Party on, Garth!

When Elijah turned 7 in July, we celebrated with a couple of his favorite friends.  He invited the Grove kids (our good friends from church and our small group, who also go to school with E) and his best friend from preschool, Isaac.  Elijah chose a Lego theme, and we had a fun picnic lunch and spent the afternoon playing with water outside.  Isaac got sick that day, but he got to come over and spend the morning with us the next day, so it was like two days in a row of celebrating!

Birthday morning pancakes

Party on, Wayne!

In June, Miss Molly turned five, and we threw her a big ol' party!  She's not really had her own birthday party before (although the one she shared with Tallie was super awesome!) so we figured it was her year.  She chose a cowgirl ballerina theme (so Molly - totally unique and fun and PINK) and we had a great time planning it.  It was such a fun day - Molly was thrilled, and we all loved having our house full of people we love.  It was so neat to watch her be so excited and thankful for every gift, too.

Walking!

Finn has been taking some experimental steps lately, and loves walking around with the help of his push toy, and tonight he finally decided to take the plunge!  We are all so excited for him - yay Finn!

Movin' on up!

I wasn't sure we would see this at all, but today Finn has moved up from his signature "wounded soldier" to a real hands-and-knees crawl!  We were all pretty excited for him this morning.

Swimming lessons

One of Molly and Elijah's favorite parts of summer this year was taking swimming lessons.  Elijah got to take swimming lessons when he was just one, but we haven't done it since then - it sure was time!  The kids went almost every day for 2 weeks, and learned a lot.  They had a great time, especially Miss Molly the mermaid.

Getting brave

jumping in

This slide was really, really fast, but Molly went down several times!

All worn out after a fun day at the pool

Happy Birthday, Finn!

Finn turned one on Sunday!  What a big year.  He is such a sweet, smiley baby, and we are so thankful to have him.  He eats like a bottomless pit and has turned into a pretty good sleeper now, hooray!  He is still doing his one-arm, one-toe variation of the army crawl, but he is a fast little booger.

He has started pulling up and cruising now, so he is into everything.  He is so tall!  It took him a while to practice and get strong enough to pull all that weight up - and it was a big surprise when he finally did it!  I was in the kitchen when I heard Elijah yelling frantically, "Mom!  Mom, come quick!  We've got a real problem here!"  I raced into the powder room to find Finn standing up, chewing on the toilet seat and grinning at me!  Elijah was horrified.  I was horrified, and laughing at the same time.  Nothing is safe now!

Standing tall!  The ottoman is just perfect for cruising.

Loving his table toy!

Too much fun to be still!

Today we had a birthday party at Patrick's parents' house for Finn and Aunt Lorrie and Uncle Bill.  It was a fun day, and extra fun that Nana got to be there, too!  We chose Goodnight Moon as the theme for Finn's cake and decorations.  Yesterday, Maiah came and spent the whole afternoon helping me make and decorate the cake.  She was such a big help!

Surprised, and hoping to grab the candle.

Goodnight Moon cake

My baking assistant, Maiah, with her first fondant cake!

Our sweet girl is FOUR!

Molly turned four years old on Wednesday.  We celebrated last week at Koenobel's with Patrick's family, and we tried to make sure her actual birthday was pretty special, too.  She loved her Strawberry Shortcake decorations and reveled in choosing all her menus for the day.  We had 'M' and '4' shaped pancakes, smoothies, and "noodles with white sauce," of course.  Aunt Lorrie and the cousins came and took Molly and Elijah to a movie, in the theater!  And Bobbi came for dinner.  We had strawberry lemonade, strawberry cupcakes, and strawberry ice cream.  She was thrilled with all her gifts, including lots of Jessie and Hello Kitty and her very own (pink!) Legos. 

in her strawberry shirt, too, of course!

crisscross applesauce

Molly is spunky, silly, and full of energy. She loves to draw and color and is learning to write lots of letters.  She is really looking forward to preschool in the fall, and seems to be a little less shy around new people this year (although you never know when she's going to suddenly need to hide behind my legs or just need a few minutes to warm up).  She loves to play pretend with Elijah, or her babies, or just pretend!  She "has volleyball practice on Friday mornings" with her pink volleyball, and loves to swim and dance.  She is also our resident artist - she loves to color and draw and paint and write "notes."  We love this little girl, and the four years we've had together!

Spring Finn

Here are just a couple of baby pictures from May.  Our little man is growing and growing ...

Finn is 10 months old and is getting around the house with his modified army crawl - using only his right arm and his big toes.  He is alarmingly fast despite the inherent difficulty of his method and shows no interest in trading up for a traditional crawl.  I suppose we can commend him for his tenacity - and attach a fuzzy rag to the belly of all his shirts so he can keep the floor clean as he chases, uh, follows me around all day!

Finn continues to enjoy being in the middle of whatever his brother and sister are doing, but more and more also wants lots of attention from his mama.
 

He sure is a smiley little dude, and loves to laugh at just about anything, especially Elijah being silly.  He has had the most difficulty/pain with teething of any of our kids, but still has plenty of grins for us!  He started teething late, but they came very quickly - the first four came one right after the other.

The night before Mother's Day, Finn slept for 10 hours straight - which was far and away the longest he's ever gone.  His sleeping is getting so much better all of a sudden!  I am thankful for every good night and each day with reasonable naps.  For so long it seemed we would never sleep again!  Hooray for a sleeping baby!

Yummo!

He started a little slow, but he's catching on!  Finn loves to eat!

Spring pictures

Wow, it looks like we're a couple of months behind on the ol' blog!  Sorry about that.  Here are some pictures from this spring so far.

Trying his second food, pears.  He is not sure about this.

Playing outside with the big kids

Bare feet and bubbles - hooray for spring!

Proud in his T-ball uniform!

Elijah is playing t-ball this year.  We thought it would be a fun way to get in some extra gross motor skills practice, which he always needs.  He loves it!  He is getting better at throwing and catching and hitting, but has a really hard time paying attention during games. =)  (Really surprising, right?!?)  His best friend Isaac is on his team, which makes it even more fun.  The town's baseball and softball leagues have a fun festival on opening day, and the big kids really enjoyed it.

They got to check out the fire truck

and a race car from the local race track

Elijah had an Easter concert at school again this year.  This year he managed to sing and do the motions for all the songs.  It was cute.

Miss Molly loves her fancy dress.

Looking so handsome and grown up!

Finn is starting to overwhelm Molly's lap - but she doesn't mind.

Three cute kids!