TheLinharts

"The Days are Long but the Years are Short..."

This is what I keep saying to myself lately! I'm trying to be less caught up in the daily craziness and more caught up in the sweetness of everyday life with my little ones. The kids never cease to amaze me with their creativity, energy, sweetness (and spice!), and downright funny comments. I'm just trying to soak it all in and tell myself that, yes, someday I will sleep again.....

Soooooo...what HAVE we been up to lately, you ask? Here are some highlights:

Picnic-ing in the yard!

Ellie is "watering her kindergarten"! If you know Ellie, there is no convincing her otherwise. I said, "Ellie, that's called a garden"...she said, "No mommy. This is my KINDERgarten." I choose my battles..haha

The five of us took a trip to Nebraska to see our good friends the Hunnicutts! We took in some good 'ole farm livin' for a weekend - lol

My Handsome Driver

Sidekick

And the crew:

Actually, the trip there and back was pretty painless and only took 4-5 hours. It was totally worth it because we all had a blast! The kids picked up right where they had left off, and we adults got pampered by Anna's cooking and Zach's birthday festivities. We had beautiful weather and spent lots of time outside in the dirt!

(I'm so thankful for Jeni and Anna's amazing photography skills- they get all the credit for these pics! Thanks, girls!)


Yep, he ate some.

Oh, the sweetness!!

Our buddy, Levi! Love this little man!


Big kids

Snuggles with Anna

The whole crew!

Jessie and I survived our "Rock the Parkway" run together! So fun, and a great feeling of accomplishment afterwards! We even beat our goal :) Gearing up for the 8K on Memorial Day!

Playing in the rain! What is better than that? I actually remember doing this when I was a kid. I'm not sure if my mom let me run around outside without shoes on, but I let the kids- don't judge me! haha- they loved it...and they haven't gotten pneumonia yet- I wish you could have heard them singing in the rain-

Chores! This is my new tactic for getting them to take a rest. If they get out of bed I give them the choice of resting in their room or doing chores. So far, they keep choosing chores. Maybe I need to make the chores more unpleasant? It's impressive to see how motivating it can be to get out of taking a rest. Yesterday, the kids folded a whole basket of towels by themselves. Getting pretty good at laundry, too...

Here is Ellie washing the lettuce in her high heels:

For Easter, we went to Emporia for a few days....

Sporting some new gear from grandma and grandpa:

Got some snuggles from great uncle Bill and aunt Sharon

We went to church on Easter Sunday and then spent a really low-key relaxing day, just the 5 of us. We went out to eat and played at the park, ran around outside, ate ice cream and relaxed at home. It was perfect!

We had a visit from Grandma Marcia!

Oh, you all know how I LOVE crafts. If I had all the time in the world, I would spend much more of it doing crafts of all kinds- my world would be even more covered in glitter, ribbons, paint, mod podge, sequins, bedazzling.....oh the possibilities! That's my dream world. My reality: Instead, I am usually covered in milk, spit up, chewed-up food, stickers, and other random things that come along with having 3 little ones either on my hip or by my side most of the time :) I'm running on energy that comes from a few hours of sleep and a steady diet of coffee and half-eaten chicken nuggets. So, although I don't have time to start or finish many craft projects myself, I can live vicariously through my kids! I want them to be able to create, get messy, and find joy in making things with their hands. Our God is a creative God- I can see that reflected in my little ones and love seeing beauty through their eyes. ((note: before I go on making it sound sooo sentimental- I do have to be honest- I do cringe when they ask to paint-or play with play-doh for that matter- I just know a colossal mess will be waiting for me when we are done.)) But I (usually) resist the urge to say "not now" and bust out the crafts and watch them dig in!

We made a decoration to put up at William's preschool- it was all the things we love about Baby Will!

To further our creative endeavors, I let them decorate Easter cookies this year. Oh WOW, had I known how that would turn out, I may have re-considered! I think they ate half of them (they kept "accidentally" breaking one and saying "Well! I guess we better eat that one!" Or just sneaking bites of cookie and icing and sprinkles when I wasn't looking....or, lets be honest, just dumping sprinkles into their mouths. I thought I was being smart by having them strip down and putting down an old sheet on the floor for them to work on. Afterwards I folded up the sheet (TOTALLY covered in drippy icing and sprinkles and cookie crumbs) and put it on the back deck to deal with later. I then went upstairs to rock William and put him down for his nap. Not long after I went upstairs, I see Ellie peeking in William's room. She said, "Look Mommy! I got this for you!" She had opened the back door, grabbed the sheet, sopping with sugary icing and crumbs and hundreds of tiny little sprinkles, dragged the sheet inside, through the dining area, up the (carpeted) stairs, down the (carpeted) hall, and into William's room. AHHHH!!!!

William is getting SO big- he is truly just FULL of joy- so jolly and chubby and snuggly!! Mama is really spoiling this baby boy :) I just can't get enough of him! He is loving his jumperoo, starting to scoot around on his tummy a little, and can sit for a few seconds.

And he is the BEST snuggler!

Does this mean he is too big for the bouncer? hahahaha- I think YES

A couple weeks ago, we joined Sally, Kelsey, Jess and Brig (with all the kids in tow) and went down to Crown Center to see the new aquarium that just opened. However, when we got there, the line for tickets was 2.5 hours LONG! Are you kidding? No WAY we were going to stand in line for 2.5 hours with the kids. So, instead, we played in the fountains, ate ice cream, and checked out a free kids exhibit they had inside. It was such a fun day!

They are saying "Whooooo! Whooo!" like the owl (Ellie's favorite animal by the way)

Riding the camel! She was hilarious on this! She kept saying "Hey! Everyone! Look at me!"

William is eating cereal now! Here was his first reaction:

We've been loving the sunshine; even got out the pool!

What a sweet boy! Picked some flowers for mommy :)

Trips to the YMCA! Even though it often takes longer to get out of the house than it does for me finish my workout, I try to convince myself that it IS worth the effort :) They enjoy going to their class while momma exercises. (They've even been learning Spanish in there!) Ellie has totally been working it back in the child watch area because she has realized that she can get away with being in either Caleb or Will's class. She is young enough to be in William's class but since she is potty trained she can be in Caleb's class. So of course she enjoys having the power to choose- she often makes it a point to choose the opposite room than the one I suggest...Oh, my little strong-willed child! I have to remind myself that God has big plans for this confident little girl!

They are taking swimming lessons through the Y this year, too:

Caleb recently finished up is Bitty Baseball, too. It is just so cute to see them out there all chasing after the ball. They gave him a jersey with the number 6. He was like, "I want to choose my number". So we asked him what number he would choose? He said "one million nine". It's his favorite number.

Ellie was just DYING to participate, too! She even got hit in the head with a ball because she kept running out on the field.

OK, so we've discovered that Caleb truly does have a talent for climbing. It's actually kind of amazing- we don't know really how he does it, but here is an example:

We went to his friend Finn's birthday party last weekend, and he climbed the rock wall all the way to the top in no time flat, and then repelled down and asked to do it again!

So, we've been finding the kids sleeping in some odd places lately. I think it's because they never want to take a nap anymore. They fight it and fight it and so sometimes we find them later in the afternoon totally crashed somewhere random. On this particular day, both kids had played up in their room instead of napping. Finally, I gave up and let them come down (and do chores) and then play. Well, this always makes for some cranky kids when they get over-tired. Caleb and Ellie were listening to a book on CD and Ellie had to go to her room (for the THIRD time) for hitting Caleb. She was being really quiet up there so I went to check on her and see if she was ready to come down and apologize (again), and I found her behind the door, cuddling her Nahla, totally conked out:

Then, I went back downstairs to find this:

Here's another one. Found her during nap time like this:

Caleb is just growing up so fast and we are amazed at the things he remembers and learns. He can read and write many words now, count to over 100 (working on backwards), and present quite a logical argument, especially when he wants something. Here are a few examples of his worksheets we did at home:

I got to go to a Sporting KC soccer game with some girlfriends- it was so much fun! There was actually tornado weather that night, but we were oblivious- just having a good time!

Sporting their new bike helmets from the Olathe Med. Center Family Fun Fest!

I got to spend an amazing day out at the Arboretum last month. We did our annual ministry planning for Children's Ministries- talk about a gorgeous day full of blessings! Just getting to spend some quiet time walking around and reflecting was something I haven't done in a long time~

One of the best parts of Dan and my day is settling the kids into bed and hearing their sweet prayers. I have to share a picture of their prayer board. They get to choose pictures to put on it (with magnets) and pray for each one. It keeps little hands busy and helps with the short attention span :)