Cousins

Birthday party night. I just love birthday party nights. And I love it all the more when it is warm enough for the kids to play outside. The girls (Gracie, Beka, and Lyvi) were playing together and they were just so cute, I went over to get a few pictures of them. Do you think they would cooperate with me? Oh, no. While I was struggling with the girls, I almost missed this moment. Caleb and Joshua had quite the conversation about Caleb's little balloon.

Our kids look so much alike. Most of them. But these two... they don't even look related. Even their personalities are opposite. Can you tell which one is the outgoing one?

Did everyone enjoy our snowstorm? Ah, I just love winter. Ice on the tulips...

Nap time. We don't normally just all crash in the living room. Today I left Paige in charge of putting Joshua down for his nap while I dropped Courtney off at her piano lesson. This is where I found him when I returned. Grace fell asleep in the car, which is unusual for her. And that girl is heavy so this is as far as I felt like carrying her. It made for a nice, quiet afternoon.

OK,  you've taken a long enough nap. Now, wake up!

Can you tell me how to get...?

Thanks, kids, for posing so nicely for me. Well, a few of them look good.

Our trip to the museum... I just wanted to show you what a super cool place this is. The Lego display is still up (the main reason for our visit) so the boys got to do something they never get to do- play with Legos.

We went shopping in the Wegmans for short people.

Joshua sang some songs with Elmo. He quite enjoyed seeing himself on TV.

I don't even know how to describe this thing...

We walked down the super hero hall of fame and the kids (the little ones) were able to turn themselves into supermen. The boys were quick to tell me just how lame this was but it wasn't too lame to wait in line to give it a try.

Hang on Gracie!!

(she took her shoes off. I guess she thought it was a ride or something)

But the best part of the day? The gift shop, of course. No, I didn't buy them any more Legos.

Boy for Sale

Let me give you some advice... when you bring that new baby home, and he's all snuggly, it is so easy to rock him to sleep and just hold him for an hour or so while he naps. As tempting as this is, it is best to get your baby used to falling asleep on his own. When naptime rolls around, and he starts to drift off, don't let him fall asleep right there, get up and put him in the crib. This is the advice I got from my mother when Paige was born, and sure enough, I never had any trouble putting her to sleep. Courtney was the same. When the boys were babies, I did the same. When they were about six months old, my mom was holding them, and I came to take them from her. "What are you doing?" "I'm putting them to bed." "But... they're not tired. I'll just rock them." I guess the rules change for twins. ;)

But I stuck to it, and the boys, sharing a room and all, always went to bed easily.

Then Gracie came along, and I think she slept with me for the first seven months of her life. I know, I know. Maybe I'm just getting old, maybe I'm just too tired, but at 2 in the morning when you are weighing your options- let's see, get out of bed and sit in the rocking chair for 20 minutes or slide her from the basanette to the bed, snuggle up and sleep the rest of the night... hmm, tough decision. But- when I stopped nursing, and she was starting to sleep through the night, I just began to lay her down in her crib, kiss her goodnight, and that was that. And still, at bedtime, she goes right to sleep on her own, no issues. So I changed my mind. And I told every new mother I ran into to go right ahead and spoil their babies, rock them to sleep every night, hold them for hours. It doesn't make a bit of difference in the end.

 

Right?

So now, Joshua. Oh, Joshua. I don't really think "spoiled" is a strong enough word. This boy HATES his crib. You would think there were little monsters crawing around in there, the way he panics when his feet hit the mattress. I can count on one hand the number of times that he has fallen asleep after he's been placed in his crib. Nobody wants the job of putting Joshua to sleep. He pinches your neck and mouth. Tries to chew on your face. Yeah, he's a real treat.

So, any takers? He's going real cheap. We'll start the bidding at...

-oh, gotta go, Joshua just woke up. 

(not the greatest of pictures, but funny enough to share. He really did fall asleep this way.)

How we begin our day.

Grace gets out her "schoolwork" and her box of pencils along with the rest of the kids. Finds a comfy seat and sighs heavily "I don't know to do."

I have to give her directions but I have to make it sound like I'm talking to one of the bigger kids. I just make something up like "You have to draw a line to connect the matching pictures."

"Oh, I know what do now."

Often, she will tell me "You take mine picture of..." whatever it is she's doing. She's not camera shy. But this day, I took only two pics and she got irritated with me. "Mommy, you leave mine 'lone."
I don't know what I was thinking, the poor girl's just trying to get some work done and I'm disturbing her with a photo shoot.

Happy Sunday

Lazy, lazy Sunday. The big kids headed off to church with Tony and I stayed behind with the babies. The full force of our illnesses have past but we are still wiping a few lingering snotty noses. I dont get much done on these days. "Cause you're on the computer, Stacy." No, no. I just sat down for a minute, and I'm snuggling a sleepy baby, so I'm multitasking.

So dinner is all ready to be put into the oven, the house is (somewhat) clean, and mom is coming over to watch the kids so Tony can bring me out for a birthday lunch. And just maybe I can talk him into stopping at Best Buy because there are a few things I "need" there.

Wishing you a happy Sunday. Don't let the clouds fool you, it's really a beautiful day.

I'm Baaaack!

We've been laying low today, mostly due to a little touch of the sickies in the house, so I was able to take a few minutes to get my computer up and running again. I lost everything so it's taking a while to get all my programs installed. Photoshop was the very first, of course.

Other than a trip to the doctors, we spent the day, catching up on schoolwork and holding cranky babies. We were pleasantly surprised with a warm rain storm this afternoon. Grace ran out with the rest of the kids but soon remembered that, though she was feeling much better, she just wasn't ready for a run in the rain. So we watched from the door.

It's been a while and I have many pictures to share. So, hmm, I guess I'll put up a few from Easter. Here ya go.

"Who, me? No, I didn't make him cry."

Well...

Miss me yet?

The PC is in for repairs... again.

So I will keep it short because I'm on a borrowed computer. I needed to get some bills payed, but of course, I had to quickly check the blogs. Though the break has been nice, I sure do miss my networking. I really, really miss it. Sigh.

Can we talk?

Are you all just so excited about spring being here? By the time I got out of work this afternoon, it was warm enough to leave the jackets home. We took a walk to the library to return a few books and videos that we never got to watch because our DVD player quit on us. :( Old Yeller will have to wait until we get a new one, I guess.

...best dog gone dog in the west...

I left the camera at home on purpose. I always regret it when I get there and someone is looking oh so cute, but some times, you need to look at your children face to face instead of through the lens. I know most people don't have this problem, but those of us that are photo junkies, you understand where I'm coming from. So midway up the hill, pushing the double stroller, right before my heart attack, Paige saw how much I was struggling and took the stroller from me, giving me the "you are so pathetic, old lady" grin. And it's a good thing, cause we wouldn't have made it.

So good, it was, to feel that warm breeze, to feel the sun beating down on my shoulders, to watch the kids run ahead to roll down the hill and run their fingers through the finally dry grass. We walked through a cloud of little bugs and I didn't even mind. "Dats wonfool." -as Gracie would say. And it was just that- wonderful.

Tomorrow will be warmer yet. We had a birthday party planned but I'm pretty sure it will be cancelled due to illness. (An illness that I refuse to get, just so you know. We have already had our fill.) So we need to figure out just how we will take advantage of this upcoming gorgeous day...

I'll let you know. ;)