Spring Hodgepodge

I am behind on blogging!  Playing catch up is never fun, but I am determined to do it!

This Spring was our busiest one on record for our family.  Busy does not mean (or shouldn't mean) success or greatness.  Busy sometimes is just busy.  With kids getting older and more kids in our family, there was just lots of things to juggle. 

I celebrated my 30th birthday on April 24th.  For all of you who have had claim in raising me, I FINALLY made it to 30.  My 20's were a huge decade for me.  I received my associates and bachelor degrees, been pregnant 4 times (5 babies), moved twice and lots of little things in between.  (I can't even say I was married in that decade... that's what happens when you are a 19 year old bride).  I can say that I was married for that entire decade. :)

Ben put a lot of effort into making this a nice birthday.  He took the day off, which is always special.  Our first order of business, after getting all 4 of the big kids off to school, was to go out for breakfast.

Breakfast is my favorite meal!

We went to Sunbreak Cafe (our favorite breakfast spot in Auburn) and ate our body weight in delicious omelets, hash browns and banana bread.

When Leah got home from school, she presented me with the first gift of the day- a $1 bill out of her own wallet.  That's a big deal for a 4 year old, especially when that $1 is a fourth of your entire net worth.  What a sweet girl.

Ben then sent me off to get a 90 minute massage.  Heavenly!  The 90 minutes flew by much too quickly.

My next order of business was to go shopping, alone.  I chose Target as my destination and had lots of fun wandering the isles with no sense of urgency.

When I got home, the kids and Ben were just finishing wrapping up gifts.  They were all so excited to watch (help) me open them.  My favorite gifts from the kids were the ones they found around the house.  Leah wrapped up a travel size box of tissues and Mitchell his collection of baseball cards.  I remember doing that for my dad one year for his birthday.  Love, love, love.

The purchased gifts from everyone were so sweet and thoughtful.  Chloe picked out some really cute jewelry for me all on her own.  Ben bought me his and her tennis rackets so we can finally go play some tennis together. 

The best part of birthdays is just being able to spend time with these sweeties and see them get so excited about simple things.

We made it a full year of everyone having an ice cream birthday cake (except Ben- he likes his cheesecake too much and is the only non-ice cream lover in the family).  Mint oreo was my choice and it was delicious.  And disappeared quickly.

A few years ago, I was not looking forward to turning 30.  But as it has snuck up on me, I have enjoyed the life lessons and wisdom I have learned as I am aging.  Cheers to this new decade of my life!

Ben took the kids fishing a number of different times this spring.  They love it enough to go multiple times a week if we had time.

We even had a Sunday dinner of the trout they caught.  Everyone was brave enough to try it.  Livy loved it!

One lazy Sunday afternoon, Chloe and Mitchell made up a "secret language."  The secret to it is that they had to quack (yes, like a duck) the number of times as the number by the word.  There was an extreme amount of quacking going on.  We finally convinced them to just say "quack to the 4th" to cut down on the noise.  It was really pretty cute/funny.  My favorite is #4.  And I always like "Quack to the 6th".

In late April and early May, we had some sunny and HOT weather!  It was high 80's one day.  It felt like Hawaiian weather, so the twins wore their Hawaii dresses for the occasion. 

Chloe loves having her hair done.  90% of the time, she does her own hair and has come up with some cute styles.  This day she asked me to braid it and she loved the idea of tucking them under. 

Mother's Day is always such a sweet day for me.  Being a mom is my greatest blessing and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a mother.  There is nothing more rewarding and nothing I'd rather be doing in life more than being a mom.  I was put on this earth to be a mom.  I am not the best at what I do, but I sure do try.  And I love these 5 little beings fiercely and find joy every day in getting to raise and teach them.

All 4 of the big kids brought home a plant for me.  Leah colored her pot blue for me, "For Seahawks," she said.  Lexi knew my favorite color is orange.

 My most favorite part of Mother's Day is the sweet (and hilarious) cards and survey's my kids make for me.

From Alexis: "I know my mom loves me because she plays and colors with me."

From Leah: "I know my mom loves me because she watches movies with me and gives me popcorn and plays with me when Olivia is playing with herself or sleeping."

An adorable card made by Chloe!

From Mitch.  I love these! (And love that he thinks I'm 120 pounds!)

On May 17, our little Olivia turned 8 months old.  She was not happy about that!

She was a busy little girl this spring- crawling, crawling, crawling.  Towards the end of the Spring, she finally became more adventurous and ventured out of the family room to discover lots more places she could make messes.

Livy, Livy, Livy the Explorer!

She loves sitting up for bath's now.  She now tries to stand up in the bath too- not cool, Liv, not cool.

This Spring was her first time eating solid foods.  As she has transitioned into feeding herself, my kitchen has become a lot messier!  Babies feeding themselves= a dirty floor, a dirty high chair and a dirty baby.

Her favorite thing to do is crawl over to anyone on the floor and "play" with them.  By play I mean crawl on them, grab their faces and their hair.

Lu Lu is also our little indoor puppy dog.  All of the kids love to feed her little bites of stuff whenever they can.

She is still our good little church girl.  Ben has a 98% success rate at getting her to sleep at church.  The tricky thing with having a sleep trained baby is that they have a hard time falling asleep anywhere except their beds.  But Ben has the magic touch and can get her to sleep with a special "sleeping hold" in sometimes just seconds.

At the end of May, Olivia decided to take things to the next level.  She started kneeling on her own.

Which then led to standing on her own when propped up against something.  Standing makes babies look grown up!

Speaking of grown up.... Mitch has had an increased desire to be more indecent lately.  He especially wants to be able to cook and prepare more food on his own.  His favorite thing to make by himself is eggs.  He'd make them every day.

With beautiful spring weather and new tennis rackets, we headed down to some nearby tennis courts for Family Home Evening one night.

Tennis looks and seems so easy... until you play it.  

The kids had a blast trying it for the first time.

Olivia got bored on the sidelines in her stroller, so we had to take shifts holding her. 

Ben's mom recently sent up a box of some of his old stuff.  Leah was just the perfect size for this old tshirt of Ben's. 

And Mitch fit nicely into his old soccer jersey.

I hate to admit that Livy has gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to reading.  I was a faithful reader to all of my previous babies.  With more kids to get to bed these days and more going on, it's just easiest to just put her to bed, rather than take the time to read to her before hand.

Luckily she has some great older siblings who help me out with the reading every now and then.

The Saturday before Memorial Day, Ben's cousin got married in the Portland area.  We drove up for the day to attend.

Ben worked his magic right before the ceremony started and got Livy to sleep.  It's like magic, I tell you.

The wedding was in a museum and after the ceremony was over, the guests were allowed to tour the museum for free while the staff set up for the dinner.

The buffet dinner was pretty tasty and this little man of mine ate as much as his dad and his papa. 

Our school district had the Tuesday AND Wednesday after Memorial Day off from school.  It was nice weather, so we went to the park one day.  The big kids wanted to walk home by themselves.  They were very cute with their walking buddies.

In the middle of May, the twins had a preschool field trip to a local ice cream shop called Sub Zero where they make ice cream using liquid nitrogen.  The science part of it is all very interesting.  The ice cream part of it is all very delicious.  The field trip started at 10:00 a.m.  It really never is too early to eat ice cream (especially if you are an Andros).

At the end of May, Chloe and Mitch's school at a 1 mile fun run.  Parents were invited to come.  The weather was gorgeous and a little extra exercise never hurt anyone, so the 3 little girls and I decided to join them.  Kindergarten started things off.

I pushed Livy in a jogging stroller.

These two amazed me!  We ran a few laps with Mitch, and a few with Chloe, and then a few on our own.  Total, we ran almost 7 laps (just under 2 miles).

Chloe trying to catch up to speedy Leah!

Go Mitch!

Chloe and her friends Saylor and Ava.  Good job girls!

Leah was barely winded at all.  That little girl has athletics in her blood.  Lexi needed a small break, but was amazing herself.  It was such a fun morning.

We hauled out a new baby toy for Livy one day.  She didn't know quite what to do with it.

The twins knew just what to do!

I also hauled out this old baby toy.  It normally has legs on it, but I took the legs off to start with.  Olivia quite enjoyed it.  She also loves to play with her toys while simultaneously wielding a knife.  (It's plastic, don't worry).

She quickly learned to stand up while playing on it, even without the legs on it.

Our library had a fun program this spring called "Legos at the library."  They had big and small legos spread out on tables and on the floor.  There was a theme each week and the kids were welcome to build according to the theme or do whatever they wanted.  The day we went, "Mazes" was the theme.

Mitch and his "Big Maze."

Lexi and her "Lego Book" (which was actually a bus).

Chloe and her "Not so hard maze."

Leah and her "laser cave." 

The twins LOVE bugs.  This spring there was an abundance of caterpillars outside.  The kids were collecting multiple caterpillars a day.  Our rule has always been no bugs in the house, but these sneaky little things kept bringing them into the house.  They would start off in a container, but I found empty containers all over.  I had to wonder how many loose caterpillars we had roaming around inside our house.  I guess if I see random butterflies flying around soon, I shouldn't be surprised.

Lexi caught a bug and fed it a skittle. (That's the bright green thing in the bag).

The littlest sister loves drinking out of her zippy, but doesn't know how to hold it or tip it back on her own. 

She is more than happy to let someone do it for her.  As soon as she receives help, she completely quits trying.

I come down most mornings to find the kids lounging on the couch.  I think it's hilarious that the twins like to recline on the couch even though their feet don't even come out to the reclined part of the couch. 

Chloe's best friend in class finally got to come over for a play date just a few weeks before school got out.  Chloe started at a new school this year and didn't know anyone in her class.  Saylor was a very sweet girl who helped Chloe when she was lonely and a little scared.  She and Chloe get along really well and Chloe always knows she has a friend in class when she goes to school each day.

Chloe and Saylor randomly have the same shirt and they both just happened to be wearing it on the day of the play date.  Saylor has a twin sister Sidney who is in another class.  The three of them had a great afternoon playing together.

Our Spring adventure continues... projects and sports, visitors and all of the other things that kept us busy this season.