River Valley Walk

I don't want to jinx it but I think that spring might actually be arriving early this year!  Even typing that now I am second guessing myself, wondering if I should leave it there on the screen or if I should delete it for fear it just might chase our warm temperatures away.  My kids came straight home from church today and put on their shorts and puddle boots, grabbed their chalk and took to the sidewalks to add some rainbows to the dreary greys and browns outside.

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and took the kids for a walk in the river valley.  As we've done in the past, we didn't research the route quite as well as we should have and our hour long adventure turned into a two hour trial.  The kids were troopers though and by the time we got back to the vehicle we had convinced them that it would be fun to do again...just not anytime too soon.

A little bright

Walking sticks

This is about half way through our little adventure.  Emma's face is a pretty good indication of how she was feeling.

So here's hoping Spring is here!!

Exhaustion

Violet has been sick since Wednesday.  The poor little thing has cut two teeth, caught a cold and cough and had a stomach bug all at the same time.  On top of that I got the same stomach bug on Friday and Walker woke up in the middle of that night throwing up.  Tonight I am exhausted.  Not body exhausted but that mind numbing weariness that comes with holding buckets and rocking babies into the early hours of the morning and standing by bed sides and over cribs anxiously awaiting the moment when little eyes close and whimpers settle into quiet and restful sleep.  My neck and shoulders ache from sleeping in rocking chairs and with Violet snuggled close to me in bed and packing her while I cook and clean and tend to the other kids.  But while I'm exhausted it is a good exhaustion,  The kind that comes with being a Mom and spending days and nights with little ones who are the center of everything in my life.  I wouldn't give this kind of exhaustion up for anything in the world.  

Four Little Bears

There is only one outfit that we own that all of our babies have worn and it is a fuzzy, snuggly bear sleeper.  It's so fun to look at all of the pictures of our cute baby bears and see how different they are.  Walker fills it out quite a bit better than any of the girls did.

Emma Bear

Walker Bear

Lillian Bear

Violet Bear

Little Girls

Since having Violet I've watched each of the kids develop their own sweet relationship with her.  Emma loves to be the little mom and is so good at entertaining and settling her when I need to get things done.  Walker adores her but thinks she's gross.  She thinks he is absolutely hilarious and all he has to do is look at her to have her giggling and gabbing at him but he doesn't want her anywhere near his toys or pillows or blankets or anything else that he might touch just in case she throws up or poops on it.  And then there's Lillian.  She would spend every waking moment with her baby sister if given the option.  She loves to kiss her and climb on her and read to her and maul her and sometimes Violet doesn't hate it.  While I would love for Violet to stay at this sweet baby stage forever I find myself some days urging her to grow just a little faster so that Lillian can have an ally and confidante in the house.  

Emma and Walker are such good friends.  They spend from morning til night playing and coloring at the table together, inventing one game of make believe after another.  Lillian is often left out because she's littler and at this age is kind of a nuisance.  Like many older siblings they often gang up on her.  For example, the other day driving home from church the older kids were in the back taunting Lillian about something silly.  They know just how to push her buttons and both of them love to hear her scream.  Why do siblings do that?! Anyways, after a long day at church she was very tired and grumpy and told them that they were idiots.  I told her that she'd better not repeat it because that is not a word that we use in our home.  Emma and Walker didn't hear what she had said and asked me again and again to tell them.  I ignored them in hopes that they would all be quiet so that we could get home in peace.  Finally after a couple of minutes of their begging and whining Lillian screamed at them "IDIOTS!!"  Of course both Emma and Walker thought that was hilarious and spent the last couple of minutes home laughing about it.  Those types of episodes are hourly at our house. 

So for now I just keep reminding our Lillian that some day her Violet will be able to run and talk and play with her and that they will be the best of friends.  And she seems happy to settle for following her around the house and helping any way she can and making her scream on a regular basis, which is ok I guess, as long as she feels she's got a buddy.

  

I love how terrified Violet looks to be trapped in there with Lillian

Lillian loves to "help" feed Violet.  I've caught her trying to feed her any number of things from granola bars to whole apples.  I thought that maybe if I let her help feed Violet things that are safe for her to eat that she might stop feeding her other things.  In this picture she's feeding her apple sauce.  Lillian thought it was amazing and Violet only ended up with apple sauce over 75% of her face.  Unfortunately my plan failed because I caught Lillian trying to feed Violet a perogie at dinner that night.

Playground Pictures

Back in the fall my Mom decided that she needed a new picture of the kids at her house.  One that included our little Violet since she was absent in all of the others.  So one afternoon after school we took the kids to the playground by her home and she took some very cute pictures.  I've been meaning to post them for months.  Here they are...finally.

This is the one both my mom and I had developed and framed.

And I had to include these ones because Lillian's face in them cracks me up! Especially the one on the right.

Odds and Ends

Just some random pictures from the past few weeks.

We got the kids these bean bags for Christmas and when they aren't using them as weapons they love to relax on them.  I love to see them snuggled up with their bean bags and blankets to watch a movie. 

Violet is getting so big.  She's learned how to sit up all by herself and has found her voice in the last couple of weeks.  

The older kids love to listen to her squawk and squeal at them.  Lillian just mostly loves to make her scream.

Such a cutie!

Birthday Boy

It's nearly half way through January and I am just barely feeling like I've recovered from the craziness of Christmas.  It was magical and fun and loud and exciting as always but unfortunately I missed getting it on video like I'd planned because, while I thought I was videotaping on my phone, I was actually just taking lots and lots of blurry pictures.  Not all that surprising given that I don't know how to use 95% of the features on my phone.  So instead of recapping Christmas I'll just jump right into the New Year.  More specifically Walker's sixth birthday.  It's so hard for me to believe that he's already six years old.  It's been so fun this year to watch him learn and grow in school and enjoy making new friends and becoming more independent all the time.  Mrs. Semeniuk, his kindergarten teacher, is the authority on everything and he comes home every day with all sorts of new things to teach us about.  One of his favorites being how astronauts use the bathroom in space.  He loves all things super heroes and transformers and science and lately can't get enough of his harmonica that Santa left for him.

For birthday breakfasts the kids always get a sugar cereal of their choice.  Walker picked a box of three from Costco so his bowl in this picture is full of Cookie Crisp, Lucky Charms, and Nestle cereal.  

More Geronimo Stilton books, he loves them.

Between Christmas and his birthday he got enough Lego to build an army.  In this picture he just opened Star Wars Lego.  He can't get enough of it!

To keep with tradition here are my six favorite things about our handsome boy.

1) His sweet dimples.

2) How helpful he is.  He's always the first to follow direction and typically only has to be told to do something once.

3) He loves being a big brother to baby Violet.  He loves to make her laugh and smile and is very protective of her.  He's protective of Lillian too but only when he's not pestering and picking on her.

4) His thoughtful prayers.  

5) His contagious giggle.

6) How much he loves Bridgett.  I think he loves her about as much as she fears him, which is a lot.

Happy Birthday sweet boy!