everybody look at momma!!!

there’s something irresistible to me about trying to get the perfect picture of my children.  i guess i just love being frustrated because i know 99 out of 100 times attempting group shots of my kids leave me so super frustrated!  one thing i’ve learned over the past couple of years though is that my definition of perfect has changed.  a perfect picture used to involve all children looking straight at the camera with perfect smiles and positioned exactly as i put them.  i could totally tell you all the things about the picture below that aren’t “perfect” yet i love it.  it’s real.  there is so much of my kids’ personalities in this picture.  that’ makes it perfect!  i’m super excited to get the 8×10 free canvas print up of it i ordered right after taking it.

this boy: loves to have socks and shoes on at all times!

this girl:  loves to run barefoot in the grass!

this girl:  loves to be in her momma’s arms!

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sitting tall

there is seriously something about laurel learning to sit on her own which makes her look so much older to me.  she and i will both be very glad when she figures out this balancing on her bottom issue though.  she’s definitely not a weeble (“weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down”) because she is very good at falling down!  i’m hoping once she gets a little more comfortable and confident that she will once again play happily without me being right with her.

enjoy a few picture of her practicing her sitting skills!

 

berry happy

this girl is berry, berry happy to once again be headed back into berry season!

bringing back 1987

it’s a quiet wednesday around here. with our wednesday evening activities up at kok done until fall, we have no reason to rush around or even get out of our jammies.  (we will though if we go grocery shopping this evening.)  after finishing up lunch i wanted to entertain the kids with something that would no lead to a catastrophic mess.

rewind a to this past weekend when i was scouring my teaching bins to find some floral wire i know was one time there in attempt to make a cute flower out of ribbon for the girls.  i didn’t find the wire, but i did run across my tuppertoys stencils from way back in elementary school.

i pulled them out today, and the kids had fun playing with them.  nate obviously had a better grasp on how to correctly use them, but jilly was just as happy to play around with them.

makes me smile to know that what i had so much fun with as a kid is also a lot of fun for my kids!

“take a picture of my purple pencil momma!!!  cheeeeeeeessssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeee!”

easter pics

no picture of my 3 together. by the time we got home from our full day, we quickly grabbed a bite to eat and whisked the kids off to bed.  if the weather cooperates, i plan to redress them in their easter outfits and get a group shot hopefully tomorrow.

clothing quirks

it seems as if i daily get less and less of a say in what jilly mae wears.  luckily the day she picked out this beautiful collection we were headed nowhere.  hey, at least her shoes aren’t on the wrong feet as they usually are!

and this one, she let’s me pick her clothes out still, but seems to have something against having two socks on at the same time.

He’s Alive!!!

happy easter!!!

love this and thought i would share:

party time!

this past saturday nate had his first non-family only birthday party.  i figured it was about time, and he loved every moment of it.  h had asked a few of my small group girls to help me out with games and such since they are way more creative in that area.  they arranged a candy/toy hunt, pin the wheel on the tractor game, duck-duck-goose (nate’s request), and face painting.  that along with some time to just play kept everyone busy.  we a fun time, but it was exhausting.  i think it took me a full day to recover and just looking at the pictures makes me tired all over again!!!  thank goodness we don’t have another child with a birthday until august!!!

the easy life

why learn to do anything yourself,

when you have a brother and sister who are more than happy to help do it all for you?

laurel @ 6 months

{what?!?! i made it to six months?!?!?}

{wait, i’m not sure i understand why this is a big deal}

{forget needing to understand it, mom seems happy so i’m happy!}

official stats:

weight: 14lb 4oz (18th percentile)

height: 25 3/4 inches (52nd percentile)

head circumference: (16 1/2 inches (33rd percentile)

this is definitely one of those cases of the days often being so long, but the weeks and months passing so quickly.  it’s hard to believe that we are already at the 6 month mark.  i’m getting around to writing this almost a week late, and it seems as if she’s already changed so much in just the past 5 days!

here’s a little of what’s going on with miss laurel:

• first things first, her hair is growing, but is way to super fine and straight to dream of holding a bow any time soon. 😦  we do occasionally go the headband route, but her head is so tiny that they often end up over her eyes or around her neck.
• we are close to sitting up independently and are better and better every day.  this is one thing that i think makes her look so much bigger now!
• she’s mostly sleeping through the night other than needing a paci reinserted in her mouth.
• naps 2 to 3 times a day for totally random times.  will usually nap for at least an hour in the afternoon though which is so, so nice!
• nurses 4x a day and gets one formula feeding in the late afternoon each day
• has been doing rice cereal once a day for several weeks.  just started veggies 2 weeks ago, and now do 2 feedings a day which include rice cereal and veggies.
• her babbling has suddenly increased and sounds as if she’s having a full fledged conversation with us or herself, but she’s definitely not speaking english yet 😉
• has graduated into her 6-9 and 6-12 month clothes for length reasons.  she can easily fit waist-wise in her 3-6, but we aren’t going to go the high water route in the pants department.
• totally unpredictable when it comes to her willingness to tolerate others holding her.  all last week she’d cry if i wasn’t holding her every waking moment even if it was brad who was trying to give me a break.  then saturday, she let several others hold her with very little protesting.
• loves toys, and she has definitely perfected the art of getting them dropped on the floor and begging for help.
• her favorite non-lap or arms place to be is either playing in her crib or exersaucer.

i’m sure there’s more, but laurel is now spitting up orange sweet potatoes, and jilly is coming down the stairs after finishing her 2 hour nap.  let the afternoon craziness begin!!!