A day in the life of...

Samantha. Well this is it my oldest child. I happen to be posting about her on the day we are going to celebrate her 11th birthday. I can't believe she is already 11. It seems like just yesterday she was a little newborn who wouldn't let mommy put her down. She slept on my chest for the first 3 weeks of life. She has always been a joy. Easy going and easy to handle. Just a wrong look from mom and she would know what ever she was doing better stop. She is thoughtful and encouraging. She is very sensitive and her mood will be directly effected by those around her. She is a pleaser which is good most the time, but we are teaching her to stand up for what she believes. She is a confessing believer in Jesus Christ and it is amazing to watch her grow in that area. She is so very helpful through out the day. She loves to cook and bake. Her favorite toy is her American Girl doll that goes every where with us. She is a lover of books. She is currently reading about Greek mythology and working through Robin Hood. She has already read several books that I have not. The Hobbit is the latest example. She is my first home schooled child. She loves to ride her bike any chance she gets. She is a dancer and currently takes Lyrical Worship. She will explain that is ballet and jazz mixed. She is allergic to cats, but loves them so much. Samantha plays violin and wants to start on piano. She is great with small children. I would say that she use to be shy. This is changing day by day and now she is more cautious then shy. She will evaluate a situation before jumping in. She is working on going outside her comfort zone and trying new things. She is currently trying to grow her hair down to her bottom. She is growing so fast and I can't wait to see the end results.

A day in the life of...

Melia. What a wonderful little girl. She is the girly girl in this house. She is always wanting to put on make up and wear dresses. That being said she is also the little athlete. She is very competitive and loves to race. We recently put her in soccer and she loves it. She is our strong willed child and tries to bend every rule with out really breaking it. She is clever. She will use this talent to try and trick her little sister into getting what she wants. Her favorite color is purple. Her favorite animals are cat, dog, and horse. Here favorite saying right now is "There I said it." Sometimes it can be hard to get a word in edge wise with her around. I butt heads most often with Melia. I think its because we are so similar. She is very out going. We are working on having good manners while we are being out going. Yesterday she took out to babies trying to rush where she needed to go. She is always rushed. In action, in speech, and in thought. She is very OCD. When she was little the lid to the ketchup had to always be closed. If it wasn't she would stop in the middle of what ever she was doing just to fix it. She is my ham. She loves to be in the center of attention. She is also the one with the most fears. She claims to be to scared to go up stairs alone, but will do it if not thinking. She is afraid of the dark. She is a singer and a dancer. Jeff has started teaching her very simple songs on the piano. I have started to teach her how to read. She is one in a million.

A day in the life of...

Kellina. SWEET Kellina. That would be the word I would use to describe her. If you need a hug or good cuddle this is the kid to go to. She does have her screaming, throw a fit, cry till I can't cry anymore side, but usually this is reserved for when she is tired. She is the imaginative kid in my bunch. A lot of times I will wonder where she is and find her playing nicely in the corner by herself and what ever friends she has made up. If you follow my blog at all you know she is a goof. She is funny in her words and her actions. Never one to be left behind some of her funniest moments come when trying to do what her older sisters are doing. She plays nicely with others most the time, but if you rub her the wrong way she will lash out. She has been known to get in trouble for hitting, kicking, and other wise beating her sisters. She loves to sleep. She is usually the last little girl down the stairs in the morning. If she is really tired she will ask to take a nap. She only will sleep upstairs in her bed and isn't afraid of being alone. She is a thumb sucker. It started at 14 months when nursing stopped and her teeth all decided to come in at once. She loves to bring her softy(blanket) and stuffties(stuffed animals) down every morning. She has to feed them breakfast. When in the womb she never let us know what she was and was breech until 36 weeks. We had to do an external rotation which went well. She was my biggest baby at 8 lbs 12 oz. She isn't the most out going and had to leave soccer in tears because she lost track of her big sister. She can get overwhelmed with new people and new situation. She is so laid back though that not much gets to her. She loves to watch movies and quickly learns all the words and walks around quoting them all day. She is very musical. When she was younger and starting to get grumpy I would set her up at the piano and she would play her bad mood away. She already has rhythm. Besides piano she likes harmonica, dad's guitar, her ukulele, and any rhythm instrument. And her side note is that after having her I thought I was done with babies. I guess the Lord didn't agree:)

A day in the life of....

Caleb. He is the older of my twins. By about 20 minutes. He is the mover of the bunch and always has been. In the womb he was smaller and feisty. In very early ultrasounds he was jumping and kicking. That's how he got the name Caleb. Well that and Kellina was suppose to be Caleb Steven, but came out a girl so. He has been walking since 10 and 1/2 months. Now his main speed is running. He also learned how to go in reverse a while ago and that was all he would do. Once he realized he wasn't going to forget it he learned how to stomp his feet. BIG stomps. Sometimes when he wants thing and some times in the middle of running around. He has 4 teeth 2 on top and 2 on bottom. The top 2 came in in opposite order of his brother. If I need to tell him apart and can't? I look at his palm. He only has one line across his right hand. This a common marker in down syndrome, but no he doesn't have downs. He also has the 2 cutest dimples above his behind. He doen't like to sleep. He is the quite one. Keeping his words to himself unless truly needed. He is already a picky eater and loves to touch his food. If you put it in he will spit it out just so he can touch it and re put it in. To give you a kiss he clucks his tongue. He loves to dance. When a beat comes on that he likes he starts to shake it. This includes the little girls singing. He is a good hugger. He is curious and in to every thing. He wants to figure it out. He isn't to posesive either. If you want his toy just take it. He doesn't' mind. Unless its something he is in the middle of working on. Like trying to get in to box or figuring out what sound something makes. He is not a big cuddler. He is just on the go to much for that. The last thing you should know is he is a screamer. He screams in delight. He screams in anger. He screams in pain. He screams when sad. He screams when he wants you. He just loves to scream.

This concludes the twins and their daily living. Here is a photo of them together doing something they use to hate, but now love!

A day in life of ..

Joshua. This week I have decided to share a little about each child. I will start with the youngest and work my way up. Joshua was the second born of my twins. Even though he is the youngest he has also been the biggest(in the set of twins). That is why he was named Joshua. I thought it fit a big laid back guy(he was the calmest in the womb). He is my shy guy and doesn't like women he doesn't know. Once you win him over though he will be your friend for life. He is a BIG talker. Not so much words anyone can understand, but he is constantly babbling. He likes to point his finger when he talks. You can tell he is telling you something very important. And we've always called him our little singer. If someone is signing he will jump right in with his version. Even when he cries he talks. His words we understand are no, all done, num num, ma ma, da da, baby, and bye bye. They aren't perfectly spoken but clear enough for me to know what he means. We are working on teaching him signing. He will sometimes sign more, but why put the effort in to it when crying gets the same results. He is the sensitive boy. If a toy is taken away he always breaks down and cries. He is a mama's boy. If we go some where new he is stuck on mom for quite a while before he will venture out on his own. He has 4 teeth. 2 on top and 2 on bottom. I think I see several more coming. He loves to sleep and always has. When he was a new born I was worried in the hospital that he was sleeping to much. He is precious and I can't wait to see how he grows and how the Lord will use him.
I almost forgot the cutest thing he does!! Kisses! If you ask for a kiss he will get all ready and then say mmmmmaaaaahhh! It is so priceless.

The best medicine

is laughter of course. With Kellina around we won't run out any time soon. Here are some moments I hope give you a big dose of medicine. At dinner we were all finishing our pizza. Everyone had had seconds, but dad. Melia asked why not. He answered because he is on a diet. Kellina eyes got so wide I thought they might pop. Thin she answered.

"Diet! NOOOOOO!"

While playing together I asked why do you always pretend to be a boy.

"Because I LOVE them."

And her last cute quote was while we were talking about marriage. I had told her that when she got older God would bring a husband into her life. This is what followed.

"I get to marry Arnty Carla!"

"No sweety girls marry boys."(I didn't go into the more obvious problems of this.)

With big eyes and much excitement"You mean I can marry Ben!"(friend of Aunt Carla)

"Well no he is a little to old"

"I am not going to marry a boy. I am going to marry 3 people. Arnty Carla, you and dad."

At that point I just smiled and logged it into my mind to blog.

Couriosity killed the cat...

or at least made him good friends with the boys. Samantha was out side the door poking her hand through trying to get the boys to laugh. When the cats joined in and loved it just as much I had to take photos. My boys and my cats are the best of friends. Some times the cats even sneak in to sleep with them. Kia sleeps with Joshua and Coal sleeps with Caleb. Every time.

The End

It has come an END. That point in time where you can say it is over. It is a bittersweet end. One that I knew would come, but hate to see pass. One that now that it is over I am rejoicing. What END? Nursing. The boys are 100% done nursing. No more babies in this house. At least for right now.

chores

I decided to help keep myself on better track with cleaning the house I needed a chart. I would tackle one room per day and make cleaning a less daunting task. This doesn't include my daily chores. While setting up my own chart I thought the kids should have one also. I made each girl their very own and off we went. This is the first week we've been doing it, but so far its been great. I feel much more motivated to do my cleaning when I see it hanging in front of me and dividing the house up has made it much less overwhelming. The girls have jumped right on board. They are so motivated to get a sticker for each task they complete I can't believe it. On the little girls chart I drew little pictures and told them which each meant. Now they can look for themselves to see what needs to be done. Melia's competitive nature comes out and she counts all of hers and then compares. Kellina's imagination goes wild and all of her stickers represent people in her life.."See mommy this one is you, daddy, Aunt Carla......" The list is getting very long.(no more Aren't Carla) For Samantha it gives her that visual reminder that she needs. There is no question when I say get your chores done. For her chart she loves to make patterns when she puts up her stickers. She is a very visual person. All in all I have to say I LOVE the chore charts.

Watching the paint dry

The other day the girls got banned from the piano. They were having some problems sharing. So when Melia climbed back up on the piano bench I quickly reminded her she needed to stay down. Her response "Mom I'm not playing the piano I'm watching the paint dry." And that is what she did with her sister for quite some time. Note to self do more painting projects.

Boys are just different...

Side note: new hair thanks to dad.

On my friends blog recently she was sharing some of the flaws she saw in girl scouts. I was retelling these flaws to my in-laws and Samantha was listening. No big deal. Then yesterday it hit home how much she pays attention. And how some times more explanation is needed. She was reading over a girl scout paper we had on the table when she suddenly said,"See mom they encourage boys to." I had no idea what she was talking about. She then explained that I had been saying girl scouts was all about girl power and putting down boys. I explained that was not what I had meant. So during lunch with all girls listening I explained how boys are just different. Girl scouts has a way of encouraging girls by saying they can do anything and every thing boys can do. I am not saying I think girls can't do the same things as boys, but.... I believe God made men and women to be different. He designed us to have different roles in life. I think now a days the world frowns about the beautiful life that God designed for women. After I got through with my in depth explanation Melia gave this simple, but great example. "Yeah we are different. Girls aren't suppose to pee standing up." Just one simple way boys are just different.

Another first

Usually these blogs have something to do with the boys and how fast they are growing. Well, that is still very true, but today this is about Samantha. She has been set now for a while in her life plan. She wants to attend Le Corden Blue(in Seattle) and become a baker. She wants to make cakes like you see on the Food Network. She wants to do it all in a small bakery in Everson. 10 and life seems already so set. In home school I have been letting her bake twice a week. She can practice what she loves and I can eat the results. Her last baking project was for Jeff. For his birthday she did a first. She made his German chocolate cake from scratch. Oh boy was it yummy. No more cake mixes for us. Even the nutty coconut filling was done from scratch. She did a great job and has a new appreciation for baking. And a new way to show her love. She had been planning this cake for about 2 months.