5 Months!

5 months seems to be all about the feet! She is fascinated with them...

and thinks that they taste good too!
We had an appointment at Children's today, and it looks like she will have the surgery to correct her cleft palate just after she turns 1. She isn't having any of the feeding or breathing issues that could have potentially been a problem, so we feel blessed for that! She is such a joy for our family!!

Eliza figured out how to roll onto her tummy this afternoon!

Once she figured it out, she got good at it pretty quickly. I left her lying on the blanket for a few minutes, and when I came back in the room, I found her several feet away!

The latest thing that Hannah has picked up from watching her big sister is the head tilt to the side for pictures....We refer to it as Clara's "precious" pose and it looks like we have another precious little girl:)

Doctor Eliza:)

Practicing her sitting up,

tipping over,

and crashing to the floor!

More cousins!

Uncle Danny (Joe's brother), Aunt Heathyr and their three kids were up visiting this past weekend. We had such a fun day playing with them! We also got to spend the day with grandma and papa and special family friends Fred and Nancy. Fred and Nancy brought Maggie in her new pink dress:) Clara couldn't wait to see what Maggie would be wearing!!!

Just looking at this picture makes me nervous! We put the net enclosure on just after this was taken!

We were blessed with beautiful sunshine all weekend, and the kids had a blast jumping with the sprinkler under the trampoline. You have to look for Hannah in the middle of this next picture.....she is almost horizontal in a frog-like pose!!! She held her own on the trampoline with the older kids and loved every minute of it!

6, almost 5, 4, 3, and 2!

The more the merrier!

My brother, Tommy, competed in a regional crossfit competition in Seattle last weekend, and he had a big group of fans! Heidi and her girls and Julie and Molly all came up to watch, so we had 7 adults and 6 kids living in our house for the weekend. Thank goodness it was a gorgeous weekend, and we were able to spend lots of time outside!

Aunt Bobbie Jo with Eliza Jo and Boden

I think this might be the only time I saw this little monkey sitting still!!

The girls thought Uncle Tommy's tricks on the trampoline were pretty amazing.....I just hope they don't try this!Aunt Bobbie had the fun idea to put the sprinkler under the trampoline!
Eliza's first ride in the swing....

Big sister to help push
She loved it!! And then drifted off to sleep....

Hannah learned how to pump her legs to go higher. I love how she sticks her little tongue out when she is really concentrating on something...

Checking out each other's shoes!
Can you tell how excited Clara is to get her Tarzan movie from her cousins?!!?

Uncle Tommy with his "big, long muscles" (Clara quote;) )

Two little athletes in training....

Boden loves to do pull ups!

I'm not sure who was getting more of a workout here....Clara or Monica!

These two are best buddies....usually searching for candy somewhere together!

We LOVE Darien and Monica!!!

Growing up fast

Eliza is changing so fast these days, and her sisters are loving it! They both are finding new ways to play with her. Clara likes to help her roll and sit up, and will dance and make funny faces to keep her happy. Hannah calls her "my sweet little bug" and is always the first to climb up on her crib and say hello when she wakes up.

I found these next two pictures on the camera from last Monday when the girls were home with Joe. Eliza looks like she is enjoying her horsey ride with Clara.....

But this looks like a disaster waiting to happen!!!
We are nearing the "nothing is safe within arms reach" stage....

Aha! I got it!

Almost overnight, Eliza discovered her toes. Now, anytime we lay her down, she immediately flips her feet up in the air to find her toes! It has been making bedtime interesting, as she keeps pulling her blanket up in the air trying to find the feet hidden underneath!

She also loves Clara's curls

Mother's Day request...

Today, for Mother's Day, I didn't ask for the traditional breakfast in bed, massage, bubble bath, or flowers......No, I asked for this!

We woke up to an alarm clock this morning, and pulled three peacefully sleeping little girls out of their beds. Breakfast bars, sippy cups, and a bottle were already packed up, and we piled into the van to head to the starting line of the Kirkland 5K. Joe and I used to really enjoy running together before our 3 wonderful little girls were born. The past four years, since Clara's birth, have been an incredible journey into parenthood, but today I wanted to see if we could incorporate a little bit of what we enjoyed before the kids into our new life with them! It wasn't as easy as I remembered it.....and the actual running was probably the easiest part of the adventure. After circling forever to find a parking spot, unloading 2 jogging strollers and 3 kids, making sure the snacks were distributed, finding the special stuffed animals that absolutely had to come along, finding blankets to keep them warm, more blankets to block the sun from little eyes, going back to the car because we forgot the pacifier, we finally were headed for the starting line as the announcer was counting down the start!

We let the girls get out to run the end of the race, and they had a blast! Hannah was chanting "go Tiger, go!" to her stuffed animal tiger in her hand.

Our pace slowed considerably, as they stopped to look for ducks in the pond...

and read about the beaver habitat!

I realized that I have lost all of my previous competitive drive when it comes to running and racing, and just thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, crisp morning breeze, and the joy on the faces of my children as they ran their first race! Joe, on the other hand, did pull off a few fast moves, dodging between slower joggers or walkers with his double jogging stroller, but he had Clara cheering him on to win the race!