Love her.

 

(and yes her paci is upside down…and yes it says “punk princess”!)

A few more that I forgot!

I had fun catching some moments of Brinlee and Rylin while she was staying with us.  Things got a little crazy afterward and I didn’t get a chance to post these ones!  I was getting them ready for the day and they just looked so stinkin cute that I couldn’t resist!

      

and of course there was a little dancing to Parkers jams!  These kids really do crack me up!

The Man

Blythe is smiling a lot more now (thank heavens!)  She will smile and coo at Danny and I when she is happiest, which is usually right after she has eaten and been changed (girls got priorities!) 

But Parker is still the best at getting her to smile -

(this picture melts my heart)

I’ve been watching and I’ve noticed he has a system!  He tugs on her chubby little cheek and says

“are you gonna smile at me?” and just like that…she does.

Normally this wouldn’t be such an amazing feet, but for this sweet girl who has basically screamed for 3 months straight…it’s incredible!  Sometimes if she is getting grouchy and the cheek tug won’t work, he has to pull out the big guns and clap her tiny hands together…works every time!

 

What do you do…

When it’s 11am and you have a tornado of a house, a ton of dishes, children to bathe/dress, a lunch to pack, a baby to feed and a kid to get off to school?

Jump on the trampoline…in your jammies…eating chocolate chip pancakes with your hands.

duh.

  

a little teeter-totter action!

   

 

Oh well, there is always tomorrow to be efficient right?

 

The Princess and the Frog

Its amazing what you can come up with to get kids out of the tub.  Brinlee and Rylin were having such a great time playing with ponies in the tub that I let them – until they started to prune beyond recognition and it was time to get Parker off to school.  I decided it was time to pull them out.  They disagreed.  Boy am I glad I decided to get these cute towels for the kids for Easter!  They love the new disney movie Princess and the Frog of course and this fit the bill perfectly!  Phew…that was a close one!

 

Blythe

I am so glad that we are getting more smiles now and less screaming. I guess there is something to be said for champagne formula and reflux meds huh? who loves ya baby?

Really?

This week is going to be fun.  The kids are so excited (especially Brinlee) because Ry came on Saturday and she is spending the night for 4 nights!!!!  They have been having so much fun – minus the whole ‘stomach flu Ry throwing up this morning’ situation!  The girls have had so much fun and when I busted out the camera this evening while they were playing hoping to get a sweet picture for them to treasure for life…this is what I got.  Good thing they still have that “cute” factor going for them huh?

 

a hard days night.

So things have been a little rough around here lately (I love you Blythe, I really do) what with the whole “screaming baby” situation.  I find myself thinking “if you would just smile at me….I would be able to handle this.”  I’m not asking for a laugh or giggle or heaven forbid a grin…just a tiny little smile and my heart would sing.  And it has happened a few times (fleeting moments, most of which were probably gas). 

I try so hard to get you to smile.  I talk to you, coo at you, make silly faces and sing silly songs heck-I’d stand on my head if need be.  But apparently your heart (and smiles) are reserved for just one…

Not that I blame you…he is pretty cute!

I finally stopped

This morning as the breakfast dishes sat on the counter crusting away and one child was crying because she did NOT want to take a bath, and two boys were tying blankets and belts to dresser drawers to make a tent and one baby was crying and I had not even begun to get ready for the day I finally did it.

I stopped.  I looked around.  I looked past the messy house and the piled up laundry and the enormous sized clothing I just bought so as to squeeze my ridiculously oversized post partum body into something other than sweats and my husbands t-shirts…

and I saw the most adorable kids on the planet!  And then I thanked my Heavenly Father for sending them to me. 

a rare shot where Blythe is NOT screaming!!! 

That’s more like it!

How we roll

I’m not going to get on my soap box and say that topless egg-dying is for everyone, but for us (ok pretty much just for my sanity because I’m the one who has to do the laundry) its the only way to go!

Memories :)

On a less scandalous note,  the other morning we were watching cartoons in the family room and I was my regular zombie like self (that’s the norm these days) and I woke up enough to take a long look at my monsters – I mean blessings – I mean children!

My heart almost exploded with gratefulness!  How truly blessed I am to have these four beautiful, healthy kiddos.  Each one is unique, with their own talents and personalities.  They drive me crazy and crack me up at the same time.  Every. Single. Day!  They are exhausting and sweet and I love them more than life itself and on any given day, there is no place I’d rather be than curled up on the couch with them. Seriously.

This one is nutso and if this photo were in color you would see her freshly polished pink toe nails…which she talks about….NON STOP!

My family will appreciate this stolen moment.  This is how the KooKoo bird watches TV.  ALL the time.  Looks uncomfortable no? Oh kaden!

This one could very possibly send me to an early grave…good thing he’s cute!

Do I really even have to say anything about #4?  She melts my heart and she can’t talk back yet….we LOVE her!

Excuse the repeat photo (how embarrassing) but I have not been taking a ton what with the incessant screaming!  I figure we’ve got about another month or so of this….pray for us!

I can’t get no…

I’m pretty sure Danny and I have not slept in like…a million years or something.  At least that’s what it feels like.  We heart colic.  Actually we don’t.  Are ya pickin’ up on the sarcasm there,  cuz  I’m layin’ it on pretty thick!  We do heart Blythe though.

  And her swing.

 

While I was sleeping

I’m slowly coming out of the fog of the last 6 months!  And as I go through things on my desk and computer, I keep running across cute pictures that Danny took of the kids during my “down time”

It makes me smile and helps to heal the guilt I felt over not being able to be there for them for 3 whole months!  Danny is amazing, what more can I say.

Here are some of the kids messing around with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  They look so miserable don’t they?  I guess the world wouldn’t stop turning if I wasn’t controlling it all (or at least trying to)  and that is a good thing to know :)

A plague on all our houses!

So after bringing home our sweet baby, we were hit with a little bout of fifths disease (so fun).  We were on the mend and having family come in for my niece’s baptism and the blessing of both babies (my sisters daughter Winter, and Blythe) and were enjoying getting used to having four kids with Dad back to work.

With Danny being gone pretty much all week it was nice that Blythe was doing this a lot:

 

(and yes that is a bow glued to my daughters head…what of it?)

It was the calm before the storm I guess.  The baptism/blessing  weekend was a little nuts but it was so fun to see everyone and right after the party, it hit.  And we haven’t been the same since!  Not sure if it was just a really bad flu that we all shared, but pretty much everyone that came got it!  And so excuse my absence from the blog, I’ve been drowning in vomit.  I thought we were over it because Danny, myself, Mary(Danny’s Mom), Kaden, Brinlee and Blythe had all gotten better.  Then Parker decided it was finally his turn yesterday!  I really feel like dipping my entire house in bleach!  Memories!

I finally gave up and laid a huge blanket down for the sickies.  One can only scrub so many rugs…

 

Poor Kaden woke up at 4 one morning puking his sad little guts up.  I felt so bad for him.

Then it became a family affair.

So this is what we’ve been up to!  Sorry for the gruesome photos but hey, incase you haven’t heard…we share EVERYTHING around here!!!