Posted in Children
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At Cathy's blog. :) Win a baby-wearing stash! Click THIS link! I love wearing Maria and I have also worn Aaron, Alayna and Serena. I have pictures of my first "real" sling - a Maya Wrap ... Aaron as a baby in the kangaroo position ... then Alayna as a newborn in the wrap, all snuggly and sleepy. Serena loved the Ellaroo, and then later different Mei Tais. Maria loves the stretchy sleepy wrap and also MTs. Woo hoo for babywearing! And because I can't resist posting without a picture ... Goodnight Spidey!
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Posted in Children
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What a weekend. It seemed to start on Thursday, actually ... Allen had trap league and we decided that we'd all go along. It would be Maria's first time out there. We were getting ready and realized that one of our children had pressed the lock button on the van. And the keys were inside. And we have no spare key. GREAT. However, Allen and I devised a plan and broke into our van (not literally broke!) and we were off - whew! Friday - "Family Days" in our small town begins. Lots of garage sales, food and ice cream all around town, benefit fundraisers ... we did it all. I went to the library's book sale and came home with about 50 books for $5.00. Not bad! Although, I did have 4 books in my box that I was really excited about - and when I came home, I realized that someone had rummaged through my box (with my big knitting bag on top) and picked them out of there! The nerve! But I my annoyance turned to excitement when I purchased a bookshelf for $1 at the library's thrift sale! So now I have a place to store all the books - which is exactly what I asked of the Lord this morning. "Lord, help me find some good books and a shelf to put them in!". I guess I should have asked for divine protection around my books, too?! Nevermind, it's not the end of the world (at least that is what I am telling myself!). Saturday - "Famliy Days" continues. This day brought us free root-beer floats from the store, strawberry shortcake at the train depot museum, mini-donuts from the park ... and ... the pork roast fundraiser for the fire department. Big deal around this family - as Allen is on the fire department and he spends nearly the entire day there. We left him as the dinner was starting and walked, walked, walked ... ate ... walked ... and then my parents and brother rode bike from their house (an 11 mile journey!). They had biked into a rainstorm and were pretty wet and dirty so we hung around here as we washed/dryed their clothes. Then it was off to the pork roast fundraiser. GOOD food, and yes, I know, I used to swear I'd never eat pork again. But it's for a good cause! We had a good time - my brother Kevin won over $100 in free golf in a raffle - that was pretty neat (as he's really into golfing right now). Sunday - Allen played music in the nearby town's park with his family for a church service and then we left right after to head back to town for a chicken dinner in the park, put on by the chamber of commerce. After that, Allen and the "big 3" (as I call Aaron, Alayna and Serena) went to the fire hall to get ready for the PARADE! Aaron has ridden in a fire truck for the town parade ever since he was a toddler. Last few years it was Aaron and Alayna, and this was Serena's first year to ride , too! What pride - my "big 3" riding in a fire truck with Daddy driving! Here we are, waiting for them. Maria seemed to enjoy some of the parade!
Not bad, for her first parade!
And here they come - my adorable children in their matching shirts from Aimee! I mention the shirts only because they were a lifesaver this weekend! When your 3 children are at the park with 100 other children, it helps to be able to pick them out of the crowd!
Isn't that great! I love how they have matching stickers from Sheila Harsdorf (for State Senate)! Apparently they are going to vote in November? Serena was waving hers at me, saying, "LOOK, Mama! A sticker!" Anyway - they were waving wildly at me, throwing candy at me, it was a blast! Whew. Anyway, after the parade was the petting zoo. Baby bunnies are SO ADORABLE! There were more animals - baby hedgehogs, racoons, sheep, goats, kittens, ducks ... but the bunnies stole the show. SO CUTE.
Look at the bunny's face! ROFL! I felt sorry for them - all those children holding them. But ... I had to take pics before I made the children put them down!
And a group shot ... bunny siblings and human siblings!
Whew again. After this we walked around, went home, walked BACK to the park, walked around again ... came home and fell asleep. Thank goodness that Family Days only comes around once a year! |
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Alayna is my little Mama. She loves to help with Maria - sometimes TOO much but never any harm done. I can always count on her to help! For this picture, Alayna picked Maria up and brought her to the rocking chair. Those of you who know Alayna - you know how tiny she is at nearly 5 year old! So to see her lug Maria around is pretty cute. I worried at first but now that Maria's head is not so wobbly so it's okay! Sister Love!
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Posted in Children
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Guess what we did yesterday! We (as in my family and Cathy's family, minus our husbands) went to the library's Summer Reading Kickoff. It was themed, "Catch the Reading Bug" and it featured Bruce the Bug Guy! Also featured were large moths, hissing cockroaches, gigantic millipedes, fuzzy tarantulas, nasty scorpions, little caterpillars ... yeah - a bunch of LOVELY little animals!
Serena with a big moth. She showed NO fear with these huge bugs! A few weeks ago there was a tiny gnat on her and she freaked out, so that was amazing to see!
It had some huge grabby legs!
Here is Paige with a hissing cockroach! She was VERY brave to hold that nasty thing! I did not even consider holding this one.
Here they passed some tarantulas and scorpions around ... I suppose it's safe to hold them in a cage!
Yeah, this is me. LOL! The look on my face says it all. But I did it! I held Rosie the Rose Haired Tarantula. And apparently Maria held her as well!
Once again, no fear from Serena! I tell ya, those tarantulas are SO COOL! Their legs are so soft and gentle as they walk on you. I suppose their fangs wouldn't be so gentle but this particular tarantula was a nice one. I would hope so, since Bruce the Bug Guy was letting everyone hold it for a minute! Yes, it was a fun and buggy day overall. |
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I'm getting so big (12 lbs, 14 oz) and I still love my fingers! :-) How did 4 months go by already?! |
Posted in Children
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It was a beautiful spring day, and I declared, "Aaron, it's TAKE YOUR TRAINING WHEELS OFF DAY!" He said, "No it isn't!" and proceeded to bike away. But Mama chased after him and we took the wheels off. No, it didn't happen just like that but I thought it might! He really didn't want them to come off. But I KNEW he was ready, and he was! He rode like he'd been doing it all year. He's my cautious child, though ... always very hesitant to try new and possibly dangerous things. Here he is!
And where do the little girls ride? In the bike trailer! Amazingly we can smoosh 3 little girls in there.
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I can't get over it - the only one of my 4 children that LOVE to suck on their fingers! It's so precious. I can just lay her down and if she's tired, she finds her favorite fingers and goes to sleep! |
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Forgive the fact that the you have to turn your head sideways to view this adorable clip of Serena! I'm not sure why it did that. Or how I can fix it!? |
Posted in Children
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I had been wanting to get some educational toys for the children, mostly for Serena to play with while I was using workbook-type materials with the older children. There was a home/life expo nearby and I went, seeing that Discovery Toys was on the list of vendors. Instead of buying the one toy I wanted to get for Serena, I signed up to be a Discovery Toys consultant! Why? Well, for $99 you got an awesome kit of toys - including the one I wanted to get for her. They were for ALL the age ranges of my children, and some products even a little higher for use later. They were all educational. I'm big on tossing out toys that serve no purpose - so we don't really have a lot of toys! Mostly Legos, playsilks, plastic dinosaurs (okay, those were mostly mine from childhood!). So for $99 (payable in two installments, even!) I got a big box of cool toys. No catch, no "you have to sell $X amount of toys in X amount of time. Cool! But ... after playing with the children and seeing the educational value, I thought to myself, "I could have a few parties, get a few more of these cool toys for free" ... and now I'm actively thinking of parties and who I can tell about Discovery Toys. So ... now I told you. If you want to get some neat toys, send me an email and I'll hook ya up. You want to get in on the $99 kit of toys? I'll definitely hook ya up! My email is spyderk@gmail.com or adventureknits@gmail.com. Now for some pictures I took this morning!
Alayna playing with "Playful Patterns". Preschool in a box! Did you know she knows what an isosceles triangle is?! I learned that today, too!
Here is the toy I wanted to get for Serena during that expo. It's a CELL PHONE! Those close to Serena know how much she loves cell phones. It records a message, too - all of the children love that. Best part - lifetime guarantee! She's already dropped it a few times - that guarantee may come in handy.
You should have seen her excitement when she saw it in the box. The package had a picture of the phone on the front and back and she said, "TWO cell phones!". Okay, the below picture is of her hammering away on ... "Hammer Away". Of course when I brought this out, ALL of the children wanted an immediate turn with the hammer!
Here is Aaron, testing his mechanical skills on "Motor Works". Once again, they ALL love this toy too. Thank goodness we got this huge kit with these toys (plus many more!).
Even Miss M isn't left out of the action! Here is the first time she's ever grasped a toy! "Boomerings" are perfect for her - I can see wanting to get more of these.
And one more, because she's SO CUTE! And she just turned 3 months yesterday. 11 lbs, 12 oz!
Seriously, if you want some toys - lots of toys (that $99 special is pretty cool!) - email me! I'd love to get you some. |
Sarah's at it again - putting in as many irons in the fire as she can! Maybe you don't know me and that doesn't make any sense ... well, I'll fill you in.
Posted in Children
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Maria found two new friends!
I tried to coax a smile out of her ...
But that's all she'd give me! She has been doing this the past few days. None of my others ever sucked their fingers or thumb! Just shows you how unique and special each one of our children are. I took about 25 pictures of this exact pose, just because it was so adorable. I'll spare you the other 23. |
Posted in Children
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I do have a picture of Maria smiling at Auntie Kristy a few weeks ago, but I have YET to get a shot of her smiling on my camera until now! Be prepared for MAJOR PRECIOUSNESS!
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How to make pancakes, by Aaron.
Crack 3 eggs into mixer bowl.
Add 3 cups of milk. My question to Aaron: "This measuring cup holds how many cups?" Aaron: "Two". Me: "How can we make THREE cups of milk?" Aaron (turning the cup around and finding the "3 ml" line): "Add milk to here!". Um .... no. So I explained that one!
6 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
3 TBSP organic sugar.
3 TBSP baking powder.
1.5 tsp. sea salt.
3 cups flour (we used freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour).
Aaron's FAVORITE - cinnamon! I think it's his favorite because I have always let the children add cinnamon even when they were too small to do much of anything else!
Attach the beater ...
Smile for the camera ...
Batter is all done!
YUM!!! |
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Now that we have the internet at home again (do you see me dancing?!), I have been able to play around with this blog. I found out that I can add friends, links and categories! I'm sure some of you are shaking your heads in disbelief but hey, when you don't have a lot of online time, you just don't know these things. I thought I'd post a few pictures of Aaron and Alayna's recent projects. Aaron is REALLY into Legos. I should make a curriculum entirely out of them, I'm sure he would excel at it! He likes to build as I read aloud to the rest of the children, and he tries to get me to build with him as well. I do try, but he always makes fun of my attempts!
Alayna loves to color and she is VERY good at it. Much better than her older brother.
Maria is 2.5 months old now and doing great! I just love having a baby in the house, even though I don't have time to use the bathroom until afternoon.
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Here she is - I put her down to do ... something (can't remember anymore!) but she fussed for a bit and before I could get back to her, this is what I found: 
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Recognize these pictures? The day I posted the originals on my blog, I showed the librarian and she loved them.
Cathy and I were also featured in the same paper, this past January. I was 37 weeks pregnant with Maria and Cathy was with Nathan, who was 2 months old. I'll have to take a picture of that picture (it's on my fridge) ... we get a lot of library love, I guess! |
She asked me to email them ... and this is where they ended up ... in our local paper! We have people coming up to us in town and complimenting us on the nice family picture. 
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Winter doesn't want to let go! Ahhhhhhhh! The snow came suddenly, and before we knew it - it was like this! And it's still coming down ...
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Posted in Children
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So I thought I'd show what WE were doing in the snow. Making our near-daily trek to the library, of course! Blizzards don't stop our family from checking the internet. Bridget (Auntie Aimie's - and now our - good friend) took these while we were walking to the library ... she jumped out of Bean's (a local restaurant) and surprised us!
And then she Bridget set up her camera to snap this picture of all of us at the beloved library.
Soon I should be able to surf from home. I guess I won't get any exercise after that. |
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Why does time seem to fly with a new baby in the house? I can't believe it's March 1st. Yesterday Maria turned 1 month old! And today Nathan (Cathy's little guy) is 4 months old! That's OLD! (Sorry Nathan, if you are reading this!) I have to share these adorable pictures of another one of Maria's baths. I won't even add commentary - you get the idea!
There you have it! But, how's this for a precious picture?
Or this ...
That's it for now - oooohhh ... that's right! Guess what? We are probably going to be getting the internet again! You'll know if we did if I have a new blog post every day, or multiple times a day, ha ha! |
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For the 3 comments! It gives me warm fuzzies to read little notes from old friends. To Sarah I, wow, I've "known" you since 1999, wow, how things have changed! Back then I was a (homeschooling) high school senior, spending way too many hours on the internet, making wacky friends! Jen, I saw you commented a while back too, how neat that you came to my wedding in 2000. And then the friends I met in the beginning of my parenting journeys ... the WS and various other parenting message boards. I remember back when I shared that I was in college to become a police officer, and the wise ladies "admonished" me right out of that idea! THANK YOU because if it wasn't for your wise counsel, I wouldn't have dug deeper into the Bible and found God's will for my life! And had I not realized God's will, I most likely would not have my two most recent blessings, Serena and Maria. Okay, I feel myself getting sappy so I'm going to quit reminiscing. I promised pictures of Maria’s first bath. Originally I was giving Alayna and Serena their bath, but then figured I’d put Maria in there too. Alayna was thrilled to have two little sisters in the tub with her! Maria before her bath (note the calm demeanor):
“Hey, what’s this? I’m back in the water again?”
And then ... this is what the rest of the bath looked like!
It was pretty funny, actually. Because I remember doing the same thing to Aaron over 6 years ago, and back then, as a brand new mother, I was terrified that I was hurting him in some way. But no, apparently all newborns hate their first bath? My kids never liked baths until they were a few months old. Here are a few pictures of the oldest with the youngest … Aaron REALLY looks grown up now that he’s holding a tiny baby. And he looks pretty mad when he’s not smiling … he gets that from me.
And then I told him to smile …
A little better! And then this morning I gave Maria to Aaron while I took a shower before the kids got out of bed … and she fell asleep with him!
More sleeping pictures:
She’s fast approaching her 4 week birthday … too fast! I want to savor every moment. I love waking up in the middle of the night when she’s still sleeping, snuggled next to me, and I stare at her sleeping face until I fall asleep again. Bliss. J More later! |
Posted in Children
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Newborn TV buddies! |
Posted in Children
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I was just reading my entry about being 4 days late ... I wrote the "Supwer Bown"!!! Pregnancy must have been tough on me. I think today I'll try to share more pictures. I have a lot - but not a lot of time to upload and stick them all in here! Here are the children meeting Maria ... poor baby girl, she thought she was the only one until the next day, when a gaggle of noisy strangers came to visit! But she loves them, and they love her. Aaron:
Alayna:
Serena:
Here she is in her "leaving the hospital" outfit. Cathy gave me the shirt (which was dyed by CreativLEI Made on Hyena Cart) and it says "A precious pearl is our new little GIRL". I love these shirts - we ordered blanks from Dharma Trading Co. and had them sent all over the place to be dyed, appliqued, painted, etc! They fit newborns perfectly, and Cathy said that they lasted for a long time with Nathan. Okay, and the longies - of course made by me - but these are our favorite longies because the yarn is Cashmerino, which I bought from Plumknit on Hyena Cart. This yarn is HEAVENLY. As I was knitting these longies, I didn't want them to end, it was that wonderful to knit with this yarn. More expensive than most of the yarns I used, but I'm glad I had these longies. The colorway is "Shell", paired with natural yarn for the waistband and cuffs.
Here is a picture of the waterbirth tub:
And me in it - don't worry, just a face pic, LOL! This was taken shortly after I climbed in - I was having contractions but able to talk/look normal when they weren't there. After 9cm, I couldn't do anything but concentrate on breathing!
More pics to come ... |
