Some January photos...

It doesn't seem like much has been going on this month, but at the same time feels like time has just flown by! Lyla is about 6 months now and so much fun! She has also found her voice...very squeaky and loud :) Ethan has been consistently testing the waters and make everyone laugh...and Elijah is doing 1st grade school work in his spare time! Three kids raised in the same environment and yet they are all so incredibly different! Still amazes me! Hope you all had a happy January. I can't wait for spring....

CHRISTmas Joy

We started on Christmas Eve. A wonderful ham feast with all the trimmings, sweet time with Mom, Peter and Gena, Jaime and Diane and all the kiddos, gift exchange and cranium. What fun it is to hang out with everyone! Twelve children between our 3 families! We really should do it more. Then came Christmas morning. We read Luke 2 {the Christmas story} and then opened gifts with the kids! They were so full of joy and excitement. Lyla liked the sound of the crinkly paper :) Then more family for a huge breakfast and sweet fellowship. I love hearing Thomas and his dad sing hymns together! A very special moment indeed. After the kids had a nice long nap, we headed over to my mom's house where we were greeted with a mountain of gifts! Even Ethan's eyes were bulging! We had another fabulous feast with all the trimmings. Got to spend more sweet time with Grandpa and Grandma Stubb, Auntie Sandy and Uncle John, sweet miss Georgia and my Mom and Dad. This Christmas was so much fun with 3 kids! And yes they definitely got spoiled! But that's part of it :) They had such a blast. Elijah is still going on about how thankful he is for all his presents. And through it all my kids have a new favorite song...{Happy birthday Jesus. I'm so glad it's Christmas. All the presents and lights make the holiday nice but the real gift is you.} Guess they learned a little too :) Merry Christmas to you and yours! I hope it was as blessed as mine!

Never A Dull Moment . 1

So I can start with a story some of you may have already heard but maybe some of you haven't had the chance to laugh at me quite yet. All in one simple word. POWDER. Now as most of you know baby powder is a very fine substance, usually sprinkled on cute baby bottoms...well not on this lovely morning. May I also remind you this was one measly day after the poop and painting with butter incident {see earlier post}. I was doing something in another room, and it was mysteriously quite in my house...usually this is when Lyla Jane is peacefully sleeping or playing with her toes, and Elijah is probably curled up somewhere with a book, and Ethan...well Ethan is usually up to something. Something like poop squishing, or butter painting, or toilet water splashing. This time it was powder puffing! So I walk out and he is sitting on the floor covered in powder...and powder all around him. Of course this always happens with a BIG smile. That's just Ethan. So I am still recovering from the poop and butter, still in a bit of a daze and I take a picture. Then proceed to tell him powder is NOT for sprinkling all over the house it is for sprinkling on little baby bums. Not too bad. No fit. Relatively easy clean up. Day goes on and surprisingly no more incidents. Next morning. Going great. "Uh-oh" I think. A little too quite for my liking. So I go to the living room to check on Ethan...POWDER! POWDER EVERYWHERE! Not just on my cute little boys lap but all over my living room. The couches were dusted the carpet was thoroughly dusted, the fireplace was dusted. My powder was...was GONE! You can imagine. Oh yes you can imagine. And it was probably worse! I look at Ethan, this time in no mood at all to take a quick picture. And he says in the most adorable way he knows how..."Oh-no mama, powdew all ova, no-no, me did it too." So not only is he confessing, but he KNOWS it was a no-no!! So...trouble. Now I don't have to worry about that happening again right? Because he got trouble and learned his lesson right? NO, wrong. He won't do it again because he can't, the powder is gone, remember?! So, the story of my life...Never a dull moment. Now don't get me wrong, can you imagine life without all the little moments? I most certainly cannot. Life would be boring. No. I LOVE that my life never has a dull moment! Sometimes it just takes a minute, or two, to be able to breath. And then I always look back and laugh. And I LOVE to laugh!

Intro. Never a dull moment

So this morning, after a mashed banana fit with Ethan, I decided I would write about these funny {and sometimes not very funny} things that my kids do or don't do...It will be called Never A Dull Moment. Hahaha. So enjoy the chronicles!

These are pictures of real blessings! Thank you God for my dear children. I. Adore. Them.

A few more photos of my three darling monsters! I love them!

Joys of Motherhood Part 2

So...my morning was...how can I say?...A perfect picture of real kids in the everyday. A mix of happiness and mess, curiosity and joy and stubbornness, and the inevitable DNA showing up...even if it did come from way down the line, cause we all know that I am NOT a stubborn person, so it had to have come from the extended family. Right? Well we will just say that and move on... Our cabin trip in Leavenworth has brought on a whole new "stage", if we can call it that, for Ethan. He is two. There really is no other way to say it. Terrible two. I will give more details in another post... So this morning I wake up to the wonderful and beautiful voice of my little darling Ethan. "Mownin Mama! I wope up! You wope up too! Tum Mama wope up! Tiss fow Mama!" I love him. He sounds just like that reads. Cannot say the "r" sound, or hard "c" sound aka the k sound. It is really cute! I would hope that he just talks like this forever but...well he may be a very lonely boy if that were to happen. So I promise I will work on his pronunciation. Later. Now the next sentence didn't cause any alarm cause he is a boy. "Mama, poo-poo...tange me pease." I also understand that since he is very aware of his diaper duties he should probably be toilet training...again I promise I will work on that. Later. So I get out of bed and proceed to change his diaper, when I notice that, what looks to me like chocolate, is all over his legs and feet and in between his toes...remember now, I did just wake up so no connection is made in my mind...yet. Then it hits me! OH...OH...OH MY...WHAT IS THIS?? "Poo-poo mama!" Oh, okay, wow, well who can I blame?? Thomas? Yes Thomas cause a sweet two year old couldn't possibly do something so repulsive and disgusting. So I immediately call him at work and proceed to tell him that I, and only I, will be doing all the diaper changing from now on because obviously he can't put a diaper on right because, well just look at this sick mess! Thank God I have such a sweet level headed husband who can deal with an insane and irate wife ant any given point in the day. He quickly defused me and lovingly set my attitude straight. So I pray, yes I actually pray for God to give me strength to clean up this mess without throwing up...remember this is not just a turd on the floor, it was between his toes...I will leave the rest up to you, without any further disgusting details. So I put him in the bath and think about how I can take care of this...some time passes, bath time is over. Little curios boy set free...BIG mistake...While I am cleaning up one disgusting mess, and realizing I need some kind of spray, I meander out to the kitchen...only to find little man playing or should I say painting with the butter! AHHHHH! AHHHHHH! AHHHHH! Yes. I did. I screamed. Then I took a picture. Then he reverted rather I reverted him back to the highchair. Which he hates. Cause he is "No baby! Dis is baby seat! Waaaaaaah!!!!!!" Then I walked away. Cleaned up the dirty mess then cleaned up the greasy mess, then at 9am finally fed my family breakfast. What were the other kiddos doing during this time, you ask? Well sweet Lyla Jane was sitting in her saucer smiling away, probably thinking "Hahaha oh mama you have no idea what fun things I am going to have for you to do! I am learning from the best!!" And Elijah was, you guessed it, reading :) And now? Yes now the TV is babysitting them so I can share my wacky morning with you! And Yes I promise not to let the TV babysit them again! Well not all the time anyway! Like I said before...Cherish. Every. Moment! :)

I love fall!

Decorating sugar cookies. Crisp days at the park. Chai tea and pumpkin spice lattes. Rubber boots. Beanies. Pumpkins. Leaves of many colors. Thanksgiving. Scent of cinnamon. Watching the rain. Farm trips. Cozy blankets. Movies. I. Love. Fall.

Halloween=The Drive-in!

Every year for Halloween we go to the "Drive-in" at church. All the kids make a car out of a box to drive in and then they play a movie! After the movie they tie in a salvation message. It is really great and tons of fun! This year they watched Bolt. Elijah and Ethan really love that movie! They even have a concession stand where the kids can go get hotdogs, juice boxes, and all the candy a kid can wish for!! The kids have the option of wearing their costumes if they want. So Elijah and Ethan were race car drivers and Lyla Jane was a zebra! They all looked so cute!

Lyla Jane 3 months!

Coontail hats Grandpa Starkey and Mima brought back from AZ!

My three darlings!

Lyla Jane 7 weeks

Motherhood at it's best!

Well, Lyla Jane is now 5 weeks old and smiling all the time! She actually recognizes me and just stares, it is so heart-warming that it brings tears to my eyes. How God gives us such wonderful blessings wrapped up in tiny {and not so tiny anymore} packages, even when we do not deserve them, is so wonderful! It has been quite an adjustment having three, or having two of the three under 2 years old, I'm not quite sure! But praise the Lord she has been sleeping through the night for the past 2 weeks. Now if I could just get somewhere, anywhere on time that would be fabulous!! Even though life is a little crazy it is so amazing being a mother to my three beautiful children! A small glimpse...trying to keep house, train and teach the boys, feed my little darling, keep each of them clean and happy and fed and clear from bumps and bruises is practically impossible! Haha! Then throw in a quick shower and a snack for me and dinner?...Oops totally forgot about dinner...Thomas is home...didn't get around to half the cleaning I wanted to...laundry everywhere...lunch still stuck on the table from a sweet little toddler who loves to eat with his hands, but what a joyous sound when pounding feet run to the door shouting "Papa's home, papa, papa!!!" and then Thomas gets a hundred peanut butter and jelly kisses! So this morning when Lyla was staring so sweetly into my eyes and grinning so beautifully and Elijah is keeping himself quite busy with a color book and crayons and Ethan tells me {before he goes!} that he needs to go poo-poo, I am so excited to take him to the toilet, only to have him say "Done, Mama" in his super sweet voice. "That's okay" I think, "we'll try again later." Meanwhile Lyla is squawking in the other room, so...I turn to her before I put a new diaper on him...I return to the big poo-poo right on the carpet...and a darling little boy grinning so big at me saying "Oh Mama poo-poo", I just laugh and thank God that he allows me to be home with my children and cherish all these wonderful {and not so wonderful} moments with these amazing little people! So what next? {after I clean up the mess} Feed a beautiful little girl, correct a couple brothers who are becoming more and more "brotherly" as the days pass, try to instill a bit of character into them, remind myself to smile and move on to the next this or that...and on with the day! Cherishing every moment...

Cherish every moment!

Lyla Jane is growing so quickly. And we are all enjoying her thoroughly! The boys must give her a thousand sweet kisses a day, and I have been putting bows of different colors in her hair to match her outfits! Having a little girl is so much fun! Thank you to Great Auntie Sandy for the adorable polka dot skirt outfit!!

Lyla Jane and her adorable bow! I can attach this to a little tuft of hair on the top of her head ;)