Pure Trouble!

A job well done.

Josh worked pretty hard all of 3rd grade, and it paid off!

Good for you son. We are very proud of you.

Shots suck!

This little guy is one tough baby! He got his second round of shots yesterday (I split his 6 months doses in two parts).
He was in such a good mood, and I just hated ruining that by poking his poor little legs.

He did pretty fantastic though. He only whimpered a little and was back to babbling and crawling around. The nurse was so impressed, and so was I!
I did complain though that he still has a lump on his thigh from the last shots he received. A different nurse had forgotten about us, so once she realized it, she was in a major rush. She grabbed his thighs and bam bam!! His legs were sore for days, and only one of the lumps have dissipated. I was pretty miffed and worried too.

I hope the lump goes away soon like the other one did and that it never happens again.

The Announcement

Yep It's totally late, and Matthew is almost 3 months old. But I really wanted to make sure that just in case you didn't hear... We've had a baby :)  I also have to give credit to my photog friend Mindy, who took these amazing shots of Matthew. She did a great job!  Working with newborns is NOT easy!

So, very soon you'll be getting yours in the mail!

Matthew's Birth Announcement

 

Big Blocks Navy Baby Announcements

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Lazy Mother

Yes. That is me.
It's seriously been a long time since I've updated this blog. 
I'll try a little harder this time.
See the thing is, we have a baby among us again.
Babies are fun to blog about.
Fresh  meat.
Also, the older kids are back in school... Fun times!

Stay tuned!

Happy 8th Birthday Joshua!!!

I can't believe our sweet boy is already 8 years old. 

Time has simply flown by.

We're so grateful to have him in our lives. 

Joshua truly brings out the best in all of us. 

He is the sweetest boy you will ever meet. 

His example of kindness leaves us in awe, every time.

We look forward to many more years of learning from our little man.

Happy Birthday Son!

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A little glimpse...

The day finally came, and we got a little glimpse of our little dude.

Honestly the days simply dragged till the 23rd of February. It was complete torture for me and the kids.

On the morning of the big ultrasound, we were all in a frenzy. The hours just could not pass fast enough.

I don't know what I was thinking when I scheduled the appointment for 4 in the afternoon.

(Yes I do, I was trying to be a responsible parent, and avoid pulling the kids from school and so Dwight could get a full-ish day of work.)

WHAT WAS I THINKING!

Anyway.

Folks had been asking us if we have a preference, and we've always been diplomatic about it. 

"Yes, but it really doesn't matter... we already have one of each"

But really we all wanted a boy. 

Maybe with the exception of Bella. Some days she was all for a boy, other days she wished for a girl. 

Majority wins!!

She's fine about it.

The ultrasound room was a bit small, but we all squeezed in there and were intently looking at the screens like hawks.

After a little while, when the technician was finally checking out the lower parts, Dwight and I caught a glimpse of what we thought was a peepee, but then she moved away so fast, we weren't sure.

But for a brief second, I got a total rush thinking 

"OMG IT IS A BOY!!!!"

only to squash that feeling the very next second. 

I think i didn't want that feeling to linger only to be completely wrong if it had been a girl.

But as soon as the tech brought his little legs into view it was so obvious.

He was just chillin' with his legs wide open. 

WIDE OPEN.

There was no mistaking it. 

There was a hot dog with a side order of gumballs.

No hamburger this time.

We all let out a big WOO-HOO!!

 Peace!

'Till this day we're still in awe of this whole experience.

We've been so blessed to have children.

When we've planned for children.

And actually got what we wished for.

It's an incredible blessing that we do not take for granted.  We have so many friends that have been touched by infertility or OOPSies. We really count ourselves blessed beyond description.

And now that we know what we're having, we're moving on to names.

Joshua's name was a childhood favorite of mine, and Isabella, was just the perfect name for our little princess.

We're totally clueless with this kid.

Joshua thinks Michael is a good name. Naturally Bella thinks Jackson sounds better.

She thinks that naming the baby after our friend Jen's dog, or Percy Jackson, The lightning thief, would be a good idea.

Then of course to keep the peace she decided Michael Jackson Prouse was the perfect compromise. 

I DON'T THINK SO!!

We have some ideas, but they're not sticking.  I guess we'll have to wait until we see his little face to make a decision.

Only 145 more days to go... OY!

Joshua's 7th Birthday

If you were there, you know how crazy it all was!!

Joshua's birthday is of course in April, but we gave him a choice.

We could either have it in April, with just a few friends or we can wait until later in the summer when the pool is open and have a BASH!

He chose the latter.

Once school let out, everyone was so busy, including us, that we didn't have an opportunity to have the party until mid July.  By that time, we also knew that we would be moving, and so we decided to kind of combine a birthday/farewell party.

The pool party was scheduled, and the invitations delivered.

The kids COULD NOT wait.

I watched the forecast all week long and that Saturday looked like it would be a very hot day.  By weds, they were calling for some rain.  By Sat. morning, it was inevitable.

We didn't care, and decided to defy the odds. 

Mother nature won...

 ...Again

 No one really cared that it was POURING.  Even the parents.

This was only 5-10 minutes into the party, by the time most of the kids arrived, we had to take everything down and move to the apartment because it started thundering and lightning.

Prouses 0 Mother Nature 2

I didn't really expect the parents to stick around, but looking back I'm kinda glad. We had a TON of kids in our1600 sq ft. apartment. We had kids in every room.

The boys decided to hang out in the living room and play XBox and the girls went to Bella's room, where they had a party of their own.

 The parents and babies squeezed in where they could :)

  I had a few games planned, but because of the amount of kids and space we only ended up doing the contests.

Joshua has a TON of legos, so one of the contests was to create the most interesting lego minifig that they could come up with. I don't remember the categories now, but the kids were very creative, and Josh got to chose the winner. Also, we had a "guess the number of lego candy in the jar".
The kids loved it, everyone got to take their "creations" home.

The prize... More lego shaped candy.

We also had the traditional Pinata, which could've been a total disaster if not for the adults looking out for the kids' heads.

We sang Happy Birthday...

(This cake from costco was soooo good, there was nothing left by the end of the party.  Those two little pieces... I gobbled them up before another kid could get to it :)

Opened presents... (here are a few of my fav. presents.)

A super long hand-made wooden sword

 A fist full of pennies and some Pokemon cards

The essential, Dangerous Book for Boys.

After all the fun and chaos, I am glad to say that every kid that came, left happy and Joshua said it was his best birthday party ever.
Imagine if the pool would've worked out?!
At some point someone told me they counted something like 30 kids or kids and parents combined.  Probably just kids, because judging from the pictures, I counted about 25ish, but they were never all in the same room at the same time.


Yeah... I needed a few days to recover after that.