Love this age!

She is so fun!
She is talking - real words!
She loves life!
We love her!

 Time to fly!

She just figured out how to do this.
Copying the other kids.


Kisses.

When she wants to give them.

It's time for prayer.

Fold your arms.
Bow your head.
Close your eyes.
Then she peeks with one eye. 

What a sweet thing.
Remember, they were all like this.
I love them all!

Garden labels

Kevin decided to make labels for the rows in the garden. We talked about doing it last year but it never got done. This year he showed the kids how to get pictures of the vegetables off the internet and then he helped add the names. Then we printed them, cut them out, laminated them and cut them out again. It was a learning expereince and they all enjoyed it. I'm sure they'll enjoy going out to the garden to weed, too, because it will be easy to know which row is what! He ended up planting the garden all by himself this year. The kids helped some, at first, but yesterday he was all by himself. The rain we had today will help the seeds germinate and then we'll see what pops up.Way to go Farmer Roy, M.D.

Yarn balls

I tried something new with the balls I make for baby gifts. I usually do the stripes in varying fashion but I tried putting a pattern in this time. I repeated the heart three times around the ball and it turned out really cute, if I do say so myself. Just thought I'd share.

Mother's Day walkabout

We had a beautiful Mother's Day, so we went for a walk after Church. We went to Price Nature Center, of course. It's so close and so awesome. I love how different it looks each time we go. I could think about taking up jogging if I could go there all the time - but then I remember that I would have kids in tow and maybe they wouldn't be able to keep up. Anyway... The weather was perfect and we had a nice time seeing all the flowers, bugs, and green trees.

This is how she does Peek-a-Boo now. She doesn't bother covering her eyes.

Kevin was pointing out the frogs in the water so all the kids got down to look for them.

Can you see it in the middle of the picture?

Update on the choice...

She has decided to suck on both hands. Okay, she doesn't do it all the time but I was able to catch it this time. She does try both hands some times because I think she can't decide which one to suck on. What a cute three month old baby!

Oh, and she's really getting close to rolling over to her tummy. She has done it once or twice but more of an accident than on purpose, but she's getting there.

Sky of gray.

Back on the 12th of May, I took these pictures from my back yard.

I just loved the dark sky, the clouds, and the trees.

Just thought I'd share.

Marissa's birthday skirt

We did it! We competed a project in less than a month! I bought the fabric, elastic and thread for her birthday and we made it together. I still did a lot but tried to let her do some. She did the pedal of the sewing machine and helped pin. I bought two shirts to go with it and I think they both look great. The headband is from the leftover skirt fabric but may need a little work because I'm not good at that kind of thing. Anyway, here she is in her new homemade skirt!

At least when we were done she was wanting to do it again so that must be good, right?!

Just waiting for her to figure it out.

Maybe it doesn't matter and I should just be happy that she is so happy. I have caught her sucking on her first two fingers, the middle two fingers, right thumb, left thumb, first three fingers, and even her fist (not pictured). She'll even take the pacifier. I guess we've got it made and I certainly won't complain since she is sleeping through the night. Such a sweet baby - they have all been great babies! She's three months old and we all love her, no matter what she decides to suck on.

Kevin has been busy, when he's not busy with doctor stuff. Fortunately, we have a wonderful neighbor who has hooked us up with a goodly supply of lumber that Kevin can cut down and haul away. The work continues and the wall grows ever taller. We are stacking it higher than we did last year so that we can have a larger supply, in case we have a normal cold winter at the end of 2012. So I thought I'd let you see how it's going so far.

We also get a lot of kindling to start the fires with, mostly during fall and spring when we don't feed the furnace all day long. I collect it into boxes that we keep in the basement.

Marissa turned 9!

And I think she really enjoyed the day (5/8). I forgot balloons entirly and no one has said anything about it so I should be better about that or let it go. She helped make the pancakes for breakfast - smiley faces, hearts, snowflakes, first initials. I forgot to have her pick the ice cream, but luckily we had some in the freezer and no one was against having chocolate fudge swirl ice cream with pancakes for breakfast. Yummy. We went to the library after that and had a nice time at story time. Sister Berry, a woman from Church who has adopted my kids for her grandkids, met us there and surprised Marissa by taking her for a couple hours - lunch date and fun. It was a sunny day so the kids helped Dad stack some split wood, and then played outside. We enjoyed a yummy dinner with homemade rolls that were almost as good as my mom's rolls. Grandma and Grandpa Nichols came over with the cake and a present. We enjoyed time with them and even talked about some places to go camping in the U.P. (Upper Pennisula of Michigan)

Marissa received some nice gifts: a 5 game set from G. and G. Nichols (badmitten and others), two Nancy Drew books from Memere, fabric and accessories to make a skirt with me, paintbrushes to paint her doll house that we still need to build, a pad of construction paper (she asked for that so she could use it however she wants to), and two shirts to go with the skirt we are going to make. She also got some money and cards from the Nichols and Sister Rodriguez (the other woman at Church who has taken such a liking to my kids and does several treat things for them throughout the year). She's 9 now. The last year of the single digits.

Full on sentences.

Domonique is figuring out the great mode of communication with syllables. Her newest sentence goes like this, "Dad dad dad go?" She is trying to say, "Where did Dad go?" So whoever she is talking about is repeated for however many syllables she needs. She does say shorter sentences with words that are close to what she wants - "le go" and "bop" for stop - so she is coming along. She also repeats many words that I tell her to say, like "May I have more please?" when she is eating. This is such a fun age because they are learning so much and understand so much! We're just having a good time and trying to not use NO so much.

Crossover to Webelos

Ben is really enjoying Webelos. I wasn't sure if they did the crossover for Webelos or just into 11 year old Scouts. There were several boys who have moved up so they did it at the last Packing Meeting for all the boys. I need to be better about working with Ben on setting goals. I don't want to do it for him but I think I need to be a bigger part to get him going. If I just sit down with him and go through it with him, he can pick out what he wants to work on and then I can support him in that.

Saying good-bye to the old den.

New leader welcoming him with Kevin's neckerchief.

Pinning the shoulder colors on.

Gotta see this!

Okay, maybe you don't really but I thought I'd share anyway. She is getting really strong and loves to look around. She also tends to spit up while she's on her tummy, as all little ones do. I just love the smirk on the after shot because she had moved the rag she was laying on and got the floor. Tricky.