Our Family Project

While looking through my photo files I found this video that I think I meant to post last winter and never got around to it.  The quality is so awful ... but I don't know if it's any worse than the shrieking!  This is what Maryanne was like before she starting talking ... totally screaming for everything ... and always at the top of her lungs.  I'm so thankful that stage is over!

I love doing my daughter's hair. It's just fun. And, it's especially fun that Maryanne has enough hair for me to pull it into pig tails and top knots. So cute! Eliza and Kate were virtually bald until they were 18 months old, so this is completely new and I'm loving it. This is how Maryanne went to church on Sunday, and she was one of the most adorable babies there (it helps that the only other baby is a newborn girl, so really they are both adorable in their different stages). And, here's a little video of Andrew making Maryanne giggle. I swear, it is the cutest thing. At first all I could hear was Maryanne giggling. Then, I grabbed the camera and came over near them to get it on video. She is adorable (notice the effects of the pigtails in her hair), and Andrew is so sweet!

Maryanne is four months old (okay she has been for about a week), and she's doing lots of fun things now. She started to roll over a couple weeks ago; she did it for me twice one night and then in the morning I showed the older girls. Then, she wouldn't do it again! Until this week. She still gets caught getting her leg over, but she can do it when she really wants to. She's also started to reach for her toys. It's so cute! Now she can be happy playing with her toys instead of just looking at them. We can probably give her some cereal now, but she's doing okay on her current diet so I'll wait until the doctor says she needs it. She's also quite a talker sometimes. And, to strangers she's the loudest. Maybe she's telling them to stay away or something. Anyway, she's pretty cute right now ... next she'll be sitting, something she's almost doing by herself already!

One Monday for Family Night we played "Simon Says." I just had to pull out the camera to document what everyone was like. Adam was adorably crazy, Eliza and Kate were calculating, Andrew was frustrated when everyone didn't do what he wanted, and Jon ... well, see for yourself:

Eliza & Kate had to peform one of the songs from Kate's program. I thought it was too funny not to share.

Today was a beautiful day! It was so nice outside ... I think we got to the mid-fourties! I know, there are some of you who are thinking, "What? That is freezing!" Believe me, it's fabulous! And, because of daylight savings, it was still sunny at 7 p.m. So, my older girls begged me to let them go outside. I decided we couldn't let this gorgeous day go to waste, so I let them go out and they were having so much fun I had to get pictures of them. Watching them play together really made me realize that they aren't little anymore. And, they really are good friend, even when they fight over little things, like who used all the hangers for their shirts. I love that they are close in age and can play with the same friends, and each other. It really gave me so much joy watching them together.

Kate was asked to sing a solo in her music program at school. We got there later than I had wanted to, so we had to sit in the back. I was in the aisle chair and thought that was perfect because the microphone was set up right in front of the aisle. So, right before her song I got my camera all zoomed in on the microphone and ready for her. Then, all of a sudden, I heard her singing from somewhere else. There was another microphone set up opposite the first microphone. And, since my little Kate is so litte, I couldn't see her at all! And, all the adults were leaning their heads around each other, so I didn't get her on the camera. But, I still wanted to record her singing, so I focussed on the Sun another girl was holding up. I was so sad not to get her on camera ... she showed me her little movements to go with the song and everything. At least I did get part of her song though. (Oh, and ironically, we were up to 40° that day! Can you believe it?)

Adam, singing a song he wrote for Maryanne Just needed to post this in celebration of how much sleep this adorable little one has been giving me during the night. The last two nights she has gone to bed around 11:30 or 12 and then slept until about 5:30. Isn't that awesome!?! I've never had a baby give me that much sleep at night until around six months when we move the baby out of our room and just let them cry. I'm just so excited that I had to share it with everyone!

I was talking to my sister recently while she was at work, and while we were talking Maryanne started to fuss a little bit. My sister starting oohing and aahhing at all of the baby sounds. Next thing I know, she's telling me that she put me on speaker phone so all of her coworkers could enjoy the baby sounds. It got me thinking that my family won't get to hear Maryanne at all since we probably won't be out to visit for a while. So, here's a little video of Maryanne coping with the hiccups.

Once a year at church instead of speakers, the children present what they’ve been learning all year in their class (called Primary). Today was their presentation. All of the children got to say something in the microphone, plus each of the classes (classes are determined by age) got to sing either a song, or a verse of a song. Well, almost all of the classes. Andrew’s class and the 5yo class didn’t get to do a song. But, Andrew and one of the girls from the 5yo class sang a duet for a verse of a song. It was so cute. So many people came up to Jon and me afterward saying that they were adorable. I have to admit … they really were. I got to help my/Kate’s class (the 6yo class) learn their song. And, when we practiced yesterday we really had to practice the last verse of their song a lot because they couldn’t remember the words. Today, it was the best understood verse that they sang! Eliza’s class did a good job too. The funny thing there is that there are four children in her class, two ...

Okay, so my sister has been here visiting over the weekend and she decided she wanted to "help" me make bread so she could do it at her house. Little did I know that when she said "help" it really meant "you-make-the-bread-while-I-make-a-mini-movie!" Anyway, she recorded me making bread and posted it on her blog. I figured that since the video was of me that I'd post the video on my blog too! So, here you go!

One of the things I love about Jon is that he always tries to be active with the children. We had stopped at a rest area on our way home from our vacation. I was changing my clothes, and when I got out of the bathroom I saw Jon on the green grass near the restrooms playing tag with the children. I love that he thought to get their energy out and to give their legs some exercise before we all piled back into the car. ** The video doesn't have any sound because I had my still-picture camera with me at the time. Hopefully, it's not too boring; it does depict how much fun everyone was having though.**

July 1, 2010