Rainbow Dash

Paige brainstormed her own costume this year. She explained how she wanted to do things, then Daddy helped her make the wings and I helped figure out a dyed mane. She told me it's her favorite costume yet.

She's Got...Personality!

Baby's talking a lot lately and expressing some strong opinions. She jabbers all the time. Sometimes it's hard to tell if she's happy or angry, but it's pretty cute either way. I don't remember the other girls being this chatty. Or this loud.  I have an inkling that we have another strong-willed, opinionated woman on our hands. I love it.

Isn't She Lovely

Paige started school on Monday. She's really happy to be back, and I finally feel like I'm getting a bit of a handle on things. Having a schedule is awesome.

Brooke also turned six weeks! She's a doll. She just started smiling and it's adorable. She's sleeping better stretches most nights too! We were looking through some pictures of all the girls, and comparing them to Brooke. We get asked a lot if Brooke looks like anyone. And while all the girls look very similar, this is Brooke at six weeks:

And this is Paige at six weeks:

You'd think they were related or something. They're pretty beautiful babies if I do say so myself. 

A Fine Day for Science

Between being super pregnant, having a brand new baby, and it being over 90 degrees, we haven't been able to get outside as much as the girls would like this summer. We decided it was a good time to bust out some of the science-y projects we've talked about for a while.

Paige wanted butterflies for her birthday, and got this awesome kit with live caterpillars. You watch them form their chrysalis and then hatch into butterflies! We talked through each step with the girls, who loved checking it several times a day. We had to pry the pretend wings off of the girls when it was time to go to bed, and Anna is still upset that the caterpillars never taught her how to fly.

We also have been growing a mushroom farm! These things grow crazy fast. We soaked the spores on Saturday to activate them. It took a couple days to see anything, but these pictures are from the last four days. 

Aren't they cool?! Paige told us she wants to be a scientist when she grows up. I'm kind of giddy at the idea. 

Baby!

This is a few weeks late, but...we had a baby! Allow me to introduce Miss Brooke Noelle. She's an absolute doll. 

Labor was hard. I had a lot of Braxton Hicks, then three weeks ago, I went into labor just as we were going to bed. We went in to the hospital, they admitted us, and things were going well when they just...stopped. No more contractions, no progression. So they sent us home. 

I had contractions off and on for the next week, but it would back off any time we got close to calling the doctor. Friday morning, I woke up with harder contractions five minutes apart, but after two hours they slowed to every 10-15 minutes. Jeff stayed home just in case, but they just stayed 10-15 minutes apart all day. I couldn't sleep come evening, so I listened to podcasts and bounced on my exercise ball all night. By 5 am, they weren't any closer, but I was really hurting, so we called the doctor. He told us to come in when his office opened at 8 to check things out. I was dilated to an 8! He sent us straight to the hospital, walking out the door behind us.

Nurses and doctors met us at the door and started rushing around, slapping on bracelets, asking questions, and signing forms while putting in an IV and epidural. Baby was born less than two hours after we arrived.

The girls are obsessed. You could not find more enthusiastic big sisters. Not that Jeff and I blame them; we're pretty obsessed ourselves.

Two weeks old and snuggling her zebra. We sure love this girl.

Rain, Rain...

 We had a couple weeks in late April that were just lovely that spoiled us. We ate popsicles, went for bike rides, and planned out what flowers we'd plant in our garden.

But since May began, we've had nothing but rain and gloomy days. Occasionally we'll go out and splash in puddles, but our boots wind up soaked and usually need a couple days to dry out before they're comfortable enough to wear again.

*Sidenote: Anna's old jacket broke and we had to get her a new one. She kept saying she wanted it to be blue. She saw this Avengers jacket in the clearance section and got really excited. " Mom! It's blue with a star and an 'A' for Anna on it!" It was obviously meant to be hers.

In the meantime, we've had a few indoor picnics

and we've been working on our headstands! 

We've also been potty training! I'm not sure why, but headstands are an important part of the process. The first few days were pretty rough, but we're making progress! Here's hoping they're out of diapers before the next one is here and wearing them!

We found a friend on our front porch this morning! I thought one of the girls must have left a stick on the porch for a second. I realized it was a snake just in time to stop Anna from stepping on it. I pulled her behind me and shoo-ed it to where we could look at it a little more safely. 

Long Time, No Blog

Things have been relatively quiet on the home front lately. Well, not quiet (things are never quiet here), but uneventful. Or perhaps I'm just forgetful.  Either way, I looked back through my camera, and here are the highlights that I actually remembered to photograph.

Once upon a time, we had a blizzard and got three feet of snow in one day. This is what it looked like three days later after the snowplow finally came by and did nothing because it had nowhere to put the snow. Everyone came out to dig, and we talked to more of our neighbors than we had in the whole year and a half we've lived here.

 All the girls insisted on helping too, moving chunks of snow and ice across the street.

The girls are playing more interactive games together lately. They learned how to play Ring-Around-the-Rosie and it's adorable. 

After diaper changes one day, both girls wanted to dress themselves and they insisted I stay downstairs. A few minutes later, they came downstairs like this and declared, "We're ready for school!"

Everyone was sick on Easter weekend, so our egg hunt was postponed for a few days. They still loved it. Paige filled her quota too fast for me to get any pictures. Drat. Anna just doesn't sit still, and really wanted us to see how full her bucket was. 

Emma was the last to get sick, and was still a little under the weather. She was really excited for the eggs, but it was impossible to get a picture of her where she didn't look slightly homeless. Poor girl.

 Pretty much, I've given up on my kids looking decent or normal in pictures. I still love them though. The pictures, and the girls.

I really love this last picture. So. Much.