"MY YOU!"

None of our kids have had any issues with jealousy, even when we were bringing home their new baby sibling from the hospital. But it seems the baby sibling is our possessive one. She doesn't like to share me, not even with Jess. She doesn't mind if he's hugging me or something, in fact that makes her smile and join in. But if ANY of them tries to cuddle with me on the couch or in bed at night she gets upset. She'll push their arms off of me and say "MINE!" The other night Caso tried to cuddle me and she was sobbing, pushing his arms away and then she looked at me and kept crying "MY YOU! MY YOU!" Haha.

We almost forgot our outdoor time the other day when it was really cold and windy. We were about to get everyone ready for bed when I realized and made us all go out on the porch swing. Everyone was being weird and hyper, which made it chaotic but really funny and a good memory. They all love when I break out the camera (and it's bright flash) when it's dark out.
Poor Gia had her teeth cleaned and a little mass removed from her side yesterday. Jess found out he had to go to Havasu, so I had to drop her off by myself at 7:30 with all 3 kids with me. I wore Neely in the carrier, and thankfully it wasn't busy so I didn't have to worry about trying to keep the older 2 really close to me. So it ended up going really smoothly.

Then Grama helped me pick her up in the afternoon, and stayed in the car with the kids so I could go in for Gia. Thanks Grama, for helping, AND for the ice creams afterwards. Ha.

Gia has shiny white teeth now, but she was really sad all evening. And drugged. She didn't move from the couch for hours, and her tongue was hanging out, and she'd whimper quietly every once in a while.
Paige fell asleep on the living room floor a little after 5 pm, which is really weird for her. We hadn't done our outdoor time so we carried her out to sleep on the bench out front. Ha. Cheating I guess, but she still got fresh air, so I'm counting it.
She did after I uncovered her head a little, anyway.

This last weekend we failed to get the last oleander all the way out. It was the worst one, gigantic thick roots everywhere. We hacked away at it some more and then team leg pressed it most of the way out. Ha.
Caso helped us work on the yard some.
And then he found a few little purple flowers growing. All on his own he had the idea to pick one and put it right by Paige's face, and he told me that way she would be surprised when she woke up and it was the first thing she saw. Cute little gent.
Neely just cruised around the yard.
Cason and Neely are a little bit sick today, so we're just hanging around at home for now.

Landscaper

Today Jess and I were working on the last oleander in the front yard. It's another monstrous one, so we were digging and hacking at it forever. The kids were playing in the yard while we worked on it. After a while Neely came over to help. It was really cute, she got two plastic blue shovels and started hitting them against the bush, grunting like she heard Jess do.
She learned two new words while she worked too: "Bush" and "Chop".

Here's a video of her grunt and "chop":

Hugging Partners

Pencil Toppers, Hugs, and Unicorns

Yesterday we had breakfast and went right into crafts. When I was looking for stuff for Caso's room I came across this robot pencil topper craft. So we did that, and Cason was actually willing to work on it until it was finished, which is big for him. Ha.

Neely's very into hugging lately. She slowly walks up to one of her siblings, says "hug", and throws her arms around them.
Last night she was playing with this stuffed Hello Kitty, and then went and got this little plastic one too. I said "Oh, you have a mama AND a baby Hello Kitty." Then I left the room to get something, and when I came back she was kneeling over them. I came over to see what she was doing, and she was setting them up to cuddle together, like this:
I also came across one of Paige's little notebooks and saw this drawing she did of unicorns:
I don't know how old this one is, but I thought it was cute.

Funny Sisters

Tonight I was folding laundry and the girls were playing on the couch. Eventually Neely collapsed, worn out. Paige got down next to her and they stared at each other, and then Neely sighed loudly. Paige copied her and sighed back, and Neely started CRACKING up. They kept doing it, getting louder and louder until the sighs turned into loud "OOOOOOH"s. Neely was getting pretty hysterical, laughing any time Paige copied her, so I grabbed the camera and got some good stuff.

Paper-Bots

We had a long, crafty weekend around here. I painted a few things for Cason's room: The rocket ship and a lamp, a painting, a shelf and his big letter "C".
Then I randomly decided the bumpy red cardstock I got at Michael's would be good for a paper robot to sit on the shelf.
But once Cason saw him he wanted to play with him. So I made another, bigger one for the shelf.
Then Paige wanted one.
Then Neely cried and tried to take theirs, yelling "MINE! MINE!" So I quickly cut out a little robot shape out of paper, knowing if I gave her one folded and glued and all that she'd just rip it and then be sad. She could tell hers wasn't quite the same, but she decided to accept it anyway.
Paige asked me to take a picture of her paper-bot stirring honey into her hot tea for her. Ha. She also asked me to put it on the blog.
We moved Caso's tool bench into his room and Paige helped me make a "Robot Creation Station" sign to put on the wall above it.
Then they built some robots and called us in for their robot sale.
Most they were selling were robots they "made", but Paige informed us the Lego Robot was actually made in the 1950s, so there were some antiques there also. Haha.
Then Neely slept in my lap and looked purty.
This morning she walked around in her pajama shirt, being sweet, and holding hands with her siblings.
I made my first attempt at a rocket ship for Cason, and it wasn't bad. I'm gonna try and make it a little bigger next time, I think it'll be easier to put together.

"You Too....."

Jess took today off, so we have him home for four days!

A large chunk of our tax return this year will be going to getting Gia's teeth cleaned. We had to take her in for an exam today. The kids think that's a lot of fun.
Gia is apparently teeny. She used to weigh 80 lbs, and was 62 today! That's a huge weight loss. But the vet says she's at a good weight, maybe a pound or two light.

You know when you're at a restaurant and the waiter says something like "enjoy your meal" and you automatically say "Thanks, you too." even though it makes no sense, and then you get embarrassed? Well I pulled one of those today. The vet was about to leave the room and she said "You have really good kids." Well I thought she was about to say "You have a good day" so I said "You too." Ha. Awesome. So I told Jess she probably did have good kids, if she had any. She seemed nice enough. Ha. What a dork. I hope she didn't notice.

I've been thinking about stuff to do in Caso's room, and remembered these wooden rocket ships that I saw in the birdhouse aisle at Michael's(the craft store) one time. We called because it was like a year ago, and they had ONE. They set it aside for us and we drove down to get it. Caso loves it and I painted it for him.
While I was searching for ideas for his room online I came across something AWESOME to make for little boys. I can never come up with cool stuff to sew for boys. Robots are the only thing I've made for him so far, but then I found THIS!

I looked for more of the same thing just to help me get a good idea of how I want it to look, and found this one on Etsy too.

I can't wait to make him one.

Neely's newest trick is saying "Belly button" whenever she shows it to us. She says "Bell bu-un". She was also rolling a ball around with her head today.
AND she had a conversation with Aunt TT on the phone today for probably 5 minutes, and even after that long she was super mad when I took the phone back. She would be talking gibberish, and throw in a "Hewooo"(Hello) once in a while, while wandering around the yard doing important stuff.
Like trying to turn the water on.
Cason actually posed willingly with me.
They got to have their favorite dinner, pumpkin pasta, and I even let them eat it out front. They were pleased.
We let them play video games together after we came in, and Paige and Cason were like this:
I love how well they get along.

John

Anne started a blog to keep people updated on how John is doing. Have a look:

http://bathauerblog.blogspot.com/

Bobotz, New Rooms, and Little Folk

Cason's been telling me he wants his own robot room lately. So we moved Paige and Neely in with each other. We went looking for a bigger dresser for the girls' room yesterday. On the drive Cason brought his new robot, and since Paige was riding in the back row he made me strap the robot in to a seatbelt.
Jess ran in to one store for us, and Neely was playing with the robot's eyes and saying "Bobot". So I took a little video. Lately she answers EVERY question with "no" and thinks she's pretty funny-there's a little of that in the video too.

We found a cute dresser for the girls! They love their room.
Cason loves his room too, although there's a lot to do before it's really done. But he's just happy to have his own boy space. I ordered some robot fabric yesterday, and when it comes I'll finally be able to start Cason's quilt.

We went to Walmart last night, and Neely spotted some new Little People on the shelf. She pointed at them and started making her monkey sounds that mean she wants something. Since it was Valentine's Day, Jess couldn't turn her down, and she got 2 new Little People: Bat Girl and Wonder Woman. So cute.
She's adorable, the second we got home she took them to her spot by the tv where she plays with them most often, and introduced them to all her other Little People.
Not to mention she was wearing her pony pajamas.

Today she was making them hug. That's one of the cuter things she does with them, she'll set them up like this:
Then she tells them "HUG".

Robot Love Day

Well, since ALL our kids love robots (or BOBOTZ if we're talking about Neely), I wanted to make this a robot themed V-day. So I stayed up late trying to make girl robots for our girls. I failed. I need to take a sewing class. :(

But I did tell Paige her Robot Love painting was for Valentine's Day, but early, since there was no way to hide it from her as I painted it.

Our Love Day started off well. I set my alarm to get up and make crepes before everyone else got up. But instead I woke up to Paige coming in to wake me up. She cuddled up in our bed, crazed with the joy of Valentine's Day, while I went to start breakfast.
Even though my stuffed girl robots didn't work out we went with the robot theme anyway.
They came out to the dining table, waiting for their food and checking out their little gifts.
Cason was of course expecting his robot, but he was excited to see his heart inside the door.
Paige made us all Valentines like a week ago, and had me get them from their hiding place so she could hand them out.
We each got an envelope addressed to us, and a picture like this one inside:
Then we gave Jess his little book we made him:We got the idea from Pinterest of course. It took a few days of coaxing Cason to give us enough reasons. He kept telling me the same one "I love daddy because I'm sad he has to go to work." I'd say "I know, I got that one buddy, do you have some more?" and he'd tell me pretty much the same thing, but worded differently. We eventually got some good ones out of him though. And Jess loved it.

Then we had breakfast.
Jess took the day off for us, so now we're off to enjoy our day of love.