still outnumbered

a friend of ours recently posted on facebook about a pup looking for a home. apparently, his previous owners didn't care enough for him to bring him with them when they moved, so they left him in the backyard. so sad. and being that i'm a sucker for sob stories, long story made short, the pup ended up at our house. 

rumor was that his name was "baby". well, that just wasn't going to fly with me, so i let the boys choose a new name. let me introduce you to "sensei wu". now, if you know anything about my boys and their obsession with ninjago, this would make complete sense.

sensei and our dog, cooper, hit it off right away.  

i think cooper is more than happy to have a four-legged friend in the house. 

so as you can see, i am still outnumbered. even the dogs are all boys. sigh. 

i told liam (far right) that it was ok because i would always be the princess.

and he said, "no, mommy. you're the queen!"

i love that boy.

sensei is constantly at my heels. everywhere i go, he follows. 

we found ourselves buying him a new harness, leash, puppy food, and are shopping for a tag. but we still can't say for certain that we will keep him. it just feels like A LOT of work. and oh, the noise. as if four boys running around wasn't noisy enough, add the two dogs into the mix, and it sounds like there's a stampede running back and forth upstairs. 

but when i catch moments like this one, it feels like he belongs with us.

hangin' out

We spent some time at the park yesterday and I was happy to get some pictures of my crazy kids. No more babies here...playtime yesterday proved it. 

Here's my "baby" ready to hit the monkey bars. 

He grabbed onto the first bar all by himself and he is actually hanging by his own strength here. It kind of looks like his feet are on the platform from the angle...but they're not. When did this happen? And I was slightly worried but, obviously, not worried enough since I decided to snap a picture instead of helping him. Mother of the Year. Yep. But you knew that already.

Liam could barely fit into the swing. I practically had to butter him to get him out of it when he was done.

And Daredevil Mikey over here...jumping off of a four-foot-high ledge. Fabulous. I'm happy to report there were no broken ankles or other injuries sustained. That's all that matters, right?

Now, this. This moment was my favorite of all.

A little history...from when Liam was about 10-months-old to 3 years, I have very few pictures of him because he refused to sit still for a camera. He didn't just not sit still, he would burst into a fit of stubborn frustration no matter where we were. 

Let me tell you, it's strange, yet relieving and exciting to see how things have changed in just a short year. I tried to go all ninja on him and snap a picture as he came down the slide, mostly because I didn't think he'd let me take one of him if I asked. But when he heard me snap the picture, he said, "NO, MOM! Let's do that again. I wasn't ready!" and proceeded to go back up the slide and slide down again. Then he stopped himself at that very spot, threw his arm over the side of the slide, positioned himself in a pose that he deemed acceptable and said, "Take it like this, Mom. This is a good one." Followed by, "Now, post it on Facebook, ok?" Oh, how that last request killed me. I about passed out from joy right then and there, but I didn't want to get tan bark in my hair.

This last picture, my friends, is just for the Mister. He hates this cheesy heart-y overlay so, of course, I had to take a pic of us...and use the overlay. Duh. And then post it on Instagram and blog about. Double Duh. What kind of wife would I be if I didn't? Love ya, Babe!