In Case You Missed It...

Just found this post in my draft folder from September 2013:

Here's my summer accounting, because even I forget what all happened that made me feel so busy!

We
birthed: one baby.
grew: one pumpkin.
travelled: approximately 1800 miles to Denver twice and Omaha once.
painted: 4 rooms.
potty trained: Katie for a bit, but not to successful completion.
decorated: 2 wedding cakes.
celebrated: one boy's birthday.
hosted: one aunt + 6 cousins one night, then another night + one uncle; Jake and Amber for a week.

I forgot this video...

Just found this in my draft folder from June 2011:



Tommy discovered this pillow of mine yesterday. He thinks it is so fun to play with. He just laughs and laughs at it being tossed in the air or in his face. This video doesn't really depict that well because he was distracted by the camera. Still fun though.

Craftiness

Just found this post in my draft folder from December 2013:

In December, I tried out making some slippers for Tom and Katie. I wouldn't normally take time to do something like this, but we thought we were potentially going to France (loooooong story), and so I was preparing "house shoes" for the kids to wear. Anyway, here's the "No-Sew" Slippers (they do require sewing, just handstitching and not machine):

I used my fleece socks for a pattern. I cut out three pattern pieces--foot, top, and back. Then I cut two of each piece out of my fabric. I used a sweater from the thrift store.

There's the bottom, back and top piece for one slipper. I have the heels of the bottom and back facing each other.

Lay the heels on top of each other and blanket stitch using yarn.

This is the bottom and back sewn together, only at the heel.

Then I laid the top piece on top of the open bottom and back, lining it up at the toe. I continued stitching from where I ended on the side of the heel. I stitched down the foot, around the toe, up the foot, up the leg, around the top, and down the other side of the leg, finishing at the heel.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the final piece. Dang it.

While I was sewing, Tom kept me company and built me a castle house with wood pieces.

He's a sweet boy.

He's getting better with the camera.

Hmmm...Bed Rest

I really wanted to keep this one a secret. I really did. I had such happy dreams of not telling the world about this until the grand finale. But now there's been a PLOT TWIST and I feel like it's going to be such a big part of my life (or my whole life) for the foreseeable future that secrecy must be abandoned.

I'm pregnant! Due St. Patrick's Day 2016, and on bed rest (I have a marginal placenta, if that means anything to some people) since Wednesday. Until who knows when. August was such an excruciatingly long, miserable month, and I hope the rest won't be the same way.

And thus it is.

Good Golly, Is It Only Mid-August?

Four babies later, I still find their sleeping poses just as cute and peaceful.

A week and a half ago, we went to a demolition derby in Oberlin. We brought ear protection for the kids.

Dancy helped herself because we only have two pairs.

First time for everyone but Shad! Shad's friend Tim came with us. He's the one who took the picture.

Right after that picture, a severe thunderstorm started blowing in. We were only at the derby for one hour before deciding to leave. The wind really started picking up as we crossed the dirt lot to get to our van. We only made it halfway before the wind grew so strong that the dirt was stinging and visibility was almost zero. I was carrying Thora and holding Katie's hand, while Shad and Tim were ahead of us with Tom and Dancy. I told Katie to close her eyes, and pressed Thora's face into my shirt until we got back to the van. It took us an hour to get home, including getting out of the parking lot. Oberlin is only half an hour away. Such heavy rain, and almost constant lightning!

One morning, this was their activity. Trying to pull Tom's pants off. Though she's pouting into the carpet for this picture, Dancy was participating too.

Ruthie came on Thursday!! She's on her way to Nebraska to go home before leaving on her mission. We had lots of fun hanging out at home, playing at the park, 

on the swing set, eating at Las Canteras (and getting her face creamed for her birthday), playing games, and star gazing out at the lake. We saw more satellites than usual, and far more satellites than meteors. Weird satellites, too! They made bright flashes in the sky. Someone call Area 51! 

Getting Ruth creamed at Las Canteras didn't even cross my mind. We were took her there for her birthday and I told her so when we were ordering, and our waiter heard me. He came back later and asked to verify, then showed up with a cheese cake, sang Feliz Cumpleanos, and smashed a paper towel of whipped cream into her face. This guy is one of my favorites!

"Building" a puzzle with Ruthie.

Tada!

Ruth stayed with us until Saturday afternoon, at which time we realized it would've been great to send Tom and Katie to Nana's house with her, given that we'll be up there on Friday. If we'd have thought about it sooner than the moment she was saying goodbye, we probably would have made such arrangements.

Fixed it!

Hey Lisa, look!

Lisa blinked.

My kids look goofy.

But Paul Jones fixed it!

Thanks, Squirrel.

Baby Loves, My Baby Loves

Of course, I forgot to write about things the past few times. When we went to Colorado in June, our primary purpose was to see WICKED! Shad and I had been wanting to see it since we got married. The show was on tour in Colorado that fall, and we hoped that someone would give us tickets for it. However, we're not people to ask for something expensive, and you can't register for that, so BIG SURPRISE--we didn't get those tickets. Last fall I caught wind that Wicked would be in Colorado again this June, so we decided to count that as our Mother's and Father's Day gifts to each other. Yay! One more thing off the marriage bucket list. No picture, because we're not selfie people...and we didn't ask someone else to take it for us.

Forgotten from the Utah trip: We went on a "hike" (really just a walk in the mountains) at the Temple Quarry Trail. The kids liked it enough and it was a short enough loop that we walked it twice. Tom kept talking about how he knows how to walk in the mountains and do hikes because he's a mountain man. This kid is definitely living in the wrong state. And our fireworks experience was so awesome! We went with my uncle Tyler and most of his kids to the lower portion of a mountainside on the east side of the valley. We had a complete view of the valley, which privileged us with about 15 shows simultaneously in addition to the personal ones everyone was setting off at their homes. Miles upon miles of exploding copper, sodium nitrate, and magnesium! (The right scene starts around 3:00)

This scene makes me think of my high school chemistry teachers every time--Mrs. Kemp and Ms. Molitoris.

Somebody finally learned to clap!

Thora is now 10 months old. And though she’s 10 months old, she doesn’t do any of the baby milestones that you’d think she would—sit herself up, crawl, pull herself up to stand on furniture, walk along furniture, make “word” sounds. She is starting to push herself forward scooting with her legs, but after extensive coaching from me, Shad and Dancy. She occasionally gets on her hands and knees and "revs" a little. I don’t think she’s slow or lazy, I think she’s just content. She’s happy to be where she is, doing what she’s doing. I’ve tried to encourage her to say “mamamama,” and she just smiles and laughs at me. She knows; she just doesn’t feel like doing it. Least of all to be a performing monkey. She vocalizes, and her sounds are generally described as goat or baby dinosaur. I don't mind that I've gotten to enjoy more baby out of her, and she's on the threshold of achieving those milestones.

Dancy loves her "ladybug" outfit, and wanted me to take a picture of it. Now she asks almost daily to see the picture on the computer. Her other daily request is to text her best friend, Levi.

Dancy is 2, and speaks in full sentences, and she says the funniest things. "Mom! Better. save. me!" Sometimes when she's trying to do something and gets frustrated, she'll say, "Ugh! Can't. do it. every day!" I've called her a Cutie Pie and Sweetie Pie, so when I called her silly once, she corrected me, "Silly Pie." But now she just wants to be called "Ladybug." Oh, it’s so fun having a two-year-old who is so articulate and with near perfect enunciation (I NEVER have to translate for her). I mean, not many people get such insight into a two-year-old brain and logic. Oh, she’s so talkative that when we were at my aunt’s house in Utah in July, she successfully talked herself out of a nap! My little cousins were going to watch a movie with Tom and Katie, and Dancy was not about to be left behind. She told me, “No, Mom. No nap. Just minute. Watch movie real quick. Love you. Bye.” And she blew me a kiss as she slid down the stairs. Yep, I let her get away with that one because it was just so amazing. She is a great coach for Thora with crawling. She knows the exact distance to place a toy so that it’s desirable, but just out of reach. Then she says, “Crawl, baby, crawl! Try crawl!” And she gets snappy at Katie when she gives the toy to Thora. “No, Katie! Thora crawl!” Dancy then takes the toy away from Thora and puts it back on the floor to try again. And she gives encouraging pushes with Thora’s legs the way she’s seen me and Shad do it. Love this girl! Her favorite characters to be when playing pretend are Elsa (Weh go! Weh go!), Tinkerbell, Cinderella, and Hulk. “Hulk SMASH!”

My three girls! (Katie has a feather)

Katie is almost 4, and seems to be stuck in the unfortunate middle child position, even though she’s not the middle child. She’s kinda past the developmental milestones, but not really in the academic learning stage, mostly because she won’t let me teach her! Oh, how she fights against learning! She’s proud to be done with diapers (night-time trained!), and enjoyed getting to pick out ice cream to eat while watching her newly earned movie, Tangled. She picked bubblegum ice cream cups, despite my advisement against it. But she wanted pink.

My three mobile ones. They all flipped upside down (Dancy had to ask for help) and told me to take a picture. But I had to find the camera first, and that took too long. "Hurry, Mom!" They all resumed the position once I found it. (Dancy, again, with help)

Tommy is 5 now, and enjoys all forms of combat, pirates, Harry Potter, super heroes, Legos, and Lego video games. He loves taking care of his sisters, and making Thora laugh. They sit together in the back of the van and it’s so fun to hear them “talking” to each other and laughing. Delightful sounds! He’s also learning to read. We have a habit of reading books together, then playing a Lego video game while the girls all nap.