Flanagan Clan

Today the boys all proved to me that they’re growing up.

Ethan, who has been a very cautious and slow-to-take-off walker, has been making real strides the past few days. He can walk across the room now, and can pull himself up on his feet all by himself. He also can stand for several minutes without holding onto anything. Tonight I told the boys it was time for bed, and Ethan, who was holding onto the table, looked me straight in the eyes, turned around, and took off as fast as he could walking in the other direction. Unfortunately, he ran into the couch and fell down, but it was the funniest thing!

Sammy couldn’t keep his diaper on today. Most of the day he spent running around the house naked because just as soon as I would get a diaper on him, he would decide he had to go to the bathroom and would take it off! I tried doing pull ups on him yesterday with very little success. He wore them for a little bit and he must have hated how they felt on his cloth diapered bum, because he started crying and trying to pull it off, meanwhile grabbing a nice soft Goodmama and begging me to put it on him. We’re going to have to wean him off soft diapers. I am definitely thinking that we’ll have him potty trained by September, though, just in time to enroll him in preschool with Patrick. That’s exciting!!!

Patrick’s language and thinking skills have grown in leaps and bounds this past year, and I think a part of it has to do with the preschool we’re sending him to. He’s processing information in that little head of his, and he comes up with new ideas and thoughts all the time! I was making cupcakes with him this evening because he had been asking for them for a couple days now, and as I was pouring batter into the little cups, he started spelling his name out loud, which he can now do perfectly. Once he had spelled it out, he informed me that Patrick is a very good name. He then asked me if I knew any bad names. I asked him to tell me a bad name. He immediately said, “Death is a bad name. Death is very bad. It makes people sad”, or something to that effect. It was just soooo funny. I wanted to make sure I had heard him right the first time, so I ended up asking him again just to make sure he really said what I thought he did!

So, that’s just a little taste of the cuteness that I was able to witness today… my boys are growing up, faster than I could ever imagine!

Last night I managed to figure out all my Washington State Business taxes. I had spent a couple nights before compiling a list of all my sales, so I could know what my gross sales were. Last night I had all the info and slowly and cautiously started plugging my info in.  Somehow I managed to figure everything out, without having to call the hotline for help, despite how confusing everything appeared at first glance! Thanks to a Small Business tax credit, I didn’t have to pay any business and occupation taxes, but I did have to pay sales tax on a few sales I had within the state, and…. USE TAX! The sales tax was I think $10.13 total that I owed, but the use tax? Let’s just say that buying embroidery machines in Oregon does not pay, because you end up having to pay sales tax anyway. Lesson learned and this morning I’m feeling an overwhelming sense of relief that these taxes, which I have been dreading for a full month now, are e-filed and paid. Yay!!!

Oh, and I also finished my Mysteries of Uldopho book, which I’ve been slowly reading for almost a full year now. It wasn’t exactly what I had expected it to be, but it was still a very interesting novel and I’m glad I read it. Now I need to come up with something new to read at night and give myself another full year to finish it. I’m thinking about reading Brideshead Revisited. Any suggestions?

I’M PREGNANT!

Ok, there, I said it.

I tried to think of a cute way to say it, but as a mom of three boys aged at 4, 2 1/2 and 14 months, a booming business, and a household to manage, I didn’t have the time or energy to come up with any cute teeshirts or fun little cards to send to people. I haven’t even gotten my Christmas cards out yet (though I do have a rough draft on our Christmas letter, and the family pictures are currently being printed…), and the gross bathroom mess that Patrick did on Saturday night? Let’s just say we locked up that bathroom and haven’t used it in several days. I will be getting to that today before I pick up Patrick from preschool and take him and Ethan down to the doctor for their shots, but as for the laundry, the backup on dishes, taking down the Christmas garlands and lights, and cleaning up the toothpaste mess in the other bathroom that the boys did yesterday?  I’m behind on life and pregnancy certainly isn’t helping anything!!!!

Normally I don’t like to share about my pregnancies until I’m at least 13 weeks and out of the first trimester, but for some reason I just had an urge to just break the news today and just get it over with. With Patrick I broke the news at 8 weeks, though some of you may not know that the reason it took me until 16 weeks to announce my pregnancy with Samuel was because I had a miscarriage in between those two boys. With Ethan we announced things at about 13 weeks, and this time I’m taking things a little soon and announcing at 11 weeks, 2 days. We have already had one appointment with my wonderful OB at 8 weeks, where we had an ultrasound and were able to see the baby and his/her heartbeat, and my next appointment is on Monday. I had originally planned to wait until after that appointment, but I’m getting so tired of trying to hide the news from everyone.  So, I’d appreciate prayers for Monday that we’ll be able to hear the heartbeat and that Baby #4 is doing well!

Anyone who was at church on Sunday night may have noticed that little pooch in front that I’ve had more and more trouble hiding. It was my first time in maternity clothes and, gosh, I looked BIG. Officially not fitting my normal clothes, and finding half my maternity clothes way too big, I’m at the awkward stage where I pretty much wish there was nothing wrong with going everywhere in lounge pants and a fitted tee. Last month was rough. Not only have I been dealing with strong morning sickness, but I’ve also had almost zero energy. I have never seen our house in such disarray as it’s been lately, and I even took the month off from the business to give myself time to relax and prepare for the holidays! In addition to being soooo sick during the mornings, when I’m not feeling sick I have a voracious appetite that will not be satisfied. I have never been this way before now. I will eat a big meal and be totally stuffed, but less than an hour later I will be starving hungry again. The instance that took the cake, however, was when the sisters, Andrew and I went out to get sub sandwiches at Jimmy John’s in Tacoma, and before we had even left the parking lot I began to complain that I was starving again. It’s been absolutely insane… but at least this time around I’m actually gaining weight, so it must not be too much of a bad thing. In my last three pregnancies, I had my doctors telling me for the first 20 or so weeks that I wasn’t gaining enough weight. Nope, I don’t think it will be a problem this time!

Well, I better run… I need to start working on business taxes for the state of Washington (yuck, yuck, yuck..) which are due by the end of the month.

Oh, I guess before I go I should mention the details though… Due July 26th (remember, Sam’s b-day is the 24th!), but Dr. Eun says to expect a late June/early July baby. My bet is July 1st, when I’ll be exactly 36 1/2 weeks, though if Baby #4 comes a day earlier, I’d appreciate it so I don’t have two July babies. Or, if baby really wants, he or she can also stay put until August. That would be fine too, though I somehow doubt that would ever happen. If baby is born at 36 1/2 weeks, it will put him/her and Ethan at 20 months apart. Patrick and Sammy are 21 months apart, and Ethan and Sam are 15 months apart. So, yes, I will have 4 kids under the age of 5 when this is all over. We are in sooooooo much trouble!!!!!

My sister, Rachel, posted some more cute pictures of the boys on her blog, if anyone is interested :o)

I don’t remember the last time we had snow during Christmas, but we definitely had it this year. I’m not sure why I’m mentioning it, since the snow was barely noticed today as we kept ourselves busy inside with family and new treasures. We’ve kept ourselves very busy the past three days spending time with the sisters (who arrived home late Monday night), hanging out at our or my parents’ house, and playing board games, watching movies or playing Guitar Hero on our Wii with various family members. We’ve taken a ton of pictures the past few days, but probably less than a third of them have been taken on my camera! The rest are on Diane and Dad’s cameras, and I don’t have the files here. So, here’s just a few that I was able to take with mine. Normally I don’t like doing the little photo show on my posts, but I’m being lazy and don’t want to sort through these, so here’s everything, 149 pictures that I took in the past few days. I’ll be more than happy to provide explanations for some of these if you’re curious. Enjoy!