The Green Holiday

 

St Patrick's Day...

I know, it's a lame holiday.
But for the fun of the kiddos, I play along.
Kind of. 
It fell on a Sunday this year, so the kids dressed up in their green the Friday before for school, since Emmie was having a St. P's party that day.

This little cutie showing off her newly acquired skill of standing (without assistance)!



 We had no Leprechaun tricksters this year, but the kids did find baggies of green treats on our doorstep after church.  Nothing too exciting but the kids thought it was awesome.
 I'm all about trying to create awesomeness for my kids, but
why I contribute to the crazy parade of sugar that begins on Halloween and marches right through Easter, is a good question. The six pounds that I've gained since Christmas is so not cool, and the only thing I can really attribute it to has been my lack of self control with all these sweets in my house! I never creep over a certain weight, unless I'm pregnant, and I'm a little freaked out to see triple digits on the scale!
It's truly a little ridiculous all the hoards of candy we end up with post Christmas, V-Day, St P Day and Easter.
I'm thinking next year we'll just celebrate with green smoothies and call it good! As for Easter.... carrots and deviled eggs will have to be our new go-to.
As Chris says, "It's got to stop!".
I concur. Yes, it does.
Meanwhile, you'll find me on the treadmill.
Well, hopefully anyways. :)

 

March Sunday afternoon impromptu photo shoot

The weather is finally warming up around here. Well, maybe not today since it (barely) snowed here last night, but on a whole,  the much-anticipated signs of warmer days and the end of hibernation are finally taking notice. Our tulips are budding up through the ground,  the neighborhood crowd of kiddos are reuniting on their bikes and scooters, little knocks of friends asking to play with P and E are rapping at our door, and the sun which has been rare this last 4-5 months is making a welcome appearance. I am an admitted homebody, so I don't mind the excuse of staying in and laying low during the winter months, but by the season's end I am itching to get out again and interact more with our amazing friends/neighbors on our street.

One Sunday afternoon in March, it was barely and finally warm enough, so I conned our crew outside right after church to take a few pictures.

Lexi wasn't so willing for the group pics (this is the best I could get her), but warmed up after a bit. She is quite the moody little one so that kind of sums her up, although in her defense it was also lunch time and her afternoon nap was calling her name.
 On a side note, Emmie is a bit overdressed, even for church, but she wore this dress to Uncle Dustin's wedding in October and we are trying to make good use of it (and no better place for doing that than church, right?). Also, E insists on wearing that necklace (which is mine) every time she wears this dress.
 She thinks it's just so "stylish".:)

This little 6 year old is getting so big! His size 6 pairs of pants that he just started fitting into last Fall are already just about too short on him. Good thing we will be transitioning to shorts soon.
His reading skills are pretty amazing and he can read just about anything. When my phone dings with a text he will run it to me, telling me what it says. Not sure I love that. :) And our days of Chris and I being able to spell things to each other when we don't want our kids to know what we're talking about are over...we're entering into a new phase!
This early riser is such sweet little guy, a definite chatter box talking nonstop from sun up to sun down, and so smart it's a little scary at times. He is excited to start the spring soccer season and he is also playing T-ball this spring with a bunch of his buddies. He LOVES to play outside and be with his friends.

This little 4 (and a half- as she declares) year old is so sweet, most of the time. I have found that she's super easy going-- when she's not around her antagonizing big brother, who really eggs her on. As long as she is not being teased, she is very loving and affectionate. She's been taking gymnastics since September and loves it. We carpool every Monday with her friends and then they have playdates together afterwards. It is so cute to listen in on them playing "house". She loves getting her headband curls (can be found on pinterest) done at night after baths. It's so fast and easy and saves her and I both the headache of doing her hair the next day. She may love sparkles and princesses but also loves dirt and bikes running with the boys. She has recently admitted her love for our next door neighbor Connor, and tells Heavenly Father about her "boyfriend" in her prayers and her plans to marry him and to please bless him. Parker and I try our best to stifle our giggles when she professes such things mid-prayer.
We're not always successful.

Lexi loves her "Darder", and her Emmie (who went inside because she was too cold). She is lucky to have siblings who are so sweet to her.

This little Peanut just turned 18 months, however, her 18 month appt isn't scheduled for another month (long story). In the back of our minds, we continue to worry and wonder about her lack of growth  as it's apparent that she's hardly grown since her last check up, but we're so busy running after her and picking up her tornadoes that we don't have time to worry too much. Which is good, as she is probably just a very petite little Miss! She still fits great in her baby car seat, so when taking her to the store I still tote her around in a shopping cart in her car seat, and she's so light weight it doesn't even hurt my back! Not something that can be done with most 18 month olds. :)
 Her mind is sooo sharp, and her already large vocab grows everyday. She has started to repeat back whatever you say to her and is first to say "ME!" and fold her arms when I ask who is going to say the prayer.  She is gifted in the art of  navigating herself onto everything dangerous she possibly can scale (her fave is to stand on top of the kid-sized wooden table), resulting in lots of close calls and mad dashes to her rescue.
She loves to be the center of attention. She is so sweet and cuddly one minute and the next shows off her red hot temper, screaming at the top of her lungs, most of the time at her siblings, who can enrage her just by looking at her wrong. Hopefully this is just a little phase! ;)
She is most definitely a strong-willed little girl but is so much fun and such a gift and we are so glad to have her in our family!

Sum it up already!

This Winter...

There was lots of snow!
(Our fence is in there somewhere)

Which resulted in snow-removal bonding...

& Roxy swimming in powder.

There were LOTS of sick days & more doctor visits than can be counted...

There was lots of amusement for these two derived by their invented & beloved "Bow Game".

There was lots of mischief...as evidenced here by the suspect's own wall inscription.

There was lots of loving this baby girl...

& there was lots of walking practice.
Go, Lexi, go!

There was lots of using Dad as a human pyramid base.

And there was even more snow!!
Aghhh!

 

New bar stools were bought and are a new favorite seat in the house.

And the cutest fur coat was sent and loved and put to good use from Aunt Suesan.

 

There was lots of  taking care of babies.

These two have continued to think that Kindergarten and Preschool are the best things that have happened to them thus far...

And whose to say otherwise?

This one loved celebrating her half birthday at school...

And this one has been given countless standing ovations for finally standing.

Lots and lots of family birthdays were celebrated.

And the kids got the Peter Pan blu ray for Valentines Day and hoards of candy from school.

I framed & gave printables this year as one of my favorite things at the annual & anticipated 
Favorite Things Party...

And that about sums it up!
Winter has been a-okay, but we have spring fever and are ready to break out of hibernation!
SO glad it's here!!!
Bring on the sunshine!

Mid-thirties, mid-winter, mid-flu season...

Chris turned the big 35 back in January.
How did this happen?
I remember my own Dad's 30th birthday party...
and now my husband is even 5 years older than that...
Crazy.
When did we go and get so old?
He likes to tell me that, "35's not old.... for a guy"....
Ouch.
Good thing I'm only 29. ;)




We were planning to go out on a rare date the night of his birthday. (Rare because of Chris' mostly pm work schedule) He even switched his shift to the early one so we could go. However, between a snow storm and Emmie's vomiting (just the beginning of the ensuing weeks of throw up in January at our house), we were forced to cancel plans and stay home. The kids were excited for him to get home from work and present him with his gifts. They hid all the presents and Parker drew a map to help Chris find them. It amazes me how fast he can whip up something like that. Takes after his Dad - for sure! You can see the map in Chris' hand - it was pretty cute.
Note sick little Emmie in her jams with the "beautiful" bows that she chose to dress up her bed-head hair.

I have severe mommy amnesia lately and cannot remember a thing that he got! And better yet, I don't recall what we ended up doing for our at home celebration although I'm pretty certain it involved cleaning up lots of vomit...Fun birthday! That's what you get when your birthday is in the middle of flu season and you have three susceptible kids I suppose...

 Good thing he had more parties coming. :)

This is also what you might get during your January birthday...

 

 Crazy snow storms and white stuff piled up almost as tall as your fence...
Okay so a lot of that is snow drift. Still...it's snow, and a lot of it!

 

 

I'm always trying to figure out who Lexi looks like, but then I see this picture and it seems so obvious. Same cute little round noses, full, plump lips, same expression, auburn highlights...

Is it just me???

She's a Daddy's Girl through and through!

She loves him so much...

and the rest of us kind of like him too. :)

 

 

Fall 2012

In thinking of all the posts I'd like to catch up on for the sake of preserving my life's ramblings, I realized today that I never posted some pictures we had done back in October by my talented friend and neighbor photographer. Yep, these were taken 5 months ago, but let's face it, playing catch up is what I do on this blog so I'm okay with it. In fact, that pretty much sums up my life with three kids - I'm never caught up on anything anymore! Period.
These were taken during a "mini session", meaning they were done in a fast and furious 15-20 minutes. So crazy but so grateful to get a few good shots for Christmas cards and to hang on my wall....I really appreciate her doing them! I would love to get professional pics done more often, but they are so. stinkin'. expensive!
 

 

 

Love these kids!

Lexi Girl

This cute baby girl had her 15 month check up in January. We were hoping to hear big numbers in the growth department, but we knew that wasn't going to be the case...
 Here are her 15 month stats:
WEIGHT: 16.27 lbs, 1.12%ile
HEIGHT: 27 inches, 0.94%ile
HEAD:                       31.97 %ile

so off to the specialist we went!

We were able to get into see the Pediatric Endocrinologist within just a few weeks. He was a great doctor, and kept referring to himself as a "Growth Detective".
I love cute little Grandpas. :)
He didn't feel that she looked like a typical GHD (Growth hormone deficient) patient, because although she is very short, they typically are short and round (but not always - it's still a possibility).... she is short and proportionately skinny. There are some tests he wants to run on her (to "investigate" her lack of growth as he put it), but her weight is so low that she needs to put on more weight before they will give an accurate reading. SO, for the last 5 weeks we have been trying  to push lots of Vitamin D milk, protein drinks, lots of cheese, etc in hopes that she will gain weight. In June, assuming this has worked, she will have  several tests done, we'll see the specialist again in July, and we'll go from there!:) Poor Lexi has been sick on and off since January with bouts of the stomach flu, 2  colds that both resulted in ear infections (which resulted in many sleepless nights), and this last cold resulted in the lovely bronchiolitis, and RSV. She just got over that about 10 days ago. It's been a rough three months - which explains my MIA status on this blog! Needless to say, with all her sicknesses it's been especially hard to put extra weight on her (she's maybe gained a pound), but we're trying!

Meanwhile here is an update on our little Miss Itty Bitty...



She might not be officially walking, but she is super coordinated and climbs on everything! Walking seems to be the only thing that she seems timid about! Chris left this stool out after changing a light bulb and she climbed right up to the top with ease and taunted me from across the room. Every time I tried to approach her to get her down to safety, she screeched her warning to back off... so I just let proud little Miss Queenie stand on her perch and show off...On a sidenote, yes, she looks like a total raga muffin, with clothes clearly waaay to big for her (& crazy hair), but sometimes I get anxious for her to grow into her awaiting 12 month-sized wardrobe and dress her in them nonetheless.
 

She's been a chatty baby, and as of January 2013, she had at least 25 word in her vocab, but added these new ones in January...
"Wawer" : "water", but really it's what she calls any drink with a straw in it
"Brow" for eyebrow
"Darder" Parker
"Five" to give high fives
"Guys"
"Breb" - Bread
She is always shouting, "HEY!" (Probably because we are always saying that to her tormenting siblings)
"Mine!" (another awesome one)
"Cheese"
"Boppo" Diaper
"Tay" for "K"
and in February she started saying "Emm-e" (with a short E)

The kids put this little back pack (she calls it a "pack pack") on her one day and didn't take it off for nearly two days straight.
Tooth #5 made it's appearance in February (16 months),
 and she took her  first official, unassisted step on 2/27/13. She started cruising around furniture in December, but didn't start standing herself up from mid floor on her own until a few weeks ago. Since then she will take a shaky step, once in a while two, and then falls. The girl just seems to prefer speed crawling! We're working on it though because she will have to start seeing another specialist next month if she doesn't get the hang of walking by then...

She LOOOOVES her Fisher Price Little People and calls them her "babies" or "guys". Chris and I joke that she is our first child to really love toys. She will play and play (Emmie's good at playing with her toys too - Parker - not so much!)! She also loves her stackable cups, the books "Little Blue Truck" and "The Bear Snores On" (I highly recommend both!), her "Peek-a-Shoe elephant ball game, baby dolls, coloring like the big kids, she loves to wear bracelets and tells us they are "pree" (pretty), loves to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and in true toddler fashion likes to unload any drawer or cupboard that might not have a safety lock on it. Between she and the other two, I pretty much never get to sit down as I  do my best to keep up with the endless messes. Sometimes I feel like all I ever do is clean, but ironically my house never seems to get all the way clean!  I have a friend who said that
"Cleaning your house with kids in it is like brushing your teeth while eating oreos"....so so true!

Lexi is such a fun and spunky addition to our family. She definitely has a (loud!) voice and wants it to be heard, and can definitely hold her own against her over-bearing siblings. She loooves her Daddy and kicks her feet, throws up her arms, & lets out a loud shriek while panting like a worn out dog when she hears the garage and thinks he's home. SO CUTE!
 Despite her pint size, she is growing up so fast. I can't believe she's almost 18 months - what a whirlwind it's been!
 We love her so much!!!

High School Girls... Changed but not changed...

{Me, Jill, Tammy, Cami... there's no way we graduated 15 years ago, right?!?!}

In December I was able to meet up with these amazing ladies (aka "Pups" as Tams would call us) for lunch and some overdue girl catch-up time. They were some of my High School besties back in the day and I just adore them and am lucky to call them my friends, then and now. I love how we can go quite awhile without seeing one another but that when we get together we can pick right back up where we left off and that deep down we're still those crazy girls who once upon a time loved to go out on the town in disco gear or turn up our car stereos in a parking lot and have a dance party.
We were pretty awesome, in case you wondered.;)
 We've all had our hard times since our high school days, but most recently, Cami, (far right) was diagnosed with Lymphoma, just weeks after delivering her fourth baby several months back. I can't even begin to imagine how scary the reality of that diagnosis must have been for her having four small children. I can't even fathom... But Cami, she is such an incredible woman of faith and strength and I admire her so much! She smiles and calmly  talks of all that she is learning despite her difficult circumstances. She's AMAZING!  She had just undergone her third chemo treatment in this picture and she lost the remainder of her hair just a few weeks after this visit. She was so upbeat about the prospect  (of losing her hair), and admittedly a little nervous, but I can't imagine how difficult that really must be.
 I first heard of her diagnosis as I was stressing over something petty in my life...to be specific - Emmie's preschool is one more day a week than I would like, and I was wondering if letting her go so many days a week was the right thing... when I heard of Cami's cancer my heart just broke and my perspective was adjusted and I had the impression, as silly as it sounds, that yes, Emmie was in a great preschool, to quit stressing over such an insignificant thing, that the three extra hours she goes per week are no big deal, and that there are bigger things in life to worry about.
 It's funny how we can get so caught up in such minor details in life...and then are shaken to reality when true obstacles arise, whether it be our own or the trial of another. What really gets me is how we can repeat this process over and over and over...
Cami is such an amazing person with such a positive outlook,  which is nothing new, she's always been that way. I hope that I could have half of her strength in the face of such adversity.
She and her cute family have definitely been in our prayers.
I honestly can say that all of these girls (plus Lacey and Amanda who are a vital part of our crew!) are an inspiration to me!

A Little Flashback...

 

Senior Year, 1998
(L to R) Cami, Me, Tammy, Amanda, Lacey, Jill & Megan
{With Amanda and Lacey living out of state it's hard to get all together at once so we missed them!}
I love these girls so much and am lucky to call them my "Pups" all these years!! :):)
We look just the same (but better), right? ;)