Happy

 

Visiting Honey and Poppy in New Jersey is always a blast.
This is Joseph, enjoying his breakfast on our last morning there.

 

 

Traveling with Esther has never been an enjoyable time. She is adjusting, slowly, to being "STUCK" in her carseat. She only screams half the time we are in the car, alerting us only every 2 minutes that she is STUCK AND CAN'T MOVE!
Thank you, sweet baby Jesus, for car seats with five point restraint buckles.

Yup.

I break something nearly every day at this old farmhouse. Two weeks ago, it was the ceiling fan in the kitchen. I promise Matt that these are merely accident, completely unintentional. But his Honey-Do list is getting awful long and it is hard to ignore the daily text messages I have to send about something or another falling apart IN MY HANDS!

These babies made me a Duplo Birthday cake while I was in the shower. They knew I was having a rough morning after being up all night with Daniel.
Sweetie Pies are so sensitive.

Who Needs Sleep?

Date Night.
We took all six children to church so we could go to confession on the same day. Lit two candles for special intentions. Took the two year old to the bathroom in the basement of the church. That is all as dangerous as it sounds. I felt like a Mack truck hit me by the time I tucked the last baby in bed with lavender oil on their feet. Matt and I ate cake, drank wine and fell asleep like an old married couple on the couch.
It was Heaven.

Lovey.

Teething.
 I feel like someone is always teething here.

Can you even stand this picture?

Tommy turned six last week. Let's not talk about how old this makes me feel.

He loves spaceships, Legos, dart guns and orcas. He is a happy boy and always finding the mischief in every room of the house. He finds "unbreakable" objects to be false-advertised. Loves backrubs, baths, hammers and "helping" daddy with EVERY SINGLE PROJECT he can get his little hands on.
We love our Tommy Boo.

Showing Up

Winter at Belleholm

Trying on Daniel's clothes has been one of Nathan's favorite games lately.

 He reminds me so much of Tommy Boy. "Fat guy in a little coat..."

Trying to figure out Christmas lights

Out here in the country, Christmas trees cost half what they did back in Rochester. So we got the very biggest one we could find. It was glorious!

Joseph is learning how to string lights...it was very difficult for Matt when Joseph decided he was finished trying and began "throwing" the lights on the branches.

The snow this year has been minimal. This is the back entry where we keep our firewood and recyclables. Sadly, we haven't had this much snow since this picture was taken, at the end of November.

Lunchtime is frequently interrupted by these fingers. Daniel is a grabber now. Grabbing everything. Coffee, hair, food. Everything goes right in his mouth, too. We think it will only be a matter of days until we see those two bottom teeth.

This fuzzy picture shows my Knight in Shining Armor before work. Matt wakes up around 4am, everyday. On the nights I have trouble with a cranky baby, he brings Daniel downstairs and allows me to get a couple more minutes of sleep.
Heaven.

We set up Daniel's crib in the boys' room. We moved beds around and are still trying to figure out who fits best where. At the exact moment I am typing this, all five older children are having a slumber party in the girls' room.
They do this slumber party thing frequently. They love being together. They love sleeping in the same room. Matt suggested to me yesterday that we should just paint one room green and have it be "the sleeping room". Two sets of bunkbeds. Winning.

Matt, I said earlier, wakes up around 4a.
This gem wakes up between 5-6a.
She's determined to make my stay in purgatory VERY,VERY SHORT.