snips & snails & puppy dog tails

Two of my three boys get all worked up when their sisters tell them they are made of dog tails. When a party is offended we often ask "is that true?" & if the answer is no, we encourage them to move along & not be bothered. This is hard when you are three. In fact, there are a lot of things hard about being three! In 1 month & 4 days (not like anyone is counting) we will have two 4 year olds. We hope it's not hard to be four too, ha! But really, they may not be made of dog tails but they are 1 part trucks, 1 part shovels & three parts mud. I love it & I love them.

 

Arlo has finally joined in on the exploring the great outdoors on two feet although you don't necessarily need two feet when there is a dump truck to ride in.

 

The wee little babe photographed taking a ride is now big enough to fight off siblings & push the coveted truck around the yard all by him "seeelf" as Owen says.

 

We have a spot out by the back fence where lots of digging goes on. They are certain they have found multiple dinosaur bones. I just don't have the heart to tell them there are no bones. Maybe I want to believe that they are right. Those two 3 year olds attempt to be real sneaky & fill cups up with water so they can make a river but I always catch them...well, maybe not always.

While Charlotte doesn't mind getting dirty she has taken a liking to scaling trees like a baby bear cub. During one of the many mud baths I got her propped up with five pillows, a towel, a blanket & her notebook. She spent the next hour happily writing a story about a bumble bee.

Back to the Valentine Boys + dirt. The twins were so sweet helping Arlo dig. There were no tears, no fighting & a delighted baby brother joining in on the big kid fun.

They even cheered him on as he tried it out for his afternoon snack.

 

Yum yum. Not the dirt of course but those chubby baby hands that fit just right in mine.

Bella Blue always wants to know what's going on in the backyard. While these boys are not made of puppy dog tails, Arlo is certainly interested in getting ahold of that poor puppy's tail! I do love this picture for many reasons including the time stamp on life it will serve in the future of how old the boys were when Bella was still around. She is in fact alive & well but we are not blind to the fact she's not a spry young pup anymore.  Whenever we bid her farewell, she will be sorely missed by these three.

 

So as not to end on such a sad note I will close with this photo.

Another potential time stamp of little bitty kids & a young tree. I wonder how much it will grow over the years? We spend as much time as possible outside everyday especially when it's warm. Lunch, rest time, math & reading lessons are all better in the great outdoors. It is a gift to have a front row seat to the exploring this brood does day in & day out. Whether finding dinosaur bones or some colored rock they lost last month there is excitement in their eyes, a skip to their step & a song in my heart.

I struggle MANY days to embrace the level of exhaustion & frustration this life stage brings but I know that it is filled with countless opportunities to treasure what God has given me & soak it in. Opportunities to join in on a dinosaur dig, rescue a new tree climber & welcome muddy handprints on my back doors or my clean white shirt are at my doorstep.  I've never met a parent who said anything other than "enjoy, someday you will miss this" so I will ask the Lord to increase my patience, strengthen my soul on weary days & fill me with indescribable joy as I embark on the daily adventures of mothering.

Arlo at ONE year old

Darling Arlo turned one nearly three months ago & what a year (plus a few months) it has been! After the initial adjustment to caring for five little ones it seems as though time is flying & he is growing & changing every single day. He surprised us by being a speedy walker earlier than his older siblings which actually doesn't surprise us as he is happy to keep up with the chasing the best he can. Not only is he walking 100% of the time but he is quite the chatterbox. He's sweet, the most cuddly baby out of our nest & loved beyond by words.

 

Here we go! All about Arlo Benton at ONE year old...give or take 3 months : )

 



 

At his one year appointment:

20.6 pounds

29 inches

 

He is an average sized boy & perfectly squeezable in every way. We often joke saying "I'm so hungry, I think I might eat Arlo for lunch." Then we go onto say what we would nibble first. For me it's a toss up between his cheeks & his tootsie toes. Then we pretend to get our nibbles followed by saying our tummies are full. He doesn't mind the attention since it feels like he's being tickled the whole time. I would HATE that!

 



 

Here he is on the move. He was going full speed to the tree that his big brothers & sisters were attempting to scale. Once he convinced them to come down with his squeals he enjoyed their performance of "I'm bringing home a baby bumble-bee." He was all smiles!

 

 

 

What Darling Arlo is up to at one year old:

•  goes by the nicknames: Arley, doodle, doodle-bug, ba-doodle, bubberoni, goo-ghee, "my chubbiness" by Owen & in the past week he has been deemed "my little snuglet" by Anson, ha!
• loves bath time & copies everything the twins do whether it's dunking their heads underwater or attempting to slide down the back of the tub. He also likes to pour water over the side....not sure who taught him that.
• became a full time walker by Thanksgiving & when he wants to move fast he leans forward & his little feet get movin'!
• he "talks" to you making all sorts of sounds with inflection but no actual words. He is pleased when you converse with him saying "No way! Are you serious? Oh yeah, I like that too!"
• spends a lot of time everyday making cars go down ramps & cheering for himself
• could win the baby division of a sprint to the front door followed by a speedy staircase climb...Usain Bolt is his hero. Should have shielded his eyes from the Rio coverage last summer!
• he has evaluated the self soothing techniques of four older siblings & decided on a combination of sucking his thumb & rubbing his bellybutton. On a stressful day his button ends up SO red!
• when he is headed down stairs he gets on his belly & goes feet first also at record speed. It's almost like there is no bumping along....just sliding
• thinks it's hilarious to pinch people (it really does hurt!) but makes us laugh with how he throws his head back & gives a good belly laugh, screams & does it again
• he's extremely tough whether attacking or being attacked
• says "guh" constantly declaring what he would like by stretching out his arm & extending his hand. Robby says he would be great in the service industry.
• LOVES Bella & calls her "lellelah" over & over as he moves in for a rough pat down
• he is under the impression that he cannot make a sound in the car & would win the Quiet game by a long shot time & time again
• he's so quiet at home sometimes we forget he's there. I was leaving the other afternoon & Rob said as I was walking out the door "Where's Arlo?" I pointed at the baby in a high chair a mere five feet away & we both laughed. It's nice that someone can be quiet around here ; )
• drools so much we call him droolia-childs & droolia-goolia
• every time we walk down the stairs past a 1990's original security system key pad he gets really excited saying "guh guh guh" faster & faster until I hold him up where he can reach it & I start saying "beep beep beep beep" while he presses the keys. There is actually another keypad over his crib in the boys' room. That should keep him busy for hours!
• got his first haircut Thanksgiving week & hated every millisecond of it
• he has five teeth, one of those which just popped through the other day
• would swing as long as you keep swinging him
• enjoys a leisurely ride in the wagon 
• he's really great at following directions so long as they are along the lines of "put your hands in the toilet" or "pull out the dirty silverware & lick it" YUCK!

Dreamland: I am not sure what is wrong with the Nest between the hours of 3 & 7 am but it is certainly far from restful at the moment! This cutie contributes by waking up once. We would still love for him to room with the buckaroos but sleep is more important right now so the less people can disrupt each other the better. He in in the guestroom with a beautiful floral duvet cover. Someday he can have more masculine surroundings. Around his birthday he was taking naps from about 9:30-11 & 1:45-3:45 but has dropped the morning nap. He practically begs to go to bed around 1:30 & sometimes sleeps for 3 hours. Nighttime sleep starts around 6:45pm & he's up & at 'em by 7:15 saying "guh" requesting his breakfast. Arlo is a happy boy when you lay him down. He snuggles up with a quilt, pops his thumb in his mouth, offers a heart melting sleepy-eyed grin & he's out like a light.

It's like he's never been fed: The hands pictured above are successfully fulfilling the important role of shoving food into his mouth. Once he hit about 9 months old his appetite went through the roof & we can't keep up. His favorites are: MEAT, meat & more meat, broccoli, peas, bell peppers, blueberries, grapes, oranges, lasagna, BBQ, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, applesauce, potatoes of any kind, fish, yogurt raisins, peanut butter on anything, Cheerios, pecans, yogurt & just about anything but bananas. He is still nursing a couple times a day. He has finally started drinking more than a few sips of milk from his sippy cup & can down a cup full just as fast as he can crawl up the stairs. "Lellelah" is getting plenty of extra scraps & Arlo is amused at the attention she gives him. I let him try feeding himself his oatmeal this morning & he needed a spray down when he was done...you never learn if you don't try!

Well, I must come to a close but leave you with one last picture of our little snuglet as Anson would say. I smiled while snapping this photo thinking about how a newly walking toddler is a bittersweet sight knowing that they are literally a step closer to independence. For now he's still our baby : )

Tis the Season

The Christmas season started off with some beautiful little voices singing for all to hear. This is our second year to be part of a children's choir & we are loving it. One fun part is that Owen & Anson got to join Eloise in the youngest choir! We started practice in September & began our Christmas tunes right away.  In the youngest choir they learn a song then are rewarded by singing a silly one.  Due to the boys' constant requests to hear them at home I videotaped one week so I could actually remember the words & motions. I think I could lead that portion of rehearsal now! Owen's absolute favorite song is the boomerang or as he says with much excitement, "booma-ring!!" The motions require pretending to throw a "booma-ring" & show it is spinning then pretending to run & hide. It is perfect for bedtime ; ) That is when he most often makes his requests known & no matter how many times he promises to sit still, he is overcome by the booma-ring flying through the air. Another that we love & that I often sing is the patience song. Patience is a virtue & can often be scant around here. There are more but I will spare you the details yet confirm (if shared) they would be stuck in your head....for-eeee-ver to quote "The Sandlot".

 

Not a day goes by that we don't hear someone say something that makes us chuckle. The boys deemed that the performance be called the "beh-foremance" which sounds like it could be the performance before the performance. After a quick dress rehearsal Friday night we were ready for the big "beh-formance!"Anson was not excited to go to practice every week which made us nervous he might be less excited to get on stage. He has just about the meanest & most grumpy looking scowl you have ever seen so I was predicting that if he even got on the stage he would stare us down. Thankfully we were pleasantly surprised! He makes us laugh everyday with his trying to figure out if lunch or dinner is next or if it's today or yesterday.....seems simple but he is working on it! On Friday we kept telling Anson that his performance would be tomorrow. He asked a few million times "Is it tomorrow yet?" We would tell him that it wouldn't be tomorrow until after we slept all night & the sun came up again. Partway through Saturday he asked "Is it tomorrow yet?" We tried our best to explain (AGAIN) that it is now the tomorrow we talked about yesterday. He looked perplexed for a few minutes then exclaimed "Is it tomorrow now? Oh no! The beh-formance is tomorrow! I'm not going!" We try to help him understand but on occasion Rob & I answer him in something of the sort...."no buddy, it's yesterday tomorrow now tonight when we eat breakfast before the sun comes up"

 

 Again, it was a feat to get everyone ready & out the door to make it on time so we were shocked we arrived early. We had a slew of family that joined us including Grammy & Papa, Auntie Deb, GGran, Aunt Sandy & cousin Kelly. I think the kids felt very loved! Grammy got a picture of us before the show started. Arlo looks like he fell asleep. He certainly did not do anything that resembled sleeping....Mr. Busybody! 

 

 

It is a battle to get Charlotte to wear a dress so I let her pick whichever dress she wanted. We looked at dress shoes & she almost melted to the ground when I had her try a pair on. She found these boots instead & I figured they would look great & keep a smile on her little face. Elo on the other hand is so easy...and hilarious. Just the other day Robby told her to get ready to go to Central Market. I was upstairs 10 minutes later & she came out in turquoise exercise shorts, a camo shirt & her Bass Pro hat. I said "Lolo, Daddy told you to get dressed." She looked at me with a straight face & said "I did! I just need to find my shoes!" I reminded her that it was 40 degrees outside & that she looked like she was on a squirrel hunt. I will admit she was adorable though. She did look extremely beautiful all gussied up for her beh-formance! Long story short, Charlotte ended up wearing one of my pairs of tights. After quite the discussion about tights & boots vs. dress shoes I was done. I didn't tell her they were my tights until we were out the door! No time to complain & rip them off right?

 

I was given the honor of lining up the littlest choir & getting them on stage. I'm glad we practiced five times the night before! While we were waiting in the back of the chapel I glanced at Anson & noticed he was sucking his thumb. I gently reminded him to stop & continued eye-balling the rest of the kids to make sure no mischief was in the making. A minute later I heard a little girl starting to cry. I immediately noticed that a certain little boy had coupled his thumb sucking with twirling the lovely locks of the girl in front of him so much that his fingers got stuck. He had the sweetest look on his face which made it all the more hilarious. I couldn't help but laugh as I got her hair untangled.

When it was our turn we walked down the center aisle, got all lines up & the music began. All three little Valentines did a great job with the singing & the motions. Their favorite song was called "Be a Hilarious Giver" where there is a lot of "hee-hee-hee-ha-ha-ha" sounds. Arlo even joined in on the car jam sessions.

Owen made a scene once we made it to the back of the chapel with his choir.  Just to the left of Owen in the picture above is sweet Amelia. Both boys love to play with her but Owen is smitten. He first asked us quietly "Where is Amelia?" I answered that she was with her family but he insisted that she was not & got louder & louder saying things like "I NEED TO TALK TO AMELIA!" & "TAKE ME TO AMELIA NOW!" Oh my goodness, haha! I had to take Arlo & the video camera while Robby escorted the rowdy young lad out of earshot. The video footage of Charlotte's choir was a little bumpy, more like enough to make you nauseous due to chasing a new walking baby & restraining a three year old. Owen was disappointed we never saw the missing Amelia the rest of the evening but I assured him she will be back at choir practice in January.

The performance by the Junior Choir was fantastic. The favorite song chosen by the whole Valentine family was "Go Tell it on the Mountain." We also jammed to it in the car & it happens to be full of Irish flair with a fiddle. Eloise had us in tears on more than one occasion playing her air fiddle like a maniac from her booster seat. Charlotte worked really hard to learn her songs & was so excited to perform. She's grown in confidence so much in the past year. They also sang Come Thou Long Expected Jesus & Jesus Tender Shepherd, both so beautiful. 

 

Fast forward a couple days....we spent the afternoon at the Arboretum then the plan was for Rob & Eloise to drop off the rest of us & go out on a date.  She picked a burger joint down the street so casual was the plan or so we thought. I told Eloise to change her shoes so she ran upstairs while I was busy in the kitchen. A few minutes later I started to yell up the stairs to tell her to get a move on when she burst out of her room saying "I can't get this zipped mommy!" She had put on her Christmas outfit complete with a matching headband & bow. I rushed her back into her room to keep it a surprise & when we were ready I announced the arrival of Daddy's date. She walked down the stairs smiling so big while he complimented her again & again. He was in jeans & tennis shoes but decided a wardrobe change was necessary to take such a fancy young lady on a date. I'm sure she was the best dressed girl at the burger place!

We love to get the Christmas décor out the day after Thanksgiving & I was bouncing with excitement to set up our NEW tree.  I've mentioned it before but we started with a $29 tree from Target in 2005. We replaced it once in Florida with none other than a $29 tree from Target. We decided that the first year in the new house warranted replacing the scrawny old thing.  We got it all set up & lit then I separated the kids individual ornaments into their own baskets so they were aware of how many they could hang. It really was a great idea until one of the boys came around the corner holding two of the four baskets & crashed onto the wood floor sending ornaments everywhere! Thankfully for them, mommy was upstairs & nothing actually broke. That's pretty amazing considering that ornaments usually break when carried a child from my hand to the tree ; ) We should be in good shape this year with carpet below instead of a hard floor.

We ended up with two new ornaments for the year which is super fun. Last year we had a hand painted ornament with  a sleigh filled with seven Valentines documenting the year we added Arlo to the bunch. I got back in touch with that same woman & emailed her a picture of our house. She was spot on & I love it!

The other new ornament that is hung far out of reach of little hands is one Bob & Jeannine brought back for us from Poland. It's beautiful & it makes me smile to think about the Polish Valentines.

On Sunday we got movin' on some gingerbread house making. Last year it went flawlessly. This year it did not. The icing wasn't right, I dropped a bag of graham crackers on the floor, we wrapped parchment paper around cardboard to serve as the "foundation" but the tape peeled off & we had to start over with tin foil...and so on & so forth. Once everyone had enough sugar they didn't care about all the frustration in the room

 

The boys' self control grew leaps & bounds from last year. They were able to last at least 5 minutes longer before attempting to consume the entire house. Really though, they actually did some intentional decorating that they were proud of as did the girls.

 

Robby gave out awards:

 

Charlotte- happiest path to the front door

Eloise- gaudiest, just gaudiest

Anson- best kept lawn

Owen- best sun roof



Arlo being the good little boy he is took an extra long afternoon nap providing enough time for me to make another batch of icing after the first disaster. He was really entertained by all the sugar consumption going on around him.

and then it got even better....

 

Thanks to Owen, the little guy now knows why we like to decorate gingerbread houses! He was so happy after that!

We celebrated our twelfth anniversary on the 18th & it happened to be the coldest day yet of this season. It was below freezing all day which means I didn't want to open the door to let Bella out let alone go outside!  We decided to venture out for breakfast at a new place around the corner but after that we stayed put, hot tea in hand & a fire in the fireplace (when deemed safe). We watched our wedding video with the kids that afternoon. Anson referred to it as "your married video" & had lots of comments.  Both boys were making us laugh with how many times they said "Daddy, you look handsome. Mommy, you look handsome too!"  They loved seeing Daddy's old race car that over time Mommy inadvertently destroyed. With as much siblings picking at each other as can be in a given minute, we had to smile at each other over the pile of kids on the couch between us. How did we get here?

We fed the kids dinner, got everyone "jamified" (in jammies) & headed to the car for some Christmas light looking. Andrea Bocelli & Josh Groban sang beautifully to us as we moved along slowly admiring everyone's hard work. We now feel inspired to decorate outside next year....it would be a first for us!

Once we made it home we played the "put them to bed as fast as humanly possible & hurry back downstairs" game. I was the only player this round though because my teammate was preparing a feast to celebrate those 12 years.  After visions of sugarplums were dancing through their heads we, by candlelight enjoyed crab cakes, sea bass & the best potato salad I have ever had. Rob has been in chef mode since Thanksgiving (woohoo) & is on a winning streak with fancy date nights in. I'm loving that!

After dinner we had some good laughs watching never before seen footage of me in 2003. We started dating in April of that year, Robby moved to Australia in September & I was apparently on a mission to remind him how silly I was via video. Long before the days of an iPhone, this video was kept safe on a VHS tape. At some point it was converted to DVD & we had no idea it even existed! I was chatty, really silly & most certainly in love.  It was great to watch not just for the laughs but also for the snapshot of our relationship at that time.  I basically retold our story to him (as if he didn't know) & shared many details I had forgotten about. It's like a video blog, haha! It was a relaxing end to our special day. It concluded like many nights with our saying to one another "goodnight & good luck!" You never know whose side of the bed they will sneak up on first! Actually that's a lie, they always come to my side. My goal by our 13th anniversary is to figure out a way to funnel them to someone else's side. That "someone else" is the guy I'm so thankful for.

"P" is for pumpkin

A post with more pictures than words....

 

The Dallas Arboretum is a lovely place to spend time. We decided to buy a pass & look forward to enjoying the beautiful surroundings throughout the year. We caught the pumpkin patch on the tail end of the season which meant that you might pick up a pumpkin to move it or hand to a child to hold for a picture or witness a child hurling it into the air only to squish or splat in hands or on ground. We will file that away for next fall & go when it opens!

 

Rotten or not, we so enjoyed our visit! Grammy & Papa joined us which made it all the more fun.