Thursday, February 23, 2012

Whatever floats yer boat...

The children flooded the drain in our backyard today. Let me explain: we have a gutter of sorts going through our back yard. It's kinda weird, but it's also wonderful in nice weather to have the water run and let the children play in it. So the big children had the water running and were having boat races in the water. First they started with leaves, then they selected random items from the yard to see which "boat" was fastest. It turned out that the best "boat" was a Yoplait yogurt container, floating right side up. Who would have thought?!?! I just love when the whole family is together, playing and enjoying each other's company...what a wonderful evening.







Lilah





Lilah has been crawling like a champ. She is getting so good at it. She's definitely getting faster, but she's still pretty calm about the whole thing. I hope this is an indication of her personality. I really could use a very calm child after her big brother Aaron. The only thing that scares me about her being calm is that I'm afraid this next one will be a maniac! :) Thankfully I know we get what God deems PERFECT for our family and I'm okay with that. Today (and yesterday) was an exceptionally beautiful day. I think it must have been around 72 or so for a high. The sun was bright and just perfect. It was one of those absolutely gorgeous California winter days that I just love. Jeremy took the children to the beach in our gigantic, stinky diesel van. They love that thing. They beg for rides in it. I'm trying to love it, but it stinks. It really needs new seats too, it doesn't have shoulder belts and it makes me very nervous having my children in the car with no shoulder straps. They don't usually drive very far, but it still makes me nervous. Anyway, it's late...this is in no way a cohesive thought...my point was about Lilah and crawling. She can now crawl and go back to sitting up. It's so neat! I was sitting here yesterday and she had been crawling, but I saw her sitting in the dining room. I asked the girls who had set her back up and they said, "She did her herself!", I said, "Really?" and they said, "Yeah, she did it earlier too!" Why doesn't anyone tell me these things?!?! I consider it such an accomplishment! Now she just needs to start eating food!! She still doesn't eat table food one bit. She doesn't seem to know what to do with it. She doesn't care about it and since it's just one more thing for me to do in my day, I'm okay with that...she's perfectly plump, so I'm certainly not worried. I'm thinking by the time she's a year old, she should be ready to jump in and join us for tritip!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Everyone Loves Popcorn!!

You put the stuff in here:



Wait a bit:



Look what's happening!



Mmmm...popcorn!

Project 365--Day 30

My beautiful baby girl is wearing a dress for the first time today. She looks SOOOO pretty! Then again, I think she looks SOOOO pretty no matter what.



Thursday, February 16, 2012

Project 365--Day 29

Happy Valentines Day to me! My sweet husband got these lovely lilies for me for Valentines Day in honor of the 13th anniversary of our meeting.

Project 365--Day 28



He had a 103-104 temperature all day yesterday. He fell asleep on the sofa like this at least 3x. :( Today, after a FANTASTIC nights sleep (for him--the big kids were up throwing up--yay!), he was back to his normal full of it self.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Aaron said, "I love you"!!!

This morning I was trying to get Aaron to say, "I love you". He said it a few times, not very clearly, but he was trying. Tonight when he was giving kisses goodnight to everyone, I said, "I love you" to him and he said it back to me!!! Awwwwhhh...that's enough to melt a mama's heart!

Lilah has officially entered the filthy clothes stage. :( I'm not a huge fan of this STAGE, but oh well...it's inevitable. Last night I put her to bed going one direction in her crib. Usually she'd roll from side to side--from back to tummy, even though she is STILL fully swaddled, but this morning when I woke her up at 7:45am (yes, I woke her up!), she was in the complete opposite place of where I had put her to bed!! So today I raised the rail on her crib...she's just getting TOO mobile! So yes, I had to wake her up at 7:45am. I put her to bed around 8:45pm and she did not make a peep until well, she didn't! Which was why I woke her up...I still get worried when she sleeps well! It's so helpful to me when the babies sleep well...even if I do have to wake up 3x a night to go potty.

We went out and bought Lilah a booster seat so she can join us at the table now. It was the first night that neither Jeremy nor I had to hold her during a meal. It was so wonderful. She sat there and when I said to her, "It's so nice to have you join us" she gave me a HUGE grin as if she was so happy to be included as one of the gang! So cute!! :)

Well, there I went...I posted about her good sleep habits and now she's upstairs crying. How does she know?? Time for bed, I suppose. :)

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Project 365--Day 27

Yesterday was a bit dreary outside. The children asked if they could have their friends over and watch a movie. I was waiting for Jeremy to get home and was planning on going out to a ladies night out with my big girls, so I thought it'd be a good diversion while I showered and got ready. I popped two big bowls of popcorn (with butter and salt, YUM!) and when Aaron woke up, I put him between the big boys with his own bowl of popcorn. They were watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. Usually Aaron doesn't sit still for a movie very well, but he was absolutely mesmerized. It was super cute. I took some photos of the girls on their own sofa too, but none of those photos came out too great. :(



Project 365--Day 26

This picture says it all. When I'm committed to the looney-bin, don't wonder why.

Project 365--Day 25

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Lilah Crawled!

Lilah has been getting up on her knees for quite some time now. She rocks back and forth, but when she wants to get something, it's back down on to her tummy and she scoots for it. What amazes me is that I think ALL of my babies have always started off crawling backwards. Not Lilah. She's determined. When she sees something she wants, she gets it. It's usually something paper. She loves paper. She loves EATING paper. But it makes her choke, so she can't have it. Today she got up on her knees and started real baby crawling!!! She only went a couple of knee scoots forward, but my goodness, she's not even 8 months old yet!! I was checking my blog for when Aaron started, and it appears he started scooting around the same time, but didn't start "real baby" crawling until March 21st...and, well, being that they have the same exact birthday, it makes keeping track of progress very easy! :) She's such a big girl!! I've also been putting her in the shopping cart at Costco with Aaron. It's so cute to see her sitting up all big. The only problem is that Aaron takes turns pulling at her hair, then kissing her, then pulling her hair, then HUGGING her like crazy (like not too fun hugs), then kissing...then pulling hair...you get the point. Thankfully she's very tolerant. I wish I could say the same for Luke...no tolerance for Aaron there. Well, no, I take that back. Either Luke can't STAND him and they're screaming at each other and hitting and biting and pinching...or they can't get enough of each other and Luke cries when Aaron has to go to bed. I'm just hoping that when Aaron is able to communicate better and stops being such a pest that they bond a bit more...because when they play together, they're so cute. Wait, I take that back. Tonight I had to clean up 2 inches of toilet water off of the bathroom floor. The boys thought it'd be fun to see how much toilet paper you can flush down the toilet. I wonder whose idea that was?

Iron Chef America

You know what? I could be the next Iron Chef. Really, I'm a pretty good cook. Honestly, I think with my skills, a Sous chef (or 5) and a dedicated clean up crew, I could do amazing things. Okay, okay...so I can't make a crazy, 5 course gourmet meal in less than an hour with some mystery ingredient I've never heard of. Fine. I'll admit that, however, I'd LOVE to see Bobby Flay whip up a fantastic meal for 7 with a baby on his hip, a toddler underfoot who is cracking eggs and smearing them all over the floor. All the while making sure it's nutritionally balanced, tasty enough to please the pickiest (and I mean pickier than the pickiest of food critics), frugal enough to fit in our budget and have it all cleaned up and ready to eat BEFORE the babies both break down and start screaming from either lack of attention or hunger, or both. Yeah, try THAT, Bobby Flay. You wanna have a throw down?!?! I challenge you...in MY kitchen, under MY circumstances...yeah, good luck to you!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Project 365--Day 24





Project 365--Day 23

Big sister + Little brother + dry erase marker = this:



Project 365--Day 22

Savannah has been making beautiful flower crowns out of flexible twigs and flowers, they are quite beautiful. Not as beautiful as the models here though!



Savannah's other "natural materials" project: Pippi Longstocking

Thursday, February 2, 2012

I'm a slacker

I have a sneaking suspicion that my Project 365 is going to take me 3 years to complete. Life, as usual, is very busy. Wonderful, but busy. It's actually not so much that it's busy as it is that every moment is filled. Not necessarily with productive work, mind you. But nap time rolls around and I need to rest. In the evening when babies are in bed, I'm just so ready to zone out for a short time and then hit the sack. I'm in no mood to do anything constructive. Yes, I am definitely lazy, but I don't care at this point. I was just thinking, Jeremy and I haven't had a quiet evening where we just don't know what to do in so long, I can't even recall the last time that happened. We were watching the movie, Courageous, and one of the men was spacing out in front of the tv at 10:30pm. I can't imagine being able to STAY up that late, let alone watching television at that time. I know there will be a time one of these days when our evenings aren't the time that the only thing we can think of is plopping our tired and weary selves into bed, but right now, we are still operating in survival mode. And that's not going to change any time soon. So for now, if I keep getting photos up a couple of times a week, I'm happy with that. And you're going to have to be as well.