Meet Lily

I promise I haven't forgotten about my two other children.  Nothing major holding me back from doing it.  Just work, a garage that seems to be accumulating clutter that needs to be sold or given away and a bed filled with laundry from nights with soaked sheets.  The times where it just doesn't feel like it will ever be clean enough or organized enough.  But through it all there is one little girl that reminds me to have joy.  Lily.

Oh sweet Lily.  She is our fun loving, party starting, crazy hugging, sweet lovin' girl.  This child came into our lives as a surprise and we knew the moment we heard of her impending arrival that she was our grace.  And her middle name will always be our reminder.



Lily is 4 yrs old.  She currently has no aspirations for academics.  That education stuff is left to her big sister.  She wants to bounce around and swing as high as her little legs can pump her.
 


She loves all fruits and veggies and has no fear of trying whatever is set in front of her.  Her only strong dislike is bananas.  Her favorite fruit of the moment is strawberries.  She eagerly waits by the strawberry patch in the backyard to see her beloved fruit turn scarlet.  She has been known to have arguments with her daddy about who can eat the strawberries in the garden.  Her favorite bucket of peas has been planted and she tenderly calls them "sweet peas".


Lily loves to hug.  She is our most affectionate child.  If you're not up for cuddling she find a way to make you cuddle.  It feels as though she is my baby kangaroo waiting for her mama to open up her pouch so she can climb right in.


We often call her bruiser.  She's pretty rough with the rest of us.  It's not uncommon to hear someone crying and know it's Lily who has been the aggressor.  It's 80% unintentional.  She just doesn't know her own strength.  The other 20% is sheer aggression.  This could be the asthma medicine talking.
 



She is our joy and our sharpening tool all at the same time, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  

I am Sam

I want to try and capture each kiddo where there are in life currently.  Here is the first kiddo.
 

Meet Sam.

He’s 21 months old.  He loves playing outside, drive his cars around the house and take long walks in the park.

He is tall, slender, and will mostly likely reach 3 ft tall by the ripe age of 2.

 He doesn’t have an experienced palate yet.  He loves pumpkin oatmeal, lots of white foods, and carbs.  Milk tops the list, which he demands the moment he wakes up from a long nights sleep.  Crackers, pb sandwiches and bananas suit him just fine.  He has yet to hop on the Paleo bandwagon. 

He loves his big sisters, but at the moment, pals around with Eloise the best.  This might change next year when Lily and Sam have a little bit of time to themselves. 

He knows how to communicate to his sister’s well.  He is often found lying in a heap on the floor when they slightly touch him or refuse to hand over the toy they are playing with.

 

He’s very fluent in the language of baby, but occasionally he branches over to proper English.  His current English words are Mama, Dada, Nana (doubles for Nana and Banana), papa or poppie (doubles for puppy and papa), kah-ker (cracker), car, bye, hi, and of course, no and mine.

 He can climb bunk beds, book shelves and anything else that could send him falling a large distance to the floor possibly breaking an arm or leg.

Hair cuts are his least favorite activity.  His mom and dad have tried pinning him in their lap and that was an epic failure.  The movie trick was tried the next time, which proved to be a little less of a failure.  However, he still thinks his dad is the coolest guy in town.

He knows his way around a kitchen.  At the first sound of a utensil being pulled out of the drawer, he is sprinting to pull up his chair and begin cooking with his mama.  He’s still working on his culinary skills. 

When his mama doesn't need his help, she will gladly hand over the ipod to get his dinner finally on the table.

Sweet Sam is a blessing to the family.  We enjoy watching him grow and look forward to many more years to come.

Kindy

Tonight, we go to Eloise's Kindergarten round-up.  It's a night where we get to meet teachers, look at the school and get an idea of what may lie ahead in the next year.

Those who have gone before me know that it will be a little emotional but will pass.  I can see that on the other side, but it's transition and I LOVE transition (insert sarcasm).

I've talked with the Lord alot about what His plan is for schooling our children.  I've explored homeschooling, looked at charters and had dreams about private (too expensive).  With each option, the Lord has clearly checked off each one and we've ended up with public and our local school. 

Now this comes with some hesitation.  First, the surface hesitations.  It's not in the best neighborhood and it doesn't LOOK the best.  Second, the deep hesitations.  What kind of things will she come in contact with?  Will people be mean to her?  How will she handle confrontation or getting her feelings hurt?  These deep hesitations or worries I have can happen anywhere.  They can happen in the best of the best schools and 4 pretty walls surrounding her will not prevent any of that from happening. 

Eloise is a driven girl, she will excel anywhere she goes.  I can teach her whatever she needs to be taught.  It's not really about education.  So then, as a family, I'm left asking - are we supposed to be in that school to love people?  To serve where there are needs that need to be met?  To show support to teachers, to help children who don't have a steady home life, to be a light where there needs to be light?  I can't help but know deep down that THAT is why we are headed in that direction.

So I look forward to Kindergarten round-up and I look back at this last year with thanks. Thanks to the Lord for helping me make the decision to not send Eloise to pre-school.  I have loved the time I've had to keep all three of them at home without any commitments.  I love that in a rare beautiful Spring day, they get to make mud pies and play fairy soccer until their hearts are content. 

And he just likes to push things around, including his sister's doll stroller.  

Oh the life of a little boy with only sister's.

Easter 2011

Not the best shot, but family photos aren't perfect around here.

There have been numerous times I've wanted to update my blog with thoughts, phases, stages, ideas, etc...but after spending 3 hours on the computer working, the last thing I want to do is spend another 30 minutes uploading photos and editing pictures.  But Easter rolled around, no time spent on the computer and it seems like the perfect opportunity to update.

 

 Pictures don't work out so well around here.

This year, I learned more about the history of Easter and how it came to be.  Because of our belief in Jesus, I wanted to move away from the tradition of Easter and focus more on the the Holy week and Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  A few blogs I read gave me some inspiring ideas.

First we started out each day reading what Jesus was doing leading up to the Resurrection.  My mom had given them these little paper cutouts with a book and stickers.  It was a good visual for little minds.  On Good Friday we spent some time outside working on our Tomb garden and then put it together that evening.  We read a story, lit the candle and then went to bed after we blew out the candle.

 

 

To keep balance, we still did Easter eggs.  We just did them in the lawn in our backyard on Saturday.  The kids knew no different and still had tons of fun and lots of candy (too much in fact!).  Then today, Resurrection Sunday, when the kids woke up, we rolled away the rock in front of our tomb in the garden and then cut some flowers to place around it for the "new-ness" that Christ has given to us in His Resurrection.  We went to church, came home and had lunch.  Took naps and rested the remainder of the day.  It was a beautiful, relaxing, and fresh filled day. 

I love that she has no idea he's stealing her candy.

I think in the future, I'll do a Spring party with their friends and hide Easter eggs on that day.  Something about keeping Easter separate from Resurrection Sunday has become really important to me. 

Because it would take more creativity than I have, here's the pictures from the weekend, all clumped together.

 

Happy Easter and Resurrection Sunday!

Lily gets married

Lily went to her first wedding this last summer.  Ever since, she's been obsessed with the ladies dressed in white.  When our friends, Mary and Eric, asked her to be in their wedding, we knew she would be overjoyed.

This last weekend was the wedding and Lily was the life of the party.  I can't tell you how many times people came up to me and commented how wonderful, lively, loving, sweet, kind and beautiful she was.  Our sweet Lily thrives in environments with lots of people.  The night after the rehearsal dinner, she had so much energy flowing through her she couldn't fall asleep until 11:30!  Needless to say, after the wedding she had a complete meltdown on the ride home.

Nevertheless, she looked beautiful and did great.  And her big sister Eloise did great and working through those emotions of jealous and helped Lily to have a wonderful time.  Another great accomplishment for our 5 year old.

Here's the proof of cuteness...
First, the rehearsal dinner

Waiting for the wedding to start.  A great distractions with coloring crayons.

 A cute cheesy smile.  She did not like the headband and wouldn't put it on until the very last minute.

 Finally, the time arrived and she concentrated very hard on dropping her flowers just right.  There were several candles lining the isles so they needed to be careful no petals landed in the flame.

It was great to be a part of this fantastic wedding at our church.  We love this couple dearly and love how supportive our church family has been.  There were over 400 people at the wedding.  People were standing in the isles.  Lots of love to go around.

Lily turns 4!

I've neglected this bloggy blog for a while, but there's nothing like a birthday to bring me back.

 Lily turned 4 last Wednesday.  Part of me can't believe the 4 years has flown by, but the other part of me feels like it's perfect timing.  We've rising out of the whiny 3's and we're powering into the rationalizing/arguing 4's.  All part of growing up and all part of me learning how to teach and train her in the right way she should go. 

Lily is the light of our family.  She brings laughter, craziness, and joy to our family.  She is our feeler.  I can already tell that one of her gifts is mercy.  When we watch Wipe-out, she gets very unhappy when we laugh at the people falling.  Sometimes to the point of tears.  At the end of Toy Story 3, she nearly fell apart at the possibility of the toys being burned in the incinerator.  So we've learned that she has an extra sensitivity to people's pain and we make sure to help her work through those emotions.

She loves to hug, kiss and cuddle constantly.  It's often a point of frustration.  She loves to hug and cuddle Sam and he does not want his sister smothering him.  Her challenge will be learning to respect people's personal space.

Eloise is her world.  They fight, but they create, play, and imagine together and Lily watches what Eloise does with an curious eye.  I look forward to watching their relationship change and grow.

We're still following the family birthday party plan so we just had my parents down to celebrate.  Lily is in love with unicorns, so we opted for a unicorn birthday cake and a few rainbow party props thrown in. My cake wasn't as fabulous as I had hoped, but she loved the rainbow inside and the princess and unicorns on top (Playmobile). 

 





















She wanted a rainbow fruit salad, pickles and olives, mac & cheese shells and chicken strips.  She also wanted orange juice.  Requests granted.



Her favorite gift was a hula hoop!  She had hours of fun playing.  They also got a store front that Sam loved to play in and Eloise loved to draw on.  She received lots of other great gifts too.



It was a great day to celebrate the Lord's wonderful gift to us.  We are blessed and thankful to have Lily as a part of our family.