Fun with Four

As y'all know, James has been out of work for about 6 months now. God has taken me through quite a journey over the last six months, and I'm at a place with Him now that I've never been before...and it's awesome. I am in awe of the lessons He's taught me and the places He's brought me spiritually. How great is our God!

I can honestly say God has richly blessed us in many ways during this struggle. One huge blessing has been that James and I are both home with the kids most days together. Here's some of the recent fun we've been up to as a family of 4...

We took the kids to the mall one day to buy my keno gift and to let them play in the play area...obviously by them, I mean Hunter. Charlotte had fun watching, though... And fun would be an understatement for what Hunter was experiencing...
...except, of course, when certain children (whom I'm having a difficult time finding an adjective for because I'm opting against using the only one that comes to mind...bratty)cut him off on the slides. Where are your parents anyway, children?

Poor playground parenting is seriously one of my biggest pet peeves. Don't get me wrong, I let my kid have his fair share of fun climbing up the slide... Just not when there are other children waiting to go down it...especially when they are half his size. Hey Parents...watch your kids because they are nearly trampling my toddler. Thanks.

We also met up with some of my grad school girlfriends and their families for lunch one day...

Afterward, Preston invited Hunter over to play at his house. So we went over there and while the mommies and daddies chatted, the sweet baby girls played on the blanket together...(Of course I couldn't get a picture of both of them looking at the camera.)

And Preston and Hunter had fun playing guitar and basketball (Preston is the best toy share-er ever). When it was time to go, sweet Preston tried to give Hunter a hug...

But as you can see Hunter ran away. He so inherited the don't touch me unless I love you and even then touch me with caution and for short periods of time please mentality from his mommy.

Preston is persistent though, and eventually got a hold of him...

They're so cute!

Finally

It only took a million tries...

...to finally get that sweet smile on camera...

The key was removing the bow:)

As a side note, does anyone know why my pictures look so blurry when I upload them onto blogger? They don't look like that on my computer or when they're printed.

Candle Art

Last week I was home alone with the kids one night, and while I was changing Charlotte in her room, I kept thinking how impressed I was that Hunter was entertaining himself so well in the living room.


Then I heard it.


"Uh oh mommy! Uh oh! Oh no candles! Oh no!"


When I looked up little H was standing in the hallway in front of Charlotte's door pointing to the living room and with the most enthusiasm imaginable, exclaimed once more, "Oh no mommy! Oh no! Uh oh candles!"


When I went into the living room, this is what I saw...

Personally, I think he did a pretty good job arranging them. Maybe he has a future as a feng shui decorator.

On the other hand, let's hope against that.

Charlotte's First Photo Shoot

My sweet friend, Emily, took Charlotte's newborn pictures for us - same photographer that took Hunter's newborn, my maternity and many other pics along the way. Charlotte was not the most cooperative client, so Emily came on 2 different dates and spent several hours with us each time. We are so thankful for her friendship and her gift! We love her (and her hubby!) so much! Here are some of my favorites... The pictures I used for the blog make-over are Emily's work too:)

Cheese

Charlotte started smiling at us about a week ago, but I haven't been able to catch it with the camera yet. My attempts at getting a picture of a smile somehow always turn out looking like this...
I know...worst faces ever.

To my defense, Hunter doesn't make it easy because the second I get the camera out, he starts begging to take a picture. Between his loud whines and yelling, "MY TURN! MY TURN!" over and over, it's no wonder Charlotte has such a disgusted look on her sweet face.

Being the awesome mom that I am, I do let him have a turn after I satisfy myself with about 15 attempts, which apparently all turn out to be crying-furrowed brow-ugly faced baby.

Here are some of Hunter's best shots...

Ironically, those are the closest pictures to a smile that I have of Charlotte. He may not have the angle right, but he sure knows how to make his sister happy....er, when he's not laying on her...or screaming at her in the car...or "smelling" her arm while nearly yanking it off of her body...yeah, other than that he makes her happy.

The good news is, Hunter has been doing less screaming "no!" the second I pull out the camera and more actual smiling for pictures. My choices are either the half smile...or the closed eye smile...I'll take either over crying baby/screaming toddler face anyday.

First Friends

Charlotte's already made several sweet little girlfriends. First we had a play date at my friend, Courtney's house with all of the new babies from my Keno group. We had babies born in April, May, July and August. I got some pictures (even with my tantrumy toddler in tow...now that is talent people...or at least picture-taking persistence)...

The baby girls...Charlotte - July, Emily - August, Elise (Charlotte's future Kappa sister) - May, and Kennedy - April

We wanted Hunter and Preston (Kennedy's brother) to get in the picture, but Hunter was having none of that. I eventually coaxed him into hugging his sister and was able to get his back side in the photo...my priorities in parenting are always 1. get the cute picture and then 2. discipline your tantrumy child...Hunter and Preston are about 2 1/2 months apart (same as Charlotte and Kennedy). Here they are at their first playdate with their friend, Charlie...

I have another picture from that same play date where Hunter is laying in the exact same position as his sister is in that first picture, but I couldn't find it:(. They so share the same gene pool...and the same womb in which they apparently also stretched out spread eagle style, tearing up mommy's ribs.

Charlie also had a little sister recently, so the two of them came over one day so Violet and Charlotte could meet. Unfortunately Char slept through the entire play date so we didn't get a shot of her, and once again Hunter was not in the picture-taking mood (or the sharing toys mood!), so I just took some candids...

Violet was such a sweet baby, and happily sat watching the boys play the whole time!Charlotte can't wait to meet more girlfriends! And hang out with these sweet ones again:)

Brooks Family Fun

So far Hunter still loves spending time with his sister...at least when she's not screaming in the car. Most days he says, "I wanna play with toys" and will run into Charlotte's room and dump out the bucket of rattles I have for her as he exclaims (in the most surprised and excited voice ever), "I dump it!" Then he'll point to the Bumbo seat and demand that we put Charlotte in...

Once we get her situated, Hunter will playfully shake the rattles in front of Charlotte's face (most of the time a little too close to her face) and some days he'll even read some of her books to her. Yesterday he got out her Bible and started reading to her about the apple, but left out most of the important details and main characters:) Here he's showing her the sticky pads on the frog in her Wild Animals book...

Okay so he's technically not showing them to her, but he really was telling her about them:)

Charlotte actually likes the Bumbo above all of her seats (car seat, bouncy seat, swing), and will sit happily for several minutes...But if you make her sit there too long, she'll throw down a little attitude...So we give her a break and big brother takes his turn in the seat...

Hunter also loves to "play tummy time" with Charlotte. He lays down right next to (and by next to I mean on top of) her once we lay her on the mat. Luckily, tummy time isn't the most exciting thing to "play" and Hunter loses interest before suffocating his sister. I wouldn't say she loves tummy time, but she definitely tolerates it better than her brother did...

And the weirdest thing that Hunter likes to do with his sister....smell her. Usually he restricts this to her hands, but sometimes he'll smell her head too. He always tells me, "smells good!" I think so too:)