For the love of reading

Mya has become such a good little reader. She's especially good at reading out loud and both Alena and Eden love to listen to her. Mommy loves having someone to help keep the little two entertained.

Getting in trouble...

I knew she was being just a little too quiet,

so I wasn't surprised at all to find her here. When she saw me, she started saying, "No! No! No!" she definitely knew what she was doing.

The big three have been fascinated all morning with this webcam of a hummingbird nest. (Thanks Kristin for passing it on.) So neat to watch the mother feeding the two babies. Make sure to read the fact page; apparently the same hummingbird has been building a nest there for years.

First pig-tails

Compared to my other girls, Eden just doesn't have much hair. I have trimmed the back a couple times, but it's not very thick or long. So, today was the first time that I attempted to pull up her hair in pig-tails. You can see how happy she was about it.

She did eventually come around to the idea.

Just for fun, here's Mya at around 7 months.

and Alena at 13 months.

Product Recommendation

So, this isn't my usual blog post, but I just have to let you know about these cards. I had gotten these a while back for the kids to give Nae (the resident story teller around here) as a gift and forgotten all about them. I finally pulled them out for Christmas, and they have been a big hit. I love to listen to the stories the kids come up with; Alena's are especially hilarious. Sometimes they'll each draw a certain number of cards and make up a story from what they have, and sometimes they draw cards and Nae will tell the story. We have this set and the fairy tell set and love them both. A nice, simple toy that allows kids to use their imagination without lights, sounds or other annoying distractions.

She can do it.

A little practice pushing with no pedals, a lot of determination not to be left out of the fun and Alena is riding a two wheel bike. Way to go, Lean Bean!

Eden

Same snow, different day

Snow Day {again}

Gabe finally lost another tooth over Christmas. It had been almost a year since he lost his first two. Now I am begging him to wiggle the other one and pull it out so they'll both be missing at the same time. I think that's so cute and his permanent one is already peeking through so time is running out.

Mya said this coat makes her "look like a teenager." I told her in that case she was not going to wear it. :)

Alena let her hot chocolate set out for close to an hour before she would drink it. I explained that at that point it is no longer hot chocolate but instead it's known as chocolate milk. Next time we'll skip the whole heating it up thing.

When the cat's away

the mice will play.

Here's what apparently goes on when I've gone to run errands.
(all pictures thanks to Nae).

There is breakfast of Daddy's pancakes on the couch while watching tv.

There is dressing up and much light saber and Nerf gun fighting (even by the ballerina)

and, there is kitchen play using real pots and pans along with spices.

I will say that this was {mostly} cleaned up when I got home. No wonder the kids love to stay home with Daddy...

In other news, I believe the stomach bug 2011 has finally passed on. We were all victims (except for Nae who has never had a stomach virus in his life - totally not fair) and we all survived.

Another victim

We have a nasty stomach bug slowly making its way through our house. Last night, Alena was our unfortunate victim. She bounced up this morning, though ready to go. If only we could all have such a (most of the time) happy spirit.

The day just kept getting better as I became the next victim and I'm trying to console myself with the fact that so far no one has been ill longer than 24 hours.

Eden, while not sick at the moment wasn't going to be denied a chance to have a Popsicle.

17 months today

Eden already understands that she can see herself on the camera after her picture is taken; which is why these are both a little blurry. She would run up say her version of "cheese" and then come running to me to see. Makes it quite hard to get a good shot.

Just in the last couple of weeks, Eden has started repeating so many words and she can do several animal sounds too which just cracks me up. I'll have to try and get a video of it. Most of her day is spent following around her brother and sisters and trying to be included in everything from shooting Nerf guns (she has this down pretty good) to dressing up (yesterday she was a Jedi today a ballerina.) It's amazing how quickly they go from baby to toddler; it seemed to happen over night.