Baby L is 1!

Predictable though it may be to say, I cannot believe my baby is 1! She seems like she's been part of our family for forever and yet, there's no way it's been a year. Just saying all that makes me so old. But at least as a reward for being old, I get to snuggle with this Tiny Treasure!

Granted, I do prefer when I get to snuggle with her face...

And when she looks up at me with this darling face, it's impossible to not want to cover her in kisses! She's so stinking cute! 

As M says regularly, "I don't want her to ever get bigger!" Haha! This face just cracks me up.

Ooh look! Cake! She didn't have a clue what it was but she was excited by everybody else's excitement, and Photo-bombing Dude was excited to "help."

What is this? They've never put anything like this on my tray before. Is it safe?

Do you ever get that feeling like somebody is watching you? Like if you hesitate or turn your head, your food might mysteriously disappear?

Hmmm...this is good! I think I like it.

Yeehoo! This is awesome! Fist pump to the face!

Look at me, Ms. One-Year-Old-Big-Shot, I'm a big kid now!

Baby L has been a wonderfully, amazingly happy baby. She's quick to smile at anyone she lays eyes on. Her siblings delight her. She greets dad with a dimple-fisted point and a grin. Seeing mom is so exciting she hyperventilates. Her new, hilarious move is coming in for a hug with her belly stuck out, her head tilted back so she's smiling at the ceiling, and her feet moving a little faster than her balance can afford. Some eating problems aside, she's been exactly what we needed from a fifth child. 

However, she has been a walker for over a month and is constantly on the go - totally exhausting to keep away from toilets, trash cans and roads. Watching her try to run is hilarious and watching her start to climb on everything is terrifying. She's determined, affectionate, silly, and hungry. And she's ours!

Finally 3!!

Walking on frozen waters

We are having such a mild winter this year that it looks like we might even get a spring! Seriously, the weather is pretty awesome this week especially. So to take advantage, we decided to go out for a nice Sunday walk around Patterson Lake. When we drove up, we noticed a bunch of ice fishermen set up out on the lake. Oooooh...we've never walked on the frozen lake! Can't say that anymore!

The kids thought it was the coolest thing that they could just walk across the lake. And they weren't wrong. We didn't go out any farther than other people, just to be safe. It was a little windy cold but otherwise seemed way to warm for the whole lake to be frozen! Crazy.

Even Baby L wanted to get down and walk. Turns out ice is a bit slippery for her but that didn't stop Tiny from insisting on trying.

Before too long I took her to firmer ground so she could walk around without help since she does NOT like having to hold your hands to walk. She can do it herself! Baby L was too little to walk back before winter started so she hasn't spent much time outside exploring. She's fascinated by EVERYTHING. Loves testing out the different textures of grass and rocks and inspecting how everything feels and sounds. So fun.

The others just kept going out there. Not sure they would've ever come back to land if M hadn't unfortunately stepped right on an old fishing hole that turned out to not be that old after all. Probably had been drilled earlier that day so it hadn't had time to freeze over. Oops! She was instantly up to her hip in freezing cold water. Before you freak out, there was no danger. The hole was only big enough for one leg to go in but I imagine it didn't feel good! Not to mention the massive scrape the edge of the ice gave her when she fell. Poor thing. Luckily there was a pair of snow pants and boots in the car for her to change into. Doesn't everyone keep a spare of those on hand? Ha. North Dakota.

Coop had just finished getting her changed and warm when G came running over chanting, "I need to go potty, I need to go potty," peeing every step of the way. In fairness to her, she'd already told Coop, but in fairness to him, that was when they were standing in the middle of a frozen lake. So got her changed, played a bit on the playground, trying to avoid the puddles with floating ice chunks, and headed home. All in all, a rather adventurous, warm Sunday afternoon!

Random catch-up

It was pointed out to me recently that I've been, say, a little neglectful of our blog. And it's true. My phone stopped allowing me to post and since I rarely get around to transferring pictures to the computer, I was up technology creek on how to get anything new up. Yes, slight hiccups like that with a computer and I do give up that easily. Pathetic and absolutely true. But magically, it's now all working again and so here's some randomness from what's been going on in the crazy house this winter:

When it's too cold to run off steam outside, sometimes we Wii Dance it out. Hilarious when they're all doing it together.

Less productively, when it's too cold to get out much, G starts to go a little stir crazy. 

And things like this happen in the kitchen:

Are those tiny fingerprints in my watermelon?

What a rotten trick mom. It smelled like chocolate but it tastes AWFUL! Whenever the goose sees Baking Cocoa Powder now, she shakes her head solemnly and says, "We do NOT eat that Mama." Live and learn, my child, live and learn.

And she is absolutely still the "evil genius" I said she was back in September. In some ways, she's only more so. We've had to call poison control twice thanks to her recently. 3 previous children: 0 times. G: 2 times in the last month. Hey, this bottle of wart remover looks like nail polish. I think I'll paint my face with it! Baby L's nearly full bottle of antibiotics in the fridge? What's this child lock lid for? I'll drink the whole thing and put it back so nobody will ever know. Sigh.

On a slightly less mischievous note, J wisely spends her time at home taking selfies with my phone whenever I leave it unattended. She thinks she's hilarious. Sometimes she even sends them to people. 

Sometimes she does school work as well, I promise. She's currently studying bridges. Bring on the science fair!

The other day she jumped triumphantly into the room and announced, "I'm dressing like people in France!" Ok then. She also has gotten rather good at "your face" jokes lately, which she finds to be the highest form of humor there is.

Uh...I'm stuck. A little help here?

She likes berries in her oatmeal. Me? I eat them. Baby L? She uses them to keep her skin looking fresh and rosy.

First pigtails! Yes, this is the only place she has enough hair, and yes, she pulled them out before we even got to church, but they were there! 

And sometimes our house doesn't have enough kids, so we invite more. Here they were doing a homeschool phases of the moon project. Notice G's paper is devoid of Oreos. She had at least as many to work with as the others did, I assure you. She just hates the moon.

Other times, the number of kids we have is a little more than we can handle. I imagine playing airplane would be easier when someone's not sitting on your face.

Also, this guy has a lot of sisters to deal with. Sometimes he's just too cool for all the drama. Other times, he pretends their beauty supplies are guns and goes around blasting everyone to smithereens. Classic. 

Clearly that's not a full re-cap. There've been birthdays, holidays, a vacation, and plenty more pictures thanks to the convenience of iPhones, so hopefully there'll be more where this came from.