Monday, January 27, 2014

The Yellow Chair

We said good-bye to the yellow glider. We got it when I was pregnant with Grace for her nursery and I remember when it came in the mail and we opened it up. It wasn't the exact yellow I wanted and it had a crack..so never was my favorite chair. Then it went to Ben's nursery where again we sat every night reading a couple stories, singing a song and saying a prayer.

 I started thinking about how we needed to make room in Ben's new big boy bed that would be coming soon. So I started cleaning things out, and decided to sell the yellow glider. well.. it sold in two days. and it didn't really hit me until the night before they were going to come get it that I was sad. I didn't know why. Why was I sad about getting rid of the ugly yellow chair that I never liked? Probably didn't help that Daniel was out of town and I had been dealing with the kids 24/7 all by myself for 12 days..I was sad. The feeling was hard to explain. It was going to be the last night that I was going to be able to hold Ben and have him be my "baby" in my lap, the last night I could have him sit on my lap and read his favorite book, the last night I could sing him a song and steal some extra snuggle time. It was my special time with Ben. It gets very busy with 3 kids, and a lot of days I feel like there isn't enough of me to go around..so bedtime feels like a special time where I get to spend just a little bit of alone time with them and let them know that I love them.

Deep down I am realizing that they are growing up so fast and I wish I could slow down the process!  It it hard to notice how big they are getting when you are busy with daily life. But when you sit down and look back and think about fun memories you are reminded how fast it all goes.

 I texted a few of my friends that night and told them that this silly chair was making me emotional..they said some things that got me thinking...."even though I never liked the chair, didn't mean I didn't have a lot of memories in it"...I had spent almost every night for 5 years sitting in that chair, rocking a baby or reading stories...so yeah, she was right. Another friend said " you still can snuggle with him and read books in his new bed"..yes very true but it's just not the same. I am so excited for Ben to get his new big boy bed, but there is just something about them all snuggled up in your lap and fitting just right. Never thought in a million years that saying goodbye to that chair of all things would have made me so sad. It is seriously making me cry just thinking about it. But it's gone, a nice couple who was expecting was excited about getting a new chair for their nursery. I'm hoping they have as many great memories in it as we did.

I started to think back to all of the silly pictures we had taken in it. Lots of great memories as babies, toddlers and big kids :-)
Molly just turned 2.

Molly just turned 3, Grace had just turned 1.


Grace 1 year old

Grace's nursery

Grace 2, This was Grace's last day in the crib

Ben's nursery


Ben 2 years old, reading books


Ben almost 3/Last night in the chair!


.....ok, you think they will let me have my chair back! :-)




Sunday Funday

We were so excited to get outside and enjoy the great weather on Sunday! It was a much needed break from being stuck in the house for so long. We met some of our friends at Franklin Park. James Ingraham, Ryan Latta and Ben Rupp were all there! All of the kids had so much fun running around and playing together. Ben's favorite was the "spaceship" and the slides. The girls had a lot of fun swinging on the tire swing and chasing after the boys for us. After a few hours of playing we all went to lunch and home for nap time.




Trying to get a pic of all of the boys together!













Sunday was about to get better because Daddy was on his way home from Chicago!! He had been gone for 7 days and the kids (and Mommy) were ready for him to be home! After nap we played outside waiting for him to arrive.  When he pulled up the kids start squealing with happiness and ran to give him big hugs!





                                     

Sunday, January 12, 2014

2014 kid interviews


Something we have started to do in the last couple years is to sit down with the kids and interview them about the things they love, their favorite places to go, etc. A lot of people like to do these interviews close to the child's birthday but we can never seem to find the time, so we have made them our New Year's interviews.  It's fun to hear how the kids answer their questions and will be fun to look back on. I am not great at journaling but I am trying to get better and that's why I started this blog and do more things like the interviews to capture how their little minds think at these ages. We also try to do the interview on video to watch their reactions and cute little faces! Ben didn't understand some of the questions so I had to explain them a little to him.  It will be fun to look back and compare over the years!


Name: Molly           
How old are you: 7
What is your favorite color: hot pink
What is your favorite breakfast food: Bacon
What is your favorite outfit: pajamas
What is your favorite thing to do:  Art, play soccer
What do you want to be when you grow up? Artist
Favorite food: Pizza, chicken nuggets
Favorite Snack: yogurt and pretzels
Favorite movie: Brave
Favorite TV show: PAW patrol
What is your favorite thing to do outside: jump on the trampoline
What do you like to take to bed with you at night: my blankie
Who do you like to spend time with: my family
What do you do really well: soccer goalie, ballet, Art
What makes you Laugh: Funny faces
What is the best time of the day: Night-time because I get to read
What are you afraid of: I’m not really afraid of anything
Who is your best friend: Ella           
What do you like to do with your family: go out to shop
What do you love to learn about: Art, music, and rocks (science)
Where do you like to go: Gigi and Papa’s house, American girl store, my friends houses,
What is your favorite book: Ivy and Bean
If you had one wish what would it be: To be with my family everyday and not at school, Have Sophia come over for a play-date

Name: Grace
How old are you: 5
What is your favorite color: red
What is your favorite breakfast food: waffles
What is your favorite outfit: pink cupcake tutu dress
What is your favorite thing to do: play with my family
What do you want to be when you grow up: a Mommy           
Favorite food: cheese pizza
Favorite snack: Lucky charm cereal bar
Favorite movie: Frozen
Favorite TV show: Sophia the First
What is your favorite thing to do outside: jump on the trampoline
What do you like to take to bed with you at night: My magic blankie
Who do you like to spend time with: Caleigh
What do you do really well: playing with other people and making them happy
What makes you laugh: When people tickle me
What is the best time of the day: Playing with my friends at school
What are you afraid of: When people make scary noises
Who is your best friend: Caleigh
What do you like to do with your family: help mommy cook
What do you love to learn about: Cooking
Where do you like to go: pizza Shoppe, Gigi and Papas house, target and to see Movies
What is your favorite book: Sophia the first book
If you had one wish what would it be: To have a new student at school or have a new kitty

Name: Ben
How old are you: (he said 3, and we reminded him he was still 2, and he said "oh yeah")
What is your favorite color: Blue and Red
What is your favorite breakfast food: Oatmeal
What is your favorite outfit: fire-truck pajamas
What is your favorite thing to do: play tractors
What do you want to be when you grow up? Don’t know
Favorite food: Oatmeal
Favorite Snack: Cheese puffs
Favorite movie: Frozen
Favorite TV show: Bubble Guppies
What is your favorite thing to do outside: dig
What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Boo bink (Blue blankie )
Who do you like to spend time with: friends, Ms. Newberry(teacher at school)
What do you do really well: (dancing)
What makes you laugh: (he made a silly face)
What is the best time of the day: morning
What are you afraid of: (made a dinosaur noise)
Who is your best friend: James and Ryan and Ben
What do you like to do with your family: play tractors
What do you love to learn about: Tractors
Where do you like to go: Grandma and Grandpas house, go fast on the highway, a fire-truck party
What is your favorite book: Tractor book(Good night, good night, construction site)
If you had one wish what would it be: To have a fire-truck party


Friday, January 10, 2014

Sibling LOVE..

I love to catch the kids all playing together and listening to their little conversations.  Most of the time the kids are all off doing their own thing but sometimes they find something they all want to do and I love it. Daniel and I look at each other when this happens and say "nobody move!" This morning I caught them all playing with Ben's new Melissa and Doug parking garage that Santa brought him this year. It is becoming one of his new favorite toys! He loves to park all of his cars in a line and then have them go down the ramp to get gas. Lately he will walk up to any of us and say "you play cars with me?" It is so cute! So we all take our turns sitting down on the floor and driving cars, tractors or firetrucks around with him. Doesn't take much to make Ben happy.



Saturday, January 4, 2014

Snow day!

It snowed! It didn't take much on the ground for the kids to want to go out and play!
















Holidays 2013

We did a lot of fun things over the holidays and one of the first things the kids start asking about is when we can make the gingerbread house! So one more morning after breakfast we started decorating! Molly and Grace each picked a side of the roof to design and Ben got to decorate the little gingerbread men. They did great working together and had tons of fun!











Another fun thing we did in December was go to the KC Ballet's Sugar Plum Fairy Luncheon and the Nutcracker matinee. Both of the girls were so excited to go! and so was I! Aunt Christa was the MC for the event and read the Nutcracker story while the ballerinas danced. Before the luncheon we took pictures with real ballerinas, bought tickets for a raffle and got our faces painted. After listening to the story both of the girls got to go on stage and help Aunt Christa draw names for the raffle. The luncheon ended with a big dance party which the girls LOVED! Then we went to the Kansas City Ballet production of the Nutcracker at the Kauffman center. We all loved watching the performance.



















Christmas Eve:
Gigi and Papa came into town on Christmas eve and we were so excited for their arrival! As soon as they got into town we all went to dinner at Talk of the Town and then came home for Gigi to read "The Night Before Christmas"..When we got home we left Santa his cookies then off to bed so santa could come! 





Christmas Day:
Daniel and I woke up around 7:00 and all of the kiddos were still fast asleep! Any other day Grace would be awake by 6:30 so we were very surprised that she wasn't awake yet! Molly was the first to wake up and then Grace and Ben finally woke up around 8:00. We all had a great morning!















Molly got a notepad and colored pencil set from Santa and she immediately started writing her christmas thank you notes..at 8:30 am.






Santa brought everything we asked for...Grace's list: Castle, Mini Ipad, Legos, and Books.
Molly's list: Mini Ipad, Ivy and Bean books, new pjs, I tunes cards
Ben's list: Bulldozer, Firetruck, and trains.