08-24-15 A Letter to my Daughter

Dear sweet girl, 

I crawled into your bed tonight as you were going to sleep. We didn't really fit, the both of us crammed into a toddler bed, but you snuggled in closely as I stroked your hair, damp from your evening bath. I stared at you trying to memorize every line and curve of your face, to cement it in my mind for future recollection. You are beautiful. 

Tomorrow you start a new adventure, one I'm not sure either of us is really quite ready for! My heart pounds a little harder when I think about it. How can you, my first born, be heading off to school? Wasn't it just yesterday that I stared at my big belly pleading for you to arrive? Wasn't it just yesterday that the doctors said they couldn't get your heart rate up, so they would have to take you out and do it very quickly? I was so frightened. But then you were there... In my arms... And you were perfect. And the beginning was rough, but we found our rhythm and I would rock you each night as you fought sleep. 

How is it that that baby went to a school this morning to meet her teacher? You were so scared, being in a room filled with strangers and you clung to your daddy's neck so tight. But then they called your class and you slipped from his arms and got into line. I'm scared, daddy, but I'm still going to do it!

You are brave. You are beautiful. You are loved. 

It's ok to be scared. Sometimes life is just plain scary. But more often than not, when we push through that fear there is something beautiful behind it. 

My advice to you is to remember your Father in heaven. When you are scared, pray. And remember your family at home. We are waiting eagerly for your return. We are proud of you and we love you so very much! 

Love,

Mommy

Kindergarten orientation was today. When we got there they shuffled us all into the cafeteria. It all ran smoothly, but there were a lot of kids and parents and it was a bit overwhelming for C. She held on to her daddy through all the announcements. When the classes were finally dismissed though, she got into line and headed out the door, not once looking back. When we met up with her in her classroom, we got to meet her teacher and ask questions. She still seemed pretty nervous, so we decided to walk  her around for a bit. By the time we were all done none of the other kids were there, but it was a good chance for her to feel a little more comfortable in the building tomorrow. She will likely be the youngest in her class so anywhere we can add a little confidence is helpful. By the time we left she was running around and having fun! 

She got to ride the bus. 

She got to see the gym...

She got to read some books in the library...

She got to visit her classroom again...

And she got to play on the playground!

Congratulations to my little girl! Class of 2028!!!

08-23-15 Tomorrow...

In twelve hours this little girl will be meeting her teacher and getting a tour of her school. Her world is about to change!

08-22-15 Play date and a quiet evening

This is my evening.... Vegging in front of the tv with my little people and a bowl of popcorn! (And yes, we are watching Frozen. At Big E's request, no less.)

C had a long day. She went on her first official solo play date. One of her friends from Moms Morning Out invited her over for the day, so this morning I took her over, spent a little while with her friends family, and then left her to have her fun! It seems strange that she is old enough to have friends she chooses for herself! I guess I better get used to it! 

She had a lot of fun! They went swimming, played in their play house, and played with toys. By the time she got home this evening she couldn't stop talking about how much fun she had! I'm so glad! It was a great way for her to spend her last Saturday of freedom before school starts.

08-21-15 What is it with my family and toes?!?!

Remember those feet I prayed for last night? Well, this morning as I was loading up the car to drop the kids off and go to work I was letting the older ones ride their bikes/trikes. Big E has a bad habit of not watching where he is going. I told them they had to drive slow and be quiet. Not long after saying that Big E starts screaming! 

C says he just ran in to the neighbor's car. 

Upon inspection it would appear that he was riding his trike, not watching where he was going, and ended up gashing open his toe on the neighbor's car's license plate. 

Blood everywhere!

He is screaming and bleeding. It was awful. It took awhile to stop the bleeding. Then I had him soak his foot in warm water and hydrogen peroxide. Another neighbor came out that happens to be a medical responder. I asked him to take a look at it to see if it might need stitches. The cut was very deep but had stopped bleeding. He said it was on the verge of needing stitches, but if I bandaged it well, he might not need them. I bandaged him up and dropped him with the sitter. The bleeding had stopped and he had calmed down. 

This evening when I took off the bandage it looked painful but not too messy. I think we might have avoided stitches this time, but I will be keeping my eye on it to make sure it doesn't get infected, poor kid!

Now let's keep those feet healthy so they can conquer the world!

(And for the hundredth time... Watch where you are going!)

Cause I am a half way decent mom, I waited until after I had gotten the bleeding to stop before taking a picture. There was no, try not to bleed out while I go grab the camera, honey! It seriously looked a lot worse than this when it first happened. And you can't really tell how deep it is from this pic. He did think the bubbles from the hydrogen peroxide were pretty cool! He also got to eat a little snickers bar while I bandaged him up. That kept him brave! He will be gimping around for a few days, but he will be fine!

08-20-15 For these feet I pray

I pray they...

Feel the sand between their toes. 

Splash through puddles. 

Walk across gravel. 

Be tickled.

Be caked with dirt.

Be tired from use. 

Wander through forests.

Traverse valleys.

Lay under the night sky.

Climb mountains.

Swim in oceans. 

Dangle from high places.

Tread continents.

Brave mysterious places.

Journey home. 

But mostly...

I pray they...

Spread the Love of Christ with every step they take. 

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Big E- I'm tired of having a baby. Let's give him to grandma!

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C- Emma plays with Adie. Big E and Allie are good buddies! I don't have anyone!

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08-19-15 Breaking News! First photo found!

I was going through old photos tonight with C when I came across what I can only describe as the first known photo of Tim and I standing next to each other! Wow, we were young! If I had to guess, I would say I was probably about 15-16 years old (making Tim, ahem, a little younger than that.) Can anyone carbon date this one for me?

Little did we know that about twenty years later we would be sending our oldest child off to kindergarten. 

And to continue down memory lane, here are a few more from over the years... All snap shots from actual photos (so they must be old!)

Jenn and Tim dropping me off for my first year at NYU. Circa August 2000

Lurray Caverns, 2007 (?)

April 2007

08-18-15 Look-a-likes

08-17-15 Sorry, Third baby.

It must be hard being the third kid, especially when your older siblings are not quite old enough to be self sufficient. That may mean that when your daddy runs out to the store and your mommy is putting your big sister and brother to bed that you might just get left in your walker to wander around the kitchen floor. And it might mean that you might get upset that you are all alone and start to cry. It also might mean that you have older siblings that fight bedtime and don't care that you are screaming your little (or oversized) head off and take their good old time crawling into bed. And it's possible that this routine will take so long and you will cry so much that you will have no other choice but to fall asleep in your walker on the kitchen floor. 

Sorry third baby. 

08-16-15 Such a large head!

08-15-15 Freezer Meal Workshop

My sister-in-law Laura and I signed up to do a Wildtree freezer meal workshop with our friend, Chelsea, who is a new Wildtree consultant. She sent us the shopping list and this morning we headed to the store. Davey had the boys and Tim had the older kids, so it was just Laura, me, and the babies! 

Technically these photos were from the first stop of the day when we dropped by Office Depot to get the rest of C's school supplies. I'd like to note that she has to bring sixteen glue sticks to school. That sounds insane to me, but I've been told by multiple people that this is completely normal. 

After that we did our food shopping and finally got back to the house to do prep for the workshop this evening. The workshop consisted of making ten meals to put in the freezer when we were done. The hope is that it will make weeknight dinners much easier. 

We laid out all the ingredients.

(The salted caramel peanuts were for munching, though if they could figure out a way to add them to a dinner recipe, I would be on board with that!)

And we gathered all the meat. 

That's a lot of meat! (Remember we were prepping twenty meals, ten for each family.)

First the veggies. 

Lots of chopping and bagging.

Then we added the meats and other ingredients. 

Next we filled several coolers and headed over to Chelsea's house for the last of the assembly. She had instructions and the remaining ingredients. We spent time going though products and assembling our bags. 

By the time we were finished we had ten healthy and (hopefully) tasty meals each!

Thank you Chelsea for all the work you put into this evening! It was fun and I am looking forward to trying the meals! 

08-14-15 Diaper head

I just spent the past half hour trying to wear Baby E out so that I can go to bed. It didn't work. He just wants to chat and giggle. 

Yes, he's wearing a diaper on his head. I'm bored... And tired!

Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting than today :)

08-13-15 There's no such thing as a stupid question... Except there is...

Whoever said there is no such thing as a stupid question apparently never spent an entire day with a three year old... Or a few hours... Not even twenty minutes. Because if they did they would know that three year olds ask a lot of questions, and yes... Some of the questions are stupid. 

For example...

This morning Big E walked into my bedroom while I was drying my hair, "Mommy, are you awake?"

And then he looked out the window and proceeded to ask, "Is it light outside?"

This evening I was cooking dinner. "What are we having?" "Hamburgers." "What's inside the hamburger?" "Um... Hamburger." 

This is just a small sampling of the silly questions that pepper my day. But since C is now to the point of asking questions like "why do old people die?" and "what's the inside of my eye look like?" and "Are there any ninjas that live near our house? Because if I see someone wearing all black I want to call them a ninja," I am sometimes thankful for the silly questions whose answers come easily. Yes, I'm awake. Yes, it's light outside. And The only thing inside this hamburger is, in fact, hamburger.

Let's save death, anatomy, and ninjas for another day. 

08-12-15 The Four Person Selfie

Taking a four person selfie is serious business, especially when three of the four people are little and move constantly. But I was really in the mood to get a picture of the four of us, so I set the timer and gave it a shot. 

Seriously kids, there should be four of us in this picture. Back up!

Ok that's a little better, but clearly Baby E isn't thrilled...

Wahoo! We are all in the picture!!! Wait... Baby E? What's wrong?!?

Clearly Baby E is not a team player. Get it together buddy! Happy selfies! 

I gave up, that's the best I was gonna get!

08-11-15 We miss Daddy!

Tim has been gone for a few nights now for work so my mom and sister have come to stay with us while he's away. They have been watching the kids during the day, which has been a huge blessing. But we really do miss having Tim here and we are looking forward to him coming home tomorrow. The kids keep asking about him. Last night they crawled into my bed and took his empty spot!!

Boys are funny! This was his preferred method of TV watching this evening. 

This little fellow has become obsessed with food and is eating constantly. Maybe his waistline is trying to catch up with his head, 

This little girl loves her Naona, however at this moment I believe she was trying to negotiate her way out of eating her entire dinner, yet still be allowed to have a brownie and ice cream. It didn't work. 

We miss you, Tim!!