April's Been a Busy Month . . .

We've done a lot this month . . . and taken lots of pictures.

(Sorry if you're on facebook -- these are pretty much all repeats)

Cousin Bonding Time

My sister, Talina, and I got the coolest Christmas presents this year from my Mom.  Thanksgiving Point passes for our families.  Now that the babies are a bit bigger, and the weather is nice, we went today to go activate our memberships.  Unfortunately, pseudo-hurricane-force winds kept us from our original plan of going to the Farm area to check out baby animals, but we had a blast going to the Dinosaur Museum with the kiddos.

Bailey cracks me up around Owen -- these two are gonna be SO much fun to watch grow up together!

Here's our Bailey Boo hanging out in our frontroom . . . Annie & Ellie found her this hat, and insisted she wear it.

Poor Isaac and Weeks of Pictures

I've been a blogging slacker.  I'd blame double ear infections (Owen) and a potentially broken bone (Isaac), except that all just happened in the last couple days.  I don't know why I wasn't blogging the weeks before that.  So, here's some pictures of our lives from the last couple weeks . . .

Poor Isaac was going down the slide with Daddy, when his foot got twisted between Dad's leg and the slide on a turn.  It was x-rayed, the doctor said it seemed like a break, but they couldn't see one, so they put on a molded splint and wrapped it, and we go back in on Friday for more x-rays. 
He was REALLY miserable the first day.  Being immobile and angry about it.  He thrashed his hardened leg around the place in anger, injuring innocent bystanders (i.e., me).  The next morning (after a blow out diaper that he SMEARED ALL OVER MY BED AND HIMSELF) we took off the splint only to discover one nasty looking pressure sore on his heel.  No wonder he was so miserable (and kept us up much of the night).  The next day we got it rewrapped, and he's been crawling around and climbing one legged every since.

We've noticed he's keeping his whole hand (sometimes both) inside his mouth when upset or hurt.

Curled up to watch a movie.  We've watched lots and lots of movies.

Some random cute pictures of my boys sleeping . . .

Comparison of sleeping Isaac and his Dad sleeping as a toddler too.

 

My poor Grandma was recently moved to an Assisted Living Center after a nasty fall at home.  Since then she's been in and out of the hospital repeatedly.  We've tried to get over to visit regularly, bringing the kids when she's not at the hospital . . . 

Grandma with Owen and my niece, Bailey

Four generations

My Grandma, my boys and me.

Owen was just cooing at her, it was adorable.

The girls with their Great Grandma

My little chunky monkey

Annie & Isaac

Blessing Day

Owen wore the same tux Isaac did for his blessing.  It cracks me up to see his serious little faces when I was trying to get pictures of him in it . . . and I couldn't help but think of one part of a song that I'd just heard on a commercial, over and over again in my head while I looked at the pictures later . . .

And I somehow managed to get 250 pictures down to this . . .
Man, I love good excuses to get together as family.

Saturday Night at Our House

Saturday nights at our house are pretty exciting.

There's dancing, singing, tickling, giggling, shrieking (Ellie), puzzles, reading and picture taking.

 

 Doing puzzles about fruit.

 

There was tickling.

 The first time Greg tickled Isaac he laughed, then said, "That funny!"  We tried to get him to say it again for the camera ('cause it's adorable), but no luck.

Isaac showing off his dance moves.  Which includes (and is pretty limited to) stomping.

Then no night is complete without singing and dancing from the girls.

(They all picked out their Christmas pajamas to wear, thus the Christmas carols.)

Weekend Pictures

My cousin Makayla had her Mission Homecoming on Sunday, so after Church, we all headed to my Aunt Judy's house for the afternoon.  The kids had so much fun seeing all the extended family, especially the second cousins.  In fact, Ellie's prayer last night at Family Home Evening went something like this, "Thank you for Jesus and for Makayla.  Thank you for Makayla's mission so that we got to go play with Jaxson and Kenzie.  I LOVE playing with Kenzie and Jaxson, especially in the basement with the toys." 

Isaac was a fan of the food.  Well, the desserts, at least.  When I walked into this scene I asked Greg if maybe a sugar cookie would've made more sense for the one year old than the Red Velvet cupcake . . . :-)  

Isaac had fun playing on the pool table, putting the balls in the various pockets.  Interesting fun fact we learned -- Isaac can count to 10!  Yeah, I didn't know that.  My sister Star called me down and was all, 'Watch this!' and she's hand a ball to Isaac, he'd count it, then put it in the pocket closest to him.  He struggles sometimes with numbers 3 & 4, but from 5 on he has no problem at all . . . 

Since we were all dressed up and all (except Owen, 'cause he just wears pajamas 24-7), we figured we might as well get a 'family photo' of all of us in one place . . .

My adorable little boys.

 And then today, I snapped a couple adorable sleeping pictures of Owen.  'Cause he's sleeping less nowadays and I want to remember this; plus, is there anything more adorable than a sleeping baby?!

Speaking of sleep, guess who went SIX hours between feedings last night?  The kid did not wake up until 4AM.  That's amazing.  I think Annie was nearing a year old before she was sleeping that long of a stretch :-)  I don't want to get my hopes up too much that this'll be our new norm, but MAN, do I love me a sleeping baby!  Makes life so much easier! :-)

Three Weeks Already?

So, Owen's three weeks old now (or was yesterday).  That flew by fast.  I'm still kind of in shock and awe with how great I've been feeling this fourth time around.  I was pretty excited to find that my normal 2-3 week postpartum mood swings (when I feel like I lose all patience and reason for a week or so starting around 2 weeks postpartum) were nonexistent this time.  Or so I thought, turned out it just waited 'til three weeks to start, but they've fortunately (for my children) been much milder.  So starting yesterday, I find the kids pretty annoying anytime they do anything crazy, weird or loud, but for the most part I don't lose it with anyone for no reason whatsoever.  :-)  I'm not sure if it's the hormones that are totally different this time, or if it's just that I'm getting pretty decent sleep (more than when I was pregnant.)  Probably a combination of both.

Yesterday I went to the dentist, then the hospital to visit my Grandma, who's had a rough week or so.  Greg stayed out in the van with the baby (I didn't want to bring him into the hospital, and I didn't want to leave him with anyone for that long), then afterwards came home, but stopped off first at the new Schmidt's Bakery and ate a sugar cookie while I nursed the baby (which is why I hadn't wanted to leave him with anyone, since he went CRAZY on the drive and insisted on eating that very second), then we headed back to my parents to pick up our kids.   I called my Dad, to let him know about the delay for feeding the baby, and asked if the kids had eaten anything.  "Yeah, I fed them . . . I gotta go, they're attacking . . ."  Click.  Then we called when we were almost there (since my Dad insists we do that so the kids have adequate time to find hiding spots).  He was all, "How far out are you?"  I said, "We'll be there any minute . . ." "Sounds good," he responded, then as he hung up I heard him yell, "BATTLE STATIONS!"  Should be no surprise that when we came in, Greg was attacked by several little kids with Nerf guns.  Then they excitedly told me about how they'd had ice cream and popcorn for dinner.  I think there's a reason they ask for Grandpa as their babysitter . . .

And right now, my sister Lacy just showed up to babysit the three oldest while Greg and I (and Owen, who we're hoping sleeps the whole time) go to Kneaders for a must deserved dinner date!  Wish us luck . . . I'd really like to get through this without the baby screaming mightily while we're out!

Of course, we also need some three week pictures of Owen . . .