Little Hands

Little hands explore. And so do little mouths. Little fingers try to fit in the kaleidoscope eyepiece hole. Little hands keep her entertained for a long, long time.


Little hands pick dandelions... and daisies outside the neighbor's fence. Lauren, Caroline and I went on a walk and collected these flowers. They had to be from the neighbors' yards and sidewalk grassy/weedy areas; because they don't grow in our yard. No sirree. Brian does not allow it! ;)

Little hands feed ice cream as fast the little mouth will eat it. Lauren had ice cream sundae night at Cubbies Tuesday. She was sooooo excited! Here she is with Gracie, seriously devouring that ice cream. I don't know what that Sparkie is doing outside. Sparkies aren't supposed to be out there!

Little hands collect birthday buttons from Cubbie Bear. They give birthday buttons at the end of every month. Since Awana is done next week, Lauren and the other May birthdays got lumped together with the summer birthdays. At least they got recognized. As someone with a summer birthday, mine was hardly recognized. One year at school, in first grade, my teacher had an unbirthday day for all the summer birthday kids to bring in treats if they wanted. And that was the only time that happened. Not that I'm scarred for life or anything. Just sayin'...

Can you see little Lauren in the back? Right in the sunshine?

Little hands found this big stick at the T-ball game. And decorated the stick with flowers. Little hands picked flowers off the tea tree bush, mustard flowers, and other wild flowers and stuck them in the bark on the stick. Little hands used it for a walking stick to hike around the hills near the ball field.

Little hands swing bats, catch balls, give high-fives, eat snacks and fiddle with baseball caps. Snacks are very important. He gets a lunch bag full of two or three snacks and a juice drink after every game. After each game, the teams do their chant: "Two Four Six Eight, who do we appreciate? Lugnuts, Goooo, lugnuts!", as they played the Lugnuts today. But before the cheer, Austin's team said, "One, two, three, Happy Mother's Day!" So cute. There was a collective "Awwwww...." heard in the stands. :)

And baby sister's little hands are always good for sucking on. At least she thinks so.

Everyday Play

The other day Austin built this racetrack. He said it's for Timet, his turtle. The next day he'd added Rufie and Shamu to the stands. The blue racecar he got at Chuck E Cheese last Saturday, and the orange one, Gracie's sister Keeley bought with her tickets, then gave it to Austin.


Austin woke up with a sore throat this morning. He whined about it quite a bit, but I told him to get dressed and we'd see how he was after breakfast. He seemed happy enough after eating, but still complained about it hurting. Julia told him that her teacher said to gargle with hot water if you have a sore throat. He recently learned how to gargle, and thought this was a good idea, because the next thing I knew he was in the bathroom gargling hot water.

When we got to school, he was still saying his throat hurt. I asked his teacher what she thought, and she said it was up to me. I decided to take him home, but told him he had to have a nap if he missed school. He wanted a nap! He told me I've been waking him up too early and he needs more sleep! I told him maybe he needed to start going to bed right after supper, and he had to contemplate that. I also said, that I don't like going to bed early either [just check the time of this post...], that I'd rather sleep in in the morning. But, we have to do what we have to do. ;) He did take a two-hour nap, and said his throat still hurt tonight. And he gargled more hot water.

After school, I set Caroline in the family room to play while I got the big kids their snack. Austin was nicely playing with her. Of course, she loves the attention.


I think Lauren wanted some attention too. Because here they were nicely playing and then Lauren goes and plops herself down right in front of them, and tells me she's eating her wassle. Waffle, that is. I'd shift to the right to still get them in the picture, and Lauren would shift too, blocking them completely from view.

Austin adores Caroline; he often will stop to play with her when she's sitting playing by herself. He was turning her head (second shot) and telling her so softly, "Look Caroline. Look at the camera." And then continued to hold her head still for the picture.

On to other things: Austin and Lauren had a light saber duel.

I think Lauren was a little jealous of all the attention Austin had given Caroline... :O

A new idea: will they balance?

Aha! They will!

Austin's cut on his head happened at school. His friend Solomon threw a pinecone up in the air, not at Austin, just up in the air, but it happened to hit Austin. The cut and a small bruise were the result!

All the kids worked several puzzles this afternoon. And they watched Lauren's new Tinkerbell movie after supper. They'd started watching it earlier this week, but never finished, so tonight they saw the whole thing.

Four Years

Lauren turned 4 on Wednesday, May 6. It seems like we've been celebrating most of the week. On her actual birth day, I took the two little girls to Windmill Farms. We haven't been there since October 2007, though it's very close to us. I didn't tell Lauren where we were going, just that it was a surprise outing to somewhere fun. She asked me lots of questions, like, was it somewhere where I would buy her a toy? candy? a treat? Were we going to a restaurant for lunch? Should she bring her new purse to go shopping?

It's been hot here all week, so I slathered us all in sunscreen. It's also been very, very windy! It dries my eyes out! Anyway. At Windmill Farms we asked for some animal food, and the man working gave us three little strawberry baskets full of cabbage. We headed to the corral area and visited the animals: lots of different kinds of goats, pigs, a pony, and some chickens. Lauren liked being the only kid feeding the animal. She used up all three baskets herself, though she did share a cabbage leaf or two with me to feed the goats.


Caroline was SO excited watching the goats and seeing Lauren feed them. Oh my--that girl was a crazy woman, kicking and waving her arms, squealing, sucking in air, clapping her hands, babbling and laughing... I think she must have thought it was the most exciting thing she'd ever seen in her whole life! ;)


SO excited!!! I had to post this picture because it is the first one I have of her first [and only] little, tiny tooth! Can you see it?

Peek-a-boo! I see you! And Baby Doll with Sweetie Pie.

How old are you, Lauren? One... two...

Three... Four!

When the cabbage had all been eaten, we went back to the little store. I told Lauren she could pick out a treat. It isn't your typical treat store. They have produce, gifty type items and trinkets, some gourmet dressings and foods... Lauren chose a raspberry scone and a tube of chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. Kind of like peanut-M&Ms, except they are sunflower seeds in the middle, not peanuts. I bought a basket of blueberries too. Windmill Farms grows a coastal variety of blueberries. The lady said they produce year round, though they slow waaaaay down in the winter. I thought that was interesting. They were smallish, but had a good flavor! Yum! Back at home Lauren ate her [giant] raspberry scone for lunch, along with some cheese and blueberries. The scone was too big for her so I got to finish off the last little bit. :D

We had fun on our little outing. Lauren was most pleased to be able to go someplace special and get special treats that the two older kids couldn't do since they were at school. Ha ha. Austin said he wants to go to Windmill Farms for his birthday. And Lauren said she wants to go back to that place. :)

42, 43 Weeks

Caroline's Thursday pictures, last week and today:



Getting soooo sleepy before her morning nap...


I love, love, LOVE these next two. So cute!!

Austin had T-Ball this afternoon. When we got back home, the three younger kids and I went outside to play for awhile. It's been hot the last few days, but very windy. The wind dries my eyes out! Caroline loves being outside.

Baby Dedication

We dedicated Caroline to the Lord on Sunday. The same pastor has done each ceremony. It is a short time during the church service when he talks about raising children to love God and Brian and I say that we will do our best to help Caroline learn about God and show her how to have a relationship with Him. Usually the whole family goes up front.

All the kids have been given a Certificate of Dedication, but Caroline is the only one who's been given a baby story Bible. Pastor Joe gave it to Lauren to hold during the ceremony. She took her job very seriously. ;)

Pastor Joe praying for Caroline and our family after his talk. Notice the children. Which one is not like the others? Julia and Caroline are behaving age-appropriately. As is Lauren, I guess...too much going on to resist peeking... Lest you think Austin is just scratching an itchy nose, I have more pictures that show quite interesting faces he's making during the ceremony! What a little goofball!!! And now our whole church has seen it for themselves too.

There was a business meeting after church that Brian and I went to. His mom took Caroline outside where the big kids were playing. They had a couple ladies out there watching them. When Brian and I came out, we saw Austin giving Caroline rides in this little cart. He stopped and then Lauren started. And then our whole hungry bunch went to Chili's for lunch.

Brian and I with Caroline. I don't think we've had a picture of just the two of us with just her, ever! I thought maybe when she was born we did, but no. So this is kind of nice.

Birthday Bash Weekend

We had a big big weekend celebrating Lauren's birthday. She said she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese, and we told her she could invite one friend. I asked her who she wanted to ask, and Lauren said, "I knoooow...Someone who already had their birthday....," with a big smile on her face, thinking this through. "Gracie! I want to ask Gracie!" April 19 our whole family went to Gracie's birthday party, and Lauren thought that was just the best thing. It was the first birthday party that she, and she alone, received the invitation, no matter that the res of us came too. Gracie's family joined us and Brian's mom at Chuck E. Cheese, and we had a lot of fun. It was enough for a party, too, with all of them (3 girls plus dad and mom) and all of us!

The kids played some games together and some alone. They all had a good time and found lots of toys and trinkets to get with their redeemed tokens. Here's Lauren trying to dunk the ducks.


We brought cupcakes to share. The flower design was my last-minute attempt to make them look "pretty" for Lauren, and somewhat like a cake. That's Gracie, her parents, and Brian's mom with Lauren in the picture.


While Lauren took her nap at home that afternoon, Austin and I ran to Vons to buy her balloons. Many times when we go grocery shopping, Lauren asks when she will get balloons. So I thought it would be fun to surprise her with them. And she was surprised! She had the biggest smile on her face when she walked out of her bedroom and saw them. Austin chose the Tinkerbell balloon, because he knows she likes Tinkerbell. Most nights and nap times this week, Lauren has been taking the balloons to her bedroom so she can see them when she wakes up.

Sunday after church we went out for lunch at Chili's. They gave Lauren this chocolate shake for her birthday. She willingly shared a few bites with everyone else.

Back at home Lauren got to open presents.

She got lots of fun gifts: Littlest Pet Shop sets, a puzzle, a magnetic dress-up doll, a purse filled with little purse-type things (hand sanitizer, candy, 4 $1 bills, jewelry set, key chain), a Slip-N-Slide, a magnetic house set, and the Tinkerbell DVD (did I mention she loves Tinkerbell?!). She's been playing with her presents all week! And Austin's been playing too, with the Pet Shop ones anyway.

Excited baby sister during the gift opening... And Lauren with her cake.

I saw this cake on one of my favorite blogs, and decided it would be perfect for Lauren! It didn't take much to talk her into it. Isn't it cute?! I think it's one of my favorites that I've made. It was a lot of work, though, piping all those individual little meringue icing flowers (the ladybug spots). I made the daisies out of fondant. Lauren helped with those. Just like playing with Play Doh. Except fondant tastes better. ;) She should know, she's tasted both...

We ate the last of the ladybug tonight. It was a cherry-chip cake with almond flavored frosting. I used almond because the extract is clear, and I didn't want my brown vanilla to make the pink frosting have a more yellow tint. Have I mentioned I have a thing for colors??? Ha ha

The birthday girl, blowing out her candles.