Ok--I knew I would have less time for me when Mallory arrived, but wow. I rarely get more than 30 minutes in the afternoon during nap/quiet time and then not again until 9:00 or so when the last little chicky goes to bed. And I have no "juice" left by then. So there's the reason for the blog slackin. Even now I need to go work on dinner before I have a baby in my arms. (I managed to slice and peel the skin off of an apple the other day one-handed while holding Mallory---I was pretty amazed at myself.) : ) But wanted to update with a few pictures before we celebrate Mallory's first birthday. Ha! By the way---can you tell my teeth are gritted in the Easter family portrait? I was saying, "JACK--LOOK AT THE CAMERA!!" Yes, it was even more chaotic than it looks! And notice the trend with Riley and family pictures. Love it.
Mallory will be 5 months
old next week. She is such a little sweet pea. She loves LOVES attention from anyone and LOVES to have her hands held. It is so sweet. She started rolling over la
st week from her back to her front and then to her back again and now there's no stopping her! If you put her down, she's rollin. She is sometimes sleeping from about 9-7 but that's pretty sporatic. I'm wishing we could
figure out what makes her do that so we could get it every night!
We all love Mallory---even when she has fussy days her brother and sisters love on her.
Riley Kate is 18 months tomorrow. Where has the time gone?? Her vocabulary has exploded this
week--she has been more interested in
listening to everyone else talk than to talk herself until now. Some favorites of mine are hearing her say, "DADDY!!!!! DADDY!!" over and over when he walks in the door from work. SO precious. Today when I put her down for her nap she said, "I wuv oo" back to me. Melt my heart. And this morning she was singing along with the Doxology (we keep music going around here pretty much all day) and it was so sweet to hear her belting out, "PAISE GOD!! PAISE GOD!! PAISE GOD (who) SAY (my) SO!! PAISE GOD (to whom all) SESSINGS SO!! So sweet!! She loves water and
MUD. We're not sure if she likes the taste or the texture, but she likes to put it in her mouth. YUCK! She is becom
ing very independent and I find her places like halfway up the pantry shelves (scaling them), sitting in the pantry with a box of crackers and eating them the other day (she climbed up to get them first), she climbs up the ramp on their swingset and came flying down the slide face first yesterday and did a face plant in the mud---all in her mouth, teeth---but she likes it so she didn't mind! We adore this girl!
JACK!
He is 3 and is a STITCH. He loves "playing" his guitar and plays it multiple times a day. If he isn't playing it, he is playing his air guitar or he's strumming the logos of the guitars on his shirts. We really believe he is going to be a praise/worship leader or musician one day. Music is in this boy's soul. He
has grown up a lot over the last several months---wanting to do everything just like his older sister.
Hayley is turning 5 in 2 more months! So hard to believe. She
has been planning her 5th birthday since last August. She is so much fun to hang out with. I'm amazed at all she picks up on these days. She is becoming more and more helpful around here. She would run the place 24/7 if I let her. She has learned how to write most of her letters this year and loves reading books on her own (the short early reader ones). It's so fun to watch her sound words out and really read them! Some of my favorite things she has said lately is, "J is for Jerusalem." (not the word I would have picked, but hey, it works!) We told her we were going swimming last weekend and that the water would probably be pretty cold and she goes, "Oh, well, that's okay! I'll just roll with it!"
So many more that I want to remember and this is the only place I write them down! I never want to sound "braggy" or anything about my kids ---I just want to remember all of the sweet things. I don't really want to remember the sassiness, disrespectful tones, arguing b/t siblings, screaming at the top of her lungs from Riley (instead of talking), and the clinginess that tends to totally beat me down by about 3:00 from Mallory. : ) We've got PLENTY of normal day to day hard stuff around here too. As I was walking M around this afternoon and going to the place of "another day without a moment to myself again" the Holy Spirit reminded me to just let it go and be thankful for this sweet time to hold my baby in my arms. It's a season---- a very SHORT season. So I held her until she fell asleep and enjoyed it! Kitchen a wreck, dinner not cooked, weights not lifted, elliptical not run on, toys not picked up, the bulk of M's birth announcements STILL not sent out, and the list goes on. It's so hard to keep a positive spin on life when you feel so unproductive, but it's a lie from the enemy that I am "unproductive" and to all you moms out there who are also taking care of your babies. I'm choosing not to believe it and to work on enjoying these short months of feeding, changing, holding, rocking, bouncing, etc. these babies! Hope someone was encouraged by this today! And hoping to post more soon!
