Ready for summer!

I have found boy clothes a challenge. Maybe I'm just too picky, but nothing is cute and there's not a lot of selection. So when we found this "slimsloop" for Eli, we snatched it up. Now if only I could find an Easter outfit.

Kendra's here!

Kendra is a dear friend from Michigan who came down to visit Abby and we got to spend a day with them. It was fun to reconnect and catch up.

A perfect solution

Eli figured out that if sister sits in the mail cart she can steer while he pushes. It's really a perfect solution.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are some glimpses of our Valentine's Day:

We had banana muffins for breakfast and I gave Alison a new pink headband to match her all pink outfit.

Ben took Alison to story time and then I took her to a friend's Valentine's party. She decorated heart shaped cookies and made a Valentine card.

I spent some time organizing the church nursery and our garage. I love organization.

We played outside and Daddy surprised us with roses.

He sure knows how to take care of his girls!

Eli was just excited to watch the fun.

Our neighbor brought over some cupcakes.

I even let Eli eat one. He devoured it.

Ben made flautas, quacamole and margaritas for dinner...and cleaned up afterwards.

We put the kids to bed and ate lots of homemade peanut butter cup ice cream.
It was a sugary, lovely day.

Matchy Matchy

Alison's fancy obsession is growing. I remedied our meltdown problem by emptying her closet except for a handful of selected outfits. It seems to be working well. Except now she wants to pick out Eli's clothes...and mine. Yesterday she put on her ladybug dress and asked if Eli could wear his red striped shirt so he could be a ladybug too. Then she went to my closet and picked out a spring "fancy" dress and asked me to wear it. I politely refused but did agree to wear her next pick of a yellow shirt. Oh, and then we had to spike brother's hair and take a picture. I was also informed that the head tilt that drives me nuts is how princesses pose for a picture.

Mimi's visit

We were blessed with a week with Mimi and Aunt Madisyn. They were so much fun and so helpful! I loved our time of relaxing, chatting and sippin' coffee.Ben was gone for a few days so we had lots of fun girl time. We had a Sandra Bullock movie marathon, ate lots of kettle corn and Rachel highlighted our hair. Yes, we look a tad bit tired in this picture...little did we know home highlights would take 3.5 hours! We were up past midnight livin' it up. The next night Rachel let us color her hair. Pretty brave considering I've never even seen someone color hair. Thankfully we all turned out beautifully and made lots of bonding memories.

Rachel introduced us to Turbo Fire and joined us at the Y several days. We needed to burn some calories after all the yummy food she was making us. I will say, crepes before a boot camp class is not a good idea.

Perhaps my favorite time of the week was taking Madisyn to get her first manicure. She's so mature that I often forget she's only 13. With 3 older sisters I just assumed that she would already have been initiated into the pampering world, but I felt blessed to be the one to take her.

We headed to the library on morning and this is how Alison decided to dress:

Mimi and Aunt Madisyn left just in time to miss Eli's second cold...or teething...whatever it is there is a lot of snot and slobber coming out of his face. I'm so thankful we had some time with them and look forward to our next time together.

10 Months old

Look at my little man standing all by himself!

Mr. mischief has really spiced up life in the Shear house. Let me just give you a glimpse of what life has quickly transformed to. A few days ago I was making cookies for our church outreach program. Alison asked if she could help put the cookies on the sheet. I told her to grab her Elmo chair and come help me, something we've done millions of times. Mr. mischief snuck up behind us, stood up behind the chair and yanked it out from underneath Alison. Alison flew in the air and Eli fell to the ground with a chair on top of him.

I've found him standing on top of that same chair.

His favorite thing is emptying all of Alison's underwear out of her dresser drawer.

He LOVES walking with the "mail cart", but screams when he can't figure out how to turn it.

But, through all of this mischief, a small miracle has happened. I've been hearing a lot,"Momma! Eli's going to touch my dollhouse!!!" If he even looks at her dollhouse she panics. So her room was rearranged to accomodate the beloved dollhouse and all babies/baby accessories and behold the miracle: she now goes in her room, shuts the door and plays quietly! I knew we had this little boy for a reason!

Look what we discovered Eli can do!

Fancy Frenzy

See this beautiful smile? It's shines bright when she is dressed something like this. If the skirt was pink with butterflies on it and she had on a sparkly bracelet, it would be even better.
But, this princess is on a fancy frenzy. Yesterday she cried for 2 HOURS because her skirt was brown. Brown. Can you believe it?! I actually put her in a brown skirt. I know what you all are thinking: Jen, just let her wear a pink skirt, with her pink t-shirt and her pink tights with pink sparkly shoes, for Pete's sake! I don't mind her looking like a piece of bubble gum, but I do mind the complete meltdown over every detail of her outfit. On the way to art class I tried to understand her great need for being fancy. I explained to her that God made her absolutely beautiful and she was "fancy" no matter what she was wearing. Apparently my world famous "you are fearfully and wonderfully made" speech didn't sink in. Her response: "But Mommy, brown just isn't pretty enough!"

Happy Half Birthday!