Happy Birthday Gromit!

 

Gromit is our dog. We celebrated his eighth birthday on Sunday, May 22. Unfortunately we didn’t really remember it was his birthday until about 5pm, but we had a little celebration. Gromit had gotten all wet on our walk, so we had to party in the messy garage, but some how I don’t think Gromit really cared about the mess. He was just too excited to get his peanut butter bone, he couldn’t even keep his birthday hat on!

Walker No. 2, A Funny Face, and Tea

 

We finally have a second walker now, Micah! He started walking about two weeks ago. Sorry it has taken me so long to get this posted. Micah still walks a bit like Frankenstein, but he sure gets around well. Addilyn is on the verge of walking now too, she really wants to, but just doesn’t quite trust herself yet. I am sure it will be any day now.

Micah is really concentrating on walking, but he loves his new freedom.

I am sorry Addilyn, but I just had to post this picture. Addilyn loves this little yellow phone we have, but every time she plays with it, she has to put one entire end of it in her mouth. Addilyn is always making funny faces like this.

Every time I see her funny faces I think of an old Donna Fargo song called “Funny Face”. It goes like this…

“Funny face I love you,

Funny face, I need you.

These are the sweetest words I’ve ever heard.

Funny face don’t leave me,

Funny face believe me,

my whole world’s wrapped up in you.”

And now, Tea Time, our church had a tea and table setting last Saturday and they asked me to decorate a table this year. My table was decorated with the babies dishes and my dishes for the “big people” too. My mom also volunteered to bring some of her dishes and decorate a table too. Addilyn and Taylor came to the tea as well. It was a rainy day, so a great day to be inside drinking a cup of tea!

A table set for seven

My mom and Taylor by her table setting.

Me, Addilyn, and my Mom around my table setting.

Pink Eye

 

Since January our family has had RSV, pneumonia, stomach flu, Influenza A and B, and now… Pink Eye. Thank goodness this is not a major illness, just annoying. I hope this is the last illness for quite some time on our home. Taylor and Oliver have it so far, but I know it spreads like wild fire, so I am sure they will share this as well. (Sharing illnesses is the one thing all five of my kids are very good at sharing. Now if we could carry that over into sharing the toys, life would be good!) I took Taylor and Oliver to the doctor this morning, so Oliver missed his morning nap. Usually this doesn’t bother Oliver, but he decided to catch up on some sleep during lunch today.

Poor Little Guy!

 

On the way home for the doctor we stopped at our friends, Connie and John, to check out their beautiful tulips. They are so tall and colorful, the pictures don’t even do them justice.

 

Taylor and the tulips

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

I hope all of the Mother’s reading this had a wonderful day today. Hopefully, everyone found a moment to relax. Our day was pretty good. The babies slept until seven (unfortunately Taylor was up at six), and ALL the babies took a morning and afternoon nap today. Naps haven’t been going well for a few weeks now, so these naps were very welcomed, especially on Mother’s Day!

I received this story from our MOPS blog the other day and thought I would pass it along. Here’s to celebrating all the Moms who have influenced our lives in some way. In the past year I have certainly been blessed to have so many moms to watch and learn from: my mom, my mother-in-law, our friends, our Aunts, Trevor’s Grandmothers, and all of the great helpers and friends who have come into our home this past year. Each of these women have been so influential in the way I raise my children. I will be forever grateful for all of the mothers in my life. Thank you and Happy Mother’s Day.

Taken from Family Life Momlife Today
Mother’s Day or ‘Me’ Day?
May 2, 2011 by Julia

Disappointment is an emotion I didn’t expect to experience on my first Mother’s Day. I had set my expectations a little high: breakfast in bed, pampering, long nap in the afternoon, glory and honor showered on me for my accomplishments in the first nine months of being a mother. Instead I woke up nauseous from morning sickness with my second (surprise!) pregnancy. I had a cranky 8 month old baby who would not allow anyone other than her mother to care for her. And I was not flattered by this. Instead of napping that afternoon, I had food to prepare to take to our family gathering that evening. The primary cause of my disappointment: selfishness. I chose to make the day about me instead focusing on the blessing of being a mother and honoring the other women in my life who influenced me. After a few years of wallowing in self-pity every Mother’s Day, I finally realized that I was robbing myself of joy, not those around me.

Since then, I have found great joy in focusing on other women in my life. I appreciate my mother-in-law who nurtured my amazing man. My grandmothers who spoiled me, told me Bible stories and made cookies. My aunts who had me visit for sleepovers, threw great birthday parties for me and took me shopping. And I spend time remembering my mom and allow myself to grieve and miss her.
There are many other women surrounding me that are deserving of honor. My friend, Kathy, who has never given birth or adopted but selflessly fosters children in need as a single mom. I have friends who are expected to be both the mother and father to their children while juggling a career and household. My neighbor, Mrs. Moody, may be finished with the active role of mothering with her children grown, but still yearns for the attention and affection of children. The military family in my children’s school whose mom is serving overseas may need a little mothering from me. The new mother in church could use a nap and someone to rock the baby for an hour or two.

When I focus on others, I realize how blessed I am to be a mother and how many other women deserve thanks for teaching me how! Who can you bless this Mother’s Day?

Find suggestions for blessing other moms around you here.

Is it finally Spring?

 

I think it might be safe to say spring is finally here now. I hope it will last. We enjoyed the day by playing on the deck, eating supper outside (the best part of this is I don’t have to clean up the floor where the babies were eating tonight!), and went for a walk. For supper tonight we all enjoyed burgers and beans! The babies are now eating table food most of the time. We don’t miss having to buy all that baby food anymore, but we have already seen our grocery bill increase. A few weeks ago we ordered a large pizza, all seven of us has some and there was only one piece left. Usually we have about half the pizza left. Yikes, what will our pizza orders look like in a few years?

Taylor and Addilyn enjoying some time together on the deck.

Addilyn sporting her new sunhat.

Addilyn, Seth, Taylor, Micah, Oliver

Here’s what the kids had to say about eating supper outside.

“Can we have a picnic like this every night?”

“Yeah, Spring is here!”

“Ahh, Life is good!”

“Cheers!”

 

“This sun is bright!”

Enjoy your spring everyone!

Teeth

 

We got some cute pictures of the babies and their teeth tonight. It still amazes me that even though they were born within five minutes of each other, their development is soooooooo different.

Addilyn has six teeth that have cut through and one more is on the way. The four front teeth are the only visible ones, but she has three on top and three on bottom, with a fourth one ready to cut through on the top any day now.

They are barely visible, but Seth has two teeth on the bottom and has just started cutting his front top teeth.

Oliver has four teeth and is working on two more teeth on the bottom. Beware, Oliver likes to use his teeth for biting fingers!

Micah has some funny teeth right now. He cut his top left tooth first and then the bottom right tooth came in. It really does look odd, I am sure it isn’t really easy to eat like that either. He is cutting the other top and bottom teeth now, but they are not really visible yet.

Have a wonderful weekend and don’t forget to floss and brush!