Isla's Birthday

All three littles are taking a nap at the same time...rare miracle! So I thought I'd put up a few pictures to better document our lives. I do not plan to completely abandon this blog, but I am not able to care for it the way I have in the past. And I hope that is temporary. I had a friend say to me last week, "I thought that it was all the same after 3 children?" Yes, that is true in a sense. It's not necessarily harder with 5, just way busier than I had imagined and I chalk most of that up to the fact that Kipp and Cora are so close in age and to say that Kipp is "busy" is an understatement. Regardless, we are loving nearly every minute of it.

Recently, we celebrated Isla's birthday. She turned 4 and wishes already that she were older. She picked to have a heart shaped cake with Tinker Bell decorations. She was so excited that is was finally her birthday.

 She has loves all things girl, but still tries to keep up with her older brothers. It's hard to find a picture of her with her hair not looking wild, but I promise, I do brush and put up her hair every day.

We even had a little birthday party one afternoon with a few church friends. She was super excited to have everyone over and chose to have the same cake, but just different icing color this time around.

Isla also had her well-child visit in April and she is still a light weight, weighing in at 33lbs even and exactly 39" tall. Strangely enough, she too is "perfectly proportionate" according to her doctor, as both her height and weight are exactly in the 32nd percentile. Evidently this is not very common, but both she and Cora are perfectly proportionate. Well...good for them and let's hope it continues that way. They definitely did NOT inherit that trait from their mother. I am anything but and likely never have been perfectly proportioned.

Isla is such a help and always has been. She wants to make me and her daddy happy so she is always willing to help. She is still a snuggler, which makes her daddy happy. It has been nice to have a girl around especially after two very rough and tumble little boys. And this little girl wants to be just like her mama...so that makes you feel like you're doing something right!

We've been enjoying the warmer days and getting ready for our garden. We have cleaned out beds and trimmed all the things I should have trimmed when I was 8 and 9 months pregnant, but just didn't have it in me to do. I already have rhubarb coming up, strawberries in the ground, and we are sprouting our seeds in the basement. This is definitely an experimental year, as gardening up north is quite different than what I was used to in the south. But things are finally starting to turn green here. I definitely missed the azaleas this year! However, I realized that there is a forsythia bush in the back corner of our yard and I am so excited. It's one of my favorites!

Just Random Stuff

We're having a somewhat quiet day today...knock on wood. It looks like Spring outside, doesn't really feel like Spring, but it's sunny and all the snow is almost melted. I went and got my normal post-partem hair chopping.

I had 10 inches for Locks of Love, then some more hit the ground before I got to my new do...

Not the greatest picture, but you get the point. Imagine not so much gray and 20 pounds less, squint a bit and it looks fabulous!

This little cutie has given up pacifiers and prefers her two fingers. I tried to avoid the whole finger/thumb sucking with her, but they seem to chose what comforts them regardless of what you do. But she's darn cute though.

This was my attempt of Easter pictures before church. Kipp wants to see the picture being taken, Zade didn't want his picture taken, Bliss can't be semi-serious, Isla wasn't being helpful(she just wanted her picture taken), and Cora is the baby..she's forgiven.

Attempt #2: No Kipp, at least Zade is upright, Bliss still not serious, Isla hands still in the mouth, Cora is the only one doing what she's supposed to, save her dress being pulled up.

Attempt #3: Well, you can see the pattern.

That, my dear friends, perfectly describes my life right now. If you don't get a phone call from me or an email, please know that I love you all and think of each of you. This is our life...and we love it...most of the time. However, it is not very conducive to phone calls, semi-conducive to late night emails, and the occasional text message. There are many times a day when it crosses my mind that I need to call my mother and just say "Sorry" and "I Love You" or "Thanks for not killing me".

Better run...you know that knocking on wood thing at the beginning doesn't really work.
Duty calls!

March Madness

Every week I think to myself..."I just blogged last week, right?"
Evidently that was WRONG!
Here's it's been a month since I last wrote anything and babies are growing, people are having birthdays, dads are traveling,snow falling, and life is just happening.

Cora is 4 months old today. She is rolling from her tummy to her back. She loves sitting in her exersaucer so she can see everyone around her and what is going on in the house. I can't believe how fast she is growing.

A few weeks ago we had a huge snow storm. It snowed way more than they had predicted. As you can see we had to dig out of our door. When the snow plow came by and pushed the snow up on the end of the drive, it was just over Blasen's waist.

The kids had another snow day and had fun playing in the snow. They are jumping off the porch into the deep snow in these pictures. Poor Isla had to walk in here brothers' footsteps the snow was so deep.

They worked on a snow fort that weekend. This one is way bigger than the first one they made.

I finished up crocheting a blanket for my sister's baby's blessing.

I also made this cute snugglie thingy. Cora modeled it for me. She was a bit too big for it. But it should fit baby Dieter just fine. I found both patterns online for free. Both pretty simple.

Blasen was in China this month for a week. It was his first real travel since Cora was born and we(I) sure did miss him. He did bring home some goodies for us. We fell in love with these Koala cookies when we were living in China and he tries to pick some up for the kids each time he is over there. We have been able to find them in a grocery store in Chicago's Chinatown, but we haven't gotten back down there since we drove through on our move north.

They are a wafer-like cookie with chocolate filling. Yum.

He also brought me home a Jimmy Choo bag. All the bags I bought while living over there have been tossed as they eventually fell apart. I'm loving this one...lots of space and that's what this mamma needs.

Zade had his 6th birthday last week. This was his first "real" birthday party. And by "real" I mean he invited friends from school and church over. I used to slave over their cakes, but not anymore. I go with a sheet cake and let them put action figures on it. For Zade's I did pipe the Avengers' "A" and he stuck Iron Man on it. But little kids don't care really. And I didn't have a box chocolate cake mix, so I used a Paula Dean mud cake recipe that came out almost like a brownie. Can I say that is the way to go?! No crumbs. It was great. And the kids loved it. They all had so much fun and after two hours we were all worn out.

Found Recipe Winners

I've been trapped in the house for weeks now due to bad weather and sick children. With 5 children, 3 of which are at home with me during the day and one being 3 months old (today) it's not easy getting out and about in winter weather. Therefore, I have been experimenting with grocery shopping only once a month. It's actually worked out for the past few months.

Some things I have discovered:
 1) you have to be pretty specific with meal planning so you have all the ingredients on hand that you don't normally keep in your pantry. But nothing is set in stone...you can move it around.
 2) plan in leftover days. In our house Sundays are leftover days and snacks.
 3) try various sources for recipes. I use cookbooks, magazines, and Pinterest, of course.
I use an extra calendar and fill in the days so then I have a record of what we've eaten in the past months. I also mark where I found the recipe.

Here are a few that were winners in our family lately...

1. Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Source: recipeswagger.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

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2.Smothered Beef Burritos

Source: food-pusher.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

3. French Bread (I make three from this recipe and stick on in the freezer)

Source: dealstomeals.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

4. Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa

Source: closetcooking.com via Sara on Pinterest

Now I must take advantage of the two littles taking a nap.

Cora Mae--Two Months

I've been meaning to write about Cora's 2 month check-up. I actually thought I did, but just realized I never sat down to write it up.
Weight...11lb 3oz
Height...22 1/2 in
Head Circumference...15.4 in
Crazy thing is she's almost perfectly proportionate within 1%. I didn't think anything of it until the doctor made a deal over it. I guess you don't see that very often at all.
As the mom, I think she's perfect, of course. But now I have the numbers to prove it! I'm sure it will likely change over the next several months.
Right now Cora:
     -doesn't sleep very long at night, only around 5 hours between feedings
     -likes to sleep-in in the morning. She stays asleep while I'm up feeding and dressing the others.
     -is a night owl. After everyone gets off to bed, she likes to eat and hang out with Mom and Dad for a little while before finally calling it a day.
     -loves to talk to everyone. She stares you down smiling until you look her way and then just jabbers away. The doctor noted how talkative she was the day we went for a visit and said she may be an early talker. Granted anything before 2 would be an early talker in our family. I still can't get Kipp to say more than a few words...and I mean few.
     -enjoys sitting upright. A bouncy seat is not good enough, so last night I pulled out the Bumbo and she seems to like it.
     -still has her blue eyes and dark hair.
     -does not care for hats and unfortunately she is nearly bald and we live in Wisconsin, therefore, hats are a must. This makes for a grumpy Cora at times, but she eventually gets over it.

We all love her so much and love seeing her grow and develop and become her own little self.