January!

Lots more to catch up on! January had us outside in the beautiful snow.

The kids particularly had fun playing "king of the mountain" on the big mound of snow from Dave shoveling the driveway.

Dave also shoveled a bunch of snow into a little hill for the kids to sled down. They had a lot of fun on it and it also served as a good perch for miss Eva.

Dave and the kids worked hard to build a snow man (it wasn't good snow for it, but they made it happen).

While they did that, I was inside making up some snow paint (water + food coloring + spray bottles = great fun!) that they then colored their snow man/mountain with.

We must have worn Eva out. While I was mixing up the snow paint, she fell asleep just sitting in her bouncy seat!

Later that evening, Daddy fed her cereal for the first time.

Mmmm! She liked it.

She liked playing with the spoon afterwards a lot too!

Anna and I had fun dressing the girls alike. So of course we had to have a picture!

So precious all snuggled up.

Benjamin got this puzzle for his birthday and was so excited to put it together. It was pretty hard, but he was so patient. When it got to just the blue sky left, I had them play while I did most of it. Then when there were about 15 pieces left, I let them finish it up while I was getting Collin ready for nap. When I came back, this is how I found them (see below). It got even sweeter, they finished and one piece was missing. After we all searched, Benjamin finally found it and even though it was his puzzle, he immediately took it over to Anna and offered to let her put the last piece in.

Eva was being pretty sweet at the time too....

She really loves playing with the spoon after she eats!

Anna and Dave got all dressed up for their annual daddy/daughter date to the Princess Ball. Anna was so very excited and looked beautiful!

She loves her boots!

And she loves her Daddy!

She was so shy coming down the red carpet!

Her brothers were excited to watch her!

She found lots of her friends at the ball.

After the red carpet, it was time for us to say good bye and they were off to enjoy their date. They had a great time!

Eva is a happy girl....

who reminds me so much of her big sister (this is Anna below!). This isn't the best example, but I couldn't resist since they have the same sleeper on in the same seat. The girls really do look so much like one another so far. I trick Dave with pictures of the two of them all the time!

Hi!

Guess what was making her smile so much?

Her big sister dancing! :)

I just love her eyes!

She's finally found her feet and has become quite fond of them!

Benjamin was blessed to have all of the buddies he invited come to his birthday sleepover. They had a great time! Here they are coloring their angry bird posters, which they enjoyed doing so much.

Being sung to again and loving it.

We did a cookie bar which was a lot of fun and tasted so good!

Dave thought he was being sneaky and zoomed in on just me and my big kiddos.

The boys kept making funny faces when we tried to take pictures, so we finally told them we would make time for silly pictures which they weren't shy for!

Soon they became angry! (birds that is)

There was lots of wrestling! The kids were all really good and had a grand time!

Two of the kids often sit in our rocking chair together while they watch a show. I was pretty tickled though when I came into the room and found all three of them squeezed in this morning!

Miss Eva's six month pictures with her bunny (and a fancy outfit)

She purses her lips a lot when she smiles. It's a pretty sweet little smirk.

She had been very sick with RSV and pneumonia, so it was wonderful to see her happy and healthy again! At her appointment she weighed 16 pounds 2 ounces (50th percentile) and was 26 1/2 inches long (95th percentile).

The kids love playing dress-up but their stuff is always such a big mess (just thrown into large bins). We debated different plans to store it better and finally came up with this....we cleaned out our coat closet and put in some drawers on the bottom and put up a bunch of hooks so they can neatly store all their dress-up outfits and accessories. It works so great and they love it! They dress-up every day now.

We also did some shopping, including a new adorable hat for Eva.

Benjamin working hard on his pine wood derby car for Cub Scouts.

Daddy and Eva matching while hanging out watching some playoff games together.

Made Eva a little more girly. :)

Sadly, she got sick again (double ear infection). The antibiotics from pneumonia and her ear infections really messed up her digestive tract and she went through a whole lot of outfits!

Which meant lots of naked baby time! Dave loves cuddling her when she's naked, so he always keeps her undressed for a long time in between outfit changes. So I decided to snap some pictures during this one.

When we organized all the dress-up clothes we found out we have way too many John Deere hats (from our visits to my parents' show). The kids thought it was fun to run around in their matching hats and even snuck one on Eva while she was eating!

*If you noticed that the kids were in their jammies for a lot of these pictures, it's because we spent most of January and a good party of February in our pj's. It was a horribly sick time in our house: Collin got rsv which lead to croup and an ear infection, then Anna got rsv and was sick for two weeks, then Eva got it and ended up with pneumonia. Then Dave came down with something that Collin caught, then Eva (which became the double ear infections) then I finally got sick and had a really hard time recovering since I don't sleep much since Eva hasn't slept well since she got sick the first time. It's been quite a time, but we survived and surely spring will be here before we know it!*

Once Eva was healthy again, we took her in for her 6 month pictures. She's such an adorably, sweet girl and I was so excited to capture these beautiful pictures of my beautiful girl.

(I've put in a few more Anna comparisons of her 6 month pictures for fun. They aren't perfect matches, but when you spend lots of time with Eva and know all of her expressions and then look back at Anna's baby pictures, it is quite striking how much they resemble one another...especially their eyes. I'm one lucky Momma to have two sweet girls!)

 Everyone was so tickled when she grabbed her skirt as if she were posing. She was very intrigued by it!

(Baby Anna again below)

This is my favorite one (below)! My little Evie-bee is such a happy baby. She loves playing with her toys, especially now that she is sitting up well. She doesn't roll much but is content to sit or lay still and play. She loves faces and lights up when you get close to her and talk to her. She also soothes to sleep easier if she can look at you and know you are close by. She especially lights up when she sees Benjamin. They seem to share a very special connection! (He actually helped us get most of the smiles for these pictures.) She likes eating, is good in the car, likes to be snuggled up in her blankie with her paci to sleep, smiles with her tongue out and smirks a lot. She squeals a lot as her way of "talking" and loves for you to do it back to her too.

She wasn't very happy by the time we changed her outfit. She was a little scared of the photographer and didn't really want to be put down anymore. We caught a few though. They had hearts and roses for Valentine's day, but anytime we tried putting her with them she would just grab them over and over again and try to put them in her mouth. She was very determined to do it, too!

(Baby Anna below)

One more Evie-bee

If you've made it this far, thanks and good job!