In her Sunday best

Violet, all dressed up in her Sunday best, 9 months old.

Crawling~ For your viewing pleasure

May I present a one minute video of Violet, now 7 months old, being chubby and adorable and very loud. She started sitting up on her own and crawling nearly a month ago.

The traveling spectacle

Last week we took off for a vacation to the beach. My parents invited us to stay with them in a beach house in Ormond Beach, Florida along with my brother. We had a great time.

The drive down felt like it was never going to end. We were stuck on the interstate 5 times in traffic that was standing still for hours. Someone gave Emmett a sippy cup full of juice before we left the house, and it leaked all over his car seat as soon as he got in the car, leaving him with a sticky wet butt the rest of the trip. I put a towel under him, but he kept pulling it out and preferred to sit in the damp car-seat. Two bottles of water were spilled in the van, three separate "I have to go to the bathroom now!" stops, and three leaning over the baby's car seat to nurse- causing bruised rib cage episodes and that was just before lunch on our way down. Finally we decided that we needed a break, and Violet was insisting that she be let out of her car seat, so I asked Rodrigo to stop on the next exit and we would go in somewhere and eat lunch, and let everyone stretch for a few minutes.

Well, the only place on that next exit was a Huddle House (a mediocre breakfast all day kind of place, I'm really not a breakfast fan, I eat it because I have to, and somehow restaurant breakfasts always seem gross to me, Rodrigo and the kids do not share my opinion!) so we went there. They only had small booths so we got two booths back to back. The big boys sat at one, and we sat with the little ones at the other. Matthew promptly knocked over his giant glass of root beer, the waitress was really nice about it and after she helped him clean it up she brought him another one this time in a styrofoam glass with a lid. Logan somehow managed to pick up the styrofoam glass and stuck his thumb through it and spilled the entire contents of that glass across the table. Back came the waitress, still smiling, to help them clean up the table and bring a new drink, yet again. And while we were being slightly mortified at our big kids antics, Rodrigo who was holding Violet, failed to notice that she was reaching for his glass...yep. She spilled his very full glass all over our table. I didn't even want to look at the waitress by this point. I felt so sorry for her. Her smile was still there, but by this point it was kind of like one of those weird stiff smiles you have in your driver's license picture. It was really kind of funny in a sad sort of way. The restaurant was full of truck drivers and they were all watching us instead of whatever that was blaring on the TV hung over the lunch counter. We ate and left as fast as we could. Rodrigo left her a very good tip in apology for the multiple messes... Oh and we promised to never ever go back to that Huddle House in central Georgia again! Poor lady.

We did eventually arrive at the beach house. My parents and brother were already there waiting for us. Mom had cooked dinner and we happily piled out of the van and went inside to eat. After dinner we took the kids down to the beach to play for a few minutes as the sun was setting. Then my brother and Rodrigo started talking about how shark attacks are more common at dusk, and with the county we were staying in being known as the shark bite capital of the USA, I made the kids get back out of the water until daylight!

My dad rented Logan a surf board for the week, and he spent just about every minute we were at the beach surfing. He said the waves were pretty much too small the entire time, but he still managed to stand up and ride quite a few of them. Everyone else was given a chance to surf as well. Emmett fell of the board and into the (very shallow) waves the minute his daddy let go of the board, he wasn't that impressed with the idea after that.

We spent every morning at the beach and went back to the house for lunch and to lay the babies down for a nap. We rested and played board games and ate simple yummy food. In the evenings we went back down to the beach to walk or play in the water again. We went to Ponce de Leon Lighthouse, and to the Ponce inlet a couple of times to explore the tide pools and take pictures there in the afternoon.

It was wonderful. We played together and relaxed the whole time. We all enjoyed each others company and we all had fun!

We got home late Saturday night. Thankfully it was a much quicker, much less eventful trip than the one we had on the way to the beach! I can honestly say that as a grown up, I adore vacations. But I think my very favorite part is when I get to crawl into my own sweet bed that first night home at the end of a trip!

My loves

My loves, Violet and her Daddy.

Happy Weekending.

Easter Sunday Afternoon

After church on Resurrection Sunday we all went over to my parent's house for the afternoon. We cooked out and the kids hunted Easter eggs. Everyone had such a good time. We visited and relaxed and played in the sunshine. It was a such a pleasant way to spend the day.

Last year for their Easter Baskets I really knocked myself out making a couple of handmade toys for each of my children. They loved finding their surprises in their baskets when they woke up on Easter. But I had worked so late into the night for the week leading up to that Sunday that I was exhausted by the time the big morning came around. That afternoon, as soon as church was over, food eaten and the kids hunted eggs, I slept the rest of the day. I regretted sleeping though it later while everyone else was visiting, but I was just too tired. {Being in the first trimester of pregnancy didn't help!}  

So this year, I decided to give myself a break. And you know what? It was just fine! I bought each of the kids a chocolate bunny, and I picked up a couple of slinkies for the  Claire and Emmett and a pair of nice yo-yos for Matthew and Ethan. Violet was too little this year to care about toys or sweets and Logan only wanted the chocolate~ thank you very much! The kids were thrilled when they woke up to find their chocolate bunnies and their toys. 

When my big boys were very little I would buy them those cheap-o kind of toys like you see stuffed into the pre-made Easter baskets at the grocery stores. The toys would break within a day or so and then the garbage would litter their bedroom floors until I threw it all away. I didn't really know any better. Eventually it dawned on me that those kinds of "toys" weren't really good for anyone. They weren't entertaining, or educational, or even pretty, really. Basically they were a total waste of money, I was buying the exact same little toys every single year, only to have them break long before the next year rolled around.  So I started making them toys and little games. I had fun making them, and they really seemed to enjoy playing with them. Plus they usually lasted much longer than 24 hours!

But here is the thing with having a big family and making or buying well made toys, those toys actually last. And that becomes a problem because you really don't need 4 or 5 much less 20 copies of each toy (one for each kid each year!) For example last year I made Claire a little memory game with sweet Springtime motifs painted on wooden disks. Well, all of the children played (still play) with that game. I sewed a little cotton drawstring bag  to store the pieces in, and now we have a fun memory game and honestly we don't need another. Just yesterday the little ones were playing with the set of wooden sorting toys I made for Claire when she was about 18 months old. So while I haven't run out of ideas for fun new toys I want to make for my kids, I have decided to limit the number of things available for them to play with at a time. They all seem so much happier and more easily entertained when they have a few well sorted toys to choose from, rather than a million different things with missing or mixed up pieces.

So while the above reason was a big deciding factor in not over-stressing myself to make a bunch of new things this year for their baskets. Another was during the month of April we had family come in from Guatemala to stay with us. So there was the 'pre-visitors cleaning of the whole house' and then the 'we have visitors lets do stuff to entertain them' that took up most of our month once they arrived. But most importantly is that chocolate bunnies and toys have nothing to do with the reason we celebrate Resurrection Sunday! I want to be sure they understand the real reason we choose to celebrate this day. 

That reason is the most important of all. This is the day we chose to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from death. His crucifixion, death and resurrection was specifically so that each one of us could receive forgiveness from our sins and be able to have a real relationship with with Him as our Lord and Savior. That is a wonderful thing to celebrate and it should never take second place to Easter Eggs or Chocolate bunnies!

At the same time I really enjoy the sweet little traditions our family has of dyeing eggs, and having egg hunts, and finding an Easter basket with treats waiting on Easter morning when they wake up. Those are fun things, and memories I cherish from my own childhood, and things I want to pass on to my children. But as I said, I am very happy that I decided not to go "over the top" with candy, or toys this year! 

P.S. Violet's dress is the one that Grandma made for Claire for her first Easter. You can see pictures of Claire's first Easter here.