Connor's Birthday!

And now, for our third March birthday....who was actually our first March baby, but anyway...

Connor is SIX!!! Connor's birthday was pretty low-key compared to Grace's, but I think he was happy with it! He's a pretty low-key guy, so it works out. We had discussed a few different things, but in the end, we went with just a normal family party at home. We started the day with German Pancakes for breakfast, and then he went to school and I baked his cake. After he got home we decided to go meet Jeremy for lunch at Chick fil-A, and then that afternoon, he and I played a game of Five Crowns together, looked at pictures of him in our blog book from when he was born, and finished up his cake.

Connor and I had been looking at cake ideas for weeks and he got really into it. In the end he went with this teddy bear cake. I told him I would try my best, but to not get too sad if it didn't look exactly like the picture! (This is the first year I've attempted creative cakes. I've suggested them in the past, but no one has wanted anything but the standard, ahem, boring, cake, until this year). In his sweet way, he always said, "That's fine!" and so I gave it my best shot. Well, it turned out to be much easier than I thought and I think it turned out really well! He and I were both surprised with how well it turned out. He was really happy and asked me to send a picture to his teacher at school. 😀

 (With the help of Pinterest and YouTube tutorials, you TOO can make a cake like this at home!😉)

 Things Connor is into these days....

• Playing with Grace - He loves her so so much and everyone knows it. It's very sweet.
• Reading - His reading has really taken off the last few months and he is loving it! Reading the scriptures has really helped both the boys with their reading. I also love that he likes to read out loud. This is very helpful when he reads to his siblings!
• Sports - Connor loves to do physical things. We just started our spring soccer season and he's excited! He also loves to shoot hoops in our Nerf basketball hoop, ride his bike, do flips on the trampoline, and run around inside and out.
• Imagining/Creating - Connor and Anna play really well together in the afternoons while Eli is still at school. They are often doing some sort of "pretend" play and I love hearing their imaginations go wild! Connor also loves to draw and color, along with Eli. They can sit and be entertained by that for a long time (Anna doesn't usually last as long). He says he wants to be an architect when he grows up! Of course that makes his Uncle Tim pretty happy. 😀
• Humming - Connor has recently started humming constantly. And I really mean constantly. All day long he is humming and it's really cute. I asked him about it the other day, since it's just started over the last few weeks, and he said, "I just always have songs in my head!" I totally get it, buddy.

Connor is also very observant. We used to think he was a space case because he was often staring off in "la-la land", but we've since come to learn that he's always thinking and processing everything. If he's not there with you it's because he's thinking about something you said earlier. He will often bring up things much later that we didn't even know he heard or was paying attention to. He takes it all in!

Connor is a kind and gentle soul. His feelings are very tender and sensitive and he processes things emotionally. This has been good for me to learn because I am not naturally that way. Thanks to Jeremy and Connor, I have had to learn to soften through the years and be more patient and nurturing, which is definitely a good thing to develop! (Still working on it). When I'm better at it, I see how Connor thrives as a happy, loving, and kind boy. He always notices if tensions are high or if someone is stressed or unhappy (he is especially tuned in to Gracie). He is a gift to our family and we are so grateful for our Connor man!

Happy Birthday Connor! We love you!

Grace turns ONE!

Since Grace and Grandma share a birthday, I invited my mom to come down for the weekend of their birthdays. She happily accepted! The Weavers ended up coming too to join in the festivities so we had a nice little group together for the birthday girls. Grace was unfortunately not feeling very well on her birthday, so she wasn't quite her usual self, but she still had a pretty good time. She gobbled up her cake (much more so than any of our other kids!) and enjoyed opening her presents, with the help of her siblings and cousins. 😊

Here are some things Grace is doing at this big old age of ONE:

• Signing - she does "more" and "all done" and "eat". Not all the time, but she does it sometimes (when she wants to) very clearly
• Jabbering - lots of sounds going on! It's so fun. She's even starting to say a few things that sound awfully close to real words - "all done", "night night", and "hi", to name a few. Maybe it's our imagination or coincidence, or maybe she's a genius. We'll go with that one. 😉
• Walking! Everywhere! She rarely crawls now. She loves to walk around like a big kid.
• Playing chase - she LOVES to be chased and giggles and tries to run away. It is the cutest!
• Nursing - she still loves to nurse and I'm having a hard time wanting to wean her, which is very unusual for me at this age. I'm usually so ready to be done! We'll get there eventually...
• SLEEPING - this is very exciting. She finally started sleeping through the night about a month ago and is STILL sleeping through the night! It's so great. She's kind of in between one and two naps, so we're trying to figure that out, but it's so worth it because SHE'S SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. (Did I mention that?)
• Peekaboo! This is another recent one. She learned what it means and now she's always putting her hands over her eyes waiting for us to say, "Where's Grace?" And then she quickly puts them down and giggles as we say "Peekaboo!" or "There she is!" It never gets old.
• Outside - Grace hasn't spent a whole lot of time exploring the outside world on her own, but when she gets the chance, she loves it! She gets so sad if all the kids but her go out and is in heaven when we go out too. She loves to go on the trampoline, play in the grass/leaves, walk around on the sidewalk, you name it. It should be a fun summer!

We sure love this little muffin! We've started to see little bits of drama emerging here and there which is always exciting (yikes!), so it will be fun to see her little self continue to develop. She is a lot of fun! And now for the picture overload...

 

 Amy and the kids came down Saturday because Rob and Seth had some other commitments, but then they showed up as a surprise Sunday afternoon! It was very fun!

   

Weee have a walker!

Grace started walking this week! She is so adorable. Something clicked on Friday and she took off! She's very vocal when she walks and is loving her new skill!

(I have no idea why the quality on these is so terrible! Does someone know how to upload them better? They are clear and big when I watch them from the file on my computer...not sure what to do).

Anna turns FOUR!

I can't believe our little girl is FOUR!

Anna is getting so grown up. Just looking at this picture above makes me realize how much she's grown since last year. She is a lot of fun and full of energy! She loves to run around and keep up with her brothers and their friends. She loves to sing and dance around all day and often makes up words. She likes to dress up in her princess dresses and sometimes the boys ninja costumes. She is well versed in lego and medieval battle terms, thanks to her brothers, but she also loves if we have girls over that will play girly things with her. She and Connor often play some kind of "pretend" in the afternoons and I love hearing their imaginations going wild.

Anna also loves Primary and her sunbeam class. She is the only girl, but that is not a problem for her. She is a very good mother to all her siblings and loves to remind them what they are "upposed" to do. :) She is a great helper in the mornings when the boys are at school and is a great little buddy. She will often volunteer to go run an errand with Jeremy or I and we love the company she provides. She is not a very picky eater, but is not really very interested in eating either. She eats well, but I have to remind her to eat enough, because she doesn't really think about it. She's far too busy! Her favorite things to eat are probably quesadillas, sour cream (she would prefer to eat this plain), and "juicy" fried eggs, haha (runny yokes, mmm-mmm). She loves to snuggle (or "snuddle" as she says) and is quite independent for her young age. Anna spices up our family and we are grateful for the pizzazz she brings! 

We started off her birthday morning with German pancakes and then after we took the boys to school, we got to go to our church playgroup. Usually it's at the church, but that day we went to a really fun indoor playground place, which was great for her birthday! That night we had Sesame Noodles for dinner (her request) and a butterfly cupcake cake. She was so excited to open her presents and did a good job waiting patiently until everyone was home!

 Rockin' the new shades...

 A new water "botter"! She was really excited about that. She'd been telling me for months she needed one. She also got a new clock for her room (she doesn't really read it yet, but she will) and a new shirt.

 And a new church dress! Anna loves "spinning" dresses. I found this one at Once Upon a Child for $5.50 that looks like it was maybe worn once, and the best part about it is...I found the EXACT same dress also at Once Upon a Child in Grace's size!!! Matching Easter dresses...perfect.

 Beautiful birthday girl!

 Don't judge. I tried this tye-die frosting technique that didn't work all that well, but the birthday girl loved it and that's all that matters!

And they tasted delish. Gluten free funfetti cupcakes for the win.

Happy Birthday Anna!