Today...

Today, Zekey dressed Ailey.

 (Braden made some flip flops of his own...)

Today, I made the kids little barnyards for lunch out of graham crackers, peanut butter, cheeze-its, pretzels, animal crackers and shredded mini wheats.

Today, I made one for me, too. ;p

Braden came in this morning to wake me up and ask if he could go ahead and get all the cereal stuff ready.  I said he could and then rolled back over and snoozed for a bit.  After a while, the kids were running through the house and I thought that maybe I should go ahead and get up and pour milk in their bowls so they could eat.  I dragged myself out of my room and came upon Ailey dunking some shredded mini wheats into a little bowl of milk.  Then, I immediately looked beyond that to see that the milk that Braden had used was the buttermilk.  Oops!  Not one of them said that it tasted weird or different or yuck or anything.  I'm thinkin' Braden is hired! ;p

Rolling over

Brea rolled all the way over onto her belly this evening.  She's been rolling from side to side for a while now, but today she made the flip.  Then, she got upset because she was face down and her arm was stuck under her. :)

Closet Dividers

I finally decided that I needed to organize the kids' clothes, starting with the girls' stuff.  Well, that presented a problem because there are so many sizes in the closet between the two.  So, I decided I needed closet dividers.  After googling it, I found several different DIY versions like this, this, this and this.  It was really funny to me that many of the blogs I looked at made a comment about the dividers not really being necessary, but they wanted to make them anyway.  I have to beg to differ.  They are NECESSARY in this house fo' sho'!  I have been blessed with a TON of clothes recently for the girls and with only one closet for both...yeah.  The situation is the same for the boys, too!  So,  I could have bought the plastic rings and purdied them all up, but my cheap-self decided to go recycle bin diving instead.  I got some cardboard boxes and found a container lid that was exactly the size I needed and went to town drawing circles on the cardboard and then cutting them out.

After that, I cut out circles of scrapbook paper in complementary colors and modpodged them onto the cardboard cutouts.

 After they dried, I got my handy-dandy hole punch and put two holes in the top.

  I got ribbon scraps and made loops through the holes. 

  I then rummaged through my paper craft paraphernalia and found blank labels and slapped those bad boys on the front of the cutouts.  Oh, and I had to add some sparkly flower stickers I found in my stash.  Then, I wrote the sizes I needed on said labels and hung 'em up in the girls' closet.



Ta-da!

The sad thing is that I still have two more bags to go through and hang up/find a place for MORE clothes!!  AAAAaaaaahhhh!!!!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Zekers!

I can't believe Zekey is 4 already!  He's such a big boy.  He's also a very good big brother.  Zekey has such a tender heart and such sweetness in him.  God has something very special in mind for him every step of the way.  I love to see him grow and I love that he wants to just be around us.  He doesn't always want our undivided attention, but wants to be in our presence.  I just love that!  I am so excited to see where God take him.

Zekey, we all love you so, so much and love who you are and who God is growing you to be.  We are so excited to be a part of your journey and love that God chose us to be your family!  Happy birthday, sweet boy!

Happy 7th Birthday, Braden!!!

Wow!  Braden is 7 today.  7.  7!  That's craziness!  I can't believe how big he is and how smart he is and how amazing God has made him!  He's truly a fantastic kiddo and we are just so honored to be his parents.  God is so good.

Braden, you are such a blessing and you amaze us all the time.  You are fun to be with and you are creative beyond measure.  We are so proud of the big brother that you are and are excited to see where God takes you on the path He has set before you.  We are grateful we were chosen to guide you on your journey.  We are blessed that you were given to this family and that you were created for a specific purpose.  We love you and happy birthday!

Just our girls

Nina and Padrino came up and got the boys on Saturday after the baby shower.  It was also the first meeting between Padrino and his brand new goddaughter.   It was love at first sight, of course. :)  We had a lovely afternoon visit with them and then they were off to spend a couple of days with the boys.  The kids LOVE their godparents!  They were so excited about going and Zekey kept asking if it was time to go.  Well, the next day we had church in the morning and a few hours to chill before more fellowshipping time with our church family in the evening. That was really fun.  Sam and I couldn't get over how QUIET it was in the house.  Super duper quiet!  Weird.  Anyway, it was nice to have just the girls for a time.  Ailey is quite a different girlie without her brothers present. ;p  She sure did miss them, though.  The house stayed somewhat clean and that was amazing!  I also got stuff done in record time today.  I realized it was because I got next to no interruptions.  Again...weird.  Anyway, they came back mid-afternoon today and all is back to normal.  They weren't ready to come back and we are planning a longer visit later in the summer...

Brea update

I know I haven't been posting lately, but I'll get back to it soon...hopefully consistently.  Brea is about 3 1/2 weeks old and I've been needing to post a little update on her.  She started smiling about a week ago.  It started out that she would smile while sleeping, which is pretty typical and then she started smiling while awake and being talked to.  She's so sweet!  She sleeps pretty well.  She will slightly wake up 3-4 times a night to eat, but she just latches on and we both go back to sleep.  Its still not great sleep, but its not terrible either.  Her eyes are still a grayish blue color, though I would be greatly surprised if hers didn't turn brown after a while, too.  We're pretty sure she is a redhead, though its more of an auburn color and we'll have to wait until she gets more hair for full effect. :)  She's a pretty calm and content baby.  She cries when she's hungry, gassy, poopy or tired.  There's not a lot of fussing where she is concerned.  I'm very thankful that the Lord answered our prayers in that area. :)

The kids LOVE her.  Ailey is constantly trying to hug, kiss or lay on her.  She even talks to her in a specific voice.  So funny!  If Brea starts to cry, Ailey goes on high alert and let's me know that "Brea's, she's crying!"  Then, she'll run in there and tell her its okay.  Very cute!
Braden and Zekey both ask frequently to hold her and as long as they are seated, they can both hold her unassisted and they do such a great job!  Both of them ask after her if they've been playing in a different part of the house or outside away from her for a while. They just kind of check in on her.  Its so, so sweet!

I've been asked a few times how Ailey is handling the division of attention.  At this point, I honestly can't tell a difference.  She hasn't gotten any more desperate for attention than she already was. ;p  She does want me to hold her just as much, but she's perfectly fine with Brea sharing Mommy space.  She will sit with us and love on Brea, though I'm still working on not poking Brea in the eyes, nose and mouth....you know, the usual.

Anyway, we are all doing well.   I didn't really feel any sense of being overwhelmed until about the 3-week mark because I was ready to get back to getting stuff done and I couldn't go at the pace I wanted to.  Just something God is working on in me.  I'll have to learn to be patient in a bit of a different way than all the other times he's had to build patience in me and I'll have to learn to let go of some more selfishness.  :)  I'm a work in progress and I'm so glad that He's not done with me yet!

A Memaw and Pepaw Visit

Memaw and Pepaw came to meet their newest grandaughter and visit with the other grands, too. ;)  We had such a good visit.  It wasn't nearly long enough for any of us, but we are all content with what we can get.  Hopefully, we will get to go see them and other family and friends that we haven't seen in way too long very soon.