Happy Friday!

 We are wrapping up a long week here in rainy Chicago with some delicious homemade pizza and mini banana cream pies. Mmmm...I may be trying to cook healthier options but that doesn't mean we don't thoroughly enjoy our Friday night desserts!

Here's a picture of Eliana the other day, wearing her Easter bunny ears, a gift from her Grandma:)

Last night Eliana earned yet another prize for completing her sticks (she gets prizes every 7 sticks; the boys every 10). She picked a puzzle, which Daddy helped her with!

She doesn't get doted on or anything around here:)

Ben often dances with me in the kitchen (which the kids love to watch!), especially when he is playing music on his computer. Yesterday at lunchtime, he was playing a fun jazzy tune and did a quick dance with me. Next thing you know, Eliana hopped down from her chair where she had been happily munching on lunch and begged to dance with her Daddy. A sweet video we will cherish forever! Gosh, she's cute:)

*Can't figure out why blogger is not showing the top half of the video. The original video does include Ben's head:)

Happy Friday!

Not So Spring Concert!

Remember those frosted trees I told you about the other day? Here's a snapshot of a winter wonderland! Well, except none of us think it's a winter wonderland anymore:) Today was warmer so a lot of snow melted. The sidewalks are a nasty messy mix of mud and huge puddles. The grass that is now showing is also muddy and beyond saturated. The parts of grass that are not exposed yet are covered in snow piles that are a few inches deep to 3-4 feet deep. It will be a LONG time before we dry out!

Eliana got herself all prettied up as a ballerina the other afternoon, with dressy shoes and all:) Amazing how she can prance around in so little clothing on such a cold day!

Last night was the boys' spring concert! They have been SO excited all week and were practically bouncing off the walls all afternoon. The music teacher said that originally they were hoping that the snow would be gone and our days would be spring-like in time for the concert. Unfortunately, we all know it's not-so-spring like around here yet! At least it was springy inside. This was the first grade singing. Each grade had a spring theme. First grade's song themes were "Everything Grows."

Z is in the left middle. Hard to see in a sea of green!

The second grade theme was "Seasons Change" and third grade was "I Must Do My Part." The last songs were sung by the 4th and 5th grade chorus and their theme was "You Always Reap What You Sow." The songs had great messages and all the music and words were written by the music teacher!

This is 3rd grade and Samuel is in the front row, far left.

Starting in 3rd grade, they get to learn the recorder:) We have heard a lot of squeaky notes around here all year! Those are the recorders hanging around their necks:)

 

Here are a few really short clips of the concert. Eliana kept bumping my arm, trying to watch what I was recording so sorry about the lack of steadiness. And the lady's head in the way:) Only so much you can do from far away with a camera phone!

 

The first clip are the first graders (with Z), the second is the recorder song by the third graders and the 3rd clip are the 3rd graders singing. Cute!

It was a fun little concert. Eliana said they should do it again tonight:) Happy Friday!

Snow Fun and Videos!

We had our third highest snowfall on record for the month of January this year. We got over 30 inches of snow in one month!! Ben said he feels like all he does is shovel! Side story about our shovel: I am very proud of it! It was one of the last shovels left in the city after the blizzard of 2011. I search high and low for it and finally talked Home Depot into selling their own store's shovel to me! It had a crack in it but I got a good deal and we have definitely gotten every last penny out of it!

 

So...snow. We got more this weekend. We haven't been able to enjoy the snow too much because we've had these terrible cold snaps and I am not about to send my boys outside when it's -2 or worse! Thankfully, it was 30 degrees on Saturday and in the afternoon I told the boys to go outside and get some of that energy out!! Eliana went out, too, for a bit but she gave up and went in before I whipped the camera out.

 

They decided to dig a tunnel...

 

Zakkai working on one end...

And Samuel on the other!

He's so cute with his missing tooth! He is about to lose another one AND he is about to turn 7. I can hardly believe it. In our minds, he's still 5....

Concentrating hard! They got stuck with some ice in the middle.

Hoping to meet in the middle eventually!

Yesterday for lunch I made bread bowls for the first time with Broccoli Cheese Soup! Aren't they cute?  I have always wanted to make bread bowls and I found a fairly easy recipe on pinterest. I mixed up the dough before church and let it rise while we were gone. They rose a lot higher than I intended so next time I would make them a little smaller and make mini ones for the kiddos.

All in all, though, I was impressed! And it tasted good, too:)

Eliana is our little Canary Bird. She clams up and gets really soft-spoken when we are out in public but at home? She sings and sings and SINGS all day long! She sings real songs and songs she makes up. Or a combination of both!

She was so wild after church for some reason and was running around and around our house singing at the top of her lungs! Video to follow...

Ben has been working so much lately so when he is home, you can almost always find one of our little people hanging on him like this.....We all are happier when we can all be together!

Her hair is getting so long!

She pointed her bossy little finger at me and said, "YOU need to stop taking pictures!"

Silly boy!

And here's our wild girl; for proof that she does talk even if she pretends not to in public....Please excuse the mess. Things completely fall apart on the weekends! And that's what I am working on undoing now....(after my blogging break...)

 

Have a great Monday!

My Sillies

Remember that cold I mentioned I was getting? It is kicking my behind. I am chugging along doing what I need to do but I have a fever, weepy eyes, congestion and aching head. Oh, the joy...Just hoping I'm the end the of the cycle and not passing it on!

I admit, it's very hard to stop kissing and cuddling my chickies, esp Missy Girl:(

Today, I drugged up (myself) and took Zakkai on his promised prize-date which he earned from his chart. We went to see a movie, just the two of us! It was fun being with just him. We saw "The Croods," which was pretty cute. He loved it and during the funny parts he would always look up at me to share the moment:) Afterwards, we went to Target, where he got to pick out a dollar section toy for himself and his siblings. He picked a little screwdriver! Funny boy. He came right home, opened it up and started finding things to open up. My little mechanic!

I have a funny little video to share from a few nights ago, when Ben was gone for dinner. My funny kiddos!

Before the video, I just wanted to take a minute to explain what I meant by Ben's "defense" the other night. I had to learn all this terminology and sometimes I forget that not everyone lives in academic world:) haha.  So Ben had to turn in a full draft of his dissertation to his NELC (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations) office 4 weeks before defending, along with signatures from his committee on a form.

A defense is just that, a defending of the dissertation. Ben will go in a room with his academic advisor and reading committee (the professors he chose to read and edit his dissertation all along), the dean of the program and another representative. Plus, anyone else in the public who would like to attend. He half wants me to go and I half want to go. It makes me too nervous!

Anyways, he has to give a "talk" about his dissertation for about 25 minutes and then they get to ask him questions and he has to "defend" it and show that he really knows what he's talking about. After this is over, he and everyone but the committee leaves the room and they put it to a vote. Once they decide whether he passes or not, they call him back into the room and give him their decision. Generally, they will not let someone get to this point and fail them. He would have to totally fail to show he knows his stuff and after 3-4 years of emersing himself in his topic, that would be crazy!

After that, he'll have another week or so to do a little more editing on the dissertation and then he has to give a final copy to the Dissertation Office where it has to sit for 4 weeks before convocation. And then June 15th, if all goes well (Lord-willing!), I will sit with a bursting heart and watch my beloved graduate and become official!

It is coming soon but there's a lot for him to accomplish in the meantime. He would definitely love your prayers and for our future, too!

For now though, we take it day by day, trusting. And being silly, upon occasion. Enjoy the video!

Dance Fest

We had a really lazy day here at home, to follow a non-stop day yesterday (at least for me!) I pulled out some CD's I got from the library the other day of one of my very favorite children's songwriters, Jim Gill.

They boys, who were totally convinced they were too old for this music LOVED it! We listened to it while making breakfast and cleaning and jammed in the car on the way to the store. They were begging to have me play it during dinner but we had to put our foot down somewhere!

Enjoy the Thomas Trio...

Snow, snow and MORE snow!

 What a fun bit of snow we've been getting! I'm hoping this is winter's last hurrah before spring and if it is, I'm glad it's a good one! It started snowing around 6:30 this morning and 13 1/2 hours later...it is still snowing! We probably have 8-10 inches out there so far.

The boys finished their homework as fast as they good, donned all their wintergear and headed outside to play before dinner. Samuel said, "Whoever created snowpants was really smart!" :)

Right before I took this picture, the boys were army crawling through the snow:)

Our maintenance guy was snowblowing the parking lot when Samuel (you can barely see him by the tall bush on the rt) and Mikey ran in the flying snow's path. They thought it was too fun to be blasted with snow.

There was a lot of running and diving...

Rolling...

 

And, before we could stop him, a little snow-licking, too. Eliana and I have been couped up all day and we didn't really want to go anywhere anyways:) But maybe being shut-in caused a little extra silliness at dinnertime.

 

Eliana loves to throw out new phrases she has picked up, even if she doesn't really understand how to use them. One of her favorites is to tell knock-knock jokes. Tonight's joke that she randomly threw out during dinner will be a classic!

 

Everyone was eating nicely (And thoroughly enjoying~I will definitely share the recipe!) when Eliana said, "Samuel, knock-knock. Who's there! Poo-poo!" And proceeded to cause herself to giggle hysterically for quite a long time.

 

When that grew a little old, Daddy decided to add in a line, which caused the hilarity to start all over again. If this doesn't make you laugh, it will at least leave you with a big smile on your face!

 

Clean Sweep Part 2!

 We have been busy bees over here the past few days! It's been really refreshing to be active and busy and accomplishing things with new energy. Before I reveal our hard work, I need to share pictures, of course, of 3 of the cutest kids ever! No bias here.

There has been no let-up in the adoration of Baby Anna:) Eliana insists that Baby Anna wants to eat with her so they share almost every meal in the highchair. It's a tight squeeze but apparently worth the spacial sacrifice! Baby Anna finally ran out of batteries today for the first time and when I opened up her head (yes, I know that sounds creepy and it was a little..), I discovered that the reason the batteries had endured constant daily use for 2 months was because they were not ordinary batteries. No, it costed $10 to buy replacements! Ouch. I found some cheaper back-ups on Amazon with a lot more for the price so I think I'll be getting those soon.

Yea for Missy! She has FINALLY adjusted to no paci and is back to sleeping like a champ, although I probably shouldn't say that out loud or she'll wake up! She's been a napping stinker for 3 weeks now and even spent over 2 hours crying in the middle of one night last week. We got firm with letting her cry 20 minutes, going in and tucking her in, giving her a kiss and walking right out and repeating. We were getting pretty desperate by the end of last week. She was moodier, tired and driving us crazy!

But finally we started to see improvements and now she is back to her great sleeping. yea!

The boys are so thrilled with all of our new clean space, thanks to our new cleaning routines, that they spent the longest time horsing around before dinner tonight. Literally.

See? You should have heard the giggling and silliness coming from these two! It was really fun to see that enjoying each other (and our clean floor:)

And last but not least, I give to you a video of 2 days of very hard work! Ben and I are genius when we put our heads together to solve a problem, if I don't say so myself:)

 

 

Ben had no idea I was taking a video and gave me the funniest look at the end;) We all LOVE our new spaces and are all excited to keep them organized and clean!

Spanish Zakkai

This seems like the longest weekend ever! At least the boys are having fun outside in the snow. Eliana is having a party in her crib instead of napping. It sounds like she has possibly undressed herself and thrown everything out again. I do not like this phase!

Zakkai and Samuel both have a Spanish class once a week at school and suddenly Z's Spanish seems to be taking off! He comes home asking how we are in Spanish, telling us all the colors and counting. He agreed quite amicably to show off his counting skills on video:)

Enjoy!

Hoola Hoopin' and Rain Dances.

What a rainy, warm day! Eliana and I took a few walks today because Daddy had the car. We went to and from school and took a trip to the library for some Dora books. Eliana is very big into Dora these days!! She brought her Dora umbrella to catch any stray drizzle, too:)

I'm trying to keep this Little Lady active to wear her out so she will nap! It's been nice to have the warmer weather so we can get out. Unfortunately, that's about to end! We signed up for storytime again so hopefully she'll meet some new friends.

Eliana found the boys' hoola hoops today and wanted to try them. She begged me all day to help her, which was not easy, considering how small she is and how big they are! She loved it when I showed my excellent hoola hooping skills. Don't expect a video of that anytime soon though!

I like to call this "Rain Dance." Keeping silly boys busy!!

Happy Tuesday!

New skills and attack of the man-eating gallbladder.

 I am really confused about what day it is this week because of the holiday on Monday! It seems so strange to me that's it's already almost Thursday. It could also be from the lack of sleep I had last night.

My poor husband suffered from another, and the worst yet, gallbladder attack in the middle of the night:( I cannot even tell you how scary it was to watch him go through it and to feel so helpless, when all I wanted to do was take away his pain. When the very worst of it had peaked and he was laying on the living room floor, trying to breathe, I just sat and rubbed his back for at least 30 minutes straight. It was the only thing I could think to do to comfort him. Watching your loved one go through pain like that is absolutely heart-wrenching!

I had a glimpse of what it was like for him to watch me go through labor! Thankfully, after a day of rest today, he is feeling better, although not 100%. And I caught a minor stomach bug and felt ick but am mostly feeling better now. Some homemade chicken and noodle soup brought some healing to us tonight:)

Eliana just loves her family so much! She talks to me each day about which family member is where. "Sayuel? Kai? 'cool." (school). "Dada? Home." or "Dada? Work." She really loves when we're all back together and she can interact with all of us, showing us her new tricks or just being silly.

She and I spent a good chunk of time at the library this morning. She looked at books, watched the fish, pulled books off shelves and watched some of the other toddlers there play. We also signed up for Story Time, starting next week, so we can have a fun little thing to do together:)

My wild Kindergartner that makes my hair turn gray, is learning to read!! He came home from school with a little book they had made and read it to us. Then he picked up a board book in the car when we were running an errand and started reading it and sounding out words! So last night Ben sat down with him and helped him read on of E's books.

He now wants to make flash cards and copy down the stories. He spent a really long time yesterday and today before dinner, copying down the pages in another book and loves to show me what he has written. So fun to see him learning so quickly!

He's really proud of himself:) This is the confidence I have really been hoping and praying he would gain this year!

I also thought I would share a bit of Zakkai's brain with you. Instead of brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed , Zakkai has to make a few detours. Which may possibly be incredibly aggravating!

However, when I walked into the bathroom after getting them settled in tonight, this made me burst into laughter!

This kid is totally going to be an engineer or mechanic of some sort someday. And I can say it all started here.....

Eliana's been working on a new skill and finally is getting her feet off the ground a bit! Enjoy.

Friday Fun:)

You may not comment very often but I know you're there and I hope this makes you smile!! Presenting Moosie.

Happy Friday!

The ABC's

As you can see below, Zakkai and I did lots of cleaning today! He helped me wipe down doorknobs and light switches, a very important cleaning task with a household of germ-incubating children!

But this is Zakkai's very favorite cleaning chore to do! When he sees me pull out the vacuum sweep the floor (our good vacuum doesn't vacuum rugs anymore but is used for sweeping under furniture, along the walls and corners and crevices where dust and crumbs like to hide!) he begs to vacuum the rug.

He had to stop and inspect the vacuum to make sure all the parts were working. Of course, he noticed that one of the lights isn't working. If you know Zakkai, you know that he's been noticing lights since he was a year old! Have him come to your house at Christmas time and he'll be able to tell you just how many of your tree lights are burnt out within about 3 minutes.....:)

Zakkai had a kindergarten orientation this afternoon so it was pretty late in the afternoon when we got home. Just in time to watch the trains and construction vehicles pass by. Obviously, exciting enough to draw the attention of all 3 munchkins;)

I think it's so cute to see Missy squeezed in between her brothers!

Eliana has been playing the "ABC" song over and over the past several days with a magnetic refrigerator toy and now she tries to sing herself! She walks around saying "I G I A O." Future American Idol contestant?

As you will see, she's being a real stinker in this video!

Enjoy!

Summer-like Glory!

 I'm really confused when I realize that it's 81degrees....and only the middle of March! I admit, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Will it snow next week??

It was so hot here that Little Miss got to run around in her diaper! She loved every single minute of nakedness, as you can see! Love that chubby little body!

 Zakkai was thrilled to pieces that he was able to talk Daddy into getting his bike out of the storage closet! He rode his bike for hours today, talking about when he'll learn to ride without training wheels this summer! Woohoo!

Samuel was the first to break out the shorts this afternoon! He and Z were hot, sweaty boys by the time dinner time rolled around. They thoroughly enjoyed a cool bath:) This is the sort of picture I get from my 6 going-on-35 year old! He's a chatterbox these days:)

Here's a little video of our toddlin' walker in all her glory:)

Daily News.

Can't believe we've been home for 3 days already! It's been so busy as Ben is adjusting to being "Mr Mom." He even put on an apron today....just to amuse me:)

Seriously, this hubby of mine has learned to do things that he's never done before! Or not much anyways. I think he's feeling awfully proud of himself with his new domestic skills.

Today Zakkai had picture day at school. He had to get a bath before school to clean the marker off his head and hands (a common sight) and who knows what else. You should've heard the battle between Daddy and the Z-monster over bath scrubbings and getting dressed in nice clothes.

Zakkai was sure that no other boy would be in a sweater vest. We assured him that all the other boys would look nice, too, and that lots of little boys have worn sweater vests before.

And then there was another battle over wearing a jacket (it was warm today!). He left for school crying and screaming that it wasn't a jacket he was wearing! Because 5 year olds know everything.

Then he had a dentist appointment this afternoon and B and I were a little worried that there would be yet another battle. Thankfully, there was not! And he joins the ranks of the cavity-free in our family. Thank goodness for good genes!

The boys' long lost buddy, Mikey, came over this afternoon. He hasn't been around in over a month, after an incident with a scary/creepy neighbor:( The boys were beyond overjoyed to see him again and they all soaked up the last minutes of the warm, setting sun.

I finally got my stitches out yesterday. It was so painful. I was wishing for my dear Dr friend, Ms E! I now have the go ahead to progress to putting weight on my foot slowly. First light steps with both crutches, then more weight and eventually to one crutch and then to none! I tried my first light steps today and see that it will not happen as fast as I'd like, as it's pretty painful and swollen in there. I will keep trying and hoping for quick healing, as B goes back to full-time work next week!

Yikes.

I am trying to do little things to help out and earn my keep. Doing homework with S, watching Missy~as much as I can. (She has a definite advantage over me with her walking right now! ha.) And other small things. One day I will become queen of my castle again.

But until then, I am trying to enjoy some down-time and loving TLC from the King-turned-Mr Mom:)

And last but certainly not least, Little Miss is raising her ranks in the household to princess with a capital P. Also known as a little Hellion.

She is 100% toddler. Well, she thinks so anyways! We don't tell her that she's still our baby because she's probably say, "No, no, NO!" Which are her new favorite words.

She screams for food. She screams at Zakkai. She even threw a cup at his face today while yelling "Mo!" She rips her bows out of her hair and after she's done putting them in cups and containers, hides them in secret places.

But mostly she cracks us up with her new, toddling walk and the loops she makes around and around the house, showing off her new skill. She's getting pretty fast already!

She is full of personality, spunk and a lot of sweetness and cuddliness. We have to figure out how to tame this tiny firecracker!

Still working her Daddy-magic!

And here's a little clip of her walking~the best that I could do yesterday. Ben didn't realize I was video taping and was blabbing on and on and then he realized I was and started being silly. He likes to do that!


Enjoy:)

 And, while I did devote a whole post to my mom who carried the majority of the load over the past few weeks, I certainly do NOT want to forget the other special people who helped out.

My other "babysitters." Haha!

Grandma (B's mama), who came over several times to help chase after an increasingly busy little girl, listen to me blab on endlessly about things (hey, it gets lonely being all couped up!!!), and give extra-special attention to a little boy, who soaked up every second of it. Thank you for making Z feel so special. He could barely concentrate on anything else but his sacred Fridays with his loving Grandma! (And I know you enjoyed it, too!)

And thank you for driving us halfway home and helping to reunite our family again. You were a huge help over the past couple of weeks and we thank you!

And a big thank you to my Aunts (Aunt J and Aunt M), who also took babysitting duties! I loved the quiet times with each of you to talk (something that's hard to do with 20 relatives around!) and also it filled my heart to see you love on my little boys, too.

So thankful for family!

Eliana's New Skill

We had our very first outing today!! Well, I suppose I should say my first outing:) We were all feeling a bit cagey and, as you know, Sunday was rough so it was exciting for all of us to get some fresh air. And for me, to feel "human" again:)

It was worth the extra pain of the rest of the day, seriously. We went to the mall and got our newest walker some new shoes! She screamed like she was getting shots when her feet got measured but it was all good in the end.

She got to ride in my wheelchair with me. Oh yeah.

We also made a brief trip to Target, where we met my sister. I got to be even more cool with a smooth ride through the store on a motorized cart. With my foot propped up on the basket. All I needed was streamers and a bell and the picture would've been complete! I had to take over driving from Zakkai, who was sitting on my lap, when we almost ran over my 7 month pregnant sister and crashed into a few displays.

That was slightly mortifying:)

Samuel is doing so much better tonight, thankfully! He finally stopped throwing up this morning and perked up this afternoon. I could tell from talking to him that he is weak but glad to be feeling better.

And now I leave you with a peak at Eliana's new skill! She LOVES it.

The dog hates it.

LegoLand

Oh my goodness, today was the longest day ever! I seriously looked at the clock at 2:30pm and thought, "It's ONLY 2:30???"

Could be because I haven't been sleeping all that well and the past few nights have been woken up for one reason or another (the littlest peanut has been crying out) and canNOT get back to sleep! I toss and I turn and I worry and think about everything imaginable.

Mostly my upcoming week and our ridiculous neighbors. 

Anyone else have nights like that? Hoping I sleep better tonight! 

This little Pickle has stopped her walking spree and wants nothing to do with it! Isn't that strange? I seem to remember she did that with crawling, too. Crawled like crazy for a few days, stopped for a bit and then took it up full time.

Gotta have her own way, in her own time. Scary for the future?

 You know Saturdays are a long day for the kiddos and I so I am always looking for activities to do at home or close by since we are car-less. Yesterday Z and I ran into the library really fast to grab a Friday night movie and I was stopped by a big sign that declared there was a workshop today at the library from Legoland!

And the best part? There were only TWO spots left!

I hurried downstairs and signed the boys up. Samuel was in between ages for the 2 groups but the only spot open was for Z's age group. He had so much fun for someone who declared he didn't want to go!!

They got divided up into groups to build towers. Z had a preschool classmate there who was a team "leader" and the first one he picked for his team was Zakkai:)

 Samuel was spotted and snatched up immediately by the other oldest child in the group. He was on the light blue team. I was proud of him for going into his own group so easily~shows how far he's come in the past few years!

 Missy and I sat on the sidelines with the other parents and snuck a few pics:) I know this one's blurry but I was trying to get Zakkai's group building their blue/white tower in the backround.

 The boys look so serious but they really did have a great time~promise! The legoland guys talked about what could make a tall tower fall down and there were guesses like tornadoes, hurricanes and finally earthquakes. So each tower got to have its turn on the table being shaken like an earthquake. (a.k.a. 2 Legoland dudes on each end of the table, shaking it)

First round of towers all crumbled in seconds! Then they learned how to build a good strong base/foundation for their towers. Almost all of the second round of towers withstood the "earthquake." Except Z's group....

So they got the privilege of being the final earthquake for all the other towers in one final hurrah. It was a very violent earthquake~atleast an 8.0!

They walked away with special crowns, stickers and even some free tickets to visit LegoLand. A successful hour!

Later, at home, we all took turns playing a little Wii and I just had to get a quick video of Zakkai doing some running because he's so funny! Plus you get to see E shaking her finger at Z and yelling ~ a new fav passtime of hers:) Please ignore all messes in the scene. It's all Eliana's doing;)