Seven Years Old

Parker,
     Seven years ago you joined our family and changed our lives forever.  I am so proud of the young man you are becoming and can't wait to see what this year has in store for you.  Here are a few of the things I want to remember about you as you start your seventh year of life:

- I don't know your current stats but you are one of the tallest boys in your class and weigh about 60 pounds.  I'm anxious to get your exact measurements at your checkup next week.  You are wearing size 7 clothes and size 3 shoes.

- You eat so much food!  I often wonder how your stomach can hold everything you eat!  And I worry about how we are going to afford to feed you when you are a teenager!  You have gotten much better about trying new things and have finally started eating eggs and cereal this year.  Some of your all time favorites include spaghetti, tacos, chips and queso, and all types of fruit (especially apples and raspberries). 

- You are a great reader and love to read!  You are a very fast and fluent reader and have achieved all of your reading goals at school this year.  You love to read before bed and we often have to compromise on how many minutes I will let you read past your bedtime. 

- You are so athletic and love any type of sport.  Your favorite continues to be baseball and you look forward to your games and practices every week. 

- You still love to play video games after you finish your homework and especially love when daddy plays with you. 

- You are so helpful around the house and rarely complain when I ask for help with chores.  You are usually willing to help Eden and Lily when they need help too. 

-You are becoming more and more consistent with using "yes sir", "no sir", "yes ma'am", and "no ma'am" when speaking to adults which makes me so proud.

- You are ALL boy and find humor in anything that deals with bodily functions or potty talk. 

- You love school and have had a great first grade year with Mrs. Brightwell.  You are reading on a 4th/5th grade level and enjoy going to PE.  Some of your friends this year are Cole, Robert, Cullen, Jolea and Alexis.  I miss you while you are at school and look forward to you getting home every afternoon. 

- You are a perfectionist and can be very hard on yourself.  You hate when it takes you more than once to figure something out and often get easily frustrated when learning new things.

- You are a great big brother and always look out for your sisters.  They look up to you so much and I pray that the three of you will always be close.  They are lucky to have you as their big brother!

- Last year, the two goals you had were to learn to ride your bike and tie you shoes.  You can now ride your bike like a pro but unfortunately I have yet to teach you how to tie your shoes.  We will definitely keep that on our list of things to learn this year!

You are an amazing kid, Parker, and I'm so thankful that I am the one who was chosen to be your mom!  You make me proud every day and I hope that you never doubt how much Daddy and I love you!  I can't wait to experience another year with you! 

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

Bike Safety Day

Today was Bike Safety Day at Eden's preschool.  All of the kids got to bring their bikes or scooters and learn about bike safety.  The kids were put in groups of three and got to ride their bike around an obstacle course while learning about the different street signs they might see while they are out riding their bikes. 

 

Eden got very nervous when it was her group's turn.  I thought she might back out but at the last minute she told me she would go if I would walk beside her. (And I might have bribed her with Taco Bueno for lunch if she would just try to participate!)  Thankfully, as soon as we got to the starting line, she regained her confidence and told me she didn't need me anymore.  She loved riding around the track and did a good job answering Miss Tammy's questions about the street signs.  It was a fun way to end the week!

Happy 5th Birthday Aubrey!

It seems like every time I turn around, I am at least 3-4 blog posts behind.  Life is moving at such a fast pace right now and I know that it is only going to get faster as the girls start participating in more and more activities.  That being said, I still love blogging and documenting all of the fun things that we do so I guess that I'll just have to blog when I can and not worry that I might be several days (or weeks) behind. 

 

Last week, we celebrated Aubrey's 5th birthday.  We started celebrating on Thursday (her actual birthday) and it lasted well into the weekend!  You only turn 5 once, right?!?!

 

We started with birthday pancakes for breakfast before school on Thursday. 

Thursday night was Aubrey's spring program at her preschool so we enjoyed a birthday dinner at Chick-Fil-A with her before getting to watch her sing in her program. 

Saturday afternoon we celebrated some more with a trip to Peter Piper Pizza.  My sister asked Aubrey several times who she wanted to invite to her party and every time she requested that it only be her family and cousins.  They had a great time eating pizza, playing games, and earning tickets for some very cool prizes!

To finish out Aubrey's fun filled birthday weekend, we went back over to Granna/Granstan's house and enjoyed cake, ice cream and presents. 

All of the kids loved Aubrey's new make up kit and they spent the longest time in the bathroom trying it out.  As you can see, the results were breathtaking!   

We enjoyed being a part of Aubrey's special weekend!  She is such a precious girl and we are so thankful that she joined our family five years ago!  Our family definitely wouldn't be the same without her sweet spirit and infectious laugh!  Happy 5th Birthday Aubrey Kate!  We love you so much!

 



Three and a Half

Lily Claire,
Another six months have come and gone and as much as I don't want to accept it, you are turning three and a half today.  You are growing up so quickly and there are so many times that I look at you and am sad that you are no longer a baby (although you will always be my baby!).  Here are a few things I want to remember about you as you turn 3 1/2:

- You are still very tall for your age and are the tallest one in your preschool class.  You weigh about 41 pounds and wear size 5/6 clothes.  You only weigh a few pounds less than Eden and the two of you can often share clothes.

- You are a good eater and will usually try almost anything I offer.  Some of your favorites are all types of fruit, nuts, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, broccoli, salad, and anything sweet.

- You are doing a GREAT job wearing your glasses!  You often put them on in the morning without any reminders and rarely take them off during the day. 

- Now that you have glasses and can see clearly, you are finally starting to learn your letters/sounds and have started trying to write your name.  You can count to twelve and can recognize several numbers. 

- Another thing that you like to do now that you have glasses is watch TV/movies.  Before you got your glasses, you would only watch about 5 minutes of a movie before you lost interest.  Now you ask to watch a video during rest time every day.  A few of your favorites right now are Team Umizoomi, Little Einsteins, and Little Bear.  You also love the movie Frozen.

- You love to read books and have started asking to "read" your books to me at bedtime.  You also enjoy coloring and drawing.

- You love playing with your baby dolls and are such a good mommy to them.  You love to feed them, rock them, and put them to bed in their crib.

- Playing outside is one of your favorite things to do.  You especially love swinging on the swing set. 

- Your strong willed personality keeps us on our toes!  You are definitely in the terrible three's but it seems to be getting a little better the closer you get to turning four.  You can go from crying to laughing and then back to crying in a matter of seconds!  But in the end, you always make me laugh with the funny things you say and your over exaggerated, animated facial expressions!

- You love playing with your brother and sister but you also love to drive them crazy!  You have also gotten very close to Aubrey this year and look forward to seeing her every morning at breakfast. 

- Around Thanksgiving you started having some bladder issues.  For almost two months, you asked to go to the bathroom about every 20-30 minutes during the day and were up 2-6 times at night.  We took you to Dr. Morrow and then were referred to Dr. Pinto, a pediatric urologist.  Even after several tests and x-rays, they were never able to give us a definite reason on why you were having this frequency in urination.  Thankfully, you have finally outgrown the problem during the day and are only getting up once a night to go to the bathroom. 

You are such a happy, funny, bright little girl and I am so proud to call you mine!  I love being you mommy and enjoy spending my days with you!  You can always put a smile on my face and I look forward to your hugs and kisses!  Even though it seems like time is moving way too fast, it is fun to watch you as you grow and become more and more independent.  I can't wait to see how you change over the next six months.  I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! 

 

We started our day with Easter baskets for the kids.  They also enjoyed getting to hunt for the eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden for them around the house.

We then got ready to go celebrate Easter at church.  The girls wanted to wear their flower girl dresses from Aunt MerMer's wedding this year, which was a win-win for everyone!

The kids were so excited that their cousins decided to stay in town for church!  The girls all looked so cute in their matching dresses!

After church, we headed over to Granna's for lunch and our final Easter egg hunt.  We were so glad that Aunt MerMer and Uncle Craig got to join us for the day.  They also brought with them Sharhonda, one of MerMer's friends whose family lives far away and who was going to be spending the day alone in Dallas.  We were so glad she decided to accept the invitation to come and spend the day with our crazy family!

Before lunch, we let the kids hunt their Easter eggs from Granna.  They all did a great job only finding the eggs with their name on them and were excited when they discovered that some of the eggs contained money!

After a wonderful lunch, we took advantage of the great weather and let the kids play outside until it was time to go home and get ready for bed.

We had a great time spending Easter with our family!  It was a perfect day to complete a very busy week!