Sleepy Baby

I've mentioned it before but E and J inherited Daddy's tendency as a child to sleep outside their bed in weird places and Mommy's tendency to fall asleep at a moment's notice. C on the other hand will stay up all night if not held or in her bed.

The other night we had another adventure of E falling asleep in a random spot. I was in the living room and could watch her as she went to Daddy's door and started knocking. Daddy thought she was just playing so let her play. Well she fell asleep against the door trying to get to him. It was pretty precious for sure. Here's the pics:

32 weeks with K!

32 week belly pic (taken in a hurry so didn't smile sorry), and yep that's still a knee out front :P

Haircut Day

Today was a haircut day. I cut C and J's hair. Though I guess I should say I cut J's I trim and style C's and then both of them restyle through flipping and bouncing all over the place shortly after of course.

Today was a hair cut day though. All my babies so far seem to be destined to be baldies for the first year or so. Well they have all started off with dark blonde/light brown hair (like I did actually, daddy had white blonde) and then that fell out and they were bald then got the blonde hair which doesn't show up on camera usually :P E obviously is nowhere near hair cut time but C's hair has picked up thickness (just like Mommy's did) and J's is finally thick enough for clippers instead of scissors!

Today I got to shape J's hair a lot more and was once again reminded how much more satisfying it is to cut boy hair than girl. I used to complain about the price difference in hubby's hair cuts versus my own (which is substantial) but his hair and J's actually look cut after they have it done (though that has to be much more often of course versus my twice a year or so).

Anyway though the haircuts turned out well and they cooperated for the most part. Here's a pic of both, and of E being her smiley self (though she was more disappointed she didn't get to go in the bathroom for the hair cutting than missing the hair cut itself of course.

Happy Baby

E's new favorite word is "Happy!" (Haaah-pe!) thanks to C and J singing "If you're happy and you know it." Tonight at dinner E got a bite of coconut pie and the rest of the meal and the car ride home and pretty much till now I've heard nothing but "Happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy......"

I've never seen such a happy baby before lol. I got an audio clip I'll try and convert to add to this post soon.

Hubby and I couldn't help but laugh and be happy ourselves listening to little E go on and on.

I hope she's always this happy, though we also are now considering pie instead of cake for her first birthday. Who wouldn't with this response :)

My little drama queen, who has hair!

Finally got a good picture of Miss E's barely there hair, but it was actually during taking pics of one of her over the top 1 minute dramatic fake cry filled outbursts. You can see in the first pic a glimpse of the drama and the expression that she is definitely not amused to find out once again Mommy sees through her ruse. Unexpected bonus to these pics though, her hair actually showed up on camera :P All my babies so far have the barely there blond hair just like I did and and though hubby had a bit more hair early on his was see through blond too so I'm still not expecting my little baldy to have enough hair for styling any time soon but it's still an accomplishment that it's showing up at all now lol so I felt it was worth documenting.

30/31 weeks belly

This is a 30w5d pic so I'm counting it for both weeks, though I'm 31 weeks along today. Big development of the last week or two is that baby is now head down. Also thanks to position changes and good diet I'm not that much bigger though little one is growing like a weed :). Now *crossing our fingers* little K stays head down!

E is 1 month till 1!

My silly little Bunny baby is 11 months old today! I can't believe we're now in the last month before she's a year old!

She is so sweet, so smart, and of course as always still tons of trouble lol. Every day she's talking more, running more, climbing more (security gates, couches, and everything in between), showing more of her sweetheart and drama queen personality and amazing us all.

C and J love their little sis even when she's putting their clothes on for dressup, climbing into their toy boxes, sitting on their beds laughing, and generally being the joy and challenge that is a little sister lol.

This past month hasn't been as much about new milestones as furthering her current skills but it's still been so much fun and I can't wait to celebrate a year and soon after see E become a Big Lil Sis too. So crazy to think of E being a year and a big sis as well but I can't wait and I'm sure it will be lots of fun, especially if how much she loves to talk to, blow, and drum on my belly currently is any indicator of things to come lol.

At 11 months E is:

-Still walking, running, dancing, and climbing anything and everywhere she can
-Saying more and more, and repeating more and more including some of the ABC song and some other songs from C and J
-Using names more often (in addition to C, J, Mommy, and Daddy's she's added Ami)
-Has 7 teeth, 4 on top, 3 on bottom
-Recently has been not only answering the phone with Hello but also saying it whenever she enters a room lol
-Still eating most "real" food that we eat (other than high allergens of course) along with formula and breast milk (once to twice a day nursing)
-Still falling asleep everywhere and anywhere like J and Daddy did as babies
-Still making her presence known volume wise
-Loving to learn and test limits and what Mommy and Daddy will let her do
-Favorite toy is the magnadoodle, second favorite is the cloth tube
-Favorite food would probably be anything she can get us to share from our plates, second favorite Bananas
-Still a drama queen and a mess-will do minute long fake cry tantrums before she gets distracted
-Loves to take all clothing she finds and put it on her head though she will try to put pants on her legs and shoes on her feet
-Will go to the bedroom door and knock if she can't find Daddy, definitely finding more fun with him now that he can flip her and help her do other acrobatic tricks
-Still loves to snuggle Mommy
-Still wants to be where C and J are....this includes trying to get to them at night even if they're asleep or waking them up some mornings
-Still has all of us wrapped around her finger though she's learning the fake cries and dramatic escapades work only on C, J, and Ami
-Is too smart for her own good to an extent but definitely clever and amazing in everything she does each day
-Is a wonderful blessing and is always making us smile :)

Playing.....

Yes a bad pun I know but so be it :P

I've gotten behind in posting a bit again and am once again playing catch up. So here's the current update. Things are going great!

As of Friday I am 30 weeks along (I will add a belly pic post later) and it's finally cooling off enough I can go outside without feeling I'm going to melt (*knock on wood*).

Homeschooling is going wonderfully though we all needed one field trip/outside the house learning day last week so Wednesday was a lot less structured but still very fun and educational. The kids are so eager to learn I love that we can adapt our schedule to make everything work towards them doing so. And I feel that even though I've written my lesson plans up in advance it's great how those can be added to and altered for what works for all of us. Have I mentioned how much I love homeschooling :)

The last couple weeks went by so quickly I can't believe we're almost halfway through August! Tomorrow E will be 11 months old and then it's 1 more month till 1!!!! Completely crazy to think about and to add in the fact that after that K will be arriving not too long after and God willing all will go perfectly with that as well.

My in-laws should be coming back to the states in the next couple weeks and we've got all sorts of fun with visiting friends and maternity pictures along with E's 1 year pics :)

I will update more as I can.

Hope to not miss the blog too much longer and to update a bit more on some specifics and other big developments soon but right now hubby and a movie are distracting me :P

As always keep our family in your prayers! I am so thankful for how much God has blessed us and continues to do so. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the last few weeks of Summer!

Joys and woes of being a Little Sister

Oh the woes of being a little sister.....
Today's for E was when Big brother and Daddy (who is a big brother himself to 2 sisters) decided she would make a good toy prop since she fell asleep in the middle of the floor. Yes it was a little mean while being kinda funny and cute too. I'm sure this is just the beginning of trials at a little sis but at least the positives outweigh the negatives and she won't be the youngest for much longer :P

Pretending to be Mommy

C was playing and realized with the help of a ball under her dress she could pretend to be me :P
"Mommy! I look like you!"......Thanks C lolAnd waving her "belly" back and forth lol

An Aw Moment

E is definitely another wild child and has now earned the nickname all my kids have bore at some point(in the sweetest way possible of course :P) "Trouble". For some reason I thought my third would be quieter with the first and second to contend with HA. Ya as a third child myself you'd think I would've know better :P E is definitely my loudest yet and a drama queen through and through. She wants her presence known. When she's sweet she is as sweet as can be but when she's upset she'll throw the funniest all out fake crying tantrum.....for all of a minute or two while Mommy and Daddy laugh and then when she realizes her act isn't working she quickly flips her switch back to troublemaking sweetheart and moves on.

This is one of her sweeter moments. Big Brother was laying on the floor and E came up and was petting his hair and giving him kisses. Whether in her drama mode or sweetheart mode she always loves any chance to play with her big siblings and shower love on them....though it might often be mid-tackle :P

29 weeks with K :)

I'm not doing as well on keeping up the belly pics but still getting them in when I can. I haven't really gotten bigger in the last 3 weeks which is a good thing since I definitely popped more quickly since this is #4 and seem to be plateuing now. Though I'm still huge of course lol. Hoping to keep up this trend and that this little one gets in a good position. I can't believe we're into the 3rd trimester and approaching the final stretch :) I can't wait to welcome this new precious blessing to our family very soon :)

Project Fridays and Tie Dye (Sorta)

Today was our first "Project/Fun Friday" as I've named our Homeschooling Fridays for C and J's curriculum. Pretty much instead of the normal 1 or 2 projects with lots of reading and written work Fridays are all about hands on learning, making a mess, and as always having fun.

Today we did cooking, building letters with our Handwriting without Tears, Mat Man, Baking cookies, making playdough maps and drawing maps outside in the dirt, and Tie Dye with Permanent markers as shared by a friend and explained here
http://sunscholars.blogspot.com/2011/01/sharpie-tie-dying.html

Overall it was a good first Project Day and lots of fun.

Tomorrow will be more of an off day though I'm still planning some Math Review and our 100 Reading Lessons daily work. I guess we can say the first week of homeschool is done for the most part and so far we're all loving it :)

Here's some pics from our Tie Dye projects in progress :) Yes Mommy made one for E too :P

Sweet Moments with Daddy

Recently E has been more of a Daddy's girl. She loves her games with him. She'll go to his door and knock for him. She loves to give him kisses and hugs especially after Mommy gives him a hug like it's a funny game to see who will give the better hug and her kisses often include blowing raspberries on our cheeks. She'll even sit still for him and lift her legs up on the rare times he changes her making it easier for him! A big difference to the wiggle contests she does with me and just flipping over and walking off pantless if Ami is attempting to change her lol.

I love to watch her get into the toddler stage and her get closer to Daddy especially with K arriving in a couple months and my previous concerns E might be a bit overly clingy with me. It's a nice balance right now. She still loves her Mommy snuggle time and her Daddy rough and tumble games. And every mood, milestone, and test of Mommy and Daddy is pretty fun (though don't tell her that lol).

Here's one of those sweet moments. Daddy kept putting J's hat on E and she thought it was the funniest thing to pull it off and laugh and him put it back on. When I was trying to get a pic C and J wanted in on the fun and came up and attacked Daddy's legs with hugs for a pic. Caught him off guard but still very cute :)

First Day of School 2011!

So today marked our first day of school (at least with our new more structured homeschool curriculum) for C and J and it went wonderfully! What I was a little nervous might be a bit much for them (Kindergarten level for J 1st for C with a bit of overlap and Unit Studies for 1st/2nd) we flew through and *knock on wood* the material for J stopped right as his 3 year old attention span needed a break and C with her love of learning seemed to want more though I want to make sure she doesn't overdo it either. I'll go more into our lesson plans later but today was a great mix of interactive hands on stuff with the independent studies.

We built a spider web on the deck which the kids loved while finding real spider web examples in our back yard too. My only complaint would be the ridiculous heat which had C and J ready to go inside a lot sooner than normal. Hopefully it will cool down soon and we'll be to work in more outside study time and adventures.

I'll add pics later. Since it was the kids' 1st day they had new school clothes and thanks to a friend's inspiration we celebrated at the end of our lessons with cupcakes! Now if only the temperature would cool down I'd call it a perfect school day :)

First Day Pics

A few pictures from our first day of School for C and J 2011

Even if your school is at home, the kids still need special clothing for the day. These were the new outfits they picked out for the occasion
Our Reading and Science Lessons both talked about spiders so we went outside and made a web afterward. Mommy pointed to where and C and J tied it off.
With the heat they were proud and thankful when it was done. Here's a cheer for the web and for going inside for water and popsicles :P