End of February

We're getting closer to baby boy's due date. I've tried to make sure that each of my daughter's get some one-on-one time with me in the way that they need it. I've been doing activity time as much as possible with fun crafts for Hazel. I've made sure to push Lottie on the swing, just us, since that's what she really wants to do lately. And I've made a special effort to read books and snuggle with Eloise at bedtime since she'll only be my littlest for a few more weeks.




Goofballs.   I finally finished the pelmet boards for the girls' room and I really love them. They really are so much easier and cheaper than full length curtains. I've had this fabric forever so it was nice to see it up.



Belly shot on February 24th. Getting bigger and feeling good. I'm hoping to make it all the way again.

We have two sisters who are our neighbors and we love having them over to play! They're around the corner from us and sometimes they come through our backyard by climbing down a ladder that David put out for them.

We had them over for dinner and everyone got an ice cream scoop with a maraschino cherry.Just trying to gain favor in their eyes since I'm also a shoe nazi and a little OCD about dirt.

Pretty girl in a pretty outfit.

February Love

Another belly shot, this one taken on February 22nd. Look at that big baby boy!


Eloise has been learning how to play the harmonica. It's a very cheerful thing to listen to and I think she's a promising talent.



This is our favorite part of Discovery Time at the library. They use Gymboree bubbles which last longer than regular bubbles and our girls love to catch them. It's so funny to see how gentle and careful they are with the bubbles in contrast to the boys who love to crush and smash them!




 Charlotte has been working on mazes in our Kumon workbooks. She is really good at it! She can do them faster than I expected for a three year old. ShWe've also been doing a "morning order" every morning where the girls get dressed, brush their teeth, make their beds, and clean up their room. Charlotte has been taking this new responsibility very seriously and gets dressed on her own now. She started with her own ensembles like this one and she usually did a great job matching (better than Hazel used to do at this age). She has great taste. She's slowly been moving to more and more dresses now.

Because I'm eight months pregnant and my husband loves me, he cleaned the bathroom for me. The funny thing is, he refused to step inside the bathroom while he cleaned it.

She's still into sunglasses and headbands.

Ellie has the most amazing outie belly button. We are are pretty fascinated by that thing.

And we officially gathered an entire dozen of fresh home-grown eggs. Thank you Rapunzel and Diego.

Baby Boy "Sprinkle"

My dear friend Camille threw me a baby boy "sprinkle" since it's my first boy. What a great friend and the decorations and food and company were lovely. I enjoyed it all very much. It was really fun to have a baby shower again!

My mother-in-law gave us two white collared shirts with ties and a bowtie!

Maybe baby boys will be fun to dress up after all.

My mother-in-law brought fruit and dip that was delicious and my friend Kara made these amazing blueberry filled cupcakes. Yum! I felt so spoiled.

Then Camille took some belly shots for me outside. I've never taken maternity photos before but I really like these. It's fun to remember just how big that belly gets. (And that lovely glow you get).












Thanks Camille and friends for a great party.

Valentine's Day

We love making a special breakfast on special holidays. In fact, I love any excuse to make a yummy breakfast and celebrate! I had put off my preparation for Valentine's Day, so woke up early on Tuesday morning and bought special donuts, little treats for the girls and balloons for their chairs.

 I made Shirley Temples with Raspberry Lemonade and maraschino cherries.

Then I did my best to cook our eggs in the middle of our toast in the shape of a heart. They looked great until I flipped them over. (darn Pinterest)  It is our tradition to visit Gram at work on Valentine's Day with some kind of surprise/gift. We had her rice filled heart as a gift and decided to dress up a bit as well!
 The girls had mustaches with signs that said, "I mustache you...will you be my Valentine?"

Ellie was having a minor meltdown here.






Lottie's turn for a meltdown. I think this is when I started to sweat because I remember being exhausted by time we got there.

Worth it.

Eight month belly shot.

Six years of love and learning...

David and I celebrated our sixth anniversary on the 11th of February and it was hands down, the best yet. David took me out to an amazing dinner at our favorite restaurant, Jasoh's. Then he told me to pack a bag and surprised me with an incredible condo in the valley with a hot tub. It was amazing. Thank you to Kevin and Vicki for taking our girls so that we could enjoy this celebration. I'll never forget it. (It's always a little awkward talking about your anniversary celebration, isn't it?)

I have to add that David bought me the most wonderful gift! A dress. Not just any dress, but one that he found on my "want" list on Pinterest. He had to search around the internet until he found it from a seller in Europe. It's lovely. I couldn't try it on because of my eight month pregnant belly, but I can't wait to wear it. There's something so sweet about a man buying you a dress.

I love him. More than ever.

Love

Charlotte has never been one to sit still for very long and work on a project. But for some reason she really loves this bead project where you have to (very carefully) place each bead on a small spot on this plastic heart and then iron them on when you're done. I'm so proud.

 

 For one of our activity time crafts, we made these cute hand warmers. 

Two are for the girls and one is for Gram. They are filled with rice so you can just pop it in the microwave.

   I'm in charge of our Valentine's Day party for Joy School, so these are the BINGO cards Hazel helped me make for our party.
Lately Ms. Eloise is awake during my "quiet time" while the older girls are napping. My daily task is dishes, so I've been putting her into one (clean) side of the sink with some spoons and cups while I wash my dishes in the other side. She is very fun company. I started doing this because she used to play around my ankles and start emptying all the silverware out of the dishwasher. This kept both of us happy.
Stop growing, Eloise. I love that baby face so much.

It just makes me laugh to know that this picture was taken on a Thursday. Thursdays are the worst day. I can't figure out why but it is a very consistent truth in my life right now. I need to start setting up my budget so that I can pack up the girls and go shopping every Thursday. But then again, that might be worse...So the story behind these pictures is that our living room had been messy all week. Even all of the puzzles had been pulled out and spilled across the floor. I finally couldn't handle it and did NOT have the energy to do it right, so I shoved everything into this corner of our room. Puzzles, books, cards, keyboard, barbie gear, toys, etc.



David was at a church meeting while I worked on this, so when he came home he started to say, "Wow! This place is..." and then he saw the corner. Ha. The funny thing is, I even vacuumed out the couches and cleared off our entertainment center. Everything but that corner was in perfect condition.
Happy first week of February.