At the Ameys

Remember November?

2012-01-20T21:09:00.001-06:00

Hi, it's me, Piper. Mommy has been kind of busy lately, so I thought I'd help her out with her blog. I mean, how hard is typing? You just bang on the keyboard (something I'm really good at!), so I'm going to put up a post for her. Shh! She thinks I'm sleeping :) Since I only have time for one post, I want to share about when my future college roommate, Rebecca, came to visit me back in November! She traveled on an airplane to come see me all the way from North Carolina.

So of course, like any good hostess, I showed her where all the toys were as soon as she got here.

And I was more than happy to share them with her.

We didn't waste any time being shy.

Rebecca brought her Mommy along. She was really nice and read us stories.

The next day Lila and Wyatt thought we would be able to play with the toys easier if they were out of the box.

I know I'm partial to short and dark-headed, but isn't she cute?!

We both have December birthdays... only 2 weeks apart!

Of course Lila read her stories just like she does for me.

It was nice later that day, so we went outside to take some pictures.

Well, Mommy wanted to take pictures, but I was really interested in what was over there...

And, hmm... what's this?

Rebecca was willing to snuggle with her Mommy.

Then she looked right at the camera and smiled so nice!

So I thought I could do that too! :)

Then because we don't get to see her very often, Mommy took one more.

The next morning we played with some toys again before church.

Yep, Lila surprised me with a hug attack. Sometimes I wish she wouldn't pick me up and squeeze me to show her love, but usually it feels nice... for a couple minutes anyway.

Rebecca wasn't so sure about Lila this morning. I think maybe she forgot where she was in the middle of the night? Or maybe she was just worried that she was going to be picked up next.

I sat next to her to reassure her.

Then I offered her another toy.

She still kept a close eye out for Lila though - and a possible hug attack like I got earlier.

Then our mommies got us ready for church. Doesn't Rebecca look so pretty in her dress?

Here we are together, each sporting a hair bow. For some reason, our mommies kept saying things like "aww" and "they're so cute" and "isn't that so sweet" when we played together.

Here we are all together. Mommy wouldn't have posted this picture... something about her hair being pulled back in a ponytail but you can't tell, and then she's wearing her Sunday School teacher t-shirt...but lucky for you, I'M the one doing this post. I mean, I don't get any choice about all the pictures she puts up of me, do I?

So I say we need one that shows all of us together.

Rebecca, if you're reading this, I hope we can get together again soon!

Now that we are walking (I've almost got the hang of it), I bet we could really have some fun!

And maybe if you were here, Mommy would say "that's so cute" when I play with the toilet paper.

Hat Trick

2012-01-16T15:41:00.000-06:00

My friend Andi made the kids some winter hats. They turned out so cute, I wanted to try and take some pictures of the kids wearing them. She made them in the kids' favorite colors (ok, Piper hasn't determined a favorite color yet, but it *might* be purple!).

Looking at this picture and their expressions, they don't seem that unlike to me. I think Piper's laugh sounds like Lila's laugh too.

Then I attempted to get all three together.

Ben was standing behind me making faces.

But that just made Piper decide Daddy should be holding her! So she went off to bed for a nap.

I thought I'd get a couple more pictures of Lila. I told her to put her leg up against the wall. Then I had to show her what I meant.

Then she got into the posing :)

Hmm...

The blue hat really brings out her eyes.

One more, and then I told Wyatt it was his turn.

He came right over and did this. He's putting his leg up against the wall just like I showed Lila. Can't you tell? :) Ok, so it looks more like what you'd see in a chalk outline, but he gets points for style and initiative :)

Cheese!

No, Mom, don't tickle me!

His hat really complements his eyes too.

Thanks, Andi, for the hats!

ONE of a kind

2012-01-15T16:16:00.000-06:00

I searched through my pictures and found a comparison shot of all three of my kiddos at age 1. I have had several people tell me that Lila and Wyatt look so much alike, but Piper doesn't really look like them. I've never really thought Lila and Wyatt were all that similar, but compared to Piper, maybe they are. Piper is the brunette, if you didn't know already :)

Here are their one year comparison stats:

Lila: 19 lbs. 3.5 oz / 30.5 inches

Wyatt: 21 lbs. 15 oz / 31 inches

Piper: 19 lbs. 9 oz. / 30.25 inches

I guess Wyatt wins for growth!! But Piper wins for most hair :)

Misc. December

2012-01-07T22:17:00.000-06:00

At the beginning of December, Grandpa Brandt came for a weekend visit (a long layover on his way home from a business trip to Alaska). I don't know why, but this was the only time I picked up my camera. Despite the lack of photographic evidence, we all had a great time!

The last day of school before the winter break, Lila's class had a party at the end of the day. Parents were invited to attend. Ben came home a little early, so I was able to leave Wyatt and Piper at home which turned out to be a good thing since the party mostly consisted of a snack and a craft.

Here Lila is working on her craft. The girl next to her is her best friend at school.

Lila standing next to her cubby.

One day during break the weather was super nice. The kids were playing outside, so I took my camera out. Lila loves to hold a "flower" when she poses for me :)

I love this girl. She was excited to find some finger nail polish in her stocking :)

Wyatt's full "cheese!" grin.

Caught him in a laugh.

Over New Year's weekend, Ben's parents flew down for a visit. I didn't do a very good job remembering to take pictures for their visit either. This was the last day. Here Grandma had gone to get Piper from her crib when she woke up from her nap.

We had a great time visiting and playing games with them.

A quick picture of Grandma and Grandpa Amey with the kids before they had to leave.

And one where Piper is looking.

Waiting at the airport for Grandpa to say his plane is ready to go.

We each had a little bag of (free) popcorn while we waited to watch their airplane take off.

We went outside to wave as they flew overhead. I think Ben is laughing because Wyatt and Lila were yelling "bye!" and Piper had been waving too.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-07T21:41:00.001-06:00

We spent this Christmas at home (no family visiting). Janina did come up and spend the night on Christmas Eve, so she could be here when the kids woke up on Christmas morning. Because she knew it would be early :) Before we went to our Christmas Eve service at church, I attempted to take some pictures of my coordinating family.

The best shot I could get of the three kiddos together.

Family shot

Ha ha, this was a comical undertaking. This is the only picture where we are all looking at the camera. That alone I consider success. (Note to self: next time make sure you don't put the person who is as tall as the Christmas tree IN FRONT of the Christmas tree.)

Then I turned off the flash on my camera.

Lila

Janina and I worked to get her hair curly for the special occasion.

Wyatt

I think I did get one of him smiling his big cheese smile, but this just captures his personality so much better!

Piper

She just thought it was fun to sit in the rocking chair. Next to the ornaments on the Christmas tree :)

Aunt Janina and Lila

On Christmas Day, we invited our friends, Mark and April, to join us for lunch. We had a great meal and enjoyed an afternoon of playing games and playing with the kids. Lila even sang Feliz Navidad for us (she learned it in school and had told Mr. Mark at church the night before that she would sing it for him as his Christmas present!) Piper was there too - her high chair was next to Ben and didn't make it in the picture.

One Year

2012-01-07T09:06:00.002-06:00

Here are some pictures I attempted to take of my on-the-move 1 year old.

These pictures give her hair a reddish cast that is not there in real life. Her hair has lightened up some, but it is very much brown, not blond or red. The light from the window was casting a warm glow, I guess.

She likes to make the "Indian noise" (not politically-correct, I know) but you know where you pat your mouth while saying "ahhh":)

I gave her some Christmas ornaments in an attempt to get her to sit still.

Trying to pick them all up.

A couple days later it was warmer, so I attempted to take some outside shots. This is a much more accurate picture of her hair and eye color.

But I had to put her in a bucket to keep her from crawling away!

She was not happy about being in the bucket until I started tickling her.

I don't even remember - I told her 'no' about something. Life is hard when you don't get your way.

But she recovered.

This was taken on New Year's Day. She got this dress for Christmas. I think I had to put that headband back on her head about fifteen times. She would ignore it for a few minutes, but then she'd just reach up and pull it off.

She is full of spunk. At one year old, she likes to be where the 'big kids' are and will crawl toward their voices. I have heard her say "Dada", "Mama" and "Lila" (sounds more like Lala). She definitely says Dada the most. She still likes peek-a-boo. When I play hide-n-seek with Lila and Wyatt, she will look for me too. She is a great eater and will make the more sign if she sees something she wants to eat. Or reach out her hand and beckon for it. She is gaining more confidence in her walking; she will walk if I'm holding just one of her hands. She will often let go of things to stand on her own and then give the biggest "look at what I can do!" grin. She has only taken a couple unassisted steps, but it won't be long before she is running, I'm sure. Both Lila and Wyatt like to hold her hands and help her walk. She is happy-go-lucky usually. If she starts to get fussy, that is the signal that it's nap time. Or the aforementioned big brother or big sister are trying to hold her down :) She is the only baby I've ever held that gives great hugs (at this age). She wraps her arms around your neck and gives a big squeeze! She LOVES unloading the dishwasher - whether it needs unloading or not - and she has a sixth sense about the back room gate (the one gate we have in our house). If it's open, she is through it.

She brings such joy to us all.

Piper's 1st Birthday

2012-01-06T21:22:00.003-06:00

Hello. It's me again. Wondering where I've been the past 3 months? I think this time of year (Oct-Dec) is going to be busy for me from now on. 2 birthdays, 2 holidays? Yep, busy. But, I haven't given up. And yes, there are several posts that I need to put up, and I will go back and add them later. I decided to just start with December rather than feeling overwhelmed with how far behind I was :) So with that in mind, here is my baby at one year:

This was taken on December 17th (her birthday). She is a pro at standing (especially if she can lean against something!)

Displaying her dimple for us all to see.

Here she is making the face that she makes A LOT. I always want to quote Sebastian from The Little Mermaid when I see it... "you've got to pucker up, like dees" :)

And showing us her mouth full of teeth - 8 in the front plus now she has 2 molars coming in. Originally on this day, we had invited friends over for a Winter "One"derland birthday lunch. Unfortunately, that week a stomach bug managed to find its way into our home and it affected Piper, then myself, then Lila (the morning of the 17th). Bummer. We wanted to spread joy, not germs, so we canceled our party. The good news was the bug was very short-lived, and we all felt better within 12 hours of getting it. But, since we canceled so last minute, I already had the decorations up. I took some pictures to document the would-be celebration.

Photo collage of Piper's first year.

Lila thought I should take a picture of Piper in front of the 1, but Piper wasn't so thrilled to be held in place.

She wanted to take my wall decorations down instead.

The party table

The birthday girl's cupcake (yes, I had made those already too).

A close up of the photo collage. You can see in the middle row the pictures of Piper I took in her pink hat... top pic was on her birth announcement, then at 6 months and then the bottom 2 were at 1 year.

We went ahead and enjoyed the cupcakes. Here she's getting her first look at it.

She didn't really do anything though, so after a minute, Ben put a bite in her mouth.

Now she knew what to do! She didn't go at it like I thought she might, but this was after lunch and she HAD eaten a pretty big lunch. I thought maybe she wouldn't like sweets, but she has since made it known that it is not acceptable to leave her out of any dessert-type enjoyment!

And, notice the pucker again. Seriously, she makes that face ALL. THE. TIME.

So not what we originally planned for her big day, but still an enjoyable time. Aunt Janina braved the threat of illness and joined us for a casual dinner that night (thereby creating a "party" for Lila, who was concerned that Piper wouldn't have one.)

Family Picture {Outtakes}

2011-11-29T19:32:00.000-06:00

Over Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to try and get a group shot of the cousins while we were all together. I had letters that spelled 'FAMILY', so I gave one to each of the older kids. It was a comical undertaking to get a picture where everyone was looking, AND we could see all the letters! This whole process lasted less than 10 minutes, maybe even less than five. Here are the outtakes:

Notice Wyatt is using his 'Y' to prod Piper.

One is trying to escape!

Probably the best one of this pose. In retrospect, white letters against white shirts weren't the best (not that I did any kind of prep for this other than calling all the kids over when they were playing in the backyard.)

She was determined to get away, even if it meant losing her shirt!

So then I had them all sit down and just set the letters behind them.

Love Wyatt's face in this one!

The babies look like they're both getting the squeeze.

And the one I decided was the best, even though Nicole still wasn't too happy:

At least we could see all their faces! (I really like that we could see their varying heights when they were standing, but the 'FAMILY' was just too hard to read.)

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T22:18:00.000-06:00

For Thanksgiving, we drove up to Wichita to spend the week with our Amey family. The weather was nice and mild while we were there, so we played outside quite a bit.

Piper enjoying the outdoors.

Lila and Kaelyn

I had an easier time getting her to look at me when she was standing.

Unlike her sister, who requested to pose with the props I'd brought along (for the family picture I took).

We played some games, like "Mother May I".

Piper wasn't quite ready for "Mother May I", but she was happy to watch.

My turn to be the Mother :)

Then one day we went over to the church/school (where Ben's Mom teaches and Ben's brother, Brian, is the Youth Pastor) to play in the gym and on the playground. Here Grandpa has his hands full.

Grandma and Piper

Brian blew up the little bounce house for the kids to enjoy.

Nicole wasn't sure she liked Grandma holding someone else.

Brian and Mark, shooting some hoops.

Wyatt was having fun running around the gym.

Only a dad can get away with this.

Piper was well loved :)

She didn't seem to mind!

Practicing walking with Daddy.

Someone was excited to crawl around such a big floor!

One with Mommy (proof I was there!)

Whee!

Dogs sniff. Babies finger each other.

(L-R): Nicole (15 mos.), David (3), Lila (5), Wyatt (3), Britton (8), Kaelyn (6), Rachel (5), Piper (11 mos.)

They had NO problem giving me their silly faces :)

Then we went outside to the playground.

Ready, set, go!

I think this was the point where Ben got stuck!

Maybe he should have gone down this way!

Thanksgiving day was also nice. In the morning, Grandpa hooked up a little flatbed trailer to his riding lawnmower and gave some rides around the yard.

The girls were waving and yelling "Happy Thanksgiving!" like they were in a parade.

Piper said "I can wave too!"

Followed by, "Ooh, what's this?"

The girls were seated at their own table for the Thanksgiving meal. They were excited about that! We made some cute leaf name cards, so everyone would know where to sit.

More rides after lunch.

Then they came inside, and I got out the finger paints we'd brought along.

The day after Thanksgiving we went out to the family farm to visit with extended family. We went outside to see the animals, starting with the kitty cats. (Right after I took this picture, this cat pooped on Lila. I thought her meowing was to say she didn't like the way Lila was holding her, but apparently she *needed* to be put down!!)

Wyatt, watching the cows (the other animals we saw).

The dog was also interested in the food.

We also played with some bubbles.

The two girls on the right are Ben's cousin's daughters. The next day we went home. We had a great time playing with our cousins, playing cards, eating good food and just enjoying being together!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-23T15:48:00.001-06:00

This year for Halloween I decided not to make our costumes. With Wyatt's birthday and some other things, I didn't have time. So I took Lila to the store and let her pick out her costume.

She decided she wanted to be a ladybug.

Wyatt's costume was super easy. He wanted to be Bob the Builder. So we used the toy tools he got for his birthday and some clothes he already had (when we were trick-or-treating, someone asked if he was the Home Depot man. Ha! He doesn't look exactly like Bob, but Wyatt was thrilled.)

I love how nice the weather was for us.

It's hard to get a natural smile from Wyatt. Either I get the closed mouth smile (like the picture before) or this full on cheese!

It wasn't long before Bob and Ladybug were playing with the tools.

Originally, I wasn't going to put Piper in a costume, but at the last minute (the day before) I thought of an idea that would be pretty quick and easy. Can you guess who she is?

The dancer from the movie, Flashdance!

I used Q-tips as rollers to give her hair some more body (since the girl in the movie has a head full of curly hair.)

Originally, Ben and I weren't going to dress up either, but after we found something for Piper to wear, we decided to scrounge around the house and see what we could come up with. Ben became a champion runner.

I'm "Raining Cats and Dogs" :)

We went over and joined some friends for dinner and trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.

Brad and his little shark, Nathanael

Jamison the Dinosaur

Evan the Cowboy (riding a horse!)

Our group coming down the sidewalk.

We got some candy from the Mad Hatter.

Molly made a very cute little cow!

Headed to the next house

Lila was brave and rang the doorbell on her own.

Our last stop was back at our friend's house, where we came in and had dinner. We are blessed to enjoy these fun times with great friends!

State Fair 2011

2011-11-21T16:14:00.001-06:00

Way back in October, we went to the State Fair. Normally we try and go on a weekday to avoid the crowds, but with Lila in school now, that wasn't possible. Unfortunately the only weekend that worked for us was the weekend of the Cotton Bowl game. Was that going to stop us? No way :) So we braved the crowds and the heat! Here Piper is riding with Daddy on the tram to the fair grounds. (Due to the crowds we parked in the first lot we came to which happened to be farthest away. Just when I was despairing the long walk with three little kids, we saw the tram pull up. The kids thought it was fun to ride.)

We came in the gate that was closest to the petting zoo, so we decided to do that first. We went ahead and paid a $1 for feed but in the future, we now know you can pick up feed off the ground to give the animals! The baby goats were particularly cute.

Lila feeding a baby goat.

I don't remember the name of this animal... an antelope? He was hungry though!

Sweet girl.

She was happy to ride around in Daddy's arm.

Family photo. Fortunately for us, my sister joined us for this outing and took our picture for us.

I could have tried to Photoshop these two images together to get one where all 3 kids are looking at the camera, but that would be too much work :)

This is what I normally get when I say "smile for me".

Happy girl.

Next we went to the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit. Before you begin, we had to take advantage of the cutout photo op.

Silly kids!

On to the tour... first up, the orchard!

Feeding the chickens.

Milking the cow.

This is the first time since we've done this exhibit that Lila was willing to go anywhere near the fake cow.

Wyatt really liked riding on the tractor.

Sorting out their goods to "sell".

Here they are spending the "dollar" they got for their "goods."

Riding around in the stroller. I thought it was funny how she pushed her toes against the tray.

We let the kids play an arcade game for the first time. Basically, pick up a duck and win a prize. The prizes weren't that great (not anything you can see in the picture). So we probably won't be doing any more arcades for awhile yet.

We were off to find some rides.

Here we go.. the Kids Way.

We found a whale ride where basically the whales go around in a circle. Lila and Wyatt were going to ride together. Lila wanted blue of course! But then, at the last second, Lila decided she didn't want to ride after all. Wyatt was already strapped in though and unaware of the change.

Once he discovered she wasn't there, he was NOT happy. Poor guy. He just had to finish out the scary ride by himself.

So then we decided to do another ride, but this time Ben and I rode along. Ben rode with Wyatt.

I rode with Lila.

I tried to get both of them to stand in front of this sign so we could see how tall they were, but Wyatt wasn't feeling cooperative.

Next Lila and I went through a fun house.

After watching us, Wyatt decided it looked fun so both kids went through with Ben.

At the end there was a rotating barrel. Next to that was a wavy mirror (which is what Lila is looking at).

Both Lila and Wyatt needed help getting through the barrel.

This year we found something new - it's probably been there every year but we hadn't found it before - the Texas Midway Greenhouse. And inside were a bunch of trains!

It was pretty neat how the trains went around and above us.

There was also a place in the greenhouse for children to decorate mini pumpkins.

Then we found a very special train...

Percy! (from Thomas the Train)

Wyatt was pretty excited!

But not as excited as when we went to the Bob the Builder exhibit in one of the museums on the fair grounds.

It was a hands-on, interactive exhibit. This was a fun display on plumbing where they put balls (water) down a pipe and then they came out into these buckets.

Wyatt really liked this station.

Here he is playing with Bob and Scoop.

Another station they had was this "stone" wall. They could complete the wall by placing the stones (which were magnetic).

Piper finally decided it was time for a nap, so she snoozed while the other two played.

Next they found the play tools. Wyatt cracked me up how he wore these goggles.

Wyatt had his tool belt and tool box ready to go.

Banging his hammer.

Both of them hard at work (notice Wyatt's goggles again).

Finally it was time to go... but not before enjoying a funnel cake!!

Riding the tram back to our car. It was a fun day.

Fire Station Tour

2011-11-02T21:13:00.000-06:00

About a month ago, I joined some other moms for a fire station tour at a local fire station. I was excited to do this with Wyatt because he is always so enamored with fire trucks when we see them. The station we went to was older... the only one in the area that still has a working pole!

For the tour, Wyatt wore his *favorite* shirt, his fireman rain boots and his fireman's hat (I tried, but I could not convince him the hat was meant to be worn the other way!).

Even though he loves fire trucks, when we got inside he was pretty shy. He didn't want to touch the hose. I was able to get him to sit on the truck but only for a minute. Then we got to go inside the truck but he was very quiet through it all.

Here he is hanging back while the fireman shows off the equipment at the back of the truck.

Then they had us all sit down and showed us the gear that the fireman wears. They wanted the kids to see the person beneath all the gear, so they wouldn't be afraid if they ever encounter a fireman in his gear.

Here he is with all the gear. The mask made his voice different. I thought it was such a good idea for them to do this because kids probably do get scared in a fire if they've never seen this before! After this, we got to go upstairs and tour their living area which was neat to see.

Then we came back downstairs, and they showed us how the pole worked. This is all the kids watching. No, we weren't allowed to try it :) In fact, they said only firemen who've been trained can use the pole!

Then they gave us some goodies, like this plastic fireman's hat. Wyatt decided to wear it the correct way... long enough for me to take this picture anyway.

By this point, Wyatt had started to warm up and not be so shy. Here he is helping roll up a hose.

Standing up on the back of a truck with a friend (who incidentally is only 2 months younger than Wyatt... can you tell my boy is tall?!).

Standing in front of the truck bay before we left. It was fun.

I love my little firefighter :)

(Yes, Piper was there. She hung out in the stroller the whole time, even snoozing part of the time.)

Trip to the Zoo

2011-10-30T21:22:00.000-06:00

Back in September, I went with some mom friends to a small zoo about an hour away. We were able to walk all the way through the zoo, and it didn't take too long... perfect for little boys!

First up we saw some flamingos!

Flamingo :)

Piper had fun chilling in the stroller.

Fun with a cut out sign.

Trying to see the zebras through the fence. We also saw some giraffes.

Climbing on the fence like a monkey.

Walking on the boardwalk with friends.

We spent a few minutes in this picnic area, and the kids had fun running around.

Wyatt liked running ahead of the group, so here he let me take his picture while we were waiting for everyone to catch up to us.

They had a few goats the kids could feed. Here Piper and her friend Molly were watching the goats clamor for the food.

Best buds.

Mommy and her lil' guy

Neat statue at the entrance to the zoo.

After the zoo, we ate a picnic lunch and then played for a few minutes on the playground, which was right outside the zoo.

Wyatt had a great time climbing and running. Then it was time to go home, so we could pick up Lila from school!

My Star Student

2011-10-28T22:10:00.002-05:00

Back in September, Lila was the Star Student for a week (all of the kids in her class get to be the Star for a week). What did that entail? She got to bring in a poster and talk about herself on Monday, and then on Friday she got to bring in a show-and-tell item. She chose to bring a Lil' Woodzeez family (toy). Some of the things she likes that she featured on her poster: drawing pictures, reading, AWANA Sparks, playing outside, coloring, catching bugs and her Lil' Woodzeez toys.

In addition to catching bugs, this summer we had the joy of housing a couple little lizards. My reaction when I find one of those fast-moving little creatures in the house is to get it out as quick as possible. Lila's reaction is to run and get her bug kit and catch it (well, to have Daddy catch it!) This particular lizard was found outside and was larger (3-4" from nose to tail) than the normal tiny ones that come inside.

You can see in this picture, the lizard was about to shed his skin. I was hoping it would happen quickly, so we could see it and then let him go. But, a few days later he looked the same. We convinced Lila to let him go before he died since he had no food. By the way, after I took these pictures, I taped the lid shut on this thing... didn't want to risk him getting loose!!

This was Lila on Crazy Hair night. She had several ponytails adorned with pipe cleaners, fake flowers and pom poms. Ben is helping with Awana again this year. Lila is a Spark (last year she was a Cubbie). They have council time (bible lesson), handbook time (where they recite their verses) and game time (where they play games, relays, etc.) She has been having a lot of fun with it all.

Lila still loves being a big sister. Now that Piper can stand, she LOVES to stand next to the tub. It is the perfect height for her. She also loves it when there are people in the tub to watch!

And interact with!!

This week Ben was a Watch DOG at school. Watch DOGS (Dads Of Great Students) volunteer to come help at school for a day. Lila was so excited for him to do it. She must have asked everyday for a week if tomorrow was the day. Then that morning when I was making their lunches, she informed me that I didn't need to put a note in her lunch box because "Daddy is my note" (he spent about half of the day helping in her class and got to each lunch with her.) This is a picture he took on his phone at recess.

Another picture he took during "free centers" at the end of the day. Lila almost always chooses to go to the art center.

I wasn't sure how she'd handle going to school the next day after having Daddy there all day, but fortunately she had a field trip to the zoo to look forward to (which was today). And Ben was going to chaperone. I am looking forward to being able to chaperone a trip in the spring (when I don't have to be here for Piper, and somebody else could maybe stay with her and Wyatt). I meant to send along the camera with Ben, but forgot, so here is another photo taken on his phone. This was his group. The girl wearing pink is Lila's "best friend". Her dad and little sister (far left) joined them at the zoo.

Another picture riding on the tortoise sculpture.

Overall, I think Lila is enjoying kindergarten. She asks me frequently if I will eat lunch with her. We have gone a few times (someday she will know what an act of love it is to eat lunch with her at 10:45!!) If she is tired at the end of the day, she will get weepy and say she misses me when she's at school. But in the morning, she is usually fine. I have been adjusting as well. It is hard to not know what all goes on during the day (especially since Lila doesn't share much). Since she has started school, her reading ability - and interest - have increased a lot. She reads quite well and also has taken an interest in writing now. The few times we have eaten lunch with her, she seems to be fairly popular with several girls. At the beginning of the year, she had to switch seats with another girl because the other girl was talking too much. I asked her if she ever got in trouble for talking, and she informed me that she was the most shy in the class (and therefore the quietest). I haven't asked her recently if that is still true!

We Love Trucks!

2011-10-07T09:40:00.001-05:00

Can you believe that next week this guy will be three? Yep, three. Not four or five. Three. In fact, I struggle most times to remember that he is only two and not already three. He has been the size of a three year old for quite some time. When he plays with Lila, it is easy to think that they are my "older" kids. But in reality, Wyatt is closer in age to Piper. I asked Lila once if she remembered Wyatt being born. She didn't. Life has never existed for her without Wyatt. I feel that way too. Has it been only three years since this little guy came into our lives? It feels like longer.

Wyatt has had a fascination with construction vehicles, fire trucks, garbage trucks, etc. for a while. And he loves to play outside in the dirt, so it's natural that those two things would go together.

Here he is filling his little dump truck with dirt to empty into his big dump truck.

In the past month, he has discovered Bob the Builder and LOVES the Bob videos. So now we know construction vehicles by their Bob names... Scoop (backhoe), Dizzy (cement truck), Lofty (crane)... you get the idea.

Lucky for him, I didn't try to plant any new flowers this spring in my flower boxes. (Lucky for me too - they probably wouldn't have survived our extreme temps and drought this year.)

Dumping the dirt.

Getting more dirt.

Then I suggested he move his big dump truck closer.

Yes, this will go faster now :)

What prompted me to go outside with my camera in the first place was I saw him sitting on the window ledge. But of course, by the time I got out there he had moved on. So I had to convince him to sit back down for me and then I had to coax a smile. Here are the outtakes :)

Perhaps you remember Wyatt's cute mispronunciation of pancakes? Well, he says that word correctly now, but he still has a few things he doesn't say quite right. Like the restaurant Which Wich - he says Switch Wich :)

He loves to watch the garbage trucks go down our street, and he loves to help me pull up the trash cans once they are empty.

He also loves to help me in the kitchen and will pull over a chair to "help". He also likes to help with the dishes (which usually just involves dumping water from one cup to another -- and ends when he gets water on the floor or all down his shirt).

His favorite word to say is "duck". He says it frequently and randomly. He laughs whenever he says it. When Ben was in Germany and we made a little video to send him, I asked the kids if they wanted to tell Daddy anything. Lila said "I love you Daddy." Wyatt said "duck!" Then he laughed.

And here's another photo to put in the "embarrassing wedding photos" stockpile. He likes to put on Lila's socks and shoes.

With him about to turn three, I have begun to think about potty training. But, he still shows no interest in using the toilet. And we have had some issues with him not wanting to go #2, even in his diaper. I don't get very excited about this venture right now. Two things I don't understand... why wouldn't you want to go in the toilet and why wouldn't you want to take a nap?? :)

Usually, he is my sweet, but loud, little guy. However, if he gets overly tired, we have learned he becomes a crazed maniac. By that I mean, he won't make up his mind but then gets upset about it, screams and yells and kicks. It isn't pretty. The other night I had to hold him down while I changed his diaper and then put him to bed. It doesn't happen very often fortunately. During those moments I have no problem remembering how old he is though :)

Times Have Changed

2011-10-04T17:17:00.000-05:00

This was taken (on my phone) in July of 2009, a little over two years ago.

Now, those two look like this. Where did my babies go???

Back then, he was the baby.

Now we have a new baby in the picture.

I have no idea what Piper was looking at. The other two were laughing at Ben, who was trying to get them to smile.

And just for fun... what a happy little guy :)

9 Months and Thriving

2011-10-04T14:39:00.000-05:00

When I took Piper in for her 9 month check up, everything looked great. She was hitting all the milestones... babbling, crawling, standing. She had grown an inch. BUT, she had only gained 1 ounce since she was 6 months. The doctor was concerned and perplexed as to why she hadn't gained more weight. She never acted hungry, but maybe I wasn't feeding her enough?? I mean, she really is a happy baby 95% of the time. It was the second time I have heard the phrase "failure to thrive" concerning her. (I also heard that when I was pregnant and measuring small.) The doctor wanted to do a urine test to see if that gave any answers. So while we were waiting for my sweet girl to tinkle, the doctor also ordered an EKG.

Here she is: 9 months old getting an EKG. The hardest part was keeping Piper from pulling all those cords off. I haven't heard anything about the EKG results, so I can only assume it came back normal. Since that day, we have doubled (possibly tripled) what we were feeding her. Included in that is some Pediasure which the doctor prescribed. She has eaten it all. I feel badly that I obviously wasn't feeding her enough, but at the same time, I am hoping that is the only problem. I take her back to the doctor in 2 weeks for a weight check.

Here she is before her doctor's appointment, happy as a clam. She was particularly excited about touching that dishwasher thingy (that's the untechnical term). Also, she loves to carry something in her hand. She crawls everywhere holding something in one or both hands. That little tubular lego? Her favorite.

She does try to put it in her mouth and chew on it sometimes. Then she gets told "no-no".

The face I got when I took it away.

She makes a really cute pouty face, I must say :)

I took her outside later that day to try and get a new picture for my living room. I have a frame that holds the kids' three pictures and I wanted to update Piper's pic.

She was fascinated by the dead grass.

I thought maybe she would be upset about sitting in the straw-like grass, but she didn't mind at all!

Then one morning, I decided I'd better take some pictures of her to document nine months. Here she is with the turtle.

Get used to these types of hugs, Piper. I see many of them in your future.

She often sits on her knees... easier to keep going that way!

Wyatt laughing at something she was doing.

She was laughing because I kept gently pushing her backward when she'd try to sit up.

Happy girl.

Happy hungry girl.

A picture of her hair swirl on the back of her head.

I believe it was at this point I started thinking, "Hmm. She IS 9 months old. She should have a doctor's appt. coming up." I went and looked at the calendar. Yikes! It was that day at 10 a.m. The time? 9:40 a.m. We ran out the door and made it on time. Little did I know I would be there for two hours waiting on things like an EKG.

She stands up all the time now. Notice the blocks in her hand.

Current eye color: gray?

She likes to stand up by the window and look out.

I thought I should document bath time now. She holds things in the tub too.

She LOVES bath time!

She holds on to the toys when she gets out of the tub too. You can kind of see all of her teeth in this picture. She has two on bottom and three on top.

Where's Piper?

So sweet.

Friends of ours got this towel for Piper when she was born.

I love hooded towels.

Oh, that tongue. And the dimple. So cute!

Different day, same block.

What do you think? Does she look like she's gained weight? She really is a happy baby. Loves to babble and investigate everything. She eats really well... has only gagged at a few things :) And she loves to snuggle. I'm sure if I wanted to, I could hold her all day long and she wouldn't complain. When I pick her up, she gets really excited and starts bouncing up and down in my arms. It is an instant mood booster :)

Feeding the Ducks?

2011-10-04T13:13:00.000-05:00

These pictures are from a month ago. September was cooler... still hot in the afternoons but definitely cooler in the morning and evenings. On this particular evening, we decided to walk down to our local park to feed the ducks. I had a few bread "ends" that were old and dry saved up for just this purpose.

Lila and Wyatt rode in the jogging stroller, but once we got to the park they wanted out.

Here Ben is trying to show Wyatt how to throw smaller pieces I think.

Aunt Janina came up for supper that night, so she joined us on our romp to the park. She wasn't thrilled I took her picture :)

A walk after supper for a baby is equivalent to a lecture after lunch for a college student... nap time, every time!

Lila had plenty of ducks to feed.

Wyatt just threw his bread, can you tell?

Then I saw something that left me flabbergasted. Yes, that's Lila EATING the bread. The old, dry bread. Um, yuck?

A picture with Daddy

More bread eating. I just don't get it.

Happy boy

I promise we DID eat dinner right before this.

Wyatt about to throw more bread to the ducks??

Nope, he was eating the bread too. I was baffled. I tried to tell them "don't eat that" but other than being kind of dry, it was ok to eat.

So once the ducks - I mean kids - had eaten all the bread, we were done. It was time to go back home. And apparently, next time we eat dinner, I need to offer some dry bread for dessert!

Labor Day 2011

2011-09-29T15:49:00.001-05:00

For Labor Day weekend, we drove to my parent's house in Alabama. On the way out, we stayed in a hotel in Arkansas to break up the drive. It worked out pretty well. We got two adjoining rooms so we could put the kids to bed in one room (well, Piper was in our room). They all three slept the whole night; we left the door open between the rooms. As Ben said, next time we might even be able to all sleep in one room! We probably could have done it this time except there was an expected amount of giggling and settling down in one room that would have woken up Piper in the other room. We had picked Lila up from school on Thursday afternoon, so Friday we drove the rest of the way to AL and got there in time for supper. Saturday dawned sunny and beautiful. We had been accustomed to 100+ degree weather, so to have a high in the 80s felt glorious!

We began the morning with pancakes for breakfast. Grandpa even took shape requests! Wyatt wanted Mickey Mouse.

When we talked to them a few days before we came, Grandpa told Lila he had some fun things for them when we got there. She wanted to know what they were, and he said it was a surprise. So the whole weekend she kept asking if there were any more surprises :) Well, surprise #1 was m&m's on her Minnie Mouse pancake for eyes.

Piper was happy to sit in the high chair and eat Cheerios.

Next surprise: a new sandbox! Grandpa thought they would enjoy filling the sandbox too, so he waited for their help. He had sifted the sand to get rid of any twigs, etc. and kept it in this trash can so it wouldn't get wet.

Lila also enjoyed putting the bird feeders out.

Here is Wyatt pouring the sand in the sandbox. Once it got about halfway full, though, Grandpa lost all of his helpers. They decided they had enough to play!

Lila came in to see what Piper was up to.

I couldn't resist sitting Piper on this cute little chair.

Yes, someone was right there to catch her should she lose her balance. And yes, she didn't stay up there very long. But how cute is that chair? Or the baby? :)

Checking out another antiquity at Grandma's house: the baby doll Grandma played with when she was a little girl.

Meanwhile, the outdoor crew was busy playing.

It was starting to get warm... don't know if you can see the sweat rolling down Wyatt's face. The sand was really fine so a little cloud would rise whenever sand was poured. So when they did come in, they were hot, sweaty and dusty. Wyatt didn't mind.

This Tonka truck was my brother's when he was a boy. I remember playing with my Dad's old toys when we would visit my grandparents. There is something so fun about an old toy made new.

They started out in the shade, but by this point it was sunny. We came in shortly after this. I had contacted some friends of ours that moved to Tennessee five years ago. They live about 2 hours from my parents, so I asked them if they would be willing to drive down to see us. Fortunately for us, they agreed.

My mom went above and beyond and put out a very nice spread for dinner. The kids had fun playing in the pool and yard. The last time we were all together, Lila was a baby, and so was Clark (left).

Now we are each a family of five. It was fun to meet their other two boys and see how everyone has grown.

Don't they have a beautiful family? They asked if I'd take a picture of their family, and I was happy to do so!

At first the kids were a little shy with each other, but by the end they were chasing each other and having a great time. When it was time to leave, Lila and Clark gave each other a hug without anyone prompting them. It was so sweet!

It's a good thing Piper (usually) likes Lila's attentions because she doesn't have much choice about it.

Here Ben had a blanket on his head and was reaching out to tickle whatever he could touch. Needless to say, there was a LOT of giggling going on!

Then Grandpa gave some horsey rides.

Lila got a turn too.

The architects with their cabin.

Grandma reading a book with Wyatt.

My parents have a refrigerator in their basement and anytime anyone had to go down there to get something, either Wyatt or Lila wanted to go along!

Sunday brought a change in weather. Rain moved into the area. Luckily, we had packed along our new rain boots.

Wyatt in his fireman rain boots.

It was a nice steady drizzle.

They each got their own umbrella to hold.

Fun stomping in the rain on the deck.

Lila can always find the flowers.

Grandpa came outside, and they decided to see if they could find a bigger puddle to jump in.

This picture reminds me of a mama duck with her ducklings!

In the front street, they found a little river of rainwater to splash in. Fun, fun! (Note: if you are splashing in boots and shorts, the water will just go right into the top of the boot. So they don't really keep your feet dry. But it was fun.) I was staying dry on the front porch, so this was the closest picture I got.

Grandma and Piper

Random shot of the three kids

Piper wasn't really sure what was going on.

Standing by my chair.

Rainy days meant inside activities, like coloring.

Lila decided she wanted to make some thank you "cards" to send to our friends, the Loftons, who had visited.

The morning of our long drive back home, Grandma fed Piper some breakfast.

One last time to feed the birds. After they filled the bird feeder, they spread some seed in the yard.

When the rain came, it also turned COLD. So cold, we had to make a trip to the store to buy some pants for the kids since I hadn't brought any along. Who knew when we left 100 degree heat, we'd end up in 60 degree weather?? Not me. But we still had a great time! We even survived the full day's drive home!

All In A Day's Work {Then}

2011-09-15T23:34:00.000-05:00

(Warning: this is a long post.) Several years ago I was looking at a friend's scrapbook albums, and I saw something I thought was neat. She had an album that showed an overview of their day... a picture taken every 15 minutes throughout the day. She did it every year. I thought that was a neat idea. I don't know that I will do it every year, but I wanted to document our day at home before school started (with the idea that I will do it again in the near future to show a day at home now that school has started). However, every 15 minutes seemed like a LOT to put on the blog, so instead I picked up the camera every 30 minutes. Below is our day... Friday, August 19.

My day actually began at 6:45 when Piper woke up, but I decided to nurse her before beginning our photo journey. Once she had eaten, she was wide awake... unlike her sister and brother.

By 7:30 Lila had woken up... mostly. Piper was letting me know she was ready to eat breakfast, and Wyatt was still asleep.

At 8, the girls were eating breakfast. Wyatt was still asleep, although you can see that he is moving (George is blurry).

8:30 found us finishing up breakfast. Wyatt likes to eat his cereal dry. Lila had finished her cereal and was enjoying some yogurt. Piper was also eating yogurt bites.

After breakfast, Wyatt and Lila were ready to play... Wyatt found some winter gear to try on and Lila drew a picture on her easel, among other things. I worked on sorting laundry. By nine Piper was ready to have her diaper changed and go down for a nap. She usually falls asleep pretty easily in the morning.

With Piper asleep, the kids worked on a quiet activity like coloring while I started some laundry.

After I got the laundry in, I hopped in the shower and got ready for the day. The kids watched a short video during that time. Good thing I was quick because by 10, Piper was awake!

10:30... more playing. At this point my camera battery died, so I had to hunt down my charger and plug it in. Then I fed Piper.

The day before this, I had taken some pictures of Piper at 8 months and the sheet I used for a backdrop was still in the living room. Lila and Wyatt decided it would be fun to play with the sheet. Piper decided to follow me around.

The kids used the sheet and some chairs to make a tent. Then they brought toys and books into their tent. I started working on making lunch while my little pumpkin explored the kitchen. She also had a spit-up and crawled through it, resulting in an outfit change.

Lunchtime!

After lunch, I gave Piper some toys (well, actually, I think Lila gave her the toys) to keep her happy in her highchair while I unloaded the dishwasher. Lila and Wyatt played together sending a car back and forth under the sofa.

More playing.

When Piper gets down, it isn't long before Lila is "helping" her play.

It was time to start picking up the mess they had made up till this point. Piper started showing signs of fatigue (and a readiness to eat again).

Two o'clock brings Room Time. What is Room Time? It used to be nap time, but that ended (way too soon for me!). So instead, the kids have room time which is time to play quietly in their room(s). Depending on how the day has gone, how tired they are acting, and how well they are getting along, I will let them spend Room Time together or apart. Piper also spent some time in her room... 2nd nap. Unfortunately the afternoon nap is harder for her to settle down. After she fell asleep, I started in on the laundry again.

Piper was still asleep (I didn't want to risk waking her up by taking a picture). At this point, Lila and Wyatt were doing a pretty good job staying in the room.

But that doesn't usually last for long. They come out for all kinds of reasons... need a drink, need help getting dress-up clothes on, need help breaking apart Legos... or in this case, Wyatt said "I hurt myself". Nothing a little Mommy kiss can't fix.

Of course, sometimes I have go in to solve problems. Like when you try sitting on the edge of your sister's bed (yep, that little piece of wood he has his hand on), and you lose your balance and fall backwards so you find yourself hanging on for dear life. Well, turns out that is kind of scary. And you need Mom to rescue you. And comfort you. Not take pictures of you.

Little sister took a longer nap, but she is once again awake. (She usually takes one longer nap each day, and one shorter nap.) She was content playing in the living room until I went into Lila's room to help/motivate clean up. It wasn't long before she decided to join us.

Next up is a snack and video. (And time to feed Piper again.)

Five o'clock. Time to feed the dogs. Maggie (pictured) takes two pills every day - thyroid medication and an antacid. She is our dog who upsets easily.

Time to start making dinner. This particular day I was trying a new recipe, a French Toast casserole.

Dinner is in the oven.

Piper was starting to get a little fussy, so she had a pre-dinner snack while I set the table. Ben usually gets home from work around 6:15.

Time to eat!

(I wish I could say the casserole was a new favorite, but it was just ok.)

At the end of dinner, we had some dessert (a cookie-brownie that WAS a hit!). Piper had some after dinner Puffs.

After dinner entertainment... video game for the older kids, looking out the window for Piper. It's unusual that Lila and Wyatt aren't outside playing. Usually that is what they do after dinner (because it is finally cool enough to go outside!).

Eight o'clock... time to get ready for bed!

This was the last picture I took because little Miss Piper was ready for bed as well. Usually Ben puts Wyatt and Lila to bed by reading 1-3 stories (depending on the time), saying prayers and starting their bedtime music. Then running interference for the many reasons they think of to come out of their rooms (water, too hot, too cold, forgot to give Mom a hug, need a bed buddy, etc.) Meanwhile, I put Piper to bed by nursing her and putting her in her crib. Yes, I get the easier job (although Ben would have a hard time nursing Piper!). Some nights I help put either Lila or Wyatt to bed... but usually they want Daddy.

And there you have it! A couple hours of child-free time for ourselves, and then off to bed so we can tackle the next day.

The New Day Crew

2011-09-04T16:57:00.000-05:00

Now that Lila is in school again, the status quo around here has changed a little bit. Wyatt is the "big" sibling and little sister Piper likes to do what he is doing :) One day I thought I'd try to get a picture of Piper holding this fun flower balloon that was Lila's. It seemed like it would be a fun prop.

But she was only interested in chewing on it.

Then she abandoned it all together and set out to explore.

Wyatt decided he wanted to get his picture taken too.

So we tried one of them together.

I needed Wyatt to hang onto Piper for me. She was a little wiggly, which made Wyatt kind of giggly.

Hug.

Piper checking out Wyatt. You can tell by her expression that she thinks he's pretty neat.

Wyatt showing off his Fred Flintstone feet (as Aunt Janina calls them).

Peek-a-boo.

My new favorite picture of Wyatt.

Can you tell I have a mischievous boy on my hands?

I just want to scoop him up and kiss those cheeks!

Meanwhile, little sister is exploring big sister's room. (She makes this snorty face when she is excited.)

She definitely knows how to use her tongue!

More snorting.

Wyatt likes to be my helper when I'm cooking.

And by helping, he means watching me and stacking up the ingredients.

Perhaps I would enjoy cooking more if I stacked all the ingredients?

The cooks.

I also have help with the dishes.

She comes crawling over as soon as she sees me loading or unloading.

In fifteen years, I will show her this picture to remind her how excited she is to help with the dishes :)

Helping with the dishes AND working on a new tooth... multi-tasking already!

Boys Will Be Boys

2011-09-04T14:54:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago, we had some friends come over to play. It was the second day of school for Lila, so Wyatt really appreciated the company of his friends.

Jamison came over first (I watched him while his mom and little brother went to the doctor). He and Wyatt played with cars. They had a few opportunities to practice sharing :) Then another friend, Evan, joined the fun. They were having lots of fun chasing each other. Then they had fun pretending to be various animals. You know, typical boy stuff :) I wanted to get a picture of the three of them together, but how do you get little boys to sit still for that?

Tell them to show you their scary face!

Sad face.

Silly face.

Happy face!!

Little monkeys :)

Then we got out the Hungry Hippos game.

It was a big hit.

Jamison's game face.

Wyatt's hippo had some technical difficulties.

Ready...

Set...

Go!

While we were playing the game, Jamison's little brother Nathanael arrived. He thought it would be fun to try on Evan's boots.

It didn't take him long to decide he wanted to join the game too.

Evan's little sister, Molly, had been taking a nap, but at this point she woke up and joined the fun.

Tasting the blocks.

Piper also thought she should try out the toys (this was an "ant" from the Ants in the Pants game).

The ants needed to be tasted too. It wasn't too long after this that our friends had to go home. We had lots of fun and burned lots of energy, so it was a good day :)

First Week of School

2011-09-01T23:07:00.001-05:00

The first day of school was rushed. I thought I had given myself plenty of time, but I hadn't figured in (1) kids who would rather be silly and giggle than eat breakfast and (2) the incredibly long line of cars that were waiting to get a parking space so parents could walk their children inside.

Here she is all ready for her first day. Why I couldn't remember to take my camera with me after taking this picture I don't know (maybe it had something to do with trying to get 3 kids in the car)... but I left it at home. There wasn't a whole lot of time once we got there to take any pictures anyway. I helped Lila find her seat, gave her a kiss goodbye and left. No tears, although I did get a little misty-eyed walking back down the hallway. Fortunately, God knew I could use a friendly face because standing there was the ONLY person I knew who had kids at this school. So we went into the cafeteria together for the Principal's breakfast (donuts). Wyatt enjoyed a chocolate donut while we chatted. Then we went home. Wyatt asked "Is it time to go get Lila yet?" a few times that day, but overall he did well.

Then it was time to go get Lila. I learned from that morning and left with lots of time to spare. There were still cars in the carpool lane when I got there.

I have a sign with Lila's name on it that I put in the car window. A lady with a walkie-talkie stands ten cars back and tells the faculty inside which children to bring out. As I got closer and closer to the front, there was no sign of Lila. Eventually I made it all the way into the first position and still no sign of Lila. A lady went to check and came back to tell me "we're looking for her right now. In all the rush, she probably just got mixed in with a different group (kids who get picked up by their parents or walk home go to the gym, not the cafeteria). Don't worry; we haven't lost a kindergartner yet." FIVE MINUTES PASS. Finally, here she comes with Lila. Turns out she was in the cafeteria... just sitting with the after school kid's club group instead of the car riders group.

She told me on the way home about how she got to have two snacks -- I send one along with her to have each afternoon because they eat lunch at 10:55 a.m -- but then she also got to have pretzels that they gave her. I quickly realized she was referring to the after school club snack, so I told her that she *probably* wouldn't get a snack like that tomorrow :)

Wyatt was happy to have her home. The school day is over at 3 p.m. so it is right in the middle of what was normally "room time". Depending on how well they do, I sometimes let them stay out or I sometimes make them have a little bit of room time... but I let them stay together.

Day 2 went much more smoothly. I even remembered my camera!

The line to get in to school on the 2nd day.

On the 2nd day, I walked her to the cafeteria. All the Kindergartners meet up in the cafeteria, and then the teacher takes them to the classroom right before the bell rings. (The first day we were allowed to walk them to their actual classroom.)

Lila's teacher is the lady in the orange shirt. The school has four K classes. They told us that they might have to move some kids around to get balanced classrooms (they would let us know at the end of week one), but Lila was able to remain with her original teacher.

Now, for some reason, I had it in my head that they told us after the 2nd day, we couldn't walk them in anymore. So for the rest of the week, I went through the carpool lane and just dropped Lila off. I thought this meant that they would come get her out of the car (like they did in preschool), but no. The kids have to walk in themselves. Lila quickly informed me that she "didn't want to be by herself." She walked so slowly into the building. To her credit, she didn't cry. I can't say that I didn't shed a couple tears on the way home. It was the toughest goodbye yet. The hardest thing about being a mother is the daily conflict between wanting your child to soar and the desire to keep them safe in your arms. It is especially hard when your daughter is so much like you emotionally that you can really empathize. I told myself that the next day would be easier for her and pretty soon she would be jumping out of the car and skipping into school. But by the 2nd week, she was in tears at breakfast and saying she didn't want to go to school anymore... all because she had to walk in by herself. So I parked and walked her in that morning. And guess what? No one stopped me. So for the past few mornings I have been walking Lila into school, and we have both been happier for it! We still pick her up via carpool, but someone brings her out to the car then.

I am blessed with friends who think of me during life's transitions.

Some observations I have made now that we are getting a new "school" routine down.

1. Wyatt plays better by himself than with Lila. By that I mean he actually plays with his cars, etc. rather than just making a mess (which tends to happen when Lila is home).

2. Piper follows Wyatt around the house and wants to play with whatever he is playing with. It is really cute. Wyatt is surprisingly obliging with her - usually. Sometimes he has to be reminded to be gentle :)

3. Lila offers almost NO information about her day when she comes home from school. The two most common answers I get to my questions are "I don't know" and "I can't remember". I have learned to wait until dinner to ask about her day... amazingly she can remember more by then! :)

Some tidbits from our time at school:

1. One thing I have asked Lila each day is if she made any new friends today. One day she told me that she made her first "boy" friend named Tyler. She said, "He was doing a puzzle and I saw him" - at this point she puts her finger to her chin and taps her chin - "and I thought 'maybe we could be friends'. I just thought it. I didn't say it."

2. On Thursday night (of last week) I went in to give her a hug goodnight. She asked me what day is tomorrow, so I told her Friday. She then informed me that she thought she would get a turn to move the arrow on the calendar tomorrow because she hadn't gotten a turn yet. So then I informed her that if that was the case then "today" would be Friday, "tomorrow" would be Saturday and "yesterday" would be Thursday. She looked at me for a beat and then said, "I'll just remember today is Friday."

3. Almost every day when Lila has gotten in the car at the end of the day, she has informed me that she needed to go the bathroom... urgently. Yesterday she didn't quite make it before we got home. I was really perplexed by this because she hasn't had problems going to the bathroom in the past. I wasn't sure what the schedule was though because she had told me that they had bathroom breaks where everyone uses the big bathroom (they also have a single bathroom in their classroom). So after her accident, I tried to get more information out of her. Did you go potty today? When do they let you go? Before lunch? After lunch? After PE? Everything was met with "I don't know" or "I can't remember". Finally I said she wasn't in trouble; I just wanted to be able to help her figure out when to go so she would be able to make it home okay. All of a sudden she started crying and told me that the bathrooms have toilets that automatically flush (which are scary). So the poor girl has been trying to hold it all day to avoid those scary things. Luckily I was able to chat with her teacher this morning and thankfully the toilet in the classroom does NOT automatically flush (Lila hadn't used it yet). So I think we may have found a solution for her.

By the end of the first week, Lila was excited about writing. Not just reading. WRITING. Which they told us the kids will do a lot of writing this year. I guess all Lila needed was someone to suggest it. She quickly made this preschool bag her writing bag. She put a notebook, pencil and several easy reader books in it.

And then she wrote a story in her notebook. All by herself. It was 3 pages, and it had drawings to go with the words. This is the 3rd page. It says, "My name is Lila. I like to go to the farm. The End." That is Lila on the page with Mommy and Daddy (holding hands) in the background.

Pretty cool for the first week of school.

Weekend Fun

2011-09-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

I took these pictures the weekend before school started. It is hard to believe we are already into the second week of school; time is passing quickly. I'm glad the weekends move at a slower pace (usually).

Here Lila is practicing riding her scooter and Wyatt is riding his trike. She came home this summer talking about how fun it was to ride her cousin's scooter. Well, turns out her cousin's scooter has TWO wheels on the back (something we didn't know), so she is having to try a bit harder to ride this scooter. However, it is something that she can ride for awhile once she masters it.

While the kids were riding, Ben was working on exposing our broken sprinkler, which had been pushed apart by roots.

By the time I came outside to take some pictures, the kids were hot and sweaty and ready to come inside.

That weekend we got a Slip-n-slide on clearance. The kids had fun with it once they figured out how to slide and not just flop on their bellies.

They had to learn to wait until the slide was clear to take their turn. And by "they" I mean Wyatt :)

Fun times.

ISU Fans

2011-08-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

My good friend Amanda came to visit back in January, and she brought Piper this cute little Iowa State outfit. Of course it was way too big for her then. It is still a little big for her, but I wanted to try and take some pictures of all 3 kids wearing their ISU shirts -- and I was worried if I waited too much longer that Lila and Wyatt would no longer fit in their shirts. However, I had already taken several pictures of Piper. It was approaching nap time. Which meant my little Cyclone wasn't very cooperative.

I tried giving her the stuffed Cy to keep her happy.

I got one good one.

Then I attempted a shot of all three kids.

Hey, over here! Look at me!

Well, they're all looking at me at least. (I was making funny noises to get their attention, so Lila and Wyatt started to copy me.) Now, I could have stopped here, but I decided the following sequence was just too funny not to share.

My little sports fan was tired. Even big sister and big brother giving kisses weren't cheering her up.

Maybe a change in position? That stopped the tears, but...

"Let me see all these teeth Lila has."

Hey Piper, look at Mommy!

Lila thinks it's funny that you're exploring her face. Wyatt wants to know what's so funny?

Ok, Piper, you're really cracking Lila up with your curiosity.

So close!

"Mom, can we be done now?"

And Wyatt is off. That's ok, we'll just do the sisters. No wait, Lila, you're going to tip her over.

That's better.

Hmm. Maybe she'd be happier if she wasn't being held.

"I don't want that stinkin' bird. I want to be done!!"

Definitely time for a nap.

See? After a nap, we're still not smiling, but at least we are no longer a grump.

Cooking Up Trouble {8 mos}

2011-08-21T21:15:00.000-05:00

Piper turned 8 months old this past week. At 8 months, she can crawl like a pro, feed herself Puffs (which are like Cheerios), sit up without support, and has started to pull herself up (to kneeling). I don't think it will be long before she is pulling up to stand. Her world is expanding rapidly! She also babbles a lot... "dadada" and "lalala" (Lila thinks that "Lila" might be Piper's first word!)

For her 8 month pics, I decided to have a little fun :)

After playing a little dress-up, she changed back into normal clothes, and we took a few more pictures.

She loves to stick out her tongue!

And one last photo (the next morning) with the turtle.

Play Time!

2011-08-21T17:23:00.000-05:00

Since it's been so hot outside, we've done a lot of playing inside.

About five months ago, Piper could only play with Lila's toys IF Lila wanted to share them.

But not anymore!! :)

"Hmm. What does she have over there?"

"Yeah, I'm playing with Lila!!"

Such contrasting heads... one so dark, one so fair.

You can't tell it in this photo, but she was laying there just kicking her feet!

"What else is there I can play with?"

Lila had abandoned her dolls to play with Wyatt's cars.

Piper found something that interested her... Mommy's camera!

"Hello, Mommy!"

"Oh, I see where everyone went!"

"Hold on, guys, I'm comin' over!"

More feet kicking.

Overhead view.

It is very rare for them all to play together so nicely. It doesn't take long for someone to decide that somebody else has a toy they want. But here is proof that it CAN happen! :)

Last Days of Summer

2011-08-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Lila's first day of Kindergarten... which means that today is the last day of summer. Not according to the temperature. It is still above 100 degrees and may be for awhile. But since we are entering "the school years", our "summer" is officially over. And what a busy summer it has been.

Since the beginning of June, we have done the following:

• Taken a 5 day vacation to Missouri for a family reunion (all of us).

• Participated in two weeks of swim lessons (Lila).

• Participated in a "fairy tale" week-long preschool camp (Lila).

• Went to Germany for five days (Ben).

• Started eating solid food (Piper).

• Visited family in Kansas for four days (all of us).

• Stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Amey for a few more days on her own (Lila).

• Participated in week-long Vacation Bible School (Lila).

• Went to France and Italy for four days (Ben).

• Threw a fun birthday party for a 5 year old (Colette).

• Went to Guatemala for 10 days (Ben).

• Participated in a "barnyard friends" week-long preschool camp (Lila).

• Designed two logos (Colette).

• Started crawling (Piper).

• Taught Sunday School for 3-4 year olds for the month of August (Ben & Colette).

• Participated in two weeks of swim lessons (Wyatt).

With all of that activity, we've still managed to find some fun, relaxing times at home too.

This picture is a couple months old, but I wanted to show Piper's good friend Molly. She is 6 weeks older than Piper. They get to hang out and practice their budding skills while their older siblings play together.

Piper can sit up without support now, just like Molly is in this picture.

Playing in the backyard pool has been a source of fun during this hot summer. Our poor grass has needed some water, so one time Ben turned the sprinklers on while the kids were in the pool. Added fun!!

Here Lila is running through the sprinklers.

And Wyatt jumping into the pool.

Piper even got in on the pool action! Here we had the brilliant idea of putting the sprinkler toy around the pool.

They like it when Daddy gets in the pool too :)

This was Piper's first time to get in the backyard pool.

One Sunday the girls wore matching dresses, so I pulled them outside to the back porch swing to take a few quick pictures.

Lila tried to get Piper to smile.

Piper wasn't cooperating though.

Oh well. Lila had enough nice smiles for the both of them.

Here Lila is reading a story to Piper. This book she was saying the story from memory, but Lila can read fairly well these days. I have been impressed with the words that she can sound out on her own.

One evening just for fun, I put two pony tails in Piper's hair. They looked kind of funny because the only hair she really has to pull up is on the sides and top.

That night she just hung out with Daddy on the swing while the older kids played in the yard.

It was good times until she bonked her nose.

Remember Piper's friend, Molly? Well, Wyatt and Lila enjoy playing with her older brother, Evan. One time they decided to play dress up.

Silly kids.

One morning I just pulled the kids outside for a quick group shot.

I tried and tried to get Piper to smile, but no luck.

At least I could get the other two to smile.

Are you smiling, Piper?

No, are you smiling, Wyatt?

After one last attempt, we went inside where it was cool :)

In fact, the past few weeks we haven't been playing outside very much due to the extreme high temperatures. But one morning last week while Piper was napping, we played outside for a little bit.

You can see that Lila is sweaty and flushed... only takes about 2 minutes outside for that to happen!

Lila enjoys swinging on the glider and Wyatt likes the airplane swing.

Going down the slide.

Climbing back up to the slide. Yes, he's not wearing any pants. It's a common style for him.

Our poor backyard. We have a broken sprinkler head, so we haven't been watering the back half. You know it's dry when Wyatt (who likes to wear shoes even less than he does pants) comes inside to put on shoes because the grass hurts his feet! I'm ready for some cooler weather... and some rain!

Wyatt's Swim Lessons

2011-08-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

Lila took swim lessons earlier this summer with an instructor, but Wyatt wasn't old enough yet to participate in the "Minnows" program. Instead, his swim lessons were parent participation required -- which meant we had to find a time when both Ben and I would be here. So... Wyatt didn't have his lessons until the first 2 weeks of August. He had four classes over a 2 week period, but I (and Lila and Piper) only went along one time to document his experience.

Wyatt and Ben before the class began.

Wyatt's class met in the Natatorium. It is VERY humid in there (one reason I only came the one time!) In the middle of the picture, Wyatt is about to jump in the pool to Ben.

This might be Wyatt's favorite part of class: the watering cans. They get to play with them and use them to get their faces wet. Wyatt just loves to pour and dump the water!

He wasn't so sure about floating on his back, even with Daddy there to help!

Here he's learning how to hold his arms out while he kicks. (This was obviously more fun than being on his back.)

He is pretty good at kicking.

Learning how to climb out of the pool... elbow, elbow, knee!

They provide a little incentive to climb out... a rubber ducky!

The ducky is also incentive to swim (scoop and kick).

Here he is swimming toward the duck after throwing it (he enjoyed getting to throw it too!).

Toward the end of class, they moved over into the really shallow water to practice reaching down to get a ring (and get their face in the water). I think this picture is funny because Ben is barely able to stay in the water at this depth! :)

Catching a ride on Daddy when it's time to get out of the pool.

Wrinkly feet!

The post-swim daze.

If it seems like I have more pictures of Wyatt's swim lesson than Lila's lesson, it's because when the parents aren't in the water, they encourage us to stay back (to not be a distraction). So I couldn't get as close to Lila as I could to Wyatt. Next summer they will both be able to take lessons at the same time, and Piper will be the one who has to sit and watch :)

For the Children {Guatemala Mission Trip}

2011-08-13T08:51:00.001-05:00

At the end of July, Ben went with several others from our church on a mission trip to Guatemala. This was his second time going down there (he went before in 2009). On his last trip, he said one of the highlights for him was visiting the children at the state orphanage. He also helped with construction at the missionaries' compound (which has homes and a school), put on a drama for school kids in town, and handed out supplies at a mountain village. Well, of all those things, I knew the easiest for Lila to understand would be the orphanage -- that there are kids our there who don't have parents and probably don't have any toys of their own. I wanted her to have a part in Ben's trip. So we went to a store and bought some little toys, stickers, etc. that we could send along with Ben to pass out at the orphanage.

The loot.

In our little bag, we had a stuffed friend, toy, eraser and some stickers.

This was a PERFECT activity for my girl. Her eyes lit up when I showed her what we were going to do. I set out all of the items and showed her what went in each bag.

She took it from there!

While we were working, we were able to talk a little bit about what it means to be an orphan.

"Mom, if you died, would Wyatt and I go to an orphanage?"

And how nice it is to have toys you can keep in your own room.

Things we take for granted.

She had those bags filled in no time! We did 48 bags (a lot of the items were sold in sets of 12), plus I knew Ben didn't have a ton of room in his bag since they were taking other things down as well.

Is this fun Lila?

YEAH!

Originally, I had in mind that I would put this picture of Lila with the finished gift bags next to a picture of all the orphanage kids playing with their toys. Maybe Ben would even get a picture of them with the little parachute men floating in the air (that was one of the toys). Well, as it turns out, the mission team didn't even get to go to the state orphanage this time. The state workers were on strike! Bummer.

Instead they took our little toy bags along when they went to the mountain village.

Along with LOTS of other toys that were donated.

Ben did get a picture of a little girl playing with one of the toys we sent. (A whistle in the shape of lips.)

Ben had a great time down there again. (These are some of the school children who saw the drama they did.) He has said he wants to go again and wants me to go with him. I'm not sure how good I'd be at pouring cement. Maybe they need a team photographer??

Also, I found out that the children in the state orphanage aren't allowed to keep toys, so I guess God knew it was better that those little bags head up the mountain!

Berry Special Birthday

2011-08-10T22:59:00.000-05:00

This year Lila told me that she wanted to have a Strawberry Shortcake birthday party for her 5th birthday. I didn't want her party to be *everything* Strawberry Shortcake (SSC), so I tried to incorporate the idea of SSC - namely the colors and fruits - into the decor and games.

Starting with the invitation, I didn't want it to be a store-bought SSC invitation. I mean, I did get a degree in graphic design... got to put my skills to use when I can!

So I used selective SSC decorations... like these napkins.

"Lila Is Five" banner on the mantle

Strawberry balloons

Table decoration

(I was in a hurry so didn't realize it was blurry.)

Party favors included strawberry scented bubbles, SSC lip balm and strawberry fruit snacks.

Place setting

We invited eight girls to the party, but unfortunately only three could come. I think I will have to remember that next year (summer birthdays are just not easy), and maybe we will celebrate Lila's birthday in August when people will be less likely to be on vacation!

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, the girls played with Lila's SSC dolls. After about 15 minutes, we were still missing one of the girls, and I thought "oh man, it's REALLY going to be a small party" but decided to go ahead and get started.

Our first activity was making a SSC flower pot (or pencil cup). I got these flower pots at Michael's Craft store but made my own inserts using clip art I found online.

The girls colored their inserts with markers.

It was fun to watch them each take their own approach to coloring.

The next activity was a game I created called "Strawberry Patch Match." Basically, it was a memory game where the girls had to find the matching strawberries.

Yes, I made the strawberries. They weren't very difficult.

After the party was over, I wondered why I didn't let the girls play the game more than once. I put some work into making it; I should have devoted more time in the party for it!

While they were playing the game, our third party guest arrived. YAY!!

Each girl "won" a SSC coloring book when they found a match.

The next game we played was a fruit basket game. I had four different fruit balloons, and the girls had to try and be the first to get all of their assigned fruit in the basket.

The four fruits were red strawberries, purple grapes, green watermelon, and gold pineapple. I just used a permanent marker to draw on the balloons. The strawberry and pineapple had a paper leaf top.

We played that game a couple times, then tried it where they had to stand in one spot and toss their fruit in the basket.

Next up: cake and ice cream!!

Party guests were Madison, Kendra and Chloe. Madison goes to our church, and Chloe was in Lila's preschool class. Kendra is the daughter of some friends of ours at our old church. It's hard to tell in this picture, but those are pink strawberry marshmallows in the centerpiece.

When Lila first told me she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party, I was excited because I actually HAD a SSC cake pan! When my grandfather moved out of his house, my mom snagged the pan and gave it to me. I guess maybe my grandmother made a SSC cake for me or my cousin when we were little?? I don't remember that. However, the pan was from 1984 (this image is from the icing instructions). Strawberry Shortcake has updated her look since then. I wanted the cake to look like the SSC that Lila was familiar with, so I had to be creative.

I was really excited with how my modifications turned out. Of course, when Lila saw the cake, she asked "how come it doesn't look like the picture?". What!! I was expecting more along the lines of "oh wow, Mom, it looks just like her!" Ha, ha.

However, as I was getting the cake ready to light in the kitchen, I overheard Lila tell her friends, "Wait till you see my cake. My mom did a beautiful job on it!" So if I get carpal tunnel from frosting all those little stars, it was worth it :)

Lila's expression while we were singing to her.

Aunt Janina brought Lila a special SSC balloon bouquet. It is kind of her tradition to bring the kids a special mylar balloon on their birthday!

Lila also invited Mr. Mark and Miss April (good family friends and Lila's Sunday School teachers) to her party. Here Mark is telling Piper how much she will enjoy being in their Sunday School class someday :)

After cake and ice cream, the girls played with Lila's dress up clothes.

Last activity: opening presents!

I had talked to Lila before her party about making sure to say thank you as she opened her gifts. She did great!

Opening Aunt Janina's gift.

(Special thanks to Aunt Janina for taking pictures during the party for me!!!)

Showing Mark and April one of her gifts.

So, it turned out to be a smaller party than originally planned, but Lila had a fun time. In case you were wondering, yes, Wyatt was there. He just didn't make it into the pictures. I asked him if he wanted to play the balloon game one time, but he said no. And he ate his cake and ice cream in the kitchen (over the tile floor, not carpet). Despite his lack of representation on here, he had a fun time too. In fact, he fell asleep WHILE eating dinner that night. Literally. His eyes were rolling back in his head while he was chewing. It was pretty funny to watch. Guess the party wore him out! That's how you know it was a success :)

4th of July

2011-08-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

This year we went to Wichita for the 4th of July weekend. Almost every year the Amey family gets together at Ben's Uncle Virgil's house to shoot off some fireworks and visit (his house is out in the country). Since we didn't leave until Saturday morning and the get-together was that afternoon, we drove straight there. Ben's brother Brian and his family were there, as well as Ben's parents... plus lots of extended family.

I took this in the backyard.

Wyatt, David, Rachel, Lila and their second cousin, Ava

My niece, Nicole, wasn't quite ready for sitting on the steps with the bigger kids, but she wanted to!

The older girls liked loving on Nicole. This was a little wood bridge behind the house that the kids enjoyed playing on. It reminded me of the wood plank my grandma had on her farm. It was 2 boards wide, unlike this bridge which is maybe 7 or 8. It covered the ditch between her yard and the gravel road and led out to the mailbox. We have pictures of all of us cousins lined up on that thing. And we played some good dodgeball on there too.

They had fun jumping off the bridge. Notice Wyatt watching them.

He had to give it a try too!

(Wyatt was having some digestive issues earlier, and one time his shorts took a hit... thus, the uncovered diaper.)

It was humorous to me how Lila seemed more interested in Nicole, and Rachel seemed more interested in Piper. Another case of the grass being greener? Or just loving on your cousin who you don't get to see as much as your sister!

Unfortunately, Piper was tired, so she didn't last very long with the picture taking.

After this, it was too dark to take pictures, and I had to hold Piper (she's a mama's girl). So I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks. Both Lila and Wyatt watched each firework with their hands over their ears. When it was over, Lila would say, "Is is over?" and Wyatt would say, "Let's do that again!!" After the fireworks we continued on to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wichita.

Lila has discovered a love for roly poly bugs this summer. So she was SO EXCITED when she saw how many of them were crawling around in the back yard. Here she is with a bucket collecting them.

On Sunday night, we decided to shoot off some smaller fireworks with the kids. The men were helping with a fireworks stand to raise money for the church youth, so it was just us ladies and kids. Rachel is holding a bunch of sparklers.

David with his sparkler.

Wyatt doing his sparkler.

Lila and her sparkler.

And Rachel with her sparkler.

Grandma was holding Piper, and we put Nicole in this old playpen so she wouldn't get too close to the fireworks.

A hug while they wait for the next firework. We decided to shoot off one 3 minute variety of firework. Basically it was a little column with a wick that shot a burst of color straight up for about 2 minutes... then let out a piercing screaming noise for about 15 seconds. We didn't know about that last part. Piper started crying, and I think all of the kids had their hands over their ears. Oops. On that note, we were done! :)

Piper in her 4th of July dress that our good friends, the Smiths, got for her.

Isn't she cute? (Yes, it was the same style dress that cousin Ava wore at the farm.)

Grandma had an inflatable pool set up in the back, so the kids cooled off in that a few times.

We let them swim before lunch one time because it was only going to get hotter as the day progressed.

Here's what Grandpa and Piper were doing while they swam. Grandpa did a good job getting her to go to sleep.

Then after the nap, Grandpa grilled burgers for lunch. I looked out the kitchen window, and there was Wyatt keeping him company! They were having a nice little conversation about something :)

Rachel and David came over later, and they all got back in the pool.

At first Rachel didn't want to be splashed, but I think eventually she gave up and started splashing back.

Four in the pool.

Piper found a toy car to play with on the floor.

Lila got a ride on Grandpa after dinner. Ben's Uncle Bill and Aunt Angie came for dinner that night and visited for a little while with us.

Pam went to help that night with the fireworks stand, so she left David and Rachel with us. Grandma read the girls a book at bedtime, but David wanted to look at an airplane magazine with Grandpa. In a few minutes, they were both out! That night was the 4th of July, so starting around 9:30 it sounded like we were in the middle of a war zone with all the fireworks being shot off around us. All of the kids fell asleep easily except for Lila who we caught a couple times trying to look out the window. I finally took pity on her (we don't see fireworks like that in Dallas) and let her come outside for a few minutes before sending her to bed. The next day we left Lila and returned to Texas.

She finished out the week, and then on Saturday we met in Oklahoma City to get her back. I found this place online that was like a large McDonald's playplace, only it was connected to a gymnastics company. With it being 100 degrees outside, we couldn't play at a park. This worked perfectly to allow the kids a chance to burn some energy before we all got back in our cars to go home.

Rachel going down one of the three slides.

The other fun thing about this place was that adults were allowed on it too!

In addition to the straight slides, there was a curvy slide, balance beam and this bounce area. It was a lot of fun! Lila had a great time during her week with Grandma and Grandpa too. I asked her what was her favorite thing she did while she was there, and she told me "helping Grandma in the garden." Hmm... maybe we should try to put a little garden in our back yard next year? I'm not sure anything would survive our intense summer heat though!

Family Reunion

2011-08-05T23:31:00.000-05:00

Back in June, we drove 7+ hours to southern Missouri (Table Rock Lake) for a family reunion. Everyone on my Mom's side was able to be there except for a few cousins. That's my 86 year old Grandma in the middle holding Piper on her lap.

The camp we stayed at was really nice. Between all of us, we stayed in four cabins for three days. My little family was in their own (smaller) cabin. This playground area was in the middle of all the cabins. That's Wyatt holding an empty water bottle he's filled with gravel...a little boy's paradise!

My sister rode along with us. It was nice to have her help with the kids on the long drive... and we enjoyed her company too! She stayed in a cabin with my parents, brother and his family. But she managed to get some Piper time :)

The kids quickly found a "sandbox" to play in... the horseshoe pit. Here Lila is playing with my nephew, Heath (right), and my cousin's son, Logan.

The cabins were right next to a lake. One evening we rented some paddleboats and took them out. Here I am with Lila, Heath and my brother. Wyatt didn't nap at all during our trip. Because he had been going, going, going all day, by the time we got to the paddleboats he had reached the meltdown point. Which meant he refused to put on the life jacket, then cried when he didn't get to go out.

So we brought the boat back in and tried going back out with Ben and Wyatt, but as you can see, Wyatt wasn't happy.

Since we were all in different cabins, we decided the only meal we would try to eat together as a large group was supper. My sister and I planned those meals. It was an undertaking, but everything went pretty smoothly. We assigned everyone a job - either prep one night or clean up. Here two of my cousins and their kids are doing the clean up.

My cousin Brad holding Piper.

Lila enjoyed the freedom of being able to run around and play outside.

My cousin Amber's little boy Logan, who is 6 weeks younger than Wyatt.

One night for dessert, we made S'mores.

The older kids were pros at making them.

This was the supply station. (The girl on the right holding the marshmallow stick is Emily, who was 2 at our wedding. Now she is 12.)

Lila enlisted Aunt Janina's help in roasting her marshmallow.

"What did you DO to my marshmallow?!!"

She didn't much care for how brown it got on the bottom.

But she decided it tasted good anyway.

(That little purple butterfly ring on her finger was given to her by my aunt Lorna. She was very upset when she lost it the next day.)

Logan trying out the S'more.

Wyatt trying to figure out a way to eat it without getting his hands all sticky.

The "older" kids. My aunt Sara brought glow necklaces for all the kids.

Aunt Janina and Lila, wearing her glow necklace and bracelet - blue, of course.

Piper hung on as long as she could but Daddy's shoulder was just too tempting.

Enjoying the outdoors. The temps weren't too bad, but the bugs did get us despite spraying repellent.

My aunt Lorna and cousin Megan.

Keeping the fire alive.

Wyatt and my cousin Jeff's son, Jamie.

I hadn't seen Jamie in several years, and when I first saw him I thought he looked just like Jeff did at that age. Of course Wyatt is a little replica of Ben, so I shouldn't be surprised.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin. Lila and Wyatt shared a bed (their first time doing that!), and Piper slept in our pack-n-play in our room. She did pretty good sleeping, only waking once in the night. Now she sleeps all night long, woo-hoo! Lila and Wyatt did pretty good sleeping together. Of course, there was some talking and giggling before they finally fell asleep, but that is just part of vacation, right?

We ate breakfast and lunch at my parent's cabin. This is a picture of my brother, his wife Sarah, and sons, Jim tickling Heath.

Lila, Heath and Wyatt played pretty well together. I can't remember exactly what they were doing here that resulted in this tackle.

Aunt Janina brought along some nail polish, so she painted Lila's nails during some down time.

Lila was thrilled. There was also a pool on the premises which we visited each day, but I didn't take my camera along then.

While they were doing that, Wyatt blew some bubbles.

Another thing we did one day was take the kids fishing. Or I should say tried to take them fishing.

Here's Lila holding the pole.

But that only lasted a few minutes. What she was REALLY interested in doing was taking care of the large worm in the bucket that we had found for bait.

Wyatt also took a turn with the pole. He really liked reeling in the line. But his idea of fishing was to smack the pole in the water, so he didn't last too long.

Mom and her boy.

Ben, however, did catch a fish.

Lila wanted to touch it.

Then she wanted to be the one to put it back in the water, so here Ben is making sure she has a good hold of it. (I was very impressed by her desire and willingness to do this!)

Grandpa also came along to fish.

One of my favorite pics from our trip - except for the tree growing out of Grandpa's head. If only I had shifted over a couple feet! Oh well.

On our last night there, we took the large group picture at the beginning of this post, and then we took this picture of Great-Grandma with all of her great-grandchildren. Then we took individual family pictures.

Grandma held onto Piper and Wyatt while I took pictures (and Ben grilled burgers).

We quickly squeezed in a family shot before Ben went to man the grill.

It was fun to see extended family we hadn't seen in a long time. It was fun to relax and be surrounded by nature... to be surrounded by trees. And it was my kind of "camping"... air-conditioned cabin with a full kitchen :)

What's Piper Up to These Days? (7 months)

2011-07-25T14:44:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I had a "current" post, but I thought I'd put up some pictures of what Piper is up to these days.

For starters, she's eating baby food now! This was her first taste of rice cereal (back in June). She gobbled it up! In fact, there hasn't been a food yet that she hasn't liked.

Big sister Lila wanted to help feed Piper.

When Lila was a baby, she would open her mouth so big, waiting for the next bite. Piper doesn't have quite that enthusiasm, but she does open her mouth very nicely and does a great job keeping most of it in her mouth (unlike this picture).

Piper wanted to hold the spoon too :)

Ha ha, success!

On the 4th of July, we noticed she had two bottom teeth -- one had broken through already and one was about to. I had checked her mouth maybe a week before then? They came in quickly I guess. She wasn't fussy or anything so it was a surprise when we discovered them! (I was going to try and get her to smile to get a pic of the pearly whites, but big sister had a faster way!)

And these are her 7 month pics (taken on July 17).

Still not sitting up without support (at least not for long), but getting there.

She's *almost* crawling. She will get up in this position and rock back and forth.

She will also get up on her toes and put her bottom in the air... if she can only figure out how to move her arms, she will be across the room in no time!

Here's a really good picture of her eye color... blue around the outside but a brown/gold in the center. You can also see her two bottom teeth peeking out. She "talks" a lot too... ah/bah sounds mostly.

More tongue action. What can I say? She likes to blow bubbles!

Six Months

2011-07-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

Well, even though I'm behind in the blogging world, in the real world, I DID document Piper turning 6 months old (in June) with some pictures.

Remember this little Indian princess?

Six months later she looks...

like this!

So solemn.

Why the duck? I had given it to her to play with but then she sunk down in the bean bag chair (which was under this blanket). She did play with it after I got her unstuck, but I still liked this picture.

So a little while ago, I took some pictures of my friend's baby at six months. We got a really cute pic of her in a tutu and pearls. Well, Piper doesn't have a tutu, so I rummaged through Lila's dress up clothes to find the fluffiest skirt I could find. I didn't realize it would make her look like a saloon girl! Oh well. I do love how she's playing with the beads. When she concentrates on something, her breathing sounds more like little grunts.

Fat rolls and little piggies... two things that only look cute on babies!

No, I did not pose her hands.

I tried to get some pictures of her sitting up, but she just wasn't stable enough yet.

Baby in a bucket.

This is my 2nd favorite picture of the group. I love her little tongue!

Like most babies, she was not thrilled with her first exposure to grass. (She started to cry shortly after this picture.)

And my favorite picture.

Her six month stats and how she compared to big bro and big sis:

Piper - 16 lbs 7 oz, 27.25 inches

Wyatt - 17 lbs 10 oz, 28.25 inches

Lila - 14 lbs 13 oz, 26.5 inches