmas vacation. It was a great morning.

We all got dressed and then headed to Northpark at 9 am. I went in and got a ticket for the boys to see santa (we were #14)

Then we went and had a nice breakfast at Breadwinners. Then back to the mall where we went through the Trains exhibit. How could you go wrong...2 boys and a room full of trains?

Then off to santa story time which ended at 11:30. Santa started taking pics with kids at 11:45. The boys were on his lap at 12:15. Quade thanked him for his stocking present (some cars)...i'm sure Santa's not used to having kids thank him for presents. =)

Price of course was not a fan of the big man in red.

"Oh McFun it is to ride..."

2008-12-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

This is quade's version of jingle bells. His back up singer was more concerned with wardrobe than singing. please take note that due to budget cuts (ya'll know the state of the economy) we had to forego the one-horse open sleigh for a knitted blanket...enjoy.

Christmas: Take One

2008-12-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

Or "First Christmas"...

During our trip to Houston we not only celebrated Thanksgiving, we also had Christmas Eve (on black Friday) which means a nice dinner out that evening and opened our matching pjs AND Christmas (on that Saturday) which means opening stockings, then presents (one person at a time), and then a fun family evening out (rocket city games!!).

Here are the pics from Christmas preparation and celebration:

what our car looks like with 4 boys (aged 1,2,3, & 4)

quade and price tried to help put the lights up, but unfortunately too many lights were broken during the experience...so they stuck to decorating.

The cousin pj picture, which you saw video of in a previous post

I was going to post a video here but it really deserves it's own post, see post below!!

Merry First Christmas!

DDR toddler style

2008-12-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

dance dance revolution is no longer for adults only...

The fun continues...

2008-12-01T19:55:00.000-08:00

Cousins pj photo session...help me!

2008-11-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

For your viewing enjoyment...a window into my thanksgiving and now christmas adventure with the macfadyens.

gobble gobble...

2008-11-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Quade had his little thanksgiving program. it was super cute..it was a combination performance from songs he learned in his music class and things he's learned from Bodyrhythmics.
There is a video clip that one of the mom's posted on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/debtex

wearing his Indian headdress

quade with his class and his teacher

myself and another mom were in charge of the thanksgiving party. She made these adorable little sandwiches that looked like turkey they had peas for eyes cheese for a beak and cut up pepperoni for a waddle then she had peppers and parsley for the feathers

A family tradition...a little early

2008-11-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

Even before kids, the weekend after thanksgiving Bruce and I would crank the christmas music, warm up some wassel, and put up the christmas tree and decorations.
When Quade was born the tradition continued...as a baby he watched us from his swing, as a toddler he helped me put balls on the tree ("more ba") and last year he enjoyed helping out a little more.
This year i had two active helpers...AND we put up the tree before thanksgiving.
We were going to be away for awhile after thanksgiving b/c bruce's oldest sister is having a c-section and we wanted to stick around.
Then we head out of town early for christmas. So i realized that if i waited until the weekend after thanksgiving we'd only have the tree up for less than 2 weeks before we had to take it down.
Thus the early christmas tree decorating...it was a simpler and more fun process this year.

The traditional family pic in front of the tree

Quade decided that most of the ornaments should go in this lower quadrant.

proud of his work

nothing like a good cup of wassel!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Girls can be fun!

2008-11-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

A month ago we had our sweet little niece, Makenna, come stay with us
for the night. We had a great time and it was nice to put bows in hair...but don't be fooled this girl can hold her own with those boys.

that's a lot of britax in one car!

ahhh...well said, well said...i feel the burden lifting

2008-11-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

A friend just forwarded a clipping from a newspaper Q&A article.

The reason i'm posting this is b/c it made me feel better today. Days can be long, especially when you have the kids from the moment they wake-up until you put them to bed.

I'm not posting it to make my friends without kids feel bad or to make stay-at-home moms look like saints...i'm just hoping it will make someone else who is tired...feel a little better. =)

I don't know if anyone can read it but here is my favorite part:

"When you have young kids your typical day is:

constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest to be declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing nap times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired, or bored, any of which could produce check-out line screaming.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from your family and friends. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief to everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while constantly teaching virtually everything-language, manners, resourcefulness, safety, discipline, creativity, curiosity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes and a JOY!!

But if you spend all day, every day with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you or marvel at how much more productively she uses her time."

something about this article just made me feel so much better today!

gotta love democracy and dentistry

2008-11-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

This morning we got the boys dressed and hopped in the car to get to our polling location as close to 7 am as possible (to beat the lines).
Unlike your stereotypical voting location at a school gymnasium, we vote at a nursing home. I love it b/c the residents enjoy seeing our boys and it is such a warm environment (this morning it was actually HOT in the voting room, but that's another story).

Quade is a definite "swing voter". He's been saying he is voting for Obama...then today he decided he was a "CuhCain" guy. He kept telling everyone in the voting area that that's who he was voting for...i'm sure that breaks some rule, somehow.

I'm the precinct chair for our precinct for Dan Branch's campaign. So when we left the building i noticed there were no Branch signs. So i ran home grabbed signs, came back to the polling location, and then stayed to hand out "push cards" (pamphlets about Rep Branch).

Then we headed to the dentist for Quade's first cleaning. Thanks Christy for an awesome recommendation!! it was FABULOUS!! quade didn't shed a single tear. they were perfect! AND....

They had a voting booth set up for kids so that they could vote for the president! it was completely enclosed, had pictures of the 2 presidential candidates, voting ballots and a box to put them in. Quade LOVED being able to vote (since he was disappointed this morning when he wasn't allowed to vote for CuhCain.
He was so excited to use the pen to mark his choice and put it in the box.
They said they would have the voting results on their website tomorrow...such a great idea!!

After the dentist we headed back to the polling location to pass out more push cards.
we came home for naps...when the boys wake up we'll try to go back and pass out more cards.
Then tonight bruce and i are going to a GOP watch party...should be interesting.

Go eat some free ice cream (ben & jerrys), free donuts (krispy kreme) and drink some free coffee (starbucks) to celebrate our freedoms!!

may i recommend...?

2008-10-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

After much thought here are some of my current favorite things (i realized they are all related to food and children):

what to serve--

1) Allergaroo

I found this at Krogers and i love it. It's like a healthy substitution for canned pasta. it's also great b/c it is gluten free, milk free and soy free (for my friends out there who need good options for kids with allergies). Price especially loves it.

i usually serve it on nights when bruce and i are going out on a date or i need a quick dinner for price before the rest of us eat.

how to clean up--

1) Dustbuster

this little hand held device saves me from getting frustrated after 1 preschooler and 1 toddler eat at their little table.

Now as soon as they are finished eating i just grab this little gizmo, that i received as a wedding present 10 years ago, and WHALLA! the mess is gone. it's like mommy magic!

where to eat saturday morning breakfast (with or without kids)--

2) Garden Cafe

one of our family traditions is to go out to saturday morning breakfast. Well with the weather getting nicer we decided to branch out from our usual rotation (cafe brazil, dream cafe, etc) to go to the Garden Cafe.

This is definitely going to the top of our list for the following reasons:

a) you order at the counter, so less waiting...always a good thing with kids

b) while you wait for your food you can grab a table out back in the real garden and your kids can play in the enclosed playground back there.

c) delicious food! i'm not usually an omelet fan...this was the best omelet i've had

d) when you get there early you have the place practically to yourself, so while enjoying your fabulous food you can soak in a very peaceful environment (garden setting with birds chirping and a gentle fountain bubbling).

e) a roll of papertowels at every table! thank you!!

here's the info:

www.gardencafe.net 5310 Junius StDallas, TX 75214 (214) 887-8330

so there are the recommendations! bon appetit!

Table for two please

2008-10-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Price has officially boycotted the high chair and only wants to dine with his brother.
Despite the inconvenience of not being able to contain a busy toddler during mealtime, it makes me smile every time i see them both sitting at that little table.

what to do with a pumpkin

2008-10-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

So during our trip to the arboretum we (i mean quade) chose a pumpkin
to adopt and bring home with us.
While price was sleeping one morning Quade and i had our
pumpkin carving adventure.
I have always hated grabbing slimy, stinky seeds out from the pumpkin, but
now that i am the mom i had to set a good example and be brave.
I boldly plunged my hand into that orange abyss and withdrew the
aforementioned disgusting mass of stringy seeds.

Quade attempted to pull out seeds using a children's spoon.

We (i mean I) then cut out the cliche pumpkin eyes, nose, and mouth.
But it was completely worth it when i put the candle inside and
watched quade's face also light up to see our glowing creation.

We decided to clean and dry the pumpkin seeds overnight. Then the next day we mixed them (~1 cup)
in melted butter (1 Tablespoon) and salt (1 teaspoon) and baked them on a cookie sheet for 50 minutes at 250 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes until the seeds were lightly brown.

Unfortunately the jack 'o lantern only lasted about a week before it started to rot =(. I guess that's what happens when you live in texas and it's in the upper 80's in October!!