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.

St. Patrick's Day fun

I never really give much thought to St. Patrick's Day, so I kind of forgot about it last week until I heard the kids talking about it a few days before.  They were so excited!  Oliver and Rachel were especially sure that it was going to be the best holiday ever - I think Ollie had hyped it up quite a bit to Rachel.  I overheard him telling her that "It is just SO awesome!" and "Dad doesn't even have to go to work!!"  They were both a little sad when I told them this wasn't true.  Good thing it was Spring Break last week - I think Ollie would have been devastated to find out that there was still school on such an important holiday.

Anyway, the kids were spending all day making elaborate St. Patrick's day decorations and cards and pictures, and Rachel kept trying to find out more details about the big day - "Like, Mom - so what do we actually get to DO on St. Patrick's Day?", so I decided I should at least make it a little fun for them. 

Luckily, even with such high expectations, they were pretty easy to please - I bought some Apple Jacks, limeade, green apples, and green jello to eat that day and they thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Then Daniel called around lunchtime and asked if we all wanted to go to lunch with him, so I told the kids we were going to go on a really special St. Patrick's Day outing with Dad (as if it was part of the plan, of course).

Then after lunch we let the kids play around on a playground right by the restaurant, which they thought was an extra fun holiday activity. 

Here they all are in their various green outfits that they had picked out to wear:

Later that afternoon I printed up a bunch of little papers with rainbows and a pot of gold on them, and I wrote little treasure hunt clues on the back and then hid them all over the house.  The kids loved figuring out all the clues and running all over the place in search of the treasure, which turned out to be a pot of gold (butterscotch candies) hidden in Lizza's bed.

Here they are at the end of the hunt.  I don't know what Rachel is doing in this picture.

Henry loved the treats, but he thinks each individual candy is called a pot of gold, so he has been asking me for "more pot of golds!" all week. 

January and February pictures

JANUARY

Major lego battle on New Years Day (major = it involved moving the whole kitchen table out of the kitchen):

Fancy Rachel.  I bought this wig from the Halloween clearance stuff at Wal-Mart for 50 cents, and Rachel wore it straight for one week until it started shedding hair everywhere and I threw it away.  It was a sad day.  She was so proud of her long blond hair:

Henry's favorite spot in the kitchen.  He will sit there forever just looking out the window at our neighbor's dog.  Free entertainment!  Neighbors, please let your dog outside more often.

Tristan helping Rachel practice her kung-fu moves.  I guess that is a kung-fu outfit?

Henry at the park:

Chef Lizza.  She and Rachel are always whipping up gourmet treats for me.

Henry has recently decided he is one of the big kids.  He wants to do everything with them now.

I love my little readers:

FEBRUARY

Proof that Henry has older sisters:

Proof that Henry has older brothers:

Proof that Henry's older sisters also have older brothers:

Rachel pretending she is a grown-up who is "really rich" because she has a horse and two cars.  She said the horse is for her husband to ride to work (lucky him!), one car is for her to drive to the store "and stuff", and the other car is for her teenagers to drive to college.  Dream on, Rachel.

 

Rachel and Lizza in some sort of elaborate cave/hide-out/sunbathing dwelling they created (They said the part they're sitting on now is for resting in the sun).  And Rachel is pretending to put stitches in her leg for some reason. Seriously, every time she went and sat in that spot, she would say, "Look, Mom, this little stool is perfect for me to rest my feet on while I stitch up my leg", and she would stitch away.  Where did she get that idea?  I can't figure it out.  I love the look of concern on Lizza's face. 

A friendly princess and a Snow Queen.  Can you guess which one is which?

All the kids at Maudie's on our 10th anniversary.  We didn't have a babysitter, so the kids got to celebrate with us. 

Riding horses.  Henry got this little rocking horse for Christmas, and Rachel has claimed it as her own.  No rocking in place for her, though - she gallops this thing all over the house. 

At least she gives rides, though:

And Lizza makes do with a rocker with a stick horse stuck in it.  She's a good sport.  And surprisingly fast on it.

Henry broke the bottom out of Rachel's toy cradle, climbed in, and tucked himself in with a little doll blanket.  He was very proud of himself.  I love his feet sticking out the end. 

Playing princesses.  It was so funny to watch these two play together.  Lizza was talking in a nice princess voice and having her princesses dance and kiss and find good spots in the castle to take naps.  Henry was growling and throwing the princesses from the top of the castle and then he'd dramatically fall to the floor and act like he'd been shot or something and then he'd repeat the whole thing. 

At the park: