All We Do Around Here . . .

Having a new baby is such a wonderful, crazy, challenging time!  We love this little Evie Jane with all our hearts, we shower her with hugs and wake her up with our kisses, and sometimes we just go bonkers . . .

It has been wonderful to have a little break from teaching piano lessons, serving in Primary, and doing all the things I used to be doing.  And thank goodness for the respite, because having these four precious little peanuts home all day has kept me so busy!  But I love them.

The other day Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader was released and Jacob, who had been counting down the days, was so excited to go buy it.  We had a blast watching it as a family (minus Gabe, who had fallen to sleep at 7:30--I am not going to argue with that rarity!) and absolutely loved it.  C. S. Lewis was so inspired, and how refreshing to find that Disney left everything in it, including the obvious symbolism of God--we wholeheartedly recommend it!

But that's beside the point.  We finished it near midnight, which was probably not the best plan, and Eleni & Seth crashed the minute it was over . . .

Here are the three middle kids preparing to have a "picnic" in the basement--amazing how much more fun lunch is when it's eaten somewhere other than the kitchen counter!

I don't know what we would do without Lydia helping with Evie!  Tonight as I pulled potatoes from the oven and browned hamburger, I tossed her to Lydia and said, "I don't want to drop her in the oven!"  She calmly took her away and bounced with her on our exercise ball (best money I ever spent--it has SAVED us in calming Evie down or getting her to sleep!!!) until I was finished.  She is the perfect babysitter!  The kids absolutely love her, and she's more responsible than I am . . .

And since I'm just jumping from topic to topic, I have to share something with you--it creeps Lydia out . . .

Eleni has a fetish for collecting "rolie polies," pill bugs, potato bugs--whatever you call them.  One day she came in and said, "Mommy, look how many rolie polies I caught!"  I was picturing five or six . . .

But she had almost twenty, and she had kept them all in her hand!  As soon as I grabbed the camera and made her show them to me, they started crawling everywhere.  Can you see those specks on the ground?  Those are the little guys who dove to freedom when she released them.  Brave little girl!