Seven and a Half

Parker,
Today you are half way to turning another year older!  The past six months have flown by and it seems like the years are going faster and faster.  I know I'm going to blink and you are going to be graduating from high school.  Until then, I'm trying to enjoy every moment with you!  You are at a very fun stage.  You are old enough to joke with but young enough to not have a lot of attitude.  Here are some of the things I want to remember about you as you turn seven and a half:

-You are still one of the tallest kids in your class. I hope that remains true forever.  I'd love for you to be tall like Daddy.  You are wearing size 8 shirts and pants and size 4 shoes. 

-You love to read!  You have set a goal for yourself to be one of our school's Million Word readers this year and I think you will achieve your goal easily!  You always have a book in your nose!  You enjoy the Weirder School series and are about to start reading Harry Potter with Daddy.

-You still love playing baseball.  Your fall ball team is very good and is undefeated so far.  You have been playing third base most of the season and your hitting has improved so much!  You almost hit an out of the park homerun a few weeks ago! 

-You are still a pretty good eater and will try most new foods.  When you like something, you can eat A LOT of it!  Some of your favorites are spaghetti, tacos, chips and salsa/queso, fruit, chicken, and pizza.

-You love to ride your bike with our neighbors Alexis and Jolea.  We have started letting you ride all around the circle in our neighborhood without an adult.  You love this new freedom and usually ask to go ride when you finish your homework everyday.

-You are a great student at school!  You are a self-motivated, hard worker and always do your best on your assignments.  I'm so glad that school comes easy to you.

-You still love to play video games after you finish your homework.  You love it even more when Daddy plays with you!  Some of your favorite games right now are Kingdom Hearts and all of the LEGO games. 

-You love joke books and telling jokes (especially ones that involve bodily functions)!  You always tell me at least one joke when I am putting you to bed at night.

-You take your job of being a big brother very seriously...especially the "bugging your little sisters" part!  You know exactly what pushes their buttons and love to pester them!  You can still be very sweet to them but spend a lot of time annoying them too!

-You love working and doing your chores around the house so that you can earn your allowance.  You love having "payday" on Saturday and putting your money in your wallet.  It is so nice that you can spend your own money on things like video games at the arcade and I don't have to pay for it anymore!

You are a great kid, Parker, and I hope you will always know how proud we are of you and how much we love you!  You make me smile every day and I'm proud to be called your mom! 

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

Four Years Old

My precious Lily,
I am still not sure how my baby is turning FOUR today!  I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to get to spend my days with you!  You are such a happy little girl and you keep us laughing all day long with the funny things you do and say!  I wish I could blink my eyes and make you stay this age forever because I am enjoying it so much!  Here are just a few of the things I love about you as you turn four:

-You are growing so quickly!  You weigh 44 pounds and are (by far) the tallest kid in your preschool class.  You were in the 95th percentile for both weight and height at your four year checkup.  You wear size 6 clothes and size 12 shoes. 

-You are a good eater and will usually try at least one bite of anything I offer.  You love fruit and will usually try most vegetables too.  The one food that you do not like is beans.  Some of your favorites are any kind of Mexican food (tacos, quesadillas), oranges, apples, yogurt, and anything sweet.

-It has been almost a year since you got your glasses and you do a great job wearing them!  You usually have them on before you even come out of your room in the morning and don't take them off until you go to bed at night.  I'm so thankful we discovered that you needed glasses at such an early age.  I can't imagine all the things you would have missed out on this year if we had not figured it out.

-You keep us laughing with all of the funny things you say.  I need to do a post soon listing all of your mispronunciations!  There are almost too many to write down and you come up with new ones daily.  I am going to be really sad when you finally figure out this crazy thing called English!

-You love to color and play with your baby dolls.  You are great at feeding them and putting them down for a nap!  You also love for mommy and daddy to play board games like Candyland and Trouble with you.

-You can be shy but once you are comfortable, you are very social.  You love playing with your friends at preschool and church.  Some of your friends are Dylann Rose, Annabelle, and Sarah.

-Your favorite TV shows right now are Olivia and Peppa Pig.  You also love all of the Disney princess movies. 

-You love being the only child during the day while Parker and Eden are at school.  You are getting quite spoiled during the hours of 12-3 and get lots of special treats from me. But as much as you love being home alone, you are always so ready to pick up your brother and sister after school.  You love them both so much even though you drive them crazy sometimes!

-You love going to school and are learning your letters/sounds very quickly.  You love to "read" books to mommy and daddy before bed every night. 

-You HATE to be kissed but you give the BEST hugs ever!  You are very generous with your hugs and I always look forward to them!

I never knew my heart could be so full of love!  Between you and your siblings, my heart is completely overflowing!  You have stolen my heart and I had no idea when you were born how much I could love you!  I wish I could freeze time and keep you at four years old forever, but since I know I can't, I am going to try and soak up the next 12 months as much as I can.  Happy Birthday Lily!

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

Lily Turns 4!

We had a great day celebrating Lily's 4th birthday today!  I'm pretty sure she went to bed not only feeling a year older but feeling very special and loved!  The festivities started as soon as she woke up this morning.  She couldn't wait to open her presents so we let her open one of them before we left for Granna's house.  She loved her new unicorn purse!

Next, she enjoyed her traditional "4" pancakes at Granna's house! 

We made her wait until Parker and Eden got home from school to open the rest of her presents which was not easy!  She loved her new Tinkerbell paint set but did not love having to share it with her sister!

Emily and the kids gave Lily her last surprise by driving down to eat dinner with us.  We let Lily pick where she wanted to eat and out of all the restaurants in Cleburne, she chose Taco Bueno. 

We had a great day celebrating Lily!  It is still hard to believe our baby is four years old!  Lily is such a blessing to everyone in our family and I pray that she has a wonderful year ahead of her!  Happy Birthday Miss Lily!  We love you very much!

Pumpkin Patch 2014

Last Sunday, Emily and the kids came over for the afternoon so we decided to go on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  The weather was perfect- not too hot and not too cold! The kids were pretty perfect too!  Getting pictures of all 6 kids together is finally getting so much easier!  Ryan can still be a little stubborn about not wanting to get his picture made but can usually be bribed into doing it! 

Sweet girls!  I love all four of them so much!

It's hard to believe that we've been coming to this pumpkin patch for six years.  Parker was only 18 months old the first time we brought him.  I'm pretty sure he pulled the same wagon around when we came six years ago!

 Cousin pics! 

This was the best we could get of Lily and Ryan together. He wanted nothing to do with a cousin pic!

Overall, it was a great trip to the pumpkin patch this year!   I love fall and am so thankful for the cooler weather that it brings! I can't wait to start spending more time outside doing lots of fall activities with the kids!