A new look

This is what happens when Cale takes on barbering duties for Mati....

He loves it!  And let Cale mess with his hair for well over an hour to achieve it.  He was trying to recreate this look:

What do you think?  Success??  I'm not so sure!

Haven and E: 6 years and 6 weeks

Do you know how awesome it is to have your best friend be an amazing photographer who is always happy to take pictures of your family? Well, I do!!  And I'm so thankful for each of the grins, smiles and wrinkled brows that she captured for us recently.  We'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

 this one is my favorite i think...just captures my girl so perfectly!

 these two girls...love them both so much and they sure love each other!

And here are a few of our sweet little man.  Can't show you his face, but you can still appreciate his cuteness!

Many thanks to Amber for blessing us with her talents!

Only treats at our house

Our little monkey and "It's raining cats and dogs!" get-up

 Already wound up before they got the sugar load!

 Haven carved her pumpkin herself this year (left) and Mati told Cale what he wanted

A fun time had by all!

Off he goes

Mati had his first day of Tuesday School yesterday.  I can't believe he's old enough to go and it is a major switch to leave him there and have Haven with me while running errands. When we were walking to the car after leaving  Haven and I decided it felt like she was skipping school!  Here's our big boy all ready for the day...

He is in that phase of not really knowing how to smile right for the camera.  So here we've got a great smile, but not looking at me.  He's cute so who cares!

My boys...they are best buddies as Mati always tells Cale.

Serious as can be once we got to school!  Didn't hear much of a report, but he seemed to enjoy himself.  I think he'll have a great time!

I just had to slip this in...here's Haven on her first day of Tuesday School 3 years ago!  Oh my word!

Sidewalk Paint

A fun and easy activity for these last few lazy days of summer, Sidewalk Paint!  Maybe I'm the last to the party on this one, but it isn't something we've ever made before.  Yesterday afternoon seemed like the perfect time to try it and we loved it.  The colors are so bright and pretty!  Couldn't be easier to mix up, either. Mix together 1/2 cup cornstarch with 1/2 cup water.  Divide into as many cups as you want colors.  We did four and had plenty of paint.  Add several drops of food coloring to each bowl and stir.  That's it.  See?  Easy! We did find that sponge brushes worked especially well after a bit of trial and error.  Paint away!

Corn-on-the-cob

I'm not sure that there is anything cuter then a five year old missing her two front tooth, but insisting that she can still eat corn-on-the-cob.  If you look closely at the picture, you can see that she misses every two to three kernels.  She didn't care!

Three

Today, my little man turned three.  It was a fun day, filled with lots of things Mati loves like cake, church and ketchup.  When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner he replied, "Ketchup."  We made it happen for him!

 Super Mati!  You really are a super guy Mat-Mat.  You are the most polite child and are endless with your praise of others.  You are Haven's biggest cheerleader and always tell me how proud you are of me.  I pray that your gift of encouragement stays with you all your life.

 All smiles as he opened presents.  My happy boy!  You are the life of the party, full of jokes and dances and being crazy.  You love to make us laugh.  You love to talk..."Ya know what, Mama?" is something I hear ALL day long.  Followed closely by, "Dat cool?"  You wear my brain out some days with all the talking, but I love your sweet voice filling up this house.

 Its always sad to say farewell to your sweet little babyish habits.  For almost a year you knew your colors by 

the characters on Sesame Street.  Red=Elmo, Blue=Grover, Yellow=Big Bird, etc.  You are not doing it very often anymore and while I'm so glad you're growing and learning, I thought that was one of the cutest little things you did, especially since it's something you came up with on your own.  What will that mischievous little mind come up with next?

You are the sweetest boy, Mati.  I can't imagine life without you and I am amazed that God orchestrated you into our family.  I love to hear you say, "Our family Papa, Mommy, Haven, Mati!  Our family!"  You love each one us passionately and it is so easily returned.  Thank you for being one of the greatest gifts of my heart and for filling up a part of me I never knew was empty.

 You are my best guy!  Happy birthday, Mati!

Lost: Haven's first tooth

It took one teeth to the head accident, one kick in the face, and 2 nasty falls for it to finally happen...

Haven lost her first tooth!  

I can't believe it hung on as long as it did; we thought they'd not last into the new year.  A fall on Tuesday into the concrete floor at Chipotle finally did it in.  I think the other front one will follow quickly.  For now, we'll need some time to get used to this minus-one-tooth-smile.  Good thing she's cute no matter how many teeth she's got!

Happy hearts

We've been doing a little Valentine crafting here the last few days.  Some projects have worked out better then others, but this one was a complete hit!  The original idea I saw was to paint circles overlapping one another, but I thought it would be fun to try it with hearts for Valentine's Day.  And it worked out perfectly!

I used a cookie cutter and watered down black watercolors to trace the heart shapes.  I'd recommend tracing the inside of your cookie cutter, not the outside.  Wish I would have thought of that before I got to the end.

Then Haven got to work painting in all the different sections.  She tried hard to get nice bright colors by using less water.  She worked diligently for almost 40 minutes and here was the result! (Gotta love the crazy hair and squinty eyes!)

The pictures don't do the color justice- it really is bright and happy! I loved this project probably more then Haven did.  We will definitely do it again with the circles and I will make one for myself to paint, too!

Five years later

The day was crisp and clear.  It had been a mild winter, much to your snow loving mama’s dismay.  So it seemed only appropriate that they were calling for a snowstorm the day you came to us.  No sign of it as we entered the hospital at 2pm.  A few hours later a flake had yet to fall.  But when it did, it just kept coming and didn’t stop.  I have a clear memory of looking out through the slats of the blind, in between contractions, and seeing a winter wonderland.  The kind of flakes that make you feel like you live in a snowglobe that’s just been shaken.  And in the midst of that swirling snow, you were born.  Eight pounds of beautiful girl, healthy and whole. 

Five years later, we celebrate you on a snowy, icy day.  You’re even more beautiful.  

You bring out the best in me.

We’re growing up together, my love, bit by bit

You make me laugh and smile and be silly. 

You’re my best girl.

Happy birthday, sweet Haven!

Oh, Haven...

I honestly don't know where Haven comes up with this stuff.  But it worries me a bit.  She loves to play Just Dance 2 with Cale and I.  Her favorite song, hands down- "It's Raining Men."  She started crying today when I tried to dissuade her from listening/dancing to it.  And all day long she's been singing, "It's raining men, Hallelujah! It's raining men!:

As if it's not disturbing enough, my soon to be (as in 24 hours from now!) 5 year old set me over the edge with her dinner time comments.  Man vs Wild is not a show that I typically let our kids watch, but Cale was relaxing on the couch after suffering a concussion (for real- he slipped on the ice and was crazy-freaking-me-out confused- it deserves its own post!).  Haven was sitting with him to watch.  At dinner later on we were talking about it and Cale asked her what her favorite part was.  Without even thinking about it she replied, "When he got n*ked."  What???  Bear does get n*ked in just about every episode it seems, but that was her favorite part!?!?  And then she added," I'm gonna remember that for a long time."  I promise you that they never show anything inappropriate!  But I'm disturbed that it seemed so memorable to her for some reason.  It's not like she's never seen some pasty white man thigh before (only her dad's of course)!

Oh, dear...what am I going to do with this girl!  Guess we'll just listen to bad 80's music together.

These faces

I've missed these faces.  We've been together, but not together for the last week as I laid around and nursed some serious back issues.  I missed them...the playing and reading and tickling and hugging and being silly.  I'm thankful to be back to my regular scheduled program with them (almost).

And this picture...my word, don't you love it?  The ever talented Amber of Ciao Bella Photography.  Wait til next week when I show you some of the amazing ones she captured of Haven...my almost 5 year old!

Moving on up

Guess who moved to a "big boy" bed last night?  (No, it wasn't Cale.)  It was this sweet boy of mine...

He was perfect!  Went right to sleep, didn't get up and stayed in bed til we went to get him this morning.  Ditto at nap time.  I heard him call for me through the monitor when he woke up this afternoon and I walked in and he's just sitting there waiting for me.  He is such a good kid!  And so darn cute cuddled in to his new bed!

Mexi what?

My sister-in-law is a vegetarian, so it's a concept and a word that Haven's familiar with. We eat a lot of meat-less meals around here and last week we happened to eat three of them in a row. On the third night of our veggie-rama, I was teasing Cale about the lack of meat in our diet and that I was going to turn him into a vegetarian yet. Haven was asking if we knew any other people who were vegetarians; then she asked what we were. Laughingly I told her we were flexitarians, to which Cale snickered because he thinks that's a silly, made-up word. Haven paused for a minute and then said, "What are we again? Mexi-tarians?"

Oh, if there were such a thing, we would TOTALLY be it! Any other Mexi-tarians out there?!

Super Mati

Of all that things that fall brings with it, footie pajamas has to be one of my favorites. And this new pair of Mati's about take the cake!

Super Mat-Mat to the rescue! Complete with red cape and boots!

Here he is in action!

September=fall, but it's still hot out there

Don't you love the start of a new month? A clean, fresh start. And September 1st is extra special because to me that means fall has started. I don't care that the calendar says we've got a full 3 more weeks of summer.

September = fall. Anyone with me?

But, it is 90 degrees out there today. Not necessarily fall-ish per se. So let's look at some pictures of our favorite activity of the summer: the pool. My kids LOVE to swim. Haven has always been pretty comfortable in the water, but this summer her confidence grew by leaps and bounds and she's now swimming on her own and even daring to go underwater. She earned herself a pair of goggles for that feat. Cale and I learned early on that we just had to let her go at her own pace. She didn't like us to try things with her in the water. She wanted to do it on her own and then she'd practice with us.

Don't you love the yellow and pink goggles she picked out?!

And then there is my son. He has NO fear. Jumps in, doesn't care who's watching or if anyone is around. This video that I captured so perfectly sums up his pool experience. I couldn't believe he did this and that I was fortunate enough to capture it. This kid is crazy!

Band-aid brigade

I stocked up today. I think we're going to be needing these in the near future because a certain four year old girl who lives at my house has learned to ride her bike sans training wheels! Just last Friday she was showing off her one-training wheel skills to her Nana. On Saturday Cale put them both up and off she went! We even went on our first family ride on Sunday; we might have averaged a speed of 6mph, but we sure did have fun! Haven's had 2 crashes and neither of them that bad. Honestly, the band-aids are more needed for her general walking around. She's better balancing on two wheels on her bike then walking down the street some days! Now she'll have to pick which kind to use first. Decisions, decisions!

Griddle art

A perfect project for us this dreary Monday morning...griddle art! We pulled our griddle out of the pantry and put it on the warm setting. I covered it with a large piece of foil and Haven drew away. We used old, broken crayons to draw because they melt as you draw with them. To make prints of the drawings, we placed a piece of paper over the foil and smoothed over it using an oven mitt. It worked beautifully and Haven was thrilled with the results. Wipe off the foil with a damp cloth and keep drawing. We loved this fun project from The Preschooler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner which is one of my favorite activity resources. Who knew griddles weren't just for pancakes?!

Drawing a house and being very careful to not touch the warm surface

Haven's print of Mati, complete with "his curls".

Can't you see the resemblance??!! This is his mean face!

**Of course, use great caution working around the hot surface, but we had no problems at all.**