Jude is 4!

So Jude officially turned 4 on January 2nd, but since we were expecting a baby any day, we pushed back the celebration until after Lily came. We ended up throwing Jude's Birthday party on January 25th--two weeks after Lily.

Jude is obsessed with Mario, so it was a given that his party would be Mario-themed. I had a good time finding ideas for games, treats and decorations online (thanks, Pinterest!) and putting together something that would be fun for kiddos Jude's age.

Since Mario was originally 8-bit, I thought it would be neat to make Mario figures out of Perler beads and use those to not only top the cupcakes, but be a favor that the kids could take home as well.

Lance got the "bead fever" and was my constant companion while I worked, making masterpieces of his own.

It was time-consuming but they turned out so cute.

Nice! 

Of course we had to have a pinata! Since it was Mario and it had to be a bad guy and it had to be round, the options were either King Boo or a Chain Chomp. Jude chose Boo which was perfect!

He helped me paint the base color. :)

The day before the party Amy came to help me finish the decorations and prep for the party. She and I stayed up until the early morning putting the finishing touches on everything from the pinata to the snacks. She was amazing! I wish I had a picture of her helping me. I could not have done it without her!

The day of the party was also Lance's first Pinewood Derby! We went to cheer him on that morning.

Lance designed the car all by himself, carved it with Scott and painted it with me. It's shaped similar to a bullet. He wanted it to be "aerodynamic". :)

Watching.

Lance's car did a great job! He didn't take home a trophy (something he was pretty upset about), but I thought for his first attempt he gave the other cars a run for their money.

Before we knew it, it was party time!

I think King Boo turned out so cute! I was sad we were going to destroy him.

I made this little chain chomp as decoration (it was Lance's idea) for the table, along with chocolate mustaches and mushrooms (brownie bites dipped in red chocolate with white M&M's and a marshmallow for the body).

We also had chocolate coins the kids could grab and eat.

Piranha plant! (I forgot that they have lips. Oops!) The pipes were PVC pipe joints that I spray-painted green.

We had these great mustache stickers, but unfortunately they didn't stick very well. We did manage to get a picture with Jude wearing one:

And the Perler bead characters? They turned out super cute!

So fun!

Lance :)

We had red Mario hats for the boys and little Princess Peach crowns for the girls to wear.

George's whole family came into town for the party as did my mom and Amy!

Lance, Callie and Bryce spent most of the time in the back room together while the little kids played games. Our first game was "Musical Pipes". It's basically musical chairs but instead of chairs we had green circles on the floor that they had to sit on. The kids thought it was fun!

Our next game was "Stomp the Goomba". George and Amy had stuffed chocolate coins inside a bunch of brown balloons. We dumped them outside and had the kids pop them to collect the coins.

Poor Cole (red striped shirt) tried so hard to pop the balloons but was too light to do any real damage. I think this is what started his melt-down for the rest of the party.

While we were outside, we did the pinata:

I think we had about 15 kids!

Jude was up first!

I made this pinata a lot thinner than my last ones and I think I made it too thin. Lance was the last kid to hit it (I didn't even get a picture...). Poor Killian, Kendall and Callie never even got a chance to swing!

Once the candy was all picked up, it was back inside for one last game: Pin the Mustache on Mario!

Killian and Kendall won this game hands-down!

Time to sing!

If I had been thinking, I would have set the whole cupcake display in front of Jude and turned him around so everyone could see him, but when you're in the moment you don't really think these things through, so this was the best we got:

He picked his two favorite characters and we stuck a candle in each for him to blow out.

"Happy Birthday to you...!"

Yay! 

Gift time!

Jude took home quite a haul!

It was a fun party! A little chaotic perhaps, but I think the kids had fun. They got to take home all the candy from the pinata, the chocolate coins from the goomba game, some Mario stickers, their hat/crown and their cupcake topper that I turned into a magnet so they could put it on their fridge.

After all the kids went home, we got to spend some time with our family that came into town.

Poor Cole finally got over his melt-down and was happy to be with all his favorite people.

He really liked the crowns! 

And the decorations have become permanent fixtures in the boys' room:

Happy Birthday, Jude! I can't believe it's been four years since we brought you home. You fill our lives with joy and find a way every day to bring smiles to our faces. Your energy and enthusiasm for life is contagious. We sure love you! Thanks for being ours!

Life after Lily

First, let me just say that my mother is amazing. She took a week out of her busy life after I had Lily to come and spend 24/7 in our little apartment taking care of and entertaining the boys, cooking, cleaning, shopping, and most importantly, keeping me sane. I'll admit the first couple days back home were stressful for me--more stressful than I even want to admit to myself. This was the first time I had ever experienced those strange "baby blue" emotions that everyone warns can accompany delivery. I was struggling to not panic with the thought of four little people depending on me, one of which was an infant that needed around the clock feeding and care. I think my mom could see the welling panic in my eyes and for the whole week slept on the couch in the family room with Lily so I could get sleep at night. It was amazing. I came out to feed the baby every 3-4 hours and then went into my room and closed the door while Mom held Lily if she woke up between feedings. I'm sure I got much more sleep during that week than my mom did. And I love her for it. Honestly, that sleep was what helped me break out of my "panic mode" and by the time my mom had to go home I was feeling like I had things under control. Mostly. :)

Mom isn't going to like this picture, but I treasure it--this is true love!

Mom, you are amazing! I don't know what I would have done without you.

The day we came home from the hospital, we had an unexpected visitor:

Glenn drove all the way down to visit for a couple hours and meet little Lily! Even Mom had no idea he was coming.

He's a natural! You can tell he's done this before. :)

It was fun to see him and so thoughtful for him to come down. We love you, Glenn!

The boys have all taken to Lily amazingly well. Better than expected. Lance is not usually too keen on babies and little kids (to be fair, they ARE noisy and take everyone's attention), but he has really stepped up with Lily. I'll often hear her crying and come into the room to comfort her only to see Lance has gotten there first and is cuddling her. 

There is nothing sweeter than seeing you kids love on each other.

Snuggle time with Daddy:

Jude and Cole also love to hold Lily and while I love the enthusiasm, it does require some extra attention since they're both liable to try to pick her up themselves if I take too long to help.

Cole is so cute with Lily. He'll walk up to her several times a day and say "Love baby Lily." Precious boy.

Jude is hysterical--he will try to play with Lily anytime, whether she's asleep or awake. He'll talk in a baby voice to her, take her on rides around the house in her chair, and try to hold her as often as possible. One day George was carrying Lily to the car and Jude came up with a song: "Carrying my baby, his name is Lily!" (Jude struggles with his pronouns--apparently everyone is a boy in his mind.) George and I had a great laugh and now sing the song whenever we carry Lily around.

Jude is also especially adept at "moving" Lily. I'll come back into the room where Lily had been resting in her little chair only to find an empty chair. "Jude, where is Lily?" She could be anywhere--the couch, the chair, the floor, propped up on pillows, laying in a corner or even on top of the ottoman. The other day I walked in to see Jude holding Lily like a sack of potatoes--he had her literally over his shoulder with his one arm around her legs keeping her from falling. Yeah, this poor girl is going to grow up pretty tough--if she survives all the love from her brothers.

A few days after we came home from the hospital, this showed up on our doorstep:

It was from Jen and Eric and it was incredible. It was delivered right around dinner time--I don't think any of us ate much dinner that night. :) Jude and Cole were just interested in the chocolate-covered strawberries and I finally had to restrict their intact since they'd eat only the chocolate and leave the strawberry. Stinkers.

We are still adjusting to having a new little person around. I had forgotten that it takes longer to get ready for anything, to load the car, to do things like make dinner or do laundry or that having a nursing baby that needs to eat every 2-3 hours during the day while juggling three other kids' needs can be a challenge. And how on earth do you unload the groceries from the car when you have a baby carrier, a 2-year-old that likes to run away instead of following you, and a 4 year old that fell asleep that all have to make it inside too and your apartment is across the parking lot and you have only two arms? Even finding the time and energy to read the big kids their bedtime stories can be difficult.

But this, this is so worth it.

(About 2 weeks old)

We are loving our beautiful little Lily and can't get enough of her!

And as far as the boys dealing with Mommy's attention being mostly on the baby these days? Let's just say I'm more grateful than ever for TVs, computers, and good friends!