Ella's flower girl dress

Ella got to play dress up tonight. She got all clean in the tub, mom blow dried her hair (first time ever), curled her hair, put in her new earrings, and pulled on her fancy flower girl dress. Then she got to stand in front of a sheet and get her picture taken. It only took 42 pictures, but we managed to get a few good ones.

"I want to wear MY monkey suit!"

... says Noah, after his brother got his on. Just practicing for Aunt Gina's wedding in a month.



Levi ... Noah

[Joey Tribbiani voice on] "Hey, how you doin?" [Joey Tribbiani voice off]

Then there is Ella...

Don't count on any smiles from their older sister while walking down the aisle. We'll be lucky if we can even get her to walk down the aisle. Maybe a whole pile of candy at the front will motivate her.

Grandma was supervising

When we went to Michigan a few weeks ago for Erin's wedding reception, we left all three of our cherubs in the care of Grandma Addink. My sister Gina had her camera at our house the other night, and was showing us a video on it. We saw some pictures of our kids, and said we wanted to save them to our computer. My mom and Gina insisted that there were no pictures worth seeing on the camera. Ahhhhh ha, obviously trying to hide something! So we downloaded all the pictures, and found a whole series of these...



Apparently Levi discovered the joys of the urinal. For being only 2 years old, and having limited experience peeing anywhere other than his diaper (such as in the tub... or on the floor while streaking naked through the house AFTER the tub), the kid has pretty good technique. One hand on his, ummmm, hose to facilitate the aim, one hand on the top to steady his balance. Of course, he is making direct eye contact with the camera next to him, instead of focusing intensely at a spot on the wall in front of him, a definite violation of urinal etiquette. But hey, he's got some time to learn.

And of course, we will now be much more wary any time Grandma babysits for the weekend...

We must be absolutely insane

We just bought tickets to fly to Michigan at Christmas. With three children. And only two of us. After the previous plane trip, when we were "those people" on the plane. You know, the ones with the kid who screams for the entire flight, who you think "they must be the worst parents in the world. Their child is an absolute terror. The horror of the trip must finally be wearing off, because 1: we are planning to do it again, and 2: I can only remember vauge details anymore. I do distinctly recall wanting to leave my eldest offspring in the overhead bin, and the little old ladies in front of Paige clapping when Ella finally got spanked.

This trip we planned to be outfitted with dual portable DVD players, and overdoses of Dramamine. Let's hope the combo puts them to sleep like this...

Darn dog

So far the dog is definitely a puppy. She eats any toy left on the floor (we have too many anyways), has chewed a hole in the carpet, dug holes in the backyard, literally chewed an entire bush in the backyard down to a stump... and Paige is allergic to it.

But it's a small price to pay when you find this smile hidden in your little girl...

Funny things they say...

Ella, after opening her birthday present: "LOOK! STUFF!!!!" Guess we are doing a great job raising another little consumer. Sheesh...

Noah, after being told it was time to scrub in the bathtub: "I don't WANT to be clean!!!" Typical little boy...

Ella, after being told to eat her dinner so she won't be hungry before bed: "But daaaaaaad, sometimes I eat and my tummy still has cracks in it." I'm surprised she didn't ask for ice cream... to fill the cracks, of course...

San Die-aaaaaah-go!

Paige, Ella, and I went to San Diego for Paige's 30th birthday, and Ella's 4th. Or as Ella calls it, "San Die-aaaaaah-go." Paige has been talking about going to San Diego for years, so I figured this was as good a time as any. We had tickets to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and the Wildlife Park. More animals than you can shake a stick at (although the zoo keepers tend to frown when you shake sticks at the animals.)

After the usual hassle of being violated by airport security, we made it to San Diego. We made our way to the rental car place via the shuttle bus. Ella declared that this was her favorite part of the trip so far. So next year, we will just skip the actual vacation and go ride shuttle buses around Sky Harbor. We load up in our rental car... a convertible PT Cruiser. Doesn't really qualify as the mid-size we specified. We can only fit one suitcase in the "trunk." Ella, a huge suitcase, a her stroller all get crammed into the miniature back seat. I fold myself up like a pretzel and cram into the driver's seat. It's a good thing the convertible top is open, because I can see over the windshield. I'm not sure I would fit with the top down. We go to exit the parking garage, and the attendant spends a loooong time looking at our paperwork. Not a good sign. Finally, he says "I think you have the wrong car." Odd, we took the car parked in D12, just like they told us too. Sure enough, they goofed up and gave us the wrong car. I asked for an upgraded car, and got one, a Dodge Magnum. So we transfer all our stuff and finally get under way.

Head to the hotel (Nice choice Grandma Mary!), unload all the stuff, and head over to Sea World. Between 3:00 and 6:00, we managed to see most of it. It's smaller than I remembered. Ella was completely wiped out, and actually fell asleep on the car ride to the hotel, and didn't wake up until the next morning.

The next day we headed to the SD Zoo. Had lots of fun looking at all the animals. We spent the entire day there, and we still didn't get to see about 1/4 of the zoo.

The third day we headed to the Wildlife Park. We headed out of town, and about an hour later started wondering why we hadn't seen the sign for the park yet. We had somehow missed the turnoff and ended up about 40 miles past the exit. I'm not assigning blame for this mishap (but Paige was the one with the map!) Turn around, finally get to the park around noon. As we are pulling into the parking lot, Ella says "My tummy doesn't feel good!" and 2 seconds later... baaaaaarf. All over her shirt, on her pants, into the car seat. Lovely. We pile out of the car, pull off her shirt, scrub the puke off her pants, load up in the stroller.



I'm sure people thought we just pulled in from Arkansas, with our shirtless four year old, and the faint odor of stomach juices. On the plus side, Ella got to pick out a souvenir... a lovely new Wildlife Park t-shirt. The Wildlife Park is huge, and you walk a long ways, and the animals are usually not very close. I'm not sure it was Ella's favorite.

Ella had a good time at all the parks, as is obvious in the pictures below...



Sheesh. Obviously she inherited her father's sunny disposition, and his love of being photographed. We did manage to catch a few of her smiling while she was pretending to be grumpy...



We headed from the Wildlife Park down a short section of the Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped at the beach to check out the water.



The last day, we headed back to Sea World to catch the dolphin show and a few of the other things we missed. We also drove around Coronado so I could show Paige where I spent a few summer vacations. Paige harassed me that while I spent summers relaxing at the beach and sailing around San Diego harbor, she spent summers at the Meyer farm in Volga, South Dakota.

Our little Marines

Our church has what they call "Blast Sunday's." They have blow up slides and face painting for the kids. The boys found these helmets, so we tried them on. I'll tuck this one away somewhere, and put it up on the wall after they graduate from Parris Island...

Gorillas in the mist

Our little buckaroos

Ella


Levi


Noah

Happieness is a warm pop gun...

After I caught the boys running around the house dressed in pink high heels and necklaces, I though we needed to out and get some more gender appropriate toys. So I took Friday off, and we made a trek to Cabela's

Newest Addink family addition

Since Tucker died last April, we've been debating whether to get a new dog or not. The boys are finally old enough that we feel like we can train them to refrain from pulling on a dog's ears, or inserting things into orifices (Ella did enough of that to poor Tucker.) We've been looking on Craigslist, but dogs seem to get sold from there very quickly. We drove to the pounds in Phoenix last weekend, and didn't really find anything we liked. Paige wants a tiny little girly dog, I want something more manly (Paige says all the dogs I like look like they eat babies for breakfast.) But totally spur of the moment, we drove all the way to Tucson tonight to look at a $60 Craigslist dog. So we ended up bringing her home...



The owners said she is a Boston Terrier and Sharpei mix. I believe the Boston, not sure about the Sharpei. Her former owners got divorced, and the mom didn't have time to keep her. Hopefully this doesn't have any long term effect on her mental health. The people who bought her paid $1500 at a pet store. We got her for $60 (and a tank of gas.) How Dutch is that!


PS: Dear Grandpa Ben... since you seem to have the hotline to God regarding dogs, please refrain from praying this dog to death like you did to Tucker. At least give us a chance to try her out for a while. If she bites one of the kids, we'll let you know so you can ask God to smite this dog too... ;)

Boys will be...

boys. Ella would freak out if they ever tried this on her.

Humbling...

This video makes you feel insignificant one one hand, but strangely special on the other. All of that, in some random "blank" spot in space, so that one day we would finally look at it, and words written thousands of years ago would become even more impressive "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." That's one impressive declaration...

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Psalm 8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 147:4 He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.

Psalm 148:3 Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

More bugs

Paige is in Michigan right now. Every day I talk to her, and her first question is "Did you call an exterminator yet?" After she found the last scorpion in the house, she had the crazy idea to go around the backyard with a blacklight to see how many more there were. When you find a scorpion in your house, and your wife is deathly afraid of them... don't go looking around your backyard with a black light. We found 5 the first night, and 4 the second night. Each time, Paige was squealing like, well, a woman afraid of scorpions. I has having fun, like being a kid again. I commented that Levi and Noah will have great fun in a few years, hunting scorpions in the backyard. Paige's response was less than supportive of our boys future careers in bug hunting.

So I went out hunting again last night. I found three on the back wall. Two were hiding in the cracks of the wall. I tried to blast them with flaming starter spray. I'm not sure if I got them or not. This big ol' bugger was hanging out at the bottom of the wall.



I discovered it is fairly difficult to take a picture of a scorpion at night. You have to crouch down behind a bush, balance the black light, get the camera really really close for the macro to work, and then hold perfectly still so the image isn't blurry. Of course, this isn't easy to do when the dang scorpion goes scurrying across the wall and you jump up squealing like, well, a little girl afraid of scorpions...

Well vs Good

So I was writing an email to a customer, and wanted to tell them that some samples in a test were "doing good"... or is it "doing well"? I'm an engineer, not an English major. I have no clue. Normally I would pick one an move on, but now I am paranoid. My know-it-all sister recently mocked me for saying that I was "good". She says (in know-it-all sister tone) "You mean well?" Uhhhhhh, no, I meant "good." She's a theater major and grade school teacher, so she probably knows better than I do. So I ended up looking it up on the internet...

Grammer Girl sounds authoritative, so I'll go with that. Hmmmm, it would appear that "I am good" and "I am well" are equally valid. Never miss a brotherly opportunity to demonstrate your superiority.

I ended up going with "doing good." She'll probably comment on here that I did indeed pick the wrong word...

Road Trip!

(Not really from the trip. On the way to swim lessons.)

So we survived the road trip to Michigan. It went better than expected during the day, and far far worse during the night...

Thursday, Phoenix, 4 AM: Drag ourselves out of bed, load up the last minute supplies, and hit the road. Kids conk out in the backseats for a while.

Somewhere in New Mexico, 12 Noon: Stop for lunch, I can't even remember where. Kids are doing great, watching movies, playing with toys, etc. I've even managed to listen to about 4 hours of Mark Driscoll already.

Amarillo, 9 PM: We've made something like 900 miles the first day. Dang good start. We stop a Chucky Cheese and let the kids terrorize the place for a while. They've been cooped up in the car all day and have done great, so they get all the pizza and games they want. Paige and I decide that we still feel pretty good, so we might as well try to get a few more hours on the road. We figure the kids will fall asleep in the car, we'll drive 'till we get tired, then find a hotel somewhere.

Oklahoma, 11 PM: Ok, here's where it gets interesting... It's 11 PM and all three kids are still awake. Not a good sign. We are getting tired, so we find an Econolodge. It's one step above the rent-by-the-hour hotels... not exactly the cleanest place in Oklahoma. Get a room on the second floor, and start dragging kids and luggage upstairs. Set up pack-n-plays, get everyone in PJs, Paige jumps in the shower, I watch some nature show with the kids. Turn off the lights, put the boys in pack-n-plays and they have an immediate meltdown. Screaming, wailing, and gnashing of teeth ensue. OK, so that plan isn't working. Take the boys out of the pack-n-plays, and put them in bed with us. Ella goes in the pack-n-play, cause she says she wants to sleep there. Boys start to relax, everyone is finally drifting off to sleep....

Ella: THE BOYS ARE TALKING! I CAN'T SLEEP WHEN THEY ARE TALKING!
Paige: Ella, SHHHHHHH. Be quiet and go to sleep!
Ella: BUT THE BOYS ARE TOO LOUD!
Boys: Snoooooooooore....
Paige: Ella, you are going to wake them up!
Noah: Hi Dad-dy!
Levi: Ha-ha-ha
Noah (climbing on top of me and jumping up and down): RIDE DAD-DY!

Now they are all awake, and tearing around the room like rabid monkeys. Jumping on the beds, wrestling with each other, screaming... completely out of control. Paige and I try to get them calmed back down, but at this point it is hopeless. We have no clue how to regain control of the rugrats. At this point, we are just waiting for the Indian guy in the office to call and complain, or for one of the neighbors to come over and yell at us.

Oklahoma, 1 AM: It's too bad we didn't rent the nasty room by the hour. All three kids go kicking and screaming back into the car. Levi is wet from playing in the toilet, Noah has been splashing in the tub water that never did drain from Paige's shower. The room looks like some rock band stayed there and trashed the place, except this rock band ground cheerios and fruit snacks into the beds. I throw the key at the guy at the front desk, who looks at me like I've lost my mind (he might be right). We head back on the road, planning to let the kids fall asleep, then pull over somewhere and sleep in the car ourselves.

1:05 AM: All three kids are passed out in the backseat. That didn't take long.

1:30 AM: Finally, an exit! We pull off, find a nice dark side road, turn off the lights and car, and lean the seats back...

Noah: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

1:35 AM: Back on the highway, Noah fast asleep again.

2:00 AM: Pull off in a rest stop. As soon as the wheels stop rolling...

Noah: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Ella: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Jason: Is there any way to stop the car, but make it sound like it is still driving?

2:05 AM: Back on the highway. This time Noah doesn't stop. I climb into the backseat and hold him in my lap. Paige and I are so exhausted we can barely keep our eyes open. Neither of us dares to go to sleep while the other one drives.

2:30 AM: Find our second hotel, after stopping at three others with no vacancy. This one is a slight improvement over the first. Specifically request a room on the ground floor away from everyone else. Guy has one. Pile into room with no luggage. Room is like a sauna, so we crank the AC on as high as it will go. Paige, Levi, and Ella pile into one bed, I set Noah on the other bed, and then climb in with him.

Noah: GO AWAY DAD-DY!

Ok then, guess I get to sleep on the floor. Curl up on the floor between the beds, and fall asleep almost instantly.

3:30 AM: Holy cow, it is freezing in this room! Wake up on the floor shivering. Noah is fast asleep, so I climb in with him.

Noah: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Oh great! Paige wakes up and climbs in with Noah, who promptly calms down and goes back to sleep. I see how I rate! So I go to the floor by the other bed, and try to pull some of the blankets over to keep warm.

I have no idea what time: I wake up shivvering again. Try to climb in bed with Ella and Levi. Ella is not too fond of the idea, and starts yelling and kicking Levi. Paige switches beds again to calm them down. I go take a leak in the bathroom, and discover that it is much warmer than the room. So after doing my business, I sit on the floor, lay my head on the tub, and go to sleep. Keep in mind, we paid something like $29.99 for this hotel room. I wouldn't exactly qualify it as sanitary. Good thing I am not squeamish...

6:00 AM: Noah wakes up and claims to be hungry. Paige finds me in the bathroom, with half a roll of toilet paper stuffed up my nose. At some point I had a bloody nose, although I really don't remember it.




Get everyone fed with muffins and milk, pile back in the car, and start driving again. Next day on the road goes pretty well. Kids watch movies, play games, color, etc. We each drive for a while, and manage to get a little more sleep. We decide that our mocking of the families who all sleep in one bed on Super-Nanny was mistaken. The whole co-sleeping thing suddenly seems like a much better idea.

St. Louis, 7 PM: We decide to try to avoid the fiasco of last night. Find a decent hotel, with a swimming pool even. Get some Arby's for dinner, get the kids in their swimsuits, and head over to the pool. Kids have a blast jumping around the pool.


Hotel, 10 PM: Back to the room, read lots of books to get them all nice and calmed down. Make a "nest" for Ella on the floor with extra blankets. I take Levi, Paige takes Noah, turn off the lights, and we all go to bed. Everybody goes to sleep...

Ella: I CAN'T SLEEP IN MY NEST!
Paige: Ella, SHHHHHHH. Be quiet and go to sleep!
Ella: BUT I CAN'T SLEEP IN MY NEST!
Paige: Ella, you are going to wake the boys up!
Noah: Hi Mom-my!
Levi: Ha-ha-ha
Jason: Ohhhhhhh crap...

We dropped the hammer on them this time. Levi and Noah kept trying to get out of bed so they could play. After getting dragged back into be and told "NO" about 10 times, Levi decided to go to sleep. Noah, on the other hand, has an iron will. The kid is more stubborn than a mule. He ended up getting a swat on the butt everytime he got out of bed. After about 15 of those (literally) he finally gave up and cried himself to sleep. Ahhhhhhhhh...... sleep...

Back on the road again the next day. The kids are now officially done with the road trip. Whining, crying, fidgeting. We broke multiple speed limits though Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan but made it to GR that night. There was no way we were stopping for another night in a hotel...

I am back in Phoenix now. Poor Paige has to drive back with her Mom in a few weeks. I hope she doesn't decide to just stay there instead of endure the drive back.

2118 miles of memories... :)

Puke and Bugs

So Jason set this up as a way for me to communicate (vent). I think he wants to save money on phone bills or something. So today would be a good day to vent about to my family. Monday morning I awoke to a foul smell coming from the boys room. Levi and thrown up and was sleeping in it. That began the day of throwing up another two times for him. I thought we had lived through it all and then at 7:30 at night after returning from a nice family walk with three kids bathed and in pjs Noah throws up all over the place. He too proceeded to vomit two more times. We put the boys to bed and hoped for the best for Tuesday. Well, today began better than Monday did, but only about 20 mins after being up Ella began to throw up.

After cleaning her up I scooped up the bathroom rug that he had puked on and she said "Mom a bug!" Since the baby duck in the back yard incident I have begun to listen more carefully to what my three year old is telling me. Sure enough, there was a bug running for cover across my bathroom floor. A SCORPION!!!!!!!!! Nice. He was under the bathmat that Ella was standing on and that I was kneeling on next to her as she vomited. He ran out when I lifted the rug and hid in the corner of my bathroom. I couldn't get to him with a shoe b/c he was all coiled up in the corner. So out of frustration and fear I had Ella run and get the phone and I called Jason at Bible Study and demanded that he come home to kill it. (he was only 5 min away, it wasn't that irrational of a request) He laughed at me as I described my dilemma of not being able to get it out of the corner and my fear that it would jump at me. **They run very fast in a freaky scuttling manner that is not natural and very frighting to your nerves.** He told me to get his big old knife out of the bed stand (Don't ask, I'm sure McGuyver had one in his night stand too) and stab it. So in the end, I did. In fact I cut it into a million pieces. I had to make sure it was dead. I am protecting my children and all. It is still in my bathroom, I refuse to touch it or get near it as it may be filled with venom. :) Jason can clean up the sad pile of remains when he gets home as punishment for making me live in the desert where these types of creatures roam freely.



Other than that, and Ella vomiting yet another time, it has been a typical day at the Addinks!

Comments from the fearless husband...
- I originally suggested the shotgun for dispatching the beast. Paige didn't approve.
- Paige now wants to change the carpet, tile, and paint in the entire house to colors that contrast with scorpions... :)

Haircuts

This one is just for Luke Simmons... :)

Levi was ok with the haircut...



Noah? Not a big fan...

Pictures from back in February.