Tessa & Allie

While Nate was away the afternoon with a buddy, Tessa enjoyed having the entire playroom to her and her friend Allie.

Allie and Tessa enjoying some Oreo cookies

Silly faces

The Simple Things

With Troy's latest fitness craze has come some new equipment for the Baughman home version of Bally's. Some of the stuff came in a perfect child-sized box that the kids converted into beds. These boxes were cozily laid on the couch and stuffed with blankets, bean bags, pillows, snacks and electronic entertainment like mobigos and nintendo DSs...you know, just like homeless children that have to sleep in boxes under the park bridge. Nate lost his marbles the one morning when he learned his "bed" had been carefully relocated to the floor to allow his parents to actually use the couch for just a short while to watch a non-animated, adult, television show.

Princess Tessa

Prince Nate

Reptile Zoo with DK

Tessa's preschool class took a field trip to a local reptile zoo and I got the privilege of a going along! They got to check out many animals on display and then had a special demonstration where they got to touch, feel and hold several snakes, lizards, turtles and bugs! It was pretty neat. The kids had some interesting questions throughout the demonstration. They seemed to be obsessed with what the animals ate and how they used the restroom.

Daphne, Ella, Lily, Tessa and Jacob checking out one of the snakes! As you can probably tell from the pictures there were lots of squeals and eewwhs going on.

Tessa said, "Look, mom, pirate birds!"

Tessa, Maxwell and Andre (Andre apparently is planning to spend the rest of his life with Tessa and make her his wife. He's quite the gentlemen and meets her at the door every day. We've told him he must go to college and get a job before they can make any serious plans.)

Tessa and Andre checking out the turtles

Mr Kris (one of Tessa's favorite teachers), Eric, Tessa and Lily checking out some cockroaches. Eewwwwh!

January Birthdays

Gramma Char and Laura share the same birthday and Kendall and Boz share their birthday the day before so it's always a good excuse to get everyone together during January. This year Kendall chose ice skating in BG and dinner at a buffalo wing bar! Love that girl! Happy 7th Kendall! Happy Birthday Mom, Lola and Boz (out of respect I won't list how young you are)!

Nate and Tessa getting warmed up

Gramma Char lacing up Molly

Tessa, Molly & KendallZack and Nate

Zack. He eventually got the hang of it and left the safety of the wall!

Nate using one of the kid carts and Troy...and some other random kid

Tessa was tearing it up on the ice! She's quite the speed demon.

Left to right: Zack has the cart, Nate in the background against the wall, Gramma Char (we had to keep her from showing off with her spins and double toe-loops), Kendall in the blue jacket with the cart and some other random BG ice skaters.

The Birthday Girl!

Kendall opening up her presents...at the bar. Gramma Char got her the cool scarf and hat!

The Next MJ

I might be dating myself a little by referring to Micheal Jordan but we do have a new budding basketball player in the family! Nate decided to man up and not cry for basketball evaluations this year and is on the Slippery Rock team! In Nate's defense, I do think a year of waiting has only worked in his favor as he can actually get the ball up to the hoop now. We're pretty impressed at how quickly he is improving. Initially, we think he thought it was a just a big game of "chase." All he would do is run around and try to get away from the guy that was defending him not caring where the ball was or if he was on defense or offense. He's now doing pretty good with lay-ups, dribbling and his mom has taught him some mean moves for rebounding. In case some of you have forgotten, I was All-State in basketball in high school. Silly. Yes, we know. We're pretty much convinced the same people that voted must have remembered my name from volleyball because I really wasn't very good at basketball. As I used to tell my family, my job wasn't to score the points because I think I only ever made free throws (I did have the best free throw average on the team!). I do recall I was the leading fouler and had the most concussions on my team. Anyways, this isn't about me. His coach is the coach of the high school girl basketball team. So, we had to laugh at the first practice when all of the other teams seemed to have mere organized chaos with balls and kids going everywhere and our team was running real drills like dribbling around chairs! Nate is loving it all and I think it would be great sport for him to pursue and excel...because this momma isn't cheering for her son who has starved himself and is wearing a leotard rolling around on a mat with another young boy who has starved himself and is also wearing leotard (aka wrestling!). Nate's working his way towards a new pair of high tops and now refuses to wear shorts that aren't past his knees! Go Rocks!

Working on lay-ups. Please notice he as the great responsibility of wearing #1 again!

On the sideline with AJ and Cal

And then there were more...

So, as Troy tries to whittle his waist I am expanding at exponential speed. It's not all sausages or a fake boob job. I am growing fingers and toes as we are expecting another Baughman in June! We recently shared the news with the kids and they went bonkers! We sat them down to tell them we had something to share and Nate actually guessed it by saying, "What? Are we gonna get another kid?" We laughed and said yes! He must have overheard some of our whispers. Tessa immediately asked "How many?" Thankfully, it is just one. They started coming up with names like Hiccup and Tito and arguing over where the baby will sleep. They both went to school bursting with their good news...these kids would not be good secret keepers! Tessa told her preschool class that we are having a baby boy and his name is Denard Robinson. She broke it down for them and seriously convinced even her teachers by explaining that his first name would be Denard, the second name would be Robinson and the other name would be Baughman. I swear this was not coached. We all know we love us some Michigan football but I can honestly say that Denard Robinson has not been nor will be on the name list! For the record, we don't know if it's a "Denard" or a "Dee" but nevertheless this baby already has a nickname. It's a good thing these kids aren't responsible for naming anything important any time soon.

Of course I have adorable little alien-like ultrasound pictures but for the life of me cannot get them to upload and look anything more than a blob of black of smear. The curse of the third child...already no pictures. Poor thing.

Resolutions

Troy joined the bandwagon of NYs resolutioners and has sworn to get fit. We all know he is no fatty butt, however it pry isn't a bad idea for his ticker. I mean, we aren't no spring chickens and feast on a little bit more than lettuce all day. He had the motivation but was struggling with finding the method and the time. Discussions were had about p90x, insanity and so on. I more realistically suggested The 10 minute Trainer. In the end, the good ole treadmill and throwing oneself on the floor for some push ups and sit ups won out. And, interestingly enough, managing time with children wasn't exactly the biggest roadblock.

Troy started his new regimen the weekend following NYs. A weekend while I was away at work and he was home being a dad. Well, the kids embraced this time in their gym shorts and sneakers and took turns on the treadmill. So, when Monday rolled around the first thing the kids wanted to do when they got home from school was have a quick snack and get their workout clothes on. Troy no more than stepped in the front door and their were his little Big Fat Loser Trainers with sneakers on, water bottles in tow and fighting over who got to take their turn on the treadmill first! And, poor Troy, thought he was gonna work out "a coupla times a week!" Here's to your abs and buns of steel, Daddy-o.

Tough guy doesn't wear a shirt. He'd totally fit in at Bally's.

Yes, you can work out in princess jammies and pink sparkley cons. Exercise is for everyone, right!

Sayonara 2011!

Happy New Year! We spent the much overrated NYE at the movie theater. The ball "dropped" at our house around 9:30pm! We rang in the new year with the appropriate beverages, cheers, kisses and well wishes! Here's to 2012!

Cheers!

Nate was pretty excited about drinking his special wine. He wanted to make sure I got an action picture of him drinking his "booze."

Tessa opted for chocolate milk in a fancy glass...good girl!