Baby Cuzzies!

The girlie bug cousins are in town!!!  More pictures and stories will be forthcoming, but for tonight, I just HAD to document these two little cutie pies who are only a month and half apart.  :)

Isaac and Annabelle

Glamour Shots

The things I find uploaded on my computer...

{Not pictured -- approximately 324 other shots just like the following.}

Hahahahahaha.  Ethan put together a little photo shoot for Isaac a few Saturdays ago to commemorate his 5 month mark.  I was out running errands, but Scott was loosely supervising while Ethan played photographer and Grace was his assistant.  

 {Grace is underneath the blanket holding it up like a backdrop.}

 {That's Easter basket "grass," in case you were wondering.}

He sure is a cute little puppet...  :)

So Far, So Good?

 

{A contract that our resident Pied Piper of Hamlin created for the younger ones}

 

For the last two weeks, our greatest experiment to date has been taking place in the "Bonus Room" upstairs.  Since we like to play musical bedrooms in this house, we made some changes once again, in the hopes that it would help with Jane's middle of the night awakenings.  Because it's such a big room (technically it's billed as a "bonus room," but we've always used it as a bedroom), we decided to fill it with all three girls plus Alex on the side.  Jane has been saying for ages now that she wouldn't be scared at night and come to wake us up if there were a big kid in the room with her.  Well, after mulling this over {and deciding that we had to try SOMETHING to nip her every-night-wakenings in the bud}, we managed to plant the seed in Grace's head that sharing the big room would be the most fun ever.  :)

And since the bunk beds in Grace and Sophie's room have been in a steady state of decline for the last year (or three), it was really just a good call all around to get them out of there and into safer territory.  Win-win-win!!!  Hahaha.  And you know what????  So far, this arrangement has been working like a dream!  In the two weeks since we've made the switch, Jane has only come to our room in the middle of the night once.  Or maybe twice.  I can't really remember.  BUT, it has been a miraculous turn around from what it was before.  

And now that the back bedroom is empty -- where Grace and Sophie USED to sleep -- I can turn it into the nursery, so that the guest room can remain a guest room all the time!  :)  And eventually -- when Isaac is old enough to seem like a fun roommate, we can move Alex on back with HIM and still have plenty of room for everyone.

With everyone all settled into their new digs, perhaps it's time to do some repainting and decorating...

A Weekend With Jane

"I can't decide what to do!" So exclaimed a tearful Jane, several weeks ago as I presented the option of staying home with me for a fun "mom and Jane" weekend rather than going with Scott and the other kids to the cousins' house for Conference time.  I have to say that I was quite flattered when my proposal was such a tempting alternative to arguably everyone's favorite destination.  Hahaha.  Ultimately, I worked my magic (with some help from the others) and convinced her that staying home with me would be WAY more fun than going with them.  

The reason for the subterfuge?  I needed to stay home with Isaac to take advantage of an empty-ish house to work on his sleep training after a solid week of spring break regression -- and the only car I can drive is the van.  Which meant that the only car Scott could TAKE was his stick shift special.  Which only fits 4 other passengers.  Meaning SOMEONE would need to stay home.  And since Alex pulled the short straw last summer when Scott took the others, I knew there was no way he would be able to handle being stuck at home with me once again.  Jane was just the most logical choice.  And as an added bonus, she actually WANTED to spend an entire weekend with me.  :)

It was a good call on her part, because she pretty much got to do whatever she wanted for two and half days straight.  Eating out for almost every meal?  Check!  Because why would I bother with cooking if I didn't have to?  Trinkets in the Kroger entryway?  Check!  Movie nights? Manicures at home? Shopping trips to Meijer?  Check, check, and check!  

Sonic for Friday night dinner!  Followed by a Kroger trip to stock up on essentials.

Treasure!

"Hotel Transylvania 2" movie night, complete with some nail painting.

(she was VERY particular about how she wanted them done)

Saturday morning we went for a quick stroll (it didn't last long because it was a bit chilly and the baby needed a nap) and then on a trip to Meijer once naptime was over so that Jane could pick out some new art supplies to color with while we watched General Conference that weekend.  She found a few other fun things to add to the mix (LOTS of projects were procured) before we hit up Panera for lunch on our way home.

"Let's make a kissy face to send to dad!"  Hahahaha.  {Featuring the new lipstick I let Jane pick out for fun.}

Mac n Cheese is her fave!

Getting ready to paint her new rock turtle.

Organizing her new supplies.

Best quote of the weekend had to be when Jane asked me quizzically on Saturday afternoon, "Is this a dream?"  Hahahahahahaha.  Poor little 4th born.  Our weekend flew by, and while Scott and the other kids were having a blast with the cousins, Jane and I had a pretty fantastic time ourselves.  :)  And Isaac was a super champ with his sleep training!  

Jane's newest "thing" -- she's learning to play the piano with a little help from me.  :)

And that was my weekend with Jane.  Every kid should have a chance to spend quality one-on-one time with their parents every now and then...  :)

A Non-Stop Kind of Day

Oh my goodness was yesterday a LOOOOONG day!  I was planning on blogging last night, but I was so wiped out by the end of the day, that I couldn't muster up the mental energy.  It was literally a non-stop kind of day from about 10 in the morning until 8 at night.  Doh!  {Where are the emojis when you need them??  Hahahaha}.  

Mornings are proving very tricky with balancing the baby's nap schedule and running errands.  Mostly because Isaac tends to fall asleep in the car whenever we're cutting it too close to nap time and NEVER makes the transfer into his crib once we're home.  Getting a solid morning nap was top priority yesterday, so we stayed home until Isaac woke up and that's when the ball started to roll and roll and ROLL.  Here's a play-by-play of a day in the life of this mom of 6...

• (9:30-10:30) I utilized the morning at home to clean the kitchen, tidy up the family room and make sure Alex was dressed for the day.

• (10:30-12:30) Once the baby was up, fed, and diaper changed, we made it to the gym at exactly 11:10 where I knew I had to be SUPER efficient in order to squeeze my workout in before the Kids Klub closed at noon.  I totally killed it and was super proud of myself for getting back to pick up the kids at exactly 12 o'clock...until I realized that my whole "let's hurry home and eat lunch before heading to preschool" plan was not even possible due to the fact that by the time I loaded both kids in the car and started driving home, it was already 12:15 which is when we are typically leaving our HOUSE to head to school.  So, Alex scrounged around in the car and came up with his leftover lunchable from yesterday, where he found a few crackers to eat and then washed it down with some of my chocolate protein shake while we headed straight to school.  Don't judge me.  Hahaha.  Actually DO judge me -- total hashtag mom fail right there.

• (12:30-2:40) Of course, my timing was now totally off for the baby's next nap as we headed home after dropping Alex off, and Isaac fell asleep in the car.  I was hoping to time things so that he fell asleep while driving to a friend's house after I had gone home to change out of my gym clothes and eat lunch.  But that didn't happen.  He woke up almost as soon as we were home, and after changing and eating, I fed and changed HIM and then headed over to help my friend with cleaning before their move.  It was all good, though, because the cute little squeaker was good as gold for most of the hour+ that I was there.  :)

• (2:40-3:30) Unfortunately, his wonky afternoon napping situation continued on as we finished up at my friend's and then had to book it back across town to pick Alex up from school, with Isaac falling asleep and NOT making the transfer to his crib once we got back home.  

• (3:30-4:30) Sophie and Jane got home around 3:30, and the next hour was spent trying to make Jane do homework while waiting for Grace to get home from running club so that we could head BACK across town to make it to part of Ethan's home track meet.  

• (4:30-5:00) We made it to the meet in time to see Ethan run his 1X100 m relay, and as an added bonus, got there JUST as Scott was arriving from work, too.  I was more than happy to have an extra set of helping hands as we watched from the sidelines.  :)

 We made it just in time!

 I think all that hair is slowing him down.  Hahaha.  

 Grace and Sophie found a friend from church there and spent the majority of the time doing stunts on the side together.  

• (5:00-6:30) We stayed at the meet for about an hour before we had to head out once again and travel to the opposite side of town -- once more -- this time for Alex's preschool Art Show that started at 6.  Scott stayed to watch Ethan's last event and take him home, and I loaded up the rest of the clowns to drive to the Show, with a pit stop at Sonic for dinner on the way there.  {The promised Sonic trip may or may not have been one of my tricks for getting everyone to come with me to the meet.  Hahaha.}

 {I love Art Shows}

• (6:30-8:00)  We put in as brief an appearance as the kids would allow, before heading home to FINALLY get that poor baby in his crib for a good sleep.  :)  Scott and Ethan were there by the time we arrived, and once I fed Isaac and got him to bed, the fun REALLY started as I sat down with Jane around 7, and forced her to focus on getting that homework response DONE.  {That was sarcasm in case it wasn't clear}.  One hour later and Jane was FINALLY finished.  {The assignment? Write a "response" to the chapter she read in her book.  The "response" needed to be 3-4 sentences long and have proper punctuation and capitalization.  And no -- it SHOULDN'T take an entire hour to get this job done.  Sidenote -- doing homework with Jane may or may not try my patience to its utmost limits.}  

Staying focused is not our strong point.  But hey -- at least she still makes the most entertaining faces for the camera.

And that was my day and night!  It was 8 o'clock by the time Jane was done with her response and I was able to tuck her into bed and read her one more story.  Thankfully, Scott took over getting Alex and Sophie in bed, and Ethan and Grace didn't put up any fights.  All in all, it was an exhausting day and it felt SO good to go to bed.  :)  

Stay tuned for one last "catch-up" post about my Conference weekend home alone with Jane {and Isaac}...

Spring Break with Granny

Having my mom here for Spring Break was awesome!  We had so much fun and the kids were spoiled rotten.  With donut or Target runs almost every day, plus clothes shopping trips, Easter, and movie night ALMOST every night {and day}, we REALLY made the most out of our vacation.  ;)

{Granny's last day here was also her birthday.  So of course, we celebrated with more donuts.  :) }

Sophie is usually the one who is the go-go girl when Granny is in town, and wants to go on any and all outings with her.  This time around, Jane learned that go-go-going with Granny usually results in some pretty sweet perks for the tag-along.  Such as brand-new, stylin' clothes, like these cute white denim capris, cropped jean jacket, and gold sandals.  :)

Alex hopped on the Target run bandwagon as well, and as a result, scored this super awesome Super Mario shirt that made his whole world.  {Also making his whole world?  The Mario vs. Sonic Olympics Wii game that my mom let him pick out on her first day here.  Let's just say there was quite a bit of gaming going on over Spring Break as well.}

We tried to treat Granny with a trip to Orange Leaf towards the end of the week, but nothing we did is enough to thank her for all the fun we had and all she did for US while she was in town.  Family is the best.

{Also the best?  The fact that this little Captain Adorable is FINALLY starting to sleep through the night.  Kind of.  ;)  }

Unfortunately, the week went by WAY too fast and we had to say goodbye much to soon for our liking.  And also unfortunately, this short taste of vacation was just enough to whet everyone's appetite for summer, and was just long enough to completely throw everyone off track with bedtimes and wake-up times and having to be responsible.  Doh!  At least there's only 6 more weeks left of school, right???  Hahahaha.  :)