Smiles, funny faces, and swings

Audie has been asking me to take pictures of her. So, last night we did just that. It didn't last very long, but I'll take what I can get. I love it when the girls volunteer themselves to be in front of the camera.

After just a few shots, she got silly, and did these two faces before she got up and ran away. Crazy kid.

I laid down under Corinne swinging last night and took these pics. Cool.

Lately

We have finished school for the year, and summer has begun. I have to say, it feels pretty good to not have a "schedule". Days have been lazy, and it has been great.We have been playing outside a lot, and talking about a summer vacation. I love summertime!

Our fam and some friends went out for dinner on my birthday. It was a great evening. Here's Matt and I that night outside of the restaurant.

A mommy robin built a nest in the wreath on our porch. At first I wasn't thrilled about it...but actually it has been kind of fun watching the little birds grow. The first two birds actually hatched on my birthday! Here they are just a couple of days old...

 and now the 4 of them barely fit in the nest! I'm sure they will be flying away soon.

Corinne is a kid with a personality. Organization is one of them. The other day she put together a "to-do" list and hung it on her wall. Super cute.

The girls play with Playmobil toys almost daily. Audie has found it a convenient excuse to not pick it up because "we are going to play with it later today". Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesnt. :)
I had Playmobil toys growing up. I loved them. They are so cute, and the toys have great detail. Though the sets are a wee bit pricey, they are great!

Corinne is really good about practicing her piano songs. I usually don't even have to tell her to do it. She has done great with piano! I hope it is something she will want to stick with.

Last week a pretty nasty storm rolled in. The hail left us with needing a new roof, new guttering, and a new window that broke out. Leaves blew like crazy...after the storm there were leaves plastered to the fronts and sides of all the houses on our block (and neighborhood). It did have it's beauty...

Selah has kept us on our toes...she is fully in her two-year old stage. Throwing fits, hitting her sisters, and giving her angry eyebrow scowl is much of what she does these days. And as a result, time out and swats are her gift in return. A disobedient child definitely humbles you and your need for wisdom in child rearing! Still, Selah is sweet and loving and so much fun.
Story: When the girls take baths, we squirt the soap from the bottle into their hands. It always forms some type of shape, and the girls like to see what the squirt turned out like and name the shape. For instance, a moon, or the letter "C", etc. The other night, Matt squirted some soap into Selah's hand and she asked, "What is it?" Matt told her it looked like Goofy (you know, from Mickey Mouse?) and Selah said, "Gorsh!" in the best impression of Goofy she could do. It was great. I love my kids.

Mother's Day 2013

Me and my girls on Mother's Day. I am a blessed lady.

Audie Says

Audie: "Mom, was there a Mrs. Jesus?"

Happy Birthday, Selah!

Selah turns two today! This morning I was remembering what happened the Tuesday that she was born. I have been thinking about how she's not a "baby" anymore, I don't really carry her around on my hip as she makes her own way around. She keeps up with her sisters and has turned from the "little sister" into being included in what her older sisters are doing.

She has also molded the outgoing personality, saying, "HI!" and "BYE!" to random people in the store, also saying, "THANKS!" as we leave a cash register after paying for our items. She doesn't seem to be afraid of much, jumping off of couches and climbing everything. 

She also has a sweetness about her, she loves to give hugs and will stop in the middle of something to give a kiss. She has her "favorite" people that she goes out of her way to snuggle with, too.

Happy Birthday, Se!!

Picture Outtakes

Keeping with the tradition of birthday pictures, we did Selah's two year old pictures this evening. (She doesn't turn two until Thursday, but the forecast is calling for rain and maybe snow, so I wanted to get them out of the way instead of delay them) While I won't share the favorites in this post, I will share a few of the outtakes. Her personality definitely shines in these photos...you can see that she is quite the little rascal.

Side note: Shelby and Lauren...I thought of you all evening as I chased this two year old around hoping for at least one good picture while battling the wills of a two year old. :) It happens to all of us!

With some crazy faces, here is my Selah.

Selah

I love this picture of Selah.

I took the picture on my phone last week. She was in a chipper mood and I was enjoying the few minutes I had alone with her while the older girls were playing together. 

Selah turns two this week. WOW! I have definitely noticed the change from "baby" to toddler... She talks, she is quirky and funny, and has developed a very outgoing personality.

Love her!

They sure are cute when they are sleeping, huh?



Rewind 2 hours before this and she wasn't so cute. After finishing up school this morning we ran a couple of errands. I had do drop off a photo CD and we also went by a camera store before having lunch with a friend. In the camera store, the older girls were okay for a while, until they started fighting over the stroller that Selah was no longer in, punching and hitting each other while Selah was in my arms. Screaming, I might add. I had to politely tell the gentleman I was talking to that we would have to come back another time, and I apologized and left. 

When we got to the car, I was pretty mad. I expect more out of my older girls. They know better. Don't get me wrong, they fight, punch, and hit all of the time. But they know how to act, and especially in a public place. 

I called Matt and told him what happened and asked for his advice on a proper punishment. He gave me a couple of options...but, I almost drove the girls back to the store to make them go in and apologize for disrupting their business. 

Fast forward to lunch with our friend Lauren and chaos continues. The girls have to go to the bathroom in the middle of lunch, which is fine. It was a small place; we were the only ones in there, so I told them to take themselves to the bathroom. Then, get this...Selah "has to go potty". Untrained Selah needs to go to the bathroom. Right. "Potty mommy. Mon! Mon!" (that's how she says, "come on".  I told her no, which resulted in a fit and more screams, much like the screams in the camera store.

I suppose the best thing to do in these times is look at them as teachable moments. Many times, days like this are a reminder to why we don't go anywhere...it's just not the easiest thing to get out with 3 little ones. But, they also need to learn how they are supposed to act, and today was a good opportunity for that. The older girls lost privileges and hopefully it's painful enough that they will remember next time. If not, we do it again, right? Oh, for the record, Audie wanted to go back to the store and apologize for her behavior, and keep her privileges. Too bad "mommy powers" don't include knowing your kids' brain to know what they are thinking.

In other news, all has been good. This last weekend we had a nice family day, out to lunch together and to go look at some trees to plant in the backyard. I still am glad the kitchen is done, and we have moved on to other projects! I have some fabric ready to start another quilt, and Matt ordered a couple books last night to start reading. Matt's birthday is this weekend, and Selah's next week. And, mine the week after that! 

Until next time...

Saying Goodbye to the Pacifier

It was time to say goodbye to the paci. I decided to use the helium balloons again since it worked so well with Audie. (See Audie's pacifier balloon launch here)
Even though Selah and Audie were approximately the same age when we got rid of the pacifiers, I felt like Audie was so much more aware of what was going on than Selah was in the process. As you can see from Audie's pacifier launch, she waved goodbye, and paid attention to what was going on. I had a harder time with Selah, making sure she really knew and paid attention to her pacifiers sailing away. I wanted her to have the memory so when she asked about a paci she remembered that she watched her pacifiers fly into the sky.

So Thursday we went to the store and picked up some balloons. Then, came home and gathered all of the pacifiers to tie them to the balloons.

She sucked on them to the last minute...even with the balloon ribbon attached.

Then we let them go. Fail. Two of the three balloons got stuck in the tree. Selah ran to the tree and said,
"paci! paci!"

She has asked about the pacifiers since Thursday, but after we tell her that they went away on balloons she does seem to remember. She has been okay without them though. So far so good!

Audie says

I sat down to play the piano this afternoon, and a few minutes later Audie came around the corner and said, "Mom, this is my favorite thing of you." Then she started dancing to what I was playing. She didnt know it but she made my day!

Sent from my iPhone

"Corinne hates cursive"

We struggled with school today in the cursive department. Corinne's cursive paper had comments like, "Corinne hates cursive." And, "Zona said cursive is just scribbling", also, "can we skip cursive". We had to take a breather and re-visit it later in the day.

A letter from the President

You may know that Corinne is totally into American History and President stuff. Last fall, for school, I had her write a letter to President George W. Bush. She wrote him a letter telling him about her family, how old she was, etc. And she drew him a picture as well. We mailed it to him hoping for a quick response! That was several months ago now, and I had thoughts about giving up on a reply. I was going to have her write him again, hoping persistence would pay off. But- last Thursday, Corinne went out to check the mail and came running back in with the envelope from George W. Bush, addressed to her.

President Bush thanked her for writing, and thanked her for the picture. He said that he and Mrs. Bush were working on an exhibit to be opening this spring. He also challenged her to do good in school and work hard because the future was in her hands! 

 Very cool, and made me a proud mom! 

Here are a few pics of my 3rd quilt. I named this one "Quadrants" and gave it to one of my high school math teachers who is now a lovely friend and mentor. 

If I woke up at 6:45 am*, I would fall asleep on the couch sitting up, too. The only thing is I did wake up at 6:45 am... Because this little booger did. And naps on the couch aren't in the agenda for me today.

Practicing piano

Selah is finding out how to help herself out of the crib after her nap....

Pink hair and a conversation about toasters...

Leave it to kids to prove you wrong about things. Tonight I told the girls never to stick anything in the toaster except bread... "Don't put knives, or forks, or spatulas in the toaster because you might get shocked. So, only put bread in the toaster."

Then Audie chimes in, "what about pop tarts?"
Me: "ok, yes- pop tarts are fine. "
Corinne: "what about waffles?"
Me: "yeah, waffles are ok too"

Corinne: "so.... Not 'just' bread"

Ugh.

How do you like Audie with pink hair? I actually think it kind of suits her. I wonder though if she was 15 and asking me to dye her hair pink if I would feel the same way. Tonight was crazy hair night at AWANA. Her hair usually is crazy already, we just "pretty-fied" it with some pink spray.

A nice walk in the park on the oddly warm December days we have been having.

Indoor picnic