Happy 4th Birthday Vincent!!

Today is Vincent's 4th birthday! He had a bit of a rough start, and at this time 4 yrs ago was still intubated. Here he is at 3 days old:

Here are some things about Vincent:

-My family tells me he looks alot like me. I have seen pictures of myself as a young child and definitely see the resemblence!
-He knew his alphabet before he turned 2
- He loves to wrestle and is constantly jumping on and tackling his brothers (much to their annoyance)
-He loves to sing and can actually carry a tune (unlike Pete and I). He will sing anything from kids songs to Maroon 5 to Hannah Montana.


-He also loves to dance! He seems to get his style from Elaine on "Seinfeld"
-He talks non-stop. He talks in long, complex sentences, sometimes about nothing. Peter and I are already anticipating many calls from school in a few years.
-He likes to give hugs and snuggles.
- Like his brothers, he has ridiculously long, thick eyelashes. When we are out and about I always here comments from people about his eyes.
-He makes us all laugh on a daily basis with his silliness

Happy Birthday Vincent! We love you!

I ran nine and felt fine!

Well, not exactly fine. But "I ran nine and felt like I was going to throw up" did not rhyme. I chose a relatively flat route and the rain had actually stopped, so I figured it would be an easy run. Last weeks 8 mile run had 2 big hills in it and that was a breeze! Well, the rain was gone but the wind was horrible! I had a bad head wind for the first 4.5 miles. I felt like I was running uphill the entire time! The wind was so bad it kept catching my cap and blowing it off. Thankfully I had the tail wind going back, but by then I was completely wiped out. I made it though and ran the entire way. Yay! My plan is to do an 8-10 mile run every weekend (along with my normal weekday workout and runs) until June. Then I will start a marathon training schedule for the half marathon in August and marathon in October.

Farewell to our fertility

Peter had his vasectomy today. This is really the end of an era for us. I was anxiously awaiting this day with both excitement and sadness. The last 9 years have easily been the best of my life. I have loved being pregnant (well, except the throwing up!) and giving birth. I have loved holding and nursing my babies. Our 4 boys make us laugh and bring us joy on a daily basis. It saddens me to think I well never experience having a newborn again. On the flip side, it is exciting to think about leaving diaper bags and sleepless nights behind! To be able to go to a restaurant without having to check if they have chicken nuggets on the menu. Heck, to be able to even go to a restaurant without screaming and food throwing!

Peter, waiting for his big moment!
Here goes!!

The coolest part of the whole thing was that I got to watch it. I figured Pete watched 4 babies coming out of my private parts, I wanted to watch his get a little action! The doc used this needleless jet injector to numb him up. He made a tiny slit in the scotum, then pulled out the vas deferens (this is where the sperm comes through). It looked just like a piece of spaghetti. He snipped out a small section, then cauterized the end. He pushed it back in and closed the slit. Voila! I almost feel like I could do one now!

Thank you Peter for the most incredible family one could ever hope for! I am looking forward to seeing what the next era brings for us!

Off with their heads!

We have a budding thespian in our house! On his own, Zach decided to stay after school one day and try out for the school play, Alice in Wonderland. It pretty much came out of nowhere. He saw that they were having try-outs, thought it would be fun to try something different, so did it! I am so proud of him. He is such a cool kid and always so interested in learning and experiencing new things. Personally, I would rather get a root canal then perform in front of people, but not Zach! Thankfully rehersals are on Thursday, which means he now has karate on Mon, church (CCD) on Tues, karate on Wed, play on Thurs, karate on Fri. Baseball will be starting soon which will take the weekends and replace one of the karate days. Yikes! He is pictured below holding his script. He is playing the 4 and 7 of clubs. I am anxiously awaiting the notice telling me I now have to make a costume!

Way to go Zach!

I ran 8 and felt great!

I ran 8 miles this morning!! It was 6:45 this morning and still dark. The temperature gauge said 30 degrees! I bundled up and off I went. I really did feel great! I finished strong and felt like I could easily have kept going. My time was 1 hour and 15 minutes. Not fast, but respectable. I normally only run between 4 and 6 miles, so this was a good jump for me. Peter and I are hoping to run the New York half-marathon in August this year. It is by lottery only, so we may not have the opportunity. The other event I have been considering the last couple of weeks, and have mentally committed to, is a marathon. I have never done one before and would love to. I am turning 39 this year, so this is my last chance to run one while still in "my 30's"! I am signing up for the San Francisco womens marathon in October! There, I said it, now I have to do it!

My beary special guy!

Joey is "beary special person" this week in school. He gets to be line leader all week, among other things. Today he had a little "interview" in front of the class, and I read a letter to the class about all the wonderful things about him. We brought in pictures and made a little bulletin board for him. It was so fun to be there and participate. I just love kindergarten!

Joey with Mrs. Jung interviewing him
Reading Joey's letter

Dinnertime conversation

This is the conversation at our dinner table tonight.

Joey to Vincent: "Boys should only play with boys and girls play with girls"

Me: "But Joey, you play with Emma. Vincent, you should play with Elissa. You said she was your friend"

Pete to Zachary: " Do you play with any girls at school?"

Zach: "No, never."

Joey to Zach: "You should get a girlfriend so you can make-out."

Me after picking my jaw off the floor: "Uh, Joey. What does make-out with someone mean?"

Joey: "It means you're married."

I think we need to start censoring High School Musical II around here!

We have discovered ketchup!!

I think the picture says it all!

Storm Watch 2008

That is the big story around here. Supposedly the worst storm we have had in a few years. Of course I was bound and determined to go for my run this morning. I figured there would be someone else out there running, but nope, just me. Things didn't seem so bad the first half of my run. I even ran into a group of 7 deer on the trail. Then I turned around to head home and realized I had been enjoying a nice tail wind. Huge gusts of wind were pushing me back and whipping sheets of rain into my face. I was dripping when I got home. I tried to get a picture, but our camera battery was dead. We then decided to take the boys to the movies today. Ten minutes before the movie ended, the theater blacked out, along with half the mall. So far we have electricity, but another storm is heading in tomorrow, so who knows!