Morning Love

Bathroom Makeover

My mom came for a few days this past week and graciously offered to paint our bathroom. Two years with the bright orange was enough-considering I wasn't a big fan the moment I put it on the walls. It is a very light lavender now and much easier on the eyes. If a single male hall director moves into our apartment whenever we move, I'm sure he will love my choice in color.

Stella's Nook

We moved Stella into Isa's room and gave her a little corner to call her own. My brilliantly talented friend, Tai, came through for us again. What was once a cinder block corner is now a place of beauty. Stella approves.

Father's Day

These four are incredibly blessed to have Drew as their daddy. We had a nice Father's Day. Sunday morning we had Stella Claire dedicated at church. She kept laying her head back against me and staring at the pastor as he talked. After church, we went to lunch at Cracker Barrel with Drew's parents and my mom and then headed to Papa and Nana's house to hang out for the day and grill out for dinner.

The Wait is Over

Benjamin has been asking for bunk beds for what feels like his whole life. On Saturday, Drew disassembled their beds. On Sunday, I primed them twice. On Monday, we painted them. And today, we bunked them. To say they are excited is an understatement.

It is really difficult to paint with 4 little kids under foot. It's a miracle the beds are even done and double the miracle that paint didn't end up all over our children. Sam's hair and Isa's leg may have had a run in with the paint but it wasn't all over them. These beds are special since my dad made them for my brothers 34 years ago. I wish he could see his grandsons bouncing all over them.

The boys were a little sad when we stated that the top bunk was for sleeping only. I probably wouldn't be so uptight about that if it wasn't for the cement floors in our apartment. A fall would be horrific.

Benjamin wanted to hang a bunch of his artwork up to look at when he is trying to fall asleep. You know, in the dark.
The bottom bunk quickly became a fort. There was a lot of screaming behind those quilts.
A little touching up needs to be done after pounding this whole thing together. My dad made it without any screws. It's all held together by wooden pegs that Drew had to hammer in. I don't feel up to painting the ladder right now. I despise painting, use too much paint, and get annoying drips all over that dry before I find them. I'm my own perfectionist self's worst nightmare.
Happy sleeping, boys!

9 Months! Baby Book post time.

I should have taken these pictures before lunch so you wouldn't have had sweet potatoes all over your nose. Ah well, it's real life.

I just can't even believe you are 9 months old already. It is so precious to see/hear you clapping and babbling. Yet, I want to slow the clock down and let you be my baby for a much longer period of time. I just cannot say enough about you, sweet child. You are so content and happy and patient.

Yesterday, I would have said, "You are getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth but no official crawling yet. You get around by going backwards--getting in the push up position and then pushing back." However, you decided to celebrate being 9 months by crawling. Your daddy hollered from the other room to come into the living room and there you were crawling across the floor to get a toy. Nothing is safe anymore. We had a picnic tonight at the ball field while we watched Benjamin's game. I could not get Sam's food far enough away. You were determined to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

You are starting to pull yourself up on anything within reach...usually your siblings which they think is hilarious. You grip their clothing with all of your strength and try to pull yourself up into a kneeling position. They are all so smitten with you that they never complain even if they are pinched or have their hair pulled. Sam just says (in a very high pitched tone), "Hiiiiii sweetie." Cracks me up every time.

You love to sing at church--not just during the praise and worship but during the prayer and scripture reading as well. In fact, I think you get louder during the prayer just because you like to hear your voice while everyone else is quiet.

You love giving hugs and pats. When I pick you up you put your arms around my shoulder, tuck your head into my neck, and pat with your little chubby hands. Dang cute. You are also starting to act shy. If a stranger comes up while I am holding you, you grin at them and then turn to hide your face against my neck.

At your 9 month check up on Friday, the nurse was listening to your heart and lungs. You would look at her with a really stern face then turn to me and give me a huge grin. Then you would turn back to the nurse with an untrusting face and then look back to me with a sweet smile. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth this went on until the nurse and I were both laughing.

You just started sharing a room with your big sister. Isa is so excited and no longer fights bed time. The past two mornings when we went in to get you, you were sitting up with a paci in each hand, clapping and banging them together like cymbals. You were so proud of yourself for getting into a sitting up position when you woke.

You have gorgeous eyes. People comment about them wherever we go. We have been told multiple times that your eyes are "like the ocean" or "like snow". They are white around your pupil and then gradually become a beautiful shade of blue. When we were in Chicago, a woman interrupted us at Starbucks to say, "You are doing a public service just by bringing her out for people to look at." So funny.

You weigh 20 lbs 14 oz (90%) and are 30 1/2 in. long (much>100%).

You have no teeth at the moment but I wouldn't be surprised if your bottom two front teeth popped through any day. The last 10 days you have been waking up around 3am. You are up for 1 to 1 1/2 hours jabbering and/or fussing. You have been a great sleeper up until now so I am really hoping this is a teeth issue. Otherwise, I don't know what to do with you other than forgive you in the morning for the bags under my eyes. Mercy.

Other than cheerios and bananas, you have not been doing great with finger food--lots of gagging. It is getting better each week.

Hmmm....I think that's all I can think of for the moment. We love you, Stella Claire.

Baseball

Benjamin is playing machine pitch this year. He is the youngest and smallest on his team but he is hanging in there and learning a lot.

Benjamin played catcher a couple of weeks ago and said he didn't really like it. On the way to the next game he said, "I hope I'm not catcher. But...if I am, I am." That made me smile. He played catcher two innings tonight and now he says it's his favorite position to play. I think he was getting bored in the outfield and likes that he gets to touch the ball a lot playing catcher.

The Cousins

We headed to Archbold from Chicago and spent a couple more days with my brother and his family. My niece Sofia refers to my four kids as 'the cousins' which makes me laugh every time I think about it. They all wanted to sleep together (minus Stella) and it was so cute to see them all lined up.

Eloisa and Sofia had such a good time together. Wish they could be neighbors.
Drew calls me a doughnut snob. When you grow up in a town that has two amazing doughnut shops, it's hard not to be. Josh and I took the kids to pick out doughnuts Tuesday morning.
Sofia wanted to hold Stella any chance she got. You could barely see Sofia behind ginormous Stella Claire.
The weather warmed up about 40 degrees in a day so the kids had a great time running through the sprinkler.
Johanan and Benjamin roped Josh into building lots of different machines with Knex.
We spent a lovely afternoon at Jay and Megan's house. I love this picture of Isa enjoying the shade and breeze.
More holding--or maybe choking.
Handsome Jackson digesting a belly full of ice cream.
Raja and Drew. He is such a doll.
The girls were all clustered around Grandma Pam. She is loved.
Bowl 2 of ice cream. Janelle and I had no idea Uncle Jay brought these two sneaky girls seconds.
Geez Janelle, that's a lot of ice cream. Again, thanks Jay.

LEGOLAND

Our hotel in Chicago was right near Legoland. Drew and Benjamin had passes from when they went back in August so they took advantage and went two more times. Benjamin was hamming it up for the camera. Drew took 50 pictures of him. These are just a few of my favorites.