SEVEN months

I cannot believe that Grace is 7 months old already. She is such a happy baby now! Whew. She had a rough start! She sleeps great, even takes decent naps most days! She seems to finally be settling into a routine, which is handy for the most part. She LOVES her big sister and brothers. They can always make her smile and laugh. The boys love to be goofy and she thinks it's hilarious.

She eats baby food now, but not consistently (whenever Mama has enough made and remembers to feed her! haha). Her tongue is still fairly short, so it's always interesting to feed her! She has basically learned to suck the food off the spoon! So far her favorites are butternut squash and apples & pears. She also likes bananas. Last week, she ate an ENTIRE banana in one sitting! They say the normal serving size for her age is 2 tablespoons. Yeah right! She loves Carriage Crossing green beans (who doesn't?!), but not pureed green beans. She's a very big girl! Still in the 97th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. She wears 12-18 month clothes already! Even some 24 month onesies. She has 2 teeth and is working on the next 2, it seems. She sits up very well on her own and is sooooo close to crawling!! She's already too mobile for me! She rolls and scoots, so nothing on the floor is safe! I've been trying to get the boys to keep their Legos IN THEIR ROOM! And Anna is always playing with something little and brining it out to the living room. That will change soon, when she starts crawling and can quickly get to their little games they play!

Time, as always, is moving far too quickly.

Spring Fun

The college soccer teams do a soccer clinic every spring. The kids love it and have a lot of fun. This year there weren't very many kids attending, so Isaac even got to participate!

As Jeremy said, these 2 boys (really, all 4 of them here!) probably shouldn't ever do anything together! Too much trouble. :)

 Grace had fun hanging out in the stroller, watching all the action!

 The women's coach (a good friend of ours) said, "Looks like that one inherited Mom's athletic ability!" HA!! Very true. Unless his coordination drastically changes from what it's been since birth, I think it's safe to say that Jacob will not be particularly athletic!

 Isaac had everyone wrapped around his little finger! The players all thought he was adorable. Isaac thought he was pretty cool to be playing with the big kids!!

 The Stinemetz tongue...we just can't help it!!

 Sometimes the goalie put on quite a show of missing the kids' shots. Jacob thought it was hilarious that he scored on her!

 Oh, hey Mom. I was just sampling the stroller...makin' sure it's all good.  I'm just wondering when it's my turn to go play?

 What do you mean not for a few years?!? I wanna do what the big kids are doing!!

 It was a fun 3 days for all the kids! 

I babysat Rhys & Jaxon one day a few weeks ago...I'm glad Binga was here to help!!!

 Alright Jax.......don't worry. This won't hurt much.

 Mom, you need to back away, okay? I've got this under control.

 I don't think I can trust you, Grace. I mean...you're a girl. And your mom has me in this ridiculous pink seat. Doesn't she know I'm a boy?! Can you talk to her about this whole pink business?

Grace: Listen here, Jax...it's not a big deal. Just lay back and relax. This toe sampling won't take long. Just close your eyes. Trust me!

Jax: No way!!! Don't touch my toes!!!!!

:) It's never dull around here, that's for sure!

Spring is Here

We are so happy that Spring seems to be here to stay now. Of course, this is Kansas so we could still have a snow storm! I sure hope not.

 Sometimes Aaron has to take the "big van" to Wichita to pick up handwriting. He always goes after he gets off work, so he tries to rotate taking one of the kids with him each time he goes. This last time was Isaac's turn. He was one cool dude! :)

 Baby Grace with Big Dave :) Sadly, we only got to see him (he lives in China right now) because Uncle Windell suddenly passed away. All the guys were in Texas for his funeral. 

 Aaron has been trying so hard to spend extra time with the kids every evening, now that the weather is nicer. Anna loves playing catch with her Daddy!

 Grandpa & Grandma W came to visit over Easter weekend. Which was also the NCAA Championship weekend. We don't have cable, but had been watching the games online on the computer, hooked up to the TV. 3/4 of the way through the championship game, a message pops up and says we've used all our time online. ?? So, I pulled up the March Madness app on my phone and we watched the last 5 min of the game on a tiny little screen!!! Haha!

 The boys got into the dress up bin in Grace's closet the other day. Isaac decided to be Captain America. If the mask was pulled down, we had to call him Captain America. If it was pulled up onto his forehead, we could call him Isaac. Life is never, ever dull with this kid around!

 We were in Iowa at the beginning of March to celebrate Papa's birthday. Isaac finally gave up the training wheels for good!

 Aaron took a day off a couple weeks ago and we took the kids to the zoo. It was a bit chilly yet, so not many animals were out and about, but the kids still had a lot of fun. Any time Daddy unexpectedly gets to spend a day with us is a great day!!

 Always with the crooked hat, just like Grandpa Elmer! :)

 Just a day or two before we went to the zoo, Anna really hurt her big toe. She was trying to open the back door, which was a little stuck, and it came open and went right over her toe. Ripped some skin off and got her toenail good. Let's just say she doesn't have the highest pain tolerance. Her toe was still too tender to walk around the zoo, but I came up with a solution. She could ride in the stroller and I could wear Grace in the Boba. Grace usually loves to be carried, but for whatever reason, she was not having it that day! Luckily Daddy can carry her around all day. :)

 Family Easter pictures! I have yet to figure out when the best time to take a family picture is for Easter Sunday?! We don't have time before church, and by the time we get home the kids are all "starving". I've just accepted the fact that we won't ever have the "perfect" family picture on Easter! :) We bribed Isaac with a tortilla chip for this one! Haha

 Anna was "so cold" in this one. It was a pretty windy day, but it wasn't that cold!

 Hunting eggs in the front yard, using the Easter baskets Grandma W made for the kids. Jacob's used to be Aaron's and she made new ones for Anna and Isaac.

 Instead of putting candy in their eggs (trust me, they get enough of that every Wednesday night!), I saw an idea online to put certificates-10 min extra before bed, trip to the library, ice cream with Dad/Mom, movie night, go to the park, etc-in them instead! They all loved it! 

 I am loving the thunderstorms we've been getting! Not so much the damaging hail, but they make for some good photo ops!

 He waited ALL DAY LONG for it to rain (it never did). He got so mad at me because it wasn't raining. Exasperated, I finally said, "Take it up with God!" He promptly went outside, but was back in a few minutes. "Mom! I prayed and asked God to make it rain, but it's still not raining!!!!!" He might have a lack of patience.........

I love seeing the beauty and power of God through His creation!