Snow Day

Day 2 of Spring here in Oregon, and we are totally loving the snow (= When we awoke this morning, everything had gone extremely very white, and here it is nearly 3 pm and still snowing!

I took the kids out to build a snowman this morning, but they quickly got cold and tired. So, I put Sabrina down for a nap, snuggled Edgar up in front of a show, and headed out to finish those snowmen!

WARNING: you CAN NOT build a giant snowman with one person. Snow is too heavy to lift a giant snow belly onto a giant snow bottom. So, I punted, and made a giant snow CATERPILLAR! (It's kinda hard to see--but there are 2 or 3 smaller balls past the first 3, with wiggly sticks for legs)

We called Alex home for lunch on account of there not being enough snowmen in our yard. We ate quick and got back out into the cold, with this awesome result:

Oh! Pierre! You surprised us!

It's okay Pierre. Not EVERYONE is out to get you. You can calm down now.

 

Y-M-C....a?

Put 'em up, Pierre! Now keep 'em up! Good snowman.

 Fun day!

Milk Jug Blackboard

I had to share our recent brilliant idea (and by "we", I mean my 3 year old and I). Permament Marker + Milk Jug = instant breakfast, lunch, and dinner reminder of concepts your kids are currently working on.

For example, we have been talking about notes (thank you mom and tot music class!). So, our milk has a quarter note, a half note, a whole note (in the circle indent side of the milk), and a whole rest. Since we get out our milk probably 5 or 6 times a day--this has been super fun. I imagine when the notes get boring we will try numbers, letters, shapes...who knows.

Family of Four

A few months ago, when I was cleaning the bathroom--I was just struck by these four toothbrushes. It made me grin to see a Daddy toothbrush, a Mommy toothbrush, a Big Brother toothbrush, and a Baby Sister toothbrush. For some reason this little mundane piece of our life just really hit home to me that we are a real family. Not just a brand new little family--but a real live Husband, wife, and 2 kids family. And I LOVE my family.

So, here is an overdue update/catch-up on our family over this past winter.

Alex successfully got older.
The next day we left for Utah/Christmas.

The car trip in the snow with 2 kids went great. No problems.

We stayed at my folks for Christmas. It was fun to spend time with family...but would have been better without the stomach flu ripping violently through the whole family.

It was so fun to see the little ones interact. Edgar and Calvin were good pals by the end. And, Lexi and Sabrina were super cute. Even if they did try to pull each other's hair and poke each other's eyes out.

Then it was back home. HOME! We have really enjoyed our new house. Alex and I spent most of our winter evenings here:

...in our living room reading books by the fireplace or playing board games after the kids go to bed.

Heaven: evenings spent together after the kids go to bed about 8:00.

The week after we got back from Utah, Anna (my best friend since I was 9 years old) came to stay with baby boy for a week while she attended some workshops in Portland. It was so great to have so much uninterrupted best friend time! My sweet husband even used a day off of work to watch the kids so we could go spend a whole day together. He is totally awesome (=

At Multnomah Falls

That same week, Sabrina turned ONE YEAR OLD! I seriously can't believe how fast that goes!

And a few weeks ago, I successfully got older too.

And so our busy family of four just keeps busy. I love my job of being mommy to these kids. Time is moving too fast! I feel rotten about not documenting this time better...but then I never feel like I have the time to stop and organize pictures / blog / write in their journals...etc. etc.  I guess if I want to remember how much we are enjoying this busy time--I just have to do it!

So, here is a little update on each of the kiddos.

Edgar is "Two and a half" (he turns 3 in 1 1/2 months). His day is summed up well by the following picture:

He LOVES cars. He watches Cars movies. He reads books about cars. He plays with Cars (Disney and otherwise). He sleeps with his current favorite 1, 2, or a dozen cars under his pillow. They accompany him to the bathroom, downstairs to do laundry, up to the dinner table, to read scriptures, etc. The have names, personalities, and good guy or bad guy status. He plays pretend scenarios, acts out scenes from movies, and pretends they are people that he knows. He is always telling me what is going on with his cars. All day. His world is complete if he has his favorite cars with him.

Edgar is a funny guy who likes to tell jokes. Actually, he only knows 2 jokes, but we hear them alot. He is always saying the funniest things (which I regularly and shamelessly post to facebook).

He loves music. Alex and I just got our new records/cds in the mail for the band we are in. When we brought one to show to Alex's parents, Edgar proudly declared, "That's us! These are OUR very own records." He likes to play music with us. We are babysitting some drums for a few weeks while we rehearse for our record release show, and I have really enjoyed listening to Edgar play them. He has a great ear for good sounds (=

Edgar has decided what he wants to be when he grows up: A daddy. Here, he is visiting Daddy's office. He pretty much adores his daddy. I think it would be fantastic if he grew up to be just like daddy (=

Sabrina is our Monster Truck Princess. She loves anything pink, frilly, cuddly, or furry. She doesn't have a favorite stuffed animal--she adores them all equally. She loves babies, clothes, shoes, and jewelry. Also, she loves monster trucks and cars. How could she not? My favorite "picture" of her (I didn't have a camera) was when she was at church all dolled up in a super girly outfit...driving her monster truck complete with sound effects (rrrrrrrrrrr!) Love it!

Sabrina is a happy giggly girl. She loves to wrestle with her brother. She ofter instigates it by smacking him on the head, tackling him, tickling him--and then laughing her head off. (He totally loves it...most of the time). She is really enjoying books and trips to the library lately. She likes to take a book to the window cushions and sit and read.

Sabrina doesn't talk a lot yet..but communicates quite well. She says Ma-ma, Da-da, Ed-duh (edgar), Grah-pa (grandpa), Dah (dog), Beh (bear), Bau (ball), Heh-yo (hello), Ni-Ni (night night), uh-oh, ba-ba (banana), di-puh (diaper), crah-crah (cracker), crrrrrr (car), ticka-ticka-ticka (tickle), and <> Breeta-breeta-breeta-bree (for her name--what Edgar and I often call her: Brina-Bree)

She is also learning some signs. She loves watching Signing Time. Here are some of the signs she uses a lot: ball, baby, more, all done, eat, drink, candy, cookie, diaper, outside, dog, cat, bear, please, thank you, milk, and hat.

And, she shakes her head yes and no pretty emphatically. It's pretty darn cute.

I just love these kids. They make my life full, busy, crazy, hectic, and wonderful.

I Have the POWER!

For a reminder of the 80's Saturday morning awesomeness, click here.

He-Man and Cringer

Hero worship

Happy Halloween! We are last minute costume sorts of people, and this year was no different. But, with a Saturday morning, some cardboard, a new silver pen, some paint, Velcro, and Christmas socks--we pulled off a couple of pretty rad costumes.

The church costume parade was fun. Edgar had just started getting comfortable in his outfit around all of the crazy looking strangers (it didn't help that we are still feeling so new in our ward--he really didn't know anyone), when they announced the parade. I tried to explain to him that he would walk with the other kids and show off his He-man clothes. He dropped to the ground and tried to get under the folding chair. "Hey Edgar, what are you doing?" "I just gotta hide mom! Help me hide!"

Well...I managed to get him to stand in line with me. When it was his turn to walk across the stage I said, "okay, show them your moves." WOW! He had MOVES. He got to the middle of the stage. Stopped. And did some awesome posturing and dancing. They really liked "baby Thor" or "the little gladiator" or "the minimalist" or whatever that kid was. The whole room was roaring with laughter and approval.

Edgar now wants to wear his He-Man pants everyday. I await the day that he is 15 and we tell him (in front of his friends) how much he loved to wear his little sister's bloomers.

Sabrina 7 months--wait--7 1/2 months

Mustachioed Carmichael family August 2011

Whew...I want to say something like, "life is going so fast it's just passing us by" but that wouldn't be accurate. Something more like, life is extremely great, fast, and fun. We are enjoying every minute of our busy life so much.  We are all moved in to our new house and, while there are still boxes to unpack, we are getting pretty settled into our home. We are really busy with house projects, yard work, yard work, yard work (did I mention we have half an acre--half of which is over run with ivy, blackberries, morning glory, overgrown trees, and saplings?), and regular summer fun. With all the busyness, I feel like Sabrina especially hasn't gotten her fair share of documentation. She certainly isn't getting the regular updates on the blog / in her baby book that she deserves. So, let's see if I can get a little of that in before nap time is over...

<>

Sabrina is crawling! She just started army crawling this week. She also pushes up on her tip-toes and her forehead to scoot. She also occasionally gets up on her hands and knees or hands and toes and rocks or bounces. She loves to stand with her feet on the floor or bed, and her hands on my legs. She crawls over my legs or tries to dive head first off the couch, bed, etc. She just loves to roll, scoot, and crawl around on the floor.

Sabrina is talking a little. She says da, mama, and blahblahblah (which I think sometimes actually means brother). She spits, shrieks, and clicks her tongue--and all of those other noises that are completely unacceptable for grown ups, but amazingly adorable for babies. And she LAUGHS and giggles--especially when she is tickled.

Sabrina LOVES her big brother. She thinks that he is hilarious and laughs and laughs at him. She also sneakily pulls his hair to get him to cry. She loves her mama and if mom is anywhere in sight or within earshot, she wants to be in her mommy's arms. But, if mom is not available, she is pretty happy to play with others.

Sabrina loves food. She started solid foods about a month and a half ago, and she gets so excited when it is time to eat. She likes to eat with the family and likes to hold her own spoon. Her favorite food is bananas.

Sabrina sleeps all night and has for a long time. She loves to suck her thumb and go to sleep. She naps well, plays well, and is generally a really happy girl. We just love having this little girl in our family.

Bombs and Bananas

What a great 4th of July! I don't know if I can articulate why it was so wonderful. In some ways it was "same old same old" as far as Carmichael 4ths go. We got together at my sister-in-laws house. We had lots of delicious food. The weather was perfect. We were reckless with fireworks. There were a few injuries (among them: Edgar had a close run in with a smoke bomb. Mostly just left him afraid--but he did get a few little heat blisters). There were guns and clay pigeons. There was badminton. There was visiting.

And somehow that equaled a super wonderful day.

At one point I was sitting in a lawn chair next to my father-in-law Mick and some sister-in-laws watching badminton and enjoying the sun. Mick sighs and says, "it just doesn't get better than this." And he was so right. During the fireworks I sat by my boy as we watched Alex light off some big exploding fireworks, and Edgar says: "Mama, that firework makes my eyes happy! They (my eyes) go around and around!" Sabrina snuggled in her older cousin's lap and watched the fireworks too. The entire day was magical. It made me heart happy.

Also, we celebrated Sabrina's 6 month birthday a few days early and fed her her first food: roasted banana. She slurped down the whole bowl! She absolutely love it. She was adorable with her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, and grandpa. She talked (BAH! Da Da DA! AAaaaaAAAAAAAH!), she kissed, she giggled, she rolled around on the floor.

Even though I am absolutely exhausted from the late nights and crazy fun weekend, the sweetness of it all has kept me calm and happy today. I love love LOVE my cute little family!

Writing Letters to Grandma Vickie

Mom: "What does it say?"

Edgar: "I love you. And this says, 'I love Daddy."

"And this one says 'Sabrina'"

"I will do this part: 'Edgar'"

Mom: "Who are we going to send them to?"

"Grandma Vickie!"

"I show you. I...Loooooove....GrandmaVickie"

"I'm doing it very well for Vicke to take it out of the mailbox."

"MY mailbox."