Brothers and Sisters

Evan has a love/hate relationship with Hailey. Actually hate is probably a little strong. More of a love/completely irritated and frustrated by my sister most of the time kind of relationship. Hailey is fascinated by her brothers and wants to be by them and do what they are doing. If she is bothering Spencer, he will just pick her up and carry her away from him and that works for about 10 seconds - which is the time it will take her to get back to him. That scenario will replay a couple times until he brings her to me to contain her. Evan just gets mad at her and screams "NO HAYBAY!" when she is getting into his art things or crawling over the puzzle he is working on. He looks at her and looks at me in disgust and I know he wants to pound on her but knows he will get in big trouble if he does.

Sometimes he will make the best of her destructiveness by building towers of blocks for her to knock down. She loves that for about 3 towers worth then is ready to move on - which will then make him mad that she doesn't want to cooperate with his game. So it is rare when he wants to interact with her a lot. Yesterday was one of those rare days. When I was about to feed her cereal he asked if he could do it. He did and he did a great job. She was loving it and he was proud of himself. He told me "Mom, I am good at this!" He even wiped her lips off with the spoon. He was a little appalled that he got some on her hand, but I told him that was just fine. Then later, before afternoon naps, he asked if he could give her a bottle. As you can see from the pictures - he did a great job with that as well. I guess you could say yesterday was a LOVE day.

I am curious to see how things will play out with the kids in the years to come. Our little family is a weird dynamic for Trent and I. Trent with all brothers and me with one sister - we don't know how families with boys and girls interact. Spencer and Evan like to play together now, but a lot of what they play consists of Evan watching what Spence is doing (like computer games and Wii games). Evan and Hailey are a little closer in age but opposite sex so I wonder how they will interact in later years? Evan has little to do with her now, but I predict in the years to come they will be good friends and he will be very protective of her.

I love his hand on her head. How cute is that?

Laughing at spilled milk.

On a photographic note - these pictures were taken with natural light and a ramped up ISO - IN MY FAMILY ROOM! Where did all that light come from? They look a little blurry here but viewed big on the computer they are full of noise. So that is a little disappointing. The top photo was a little washed out so I went to darken it in my Elements program. In dinking around with it I wound up with the picture here - which I love. It reminds me of a color touched photo yet kind of black and white.

Ratatouille

Ever since seeing the movie, the kids have been curious about what Ratatouille was and what it was made from and what it tasted like. Is it made by rats? Are there rats in it? I did a search and found a pretty simple recipe for it and decided to try to make it. It sounded good. Eggplant, squash, onion, red pepper all in a tomato sauce base - this recipe said to serve it over penne noodles. It looked great and colorful in the crock pot as evidenced from the photo above. Of course as it cooked all day, the vegetables got a lot mushier and it thinned out a bit. All in all, it tasted pretty good. It was a little plain for my taste. Maybe another recipe would have it spiced up a bit, some different variations. The kids ate it. It wasn't their favorite dish but at least now they know what it is.

Evan helping to make the Ratatouille. He was so proud!

The boys and their plates.

Hailey liked it the most. She was shoveling it into her mouth!

One of my favorite things about cooking is to see the garbage disposal side of the sink full of onion skin, celery ends, pepper stems and seeds etc. Basically showing me all of the fresh produce that is going into the meal. It makes me feel like the kids are getting more quality nutrition. I am trying to cut back on the amount of processed foods that we eat. It is a daunting task and by no means do I think I can ever eliminate all things processed. Pretty much everything has some sort of processing involved. I am more of the mindset that instead of popping a frozen pizza in the oven, I will try to buy a pizza crust and add my own sauce and toppings to it. I will not go as far as to make my own pizza sauce or crust. That is just too much time and energy that I don't have at this time. So there will always be some processed items in our diet.

Our "meal plan" has helped a lot with this. Every Sunday we try to put together a plan for the week depending on what we have going, who will be home etc. It is hard to find the time to do it. Our Sunday evenings (which seems to be the time we do it) are already so filled with homework, projects, bathing kids. When we do, it benefits us immensely because our week is much less chaotic. We base the plan on things we have in the pantry and refrigerator. We make a grocery list at the same time for the things we will need. We go through recipes to figure out ideas - mostly tried and true old favorites, but I like to try a new one at least every other week. Usually on Monday morning I will go to the store and we will have the ingredients for the whole week. It makes it hard to find excuses not to cook and keeps us from turning to takeout. It saves us a lot of money and also a lot of calories to do it this way.

You don't get money for being humble!

Evan. Three years old. Or "three and a half" as he always corrects me. He is just my baby guy. He is so cute, I just find myself wanting to hug him all the time! Oh, don't get me wrong he has his moments for sure - and he recently found a new screaming technique that he uses in moments of despair and frustration that almost shatters the glass in our house. Most of the time, he is such a good boy!


He is still an artist. We enrolled him in an art class through community services and he loves it. He was a little put off during the first class when a fluorescent light burnt out and popped and caused some smoke and the teacher freaked out about a fire and evacuated the kids. He didn't want to go back because he was afraid of the fire. After I promised him (with fingers crossed behind my back) that it wouldn't happen again, he went and made a cool Valentine vase. His preschool teacher even commented to me the other day about one of the pages he colored. She told me she was totally impressed by how many colors he used and how he did a great job of staying in the lines and always took his time. Who knows, maybe he will be the next big thing!

He still loves his dinosaurs. The boy is a dino genius. He knows their names and if they are "good" or "bad", what they eat - he knows more than I do. If a three year old, excuse me a three and a half year old, uses the word carnivore on a daily basis you know there must be some learning going on. There are dinosaurs all over our house. A couple in every room and even some in the car. I try to corral them all up at night into his room, but the next day the herd has once again migrated.

Naps are now an every other day thing for him. Sometimes not even that frequent. The not napping frustrates me because I can tell by late afternoon that he is still tired. Sometimes he will even fall asleep on the couch or in the car if we are driving somewhere. He will have "quiet time" in his room and he will stay in there and play for a couple hours - I still think he needs the rest, so I keep trying.

I just love his voice and the way he talks. He has trouble with his "s" blends. Like when he says "I smell something" it sounds like "I fell something". Spencer has always been "Scencey" to him. School is "shool". Spilled is "filled". Skittles is "sittles". It is pretty cute. At this point, we are not concerned about speech therapy or anything. We are kind of waiting to see if he will grow out of it like he did for "gagagilk and I want it warm frees" which was his way for a long time of saying he wanted "chocolate milk and I want it warm please". His teacher hasn't voiced any concern and I have heard kids in Spencer's class that speak worse than Evan, so chances are he will be fine.

The title of this post just refers to a funny thing that Evan said. On Sunday after church we were asking the boys what they learned about in Sunday school. Evan told us that they learned about being humble. Trent asked him "what kinds of things did you learn about being humble?" To which Evan replied "You don't get money for it!" No you don't buddy. It just cracked us up.

Waiting for the call...

Any time now I will hear from my sister that she is in labor. I am so excited and nervous for her. I have been in her shoes - three times - and know exactly what she is thinking and feeling. Soon after the "call" my Mom and I and Hailey will head to Wisconsin to meet the newest member of our family. I am nervous to leave the boys here (to say the least - but that is a blog for another time) but can not wait to see and hold this new little baby.

I came across this on the Sweet/Salty blog. I wish I knew how to hyperlink to it, but I don't. This woman is an amazing writer and this passage summed up so perfectly what the experience of birth was for me.

Birth is gorgeous, but not pretty. It makes you feel indescribably powerful, but its audience requires the shedding of all inhibitions. It stretches you, pushes you, taunts you, bullies you, thrills you, shames you. It kicks you in the pants so hard you won’t sit down for a week. But then it’s over, and the next day breaks. They bring you soggy toast, cold tea and a celebrity gossip rag. You look outside and buses are running, people are late for work. The world trudges on, oblivious.
I’m a mother now! You want to hang out the window and yell, shaken and bruised but joyous. Can’t you see? I did it. Everything’s changed. Your child-burrito snores in a plastic box, nose squashed, forcep-dented, chalky goop clinging to every crease. The most perfect 7 pounds, 9 ounces you’ll ever know. And you are more proud, more fulfilled, stronger than you’ve ever been in your entire life.

Seriously, every time I read that I just want to cry because it is so true! Their are other random things that remind me of my children's births. To this day, the smell of an alcohol swab takes me back to that delivery room anticipating the relief that Stadol drip is going to bring. How for some reason the water they give you in the big hospital styrofoam cups with the ice chips is the best water you have ever tasted. How even though you rarely drink apple juice at home and almost never touch lime jello - you just can't get enough of it after you have been in labor. How your time is the hospital is so sacred because in that time you are a super hero and you are just so amazed at what you and your body were able to do.

I am so excited for my sister. She is about to start on the most amazing journey. As I told her before, the first time she holds her baby in her arms and looks at what they created - the word "miracle" will just not seem strong enough.

C-R-A-Z-Y weather!

Today was another snow day! I think it is the 4th or 5th this year - at this rate the kids will be in school through the end of June. I hope this is the last stretch of winter weather! It is seriously driving me CRAZY! Every day I seem to have a new ailment or stress about some other sign of impending doom. When my chest pain went away, I had neck pain - now that is gone and my nose started running. At least a cold won't kill me - unless it turns into the flu or something.


The boys went outside with Daddy to make a "bear cave". Spence wondered if they could make an igloo as well and pretend they were Moses. Moses? Maybe a lesser known Bible story that came after the parting of the Red Sea and the Ten Commandments? I think he meant Eskimos. Good thing he started going to Sunday school. They had a blast digging and sledding even if the temperature was a whopping 18 degrees not including the windchill or the sideways blowing snow. I decided to try out my other camera lens and was pretty pleased with the results. I love the blur in the pictures of Spence and Trent.

At least most snow days, Daddy is home to play with the kids. I know he is gone a lot with school stuff and during play season, but he makes up for it on weekends and on bonus days - like today. He is a great Dad and the kids can't get enough of playing with him. He always thinks of creative games and things to do and loves taking them on adventures to new places and to old favorites - such as the museum to see the Mammoth or the submarine. He helps out around the house as well. He loves to cook dinner and his picking up and cleaning skills make me look pretty bad. He is a great guy - not many men do as much as he does. We are lucky to have him in our lives.

Cindy

She came with the "girlie" Mega Blocks that we bought for Hailey for Valentine's Day. It was just a coincidence that Trent happens to be putting on Cinderella for the Spring musical. Is it wrong that I am already trying to think of ways to use her as a voodoo doll?

What a difference a year makes!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day! I decided to use the evil white snow for good and try to take an artsy photo for the holiday.

Hailey at a little over a month old! Look how dark her hair and eyes are! It is hard to believe how much babies grow and change over the course of ONE year. They go from little lumps of baby to toddlers getting into anything and everything. Oh, and by the way - look at that baby girl standing all by herself! How cute is she?