Wedding Planning

We were having a conversation about wedding plans and these were a couple of comments made by the brides-to-be.

Grace-"Who cares, I can marry any Christian boy I want."

Emily-"When I get married, I'm going to wear either a white or red dress. (Pause) I think I'm going to wear a red dress, because it's more rosy."

More Beautiful You

Having all girls, at least so far, makes me think about how I want them to know that they are so precious and valuable to us and mostly to their loving heavenly Father. There is a song by Johnny Diaz that I really like these days and it's called More Beautiful You. Girls, if you ever look back at this blog some day, the words to this song are just some of the things I want you to know.

Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine

Says she wants to look that way

But her hair isn’t straight her body isn’t fake

And she’s always felt overweight

Well little girl fourteen I wish that you could see

That beauty is within your heart

And you were made with such care your skin your body and your hair

Are perfect just the way they are

There could never be a more beautiful you

don't buy the lies disguises and hoops they make you jump through

You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do

So there could never be a more beautiful you

Well little girl twenty-one you never thought that this would come

You starve yourself to play the part

But I can promise you there’s a man whose love is true

And he’ll treat you like the jewel you are

Although you're only 6, 3, and 6 months old, I want you to know that there will NEVER be a more beautiful you! I love you so much.

Mommy

Quotes of a 3 Year Old

Lydia is definitely a great source of entertainment in our home and full of lots of words (as she once proclaimed). Here are a couple of funny things she said recently.

Hey, get in there foot. Hey, get in there odder foot. Hey, don't fall me down foot. (These were said while trying to get on her shoes.)

Her has chuggy cheeps. (This was naturally about her baby sister.)

Just In Time For The Snow:(

We've been working on a little project at our home lately that was prompted by the birth of our fourth bundle. I realized this summer how little time I was able to spend outside with the 3 big girls and we decide to find a way to let the kids out in the back on their own. Here are a few pictures to document the progress of our not so small project.

Large pile of boulders in our front yard to be moved and used in the back.

Large pile of boulders now in our back yard making their way to their final resting place.

Emily testing out the way too big play system for our now gigantic project.

More to come soon...including a video clip of Emily enjoying the final product (she's been feeling a little slighted on the lack of video clips of herself on this blog).

Coffee Talk

Today I went to this cute little coffee house with Lydia and Elise. I thought I would get Lydia a cookie, but instead she opted for a piece of apple/peach pie. I also thought I would get her a cup of coffee, but she decided she didn't care for any today. I know...she's only 3, but her grandmas have her addicted already. This is funny, because she's pretty much the only member of our family to drink coffee. However, today I decided to get a decaf latte and of course, she couldn't resist. So...we were sitting there having our refreshments with several "older" people around us chatting up a storm and this was just a small glimpse of our conversation.
Lydia-"Mommy, let's talk."
Me-"OK. What do you want to talk about?"
Lydia-"Jesus."
I think she was looking around at all the other tables and thought that we should be having some real conversation. How fun to sit and have some special "chatty" time with my delightful Lydia!

Grace's Terrible, Awful, Almost No Good Day!

Grace's tooth had been loose for what seemed like an eternity, at least to me. When she first discovered it, she was instantly excited, but that excitement quickly turned to despair. You see, she's the kind of girl who doesn't do well with change. To give you an example, we had a hail storm come through our neighborhood this summer and she was nearly brought to tears at the idea of us getting a new roof. How one becomes so attached to a roof, I'm not sure. Another characteristic of sweet Grace is, well, how can I put this...vanity. She's very concerned about looking funny and the idea of a gap in her smile was horrific. I'm not sure where she got this from. She clearly hasn't taken a good look at her mother lately.

However, today she finally lost it (with the assistance of Dad-don't mention this to her)! I think you might get an idea of how she feels about it from this clip.

Blood and tears were shed and she mentioned she didn't want the Tooth Fairy to take her tooth, so she hid it in our room. When she woke up the next morning she checked under her pillow and found no money and then ran to see if her tooth was still where she left it. When it was, she declared, "There's no Tooth Fairy!" However, when she took a closer look, (while she was scurrying around I finally got the note and money there in the nick of time) she found she had indeed been visited by Miss Tooth Fairy. Her mourning was quickly turned into gladness. She found a silver dollar and a note that read:

Dear Grace,

I heard you wanted to keep your tooth, so I made an exception. Keep brushing.

Love, T.F.

She was sooooo excited and said, "I can't believe she's real. You wouldn't have wanted to come into my room in the middle of the night to do this." It was so much fun to watch her and then Emily got in on the excitement, too!

I think she looks so cute with her gap in her teeth, but it's also just a little bit sad to know she's growing up (too fast I might add).

My Terrible, Awful, Almost No Good Day!

It's 12:45p.m. and my day has already been rather full.

I woke up at the crack of dawn (actually...dawn hadn't even begun to crack because the weather was so dreary) at 6:30a.m. so that I could get up and ready before my children were stirring. This almost never works and today was no exception. I barely got out the door to go take my bath in the basement (so as not to disturb my wee ones) when what to my wondering eyes should appear...Pooh bear and the Lydster (my two tiny reindeer). Can someone please tell me why it is these people need soooooo little sleep. OK, OK...I know this is starting out dull, but stick with me people (there might be 1 or 2 of you) this is going to get interesting (and long to boot).

Sorry for the long pause. I then continued to scurry around trying to get everyone off to their designated locations (a.k.a. Kindergarten for E. & G. and Mom's Day Away(MDA) for Lydster). We got to Kindergarten and by then it was pouring rain. Imagine this....me running with three children in the pouring rain and carrying one, not so light, baby. Oh well, we made and back home for Lydia, Elise, and I.

When I arrived home, I opened the door only to find Elise covered in puke (some people might say spit up, but when your child and car seat are soaked and its running down the door of your vehicle, it's PUKE!). I let Lydia in the house and tried to decide what to do about Elise, because it was around 9:00am and Lydia had to be at MDA at 9:30am. While I got Elise out of the truck, Lydia made herself BUSY in the house. When I didn't see her I began calling for her and she suddenly appeared in a pair of shorts. For those of you who don't know, today's high was around 52 degrees. I might be an absent minded mother, but I didn't put her in shorts today. When I questioned her about the shorts, she informed me she went pee in her pants. SERIOUSLY?!? She went pee on the downstairs bathroom floor and went upstairs to change her clothes. Which, BTW, were soaked all the way down to her socks. ARGH!!!

I got her dressed and off to MDA we went. She was feeling extremely reluctant about being left today and was shedding a few tears before I left, but I had to go, because, as you may recall, Elise was covered in puke. I just got her bathed and stripped her carseat when I received a call from Teacher Paige at MDA. She informed me that Lydia wouldn't stop crying and was saying her tummy hurt, so off again to the church to get her. When I got there, she miraculously recovered;).

We then went home and I fed her lunch. Because her teacher was so concerned about her being sick, I decided to take her temp. Of course, it was normal. When I was doing this, Lydia said, "Why are you doing that mom?" I explained to her that Teacher Paige thought she might be sick and her reply was, "I'm not sick mom." No kidding! The only sickness she had was homesickness.

Lydia and I finished our lunch (I never had a chance to eat breakfast and decided to just forget about it and eat lunch) while Elise laid on the rug next to us. I got Lydia out of her chair and she metioned she had to go potty. I went to check on her in the bathroom and she was completely soaked in pee AGAIN. Down to her socks, people! I told her that was it. She was going down for her nap. After I took her upstairs, I came back down to check on Elise and let me tell you, there was an odor in the air. I starting praying, but once again God's answer was different that what I hoped for. She had pooped through her clothes. Off for another bath and time to clean the rug she was on.

So, if you lost count:
Lydia soaked in pee 2 times
Elise bathed 2 times
All before 1pm.

So, one might ask, "Why on earth would I ever want to get up and do this all over again tomorrow (a valid question I might add)?"

P.S. This might also explain my somewhat infrequent posts to my blog, because days like this aren't all that rare.

Lydia's 3!

I can't believe you're 3 already, Lydster! You've brought so much joy to our lives with your tender heart and your Miss Personality ways.

Baby Love

I just had to post this sweet clip of Elise and some of her precious giggles. Her laugh is just infectious and her sister's love to make her giggle.

Also, on this day she had her first taste of ice cream. Even though it was mint chocolate chip, she seemed to love it. She knows a good thing when she tastes it!

My Little Chatterbox

I was shopping with the Lydster today and we were in the market for a leotard. As we approached the store, she asked me, "Is this where they have the tardoleas?" What a kid! Also, we have been working on Emily and Grace's first memory verse for school. It's quite a whopper. While shopping with Lydia for our "tardoleas" she said, "I know...rebuking, correcting." Maybe her days are full of both and that makes it easier for her to remember. Finally, tonight as we were driving to "nastics" we were stopped at a red light. She instructed Doug to get going, because the light was green. She has also asked me why I have green lips. What can I say, she's the 3rd child. All this to say that I can't believe that 1 year ago she hardly spoke. Now at almost 3 years old, as Lydia once said, "I have a lot of words in my mouth."