How DARE You?

Today we were at Colton's game and the kids played on the playground the whole time. When we left I asked if they had fun. They said "YEAH!" and I said "Were all the kids nice?" Cason goes "Yeah." Then he decided to mess with me apparently, cuz he goes "But the boys were mad. And the mad boy shot me! And I say 'HOW DARE YOU!?"

Haha, I was cracking up. Any time we're wrestling or play fighting or whatever, I say that to him, but I've never heard him use it until today. He's awesome.
Yesterday Paige dressed up all fancy and even put on a necklace, to write an invitation for Tyra and my mom to come to her tea party.
Just like when she texts people, she tells me what she wants to say and then asks me how to spell it. This one said "You are invited to a tea party, but just for fun. Wear your dress and jewels. Paige."
Jess was hungry and tired tonight. But right when I was going to cook dinner Neely got hungry and I needed to nurse her. Jess thought about starting our dinner for about 20 seconds, decided he was too tired and picked up fast food instead. He got the kids chicken sandwiches and picked up Panda Express for us. Cason quickly stole Jess's dinner, and then had some of mine too. He's pretty adventurous when it comes to food. Good thing, because Paige is so picky.
Cason's also really funny when he eats. He's ALL business. He eats silently, staring at his food the whole time. He'll answer your questions if you talk to him first, but without looking up from his meal. Ha.
Tonight though, he wasn't silent at first. He was telling us what he was eating with each bite, and moaning happily at it's deliciousness. "Rice. Mmmm. Chicken, mmm...."

As for the little lady, she's suddenly REALLY mobile. If she's on her quilt she'll twist, spin, and roll and end up half way across the room. I swear she was trying to get her knees under her tonight. We're babysitting Alex and Faith for a while tonight and Alex loves her. They were doing tummy time together and Neely was really reaching for her big cousin.

21 Weeks Old

Weird that she's been here that long. Except we've had her forever. Everyone says it but it's true.

She continues to be our early bird, wanting to wake up with the sun. So this morning we hung out on her quilt with some new toys, waiting for her siblings to wake up and join us.
She had a few rough days there. She wasn't crazy fussy, but just a little more serious than normal, with a few fussy spells. I think working on teeth. But maybe not, because nothing has popped through her little gums, and she's back to her happy self.

She's talking so much (see previous post) and getting way better control of her hands. She rolls both directions all the time, trying to get to whatever toy she wants, and can pretty well grab and hold them once she gets there.

I still call her honeybee. On our vacation she was crying once and I heard Cason ask her "What's wrong, honeybee?" :)

Talking to Toys

Neely's SO into toys all of a sudden. She'll play in her playmat for quite a while the last few days while I clean or whatever.
She'll smile and even laugh out loud at certain toys. Yesterday she was talking SO much to the ladybug on her playmat.
I love her talking expressions.
If you're wondering where her new beauty mark came from, I made chocolate chip banana bread, which the older kids loved. So some chocolate was transferred to her face by a Paige smooch.

She was also drooling SO much.
Cason was waking up coughing and crying the night before last, but during the day he seemed fine. So we went to Coco's ball game.
Paige and Cason had a ton of fun on the bleachers (and under-I spotted Cason just as he found a piece of someone's gum), and Neely sat with Grampa.
When we left we went to get pizza, and then to Walmart to get Tangled, so we could have a movie night. I stayed in the car to feed Neely, so when I went to buckle her back in the carseat to leave she was well fed and happy. She did that awesome extreme baby stretch where they arch their backs like crazy, and then she fell asleep mid-stretch.
Tangled is such a cute movie by the way. Cason didn't see it in the theater, so last night was hist first time, and he loved it too. He also started coughing again last night. :(

Robot Builder

The other night we were watching a movie in our bed and Cason was between Jess and me. Out of nowhere he threw his arms around my neck and said "You're my best mama." He hugged me good for a few seconds, and then turned to Jess, said "You're my best daddy." and hugged him too. :)

I had softball practice Sunday morning after church. I dropped Jess and the kids off at home, grabbed my cleats and glove and drove to the park. It was about 2 hours before I got home. Jess said Neely cried for a good hour and a half of it. He tried a bottle, but she didn't want it and kept crying. He said she even cried "mamamamamamama"! Awww. I haven't heard her make the "m" sound yet, but he thinks she was calling me. :)
The rest of the day we worked out in the yard. I had a rake, Jess had a shovel, Neely was in the swing, Cason was on the swingset, and Paige goes "Okay, here's what you all need to do. Mama rake, daddy shovel, Cason make sure the swing works." Haha.

A minute later I was talking to Neely while I raked, and Neely kicked her legs and giggled.
Paige heard her and said: "Neely's like 'YEAH mom and daddy(pronounced dadd-uh), YEEEAH work it out!" That one had us really laughing.

Today Paige made her first successful jump over a jump rope. So I made her commemorate it with this picture.
Cason's newest accomplishment is mastering computer games. He has some impressive hand eye coordination, courtesy of our family Mario sessions. Ha. His favorite game on the Nick Jr website is this robot building game. He loves it.
He's also really good at it.

Neely Eats Cereal and The Rest of Us Do Other Things

With 3 kids now, it gets even crazier if I miss a day of blogging. I have a zillion pictures to post and have to narrow it down some.

Cason wants to play outside all day now, so if I need to do something IN the house and try to keep him in a while, he ends up sneaking his bike inside. The other day he pedaled around as fast as he could,
and then ran into the hearth, said "I'm not fast" and hung his head sadly.
He hadn't been napping for a long time, but since our vacation he takes LONG ones every day. Still worn out I guess. Then we wake him up if we need to go places, and he's all groggy.
But handsome.

Paige is getting really excited about her ballet recital in a couple months. The other night she set up an audience in the living room.
And practiced for us.
Then she took a bow.
And then she made each and EVERY one of the stuffed animals in the audience get on stage and perform for us, one at a time. Ha. She hid off to the side and watched after she put them on stage.
Jess, Neely, and I would sit quietly, staring at the motionless stuffed animal, and after a few seconds applaud and she'd run out and switch animals.
Ha. It took a while.

The next day Alex and Faith came over and spent the night.
I like Caso's tough guy look he's giving Alex there.

Jess brought me home some flowers yesterday,
and Paige and Cason stole some of them. Paige set hers up in her room. :)
Neely's really been staring at our food all of a sudden, so last night she got to try rice cereal.
She was really happy we were letting her try it, but I don't think much actually made it to her belly.I love this cross-eyed shot.
And this happy one.
Today Barby's cousin Annette and her husband John were visiting, so we went out to meet them and visit a while.

Cason had fun a while,
And then passed out for the rest of the visit.
Neely has been acting a little funky, maybe getting teeth, but she mostly enjoyed her visit too.
Smiling at Grampy.
And sleeping and looking pretty doing it.
Paige had a good hair day for the visit. Haha.
I didn't see much of her, she and Lily were off playing the whole time.
I usually bring my camera everywhere, but forget to actually get it out of my bag when we go somewhere away from home. Today we actually got some pictures of people.
Cason was asleep and missed out on the Great Grama, Grammy, and kids shot.