New Cousin!

We have a new cousin! Isabella Ann Kunkel was born in the early morning hours of October 27th. This post is a bit late as the reason for the "Big Camera Huntdown" was to have it with when we got to meet little Isabella. The camera wasn't found in time so I grabbed Ellie's camera (my really old digital) but it took me until today to find the cord to upload the photos to the computer. So while we are super excited about the newest member of the Wendorff clan, we didn't want to share the news until we had photos to go with it!

Here's sweet Isabella with her Uncle Jakey and Auntie Alissa
The beautiful new mama and her little peanut

The oldest cousin and the youngest cousin (for now that is! Holly is due in just a few weeks!)

These two are going to be the best of friends! Only 8.5 months apart! Hannah has been biting lately (I think she thinks she is kissing but sometimes I do think she tries to bite). On the drive down, I said to Jake "I wonder how long it will be before Hannah tries to bite Isabella?!" I wanted to get a picture of the two babies so we held Isabella up next to Hannah. Low and behold, Jaws leans over and tries to bite the 36 hour old baby! What a stinker! At least we are well aware now that Isabella can not be left on the floor with Hannah around as Jaws will crawl over and poke and bite her little defenseless cousin.

I do love the gleaming white teeth in this photo to illustrate the fact that she is a chomper!

Isabella is a big topic of conversation around here and all the kids are excited to get to see her again soon. Now we are waiting for the next member to join the Wendorff clan. At our house, we are really hoping for a boy. At this point, Carter is outnumbered on the Wendorff side 1:5 in the grandchildren department. He'd really like a male cousin to play with! We'll let you know when Baby Zimmermann makes his/her appearance!

Halloween 2011

The kids had a fun Halloween this year. We had a vampire, Rapunzel, Batman, and a princess/ballerina. We decided to go trick-or-treating right at 6 pm this year so we would still have light for some of the evening. This was a great year for Halloween as the older three all understand what to do and could run from house to house while Jake and I stood on the street supervising. We just went up and down our street and the kids' bags were nearly full by that point so we decided to call it a night. Just enough candy for them to feel successful but not so much that we will be eating candy for weeks!

Hannah is the only one who didn't find Halloween to be that fun. She was nearly asleep by the time we got home!

The loot! They all were practically in tears when I decided to put all the candy in one container. Ownership is very important to these three!

All in all, we had a good fall/Halloween. I opted for small painted pumpkins instead of carved pumpkins this year. If there is more time, next year we will try carving. I also had a really neat idea to paint clear glass jars orange to be jack-o-lanterns when a candle is placed inside but we didn't get to that project either. I will put my baby food jars away for next fall instead! As the kids get older, I want to make the different holidays fun and special for them so I need to start planning ahead more so if we end up with another crazy busy fall, I have most of the supplies on hand that I need.

Next up, Thanksgiving! I have visions of votive turkeys and other fun fall decor for our 2nd Thanksgiving at home with just us and the kids. Now to get those crafts done!

Triple Birthday Fun!

Sorry for the delay in the big 4th birthday photos. I had the camera next to the computer to upload the photos but our newest photography protege, Carter, decided to take it to practice his skills. It took me 3 days, including one evening of an entire house upheaval, to finally locate where he hid it (the side of my closet I rarely open as I keep my dresses and dress clothes there. I found it purely by chance as it was the morning after the house search but I was getting dressed and glanced over into that side. There it was!) Anyway, here's a rehash of the birthday festivities a little over a week late!

One of the presents Jake and I decided to give the kids was a morning at Zoo Camp at the MN Zoo. I signed them up for "Wild Wolves" as wolves are all Carter has talked about since our last zoo visit.

They both had fun and have been busy informing us of wolf facts and all the animals they saw while on a walk of the Minnesota Trail.

Since their birthday was on a Saturday this year, we decided to simplify matters and celebrate that day. The theme was Rapunzel and Dinosaurs.

Here's Ava with some sparkly nail polish and lip gloss.

Carter got dinosaurs!

Fancy tutu for a fancy girl!

More dinos!

One of two Rapunzel dolls Ava got! They weren't the same doll so now Ava has two!

A train set!

They also got remote control cars, a Buzz Lightyear gun, a Sleeping Beauty doll, and other wonderful things that I can't recall at this time!

Ava and her Rapunzel cake. Runny frosting and the perpetual inability to produce the images that I create in my head resulted in this beauty.

Carter's dinosaur cake, which turned out better only because a dino is easy to shape and the runny frosting worked in my favor.

Jake, the third (or original if we want to be correct) birthday child and his French silk pie.

I think all three had a good day. I made lasagna, my standard triple birthday meal (why change a good thing?!). I still have a hard time believing these little twerps are 4 years old now! Wow, does time fly by!

Not All Child's Play

It's not always fun and games around here. We can't play "Go Fish" all day long.
Or bake chocolate chip cookies every night.
(Sidenote: Carter fell asleep at 6:05 this evening. When he woke up the next morning, there was a batch of cookies! It was probably one of the best batches of cookies I've ever made. He was so excited for cookies and after he took one bite, he asked if Grandma Mary had brought the cookies during the night. That is one of the best compliments one can ask for as Grandma Mary makes the best cookies!)

(excuse the diaper in this pic. She was supposed to have gone to bed around 7 that night but was so excited to be the only child up that she snuck back down and I didn't have the heart to make her go back up. Instead, we baked cookies, played go fish, and had some special snuggle time.)

Sometimes - actually a lot of the time - there is work to be done around the house. It doesn't matter if you haven't reached your first birthday yet. You will still be put to work.

Now if I could only get the older three to help with the chores!

Creative Kids

All of my children seem to have creative attributes.

Ellie is the drama queen. She has aspirations to be an actress (among many other things!) when she grows up. Since Ellie is in school all day, the only recent picture I have of just her is her school photo!
Carter is the singer and musician in the family. He loves to watch music videos and sing along. His favorite group right now is The Band Perry, a sibling group that embodies my dream for my kids! He also likes Lady Antebellum, Pitbull, Adele, Chris Brown, and anything else catchy.

Ava is the artist. She loves to draw, color, and write. Here is her first person drawing.

She's also been working hard at her name. The best way to write a name like AVA is to just draw lots of peaks and valleys and some straight lines across. It works right?!

She is a quick learner and is now able to write the individual letters. That doesn't always mean you get them in the right order though!

Ava's people drawing quickly evolved from the circle person with limbs extending to this rendition of Rapunzel. You can tell it is Rapunzel because of the yellow hair down to the feet. Very talented for being not quite four!Ava is also into photography. Here is "The Lone Sippy Cup".

I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't impressed when I found this photo on my camera! While I'm sure everything about it was unintentional, I think it is really cool! Might even be frame worthy for Ava's room!

Not to be left out, Hannah has started on her piano skills already. She's also working on dancing. I do have such talented children!

From the Mouths of the Littles

The funny phrases have been flowing lately. Here's a few snippets I've managed to remember and jot down.

*"Boys don't have dreams come true. That's for girls and princesses." - Carter 9/4/2011

*"How do we hurt my dad's friends so they won't hurt him again? - Carter 9/5/2011 (Backstory: Jake came home with a papercut on his finger and told the kids it was from his friends at work. Carter immediately went on Daddy Defensive.)

*"I hate subtraction. I wish I could scribble it out of the world forever." - Ellie 9/24/2011

*"Don't just stand there! Get me graham crackers!" - Ava 9/22/2011

There have been many more but these are the few I had written down. I really need to keep a notebook as the minute I sit down to write them all out, my mind goes blank. But these three have been very amusing lately!

8 Months Old and On the Go!

Hey all! Hannah here. I'm 8 months old today. Can you believe it? I just keep growing and growing.
I'm becoming quite the little ham with my personality. If I see a camera, I get really excited. I love pictures! I'm also starting to get really mad if I don't get what I want. I have baby-tantrums. I have 4 teeth- 3 bottom and one top (not a front top but what we call a fang. Although it really isn't technically a fang/cuspid either. It's a lateral incisor. But without the central incisors, it looks like a fang. Ava popped her top teeth the same way.). The other lateral incisor is almost through and the front top two are hard little mounds so it won't be long before they come through either.

I've starting pulling myself up on things. I like to show off how strong I am!

I'm getting pretty good and if I could find something taller, I'd be able to stand upright!

And in the final piece of news, I finally figured out how to get moving! Watch out everyone, here I come! Nothing is safe on the floor anymore with me around. There have been some tears this past week when I get to something that the others didn't want me to have but that's their own fault! Don't leave anything precious on the floor because I will get it! And chances are, if I reach it, I will chew, eat, and slobber whatever it is I've found. Yum!

PS- Sorry for Carter screaming in the background of the video. It was bedtime and he wasn't done with his movie. He has a temper too!