Earlier in the week

I was sooooooo tired early in the week.  {In fact, I’m only now feeling mostly back to my usual self.}  But apparently that can’t stop me from catching some cute pictures!

Natalie put the skirts from her Groovy Girls on her wrists – voila!  Instant super hero bands.

I wouldn’t have guessed she even had a concept for that. 

She likes to dress herself, but not all of it quite coordinates.

Speaking of coordinating, check out Rambo here, with is pink headband and blue beads.  That boy is stylin!

I love it when I can catch a shot of Natalie reading a book.

I was in the girls room (on Wednesday, I think?) cleaning up, and I brought Laura and her bucket of toys with me.

I like all the colors in this one…

but I also like how the black and white makes it easier to focus on the cute baby.

Taking pictures and editing them is fun!!

And so is feeling halfway normal enough to blog!

TGIF!!

Cuteness

James loves to do things that he sees his big sisters do.  Doesn’t he look so cute writing in his little notebook at the big table?!!

I didn’t turn my back for a minute on Friday and Joanna had put her headband on Miss Laura.  :)

Matt snapped this one of the kids and me last night.  They were about to head to bed, and I was watching a video on the computer.  I sure do love having my arms full of my babies!!

My mom stopped by with her new doggie.

Her name is Sarah, and she’s a rescue collie.  Mom wants to keep her.

I’m not really sure what the face is about, but I just love this picture!  This girl had to have a shower when she came inside.  But it was worth the fun I think!

Now I’m sitting on the couch, getting my feet rubbed, watching TV, and feeling the breeze through the open window.  I looooooooove a cold front!!!!

James is cute, and artwork, and squash, and why I shouldn’t take pictures of sleeping babies with the big camera

The kids were playing with blocks this morning.  I think James is the first of my three that sat and enjoyed stacking blocks again and again.

I deeply love this one:

James came into the kitchen saying “my stroller.”  I said, “Do you have a baby in that stroller?”

He said “No.  Car stroller.”

And sure enough he did.

Laura was having a tired/hungry moment, and she fell asleep eating.  I couldn’t help snapping this picture, but the sound of the shutter startled her awake.  Clearly it didn’t take much, and she probably would have woken up in a second anyway.

Joanna drew this picture a week or so ago, and she did some writing on it.  Basically it says “I went horseback riding.”  And you can see some of the letters that are actually in that sentence – I think she was sounding it out!  She has the horses labeled at the bottom with an “L” for Labamba and a “P” for Patches.  I love it!

I love all the drawing that the girls are doing lately, but the papers are kind of taking over the world.  I decided I would start trimming them and putting them together in a book so they’d be fun to flip through.  I pulled down all the school work and artwork that I had hanging around and sorted it by kiddo.  I pretty much keep every single thing that comes home from school/church/nursery for the whole year and then I go through it to save the very favorites.  But this is the first time Joanna especially has been drawing so much at home, and I want to catalogue it as it comes. 

I trimmed the drawings to squares because squares make me happy and mounted them on cardstock that was slightly larger.  I also attached a label with a description told to me by the artist as well as her name and the approximate date.

I’ll add more on the back as they come in.  I think I will set up a little basket or drawer or something with the glue, labels, and a pen so I will keep up with this little endeavor.  The girls and I love the book!

And look what I found in the “garden” while I was pulling clothes off the line?!!  It’s like a real vegetable!!!!!!

This morning we had a gorgeous walk to school.  The kids all wore their jean jackets.  I didn’t wear a jacket, but it felt glorious to be just a little chilly on the walk.  And I wasn’t drenched when we got back home.

I managed to get some laundry done today but not so much folded.  Hopefully I’ll get a burst of energy to do that tonight.  Or… not.  :)

I actually drove to pick up Joanna this afternoon, and I don’t have a good excuse as to why.  I do have a bad excuse though.  :)  I really just wanted a Dr. Pepper, and I decided everyone would benefit from me having one.  (I was a little grumpy and tired.)  The trouble was that it was too close to pick up time to go get one and then walk to school.  So I put the four littles in the car and called the school to tell them I’d be picking up Joanna in the car.  She was pretty excited, and it was nice to get to say hi to Joanna’s teacher, who does back door dismissal.  And the Dr. Pepper was really good.

The three “big” kids enjoyed playing outside after their rest time today.  It was so lovely that they didn’t come in just drenched in sweat!  They were plenty dirty though.  The neighbor kids even came over to our backyard and played for awhile.  Yay for bearable weather!!

Miscellaneous Things Including Shoes

I was cleaning up in the girls room the other day and came upon this cache of acorns.  So I don’t know whether I have squirrels living in the house or maybe my children are squirrels or maybe there’s an oak tree in the walls.  I’m stumped.  :)

I love these pink sandals of Natalie’s.  I will be sad when they don’t fit her anymore.

James got a box of hand-me-downs the other day – yay!!  In the box were these awesome cowboy boots which Natalie promptly claimed for herself.  :)  I love her style.

They actually do fit, so they may get passed through one more kiddo before James gets to wear them.  :)

Baby Laura started coming over this week, and James is OBSESSED.  He loves her so so so so much.  Here he’s cleaning up her mouth a little bit.  Sooooo cute!

He’s such a good “big brother!”

More Catching Up

I have very non-interesting blog titles lately.  :)

These are some more pics from before I got the computer (maybe a couple are from after).  I need to go ahead and blog before I forget what they’re all about!

Natalie is in to drawing people lately – I love it!  This is me walking:

For awhile the girls have been having “rest time” in the afternoons together in their room.  I started this a couple of months ago when I needed to stop Natalie from napping – it was messing with her nighttime sleep.  So our arrangement has been for James to be in his room at rest time and the girls to be in their room.  Ray sleeps in a pack-and-play in my room when he’s here.  The girls have been getting louder at rest time and fighting more lately, so I decided to split them up when we don’t have Ray.  James sleeps in my room and the girls split between their room and James’.  This has worked pretty well the last few weeks.  They usually stay quieter without a sister to mess around with, and they enjoy the rests they have together a bit more.  Natalie has seemed very tired lately, so I haven’t worried if she falls asleep.  It only happens sometimes, and so far has not affected her sleep at night too much.

One afternoon I went to check on her and found this:

There wasn’t a real bed in James’ room, and this is where she got comfortable.

Love it!

This is my usual computer spot, and the kids know it!

I love how Natalie had my mouse “hooked up” to her computer.  :)

Random purple cabbage flower outside.  Natalie picked it for me.

The very dirt-attracting boy:

Last Wednesday I got to watch Laura for the first time!  She loved laying on the changing table and looking out the window.  Joanna really loved that too.

Natalie drew this picture of me.  I don’t think it’s my most flattering, but I still love it. : )

I braided my hair the other day and decided I’d like a picture of it.

We put the trundle bed together and moved it into James’ room this weekend.  James is such a big helper!

He is so stinkin’ cute!!!!

So far he hasn’t slept in the bed, but it’s sitting there ready for whenever he is!

In other news, Matt’s car died yesterday and most likely will need to be replaced.  I’m sad.  I really really really don’t want to deal with finding a new car.  Fortunately it’s the summer so I don’t really need mine during the day and Matt can take it.  That gives us a few weeks before we really have to have two cars again.  My car needs a little work though before Matt should be driving it so much every day.  And I’m not particularly looking forward to how much gas we’ll be buying.  I’m just really praying for an old car that needs a good home to fall in our laps like it did last time!

Anybody Seen Marty McFly?

I saw on Facebook that yesterday was the date that Marty came forward to in Back to the Future.  I just think that’s cool.  :)

I feel a little like I’ve lost an appendage without a computer to blog with!  I had David’s, but then it stopped working (though it may be okay after all).  I haven’t even tried to turn it on in days, and I asked my mom if I could borrow hers for a bit.  She dropped it off and took David’s back home, where it appears to be working normally.  So maybe it was a subconscious ploy to use this computer.  Mwa ha ha ha ha!

Not really.

I remember I put a bunch of pictures together on David’s to blog, but I obviously didn’t publish; I’m not even sure I started composing.

Anywho… Without a working computer, my desire to take millions of pictures constantly all day long has diminished a bit.  And also I’ve become quite hooked on a television program that has like six seasons I can catch up on.  Wahoo!  And also…not.  :)

These first few are from last week, when I felt mostly dead; it’s kind of foggy.

James would make a very pretty lady, don’t you think?

Matt took this one evening when I’d gone to my room to hibernate.  I love that James loves me so much… most of the time anyway.

I think this was one day at rest time – probably Saturday because Matt took this one also.  He had the settings off, but you can get the drift.  The girls put their nightlight on the floor, darkened the window blinds, and had a “campout.”

A friend passed along these Scooby Doo PJs for James to dress up in.  Of course the big sisters have to check out all things intended for their little brother.  She makes a cute puppy though!

I have felt SO MUCH better this week – I’ve been able to catch up around the house.  It’s glorious.  I was super tired today, but that’s totally normal for me and Thursdays.  I’m sticking it out with my sugar detox, but I am sooooooooooo craving everything I cannot have.  I especially want ice cream and French fries.  That will likely be lunch on the day I finish this thing.  :)  I have a few food pics gathered for a post on what I’ve been eating.  I should get it up later.  Though now that the children are in bed I want to watch TV.  And the kitchen is in bad shape.  So we’ll see.

This is from today.  He is TOO CUTE in his t-shirt and boots – best outfit!

It’s been raining all week (NOT complaining!) which makes it a bit dark for good pics.  And it makes me not want to leave the house.  The children are going a bit stir-crazy.  I should come up with something fun for tomorrow.  Maybe the grocery store.  If I add a few exclamation points that will help – maybe the grocery store!!!

James has been pretty Mommy-needy lately and his sleep’s a little funky.  My guess is that he’s teething.  Hopefully that passes quickly!

Today Martha brought Laura to pick up Ray from my house so I got to meet her for the first time!  I was sick last week, but I feel back to normal now.  I got to snuggle her for a long time, and she slept and slept and slept then finally woke up.  She is so pretty!

This week was our first round of Musikgarten preview classes.  I taught a toddler class on Monday and brought James with me.  I co-led with Kendra, and I think it went really well.  I sure had fun and I think James did too.  He was pretty miffed I made him take his shoes off, but I’m still impressed with how well he cooperated with me helping teach the class.  I’m so excited for this program.  I love the material and I’m having such fun teaching it!