Our Family Project

I guess Adam got up extra early the day I found him like this. It always amazes me the positions in which my children fall asleep. That does not look comfortable to me; but, I guess it was for him.

This is how most things get done around here.  My Maryanne is a Mama's Girl.  She is my little shadow, lost puppy, fifth appendage ... you name it.  And, when we are reunited after being apart, even for the short two hours at church when she goes to nursery, she wants nothing to do with anyone else ... she comes to me with her arms wide open, just wanting to be held.  And, despite the fact that sometimes her desire for me can make it hard to get some things done, and although I feel badly that she isn't this way with Jon, I LOVE it. Most days, when I am cooking, I place Maryanne up on the counter next to the bowl, or pot (she's learned what "hot" means, and I love to hear her say "hot, hot" over and over again) and she gets to pour in ingredients or simply watch.  There are days when she helps me to unload the dishwasher, or knock over the folded laundry piles, or walk with me holding onto the vacuum while I vacuum the floor. There was a particula...

Yesterday Jon took the children to the pool.  And, I think he forgot something.  Can you spot it? Yes ... he didn't put any sunblock on his chest and stomach.  And, he's paying for it dearly.  I don't think he'll ever forget again.

Maryanne likes to wear dresses.  Ever since Memorial Day when her shirt was taken off at the lake, she will not keep her pants on.  But, she'll wear a dress and diaper cover.  So, I've started to make her some dresses from some extra fabric and tee shirts that we have just laying around.  This particular fabric my mom used to wrap up Kate's quilt so it could be transported from her house to mine without Kate seeing her quilt.  I asked if my mom wanted it back, and she was adamant about me keeping and using it.  It was almost 1 1/2 yards!  Enough for a dress AND a diaper cover!  So, I finally filled up my bobbin with some elastic thread (a first for me, and I'm totally addicted to it) and made this cute little sundress for Maryanne (I used this pattern ).  But, she had to have some cute hair accessories to go with it ... so I made some flower clips, following this tutorial .  And, I love it!  She is so adorable in it, even when...

A couple of weekends ago was Kate's birthday and baptism .  In our church, we are baptized after we reach the age of eight.  She was fortunate to be baptized on her eighth birthday, and it made her day pretty special.  She had aunts and uncles and her Nana and Grandpa Werner there, which made it extra special. My younger sister was here and I enlisted her to be our "weekend photographer."  She took almost all the pictures everywhere we went and during everything we did.  On Friday, I had Kristina do a mini-mini photo shoot with Kate in her baptismal dress outside.  Because it was a combined baptismal service with another little boy and his family, we met as a whole group for the service part (a couple of talks about baptism and confirmation, and a musical number), then split up when it was each child's turn to be baptized.  After each baptism, the child and their family and friends would convey to a different room in the building.  My goal was ...

In our house the top bunk is a very coveted spot.  So much so, that our littlest little girl has decided she needs to be up on the top bunk.  I guess she liked it so much when her brother took her up to his top bunk . A few weeks ago I heard some screeching and Maryanne-sounding noises coming from Eliza's and Kate's room.  When I got in there, I saw Maryanne up on Eliza's top bunk bed playing with Eliza's stuffed animals and doll. At first I thought maybe one of the girls had taken Maryanne up there with them; hey, it's happened before, why not again?  That's when I grabbed Maryanne and set her back down on the floor. A few days later I heard screeching again and ran into the girls' room to find Maryanne stuck on the end of the bed.  She was climbing the end of the bed (this bunk doesn't have a ladder) and her little muscles couldn't lift herself anymore. That's when I pieced it all together: Maryanne had watched her oldest sister climb up th...

Sometimes life feels just like this dropped banana.

For Memorial Day, we made the day trip up to Prescott Valley, AZ to see our good friends, the Polls.  They recently moved to Prescot Valley from MN, so it was awesome to see them and hang out like we used to on Memorial Day.  About a ten minute drive away from their house there is a state park that we went to.  We ate lunch, then went on a hike.  Unfortunately, we went the round about way to get to this amazingly deserted beach.  The beach was only about 50 yards from where we ate our lunch, and we just didn't see it.  We chose to walk the other direction and we walked all the way around the lake, which ended at the beach.  And it was a great reward for all of that hiking. The entire time we were on the beach reminded me of our Memorial Days back in Minnesota.  We'd go to a state park, eat lunch, then go play at the beach ... and yes, we did this with the Polls there as well, except we also had about 5 other families at our little ...