New Shower!

Our house is nearly 50 years old, and some parts of it weren't very well maintained. For instance, the grout in between the tiles of the master shower completely disappeared. I caulked some of the bigger gaps, but it wasn't enough to keep the drywall from deteriorating and the wall getting a hole knocked in it. So we talked to a few people who really, REALLY wanted to help us fix up our shower, figured out how to get a home improvement loan, and ended up with this:

Much nicer than a wall with a hole in it, let me assure you.

In which I bring us up to date

Now that I'm all caught up on last year, I should talk about this year before it's half over, right? 

As part of coping with having a newborn and three other children, Ella and I did a lot of sleeping in the recliner. One morning I couldn't go back to sleep, so I played around with my phone's camera. The verdict? I really need to figure out how to work a camera. :D

I don't know why, but this picture of Ella makes me giggle:

 The baby has done a lot of developing in the last few months, getting more mobile and more into EVERYthing. So I had to come up with creative ways to distract her while doing necessary things like cleaning the bathroom (and occasionally using it). Here she's enjoying emptying her little toy bin for the umpteenth time:

 Baby love on my leg:

Lest we forget, there are other children who exist in the Crawford household:

I can't remember when I took this picture of TJ (reason 348 why I need to blog more often) , but I love it:

He has since been de-binkied, under much protest.

 

Here are TJ and the fake child, whom I watch once or twice a week. She's about a year older than he is, and they both have high-pitched voices and talk about random things, like the mean squirrels who aren't allowed on the porch.

After reading about Sumerian temples one day, Annika and Afton decided to make their own:

I thought they were quite creative.

 TJ loves taking pictures on my phone:

Ella in the grass, previous to conquering crawling. If she could have, I think she would have crawled right off it--she was NOT a fan.

Oh look! Another picture of The Boy and me.

Ella makes funny faces.

Ella in her Easter dress, holding her very securely taped Easter Egg. She's holding it in the next picture, too, but you can't see it because she's shaking it intently.

I've been trying to get on top of this whole "homemaking" thing, in which I do weekly chores and have a routine and have a clean house--and a clean bathroom!--when my visiting teachers come over.  Part of homemaking, for me, now includes a baking day, which I love. The week of this picture, I produced four loaves of bread, several hamburger buns (some of them were HUGE), granola, and my first turkey. Not bad, huh?

Ella has discovered that her mouth can be used as an extra hand.

Bad picture, but I was only able to capture it this once. This is what we call Ella's "oooo" face.

Sibling bathtime!

Ella is now a bonafide crawler and has two bottom teeth. She's working on more, but they haven't actually cut through yet. She loves her solid foods, and now eats finger foods quite adroitly. TJ has been talking more and more--so much that I'm convinced he's quite articulate for a 2.5-year-old. Though he still tosses out phrases like "I don't love it" when he, well, doesn't love something (the current tv show, the vegetables on the plate, and so forth).

Afton is doing well, having fun with homeschooling and helping TJ learn how to use the computer. She misses Annika, though, and I can't blame her. And why does she miss Annika? Because we put her in public school for the last six week session. It's a requirement of the online school we're trying to get her into for next year, that she be enrolled in public school the previous year. I didn't find this out until APRIL, so we had to make some hasty decisions. But Annika is loving it and thriving, which is all I could ask for. 

A week before determining that Annika needed to attend public school, Afton came to me and said that she wanted to go to school. She wants to make more friends and have recess, among other things. I've always said that I'd homeschool the kids for as long as they let me, and I guess this is it! Afton is more of an extrovert, so I understand her need to be around more people. Also, I'm more comfortable with her starting school in second grade--I've had time to see how she operates and form reasonable expectations for her behavior. And I think she'll take to public school like a duck to water. 

 But just to show you how cool of a mom I am, I took Annika out of school for Student Day at the Renaissance Festival. Next year, we're totally dressing up.

 JOUSTING!!

And now I officially declare myself CAUGHT UP. Huzzah!

Seaworld 2011

Seaworld! We had so much fun that we didn't really stop to take a lot of pictures. There was the dolphin Nutcracker show, feeding dolphins and sea lions, Afton riding a roller coaster with her daddy for the first time, Shamu and offspring, and lots of other fun.

Shamu and offspring. The show was cool, but so LOUD.

Watching the noisy sea lions.

More sea lions! Afton was brave and actually touched the fish that you throw to the sea lions. Annika and I thought it was gross.

Annika in front of the Christmas boot tree.

Christmas 2011

After Annika's baptism, there was Christmas! We were lucky enough to have my mother join us for the celebrations. We kept Christmas small because our big family gift was a trip to Seaworld, so the majority of our Christmas budget went to that.

But here are a few pictures of the day in question:

Digging into the stockings. There were PopTarts inside, which was Christmas breakfast. Sort of.

TJ the Red Eyed Reindeer!

Examining the traditional Christmas fruit snacks.

I was crazy and made a quilt for each girl. Here's Afton's.

And here's Annika's. Note the simple designs--I wasn't so insane that I was going to do anything complicated!

Mat is more enthused than he looks--those are some awesome Gold Toe socks.

Ella slept through the gift opening, but then woke up and gave us her gift--almost rolling over!

And then we spent several awesome hours at the Crawfords, opening gifts and laughing so hard my cheeks hurt the rest of the night. It was fabulous.

So there was Christmas, part I. Next time we'll have Christmas part II: Seaworld. We left on our adventure the very next day!

Annika's Baptism 2011

We're going to pretend that this post was actually written in January, and not April, because I am NOT that far behind. (Yes I am.) So, at the end of December, two more wonderful things happened: Annika got baptized and we celebrated Christmas. Annika was born just a few days before Christmas, and so we thought it would be neat to commemorate Christmas Eve by holding her baptism that morning. She agreed, and so we did. First, we gathered the families.

Then we got some quick shots of the involved parties (e.g. Annika and her daddy) while the font was filling:

And then the deed was done. We are so proud of Annika for making the choice to be baptized!!

Next post: Christmas! (FINALLY.)

Catching up on the rest of the year

Oh my goodness! I have gotten so far behind, it's reprehensible!!!!! (Yes, it required that many exclamation points.) I'll blame prepping for the holidays, getting very little sleep due to an infant's growth spurt, and just trying to keep up with the demands of four children and a house for eating all my blogging time.

Granted, this "keeping up with the house" thing of which I speak has been stepped up a bit. A homemaker needs to have standards, right? And since I got pregnant with Ella, I had definitely let my standards slip. Now that she's a bit more independent, I have more time to devote to keeping this place clean, but I have a TON of catching up to do. It's getting better, though! There are days when I'd like to set fire to my home office, though. I've gotten help organizing it, I've rearranged it, and yet the paper still seems to be breeding. It's frustrating, but I'll get it under control. At some point.

Ok, so last time I wrote was end of November, right? Before Thanksgiving? What do you mean, I should backtrack and re-read my own blog? Well, I guess that does make some sense. Give me a minute, will you?

Wow! I didn't post Halloween pictures or even mention TJ's second birthday! My goodness, somebody slap me on the wrist. Suffice it to say, I put together the best trunk I've ever put together for the Trunk or Treat, but I feel my costume efforts suffered a bit as a result. So here's a picture of our costumes, duly labeled (I stole this from my own Facebook album):

 And here's the trunk. It looked awesomer in person and with better lighting, just so you know:

 After Halloween, this little bit of insanity happened. Mayhem turned TWO!!

 It's a good thing he's cute, and that he mostly adores his baby sister. Otherwise, I'd be crazy right now.

 See the cute? This is why I only complain about my lack of sleep (due to these two!) a few times a day, instead of all day long.

 We continued our Thanksgiving thing theme again this year. Instead of turkey feathers, we did leaves. It was awesome to be reminded of all our blessings as we filled up the branches. How blessed we are!

 When you let your sister-in-law play with your phone, you end up with photos like this.

My mom came for Thanksgiving!

The baby is learning how to roll.

The Baby laughs because she did not get back onto her back on her own.

Sometimes you just have to shake your head and sigh...
(That's my automatic hot chocolate whip stuck in Afton's hair.)

Cranberries--my favorite fall color!

TJ and Ella playing.

Impromptu family gathering.

Annika blows out her candles--she turned EIGHT. More on that in another post.

The Nativity Play at Nana's house.

More play!

What Ella thought of the play.

Annika as she plays checkers with Omay.

Ella IS a Christmas present!

Crazy Hair TJ in the tub.

And that's all for now, as this post has gotten too long. I'll cover the rest of Christmas, Annika's birthday and baptism (!!) in the nest post. Stay tuned!