The Madness of March

March kept us very busy. Due to some super nice and unseasonably warm temperatures, most of our free time has been spent outdoors. Since I already have a bunch of April photos in queue on my camera, here's a quick glimpse of how we spent our March.

Sweet baby toes in sandals and playing "So Big" with her shadow!

Num, num, num. Hannah loves to eat the chalk. While she grimaces nearly every time she eats it, the allure of the chalk has not dissipated and she continues to sample it daily!

Ava's great fashion sense still continues....

Busy girl outside with her chalk again, taking a ride on toy from a neighbor's house, and trying to figure out bubbles.

Ah yes, I had a birthday in March too. My catch phrase for the year is "A piece of heaven at twenty-seven"! It gets better the next two years, I promise. Not much rhymes with 27. For my birthday present, I finally got to get my DSLR camera! Jake caved after two years of begging and pleading. It has been oodles of fun to play with it and take gobs of pictures. More on my camera in posts to come....

The beautiful March weather meant a trip to the park was in order.

The troops do love being outside to play.

The multiples group had its spring sale the end of March. I managed to snag a ride-on toy for Hannah so we don't have to "borrow" from the neighbors anymore. She loves it! Ironically, Ava had this same car that I purchased new for her (and a red one for Carter). Sometimes it doesn't always pay to be in such a hurry to sell things off since I had to buy the car again. (Same goes for the baby monitor I received new after Ellie was born. Still haven't figured out what possessed me to sell it after the twins no longer needed it but we were planning a finito. We may never know how my mind works.....)

March kept us on our toes. Hopefully things will slow down in April! It sure would be nice to have some time to actually catch up on things around here! I need to hire a full-time assistant to help me get all my tasks and projects accomplished.

Constant Motion

We seem to be in constant motion around here. Jake and I have both been feeling a little overwhelmed as of late with juggling working, family, working out, household tasks, and every other little thing we have to add to our list. We are both trying to figure out how to balance everything out. It will come, but for now, we have harried days and few moments to spare for something enjoyable. Case in point, last Friday night we both forced ourselves to stay up until 10 pm! Jake was up around 4 am to get a workout in so he was tired and I was wore out from a long day that consisted of working and catching up around the house. The kids were in bed at 8 pm and we were determined to make it to 10. It was a challenge and I almost gave up at 9:15 but we persevered and made it to the ten o'clock hour!

Here's what we've been up to as of late:

The twinks were exhausted one night. It's so cute how they cuddle up together still!
Hannah loves a delicious dinner we made up one weekend!

Sisters!

Carter wrestling with his baby sister

Working on homework

Cleaning house

Ava puts make-up on every morning now. She loves purple eyeshadow and bright lipstick!

We bought the older three new swimsuits for the summer and the kids had an enjoyable evening dancing around in their swimwear!

An ice/snow storm resulted in a 2 hour late start February 29th. This was super awesome in that I only have a morning class that day so I didn't have to work! The ice on the tree the evening of the storm was something to see! Glad I didn't have to go out in that weather.

The kids had fun in finally having some snow to play with.

Still working on finding the perfect make up application techniques.

I really will try to start updating more often! The MVMOM Spring Sale is the 31st of this month so if I'm a little behind until then, cut me some slack! We are still in major clear out mode and I have bags of outgrown clothes from each child and have already bumped Hannah up to the next size in her summer clothes so I can get rid of most of the 18 month summer outfits. I'm down to only 3 boxes of saved clothes for the younger girls to grow into! Such a change from the 8 boxes of boy and girl clothes of only a year and a half ago!

Next up on the docket, Carter's ophthamology appointment this coming Thursday to look at his cyst and decide on a method to remove it. Hopefully the doctor is easily bribed and will take my cash-under-the-table offer so we can avoid surgery to get it removed! More on that once we've had the appointment.

Happy early Spring all! We'll be spending our weekend outside if the 60 degree temps prove true!

A Party, A Doctor Visit, and Everyday Fun

We celebrated Miss Hannah's first birthday a weekend or two ago. (I know, I keep saying I'll get my act together with the blog and another two weeks end up going by. I don't know what to tell you other than don't hold your breath waiting for a blog update!)

I whipped up this beauty of a cake. I expect a call from Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss, any day now.
Hannah is still working on the one nap-two nap combo so she needed a nap at 5 pm the evening of her party. We had to wake her so she could have some cake. She wasn't sure what to think of

all the birthday hoopla, especially fresh from a nap.Hmm, what's this?

Part of the reason Hannah needed to be woken up for the cake was because this kid could not wait any longer for a piece of cake. I actually busted him with a fork in hand and a chair pushed over to the counter where the cake was waiting prior to waking the birthday girl up.

Hannah thought the cake was delicious and that her out-of-control brother was hilarious!

Poor girl didn't get to open many of her presents herself. Carter had to "help" her open them up because she's only a baby. Thankfully she didn't care and enjoyed tossing tissue paper around.

Hannah also had her one year check up. She clocked in at 21 lbs 9 oz (58%ile) and 30 inches (77%ile). The girl is slowing down! Unfortunately, we left the appointment with two referrals for Hannah and one for Carter. Hannah needs to see a dermatologist about a mole on her leg that has undergone some changes in the last month. She also had to be seen by a physical therapist for a case of torticollis. We have some exercises we are now doing and she seems to not have such a head tilt anymore.

Carter's referral is regarding a cyst under his right eye. This developed around Christmas time. I took him in to see a different pediatrician in January thinking it was a sty. She said it was a cyst and would go away on it's own. It has not gone anywhere and seems to fluctuate in size. I asked our regular pediatrician if she wanted to see him regarding the eye or if she could just give me a referral out. Due to the cyst's proximity to the eye, we have to see an opthamologist and it will likely require surgery to be removed. Yay! We were hoping to have a third year of some form of surgery for one of the kids!!

For Hannah's birthday, we got her some flexible, soft soled shoes. Success! She will walk in them. She cruises everywhere and is enjoying her freedom outdoors now.

Although sometimes a girl needs a rest from all that walking, even in the snowy driveway. (And you can obviously see the head tilt in this picture. Not sure how I didn't see it that much before?)

Just a few days after that snow fall, everyone was able to be out without snowpants on. Hannah even found a piece of chalk. Hilariously enough, she knows what to do with it and walks around making chicken scratches on the driveway!

This past Sunday was a relaxing day at home in which we give the kids a break from the gym and either alternate going or I take a day off from working out. These three were snuggled on the couch together with cartoons.

Ava was waiting for her waffle to pop up. And as you can see from this picture, one of the reasons I take a day off from the gym is to actually catch up around the house. It doesn't take long for a mess to appear around here with 6 people in the house!

And here is a picture of one of Ava's fashion creations as I mentioned in the last post. White sweater dress, black tutu skirt, navy blue tights, and pink dress-up shoes. Fashionista in the house! One postive from this picture is that her bangs are growing! They are almost normal bang-length now! The real question is: will they grow all the way back out by her birthday in October?! Only time will tell! (And we still keep Carter away from the scissors!)

A Busy 2 Weeks

It's been a busy and full past 2 weeks. Not that there is ever much of a dull moment around here with four children anyway, but we've had much going on since the last post.

First, we've added a wizard to the family. He prefers a wand of wood, but it can be of any design and it doesn't matter if it is sharpened or not. (I prefer unsharpened for safety reasons. He goes with whatever seems to have the magic for the day!)
Ava has become quite the singer and performer. She's also whipped out some fun phrases. My two favorites are "Mom, whatever" and "Is this your room? No? Then you don't get any say on ...." You can imagine how often we butt heads with phrases like that! She uses the 2nd most often when she is picking out her clothes each day. So she walks around in a dress, skirt, and sweatpants one day and a tank top, t-shirt, sweatshirt, leggings, and shorts the next. It's not worth the battle and as long as all skin is covered with it being winter, I've decided I don't really care what she wears.

Most nights Carter and Hannah bathe together and Ellie and Ava shower together or right after each other. One night I was out with Ellie so Jake tossed the younger three in the tub together. They are running out of room!

Little one enjoys some naked time after her bath and will run away from you before you can get her dressed!

We actually had some snow a weekend or two ago. We decided to take Hannah out with the older kids to see what she thought of the snow.

She wasn't impressed! And since she won't walk in shoes, she definitely wasn't going to try walking in boots that are 2 sizes too big!

Last week we had a full week with illnesses aplenty. Ellie started our week off with a double ear infection on Monday. Tuesday afternoon, Carter got the flu. By the time I got home from work that night after only 2 hours away, Ava had joined Carter in the flu department. Jake stayed home Thursday because he didn't feel good himself. I had a hunch on Thursday that I was going to get a call from Ellie's school that day saying she was sick. I must have a sixth sense for these things because sure enough, during my lunch break, I received a call from the nurse. Poor Ellie had gotten sick in the line coming in from recess.

Due to a policy of the school's that children must have not been sick in the past 24 hours, Ellie got to stay home on Friday. I took both Wednesday off to be home with the twins and Friday off for poor Ellie. Everyone was feeling fine within 12 hours of getting the bug but we still had a relaxing day at home.

Hannah and I were fortunate enough to not get physically sick. A good thing too, because little one loves to eat table food now and enjoyed our simple Friday sick lunch of noodles and grapes.

The older three enjoyed our simple lunch too.

Snow the weekend before and this past weekend, it was already pretty much melted and we could go out and ride bikes and chalk. We took Hannah out again but as she refuses to walk in the shoes we have, she just stood there the whole time! A trip to Target is in store to look for more flexible shoes for her.

Sunday was Hannah Jade's 1st birthday! While we aren't celebrating until this Saturday, we did have a small birthday/Super Bowl bash with Jake's parents. Hannah is in the process of figuring out how many naps a day she wants. On her birthday, I knew she was tired at noon after having skipped a morning nap. I was hoping to get her fed with lunch and then put her down for a several hour afternoon nap. Despite a snack to occupy her while I made her lunch, when I came over with a plate, this is what I found! Poor girl couldn't make it any longer! Being 1 year old is tough work!

Here are some videos of the children dancing. The first is still sideways (sorry!) but shows both Hannah walking now and her smashing dance moves.

The second shows the older three grooving to some song on the tv. We are the next Von Trapp family singers with the bonus of dance skills!

11 Months! (several weeks belated!)

A little behind on this post but since I've made a post for every single month of Hannah's first year of life, I couldn't leave out her final month post before the big birthday in less than 2 weeks. The little one is a busy little bee!

She started with standing up on her own the very end of December.

She's so doggone cute!

After sticking her face in the foam of Jake's beer!

Early January was so unseasonable warm that we'd open the front door to get some fresh air in the house. Hannah thought this meant she was free to escape.

Worked her way to a couple steps.

Hannah's signature nose scrunch when smiling.

Time to install the cabinet lock under the sink!

STEPS!!!!

Trying shoes on since she's going to need to start wearing them soon. Not a fan!

And video of the walker! She decided last Thursday, the 19th, to start taking off from the furniture. She still prefers to crawl as it gets her to her destination faster but is definitely starting to chose to walk more and more each day!