Two

My baby boy turned two yesterday.

He and my dad have birthdays eight days apart;

we had cake together last weekend

and Abram got to blow out two candles.

 The first attempt left one candle lit.

 He was mesmerized by the flame

and then purposed to blow out the other.

Success!

 Grandpa needed help with his candles.

 Abram and Grandpa Wayne

If You Had to Guess

If you were to see these socks on the floor in your room,

would you guess that they were dirty or clean?

If you were my kids,

you'd be stumped and throw them in the hamper anyway

because one can never be too careful with laundry.

When in doubt, it must be dirty, right?

#itseemsobvioustoMom

Fridays on the Farm: Farm Dog

FOOTBALL!

If you know my kids

you know that football is an all-consuming pastime for them.

Since the little girls have watched the older kids do this literally all their life,

Ruby, Ivy and Elizabeth were very excited to actually be allowed to "play" the game

as opposed to being shooed from it.

When Elizabeth plays football,

she mostly just stands in the midst of the action and yells, "hut!!".

Ruby loves all things "boy-ish" (that's her word, not mine)

and has slowly earned her way into their world over the past months.

Christopher has been growing like a weed and his pants no longer cover his ankles.

(He's on the right.)

Ivy determinedly kept up.

Her hands were cold, but she wasn't going to stop long enough to grab some gloves.

Her understanding of the game is basically this: 

Run. 

From one end of the "field" to the other.

This guy, Elijah, has grown tired of the assumption 

that football was only Christopher and Andrew's thing.

Noooooosir, he likes football just as much as they

and he is ready to prove it this year!

Um, so, yeah.

This is pretty much what she wears every day.

Her hair is usually done, but she had taken it out by this time in the evening.

Abram is in the fun stage of just running around in the midst of the game

wearing all the appropriate gear. :)

Here he is feigning a play in which he was "tackled".

The older kids are always very tolerant of the younger ones when they play football,

as long as the little ones are not purposely sabotaging the plays

or crying over every unintended minor collision.

He righted himself soon enough,

applying his own helmet tap.

He's a good sport that way...

Ivy and Abram 

"Readaaaay.....seeeeeet.........HUT, HUT!"

but "running" is a slow thing when your boots are four sizes too big.

This kid cracks me up.

He kept returning to the line,

ready for the next "play".

Wordless Wednesday: Super Baby

Boredom Buster

These were taken in March,

the month in Minnesota where spring shows itself for a few days

then reverts to winter.

The day these were taken it was too cold to play outside

and the kids were, ahem, we'll call it...rowdy.

They were at the point of getting into everything,

fighting over anything, and not wanting to do what I was saying.

I knew I could 

a) keep yelling at them

b) let them drive me absolutely nuts

c) direct their rowdiness in a positive direction.

d) both b & c

D was the only possible option.

So I told them to clear the kitchen floor of toys and other stuff that didn't belong

and I rolled out some paper for each of them.

Sweeping was not accomplished prior to the laying down of paper.

  Yes, that is a permanent marker.

Yes, some got on the floor during this event.

It'll wear off eventually.

I typically avoid leaving scissors laying around on the floor.

Or at least photographing them.

But this was a special occasion.

 The drawing on of facial hair was also for this special occasion.

It started with Christopher wanting to match his guy.

And sort of went downhill from there...

 Ruby wanted to make sure she drew her Hello Kitty socks onto

the replication of herself.

 Ivy documented the day by pretending to take pictures on her fake phone.

These two are doing their cool face.

At least what they called it.

We Watch M*A*S*H

While on an errand last month,
Ruby and I saw a man wearing women's clothes.
Thankfully, she didn't point or say anything.
When we got to the parking lot, I asked her if she had anything she wanted to talk about.
She said, "He reminded me of Klinger,
but I'm pretty sure THAT guy wasn't dressing like that to get out of the Army...."

Easter 2015

To start this post, I mean, really, 

who could resist this face?!

This is how Abram "smiles" for pictures.

See?

 And I need to work on proper etiquette with Elizabeth while wearing a dress.

 We went to my mom & dad's for dinner Easter Sunday.

My mom has this cute little flower in her windowsill

and it moves back and forth via a small solar panel.

Abram was mesmerized!

 This little mister turns 2 at the end of this month.

He is growing up so much!

But I think sweater vests have a way of doing that to little misters...

We had been at my grandma's house the day before 

and Abram took a bad tumble on her pavement

earning him a owie lip

but it didn't slow him down for long.

 Miss 'Lizabeth was so excited to wear this "park-ly" dress

that is a hand-me-down from Ruby & Ivy.

 Ivy Joy

 Ruby Kathryn

Cece's first Easter :)

CecePie and Ruby

I didn't get any individual pictures of anyone older than 6

but we actually managed to get a group shot! 

 the back row is Andrew (12), Nathaniel (19), Linnea (14), Cece (6 mos) and Isaiah (17)

in front is Abram (almost 2), Ivy (5), Elizabeth (3), Elijah (8), Ruby (6), and Christopher (9).

*whoa--I had to stop and think on the ages there...they didn't stand in chronological order!*

I can't recall the last time I got a picture of my parents and the children.

I include this one because Abram is smiling so hard it makes me laugh!

And doesn't the back of Cece's head look great?!

Ooh, and look at Elijah's face....awesome.

This one is better...except Abram is chewing on a 

grape that we used as bait to get him to stay within the frame

so he looks like Joey Tribbiani.

"How you doin'?"

 And, because we hadn't all been dressed up and in one place since Cece's baptism,

a picture of all of us.

Again--the back of Cece's head looks great, along with my awkward stance 

to try to get her to look forward.

Also included for your viewing pleasure

is this one of Ivy's muscles and two of my teenagers blinking.

But look--Cece's face!

Mothering eleven children is no small feat, my friends.

Plenty of small feet, yes--

but the rest of this life = no small feat.