Star Wars Angry Birds

The kids received a very fun addition to the Angry Birds collection that Kendra requested for Christmas; three of the Star Wars Angry Birds (thanks again, Aunt Amanda!).  I wanted Kendra to wrap her brain around the fact that they do not all belong to her and she must share with her brothers so she got the Princess Leia, Elliot got the Luke Skywalker and Paxton got the Darth Vader.

I might have gone a little too far with my insistance.  Now, every time she gets out the Angry Birds, before she plays with any of them, she distributes the boys' to them.

As a result, I found Paxton in his swing like this many times (back when the swing was still out):

Or Elliot running around like this:

But Princess Leia always managed to stay near Princess Kendra.

Such a considerate sharer. :)

Group shot

Sometimes as I go through the pictures that need to be blogged, I think to myself something along the lines of, "Man, I need to take more pictures of all the kids together.  I wonder why I don't..."

And then I get all three of them together to take a group picture...

Heh.

That probably explains why I don't do it more often...

Four years old

Much to our shock, Kendra's birthday rolled around for the fourth time (just over four months ago).  In the days leading up to it, I asked her what she wanted for her cake and she did not waver: she wanted an ice cream cake with Pinkie Pie on it and a number 4 candle.

Mommy delivers!

It was a pretty small affair, but a nice one.  We really can't believe that we've had her for four whole years...a lot happens in four years!  For our family, it's been enough time to grow a beautiful, smart, kind little girl.  We feel blessed every single day that she's ours.

Birthday Visitor

My Dad came out to Pennsylvania for Kendra's birthday, and boy did the kids have fun seeing him!

He didn't seem to mind the invasion.  :)

While he was here, Kendra asked him to dance a bit with her.

She also sampled some of his music while he was here.

 It's fun having Poppa to visit!

Mommy's Other Sous Chef

Elliot used to hang out with me in the kitchen quite a bit.  Kendra hasn't spent any time in there in quite a while, but occasionally the Jedi Mommy part of my brain kicks in when she's having a hard day and I have her "assist" me with simple tasks while I cook or otherwise prepare food.  It's pretty effective at turning a bad day into a good one.  It totally redirects her and she gains a lot of confidence from learning new skills and helping me with real household tasks.

One bleak weekend morning, I had her help me season the tomato sauce to can (I don't buy prepared marina sauce, I make my own from canned tomato sauce instead).  As per usual, she was awesome.

"Take my picture!"

This blog provides plenty of evidence that Kendra is no stranger to a camera.  She has delighted us over and over again throughout her few years with the looks we're able to capture and record.  She has often been an all-too-willing subject for the camera but it has only been recently that she asks to have her picture taken.

Most often, these requests come in one of two scenarios.

Sometimes she asks to have her picture taken because we're already photographing one of her brothers and she just wants in on the action.

Other times, she would like you to document some object she has taken momentary possession of or finds interesting.

Like an "ugly" strawberry...

Or her very own frog (after hearing about her cousin Simeon's acquisition).

It turns out, we are pretty eager to oblige those requests.  We might have hundreds of pictures of this child, but I doubt we'll ever really have enough...

Checkin' you out

When Kendra was an infant, we spent a lot of time wondering how much of what she was doing was just stuff all babies do and how much of what she was doing was just her own personality.  It has been fascinating to watch her two little brothers go through infancy as well and help to answer that question.

Paxton spends plenty of time looking around when you hold him.

But he also likes to get a good look at who is holding him.

And around...

And back up!

It's pretty adorable.

It really is a lot of fun to get to know our own children.

Anticipation

When Kendra turned 2, I bought a little birthday crown for her, with the idea that she could wear it every year.  She found it by herself and decided to start wearing it a few days early this year.

And then Elliot had to get in on the picture-taking action, too.  As little brother are wont to do...

But we had to cut him some slack, he was tired at the time...I can tell because the pictures from the next minute look like this:

Poor guy.  It's tough business being one, isn't it?

Quality Time

This year at preschool, Kendra's class exchanged Valentines.  She was very excited to pick out which ones she wanted to give to her friends at school and I was surprised by how much fun we had together signing them...I drew dots and she made lines over them.

I have very vivid memories of learning how to write my name in preparation for Kindergarten so it was an interesting experience to be on the other side of that situation...she did so well that when her birthday rolled around, I let her pick out some stationary and we sent out thank you cards that she signed.

How did she get to be so grown up?

Keeping warm

It was quite a winter this year.  It lasted ridiculously long, but we got pretty good at cozying up against the cold.

Paxton had a couple of options, but most of the time I slapped this nice cover over his seat and he was right at home.

But we also used this very snug little suit plenty, too.  I lucked out to find a gender neutral color on the clearance racks last year because we didn't know he was going to be a boy when they were available.

Elliot made people chuckle everywhere we went.  The coat that hangs to his knees, the hat, the bouncy little run, it was an awesome combination.

Sad story, though.  Towards the end of the season...we lost the hat.  I'm fairly certain it's in this apartment somewhere but I just can't find it.  I'm actually quite distressed about this because I bought the coat so large so that I could use it for two years, and now I have no hat.  And he loves his hat.



And finally, Kendra.  I had found a coat for her some time ago at one of my community consignment sales for only a few dollars, but I figured that she was big enough to pick out her own accessories.  I wasn't too shocked by her decision...

She loooved telling people that she was a black Angry Bird.  Hey, whatever gets her to willingly bundle up, right?

Brotherly love

Paxton gets a little more interactive as time goes on...while Elliot waits for his little brother to catch up to him so that he can really play, he's happy to get down to the baby's level when the need arises.

He was also comfortable going up when necessary.  Pesky swings keeping babies off the floor...

They're pretty great, the whole lot of em.  But that's just our humble opinion.  :)