Playing Baseball

The kids and I have been enjoying playing some baseball over the past week.  Enoch likes to spread out some cones in the yard as bases, and then each kid takes turns hitting the ball and running.  The girls never run all of the bases, but Enoch sure does!  This has been a really fun way to practice taking turns while getting some energy out.  :)

And this last picture is one of my favorite parts of our game... the kids all encourage each other so much.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but they're clapping and screaming, "whooo-hooo, Karis!!  Run, Run, Run!!  Good job!"  

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Fun at the Refuge

Just a few weeks back, the kids and I took a little day trip to our local wildlife refuge.  We had fun looking for gators, listening for birds, and playing on the boardwalk.  

my crew coming in through the cypress trees 

giving loves

we saw one gator during this trip... can you spot it?  

photo taken by Enoch

playing around

chasing Enoch

taking a look upside down

trying it together 

 smiles

such a pretty place

heading back off the boardwalk to have our picnic dinner and watch the sunset

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Kids Playing Together

Just a few pictures from my phone of the kids playing together. It is sweet to see them growing and learning to play together more and more. Certainly we still have rough patches and plenty of daily opportunities for training, but these pics are sweet memories that show some steps of progress. :)

Playing with their baby doll & bed

Ready to get going in the bike trailer

Snuggles during story time

Playing before bedtime

Hiding from Alaythia

posted from Bloggeroid

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Siblings

Here are some photos of all three of the kids that I've taken over the past few months.  It's pretty hard to get a decent photo of everyone, but at least they are good memories.  :) 

Enoch singing to baby Alaythia to comfort her while I made lunch.  (Just before lunch time is often our crazy hour!!)

Big kids laughing it up!

Getting ready for bed & doing tummy time

Resting on the floor

I just love it when google puts a string of photos together to show just how wiggly my kiddos truly are when it comes to "smiling" for the camera!

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FFF: A week (or two) of photos

 The kids often sit in the hallway and play together these days while I make lunch or clean the kitchen.  Though I have to keep a pretty close eye on them, they are really getting better at playing sweetly together (and I'll just note that even though Enoch used to be the rowdy instigator, Karis has now assumed that role as well.  If he gets within her reach, she'll basically attack him..  ha!)

Creating some Mr. Potato Head masterpieces (while Daddy painted, hence the drop cloths).  

Borrowing a Mr. Potato Head hat that matched her outfit.

Enoch loves to take care of his bear these days... including putting him down for approximately 20 naps per day... According to Enoch, bear is almost always "tired, tired."  ;)

Climbing up on the bunk bed to "nap" with bear.

Playing independently in the sand box like a big boy... a big  boy who also loves machines.  :)

Karis loves to nab a carrot to teethe on these days when I let her help me cut and peel them.  

Watching some machines re-surface a parking lot... we didn't stay and watch long because it was HOT, but it was pretty neat to see them work.  (Somehow this crew was able to resurface an entire Lowe's parking lot in 2 days, which seems incredibly fast to me, and gives you an idea about how fast they were moving!)

Since when did my baby girl have such long, shaggy, cute hair and such irresistible smiles?  

  

And our first chicken egg!  We finally got our hens a bigger coop set up with nest boxes they've begun using now (though only one of them is laying at this point).  Hopefully more eggs are in our near future!

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FFF: My Big Boy (and his underwear)

Behold the view that I'm seeing an awful lot of as of late: 

That's right folks, Enoch is using the bathroom like a big boy more and more now!  Yesterday I showed him what big boy underwear were, and I let him try some on, which he loved.  After parading them around the house for a few minutes, I explained that he would need to poopy in the bathroom again before he could wear the big boy underwear long term.  We also chatted a little about how babies wear diapers and big boys (like daddy, of course) wear underwear. 

Sure enough, a few hours later when I thought he was trying to poop in his diaper, I asked about going to the bathroom, and he agreed.  Let's just say it was a successful bathroom trip!!  He was so proud of pooping in the bathroom like a big boy, and after we had celebrated and flushed, he ran straight to the underwear drawer in his bedroom and picked out his first pair of underwear (red with helicopters).  

Of course, when we put them on we re-hashed the big boy/bathroom/underwear connections.  Throughout the day we took a few bathroom breaks, and it was actually rather painless.  Who knows what today will hold, but at least our first day of pursuing big boy underwear is in the books and was pretty fun and exciting.  :)


This is how Karis hangs out while we take bathroom breaks.  Now that she's sitting up, I feel like we are in a much easier season to be spending tons of time hanging out in the bathroom (and to be able to drop EVERYTHING and run to the bathroom quickly). 

 Isn't she cute sitting with her little teddy bear in the laundry basket?  

And of course, Karis wanted to give Enoch a congratulatory kiss after all the excitement of his first pair of big boy underwear...   ;)

 melt my heart

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