March Madness

I know it's not March anymore, and also, this post isn't even about basketball (although it was fun to watch BYU advance to a second game), but our March was pretty crazy, and "March Madness" sounded better than "Stuff we did in March", which is what I had first.

I've kind of been out of the blogging world for awhile.  Henry and I went out of town at the beginning of April for my little brother's wedding, so while I'm waiting to get pictures back from people I decided to get caught up and post pictures from March.  I think I'm getting tired of blogging, because I feel like all I do is post pictures now.  I don't know if it's because I've been extra busy, or just because I'm pregnant with #6 and have no extra energy for writing funny stuff down (how's that for a sneaky announcement?  13 weeks today!).

So for now, pictures is all I've got. 

Rachel has fallen in love with chapter books, and is now on her fifth Boxcar Children book.  I love those books. 

Oliver working on his balance.  He can count to 100 while standing on Daniel's hands.

A good napping spot for Henry.

When he's not napping in the cupboard, one of his favorite things to do is look up sharks and helicoptors online.  He used to just look at pictures, but then he discovered youtube (motorcycle stunts! shark attacks! helicoptors flying around and around in circles!).  I never thought I'd have to put a limit to my 1-year old's computer use.  Also, he picked that outfit out himself, in case you were wondering.  He doesn't usually care what he wears, but that vest has dogs on it, and Henry insisted.  He walked around all day patting his vest and proclaiming "Like it!  Like it!"

Baseball season started.  This might be another reason why things have been busy.

Ollie and Henry coloring together.  Henry loves it when he can get one of the older kids to draw him a tiger/dinosaur/helicoptor/big truck to color in.  He is lucky to have lots of nice older siblings.  I'm lucky that he has lots of nice older siblings, too - they take such good care of him.

The "tackle Daniel as soon as he gets home from work" game.  You can't see him, but Oliver is under that pile, too.

Henry climbs everything.  One time I got a phone call and the number on my caller ID showed my cell-phone.  I couldn't figure out how that could be right (I thought maybe Daniel had taken my phone to work on accident), but when I answered I heard giggling that sounded suspiciously like Henry.  He had somehow climbed up onto the counter and then managed to call the house from my cell-phone that was charging there.  He was so proud of himself. 

The main reason March was crazy was because we finally put together/decorated the kids' bedrooms upstairs.  Even though we've lived here almost 4 years now, I'd never done anything up there, and they were pretty bad - no bedspreads, dressers, curtains, pictures, etc., and Lizza was still in a crib and Rachel was in a little tiny toddler bed.  Embarrassing!  I guess the nice thing about how bad the rooms were before is that after the big changes (a bunkbed for the girls, and a new bunkbed for the boys, plus comforters, new pillows, and dressers) I only had to add a few finishing touches, and they were thilled.

I loved these pictures that I found to go above the girls' dressers.

Elizabeth loves her new bed!

I don't have any final pictures of the boys' room from after it was all done (I still have to move some pictures around), but here are some "during" pictures:

Henry loves the little bed we moved into Tristan and Oliver's room for him (I probably shouldn't even admit that this is the little bed Rachel has been sleeping on).  I haven't let Henry move up to sleep with the boys yet, so he's still downstairs with us now, but the plan is maybe sometime this summer.  We'll see how that goes. 

I hung some animal prints above it and added a Noah's ark quilt - he loves sitting in there and naming all the animals. 

I also hung some of my James Christensen prints in their room (I need to lower the one on the left - I just haven't gotten around to it yet -can you see why these rooms took so long to get done?). 

A glimpse of the boys' new bed and comforters.  Also, I moved my giraffe that is usually downstairs on my mantle up to their room, because it fit with their other stuff.  It might just be a temporary visit, though, because I kind of miss having it downstairs (Anita and Gretchen - do you remember when I got that?). 

Henry helping himself to an extra bowl of cereal after I accidentally left the breakfast out.

Oliver and Henry enjoying some Planet Earth.  The "animal movies", as he calls them, have become Henry's favorites.  He is always trying to re-enact the "crocodile getting the wildebeest" and the "shark getting the seal" scenes.

Lizza tucking in some of her magnet dolls for a good night's sleep.  Their outfits for the next day have been carefully chosen and set up in their little stands.

Oliver reading to Henry.  Henry loves being read to!  Once again, it's nice to have such nice older siblings.

So, that was pretty much our March (plus the St. Patrick's day fun from the post before). 

This was probably the most randomly illustrated pregnancy announcement ever.