Big brother Andrew

Biking home (alone)

Have you ever heard of the term helicopter parenting? According to dictionary.com, it is a style of child rearing in which an overprotective mother or father discourages a child's independence by being too involved in the child's life. It seems more prevalent in this generation of parents and it needs to stop.

Fall school pictures

Hard Knocks Halloween

Pickin' pumpkins

Retarded math

#MeltdownTown

What if I told you the Astros had a 2-1 lead in a best of 5 series and are up by 4 scores at the start of the 8th inning (6-2). They're only 6 outs away from advancing to the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The bats of the Astros have been red hot and the Royals can't seem to generate any offense. It's a done deal right? Or so I thought...

Mr. Mom

With the arrival of baby Elliot, I ended up getting 4 weeks of paternity leave. Awesome, right? I'll help out here and there with the kids but otherwise thought this would be a mini-vacation. All the boys will be at school and Lynn and I can double team a tiny human. During the day, the adults would actually outnumber the kid(s). But to my surprise, it wasn't the paradise that I had hoped.

Welcome baby Elliot!

Our first (and last) daughter has arrived! Elliot's delivery seemed like the easiest delivery, well from my perspective. We were at the hospital at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, popped a baby out at 3:13 p.m. and were going home on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. In and out. Lynn is THE expert at delivering a baby.

A new (long) soccer season

Naming this baby girl

Baby #4 is coming sooner than later and now comes the fun part, naming this baby girl. The good thing is that it's much easier to come up with names for girls than it is for boys. But that can also be a bad thing. Which one do we choose? There were plenty of good names out there but few have that pizazz. That something that sets it apart. And as I've previously mentioned, the names should also follow a set of rules. But rules are meant to be broken.

Labor Day weekend

I'm feeling incredibly lazy so here are some crappy cell phone pictures from this past holiday weekend.

First day of school

Summer break is officially over and last week was the start of the new school year. What makes it special this year is that all three boys will be going to the same school together. Tyson starts Pre-K and joins Jacob (4th grade) and Andrew (2nd grade). Of all the kids, Tyson hates school the most. He will always ask, "Do I have school tomorrow?" And when we tell him yes, he will reply "I don't wanna go to school" or "I don't like school" and he'll get really sad and/or angry. It happens on a daily basis.

What are you guys having?

That's the question we've been asked frequently and not until recently, we didn't know either. Being that this is our last baby (no lie), why not make it a surprise? We'll find out on the day of delivery. Surprise! But the more that I thought about, the more I needed to know. What if I react negatively when the baby is born? "Ugh! Another boy??" What should we do with all the baby boy clothes? Keep it or donate it? What are we going to name this baby? I don't want to waste any more time thinking of both boy and girl names. I need time to prepare for baby #4.

Family beach trip II (Destin, FL)

After a relatively successful beach trip last summer to Alabama, it was time to "step it up". On this trip, we went somewhere nicer and further (Destin) and stayed longer (5 nights). And this time around, my in-laws came along for the ride. Those days went by way too fast and before you knew it, it was already time to go home. I'm going to miss the white sugary sand and the clear emerald water. I'm going to miss lounging around the beach house. I'm going to miss doing absolutely nothing.