We've Got Smiles!

 It's taken a couple weeks to get some pictures, and they aren't the greatest, but we've got one smiley little baby these days.  Even when he's been fighting a nap for an hour or two, he'll try to win us over by flashing us a smile (and it usually works.)

 And I love all the little baby parts--they are just so sweet!

Belated Birthday Tribute

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I completely forgot to post this on the actual day, but here's our baby girl over the last 7 years.

Friends

Happy Birthday, Bean!

 Can't believe this girl is 7 years old!  We've had seven years of laughing, crying, discovering, explaining, learning, understanding, growing, sharing, and loving.  It has been more of everything than we ever could have imagined.

After two years of backyard parties in the heat and humidity (why is her birthday always one of the hottest days of the year?), we finally got smart and planned a pool party this year.  Low level planning and cost, and everyone had a blast.

 The kids all stayed nice and cool.

 And they spent quite a bit of time cooling the rest of us off, too.

 Pizza, watermelon and lemonade--Bean's favorites.

 And pool party cupcakes.  I had warned Bean that I might not be able to do a cake this year, but this was perfect--the kids could do most of the decorating.

Making a wish. . .

Blowing the candles out. . .

Loving that frosting!

Getting a little shade. . .

We had fun with our friends.

And Peanut spent the party tucked up on various people--he was a little warm but did really well, just was totally wiped out by the end.  In fact, he's been sleeping for the last 3 hours.

And I somehow got talked into a second cake for that night--luckily I didn't have to do all the decorating.

We Love Our Daddy-o!

 Father of three!

 Daddy-o with his mini-me!

Daddy-o and the Bean.

Daddy-o has gotten to really earn his daddy-stripes these last few weeks.  We're loving having him home with us--to play and wrestle and cook and clean and swim and shop and snuggle and nap and read with.  We're so glad we have him in our lives!

What We Don't Need More of at Our House

I think they have enough stuffed animals, don't you?

One Month

 Peanut turned one month old yesterday.  I can't believe how fast this month has gone, and yet, its so hard to imagine our lives without him, so it feels strange to think that just over a month ago, we hadn't even met him yet.

He had his check up today--he's 8 lbs, 15 oz and 21.5 inches long, which means he's gained just over a pound since he was born and one inch--right on target.  He's 50% for height, which is a little shorter than our babies usually are (although the nurse was having a hard time straightening out his leg becuase he was pretty mad, so maybe he is a little longer), and 25% for weight, very normal for our babies.

He's having a lot of very alert times during the day and is watching us more closely--the kids love it because he's starting to actually pay attention to their crazy antics.  I'm sure when he is able to laugh, they're really going to get crazy.  He has been sleeping pretty well still--takes good naps at least a couple times a day, goes to sleep on his own once or twice a day, and he's been doing a longer stretch at the beginning of the night--last night he ate at 8:30, fell asleep at 9:30 and we didn't hear him again until 1:45.

Overall, he's still a pretty mellow baby, although he really doesn't love his carseat, which makes taking him out for errands and car trips not so fun.  He's fine if I can just wear him, but for the short trips that we're in and out of the car, he isn't so happy and he just doesn't sleep well.  At least he'll make up for it and take a LONG nap when we get home.

And here is one of the hazards of having a full head of hair:

Baby Bed Head.

First Talk

This little man did gave his first talk in Primary at church.  I was sad that I wasn't there for it, but Daddy-o said he did great.  I can't believe how grown up he's getting.

Although he's still our silly Bugaboo.  And he even tells us that he'll always be our baby, and never wants to leave us.  We'll see if he's still singing the same song in 10 years or so.

Preschool Birthday Party!

 Bugaboo got to go to a birthday party the other day--I think its his first one where the whole family wasn't invited--just he and Daddy-o went.

 And it was at one of his favorite places--Monkey Joes.

 The birthday girl!

And Bug finally braved the biggest slide there--it looks like he had a pretty fun time doing it, too.

A Trip to the Rainforest

 Bean's final unit in school--the rainforest.  They've spent the last month learning about the various levels, the plants and animals that live there, making a terrerium, writing a book about the rainforest, and working on their rainforest play.

 Bean was a slow-moving sloth.

 They made this great backdrop

Bean made the black lemur on the branch in he canopy. 

I tried to upload a video of one of the songs they sang, but after several hours, it still wasn't done, so I may have to try something different.

This has been such a great end to her first year of school.  We can't say enough about how much we love this school.

Growing Up Too Fast

These kids want to grow up for some reason. 

This morning, Bug came into our room to show us his loose tooth--and was devastated when Daddy-o told him it wasn't really loose, and that was actually a good thing because its better to not loose your teeth when you are 4.

Then, Bean showed up and within the next 5 minutes, had made these comments:

"I consider myself 7 now,"  and "Peanut, I'm your doubly big sister!"  (Meaning she is a big sister twice since she has 2 little brothers.)

And then the kids proceeded to ask me hold old Peanut would be when they are various important ages--like when they go to college, or are 30, or 49.

At least this little guy is still small--only I know its not going to last long enough.

My Ballerinas

 Gotta love the costumes these kids come up with.

I think we need a little more variety in our dress-ups--we have an awful lot of pink.