Serious Artists

Crazy Faces!

This little boy loves to look at the camera and make faces!

And these two love face paint! As it's still too soggy to really go outside, it's been our go-to activity in the afternoon. Any guesses as to what animal Mom was trying to paint...?

And here is, in the words of Jen Hatmaker, a picture of my kids who-- in this very moment --- "aren't acting like lunatics." Life is crazy, and I love just about all of it. But the times when they sit and color quietly is nothing short of divine.

Little Loves

Three kids ages 5 and under means that each kiddo has a myriad of stuffed animals and dollies that sleep with them each night.  To celebrate Valentine's Day, I asked the kids to pick their favorite:

And the best picture of all three of our kiddos:

More realistically, this is what Bobby looks like with his THREE favorite lovies, right after nap:

Here were the Valentine's that we gave to the kids. Blueberries were for Bobby to share!

And here was the Valentine that Susan made for Daddy. 

'Twas a good day filled with love for all of us!

Things Worth Mentioning

I say it all the time: life is happening too quickly! Each day that passes is another day that my babies are growing up and it's way too fast! I know these years will be a blur when I look back on them, so just for funsies, here's a few little things worth mentioning.

Our morning:

It's pretty neat to hear the house "wake-up sounds" each morning. We sleep directly under Susan's room, so we can here when she jumps out of bed and hits the floor with a THUD. She is usually pretty quiet as she comes down the stairs, and she knows that the house doesn't turn 'on' until 6:30. If the clock in the living room doesn't show 6:30, she goes back up to her bed and waits for us. (This took over a year of training, but it's working!!!!)

     Abby sleeps with the sound machine in her room. We know that she's awake because we can hear the sound machine turn off.  (That thing is so loud and our house is so small, we can hear when the "waterfall" sound shuts off from almost any room!) Then she thumps down the stairs. Her feet go step-together. Step-together. Very distinct. And then she comes into our room and says, "is it mohning yet?" (She still doesn't have very good r's in her speech!)

     And Bobby. He just coos and cries. And when we pick him up from his crib, he uses one of the ten words in his vocabulary: "GO!" And then we put him down and he runs out of his room,  because he's got places to "GO!" and things to do. Usually, his first order of business is to slam all the doors in the hallway. So four big/loud slams to start his day is pretty fun for everybody.

Mealtime:

A few weeks back, Bobby started protesting sitting in his booster seat. He's still not a huge fan, but our general rule is that if he's not in his seat, he doesn't eat. So a lot of times he gets down before the rest of us are done, but ultimately ends up back in his seat when he realizes that he's hungry and wants to join us. Bobby is by far the most picky eater of our three. He's usually pretty good with fruits and dairy, but he doesn't like most proteins (meats or beans). The beauty of having our third kid be the picky one is that I really don't stress over it. He's fine.

     Susan and Abby eat their food, but they eat the minimum amount and then ask to be excused. And then five minutes after I clean up from dinner, they ask for a snack. I think it's a game they're playing to see who can get Mommy's head to explode.

Little things:
Susan is really into getting herself 100% ready for school 100% by herself. She loves to get dressed and put on her shoes and put on her coat and backpack... sometimes an hour before we actually have to leave the house. And for the finishing touch, Susan calls Chapstick "chopstick," and applies a little each morning.

Instead of saying, "I suggest," Susan says, "I resist..."

The other day, I gave the girls Cous Cous and vegetables for lunch. Abby came up to the table and said, "I love cous cous-es!!!"

The kids love to run around a person or object and make an whirlpool. The other night, Eric came home from work and we were chatting in the kitchen. meanwhile, the kids were running around him. Susan said, "we're whirlpooling Daddy!"

This Little Girl is SO BEAUTIFUL.

Face Painting

Because sometimes, when Daddy is working long hours and it's freezing outside, you need something special to do to mix it up.

We did this at about 3pm yesterday. And the first thing I said was, "enjoy this, because we're going to wash it off in baths tonight!" But if behavior got bad, I kept threatening to make them wash it off immediately. The result was that I had a pink kitty cat and a green owl that acted like angels!

Snowy Day!

Ants on a Log for Lunch!

Race Car

When my son is driving his race car around the grocery store, and little old ladies pause look at us.... I know how blessed I am to be living these moments. I will miss them.