Bad parenting 101

I thought I'd share the bad parenting mistake we made this week. We had gone to the library for story time (good parent) and while I was there I thought I'd check out some movies (ummmm, movies from the library not books. Ok parent - let that one slide.) I saw "Where the Red Fern Grows" and thought to myself, "Oh, I saw that when I was a kid. I'll bet the kids will love it." (Parenting starts to slide...) We get home and Dee says, "I loved that show when I was a kid" and puts it in. Two hours later we have three SOBBING children. I'm talking SOBBING with the hiccup at the end of the cry sob. (Enter bad parents. What were we thinking?! We're a total dog family!) I knew we were in trouble when we get to the part when Little Anne lays down on Ol' Dan's grave and is about to die (sorry if you haven't seen it) and McKenna is sniffling and says, "Oh she's going to have babies!" because she's a total optimist and knew her parents wouldn't let her watch anything where both dogs die and the movie ends. Well they cried for a good hour after the show and for days after Ellie (who is 4) would randomly say, "I didn't like when that dog died" and hiccup/sniffle then hug our dog Pete.

Well, the good news is Carter has made it to the 4 week mark. (Good parent. We'll go back to the basics before the need for a therapist. Eat, sleep, clean diapers)
Here's some pictures!

Tagged: Memories

This sounded like fun, (maybe a little dangerous) so I thought I'd try it out. If you know my husband too, feel free to leave memories of him too! :)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses!

I also thought I'd post a picture of Dee with a ponytail. It was a lost bet from his soccer girls (they were 8 & 9). If they won the first game of the tournament, he'd wear the ponytail, if they won the next one he'd wear pink socks. I'd also like to throw in the weather was 114 that day. Between the games they went and jumped in the Sacramento river. I do love the picture. What a guy!

Bringing Up Baby

So Carter is already 2 1/2 weeks old. I realize that doesn't sound like much time but he's already changing and growing too fast. Being the last of the Nor. Cal. Treadways, I'd like time to switch into slow motion to truly enjoy it all before this "new baby" time is a memory.
Maybe that is why we get midnight (and 3AM) feedings, to spend a little less time wasted on that blasted sleep and more time just gazing at the baby. Yeah, right. Maybe I should just pull out the video camera more and then I can say, "remember when..."

Welcome Baby Carter!

Carter Lee arrived July 3rd weighing in at 8 lbs 15 oz, 21 inches long. That was a bit of a shock to his parents (especially mom) since our biggest before him was 7 lbs. He was in NICU for a while with blood sugar regulation issues but quickly overcame and got to come home on time. Since then he's done fantastic with being loved by his siblings (mauled?) and was able to meet additional family who came up over the 4th. Big thanks to Granny and Grandpa Powell who have survived the fires and 116 heat to take care of Carter's parents!

Here are a couple of pictures and I know there will be lots more to follow when I've got more oomph!

Fun in the Sun

First off, no baby yet. 3 weeks to go and counting! Here's a picture for your belly-viewing pleasure.

Summer kicked off with a bang. The most exciting thing so far is our new dough-boy pool. It is our sanity so far and is so awesome to just go in the back yard and hop in when it's 100 degrees outside. The kids are getting to be great little tan swimmers.


We've been to the Strawberry Festival in Happy Valley (yes, the town is really called Happy Valley), to the coast this week where we froze (from 100 degrees to 56 is quite a shock to the system) but it was beautiful. Now we're just waiting for Junior to arrive to take the next step of this summer!

Ty's Birthday

As you can tell all my babies (until now) are spring babies. They all have birthdays within weeks of each other which makes it fun but also a little crazy!

Tyler's 7th birthday was the end of May. He also got a "family party" because it's an odd year for him. He chose to go mini-golfing for the first time. We were fortunate to have great weather over Memorial Day so we went then. Again the techniques to get the ball to the hole were interesting and pretty funny. The older two were pretty good and Ellie had the hack it to the hole approach.

It was an optimistic game, even if it was pretty high scoring. Tyler would often shout "I got a hole in 6!" and Ellie jumped up and down cheering no matter how many strokes it took. I think golfing is too quiet a game for our family but we sure had a good time then!

Ty had a great birthday and I can't believe he's 7!

Ellie's Birthday/Mother's Day

Ellie's 4th birthday came and went. She got a party this year and wanted a "Dora party." There was a bunch of 4 year olds and we did a lot of free play (they loved chasing McKenna around), pin the boots on Boots and a pinata (no injuries, thank you very much...) and of course cake, ice cream and presents. She had a great time which is what we wanted most of all!

For Mother's Day my wonderful husband surprised me with flying my mom out for a visit. I've been homesick not to mention very pregnant. She was able to come out for four days and was able to be here for two baseball games, a soccer game, Ellie's party, Mother's Day and great weather on top of it. It was just what I needed and we had a great time. Even after (almost) 12 years of marriage he still surprises me!