Sunday, January 30, 2011

Snowman!

We convinced Jack to build a snowman with Granddad today. When I say convinced, I really mean it. Jack, like his mama and daddy, really doesn't enjoy to play in the snow. In fact, today was the first day he played outside this winter. Not that I haven't asked him if he wanted to, he just always says no. Today was his first time building a snowman--and I don't remember building too many snowmen myself during my childhood.  Needless-to-say, I think Granddad, I mean Jack, did an excellent job on the snowman. When my mom and I got back from unloading some of our stuff into our new house, this is the snowman we saw!

Teaching Jack how to roll the head



Putting on his hat


The finished snowman--Jack rolled his head. They used potatoes for the buttons and a creative Granddad cut a potato in half for each of his eyes. Very cute.


Sleepy boy. After all that hard work, Jack fell asleep with his Bella. His two Bella Bears have not been needed as much by Jack in the last few months to sleep--I guess he is getting older :(

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Is January Over Yet?

As I am tying this, I am glad that January is almost over. Since having children, I realized January might just be my least favorite month. With the anticipation of Christmas and New Year long behind, January leaves me with clean-up, snow and little sunlight. However, we seem to make it through this month each year and move on. At least we had our new house to look forward to at the end of this month. Tomorrow we will close on our new home and begin the process of moving out of my parent's house. I say process because it will be a process. We have a week to get the new house cleaned and organize all of our belongings that we don't have in storage--which turns out to be quite a bit. Next Friday, the moving truck comes with the rest of our stuff. With each move, this process gets longer and harder. I have a feeling the trend will continue with the move considering we have four times the amount of children as we did when we moved two years ago. Blah, enough complaining, we have wonderful family and friends to help us and all the time in the world to get organized (just try telling that to my type A personality). We love our new home. This move will be a piece of cake :)

Here are a few pictures from Sunday and I wanted to get them on here before craziness consumes my life!



Grandmom Elizabeth and Kate--where is Anna you say? Hmmm, keep scrolling down.
Anna wants up, Granddad!

Twist my arm Anna, says Granddad. By the way, do you see the grip she has on his shirt?

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Emily's Birthday Party

Today we went to celebrate Emily's 7th birthday. I was thinking how nice it was for us to be able to make her birthday party. Since it is so close to Christmas, we have not made one of her parties for quite a few years.

I wish this picture wasn't so blurry of the girls in their party dresses from Great Aunt Mary.


Grandmom helping get the girl's ready for the party.
Kate
Anna
Elizabeth
Jack


Our Goddaughter Emily talking with Grandmom and Kate
Anna and Granddad (of course :) )






Anna and Elizabeth looking at Lilah
Dad and Anna
Kate and Elizabeth and Lily. Lily was so fun to play with. These girls are second cousins and the same age.
Lily and Elizabeth


Elizabeth in the baby doll car seat

Women of Grace

In the fall, I joined a prayer group at our church for young women. I take the kids, but a few of my cousins offer to baby-sit all the kids during the meetings at the church which makes the prayer group much easier. The group is made up with young mothers with small children so it is nice to be able to pray and relate with women at a similar stage in life. This past week, Jack told me he took a few pictures on the camera (I keep a small camera in my diaper bag). I forgot about it until I downloaded pictures tonight and saw the few pictures. It made me smile to see them and I think it is fun to see what the kids are up to during my prayer group :)


Andrea and Anna
Anna in someone's boots. I like that Kate is sitting on Jack in the background.


Kate and Maria (and Elizabeth)






Cecilia and Jack

There are toys in this room, just not in the pictures. The girls do a great job keeping up with all the babies and children for us--thanks girls!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Brushing Teeth--All Thrity of Them

The girls LOVE to have their teeth brushed and to brush them themselves. They understand me when I tell them it is time to brush their teeth and will point to their toothbrushes. Elizabeth still has the most teeth--12, Anna is close behind with 11 and Kate has 7.

17 Months!

At 17 months, the girls are moving and getting into everything! It seems their latest milestone of walking is making things more challenging. I thought because they crawled, walking wouldn't change things too much, but I think I might be rethinking that one. They really like to explore the territory "outside" their gate and they are quite quick once that gate it open!


Anna is the fastest. She walks quickly, not quite a run, but getting closer. She is babbling so much! She still only says one word, 'ut oh', but she is constantly chit-chatting and pointing to objects. She loves to crawl into any one's lap, especially Granddad. She will cry when Granddad walks by the room and doesn't stop by to see her and also when Granddad gets up and leaves the room to warm up his coffee. She loves books, dolls, animals and babies. She will point to her belly by lifting up her shirt and will also lift up my shirt to see my belly button. She points to her head, nose, eyes and ears. She is still the biggest of the three, has the most hair (dark) and blue-green eyes.
Kate likes the zebra riding toy. She climbs up on this all the time and moves to the music. She is still too small to touch the ground, but that doesn't stop her. She loves to pick up and 'throw' balls, then she chases them. She loves dolls, puzzles and books. She constantly is dancing to music and seeking out the toys that play music. She recently learned how to take off her diaper which made for an interesting night a few days ago that ended with poop, carpet scrubbing and a second bath for her and her sister. She has recently began to babble quite a bit and she says, 'ut oh'. With her babbling, she makes no sense, but she is telling her sisters something important. She points to her nose, mouth, belly, feet, and head. She has very little hair (dark) and dark eyes.
Elizabeth likes to do whatever her sisters and brother are doing. She is a people-pleaser. She is constantly bringing her sisters their milk cups that they didn't finish. She also likes to hand me teeny-tiny pieces of dirt, fuzz, paper, etc. on the ground (at least she is not eating them). She, like her sisters, says 'ut oh' and babbles a lot. She will point to her head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, feet and belly. She loves dolls, music, blocks and cups. She likes to keep things in order. She will bring me anything I ask her and has recently pointed to her diaper when it is wet and will point to the dry diapers. She has blond hair and very blue eyes.
None of the girls like to be changed and will roll away with great strength during diaper changes. They love shoes and boots and will bring them to me to put on. They like their milk cups and seem to know which color is theirs (Kate=pink; Anna=purple; Elizabeth=green). They love to eat and will mostly eat everything I give them. They recently had chocolate cake for the first time and they were loving it :)
Jack has recently started to play with the girls and they will follow him around and listen to him. He can entertain them for a while if he wants to.
The latest 'game' for the girls. Jack will move a strategically placed box (that blocks corners like this above) and the girls like to get into tiny corners like this one...they also like to get behind the door between it and the TV chest.