Serious Cuteness

I bought the cutest owl hat at a craft fair last weekend.  Oh. My. Gosh.  It came in ten different colors, and everything inside me was screaming to buy one of each.  I refrained and brought home just this pink and green beanie that happened to match her outfit perfectly.  I tried to sit the girls down for a cute sister shot.  Well, a dozen clicks later and this is the closest I came to a 'nice' group photo.  Good enough for me.

Thanksgiving 2014

And She's Up!

All Clean!

 

We all love bath time.  I would actually love it a lot more if we had a much, much bigger tub.  You see, when I give the girls a bath, I've found that it's best on my back if I just get in the water with them.  So, if you can imagine (but please don't try to), there are often five bodies, both large and small, trying to get clean in our little tub.  I know.  It's not smart.  I bring it on myself.  But sometimes these routines get started before they turn into something big, and by then, old habits die hard.  When I had one baby, it was fine.  Two was ok.  Three was pretty cramped.  And baby number four just barely gets her feet wet due to lack of space.  This is just how things are done at the Downey house.

All grown up

My, oh my!  7 months have just flown right by.  My 'baby' girl is crawling all over the house, saying "momma" and "dadda".  I recently started giving her baby food, and she's a huge fan.  Green beans, peas, oatmeal.  She says "I want it all.  Give it to me now."  Well, maybe she's not talking quite that well.  But she communicates it just fine, all the same.  I left the kitchen in the middle of dinner for just a moment.  Any mom knows that 'just a moment' is usually a moment too long for kids to be left alone.  When I came back, Talullah had tried to help by just handing the jar of food to her sister.  And this made Amberlie a very happy kid.

I could just cry

We have been dealing with this since she was just a baby.  Berlyn must have the absolute sweetest blood on earth.  She is covered in bites for most of the year.  We have 'bombed' the house countless times.  I've sprayed the yard with bug killer.  Of course, I've washed all bedding and vacuumed every crack and crevice.  We recently got rid of our cats to rid the house of any fleas. I'm sneaking some nutritional yeast into her diet to ward off the bugs.  We spray her with all natural repellent.  We treat her bites with tea tree oil.  Looking at her scarred, scabbed, and itchy skin just makes this mom want to cry for her.  The animals have been gone for a month.  I'm giving it one more month to see if she stops getting bites... if it doesn't end, I told Nick I'm burning the house down so we can start from scratch.  I don't know what else to do!

Father of the Year goes to....

This man.  He's AMAZING.  At night, we paint this gross tasting stuff on Berlyn's nails to help her stop the nail biting.  She hates it, to say the very least.  It breaks our heart. We ask her if she wants to paint it on, or if she wants us to paint it on.  She just bawls and says NOBODY!!!  Being some sort of crazy genius, Nick developed an alter ego.  Nobody.  He will leave the room and come back as 'Nobody', tripping over stuff and bumping into walls.  The girls love it.  Before I know it, there is sweet little Berlyn, painting that stuff on her nails with a smile on her face, showing Mr. Nobody how it's done.  Then, Nobody is carting the girls off to their bed.  What an absolute PRO. 

Cousins are VBFF

Gillian gave Talullah the sweetest card today.  The outside had all of these stickers on it, and the inside was a picture of the two cousins.  Is that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?!  It gets even better.  We did a craft last night at our house, and Talullah had made hers especially for her cousins.  So without even knowing it, cousins had been making gifts for cousins!

Elsa!

Having four girls of my own, it's rare that I post a blog about someone else's birthday party.  However, there was no way I could resist posting pictures from Summer's birthday which featured Elsa as a special guest.  Wow.  Talk about magical moments.  It was so sweet watching the swarm of mini princess gather around the Queen herself.  As she sang, you could see them all mouth the words right along with her.
Happy birthday, Miss Summer.  We love you!!!

Cooking Class

Today we decided to make oatmeal cookies.  Oatmeal cookies always need M&M's.  I let the girls help out in the kitchen, so there may, or may not.... Ok, there was most definitely double-dipping of fingers into the cookie dough.  We stopped caring about germs a long time ago.

New Tricks

Berlyn love crawling into sister's crib to hold her.  She has also recently learned how to go cross-eyed, which is also very exciting.

Family Favorites

We bought this swing a few months ago, and it is one of those items that you know you have gotten your money's worth out of.   It gets used every day.  A lot.

WAIT A SECOND!

It was so sweet when I noticed Berlyn had crawled up next to Amberlie and drifted off to sleep.  Then I noticed the binkie.  It should be in the 4 months old mouth.  Not the four year olds.

She loves it!!!!

Amberlie love her new bouncer!!!  Thanks Linda!!!

Go little google!

I brought home this sweat band knowing it would get good use.  And so it did.  Berlyn hasn't stopped wearing it.  She rallied up a team (Talullah and Havanna) and they ran laps around the house. Berlyn even took down some of the fancy headbands so the girls could have sweat bands, too.

I. Am. A. Robot.

Havanna.  This kid is a serious clown.  She was walking around the yard saying "I. Am. A. Robot."  and then it turned into, "Hey!  Who turned out the lights?!"

Those chickens...

On days that I want to avoid sweeping the floor a dozen times, I put the girls outside for lunch.  They love it.  I love it.  It's a win/win situation.  Actually, the chickens love it too, so it's kind of a win/win/win situation.  I'm starting to think I'm not feeding these birds enough.  I was sitting on the lounge chair with my food, and they started picking right off my plate!  Er... pan.  I didn't feel like dirtying another plate. 

Did I do that?!?!

Miss T. just graduated from a car seat to a booster.  Can we say THRILLED?!  She was ecstatic.  Talullah came up to me, almost frantic.  "MOM!  Someone made a HUGE mess in the school room.  I don't know who could have done it.  It must have happened while we were gone."  Considering the fact that all of her sisters were asleep, I found this intriguing enough to stop making dinner and go see what my dearest daughter was talking about.  Sure enough, there was quite a mess.  Pens on the floor, craft supplies scattered everywhere, tape, glue, toilet paper rolls...  Very suspicious.
Talullah then comes out of her room with her new 'race car' all dolled up with stripes and glitter.  Super cool car, Talullah.  But... who on earth could have made that huge mess in the school room?  I'm totally stumped.

I am SO ready for this little munchkin to have ponytails

What?  Too much?  I found this wig at a yard sale, and I just fell in love.  I wore it for a few hours, too. 

The many faces of Havanna

101 uses for a robe's sash

It was Saturday morning, so of course, Papa was over playing with the girls.  This has been our Saturday morning ritual for the past 5 years.  Nana used to come, too, but now she babysits the girls while I work on Friday's.  By Saturday morning, she deserves a few hours of peace and quiet.  This particular weekend, a chill was in the air.  It is clear that our summer heat wave is over and Fall is here.  I'm actually ready for the cold weather.  I even welcome the rain.  I'm ready to stop rushing around to parks, play dates, and picnics.  I want to just sit inside with a blanket and a cup of coffee and read a book, dang it!  Then I remember that I have four little girls.  Hahahhaah.  Read a book.  SIT and enjoy a cup of coffee.  Hahahhahaha.  What pure luxury that would be.
I digress.
This particular Saturday, one of the girls had found the sash that goes around Nick's bathrobe.  I looked out the window and saw Papa and two cute little doggies being led by leashes.  I saw Talullah galloping around with her horse. 

Too good to be true

 After running errands and going for a walk today, I was explaining to the girls how important it was for me to clean and start dinner once we got home.  I was listing off their options to keep busy, when Talullah volunteered to do the dishes.  Then the big girls started arguing, until finally we all agreed that it sounded like a great idea for Berlyn to do dishes, Talullah to vacuum, and for me to rush around like a mad woman doing the rest.  We were all very excited.  As soon as we got home, I washed all the breakables and filled the two sinks with plastic items that were Berlyn proof.  I showed Talullah how to work the vacuum, and things were going just beautiful.  My mind was reeling in anticipation of a future blog describing how helpful and independent my girls are becoming.  I grabbed the camera for a few quick shots.  You'll notice that Berlyn has a new obsession with posing.  Every photo turns into a succession of shots as she strikes pose after pose. 

Then, I switched to cleaning mode.  I started a load of laundry, put dinner on the stove, stopped the baby from fussing, and started putting new sheets on the bed when Talullah came into my room.  "Mom.  You have GOT to go see Berlyn."  A comment like this warrants no questions.  You drop what you are doing and you hurry yourself to your adventurous daughter.  And there it was.  A completely naked Berlyn sitting inside the sink full of water, a grin from ear to ear.  You might notice that the dishes had not yet been done.  So, maybe I'd been a bit over eager about my new little helpers taking on roles a bit bigger than they can handle.  A mom can dream, can't she?  I guess we'll take the level of expectation down just a notch for the time being.  Berlyn can stick to emptying trash cans, picking up toys, and if she's lucky.... feeding the cat.

 I just have to note that a short time later, I came into the kitchen to find (a still naked) Berlyn, sitting on the floor with the kitchen rag that typically hangs from the oven door.  When I asked her what she was doing, her reply was this: "Mom.  I stepped in chicken poop.  I'm cleaning my foot."  So, next time I pick the up the rag off the floor to hang it up, I'll surely remember this event and quickly throw the towel in the laundry instead.