Childhood

I was walking past the girls' room one day and happened to see this scene, so I grabbed my camera and captured some of it. Noah was over, and whenever he's over, it's a never-ending party with them. They just love having him over to play with. They had taken all the pillows and blankets they could find and were stacking them up on the sides of each bed like a wall against each other. Just kids being kids. Busy doing the things kids do.

I love those moments with my kids where I'm on the outside looking in, detached from the scene and able to observe them and see them how the rest of the world sees them. Like this scene. They knew I was there but kept doing their thing.

My favorite is watching them play in the backyard from the kitchen window as I wash dishes or cook, puttering around the kitchen and always stealing glances of their antics. It often brings a smile to my face, but sometimes tears, because the moment just hits me straight in the heart. Those are my kids, and they are experiencing their childhood under my watch, in the home Bogdan and I created for them and in the childhood yard they'll remember fondly years down the road. Seeing the dynamic between them all as they play games on the trampoline reminds me of my own childhood, and all the negotiating and arguing and rule-making that went on. Ah, childhood, such a beautiful thing. I love seeing my children smack dab in the middle of it.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. 

The other is as though everything is  miracle." -Albert Einstein

11 months with her

A little morning photo shoot of our babe doing her thing at eleven months of age. That corner of our living room by the teepee and bookcase is her spot. All her toys are there, and when she's not playing with those, she's busy pulling books off the shelves or dumping movies out of the bins. She absolutely loves standing next to the coffee table. She used to crawl under it over and over again when she was smaller, bumping her head underneath a million times but never stopping. Now she likes to walk around it, bang her toys on it, and get on top too.

She seems to be happiest when she is on top of something, which is scary for me but also funny. I can't believe such a small thing, and a girl too, loves to climb anything and everything and get up as high as she can on things. Where did she come from?!? :) I thought Naomi would be walking by 11 months of age, but she seems to be taking her sweet time taking that jump. She's very strong on her legs, and crawls so fast across the room now. Her balance and strength are all there, now we're just waiting for her head to catch up. She's an expert stair climber, and spends a good chunk of every day on them. It doesn't scare me much anymore because she's just so good on them. She never falls off. She's fiesty, and screams at me when she disagrees with me. She definitely lets us know when she wants something, and she is used to getting it, too. All her siblings just love her. She loves being outdoors, so naturally walks are right up her alley. Whenever she hears the fridge door open, she makes a run for it and starts pulling things out of the drawers and off the shelves. That fridge is the best babysitter when I'm cooking and want to get her out from under my feet for a few minutes. We love our spunky, sweet, daring, determined little girl!

xoxo,
Tanya

Easter 2014

Easter meant lots and lots of pictures for us. It's always a super busy weekend of egg hunts and getting together with family. I always love putting Easter baskets together, and this year I think I hit a good balance of getting them some fun things but not overdoing it. I did, however, overdo it on the candy. Definitely. Next year I will try even harder to tone it down, because we are still eating Easter candy, and will be for a while. The kids usually eat their favorites pretty quickly and then the rest just sit there and get hard. We went to the park on Saturday morning for an egg hunt put on by a local church, and we basically hit the jackpot there. They had like 60,000 eggs, and we didn't even have to battle other kids to fill our baskets. It was kind of crazy!

Natalia and I finished filling the eggs for our second hunt of the day, this one at my parents' house, and we headed over there after Naomi's nap (very important). :) We had a delicious dinner thanks to my mom (like always), and hid the eggs all around the backyard for the kids to find. Naomi was the star of the show, of course. She couldn't put the eggs down, or keep them out of her mouth, so yeah, there are a lot of pictures of Naomi slobbering all over the eggs.

Sunday morning we reminded the kids what Easter is really about, and headed off to church to celebrate the holiday properly. By this point I was nice and tired, like I always am on Sunday, but we still had a nice, relaxed day. After church we headed home just to open our Easter baskets since we didn't have time for it in the morning. The older kids each got an egg pooper, a chocolate bunny, Schwings for their shoes, a salami rope, and more candy of course. Ben got duct tape, which he was really excited about. He loves making duct tape wallets and other things out of it, and this was a new color to add to his collection. Naomi got a bunny bib and a wooden name train, and she didn't care about either. She just wanted all the candy in her mouth. I always enjoy watching the kids opening gifts. I guess I'm a giver--it's one of my love languages--and seeing their happiness and hearing their 'thank yous' really made my day that much sweeter.

I became obsessed with Cadbury mini eggs this year after discovering them just now (where have I been?!) and I basically ate everybody's eggs out of their baskets and then some. Good thing they're not sold all year round, because seriously, I couldn't stay away. Something about the crunchy shell with the nutty chocolate inside is such an addictive combination, and I know I'm not the only one because I kept seeing things on Instagram about people's obsession with them.

After quickly opening our baskets, we headed to Bogdan's parents' house and spent the rest of the day with family, and of course the kids got another egg hunt there. And that's how we ended up with massive piles of candy after it was all over. 

xoxo,
Tanya