Here's the plan

You know, if you slept a little longer at night and took a little longer nap you might not collapse in a heap on grandma's floor at 9am. I'm just saying. Maybe we can work on that. Deal?

Umali

We have a new member to our family.

His name is Umali and he lives in Malawi Africa. Trevor and I decided to sponsor Umali because we felt it was important not only from a Christian standpoint but also to teach out kids about helping out those less fortunate then us. The boys have done really well trying to understand who Umali is and why he is a part of our family. They can point out on the globe where he lives, they know how old he is and what he likes to do. We are sending him our first package of fun things this week and we are excited to hear back from him.

I'll let Carson tell you a little about him.

We sponsored Umali through the organization World Vision.

It's Like Winter

It's like winter but without the snow. We're stuck inside. It's like winter only the leaves are out, the garden is planted, the flowers are blooming, we've spent time at the park, we've had picnics. Yet, we're stuck inside. It's like winter....only worse!

In the winter I expect to be stuck inside. I have plans and ideas on how to pass our time and we manage. But in May when we've tasted the sun, enjoyed being outside, been to the zoo, worn shorts, blown bubbles and smelled spring, being stuck inside is miserable. It makes me lose my mind (at least what's left of it). It makes my kids nuts. And I'm completely useless in what to do with them.

If you can't tell the past few days have been long and cold and really wet! So we've spent ALOT of time indoors. Our ribs (okay, maybe just mine) are sore from too much Wii, every toy in the toy room has been out, we've had indoor picnics and we've watched our fair share of tv.

And yesterday we broke out the Play Doh.

And let our creativity go wild.

Bennett tried to eat it so he was relegated to the exersaucer. I don't think he minded.

We made Play Doh pizzas and tried tossing the dough in the air.

We made lightsabers(I think) with our Play Doh.

And we chopped it into a million pieces.

Lucky for us 70 degrees is in our future. At least that's what the weatherman says. Let's hope, for my sanity, he's right.

A video

We finally got a little video camera last week. So here's a video. Nothing special, just Bennett eating breakfast, naked. Enjoy!

7 Months

This little, er big, boy turned 7 months old last week.

He can roll like it's no ones business. He can sit like a big boy. He still has no teeth (an none in site either). He loves a good piece of bread. He's tried to convince me that waking up twice a night is a good time....I'm trying to convince him otherwise. He loves watching his brothers. He can grab most anything with his hands and switch hands too. He loves to grab his feet. He tries to suck on his feet, while sitting (now that's talent). He hasn't tried a baby food he doesn't like. He's pretty attached to me and likes to act like the world is ending when I leave the room. He's bald as can be!

And he's so fun to kiss.

And squish.
(Look at those arms...just want to eat them up!)

And pretty soon these 3 boys won't fit in the chair.

Shopping Carts

I'm fairly certain a man invented shopping carts. They are the least kid friendly, mom friendly things I've ever seen. With multiple children I'm "blessed" with the opportunity to use a car cart. With three kids these things are impossible, at least most of them are. In order to make it work I usually strap Bennett to me or we go while Carson is in school. Today, Declan was set on the firetruck and this particular cart has no regular child seat up front. Really, shopping cart inventor? But, we tried it anyway....

This picture cracks me up. He's so darn bald! He did pretty well. He lasted most of the shopping trip before he realized I was behind him and then he was trying to flop himself out the door to see me.

Butterflies.

Our little butterfly garden sprang into action last week. Within just a couple of days all 5 cocoons hatched.

The boys and I went and got them some fresh flowers.

And we've been feeding them sugar water a few times a day.

We can release them when it is at least 55 degrees outside so we'll probably be entertaining them for awhile yet. But that's ok, the boys love watching them and checking up on them.