my little miss myka

 5/27-  This stage with Myka is so much fun!!  She's all over this house exploring.  She looks so big when she stands up to play with things!  The boys are quickly learning they need to put things out of her big reach if they want toys safe! 

Myka was super tiny for awhile... but no more!  Check out these rolls.  Just love these pudgy thighs.   (someday she'll dislike me for this picture!) 

 5/29-  Mobility means that nothing in this house is safe anymore!  Today she discovered the cup drawer! 

 She jabbered away as the removed items from the drawer.  Lucky for me, she also likes to put things back in at this point! 

 My goofy girl... she loves to laugh.  She'll even do fake laughs to get people going.  I love her backward wave, her excitement for splashing in the bath, and her crawling speed- she disappears quickly!!  You keep me hopping, Myka!! 

Caught up!

5/25- I think I'm beginning to nest around here.  I have a constant list of projects running through my head.  There are so many things to do before baby gets here... which could be in 7 weeks!  I'm organizing cupboards, sorting through/selling off old boy clothes, sorting through baby girl clothes (Seems like I just did that a year ago. Oh wait- I did!), organizing Myka/baby room, etc.  No project ever gets totally finished it seems, so right now our house is a disaster of tubs, bins, and piles.  We'll get there!  One of my goals this week was to get caught up on the blog.  And with this post, I'm officially there!!!  All the pictures are dumped off my camera and everything is posted.  Hooray!!  I've posted 18 new posts this week, so if you're bored and want some reading- click away!  My hope is always to be caught up enough to be able to tell the day to day stories going on around here- instead of trying to remember what happened a month ago.  Going to see if I can stay up to date until baby gets here.   :)

 Today we had a rough start to our morning.  Luke and I have been doing a bootcamp at our house.  Anytime a kid whines or doesn't listen to something we say the first time, they go to their beds until a timer goes off.  Boaz has actually done really well and is doing better at watching his tone.  The listening thing... getting there.  The first day they spent a lot of time in their beds.  They're getting better!  Today though, wowzers.  They went to their beds 3 different times before 7am!  After the third time, we sat on the couch and had a chat.  I told them that they got to choose the outcome of this day... we weren't off to a very good start and they could spend the whole day in and out of beds or they could adjust their attitudes and make some better choices to be happy.  We prayed to God and asked him to help us all.  (I needed it, too! Last night I was up until after midnight chatting with some dear friends at our monthly girls' night!  Feeling it this morning!)  Miraculously, attitudes changed and the rest of our morning was great!  They ate breakfast without fighting and helped pick up the living room with no complaint. 

Since the living room was clean, I decided we should just leave the house so it would stay that way for an hour or two! I had a pile of things in the house that belonged elsewhere that I decided we should just run around town and return.  We packed a snack for everyone and hit the road.  We saw several friends for a minute, jumped on a trampoline, and got all our things returned to the right places!  When we got home, Boaz suggested a picnic lunch... just he and Cainan out front.  So here they are- my big guys having a picnic all by themselves on the front sidewalk. 

One really funny conversation I overheard this week....

Luke went back to check on Boaz in the bathroom. 

Luke: Man, it stinks in here. 

Boaz: Well if you don't like it, you should just get outta here! 

Luke: You make a good point!   

Made me laugh... 

magical king/alligator show, my house is a pit, and cousin time

5/20- Luke got to go play some golf after lunch today.  I stayed home and enjoyed a show show after show after show by a magical king and an alligator.  :)

They shared their best tricks with dad when he got home... 

 5/22-  I've been picking up and organizing all morning and my house looks like this.  I seriously want to cry sometimes...   :)   I don't ever get far around here... I work on one room while the kids destroy the next.  The nice thing is, they were playing so well together! 

 5/23-  I don't have many hair things for Myka.  Just a couple of headbands and some tiny barrettes that she doesn't have enough hair to use.  I don't put anything on her all that much.  But she looks cute in them! 

 Maybe she should wear this more often!  :)  

 My sisters and their kids came over to play this morning!  (minus Hannah, who was in school)  We had a fun time playing around the house and outside for a bit.  There will soon be 10 cousins... what a fun crew!

 The kids all packed picnics.  We'd hoped to eat outside, but the wind prevented that today.  We had a great indoor picnic full of super funny little kids jokes and lots of laughter.   :)

summer kick-off

5/18-  Day one of our garage sale today.  It was a decent day and we got rid of some things.  The weather was beautiful, so we decided to pack up the kids and head over to see a friend's band play in a park for the evening.  Cainan immediately hid his eyes when he saw....

this Buck mascot wandering around the park!!   :)

Boaz wanted to go say hello.  Cainan definitely didn't!

Ready for a picnic.

Enjoying the music.

Dining outside... we LOVE picnics!  And we LOVE music.  The combination of music & picnics in a park is certainly one of my favorite parts of summer!! 

I think this might be one of my favorite pictures of Myka to date!!  I love hanging out with this smiley girl! :)

The boys enjoyed their picnics, too.  They stopped between bites to clap and bob their heads.

A picture of dad and the competitor's pizza.  Uh-oh!!  

After dinner, it was time to DANCE!!

Boaz has some sweet moves!

The Buck came back to visit us and sat in my chair for a bit  He made the boys laugh... and made Myka cry!

Chomping on some bread to get her to calm down after the buck scare.

Some neighbors soon joined us and all the kids had a dance party together!  Cainan and Reagan...

Boaz entertaining the crowd with his robot moves... to the left of the picture.

Jonah, Boaz, & Reagan... such good buddies.

This is becoming a theme for Cainan.  This  no nap thing is hard work!!

vehicles

5/16-  We popped this car up into a walker for Myka for the first time today.  She didn't hesitate much and started pushing it across the living room!!

5/17- Cainan turned the walker into a baby stroller today. He shoved all Myka's dolls into the cracks and pushed them around.

Grandma Glace came over today to play while I finished setting up a few more things for the big sale.  She came up with some great entertainment for the boys while Myka napped.  I even got a clean van door out of the deal!!

And she brought over some amazing sugar cookies for our morning snack!  Boaz said, "Did you give my mom this recipe, because these are GOOD!!!"   :)

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to me!!  It was such a great day.  I led worship at our church services this morning, so was up and out of the house early for rehearsals and sound checks.  Luke took care of all the morning routine and got the kids to church.  When I came home, he'd already fed the kids lunch and had some waiting for me, too!  (They'd mentioned in church that Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for KFC, so that got Luke craving chicken strips and mashed potatoes.  It was a great meal- especially since I didn't have to make it!)   As I was preparing my plate, I saw a note on the counter.  Luke took this picture of the kids this morning and had interviewed them about mom- then typed it up.  

The letter read :: The boys and I wanted to tell you how much we love and appreciate you:

Luke: I love that you were made to be a mom.  I love how much patience you have with them and all you've done to shape two great young boys.  We have 3 great kids, and I know the 4th will be great as well.  Thanks for getting up early, doing laundry, picking up all day, and making meals, while still training them how to be good kids and love God.  I love you very much. 

Boaz: I love you. I love you so much that we help you so you make your house clean.  You just help me clean up the house that I like and you help me when I get owies.  I love the food that you make, macaroni.  I like the things that you do with us, like when we go to the ice cream shop and I get to tell you what kind I want, like and ice cream twist or something like that.  You let me go on a bike ride with you.  I love you so much I want to give you a hug when you get home. 

Cainan:  Presents. Presents.  Going on walks.  The food you make me.  Food.  Hot dogs.  Cheese. Cheese.  Really nice.  Cheese. 

Myka:  dadadadadadadadadadadada

Yep- That made me cry.  Sometimes you just need to hear how much you're appreciated.  Whoever invented Mother's Day knew that Moms need a little pump up now and then.  I loved how what the kids 'wrote' so truly reflected their personalities.  I just love my family so much!! 

Grandma Bartlett had the day off today and asked if they could take the boys to the trails/park for the afternoon- so I could fulfill my other Mother's Day wish... a long nap!!!  After the boys left, I sat on our front steps with Myka for awhile and enjoyed a quiet chat with her.  She learned to clap!!  Another first today- she started crawling for real.  No more army crawl... she's on her hands and knees!

It was such a beautiful day, I pulled out an air mattress and made myself home here....  Ahhhhhhhh!!!  After 45 minutes or so, I was sweating hot, so moved inside to the couch with a fan on to finish out my peaceful afternoon.  

We decided that sitting outside for dinner sounded fun, so we went to Las Margaritas and sat on their patio and enjoy chips and salsa for dinner!  No cooking, a long nap, a sweet note and lots of hugs from my kids.  A glorious day!!  I am one blessed mommy.

Supermen

5/16- Today we dug out some of Boaz's summer clothes.  (I need to get all their drawers organized for summer!!) Boaz wanted to wear this Superman outfit.  Cainan had a blue tank top outfit as well, so i put that one on him.   He was sad that his didn't have the 'S' on it, so I made him one to tape on his shirt for the day.

My little Supermen...

Flexing their muscles....

Here to save the day!

Dad humored them and put on his Superman tshirt today, also!!

The kids went to Grandma Bartlett's house for the day so I could work on getting our garage sale organized and set up. I got so much done!!  (Thank you, Grandma!!)  The kids had a ton of fun and were worn out.... as evidenced by what Cainan looked like when he got home!