my handsome boy. He is getting so big and he is being such a good helper around the house. I can't believe he is almost four. It makes me so sad.
Siena, the Post master. In Kindergarten they are learning their address and phone number and about the Mail system. Siena is so excited when she gets to be the post master and distribute letters. She came home yesterday with letters for everyone.
I don't know where she learned this pose from.

Tents and the Super Bowl

The babies enjoying the super bowl food. Zachary (on the left) was born the exact same day as Claire, just different hospitals. Tyler was born a week before the two. They are going to be best buds. It took us almost 11 months to get a picture of all of them together. Too cute.
Claire finally crawling on her knees. After 2 days of us holding her tummy up while she crawled she finally caught on. She can crawl now on her hands and knees like you should. She is fast too.

While we were cleaning house for the Super Bowl we found these cool tents that we had put away. We realized that we could hook them together and make one long tunnel, then put the ottoman at the end and a blanket over that makes the tunnel even longer. I ran up to get the camera just as Claire finished going through it so I didn't get any pictures of her in it. The kids said she went all the way through. So much fun. I totally remember spending Sundays making tons of forts.

funny stuff

Second quarter just ended for Siena and they sent home this 'portfolio' of Sienas artwork over the last quarter. Fun stuff. I love her spelling. She is pretty good but she doesn't know her vowels yet. I think it is funny they don't teach them the vowels until 1st grade.

We have been talking a lot about Walt Disney world lately. I having been telling my short little kids that they need to eat their vegetables and meat so they will grow big and strong so they can ride the big rides there. I don't know if they will be brave enough, but it seems to be working. Today in the car Ben asks if we can have those long straight beans for dinner. I was in shock. Did he just ask for vegetables? He said he needed them so he could grow big and strong for DisneyWorld. I don't know what we are going to do after DisneyWorld to convince our kids that they need to eat their vegetables but we have atleast 3 more months of eating vegetables in this house. Maybe by then they will learn that they are actually tasty.

Great Wolf Lodge

Siena had school off  Monday and Tuesday and Dave could finally take some time off. He didn't take hardly any time off for Christmas so we needed some family time. We went down to Williamsburg on Monday to the Great Wolf Lodge. It was so much fun. There were a lot of people there. I guess that is the thing to do when school is out for a couple days. We got the fun room with the Kid camp bunk beds in them. The kids loved them. I thought the kids would fall asleep so quickly because they were so exhausted Monday night but they were so excited for the bunk beds they stayed up and played and were still up at 7:30 ready to go again. They had their own little room and a t.v. There are tons of things to do here. We spent most of our time at the waterpark. Monday night we went to go to the art and craft room (Siena's favorite part) and it was closed so we ended up at the arcade instead. Tuesday morning we were waiting at the door of the art and craft room when it opened. Siena painted a flower pot picture frame and Ben painted an alligator puzzle. I think Siena could have stayed there all day. It was such a fun time just as a little family. We had wrist bands that we could buy all our food and snacks. It was very convenient. We never had to leave the lodge. We did go out for dinner and went to Walmart to get some food for breakfast. We tried everything we could think of to get Siena to go on the big slides. That girl is stubborn. I don't even think she was that scared she just didn't want to. I think she would have loved them if she did but maybe next time. We did have great progress as she and Ben posed with the wolf mascot! Both kids have always been terrified of mascots or dressed up characters. We are going to Disneyworld in May and we are preparing them all for the characters there. So now I have hope that we may get some pictures with the princesses and characters there. So exciting! Monday night they have a little show down in the lodge and a story time. The kids all dress in their pajamas. It was really fun but crowded. We had a fabulous time and now I know what to do for a fun blah January weekend.

 waiting for storytime.

 story time.

 Whylie the wolf.

 violet the wolf.

 watching t.v. in his room while having breakfast.

Captain Moroni

Dave went home teaching and made the Title of Liberty for the lesson. Ben was so excited when he came home and Ben got to play with the title of Liberty all day.

Claire 10 months

Claire turned 10 months without me even realizing it. I have a friend that had a baby the same day and she announced it on facebook that he was 10 months. I was thinking no our babies aren't 10 months yet. It is almost birthday month here at the Meilstrup household so I was getting everyones dates mixed up. She was 10 months on the 18th.

She still hasn't figured out that you are supposed to crawl on your hands and knees. So she still army crawls but she is fast. Dave and I have decided she is going to be a swimmer because when she gets really excited and wants to get somewhere fast she pushes on both her arms at the same time to push herself forward, just like the breaststroke.

She has just started to pull herself up on furniture but won't cruise along it.

She babbles all sorts of sounds but can't seem to get mamma or dadda out.

She still prefers me but when Dave comes home she crawls excitedly over to him, he picks her up and then she reaches for me again. Dave is the means to get held by me.

She loves being near the kids. Wherever they are playing she wants to be right up in their faces. The kids are really becoming responsible for her. In the mornings when we get ready while I am helping one kid the other kid is in a room with her playing with her or reading to her and making sure she doesn't eat anything small. They like being in charge of her.

I decided I really wanted to try cloth diapering. I finally took the plunge. I have wanted to do it for a long time. I don't know if I will like it or if I will stick with it, but I bought the stuff and am excited to try. Dave is not so excited, but he doesn't change diapers anyway so I thought I would atleast try. Today was the first day and we had success! Cloth diapers are cute and I am excited about the fact of not running out of diapers one day and having to go run out to the store. We will see how it works out.

thats just what brother do

Dave and I got a new mattress. We aren't sure what to do with our old mattress so we put it in our empty front room. I didn't want the guys delivering our new mattress to put the old one in the basement in case we wanted to just sell it or give it away. So it looks like squaters live in our house. It's a little random but the kids love it. They play games up there, jump on it and read books on it. So we took advantage of it and took fun pictures there today.
Claire is one tough cookie. Ben steam rolls her constantly. He is such an affectionate boy I love it. She loves the attention.

my chunky baby, you can't even see her eyes when she smiles. She grabs quite the attention wherever we are with her chunky cheeks. At church on Sunday a little 4 year old boy asked his dad if he could sit by the family with the chunky cheek baby. She gets so much attention.

oh my gosh he is the cutest boy ever.