Super Bowl

We had our annual Superbowl party on Sunday with the family. What a great game! As is tradition, we wear our favorite football jersey to the party. (Oliver wasn't wearing a jersey, but thought he needed in the picture anyway.)

Oliver was wearing a football outfit, and I even dug through the boys' old clothes to find a cute football outfit for Violet, although you can't really see it in the picture.

It's amazing what the right accessories can do to make an 'all boy' outfit look pretty cute!

Best buds, Calvin & Tyler:

Hug vs. headlock: your call.

Toward the end of the game, the kiddos all got in their pajamas. Yes, Violet does look like a boy in this "future quarterback" sleeper. (Is it wrong to make her sleep in a headband?)

And the boys all had their matching pajamas that Grandma Cheryl got them.

What a fun night!

Corder Celebrations

On Saturday evening, we headed to Corder for some fun! We celebrated Grandma Ruth's birthday and my Uncle Jerry's promotion to Professor at Central Missouri State. Aunt Karla threw a great party!

Here are Grandma Ruth and her daughters:

The food was fabulous, but Oliver was more excited about the table FULL of pop!

After dinner, it was time for some dancing. Aunt Karla and Uncle Jerry got the first dance.

The kids hit the dance floor with cousin Julie's light-up hula hoop. Did I mention there was even a live band at this party?

Calvin & Danielle dancing, so sweet.

Violet spent much of the night cuddling in Aunt Cheryl's arms.

Happy birthday, Grandma; Congrats, Uncle Jerry; and Thanks for a great time, Aunt Karla!

Snow Babies

As if we haven't had enough snow already this winter, this is what I woke up to see out the window this morning:

Within a couple of hours, there was a solid 6 inches of snow on everything!

As the snow fell, I remembered there was an adorable snow outfit I should get out of the closet for Violet to wear. Grandma Jo had given this outfit to Calvin when he was born. He was due December 31, so she didn't want to get him a "Baby's First Christmas" outfit (although as it turned out, he was indeed here before Christmas), but she wanted to get him something special for winter. She found this adorable "Baby's First Snow" sleeper for him. The winter Calvin was born was very atypical in that there was NO SNOW until March 20! So I dressed Calvin in his special outfit when he was almost 3 months old! Look how smiley he was, and such a chunk. . .The winter Oliver was born was very similar to this winter, in that there was snow on the ground pretty much from December to March. There's my smiley boy! (He was also just about 3 months old in this picture.)

And here's our Little Miss today, at just over 4 months old, she doesn't fill it out nearly as well as her brothers did. But she certainly looks just as cute!

And as always, the boys have to "help" when I get my camera out. Oliver's exact words, "I'm not touching her, Mom." What do you think?
Calvin's usually good at getting smiles out of his little sister.

I just love the little snowman feet in this sleeper.

I would really be okay with this snow melting quickly. Who else is ready for Spring?!?

A Perfect 10!

We took Violet in for her 4 month check-up yesterday, and was thrilled when they weighed her and announced she has officially made it into the double digits -- our baby girl finally weighs 10 pounds! We're exactly halfway to that magic 20 pound milestone that is required for her to get her palate repair surgery. Everything else with the check-up went well, praise God!

I'm not thinking she is going to make the 20 pound mark by her birthday. . . My guess is next Christmas, we'll be heading back to OR. What do you think??

Sleeping Like a Baby

Violet is an amazing sleeper. The nighttime routine at our house (if you can call it a routine) is that the boys are each up at least once at night while Violet sleeps between 8-10 hours. I'm always checking on her, because I'm just not used to a baby (or toddler or preschooler, for that matter) actually sleeping all night. Unfortunately, I met with a dietician today who said I really should be waking her at night to eat because she's not meeting her daily calorie recommendations. That's just wrong, don't you think?? I guess I'll do what's necessary to make sure she gains weight, even if that means waking my sweet baby girl.

While she was napping today, I couldn't resist taking some peaceful sleepy pictures. I just love this basinette that my friend Chris let me borrow (Yes, Chris, she's still sleeping in the basinette that Drake had outgrown by the time he was, what, a month old? I think it will probably last until she's at least 6 months old).

She's just so sweet. . .

Grandma Brown Would Be So Proud

My Grandma Brown loved violets, and her windowsills were lined with them. Unfortunately, my mom and I did NOT get her green-thumb, and so we usually stick with the kind of plants you dust, not water. If you recall, my mom got our Violet a live plant as well as a silk one when she came home from the hospital, assuming that the live plant would not last long.

This is how they looked that day (the real one is on the right):

I didn't take any pictures of just how pathetic the violet looked in the subsequent weeks; it was rather embarrassing with zero blooms and even the leaves started to look like they were fading fast. . . But I didn't give up and continued to care for my violet plant (as I cared for my Violet girl). I was completely elated last week when I noticed new buds beginning to show!

Each day, I've been so excited to see my blooms starting to open. . .

This morning, there were FOUR flowers with several more in the works! It doesn't look quite as beautiful as the day mom gave it to me, but I'm starting to believe we'll get there!

Here is Grandma Brown with baby Calvin on her last Christmas with us:

Every time I look at my violet plant, I can't help but think about Grandma Brown. She went to be with Jesus 3 years ago, but I'm sure she would have been proud (probably more proud of her Violet great-granddaughter than the fact that I didn't kill the plant, though)!

Did I Seriously Allow This?!?

And did I even provide the means by which this terrific mess was created?

So clearly, I was NOT thinking clearly today. . . The boys (Calvin & Tyler) wanted to play outside in the snow with their dump trucks. Since Oliver & Violet were sleeping, not to mention I didn't really want to bundle Brynn up to take outside, I was trying to be creative to give them something fun to do. I had saved a big box full of styrofoam popcorn from a Christmas package that had been delivered, and decided it could make some pretty fun "inside snow." I told them they had to stay in the kitchen with their dump trucks and their "snow", but they were free to play as much as they wanted on the hardwood floor, thinking it would be a quick sweep-up when they were done. (Are you already figuring out that this wasn't the case??)

It didn't take long for my kitchen to look like this: They certainly were having fun loading up the "snow" in their trucks and dumping it out again, but the more they crunched up the popcorn, I began to wonder just how quick the clean up would be after all. . .

The whole "stay in the kitchen" thing didn't work so well with Miss Brynn, either. . .

Soon I had styrofoam all over my house!

I think Calvin was a little amazed that I let them make such a mess!

When they were done playing, I gave them the brooms and dustpans and put them to work getting the mess cleaned up.

You can imagine how well that worked. . . After about 30 seconds, Calvin said, "Mommy, I think we need a grown-up to do this; it's too hard."

And he was right! I was beginning to think I needed a miracle to get it all cleaned up! A mere 2 hours later (you think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not), my house looked like itself again. So, in hindsight, I think there were a couple things I hadn't accounted for when I had my bright idea:

1) The popcorn, although they start out big, quickly become microscopic little particles after being trampled over and over again by little feet and their dump trucks.

2) If it had merely been the size, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. The real problem was the amazing static electricity the little things hold! The kids were seriously COVERED in little white specks and they were all over the walls, appliances, etc. As I was trying to clean, it was like I was being attacked by a million white bugs! Each time I filled the dustpan, they would come flying right back out in my face. I wondered if I would ever get it all clean, until I really did have a decent idea and got out my vaccuum. Those little styrofoam specks were no match for my Kirby! (although when it was done, I actually had to use an attachment on the vaccuum to get the styrofoam OFF of the vaccuum bag -- crazy, huh?) I'm pretty sure we'll be finding styrofoam specks in the house for a long, long time. . .