"Man Cave"

Okay, I was joking around a little bit yesterday when I called our bedroom my "Man Cave." I was watching one of the playoff games (Chargers vs Jets, about the only close game of the weekend) and one of the boys wanted to play on the PS3 downstairs (DS#2, he wanted to play FIFA 2010). I said okay, went upstairs and pulled out the big red leather chair so that it faced the TV and watched the game there with my laptop in my lap.

I even brought a drink upstairs as well as some food ;). This is really the time of year I get to watch football and my dear wife took care of a lot of things yesterday and on Saturday enabling me to watch. Club soccer practices start up again this week for the big boys (DD doesn't start until February) and it looks like both will be playing in a tournament the weekend of the Superbowl. The tournament should be over on time for the Superbowl but I don't think I'll be able to offer chili this year. We'll see.

You can see the background of the room, which is a mess, but what you can't see is that my neighbor helped me glue and clamp the broken headboard to the bed yesterday afternoon. The bed broke over 2 weeks ago now when DS#1 and I tried to push it out. You can see more about that on my dear wife's blog here. Basically, it was never set up correctly and we had only moved it a little bit in the past so we didn't know.

The glue has set and I will drill out the holes and re-set the pins and set the bed up again later today. This will be the best day to take care of it because DS#1 will be here to help.

I do need to post more often, and I will try to in the future. DS#3 has been tons of fun (and work) lately and I need to keep the grandparents apprised of the latest developments.

Football Saturday

Yesterday was a "Football" day. DS#1 had a soccer game (football to some) in the morning which actually made things a little bit difficult due to my dear wife being on "back-up call" but we worked it all out. Why did we have to "work it out?" Well, DS#2 received some vouchers for general seating at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, a football game played by the top high-school seniors in the nation here in San Antonio at the Alamo Dome. DS#2 really wanted to go and I knew he'd enjoy it so we worked it out so that I could take him after watching a bit of DS#1's soccer game. Interestingly, DD decided she wanted to come along too.

We had horrible traffic and parking problems and got there a little bit late, but we did get to see the last part of the 1st quarter and didn't leave until there were about 6 minutes left in the 4th so the kids got to see a lot of the game. We were very fortunate because when we got there someone offered us tickets with specific seats (I wasn't clear on what our vouchers were for then) and we accepted them. We ended up in the 8th row on the 40 yard line and got a GREAT view of all of the action. DS#2 LOVED it!

Unfortunately, I forgot to get one of the cameras from my dear wife and had to use my cell phone to take a few pictures. These aren't very good, but you can see how close we were to the field and even how DD had a lot of fun too. DD doesn't really understand football but she enjoyed watching with us, and enjoyed the crowd. I enjoyed seeing the game and I was VERY impressed by how well some of these young men played. One of the quarterbacks clearly showed he has an arm as strong as some pro quarterbacks.

Without major soccer games going on right now, I actually get a chance to watch some NFL football on TV so I closed my "Football Saturday" with more football in the evening while playing internet (facebook) games. DS#1 had some of his high school friends over to finish a project and study, and they all surprised us by actually working on (and finishing) their project and doing some studying. Now I am going to relax a bit more while watching some football this afternoon (Go Packers!)

First Day of Pre-School

Yesterday, DS#3 started day care/pre-school at a location we have used in the past for DD and DS#2. In the morning he was THRILLED to be going to "school" (yes, that is what we are calling it). I think part of his dancing and excitement was the idea of being like his big sister and older brothers. It was fun to see his excitement, and gave me high hopes that he would do well during the day. He wasn't quite as thrilled when he realized that I was leaving him there. He has had plenty of experience being left in the child care area at LifeTime Fitness (the gym I go to) and is adjusted to it, but this was a bit new for him.

When I came to pick him up, he looked like this. He was sitting at the table with everyone else with a snack in front of him crying. The teachers told me that he did great during "free play" but when they had organized snack time, playtime, etc. he did not want to stop playing to come to the table and sit down. Apparently he was screaming so loudly at one point that they moved his chair away from the table so the other kids could focus on what they were doing.

Part of the reason we have him there is to get used to playing with other children and getting used to having more structure in his day. He can sit at a table and color, play, etc., for quite a while for me, but I don't force him to sit down at a particular time of day for special activities. His mood, and our other activities, dictate when he sits and colors, or when we read together, not a special schedule. I am sure he'll adjust to a schedule ... eventually.

He calmed down a bit when I got there, but was still out of sorts for a little while. I tried to get another picture of him with his Thomas Backpack because I didn't get any other pictures in the morning (sorry honey!). Tomorrow he has his second day of "school" (he will only go on Tuesdays and Thursdays) so we'll have to see how that goes. Yesterday, I actually got a lot of work done, including a good amount of writing. Tomorrow I have a rather long list so we'll have to see how much I can manage to get done.

One year closes ...

One year closes and another year begins. Before starting the next year, I wanted to post a little bit more about our Christmas Break. We had a wonderful time with multiple guests before making our way to Houston to start the New Year. My parents and my brother G left on Monday morning (28th) while my sister L was able to stay another day. My dear wife's sisters came with our nieces and nephew to help keep the house full of joy (and noise) for the next few days until everyone made their way to Houston yesterday (Wednesday-30th). We will go back to San Antonio tomorrow (New Year's Day) because DS#1 has a soccer game on Saturday morning (Jan. 2nd).

Monday afternoon/evening we played Apples to Apples, a game that DS#2 received for Christmas. We all had a great time playing, but I had to "bail out" near the end in order to start grilling steaks. My dear wife took over and suddenly we won. Hmmm.

DS#3 got plenty of playtime with his aunts, and really, everyone else too. He really loves the new Duplo Thomas the Tank Engine sets that he received for Christmas and is literally able to play with them quietly for over an hour. How often do you see a 2-year old with that sort of attention span?

Tuesday closed with several slow-motion sword battles, as well as some "real speed" play involving foam swords, silly boys, and goofy girls. Of course, the girls came complete with manicured nails. Everyone knows you need a manicure before a sword battle!

DS#3 loved the whole thing. DS#1 isn't in these pictures but rest assured, he took part in some of the crazy fun too.

We are now at CB's house for New Year's Eve with some family game night plans and probably some soggy neighborhood fireworks. I will try to get more pictures and videos up in the future as the kids have been doing some very hilarious things. DS#2 and his cousin N have created a stop-motion Lego video they titled "The Turning of R2D2" which just has to be shown. DD's Christmas gift to my wife and I is a book she created at school titled "The Three Bears and the Stormtrooper"-yes, she does have brothers ... no, we haven't received a call from the school, yet.

Right now though, I just want to say Happy New Year to everyone and wish you all the best.

The Revolving Door

Okay, silly title, but most of my post titles are a bit silly. My parents and my brother G are heading out of town tomorrow morning. My sister L will be staying another day, and DD is THRILLED! I am not sure L's ears won't fall off before then, but I think she enjoys a chance to be with the kids. Sometime around lunch my sisters-in-law M and C will arrive with my nieces and nephew so we get to keep the house full of guests for a while longer. I have to catch up with some of the Christmas pictures in the blog, and probably Facebook. Tonight I just want to make a quick post with a few pictures.

Here is one of my dear sister at dinner tonight with DD and DS#3.

This is one of the pictures taken of my parents with all 4 kids. Tomorrow afternoon I should have time to work on posting more of the Christmas pictures. We are sorry to see them go so soon and we are looking forward to seeing them again in Colorado for Spring Break.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We are fortunate enough to have my parents here as well as my brother G. My sister L arrived from Boston this afternoon, in time for turkey dinner. The kids always love seeing their Aunts and Uncles, particularly those they don't see very often. G lives in Alaska so we are lucky to see him every 1-1 1/2 years, and most of the time it is a little longer. I am thrilled that they could make it here this year.

Yesterday my lovely wife was on-call so she was at the hospital for a 24 hour shift. The kids and I visited her for a Christmas Eve meal of, well, pizza, but at least we got to have a little family time. Last night, of course, Santa had to arrive, so before I went to bed I had to "take care of a few things." One of the things I did was get out the tripod and the camera and try to take a few pictures of the Christmas tree using only the light from the tree. I was just trying to see whether or not I could get a good shot of the tree with the pictures under it. This one seems to have come out okay (after my dear wife did some work with it).

The kids were very excited about Christmas this year. Apparently DD and DS#3 were up and waking their grandparents at 4:00 AM. I know that DS#3 was up before 5 because he came to my room and I had him changed and back in bed with me to try to get him back to sleep at 5:00. He did go back to sleep and was able to sleep until a little after 7:00 AM. My dear wife got back home by about 7:30 and then the kids were all ready to tear into their presents.

Everyone had a great time, but DS#3 certainly had enough excitement today to end up taking a rare nap. Here he is after he climbed up on his Grandpa to be rocked for a while. Grandpa "ate it up."

Tomorrow should be a fun, though busy day, including a trip to the Riverwalk.

Christmas Cleaning

I have let the kids "get away with" a lot in the "Game Room" because trying to get them to make it really neat and clean is, well, stressful-it involves a great deal of yelling and in the end I do 90% of the work anyway. This week I decided that these darned kids are so spoiled that they have to get to work if they want to make room for this year's Christmas presents-I mean, the coal has to go SOMEWHERE!

Yes, that IS a drink in my hand!

The truth is, I want this room a bit more organized and I plan to send the dining room furniture to be restored in January so I might need the table that the kids use as a storage zone. In addition, we want to do some painting and make some changes in the Game Room so we definitely need to do some clearing out. The problem is that our children are far enough apart in age that the "old" toys (can you say "Thomas the Tank Engine" ?) are played with by the younger children. However, this does not stop grandparents, aunts, and uncles from giving the kids more gifts every year so the collection just grows and grows.

I literally give away garbage bags full of toys to charities every year. This does not include the broken toys we have to throw away. Come to think of it, it doesn't mention the "favorite" toys that I find ways to fix several times before they are unused for a year or so on their way to the next child.

The driving force for some of the cleaning is the fact that my parents, brother, and one of my sisters, will be here for Christmas. Then, we'll have some of my in-laws and my nieces and nephews over for a few days next week. They have all seen our house "as is" and know the chaos of our lives, but their visit, and "don't you want to have space for new toys?", becomes a rallying cry for cleaning up and discarding unused and/or unwanted toys (I hear there is an island for them somewhere ...). Honestly, I don't expect to be as "done" as I would like tomorrow, but that is when guests start arriving so whatever we can get done, well, that is what is done.