Eyes, I love their eyes...

I truly love their eyes!  They are so innocent beings and I love the wonder you can see in their eyes!

A few things to remember:

Jared was such a little man this past Wednesday.  He made lunch for himself, Suzi, and Lucy.  (I cut up cheeses and fruit.)  He got out the plates and put cheese, crackers, and fruit on them.  He set them all on the little picnic table.  Once the girls sat down Suzi asked (as she always does) "have we said prayers yet?"  I said no.  And as typical, she "didn't know how" to do it by herself.  Jared happily said he would do it and did it wonderfully.  He turned 5 last month too!

This little one turned 1 this month.  He is walking and babbling so much!  He is unstoppable.  He can go up and down the stairs all by himself.  (The others learned this feat around 18 months.)  He has his eighth tooth coming in now.

This girl is growing bigger than I am ready for.  She chose to purchase eggs at school to help support Maddie.  On Friday the eggs she got were for her three siblings.  When she found out five of her cousins were at her house that day, on the way home from school, she diligently and enthusiastically decided to "evenly" split up the candy and trinkets for all who would be there.  She made sure everyone had their special treat in a plastic egg too!  She can be so generous when she wants.

This little girl has some spunk!  And as proof in this picture, she has a way with getting scrapped up too.  She is a bright little one.  She cannot eat or sleep without saying prayers too!  And, since I don't think I have noted it here on the blog.  She has had her teeth for quite a time, but she got them all two at a time.  This poor child!

And, just because, here is a picture of all of us playing in the snow for the first time in 2015!  (This is from back in January.)

A Happy Mother's Heart

So, tonight as I was making Jared stay in his room for bed time, my heart just melted.  Today is the second day without a ninny (pacifier) to sleep with.  He is five now and that is our family limit on ninny and thumb sucking.  So, needless to say, he was crying and very upset.  Devon was ready for bed and relatively happy.  I laid Devon down and tried to calm Jared.  Devon in the mean time got upset and wanted out of the crib.  I ended up closing the door because they were crying.  As I stood outside their door to take a breath, this happened:

Jared stopped crying and started to calmly sing to his brother.  "Hush little baby, go to sleep.  Mama's going to buy you a horse and sheep.  And when that horse and sheep... ... ... Mama's going to buy you a skate board... ... ... Hush little baby, go to sleep."  And when I heard this I began to cry.  Thank you God for letting me know that all is right in our little world.

Also, today, after leaving the playground Suzi made me smile.  (For the record, today was 70 degrees.  After many weeks of cold and snow.  This was the first time since winter snow that I took the kids to the park after school.)  I was planning to take the kids out to dinner, but had not told them.  Julia asked, "where are we going?"  I replied, "we're going insane!"  Suzi chimes in, very enthusiastically, "I love going there!"  And I thought to myself, I love my children!

Julia has been such a good big sister too.  She loves to help Devon and tote him around.  She tries to help Suzi and Jared so I am not stretched thin.  At restaurants, when it is just the kids and I, she has begun to do things like take her sister and brother to the bathroom for me.  Tonight was kids night at the restaurant we went to, so she helped her sister cut out the craft so mom did not have to do it.

It just warms my heart that my children are making these memories that will get them through life together.  I have so many of these memories with my little brother.  I miss him so.  But God is good and he reminds us of what is good when we need it.  I know I haven't blogged in a while, but wanted to record tonight's thoughts.