happy leap day

Not that I've done anything special for leap day. (Except watch the classic holiday movie Leap Dave Williams.) I've been working on some word art projects lately, and here are a few that are finished.

We had Nate's parents and single siblings over for dinner on the 12th. Scott was a good sport and went outside to build a snowman with the kids. Colin called it his "SnowMom" for the rest of the week. And thanks to Aunt Kelli for the cute snowman kit that she gave the kids for Christmas. I'm glad they finally got to use it!

Kate in her snowsuit makes me laugh.

Valentine's Day cookies! I'm going to do this every year. I saw the idea online a couple of years ago. They were called Bitter Sweets.

The kids were in their dungeon lab making poisoned apples to give to the mermaids. I took some video because they were cracking me up with the things they were saying. "Oh, here's some Black of Night. That will be good."

Rachel and Kaylee got to have sleepovers at Granny's house on Presidents Day. They were nice enough to come over and play with my kids for a few minutes. Rachel was the Evil Unicorn, Colin was a prince of some kind, and Kate and Kaylee were princess in beautiful handmade dresses.

Gray just sat on Hannah's lap and chowed down on Rapunzel's mirror.

Awww. He soothed himself to sleep by gnawing on his blanket. Thumper is his Special Crib Friend.

Can you see how Gray hoisted himself up into that bin? He really wanted those blocks. And he's getting so mobile and strong. He can pretty much get to anything he wants these days.

Pirate Kate! Arrgh!

Colin needed a haircut. His hair was a little long for a fauxhawk, so I combed it to the side. He liked it. He also liked saying, "Hey, ladies," when I asked him to pose for a picture.

Kate also thought she needed her picture taken. She was trying to pose like Colin and it was super hilarious.

Scotty was living righteously yesterday and felt the Spirit whisper to him that I was going to lose it and abandon my children, so he offered to come over and play. It really was an answer to a prayer for me. The kids stopped screaming and had fun playing with him outside. I was able to get my head on straight and make dinner. Nate came home to a happy family instead of three screaming children and a mom with Crazy Eyes. Thank you, thank you Scott!

This morning Kenny and Ethan wanted to take a picture of Gray holding a bunch of cash all fanned out. It didn't work so well. Gray just wanted to eat the money.

Joy school was fun this week. We went to storytime at the library, had a magic show, painted with soap bubbles, followed clues to a treasure on a treasure hunt, and made butter, biscuits, and pineapple cupcakes. It was fun, but I'm glad I have a few weeks off before it's my turn again.

Kate is doing well with potty training. She had a hard time the first 2 weeks or so, but now she's learned to go by herself, and she's pretty good at telling me when she needs to go. Also, I don't have to clean up her poop anymore, because she does it in the potty, so that's a bonus.

I guess that's all for now. I'm going to try working on more projects now.

I MADE THIS BREAD!

And it is super yummy, easy, perfect whole wheat. It took about 1.5 hours start to finish, and that includes grinding the wheat. Let me save you the trouble of typing a comment—I'm awesome! I know!

Edited to add: Here is a link to the recipe. I cut the recipe in half because I only have two bread pans and my Kitchen Aide can't handle 12+ cups of flour. I also use less sugar and salt, and I'm slowly seeing just how much gluten I really need because it's the most expensive ingredient and I'd like to use less. Enjoy! I know I do!

Gray's 6 month stats

I'd do a real update with pictures and things, but today has been a very, very busy day.

Head: 17.5 inches (64%)
Weight: 19 lbs 14 oz (82%)
Length: 28.5 inches (95%)

Gray was sitting up on the floor (unassisted) playing with a toy when Dr. Taylor came in to look at him. Dr. Taylor said, "Show off," and then proceeded to ask me about Gray's development, saying that he is a magnificent specimen of the human race—talented, handsome, strong, and brilliant. (I may or may not have taken a little poetic license with that last part.) Really, Gray is doing very well developmentally, and his gross motor skills are very advanced. Huzzah!

'bout time

Sorry it's been so long without a post. This winter has been full of disease. I've had a cold or the flu or intestinal troubles pretty much constantly. Blerg. I blame it on not sleeping. But things are getting better on that front. And we've had a lot of milestones at our house as well. Read on, Dear Reader, read on.

Gray is slowly learning how to sleep like a normal kid. He consistently takes a nap in the morning, but in the afternoon it is a struggle. At night I can lay him down at 7:00 and he'll cry for a few minutes before giving up and going to sleep. Then he eats around midnight and 4:00 and gets up for good around 6:30-7:00. That's a helluva (don't worry, when it's spelled like that it doesn't count as a swear) lot better than it used to be. And when Kate sleeps all night too then Mama is happy. I'm amazed that Colin can sleep through all the nonsense that goes on at night, but he does. I'm glad at least one of my children likes me.

Colin and Kate are now sharing the bunkbed. Colin is so happy to be sleeping in the top bunk. They do pretty well at just going to bed and not keeping each other up, even at nap time. I like having Gray and his junk in his own room. It makes my life easier. Someday I'll get my furniture projects finished and post pictures of the bedrooms, but don't get your hopes up. Those projects are way down on the list.

Kate is potty training right now, and she's doing a great job. We started last Saturday, and she's only had a handful of accidents. She's still learning that she needs to tell me every time she needs to go, but I think she'll get it before too long. I really hope she'll get it before too long.

I pulled out some flashcards this week only to discover that Colin knows a bunch of sight words. What the what?! I bought these flashcards when Colin was little because they have fun pictures on one side, and when he was learning to talk I would show him the pictures and he learned words like wagon and butterfly and cow and stuff. Then they were put away until now. I was so surprised and impressed with that boy. I think all kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. They could probably do a lot more if given the opportunity. I just struggle with finding the balance between pushing too hard and just exposing them to new experiences.

And now for the pictures.

It makes me happy to see my kids doing things that I used to do as a kid, all without any prompting from me. I used to love to find random places to curl up with a book, and I always had to have a pillow and blanket too, to make sort of a comfy bed/house to read in. I like to turn my closet into my reading space, but the kids prefer their bins. (Probably because the closets are full of junk.)

What an outfit.

These storage bins are their favorite place to play.

I believe the pants on their heads were supposed to be elephant ears. Colin was singing some sort of elephant ears song while they ran around the kitchen.

Reaching for the camera.

Yikes.

Aww, asleep in his crib. It makes me laugh how Gray sleeps with his arms tucked under himself and his bum up in the air.

Kate's first braid. Her hair is getting pretty long, but it is still so thin. Her braid looked more like a rat tail.

Colin always wants a picture when I take one of someone else.

Kate and boots. (And rat.) (Which is what they call the zhu-zhu pets.)

Gray being fat and fabulous.

Colin and boots.

Joy School and I have a love/hate relationship. I love that Colin gets to go, but I hate doing it at my house. On science day we made some healthy oatmeal cookies (which we pretty dang good, considering there wasn't much sugar and only 2 tbs of butter) and elephant toothpaste (thanks DeAnna for that tip). The kids love our science experiment. They were all so excited. For an English major I think I do a pretty great job in the science experiment department. So far the kids have been thrilled with everything we've done.

The lighting wasn't great, but Kate looked so cute when she was all ready for church on Sunday. I love her striped tights, and I put a little tulle ribbon on her pigtails just for fun. She was very pleased with herself. I was too.

I have video of Gray crawling, but Nate has to help me with that. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped when he reached me.

Gray got himself stuck under the kids bed. He didn't seem to mind it though. He lay under there, cooing and playing for quite a while. I didn't see any need to rescue him as long as he was happy.

I wish we had snow to play in, but the kids have enjoyed the warmer weather too. Our neighbors gave us this car when they moved. Thanks Kendrick!

Fun with Instagram! Here are some cute pics I snapped of the kids on my phone this morning. I like the Instagram app.

Aww, brother and sister reading books together. If only they could play nicely together all the time. They are shouting at each other while I type this.

Sweet crawling baby. He is growing up too fast.

You should all be jealous of this Bejeweled score (and a little sad for me that I spent so much time playing this game). I played the same game for like 2 weeks to get this score.