you're fighting about what??

I know none of you could possibly think that our kids are perfect. And even though no one asked for it, I will give you some proof.

• Not a day (no, not even one single day) goes by without Madeleine and Ian fighting over who gets to sit in the coveted seat at the back of the kitchen table. This might make sense if the tv were on while we're eating (since that seat would have the best view), but it's not. It seems like maybe the reasoning has become that that seat is closer to Alayna's highchair. Either way, it makes me want to scream.
• You could hear statements like these at almost any mealtime at our house:

"I want the blue plate!"
"No!! I want the blue plate!!"
"Mom! He got the blue plate yesterday!!"
"You get what you get and you don't get upset!"

• Our older kids also have a real talent for arguing over what they watch on netflix. There are a few shows they agree on, like Avatar: the Last Airbender and the Fantastic Four. But mostly if Ian wants to pick something besides those two, Madeleine will fight it. Pretty much if it's not her way/choice/idea/etc. it's worth fighting over.
• If you're like me, you hope that prayer-time will be a brief moment of peace in your home. But again, if you're like me, you are disappointed on that one. Those two even have to fight over who gets to say the prayer. Unbelievable!

I could come up with several other examples, but I think that's proof enough for now. At this moment however, I am pleased to say that Alayna is sleeping and Madeleine and Ian are playing nicely enough together with the fort they built in the playroom. So, for this moment, I am enjoying some relative peace and a break from wanting to scream.

One year old!

Here's our sweet Alayna Camille screaming her lungs out just after she was born on July 13, 2010. That first washing wasn't fun for her. Since then, she has come to love the bath. :) In fact, she has been very good natured and a real sweetheart about most everything. Just a good baby!
At about 6 months she was chewing on everything, working hard at getting teeth. Now at 1, she has eight teeth and the doctor said Alayna's molars look quite swollen so I expect we'll be seeing more teeth soon enough. As a 9-month-old, Alayna was exploring all over the place! She had mastered crawling by then and really wanted to go everywhere. She particularly enjoyed climbing the stairs, and still does. Her sweet personality began to emerge more and more around this age.And now she is a big 1-year-old. She is such a wonderful girl! She truly keeps a smile on our faces since everything about her is absolutely precious! She started walking a few days before her birthday. A baby just starting to walk has got to be one of the cutest/funniest things ever. It's adorable!
We got to celebrate her birthday a little early while we were in Oregon with all of Spencer's family, including our niece Maren who was born about 2 weeks before Alayna. Maren was kind enough to let Alayna share the spotlight that day. Back here on her actual birthday, we just had a little family party. Since she doesn't know to expect anything, I think it was just the right amout of celebration. I must say, the cake was delicious. I had to eat waaay too much of it. Alayna liked it too:
Happy birthday, baby girl!! We love you!

I currently love...

This is Spencer's and my new favorite thing to watch in our free time. It sure makes us wish we had more free time! Any other FNL lovers out there?

And in case you are wondering, I have gads of topics to post about. It is a little overwhelming which is probably why I haven't done it yet. That, and that I want to watch another episode of Friday Night Lights instead of blog. Stay tuned. I'll post something better soon, I promise.

Road Trip

Spencer had a training in Baton Rouge this week and since we didn't want him to get lonely :) we invited ourselves along. Getting crowns at Burger King on the way there was suprisingly fun.
The kids and I spent our days hanging out at the pool and in the hotel room. We agree that the pool is fun, but I don't share their excitement for the room itself. They were so thrilled to come in one day after the maid had been in and see that the beds were made. Easy to please, I tell ya! But back to the pool, Ian finally got the hang of swimming without his floaties while we were there. Happy day!

One evening after dinner (where the kids posed with the LSU tiger) we explored town a bit. After going to see the river and how high it is right now (really high!), we went over to the capitol building. The steps were begging to be climbed.

Madeleine is always looking for good photo opportunities and I am usually happy to oblige. It was a fun couple days and it got us really excited for summer break. Today is the first official day of it and Madeleine is celebrating by sleeping in past 9 o'clock. Isn't that the life?

This and that

Alayna is in such a great phase right now! She is getting to be just a little more independent and I think she's pretty pleased with herself about it. One thing she is especially good at is eating. She will eat anything! In this picture she's chowing down some turkey meatballs. But her favorite food is likely the same as your kids--pizza! She has 7 teeth to help with the chewing but since they're all in the front, she has become an expert gummer. And now that she is so proficient at feeding herself, that is what she prefers. No more baby food for her, please. I still give her baby food occasionally when I don't want to have to bathe her again after letting her feed herself canned peaches or something equally sticky and messy.

Ian just finished his first year of preschool. He loved going to school and really soaked up all they were teaching him. I have learned from experience that sometimes the reports I get from my children about what they've done at school or church or a friend's house, etc. might be slightly less than accurate. Not so with Ian. He would tell me some of what he'd done at school and when I got an email from his teacher telling about school that day, he was always right on. He just explained it differently. His teachers gave him a glowing report of how smart he is, how much he learned and how much they loved having him in their class. He's really looking forward to pre-k in the fall.

Although Alyana is only 10 months old, her doctor said she can have cow's milk already. Something to do with her iron count or something? I don't know, but I was really glad to find that out beause I was getting ready to wean her off breastmilk and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with formula! And she won't drink from a bottle so we're skipping them and going straight to sippy cups. I think it's so cute how excited she gets when I give her a cup of milk in the morning.

Madeleine with her friend, Liz, at the final Honor Roll breakast of the year. Madeleine stayed on the All A's Honor Roll all year long. Great job, Maddie! Do you like the powdered sugar on her smile? So cute! I bet what you really love are her beautiful accessories. She really scored on her birthday with the headbands and such. She wore a fancy headband and that necklace everyday this week.

I've already mentioned before that Alayna loves climbing the stairs. What's funny is that she knows we don't want her to do it (for fear of her getting hurt, of course) and she thinks it's a fun game. When I see her on the stairs and call her name, she squeals and giggles and tries to go up even faster till I come catch her. What a goof!

She loves the trampoline too. We don't let her on very often, but it was the perfect place to let her play around while the rest of us played bocci ball in the backyard one evening.

I got these chairs to go with my breakfast table in place of the folding chairs there before. I admit that a windsor chair wasn't my top choice, but since I got six of these chairs and a table (that I will turn around and sell) for $50 I decided to go for it. They were so filthy and gross. And rehabbing them was a MAJOR pain! But I am happy with the finished product.

I know, I need some flowers or fruit or something to brighten this room up. That's beside the point. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to refinish chairs ever again, but I am so glad these are done. I really like the look of them with the table. At any rate, it's a huge improvement over the folding chairs.

That's all for now. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!

We have a 7 year old!

This little girl turned 7 last Friday and we had lots of fun celebrating! Do you love the hat from Grandma Sandi and Grandpa Paul?

It's such a pain to try to get pictures where you really want them in blogger, so I'll just pretend this is what I planned all along. Madeleine had 9 friends over for a red themed birthday party on Saturday.

They ate pizza, strawberries, swedish fish, hot tamales, twizzlers and red velvet cake mix cookies. And they adorned their crowns with adhesive red jewels. Several of them let me paint their fingernails red. I had an assortment of red beads for making bracelets, but the cording was too big for the beads so that activity didn't pan out. The girls just jumped on the trampoline and ran around the house screaming and had plenty of fun!

Something you may or may not know about Madeleine is that she absolutely lives for dressing in beautiful gowns! The fancier, the better. Does it go all the way to the floor? Perfect! That is just her thing. So she really wanted to have a fancy new dress for her birthday. Although the theme was red, we agreed that all the fancy red dresses were much too Christmas-y for a May birthday and we went with this white one with the red sash. Only her fear of getting it dirty has kept her from wearing it non-stop.

Finally, here she is next to her cake that matched her dress. This cake looked a lot prettier in my head than it turned out in reality. But it tasted delicious! And actually, Madeleine loved it and went on and on about how beautiful it was. Sounds like a success to me!

Happy 7th birthday, Madeleine! We love you so much and are so grateful for all you bring into our lives!!

Nine Months Old

Time sure does fly, doesn't it? When you have a new baby, people are always telling you to enjoy is because it doesn't last, and I know that it's true. I don't think I need to hear it, yet it seems like all of a sudden I have a nine month old, not an infant. It's crazy how fast it's happened. I guess as I've gotten older, nine months just isn't a very long time anymore.

But let's face it, a nine month old is a lot more fun than an infant. Alayna keeps us on our toes. A couple days ago she discovered the kitchen cupboards and all their contents. Happy day for her. All those newfound toys! I hope that I can pull one thing out for her and that it will keep her busy while I cook.

I don't have any nine months stats to post because we won't go to the doctor for that appointment for a couple more weeks. But just so we remember, here's what I can tell you:

At nine months, Alayna has 7 teeth. 4 on top, 3 on bottom. She is crawling everywhere, even on the stairs, and she pulls herself to standing all over the place. She hasn't mastered balance well enough to attempt any steps on her own, but I think she's fairly close. (Our other two kids walked at 10 months so we'll see if she's on par with that.) She babbles a lot and I like to think she's starting to know that "ma ma ma" is me and "da da da" is Spencer. That might be wishful thinking.

Did you know we live just a few minutes from the beach? I didn't realize it either till a friend took us to this sandy spot on the nearby creek. Madeleine and Spencer missed it so we will have to go back soon.

This is for Grandma Sandi who sent an Easter package that we all loved! We dived right into it! Thanks Grandma!

P.S. Sorry for the poor picture quality. Remember all I have to work with is the camera on my phone.