I just happen to catch his genuine reaction to his gift when he opened it. I think he liked it. :)
Adam of course got "Hot Wheels" which also made him very excited. I couldn't really catch his reaction but this picture was the closest. He was jumping up and down he was so happy.
He did really well and made it through the 4th round. (The finals started in the 6th round) He was also proud of himself because the last word that he spelled correctly , "calories", was off the sixth grade list and it wasn't one that we had studied. He was beaming after that. He went out on a 7th grade word "immature". He was happy with how he did though because he stayed in longer than most of the other 3rd graders and some 4th graders. (As a mom I just didn't want him to be the first to go!) I think it was a great experience for him.
This picture is priceless! He is getting a fluoride treatment. I couldn't believe that he kept the trays in for the whole minute.
He had rice, teriyaki chicken, a mandarin orange, and yogurt. He was so excited himself that he had eaten his whole dinner because he knew that he now qualified to have ice cream. He usually doesn't get to have any due to his lack of eating. He was running around the kitchen yelling "Ooooh, ice cream, ice cream!!!" The funny thing is that he could choose between mint chocolate chip and pumpkin and he chose pumpkin. For such a picky guy I'm still so surprised that he likes pumpkin ice cream so much. I guess he's going to be like his dad who has never met an ice cream flavor that he doesn't like. :)
This is my counter the night before. I also had a fridge full of meat (6 bags of frozen chicken from Costco, 12 lbs of hamburger, 2 pork roasts, 2 chuck roasts, & 2 lbs of sausage.) I meant to take a picture of us cooking but I totally forgot. We started about 8:00 am and were done around 3:30 pm. My feet were killing me by the end of the day. I only forgot one thing too so we only had to make one unexpected trip to the store. I thought that was pretty good. The other amazing thing is that we each got 18 dinners for only $162 each. 
Today I caught Preston reading this book to Adam and they were being really cute with each other. I had to document it to remind myself that they really do like each other. :)
The final clue told them about the puppy. It took a minute to sink in but once it did man were they excited! Don't you just love Natasha's reaction? They have wanted a dog for as long as I can remember and I've always said no. Thing were much too crazy around here but now I think it has calmed down enough for us to handle it. After the final clue Preston couldn't even comprehend it I don't think. He asked me "Is it a real dog or a pretend dog?"
Sophie flew to us from Kansas City, MO and this is us at the airport picking her up. It had been a few weeks since we had seen any pictures of her and she was so much cuter than we could have imagined.
A few weeks ago Natasha told me that she had the best dream of her life. It was that she was eleven years old and that we got a dog. (I had always told her, when your older, when your older.) Then just last week she wanted to put that she wanted a real dog on her Santa list. Andrew's response to that was "I highly doubt that would ever happen!" It was so cute to see all their dreams come true!
Preston has been quite the little helper around here. He loves to play with her a lot which then helps me.
Preston's friend Sadie came to see her too. I just love how gentle Preston is with Sophie.
This was the night of Trunk-or-Treat at church. Andrew is an evil emperor, Adam is Batman, Preston is Bumblee the Transformer, and Natasha is a monarch butterfly.
After they went around to all the cars they stayed at our car to give out candy. It was impossible to keep Adam from eating it!!
On Halloween night we went Trick-or-Treating with cousins Kaeli, Alyssa, and Ian. Alyssa was a vampire, Kaeli a pirate, and Ian a skeleton. Now, the story behind the staff that almost ruined Halloween. Basically Andrew forgot to pack his skull staff and didn't realize it until he was getting ready that night. He was so upset about it that he came VERY close to not even going out for candy. He just thought that his whole costume was ruined without it. Lucky for us he eventually came out of it and ended up having fun instead of letting that ruin his night.
On this night Natasha went as Bindi the Jungle Girl. Papa made her the shirt and when she got it in the mail she LOVED it! ( I had got the butterfly costume as a back up just in case Bindi didn't work out). Going as Bindi was absolutely perfect for her and she looked really cute. On the back of her shirt it says "Extinct Stinks" with her name below it.
They had a blast and got tons of candy. Everyone kept saying that Adam was the cutest Batman they had ever seen. We started the night with seven kids and by the end we only had three. They slowly dropped like flies from being tired and went back to the house. The last one to give up was Adam (he did great and probably would have made it the whole time if he hadn't spent the whole day jumping on the trampoline). The last three standing were Kaeli, Andrew, and Natasha. Such fun memories. 
Recipe
This one of my favorite pictures of all time. I took this of Adam when he was about a week old. It was the picture we used on his birth announcement. What a sweet little face!
Kaeli and Adam waiting to blow out their candles. We sang twice so they each could do their own candles. Andrew and Jason put trick candles on Kaeli's side and it was so funny. Every time she tried to blow them out they would just light back up again. Everyone got a good laugh out of it.
Adam could hardly contain himself waiting to open his presents. There is hardly anything in his life that is all about him and he was sooo excited about his day. He kept going around saying "My Birt-day!, My Birt-day!" He got cars, trucks, and bulldozers and that made him very happy. After every present that was any kind of car he would yell "Hot Wheels! Hot Wheels!"
Here he his with two cars that he got that are from his all time favorite show "Hot Wheels: Battleforce 5" or as Adam calls it, "World Race". He slept with these cars and never let them out of his sight for over a week.
I had to include these two pictures. Adam has had a rough year as far as injuries go. We have made too many visits to the Emergency Room that's for sure! Luckily his injuries have not been too major. He's a pretty tough kid. The one above is from his fall at one of Andrew's baseball games. The one below is from his fall in Ohio where he ended up with two stitches in his lip.
I really like this picture. Adam is a true car man through and through. He is getting to where he can distinguish different makes and models of different cars. He knows a Nissan Titan truck from any other kind of truck (his cousin Ian has a Titan). He also knows a Corvette when he sees one. We were sitting at a stop light the other day and I couldn't figure out what he was saying. It sounded like "Coh- Va". I was guessing "cold?" "van?" I just wasn't getting it right. Then in the back of my mind I remembered seeing a white corvette go by and I guessed "Corvette?" Adam finally answered with a very enthusiastic "YEAH!" My brother has a corvette that he saw this summer but I was surprised he picked that one up going by. 
Today Adam turns three and I have been doing some reflecting this weekend. We have come a long way since he was born. That first year is almost a blur to me now. I lost almost 10 pounds without even trying. I would get up at 6:00am and literally not be able to sit down until 9:00pm. In the middle I would be going as fast as I could to keep up with things and felt like I was barely keeping afloat. To say the least life was CRAZY! Andrew was in Kindergarten when Adam was born and life kept up that pace until Natasha started first grade (which was just last year).Once I had two kids in school it felt like heaven. I found myself being able to sit down during the day and things just seemed less busy. Also about a year ago Preston was diagnosed with ADHD. He started on medication shortly after and that’s when I began to feel like I could actually breathe again.
Also three years ago our house was like a childproofed fortress. We had three walk through gates as well as a huge gate that covered the TV and fireplace. Any flat surface that was low was void of life and all chairs from the kitchen table had to be taken out past the gates after every meal (Not to mention all the cabinets that had to have latches). Slowly the gate came away from the TV and Adam figured out the walk through gates so they came down. (Being able to walk freely through the house seemed so foreign at the time.) Then about 6 months ago we experimented by putting a lone lamp on the table. That survived and we started putting a few more things out here and there. Now for the first time ever we have Halloween decorations out on all the end tables and my house doesn’t feel so “empty” anymore. We still have a few incidents with knocked over lamps and broken light bulbs but for the most part Adam is doing really well. I know we will have fully graduated when we can get rid of our $50 garage sale kitchen table and get a real one. I have a feeling that is still a few years away.
We have also come a long way as far as the kids getting along. Three years ago Preston and Natasha were like oil and water. I could hardly wait for her to go to pre-school and then the next year to Kindergarten just so there could be some peace in the house. When we would go on trips I couldn’t even pack their clothes together in the same bag because it just didn’t feel right. Well, slowly as Preston has calmed down and she has matured their relationship has greatly improved. This weekend Andrew was at a cub scouts activity with Jason and Natasha and Preston played together for 3 hours straight! (Adam was napping) All four of them have been playing well together at night too. Since it has been getting dark earlier they like to go in the back with glowing light sabers and flash lights. They have made up a game and they all have a blast together. These moments are so precious to me. I thought they would never come. This is not to say things are always great with them. Preston and Adam are at the age where they fight a lot too. I call them the evil magnets. They can’t live with each other, they can’t live without each other. Adam is also usually the trump card with the four of them playing nice. He thinks he’s big but he’s really not and he usually messes up what they are trying to do. I often hear, “Mom! Can you get Adam out of here??????” I think he has just a few more months and he will be better at playing with them.
Now, the ten pounds are back, I have time to write things like this for my blog, to work on projects, to read a book here and there, and to actually have a semi-clean house. It just amazes me how far we have come in the last three years. I know that I have more stress and commotion than the average family but I can finally see that little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. That little glimmer of light is starting to get brighter and brighter as each day passes too. Wow, just look how far we've come and it feels GREAT!!
Bowl full of tomatoes from our garden that have been sitting there all week waiting for me to do something with them. ( Later we ended up having to dump most of them. )
Our outside decorations. It's the first year we've ever decorated and the kids have really loved it. They say that our house looks like a pumpkin patch.
It's that time of year again! I've started working on Adam's Christmas stocking. It takes up the whole table while I'm working on it. Hopefully it will be done by Christmas. :)
