Fun and Games

As dreary and long as winter can get, we sure have been having a lot of fun nestled up in the house. We aren't a very fancy or exciting bunch, but we sure have fun together. Here are some of our recent fun events and games we like:

Leah almost always wakes up at least an hour before Lexi from naptime and she loves to come up with me when Lexi wakes up. Here she is, waiting outside their door to go in and get her.

I open the door and she quickly throws it open. Lexi is anxiously waiting in the background.

Leah always runs over to Lexi's crib, so excited to see her.

She then almost always requests "up"- to get up into bed with Lexi.

These two crack me up lately- they are definitely going through a true "love-hate relationship." One minute they are hugging and kissing and sharing, the next they are hitting, pushing and stealing toys from each other, just because they know it will aggravate the other. But they are so pleased with themselves when they are kind to each other. It is so fun to watch.

This day I was making a cheesecake and I let Lexi lick the batter from the spatula. Leah came over to investigate. "A bite for me."

"And a bite for you." I did not ask Lexi to share- she was so excited to take a bite, then quickly share a lick with Leah.

Whenever there is a break in the rain, we try to go outside for a few minutes. The babies love their wagon.

They also LOVE the park. And by love I mean obsessed. The first time I took them there, it only took them a few minutes to catch on to what to do and by the end of the trip they could do everything by themselves. They start at the bottom.

Crawl to the top

Turn around

And slide down to the bottom, then repeat. They never tire of it.

Lexi got tired of the belly sliding and tried going down the big girl way.

She still needs a little help.

One game Mitch does not think is so fun is getting his hair cut. We just recently got our own clippers and had previously been having a good friend cut his hair. Mitch would sit still and be quiet for our friend, but he whines loud and long when Ben does it.

Poor guy- he always tells us his back itches and I'm sure it does!

The babies love to play in my kitchen drawers. Leah loves to be just like mommy and put on the oven mitt.

My kids all love "Ring Around the Rosie" and the babies are finally old enough to play it. Chloe and Mitchell are always up for playing it with them and it is so cute. I love that my kids love to play together. My big kids are so good to their little sisters.

Falling down is the best part!

We got little snow this winter (I'm a Seattle-ite now and I am loving mild winters!), but one day in February we got a few skiffs and the kids just had play in it.

(Yes, rain boots double as snow boots in Seattle. And jeans also work over your pajama pants if you don't have snow pants).

Everyone is still having lots of fun with the puppies. These little ladies can't get enough of them. They do not like to share them- they each have to have their own. Good thing there are plenty to go around.

Kisses for the puppies!

Chloe does great with 2 baby sisters at once, why not with 2 puppies??

She is the puppy whisperer- she can get any puppy to stop yipping and go to sleep on her lap in seconds.

We all had fun when Uncle Marcus came to visit a few weeks ago. He just recently got home from his 2 year mission to New Zealand and we were so glad to see him. All the kids warmed right up to him, even the babies who had never met him. Mitch loved taking a nap on the couch with him.

We brought a yelping puppy in one night and he fell asleep on Marcus.

The puppy is so dead asleep that his mouth is open and little tongue is hanging out. (And yes, that yellow stain is just what you think it is. We think that's why the puppy was so unhappy. After unloading, he was much more content!)

It's not super fun, but my new (and same old game) is trying to get into shape. Boy, it gets harder and harder to do with more and more kids. I bought a treadmill this month and quit my gym membership. The gym just wasn't working out with our schedule and with Leah's resistance to being left with strangers in public places. Now I just have to go out to my garage instead of loading up 4 kids every time I want a good work out. It's been so nice.

The babies love the game of finding everyone else's shoes around the house and trying to walk in them. Leah's shoes in the background look like doll shoes compared to Chloe's shoes she has on!

Chloe finally lost another tooth- it has been quite the struggle for her to lose teeth and she is very resistant to us helping her loosen them or pull them out (hysterical, really). A few weekends ago, after hours of negotiating and bribes, including a $2 bribe from Nana, Chloe let Ben pull her front top tooth out which was literally hanging by a thread. It was so loose that it shot out of her mouth when he pulled and we lost it for a minute. In bed, she wrote this note to the tooth fairy all by herself:

"For the tooth Fairy, For Chloe Andros. Love Chloe"

Inside it read:

"As of Mar. 14 I have lost 4 teeth. The incisors. I'm so happy."

They have been learning about teeth at school and for her to remember the name of the front teeth is amazing. I didn't even know that.

Last Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day here. We spent most of the afternoon outside. Chloe is awesome- I sat outside and supervised, but she walked the dog and entertained Leah and Alexis. She took them all on walks inside the cul-da-sac. The babies were in heaven.

Lexi found the big kid toys and wanted to try them out.

My favorite! If you tell the babies to hold hands, they usually will, or will try.

I may not be stopping world hunger or curing diseases, but I did conquer Super Mario Brothers 3 for the first time ever last weekend. I have always wanted to do that. I am not a video game person, but I have always loved Super Mario brothers.

I had some help from this guy. It's always fun and games with him!

Leah's most recent trick just this week is to morph into a little monkey and want to climb up on the kitchen chairs just like the big kids.

She also loves to climb on the table when she thinks I'm not looking. She was singing a little song here, just having a grand old time.

When she looked up and saw me with the camera, she said "Cheese" and immediately started to get down. Little rascal.

Can't wait to have more fun in the sun this Spring!