Cute Callie in her Sunday Best

I just LOVE dressing up Callie. It is so much fun to dress up a little girl! And since I just love it so much I occasionally take pictures of her wearing some of my favorite outfits. Here are some...



She said something funny on the way to church today. Hunter was telling us he wants a drum set so he can learn to play the drums and Callie piped up, "Hunter, I'll rock out with you!!"

Nothing like a sleeping babe....

Silly Callie

I have really been enjoying seeing Callie get even more personality lately. She is such a GOOF! She cracks me up multiple times a day. It's a really good thing, too, b/c she is also a big handful. This afternoon we were all outside playing and she decided her new favorite thing was a swim floater thing she found in the garage. She carried it around for a long time. I actually liked it b/c she couldn't go as fast as she normally does.

She really likes to take off and tests her boundaries ALL THE TIME. I would think she would know by now not to go near the street, but no, it is a daily learning lesson for her. She actually runs towards the road or the neighbors yard when she thinks I'm not looking. (Fortunately I'm always looking.) The boys had no desire to leave the yard and I never had any problems keeping them off the road. Callie has been saying a lot of new words lately. She really tries to repeat anything I say, especially when the boys are downstairs playing and I call them up for lunch. She stands at the top of the stairs and yells a whole bunch of gibberish down at them. Once she really starts talking I doubt she'll stop! She says apple, baby, duckie, Hunter, Tate, juice, more, all done, thank you, Callie and several other words. She is starting to learn the different sounds animals make. She likes to dance and shout.
She has a HUGE smile and likes to show it off a lot, especially to the boys. I think she has them pretty much wrapped around her finger. She likes to kiss daddy.
She likes to climb(especially onto the table). She likes to look at books. This morning Brent went in to Hunter and Tate's room to find her sitting cross-legged on their little green chair reading a book to herself. She jabbers to herself, turns the page and then jabbers some more. It's pretty cute. She likes her princess dress I found at a garage sale. (I didn't even know they made princess dresses this small!!)She likes to mooch off other peoples food, as she's doing here with Gramma Mary.

We sure do love our silly Callie girl!

Weeks progress.

There was some progress done this week. I must admit I thought more would get done, but I think a lot of it was putzy work, so it took more time. Here are some pictures:


There is still more trim to be put up, and Brent ran the plumbing out to the addition, so it is ready to be finished off. I demolished the dining room yesterday and Brent and I put on a couple sheets of sheetrock in the dining room last night:

It's beginning to feel more like spring around here. I've gone on a couple walks with the kids, and they are happy to be outside. Callie really likes being outside. I feel like this is the first time she's been outside, b/c she was so little last year. She loves stepping on the snow and exploring around the yard. The only problem I've encountered so far is that she wants to be splashing in the puddles with her big brothers, so I am on the lookout for rain boots for her(do they even make them that small???).


Callie is such a big "help" with the laundry. She loves to grab clean clothes and throw them on the floor while I'm trying to fold them. I spend half the time picking the clothes back up off the floor, and while I'm doing that she's pulling more off:


We're heading off to the cities in a few hours, so I better go pack. Happy Easter!

Callie walking!

Mostly Pictures

I've had writer's block lately. Either that or I've just become boring. Not sure which. I've been trying to get back into the swing of things, back to my old routine. It seems to be going pretty well. We're getting pretty tired of being cramped inside all the time, we can't go out when its this cold. For an update on the house, we had the upstairs insulated and IT HAS MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! Huge! It is now the same temp as the main floor, actually yesterday when I woke up it actually felt warmer upstairs than on the main floor. Our kitchen is really really drafty, something that will be remedied here really soon. I am so happy to finally have a warmer upstairs. It doesn't even feel real. I'm not taking it for granted, I am absolutely estatic. The only downside I've noticed is that I don't really want to get out of bed in the morning b/c I'm so nice and toasty. So...mornings have been harder for me. But I can't complain!!! We are now playing more of the waiting game. Our windows were ordered last week and they'll take three weeks to come in, so we're stuck until then. This will (hopefully) give the snow time to melt off and get warmer out. Once the windows are here we can get going with everything, the doors and siding will only take a couple days to get in. Its hard to believe that its really happening! I'll post some before pictures closer to when the real work will start. I'm planning on taking the kids and going to Iowa for the week that they'll be replacing the windows. I can't wait to meet my new nephew! Here are some random pictures from the week. Callie has been wearing barrettes lately, and she looks extra adorable in them. I tried to take a picture of her in her cute heart dress yesterday, but she wasn't cooperating very well.

Callie is TWELVE months!

I can't believe my little baby is already ONE! At this rate it is bound to go by too fast. Although I couldn't say the first part of Callie's first year went too fast, the last part really did fly by. I am SO happy that she is a part of our family, and I really do enjoy everything about her. She has a bubbly personality, and loves her brothers. I'm so happy to be able to participate in the girly side of things. This month some of her new things are:
-saying "Hi!" She says it at the right time, sometimes while waving.
-drinking exclusively from a cup. Once we discovered she prefers her milk heated up a bit in it she has taken to it like a charm. I must say that I've had a couple "sad that I'm officially done nursing" times, but mostly I'm very happy to have my body back..
-has shown us she knows the sound a gun makes. She picked up the boys gun the other day and make a shooting noise. I'm trying to make her girly, but I don't think its working.
-has taken a few steps on her own, but is not walking yet. This is ok, I know she will when she wants.
-can stand on her own but doesn't really want to. Lots of times I'll catch her not holding on, but she doesn't have much confidence in doing it purposely. This is ok, too.
I'm sure there is much more that she is doing, but my tired brain is having a hard time keeping up. We love you, baby girl!

Cutest Callie on the Block...

Mullet Pigtails

I just gave Callie her very first pigtails!! She looked so cute, but you could only tell from the back. She has a bit of a mullet going on. Some would say(Brent) she takes after me, but I still maintain that I just had a lot of bangs!!!!! Here are pictures of her pigtails:





And one of Hunter after he wrote his name and drew a picture of himself during quiet time yesterday:

Callie is Eleven months!

Next month is the big month, folks! My baby will turn one year! I can't believe it. In some ways the time has flown by and in other ways its crept along quite slowly. Some new things she's doing this month:

-drinking from a cup. We are practicing this and she has one or two a day. She does really well with it.

-she can now go up and down the stairs. She learned how to go down them by herself. I don't let her do it unless I am right there watching her super close, but she can do it.

-can blow kisses. She loves the kisses.

-she's working on her 12 month molars, and is waking up crying in the night a lot.

I would have thought by now I would have been able to write that she's walking or at least standing on her own, but she isn't. That's OK, I'm not trying to rush her, but for as active as she is I'm surprised she isn't running all over the place right now. I found some cute heart sprinkles at Target and I'm already starting to think about her birthday party.

Fun with Felt

This weekend was fun b/c my parents were up! We had a relaxing, yet productive time together. Mom helped me make Callie some curtains to complete her room(actually its not yet complete, we still have a few things to do):


We went to Joann yesterday and I got some felt and am having a lot of fun with it. I made a snowman and Lighting McQueen out of it for the kids to play with, and I found on a blog an idea to make a pizza set and the kids had fun playing with them this morning before church.


I also was looking through a Pottery Barn catalog and found this here and decided to make one myself to hang on our fireplace in the fall. It is a time consuming job, but I've got a while to make it, and I'm really excited for how it'll turn out. I found the leaf patterns on a kid's website of fall coloring pages. I think it'll cost me about $6 to make. Here is a picture of the few leaves I've gotten stitched: This is the most crafting I've done since having kids I think!

Mom and dad brought a cute dinosaur costume for the boys(among other things... fattening Dutch letters and glazed doughnuts from Jaarsma) and Tate wore it a lot over the weekend:


I'm going to go nurse Callie...I'm seeing the end of nursing in sight, so READY to be done and have my body back to myself!!!!!

Peekaboo!

A little catch-up and Callie is 10 months!

Well, I've really enjoyed this blogging break. I don't anticipate blogging as often as I have in the past b/c naptime seems to be a thing of the past around here. Here's what we've been up to the last 10 days:

-Callie had her check-up/immunizations and weighs roughly 18 lbs. I can't remember how long she is, but she is percentile-wise tall and skinny, just as her brothers are. Everything looked fine.
-I got an X-ray done on my back that same day and found that I have spondylitis, and a few other problems with my back. This comes as no surprise to me, b/c I've been having terrible pain in my hips since having Callie. I'm not really sure the best route to getting to feel better, the chiropractor wants to do ultrasound, but it seems sort of temporary to me.
-I made the boys snow men for breakfast one day and they had fun eating them:
-Brent had some fun with his beard:(I did not care so much for this look)

-Callie came down with a fever on Thursday. She was very cuddly all day and slept a lot, and felt better Friday. I liked the cuddling.
-Hunter was suddenly hit with the fever/aches on Saturday and was miserable. He asked to go to bed and took a long nap. That was also the day of the Christmas parade/fireworks, and we weren't sure whether or not to go, b/c he'd been looking forward to it for so long. We decided to take him and I think he had fun.
The kids all liked the fireworks. We saw the parade from S&D's front porch and the fireworks from our van. Callie was mesmerized by them and kept saying, "Dat!" I think she was mimicking the boys saying, "Look at that!"
-We kept the kids home from church on Sunday so as to not expose anyone elses kids to the fever flu, so Brent went to church and I went to my Sunday school. I stopped by the store for a few things on my way home, and after I got home I couldn't warm up and...you guessed it...fever flu. I felt LIKE CRAP. Yikes, it was a miserable time, but Brent was awesome and took good care of me(and the kids...I'm lucky I got sick on a Sunday when he was home!) I felt better on Monday.
-I've used my crockpot every day this week. Here are a ">couple recipes I've used, and one I am making right now for the first time.
-Brent somehow managed to injure his knee, the same knee he blew out in high school playing football. He has bruises where his screws are, so we are heading to the hospital tomorrow morning for an MRI on it. Hopefully it is treatable and quickly recoverable.
-We've been getting a lot of sub zero temps and have a lot of snow on the ground. The boys liked playing outside last week:
-and we read a lot of books...



Callie is 10 months today!!! She has now reached the double digits of months. Here are some things about her at 10 months:


-we haven't seen any more teeth through yet, but she is working on a bottom one.
-she is getting more and more independent. She likes feeding herself more and more.
-she loves the sound of her voice. She screams and shouts all throughout the day. The boys will be singing or talking loudly and she comes over and joins in.
-she says, hi, Hunter, Tate(tate is more like Taa) dada. Notice she can say Hunter, but doesn't say mama.
-she likes playing peek-a-boo and So big!
-she's starting to wear 12 month clothes.
-really likes being near her big brothers. (They like being near her, too)

Here she is with her rabbit:

And I just love the way she smiles at me!