Abby's 5 years & Evie's 5 months

Am I doubling up on my blog posts? Why, yes I am. You'd think that having an unemployed husband home 24/7 would make it very simple to actually accomplish tiny things like...oh...say...blogging. I am left without excuse. Or at least left without a good excuse

We celebrated Abby's fifth birthday last Saturday. It was by far the smallest celebration I've had for one of my kiddos to date. My folks and Mandy with her clan were the only ones here this time, but that was no reason to skimp on the cake. Josh informed me that I am "overkill" mom when it comes to decorating cakes. I think I'm okay with that for now. I like decorating cakes anyhow. Abby wanted very little for her birthday. She wanted an MP3 player like Alex, pink cowboy boots and a little white mouse beanie baby she saw that has been bestowed the honor of becoming a member of her beloved pillow gang. She got all of that and was very happy. We had a nice time celebrating. I still can't believe she's five years old and heading off to kindergarten in the fall. My sweetie growing up! Her request for the cake was  that she wanted her favorite stuffed animal, Cheesy, to be on the cake holding a flower. So that's what she got. It may look a bit odd for a mouse, but if you can see on the picture above, it looks just like her mouse. Honest!

Seriously. Overkill? Probably.

This is Abby's birthday party at preschool. She hates being the center of attention, but she did well.

Evie's 5 months old

And recently, miss Evie turned five months old. She's growing like a weed and has been getting some massive skills on. She's between that awkward stage of wanting to sit all the time but still needing tummy time to learn to crawl. She's also developed her mommy complex to a new level. Josh is not so happy about this part. She still is not in full-on giggle mode. I try my hardest to get her to laugh, but the best I get is a half giggle when I tickle her. Here is her new skills list for the month.

Sitting prettty: Evie can sit on her own now for a few minutes. I still have to prop pillows behind her or sit close with one arm ever ready to catch her but she loves it and wants to be sitting nearly all the time.

Grabby gal: She is grabbing now. Everything. My hair and neck skin being her favorite. Ouch. Toys are her second favorite and she loves to put a fine coating of drool over each of them. Her other favorite is grabbing the cats' tails and hair. One of five cats is okay with this so poor Evie has some battle scars on the back of her hand.

Scooting: She's finding ways to move around the ground and her crib. She isn't crawling of course, but she can shimmy her way anywhere if she puts her mind to it.

Cereal: She started cereal for the first time tonight. I don't think she liked it very much but it will grow on her I'm sure. She's just so hungry still all of the time that I need her to be eating other things. Mama needs a break.

Look at those mad sittin' skills!

Magic Shoulder

As far as bloggers go, it's no secret. I've been one of the worst. It's not my fault! I have a baby! Oh wait. Yeah. I guess it is my fault then. Proof positive that I've failed my poor abandoned blog is this: what you're about to read is irrelevant. Nonetheless, it's cute and will forever be a part of my memory with Evie. There is a difference with Josh this time around in Babyland. Evie does really well with him. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the fact that I'm so busy with the other two kids that Josh has no choice but to be an active participant, but she does much better with him than Alex and Abby ever did. Sure. She cries her lungs out with him more than she does with me (mama complex is setting in). But Josh has one thing going this time around that never happened before and I lovingly call it The Magic Shoulder. As any nursing mother will tell you, when your baby is in your arms during those early months of life, they go on auto-sensory and start snorting and snuffing around looking for the boob. Hey. It's what we're here for, right? Josh, thank goodness, is boobless. (Is that a word?) So for the first 2 months, when I was tired of Evie's constant eating, I handed her over to Josh. What was a restless sleep with me, turned into a peaceful snooze fest on Josh's shoulder. Every. Time. It was cute as can be and relaxing for me while she snoozed away. Evie was also sick for the first two months of life so she had to sleep upright for most of the time. What better place than a comfy shoulder? But alas! Evie is embarking on the fifth month of life soon and sleeping is not her favorite thing to do anymore. There are nights I miss the Magic Shoulder. But I'll never forget the early life cuteness of Evie sleeping on daddy's shoulder.

Happy 5th Birthday Abby!

Abby turned five years old today! She isn't having her birthday party with the real cake and presents until Saturday, but I couldn't resist a little post to celebrate her actual birthday. Her official party is going to be teeny tiny with just us, my folks and Mandy and her gang so we made a day of it today. We went into town and did some "shopping". I say shopping in the loosest form possible as shopping usually requires money. Josh is still very unemployed. So we utilized her free coupon for a Happy Meal for lunch and grandma treated her to a Star Kiss from Dairy Queen. She had fun looking at toys and clothes at Target and Goodwill and helped me pick a new pair of glasses. We then made cupcakes for her school party tomorrow and had her favorite dinner of chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, and sausage. It was a great day and she's excited to get her presents on Saturday. Happy birthday baby girl!

Abby being Abby outside making a "cake" out of sand and dandelions.

Backyard Playground

For five years, we've owned one swing set that has been very faithful to us. The kids have grown up using it and it's been great. But as all things do, it got old. When we bought it, we figured it would last forever. Unfortunately, we didn't plan on our kids outgrowing it so fast. When Alex and Abby would swing together, the set looked as though it might topple at any given moment. It wasn't an expensive swing set, truth be told. Alex has been looking through catalogs for awhile now in hopes that we might purchase a new one that meets his list of seemingly non-negotiable requirements. We had to meet him half way. His requirements were pretty demanding for a six year old. Turns out a $30,000 swing set just wasn't in our budget this year. Actually we didn't even meet in the middle come to think of it. We knocked off a few thousand...er...or perhaps $29,000 really. We found a great deal at Home Depot and promised the kiddos that taxes would buy them a new play set to love and grow up with. When it was delivered, my folks were nice enough to lend a hand (and a bounty of electric tools). It was up and functional in a weekend and Alex and Abby couldn't be more happy with it. Now I don't have to worry about them flipping the swing set and ending up in the ER with broken bones or stitches. Now I just have to worry that they won't get caught in the rope ladder. Yay!

Josh and my mom building our new yard art.

The kiddos enjoying the new swing set. They are out playing on it every second they can. Note the old swing set tower in the background. It has a new home now. Have a good second life old Mr. Swing set.

Evie loves to swing! I think she likes how the wind blows through her long, beautiful hair.

Our backyard is actually a blessing. We lucked out with this house and got a double city lot so our backyard is pretty big for a city house. Don't get me wrong. I'd still love an acre or ten to tinker with, but that just ain't in the cards for us so we'll just be grateful for our extra helping of yard. And the bonus to a big yard? Big fun in the snow. I know the pictures are delayed a bit, but with the last big snow (fingers crossed to "the last" being accurate for the year) we all got to go out and enjoy our big yard full of snow. Even Evie got to be blinded by the bright white blanket of fresh powder on the lawn. Gotta love snow days!

We had a lot of school snow days off with this storm. Worth it!

I'd like to take a moment to not thank my toothpaste. Extra whitening my butt. I'd also like to thank the snow for making me redefine the color 'white'. Sheesh.

:-) I love these kiddos.

Abby and one of her many, many snowmen. I went through a lot of carrots that week.

(Is it obvious I'm trying to multi-blog post here?)

Finding Her Voice

All we hear these days is screaming. Not horror house, something's trying to eat me type of screaming. Adorable screaming. Wait. I'm not insane. Honest! I'm not some strange masochist that enjoys having her eardrums burst time and time again. It's just that Evie is finding out recently that she does, in fact, have a voice. And by golly, she ain't afraid to use it! She now spends quite a lot of time these days parked on the living room floor on her playmat. She's starting grabbing at toys and tries with all her might to yank down those pesky hanging barnyard animals that swing right at the tips of her fingers. All the while, she is merrily screaming away. At first, one might think she is angry. Trust me. She's not. She's happy as a lamb and will scream for 20 minutes on the floor as she's scooting around and grabbing toys. However, what a mother finds adorable is not the same as what brother and sister find adorable. Evie likes to stretch her voice around the same time the kids watch a movie and it only takes a few screams for me to hear screams from the other two kids. Only their screams are angry and involve my name. "Mom!! I can't hear the movie when Evie is screaming!" It makes me laugh. I then promptly tell them that I can't hear movies when they are screaming either so they just have to deal with it. Needless to say, they don't like my response to the situation. Ah. I love being a mom.

Evie is also starting to make those adorable little spittle and raspberry sounds while she's playing. I think that it's just one of the cutest things to hear. And I can honestly say that brother and sister much prefer this sound to the high-pitched screaming. Me? I enjoy them both. I'm crazy like that.

Catching Up with Pictures

I keep telling myself, over and over and over, that I will make time to post on here. Each day that goes by, there is yet another thing that I think to myself, "Hey! I need to blog about that!" But alas, at the end of the day, it just doesn't go onto my 'high priority' list. Basically it comes down to the fact that when Evie goes to sleep, I dare not disturb her by clickety-clacketing away on my keyboard in the bedroom. My back doesn't agree with couch computer time all that much so I just shrug it off until another day. I figure at the very least, I can sum up half of what has been going on around here in pictures. 

So much seems to be happening here. One of the biggest things is epic in the eyes of a kid. Alex lost his first teeth! Yes. Teeth. Multiple. His bottom two front teeth were loose. At the end of said teeth's life, they were looking very snaggle-toothesque. One worse than the other. And like his mom, those big boy teeth were already pushing through. We had to take Abby to the dentist for a cracked filling and the dentist peeked at Alex's teeth and said they needed to go. They put some numbing gel on the gums and approximately three seconds later, both teeth were out. One even bounced across the room. I was glad to see them go and Alex was super pumped to get his very first visit from the tooth fairy. She/he left him $1.50 per tooth and a little note. Now he's pumped to get the next teeth out. Hopefully without the aid of the dentist.

Smitten sisters. Yep. That's my girls. Alex loves Evie too, but Abby is smitten. She is constantly trying to make Evie smile and let me tell ya. Evie adores her. They "talk" to each other all the time and I can't go a day without hearing Abby ask me to take a picture of them together. It's super sweet.

 And just for good measure, here's is an adorable picture of little miss Evie. She loves to smile.

We got a surprise visit from my brother. He came back to visit my Granny who was in the hospital. He got to meet Evie for the first time while he was here. It was nice to see him as he moved to California last year and we don't get to see him as much. The kids were happy to see him. They love their Uncle Aaron.

I have been trying my best to do things with the kids that make them realize that I'm not always just focused on Evie. Since she arrived, it's been hard spending so much time with them and sometimes I think they feel rejected a little. I try to break out my crazy mama self and get them to laugh. So crazy frosting mustaches seemed to make their day. Scary how a little frosting on my face makes me look so much like a dude. I look like a pale version of a spanish conquistador. Yikes!

 Me and my new wee one together. I love that little face! Now if only she'd get some hair.

Tummy time rocks if you have two fun siblings to watch. Any other time, tummy time isn't nearly as interesting.

4 Months Old

Evie at 4 months

Four months old and getting bigger everyday! Evie turned four months old yesterday and she's a completely different baby these days. With each month, she shifts into a different baby and it's just as wonderfully fascinating as it was with Alex and Abby. Evie is still doing an awesome job in the sleep department. She's been waking up to eat more often at night, but I think it is because she is growing so fast. She's technically old enough to start rice cereal, but I'm pushing her to at least five months and perhaps six if she can handle it. Sometimes I think she won't last until then because she's always so hungry, but we'll see for now. So on to Evie updates round four.

Movin' and Groovin'- It's hard to keep her still these days. She is constantly kicking  her feet and when you hold her, she tries her hardest to climb up your stomach and chest. When on the ground, tummy time is the best. She will watch Alex and Abby play and just grin like crazy. She rolls both ways now and is in love with chewing on whatever toy she can reach. She is also trying her hardest to scoot forward on her tummy.

Thumb- I think it's official. She loves her thumb just as much as Abby loved hers and I think that it's a habit here to stay. She sucks it all the time and uses it to put herself to sleep.

Not quite Giggles- She is almost to the laughing point. When you play This Little Piggy, she will get so close to laughing that it almost sounds painful. She tries so hard to laugh, but mostly it comes out as a grunty-wheezy sound. It's cute and I can't wait for the full on giggles to hit. It will be fantastic.

Sissy- The kids have grown incredibly fond of Evie now. And she is equally in love with them. Alex and Abby have been calling her sissy and Evie will just smile ear to ear when they talk to her. It's adorable to see them grow on each other. Have I mentioned how much I love my kids?