My Cute Kids

We actually had a few glorious cold days last week, and we got to get out of our summer clothes for a bit! 

Joanna has this fuzzy vest that Gran got her – fashion diva!

And she has boots to match!  This was Friday, and really it was a bit warm for this outfit, but she’s been dying to wear it.  :)

James loves to mix pretend things.  Here he’s using the drumstick to mix inside the stacking block:

Pretty sure I could dig up some baby pictures with that exact look on my face.

Mixing some more.

I guess Ray and James were playing a game.  I think Ray was trying to instruct James on how it all works.

I sure do love my babies!

This was Friday, and Matt came home a bit early, and we got to go to Family Movie Night!  Then Saturday I ran a bunch of errands by myself!  And today I got to go to a baby shower for an old friend while Matt again stayed home with the kiddos.  Everybody had some awesome Daddy time this weekend!  I think it’s so good for all of them, but I must admit I needed lots more snuggles after all of it.  :)

Art

Thursday was Open House up at the School for Little Children, and I went by myself.  I had Sola Gratia rehearsal right after so it would have been tough to have all or some of the family along.  I didn’t take many pictures as I knew we’d be getting this art home next week, but I just had to shoot a picture of Joanna’s self-portrait.  Before I tell you which one is hers, you should just take a guess… for fun.  :)

Joanna’s is the all red one.  I’m sure it’s because she was drawing what she looks like on the inside.  Brilliant!

Natalie drew some more cockroaches today, and I am really impressed. 

This means that she did not just draw some scribbles on the page and proclaim it a cockroach.  She can actually sit down and draw one.  I just think that’s so amazing!  (I’m hoping I can get her to draw butterflies and puppy dogs pretty soon too, instead of just my arch nemesis.)  She’s only two and a half!  I only have Joanna to compare her to, and Joanna seems on the slow end of this kind of development.  She really doesn’t care much about drawing or writing (though that has started to kick in with this year of preschool).

I, as usual, have several things to blog about, but so little time!  Hopefully I’ll be getting some posts up soon… including Joanna’s debut in Children’s Choir!

This is How to Scare Your Momma

You know how babies do that crying thing where they stop breathing?  James is very good at it.  He really stops.  The first time I thought he was choking and I had my hand on the phone to call 911.  When Matt grabbed him up though, he started breathing again.  This has happened two other times, and we've had to grab/shake/(whatever the best word for that sort of startle movement is) him to get him to take a breath.  His lips turn blue; it's super-scary.  He does it when he's mad.  The first time he wanted more of something and we didn’t have it right there; I left the room to get it.  The second time (a few days ago) he did it when I told Matt to take James and give him a bath.  James really wanted to stay with me.  Today I realized I probably need to let other people know he does this as maybe it’s something he’s going to do regularly.  I just took something away from him that he shouldn’t play with, and he got so mad.  He was out of my line of sight after I took it away from him, and it was only because Joanna was looking at him that I knew he wasn’t breathing.  He could have just been quiet.  As soon as I startled him, he took a breath.  I assume he would have eventually breathed, but I’m scared that isn’t the case.  And I guess the worst case is that he would pass out and then start to breathe.  Oh my goodness I can’t believe I’m typing about my baby maybe passing out.  This just really freaked me out today! 

So if you’re taking care of James and you make him mad and he stops breathing, give him a little shake.  (And just FYI, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who makes him this mad.)

I think I’ll be mentioning this to the pediatrician. 

Anybody else’s kids freak ‘em out like this?

Nothing Much Here to Report, but you know I’m going to ramble anyway.

I have just not been in blogging mode lately, and I guess that’s okay!  We haven’t had too much going on, mostly laundry, cooking, cleaning, and stuff like that.  :)

I did get to stay home by myself on Tuesday while the kids were at school, and that felt very nice!  I got a few projects done and caught up on some things.  I even cleaned out my junk drawer.  That was quite an accomplishment!

My mom got back last night from 8 or so days in Europe.  I am so glad she got to have such a fun vacation!  I’m pretty sure though that that is the longest I’ve ever gone without talking to my mom in my whole life.  :)

The children, especially Natalie, have LOVED playing with our Little People toys lately.  They’re ones that I’ve kept holding on to (most were my mom’s when she had a daycare home), even though my kids weren’t that interested.  I had them put away because they just ended up all over the house, but Natalie saw them and kept asking to play with them.  At first, I just got them out for bits at a time, but now they’re in the living room.  James likes to hold them and scoot the cars around.  Natalie plays with them the way they were intended, and Joanna sometimes joins her.  Or sometimes she does other things with them (counting games and such).  We have a pretty mish-mashed set, and I may look at expanding/fleshing it out for Natalie for Christmas or her birthday.  We have…
-A little dollhouse (this is the main thing Natalie plays with)
-several cars, trucks, a train, airplanes, and a helicopter
-the old school bus
-the old ark with some pairs of animals.  We need a few replacements for it to be authentic.  :)
-lots of people, some “older” style (still fat but more plain than the current ones – know what I mean?)
-We also have the nativity, which comes out seasonally – I can’t wait to get it out this year!

I added “Little People” to my watch list on Kingwood Yard Sales since these are things that seem to last very well for resale.  I think Natalie would like something like her dollhouse, say the farm or a school or something.  Or I may just hit Baby Daze in January.  It is way too fun to shop for the children.  :)

We got the kids’ school pictures on Monday, and they’re GORGEOUS!  Lindsay Moore, a local family photographer, does them, and they’re amazing.  Kinda too amazing for my pocketbook, but oh well!  I probably should have scanned them before I framed them, but you’ll just have to come on over and see ‘em.  :)

I’m trying to keep things simple around here and just enjoy these days with the fam.  I hope to stay reasonably caught up on cleaning and housework.  I have lots to do in the cleaning out department like pricing things for Baby Daze in January and running books up to Half Price.  It’s amazing how much stuff I can always clean out, even if I think I’ve just cleaned out.  :)  One major project I may actually work on this year (since I’m not pregnant and I don’t have a new baby) is to really go through the Christmas decorations.  I love to put up trees and decorate for Christmas, but I really have too much stuff to store for so many other months of the year!  I need to get down to what I really love, and ditch the rest.

I want to upgrade my scanner to one of those fancy ones that you just slide the picture/document into.  I’d love to start archiving old pictures, but my scanner takes about 5 minutes per picture to do it’s thing.  I’m just not committing to that time investment.  :)

It’s amazing how much I can blab about nothing.  Maybe I’ll get around to doing something interesting… or at least taking some pictures!

Natalie’s Masterpiece

It’s not unusual for Natalie to do some pretty scribbling, especially when there are markers involved, but this is the first time she drew a thing.  One morning last week she showed Matt her cockroach.  Can you see it?

Here it is if you need a little help:

I’m pretty sure that she drew it, then realized that it looked like a cockroach.  And it does!  A body, two antennae, six or so legs.  When I heard her telling Matt about it (I was semi comatose on the couch), I assumed it was a black splotch or something like that.  I’m so amazed at my budding artist.  :)

Trunk or Treat!

Our church had a Trunk or Treat event this year, and it was great fun!

We got the kiddos dressed at home to check the fit of everything and what hair accoutrements and other accessories they would need.

And so my mom and David could stop by and see them in their costumes.

My mom took some of these pics; the others were from our camera.  Most of the pictures are of James.  I’m blaming this on how he was asleep for his first Halloween and we needed to make up for it.  Not because he’s our favorite.  :)

Little Bo Peep and her sheep:

As David put it – James is a cotton picker.

I love Joanna’s sweet face in this one.  James is really going after the cotton balls.  :)

At the church James really was mostly cheerful.  But of course it is rough being a baby sheep sometimes:

Joanna especially loved going car to car to get treats.  Natalie figured it out pretty quickly.  It was hard pushing the stroller and keeping up with both Natalie and Joanna (Matt was handing out candy at our car) – they just move at such different speeds!

I tried to get a picture of Aiden the cowboy and Natalie the cowgirl.

We fed James to keep him from picking cotton.  When I blew through the Mum mum stash, I dug in Natalie’s bag for the pretzels she’d scored.  :)

Little Bo blue lips Peep and her sheep:

I love the next couple of pictures:

He’s handing the cotton ball to Natalie; love the face!

My precious kiddos!

Mostly James strolled around without his hat; I carried and showed it off.  :)  It was pretty warm, so he shed his winter coat after a bit as well.  Cotton balls make a very thick coat.

K-Park Football Game!

Friday night Joanna and I had a special treat!  We went with the Vandenberge’s to the last regular Kingwood Park game.  And it was gloriously chilly – wahoo!

Last week I bought a fleecy sweatshirt for Joanna and some jeans, because she didn’t have anything; I’m glad I did!  We also took the tags off the hat and gloves we bought last year on clearance.

Serious face:

Silly pose face:

Sweet friends – sorry Anna that your eyes are wonky in the picture.  :)

The big girls wanted to hug on Parker the Panther whenever “he” came by!

Lisa took the girls down when the drums were going down to march – Anton’s got to love his 3, 4, and 5 year old fan club!

Sitting with Mr. Tony:

Hugging on that panther some more.

The drum line plays down front in the third quarter.  The girls loved dancing to it!

You can kind of get an idea of Joanna’s moves here:

She also had some crazy head-banger moves going on.  It was hilarious.

Still watching, with a little boy who was sitting near us.

We had a great time!  Thank you Daddy for staying at home with the little ones!  I think next year will be a fun age for everybody to come.  Though, we’ll probably be hitting a KHS game, since Anton will have graduated.  Gotta support my alma mater!