Girls' Day!

The Wheaton girls and I had a girls' day/night today, and it was hilariously fun. I'll tell ya, though, things are a little different when you add four kiddos into the mix. Here are some of my favorite pics from a fun night.

Riley was a HUGE fan of the ball-popper toy. She thought it was HILARIOUS!

"Eli, I told you NEVER to interrupt me when I'm on the phone."

Noelle looks lovingly at Swank. :)

Riley LOVES little Gracie. Here, she's trying to hold her hand.

Riley was big into confiscating toys. This is one of Eli's dominoes, which she was VERY excited about... I mean, fishy-face excited. It doesn't get much more excited than that.

The little book club.

This is the best shot I got of the four kids...

... except for this one, which absolutely cracks me up! Whose kids are freaking out on the ends?

greensies

I just launched my new etsy page-- greensies onesies. Very exciting, eh? I don't actually have any products up yet because all the onesies I've made are already spoken for, but I'll work on getting stuff up soon! The link is www.greensies.etsy.com

Here are the latest in my onesies, though!

Video! Can I Get a What What?!

This is a first for me; I'm putting a video on the blog. Yep. I'm taking it up a notch. The theme of this blog is bath time fun. Ready? Here we go...




Riley, as you can see, is extremely good at coming up with ideas to entertain herself. She is also very good at rummaging through the recycling bin. :)

In other bath news, this past week, we had another first. Riley was in the bathtub, having a good old time. I sat on the floor next to the tub. If you know Riley, she LOVES bath time. I mean, we really take a minimum 1-hour bath. She is a very clean child. Anyway, he was playing around, and I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow, she slid down onto her back and under the water. It was like it happened in slow motion, but I really have no idea how it was physically accomplished. She didn't bonk her head or anything; it was just a smooth sliiiiiiide down into the water. But for me, the moment before she entered the water was a first. It was the first time I had really seen genuine fear on Riley's face, and I have to say that it was very jarring. Everything Mother within me screamed out. Even remembering her face gives me a pit in her stomach. It's obvious, but it's true-- mothers don't like seeing their children suffer or fear. I pulled Riley up only a split-second after she had entered the bath, but still, it was a defining experience for me. She sputtered and cried for a moment, but she recovered fairly well. Actually, she wanted to sit in the tub, holding both my hands for a few minutes, but eventually she got back to her squirter ducks. On the positive side, her slip into the water left her with a sweet major comb-over hairstyle.

Trip to Grandma and Grandpa's

Renae, Chad and Brianna are going to be here any moment (expect pics from that later!), but I wanted to post two cute pics from our adventure to G & G's place today. It's was a big ol' shindig. Sadly, Jeff was missing, but other than that, the gang was all there!

These two love their Grandpa. Do you think it's mutual?

Chunk

Noelle has definitely been chunking up. I love love love it. When I went to the doctor's office this past week, the receptionist looked at her and said, "Well, she hasn't missed many meals, has she?" No, she most certainly hasn't. :) Here are a few 6-ish week pictures, just to chronicle her growth.

I love the quizzical look on her face, as if to say, "Mommy, is this always what you're like?"

I'm pretty sure she's doing a little boogie here.

I can't think of a caption cute enough to match this pic.

Now, of course, I have to document some big sis lovin', as well...

Look at Riley's nurturing expression. She's the best big sister ever.

The New Productive

My idea of productivity has definitely changed since having one, and now two, kids. Today, I felt pretty good about my fun onesie-making. Sure, it doesn't serve a major practical purpose, but it does allow me to do something fun, creative, relaxing and something that lasts longer than 15 minutes (think: clean laundry tossed on the floor by an excited near-two-year-old). Here's what I got done in the onesie world. I'm waiting till I get the sewing machine up and running to complete them, but they're well on their way! :)

Here's a rockin' rocket ship, for all those rockin' little guys out there.

A little nature scene. I think I may stitch a button in the middle of the flower. Either that or just stitch-- in white, I think?

I love a good giraffe. Now, I'm not the greatest of artists, so my animals are all pretty simple, but I still think it turned out kind of cute... right?
I included a little snack for the giraffe, just in case. :) Oh, and she's going to get a tail stitched on.

Leash Retort

I had to post my mom's response to my baby pics post (from the 14th). It made me laugh out loud.

"The leash was in Scotland because a certain someone refused to hold anyone's hand. Now...who do you know that might be that independent????"

I'm not sure who she's referring to, but don't tell me because I can figure it out all by myself.

Magic Wands and Tiny Greens

Riley decided she wanted to don her fairy princess wings again. This time, she wore them with her pink princess pajamas, so really, the outfit was complete. She also wielded her wand again, and I kept asking her to cast a magic smell on Kona to make her smell better, but so far, no dice. Kona was, however, on the receiving end of much casting. :)

"And now, Stinky Dog, I bid you to smell like roses!"

I like to pretend that the glare off Kona's collar has something to do with Riley's magic wand. Convinced?

This is one happy and speedy fairy.

And, as happens with all accessorized photo shoots, we are DONE.

Noelle also got to take part in a photo shoot yesterday. Roly decided to join the action, as well, for a few shots.

Our Tiny Green in her tiny green tee :)

Noelle wants everyone to know that Riley isn't the only one who can dispense kisses!

Roly and Noelle, hilariously, are roughly the same shape. :)

Blatant Thievery

Once again, Ashley has inspired a blog with her latest post (which left me laughing for quite some time, by the way. Jack holding a metal owl? Good gracious!). So I'm stealing her idea of baby pics. I went back to our wedding slideshow and found some photos of myself. When you see the size baby I was, you won't be left wondering how Noelle chunked up so quickly. Sadly, my parents were (and ARE) not what we call picture-taking people, so baby photos of me were few and far between... though I'm pretty sure I have more than there second-born. Brandon, were you ever a baby? Here's what I do have!

Workin' the double-chin

Look how attractive my parents are. And then look at the chunk in front of them. Woo boy.

Good gracious, I was a leash child. Heaven help us if I have to put Riley on one of those! :)


This could be my favorite shot. Hilarious!

Mom's sporting the sweet perm. But look how much Riley and I look alike! And the resemblance is in the next one, too...

What do you think? Like mother, like daughter?

This Little Piggy...

Yesterday, as is true of more days than I care to mention, I did not get a shower. Therefore, I went for the pigtails and hat look. As I was getting Riley dressed (who, by the way, got a bath), I thought that she should try to work the pigtails, too. I've got to say, it was an adorable success...

This is kind of the grin-and-bear-it shot.

"Mom? What is this thing on my head?"

And the cheesy smile!

Epiphany

I realized something a few days ago. It's actually so obvious, but I didn't really put things together till then. Last Friday, Mike had returned home from work, and we were both back in the bedroom area while Riley roamed the living room/kitchen area of the house. All of a sudden, I perked up and looked at Mike.
"Did you feed Kona?" I asked.
"No," he replied.
"Oh geez," I sighed as I jogged to the kitchen.
It was one of those moments, as a parent, when you have to fight every gut instinct to burst into uncontrollable laughter. As I turned the corner into the kitchen, I found Riley, standing in between Kona's food and water bowls, holding the measuring cup we use to feed the dog. On one side of her, the tupperware container we use to hold Kona's food was standing open. On the other side, Kona was anxiously horsing every morsel Riley dropped in her bowl; I'm pretty sure she sensed that this kind of behavior wasn't kosher.
I'm not sure I was all that convincing, but I looked at Riley, tears almost welling in my eyes from my suppressed giggles, and said, "Honey, you only do that when Mommy and Daddy say so. You don't feed Kona. That's naughty." I then went and took the cup, closed the food container and walked Riley out of the kitchen.

(Warning: epiphany approaching)

Our feet had just hit the living room floor when Riley stopped, looked up at me and burst into tears. Then it struck me: Riley is not just the sweetest girl in the world (ex: she bestowed kisses on both the couch and the oven on our way to the basement just now), but she is also very sensitive. This had happened before-- after she's disciplined (even gently!), she breaks into tears and can't recover until she knows that she and I are still okay. So I swooped her up, told her that I loved her and gave her a big squeeze. Only then did she begin to calm down. It makes my heart break with love for her, just thinking about it!

Now let's see... no blog is entirely complete without some pictures. Luckily, I can't stop snapping them, so what do we have today?...

Here's a good one of sweet Mother Riley, helping Noelle take her paci.

And here's Riley, showing Noelle how to use the playmat. :)

Connie Rocks My World

Connie Tameling (cmtphotography.blogspot.com) came over on Saturday and-- of course-- shot some AMAZING photos of the girls. Here are just a few tasters. I've looked at them over and over and over. I just can't get enough. If you want photos done, again, I HIGHLY recommend her. Seriously, she was fantastic with the kids... well, with Riley... Noelle had very little idea what was happening. :) I don't know if I've ever seen Riley ham it up so much for so long.

Thank you, Connie. You are awesome!

Look at Noelle's sweet double-chin! Who would've guessed, just five weeks ago, that she'd have some chunk on her!?

Riley's favorite activity is reading, and I LOVE this one!

Riley also loves her new tea set. She showed off her hostessing skills for the camera. :)

Ahhh! Can it get any sweeter??!