The Long and the Short of It

My spontaneous Micah decided to get his hair cut off yesterday. Wow! He looks so different--he is still very handsome, of course, but I catch myself just staring at him because he looks so DIFFERENT.

He says he plans to grow it back out, so we've all taken guesses at how long it will take to grow back "to the skin of his back." (which translates to 3 1/2 inches...that's how long he wants to grow it again.) Micah thinks it will take 10 weeks. Josiah guessed 9 months. John guessed 6 months, I guessed 4 1/2 months and Emilia guessed 20 weeks. We will see whose guess is closest!

Our Happenings

Ok, this post is to catch you up on some of what's been going on around here--minus our adventures with Brooke and Ryan. That'll be another post. So, here goes!

Remember Josiah's pen pal? Well, he got a letter back! He was soooo excited! He had been asking every day for a week when he would get a letter back and he was thrilled when I finally handed him that envelope. I know the feeling...emails and all and good, but there's just nothing like getting a letter in the mail!



Emilia is quite a creative little girl. This is the setup by her door.



And this is how she has used it all to her advantage so that she can turn her lights on and off.



Micah still loves his long hair and its especially fun in the bathtub. You can shape it and spike it in all kinds of ways. Here's one of the most recent:



One rainy afternoon we went outside for some good ole playin' in the rain. It was the perfect day for it, too, warm outside, cool refreshing rain and--of course--NO LIGHTENING! The boys had a blast from the second we were out the door.




Emilia was a bit skeptical at first, but she caught on before long!



My cousin Emily was over that day, so here's the whole rain crew:


One weekend in the not too distant past we had a carpet picnic/movie night. Micah came as a cowboy :) We watched "Jack and the Bean stuff"...at least that's what Emilia called it!



Emilia has been potty training, too, for almost a month now. It wasn't really her choice, but she was taking off her diapers, wet or poopy, as soon as they were dirty. I got over those messes pretty quick, so bye-bye diapers! The first week was a struggle. But since then she's been doing great! She's even started taking herself--WOO-HOO!! When she made it 4 days without an accident we had an eclair party (Emilia Claire...E. Claire...ha-ha...beside, who cares if its a corny joke, the eclairs were YUMMY!)





And when she had been dry for one whole week, SHE GOT HER EARS PIERCED! By her choice, I might add. I warned her it was going to hurt. She even got stung by a wasp one day at Nana's and I told her that when she got her ears pierced it was going to hurt like the wasp sting. Did she still want her ears pierced? (this was before it was potty training incentive) She said yes, so, we took her.



getting ready



She SCREAMED after the first ear was pierced, for about a minute. After she calmed down the lady went to do the other and she started SCREAMING again. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't listen so I asked the lady for a mirror. I had Emilia look in the mirror, I showed her her one pierced ear and told her if the lady didn't do the other she would only have one flower, was she ok with that? She said, "No." I asked if she wanted the lady to pierce the other ear and she said yes. She cried a little after the second, but she got over it pretty quick and is so proud of her flower earrings!



This is the boys getting ready for her to get her ears pierced...this cracked me up!



Ahhh! I still have to much to post, but this is going to have to be it for now. Hopefully soon there will be more!

Miss Audra

The last couple of weeks have been soo busy and hopefully soon I will get around to telling you about some of the fun stuff that we did, but I think my sweet Audra needs a post just about her. Don't you think? :)



Miss Audra is already 5 months old! She's quite large for a 5 month old, though, so most people who don't know her think she is older than that. She is still our happy little baby, however since she's discovered there are fun things happening in life she protests nap and bedtime. She loves to be talked to by anyone. She loves peek-a-boo and she LOVES her sister! (Emilia is quite taken with her, too) She loves belly kisses and hand kisses and foot kisses and zerberts and raspberries.

You know that she discovered her hand, right? Well, a couple weeks ago she discovered her foot.



She played footsie for quite awhile.



That foot's pretty cool, but the hand is waaaaay cooler!



A couple weeks ago, Audra graduated to eating "real food." I mean, as real of food as a 5 month old can eat! She's been eyeing our food for well over a month and was thrilled to finally get to eat some of her own. I'm not sure rice cereal was quite what she expected though...



Peas had a better reaction.



Audra's one big love in life, though, is her momma.


Audra and me at Dollywood

I guess most babies feel that way. At least mine all have. Audra is no exception. Her face lights up when I come in the room. When she's crying, she starts to calm down once she sees me just walking toward her (though if for some reason I don't actually GO to her, she reverts back to full-out angry scream!) If she hears my voice she will search the room to find me and fuss until I get her. She's a momma's girl. At least for now...

Having three older kids has really made me appreciate this time in Audra's life. I know all too soon she will have times when she doesn't think I'm so great. Over her lifetime I'm sure I'll get many a mean look, hear many hurtful words and I'll say my share, too. Right now Audra thinks I'm the greatest thing ever. I'm treasuring that because I know it wont be long before she realizes how flawed I am. All it takes to make her happy right now is for me to hold her. The day will come when that won't be enough to make it all better. These days of babyhood are so precious to me because this peacefulness passes so quickly. I know, "peacefulness" isn't usually used to describe having a new baby, but compared to the timeouts and arguments and disagreements that come with older kids, I, for one, think these first months are quite peaceful! So, I'm lovin' my baby. I'm lovin' her chubbiness and her gummy grins and her baby talk. I'm lovin' that she loves me unconditionally, all the time, without question. I'm lovin' that I can have really bad days around her and she doesn't notice. She just wants me to be with her, no matter what kind of mood I'm in. I'm "treasuring up these things and pondering them in (my) heart."



And I'm mentally preparing myself for what's to come. :)

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!

Silly Things My Kids Said Today

Emilia was in timeout (she seems to like it because she keeps doing things to be put there...). In the midst of her wailing and crying and saying, "Call me, Mommy. Call me!", she laid face-down on the floor and cried,

"Why'd it have to be me??"

The life of a 2-year old is rough.

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Josiah and I were looking at castle stuff earlier today. We were looking at the different parts of this castle:


I don't know if you can read the parts or not (probably not without a magnifying glass...I didn't realize how tiny that would be!), but there are two different bridges on the castle: a draw bridge and a fixed bridge.

Josiah is reading the parts and says,

"That's the fixed bridge. Huh. Well, it's a good thing they fixed it, isn't it?"

(the castle image was found here.)
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In other news...
Want to hear how a perfectly normal day can deteriorate into pure madness in a matter of minutes? If so, read on.

It was Audra's naptime. She was insisting that it wasn't by her best means of communication: crying. So, I tried rocking her to sleep. While rocking her, Emilia comes running through the dining room yelling, "I PEED, MOMMY!"

Oh, great.

Josiah is standing in the dining room, so I hand Audra to him, tell Emilia to go take off her wet pants and I go to mop up the pee puddle, which, incidentally is all the way by the stairs. I found it by following the pee footprints back to their source. I get out the mop, clean up the puddle, mop up the footprints. Emilia is now sans pants. Josiah and Micah are playing with Audra in the dining room. I take Emilia to her room to get her dry pants. Somehow she has managed to also get pee on her shirt, so I strip her bare and redress her. Her hands need to be washed, though, so I say, "Let's go wash your hands." I step out of her room just as Josiah, carrying Audra, steps on the still wet floor and falls. Lots of crying begins. Emilia is gone. I pick up Audra, overreact with Josiah. When I get Audra calmed down, I go to find Emilia. She has gone to the bathroom and pumped AT LEAST 7 pumps of the handsoap into the toilet. I yell at her and send her to timeout. I go to talk to Josiah, who is curled up in his bed. I mend some fences. After talking to him about the importance of rules (rule is he's not suppose to walk around with Audra) I ask him what he's thinking. He says, "I'm thinking that you're right. I wasn't thinking anything stupid." Good to know. I lay Audra down for her nap. She goes without a fight. FINALLY. Get Emilia out of timeout. I can't even count how many times she's been there today. It's like her second home. We have the "timeout talk" and then go wash hands.

Whew.

Breathe. Just breathe.

Ahhh, the luxurious life of a stay-at-home mom. :) Now, where'd I leave my bonbons?

What's the Deal??

What is it with shredding cheese that leads to disasters around the house?

Remember this moment in time?

Well, I haven't shredded cheese since then. Until today.

Today I shredded cheese again with my awesome food processor. (It still rocks, by the way.)

Today Emilia colored all over the rug in the living room with markers and then bit all the tips off those same markers and left them in a pile on the rug.

I have no pictures because I did not find it at all humorous. But I've been a sourpuss like that recently.

I'm not sure whether I should just stop shredding my own cheese or put Emilia in a straight jacket while I do it.

Opinions?

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!

It's the middle of JULY?!?

Seems like the older I get the faster time keeps flying. How does that happen?

We've been quite busy the last few weeks. I've been doing good just to keep up with everything and there just hasn't been time (or mental capacity!) for blogging. I've got several posts stored away in brain and as long as they don't fall out along the way, I'll get them up here in the next week or so. For now...

The boys have been taking swim lessons the last two weeks. I've noticed lots of improvement in both of them and they are both having fun being in the pool so much.





My brother and his family were in town last week. For those of you who haven't seen them in awhile...


I don't get to put many pictures of them on here, so I thought it'd be nice to give them a family picture spot all of their own. :) Matt's kids are in town for the next 2 weeks, too (week and a half, now) so I'm sure there will be much more fun with the cousins before they leave. So far we've picked peaches and blueberries, played on the slip and slide and had a sleepover. Tomorrow we're planning a trip to the zoo and Thursday we hope to go to the waterpad by our house. The kids will have fun (I'm sure) but can I just say I'm tired just even thinking about it?? :)


Our band of misfits...

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!

This Is What You Get

...when you have boys:

"Did you see that, mommy? I was trying to get spit to come through my teeth crack!"

"Sometimes I have farts that you can't hear. I can only feel them go out."