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!