Natalie’s Preschool Graduation!!

We all headed up to the church (one week ago now – not the latest post ever!) for Natalie’s graduation from preschool!  It was VERY HARD to get all of us dressed and up there by 6:30pm so I have very few cute pictures, and zero pictures of me with the grad.  :(  Mommy blogger FAIL!

Seriously though, 7pm for a preschool graduation is LATE! It was past the babies’ bedtime, but they were super troopers, that’s for sure.  Thankfully Mamma and Pop were there to be extra baby jigglers! That way I got to concentrate on taking pictures.  I spent a while “practicing” before the grads came in.  James ran over to hug Miss Anne and Miss Joan (all the bigs’ toddler teachers).

He’s a ham.

Oooohh oh there she is!!

Something a little fun:

Miss Robin, the director, read out what each child wanted to be when they grew up as each one walked across the front.  There were practical things like “Johnny want to be a police officer,” and “Julie wants to be a teacher.”  There were fun things like “Peter wants to be a blue ninja,” and “Megan wants to be a princess.”  But my daughter, my sweet, unassuming Natalie, topped them all when we heard, “When Natalie grows up, she wants to be… QUEEN.”  Aim high sweet girl, aim high.

I managed to get a cute one of her hugging Miss Nancy as she walked across to get her “diploma.”

And hugging Miss Melanie (she subbed the last couple of months while Miss Whitney was on maternity leave.) Miss Whitney was there too but I managed to miss getting a picture of her with Natalie.  :(

One of the 3’s teachers was standing over to the side taking pictures of all the kiddos.  Here is the one of Natalie!

Natalie is so cute!

And may also be a ham. :)

There was lots of cuteness and singing, then they headed over the gym for a reception, and we met them there.  This is where it got a little… rough.  It was pushing 8:00, which is past the bedtime of ALL my children, and I was really running out of hands.  In hindsight, I wished I brought a couple of carriers to strap babies to Matt and me, but I wasn’t thinking.  We’d left the stroller in the car, but they were too tired to tolerate that anyway.

This is a sweet one of Matt, his dad, and the babes.

Mamma and Pop headed home pretty quickly.  I think 8:00 was coming close to their bedtime as well.  :)

Somehow we wrangled all five kiddos and didn’t lose any of them.  The bigs all got a cookie and punch, which they’d been looking forward to for days, if not weeks. :) We gathered up Natalie’s goodies, including pictures from her year and treats from her teachers.  And then she began to MELT DOWN.  So we got out of there!  It was about 8:15 and I hadn’t managed to get pictures of her with everyone I wanted to, but I didn’t really need pictures of the ugly cry.  Ha!

Before the melting, we found Miss Anne and Miss Joan from her toddler years:

And Miss Melanie from this year.

It was a very sweet night, and I think Natalie felt special and loved.  And now I have a Kindergartener on my hands! 

First Food Experience!!

Matt brought the high chair and booster seat down from the attic today, and the boys tried them out… along with a little taste of avocado!

I just mashed it very smoothly and plopped some on the tray.  I had to show them where it was.

Ohhhhhh!!!  Fingerpainting!  (This is Thomas, by the way.)

I figured he would put his hands right in his mouth, but he didn’t.  So I put a little avocado on my finger, and he of course immediately put it in his mouth.  :)

I think he liked it.

I don’t think he put any in his mouth with his own hands.  But there were two babies to watch so I can’t be sure.  :)

Then it was Michael’s turn!

Same deal, I plopped it down and pointed it out to him.

He also enjoyed the avocado finger painting!

Again, I put some on my finger so he’d understand what it was all about.

He very much enjoyed smearing it around and wearing a little on his lip.

Messy (and tired) baby!

It’s official – they’ve entered the world of other food.  I guess it had to happen eventually.  :)  The big kids were SO entertained by watching their little brothers “eat.”

And can you believe I’m publishing this on the day it actually happened?!  Enjoy!

“I’m going to be forty!”

In the weeks approaching my birthday this year, I kept thinking of Meg Ryan as Sally in When Harry Met Sally.  There’s a scene where’s she’s bawling because her former long-term boyfriend is getting married and she’s not (or something along those lines). She says to Harry “I’m going to be forty!” And he says something like “Yeah, in EIGHT years.”  I’m not sure what it is about thirty-two that makes it seem close to forty, because it really isn’t.  :)  I’m not sad about turning thirty-two; I’m feeling pretty good about it.  And for the record, I don’t feel like forty is looming over me.

Anyway… I had a lovely birthday at home with my family.  Matt took the day off from work, which is the best present I could get.  I love being able to take it a little bit easier.  My mom is on a cruise this week but happened to be on a US Virgin Island yesterday so she was able to call me (at 7am!) to wish me a happy birthday.  I’m not sure I’ve ever gone a year without talking to my mom on my birthday.  I had lots of phone calls and texts and Facebook messages which I love!  Also, my women’s choir sang to me on Tuesday night – soooo beautiful! 

I started this post hours ago and am just now getting back to it.  It’s too late at night for me to load any pics, so I’m going to go ahead and post.  Maybe I’ll update it later…

Poor, neglected little blog

I may have mentioned that this month I’m taking an online class on how to use Photoshop Elements.  Well, basically, it’s kicking my butt (in a good way), and I’m struggling to keep up with anything!!  That said, a few recent things HAVE to get on the blog before they are lost forever to my memory.  :)

The babies had their six month well check up on May 7th.  I made a first-after-lunch appointment and it was FABULOUS – not busy and a very quick in and out!  The babies are, of course perfect, but here are some specifics:

Michael is 24.5 inches long (though I’m not totally sure he was stretched out all the way), weighs 14lbs 1.5oz, and has a head circumference of 17.52 inches.  He has eczema and his left tear duct still doesn’t want to quite open up all the way.  He still gets goo from time to time.

Thomas is 25 inches long, weighs 15lbs 1oz, and has a head circumference of 17.24 inches.  (However, I do not believe for one second that his head is smaller than Michael’s.  Something didn’t get measured right.)

Last Tuesday (that makes it May 13th) when he was 6.5 months old, Michael cut his first tooth!  I was surprised he beat his brother, but who knows how these things work!  So far, he has not hurt me with it, though the time for chewing on Mommy’s fingers has come to an end.  :)  When I found it in his mouth, the kids got so excited and all had to go wash their hands so they could feel it.  Such sweet big sibs!  Oh, it’s his bottom front left one.

Last Thursday was a momentous day for me.  I packed my last school lunch for the foreseeable future.  Those of you that know how much I really hate packing lunches know that was a BIG DAY!  James has one more day and Natalie has two more days left of preschool, but they have the option to buy food (what is it? who cares!) on these last days. :)

We joined the YMCA a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve so far dropped all five of my children off twice now.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to get a reputation up there.  :)  Since the boys don’t take pacis or drink from bottles, they aren’t exactly easy to take care of when they’re cranky.  I always (and will always) feed them just before we go, but they’re just cranky boys!  It’s going to be nice for us to have a place to escape to this summer when it’s hot and we just need to get out of the house.  I can take the big kids in to the pool one at a time (or two or three) if I’d like.  Or I could take an exercise class and get in shape.  Or I can just pedal very slowly on the recumbent bike, watch television, and then take a shower. :)  I think it’s going to be good for us.

Family Spring Pictures!

A few weeks ago we met up with Lindsay to have a mini session out at East End Park.

{Now comes the hard part of figuring out which ones I need to print and in what sizes and where I’m going to put them on the wall!}

Mr. James:

Sweet Natalie:

Lovely Joanna:

All the brood:

(Joanna is holding Thomas.)

Michael, Thomas.

Thomas, Michael. :)

Thomas – up high!

Michael looks a little less thrilled than Thomas.  :)

All of us!!

And again!

And one last shot of Joanna running through the grass.  That is SO HER!

It was a very fun session with way too many great pics to show from it.  :)  Don’t tell Matt, but I’m going to need to go to Michael’s and pick up some big ol’ frames for these beauties.

Mother’s Day 2014

This was my EIGHTH mother’s day!

The babies needed naps at church time yesterday, so Matt stayed home with them.  The bigs and I went to the 11:00 service and discovered it was the Confirmation service.  It was nice to get to see so many youth confirmed, but it meant we had to sneak out during the sermon since the service ran long and the babies needed me!

I made Matt take a picture of me with my brood after church.  Full arms and a very full heart!!

After the babies napped we headed over to Aunt Mindy’s to celebrate with family.

Mindy and Steve got the kids these bubble blowers and they were a HUGE hit!

I love spending time with family and having lots of arms for baby holding!

Joanna took this one of Thomas and me – she’s getting pretty good at composition!

I’m pretty sure I have a picture like this of Uncle Mark with most of the babies.  Michael just settled right down in his arms.

Thomas being entertained by Aunt Mindy’s funny faces. :)

I took this one this morning – my beautiful flowers from Mindy!  I loooooove them!

It was a lovely, laid back mother’s day, which is how I like ‘em!  Today I treated myself to a (extremely overdue, much needed) pedicure while my mother watched aaaallllllll the children.

I really should do something very nice for her.

:)

A Day in the Life in May

Can you believe it?  Here I am writing about the 8th… on the 9th!  So here’s May’s day in the life – it was a Thursday.

7:00am: woke up to nurse babies.  (This means that they slept until 7 – wahoo!)

8:10: Topped off babies so I could be gone a couple of hours.

About 8:45 my mom came over to watch everyone except Natalie.

9:00am: dropped Natalie off at school (and realized it was the 8th so I took a random picture of her backpack hung up).

Then I dropped off our (very last for the foreseeable future) tuition check and stopped to use the internet to get directions to a friend’s house.

Then I drove to said friend’s house to take some pictures.  Then of course, because we are women, we chatted for awhile.  It was lovely and I totally needed it.

I stopped for a Sonic drink on the way home and relieved my mom about 10:30. Only Mr. Michael was up, so she hadn’t had to deal with too much grumpy.  :)

My Js were eating a snack and watching The Incredibles on the iPad. (Extremely fabulous picture taken over my shoulder while I was nursing on the couch.)

11:00: I nursed the babies.  Somewhere around then my sister and her friend (who were in town most of the week!!!) stopped by and snuggled nieces and nephews for a little while.  They left for lunch, taking some things I needed to return in Humble with them.  Yay!!

11:40: The Js watched Kathryn and Tawna leave and then stayed at the window to watch for Lisa, who was due shortly.

My very cute helpers and I decided to fold some diapers.

Joanna took this one of us – she did well!

Pretty diapers all folded up and ready to wear!

A little before noon Lisa came and picked up Joanna because it was early release for her girls.  They went to play.  I put the babies down for a nap and set James up with his favorite movie – Cars.

At 12:25 I sat down to do a little work in Photoshop Elements for the online class I’m taking.

At 1:16 I heard our first waker, Mr. Thomas.  I think I got him up and held him for a few minutes while Michael slept a bit more.

By 1:30 I was sitting and nursing the babies.

This was at 2:25 – playtime!

You can see the ever so slight difference in quality from my iPod touch camera to my big girl camera:

At about 2:40 Kathryn and Tawna delivered Natalie to me; they’d picked her up from school.  About that time I laid the babies down for another nap.

Then over the next couple of hours I did laundry and took care of little people.

At 4:20 I nursed the babies.

Matt got home about 5:00 and at 5:20 we headed to Grandma’s house for enchilada night.  (Usually they’re on Fridays, but this one was early so K and T could be there!)

See all the baby holding people?!!!!

James crashed in the car and stayed asleep when we brought him inside.

It was musical people for the babies.  Yay for lotsa arms!

Natalie was soooooooo sweet holding baby Drew.

At some point Joanna disappeared with Grandpa David, and he texted me this picture:

The babies got grouchy so I nursed them and Thomas took me up on my offer of a little nursing nap:

It was a WONDERFUL evening with family!! We left about 7:40.  Everyone was turning into pumpkins.

At home we got everyone ready and sent to bed by 8:30 or so.

This was the last picture I took, at 9:05:

I was settled on the couch with the last of my shortbread cookies, some Nutella, and my husband for a little television.

I think I went to bed about 10:30.

That’s a wrap! (It only took me 24 hours to write this.)  :)