1st gift of Christmas 2012

Today we gave our children an early Christmas gift.  Each girl had a present to unwrap- it was a group gift of sorts.  The video is priceless... except I cut off a second before Caitlyn squealed "Are you serious?"  Oops.{Video on Facebook- I can't make it embed properly here... Janet?}

The timing and coming about of this gift has truly been that- a gift.  A few months ago Bill and I were fasting, praying, and attending the temple with a special purpose- the size of our family.  We both felt for multiple reasons that our family was complete.  While in the temple we were impressed with the thought that we weren't done.  It came as a shock and didn't fully make sense to us, because our minds were mostly set on being done.  We left the temple with this thought in the back of our minds and discussed it only a few times after that.  Until a few weeks later when we were surprised to learn that we are- in fact- not done.  The Lord works in mysterious ways and His hand truly is in all of the details of our lives.  We know this is the right thing for our family at this time.  We are excited to welcome another special spirit into our home and continue to pray for patience and energy!

Mothers Day 2012

My blogging is falling farther & farther behind- but I still have the goal & desire to catch up!  So we'll start with today.  Yesterday Bill picked a bouquet of flowers from our yard- I LOVE the colors & variety of flowers.  The carnation with the red ribbon came from Caitlyn's soccer game.  They had the mothers come out on the field and awarded them with a flower before the game started- so sweet!

I had Bill snap these pictures after church- the top one is great of the kids, but I prefer myself in the bottom one.  Those 4 smiles truly do melt my heart!

It was a glorious & perfect Mother's Day; gifts carefully selected by each child & presented in bed, morning church, baby free for 2 hours- loved all that I learned about mothers & prayer, lunch & dinner prepared by dad & girls, thoughtful cards made by girls, a quick nap, a visit to 2 sisters I VT, video chatting with mom/sister & mother in law, duty-free ALL day!, a family scooter ride on my new scooter- compliments of my boys, and bedtime stories.  This truly is the best & most challenging job in the world.  I feel rejuvenated & ready to start a new week!  Thank you Bill!!

Date with Madisen

Last night Madisen and I went on a little date to the Miller Outdoor Theater.  She is taking dance this semester and is preparing for her first 'real' dance recital.  I thought it would be fun for her to attend a dance concert so she can truly understand what the concert will entail.  Her teachers were performing, so we carpooled with some fellow dancing friends and made an evening of it!  I appreciated sharing this cultural experience with my daughter.  The dances were refreshingly clean & thoroughly enjoyable.  While I enjoyed the Chinese dancers, Madisen's favorite was the ballroom dancers.

Bluebonnets

A few weeks ago when we were headed to the airport, Madisen pointed out the bluebonnets growing on the side of freeway. "Look mom, there is our state flower!" Her statement was strong and it hit me like a ton of bricks- we are raising our children as Texans and this is our state flower.

It seems they pop up almost overnight and they're only here for a few weeks, but their beauty can be seen along the freeways and in all the open fields. We headed for a quick photo shoot before General Conference while dad was working- and it was the tail end of the 'season'. I started with my point and shoot and then realized, too late, that my phone takes better pictures. Getting 4 young children to smile when the sun is bright is nearly impossible. But we have a good memory.

Dinosaur/ Butterfly Fieldtrip

Caitlyn's preschool class has been studying dinosaurs this month so we went on a little field trip to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It's a perfect exhibit for the attention span of young children. They oohed & aahed over the dinosaur bones and Caitlyn was full of new facts to share with me that she's been learning at school. Here are the girls with their friend Lindsay standing on the 2nd floor- the Brontosaurus is behind them.Since we were there, we took advantage of the opportunity to see the butterfly exhibit as well. Caitlyn was very excited to use the laminated card provided to identify the butterfly's that were all around us. Brooklyn & William were equally as delighted to see these peaceful insects up so close!

11 Months

I completely missed William's 10 month post. He was on day 1.5 of a nasty 7 day ear infection that earned him 2 shots of antibiotics followed by 10 days of another plus some ear drops for pain. Poor guy was pretty miserable! Thank goodness that's over!

This little guy continues to be the happiest, most pleasant, mellow, content baby around! He's easily entertained by toys (a first for me) and has just started to find mischief. His current favorites are to completely unroll the toilet paper & unload the silverware from the dishwasher faster than I can load it.
He follows the girls everywhere and doesn't mind being dressed up on occasion. If you look carefully you'll see the remains of his attire that was for the 'trip to Hawaii' they took this afternoon. I returned home from choir practice to see William sporting 3 headbands and 2 necklaces plus the purple slap bracelet.

He crawls all over and pulls up on everything. He can often be found standing here 'cooking'.
On Thursday I was busy cooking dinner when William crawled out of the kitchen. I assumed he'd joined the girls in the play room. When I heard a cry of concern, I went to investigate & nearly had a heart attack when I rounded the corner to see this.
He was actually standing there alone, trying to crawl through the bars. When I let out a cry of disbelief the girls came running. I asked them to 'protect' him while I grabbed the camera. He continues to attempt the stairs so we're now in the process of learning to go down. I will rest much more easily once I know he's mastered that skill!

On Friday Caitlyn helped do William's hair for the park. I thought it actually looked pretty cute, until I covered that fair skin with a hat!
William is such a little boy. His babbling sounds and 'talking' sound so masculine! His first word was 'Hi' (actually been saying that for a while), but he'll say mama, dada, and byby- not necessarily consistently, but it's the beginnings. And I laugh every time he grunts for food! Just this month he's started to get excited when I open the pantry or the fridge or put him in his seat. It's an obvious grunt & then he nods his head in approval, as if to say "I want to eat NOW!" If he's still hungry, he keeps grunting! This is another first for me & I find it quite humorous! We just love this baby boy!

St. Patrick's Day

I am a girl who loves to celebrate holidays! And St. Patrick's Day is one of those random holidays that I think is fun to celebrate- just because it gives you a reason to mix up the daily routine. We've had a tradition (3 years now; here here and here) of celebrating with friends and really playing up the sneaky leprechauns. This year was different and I really disappointed my oldest. (I plan to make it up to her on April Fools day!)

This year it fell on a Saturday- of Spring Break. We were LUCKY enough to have my mom here for a week and then Bill's family for a few days. There just wasn't time for me to adequately organize a party like before, so we had a play date at the park with a bunch of friends on Thursday morning.
(I even forgot to put green on my kids! I love how Brooklyn is feeding William his lunch and his 2 buddies are looking pretty longingly in the background!)

We spent Friday night at Grandma & Grandpa's house- and made sure to paint our nails green so we wouldn't get pinched on Saturday. Because green was not in the dress code with these coordinating rodeo outfits courtesy of Gigi! We headed to the Livestock show and then the adults (and 2 babies) stayed for the rodeo and Brad Paisley concert.

{Alli- Bill's cousin- with the matchy-matchy kiddos. (Ours + our niece, baby Lulu)}

{Bill, Aunt Virginia, Me (& William), Alli
Gigi, Laura, Christy (& Lulu), Aunt Carol}
{Carrie & Dan Foster are behind us- it was so fun to see our neighbors & friends there!}

{William LOVED the rodeo. He clapped & cheered for the animals, and grunted his famous "Oooh, ooooh" as they rode past.}

{This kid is a mama's boy, but more than once this night he reached for Alli to hold him. And then he insisted on kissing (or biting) her face. It was quite comical!}

{Brad Paisley- great performance!}

Last week Madisen had to write a story for homework about Leprechauns. She had to include her 5 sight (spelling) words for the week. She did such a great job expressing her feelings and making it fairly cohesive. Obviously the green holiday was a bit of a let down for her.
The Leprechauns
This year two leprechauns came to are hous they stoped and relisd We wurnt there so they didn't leve ene thing not even a treat. I was disapoyntid at them. They yousley play trics on pepol. Before this yere the leprechauns leav treats, mistif, foot print, gold. Every yere we go to the park and have a tresr hnt. It has been so fun. The End

Playgroup

Today for playgroup we talked about colors and rainbows. It was my attempt at bringing St. Patrick's day to the 2 year olds a bit early.

The girls played with rainbow colored rice, instructions here. They LOVED it! In fact, they were happily playing when I realized we were still missing 2 of our friends. I went to my room to check my phone, and decided to blow dry my hair since they were being so good. When I returned I found a royal punishment for being vain- there was rice ALL OVER my kitchen floor. Thankfully they are darling & we're all still friends. Although I did have them sit on the couch while I swept it up in an effort not to have it tracked through the whole house.
After a few more activities we were ready for the yellow sun- and all the other colors we found on our walk! These girlys really are good friends and it's been fun to watch them bloom this year.

William is 9 months

This little guy is growing up before my eyes every.single.day. And it's making me sad! His job is to be the baby... I mean he really needs to just stay 9 months for-ev-er! I love this stage! The girls just adore him. They fight over who gets to pick his clothes

Some things he's doing right now:
-Army crawling
-Rocking on all 4's and starting to brave 1-2 moves before dropping down to his belly
-Opening and closing cupboard & closet doors (we just added child locks = frustrated baby)
-Babbling a lot! Mama, dada- not necessarily intentionally, and he mimics sounds we make
-Says Hi.
-Claps, especially when we cheer for him.
-Recognizes his name.
-Has moved upstairs to join his sisters and is sleeping through the night!
-Has 2 bottom teeth that have poked through.
-Loves rice, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, and green smoothies!
-Draws attention because of his BIG SMILE and RED HAIR!
-Has started pulling up to his knees in the tub, on the bottom step, on the dishwasher and anything else he can.

From the doctor: In the 15% for weight & 50% for height.
William will be getting a probing done on his right eye this week. He has a clogged tear duct that we are excited to fix- no more green, goopey, eye drainage!

We love this little man!

Annual Aquarium Field Trip

Every year one of our 'At Home Preschool Teacher' friends organizes a field trip to the Houston Aquarium. You see, it's GROSELY over priced and a bit disappointing as far as aquariums go. (I mean, what aquarium includes, parrots, snakes, and a WHITE TIGER?) Don't get me wrong, there are some colorful aquatic displays including an octopus, a few alligators, sting-rays, sand sharks, a 'petting area', an electric eel and more. However, it's a real short walk through the aquarium, which leads your to a white tiger for the grand finale!? (Talk about a fish out of water!) To top it off the fair-type rides outside are quite enticing. For a whopping $4.33/ person- & a great way to spend MLK day- one cannot complain! (Which is why 263 people showed up to support the preschool field trip yesterday!)

First Stop: The Shark Train
Look at Willaim watching the sharks swimming overhead!
On to the carousel next... we did MANY rounds on this carousel!
Madisen was tall enough to ride the Big Shot (type) ride, but unsure at first. A little convincing from her peers & she was off. I actually wanted to ride with her, but had a few too many bodies to juggle. Maybe next year! She actually rode it a few more times, too.
Look at those smiles as they are getting ready to come back down!
After lunch it was time for our tummies to settle for a while (& the crowd had died down) so we headed inside to check out the fish. I LOVE the spotted sting ray below.
The petting area- can you spy Caitlyn? She's not so much of an animal lover up close!
Since the fieldtrip was technically for Caitlyn- I let her have the camera for a few minutes to capture a few of her favorite fish.
And William fell asleep in the stroller- what a dream baby!
The kids were entertained here for quite a while as they figured out how to push the red button, the camera would snap their photo & it would appear on the screen to the side. (Pictures of the real tiger from last year's trip & many of the same friends here.)
Then it was back outside to enjoy a few more rides before calling it quits for the day. These girls were being so silly- I think it's because they knew I was nervous- but I did it! I managed to ride the Ferris wheel with the girls this year! Last year I deferred my 'responsibility' to my friend Mona. And two years ago I nearly fainted while on it with her.

A Word for 2012

A few years ago I chose a word to be my theme for the year. Among some family & couple resolutions, I have done the same this year. In an effort not to be bogged down by lists of ALL of the things I'd like to change and then thinking about, dreaming of, or trying to do these things, I am simply going to BE. This year, my goal is to BE!! Be is a verb and I'm going to focus on 1 thing to BE each month.

For Christmas my children received a BEE Attitudes game from their Aunt and I've enjoyed the refresher on President Hinckley's admonition to the youth in November 2000 (as referred to here). It has prompted me to think on the action we must take to focus on BEING who & what the Lord would have us be.

Happy Birthday Bill!

We made sure daddy felt especially loved this year! Our celebration stretched out over 3 nights. 1-A cake and game night with our friends, 2- Sunday dinner with Bill's parents, complete with a cake decorated by grandma & the girls, and 3 (THE actual birthday!)- soup for dinner, a SpecialK treat and presents from the girls.

{Notice there is about 3x as much frosting as carrot cake---covered with lots of love!}

We sure love our hard-working, fun-loving daddy!