today

Today the sun was out.  Instead of a library trip we played at the park.  When we got home we gobbled up PB&J  sandwiches (minus the J for Noah).  Laundry was started and baby Eli needed to eat.  We all settled in for a pre-nap showing of a Halloween edition of Little Einsteins.

After feeding Eli (aka the super fast speed nurser) I was sitting making faces at him and talking to him about random thing that I were topping my to-do list. Little Eli, he is such an attentive listener.

It was at this moment I noticed Avery.  She was clopping around in my shoes.  She was biting her pink shopping cart on the handle, therefore pushing the cart with her face and trying to run.  All while keeping her eyes glued on the TV.  She crashed into a wall. Graceful, that one.

Then, a highlight of my day, I glanced over at Noah.  He was sitting on the couch.  He was sucking on his toes.  Yes, the same Noah the will turn 4 next week was sitting sucking on his toes.

I looked back down at Eli.  At that moment he looked back at me with a big, eye squinting, chubby cheeks and dimples in fine form, grin.  Coo.  He told me.

Yes.  A little coo-coo is perhaps how we look to an outside observer (especially the toe sucking?).  But it made my heart full, sitting there for those few minutes observing these crazy kids I love.

No fancy or funny picture with my post.  Just 5 minutes of my day today that I don't want to forget.

pumpkins

This year we were able to pick our pumpkins out of Grandma and Grandpa's garden.  They planted one pumpkin plant and one squash, and got lots and lots of pumpkins and no squash!  At least we got to benefit from a mislabeled seed packet!

The kids and their pumpkins.  (Plus one for dinner in a pumpkin)

Avery Ann.  She cracks us all up.  There are times we are scared of what she might do.  Within the first five minutes of being at my parents house, she had run upstairs, found my mom's jewelry box and by the time Wade found her she was throwing it all over the place giggling.  Sorry Mom.  We think we found it all.  

Gage.  Not sure about this face.  The pumpkin isn't that heavy.

Noah refused to touch his pumpkin because it was wet.  Eli, we don't know what his problem was.  All we asked was that each kid hold their own pumpkin for a picture.  He gave us a blank stare.  Eli...he's got nerve:)

Another reason we don't understand Avery.  During our pumpkin photo shoot & a quick game of frisby we lost Avery.  Not really, because she was someplace in the backyard.  But if you can't see this girl, you know she is up to trouble.  We found her like this:

Yes.  She is eating dirt.

And giving herself a facial with it.

And dumping it over and over her head to see how it lands on her shirt.  Little stinker.

~~

Monday night this week (along with almost everyone I know in blog/facebook land) we carved/painted our pumpkins.

Avery enjoyed every minute of this.  As you can guess from the pictures above, she doesn't mind dirt, slime or being messy.  She loved eating the pumpkin guts, markers, paint and everything she could find on the table that night.

Noah wouldn't touch anything.  He got out the kitchen tongs and tried to touch the pumpkins that way.

Eli hung out and stared at the wall like a champ.

Gage and Wade got out the power tools.  They drilled holes through the outline they drew, but used too small of a drill bit for it to really show up with dots.  They ended up using the knifes and cutting out the shape too.  I think they secretly planned on this so they could use both power tools AND knifes.

In the end we have one Batman jack-o-latern that worked. (I gave up on mine half way through and gave the little babies baths.)  We can't wait for dinner in a pumpkin & our Saturday Halloween festivities this weekend!

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

We made this bread this weekend.  The house smelled good enough to eat.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice mix
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups sugar
1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice or water
1 cup sweetened dried, fresh or frozen cranberries

Preaheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour 2 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Combine four, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl.  Combine sugar, pumpkin, egg, vegetable oil and orange juice in large mixer bowl.  Beat until just blended.  Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture.  Stir just until moistened.  Fold in cranberries.  Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 60-65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

2 Months!

Our Eli Owen is 2 months old!  Really?  Yesterday I did a double take on the calendar, but yes, it is true!

Our little Eli is the perfect mixture of his brothers and sister.  He has the dark hair like Gage, eyes and round face like Noah and when he smiles - he looks exactly like Avery.

This past month is the "magical" month when the little bitty newborn babies turn into little people at our house.  Eli has started to wake up more and smile and even coo and talk to us on occasion.  He has a great smile and loves to show it off right after being fed and burped.  He is a fantastic listener.  He knows my voice.  He looks confused at Wade's voice (maybe residency hours have something to do with this???) He smiles at Gage's voice and looks a little worried with Noah's voice.  When he hears Avery....he starts to cry.  I suppose in his mind he is trying to run away and just can't do it.

Which brings me to this; Eli is loved.  Very much.  Gage loves to help me with Eli, give him baths, carry him to me and sing to him.  Noah likes to get in his face.  He likes to hold him.  Avery, Avery must love this brother so much.  She loves to lay on top of him, tries to climb into his car seat with him and has turned into a little mommy.  When Eli cries in the car, Avery starts yelling "BABY! BABY!  SHH!  SHH!"

Eli has moved into his new room that he shares with his sister.  Avery loves to talk to Eli when she is supposed to be going to sleep at night.  She can also put her hands through the bars in her bed and touch her toy kitchen.  The other night when I walked in to check on them after they had both gone to sleep I saw a tea cup from Avery's kitchen very close to Eli's bed.  It hadn't been there before.  I honestly believe Avery threw it at Eli's bed.  Perhaps this is the start of many late night tea parties that he will have to endure.

Little Eli is the best sleeper in our house.  Not only can he sleep through our organized chaos, but he sleeps for big chunks of the night and takes great afternoon naps.  He goes to bed around 7-7:30 with Avery.  I can feed him again around 9 and then the majority of nights he sleeps until 4am.  It's lovely.  I only wish the other 3 would sleep like that.  They still don't!

My prediction is that Eli will be a fast mover.  Here is why - and my bad mommy story of the week:
Since I still need Avery to take a really good nap in the afternoon I've been placing Eli in the middle of our bed for his afternoon nap.  This way Avery won't get distracted by him sleeping in her room.  One day this week my bed was full of clean laundry waiting to be folded so I put Eli in the middle of Noah's bed.  I didn't think that a 2 month old could fall off a bed, but I suppose anything is possible.  I was downstairs with Noah  when all of the sudden I heard a loud thunk and a shriek!  Eli had somehow wormed himself off Noah's bed.  The poor boy was pretty happy when I came to save him. I still have no idea how he managed this maneuver? He hadn't been crying before he fell.  I should have known better because he is NEVER in the same position that I leave him in when I retrieve him from the crib.  But really - who would think a 2 month old could move like that?

I've started having Eli take his naps in the same room as Avery.  So far so good.  Or else I'm going to have to break out the pack and play again.

He likes to be held (by me) and swaddled.  He sleeps on his tummy.  He likes to eat every 2 1/2-3 hours.  He is already such a man and really lets everyone know when he thinks he is missing a meal.

I can't believe how fast time is flying by.  Four kids, it makes for busy days (and nights).  The little two being18 months apart really make my life busy, busy, busy.  Someone always wants to be held, changed, eat, or needs to be cleaned up after.  Things are a little louder around here.  People in stores look at me like I'm crazy.

And us.  We wouldn't have it any other way.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

We made our annual a trip to the pumpkin patch last weekend.  We visited this patch 2 years ago, and although it's farther away from where we live, I really think it's one of the best ones we've been too!  I do really miss the fun pumpkin farms in Iowa though.  Iowa had GREAT farms! (for one of my favorite trips, click HERE).

First stop -  the corn cob gun.  Noah wasn't a fan of the loud noise.

But Gage and his friend Luca were fascinated!

Gage and Wade finally got their turn.  I think Wade's pride was a little hurt. Last time we went he won a free pumpkin.  This time they didn't even come close.  It's so hard to tell who enjoys the corn cob gun more - Wade, or Gage?!

Then we moved on to the petting zoo. Little Avery couldn't get enough.  She absolutely loved all the animals!

Stopping off to check how tall we are...but not long enough to let me take a picture:)

And then fianlly the tracktor ride out to pick our pumpkins.

Okay.  I have to be honest here.  We didn't even buy a pumpkin at the farm.  My parents have pumpkins growing in their garden so we will pick our pumpkins there this weekend.  I just couldn't resist making a trip to a big patch.

Is it bad I didn't let the kids buy a pumpkin at the farm?  Where do you usually buy your pumpkins?  We usually go the farm route.  Although, I have to admit Grandparents "farm/garden" (FREE) trumps everything this year!

Eli's Blessing Day

On Sunday, October 10th (10-10-10) Wade was able to give little Eli a name and a blessing at our church.  It was a very nice day and despite the rain we were blessed to have Wade's mom and dad and his niece Shay come out to share the weekend with us.

I know, this post is about Eli, but this picture of little Avery Ann was just too cute!

This was Grandpa and Grandma's first time meeting little Eli.  He gave them a couple smiles over the course of the weekend and got lots of hugs and kisses.

Wade gave a terrific blessing.  Among other things, and similar to all our other children, he blessed Eli to have a love, respect and honor all of Heavenly Father's creations.  He also blessed Eli to have happiness in this life and find joy in simple things.

I love this picture.  Typical Wade.  We are so grateful that both Grandpas were able to be here for this day.  Our Bishop and friends Doug and Micah were also able to stand in the circle for Eli's blessing.  

(As a side note I told Wade he was a little stuck up, Doug is a family physician and Micah is a fellow resident.  Are only Dr's invited to the circle?  I'm glad both our Dad's and Bishop somehow made the cut!)

Before heading to church Sunday we attempted to get a family picture of the new 6 of us!

PS.  As I am writing this post..regarding how Wade has blessed each of our children to have a love and respect for the outdoors, the older three are in the backyard on a "slug hunt" and with each one they find they throw salt on it and yell "Die Slug!  Die!"

I think we have some work to do:)

Rainy Weekend

The Christiansens came into town this weekend for little Eli's blessing. Which means...RAIN!

Yes, that is right. Each time Wade's parents have come into town it pours.  This time we didn't let it stop us.  Saturday we headed down to Old Tacoma for a walk along the water.

Then we drove around Point Defiance on a raccoon hunt.  The boys had a good time and despite all the rain they were able to find at least one raccoon!

Wade didn't take the camera, but Saturday night he took his parents and niece out to the beaches for clam digging.  Apparently it was a fiasco and everyone says that Wade took them on a snipe hunt.   I guess it was pitch black, really windy and poured rain on them the entire time.  It does sound like they had a good time though and Wade's mom collected a lot of cool shells.

I'm glad they were able to visit.  Hopefully someday they will visit and the sun will shine.   I would love for the clouds to go away so they can see how beautiful Washington really is!

E & A

I finally got with it and finished putting together Eli and Avery's room. We like to call it the babies room..since Avery knows everyone's name in the family, but still refers to herself and Eli as "baby."

As you can see the room is fairly small.  The two kids rooms in our house exactly the same size, but with bunk beds the boys room seems so much bigger.  I am almost positive that our master closet is the size of one of these rooms, and I've found myself sitting up at night rocking one of of the "babies" and wishing I had more room.  Then one night last week Avery was having a hard time going to sleep and I was nursing Eli and ta-da!  I found out I can nurse Eli, fit my hand through through Avery's crib and rub her back!  At least if I have to have a small room I can make it work and be happy!

Avery's side.  We got the kitchen free, it's not my favorite, I love the small wood one from Ikea, but you can't argue with free!

Eli's side.  I wasn't too sure about having two cribs, but since we got this one free too, I can't argue with that either!  I love the bedding I found Eli at Target.  It's space rockets which Gage loves and so I had him draw a space rocket picture for baby Eli's wall. (on the shelf)

I found the wall letters at JoAnn's and painted them with the same paint I did the dresser and shelf in.

E & A.
Small.  Functional, cute and done!

Fall break: two oldies revisited.

Despite feeling a little tired and being under the weather last week, I tried to line up a few fun activities for the kids during fall break from school.  I have to admit my favorite part of the break was NOT driving to and from school twice a day!

Thursday we headed to the zoo with a fun friend from Gage's class.  It's been a very long time since we have gone to the Zoo in Tacoma.  And it's been long over-due and we might have to buy ourselves another pass.  Avery Ann was in paradise looking at all the animals.  She really loved the aquarium.

Gage said his favorite part was the otters.

We all had a good time on the playground before we left.  For the next 3 weeks, Noah still gets in free.  I think after that we have seriously consider getting a family zoo pass.  When we lived in Iowa we used to go to the zoo so much.  The zoo here is about the same size, which is perfect for just a short afternoon trip.  I forget how much fun the zoo can be!

Another favorite activity during fall break was provided by Grandma.  During conference weekend she handed me a bunch of old magazines that she was just going to recycle.  Mostly bird/garden magazines.  She suggested just letting the boys cut them up.  YAY for simple activities.  I used to give the grocery store adds to the kids each week when they came in the mail and let them have at it...I can't believe I haven't had them do this in such a long time! Cutting up they did - and had a blast.  I am still finding paper bits under the table..and I've vacuumed...twice!