Bathing Beauties

Our pool from last year died, so I let Alexa pick which kind of animal pool to get at our local store.  For some odd reason, she picked a snake.  Alexa, Caleb (no pictures), and even Sierra have enjoyed cooling off in the pool.

Jordanna just hangs out on the porch and watches.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Dave and my mom (who was a Braves fan when no one was a Braves fan) took Caleb and Alexa to the Braves game on Monday.  Apparently it wasn't too hot, and they had lots of junk food and a good time.  Unfortunately the Braves lost for the 8th time in a row.

Here's Grammy holding a grumpy looking Alexa.

Caleb eating peanuts.

Sitting in the big chair.

One the way home with a lump on his head from falling out of the big chair.

Sweaty Alexa.

My Favorite Reader

I promised Caleb that I would take him out for ice cream after he read 100 books.  School has been out for two weeks now, and he has read 65 books already!

Final Friday

The ladies from our church have a get together on the final Friday of each month.  Ms. Carol Ann had her camera out this time and got some cute shots of the kids. 

My smiley Sierra

Audrey - "There's my friend.  Let me pull her face off."

My crazy Caleb

Movie Night!

Yes, We are Still Alive (Again)

I have good intentions of blogging, but life gets so busy and before I know it, a week has gone by.  Anyway, here's what we've been up to this week.

Tuesday was mine and Caleb's last day of school.  I don't know if I've ever been more ready for a school year to be over.  I won't lie; teaching, homeschooling, and caring for a new baby made second semester hard.  Caleb had a fun end-of-the-year party that I was able to go to (instead of the party for my class), and at which I did not take any pictures.  That night, we went out for dinner and frozen yogurt (Caleb got a gift card from his teacher) to celebrate.

On Wednesday, we just hung out, including having ice cream cones on the porch.

On Thursday, we met Molly and Audrey at the park for playtime and a picnic lunch.

On Friday, we went to some friends' house for lunch, but I didn't take any pictures, so here's a random one. 

After naps, we went to Molly and Nick's house.  Molly fed us dinner, and then she and Nick babysat while I went to graduation for my school.  Dave was gone on a camping trip.  After graduation, Molly and I watched a chick flick.

On Saturday, we headed home by way of Target where we got Jordanna some flip flops so that she would stop stealing Alexa's and the farmers' market where we got some fruits and vegetables for general consumption and some for making baby food for Sierra.  We also got a yummy loaf of pretzel bread.

On Sunday, we went to church and Molly and Nick's house as usual.  I noticed a few red spots on Caleb's face.

On Monday, we stayed home and nursed colds.  Sierra and I did run to the library and the grocery store after dinner.

On Tuesday, the red spots had spread to much of Caleb's body, and I was pretty sure he had poison ivy or sumac or something again.  A trip to the doctor confirmed my suspicion, and then we went to Publix and picked up a prescription and some Sprite and popsicles for sore throats.

On Wednesday, Molly babysat while my mom and I took Sierra to the neurosurgeon.  He took one look at her large head and said that he wanted a cat scan that day.  So, we headed across the parking lot to the hospital to get a cat scan and then back to his office.  Fortunately, the cat scan did not confirm his suspicions that Sierra had extra fluid on her brain.  He said that the cat scan looked good although she does have a cyst behind one ear.  As a precaution, she will be having an MRI next week to rule out further causes for her large head.

Today, we ran some errands, and I did 8 loads of laundry.  We also broke out the swimming pool.

And tomorrow is Dave's last day of school.  Yay!

Happy Mother's Day to Me

On Saturday, Publix was supposed to have a table set up where kids could decorate a cake for their moms.  I had told the kids that they could do one for me.  But of course, our Publix was understaffed and was not doing cakes.  The kids were disappointed, so I called another Publix to see if they were participating.  They were, but due to grumpy little girls, we were not able to make it there before they finished.  If you're wondering where Dave was by now, he was white water rafting.  Anyway, my poor Caleb was so sad, so what did I do?  Baked a cake, made some icing, and pulled out the sprinkles and tubes of icing.  Happy Mother's Day to me!  It was worth it, though, to see these happy faces.

Sunday, the kids gave me some sweet cards that they had made and one that Dave helped them pick out and some yummy smelling body wash.

Making Baby Food

I've mentioned before that I make most of my kids' baby food.  I figure that I don't prefer to eat canned or jarred food all the time, so why should they?  It's fresher and cheaper to make my own.  Anyway, due to a certain little problem Sierra has, the first thing I made for her was apple/prune puree.

I took 4 apples, one box of prunes, and about 1/2 a cup of apple juice (I typically use water, but I read to use apple juice with prunes to keep the puree from being bitter),

cooked them until tender,

pureed the mixture with my immersion blender (thanks Phillip and Lystra),

and froze it in ice cube trays.  Once the cubes were frozen, I popped them out and put them in a Ziploc bag.

Next up, acorn squash.

Five Months

Here's what Sierra is up to at five months -
-Weighs approximately 13 pounds.
-Wears 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. She wears cloth about half the time.  She has to wear a size 3 diaper to bed or she leaks.
-Still spits up, but it does seem to be getting better.
-Has started eating solid foods for 2 main reasons.  One, she still won't take a bottle, so the babysitter stirs her milk into rice or oatmeal cereal and feeds her that way.  Two, she seemed very uncomfortable and wasn't pooping often, so I've given her prunes and pears for that.  She has also tried squash.  So far, she likes it all.
-Still sleeps with her paci.  When she loses it, she searches around with her mouth and can sometimes get it back in
-Gnaws on her hands a lot and has also found her toes.
-Still likes the swing and the play mat. She actually plays with the toys on the play mat now rather than lying around and staring at them.
-Shows interest in toys now and will put them in her mouth.
-Still takes 3-4 naps a day.  Once school is out on Tuesday, I plan to work her into 3 naps a day consistently.
-Eats about every 3 hours.
-Wakes 1 or 2 times most nights.
-Laughs and seems to be ticklish.
-Is able to lift her head while on her stomach and in general controls her head much better now.  Still a ways to go, though. 
-Rolls from front to back.

My Big (Headed) Girl

While I realize that this is not newsworthy for most almost 5 month olds (How in the world can she be turning 5 months on Saturday?), look what my sweet Sierra can do.

Holding her head up

Taking a break

Trying again

And rolling over!

Trying again with the paci this time

Jordanna checking her out

My big girl!

What We've Been Up To Lately

Doing a puzzle of the USA

Helping Daddy with his AP Calculus review session

And babysitting Audrey, who thought that the air conditioning vent was the most fascinating thing in the world