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.  :)

A Day in the Life in January

I did a year of Day in the Life posts, and I’ve decided to keep going.  :)  I read a post about DITL online somewhere, and it gave me the idea to set an hourly timer to remind me to stop and take a pic! This is definitely a blogging exercise and not so much a photography one.  I don’t think I’m ready to keep up with using my DSLR the whole day as well as editing each pic before posting.  Sooooo most of these pics are taken with my iPod, which is usually close by me.

7:30: I heard the babies stirring (well, hollering) so I got up, changed them and brought them out to the couch to nurse them.  I was very thankful for that late wake up call!!

By 8:10 I was in the kitchen making myself a cup of coffee and heating up a hot pad.  I’ve had neck/back pain since Monday.  Yay.

I was sitting down with my coffee and heating pad, checking my bank app when I discovered a charge I didn’t make.  Oh joy.  I made a few phone calls to get that straightened out, which it hopefully will be soon.  I need my money!

9:00: The babies were eating breakfast – their usual is dry Cheerios and bananas, though that’s getting to be not quite enough for them.

At 10:00 I was in the babies’ room; I had probably just changed a dirty diaper.  I remembered that Thomas’ pjs were wet in the morning so I changed out his crib pad and sheet while I remembered.

The babies were playing.  Thomas gets on the fireplace ALL THE TIME now that he can.  I think Michael’s a little jealous.

11:00 – I had just finished making lunch when my mom called that she was coming over with tacos.  I put the lunches in the fridge for the next day.  Yay!

I fed the babies (not tacos) because they were hungry.

Then I was cleaning up and dropped an oatmeal canister.  Boo!

About 11:20 my mom showed up to feed us and watch my kiddos while I headed to the dermatologist. I left about 11:30.  The big kids were just starting on their third taco each.

At 12:15 I had seen my doc for my annual skin check and was waiting to have a couple of spots removed for biopsy.  It was kinda like a vacation.  :)

By 1:08 I was back home and the bigs were braving the cold for some time in the backyard.

At 1:30 Thomas was up from his nap (Gran had laid him down at 12:30).

I wrapped Thomas and myself up in a blanket and popped outside to see if I could get a picture of the big three all bundled up for my project 365.

James cracks me up with his footie pjs and boots. 

This is what I ended up taking and using for my daily pic:

Then Thomas and I came back inside to get warm.  :)

At 2:00 Thomas was playing.

And I was giving Joanna instructions for some schoolwork.

I’m pretty sure Michael woke up about 2:30, but I didn’t take a picture at 3 so I don’t know what we did much of the afternoon.  :)

At 4:00 we were having some snack and watching a little television.

I was feeling lazy, so I just spread Cheerios on the edge of the couch for the babies to eat.

At 4:30 the mail came and brought a case for Matt’s phone (which I tried out on mine first, of course), and a new mouse for me.  I thought I’d been having trouble with my editing programs lately, but it turns out it was my very old mouse.  I spent a couple of days editing using the touchpad on my laptop (ew), so I was glad to see this guy!

At 5:00 I was browning a couple of pounds of ground beef for dinner.

At 5:50 dinner was served for all.  Yay!

By 6:45 I was pretty much cleaned up in the kitchen.

At 7 I was having baby snuggles before bed.

At 8:00 everyone was in bed, and I was working on this post on my couch.  :)

At 9:00 I was getting a foot rub while Matt and I watched some television.

At 10 I was barely awake and headed to bed.  Poor Matt was up for a few more minutes hanging diapers in the laundry room.  :)

That’s a wrap!  I loved the timer going off every hour.  It reminded me to take a picture of what was going on around me instead of forgetting for several hours and trying to remember later or jot something down somewhere.  I hope I remember this little trick for next month.  :)