Halloween

I'll come back to Weezie's bday after this post, but wanted to get halloween out there while it's easy to download on the laptop.

Trick or treating has become one Lover's favorite experiences with the girls over the last 2 years.  It's such a fun time to be enjoying the fun they're having alongside of you.  He told me that he wants to make the night be just our family b/c, before long, they're gonna be too cool to run along with us and be excited and it'll be all about their friends.  So, what's better than Mommy and Daddy, a sack full of candy and running aimlessly in the streets???

And now for the most important part... the unicorn fairy, the chicken and the ladybug.

Dividing the spoils.

Tribute to the one year old

I was remiss after posting the last post that I didn't give any comments about our darling little baby.  I have to say that she has been the most delightful addition to our family over the past year.  Our hearts are so smitten with her, all 4 of us, that I cannot imagine enjoying a baby more.  I want her to stay little and cute just like she is right now and not change. 

Lately, we've especially loved hearing her babble... sounds like "cully, cully, cully." Also love when she tries to jump (just her feet staying firmly planted but her body doing jumping motions).  Her smile is precious especially when she does the extra cheesy version and shows all 6 teeth.  She's cute when she claps along to the music in the car and even gets giggly excited when she hears one particular song on the Sesame Street cd that we play a lot (letter H). 

We love you Meredith -- don't go changin'!

Photo with Gogo... she'll learn how important a person Gogo is in her life as soon as she's able to chew gum, drink Coke and eat honey buns... should be any day now.

Baby turns 1

We better get with the program and move onto the fall, eh?  Before we do, I gotta catch up on some important events from the summer... like Baby Girl's birthday.

We took our second annual lake trip with the Wolthuis family over her birthday -- oh, I mean, we went to the lake FOR her birthday!

Here are all the other kiddos riding in a car that Perry made.  Notice the blocks she built to form the outside, the circle toy as the steering wheel and the cardboard box as the baby doll's car seat. 

We had a wonderful time at the lake... thanks Wolthuis' for letting us come!

More summertime fun

One way to beat the heat... play dough!

Cute cousins at the beach house... don't know why she's topless.

Getting neglected but happy nonetheless.

She feels like such a big girl when she's allowed to do this.  She actually does great!

This has been the summer of swimming for her.  Took swim lessons for the first time ever and they helped tremendously... mainly with just getting her to be comfortable putting her head under water.  From there (where she plateau-ed with her teacher), she has gotten braver and braver on her own.  Wouldn't say she's competently swimming yet, but definitely making excellent progress.  She's encouraged when she sees her friends doing it... competitive nature just like her parents.

A visit to the trailer park.  Oh, wait, this is in our yard.  We have on our "yard suits" complete with safety pins and such.  Some of us don't even have a yard suit.

Perry throws a luncheon

Hopefully the first of many to come! P asked and asked if she could have her teachers over for lunch.  I was thrilled at her initiative and desire to serve them, so encouraged the idea.  We had a lovely lunch with her teachers from her 3-year-old class.  I let her select the "china" (Elmo), make the place cards and help with the cupcakes and flower arrangement among other things.  She was so very proud and very much in her element!

Thank you, Mrs. Ashley and Mrs. Leslie for all your hard work, patience and wonderfully creative ideas!  She had a wonderful year and felt so comfortable with both of these kind-hearted women. 

Summer Visit

Backtracking a bit and starting with June, the girls and I went to SC for VBS and a little visit with Bibi and Gogo, with whom they love to spend time.  As seen above, a little blackberry picking at Uncle Randy's where we had to relieve ourselves (happens EVERYWHERE we go).  Granddaddy love and then a celebration of twenty-something years of teaching... Mom has finally retired so we went to dinner to celebrate.  We're proud of your hard work, Mom!

Many more summer posts to catch up on!

Precious

Can you stand the cuteness??

  9 months old and counting ...

Bike love and potty training

Our big girl is really changing.  She is absolutely loving the bike that we bought last fall and hid away until recently.  Honestly, the impetus for bringing it out was because little sister is obsessed with the tricycle.  I purchased some training wheels and she didn't hesitate to ride the bike.  The first day she had it, she was walking thru the kitchen and offered, "I love my bike."  It kind of melted my heart b/c she doesn't really like much... that sounds so lame, but it is true.  Unfortunately, she is not a very expressive child when she's happy (verbally or emotionally) but when she's not happy, it's easier to emote.  Regardless, I am thrilled that she loved this hand-me-down, yard sale find and knows no difference.  Other things she is very into right now:  coloring or any sort of craft for many hours at the Dining Room table, telling me the newest theme for her next birthday (chickens is the latest) and instruments (she watches Caillou and I think she got it from him... we were face painting the other day and she asked me if I'd paint a trombone on her face.  I declined.  Not b/c I can't draw one of those or anything!). 

Then there's girl #2 up there who is still a mess!  She's a love and a half, but still a bit mischievous.  Her emotions, unlike Nucky's, are right out there on her sleeve.  Here's a shot of her riding her "bicycle."  She learned to ride it like she's done everything else.  She climbed on even before her feet hit the pedals, and very determinedly reached for those pedals and made it work without help from anyone else.  She's done the same thing with potty training.  She literally took her diaper off and used the potty by herself.  Her sister went into the storage room and got the little potty.  I had little to do with the whole event.  This was about 2 or 3 months ago.  Very motivated to be a big girl.  No one can help dress her or really do anything that she thinks she's capable of. 

I had to include a shot of Nucky when she was 2 and potty training in those same boots.  Love this shot of the little bum.

Another cute thing about Weez is that she likes to read books to us now.  Here's how every page goes, "Once upon a story, there was a li-tul gull."  And then she turns the page, "Once upon a story, there was a li-tul gull."  Until she's at the last page... "Be end."

You may have thought I quit listing the current book I'm reading but I have not forgotten.  I've just been on the same book for the last 6 months and finally finished it yesterday.  A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.  Story set in India about 2 brothers, friendship, etc.  A hard read, provocative, sometimes entertaining ... don't know that it was great b/c there was so much injustice and little redemption.  What a sell, eh?  It's historical fiction-esque. 

I'm gonna post baby next.  Need to download some pics of her NOT in the stroller.

A little vacation

A little stir crazy around here, so we planned a trip to the Great Smoky Mtns Nat'l Park while on our way to Cincinnati to visit the Cadoras. Maybe the pictures tell the story. It was a wonderful family vacation for all of us and worth the long car ride!  Loved our condos which included 4 pools, a putt-putt course and playground among other things.

Easter 2010 - He is risen!

The posed picture.

Then it all went to you-know-where.

Note:  though known to be a bruiser, the band-aid is just for looks.

It was in the Easter basket.  They were gone in 24 hrs.

                                Yummy.  Candy buttons.  An ingenious candy for my kids b/c they

                                can't eat too much in one sitting.  Too much work involved.  I haven't
                                blogged about Christmas dinner, have I?  After eating candy ALL DAY
                                LONG (some Mommy knew about, some she didn't), the grown ups
                                are finally sitting down at the dinner table complete with china and silver.
                                This little girl (Bruiser, Squeezie, etc) comes up to me and throws up
                                hot pink and green and many other colors of candy she'd had all day.
                                It got a good laugh, but I was a bit taken by the whole thing!

Caro-sail!

It's a special day when we can go see Daddy at his work and ride the "caro-sail."  This statement may sound as confusing to you as it did to Nucky.  When asked awhile back where Daddy works, she replied, "at the mall."  Well, he does work near a mall and that is where we meet him when we go to lunch with him on a work day, so that's what she thinks.  At least she's finally started calling it the carosail and not the ferris wheel!

The expressions in this picture kill me... so typical of each of their personalities -- Little Miss Poised and Cautious and Little Miss Calamitous and Kooky!

Botanical Gardens... we love this place!

Seems like as soon as the weather is remotely warm, I hurry over to our Botanical Gardens.  It's a win-win, as I think I have said before.  We all get to enjoy God's creation... love seeing names of plants I like and don't know, so I'm learning and growing in my love of gardening AND they have 2 slides and several other fun kids things like walking thru the caterpillars mouth and thru his body until he becomes a butterfly... so girls get some Vitamin D and enjoy the sunshine.  We did take baby along, but she didn't make it into the pictures so I will add a photo of her from when we were playing in the driveway!

Doesn't Lover have a great eye for photography... or maybe he was hungry for some kale?

Bathtime and loves

First bath with all the sisters -- little MM doesn't know what to think, as you can see!  The big girls thought it was so fun and kept "feeding" her sea creatures.

On a different note, I wanted to mention a couple of things that are noteworthy for my memory.  As of last week celebrating St. Patrick's Day, Nucky has been so obsessed with leprechauns.  It started when her teacher described said creatures as if they were mini-Santas b/c they come when children are on the playground and bring treats and leave little green footprints behind.  She came home from school and the first thing she said when she jumped in the car was, "Mom, the leprechauns came!  They turned the potty water green!"  Yes, Mrs. Ashley went ALL out and even had the little green guys turn the toilet water green... how exciting!  In this 4 year old's mind, it was all she could think about.  She didn't get near this excited about Santa and his elves.  She continued to talk about this all day and was quite occupied with her little pot of gold filled with a gold rock and gold coin candy.  When I went in her room after bedtime, she quietly said to me before I left, "Mom, Mrs. Carney said that when she came in from the playground she saw a leprechaun running down the hall!"  Funny what they get into.

Squeezie's love right now is YOGURT.  She wakes up yelling from her crib, "Wogurt, Mommy."  If you don't give it to her, she continues to chant for it.  She would eat her weight in those cultures if I'd let her.  Cute little thing, she is!  She stayed home from school yesterday and was entertaining herself at the table with the resurrection eggs (tactile tool to tell the Easter story - love them).  I caught her using the nail as silverware.  I got it on camera...

Here's the baby!

You've been asking and I've just not taken a lot of photos of this sweet one.  I guess b/c everytime I have the camera out, she's in her carrier.  Not a really cute photo to me when they're all bunched up in there.  So here she sits in her Bumbo seat, scantily clad.  She is 6 months old now.  Wow.

Birthday and Snow

Nucky is now 4 and we celebrated with a clown party. The only thing "clown" about it were the invitations, favors and one game. She insisted on the theme, so we ran with it as much as possible. See below for the favors (clown nose and glasses)


We made party hats b/c she loves to wear party hats. When she gets one at school from someone else's bday, it stays around our house until it's totally ripped apart (about 3 hrs).

Little sis also enjoyed the party... maybe posing for the camera was more fun for her.

Thought these were funny!

And then we have had 2 snows. This one pictured below was beautiful and at least 4-6".

I like to eat anything... snow was no exception. She ate it off the ground (you know, the kind that's been stepped on and yucky... she's not refined in her taste yet).

Meet Percy... he still hasn't completely melted.