Hey friends! It's been a while ( I always say that). I guess having three kids is catching up to me. So, here's what's happenin' with our fam of five-

Will had his 4 mon checkup this week- 16 1/2 pounds! He is 75th percentile for length, 50th for head, and 50th for weight (I was just sure he would be higher in the weight category- he's getting so chubby!!). Another surprise- he had a double ear infection- poor guy! I had no idea, so he must be a tough one (living up to his name- William: strong protector, Ryder: knight, mounted warrior- lol). Anyway, he is rolling over now. He's really good at back to front, but he only rolled once from front to back and now I think he forgot how :) He's grasping and "playing" with toys, discovering his hands and loves to be talked to....and he discovered how tasty his thumb is!! We (I say "we" but I really mean "I") are trying to thwart it, but I think it's inevitable, haha.

Dan and I have both taken a little getaway this month. Dan went to TX for the SXSW conference last weekend, and I got to go to San Diego with the Children's Ministries team from church to attend the CPC conference and have some team-building adventures! I am so blessed to get to spend time with these amazing women:I believe this was taken before Ann lost her gold shoe in the ocean, or so we thought. We had just given up the search when Jo spotted it glistening on the beach, down the shore a little ways.
We also went to La Jolla and got to see lots of seals. They give birth to their baby seals (pups??) between Feb and May so we got to see lots of new baby seals and some pregnant mama ones, too. This one was pregnant (see below), and we could even see the baby kicking (or flippering??) inside her belly!! So cool. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Gretchen can do a great impression of a seal barking- it's quite impressive, you should ask her next time you see her :) It was so fun rooming with Ann while I was there- it was reminiscent of all the sleepovers we used to have in highschool- staying up late, talking, snacking, catching up on life. So, here's what friendship looks like:Love this girl!Daniel and I both got to go to Caleb and Ellie's preschool Valentines party this year- it was so much fun, and Caleb was super proud to have daddy there.
Sugar overload!!!Even William got valentines:I love any opportunity to love on my babies!Here is a pic of the Valentines we made this year. The kids were so excited about them. In fact, just tonight at bedtime, Ellie said (as I was turning out the lights and closing her door) "Mom! Wait! I have something to tell you! I got Valentines!" And, yes, she calls me "mom" now. She's quite proper, always using "Mom", "Dad", and "Yes"- never "ya", just "Yes"- lol
So, you all know how much Caleb loves music, right? We are constantly listening to tunes from his Buzz Lightyear CD player (#bestChristmasGiftEver) and watching him sing and dance to the beat. So right now he is really liking Garth Brooks, and always begs us to play it in the car. Since he is so good at memorizing and repeating the words, we try to be really careful to skip over the songs that have anything innapropriate in them (i.e.- things we don't want him repeating in public). So, I realized today we haven't done a very good job when I heard him say: "I set sail with Captain Morgan!" . Ahhh....and remember when we were in Target and he started singing, "D*mned if I do, d*mned if I don't"!!!!! Should have seen my face after that one! I think we better stick to K-love! Yikes!

Speaking of the things kids say, here part of our meal-time conversation from a few weeks ago. For some reason, we got on the topic of marriage:

Me: Caleb, who are you going to marry?

Caleb: Mom, I’m already married! To Aunt Jess. Remember? I carried the pillow down (he was the ring bearer in her wedding).

Me: Well, Aunt Jess actually married Uncle Brig. So you have to marry someone else. You have to marry someone that isn’t already married.

Caleb: Ok, I want to marry grandma!

Ellie: I want to marry grandpa!

Later….

Caleb: Actually, I want to marry a girl in a tractor!

(Watch out, Adeline! haha)

Here are some pics of our KU-MU "watch party". We had so much fun with Jess, Brig, Kelynn, and Grandma and Grandpa! Glad our Hawks pulled through in the end-

Kelynn!Two little Jayhawks!Nuthin' like a big hunk of meat and cheese-Mizzou's got NOTHING on us! #whatwhatCheerleader:
Littlest Jayhawk!
So I spend most of my time keeping up with these little ones, and I wonder why after a long day's work it looks like I got absolutely nothing done. Exhibit A:So these are the kinds of things I walk into often. Toilet paper piles (see above. Ellie said "Look Mom! I got ALOT!"), overflowing bowls of cheerios (but at least he tries to do it himself, right?), kids scaling the pantry shelves or climbing on the outside of the banisters, writing with chalk on the window screens (that was today), hitting each other with sticks (inflicting real battle wounds- see pic below), attempting to feed William a peanut, taking every canned good out of the pantry and putting them in "time out" on the stairs (that was today, too), etc! Good thing I love 'em so much!(these are my my mom's glasses- haha- and, yes, I did attempt to cut her bangs- MAJOR FAIL! I will never do that again- sorry Ellie!)

Caleb was busy doing family portraits the other day, so I had to take pics:
Here's me- with HUGE hair!! At least I'm smiling in the picture, though! Whew-Self-portraitThe kids and I had a fun weekend with Grandma Janet last weekend when Dan was out of town. I even put mom to work at church on Sunday! And she was sweet enough to stay an extra day to stay with Will since he had a little fever. Don't know why I don't have any pics~ must have been having too much fun :)

We've had some pretty awesome playdates lately:

We got to go to Jackson's house for some play time! This is Heidi's little one- isn't he precious!?!And Caleb's friend Daisy and her brother Ivan came over last week, too! He has been BEGGING me every day, "When can Daisy come over!??" So we finally had the opportunity when Melissa and I both had the day off. Caleb was so pumped- and they had the best time!!!
Came up with this pose on his own :)
Grandpa Fred with his two babies- Kelynn and Will! This was before the St. Patty's Day parade. Ellie was SO tired after the parade- she needed a lift from Uncle Brig!I actually learned something cool about St. Patrick today- check out the "true story of St. Patrick"
here!

We hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather as much as we are!

Love, the Linharts