Not Picky

Jake is such an easy going kid.  He's not picky at all.  He'll suck on anything!

 I caught him sucking on John's nose!  John was laughing hysterically.  Although I knew it was gross, I had to chuckle a bit before I made it stop.

Now that we have a "keep your nose out of your brother's mouth" rule, Jake has started sucking on his bottom lip.  I tried it and can't seem to do it.  It cracks me up!  Of course he also goes for his hands quite a bit.  Fortunately I have an army helping me to keep his hands out of his mouth and replace them with the pacifier.  I'm so obsessed with it, it's rubbed off on the kids and they back me up well.

Mandolin Lessons

...or should I say "lesson" sigular.  It kind of randomly came up one day, but John settled on having Dad teach him to play mandolin.  It's the perfect size for him.  Listening to the lesson, I thought it went well.  Pairing up a father and son that don't have patience as their greatest virtue, though, had them both walking away a little frustrated.  It might be a while before either suggests a second lesson.

Valentine's Party

Our small group hosted a Valentine's party at a local nursing home.  We had crafts for the kids to do with the residents, and it was a hit!  The kids enjoyed it, and were very diligent with their crafts.  Eve, as you can see, was excited to wear her party dress.  The residents really enjoyed watching the kids and helping them with their crafts.  I think we'll make a habit of this.

SNOW!!!!!

We had a really warm winter last year, and NO SNOW (despite the fact that Santa brought sleds).  SO, we were super excited to get some snow last weekend!  We didn't have high hopes.  The forecast had rain and snow, but it ended up turning to all snow with HUGE flakes!  We got about an inch on the grass.  Nothing stuck to the street.  Within a few hours it was gone, which is the way I like it.  It wasn't enough for sledding, but we had lots of fun anyway.  We smile bigger when it snows!

 

A Spot of Tea

Eve's class at church is a group of just girls.  We thought it would be fun to have the girls and their moms and sisters over for a tea party.  The girls were so very excited!  When I found tea cups and saucers for super cheap at Goodwill, I was suddenly more excited about it than they were.  The girls had so much fun dressing up and playing together.

John's Artwork

John is at a stage where his reading and writing are taking off!  Just in the past few weeks he's started reading so much faster and more fluid.  It's so amazing to watch the kids develop.  I love his writing and drawing.  On the one hand, there's so much there's no way we could keep even half of it.  On the other hand, it's so hard to get rid of.

 John surprised Buck and me both with one of these.  The reasons he loves Buck have to do with working hard and providing shelter.  So sweet.  He does these all on his own, often hiding them from us until he's finished.

This one blew me away!  He drew it at Mom's.  He said he was looking at a picture, but still, amazing!

Brothers and Sisters

I can already see, and actually have been able to for a while, that the sibling bond is in some ways more important than our bond as parents with the kids.  It's a sweet thing to watch.

 My two fashionistas

 Jake usually prefers to go to sleep on his own, but this particular night John snuggled him to sleep.  So so sweet.

 I always get a little nervous and a little excited when Buck says, "Go show your mother".  This particular evening the girls were "hula girls".  I couldn't convince them that hula girls wear tops.  This absolutely cracked me up!  They did a pretty good job dancing, too.

Games are starting to be fun!

Eve Update

Several randoms here. 

 Eve let me put her hair in a bun for dance one day.  I thought it was so cute.

 This is what I get now when I ask the girls for a picture.  For some reason they think they need to strike a pose.  For some reason their poses are always hilarious.

 Eve learned to spell Buckingham.  This is the first time she wrote it all by herself.

Valentines were a big deal this year. I hate to think of how many reams of construction paper we went through, only to have to throw it in the recycle. Eve wrote the names on her own for the valentines for her class this year.

And one day she randomly asked for two buns on the side of her head.  She was adamant that it had nothing to do with Star Wars.

Some Days

One morning Ellie got upset about something while she was eating her breakfast, and this happened.  She didn't drop it.  She threw it.  I had to take a picture before cleaning up.  Some days are just like this.
Funny, she's often bringing up things she remembers.  I guess they're things that made an impact on her.  She still bring this up.  "Mama, I'm sorry I broke that bowl." in her sweet little voice.  I didn't yell when it happened or anything.  I think she was just shocked that it broke.

Our Date

Several weeks ago John and I went on a special date.  I saw that the Fountain Inn Civic Center was hosting a chamber orchestra concert.  Tickets were very reasonable, so I figured if we needed to leave early because he was bored, it wouldn't be a big deal.  I asked if he'd like to go, and he said yes.  Buck took him to the store and they picked up flowers for me.  It was so sweet.  He got all dressed up, told me I looked nice, and opened my door for me all night (all of this without any coaching!).  We had a fabulous dinner at McDonalds (funny aside story, the night before I was telling him Buck would probably watch a princess movie with the girls.  "But he doesn't like princesses." "Well, sometimes we do things we don't really like because we love someone and want to spend time with them and want them to be happy.  Like, for instance, I go to McDonals with you even though I don't really like it because I love you and want you to be happy.")  So, John chose McDonalds, and then we went to the concert.  The concert hall was fairly empty, so we got to sit in seats where nobody was in front of us.  Easy for John to see, and not a big deal that he put his feet up on the chair in front of him sometimes.  He enjoyed the concert for about an hour.  Fortunately it was only an hour and 15 minutes.  He was so well behaved, and enjoyed seeing the different instruments.  Afterward we went to Ruby Tuesday for dessert.  He was a fantastic date.  Funny, this was the night before the day of our "memorable family trip" to Riverbanks Zoo...and I was so proud the night before.  I still am proud.  He's going to make some lucky girl very happy one day...a LONG LONG LONG time from now.

Jake is 3 Months!

Well, Jake was 3 months when I took this picture.  I'm throwing in some extras to try to catch up (I'm noticing a trend here...consistently almost a month behind).  At 2 months Jake was about the same size as the monkey.  At 3 months, he took over.  He started smiling a lot more, started tracking a bit with his eyes, and started talking a lot more.  Laughs are still pretty hard to come by.  Here are some more pictures of Jake taken over the past month-ish.

 The bumbo we had broke, so when we finally replaced it, we put Jake on the table while we were eating dinner.  I don't know what John was doing, but it cracked Jake up, which in turn cracked the rest of us up.  It was the first fun family meal with all 6 of us together.

 He loves sleeping on his back.  He is just like a perfect porcelain doll.  So sweet.

Check out those thighs!!!!  They are so darn cute when his legs are flexed.  I can't wait until the weather warms up and we get to see them all the time.

"The Talk"

We made it well over 6 years without having "the talk" with John.  It was so hard for me to hold back tears (of laughter) last night when Eve started to explain modesty to John, which led to her explaining to him what "boobies" are.  I got a dirty look from Buck, but what can I say.  There comes a time that we eventually have to give them terminology.  Eve has always been a lot more curious about biology than John.  She asked how Jake was going to come out of my belly at 4, and had she not asked, I doubt John would have even thought about it at 6.  Having asked several questions about nursing, I finally had to give her terminology.  As long as they're realm of understanding is limited to nursing I'll continue to breathe a sigh of relief that the other "talk" is not yet upon us, and when the time comes for that, I might be able to just ask Eve to explain it.

Gingerbread Houses

The Grove Park Inn is in Asheville, NC.  It's absolutely gorgeous and has a beautiful view of the mountains.  They host the national gingerbread house competition.  Admission is free during the week.  Since our schedule is usually booked before Christmas, we decided to try it after Christmas.

 The inn is so beautifully decorated at Christmas.  Unfortunately we weren't the only ones that thought after Christmas would be a good time to visit.  Fortunately we brought Grandma along.

 The kids were super excited and energetic while we were there.  No so much excited about the gingerbread houses...just full of energy (or maybe running on fumes).  Recognizing that before we started looking around, we had a, "Look with your eyes, not your hands" talk.

 The kids were a little too wild and crazy to really look at many of the houses, but they were truly amazing!  We didn't get a picture of the winner, but here are some that impressed us.

 This one was in the "teen" category.

 A favorite of the girls.

 Can you imagine the chaos?  You would've thought Eve had eated several of the gingerbread houses on the way up.  John actually enjoyed looking for a while.  I think Jake is spitting in this picture.

 Everything except the base is edible on these.  Truly amazing.  I have to say, though, my favorites were the ones that used several different types of food/candy rather than just fondant.  Either way, though, they were incredible.

 We had to snap a picture of the peacock for Grandma (MY Grandma).  Her maiden name is Peacock.

 The kids have never seen a phone like this.

 Jake had a blast.

This was one of my favorites.  Our most favorite part, though, was having hot chocolate and looking out the windows at the mountains.