We Need Haircuts!

Trying to Get Benjamin to Walk

Yeah, he thinks the walking idea is pretty hilarious.

My Sleeping Boys

Since Grace got her own post about sleeping in her bed...

Charlotte's Birthday Party

Finally...I'm trying to catch up a little on blogging.  This is a recurrent theme, isn't it?  :)  And now Blogger has changed its setup and I'm having a hard time learning its new tricks.  At least uploading photos is easier.

Anyway, our sweet niece, Charlotte, turned one, and these are pictures from her party.  First:  our kids coloring pictures for her at the coloring station.  They took this very seriously!  This is the only time I have ever seen Grace color in the lines, and Jonathan took great care to make his picture realistic.  Benjamin just tried not to eat the crayons.

 First birthday goodies!

 Hot air balloon party favors

 The birthday girl and the birthday boy.  My brother is getting old.  But, not as old as me!

 Charlotte stayed up as long as she could, but she had to take a break from opening gifts so she could take a nap.  Corinne had lots of help opening Charlotte's gifts.

I love this picture because it shows the life of a first child:  adored by her parents and soaking in all of their attention.  And attention and love from all of us, too.  Happy birthday, Charlotte!

How to Keep a Bored Builder Busy

Provide an old bag of mini marshmallows and a few hundred toothpicks.  :)

Sick Baby

Remembering

Dad died a year ago today.

I woke up thinking about what it was like, one year ago.  There are a lot of details I don't remember from that day, and from life in general, because I had a baby who was still not sleeping through the night.  Sleep deprivation is not kind to the memory.

I do remember that I had brought Jonathan to my most recent visit with Dad.  Jeff and I thought it would be important for Jonathan to see him, probably one last time.  And although Dad couldn't respond, we were able to tell him we loved him and tell him goodbye.  Early the next day, I got the call that Dad was in his last moments.  Jeff was out of town, and I was home alone with the sleeping kids.  I wasn't sure what to do at first, because I couldn't just leave, but soon I called a woman from church who stayed with Jonathan and Grace and got them up that morning, and later my mom came over to stay with them for the day.  Baby Benjamin and I drove over to Dad's house, as did my siblings.  None of us made it there before Dad passed on to heaven.  Doreen was there with him, though, and I'm thankful that she was.

It is a horrible thing to watch cancer devour someone, especially someone you love.  But I can only imagine how much this year has been a year of celebration for Dad, a year unfettered by the cares of this life and by the limitations of a failing physical body.  And I am so thankful for the future hope that we have, the knowledge that all the punishment that we deserve has been taken on by Jesus, a gift that we just celebrated at Easter.  Instead of punishment, we get forgiveness, and the hope that we will experience Heaven someday, too.

Here's the hymn that Dad shared was so meaningful to him.  It was sung at his graveside service, as well.

Building Lego Butterflies

A team effort :)

Ready for the Day

Again

I love this picture of Grace.  She found the mouse ears that Jacob and Laura gave to Jonathan at Disneyland about four and a half years ago and has enjoyed them almost as much as he did.

I Should Add...

that the same little three-year-old who has been so challenging has also been so touching.

Yesterday, she was sitting at the table before mealtime, and she was singing to herself, over and over, "I love my family all of the time, I love my family all of the time..."

Also, she asked me to kiss her on her cheeks.  After I did, she made motions as if she was taking them off of her cheeks.  "I'm putting them in my heart," she said.

Three Kids in the Tub

I have some adventures to blog about, but I'm letting some time pass before I blog about them.

The main one is Easter. Although it is the most joyful, exciting day of the year, it started for me with screams coming from a certain child's bedroom about poop on the fingers, and then I discovered poop in that child's hair, and I'm not going to elaborate beyond that right now. Let's just say I'm thankful for the gift of forgiveness that we celebrate on Easter. But I do have some cute pictures to share soon, and not of the poop in the hair.

Also, Jeff has been traveling a lot. One of his trips coincided with Jonathan's school break, so we tagged along with Jeff rather than stay at home without him. It was quite an adventure which I'll tell more about later, and lots of fun. Unfortunately, the same child who had poop in the hair on Easter has been displaying lots of challenging behavior since the trip. I'm working on it.

Until I work up to blogging about those topics, I'll share these pictures of the kids in the hotel bathtub. I should note that Jeff does not normally stay in such a fancy hotel when he travels. But, when your destination is a city of casinos, the hotels are bound to be fancy, so this is what we got. Including this huge bathtub. We could have fit a couple more kids in there, don't you think?

Lemon

That's Just the Way It Goes...Sometimes

Charlotte's first birthday party was the day before Easter. (It was a lovely party for a sweet little niece, and I hope to post about it soon.) The kids were all clean and dressed and looking pretty cute, so I thought a quick snapshot would be a good idea. Apparently, not everyone agreed.

Someday

Jeff was saying things like this to Jonathan, and I thought it was very sweet:

Someday you'll be taller than me.

Look, your feet go down to my knees.

What do you think it will be like to see the world from this high?

Someday you'll be this tall.

Bath Time Cutie

Balls

Swinging with the Boys

We went to an egg decorating party today! Along with Jen and her girls, we gathered at Jetta's for a fun time playing, chatting, munching, and of course, egg decorating. There were 13 kids and three moms. Yes, it was amazing. And yes, if you do the math, you're right that with Jen's two girls and my three kids, that means Jetta has eight of her own! I'll share more pictures soon, but for now, I'll just post this one that Jen took of the boys and me. Grace was off playing when this was taken. Love my boys!

Staying Busy

A Good Big Brother

A Reason for Whiskers

Over the past few weeks and months, Grace has asked for a lot of things that I haven't given her. Lots of times, they were good things, but I just delayed them. I told her I'd do those things for her when she learned to use the potty. One of those things she asked for was to have a nose and whiskers like a cat. And as you've probably guessed from the picture, Grace is now diaper-free...and one day this week I painted her face like a cat.

Potty training round #1 in August was a short-lived disaster. We gave it our full attention for a few short days, and she just was not ready, so I threw in the towel (and her undies) and waited for a few months. This past Saturday, we had The Big Day on the calendar, Jeff took the boys out and about for me, and we gave potty training our full attention for try #2. I can't claim that I have the perfect method, so don't hear me taking credit for it, but I am so thankful that Grace has taken to it amazingly well. She is really becoming "a big girl."

And now I am so happy to say that I am changing diapers for only one child!

Little Builders

Those huge blocks in the front are Quatros. The only made them for a couple of years when Jonathan was little. I'm glad we saved them! They are twice as big as Duplos, which are twice as big as Legos.

Jonathan is still so anxious for his siblings to be old enough for "real," small Legos. He brought down the biggest bricks he has to share with Benjamin.

The kids and I made this house with our old and new blocks all mixed together. It was really fun to do something like this with them, and in their jammies, too. Saturday mornings are so much more precious now that Jonathan is in school.

She says this is a playhouse that she built herself.

Big Girl Bed

Here's the last sleep in the crib.

I had the um, privilege, of taking the side off of Grace's crib with the help of Grace and Benjamin. So, use your imagination, and you'll know what I looked like wielding my allen wrench with both of my little helpers crawling all over me, the crib mattress, and the assembly instructions. It was exciting. And I don't need to see an allen wrench again for awhile.

Here she is, super excited in her "new" bed. I don't know why taking the side off of a crib is so exciting, but it is! I had never taken the side off of the crib before because Jonathan went straight to his current bed when he left the crib. It's really nice that the crib converts so that we don't have to buy any furniture right now.

More practicing! Super excited! I found this bedding on clearance last fall, and she loves it. I wanted her to feel like it was a really big deal to stay in bed, and she does.

Practicing reading. She LOVES to "read" to herself, and she loves to do it out loud, which I really enjoy. However, she tells me all the time not to smile at her while she does it. I keep a basket of books by her bed. It's so interesting to me...a year ago, I had a New Year's Resolution to read to her more often. This year, I don't need to resolve to do anything in that area because she is totally hooked. She is going to be so excited someday when she can truly decode the words and doesn't have to memorize the pages. She is pretty good at memorizing, though.

Her first nap in the bed was spent reading. She didn't sleep at all, she was so excited. She stayed in bed, though, so I was happy. Her first nighttime sleep looked like this...

But more often, it looks like this...

And especially, this.