B-B-B-B-BEATRICE!!!

Beatrice is nothing short of amazing. How does one describe something as cute and fun and beautiful and awe-inspiring as she is? I love this little girl more than I ever imagined possible.

Just recently she started playing soccer. In our little community, kids can start playing recreational soccer at the age of three. So we signed her up for spring soccer. We weren't really sure how she would take to it. She has done greater than we had expected. We're not sure if it's because she has watched her older brother play for three years or if she's just ready to get out and play.

During her first game there were quite a few tears. Beatrice cried because she couldn't get the ball from the other girls. Fortunately the tears were short lived and she'd bounce right back into the game. She even scored a goal. Seeing her run up and down the field, bunched around a little soccer ball with a bunch of other three year olds, just melts my heart. It's absolutely adorable!

For her first game and ever game since, she has wanted to put her uniform on almost the minute she wakes up. She has also let me style her hair. Beatrice hates to have her hair brushed and will only sit still long enough for me to put a braid or two in if she is occupied by the tv. But when it comes to getting her hair done for soccer, she is a super star. The first game we did braids. The girl loves braids. The second game we did pony tails, and this week's game we did little pom, pom bun things. She had to look extra cute for her soccer pictures.

I love turning my camera on and finding pictures Beatrice has taken of herself. She takes incredible self portraits. I'm hoping she out grows it soon. I don't want her to be one of those teenagers who is constantly taking self portraits and posting them all over the internet. The very thought makes me shudder. This girl is too innocent and beautiful. How can I stop her from growing up so quickly?

Franklin had a Birthday!

For Franklin's birthday celebration, we kept things pretty low key. I actually made a cake. I think every year I have bought his cake. There's one kind of cake in particular that I usually buy from the local bakery, but this year Franklin requested a "Dirt Bike Cake." I wasn't about to pay an arm and leg for a specialty cake, so my good friend Juanita and I attempted to make a Dirt Bike Cake together.

The cake was a simple yellow cake made from a mix. The frosting was from a can. I wasn't really feeling the whole cake-from-scratch vibe this year. The "dirt" was made from a combination of Oreos and graham crackers. I just threw a whole bunch into the food processor then pulsed the daylights out of them. Juanita helped with the cute checker flag design. The boys thought it was pretty dang cool.

As mentioned previously, the party was really low key. Frank took the kids to a local trampoline place. I have never been and couldn't really envision me jumping at 7.5 months pregnant. However, the kids were able to jump until they were exhausted. Unfortunately most of the pictures were blurry, but at least we get the gist of how great this place was.

After jumping for an hour or so, the kids all came back to the house and did a quick treasure hunt complete with clues and treasure at the end. The treasure was hidden in the dryer. I loved scavenger hunts as a kid. That was almost the easiest part of the whole party. Just write six or seven clues, hide them, hide the treasure. Voila!

We were supposed to do homemade pizza, but I forgot to buy pepperoni and some other toppings. I'm not sure how that happened. So the kids ended up eating a slice of cheese pizza. It would've been easier to go the Little Ceasar's route.

JD, Jason, and Franklin. These boys break my little heart.

All in all, it was a great day. Franklin got some awesome presents from three of his best friends and from his super cool family. We love his so much and cannot believe he's been a part of our lives for six years now.

The Baby Bump

I haven't been as great as documenting the bump as I thought I would. I'm just not the biggest fan of taking pictures of me getting rounder and rounder. Here are some pictures of me at 33 weeks. I am, however, a fan of taking pictures of my painted belly. With all three of my other children, my mom painted my belly for me around this same time.

33.5 weeks. Silly little sock monkey.

Easter

It's been a whole month and I am finally blogging about our Easter. We have made it a tradition to do all the Easter basket/egg hunt festivities on Saturday. We're hoping if we do the Easter Bunny on Saturday, we can make it a tradition of celebrating Christ's resurrection on Sunday.

This year we attended our regular worship services then had a nice family dinner at my mom's house. It was to be one of the last times we could get together with Uncle Gabe before he deployed to Afghanistan for nine months. All the cousins were there. The weather was perfect. It was such a great day to be with family.

The kids all got new church clothes as part of our Easter tradition. The boys, obviously, weren't so thrilled, but Beatrice was so excited. She could hardly wait to wear her Easter dress. I tried to get some decent pictures of the family all dressed up, but the sun was too bright and high in the middle of the day and by the time church and dinner was over, none of the kids were as neat and polished as they had started.

Looking pretty in her pastels. She was so good about letting me braid her hair the night before.

Franklin enjoying the nice spring weather and his grandparents' house. We love the trampoline.

Solomon was just as busy as ever. His hair just as crazy as ever too.

Some random pictures of our Easter.

Just a few days before Easter, we found this cute little bunny hopping around our neighborhood. In fact there were three little bunnies. We think someone decided the nature preserve behind our house would be a good spot to drop off their unwanted rabbits. Poor little things. It was pretty obvious the bunnies were used to living in captivity because they were very tame and friendly. We took one home and my neighbors took the others home in hopes of someone claiming them. When nobody claimed our bunny after a week of advertising, we decided to let someone adopt him. He was awfully cute and soft and sweet. The kids kept asking if they could get rid of Lola and keep the rabbit instead. If we had a decent back yard, I might have considered it. He really was that cute, but awfully messy and stinky.

Solomon was definitely the most enamored with the little bunny.

Spring 2012

It's not like me to go so long without blogging. I can't believe the whole month of March came and went and I didn't update the blog once. It's not like life has been that busy, I just didn't make my e-journaling a priority. It's a shame because these are moments I want to document and remember forever. It's always such fun to go back and read past posts and look at how my kids have grown. Boy do they grow fast.
Here are a few of pictures documenting our last few weeks.

The one and only time my three kids all napped at the same time.

Franklin had Western Day at his school sometime in March. I thought he was by far one of the cutest little cowboys around. Maybe not the roughest, toughest, but definitely the cutest.

A spontaneous painting party with Jaidyn Torres, Jason Parkin, and JD McDonald.

We have nicknamed our son Solomonkey...for very obvious reasons.

These two silly boys spontaneously got dressed up in their Mickey Mouse ears and ties.

Beatrice loving on Lola. She loves animals.

Solomon has just discovered the joy of licking the spatula while baking!

Beatrice feeding her brother a carrot. We were cleaning Lola's cage when Solomon opened the door and climbed right in. I've contemplated locking him in a cage, but I really don't think that would keep him confined for very long. He's by far my busiest and messiest child. 

Franklin wanted me to take a picture of him with his little wooden transformer. Our bestest friends bought this for him for Valentine's/Easter.

Solomon actually thinks no one can see him. He loves hide and go seek.

Once again, the kid thinks he's invisible.

Does anyone know where Solomon is??

How about now? Where are Beatrice and Solomon?

Our cute neighbor boys loving on Lola. She's such a good pet to take all the abuse she gets.

Franklin's trying on daddy's glasses and thinking...Is it me or is the kid just super cute?

Beatrice is always eager to pose for the camera, yet she rarely is ever willing to do a "normal" pose. I think she was trying to place emphasis on her pink fingernails which she painted all by herself.

Lola

I'm not really sure what came over me, but one day I decided to adopt a rodent for the kids. They have been asking for a pet, preferably a dog, but I am not a dog person whatsoever and there is no way we'd squeeze a dog into our three-bedroom, no-backyard townhouse. So I started looking around for a hamster or a gerbil. Something small like that.

I think I was open to the idea of adopting a pet because I am a vulnerable bag of emotions. Just mention our cat Milkshake and I get weepy. I miss her. Of course I don't miss cleaning the litter box and all the hair she left everywhere she went, but I miss the warm sweet thing. I blame it all on pregnancy hormones.

After a few days of looking at the local classifieds, I found a guinea pig, with a cage and food, for $20. A guinea pig is a little bigger than I had hoped but she looked awfully cute. So we gathered our spare change and adopted ourselves a guinea pig. Her name is Lola. That's what her previous owners named her and I thought it was awfully cute. So it has stuck.

We've had Lola for about two weeks now and she is really sweet. She let me cut her little claws without any problems and she's pretty patient and mild when the kids want to hold her. Franklin and Beatrice are so tender with Lola and will hold her and pet her softly. Solomon, well...not so much. He knows what "soft" means, but he likes to pat Lola pretty hard because she squeaks when he does. He thinks she's a squeak toy. She's actually a lot less squeaky than any of the guinea pigs I remember having as a kid. Those things would squeak around the clock.


The kids have big plans for Lola. Beatrice wants to sew her some outfits and Franklin has ideas for a grand playhouse for her. Until that happens, they've come up with some other ideas...

19 Weeks

Since this blog is about "Family Memories," I figure I ought to write about pregnancy number four. I haven't written much about this pregnancy. Looking back, I realized I haven't written much about any of my other ones either.
I have a cute friend who documents each month with a photo, sometimes even each week, to document the belly bump. I've only taken pictures towards the end with a cute little painting on my belly. Right now I'm feeling motivated to show an almost-half-way-there picture.

I'm bigger than South America!

This is me at 19 weeks. Not too bad, right? This is my most favorite part of pregnancy. It's after all the morning sickness and before all the third trimester weight gain and bloating.
The first trimester of this pregnancy was pretty hard on me. I was more tired than I was with any of the others. I don't know if that's due to being older, not being able to nap since I have three who won't nap with me, or just hormones. I was also SICK. Not "I'm going to puke" sick, but the "I feel like I have a slight fever and I don't want to eat, and I just want to lay down all day long" sick. It was hard going for a while. Thank goodness for Diet Coke. I really try not to drink soda, but that was my saving grace. Water just made me feel worse. How is it that something so natural is so gross?
Anyhow, now I am feeling amazing. I've got great amounts of energy. I just want to rearrange everything and even paint stuff. It's really not like me to want to paint or start any kind of project, but I am feeling it right now. It's a shame the weather is so awful or I'd have half my furniture on the driveway right now.
I love my baby bump right now. It's so cute and it's not quite bothersome yet. Although I am at the phase where I keep bumping counters and drawers and things with it because I don't realize how far it is sticking out. Still gotta get used to that.
On February 1st we have our 20-week ultrasound. I get so nervous at each ultrasound. This is the one where they measure everything and make sure there are no problems. I've been so fortunate to have three healthy children up to this point. I'm a little paranoid that the odds are against me. I get this way every pregnancy. All the worries far before the baby even arrives...

And here we have Solomon throwing a fit because I won't let him play with the camera. My, how fast they grow. One moment they are in the womb, the next moment, they are on the bathroom floor wailing around in their diaper.