The big six! {Evangeline}

"Evangeline, Evangeline. How sweet you are my darling." (sung to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree")

This sweet girl is growing by leaps and bounds. Her adventuresome spirit keeps me on my toes.

She loves to make people laugh. Whether it's telling jokes, making funny faces, or acting goofy she is downright silly just to get a smile from someone.

Reading glasses became a new thing mid-kindergarten. Ain't no thang to her. She said "These make me look intelligent." 

Did I mention she loves school? Everything about it. Her teachers, her classmates, her backpack, her pencils, and so on. And all her friends are her best friends. And then there a few BEST friends. That makes sense to a 6 year old anyway.

Oh and she loves her family. I about cried a river when she said her favorite thing to do was spend time with her mom. *sob* She also loves her siblings, all five. And takes the role of big sister proudly.

Being a flower girl was super special. All things girly, from the dresses, to hair, to nails, to makeup, to pictures. The girls were loving it.

 She has this love for pets too. When she is older she wants to have a pet farm. Not with farm animals. But with house pets. She has asked convincingly made an argument several times for why we should get a dog. Maybe some day.

She has a love for babies too just like her momma. *melting*

She really enjoys playing soccer. She decided to take a year off of dance *gasp* and thought she could do soccer again but we missed signups. Bummer! But she loves to be active. She ran a mile with me once and I think she could have kept going!

My little girl brings so much life and energy to everyone around her. She is one of my pick-me-ups each day.

She is four! {Selah}

This is my workout buddy. She loves feeling so grown up she will go put on her "workout" clothes just to exercise with me.

She is so independent that sometimes I forget she is 4. Seems likes she is 8 with all the help she gives me around the house with the little ones. She loves being a big sister. If the babies (they are 2 and 1 but we still call them the babies) need anything, she is already 5 steps ahead of me preparing everything I need to change a diaper, or clothes, wipe noses, etc. 

Most of her day is spent drawing. I am astounded by her creativity and knowledge of so many things. (Knows all her letters, numbers-count by 5's, 10's, and to 100, how to spell everyone's names in our family-just to name a few).

Maybe she is more like a 25 year old stuck in a four year old body...she has to have her clothes laid out the night before and is usually the first one dressed in the morning. I can't say I know many people who are that prepared in advance.

Her birthday party was rescheduled several times due to major illness that plagued our family for a month, but when it finally came she was so thrilled. This was a huge step for her because her introverted nature usually leaves her stressed out and in tears. This was the first year she didn't cry at her own party!

Her favorite game to play now is UNO. And let me tell you, she is the UNO queen!

She loved dancing this past year and was very detailed about her practices each week. She still loves to dress up in leotards or other girly outfits when we are hanging around at home.

I'm not sure when it started, but she has a special goodnight kiss that she gives us. She thinks long and hard about what animal kiss she is going to give me and AJ. We have ranged from a unicorn, to elephant, to puffin, to caterpillar, and so on. It's super special!

I'm so proud of this little girl. She is a motivator, encourager, and helper. To be the middle child of six probably doesn't come easy, but she can hold her own as a big sibling. Love you sweet girl!

He is two! {Lincoln}

We will pretend that this post isn't 5 months late...but Lincoln turned two back in March!

 

I thought child number 3 kept me on my toes but there are days he has given me a run for my money! Maybe rambunctious is a good word to describe him. I have had many moments where I pause and have to listen for him, otherwise he is probably off getting in to something (or drawing on something he shouldn't). Or here for instance, he decided to pull bread out of the pantry while we were all praying. AJ did a great job of keeping his composure while wrapping up prayer time while Lincoln was having a cow that he no longer gets to have this bread. *sigh*

His ability to speak really just burst forth right around his birthday and now he is talking up a storm. He loves to call out the other kids names when he is looking for them. He also loves to throw his head back and say "NNNOOOOO" in a groggy voice. He enjoys being funny and often times will say things in a funny voice and then will laugh at himself and run off.

Maybe it's an age things, but he also loves wearing random things. For a few days he had to have this helmet on in the house.

Another day he dug out Evangeline's hat and gloves from her backpack. 

And of course, food is always on his mind. I have lost count at how many times he has pulled cereal from the pantry and poured it in a Tupperware for himself.

 

The beginning of March began a terrible plaque that lasted four weeks in our house. The two babies had RSV, 5 kids had ear infections, 3 sinus infections, Evangeline passed out one day-unknown cause, and 4 of us had the respiratory flu that lasted about a week and a half each. This was the all-time worst sickness our family has ever experienced.

AJ and I pretty much took turns round the clock holding sick babies. In fact, there weren't enough adults to child ratio that we were sitting on the couch one night and just looked at each other while we held a child and could hear others crying in their beds. These were some of our longest nights to date. No one could come help us since it was too contagious. Lincoln and Selah were both so sick on their birthdays, we had to reschedule their party twice. Somehow we managed to squeeze in a small party almost a month later.

These babies were so sick they just fell asleep wherever they were. First time having one fall asleep standing up!

Nanny wanted to bring his presents on his actual birthday but he wasn't up for much...look at those sick eyes :(

Thankfully we all finally recovered and Lincoln was back to his antics. He found this bobble head and thought this "baby" needed its bottle :) Another thing he loves doing is caring for babies, real and fake ones. He will be so enthusiastic when we are out in public that when he sees another baby he will let the entire store know by yelling "BABY!" Despite how crazy he is sometimes, he is such a nurturing child. He loves taking care of others.

Another favorite past-time for him is fishing. He has to do it all by himself, and surprisingly he isn't too bad! Now he could care less about leaving the line in the water, all he wants to do is cast and real back in, cast and real back in. :)

Like all my other kids, he loves to be outside. Nobody is allowed to go outside unless they take our guard dog, I mean toddler with them. It doesn't matter where he is in the house, he hears a door open and he comes running.

He surprised me at his well child visit that he was still in the 15% for weight at 24 pounds. This child looks solid! And he also surprised me for being in the 75% for height! I won't hold my breath for that to stick around.

We attempted to move him to a toddler bed, but after 2.5 months of him waking up 5 times a night in it we decided to put him back in the crib for our sanity. Actually, I made the decision during naptime one day when I attempted to put him back down to sleep 4 times and he continued to get out of bed and go in to the bathroom and spray water all over the place. (Did I mention we have 5 other children in the house and I don't have time for this?!) So I caved and now we are all much happier people. One day, when we don't have two babies waking up at night we might be brave to try again.

But honestly, I'm in no rush to leave the baby stage. I love the snuggles and the feeling of being needed and the special moments we have at bedtime when he wants to be rocked sung to still.