Leif is FIVE!

Leif went to bed on his last night of being four convinced that during the night he would get bigger and outgrow his pajamas. He was certain that he would need to take them off in the middle of the night to accommodate his growing body. His growth doesn't happen quite so quickly, but is has been fast! All of the sudden we have a five year old!
Leif loves to laugh and is a very, very silly kid. He can also be very shy and only wants attention on his own terms. Leif is a thinker and is very clever. He's a one-of-a-kind little person and we love him! Here are his answers for his birthday interview:

Who is your favorite person? Trevor

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Planes and Planes Fire and Rescue (this has been his favorite movie since before he turned two)

What is your favorite outfit? Nothing (He was sort of giving my short answers trying to get this interview over with, but he really does love wearing nothing but his underwear- all my kids seem to love this!)

What song do you like the best? Hark The Herald Angel Sing  (this is the most recent song that I sing to him at bedtime, he even wanted us to sing it instead of Happy Birthday)

What is your favorite cereal? Crepes (not a cereal, but by far his favorite breakfast food)

Who is your best friend? Asher

What do you want to do when your grow up? Fly airplanes

What is your favorite book? Planes Fire and Rescue (of course- the book version of his favorite movie. He has this book memorized and can 'read' the whole thing-it's been his favorite for a few years now)

What are you really good at? Coloring- he has become a coloring maniac lately, getting out markers and coloring books whenever he gets the chance

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Oregon

What would you buy is you had a lot of money? Candy

What is your favorite dinner? Chicken Rolls

If you could have a wish, what would it be? Snow to build a snowman

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip-the green kind

Who do you want to be like? Our Dad

What do you like to do with your friends? Run around

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Go on a hot air balloon ride

What is your favorite thing to do? Play Planes Fire and Rescue

What are you proud of? Everything

What are you afraid of? Monsters

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Sew

How strong is Dad? Really strong

What does Dad do best? Work

What does Mom do best? Sew

What do you like best about Dad? His stories (Austin often tells them very silly stories just to make them laugh. He also tells them really creative stories at bedtime about becoming dragons)

What do you like best about Mom? She makes us food

This is a picture of Leif's last night being four

My dad was singing to Leif over the phone. He gets so shy and hides when people sing to him.

Here he is talking to Austin's dad and looking at the awesome book he got him. 

There were originally 5 balloons, one just popped

We had a backward day (Leif has been asking for one for months) so we had chicken rolls for breakfast (yuck!), pizza for lunch, and chocolate waffles for dinner.

Everyone had to have a candle to blow out

Trevor got just a little taste of chocolate waffles, then he ate a bunch of strawberries

Leif wanted a "jello cake", which is just a bunch of layers of different flavors of jello topped with whipped cream. It didn't really glow- Austin just put a flashlight there to try to highlight the layers of colors. 

Here are the kids enjoying all the new toys together

2 1/2

Our little princess is 2 1/2! Wow she is getting big in a hurry!
Heidi LOVES her daddy! She often talks about him throughout the day, bringing him up in the conversation even when he has nothing to do with what we are talking about. The other day I was explaining something about the library to the boys and Heidi suddenly said "my daddy can go to the library. He's a boy and he's my daddy and he can go to the library". She just must be thinking about him a lot even though she only gets to see him for a few minutes in the morning and for a little while at night :) A few nights ago while Austin was getting Heidi ready for bed she started touching his stubbly beard and mustache and started talking about how it was prickly, then told him that it was beautiful. A few weeks ago, Heidi saw some pictures of Austin that I keep on my dresser mirror and decided that she wanted a picture of him in her room. I found a little one and she was so proud to put it in her room. Sometimes I catch her walking around with it-she sure loves her daddy!
However, even though she loves her daddy, she really likes to be with mom too. She loves to sit in the bathroom going through my drawer while I put makeup on. She especially loves to get my wedding ring out of its box and give it to me. She also loves to run errands with me alone on Saturdays when we leave the boys home with dad.
Heidi is extremely talkative! She is always saying something and demanding that we listen to her. Sometimes she gets going so fast that I've had to swear to Austin that I'm not giving her any stimulant drugs ;) She talks especially fast when she's trying to talk me into something or make excuses for what she is doing. If I tell her she has to do something she doesn't want to or stop doing something she wants to do, she says "no, no, no, no, no, no, I just . . . ." and gives me whatever her reason is. Last night she was hanging on the banister and when I told her to stop she first said that she was a big girl. When I told her big girls don't hang on banisters, she explained that she was exercising. When I reminded her that she has a pink yoga mat to exercise on (she likes to exercise with me in the mornings sometimes) she came up with the excuse that she was doing it for the baby- which makes no sense, but I had nothing to say to that and eventually just had to distract her with another activity. For some reason, Heidi usually refers to Trevor as "the baby". Sometimes she calls him Baby Trevor and always insists that he is her baby, but its just funny and seems impersonal when she says "the baby".
Heidi's imaginative play is also really blossoming lately! She especially likes to pretend to cook things, but imagines other things too and loves to tell us all about it. Unless of course she is just completely caught up in her play- then she doesn't talk to us much. 
Heidi is definitely a little fire cracker in our family! She adds spice and laughter to every day. Here are a few photos I got of her before church.

Plus a bonus of Leif with the baby snowman he built:

11 Months

Our little Trevor is getting big too fast. He is now very mobile, racing around the house on his hands and knees as fast as he can go. He loves to try to keep up with his siblings, but as ever, his favorite place is usually in mom's arms. Trevor has started pulling himself up and then squatting down to pick things up. He is a busy little guy that needs constant supervision, but is so happy the majority of the time. We've discovered the he loves popcorn (I just make sure to only give him soft pieces with no kernels) and he is delighted to share it with us. One evening Austin and I got him laughing for several minutes straight just because we were feeding him little bits of popcorn. He is such a sweet, pleasant little fellow!
Poor, little bug has had a runny nose for the last month! It went away for about a week, but then came back again when he picked up some new virus. It's just that season of the year- he's perfectly happy despite not feeling well, but he almost always has something stuck on his nose because I can't keep up with keeping it clean- and he hates when I do it anyway ;)