Monday, February 29, 2016

4 months

Somehow this didn't publish earlier; here it is again...

Little T was 4 months on Sunday! 

Thinking she is such a big chunky monkey, I looked up all our babies' weights at 4 months:
ER 13 lb 15 oz
TJ 14 lb 8 oz
JC 13 lb
AR 16 lb 7 oz
OB 17 pounds
TG 12 lb 10 oz
...so at this age, baby T is the smallest of them all!  And we are loving every minute with her: 





in a sweater my mom knitted for Jaci almost 8 years ago: 











 

Sweetness


















Thursday, February 4, 2016

January!

We didn't see the sun much in January...
the road home
we actually pulled up chairs and watched this sunrise one Saturday morning!

So...what has been keeping us busy?
Each Wednesday, very early, we truck up to Whitefish for our
Homeschool Community Day.  There, we gather with friends to practice
all the memory work we've been working on at home!  
The children also do an oral presentation, 
an art project, and a science experiment every week.
Ella has an additional class in the afternoon focusing on the complexities of English grammar. 
She is getting pretty good at diagramming sentences (and I am hoping to!)

TG just keeps growing!

I heart Carhartt

Such a gift I have in my husband:
Adrian has been helping by reviewing with the kids on the evenings/weekends!
They get out their maps and the jelly beans, and are actually excited to study
"Jelly-ography" with Daddy!  
We are currently working on all of the waters, ancient empires, cities, and countries of Africa.

morning cuddles with a hat from Gramma L

The kids get soooo excited the times I let them do something hands-on, 
so this was the day they were gathering to prove their liquid equivalents: 
Even Cubby can tell you 8oz=1 cup, 2 cups=1 pint, 2 pints=1 quart, 4 quarts=1 gallon!

Tessa kept busy crocheting a bunch of cup sleeves to gift to friends!

All of a sudden, she began to grab at everything and pull it toward her mouth...
now we make sure "Grunt" the bear is ready to greet her at the changing table!

Lil' Miss turned 3 months


Such a sweet brother...he will even share his alligator with her!
Oh wait!  That's the toy he bought for her when she was born...
...but she shares it with him!  :)

hey, blue eyes!

this baby loves to scratch on textured things with her tiny fingernails, 
so the football makes a good surface for that!

Unfortunately, we have spent part of the month sick.. 
so here I am with my youngest 2 sick babies...
we learn to be thankful for the rest...
...and to be thankful when we're healthy again!!


she's a tired Taiya.

the kids dressed up Taiya in their own way...
Then I realized she was "Taiya with a tie"
ha ha

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Tugboat

Every one of our kids has a daddy-given nickname.  Or three.

When Taiya was born, we gave her this name that we had agreed on years ago... and very soon after we met her, Adrian was insistent on coming up with a nickname for his newest little one.  In the first days of her life, he would just look at her and say, "I've got to come up with a nickname for you."  (I don't know why he must...but I think it has something to do with adoration.)  

So early in her life, she had a real serious look, she would grunt a lot, and was super little, of course...

So on day 3 of her life, he announced, "That's it!  I'm going to call you Tugboat!  I think you're just like a little tugboat with all of that grunting!" 

Tugboat?  On my beautiful baby girl?

Well, it stuck... and now I call her Tuggie for short.   So we have a Buddy, a Cubby and a Tuggie!


here are photos that show off her tug-li-ness

very much a tug
(on my heart!)

a very tug face
from the beginning, she loved elevation...
still does!

Recently, I found this old book on the bookshelf... it is from my childhood.  I have fond memories of turning these pages when I was, well, as young as my kids are now!






who knew one day I would have a tugboat of my own!


sometimes Tugboat also gets shortened to "Tug"
or "Tugless"

You can hear daddy singing:
"She's our Tuggie, our little Tuggie, our little Tuggie baby girl!"
(It's such a catchy tune, I'm sure Uncle Stephen
 will be singing it for days once he hears it!)

Did anyone else out there have this beloved book as a child?

the big 6

January saw our big blonde blue eyed buddy boy turn 6! 

his choice of a birthday date was lunch at DQ
and shopping at the local toy shop,
where he used his gift certificate to purchase a very fancy sword!  
 Aaron had requested a LION themed birthday, so I came up with this cake: a round cake surrounded by cupcakes for the mane...raw spaghetti noodles comprised the whiskers.

Sunday, friends (and their sisters) over to celebrate!

boys fascinated by how this transformer works...

Monday, cousins came for another bash! 

Ella treated everybody to some face paint

...we made lion masks...


...and we quickly decorated the leftover cupcakes
into little lions!


xo