Lookin' good in the neighborhood

I finally got my sick self up and about and decided to take the kids for a bike ride. I have discovered I have become increasing lax on wardrobe choices as each child has come along. Ian wore a pajama shirt, holey jeans and Annika's metallic braided flip flops (he couldn't find his own shoes.) Luckily no one saw us. He enjoyed riding his trike down the big hill on our street and would shout "That's what I'm talkin' about!" Riding the bike back up the hill...he didn't like so much. His flip flops kept falling off and the bike was rolling down the hill faster than he could pedal up. Alexandria, for her part, enjoyed standing with her bike under the street lamp singing "I'm in the spotlight!"

Miss Baby gets pampered

The other day I came into the living room and found Alexandria and Annika hovering over Elizabeth, who was sitting in the recliner. As I got closer, I realized that Alex was massaging Elizabeth's feet while Annika broke off small pieces of cracker and put them in Elizabeth's mouth. I asked what they were doing and they said, "Mommy we are pampering Elizabeth!"

My favorite time of year

Elizabeth even manages to look forlorn while eating ice cream:

Annika Kournikova:



We have been without internet for several days and just got it back last night. What did I do? I went straight to the blogging. You haven't missed much though...a little pink eye, ear infections, sinus infections, etc. Other than that we have just been enjoying the nice weather (when we are all healthy enough to do so.) Most afternoons/evenings I have been sitting outside watching the kids ride bikes and scooters, color with sidewalk chalk and eat popsicles. Annika Kournikova rotates between hitting the tennis ball off the garage door and zooming around on her bike.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

Make a Smilebox greeting

This is in no way intendend to be a substitute for the traditional birthday slideshow, which will be debuting soon.

The many faces of Alexandria

The bossy baby has many demands and cannot understand why Karl and I are unwilling/unable to meet them all. We try to be flexible whenever possible. For example:

We did allow her to wear Alexandria's tanktop over her dress...
But did not allow her to wear a fleece sweatshirt and jeans outside in 85 degree weather

We complied with her request to wear three pairs of Batman underwear at the same time..
But not with her request to rock on her rocking horse on top of the recliner.

It is a hard life for an almost two year old.

Wedding pictures-Take 3

The baby:

The big girl:

I hope Erin and Chad don't mind, but how can I post three times about a wedding without a picture of the bride and groom. My uncle took this one and I love it too:

The ringbearer and flower girl, doing their jobs:


Erin and Chad's wedding was seriously one of the prettiest I have ever been to. She did most everything herself which makes it doubly impressive. I was so thrilled that the kids and I got to be part of it. She looked beautiful and Chad looked handsome and it was a wonderful day. We got lots of great pictures, but I tried to keep it mainly my kids on here, only because I never know how thrilled other people are about having their pictures plastered on my blog.

Wedding pictures- Take 2

My Uncle Stew took this one of Annika praying during the ceremony. I love it!:

Annika and Nana:

Lucy and me:

My three girls:

Wedding pictures- Take 1

Lucy and Annika:

The family:

The baby:

Ian (aka the superhero), preparing to save the world

A portrait of the bride and groom, drawn by Ian:

Take me out to the ballgame

Okay, I admit that was a lame title but I couldn't think of anything else.

Karl got Royals tickets from work and took the three older kids to their first baseball game. He surprised the girls by picking them up early from school. They didn't know where he was taking them until they got there. The Royals lost, but the snowcones, nachos and soda made up for it. They all had a really good time.

Lookin' good

Ian said (looking down at his clothes,) "I really like this outfit. I've got my Mickey Mouse shirt, my red shoes, my sunscreen...I am lookin' good!!!"

I laughed and shouldn't have. I was sternly told there was nothing funny about what was said.

You know you're bored when...

I just took a quiz that gave me the top places I should be living. Missouri was not listed.


Your Top Spots

Paris, Tennessee

Morganton, North Carolina

Hopkinsville, Kentucky

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Guntersville, Alabama

Alexander City, Alabama

Murray, Kentucky

Hickory, North Carolina

Edenton, North Carolina

Oxford, Mississippi

Woodbury, Tennessee

Gainesville, Georgia

Mount Airy, North Carolina

San Marcos, Texas

Marble Falls, Texas

Berea, Kentucky

Winterville, North Carolina

Salisbury, North Carolina

Aiken, South Carolina

Guthrie, Oklahoma

Maryville, Tennessee

Fredericksburg, Texas

I have not been to any of these places. As a matter of fact, I have not even heard of any of them, with the exception Mount Airy, NC, birthplace of one Andy Griffith. But if the internet says I would like them, I guess I need to pick one and get to packing. Here is the website if you need to find out where you should move:

http://www.findyourspot.com/

Look what Alexandria found:

Her name is Jenny. Something is wrong with her wing and we found her sitting on the walkway in front of our house. We will be taking her to the nature center soon. It is where we took Lisa and Rosa, the baby rabbits we tended a few years ago. It is a really fun place to visit. They have animals (of course), a nature trail and other cool things. So this will be a good excuse to go.

Just because...

My dad and me


Elizabeth and Karl


Max- Can you tell he is a smidge hyper?

I think she got my sense of fashion

One of my favorite things about the toddler stage is when they start to pick out these random articles of clothing to wear. Elizabeth will bring me something and insist I put it on her- a too big cheerleading outfit, Ella's bib, Annika's pants. Her favorite look lately is Annika's fleece hooded jacket and a pair of too small sandals (and no pants).

Last soccer game :(

Annika had her last soccer game today. We had so much fun watching her play this season. Her team did really well. I think they won all but one game...but shhhh! We are not supposed to keep score.

Here she is pre-game:



During the game:



And here is her cheerleader:




I need to do some research on taking action shots. I took several of her playing and they didn't really turn out. I think I need a bigger lens first off and then to figure out the lighting. Oh well, there is always next year.

Alexandria's A+ Project

It is a diorama of the Arctic Tundra. She did every bit of it by herself. I am proud of how creative she got.

Is it tacky...

To paint your (almost) 2 year old's toenails? Probably a little. We were painting the big girls' and she really wanted hers done too.

Biddy Ba is missing

Ian's biddy ba (blanky) is lost. I thought I would put that on here in case he left it at anyone's house. It has Winnie the Pooh embroidered on it. It looks like this (except dirtier):

Funny things courtesy of Ian

Today he asked me "Mommy, is it okay if Brodie and I go save the world?"

and later I was prepping him for his ring bearer duties trying to get him excited. He said, "Mommy I don't want to be a ring bearer. A ringbearer looks like a gentleman and I want to look like a worker guy."

Hey, at least he has figured out that he won't be wearing a bear suit! And no worries Erin, I have bribed him so he will do a good job and be happy about it.

When Brodie's mom came to pick him up Ian said (dragging the carseat over to her,) "Hey Brodie's mom, I can carry Brodie's carseat for you."
Michele said "Oh thank you Ian,"
To which Ian replied, "Just doing my job!"

The weekly illness and injury report

Annika has been sick and since WebMD told me it might be appendicitis I had her sleep in my bed so I could keep an eye on her. Then Ian had a sore toe so he could not be expected to sleep in his own bed. He spent the night tossing and turning and yanking the blankets away from me. Then as I finally was sound asleep Annika out of the blue screams "DON'T!!!!" at the top of her lungs. I about jumped out of my skin. I asked her what was wrong but she didn't answer because she was asleep. Weird...I have never known her to scream in her sleep before. Anyway, not the best night of sleep I ever had.

So here are all the illnesses and injuries we have had this week:

Annika- Throwing up, fever, stomach ache

Alexandria- Currently complaining about a stomach ache (could be sympathy pains)

Elizabeth- Currently has a fever of 103

Ian- Cut his lip open(I have no idea how), also has a purple/blue toenail (not exactly sure what happened, he said 'a rock fell out of the world and landed on his toe'), Cut his thumb (I don't know how)


So all in all, not too bad. I wish Ian would let me know about his various injuries when they happen though. I was giving him a bath and was scrubbing his toenail because I though he colored it with a marker. He let me know that that did not feel good. Oops.

Oh, and I should add Annika does not have appendicitis. WebMD just likes to scare me.

Ella

I got to spend some time with Ella today and I promised I would post some pictures:





Ella and Grammy Goody


The 'babies'- Ella and Elizabeth. Elizabeth insisted on wearing Ella's bib. And Ella is not really about to fall over, it just looks like it

Random Parenting Question:

Is age two a good time to introduce the pacifier?




Elizabeth had no interest in pacifiers as a baby (beyond the newborn stage), now she loves them. For some reason we still have them stashed in all these random places and she keeps finding them and popping them in her mouth. We throw them out, she finds more. She calls them 'bites'. It has been a few months since she found the last one, we thought they were gone. Alas no, there was a stray bite in a drawer and she discovered it.