Are you missing anyTHING?

Like maybe Thing 1 or Thing 2?

I know, I know ... it's a total cliche. But I still think they are adorable. And the hair stays on amazingly well!




Happy (early) Halloween!

My girl.

She's growing up too fast. Almost 3, and already I can see the teen years.

She's definitely got a sense of style. She loves this hat, and likes to wear skirts.

And she will let me take her picture now. :-)












And this guy ... my 150% kid. It's all or nothing. Love his goofy little stride. Heck, I love everything about him, even when he drives me nuts. :-)

Because we might get stuck in MN this weekend ...

It looks like our plans to go to SoDak for Turner's birthday and Taryn's baptism might be hijacked by the STUPID.SWINE.FLU. Ugh. I have the flu, and apparently the main strain that is going around right now is the swine flu because it is too early for the normal kind of flu.

So that means that the family picture plans ... not going to happen. The fun party on Friday night? Gonna miss it. Catching up with family and friends? Nope, not us. I have to be symptom free for 24 hours, and no one else can come down with symptoms. Since it is 3:44 pm on Thursday and I'm still spiking a fever of 101 or better, I think it is safe to say Friday is out.

Sigh.

Instead, I'll share a photo of my awesome kids. Seriously - they were so cooperative when I asked for this picture! We had about 10 minutes before the mosquitos swarmed, and I'm pretty happy with it. :-)

Hey again!

Wow. I guess I took a bit of a blog break, eh?

Well, I'm back now. Summer is winding down. School starts soon, and just in case we were feeling like we had too much spare time, we decided we better get a few of the kids in some activities.

So. Quinners is now enrolled in dance/gymnastics. I can't believe I'm going to be a dance mom. She does love to shake it, though. We went to Bob's cousin's wedding dance, and Miss Quinn danced so much and so hard that she got blisters all over her little feet. Even that didn't slow her down!

And this guy is now in karate. Tonight was the first class. He is going to love it, I think. He got to do blocks, and kick, and use that long stick (whatever it is called ... I'm not up to speed on this stuff yet) ... very cool. I'm excited for him.



The twins are growing. And scootching. And (knock on wood) maybe starting to sleep a bit more. This whole mobility thing is going to keep me busy though!

That's about it. And just so I don't post with a single lonely photo, here's Quinn after she and her little playmate decided to "garden". Nice. How can a child so girly be such a little tomboy?



I'd type more, but Holden keeps pushing buttons. Night, all!

Bob doesn't think they look exactly alike.

Me ... I'm not so convinced. What do you think? :-)

Noah's super cool shirt

I'm still having a ton of fun with the fabric paint. But now I've sucked the kids into my craftiness. Noah drew a tank (such a boy) ...



I converted it to a stencil, and this is the result. How stinking cool is that?! He loves it, I love it, Bob loves it (and wants me to make a t-shirt for him!)





Then I drew a robot for G. Unfortunately, G wanted a car, so he wasn't as thrilled as I was with the shirt. It is SO apt, though. G and Quinn will run around the house chanting, "I am a robot" in monotone voices. No other point to the game ... just the chanting. He claims he doesn't do that, but hello - I'm subjected to it on a regular basis. I KNOW. :-)



I'm going to make him a car shirt asap, as soon as I pick up a cheapy tee in town. And I've got some extra onesies that I'm going to stencil and put in my etsy store. If you have a request, send it my way!!

Now I'm off to finish my prep for my classes. I am teaching 2 classes this quarter - yikes. Say a little prayer for me that things go well, because I feel stressed. Later!

Car + Gas Pump

The babies are getting bigger - who'd a thunk it? I still need to take their 6 month photos (even though they are closing in on 7 months - doh!) but here are a few snaps from tonight. My new crafty-type obsession is painting t-shirts. Even more fun than appliquing t-shirts!

I'll save more details about the 6 month milestones for when I have pictures to share - but let's just say they are mobile. Not full-on crawling, but definitely not staying where I put them.

We'll start with Max. Holden was napping. Maddox will soon learn that if you don't sleep, you get to model for mommy.



He doesn't seem to mind.



Then Holden decided he didn't want to be left out.



One last shot - the two of them together, spilling out of my little beanbag. You can see Holden's shirt in this one - he's the car, and Max is the gas pump. Cute, right? :-)

Does this look like the face of evil?

Seriously?



It might if you happen to be her big brother. She clocked him in the head with a train today because she wanted Gordon AND Thomas. G was playing with both, and was nice enough to give her Gordon. Only that didn't appease Quinzilla, so she grabbed another train and smacked him in the head. Poor kid.



To top it off, you might notice that G isn't wearing his glasses. That's because he was playing with the babies, and one of them grabbed his specs and the bow snapped off. Sigh.

What a day. And it isn't even noon yet. And I haven't mentioned the pee pool in the bathroom that I already cleaned. Yeah. :-P

Busy busy busy

Isn't that how life is lately?

Here's what we've been up to:

1. Went to SoDak for a 60th surprise birthday party.
2. Left G and Quinn in SoDak for a visit after the party, and to give mom a break!!
3. Retrieved G and Quinn, and spent a few days camping with Mark & June.
4. Celebrated the 4th of July with a parade and pool party.
5. Cut bangs in my hair (I got annoyed one day and whacked them off).
6. Made a tag blanket, knit/sewed a shirt for Quinn, a "skirt" for my island, and probably some other stuff that I'm forgetting.
7. Went to Ikea to purchase a desk for Noah (for the toy room), and then repurposed the old desk as a laundry folding station in the laundry room.
8. Bought and assembled Quinn's "big girl bed" - her room is done, and I LOVE it.
9. Spent quality time in the backyard watching the kids play with the inflatable water slide.
10. Hmm. That's about it, I think. Add in the normal eating, diapering, feeding, and preventing-emergency-room-trips that is normal life in Lessinger land, and I guess we've been busy.

I didn't get many photos on the 4th - not so good at juggling kids and the camera. But I got this one the other day on the patio as we enjoyed the beautiful weather. I'm going to get some good ones of the twins soon, since they just hit 6 months. But until then, here is Max + Dad. Such cuties!

Knitting again ...

and finally taking some photos!

I've been on a manic crafting kick. I guess it is my reaction to busy life - when I get a little "me" time, I make stuff.

I only have one project photographed because I've been too busy "making" to take pictures. But I think it might be worth it. You be the judge. :-)

Oh wait - I made the necklace, too. We have matching ones. So that's 2 projects. Much better!



And if you know Quinn, you know this look. Well.

carrots ... mmmmmmmm.

The twins have started some solid foods.

Today's menu: carrots, pureed by mom. (I got a food processor, and I'm in love with chopping stuff up).

I think he likes them. And Dad better watch out or he's going to lose a finger.

eggs + bacon = happy

as you can plainly see. :-)



And cows make this girl happy.



Along the same lines as the bacon and eggs, I started eating bacon again. It is just too difficult to get the kids to eat meat if Mom doesn't. So after 10 years, I had bacon again. Mmmm. Bacon. How I have missed thee. I shall make up for lost time. :-)

if you don't look at my photography blog

you most likely missed this cutie.



jackson, my nephew.

and laura - this one is for you ... a snapshot of holden in baby legs. hee hee! think of this as my revenge for being awoken repeatedly at night. bwahahaha!

Here's your sign.

But a nice one. This is going on the cards (with gift cards for gas) for G's preschool teachers.

To quote Miss Quinn, "He's so cute."

Buy one, get one.

I amuse me. :-)



The twins are 5 months - wow. Holden is 12 lb, 8 oz, and Maddox "the skinny one" Lessinger is 12 lb, 4 oz. He's a smidge longer too, but the length thing is pretty subjective in my opinion.

I like the way they are doing the same thing with their mouths in this one.



Holden has a bit of eczema. We treat it with a cream, as needed. He scratches it, though, and leaves little red marks. He scratches everywhere. I think it is a comfort thing more than an itch thing.

In other news, G is done with preschool for the year. He had a preschool program last Friday. And Noah finishes 2nd grade today. For those of you "in the know" about this stuff, one of his lexile scores was 910. The kid has vocab - ha. Noah had Reader's Theater (a play) last Friday, and his class did an in-room play for all the 2nd grade parents yesterday. The twins and I were able to attend and it was pretty cool. They did the Jungle Book. The teacher (who is absolutely incredible and will be missed) read the story, and the kids acted out the scenes. Noah was a monkey. :-)

Our swingset is still standing (see last post) but not usable. The guys are going to fix it soon - hopefully this weekend.

That's about it in Lessinger land. Quinn is sitting on my lap singing "Frere Jaque" (quite loudly) as I type this. I'm on my first cup of coffee. And so summer begins. :-)

Stupid wind.

Here's what I'm watching today.

Can't do much about it, except wait for the eventual crash.

Stupid wind.

My Max is a Sleestack.

I loved "Land of the Lost" as a kid. I think I might have even rolled my preteen self out of bed to watch it on Saturday mornings (you know, when we only had 3 channels and cartoons were a BIG DEAL.)

But I didn't know I'd give birth to a sleestack. If you don't know what a sleestack is, educate yourself here.

Caveat: Ignore the funky camera work. Maddox was on my lap, and I was trying to video him with the Flip ... with limited success. The hubs pointed out that my computer has a camera - one that would have been pointed directly at us, as we were sitting in front of it. Doh.

Psssst ... come over here!

Hey, everyone (all 4 of you that read this blog). :-)

I've been busy busy busy. I did a photo party in SoDak over the weekend, and now I have oodles of adorable photos to proof and get into galleries.

If you want to see them, come check out my photo biz blog: jenlessingerphotography.com/blog

See you there - hee hee!

4 months already!

The twins are 4 months old. Crazy, isn't it?

Of course, when you look at it from the perspective that I haven't had more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep since then, it seems like an eternity. HA!

But in honor of their grand old age, here are a couple of photos. :-)

Holden ...



Maddox ...



And just for fun, the dynamic (older) duo.



Have a great week!

Don't want to leave out my other willing victims ...

er, I mean models.

I give you Miss Quinn, in her "I'm a supah-star" pose (actually, she's holding a car behind her head). I've been organizing and making my backdrops portable, and testing out some of the new ones.



And here is Mr. Griffin. He ASKED me to take his picture. I'm sure it was because he watched me take some shots of the twins and then Quinn, but still. He ASKED me to take his picture!!





So besides the photos, and the normal feeding/wiping off faces/picking up random toys that is part of a typical day, I also took the 4 little ones to town today to run a few errands. They were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. Amazing, incredibly, "this-can't-possibly-be-happening-in-real-life-I-must-be-dreaming" good. It was awesome. I must have told them 20 times on the drive home that I was so happy with their behavior and that they had been fantastic. I love days like this.

And I cleaned the bathroom. I'll chalk today up as a success. :-)

Here's one parting photo - the twins in color. I don't think the red is really this obnoxious in real life, but maybe it is. Ha!



(Those are the sweaters I made them for Easter. Actually, I made them as little spring jackets, but if the weather from today is any indication, we are skipping spring this year and going straight from winter to summer.)

Not talking ...

but it sure looks like it could happen soon, doesn't it? These two have discovered each other in the last week or two. They both respond really well to people talking to them, and so when they see each other, one smiles ... then the other ... then again ... you get the picture. It must be like looking in a mirror, I guess.

Dance of the Easter plum fairy ...

or something like that. She was dancing and this is what Daddy caught on video.




NOTE: No children were harmed in the filming of this video. She does this daily. Seriously. And usually when she springs back up, she says, "I OK!" She doesn't need bubbles to have the most spectacular crashes.

a few Sunday photos

from today. It was beautiful here, and the kids were all dressed up because Griffin's preschool performed some songs at church.

All of them ... I'll give it a 6 out of 10. :-) And hey - no one is crying. Maybe that should be my measurement of success. No tears + over half of the kids looking at me? Ha!



Quinn in her dress ... another 6. But still a cute shot, right?



And this one. 10 out of 10. Look at this boy. He gelled his hair for church, and he looks SO grownup. And handsome. And adorable. And you get the picture. That's my big boy. :-)



Have a great week!

Eight.

That's how old Noah is, and that is how many cousins are in the family. Eight kids, eight and under. One eight-year old, and 7 that are four or younger.

Group photos? Not an easy gig. But this is by FAR the most successful attempt we've ever had, including the attempts made before the last 3 babies came.

Even more astounding is that we did this on Sunday night after most of them had consumed mass quantities of chocolate and sugar.

So without further ado, I present THE PHOTO. Hold your applause until the end of the show. :-)



Hope you had as wonderful an Easter as the Lessinger clan did!

Easter 2009 (mostly in pictures)

We spent Easter in SoDak this year. On Saturday night, we had Jackson's 3rd birthday party + egg dying in Grandpa Terry's shop. Talk about craziness and chaos!

First, Quinn thought you had to peel the eggs before you could do anything. She looked so confused as she peeled away and everyone else was dunking eggs into dye.




She figured it out, and then decided to dye a dozen eggs yellow. She didn't want any other colors - just the yellow. Then when it came time to clean up, she helped - by putting all of her eggs into the cardboard "egg-drying" box. She had at least 10 eggs in there before anyone realized what she was doing.



Jackson thought that the eggs were far too round, so he created egg mush. Either that, or he really wanted some scrambled eggs.



G had a blast. One hand was green, one hand was purple, and in between was a huge smile.



Turner got the most amazing colors - really deep and dark. I can't believe Grandma tried to help him in her white pantsuit. Seriously - who else but Grandma would wear white to a shop party/birthday party/egg dying party?!? And she didn't have a spot on her when she left.



Noah was serious about his eggs. He used a wax crayon and drew Star Wars images on them. As you can see, Dad totally approved. Ha!



The twins and Taryn were held and cuddled by everyone, but they didn't get to play with eggs. Next year should be fun. :-)

On Sunday, we went to church and then to Grandma and Grandpa's house for food, egg hunting, and more food. We threw in some candy-eating to break up the food.

Hope you had a great Easter, too!

At least someone is happy about all this snow.

Guess who is 3 months old today?

If you said Maddox & Holden, you are correct!



Look at Max flirt with the camera (he's on the right in the blue stripes). :-)