You just have to laugh!

You know my life is kind of a comedy sometimes. Yesterday John and I got a babysitter and were going to spend the afternoon/evening on a date ~ really our first one since Emily came. Well it started out lots of fun. John and I headed towards Jackson and were going to go into the little antique shops in Sutter Creek that we drive by all the time and never go in because we have all the kids with us. Then we were going to go out to dinner and then John was going to play ball for a bit while I ran a few errands!

Well we park the truck, load Emily into my front pack and head off for the downtown and the stores. We walk by this really old jail and we are joking about something and laughing and I am not paying attention to where I am going and next thing you know I step off the curb and end up on the ground (EMILY IS FINE)!!!! Before I can even get up I know something is wrong with my foot and sure enough it looks like a baseball is coming off my ankle. John goes and gets the truck and we head to the emergency room. Since we are so far from Sacto we just go to the hospital in Jackson. After x-rays it is just badly sprained and I have to stay off it for a few days. Really all in all it wasn't a bad place to have it happen, we were in an out of the hospital in Jackson in less than an hour and a half, and we had dinner in the car on the way home. The kids and John have been so sweet and have been taking care of everything. And if nothing else I get a few forced days of relaxing and sitting and holding Emily!

Twins

Today was twin day at school so Annie & Gracie wore little matching skirts I made and big red bows. They are so cute! I am glad Annie has such a great best friend!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Tonight was Annie's first Daddy Daughter Dance at school. She had the best time dancing with her daddy, her best friend Gracie and the other girls at school. (sorry I couldn't just pick one picture!)



While John and Annie were out on their date, Audrey went to a friends for dinner and games (her friend Kat's dad and sister were at the dance too!), Charlie and I hung out at home playing games and having a fun time hanging out together!

Uncle Brian is great entertainment

In the windy storm on Wednesday a huge tree limb fell off the neighbors tree and landed on our fence knocking down a few panels. Uncle Brian came over on Friday to put them back up and Audrey thought he was the best entertainment ever. She got out a little chair and set it up to watch him. She would just hang out with him holding screws and talking to him, it didn't seem to bother her that it was drizzling and that uncle Brian was ignoring her for the most part.

Best part is the fence is up and it didn't cost us a fortune! Thanks Brian.

I Heart Annie

The other night I was taking some random pictures of the kids and got this one of Annie - how sweet is she!

Seven Weeks!

I can't believe Emily is already 7 weeks old. The time is flying way to fast! I love this little new born phase and she is quickly moving out of it. She is such a sweet baby and is so mellow considering the chaos that is our lives. She sleeps great - I mean like 8 or 9 hours straight at night. Often I am waiting by the side of her bassinet for her to make some movement so I can justify getting her up to feed her (because I need to). She naps great during the day although we don't have a set schedule, she is great about sleeping from bed to car seat to bouncy chair and back to bed. She doesn't cry much if at all most days but this week she seems to be waking up more each day. Her cry is changing from that of a new born mewling sound to a real cry. She is starting to smile at people and of course we all sit there cooing and smiling at her and talking in a high pitched voice to get her to do it and of course I can never get it on camera. She has the cutest little pudgy checks you could imagine!! She also seems to have discovered that she has little appendages attached to her body - she will just sit there and wave her arms or legs around. She also is really tolerant of her siblings and their holding and jostling of her! I am praying that her little mellow personality will follow her through life, she is just a little joy to have around!!!!

Tylenol & tissues

It has finally arrived at our house, cold and flu season. Earlier this week Annie had a really low grade fever that lasted only 24 hours. On Thursday Audrey came down with it and a cough. Friday Morning Annie's fever came back and I got a call from the secretary at school asking me to come pick up Charlie because he is sick. So we have a house full kids with all sorts of symptoms, sneezing, coughing, stomach ache, fever, you name it some one has it!

On Thursday night I told Audrey we were going to bed early because sleep would help her feel better. Friday morning in her raspy little voice she said "mommy you lied, sleep didn't make me better, me still sick". My poor little one.

At this point Emily is still okay, we haven't been letting any of the older kids touch her or be in her face. Hopefully because I am nursing she will stay okay. Now if we can just get everyone healthy.

Small things....

Today I am thankful for the sunshine! It has been rainy, cold and overcast here for weeks now and yesterday afternoon the sun came out ~ it is still cold and wet on the ground but rather than gray skies they are bright and clear. I am also thankful for the sun because I have my little yellow baby laying on a blanket on my bed with the blinds open pouring sunshine on her (which she needs horribly!). I took her to the dr's on Monday because she still has a yellow tint to her face and eyes. She has some jaundice left, not enough to do any damage or that they would treat. She is just having a reaction to breast milk,there is something in it that is making it take longer for the billiruben to break down. So I am really thankful for the sun today, hopefully she won't be too yellow too much longer.



Is there anything a cuter than a baby scrunched up to sleep with their little bottom up in the air?

A new pet?

John came home this evening after being gone for a couple of days and as he walked into the house the kids came running up to him to hug him. Rather than shouts of joy all of sudden Annie starts screaming, not a cry but a blood curdling scream. I rush over with baby Emily in my arms and Annie starts pointing at John and amid sobs says "spider". John, who HATES spiders, starts doing the herky jerky dance to see if he can see it, we find the spider and brush it off onto the floor and what do you know, John brought a black widow home!

After a few comical minutes of the kids going crazy over the spider and Annie calming down we got the black widow killed and removed from the house! (John thinks it crawled on him as he was taking the grass/leaves garbage container to the curb - he told me he will never be able to touch the garbage cans again!)

Time flies...

I don't know how it happened but Emily is 5 weeks old already! I can't imagine our family with out her! She is such a dream baby, she is so low key, sleeps great and when she is awake has a sweet disposition. She is a little cuddle bug and loves to sleep in your arms or curled up on your chest with her little hands under her chin. Annie is always saying "she is so cute I could just squeeze her forever!" I often come into a room to find Audrey next to Emily, whether she is in her bouncy chair, laying in her bassinet or on my bed, and she is sitting there just holding her hand. I just wish I could keep this baby phase forever, it is amazing how quickly they get big, Emily is already loosing that newborn cry and she is starting to look older, not the scrunched up squishy look of a newborn.

Knock on wood (lots of wood) but life has been wonderful for us! We have been able to spend most of our time at home the last 5 weeks and everyone has been okay with it. We have stayed healthy for the most part this winter and everyone seems to be adjusting to a routine and we have all been going with the flow of life in a seemingly calm manner.

I truly have been feeling very blessed lately. I have 4 healthy and beautiful children, and an incredible husband who is my best friend and the most amazing dad to our kids. A wonderful home, a great extended family and close friends around who are all apart of our lives. I could go on and on listing all my blessings but it would just make me cry. Really I just want our kids to know and realize how fortunate we are as a family and to know how loved they are. I want them to get to look back and remember all the great things about their childhood and smile when they read all about it.

Audrey - "me a big sister"

Audrey seems to be doing great becoming a big sister, in fact it is her favorite line whenever we ask her to do/or not to do something. "me do that, me a big sister!"

Now that she is a big sister & (it coincided with her turning 3) she started preschool today! She LOVED it!!! She is going to a little in home preschool with 7 3-yr olds, 2 mornings a week from 9:00 to 12:00. Her teacher, Mrs. Carrie is an elementary school teacher and Audrey had the best time today. I was so worried she wouldn't stay or let me leave but she ran in, sat at the table and started playing playdough, she looked up and said bye mommy and was fine! She was so happy when I picked her up, she had the best time playing with the kids, playing outsided, doing music and all her fun activities!

New Years!

We are not very exciting people, even with out young kids and a baby, we have never done anything exciting for New Years (most years we didn't even make it to Midnight awake).

This year we told the kids they could stay up til midnight to celebrate New Years. We all watched a movie (John & I did take naps during it) and played some games. We tried to convince the kids to celebrate at 9:00 (when it was 12 on the east coast) but now that Charlie can tell time there was no tricking him. As the night grew later, Audrey fell asleep first around 9:30 by 10:30 Annie was out, John and I were trying so hard to stay awake, then it came closer to midnight and the closer we got the more excited Charlie got. We turned on Dick Clark's show with the ball dropping and Charlie was so excited to see it drop! John and I both offered to let the other one go to be and we would stay up with Charlie but in the end we both stayed up with him and I am so glad we did, it was so fun to see Charlie cheering and jumping up and down. So maybe while we aren't going to ever have a huge party or anything like that, in our own simple way getting to experience all these things with our kids is an awfully exciting thing!