What We've Been Up To

As much as I am trying to hide away this holiday break, we still keep plenty busy at home.

It has been a sacred Christmas for me.  I can't really talk about it right now, but I love these kids, and I know they had a great Christmas and that we are all so loved and looked out for.  I will never forget that ever again.

Ben is having a slightly difficult stage.  He just seems unhappy or dissatisfied with many things, but he is still my blue-eyed boy, and we will make it through this.  Today he wanted his 

 Today he wanted his picture taken, but darn, that little bro was determined to photo bomb.  Ben is normally the master photo bomber so turn about's fair play.

There was the joy of Christmas Day death of a microwave.  Who knew those things were so indispensable, even you have never fed your kids a microwave dinner in their entire lives?  The beautiful part was we decided the boys could take it apart.  I am determined to make some sort of engineer out of at least one of my kids.  They were so cute, making "hypotheses" about what would be in there and how it all worked, etc.  Dad had to take it to the garage, but I am hoping they can do more investigations with it before break is over.

 Gingerbread house fun...the day after Christmas because that is OK!

 Lily is starting to actually care about quality and details.  We've been waiting for one of our children to reach this stage.

 Daph has taken it all in stride.  She thought Christmas was pretty okay.

 Not a great pic, I know, but had to try to take pics of all the kids with their very loved blankets/afghans crocheted by Grandma Laura.  Daphne got one (2 actually) and so Grandma spent all year making one for each of the kids, even tall, tall Lily, and now they are snuggling in them often.  Beautiful!!!

Otherwise, Dad has been on vacation, so video gaming has ensued.  Ben spent a whole day begging Lucas to play Skyrim so he could watch.  I'll never understand, but that's not important.

And today, my boys learned some snow shoveling skills from their dad.  They were so (not) enthused, but you have to grow little boys into men and so hopefully they get more snowy opportunities soon. :)

46 Weeks

The preferred hangout, which gives nearly every family member a heart attack but makes Daphne LAUGH and LAUGH (not sure if it is the taller than everyone else perspective or what but so it does).

DG has warmed up so much to her Dad.  She has so many people in this house to be amused by.  Sometimes, when she doesn't fuss and want JUST her mama, she will crawl off and chase after brothers' cars or Pluto or Enzo.  It is SO FUN to watch her explore.  She has still been sick this week off and on, poor little one.  It is not a horrible illness, just long and makes her a bit fussy.  One blessing of her feeling rotten is I am reminded what a cuddler she is.  Lily at this age would bolt out of my arms and never sit for a whole book to be read.  Daphne burrows into my shoulder or rests her head on my shoulder.  I love being able to go and nurse her to sleep every night or cuddle in the rocking chair with her until it is time to lay her down in her crib (tummy down, of course).  She still wakes up often, nearly every night.  I feed her and place her back in her crib.  If I try to let her "sleep" next to me, she decides it is a party at the disco, so back to her own bed is a must because she immediately falls back to sleep for several hours.  She can pull herself to standing on lots of surfaces already.  Grandma Laura got her a fun baby walker for Christmas, and she loves it, but she can get twisted up like a pretzel when I try to get her little foot to move along holding onto it.  She is still unsure how to coordinate all those cute, chubby little baby parts while standing.

Last thing, Daphne not only claps a lot, but she raises her arms up high in what appears to be a happy, I'm on top of the world kind of gesture.  She giggles over so many things too, like tickling, dancing with me, and all many of funny things her daddy does.  Our little girl!!!

45 Weeks

Poor Bambina has been sick.  She spent a long time cuddling with Daddy yesterday.  Blasted older bro infected her, but she is still kicking AND SCREAMING (naturally) through it all.  

DG has started a legitimately delightful new habit of exploring the house after dinner.  It is the one time of day when she doesn't care if I am out of sight.  She knows where I am and then crawls off to various rooms to check out her environment.  Pretty cute to watch.  I'll get focused on the other kids and then think, "Oh no, Daphne!"  She will just be contentedly right around a corner or hidden behind a chair, rearranging kitchen stools.  It's kind of very nice to see her so comfortable...at least for that beautiful time between dinner and, "Oh my goodness I'm tired!  Help me go to sleep!"

General Hooliganism and A Heart Warming Moment

Survived the madness between Thanksgiving and Christmas Vacation.  You've NO IDEA what a feat that was, but here we are.  Let some baking madness begin.  After work today, I kicked off by helping the kids make Rice Krispies snowmen.  They each let their individuality shine.

Matt may have already devoured his before I could snap a pic.  He was in it to win it, I guess.

 Lily

 Ben, of course

 Shawn may have gotten drunk with the power of being able to use as much frosting as he wanted to.

Below, I always seem to go fumbling for my phone camera when I see such awesome moments.  Times like this I am so thankful that Lucas is the father of my kids.  Not every kid gets a dad who will just sit down and take the time with them to build a birdhouse, without the kid even asking, begging or pleading, and right after working a long day.

44 Weeks

Shrill shrieking fills my days!  But when I hold Daphne and play with her, I have the sweetest little girl ever.  Her crawl, scoot, flop techniques of movements are pretty fun, and she is getting pretty good at nearly pulling up to standing, especially when she is clinging to my leg sobbing as I try to cook.  Trust me, I try to be a good mom...it's just the feeding the WHOLE family and rudimentary household tasks that cause conflicts between Daphne and I.

 Yelling at me in the kitchen...happens a lot.

I laugh at her in this pic.  Her hair looks all neat and orderly...unless you look close.  Know how a mullet is business in front, party in the back?  Daphne has a business side (her right) and a party side (her curly, super long left).  She doesn't care, though.  I'm sure will get it all figured out eventually.

She communicates often with her sweet little hisses (trust me, they are sweet even though they are hisses), and she says lots of things that sound like words...just not in our language.  She is super tickly.  If I even just start moving my hand toward her belly she giggles.  I am so happy I have this little girl.  Learning lots...though a few gray hairs are growing upon my head now, literally.

9!

Friday my eldest son turned 9.  I can hardly believe it.  I am not too shocked because in our family pics (his personal one), he looks like he's 12 or 13.  He had a great day, was especially excited it was a Friday birthday, took Little Debbie treats to share with his class as per his request, and thoroughly enjoyed his gifts.  He has become quite the expert and assembling, focusing and disassembling his telescope...now to actually find planets and the right phase of the moon to check out.

I made his cake in my traditional "I love my kids so much and must make their birthday cake for them but I am by no means a cake decorator" style.  Love, People!  Each cake is baked with SO. MUCH. LOVE.  It's the planets and stars, duh!

 And here is Matt, perhaps a little embarrassed I photo documented, as he introduces a new Webkinz to a slightly less new Webkinz.  Have you ever heard a reindeer meet an orangutan...I have now.  Very cute and such beastly communication sounds.

Matthew is:

1.  Great at waking up with an alarm clock.  Lucas set one up for him about 3 months ago, and he loves and uses that thing every day.  In fact, when he couldn't figure out how to reset it after it got unplugged and waited patiently...for a few weeks (woops) for us to fix it, he ended up setting it for 5 a.m. and plugging it in to blare loudly in the kitchen as a friendly reminder to snap to it.

2.  A fact dispenser.  He knows so many facts and feels a strong need to share them with anyone.  Add those to his creative mind which makes up its own fact about all sorts of imaginative things which he also share...that's a lot of facts.

3.  A dynamite reader.  His comprehension...of deeper concepts...his speed...wow.

4.  So sensitive.  I hope his brain doesn't shut down at age 11 as I've been warned happens with boys (and maybe girls???) because then his heart might be less sensitive...which would be sad...though involve much less tattling and seemingly random tearing up.

5.  Lower maintenance.  A blessing and a curse for a kid, I think.  If you have more high maintenance people around, the squeaky wheel does get the grease which can be bad, but at least I am aware of this and try to single him out (in a good way).  On the flip side, he gets out of doing lots of stuff he wouldn't want to do because he isn't causing trouble, hurting someone, or pawing all over me.

7.  A friend to anyone.  He is not the least bit stuck up in any way.

8.  A builder, a creator, an artist, an illustrator. a teacher.  Without ever having an assignment, without ever being made to, he just does and creates and does some more.

9.  Patient.  Dinner late?  Other kids talking frantically even when he wants to share?  Little brother desperately wants to play with him?  He almost always can find a different thing to entertain him while he waits, and he has a large amount of patience with little boys who want to do what he wants to do and act how he wants to act.  I feel so blessed when I think of all the things he has taught Ben and how much he reads his books aloud to Ben and Shawn too.  Yay for this big brother!

43 Weeks

MASTER CRAWLER, and so cute about it.  For being so in control around here, Daphne sure is tender and delicate about how she does things.

This week Daphne also had a few other momentous occurrences.  She sat in the actual grocery cart (after much disinfecting) and had a blast, as you can see.  She also had her first bag of animal cookies.  We go to a bread outlet.  BEST.CUSTOMER.SERVICE.EVER!  They also give each child a free small bag of cookies, and they've been asking for months if Daphne can have some.  I finally okayed it, figuring I would give the rest to the other kids.  I only let her eat one cookie...she liked the bag more anyway.

Oh, she is just a charmer...who wears my nerves thin at times, but what are moms for?  She is so happy to see me in the morning, and in the middle of the night.  She continues to do the small O pursed lip thing and breathing in whenever she is excited or interested in something.  She is trying to crawl after the cat.  It is just getting pretty exciting watching her go...even though I fully realize it means things will get extra crazy around here from here on out.  

The Little Things

It's funny, the moments that put a zing of full on joy into my day, even when that day has been otherwise kickin my butt.  I don't want to forget these times.

Shawn - the sound of his sturdy body swishing down the stairs at warp speed on his tummy, feet first, because he has important things to do.  Making me snap out of work concentration. asking me if I am going to hold his hand so he can take me downstairs to see the house he built.

Ben - the excitement he has to count down to the next big event, a bday, a party, etc.  how his face shows that extra hint of concentration as he focuses to get each word clearly understood.  His generosity, his easygoing ness.  His beautiful, tender heart that wants so much for everyone to be safe and to be an equal team member with his older sibs.  Oh, how I love how he treats Daphne.  He gets concerned if she is alone in a room or sad and brings her where she can see others.  He 'walks' her places or pushes her in a laundry basket with her sitting regally like the Queen.

Matt - the sheer amount of facts his brain absorbs so effortlessly and seems to never let go of.  How his imagination with his stuffed animals is like mine was.  His precious high clear true little boy voice obsessively singing his fav Christmas song from music class.  Hearing him creep into our room at night to get his inhaler treatment, knowing that he was struggling but we can provide what his lungs need to relax and breathe easier once again.

Lily - her not being ashamed to participate in classes and answer questions.  I was like that too.  Her offer to give back and neck rubs.  Her choice to come home rather than go to a movie that would have not been uplifting, even though she wanted to be cool.

I love to be their mom.  I get a bit discouraged when some moms trump on about how being a mom is easy, asking why some women pretend like it's hard.  I think it is hard, so worth it but so challenging. No breaks = hard.  Not knowing if they truly hear = hard.  Pee...poop...everywhere = gross = hard to stomach.  So.much.noise.and.energy in the life of a quiet country girl loner = hard.  BUT, BUT there are so many moments that take my breath away or make me laugh at the cleverness OR the absurdity OR the quirkiness.  Seeing so many parts of life through my children's eyes makes blah look kind of brilliant.  Jesus knew what He was talking about when he spoke of and blessed the little children.  He'd even bless eye rollers, pouters, screamers, and pants poopers, I'm sure.