March 2013 (it's a long one!)

Since I actually took more pictures this month, this one is a little longer.  Anyway, pictures and some stories from our month of March:


One day when I checked on Nora during her quiet time, she had fallen asleep with one of her library books over her face.  How comfortable!

Speaking of sleeping, Tirzah is now in a 'big girl bed!'  A few weeks ago, Greg decided to take a break from working one evening and help me convert T's crib to a toddler bed.  I'd been wanting to do it for a couple of weeks, but as usual, it took Greg to make it happen!  I'm happy to report that she has done really well from that very first night.  There are a few nights that she woke up, but I don't think it has been any more than usual.  It's not every night, thankfully, and when she does wake up, MOST of the time it's just because she lost her paci or something.  I think three nights in the past three months she has woken up and just been awake for a couple of hours for no reason.  She's quiet, just awake.  I have taken to just putting her on a lazyboy chair with her paci, monkey, and blanket and going back to sleep on the couch myself.  She's always fallen asleep eventually!

Speaking of the paci, she has completely bitten through two of her last three pacifiers in the past two weeks. Greg and I both have told her several times that when this last paci is 'broken' (as she calls it), it will have to go in the garbage and there will be no more pacis.  We'll see if I'm strong enough to follow through when that happens and we'll see if she will accept it! :)

One day Max and Nora (I suspect mostly Max) made this impressive train track all by themselves.

Kia has not minded spring being 'slow' in coming...she often has been basking on our front porch in the afternoons.  I just thought this was funny because she has one paw on the ice in the sandbox!  Kind of like she's trying to hold onto it for as long as she can!

On March 10th, we went to Nate and Steph's for supper (homemade pizzas!  Yum!) and to celebrate Annika's 2nd birthday.  Steph already did a post on it, so I'm not putting up many of my pictures.  It was a fun, relaxing birthday party, though!

Little Lincoln was as cute as ever!

Steph was FaceTiming Kent and Mem so they could watch Anni blow out her candles and open her cake, and Tirzah was pretty fascinated with it!  She kept looking at the screen watching them. :)

This is my favorite picture from the night...I had just finished trying to put that hat on Anni for a picture.  Her face clearly shows what she thought of that! :)  She wanted to get back to that delicious cake!

I feel like the big kids have been interacting with Tirzah a lot more lately.  One of the favorite things is to give her rides!  Usually Max and Nora are both on the floor saying, "Tirzah, come to me!"  "No, Tirzah, come to ME!"  She loves the attention, in case you can't tell!  The other day they turned on music from one of their little computers and were all dancing around the living room, holding hands.  It was pretty cute!

Tirzah FINALLY likes to have books read to her!  Being a typical under 2 year old, she's always had the attention span of a gnat when I would try to read her books, but now she likes to sit on my lap (or try to...it's pretty funny to watch her try and get comfortable around my growing belly!) when I read books to the big kids and she will usually sit through a couple.  She will also sit and look at them herself, though we've had a couple of issues with her not being careful and ripping the bottoms of some library book pages. :S

With tax season, we've been eating late every night...sometimes it's close to 7:00.  I do usually give the kids a snack after their nap/quiet time, but they are understandably pretty hungry by supper.  Tirzah is generally the most impatient and will come find her plate in the drawer or dishwasher and sit at the table if I'm not ready soon enough for her.  A couple of times I've gotten her to get plates out for everyone and 'set' the table!  This was one such night. :)

I just had to put this up since my sister-in-law Carmen wrote about wanting just ONE picture of her kids in their Easter outfits...this was the best we've gotten of the kids in their 'wedding' outfits!  In their defense, it was cold outside that morning before church! :)

Just another picture of playing...Nora and Tirzah were in this little fort that was made with couch pillows and the piano bench.  Once again, I think Max is the one who actually made it!

On Saturday the 23rd, we took our kids to Nate and Steph's for their neighborhood's Easter egg hunt.


They broke the kids up by age groups, and everyone under age 2 was inside the clubhouse to hunt.  Nate and I took Tirzah and Anni inside, and I had to laugh.  There were maybe two or three other kids in there, both definitely younger than the girls, and the whole perimeter of the clubhouse was FILLED with eggs.  The girls hardly knew where to start!  I think I took a video with my phone.  Anyway, this is Max and Nora dumping their candy into their baskets so we could return the eggs.  I think the kids had fun and I definitely know we got plenty of candy!

After the hunt, the lady in charge said there were still a couple of eggs not found, so Nate, Greg, and Max went off to look for them.  The girls just hung out in the sunshine.

I love how Anni put her precious Mr. Bear in her bucket!  She would take him over candy any day!

I was trying to get Tirzah to show me her stuff...there were 'special' eggs that had a number inside and the finder got a prize.  Her egg got her the sand bucket and toys, while Anni's got her that cute little rabbit.  When Steph gave Anni the rabbit, she repeatedly threw it out of her bucket!  Tirzah, on the other hand, seemed to like it so we traded.  As it turns out, the bunny hasn't become as beloved as her monkey (thankfully!) but Tirzah definitely likes to sleep with it!

The Easter egg hunt was also kind of a cover-up for my birthday surprise for Greg...when we got back to Nate and Steph's afterwards, Tim, Melissa, Josh, and Sheila were there (Dad, Mom, and Katy had left that morning for their mission trip to Mexico).  Greg walked in the door and saw Tim and the computer and asked, "What are you guys doing here?"  When Sheila jumped out from the living room shouting, "Surprise!  Happy birthday!"  I realized that I might have actually surprised Greg for once!  Granted, it wasn't a huge surprise, but I still count it as a success. :D  To document the moment, I had to snap a picture of him.

His birthday cake...the chocolate peanut butter cake from Smitten Kitchen (I've made it for him before).  And yes, we did get 30 candles on there!  Max and Elena helped put them on.

Some other partygoers...Tim, Melissa, Lincoln

Princess Anni

Oh, and Greg's favorite dog, Bella!  (Ha, ha!)  Don't worry, Mom, I think she only found one plate of half eaten chocolate cake to finish up! ;)  At any rate, I don't think she got sick afterwards at all. :)

Happy 30th, honey!  (This is by far my favorite picture in this whole post...do I have the cutest husband ever or what?!!?)

He got them all out...eventually. :)

The next day was Palm Sunday and probably the snowiest one that anyone around here remembers for a long time!  Max and Nora were super excited to get out and play in it on Monday!  I sent them out after lunch once Tirzah was in bed, and they had a ball.  They are definitely Greg's kids...they LOVE the garden and always seem to gravitate there to play.

Eventually, it looked like they were having so much fun out there that I joined them.  Max had started trying to make a snowman so I helped him finish.  That was some of the wettest snow I've ever worked with!  SO heavy and dense!  Max declared it a 'snow monster' and kept sticking in arms and gave me the 'ears' and mouth to put in.  Once it was finished, all I could think of was that Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where he makes a snowman and it comes to life and makes other mutant snowmen.  With a quick Google search, I was reminded of the epic title:  Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons.  Anyone else read that one?

I told them to scream and act scared...they might not be the best actors ever!

Okay, really...compare this picture to this video of the comic strip.  The snowman at 1:31 is what ours reminded me of!

So much snow!

I loved watching them play outside in the snow after I came inside...they love to eat snow, so they would find a pristine spot of the yard and just sit and eat it.  They know only to eat the PURE white stuff!

Camille's birthday is the day before Greg's so we had her and her dad, Rich, over for supper.  After supper, Tirzah wanted Camille to read her library books.  This one was a favorite!  I just loved the picture of Camille reading to Tirzah Camille. :)

We got to babysit Lincoln for a couple of hours on Greg's birthday...he didn't nap, unfortunately, but he had a ball just toddling all over our house!  These two even played together for a little bit!

I had sent out an e-mail telling a bunch of our family and friends about Greg turning 30, and that was pretty much the extent of what I did for him on his actual birthday.  Since we did his cake and surprise the week before, I was just kind of out of steam.  Thankfully, many of you picked up the slack for me and he spent the whole day getting cards, e-mails, visits, and goodies!  He had a great birthday, so thanks to everyone who helped make it so wonderful! :D

On Sunday we had the Wagenbach Easter at the cabin and Greg hid a bunch of Easter eggs for all of the kids.  There were eggs ALL over the hillside!

I think everyone got plenty of eggs and candy!

Tirzah loved picking up the eggs, even though she just about biffed several times on the steep hill!

I think this was my favorite part of the egg hunt...finding some little crocuses that had popped up!  I haven't minded spring not being early, but I am excited for the warmer days that are supposedly headed our way!

So ends our March...only 12 more days until tax season ends and 6.5 weeks until Jr. comes!  Yippee!