May 21, 2007 - End of the Year Class Picnic

Nicholas had his class picnic for preschool at a park near our church. I was asked 2 weeks prior to chair the committee. At first, I thought there was no way I could do that, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that organizing the picnic ahead of time would be much easier that needing to do a lot at the picnic while taking care of my own 4 children. So, a weeks worth of phone calls and organization got the job done. However, I didn't anticipate that when the picnic day arrived that none of the volunteers just stepped in to take over their responsibilities, they were all looking to me for what do do and when. YIKES. It all worked out in the long run and ended up being a great day. The kids love to play on the playground, so we let them do a lot of that and then we had a few organized games.










We also had ours and Shawn&Erin's shaved ice machines and the kids all got to have a sno cone. They were a big hit. It was a cold, cloudy day, but the kids had lots of fun.

May 19, 2007 - Church Campout
Last weekend, we visited Grandma and Grandpa at their church campout. Nicholas and Gabrielle went with them after graduation the day before and stayed over night. Then we came up to spend the day on Saturday. Lots of fun, for the first trip out of the summer.

Over the past several weeks, Sam has decided to roll over. This newfound freedom has also proved to be very frustrating for Sam, as once he gets on his stomach he doesn't really like it much. However, the more he does it, the more comfortable he is getting with playing on his stomach and loves be able to reach for his toy of choice. We have had to get our "back sleeper" contraption out to help Sam stay on his back through the night, otherwise he rolls onto his stomach and gets really restless. He is slowly learning however, and has taken a couple of naps on his tummy.

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May 18, 2007 Graduation
I cannot believe that Nicholas just finished his 2nd year of preschool and is ready for Kindergarten. It seems like just yesterday that we dropped him off for his first day and he was only 3 1/2 years old. He has matured so much over the past two years. There were several moments that I really realized that he had no idea what was really going on. Several of his fellow classmates were also there last year, so they have been in the same class for 2 years. However, none of them are in our same school district. So when he sang "it's time to say good-bye to our friends" at graduation, he did not understand it like I did. Thankfully, several of his classmates do attend our church so they will still be in Sunday School together. Nicholas has two best friends in preschool....Celine and Taryn. What a little flirt he is, I think. Celine follows him everywhere. She also has a little brother that is only 1 month younger than Sam so we may end up planning some playdates over the summer. Check out excerpts from his graduation.
(I edited the best that I could, but it was hard to know what to leave out).
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It was time for Sam's 3 month pictures, so we did Nicholas' 5 year pictures at the same time. As long as we were all there, I decided to go ahead and try for an updated group picture as well. Sam changes so quickly at this age and the package I purchase comes with an extra 8x10 so I figured that we might as well get a group picture every time we go.

Birthday Celebrations

Nicholas enjoyed a family celebration on his birthday, and then Grandma and Grandpa Hager, Uncle Cory, Aunt Catherine, Cousin Joshua, Uncle Shawn, Aunt Erin, and Cousin Owen all came over for a party on the weekend. We had lots of fun....check it out.
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Bumbo!

We are borrowing Owen's Bumbo seat from Shawn and Erin. The first time we put Sam in it he lasted about 5 minutes. He is now making it a little longer each time and is now quite often enjoying his perch on the kitchen counter while I make dinner or empty the dishwasher. He has even joined us atop the kitchen table during mealtime a few times. I think Sam is starting to enjoy this new view on life.

May 10, 2007 - Nicholas turns 5!

I can't believe that Nicholas is 5 already. The time flies so quickly. He is turning into such a little boy instead of a toddler. He is finishing his second year of preschool and preparing to begin Kindergarten all day/every day in the fall. He is so excited. We are thankful for our children each and every day and so excited to see what the future holds for the coming year and years to come.

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May 5, 2007 - Our nephew Joshua's 2nd Birthday Party!

We gave Joshua a new turtle sandbox, we caught some cute pictures of the kids playing inside. Also, the kids had a blast breaking in the new basketball hoop he got from Grandma and Grandpa.




Joshua was such a cutie in his birthday hat!

May 3, 2007

What's this thing?

Sam seems to be getting to the point where he is looking for more variety in life - other than sitting in the car seat, playing in the rocking chair, or laying on the floor. So, I brought the "exersaucer" up from the basement the other day. He doesn't have enough strength yet to really keep himself from flopping around in the saucer, but when I tucked a blanket around him he actually did quite well for a little while. Finally, a different point of view.

Thumb Sucker #2???

Could it be that Sam has found his thumb?

Almost since Sam was born he has sucked on his hands and fingers. He has never really liked a pacifier. He has been especially fond of having 2 or 3 fingers in his mouth. However, the past few days I have found him sucking on his actual thumb several times. I think it is kind of funny that Nicholas sucked his thumb, but neither of the girls did. If this becomes Sam's knew "habit" it will be both of our boys that sucked their thumb.

A Wonderful Weekend to be Outside!

Gabrielle helps mow the lawn.



Sam takes a nap in the stroller, nothing like some fresh air to tire you out.

A walk! Last year, we had to purchase a second trailer. However, when we actually made the purchase we never expected that this year they would both be filled to capacity.

April 25, 2007 - Three Months Old, Already!!!

Well, time sure flies when your having fun (or so busy with 4 kids that sometimes you can hardly think straight). Sam continues to be such an unbelievably happy and content baby. He rarely cries. Occasionally, he will not get fed quite fast enough and will get a little mad, but for the most part we need to wake him up to eat.



He loves to lay on the floor and play. Today, he fell asleep right on the play mat.
When he does start to fuss- it just means he's tired, so we put him to bed and he usually goes right to sleep. He continues to sleep through the night 98% of the time, we put him to bed between 8-9pm and then wake him up to eat when we go to bed and then more often than not he sleep until 7-8am----what more could we ask for. Although, we don't have his current weight, he is definitely making up for those first 6 weeks of weight troubles.



The other kids love it when he smiles at them, and I think they are definitely starting to feel like he is a little more like a part of the family.

Deja vu!

I put this outfit on Sam the other day and it reminded me so much of these pictures that I have of Nicholas wearing the same outfit, just had to put the pictures together for an interesting comparison.

Nicholas - August 2002 (age 3 months)

Sometimes I think they look so much alike, and other times they are just SO different! I think we can agree they are brothers though...
Sam - April 2007 (age 3 months)

Wanna Read a Book?

Gabrielle decided that she was going to read a book to Sam. What a cute moment, she even squeaked the "toy" on every page for him.

April 18, 2007 - NO KITTY!

We keep having to tell Allison (and sometimes the other kids) that they cannot play in the rocking chair, it is Sam's. Allison likes to climb in and play all the time. This afternoon I walked into the room and found that Gabrielle had put her doll and her little stuffed kitty in Sam's chair. It took me by surprise at first because I caught it out of the corner of my eye and did a double take because the chair was supposed to be empty. A few minutes later Allison came in the room and took the doll out and put her on the floor. Then she took the kitty and said "No, Kitty...Sam's chair" and flung her across the room. I couldn't stop laughing at her tone of reprimand to this stuffed kitty.

April 18, 2007 - Nancy?

Allison has a tendency to babble. She will lay in bed and list things that she happens to be thinking of, or we'll be driving in the car and she starts listing people and things like that...babbling. A week or so ago, she was listing family members and included my Aunt Nancy. Then when we were headed to mom's house on Easter Sunday she started listing people that were going to be there and then all of the sudden she said 'Nancy' and shook her head 'no' - as if saying Aunt Nancy wasn't going to be there (little did she know Aunt Nancy WAS coming). Now, the past couple of days when we say her bedtime prayer we pray for Mama, Papa, Nicholas, Gabrielle, Allison and Sam, Grandma's and Grandpa's, Aunts and Uncles...now she is supposed to go on to Cousin Micah, Garret, Joshua and Owen....however when we get to the aunts part she just starts saying Nancy. I keep prompting her to go on and every time I give her a name instead of repeating it she says Nancy. She won't go on until she has said Nancy at least 5 or 6 times. I'm not sure what the infatuation is with Aunt Nancy right now, or if her name is just fun to say, but I think it is quite comical. Maybe a special relationship is forming?

April 17, 2007 - Look What I Can Do!

Sam has changed so much the last week or so and I finally

managed to catch some video of some of his new "talents".

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April 16, 2007 - A Perfect Day for Flying a Kite!

Well, it was a nice day and definately warm enough to get the kids out of the house for a while. They are often asking to fly their kites but it is usually not the right conditions. Today however, was another story - it was very windy, so we gave it a try. It was a great day for it. The kids had to hold on very tightly, but once I got their kites up in the air they stayed up quite well , and the kids had fun - that's the most important thing.

April 15, 2007 - Reading Nook?!

Our kids love to take all of the pillows and cushions off the couch and do various things. They pretend the couch is a boat, or use the cushions to make a fort, whatever the spirit moves. Well, today- after having removed all of the cushions we found all 3 older children curled up on the couch with books. Cute eh?

April 15, 2007 - A bottle from Big Brother

It has become routine on Sunday mornings that Paul gives Sam a bottle instead of me sitting down to nurse him. Things get too rushed otherwise, especially with the girls' both needing their hair done, etc. Anyway, this morning Paul was trying to get a few things together and Sam got really hungry, so Nicholas stepped in and gave Sam a bottle. What a helper - for about 3 minutes, then Nicholas got bored and just laid the bottle on Sam's shoulder and walked away. Oh well, it was good while it lasted and by that time Paul was done and could finish the feeding.

April 13, 2007 - Toybox?!?!?!

We are taking a different approach with our toys - as I am so sick of having every toy in the house strewn about when they play with it for a very short time and then move onto something else. Therefore, we have put up new shelves and the toys with many pieces are out of reach. The kids have to ask me for the toy and then have to pick it up before they can have another one. All of the miscellaneous toys that were left over have been placed in a new bin/toybox to make for easy clean-up / no sorting. Before, we had the chance to actually re-organize everything however, Allison found the toybox to make a very fun toy. She spent much of the afternoon playing in the box as a car or boat or whatever they came up with.

April 11, 2007 - A snow storm, an adventure and a growing boy!

Well, I made my plans for today and headed into town after picking Nicholas up from preschool. Little did I know I was driving into a major snowstorm. Anyway, I needed to stick to my plans because I needed to get a copy of the kids' birth certificates so that we can enroll Nicholas in Kindergarten next year. I drove through the slippery roads and arrived at mom's house, where she watched the kids while I drove back downtown to get the birth certificates and then back to mom's - what a harrowing experience.

Anyway, it is very rare that I am in town without a variety of errands to run, etc. However, after the birth certificate run I didn't have anything specific that I needed to do. I remembered a while back that Catherine told me about a breastfeeding "store" right near mom's house and that you can take your baby there to be weighed. Given the fact that Sam has not been weighed since his 6 week checkup I have been quite curious, so after a quick call we decided to bring him over there and check him out...this is where the adventure comes in. With all of the snow, and having never been there before what appeared to big a row of parking spaces in front of the building turned out to be a grassy area in which my van decided to get stuck.....very stuck. After several tries of rocking the vehicle and mom trying to push me out, we were quickly realizing we were going to be unsuccessful. Then, a new mom came out of the building to go home and said that she had some traction type chains in her car which we were welcome to try. So, we gladly accepted - wedged the chains as much under the tires as possible and tried again. SUCCESS! Thank you - angel in disguise, the Lord put you in the right place at the right time.

After finally making it into the store, I am pleased to announce that Sam is now 11 pounds, 6 ounces. Now, this is still behind where our other kids were at this age, however when you consider the fact that it took him 6 weeks to reach 9 pounds 3 ounces we are thrilled. I asked one of the lactation consultants and she said that they like to see between 4-8 ounces of weight gain a week at this age. It's been around 4 weeks since his last appointment so that averages out to 8.75 ounces per week, EXCELLENT. Allison was 11 pounds 9 ounces at 2 months, so he is actually only behind her by about 2 weeks now. Even though she was always a little squirt, if he keeps this up he'll soon pass her.

We eventually made it home safe and sound even with the snow and slippery roads. That's one day I would have planned differently if I had known what was ahead of me.

April 8, 2007 - Easter Sunday

Happy Easter Everyone! We have 3 services at our church on Easter, so we opted to attend the middle service while the kids were in Sunday School (there were no adult classes for Easter). In doing this, we were able to take our time getting ready and the kids were able to receive their Easter Baskets before church. We went right from church to my parents house for lunch and supper with brothers/sister, nephews and extended family (including other kids to play with). It was a day filled with Praise to the Lord for his wonderful blessing of life, fellowship with family, food, fun and of course ....CANDY!!!
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April 7, 2007 - New Additions?!?

Paul and I have been toying with the idea of getting the kids some fish. It would give them some responsibility of learning to care of them, but at the same time not require the care and committment of a cat or dog. We decided it would be fun to make it part of their Easter gift. Little did I know, what a debaucle it would turn out to be.

First of all, I went to the store and asked for a recommendation - a fish that wouldn't take a lot of care, a lot of money, or a lot of room. So with the help of a sales associate we bought a small one gallon aquarium and 4 Fancy Goldfish. The helped me set up the aquarium, fed them their first meal and named each of their fish. We have: Nicka, AnnaLeesia Princess, Mine, and Sunrise.

The the dreaded happened, we woke up the next morning and Gabrielle's fish did not make it through the night. She actually handled it quite well, I was surprised. I took the fish back to the store to get a replacement. What I didn't expect was to be told that the previous sales associate should never had sold me that small of a tank for 4 fish. She told me I was not going to get the fish to survive. So...$40 later I came home with a new fish for Gabrielle and an 10 gallon aquarium..they would take the smaller aquarium back however.

So today,(Monday) I took the kids back to the store to return the aquarium. With our credit we picked out a new bridge and some aquarium plants and headed home. Unbelievably, a couple of hours after we returned home Gabrielle asked me why the carpet was wet. I looked and to my shagrin I noticed that the water level had dropped almost an inch. I got down on the floor and found the carpet quite wet surrounding the aquarium. So, now I had to move the fish again, and empty this entire aquarium out so we could return it again.

After dinner, we returned the aquarium, thankfully the girl who sold it to me was actually working and knew what I had gone through on Saturday. After reviewing the entire situation with her manager, we were given a replacement aquarium and a 15% discount toward an aquarium stand (to get it off the floor where we had been forced to put it originally.) So, the fish are now in their new home AGAIN...let's hope this is the last time they will have to be moved.

April 5, 2007 - I Wanna be like You!

Paul and I have commented to each other several times lately that Allison seems to be a Gabrielle wanna be lately. Well, I was sitting in my chair in the living room this afternoon with Sam. I have a big plastic tote sitting next to our couch right now, because it has summer clothes in it that I need to go through for Allison for this summer. Gabrielle decided that this tote would make an excellent place to sit and draw with her magna-doodle. I found it so interesting to watch Allison walk up with her magna-doodle and sit down right next to Gabrielle. She kept peaking over at Gabrielle to see what she was doing and everytime that Gabrielle showed me something that she drew, Allison would do the same thing and try to tell me the same thing in her slightly more brief and to the point 20 months old vocabulary. It really hit home to me exactly how much she watches her big sister and wants to be just like her.

April 1, 2007 - Tummy Time

I had to skip out on part of Sunday School this week because Sam decided that he couldn't wait until we got home to eat. So, I went into the nursery to nurse him. When I first walked in several people commented on how strong he was--how well he held up his head for only being 2 months old. That being said, I decided to check out his neck strength with some tummy time Sunday night. He sat on his little boppy with his head up like this looking around for several minutes....I was quite impressed.

Owen's First Birthday Party

March 31, 2007 - Good Morning Hello Kitty Cowgirl!

Saturday morning I heard Allison heading downstairs. Her normal routine is to walk into our bedroom, around the bed and try to climb in over me. So, I heard her footsteps taking her normal route and felt her presence next to the bed. However, when I opened my eyes I didn't exactly see what I expected. She apparently, had been into the dress up clothes box before coming downstairs and had a headband with kitty ears and cowboy hat from Gabrielle's Hello Kitty Cowgirl costume. And of course, to top off the ensemble, she still had her "pipey" in her mouth. What a look....

March 30, 2007 - Brother/Sister Time

The girls have once again been in the mood to hold Sam. Often however, when they ask to hold him it is right when he needs to be fed or go down for a nap. Here are a few pictures of the rare opportunities they get to hold their baby brother, can you tell how happy they are? I think they are happier than Sam....

March 28, 2007 - The Big Top Circus

Nicholas had his spring program at school on Wednesday, they presented a "One Ring circus" for the crowd. Here are a few excerpts:

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