juniper at two months.

You guys, I love this kid so much.  She is among the best things in life right now.

She is super chill and, with a little bit of training, has fallen into a predictable sleep routine.  She wakes up, eats, and hangs out for about 45 minutes or so, at which point she gets fussy and is ready for a nap.  I put her down, pop her paci in, and she sleeps for about an hour.  At which point we start the cycle again.  She makes life with a newborn so easy.  How does she do it?!

She has mastered the social smile and lights up when she locks eyes with anyone.  She is adored by everyone in the house, and is constantly being fought over.  We all want to be the one who gets to hold her.  When she's not being held, she likes to just chill on the couch.  She hasn't really taken to the bouncy seat yet, and isn't a huge fan of being worn, though she'll tolerate it.

She sometimes needs a little encouragement to remember how to smile.

She still wakes up once or twice a night to eat, but has sorted out her days and nights, so she's never up for long stretches overnight.

She is super strong and can hold her head up like a champ when on her tummy.  Some mornings I open my eyes and look over at her pack and play, to see her eyes peering at me over the rail because she's pushed herself up so high with her arms.  Her legs are really strong, too, and she loves to stand up (assisted, obviously) on my lap.

The kids love helping out with her - they will often want to hold or rock her if she's fussy, and Laurelai prays for her before almost every nap.  Penelope even changed her diaper for the first time yesterday, and did an amazing job.

For better or worse, Juniper is never alone.  Everyone loves her.

Lissy wanted her own baby to get in on the photo action.

Juniper is such a bright light in our days.  I can't even tell you how grateful I am, or how madly in love.  She is such a precious member of our family, and I don't know how I lived life without her for so long.  Here's to many more months and years getting to know and love this sweet girl.

'what's up' weekly.

This week was SO. FUN.

On Friday, my sister and brother-in-law, along with my sweet niece, arrived for a weekend stay.  It was their first time meeting Juniper, and... I barely got any photos.  Why am I such a failure at life?  I did capture Juniper's enthralled-slash-surprised gaze at her Uncle Austin.

On Saturday, we got to spend the morning looky-looing our friend Keaton while he REMOVED TWO TREES FROM OUR YARD.

Guys.  This is major news.  First of all, our yard was kind of an eyesore.  Second of all, our house is really dark, and this particular tree was standing sentinel right smack dab in front of the window.  While I loved watching all the little squirrels and birds while I sat on the couch, I really, really, really need any indoor natural light I can get.

I'll tell you more about the day next week, but suffice it to say that the tree removal started a cascade of yard events that made life look even rosier than it usually does.  Once the tree was gone, Todd started wondering what it would take to remove the ugly light post from the yard.  But to remove the light post meant we needed to fix the porch light so we weren't completely without exterior lighting.  Once the porch light was fixed and the lamp post removed, our ugly mailbox was giving us the stank eye.  And once the rest of the yard was taken care of, why not just plant the front beds?

I'm so glad Lauren and Austin were here.  They have way more giddy-up than we do when it comes to just starting projects.  Also, they have know-how.  Also, they have raw DIY chutzpah.  All things we have zero of.

Saturday afternoon, Todd took Atticus, Finneas and Laurelai to a wedding in Kirksville.  (Penelope was supposed to go, but her stomach was 'off' that morning, so I didn't want to put her in the van for three hours in fancy clothes with only one adult on duty... it just seemed like a recipe for disaster.  So she stayed home... and ended up feeling fine.  Go figure.)  So Austin and Penelope fixed the porch light while Lauren and I sat together on the couch and nursed our respective babies.  It was so fun.  I have waited a whole decade to get to mother alongside my sister, and I can tell you it is cracking up to be everything I hoped.

Once Juniper was down for a nap, Lauren and Austin offered to hold down the fort so I could get some time alone!  I went to Lucky's, where I grabbed an iced coffee (and also some toothpowder, because I have a hard time not doing something practical if I have kids-free time) and sat at an outside table reading The Tapestry.  It was so great.

Sunday morning we headed to church, and afterward Penelope and I met Lauren, Austin and Baby Hyler at Menards to get supplies for the yard projects.  We spent that afternoon edging the flower bed, planting boxwoods and hydrangeas, putting down mulch, and setting and staining the new mailbox post.

Sunday was also Pentecost, so after all the other Van Voorsts were up from naps, Lauren and I headed out to get stuff to throw together a quick feast day charcuterie board before they headed home.

Is next weekend too soon to invite them back down?

The week itself was actually pretty mundane.  I fought off a very mild cold at the beginning of the week, which shouldn't be even remotely notable, except that it totally exhausted me.  Life feels very full right now - not too much, not like I'm drowning, but like I have very little margin.  I'm always nursing, or schooling, or laying Juniper down, or getting Juniper up, or prepping dinner (which is still fresh, since meals were covered by friends and family for the first couple of months).  I'm also in the middle of a few bigger projects, and I'm starting to lose a bit of steam.  So we honestly just spent the week trying to keep our heads above water, which for the kids meant a lot of outside time in the beautiful weather, and for me meant trying to keep my eyes open.

Last night, we had dinner at a friend's house.  They have horses and a huge dog and a toddler and a hammock, so the kids kept themselves entertained all night!

And we have somehow found ourselves back at Friday again already.  I have big plans for the weekend: getting caught up on laundry, maybe taking some clothes to consignment.  If there's one thing Paige Van Voorst knows how to do, it's party.

the big burr oak.

Right outside of town, there's a huge oak tree that we've visited a couple of times.  And by huge, I mean huuuuge.

And by 'a couple of times,' I really only mean a couple of times.   It's a tree.  There's not exactly a ton of stuff to do there, other than ogle the tree, but it's an oddly satisfying experience, so we've gone at least once each summer that we've lived here.  The kids really love it, and would spend all day walking around the base of it, fitting themselves inside knots in the trunk, finding all kinds of little caterpillars and ants that make their homes there, and generally marveling at how big it is.

And we'd probably let them spend all day there, if the ground beneath the tree wasn't littered with millions of shards of miscreants' broken beer bottles.  I can tell the general populace shares our reverence for the life of this tree.

It's estimated to be about 350 years old.  Think about that for a hot sec.  When the War for Independence was raging on the other side of the Appalachians, this tree was already old.  If this tree could talk - well, honestly, if it could talk, it would probably say something like, "I just kind of stood around with my friends in a peaceful forest for a couple hundred years, and then there was this kind of Western expansion or something, and now I'm all by myself, and I stand three feet away from a paved road, and hooligans like to spray paint expletives all over my trunk.  The trajectory of my experience seems to be on a steady downhill."

Well.  I'm glad the tree didn't decide to just give up the ghost when that first Cretan brought that first can of Krylon along.  We're all pretty happy this fella is still here for us.

what's up weekly.

Last Friday, a friend from church came over to teach Penelope how to hand piece quilt squares.  Penelope has wanted to learn to sew for some time, and it was so great that Sue decided to take her under her wing and share her skills.  So the ladies hunkered down in the sunniest spot in the house (the basement.  The sunniest part of our house is the basement).  I stayed upstairs because the piano tuner was here.

Oh, yeah.  Our piano got tuned.  Maybe it's not major news to you guys, but it's major news to this mom who gets to listen every day to the plinky plonking of young pianists, hard at work.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow, it is now far better than it was.  (It was extremely flat when our tuner first began working on it, and each time he comes he's been raising it bit by bit.  It's a long process, but we're nearly there!)

On Saturday, we headed up to Iowa for the first time since Juniper was born.  It wasn't to see family, though, as one might suspect.  An amazing college gal that I discipled for a while was getting married in Newton, and I didn't want to miss it.

We hopped in the van at 10 a.m. to get there by 3 p.m., and we arrived just in time.  (I may have changed into my dress in the van once we arrived, ten minutes before the ceremony.)  I fed Juniper, and then took the two big girls to the wedding while Todd occupied the other five in the grassy field by the cars.

We hopped back in the car afterward, grabbed some dinner, and hit the road.  Because we had to factor in stops for breastfeeding, gas and food, we didn't make it home until 10:30 that night.  It made for a really long day, but I'm so glad we were able to go, and all things considered - seven kids, breastfeeding newborn, full day of driving - it actually went really smoothly.

Because everyone was so exhausted - most notably, Juniper, who slept for six and a half hours straight once we got home Saturday night - we stayed home from church on Sunday to rest.  I'm looking forward to a more 'normal' weekend routine returning soon.  I've really missed being at church regularly.

Monday and Tuesday were really run-of-the-mill days, just like I like them.  We're still plugging away at school, but we still have plenty of hours during the day to enjoy the beautiful weather.  I don't take this season lightly - it will get outrageously hot down here really soon, and we'll have many more inside hours to occupy each day.

The kids spent some of their outside time organizing a 'sculpture play,' a kind of living art display.  Penelope was the Statue of Liberty,  Finneas was The David, and Laurelai was the Mona Lisa.  (If you look closely, you will see that each 'statue' is labeled with its name and its creator.  The Statue of Liberty is attributed to "the French," Global.)

I find it to be an absolute work of genius that she sat behind this playhouse window to indicate she was a painting.

This handsome devil turned ten-and-a-half this week.

I could go on and on about him, but let me just summarize him with these two concise points: first, he requested a celebration for D-Day yesterday, so we spent much of the evening watching ABC News clips about the 75-year anniversary return of American veterans to Normandy.  Second, Callista was fussing for more chicken strips in the car on the way home from the wedding, and though she'd already had about a million of them, and though Atticus was still hungry, he gave her his last one.  When asked why, he simply said, "Well, I thought she'd really like it."  And that is Atticus in a nutshell.

And just a few more items of note from the week: Atticus had an orthodontist appointment in Kansas City, so Todd took the day off to drive him.  They ran to Ikea for me while they were there, and I am now the proud owner of TWO Billy bookcases (and ONE Billy height extender - we got the last one in stock.  If you're headed to Ikea anytime soon and want to grab me another one, I'd be eternally grateful).  I'm so excited to get them installed and dolled up.  I have big plans.

Also, the big kids are really getting into Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.  Hilariously, Atticus is the one loving Nancy Drew, and Penelope is really into the Hardy Boys.  Don't try to entice them away from their preferred series.  They are staunchly set in their ways.

And lastly, IT'S SUMMAH-SUMMAH-SUMMAHTIME, Y'ALL!

mes'morial day.

Last week we celebrated Memorial Day in our usual fashion: it's the one day of summer that I actually allow the kids to make s'mores.  Call me a mean mom, but I just can't handle that level of melted chocolate and marshmallow goo multiplied across a million kids more than once a year.  I just can't.  So we make a huge go of it on Memorial Day, let the kids go nuts, and then wait until the next Memorial Day to do it again.  It works for us.

This year we changed things up a bit, though.  Todd had gathered all our cookout supplies beforehand, but we got a text from our Connection Group that an impromptu gathering was being organized for that evening.  So we took everything over to Josiah and Meghan's house for a barbecue.

You might remember Josiah as the friend who took Atticus out for 'military training' - and, as a result, Atticus refers to Josiah as his 'B.F.F.a.E.': "Best Friend Forever and Ever."  They also have dogs, so now the dogs are Penelope's B.F.F.a.E.'s.  Lissy was totally nonchalant around the dogs, too, even though they were taller than she is.

S'mores are tastier when you eat them with friends.

Rocco's favorite part of the evening involved running/rolling/falling down the hill.  He was seriously so uncoordinated the entire night.  (Meghan later sent me a video of Rocco in which he accidentally fell down four times in less than two minutes.)

 via GIPHY

When we were getting ready to leave, I - for the first time ever - actually forgot a kid.  I swore I'd never be That Mom, but I was rounding up all the sticky, sweaty, hyped-up kids and walked off without Juniper's car seat (with her inside it).  Todd was loading everyone into the van and was like, "Uh, where did you put Juniper?" and I was like, "Uh, she's still over there next to everyone in the yard..."  Awesome.  Give me a medal.

And that's how I ended Memorial Day on a high note.

juniper's first bath at home.

So I'm super late in getting these photos posted, but better late than never because she's SO CUTE I COULD DIE!  (Also, how is she already so much bigger than she was when these photos were taken three weeks ago?  How do the newborn days go so quickly?  Give me my tiny-fat baby back, Lord!)

With my last few babies, I've delayed baths after birth, because that vernix is so good and protective for their skin.  Plus, I've noticed a weird phenomenon where babies get dirtier if they're bathed more often.  They're greasier and smellier and their skin gets dry.  But if you just leave them alone, it seems like tiny skin roombas just buzz around on a microscopic level, sucking up all the grossness.  The trick is allowing it to get bad enough first that the roombas kick in, so there's a definite period of, "Oh my word, this baby is so dirty."  But after that, other than needing to spot-clean their necks and butts, babies just don't need a ton of baths.

LOOK AT ALL THAT CHUNKY BABY RIGHT THERE OHMYWORRRRRD.

All that to say, I would have preferred to wait longer to give her her first bath, but we ended up bathing her at the hospital because her vernix was so thick and cheesy.  Sick.  Once home, I washed her hair a few times because newborn hair gets gross fast.  But I waited a few weeks for her first full-on bath.  So she's not quite five weeks old in these photos.

Look how much pretty hair she has!  Pray with me that it doesn't end up falling out.

How do these days pass so quickly?  I seriously just want to gobble up every single second and never forget a minute of it.  And how is it possible that I have come to appreciate these moments more and more with each one, rather than less?  What profound blessings these little milestones are.

the girls got haircuts...

...and it was about freaking time.

Todd cuts the boys' hair at home with clippers, and does an amazing job.  But one thing I'm adamant about is getting the girls 'real' haircuts from 'real' professionals.  On principle, I don't cut their hair myself other than minor trims.  It's just one of my 'things' and I feel really strongly about it.

The problem is, kids' haircuts cost money and require allocated time, neither of which do I have in excessive quantities.  So I've been putting it off.  Penelope hasn't had her hair cut since we lived in Cedar Falls, and other than occasionally trimming up Laurelai's scalplock (she has this one chunk of hair on the crown of her head that grows a lot faster than the rest of her hair), Laurelai has never had a real haircut.  Penelope's hair grows really slowly, so that wasn't an issue, but her ends were a bit split, and I was hoping a trim might keep them from breaking off, thereby helping her hair grow a little faster.

I asked my stylist how much she charges for kids' cuts, and she said $30, and I did the math on having four daughters, and then had an aneurysm and died.  Then I came back to life and remembered I have a friend who's a stylist, and she might be a bit more affordable.

When I texted her, she responded that her prices were not only significantly lower than that, but that she could also come to my house and cut their hair here.  I didn't have to find a sitter for the other kids.  I didn't have to work an appointment around naptimes and breastfeeding schedules.  I didn't have to put on real pants.  OKAY!

It was amazing.  She knew how to dry cut the girls' curls to keep their curl pattern and avoid 'mushroom head' - the emotional pain of which only curly girls can really understand.  Her little boy played with the kids while she worked and we chatted.  Cottage industry at its finest.

I know it's a small thing, but I really think this was an intentional gift from God to us.  He has been so faithful lately to place people in our lives that meet real needs from within the context of our community.

Of course, I forgot to get official 'after' pictures.  Sigh.  Oh well.  Just pay attention to photos in subsequent posts, I guess, and take my word that the girls' new cuts look beautiful.