double baby diaper change

 Sweet Sawyer holding Molly while I make dinner

 SOOOO hard to get out of bed and pack lunches for the older kids

 My view on the way home from dropping the kids off at school on a particularly hard morning.  Tender mercy....

 I'm dying to get back to a gym regularly....here I am doing leg lifts with Clara as weight

 How I eat my lunch....I made it, baby woke up, I fed her, got her back to sleep, and finally sat down to eat my lunch

 And then we napped....

 Sweet Sawyer holding Molly while I help Clara in the bath.  She was screaming and he was such a big help!

 First time wearing socks

 We got a babysitter and went on a date! (with Molly) to an absolutely delightfully yummy locally grown and made farm/restaurant.  This hamburger was the best I've ever had in my life.  

 Kate and Ryan went skiing.  Ryan was sore the next day

 Cross-eyed boxer

 Sweet Sawyer holding Molly in church.  Noticing a theme?  He is the sweetest boy ever!  And he doesn't just want to do it, he asks to do it when he knows it will help me.  I sure love him.

 Clara was so proud she got this backpack on by herself and she kept going bye bye

 On a day where I spent ALL day long trying to get this baby to stay asleep, she was loving the car seat at the aquatic center  

 And look who slept through the night (7 1/2 hours)

Life is wonderful!

Clara girl - 26 months

Now that I spend most of my days with just me, Molly and my Clara girl, I am loving my little 2 year old. Maybe its because I can see the difference between being a newborn and being a 2 year old and (sorry Molly!) 2 year olds are way more fun!

 She is my buddy and my main source of entertainment and I am just loving her right now. She is a great independent player. When I am taking care of Molly or cleaning the house, I love to hear her playing and talking and dancing by herself. She loves feeding her babies (and "Melmo"), building choo choo's, and finding the Ipad and helping herself to a movie.

 When I ask her "Who is my best Clara?" she points to herself and says "best!" But she then points to me and says, "mama best, Sis best, Sawyer best...."

The other day I set her up with her lunch, including a yogurt, and I sat at the couch to feed Molly.  She sits up to the big table now because she refuses her high chair and when she was done she just got down and started to play.  When I went into the kitchen she had thrown away her yogurt cup and set her spoon up on the counter, just like I'm always asking Sawyer to do.  It amazes me how much these little kids learn from example and I am so lucky to have such great examples in her big brother and sister!

She still takes a nap in the afternoons and goes down well.  Nights have been a little more rough because she will come out and tell us she wants a drink a few times before she finally stays put.  We are trying to break that habit!

When you ask her how old she is she will say 2 and then look at her hands intently trying to get them to make "2".  It sure is tricky!

She still takes her pacifier when sleeping but we try and keep it just in her bed.  I have never had a kid this old with a pacifier and I'm dreading taking it away!

She loves Molly.  Her favorite thing to do is run and get a pacifier for her when she is crying.  She also loves to hold her and point and name all her body parts.

She loves dogs that are stuffed or on tv but in real life she finds them terrifying

She loves to dance to music and sing songs.  At church, when we are singing as a congregation, she always gets the green hymn book, puts it on her lap, finds her page and starts singing.

I think my 2 favorite words from her are "oh" and "ok!"  She says them all the time when I'm talking to her and telling her things and the way she says it is too adorable.  Its hard to explain, so you'll just have to come over and hear it for yourself.

She can be rather stubborn.  She calls everything "mines" which sounds a lot like "Molly's" and also a lot like "Mommy's" but most of the time she is declaring it hers.  She will take things from Kate and Sawyer all the time and they always say, "thats okay, she can have it" when I'm trying to teach her not to take things.  How will she ever learn?

When we drive into town she immediately starts saying "lunch!"  One time we were driving out of town after running a few errands and as soon as we started getting on the freeway she started crying and shouting "LUNCH!!"  She knew we were headed away from it and you know her daddy couldn't resist and we headed back into town.

She is very polite.  She is great at saying "please" and "thank you".  She is also great at saying "excuse me"... maybe a little too great.  At what age do you teach them to be discrete about their toots?  We always just blame Daddy.

She is very friendly and way more outgoing than any of my other kids.  She will always say, "BYE!" to people at stores when we are checking out and she always makes the Wal Mart greeters day with her friendliness.

She really is just a joy and I love her so much.  I love 2 and I keep telling her not to get any bigger!

 

Random pictures

Enjoying our last days with Grammie and Papa, it was so much fun having them here!

Lots of phone pictures of this cute baby

cute baby, cute fox

Grammie helping Kate to organize her closet...Kate LOVES to organize and so does Grammie.

Daddy taking care of his 5th child...his fish tank

Chili's in a snowstorm....we were one of the only groups there!

Boomer!

I think she is loved...

Saying goodbye is always so hard!

Now that Grammie and Papa are gone and Daddy is back at work all day I needed a way to hold the baby and get things done...I've never been a baby wearer before but its working!

Clara looking like a 2 year old....backwards pants and all!  She is kinda stubborn these days.

Big blow out diaper at swim team and Clara documented it while I changed it

Its a good day when Clara gets a hair do

Kate and Sawyer finally got their fish!  They have been waiting for the Ph balance of the water to be perfect and for the fish daddy wanted to come to the pet shop.  We finally got them on a warm, rainy Saturday morning

Unfortunately that warm rain also came with our dirt road being totally frozen!  We made it out fine, got the fish, but on the way home we didn't make it and we slid into the neighbors car (who had slid in the same place and just left their car there.  nice.)  So Ryan drove us to the pavement and we had to walk home in the rain.  POURING rain!  And because the road was so icy we had to walk through the deep snow in the woods.  Ryan and Sawyer didn't have their snow boots and I was wearing my coat without a hood.  Ryan carried Molly in the baby seat and I carried Clara.  We probably were quite a sight!  And our car didn't get too much damage so we are all good.

I decorated Molly (and my mom's) room a little more

So strong!

Double diaper change

 the school ski program started.  

 Sawyer is in the red coat and white helmet.  They both loved it!  But Sawyer said he isn't too good at stopping....

 Popcorn and chocolate cookies.  Lucky girl!

 I made a grocery list Sunday night and went out the next morning.  I think my kids found my list and added something to it....

 And once I got home from the store I was too pooped to put everything away.  So I didn't.  Just the fridge things and then we took a nap. 

My life with 4!  We are getting used to it!