That's My Baby

Just the Way It Goes

This is the way it goes, sometimes, when I try to take pictures of the kids.  And with tomorrow being the most joyful day of the year - Easter - I know I'll be trying to get some sweet pictures of the kids.  Will they cooperate...or give me more of what you see below?  We shall see.

That's My Girl

He Said He Was "All Cozy"

When She Chooses the Outfit

Because flowers match with flowers, right?

Happenings

Despite the quiet on the blog, life at home hasn't been quiet.  Last Saturday, our Gracie turned four (four!)  I spent some time looking back at the blog posts I wrote soon before and after her birth, and I got very sentimental, of course.  One thing I had forgotten is that the midwife told me that she came out waving - which matches her current personality.  We are so thankful for our ten-pound miracle baby who has grown into such a fun, opinionated little girl.  We had a nice little celebration with family here on Saturday.  After everyone's gifts and attention to her, she told us breathlessly that evening, "I had the best birthday ever!"  Awesome.  Oh, I forgot to mention that while I was trying to make cupcakes on Friday afternoon - after I had the batter mixed and preheated the oven and everything - I discovered that the oven was not actually preheating, but was cold.  Everything on the stove/oven seemed to be working except for the actual gas flames down in the bottom of the oven.  After much frustration and a few phone calls, my friend Jen bailed me out and let me use her oven to bake the cupcakes.   Thank you, Jen!  They turned out just right, and I have birthday pictures to share soon.

Also, while we were recovering from the party and while I should have been writing thank-you notes, Jonathan had another big tooth event, this time at school.  His class went to an art fair, and while his classmates were making bracelets out of beads and stretchy string, he decided to make a musical instrument.  He tied a bead to each end of his string, and put one bead in his mouth while holding the other with his hand.  Apparently, he played the musical instrument by twanging it like a guitar.  Unfortunately, he accidentally let go of the bead outside of his mouth, and it sprang back and knocked him in the tooth that he had chipped in his bike crash.  I'll spare you the pictures, but this time, it chipped really deep.  After a few phone calls, my mom took care of the younger kids so I could take him to the pediatric dentist.  They were closed, but the dentist opened the office for him and put a temporary patch on his tooth.  He chipped it down the the nerve, which was exposed and hurt.  He has a 50/50 chance of needing a root canal, and the tooth could die (or not) anytime within the next 20 years...or so.  In six weeks, if nothing bad has happened, they'll put a crown on it, and when he is an adult and has stopped growing, they'll put on a permanent crown.  Getting my kids' teeth to adulthood - intact - is proving to be more challenging than I expected!

Melted My Heart

Benjamin fell down and bonked his head (do all two-year-olds do this as much as mine?)  He was crying and I told him I was sorry he got hurt and asked if he'd get up and try again.  He said, "Need hug!"  Of course I gave him a hug, and he said, "Always hug for me."  Translation:  "You always have a hug for me."  I almost always tell the kiddos, when they want a hug, "I always have a hug for you!"

Laundry Love?

Maybe love is too strong a word.

But, I found some baskets in the "spring" section of Hobby Lobby and I just had to post about them.

I like to have my kids sort their laundry for me when they put it into the hamper...or basket.  The boys share a room, and we had an old shelf that was storing stuff in their closet.  I thought it might hold laundry baskets...and it did!  So, for quite awhile now, I've had them sort their dirty clothes by color:  Darks on top, lights in the middle, and reds on the bottom.  It makes laundry time a lot quicker for me.  (I know it may be weird to have red loads, but we wear a lot of red around here, and Grace has a lot of pink, so I don't have trouble filling a load with red and pink.  You can see that some of her pink stuff has made its way into the boys' dirty clothes baskets.)  Don't judge the state of their closet too harshly...the boys have a crowded closet, and it's obviously time to wash darks!  It would work better if I had color-coordinating baskets, but I just used what I had.  Maybe someday I'll upgrade.  :)

I've wanted to have a similar system for Grace, but I've just been using the same hamper for her that I started using when Jonathan was born.  It was a great gift, and has worked hard for eight years, but with bigger kids who wear bigger clothes, I was ready for a different system.

And then I found these baskets at Hobby Lobby!  For 40% off!  And they have handles!  They work great for separating her laundry, but in the bottom of her closet (which is also cramped.)  I had to take them down to the kitchen and take their picture, I like them so much.  The handles make them so much easier to use than regular baskets.  I'll have her sort her clothes into darks, lights, and pink/reds, too - I need to make some color labels for her until she gets the hang of it.  I'm pretty happy to have found these baskets.  (Do you think they'll make some more masculine looking baskets in the summer that I could use for the boys?"

Playing Outside

Sweets for the Sweet

We didn't do our traditional Valentine's Day scavenger hunt this year.  Valentine's Day fell on a school day, so I told the kids we'd celebrate the day on a non-school day.  Unfortunately, I was sick instead and didn't do much for the kiddos.  We made heart-shaped brownies together once I finally felt better, so I think they were happy...eventually.  There were some important grownups, though, that made Valentine's Day special for my kids even though I didn't.  You know who you are, and thank you!  One of them was Doreen, who gave the kids some of her special cookies.  As you can see, they were thrilled.

One More from Valentine's Day

She came out of Sunday school looking like this on the day before Valentine's Day.  Silly girl!

I think Charlotte told him about this trick...

and maybe he's trying to avoid eating his broccoli?

Sick Baby

He came down with whatever-it-was during church on Sunday, had a fever all afternoon, and then was fine Monday morning!

The Daddy Daughter Dance

She's been talking about it for a year...recognizing the music from last year's dance on the radio...making her plans to go this year...and finally, the evening came.  Here are some pictures I took of her while we got ready for her big night with Daddy.

Getting any kind of still picture with this girl is quite a trick!  I won't tell you how many "duds" I took to get one good one!

Super excited for an evening out together!  And I heard later, from others who were there, that Gracie can really "cut a rug."  Ha!  I heard from Grace that she and her daddy ate a lot of chocolate.  So, all in all, it was a wonderful evening!

How Many Does It Take?

As you may know, Grace's birthday is coming up.  Traditionally, we have small, immediate-family birthday parties for our kids until they are in school.  So, with less than a month before Grace's birthday, I knew I needed to figure out an invitation.  However, I was sick and feeling very uninspired.  I almost sent out an invitation without a picture, but I figured my grandma would really like a picture.  So, I got to work.  I took sixteen pictures of Grace.  I got one that I could use.  It's down at the bottom.  (I suppose I could have sent an invitation with a collage of silly pictures?  But, remember, I was feeling sick and uninspired.)  Here are some of the funny ones of the sixteen I took.  (Quite a contrast to Benjamin's willingness to be cute on command.)

Here's the one I used on her invitation.  And, sure enough, when Grandma received it, she called me to tell me how much she liked the picture!  Good thing I used one!

The Monkeys

Self-portrait, but with curly hair...

Pancakes

We have a Saturday morning pancake tradition.  When Jeff gets up - or, after he's back from his run - he makes pancakes for the kids.  The kids look forward to it all week.  We have some friends who turned vegan for awhile, and they gave us a delicious recipe for pancakes.  We're not vegan, but we love the recipe.  (Jeff has butter on his.  Definitely not vegan.)  We have ended up with a tradition of putting Nutella between our pancakes, too, which some of us like much better than syrup.

The kids are always anxious to get in on the action of making the pancakes.  Jeff is a lot more tolerant of kids on counters than I am, so they really enjoy getting close to all the ingredients...and their daddy.

Before the Trip

The morning of my trip that I mentioned earlier, we all took Jonathan to school, and then we had a little playtime before Jeff and the younger kids took me to the airport.  They were so thrilled to have Jeff home!  Here are some of the pictures I took of them playing.