Here We Go Go Go!

Today I actually caught myself singing the song from the cartoon, "Cat in the Hat," when I was in the car. By myself.
Truth be told, it scared me. Parenthood is a slippery slope, my friends...
I have three important things to mention:
1. I made chicken a few nights ago. I'm pretty sure it was only a slight deviation from the chicken I have made a thousand times before. Bekah asked me what was in it. I said just chicken and flavor. Her face crumpled and she wailed, "I don't like flavor!"
2. Beau had a girly friend over today to play. I watched her and her sister vigilantly while I cleaned the bathroom and talked to my sister on the phone. I checked on them when I heard them chuckling. They were under Marianne's crib and Beau was painting Ava's nails. Didn't do too bad a job, either...even had a towel nearby that I stuffed under the crib's bed skirt to them so my carpet didn't wind up bright pink.
3. Marianne has a new toy...a jumper. And it makes her super happy. And thus it makes me super happy. Did I mention that she was 16lbs 5oz at her four month check up? Ninety fifth percentile, just like her head.

And now a side note. Have I ever told you about going with Bekah to buy a boy barbie and how she pointed at one and said, "I want Uncle Chip!" This is the barbie she picked, dressed in some awesome duct tape clothes that we made. (FYI - I was not in control of the pant design.)

And here is the real Uncle Chip. (I need a better picture of his hair. And eyes. It is not a perfect match, I know, but a resemblance.) What do you think?

Fashionista Ken, again:

And some more pics, just for fun...
Marianne loves Colonel. She's the first of our children to openly do so. (And the first to smile when she sees him.)

A smile to say goodbye...

Jacob, a SIX year old!

Right before Christmas, Jacob had his sixth birthday. It was, as he says, "the best day ever!" He got to have a bat party with friends from church and school, and he got to buy new boots and a new toy on his birthday. It was a very big day for my big guy. I have to say that my favorite thing about Jacob is how steady he is - he is so mellow and easy going. He is happy and relatively patient with me. His favorite thing to do lately is roller blading. One perk of having a house with crappy concrete floors is it can double as an indoor skating rink! Jacob and Bekah love to skate circles around the kitchen and dining room. Sometimes Beau follows with a bat with his scooter. I am so grateful for my sweet and sensitive, tough and strong Jakey!

Marianne at Four Months

Dear Bug,
Four months!?! You are such a fun and squishy little girl, but you are growing just a little too fast. Just today you rolled over from your back to your tummy for the first time. If I wasn't there to see it I wouldn't have really believed it, because your belly is quite the obstacle. You've been doing belly to back pretty regularly. Other amazing feats of your short life include laughing (a magical little squeaking, grunting, gurgling sound), being able to grab little toys, being able to bring toys to your mouth, thoroughly enjoying bath time (and almost growing out of your little bathtub), being able to lay on the floor in the boys room and play/look around happily for at least an hour while everyone else plays, too, and being so strong. You love to stand and jump and if you don't want to lay down you will try your hardest to sit up by doing power crunches. You have also graduated to your own bed in Bekah's room! You are such a good sleeper and sometimes you even like it better if I just lay you down when you're grumpy so you whine a little and then go to sleep. You love the sound of Daddy's voice and you'll crane your head around to find him and then give him the biggest smile. You'll do that for me, too and it makes me feel like the most special person in the world.
Yep, you really are an amazing and happy little person. You love to listen to your brothers and sister talk to you. You smile so big I think your cheeks must hurt, but you just love any and all attention. Jacob is really good at making you laugh. He tickles you and makes funny noises and I'm afraid you just can't help yourself. You also laugh when I kiss you under your chin or rub my nose on your belly or tickle your collarbones with my fingers. It's such a beautiful sound.
Well, Marianne...here are some pictures of you, chub and all, just so I can have some proof of your delicious rolls. Your thighs are second only to your double chin.
Love, love, love, you,
Momma

 Mom...can we be done yet, please?

 Alright that's it!!

A Holiday Smorgasbord

hey there santa baby!

My kids are in the garage taking apart a printer that went defunct. Their arms are black from the ink, but they're being nice to each other and having a good time, so I'm not complaining...Meanwhile Marianne is asleep; she is such a good chunky baby!

It's the perfect time to blog... :) And there is so much to blog about! My sister Amy and her family and my Mom visited the week before Christmas, then Jacob had his birthday party and turned the wise old age of six, then of course we celebrated Christmas, and then we went to visit my parents and Tyler and Gina in SV for New Years. So from all of that here are the not so brief highlights:
* Amy made an adorable chefs hat for Marianne. Why? Why not.

I think it emphasizes her chubby cheeks. While Amy was here visiting we decorated sugar cookies, played scrabble of course, played on my new (eek!) Silhouette, did some face painting, fixed hair (aren't we all so cute looking!)
and ate homemade sopapillas...Everyone loved holding and talking to Marianne. Joshua was especially awesome with her. I had two huge paintings to work on while she was here, so that sort of ate up a lot of time, but it all worked out in the end. Here are all the girls:
*Jacob turned six.

He is truly an awesome kid. He asked for a birthday party this year and I relented, on the one condition that he would actually enjoy his party and not get obsessed about his presents. (Flashbacks from a four year old's birthday party gone sour...). It sort of worked. Mostly. We had a Bat party, complete with doing spray paint bats, a "night vision" (flashlight) bat hunt, and of course a sorry looking bat cake. (Colonel ate part of the cake while it was cooling and I had to make do with the remains that he hadn't touched. Bad dog.)
*Christmas was wonderful. We stayed home, which we love to do, although this year Christmas eve was all on our own because everyone else did their own thing, too. It was a little different but really special. The kids acted out the nativity,

we had a special candlelight dinner, Bekah read "The Night Before Christmas,"
and kids actually fell asleep at a decent hour. Christmas morning was full of the usual excitement, even Santa visited!

Everyone made out like bandits...Bekah got a sewing box complete with all the sewing necessities, and some rollerblades, Jacob got a Trio Castle set, and Beau got the jet from Cars2, along with Lightning and Mater. Rus got a new pair of binoculars from his parents and an old Stanley jointer plane from me, and he made me a beautiful jewelry box that originally started as a juniper log out at his parents house in Edgewood. It is really beautiful. We had a nice morning [no fighting], enjoyed church [I enjoyed it at least on the stand leading music the whole time; Rus was in and out the entire meeting with Beau/Marianne], took family pictures [they even turned out good],
and had Christmas dinner at Carla's house [where our kids were not completely rotten].
*We enjoyed a couple of days rest/fighting with our kids here before loading them in the ManVan and heading to Sierra Vista. The seven+ hour drive down was painful...Rus bought a dvd system for his van before we made the drive back home. We enjoyed stopping by his parent's home in Lordsburg both on the way down and back. In Sierra Vista we cleaned out my parent's shed (actually really fun, I thought), went swimming at the Cove (love. the. Cove.), went to Kartchner caverns, ate out at Texas Roadhouse, went roller blading, went to see Mission Impossible with Tyler and Gina, went shopping (just the girls), had a moustache party,

and even stayed up until midnight so I could make out with kiss my husband. Jacob loved seeing the bat poop at the caves, Bekah was a swimming/sliding/fiend at the Cove, Marianne got spoiled and kissed and hugged by everyone, and Beau was just a happy/contrary/mean/wonderful kid.
And now it's 2012. Last year started with pages of resolutions...then I found out I was pregnant and those resolutions are exactly where they started - on paper. We did do a lot of amazing things, from remodeling and moving to having a new baby. This year I'm hoping to be a little less ambitious and thus a little more successful.
Happy new year to you too!