Sorry to have such a lapse in posting. We've been keeping it pretty low key around here and I just haven't gotten the camera out much. Hopefully in a couple weeks things will settle back in to "normal."
I did get this little escapade on film and I do believe we are in trouble. For months, Alena has been going up one or two steps on the bunk bed but today, she made it all the way up. I was in the kitchen and hear Gabe and Mya cheering Alena on and then, "Mommy, come look you won't believe it!" There the little monkey is jumping around on the top bunk oh, so proud of herself. After that, every time she went in Gabe's room it was straight up the ladder. It's kind of tough because I can't really teach her to come down. As you can see it's not a slanted ladder but goes straight up the side of the bed. It's pretty tricky to swing your leg over the top and come down where as with a regular ladder you could just back down. Honestly, Gabe doesn't use the ladder to come down but instead jumps, which we really don't want Alena doing. Mya won't even go up on the top bunk because she's too afraid to come down. Anyway, I think we're going to have to use a little discipline to get this to stop and she is not one to give in easily.
You can see in the above picture she was demonstrating her new skill for Daddy, but he was ready to catch her if needed.
The only other pictures I have to share are from our first bowling trip on MLK day. For some reason, the kids thought we had told them we would go bowling. Mya got up and said, "What day is it?" When I said, "Monday" she said, "Oh, good, this is the day we go bowling!" Not sure where that came from, but we ended up taking them anyway and it turned into a cheap family activity for a cold afternoon. Unfortunately, the pictures weren't great. Here's Mya using the "helper" thing (no idea what it's really called) she tried rolling a few on her own, but the ball was going so slow we were going to be there all day. It worked much better with this little contraption. And, please, no comments about her clothes. It's a battle I choose not to fight on most days...
Gabe actually did pretty well for his first time - 79 though he became very concerned about who was and was not winning so we kind of stopped talking about the score.
Alena rolled a couple balls down but mostly enjoyed spinning in the chair and eating her snack. She just wasn't quite big enough to really get into it.
She'll even try to put a piece in the wrong spot, look at me and say "Right here?" and then laugh knowing it's a little joke.
I love this age when you can see their little minds working.
After Alena finishes a puzzle she'll hold up her hand for "Five!" Oh, she thinks that she's something else and of course we know that she is.
You can see in the above picture she was demonstrating her new skill for Daddy, but he was ready to catch her if needed.
Gabe actually did pretty well for his first time - 79 though he became very concerned about who was and was not winning so we kind of stopped talking about the score.
Alena rolled a couple balls down but mostly enjoyed spinning in the chair and eating her snack. She just wasn't quite big enough to really get into it.
Yep, #4 is set to arrive sometime in late August, and we're all excited. Although, I'll be even more excited when this feeling sick all the time passes (hopefully quickly.) Please pray along with us for a healthy pregnancy
She really has no idea how much her little life is about to change, but I have no doubt she'll adapt (eventually.)
I really took these pictures today when I caught Miss "Alena Bena Baby" having pushed the kitchen chair over to the counter to eat her fill of grapes.
Like most of the rest of the country it has been extremely cold here and thus we've had some really long days spent inside. With Mommy pretty much out of commission for coming up with good ideas, the kiddos just come up with their own plans. They played like this for most of the morning and Alena really liked it even though you can't tell it in this picture. There was only room for two to "ride" at a time and I think she though Gabe was trying to get her off. The funniest thing, though was watching Alena push Gabe and Mya around.
Alena loved the chopsticks before we started eating but for some reason decided she didn't like the lo mein so she had yogurt and string cheese instead both of which are kind of difficult to eat with chopsticks.
In case you were wondering, yes, Gabe and Mya have their pajamas on while eating supper. They played outside for a long time this afternoon and were cold and dirty when they came in so I went ahead and plopped them into the tub before supper.
After hearing that the Old Spaghetti Factory was running a special tonight we decided to try it out. They were celebrating their 40th year of being open and selling select items for the same prices as 40 years ago. So, our total, you can see above $14.04 not bad considering the same food would have been over 40 dollars on another night, and it even included ice cream for everyone. The restaurant is right down town and is a really neat place to eat, they have a train car inside which of course the kids wanted to eat in the next time we visit. To top it all off, we got a free parking spot downtown right on the street - what are the chances.