Colorado leftovers

Thanks to Kristi for all the following pictures.

 

Messy faces= a good time

The whole clan after church

These cousins had so much fun running around with each other, making good memories.

This was the first ride we went on at The North Pole. It was the only one Chad rode on. It was left up to me to take Annie on all the rides. I don't mind, I actually enjoyed them all!

Eli had a blast, he was big enough for most of the rides.

This was his reaction after riding the little roller coaster.

Brothers and Sisters and Bluebonnets

 Brothers

and

Sisters

 Sometimes I have to remind myself just how lucky I am that we got two of each gender.  My girls have each other and my boys have each other.

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Every year I tell myself that I am going to get family pictures in all the wildflowers that surround us every spring. I think he last time I did was when Sam was 2 years old. Sunday we had such beautiful weather we decided last minute to take a drive and snap some pictures.  It was literally last minute.  We ended up driving an hour round trip just to end up 10 minutes away from home. The best field of bluebonnets is right in our backyard (not literally)

Trying to get some decent pictures that day totally reminded me as to why we never have decent pictures.  It's insane.  With four kids it is literally impossible to have them all cooperate at the same time. 

This is pretty much the best one we have of Annie. This was before she realized that the grass was getting her feet all wet.  How could I have not remembered the fact that she hates wearing sandles in wet grass. My mistake.

We always get great ones of Carly, she is a natural in front of the camera.

This little man barely stood still long enough for me to snap a picture of him.

Sam, he's great to always pose for a picture.

This was after her little meltdown of wet feet, after we got a chair out for her to sit on and after her finger got smashed in the chair.  She was not a happy camper.

Classic Annie, right here folks.

I kind of love this picture even if Chad's head did get chopped out of it. Sometimes it feels like we have twins....

Not too shabby for a self-timer photo. Although it looks like we were buried in flowers. At least everyone is looking in the general direction of the camera.

Photo taken by Carly. I love how our kids are old enough to snap photos of Chad and I together.

 

New Year, same old me.

This girl brings out so many emotions (and mostly within a matter of minutes)  Lately her new thing is switching outfits 50 times a day. (and no, I'm not exaggerating) 

Some of her outfit choices are quite comical.  Eli was really confused by this mask she was wearing. 

Notice her necklace, she will not wear this dress without wearing the necklace.

This is what her closet ends up looking like on a daily basis. I actually quit cleaning it up last week because, well, I got sick of cleaning it. She insists on emptying all of her drawers and some of Carly's.

She also mix and matches dress up clothes with her actual clothes.

This little man is seriously a dream baby.  I can't imagine my life without him.  He is so good and so content with life. It really amazes me some days. He is so easy going (which is great considering the girl pictures above is not)

His new thing is just playing by himself in his room with his toys. He loves to empty his toy bins and stick toys in random places.  On more than one occasion I've found little toys stuck inside my boots.

I love beginning a new year and making resolutions. It seems like the past few years my goals have all been the same. I suppose it's either because they are really good goals or I haven't mastered them yet. Actually it's probably both.

The year 2014 was a year of surviving.  Most days were hard. Most days were filled with just trying to make it till bedtime, but thankfully it's easy to forget the rough times.

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Hopefully 2015 I will be able to work my way out of living in survival mode.

Merry Christmas!

I cant even believe how long it's been since the last time I added to this blog. I'm not even sure why I still keep it. I figured instead of adding to facebook this time I'd give the blog some attention.

I'm not going to even try to catch up on everything I've missed since the last time I posted. I'll just start with where we are now.

Behold our house...I told Chad that next year I want to be borderline Griswold.  I think we are off to a good start.

 

Little Miss Elsa. She sure loves this dress and gets good use out of it.

 

One new thing about her is that if I don't answer when she yells "Mom!" she starts to yell "Danette!"



 

This little man has turned one recently and has basically become a completely different baby. He is still super happy most of the time but he now loves to go from one thing to the next destroying everything in his path.  His most recent discovery is the fact that he can now climb on things. 

 

 

Our traditional "Sunday before Christmas picture in front of our Christmas tree" I think it turned out pretty decent considering the fact we used a self timer, only took three pictures, and were trying to get out of the house by 7:50 to make it to 8:30 church.

I am so looking forward to 10:30 church in January!

 

I just love this time of year. I was so hoping that the sickness would stay away (since we've basically been battling one thing after another since September) Unfortunately that may not happen since Carly and Sam both were feeling yucky last night.

All I want for Christmas is my family to not be sick. (and for all my kids to sleep till 8:00) is that so much to ask for?!?

 

Merry Christmas ya'll!

 

old house, new look

It took the whole summer practically but our new porch is finally done! (The top is after, bottom is before.) A new front porch wasn't the first thing on our list to get done but after looking at the before picture I'm so glad we did it.  Our old porch was actually becoming quite the safety hazard after having multiple people almost fall through the railing we decided we should probably do something about it. We extended it all the way to the end of the new addition, we moved our front door to the middle of the bay window (which made it possible to make our master closet larger.) We also were able to add a large covered area on the porch (my dream was to have the whole front porch covered but it just wasn't possible.) We added a little walkway from the front porch around the house to the back porch. We also were able to add some landscaping, I've wanted landscaping since the day we moved here 4 years ago.  I am so amazed at what a difference it can make!

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Annie decided to take Eli for a little stroll around the house. He actually thought it was quite funny.

 



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We made it to nine months with this little man. It's actually flown by and been somewhat enjoyable because he is such an awesome baby!

6 months

 

 

This little man turned 6 months old on the 18th

He has been such a joy to our family. I am so grateful for his happy little personality. 

 -He is so easy to get a smile from him and he will smile at anyone really.
-He loves, loves, loves bath time.  I get soaked from all his splashing that he does.  You can just see the excitement on his face when he's in the water.
-He has the biggest head out of all my kids.
-He wears mostly 9 months clothes but he'll fit into some 12 month
-not sure of his weight, I take him to his doctor on Wednesday
-He loves most baby food that I have offered him.  He is still nursing and takes formula.
-He has only rolled from back to tummy once.  He wants to do it all the time he just doesn't have it quite down yet.
-His sleeping at night is still very random. Some nights he'll wake up twice, other nights it seems like he'll be up every hour.
-His naps are becoming more predictable.  He usually takes a quick snooze in the morning.  Then another nap after lunch and then one more around 4.  He is ready for bed by 730-8:00 at night.
-He loves to chew on his fingers.
- If he's not wearing socks he loves to play with his toes.
-He is still so stuffy in his nose. 
-He loves to watch the other kids play.
-He likes helping Chad mow the lawn.
Our family has been so blessed by this little guy.  He has been such an awesome baby. I couldn't have asked for a better caboose.

Let it go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t92lqNdV9Hs&feature=youtu.be

My two babies. I know this time in my life will be fleeting. I know I've done this before with Carly and Sam being so close in age as well but with these two it just seems so much more challenging. Possibly because I don't remember all the little details that I got stressed over when Carly and Sam were little. 

I love these two. I try to remind myself every day to enjoy this time in my life because before I know it these two will be off to school and I'll be left alone, as enticing as that sounds.

Most days I find myself just happy if I get dressed, in actual clothes and not sweats and a t-shirt. I consider it a good day when I'm able to keep the kitchen clean (forget about the rest of the house, that just doesn't happen)

I find myself going from one baby to the next (I think we all can agree that Annie is still a baby with needs almost as demanding as Eli) It's a struggle to find a balance between giving Eli the attention he needs and the attention that Annie desires. 

I hate the fact that I am grateful the other two are in school. I love them and miss them but it's a challenge for those couple hours after school until bedtime. I try not to just go through the motions. I try to connect and have real conversations with them but some days it just doesn't happen.  Some days I pick them up from the bus and then don't really see them until bedtime. 

Four kids has been a challenge to say the least but each day it gets better and easier. Each day I find myself being able to accomplish just one more task than the day before. 

I will miss these little faces one day. Just like I miss the little faces of Carly and Sam. In a way, it's kind of fun to be reliving what my life was a couple years ago. 

I am beyond grateful for the opportunity I have to be a mom to four awesome little kids. Each one so different from the other. Each one teaches me something different. 

I love this job (even if I get woken up every two hours during the night)

Eli 4 months

My baby is 4 months old today!

Eli is seriously the best baby. He has a few crying moments here and there but for the most part he is just so pleasant.  He is so smiley all the time. He even giggles when we change his clothes. It's the cutest thing! 

He still doesn't have the "sleeping through the night" thing down but we are working on that. 

His naps aren't really on a schedule either (which is so different than the other three) 

He is really into spitting bubbles right now and he found his voice and loves to jibber jabber.

Like I said, he loves to smile and your almost guaranteed a smile just by talking to him.

He is not too fond of laying down while he's awake. He wants to be able to sit up and watch everything. 

He seems to have a stuffy nose all of the time, not sure why.

He spits up the least out of all of my kids. It has been a nice change.

He LOVES bath time. He will go nuts kicking his legs and splashing water in his own face. 

I just can't get enough of his cute little face. I just want him to stay little just a little while longer. 

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Here are some pictures of our ice storm we had a couple weeks ago.  I know it's nothing compared to the northern states but my kids got excited about all the icicles. I guess if they can't get snow then icicles will have to do. It was really pretty to see, although I'm glad it didn't last long :)