The Self Soothing Baby

Collin has a lot of fun in his bouncer. His siblings really like playing with him in it too! Here Anna is "feeding" him....


Can you see the love in how Collin is looking at Anna? :)


He's such a cutie! Lately he's been making lots of "raspberry noises" with his mouth that make us all laugh.

Benjamin got a new dragon toy and he really loves it!

Benjamin was playing with his toy when he told me to quick, look at Collin. Collin was bouncing himself a few times and then would nod off. He repeated this 4-5 times.....

and then fell fast asleep!!!

If you look closely, you can see the drooling proof that he is out! :)

Collin is an official "army crawler"!!! He's been doing it for a few weeks now and it is one of my favorite developments that babies do. It is so cute to watch! When he does it, Benjamin yells out "Look, Momma! He's crawling like the soldiers do!!!"

This sweet guy has been telling me lately when he thinks I look pretty! :)

I put the lens cap on the floor to get Collin to crawl for the pictures. He played with it for a minute and then decided he wanted the actual camera instead. This is his reaction to me taking the camera away....

Anna LOVES sitting in her rocking chair and watching Dora these days....

Silly...

and sweet....

We got the kiddie pool out for the first time last week. The big kids really have a lot of fun in it. Benjamin's not much for being hot, so he has really enjoyed having the water to keep him cool so that he can still play outside!

They played for so long and so nice with one another!

After a little while the pool toys got boring, so I grabbed some of their kitchen toys and threw them in. They had a lot of fun "cooking" in the pool!

Everyone is happy once Daddy is home!

Because he's a REALLY good Daddy! :)

I'm behind on here again. These are pictures from last week. I have what feels like a million things to do and many more pictures to put on here. Hopefully I can be productive and get it all done! Here are a few more Anna quotes:

-We went to the outlet mall and as we were walking around, Anna fell and scraped her knee a little bit. On the way home she kept telling me, "Mommy, sorry I hurt my knee. I fall down. Sorry Mommy." Benjamin and I kept explaining to her that she didn't have to apologize for getting hurt, but much to Benjamin's frustrations she didn't understand. :)

-One day last week, the kids were playing together really well. Then Benjamin got distracted by a tv show. He was completely zoned out to it. Anna came into the living room once she realized he wasn't playing anymore. She asked him, "Ben-gine, don't you want to play with me?" He didn't hear her, so she just kept getting louder and more in his face. Finally, I had to get his attention for her b/c he was so into the show. After I got his attention for her, she asked him again and he replied very nonchalantly, "Sure." and they were off! I LOVE that they can play nice with one another sometimes!!!!

Playground Trip

We stayed close to home this weekend, but I had a wonderful Saturday. I got up that morning and had some time to myself browsing our neighborhood's yard sale. I found a train set for the boys for Christmas, a bunch of clothes and snow boots for Anna, and a castle to go with their Little People set. Benjamin and Anna were really excited by the castle. After playing with it upstairs for a little while, they wanted to go down to the basement and set up all their Little People. We had fun playing as a family and Benjamin made a parade with all the animals and people.....


After Dave took our picture, Benjamin wanted a turn. So Benjamin took these pictures of me and my cupcake...... :)

Then of course, Anna needed a turn too! So with Daddy's help, she took this picture of me and the Bug-a-boo.

We live right next to a gigantic neighborhood that's really nice. They have a playground there, so I told Dave I wanted to have a picnic there and then go to Sam's. It turned out to be a great playground for our kids and we had a really nice time there. Collin and Anna had a lot of fun on the swings. Benjamin has always hated to swing, so it's fun for me to have some babies to push on the swings and see them smile in delight!

Anna is such a free spirit and so adventurous! She wants to go higher and higher!

Anna answers "no" when I ask her if she's my baby, but I don't believe her. So here's a picture of my two swinging babies!

Collin sometimes chews on two fingers and I think it's pretty cute....

So fun!!!

Benjamin and Daddy were in heaven b/c this playground has little diggers that you can dig around in the dirt with. I thought this was a funny picture b/c the eyes on his Spiderman hat are covering his real eyes.

There, that's better. Now we can see that adorable face of his!

Since we all had blue on and I don't have any pictures of me with my babies, I asked Dave to take some before we ate our picnic. Can you see how blessed I am?

After Sam's, I spent the majority of the day painting. I finished up the little bit of work that was left in Collin's room and then moved Anna's furniture in there so she can sleep in his room b/c now I'm painting her room. It was a lot of tiring hours of painting, but worth it to make some progress on this project. Hopefully, I will finish soon and can post pictures of their new rooms all put together!

Pajama Day

We had a jammie day here yesterday......






I figured I was due one.....

I fell down a couple of steps and landed with my two small toes crashing into the baby gate at the end of the stairs. They hurt for a few days then started to feel better. A week later the pain got much worse and started traveling into the foot. We spent Monday morning at urgent care to learn that thank goodness it isn't broken. But the doctor said there was some big time bruising/swelling around my nerves and every time I walked, I just kept irritating it more. So I get to wear this stylish footwear for at least a week so my foot/toes don't bend. I am very, very thankful I don't have a broken foot and think I'll be better soon. Hopefully over the weekend I can finally keep it elevated for more than a few minutes at a time. :) Funny part though, is sweet Anna. She comes up to me, rubs my boot and declares in the softest/sweetest voice, "I like your special shoe. It make you feel better soon!" (This occurs about a 20 times per day)


I think they are a pretty cute bunch wheher in jammies or dressed!


As always they are full of love!

Do you see the personality in that sweet cupcake of mine's face? She is so full of personality and fun. She makes me smile every single day, all day long. She seems to be blossoming before my eyes and becoming quite the adorable little girl. Here are some recent Anna smile makers (it should be known that she inserts the cutest inflections and softens and sweetens her voice in ways that merely reading the quotes, you cannot fully appreciate the sweet personality within her little body):

• We were sitting at our dining room table eating dinner together. Anna looked up and declared lovingly, "This my family. It's Momma, Cawin, Ben-gine, Daddy, and Ee-na. It's our family!"
• She was on a walk pulling her wagon when she fell and the wagon dragged her a bit and ended up scraping her thumb nail on the sidewalk yesterday evening. I called the doctor's office b/c it was looking yucky this morning and they said they needed to check it. Thankfully, the doctor didn't need to do anything to it and we just need to keep it bandaged with ointment for a week or so and watch for infection. We headed to Target to pick out some girly bandaids for her. Grandma met us there and bought the kids some new toys. When I was putting one together this afternoon, she grabbed a faucet to the sink (a toy for her babies), put it to her ear as if it were a phone, and started this conversation, "Hi God. It's Anna. I have a bandaid. It has Dora on it." I even asked her to repeat who she was talking to and she assured me, "I talking to God, Momma."
• Speaking of Dora: While nursing Collin this morning she wanted me to read her a story. I told her I would when Collin was finished and she decided (as she always does), "It's okay, Momma. I read it myself. Okay?" I listened as she flipped through one of her Dora books and read the story out loud. "Hola, I'm Dora. This is Boots. We're going on an adventure." (turn page) "Hola, I'm Boots. I go on an adventure with Dora." (turn page) "Hi, I Swiper!" etc. etc........ :)
• And here's one that's funny but not so sweet: To Benjamin (usually in the car) while her big brother is looking at her in funny/silly/scary/etc ways, "Don't look at me! No!!!! He's looking at me!!!!" This eventually causes her to stop screaming and start crying, me to try not to laugh, and Benjamin to change his facial expression to one of half delight/half pure satisfaction.

C Post: Cup, Comparison, Collin at 7 Months, and (kind of) Crawling

I was about to give Collin a cup for the first time one evening, when Benjamin got out of bed (again, I'm sure). I decided to be a nice Momma and even though he wasn't following the rules, I let Benjamin stay up and give Collin his first cup (I knew this would be very exciting for Benjamin).


He was really proud and excited that Collin liked the cup.


Collin mostly just explored the cup and enjoyed chewing on the mouth part. But you gotta start somewhere!

Benjamin gets a big kick out of helping with the dishes these days. I hope that continues!

My Grandma found this picture of my Dad when he was Benjamin's age. She told me to show it to Anna and Benjamin and ask them who they thought it was. They both guessed Benjamin!

The real Benjamin (Anna still thinks the picture of my Dad is Benjamin, no matter how I explain it to her).

Benjamin's preschool had a Mother's Day Tea that I got to attend on Tuesday. We had yummy snacks that Benjamin served to me, they sang a song to their moms, he gave me a picture he drew of him and me, and we made this picture frame together. It was a really special time and it meant a lot to both of us to celebrate Mother's Day with some time just the two of us!

Collin turned 7 months old yesterday.

He was so funny playing with his drawstrings!

I zoomed out so you can see how long he is......

Isn't he just so cute?!?! He has started doing his own little version of an army crawl this week. He tucks one arm under his belly and then reaches with the other and kind of shimmies his body back and forth to move himself forward. The last few days he's been getting his belly off the ground some too, but he only moves backwards so far when he gets onto his knees and it only lasts a few seconds.

I was so excited when I was getting his 7 month pictures and he started clapping his hands. This is the first time I've caught it with the camera. He's so cute, b/c he watches his hands as he claps them and smiles at them!

Yay!!!!

Sorry, I know that was a lot of pictures of basically the same thing. But I just love when he's so delighted like he was when I took these pictures. Usually, he saves such joy for when he sees Benjamin or Anna. Another thing that makes him really happy though is cold drinks. When I pick up my drink, he reaches his hand out and wraps his palm around it and smiles and squeals! He gets so excited by feeling the cold on his hands. One more thing: for a few months now, Collin has really enjoyed slapping his hand on things. He does it so often that Dave calls him "Slappy" sometimes.

Benjamin story: I was loading up the kids in the car when Benjamin started asking me about Milo. He does this every few days (asks me if I miss Milo and reassures me that we will all be alive in Heaven sometime, so it's okay). I applauded his understanding once again after we were finished talking and explained that God is happy that he understands this. Benjamin asked, "Because God knows everything, right?" I told him that yes, God does. And Benjamin declared, "Just like the Easter Bunny and Santa!" Awesome.