Happy 6th Birthday, Clara!

Our sweet Girl-
I can't believe that you are already turning 6 years old! We brought you home from the hospital, and adored you more than we ever thought possible! I've never been much of a reader, and rarely finish a book that I start, so we brought you home, not really knowing much at all about taking care of a baby. We knew that you needed to eat and to sleep, but when those things were "supposed" to happen was something we figured out as you grew. You were completely parented from our hearts! I held you constantly, and passed you off to someone else's arms if I had to have my arms free. You LOVED being held and took many, many naps on Daddy's chest. You were our most difficult baby, so fussy in the evenings and screaming in your carseat. I would pull the car over when I just couldn't hear you scream any longer, take you out of the carseat, and you would immediately calm down and snuggle in! You just loved to be held! You grew into such a talkative, curious toddler, and you haven't stopped talking since! You have so many interesting stories to tell us and so many questions about everything. You remember everything that you hear, and you are often teaching us about things you've picked up from watching shows. You love to watch tv and movies :) As soon as you are done watching a show, though, you immediately "become" a person or animal from what you just watched and get lost in your pretend play. You are such a fun, creative big sister, always coming up with pretend games for your sisters. You adore your baby brother and can entertain him by holding him and playing with him, keeping him happy. You have always had an incredible heart for your family and your friends. You share easily and let others go first (which is often with your two little sisters!). When your birthday sundae came to the table this year at Red Robin, you first gave each of your sisters a bite before you even tried it yourself! You are so generous, always running to your bank to get money if you hear of anyone in need. We lovingly call you our "pokey puppy" because you are so easily distracted and side-tracked that you are almost always the last one ready to go out the door! You get so excited about all the little things in life, and we love your enthusiasm and happy spirit! I got to keep you home this year for kindergarten, and enjoyed spending time with you learning. I'm so proud of how hard you worked and you've made so much progress with your reading, writing and math. Your favorite subject is definitely art, though, and you spent many math lessons trying to color all the pictures! When you read to me, you stop MANY times to ask questions about the story or name the characters who don't have names, or make up different endings, or tell me why you don't like what the story says! You are full of creativity! You've recently lost 4 teeth, pierced your ears and learned to ride a bike.....so many ways that you are growing up! We are so blessed to have you as an example to your sisters and brother and pray that your love for Jesus continues to shine through in your love for others! Happy Birthday, sweet Bella!!!
Love, Mommy

That's what those hands are for!

Isaiah is really starting to grab for things and use his hands more now. He discovered the graham cracker box last night and was entertained for a long time! It is the first "non-toy" thing that he has gone after. It's amazing how much more interesting the non-toys are to babies! He has a few favorite toys, but he has never fussed and gotten mad about not being able to reach something until this box got out of his reach... I pushed it back over to him and had fun watching him figure it out!

The bag made a great crinkly sound!

And tasted so good!!

Everything is going straight to his mouth these days!

He is getting to be so much fun to play with!

And still really fun to cuddle!! Can you tell how much he is loved?!

The girls are always tucking him in places to snuggle with him. Isaiah is stuck with it until he can make his escape!!

Eliza and her friend, Saleen, jumping together with crazy hair!!

Our sweet little guy has had a cold this past week, and he woke up Sunday pretty much inconsolable and slept all morning. I took him to the doctor, and he's on his first antibiotic for an ear infection :( A couple of days later, though, and he is getting back to his happy self! He was weighed at the doctor, and at 4 months, he is now 15 lb 2 oz. His hair is coming in pretty light on the sides, so he might end up being blond like Eliza! I tried to even up some long pieces on the top, and didn't do a very good job......I hope it will grow in quickly! He is enjoying time in his exersaucer now and is rolling from his back to his tummy with just a little help. We love to hear him laugh, and often his sisters can get the very best laughs out of him!

Hannah just LOVES her bugs! She is outside most of the afternoons, looking under rocks for new roly-poly bugs and making them "homes". She received a gift today from her bible class teacher, and was so excited to find that it was a bug home! She immediately found some new pets to keep in there. It has a top that snaps on, so she is allowed to bring them into the house now. She names each one and feeds them bread. She kept her bug home with her all day today!

First S'mores of the Summer!

Joe did a great job finishing up the fire pit patio while we were in Bend, and the girls couldn't wait to try it out with some marshmallow roasting!

I love Eliza's goofy smiles!

Using both hands to get that s'more in!

We're looking forward to many more evenings together at the fire pit!

Sassy and Sassy Jr :)

Eliza LOVES her "Monima"! Monica is full of personality and fun, and I think Eliza must have sensed that from the beginning because she adores Monica! I just loved these pictures of the two sassy girls together...

They also both LOVE candy and are the first two in line for any sweet treat! Eliza reminds me of Monica as a little girl in a lot of ways, always entertaining and a little hard to win over if they don't know you well. They also share a love of apple juice! I'm glad these two are such great friends :)

Road trip!

The kids and I headed to Bend last week for "birthday week" and Mother's Day. Their cousins, Monica and Darien, turned 12 and 14, and we wanted to celebrate with them! I tried something new for the drive that a friend of mine suggested-leaving at 4am....and it worked great!! All four kids slept for the first half of the drive, then we got out and ate breakfast (and I refueled on coffee!) and we made it the second half without stopping. Isaiah was well-entertained with a pile of toys...

Monica's birthday party was the day after we got there. She loves her friends and had 12 girls at her party! They split into teams for an Amazing Race-type scavenger hunt. Here is Monica's team:
And Boppa with his team, including Darien and her best friend, Paris:

The first Roadblock was a clothing relay at the park. Nana, Julie and our 3 girls were waiting at the park to watch the action. Clara got to hand the teams their next clue when they finished the relay:

Monica is a little bit competitive, and she bent the rules of "wearing" the clothes to just "carrying" some of the clothes to try to help her team catch up! Too bad she had Aunt Jenny driving the slow minivan, and we came in last!

Isaiah loved spending time in this walker all week, being upright and watching the busyness all around him...

Eliza and Hannah loved to pull him around the house, using the toys as a leash...

One of his favorite things was to lean forward and just chomp away on the rubber toy bar!

Great Papa spent two evenings playing with Isaiah and the girls...

Our evening entertainment..

Eliza made fast friends with her Boppa, and followed him all over the yard mowing the grass...

She's usually pretty slow to warm up to people, but just LOVES her Boppa!

Isaiah got LOTS of attention!!

He was very content to ride around the house on Nana's back and help her in the kitchen...

and even took some cozy naps in the backpack!

Darien and Monica skipped school one day to play with us! We did some painting and went out to lunch. These cousins are such special girls and are SO sweet to play with all the kids.

I was really surprised at how long Eliza spent painting her kitty. She worked so hard on it and painted for almost an hour!

We had some nice, warm days for the kids to explore outside...

Can you even spot Hannah and Eliza up on the hill?? They spent hours outside exploring under rocks and getting dirty!

We finished off the week with Darien's birthday dinner (look at how much Eliza LOVES her cousin-she is always climbing on her!)

Then Darien and five of her best friends went and got pedicures and their make-up done and had a sleepover!

My beautiful, sweet, incredibly special, Darien :)

We set the alarm for 4am, my amazing mom and dad woke up with us and made coffee and carried little, sleepy bodies out to the car, and we headed back home. What a fun, exhausting week!!