Raising Cubs in a Campground

Sam knew right away that he wanted to be a wise man for Bible Character night so besides whipping up one of these , I needed to come up with some royal clothes for him to wear. When I think of 'royal' I think of purple so my mind automatically went to my Sukura Bloom linen sling. I draped it over one of my bathrobes which worked really well to cover the bulk in the middle (the result of shortening the robe to fit a seven year old). Add a crown and a bag of foreign coins from my my trips across two continents and wa-lah! A wise man costume that didn't cost a penny. Julia didn't know what she wanted to be so I suggested she look through her Bible until she found a girl character. I giggled when she suggested Eve. The irony of finding a costume for a woman who was naked in the garden of Eden was lost on her. But then I got creative....if she carried an apple with a bite out of it, then she could wear a fig leaf costume!  So that's what we made.  She put on three d...

Good Guys vs. Bad Guys You know how a picture can say 1,000 words? Well this is one of those pictures. Cowboys and Indians, Fiddle Stix, Little People..these are toys from PapaBear's childhood as well as mine. Then there is the giant Simpson's book that I got PapaBear for Father's Day last year.... Then there's the boy behind this scene. Sammy Sam. Oh how I love to see the creations he comes up with when I walk into our playroom! We recently upped the responsibilities on our chore chart to include cleaning the playroom every.single.day so now they can have room to play in there and not just use that space to chuck the toys they brought back upstairs. What I want to remember about this picture is the sound effects that go with ALL of Sam's playing, the constant turning of everything into a weapon, and his ability to play for hours with a few simple toys. What G moment do YOU want to remember this week?

Five years ago I carved out a tiny little corner of the interwebs for myself. As it is for so many people, my blog is a catch all of thoughts, memories - some good, some bad, lessons I've learned, and a place just for me. The interesting part of my blogiversary falling on the eve of my birthday is that it maginifies my desire to reflect on another year. But like so many of the times I sit down to tap on these keys I find that there is only silence. It's a conundrum. So much rattling around in my brain so much of the time but my noggin springs a leak somehow and I come up empty. Part of it is having a baby in the house - a baby that until very recently didn't sleep very much at night without being attached to me. I applogized to PapaBear tonight as I made dinner. I'm sorry I fail . Any time there is more than one thing on my plate I feel like that plate becomes impossible to hold. Everything slips off. Rarely does a single one manage to stay balanced until I can put it...

I was this close to giving up on the infant car seat this week. This.Close. So while I mourned the life of easily transporting Elsa I happily shopped for hats for her to wear with her winter coat. I found this adorable one on clearance for $10. It's fleece lined and oh so warm. Warm is good considering winter has finally arrived. We did have one last heat wave though and I took full advantage of the upper 40 degree days and took some pics of our sweet pea in the dusting of snow before it melted. Then it got cold and for the first time in the series of basket photos I've been taking every week since she was only a few weeks old, I had to shoot indoors. Thankfully the sun was shining that day and I was able to get some decent ones. New this week for Miss Elsa is the drool. Lots and lots of drool. Put a bib on and then change it an hour later kind of drool. She's discovered that if she waves her arms hard enough she can hit herself in the belly and make a funny noi...

Elsa is almost 30 weeks now so I'm playing catch up with posting her weekly photos. I take them every Friday, but sometimes they sit on my camera until I get a chance to upload them to my computer - a computer that is FULL of pictures. Every time I want to add more I have to remove others. It's a time consuming task that I hate doing! I'd much rather be playing with this cutie and her siblings! The days are going so fast, but I guess in the winter that's a good thing? Not taking very long naps and not staying asleep when I put her to bed at 7pm are the 'highlights' of the 28th week. I used to be able to put her down at 7 and she'd stay asleep until at least 11. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except that I'm working at night and the constant running upstairs is slowing me down. I told myself after the holidays we'd work on 'sleep training' but I just can't bring myself to do it. This to shall pass and if she needs me at night then...

Before I hit the {blog} books tonight I wanted to take a minute and write about our weekend. I had the privilege of spending a few precious hours with some women I met through blogging [gasp] three years ago. It was lovely to laugh to pass around the [four] babies that were there and to have conversations that were more than 140 characters long. I soaked up that time and will hold it close for those moments of motherhood that make me want to pull my hair out. We.are.not.alone.in.this. After we all went our separate ways I spent some time wandering Babies R Us. So.much .stuff . I wanted to tell every couple with that registry wand beeper thing that they didn't need half of what they felt pressure to get.  I wish someone would have told me that back when I was one of those stressed out moms-to-be trying to figure out what exactly I needed to be ready for our first baby.  A swaddle blanket , a bouncy seat of some sort, a sleep sheep , a video monitor, and a sleepy wrap - tho...

It was Bible Character night at Awanas the other night so I whipped up a couple of costumes for the kids, coincidentally they each wore one of my baby slings. I'll do a separate post on their fun costumes another time. Tonight what I wanted to share was how I used some sites I found on Pinterest for inspiration when I made a crown for King Sam and a crown for Queen Julia. The inspiration for Sam's crown came from here . The genius in this tutorial is when you DON'T cut out two pieces of felt but instead cut out one, stitch it to the other full piece before you cut. No more matching and pinning like crazy to line things up. Saved a TON of headaches! Instead of making this a one size only crown I used bobby pins to close the back. We live almost an hour from the nearest craft store so while Pinterest provides a ton of inspiration, we often have to improvise because I'm not running to the store to pick up one or two things every few days. You know what though? Tha...

Face Painting!  So fun for the few minutes the design isn't smudged but then what a mess when they get an itch. :) Oh well! They are only young once! What Alphabitty Moment do YOU want to remember this week?

Jenney , this one is for you .

Inspired by this shot I found in Pinterest.

My niece, Josie, turn 9 months this past Saturday so I pulled out some backdrops and set up my mobile studio to capture her sweet personality yesterday. The c.r.a.z.y part is that I was able to shoot o.u.t.s.i.d.e on my porch (where I take most of Elsa's weekly basket photos). It was 50 degrees outside in JANUARY! Josie might be all dressed and ready for snow, but me? I can live with this uber mild winter! (I DO love snow, but it makes getting around with Elsa SO much easier.) It also makes it possible for me to have access to more natural light for photos! Our house is SO dark with a huge wrap around porch and giant pine trees around the side.

For the past four years we've enjoyed participating in the preschool Christmas program. It will be a few years before we get a chance to watch Elsa up in front of the church. Until then we'll treasure the memory of this little shepherd and her classmates doing the shepherd shuffle.

Our newly six month old tipped the scales at 22.1 pounds the other day. I was pleasantly surprised to get a green light from our doc to WAIT on solids until Elsa is 9 or 10 months old. Obviously if she shows signs of being hungry before then, we'll jump on board, but for now I'll keep nursing on demand as I have been from the beginning. Her nursing sessions have decreased from every two hours to sometimes making it five hours before she wants to nurse. Two things are different this week for our sweet pea. The obvious one is that she's sitting up to play (and doing it well I might add - she almost completely skipped the wobbly stage and if she does happen to lean too far for a toy she can already self correct). The more subtle change is that you can see more hair coming in! No more bald spot in the back!!! I lost every.single.pacificer this week and had to go out and buy more .again. She's partial to the 6months+ Mam brand unlike her siblings who used the Nuk brand....

Notable this week: Sat up for the first time on the 26th (in a pile of wrapping paper during Christmas #5) Slept 8 hours on New Year's Eve Dear Elsa, You are the sunrise in our days with your huge grins and babbles first thing in the mornings. Sam and Julia fight over who gets to play with you while you lounge on Mommy & Daddy's bed when you wake up. I don't know how you do it considering how often you wake at night, but all thoughts of those sleepless nights for Mommy vanish when I look in your beautiful eyes. They are four shades of blue those eyes of yours. Navy on the outer edges, blueberry mixed with periwinkle comes next, and a steel blue right around the irises. Somehow your half birthday is upon us and I can't help but choke up at the thought of how blessed we are to have you in our lives. Three children were not part of 'our plan' but thankfully God's plan for our lives is so.much.better. YOU make me better. You help me slow down and br...

It's that moment when all is right in the world. Her breathing quiets as does my heart. That anxious feeling of being pulled in so many different direction falls away and this moment is all there is. Her and I. She and me. It is a connection that leaves me speechless and bursting with words of love all at once. The words are there, but they get tangled up so much that so often they get lost before they make it the distance from my heart to my fingers over the keyboard. She is so dependent on me and that can be so draining. It is also what gives me the strength to keep going. She needs me and I need her. It is a perfection that only God could have known when he created mothers.

I wore Elsa in my fleece KangarooKorner sling At a birthday party At the children's museum On a candlelit walk On a hayride While looking at the stars & planets through a giant telescope For a grand total of 7.5 hours. I have plenty of photographic proof, but my fingers are numb from being outside for the last 2.5 hours and the kids and I are very.very.very.tired. Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite!

E is for Easter Bunny! It really hit me this year as I watched Sam climb up on Santa's lap how quickly the time goes and how close we are to nearing the end of an era of the magic of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. These photos are from 2009 - after they were no longer afraid of the Bunny but before they look so big sitting with him. (Photos filed under Tutu & Pretzels) If you'd like to share an Alphabitty Moment please leave a link in the comments! I'm on the letter E but that doesn't mean you can't jump in and join the fun at any point!

My pillow is calling my name but before I lay my weary self down for the night I am pushing onward with my resolution to put more time into writing about what's happening with the Bear Family. I get behind in my blogging and feel like I can't write about what's happening NOW until I catch up on the old stuff. Then the snowball grows and I never get anything written. Today that stops. Today Julia discovered she has a loose tooth. I'm not surprised since she wasn't even four months old when that tooth popped through. My baby is growing up. She is SOOOOO excited and told all her friends tonight at Awanas. Speaking of Awanas...Sam started Sparks and Julia started Cubbies. They are excited to go back next week despite Sam being very nervous about tonight. He only had good things to say about it during our snuggle time at bedtime though. That snuggle time is something that I had been missing out on since I had gotten into the habit of rushing through bedtime. Now that...