Amber is 8!!!

So in all the craziness of the month of February, my dear sweet Amber turned 8.

I thought it would be fun to look backwards and see how much she has grown. So this post is mostly pictures! Enjoy. The pictures are one per year starting just before her birthday this year going backward to the day she was born!

I just can't believe how much she has grown up! 8 years have gone way too fast and I find myself wondering what happened to my little girl.

Enjoy the pictures. I enjoyed finding them. What a blast from the past. Remembering is a good thing for the soul. I smiled as I remembered the events surrounding these pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blanket is finally complete!!!

When I decided to make this blanket a year ago, I didn't realize it would take an entire year to complete. I actually thought it would be a good project to keep me busy until I had the baby. And it sat in my sewing room for awhile, and then I had my baby. Okay, so I could work on it while the baby naps! Ummmm, yeah if only the other kids would cooperate. So this project turned into a Christmas project. I started making headway and then we all got sick around Thanksgiving time and I did not have the get up and go to work on a sewing project. Two nights before Christmas I was hopeful I could finish this project. I had sewn most of the blanket, but I needed to cut it and edge it! So in a fit of exhaustion, I pleaded with John to help me cut. Thanks to John he willingly cut, despite my nervousness. I did not want him to mess it up! I had worked so hard on it up to that point.

Christmas came and went. Still the blanket remained incomplete. We rang in the new year and still no blanket! All I needed was to edge the silly thing. But I wasn't sure how I wanted to edge it. So yet again, the blanket sat incomplete and lonely in my sewing room. Then the Robert's close to me decided to close and they had awesome deals. So I found some ribbon that I thought I could use to edge the blanket. So I brought it home. Still the blanket sat.

So last week I knew I had to buckle down and finish the blanket. So I sat in my sewing room nearly crying because I didn't have enough of the coolest ribbon in the world. Then I saw it. Remnant material from a Halloween costume I made for Amber probably about 6 years ago! The material matched the blanket so perfectly. So I quickly measured and sewed the binding. And I started to bind the edges of the blanket. Then I got interrupted. Things erupted at my house and I had to push the blanket off to the side once again. I now only had one side to bind.

Finally, this past Thursday I found the blanket complete! And despite the lengthy process of completing this blanket, I feel very accomplished. And no, I am not doing another one any time soon.

Here's the front of the blanket.

 

Here's the back of the blanket.

 

And the blanket all tied up with the coolest ribbon in the world! I did find a very good use for the ribbon!

 

Daddy Daughter Dance

Just before Valentine's day, John took the girls to a daddy daughter dance. I got the girls cute dresses and I spent some time trying to make their hair look cute! They were so excited. Their hair didn't turn out like I planned, but their hair wasn't the most important part. They were so excited to do something with daddy. Amber told John that he had to wear his suit with his new tie! Luckily John was willing to oblige. So three of my sweethearts took off for a night of dancing and fun. Forgive the quality of the pictures. I didn't take them. I was actually not home when they finally left the house. I had another obligation to attend to. So I got them all ready and then I left shortly before the babysitter arrived for the other two kids.

Here are the two girls together, all dressed up with somewhere to go!

 

Can you see Amber's attitude in the way she poses?

 

Emma in all the elegance of polka dots!

 

My three sweethearts all ready to go out for a night on the town!

 

Reading in Bed

I've decided that I rather enjoy the peace in my home after the kids are in bed lately. We stumbled upon a rather effective solution to two different problems. 1.) The kids hate being forced to read, but read voraciously when allowed the time. This causes problems getting the 20 minutes of reading the kids need each day for school. I have had troubles in the past scheduling time for reading during the day. 2.) The kids struggle with falling asleep when they first climb into bed. This leads to arguments and major contention in my home.

One day we decided to move bedtime to a 1/2 hour earlier. The kids could take books to bed, keep the light on for 20-30 minutes. After that time, it is lights out. I don't remember how long ago this started, but it has been very effective. The kids need 20 minutes of reading each day for school. They have to track their reading minutes. By sending them to bed earlier, they feel like they get to stay up later if they read. Plus, they don't feel like it is homework when they get to read in bed.

We have noticed a few things about this process. These are general observations as I would be a liar if I said our kids were perfectly happy with this arrangement every single night.

1. The kids fight less at bedtime.
2. Bedtime is more peaceful.
3. The kids fall asleep quicker once the lights are turned out. Sometimes they are asleep even before lights are turned out.
4. The kids have become the police of their own time. They will either use a timer or watch the clock and they know when they need to turn the light off. We generally don't have to tell them anymore.
5. Any changes to this bedtime routine causes major distress and discord in our home.

As I said earlier, we do not exact this process with the greatest precision every night. Some can attest that bedtime at our house is crazy, awful, loud, and just outright disheartening. But we do the best we can and we have nights like tonight where everything went off without a hitch.

I found a website that talks about reading and the benefits of reading. It says that reading is more relaxing before bed than watching TV. I wholeheartedly agree. My kids have shown me that. I guess we're on the right track here.

Now the challenge for us is to keep up with this routine. We certainly see the benefits of reading, be it at bedtime or otherwise.

Once again . . .

Timothy strikes, once again! So I decided to make this all about Timothy's antics and how I perceive his actions.

Timothy is determined to be the family clown. (Especially with the extended family.)

Yesterday most of my family gathered at my dad's house for dinner. There was jell-o. The jell-o was wiggly. Everybody was fully engaged in conversation, not paying any attention to little Timothy. All of a sudden, Timothy picks up his spoon full of jell-o and starts saying, "It's alive, it's alive!" His antics are hilarious and soon all the attention is on him and he continues for as long as he can keep the attention. At least he wasn't hurting anything, right? I was deeply amused.

As the family clown he certainly gets attention. I think he is giving his Uncle Jeff a run for his money. Soon Timothy will have ousted Jeff from the coveted position of family clown! (Yes, I do hope you're reading this Jeff!) Timothy has soaked up all of Jeff's attitude and magnified it! Uh oh, we're definitely in trouble here!

Timothy is also determined to be the family con artist.

I have cupcakes at my house. Timothy knows there are cupcakes. He had two cupcakes earlier, and there were still four remaining. I made the mistake of leaving the cupcakes on the counter within Timothy's reach. We were all downstairs looking for pajamas and then the kids raced upstairs. I stayed behind to turn all the lights off. John gets up to the kitchen and immediately asks, "Who took a cupcake?" My answer, "Timothy, and he is hiding somewhere!" He had grabbed the cupcake and was hiding in the corner between the wall and the girls' bed. The cupcake was gone. I think he ate it in one bite.

Timothy also discovered that I hide treats in my dresser drawer. Until now it has been a wonderful spot. Even John leaves my dresser drawers alone. It has been the perfect hiding spot. So I hid a bag of chocolate chips in my dresser drawer. Timothy found them. He dumped out my drawer, grabbed the bag of chocolate chips and ran. Unfortunately for him the girls caught him and tattled. Unfortunately for me, by the time the girls tattled, the bag was three-fourths gone!

Timothy is determined to be the family night owl.

Timothy refused to take a nap right after lunch today. He knows if he stays up long enough that I just let him stay up. Usually this works in my favor so he falls asleep quickly at night. But today, not the case. At 5:30 I was calling him to come upstairs as he had been downstairs watching a movie. He wasn't responding. So I sent Emma down to check on him. She came back up saying he was asleep. Uh oh, this is bad for us! Bedtime is going to be a bear. Lo and behold when it came time for bed at 7:00 p.m. Timothy was not interested in going to sleep. He was the one talking and making all the noise. Note to self- do not allow Timothy to take a nap later than 2 p.m! Otherwise we have a child who will be up all hours of the night.

Things I want to remember!

Forgive my sentimentality today. My emotions are still so raw, even after six years. Because I have a lot of words, but too much emotion to fully express how I feel today, I want to just share a few things I never want to forget about my mom.

Things I will never forget:

1. The way we could laugh for hours on end. By the time we stopped laughing, we had forgotten what we started laughing about to begin with.

2. The day I came home from school and flipped my mom off, thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. My mom didn't get mad, she just left my room quietly and never mentioned it to me again. I didn't get a lecture.

3. She flew by herself, despite her serious dislike for flying, to be with me when I had my first child! On her way home she got stuck in the Chicago airport because the weather had delayed the flight from Michigan.

4. We were a dynamic duo at Skipbo and Phase 10. We could cheat like no other but we didn't cheat to win. We found ourselves in fits of giggles when we cheated.

5. She always said she enjoyed hearing me practice both the piano and flute although I knew most of the time I sounded terrible.

6. She made the most of bad situations. I made my brother mad one day and he kicked a hole in the wall. She turned that hole into a bigger hole that eventually became a closet.

7. She always knew when I had a bad day.

8. She made the best cinnamon rolls and the best snickerdoodle cookies.

This list can go on and on, but I fear the length of this post if I do. It has been said that time will erase all pain, but I seem to feel it as acutely now as I did six years ago. There is a void, replete with questions that will not have answers until we are reunited someday. So I must continue to plod along, hoping that I don't defile her name. I must keep her memory alive and give my children the opportunity to know the woman who helped shape my life!

Just a few more!

I know some of these pictures are a few months old, but I had to share anyway. This is what happens when the pictures stay on the camera for months on end! But it has been so fun to go through the pictures. Enjoy.

Micah gets to wear Daddy's hat for a few moments.

 

Emma and Micah having fun together. Is it obvious to you who put that hat on Micah?

 

My two sweet boys! Timothy does have sweet, non mischievous moments!

 

Every time Timothy wears this suit he says, "I look like the Bishop!" I love this boy!