snack time

Stephen decided that it would be nice to have their morning snack in the boat last week.  (This is a boat that doesn't quite float...purchased for the trolling motor)  He peeled the carrots, took Michaela outside and helped her into the boat all by himself.  He's so "grown-up".  His Kindergarten round-up was last Tuesday and he was ready to go to school with the big kids on Wednesday morning.

As you can see, he's the comedian of our family - always making funny faces, making up stories and joking around. Note Michaela's froggy boots. She picked them out herself , wears them everywhere, and even matched them with her fancy blue church dress one Sunday. 

last few weeks...

We've had some computer issues, so here's a few updates from the last couple of weeks, beginnig with February 23rd.  We had a crazy storm that came through.  There was thunder and lightning and then the skies opened up and I thought it was hail coming down, but not nearly loud enough.

When I went outside and picked it up it was a light as popcorn and I noticed that most of these snow pellets were shaped like cylindrical cones.

I've never seen anything like it.  Someone called it a "thundersnow".  The chickens were out there eating them up before they melted.

We were watching cousin Eliza that afternoon.  The girls were being so silly.  The light was so bright coming through the window so this was the best picture I was able to get:

Also, I finally used our Christmas giftcards to buy some things for the kids...most of the gifts are still on the way, but we were able to pick up Stephen's new bike.

He was amazed at how fast he was. 

When he realized that he was faster than Superman he had to put on his superhero cape.

I'll leave you with a big smile from Michaela.  We've been enjoying this warmer spring weather, blue skies and sunshine!

new trick

Trying out this collage thing instead of posting a long string of pictures...click to open so you can see it bigger.

Make a free picture collage

This makes getting the kids to bed take a lot longer when she doesn't want to go to bed...but also, when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she gets out of her bed and climbs into ours.

stephen the stylist

A couple of weeks ago Stephen decided to style Michaela's hair.  She was surprisingly patient and trusting, so I sat back and watched through the camera:

Then, of course, Stephen wanted me to take some silly pictures of him.  He sat up on the dryer so he could make faces in the mirror.

Michaela: two

I had fun looking back to when she turned one year old, and of course, to my unbeliveable post about the day she was born.  This year the school Christmas program was the same day as Michaela's birthday.  We made cookies to take to the reception and plenty more for ourselves and we shared some ice-cream with family.  No pictures of that (I didn't put candles in the ice-cream for her to blow out - though we would have let her blow out the two candles on the Advent Wreath for the 2nd Sunday of Advent if unnamed children hadn't destroyed the wreath and broken the candles.) At least I did get a good one of Michaela with her Aunt Andrea, below.

The kids all chipped in a dollar to get her a new stuffed froggy - her favorite animal.  I'm bummed that I had the flash pointed the wrong way and this picture is overexposed.  It would have been great one with her oldest sibling, Catherine, who takes such good care of her.

Here is one I got the next morning of her grumpy face.  She used to do this only when she was upset, but now she does it to make me smile, too.  We make this face at each other then smile and laugh.

I want to remember the way she swings her hips when she dances.  She's graduated from BEANS by The String Beans to Save Your Life by the Newsboys.  I want to remember how she sings "Life...oo-ooh...oo-ooh" over and over again.  The one movie I had of her dancing this summer was accidentally deleted and I have not been able to get a second - she would rather be behind the camera watching me take a picture than in front of it so any pictures I get are on the first try or not at all.  She comes to sit in my lap and "help" as soon as she sees the camera.

She runs to dad to get a "big squeeze" (yes, she can say that) whenever he walks in the door and is still fond of pointing out and naming his facial features.  The main thing that I never want to forget is that after tucking her in on her birthday Sunday night I said, "Good night, Michaela."  and she responded, "Love.  You.  Mommy." *melt*

Stephen and Michaela

I love having these two at home.  The pictures are of Stephen with a toad he found and while the one of Michaela is blurry, it shows how much she loves "froggy".  It is so cute to hear her say it and has claimed the plush frog that I grew up with as her own.

I also got a couple cute pictures of these two on the warm dryer.

OK - one more cute picture of Michaela after her bath.  LOVE those big brown eyes.



when helping isn't helpful and other mischief

Last night I left the boys to clear the table while I supervised girls' baths.  The boys came up and were playing in their room as the girls were finishing up.  I went down to get their towels from the dryer and I heard running water.  This was not the tub draining.  Someone had left the kitchen faucet running.  As I entered the kitchen I saw a waterfall coming out of the sink and covering the floor.  Getting a picture was not my first priority.  Apparently, Stephen had plugged both sides of the sink and was filling them up for me to wash and rinse the dishes.  And then he walked away.  Here is a clip from the basement after the kids were tucked in and before I started to ShopVac up the water upstairs.  It was done dripping by the time I made it down to the basement.  I only sucked up about 15 gallons of water from the kitchen and basement floors, but the dehumidifier will be running for a couple of days.

Earlier in the day, Michaela saw Adam's laptop was left open on the side table next to the couch.  She discovered that the keys pop off quite easily.  One little piece is still missing.  They say bad things come in threes, so I'm counting the 10lb bag of potatoes that Michaela dumped out in the pantry while I was cooking dinner as one, too.

fall weather

I finally feel like the kids are back to school (although school started almost a month ago) and we are in a normal routine...so I took the camera when we went out to play and tried to get some pictures of the two at-home kids.  I've been really bad about taking pictures lately - and even more so about sharing them.  So, without further ado - here are Stephen (who says he is half and a four) and Michaela, 21months.

 

summer surprise

I was sick one day in late July and the girls brought in a surprise for me as I lay on the couch.

Two of every flower blooming in the yard.

My three girls arranging flowers.

Cheery bouquets adorning my kitchen windowsill

cousins!

Every once in a while my niece Eliza's babysitter is unable to watch her, so we take care of her.  I haven't taken a picture of her recently, so I was glad to get a cute one of these two happily sitting at the table together.  Michaela is slightly older but a lot smaller.  She was 22lbs (8%) and 33inches (63%) at 20 months.

Michaela

This little girl is growing up so fast.  Her hair has got the softest little curls in the back, though it is straight on top the way Catherine's was.  We've started putting her to sleep in her crib by herself and after just a few nights she started going down without a fuss and even falling back asleep in the middle of the night without my getting up to nurse her, although she is not completely weaned.  She is now sleeping through the night on her own.

In imitation of her brothers she can whistle like a train engine.  I think it's adorable.  I love how her little mouth forms an "O" and her 'oo-oooo' is so much sweeter than Anthony and Stephen's piercing whistle.  (More than one person has asked, while on the phone, "Who is screaming in the background?"  No one - the boys are just playing with their trains.)  She also makes her little o when she drops somethings and says "ah-OH" as well as when she says, "no..no...NO"  I finally got some pictures of it.

 

One more thing about this girl - her tastes are totally different from the rest of my kids.  She is not crazy about banana, which was my other kids' FAVORITE fruit; she never sucked on dill pickles the way the rest of the kids did; and she does not like tomatoes!  One taste and she spits it out.  My other little ones gobbled them up.  Unlike many toddlers, I suspect, she likes eggs and tuna salad and even prefers them to peanut butter & jelly.  She doesn't really have a favorite food, but the other day she surprised me by eating an entire peach and she inhaled about a dozen sweet cherries the next day (I was afraid to give her more than that.)  She LOVES DumDum lollipops.  My friend took a picture of her at our county fair parade with two of them.  (Thanks, Robyn!)

airplane

It is a good day when the crop duster flies over.  The boys were excited every time he flew over a different part of our property and after the first unexpected pass, Michaela enjoyed gasping and pointing at the ah-plane (I wasn't sure if she was saying "airplane" or "a plane").