Tub Chubbies

I love the look on Noah's face in this one! He sure does put up with a lot as a fourth child.

I'm Back!

Okay...only for a few minutes, but I thought I'd give a quick Dahl update :)
We have been very sick at our house these past few weeks. All six of us have had the nasty cold/cough/fluey stuff. Grace and Weston both have ear infections and Grace also has some pneumonia in one lung and a bladder infection (no wonder she's been cranky :)
Weston and Grace are on antibiotics and we're all on the upswing (I think).
T-ball started this past week and it looks like there are several nice families on Weston's team. The team is the Boston Red Sox which both Mike and Weston were excited about. Mike said he wasn't going to have any son of his playing on the Yankees! I'll post some photos as soon as they start the games and get some uniforms.
Noah is now 6.5 months and rolling over both ways. I now have to watch him every minute he's on the floor! Yikes! Today he rolled over next to the potty chair and started to stuff kleenex in his mouth. Weston was supposed to be watching him for a minute while I ran upstairs to get something. When I came down I asked Weston why he wasn't watching Noah and he said he was watching him, but didn't see a problem with Noah getting the kleenex!
Elsie's doing well with the potty training. She doesn't have many accidents, but I still wouldn't take her out anywhere without a pull-up on. As a treat for going potty she gets a chocolate chip. She thinks it's a great joke to tell me she gets a mee-mee (M&M) instead, even though she knows she doesn't get mee-mee's unless she does a #2 in the potty.
Well, there's a quick update. I'll try to post a few photos over the next few days.

Where Am I?

You may have noticed I am not blogging very often (I'm not sure how many of you care :) It seems that four children ages 5 and under have quite a few needs (usually all at the same time). I'm struggling just to keep up with daily life right now which means computer time is lower on the priority list. Elsie also started potty-training herself which adds a whole other level to the intensity in our home. Mike and I figured we'd better get on board and go with it since she was using the potty once in awhile and wanting to wear the training pants. She's doing great but hasn't figured out how to store up the pee-pee and go all at once which means the potty-training is happening about every 5 minutes. :) Potty-training Weston and Grace was not easy so I'm trying to stay motivated and have a good attitude about it!
Well, here's my little list of excuses! I'll do my best to do a few blog posts a month and update everyone on major kid happenings. Weston will be starting t-ball in a few weeks, so I'll be sure to include some new photos!

Tim Keller Sermons

http://www.redeemer.com/serve/stewardship/resources.html#sermons
Here's a link to some awesome and challenging sermons on stewardship from Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Some Catch-up Photos!

Mike building our new fence (Dave was working behind the fence and you can see our neighbor, Mark, helping out also). The old fence blew over in a windstorm and was finally beyond repair!

This is totally silly! Mike and I had a bit of fun giving Weston a "rat tail" hairdo. Don't worry, it disappeared by the end of the haircut ;)

Memaw Mary and Elsie making cookies.

Weston and Grace playing outside and catching bugs during fence building.

Elsie and Noah just sittin' around.

Sisters after bath time.

Grace's 4th Birthday Parties :)

Our big 4 year-old was spoiled enough to get 2 birthday parties this year. A few weekends before her real birthday we went to Bend for the weekend and had a party with Papa Craig and Memaw Mary. My mom made Grace a beautiful Strawberry Shortcake cake to celebrate. Grace had a fun-filled pre-birthday weekend which included a visit to the High Desert Museum with Papa, Daddy and Weston.

The weekend before Grace's birthday we celebrated at our home with Papa John and Memaw Shirley. I made a sad attempt at a pink heart cake with sprinkles. I'm sure it was cute enough but when you're raised with birthday cakes like my mom's the bar is set high :) We had a wonderful visit with John and Shirley and they took Grace to the Build a Bear store for her special present. Grace picked out a dog with a hot pink and red heart dress :) She also talked them into a baby dog and a hot pink dog bed with fur trim to go with it. These grandparents sure are pushovers!

We have enjoyed these past 4 years with Grace Hannah so much! She brings us joy everyday. Grace loves to sing, dance, run, play with dolls, and pretend. She seems to be very musical and loves for us to play the music LOUD. Her latest artwork has been clown faces colored in pink, red, white, and purple. Grace is so loving with Noah and will sit and hold him for long periods of time. She definitely has a soft spot for babies. So far Grace has been the most difficult to parent but we know there will be great rewards if we remain consistent with loving discipline. We are working with her on being a peacemaker (as opposed to causing fights with Weston and Elsie) and also on being a hard worker (she'd rather move slowly and let Weston pick up all the toys by himself). Grace loves to go shopping with me and is very friendly towards people. She also loves to cuddle and melts when we give her lots of hugs and kisses. She also recently learned how to write her name in all capital letters and moved into the top bunk bed when Weston moved into the "boy" room.

Grace wanted to wear pink tights under her swimming suit for some reason. She loves to dress up and pick out her own clothes now. I usually let her pick out her outfits as long as we aren't going anywhere that day :)

My beautiful pink heart cake!
Time with Papa John and Memaw Shirley! You'll notice Grace has her birthday dog with the pink dress!

Brothers

I decided to post a few photos of Weston and Noah at about 4 months. Here are a few from their first baby food feeding.
Noah's first rice cereal. He was upset that we would put such nasty stuff in his mouth!

Rice cereal face!Weston's first rice cereal.

Weston wasn't as upset about it, but I remember that he didn't like it much either. :)

Weston at about 4 months. I think they look similar except for the coloring.

Noah's Ready For the SuperBowl!

Here's Noah at almost 4 and a half months. You can tell he's all ready for the big game! Just for fun I added a photo of Weston in the same pose when he was about 2 months old.

Happy Baby!

Noah is now 4 months old and is turning out to be a very happy baby. For awhile he was sleeping through the night fairly consistently but has now reverted to waking up every night between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. to be fed. I don't mind too much as he goes back to sleep and doesn't wake up again until after 8 a.m. Noah is just learning to grasp toys and has been sitting in his Johnny Jump-up lately. He hasn't figured out how to jump in it yet, but I think it won't be long!
We had a doctor's appt. for both Elsie and Noah last Friday. Noah was 16 lbs, 11 ounces which put him in the 85 percentile for weight! He was in the 75th percentile for length, so I guess he's a big boy all the way around!
Elsie was only in the 25th percentile for both! It's a good thing she's small since she likes to be carried around so much :)

Four little munchkins all in a row!

Elsie is 2!

Happy birthday to our big 2 year-old girl! Elsie's birthday was the 15th of January. We celebrated by have a little party on Saturday with my parents and the Rasmussens from next door. My mom made a "Hello Kitty" cake and we bought a few balloons and decorations from the dollar store (2 year-olds are easy to please!). We had a great time and Elsie seemed pleased with all the activities. You can see her pictured above and below with her new "Hello Kitty" bee-bee (this is how she says "baby"). Our gift for her birthday was to go to the Build-A-Bear store at the mall and let her pick out a stuffed animal. Once she had her baby safely in the cardboard box house she insisted on carrying it out to the car herself. This was quite humorous as the box was as big as her and she had to drag it along the floor. We've found 2 year-olds can be quite determined! How these past 2 years have flown by!
Mike's 31st birthday was on Sunday, the 18th. To celebrate, Mike and I went out on a date night, I made him his favorite chocolate cake (his mom's recipe), and then my parents treated us to Flying Pie pizza on Sunday. We were sad that Mike's parents couldn't make it down from Spokane for all the birthday festivities. Shirley dislocated her shoulder shortly after Noah was born and has been dealing with severe pain ever since. They are missing their grandchildren and looking forward to the day life gets back to normal. We're praying the doctors will be able to figure out what's wrong very soon.
Update on Elsie's potty-training: she seems to have lost interest for now and has only been going on her potty about once a day. We're feeling relaxed about it and must admit I'm relieved not to be starting the intense training for awhile.
Elsie and "Hello" bee-bee.

Elsie even blew out her candles all by herself after several tries!

My mom said this cake was the easiest she's ever decorated. I thought it turned out so cute!