Mommy & E date night

Thanks to an AWESOME coupon from Build-A-Bear (free animal up to $12 value), E and I repeated our first ever date from almost a year ago. This time instead of making her a special friend, E made one for McK for Christmas. I enjoyed having time to focus just on her; and it thrilled my soul to watch her excitement and joy to make something for her sister.

A picture before we headed out the door - with Princess Monkey in tow (her friend made on our first date).

Showing me the bunny she picked out - before it is stuffed (her least favorite part).

Her new "Cheese!" face - gotta love it (or not).

She was very excited that Princess Monkey was able to get a bath and brushed hair along with our new friend.

She worked long and hard.

She was so excited to find the exact same shirt she picked out for Princess Monkey. She was all about McK's bunny being like her friend.

So proud!!

Showing off Princess Monkey and Princess Bunny - matching bows and all.

More park time

After a cool snap, it finally warmed up a bit so we ventured back out to a park one afternoon. I snapped a few pics, and then realized I caught a fun phenom... the first 3 pictures are of our kids with some of their best buds. First the boys - 14 months apart. Then the girls - 5 weeks apart. Last the babies - 10 weeks apart. It has been so fun to be pregnant with Kristina the last 2 times. It's been wonderful to have a comrade in motherhood with such a similar situation. I love that I caught our kids in this way.

Then there's Judah - a little boy who loves him some babies. He was absolutely beside himself that there were two for him to admire this day. It's some serious love when he ignores the trappings of the playground to talk to them!

Finally, when we got home Miss E was excited to see her daddy and asked me to take their picture. Too cute!

Exersaucer time

McK LOVES to sit up and look around the world. She has really good head control so I thought I would try out the exersaucer the other day (with some extra back support). She seemed to enjoy it - and the big kids LOVED being able to play with her.

Crashin' & Growin'

Miss E has decided that napping isn't all that Mommy hypes it up to be. So except for the 2 twenty+ minute power naps while waiting in the carpool lane, she hasn't had a real nap since last Saturday until today. She finally crashed - and hard! We were rocking in the recliner just enjoying each other when I noticed she was out...over 2 hours later even with the noise and parental switch, we finally had to wake her to head out for our evening. Amazingly, she didn't fuss about bedtime and only sang for about 30-45 minutes.

Miss McK is growin' like a weed. After the big kids were in bed and Daddy was off having some guy time, I tried to capture her adorable smile. She is quite expressive these days, and she loves to "talk." Unfortunately I caught a more scared look, but you gotta love her faces - and feet! Something tells me I'll see more of that last face when she gets older (and it's a face I've seen before from someone I won't name, but won't call out - Grannylou)!!

Ever safety conscious

Because bathtubs must be scary places...

our kids have found a way to feel safe.

Milestone update

Since posting about those great milestones, we've had a few setbacks. Thanks to various germs McK stopped sleeping through the night and E took longer to accept the disappearance of her pacis...so we still have a baby in our room. In the midst of all this fun, J started having night terrors. Needless to say, sleep is a precious commodity in our home these days. I think we are getting back on track, but Clay's family comes in about 3 weeks so we think we wait to make that transition until they are gone. One positive aspect of illness: we have come a long way - a loooong way in the potty training department!!!! YAY!!! (Of course, now that I've said something we'll probably take 15 steps backward!)

Enjoy the following 2 posts with LOTS of pictures.

Enjoying our backyard

Finally, fall temperatures and sunny days!!! Big J battled a fever for like 5 days. We were all going a bit stir crazy. He finally felt well enough on a day it warmed up so we ventured out to our backyard to burn some energy. Since that day, we've spent at least an hour outside each day. I LOVE that the kids ask to go out each morning after breakfast. I'd much rather them stimulate them this way than in front of the tv; however, our home is definitely being neglected! Just yesterday we spent almost 2 hours outside before Big J went to school, went outside within 30 minutes after picking him up, left our backyard to meet some friends at the park, came home and headed straight back out again until it was dark! So far Miss McK seems to enjoy being outside as much as the big kids do. Here are some pictures of our fun the last couple of days...

A few notables:
**You'll see pictures of Big J practicing his letters. When I went to check out his work, I saw that he wrote his "I", "D", and "E" in an interesting order to spell die. What a great first word to write!
**You'll see how much the mosquitoes love my boy, and that he's almost to big to enjoy the pink slide anymore! He also doesn't look at the camera when he screams, "CHEESE!!!"
**One picture of how Miss McK likes to sleep - with an arm over her eyes...a lot like her siblings at her age and like my mother even today!