Elizabeth

This girl has got some mad cutting skills and cut up Grandmas ginger ale box and made this gem!! Today she also told me she was starting to get scared of spiders. Then a few minutes later she asked me what kind of scientist studies spiders. Before I could answer her ( read: Google it) she said oh I think it's an arachnologist!! What?! Yes. Yes that's right. She asked when she could start being one and I told her she had to learn about it first. So guess what we're doing tomorrow?! Then we face timed Grandpa B to ask about his pet tarantula he used to have. 

She also came running down the stairs this morning so excited to tell me that she said her morning prayer all by herself!  So proud of her. Then tonight at bedtime we were going through all the "steps" of bedtime. Step #8 is go to sleep but she sat up and said no mom, step #8 is ask questions!! And that along with I'm thirsty and I'm having a bad dream ( before even falling asleep) are the other two common excuses to avoid sleep!

Daddy love

This baby LOOOOVES his daddy!!!!!! He's started doing this to him every chance he gets and it's just adorable. He patiently waits for him to notice him and then pick him up. He'll usually leaps out of my arms straight into his too!

Chameleon

I love this little girl. She's happy to play alone, with her siblings, a babysitter, a cousin, most any friend....she's like a chameleon! In this picture she's playing with putty and a bouncy ball. Just happy as can be!

The view

I hope I never, ever, ever forget this view!!!! I'm going to take a thousand pictures just in case😀 he is just so sweet and sensitive and I love watching his curly hair grow!! I'm so blessed to have this baby. He brings all of us so much joy. 

Iron Man

He's been asking for an Iron Man costume for a LONG time and we've been waiting for the costumes to appear at Costco since they are usually the best price.....today was his lucky day!!!! While I can't believe they're in so early, he is one happy, happy kid! He's had to do a lot of extra chores to earn this one ( and he talked me into a Batman one too but  he can't have it until he does a lot more work!). 

Last day being 3

Sigh. Her last day of being 3. It's been a fun year and she has grown and changed and learned a lot! I love her at this age. She has her moments, but overall she is a sweet girl who loves to have fun! 

So this was her and I snuggling first thing this morning (her twirling her hair):

And bedtime snuggles!! I Layed with her and told her all my favorite things about her and she was soaking them up and told me " mommy I will love you forever and never leave you. I will eat, sleep, play with you and only leave you when you have to put Parker to bed, but then leave the door open a little." Oh she makes me smile!!!! I can't wait to celebrate with her tomorrow!

P-town in May

We took a trip over so that Mark could go to a Fun Fly in Othello and because we hadn't been over since the beginning of the year! We had a lot of fun and we were so happy we could spend time with Grandma, Grandpa and say goodbye to Matt and Karrie's house before they moved out.

Here is Mark practicing:

Annie grew attached to this little squirrel that used to be loved by Uncle Justin:)

 We took the kids to visit the sand dunes for the first time and they thought it was so fun and cool!! They ask all the time to go back!

 I forgot for a minute how  much I love this place in the spring...it is BEAUTIFUL!!! Not to hot and the sunsets are always gorgeous. It gave us some good lighting for pictures too!

 The first strawberries from Grandma's patch!

 Parker hung in there for awhile but fell asleep and it was too cute!!

6 months!!

This sweet baby is 6 months old!!! Here is what he's like right now

* sits up like a champ ( since 5 months)

* army crawls ALL the time!! Occasionally he'll practice rocking on all fours. 

* still only has the cutest 2 bottom teeth with no more looking even close to coming in!

* fascinated by other hands and fingers. The other night he giggled and played for 5 minutes straight with mine!

* really loves watching his siblings. He likes to watch Mark jump on the bed, he likes to try and play with Elizabeths glasses and hair and he'll either laugh or cry with Annie depending on how close she is to his face!

* he is really sensitive to others emotions. He will often cry when his siblings are crying. But laugh when they are! He usually looks at me first to see if it's ok and if I don't give him a reassuring smile he'll get super sad! Today he cried when he saw Annie wearing sunglasses for the first time!

* starting to get upset when I leave him, even if it's just the other room

* loves when we sing to him, especially twinkle twinkle

* still likes a soother and back rubs 

* gets mad when we take away something he shouldn't be playing with

* gets up 2-4 times a night. Probably because he can't be bothered to eat too much during the day since there are toys waiting to be chewed!

* usually only naps twice. 

* does this cute thing with people where he stares and smiles until they look at him and then he hides his face in my shoulder. Then just keeps doing that and it's SO CUTE!!!

* overall still an easy, happy, goes with the flow baby!!

We feel so blessed to have him in our family and love him SO MUCH!!!!!

Shays 7th bday!

Our first day of play together was so fun! They wasted no time getting into costume...even JD!!

Then the birthday girl lost a tooth!!!

And 1 minute later, Ivy took her FIRST sip ever ( my smoothies must be good!)

Then these 2 played so happily and I was wishing for Tai to be here too ( Annie keeps calling Ivy Tai. And Angela Meagan:)

It was time for some fresh air!!!!!

We played outside until dinner time then we let the kids all decorate their own cake pops!! They all had tons of fun. 

The birthday girl!! 

Then it was pj party time and Shay picked Aladdin as her movie for the night. Popcorn in hand, we ended the night!

Cute stuff the kids say

Today Elizabeth wanted a pet cat. But she knows that I am allergic to them. So she asked me how I can become not allergic to cats, like can I take a medicine to make it go away?! When I told her that's not how it works her final solution was to keep the cat in her room with the door closed all the time. How smart, sweet and cute is that?! 

Yesterday at the park I had just finished nursing Parker and was talking to a mom when another mom yelled out "who's kid is this? Her pants are pulled down?" Ummm ya, that was Miss Independent Annie looking for a potty!! She's still learning to wait until she gets to the bathroom to pull them down!

Mark is obsessed with being older and keep saying he wishes he was 65 or 100. He said that when he turns 100 he will be as tall as the clouds!!! 

Our Annie

Ok so this past week while Mark was away, in true Annie fashion... She decided to potty train herself!!!!!! We've tried several times over the past year, but once SHE made up her mind to do it, it got done. And she doesn't want ANY help. If I try she tells me she needs privacy or space! We are entering our 3rd day of no accidents and staying dry at night. It's AMAZING!!

Today she also out of nowhere starting walking around on her toes....it was so weird and funny and painful to watch! 

It's no secret that this girl loves animals. The neighborhood kids often find them and yesterday it was a salamander!! She loved it. 

Today's animal was a big black beetle that all the kids were playing with for about 30 minutes or so. They were flipping it over and watching it crawl and pushing it with sticks and when I went inside for a minute I came back out to find out that Annie had stomped on it! Some of the kids were sad so they started to bury him in dirt and flower petals. When I asked her why she just said " it was a mean bug". She still loves snails so much and Elizabeth finally told her the other day that she can't name them all Turbo!

Tonight after reading her a book titled Little Sparkle about a princess fairy, I closed it up and said goodnight my little sparkle and she hugged me and said " Mom I want you to call me that everyday"!

She is growing up, getting taller, taking speech therapy and looking older. Her speech therapist says I baby her too much... Which is completely true! I can't help it she's so dang cute!!  

How awesome is this baby?! He loves being outside:

Loves to fall asleep/sleep/nurse holding on to at least one of my fingers:

Loves reading (well ok eating) books:

And loves to chew on his feet! Like obsessively! It must feel good on the two bottom teeth he's getting!!!