The "Naughty Spot" and Why I Dress My Boys Alike...

....No, the two are not related! Well, yet anyway. But, the Naughty Spot (aka Time Out) has been somewhat effective for Patrick. If I tell him to go there he will sit at the bottom of the stairs, wait until I tell him he can leave and then go apologize for hitting, pushing, yelling, etc...However, this is not the case for Marshall. I'm hoping maybe he's just a little too young, but I have a strong feeling it's just his personality! Last night at dinner he was beating Graham over the head with his silverware. I told him to stop several times and then threatening the Naughty Spot. Well, he did it again so off the the bottom of the stairs he went!!! He sat at the bottom of the stairs laughing hysterically at me. It was infuriating! He would get up every few seconds and look for me and smile and laugh once I told him to go back. I think I may know why some people just beat their kids instead of wasting time the the whole Time Out thing! Oh well. I'll keep trying.

Now, on to why I dress my boys alike. People ALWAYS ask me this! First, it is much easier to spot my boys in a group of children when they are dressed alike. I just look for three of the same outfit! Second, I have to admit I think it's cute :) I don't get to by nice little dresses, so I have fun making them match and letting them have the cool "messy" gelled hair look on occasion. And lastly, they expect it now. Last night I had one set of pj's with cars and one set with footballs. As I started to dress Marshall, Patrick flipped out saying he wanted the car pj's. Then, Marshall went crazy b/c he wanted to keep the car pj's. So, I ended up appeasing them both by letting one wear the car top and football bottoms and vice versa. Problem solved, sort of. They still bickered for a short while over wanting the other's top or bottoms. And, this morning we had the same issue. I got out polos that were similar, just different colors, and they went crazy because they both just HAD to wear the yellow one!! UGGHHH....I can't win. And, I hate to spend a ton of money on multiple clothes of the same size now that Patrick and Marshall can both wear a 3T. I figure it will just get more interesting as time goes by, espeically when Graham decides he wants to be choosy about his clothes, too!

Adventures in Bathing

Last night we had an interesting bath tub experience. Natalie (our sitter) was giving the three boys a bath while I put away laundry and talked to my dear friend in Japan, Dulce, on the phone and Robert was grilling out burgers. All of the sudden Natalie calls for me saying that "we have a problem." I come in the bathroom to discover that Marshall has pooped in the tub. YUCK! It was not a nice floaty one, either. So, while she is trying to diaper 'poopenstein' and I am wondering what to do about the poop, Patrick keeps lifting up the toilet lid and I keep telling him to stay out of the potty. Finally, I look over to see that Patrick has lifted the lid to the toilet and is actually peeing in the potty while Graham is playing in the stream of pee. Wonderful. But, at least Patrick took the initiative to pee in the potty, right?! So, I got everyone disinfected and ended up soaking the bathtub in bleach overnite. It looks pretty shiny and clean today :) I have also been informed by several moms that once your child gets that nice, warm, relaxed sensation of pooping in the tub, it is likely to happen again. I really hope not!!!

And, not only did the boys end the day with a small disater, they decided to start today with another! As in a previous post, I do trust them too much, I know this. This morning I walked upstairs to get clothes for all three and came down to an erie kind of quiet. You other moms know what I'm talking about. That oh-no-what-did-they-do kind of quiet!! Well, they had gotten in my gym bag, removed my make-up bag and were in the corner of the playroom with the french door shut pouring out all of my liquid foundation on the berber carpet. It is not cleaning up so well, either. But, I tell myself that these are the crazy days I will miss when they all go off to college. Maybe I'll miss them, I'm not totally convinced yet! I figure the H-E-double hockey stick they put you through in high school will make me more than happy to drop them off at college their freshmean year! :)

Note: the picture of little Grammy in the tub is courtesy of Tricia Hackney with Get the Picture Photography. She did my maternity photos and is doing Graham's first year photos. LOVE her!! So fun to work with and my pics turn out super cute. Check her out www.triciahackney.com :)

Has it been THAT long?????

Today is our five year wedding anniversary!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!!! It's been an amazing five years. We got engaged in October 2003, married on April 24, 2004, bought our house in July 2004, moved to Cincinnati in August 2004, welcomed baby Patrick on 08/01/06, welcomed baby Marshall on 07/02/07 and welcomed baby Graham on 08/11/08. Wow!!! We've been a busy couple! It has been five years, but it still kind of seems like just yesterday. We have had great times, less than great times and absolutely amazing times, too. I truly look forward to many, many, many more "milestone" anniversaries with my amazing husband. We are such a blessed family and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us!

We just got engaged! Robert got down on one knee and proposed on the rooftop of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. I was so surprised and excited that he had to remind me to actually look at the ring!

On our honeymoon in Aruba. Such a wonderful, much needed vacation!

After our wedding ceremony in the bride and groom room of the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. Such a fun night!!!! We were so blessed to be able to be married in front of 300+ of our greatest friends and family! This is the only digital picture of that night I could find on my computer. The camera this was taken with is long past its prime!

Alms Park

Today we went to Alms Park and had so much fun!! Thanks, Jen, for the wonderful idea. We had two friends, Heather and Ana, come with us. We had a little picnic overlooking Lunken Airport and even got to see a few planes take off!! It is such a gorgeous park. Cincinnati does a great job of maintaining a lot of beautiful public parks! There was a playground and even an old concrete slide that was built in the side of a hill. I know this sounds a little wierd, but it was pretty cool! The kids all had a blast going down the slide. Here are a bunch of pics from our little Friday adventure- Enjoy :)

Run, Heather, Run!!!!

Patrick just loves Heather. If you ask him if she is his friend he says, "No, Momma. Heather not my friend, I LIKE Heather!"

Patrick kicking the soccer ball.

They found the water!

Marshy in the tall grass. He was a little unsure of the grass that came up to his little waist!

Smile, Patrick! You can see Lunken Airport in the background.

Graham checking out the dandilions (spelling??)

All four kids running off some energy!

Sweet Heather :)

Sweet Ana :)

We had such a fun Friday! We will definitely be returning to Alms Park sometime soon. It was next to impossible to get the boys back to the car! I have a feeling that next time they will be happy to just go down the fun slide over and over again- it was a BIG hit! Have a great weekend!

Easter Part II

Easter weekend was quite busy in the Carraway house. MiMi flew in from Memphis Friday night and we were all so kind as to share a stomach bug with her!!! Saturday morning started off just great. The boys loved playing with MiMi while I went on my long run with my training group. However, it all quickly changed. Robert was not feeling well in the morning, but I figured he'd shake it off and be fine. So, once the big boys were down for a nap my mom and I headed for the mall. Half way through our trip we got a call from Robert saying we needed to come home. QUICKLY. He said, "There's a puke fest going on here!" Of course, I though he was over reacting, but we headed home anyway. And, he was not over reacting. It was BAD. So, we spent the rest of the weekend passing the stomach bug to eachother. We missed church on Sunday, but the Easter bunny did come and we did get out in the afternoon to dye eggs. The boys had so much fun, despite only being partially recovered from their illness. By Monday we were all well, but poor MiMi was not. She had to fly back to Memphis feeling a little under the weather. But, we loved having her here and we promise to not make her sick on her next visit!!! :)

In the driveway dying eggs.

Patrick is a pro!

Green hands!!! I picked Patrick up from school on the Wednesday before Easter to discover he was GREEN! But, they said he had a blast dying eggs with his friends at school :)

Easter Part I

The Saturday before Easter we went to the Easter Egg Hunt at our church. So much fun!!! The boys had a blast. It was interesting to see the difference in hunting approaches. Patrick found an egg, opened it to see what was inside, and then ate the candy before moving on to finding another egg. Marshall, however, quickly figured out that each egg had candy inside and went around like mad putting as many eggs as he could find in his basket. Afterwards, he would not part with his basket full of eggs!!! Patrick found quite a bit fewer eggs than Marshy (probably due to his approach in hunting!) and decided to "borrow" eggs from his brother. This did not go over well. But, we all had a great time! Graham got to play with eggs his brothers found and the big boys enjoying coloring with Daddy.

Momma and Her Babies at the Easter Egg Hunt

Patrick is checking out Marshall's basket to see if there's anything worth taking!

Grammy loved chewing on his eggs!

Coloring with Daddy. Robert looks pretty serious about his coloring!!

More Catching Up....

I must admit, I probably trust my boys too much. I tend to leave them upstairs for brief periods of time (we're talking like less than 2 minutes!) to go brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, change over laundry, etc. This is what I happened upon the last time I left them all alone in the playroom.

They tore apart the couch!! My dear old couch from my very first apartment that has been "retired" to the boys' playroom. Notice Marshall is in mid-dive off the couch. And, Patrick has on numerous Cars pull-ups! Grammy is getting in on the action,too!

Patrick was all too happy to model all of his diapers he had put on. A total of six.

Marshy had managed to get one on over his pj's. He was also very proud to model!

Later the same evening. I finally managed to get the other two in their pj's. And, Graham is standing up!!! He started crawling at 6 1/2mo. and now, at 8mo., he can pull up, curise and even take a couple of unassisted steps. GO GRAHAM!!!! For those of you who say he's "advanced"- I truly believe his mobility is purely a survival mechanism. I mean, who wants to always be a few steps (or crawls!) behing their brothers?? And, he's got to be able to get away from them when they are chasing/beating/tormenting/etc.

Heart Mini-Marathon

Sunday, March 29, I ran in the Cincinnati Heart Mini-Marathon, a 15K or 9.3 miles to be exact! It was a miserable day. Cold (40 degrees), super windy and very rainy. However, I was very happy with my 8min44sec/mile pace and it was a great motivator for They Flying Pig Marathon! My boys stayed at home with daddy, but they were waiting at the front door when I came home.

Marshy is training to run in an big race, too!!

Patrick loves to wear my race medal. He says, "It MY running medal, momma!"

Notice the bloody nose Graham has?! When I walked in the door the house smelled like poop (Marshall had a dirty diaper), the boys were starving for lunch and Graham had a bloody nose!! Robert just stood there, a little dazed, and said they were hungry and that Graham had fallen and hurt his nose. No mention of the poop smell. Oh well, they all survived, right?!

Some Catching Up....

Okay, I've been pretty bad about updating lately, but I'm going to get better- I promise!!! What we've been up to, or should I say how we pass our days!!

The Water and Sand Table

Not a good idea. I made one half water and the other half sand thinking my boys would play like they were "supposed" to. They did not. It quickly turned into a mud table. They were filthy!!! Graham ate handfuls of mud and the big boys dumped handfuls of mud on eachother's heads. Lovely. The afternoon ended with each of them being stripped down in the back step and taken up for an immediate bath. The water/sand table will now just be either a water table or a sand table. Not both. Duh, Mommy....

The Future of Procter and Gamble Finance and Accounting- We Should ALL Be Worried!!!!

Patrick and Marshall had decided that they just LOVE to wear Robert's work t-shirts after bathtime. It is so funny!! They can barely walk in them b/c they are so big. But, nothing makes them happier to wear daddy's t-shirts.




Watch Out, Betty Crocker!!! The Carraway Boys are Little Bakers! GUILTY- of licking the bowl!


We passed the months of January and February by baking- A LOT!! Patrick and Marshall had soooo much fun. Browines are their favorite goodie to bake. They pour in the water, oil and even help crack the eggs!! And, yes, I let them lick the bowl. And, yes, I know that the batter contains raw eggs. But, who does not have fond childhood memories of getting to lick the batter bowl after baking with their mom???


Look at my boys stirring up that yummy brownie batter!

Figures of Speech

Last Friday was haircut day (or hairbrush day as Patrick calls it) for the Carraway boys...well, just Patrick and Marshall. Graham is still a little on the bald side!! But anyway, we were a little pressed for time so I gave the boys chicken nuggets to eat in the car on the way to Kids Kuts. Bad idea!!! I was chatting on the phone on the drive there and the conversation went as follows:

Mommy: "I am going to KILL patrick!!" (as I am getting out of the car thinking none of the boys can hear me!) "He just crumbled all of his nuggets all over the car!"

Patrick: "Momma, no kill Patrick!!! No kill Patrick, Momma puuulllleeezzzeeee!!!"

Mommy: "Oh, Patrick, I am so sorry. Mommy would NEVER do that! It's just a figure of speech."

Oh boy!!! Needless to say I felt terrible. I am now guessing that in the middle of Target, or some other populated place, Patrick will feel the need to scream at the top of his lungs, "No kill Patrick, Momma!" Of course, followed by, "Stay out my pants, Momma!" That is his favorite phrase to say when I am checking for stinky diapers. Oh well. Lessoned learned. Guess we still need to work on that New Year's resolution to watch what we say around the boys!