Cheney Family of Five

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Messy April

We made a lot of messes in April! Actually, all of our "messes" started because I was complaining to my mom (Nana) about how Joshua is constantly spilling soap or lotions on the floor on purpose to play in them. She suggested that I allow him more opportunities to get messy to fulfill his need for sensory exploration. As I was thinking of her suggestion, I realized that I offered Eli and Micah many opportunities to get messy when they were two and I should definitely do that for Joshua as well. As suspected, he loved it! (Eli and Micah did, too!)

We started with an art project involving shaving cream and paint inside,

but the excitement kept growing and the shaving cream kept spreading, so we moved our fun to the picnic table outside!

Eli

Micah

I had never made it before, but when I saw a recipe for sidewalk paint, I knew the boys would love it!

When Eli and Micah were gone one day, I got out the paint for Joshua. Not only did he fingerpaint, he also wanted to drive his trains through the paint. (Then, he and his trains took a nice, long bath.)

Getting loud is just as fun as getting messy, right? The boys love to sing and play music with Paul.

I love our blog because it documents our real, every day life. Our kids are like anyone else's; they have challenges that we have to work through. In order to help Joshua get back on track with his behavior, I found this sticker chart for Joshua and Paul made it perfect with Joshua's favorite characters. Joshua's reward for filling it? A trip to Bouncin' Bears by himself with Paul. He did a great job with it and enjoyed putting stickers on it everyday. Honestly, it helped me focus on the positive things we was doing and it was fun to reward him several times every day.

I love this picture because it shows our boy with two of his favorite things--his green blanket and his thumb. The only thing missing here is Horton the elephant. I find I'm forgetting a lot in the busy-ness of our daily life and I just don't want to forget this sweet thumb-sucking phase.

Bluebonnets

A friend of ours grows bluebonnets in her front yard! It's brilliant, really, no stopping by dangerous highways or fighting hoards of people at local parks for the annual bluebonnet picture. An added bonus? She (her husband) doesn't have to mow for weeks while they are growing and blooming! She was gracious enough to let us take our pictures there this year, too. While we had many pictures that didn't quite make the cut, here are my favorites from the day.

Luke

Joshua

Micah & Eli

Luke & Joshua

(Joshua gives Luke LOTS of kisses daily.)

Micah-Joshua-Eli-Luke

Momma with my guys

Daddy with his boys

Micah

Eli

Eli took this one of Paul and me. Love it!

Luke-4 months

At 4 months old, Luke started grabbing everything he could! He especially likes to hold and chew on burp rags and blankets. Luke still laughs easily and often. He sleeps well and LOVES looking at his brothers.
At his 4 month well check, Luke was 26.5 inches (92nd percentile) and 14 lbs, 3 oz (18th percentile). We were given the green light by the pedi to start solid foods any time we were ready.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Food Fun

I love my boys and I love making Valentine's Day fun in our house. One of my favorite parts of Valentine's Day for us is the heart-shaped food! This year we were assigned class snack on Valentine's party day for Eli and Micah's class. Micah wanted these tortilla cut-out cookies. The boys had a great time sprinkling them with LOTS of sprinkles. ;-)

I made these pancakes for breakfast.

I also made heart-shaped chocolate cupcakes with ice cream.

The boys' valentines for school.

On several occasions, Eli and Micah have asked what their names mean. (The prompt to their question is often a story in their Bible that explains St. Paul's name change and that his new name means "humble.") So none of us will forget, I made these name signs for each of the boys--each with their name's meaning and a related Bible verse.

Nana and Papa sent these bubble guns, which the boys have loved.

St. Patrick's Day is another day I have fun with their food. It was fun to see how many green foods we could eat in one day. Eli and Micah helped me think of some options, which was great.

For lunch, we had apples, celery, green eggs and Green Goddess muffins.

(Joshua got a hold of his muffin before I got a picture taken.)

For dinner, we had broccoli, green fruit salad and pasta with Spinach Pesto.

And the empty space?

We reserved that for this cake with green avocado frosting.

Brotherly Love!

Eli, Micah and Joshua love playing with Luke. He's getting a little too big (and wiggly!) for them to hold for very long, but they love to make him smile and giggle. Luke seems to really enjoy them, too. He is constantly looking for his big brothers if he hears their voices in the room.

On this day, Horton the elephant had to take a bath. Joshua tends to watch the entire wash cycle when Horton is in the washing machine. Eli (holding Joshua) and Micah decided to sit and watch, too. They were all giggling whenever they saw Horton pass the window.

Our zoo's elephant had a new baby earlier this year. On a particularly warm day, a friend and I took our kids to see the new baby.

The big kids got to brush the goats

and Luke was very patient, spending the day in his car seat and stroller.

(He had just started sucking his thumb regularly before we went.)

At 3 months, Luke holds his head up very well and is spending more time being happy on his tummy.

Joshua cracks me up every day. On this day, he insisted on wearing his elephant costume, blowing his lip whistle and playing the maraca.

If Joshua isn't being silly, he's often playing trains. He loves to line them all up and see how far he can drive them across the floor before the line breaks. On this day he was "counting" the trains.