This and That in January!

Since our family size increased (a lot at one time!) a little over a year ago, I’ve become quite the slacking blogger.  I do miss blogging regularly, but find that life just gets in the way.  :)  I do love having it to look back on, so I’m going to keep plugging away as I can!

This shot is actually from the very end of December.  Michael looks so big and so tiny all at once here.

This guy!  He climbs on everything.  I’m pretty sure he’s signing “more” in this picture.  I can’t remember why though.

I have lots of school things as well as papers, books, DVDs stored in these drawers in my living room, and I don’t want Thomas in them!  So far, these fancy dry-cleaner-hanger baby-proofing devices are keeping him out.  :)

Michael is really getting around more and following his brother’s example.

I must have taken this picture at meal time.  Some cheese, avocado, and pear for the babies.  Yum!

This boy looooooves his biggest sis.

Technically this next picture was posed, but that’s only because they moved before I could snap one of them actually sitting there together, looking out the front window.

One day my mom took us out to eat lunch.  She even treated the bigs to dessert.

They approved.  :)

I’ve started (become obsessed with) this show called Arrow, and this picture of Thomas makes me think of it. The main character runs around doing vigilante stuff in a hood.

Joanna realized one morning that she had a dress that matched the babies’ onesies.  Love them all.

One morning a couple of weeks ago I woke up with terrible neck and back pain.  I was thankful this little one with strong fingers gave me a couple minutes of her time.  :)

Mr. Michael has been having various appointments, tests, and studies to discover if there’s a reason for his teenyness.  One day I managed to leave the other four with various people near home, so I got to take just Michael downtown for a swallow study.  Actually, Pop drove us – it was fun!

Don’t Michael and I look snazzy!

A friend passed along a set of Thomas the Train sheets for James, and he looooooves them.

I like taking pictures in the nursery.  The light is good. 

Look at this tiny boy pulling himself up on the bench!

This is pretty much the story of my life.  When I posted this on Facebook, the kids’ cousin posted a great caption: “Sometimes Superman needs his mommy too.”

I just love having another reader in the house!  She loves to read to her siblings, and they love to listen!

I’m pretty sure someone put Michael on the little car, but then he was kind of pushing himself around on it.

Doesn’t he look like he’s in the middle of explaining something here?  Oh how Thomas loves to climb on things and be up off the ground.

I’ve seen her walking around with a book on her head too.

Super James comes up with the best outfits. (Side note: the floor in my house NEVER looks like this.  I’m amazed just looking at it.)

Natalie turned SIX a week and a half or so ago!!  We always like to do a birthday tree for her.  I think sixes were the hardest ones to cut out so far.  :)

It was Sunday, so she got to wear the birthday crown to Sunday school.

That Sunday also happened to be our very best friends, the Vandenberges, last Sunday at church.  They moved to Kentucky so Tony can attend Seminary.  We’re excited, but saaaaaaad!!

I was helping James finish his snack from Sunday school.

Those girls – love em!

James getting some snuggles from Bonnie.

This was one morning at breakfast.  James invited Nightmare Moon to the table with him.

I love these Advent workshop crafts the big kids did.  They looked so pretty in my kitchen window.

Last week my new six year old lost her first tooth!

The weather was wet and dreary on and around Natalie’s birthday, but when we got a dry day, I took her out for a few pics.

Love this adorable girl!

Last Friday Lisa and the kiddos stopped by on their last day here.  We miss them already!  Here’s Lisa and me with our brood:

I used my poor man’s tripod (trash dumpster) to set my camera on.  While I was fiddling with settings, the girls were working on their posing.  :)

These girls have been best friends since the very beginning.

Here’s an early Joanna and Anna picture:

And the little sisters:

(Lisa – we’re mailing those three pics to you this week, along with notes from the girls.)

Sometimes it’s the evening and the light is gone before I realize I’ve forgotten to take a daily picture.  Since we STILL had not managed to get the Christmas stuff packed up yet, I decided to try and get creative using the lights from the tree. 

I love my stained glass nativity and enjoyed taking some pics of it.  I pulled it away from the tree in my bedroom and focused on the creche so the lights would blur out.  Pretty!

This must have been Saturday or Sunday – and clearly the weather was warm!  Everybody spent some time playing outside, and I came out to snap a few pics.

I like the light in the nursery, so Thomas and I posed for a pic in there one day.  I set the camera on the changing table, which is why the top of my head isn’t in the frame.  Instead of using the timer setting, I had Joanna push the button for me so that the camera would focus on me instead of the wall.  I love this sweet snuggly boy!

Well, it took me three days to write this post.  Hopefully it won’t take as long to read it.  :)

August in Review (with pictures!)

Forty-six pictures isn’t too many for one post, is it?

Are you still there?

Oh good.  Here goes!  I’ll try to keep the chatter to a minimum so you can enjoy the pictures.

We had a very heavy rain, and somehow that meant a water spot on the kitchen ceiling.

Natalie “reading” to Michael.

The girls dressed James as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Michael’s eczema is pretty bad on his ankles, so I often slather him with lotion and then put on socks.  Sometimes they match his diaper, and I find that adorable.

All this was happening simultaneously one morning.

My mother and I actually ventured to a restaurant for lunch one day with all five! It was pretty fun, and they did great!

We had a make-and-take at the last KAMOM (Kingwood Area Mothers of Multiples) meeting.  It’s supposed to be a nest, but I bet that wasn’t your first guess.  :)  My arthritis/carpel tunnel made this veeeerrrrry hard to do, but I managed to get my five chicks in there! The sample ones really did look like nests and were adorable.  I still like mine though.  :)

I love when Matt grills burgers.  We dress them up with all kinds of deliciousness.

I made sure to ask Joanna if it was okay to post this next one. :) She wrote a note to her best bud when they were out of town.  I didn’t have an address for them, and I’m not sure there would have been time for real mail anyway, so I just took a picture and emailed it to her mom.

It says “Dear Anna, I hope you are having a good time in Colorado.  It’s lonely without you.  Do you get to visit Damen?  Please write back. Joanna Hee hee! I’m an ant.”

James (the conductor) was using a latex glove as a balloon.

I got to light this candle when a sweet friend was in labor with her newest baby.  It was a great reminder sitting in my kitchen window to pray for her through the day.

Matt took these next two.

Methinks the apple dost not fall far from the tree, eh?

(I must have just finished nursing the boys, which is why the pillow is still wrapped around me.)

Our first “us-ie.”

James LOVES wearing footie pajamas, which he has not been able to do in many months.  My mom remembered this and picked him up a new cozy pair at Sams.  I let them run around in them that day, but made him take them off after he was soaked with sweat.  Ha! They’re put away until it gets cold enough.

Thomas is not a fan of loud noises.  He was in my lap here, but you can still see the wide-eyed worried look on his face as Matt was running something loud (blender, grain mill, food processor? can’t remember) in the kitchen.

They came out and told me they wanted to be twins that day.

Eat-in kitchen!

Another us-ie! Joanna got us all in our Astros duds that day.

And then I thought we looked so adorable I pulled out the big camera and set the timer.

I can’t decide which one I like better!

We take phys ed very seriously around here – Thomas has just about gotten the hang of hula hooping.

It’s really the Spiderman slippers that make this outfit, right?

Natalie drew Sofia the First on the dry erase board.

See?

Thomas is EVERYWHERE these days!

I was playing with the late afternoon light coming in my bedroom window one day.  James came in with his Lego steps, and he made a better model than myself.

This kid is weird about naps/bedtime.  He has to be exactly just precisely the right amount of tired but not over-tired to fall asleep.  This was weeeeeeeelllllll past bedtime one night, but he was so cheerful!

In fact, after this I put him on the floor to scootch around and play.  I think he forgot Matt and I were there, but Joanna came out to give him a kiss, and he cried and cried and cried when she walked away.  It was so sweet!

Snacks at Gran’s:

I ordered a bunch of 5x7s from Mpix the last time they had free shipping and laid them all out when they came in!

There were a couple I wasn’t thrilled with the color on, so I’m going to fix those, but it’s so fun to get my own images edited by me up on the wall!  Most of them went in the frame above my television.

I look at those A LOT through the day since it faces the couch where I nurse, and they make me so happy to look at!

Sunday was promotion Sunday at church and they also did a blessing over the kiddos going back to school.  You can see Joanna (in a green dress) over toward the right.  Natalie’s more in the middle, in a dress that matches.

James was enjoying his snack at the end of the pew.

Praying.

All three of my boys crashed on the way home, so I dropped Matt and the girls off at home to eat lunch and change clothes while I drove these guys around.

I checked this book out from the library last week, and it was wonderful!

Free child labor. (And get this – they were so excited to get to vacuum that they cleaned up the floor!)

This is how I found Thomas when I picked him up from the nursery at the Y on Monday.  He was working so hard to get out, and I’m pretty sure he’d have done it if I hadn’t come along.