Arianna - 6 weeks old

random

On our drive home from Chicago we stopped in the middle of Iowa at a big mall and the girls got to ride on a carousel. They had a lot of fun, that is the first time we have ever done that. Alexander didn't like it quite as much. He didn't want to ride on a horse, but if you held him he was fine.








The girls in the hotel room


Alexander also got his first hair cut while we were at Aunt Marilyn's house. His hair got long as soon as Angie left and I have been trying to decide if I wanted to try to cut it myself, or who I should take him to. So when we visited Auntie Angie she was so kind as to cut off his rat tail!

Chicago

Well, we're back from our impromptu trip to Chicago. We had a good time visiting Aunt Marilyn and getting to hang out with Gabe and Angie and the boys.

Auntl Marilyn (or Aunt Mimi, depending on who you ask) came and got me and the girls from the hotel on the first morning and took us back to her house. We saw Uncle Ron for a few minutes, but he was getting ready to fly out, so it was very brief.

We played at Aunt Mimi's house for a coupel hours and she fixed us lunch and had a little help.








After that we all drove down to Gabe and Angie's house and all the kids got to run around crazy and have some fun cousin playing time. There was lots of noise and movement! Alexander hugged Nemeiah to the point of knocking him over, repeatedly. However, once he was knocked over, Alexander decided to go ahead and ride him like a horse, since he was already down there!






Sunday night Aunt Marilyn invited the whole group of us over for dinner. She fixed a lovely meal and we had a great time hanging around together!

More Barbie parts

So, I was helping the girls clean thier room the other day. I opened up a jewelry box and this is what I found.



If it was in the room of a teenage boy I would be worried! These girls are nuts.

one month old

Arianna turned one month old yesterday, so we took some pictures!

Father Daughter Dance

Faron, Isabella and Sophia went to the father daugher dance at church last night, for Valentines Day. The girls had a ton of fun, they danced, limbo'd, at snacks and to quote Isabella "can you imagine, there was a chocolate fountian".

conquests

This is a picture of our bar area (the girls call it the "high countertop"). This is our school area, we keep our books and school supplies there and hat is where the girls sit to do thier work. It is also the scene of Alexander's lates conquest. He can now climb up those chairs and onto the bar. This is a big pain because he is constantly getting up there and dumping crayons and such.
Yesterday it got worse.



He climbed up those chairs, onto the bar, and then climbed over and got onto the kitchen counter top! I was in my room and started hearing metallic noises. I looked to the bar and Alexander wasn't there, so I went back to what I was doing. Heard the noises again, so I went to investigate. The noises were not, in fact, metal, but ceramic. He was playing with the bowls in the cabinet.



Unfortunatly this scene repeated 3 times yesterday. In fact, before I finished typing that I had to go get him off the chair for the second time THIS MORNING! It is not even 9 yet!






The girls entertainted themselves by playing with these hair accessories. They had fun for a long time!

Ari Girl

Here are some recent pictures of Arianna. She is starting to be awake more often, and looking around at everything. She appears to be the only one of my children who actually enjoys her swing! She likes to look at the little red dog.







You can actually see her blue eyes in this picture. Who knows if they will stay that way or not, but the definatly look blue right now. All the other kids kept the color they were born with pretty much, so we will see. Her hair is also looking kind of light and maybe even reddish, I'm kind of excited about that possibility!



Cute girl!

persuasion

Isabella is learning the power of persuasion. Yesterday I was going to go to the grocery store alone, but then all the kids were asleep except Isabella, so I asked her if she wanted to come with me, I don't get alone time with her very often. She said she wanted to come, so I told her to go get ready. She decided to go very quietly into her room, so she wouldn't wake up Sophia, cause she didn't want her to come. However, when she walked into her room, Sophia had just awakened. First Isabella came running out of her room crying cause Sophia was awake, but after I assured her that she could still come with me, alone, she went back down to get ready.
When she passed Sophia I heard, "I am going with Mama, but (turn on sweet happy voice) you get to stay here with Papa and maybe watch a movie or something"
Sophia, "Where are you going?"
Isabella, "To the grocery store, pretty boring, huh?"
Then she walked away, hoping it had worked.

the things my girls do

So, most of you know that my girls enjoy pulling heads and legs off of Barbie dolls. A headless barbie would be cause for many girls to cry, but Isabella and Sophia think it is the funniest thing ever. I guess this will be helpful when Alexander starts messing with thier toys.
Just this morning Sophia took a (cheap) Barbie with her to church, since she has a cold and couldn't go into her class. Before the service was over her babie was just a torso and a collection of "parts".

Anyway, yesterday I was in my room and I heard the rumblings of two girls running full force towards me. I turned around to see Isabella with a "my size Barbie's" leg (you know, the kind where the barbie is the size of a child), so it is a good 2 feet long. She is holding it like a bat and Sophia pitches her a Ken doll, which Isabella swings at and Knocks in to the living room. They are playing baseball with a huge Barbie leg!


This is not the worst that has happened to this my size barbie. Once both of her arms were removed and they were using her torso and arm holes as a telescope. Her arms have also been used as serving spoons, scooping up pretend food.

I do perfer this kind of behavior to prissy girl behavior I guess. It cracks me up the stuff they will do to those toys.

note to self

note to self, don't make things for lunch that require constant attention (like pancakes), while attending to 4 kids.