A Little Bit of Everything

Sometimes I see my kids at a certain "moment" and I realize I want to remember it because of just how ordinary it is. This was one of those moments. Jansen was eating and reading at the counter, and I just wanted to capture 9 year old him. He's not doing anything special, but the moment means a lot to me.

And then he realizes I'm taking a picture of him. 

I love to watch Leah when Nate comes home from work (although this picture was after church.) When he gets her attention and she makes eye contact with him she lights up and gives him a happy grin.

We've learned you can't sit or stand in one place too long out here (fire ants!!!), but the buggars left these two alone long enough for them to read a book together. We've seen a few scorpions, a snake, some spiders, etc but from all the stories I heard I actually thought we'd see a lot more nasty things.

This picture is probably from at least several weeks ago. These months are full of happy little milestones.

Emmy saw this and said, "It's me in my dress ups! Holding my baby!" Nate and I have commented to each other more than once that dress up clothes are probably the most used "toys" we have.

Nate often takes the kids on little bikes rides after dinner. As you can seen, there is a lot of construction going on around us. It's dusty, but not too loud thankfully. Our street is full of trucks and workers during the day, but they are getting close to being finished. 

Emmy can be pretty timid on her bike. She likes to have us hold onto her handle bars or stay right next to her, but she's getting a little braver every day.

Leah is almost 5 months old, and from day one I have been so lucky and thankful for how the other kids have adjusted to having a new little sister. They ADORE her...Jansen and Natalie especially. They even make up funny songs singing her praises and shouting hallelujahs and hosannas. They love to kiss her and make her smile and laugh. They already have such a deep and genuine love for her. They cheer when she wakes up from her naps. 

There are a lot of jobs to be done around the house these days, and Emmy is always Nate's little side kick. She hangs out in the garage or backyard with him as he chips away at our list of things to organize, build, and fix.

Can you believe this face? Haha, I love what cameras can capture in a split second.

This one makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

We are giving Leah some rice cereal or oatmeal here and there, but she's pretty much just still nursing every 3to 3.5 hours. She's not too keen on a bottle yet either. Also still a big girl - about 97th percentile for weight.

Poor Emmy can never quite get enough rest. Now that she is sharing a room with Natalie, she goes to bed later and wakes up earlier than she should. She actually rarely falls asleep like this during the day despite needing the extra rest.

She wears my bracelets more than I do.

I can just smell sweet Leah when I look at this picture. She's so soft and snuggly and kissable right now! She's causing me quite a lot of stress and restless nights still and likes to be held a lot during the day though. I'm starting to see her naps develop and get longer and that is fantastic news for this momma.

I can't even remember if I have blogged about Emmy turning 4. She loves being 4 and often asks me questions about when she will be 5. 

She got some roller skates like her sister for her birthday.

We got the absolute sweetest letter from a missionary who was serving in our ward in Maryland. Nate was the ward mission leader there for awhile, so we got to have the missionaries over often and Nate spent a lot of time with them. Elder Brimhall sent this name tag for Natalie because she was always jumping up and trying to rip it off him. He and his companions were so good with the kids. This letter made all the meetings and time Nate spent away from home for his calling worth it.

This is what 5 or 6 o clock looks like at our house. Mess included.