A Lot of Pictures...But Oh-So-Cute

There are a lot of pictures in this post, so scroll through if you'd like or skip it altogether.  At the very least, consider yourself warned. :)  (Oh yeah, and there's a new post below, in case a short paragraph is more your speed.)

We love the warmer temps.  The kids love playing out there and I love being outdoors, watching them.  Its so nice.  Paige likes it too.  And now that she can crawl really well, the yard is a whole new world for her to explore.  Here's she after her mama with the camera. :)

A girl and her jeep...this girls loves to drive around the yard in this.  How cute is she?!

Ian got a skateboard for Christmas and it has been a big hit.  He's actually getting really good at it, which scares me a little.  I think I may have liked it better when he was riding it down the hill on his bottom.  But he sure is proud.

These pictures crack me up.  Merry Grace is a horrible driver.  Really, really bad.  That means she gets stuck a lot and cannot figure out how to get unstuck.  Luckily, she has a very kind brother who will come to her rescue.  The best part is that she's pushing the gas pedal while he steers.  I LOVE it!!!  And when she's all set, he goes back to what he was doing until the next time she gets stuck.  Now that is a superhero! :)

Here is our little softball star.  Elise is doing great this year, really grasping some new concepts and getting great hits.  We love going to her games and cheering her on.  Warm nights at the ballpark...is there anything better?

*Sigh*  This is why my car is crap.  Sorry, there's no other word for it, or I would have used it.  I was cooking supper while Ian and Merry Grace ran in and out of the house.  I had the windows open and could hear them playing and was checking on them every few minutes.  When I walked outside I found them tying ropes onto the luggage rack or my minivan and rappelling down the windshield.  *Sigh*  

Ian has officially earned the title "snaggletooth".  He lost his first tooth over the weekend, while we visited my folks.  He was quite brave.  We did run into a slight problem when he didn't find money under his pillow that first night.  Sometimes its helpful to actually let the tooth fairy know she needs to make a delivery.  But luckily, she probably just didn't know he was out of town and he was thrilled to find the money the next night.

One of the fun things we love about Grammy and Papa's house is playing in the kiddie pool and with the water hose.  Somehow it always seems like my brothers have as much fun as the little kids.  And you can rest assured a water fight will happen.  That is like money in the bank.  

Here is my sweet Grandma with my three little girls.  What a lovely group!

Did you know I think this baby is adorable?  Because I do.  I look at this face and want to smooch it to pieces.  I'm going to be that crazy old woman that kisses the little babies and children's cheeks with her bright red lipstick.  But I can't help it.

And its me...one of the kids stole the camera.  I'm just relieved they captured a good one for a change--not a close up of my tummy chub, me bending over with my love handles hanging out or some of the other lovely pictures I've found of myself lurking on my memory card.

So stinkin' cute.  I'm seriously going to need a thesaurus to widen my vocabulary.  I could just eat her with a spoon.

The kids love swinging at Grammy and Papa's, too.  And thankfully there are more than enough pushers, because these kids never tire of the swings.  

My lovely Grandma.  Can you believe she's 88 1/2?  Isn't she just beautiful?!  I hope every day that I inherited her genes.  The best part is that she's just as sweet as she is cute. :)

Somebody help me here--what else can I say but how cute this cutie pie is? 

Elise is great at hanging upside down.  It makes me dizzy just thinking about it.  I know I used to be able to do that...I think I might be getting old.

Elise is such a great sister.  All the kids are lucky to have her.  Paige, especially, loves her best of all...after her mommy of course.  Elise is so proud that Paige will go to her over Daddy.  She must be doing something right.

Flips on the rings...Elise actually went first and then Ian followed behind.  He almost got it. :)  There's a classic story in our family about my Dad attempting a flying flip on the rings.  It was a flip alright...he just threw out both shoulders in the process.  I guess he's just a kid at heart--he just forgot his body wasn't so much.

My wonderful folks. 

 

Do you love the hair or what?

Merry Grace and Paige had fun swinging together.  Merry Grace loves being the little mama.  LOVES it.

And so does Elise. 

All in all, life has been treating us well.  We're loving the weather, loving our time with family, and having fun.  What more could we ask for? 

Dirty Socks

The other day I went to see my sister-in-law, Amanda, and of course Ian was playing with Charles Allen.  They'd been playing for a while when Ian ran in from outside at full speed and slid to a stop in his knee-high used-to-be-white socks.  "Aunt Amanda, you know what?" he began.  "No.  What, honey?" she answered.  "I've worn these socks for THREE days!!!" he said, in a voice that implied that was a badge of honor.  (I, however, was only a little surprised, since I've caught him several times after baths, slipping back into the day's socks, but still thoroughly grossed out.)  Just for background, Ian inherited a unique love of socks from his Daddy.  Ian loves his knee-high soccer-like socks, pulled up as high as they will go.  It doesn't matter if its 32 degrees out or 89, as it was this day, those socks are on.  Oh yeah, and he uses them as shoes.  In place of shoes.  Any time he can get away with it.  So you can imagine that they'd be pretty nasty after just one day, much less three.  And then I got to thinking...I gather up laundry most evenings and mornings, too.  So how did I miss these lovely socks three times?  So I asked where he'd put them each night.  "Oh," he answered with a proud grin, "I hid them behind the toilet."  Oh, obviously.  Surprisingly, I never thought to look back there.  At this point Amanda said (as she did not even try to hold in the laughter--somehow these things are funnier when they aren't happening to your own children) "Don't ask any more questions!!!  You just do not want to know the answers!!!"  And that was the honest to goodness truth.

Imagination

The other weekend I was working in our little garden plot in the backyard.  Merry Grace was helping by supervising, Elise had long since gone inside and Ian was playing around the yard.  I noticed Ian had taken two of the riding toys, dragged them down to the end of the driveway, and thrown them into the bushes and tree branches.  After the second time of seeing him do this, I asked what was going on.  "I'm pretending all the bikes are robots," he said, "and that I'm throwing them into poision ivy."  He paused and then added, "And I'm pretending that poision ivy kills them."  I was impressed both by the imagination involved and the amount of actual work his imagination required.  Sure enough, while I plugged away in the garden, he dragged every last one of the riding toys to the "poision ivy," all the while peppering his work with comments like, "Take that robots!"  And around here we have A LOT of riding toys.  I was hoping I could convince him to "free" the robots from the poision ivy, but alas, his imagination did not extend there.  In my experience, it seems that imagination is best utilized in destroying things, rather than cleaning them up.  Oh well.

More Eastering

Sunday afternoon, we all met at Cory's sister's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.  It's always fun when all those cute kids get together.

Does eating lunch on the trampoline seem a bit risky to anyone but me?

Merry Grace & Ally on the swings.  I really don't believe they would ever get off. :)

Paige's only task for the day was to be cute.  I think she succeeded marvelously.

Elise was a pro at finding eggs.  After her basket got filled, she had her Daddy follow her around and put eggs in his shirt.  She is one smart cookie.

Ian was pretty good too.  He was most impressed with the cool-looking eggs he found.  When his basket was filled, his solution was to run up to the deck, dump his basket onto the ground and go back for more.  Hey, whatever works!

Merry Grace needed a little help from her Daddy.  She wasn't sure at first what the goal was.  But it didn't take her long to figure it out. :)

Ah yes.  Is there anything better than sitting back and relaxing, while going through your loot?  I don't think so.

Easter (better late than never)

Our Easter Bunny comes on Saturday morning for several reasons, one of which is that it takes us long enough to get ready for churchwithout adding Easter baskets to the list.  And then we can have our silly fun and afterwards focus on the Savior.  

Here are the goodies that the Easter Bunny delivered.  Lots of fun stuff to play with and snack on. 

Paige and I on Easter morning.  See!!! I was there. :)

My four darling children.  They are so cute.  I could just squeeze them to pieces!

One of my favorite parts about Easter is choosing cute outfits for my kids.  Seriously.  And of course we had the obligatory Easter morning pictures of the cute kiddos.  What I love is how their personalities shine through, even in their coordinating outfits.  Lots of spirit...

Elise was not happy that the picture taking had started without her.  But it did take her five minutes longer becuase she was putting on lip gloss.  I mean, if you're taking pictures, you want to look perfect!  (I love that sassy, sweet girl!!!)  And then there's Merry Grace's ensemble.  From the first glance, it looks like she's just dressed for Easter like the other kids.  However, she has on princess dress-up shoes (yes, she wore them to church) and 5 or 6 hair elastics around her wrist as "accessories".   (Go figure!)

Watch out for these two.  They look sweet, but they have a mischeivous streak a mile wide. (Oh, but I love it!!!)

My oldest and youngest.  Look at those sweet smiles.  Love it!!

Ian, for once, may have had his wardrobe in order.  But he couldn't resist a few flips on the trampoline before everyone was ready for pictures.  And he was thrilled (seriously) that he got to wear "clown pants".  (Yep, that's a direct quote.  Totally changes everything, doesn't it?  Do you think that's the look I was going for?)

The girls.  They are so, so, so, cute!  Elise loved picking azalea blossoms from around our yard for all of us girls.  She has one tucked behind her ear, so did I and Merry Grace was holding hers.  After putting Paige's ribbon in that morning, Merry Grace decided she wanted a bow in, just like Paige.  So I obliged.  I think it looks pretty dang cute. :)

Ah, one blissful moment at the end of a crazy morning.  I still love him. :)

Our Neck of the woods

Here are some cute pictures of life in our neck of the woods.

Elise was tickled to death to get a chance to give Paige a bottle.  She loves being a big sister & I love what a big help she is to me.

It's softball season again and Elise is geared up and ready.  She loves playing and we love cheering her on.

That means its copy cat season for Merry Grace. :)

Of course that's only when she's not busy mothering Baby Paige (which often includes waking her up from her nap by climbing into bed with her...)

Paige is getting quick.  Merry Grace left a glass of pop on the table and Paige quickly grabbed it and tipped it over...and then started lapping it up off the table.  Ah, her first taste of soda.  What a moment.  It also shows she's not the first child.  The first time we'd have sterilized the table and her mouth too.  How dare a child get a sip of soda at this age.  This time we're like, "Oh look how funny.  Someone get the camera!"  (Of course right after the picture we cleaned it right up...)

Elise in action.  It only took a second for her to get past the first game jitters and get her first hit.  Yay Elise!!!

These are Elise's new flip flops.  They really describe her to a tee.  :)

This is one of my favorite things about Paige.  She loves to hold you close by grabbing onto the neck of your shirt.  It is so cute.  Here she has a hold on her Daddy.

Earlier this week we had a warm, rainy day (which I love) and so we went onto the porch and out in the yard and enjoyed it.  I would have taken more pictures but I had forgotten to charge my camera battery and so this is all I got.  So you'll have to use your imaginations to see how cute we were. :)

My Closet Meltdown

My youngest brother is staying with us this week and on Tuesday he went on a date with a girl from down here.  It was my job to "see him off" on this date, which made me painfully aware that I'm not ready to have teenagers.  I hated sending him off, letting him go.  Even though he's not my child, because we're so far apart in age, I can't help feeling a little motherly toward him.  That letting go stuff isn't all its cracked up to be. :) 

Then, since we had a couple of cold days this week, I decided to go through the kids winter clothes and pack them away and bring out the hand-me-downs for the little girls.  I started with Elise and worked my way down the family ladder, ending with Paige's things.  As I began pulling out Paige's infant clothes, I began to get teary-eyed.  I don't know how many more kids we might or might not have, but I definitely realize we're closer to being done than getting started.  We might have another, maybe even two-who knows?!  But I couldn't help but think that I might be packing up the baby girl clothes for the last time.  I looked at the outfits that each girl had come home from the hospital in, the dress that had been mine as a little girl, the little tiny onesies and the sweet sleepers.  I try to remember to be happy about where we are, look forward to the future and enjoy the past.  But sometimes I have to wallow just a little bit in days gone by.  Sometimes, life just goes by too fast.  I think there are wonderful things about each stage of life, but I just can't imagine there being one more wonderful than this one. :)  So I had myself a good cry while I packed things away, ate a twix bar and then got back to everyday life.  

Superman

If you haven't seen Superman around your house lately, its because he lives with me. 

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and cuter than a bug in a rug.

Sundays

Is there anything more wonderful than a warm Spring day?  If there is, I can't imagine what it would be.  We loved the weather Sunday.  We took a big blanket outside and spread it out on the ground.  Elise had Cory get a tent canopy out and set it up to shield them from the bright sun.  (Not all my kids love sun as much as I do. :))  We stayed outside almost all afternoon and enjoyed every minute of it.

Elise came outside with a book and a bag filled with snacks (so she wouldn't have to go back inside).  Not to be outdone, Ian & Merry Grace promptly went back inside and each got a banana.

This little cutie has a long tongue.  I think her tongue is a new discovery.  It is so hilarious to see her sticking it out.   And yes, she is crawling.  She's not super speedy, but she can get from one side of the room to the other with no problem.  She can even pull herself up onto her knees, into a kneeling position.  ACK!  She's growing up too fast!  But look out world--Paige is on the move!

Really, she's just so cute.  (Have I mentioned that before?)  We could all just eat her up!  Speaking of eating, she's been fully introduced to solids and loves them.  Its really hard to remember, but I think she's my best eater.  She seems to love every food we introduce and gobbles it up.  She also had her first bottle last night.  She has gotten a little too comfortable with her nighttime nursing and falls asleep without a full tummy and wakes up too soon.  So last night we gave her a bottle and it did the trick.  She fell right asleep and slept for longer.  Although I'm glad it worked, it was quite bittersweet. I know its *just* a bottle.  Its the growing up part that's hard to deal with.

Just being silly.  She is so cute and funny.  She keeps us laughing. :)

The kids hanging out in their pavilion.

One of my favorite things about Paige being on a blanket outside is how she'll crawl over to the edge and pull up handfuls of whatever is growing in the ground.  So far she hasn't tried tasting it, she just deposits handful after handful on the blanket.  Its so cute to watch.

Elise had a great time reading her new book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  She's hooked.  Thank goodness.  Not long ago she told me she hated reading.  As much as I love to read, the thought of having a child who hated reading seemed like such an impossibility.  I let it go, though, and apparently she's caught the reading bug.  And boy, am I relieved!

This picture is so funny.  Its the perfect illustration of the injustices Elise has to deal with.  While she is unsuspectingly reading her book, Merry Grace sneaks into her stash of snacks.  Poor girl.  The things she has to put up with!!
Merry Grace is bigger than Paige, but not by much.  Although you'd never know it from watching Merry Grace.  She is a little Mama for sure.  One of her main goals in life is to keep Paige in check.  And she does it pretty well.

Welcome Spring!  We hope you are here to stay!!