Happy Birthday, Aubrey Ann!

Five years old today!

Party Weekend for Aubs

Ready for birthday breakfast with Grandpa on Saturday morning

It was a My Little Pony birthday this year, and of course, she had to choose a pony with all the colors of the rainbow for her cake, which meant lots of frosting colors and decorator bags/tips. The things we do for our children...Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were the featured ponies.

With Caroline in their matching ballerina outfits.

just sitting and chatting with Grandma

Aubrey had a wonderful time at her family party, but you wouldn't have known it from her face and attitude that afternoon. She was a rather ungrateful gift receiver. We forgot to give her the gift-receiving pep talk we usually give the birthday child before each party, and it showed! Oh dear. After most people had left, and she was going through her gifts, we got to see her excitement and that she really did appreciate each and every gift. We'll make sure we do better with that next year. I started thinking, though, about how it really was representative of how life with Aubrey has been lately. We have been in constant battles over attitude and respectful, cheerful obedience. Our little girl who used to be so easy has asserted her independence and decided to not be so easy anymore. It's going to be ok. We are prepared to succeed in this and determined to help her work through these issues, but it sure has been difficult lately! I'm looking forward to this next year with our five-year-old. She's got a big year ahead of her with kindergarten and all.  Aubrey has always been a delightful girl with a bright smile, a love for people, and a sensitive heart. She is full of fun...when she's not being a stinker. We joke about how she's 5 going on 15, but we really want to be able to enjoy that future 15-year-old, so we are going to work hard now to make sure we can! Aubrey Ann, we love you so much. We always will. Happy birthday to you!

 

Savvy Joel

Conversation after dinner between Kari and Joel, overheard by Greg:

Joel: "Hey Kari, we need to have a cookie."
Kari: "Oh, yeah! Let's ask Mommy."
Joel: "No, not Mommy. She's grumpy. Let's ask Daddy."

Good thinking, Joel. I was grumpy--sick and grumpy. Makes me wonder how often conversations like this occur in our house. There are four of them and two of us, probably happens pretty often!

My Valentines

It's a sniffly Valentine's Day for us--colds all around and sinus issues--but we're making the day special anyway. Kids woke up to valentines from Daddy (and Mommy, but Daddy gets all the credit this year) and had a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls, eggs, and sausage. They were all very excited to go to school and have their parties. I almost kept Aubrey home because I think she's developed a sinus infection and woke up feeling and looking not so great, but her tears convinced me to let her go to preschool this morning and then call the doctor.

I like the "homemade" valentines we did for the kids' classes this year. I've wanted to do the lollipop one ever since I saw it on Pinterest a couple years ago. It was super easy, and they turned out great. Joel opted for the Lego Star Wars one instead of the photo. He liked the glow stick light saber idea. We did tape candy on the back, though, because, according to Joel, it just wasn't a valentine without candy!

Look at all of them! Just think how many there will be when Grant is in school and does 'em, too! Oregon really needs to do something about these class sizes.

Kari making cookies with a Grant-monkey on her back.

We've been calling them "the twins" lately. Their toddler pictures look so much alike. Kari is a wonderful big sister. She can calm him down better than we can sometimes. She's going to be a good babysitter in a couple years--can't wait!

I am thankful, oh so thankful, for all four of my little valentines, but I have to give a shout-out to my big valentine. He has been pretty amazing this last week. I was able to go on our church's women's retreat this last weekend (a wonderful time away with friends and no responsibility, cooking, or cleaning), and Greg was super dad, spending the weekend taking good care of the kids, one sick kid, even, coaching and going to basketball games, and getting everyone to church on Sunday.  I came home sick from the retreat on Sunday afternoon and was worthless that day and for most of this last week.  I married a pretty great man--a wonderful husband who gives me grace when I fail and when I'm down and a wonderful dad to our kids, so fun and so capable. I've never put much stock in Valentine's Day--I expect to love and be loved EVERY day of the year--but the kids sure do love it, and I did appreciate the chocolates waiting for me this morning. :) Happy Valentine's Day!

*Update: Took Aubrey to the doctor this afternoon. She does, indeed, have a sinus infection (not contagious), but she also has strep (highly contagious)! Bad mom and member of society for sending her to school and exposing all of her preschool class to strep throat! I didn't know, but still...
We can't seem to stay away from strep around here--3 kids with it in Dec, Kari two weeks ago, and now Aubrey. We're going through a lot of toothbrushes!

Sunny Winter Day

Yesterday afternoon was so unusually warm (in the sun, at least) that Aubrey and Grant were able to jump on the trampoline without coats and even played in the sandbox. Some of the sand was a little wet, but they didn't mind. They played for a long time out there and came inside filthy but happy.

"...they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes..."
Grant loves this book. Aubrey has it memorized, so she read it to him--twice--and with the same inflection I use when I read it to him. :) He asked her to do it again, but she said two times was enough. It's funny to me that we've had this book since Kari was little, and yet none of the other kids have ever liked it. They thought it looked too scary. Not so with Grant; it's one of his favorites. He's our little "wild thing."

 

Fashionista

 I came upstairs to help Aubrey do her hair before preschool this morning, and I found her wearing this.

I could see that she had carefully chosen each piece of this ensemble (those are two different shirts she's wearing), and while a part of me wanted to make her go change, it WAS weather appropriate, and I knew I should leave her be, so I did... after I took her picture and texted some friends. :)  I fixed her hair in a fancy braid and ponytail, and she was so pleased. She's a "free spirit," as her Grandma M. put it, and I love that about her. It may drive me nuts in the coming years (I'm not exactly a "free spirit" myself), but it's who she is, and she sure did look cute today.

Some things I don't want to forget and one that I do

The one I would like to forget: lice, lots of lice in Kari's thick hair. Ick, ick, ick. Yes, I panicked and scared my daughter and husband. Thankfully, no one else in the family got it, likely thanks to the fact that Kari is so careful to always puts her stuff away in her own room right when she gets home from school--nothing ever out of place. We took care of it (many hours of combing), and we're done with that for now. We figure it must have come from school. I will be on high alert for a while because I do NOT want to do that again anytime soon.

I want to remember Grant and Aubrey buddying up and playing My Little Pony and all kinds of Aubrey-led games. He plays ponies with Aubrey and Star Wars with Joel--very adaptable little brother.
I want to remember Grant's cute little voice (must video more). He's talking all the time, telling us all about how he feeling about everything. I have a difficult time refusing his requests when he asks in his sweet, polite voice and says please with no "l."
I want to remember this often repeated request: "Mommy, p'ease snuggoo wid me."  It won't be long before he no longer has a desire to snuggle with his mama, so I can't refuse. When he storms into our room in the middle of the night, door banging against the wall, and peeks his head over the side of our bed, saying there are monsters in his room and, "P'ease snuggoo wid you," I pull him up into our bed.  He burrows in, falls asleep, and then I carry him back to his bed. It won't last forever.

I want to remember what Aubrey said when I told the kids the Moffat family Disneyland trip was postponed. There were a few tears from the eldest but after we talked through all the positives of waiting until next fall and the reasons (the main reason being Aunt Michelle is having a baby and can't travel @ 8 months pregnant), they calmed down and accepted the reality of the situation. Aubrey got a little smile on her face and said, "They have too much babies!" That made us all laugh. We have the same amount of "babies" that they'll have! Silly girl. :)

I want to remember this strange little accent Aubrey has developed. We have no idea where it came from. Sometime she sounds English, and sometimes she sounds like she's from the East Coast. It's funny.

I want to remember the smile on Joel's face when he's completed a Lego project and when he's finished a difficult level/part on Star Wars Kinect.  I want to remember the big brother smile he has when Grant is wrestling with him, jumping on him, hanging on him, and "hi-YAH!"ing him like a crazy little man. Joel's a wonderful big brother to Grant.

I want to remember the way Grant can fall asleep anywhere, when he's tired. The last photo was taken at 4pm yesterday. He fell asleep sitting up. He's starting to drop his nap but can't quite make it through a day without any sleep, so he often falls asleep late in the day, which means he's up late that night, even if it's just a 15 minute snooze. The pictures below are from a night last week when Grant was literally running in circles at 9:15pm. He stripped down to his nite time pull-up and ran for probably 15 minutes straight.  Some of his happiest times of the day are after 8pm. All the other kids are upstairs in bed, and he's hanging out with us downstairs until our bedtime. We're more tired than he is! It's in the evenings that I most often hear, "Mommy, p'ease snuggoo wid me!" Greg says he's been displaced. :) It's temporary, my love, just temporary displacement. If Grant can make it til 6:30pm, he's down for the night, so that's what we're working toward.

Birthday Weekend for Joel

Joel didn't just get a birthDAY; he got a birthday WEEKEND. Lots of celebrating going on for this just-turned-7-year-old. Being the center of attention and having super high expectations can make birthday parties a little stressful for a guy like Joel, and he had a couple typical near-tears birthday-boy-Joel moments but got through them and really did have a great time celebrating with his friends. :) He's got some great friends who made him feel very special.

We had a big party Friday night that started with me picking up six elementary school kids from school in our van and heading to JJ Jump where we met up with more friends and their families for a wild and crazy jump/run around time. Joel finally worked up the nerve to give the big harness swing thing a try at the very end of our time there. We were so glad he did, otherwise he probably would have regretted not doing it and been very sad later.  I was so intently watching, though, that I forgot to take his picture when he was up there. He had a great big grin on his face when he was done with his turn. He liked it. :) The kids had a blast jumping and expending a bunch of energy, then we piled back into cars and headed to our house for pizza, presents, and dessert.

Love that smile!



16 kids in our house! (Miles didn't get in the photo)

Saturday morning was Joel's breakfast with Grandpa. He was so excited, he woke up way too early (the clock had a 4 in front), stayed in bed for a while, and got up at 5:30am.  

Sunday was Joel's real birthday. He enjoyed being sung to at church in Sunday school and getting to wear a birthday crown.  We had his family party that afternoon. He requested a "lego" theme, so I did my best to oblige. We played some Lego bingo, which Greg did a great job of "calling." He had a different voice/saying for every Lego character. :) Joel loved all his presents. His reaction to the monkey card from G&G Moffat was hilarious. The silly monkey's grin on the front of the card struck Joel's funny bone; he couldn't stop giggling, which made the rest of us laugh, too. Joel was one happy birthday boy, and it sure was fun to watch him enjoy his day. Love that big little guy!

Fun with a box

Isn't it amazing what kids can do with a box? My dad brought this copier machine box over with a little flap door cut out, calling it a "2 hour babysitter." It did occupy them for hours and for multiple days, too. It's still hanging around, three days later. They turned it into a house, complete with duct taped roof and curtains for the window. Greg says next year for Christmas we're getting four large boxes and a roll of duct tape for each. :)

Family update: We might finally be done with the stomach bug now and all other illnesses for quite a while, I hope. I did finally succumb, the last to fall, and it was brutal, but it's OVER, and I'm back to feeling like myself again. This last month has been a little rough, going from strep throat to the never-ending plague with an extra little cold virus thrown in just for fun. I am looking forward to going to church this weekend--haven't been for the last three weeks! I got well just in time to work on party planning for Joel's birthday this weekend. Party#1 is this afternoon with his friends. I'm picking up six kids from school in a couple hours and driving them all to JJ Jump where we'll be meeting up with more friends to play before coming back to our house for some pizza, presents, and cake and ice cream. It's gonna be a wild and crazy time!

I'm a sucker for "reading" pictures

This was from way back in mid-December (we are now a binkie-free household!), but I had to post it. Aubrey was reading the Christmas story to Grant and Russell, and they were all just too cute together.

Sad Christmas Day and the one photo I took the rest of the break

Aubrey had just stopped puking a couple hours earlier and wasn't feeling well, so we moved present opening to the other room where she was stationed on the couch. Looks like fun, doesn't it?

It snowed for a couple hours on New Year's Eve--so exciting! We let the kids go outside our quarantined house to get some fresh air and enjoy being in the snow while it fell since we knew it wouldn't stay this time.

Happy Christmas Eve (pre-plague)

opening his Schleich bears

excited about the helicopter

in love with Caroline already

so pleased with her new big bike

opening the family gift--Xbox with Kinect (and the last photo with a binkie in Grant's mouth--took them away two days ago. I actually snipped off the tips, so now they're "broken." No turning back!)

The whole crew. We were glad Blake's girlfriend, Lindsay, was able to join us for Christmas Eve.