Lillian's Graduation

YEA!  Lillian's done with Preschool!

What an achievement! 

 OK, so I've always thought preschool graduations were kind of cheesy, but I guess that's before one of my own kids had one...

It was actually pretty cute, and I admit, I teared up.

The 4 and 5-year old classes first put a program on for us.

They sang, and the kids talked about their preschool activities and the things they learned. 

Then they went to change into their cap and gowns.

Those little kids were so darn cute!

Here's our little graduate.  She loved the attention!

When Lillian got her 'diploma' from Mrs. Gleason, the preschool director, she pronounced Lillian's middle name incorrectly.  She said KAY-lah instead of KY-lah.

Lillian corrected her.  She's always been pretty proud of her name.

Although I am glad preschool is over (no more driving to and from next year!), I can't believe Lillian is old enough for Kindergarten!  Or that three of our five kids will be in elementary school!

Wow.

Colten, who entertained himself by eating paper throughout the program, had better stay little for a long time!

Blue Bell in the Mail

When I was in high school, my Dad had this friend who would drive down to Amarillo, TX to get this special ice cream that was only sold in the South.

I thought it was pretty crazy, personally.

Then, when we moved to Mississippi a few years ago, we discovered Blue Bell ice cream.

It was delicious.

My parents came to visit (frequently), and it turns out that this was the special ice cream that my dad's friend would drive to Texas for!  We were pretty special, living in Mississippi...

I have to admit, I developed a fondness for the stuff.  Especially The Great Divide, Dutch Chocolate and Old Fashioned Vanilla - the good stuff.  So I was kind of disappointed when we moved to Virginia, and couldn't find it.  Apparently Virginia isn't "South" enough to carry Blue Bell...

I think I got over it...mostly...but then a few months ago my Dad called and said he had really exciting news.

Can you believe it?  A grocery store in Colorado was going to start carrying BLUE BELL ICE CREAM!

Then, seriously, everyone in my family who still live in Colorado (so my parents and sister) started TEXTING me pictures of this ice cream when they'd buy it.

Whoo hoo!  Yea...them?

Fast forward to my birthday, in May...

My parents told me that they had just mailed a box to me for my birthday, and it was going to arrive on a specific day.  Each day for the next 2 or 3 days they'd call me to remind me about this box, and that I should open it right away, and not wait till my birthday.

I think my response was usually, "yeah, sure, whatever, Mom and Dad..."

Well, when UPS came by with that box I dutifully opened it up, right away, and found this:

What the heck?!?  Did my parents send me fish, or meat or something?

(Which would be totally out of character for our family.)

So I tore through all the plastic wrapping, and opened the cooler...

and still couldn't figure out what the heck they had sent me, or why was it dripping.

When I suspected it was chocolately (when I first saw it I thought it might be blood, going back to the fish/meat thing.  And, YUCK!), I wondered why they'd send me chocolate milk...

So once I pulled the gross (but non-bloody) brown paper sacks out, I saw a sad sight:  

Melted ice cream.  A full gallon of it.

Darn it.

I called my mom for the scoop (ha, ha, pun intended), but I felt so bad telling her that it was all melted.

They had really wanted to send me Blue Bell ice cream for my birthday.  My mom spent a whole afternoon gathering up supplies, researching how best to send something frozen in the mail, figuring out the restrictions on dry ice (the butcher at the grocery store had assured my mom that they sent meat on 8 lbs of dry ice all the time, without the meat, or the ice melting).  My parents were pretty excited about the whole thing.

It would have been awesome, had it worked out.

But I felt pretty loved anyway.

My parents are the bestest.

Fridays

I love, love, love Fridays!

Lillian goes to preschool Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for four hours, but it takes us 20 minutes to get to her preschool.  So by the time I buckle three little kids in the car, drive to her school, get the kids out of the car, take her into class, put the two little kids back in the car, drive home and take them out of the car it takes a whole hour. 

Then, 3 hours later we have to do it again.

So despite the long time she's at school, I really don't have time to do much when I have to factor in the eating and sleep schedules of a 4 month old baby.

So I LOVE Fridays.  Generally we have nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Perfect!

And I get to spend time with Lillian.

Lately she's taken an interest in baking and is always asking if we can make bread or cookies.

I'm usually on board with this.

Friday night is also our stay-at-home movie night with all the kids, so Lillian and I thought it would be fun to make some Muddy Buddies.

They are just so tempting, all spread out on the counter.

I tried to appease Lillian (and myself) with a banana,

but then relented and let her have some Muddy Buddies.

We needed some quality control, right?

Next we made some Smore's Cookie Bars.

Oh my!

These call for Marshmallow Creme, which I can eat straight out of a jar with a spoon!

Add in the chocolate bars, and a surprisingly good graham cracker cookie layer and it was a heavenly treat!

Mmm...delicious marshmallow creme!  It's really a good thing we had friends to help us eat these that night.

Now during this baking extravaganza, Mason was peacefully playing.

And making a HUGE mess.

She got into our game cabinet and pretty much tossed every piece to every game we own all over the family room.

But very quietly.  I had no idea she had been doing this.  In the room next to me, where I could see her if I turned my head slightly, no less.

But at least since it was Friday, and I had nowhere to go, we got that cleaned up nice and quickly.



So apparently Mason has mastered these toddler-proof locks, and I should keep a better eye on her.

Sweet Lilladee

Lillian is our most sensitive kiddo.

Her feelings get hurt easily.  She doesn't deal well with physical pain, or sickness.

She speaks very softly.  And she's very sensitive, and intuitive to how other people feel.

She's always asking why people do certain things; she wants to understand their actions from their perspective.

Sometimes I don't have the patience I should for it.

But I appreciate her, and who she is.  She is such a sweetheart, and I just love her.

The day I took these pictures, Lillian was excited for a couple of reasons.

She had Tiddly Winky day at school, so she was able to wear her pajamas all day, and make and eat pancakes at school.

We finally had a warm day, so she could play on the playground at school, and she could come home and eat her snack outside.

She loved watching the birds and squirrells while she was out there.

Pretty simple things, but they made her happy.

And she makes me happy.

Random Cuteness

Don't ask me why, but I'm obsessed with carseat pictures.

And a little bit obsessed with taking pictures of my baby.

I can't help it that he's stinkin' cute, just obligated to share it all with you!

AND Colten will not be able to acuse me of not taking any pictures of him just because he's the 5th baby!

My girls fell in love with this bear hat.  A relic from Cayden's baby days.

I got this car seat insert after Colten was born because it was so dang cold.

Lillian asked why Colten had a sleeping bag in his carseat and wanted to bring one for herself in the car.

Like I said, it's been cold.  Only a little nose is peeking out here.

Cayden thought Colten needed a blanket and some cuddle-time.  Can I tell you again how glad I am that Cayden got his brother?

Love this picture, but I can't believe how quickly Colten is growing up!  I don't even know if I can call him a 'newborn' anymore!

Finally, I captured a smile!  Babies have such sweet smiles.

Lillian playing peek-a-boo.  She might have been more entertained than the baby...

One night the Augers came over for dinner and the wonderful and evil Valerie brought an entirely too delicious chocolate cake and left the entire thing at our house!  Mason devoured her piece.  But I probably would've looked like this too if it was socially acceptable for me to have chocolate all over my face.  YUM!

Our sweet, wonderful kids, all ready for church.

I'm so glad that we got a wild hare and decided to have one more baby, because it really doesn't seem like such a crazy thing anymore.

I love all my babies.

Love

Don't daddies and babies melt your heart?

Little Buds

Mason has loved being a big sister.

She brings her brother things, gives him lots of hugs and kisses, makes sure I know when he's crying, comforts him when I'm a little too slow, shoves his binky in his mouth and shushes everyone when he's asleep.

That last one cracks me up, because she usually SCREAMS "Colten's sleeping!" when she feels the other kids are being too loud.  Ah, two year olds...

Oh well, she loves him.  And he loves her, she'll tell you.  (He probably does..., or will come to.)

So we pulled out his play-gym, which 4 of our 5 babies have spent countless happy hours under.

Colten, true to form, loves it too.  This toy plays music when its jiggled, and that delights our baby.  But he is still too little to get it going.

But, never fear, he's got a big sister to climb under there and help him!

Such sweetie, sweetie sweeties!  They're going to be good friends.

Christmas Morning, in Pictures

We didn't make it downstairs until 9:00 on Christmas morning.  I don't think we've ever waited that long, but we haven't had a 10-day old baby, keeping us up at night (a little...) at Christmastime either.

The big kids were very patient, and didn't even try to sneak down.  Pretty impressive!

Sweet kids; it was so nice to sleep in a bit!

  

Everyone was pretty pleased with what they got.  We had lots of smiles!

My dad had been insisting all Fall that I go buy Redskins jersey's for Cayden and Ashton for Christmas.

My dad HATES the Redskins, he's a life-long Cowboys fan, but when he was here in September he and my mom took Ashton to the mall with them where Ashton stopped to admire a pink Redskins jersey.

My dad tried to talk her out of her budding Redskins fan-dom, and steer her towards the Cowboys.  She was having none of that!

I think it's funny because my kids hardly even know what football is, Andy enjoys it, but rarely watches it.  But they are constantly coming home from school with Redskins 'educational' freebies, so I guess they've been indoctrinated young here!

It took me months to do, but I finally went and got those jerseys. 

Still, I have no idea who the names are on the backs...

 Unfortunately, no jerseys for the rest of us.  We got exciting things like Clinique products,

building games,



doll sets,



and movies.

I'm OK with that.

Judging by the mess in this room, I think we all got entirely too much!

Time to clean up, make breakfast and lounge around, snacking and watching movies all day.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!