my brudder

While going through a box of old photos recently I stumbled upon this scrap of newspaper written about me and my new baby brudder.  It makes me smile.  I do believe I might have even asked my mom when they were going to take him back.  But that attitude didn't last long.  We became pals eventually.

Over the years we had our ups and downs as any sibs do...there were times when he resisted my affections (we'll just call it my schoolteacher-in-training phase), and times when we teased each other mercilessly.  But in my heart I always knew that my brother would do anything for me.  That's what I love most about him now, the strong knowledge that he's got my back should I ever call on him.  My little "brudder" is now much taller than me, he's always good for a laugh, and he can liven up any party with his wit & his charm.  He's a very classy & smart guy and I'm proud to be his big sis.

Ok, that's enough.  He's probably rolling his eyes at me now for my ramblings.  And should my sister be reading this..take heed, I'm looking for the perfect picture to complete your post!

in my kitchen

in my kitchen at any given moment you might find:

~ a baby helping with the dishes (or at least providing cuddles to his mama whilest she washes the dishes)

~ general silliness with grapes, and the gobbling of grapes as well

~ an art project of one kind or another in process (sometimes a complex & messy affair, sometimes a simple drawing)

~ an independent young man (who was just recently a toddler) taking the recyclables out for his mama

~ bread cooling on the stovetop

~ a bowl full of fruit for snacking or for rotting (if mama has intentions of baking banana bread)

**inspiration for this post came from one of my favorite blogging mamas: http://www.soulemama.com/

flutterbies

this week...

~ ella started reading a book that belonged to her mama when she was a little girl
~ max continued the search for that one elusive lego that always seems to be missing
~ henry came down with a cold that morphed into his first ear infection

~ sam blew bubbles to entertain his daddy while he worked on fixing the truck's brakes

happy mother's day!

i hope that all the mother's out there are having their way today. i certainly am! all i wanted was some quality family time today and that's what i got. cuddling with max while we watched the wizard of oz, sewing with sam, reading a book while holding sweet henry, and making strawberry shortcake with ella rose. and all the while my husband is doing sweet things for me, like making breakfast, planting our vegetables for the summer, and baking french bread for dinner. it truly is a perfect sort of day around here.

zoo blooms

april 2010

Little Leprechauns

how the time flies!

oh how the time flies when you have four little ones at home! i have been neglecting our blog these past few months! i even failed to post when baby number four made his entrance a month ago. that's right, a month ago. my prince henry is already one month old. just to catch you up to speed...henry was born on january 25th at 8:09 am, weighing 9lbs. 10 oz. i had a planned c-section, and the birth went smoothly.

ella took the news of having a brother instead of a sister very well. she is very attentive to her baby brother, and a huge help to mommy. sam has taken on the role of protector. he watches over henry and makes sure that mommy is taking good care of him. he often reminds me to feed henry, or change henry any time he hears him cry. popluar opinion is that sam sees henry as a future ally in his plans to take over the world (starting with our home). max is not too interested in henry at this point..we think that he is waiting for henry to grow up so he can play with him. max is constantly talking about things that he and henry will do when henry is older. right now, he's just not that interesting, i mean he can't even play with legos yet! how boring!

henry has had a rocky first month of life. when he was a week and a half old he had a case of the sniffles that progressed quickly into a case of rsv. rsv is pretty common this time of year, sam has had it twice, when he was older though (he was treated with breathing treatments and it wasn't that big of a deal). rsv is a scary thing for a small baby to have though. henry was having trouble breathing and we rushed him to the children's hospital emergency room. he spent four days in the nicu at children's on oxygen, iv fluids & antibiotics and under the watchful eye of the fabulous staff there. it was a very scary experience for us (because somehow this was our first ever trip to the hospital with one of our children), but we were thankful for a quick recovery and feel blessed that we live so close to such a wonderful hospital. we were also so appreciative of the support we had from everyone around us. the outpouring of love, the prayers from so many people, the offers of help and the countless meals we received helped us make it through this rough patch.

so now somehow a month has passed. henry seems to be completely over the rsv. i took him to the doctor today and he now weighs 11 pounds, 10.5 ounces. he's a happy, growing boy!

the other children are doing well too. ella has turned in to quite the little bookworm (just like her mama at that age). she is tearing through chapter books, reading every chance she gets! max is learning about space at school, and loves to come home from school and tell us all about the phases of the moon and the different constellations (like the big spoon and the little spoon). sam doesn't say much about school, except to tell me what he ate at snack and that he rides bikes in the gym.

hello baby!

today our family went to my doctor for my ultrasound. i am excited to announce that baby scheper is healthy and cooking nicely. the baby is one pound, and in the 65th percentile for growth. the kids were amazed to see the baby moving around and to hear it's little heartbeat. i am 20 weeks, 3 days - due on January 29th 2010. because i have c-sections, baby will probably be here about a week before my due date. this is a profile picture of baby...you can see the side of the face, it's big belly and a little arm resting on the belly. It's not a very clear shot, because baby wasn't being very cooperative...another stubborn scheper baby. and as you can probably tell from the language i'm using..there is just one bun in the oven, and no, we did not find out the sex. we just love surprises!

a trip to the cabin

this weekend was an unusual one...there was almost nothing on our calendar, and not much on the "to-do" list. so we decided on a short visit to the cabin. we made copious amounts of tasty food, including a tomato pie and cheese & chicken enchiladas, watched a movie with the kids, collected wildflowers, watched for birds, took walks along the river, read books, laid in the hammock, and relaxed on the front porch, enjoying the fall-like weather. it was a perfect way to spend one of the last weekends of summer.

cousins...cosi...columbus

the scheper family had a little getaway to columbus last week...we went to cosi (cincinnati museum center members get in FREE!), visited with cousins that we just don't see often enough, ate delicious ice cream (delicious but not graeters), stayed in a beautiful hotel and went to the columbus zoo & aquarium (half price for cincy zoo members!). mini-vacations rock!

sam's new shirt...

January 2010

Cumberland Falls

we went on a mini-vacation last week to Cumberland Falls. There were thunderstorms aplenty (I love thunderstorms!) but we were still able to spend some time outside...we went on a long hike to Eagle Creek Falls, ella and i went horseback riding, and we even went to the pool for a bit. the kids loved exploring, and we loved relaxing. we went to the visitors center to meet and greet snakes, ella learned how to play checkers at the lodge, and lets not forget that the cabin we stayed in had cable tv, which we have never had at our house....so at night the kids got to watch some crazy cartoons that mama would never let them watch otherwise!

hoppy easter!

we reduced reused and recycled this easter....we used last year's eggs, bought the boys' outfits at a consignment shop and eleanor is wearing a vintage polly flinders dress circa 1980something. check out katie hammons wearing the dress oh so long ago, and fyi - we had to have the hem taken out for ella to wear it.

for nana

happy saint patrick's day to all of our friends and family! i will grudginly admit that my cultural heritage is a bit of a mix...i cannot identify all of the places i have descended from. but because of my nana i proudly declare myself irish (which isn't hard to claim, considering my fair skin and abundant amount of freckles). nana celebrated St. Patrick's day each year....she wore the green, partied with friends, and sent a card to each of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. she & bop spent years working on geneology, tracking down our roots in ireland. because of them we have a close relationship with our cousins across the ocean. it was nana & bop that took me on my first trip to ireland when i was 12. nana bought ella her first pair of shamrock socks (sam is wearing them today). nana gave her family a sense of history and never let us forget our heritage, and for that i am ever grateful.

each saint patrick's day i sent nana a picture of the kids in their st. patrick's day attire. this year i share it with you instead....here are the scheper kids over the years proudly wearing their green.

a trip down memory lane...

saint patrick's day makes me miss my irish cousins...here are a few pix from the trip that Mom, Tess, Ella and I took in 2006 to visit our family in county kerry.

dinner guests

a few nights back during dinner i kept seeing max bend over in his seat, and whispering....so i peeked around the table and saw that we had dinner guests. baby alaska and baby alaska were dining alongside their friend max.

our little things

a boy and his bed

well...it's official, max is growing up :( last night max made the transition from toddler bed to big boy bed. he looked so little in that great big twin bed. it made me just a little bit sad. my babies are growing up. max won't even allow me to call him "baby" anymore. he is my big boy.

he was so very excited about his big boy bed...and new sheets too! he has two sets of "alaska" sheets now...a flannel set for these cold nights, and then an embroidered set from grandma for when it warms up a little.