Tattle Tail!

Cooper's favorite phrase lately has been "I did it!"  For example, he hit Gracie and when I came after him for it, he said, "I did it!" Or when we smell a stinky diaper and ask who it is, he says, "I did it!" and turns his bum towards us.  It's so hard not to laugh. This morning I heard Cooper and Gracie fighting in the bedroom so I went in there to find out what was going on, and this time he decided he should blame it on Gracie Jo.

Don't mind the mess, or the garbage bags covering the hole in the wall from the plumbing issues.  The walls are supposed to get repaired next Tuesday so hopefully this other company follows through.

Here he is with some wild hair right after a bath.

I dressed Livi up in her pink John Deere outfit only to discover that she is already too big for it.  So I snapped a few pictures and then took it off so that she could be more comfortable.  This is an outfit each of the girls has had a turn wearing.  Just now posting these I realized I didn't put on the matching pink jacket.  Oh well, it was probably too little too.

Here is a picture of the progress in our Robin's nest.  I was so worried the Mom wouldn't come back after I took the picture, but she did, so all is well.  Whenever I see a brand new baby bird I have feelings of guilt from when I was little and we were told to leave the baby birds alone, and we didn't listen (remember Sarah?).  Poor baby bird!!!  I'm not sure if Heidi was in on it too.  We injured the poor little thing (not on purpose) and then fed it to our cat because we knew it would die anyway.  I was only in first grade, but I still feel bad.

It was fun to show the kids the picture and it will be fun as the baby/babies get bigger and they can see their little heads poking out of the nest.  There has also been several times that we have spotted a rabbit in our back yard.  Lindsey called for me to come look out the window this morning to watch a rabbit in the back yard.  Every time I grab my camera to take a picture, the rabbit hops back into our "forest".

Happy 6th Anniversary!!!

This picture was taken on our first date!  We haven't changed a bit!  HA :)  Maybe just a little . . .

It's crazy how much our family has grown.  We've been blessed with such beautiful children.

Thanks Heidi for capturing our memories through the years!  You took every single one of our family photos.

I figured out the other day that I have been pregnant or nursing for 5 years and 4 months of our 6 married years.  No wonder I am so EXHAUSTED!!!  :)  If you would have told us on our wedding day that in 6 years from now we would have 4 kids and be living in Alabama I would have been surprised.  We've had our good and bad times just like everyone else, but I think we've done pretty good.

I was going to put in some wedding photos but they aren't on our computer and I'm doing this one-handed while feeding Olivia, so I can't go get the CD.  Maybe I'll put some on later . . . if I remember.

Happy Anniversary Hubban!!!  Love you!

Cute Kiddies!

Cooper somehow squeezed himself into this little toy bucket!  Silly boy.

He had to make sure he got every last drop of his ice-cream!  I love my Buddy.

Gracie lined all of her animals up so that they could see the story too.

Cooper got a new Mickey Mouse hat and he LOVES it!

Tim has a Mickey Mouse hat too that he got from Kirsten.  Cooper was thrilled to match his Daddy.  The next morning he put his hat on and grabbed Tim's and ran it to him saying, "Here Daddy, here Daddy!" so that he could wear his too.

There's always someone asking to hold Olivia!  She has been obsessed with sticking her tongue out lately.

Gracie helped me weed the flower beds at the head of our driveway.  It's been so nice outside lately.  We are so grateful for the shade in the back from the trees and covered patio.  Last summer there wasn't any shade outside where we lived.  The kids are always begging to go out!  They are getting really good at driving their red jeep and riding their bikes too!

I got a sunburn on my lower back from bending over weeding and both ankles got sunburned.  One of the joys of being a redhead.  Sorry Lindsey and Olivia!!!  Gracie and Cooper seem to tan pretty easily so they were lucky to take after their Dad.

Olivia's 1st Cereal

As you know, I am not one of those Moms who enjoys nursing their baby, so I am always so excited when they are old enough to start eating other things too.  I think I find comfort in knowing that if I am unable to feed the baby, someone else can.  It's very stressful to go anywhere or do anything when the baby's only source of nourishment is from it's Momma.

She did great with it!  Poor thing had a tummy ache the rest of the day though.  I think I started out with too much.  It's always a hard transition on the baby's system when you start introducing new foods.  She's so cute!!!

Spring is Here!

Up on top of our far left pillar on our front porch, a robin is building a nest!  I was so excited when I saw her!  I've always wondered how they build nests, so it's been fun to watch her.  She's also been putting small piles above the other two pillars too.  It's almost like she's organizing the pieces, or saving some for the final product. The kids have been really excited about it too.  Hopefully she keeps using it and doesn't get scared off so that we can see the eggs and babies later.  We might not be able to see the eggs since it's so high up, but we should be able to see the babies.

Gracie pointed out this pretty pink tree behind the swing set.  There have also been gorgeous white trees in bloom everywhere we go.  I don't know if they are Dogwoods or what, but I love them!  I was going to get pictures of some, but none of them are white anymore so I waited too long.  The kids liked them too because they pointed out that they were "The Popcorn Trees" from the Primary Song Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.  Does that mean they are Apricot trees then?  I'll have to ask my neighbor.  Anyway, I always love the changing seasons!

Tim's Birthday

Tim had quite an unpleasant birthday this year.

We suddenly started hearing water in our bathroom walls about a week ago and started losing hot water really fast.  Friday, the plumber was supposed to come to our house, so we waited around all day, and he never showed up.  We even called a couple times.  He was able to come on Saturday, but didn't have the tools he needed for the job, and he needed help from one of his co-workers.  He said he would come back on Monday, so Tim asked work off.  Monday was his birthday.

So, we waited around and never heard anything.  The library was having story time so we went to that with Tim and played at a little nearby park.  It was frustrating because it was nice to have him home for his birthday, but we were constantly on edge, waiting for the plumber to call.  They never showed up and Tim kept calling them periodically throughout the day.

We were frustrated and exhausted, so we decided to go eat at Olive Garden.  They told us they would put us in the family room so the kids could run around and then they forgot we were back there.  It was ridiculous!  Finally, after telling a couple different people that we hadn't been helped yet, our server came.  While we were there Lindsey said she needed to use the bathroom and when I took her, not only did she not go, but I realized she wasn't wearing any underwear!  Haha!  Her pants had gotten wet at the park earlier and when we told her to change into dry ones when we got home, she must have just forgotten to put on dry underwear too.  Then Gracie asked to go to the bathroom, and she didn't go either.  Then Tim took Olivia to change her, and of course, she had pooped out.  Lovely birthday!  Poor guy.  We got home too late to even sing and eat his cake and we just put all the babies in bed for the night.

Tuesday morning Tim went to work and when I woke up and went out in the hall, I stepped in wet carpet.  Just great!  I was so mad because the carpet hadn't been wet up until then and if the plumber had come when he was supposed to, we wouldn't have wet carpet.  AAaahhhh!!!  So Tim had to call the company and complain, which no one likes to do.  They said they would be right over.  Of course, as soon as they showed up Olivia needed fed but I couldn't nurse her with the men there and they had to keep on communicating with me throughout the process so I had to waste the milk that is in the freezer for when I am not there.  It was so frustrating to have to use up that storage.  That was the whole reason Tim took Monday off - so that I could take care of the kids and nurse when needed.

They left and came back later that afternoon and I had to use more milk from the freezer.  Plus, I didn't even think about the kids and I having to use the bathroom while they were there.  Gracie asked to go and I said she just had to wait, and then I needed to go too.  When they left, little Lindsey asked, "What do we do if we need to poop?"  Haha!!!  I told her it was fixed and she could use the toilet now.  The poor thing must have been holding it in because she heard me tell Gracie she had to wait.  Poor sweetie clogged the toilet!

Anyway, I am so grateful to have hot water again!!!  We really are spoiled with all this modern technology.  I would NOT have been a good pioneer.  Course, I already knew that before.  If we have to have problems, I'd much rather have something go wrong with the house or vehicles than a major health problem though!

Easter

The kids posing with their Easter stuffed animals from Granny!

Reading all the fun books we got at the library.

You can't see very well but Olivia is grinning big at Lindsey in this one.

We've got some sort of leak under the slab that our home is built on.  Too bad they had to cut out chunks of the wall in the girls' room to find this out.  They were supposed to come today and finish the job, but they haven't come yet and our hot water is messed up.  Now we can only get one quick lukewarm shower in before the hot water is completely gone and we have to have the hot water heater off in order to stop hearing the water running through our walls.  Tim doesn't mind because he had much worse in Peru on his mission, but I struggle without hot showers!

Tim taped the sheet rock pieces back over the holes temporarily to keep the kids out of it.  When Lindsey came in her room and saw the patched up wall she came running and asked me, "Why did we have an earthquake?"  Haha!  I have no idea how she knew that earthquakes caused cracked walls.  Little smartie!

Dying Easter eggs!  The kids didn't understand why you had to let the egg sit in the dye in order for it to color well.  They don't have enough patience for dying eggs we decided, plus when we looked away for one second and then looked back at the table, Cooper was drinking out of one of the cups.  Lovely!!

I bought an egg dying kit that had these cute chick attachments.  I should have read the directions first because it involved gluing really tiny pieces, and Tim and I even struggled with it, so the poor kids just had to watch while Tim and I struggled.  They do look cute though!

Sweet Livi fell asleep while we were dying eggs.

We let the kids each have one egg to eat when we were finished and Lindsey took a bite right off the top of hers before it was peeled.  Yuck - but pretty funny!  We told her to spit it out and once they all had a peeled egg, none of them liked them anyway.  Here's Lindsey eating her peeled egg.

Cute little Grace drew a picture for the Easter Bunny.  We were exhausted and scrambling to get the kids in bed when she decided to start drawing it, and she kept starting over because she thought she messed up.  We finally just told her that what she had was just fine and she needed to get in bed.  Scrambling around with all the kids she was saying something about not being finished but we were chaotically cleaning up, brushing teeth, etc.

Once they were all in bed and I finally got a good look at the picture, I saw that she was upset because she didn't finish her bunny.  I felt so bad that I went in her room to tell her that she could come finish it, but she was already asleep.  In the morning when she saw her Easter basket she didn't even notice that the Easter Bunny had taken her picture and left her a thank you note.  Even when I told her that the plate said thank you and I asked her if she thought the Easter Bunny would hang her picture on his fridge, she didn't seem to care one way or the other, she was too busy stuffing candy in her mouth.  So I worried about her picture for no reason.

Gorgeous kids in their Easter apparel, all ready for Church.

And this is what we found when we pulled her out of her
carseat . . . she's been having blowouts several times a day.  Not fun.  Plus it seems like whenever she does have a blowout, right after we get her in a new outfit, then she spits up all over it.  It is VERY tiring!  She's still the sweetest little thing though!  Love her!

Here she is talking and grinning with her Daddy on his birthday.  Adorable.