My Handsome Hunter-boy

One Saturday in May, the kids and I spent the day in Denver with Auntie Ondie and Uncle Jens. The day was beautiful - sunny, warm, not windy. We played in City Park . We played bocci play and baseball. This picture of Hunter just totally captures his desire to hit the baseball - most of the times he does hit it when he tosses the ball to himself. Obviously, he missed when I took the picture. Hunter LOVES anything to do with baseballs, basketballs, soccer balls, golf balls.

Hunter likes to read my MomSense (Mothers of Preschoolers publication) magazine while on the toliet. Quite funny to capture this!

These pictures do not do justice to the trauma Hunter (and Dixie & I) went through. We were visiting Indiana in May. Dixie and I took Isabella, Hunter and Sabrina for a walk in the woods around their house. Brett's parents live on 60 acres with a pond and lots of trees. (It is beautiful!!) There is a little drainage creek into the pond. There are cinder blocks place to walk through the muddy part without getting muddy.

Hunter slipped on one of the steps and his forehead came down on the next cinder block. He had his arms out, but they landed on either side of the block. His forehead swelled up, was scraped and just looked awful. He turned completely pale. Well, the swelling went down and he was left with two black eyes and scrapes on his face. He's recovered, but it scared me.

May Happenings

I took this picture the night before Brett left for his half-ironman triathlon in California. I printed the picture out on regular paper, but Brett being the picture-perfectionist that he is had to re-print it on photo paper. I think he carried the picture with him on his bike during the race. I'm sure it influenced his results; he finished 21st in his age group.
This is really Sabrina's first gardening season. She went to the garden last summer, but she was always in the stroller or baby carrier. This year she gets to play in the dirt. We haven't been able to teach her NOT to eat the dirt yet.
I think this is a funny picture. Brett and Isabella have practically the same pose and who knows what they were thinking about.
Hunter's favorite activity in the garden is to chuck clumps of dirt. It takes us back to his earlier nickname; we used to call him Chuck because as an 18 month old Hunter threw EVERYTHING he could lift down the stairs.
Hunter and Isabella are the best of friends. These two have the best times together and their future holds a lot of trouble.

My Baby is One!

For about six weeks prior to Sabrina's first birthday, I was having a really hard time. My little baby was turning one year old. She wasn't going to be a baby any more. I knew May 2nd was inevitably going to arrive, but I was hoping Sabrina would stay a baby for a little longer.

She has definitely grown in the past month. She is pulling herself up AND getting down, no more screaming when she got stuck in a standing position. She is eating only table food, no more baby food. She is sitting in a high chair attached to the table, not the separate high chair. She isn't taking bottles during the day, only sippy cups of milk. She is crawling everywhere and is sometimes going without a morning nap.

Sabrina standing at the play kitchen - just like her brothers and sister.

Even chocolate chip cookies didn't make her happy!
Sabrina caught a nasty kid virus called Roseola. She had a fever for three or four days. The highest it got was 105.7 which is pretty high and scary. The poor girl just felt miserable. Then when her fever broke on came the Roseola rash. The picture above doesn't do the rash justice. Coincidentally, Isabella had this same virus at about the same age and we were out of town for both episodes.

The following pictures are from Sabrina's birthday dinner. We had two sets of friends over for dinner. The Knight's kids have been "featured" in a few other blog entries. Our other guests were Jim & Louise Hunter who are like surrogate grandparents.

She didn't blow out her own candle, but she wasn't afriad of it either - like Isabella and Hunter were.

I included this picture just because I think she looks so sweet.

The other kids were dying to have their picture taken with the birthday girl.
Sabrina digging into her cake. She actually didn't eat much of the cake, but squealed until we gave her more strawberries and bananas.
For all of the kids I have recycled toys for their early birthday presents. As a toy is out grown it goes to the basement for storing until the next kid was ready for it. So for Sabrina's birthday each of her siblings went with me to the basement to "shop" for a birthday present. They each picked out a toy that had been their's at some point. Orion picked out this little red wagon. All of the kids have learned to walk behind it.
Hunter picked out this ball popper which has kept them all entertained for hours. Isabella picked a Fisher Price Little People Zoo.

I rarely include any pictures of myself on the blog, but this one is so cute of Sabrina!

My Sweet Squirrel

First, the title might throw a few folks for a loop. Well, that is my nickname for Isabella. I started calling her squirrelly girl to combat some people calling her a girly girl because I am not a girly girl. Then squirrelly girl has been shortened to simply squirrel. Isabella doesn't seem to mind and almost views it as a term of affection.

On to the pictures ... Isabella went to preschool two mornings a week this past year. She LOVED every minute of preschool. Preschool didn't always love her because she was a bit of a wild child at times in preschool. She and two of her buddies often had trouble sitting still, listening during story time or just listening at all. She is so full of energy that I hesitate to squelch it. Hopefully she'll learn to settle down a little bit more or else she and I are going to have a long kindergarten year.

The first bunch of pictures are from the field day at preschool. In typical Colorado style, the weather was too cold to have field day outside, so they did relay games in the gym. Isabella's teachers were nice enough to let Hunter participate as well.

Isabella and one of her partners-in-crime doing the sack race.

Isabella carrying an egg on a spoon around the cone. They didn't use real eggs in the gym which was a really good idea.

Isabella tossing a bean bag in order to knock the baseball off.


The next pictures are from the last day of preschool. The kids gave a little presentation of the Bible verses they learned and sang a handful of songs. Then they each received a certificate.

Isabella with her teachers - Mrs. White and Mrs. Cartee.

He's getting so old!

Last summer I really struggled with with sending Orion to kindergarten. I knew he was "ready" for school, but I didn't want him to be away from us (me) for the entire day, five days a week. At the beginning of the 2007 school year our school district started only offering full-day kindergarten. This was not part of MY plan. I had always thought Orion would go to half-day kindergarten and then spend the rest of the day with his siblings and me. It was a BIG adjustment for all of us to have Orion in school for seven hours a day (including the bus ride home).

Orion did fabulous in kindergarten this year. Orion has learned to read, spell words, write, add and subtract, function in a classroom and a school. He started riding the bus home from school early on in September. He loved sitting with his friends on the bus. After spring break he started riding the bus to school as well. He went on field trips to the pumpkin patch, the zoo and a play (If you give a pig a party). He ran in the cross country meets and participated in cup stacking after school. He celebrated the 100th day of school and made a leprechaun trap. Orion learned a lot, made friends and thoroughly enjoyed kindergarten. I still wish he had been in half-day kindergarten, but I just had a very liberal stay-home-from-school policy. :-)

Orion's Kindergarten teacher made a huge Power Point slide show of the entire school year. I condensed the slides to just the ones that Orion is in - not that the other kids aren't important, but both I hesitate to post other people's children's pictures to the internet without their permission and people who check our blog only know Orion. :-)

Orion kindergarten - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Orion kindergarten

Orion was so excited to pose in the "good, flat body position" on the bike that I have to post this picture. We are creating little triathlete monsters.

I took this picture after he rode the bus home on his last day of school. You can compare the before and after by looking at the first slide - that picture was taken by his teacher on the first day of school. I see differences in his face - he is a lot more sure of himself now. :-)

11 Month Old Sabrina

Sabrina would not let me take her picture without the remote - at least I managed to get her pacifier out of her mouth.

Sabrina's first ride with her carseat turned facing forward. Technically, she's supposed to weigh 20 pounds before we turn her around, but ... she might not weigh 20 pounds until she's 18 months old. And I don't really know what she weighs because she hasn't had her one year check-up. Sabrina likes facing forward, but Isabella was kind of sad about it; Isabella can't see Sabrina while we're driving any more.
Sabrina really liked these chocolate covered strawberries our friend, Katherine brought over for dessert. My shorts took a beating, but Sabrina couldn't get enough of the strawberries.
Sabrina has learned to drink from a sippy cup! Yeah! She likes to feed herself and give herself milk. At meals she insists on eating with a fork and feeding herself - maybe she can teach her older brother, Hunter, who still wants me to feed him.
Orion and Isabella's soccer games generally fell during Sabrina's morning nap time. She was such a trooper and would just fall asleep on my back. She still wants a morning nap most days - even though I'm ready for her to give it up. It sure would free up my day a little; maybe I could make it to the YMCA for a work out if she weren't napping 4 - 5 hours a day.
Sabrina looks a little like trouble in this picture. She definitely has a mind of her own and if I do something that she doesn't want, she lets me know.

Miss Becky's Princess Tea Party

On April 30th our daycare provider planned a Prince and Princess Tea Party for the kids during the day. Isabella picked her Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) costume. I helped Hunter pick two different costumes that could have been princes, but I also sent a back-up. I knew that when the time came Hunter would want to wear the Cinderella costume.

The kids were thrilled with the tea party. Miss Becky got our her good china tea pot, cups and saucers. She served them tea (cranberry juice) and pastries (powdered doughnuts). Then the kids danced to their favorite party tunes.

Hunter and Sabrina's Baptisms

All the pieces finally fell into place. I shouldn't say fell into place because really it was God's work that put the pieces together. Orion and Isabella were baptized by our associate pastor at our church. Sandy has been a very important mentor in my life and I really wanted her to baptize our other children. Our church has been in a state of flux for the past 6 or so years - part of the transitions was having Sandy resign to pursue her doctorate. The Presbyterian Church has rules about former pastors coming back to their churches, so I prayed and waited and prayed and waited for circumstances to be such that Sandy could baptize Hunter and Sabrina. Well, ... On April 13th it happened!

Brett, Hunter, Louise Hunter (the kids' surrogate grandma and Elder for the baptism), Orion, Sandy Lester, Isabella, Me and Sabrina
We were also blessed to have both sets of our parents, my grandma, my brother and Brett's nephew join us for the baptism.
Sabrina with three doting grandmas
Orion and Brett's mom, Dixie

We're Ne-ked

At our house we tend to celebrate lots of little milestones. These are all bathtub pictures celebrating little milestones in Sabrina's life.

Sabrina's first bath with just her big sister.
Sabrina's first bath without the baby bath chair.
Isabella is pretending to be a mermaid - note the legs tightly together as a back fin.
Sabrina's first bath in the big bathtub alone.
Sabrina standing in the bathtub by herself.

Look What I Made Today

The kids would like me to save EVERY one of their art/craft projects, but let's be realistic - I would have an entire basement full of construction paper crafts before they all left elementary school. Instead, with the suggestion of my Creative Memories' consultant, I take pictures of the kids with their projects. Then I attempt to throw the project away (I know not very sentimental). I say I attempt to throw them away because if the kids catch me, then they often take the craft project to their room to save FOREVER.

Orion with his Easter projects from Kindergarten.
Hunter made this rabbit mask at MOPS
Orion colored urban and rural 3D pictures. When asked where Grandma and Papaw live, he said urban. We have a little bit to work on with him understanding the difference since my in-laws live on sixty acres outside of a town of 300 people. I think most people would consider where they live rural.
Isabella made a lion and a chocolate pudding painting. The pudding painting was done the week Isabella's preschool class was learning about yummy treats to go along with the letter Y.