Teen H

Yesterday, after dealing with the trauma of nobody showing up for H's birthday party (I think we need to work on our communication skills), I asked H how she was going to treat her friends on Monday, as a way to open up a conversation about healthy ways of dealing with this sad occurrence that wouldn't put up an unnecessary barrier between her and those she considers to be her friends.

Her answer?

"Depends on my mood. . . ."

Well, at least she's aware of that fact! 

Marathon Birthday Review--super incredibly belated and sadly still not completed

Er, um, so here's the post I started last spring.
Sorry!

All the birthdays in our family are close together--well, maybe a month apart close together, but considering they're right in the middle of all our major holidays, it makes for one busy season.  Thus, this year, I haven't posted one bit about them, nor much of anything about any other holiday.  (Except a tiny blurb about Christmas mid-January.) Well, anyway, here's a quick summary.

December

Right in the middle of the excitement of our first ever family pictures came S's birthday!

(Cue the crying, gratefully-not-puking-at-this-moment baby!  Guess why I haven't blogged: when we haven't been celebrating something, someone's been sick.  Seriously.  I don't recommend living near two major hospital and university centers, especially if they have a strong international attendance.  We love all the culture, don't get me wrong!, but there's been a little too much "sharing" going on.)

Back to S's b-day: He's now 32!!!

I had him pick up a deli chicken, but at least I managed to get his starch-free, chocolate cupcakes baked and a chocolate sauce (or edible attempt) put together!

H invited him to her school's Fine Arts Night for his b-day.
H was so excited, and S is one good sport!
They enjoyed their time together.

And my 31st birthday:

(I finally am starting to feel like a grown-up. . . .)

S found me some German Chocolate Cake when he ran errands for me that night.  (This may seem el'cheapo pathetic when it comes to celebrations, but considering how crazy things have been and our budget and the fact S's been working on his class in the evenings on top of his typical work and daddy duties, I was more than thrilled!  German Chocolate is my favorite!)

(See how thrilled I was?)

a big glass of milk to go with it

And returning to the term el cheapo, I am!
I was so proud of Seth: he even found it on manager's special!
Expiry date?  A whopping three days away!
I swear it was baked that day--delish!

Little Miss H is 7!!!

She requested Belgian waffles with berries & whipped cream for breakfast.

The boys enjoyed it as much as she did.

(Okay, so I wasn't up to the berry mess I knew N would make!)

tasty!

This was her "smile" for the camera.

She's definitely seven.

And she STILL has her vampire fangs. 

I'm starting to wonder if those top teeth will ever grow in.

pretty dress from G&G S

She got some snazzy cards from both sets of grandparents.  They each included stickers and decorating fun, which is totally up her alley.

Look at that face: More presents? And they're huge!

Bring on the birthday cake.  

S had to keep Lil'S from blowing out H's candles for her!

Happy Birthday, Miss H!!!

sweet & simple

that's how things go around here!

hahaha! guess who got the camera!

Playing with the toy puppy G&G S sent her.

Lil'S is 3!!!

Cupcakes the day before with his preschool friends! 

(And a couple other friends we snuck in.)

Where's my cupcake?

Family Celebration

Family Band
We learned from this how awesome a "share present"* really is.  There were no fights, tears, whines, or even whimpers of jealousy.  There were simply happy, playful, totally excited kids.  I'm sure S and I shared quiet high fives about this, and if we didn't, we should have!

*When my youngest brother was three years old, he gave my dad a toy airplane for Christmas.  When my dad opened it, this blue-eyed, chubby-cheeked baby brother of mine declared, "It's a share present!"  My dad asked who he was to share it with, and, of course, the little guy answered, "Me!"  The term has been fondly used by my family ever since.  (Although, I'm starting to think the conversation may have occurred after the present opening, when my dad and brother were chatting in my parents' room, and was just retold to the rest of us by my dad.  Hmm...I'll have to check my sources on that.  Either way, the phrase has stuck!)

N is One!!!

And, so horribly, that's where this post had been left off, and I'm currently unable to finish it since all our pictures are waiting to be removed from our computer that died.
What a shame! I guess N will get to have his own post, albeit likely a year late the way things are going!

Happy 30th to Me!

Okay, so, really my birthday was in early January, but I'm playing catch up and will likely continue to do so for the next three months!  I've got H's 6th birthday and party to post on next, (wait, did I even post S's back in Dec?) and then there's baby's arrival, which will actually--hopefully!--happen before that.  (I'm scheduled to be induced on Monday, but that may change...long story.)  Then there's Lil'S's at the end of March, and visits from family and baby boy's blessing.  So, bear with me, and if I disappear from Bloggerland for a while, you'll all know why!

This was S's present to me. I was surprised to get anything and had to laugh that it was one of my favorite candies.

(He's not allowed to spend money on me because I'm always overspending, so please don't think he's a total loser husband!)

We were seriously being el-cheapo.  Theses are the donuts I found on Kroger clearance.  I also got like five boxes of cookies for super cheap at the same time for my birthday party (more on that later) and for freezing to snack on later.  It was the best!

Lil'S is a total sweet tooth.  All 28lb of him!

H's present to me, funny girl!

Aw, my visiting teachers got me this wall hanging and a couple of yummy smelling lotions.  I'd been totally wanting some framed scriptures on my walls--just perfect!  It now lives in my sitting room. :) 

See the tear?  ;)

I bought myself a new alarm clock while doing some Christmas shopping and gave it to S, telling him with a smile to give it to me for Christmas.  (It wasn't exactly in our household budget, so it could go in our Christmas one, right??)  I knew my current clock would drive me crazy once middle of the night nursings started up because I have to hit a button in the dark in order to see what time it is. Well, like I did for some of his presents, he forgot to give it to me Christmas Day!  He felt very sheepish giving it to me on my birthday, but I was thrilled. :)  I now have a clock that shows the time in the dark!  (Seriously, don't most alarm clocks do that without having to be "told" to?)

Oh, and I threw myself a birthday party. :)  Turned out S had three, day-long, gratefully local conferences starting my birthday and going into the weekend.  So, Saturday afternoon, I had a bunch of friends over to chat and eat yummy food so that I wouldn't sit around and feel sorry for myself.  ;)  It was great fun!

Pictures!

It's the equivalent of summer in Idaho here in North Carolina, and we're milking it for all its worth before the true North Carolinian summer hits. As I was taking pictures of an iris inside the house this morning, I realized the lighting outside was great for taking pictures of the children too. Here are H's five-year-old pictures and Lil'S's one-year-old pictures. I am so thrilled that I finally got these done and that they took so little time to do!

(And, yes, Grandmas, someday we'll get a family picture taken too! At least I've found matching tops!)

and this last one is just for fun

:)

Happy Birthday, Lil'S!!! (2)

Okay, now it's official,

Lil'S is ONE!!!!

Birthday Lunch: Cheese! (for the first time?) and a few Cheerios . . . and a few bites of chili. (You'd think it was C day. . . .) The cheddar shreds were certainly a hit. I had to have H sing to him to distract him while I snuck the chili into his mouth. That's generally how we feed him breakfast, too, although often it's S doing the singing while making his lunch.

(Yes, Lil'S still puts his feet up on the table at every meal. Thanks, H.)

While I was reading a naptime story to H, Lil'S headed over to play with his favorite "toy". He just happened to turn it on to a country station and started rocking out to this song.

"Man I don't know, where the time goes

"But it sure goes fast, just like that"

Just too perfect.

A little playtime with Sister--

like REAL playtime!

Mmm...yummy dinner. Thanks, Dad!

He ate quite well!

I just love the look on his face.

Happy Birthday!!!

We opted for chocolate pudding

instead of another cake this time.

Interpretation of Sam's actions:

waving his hand after food is offered = "all done"

grabbing Mom's sleeve = "Get me out of here! I'm done!"

[offering pudding 3]

Holding the spoon and letting Mom

put food in his mouth is Lil'S's new skill

. . . last month or this month?

We debated just getting him straight to bed since he was so tired, but then we went ahead decided to let him open a few presents since H was so eager for him to open the box of toys she'd collected from her room for him. The pictures above (chronological from middle, to left, and then clockwise) show how "let[ting] him open a few presents" went. After the first few tears he was off to play with his balloon and read the book Gma C got him for Christmas!

[insert present opening video]

Try Number 2

Happy Birthday, Little Man!!!

My Baby's turning ONE!!!

(And he loved Daddy's cool trick of turning fire into smoke.)

Tonight we began Lil'S's birthday week by celebrating with our dear friends MM & AM and their boys HM & JM and dog Mr. T. These guys are like family to us. We met our first Sunday in NC and have been taking turns keeping each other sane ever since! AM pointed out today that when we first met, our H was younger than her boys are now. Wow.

Hey! A big kid's in my playpen!

Lil'S and HM were just too funny playing together!

Ack! MM Attack!

Lil'S cried when we initially put the cake down in front of him and then took it away when Mom realized the camera was out of batteries. Sorry, Kiddo! Check out his reaction when S blows out the candle for him. I wish I knew how to zoom in on his face and put it into slow-motion!

Cake or balloons?

Surprise!

Little J got the truck!

Dinosaurs!

(oh, those were the twins' :) )

Card from G&G C

(we'll open everything else Tuesday)

Happy Birthday, Miss H!

Little Miss is 5!!!

There was present opening in the morning. . . .

What a perfect gift for a little princess:

A book written by a real princess!

(Thank you to G&G Call video isn't uploading, sorry!

Will have to try posting it again later.)

She got another dress for playing dress up.

(Thanks, Kelseys, for the hand-me-downs!)

A Belgian Waffles birthday lunch

(don't forget you can click on the collages to see them bigger)

And present opening in the evening!

After opening her Holy Bible, H said, "This is heavy."

And I can't help but note that she later quipped,

"This one has tons of stories in it."

After opening the Fancy Nancy puppy from her cousins, she said,

"She has a dog, and I have a cat.

Now I don't have to keep whining about a dog."

And then S and I busted a gut!

Hmm...how did I know G&G Shaw

would send H a dance outfit?

H really liked this card. When she first looked at it,

she said with a straight face, "Wow, this is really cool."

Thanks for the birthday presents!

whatta goof!

She requested stir-fry for her birthday dinner

because it was also Chinese New Year.

After we sat down to eat and said the prayer,

she made an announcement that

topped everything she'd said the entire day:

"Today we're celebrating two things:

my birthday and a restaurant called Chinese."

And, of course, chocolate cake!

Even Lil'S got some chocolate cake.

Sister shared too!

Happy Birthday, Angel Girl!