Told you she was excited about her birthday...

Happy Birthday to Leah!

We began our day today with the traditional birthday donuts, although Leah broke slightly with tradition and went for Dunkin Donuts instead of the usual Carlson's.  The girl knows what she wants!
She opened presents from our family~ Calico Critters camping set and wristwatch from Mom and Dad, nail stickers from Jane, Stickers from Avery, and pink nail polish from Grace.

Leah was effusively thankful for each gift she opened and has great surprised facial expressions.  Poor Grace suffered greatly watching Leah open each gift, so very sad that she doesn't have a watch or a Calico Critters camping set.  We're working on helping her work through these emotions...that girl just FEELS everything deeply and wears her feelings on her sleeve! She was happy to watch Leah open the nail polish, though!

Sunflower-themed birthday party (which Leah has been planning and list-making for since June) with family is on Saturday.  School begins on Tuesday.  Life is full!

Sweet, sweet Leah-loo.  She is so very excited to be five.  As she came to the top of the steps this morning, she announced "Here comes the five year old!"  She loves to mother Avery and Jane, always scrunching up her nose, stooping down to their level, and talking "oochie-goochie" baby talk.  She's eager to help Avery do everything, although she does NOT enjoy feeding Jane a bottle!

Leah definitely has a perfectionist streak/ slight OCD nature (thanks, Tim Wilson) that gets stronger as she ages!  Her dresser top is set up just so; I had to spend 30 minutes tucking her quilt into her top bunk so that it was perfectly smooth and she slips in the top at night so as not to disturb it too much; she dissolves into tears when her writing or drawing or coloring is not perfect.

This also translates into some amazing accomplishments:  she's well on her way to reading, her handwriting is excellent, she learned how to SEW ON A REAL SEWING MACHINE with her Grandma and has already made a pillow and a quilt for cryin' out loud, and her sock and underwear drawer is a sight to behold.

Leah loves party planning, jump roping, drawing, sewing, her sisters, playing board and card games, and pizza.  She does not like cheese (what?!)

We are looking forward to enjoying Leah's sixth year with us, seeing all she will learn, and pray that above all she will learn to follow Jesus with all her little heart!  Happy Birthday to Leah Anne xoxo

Things I've seen the past two months...

 Father's Day 2013 

 Costumes from NCPC's Play

 Nap time's over!

 Leah reading to Avery

 I convinced a sister to feed the baby, and look what it got her

The six of us on my 29th birthday

Jane: Nine Months Old!

Jane Elizabeth is a little peanut that is full of energy!  She is always on the go (army crawling!), and doesn't appreciate being strapped in to swings, baby carriers, or strollers.  She tolerates her walker now that her little legs know how to make it move backwards and forwards all over the kitchen.

It feels like I spend most of my day fishing things out of her mouth, because she's such an excellent vacuum cleaner.  Speaking of vacuum cleaner, I've started paying Grace and Leah 25 cents a room to try to keep the floors clean for Jane.  Never have I had a baby so fast and so good at eating non-foods!

At her check-up, Jane was in the 10th percentile for length and head measurements, and still in the 3rd percentile (maybe less) for weight (14 lbs. 2.5 oz).  At three pounds less than Avery at this age, Jane is definitely the most petite Deterding girl.  As always, though, she is happy, healthy, and precious!  Supplementing with formula led to a decreased interest in nursing, so for the past three weeks she has been exclusively drinking formula with a variety of mashed table food for good measure.  She's fascinated by people eating and can't stand to be left out when she sees other people chewing.

All of the energy she expends also means she needs lots of sleep, so at the moment Jane is taking a 2 hour nap in the morning, at least 3 solid hours of nap time in the afternoon, and 11 hours of sleep at night!

Jane has a glowing smile, but isn't very vocal except for a cute little (groaning?) sound that it totally unique to her.  She

-- Pause to take something out of her mouth and pull her out from under the desk--

She says lots of baby sounds, mama, dada, baba, and can wave hello and goodbye.  She pulls herself up to a standing position and always laughs out loud when she is walked around holding onto hands.  She is just so proud of herself when she does that.

Jane's big sisters are such a big help, and love to make Jane laugh.  Grace can still pick her up and hold her, which is helpful when Mommy has her hands in five other things and can't pick up the baby right away.  Janers really lights up when she sees a big sister enter the room!  We continue to elicit stares and the occasional surprised comment when we're out and about with the four of them, as though four adorable little siblings is some kind of novelty, haha.  Even more of a reaction when it's discovered that the four of them are all girls.  Actually some comments are negative and we're accused of being crazy, if you can imagine!  Ha!  They are each so unique and wonderful, we really can't wait to see how Jane's personality blossoms and develops over the next couple of years.  Thank you, heavenly Father, for a quartet of little girls rounded out so nicely by this tiny, sunshiny Jane.

10 on 10: June

See a day in our life for the month of June over on the Projects blog!

Heather Grace Photography- Simply Life

Little Tappers

Grace and Leah performed a tap routine to Elvis' "All Shook Up" last weekend.  This was their first year of tap class, and they really loved all the noise those shoes could make.
I may be biased, but they really do so well performing in front of large audiences; and on top of that they are both very coordinated!   Highlights of the day were the facts that they could wear lots of makeup, and grandparents were there with armfuls of flowers to take in the show~

Leah in the middle, Grace on the audience's right

Eighth Annual Deterding-Sanders Camping Adventure!

It's hard to believe we've been camping with Kevin and Alison for eight years in a row!
It all started in 2006 as newlyweds:



And look at us now!



Six little girls later, meals are a little noisier...



we no longer fit in two small tents pitched on one shared campsite (instead it was one rustic cabin and one yurt, with two minivans parked in front):



relaxation means contentedly playing in mud puddles...



there are lots of tiny camp chairs around the fire...



many more changes of clothes...




























many more giggles...



and Heather and Alison certainly have their hands full at shower time!

















We're already looking forward to next year!