Catching up!

The first few months of 2016 have flown by way too fast! We have had a lot going on so far this year and are so excited to see what the rest of the year holds for us!
We celebrated the new year as usual-in bed early and trying to catch up on sleep ;) Of course Clara wanted to party all night long so I'm pretty sure I was up at midnight to ring in 2016! A great new year celebration for me is if I get to wake up for the first time when the sun comes up the next day, meaning I got to sleep all night! That may happen one of these years! However, I couldn't have asked for a sweeter midnight party date than Clara Bear! She is growing so fast, she's 7 months old now. She is rolling all over the place and loves to go after toys and people across the room. Last week I put her down in our play area next to the kitchen and she rolled about 10 feet over to me in the kitchen! She is completely a mama's girl and I love it! She is going through separation anxiety/stranger danger so she takes a while to warm up to new people. But she loves everyone she recognizes and gives out huge smiles to all of us every day. After a 2 month long battle with all day diarrhea we were referred to a GI specialist who determined that she has a true dairy allergy and was having bloody stools so I am continuing to nurse her but I've had to cut out ALL dairy and soy from my diet and we saw a huge improvement in her diarrhea and overall mood and sleep within the first week. We have started her on solids, sort of. She's had lots of constipation troubles since starting solid foods so it's slow going but we're getting there slowly but surely. We've found that she prefers chunky food that she has to "chew" over pureed foods. She really likes oatmeal with a little bit of cinnamon, bananas, apples, prunes, avocados, scrambled eggs, pears, sweet potatoes, cheerios, puffs, french toast, pretty much anything we eat she wants to try :) She talks all the time in the sweetest voice and the whole family chimes in on what we think she's saying in an attempt to imitate her little voice. She is truly the most loved baby!

For Valentine's Day we did our usual: pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and homemade pizza for dinner. We made bbq chicken pizza sans cheese and it was okay. Pizza is just not the same without cheese :/ Each of the kids had a valentine's day party in their classes at school so we made some homemade Valentine's cards to pass out to their friends. We always have fun making our Valentine's Day cards and the kids love to decorate them by coloring, cutting, stickering, etc. them to the max!

St. Patrick's Day marked Clara's half birthday, 6 months old! It was also Baby Bea's due date and I think it's so special that these fall on the same day. We made green shamrock pancakes to celebrate that weekend.

We went to TN for Easter this year and had a great time working on our new house that whole week! We bought a house and spent the week painting walls, putting up a swingset from Nonny & PopPop, and doing miscellaneous repairs. It felt so good to get to work on a house that is ours finally! We are thrilled and hope that we don't have to move and get to live there for a VERY long time! The kids are super excited and love our new yard. It has lots of trees and backs up to a creek and farm with horses. It is just perfect for our family! Now we just need to be patient until summer when we can finally move in :) For Easter we celebrated a little early at our house in Highland Park. On Saturday morning the week before Easter we went to the Park District's Egg Hunt and the kids went crazy over all the eggs on the field. Then the Easter Bunny visited our house that Sunday morning and we had another Egg Hunt with the eggs they had dyed and decorated at home. We were already in TN on the actual day of Easter and got to see lots of family and friends. We went to church on Saturday evening with my sister and her family and then had Easter lunch at her house on Sunday with the whole family. Nana & Mr. Tracey planned an Easter Egg hunt at our new house in the yard and of course the kids loved it! Then we celebrated with Patrick's family on Sunday night at his Uncle Steve's house with his extended family. It was a great Easter weekend!

The month of April is the national "Month of the Military Child" and the kids schools both celebrated the military children by having special activities and meals for the military families. Micah's school hosted a lunch and provided Lou Malnati's pizza and Patrick & the kids chowed down! (I couldn't partake because I'm on a non-dairy diet for Clara but it looked delicious and I can't wait to eat pizza again once I'm finished nursing.) Charlotte & Hannah Kate's school hosted a breakfast before school one day where the teachers served the families and then they had an assembly honoring the military members and their children. It was so sweet- there was a slideshow with pictures of all the military members and the kids sang lots of songs like The Star Spangled Banner & You're A Grand Old Flag. Then they had all of the military members stand around the gym with their children while the kids pinned their parent with stars that they had made out of ceramic and painted. It was super sweet and they girls LOVED having the whole family at their school! It is so special that the schools plan things to honor and recognize the children that are part of the military life.

Micah's crazy bath time hair!

Charlotte flipped off the swing at school and scraped her chin up pretty bad. She also tore the frenum in the top of her mouth. Poor girl!

My sweet little baby girl, Clara!

Nana gave us tickets to see Disney on Ice in January in Chicago and we loved it! It was a great show for the kids and adults alike! Micah dressed up like Buzz Lightyear and Char & HK dressed up like Elsa.

Char (L) and HK (R)

L to R: Micah, Char, HK

L to R: Micah, HK, Char

Sweet Clara Bear

Clara and Charlotte

She might be the most loved on baby in the land!

L to R: HK, Clara, Char

My little Valentine's!

L to R: Char, HK, Micah

Sweet little baby doll

HK fell and hit her head on the corner of the stair rail and got a pretty good gash on the top of her head. We put the hair around it in a very tight braid for a couple of days to act like stitches to keep the edges of the wound approximated and it worked like a charm!

We ran into Mrs. Forlow in Target one day and she got to meet Clara. She was one of the teachers in Char & HK's 4 year old preschool class so I had to snap a picture for them and they loved it!

HK & Christy ended up with strep throat together...so thankful for antibiotics!

Trying avocado for the first time. She loved it!

Grandpa can always get a big smile and laugh from the kids!

Uncle Kyle got to visit too! He can also always get a big smile and laugh from all of the kids!

Cool cat Clara!

Super Oz!

L to R: Micah, Clara, Charlotte

Such a happy baby girl!

Sweet Hannah Kate

Sweet Charlotte

L to R: Char, HK, Micah

Silly Micah Man

Free cone day at Dairy Queen! HK (L) & Char (R)

Micah loved his free DQ cone too

Easter morning egg hunt in Highland Park

The Easter Bunny didn't outsmart them this year, they found all of their eggs!

L to R: Char, HK, Micah

Patrick with our baby bunny

Pastel purple pancakes to celebrate Easter

The Highland Park egg hunt was in the field in front of the girls school, Red Oak Elementary. There were hundreds of eggs for each age group and the kids were giddy with excitement!

On the (egg) hunt!

Easter Eve service

Ready to celebrate Easter at Nonny's house.

L to R: Char, HK, Micah

L to R: Char, Nonny, Clara, HK

Sweet sisters, Char (L) & HK (R)

Silly Charlotte making funny teeth with an orange peel

This girl loves spoons!

Every.Single.Night. this boy has to have all of these vehicles lined up on his bed before he can fall asleep. It's super cute until we can't find one!

Clara going in for the kiss on Char's forehead.

Micah had his first big boy haircut in the spring and he LOVED it!

The playhouse was our housewarming gift from Nonny & PopPop. Patrick and his dad put it together during the week we were home in the Spring and the kids love it!

Sweet babies, Clara (L) & Hattie (R). I hope they grow up to be besties like Amanda and I are!

Military appreciation lunch at Micah's school

L to R: HK, Char, Christy, Micah, Patrick, (Clara was asleep in her carseat on the floor).

We thought it would be fun to let the kids "help" us paint some of the rooms in the house. We were WRONG! When our backs were turned painting the walls they began painting the carpet. We had them leave the room so we could clean up not realizing that they had stepped in paint and were tracking it around the house on the hardwood floors too! Aaaahhhhhhhh!

The whole family came into town and pitched in to help us get the house painted! Kyle was a workhorse and did most of the taping off around baseboards, trim, ceilings, and crown moulding.

Cyndi painting the playroom

Christy painting the playroom

Our house!

They really do love each other :)

Char (L) HK(R)

For Arbor day Micah's class planted a tree at Sunset Park and each child got to help by tossing a shovel of dirt into the tree hole.

Hail in May

The kids wanted to send our former neighbor Mr. Steve a picture and this is how they posed! It is so fitting for Mr. Steve though ;)

Clara loves her Cheerios!

Red Oak Military appreciation assembly

The girls pinning their stars on Patrick

She looks like a little jail bird in her crib just peeking over.

Sitting up!

HK broke her left pinky finger playing dodgeball in gym class at school. She had to wear a splint for several weeks.

We had a raccoon with distemper hanging out by the tree behind our house for over 4 hours one day. I finally called animal services and someone eventually came out and with 4 guys caught it and caged it. It seemed very disoriented and dizzy because it kept walking sideways and falling over then would have a hard time getting back up on those logs. But when the 4 guys came to capture it the raccoon put up a good fight and tried to climb the tree. I'm glad I wasn't the one that had to catch it!