Watching the bus

A 2-hr late start due to snow prompted me to find these pictures...

This was last year, April 18th. Lydia at 17-months watching 'Waren' get on the bus... and dressing herself, complete w/hat & mittens :)

Another funny tid-bit... LeaAnn is wearing this SAME OUTFIT right now at 11-months :)

 
had to throw in this picture, I just love it so much.

And here we are THIS YEAR, Friday, February 24th.
Lauren was gone w/Dad to the dermatologist, so Lydia & Lindsay went out to play in the snow before the bus came. They had a ton of fun together, constructing a bridge & making snow angels. Lauren got home in time to play a little before getting on the bus. Lydia was SO BUMMED when the big girls had to go, which is why I got out the camera. She was so sad... it really was sad. She's holding her hand out here saying, "No go to school. Mommy, I go to school!"

I love how Shena was trying to console her here.

She wouldn't come inside for a few minutes just watching the bus drive away... oh someday little Lydia, someday. In the meantime, I told Lauren to ask her teacher, Mrs. Lenox, if she wouldn't mind if I sent Lydia to school with her for the day ;)  but... I'm still waiting to hear her response ;)

Skating in Vinton

We decided to skate on Sunday for a few reasons. #1 being Lydia's obsession w/her sisters' skates in the house & #2 b/c Lauren has requested to go bowling for her birthday this year instead of skating.  Too much fun to not go at least once/year :)  Kris Wilgenbusch agreed to watch LeaAnn, and off we went with the 3 oldest!

And of course our daughter Lydia would not be complete without her sunglasses on!!  Do you love her hair??  I do :)  another one of my favorites from Princess Hairstyles, the elastic-braid-pigtails  :)

She was so excited to put on the skates, and we loosened up the wheels so she could really give it a try...

and she did do amazing w/her balance, but it was hard. :)

And b/c of her 'I-do-it' attitude, she was NOT into having 'help'...  Grammy joined in the fun too!

Lauren at almost 7!

Negotiating 'help' ;)

And ultimately ended up happy (for the most part) riding around in the car.

Oh, and we discovered blue slushies :) HUGE hit.

Lindsay at 5-1/2, found a new friend of course :)

Grammy attempting to get our 'family' picture skating :)

We had a blast and will definitely go again! And Ms. "Wiam" here was a great girl for the Wilgenbusch's... OF COURSE.  She took a NAP for them... too bad she won't do that at home! ;)  She got to 'drive' a mile down the road.  And here is her latest thing, sticking out her tongue. :)

and slobbering ;)  and she turns ONE in a week!!! How is that possible?!? 

fun with friends...

On Friday, 2/10, the girls had their very first sleep-over! Frankie Dolan rode the bus home w/the girls and had a blast playing together :) Dress-up, complete w/make-up & dresses for their pillow-pets, pictured here...

For dinner, we made individual pizza's (thanks for the idea Mimi :), topped off with popcorn & watching Cars 2.  Was so much fun to see the girls laughing & giggling, and as usual, it made me reminisce about the past, and how fast they've grown... and how big they are now!  It prompted me to go back and look for some older photos of Lauren & Frankie, and here's what I found. I can NOT BELIEVE they are in first-grade now, reading & writing... just amazing that they were so tiny, not that long ago.

Sometime in early May I'm guessing? Lauren a few weeks & Frankie 1-month

look how tiny they were!!!

I believe this was May of 2005, Lauren about a month, and Frankie 2 months

on Lauren's baptism day, w/Godparents Sean & Sara

at Kelly & Lacy's wedding, July 2007!  both just over 2...

Why we love our hardwood floors :)

I almost shortened it, but it was worth keeping the whole thing :)

Friday, 1/20/12

Had to...

While looking through old  pictures of the girls, I came across our very own, "Monkey" at 11-months. Yup, you guessed it, this is Lydia at 11-months. LeaAnn can't even climb up the first stair by herself, nor does she want too! 

10/17/10

Weekend at home..

with no where to go b/c of sick kids! Actually, the only one who is still currently sick (w/fever) is Lauren :(  Poor kid. They are all still sharing snot & cough... but that seems to be never-ending. :)  So this weekend I made it my mission to 'catch' on camera some more of the 'normal happenings' around the house. Starting w/Lydia on skates!

And believe it or not, she's pretty good on them. We keep trying to bribe her, if she throws away her passi's, then she can have her very OWN skates. But, so far, it's still a no-go.

And then "Wiam" has been using her spoon great lately!  Still prefers her hands, but she really gets the idea and does well w/it! :)

Still so loud and cuddly. :) We've decided that she is the biggest lover of them all. She just loves to crawl up on whoever is on the floor, be held, give hugs... and she's super hug-gable & squeeze-able since there's a lot to squeeze! I'm blaming her for my constant lower-right-back issues ;)  Her first word aside from, "Da-da-da" is "Uh-Oh!"

As I was taking pictures, I realized, THIS was the outfit! The one that Mimi bought LAUREN when she was a baby :) So I HAD to find pictures of the rest of them in it...     Here is LeaAnn at 11-1/2mo

Lindsay at 9-months

Lauren at almost 11-months (w/cousin Riley at5-months) 

 and Lydia at 16-1/2 months!

And look who actually LOOKED at me and smiled! :)) Ms. Lydia at 2-3months. She has her moments of sweetness :) Where she's not always yelling & demanding. Chris says, "it's coming... slowly, but I think she's rounding the corner." ;)

I asked Lauren & Lindsay to hold LeaAnn's hands so I could get a picture of LeaAnn standing...

and Lydia came running over to get in the picture too!

Pretty amazing I was  miserably pregnant last year at this time... and one year later - this is what we've got! A set of really amazing & sweet little girls, all blonde & blue eyed :)