Dreaming of a green Christmas

We ALMOST made it out of Indiana before the snow fell this year. Of course the kids had a ball perfecting their snow angels, hurling snow balls and eating the white stuff by the handfuls. The boys were both upset to see the snow melt, but Scott and I will relish the green grass for as long as we can.

Pucker up!

In general, I am not really a "big bow" kind of girl...for myself or my daughter. Too many big boys/ribbons from my cheerleading days maybe? BUT I must say the few times I have put a big bow on Gracie, they have resulted in big grins from Jack, Sawyer and I. Daddy still prefers to hold a bow-less baby! I think she looks quite kissable....

Speaking of kisses, Gracie has started blessing me with her smooches at bedtime. After reading stories, I always sing her a lullaby in the dark. Lately, she's been planting her lips right on my cheek while I sing. I have to remind myself to stop crying and keep singing.

Splish Splash!

My little baby girl isn't as little anymore...hard to admit! She was very excited to hop in the bath seat, and get to splash around with her big brothers. The boys were adamant about her turning to face each one of them for equal amounts of time. Boys fighting over her already...



Daddy actually gave them their first bath as a threesome while I was at work. I love how Jack warns Daddy that Grace shouldn't chew on the bath toys. Scott fails to heed that warning, but Jack was right. I've read one too many stories about what those bath toys can harbor...gross!

Men at Work

The boys and Daddy loved getting their hands dirty and working with some tools at Home Depot on Saturday morning. I won't get to see their creation until XMAS morning. There is no better gift than something made by my little guys!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5!!!!

Our sweet Gracie girl has been a part of our family for five months now. Can't imagine our life/family without her sweet smile anymore.

If you popped into our house these days you would see Grace...

-jumping in her jumperoo...she's loving it and the boys are, too.
-chewing on anything she can get in her mouth (and she's getting darn good at getting everything to her mouth).
-staring at our food and wondering when we are going to give her some of that.
-loving "warm baby, cold baby" with her daddy after bath. she chats away in the evenings to her loving dad.
-smiling from ear to ear at her brothers...she must thrive on chaos.
-gazing intently at the Christmas lights all over the house.
-grabbing at the books while we're reading during the day.
-growing out of her baby bathtub. she's moving into the big bath seat tomorrow night.
-locking eyes with her mommy while nursing...my favorite moments.

We love you, Gracie!

Pearly Whites

The boys had dentist appointments this morning, and according to our dentist all of their teeth were in great health. Sawyer's exam was simply a visual check. Jack donned some cool shades while his teeth were cleaned, and he had his first round of oral x-rays. He loved seeing all 20 of his teeth displayed on the computer. Yep, all 20 are still tucked in tightly. Our dentist confirmed that babies who teeth later than average will also lose their baby teeth later than their friends. This will just give the tooth fairy a little more time to save up her money!

GRAMPS!!!

After a fabulous visit with the Borns over Thanksgiving, Gramps Super-Pooper (as the kids love to call him) arrived in town on Saturday. We've loved having him here and Gracie particularly enjoyed his snuggles and coos. We hope Gramps will come back very soon, and we'll try to be croup/fuss free!!

The Luck of the Irish

We were very lucky to have Grandmommy and Grandfather stay with us for a week. They headed south this morning, and we miss them already!

Grandmommy and Grandfather

We have been blessed to have Grandmommy and Grandfather visit us this past week. They've played nonstop with the boys, snuggled with Gracie, took Sawyer to the train museum, snuggled with Gracie, visited Jack's kindergarten market, snuggled with Gracie, took Sawyer to the park, snuggled with Gracie, watched all three kids for us one night so we could enjoy a date, snuggled with Gracie, took the boys to see Lion King in 3D and snuggled with Gracie. We're so thankful that we get to enjoy a few more days with them before they head south again.

A family favorite

Following in her brothers' footsteps, Gracie has fallen in love with the red spatula. So glad we have all these toys around the house! :)

To market, to market...

Scott, Grandmommy, Grandfather, Sawyer, Grace and I all had the privilege of shopping at ECDC's kindergarten market yesterday. His class has been studying multicultural markets this past month, and they created their own shop full of produce, their class cookbook, treats and drinks. Jack proudly added up our selections, and his teacher noted that he loved leading the younger classes around the market. I'd buy anything from this cute face!! :)

Learning about Love

These days it seems like I'm paying for a matchmaking service rather than kindergarten. Love is abound in the kindergarten class at ECDC, and Jack is right in the middle of it all. The teachers (and parents) are trying to slow down this courting process, but the kids are pretty gaga about love.

Jack came home with this the other day from school. Rest assured he's talking to "Olivia" and not "Oliver." Thankfully, his future wife has changed about six times in the last couple months. I don't think I'm quite ready for the title of mother-in-law.

Ding-ding-ding

It's a Wonderful Life is one of my favorite Christmas movies. At the end of this classic film, Szu-Szu utters her famous line, "Daddy, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings."

I am 100% certain that there was a bell ringing in South Bend this week for my Uncle Tim. He braved our busy life and really helped me while Scott was away for work. We loved having him here to celebrate his birthday, too. Thanks for everything, Uncle Tim!

Pondering Pets

Sawyer's class has been talking the past few weeks about pets and animals. When asked what kind of pet lived at our house, Sawyer added his name to the "fish" column of their class chart. Many other kids in the class noted that their family did not have a pet, so at least we are not the only pet-less household.

I admit to loving the idea of surprising my kids with an adorable dog for Christmas, but the reality of adding another member to our family right now seems slightly overwhelming! For now the Egan family will just have to pause our pondering about pets (a purposeful alliteration!)

Now that I think it, we do have a lot of ladybugs enjoying free room and board in our house these days. Maybe we should simply give them each a name and welcome them home? And of course we also have this adorable little puppy...

Sleeping Beauty

It's exhausting being the baby in this busy family!

Julian Child

Introducing Mommy's sous chef! Sawyer is all about food...eating it and cooking it. We enjoy a lot of special time together whipping up yummy meals/treats. Thankfully, he loves doing the dishes, too!

Speeding along

Jack's soccer team celebrated their season at Strikes and Spares last week. The kiddos got to bowl, play glow-in-the-dark putt-putt, drive go carts and munch on pizza. Jack loved whizzing past us on the go-carts, and he and I giggled incessantly as I drove us on the bigger go-cart.

Jack seems to be speeding along these days...flying past me. He runs out the door to kindergarten, loves playing with his friends in the neighborhood, is learning new information at lightning speed and picking up on big kid mannerisms right before my eyes. He seems to love his exciting pace, but to be honest I really want to just slow him down a little. I never thought it would be so hard to see your little boy turn into a big boy.

We're Thankful FOUR

Time flies when you are having fun, and this sweet girl adds a whole lot of fun to the Egan house!
Grace turned 4 months old this week and survived three shots at the doctor's office. Even after her shots, she was still smiling!!

Gracie currently loves cooing/smiling at her brothers, chewing her hands or anything she can put into her mouth, kicking away on her play mat, exploring her exersaucer toys, standing up, being outdoors in the fall weather, reading books (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Olivia Counts, Playtime Faces, My Many Colored Days and Goodnight Moon) and staring at herself in the mirror.

Our family is creating a piece of artwork where we detail the things that we're thankful for in our lives. When asked what he was thankful for yesterday Jack replied, "That beautiful person in your arms."

Gracie, you have stolen all our hearts.

Going backwards...

Better late than never, right?? These are some other shots leading up to the fun on Halloween!


Sawyer, Grace and I got to attend a fun Halloween party for our playgroup. Sawyer did sport his engineer outfit that day, and his booming voice could be heard saying "All aboard" over the roar of the party. Grace loved wearing one of her Halloween tutu outfits (thanks again to Grandma and Grandmommy!)



Beautiful boy and leaves



We all got to attend a Halloween party with some of Jack's friends from school. Their property was idyllic...beautiful leaves, old barn house, flowing stream, etc. The boys loved going on a treasure hunt throughout the property and picking up little treats along the way.


My family enjoying their caramel apples.



Pumpkin scoopers/designers 2011. Thanks to Daddy for his carving skills!



Spooky masterpieces



The boys also loved painting pumpkins this year, too. You may notice they look pretty similar. Sawyer is really into doing anything that Jack does these days!

Trick or Treat!

We LOVE Halloween! The kiddos had a blast trick-or-treating, and both boys made it through the entire neighborhood. Jack ran ahead with his buddies and never stopped smiling. Sawyer ran, yes RAN! He also loved chatting it up with all the neighbors. Gracie just smiled and looked cute!

Building up some energy with a pumpkin pizza before we head out to collect our loot.



Little Miss Minnie



Darth Vader - aka Jack Egan


Our wild tiger - Sawyer (who originally was dressing up as a train or engineer but had a wardrobe change at the last minute!)



Smiley baby!



And they're off!



Looking over their loot and enjoying some hot chocolate with neighborhood pals


Scott and I were also thrilled to donate about half our candy to our dentist. He ships it over seas to the troops and paid us $2 a pound. We made $16 off our kids...score!!! Don't worry, they still have enough candy to last them until Easter!

Dress up

I know the day will come when Gracie will love to parade around the house in my shoes and jewelry (Sawyer already does!), but today I wish I could steal her cute pink boots!

Picture Perfect

I can't get this picture to rotate for some reason and don't have extra time this morning to figure it out...sorry! The boys have been going through about a ream of paper a week with their drawings and books. Jack took it upon himself to teach Sawyer how to draw a person this weekend, and it worked! Here is Sawyer's first drawing of a person (at least the first one I can decipher). Since his lesson, Sawyer has drawn about 50 more people at both home and school. He's quite proud of himself!

Weeeeeee!

We had a fun time at Amazing Acres (pumpkin patch) this weekend with some friends. The boys loved the corn maze, the fast slides, riding the tractors and picking out pumpkins. They REALLY enjoyed this zip line ride, and Grace was in awe of her flying brothers. I think my favorite part of these videos is hearing Sawyer cheer on Jack...he's such a sweet boy!

TGIF

Grace "hearts" Friday...who doesn't love the weekend!!

Say cheese!

Our budding photographer, Sawyer, documented Grace's first play session in the exersaucer last weekend. The world according to See-Saw...

Kindergarten + Jack = FUN

It looks like the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree in this family...Jack loves math just like his Daddy. He brought home this paper from school the other day that he was working on independently during rest time. His "-" signs mean "=". He'll be balancing my checkbook in no time!

"Oh my Gosh!"

Sawyer's favorite new saying these days is, "Oh my gosh!!" It rolls off his tongue about 20 times a day when he is in awe of something.

In keeping with Sawyer's sense of wonder and excitement, "Oh my gosh" I still find it hard to believe we have a sweet girl who gets to wear cute socks like these...



And cute leggings like these....



OMG...we love Grace Harper Egan!!

Stay away!!

I was missing from the blog world last week because both Sawyer and Jack were sick. Thankfully, they are both feeling back to normal, and Grace seems to have steered clear of the major symptoms.

The Egan family would officially like to tell all germs that they are NOT invited to our house this winter. Germs, take a good look at Sawyer...do you really want to mess with him??

You win some, you lose some

Good day for Mario's Tigers of Notre Dame (3/4 of the team featured below) and a great day for the Fighting Irish! The Texas Longhorns on the other hand...you get the point.

Sweet on school

Sawyer is super excited about school these days....the friends, art activities, books, songs, the bikes and scooters and of course, his beloved teachers. The 3's class is doing a study of pets currently, and the teachers just recently introduced their class pet. Meet cupcake the guinea pig...he's just one more reason that Sawyer is sweet on school these days!

Say it ain't so!

In the blink of an eye, Grace turned 3 months old this past weekend. In some ways it feels like she was just born yesterday, and in other ways I can't remember our family without her. She truly completes our family, and her smile melts all of our hearts.

These days, Gracie loves kicking around on her play mat, "talking" to her family, hanging out in her Bumbo seat (as pictured below), reading stories like Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Olivia Counts, playing pat-a-cake, watching her brothers interact/play and taking walks in the beautiful fall weather. She is quite the trooper and only protests a little about the crazy schedule of our family.

Happy 3 months, Grace Harper. We love you!

Twins??

No. I am NOT pregnant! Several people have asked Scott and I recently if Jack and Sawyer are twins. They do look a lot alike these days with their super short hair cuts and Sawyer's growth spurts. They play together like best buddies, too (the highs and the lows).

Looking at this picture from Chicago's Science and Industry Museum, I think it's still pretty clear who the older brother is...and Jack always makes it clear to Sawyer that he is still the biggest man on campus. For now at least....

Daddy Daycare

I started back to my part-time job yesterday, so Scott had his first full day with all three kiddos. He is a brave man did amazingly well...even managed them all at Jack's soccer game. He took this shot of his three charges and sent it to me to lift my spirits at work. Later on in the evening, Scott was sprawled out on his back. I think they tired him out!

First time is a charm

Life is definitely different for the second child...less individual time with their parents, having to share with their sibling(s) since leaving the womb and often getting second hand toys/clothes/etc. However, by being second in line Sawyer gets the opportunity to watch his brother pave the way on things, and he is then able to pick up on things very quickly. I remember working with Jack for several weeks to ride his big bike (with training wheels). Sawyer hopped on and off he went. Go See-Saw!

Knock on Wood

Do I dare say that I think we are starting to get into the groove of three kids? My fingers are crossed as I type.

Like Brother, Like Sister

We might have another thumb sucker in the family?

Pelé in Pink

Jack Patrick Egan (and family) were drenched with excitement on Saturday morning...literally! A downpour forced many of the soccer spectators to their cars (including Sawyer, Grace and I), but the 5 year old team also known as Mario's Tigers of Notre Dame stuck it out. Within minutes of my retreat to the car, Scott let me know via phone that Jack scored his first goal of the season...he was in a full stride and nailed it according to Daddy. I didn't see it nor do we have any pictures of it, but here is a blurry photo of the MVP after the game. He discarded his soaking wet clothes and let me wrap him in his Grace's blankets. I guess his euphoria allowed him to overlook the pink.

Bundle of Boy!

I stayed up way past my bedtime last night, but it was so worth it! My brother and sister-in-law welcomed their second son into the world on September 21st at 9:59 a.m. (in Perth, Australia). Mason Wesley Greene was 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 19 inches long. Aaron says he has dark hair and doesn't look like his brother. They are all crazy about him, and I know Austin will love having a little brother (most days!). Welcome to the world, Mason. We love you and wish we didn't live so far apart!



Scott and I are now the proud aunt and uncle to four boys...
Conner Egan
Austin Greene
Taos Egan
Mason Greene

Between her cousins and brothers, Grace is never going to be allowed to date. Poor girl!