Announcing my shadow box surprise!

I decided to give the children's shadow boxes a make-over while I finished up Drew's box.  I ended up getting two more at half price so I was able to finish the project.  I do not have room in the hallway anymore for so many shadow boxes so I am moving them to my bedroom.  I should have taken a before picture, but, as usual, was too anxious to get started and didn't do it.  Each box has the outfit in which I brought them home from the hospital. Here is the finished product!

Now for the close ups...

Hannah's box is pink and includes a burp cloth with her name on it.  I have a newborn picture and a 2 month old picture in here.  Their birth dates are on the outside glass in each one.

Genevieve's box is purple and has a piece of a crocheted blanket that I made and a couple of other fabrics as background.  Her birth date is not on yet.  I am trying to find the right numbers.

Isaac's box is mostly tan with a little blue.  I covered a wooden letter with blue fabric.  I added a Thomas train because he was so obsessed with Thomas for so long.

Andrew's box is mostly blue.  I covered a wooden "a" with yarn.  I added his frame from his room that has the picture of the blanket I made him as a mat for the pictures of Drew.  I put a lighthouse on the frames corner.  His room is decorated with a nautical type theme.  There is a Maryland bike name plate at the top since he was born here.  I wanted to put something from all of the places they were each born, but so far this is all I came up with.

 Yes, that's right there are five shadow boxes, not four like you might have thought.  Our newest addition will join the rest of the world on or two weeks later than August 15th, the feast of the Assumption of Mary.  I never have had a due date on a feast day before.  And the day I found out I was pregnant was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on 12-12-12.  It was quite a surprise to us since the last three times we got pregnant it took at least six months.  We were not expecting any little one to come so quickly and were really thinking it would be months before I got pregnant again.  Brian's pathology board exam is in mid September, so we were thinking that would be better anyway if the baby would be due after that.  However, God had other (AKA better) plans, and we are always open to new life around here!  So, thanks be to God! 

The children are so thrilled.  Hannah's initial reaction was pretty funny.  She started laughing hysterically and when she came up for air she said, "But you just had Drew!" and then fell back into hysterics.  I told her that it does feel like I just had Drew.  He still seems like such a baby to me, especially with his lack of vocabulary.  However, they will be just shy of two years apart which is further apart than Hannah and Genna.  Hannah just doesn't remember that, obviously.  Genna kisses and rubs my already growing tummy all the time.  She and I are hoping for another cuddler in the family.  I'm sure Isaac would love it as well since Drew has never liked lots of hugging and kissing.  I would prefer a girl just so that she would have a better chance of being born under 10lbs, although I was over 10lbs when I was born so maybe that's a moot point.  What goes around comes around, I guess.

As you may know we nickname our in-utero babies around here, this baby is going to be called Tad.  This is short for tadpole with a double meaning because this baby will be due just a "tad" before my husband's board exams. 

I am almost 12 weeks and around 10 weeks it became difficult to hide my wonderful news since I have no abdominal muscle tone left.  Here's my tummy shot from today.

11 + weeks pregnant with Tad  (Genna's hand, of course...She can't keep her hands off my growing belly.)

We have had a bit of a bumpy road with this pregnancy with a couple of scares, but everything is fine.  Tad is growing with a strong heartbeat.  On the last ultrasound, Tad was moving around a ton.  It brought tears to my eyes to see the baby moving so much!  Celebrate with us, please!

Funny things they say...

"If tomorrow's Friday, then what happened to Thursday?"  ~Genna  When we told her that today was, in fact Thursday.  She then asked, "Then where did Wednesday go?"

"Genna, I keep my brains in my foot." ~Isaac

A Man of Few Words

Drew is sort of starting to say some words.  In the last two weeks we have gotten him to say ready, Hannah, spoon, boom, more, and out.  His words are hard to keep track of because he says them for a while and then won't say them again for a long time.  He also is not good about repeating things after me like the other kids were by this age.  He is one of a kind and very independent.  At least two of his molars have poked through, but they all still have a long way to go.  Molars are the worst because they take so long to come in all the way.

This is Drew's new favorite place to play.  He actually partially closes the door and plays in the pantry.  It only becomes a problem when he starts bringing me food to give him.

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but his eyes are so weird.  The (your far left in this picture) half of his right eye is blue, but the rest of that eye and all of the other one has blue undertones with brown speckled in.  Don't know what you call that!

Drew loves to go outside or in the car so getting his coat and shoes on are lots of fun.  He's like his daddy and gets a little stir crazy in the house sometimes. 

Mommy's Little Helper

I have mentioned often what a terrific helper Hannah is and what a natural she is with babies.  It is so great to have her around.  Genna and her take turns making sandwiches for lunch everyday.  That's what she is getting ready to do in the picture below.

Drew does seem to prefer Hannah, and this breaks Genna's heart.  Genna has been my assistant lately trying to learn how to dress Drew and even change his diapers.  If he wasn't so wiggly I think she could take over for me, but he needs a disciplinary presence these days during changing time.

Father Daughter Dance Time

 Before the dance I had them sitting down so they wouldn't mess up their hair and dresses.  Genna cuddled up with her doll in her matching dress.  Hannah finished up her Nancy Drew book while she waited.

While daddy got dressed, we took a few photos of the girls and Isaac sneaked into a couple.  He was very excited to play some games with mommy while he was gone.

 Practicing their twirls, they had fun seeing the differences in the way their dresses flared out.

Our good friends came over and the guys went together with their four lovely little ladies.

What a proud daddy and his pretty girls!

I love this picture.  Can you tell who the lovey dovey one is?

They had so much fun!  When the girls got home and came to tell me all about it, they were beaming.  Hannah won the Bingo game and got a big bar of chocolate as her prize.  I am so glad they offer this through the girls' AHG.  It is a special thing for the girls and their daddy!

Double the Trouble

Drew just doubled his level of trouble around here.  In nearly one day, he learned how to get the caps off markers which happens to be one of his favorite things to carry around, open the art bin full of markers and crayons, and open the pantry door.  If he figures out the fridge we are in big trouble.  If we leave the pantry door open on accident and Drew walks by and sees all the food, he is suddenly starving and requesting food urgently or he starts bringing things to you.  We even try to open the fridge when he is distracted because the same thing happens there.  He will see the yogurt, strawberries, or the cheese and he needs it suddenly.  I have taken to hiding bananas on top of the fridge because he wants one every time he walks by the kitchen counter and sees them hanging there.  My other kids ate/eat at mealtimes and the occasional snack times, not all day.

Drew was sick yesterday, but seems to be feeling much better today.  He woke up yesterday with a fever and then threw up twice (this seems to be a habit of his when he has a high fever in the morning,) but then he went right back to eating all day.  He did sleep on me on the couch for a couple of hours that morning and cuddled with me most of the day.  He had a couple periods where he was inconsolable, and then would snap out of it and play for a short time happily.  This morning he was fever-free and rearing to go.  He was soooo disappointed that he didn't get to go in the car to take the big kids to German Saturday School.  But he got over it and helped me take down some Christmas decorations and took a morning nap.

About that morning nap, I tried skipping it one day last week and it didn't work out.  I put him down at 11:30am and he slept less than his usual 2 hours.  Then he was asking to go to bed at 4pm.  He was so adamant with signing "bed" and running to the stairs that I gave in and gave him a catnap (meaning I woke him after 45 minutes) to get him through the evening.  I just moved his bedtime back an hour and decided to go back to the regular routine the next day.  He is 16 months tomorrow and still taking two naps a day which is fine with me since it really helps with the homeschooling anyway.  Isaac was pretty old when he dropped that morning nap too.  I think it was just a few months before his 2nd birthday.

I am working on making over the kids' shadowboxes and finishing Drew's.  I was moving right along on that project until Drew fell into one of them propped up next to my bed and shattered the glass.  Now I have to wait until they go on sale again so I can finish up this project and get them on the wall.

Soccer comes to an end so basketball can begin.

 All three big kids were in different classes, but all at the same basic time which was great for me and the only way they got to play the indoor winter session to be honest.  Isaac and Genna got medals in their classes.  Hannah's was a skills clinic for older kids so she was still playing when I took these pictures. Genna got an extra medal to give to her sister since they were giving away the extras to the siblings.

Isaac is so much bigger than all the other kids.  The class is for 3-5 yr olds and he is right in the middle of that age group.

Genna's class was for 5-7 yr olds.

 Basketball starts on Friday, but just for the girls!

Johnny Football

 For the bowl game the whole family got in on the excitement. 

There was even a touchdown before Drew had to go to bed!

Prayer Time Antics

 We said family prayers in the living room the other night which we never do.  Drew made me laugh during the whole prayers because he kept finding things to dump out.  He opened our toy cabinet and dumped out the car basket, and proceeded to not even look at the cars and turned to the ball basket.  After he turned that basket over and watched the balls roll all over the room, he went searching for something else to destroy.  He found my two loads of laundry I had just brought up to fold after the kids went to bed.  The funny part was when he actually picked up the basket and shook it to make sure it was all out.  Then he rolled around in the laundry.  This is all in less than 15 minutes, I would guess.  Unbelievable!

Drewy

Drew has been getting along better with Isaac lately.

Drew is about 15 1/2 months.  He has not been talking more yet, but he is signing things like, banana (his favorite food,) drink, all done, help, more, please, thank you, dog, bird, horse, bath, and cat.  He also nods his head dramatically when you ask him something and the answer is yes.  He points and grunts a lot too.  I wish he would say a few helpful words, but so far no luck.  At least he is communicating.

Drew is also making a few animal sounds, like for a sheep, monkey, and cow.  He knows all his body parts too.  He is enjoying books more, but his attention span isn't long enough to finish the books sometimes.   

Drew definitely understands directions and follows them the majority of the time.  He only broke one Christmas ornament so far and he pretty much leaves the tree alone now.  I was sure we would have to put up gates, but he has been fine after the initial excitement. 

His top left molar came through and the other three are super puffy.  He was sick over Christmas and has not been himself since.  Lots of crying and whining going on lately, It will be nice when that all passes.  Like I said before, he knows how to communicate, but since being sick and teething he has been choosing not to go to that first.

Although Drew is definitely a handful with all his constant motion and energy, he is still a great sleeper (2 naps 1 1/2-2 hours long,) super tough (I never have to comfort this one,) wonderful in the car, doing much better at Mass, and adorable beyond words (as proven in following picture.)  :)

Wouldn't trade this guy for anything!

Drew's First Snow Experience

This is our third snow of the season, but Drew was sick for the first two.  Last year we only had one early snow and he was teeny tiny.  He enjoyed it a lot, but fought me on the gloves and boots at first.  The mittens promptly got soaked and his hands were getting icy cold, so I put some socks on his hands.

A neighborhood friend came over to play in it too.  Isaac was missing because he was at a gun show with his dad all day.