this could take all day

Project 365 (+1) - April 2012

April. Whew. What a month. Being a busy full-time mom, with 3 little kiddos is quite the challenge. Let's just leave it at that for now and move on with some pictures. First, the family shot. Yup, you've seen this one already. But seriously, how sweet is my family? And how lovely are we in yellow?

Now onto the dailies...

Sunday afternoon nap. 

A little overachiever, trying to hold her own bottle already. (Or, she just lucked out. Take your pick.)

My phone was turning off on its own all the time without me knowing, so my sweet tech-loving husband ordered me a new phone and got it all set up for me. Here is the first picture from the new phone. (cell pic, duh)

I have a piano!!! I have a piano!!! I have a piano!!! (Did you know an anonymous friend paid to have it tuned for us? Every time I think of this, or sit down to play, my heart swells with thankfulness. I am so blessed.)

More blessings. My best friend really does know how to speak my love language. A little package in the mail, and she even opened the peeps so they'd be perfectly stale upon arrival.

Time to color some Easter eggs!

Super star egg hunters.

Two adorable sisers, one lovely celebration of a Risen Savior.

Dani spent the morning painting while Daisy was at school. So, of course, Daisy wanted a turn when she got home. Here is the "monster" she painted for her Papa.

Yup, this is how we roll to the park: dress, boots, random bow, coat, and wings. And she wanted to bring the bucket too. Good thing, because it became a trash bucket for all the random litter the girls love to pick up. (cell pic)

Heard laughing, got suspicious. Turns out the girls found a ribbon and decided to "decorate" their sister. Can you tell she's a little suspicious too?

Face paint. Makes kids really happy. And then really sad. Good thing the camera can capture it forever.

And this is how the mama and baby roll to the park. She and I both love the sling, and I love that adorable hat a Mops Mom crocheted for us. (cell pic)

I was away on a 4-H weekend and Darin woke up that morning with a hankering for adventure. So he posted on facebook that he was planning to take the girls to the beach, and asked if anyone wanted to join them. Turns out a friend from Shoreline had been planning a little ferry trip with her family for the day. So Darin & the girls drove out to Bainbridge and our friends met them at the beach for picnic and playing.

Isn't the internet so cool sometimes?

Still makes fists all the time, but has started to coo. Is there any sweeter sound than a baby cooing?

Looked what arrived today! 

Dandylion bouquets keep showing up all over the house.

Darin and the girls planted a few tulip bulbs for me, and I love watching them bloom this spring.

We finally dug this out of the garage since it contains the only sheet music I've saved over the years. Turns out there are a lot of special treasures in this trunk. I think we'll tuck it away and dig it out again to go through some rainy winter day.

I love after nap rosy cheeks. And I love this girl, and the way she gives me camera the sweetest smiles.

Such a fun day! Went to a "retreat" of sorts for Mops, and since we were done early in the afternoon, the day was amazing, and we were all without kiddos, we decided to go play mini golf. We all had a great time, and since I was the big winner (with two hole-in-ones!) I got to pick where we headed out to eat dinner. (cell pic)

Stumbled upon this scene on Sunday morning. Love capturing moments like this.

We had beautiful spring weather today! Even warm enough to get out the water table! The girls and I had a wonderful afternoon in the backyard.

Baby L has started to smile! I was trying to capture it with my camera, but she isn't quite as good at smiling for the big black box as she is for my face.

The girls love to have themselves traced on paper to color and decorate.

Since Daisy has a "summer" birthday, she was assigned birthday snacks in April. She requested chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting. I decided to make cupcakes from scratch, but gave myself some leniency and bought strawberry frosting in a can. The cupcakes were awesome, the frosting not so much. Turns out I should've made frosting too and just tinted it pink.

Oh well, the girls had a lovely time decorating with sprinkles.

This baby doll of Gran's has always cracked me up because it feels so huge when it comes to baby dolls. But I knew it was about the size of a normal baby. Turns out I was right! (cell pic)

Our last hurrah at Gran's house, the childhood home of Darin and his siblings, as she is moving and selling. We had a really nice day, and were able to capture some great family pictures outside one last time.

It was really hard for Darin to say goodbye, and really hard for Daisy too. I had no idea she'd have the kind of meltdown she did in the hours before our departure. Broke all of our hearts. We're all gonna miss this place.

My first Instagram Photo-of-the-Day thanks to Darin's fancy phone! I got my bumber sticker and I'm all ready to go.

Our microwave died. It was sad. Darin got us a new one. But Dani wandered into the kitchen after he pulled it out and gasped "Papa, where did the timer go?" (Can you tell what we use for a timeout timer around here?)

April down...onto May...

my girls on Easter

I wanted to get a picture of the family on Easter, what with how cute we were looking  (I'd actually changed into my outfit after church, since the musical I was participating in included "Biblical" costumes) and my goal of a family-photo-a-month. So after Easter lunch and before lollipops, we headed out to the backyard and I talked our friends into taking a couple of pictures for me.

I'm really happy with this one of the 5 (5!) of us.

And before I let the girls loose , I grabbed my camera back and told them they had to smile for me (well, at least the bigs, Leyla was a bit fussy).

A little hugging, a few of Papa's silly faces, and I am in love with these gems.

And with these girls.

a sweet little butterfly

Darin had to work late, and there was a free kids event at the fairgrounds, just up the road from our house. So after nap I loaded up 3 (yikes! 3!) girls into and the van and we headed out. I was excited for some free afternoon entertainment, and honestly hoping there would be hot dogs or something for sale so I wouldn't have to make dinner. We lucked out on the first part, but not the second. (Oh well, cereal is a great dinner when Papa's gone.)

There were lots of fun booths with games to check out, some elementary school choirs, and face painting! Dani was not into face painting, but Daisy was. Several of the county princesses were dressed as Disney princesses to paint faces. We were told to stand in the line of our favorite princess, but after a little nudging Daisy decided her favorite princess was Tiana, who happened to have the shortest line!

Most of the kids were getting elaborate designs, but my sweet girl just wanted a small butterfly on her cheek. Here are a few pictures from my phone. 

The rest of the evening I was careful to warn Daisy that her butterfly would wash off in the bath. Is there anything more tragic to a little girl then her special face paint washing off? It was hard. To ease the pain a little we took a few pictures just before bathtime.

Man, I love this kid.

Happy Mother's Day!

It was a very busy and sunny and fulfilling weekend. I am so thankful for my family and for friends and for fun adventures.

And I am so thankful for these three little girls. Mom asked me recently for a picture of the three of them, but I didn't have one! Thankfully just a few days later we were hanging out in the nursery and I was able to grab my camera and snag a few. With the natural light from the window and the tungsten light from the bulb, and the many-colored outfits the girls were wearing, I couldn't figure out how to edit the color correctly. Thankfully, a little black and white conversion always does the trick!

So Gran, Gram, Momma Too, and all those Aunties...thanks for loving me and loving my ladies too. 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: green eyed girl

(I love when her Papa wears green as it brings out his green eyes even more. Turns out it is true of his progeny as well.)

 

planting jelly beans

We were planning to have Easter lunch over at our friend's house and they called us Saturday afternoon to have us bring the kids over that evening. They had made the decision to forego Easter Baskets this year in favor of a delivery of "magic jelly beans" from the bunny. We were going to plant them that evening and see what would happen on Easter...

Excited kids!

Dani couldn't come as she had misbehaved that night, so Daisy planted a bean for her.

And look what popped up overnight!

Yipee!

Only problem: The kids wanted to know which lollipop came from which bean, and of course we had no idea! So we gave up and just told them to pick one.

They were all happy to sit at the kitchen table for quite a while, licking away. Dani was cracking all of us up with her huge stick.

Thanks for including us in this fun new tradition guys!

Easter Egg Hunt #2

Our church was hosting a big Easter Bash which included a 5k run, booths, live music, lunch, bouncy houses, and a MASSIVE egg hunt. Pastor Shelly told us there were at least 12,000 eggs scattered throughout the property. Oh my.

Darin took Dani this time to her age group and this was the only photo he snapped.

Luckily we have a pretty photogenic kid and I was able to snag a couple of pictures someone posted to the church facebook page!

Darin did shoot a video of the event in which he proved just how easily distracted he is, and how just how scary of a soccer dad he could be.

I was over in Daisy's area with her. Here Pastor Shelly is giving out instructions (Another facebook steal, since I only had the mini flip camera.)

A lot of families came out to participate. A little help to spot Daisy.

And they're off!

By this time Darin and Dani had finished up her hunt and wandered over to find Daisy who had spotted a corner without kids and cleaned up.

See all those eggs? I think she had nearly 50.

Dani "cheering" on her sister.

After the hunt the girls were eager to play on the playground and it was such a nice day we hung out for a bit. Then headed home to indulge in all that candy! (I'm pretty sure we got way more on this holiday then we did on Halloween!)

Easter Egg Hunt #1

Our sweet little neighborhood hosts an annual Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday morning before Easter and we all were excited to participate again. (As it is with traditions, I read over last year's post and it is filled with some of the exact stories and wording as below. Good times...)

Just a few "blocks" through the greenbelt trail to the park for our hunt. Here's the girls. (I had to head back as soon as we arrived because *doh* the camera was out of batteries. Good thing we live so close!)

Daisy had spent the morning working on a picture to give to the Easter Bunny. She was pretty proud of it.

Dani, on the other hand, is not such a fan of the bunny. (As you can see her hiding here in this fuzzy picture and the video too.)

 

After the egg hunt announcements we split up with Darin heading to the 3-4 area with Daisy and me sticking with Dani in the 0-2 area.

I gave Darin the big camera since I was lugging around a happily snoozing Leyla and so my footage of the hunt is from the flip camera.

Here she is, ready to get some eggs!

And let the hunt begin! It totally cracked me up how she would run across perfectly good eggs to get to one farther away.

The one shot of Daisy from her hunt. Apparently Darin didn't get the memo that he was supposed to take pictures, because what he came up with was a really distracted video with some crazy moms yelling at their kids. Oh well, Daisy was a champ at the egg hunt.

 

This kid rocked it! Taking first place in her age category (it helps that she is at the older end of the span) and super proud of her hard work.

Joined with her sister, who took second place in her category (once again on the older side of her age group).  The girls each got to pick out a prize, in addition to all the treats in the eggs.

Before heading home we walked through Daisy's egg area and found another good 15-20 eggs. Turns out whoever hid them decided around a giant holly bush would be a great place. Poor Daisy during the hunt was dying "I can see them, but I can't reach them!" Thanks to her Papa, she was able to round up even more eggs!

And when we got home to feed the baby and pack up for our next adventure, the girls dumped out all the eggs. Daisy was cracking us up with her system so Darin took another video.

And then we were off to church for Egg Hunt #2!

 

Easter Egg Dying

I'm finally getting around to editing our Easter week pictures, so now time to blog! First up: egg dying.

I have to say, this potentially messy and finger-staining activity is not high on my love list. So I made sure we attempted when Darin was home. The girls loved dying and painting the eggs, and I was happy to take pictures and minimally help.

After the eggs dried, and Darin left for work, the girls were allowed to decorate with another kit I had purchased last year that included stickers and glue and eyes and pom poms.

Daisy's favorite egg:

And Dani's: 

 And with that, I can cross another tradition off the list for this year!

Project 365 (+1) - March 2012

This month has been quite the eventful one, seeing our family grow from four to five. Our family picture was taken on the very last day of the month, in our Saturday afternoon finest. Good thing Darin's dad stopped by for a visit and was able to snap this one for us!

Now on to the rest of the month.

The baby's room is ready for a baby. And the equipment is sitting here, ready to be spread all over the house.

We were able to provide respite care (where you give a foster family a day/night off) for some friends of ours. Here our Miss Daisy is happily feeding Baby E.

We had so much fun at Xander's reptile birthday party and I was pretty proud of my girls for being brave and petting some cool reptiles.

Dani found a good use for some of the baby equipment hanging around! Here she is playing on my kindle curled up on the boppy pillow.

I am so thankful for this baby to love, and my husband who is right in the thick of it with me.

The girls spend some time in the morning reading to Baby L. They are so good with her.

Daisy would hold this little bundle of sweetness all day long and I am so thankful for her help. She will give her a bottle while I'm finishing our morning prep and will run for a pacifier whenever she is fussy.

Dani wanted to help with the laundry but she can't quite reach the top of the washer. So she chucks the items in one by one. It's pretty awesome.

Our neighbors brought over some amazing chocolates, and as you can see, my husband really loves me. I felt really special.

 

We had a free Saturday afternoon so Darin and I decided to take the girls on dates. Daisy was my date, with Miss L tagging along. Apparently the little Miss decided she needed a bottle RIGHT NOW so halfway to our destination (the toy store!) we pulled over in a parking lot and Daisy hopped out of her seat and fed Miss L her bottle. Love my little helper. (cell pic)

She looks so small in this swing. 

This kid loves to sleep. I layed her on a playmat for a little awake time, but it didn't take her long to doze off. And that's Daisy's special snowman next to  her. Daisy and Dani both love to share their toys and animals with their sister.

Daisy playing school and teaching us our letters.

Since the day she weaned off breastmilk this kid has hated cow's milk, prefering water instead. And on this humble day in March she declared out of the blue "I yike milk now!" and requested some with her lunch.

Bathing a baby is pretty darn fascinating.

So thankful for a sunny afternoon and a visit from family.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Uncle Madison and Aunt Dakota stopped by on their way home from a volleyball tournament in Port Angeles. We were lucky to have their company for dinner and stories, and they were happy to entertain all three girls.

 "Hey Mom, look what I can do!"

The Easter Bunny came to our house a little early to celebrate the first day of spring. Dani's basket on the left, then Leyla's, then Daisy's. And Daisy insisited on leaving a carrot for the bunny, so there are some remnants on the plate.

Here's a little article I wrote for the church newsletter where we attend Mops:

 

     We have some friends who's dad is a pilot for Alaska Airlines. Last year he was gone at Christmas, so they made special arrangements with Santa Claus to come to their house early. This was a win-win since it gave Santa one less house on Christmas Eve, and allowed the family to celebrate together early. So when I made the suggestion to our girls that I'd been in contact with the Easter Bunny and he wanted to bring a few gifts by to celebrate the first day of spring, the girls were totally on board.

     So last Monday night we dusted off the Easter baskets and set them out on the coffee table for the Easter Bunny to fill overnight. Daisy, my oldest, insisted that we also leave out a few carrots for Mr Bunny. They were thrilled the next morning to find books, a treat, and a small toy in each basket. I was able to include some books with the real Easter story and we've been enjoying reading them ever since. We also made a set of Resurrection Eggs last year at Mops, and open one egg each night leading up to Easter. This has been a sort of "holy week advent calendar" for us, and it is so great to tell the story over and over as we open the previous night's eggs first.

     Resurrection Sunday is an amazing and central part of our Christian story, and now when that day arrives, we won't have to share it with that darn bunny!

 

 

All the daffodils outside Daisy's school are starting to bloom! (cell pic)

Daisy spotted this snack when I was scrolling through my Pinterest kids board the other day and insisted we make it for her next class snack day. So this afternoon the girls were busy painting clothespins.

Darin took the girls to the park when he got home from work and I sent the camera with him. I love seeing what he comes home with, and this one is absolutely perfect in my opinion.

A sunny afternoon = time for a bike ride. Daisy isn't so thrilled about learning to ride her two (four) wheeler so we have to strongly encourage her to make it to the stop sign and back. Dani is pretty happy about the whole Papa steers and pushes arrangment though.

My friend Natalie and I had planned to take our older daughters to a local production of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet but Natalie woke up this morning with a horrible stomach flu (so bad that later this evening I would take her to the ER for some fluids). So I ventured to the ballet with the girls by myself and it was a lovely afternoon. They were so well behaved and enjoyed watching the dancing tremendously. Here they are at intermission gobbling up a few cookies and some delicious red punch. (cell pic)

Early morning, feeding the babies.

Last fall we moved our weekly library visits to the downtown Bremerton branch since it is the branch with Tuesday storytimes (our only free morning during the week). Last month after storytime we ventured a few blocks away to a nearby office to pick up some baby blankets a friend had sent to work with her husband for us. The girls loved all the cool statues about town and every week since they ask to go see them. This time it wasn't raining and we didn't have anywhere to be so I said yes. Here they are with the "umbrella girl". (cell pic)

About every third naptime this girls asks to sleep on the floor. Not sure what the appeal is, but as long as she still naps I'm happy. 

I cannot seem to stop taking pictures of this cutie pie when she is sleeping!

A little display for Easter.

More signs of spring! Tulips and Hyacinth are blooming in my front yard. 

making music

These pictures are all blurry and the color is wrong and I am too tired to edit. But they make my heart soar.

There is a piano in my house!!!!

After asking and asking and asking since we moved into this house, Darin finally found just the right one. And he roped a couple of budies into helping (they actually CARRIED the thing into my house!). It needs tuning but is wonderful.

Now maybe to get a piano bench so they don't fight over the chair?

 

a lovely day for a visit

A few weeks ago we had some wonderful visitors who wanted to come and play and meet Baby Leyla: Gran and her beau Jeff, along with Darin's sister Sierra and her son Caleb. Darin was able to take the afternoon off and we all enjoyed spending time together.

Jeff is a pretty serious baby lover, and was happy as a clam to snuggle Miss L.

(I think both these ladies might like him?!)

Lucky for us the afternoon weather was brilliant so we decided to take Isha to the local dog park and then take all of us on a stroll through some nearby trails.

Darin ran ahead to take some shots of the group, which prompted Sierra to comment on how people walk slower when their picture is being taken, which prompted me to walk in slow motion like a goob. Ah...good times...

This way, Mama?

Too bright! Too bright!

This trail system has two giant wooden animals which was a great motivator to get the kids to walk a bit further. They were nervous about the elephant at first, but we decided to traipse through the rather wet grass to say hello and they were happy to discover they were just made of wood. But pretty impressively painted I might say.

Checking out the giraffe too.

And then we made our way back out of the jungle!

We walked a bit further before heading home to play a bit more, eat dinner, and snuggle one super sweet baby. Thanks for making the trek out here guys. You are welcome back anytime!

Wordless Wednesday: sleeping beauties

Xander's Reptile Man Party

Earlier this month we were invited to the coolest 6th birthday party when our buddy Xander had "Reptile Man" bring his creatures into the living room for quite an amazing show. Darin was roped into helping carry the boxes of critter into the house, and remarked as he picked up a box "I didn't expect it to move." 

"Don't worry," replied Reptile Man, "that's only the cobra."

Ha!

(Some of the following pictures are ours, some were stolen from facebook.)

Thanks for the fun times and Happy Birthday Xander!

Daisy these days

She love, love, loves her baby sister. Wants to hold her and is so helpful at giving her bottles. Goes running if she needs a pacifier and has a really hard time not giving her kisses and cuddles when she is asleep.

She is a creature of routine, and gets really thrown off if we forget or skip something. Last night she got out of bed all teary-eyed to tell me something we'd forgotten. As I apologized, explained, and asked for grace she got quiet for a minute then said "I think someone stole Dani's grace as she isn't being so nice today."

Daisy: Wanna hear a joke? Why did the chicken cross the road?
Darin: Why?
Daisy: I don't know. You tell me! 

She is still just as curious about the world as she was at 2. I thought the "why" questions would end last year, but they are still going strong. Lately we get a lot of "what if" and some crazy random made-up scenario. This girl is a bit of a worrier, so we're working to memorize verses about how God will take care of us and help us to be brave.

She had some major dental work last week and is really proud of her two silver crowns. Unfortunately they make this mama feel guilty every time I see them. 

She has some new chores including making her bed and emptying the wastebaskets. She loved her wastebasket chore for a while, but is now definitely over it. She can't wait until the day Dani is old enough to take over. Little does she know...

She is officially registered for kindergarten, gasp. She loves her preschool, her teachers, her classmates, and I'm pretty sure if she is anything like her mama (which she really is) she'll continue to love school.

She asks to go swimming every time the sun shines.

At the dinner table a few months ago we were talking about how God loves everyone, even bad guys. Daisy responded, "So if a bad guy gets you and covers your mouth and then lets you go you say 'so not cool, (beat) so not cool.'"

In our family when we are holding hands a single squeeze means "let go". Last week while walking Daisy to school she single squeezed my hand, let go, and ran off. First time. Made my heart skip a little. This girl is growing up.

She is one cool chick and I am so proud to be her mama.

(Darin took these pictures at the park last month.)

Wordless Wednesday: now that's a bummer

 

 

(cell pic)

my sweet Daisy

The other night when Darin was shooting the picture of me and Dani coloring on the floor (found in the January photos) he also shot some really sweet ones of Miss Daisy. I just thought I'd share.

 

 

(Do you see the portrait of Dani hanging on the wall? Darin's dad painted that for us.)

 

Wordless Wednesday: Jack! Jack! Jack, Jack, Jack!

Daisy gets a haircut (and Dani gets one too)

She started talking about it a while ago: wanting her haircut. "Short," she said.

So we let it got a while, but she kept brining it up.

"Short," she'd say. "Really short."

"Are you sure?" I'd ask. "Really sure."

"Yep," she'd tell me. "Short."

So we took her to the salon, and told her stylist, a lovely Miss Ollie, "short".

And a bang trim too please.

 Miss Ollie happily cut Daisy's hair, while telling me how good of a mother I was for letting her get it cut. Turns out a woman and her daughter, about Daisy's age, were in a few weeks ago. Daughter wanted her hair short, Mama just wanted a trim. Mama won. That time. Turns out they were back in the salon less than a week later to "fix" the haircut the daughter had given herself. Guess she really did want it short!

 Daisy loves her new look, and so do the rest of us.

While at the salon, we decided to give Dani a bit of a trim too. She wasn't so excited about that idea, so it took a Mama's lap and a Papa's phone to convince her to sit still for Miss Ollie and her sharp scissors.

Lollipops for all certainly make the affair even better for the willing, and the nonwilling alike.

 

 

 

"Best Girls Night Ever"

It was a Friday night and we were guy-less. Darin was working, and my friend Natalie's husband had taken their sons to Monster Truck Jam. So we decided to round up our lovely ladies and have a girls night. Natalie suggested taking them to The Melting Pot, and it seemed like quite an adventure to me. The girls were great on the drive to Tacoma and Natalie and I enjoyed some good conversation too.

We decided just to do cheese and chocolate at dinner and despite being a little worried about the hot pots in the middle of the table, all the girls were really well behaved. I wouldn't let Dani dip her own bread, but she was happy to let me do the dipping for her (something I was shocked about since she is usually all about doing things herself!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mmmm....chocolate....

 

 

Dinner was pretty fun. So was the party in the bathroom afterwards.

 

 

Wait, Dani didn't get in the picture.

 

 

Ahhh...much better.

 

After such a delightful dinner (at which Daisy kept loudly repeating "best girls' night ever!") we headed over to do a little shopping at Babies R Us. The girls spotted the car ride on the way in and we promised them if they behaved they could have a ride on our way out. Turns out the ride was 50 cents, and that's all the change we had on our way out. So it was time for all to pile on. What a fun time we had!

 

 

 

 

And despite the late hour, the ride home was equally enjoyable thanks to the portable DVD player we'd recently been given and Miss Cinderella.

Thanks for the fun evening ladies. Can't wait till our menfolk are all busy again!