Awesome Spring Day

Christmas Concert.....Glee Style

She had a blast and did such a great job! So proud!

What did you do this Saturday?

First Day of School (Andrew)

Our first days of school have come and gone. Andrew is moving on to Kindergarten, and having a great time. He has already been outside with the science teachers, feeding the chickens & checking the roosters. He seemed a little wary at first, because our neighbors (and his buddies) are all in the next building. He even received an offer from a little girl who wanted to "kiss me on the lips". He said "no way, I only kiss my Mom". Good boy.

Had a busy weekend. Soccer for Andrew on Saturday, ballet for Julia, and I picked up some of these from the farmers market.

So, today we squeezed them and got busy in the kitchen. Andrew did a great job of putting the tomatoes into the juicer while Stephen supervised and turned the crank. Julia got off easy and went to a birthday party. Perhaps it's time for some jams & jellies, since the farmers market as so many blueberries/raspberries they were selling!

After our busy weekend, we enjoyed a date night Saturday. Had some buffalo wings to go with the ND game. Thought we'd wash it all down with a coke. :)

Tomato juice (for tacos) and spaghetti sauce. We then had spaghetti for dinner and the kids were scarfing it down! Usually they have helpings of plain spaghetti after their first round, but tonight Julia's second round was just sauce! It's hard work, but the kids enjoyed it and they love that sauce!

First Day of School

Yea! We've made it to the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (for Julia anyway). All those REALLY excited about this, raise your hand!! (ME, ME!) Julia was very excited as well. She seemed nervous when I dropped her off, just being somewhere unfamiliar. But, Sarah, the little girl that Julia had on her soccer team this last spring (and now this fall) is in her class. She also walked up to Julia this morning and gave her a big hug. I think that really made her feel welcomed. After school, she stated that she loves her new school. :)

Elaina can work the gate on our deck. She likes to let herself out so that she can sit on the steps. She is currently working on going up and down the steps without crawling.

Somewhere in this tree is a boy.

June 2011

Oh yea, did I mention that Elaina is walking, Andrew ditched the training wheels this last week & Julia is getting another row of shark teeth on the bottom jaw?

Happy Birthday Elaina!

She is 1 year old today! What a ham she is. When she sees that camera in my hand, she starts doing goofy poses or smiles w/ krinkled nose. She had a good long nap today (because she was such a wiggle last night between 1 & 2:30.) But she had a great day playing with her friends Sam & Jacob Helder.

Elaina June 2010

Elaina June 2011

She took a handful of frosting, but didn't eat her cake. She threw it over the side of her tray. So no messy cake shot. :(



Happy Mother's Day!

Ahhh, top reasons why I love Mother's Day.

1. There are 2 days out of the year that I can 100% count on as MY day to "sleep in". My birthday, only if I'm lucky enough for it to fall on a weekend, and Mother's day. This year, the kids all slept until 8:30 and I got 20 extra minutes before my breakfast in bed arrived.

2. This year I got to go do what I had planned after church. So, we went and picked out some hanging baskets for the front porch.

3. The sun was out, the weather was gorgeous!

4. We spent our day at home and across the street at the Sacred Heart carnival. It's kinda nice that it's there (sometimes) because I put Elaina down for a nap and walked to the carnival w/ Andrew and came home a few times to check on things. Not a bad deal (especially for the older kids as they were super excited for those rides!)

5. We all (even Julia & Andrew) enjoyed grilled steak w/ baked potatoes for dinner. I cooked, Stephen cleaned up the kitchen. :) That's a good deal in my book. While I grilled, Elaina went for a ride.

6. I LOVE the stuff the kids bring home from school. Andrew was talking about his gift all week, letting me make a guess each day of what it was he was giving me. (I didn't guess correctly.) But, he also wouldn't tell me what it was either. So, he gave me a paper flower in a flower pot that had his picture in the middle and he colored the petals. Julia gave me these bottle caps that she had turned into magnets. The surprise was the paper Andrew handed me that he had filled out as the story of who his Mom was. Loved it!

Hilarious!

First Communion

Julia has taken a huge step into the church, by partaking in the body and blood of Christ. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful ceremony. She did so well though the whole mass, as did everyone that came to visit! She, of course, wore the Capper family first communion dress and it fit her nicely.

April Birthdays

As I move forward, I need to post some important things that happened this spring. April brought two birthdays in our household, and I will say that I was excited for both of them!

Happy 5th Birthday Andrew!

For Andrew's birthday, he requested an apple pie instead of cake. (He's never been good about eating cake.) Apparently, he doesn't care for pie much either because all he wanted was ice cream after blowing out his candles w/ pie.

I had a fabulous 31st birthday, that started with bright cheery flowers sent to my office (from my wonderful/thoughtful husband). His arrangements keep getting better every year! He even called a sitter for the evening and we went out for dinner and shopping, just the two of us. Best part of all, we came home to a quiet house. :)

Junk Yard Baby

Elaina has a nickname.  Julia and Andrew are calling her "junk yard baby", when the get deep into imaginary play. It comes from Elaina destroying anything that is in her "range". Right now, they happen to be involved in paper dinosaur families they made. Sometimes the Quetzalcoatlus will make a fly by of the "junk yard baby".

Here's a little video of Elaina "busy". I forget how babies seem to know where things belong. It's the same for Andrew's night light. I unplug it and set it aside so she can't play with the outlet, but she goes for the night light and then has tried to plug it back in again. Silly girl.

Eight Months Old

Elaina cut 2 new teeth this last week. We now have our top & bottom two teeth with the top side teeth soon to come. She likes to use them on many things. Toys, clothing, food, her brother's toes. She has become very adventurous, sometimes forgetting that she needs to hold on to things when she stands. She loves to eat stews, chicken pot pie, shepards pie and oatmeal. She does well with the crazy schedule of picking up kids from school, and this last week rewarded us with going to bed 3 nights in a row at 7 pm. You have to love a weather change sometimes.

The Many Faces of Steve

Stephen pulled a face at dinner the other night. The kids and I busted out laughing, this was the best recreation of the face (though not quite the real thing). Got to love my jokester. Especially when he's outside picking up dog poop from the yard, to make it easier to do this spring. :)

Hair Cut

Before

After

I can see his face!

 

Perspective

This is how Elaina appears to me from my vantage point. She looks so little, cuddly, cute.

But, I know that she is this little busybody that likes to get into everything. She is growing so fast, I feel as if I've blinked. We are cutting new teeth this week. Her upper front teeth are just about through on one side. This is probably the worst she has slept, which isn't  fair. Why sleep worse now at 7 1/2 months than at 3-4 months? Then I noticed that it looks like 4 of her top teeth are trying to bust through all at once. My remedy, keep my bottle of tylenol handy for that 3 am party.

Snow Fort

Yes, I played in the snow the other day and it was glorious! We didn't have school last Monday, and Tuesday was a snow day. By the time I got home from work, the kids NEEDED to get outside. So, I sent them out. Andrew came back to the door 2 minutes later, ready to come back in. I recall being sent out, and not coming back for (what seemed like) hours. We made tunnels, we made sled runs, slides, forts, houses. We tried to ice skate on a gravel drive way! There was no way my son was coming back in without trying to build a fort. So, I went out to show him how it was done. They played with them everyday when they got home from school, because they sat by the cars just calling to the kids when they got out. Here are some progress shots. They did get them pretty tall. The next day the temperature dropped out so they are now ice forts, and I had to explain to Julia when snow ball/fort creating weather was. She was pretty disappointed.

Here are some more shots of Elaina. We were playing peekaboo through Julia's doll house windows. It was too funny.

Elaina

7 months old!

Quote of the Day

Walking in on this scene...

I ask "Why don't you just sort the legos by color so you can find what you're looking for easier?"

Steve: "Because we're not women."

Andrew: "We have it figured out, Mom."

Kid birthday parties

Andrew was invited to a "Bounce Party" birthday party, so I packed us all up to take the kids for an afternoon of fun. I noticed that birthday parties are not all they used to be. I tried to mingle some, but it's difficult when I don't know the other parents in Andrew's class. Also, the theme seemed to be "go play kids, while I sit in these chairs and mess around on my phone." At one time, all 6 parents sitting in chairs at the side were all on their phones texting or playing a game. It was actually quite comical, but not in a good way. I would have been all over those inflatables if I didn't have to stay near Elaina the whole time. I did reminisce about the time Jessica & Ross came and went to Bounce Party with us and we had a FABULOUS time playing on the inflatables ourselves. Anyone for some bungee running?

Preparing for Christmas

 I am 6 months old today. I am army crawling all over the house and teaching my brother and sister that anything left on the floor will be chewed, mangled, torn, or ruined. I find interesting fuzzies to suck on and anything small that I know I shouldn't have, I try anyway. I have both my bottom teeth in and ready to go. My world has completely changed, and the house is my playground.

These 2 busybodys are done with school this week, which would seem like a blessing because that means no commuting to and from school. That is always a welcomed break. (But what am I GOING TO DO WITH THEM!) They are already bouncing off the walls from pent up energy. We've made Christmas pretzels, cookies and snowflakes today. Hung up our window clings. What else is there to do?! I'm sure it will get easier, when Stephen gets home...counting down the hours.

Laughing Elaina

Winter

Christmas time at the Sanford's! We have our lights up, decorations out, our advent calendar is counting down the days, and the tree is standing so nicely in the foyer. As candid as this photo is, these kids were bouncing off the walls yesterday as all these items were dragged out. Andrew even went so far as to dump out a box of packing peanuts, just for the fun of it. Then he got to clean them all up, "because I said so".

Julia lost her fifth tooth this year. So far, her adult teeth are coming in really nice. Those bottom teeth have shifted forward and are starting to find their place, and her top teeth (though they are big) have come in straight. Let's hope those other teeth don't push things around too badly.

Andrew has been a royal pain. You can always tell when Stephen is gone for longer periods of time, Andrew starts to act out. You can imagine all the inventive words he's made out of the word poop. Everyone with sons, be sure to hug them a lot when they are babes because the older they get the harder they are to catch for that special moment. Especially when you don't feel like catching them. Poopyhead.

Elaina is still my little smiling happy kid. She is engrossed with everything that is happening around her. She loves to be on the floor and to move around. She is getting up on all fours and rocking a little bit. I would say in another week or two she will be off and crawling. We are also sitting up for longer periods of time. Granted, she doesn't catch herself from falling to the side, but she's done a good job of NOT banging her head on the floor.

The new windows are here! Now, if only Stephen could have a moment to put them in...

Saturday

What a wonderful way to wake up on a Saturday. It didn't seem like it was going to be too good, but the whole morning changed around. We are dog sitting a black lab, who likes to be where anyone is at. She left our room this morning at 6am (shaking her ears/collar), Stephen got up and shut the door to keep her out. She then went and woke up both Julia and Andrew, so they were up for the day. They went downstairs and stayed quiet for the longest time (one of those moments where it's been too quiet). I was starting to get worried when they came up to announce that they had fed Zoe breakfast and unloaded the dishwasher. They had set the table and got everything ready for breakfast, including a waterford crystal vase with flowers as a center piece. How fancy! Love those moments when everything pans out and the kids aren't fighting. :)

Mom's Helper

Julia (as everyone who meets her knows) loves to make lists, write, organize. Since I have gone back to work, I have begun the task of creating the dinner menus over the weekend so that I can make sure that I have all my ingredients on hand and I don't have to come home and wonder "what's for dinner tonight". I have figured out that it is my biggest angst, bigger than actually preparing dinner, to come up with "what's for dinner". I am also testing to see if our monthly grocery budget is affected by not running to the corner grocery store to grab a few things. Oh, and you CAN be more creative with dinner ideas when you plan ahead!


So, since I didn't have the menu planned yet she decided to take it upon herself to plan the week's menu as well as make the grocery list. So, all her favorites are included this week. 


Monday: Spaghetti
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Thursday: Hot Dogs & Mac N' Cheese
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Breakfast for dinner


I did keep to her list but had to switch up a few things, like the big dinners that everyone scarfs down (spaghetti & tacos) couldn't be back to back. Overall she did enjoy coming up with the dinners. I will mention that some of my big successes have been the summer camping favorite (tin foil dinners) mixed together in a skillet on the stove. They love that one. I also have been trying to mix it up with different vegetables, so we had broccoli cheese soup with toast ham sandwiches one night, and there was another night where we had salads and even Andrew REQUESTED one. He didn't eat much...but he tried it. That's a start. 

Happy Birthday Stephen!

The time has come for Stephen to turn 30. The day was celebrated with a wonderful high calorie/bacon filled dinner and chocolate dessert. The kids made him birthday cards, and we enjoyed a little time together as a family that evening. I have reminded him that 30 is not the end of the road, but just an extension of being 20. If anyone knows Stephen, it definitely won't make him more mature...just because he's another year older. ;)

The kids have done an amazing job with school. Andrew has been absorbing everything. He has started zoo phonics, so he is learning the sounds that letters make which will then help him learn to read. I carpool with the 2 neighbor boys, and on the way home I heard the 5 year old (who started kindergarten this fall) count by 5's and then 10's. Which, to me, is impressive for a kindergartener. He said her learned it in preschool, so perhaps this school has been better for the kids. There are times when I think Julia is still trying to grasp what math is about.

Julia came home from school yesterday and sat down and wrote an entire book and then illustrated it. It is a book that she has read before, and we have talked about copyrights. But, it seems harmless and it's a very cute book that I will have to share when I get it scanned in. Now, on to cleaning up her room as she held "class" with her stuffed animals a week or two ago and it hasn't been clean since. I believe I have 3 pairs of scissors floating around in there somewhere.

Here's a picture of us getting ready for school in the morning. We didn't have to wear uniforms on this day.

Here are pictures of sweet Elaina. Sporting her shirt from Aunt Jessica, but it applies to all her Aunt's.

My girls

Julia has finally removed one of her bottom teeth that has been in the way of the permanent tooth for a long time now. As much as I wanted her to get rid of those bottom teeth and push the other teeth forward, I looked at that little tooth and just about cried. Those were the first teeth that she had come in as a baby. Just a surreal moment as she is losing those first little baby teeth, Elaina is chewing her way to getting those little baby teeth that Julia has lost this year. :(

It has been very chilly outside. At the moment, all I had for Elaina to wear on her head is the little hat she wore home from the hospital. It's too cute and very stretchy.

Gosh, don't her smiles just make you melt?

One more reason why having big kids makes having little babies so much easier. Julia does a fantastic job of taking care of Elaina, and letting her splash around a little bit.