Fall Photo Shoot

I did these last week for a birthday present for my Mom. It's been forever since I've taken any pictures of all 4 kids together. I did this single-handedly and I think they turned out great. Of course, Steve's photoshop expertise later on helped a little bit :-) I was lucky to have very cooperative kids that day. These were taken the day after the video in the last post.

Leaves

We actually have leaves this year to play in and the girls have really been enjoying themselves. Here's one of our piles.

And Ryan is caged because he keeps eating and gagging on leaves whenever he can get his hands on them.

Sleepy, sleepy

There's something about sleeping children that has such a serene quality. Almost makes me want to just sit and watch them.

Katie and her Cheetah, which is her latest favorite stuffed animal. And amazingly she wears headbands 24/7. I would think that could get uncomfortable to sleep in!
Katie usually falls asleep on our bed, with the light on (she's acquired an interesting fear of the dark) and usually has a book somewhere near her.
On nights when we insisted she fall asleep in her own room, this was common...
But now Ellie has been sleeping on Sarah's floor since we removed the crib from Sarah's room a few days ago and moved her into a toddler bed. It was the only thing that would keep Sarah happy and in bed. What a sweet thing for Ellie to do. We hope to move them all into the same room soon.

And then there's Ryan who may someday get his own room. He insists on being swaddled with a pacifier to go to sleep, but rarely remains in it for long.
At the end of the day, especially a rough one- these sights tug at my heart, put a lump in my throat and remind me that I love my children more than anything in the world. I am a proud mommy of these sweet angels.

Ryan's new tricks

Here are some recent pictures of Ryan.
First of all, Ryan was receiving the royal treatment from the girls. He was much easier to push/pull than the sisters were :)He can now hold his own bottle and feed himself. If it's too full he still drops it, but he's getting better!
And then today he decided to show off his newest skill- standing up in his crib. Looks like it's time to lower the mattress! (notice the monkey in the lower left picture)That reminds me, I don't think I've ever mentioned Ryan's "room" before. Since there are 3 bedrooms upstairs, Ellie and Katie share one room, Sarah has her own, Steve and I have our own room... and Ryan gets our walk-in closet. I'm hoping to move Sarah in with the other girls soon, but first we need to get her to sleep in her toddler bed.And I can also say that Ryan is officially crawling. He crawls when he needs to go slow, then does his breast-stroke army crawl when he wants to get somewhere fast. I love this little guy!

Raspberries

We went over to Pontious Farm with Mom and Dad Friday to do some u-pick raspberries and we all had an awesome time. Hale Bales (according to Ellie) were a big hit. There were also horses, llamas, goats, and the friendliest cats and dogs. We will definitely be going back there again soon! Oh, and the raspberries are tasty, tasty!

Ryan’s first swim

The labor day parade:

Sarah's latest

I have been waiting to post this, in hopes I'd get a cute picture of Sarah up and ready to share, but who knows when I'll get around to that- so here we go.

So, we finally took pacifiers away from Sarah last week. I was so incredibly scared to do this, as she has been especially attached to those "fawas". (She always had a blanket, "baba" and pacifier, "fawa", or as she would say... bafawa). But, as Steve said so well... we never give our kids enough credit. It wasn't horrible with Ellie or Katie, and it wasn't horrible with Sarah. We had two nights and one nap that were rough (cried for about a half hour) but then she was fine. But alas, as with the other two, when the pacifiers went away, so did the afternoon naps. I have always been amazed that there are children out there that continue to nap until they are 3 1/2- 4 years old. All the girls have given them up at 2 1/2. Having Sarah stay up in the afternoon has ended up being a blessing. She and Katie play together so incredibly well when it's just the two of them. They get to play with Ellie in the morning, then it's just those two while Ellie is at school.

As if this hasn't been enough transition, Steve decided we ought to encourage potty training with Sarah. So today I took her shopping for some new underwear. Little Mermaid and 101 Dalmatians is what we ended up with. And then she managed to wet through 6 pair of underwear today. Yeah- it's going great! Silly, silly Sarah. She has tried to reach the "terrible twos" but in the end just makes us laugh. She is truly a sweet, lovable little girl. For example: she and Katie always say, "I miss Ellie" as soon as she's dropped off at school. And she loves to give hugs and kisses. I love my Sarah.

Scooter

So, I thought Ryan would be crawling within a week, but he has found a different way of getting around that seems to get the job done.

I Love to See the Temple

We took a trip down to St. Louis on Saturday to the temple and it was a perfect day. We left at 7am and got down there right at 10. The kids and I played at the playground nearby while Steve went through. I took the opportunity (since we were on such beautiful grounds) to take a couple pictures. Katie suggested we sing the temple song and after I sang a verse, Ellie told me that she felt like a princess, being close to the beautiful building, surrounded by butterflies on the plentiful flowers and singing songs. I thought that was sweet.

After his session Steve took everyone for lunch while I did a session. The weather was great, the temple was great, and the kids were really quite good. We then did a commissary run and got all the wonderful things I can't get here (especially the cheese and bacon). We made one more stop for dinner at Chili's (yikes for 4 kids in a restaurant at bedtime) and then got home right around 9:30. It was an extremely long day, but overall a great time.

Ryan

Here is my darling boy, Ryan. He is just the sweetest little guy.
Here are a few little facts about Ryan right now:
*I love, love, love his giggle. I could sit and listen to that all day long. And I love that I can always get one out of him by tickling him.
*I love his kisses. I just have to ask and he slobber kisses by biting my chin. Those are starting to hurt a little more now that he has two bottom teeth.
*He is full-blown into 12-month sized clothes. Buying boy clothes and dressing him in them is tons more fun than I ever thought it could be.
*He is just about crawling. He does one knee forward then flops forward onto this tummy. He is getting around pretty well with that. I would guess it'll be just days before he finally figures out the real deal.
*He is mostly sitting on his own. He's still rather wabbly and falls over after just a short while.
*He can only roll from his back to his tummy... unless he's swaddled (which he still prefers to go to sleep) and then he can go the other way as well.
*He always wakes up with a smile. I love that smile. Steve always says that I can't be grumpy when Ryan wakes me up, since he's always happy when I wake him up.
*Ryan loves his daddy. They get bonding time in the morning as Steve gets up early with Ryan. I love the way Ryan's face just lights right up whenever he sees Steve. And I know that means a lot to Steve as well.
*At his appointment a week ago he was 20 lbs, 12 oz. I thought that was huge, but apparently he's just 75% for weight. He's of course over 100% for height.
*We're still battling with food sensitivities (not convinced they're full-blown allergies). There are only a few foods that I've found so far that he doesn't react to. Plain cereals are safe as well as sweet potatoes and carrots. Most everything else isn't. I'll have blood work done before his 9 month appointment to check for allergies that way.
*Is finally starting to get on a more predictable schedule and typically only wakes up once at night now. I like that!
*He is my angel baby and I can't imagine my life without him.

1st day of school

Today was the first official day of school for Ellie. And yes, I cried. But it was just as much frustration as it was sadness. To make a very drama-filled morning short, I am not impressed with the communication given by this school district (even though I've heard wonderful things about it and that's why we moved here.) I was dismissed when I voiced my concerns over a desire to change Ellie's class (afternoon to morning). And her bus picks her up 1 whole hour before school starts even though we live just barely over a mile away from the school. Yeah, very frustrated.
So, here is Ellie on her first (and very possibly last) ride on the bus to school-I will most likely just drop her off myself in the future. She will probably ride it home, even though that's about a 35-minute ride. I guess the lines to pick up kids after school are insane.
Yesterday we went to the school and met her teacher and dropped off school supplies. She seems like a great teacher. Ellie was very excited.
She even has her very own locker.
She told me that she can't wait to go back. I think that means it was a great day.

Mini Me

Steve has been having fun doing some comparing lately. Too bad our kids don't look anything like us :-D

First of all, here are Steve and Ryan at about 6 months old.

Then there's Tiff and Sarah at about 3 months old

And finally Tiff and Sarah at about 18 months.

Great Day!

I want to tell about our trip to Indi, but that will have to wait until later.

Today was such a great day. Because I have to prepare my lesson still, I'll just give the highlights.
9:30 we went shopping for a birthday present for a 3-year old's birthday. It was very fun shopping for a boy. We bought nothing pink :) A ball, a bulldozer and a coloring book. Can't beat that!
11:00 we arrived at church to give blood in the bloodmobile. It's been 6 years since I last donated! Wow. I guess it didn't realize it had been that long. But yay for being able to do it again. And it took me only 6 1/2 minutes. Bam! hehe My brothers and I always used to race to see who could donate the fastest. Silly, I know.
12:45 I bought a brand new mountain bike. Hooray! We have been talking about buying me a bike ever since we got married. And today it actually happened. I am so incredibly excited about this bike and the prospect of going on family bike rides now.
1:00 we went around the corner to the water park for a birthday party. There was pizza, soda, birthday cake and a WHOLE lot of wind to make it difficult to do it all! But we had a great time and then went into the water park for 3+ fabulous hours of swimming. We had no idea this place was even there. There's a lazy river, wave-ish pool (don't actually turn on waves) kiddy pool and a couple slides. This was Ryan's first experience with a pool and he had a great time. I obviously can't take the kids to the pool by myself so it was wonderful having Steve and friends there to help out.
5:00 we arrived home to baths, banana pancakes (Ellie has been begging me for those for about 2 months now) and bed. There were 4 extremely exhausted children that didn't fight too hard when we tucked them in. I hope they all sleep very well.
8:00 I finished off the M&M cookies I promised my class for tomorrow and I'm ready to start my lesson. Steve is outside staining the bookshelf he built (it's beautiful) I'm going to pop up and devour some popcorn (because I can) and the day is ending quite well.

Just like...

Katie has been finding words within words lately. She's been noticing that it's an apple... like in apple juice. Or orange, like in orange juice. But today it was a booger, like in han-gabooger (hamburger). Hmmm...

Strawberries

I am sitting here looking up new recipes (a new hobby of mine) while babies are sleeping and girls are amused in front of "Little Foot." But more importantly, I am thoroughly enjoying my bowl of strawberries and bananas. This is probably one of my most favorite snacks and I am so happy that I get to eat it again! And then that peach/strawberry pie I made up last night out of desperation to not lose either fruit to spoiling was fabulous!!! Going without certainly gives you a great appreciation for things when you get them. :-D