Colette is 1!!

Well, it had to happen and so it did last Wednesday - Colette turned 1.  I cannot believe she is 1 already!  She is really cute, very strong willed and fun.  She loves getting to do things herself, she loves playing fetch with herself (she thows a ball and then chases after it), she is a total Mama's girl, and she loves her brothers.  She gets into things much more than the boys did - she is going to keep me on my toes! 

Anyway, here are some pictures from the day.  I let the boys pick out a present for her, and they chose this baby doll (which they won't let her play with now because they want to...)  They were so excited that they begged to give to her first thing:

My mom got her Little People's Noah's Ark.  She likes playing with it...when the boys let her:

Cake was an interesting experience.  Here she is excited about the upcoming prospect:

She went right for the frosting:

I love how she is using the pincer grasp on the frosting:

And then she got to the cake...it wasn't her favorite:

So she threw it in large chunks onto the floor:

I feel SO lucky that she is part of our family now.  She is my sweet baby girl and my buddy.

A little sibling fun

Last Sunday, after dinner the kids were really cute.  We have pancakes on Sunday nights and the boys were each snacking on one after dinner.  Colette was doing one of her favorite things - spinning around while sitting.  Anyway, they all get a long really well and I love it.

Preschool Graduation

Jordan's preschool graduation was today.  They just sang a bunch of songs, but they were really cute.  Here are three videos of them singing (can you tell Jodan can't stand still?...):

And getting his certificate:

Jordan is getting so big, which is exciting and sad.  I love watching him grow but I am sad he is getting older.  He is starting Kindergarten in the fall and he is SO excited.  He is reading like crazy - he can read one of his books with just a little help now.  I am really amazed at what he can do.  So, here's to my preschool graduate!

My boys

My boys are so cute, and such good friends.  Here is a video of Jordan helping Evan count higher than he can:

We went to feed the geese again.  The little babies are getting bigger and there are a lot more!  The geese came right up to us this time and Jordan loved it:

Evan wouldn't come near them:

The boys rediscovered this baby doll we gave them and like to take care of it like a baby.  Here they are sleeping with it...like we do often with Colette:

Geese!

We went over to the park across the street the other day and saw that there were baby geese!  I think it is so fascinating because they swim around in families and when they eat on the grass, one of the two adults keeps watch while the babies eat.  Anyway, Saturday night we took the kids there to feed the geese and it was so fun...and a little intimidating.

Here are two of the geese families:

Up close baby geese - so cute!:

So, there were two geese that were together but didn't have babies.  The geese with babies kept chasing the ones that didn't away.  They were quite intimidating!:

I was so wrapped up in the geese that I only got one picture with kids...and it is only Jordan.  But, here you go:

I can't wait to go back.  Spring in Lawrence is so amazing.  We are really enjoying it.

My little girl is SO much happier now that she is mobile...and I am too!  Here is a cute video of her:

I had to get her up from a nap the other day to pick up Jordan and she was sound asleep.  So I got a picture of how she sleeps with her towel:

Jordan had a field trip to the Topeka zoo with his school a couple days ago:

The zoo was fun - it isn't too big, but just right for little kids and all the animals are up close:

Jordan and these two girls ran around holding hands the whole time.  It was pretty cute:

Oh Colette:

This morning Mike found her like this - she had gotten her container of puffs, opened it, dumped them out, and was happily shoving handfuls into her mouth...she's pretty cute:

And today is our sixth anniversary!  Pretty exciting!

Exciting!

So, Colette did it!  She started crawling this afternoon.  She still rolls instead sometimes, but she is getting up and crawling!  I am SO excited and she is already acting happier.  Here is a video:

Colette got in the bath first last night and was loving the water.  I just thought it was cute:

Jordan's hair was really messy after his bath last night and I just thought it was cute again:

And I finished the biggest part of my first quilt!  I am so excited!  It is a simple one, but I am excited to figure it out.  I still need to add the border and backing, but here it is so far (the corner piece has Colette's name on it and I am going to stitch something else there...):

And lastly, Jordan was writing with a pen and accidentally wrote on his face.  He went into the bathroom and I thought he was just looking at himself, but after a while I thought something must be going one.  Turns out he was drawing even more on his face:

Lawrence

First off, Jordan had a trike-a-thon last week.  He was really cute.  Can you see his intense look of concentration?  We have deprived him so far of a bike, so he was trying so hard to figure it out.  He did a good job of sticking with it and doing it.

We absolutely love living in Lawrence.  We are very excited to move to Utah in a few months to live by our families, but we have loved our time here. 

Here is the view out of one of our windows the other day. Isn't it gorgeous?:

We just discovered this wonderful place basically across the street.  In fact, you can see it behind the houses in the picture above.  I love it there - big grassy areas, ponds, walking paths... it is wonderful.

The boys love throwing things in water:

Colette was enjoying the time out.  She loves wind and laughs whenever she feels it:

Isn't it pretty?!:

Evan found a patch of dandelions and was frantically trying to blow them all:

I love the sky here - the cloud formations always look so dramatic and pretty:

Resting:

Anyway, I just thought I would share some pictures of Lawrence and one of our new favorite places to go.

My crazy kids

Here we are again!  Still alive, still slacking on the blogging. 

Let's start off with a video of Colette.  This is from a few weeks ago, but cute.  She started shaking her head and thought it was fun so she kept doing it over and over.  And do you like the sympathy coughs at the end?  She's cute.  And yes, that is the normal noise level in our house with the boys!

Colette is THE biggest mama's girl ever.  She only wants me by the end of the evening and a lot during the day.  It is sweet, though, because it is nice that she appreciates all the work I do for her:

We went to Omaha a couple weekends ago and stayed in a hotel.  Here is Colette on the bed.  I posted this because it shows Colette with a hand towel.  She is obsessed with hand towels and wants one to sleep.  If she is upset I can give her one and she will calm down.  I keep making cute little blankets, but she just wants a hand towel:

While we were in Omaha, we took the kids to the zoo.  We swapped baby sitting with another couple so we could go to the temple.  We had six kids with us and it was really a blast.  The kids loved it so much.  Here are the older kids:

Jordan and Evan insist on falling asleep in the same bed now.  So they often end up looking like this.  They stay up so late playing and still wake up around 6:30 or 7:00.  I have to figure out what to do about this!

And here is my cutie:

And her new pose in the high chair:

The kids are doing so well.  Jordan is currently spelling words for me while I do this.  He loves figuring out how to read and spell and I am seriously amazed by him.  It is interesting how they all come with their own strengths and interests.

The other day the kids were in the bath together and Colette tipped over.  Jordan caught her and Mike praised him heavily for doing a good job helping her.  You could tell that Evan's mind was going and he said, "Maybe she will fall again..." thinking he could help her.  Mike said hopefully not, so he started thinking again.  Finally he said, "I can count to 20!" (this is significant because we have never heard him be able to do this.)  So Mike said to do it, and he did really quickly.  It was so cute and funny because you could tell he just saved it for a time when he wanted to use it for attention.  He is so sweet and rarely seeks attention, so I love that he did that!

Colette still isn't crawling or pulling up.  I can tell that she is frustrated a lot because she wants to get to things that she can't.  But she rolls around a lot to get place to place.  Hopefully soon she will crawl so she can keep up with her brothers.

We are getting closer to moving again and I can't believe how fast time has gone.  We absolutely love it here in Lawrence, and will be sad to leave.  But we are so excited to move to Utah and be by our families.  I need to start thinking about packing I guess!