Don't you guys have a tv???

Well, this past June number 5 arrived. We named him Tuff. There is a story behind the name and since Tuff isn't very old to be doing the wild things the others are I will tell you a bit about his name. Tuff Oliver Abel Holmes, Abel is the biblical name we chose for him, Oliver was my daddy's and gran-daddy's middle name and Tuff was a "t" name like all the boys in our house have but it was also because we had such a tough pregnancy. I was having a great deal of stress during this time, the doctor was warning me about it. My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she had a mini-stroke and we were in school full time. Our oldest was graduating from high school, we were having financial difficulties, just basic everyday life troubles. Family and everyone we came in contact with would ask us these questions that would just make my skin crawl, "Don't you guys have a TV" or "Are you getting your tubes tied" or "Is this your last?" We started telling everyone it wasn't our last, we were trying to keep up with the Duggars. Or better yet, we were no longer Baptist, but now we were Catholic or Mormon who are known for their large families.
Up until the time when we went in for the section (3 weeks early) we were having tough things happen. The main water line broke in the city and the hospital had no water when they came to get me for surgery, there was mud running out of the faucet in our room. Then there was a power outage and we didn't have a/c for 3 hours in the room. That is were the name Tuff originated from.
We were going to call him Abel, but my mother said, "I don't care what you call him, I am calling him Tuff." It stuck.

The Wild Man!

Number 4 got here in April and things have never been the same. Titus "Ty Brady" has always been wild. He didn't crawl, he just went from sitting up to walking. He had to keep up with the others. He broke his foot running in church at 17 months old, got his first stitches around 19 months. At this age he could throw a ball and tag you in the head with it, he would hit you when you weren't looking and ran wide open from daylight to dark. By 2 years old he could throw a ball (or anything) up in the air and hit it with a bat (or coke bottle). Our teenager's friends would come over and play with the 2 year old like you play with babies and he would pop them right between the eyes with the ball. What an arm!!! By now we had discovered that Ty is a southpaw, he is definitely a lefty! He is 4 now, has not slowed down a bit. He thinks he can ride it if it has 4 legs or 4 wheels. He loves to help his dad and is really dangerous with tools. He was about 2 and a half and we had to hide the fencing pliers from him because he was tearing holes in the sheet rock in the house. He had a toy tool set from Christmas we had to get rid of because he was prying the walls apart. My mother wasn't a help either, she would let him play with screw drivers and he took one of her cabinet doors down in her kitchen. It actually was amazing to watch him do this because no one had ever shown him how to use the screwdriver and start a screw.
Ty is also bad about picking up colorful language. When you have a 2 year old beating on things with a hammer yelling "Son of a..." you got a problem. One question I had was, "Have you been helping daddy work again?"
He is a handful and everyday is no where near dull with him. I don't think it is no where near slowing down either.

ITS A BOY!

We have so many things that I will share later on about each kid, but I want to introduce each of them and give you an idea of what their personality is like. We had our first boy in 2003. He was named Kyzar. I went in the night before to be induced and during the night he flipped over and was breech the next morning when they broke my water and I had an emergency section. He is my snuggly little man. We would wrap him up in a blanket, head and all from the time he arrived. That is the only way he would get still and rest.
He is 6 now and still wraps up like that to sleep. I went to check on him one night and he had only a sheet around his head. That is just how he is. He thinks with the logic of an adult at times. He over thinks things and processes things on a level we don't even think about. There is no gray areas with him it is only black or white. As to say, all his pecans have to point in the same direction (no, he's not ocd....)
He was very different than what our experience was with our girls, he drove everything around on the floor, with or without wheels, and always made a car noise doing so. Nobody taught him this, he just did it. He would throw things and climb on things and hit things. Definitely ALL BOY!