The happenings

We hadn't done any finger-painting in a while (or anything in that realm, really), and after a week of Joel destroying and defacing various things in our home, I decided I had better plan and execute some acceptable activities for him and his side-kick. Joel is currently not allowed access to crayons, markers, pencils, or scissors without adult supervision. The walls, his bunk bed, the ceiling above it, his duvet cover, the curtains, and the rocking horse know all too well why this is necessary.




This was our most recent poor attempt at an all-the-kids-on-the-couch photo. We'll try again soon at a better time.






It was a rainy day, too wet to go outside.
Mommy said, "Let's make cupcakes! What color do you want?"
"Pink!" I said. "Pink, pink, pink!"
Aubrey has been asking to make cupcakes like in one of her favorite books, Pinkalicious, and it was raining Sunday afternoon while Greg was out helping move my parents, so we made pinkalicious cupcakes and purplicious ones (the sequel to Pinkalicious) and bluealicious ones (there's no bluealicious book, but Joel said boys don't like pink, so he suggested blue).















We now have two different "As Seen on TV" products in our house. Don't judge! We bought our Magic Bullet (love it) from Costco, and the kids got their Pillow Pets with their own money today from Fred Meyer. I've been putting off the spend-the-spending-money outing for quite some time but finally took them to the store today. The people who market the Pillow Pets know what they are doing, and their tactics are effective. When the kids saw the Pillow Pets display in the store a month ago (right it front by the check stands, I might add), they got SO excited. They've been talking about these silly things for months (thanks, Qubo), and seeing them in person only increased their interest. It cost us $16 to let Kari and Joel spend their money (got one for Aubs). There was no way I was coming home with two Pillow Pets and not three. It was totally worth it, and I'm not worried about setting a precedent, as it is going to be a LONG time before they have any significant amount money in their spend jars again. A fifty-cent allowance divided between give, save, and spend takes a while to add up, and Aubrey just started getting allowance, too, so it'll be an even playing field next time. A Pillow Pet would not have been my selection for them, but it's their money...except for that $16.  :)

You can almost hear it, can't you?

A baby's laughter has got to be one of the best sounds in the world. I got out the camera, and he started laughing. He thinks Mommy's pretty funny!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

This year's pumpkin patch experience was not my favorite. In fact, I was muttering, "I hate this," under my breath for the first 10 minutes we were there. Greg told me to put on a happy face and pretend it was fun for the kids' sake, so that's what I did. We ended up having an ok time, but it definitely wasn't ideal. You see, we've gone to Liepolds every fall for the last 4 years, but we always go first thing in the morning on a Saturday in mid-October. There's a reason we go early. There are no people there early in the morning! Soccer games made a morning outing impossible this year, but because I love this sort of thing and because we go every year (and I needed to get my pumpkin photos) I insisted we still try to go. Big mistake. The parking lot that in years past has only had a handful of cars in it was packed. We maneuvered through the crowds and still managed to do the things we wanted to do, but it just wasn't the same. Going in the afternoon also meant we were all a little tired, or a lot tired in Aubrey's case. Greg carried her through 2/3 of the corn maze. Our normally photogenic, smiley 2-year-old frowned in almost every picture. It was actually pretty funny. If you look closely at all these photos, you'll see no Aubrey smiles.
This one cracked me up. We have a whole sequence of these photos--lots of funny faces from the kids while I smile away!



This was at the very end of our time there. Aubrey was spent. Joel was kindly trying to smile for my photo. We were all ready to go home.









I am glad we went, but never again will I attempt to drag my family to the pumpkin patch on a sunny Saturday afternoon in October.

Ticklish

Grant giggled for the first time tonight while I was giving him a bath. I was sliding the washcloth under his chin when I heard the wonderful little sound, and then we laughed together for the rest of his bath time.

In the kitchen

Here is evidence that we're coming out of newborn "survival." I made pumpkin and bat sugar cookies and frosted them with the kids this week.


















Greg spearheaded tonight's pizza-making while I took a little snooze on the couch (ok, so we're not quite out of newborn survival).
Watching their creations bake, a new and exciting experience for them, as our old oven had no light. Simple joys.

Sweet moment

I was down the hall for a few minutes doing some laundry this morning and came back to this delightful little scene. She had given him "Andy" the monkey to hold so she could read to them both. I thought it a rather appropriate photo to follow yesterday's post. Start 'em out young. Thanks, Aubs!

"Take a look, it's in a book, it's..."

As part of her first grade homework, Kari is supposed to be reading aloud 15-20 minutes a day. She is really taking off in her reading and is quickly going through the books we have at home, so we've been trying to make it to the library each week once again (Grant threw a hitch in our library routine for a while). I love to read and want to foster a love for books and reading in my kids, so we go to the library often. I like to go online and reserve quality children's books (books I enjoyed as a kid, Caldecott award winners, etc.) so that I end up with some really good books along with the not so good ones or boring (to me) character books (Disney princess, Dora, Power Ranger...) that the kids seem to be drawn to. Every so often, though, we stumble upon a delightful book in our library bag, a great story that I have not hand-picked but would have if I'd known about it. Our most recent such discovery is That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell. Such a cute story. We've read it over and over again. It's Aubrey's favorite right now, maybe because it's about a little girl and her used-to-be-pink-but-is-now-grey bunny. (Anyone seen Aubrey's Bunny lately? It's not looking so good.) I love it when kids are totally engaged in a book, laugh with delight while reading, and go around quoting lines from a story. It makes me smile when I hear Kari laughing as she's reading in her room. I can't wait until she can read "chapter" books, and I will get to share some of my favorites from when I was younger. I have a whole box waiting for her up in the rafters.

Anyone have a favorite children's book or author for us to check out at the library? I'm always on the look-out for new ones!

Two Months Old

The two month milestone with Grant finds us seeing more and more smiles, hearing a little less crying, and getting a little bit more sleep. I'm still getting up an average of three times a night, but that's WAY better than 4 or more times. I'll take what I can get! At his doctor appointment today he was 12 lbs 8 oz and 23 1/2 in (75th percentile in both). I am so thankful for a healthy baby.

Grant is interacting with us a lot more and loves it when people talk to him. His arms and legs start going, his face gets more animated, and he makes cute baby sounds. He also loves having his diaper changed. That's when I get the best grins. There have been times he's gone from screaming to grinning when we have taken off his diaper, so after we've exhausted all our other ideas and tried all our other tricks, that's what we do. It often works and has only backfired a couple times. :)
He's looking like a regular baby now, as opposed to a newborn. Here he is in his "man" outfit that he wore to church on Sunday. He definitely has the old man look going on, complete with mini comb-over. He's a cute little old man, though. I was looking at two-month photos of the other kids, and they all had more hair than he has right now. Boy's don't need hair, right?



I can't get enough of this smile.