My Girls

Here's something fun for me: dressing Eleanor up in clothes that Madeline wore. I think they really look alike. You can tell who is who fairly easily with Eleanor's crazy spiky hair. (She's the one in the big pink bow.)

 In all fairness, though, Madeline was actually three or four weeks older in her picture. I should really do this shot again when they're the same age for a better comparison. I just took advantage of the cooler weather today to use some of Madeline's long sleeved outfits before Eleanor was too big to wear them.

But I've gotta go. Eleanor had her 2 month shots today, and she's quite cranky. Hopefully I can get some more pictures on here soon. 

Have a happy day!

Eleanor

     Okay, so we've been a bit busy around here. Apparently some people think that large life-changing events like having a kid deserve blog entries.... and that's probably true. Here ya go. There's not really a good way to catch up, so I'll summarize:

 Eleanor joined the family on July 2nd. She's beautiful, fairly easy-going, and she likes to spit up.

Caleb and Madeline really like her, and they seem to be adjusting well. Madeline is a little overly enthusiastic. She tries to help a little too much, and isn't quite as gentle as she needs to be. Caleb likes to hold her, but he's always afraid she'll spit up on him. 

We are working on finding a new routine, and establishing a new "normal." It's taking a while because honestly, there are days I don't even get a shower. Life is a challenge with three kids under five running around the house. I keep thinking that things will become easier when the school year starts. If nothing else, it will help us stay in a routine. Right now I'm having a hard time keeping the kids and myself sane. It is way too hot to play outside during the day, and there aren't really any indoor play areas that I feel comfortable tackling alone right now. I'm not sure I can keep track of Madeline in a crowd while still caring for Eleanor, although I know that will get easier as they both get a little older. Luckily, I have a lot of indoor activities that we've been switching out in an effort to keep the older two occupied. 

The past few weeks have been challenging. I'm exhausted. My house and hair are a mess. I don't have time to do laundry, much less work out to lose this baby weight. BUT, I'm loving (almost) every minute of it. I am very blessed in so many ways. I'm especially thankful that I'm not a prisoner to the postpartum depression that followed the birth of my first two. I'm not sure I could have handled that gracefully in front of Caleb and Madeline. 

So, basically, life is going on like it tends to do. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of blogging more often. Just don't judge too harshly; we all know how consistent I am with that. 

Have a wonderful day!

Slushy Monday

Today was one of those get-a-slushy-after-school sorta days. Madeline had some make-up days left, so she had school today, too. It was a nice little break for me... and I sure needed a break. Madeline was sick last week, so she hasn't been sleeping well lately. That means that I haven't been sleeping lately. Things are getting better now that she feels better, and Madeline is sleeping again. Unfortunately, Caleb didn't sleep well last night. I'm worried he'll come down with it next. Hopefully last night was just a false alarm. I could really use some sleep!

Have a restful night!

Catching Up

     Yay! A new post without someone having to ask first. You should be impressed. :-)

We've had a pretty normal couple of weeks here. The kids are going a bit stir crazy from the rainy weather, but otherwise we're still in the same old routine. I've been very tired and run down, but I assumed I was just being pregnant or whiny. It might not all be in my head, though; the doctor's office called me and said I was fairly anemic. Hopefully getting some iron into me will help.

Anywhoo, I had to include this picture of Madeline because she just looks so old to me here. We stopped at Auntie Anne's to get a pretzel. I've never seen a child that loves cream cheese so much.

     This picture made me smile just because it's a perfect example of how kids in this new generation use technology. This is what they were doing during Sunday evening service at church. I know Caleb was playing angry birds, but who knows what Madeline was doing. It probably involved deleting some apps... she does that sometimes. I promise they're not playing games 24/7... Please don't judge me!

     This is a new little project I did last night and today during nap. It's a set of toddler-friendly flash cards. I found the idea over at http://www.sewmuchado.blogspot.com/ where there's a tutorial and everything. I decided to make some spelling Madeline's name, so she can, ya know, practice spelling her name. The back sides are all different shapes. I like how you can play with them on the ring, or take them off to arrange them. Either way, I think it'll be a toy she enjoys. Please don't enlarge the pictures and look at my wonky stitching. To save time I did them on my machine, but hand stitching would have been much prettier. I've decided, however, that I should always weigh the benefits of a time consuming project (aka: it'd be prettier) against the cons (aka: I'm about to hand the finished item to a 2 year old), and in this case speed won over beauty. LOL

Actually, since I started writing this post we made a trip in the car to pick up Caleb from school. Madeline took the cards with her and played with them the entire time. She kept thanking me for making them. (How sweet is that?) I think I'll call that a successful project, especially since Caleb has already asked for some. :-)
Have a great day!

So It's Been a While...

My posting has been quite lazy lately. Sorry. Things are going fairly well here in Clark-land. Everyone is pretty much over the virus or whatever it was we just passed around. Josh was the last to get it, so he's still a little tired, but otherwise we're healthy.

School feels like it's winding down, even though we still have several weeks left. I suppose it's the warm weather. Caleb is going to be upset when it's out for summer vacation, but I'm glad that he loves school so much. We'll see how a 5 day preschool works out for him next year.

Madeline is finally about finished potty training. We still have occasional accidents, but I'm thrilled anyway. Our goal was to have her out of diapers before #3 gets here, and it looks like that's taken care of.

Speaking of #3, my pregnancy is going well. My blood pressure issues are still under control with medication. Everything else looks good. We still don't have a name, though. Hopefully we'll decide on something soon. It's starting to stress me out. :-)

Anywhoo, here are some pictures off my phone. This first one cracks me up because the kids were so excited that they had on matching Cars pajamas. They asked me to take a picture on my phone, and I was happy to oblige!

The rest of these pictures just show what happens when you leave your phone lying around. It gives you a little view from Caleb's perspective.

Have a great day!

Random Kid Pictures

Here are some shots I've stolen off Josh's computer. He's been practicing with the nice camera, so he's got better pictures than me these days. :-)

Have a fantastic day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's a little exciting that my kids are now getting old enough to have things like Valentine's Day parties. It was really fun to watch Caleb get so into it. He actually sat down with me and picked out which card went to which friend. He also signed his name on each and every card... Toy Story, of course. Here's his little shoe box we decorated. It's wrapped in regular wrapping paper that I keep around the house. I cut out the train pieces on my Cricut, and Caleb decorated every exposed surface in heart stickers. He was really proud of his box.

Madeline didn't actually understand what was going on... she just knew candy was involved! She picked out Disney Princess valentines. It's a little amazing how girlie she can be. I swear kids come preprogrammed. Anyway, here's her Valentine's Day bag. It's just something I made in about 10 minutes with some felt and ribbon, but she loves it.

And that about sums up our V-Day celebrations. The kids partied it up at school and got a ton of candy and lots of cute cards. I might just be helping out a bit with the huge pile of candy they brought home. :-)

Snowmageddon 2011

I'm not a huge fan of winter. I prefer my temperatures a little more fall-y or spring-ish, so I'm totally ready for the snow to move on. That being said, I'm glad the kids got to play in some snow this year. It's not always guaranteed to happen around here. Yesterday we decided to fight cabin fever by invading someone else's house for a bit. We ventured next door to Grammie and Popup's house to play in the snow and eat some chili. Here are some photos courtesy of Grammie:

Have a snow-tastic day!

Another Quiet Book

This is the Christmas present I made for my sweet nephew, Samuel. It's a small quiet book with interactive pages. I designed my own patterns, so please be kind! Each page does something different. The apple hides a small green worm. The orange fish can be pulled out of his little vinyl bowl. The sun has loose ric-rac rays that you can play with, and the tree has taggie grass. I also used a variety of fabrics to get some good textures. The blue rocket is probably my favorite. It moves up and down along the cord. The purple kite's tail is elastic encased in fabric, so it can be pulled and bounced. Overall, it was a little bit of work getting it all done, but I love the way it turned out. I really hope he enjoys playing with it!

Have a sew-tastic day!

Okay you people...

...I know I haven't posted in a while. I have no excuse other than the fact that I normally work on my posts when the kids are asleep, and I've been dealing with evening sickness lately. **Update: as Raina pointed out, I have people who read this that I haven't seen in a while. Yes, the big news is that I'm pregnant. (yay!) I'm due in July. I should have posted that earlier... sorry. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog. ***Anywho, here's a quick recap of our Christmas festivities. I don't have pictures of Caleb's school program yet, but when I get some I'll add them on here.

First up is a shot of Caleb in the Church's Christmas program. His class lined up on the steps and signed a couple of songs. It was very cute. Unfortunately, Caleb fell while playing in the Chic-fil-a play area and (probably) fractured his arm. (The x-ray was inconclusive.) But he soldiered on through the pain and did his signs mostly one-handed.

So here are a few cute shots of the kids opening presents:

Caleb with Buzz Lightyear.

Madeline received a lot of dress-up clothes. Here she has on her new headband, and she's opening the matching tutu. I actually had to make a spot in her closet for all the new fancy dresses and accessories. She loves them, and we play with them every day!

The one and only thing Caleb wanted for Christmas this year was a Hot Wheels Criss-Cross Crash set. It's a motorized cloverleaf track that speeds the cars around until they crash. This was his face when he opened his present from Santa. I bet you can guess what it was. :-)

Here's Madeline Christmas morning at Grammie's house. I think this expression says, "Can I open my presents yet?"

Among other things, the kids each received a pillow pet and sleeping bag from Grammie and Popup. They were a big hit. They're sleeping with their pillow pets every night now, and we play with the sleeping bags constantly. We finally had to make a rule that you can sleep in the sleeping bags for nap time, but not at night.

Well, that catches us up a bit for now. I'm sure I have a lot more to post from December. Oh well, we'll catch up eventually. Maybe.

It's snowing outside right now, so I'll just say:

Have a snow-tastic day!