Snippets~A Photo Shoot

One goal that I have had for a few weeks now is to take pictures of each kid, for their 2011-2012 school year, no easy task when you have five. I had to do Laney on one day, the older girls on another and then the boys. I would like to get pictures of all of them together, but Laney is NOT cooperative with pics these days and Heath just wants to ham it up. So I will do what this pregnant body can do for now because my ever changing hormones can't handle it! :)

I can't believe that in about a week I will have added another child to my already crazy bunch of kids. They sure are a lot of work, but so worth every minute of it.

Now be prepared for a lot of pictures! I had too much fun! :)

First I wanted to start with these. I LOVE how it turned out! I don't get pictures like this with Chad often (he isn't big on PDA...boys!) and this is just one of my faves now. I can't decide which I like best. In color or B&W? 

They were having fun together and I wanted more cooperation on poses, but had to just go with it. In the end I think its cute and fun to see their personalities not only shining through, but that they enjoy each other (for the most part).

Heath loves to try and get people to laugh. He LOVES life so much and I wish I could be more like him. Life about does me in and then I am done with it, but he isn't usually down for very long. :)

Heath lost his first tooth and he is the youngest one in our family to have lost a tooth! Most of my kids were at least 7 going on 8 when they lost their first.

Chad has been hitting some of that teen 'tude, but overall is a good kid. One day when we were visiting my sister, Laney hit Chad and kept on messing with him. My sister told him to stop her, but he simply said, "She's too cute to scold!" Now if she has him wrapped around her pinky, I am wondering what our newest little one could get away with on his watch. :) 

He has even babysat a couple of times for another family and has done really well. Their kids want him over a lot! We are pretty proud of our boy who won't be boy for much longer! I can't believe we have about 6 more years with him before he ventures out into the world on his own.

It was hard to get Laney to be in some of these pictures, but the girls loved posing for the camera. Unfortunately for some reason, Alyssa isn't happy with her teeth and doesn't smile much, but I still was able to get some good pictures of her.

Ring around the rosies and other games were the only things that worked for Laney-bug. At least they had fun together.

Alyssa is still the little mama. She really is such a big help to me especially when I have been sick with this pregnancy.

She also LOVES to sew and go to fabric stores. I think that is going to be a weakness of hers cause she LOVES fabric! :) 

I admire her giving heart too. She truly has a love for people. Another trait a child of mine has that I wish I had too. I sometimes allow myself to get annoyed more than I should.

Bria has also lost several teeth as of late. She and Chad have both lost 3-4 at a time. I wouldn't be too surprised if the tooth fairy goes bankrupt anytime soon with these two. :) 

Bria has been doing really well with her piano. She can play left and right hand by ear so long as she practices, but after a few tries or so and then she pretty much has the song down. She loves it too. So that really helps. Now she wants to play flute, but I think with her good ears she should do strings, but I will be a good mom and let her try things out before she makes a final decision. :)

What can I say about bug-bug? She needs NAPS! She is now in a big girl bed and it is hard to get her to nap, but because she isn't getting them she isn't the same child. She spits, hits and gets into EVERYTHING much, much more than she used to. Of course it could be the fact that she is 2!!! :) I can NOT keep up. So we are trying to make her take naps. I am hoping that we can get into a groove soon. I am so tempted to just put her back in the crib for nap time until the baby is old enough to be out of the bassinet.

Other than that she is very snuggly and lovable when she wants to be. :) 

She also loves to learn phonics with Heath, so I have been doing alphabet flash cards with her and we let her think she is doing what Heath is. I think I may have an early reader on my hands though. She sure gets it quickly.

And Laney STILL loves her bellybutton! :)

A Winner and a Ponytail

It looks like A-N-S-L-E-Y was the winner for spelling new baby's name. Its my fave way to spell it too. Thanks for all those who voted and commented. It makes it all the more fun!

The winner of our giveaway was commenter #12, which would have been me, so I decided to nix me and go for who would have been that number had I not commented. Drum roll please...Sara! You get to choose either a $10 gift card to Hobby Lobby, to Target or something from etsy that is no more than $10 (they don't do gift cards yet for the entire site)! Just let me know which one you want and I will drop it by at your house. Congrats!


I had posted on my facebook recently :

"Day two of Laney allowing me to do her hair...and it is in a CUTE ponytail! LOVE it! Now if the older two would let me do theirs once in awhile, without a fight that is. :)"

My sister really wanted a pic, so here they are.

One catch for doing Laney's hair is that I can NOT use a brush. She freaks when I get it out. We won't name the girls responsible for this kind of action due to their examples. So I use my fingers. Who knew that would be okay? And I think it helped having all the kids vocalize the fact that she is adorable because when it would fall out, at all, she would freak! Kinda funny if you ask me. I am thinking that I will have to have the kids do this when we start potty training. Its coming soon. *freak out* She brings her diapers and wipes to me and likes sitting on her potty chair even though she doesn't do anything in it yet. I am NOT ready.

So here she is. Miss Sassy in a ponytail! One day I am hoping to do some pigtails, but for now I will take what I can get.



I LOVE her cute curly little puff ball!

Snippets-Playing Catch Up

Since homeschooling, my blogging world and project world has been a bit on the slow side. Now that things are starting to come together, schedule wise, I am hoping that I can be more consistent in at least the blogging world and eventually throw in the projects again.

For now I am going to try and catch up. :)

Since Alyssa has started homeschooling, we have really been enjoying our time together. Laney is also loving the fact that she has a friend to play with.

We enjoyed the beginning of awesome Fall weather. Cool enough to wear cardigans, but not so cold that your speech slurs from a numb mouth and nose. Wish I could say that is how it still is, but that was October/November and it is now January.

We have also enjoyed taking pictures and more pictures!





We celebrated Laney's first birthday...a bit on the later side, but we did celebrate as a family on her actual birthday. We just didn't do an official one with the extended family until recently. FINALLY! We had too many schedule conflicts, MBA graduation and sicknesses that got in the way. Here's to the sweet little Laney-bug!












The lady-bugs I painted and put together for decoration. Several of the cousins wanted to keep some because they thought they were so cute! After giving some away we still had a TON left. I guess I will eventually find a use for them later. :)

They are wooden balls that I picked up at Hobby Lobby, some flat on one side. I painted them, drew little swirls down their backs and put dots all over. Then painted smaller wood buttons for the faces, gluing them and the wire antennas to the body. Then voila! We had cute little lady-bugs that we places all over the table.

She wanted nothing to do with that cake until she had a fork and didn't want to sit down at all. I sure do love all her chub-a-love!

I used some of the decorations that I had used for Bria's garden party last Spring. Such as the hanging flowers and butterfly and cake stand. I also used the Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cookie Dough centers recipe, which turned out to be a big hit with everyone.  I even threw in some of the frozen cookie dough into her cake.

 She sure is growing up way too fast for my tastes! :) But we LOVE our bug-bug!

First "Official" Day

Today was Laney's first "official" day of Nursery at church (an 18 month-3 years old class). She was a stinker most of the morning at home and in the first hour of church, but I was told that she did great in Nursery!

One day I will brave taking her in myself. Usually when I take her anywhere and dare to leave her, she hangs onto my arm for dear life and screams. Then after I have been gone for a couple of minutes she is fine, but for now I will leave the taking her to Nursery to my dear hubby. :)

A few things about Laney-bug:

*She says words really, really well and copies most everything you say.
*She climbs everything and has no fear.
*Is the chunkiest monkey baby I have ever had. I say monkey because one of my brother's always says to the kids when he calls "Hey, this is a monkey's Uncle calling." It sort of sticks now. The kids even say they are monkeys because of it.
*Says "thank you" way more than the older kids. Hmmmm... :)
*Cleans up better than some of the other kids. Well at least without complaining, but we all know that will only last so long.
*Loves most foods.
*Prefers her Aunt Jenny to me at times. Not sure what I think about that one. :)
*Loves playing outside.
*Kisses me and tells me that she loves me. Melts my heart!
*LOVES shoes! She has been known to steal the shoes off your feet just so that she can try them on. Stinker! :)

She sure is loved in our home and I am sure she will be a SPOILED child (if truth be told, she already is), but she is the apple of our eye!





If she would have been more cooperative I would have taken a picture from behind cause maaan its one CAAA-UTE booty in that dress!

Happy Despite the Hardship

This little girl just keeps getting cuter and CUTER! I love her to pieces! This past week I was gone to Houston with my family and I sure missed her hugs and kisses (as well as my other cute kiddos)!

While I was gone she was outside playing in the back yard with her 5 year old brother. Daddy was in the garage putting something away when Heath ran to him saying that Laney was covered in FIRE ANTS! Poor girl! She ended up having roughly 125 ant bites on her hands and feet collectively.Thank goodness for a little boy that acts fast during a D.I.D (damsel in distress) moment. My little hero in the making.

The day after the bites. She didn't like us putting medicine on them because they were sore areas. Made me sad to see her in pain.

What they look like today. We took her into the doctor's office to make sure that they weren't infected since they are redder and more swollen. Luckily they are not infected. We just have to keep an eye on them for now and let them heal on their own.

Bria and our little neighbor girl, Megan, made her get well cards. So cute and thoughtful. I love these girls of mine (even though I didn't give birth to Megan)!

Despite her hardships, Laney is one happy girl! Smiling through it all!

Just a little FYI: You shouldn't pop the ant bites (actually they sting you) because when they are open they have more of a chance getting infected. It is better to leave them because when healed properly the puss bumps will go away on their own.

Laney-bug

Look who has HAIR!!! Ok she has always "technically" had hair, but LOOK it has a clip and it stayed in for more than a few seconds!

Is it right for a mom to be THIS giddy over some hair follicle improvement? I really need to get out more.




Then she decided that it needed to go. 
Plop! Right on the ground.
Then she stepped on it. :)

If you give a Laney-bug a hat

If you give a Laney-bug a hat, she will parade around the house. Then she'll see a chair and want to rest in it.



If you give a Laney-bug a chair she will remember the TV buttons that are on her level and want to push them to put a movie on.





After messing with all the buttons on her level she will notice the child proofed doors and decide that she wants to open some drawers that aren't child-proofed.



After digging everything out of her dresser drawers in about 10 seconds flat, she will see you yawning and it will remind her that she is very, very tired!

She will lay down leaving a HUGE path of destruction behind her and start to nod off until... :)




She sees her hat. Then she will want to put it on again.