Camping Birthday

We celebrated Levi's birthday by going camping! It was so much fun!

Brand New baby boy

I don't think I ever posted any pictures of Levi, as a brand new boy. If I have, oops, but two sets of newborn baby-licious isn't all bad.

One Year Ago Today...

...our sweet little Noah left our friend's house and ran away across town to the post office. No, wait, okay, that's true, but on this day our sweet little LEVI was born!!!

Levi is my "maly anjelik", little angel. He is such a jolly little chap. He loves his siblings, especially his little Mother, Sophia. Noah has recently become enamoured with him and they like to play together. I don't remember the other kids playing together at such a young age as Noah and Levi. I think they might just be buddies......or.....partners in crime!

The L man just started pulling himself up in the last month and one of his favorite places to pull himself up is the piano. He likes to plunk on the keys. He's such a delightful little boy. He naps easily, smiles easily, eats small objects he finds on the floor, loves his crib, really really really loves his Daddy, and is happiest in the middle of a bunch of craziness. We are so blessed to have you sweet, little man! Happy Birthday Dude!

Some other stats for posterity:

Favorite word, first word, pretty much only word up until now: Dada. No matter how much I say mamama to him, he says dada back to me. It's as if he's doing it on purpose! It's so cute. He wakes up in the morning calling for Da-da-da

He's said: ly-dah for 'Lijah before.

He's said: sissss for "sissy" before.

Mercy

We have been *done* with school for all of 3 days and I report the following:

-candles crushed all over kitchen floor
-water war in the bathroom, it was 1 against no one, because the others knew better than participate.
-I know several other things happened, but I am too tired to remember.
-A headache. I have a headache. Not a headache, but a head and neck and shoulder ache.

I am a beggin' for mercy, and I know that these boys need to be wrestled with or something!

Ps. Did you know that stretching can really help upper body tension? Also, laying on the floor with your feet and legs against the wall for a bit can help your energy level too. Oops, I forgot to mention that because the sun rises early, we had a 5:30 riser for a couple of days...time to black out those windows! :)

Thank you, Lord for energetic boys. Sometimes I really don't know what to do with them and sometimes I don't know why on earth they do the things that they do, but you made each of them, and I am so thankful for your lending them to us. What laughter and excitement they add to our home! I praise your infinite wisdom in entrusting them to my care.

...off to wrestle...

180

1-8-0.

One hundred eighty.

180 days of school complete. Yipee-yahoo-yay-hooray!

Halleljuah and Praise the Lord!

We're officially done today! However, I'm a mean Mom and we are still doing Math and Reading over the summer. So, we're officially done, but we're really not done. Are you ever supposed to stop learning?

Thank you, Lord, for helping us to complete what we began at the beginning of the year. For help through the trials of the schoolday. For forgiving my failures and loving me anyway. For my 4 little blessings and the opportunity to teach them about you and about life. You know the past, present, and future and I can trust you to guide our steps as we school now and in the coming days.

Amen and Amen. :)

And now for the celebration. The kids are having cheese balls (one of their favorite junk foods). I refrained and had chips instead. I think ice cream may be in order as well!

The Easter Gentlemen

After primping and curling and fussing over Sophia AND Molly on Easter Sunday, it was refreshing to slip polos and sweaters on the boys. Aaaahhh, nothing like the low maintenance of little men!

Sophia's Easter

Sophia recently got "Molly" from American Girl. I must admit that, I think I might be having more fun with Molly than she is. Perhaps we're tied in how much fun we are having with 'lil Molly McIntyre.

Anyhoo, I bought the boys' Easter sweater vests at the end of season last year, so I wanted to find something for Soph to wear that coordinated. I couldn't find anything, so on a whim and really cheap clearanced fabric at Jo-Ann, I decided to make her a dress that matched. The dress pattern had a purse pattern. So I decided to make the matching purse. Well, Sophia loves matching so she asked for Molly to have a matching dress AND matching purse. From there they both needed matching hairbows and from there she wanted her Molly mini doll to have a matching dress, purse, and hairbow, but we didn't get that done. I don't think I could have sewn a dress that small.

I think we could write a book about this...

"If you give a Sophia a Molly she'll want a dress to match her...when you make the dress, she'll want purses to match...when she sees the purses, she'll realize she doesn't have a hairbow and will want you to make one to match. When the hairbows are done and you have succeeding in burning your fingers with the glue gun and you are both chillin' on the bed in the days before Easter she'll remind you that she has a mini doll. And chances are if she has a mini doll, she'll want a dress, purse, and hairbows to go along with her." :)

Here's my girlie with her curlers in, preparing to be pretty on Resurrection Sunday.




The two little ladies...

It was such a fun project. Sophia loved it even though she didn't sew anything. Perhaps we can sew something else for her and Molly someday and she can get in on the sewing action. That would be very exciting!