Lincoln::10 months

The time flies so quickly.  We are loving every minute with our little man.  2 months until he is 1.  Gasp.  Taking pictures of him, this time, proved to be...wonderful.  It was really late and I really wanted a picture in the outfit he had on.  He wasn't having it.  So I'm using this picture I had to get of this outfit before I put it away.  We always laughed when we put it on him.  Little guy.  Because he's not.

The pictures I tried to get.  Wailing in one.  A rattle in the other.

 

-I stepped on the scale with you and you were almost 24 pounds.  Which is kinda funny.  B was just over 22 pounds and J was almost 22 pounds.  So you must be slowing down.  I know they packed on a lot of weight once they started eating.  It will be interesting to see where things end up at a year:)

-12-18mo and 18 mo clothes.

-size 3 diaper during the day, 4 at night.

-you nurse 4-6 times a day.  Most of the time it's 5.  An early morning feed, morning, lunch, before supper and bed.  Sometimes you like to sneak in a middle of the night feed.  Wondering if that's going to decrease or not...but don't really feel like doing anything to encourage it either.  Adelyn, Brecken and Joelle were nursing...twice a day...at this point.  Whoops.  Eric keeps poking fun, that he will be nursing until 48 months.  Don't make me let go of my last baby.  I promise I won't be that bad.

-will typically sleep 8-10 hours before waking up to eat.  Usually go to bed around 8.

-you still adore eating.  We haven't found a food you don't like.  The greener the better.  You eat all table food.  I brought some baby food jars I still had in the freezer, to Mackinac, and we came home with most.  You were not loving them.
-adore drinking water.  Adore.

-still doing the army crawl.  I caught you doing it for a couple feet, the right way, but you were so slow you said forget it and dropped to your belly.

-you can do the stairs.  You aren't super motivated to climb to the top.  The highest you have gotten is the third.  We still haven't put the gate up.  I'm still holding onto hope that we can avoid it.

-love the water

-you are kinda a momma's boy.  When people try to talk to you, you will smile at them and then bury your face in me.

-STILL NO TEETH.  We shall see if Adelyn will hold her record at 11.5 months for no teeth or if you will beat her.

-love, love, love to laugh

-you are pulling yourself up everywhere.  You won't walk move after that but you are pulling up on everything.

-love swinging

-love riding in the ergo.  Wherever we go, I just strap you to me and away we go.  Our neighbor commented the other day, when you were riding in the stroller, "I have never seen you in a stroller!"  4th child problems.

-love blowing raspberries

-still are not a fan of your toys.  You would much rather destroy some paper or try to find the toilet.  Or eat a shoe.  Sigh.  I am not a fan of baby-proofing so there is a lot of re-directing going on.

-I think we managed to avoid the whole thumb-sucking thing.  Maybe it was a comfort thing, when I was eating stuff that bothered him.  He hasn't done it in months.

-on that note, I am back to eating eggs.  And butter.  I will consume some dairy, if it's in things, but avoid it when I'm making/buying food.  Still no gluten.  Just introducing nuts.  Still eating sun-butter but trying to eat more lara-bars and whole nuts.  I'm mostly thankful that I can eat eggs again.  And butter.  And Lara-bars.  It's the little things. 8 months of dairy/egg/nut free.  18 months and counting of gluten free.  Never thought I would have to be "that" person.

. The littles at 10 months.

Tiptoeing Through the Tulips

I've been wanting to take the kids downtown for pictures with the tulips.  I didn't want to go during Tulip Time though.  Then it got cold.  Finally it was somewhat decent out.  We headed out before it turned into a stem photog session.

Pretty coral tulips.

These four cuties.  Ahhh.  I love them.

Sisters.  Nothing better.

Be still my beating heart.

Bahahahahaha!  They were so funny.  They thought it was hysterical that we wanted them to kiss.

I love the way these turned out.  But someone's always gotta be looking funny.  Or we are missing a child.

Popeye the sailor man

 

He could not give me a real smile.  {thank you, Josh, for passing your terrible smile along}  So I told him to watch the girls play instead.

Sweet, sweet boy.  Don't ever grow old.

Eric and I were trying to get these of Lincoln.  It takes two adults to take infant pictures, you know.  One adult to TAKE the picture.  Another to get said infant to look.  Two bikers were biking by.  They thought we were hysterical.  Our oldest two were off prancing in the tulips and digging for bugs, barefoot.  Looking like real Dutch kids.  Joelle was yelling at us.  "I have to POOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!!  It's coming OUTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!  It's really coming!  It's really COMINGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!  I have to POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"  I can't even make this up.  The biker man said "Are you guys trying to take pictures?"  No.  What I'm really doing is trying to convince my 4 year old to not poop in the grass.  Or her underwear.  Only dogs poop in the grass.  "But I can too!"  No.  Sit down.  That will stop your poop from coming.  "No, it won't!!!  I have to GOOOOOOOOOOOO!"  She made it home.  Without further drama.

I promise Lincoln only ate the one tulip.  I also asked the man biker if he was a police officer.  He said no.  I said good.  Then broke a tulip off.

The girls were jealous Brecken got to hold Lincoln.  So we had to do some of them holding him.

Of course.  A picture with the metal tulips, requested by him, results in a cute, normal smile.

Sweet, sweet girl.  Loves to stop and smell the roses.  My children have a love for nature.

Mother’s Day 2015

Mother's Day 2015.  We had a wonderful day.  We were having all our babies dedicated.  We invited both of our families to church and over for a small lunch and they all could come.  Eric and I were laughing, at the end of the day, about what a circus we are.  I had to pull Adelyn from Kids Zone so she could come up front with us.  She neglected to tell me she had to go to the bathroom.  A couple minutes before we go up front she tells me she has to pee.  When she has to pee, she has to PEE.  She always gets mad when we tell her no, too.  So she was frustrated with me.  We had told the kids, multiple times, that they were getting dedicated and what dedication was.  There were still multiple whispers of WHYYYYY.  Should have done it when they were babies ;)  It was good though.  It created great discussions.  Eric and I both start sniffing and realize Lincoln had poop in his drawers.  No time to change that.  We get up front and everyone miraculously behaved.  Except for Lincoln.  When he talks, he is LOUD.  He talked quite a bit, while we were up front.  In this first picture, I was holding him towards me and he tried to climb me.  So I turned him around.  He ALMOST pulled Makenna's hair (the little girl that's not ours).He had three strands in his hands before I realized what he was doing.  Sunshine's baby, Hudson, started talking to Lincoln.  So she switched spots with Makenna.  Hudson started touching Lincoln, so Lincoln started grabbing her back.  He can squeeze HARD so I was watching for that.  Then I noticed he had her hand in his mouth.  She's lucky he doesn't have any teeth.

He went on his first parent chaperoned date.  His next (parent chaperoned) date won't happen for another 20 years.  At least.  They were so sweet holding hands:)

This is my "Eeekkk you are going to hurt her face!"

A guy from our church grabbed some great close up shots of them with his phone.

The kids sang after the dedication.  Adelyn LOVES singing.  I had quite a few people tell me how beautiful she looked.  And she is.  Inside and out.

This?  This made my Mother's Day.  The last 5 days have been the busiest 5 days we have had in a loooooong time.  Brecken and Joelle skipped naps on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and they were up until 10:30 on Saturday.  I was reading B books on the couch and he just zonked off.

My mom was sitting with Joelle on the floor and she just zonked off.  They had to go so she put her on the couch by me.  The last time I held them both, sleeping, they were literally half this size.  Half their weight and half their length.  Love.  {The exhaustion on my face is real.  I think my days were non-stop 18/19 hour days for the last 5 days}

Mother's Day wouldn't be Mother's Day without a good picture of me and my babies.

This is how Brecken felt about it.  Their supper was all ready and we were watching a movie.  So we paused it and told them they could have supper after they smiled.  I had to tell Brecken I was going to eat his supper if he didn't shape up.  So we got the good one and the girls wanted to do one making their hands into hearts.  Brecken did not.

We watched Homeward Bound and Planes.  The kids loved Homeward Bound and Planes we have seen before.

I had Eric ask the kids these questions.  Apparently I am a skinny giant.  Eric told me they would never say such kind things about him.  I told him he was wrong.  We shall see come Father's Day:)

My Momma::Adelyn
My Mom's Name is: Nichole
She is 28 years old and  20 feet tall.
She is 50 pounds
She works at home
Her favorite food is gluten free pretzels
She always says I love you, Adelyn.
She laughs when I tickle her.
She loves to play games with me.
She doesn't like to have us be disobedient
When she gets all dressed up she goes to church
If she could go on a trip she would go to Mackinaw Island
She gets upset when we be's disobedient
She is happy when we give her cards
I love my mom because she loves me.

My Momma::Brecken
My Mom's Name is: Mommy
She is 8 years old
How tall is she?  Seventy actually.
She is 8 pounds
She works at school
Her favorite food is oatmeal
She always says I like you
She laughs when I say crazy things
She loves to play with me
She doesn't like to spank me
When she gets all dressed up she goes to church
If she could go on a trip she would go to Holland to see horsies with me. Not the girls, Just me and mama, and Lincoln.
She gets upset when I be naughty to the girls
She is happy when I do stuff for her
I love my mom because she is the most beautiful person in the whole wide world

My Momma::Joelle
My Mom's Name is: Mommy
She is 18 years old and  Eleven Eighteen  feet tall.
She is Sixteen Eleventeen  pounds
She works with daddy
Her favorite food is veggies
She always says I love you
She laughs when I laugh
She loves to play with me everyday
She doesn't like to be mad at us
When she gets all dressed up she goes to the stores
If she could go on a trip she would go with us and with our father.  {Joelle had taken to calling Eric Father.  She said to him, when he came home from work the other day, "Welcome home, Father!!"} We have no idea were she got it from.
She gets upset when we be mad at her
She is happy when we be happy
I love my mom because she loves me very very much

Eric's gift to me, for Mother's Day.  He says he never has to buy me one again.  He's probably right.

Some of Adelyn's gifts to me:

Marching in the Parade

Adelyn and I got to march in the parade with Holland Christian.  This is the first year we have done dutch costumes for the kids.  They.were.adorable.  I have never had so many people ask to take their pictures.  A little weird but I won't dwell on it.  

Joelle didn't think it was enjoyable to have her hair braided.  Oh did she wail.

My pretty dutch girl and I.  She was mortified I had to dress like a boy.

Marching down 8th.  We would pick the HOTTEST Tulip Time to march in the parade.  I still haven't decided if I would prefer hot or cold.  So much sweat.

Waving to Daddy, Nana and the kids.

Tulip Time Parade

We weren't going to do the parade because Lincoln needed to spend some time napping in his bed.  He ended up sleeping late in the morning and then taking a late morning nap.  We had friends saving spots in case we could make it.  Lincoln woke at 1:15 so we rushed out the door by 1:30 to make the 2:00 parade.

Lincoln didn't get lunch so we brought a banana for him to munch on.

Friends

Sweet girl friends

Dutch cuties

HAHA!  Brecken's cheeser face:):)

So glad I got Dutch costumes made.  They were made with really long hems so we can just let them out of if they get short.  They should last us for quite a few years.  And they are pretty cute!