Dress Up

Sorry, I can't resist. I have to post this picture even though I do not encourage cross dressing.

 

Elijah - 5 months

Eli will be 5 months old in a couple of days and I feel like time has flown by so fast. He is the happiest little guy and he is always smiling, laughing, and cooing. He has started to rotate his body around while laying under his toy gym on his back. He is very aware of everything around him and he loves to watch and follow anyone who makes eye contact with him and wait for them to give him a reason to smile. He is perfect!
 

Habenero Pepper Burns

Last week Emmett spent a couple of hours making "pasta" (dirt, leaves, sticks, etc) in the bird bath inside our chicken's pen. His fun ended when he decided to add what he thought was bell pepper juice by breaking open the peppers and squeezing the juice into the so called pasta. According to his account, some dirt splashed onto his face while stirring and he tried to wipe it off.
Of course, a couple of days prior to this incident, and after much nagging, I finally persuaded TJ to pull out the habenero plants in our garden and throw them into the chicken pen because Jo had been picking and eating our baby bell peppers in our garden and I was afraid she would pick a habenero instead. I guess I saved one child only to hurt another.
Poor Emmett chugged a full glass of milk, gobbled a slice of bread and scrubbed his face with soap and a wash cloth while soaking in the bath only to declare that he was still hot and now the burning had spread to his chewed fingertips. He finally settled down when I decided that using 10 bandaids to keep him happy was worth the dollar it cost me to buy them. Boy am I stingy. The picture shows the red burn around his mouth from the habenero juice.

 

Tee Ball

Here are some pictures of McKay and Emmett playing tee ball and Dad playing catcher.
Emmett wore a pair of blue underwear his first game and now insists that they are part of his uniform. He is a natural athlete and received the game ball after their first game. His only problem is remembering which side his team plays on. He followed the red team into their dugout twice and it took him a while each time to realize that he wasn't wearing red.
McKay is completely aware of what's going on. He has to fake throw twice before throwing the ball to another player, hit the home plate twice before getting into batting position, and slide into home plate every chance he gets. On his last slide home he came up two feet short and had to scoot to touch the plate.
After he realized a game ball would be given to a player at the end of every game, every prayer included "and please help me get the game ball". I tried to help him change the wording to "help me play my best" and his response was "but I want the game ball". I guess it's good to be specific.

Elijah Merrill Cheney

Elijah Merrill Cheney has arrived. He was born Monday, April 27th at 1:10pm, 8 lbs. 3 oz., 21.25" long, and a 36 cm head. He looks perfect with an olive complexion, greyish (maybe blue) eyes and light brown hair. He is sleeping and eating well and very content. I am feeling great as well. I have a wonderful husband who has been waking up early, fixing lunches, getting the kids ready for school, going grocery shopping, running the kids to practices, giving baths, and doing dishes. My mother in law and sister in law have taken Emmett and Joleigh every morning for the past two weeks until noon, which has helped me get a good 8 hours of sleep every night and has really helped me heal and transition back into the swing of things. I have had some yummy meals brought over from friends at church and Nellie and Tiffany brought over 12 homemade freezer meals a few weeks ago (like they didn't both just have a baby), which I am saving for when I am fully on my own again. I am really grateful right now to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with beautiful, healthy children and for the great support of my family and friends. I love being a mom and I can't wait to return the help to others around me when I can.

Cheney Kids Artwork

Savannah, McKay, and Emmett drew a picture of our family. I thought they were great pictures and I wasn't the least bit surprised that Emmett thinks his family consists of him and our dog Bailee.




Mckay gave TJ and I a little book for Valentine's Day filled with coupons of things he would do for love. He was very creative... or maybe crafty would be a better word. I asked him how he was going to get enough money to buy me the $200 Wii I've always wanted and the $50 Super Smash Brothers game. He thought I would have enough money to buy them myself when I was ready to use the coupon. My absolute favorite is the blood gushing deer. I have to thank TJ for embedding that image into his head by bringing home his prize to show his boys before taking it to the butcher shop this past hunting season.

The Vaseline Bath

While I was getting ready on Wednesday morning, Emmett runs into my room in a panic about something Jo has done. I can't understand his hysteria so I follow him into the hallway to find Joleigh sitting on the floor smearing vaseline all over her face and hair by the handfuls. I set her in the bath and of course ran to find my camera. Two days and five hairwashings later and she still looks like she has gel in her hair. Yuck.

Snow Day

When it snows in NC school is cancelled, in fact if they even mention that there might be snow they cancel school. So, in our 4 inches of snowfall the kids attempted to jump on the trampoline, make snow angels, have a snowball fight, and my favorite was their desperate attempt to make a snowman. McKay was sent outside with 2 green M&Ms for the eyes and 7 red M&Ms for the mouth. He decided that he didn't like snowmen with mouths.

Savannah's Baptism

Christmas was a great day for our family. Not only did we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but we also celebrated the birth of our daughter Savannah. She has been a shining star in our family and once again set a great example to her siblings by being baptized on her 8th birthday as a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.

It's a Boy!

Just thought I would mention it in case anyone was left in suspense.

Christmas at home

Here are the kids on Christmas morning waiting to go downstairs and see if Santa visited our home.

My hands have never been so free! Well, not in a long time anyway. The first day of Papa's visit he spent a little time warming up to Joleigh by reading her a book. From that day on, anytime Joleigh saw Papa she would point and say "Papa" and then searched the room for the same book, took it to him and said "up". She then took her place on his lap and I was free at last.

Emmett spends... lets just say he spends a portion of his living hours in time out. Joleigh has decided that during this time she needs to put herself in time out too.

Santa at Hunter Farms

I love my parents and I was very happy they came for a week to spend Christmas with us... well, really to see Savannah's baptism... she picked a great day to be born. Along with making gingerbread houses, almond rocha, frosting cookies, lots of cooking, eating, and cleaning, we also visited Santa at Hunter Farms down the road. We went for a very bumpy ride on a horse-pulled wagon, fed more farm animals, and sat on Santa's lap, yes even me, but I won't post that picture.

Joleigh, Michelle, Nana, and Savannah

Papa, McKay, Emmett, TJ

Savannah spent more time petting the Clydesdales than feeding the animals. She was impressed by how large they were up close.




Joleigh and Santa won't be friends for another year.

Jo was a little shocked at how aggressive the sheep were when she tried to feed them. She did like feeding the animals but she really enjoyed chasing the multipoo dog around the farm.

Piano Recital

Savannah and McKay had a very looong Christmas piano recital on December 4th. I love their piano teacher, Miss Wortha. She has been playing for 50 years and teaching for 30 years. Savannah played and sang "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", I was privleged to hold the microphone so I wasn't able to take more pictures of her.



McKay played "Joy to the World" and "Merry, Merry Christmas". They were both so proud of their accomplishments as you can tell from McKay's face when he ended his piece.

Boots

Joleigh has a new discovered infatuation with shoes, boots in particular. She's 18 months (Yeah Nursery!) and she now has the motorskills to take them on and off.

Backyard

The kids are always having fun when Dad's around. Unfortunately, I can't always guarantee their safety when they are with him.

Santa's Forrest

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from a tree farm we found called "Santa's Forrest". We were able to carry on the tradition of cutting our own tree, which also included free hot chocolate, popcorn, feeding farm animals, a hay ride, a treasure hunt, and a play area made from hay bales. The people running the farm lived next door and were the good ol' southern folk that sat around the fire pit outside and talked to the customers as if they were family. I absolutely loved that place and I'm sure we'll go every year as long as we are in NC.