love letters to my babies

Dear Malachi,

Being your mom has been the biggest blessing in my life. God had a plan when he brought you to me. I call you "the eternal optimist" because for you, the glass is never half-empty. Your inventions and creations amaze me. Your sense of humor always makes me laugh... even when you don't get the idea of a "punch line". You are such a kind and caring brother to Lucas and I love watching the two of you together. I hope you two always take care of each other. I often wonder if I am smart enough to be the mom of such a gifted child. All the times I crammed for tests and didn't really "learn" things will be coming back to bite me as you grow up. When you were a baby, I used to sing "You light up my life"; and I guess that sums it up. Thank you for loving me so incredibly much and for being such a kind-hearted boy.

All my love,

Mama


Dear Lucas,

Today I woke you up and took you out at 6am to shop and you were in a good mood. Then you played with Grammy while I worked and although you were exhausted, you were still in a great mood. When I came to get you around 1:00 in the afternoon, after missing your first morning nap on top of getting up three hours early, you were still all smiles. You are my sweet, happy, cuddly little man. Not only are you happy, but your happiness is contagious. Everyone around you can't help but smile when they see your handsome little face. I am so blessed to have you as my son. I can't wait until you can tell me all of your hopes and dreams and share with me all of the facets of your personality. I can't imagine life without you. I love watching how much joy you bring to Malachi and your daddy as well. I prayed and prayed that someday I would have you, and I am so incredibly thankful that you are here with us. You have been such a blessing in our lives. The song I sing to you is "You're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes off of you". I love you baby boy!


All my love,

Mama

Vacation in my living room

I took a much needed break from work and have been vacationing in my living room for about ten days. Luke and I have gotten to play (and nurse) to our little hearts content. For about half of the time, I've had our other kiddo's... this visit has been soooooo bittersweet. It is wonderful to see them, but I am really upset about them moving to Cali. I know it is for the best in my head, but in my heart, it hurts. I am really attached. I find myself saying yes to everything just because I know I probably won't get a chance again. We went to JumpALot (a fav around here) and Triple Play. They had lots of fun. More than anything, I think it will be hard on Kai to lose them and on them to lose Kai. Ok... time to change the subject.

Luke: Needs a haircut
Loves to: shake his head "no" over and over (and want you to do it to until you're dizzy)
Dance Dance Dance, anytime he hears a beat
say "brrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" while playing with cars
play the "where's mama", "where's Lukey" game. For some reason, we can never find daddy.
blow kisses
try to play with the big kids
play with Chad's ears
take one to two steps before giving up and crawling at mach 5

Kai: got a haircut and looks like the guy from Dumb and Dumber (untalented mom + clippers = bad, bad haircuts)
is doing a report on Paul Revere in school and is going to dress up like him. (love ordering costumes a week after Halloween, so cheap!)
started Cub Scouts and is doing his first "go see it" at the Firestation on Friday
thinks everything is up for debate...
knows more about dinosaurs, planets, sharks, bugs, and volcanoes than anyone I know.

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday for Halloween we went to a parade at Malachi's school. Malachi strutted around the gym with his fake muscle chest puffed out like I've never seen before. It was really cute.

Luke waiting to see big brother...

Looking cute in his froggy costume




It was hard to get a good pic of Kai, he's kind of in the background.

Ah, there's superman!

After school we took the boys trick or treating downtown because all the businesses have candy for kids from 4-6. It was a lot of fun and neat to see all the adorable costumes.

Lukey and Grammy

Malachi, cousin Grayson the lion and friend Tyler the pirate

Artificial sugar high!

It's a bird... it's a plane...

It's SUPERMAN!!


Luke has a cold, so after we went downtown, we went over to Nana and Papa's house for a couple hours and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's. It wasn't that cold, but I didn't want to take Luke out much. We planned to go to the harvest festival at a local church, but we decided to just take it easy. Today I think we're going to head to Greenbluff to get some frozen apple pies for G-Pa.

Fall pictures and a trip to Greenbluff

Here are a few recent pictures, it's been a gorgeous fall so far. The first few are from Greenbluff when we went to pick apples and pumpkins. It was so much fun!

Malachi after he picked his first apple...

Goofy faces are his specialty

Luke and cousin Collin

Big boy Luke

Trying to get a good one of the boys together... to no avail.

Fall pics in the yard...

Of course, the best smile he's looking away...

Kai's a climber for sure


The best one we got together...

Happy One Year Lucas Joseph Quade!

Writing that just made my eyes tear up. I can't believe my baby is one. It is bittersweet. I love all the new things that I know are coming, but I am sad to lose my "baby". Kai knows that he will always be my baby, and hopefully Luke will too. I love you beautiful boy! You are truly a gift from God and I thank Him every day for you!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Rock-a-bye-big boy

I've always loved rocking babies... and since Kai was my only child for over five years, I've never really stopped rocking him. It definitely doesn't happen as often as it used to, but every once in awhile, my big boy needs to be rocked. Tonight, he was especially difficult for Chad and they kept butting heads, and Kai was being a total pain. Chad and I gave him some consequences, one of which was no dessert for the weekend (we've never used this one, but apparently it works wonders, so we'll be using it again). Kai was so upset, I stayed in his room for awhile and rubbed his head and talked to him...I asked him if I could rock him and he enthusiastically obliged. As I rocked him, I asked him if he had any idea how much I loved him. He said no. Then he said "Mama, I love you 1000 hours plus 1000 days plus 1000 miles plus 1000 minutes, to the moon and back and back again."

I. almost. cried.

That's my boy.

Luke's Birthday Party and a new job for me

So we celebrated Luke's birthday today and had a little party. My parents will be out of town on his actual birthday for my brother Naaman's wedding in New York. Luke had tons of fun at his party, considering he only took a 40 minute nap all day. Since I am a blogger-idiot, they are out of sequence, but you get the idea...
His Cake:

hating his crown

the dairy-free smash cake

his new firetruck

that's some good cake!


A pre-party bath

I love this one!

Little Prince turning one!


Grammy and the boys (Luke, Collin, Malachi, and Grayson)


In other family news, I took an Assistant Manager position with my bank this week. Although I am sad to be away from my boys an extra day a week, I am glad to have a different set of challenges ahead of me.