Fast catch up, now slow down.

Hello bloggers. Are you out there? I know we are a dying breed, but I'm holding on for dear life. I have not forgotten about you. Or me. Or the many posts I have thought up in my head that have never had the chance to come out.

So I just got done with organizing, uploading, and re-naming pictures of the last three months of my life, and I kept trying to think of a way to post some cute, funny, or memorable experiences. I started feeling overwhelmed with the task to not only document our life's most precious moments, or life's most mundane moments (cause sometimes those are important too), but also to do it in a way that is witty, creative, and well organized. This is the problem with blogging, and I why I don't blog so often anymore. I put this pressure on myself, to post really good posts. They have to be well written. They have to have some wit. They have to have cute pictures.

And today I'm just deciding, to heck with it. I'm just going to post whatever, in no particular order, with no wit, or organization, and I'm probably not even going to hit the spell check button. So there. Hope you enjoy the hodge podge of moments and mis spelled words and lack of punctuation, we've had of the last three months. I've got ten minutes before I gotta go get Liv from school, so warning this is really going to be my thoughts/our pictures just thrown up on here. Here we go.

He's teaching her how to roll

and snuggle. . . 

She's teaching her the importance of accessorizing your outfit.

And he's not teaching much, because he's too busy learing things himself still and . . . 

flirting with girls. 

He took his training wheels off this month and is loving his new freedom and speed. 

And she had a special friend come visit and it made me happy, because they went straight for the dress ups. Never grow up Liv! 

We've been for lots of walks. Enjoying lots of pretty blossoms. 

He had fun playing a new game at group lessons called try to play twinkle as a group, while all the parents plug their ears. 

These two acted crazy for . . . crazy day at school 

And we. . . well we have been basking in her chub and snuggles. 

And then there was this one morning where Liv woke up with hair like this, and we never laughed so hard. 

Does this need a caption? 

And then Easter came. 

Followed by lots of performances and recitals. 

Patty deserves a caption. This is Patty. The world's best violin teacher. 

And I took this picture simply because how could I not with a girl dressed this cute on Easter morning, and also because she was the only one willing to smile for a cute easter morning picture.  

And then we had some friends over for Easter dinner and a little easter egg hunt. 

And somebody spent most of two months of nap time involved in spring cleaning and organizing. 

And there was this one time, that this girl was so cute and cuddly and warm right out of the bath that I just had to take a picture. 

And this girl is learning how to do something really cool and new and hard on the violin and I'm so proud of her for working on it everyday. 

And I took this picture, because there was once a time, about the time she was four years old and her hair was still above her shoulders that I never thought this day would ever come. And now I have to play with it, and braid it, and curl it all the time, because well I just have to. 

And. . . well I just liked these flowers. 

I had to capture this cute moment when the kids were finally down and J was playing with his baby. I say his baby, even though I know she's my baby, but she adores him. She does this thing when he's holding her face out, where she cranes her neck back and up to look at him. It's the cutest. 

And then there was this super sweet moment at the retirement home where Liv and W were playing their violins and this lady was in love with Buster and she just kept asking to give him a hug. It made me so happy that we are a part of this group. But even if your not a part of a group that performs at old folks homes, take your little kids to visit some sometime, because it seriously makes them feel so alive and happy to be around little one's. It's great. 

Had to post this even if it's a cruddy phone picture. I love that squishy face. 

Sleeping in the car on the way to a performance. 

Not sleepy at all, because he's on a field trip to his favorite place, THE FIRE STATION! His jacket says "Fire Chief" and the fire fiighters kept calling him fire chief which made Warner feel like he was walking on the moon. 

And then there was kindergarten round up and I felt excited and depressed all at the same time. Where has the time gone! How are you already going to school my little Brucey. Slow down life. 

Before I know it, this little suckling will be on her way to school, I better enjoy it while it lasts.

Whew. Ok gotta run. See ya in three months. I hope not.

Baby Steps into Spring Cleaning

I'm impulsive. I admit it. Especially when it comes to cleaning. I don't like to start a project unless I know I can finish is it and see results that very same day. As you can imagine, this personality trait doesn't roll so well with being a mother of four. So, I'm learning to control myself this spring cleaning season, because there is a LOT to do, and there's no way I can get it done in a day or even a week. I'm just hoping to get most of it done before summer hits so I can enjoy it, and let it get all messy all over again.

Yesterday I cleaned out my microwave. It took me a total of 15 minutes. Today I cleaned my oven, organized a closet and deep cleaned my bedroom. And it took me. . . ALL DAY.

By deep cleaned I mean every drawer was emptied, old and unloved items were given away, clothes were reorganized, many old pens and broken pencils were thrown away, books were put back in the library that I have been wishfully thinking I could read but don't have the time. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Every square inch of my bedroom is clean, well except the windows and blinds, but that's a whole other spring cleaning project now isn't it? I even vacuumed under the bed and all the furniture.

The problem with me is I've always liked to clean the whole all at once, which leads more to quantity cleaning and not quality. Today as I was putting things away that went in different rooms, each with their own projects I kept finding myself being distracted by the needs of that room, only to remind myself to FOCUS ON THE TASK AT HAND. I would quickly re-route and go back to my bedroom, the original project. This was hard. But now I have four very clean spots in my house, my microwave, my oven, the closet under the stairs, and my bedroom. The rest of the house? Well! It's a total disaster, but at least I have my clean spaces. Baby steps. Baby steps. Tomorrow, I'm going to work on my master bathroom closet. Tonight I'm going to look up some tips on organizing it a little better. It feels good to be getting things in order.

Just stuff

 My little helper.

This face is directed straight at me for putting the ice cream scoop in the silverware drawer by mistake.  "No Mom. Dat don't go in dare".  You could say he's kind of a silverware Nazi. 

 But he's my little Nazi, and I love him. 

 And this is what the kids ate for dinner tonight. Just gotta keep things real on the blog. This dinner is a direct result of one: having no food in our house, and two: trying to use up left overs in the fridge (aka the black beans) and three: having a migraine headache this morning so not feeling like doing much this afternoon as the aftermath of an ache skull. Thus they got fish sticks, some clementines, a few snap peas and some black beans. Fortunately for me, to them, this dinner is better than homade lasagna and fresh baked bread. 

My 3 Month Old Ruby

 

Someone popped into our photoshoot and was happily welcomed. 

Ruby Ruby Ruby. Oh how we love our sweet little, three month old Ruby. She is an angel.

Ruby is now sleeping through the night on a regular basis. If she doesn't sleep through the night, she usually just wakes up once for a little nurse and goes right back to sleep by me on my bed, which I love and cherish even if my arm is numb in the morning from having it around her.

She is also on a pretty regular nap schedule deepending on the errands I have to run that day, she will sleep from about ten to noon and then from two to four and sometimes even five. Then she goes down around seven for the night.  The book The Baby Whisperer taught me some great things about creating great sleepers and it's worked magically with all of my babies.

When she's awake, she is a fairly low maintenance baby. She lets me squeeze and love and play with her, but she's also happy kickin it on the floor if I dare lay her there, or hanging out in the bumbo.  She has recently dsicovered her hands and loves to find them and suck on them. In fact, I had a hard time getting a picture of her face without her hands stuffed in her mouth during the photoshoot.

Also another dreamy thing about Rubes is she doesn't spit up like my other babies did. It's so nice. I remember at about this stage with my other babies just feeling like I smelled like milk all the time. Not just me, but my bed, our blankets, our towels, our couches. It's soooo nice to have a baby that keeps it in her belly. I don't have to worry about having burp clothes tucked away in every corner of the house.

Ruby has more fat rolls on her thighs than any of my babies yet, which is so fun for all of us to squish. I love the rolls. I have to bite and squish the rolls!

Yesterday I had to go through all of the clothes that Rubes is growing out of already and replace them with 3-6 month clothes. I may have shed a tear or two at the fact that she no longer fits these precious little clothes. Why time? Why? Why do you have to move so quickly when life is so precious and sweet?

Ruby is now in 3-6 month clothing. Three to six months!! So much is going to change between now and then. She will start rolling around, maybe even scooting and eating in a highchair. Waaaaaa. Why does it have to go so fast? Ok I'll stop being such a boob and try to just enjoy it, because experience has taught me that she's going to grow up way to fast.

What a blessing you are to our family Rubes.

Warner takes a ride in a REAL police car

This morning started off great with snuggles from a happy, sweet, and smily Ruby. What more could I ask? If I could fit in a run as well then my day would start off even better. Jaron agreed. So I went for a quick half hour jog in my neighborhood while he held down the home fort.

Everything was going swimmingly until I ran up the hill to our house and noticed a Police Car in our driveway.  My heart started to race.  I haven't done much sprinting since the baby came, but the sight of that vehicle got me sprinting like I was on the Olympics. I was panicked. Was it Ruby? Did Jaron slip and fall and one of the kids had called? What was going on?!

There in the doorway, standing up straight and tall, was a youngish police officer with Warner and Jaron standing in our entry way looking back at him.

Apparently shortly after I had decided to go for a run, Warner decided without telling anyone, that he would join me. I had no idea he was running a block behind me. He apparently didn't see which way I had turned and went the opposite way of me. Meanwhile, Jaron was upstairs getting ready for work assuming that as usual, Warner was playing in the play room like the good little boy that he is.  You can imagine the surprise when Jaron came down the stairs and saw a bashful Warner standing next to an armed officer of the law.

Luckily an elderly man, or "a good guy" as Warner had so kindly referred to him, had found Warner a few blocks from our house and called 911. The police officer asked Warner his name and where he lived. Thanks to a family night lesson we had a year ago, Warner was able to tell him our exact address. The police officer was very impressed that Warner knew his address.  He said that most 12 or 13 year olds that he talked to didn't know their own addresses. I'm glad that there was some evidence that we were good parents at that point, though I'm sure it didn't exactly outweigh the fact that our four year old had run away from us.

We thanked the policeman for bringing our precious cargo back to us safely and had a serious sit down with Warner. I hope he learned his lesson, though I'm doubtful the lesson he learned was the one we wanted him to, because there's nothing like giving a four year old boy a ride in a REAL police car, and letting him talk to a REAL police officer on a REAL police radio to teach him not to run away.

If you know of any companies that specialize in installing GPS units in four year olds please, let me know.

Happy Tuesday.

Rubie's first time seeing snow!

We woke up Sunday morning and there was snow! Getting excited about snow in Seattle is like getting excited when it rains in Utah. Simply because it is so novel you have to drop whatever you are doing and go play in it.

This Sunday church was cancled so we had all day to play in the snow. It's the first time Ruby has ever seen snow! Not that she can comprehend at all what that means, but it was still exciting to show it to her.