Abram's Arrival

Samuel Abram Sprauge (2 days old)There is a pathetic lack of information between the last post and this one. But the most important information is all here. Our tiny Abram arrived safely on October 9th, my birthday! He was born at 9: 23am. He weighed in at 8lb, 10 oz and stretched out to a lanky 21 inches. Our biggest Spragueling so far. He's a calm, contented, beautiful, alert little man. As of this posting he is 7 weeks old and it feels as if he has always been here. Each of the Biggers think he's pretty spectacular, even Miss Finley Grace. She's a bulldozer in general, but with Abram she's soft and gentle. Our Abram is already smiling and sleeping long stretches at night, so there's not much more we could ask for. Yep, pretty much perfect. I promise to update more later, for now enjoy your photo. Isn't he a yummy piece of eye-candy?

Where?

Where are the Spragues? (Waves from the deep end) Just treading water out here for a while, see ya when we get to shore.

Water Park Videos

Hit pause on the music player over there, and check out these gleeful little Spragueling noises. I had the camera turned the wrong way for the first two, so you'll have to either lay down to watch or turn your screen over. (That would earn me a D- in videography.) The kiddos had a blast at the water park with my sister and her family. I'm so thankful that she'd take some vacation days to help me with the little ones, and she made sure it was a time to remember. I loved watching them have so much fun in the sun!

If I had one iota of energy or time to give, I'd fill you in on how things are going here for us. But I'm worked right into the ground, so we'll have to settle for a brief synopsis after gale dies down. In survival mode, it's a wonder that there's a thought to spare for cute kid vids, so don't be too disappointed that there's not more. It's gotta get sane sometime, right? And when it does, I'll resurface again (wink).

Not Overwhelmed, just...whelmed

One big task down. Garage sale...check. And now one less thing to think about. Big stuff is out of my way, and it's on to the next thing. Getting the house ready to go on the market in one week. Organizing a work party for next Saturday to get the exterior painted. Getting the outside pressure washed, patched, scrape wood, tape, yadda yadda yadda. Pack furniture into PODS, paint kitchen cabinets and walls, paint doors, touch-up paint, minor little repairs, fix the garage door, refinish the front door, lay toe moulding, yadda yadda yadda. Wash windows, scrub floors, caulk cracks, mow lawns, yadda yadda yadda. All in a week. That's the goal anyway. There are four little Spraguelings who still need to eat, wear clean clothes, bathe, and enjoy a fairly reasonable level of supervision. So I figure now's the time to decide if I want to be overwhelmed, or just see how Xena-Warrior-Princess I can be...you know, flex my muscles and dance around with my dukes up chanting, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." For tonight I'm going to soak my overworked body in a hot bath, eat the two remaining oreo cookies, read some Twilight (fantastic read, so far). Tomorrow I'll give the Spraguelings some overdue and much deserved playtime and attention, and spend a few quiet moments devising my wicked awesome plan for how to accomplish what seems impossible. Every impossible feat needs a wicked awesome plan for pulling it off, right? So stay tuned this week to see the magic materialize before your very eyes...ooh, aaah, float like a butterfly--sting like a bee! (*wink*)

4th's Happenings

As is tradition, we went up to my sister's house on the 3rd, had a sleepover, and spent the 4th of July with her and her family. We all got up early to watch Jared run a 1.5K race, and Darren run a 10K. Jared did great. He was the 8th finisher for the 1.5K. We hung around downtown for the street fair and Parade where the kids caught their weight in candy as it flew from the passing floats. We played at the riverfront park then headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch rather than try to survive the mid-day heat. After a nap it was time to swim, do Sonny's BBQ for dinner, watch Uncle Darren's fabulous fireworks spectacular, play a little Wii, pack up and head home.

Now at 1am I've got all of the littles in bed, Jared's at Shannon's house and will leave for a NASCAR race with Darren in the morning, and I'm getting ready for my first ever garage sale in the morning. I stuck the signs at the curbs on our way home tonight. I figure I'll get up a 5 to do the rest of the "set-up" before the Spraguelings wake, because once they're up, all bets are off regarding productivity. Here's hoping it isn't a waste of time. But if it is, we'll take what we learn and try again next week.

Looking at these pictures of the day, I wish I could have captured the image of the fireworks sparkling in reflection on Finley's enraptured face. She was thrilled with "twinkles". Thomas, on the other hand, fled indoors after the first fountain was let loose. He came back for the finale. Covering his ears, he watched the rocketing sparks and flashes and I watched Thomas and Finley's faces. When I was a kid, it was the big blaze I loved to see. Now that I have kids, it's the sparkle in their eyes I look for--totally missing the fireworks and drinking in their awe.

Bit of work, bit of play

The first half of the day we spent out and about with my sister, Shannon, and her family. The afternoon, and on into the night, they came to the house and we corralled and contained little kids while we worked on home improvement projects. Darren rehung the french doors to the sunroom, repaired a baseboard in Emma's room, removed-planed-and rehung the laundry room door, laid thresholds in the new kitchen floor and various other manly things. Shannon and Jared primed newly hung interior doors. I caulked cracks in the kitchen and prepared furniture to be loaded in our storage boxes for the long haul to Oregon. Through all of this the kids played with their cousins, watched library DVDs, napped and explored the ever changing landscape of our house. Things are getting done, and by the time bath and bed come, we're all ready for it!

Ordinary day

Today was our last day with Grandma here, so I ran errands, she helped get the house in order, we took her to the airport, then went to dinner and the park. Jared and Emma roller bladed/skated. We came home and skated and toddled around outside some more. I put Finley to bed, slipped a library DVD into the player and headed out to mow the lawn. That, my friends, was our very ordinary Tuesday.

But even ordinary days can't go by without my Spragueling doing extraordinary things. After we came in from skating Emma was critiquing her own progress and lack of skill. And Jared piped in and pointed out all of the things she did well as she learned to skate today. I heard him say, "This is only your second day ever to skate, and you only fell two times. That's impressive, I sure fell a lot more when I was just learning. And you're really steady, too. I think you're learning really quickly, you're pretty good already." I could have just picked him up off of his feet in a great big hug, and sung the praises of a big brother who chose to build his little sister up instead of tearing her down. With all the nit-picking, bickering, rivalry, etc. that can sometimes go on it is a beautiful moment to overhear my littles being their very best selves. My mama heart is happy, and I love this little life.

Where do I even begin?

Whirlwind. That's what it's been. A whirlwind. We found out that our sweet little one, due on October 15th, is a baby boy. So our boy-girl-boy-girl-boy pattern is intact. We're all falling more and more in love with him as he grows bigger and moves around.
Aaron flew out to Oregon for a call back interview with the Department of Justice (DoJ) on June 3rd. Jared and Emma had their last day of school June 6th.

While we were out to dinner and ice cream celebrating a great school year and a Million dollar settlement Aaron won for his client, the DoJ called to offer Aaron a position as an Assistant Attorney General. Yeah. He got the job! It's been a mad dash ever since. My head is still spinning nearly a month later. He started work today, and we are still here in Jacksonville. Grandma came for a previously planned trip to visit us and we haven't let her rest one iota.Well, maybe this counts as rest, but otherwise she's been sleep deprived and engaged in hard manual labor. The cavalry, AKA Papa Dean, was called in and Grandpa gave up a week of vacation days to come help us get the house in condition to sell. He worked hard enough to literally give himself a hernia and is now back home in MN and most likely looking for a good surgeon. My sister Shannon and her husband Darren have given up days and nights to come down and put their muscle into hanging doors and laying floors. The fellas from church, along with Darren and my friend Angela's husband, Brian, came and spent half of their Saturday to deforest the Amazon that used to be our backyard. I am in awe of the way our family has rallied around us, and how the impossible, overwhelming whole of this big task is actually getting done, bit by bit.

Because the Daddy is far away, and missing his babies here are photos of the day

Jared playing computer games, Emma skating around on thrift store princess skates I picked up for her today, Thomas collapsed and tuckered out from trying out the princess skate on one foot, and of course Finley toddling around with a grin. For Family Home Evening we made a big house out of lots of computer paper, sang "Love at Home" and talked about what makes home a great place to be while we decorated the house with crayons and cut-outs. It was a great experience to hear my Spraguelings talk about home as a place they love to be. We decided that even though we might be leaving this house, we take home with us when we go, because all of those beautiful things like love, joy, peace, kindness, smiles, go with us. I love these little people. Their faith. Their sweet, unconditional love. Their humility.

The blog will be much more active for the next little bit now that Aaron is far from us. Love to you all, and especially to my sweet Eli. Goodnight.

Oy! Enough already!

Folks, I'm getting picked on. Tonight, for the THIRD time in three months, I was rear-ended at a RED light. Red light. Everyone's stopped, can't go anywhere. Just sitting here. Three (3) times. I'd like to know what color I need to paint the tail gate of my mini-van to turn it Un-invisible.

In the Dead of Night

Do you remember me mentioning in passing (in This post) that Thomas will get out of bed repeatedly, for hours and hours? Charming as he is, I'm not so happy to see his sweet little face at 11ish. Tonight it is 11:14, and at this late hour my little man has taught me a very valuable lesson. Don't put ANYTHING in the bathroom trash that you don't want to see again at 11pm....like that unused bottle of baby powder. Because it will end up on a sleeping Emma, (bombs away)

And filling the music box like some kind of magical snow,And all over BOTH sides of the room,

Along with the banana he pirated... and the rest of the toilet paper from the roll,

And saturating his bare mattress, which is still sheetless from the potty accident of earlier today(...hmmm, maybe that's not such a bad thing)

And in a pitter patter little line through the bedroom and down the hall, presumably to pirate said banana,

And of course, all over the little perpetrator himself. Look at those guilty little hands and feet! And cheeks! And hair!

Yes. This little bottle of dollar store powder has left me with a mighty work to do. We'll save it for tomorrow when Thomas the Night Wanderer can help. For now we'll just savor that baby fresh scent, and try not to let him see us laughing.

And I know you're asking yourself, so I'll just tell you....where I was. I have had the flu for 5 days, so I was convalescing on the sofa watching a PBS documentary about life on air craft carriers. I now have a new found respect, fear even, for things that go bump in the night. I can foresee a very short future for night wandering among Spraguelings. Oh, yes. Tonight I learned volumes more about parenting than I did about air craft carriers. (enjoy your good laugh at my expense)

Em's Birthday

Morning sickness (evening sickness, really) has really cramped my mojo lately, so we're on survival mode for just a bit. But tonight is the first evening that I'm feeling more like myself, and I'm using all that good energy to catch you up on recent events. (Do you feel special? Good...you should.) Now that we're almost a month past Emma's birthday, I'd better fill you in on it. On March 19th Em turned 7, and we had a party at home with just us. Luckily, we are a party all on our own! Emma requested cheeseburgers--happy meals, no less. They rarely get a happy meal, so it was a pretty big deal. We followed that up with a homemade cake that simply read, "Emma" because my frosting scheme malfunctioned. So I hand wrote a happy birthday sign, attached it to the Pegasus horse that flew in to land on the cake, and she blew out the candles on a cake that deeply disappointed me but thrilled her. So I guess that makes it a success. She opened her presents and we all played "Pin the horn on the Unicorn" (unicorn and horn artfully drawn by E.A. Sprague, esq.) The real fun was put on hold until Friday.
We got in the car at noon (school was out for good Friday) and drove to Orlando to catch a dinner show at Medieval Times. We got to sit in the front row and our knight chose Emma as "the Queen of Love and Beauty." She was thrilled. On Saturday we went to Sea World. The video clip is of Finley toddling around in the kiddie splash zone, with Emma skipping about. Remember to go over to the right hand side here and push pause twice on the music controls so you can hear the squeals of delight.





Finley is a confident walker now, and we are all tickled to see her plump little body waddle around, a pleased look of pride on her little face. The next time the planets align and I have a free moment in which I feel human, I'll post pictures from spring break and Jared's baseball season. For now, good night, and enjoy the Spragueling goodness.

News to Share

For those of you who may not yet know, Aaron and I are expecting one more Spragueling! Baby #5 will be here mid-October. We've been savoring the news for a month now, and we're very excited. Jared and Emma are pleasantly surprised, Thomas is clueless, and we are as happy as though this were our first. Life with FOUR is sometimes busy, always going, rarely at a lull. But it doesn't feel like chaos. I don't do well with chaos. As huge as 5 may sound, it seems to me that adding one sweet, needy, snugly newborn baby couldn't possibly add any more stress or work than I am willing to deal with. I can't vouch for what later life will hold with a steady stream of teenagers and college students. But I do know so far that I haven't hit a kid-phase I don't like, so I have faith that for the next couple of decades we'll be enjoying parenting this not so little crew.
Love to you all! (and bite your tongue next time you want to make an "are those ALL yours?" comment to some poor mama in the grocery store. trust me, she's been hearing it ALL day, and it's just not cute after the 12th time! *wink*)

Lullabye

We did indeed have the mother of all thunderstorms, and Thomas and I stood at the window to watched in awe as the rain cascaded off the roof. It cleared up enough to go out for half an hour again after Jared and Em came home from school. We played ourselves out and had a pretty easy bedtime. Jared and I curled up on my bed to read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and talk about his 3rd grade book club book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. As Aaron and I scuttled around trying to catch up on housework and laundry we kept peeking in on the Spraguelings as they drifted off. Finley, of course, was the first to crash:7:30. Emma fell asleep with her book propped up on her bed:8:40. Jared was asleep soon after his head hit the pillow: 9:30. Thomas lingered on for eternity, but didn't torture us with the marathon get-out-of bed, go-potty-put-the-undies-on, need-a-kiss-tuck-me-in bit. (It's very cute and sweet, but he goes to bed at 8, and by 10:30 it's just not very endearing anymore.) He just laid in his bed waggling his legs in the air until they got too tired to hold up, and he dropped them down and was instantly out: 10:00. So, as any mother happy to have her largish brood sleeping sweetly might do, I took pictures.

Front Porch Sittin'

We're supposed to get the mother of all Thunderstorms this afternoon, so we spent an hour outside this morning while the weather was still fine. Thomas gathered "treasure rocks" in his red wagon and filled his green bucket with water, dirt, leaves, and flowers to make "soup". Finley pushed her little walker, then her push bike, then the wagon. She loves walking but is frustrated to have to hold on to something, so 3/4 of my photos were of her angry frustrated cry. My poor, determined little girl. Her happiest time was spent pushing Thomas on the little red pushbike. I was impressed with how aware he was of his baby sister. He was careful not to pull her off her feet, kept looking behind him to see her grin, and called encouragement continually. I'm pretty proud of the kind of brother my Thomas is. I didn't really get to see that kind of cooperative play with Jared and Emma, and I love seeing these two be such good friends.

Autism Speaks

Even before I had children of my own, I worked as an ABA therapist for young children with Autism. Over the course of 10 years, and with six different families, I've watched parents give more of their time, energy, and resources than they had to spare so that their child could have the early intervention that would promise a fuller life. I have seen siblings sleep 4 to a room so that a bedroom could be devoted to therapy sessions. I've been awed by the tenacity with which a mother will pursue the best treatment for her child, regardless of cost or personal sacrifice. More children are diagnosed with Autism each year than cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. Yet the cause is still unknown, a cure elusive...and the effective treatments and interventions that have been found are NOT covered by insurance! I think it's high time we change that: Find the Cause, Find the Cure , and Fund the Treatment.

The Band Five for Fighting will donate $0.49 to Autism research each time this video is viewed, so please take a minute to watch.
http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/408214

When you're done watching, you can follow this link to the Autism Speaks website to find out who your representative is, and how to email them with a request to support legislation that will give children with Autism a running start--by funding early intervention and compelling the insurance industry to cover the treatment of such a prevalent disorder. These little ones have such deep, beautiful, old souls. It would be a travesty to allow them to continue to struggle, when we as a society have the power to intervene.

Update: 10 pm
I just emailed my representative as well as Sen. Mel Martinez and Sen. Bill Nelson. Just 4 minutes to add one more voice.

Predictability

11:46 pm. Headed to bed, with the promise that tomorrow I will see my Thomas a few minutes after 6:30, and way before the sun is up. He will grab the sheet of our bed, reach his other hand for mine, and laboriously pull himself up next to me. With a little grin he'll tuck his chilly toes under my knee as I pull our covers up under his chin. Then, just as he has done in all the mornings of the past month, he'll announce the presence of a monster, an alligator, or (oh, dread) Katschai , the ogre from his favorite Little Einstiens DVD. Well, what's a girl to do with such creatures about?! Make a tent, of course! So I'll stick my leg up like a tent pole as we pull the covers over our heads, compelling Aaron to join in. And Tommy's delighted little giggle will be the perfect start to the day. It's always nice to know what you have to look forward to, isn't it?

Been Tagged

My Bosom Buddy Angela tagged me with this little quiz on her blog. So, here you have it, Angie.
What is your husband's name? Aaron
How long have you been together? One month shy of 11 years
How long did you date? Met the first Sunday in February, engaged in mid March, married in July. You get to do the math.
Who eats more? Aaron wins by volume, but I spend the entire day grazing so it probably evens right out.
Who said I love you first? He did, and I cried
Who is taller? I used to be 5'9", but Aaron is 5'8", so now I'm 5'8" and we're the same height, as long as I shun any shoe thicker than a moccasin.
Who has more speeding tickets? Don't those drop off of your record after a while? I've only ever gotten one, for 6 miles over the speed limit, and that's the most recent. Aaron used to have quite a little speed issue, but it's been a very long time. He knows he's needed here and takes good care of himself for us.
Who is smarter? oh, Aaron for sure. He can remember the things he's read, word for word. I can't even remember what day it is.
Who is more sensitive? sensitive to what? He's more thick skinned, but more sensitive to my feelings than I am to his, more often than not.
When there is a fight, who usually wins? In order to fight there has to be a mutual lack of respect for eachother's views and feelings. We disagree a lot more amiably than that. But usually Aaron is the one who comes around to my way of thinking. I kinda like it that way...
Who does the laundry? I do, but as in everything else, he'll do anything I ask.
Who does the dishes? When I'm pregnant, Aaron does the dishes through the 6 week post-partum. Otherwise it's a matter of who bats their eyes at the other one first.
Who sleeps on the right? No set arrangement, where ever you fall, that's where you lay.
Who pays the bills? Aaron win's the bread, I butter it and make it feed us all.
Who mows the lawn? Aaron for the most part
Who cooks dinner? Usually me, but we go through periods where he is the menu planner, shopper and cook.
Who drives when you are together? I like to drive so I won't stress over his vigilance. "Look over your shoulder, that's a stop sign, oh-oh-oh that car's stopping" I think he prefers for me to drive so I will leave him alone, poor man!
Who is more stubborn? Neither of us are incredibly stubborn, though I hear he used to be.
Who kissed whom first? He kissed me, and I really did plan to tell him I didn't kiss boys until way after the first few dates, but when the moment arrived, I really didn't want to tell him that. So I didn't.
Who asked who out first? He asked me.
Who proposed? He did.
Who has more siblings? I do. He has two brothers, but I've got 2 brothers and a sister.

So there you have it, all the info that is vaguely interesting without being very informative. And thanks, Angela, for my first tag. I promise never to call you Angie again (but that's only if I remember that I promised).

Tag to Cari http://www.carizolli.blogspot.com/ and Cheryl http://www.g-money-crackerbarrel.blogspot.com/

Your Persistence Has Paid Off

For your continued faith and diligence in checking this Lazy blog over it's fruitless past 4 months, you have earned ONE very long, not completely thorough, catch-up post:

My sister, Shannon, hosted Thanksgiving at her house, and we were joined by Grandma and Papa Dean.

We feasted, played the Great Dalmuti, jammed to Grandpa's Guitar and watched my brother-in-law, Darren entertain the kids with silly songs and dances.

The Day after Thanksgiving we set up our Christmas tree and held our traditonal Christmas Eve festivities.

Since Christmas would be in New Mexico we thought we'd celebrate early with the folks, and get to have our traditions despite the travel later in the season.
We set up the advent calender, Emma topped the tree, Aaron lit a fire in the fireplace, Grandpa read the nativity from Luke, and we roasted marshmellows. Wouldn't be complete without the customary chili or oyster stew dinner.
Next day we woke up and had "Christmas at Thanksgiving" with Grandma and Grandpa (aka Papa Dean).

Our Tommy-boy Turned Three at the end of November.
Thomas, Finley and I spent the morning at the zoo and we had a rip-roaring party at home that evening.

December 10th I loaded the Spraguelings into our mini-van a-la cartop carrier, and drove caravan style with my sister to New Mexico.

We had a great trip, and the kids were very good to me. The roads stayed dry, the weather fine, until after we arrived at my brother's houses in Albequerque. We woke the next day to little voices exclaiming excitedly that snow was falling...such as it was. It didn't take much white stuff to delight these Florida kids, and they played in it until it disappeared.

Our entire trip was filled with together time. This was the first time in ten years that the four of us siblings were together. (That's my little brother William next to me, then Shannon, and our oldest brother A.J. on the right.) I got to see my Grandpa Johnny, my Mom's father, while we were down in Roswell. I got the chance to see my aunts Greta, Kay, and Zelma. The time spent with Will gave me the chance to get to know his sweet fiance' a little more.

It was beautiful to have time to just Be Together. Eating, playing card games, rocking Guitar Hero on the Wii. Aaron joined us on the 21st,

and Christmas morning at William's house found us all together under one roof to see the 6 kids greet Christmas Day.

Gifts were abundant, as were smiles and awed expressions.

Granny is to thank for these sweet girlies in matching Christmas dresses. Enough to make a mama's heart twitter. That's Shannon's little Amelia on the left, my Finley Grace in the middle, and my own Emma Kate looking dreamy on the right.

Aaron and my Dad made the return trip with me and the littles. We braved what this Florida girl will call a blizzard, were thankfully/unfortunately saved by/stranded in a dive motel with leapord print sheets for the night while my sister and her family had a scary snow-related accident in their truck pulling the camper. No one but the pretty truck was hurt, and we all made it home for New Years.

Our Finley Gracie turned ONE on January 3rd,

and started crawling her own stylized version of a crawl the next day. One knee down, foot tucked in, one let out, hobble bummy scoot. The girl's got style. Groovy!

In honor of her beloved snuggle duck, she had a chocolate Duckie cake. But not before covering herself in spaghetti and green beans. Dinner was good, cake was great, but Finley was DELICIOUS.

There now, we're all up to speed and I can stop avoiding the blogosphere. Chime in on the comment section so I know you haven't given up on us. We'll come around more often now that we don't feel like such slackers. love to you all...