Friday, May 28, 2010

Summer Preview

I LOVE warm sunny days! What I really love is that the kids can play outside all morning and by nap time Lydia and Ella fall fast asleep for a long afternoon nap. I LOVE that the whining, crying and temper tantrum throwing seem less obnoxious when muffled by the birds, car passing in the neighborhood, planes in the sky and other great outside noises.

Here are pictures from a this morning. (I am determined to not fall behind on blogging for at least a week)!


Allie, Grace and Lydia eating frozen chocolate cover bananas. Yummy! (Three girls eating = three quiet girls). Lydia loves all things chocolate!!
Grace loves the camera.
Ella and Katelyn playing in the shade.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Who Needs Dolls?

Who needs dolls...when you have a baby sister.

You know it was bound to happen sooner or later. As long as Lydia could walk Grace has been dressing her up. Now Lydia is able to do it herself, but she has another little sister.

I left Ella in the toy room while they where playing dress up for a second while I made Ella a bottle. When I came back I found Ella, dressed up as Belle. Grace and Lydia were beyond thrilled with their great idea and newly dressed up baby sister. Ella didn't seem to mind.



Mother's Day and the Dells

Best Mother's Day gift...ever! I was presented with breakfast in bed. Pancakes, toast, sausage and an omelet. Yummy! The girls thought it was the best thing ever. So they hopped in and ate my breakfast. Lydia ate the entire omelet, Grace ate the pancakes, they shared the pancakes - with ear other. I got a piece of toast.

I was given a gift coupon for a trip to the spa and Paul would take the girls away for the weekend. The plan was that my friend Janelle and I would get the weekend off while the dads took all the kids to the Dells. Last weekend, the gift was fulfilled. I spent the weekend relaxing and reading. We had dinner out Saturday night and brunch at the Cheesecake Factory Sunday morning before our massages at the spa.

2 great dads, 5 girls three and under, 1 night in the Dells. They seemed to do just fine.

Katelyn and Ella. Ella sure looks tired.
Maybe she could just nap and float.
Grace and Ella.
Lydia! She looks so little in that big slide!
Then they stopped at Tommy Bartlett's Exploratory; here are pictures.

Smile, laugh, dance, sleep

Happiest Baby Ever
Laugh out Loud
Dance like no one is watching
Sleep. Very tired after a long day.

Splish, Splash

Finally, as far as we are concerned, it's summer!! Swimsuits are on, sunscreen lathered and sprayed, and the pool is filled. Now all I need to do is grab my cup of coffee, a light easy to read chic lit book, put up my feet and wait until they are tired and ready for their afternoon naps. I wish it were that easy.

But their are moments of cuteness where they happily play together. Aren't they cute in their matching Dora swimsuits.
Ready to go down the slide.
Driving the boat


Ella and Katelyn in the little pool.

My Handsome Husband

He's handsome, smart and strong. He works hard all week so he can spend quality time playing with his kids at night and on the weekends. Since he's stronger and taller than I am, he's the one who can push the kids higher on the swings, right?


One would think so, but really, he just stands there looking handsome, not wanting to spill his beer. Better drink it fast before it gets spilled.
It sure seems rough being Dad.

Boy Crazy?!

I realize that having three girls might create a boy crazy house in about 10 years. What I wasn't ready for was three toddlers checking out the neighbor's lawn guy. Grace and Lydia had a friend Allie over one morning. One minute they were innocently blowing bubbles on our patio. The next minute they are gathered in the back of the yard, giggling and waving at the nice lawn guy as he worked. When they figured out that he might be a while, they sat and watched. The poor girls were a little bummed when he left.

Ready for Tee Ball

Do you think the tee ball leagues will accommodate Grace's fashion sense in a few years? She insists that dresses are the best outfits to wear when playing baseball because they spin when she hits the ball. She can even hit the ball in her little wedge flip flops.
Woohoo! I did it!
Then she throws the bat in the air... every time.
...and for her cool down, she twirls on the swings.

Jump, Run, Play ...Higher, Faster, Harder

Lydia loves to run, jump, and play. She would be outside from the time she woke up until the moment she fell asleep if she could. She takes risks and never does anything halfway. While riding her ATV, she's figured out how to flip it over by popping up the front wheel and going up steps. As if figuring that trick out wasn't enough, she thinks it's so much fun to do!!


Not only is Lydia a little daredevil. She's tough. She had an infection under her thumb nail earlier this week. The doctor had to drain the nasty green pus to ease the pain and send to the lab. Knowing that she was dealing with a two year old (who had a double ear infection, a sinus infection, and an infected thumb), she called her nurse to help her. The doctor told Lydia it would hurt a little and promised stickers as a reward. Lydia sat and watched intently as the doctor, stuck a needle in her thumb and drained the goop as if waiting for the hurt to start. When she was finished Lydia happily picked out an Elmo bandaid, gave the doctor a high five and

Ella Rose

Ella is getting so big! Ella's favorite things to do are...
  • Hang out with her big sisters and watching them.
  • Flash her big smile, showing off her two bottom teeth
  • Talk about her favorite person. Her first (and so far only) word was mama.
  • Chew, chew, chew on toys and anything else she can get her mouth
As of yesterday, my littlest peanut is 16 pounds. At her 6 month checkup she was in the 20th percentile for weight and the 80th for length. We seem to be stuck on an endless cycle of ear infections, followed by antiobiotics (to rid the ear infections), followed by thrush (from the antiobiotics), then Nystatin (for the thrush). Then a month later it all starts again. We were at the doctor yesterday...again, only to find out that she has another ear infection. Ugh!! Hopefully summer days will lead to a healthier Ella.

Skipping April

Sometimes blogging stresses me out! I seem to fall behind all the time. So instead of trying to catch up on two months of posts, I am letting it go and just skipping all things April.

I'll recap the entire month in one short post without pictures.

  • Lots of zoo days
  • Easter egg decorating
  • Cake decorating at Cake N Bake
  • An early Easter egg hunt at the Folks
  • Paul was confirmed. He's now officially Catholic.
  • Easter breakfast and egg hunt at the Borneman's
  • Easter lunch and egg hunt at the Murphy's
  • Diesel's 5th birthday (in dog life I guess he's 35)
  • Paul and I celebrated 5 wonderful years together
  • Birthday party for our niece Nona. Happy 4th Birthday Nona!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Cellcom Marathon

Paul and I both ran the Cellcom marathon a couple weeks ago. Paul did a great job running his first marathon! He's been struggling with a couple nagging injuries the last couple months. He hopes to take a couple months off, then start running again.

I ran the 1/2 marathon in 2 hours and 50 minutes. I am so excited to have finished at all!! It's hard to believe that I could run 13.1 miles just 7 months after having Ella.

Thank you to our amazing running partners, Alex and Janelle, who have logged many miles with us leading up to the events. We couldn't have done it without them.

Here are the guys before the race. (They swear they didn't plan the matching shirts).
Janelle and I prerun. We usually aren't so happy about being awake at 6 am.
Paul finishing the race. We did it!!