hello June!

Well, here I am again.  Forever behind.

Eh. 

Today's excuse is that I am just sitting over here shocked and awed at my kids, watching them grow up instead of recording it here.  I'm going to wish later I'd done both, I'm sure, so that I will be able to look back and remember.  

Anyway.  Rick, Nikki and company came to visit for a few days, and it was just as much fun, if not more, than normal.  A year or so ago, after a fun/crazy visit- because there are 5 of them, 4 and under- we all acknowledged that one day, before too long, we'd be able to send the kids off to play and we'd be able to hold a conversation in full sentences instead of broken, sporadic thoughts that leave us sounding like we all have zero attention span and tourettes: "how are GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH you guys GET DOWN how is EMMA STOP, etc.  You know it is talking to adults with small kids.  And we may have arrived.  Lily and Emma had a great time playing with Noah and Bri in our toy room and just keeping themselves entertained.  Kaylee was in and out of the play, still wanting to be with me a lot since she doesn't remember the Brennan kiddos as well yet.  Our next milestone will be when we have 5 kids and 4 adults sitting down for a meal and we all stay seated during the whole meal.  Baby steps.  Our visits go too quickly, but they are always so fun and relaxing, and so much MORE fun watching the kids all interact.

fire and s'mores.

the kids all took turns spraying Lily and Noah with a hose, as they were the only ones who participated in getting soaked

NOT a fan.

this was so special to me.  I sometimes feel I am failing to really show Lily how important she is to me, especially now that she has two younger sisters and she's getting older.  she was NOT wanting to stay in bed this night, so I finally just brought her outside to spend some time, just her, with the adults.  we talked about constellations, looked at planets, shared s'mores and watched the fire flies.  she loved it.

Noah and Emma are two peas in a pod: Nikki and I had known this, but we saw it in full action so often this weekend.  this captures them so well. 

I don't remember why Lily was so mad here. but they were having such a nice little picnic. and then Jesse happened. 

In other news, the girls are all doing great.  Lily finished her soccer season and got a trophy, which I'm pretty sure was the highlight of her year so far. 

I just can't get over how much of a big girl she is.  She is so excited that she will be starting school in the fall, and we regularly talk about it.  Now if I could just stop being so ridiculously nervous about getting started and figure out how to homeschool, we'll be set.

Emma.  Oh my sweet, sweet, Emma.  She is in such an amazingly fun age, but when she's tired. she is NOT fun.  But we will focus on the good and fun: SHE LOVES WORMS.  Oh my word, does this girl love hunting worms, caterpillars, etc.  I am doing my absolute best to not pass my irrational fears onto my children, so when she found a caterpillar- one of those huge black gross ones with a bazillion legs, NO- she wanted me to carry it home for her.  I (as calmly as I could) told her no, if she wanted it for her "dead worm collection" (I wish I was making this up), she'd have to carry it home.  And so she did.  The entire half mile home, she chatted about putting it in her collection (that is fortunately non existent) and carried it the whole way.  Her favorite worm hunting buddy is one of our neighbor boys, and after they found a handful and it was time to leave, she absolutely melted down when I told her she couldn't bring them in the car.  Before you suggest it, I already asked Jesse to build her/the girls a worm farm so they could watch the worms.  For the record, worms are okay.  Caterpillars are not.  My rule is 0-4 legs are acceptable: more than 4 are NOT.

And tonight, as I was sitting talking to my neighbors, Lily came around the corner carrying a toad.  Which of course Emma wanted to bring home...we may have an animal/insect/thing lover.

Kaylee is finally through a really rough patch.  Jesse and I were so lost, and once in desperation one night that took us two hours of tag team to get her to sleep, he asked what in the world was wrong.  I gave the best answer I could: it could be teething, a growth spurt, upset stomach, a sleep pattern change, the days are longer, the sun was still up, she hadn't changed her sleep in 6 months, being done nursing completely..the list went on and on.  I cringed when I'd hear her in the night because I knew it would likely be multiple hours trying to figure out what was going on.  It was miserable.  Praise God she is back going down so easily and, sit down, sleeping through the night.  All of you blessed with kids that sleep through the night before they are one have no idea.  None of mine slept through the night until I was done nursing, BUT WE ARE THERE.  Such glory.  Now, if the other two didn't wake me up to go to the bathroom, have dreams or talk in their sleep..I MIGHT get a full night's sleep!

Anyway, Kaylee is so much fun.  She's so so silly and smart.  She knows a bunch of signs- most of which are animal signs- and has a handful of words in her vocabulary: no, cat, hot, Zeke, duck, fish, and this.  She also loves mooing which is my absolute favorite thing right now, and she will also yell "E-I-E-I-O" and neigh during Old McDonald, which her sisters sing with great gusto.

I'm loving watching them grow up together.  Lily and Emma recently learned Candyland and it is Lily's new favorite past time.

Jesse and I are doing fine.  He took last week off of work and stayed home to work on insulating the basement.  That project turned into "renovate Amber's laundry room," but that room is now completely (ish) done and he never has to take out the hot water tank, washer, dryer, toilet, etc., to work on that room again.  Hallelujah.  Mom and Dad H came for a few days last week and through the weekend so that Dad could help out with the project and Grandma helped keep the girls out of Grandpa and Daddy's hair while they worked.  I was exhausted and not feeling great, so it was nice to have everyone there to help with kiddos and keep us company!

That's about it from here, I started this post last week and obviously didn't get it posted then, so I lost my train of thought.  Nothing else too exciting to report!