January 18

We had a busy day today! Amber and 3/5 of her children came over, and the kids played while Amber helped me practice for the babywearing skills assessment I have scheduled Friday afternoon. It was a remarkably productive playdate, likely because it was warm enough for the children to run around outside like crazy people. Outside children = moms who can focus on what they need to do. 

After lunch, the kids were goofy. Lily gave Eli this stuffed dog of hers, and he was so happy!

Look at that face! I love that my children are finally starting to learn to be generous with their things, and that they are experiencing the joy that comes with giving. Eli now has a crib full of stuffed animals, thanks to his generous siblings. He loves it.

Looking out Lily's window with big brother.

I mean, seriously. Look at how happy Eli is! He has his new stuffed dog, and his big brother's attention. I love this kid.

Caleb and Daisy snuggled in Lily's bed, too. 

Then it was time for naps! Once the little ones were down, I got to work setting up for my first "studio" photo session. A friend hired me to do 3,6, 9, and 12-month photos of her son, and today was his 6-month session. Caleb and Daisy helped me practice my light setup.

Gosh, I love these pictures! Then Caleb asked me if I could use the remote so that I could be in a picture with him. How could I say no?

My sweet boy.

Love him!

The jury is still out on how the studio session went - I've glanced at the pictures and since they're my first real attempt, I'm happy with them. Definitely room for growth, but they are fine. I think.

January 17

You guys. 

After five months of waiting for absolutely no reason, I finally get to take my skills assessment to become a Babywearing Educator. It's not a huge deal, except that I set out to do it so long ago and have been forced to wait due to circumstances out of my control. It's fun to finally have the opportunity to see this through to completion! My big test is Friday afternoon.

I get to have half of my babywearing group's lending library at our house for a few days, which means playing with all the carriers. Unfortunately, Eli won't let me wrap him

But Lily will!

She had such fun choosing the carrier she wanted to go up in. This one had starfish, seashells, and bubbles all over it.

January 14

This whole weekend was a Winter Storm Warning. MODOT urged everyone to stay home, schools were cancelled on Friday, even Chris' bank closed early.

It was a dud.

We got a lot of rain, some of it froze, but it was not the Icepocalypse they predicted. But we enjoyed having Chris home for an extra day, especially the Friday before a 3-day weekend! We ended up staying home most of the time, which made for a lot of moments like this:

Eli is suddenly really into building with Duplos. He makes lots of "ships", and he is so proud of his work!

"Look! Is ship! I did it!"

In the afternoon we realized that the chance of treacherous weather had passed, so I went to the gym. When I got home, I sent Chris off to the gym and the kids and I went for a walk to see the ice storm that wasn't. Lately Lily's favorite request is to walk down to the neighborhood playground, but she always asks at inopportune times - right before bedtime, when it's raining, when we're on our way to church... I was thrilled to finally be able to suggest that we walk to the neighborhood playground.

Very little ice. Lots of muck. Rain boots were necessary. But look at the trees in the far background - they look ghostly and magical from all of the ice still crusting their branches.

The playground equipment was mostly water, though. Good thing I brought towels!

Eli found a few fallen icicles on the play structure.

Daisy rode a frog.

Eli ate some ice.

Daisy found a tube-shaped piece of ice.

Ice on trees is pretty.

And then we walked home, taking the "shortcut" that isn't really a shortcut at all, but involves walking through fields so it feels really special.

In this case, "special" meant "mucky and sludgy and disgusting". But Caleb spotted deer tracks and dog tracks in the mud, so...yay?

January 13

Friday the 13th.

Last night was a full moon.

And we are under a Winter Weather Advisory for an ice storm that could be treacherous.

I convinced Chris to work from home today, so that made things better. Since the ice wasn't supposed to come until late morning, the kids and I met my mom, Emily, and Emily's little boys for breakfast at Denny's. It meant that Chris had a few uninterrupted hours to work, and the kids got to do something exciting before being cooped in all weekend. Perfect.

No pictures from that, though. In fact, the only pictures I have from today are these cell phone pics:

Off to the side, you can see that Lily insisted on wearing her Christmas dress today. Meanwhile, Eli wore the shirt for his Christmas jammies, a diaper, and these hilarious knee socks that Chris' mom gave him for Christmas.

And he's playing a ukulele.

This boy is too much.

(And he loves those socks. LOVES them.)

Lily drew this picture of her friend Naomi today. People are her new thing. Yesterday she surprised me with a drawing of our family, which was adorable. I suppose I should photograph that, too.

January 12

One of my photography goals during the slow season is to learn how to use an external flash with my camera. My first two DSLR cameras (Canon Rebel xs, and then Canon 60D) had flashes on them, just like any camera does. But when I upgraded to a full-frame DSLR (Canon 6D), I learned that pop-up flashes were no longer an option. I've just done without a flash for the past year-ish, which wasn't much of a sacrifice since I typically hate the look of flash photography. 

But almost all studio photographers use a flash of some sort, so I've decided to learn how to use one so that I have options. I bought myself a really inexpensive flash, wireless trigger and remote, flash stand, umbrella octagon soft box, and a faux wood backdrop. I got everything set up today, and the kids were eager to be my models while I practiced.

At first, Caleb was the only child who wanted to play with me. He was so patient and cooperative as I tried to figure things out!

This was before I realized that I needed a reflector to fill in the shadows opposite the flash.

The shadow on the left side of this picture is because I was too lazy to move a big chair.

This was when I realized that he needed to be sitting farther away from the backdrop.

Then Daisy saw what Caleb was doing, and she decided to play. 

Maybe I should have told the kids to go change into nicer clothes and brush their hair first, but they were being so excited and cooperative that I didn't want to do anything to risk ruining that.

I suppose she still looks a little gray here, but that's a simple fix.

Lily's turn: 

Daisy chose Lily's outfit today, and Lily was very happy with it.

Gosh, she's adorable!

As I took these pictures, Eli was right off to the side, slowly inching onto the backdrop because he wanted his turn right away!

As soon as I told Lily she was done, Eli plopped down and did this: 

Is he cute, or what?

He's so funny!

I had to include a "fingers in the mouth" picture, because that's all he does lately. He has gotten so many new teeth in the past month, and he is constantly chewing on his fingers!

After that, I told the kids we were done. They had other ideas, though, and wanted to keep going. Who was I to stop them? 

Man. They are so cute - I just wish I had dressed them and fixed their hair! But let's be honest. This is what they look like 99% of the time. I suppose this is for posterity's sake.

And even though they look like ragamuffins, look at how happy they are! And how much they love each other! My heart is full.

Silly gooses.

Then they wanted sibling pictures. 

Big sister and baby brother.

Big brother and baby sister.

And just like the TV show Maya and Miguel, brother and sister and best friends as well. 

So. First photo shoot with studio lighting is in the books. Definitely room for growth, but not bad for a first try!

January 10

Remember our hard workout last night? Well. I was definitely feeling it this morning. Plus, I got to bed late last night. So even though I only got 6 hours of sleep (I need at least 8 to function well) and my legs were trembling, I decided to get up at 5:45 and go to the gym like I normally do. I was so proud of my willpower and determination, and then...
The darn New Years Resolution gym-goers ruined everything. Even at 6 am, the gym was packed and the machines I prefer were full. I had to use a different machine. Fine, whatever. 8 minutes into my workout, though, I saw that one of my machines was available.
Hooray!
I stepped off the machine I was on, and... fell. Hard. I rolled my ankle and landed hard on my tailbone. People around me were so kind, but it was embarrassing and painful and I just went home. I cried the whole drive home, both from the pain and tiredness and embarrassment. At home, I explained myself to a perplexed Chris and climbed back in bed for an hour.

Today was our first day back at Classical Conversations after winter break. It was good to be back in the swing of things, but it was a long morning. After I dropped the big kids off at Chris' parents' house for Special Time, I treated wounded bottom and pride to a visit to the brand-new Starbucks drive through near our house.

(No, Mom, I wasn't driving when I took this picture. I was at a stop light. See the needle on my speedometer at zero?)

People, this is a game changer. For years, I have lamented the fact that there are no drive-through coffee shops within 20 minutes of my house. I rarely get coffee from Starbucks, but when I do it's because I am desperately longing for a special treat. Unloading four children from the van and taking them into a coffee place, then keeping them corralled while we're waiting to order and then waiting for the coffee to be made is just too much, so it never happens.

Finally, though, they opened up a drive-through Starbucks just minutes from my house. Feel free to send all the Starbucks gift cards my way to celebrate!

After I got my coffee, we went home and I put the little two down for naps. I was still feeling the pain of the previous day's workout, the fall at the gym, and the wounded pride, so I laid down for a nap. Unfortunately, Eli woke up much too early from his nap. I decided that my need for rest was dire, so I pulled him into bed with me in the hope that we could snuggle and sleep. Of course, anytime we are lying in bed, Eli thinks of nursing. He immediately demanded, "MILKIES! Milkies, please!"

These days, we usually nurse in the chair in his room before nap and bedtime. That's it. Our nursing journey is definitely nearing its end. So today when he wanted to snuggle and nurse, I chose to cherish every moment of it. 

This used to be our standard. He used to sleep only in our bed, and we spent so many hours snuggling and nursing just like this. Now, I look at this and wonder if it will be the last time. We will still continue nursing for at least a few more months, but will this be the last time I nurse him to sleep in my big bed? I'm so thankful for how far we have come. I still remember sitting in this bed, nursing him, then pumping, then feeding him a bottle of the pumped milk, then setting my timer to do it again in an hour. It was exhausting. We struggled, and thanks to God's grace and good counsel, we overcame. 

I am thankful.

January 9

We had MOPS last week, and apparently Lily enjoyed it quite a bit. While I edited pictures and worked on blog posts this morning, Lily was a busy little bee. For 20 minutes she ran back and forth from the play kitchen to the living room, and finally she scampered into the kitchen and proudly announced, "The MOPS party is ready!"

She spread the coffee table with a precisely arranged selection of food, and brought all of her baby dolls out to join the party.

Don't let Daisy's presence fool you; she had nothing to do with setting up this MOPS party. She just saw that Lily did something cool and wanted to be part of it, too. 

I mean, seriously. Look at how she arranged everything! She even put the kids' water bottles on the table, with the caps open.

And she spread out a "tablecloth". It's actually a satin cape that she repurposed. We only use table cloths on very special occasions, so I think it's adorable that she thought to add that little detail.

Thumbs up to Eli.

Look at her sweet little face. Can you tell how proud she is? 

Eli thought it was pretty cool, too!

Completely unrelated:  

After lunch it was time for Eli's nap. The big kids always get to watch 20-30 minutes of TV while I put him down. Today, they watched TV with helmets and rain boots on. I have no idea what Daisy is doing with that paint brush on her lips.

Once Lily was down for her nap, we got to work on school. I ordered a new math curriculum for Caleb; at this point I am leaning toward sending Caleb and Daisy to public school in the fall, so I really want to make sure their academics are up to par. I realized that I do better with structured curricula, so I ordered Saxon 3 for Caleb. While he and I worked on math, Daisy did a little bit on her own. Then she drew this picture of our family on her dry erase board:

I'm the one in the green dress and blue heels. Chris has curly hair, Caleb is the tallest kid, then Daisy and Lily, and Eli has curly hair and green clothes. I thought it was a lovely drawing!

After dinner I went to the gym, then stopped by the grocery store to pick up something special - a half cake. Why? Because today was Caleb's half birthday! He is officially seven and a half years old.

He has been acting weird lately about being seven and a half, so I thought he needed a little celebration.

He wouldn't let us sing "Happy Half Birthday" to him, but I think he still enjoyed it.

My seven and a half year old!

After the kids were in bed, Chris and I headed to the basement and started a new exercise program together. It was ridiculously hard, and I was so thankful to have my strong husband grunting and groaning alongside me.

This is our sweaty post-workout selfie. I am typing this 4 days later, and my legs are STILL sore. It was tough, but I am ready to go back for more!