7: An update

Well, today should be day 11 of our one month of eating only 7 foods...but it's not...
Let me back up.  We started this experiment on Mother's day and were faithful to our foods for 7 whole days (or I was, at least).  Let me tell you, it was tough!  I was hungry and not in love with any of my choices.  On the hand, I got a lot out of that week.  When I was hungry, I prayed.  I prayed for God to fill me up in a way food could not.  I also prayed for others.  Instead of just saying I'd be praying for them, I was actually doing it.
Then came Saturday...We picnic'ed at the park with some friends, going so far as bringing our own roasted chicken prepared according the rules...Then Troy convinced me that a milkshake and Friends-watching date would be nice.  He was right; it was nice.  But I had CHEATED!
Sunday morning, though, I was right back to it.  Something had changed, though, and I wasn't getting out of it what I had gotten the week before...So, on Monday, I quit.
I have started the book since then and am loving it.  It's making me want to try again.  Maybe in the fall...So for now, we'll call this project "paused" instead of calling it failure...

Mom Son Brunch

While Reef was doing this:

I took the other boys to the Mom-Son brunch at church.  After a moody start, they brightened up, and we enjoyed our time together!

Family Day at Sea World

Troy had last Friday off, so we headed to Sea World.  This is the first year Lachlan has been tall enough for rides.  He is just a hair too short for the Shamu ride, though.

They love this ride; it makes me want to vomit!

 Poppy liked watching from the sidelines.

 Can you see Lachlan's head peeking out on the left?

 She was jamming to the Sesame Street gang.

 The penguins and puffins are a current obsession of the big boys.

 After lunch (actually a snack since they made me throw our sandwiches out :( ), we headed to the bay of play.  Lachlan shocked me because he HATES to have his face wet.

 Poppy and Daddy headed over the baby splash area.  Do you think she liked it?

This was our 4th trip to SW this season, and we can't wait for the water park to open so we can check that out too!

First sleepover

Reef and Ethan had their first-ever sleepover at our house.  They stayed up WAY too late but had a great time!

Poppy: 11 months

In just a little less than a month, Poppy will be one!  The last month brought it's own share of changes. 

We finally committed to crying it out through her 5 am-ish feeding, so she's now sleeping until about 6:30.  Usually I can feed her, and she goes back to sleep until 8:00. 

 I also started the weaning process since I'm headed to the beach at the end of May.  It's been bittersweet; I'm ready to be done but not ready at the same time.

She is definitely on the move and can crawl so fast!  She is especially fast when her big brothers leave the door to their room open.  She's also a climber and can make it half way up the slide in their room.  Going to have to keep an eye on this one!

At mealtimes, she is boycotting the spoon, so we've moved to mostly finger foods.  I'm not as comfortable with this since I'm never really sure how much she ate.  She is willing to try all foods and surprisingly few are rejected.  Her favorites right now are chili and spagetti.  She's definitely a beef lover!  We introduced whole milk in the last month and she's taken to it really well.

I didn't think walking would come before her first birthday, but now I think it might.  She can stand up all by herself without pulling up and considers taking steps before deciding crawling would be faster.  She does like to walk holding on to my fingers, though.

Here are the few pics from the last month:

We decided it was time for the pink chair to come out.  She likes it.

She's a good helper, especially with laundry!

At Sea World

Family pictures

This is way late, but we had some family pictures taken at the end of January.  We loved how they turned out!  These are a few of our faves:

Reef's Birthday Party

The boys love to play Angry Birds on Troy's phone, so an Angry Birds birthday party was a no-brainer for us. 

Here are the cupcakes:

This is our real life Angry Birds tower.

And the Angry Birds themselves.

The kids loved launching the balls at the tower.  It was serious work.

The little guys got some help from Troy but still got some good launches in.

Poppy watched from the porch.  She is especially fond of  Erin these days.

After a pizza dinner, we blew out the candles and ate those cupcakes.  We did a homemade funfetti cake and cream cheese frosting.  They tasted pretty good.

Reef and 2 of his best friends, Ethan and Linden.

The whole gang in their Angry birds shirts.  Mason and Logan were such good sports, and Reef was so happy to have them there!

Reef is 6!

It's hard for me to believe that 6 years ago we began the journey called parenthood!  This guy had his birthday on the 3rd:

We kicked it off with a special birthday breakfast of coconut crusted French toast.  It was extra special because Troy came home for it.

We spent the rest of the day working on school and swimming with KC and Lyla.

After nap and Troy coming home, it was present time.

We got him the Angry Birds "board" game.

 Oma and Opa got him a remote control car.  Both were big hits.

 We didn't have batteries for the car so they jumped right into the Angry Birds game. 

 Mommy was hard at work making the requested birthday dinner: pizza.  Troy helped by making them look like angry birds.

 On Friday, Reef opened his present from Gigi: the black ninja lego thing he was dying for.  He worked on it, by himself, for about 3 hours.

Saturday was his Angry Birds party with his friends, but that's a whole other post.
At his well child check, Reef was 44 3/4 inches tall (25-50th %) and 46lbs (50th %). 
Reef really is an amazing kid.  He is definitely a first child and wants everything to be pefect the first time.  This can be frustrating but isn't suprising since that's how mommy is too.  He generally wants to please us and doesn't argue most of the time.  He is very sensitive and gets upset if he thinks he's done something wrong.  Reef is by far our best eater, always eager to try something new. 
We love you Reef and can't wait to see what the next year brings!

What if...

What if you could only eat 7 foods?  What would you choose?
Well, Troy and I are on a mission to do just that.  We are joining with our friend Sara, who blogs here, on a journey through the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker.  Each month brings a sacrificial giving up of things that seem so important to us.  This month it's food.  Our goal is that at times we would turn to food, we will turn to God instead. 
We haven't actually read the book yet but knew that if we didn't start now, we never would.  It's on hold at the library...
Are you wondering what's on our lists (you know you are already thinking about what would be on yours if you joined us).  Well, they're still a work in progress until we hit the store this afternoon.  Do you know how many people in this world don't even get to choose what they eat.  It's so hard for me to limit myself to 7, but what about those people who would be thrilled with 7!?!
Troy's list:  rice, kidney beans, strawberries, avocado, chicken, bread, malt o meal
Lauren's list: chicken, bread, peanut butter, strawberries, carrots, oatmeal?, rice?
I'm undecided still...Things that "ok" but not on our list are salt, pepper, lemon, oil for cooking, and honey.  We haven't decided if coffee should count as one of Troy's seven.
He will show up; we can't wait to see how!  We are hoping to be filled with Jesus instead of just being full of food.
Want to join us?  We start tomorrow.

Homeschool day at the Witte

Last week was homeschool day at the Witte Museum.  I had been thinking about taking the kids on a free Tuesday afternoon but decided to try this out instead.  It was only $4 for Reef, me, and Poppy together and worth the money.  It would not have been worth full price since there a lot of it was over his head.  I loved that it wasn't crowded though!

I think this might have been his favorite part.  You pull back this rope to raise a heavy ball....

 and when you let go, it sends this tennis ball flying.

 I convinced him to try the rock climbing wall.  As much as our spiderman loves to climb, he was nervous about this.  He had to try it, though, when I told him Dad would think it was cool.

 He made it about 3/4 of the way up.  And his dad think it was pretty cool!

 He also enjoyed this log cabin replica.  We spent about 20 minutes following the guide to make our own, only to find the last 4 pieces were missing!  Bummer.

 He thought the field trip was great and can't wait to do more next year!