Joanna is SEVEN!!

And she has been for almost a week now.  :)  I took all of these pictures last week, during her birthday week.  With Natalie last month, I managed to take at least one picture each day.  Somehow, that just didn’t quite happen with Joanna, but I had a few great “shoots” with her through the week.  I’m still posting seven pictures, even though they weren’t taken on the seven different days.

Oh Joanna… where do I even begin to tell about her seven year old self?  I catch myself looking at her, just studying her sweet face.  She is leaving early childhood behind, and I’m both sad and excited.

She’s the one who made me a momma, and she did it with a bang.  Earlier this week I pulled out a little pair of green pants that I actually bought for her that are in the boys’ drawers.  I showed them to her, and neither of us could believe she’d been so tiny.  She’s the oldest one and the very best big sister any of the sibs could ask for, I’m sure.

Her mind is always going, and she is so smart about things.  She is also so beautiful and she has such a kind heart.

She’s the boss of all the kids at our house, but mostly she does it in such a way that nobody minds her bossing them.  She thinks about what everyone would like and figures out a way to make it happen.  She usually so giving and honest, but she can be sneaky and mean.  I guess it would get boring if she was just so good all the time.  :)

I am LOVING having her around during the day.  We would just miss her so much if she was going to school.  She is the little momma, and she loves that role.  I try not to pile too much on her little shoulders, but she just enjoys being my helper so much.  Sure, sometimes she’s too big for her britches, but she sure knows how to run around and act like a hooligan as well.

If any one of her brothers or sister is crying, she’s the first to run over and try to solve the problem.  She truly wants to make them better, and most of the time, she can.

She loves to read anything she can get her hands on and remembers where to look to find information in her books.  That girl can run so smoothly barefoot or with shoes on, and it looks so effortless.  I love to hear her sing, which she does often, so sweetly.

She is loved and adored by her parents and siblings.  She makes our lives sweeter and more meaningful just by being in it.  We love her so much!!  Happy seventh birthday, my sweet Joanna Rose.  I am so lucky and proud to be your momma everyday.

Sunshine

On one of the beautiful days this week, Joanna and I took the babies outside to take some pictures.  (That means it must have been Tuesday, since James and Natalie weren’t there.)

I took a few official birthday week shots, which I’ll post later, but Joanna wanted to take pictures with her baby brothers.

I’ll probably play with editing these at some point.  I like the colors in the quilts.

The kids all like to play different winter Olympic sports in the back yard (in Houston, in 75 degrees, ha!).

Joanna is prepping her bobsled:

And she’s on!

He he he.

A selfie with my babes:

My eyes were closed because it was bright!  I don’t do well with the bright.

Sleep

One day a couple or so weeks ago Michael kept falling asleep on me every time he ate.  :)

He was so cute I had to take his picture every time.

This boy doesn’t nap regularly, but sometimes we’ll be watching some television in the afternoon and I’ll look over and see this:

In the last couple of weeks I noticed the boys were really moving around in their crib while they were sleeping/getting to sleep.  We’d lay them down parallel to each other and find them like this:

I was worried they’d end up in a pile with somebody on the bottom, maybe not able to breathe, so it was time for separate cribs!

They don’t seem to miss each other, and they’re sleeping about as well as ever, so… yay!

Thomas:

Michael:

They don’t do it all the time, but they have both rolled from back to front in the crib.  Michael did it first:

But it was the same day that Thomas did it as well!  This was Thursday the 20th, for the record!

I had thought they were ready to sleep without the swaddles or maybe with their arms free, but they aren’t quite as ready as I thought.  Michael does okay sleeping with his blanket just wrapped around his chest, but Thomas struggles if his arms are free.  I want them to be able to have their arms free for when they roll over though.  My sister showed me how to swaddle them with their arms up by their face, and that’s working for Thomas.  Neither of them has started sleeping on their belly, even though they can sort of (at least sometimes) get there.  My big three were never swaddled this long, so this is something new for us.  :)

School and Snow

This is sort of a catch-up post full of random recent things. I let the kiddos have Nutella on toast with breakfast.  James is a hot-mess when there’s chocolate involved.  :)

This was the second icy day – the consistency of the precipitation was like Dippin’ Dots ice cream.  Fun!

The kids all played outside for a little bit, despite the cold.

One week we pulled out all the wooden track (often we just have the trains out, and they drive “off-road.”  Natalie is posing by the track they built.

I don’t think I’ve posted this, but I honestly can’t remember.  So pardon the repeat if I have.  Joanna and Natalie’s best buds passed along their big doll house for the girls’ birthdays.  They love it!  All three of my bigs play with it daily.

I had to take this picture – poor doll.

We were at the Vandenberge’s for dinner, and Matt had both the babes for a bit.

We got these little Astros helmets at some point last year, and the kids pulled them out to put on the babies the other day.

The hats were already a little small; they kind of just perched on top of the heads.  :)

The big kids all needed to pose with the big helmet with the babies.  (As you can see below, James did NOT want to relinquish the hat to Natalie – ha!)

My little model – goodness.

I think yesterday was the last time to stuff the babies into their Womb Mates onesies.  Love ‘em!

Joanna took this one of me reading some of her schoolwork with the babies in my lap.  At first, I thought about cropping it, but I decided I really liked how she framed it.

I was changing a diaper or something and came out to find this later on.  Homeschooling is AWESOME!!!

She is just so stinkin’ sweet with her baby brothers!

This evening a very sweet friend from church brought over dinner including some chocolate pudding for the kids.  I can’t tell, do you think James liked it?

Ha!  I have no idea where he gets his love of chocolate from.  It’s a mystery!

Sweethearts

I put the babies in their “Sassy” colored diapers on Valentine’s day.  It’s kind of an orangey red which seemed festive.  They looked so fat and cute that I had to take pictures of their diaper-clad cuteness!

It’s rare for me to get a picture of Thomas these days without his hands in front of or in his mouth.

My mother has captioned the above photo “I farted… and I got blamed for it.”

I only had one “official” Valentine outfit but two babies! I put Thomas in the footies since they were generously sized, and he is the chunkier of the two.  I squeezed Michael into this onesie that says “hug me, hold me, kiss me!” which seems very festive as well.  I couldn’t button it at the bottom, so I put these (also rather tight) white pants on.  Cutie pies.

A Day in the Life in February

I know you were all waiting with baited breath for my February Day in the Life post… nine days ago. :) I remembered that day at about 9:30, so there are no pics from before that, though I do remember the events. (Or did anyway, when I wrote it down on paper the next day.)

5:05am: Woke up to nurse the babies. 

7:50: Woke up to a baby crying outside the closed door.  It was Saturday, and Matt was home. Yay for getting to sleep in!

8:05: Ate oatmeal while I nursed the babies.  Decided I wanted to go to BabyDaze for the half-price sale.

8:55: Arrived at the church with Joanna and waited in line until the doors opened at 9:00.

We found a new bike for Joanna for half off of $15!!  Wahoo!!  We also found a few other odds and ends, but the bike was the major score and worth the trip!

9:30: Realized it was the 8th and I should be taking pictures so I snapped this one:

Then she snapped this one:

This is what the gym looked like, and by 4:00 that afternoon it was totally empty again and ready for church the next day – crazy!

Big girl with her new bike!  I’m pretty sure she could actually go up a size, but this size also works fine (and was $7.50!!) and will do perfectly until we upgrade.

Joanna and I left the church about 9:40 and headed to Kroger on the way home.

We arrived home a little before 11:00 to this Michael cuteness:

11:00: nursed the babies then hopped up to make grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone else.  So domestic.  :)  See my new cast-iron griddle?!

After lunch my mom was on her way home from the airport and agreed to stop by and watch the kiddos while Matt and I loaded up the play kitchen for storage.  Mom has a storage room that she keeps threatening to empty out and get rid of but actually hasn’t yet, so we’re taking advantage and storing our huge play kitchen for a little while.  It wasn’t getting played with much, though we aren’t ready to get rid of it yet.  The time apart will make the heart grow fonder.  :)

Aaaaaand that made room for this beauty that the girls received from their best buds for their birthday.  All three big kids LOVE playing with it.  :)

When we got home from running to the storage room I of course needed to move furniture around.  I have a sickness.  :)

The babies were having a marathon nap (hallelujah!) during this time so I got focus on moving furniture around.  Matt helped me when things were too bulky for one person, but mostly he stayed outside with the big kids for some bike riding.

Everybody got to upgrade to the next size bike.  James technically doesn’t have a helmet yet so that’s on the list.  He’s not terribly thrilled about bike riding yet though so it’s all good.  This was going on at around 3:30.

At about 4:00 I started my part of the dinner prep.  We did burgers and potatoes on the grill, but I also cooked bacon and onions inside to top them.

James was my helper/entertainer.

At 4:45 I stopped cooking to nurse the babies. (I hadn’t fed them since 11:00!!)

Matt grilled during that time and by 5:40 dinner was on the table.

I’m not sure it was this cold outside, but isn’t he cute?!

The babies had some wiggle time after they nursed.  They’re so stinkin’ cute (even though you kind of can’t see their faces.  Michael, Thomas.

My plate of deliciousness:

That’s a hamburger patty under there with cheese, bacon, onions, and avocado.  Normally it would have also had some spinach, but we were out.  SOOOOO GOOD!!

Natalie had Hootie again that week and fed him some of her burger.  :)

After dinner Matt got the big kids bathed and the babies down for a little nap.

At 7:00 I found myself picking out clothes for the next day – the babies were being baptized!

Picking out clothes for myself took the longest and made the biggest mess. :)

7:30: The babies ate one last time for going down for the night.

At 8:20 the hubs and I were enjoying some milk, cookies, and the Olympics before bed.

I was asleep by 9:30pm.  It was a great day – I sure do love the slightly more flexible and laid-back pace of the weekends with Matt home!!