Closet

I got the idea in my head a while ago that I'd like to have a community closet for the big three kids -- a central place that is NOT their tiny bedroom to keep all their clothes. This week I really got the hankering to make it happen!!

My laundry room (and mudroom and pantry) was the spot I chose. This room is actually the front section of garage that the previous homeowners closed in. It makes my remaining garage small, but it's an excellent room for all kinds of things. 

Anyway, here is the view looking down the width of the room. We had an extra fridge down at that end. We opted to squeeze it into the garage to clear out that end of the room. The before (I'd already cleaned out the corner by the fridge):

And after!! The room seems so much bigger now. 

We pulled furniture from around the house to use (leaving a DISASTER everywhere else!). We've barely used it, but so far I like it!

I'm sure there will be plenty of moving things around and figuring out what works. Who knows, we may end up putting everything back where it was. :)

The kids' room feels a bit more spacious, and I think I'm going to enjoy having their clothes in the laundry room. We'll see what happens!

Baptism Day!!

For the record, I had 322 pictures of today to go through for this post.  I narrowed it down to 53, but I anticipate deleting a few before I hit publish.  David was taking pictures with his camera and Mindy and Steve were taking pictures with my camera, but the date information in the cameras didn’t match.  Soooo I couldn’t compare them in actual sequential order until I got them in here all lined up.  And that was quite a feat itself.  Does anybody remember when you used to be able to move files around in Windows Explorer until you had them how you like them?  Those were the days…

Anyway.  :) Matt was getting the babies up from their nap and dressed so I decided to take the big kids outside for a few pics on our way out the door. 

{Nothing in this post is edited.  There’s just too many!!  And when I don’t take them it kind of seems weird to edit them.  Like I’m dressing someone else’s child.  I’ll probably pick a few favorites and play with some actions on them… someday.}

James just cracks me up.

Doesn’t this picture seem like it says a lot about James’ life?

As you can see, Hootie was with us again this week.

Silly sweet sisters.

The plan was to get there a bit early, sneak into the back of the sanctuary, and nurse the babies.  I wanted to get them all full and happy before they got messed with.  Alas, the 9:40 service was running pretty late and we got in really just as 11:00 was starting up.  So no milk for the babies!

This is what it looked like going in:

The long long trailer:

All settled up front:

Some of our peeps.  You’ll see more later.  Pop, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Mindy:

Chris and Judy had each of the three biggins help pour some of the water into the bowl

I was probably concentrating here.  There were questions to answer.

I had Michael and Matt had Thomas for the baptism.

Thomas was up first.

We all reached over while Chris prayed over him.

Michael was after his little brother.

Then he brought the babies to the center and showed ‘em off.

He likes to hand the baby (babies) being baptized to someone sitting on the aisle and have them bring them back to their parents as a symbol of the church supporting the child as he grows.  Thomas went to Laura:

And Lisa got Michael.  :)

They gave them back though, which is good.  :)

It was a wonderful baptism of our TWIN babies!

I ended up nursing them one at a time during the service.  Thankfully Michael was happy to wait for his brother to eat first.  :)

My kiddos love going up for the children’s sermon.

I love that they feel so comfortable in church, even if it means Natalie might be sprawled on the pew or James might kind of a little bit have a Hymnal in his mouth.

SO HANDSOME!

Sweet Natalie with her Pop.

Gran and Grandpa David with James.

Mamma and Grandma

Christiana and Andy.  They’re due at the beginning of April with my nephew.  Yay!!

After the service.  (Now we’ve switched and I have Thomas.)

We got to chat quickly with our family before several of them actually were headed to the airport!  Aunt Gail was so sweet to stay in town for the baptism.  She’s actually only missed one (James).  And Mamma and Pop had to pick up Aunt Missy, who was flying in from California.

I love this one of Matt and Michael:

Steve, Mindy, Gail in the background.

It was extremely difficult to round everybody up for this picture!  Thanks Chris for hanging around.  :)

Look – three of the same people in the same place almost 8 years ago.  In fact, our anniversary is Tuesday!

Anyway, back to today.  I love this one too:

The service let out late so three children who shall remain nameless were a little HANGRY.  I think Natalie’s face says it all…

Thank you thank you thank you to all our family and friends and larger Church family who have supported us this past year with the growing and birthing and caring of these babies!!

And if you’d like to look back:

Joanna’s baptism (There are no pictures in this post.  I feel like I must have posted pictures of her baptism later, but I can’t find them!)
Natalie’s baptism
James’ baptism

January iPod Dump

Since I got my new iPod with the better camera (Hallelujah!!), I’ve stopped carrying around my small point and shoot (which frankly I hated anyway).  I take quite a few pics with the iPod and mostly share them on Facebook.  Occasionally I share them here too, so pardon if some of these shots are repeats.  I can’t possibly keep it all straight.  :)

The kids can often be found in some variation of this position – they love for Joanna to read out loud to them.

Natalie drew this picture of a house with Santa Claus and his sleigh.  All the “writing” on the house is a Christmas Carol, but I can’t remember which one.

Joanna lined up all these math manipulatives and wanted to take a picture of them.

I believe I took this one to text to Matt.  (It’s Michael.)

James figuring out the etch-a-sketch at Grandma’s house.

Those extremely handsome boys! Thomas, on the left, looks tinier than Michael due to the perspective of the picture, but I assure you he is not.  :)

Sitting on the front porch with Thomas, wishing I had a rocker or a porch swing out there.

I can’t remember if this was a double or triple batch of our favorite pancakes.  Yummo.

We must have gone outside to color/write one day.

The girls have a couple of swaddle blankets that don’t fit the boys that they love to wrap their dolls and animals in.  :)

This is James’ current favorite thing to dress up in.  Sadly, he cannot quite put it on by himself.  What I love about this picture is that James is in focus and the girls are blurry, flitting around behind him.

Thomas asleep one evening (morning?)  I think if the swaddles were reversed and he could be freeing his right hand instead of his left that he would have figured out how to suck his thumb by now… maybe they both would.

James LOVES this sparkly bag for carrying around an assortment of trains and whatnot.

I pulled these three socks out of the dryer one day and no others.  Where did the other three go?

I toss all lonely socks into the drawer of their owner and every now and then go through and match them up.  Usually they’re just in a different load than their matches.  (Or wedged between the wall and the bed.  Or under the couch.  Or in another drawer.  Or in the dress up bin.  Or…)

Michael, all swaddled in the swing.  For a long while I was putting them down for naps in their swings, not even trying to get them to sleep in the crib.  They sleep there great at night, but weren’t settling there for naps.  Just this week though I’ve started putting them in the crib during the day and it seems to be working out alright.

I love how Thomas kind of smiles with his whole body.  :)

I pulled these out of a closet one day for the kids to play with.  They were mine way back when.  One of them was named Jeremiah.  (As in, “Jeremiah was a bull frog.”)  Then the others got Biblical names as well, but I don’t really remember what they were.  The lizard may have been Solomon.

Joanna is my helper when I bring the boys to Musikgarten class.  I LOVE that we’re able to go to a baby class!!!  This past class I was dancing with Thomas, and he giggled at me!!!  He kept doing it over and over again – my grin was so huge!

I’m pretty sure I took this picture because Joanna took it upon herself to fix a little salad when she was hungry. 

I used to just despise onions, but now I really love them cooked in a lot of things.

I’m not sure there’s a better smell that onions being cooked in bacon grease.  Yum!!

Natalie was snuggled up by Thomas.

At enchilada night – Michael:

And Thomas with Aunt Gail.  It’s the best to have lots of extra arms around to hold the babes!

James’ favorite character on Star Trek: The Next Generation is Counselor Deanna Troy.  I’m pretty sure he thinks she beautiful.  Anyway, he also likes to pretend to be her when the girls are pretending to be someone.  Joanna drew this for him.  It says “Deanna Troy” at the top and “To James” at the bottom.

Michael.

Last weekend James threw Natalie’s shoe over the back fence.  How he managed it I’m not sure, but it’s her only pair of tennis shoes right now so I was in a hurry to get it back before the big dogs that live there ate it.  Fortunately they weren’t out at the time.  Thomas was awake (and Matt was home), so I decided to walk around the block with the single stroller and put a note on the door asking them to toss the shoe back over.  Except I couldn’t figure out which house it was because I am challenged in that way.  And my husband, who is not challenged in that way, would not answer his phone.  So I walked all the way back home, and climbed up on the fence, taking a look to see if I could hop over.  I could have, but there would not have been a way to get back, save walking out through their gate and around the block.  I do not know these people at all, so I didn’t want to do that.  The shoe was closeish to the fence though, and I was able to fashion a pole to grab it with!  I used two sturdy sticks and some duct tape.  Joanna took this picture of me.

We’re at my mom’s house.  This is Thomas.  That is all I know.

I love these shirts with the ties on them – cute!

From the “big” ice storm last week:

Joanna grabbed a little jar to collect some and put it in the freezer.  She wanted to show her daddy when he got home.

In the front – no ice because no deck.

It was a perfect day for some hot chocolate!

I just recently “made” (Jiffy, people) cornbread in my cast iron skillet.  I vow to never make it any other dish again.  So much better than glass.

Mom stopped by one day to bring something I’m sure, and of course the big kids did not want her to leave!

I took no less than SIX pictures of bagelwiches last month.  Here are a few.  :)

I had been soooooo enjoying eating one almost every day for awhile.  But now I don’t feel like making them anymore.  That’s so how it goes.  :)

Candice passed down some Thomas PJs for James, and for some reason everyone needed to try them on.  They fit Natalie the best, but the waist is snug enough for James to wear them even though they’re big.  And wear them he does, every time they’re clean!

I’m pretty sure this was a very very long post, but that just has to happen sometimes.  :)