Easter

So let's see if I can do better on the picture posting today.

Here is part of the Easter Egg hunt. Since Sam couldn't walk, Daddy helped her find one egg in her basket. We also think that Zade will one day look back on these pictures and wonder why his mom let him wear that hat. But he put it on and 3 year old boys are just kinda hard to stop

 This was in the first 5 minutes after all the kids got dressed in the morning. You have to catch them fast before they realize that they don't have play clothes and they want out of the 'fanciness'. Although there were 3 cameras trying to get good pictures, I think this one is probably the best. Yeah, you try getting 5 kids under 5 to look at the camera and smile and sit with their legs closed and not in front of each other and not crawling around or looking at the dog, etc....

 The night before Easter, we celebrated spring birthdays. Well, that kinda covers all the kiddos, but even if it doesn't, who would deny someone a cupcake? I think officially we were celebrating Sam in May, Jason in May, and Sadie and Avery in June, though all the kids got presents.

This was Sam's first cake and she did not really get into the first birthday cake smash. She just looked at it and then slowly put her hand in the icing (whip cream) then she pulled her hand back and looked at it as if to say "mom, that's kinda messy". Funny, she usually puts everything in her mouth, but not this time. I had to help her eat some of it and break off some pieces of cake for her. 

Sweet Uncle Matthew helped the kids dye eggs on Saturday. It was mostly "pick an egg, pick a color, watch Uncle Matthew put it in the dye". And no furniture was stained :-)

The older kids LOVE the pool at Mimi's house. They enjoyed splashing and getting all wet. Funny, they didn't enjoy bath time afterwards... Our family missed the mud pies they made, which from the pictures, looked pretty good!

While the older kids were out one day, the babies got a chance to talk to GG by themselves. All the kids love GG :-)

We had a wonderful weekend, then we got to bring a lot of the gang home with us for a staycation week. I'll have to blog about that too. The guys (and Laura) went fishing all day Tuesday, then we took the kids to the beach on Wednesday (and had fun despite the sun, seaweed, and awful bugs) and recouped on Thursday. Today is a quiet day with just the three of us. It is GORGEOUS outside, so maybe a trip to the park could be fun.

Birthday coming soon...

Now that there is just ONE MONTH till my baby turns one, we've started really thinking about her birthday party. I'm excited to have something simple at our (new) house and have people we love coming over to eat food and cake.
I'm kinda torn about presents though. I'm sure people want to bring things for her, but I really don't think she needs much. I have outfitted her for the summer (yes, a few times I couldn't control myself) so she has plenty to wear until the fall. Fall clothes really aren't out yet and I doubt anyone really wants to buy fall things in the next size that they wouldn't see her wearing for awhile. As far as toys, I don't want her to have too many so she really needs very little. She's more entertained by an empty box or water bottle anyway!
Of course, baby food or diapers are welcome, plus an additional baby gate or two that I'm looking at buying. But those aren't really things people get you as presents :-)
Is it wrong that I just don't want to spoil my child?
And maybe I'm going overboard. We're not inviting that many people and Christmas was much more low key than we made it out to be. The few toys she got, she really does enjoy and I don't feel like toys are taking over our house (yet).
So maybe I should just let it go...any suggestions from veteran moms?

Waiting...

How many times in life do we feel like we're just waiting? Too many, I think. We can't forget to LIVE!
Currently, I'm waiting for my parents to arrive for a (short) visit. I'm waiting for Nathan to get home from work because I love having my small family all together. A friend is waiting for a home-buying decision to get made.
Waiting...

I love the song While I'm Waiting by John Waller
I'm waiting


I'm waiting on You, Lord

And I am peaceful

I'm waiting on You, Lord

Though it's not easy

But faithfully, I will wait

Yes, I will wait

I will serve You while I'm waiting

I will worship while I'm waiting

I will serve You while I'm waiting

I will worship while I'm waiting

I will serve you while I'm waiting

I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

 
So don't forget to SERVE, WORSHIP and ENJOY life while you wait :-)

Name change and other things...

Yesterday was a very good day. First, I put Sam in the nursery at church and went to the 'Called to be Mom' group. I talked to people (shocking for me, I know) and really enjoyed myself!
Plus I got some tips on my business, got another round of 'Let's get this thing going!' and am now in the process of changing the business name to make it less 'cute' and more upscale boutique-y and getting help with a logo design!
Sam did ok in the nursery. I mean, for her first time, everyone would say it was good, but now I feel guilty for leaving her there. I'm sure the workers did a good job, but....
She did cry for a bit, though she also took a bottle and a nap for them. She was still cranky when we got home.

And then I went to lunch for a friend and her husband and throroughly enjoyed having MORE adult interaction :-) :-)
Sam was pretty loud and got pretty fussy by the end of lunch. But after coming home and getting a nap, she had a pleasant afternoon.

Nathan got home, I made dinner, we ate and put Sam to bed. Then we had a nice conversation about our life and our plans and dreams. Then I lost horribly in Yahtzee! The game was so pathetic to us yahtzee-advocates, that Nathan actually added up the score at the end. 105 to 267. I scored 49 on the lower half - ridiculous! It was actually laughable.

And that is what makes for a GREAT day in my book.

Now today I need to do some dishes and clean up a bit ... oh well!

The Paci Mystery

So Sam's pacifiers (she had around 8) are all different colors. A few have faces, some dark pink, some light, yellow, green, blue. I like this uniqueness. Because we can get home from the park and I see a paci on the floor and think "oh yeah, she rubbed that all over the park swing, maybe I should wash it now that we're home" I like things clean (hahahaha)

Today her morning nap was quite difficult. Now, when she gets mad in her crib, she throws her pacis overboard. Then she gets a little less mad, wants to sleep, but can't find any pacis. And I haven't seen her fall asleep without a paci in a VERY long time.
So at naptime, I left her awhile, but finally thought I'd go up and try again to rock her to sleep. Well I couldn't find any pacis anywhere. I had put 3 in her bed (and I knew exactly which ones) when I left her and didn't find any in her bed. I looked under the crib and finally found the blue one. Worked like a charm. 2 minutes of rocking and a paci and she was asleep. After I laid her in bed, I looked all over for the other 2 pacis (dark pink ones) and never found either.

I forget about all this after her very nice long nap. I go to get her and she has the same blue paci. We come downstairs and she's playing for about half an hour. When she comes into the kitchen with a dark pink one! No seriously. I KNOW it was up in her bed, I KNOW I couldn't find it, I KNOW it was not with her when we came downstairs, yet half an hour later here it is.

We have a paci mystery in our house....

Update: The other dark pink pacifier reappeared in the front hall about an hour after I wrote this. WEIRD!!

Still missing a yellow pacifier the last few days and a second yellow one since we've moved. And a light pink one but I haven't seen it in months.

Maybe they'll come out of the woodwork today....