Rain boots

Wow has it been a rainy mess in this area. I think that we had the rainiest April ever and I am not sure were May stands but I am tired of this rain. I am not usually a person that the weather bothers me. I actually like the gloomy Ohio weather because it makes me really appreciate the sun, it holds the heat away, and you do not always have to worry about suntan lotion. But this rain is making our backyard a mess, D can barely mow the back area, and our soon to be patio is not existent because of the weather. Our yard has construction tire tracks in it that are collecting water (and bugs) and it is just a muddy mess back there. Oh well that is life. Having a patio and perfect grass is not going to make me any happier than I already am. It is just a nuisance and something that I can live with in the meantime.

Nathan had to get rid of his giraffe boots so we bought him some turtle rain boots. His giraffe boots had holes in them and no longer served its purpose as rain boots since his feet continually got water logged. So it is onto new boots and he sure does love these boots as much as the others.



Mallory continually wants to hold Lindsay in my Moby wrap. She loves holding her and walking around with her.



There's a smile.


Pictures of the kids at the duck pond.





Lindsay is almost 3 months old. She is a great sleeper, like Julianne, but we did not have to suffer through the colic crying like we did with Julianne. She slept 12 hours the other night and 11 hours last night. She takes two 3 to 4 hour naps (if we don't have to interrupt it with picking up kids places, etc) and is pretty content when she is awake. When she gets grumpy, which is usually about 1 to 2 hours after she is up we put her back to sleep. Sleeping on her stomach is the way to go and the fact that she has found her thumb makes her sleep even sounder. That pretty much keeps her content. I was so nervous when I first put her on her belly two months ago. There is such a stigma and apprehension about putting the babies on their belly's. I wish they would publish more studies about SIDS and if the babies had some underlying sickness, where covered in pillows, had parents that smoked or other risk factors, what percent of baby's that die from SIDS were on their backs, etc. It seems like having more information would help moms not feel so guilty if they do put their babies on their stomachs. Of course it would be devastating if it happened to any baby but how many babies does it happen to that are sleeping in their cribs without pillows and/or blankets around their face and are well babies sleeping on their stomachs versus well babies sleeping on their backs. Would it have happened anyway regardless of their sleeping positions, etc. If I remember I will ask my pediatrician about this because putting your baby on its stomach puts so much fear into moms but they sleep so much better in that position. Plus when I was a baby that was what everyone did. Anyway, I vented, Lindsay is a great baby. She smiles, coos, poops, pees and sleeps. That is about it.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-A sleeping/happy baby
-A well rested mom
-Getting back to a routine

Mallory's Birthday

Well today is officially Mallory's birthday. We had a supper birthday weekend where we had her friend party and our family party. It was a great weekend and I know that she had fun. Mallory is such a sweet 7 year old. She is sensitive, confident, loves school, a great friend and most of all is content. She loves to learn at school and is always eager to do her homework. She can sometimes be a little deceiving when it comes to playing with Nathan and getting her way. I can't believe she is 7 and I watching her grow up.




We had a little 1st grade drama and fighting so D had to intervene and have some group therapy for the kids.

I love when Nathan sits like this. Too bad we can't do that anymore. It looks really painful.

Julianne is really becoming a great soccer player. I love watching her. At her last game she scored a goal and was ecstatic about it. The coach has her playing goalie two out of three games and that has been a challenge again. He had her playing goalie every game last year and she started to not like playing. We talked to him and he stopped putting her in the goalie position. We really wanted her to get to play all positions since she was only in third grade and did not feel the need to specialize the kids at this age. So he stopped and then the last few games has put her in. There are now three goalies so at least she is not in it every game but still there are so many other players that have never played goalie that we do not understand why he does not try them in the position. He says that she is strong enough and versatile to play all the positions and that is why he puts her in that position. So we will have to figure out what to do next year. The last thing that I want is for her to not like it because she is stuck in a position that she hates. We agree that it is a team sport and that if she is good in that position that she should have to play it when her team needs her but it does not need to be every game at her age.

This is a sequence of pictures of her making a goal!

She brings the ball in..

she shoots...

it bounces off the goalie's hands and she scores.

She claps for herself.

The team high fives and good job, etc.

We had our first garage sale last weekend. It was a success. I made $150 in two days so that was worth my time. I was kind of surprised that I did not sell more of Nathan's clothes. I had so many great clothes that I would have probably given to some mom that needed them. Oh well, I ended up giving all the rest of the stuff away and it is great to start declutter our basement clothes.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-getting rid of stuff in our house.
-Watching Mallory with her friends
-Seeing Julianne progress in soccer and loving the sport

Easter and soccer

We had a great Easter. It was very wet and damp in our area so we decided to hide the eggs inside. The kids had fun and D's mom and stepdad came up for egg hunting and for breakfast.





Julianne was sharing eggs with Nathan.




Lindsay enjoying a laugh with Mimi.

With all the rain this spring and our lack of patio our backyard is a mud pit. We hate looking at the mud but the kids have enjoyed playing in it. They get their mud boots on and play in it. This is Nathan after he fell in it. He was very upset, I thought it was halarious.



Nathan had his spring program at school and this year he did go up on stage. Last year he refused so we talked to him and threatened that he needed/wanted to go up on stage. He did it without too much convincing and he had a great time. He was so sweet. When he would see me he would shrug his shoulders at me like, "I guess up here and singing." He would also wave at me, it was so cute.




Lindsay has been an OK baby. She is sleeping really well at night. She is now consistently sleeping 6 hours in her bed and then 3 with me in our bed. A few nights she slept for 7 hours so that was great. She has also found her thumb so I think that has a lot to do with it. She only really finds it when she is sleeping in her bed so we have yet to get her to do it when she is fussing while not in her bed. She hates the pacy so the thumb or me are the only things that can really calm her down. She cries a little at night and it is mostly due to her being tired and not able to really go to sleep. I have started to put her in her bed while awake and for the most part she ends up going to sleep within 5 to 10 minutes. Usually in the later day that does not work and I end up wrapping her in the Moby wrap and she falls asleep. I know I will miss those times so I am trying to enjoy them even though I have other things to do and it would be easier to do them when I was not carrying her.

I took her to the doctor today for her 2 month visit and she weighs 11 lbs 15 oz and is 22.5 inches long. So she is growing well. She received her first set of shots so we were not thrilled with that. I always feel like those first set of shots makes her inpure. She lives such a pure existance up until she recived her shots. She is breastfed, cloth diapers and not a lot of impurities/preservatives in her. So it is just the beginning of her being acclimated to our society.


Soccer season has started in our household and everyone is participating. Nathan takes a unviersity soccer class on Sunday's and loves it. He loves wearing his shorts, shine guards and long socks. I took him for the first time yesterday and it was so funny to see. They mostly just play games and it is funny when it is his turn to get all the balls from other kids. He is very in to it. Also when others are chasing him he runs full speed. During the other times he just messes around with the ball and kind of acts like he does not know what is going on.


He's off... look at his serious face.

He's messing around...

Now he is off. Nice block.

Julianne and her soccer team are doing well this season. The girls are getting better, and Julianne is getting more aggressive, is understanding the game, anticipates the next move well, and is having fun with the competition. I have enjoyed watching her grow and her games are actually really exciting.


Here is her goalie punt.


Here are other random pictures from her game.




I finally took some more pictures of Lindsay and redid my feet pictures. Here are the unedited versions.






I don't think that Lindsay was appreciating my artistic vision.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-capturing these moments in pictures.
-See the growth in all my children.
-mud puddles and rain
-Mallory asked me why she could not marry your brother. She asked becaseu she told me that she wants to marry Nathan because she wants to play with him everyday. Oh so sweet.