Halloween

Baby elephant is happy

Rapunzel, Thor, and Elephant: Take 1 

Take 2 

Take 3 

Take 4 

Take 5 

Take 6 

Baby elephant is no longer happy

A short video

Clara loves her big sister, even if she's being roughly manhandled by her!

Random Clara Pics

Here's a random assortment from past and present.

Finally home from the hospital after Clara was born!

 My new baby sister

Let me say that she did not loved being squished into the side of the chair.

Here's how to stick out your tongue.

 And more recently...

Sweet times with Great Grandma

 With Grandma K.

Getting baptized

Loving her new dress that Aunt Beth made!  She especially likes to seek out the ties on her shoulders and suck on them.

Clara!

She's almost 6 weeks but I figure most people who read this already know about her.  Clara Mae was born August 2 at 6:31 p.m., weighing in at 7 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches.  By the end of week 1 she weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and she was 9 lbs by week 2.  I haven't weighed her since but judging by the rolls of fat accumulating on her she's gaining well.  Labor was great and quick (we were at the hospital for less than an hour before she came out) and we've adjusted to life at home with three kids.  It seems so strange to say we are a family of 5.  She's been sleeping well lately, only getting up once a night, which is a big help to me.  Here are a few pictures of her while we were still at the hospital.  Tjabe and Maggie love her by the way and are being very helpful.

And here's a video from the other night.  Sam is the one making the noises, which I find kind of freaky but Clara seems to be amused by it.

It's been a long time...

I'll try to do some catch-up, beginning with Tjabe's kindergarten/sixth grade graduation ceremony from May.

The kindergarten boys escorted the sixth-grade girls to their seats at the beginning of the ceremony.  Such a dapper guy.

Tjabe and fellow buddy Jackson waiting for the others to come on stage

Getting his certificate and finally being able to sit down again!  Whew!

And today Sam and I celebrate our 10-year anniversary.  Our gifts to each other this year were a baby and a house.

Here's the baby (so far - we should be meeting her in a few weeks).

Here's the house.  Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Hall to kids' rooms

Tjabe's solar system room

Maggie and baby's butterfly hatch room

Kids' bathroom

Main level living room/kitchen

Kitchen/dining room

Dining room

Stairs to upstairs and downstairs

Downstairs family room

Guest bathroom

Guest room/office

Front of house.  Pay no attention to the yard work that needs to be done.

Huge backyard

Back of house.  The room above the garage is currently being rented by a friend so no pictures of that yet.

Easter 2012

Happy Easter everyone!  He is risen!

Baby #3

For the few of you who aren't on Facebook, here are pictures from our ultrasound.  Baby #3 is a girl!  Maggie was excited and claimed it as hers, and Tjabe wasn't so excited and wanted to know if I was going to have another baby after this one so he could still hope for a brother.  Everything looks great and due date is still August 4.

Funny stuff

Here's some things the kids have been saying (or said) lately.

Maggie (coming up to me with a Lego magazine): "Mommy, can I read this while I go poopy?" And so it begins...

Tjabe: "Man's Eggs is now open!"  This is the name he has given his pretend restaurant (i.e. our kitchen).  Yes, it is weird.  Sam and I keep trying to get him to change it.

Tjabe was giving me a spelling and writing test yesterday while we played "Mom School".  I'll be honest, it was exasperating and funny at the same time.  Of course I had to write everything in cursive, and then he would correct it, and then I would fix everything.  The problem was almost every word I wrote was wrong somehow.  The dot over my "i" was too big or too small, my letters went a little below the line or weren't sitting on it perfectly, the lines weren't smooth (because I was writing on a bumpy surface, which is apparently no excuse).  Every time he gave me back my corrected test it was covered with red marks.  When I asked him why there were so many corrections his response was, "Because I'm very good at cursive.

Me: Maggie, what's your full name?
Maggie: Tigress.
Me: No, I want your first and last name.
I remind her of her full name, and she tells me: No, that's my nickname.  My full name is Tigress.

Making Starship Proud

Here's the kids singing while picking up toys tonight.  Can you guess what they've been listening too?

Tjabe's Party

This year we decided to give Tjabe his first party.  I let him invite his class (5 other kids) and one more friend.  Thankfully another mom and friend of mine stayed with me and helped.  I'm not sure what I was thinking planning to do it on my own...

We started with a "picnic", then had some games and ended with the cake.  Then we still had another hour left so they all just played and wrestled and screamed and got sweaty.  I think everyone was tired by the end but it was overall a good time.

I did a map with cheese to go with the snacks, since he loves geography.  And cheese.  He had fun putting it together too.

The whole crew

 The cake - a lighting bolt as requested.

 Tjabe wanted to accompany everyone singing to him on the piano.  He did an intro and everything.