Fun Photo Friday

Happy Friday everyone! First off, thank you for all the anniversary wishes! Kevin and I celebrated ten years of marriage yesterday.  Where did the time go? 

Those beautiful flowers arrived in the morning yesterday and really brightened my day! Thank you, Mom and Dad! I have to give Kevin the credit for the beautiful photos of them. We took the whole family out to dinner last night to celebrate together.  The boys also enjoyed perusing our wedding album when I was working on yesterday's blog post.  Kevin and I will have an opportunity for a date night this weekend when the grandparents are in town - we are so looking forward to a nice, quiet dinner together.  Hot meals!  Uninterrupted conversation!  Food items whose names I can't pronounce! Our big celebration (it's TEN years people, it deserves a lot of celebrating) will be in June when we get to go to California! More on that later, though, otherwise I'm afraid I will never get this post published. And my husband assures me that there would be disappointment if that didn't happen.  I'm pretty sure he's just being nice but just in case...

I will share some photos of our week with you.  Benjamin has been grabbing everything he can and eating it.  Well, not eating things so much as smashing them against his face and slobbering all over them. 

This has meant more of me yelling at politely reminding the other boys to keep small things away from him.  I'm still in big trouble when he goes completely mobile.  Funny how with the first born you can't wait for them to acquire new skills and by the fourth you're willing to suppress any and all developmental growth for the sake of your own sanity. 

The exersaucer has become one of his favorite (and safe) places to play (thanks again Grandma!).  He's actually tall enough now to stand up straight in it.

In case you're wondering how the solid food introductions are going (and even if you aren't), I'm pretty sure he is swallowing more than he is spitting out at this point.  Carrots were particularly popular this week.  Yes, baby Benjamin is definitely growing and learning.  

Also, he still likes to take his pants off during naps.  

It's been frustratingly rainy here lately - the only thing Bella hates more than the cold is the rain.  But, we still had things to go out and do this week.  Michael and Thomas had their first Tae Kwon Do class.

It was a good size group of fellow home schooled kids - boys and girls ages five or six on up.  Thomas enjoyed it more than Michael, but both boys did really well and had a lot of fun.  Whether they would admit it or not. 

Clearly they aren't enjoying it at all.

I know the pictures aren't great, but I was trying to take them while holding the baby in my lap, keeping tabs on Matthew and carrying on a conversation with another mom.  So, really they aren't too shabby.  Next week they get their uniforms, so you better believe I'll be taking LOTS of pictures.  Once I bribe them into putting them on of course.  

They also brought home some art work recently from their art class. That one is Thomas'. 

And that one is Michael's.  When I asked them what they were discussing during the time they made these they replied, "lines."  Duh.  I asked them to expand on that and they said, "different kinds of lines artists use."  Right.  So glad we're paying big bucks for the art class. 

They also had a scout meeting this week, but I didn't stay for it so I don't have any pictures.  Apparently, they had a cooking lesson and discussed the food pyramid. Both boys sounded like they really enjoyed it and even admitted to trying (and liking!) the stew they made.  I really should put them to work in the kitchen more than I do.  

  I'm off now to try and accomplish about six months' worth of housework in about an hour.  Or I might just relax with the boys and eat some pizza.  It's anybody's guess.  Except that of course I'm going to go for the pizza option.

Hope you had a great week!

~ Dori

It only seems like forever...

 
TEN years

FOUR kids

TWO dogs

FIVE houses/apartments in

THREE states

If he asked me again?

I'd say yes. 

Probably.

~ Dori

Easter

Happy Easter!

Yes we were actually at Mass early enough to get a seat up front.  Shocking, I know.  It was also the noon Mass - we wouldn't have stood a chance at such success in getting to the 10 o'clock.

I think baby Benjamin may have distracted some people from listening to the homily, but oh well.  Not because he was making noise, but because he was making cute baby faces at the people around us. 

A couple of days ago,  I overheard the big brothers telling their younger brother that, "Easter isn't about bunnies and eggs and stuff - it's about Jesus." My heart swelled with pride a little with that one.  

Not that we didn't include bunnies and eggs in our celebrating. First came the egg coloring, of course.

At 9:00 at night in their pj's.  

They've been periodically checking on their eggs in the fridge to see whether or not they've been turned into egg salad yet.  

Apparently at some time last night a large bunny also snuck into our house and left a present under each of the boys' beds.  It's always fun to wake up to the sounds of them sneaking around trying to find what the Easter Bunny may have left them. This year they each got a new Lego set and some candy.

It took them two hours to notice that they hadn't eaten any breakfast yet. 

Then they smelled these...

I pretty much dove face-first into that pan after I took the picture.  And after I gave the boys some, of course.

Benjamin got a new toy, too.

He seemed pretty excited about it.  The Easter Bunny brought him some "puffs" instead of candy.

Apparently he wants to marry them.

After Mass we went out for MEAT lunch/dinner.  Linner.  Or dunch.  Matthew clearly had a haircut somewhere in there, too. 

We haven't had any meat for the full 46 days of Lent.  None.  I dreamed about cheeseburgers last night.  We were salivating on the way to the restaurant at just the thought of finally consuming some beef (because why even bother with chicken at that point).  

And so we all stuffed our faces with meat in some form.

Michael was the only one who didn't eat meat, opting instead for some mac and cheese.  I'm not really sure whose child he is.

Again, I took the photo then dove face first into that plate.  Only this time I didn't share.  Actually, that's not true since I did let Benjamin try some of my sweet potato.  He seemed to think it was way better than rice cereal.  

No, I didn't get a picture of him, since I was trying to hold him in my lap and feed him tiny fork-fulls of sweet potatoes without stabbing him in the process. 

After we got back home, I made an attempt at getting a good picture of all the boys together.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a good picture of four small children? Especially inside on a cloudy, dreary day?

Seems to me there's one child in particular who kept sabotaging things.

Oh, well.  I'm definitely going to have to dress them back up and take them out on a sunny day somewhere and try again.  (Big thanks to Nana and Papa for the great sweaters, by the way!).

 So, it's been a full day and wonderful to spend time together as a family.  I hope you have had a happy Easter however you celebrate!

~ Dori

Fun Photo Friday

Welcome back to Fun Photo Friday!

That would be me working on this blog post (extremely flattering photo courtesy of husband).  I really do enjoy working on it more than this picture depicts.

There. That's better.  Except that he still got me without any makeup on.  But, let's face it - you're all looking at the baby and not at me.  I hope.

I hope you enjoyed last week's Special Edition in celebration of Benjamin turning six months old.  Especially considering all I really have to share with you this week are more pictures of the baby.  Well, okay, not entirely.  I managed to get pictures of all the boys in action, but when I was uploading them to this blog I realized that a lot of them are of the older boys interacting with their baby brother. 

Benjamin spends most of his time just watching them.

He really looks up to them.  Literally.

I like the look on Benjamin's face - "Uh - are we okay with this? Should the kid who's not much bigger than me really be in charge of holding me?"

Other than lots of playing with the baby, what have we been up to? Well, the older boys made kites at their last Cub Scout meeting.  And then spent a fair amount of time running around the muddy yard flying them.  During the small windows of time when it hasn't been raining, that is. 

Maybe we could put that snow shovel away now.  Maybe.  

We also did some baking this week.  We've gotten to a point where Michael can follow a basic recipe from start to finish all on his own.

Of course he usually gets some help from his brothers.

I am always available for the tasting and sampling.

We've all had a cold for the last week or so which slowed us down considerably.  The boys were all coughing their heads off on Sunday, so they missed the big Pinewood Derby.   Considering how little it upset them, I think they really weren't feeling well.  We had pizza and a family Wii tournament that night in an attempt to do something fun. 

Of course there's been plenty of time spent building with Legos, too.  Michael used his allowance to buy a new set.  I think it's a pretty good replica of the cabin on a lake that Kevin and I will spend retirement in. 

Love the guy inside just hanging out eating chicken legs.  

Well, I think that wraps up another Fun Photo Friday.  Next week Michael and Thomas start Tae Kwon Do classes.  They're a little unsure about it, but there will be a number of their friends taking the class so I'm pretty sure they'll have a good time.  And maybe gain some coordination in the process.  They also have a scout meeting where they'll be learning to cook, so I'm pretty sure they'll enjoy that too.  

Hope you have a Happy Easter!

~ Dori