May

We've had a fantastic month. Simon is finally getting easier. He's a happy guy most of the time. Now if only he'd stop getting up so much in the night. I'm tired! 

Anyway, one night we had a couple of families over for dinner. The kids were too cute. They decided to picnic on the floor after fighting over who would sit in which chair. That wasn't as cute.

 Mina and Charlotte fight about half of the time and get along famously or ignore each other the rest of the time. I'm doing my best to let them figure things out without intervening, but it's difficult. Sometimes I have to separate them because of the screeching. They're so loud.

 Charlotte loves to wear anything ruffly and pink or purple. She always gets attention when she wears this outfit. It's covered in spaghetti sauce stains now. I've given up.  Poor Charlotte.

 Simon has decided to stop being a complete lump and actually rolls around the room some these days. I snapped this picture after he put together a few rolls in order to get to his sister's storytime nametag. He was pretty pleased with himself.

 Mina graduated from preschool so we took some obligatory photos. She insisted that everyone get dressed up fancy for the ceremony. Charlotte really took that seriously. Simon wore a tie, but we apparently didn't get any pictures of him.  Oops.

 Mina received two awards from her teacher. The first was for creativity. She's always putting her own spin on art projects and loves to make art for people. She's darn insistent that you take what she's giving you. If I kept everything she made, my closets would be full!  The second was for sunshine because she's such a happy girl.  Hmmm...and I thought she was starting to act like a teenager. At least she's good at school.

 I asked Mina to pose with her best friend, Brennen, and this is what she did.  My oh my. He wasn't complaining.

 Mina stopped taking naps a while ago and Charlotte is really trying to stop. I'm not having it. She's going to have rest time until she's five. The other day she finally crashed on her floor and I thought it was hilarious. There's a lamp on its side, barbies in all sorts of tableaus, and her clothes were completely different from when I saw her last.

 Check out the shoes! Sometimes I want to kiss her and never stop.

 Jon and I have been continuing on with our fitness endeavours. Jon did the Gladiator Assault Challenge last weekend.  He got all wet and muddy, but had a great time. That's him about halfway up the net on the right.

 This part of the course freaked me out.  Closed in dark spaces.

 Doesn't this look like fun?

 He ran to the finish and completed the course in a little over an hour. He earned fourth place in his wave (if I remember correctly) and first of the people he went with.  Oh yeah. I'm proud as heck of him.

 Muddy man!

Simon was with me in the bjorn, but once again, I forgot to take his picture. He's my little accessory.

Jon's muddy race looked like so much fun that I signed up for the dirty girl 5k mud run in July. I guess that means I'll have to keep running.  I can now run a 5k without stopping. My first official race is in a week. Jon will be running his first marathon and I'll be running my first 5k.

We went to a park last night even though we could see rain clouds on the horizon.  The girls wanted to visit Loomis Park for the first time of the park season.  Charlotte is so much better at climbing now. She wanted help, but we were able to stand back and let her gain confidence by climbing the ladder over and over again after spotting her one time. She was proud of herself. She had zero problems climbing the ladder and going down the huge slide without either of us within reach.  However, it was sprinkling so the flat part of the playground was slick. She fell. Of course.  Bloody nose!  That's how we knew it was time to go home.

Oh, and the other bit of new news is that Simon has teeth. He has one on the bottom that's almost all the way in and another that has just broken the skin.  We can't seem to get any pictures of it yet, but I can certainly feel that tooth when he eats. Ouch.  I've done a terrible job of keeping up with his baby book calendar so all dates for firsts are going to have to get figured out from Facebook or approximated from here.  These kids are keeping me busy!

April

Between injuries and events, it's been a busy month.  Mina went with Milo and family to Pheasants Forever. Twinsies!

Simon has been working on some skills. He can sit up (better than pictured here now). He can roll, but chooses not to in general. He says dadada all the time.  He continues to want to be held most of the time, but he enjoys his exersaucer sometimes.

 Easter happened. We dyed eggs and went to church. The kid had lots of candy.

 Mina and Charlotte both wore beautiful dresses and refused to pose properly.

Charlotte sprained her wrist and we took her to urgent care. Mina broke her arm and didn't get taken to the doctor until after this picture was taken and we realized just how gross her arm looked. She was in a splint for a week and used a sling for three weeks.

 Mina also lost another tooth. She loved messing with it before it finally wiggled out.

I finally took some decent pictures of Simon in his nursery. I was pretty pleased with the outcome.  By the time I figure out how to use my camera better, he won't stay still or pose I'm sure.

 Nothing like some finger sucking at nap time.  I'm jealous!

I went through all my closets and drawers and got rid of a ton of clothes. See the heap behind me?  Many of my clothes were too big or too old. I'm now ten pounds less than I was when I got pregnant with Simon and about five pounds less than I was when I got pregnant with Mina. I exercise a lot. That's the key to weight loss for me. Jon had to take a picture of me when I tried on my prom dress for fun.

 The kids love to listen to music and snuggle after baths. There's nothing like clean kids.

Charlotte is so adorable that it keeps me under control when she's soooo naughty.  You've gotta take the good with the bad with her.  She's really, really good...

Sometimes Simon puts up with playing with his sisters. They were busy with barbies so he got to hang out in peace.

It finally stopped being crappy outside so we went to a park play date.  The snow this year has been ridiculous. It shouldn't snow in April!

I can now pretty much leave Mina and Charlotte to their own devices at the park and tend to Simon. That makes me really happy.

This is the Charlotte that makes my heart surge. She's such a joy.

We had a mysterious poop incident occur while Simon was wearing these pants. Somehow he filled his diaper and socks with poop and completely bypassed his pants.  How in the world did that happen? I'll never know.

I have probably five different baby wearing devices. Most of them are hippy approved, but he prefers the hip and spine killing Baby Bjorn. Hey, whatever makes the kid happy.  Jon was wiping out the the ever present poop from the baby swing.

 At least Jon cooperated for the camera.

Charlotte participated in the United All Stars open house last night and wasn't shy in front of the huge crowd. We were so proud of her. She did somersaults and was adorable.  The pictures are on my phone and I'm lazy so we'll see if they ever make it onto the blog.  We'll save the video.  Mina didn't get to perform since her arm has just healed. Bummer. She's awesome at cartwheels and flips (though she DID break her arm doing a cartwheel).

My other big news is that I'm currently training for a 5k on June 1st.  I know it's only 3.1 miles, but I've never been a runner.  My goal is to run the whole thing and to finish under 35 minutes. I'll keep running until I can run a 5k under 30 minutes or I hate it too much to continue.  So far I don't hate it entirely, as long as I go slowly. Jon and I have been running together on Sundays. He has to go at about half his normal speed, but at least we're spending time together.  Yesterday I ran a 5k on the treadmill within my training program and easily made it under 40 minutes with plenty of walking (because I was following my intervals; I could have kept running).

As Usual

I let another month go between posts. I guess that's become my new norm.  Something had to give and I can't completely neglect the children, husband, or kids.

As I'm writing this, Simon and Charlotte are napping, Mina is playing games on the iPad, and Jon is on a plane to Minneapolis, then California.  So far, so good.  It's exceedingly rare that Charlotte and Simon nap at the same time.  I try to enjoy every minute of it, whether that means catching up on my to-do list or sitting on my butt.  

I have tomorrow off so getting the blog done today means more sitting on my butt time in the future. I might even watch a chick flick or take a nap.  Whoever says that mother-in-laws are awful, obviously doesn't have one like mine!  She's taking all three kids for me all day tomorrow, then making us all supper. Score.

So now we come to the photo bomb. Jon  bought a new camera for me for Valentine's Day so there's a mix of photos from the old and new camera.  Some day I'll actually try to take more than quick snap shots.  I don't know when that will be since I don't take the time to put make-up on most days, but at least I have a nice camera for when that day comes.  When I was in high school, I used to spend a whole afternoon hiking around taking nature photos. I can't even imagine having that kind of time on my hands.

My oldest niece, Hailey, came over for some math help one day.  Charlotte just loves teaching other people the joy of algebra. Ha!  I did enjoy going over graphing with Hailey. Her family's house sold and my brother in law, Matt, found a job in another town so they're all moving away.  I try to not even think about it because I'm going to miss them all.  It will give us another reason to visit in the Des Moines area.  Hailey won't have me close by for math help though.  Maybe they should just stay.

 Charlotte enjoys how huge the new camera is. She'll even cheese it up for me. Here's a senior picture pose.

 I know this is random, but it gives me the giggles. Charlotte loves croutons. I made some popcorn and had croutons out to put on a salad. Charlotte decided her popcorn needed croutons. All of the croutons.  This is proof that my kids don't always eat the best food.

 Here I am doing my favorite thing.  There's nothing like snuggling a three year old.

It's been a pretty awful winter unless you like snow. I hate snow.  My girls, however, LOVE snow.  They get all dressed up and play out there until their faces are pure red. They come inside demanding hot chocolate afterwards.  I enjoy watching them from inside the house.

Simon is just too cute. He's pushing up more when he's on his tummy. He can roll both ways. He looks so much like Charlotte with those big blue eyes.

I tried to get a picture of him sitting, but this is all we caught. He can do the tripod sit briefly (where his hands are held together on the floor in front of him).  He's a chill baby and doesn't have an urge to blow through all the milestones like his sisters. That's fine by me.

 Simon loves riding on my legs.

 Simon was baptized last month also.  He was very well-behaved. His sisters entertained the congregation. Mina kept pulling on Simon's legs. Charlotte almost pulled down the whole baptismal font.

 Go Cyclones!

 Here's a picture from yet another snow storm. Mina and Jon made this awesome snowman.  It has grapes for eyes, a real carrot nose, rocks for the smile and buttons, golf clubs for arms, and a Bacon Fest hat.

 Facetime is cool. We made use of it when Jon was in Iowa City last month and we plan to use it again while he's in California. I'm so lucky to have a husband that is rarely out of town. Facetime isn't nearly as good as the real thing.

 Mina loves her little brother so much. She spent part of a nap time snuggling with him in my bed. Cute.

 Simon has the same opinion of snow as I do.  Not a fan.

 Jon bought this snowsuit for the little guy before he was born so we took him out to "play" after the last snow storm.  Seriously. It shouldn't be snowing in March.

 What a pair.  It was darn windy outside.

 Here I am faking happiness for the camera.

We've done naked time for Simon a couple of times. I'm amazed that he has kept the blanket dry.  Anyway, he's awfully cute in his birthday suit.

 He's a happy guy most of the time. Finally!

 Charlotte and Mina love to pick out their own clothes.  Here they are all dressed up for tumbling class.

 I love my cute guys. 

 Mina had me take her picture because she knows how much I love purple.

 I can't help but giggle at this self portrait. I was trying to take a picture of us with Simon. Poor Simon.

 We took Simon to Florida for a vacation/conference. He was terrible. Terrible.  I don't even really want to write about it.  There was lots of screaming and not a lot of putting him down.  We did have some fun times - He was great on the plane both ways. We got to see friends that live down there. He was happy sometimes in his stroller outside. He enjoyed his bath.  I'll just leave it at that.

 Mina, Mina, Mina...she knows just how to make Simon happy.

Until next time...