Treats and Naps

 Isn't my husband wonderful? I loved that Mother's Day post that he did. Now I get to tell you about the other things he did for me. Joseph typically does all he can to help out with the kids, but he made sure to give me several hours on Saturday to get things done kid-free. Then he gave me roses (he couldn't figure out how to hide them until Sunday) and set them up neatly in an old milk container. It made me smile. You know how milk is special to our family. :)  On Sunday Joseph made dinner and worked all evening to prepare a dessert for FHE on Monday as an extended Mother's Day activity. We got to eat spongecake topped with fresh fruit and homemade ice cream. I love a man who knows his way around the kitchen!

Here's a glimpse of the milk jug flowers.

Now I just wanted to quickly address Emily's strange sleeping habits. I found her like this maybe a month ago after I put the kids down for naps.

Oh, you don't see her? Well maybe that is because she has been engulfed by that giant red beanbag. Doesn't that look safe?

 Today Emily REFUSED to nap on the couch for me. This was her way of rebelling:

Let's hope this gives her enough of a rush to cure her of any other rebellious thoughts.

One more quick story:
Today while I was doing dishes, Emily came into the kitchen and started setting up some of her little toys on the table.
Me: Oh, sorry the table is so crowded with dishes. I should have cleared them off.
Emily: That's okay, Mom. It's not your fault.
Me: Whose fault is it then?
Emily: Huh?
Me: Is it your fault? or maybe Caleb's?
Emily: Hmm. No, I made a mistake. It IS your fault. It's okay though. Just don't let it happen again.

What am I going to do with her?

Happy Mother's Day

Elinor and Caleb seem scandalized that you're putting make-up on Emily at such a young age.

Caleb doesn't approve.

Elinor thinks it's hilarious.

Emily loves having sparkly lips.

We love you, Amanda.  You're wonderful.  Grandmas, these pictures are more for you than anyone else.  We love you too and miss you a bunch.

I'm Back in the Game!

Joseph and the kids in Fredericksburg

Well, it has been a long while since I have participated in an organized running event, but today I tried it again. My friend Katie mentioned that the Fredericksburg Wildflower Race was cheap and had a pretty course, so I signed up. She did the 10k but I chickened out and registered for the 5k. Fredericksburg is about an hour and a half from Austin, so Joseph and I were up around 5 this morning getting things ready to go. We prodded the kids awake at 6 and headed out. Two and a half hours later, I was running! My goal was to do it in under 30 minutes, which I accomplished, so I was happy with that. I ended up finishing 6th in my age division and I even made it onto the first page of the race results print-off!

So anyway, here's a picture of me and Katie stretching with the kids before the race.

 This is me and Katie waiting for the race to begin. Can you spot us? Look for my blue shorts just to the left of the enthusiastic man in the purple shirt.

As you can see, the kids were very excited to be waiting for me to finish my run.

They really did have a good time. Plenty of oranges and bananas and a great playground made sure of that.

I thought Joseph missed my finish until five minutes ago when I went through pictures. Apparently, he saw me from the playground, then rounded up the kids and headed over to the finish line. Can you feel my pain in this picture? :)

 

Aah. Done at last. Relaxing with the most delicious bottle of water ever.

  The end.

Addition made on June 11, 2011:

Here's the professional picture taken by the race photographer.

Wearing Pink

I am not a pink wearer. I have nothing against the color; I am just usually more drawn to other colors. So today, when I not only wore pink, but I wore a shirt entirely of hot pink (plus ruffles) it was a new experience.

I asked Joseph's opinion. I think guys mostly only think in terms of acceptable or ugly when it comes to clothing.  When I pressed for a little more feedback he played "color analyst" and came up with a bunch of made up stuff to help me out. "Well, you are an autumn, so you usually shouldn't wear pink. That is why you have shied away from it in the past. However, with your coloring, some shades of pink will work... etc." Apparently he is a summer. Our neighbor Kristen is a spring. According to Joseph's bogus color analysis. :)

I asked Emily, knowing beforehand what her response would be: "Oh, Mama! That shirt is beautiful because it is pink!" Isn't she such a four-year-old?

Caleb might have grunted.

The moms on the playground were very kind and flattering. But those who were thinking I should return the shirt because it makes me look like a 5 year old girl probably kept that to themselves.

Do you see what wearing pink has done to me? I should not be worried about this. I will just have to get used to it, I think.

PS - sorry about the chopped-off head in that picture. It is quite difficult to take a good picture of yourself in the mirror while holding a 20 pound baby. And I'm not going to lie - I chose that picture because Elinor was looking at the camera, not because it was a great shot of me.

PPS - happy royal wedding day! My cute fried Shiloh brought Royal Wedding celebratory treats to the playground this morning. Wasn't that such a fun idea?

PPPS - this entire post was typed one-handed because of aforementioned 20-lb baby. that is my excuse for the lack of many caps.

Easter

 This year most of our Easter attention went to the choir program at church. Joseph is still the choir director and still going strong. He decided to have the choir sing three songs this Sunday and it went well, but it did add a little stress to our day. We went to see James Taylor (wahoo!!!) Saturday night so we were all kind of tired (the kids were exhausted from working so hard causing trouble for the sitter). Anyhow, this meant that most of our Easter activities took place after Easter Sunday. This worked out really well since that meant we could use clearance Easter stuff.
We did an Easter FHE on Monday evening and gave Emily and Caleb a few toys and things. The eggs came on Tuesday.
I was teaching Emily's class this week, so I arranged to combine with the older class in the neighborhood to do an Easter egg hunt. I am so lucky and have great neighbors who agreed to set up the hunt while I had the kids in school so all we had to do was wander up there at the appointed time, and everything was ready.

Here are all the kids. I love that there are so many kids around here.

The two-and-under crowd got a head start.

Caleb caught on really quick.

He was pretty intense.

Emily hunted too, but I didn't take any good pictures of her. So, instead, here are some other random pictures.

All three of them in the tub! We're toughening Elinor up at an early age.

Cute Elinor wants to be just like Aunt Nancy. Who wouldn't?

Model Tenants

Brackenridge has initiated a special cleanup effort in order to make the place look less trashy. The Coopers are on board!!

Special thanks to Eric, Seth, and Emily for props and styling.

Imaginative Play

Emily is so creative lately in her imaginative play with her toys. I think it is strongly correlated with the amount of television we allow her to watch, but that is another post. Joseph and I found this Lego setup the other night and thought it was so cute that she made land and water and set up a picnic.  Here's what she had to tell me about the picture:

These Lego guys are eating bananas from the banana tree and that house is one's house and all the other guys live outside. They used the boat to visit because that boat can float and it can stop so them can visit. That's all, Mom.

 
These Playmobil guys are special toys that she is only allowed to play with occasionally. Here is a special manger scene. I love the two mummies and the fallen lady.

I love that picture because it's okay if I build pictures that are really hard because usually friends help me but it's okay if no friends help me if I'm building something because that's fine. That's all, Mom.

 This purple guy is one of my favorites because once, probably six months ago, Emily brought him to me to ask what "her" name was. I loved that she was so sure that the bearded black man was a woman. I told her it was a boy and she asked why he was wearing a pink dress and a sparkly purple cape. It was a good question.

This guy is special because I love sparkles and I love purple - that's my favorite color. And I love pink. That's why he's special. And that's all.  That's not a very long talk that I have to say, Mom.

Many boys

 

The last time I taught Emily's school group was right before Elinor was born.  Well, it is my turn again for that (I can't believe she's almost 7 months now!) and I had the pleasure of hosting all of these fabulous kiddos this morning for a couple of hours. It takes a lot more food to feed seven than I had anticipated - these guys ate all of my strawberries and kid pasta*!  We studied the letter w and water and the water cycle and Noah's ark. It was a good time.

*kid pasta = any pasta that is a small pick-up-able shape kid pasta. Not the long kind.

Pictures

It has been a long time since I've taken the kids in to have their pictures taken. August 2009 was the last time, I think. Caleb was younger than Elinor is now. I was waiting for Elinor to be able to sit up on her own, and she finally reached a point where I felt confident that she would be able to sit comfortably and react well to a photographer. Theoretically, this shoot should have been a great experience. However, that is not how things worked out.
We didn't get a natural smile from Emily in her solo shots even though she was a model child throughout the whole experience. She really worked hard to be obedient and to keep the other kids happy. I was really proud of her. This picture is the one I come closest to liking of her. I am kind of upset because I do think being able to see her face is important and that makes this picture not usable for what I wanted.
I love Emily's smile here but Elinor looks super weird.

This is how Elinor looked most of the time - really freaked out and not sure what was going on.

Elinor is still wearing that same face, Emily looks like she's wondering if she's doing what the photographer wants.

Closest thing to a smile we got out of Miss Elinor.

Caleb was only happy with a basketball. And even here his smile looks strained, like he's just barely holding it together.

Yup, this about sums up the failure of our photo shoot.

I got home, set Elinor on the bed, and this is what I got.

Too bad our camera isn't very good! When I saw how much better these pictures were, I realized I was just paying for the use of a nice camera when I took the kids in. Kids just react better to people they know and pictures will not turn out unless they feel comfortable in their setting. Maybe one day I will own a nice camera and be able to do it on my own! I am so glad I live in the age of digital cameras so I can take pictures (even poor quality ones) to my heart's content and capture so many important moments as my kids grow up. Ah. I do love my happy little Elinor!

Controlled Chaos

Miss Emily has a talent for making big messes really quickly.
Here is a picture of our living room from earlier today. It took about 30 seconds from walking in the door to look like this. But, upon closer inspection, you will find that things are not as chaotic as they seem.

These dolls (and other debris), for example, are just riding in a car. A long, skinny car.
This doll obviously fell out of the car when she was attacked by a snake.

These people are all sleeping. But Emily explained to me that she didn't have enough beds for all of them so some of them are sleeping on "silly" beds like a cow or a table or on the back of a semi truck.

These dolls I could not get an explanation for. I think it's pretty obvious, though, that it is an angry mob, complete with torches, flowers, fairy wands, toxic waste barrels, and tipped over shopping carts. Kill the Beast!!



And here, for no logical reason at all, is our Super Cooper, little miss Elinor. We do love her and her new toothy grin.
Oh, woops. You can't see the teeth in this picture. But they are there, really.