My brother-in-law would be thrilled if he could have seen his little basketball prodigy daughter slam-dunking every time during our playdate this morning…

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 26th, 2012
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Yesterday J told Tom and me that she was going to write some music in the morning. We weren’t sure what she meant, but when she came downstairs this morning, she said, “Oh! I’m going to write music!” She pulled a piece of paper out of the printer and got to work. She showed it to me later, and then asked if she could turn on the keyboard and play her music.

While we let her play the keyboard when she wants to and Tom has given her some basic instructions (like, “This is Middle C”), we haven’t really taught her anything about music yet. She must be learning it in school, because indeed, her music notes look like music notes! I love this age of discovery and how much joy she finds in little things.

And I hope she continues to write music for a long time.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 25th, 2012
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This is what it looks like when you are trying to eat a cookie at a high school basketball game and your mom asks you to smile.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 24th, 2012
Filed under: 365, Family
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I love to buy clothes for my kids at the end-of-season clearance sales. I stock up on the next size that the kids will be wearing, getting brand name clothes for bargain prices. How can you pass up a brand new Children’s Place shirt for $2.25, after all? (Not me.) Right now I’m trying to build up a pile of new clothes for J for next year when she starts kindergarten. (Ack!) It’s fun, though.

At the end of this past summer, I bought some 12 month clothes for C, assuming that he would be wearing 12 months in the summer. Since my other kids matched up with size and age nicely, I thought he would be the same.

I thought wrong.

He’s wearing 12 months right now at six months, which unfortunately means that I have all these cute short/t-shirt combos that he’ll never be able to wear. Fortunately, the tags are still on some of them so I might be able to sell them, but I’m disappointed that he won’t get to wear them. On the plus side, I can combine the short-sleeved shirts with long-sleeved onesies so they will still work for the winter.

Like this one.

I’m afraid to buy him anything else until he needs it now, because I have no idea what sizes he’ll need and when. I guess I’ll just keep buying clothes for J and maybe save up some money and hope I don’t have to buy him full-priced shorts in the summer. And maybe I’ll be able to sell some of the outfits I have. Hopefully he’ll slow down on the growth curve sometime, but in the meantime, at least he’s cute.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 23rd, 2012
Filed under: 365, Family
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Let’s face it, Sundays make good pizza nights. Especially when there is championship playoff football involved. Tonight we were trying to decide whether to make wings with our pizza when we realized we could just make Buffalo chicken pizza!

It’s super easy. You put 1/3 of a cup of bleu cheese dressing on your pizza dough/crust (I used light). Toss cubed, cooked chicken with hot sauce (we used Frank’s) and layer on top of bleu cheese. Then add a smattering of mozzarella cheese and bake. Yum!

Next time I will probably use less hot sauce, since the girls don’t really like spicy things, and it was a little too hot for them. They choked it down with some smoothies, though, and were happy to watch the playoffs and yell “Defense! at the TV at inopportune moments.

“Hey Dad, what’s your favorite team on football?” J asked at one point.

“The Buffalo Bills,” he replied.

“Mine is the Cowboys,” she declared proudly.

“Why?”

“I just like them,” she said. She asked JJ, too, who informed her that her favorite was also the Cowboys. Out of all the teams, why the Cowboys?? I don’t know, but it was cute hearing them talk about it as if they knew what they were talking about. It also reminded me of when I was a kid, because we had a poster with all of the NFL helmets/logos on it, and my sister and I used to study it and pick out our favorite teams (based on their logos).

I think I was destined to be a Bills’ fan, though. It’s in my blood. And probably my kids’, too, even though they don’t know it yet.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 22nd, 2012
Filed under: 365, Football
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I’m still having trouble getting C to eat. I’m sure I’ll look back on this and laugh when he’s 15 and eating me out of house and home, but for now, it’s kind of frustrating. People would probably say that he’s just not ready for solids. I say he’s six months old and can’t subsist on bre@stmilk for the rest of his life. This week (in particular) he’s been waking up early in the mornings, and I’m wondering if he’s just hungry. Yet when I give him food (today we tried applesauce), he sits there with his mouth open and won’t close it or swallow. Go figure.

Nevertheless, I got an immersion blender and some nifty little baby food storage containers this week (you know, for all the food he’s not eating), so I made another batch of carrots for him. I put some in the freezer and some in the fridge, just in case he decides that this is the week he’s going to get excited about eating.

I’m actually super excited about making baby food this time around. I did some with the girls, but not as much as I would have liked. I don’t know why; maybe I was just lazy. But now I have a cookbook with great pictures and instructions on what to do and how to do it, and I’m really looking forward to making all these great things for C to eat. Maybe that’s one reason I’m so frustrated that he won’t eat? I don’t know. But maybe.

And I bet I can use the immersion blender to make yummy milkshakes or knockoff Starbucks Java Chip frappucinos.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 21st, 2012
Filed under: 365, Family
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My one year-old niece spent the day at our house today, because my sister’s babysitter is having a baby soon and is on maternity leave! We had a lot of fun. She is a total sweetheart, and my kids really enjoy playing with her.

My favorite part of the day was picking J up from school with all the other three kids in tow. K said “hi!” to everyone, J was thrilled to see us, and my arms got a good workout from carrying K in one arm and C in the other!

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 20th, 2012
Filed under: 365, Family
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When I discovered that C was getting close to 22 pounds, I realized that the infant car seat we have only goes up to 22 pounds. Time for a new car seat! I have the Evenflo Triumph Advance for each of the girls, so I thought I’d get the same one for him. I won an eBay auction for (a brand new) one last week, and it arrived in the mail today.

I think he likes it! Now I just have to figure out how to arrange the van seats to accommodate it…

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 19th, 2012
Filed under: 365, Family
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It seems like just yesterday that Tom and I were checking into the hospital and having the nurses tell us it was a slow night. Spending all night awake, watching Friday Night Lights even though the nurse told us to sleep. Meeting my little boy for the first time. Wondering how I’d get through those first few weeks with no sleep. Looking forward to the time when he wouldn’t cry all the time.

But it wasn’t yesterday. It was six months ago.

Today, he is happy and (obviously) thriving. He rolls over and can mostly get where he wants. He is sitting up, although not as steadily as I’d like, as evidenced by his red nose where he smacked it on the floor. He’s wearing mostly 12 month clothes and is probably about 22 pounds. He makes a sound like “hi” when you say hi to him, but I’m pretty sure he’s not actually saying it. It’s cute, though. He’s starting to eat solid food – just carrots so far, but it won’t be long before he’s eating all kinds of things. He loves to jump and laugh. Out of all his toys, his tools (hammer, wrenches, and a screwdriver) are his favorite. Plus the toolbox itself. He puts everything in his mouth and drools like crazy. I keep expecting to see some teeth (due to the massive amount of drool), but nothing yet. He loves his sisters, and they love him. It’s so fun to see the three of them interacting.

I can’t imagine my life without him. Here’s to many months more!

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 18th, 2012
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Our church encourages us to begin each January with 21 days of prayer and fasting. It’s up to each of us to decide whether we want to participate and to what extent, but they make resources available if we want to take advantage of them. There is a prayer room in the lower level of the church that is open 24-7 for people to come and pray and worship. I haven’t spent much time there, but I think that my soul is desperately yearning for some “Jesus time” that I could find there. No distractions. No kids. Nothing but me and Him.

But today, one of the pastors’ wives had organized a prayer time for moms and children. We could bring our kids and spend time praying together with other moms…and have our kids pray, too. The emphasis today was on our husbands, so we took turns praying for our husbands while the kids played with some toys. Then, those of us with older kids had our kids pray for their dads. It was nice, and I really want to teach my kids about the power of prayer and of spending time with Jesus.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on January 17th, 2012
Filed under: 365, Personal
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