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!

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'

free

YAY! I'm 3 months old!

E' LOVES to talk, baby talk! I wonder what she's trying to say?

boy is it hard to take the picture you imagine you'll be able to take. They just don't cooperate and stand where ya pose them... that blanket on the floor kept moving (right?), and the sun moved just enough to cast shadows all over, and sweet E' discovered she could grab her shirt and pull it back and forth

they were all smiling for the camera... then baby E' got all excited about her hands (which she notices from time-to-time throughout the day) and she fell over in the thrill of it all... while B forgot all about me saying "smile for mommy" and stared at the neighbor walking outside the window... and i didn't notice til after I gave up and hit the camera button anyway, that the carpet was peaking out from beneath the blanket on the floor :0)

I tried to explain Independence day while dressing the kids for church Sunday morning. We had such a busy week that I somehow managed to miss the opportunity to do an independence day learning unit with them last week. So... when I laid out all red, white, and blue for them to wear and J' noticed and asked why, I found myself trying to give an abbreviated explanation, "Well, today is Independence Day and that means..."

All she caught from my brief comments was the word "free," which in her vocabulary refers to things that don't cost any money. "Why am I free?" she wanted to know - as if that's a bad thing. I loved the opportunity her confusion afforded me to explain freedom in Christ, freedom to worship in our country, and the rights and privileges of living in the USA (all on the level of a 2 to 4 year old audience).

Sadly, her statement reminded me again of the hard units I will have to cover in the future; teaching my children about slavery, civil rights, and the full meaning of freedom as black men and women in the USA. I wish their heritage and history didn't include such ugliness. When they are old enough, we will teach them about those dark and horrible parts of black-american history so they will understand the responses they will receive from some in the world later in life. It will be compounded by the persecution they encounter for their faith in Jesus Christ. But there is one difference: their faith they will choose (boldly and proudly), their skin color (or that of their parents and sibs in the case our fairer-skinned kiddos) they were simply born with.

making squinchy faces (E was DONE with picture posing for the day)

[DOUBLE-CLICK ON ANY PIC TO SEE A FULL-SCREEN SIZED VERSION]

time flies...

Wow... E' is ten weeks old! Time sure flies when you're having fun (or when you have a house full of toddlers)! Please forgive me for not posting pics more often. She's growing so fast! Here are some recent pics (double click on a pic to see a full-screen version)...

look at my long feet ;0)

excited wiggles

I'll stop crying as long as mommy keeps looking right at me

daddy gave me a bath in the kitchen sink

precious naptime sleeper
(she sleeps better if she feels cuddled by either arms, a blanket, or a couple of cuddle buddies)

E' can kick and wiggle, turn from her side to her back, and scoot towards you somehow (This happens when she's in bed with us because I don't feel like waking up to put her back in her own bed after deep-night nursing. We've never seen her do it, but she can find a heat-source fast!)

She can smile and coo (such sweet baby talk!). She's just starting to try reaching for things but she gets distracted when she sees her hand in the air and ends up just touching her face or watching her arm move around (hee hee!).

Best new thing: E' started laughing last week! Nice gurgly, drooly, smiley, giggles! PT and I will do just about anything over and over again just to delight in the sound of her little laugh. The bigs love it too. They try all sorts of antics to see if they can persuade her to giggle.

I'm so smitten! She's simply gorgeous! I might be just a bit biased though ;0)

OH the SMILES!!!

Look at that smile. The last couple of days E' has mastered the knack. She's smiling in response to our smiles and our laughter. I LOVE it!!! Here are a few I actually managed to catch before her curious blank stare took over (which she gets whenever she sees the camera instead of my face).

kicking and smiling

with big brother N' in the church's red website footage chair

smiling after a diaper change -- she likes the cloth diapers -- now if she'll just get a little more thigh chunkiness so leg-hole leaks are less likely :0)

here's my best attempt at capturing her dark gray eyes with the camera

one month old

tiny toes!!! long, skinny feet!

I've been having so much fun watching E' change and grow, that I've neglected to stop and post some pics so you could share the JOY!

She's almost 5 weeks old as I post these pics. What's new:

• E' weighs about 9 lbs now! Wow!
  
• She can hold her head up and look around
• She has started to smile (yes, social smiling, not gas)
  
• She started cooing last week. She concentrates really hard and gets her lips pursed into an "oo" shape, then she'll finally get a tiny "ooh" or "aaah" out. So CUTE!!!

E' on her first stroller walk

meeting my Uncle Joey!

Uncle Joey was "stuck" in town when his connecting flight to a business meeting was delayed. E' thought Uncle Joey was the BEST! She smiled and cooed and stared and finally... fell sweetly asleep in his arms :0) What a fun, unexpected, wonderful time. The kids all thought Uncle Joey was fabulous. I love him too! Thanks Lord for such a great blessing!

Booties my sister Wendy crocheted for E'.

Wendy crochets a lot: blankets, granny squares, bun covers (she has girls in ballet), doilies, scarves, purses, grocery bags (as if I'd ever put groceries in it 'cause it's gorgeous). Anyway, she said she just thought she'd try a pair of booties! Talk about a FABULOUS first try! They are sooo adorable and they don't fall off either! I wish you could see the tiny green crocheted rosettes that button the straps on. I couldn't get a good in-focus pic of that detail. TOOOOOO CUTE! She also made a lemon-yellow pair for her.

wide eyed (with some baby acne)

I can't seem to capture it in a picture, but E's eyes are still dark gray, with lighter gray edges on the borders of her irises. All our kiddos have had some unique eye color for the first few weeks of life and then at some point their eyes have shifted to brown. N's eyes were the most fabulous dark, forest green color for the first few weeks of his life. J's were light brown. B's were gray. And in all three cases, we woke one morning to find their eyes were suddenly plain old brown ;0). I'm hoping E's eyes stay gray -- just for fun. But, if they turn brown she'll be just as beautiful!

pretty in pink

I love all the ruffly edges on this outfit! Pink is not my favorite color, but E' looks super sweet in pink, so I'm thankful for the zillion pink things that we have in the baby buckets from when J' was a baby. Of course, if you let me tell it, she looks good in EVERY color :0) What can I say, it's momma love!