He Shoots, He Scores!

Tonight we were outside playing in the yard before dinner.  Sam started shooting basketballs like he routinely does when we’re outside.  A few minutes later, Ben joins him.  I’m not saying we have the next Michael Jordan on our hands, but Ben was surprisingly good.  

I could watch his jump shot all night long!  

Quiet Time is OVERrated!

The moment that the older boys get home, our calm and quiet household turns into complete chaos. You would think all the activity might make the babies a little crazy…but no, they LOVE it!

Before naptime today, I was in the babies’ bedroom playing with them while the older boys were in the playroom. All of a sudden Sam and Ben raced into the room and pulled every baby toy out of the toy chest. What followed was amazing. They entertained the babies for an HOUR while I just sat back and watched. 

A Little Old Lady

Grace is always clutching her hands like a little old lady.

I originally took this photo because I want to try and remember all the unique things they do all day (because let's be honest, my memory isn't what it used to be). But something made me a little sad about this photo once I viewed it afterwards.

Grace Ella was partially named in honor of my grandmother who was the sunshine of our family. Ruth Ella Lindsey (Gigi to ALL that knew her…not just her grandchildren) was the type of person that you always wanted to be around. She was a fabulous cook and was never unkind to anyone. I have many addictions because of her like soap operas, Dallas Cowboys football and fried food.

Unfortunately, she passed away while I was pregnant with the twins. I’m sad that they never got to meet her because she was truly a gem.

But while I get a little sad when I think about her, this photo also puts a smile on my face because it makes me think of all the fun memories I had with her growing up. I know she’s smiling down on us right now!

Twice the Love!

I know, I know…I’m biased!  But how cute are the twins right now!?!  A little tummy time this afternoon turned into a photo session when they wouldn’t stop giggling, smiling and holding hands with each other.  Life might be a little insane these days, but it’s ALL worth it when you get to spend an hour of your day hanging out with these precious babies. 

Puzzle Insanity

Ben was a puzzle champion this morning.  With each piece that he attached successfully he would declare, "Ben did it!"  There's nothing like a 2-year-old who's truly proud of his own accomplishments. 

Our Little Talker

Grace talks NON-STOP!  This afternoon I put all the kiddos to sleep in their rooms for naps.  About 10 minutes later I hear LOUD babbling and laughing from Grace.  I sneak into the nursery see what has gotten her going and she’s having a LIVELY conversation with Mr. Fish.  Oh how I wish I knew what she was telling him.

The Biggest Brother

Sam had his 5-year-old check-up this morning. I’ve been very emotional lately about how grown up he’s become. Over night he’s become so much wiser and stronger. He’s so eager to learn new things and his concentration while working on puzzles, Lego’s and art projects is amazing.

At home, he’s my BIG helper (truly a wonderful and happy helper) and I know that I would not be as sane with the younger children if it wasn’t for him. He’s so protective of his siblings and tries so hard to be patient when Ben mimics his EVERY move and sound (Scott and I want to videotape this b/c I know words can’t adequately describe it. For example, Sam will come running into a room, jump into the air and yell out a word. One second later, his little sidekick will do the exact same thing.)

I’m sure it’s hard being the oldest of 4 young siblings.  We expect a lot of him and know that subconsciously we hold him to a higher standard.  However, I think he's embracing this challenging role and is the kind of young person that his brothers and sister can look up to.

And though he doesn't always love what we ask of him, he still thinks Scott is the smartest person on the planet (I’m not exaggerating) and that I’m the coolest person to hang out with. I know this won't always be the case so we try not to take any of these feelings for granted.

Overall, we just love being around him…watching for what comes next.

Here are is stats from this mornings visit:

Height: 3 feet, 8.5 inches (80%)
Weight: 42 pounds (59%)

It's Hat Time

Ben is obsessed with his winter hat. He wears it even when he’s sweating. So, today when I brought out Sam’s old hat for Graham to wear, I should have expected the excitement from Ben. He “helped” me put it on and then proceeded to dance around Graham to show his joy for matching hats.

But what I love most about looking at the picture of my two “middle” children in their hats is just how much they look alike. Cuties!!!!

A Toothy Grin

This morning Grace woke us up by talking very loudly in her crib.  Every now and then we would hear Graham put his two cents worth in, but Grace was definitely telling him something important.  After a while I decided they needed to eat so I plucked them from their beds.  Grace continues babbling during this time.  Once they finish their bottles, I put Grace in my lap.  She immediately bites into my hand and it hurts because a tooth had emerged on the bottom of her mouth!  Our first tooth!  I guess she was trying to tell us all about the new addition in her mouth.

Church Bound

After a very long hiatus, we FINALLY made it to church this morning! We’ve been talking about going for months but we knew it would be a production trying to get 4 kids + 2 adults dressed nicely and out the door by 9:15am. And though we left a few minutes late (we had to quickly photograph the moment, of course) it felt so, so great to be back.

Now let’s see about repeating this week after week!

We're LOVING this Warm Mid-January Weather!

My 2nd Most Coveted Appliance Arrives!

As with most things in life, you never truly know the love, need and power of something until it is no longer there.  The day before Christmas Eve, our dishwasher and washing machine broke.  Without question these are our two most prized possessions with four young children in the house.  Luckily, the washing machine (that runs non-stop) was able to be fixed by replacing a part but our dishwasher was dead.  We limped through a household of people for Christmas by doing LOTS of hand washing and eating on (eek!) paper plates.  As soon as the stores opened the day after Christmas, Scott searched high and low for a dishwasher.  The kind we wanted could not be delivered until this week.   Last night (after a long day of work) my dear husband installed the wonderful appliance.  I cannot tell you how delighted I was to eat breakfast on real plates knowing that we could put them in the dishwasher (!!!!) to be cleaned.  Thanks to Scott and Sears for making this mom (and my dry and cracked hands) very, very happy!

Copy Cat

Friendly Faces

We received so many wonderful Christmas cards from family & friends this year.  It’s been a little over a month since we received our first card and we have loved watching our collection grow with each visit from the Post Office delivery person.  As soon as he pushed the mail through the door slot, the boys would run to sift through the mail to pull out all the cards.  Sadly, it’s time to move on from Christmas so the cards must come down.  So, I decided to post this picture so we can always look back and see all our loved ones smiling at us at once!

A New Addition

Jim, Greg, Mimi and Pop must really want our kids to start a band one day because we have a new musical instrument to add to our collection, a LOUD guitar.  Ben LOVES this wonderful item and insists on playing it non-stop.  Today Sam decided to join in on the noise and sang to Ben’s made up tune.  I hate to admit it, but it was fun to watch!  As a bonus, the babies loved the commotion!

Tummy Time

We had such a great time with the babies this afternoon.  They were both in great moods and were so excited to show off their tummy time skills. 

STRIKE!

One of the biggest highlights of Sam's birthday was watching Ben bowl.  Originally, we expected him not to bowl but from the second we got there he wanted to jump right in and bowl with the big boys.  He had zero fear throwing the ball down the lane and even (pictured above) got a STRIKE! 

Some of MY Favorite Things

Here are my top 3 favorite homemade items from Sam’s party:

1.) Custom Star Wars (SW) color sheet + a homemade SW crayon

2.) Fun SW standup figures
3.) Ashley’s delicious cupcakes + SW toppers

Bowling Birthday Party

Sam’s 5th birthday party was a huge success. He really wanted to have a Star Wars bowling party so I worked tirelessly (I’m kidding) to get it pulled together in the 2 weeks following the Christmas holidays. I don’t think most of the kids had bowled before so it was surprising at how good they were (granted they did put up the bumpers in the gutters so the likelihood that you would get at least one pin knocked down was pretty high). There were lots of bowling forms (everything from the classic granny stance to ones being hoisted through the air like a baseball) and lots of celebratory dances. There were really, really fast balls and painfully slow balls. Every child had their own style. One of the funnier things I noticed was that all of the kids were very concerned with how they were going to throw the ball but once it was rolling down the lane, most turned around and could care less about watching the pins get knocked down. It was only after their parents encouraged them to pay attention would they get excited by the ball hitting the pins.

After an hour of bowling, they enjoyed pizza and some wonderful cupcakes made by the amazing Ashley A.

I hope all the kids had fun and I know Sam had a great time with many of his beloved friends.

Happy Birthday, Sam! We love you kiddo!

Little Boys & Big Machines

Getting Ben into and out of school right now is challenging.  They are slowly working to repair the parking lot and there are lots of diggers, road rollers and scrapers moving around.  He is fascinated by all of them from a distance but when they get too close, the noise scares him.  I’m looking forward to them wrapping up the project, but Ben will be devastated when they finish the parking lot and move onto another location.

Baby Stormtrooper

School Celebration

On Thursday, Ben and I continued our celebration of Sam’s birthday. We attended chapel with him where he got to stand up in front of the other SLDS students to receive a special blessing followed by a round of Happy Birthday. This is one of my favorite traditions and I’ll truly miss it next year when he leaves St. Luke’s for kindergarten.

After chapel, we went upstairs to enjoy homemade Star Wars cookies with his friends. We had yet another round of Happy Birthday and I don’t think Sam stopped smiling the entire time we were there.

It was a special day for a newly turned 5-year-old!

The Start of Real Food

I was going to hold off on giving the babies “real” food (calling rice cereal food is a bit of a stretch) until they were 6 months old, but we had time to kill one night so I decided to give it a try.  Graham couldn’t get enough, but Grace must have a palette for fine food as she spit it out faster than I could push it back in.  Maybe she'll come around, or maybe she's holding out for something decadent like sweet potatoes.    

An Aspiring Rapper...

Or a future choir director?

I’m leaning towards to latter as he was singing “Jesus Loves Me” loudly into the microphone. 

Time to Dress Up

I remember a day not too long ago when Sam would put on multiple costumes in the course of an hour. We have tons of dress-up clothes ranging from policeman to vet to superhero, and Sam would blow through each outfit while running around the house impersonating each “person”.

These days, Ben has taken on the costume role. He usually sticks with one costume a day but he’ll wear it for hours on end if you will let him.

If this trend continues, I have a feeling that Graham will be doing the same thing in a few years. Maybe I should start investing in a few new ones (Spiderman is already starting to get holes) so it doesn’t work like it usually does…Graham in the 5+ year hand me downs while Grace is sitting pretty in the new princess dress.

Happy 5th Birthday, Sam!

It’s hard to believe that Sam turned 5-years-old today. It seems like yesterday that we were living in Chapel Hill, NC with a newborn. Fast forward five years and here we are. Sam is such an energetic, hilarious, inquisitive child who is excited to live each moment as it comes. He wakes up ready to face the world and engages each of his siblings with such love and kindness. Ben, in turn, wants to be just like Sam and truly mimics his EVERY move and sound throughout the day.

In honor of Sam, today was everything Star Wars. It started out with Star Wars shaped pancakes (Yoda, Darth Vader & Stormtrooper), followed by lots of Star Wars presents (and one very cool, interactive globe). After nap we enjoyed cupcakes and a game of Chutes & Ladders (Sam won, of course). The night ended with Grandma/Paw Paw and Mimi/Pop singing Happy Birthday.

In a funny turn of events, Ben also thought it was his birthday (though we told him repeatedly it wasn’t his special day) and was baffled when he didn’t have presents to open. Sam was kind enough to share his presents that he didn’t love so much and everyone ended up happy.

Happy Birthday, Sam! I hope you had a memorable day.

Sophie the Giraffe

As with our other kids, Grace & Graham love chewing on Sophie.  What is it about this plastic toy that is so addictive?

Wait...am I a TWIN?!?

Grace & Graham are finally starting to acknowledge that there is another baby in the room.  It’s been fun to watch their reaction when they make eye contact, grab onto the other’s arm or hear the other cry or laugh.  There’s no better playmate than a twin!

Rah Rah TCU!

After hanging our flag and getting everyone in purple, the Sheehan Six stayed up late to cheer on the Horned Frogs.  We're so glad they beat Wisconsin and won the Rose Bowl.  Go TCU!

Cookie Monster

This blog entry is a bit delayed but I didn’t want to forget to put it in writing for Ben.

Two days after Christmas, I decided that I was the only one eating the sweets in the house and they needed to be thrown away. So, during naptime I cleaned out all the sweets from the house and threw everything into the trash. Ben and Sam got up from their naps shortly after this and went to the playroom.

After a while, Graham wakes up too so I go to his room to get him up. While I’m back there, Sam comes to tell me that Ben was eating cookies out of the trash. I dart out to the kitchen and the pantry door is closed. I express this to Sam and he says that Ben shut the door behind him and is hanging out in the pantry. Low and behold, I open the door and there is Ben with the top of the trash can open…eating sugar cookies out of the trash. GROSS! Lesson learned, next time I throw something sweet in the trash…I need to take it to the trash can outside. That way the cookie monster won’t eat them out of the trash again.

A Future Kellogg's Employee?

Ben is OBSESSED with Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars.  He asks for them from the moment he gets out of bed through bath time at night.  We literally have to hide them from him in order to keep him from busting into the pantry to grab a handful of them at once.   I thought I had put them on a shelf high enough to be out of reach to Ben, but out he comes yesterday with the box tore open and begging for us to open his “breakfast bar”.  I guess I underestimated the lengths he would go to get to his beloved food.