Crafty Nook

Nolan's room finally is finished.
When I say "finished" I mean that I finally moved my craft table, sewing machine, material, etc, out of his room.
It was getting a little ridiculous. I mean, the kid is crawling now, and a sharp pair of scissors in a sewing basket are not the best toy...
So I moved the table out to the garage to my new "craft nook".
Rich gladly gave up a small part of our newly sheet rocked, textured and painted garage for a little workstation for me. I couldn't be more grateful!

I bought a shelf that had seen better days, and used 6 cans of spray paint to transform it from white and green crackle (yeah, crackle paint) finish to a soft yellow and white. The hubs told me to hang a curtain, so I went for it! I also found the perfect table at a local thrift store.

I haven't finished organizing my shelf yet (funding ran out...have to wait until next month when the money tree blooms again) but its a much anticipated upcoming activity.


So, I finally have a small little nook in our small little house for my small little habit of crafting.
*Sigh*

Ready, Set...

Crawl!
He is crawling!!!
Guard your hotwheels, and power cords! The little guy is on the move!

Funny Boys

These boys make me laugh! From their conversations, to their play, to the way that they interact with each other, there is never a dull moment when they are together!

Movie Fun

The arrival of Cars 2 in the theatre has been long awaited in this house!
We were online one day looking at the characters from the movie, and saw that a second one would be coming out.
That was a year ago.
He pretty much has asked weekly since then, when we would be seeing the movie.
Its been a loooooonnng year.

Thankfully, since most of what the kids watch on TV is netflix episodes, they didn't know exactly when it was coming out and Rich and I were able to surprise them with an entire day devoted to Cars.
Breakfast started out with Cars cereal (which turned out to be red and white cheerios) and a little gift that I picked up for each one at Target. The gifts were 3 of the movie characters, and thank goodness Maeve opened up the girl one otherwise the whole meal could have been ruined.....

They spent the morning playing with their new cars, and then went to the beach with uncle and the cousins - nothing to do with Cars, but fun none-the-less.
Then we surprised them with the movie, complete with the cousins! Brynn actually guessed where we were going about 2 minutes before we got there. She is pretty good at that, and also HATES not knowing what is going on. (She totally gets that from her dad.)

While we waited for the movie to start, I handed out the Cars gummy snacks that I had picked up specially for the movie.

The family took up almost an entire row, and we didn't even bring #3 and #4!
I happened to look over at Rich at one point and he WAS SLEEPING, so I tried to snap a picture of him, but it didn't come out too well. That absolutely made the movie for me! It was pretty funny!
All in all, it was a really fun day! In hindsight, we should have planned dinner with the cousins, since that is the first question they asked when the lights in the theatre came back on, but besides that, I think they had a great day!

8 months

Wow, this last month actually flew by!
Nolan is now 8 months.
He gave us a few good nights of 8 hours continuous sleep, and then he started getting his top tooth.
That just threw us back into a horrid sleep routine.
He has been napping 2 times a day, or one really long nap, and one short one (usually in my arms).

He weighs 19 lbs. I know this because he somersaulted off the bed the other week and I had to take him to the doctor because I didn't think he was using his right arm as much as he usually does.
Turns out he is fine..no broken bones, maybe a little sore and bruised but that is it.
Its amazing what piece of mind a $60 doctor apt can give.

Some "firsts" this month:
Stage 2 baby food
Eating strawberries through the little strainer thingy
Scooting backwards (but not forwards yet)
Playing with more sounds "da-da", "ma-ma", "ba-ba"
Camping with the cousins
Sleeping through fireworks show
..and of course the tumble off the bed.
(which I will not treasure in my heart forever....)

He loves, loves, loves swimming, and eats most foods, except green peas. Still can't sneak those in anything for him.

He is still needy, still looks for me across the room, and tends to cry more than the others. Could be just his personality, or could be the fact that he has learned that the squeaky wheel gets the grease...especially in this family of 6!

And just for kicks, here is an 8th month photo comparison of the kids:

Brynn
Cannon
Maeve

They are each so different in looks....and personality!

Playing Together

I love this view....

VBS 2011

It was Pandamonium at church this last week. 275 kids showed up and a very patient, amazing group of adults supervised them for 3 hours every day while they played, sang, crafted, and learned more and more about how much God loves them! It was a great vacation bible school week!


I thanked each of my kids teachers today when I picked them up. I could not have handled the chaos of the week. Man, I can't even handle the chaos of my own 4, let alone 275.....
Anyways, the kids had a blast, the weather was perfect, and I had a week of mornings with just Nolan. Don't be jealous...he is my most difficult, so it wasn't like I was just kicking back with my feet up catching up on all my Netflix que....

* All I wanted was to snap a picture of the kids on their last day of VBS. For whatever reason, Brynn refused to smile, and Maeve just looks miserable. Ahhhh. Memories.

3rd & 4th of July

We did stuff differently this year.
Usually, we go out on the 3rd and watch the fireworks.
This year, well, lets face it, it wasn't gonna happen.
I have 4 kids.
I am tired, and I just didn't get my act together to get it all done.
So, instead, we had a yummy BBQ with some friends, swam 'till dark, ate homemade ice cream, and were asleep by 10pm.

On the 4th Rich always picks up the on-call shift, and the same was true this year.
I packed up the kids, and their stuff (a huge bag of stuff - for 6 hours away from the the house), and we went to the cousins house for BBQ. We had a yummy dinner, courtesy of church leftovers, and spent the evening outside enjoying the perfect temperature. The kids played, swam, and just had a great time. Rich stopped in and ate, and then had to leave and rescue some poor sucker who lost his keys in the river.

We got the kids all in their jammies and drove to a street where we could just park, and watch the fireworks at the fairgrounds from inside the car. That was a dream come true for me - especially when I looked back and saw that #4, and #3 had fallen sound asleep on the drive.


It was a little lonely not having hubby with me, but the kids chattered the whole time about how great the fireworks were, which one was their favorite, and how they would do it "if they were in charge", and its always fun to share these kinds of experiences with them. They watched most of the show through the sunroof of the van, while Maeve and Nolan snored in the back.

Swim Party

Brynn wanted a swim party for her birthday this year.

Uhm, we don't have a pool, well, not a "real" pool anyways.
Always aiming to please, we had her party at the local pool.

It was just us..... and 289 other local residents.

The kids had a blast. They went down the water slide, and "frolicked" under the water features.

This was definitely the easiest party that I have ever done. I literally didn't have to do anything except bake and decorate a few cupcakes, and make a few goody bags. I made sure each kid had an adult there who was responsible for them, and called it a day. Besides the fact that the swim center was filled to max capacity, and I did watch a small child throw up on the side of the pool, it was a great day. My kids fell asleep before their heads hit their pillows, and I did a happy dance because I didn't have to clean my house.

Happy 7th Birthday

Today is Brynn's 7th birthday.
Its a big deal for her. She gets to wear dangle earrings.
Sweet, simple joys of turning 7.

She is growing like a weed. Every time I look at her she seems taller.
Her summer freckles are back, and she even has a little bit of a tan this year.
Strangers still stop her and compliment her on her amazingly blue eyes.

She loves a good joke, and is getting a sense of humor that resembles her dads....a lot.
She is spacey and dreamy, also traits like her dad.
She loves to carry around Nolan, loves to dress up with Maeve, and can build Lego's with Cannon like nobodies business.

Happy birthday to my Brynn!

*Side note: tomorrow also marks the 7 year anniversary of me not getting a full night sleep....nice.

Family (minus 1) Pics

My gift for Rich on Fathers Day was a picture of me and the kids. Melody took them, and as usual she did amazing!

And these cute faces now hang in my hallway.

Brynn (7)

Cannon (5)

Maeve (3)

Nolan (6 months)

*All photos courtesy of Melody White Studios