Thanksgiving

The kids had fun learning about and decorating for Thanksgiving. They all did a great job coloring their pilgrims and indians. The tree next to it is our thankful tree. The kids did scratch art on leaves and then we wrote things we are thankful for on the back and hung it from a branch. My favorite thankful was headbands....bet you can't guess who came up with that one!

Dave took the day before Thanksgiving off so we could have a "get stuff done day". It was a real blessing and I was able to get caught up on a lot. Benjamin and I had just finished studying the sun and one of the experiments was to take a magnifying glass in front of the sun and hold it over a piece of chocolate and watch how it can melt it. They had so much fun with it that they didn't stop with just chocolate....they "burned  holes" in mulch, leaves, paper and had a great time!

My mom got a new couch and I couldn't resist using the white as a photo background while we were visiting. Look how good they did in my practice photo in their cute sister/brother shirts.

Then, when I added Eva, Collin started being a stinker!

 So I tried a new pose that worked better, although most of these Anna is looking to my side at the TV. The parade was on and she was absolutely in love with it! (She watched it once live and then again at her other grandma's house.) We sure do have a lot to be thankful for!

Love these of the boys!

If only they always looked at each other with this much love and never fought!

Sweet girls!

Eva is starting to really enjoy being on her tummy and look all over.

We were always too busy having fun, that I actually didn't get any pictures with all the fun we had with our families. Dave did snap this one though of our time at the candy/chocolate factory. We enjoyed watching them make candy canes (Collin adorably calls them candy cans) from start to finish. It was pretty neat and they tasted so good!

Taking advantage of the cool white couch again and I scored this great picture of my little sweet pea.

Her eyes look even bigger and brighter when she's on her tummy!

Eva loves, LOVES to chew on cloth (blankets, burp cloths, her clothes) and is very good at catching her dress and getting it to her mouth.

Special time with Daddy.

After we got back from Thanksgiving with our families, the kiddos were pretty exhausted from all of the fun. I almost fell over when I saw this sight. I cannot remember a time that Benjamin fell asleep watching television or any other time that wasn't bed time. Good times are hard work, I guess.

Eva telling us her morning stories.

She is a very happy girl in the morning!

She's also very popular from the time she wakes up!

Benjamin hard at work on another coloring creation.

When I came back from taking Benjamin's picture and hearing his plan for it, Collin had emptied Eva's toy box and every toy was laid out next to her.

We let Benjamin grow his hair out a little longer and so we decided to have some fun with hair gel.

Anna wanted some attention too, so I tried braids for the first time. Her hair is super fine like mine, so we got it wet to do it. I meant to get a picture after it dried but forgot. It was so cute after we took it down. She had these beautiful wavy curls and looked so different!

Of course Collin needed a turn with the camera too. He was smiling at me and then right when I took the picture gave me a surprise "Hulk smash".

Sweet smile.

1st Scout Badge

"I did it!"

(I put Eva on her blanket and within seconds she rolled onto her tummy. She hasn't done it again (which we are 100% okay with!) but it was cute seeing how pleased she was.)

Benjamin was so excited for his cub scout meeting this time.

Because he earned his first badge!

Here's the almost seven-year old reading to his siblings.

Benjamin is growing and learning so much. He is a big helper and loves to help his parents out with our chores and projects. He even helps with laundry. He has developed a great attitude for school (most of the time) and works hard. He loves playing with his brother and sister and can make Eva smile as big as anyone can. He's really cute when he gets together with his friends too....you can tell how much fun they have. Most importantly, he is developing a love for the Lord. He loves studying his Bible and I am blessed beyond words to watch him develop his faith!

4 Month Old Eva

Can't believe four months have passed already with our sweet pea blessing our days. Eva is such a wonderful addition to our family!

I was shocked that she gave me so many happy pictures. She had her check up that morning and wasn't in a good mood from her shot the rest of the day. But when I sat her down for her monthly picture, she became so content.

She loves her voice and talks and squeals all the time now!

She smiles with her whole body!

Her eyes have become so big and bright, Daddy likes to call her bright eyes.

She was so squirmy that she kept kicking her socks off while I was taking her picture, so we eventually just gave up and now you can see her cute baby toes!

She's got a lot to tell us!

I was tickling her with her bunny and she smiled and laughed like I have never seen before. It was so adorable!!

Eva actually likes being on her tummy and loves looking all around. She has rolled back onto her back quite  a few times. Her neck muscles are super strong and she can pretty much completely support her head by herself. I don't think it will be long before she can sit by herself.

Eva really is such a blessing. She is so sweet and happy and sleeps so well for us. She has even learned to self soothe herself back to sleep sometimes which is awesome! She brings all five of us so much joy!! The kids are so in love with her. They have even started calling her E-V-A and chant it as if they are cheering for her.

Eva is a healthy girl too, yay! She is growing really fast and has gotten so much longer. She is now 26 inches and in the 95th + percentile for height (can't believe she grew 3 inches in 2 months!!!) and is 14 pounds and 12 ounces which is a little over 50th percentile for weight. They said she's long and lean and doing great! 

Elephant & Tooth

At Ikea we found this adorable elephant for Eva. It's so cute and soft and cuddly!

Another lost tooth!

They were jumping in the bouncy house and Benjamin got bumped and the tooth just flew out of his mouth and thankfully into his hand. So glad I didn't have to search the bouncy house for it! Although, that night when we went to put it in his special pillowcase it wasn't in the bowl. So we crawled around for quite some time and surprisingly found that little white tooth on our white tile. He was pretty excited! Benjamin doesn't like to wiggle them very much so they stay in for a long time. He's got another one loose on the top too. Collin is pretty jealous and shakes his teeth and tries to convince us that his teeth are loose too.

Baby's 1st Road Trip

Anna is really into her baby again and brings her all over the house with her. Baby was starting to show from all of her play time so I had the idea that she should give her baby a bath like she sees me give Eva one. So we got a big bowl and filled it with water and soap and she had a blast getting her baby all clean. Collin thought it looked so cool that he went and got a different baby and took a turn too. Anna and I joke about how big she is and that I think she's big enough and should stop and she always tells me, "No! I just want to keep getting bigger and bigger so I can be a momma!"

Just a boy and his kitty.

Eva is getting really strong in supporting her head/neck so I brought out the bumbo and we gave it a try. She did great in it.

She is also starting to enjoy playing with her toys.

Here she is finding the tv.

We took her on a road trip (2 1/2 hours each way, all in one day). With the other babies, I was able to sit back with them when Dave drove but haven't with Eva since the kids fill up the back. For the longer trip, I asked Dave to move Eva to the back row so I could sit in the middle next to her to keep her happy. It worked perfect (except maybe for my back) and we had a great time! It was so much easier to take care of Eva since she loves to look at people so she could always see me and I could give her the paci whenever she needed it.

Dave caught wearing my sunglasses!

Here's the cutie that sat on my other side. We had fun doing bible study together when Eva slept.

Anna moved up next to Collin and they seemed to have a great time together.

There's a monkey in the car! ;)

Eva spent a lot of the trip holding onto my hand, even while she slept.

Our destination was Cousin Will's shark party! Here's Anna with the birthday boy.

The boys enjoyed their shark cupcakes....

As we were walking into the party, Collin whispered to me "Did you know I'm going to eat the shark at the party?" I guess he was kinda right!

No cupcakes yet for sweet Eva, but she still had fun. She was especially happy after she had the biggest blow-out EVER on the way home. No joke...it was insane! She doesn't go very often so she makes up for it when she does. This time it took us about thirty wipes, her pants were full so they just got thrown away, and this was all done in the back of the van with me in the middle of two car seats and Eva on my lap. It was quite the sight! Sweet Benjamin held the wipes for us and handed them one at a time to us. Life is always interesting!

After the party we stopped by Ikea and had a really fun evening playing and shopping. I even got to get my Christmas present and Dave already put it together for me. It's a laundry organizer and I think it is going to be life changing! I'll have to post a picture some time. :)