SEVEN...

Today I took Luke out to take his 7-year old pictures.  I kept looking at him and thinking, "how did he get so big?" What a sweet, fun, handsome boy he is!  We laughed and laughed and had a great time together.

Here's a few of my favorites...

This is a silly picture, but I had to show it because it is SOOC.  Yep, those clear, spectacular eyes are untouched.  Those adorable freckles, all natural!  Love this boy, love his silly faces, and I love spending time taking pictures of his sweet face!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Natalie!

Dear Natalie,
Happy 3rd Birthday, sweet girl!  It has been a fun year watching you grow, change and having a lot of fun.   This year you went to 2 year old preschool, which you loved...playing with new toys, doing art projects, and your favorite...snack time!  You became a big sister in January, and while it took you a little time to adjust to that role, you have become an incredibly loving and protective sister. You also fell in love with all things girl!   Your favorite color is PINK.  And, one of my favorite quotes from you this year was, "if it's pink, then I yike it!"  You take impeccable care of your baby dolls...feeding, changing, and loving on them.  You are a great little mommy, and I often find myself "babysitting" one of your dolls or stuffed animals.

You bring such joy to our family!  Your adorable pink-princess-loving-ways are a fun addition to a home full of brothers!  You are a smart girl who has a precious heart.  You have a great sense of humor and are the perfect combination of sweetness and toughness.

Thank you for being our daughter!
We love you more than you can ever imagine!

love,
mommy


Natalie's Birthday Video (once you push play be sure to change it from 360p up to 720p)




We celebrated Natalie's birthday over the weekend.  We had princess decorations, pink and purple cupcakes, flowers with princess wands in them, and almost all of her presents were some shade of PINK.  Do you see a theme here?!?!

I can't believe our baby girl is 3 years old!

Yum...

Somebody thinks he's big-stuff now that he's eating rice cereal!

Our very own kangaroo...

We have our very own kangaroo...his name is Peter.  Whenever we try to put Peter to bed, he bounces out...over and over and over and over again.  Now I know all of you "non judgmental" moms are thinking, "Oh please, I could solve that problem."  So, rest assured we are working on it.

The other night I put everyone in bed, and then I was sitting in our room, feeding Benjamin to put  him to bed as well.   In 1.2 seconds Peter popped in, and here is how the conversation went over the next few minutes...

Peter:  "Um, mom, I know I'm not suppose to be out of bed, but I have to tell you something."

Me:  "what?"

Peter: "um, um, um, um...now I can't remember.  I'll go think about it and come back."

Me:  "no, why don't you just tell me in the morning."

He goes back to his room for approximately 10 seconds...

Peter:  "oh yeah, I remembered.  Natalie's out of bed."

Me:  "okay, I'll take care of it.  go to bed."

Peter:  "oh wait, no she's not.  she's in her bed."

Me:  "okay, go to bed."

10 seconds later.

Peter:  "hey mom, Luke's already asleep."

Me:  "great, you should be too.  go to bed."

10 seconds later

Peter: "oh wait mom, no he's not asleep.  he might have just been closing his eyes.  maybe he has something in his eye."

Me:  "whatever, I'm sure he's fine.  go to bed."

about 10 seconds later

Peter:  "mom, he doesn't have anything in his eye.  but, he should get in trouble because he said I was annoying and told me to leave him alone. "

Me:  "peter, leave EVERYONE alone and go to bed."

Peter:  "mom, I just checked and Natalie is singing to herself."

Me:  "so?"

Peter:  "she's keeping me awake."

Me:  "PETER..GO TO BED.  if I see you again, your pokemon cards are MINE."

shoulders slump and he walks out of my room.
about 10 seconds later...

Peter:  "mom, you know, it's not very nice to yell at me."

Me:  "Ughhhh, I can't win.  believe me Peter, it's gonna get a lot worse if you don't get in bed."


Let's just say that I ended up with a whole stack of pokemon cards for 24 hours!

love our little kangaroo, but sure wish he'd go to bed!

A great idea...for $1

There's a lot you don't know before becoming a parent.  For example, it took me a couple of years to figure out that "goodie bags" are an essential part of a birthday parties.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around how my children attend some of the coolest birthday parties at pump-it-up, bowling parties, swimming parties, etc and they come home raving about the small plastic bag-o-crap that they were handed as they were leaving....it doesn't make sense.

But, alas, my children have begged me into submission and now I'm always on the look out for "goodie bag" ideas.  Last year I gave out mini-gumball machines...needless to say, the kids LOVED them, but I'm not sure any of the parents are still speaking to me. 

Natalie's birthday is coming up and as I was combing Target for the "perfect" idea, I thought of this.

I saw these cute little buckets of sidewalk chalk...and they were only $1 each....score!  But, they seemed a little boring.  I considered tying a ribbon to them...Peter said that was lame.  I kind of agree.  So I decided to spray paint the lids with my handy-dandy chalk board paint (if you don't have some, you should get some.)  Then I used my chalk pens to personalize each little bucket.

I think they turned out great.  I was also thinking that this would make a great end of the year gift at preschool, or mom's group, or whatever...you could just write, "have a great summer."

So, there you have it!  A great idea for $1 each.

Kids...here's your little bucket-o-crap...have fun!!!

It's really hard...

It's obviously very exhausting to be the cutest baby in the world...

Five months old...

Dear Benjamin,

I know I say this every month, but I CAN'T believe how fast time is flying by!  You are 5 months old and as sweet as can be!

It's been a busy month keeping up with your brothers' baseball schedules, Luke's birthday, a visit from the cousins, and a trip to the lake.  But you just go with the flow.  Nothing seems to ruffle your feathers.  You just smile, smile, smile...and I can't get enough of it!

This month you perfected your rolling, and you are all over the place.  You spend a good amount of time rolling around on your blanket, and chewing on  your toys.   Sophie the giraffe is by far your favorite toy{mine too.}

Speaking of being on the move, you completely shocked me by getting up on your elbows and knees.  And just a few days ago you started getting on your hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  YES people, I said HANDS and KNEES...as in a pre cursor to crawling.  Now, you might think that I'm bragging here, but don't be deceived...this is NOT my first rodeo.  When baby #1 does things early you get all excited.  When baby #4 does things early you start panicking.  I am not ready to have a baby on the move, so let's work on something else, okay Benjamin?  I'm thinking that we should work on sitting up, long before we think about crawling.

You continue to be an excellent nurser, and the rolls on your tummy, arms, thighs, back, etc show that you aren't missing any meals!  You still refuse to take a bottle, but we're working on that and making some progress.  You've had reflux since you were itty bitty, and even with your medicine you still insist on spitting up all over, when I least expect it.  Just tonight when I was burping you, you managed to spit-up over the top burp rag, and it landed right on me.  How'd you do that???

Let's talk about sleep.  Never mind, let's not.  I'll just say that you are getting to be a good napper and are settling into a better routine and taking longer naps.  As far as nights go, you have a great first stretch.  You usually go to bed around 7pm and sleep a 6 hours stretch.  After that you'd like to have my company every 3 hours...on-the-dot.  So, in the end, I'm the one that needs to toughen up.  Watch out buddy, there may be a few unpleasant nights in your future.

One of my favorite things that you do right now is that you are full-body, arms flapping, legs kicking, body wiggling, huge grin, happy to see me, just about every time I walk in the room.  And it's not just me...you react that way to Daddy, and your brothers and sister.  It's absolutely precious and it's easy to see what a happy guy you are.

You continue to bless me everyday and I am so very grateful.

I love you!
mommy




Here's a few more pictures for your entertainment.

Okay, here's the proof of the whole hands and knees things.  And yes, I know the picture is blurry.  It's really hard to get a clear picture when I'm trembling in fear.

We have a strict baby yoga program in our house.  Not a great picture of him...but WHAT is he doing???

I think he's saying he's all done with the photo shoot!

And, I'll leave you with this picture...which you've seen before...but I love enough to show again!

Wishin' and hopin'...

We were at the lake over Memorial Day weekend.  We took a walk and found lots and lots and lots of wishes.   

For you photography peeps out there, I found these to be tricky and I'm still pondering ways to perfect the shots.  I shot in manual with a low aperture so I'd get the nice background, and a fast enough shutter speed to {kind of} stop the action.  I focused on the flower, which proved to be harder than it might sound....my kids move a lot...and I mean A LOT!  

So, here's my commentary on these shots.  I know you don't care, and I'm perfectly okay if you stop reading right now!  

I like the coloring on the picture of Luke.  We just happened to be in a lot of tall grass when I snapped that one.  I caught the clearest little wispy things on that shot too.

I love the focus on Peter's little hands and the blurred movement in that picture.   In hindsight, I wish I would have had him take off his sweatshirt...too many different greens.

In the picture of Natalie, I love the crisp, sharp focus on the flower and her sweet hands.  I opted to show you this shot because, in all of the pictures where she was trying to blow the flower, the only action I "stopped" was the spit flying out of her mouth.  Yuck!

Overall it was a fun challenge for me, and the kids love making wishes!  Give it a try and let me know what secrets you come up with!