the minivan voorsts.: July 2019

'what's up' occasionally. (and Juniper at three months!)

I feel like all I ever do anymore is make excuses for why I haven't been more regular around the blog. And I feel like my main excuse is that everything has been so busy. But in my defense, everything has been so busy. I don't know why I'm surprised that having seven kids makes life seem so full - it makes sense that it would - but it took so long for me to feel quite this busy. I guess I thought I was just impervious. But, lo. I'm not. And posting on here has just become weirdly hard.

But anyway. Wah wah wah. Enough bellyaching. Here's what we've been up to for the last two weeks:

Two Fridays ago, some friends came over for the first annual Nacho Nacho Noche, or the night where we eat nachos and watch Nacho Libre. They brought all the fixings for the nachos (home-smoked pork and everything, amazing) and we supplied the movie snacks. I literally gained two pounds from all the nachos and popcorn. I wish I could say that's hyperbolic, but it's not. Two pounds gained in one night. Worth it though.

Juniper turned three months old. I cannot get enough of this sweet girl. She is so happy and content, and just a genuine joy to be around. Her smile lights up her whole face! You'll have to take my word on it, though - she was refusing to smile for her pictures, even though I had plenty of assistants trying to get one out of her.

She sleeps like a champion (two, three, and even four hour naps are standard fare, in addition to sleeping through the night) and is so happy when she's awake. She's usually up for about an hour, and then she starts to yawn or fuss. Then I lay her down and she goes right to sleep on her own. She sucks her right thumb and puts her left hand under her head and just conks out.

Also? Clearly she's balding in all the right places. I am really praying it starts growing back in soon!

The kids have kept busy over these last two weeks. The first week we were wrapping up the school year. It feels SO good to have another full year under our belts! Even though they were juggling their full school load, they also found plenty of time to play. They built a Winchester Mystery House in our backyard.

They also got to roast marshmallows over a fire Todd lit in our fire pit.

Penelope got the chance to go to the movies with an older lady from church this week. I think it was so special for her that this woman thought of her and wanted to treat her to a girl's day, just by herself. I am so in awe of how well our church family loves our kids.

This week marked our first week of summer break, which we celebrated by starting swimming lessons! (STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE, ALWAYS STRUCTURE - that's my motto as the kids get older and more numerous. There's always the potential for chaos if there's too much unstructured time, and chaos almost always results in bickering and disobedience and general malaise. So the end of the school year was strategically timed with the beginning of swimming lessons.)

The biggest five are all in lessons, and I have the two little girls in the stroller while we watch. Juniper is not a huge fan of the wait, but Callista is a rockstar. She just sits and tries to "I Spy" the big kids, pointing them out and naming them all: "Ashish? Gacco? Fiyish?" Juniper moves from stroller to lap to pool chair to nursing position, and back to the beginning.

Callista's been living her best life. Spending quality girl time with her little sis...

...reading books while sitting on a ginormous box...

…climbing up to the counters and eating everything she can get her hands on...

...climbing into cabinets. You know the drill.

Why is my china cabinet in my living room? you may ask. Because I had to move it out of the dining room to make room for my new bookshelves. While we've been on break, I've been on a mission to get some pressing projects finished. I've needed more bookshelf space for a while, and with the upcoming school year looming, I was needing it sooner rather than later. So Todd picked up a couple of Ikea bookcases while he was in Kansas City recently, and I've been working on assembling them and adding some fabric to the back to make them look less "Ikea." It's coming along, but it's been a project. Things always look worse before they look better.

I'm ready for this particular project to be finished.

In weird random news, I bought clothes for the kids. I hadn't purchased clothes for the big kids in two years. Penelope (age 9) was still wearing 6/6x, and Atticus (age 10) was still in 8's. Which is fine because they're skinny minis, and these are the sizes that still fit them, but they're leggy and tall, so everything was becoming way too short. A friend sent a really generous order from Old Navy, and then I saw that everything was 50% off there, so I jumped on the deal and ordered almost everything we still needed in the upcoming sizes. I have a few items to still get once the weather turns (long sleeve tees and church shirts mostly) but everything else is covered! That feels so good. (Here's how I buy everything we'll need in one fell swoop.)

And that has been just a glimpse into the last few weeks around here!

what's up weekly (plus other weeks, too.)

Hey, friends! Long time, no see. I wanted to post a blog last Friday, but this is kind of how life has me feeling right now:

This is Stumpi, our three-footed turtle who finds herself in a state of crisis about four times a day. Sometimes I ask her how on earth she would ever expect to survive in the wild. And then she tells me that's why the Good Lord set her limited number of feet in a wide place (my house) instead of shutting her up in the hand of the enemy (basically any predator that felt like eating her after she got herself in a mess like this). That Stumpi sure likes to share a word from the Lord.

As you know, we've had lots of stuff on our plates, like living up to the pressure of being the most adorable Birthday Party Guest Ever to Grace the Planet.

It was a tough job, but Rocco was up for the challenge.

You also know how these brothers went out for a field day with our friend Josiah. I feel very safe and protected knowing these brave, strong boys are rising up through the ranks. I also feel very maternal and can't stop "goochy-gooing" at the screen and pretending to tickle their necks, because aren't they just the CUTEST?!

I like to imagine that, just prior to taking this photo, they did a choreographed street dance number culminating in this pose.

This happened:

I finally hung some art in our bedroom. I've had these beautiful Kate Ahn paintings for a while (the one on the right is a print, but the one on the left is an original that Todd bought me as an anniversary gift one year) but I didn't have frames for them. So for Mother's Day, I asked for frames so I could finally get them hung. My natural tendency would be to wait to hang them until I had curtains up, which I haven't wanted to do until I have prettier nightstands... yadda yadda. I'm a decorating loser. But I overcame my natural tendencies, and I'm so glad I did.

This print was a Mother's Day gift a few years ago.

Todd won Best and Handsomest Father of the Year Award for the tenth year running.

The kids like to play Salon, and do my hair and makeup. This time, Laurelai was on hair duty, and Finneas was on makeup duty. I somehow wound up with paintbrush antennae, but was assured it was all part of the plan. Also, I promise I was wearing shorts, but you'll clearly have to just take my word for it.

Batgirl took a break from """"fighting crime"""" (read: destroying everything in her wake) to suck on her Wubbie and cuddle Finneas' blankie. Even vigilantes are only human.

There has been a deer in our neighborhood a few times recently, which might be NBD for you ruralites, but we live in the middle of a larger city, near a major road. So we found it pretty cool, and I've decided to name her Darcy. (Remember when people were named Darcy? That was a fun ten minutes.)

I became super popular all of a sudden when I showed the kids my phone has puppy-face filters on it.

In the ongoing saga of Extreme Makeover: Janky Old Yard Edition, my parents came down last weekend with some hostas and a wheelbarrow and we made a day of it. I'll fill you in more later, but I can't help but show you All the Hostas. (That big guy in the lower right has been dubbed King Hosta by Penelope, and he now stands sentry in my new "Planter Bed in Front of the Front Porch to Hide the Fact that Some Kind of Rodent Lives Under There.")

And how do I feel about the fact that it's the freakin' weeken'? About how Rocco feels everyday.

marine training.

On Monday morning, our friend Josiah came at 0600 to pick up the older boys for a morning of Marine training and fun. (They left early to beat the oppressive heat.) First, they got to ride in a Jeep, which made this mama jealous. Fun fact, I weirdly love Jeeps.

Then they headed out to the 'wilderness'. They painted each others' faces, learned and practiced 'buddy rushing,' and had some target practice with Atticus' airsoft gun.

Next, Atticus learned to assemble a rifle, which they actually got to shoot once they were in the safety of the tower of the shooting range, and had all the appropriate safety gear on. Watching the videos of them each taking a shot was one of the craziest moments of my life.

After they were done there, they went to a park, where Atticus fell in a pond and lost his glasses. Classic.

We have been so blessed by our friendship with Josiah and his wife Meghan - they are genuinely an answer to prayer for solid Christian friends who can come alongside us to mentor and teach the boys in their areas of interest.

callista's birthday party.

Callista turned two last Wednesday, so on Saturday we threw a small party for her.

Well, nothing is ever truly small at our house, but she is still small (though clearly getting bigger) so we didn't receive requests for anything extravagant. As they get bigger, birthday party ideas run the gamut from 'frozen custard from Andy's for breakfast,' to 'let's go to the indoor kids' gym arena.' Also, when you're up against Pinterest, any child's birthday party that doesn't rival the cost and attendance of a frat party is considered small.

Anyway. A 'small/regular' party at our house includes party décor, cake (or, in this case, pie), and presents, which seems to be plenty of fun for a two-year-old.

We put up streamers and balloons, and after lunch everyone got cherry pie and vanilla ice cream.

She had no idea what to do with the candles. She was super confused.

The pie, on the other hand, was something she could readily understand.

After pie, Callista opened her presents. In true V.V. sibling fashion, they had all excitedly made or purchased something for her. All their presents were perfect.