It took several weeks, but Teague finally got to read Ben the book he bought him from the visiting author at school. Ben was a little harder to keep entertained, but we loved the book!
Kaitlyn joined us before long and she definitely appreciated the book – and payed attention all the way through.
This bathtub was made for bubble baths.
When we were buying a birthday present last week, we found a new product at Target. We bought bubble hands and today we tried them out. (They aren’t as impressive or easy to use as you might hope.) We did have a lot of fun though!
The people we are buying our new house from offered us moving boxes. We happily took them up on the offer and now we have boxes. The kids happily made a fort and I’m going to let them enjoy it for a while because I can’t seem to make myself start packing quite yet.
It’s so nice to be able to play outside. I just wish we had a longer driveway or didn’t live on such a busy street. We don’t have a lot of traffic all day, but during peak hours the traffic tends to go really quickly on our street. Ben definitely can’t be trusted not go too far straight into the street. The big kids got out the old scooters are raced. Ben decided he wanted to try too and Teague was nice enough to help him.
Some days waking up is easy. Some days you need to do it slowly with a few good books.
The true definition of a dog pile….
Some days I barely have it together. Tonight was one of those days. I was cooking dinner and something didn’t seem quite right. I normally put things away as I use them but I couldn’t seem to find the can of chicken broth I had opened. I was sure I had a memory of putting it in the fridge but I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t sitting on the counter and I was sure I had set it on a shelf. I even looked in the recycling. No luck. I finally chalked it up to craziness and moved on. After dinner, I was unloading the dishwasher and opened a cabinet door. Imagine my surprise to find my missing can of chicken broth – with my glass measuring cups…
I’m just thankful I didn’t find it days later.
These kids are dying for warm weather. The minute they saw the sun and felt like it was somewhat warm they begged to put on swimsuits and wash my car. I figured why not. My car couldn’t look any worse and it really was a nice day outside!
These two disappeared upstairs and I only saw them for help with zippers during outfit changes. I had to beg them to eat lunch at 1:30. Thankfully they tolerated a few pictures along the way.
Ben rarely gets unhappy and even rarer is to see him throw an all out tantrum. Today it happened. I even took pictures because it was almost cute it happens so infrequently. He saw the big kids leave (with their backpacks) and could not handle the fact that he wasn’t going too. He tried in every way he knew how to tell me that he wanted to go. He wasn’t happy with my answers or my attempts to distract him. He even got his shoes and the only backpack he could reach and stood at the door screaming. Poor Ben. I felt horrible.
Not to worry. As with all 1 year olds, there is a secret weapon. Baby Shark on Alexa was able to distract him. (Unfortunately I then had to listen to it for the next 30 minutes.)
Sometimes you just need to have your own personal cocoon for a while.
Ben was really good about entertaining himself for a while as I got a few things done. Then I wanted to take some pictures. Sometimes I try to get a child to look a certain direction by talking about an object. That backfired today because when I would mention an object instead of looking at it, Ben would want to point to it. I mentioned my head and he pointed to his head. Then I tried to put a lovey on my head and he got down and wanted to take the lovey and put it back where it belonged. I can’t win them all. I’m going to have to figure out some new tricks for Ben.
Ben is a really happy baby. Most of the time he even avoids the evening fussy time. There are of course exceptions but usually just holding him (or really feeding him) will make everything right again. Ben is the first baby I tried wearing in a ring sling and I wish I had used one with my other babies. It’s been a lot of fun and I hate that Ben is starting to get a little big for it. (Some people use it on bigger babies but he is starting to hurt my back.) Tonight he wanted to be held and I wanted to do a few things while the big kids watched a movie in my room. The sling seemed like a good compromise all the way around.
Today seemed like a great day to dye some Easter Eggs. We even tried a new method – shaving cream.
These two had the best time today jumping on the bed.
I hope one day my children remember the hours we spent baking together. It is definitely one of my favorite things to do with my children – especially when it can be done one-on-one.
Teague had an author visit his school and the kids were given the opportunity to purchase some of his books. Teague was really excited when he saw that some of the books were more appropriate for Kaitlyn and Ben. He wanted to buy a book for each of them. The books were sent home a few days ago and today he read the book to Kaitlyn he bought for her. It’s the cutest book called the Unruly Queen.
I kind of like tiwnning with my girl.
We have been giving Pepper dog bones to try and keep her entertained (and reduce the chewing of our items). The problem is Madison will occasionally get the bone and guard it. Pepper will not dare take it back from Madison. Madison is too old to chew the bone. She just won’t let Pepper have it. Wade and I find the entire situation pretty funny.
Tonight we thought we had a solution. We gave each dog a bone. It went basically like it does with two toddlers. Pepper couldn’t stand it that Madison had a bone. She abandoned her bone and kept trying to figure out how to get Madison’s bone. She kept edging closer and closer to Madison. Madison never once chewed the bone but kept it in her sight or under her head the entire time. Wade and I were dying laughing.
For those curious – Madison eventually fell asleep. Pepper stole the bone. Madison never even remembered there was a bone.
Alex was quite tolerant of me as I took pictures today. He even got excited and told me all about his two Lego guys and their adventures. (It’s very rare I get so much out of him these days.)
I’m not sure we have ever done much for St. Patrick’s Day in the past. This year not only wore green, we baked, went to a party at church, and sang Karaoke! It was definitely a day the kids won’t soon forget. Now I’m just curious if there is a video out there anywhere I can hunt down…
Wade and I did a thing. We bought a house. A second house. When we moved to Grafton, we were a little bit tight on time to find a house. We bought one we liked, but we quickly realized it wasn’t going to be a forever house. We have done quite a bit to our house to make it work for us. We have also tried to figure out how to make it work long term. We even found some good solutions, but they are fairly expensive and don’t solve all of our problems. We were getting really close to doing some major renovations on our current house to make it work for the next 5-7 years. Then last weekend we decided we might as well look at what was on the market for the equivalent of the renovations we were discussing. Imagine my surprise when the one house I have always considered my dream house was sitting at the top of the listing page!??! I immediately wanted to see the inside because rarely does the inside match my dreams. This time it was even better! I sent the listing to Wade and he scheduled a showing for Monday before he even finished looking at all the pictures. We both loved the house and immediately submitted an offer. We are now the owners of two houses – hopefully soon that will be down to one!
I was folding laundry in my bedroom while Ben and Kaitlyn played. They got really quiet so I decided I might should hunt them down. I finally found them in Ben’s room quietly reading books. These are the kinds of surprises I love!
At 14 years old, Madison is still the best kitchen cleanup I have ever had.
Ben has a new trick. This kid likes to keep me on my toes!?! Thankfully he does not know how to open the storm door, but I’m sure it is only a matter of time…
Every afternoon the house is quiet. Ben is napping. Kaitlyn has quiet time (and often naps). Pepper sits in this chair and looks out the window – waiting for Alex. (The noise she makes when she seems him walking down the driveway can be heard up and down the street.)
These two wanted sweets. The fastest (and surest) way in our house to get them is to offer to bake them. They suggested chocolate chip cookies and got right to work. I tried to take a few pictures but this was the reaction I got. It definitely seems to say “Go away”.
Ben has always loved bananas, but lately he eats an entire banana. I don’t just mean in the normal way. I mean an ENTIRE banana – the inside and the peel. He gets really excited when I hand him the banana. Then he turns it around and starts to eat it from the bottom first – peel first. Ben has been doing this often enough I even did some research into it. It turns out eating a banana peel is done in some countries and they are full of nutrients – but normally people eat them when they are very ripe because they taste sweeter.
Today Pepper spent the day with our vet. She got dropped off early this morning and I picked her up right after school. She is now spayed and more calm than I think I have ever seen her – thank you drugs. We’ll see how she reacts in the next few days. I’m really hoping she doesn’t have to wear the cone as much as she should. I know she isn’t going to like it.
I just love a good costume – especially one that everyone in the family wears over and over. Teague’s helmet from his Halloween costume is turning into a family favorite.
I love it when the world is white outside!
We had some extra time today so the little kids got a bath in the big tub.
These girls are the cutest when it comes to playdates. Most of the time they disappear into Kaitlyn’s room and only come out for help with outfit changes. Today they were tempted out to decorate cookies – unicorn cookies!
We bought new cookie cutters last week and Kaitlyn couldn’t wait to try them out. Today was a quiet day at home and Ben was nice enough to take an extra long afternoon nap.
We love to bake in our house. We have lots of favorite recipes but we are always looking to try new ones too. Teague recently got a gingerbread muffin recipe from Raddish kids, but we hadn’t tried it for various reasons. Last week during our break, we had a ton of recipes on our to do list. This was one we finally attempted. Teague was happy to let Kaitlyn help and the muffins weren’t bad – although I doubt we’ll add them to our normal rotation. I was amused by Teague’s reaction to the smell of molasses. He had a very creative solution to the problem too!
When the kids pitch in and help make cheese dip – everybody wins. I don’t have to spend quite as much time getting the ingredients ready and we get to the yumminess just a little bit quicker. I keep hoping at some point that one of the kids will ask to make this recipe on their own, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Almost every day Kaitlyn takes a shower with me. Then I dry her hair. Every once in a blue moon, Wade will dry her hair. He doesn’t do it quite right, which means I have to curl her hair afterwards, but she would still prefer to have her dry it. Daddy’s do it different – and that makes it special.
We had another snow day and who am I to complain!?! Waking up to snow is the best.
There are so many ways that we have noticed Madison’s advanced years. She is still great at cleaning up the floor after the kids, but she just tends to stay put even after the kids have left the table. I’m not sure if she is hopeful they will come back or doesn’t notice when they have left…
I went to check on Kaitlyn tonight and found she had a few extra items in bed with her. She must have decided to read herself a few extra books after lights out.
Some days we just hang out in my room while I get a few things done – mostly laundry.
Unlike Madison, Pepper loves her ball. I believe she is even going to play fetch. There might be a redeeming quality to this dog yet!
We are discovered paper dolls.
Somehow, Alex has reached 10?!! I’m still not quite sure how it happened. It doesn’t seem that 10 years have passed, but here we are. My first born has reached 10 years of age. We started the day with donuts, just as he requested. Then we continued the celebrations after school with dinner, presents, and cake (until Pepper helped herself to the remainder of the cake we left on the counter.)
Teague took over baking duties today. I was happy to have the help.
Alex informed us he had a project for school. Then he told us he needed to be a lamp. Wade was happy to help.
This winter has been very wet. Our backyard is not great when it comes to handling water. It does make for great puddles though!
The master bathroom is perfect for pictures. It has a huge tub and the best natural light. The kids love to play and on Thursdays we have the entire morning with no scheduled activities. That almost always means a long bath. I took these pictures yesterday and love them.
Today the kids discovered how much fun the baby doll stroller could be. We don’t have a baby gate at the top of the stairs (and today is the first time I have felt the need for one). You’ll notice in one of the pictures that Kaitlyn was nice enough to form a human baby gate when Ben runs down the long hallway with the stroller.
I’ll admit my favorite part of the morning was when they got the idea to put Ben in the stroller.