girls girls girls

Eszi is getting older every minute! Here are some of her super cutest recent pics!

She loves to gum carrot sticks and celery sticks! Odd, but fun.


"playing" with B.
Sweet B' LOVES to play with E beside him. He asks us to bring her over and he'll pat the spot where he wants her to sit. She just started sitting this week by the way, but I haven't taken a good pic yet.


She watches me cook and wash dishes from her high chair.


all giggles! I wish this one was a video clip so you could hear her totally contagious laugh!
N loves for her to wear this outfit because it has so many shades of blue which is currently his signature color!
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J' likes to choose her look for the day. She's bold, creative, courageous and ALL J!!! Here's a particularly bright look ;0) It did all match, so what could I say. You go girl! Work it! hee hee!

Thanks again to my sweet friend N' who shared these fun boots with J' when her little lady's feet outgrew them earlier this summer. J' LOVES them and they definitely make a statement!



I needed to trim J's ends. The split ends had taken over and were impeding growth, but with super curly hair that doesn't even straighten when wet, it was easier to flat iron it and then trim the ends. So, she was pressed and smooth-curled for a day. So cute.

The finished product. She was so pleased because she thought her bangs looked like the front of Nana's hair (she's right... yay for nana-love!)

Common J' sighting... she loves puzzles! She'll sit and solve the same one 4 or 5 times in a row.

You may have noticed a serious lack of B' pics on the blog... I really do try to take pics of B', but he rarely sits still and he has no desire to pose, so pics of him tend to look like blurs, the back of his head as he high-tails it away, him sleeping, or he's making weird faces. I'm working on it though!

and the heavens rejoiced

On November 2, 2010 our precious N' asked how he could go to "God's heaven." We were completing a Bible lesson about God's faithfulness based on the story of Joseph and his brothers. He asked about how God could forgive Joseph's brothers for doing such a bad thing (selling Joseph and then lying about it). Soooo we talked again about sin (which we've discussed several times before) and about Jesus, the cross, and resurrection. He said, "that was bad" about the scourging and the cross and then said "that was pretty nice" about Jesus' willingness to suffer and die so that he could take the punishment for our sins. I explained (not for the first time) that Jesus did all that so that we could enter heaven when we die and spend forever with God.

So, N' asked how he could go to God's heaven when he dies. (I love how he kept calling it that.) So we talked it all through and he said that he loved Jesus and he was sorry for doing things that make God sad (sin) and that he wanted to ask Jesus to come into his heart. Oh I wanted to melt into a puddle of happy tears on the spot, but instead I said we should wait and talk to daddy about it when he got home from work.

So, we waited and I called PT to let him know there was an exciting conversation to have once he got home. It was a looooongggg night. N' tried to ask PT about it at dinner but it was just not a great time to doublecheck that he understood it all with the other kids interrupting every few minutes, so we just had to wait.

Finally at bedtime we put everyone down and then pulled N' out for a few minutes. PT talked with him to see where his heart was at and to make sure he understood what he was asking to do. I was there too and it was so sweet to hear him talk about it all. When PT asked him if he loved Jesus he said, "Of course I love Jesus." Hee hee! That's a good answer!

Anyway, we all talked through it all again right down to explaining again that you just need to pray and tell God that you love him, that you're sorry for making God sad by sinning, that you believe that Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for your sins, and that He was made alive again three days later, that you want Jesus to come into your heart, and that you want to spend forever with God. Then PT told him that he could tell God those things any time and that he and mommy would be glad to help him do that.

AND THEN PT asked him if he wanted to pray that prayer. AND HE WANTED TO! So, I sat on a couch in a room in a house and listened as my beloved husband helped my precious son become a believer!!!

where oh where is autumn?

We keep waiting and waiting for fall to arrive... and it just doesn't come. Well, we had a week of fall, but then it was summer again. They say it's going to be fall again at the end of this week. We'll see. :0) The leaves are falling though, and the kids LOVE to collect them and show us each and every leaf. It seems each one is more exciting than the last and then they're excited about how many they've collected. B likes to say, "We got a whole bunch of it." Hee hee!

Here are some more pics of the kids that haven't made it online yet. I'm playing catch-up on blogging today and just trying to cover the months I've missed. My goal is to put something fresh up every couple of weeks or at least once a month.

Here's E' looking cute!

N finally likes bike-riding.


While N rides, the rest of us walk along. J wanted to bring her baby doll along since I had E in the stroller.

E is sooo impressed with textures. She loves soft things, but a new texture is fun too. She loved touching the grass!

J keeps trying to hit that ball every time. B is much more consistent at it, but J doesn't give up trying. N prefers to turn the bat upside down and pretend it's a guitar :0)

Fun Photos

Here are some cute pics of the kids doing kid-things late this summer :0)
Click on a pic to see a full-screen version.

E' sleeps on her back with her arms out wide or thrown over her head. Too funny!
Sometimes she sleeps on her side, but not once she's in a really good sleep. She's our first back sleeper. The others all slept on their sides or tummies.

This was E's first park-swing ride. She was way too little for the swing in this pic (just shy of 4 months old), but it was such a cute photo opp and she smiled so big every time she swung back towards me. :0)

posing

We went to a nature preserve on my mom's birthday in July. It was supposed to be a mild day (around 75-80 early in the morning), but it was sooooo hot! :0) Me and our 4 kiddos, my sister W and her 3 kiddos, and mom/nana. We did have a great time! When we reached the end of the trail and the parking lot was in sight again, the kids cheered! hee hee!
Did I mention it was HOT!!!

J looking too cute, sweaty and all!

Can you see the rabbit! (I know it's sad, but it's a city-surrounded nature preserve... it still counts as wildlife ;0) The kids were impressed!

This pic came out so precious... if only I had any idea how I did it so I could do it again.

We made salmon croquettes (okay, salmon patties, but it sounds fancy if you say "croquettes"). B was the BEST patty maker. He loved balling it all up in his hands and saying, "smack" every time he hit the top to make it flat.

The kids were doing a worship set. At church, the band sets up on platform-risers that give them a place to stand so that the wires can all run under them. It also makes it possible to set them up tier-style so that you can see each player. So... this is the kids' creative stage setup. It takes ages for them to get it all setup just the way N wants it (he's the ring-leader on all things musical here). Then... let the singing and banging begin. So precious to hear them sing about Jesus! They even hum the intro music and instrumental interludes!

This is a cake. N said he made a "giant cake" and that it had filling and frosting and everything.

J wanted to look at mommy's jewelry box (I use that term loosely to describe a container of costume jewelry I have :0) ). She decided to put on all the necklaces at once, then declared that she was fancy. Hee hee. (She loves those Fancy Nancy early reader books.)


Three of PT's sibs came to surprise him for his bday in August. It was a great surprise for him and such a blessing to see them. They stopped by the house to visit with the kids after surprising him and taking him to lunch. (B' with Nanny M' and E' with Nanny T')

N with Uncle R'

There was a birthday...

We had our first big "with friends" kid's birthday party in August. We decided when N was a baby to wait until age 5 to have more than a family-only birthday party. Soooo... N turned 5 this year and he asked for a "house party." N made his guest list and almost everyone made it. We had a great time.

little party people

In lieu of a theme we just focused our party ideas on the things N likes best. He loves the drums, so we played pin-the-drumstick-on-the-drum! He lopves to play, so we had free play time and let the kids come up with their own fun. And he loves to cook, so we combined crafts and dessert by having the kids all make their own cookie. I made the dough ahead of time, spread flour all around the edge of the table, and lined up a row of bowls with different cookie mix-ins for the kids to choose from. We washed all their hands and then gave each kiddo a big ball of dough to fill up! We wrote their names on squares of foil and then baked them so we'd know which cookie belonged to which kiddo. Nope... I didn't come up with a great sugar-free plan this time. They did have raisins, cranberries, and nuts to fill with (along with two kinds of chocolate chips). As far as the dough though, it was a total sugar-fest and then they came out of the oven twice as big as I had intended! Oh well... they all loved it and it was early in the day so they had plenty of time to run it off before bedtime.

N with Grandmother and PaPa

N with Nana

The best thing for me was watching how grateful and thankful N continued to be throughout the day both in receiving each guest as they arrived and in receiving each gift with JOY and excitement. What a precious boy he is! I can't believe it's been FIVE years already!