thanksgiving...a bit late

Well, I'm finally finding the time to update my blog about Thanksgiving! Sorry for the delay! We had a great time at the Tombrella's and the boys really loved playing with their cousins! Debbie, my mother-in-law, made an amazing spread of all the traditional foods...enough to feed an army, to-be-sure! I told her with all these boys I've got, she's going to have to teach me how to cook like that!...for an army, that is! ;) The highlight of the week was all the girls, compliments of my in-laws, had a night out on the town with dinner and the Houston Nutcracker Ballet!! What a great time we had! And all the daddies stayed behind to watch the boys and little Cate! Thank you, Debbie, for a funfilled memorable night! What a memory!
Now enjoy the pics!

Asher and his Grandma!

Chillin' at Grandma's after our big meal (which they hardly ate)!

Sweet Cousin Cate and Asher! Oh how she was taken with him! So cute!

Grandpa (after turkey?) (Sorry Robert!...I couldn't resist!)

I can't imagine where Rob gets his obsession w/ coffee...

All the girls before we headed out on the town!

At Birra Poretti's Italian restraunt...delicious!

Debbie up front with our carriage driver...Rachel treated us to a ride!

"The Michelle's" with beautiful grown up Faith!

The biggest gingerbread house I've ever seen!

Yummy!

Waiting for the show to begin...

Faith with Minnie Mouse (or so her autograph said...)

Oh, and remember my post on Dollar Store toys...

well here is one of the pictures of sad Sam with the pieces stuck on his finger.

potty training...part 2

You know in that children's book, Once Upon a Potty, when the little boy (or girl, depending on the version you have) poo-poos, but "not exactly in the potty"... Well, Joel understands that part better now!

He has officially entered the "Potty Training Zone", which in the Tombrella house, means you run around nakedy all day until you catch on. Joel had sat on the potty twice already, after showing obvious signs he needed to go. Nothing. Well, just a few minutes ago, I heard Sam and Joel talking in the hall about pooping in the potty and then Sam ran in to get me and said, "Come see Mommy, come see!" Well I thought, "Wow, in just one day we have poo-poo success?! It took Samuel weeks to achieve this!"

Well, no. We didn't quite have success. A lovely present was sitting on the bathroom floor. Joel knew he needed to go and he made it to the right room... progress or a definite leaning if you ask me! So the training continues!

I think the theme of my Christmas will be, "All I want for Christmas is my two sons in underwear, my two sons in underwear..."! he he! Happy Wednesday!

Picture Tagged...

I was tagged a few weeks ago by my friend Jeanna and I failed to respond...this time Diane "picture tagged" me and since it is easier to respond, I did. So here is my picture. Isn't he a cutie, even though he looks pretty serious! That face can still be found quite often on the countenance of my now nearly 4 year old Samuel! My how time flies!

So now it's my turn to tag. I tag Alicia, Jeanna, Kelly Ross, Erin Ball, and Lauren Sok...

tag you're it!

Go to your pictures, look in your 5th file folder, and post the 5th picture in it....have fun!

Thanksgiving happenings to come....!

A Warning About Dollar Store Toys...

Let me begin by saying I am sorry there are no pictures to show with this post...my camera or software is acting up and after 3 attempts, I gave up.
Anyways, back to the warning.
Two mornings ago, Samuel got off the couch while watching PBS and held up his finger to me and whined, "It's stuck!" What I saw was a small orange tube stuck on Samuel's pointer finger. I thought to myself, "No big deal. It's not REALLY stuck. I can get it off. Worse case, I'll lather it up with soap and it will surely come off."
I then asked him what it was and where it came from. He quickly informed me in his Samuel-sort-of-way, "Well, well, it's to my gum (translation: from my gun)."
After a moment of consideration, I realized it was the tip off of one of his dollar store guns (his and Joel's favorite place to go now).
So I calmly took his finger and tried to pull it off. Nothing. I then tried twisting it. Nothing.
Okay, no need to panic. Off to the bathroom sink. Water and soap applied. Pulled. Nothing. Twisted. Yes, it now would twist, but that was it. It was officially stuck on his knuckle.
Now he was crying and I was starting to panic a bit myself. How ridiculous I would look going into an ER w/ this situation.
"Call Rob! He'll know what to do!" I thought.
So call him I did. He offered to come home to try to solve the problem. In the meantime I calmed Sam down and tried to think of other ways to get it off.
My Pampered Chef all purpose scissors! Don't worry, I wasn't going to cut his finger off, though they will cut a metal can. They infact, won't cut you at all! So I slid them up the side of the tube and tried cutting it. It worked, but I couldn't get it to cut all the way to the top. Alas, it was still stuck.
Then Daddy arrived just in time to save the day, as now Samuel was starting to panic again.
Rob tried pliers to pull it off with. He then tried cutting it more. Still nothing. Then he headed to the bathroom for more soap.
Sadly, in the end, he simply had to resort to a good-old-fashioned tug. With Samuel screaming as he held him still between his legs, Rob pulled as hard as he could and off came the tube, with a bit of Sam's skin as well.
Once neosporin and a Spiderman bandaid was applied, all was right in the Tombrella home once again.

So, the moral to our story: beware of dollar store "treats". They can fall apart (and usually do within a day) and result in a crazy morning like this one. Sure glad it wasn't worse!

bunk beds, boxes, and boys...(and Asher too!)

Sam and Joel are officially 'big boys' now because they sleep in bunk beds (though we keep telling Joel he's not until he uses the potty and says goodbye to the diapers)! They love them and today they loved them even more because Mommy let them play with the boxes from the bunk beds! Oh what joy! I think I should add "...& Boxes" to the title of my blog after this post!
This afternoon I let them play in the boxes in the garage and they had a blast! After days like today I always ask myself why we spend money on toys?!
Another recent thing the boys have gotten into is taking pictures with our digital camera. So very glad it is digital and we can simply delete the crazy ones...though some are worth keeping! What did parents do before there were digital cameras? Waste a lot of money I guess. We are getting Sam a kid's digital camera for his birthday next month, so I'm sure I will post some more of his shots over time!
And I included some pics of Asher at the end because he is just too cute not to! Enjoy!

The beds that made this post possible! ha ha

Jumping on the old crib mattresses from their toddler beds...
another benefit of the bunk beds!

Joel's picture of Sam. pretty good.

Sam's picture of Joel. even better...though Joel's expression is weird!

Sam's picture of Mommy and Asher...not bad.

Our happy little guy!

(Mommy took this one.)

Asher is 2 months old!

I took Asher to the pediatrician for his 2 month well-baby check on Monday. He is doing very well and growing like a weed! He is weighing in now at 11 lbs. 3oz. and is 24 inches long! His weight is pretty average but his length is up there on the chart! Another tall boy in our midst it seems!
He is officially sleeping through the night now and turning into quite a happy baby! We feel so blessed to have him and his brothers seem to agree as well! :) He is cooing more and more and will smile at you a lot now! So very sweet! I'm definitely in love...again! ;)

Visitors and Halloween!

My Granny w/ all her grandsons!

The newest grandson w/ his great-grandma!

My MeMe w/ her 16th great grandchild!!! Wow!

Checking out an I Spy book w/ their Nana and MeMe!

Our little Pumpkin!

Too cute to only post one picture of him!

My sweet Asher!

Our timid little trick-or-treaters!

Checking out Cody's loot!

"Can we fix it?!"

"Ahoy Matey!"

Playing marbles w/ Pop...their FAVORITE passtime!

This week was very busy...my Granny stopped by on the way home to Houston from Oklahoma to meet our sweet little Asher, and then on Friday my parents came up and brought my MeMe to visit and meet Asher as well! They were sweet times with all of them and so great to see each one of them meet, hold, love on, and enjoy little Asher!

Halloween was fun this year...the boys were actually into it! Sam was a pirate and Joel decided on Bob the Builder at the last minute (he didn't like the fireman cosutme I bought, of course). Only 5 minutes into the night though, they weren't recognizable b/c they had shed most of their costumes (ie. Sam's eyepatch and hat and Joel's hardhat). We timed our trick-or-treating just right though and the boys ended up getting to go along with their little friend Cody, our neighbor, to ring the doorbells (he's the spiderman in the pics)! I think the boys just ended up having more fun running on the sidewalk with their friend in the dark, than actually doing the trick-or-treating! Ahhh, the joys of boys! :)

Date with Sam!

Last Thursday I took Samuel on a date! It was so cute how big and special he obviously felt as we headed out the door telling Daddy and Joel goodbye. He kept saying, "Sorry Bubba, you're not going. You have to stay here with Daddy. You can go next time." We had to remind him not to boast in his privilege and that next week he would be the one staying behind.
So off we went, listening to "He is Our King" by David Crowder all the way to Dunkin' Donuts! Mommy's all time favorite donut place (a new one just opened near us and I've been dying for an excuse to go...so much for shedding those baby pounds!)!
When we got there, as Sam was climbing out of the van, he told me "Thank you for dinner Mommy." It was so cute and yet I knew he was slightly overdoing it on purpose to show what a "good boy" he is! Once inside I lifted Sam up on the counter so he could see the selection of donuts and choose the one he wanted. After a couple of mind changes, he stuck on the strawberry iced glazed donut...yummy! Mommy got the apple n' spice goodness! :)
We sat down at a table for two and ate our delicious treats! I asked him what some of his favorite things were to do and asked him if he would like to go read books at the bookstore next!

Once our donuts were finished and Mommy had thoroughly burned her mouth on the hot coffee, we headed just across the street to a small, locally owned bookstore. Sam was so excited! We picked several books to read and then headed to the big cushy leather couch at the back of the store and got comfy! We read more than 10 books, I 'm sure, and had a sweet, undistracted time together! No baby to get in the way or hog Mommy's attention. I think Sam really enjoyed it and I hope Joel will too this week!

Life As We Now Know It...

Well, this is the third attempt at updating my blog...maybe today I can finally get it done! All three boys are sleeping, so I must hurry before one of them awakes!

We are finally all getting into some sort of routine and the boys are adjusting well to Asher! They are a bit more interested in him everyday...very sweet! Joel is the unofficial "pacifier giver" for Asher. Anytime Asher is crying, you can bet Joel is going to try to give him the pacifier, after putting his own dirty fingers all over it!...it's the thought that counts!

Sam and Joel are spending much of their days outside! They are loving it and Mommy is too! The weather has really been great and so they are having a blast and getting into all sorts of trouble when Mommy's not looking! (such as the dog's water bowl and mud) Overall it has been so neat to watch our little "Bubbas" become the best of buds since Asher arrived! They really play well together and have leaned on each other during this transition time...a true evidence of God's grace!

Asher is figuring out life...slowly. He eats well, sleeps pretty well, but doesn't "play" very well yet at all! The few moments of contentment he has are treasured by us all and we anticipate more of them as Asher gets older! He's already 5 weeks...hard to believe! But what a cutie and joy he is!

Well, I hope you enjoy the pics of our daily life and please forgive me for taking so long to update you...I will TRY to do better!

"Working" on their laptops!



More "working like Daddy"!

Sam's masterpiece tower!

"Ta-da!"

The new look!

Freshly painted toes...at last!

Welcome Asher!

Asher means "happy" and we chose this name for a couple of reasons. Not only has his birth made us happy but we desire him to know the God who created happiness, and allows us to experience the fullness of his joy through a relationship with Christ.

Here are some pictures of our new baby boy--along with pictures of Sam and Joel meeting him for the first time. It has been a wonderful day for everyone. Michelle is doing great, and Rob is getting ready for his "steak and lobster" dinner they give as your last dinner with the hospital. Blessings all mine and ten thousand beside.